the chiefest and whose Abbots had voices among the Peers in the higher House of Parliament are these St. Peter's in Westminster St. Alban's St. Edmundsbury St. Benet's of Hulme Berdney Shrewsbury Crowland Abingdon Evesham Glocester Ramsey St. Augustine's in Canterbury Selbey Peterborough St. Maries in Tork Tewksbury Reding Battel Winchcomb Hide by Winchester Cirencester Waltham Walmesbury Thorney St. John's in Colchester Coventrey Tavestock The King that he might some way supply the want of the suffrages of so many learned and wise men in the Parliament House as also that of so great a prey he might consecrate if not the tenth to Hercules at least some part to God according to his promise erected some new Bishopricks whereof one was at Westminster a place so near and contiguous to London that it might rather seem a part of the Suburbs thereof than a distinct City But a City it is and so ennobled with many stately Monuments that for Beauty it contendeth with most in Christendom In it are the chief Seat of the Prince and Palaces of the Nobility the chief seats of Justice in the Land the most magnificent Church wherein are interred most of our Kings and Nobles whose sumptuous Monuments render it unparallel'd even by the World Another was at Oxford in the Colledge founded by Cardinal Wolsey The rest at Peterborough Bristol Chester and Glocester Westminster was by Queen Mary again reduced to an Abbey and furnished with Monks of St. Benet's Order whom Queen Elizabeth again expelled and converted the Revenues of the Bishoprick to the maintenance of Scholars and other pious uses As for the other Sees they remain to this day From those antient Cathedral Churches wherein Monks were seated nothing was taken away only Canons were placed there instead of Monks as likewise in the Cathedral Churches of the new erected Bishopricks The Churches wherein antiently canons and Prebendaries were instituted are In ENGLAND York London Lincoln Sarisbury Exceter Wells Lichfield Hereford 〈◊〉 In WALES St. David's Landaff Bangor St. Asaph The CATHEDRALS founded with Monks were Canterbury Winchester Ely Norwich Worcester Rochester Duresm Carlile The new SEES where primarily were Abbeys are Oxford Bristol Glocester Chester Peterborough So there are six and twenty Bishopricks within this Realm and in every Cathedral Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ministers as also a Dean who governs the rest unless it be in St. David's where the Chanter and Eandaf where the Archdeacon is Head of the Chapter These things thus ordered the King still jealous lest it should be conceived that he had forsaken the Religion of his Fathers began to thunder out against the maintainers of new Tenets and much against Cranmer's will by Parliament enacted the Law of the Six Articles the summ whereof was I. That if any one should deny the True and Real presence of the Body of CHRIST in the Sacrament or should maintain That the substance of Bread and Wine remained after the words of Consecration pronounced by the Priest he should be burned as an Heretick II. If any should deny the Sacrament to be sufficiently administred under one Species only III. Or should hold it lawful for Priests to be married but much more he that having entred into holy Orders should presume to take a Wife IV. Or that Chastity vowed upon mature deliberation was not to be kept V. Or that private Masses ought not to be celebrated in the Church of England or elsewhere VI. Or that Auricular Confession was not expedient he should for his errours undergo loss of life by hanging These Laws like those of Drace written in Blood were the destruction of multitudes and silenced those who had been hitherto furtherers of Reformation Among whom Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Schaxton Bishops the one of Worcester the other of Salisbury were remarkable who that they might quietly enjoy themselves the Parliament being scarce dissolved did both on one day viz. the first of July resign their Bishopricks Latimer who for the freedom of his conscience could as willingly resign his life as he did this rich Bishoprick being burned for it in Queen Maries reign after his Resignation taking off his Rochet being a merry conceited man with a little leap lifted himself from the ground saying that He felt himself much more light and quick now he had freed himself of so great a burthen Henry in regard of his wiving disposition had long continued a Widower And that he should at length marry the consideration of his Estate being surrounded with Enemies passionate in the Pope's cause perswaded him Wherein he also gave ear to Cromwell who advised him to combine with those Estates whom the burthen of the Pope's tyranny had forced to the same courses and like fears By whose assistance he might countermine the secret practices of Rome A counsel without doubt good and befitting the times but producing the effects of Ill ones proving as is thought Pernicious to the Giver For the treatise of such a Match in September came into England Frederick Duke and Elector of Saxony Frederick Duke of Bavaria Otho Henry Count Palatine of Rhine and the Chancellour of the Duke of Cleve with some others who were for eight days Royally entertained by the King at Windsor where the Marriage with Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleve being concluded they returned to their own Countries This year died Margaret Queen of Scotland Sister to King Henry who was buried at the Charterhouse in the Town of St. John near the Tomb of James the First ANNO DOM. 1540. REG. 32. ON the Eve of the Circumcision the Lady Ann of Cleve destinated to the King's Bed arrived at Dover was on the third of January triumphantly received at Greenwich and on the Feast of the Epiphany ritely married to the King On the twelfth of March Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex the antientest Earl of the Realm thrown by an unruly young Horse which he sought to break brake his neck By whose death the Inheritance was devolved to his Daughter and from her deceasing without Issue to the Family of Deureux which Family in regard of their claim by descent was by Queen Elizabeth advanced to the Earldom of Essex But in the mean time Cromwell yet chief in the King's favour was on the eighteenth of April created Earl of Essex And here behold the frailty of Human affairs The current of few years had from very mean beginnings brought Cromwell to the height of Honour insomuch that his happiness was admired by all envied by many But Fortune intending a Tragedy he is unexpectedly apprehended sitting at the Council-Table and committed to the Tower where he continued until his Execution For in this Parliament begun the twelfth of April he is accused of Treason and Heresie without being brought to his answer condemned and on the twenty eighth of July beheaded This King may well be censured of cruel inconstancy who could so easily dispense with the death of those whom he had
malignant disease was most merciful in its execution peradventure within twelve did sweat out their Souls Women children and old men it for the most part over-passed and wreaked it self on the robustious youth and well compact middle age who if in the beginning of their sickness did but slumber perished instantly If it seised on any that were full gorged the recovery was in a manner desperate Nay and of others whatsoever they were scarce one of a hundred escaped until time had found out a remedy the manner whereof was thus If any be taken in the day time he must without shifting of his apparel betake himself to bed If by night and in bed let him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence until twenty four hours be run In the mean let the coverture be such that it provoke not sweat but that it may gently distil of it self if it be possible for him so long to forbear let him not eat nor drink more than may moderately serve to extinguish thirst But above all let him so patiently endure hear that he uncover not any part of his body no not so much as a hand or a foot The strangeness of this disease I do not so much admire for that Pliny in his twenty sixth Book the first Chapter witnesseth and daily experience teacheth us that every Age produceth new and Epidemical diseases But that which surpasseth the search of humane reason is this that this Pestilence afflicted the English in what part of the World soever without touching the Natives but in England alone This dire contagion promiscuously impoverisht the Land of people of all sorts among those of especial note were Henry Duke of Suffolk and his Brother who were the Sons of Charles Brandon the King's Cousins germane young Gentlemen of great and lively hopes by the death of Henry the Duchy was for some few hours devolved to the younger Brother who had the unhappy honour but to be seised of the Title and die The Lord Gray Marquis of Dorset having married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon in the right of his Wife made claim to the Duchy and was on the eleventh of October invested in it At what time also John Dudley Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland William Fowlet Earl of Wiltshire Marquis of Winchester and Sir William Herbert Lord Cardif Master of the Horse Earl of Pembroke The masculine Line of Dudley and Gray hath been long since extinct Of the Family of the Powlets we have spoken already The Lord Herbert Brother-in-Law to Queen Catharine Parr derived himself from William Herbert in the time of Edward the Fourth Earl of Pembroke and was 〈◊〉 in the Earldom by his Son Henry Father to william the modern Earl whose mature wisdom and gravity even in his greener years long since ranked him in the sage 〈◊〉 of the Privy Council to two successive Kings and to Philip by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 Then also were knighted Sir John 〈◊〉 the King's Schoolmaster Sir Henry Dudley Sir Henry Novill and whom I cannot mention but with due honour Sir William Cecill Cecill I say who then Secretary of Estate was afterward by all Europe held in admiration for his wisdom whom Queen Elizabeth made Lord Treasurer of England and Baron of Burleigh and was whilest he lived a second prop of this Estate who on the fourth of August 1598 piously ended his long but for the publick weals sake ever restless life leaving two Sons Thomas by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 and Robert out of the same Fountain of Royal Goodness 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Lord Treasurer of England And now the ill cemented affections of the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland dissolved into open enmity In the prosecution whereof Somerset otherwise of a most mild disposition but Patience abused oft runneth into the extreme of Fury provoked by continual injuries resolved as some write to murther Northumberland To this end but under colour of a visit privily armed and well attended by Seconds who awaited him in an outer Chamber he comes to his Adversary at that time by reason of some indisposition of Body keeping his Chamber hath access unto him naked as he was in his Bed but is so courteously entertained and with such smooth language that the Duke of Somerset good man repenting himself of his Bloody Resolutions would not Execute what he purposely came for At his departure one of his Conspirators is reported to have asked him Whether he had done the Feat and upon his denial to have added Then you are undone This his intent being by his own Party bewrayed a second Accusation is engrossed against him The matter is reforred to the Council Table and he on the sixteenth of October again committed to the Tower together with the Duchess his Wife the Lord Gray of wilton Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Falmer Sir William Partridge Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundelt and many other of his Friends On the first of December the Marquis of Winchester being sot that day High Steward he is Arraigned for Treason against the Estate which he had not only ill but treacherously managed and for Conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland Of Treason he cleared himself and his Peers acquitted him For the Conspiracy he was by his own Confession condemned and that by virtue of a Law Enacted 3 Hen. 7. which made the very Intent nay Imagination of Killing a Privy Counsellour punishable by Death But howsoever the Law Enacted as some conceive upon somewhat differing intents and meaning were extended to the highest of its rigour yet can I not but wonder how a man so great in the regards of his Reigning Nephew of his Honours of the Popular Favour should be so destitute of Learned Advice as not to exempt himself from a Felonious Death by his Clergy But such were the Times such his Misfortunes in the minority of his Prince from whose revengeful Hand how could the adverse Faction presume themselves secure in the future Neither could they choose but be somewhat terrified with that Ecchoing Testimony of the Peoples Joy who seeing that fatal Virge the Ax usually marshalling Traytors to the Bar laid aside upon his freedom from the guilt of Treason from Westminster Hall certified that part of the City by their loud festival Acclamations of the gladsom tidings of their Favourite's conceived Absolution And these peradventure might be causes that his Execution was deferred Hitherto had the Estate patiently endured the obstinate Opposition of some Bishops in point of Reformation who for their Non-conformity are at length deprived and others substituted in their Bishopricks Of some of them we have occasionally already spoken whose Censures notwithstanding fall in with this Year Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was deprived the fourteenth of February Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester on the tenth of October Tonstall of Duresm on the twentieth of December committed to the Tower and Boner of London on the first of
