with other symptomes gave the suspicion that he poysoned himself It will suffice us to observe If a Great man much beloved dyeth suddenly the report goes that others poysoned him If he be generally hated then that he poysoned himself Sure never did a Great man fall with lesse pity Some of his own servants with the feathers they got under him flew to other Masters Most of the Clergy more pitying his Profession then Person were glad that the felling of this oke would cause the growth of much underwood Let Geometricians measure the vastnesse of his mind by the footsteps of his Buildings Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court And no wonder if some of these were not finished seeing his life was rather broken off then ended Sure King Henrie lived in two of his houses and lies now in the third I mean his Tombe at Windsor In a word in his prime he was the bias of the Christian world drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased CHAP. 4. The life of CHARLES BRANDON Duke of Suffolk CHarles Brandon was sonne to Sr. William Brandon Standerd-bearer to King Henry the seaventh in whose quarrell he was slain in Bosworth field wherefore the King counted himself bound in honour and conscience to favour young Charles whose father spent his last breath to blow him to the haven of victory and caused him to be brought up with Prince Henrie his second sonne The intimacy betwixt them took deep impression in their tender years which hardned with continuance of time proved indeleble It was advanced by the sympathy of their active spirits men of quick and large-striding minds loving to walk together not to say that the loosenesse of their youthfull lives made them the faster friends Henry when afterwards King heaped honours upon him created him Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk Not long after some of the English Nobility got leave to go to the publick Tilting in Paris and there behav'd themselves right valiantly though the sullen French would scarce speak a word in their praise For they conceived it would be an eternall impoverishing of the credit of their Nation if the honour of the day should be exported by foreiners But Brandon bare away the credit from all fighting at Barriers with a giant Almain till he made an earth-quake in that mountain of flesh making him reel and stagger and many other courses at Tilt he performed to admiration Yea the Lords beheld him not with more envious then the Ladies with gracious eyes who darted more glaunces in love then the other ranne spears in anger against him especially Mary the French Queen and sister to King Henry the eighth who afterward proved his wife For after the death of Lewis the twelfth her husband King Henry her brother imployed Charles Brandon to bring her over into England who improved his service so well that he got her good will to marrie her Whether his affections were so ambitious to climbe up to her or hers so courteous as to descend to him who had been twice a widower before let youthfull pennes dispute it it sufficeth us both met together Then wrote he in humble manner to request King Henries leave to marrie his sister but knowing that matters of this nature are never sure till finisht and that leave is sooner got to do such attempts when done already and wisely considering with himself that there are but few dayes in the Almanack wherein such Marriages come in and subjects have opportunity to wed Queens he first married her privately in Paris King Henrie after the acting of some anger and shewing some state-discontent was quickly contented therewith yea the world conceiveth that he gave this woman to be married to this man in sending him on such an imployment At Calis they were afterward re-married or if you will their former private marriage publickly solemniz'd and coming into England liv'd many years in honour and esteem no lesse dear to his fellow-subjects then his Sovereigne He was often imployed Generall in Martiall affairs especially in the warres betwixt the English and French though the greatest performance on both sides was but mutuall indenting the Dominions each of other with inrodes When the divorce of King Henry from Queen Katharine was so long in agitation Brandon found not himself a little agrieved at the Kings expence of time and money for the Court of Rome in such matters wherein money is gotten by delayes will make no more speed then the beast in Brasil which the Spaniards call Pigritia which goes no farther in a fortnight then a man will cast a stone Yea Brandon well perceived that Cardinall Campeius and Wolsey in their Court at Bridewell wherein the divorce was judicially handled intended onely to produce a solemn Nothing their Court being but the clock set according to the diall at Rome and the instructions received thence Wherefore knocking on the table in the presence of the two Cardinalls he bound it with an oath That It was never well in England since Cardinalls had any thing to do therein And from that time forward as an active instrument he indeavoured the abolishing of the Popes power in England For he was not onely as the Papists complain of him a principall agent in that Parliament Anno. 1534. wherein the Popes supremacy was abrogated but also a main means of the overturning of Abbeys as conceiving that though the head was struck off yet as long as that neck and those shoulders remained there would be a continuall appetite of reuniting themselves Herein his thoughts were more pure from the mixture of covetousnesse then many other imployed in the same service For after that our eyes justly dazled at first