going out of the Kingdom except with good Passes and to hinder all great Assemblies For the better disabusing the English from their false opinions he sent his subtlest Spies through all the Towns of Flanders to understand the Birth and Original of this Counterfeit promising large Recompence to those that could discover it Writing to his Friends on the same Subject These Emissaries exactly obeyed their Orders some of them coming to Tournay found the false Richard was Born there of the Meanest of the People his name being Peter Warbeck of which they brought very authentick Attestations Upon this the King sent a solemn Embassy to young Earl Philip in Flanders of which Sir Edward Poinings and William Warham Dr. of Laws were chief The latter of these was also a Church-man of extraordinary Parts and Modesty He made a Speech to the Lords of the Young Princes Counsel who was not of Age yet to take the Government upon himself He laid the impiousness of the Impostor before them putting them in mind of the like happening in their Country about 250 years before in the time of their Countess Jane Likewise telling them that the Effects of the King his Masters Friendship to Maximilian Father of the Prince in the War of France should not be so quickly blotted out of their memory sharply reflecting on the Conduct of the Dutchess Margaret who brought forth in her elder Years not a Child at nine Months but a Prodigy of nine score Months old The Councel after a long Debate reply'd That to gratifie the King their Earl would give no assistance to Perkin But for the Dutchess Dowager She was Mistress of her Joynture and her Actions and they would neither prescribe nor forbid her any thing The Ambassadors being return'd Henry sent divers Emissaries some to discover the Names of the Conspirators by feigning to enter into the design others to endeavour the persuading Sir Robert Clifford and William Barklay to return with the assurance of their Pardon Clifford was prevailed on but Barklay continued obstinate not returning till two Years after and till he was certain of the Kings Mercy Some of the Kings Messengers came back after having discovered many of the Conspirators Others staid longer to accompany Clifford whose coming home so much discountenanced the Plotters that they knew not whom to trust The King being informed who several of the Conspirators were caused them to be Seized and Committed to Prison in London the Chief were John Ratclif Lord Fitz-Walter Sir Simon Montfort and Sir Thomas Thwaites Knights William Dawbeney Robert Ratclif Richard Lacy with divers others Some Priests William Richeford and Thomas Ponys Dominican Fryers William Sutton Robert Laybourn and William Worsley Dean of St. Pauls The rest finding their practises were discovered fled to several places of Refuge They were all Condemned as Traytors but only these Principal were Beheaded Robert Ratclif William Dawbeney and Simon Montfort John Ratclif Lord Fitzwalter was carried to Calais where for endeavouring to make his Escape he lost his Head likewise The rest the King Pardoned Not long after Sir Robert Clifford Arrived and the King chose to speak with him in the Tower that in case he accused any Great Men about his Person he might secure them there Much discourse there was touching Cliffords Conduct some thought him all along to have been imploy'd by the King to discover the rest This was occasioned by the ready obtaining his Pardon and his Return made him equally decry'd by both Parties his Friends believing him a Cheat but the small consideration the King had of him generally convinced People he acted as he thought through his Inclination to the House of York being deceived into the persuasion it was the true Prince He threw himself at the Kings Feet giving an account what passed in Flanders and naming amongst his Accomplices Sir William Stanley It much astonished the King he being his Lord Chamberlain to whom he trusted his most Important Affairs and who had gain'd him the Crown which was wore by his assistance in the Battel against Rich. the Third the Usurper Clifford pretending to know his ill will to the King from the beginning he having declared He would never bear Arms against that Young Man if he were convinced he was the Son of King Edward Polydore Virgil says his Resentment proceeded from his not being rewarded as he thought he had deserved to be Benesicium post hominum memoriam Maximum per quod Henricus a periculo vitaeliberatus conservatusque Regnum sibi quaesivit For when the King was over-power'd at the Battel of Bosworth and like to be torn in pieces by that Squadron where his Enemy Richard was Sir William Stanly by order of his Brother Thomas who Commanded the Reserve effectually helping where he found most need charging Richard he disingaged the King and gave him the Victory These Considerations made him in some suspence but the consequence of the Example prevail'd and he was Beheaded as the rest were The King was under a necessity to use that Rigour for hindring the Insolent discourses of the common People who talkt Maliciously and Cursed him at their little Meetings saying aloud They expected every day the Duke of York and to see him on the Throne But these Executions and the Method he used in his Affairs extinguished great part of those Heats and restored many People to their Duty Giles Lord Dawbeney whose Prudence and Fidelity the King was well assured of possest the Place of Lord Chamberlain Vacant by the Death of Sir William Stanley The Irish more than ever persisting in their rash unadvisedness it was resolved to endeavour to crush those Seeds of Sedition Perkin had sown amongst them the precedent Years For which Intent the King sent Henry Denny Abbot of Langton a Wise and Contriving Man whom he designed to make Chancellor of that Kingdom making Sir Edward Poynings his Colleague who was to command the Army These two Persons representing the two Arms of Justice one holding the Scales the other the Sword shewing above the Cheats of an Impostor the Majesty of a Lawful King Non solum Armis decoratam sed Legibus armatam They had order to go where he had been and take an exact account who they were that resolved to assist him and to Arm all they could to pursue the Accomplices Ireland was divided into two sorts of Inhabitants the one Civilized through the converse with other Nations but especially the English The others Wild and Savage as any upon Earth living by Theft enclin'd to Rebellion and Novely destroying one another according to the Inclinations and Avarice of those they follow Perkin knowing the Genius and Turbulent Spirits of the latter addressed himself to them These Sir Edward Poynings attackt chiefly knowing them most Guilty but they would never stand the shock always flying to their Boggs and Mountains The other Irish did not obey his Orders nor send him Succours as they promised which made him give over
He was in Echatana in Syria The Oracle of Butis having foretold he should die in Echatana he believed it the great City of that Name in Media where he kept his Treasure and commonly resided Flattering himself he should end his days there in his old Age but troubled at the Imposture of the Magician and grieved for the Excesses of his past Life his Wound having made him languish twenty days he sent for the most considerable Officers and spoke thus to them Fate will that Cambyses the Son of Cyrus die here and now I am constrain'd my dear Persians to discover what I have hid from you hitherto When I was in Aegypt I dreamt a Dream which made me fear my Brother should usurp my Crown This Fear made me act with more Precipitancy than Reason I find Man has not the Power to hinder what shall happen I too rashly sent Prexaspes to kill Smerdis at Susa After which Crime I thought my self secure not imagining when he was out of the World any mortal Creature dar'd to rise up against me But I see I am miserably abused and have been to no purpose my Brother's Murtherer For notwithstanding I am rob'd of my Empire it was this Smerdis the Magician the Doemon shew'd me in my Sleep and 't is he was to take Arms against me Think not when I am gone to have Smerdis the Son of Cyrus for your King They are two Magicians would have the Empire One I made Governour of my House the Other is Smerdis his Brother But Oh deplorable unhappiness He that should have revenged his Insolence is basely murthered by his nearest Relations Next I conjure you in the Name of the Gods in whose Protection Crown'd Heads are and which I hope to obtain of you my most dear Ackemenides since the Kings of Persia proceed from you never suffer such a Meanness of Spirit as may let the Empire and Sovereign Power return to the Medes If they obtain it by Fraud or Force use the same Methods to tear it from them and if in this you obey my Orders I beseech the Gods your Fields your Wives and