beginning of her Sickness her friends supposing that she grieved at the absence of her Husband whom she saw so engaged in Wars abroad that she could not hope for his speedy return used consolatory means and endeavoured to remove from her that fixed sadness wherewith she seemed to be oppressed But she utterly averse from all comfort and giving her self over to melancholy told them That she died but that of the true cause of her Death they were ignorant which if they were desirous to know they should after her death dissect her Heart and there they should find Calais Intimating thereby that the loss of Calais had occasioned this fatal grief which was thought to have been increased by the Death of the Emperour her Father-in-Law But the truth is her Liver being over-cooled by a Mole these things peradventure might hasten her end which could not otherwise be far from her and cast her by degrees into that kind of Dropsie which Physicians term Ascites This Dropsie being not discovered in time deceived her Physicians who believed that she had conceived by King Philip whereas she alas did breed nothing but her own Death So mature remedies being not applied and she not observing a fit Diet she fell into a Fever which increasing by little and little at last ended in her Death She lieth interred at Westminster in the midst of that Chappel which is on the North side of her Grandfather Henry the Seventh his Monument where her Sister Queen Elizabeth was after Buried with her and over both by the pious Liberality of that most Munificent Prince King James hath since been erected a most stately Monument well befitting the Majesty of such great Monarchs QVEEN ELIZABETH ANNO DOM. 1558. HAving thus briefly run over the Reigns of these three Princes Queen Elizabeth's times in the next place offer themselves which deservedly requiring a more accurate Style I will here set a period to this Work not so much with intent to pretermit them as reserving them for a more exact labour In the mean time to give some satisfaction to the Reader I will make this short Addition Some few hours after the decease of Queen Mary the Estates then assembled in Parliament on the seventeenth of November declared her Sister the Lady Elizabeth Queen who was Daughter to Henry the Eighth and Ann Bolen Having most gloriously reigned forty four years four months and seven days she ended her Life and Reign on the four and twentieth of March Anno 1603 the Crown being by her death devolved to the renowned King of Scots James the Sixth to whom it was so far from feeling it a burthen to have succeeded so good a Princess that never was any Prince received with greater Applause and Gratulation of his People Many think their condition happy if they exchange a Caligula for a Claudius or a Nero for a Vitellius or an Otho But that any Mortal should please after Elizabeth may seem a Miracle and is a great argument both of rare Virtue in the succeeding King and of a right Judgment in the Subject For this great Lady was so far beyond Example that even the best Princes come short of her and they who most inveigh against that Sex contend that Woman is incapable of those Virtues in her most eminent Wisdom Clemency variety of Languages and Magnanimity equal to that of Men to which I add fervent Zeal of Piety and true Religion But in these things peradventure some one or other may equal her What I shall beyond all this speak of her and let me speak it without offence to my most Excellent Sovereign James the Pattern of Princes the Mirrour of our Age the Delight of Britain no Age hath hitherto parallel'd nor if my Augury fail not none ever shall That a Woman and if that be not enough a Virgin destitute of the help of Parents Brothers Husband being surrounded with Enemies the Pope thundring the Spaniard threatning the French scarce dissembling his secret hate as many of the neighbouring Princes as were devoted to Rome clashing about her should contain this Warlike Nation not only in Obedience but in Peace also and beyond all this Popery being profligated in the true Divine Worship Hence it comes to pass that England which is among the rest of it self a Miracle hath not these many years heard the noise of War and that our Church which she found much distracted transcends all others of the Christian World For you shall at this day scarce find any Church which either defiled with Popish Superstitions or despoiled of those Revenues which should maintain Professors of the Truth hath not laid open a way to all kind of Errours gross Ignorance in Learning especially Divine and at length to Ethnick Barbarousness But to what end do I insist on these or the like they being sufficiently known even to the Barbarians themselves and Fame having trumpetted them throughout the World Which things when and how they were done how bountifully she aided and relieved her Allies how bravely she resisted brake vanquished her Enemies I have a desire in a continued History to declare and will God willing declare if I can attain to the true intelligence of the passages of those times have leisure for the compiling it and that no other more able than my self which I wish may happen in the mean time engage themselves therein LAUS DEO * * The Original of this Proclamation remaineth with Sir Robert 〈◊〉 a worthy Preserver and Treasurer of rare Antiquities from whose Manuscripts I have had much light for the furnishing of this Work His Privy-Council The Funerals of K. Henry the Seventh St. Stephen's Chappel The Coronation of Henry the Eighth His Marriage The death of Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond Empson and Dudley An Expedition into Africk Into Gueldres Barton a Pirat taken War with France A fruitless Voyage into Spain The Spaniard seiseth on Navarr The Lord Admiral drowned Terovenne besieged The Battel of Spurs Terovenne yielded Maximilian the Emperor serveth under King Henry The Siege of Tournay Tournay yielded Wolsey Bishop of Tournay The King of Scots slaim Flodden-Field The descent and Honours of the Howards Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk Charles Somerset Earl of Worcester Peace with France The Lady Mary the King's Sister married to Lewis the Twelfth King of France Cardinal Wolfey A breach with France The Star-Chamber and The Court of Requests instituted by Wolsey Ill May-day The Sweating-Sickness Peace with France The death of the Emperour Maximilian The Emperour Charles the Fifth in England Canterbury Interview betwixt the Kings of England and France Henry visits Emperour at Graveling The Duke of Buckingham accused of Treason King Henry writeth against Luther Luther's departure from the Church of Rome The Kings of England by the Pope stiled Defender of the Faith The death of Leo the Tenth Cardinal Wolsey and others sins Ambassadors to the Emperour and French King The Emperour Charles the second time in England Windsor The
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh
the Rebels camp 21 Espousals of James King of Scotland and Lady Margaret 118 Exchanges unlawful prohibited 40 Exceter besieged by Perkin 102 the Loyalty of the Town 103 the Town rewarded with the King 's own Sword 105 Execution of Humphrey Stafford 12 John a Chamber and his fellow-Rebels at York 41 Sir James Tyrril murderer of King Edward's two Sons 71 of divers others 75 Sir William Stanley 77 Rebels 79 Perkin's company 81 Audley and Cornish Rebels 96 another counterfeit Earl of Warw. 110 Perkin Warbeck 111 the Mayor of Cork and his Son ibid. Earl of Warwick ibid. F. FAme ill affected 97 Fame entertained by divers the reasons of it 70 Fame neglected by Empson and Dudley 119 Fear not safe to the King 79 Fines 43 Without Fines Statute to sell Land 58 Flammock a Lawyer a Rebel 92 Flemings banished 75 Flight of King Henry out of Britain into France wherefore 34 Forfeitures and Confiscations furnish the King's wants 9 17 Forfeitures aimed at 45 76 Forfeitures upon Penal Laws taken by the King which was the blot of his times 80 Fortune various 16 22 Forwardness inconsiderate 96 Fox made Privy Counsellor 10 made Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal ib. his providence 98 Free-fishing of the Dutch 129 Title to France renewed by the King in Parliament 56 Frion joyns with Perkin 68 First-fruits 10 In forma Pauperis a Law enacted for it 84 G. GAbato Sebastian makes a Voyage for Discovery 107 Gordon Lady Katherine wife to Perkin 87 Granado vindicated from the Moors 60 Guard Yoomen first instituted 7 Gifts of the French King to King Henry's Counsellors and Souldiers 64 Gratitude of the Pope's Lègate to King Henry 42 H. HAllowed Sword from the Pope 101 Hatred of the People to the King with the main reason of it 12 Hearty Acclamations of the People to the King 〈◊〉 King Henry his Description 133 c. his Piety 1 60 he hath three Titles to the Kingdom 2 Hereticks provided against a rare thing in those times 115 Hern a Counsellor to Perkin 101 Hialas otherwise Elias to England how 98 Holy War 114 Hopes of gain by War 64 Hostages redeemed by the King 10 Houses of Husbandry to be maintained to prevent the decay of People 45 Histories defects in them what 46 I. IAmes the Third King of Scotland his distress and death 42 Idols vex God and King Henry 105 John Egremond Leader of the Rebels 41 Inclosures their manifest inconveniencies and how remedied 44 Ingratitude of Women punished 85 Innovation desired 12 Incense of the People what 118 Instructions of Lady Margaret to 〈◊〉 66 Intercursus Magnus 91 Intercursus Malus ibid. 129 Invectives of Maximilian against the French King 〈◊〉 Invectives against the King and Council 79 Improvidence of King Henry to prevent his troubles 12 14 Improvidence of the French 82 Jointure of Lady Katherine how much 117 Jointure of Lady Margaret in Scotland how much 119 Joseph a Rebel 92 Ireland favoureth York Title 15 Ireland receiveth Simon the Priest of Oxford with his counterfeit ibid. Irish adhere to Perkin 68 Jubile at Rome 114 Juno i. e. the Lady Margaret so called by the King's friends 65 K. KAtherine Gordon Perkin's Wife royally entertained by K. Hen. 104 Kent loyal to the King 81 94 The King the publick Steward 36 Kings their miseries 50 King of Rakehels Perkin so called by King Henry 103 The King's Skreen who 92 King of France Protector of King Henry in his trouble 133 Kingdom of France restored to its integrity 25 King of France buys his Peace of King Henry 64 King of Scots enters England 87 again 98 Knights of the Bath 95 Knights of Rhodes 〈◊〉 King Henry Protector of the Order 115 L. LAncaster Title condemned by Parliament 3 Lancaster House in possession of the Crown for three Descents together 〈◊〉 Lambert Simnel See Counterfeit 13 Laws enacted in Parliament 38 Divers Laws enacted 123 Law charitable enacted 84 A good Law enacted ibid. A Law of a strange 〈◊〉 83 A Law against carrying away of Women by violence the reasons of it 39 Law of Poynings 79 Laws Penal put in execution 80 A Legate from the Pope 42 preferred to be Bishop in England by King Henry ibid. his gratitude to King Henry ibid. Lenity of the King abused 101 Letters from the King out of France to the Mayor of London 64 A Libel 55 Libels the causes of them 79 Libels the females of Sedition ibid. Libels the Authors executed ibid. A Loan from the City to the King repaid 46 London entred by King Henry in a close Chariot wherefore 5 London in a tumult because of the Rebels 95 London purchase Confirmation of their Liberties 124 M. MAlecontents their effects 40 Margaret of Burgundy the fountain of all the mischief to K. Henry 18 she entertains the Rebels 41 69 she a Juno to the King 65 she instructs Perkin 66 Lady Margaret desired in Marriage by the Scottish King 108 Manufacture forein how to be kept out 36 123 Marriage of King Henry with Lady Elizabeth 10 of the French King with the Duchess of Britain 55 of Prince Arthur 116 Mart translated to Calice the reasons of it 74 Maintenance prohibited by Law 38 Merchants of England received at Antwerp with procession and great joy 91 A memorable Memorandum of the King 121 Military power of the Kingdom advanced how 44 Mills of Empson and Dudley what and the gains they brought in 124 Mitigations 120 Money bastard employments thereof repressed 36 Money left at the King's death how much 132 Morton made Privy Counsellor 10 made Archbishop of Canterbury ib. his Speech to the Parliament 32 Morton's Fork 58 Morton author of the Union of the two Roses 114 Moors expelled Granado 61 Murmuring 14 Murmurs of the People against the King 70 Murther and Manslaughter a Law concerning it in amendment of the common Law 39 Murther of King Edward the Fifth 85 Murther of a Commissioner for the Subsidy 93 N. NAvigation of the Kingdom how advanced 45 Neighbour over-potent dangerous 34 Bad News the effect thereof in Souldiers 63 Nobility neglected in Council the ill effects of it 32 Nobility few of them put to death in King Henry's time 134 North the King's journey thither for what reasons 11 O. OAth of Allegiance taken 9 Oath enforced upon Maximilian by his Subjects 46 Oath kept ibid. Obedience neglected what follows 42 First Occasion of a happy Union 109 Obsequies for the French King performed in England ibid. Obsequies to Tyrants what 1 An Ominous answer of the King 119 An Ominous Prognostick 129 Opinions divers what was to be done with Perkin 105 Orator from the Pope met at London-Bridge by the Mayor 101 Order of the Garter sent to Alphonso 64 Ostentation of Religion by the King of Spain 60 Over-merit prejudicial to Sir William Stanley 73 Outlawries how punished 120 Oxford Earl fined for breach of the Law 121 P. PAcificator King Henry between the French King and Duke of Britain 32 Pardon