with the brightnesse of Gods Justice on those vitious fraternities have somewhat recovered themselves they will serve us to see the greedy appetites of some instruments to feed on Church-morsels He lived and dyed in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinall Pool observed they who were highest in this Kings favour their heads were nearest danger Indeed King Henrie was not very tender in cutting off that joynt and in his Reigne the ax was seldome wiped before wetted again with Noble bloud He dyed Anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his bounty humility valour and all noble virtues since the heat of his youth was tamed in his reduced age and lies buried at Windsor CHAP. 5. The wise Statesman TO describe the Statesman at large is the subject rather of a Volume then a Chapter and is as farre beyond my power as wide of my profession We will not lanch into the deep but satisfie our selves to sail by the shore and briefly observe his carriage towards God his King himself home-persons and forein Princes He counts the fear of God the beginning of wisdome and therefore esteemeth no project profitable which is not lawfull nothing politick which crosseth piety Let not any plead for the contrary Hushai's dealing with Absalom which strongly
a masculine word to so heroick a spirit She was very devout in returning thanks to God for her constant and continuall preservations for one traitours stabbe was scarce put by before another took aim at her But as if the poysons of treason by custome were turn'd naturall unto her by Gods protection they did her no harm In any designe of consequence she loved to be long and well advised but where her resolutions once seis'd she would never let go her hold according to her motto Semper eadem By her Temperance she improved that stock of health which Nature bestowed on her using little wine and lesse Physick Her Continence from pleasures was admirable and she the Paragon of spotlesse chastity what ever some Popish Priests who count all virginity hid under a Nunnes veil have feigned to the contrary The best is their words are no slander whose words are all slander so given to railing that they must be dumbe if they do not blaspheme Magistrates One Jesuit made this false Anagram on her name Elizabeth Iezabel false both in matter and manner For allow it the abatement of H as all Anagrams must sue in Chancery for moderate favour yet was it both unequall and ominous that T a solid letter should be omitted the presage of the gallows whereon this Anagrammatist was afterwards justly executed Yea let the testimony of Pope Sixtus Quintus himself be believed who professed that amongst all the Princes in Christendome he found but two which were worthy to bear command had they not been stained with heresie namely Henry the fourth King of France and Elizabeth Queen of England And we may presume that the Pope if commending his enemy is therein infallible We come to her death the discourse whereof was more welcome to her from the mouth of her private Confessour then from a publick Preacher and she loved rather to tell her self then to be told of her mortality because the open mention thereof made as she conceived her subjects divide their loyalty betwixt the present and the future Prince We need look into no other cause of her sicknesse then old age being seventy years old Davids age to which no King of England since the Conquest did attain Her weaknesse was encreased by her removall from London to Richmond in a cold winter day sharp enough to pierce thorow those who were arm'd with health and youth Also melancholy the worst naturall Parasite whosoever seeds him shall never be rid of his company much afflicted her being given over to sadnesse and silence Then prepared she her self for another world being more constant in prayer and pious exercises then ever before yet spake she very little to any sighing out more then she said and making still musick to God in her heart And as the red rose though outwardly not so fragrant is inwardly farre more cordiall then the damask being more thrifty of its sweetnesse and reserving it in it self so the religion of this dying Queen was most turn'd inward in soliloquies betwixt God and her own soul though she wanted not outward expressions thereof When her speech fail'd her she spake with her heart tears eyes hands and other signes so commending herself to God the best interpreter who understands what his Saints desire to say Thus dyed Queen Elizabeth whilest living the first maid on earth and when dead the second in heaven Surely the kingdome had dyed with their Queen had not the fainting spirits thereof been refresh'd by the coming in of gratious King James She was of person tall of hair and complexion fair well-favoured but high-nosed of limbes and feature neat of a stately and majestick deportment She had a piercing eye wherewith she used to touch what metall strangers were made of which came into her presence But as she counted it a pleasant conquest with her Majestick look to dash strangers out of countenance so she was mercifull in pursuing those whom she overcame and afterwards would cherish and comfort them with her smiles if perceiving towardlinesse and an ingenuous modesty in them She much affected rich and costly apparell and if ever jewells had just cause to be proud it was with her wearing them CHAP. 16. The Embassadour HE is one that represents his King in a forrein countrey as a Deputy doth in his own Dominions under the assurance of the publick faith authorized by the Law of Nations He is either Extraordinary for some one affair with