your Cattle may be fruitful But if you do not as I command on the contrary may all Miseries fall on your Heads and your Ends be unhappy as mine Having ended this Discourse he wept abundantly deploring his so early Fate The Persians that were by found his griefs so moving they tore their Garments and shed many Tears crying out for sorrow His pain augmented till the Wound gangreen'd perish't the Bone Death giving a Period to his Reign which was Seven Years and Five Months without any Children The truth of the Imposture and Usurpation of the Magicians could not enter into the minds of the Persians it seem'd incredible to them They thought the Death of Smerdis of which Cambyses informed them was only a Pretext to make the Name of the Persians odious and believed firmly that Smerdis by this Rebellion had placed himself on the Throne Which opinion they continued in the longer by Prexaspes's utterly denying the Murther though if he had own'd it he had certainly been destroy'd when Cambyses was Dead who authorized and avow'd it for the Persians would have been very rigorous with him that had dar'd to shed the Blood of that Great King Cyrus The Magician after the Death of Cambyses bearing the Name of Smerdis Reign'd without trouble or contradiction Seven Months together during which time he exercised his Liberality and Munificence to the Subjects of the Empire which were so extraordinary that after his Death the People of Asia except the Persians lamented his loss extreamly He sent his Proclamations through all the Provinces to exempt the People from Taxes promising them Peace and Rest Declaring he he would List no Souldiers for the War in three Years But in Eight Months his Villany was in this manner detected Otanes Son of Pharnaspes who was one of the greatest Lords of Persia suspected the Magician not to be Smerdis the Son of Cyrus and his suspition was grounded on his recluse way of Living for he never came out of the Palace nor gave Audience or access to any Persian Lord. This just doubt made him send a faithful Servant to Phedina his Daughter who with the rest of the Wives of Cambyses was in the possession and enjoyment of the Magician to ask what kind of Man lay with her if it were Smerdis the Son of Cyrus or some other She sent him word by the Messenger she could not resolve him because she had never seen Smerdis nor could she describe what kind of Man he was that had access to her Upon this her Father desir'd she would ask Attossa the Sister and Wife of Cambyses and now in the Number of those in the Possession of the Usurper To which she reply'd She could not speak to Attossa nor any other Woman the King lay with for this Man whatever he be since he became King keeps us all in different Apartments Otanes being confirmed in his suspicion by these Answers sent his faithful Servant a third time to propose what follows That she being of a Noble Family should not fear exposing her self in a danger her Father advised her to for if this Man were not Smerdis the Son of Cyrus but he whom he suspected she ought not to be enjoy'd by him nor he possess the Soveraignty he Vsurp't over the Persians but be punished as his Insolence deserved Therefore she should endeavour to feel his Head when he was asleep and if she found his Ears he was undoubtedly Smerdis the Son of Cyrus if not he must as certainly be Smerdis the Magician Phedina could not dissemble her apprehensions of the danger for if he surpriz'd her in that curiosity she could expect nothing but Death nevertheless she promised to venture and obey her Father Cyrus had cut his Magicians Ears off for some Villany committed in his time and she feeling when he was asleep found he had none and early in the Morning gave her Father notice Otanes inform'd Aspathines and Gobrias of this affair who before extreamly suspected it therefore were easily perswaded of the Truth 'T was their opinion each of them should choose a Colleague able to Act and advise with them Otanes took Intaphernes Gobrias Mâ—gabysus and Aspathines chose Hydarnes They were six in Number when Darius arrived from Susa the Metropolis of Persia of which Hystaspes his Father was Governour They joyn'd him to their Number being now seven of the Greatest Lords in the Persian Empire They consulted and reciprocally gave their Faith to each other When it came to Darius his turn he spoke in this manner For my part I believ'd no body knew the Magician Reign'd but my self and that Smerdis the Son of Cyrus was not in the World I came hither on purpose to exterminate this Impostor but since I find you are all equally inform'd of it I think it convenient now to agree what is to be done
of their coming chiding the Porters and threatning a severe Punishment for suffering any to pass and at the same time putting themselves in a posture to hinder their advancing further Whereupon these Illustrious Confederates gave each other the Signal and drawing their Swords from under their Vests soon laid the Eunuchs on the Ground running with all the hast imaginable to the Magicians Apartment where they found them together consulting on the last Accident of Prexaspes When hearing the Crys of the Eunuchs and perceiving what was done they made a Vertue of Necessity and stood upon their Defence one seizing a Bow and the other a Lance The first was useless against men that were so near and aimed at their heads the other defended himself valiantly with the Lance or rather a Halbeard with which he wounded Aspathynes in the Thigh and struck out one of Intaphernes his Eyes but none of these seven Lords were kill'd He that could not use the Bow sled into a Chamber where he lay endeavouring to barricade the Door but Darius and Gobrias entering at the same time with him prevented his Intentions The Room was dark and the Windows shut this pretended King affecting obscure places Gobrias closed with him and Darius fear'd to run his Sword into the Magician lest he should kill his Friend by mistake but Gobrias calling to him chid him for his delay chusing rather to be kill'd himself than save the Impostor Darius either by his Voice or his own good Fortune took his measures so well that he onely wounded the Magician with that stroak laying him on the Ground Five of these Lords Deliverers of their Country went out with the Heads of the Magicians leaving Aspathynes and Intaphernes wounded in the Palace to secure that whilst they shew'd the People what they had done telling the reason of their Exploit and killing all the Magicians they met The Persians were Ravisht for Joy of his Heroick Action being inraged at the same time against all they thought Magicians they destroy'd many and had not the Night hindered them none would have escapt Afterwards they kept that day a Festival called Magophonia or The Destruction of Magicians which Day none of them durst appear in publick but shut themselves up in their Houses This History is taken out of Herodotus one of the ancientest Historians whose Works have been preserved and transmitted to our Times and who flourished about the Year of the World 3573. This is in his Third Book Entituled Thalia 'T is 2213 years since it happened counting to this present year 1682. and 5655 years since the Creation of the World according to the Chronology of Conradus Functius For almost all Chronologists vary about the number of Years counting either some few more or less And this was in the year of the World 3442. that this Impostor the Magician thus shewed himself I might have begun my History long before and have spoken of the famous Semiramis Wife of Ninus the Son of Belus the second King of the Assyrians or Caldeans Some there are that confound him with his Father Belus since this crafty Queen had the subtilty to disguise her Sex and usurp the Throne of her Son Nynias so that she might pass for an Impostor Nevertheless because she had been the Wife of a mighty Monarch and that she made her self as famous as any other of the Kings of Assyria by her Victories in Asia Media Persia Aegypt Lybia Ethiopia and the Indies during her long Reign of Forty two years which began in the year of the World 1959. and also by the memorable Building of Brick which encompassed the City of Babylon of 480 Stadia or Furlongs And that I have not undertaken to speak of any but Infamous Impostors who being descended from Base and Contemptible Parentage have aspired to the Dignity of Princes and Soveraigns to make themselves the Possessors of their Estates and which Imposture of theirs has been punished with some Ignominious Death Nor will I less rank among these Notorious Impostors the Patriarch Jacob Father of the Twelve Tribes of Israel the Person in whom were deposited the great Blessing which God had promised to his chosen People though he feigned to be Esau covering his Hands and Neck with the Skin of a Kid and although he had told more than one