proclaimed by the King 9 11 16 A Parliament called speedily 7 A Parliament called for two reasons 33 another 122 Parliaments advice desired by the King 33 35 56 Passions contrary in King Henry joy and sorrow with the reasons of both 36 Peace pretended by the French King 29 Peace to be desired but with two conditions 33 Peace concluded between England and France 64 People how brought to decay the redress of it by the King 44 Pensions given by the King of France 64 A Personation somewhat strange 65 A great Plague 12 Edward Plantagenet Son and Heir of George Duke of Clarence 4 Edward Plantagenet shewed to the People 17 Plantagenet's Race ended 195 Perkin Warbeck History of him 65 his Parentage 68 God son to K. Edward the Fourth ibid. his crafty behaviour 65 69 favoured by the French King 68 by him discarded 69 favoured by the Scottish King 85 he yieldeth and is brought to the Court 106 set in the Stocks 109 executed at Tyburn 111 A Pleasant passage of Prince Arthur 118 Policy to prevent War 26 A point of Policy to defend the Duchy of Britain against the French 29 34 Policy of State 26 Pope sows seeds of War 54 Pope Ambassador to him 24 Poynings Law in Ireland 79 Priest of Oxford Simon 13 Pretence of the French King 28 29 Prerogative how made use of 133 Price of Cloth limited 45 Prisoners Edward Plantagenet 4 Prince of Orange and Duke of Orleance 37 Maximilian by his Subjects 46 Priviledges of Clergy abridged 39 Priviledges of Sanctuary qualified in three points 24 Proclamation of Perkin what effect 90 Protection for being in the King's service limited 58 Proverb 104 Providence for the future 43 Q. QUeen Dowager 13 enclosed in the Monastery of Bermondsey 16 her variety of Fortune ibid. Queens Colledge founded in Cambridge 17 Q. Elizabeth Crowned after two years 24 Queen Elizabeth's death 119 R. REbellion of Lord Lovel and Staffords 11 Rebellion in Yorkshire 41 Rebellion how to be prevented 35 Rebellion how frequent in King Henry's time 42 Rebellion of the Cornishmen 92 Rebels but half-couraged men 96 Religion abused to serve Policy 122 Remorse of the King for oppression of his People 131 Restitution to be made by the King 's Will 132 Return of the King from France 64 Retribution of King Henry for Treasure received of his Subjects 43 Revenge divine 1 Revenge of Blood 122 Reward proposed by Perkin 111 Richard the Third a Tyrant 1 Richard slain at Bosworth-field ibid. this 〈◊〉 Burial ibid. murder of his two Nephews 2 jealous to maintain his Honour and Reputation ibid. hopes to win the People by making Laws ibid. this Virtues overswayed by his Vices 2 yet favoured in Yorkshire 40 Riches of King Henry at his death 132 Riches of Sir William Stanley 76 Richmond built upon what occasion 106 Riot and Retainers suppressed by Act of Parliament 123 Rome ever respected by King Henry 42 A Rumour false procuring much hatred to the King 12 Rumour false enquired after to be punished 23 Rumour that the Duke of York was alive first of the King 's own nourishing 37 S. SAnctuary at Colneham could not protect Traytors 12 Sanctuary-priviledges qualified by a Bull from the Pope in three points 24 Saturday observed and fancied by King Henry 5 96 Saying of the King when he heard of Rebels 41 Scottish men voyded out of England 58 Service of 〈◊〉 92 Simon the Priest 13 Skreens to the King who 92 A Sleight ingenious and taking good effect in War 〈◊〉 Sluce besieged and taken ibid. Soothsayers Prediction mistaken 〈◊〉 Speeches 32 49 53 Speech of the King to Parliament 55 Speech of Perkin 85 Speech conditional doth not qualifie 〈◊〉 of Treason 77 Speeches bitter against the King 64 Sparks of Rebellion neglected dangerous 〈◊〉 Spies from the King 72 Sprites of what kind vexed K. Henry 65 Stanley Sir William crowns King Henry in the field 〈◊〉 motives of his falling from the King 77 is appeached of Treason 70 is confined examined and consesseth 〈◊〉 is beheaded 77 Reasons which aliènated the King's affections 78 Star-Chamber Court confirmed in certain cases 38 Star-Camber Court described what Causes belong to it ibid. Statute of Non-claim 43 Steward publick the King 36 Strength of the Cornishmen 96 Spoils of Bosworth-field 78 Spoils as water spilt on the ground 97 Subsidy denied by the inhabitants of Yorkshire and Durham the reason wherefore 40 Subsidies denied by the Cornishmen 92 Subsidy Commissioner killed 93 Subsidy how much 91 Swart Martin 19 Sweating Sickness 6 the manner of the cure of it ibid. Sweating Sickness the interpretation the People made of it 23 T. ATale pleasant concerning the King 137 Terrour among the King's Servants and Subjects 67 Tyrrell Sir James a murderer of King Edward's two Sons 71 Tyrell executed 122 Thanks of the King to the Parliament 32 Thanksgiving to God for the Victory 1 23 24 61 Three Titles to the Kingdom meet in King Henry 2 Title to France stirred 54 by the King himself 55 Treasure to be kept in the Kingdom 45 Treasure raised by the King how 23 31 120 Treasure inordinately affected by the King 121 Treasure how increased 124 Treasure left at the King's death how much 132 Trade the increase thereof considered 36 Trade in decay pincheth 90 Traytors taken out of Sanctuary 12 Tower the King's lodging wherefore 75 A Triplicity dangerous 94 Triumph at the Marriage of the Lady Elizabeth to King Henry 10 Truce with Scotland 25 Tyrants the Obsequies of the People to them 1 V. VIctory wisely husbanded by the French 37 Victory at Black-heath 96 Union of England and Scotland its first original 98 Voyage of King Henry into France 63 Voyage for Discovery 107 Urswick Ambassador 65 Usury 40 W. VVAlsingham Lady vowed to by King Henry 20 Wards wronged 120 War between the French King and the Duke of Britain 30 War the fame thereof advantagious to King Henry 31 War gainful to the King 91 War pretended to get money 57 War of France ended by a Peace where at the Souldiers murmur 64 White Rose of England 69 104 Wilford counterfeit Earl of Warwick 110 A Wives affection 129 Woodvile voluntarily goes to aid the Duke of Britain 31 Woodvile slain at St. Albans in Britain 62 Wolsey employed by the King 130 Women carried away by violence a Law enacted against it the reasons 39 Womens ingratitude punished by Law 84 Y. YEomen of the Guard first instituted 7 Yeomanry how maintained 44 York House and Title favoured by the People 3 12 York Title and Line depressed by King Henry 4 10 York Title favoured in Ireland 15 Yorkshire and Durham deny to pay the Subsidy 49 THE HISTORY Of the Reign of KING HENRY The SEVENTH AFter that Richard the Third of that Name King in Fact only but Tyrant both in Title and Regiment and so commonly termed and reputed in all times since was by the Divine Revenge favouring the Design of an Exil'd man overthrown and slain at
Bosworth-field There succeeded in the Kingdom the Earl of Richmond thence-forth stiled Henry the Seventh The King immediately after the Victory as one that had been bred under a devout Mother and was in his nature a great observer of Religious Forms caused Te Deum Laudamus to be solemnly sung in the presence of the whole Army upon the place and was himself with general Applause and great Cries of Joy in a kind of Militar Election or Recognition saluted King Mean-while the Body of Richard after many Indignities and Reproaches the Dirigies and Obsequies of the common People towards Tyrants was obscurely Buried For though the King of his Nobleness gave charge unto the Fryers of Leicester to see an Honourable Interrment to be given to it yet the Religious people themselves being not free from the Humours of the Vulgar neglected it wherein nevertheless they did not then incurr any mans blame or Censure No man thinking any Ignominy or Contumely unworthy of him that had been the Executioner of King Henry the Sixth that innocent Prince with his own hands the Contriver of the death of the Duke of Clarence his Brother the Murderer of his two Nephews one of them his Lawfull King in the Present and the other in the Future failing of him and vehemently suspected to have been the Impoisoner of his Wife thereby to make vacant his Bed for a Marriage within the Degrees forbidden And although he were a Prince in Militar Virtue approved jealous of the Honour of the English Nation and likewise a good Law-maker for the ease and solace of the common People yet his Cruelties and Parricides in the Opinion of all men weighed down his Virtues and Merits and in the opinion of Wise men even those Virtues themselves were conceived to be rather feigned and affected things to serve his Ambition than 〈◊〉 Qualities ingenrate in his Judgement or Nature And therefore it was noted by men of great Understanding who seeing his after Acts looked back upon his former Proceedings that even in the time of King Edward his Brother he was not without secret Trains and Mines to turn Envy and Hatred upon his Brother's Government as having an Expectation and a kind of Divination that the King by reason of his many Disorders could not be of long Life but was like to leave his Sonnes of tender years and then he knew well how easie a step it was from the place of a Protector and first Prince of the Blood to the Crown And that out of this deep root of Ambition it sprang that as well at the Treaty of Peace that passed between Edward the Fourth and Lewis the Eleventh of France concluded by Enterview of both Kings at Piqueny as upon all other Occasions Richard then Duke of Glocester stood ever upon the side of Honour raising his own Reputation to the disadvantage of the King his Brother and drawing the eyes of all specially of the Nobles and Soldiers upon himself as if the King by his voluptuous Life and mean Marriage were become Effeminate and less sensible of Honour and Reason of State than was fit for a King And as for the Politique and wholesom Laws which were Enacted in his Time they were interpreted to be but the Brocage of an Usurper thereby to wooe and winne the Hearts of the People as being conscious to himself that the true Obligations of Soveraignty in him failed and were wanting But King Henry in the very entrance of his Reign and the instant of time when the Kingdom was cast into his Arms met with a Point of great difficulty and knotty to solve able to trouble and confound the Wisest King in the newness of his Estate and so much the more because it could not endure a Deliberation but must be at once deliberated and determined There were fallen to his Lot and concurrent to his Person three several Titles to the Imperial Crown The first the Title of the Lady Elizabeth with whom by precedent Pact with the Party that brought him in he was to Marry The second the Antient and long disputed Title both by Plea and Arms of the House of Lancaster to which he was Inheritour in his own Person The third the Title of the Sword or Conquest for that he came in by Victory of Battel and that the King in possession was slain in the field The first of these was fairest and most like to give contentment to the People who by Two and twenty Years Reign of King Edward the Fourth had been fully made capable of the clearness of the Title of the White-Rose or House of York and by the milde and plausible Reign of the same King toward his latter time were become affectionate to that Line But then it lay plain before his Eyes that if he relyed upon that Title he could be but a King at Curtesie and have rather a Matrimonial than a Regal Power the Right remaining in his Queen upon whose decease either with Issue or without Issue he was to give place and be removed And though he should obtain by Parliament to be continued yet he knew there was a very great difference between a King that holdeth his Crown by a civil Act of Estates and one that holdeth it Originally by the Law of Nature and Descent of Blood Neither wanted there even at that time secret Rumors and whisperings which afterwards gathered strength and turned to great Troubles that the two young Sons of King Edward the Fourth or one of them which were said to be destroyed in the Tower were not indeed Murthered but conveyed secretly away and were yet living which if it had been true had prevented the Title of the Lady Elizabeth On the other side if he stood upon his own Title of the House of Lancaster inherent in his Person he knew it was a Title condemned by Parliament and generally prejudged in the common Opinion of the Realm and that it tended directly to the Dis-inherison of the Line of York held then the indubiate Heirs of the Crown So that if he should have no Issue by the Lady Elibabeth which should be Descendents of the Double-Line then the Ancient flames of Discord and Intestine Wars upon the Competition of both Houses would again return and revive As for Conquest notwithstanding Sir William Stanly after some Acclamations of the Soldiers in the Field had put a Crown of Ornament which Richard wore in the Battel and was found amongst the Spoils upon King Henry's Head as if there were his chief Title yet he remembred well upon what Conditions and Agreements he was brought in and that to claim as Conqueror was to put as well his own Party as the rest into Terrour and Fear as that which gave him Power of Disannulling of Laws and disposing of Mens Fortunes and Estates and the like points of Absolute Power being in themselves so harsh and odious as that William himself commonly called the Conqueror however he used and exercised the Power of a
Clifford and him he had said That if he were sure that that young man were King Edward's Son he would never bear Arms against him This Case seems somewhat an hard Case both in respect of the Conditional and in respect of the other words But for the Conditional it seems the Judges of that time who were Learned men and the three chief of them of the Privy Council thought it was a dangerous thing to admit Ifs and And 's to qualifie words of Treason whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger And it was like to the Case in the following times of Elizabeth-Barton the holy Maid of Kent who had said That if King Henry the Eighth did not take Catherine his Wife again he should be deprived of his Crown and dye the death of a Dog And infinite Cases may be put of like nature Which it seemeth the grave Judges taking into Consideration would not admit of Treasons upon Condition And as for the Positive words That he would not bear Arms against King Edward's Son though the words seem calm yet it was a plain and direct Over-ruling of the King's Title either by Line of Lancaster or by Act of Parliament Which no doubt pierced the King more than if Stanley had charged his Lance upon him in the field For if Stanley would hold that opinion that a Son of King Edward had still the better right he being so principal a person of Authority and favour about the King it was to teach all England to say as much And therefore as those times were that speech touched the quick But some Writers do put this out of doubt for they say that Stanley did expresly promise to ayd Perkin and sent him some help of Treasure Now for the Motive of his falling off from the King It is true that at Bosworth-Field the King was be-set and in a manner inclosed round about by the Troops of King Richard and in manifest danger of his life when this Stanley was sent by his Brother with three thousand men to his Rescue which he performed so that King Richard was slain upon the Place So as the condition of Mortal men is not capable of a greater benefit than the King received by the hands of Stanley being like the benefit of Christ at once to Saye and Crown For which service the King gave him great gifts made him his Counsellor and Chamberlain and some what contrary to his nature had winked at the great Spoils of Bosworth-Field which came almost wholly to this man's hands