time limited or Ordinary for generall matters during his Princes pleasure commonly called a Legier He is born made or at leastwise qualified honourably both for the honour of the sender and him to whom he is sent especially if the solemnity of the action wherein he is employed consisteth in ceremony and magnificence Lewis the eleventh King of France is sufficiently condemn'd by Posterity for sending Oliver his Barber in an Embassage to a Princesse who so trimly dispatch'd his businesse that he left it in the suddes and had been well wash'd in the river at Gant for his pains if his feet had not been the more nimble He is of a proper at least passable person Otherwise if he be of a contemptible presence he is absent whilest he is present especially if employed in love-businesses to advance a marriage Ladyes will dislike the body for a deformed shadow The jest is well known When the State of Rome sent two Embassadours the one having scarres on his head the other lame in his feet Mittit populus Romanus legationem quae nec caput habet nec pedes The people of Rome send an Embassy without head or feet He hath a competent estate whereby to maintain his port for a great poverty is ever suspected and he that hath a breach in his estate lies open to be assaulted with bribes Wherefore his means ought at least to be sufficient both to defray set and constant charges as also to make sallies and excursions of expenses on extraordinary occasions which we may call Supererogations of State Otherwise if he be indigent and succeed a bountifull Predecessour he will seem a fallow field after a plentifull crop He is a passable scholar well travell'd in Countreys and Histories well studyed in the Pleas of the Crown I mean not such as are at home betwixt his Sovereigne and his subjects but abroad betwixt his and forrein Princes to this end he is well skill'd in the Emperiall Laws Common Law it self is outlawed beyond the seas which though a most true is too short a measure of right and reacheth not forrein kingdomes He well understandeth the language of that countrey to which he is sent and yet he desires rather to seem ignorant of it if such a simulation which stands neuter betwixt a Truth and a Lie be lawfull and that for these reasons first because though he can speak it never so exactly his eloquence therein will be but stammering compar'd to the ordinary talk of the
upon a beam and strangled in the night time and then threw out his corps into a garden where it lay some dayes unburied There goes a story that this Andrew on a day coming into the Queens chamber and finding her twisting a thick string of silk and silver demanded of her for what purpose she made it She answered To hang you in it which he then little believed the rather because those who intend such mischief never speak of it before But such blows in jest-earnest are most dangerous which one can neither receive in love nor refuse in anger Indeed she sought in vain to colour the businesse and to divert the suspicion of the murther from her self because all the world saw that she inflicted no punishment on the actours of it which were in her power And in such a case when a murther is generally known the sword of the Magistrate cannot stand neuter but doth justify what it doth not punish Besides his corps was not cold before she was hot in a new love and married Lewis Prince of Tarentum one of the beautifullest men in the world But it was hard for her to please her love and her lust in the same person This Prince wasted the state of his body to pay her the conjugall debt which she extorted beyond all modesty or reason so unquenchable was the wild-fire of her wantonnesse After his death she hating widowhood as much as Nature doth vacuum maried James King of Majorca and commonly styled Prince of Calabria Some say he dyed of a naturall death Others that she beheaded him for lying with another woman who would suffer none to be dishonest but her self Others that he was unjustly put to death and forced to change worlds that she might change husbands Her fourth husband was Otho of Brunswick who came a Commander out of Germany with a company of souldiers and performed excellent service in Italy A good souldier he was and it was not the least part of his valour to adventure on so skittish a beast But he hoped to feast his hungry fortune on this reversion By all foure husbands she had no children either because the drougth of her wantonnesse parched the fruit of her wombe or else because provident Nature prevented a generation of Monsters from her By this time her sinnes were almost hoarse with crying to heaven for revenge They mistake who think divine Justice sleepeth when it winks for a while at Offenders Hitherto she had kept herself in a whole skin by the rents which were in the Church of Rome For there being a long time a Schisme betwixt two Popes Urban and Clement she so poysed herself between them both that she escaped unpunished This is that Queen Joan that gave Avignon in France yet under a pretence of sale to Pope Urban and his Successours the stomach of his Holinesse not being so squeamish but that he would take a good almes from dirty hands It may make the chastity of Rome suspicious with the world that she hath had so good fortune to be a gainer by Harlots But see now how Charles Prince of Dyrachium being next of kin to Prince Andrew that was murdered comes out of Hungary with an army into Naples to revenge his uncles bloud He was received without resistance of any his very name being a Petrard to make all the city-gates fly open where he came Out issues Otho the Queens husband