Untruth That he came from Hunting where he had kill'd Venison and that he was his Brother Esau For in the bottom Rhebecca his Mother who had put him upon practising this deceit did not sin in the main and by consequence he was no Impostor An eminent Action when it is Just and Honourable ought not to be condemned for one that is small and imperfect So the Body ought not to be rejected because one Member is out of order The promise of God must have been accomplished That the Elder Brother must serve the Younger Herodotus gives an Account immediately after this History of the Consultation what Government should be establish'd in Persia Otanes spoke in favour of Democracy for the People Megabysus for Oligarchy or the Nobles and Darius for Monarchy whose Opinion prevail'd as also his Fortune for the Choice fell on him CHAP. II. THE Counterfeit NERO. THE Emperour Nero that Monster of Cruelty the Horrour and Aversion of Mankind believing himself condemn'd by the Senate to a Cruel and Ignominious Death though not proportionable to his Crimes found one of his Free Men call'd Epaphroditus to encourage and assist him to chuse one more milde which he gave himself in the Thirtieth Year of his Age and of the World 4033 of our Lord the Seventy first About two Years after when Otho bore the Name of Emperour an Impostor appeared in the East who had Insolence and Ambition enough to perswade the People he had a Title to the Imperial Crown which he said was torn from him by the unjust and villanous Attempts of the Senate Cornelius Tacitus gives us this Relation in the Second Book of his History whom I will endeavour to follow When Otho govern'd Rome both Greece and Asia were alarm'd with the Apprehensions of Nero's being alive many and different were the Stories of his death some reporting others believing he was yet living A Slave who came from Pontus in Asia or as others say an Italian Free-Man who could sing and play on the Harp which with the Resemblance of his Face did not a little serve to perswade the World he was the true Nero. He gathered many Fugitives and Vagabonds that knew not where to go o'recome with Want and Poverty to whom he made mighty Promises Taking shipping with them he was driven by a Storm on the Isle of Cynthus or Delos where the Mountain Cynthus was consecrated to Apollo or to Diana There he got more Souldiers who were coming from the East destroying those who refused his Service He plundered all the Merchants in the Island giving Arms to the most vigorous Slaves he could find But he try'd by all possible means
Scepter with other Jewels and Marks of Royalty He appeared in publick accompanied with his Officers and Gentlemen of his Court having two Pages on Horse-back One carried his Crown and a Bible the Other his Sword He caused a Throne to be built in the most publick place hung with Cloath of Gold on which he sate as in his Court of Justice He created twelve Judges to whom he gave so many Imaginary Kingdoms He married several Women who were drest like so many Queens He sent twenty eight Disciples Teachers of his Law about 〈◊〉 World who were all executed and put 〈◊〉 but one who cunningly made his 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—rd â—â—â—ppeâ—doling who beâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Câ—nsul or Magistrate of the 〈◊〉 would needs be the Executioner He â—â—â—mitted many Cruelties and Extravaâ—â—ncies and the King as many in his turn 〈◊〉 heading People himself not sparing one 〈◊〉 his Wives who was grieved to see the â—â—â—eries the poor People endured by the â—â—tremity of Famine the City being beâ—â—ged by Francis Count of Waldeck their â—â—â—hop assisted by the Circles of the Emâ—â—re His False Doctrine was To deny Infants â—â—otism To Rebaptize those who had been so already To have all things in common â—o marry several wives He denied that Jesus Christ took Humane Nature from the Virâ—n Mary He denied the Pardon of Sinners abolisht Magistracy took Others Goods by Force and Extirpated those who believed not his Foolish Doctrine The 24th of June 1535. the City was taken by the skill of two Fugitives who did that good Service for the Bishop and the Besiegers John Bulchold the Impostor King Bernard Knipperdoling both Magistrate and Hangman and Crechtineh were all three Executed the 25th of Jannary 1536. being torn to pieces with Red-hot Pincers Bulchold repented and implored the Mercy of God Their Bodies were bound in Iron-Frames and hung on the highest Tower of the City the pretended King being placed in the middle a mans heighth above the rest CHAP. VI. THE False Clotaire CALLED GONDOALD THis Impostor appeared a second time in France under the Kings of the first Race in the year 586. calling himself the Son of Clotaire the first King of Soissons and by consequence Grandson to Clovis the Great I will observe what two Historians say of him those are Robert Guaguin and Paulus Aemilius both having writ the History of France His Mother Educated him from a Child like the Son of a King above all things preserving his Hair which was a Mark of the Royal Family amongst the Old French-men Clotaire his pretended Father would not own him when his Mother brought him to Soissons which perswades me that he was Illegitimate But Childebert his Uncle King of Paris who had no Child took pity of him and bred him in his Court At which Clotaire was angry and writ to him in these terms Send back to me Gondoald that I may take care of him my self and breed him up if I find him my Son for if he be not the Education of a Prince which you give him may be the occasion of Errour and Illusion in the World who may shew him those Honours which are not his due Clotaire when he had him in his power shaved his Head and shut him up in a Monastery This pretended Father dying in the year 564. Cherebert or Childebert King of Paris his elder Brother took a Kindness to him and was careful of him for some time But Cherebert was an Effeminate Prince abandoning himself to Debauchery and Women which extreamly altered his Health so that Gondoald's Happiness had but a short date For after the Death of this generous Brother of Clotaire which was in the year 565. Sigebert another of his Brothers King of Austrasia the Country which is now called Lorrain sent for him to his Court without saying how he intended to treat him and leaving him altogether in uncertainty which he nevertheless construed to his own advantage And this unhappy man no sooner arrived at the Court but he shaved him a second time and put him into a Monastery at Collein So that finding himself thus tost about he made an Escape and fled into Italy where Narses that famous Eunuch General of the Emperour Justinian's Army with admirable success made War against the Goths This was no small advantage to Gondoald to make a Friendship with one of the most Valiant and most Illustrious Captains mentioned in History Totila that Generous and Magnanimous King of the Ostrogoths whom Bellisarius the indefatigable General for the same Justinian could not entirely overcome lost both his Diadem and his Life by the Conduct of this Little Old Man of three Cubits stature who wanted one of the most Essential Parts of a Man I will onely use the words of Paulus Jovius in his Elogies of Illustrious men speaking of him Narses says he deserves an Admiration extraordinary and above all other men who being born a Slave in Persia and bred in the Seraglio or Apartment of the Empresses Women being but half a Man deprived of that Part which both Sexes most value became the Imperial Treasurer and was the only accomplisht General not only for all Military Vertue but likewise for his good Fortune whoever suffered so great a Deprivation E tanta ereptae virilitatis calamitate unicus prope cum Virtute tum fortuna Imperator extiterit It had been incomparably a greater Advantage if Gondoald could have been with this Captain in the heighth of his Favour for at that time viz. in the year 566. Justin the Second succeeded his Maternal Grandfather the Emperour Justinian who extreamly loved Narses for his Merit and the good Service he had done him having Extirpated two powerful Kings of the Ostrogoths Totila and Teias and defeated an Army of Seventy two thousand Frenchmen commanded by one Bucelin General for Theodobert King of Mets. Gornandes Archbishop of Ravenna and born a Goth is mistaken in his History when he reckons Two hundred thousand men kill'd and attributes the Victory to Bellisarius Sometime after Gondoald's Arrival the Empress Sophia perswaded by the Enemies of Narses's Glory recalled him into Italy and also treated him with great Scorn and Contempt saying He was sitter to distribute Wooll to her Women and to the Maids of her Seraglio to spin than to command an Army Which Expressions he so much resented that he called Alboin his Friend King of the Lombards out of Hungary to come into Italy who made such a Progress there that this most wise Empress was not able to put a stop to Gondoald hoped considerable Assistance from Alboin with which he designed to take from his Brothers Sigebert Chilperic and Gontran who bore the Titles of Kings of Mets Paris and Orleans the Cities where they lived and kept their Courts a more considerable Kingdom than either of them possest Narses being naturally Merciful and Religious was perswaded by the Entreaty of Pope John the Third who came to meet him at Naples how pernicious the consequence must