to his infinite enriching Yet nevertheless blown up with the conceit of his Merit he did not think he had received good Measure from the King at least not Pressing-down and Running-over as he expected And his ambition was so exorbitant and unbounded as he became Sultor to the King for the Earldom of Chester Which ever being a kind of Appennage to the Principality of Wales 〈◊〉 and using to go to the King's Son his Suit did not only end in a Denial but in a Distaste The King perceiving thereby that his Desires were intemperate and his Cogitations vast and irregular and that his former Benefits were but cheap and lightly regarded by him Wherefore the King began not to brook him well And as a little Leaven of new Distaste doth commonly sowre the whole Lump of former Merits the King's Wit began now to suggest unto his Passion that Stanley at Bosworth-Field though he came time enough to save his life yet he stayed long enough to endanger it But yet having no matter against him he continued him in his Places until this his Fall After him was made Lord Chamberlain Giles Lord Dawbeny a man of great sufficiency and valour the more because he was gentle and moderate There was a common Opinion That Sir Robert Clifford who now was become the State-Informer was from the beginning an Emissary and Spy of the King 's and that he fled over into Flanders with his consent and privity But this is not probable both because he never recovered that degree of Grace which he had with the King before his going over and chiefly for that the Discovery which he had made touching the Lord Chamberlain which was his great Service grew not from any thing he learn'd abroad for that he knew it well before he went These Executions and especially that of the Lord Chamberlain's which was the chief strength of the Party and by means of Sir Robert Clifford who was the most inward man of Trust amongst them did extremely quail the Design of Perkin and his complices as well through Discouragement as Distrust So that they were now like Sand without Lime ill bound together especially as many as were English who were at a gaze looking strange one upon another not knowing who was faithful to their Side but thinking that the King what with his Baits and what with his Nets would draw them all unto him that were any thing worth And indeed it came to pass that divers came away by the Thred sometimes one and sometimes another Barley that was Joynt-Commissioner with Clifford did hold out one of the longest till Perkin was far worn yet made his Peace at the length But the Fall of this Great man being in so high Authority and Favour as was thought with the King and the manner of Carriage of the Business as if there had been secret Inquisition upon him for a great time before and the Cause for which he suffered which was little more than for saying in effect That the Title of York was better than the Title of Lancaster which was the Case almost of every man at the least in Opinion was matter of great Terrour amongst all the King's Servants and Subjects Insomuch as no man almost thought himself secure and men durst scarce commune or talk one with another but there was a general Diffidence every where Which nevertheless made the King rather more Absolute than more Safe For Bleeding Inwards and shut Vapours strangle soonest and oppress most Hereupon presently came forth Swarms and Volies of Libels which are the Gusts of Liberty of Speech restrained and the Females of Sedition containing bitter Invectives and Slanders against the King and some of the Council For the contriving and dispersing whereof after great Diligence of Inquiry five mean persons were caught and executed Mean while the King did not neglect Ireland being the Soil where the Musbromes and Upstart-Weeds that spring up in a Night did chiefly prosper He sent therefore from hence for the better setling of his affairs there Commissioners of both Robes The Prior of Lanthony to be his Chancellour in that Kingdom and Sir Edward Poynings with a Power of Men and a Marshal Commission together with a Civil Power of his Lieutenant with a Clause That the Earl of Kildare then Deputy should obey him But the Wild-Irish who were the principal Offendors fled into the Woods and Bogs after their manner and those
my self to expect the Tyrant's death and then to put my self into my Sisters hands who was next Heir to the Crown But in this season it happened one Henry Tidder Son to Edmond Tidder Earl of Richmond to come from France and enter into the Realm and by subtil and foul means to obtain the Crown of the same which to me rightfully appertained So that it was but a change from Tyrant to Tyrant This Henry my extreme and mortal Enemy so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive imagined and wrought all the subtil ways and means he could to procure my final Destruction For my mortal Enemy hath not only falsly surmised me to be a feigned Person giving me Nick-names so abusing the World but also to deferr and put me from entry into England hath offered large summs of Money to corrupt the Princes and their Ministers with whom I have been retained and made importune Labours to certain Servants about my Person to murther or Poyson me and others to forsake and leave my righteous Quarrel and to depart from my Service as Sir Robert Clifford and others So that every man of Reason may well perceive that Henry calling himself King of England needed not to have bestowed such great summs of Treasure nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant Labour and Industry to compass my Death and Ruine if I had been such a feigned Person But the truth of my Cause being so manifest moved the most Christian King Charles and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy my most dear Aunt not only to acknowledge the truth thereof but lovingly to assist me But it seemeth that God above for the good of this whole Island and the knitting of these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait Concord and Amity by so great an Obligation had reserved the placing of me in the Imperial Throne of England for the Arms and Succours of your Grace Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that were bereft and spoiled of the Kingdom of England as of late in fresh memory it was done in the Person of Henry the Sixth Wherefore for that your Grace hath given clear signs that you are in no Noble quality inferiour to your Royal Ancestors I so distressed a Prince was hereby moved to come and put my self into your Royal Hands desiring your Assistance to recover my Kingdom of England promising faithfully to bear my self towards your Grace no otherwise than if I were your own Natural Brother and will upon the Recovery of mine Inheritance gratefully do you all the Pleasure that is in my utmost Power AFter Perkin had told his Tale King James answered bravely and wisely That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hand And from that time forth though there wanted not some about him that would have perswaded him that all was but an Illusion yet notwithstanding either taken by Perkin's amiable and alluring behaviour or inclining to the recommendation of the great Princes abroad or willing to take an occasion of a War against King Henry he entertained him in all things as became the person of Richard Duke of York embraced his Quarrel and the more to put it out of doubt that he took him to be a great Prince and not a Representation only he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife the Lady Catherine Gordon Daughter to Earl Huntley being a near Kinswoman to the King himself and a young Virgin of excellent beauty and virtue Not long after the King of Scots in person with Perkin in his company entred with a great Army though it consisted chiefly of Borderers being raised somewhat suddenly into Northumberland And Perkin for a Perfume before him as he went caused to be published a Proclamation of this tenour following in the name of Richard Duke of York true Inheritor of the Crown of England IT hath pleased God who putteth down the Mighty from their Seat and exalteth the Humble and suffereth not the hopes of the Just to perish in the end to give Us means at the length to shew Our Selves armed unto Our Lieges and People of England But far be it from Us to intend their hurt and damage or to make War upon them otherwise than to deliver Our Self and them from Tyranny and Oppression For Our mortal Enemy Henry Tidder a false 〈◊〉 of the Crown of England which tolls by Natural and Lineal Right appertaineth knowing in his own Heart Our undoubted Right We being the very Richard Duke of York younger Son and now surviving Heir-male of the Noble and Victorious Edward the Fourth late King of England hath not only deprived Us of Our Kingdom but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our Life Yet if his Tyranny only extended it self to Our Person although Our Royal Blood teacheth Us to be sensible of Injuries it should be less to Our Grief But this Tidder who boasteth himself to have overthrown a Tyrant hath ever since his first entrance into his Usurped Reign put little in practice but Tyranny and the feats thereof For King Richard Our unnatural Uncle although desire of Rule did blind him yet in his other actions like a true Plantagenet was Noble and loved the Honour of the Realm and the Contentment and Comfort of his Nobles and People But this Our Mortal Enemy agreeable to the meanness of his Birth hath trod under foot the Honour of this Nation selling Our hest Confederates for Money and making Merchandize of the Blood Estates and Fortunes of Our Peers and Subjects by feigned wars and dishonourable Peace only to enrich his Coffers Nor unlike hath been his hateful Mis-government and evil Deportments at home First he hath to fortifie his false Quarrel caused divers Nobles of this Our Realm whom he held Suspect and stood in dread of to be cruelly murthred as Our Cousin Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Robert Ratcliff William Dawbeney Humphrey Stafford and many others besides such as have dearly bought their Lives with intolerable Ransoms Some of which Nobles are now in the Sanctuary Also he hath long kept and yet keepeth in Prison Our right entirely beloved Cousin Edward Son and Heir to Our Uncle Duke of Clarence and others with-bolding from them their rightful Inheritance to the intent they should never be of might and power to aid and assist Us at Our need after the duty of their Liegeances He also married by compulsion certain of Our Sisters and also the Sister of Our said Cousin the Earl of Warwick and divers other Ladies of the Royal Blood unto certain of his Kinsmen and Friends of simple and low Degree and putting apart all well-disposed Nobles he hath none in favour and trust about his Person but Bishop Fox Smith Bray Lovel Oliver King David Owen Risley Turbervile Tiler Cholmley Empson James Hobart John Cut Garth
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
great concourse of most famous Souldiers Henry then entertained the French King at Guisnes in a House made of Timber framed partly in England partly in Holland and thence brought thither wherein there were four Mansions The out-side was covered with Cloth so painted that it would have deceived the beholders for squared Stone the in-side was hung with most rich Arras so that it every way seemed a most artificial and stately Building The form of it was much like that of the Exchange at Calais It being afterward taken asunder was transported into England and so stood the King in little or nothing saith Bellay Whereas we know and that by Records that there were sent over out of England for this Work three hundred Masons six hundred Carpenters two hundred Painters Glasiers and other Artificers in all eleven hundred which for the space of two months laboured continually on this Fabrick The day ensuing the French King prepares a Banquet the Banqueting-house was a Canopy every way extended sixty foot which without was covered with Cloth of Tissue within with blew Velvet pouldred with golden Flowers-de-Lys At each corner was a Pavilion of the same works the cords were of blew Silk twisted with Gold of Cyprus which was of great esteem But a most impetuous and tempestuous wind broke asunder the cords and laid all this bravery in the dirt Patience par force The French King suddenly makes another Banqueting-house in that place where there is now a Fort that takes its name from this Banquet The preparations were extraordinary and the magnificence outstripped the reach of humane judgment There wanted neither houses woods nor fields for disport for many men brought them entire on their backs But pleasures must have their intermission and Kings if not by their Greatness are by their Affairs severed Henry therefore returns to Calais and Francis to Boloign The tenth of the ensuing month the King gallantly attended visited the Emperour at Graveling The Emperour in requital accompanied him back to Calais Shews and Banquets are Princes usual Entertainments To this end the King so commanding a round building is made in the form of an Amphitheatre eight hundred foot in compass The sides were of planks in the middle was a Pillar made of eight great Masts tied together This Pillar supported the weight not only of the roof of the whole Fabrick whither as into a lower Heaven the Moon and Stars had descended but Organs also and places for the receipt of all sorts of Musick in abundance These places were adorned with Tapestry Statues and curious Pictures insomuch that the most fault-finding could not complain of any want in that kind All things were now prepared for the entertainment of such a guest and the Banquet ready to be served in when the same mischance that befel the French Canopy made our English Heaven and Earth meet together God as displeased with the mad prodigality of these two Kings sent a tempest the violence whereof scattered this counterfeit Heaven blew out above a thousand Wax-tapers defaced the glorious Thrones prepared for these Princes frustrated the expectation of the people and forced the King to the necessity of another place But to let pass the Tilting Masques and gorgeous Feasts during the six days the Emperour staid at Calais In these several Enterviews between all these Princes there was no one serious thing done but this that a firm Peace a perpetual League and faithful Friendship seemed to be concluded on all sides