with an army of men out of Naples and most stoutly bids him battel but is overthrown yet was he suffered fairly to depart the kingdome dismiss'd with this commendation That never a more valiant Knight fought in defence of a more vitious Lady Queen Joan finding it now in vain to bend her fist fell to bowing of her knees and having an excellent command of all her passions save her lust fell down flat before Charles the Conquerour and submitted her self Hitherto said she I have esteemed thee in place of a sonne but seeing God will have it so hereafter I shall acknowledge thee for my Lord. Charles knew well that Necessity her Secretary endited her speech for her which came little from her heart yet to shew that he had as plentifull an Exchequer of good language promis'd her fairly for the present But mercy it self would be asham'd to pity so notorious a malefactour After some moneths imprisonment she was carried to the place where her husband was murder'd and there accordingly hang'd and cast out of the window into the garden whose corps at last was buried in the Nunnery of S. Clare CHAP. 3. The Witch BEfore we come to describe her we must premise and prove certain propositions whose truth may otherwise be doubted of 1 Formerly there were Witches Otherwise Gods Law had fought against a shadow Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live yea we reade how King Saul who had formerly scoured Witches out of all Israel afterwards drank a draught of that puddle himself 2 There are Witches for the present though those Night-birds flie not so frequently in flocks since the light of the Gospel Some ancient arts and mysteries are said to be lost but sure the devil will not wholly let down any of his gainfull trades There be many Witches at this day in Lapland who sell winds to Mariners for money and must they not needs go whom the devil drives though we are not bound to believe the old story of Ericus King of Swedeland who had a cap and as he turned it the wind he wish'd for would blow on that side 3 It is very hard to prove a Witch Infernall contracts are made without witnesses She that in presence of others will compact with the devil deserves to be hang'd for her folly as well as impiety 4 Many are unjustly accused for Witches Sometimes out of ignorance of naturall misapplying of supernaturall causes sometimes out of their neighbours mere malice and the suspicion is increas'd if the party accused be notoriously ill-favoured whereas deformity alone is no more argument to make her a Witch then handsomnesse had been evidence to prove her an Harlot sometimes out of their own causlesse confession Being brought before a Magistrate they acknowledge themselves to be Witches being themselves rather bewitch'd with fear or deluded with phancy But the self-accusing of some is as little to be credited as the self-praising of others if alone without other evidence 5 Witches are commonly of the feminine sex Ever since Satan tempted our grandmother Eve he knows that that sex is most licorish to tast and most carelesse to swallow his baits Nescio quid habet muliebre nomen semper cum sacris if they light well they are inferiour to few men in piety if ill superiour to all in superstition 6 They are commonly distinguished into white and black Witches White I dare not say good Witches for woe be to him that calleth evil good heal those that are hurt and help them to lost goods But better
warres in the two voyages of King Lewis to Palestine and thereupon ever since by custome and priviledge the Gentlewomen of Champaigne and Brye ennoble their husbands and give them honour in marrying them how mean soever before Though pleasantly affected she is not transported with Court-delights as in their statelie Masques and Pageants Seeing Princes cares are deeper then the cares of private men it is fit their recreations also should be greater that so their mirth may reach the bottome of their sadnesse yea God allows to Princes a greater latitude of pleasure He is no friend to the tree that strips it of the bark neither do they mean well to Majesty which would deprive it of outward shews and State-solemnities which the servants of Princes may in loyalty and respect present to their Sovereigne however our Lady by degrees is brought from delighting in such Masques onely to be contented to see them and at last perchance could desire to be excused from that also Yet in her reduced thoughts she makes all the sport she hath seen earnest to her self It must be a dry flower indeed out of which this bee sucks no honey they are the best Origens who do allegorise all earthly vanities into heavenly truths When she remembreth how suddenly the Scene in the Masque was altered almost before moment it self could take notice of it she considereth how quickly mutable all things are in this world God ringing the changes on all accidents and making them tunable to his glorie The lively representing of things so curiously that Nature her self might grow jealous of Art in outdoing her minds our Lady to make sure work with her own soul seeing hypocrisie may be so like to sincerity But O what a wealthy exchequer of beauties did she there behold severall faces most different most excellent so great is the variety even in bests what a rich mine of jewells above ground all so brave so costly To give Court-masques their due of all the bubbles in this world they have the greatest variety of fine colours But all is quickly ended this is the spight of the world if ever she affordeth fine ware she alwayes pincheth it in the measure and it lasts not long But oh thinks our Lady how