Satisfaction And now his Senses were charmed with the Sound of War-like Musick as well as with the softer Concerts of his Wedding Courriers were sent into England to observe what Preparations were making for Resistance But all being quiet the Scotch Army with their King at the Head entred Northumberland where they pillaged burnt ravished and killed sparing neither Age nor Sex behaving themselves without Humanity Till the Soldiers laden with Plunder refused to March further pretending no English joyned them The Counterfeit Richard one day hearing the Crys of the poor plunder'd English seemed much afflicted saying Oh! how wretched am I and my Heart as hard as Steel not to be troubled at the Misery of my People Intreating the King to prevent the Cruelty of the Soldiers and not suffer them to destroy his unhappy Country feigning great Commiseration and Tenderness Who answered him very coldly He might concern himself with his own Affairs and not with other Mens calling England his Country and People where none came to his Assistance though a War was undertaken for his Cause So chiding this Mock-King's Dissimulation and changing from that time his Respect to him Neglecting and contemning him when he found neither his Actions nor the Event of things correspond with his former Promises King Henry prepared to meet and repell the Scotch-Men at the News of this their Cruelty and Infidelity when the Lords on the Marches informed him of their Retreat They having done the best they could by Intrenching Fortifying themselves with an Intent as they did by their frequent Allarms and Skirmishes to wast and tire out the Enemy Just before this Advice he Summons a Parliament at London where several good Laws were made for the Publick Safety But Money being the Sinews of War they concluded on the Methods of raising it Giles Lord Dawbeney who was General of the Army had Orders to begin his March for the Frontiers of Scotland But he had scarce set forward when the Cornish Men took up Arms alledging for their Pretence great Taxes laid on them as they said for an Inconsiderable Scotch-War which was ended already when indeed it was but just begun And then their Barren Land and hard Labour of Mineing making them Incapable to pay them Thomas Flammock a Country-Lawyer and Michael Joseph a Farrier two bold Fellows being at the Head of the Rebels they Marched toward London and demanded the Heads of John Morton Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Sir Reynald Bray both Privy-Counsellors And at Wells they were Joyned by James Twichet Lord Awdley and some other Gentlemen King Henry considering these Troubles should be first appeased recalled the Lord Dawbency with his Army sending Thomas Howard Earl of Surry in his stead a most experienced Souldier To whom he had given his Life and Liberty after the Famous Battle of Bosworth-Field which he had won of Richard the Usurper afterwards honouring him with the Office of Lord High Treasurer of England upon the Death of John Lord Dinham This Earls Commands were to raise what Men he could about the County of Durham and oppose the Incursions of the Scots till Giles Lord Dawbeney should have Dissipated and Chastized the Rebels of Cornwall and Joyn'd him with his Army Polydore Virgil Names the Lords and the Gentlemen who met the Royal Army commanded by Dawbeney increasing it with their Tennants About this time Charles the 8 th of France sent an Ambassador to give the King an Account of his Conquering the Kingdom of Naples and to renew his Allyance with England Henry sent some Lords to meet them so soon as he knew they were arrived at Calais and also to amuse them at Dover that they might not understand the Revolt in the West till it was supprest in which he was exactly obey'd In the mean time the Rebels decamped from Wells Marched to Salisbury and so to Canterbury hoping those People would Joyn with them but they were much deceived for they found them Armed and ready to oppose them being Commanded by George Earl of Kent and John Lord Brook with Fifteen or Sixteen other Lords The Resolution and Fidelity of these Men so astonisht the Rebels Army that many abandoned them Running from their Camp in the Night But they were too far advanced for a Retreat so continued their March to Black-Heath near London where they drew up themselves in Order to a Battle upon the Hill Thither the King sent Henry Bourcheir Earl of Essex Edmund dela Pool Earl of Suffolk Sir Richard Thomas and Sir Humphrey Stanly all Great Souldiers with detached Parties to encompass them and hinder their Flight whilst he March't streight to charge them with Dawbeney followed by the best Men of his Army Commanding Sir Richard Thomas to attack them at the same time from his Post which was so vigourously executed that notwithstanding all their resistance the Rebels were broken and lost Two Thousand Men besides vast Numbers of Prisoners the King missing but Three Hundred He pardon'd those wretched People only making their Chiefs Examples among whom was the Lord Audley who was drawn from Newgate to Tower-Hill and there beheaded Thomas Flammock and Michael Joseph were Hanged and Quarter'd and their Heads and Limbs set up in London and several places of Cornwall for the Terror and Example of others They admired the Constancy of Michael the Smith who contented himself that he should always be talked of A Deo says Polydore Medios ac insimos viros perinde ut Summos Gloriae cupiditas incendit The Scotch King taking Advantage by these Disorders entred the County of Durham giving his Men all manner of Licence With some of his Troops he Besieged Norham a Castle of Great Importance on those Frontiers into which Richard Fox the Vigilant Bishop of Durham had put a strong Garrison and well fortified the Place having foreseen the Siege He then advertised Thomas Earl of Surry who had already raised a considerable Army in Yorkshire and hearing the distress that Norham was in he Marched with all speed having a Great number of Gentlemen and Knights with him and a Body of near Twenty Thousand Men besides a considerable Fleet at Sea King James informed of his Advancing being within Two Days March Hastily raised his Siege and retired into Scotland where he was followed by the Earl who being in the Enemies Country plundred all he could and took several Towns But having no opportunity to furnish himself with Provisions he returned into the County of Durham During the War about this time Peter Hyalas a wise and prudent Man came Ambassador and Mediator from Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain a most Incomparable Princess King Henry appointed for his Ambassador Richard Bishop of Durham who was near the Place of Treaty where they met the King of Scotlands Privy Counsellors and treated of the Conditions of Peace The greatest difficulty arose concerning Perkin Warbeck Henry Positively persisting to have him delivered up as being the Disturber of his Kingdoms Peace and the
Occasion of so many Rebellions The King of Scotland could not in Honour yeild to deliver up a Man to Death whom he had raised and made his Kinsman So at last it was agreed that he should quit his Interest and command him out of his Dominions These Articles were agreed on and a Peace was made between them in the Year 1498. Henry King of England sent home this Spanish Ambassador Loaden with Presents and with great Thanks to his King and Queen Then was the Marriage projected of Prince Arthur the Kings Eldest Son and Katharine the Infanta afterwards Marryed to Henry the VIII his Second Son whose Famous Divorce caused so many Revolutions in the Kingdom About the same time King Henry Received two other Embassies One from the King of France the Other from Prince Philip Earl of Flanders Son to the Emperour Maximilan who renewed his Alliance with Him The King of Scotland exactly observed the Articles of Peace touching Perkin Warbeck being wholly disabused concerning him He sent for him and told him in short what he had done in his Favour but he found himself obliged to conclude a Peace with England and now was no longer in Circumstances to give him assistance or allow him his Court for a Retreat Therefore advised him to retire and hope a better Fortune Though this was a Fatal Blow to Warbeck it came not unforeseen by him who wanted