For who would have thought that it had been possible for discord it self to have dissolved this knot where Charles and Francis attributed so much to Henry that they made him Umpire of all controversies that should arise between them But that there is seldom any heed to be given to the Agreements of Princes where they are tied by no other bands as of Religion Affinity or manifest Utility than that weak one of their plighted Troth those foul dissentions and bloody wars which afterwards rent all Christendom and opened a way for that common enemy of our Faith may be a sufficient example The Emperour after all these passages of courtesie and humanity departs toward Graveling mounted on a brave Horse covered with a foot-cloth of cloth of gold richly beset with stones which the King had given him He would often speak of his Aunts happiness that was matcht to so magnificent a Prince The King staid some few days after at Calais from whence passing to Dover he with all his train arrived safe at London I cannot but envy their happiness who in so little time saw three the mightiest Monarchs in Christendom who for their exploits and the great alterations happening under each of them will without doubt be famous through all succeeding Ages ANNO DOM. 1521. REG. 13. E Dward Stafford Duke of Buckingham was about this time arraigned of high Treason He was descended of a Family which whether it was more antient or noble is questionable He derived himself by a direct line from Robert de Stafford to whom William the Conquerour gave large revenues which his posterity greatly enlarged by matching with the Heirs female of many noble Families By the Lady Ann Daughter to Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester who was Brother to Edward the Third he participated of the Blood Royal. The first honourable Title of the Family was of Lord Stafford the next of Earl of Stafford as was Edmund that married the Daughter to Thomas of Woodstock Humphrey Son to Edmund was created Duke of Buckingham by Henry the Sixth who left that Honor to his Son Humphrey who was Grandfather to this Edward by his Son Henry the third Duke How Henry assisted the Usurper Richard the Third in oppressing Edward the Fifth how he after conspired with the Earl of Richmond afterwards Henry the Seventh against the Usurper but was cut off by the Tyrant before he could bring any thing to pass the Histories of those times declare Edward his Son restored to Blood and Dignities by Henry the Seventh for his Descent Wealth and Honors inferiour to none but the King not content with this was by N. Hopkins a Charterhouse-Monk induced to believe that Heaven had decreed to cut off King Henry after whose death he should reign and the Crown be for ever established on his posterity This the Monk affirmed God the Governour of all things had revealed unto him He further advised him by liberality and courtesie to win the minds of the people for the time was at hand wherein this should certainly come to pass if it were not through his own default The Duke no sot but blinded by ambition gave such credit to the Monk who was either mad or else flattered him in hope of reward that although the time prefixed for these Miracles were past yet was he still in hope fed the Impostor with gifts who fed him with air secretly vilified the King and gave profusely to all Nay he could not forbear but
consecrated by the Archbishop but he on whom the King by his Congé D'eslire or other his Letters had conferred that Dignity And whereas many complained that now all commerce with Rome was forbidden all means were taken away of mitigating the rigour of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Dispensation Papal authority is granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury the King reserving to himself the power of dispensing in causes of greater moment And that all Appeals formerly wont to be made from the Archbishop to the Pope should now be from the Archbishop to the King who by Delegates should determine all such Suits and Controversies Furthermore the King's Marriage with the Lady Catharine is again pronounced incestuous the Succession to the Crown established on the King's Issue begotten on Queen Ann. And all above the age of sixteen years throughout the Kingdom are to be bound by Oath to the observance of this Law Whosoever refused to take this Oath should suffer loss of all their goods and perpetual imprisonment Throughout all the Realm there were found but two who durst refractorily oppose this Law viz. Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More the late Lord Chancellor men who were indeed very learned but most obstinate sticklers in the behalf of the Church of Rome who being not to be drawn by any perswasions to be conformable to the Law were committed to prison from whence after a years durance they were not freed but by the loss of their lives But the King fearing that it might be thought That he took these courses rather out of a contempt of Religion than in regard of the tyranny of the Court of Rome to free himself from all suspition either of favouring Luther or any authors of new Opinions began to persecute that sort of men whom the Vulgar called Hereticks and condemned to the cruelty of that merciless Element Fire not only certain Dutch Anabaptists but many Professors of the Truth and amongst others that learned and godly young man John Frith who with one Hewet and others on the two and twentieth of July constantly endured the torments of their martyrdom The five and twentieth of September died Clement the Seventh Pope in whose place succeeded Alexander Farnese by the name of Paulus the Third who to begin his time with some memorable Act having called a Consistory pronounced Henry to be fallen from the Title and Dignity of a King and to be deposed reiterating withal the thunder of Excommunication with which bugbear his predecessor Clement had sought to affright him But this peradventure happened in the ensuing year after the death of Fisher and More A Parliament is again called in November wherein according to the Decree of the late Synod the King was declared Supreme Head of the Church of England and the punishment of all crimes which formerly pertained to the Ecclesiastical Courts is made proper to him So the Kingdom is vindicated from the usurpation of the Pope who before shared in it and the King now first began to reign entirely Also all Annats or First-fruits formerly paid to the Pope are granted to the King And Wales the seat of the remainder of the true antient Britans hitherto differing from us compounded of Normans and Saxons as well in the form of their Government as in Language is by the authority of this Parliament to the great good of both but especially that Nation united and incorporated to England Edward the First was the first who subdued this Countrey yet could he not prevail over their minds whom the desire of recovering their lost liberty animated to many Rebellions By reason whereof and our suspitions being for two hundred years oppressed either with the miseries of Servitude or War they never tasted the sweet fruits of a true and solid Peace But Henry the Seventh by blood in regard of his Father and birth a Welchman coming to the Crown as if they had recovered their liberty whereto they so long aspired they obeyed him as their lawful Prince So the English being freed of their former jealousies permitted them to partake of their Priviledges since common to both Nations the good whereof equally redounded to both I could wish the like Union with Scotland That as we all live in one Island professing one Faith and speaking for the most part one Language under the government of one and the same Prince so we may become one Nation all equally acknowledging our selves Britans and so recover our true Countrey Britain lost as it were so many hundreds of years by our divisions of it into England Scotland and Wales ANNO DOM. 1535. REG. 27. THe Coronation of the new Queen and other passages of entertainment had exhausted the Treasury The Pope and the Emperour were both enemies to Henry watchfully attending all opportunities to do him mischief Neither in regard that so many sided with the Pope were all things safe at home The King was therefore forced to a course seemingly rash and full of dangerous consequences but very necessary for the time He resolves to demolish all the Monasteries throughout England He is content the Nobility should share with him in the spoil so enriching and strengthening himself by their necessary revolt from the Popish faction To this end they that were thought more especially in maintaining the Pope's authority to withstand the King's proceedings were condemned of high Treason and they that refused to acknowledge the King under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England are hanged For this cause on the third of May were executed John Houghton Prior of the Charterhouse in London Augustine Webster Prior of Bevaley and Thomas Lawrence Prior of Exham and with them Richard Reignalds a Monk and Doctor of Divinity and John Hales Vicar of Thistlehurst On the eighteenth of June Exmew Middlemore and Nudigate all Charterhouse-Monks suffered for the same cause And four days after John Fisher Bishop of Rochester a man much reverenced by the People for his holy life and great learning was publickly beheaded and his Head set over London Bridge Our Histories hardly afford a president of the execution of such a man But the Pope was the occasion of his death who to ease the burthen of his now a years imprisonment by the addition of a new Title had on the one and twentieth of May created him Cardinal The news whereof hastened him to a Scaffold The sixth of July Sir Thomas More for the same stiffness in opinion with Bishop Fisher suffered the like death This was that More so famous for his Eutopia and many other Works both in English and Latin As for his conversation the most censorious fault him in nothing but his too too jesting I will not say scoffing wit to which he gave more liberty than did beseem the gravity of his person not tempering himself in the midst of his calamity no not at the very instant of death After his condemnation he denied to give
admitted to intimate familiarity and made use of their counsels and endeavours as if he had advanced them to no other end but to depress them Wolsey had his turn Cromwell succeeds whose sudden downfal there want not those who attribute to God's Justice inflicted on him for the Sacriledge whereof he was reported to be the Author committed in the subversion of so many Religious Houses And indeed even they who confess the rouzing of so many unprofitable Epicures out of their dens and the abolishing of Superstition wherewith the Divine Worship had by them been polluted to have been an act of singular Justice and Piety do notwithstanding complain of the loss of so many stately Churches dedicated to God's service the goods whereof were no otherwise employed than for the satisfaction of private mens covetousness and although many have abused the Vail of Religion yet was that Monastical life instituted according to the pious example of antient Fathers that they who found themselves unfit for the execution of worldly affairs as many such there are might in such their voluntary retirements spend their days in Divine Writings or Meditations and are verily perswaded that for the taking away of these things God was offended both with the King and Cromwell But Sleidan peradventure comes nearer the matter touching the immediate cause of his death About this time saith he the King of England beheadeth Thomas Cromwell whom he had from fortunes answerable to his low parentage raised to great Honours repadiates the Lady Ann of Cleve and marrieth Catharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard who was Brother to the Duke of Norfolk Cromwell had been procurer of the Match with Ann. But the King loving Catharine is thought to have been perswaded by her to make away Cromwell whom she suspected to be a Remora to her advancement The actions of Kings are not to be sifted too nearly for which we are charitably to presume they have reasons and those inscrutable But let us see the process of this Divorce Six months this conjugal band lasted firm without scruple the King and Queen giving daily testimonies of their mutual love On the twentieth of June the Queen is willed to remove from London where the King stayed by reason of the Parliament to Richmond a place pretended in regard of the situation and air to be more for her health On the sixth of July Reasons are proposed by certain Lords purposely sent to the lower House of Parliament demonstrating the invalidity of the King's Marriage with the Lady Ann so that it was lawful for them both to marry where they pleased The same reasons are alledged in the Convocation-House and generally approved Whereupon the Queen also whether forced or willing consenting the Parliament pronounced the Marriage void What the allegations were is uncertain Some relate disability by reason of some defects to be objected to her which seems the more probable for that in her Letters wherein she submitted her self to the judgment and determination of the Parliament she affirmed that the King never knew her carnally Whether for this or for that Nature having not over-liberally endowed her with Beauty but a private woman she became and as such not enduring to return to her friends with dishonour she lived upon some Lands assigned her by the King who always used her respectively until the fifteenth of July Anno 1557 at what time she ended her discontented life and lieth buried at Westminster on the South side of the Quire in a Tomb not yet finished Scarce had the resolution of the Convocation-House and the Decree concerning it passed both Houses when this lusty Widower with as good success as before marrieth his fifth Wife Catharine Howard When their Nuptials were celebrated is not known but on the eighth of August in Royal habiliments she shewed her self as Queen The fautors of Reformation were much dismayed at the sudden unqueening of Ann fearing not without cause lest it proving occasion of enmity between Henry and the Princes of Germany he must of necessity rely on them who misliked our divorce from Rome But the King proceeding still in the course he had begun like a torrent bearing all before him not only caused three Anabaptists to be burned