glorious a place is Heaven where there are joyes for evermore If an herd of kine should meet together to phancy and define happinesse they would place it to consist in fine pastures sweet grasse clear water shadowie groves constant summer but if any winter then warm shelter and dainty hay with company after their kind counting these low things the highest happinesse because their conceit can reach no higher Little better do the Heathen Poets describe Heaven paving it with pearl and roofing it with starres filling it with Gods and Goddesses and allowing them to drink as if without it no Poets Paradise Nectar and Ambrosia Heaven indeed being Poetarum dedecus the shame of Poets and the disgrace of all their Hyperboles falling as farre short of truth herein as they go beyond it in other Fables However the sight of such glorious earthly spectacles advantageth our Ladyes conceit by infinite multiplication thereof to consider of Heaven She reades constant lectures to her self of her own mortality To smell to a turf of fresh earth is wholsome for the body no lesse are thoughts of mortality cordiall to the soul. Earth thou art to earth thou shalt return The sight of death when it cometh will neither be so terrible to her nor so strange who hath formerly often beheld it in her serious meditations With Job she saith to the worm Thou art my sister If fair Ladyes scorn to own the worms their kinred in this life their kinred will be bold to challenge them when dead in their graves for when the soul the best perfume of the body is departed from it it becomes so noysome a carcasse that should I make a description of the lothsomnesse thereof some dainty dames would hold their noses in reading it To conclude We reade how Henry a Germain Prince was admonished by revelation to search for a writing in an old wall which should nearly concern him wherein he found onely these two words written POST SEX AFTER SIX Whereupon Henry conceived that his death was foretold which after six dayes should ensue which made him passe those dayes in constant preparation for the same But finding the six dayes past without the effect he expected he successively persevered in his godly resolutions six weeks six moneths six years and on the first day of the seventh yeare the Prophecie was fulfill'd though otherwise then he interpreted it for thereupon he was chosen Emperour of Germany having before gotten such an habit of piety that he persisted in his religious course for ever after Thus our Lady hath so inur'd her self all the dayes of her appointed time to wait till her change cometh that expecting it every houre she is alwayes provided for that then which nothing is more certain or uncertain JANE GRAY proclaimed Queen of England wife to the Lord GILFORD DUDLEY She was beheaded on Tower-hill in London Februarie y e 12. 1553. at 18 yeares of Age. W.M. sculp CHAP. 14. The life of Ladie Jane GREY JAne Grey eldest daughter of Henry Grey Marquesse of Dorset and Duke of Suffolk by Francis Brandon eldest daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Mary his wife youngest daughter to King Henry the seventh was by her parents bred according to her high birth in Religion and Learning They were no whit indulgent to her in her childhood but extremely severe more then needed to so sweet a temper for what need iron instruments to bow wax But as the sharpest winters correcting the ranknesse of the earth cause the more healthfull and fruitfull summers so the harshnesse of her breeding compacted her soul to the greater patience and pietie so that afterwards she proved the miroir of her age and attained to be an excellent Scholar through the teaching of M r Elmer her Master Once M r Roger Ascham coming to wait on her at Broad-gates in Leicestershire found her in her chamber reading Phoedon-Platonis in Greek with as much delight as some Gentleman would have read a merry tale in Bocchace Whilest the Duke her father with the Dutchesse and all their houshold were hunting in the Park He askt of her how she could lose such pastime who smiling answered I wisse all the sport in the Park is but the shadow of what pleasure I find in this book adding moreover that one of the greatest blessings God ever gave her was in sending her sharp parents and a gentle Schoolmaster which made her take delight in nothing so much as in her studies About this time John Dudley Duke of Northumberland projected for the English Crown But being too low to reach it in his own person having no advantage of royall birth a match was made betwixt Guilford his fourth sonne and this
understand the language of her behaviour She counts her house a prison and is never well till gadding abroad sure 't is true of women what is observed of elm if lying within doores dry no timber will last sound longer but if without doores expos'd to weather no wood sooner rots and corrupts Yet some Harlots continue a kind of strange coynesse even to the very last which coynesse differs from modesty as much as hemlock from parsely They will deny common favours because they are too small to be granted They will part with all or none refuse to be courteous and reserve themselves to be dishonest whereas women truly modest will willingly go to the bounds of free and harmlesse mirth but will not be dragg'd any farther She is commonly known by her whorish attire As crisping and curling making her hair as winding and intricate as her heart painting wearing naked breasts The face indeed ought to be bare and the haft should lie out of the sheath but where the back and edge of the knife are shown 't is to be feared they mean to cut the fingers