not Understanding but extreamly thanked the King assuring him he could never acknowledge his Favours as he ought and desired acquiescing in his Orders After this with his Wife he went for Ireland with Intention either to go for Flanders to his Aunt or head the Cornish Malecontents But resolving on the latter he found the Minds of those People irritated by their Losses and easily engaged them to Mutiny He then gave out his Commissions and Formed his Army with Design to surprize some considerable Towns which might serve for a Refuge in case of ill Success With this intent he Besieged Exeter using all Endeavours to carry it by Assault and trying to seize the Gates for Petards nor Rams were not then in Use he brought Great Stones and Axes instead of those Engins which not taking effect he employ'd Fire and heaping Wood against the Gates indeavoured to burn them The Besieged used the same Expedient Fireing great quantity of Wood within their Gates by Flames preventing their Danger by Fire He then raised his Scaling Ladders and commanded the Attack to be made which was better repulsed many of his Men being left dead under the Walls the very Women throwing Stones and Scalding Water on the Besiegers King Henry being Informed what Danger the Besieged were in advanced with great Marches to their Assistance sending Detached Partys to declare His Coming In the mean time several Men of Quality got into the City with supplyes Amongst whom was Edward Courtney Earl of Devonshire and several of his Family Peter Edgcomb and William St. Maure and other Men of Noto This extreamly perplexed Perkin he could not cover his Men in any strong Place who for the most part of them were ill provided of Armes as well Offensive as Defensive and considering he was not able to resist so Powerful Enemies as were advancing towards him he raised the Siege and Marched to Taunton where he Muster'd his Men and drew them up in Battalia of which the King hearing directed his March that way many Lords Joyning Him and giving Demonstrations of their Zeal to express and Signalize their Loyalty on that Occasion The King Commanded my Lord Brook my Lord Dawbeney and Sir Richard Thomas with a Party of chosen detached Men to begin the Charge but both his Orders and their Resolutions were needless For Warbeck through his own Natural Cowardize or believing himself betray'd ran away and left his Army flying into the Monastery of Beaulieu His Officers seeing themselves abandonned lost their Resolution and tryed to save themselves by Flight The wretched Multitude being left without a Head knew not what to do whether to resolve to dye Fighting or to Implore the Kings Mercy But choosing the latter they threw down their Armes and on their Knees begged Pardon which the King granted them For certainly if their Officers had not left them it would have cost him very dear they being resolved to overcome or dye Partyes of Light-Horse were sent every way for the Apprehension of Warbeck and the Chief of his Gang But though they missed him they took most of the others his Accomplices Some of the Searchers found Katharine Huntley Wife of Perkin with her Women Her they brought to the King who was much furprized to see so Beautiful a Lady extreamly pittying her Misfortune And considering such a Noble Prize was not fit to be the Souldiers Prey but worthy an Emperor He sent her to London where he presented to the Queen this unfortunate Lady so unhappily Sacrificed to the Humour or Interests of the King her Uncle Match't to a Villain and Impostor instead of a Legitimate Prince whom she justly Merited and not the extream Grief of seeing this Counterfeit her Husband suffer the deserved Reproaches and Calumny of the Basest Profligates The King Encompast the Monastery of Beaulieu with his Army for the better securing Perkin Not being willing to Violate the Sanctuary he himself having been protected the same manner in Bretagn when Richard the Usurper demanded him Besides such was the Custome of those days Wherefore he sent him word by the Religious Men of the Monastery that he would spare his Life assuring him of his Clemency yet nevertheless at Exeter he beheaded several of the Principal Rebels punishing many of the rest which were taken in their Flight thanking that City for their Zeal and Fidelity With Warbeck in his Power he return'd for London where the People in Multitudes Flock't to see Perkin with astonishment admiring that a Forreigner of so mean Birth should undertake by his Impostures the Overthrow of so great a Kingdome and perswade so many Princes Lords and People to the Destruction of many of the Truth of those Falsehoods he till then spread abroad both of his Person and Birth There is no doubt but that the King kept him close Prisoner and justly punish't those remarkable Rebels of Cornwall Devon and Sommersetshire for which Service he sent Thomas Lord Darcy Sir Anyas Pawlet and Robert Sherburn Dean of St. Pauls with his Commission into the West where they soundly Fined Amerced every one that had Assisted or Favoured the Rebels before or after their Defeat at Black-heath But yet with consideration of such Persons who either through Fear or by Force were compell'd to do it There happened about this time a Quarrel between the English and Scotch that had like to have renewed the War Some Scotch were observed to walk under the Walls of Norham which a little before they had Besieged and the next day doing it again the English Garrison fearing they had some Design sent
out to know their Reasons and whether they came not as Spies From Words they soon came to Blows which put the Scotch who were fewer in Number to Flight leaving several Dead on the Place At this the King of Scotland was incensed demanding the Violaters of the Peace in his Letters where he highly complain'd of them The King of England tryed to appease Him promising exemplary Punishment on the Aggressors Richard Fox Bishop of Durham being extreamly displeased that the Garrison he had placed there should give Occasion of Variance between those two Monarchs who with so great Difficulty were brought to an Accord sent his Letters to King James assuring him he might expect all possible Satisfaction This Prince who very much esteemed him honoured him with an Answer and an Invitation to come and discourse of Matters The Bishop immediately informed the King his Master who permitted him to go It was in this Visit that King James told him If He did not fear a Denyal he would ask the Princess Margaret his Master's Eldest Daughter in Marriage The Bishop encouraged his Hopes undertaking to sound the Affair without ingaging His Honour in it King Henry rejoyced at the Overture and accepted it with all His Heart It was from this Marriage of the Princess Margaret to James the Fourth King of Scotland that James the Sixth of Scotland and since King of England as next Heir Inherited the Crown of England after the Death of Queen Elizabeth in the Year 1603. Now we will declare the Catastrophe and Death of the Impostor Perkin together with that of the Unfortunate Prince Edward Earl of Warwick Warbeck's Turbulent Spirit ill brooking so strait an Imprisonment endeavoured to make his Escape and finding his Guards to abate something of their first strictness got out of Prison directing his Flight towards the Sea-side for Shipping off privately which in England after Proclamation to the contrary is very difficult He was quickly miss'd and every way pursued He carefully watching hid himself in Ditches and behind the Hedges till the Horsemen that sought him were past When despairing to get out of the Island and finding himself reduced to the utmost Distress he waited the Obscurity of the Night and got to a Monastery where asking for the Prior and throwing his Arms about his Neck he declared his Misfortune The Father touched with his Misery promised to speak to the King which accordingly he did whose Piety granted his Life without other present Punishment provided he no more attempted to escape The Counterfeit was then led in Chains to London where before Westminster-Hall he was in a pair of Stocks exposed a whole Day to the Scorn and Mockery of the People The next day enduring the same in the City where he declared his Parentage the Place of his Birth and all the Passages of his Life and by what Means he was induced to make this Attempt and from thence he was conveyed into the Tower As for Young Edward Earl of Warwick he had been a Prisoner from his Cradle bred up out of the Sight of Men or Beasts So that he could not distinguish a Goose from a Hen and incapable of doing any thing worthy of death He was nevertheless brought to it by the Crimes of Others That Age being Fruitful in Impostors an Augustine Monk called Patrick suborned a Youth whose Name we find not with Promises of Raising him to the Crown and to better Fortune than Perkin Warbeck's