but also many sincere Professors of the Truth for not subscribing to the Six Articles Among whom three Divines were most eminent viz. Robert Barnes Doctor of Divinity Thomas Gerard and William Jerome Bachechelors who by Parliament unheard being condemned for Heresie were on the one and thirtieth committed to the torments of the merciless fire At the same time and place three other Doctors of Divinity viz. Powel Able and Fetherston were hanged for denying the King's Supremacy the sight whereof made a French-man cry out in these words Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt gentes suspenduntur Papistae comburuntur Antipapistae Good God how do the people make a shift to live here where both Papists are hanged and Antipapists burned In August the Prior of Dancaster and six other for defending the Institution of the life Monastical a crime now become as capital as the greatest being also condemned by Act of Parliament were hanged The same day with the Lord Cromwell the Lord Hungerford was also Beheaded As their causes were divers so died they alike differently Cromwell's conscience quietly welcomed death to the other suffering for that most unnatural crime of Sodomy death presented it self with that horror that the apprehension of it made him as impatient as if he had been seised with a frenzy ANNO DOM. 1541. REG. 33. THe late Yorkshire Rebellion was not so throughly quenched but it again began to shew it self but by the punishment of the chief Incendiaries it was quickly suppressed Fourteen of the Conspirators were put to death Leigh a Gentleman Thornton a Yeoman and Tattershall a Clothier at London Sir John Nevil and ten others at York Which Commotion whether raised in favour of Religion or being suspected that it had any abettors beyond the Seas is thought to have hastened the death of the long since condemned Countess of Sarisbury who on the seven and twentieth of May was Beheaded in the Tower The eight and twentieth of June the Lord Leonard Grey Deputy of Ireland did on the Tower Hill publickly undergo the like punishment He was Son to the Marquis of Dorset near allied to the King and a brave Martial man having often done his Countrey good service But for that he had suffered his Nephew Gerard Fitz-Gerard Brother to Thomas lately executed proclaimed enemy to the Estate to make an escape and in revenge of some conceived private injury had invaded the Lands of the King's friends he was arraigned and condemned ending his life with a resolution befitting a brave Souldier The same day Thomas Fines Lord Dacres of the South with some other Gentlemen for the death of one Busbrig slain by them in a fray was hanged at Tyburn Many in
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
lest it might prove an occasion of Sedition and Civil Tumults The Archbishop Cranmer did for a while refuse to subscribe to it not deeming it any way agreeable to equity that the right of lawful Succession should upon any pretences be violated But the King urging him and making Religion a motive which was otherwise likely to suffer after a long disceptation he was at length drawn to assent But these delays of his were so little regarded by Queen Mary that under her scarce any man was sooner marked out for destruction Some few days after these passages on the sixth of July in the sixteenth year of his age King Edward at Greenwich surrendred his Soul to God having under his Tutors reigned six years five months and nineteen days and even in that tender age given great proof of his Virtue a Prince of great Devotion Constancy of Mind Love of the Truth and incredibly Studious Virtues which with Royal Greatness seldom concur Some three hours before his Death not thinking any one had been present to over-hear him he thus commended himself to God O Lord God free me I beseech thee out of this miserable and calamitous life and receive me among the number of thine Elect if so be it be thy pleasure although not mine but thy Will be done To thee O Lord do I commend my Spirit Thou knowest O Lord how happy I shall be may I live with thee in Heaven yet would I might live and be well for thine Elects sake that I might faithfully serve thee O Lord God bless thy People and save thine Inheritance O Lord God save thy People of England defend this Kingdom from Popery and preserve thy true Religion in it that I and my People may bless thy most Holy Name for thy Son Jesus Christ. Then opening his Eyes which he had hitherto closed and seeing Doctor Owen the Physician from whose report we have this Prayer sitting by Are you there quoth he I had not thought you had been so near who answered I heard you speak but could not collect your words Indeed replied the King I was making my Prayer to God A little after he suddenly cryed out I faint Lord have mercy upon me and receive my Soul which words he had scarce spoken ere he departed Much might be spoken in praise of this Prince but regardful of my intended brevity I will only give you a tast of him out of Cardan who about a year before travelling through England toward Scotland was admitted to his presence The conference between them he thus describeth Aderant illi speaking of the King Gratiae Linguas enim multas callebat Puer c. He was stored with Graces for being yet a Child he spake many Languages his native English Latin French and as I hear was also skilled in the Greek Italian Spanish and peradventure some others He wanted neither the rudiments of Logick the principles of Philosophy nor Musick He was full of Humanity the relish of Morality of Gravity befitting Royalty of hopes great as himself A Child of so great Wit and such Expectation could not be born without a kind of Miracle in Nature I write not this Rhetorically with the excess of an Hyperbole for to speak all the truth were to speak far more Being yet but in his fifteenth year he spake Latin as readily and politely as I could What faith he is the subject of your Books De Rerum Varietate I had dedicated them to his Majesty Card. In the first Chapter I shew the long hidden and vainly sought after causes of Comets King And what is the cause Card. The concourse and meeting of the lights of the erratick Stars King But being the Planets are moved with several motions how comes it to pass that the Comet doth not either presently dissolve and scatter or move with their motion Card. It moves indeed but with a far swifter motion than the Planets by reason of the diversity of the aspect as we see in Crystal and the Sun when a Rainbow rebound upon a Wall for a little change makes a great difference of the place King But how can that be done without a subject for the Wall is the subject to the Rainbow Card. As in the Galaxia or Milky-way and in the reflection of lights when many Candles lighted are set near one another they do produce a certain lucid and bright mean You may know the Lion by his paw as they say For his ingenuous nature and sweet conditions he was great in the expectation of all either good or learned men He began to favour Learning before he could know it and knew it before he knew what use to make of it O how true is that saying Immodicis brevis est aetas rara senectus Immoderate growths short liv'd are aged seld He could give you only a tast of his Virtue not an example When occasion required a Majestick gravity you should see him act an old man in his affability and mildness he shewed his age He plaid on the Lute accustomed himself to publick affairs was liberally disposed c. So much Cardan His Corps was on the ninth of August with no very great pomp interred at Westminster near to his Grandfather Henry the Seventh And here had I with this King's death concluded this Second Part had not the consideration of a memorable Enterprize of this King 's occurred To Sebastian Cabota a Portugueze for his admirable skill in Cosmography and the Art of Navigation he allowed an Annuity of an hundred sixty six Pounds Edward by this Cabota's perswasion on the twelfth of May set forth three Ships under Sir Hugh Willoughby for the discovery of unknown Regions in the North parts of the World The main hope of this Voyage was that way to open a shorter passage to those vast Countries of the East Cathay and China Near upon the Coast of Norway these Ships were so severed by Tempest that they never met again One of these great Ships terrified with the greatness of irresistable dangers quickly returned home Sir Hugh Willoughby arrived at last at a Countrey under the Latitude of seventy four degrees not inhabited hitherto to us unknown and was forced to winter there where he and all his Company were frozen to death The Ship was afterward found by some the like English Adventurers and in his Desk a writing relating the Adventures of each day his Will also by which it appeared that he lived until January Richard Chanceller with the third Ship making a more prosperous Voyage after many dangers and incertainties arrived at last among the Russes and Muscovites To these parts some few years after he made a second Voyage but in his return suffered wreck on the Scottish Coast where seeking to save the Muscovite Ambassador he himself was drowned Howsoever he were unfortunate he opened a rich Vein of Traffick to succeeding times whereby we have an exact discovery of that Countrey and of the
Shew and Order The chief man that took the care was Bishop Fox who was not only a grave Counsellor for War or Peace but also a good Surveyor of Works and a good Master of Ceremonies and any thing else that was fit for the Active part belonging to the service of Court or State of a great King This Marriage was almost seven years in Treaty which was in part caused by the tender years of the Marriage-couple especially of the Prince But the true reason was that these two Princes being Princes of great Policy and profound Judgment stood a great time looking one upon another's Fortunes how they would go knowing well that in the mean time the very Treaty it self gave abroad in the World a Reputation of a strait Conjunction and Amity between them which served on both sides to many purposes that their several Affairs required and yet they continued still free But in the end when the Fortunes of both the Princes did grow every day more and more prosperous and assured and that looking all about them they saw no better Conditions they shut it up The Marriage-Money the Princess brought which was turned over to the King by Act of Renunciation was two hundred thousand Ducats Whereof one hundred thousand were payable ten days after the Solemnization and the other hundred thousand at two payments Annual but part of it to be in Jewels and Plate and a due course set down to have them justly and indifferently prized The Joynture or Advancement of the Lady was the third part of the Principality of Wales and of the Dukedom of Cornwal and of the Earldom of Chester to be after set forth in severalty And in case she came to be Queen of England her Advancement was left indefinite but thus That it should be as great as ever any former Queen of England had In all the Devices and Conceits of the Triumphs of this Marriage there was a great deal of Astronomy The Lady being resembled to Hesperus and the Prince to Arcturus and the old King Alphonsus that was the greatest Astronomer of Kings and was Ancestor to the Lady was brought in to be the Fortune-celler of the Match And whosoever had those Toys in Compiling they were not altogether Pedantical But you may be sure that King Arthur the Briton and the descent of the Lady Katherine from the House of Lancaster was in no wise forgotten But as it should seem it is not good to fetch Fortunes from the Stars For this young Prince that drew upon him at that time not only the Hopes and Affections of his Countrey but the Eyes and Expectation of Foreiners after a few Months in the beginning of April deceased at Ludlow-Castle where he was sent to keep his Resiance and Court as Prince of Wales Of this Prince in respect he dyed so young and by reason of his Father's manner of Education that did cast no great Lustre upon his Children there is little particular Memory Only thus much remaineth that he was very studious and learned beyond his years and beyond the Custom of great Princes There was a doubt ripped up in the times following when the Divorce of King Henry the Eighth from the Lady Katherine did so much busie the world whether Arthur was bedded with his Lady or no whereby that matter in fact of Carnal Knowledge might be part of the Case And it is true that the Lady her self denyed it or at least her Council stood upon it and would not blanch that Advantage although the plenitude of the Pope's power of Dispensing was the main Question And this Doubt was kept long open in respect of the two Queens that succeeded Mary and Elizabeth whose Legitimations were incompatible one with another though their Succession was setled by Act of Parliament And the Times that favoured Queen Maries Legitimation would have it believed that there was no Carnal Knowledge between Arthur and Katherine Not that they would seem to derogate from the Pope's absolute power to dispense even in that Case but only in point of Honour and to make the Case more favourable and smooth And the Times that favoured Queen Elizabeths Legitimation which were the longer and the later maintained the contrary So much there remaineth in Memory that it was half a years time between the Creation of Henry Prince of Wales and Prince Arthur's death which was construed to be for to expect a full time whereby it might appear whether the Lady Katherine were with Child by Prince Arthur or no. Again the Lady her self procured a Bull for the better Corroboration of the Marriage with a Clause of vel forsan cognitam which was not in the first Bull. There was given in Evidence also when the cause of the Divorce was handled a pleasant passage which was That in a Morning Prince Arthur upon his up-rising from Bed with her called for drink which he was not accustomed to do and finding the Gentleman of his Chamber that brought him the drink to smile at it and to note it he said merrily to him That he had been in the midst of Spain which was an hot Region and his Journey had made him dry and that if the other had been in so hot a Clime he would have been dryer than he Besides the Prince was upon the point of Sixteen years of Age when he dyed and forward and able in Body The February following Henry Duke of York was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and Flint For the Dukedom of Cornwal devolved to him by Statute The King also being fast-handed and loth to part with a second Dowry but chiefly being affectionate both by his Nature and out of Politick Considerations to continue the Alliance with Spain prevailed with the Prince though not without some Reluctation such as could be in those years for he was not twelve years of Age to be contracted with the Princess Katherine The secret Providence of God ordaining that Marriage to be the Occasion of great Events and Changes The same year were the Espousals of James King of Scotland with the Lady Margaret the King 's eldest Daughter which was done by Proxy and published at Paul's Cross the five and twentieth of January and Te Deum solemnly sung But certain it is that the Joy of the City thereupon shewed by Ringing of Bells and Bon-fires and such other Incense of the People was more than could be expected in a Case of so great and fresh Enmity between the Nations especially in London which was far enough off from feeling any of the former calamities of the War And therefore might be truly attributed to a Secret Instinct and Inspiring which many times runneth not only in the Hearts of Princes but in the Pulse and Veins of People touching the happiness thereby to ensue in time to come This Marriage was in August following consummate at Edenburgh The King bringing his Daughter as far as Colly-Weston on the way and then consigning her to the