of others I must confesse some honest women may go thus but no whit the honester for going thus The ship may have Castor and Pollux for the badge and notwithstanding have S. Paul for the lading yet the modesty and discretion of honest Matrons were more to be commended if they kept greater distance from the attire of Harlots Sometimes she ties her self in marriage to one that she may the more freely stray to many and cares not though her husband comes not within her bed so be it he goeth not out beyond the Foure-seas She useth her husband as an hood whom she casts off in the fair weather of prosperity but puts him on for a cover in adversity if it chance she prove with child Yet commonly she is as barren as lustfull Yea who can expect that malt should grow to bring new increase Besides by many wicked devices she seeks on purpose to make her self barren a retrograde act to set Nature back making many issues that she may have no issue and an hundred more damnable devices Which wicked projects first from hell did flow And thither let the same in silence go Best known of them who did them never know And yet for all her cunning God sometimes meets with her who varieth his wayes of dealing with wantons that they may be at a losse in tracing him and sometimes against her will she proves with child which though unable to speak yet tells at the birth a plain story to the mothers shame At last when her deeds grow most shamefull she grows most shamelesse So impudent that she her self sometimes proves both the poyson and the antidote the temptation and the preservative young men distasting and abhorring her boldnesse And those wantons who perchance would willingly have gathered the fruit fruit from the tree will not feed on such fallings Generally she dies very poore The wealth she gets is like the houses some build in Gothland made of snow no lasting fabrick the rather because she who took money of those who tasted the top of her wantonnesse is fain to give it to such who will drink out the dregs of her lust She dieth commonly of a lothsome disease I mean that disease unknown to Antiquity created within some hundreds of years which took the name from Naples When hell invented new degrees in sinnes it was time for heaven to invent new punishments Yet is this new disease now grown so common and ordinary as if they meant to put divine Justice to a second task to find out a newer And now it is high time for our Harlot being grown lothsome to her self to runne out of her self by repentance Some conceive that when King Henry the eighth destroyed the publick Stews in this Land which till his time stood on the banks side on Southwark next the Bear-garden beasts and beastly women being very fit neighbours he rather scattered then quenched the fire of lust in this kingdome and by turning the flame out of the chimney where it had a vent more endangered the burning of the Commonwealth But they are deceived for whilest the Laws of the Land tolerated open uncleannesse God might justly have made the whole State do penance for whoredome whereas now that sinne though committed yet not permitted and though God knows it be too generall it is still but personall JOAN the first of that Name Queen of Naples which for her Incontinency and other wicked Practises was put to Death Anno 1381. Page 360. WM sculp CHAP. 2. The life of JOAN Queen of Naples JOan grandchild to Robert King of Naples by Charles his sonne succeeded her grandfather in the Kingdome of Naples and Sicily Anno 1343. a woman of a beautifull body and rare endowments of nature had not the heat of her lust soured all the rest of her perfections whose wicked life and wofull death we now come to relate And I hope none can justly lay it to my charge if the foulnesse of her actions stain through the cleanest language I can wrap them in She was first married unto her cosen Andrew a Prince of royall extraction and of a sweet and loving disposition But he being not able to satisfie her wantonnesse she kept company with lewd persons at first privately but afterwards she presented her badnesse visible to every eye so that none need look through the chinks where the doores were open Now Elizabeth Queen of Hungary her husband Andrews mother was much offended at the badnesse of her daughter-in-law whose deeds were so foul she could not look on them and so common she could not look besides them wherefore in a matronly way she fairly advised her to reform her courses For the lives of Princes are more read then their Laws and generally more practised Yea their example passeth as current as their coin and what they do they seem to command to be done Cracks in glasse though past mending are no great matter but the least flaw in a diamond is considerable Yea her personall fault was a nationall injury which might derive and put the Sceptre into a wrong hand These her mild instructions she sharpned with severe threatnings But no razor will cut a stony heart Queen Joan imputed it to ages envy old people perswading youth to leave those pleasures which have left themselves Besides a Mother-in-laws Sermon seldome takes well with an audience of Daughter-in-laws Wherefore the old Queen finding the other past grace that is never likely to come to it resolved no longer to punish anothers sinne on her self and vex her own righteous soul but leaving Naples return'd into Hungary After her departure Queen Joan grew weary of her husband Andrew complaining of his insufficiency though those who have caninum appetitum are not competent judges what is sufficient food And she caused her husband in the city of Aversa to be hung