provided he would pass for the Earl of Warwick and but leave him alone to Act the rest Ambition had such Charms with the Young Man that he undertook it and hazarded all was desired of him So they came to Canterbury where they told their forged Adventure The Fryar declaring how dextrously he had got the Earl of Warwick out of Prison and some credulous People believing the Story But before they had time to cheat the World the King sent and apprehended the Two Sparks Hanged the Youth and Immured the Monk according to the Custom of those Times Perkin continued still the same contriving and endeavouring to break loose once more and having corrupted some of his Guards design'd to Murther the Lieutenant of the Tower and carrying the Earl of Warwick with him to get out by Force which being discovered he was by the Judges condemned for this last Action only and a few days after hanged accordingly As for the Earl of Warwick he lost his Head for listening to him and intending to Escape with him This Unhappy Prince bearing the Iniquity of his Father George Duke of Clarence who was the Barbarous Murtherer of Prince Edward only Son and design'd Successor of Henry the Sixth You may imagine the Astonishment and Affliction the Dutchess Margaret was in for the Unfortunate End of her Pretended Nephew whom she had taken such Pains to set on the English Throne by so many Impostures CHAP. IX THE COUNTERFEIT Don Sebastian KING of PORTVGAL THe first Prince that gave Beginning to the Royal Family of Portugal was Henry who Married Teresa or Taresia Alphonso King of Castile's natural Daughter in the Year 1090 having the Earldom of Portugal for her Portion The King hoping he would make as Vigorous a War against the Moors as his Brother Hugh Duke of Burgundy had done giving him that Country for a Bulwark to defend his own from those Infidels towards whom it was the Frontiers He was the Son of another Henry Duke of Burgundy Grand-son of Robert Duke of the same who was Grand-son to Robert King of France Successor to Hugh Capet I do not mind the Opinions of several Historians who are much perplext to find out of what Family and Country this Henry was Theod. Godefroy one of the most Learned and most Curious Persons of his Time first discovered this Original of the Kings of Portugal and those Famous Twins Scevola and Lewis de St. Martha have Authorized it in their Genealogical History of the House of France The Princes of this Race have held the Royal Dignity and Signaliz'd their Conduct by many Victories over the Unbelievers even beyond our Hemisphere But to give an Account of their Actions is no part of my Subject therefore I will only say They have generally held the Scepter with Great Glory and without any Interruption in the Royal Family to this very Don Pedro who now Reigns with the Title of Prince Regent no Objection being to be made except two or three suspicions of Illegitimacy so that it has always been supported by the same Blood Royal. Don Sebastian whose misfortune we treat of which gave an opportunity for an Impostor to aspire and pretend to his Diadem perswading the World he Escaped from the Unhappy Battle of Alcazer at three Years Old which was in the Year 1557. Succeeded Don John the Third his Paternal Grand-Father He was Grand-son to the Emperor Charles the Fifth by his Mother Jane In his Youth he had been under the Tutulage of Donna Catharina of Austria his
Whisks this and that way to no purpose and his best Reasons as once his Squibbs destroy themselves and endanger no Body so much as their Author If he could possibly be made capable of Good Advice I would counsel him only to play the Fool in Bartholomew-Fair there let him be Laureat to King Oberon and at his own Booth be Zany and Poet. But let not his own Life and Manners be the Subject of his next Puppet-Show lest it Debauch the Rabble his great Admirers These and many other Scriblers have been Selected as the Propogaters of the Cause but they are generally so Vile and Inconsiderable that I chuse to despise them and scorn to do them the credit of Remarking I would stop here but Difficile est Satyram non Scribere as fast as I cut off New Heads arise from my Hydra Legion of Old left Man for Swine and now for Swine enters Man again Such Impostors have appeared amongst us of late that it is incredible to think that our Senses and Understandings should have been so much imposed on as they have Wretches most profligate in all sorts of Wickedness as Cheating Thieving Forgery Coyning Lying Perjury nay Sodomy have on a suddain been entertained and credited as most Pious Sober Virtuous Christians and True Protestants What greater Prodigy than that such Spirits of Darkness should pass for Angels of Light Yet in respect to the Sense and Justice of my Country I will keep in bold Truths and spare even the Impostor with a Witness But when any Man shall think it convenient in proper Colours to draw the true Lineaments of some of these Counterfeits the History of their Lives though writ with the greatest Impartiality will appear as improbable as Rablais his Garagantua In the mean time let them be tormented with their Secret Crimes and in their Consciences which are as a Thousand Witnesses confess Ambiguae si quando citabere Testis Incertaeque rei Phalaris licet imperet ut sis Falsus admoto dictet perjuria Tauro Summum crede nefas vitam praeferre pudori Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas Juvenal Sat. 8. I could have Paraphrased this into English but will content my self with Doctor Holliday 's Translation When in a Doubtful Cause thou needs must stand A Witness should Phalaris bid thee be False shew his Bull and dictate Perjury Life before Vertue count it lewd to choose Do not to save Life th' Ends we live for loose A TABLE OF THE Histories contained in this Book Chap. I. THe False Smerdis only Brother of Cambyses King of Persia and of the Medes Pag. 1. Chap. II. The False Nero. Pag. 26. Chap. III. The False Messiah called Bencochab Chief of the Revolted Jews Pag. 30. Chap. IV. The False Moses Pag. 33. Chap. V. John Bulchold King of the Anabaptists called John of Leyden Pag. 35. Chap. VI. The False Clotaire called Gondoald Pag. 38. Chap. VII The False Baldwin Emperour of Greece and Earl of Flanders Pag. 58. Chap. VIII The False Richard Duke of York and pretended Son of Edward the Fourth King of England called Perkin Warbeck Pag. 76. Chap. IX The False Don Sebastian King of Portugal Pag. 113. Chap. X. The False Voldemar Marquis and Elector of Brandenbourg Pag. 139. Chap. XI The False Mustapha Son of Bajazet the First of that Name Emperour of the Turks Pag. 154. Chap. XII The False James Heraclides Despot of Moldavia and Wallachia Pag. 179. A LIST OF INFAMOUS Impostors OR THE LIVES Of Several Notorious Counterfeits who from the most Abject and Meanest of the People have usurped the Titles of Emperours Kings and Princes CHAP. I. Of the False Smerdis ONE of the most Profligate Impostors I can write of is the Counterfeit Smerdis who was a Magus which taking the word in its most favourable Acceptation signifies a Scholar an Astrologer or Philosopher But I am more inclin'd to believe he was a Magician who for some Crime escap'd the Justice of Cyrus with the loss of his Ears The Frenzy and Distraction into which Cambyses King of Persia and Son of Cyrus the Great fell gave this Impostor an Opportunity to shew himself and for eight Months to ascend the Throne of one of the Greatest and most Potent Empires in the Universe For the King when fallen into this Distemper caus'd his only Brother to be put to Death he being then Governour of Persia Whose Person this Magician so acted as obtain'd him the Quality and Empire of Smedis The untimely Death of this Prince gave him the Opportunity of being so great an Impostor the Distraction of Cambyses was the cause of his Death and the Sacrilege of Cambyses in mortally wounding the God Apis of Epaphus the Occasion of that Punishment This Apis the Aegyptians blinded with Idolatory ador'd in the Figure of a Calf The Fable of this Divinity is known to proceed from Jupiter's loving the Princess Jo Daughter of Inachus King of Phoenicia Juno contrived to surprize him with her wherefore Jupiter turn'd her into an Heifer to secure her against the Revenge and Jealousie of the Goddess But that was not sufficient to extinguish her Jealous suspitions which prompted her to beg that beautiful Cow of Jupiter who could find no excuse to deny her Juno committed her to the keeping of Argus with his hundred Eyes at which Jupiter being extreamly vext sent Mercury his Bastard and stole her away while Argus slept This so engaged Juno that her Revenge fell on Jo whom she commanded the fury Erinnys to make distracted and possess with wild Fancies which made her wander about the World untill grown weary and Faint she stopt in Aegypt where she was restor'd to her former Shape and Person and brought to Bed of Epaphus The Egyptians Worshipping both her and her Son Ovid tells this Story at the end of his first Book of Metamorphosis Cambyses although the eldest Son and Successor to so great a King and in the Possession of such mighty Provinces as the Persiaen Empire contain'd burn'd with an unlimited Ambition to extend his Conquests which he did over Aegypt stripping Psalmneticus the King Son of Amasis the Usurper of all Regal Power But this not being enough for his vast Thoughts he undertook three great Wars at the same time though very unseasonably and to his disadvantage making the Carthaginians the Aethiopians and the Arabians his Enemies Against each of these he had ill Success He could not attack the Carthaginians but by Sea and the Phoenicians his only Subjects that could assist him with Ships mutin'd and refused to lend him any belleving it unnatural to contribute towards the Ruin of the Carthaginians who proceeded from them To advance towards Aethiopia the Army had vast Deserts to march over and this young unadvised King took so ill Measures and made so small Provisions that he hardly got the Fifth Part of the way ere his Army wanted and were forced to eat their own Horses and Camels and afterward by Decimation