to him would not be disagreeable to riper years nay prove perhaps a great pleasure Until that time came he should enjoy the present and not by hearkning to others needless persuasions any way interrupt the course of that felicity which the largeness of his Dominions would easily afford him He should hawk and hunt and as much as him list use honest Recreations If so be he did at any time desire suddenly to become an Old man by intermedling with Old mens Cares he should not want those meaning himself that would in the evening in one or two words relate unto him the effect of a whole days Consultation This speech hitting so pat with the King's humour made Wolsey so powerful that whereas the King before favoured him as much as any other he only was now in favour with and next the King with whom there was nothing to be done but by him For he was the man that was made choice of who like another Mercury should pass between this our Jove and the Senate of the lesser Gods offering their petitions to him and to them returning his pleasure therein Wherefore he was even at the first sworn of the Privy Council and besides the late collation of Tournay upon the death of Smith he was also made Bishop of Lincoln In the government of which Church he had not fully spent six months before he was translated from Lincoln to the Archbishoprick of York then vacant by the death of Cardinal Bambridge at Rome Shortly after that I may at once shew all his Honours William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury leaving the place he was by the King made Lord Chancellor of England and by the Pope Legate à latere Yet he stayed not there but as if the Archbishoprick of York and the Chancellorship of England had not been sufficient to maintain the port of a Cardinal besides many other Livings he procured of the King the Abbey of St. Albans and the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells And not content with these leaving Bath and Wells he addeth the Bishoprick of Durham to that of York and then leaving Durham seizeth on Winchester at that time of greatest revenue of any Bishoprick in England You now see Wolsey in his height rich his Prince's Favourite and from the bottom raised to the top of Fortunes Wheel What became of him afterward you shall know hereafter ANNO DOM. 1515. REG. 7. THe League lately made with Lewis the French King was confirmed by Francis his Successor and published by Proclamation in London the ninth day of April ANNO DOM. 1516. REG. 8. BUt the French King having taken into his protection the young King of Scots sent John Stuart Duke of Albany into Scotland to be Governour both of the King's Person and Kingdom The first thing this Duke undertook was either to put to death or banish those whom he any way suspected to favour the English Insomuch that the Queen Dowager who by this time was married to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus forced to save her self by flight came into England to her Brother with whom she stayed at London a whole year the Earl her Husband after a month or two without leave returning into Scotland King Henry being displeased at these French practices deals underhand with the Emperour Maximilian with whom the French then contended for the Duchy of Milan and lends him a great summ of Money whereby he might hire the Suisses to aid him in the expelling the French out of Italy But the Emperour although he had levied a sufficient Army returned home without doing any thing He was indeed accounted a wise Prince but unhappy in the managing of his Affairs whether it were that Fortune waiwardly opposed him or that he was naturally slow in the execution of his well-plotted Designs But shortly after he intends a second tryal of his Fortune Wherefore by his Ambassador the Cardinal of Suisserland he yet borrows more Money of the King which was delivered to certain Merchants of Genoa to be by a set day paid to the Emperour in Italy But they whether corrupted by the French or not of sufficient ability to make return deceived him and so his second designs vanished also into air I do not think it was the King's fault although we might justly suspect that the great Treasure left him by his Father being almost spent and the French secretly offering Peace upon good terms the friendship between him and the Emperour which he had so dearly purchased began at length to grow cold Certainly to speak nothing of the League which was afterwards concluded with France the Treasury was now grown so bare that the King was driven to invent new ways for the raising of Money The care of this business as almost of all others was committed to Cardinal Wolsey who casting up the Exchequer-Accompts found many deeply indebted to the King and whether by the negligence or treachery of the Officers never yet called to account Among others the Duke of Suffolk was found to be a great debtor who besides his own Revenues received yearly out of France his Wives Joincture amounting to sixty thousand Crowns Yet notwithstanding he was fain to withdraw himself from Court that by living thriftily in the Countrey he might have wherewith to pay this debt The Cardinal next bethinks himself of publick Misdemeanors of what sort soever as Perjury Rapes Oppression of the Poor Riots and the like the Offendors without respect of degree or persons he either publickly punished in Body or set round Fines on their heads By which means the Treasury before empty was replenished and the Cardinal by the people much applauded for his Justice These things having thus succeeded to his mind he undertakes more in the same kind He institutes a new Court where the Lords of the Privy Council with other of the Nobility should sit as Judges The aforesaid Crimes which then greatly reigned in this Kingdom and were punishable in this Court which as I conjecture from the Stars painted in the roof is called the Star-Chamber He erected also the Court of Requests where the complaints of the Poor were to be heard and ordained many other things in the Civil government of the Kingdom that were acceptable to the People and are in use at this day wherein he alike manifested his wisdom and love of his Countrey Certainly they that lived in that Age would not stick to say That this Kingdom never flourished more than when Wolsey did to whose Wisdom they attributed the Wealth and Safety that they enjoyed and the due Administration of Justice to all without exception ANNO DOM. 1517. REG. 9. THe Spring growing on the fear of a Commotion in London increased with the year The original and success whereof I will lay open at large forasmuch as Enormities of this nature by our wholesom Laws severely restrained are so rare that I remember when I was a child old men would reckon their Age from this day by the name
arrived on the first of October But the King 's hasty departure permitted not all things to be sufficiently setled Part of the Artillery Victuals and Munition by the Capitulation left in Boloign were not removed from the Base Town which was fortified only with some small Trenches for the surprisal whereof the Daulphin in the night sends some Troops who before morning enter the place cut all in pieces they meet win the Artillery and Munition and think to have gotten an absolute Victory but being intent to pillage some Ensigns issue from the higher Tower find them in disorder set upon them and rout them Many of the Enemies were slain among whom was Fouquessolles another Son-in-Law of Biez the Victory not being without blood on our side Neither was our Fleet idle in the mean which scouring the Seas brought three hundred Prizes so fraught with Merchandise that the three spacious Churches of the Augustine the Gray and the Black Friers in London whose Monasteries had lately been suppressed were stored with nothing but Hogsheads of Wine The Earl of Lenox lately dispatched out of France for the managing of the affairs of Scotland to the behoof of the French found not entertainment there according to his expectation The Queen Mother and Cardinal as long as they had need of him deluded him with hopes of marrying the Queen Mother and by their secret calumnies rendred them suspected to the French At length finding his safety questionable he flies for refuge into England accompanied with Alexander Son and Heir to the Earl of Glencarn Walter Graham Brother to the Earl of Montross and Sir John Borthwick with others and were honourably received by Henry who most happily repaired the Earl's losses of Revenues in France fallen by the death of Robert Stuart of Aubigny and of his Marriage in Scotland with that most successful Match that beautiful Lady Margaret Niece to the King and Daughter to the Earl of Angus and an annual Pension of seven hundred Marks And once more he resolved to try his fortune in Scotland attended by Sir Rice Mansell and Sir Peter Mewtas Wintor Audley and Brooks with others who with eight Ships set sail from Bristol and hanging over the Coast of Scotland like a Cloud uncertain where to disburthen it self deterred the Scots from enterprising anything upon England in the absence of the King The Church of late had daily felt some change or other And this year in June the Letany set forth in English was commanded to be used in all Churches ANNO DOM. 1545. REG. 37. OUr late Expeditions had without doubt been very chargeable So that I should not wonder that the King began to want supplies if I did not consider the incredible summs raised of the spoils of the late suppressed Religious Houses All which notwithstanding whether it were that God not pleased with this authorized Sacriledge did not enlarge them with his Blessing Which only saith Solomon maketh Rich Or that a great part thereof was otherwise divided either among his Courtiers or for the maintenance of the ejected Religious Persons the Treasury was certainly very bare To which former reasons we may add the six new erected Bishopricks and the like number of Cathedral Churches as also the Stipends conferred on both Universities for the publick Professors of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues Divinity Law and Physick to each whereof he allotted an Annuity of forty Pounds Howsoever it were certain it is that levies being made in Germany for the King the Souldiers disbanded for want of Pay The Parliament had already granted him great Subsidies so that thence he could expect no more Yet Monies must be had Henry therefore resolves on an honest kind of Rapine The Intreaties of Princes little differ from Commands unless perhaps in this that they work more subtilly and render them pliable with whom Commands would not have prevailed which manifestly appeared in the execution of this Project He had twenty years since commanded Money by Proclamation a course so far from taking as was desired that it had like to have been the cause of much mischief But now by some fit Commissioners informing his Subjects of his necessities and desiring the richer sort one by one to contribute towards his support he quickly replenished the Exchequer The Commissioners begin first with the Citizens of London among whom two were more strait laced than the rest viz. Richard Read and William Roch but their parsimony shall cost them dear For Read being an old man and utterly unexpert of Martial Discipline is commanded to serve in person in the Wars of Scotland is taken by the Scots and forced to ransom himself at a high rate Roch as having used some uncivil language before those of his Majestie 's Council who sate Commissioners was for some months punished with straight imprisonment and at length not improbably bought his liberty In the mean time Boloign was a great eye-sore to the French They try to regain it by stratagems and surprisals but in vain They betake themselves to force with the like success The Marshal of Biez Governour of the Boloignois comes with a great Army to the Port a Town two miles from Boloign and begins to build a Fort on this side the River upon the point of the Tower of Ordre but is by the Earl of Hertford forced away and leaves his Castle in the Air. His intent was by this Fort to have kept the Garrison of Boloign within their Walls to have commanded the Haven so to cut off all Succours by sea and from Calais by land Which being done Francis resolved in Person to besiege Guisnes and there to fortifie thereby to famish Boloign and to keep Calais and the land of Oye in subjection But these designs proving fruitless he prepares his Naval forces giving forth that he intended to invade England hoping that this Alarm would have made us have a care of the main and neglect those pieces abroad so that Boloign for lack of aid should easily be reduced The noise of an invasion made Henry arm who having gathered together a sufficient Fleet awaited the Enemy at Portsmouth intent to all occasions Neither did the French only intend an Alarm landing in three several places in England but were every where with loss driven aboard their Ships Two days after they fall down to the Channel that divideth the Isle of Wight from the rest of Britain they seem to threaten Portsmouth where the King then was and seek to draw our Fleet to fight The French beside a sufficient Fleet of other Ships had twenty five Gallies no way probably useful in these tempestuous and rough Seas not brooking this flat kind of shipping but by their bulk and number to terrifie us Yet at this time an unusual calmness of the Sea without wind or current put them in hope of effecting wonders by their Gallies But our Fleet was not to be drawn to fight much less to be forced without apparent danger to the Enemy
the last year of Henry his Reign who having tired himself with the French Wars began at length seriously to bethink himself of Peace Neither was Francis less desirous of his Friendship To this end Deputies from both sides meet often between Guisnes and Ardres For Henry the Earl of Hertford Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Sir William Paget Secretary of Estate and Dr. Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury For Francis the Admiral Annebault Raymond first President of Rouan and Boucherel Secretary After many consultations a Peace was concluded on these Conditions That Francis within eight years should pay fourscore hundred thousand Crowns to the King as well for the arrerage of his Pension as for many other expences made by him in War in the fortification of Boloign and of the Countrey And upon receipt of the said Summ Henry should deliver unto the King of France Boloign and all the Countrey belonging to it with the ancient places or newly edified by him Mont-Lambert the Tower of Ordre Ambleteul and others with all the Artillery and Munition in them For the confirmation whereof the Viscount Lisle was sent Ambassador into France and from thence came the Admiral Annebault to receive the Oaths of each King and the Peace was Proclaimed in London On the sixteenth of July were burnt at London for their Religion John Lassels Nicholas Otterden John Adlam and Ann Askew a young Gentlewoman aged twenty five of an ancient Descent excellent beauty and acute wit whose examinations writings tortures and patient suffering are at large set down by Mr. Fox being before their Execution by Dr. Schaxton exhorted to Recant as he then was forced who some years passed had resigned his Bishoprick to enjoy his Conscience And here I may not omit an addition to the septenary number of Sleepers William Foxley a Pot-maker in London who without any touch of any preceding infirmity was seised with such a dead sleep that for fourteen days and fifteen nights no force nor invention could awake him on the fifteenth day this miraculous sleep forsaking him he was as it were restored to life and found as sound and entire as if he had taken no more than an ordinary repose Neither would he believe that he had taken other but that the building of a certain Wall made it apparent to him how much time he had slept away He lived above forty years after viz. to the year 1587. Let us conclude this year with the death of Martin Luther that famous impugner of the Church of Rome who being sent for by the Counts of Mansfield to compose some differences between them concerning their inheritance died among them in his Climacterical year and after much contention for his Body lieth buried at Wirtenberg ANNO DOM. 1547. HEnry long since grown corpulent was become a burthen to himself and of late lame by reason of a violent Ulcer in his Leg the inflammation whereof cast him into a lingering Fever which by little and little decaying his spirits he at length began to feel the inevitable necessity of death The cogitation of many things as in the like exigents usually happeneth oppressed him and chiefly of his Son's nonage but now entring into his tenth year an age infirm and opportune to treacheries against which he found small provision in his Friends having none amongst those on whose Loyalty he chiefly relied of so sufficient eminency as to underprop his weak Estate with those supporters of Royalty Power and Authority His Brother-in-Law the Duke of Suffolk was lately deceased Seymour the young Prince's Uncle was a man whose Goodness was not tempered with Severity and being descended of a Family more ancient than noble as having until now never transcended Knighthood would be subject to contempt They who more nearly participated of the Blood Royal as they any way excelled in Power or Virtue were the more suspected and hated by him The Family of the Howards was then most flourishing the chief whereof was Thomas Duke of Norfolk a man famous for his exploits in France Scotland and elsewhere long exercised in the School of Experience many ways deriving himself from the Crown popular of great command and revenues But the edge of the old man's disposition made mild and blunted with age administred the less cause of suspition Of his eldest Son Henry Earl of Surrey the King was certainly jealous and resolved to cut him off He had lately in the Wars of France manifested himself heir to the glory of his Ancestors was of a ripe wit and endued with great Learning so that the Elogy afterwards given to his Son Henry that He was the Learned'st among the 〈◊〉 and the Noblest among the Learned might have as fitly been applied to him was very gracious with the people expert in the Art Military and esteemed fit for publick Government These great Virtues were too great Faults and for them he must suffer Treason is objected to him and upon the surmise he and his Father sent to the Tower On the thirteenth of January he is arraigned the chief point of his accusation whereon they insisted being for bearing certain Arms which only belonged to the King and consequently aspiring to the Crown Of other things he easily acquitted himself and as for those Arms he constantly affirmed that they hereditarily pertained unto him yet notwithstanding he would not have presumed to have born them but being warranted by the opinion of the Heralds who only were to give judgment in these cases The Judges not approving of his answer condemn him and so the Flower of the English Nobility is on the nineteenth of January beheaded the King lying in extremity and breathing his last in Blood The Duke was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment where he continued until he was by Queen Mary set at liberty The King his disease growing on him at last makes his Will wherein by virtue of a Law lately Enacted he ordains Prince Edward his Successour in the first place and in the second Prince Edward dying Issueless substitutes the Lady Mary begotten of Catharine of Arragon and upon the like defect of Issue in Mary in the third place substitutes the Lady Elizabeth These three reigned successively and accomplished the number of fifty six years at the expiration whereof Queen Elizabeth ended her long glorious Reign and left the Diadem to King James in the many regards of his Learning Religion Goodness peaceable and happy Reign the Mirrour of late Ages The next care was of his Executors whom he also appointed Tutors shall I say or Counsellors to his Son and were in number sixteen viz. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Wriothsley Lord Chancellour William Paulet Lord Saint-John John Russel Lord Privy Seal Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford John Dudley Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Cuthbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir William Paget Sir William Harbert Sir Thomas
fierce ambitious and conceived himself to be of the two the fitter for Publick Government Presently after the death of Henry the Admiral thrust on by the flattery of his overweening conceits resolved to add a lustre to his good parts by marrying the Lady Elizabeth as yet indeed scarce marriageable But the Protector wisely considering how rash and perilous this project was frustrated that design By his after marriage with Catharine a most beautiful and noble Lady and abounding with wealth befitting her dignity moft men were confident that the gulf of his vast desires would have been satisfied but the Law whereby he was condemned though peradventure Enacted by strength of Faction will manifest the contrary What notice I have received and what the publick Records testifie concerning this being perswaded that they swerve not much from the truth I think I may without blame relate The Admiral having now fortified himself with money and friends and deeming his Brother's Lenity Sluggishness began to behold him with the eye of contempt and to cast about how to dispossess him of the saddle and being of like degree of consanguinity to the King to enjoy the seat himself To the furtherance of this project it would be conducible secretly to vilisie and traduce the Protector 's actions to corrupt the King's Servants especially if in any degree of favour by fair words and large promises by degrees to assure himself of the Nobility to secure his Castle of Holt with a Magazin of warlike provision but above all to take care for money the nerves of War and assurance of Peace These things having been ordered with exact diligence and for supply of coin the Exchequer mightily pilled he unmasks himself to some of the Nobility signifying his intent of setling himself at the Stern by forcibly seising on the King's person Nay his madness so far transported him that to one of them conditionally that his assistance were not wanting to the advancement of his designs he promised that the King should marry his Daughter In the mean time the Queen his Wife being in September delivered of a Daughter died in child-bed and that not without suspition of Poison For after her death he more importunately sought the Lady Elizabeth than ever eagerly endeavouring to procure her consent to a clandestine Marriage as was that with the deceased Queen and not until after the Nuptials to crave the assent of the King or the Lords of the Council ANNO DOM. 1549. REG. 3. But the Admiral 's projects being opportunely discovered and a Parliament lately assembled he is by the authority thereof committed to the Tower and without tryal condemned The Parliament being on the fourteenth of March dissolved he is on the sixth day after publickly beheaded having first vehemently protested that he never willingly did either actually endeavour or seriously intend any thing against the Person of the King or the Estate Concerning his death the opinions of men were divers their censures divers Among some the Protector heard ill for suffering his Brother to be executed without ordinary course of trial As for for these faults proceeding from the violence of youthful heat they might better have been pardoned than the King be left destitute of an uncle's help or himself of a Brother's Nay they say there wanted not those that before this severe course taken with the Admiral admonished the Protector to have a heedy regard to this action Some peradventure might be content to let a Brother shed tears to shed his blood when they might prevent it scarce any it was much to be feared lest his Brother's death would be his ruine and the loss of such Friends a hazard to the King Others highly extolled his impartial proceeding whom fraternal affection could not divert from righting his Countrey For if Consanguinity or Alliance to the King should be a sufficient cause to exempt them from punishment who should plot and contrive the change of government in the Estate upon what ticklish terms should we all stand whiles nothing could be certain and sure in the publick government Others maintained the necessity of cutting off the Admiral and that it stood the Protector upon so to do if he either regarded his own or the King's safeguard For at what other mark did the Admiral aim but that having seised on the King's Person removed his Brother from the Protectorship and married the Lady Elizabeth he might by Poison or some other means make away the young King already deprived of his Friends and as in the right of his Wife invest himself in the Regal Throne whereto the Lady Mary although the elder Sister as incestuously begotten could make no claim And thus much was in a Sermon delivered before the King by Hugh Latimer who having ten years since resigned his Bishoprick had also hitherto abstained from Preaching until after the death of King Henry this Light was again restored that by his rays he might illustrate God's Church But how true his conjectures were concerning the Lord Seymour I will not undertake to determine Whether faulty in his ambition or over-born by his envious adversaries thus ended the Admiral his life who was indeed a valiant Commander and not unfit for a Consultation in whose ruine the Protector was likewise involved Not long after this great man's fall the People throughout almost the whole Realm brake out into a Rebellion whereto the frequent usurpations and avarice of the Gentry who in many places enclosed the common and waste grounds for their own pleasure and private profit had incited them The Lords of the Council upon notice of the Peoples discontents and the probability of an Insurrection unless speedy course were taken to appease them dispatched some into Kent the Fountain of this general Uproar who should upon due examination of the causes of the Peoples grievances admonish those that were in that kind faulty by throwing open the Inclosures to restore to the People what had been unjustly taken from them otherwise they should by Authority Royal be forced thereunto and by their punishments serve to deter others from the like insolencies and oppressions The most part obey and a most grateful spectacle to the People cause their new made Inclosures to be again laid open Wherewith Report acquainting the neighbouring Shires the unruly multitude enraged that like restitution had not as yet been made to them not expecting the necessary direction of the Magistrate but as if each one were authorized in his own cause both to judge of and revenge received injuries taking Arms level the Dikes assert the inclosed the Lands and give hope that there their fury would be at a stand But as the Sea having once transgressed the just limits of its shoar by little and little eats its way to an Inundation and is not but with excessive toil to be forced within its usual bounds So these having once transcended the prescripts of the Laws let themselves loose to all kind of licentiousness