be of Alboin's coming into Italy and conjured him to countermand and hinder it all he could When the Pope and he were returned to Rome and considering how they might remedy this Misfortune Narses died whose body was carried to Constantinople and there magnificently buried Gondoald after this Accident crossed the Sea and made his Court to the Emperour Justin and the Empress Sophia his Wife an Ambitious and Airy Princess His good Meen and Intriguing Humour made him extreamly considered in that Court Venerationem sibi ac Majestatem conciliarunt says Paulus Aemilius He remained at Constantinople all the time of Justin the Second a pusillanimous Prince who suffered his Wife to govern the Empire contrary to his Honour and Interest During the Reign of Tiberius which was seven years he made several Campaigns in the Wars of Persia under Mauritius who was after chosen Emperour and Successor to Tiberius for Gondoald dared not to venture himself in the Court of France where he had been so ill treated having many sad Examples of his Relations Cruelty even to their own Blood Clotaire his Father without Pity or Mercy burnt Cramnus or Granus his own Son with his Wise and Children in a House where they Fled for Refuge He overcame kill'd in Battle Senabut Duke of Britain He Burnt Conobald Duke of Guienne in the Chappel of S. Martin where he ran for safety because he had assisted Granus in his Revolt to whom he Married his Daughter This Clotaire also was Guilty of that abominable parricide of dipping his hands in the Innocent Blood of his two young Nephews Theobald and Gontier Sons of Cladomir his Brother King of Orleans Gondoald considering he had little Reason to expect a better Treatment from his Fathers Brothers Sigebert and Chilperic chose rather to Live quietly in Justin's Court But when he was Informed how matters went in France he resolved to hasten thither encouraged by the Empress Constantina and the Emperour Mauritius Son-in-Law to Tiberius who promis'd him their Assistance His two Sisters-in-Law Brunechilde the Daughter of Athanagilde King of the Wisigoths in Spain Married to his Brother Sigebert and Fredegonde Woman of the Bed-chamber to the Queen Galsond Wife to Chilperic his other Brother King of Paris who first became Mistress and then Wife to that King These two Women disturbed all France Their Husbands having been Traitorously Murthered which was the occasion of his Return after having been Twenty Years in the East He Landed at Marseilles with a splendid Equipage where Theodore Bishop of that Diocess received him with much Honour it being reported he brought Vast Riches along with him and was able to give great Rewards having made the best Advantage of his Happiness in the Eastern Court besides the finding a mighty Treasure hid by Narses the Eunuch His Royal Qualities and Majestick Person were admired The Fame of his Actions having gain'd him the Reputation of a good Captain Scholler to the Incomparable General Narses Didier who absolutely Commanded the Countrys adjacent to Tholouse Mummol much talkt of for his Service in the Wars against the Greeks and Lombards and thought one of the best Souldiers in his time besides many Lords both Visigoths and Romans who kept the Frontiers of Spain declared for him Thus having acquir'd such powerful Friends and reduced to his Obedience a great part of the People and Cities of Guienne the Peregordins and Bourdelois those of Tholouse and Anjou followed his Fortune Childebert King of Mets the Nephew of Gondoald was then angry with his Uncle Gontran King of Orleans for refusing to deliver into his hands his Mother-in-Law Queen Fredegonde the Murtheress of King Sigebert his Father which reason perswaded him to declare for Gondoald sending him Ambassadors and stiling him King to give him the more Majesty for the obtaining the Hearts of the French advising him to take the Name of Clotaire his Father The occasion of Gontrans refusing to deliver to him the Queen Fredegonde was that young King Clotaire the Second her Son was under his Tutelage and he thought it below a Generous Prince to give up the Mother of him whom he intended to make his Successor Gontran was a Prince extreamly Good Pious and Charitable I can find no other Reason why he preferr'd Clotaire his Nephew who was but Four Months Old when his Father Chilperic was Assassinated by the Infidelity of Fredegonde his Wife Gondoald having before so much cause to doubt whether Clotaire were Lawfully begot or no his Mother being of a very scandalous Life in her Husbands time abandoning her self to the Maire or Stewards of the Pallace Londry de la Tour. Unless he thought the Decision of the Laws sufficient that Filius est quem nuptiae demonstran That Child is Legitimate who is Born of a Woman who hath a Husband He hoped to give good Impressions to the young Prince being like soft Wax capable of any he would make But Gondoald's Humour he extreamly apprehended for his fierceness and resentment of the usage he received in his younger Days That Divine Quality so Admirable in a Prince to forget Injuries received when 't is in his Power to Revenge them never having been exercised by Clotaire his Father who always prefer'd his own private Resentments This made him not acknowledge Gondoald that came from the Court of Constantinople when the Grecian Artifices Treachery and Cruelty were much in use The Affection and tenderness he had for the Innocent Child prevail'd over his aversion to the Vices and conduct of Fredegonde his Mother Raymond Bishop of Paris a Person of an Exemplary Life first spoke to the good King in Favour of this young Prince he having before saved Fredegonde from the Fury of the People inraged by the Death of their King Chilperic of which she and her Gallant Landry were shrewdly suspected he giving her with her Son and Treasure refuge in his Church The Merciful King continued his Clemency to his Death which happened the 28th of March 594. Still assisting the Queen with his Councel and Protection He perswaded her by his remonstrances with the fear and respect she had to offend him to Live a more retir'd Life He caused what the Courtiers and Domesticks of his Brother Chilperic had unjustly taken from several particular Persons to be restored He did many Favours to the Church making those dues to be paid which Chilperic had supprest or diverted and largly assisting the Poor All which he had reason to believe Gondoald would not do being greedy of Money wanting all the Treasure he could get to recompence his Creatures and support the Luxury he had Learnt at Constantinople I will not stop to relate the Encomiums which Gregory of Tours and Fredegarius in their Chronicles give this King Gontran only say it was the greatest misfortune or if you please an effect of Gods Judgment to want his protection and be rejected by him Though Gondoald did all he could to obtain his Favour He chose two
have been Impostors who have falsly Vsurpt the Quality of Kings and Emperors Haynault has suffer'd many Revolutions and Calamities since the departure of the true Baldwyn And Flanders has done the same We have all been opprest with misery have you given us any assistance in our Wars or any help in our Afflictions Ought this Countrey to own you for their Prince since in their trouble you have not consider'd them who gave you Birth and Nurst you in your tender years This Man heard with attention these Remonstrances shewing a great assurance and courage speaking in his turn but not as if he would answer these Reproaches but reprove and condemn them dissembling by this procedure his boldness and grandure of mind And told them That his Country-men and Subjects were more Inhumane than his Enemies that Fighting before Adrianople for the glory of that Country which now disown'd him being over-power'd and made Prisoner by the unequal number of his Enemies as often arrives in the chance and fortune of War yet notwithstanding he had not suffer'd so much Contempt nor so extraordinary Opprobry either by reason of the Majesty of his Person and Name or else in consideration of his Subjects in Flanders but was kept and maintain'd moderately till by length of time his Guards were not so strict but he found an opportunity to save himself by the extraordinary favour of Heaven And that returning to his Country he had been retaken by other Barbarians who did not know him nor to whom he did not discover himself they carryed him into Asia and used him like a miserable Slave sold him to the Syrians where he dwelt two years in a Barn with other Captives sometimes driving the Plow and breaking the Clods of Earth with those hands with which he had held the Scepter till during a Truce between the Christians and the Barbarians of Asia some German Merchants Travelling by the place where he was at work he spoke to them in the German Tongue and made himself known to them telling them his unhappy and miserable Adventures who bought him at a common price And that now after this good fortune his own Subjects affronted him so as neither the Greeks nor the Inhabitants of Thrace their cruel Neighbours the Scythians nor the Barbarians of Syria had ever used him As to Flanders it was never more happy nor more flourishing than when he possest the dignity of Earl Their glory had never been greater at home nor abroad than when they own'd him for their Prince He always stil'd himself August Chosen or Elect of God and used a Seal of massive Gold He termed them ungrateful Subjects and Country-men to reproach him with provoking questions after having suffer'd so many Vexations and Miseries Surely they had changed their Inclination and degenerated from the Virtue and Justice of their Fathers by whom he was made Sovereign and Emperor of Greece and had made and given Laws to all the People of the East But he wondred not that Flanders had fallen into all these disorders and had renounced the good and commendable qualities of their Fathers to embrace those which were new and pernicious that on the contrary in his Government they were extraordinary flourishing He would have continued speaking much longer and made them greater Reproaches if the Lord Treasurer who was also President of the Counsel had not broke it up saying It was not fit for them to conclude any thing in Affairs of that Importance without knowing the good pleasure and determination of their Countess This Princess had an extream aversion to this Pretender whether it might not be because she really thought Baldwyn her Father was dead but she effectively sent into Greece John Bishop of Mutelan that without doubt which is now called the Isle of Mytelene and Albert a Religious man of the Order of St. Bennet both of the Greek Nation to enquire and inform themselves if Baldwyn were dead or alive The Annals or Histories of Flanders written by Jacobus Meyer Adrianus Barlandus and others which furnish me with the greatest part of this Story observe That it was not certainly known whether in the unhappy Battel of Adrianople he was kill'd or taken only that he could not be found but these two Envoys were upon the place and being Arrived in Bulgaria they made so exact an enquiry that they were inform'd of his being taken by John King of that Country and was by his order carryed to the Queen his Wife to the Town of Cernoa who following the nature of an inrag'd Barbarian cruelly put him to death chopping his Limbs to pieces and throwing them to the Fowls of the air Meyer writes these circumstances in the 8th Book of his Annals of Flanders Besides she that had been accustomed to command and had long been Mistress must needs think with much grief of delivering the Sovereign Power to another of which she had so long thought she should never be deprived but by Death Notwithstanding all this a great part of the Flemish Nobility received this Man for their Soveraign and Emperor of the East and submitted to his Obedience and the more readily by his subtilty in Authorizing their Cognizance of him and the Veneration they had to his Person by his telling them their Names and Extractions which he readily did to a great part of the Nobility of Flanders with the glorious Actions of their Ancestors shewing their Arms Blasons and Devices of their Families and all their Genealogies He understood the Countrey very well having lived several years a Hermit in the Forrest of Glaucone near Valenciennes He appeared in a strange habit like the Armenians wearing a great rufled beard The common People who being Ignorant and love Novelty believed his Impostures and the rather for his being of the same Stature and having severall features like the true Baldwyn He found himself so well assisted that he designed to seize the Countess Jane and wanted very little of surprizing her in Quenoy but she was fled to a strong Castle and had sent Ambassadors to Lewis the 8th King of France for assistance The Historian Guaguin who was a Subject of this Princess and born at Preaven near Cassel and gives her the Character of a very Wise Princess says she came in Person to the King for succour against the Insolence of this unknown Impostor intreating his Favor and Assistance in this Conjuncture as Soveraign of Flanders and she one of the Nobles Feudatories of the Crown of France to which she was so nearly related The King came as far as Campagne where he appointed the Impostor to meet him who came extraordinarily accompanied He was Cloath'd in Scarlet having a white staffe in his hand When he was Introduced to the King he saluted him very slightingly to whom the King said I know not in what manner I should Salute you nor what Title to give you Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Haynault was my Vncle and a most Generous Prince He was also
Emperour of Greece Whose Death I have lamented when I was in my Youth When first the unhappy News arrived his Son Henry a Valiant Prince succeeded him in the Empire and his Eldest Daughter Jane in his Earldom of Flanders Their Country holds of me and is a Feudatory of my Crown as the Earl is a Peer of my Kingdom I wish I could alter the Course of Nature and that what has happened had not been that my dear Vncle the Father of my Cousin-German whose Name and Memory is of admirable Veneration in Greece could return to Life But I cannot lightly be perswaded from the belief I have of his death and the report which hath been confirmed through the course of so many Years Most humane things especially Empires subsist by the Testimony of men Tell me then for whom you would be received If for my Vncle shew it us by some authentick proof and because the thing is unexpected it will be so much the more agreeable and give me transports of joy and satisfaction when I am convinced I have wept for my Vncle without cause and for a false Opinion whilst he that I should Reverence like a Father is restor'd to me I am glad that a few short questions will make your self judge and witness in your own Cause which the World must needs know is of the greatest Importance I ask you then If my Father King Philip treated you as his Homager and whether he gave you the Investiture of the Earldom of Flanders In what place at what time in what manner and before what Witnesses did he gird on your Sword and made you a Knight And of what Order was it Who was the Wife you Married in France Who treated the Match In what place and with what Ceremonies did you Marry her for the true Baldwyn cannot be ignorant of these matters I have exactly made a Recital of all the Questions from Paulus Aemilius that admirable Historian It is very strange that he who had so well studied the Genealogies of the Flemish Lords could not tell what Wife he Married which was Margaret Daughter to the Earl of Champagne The Annals of Flanders say it was the Bishop of Beauvais President of the Kings Counsel that askt him all these questions which may be reduced to three 1. In what place he did Homage for his Earldom of Flanders 2. By whom and in what Place he was made a Knight 3. In what Place and on what Day he Married Margaret of Champagne But this Impostor as surprized with all these Questions askt three days to answer them Perhaps one might excuse a Man for not remembring several Circumstances of the principal Actions of his Life Besides such an August Assembly before so Great a King and Magnificent a Court a Subject of such consequence before an Audience no ways favourable with the Apprehension of the Danger might distract him and hinder his answering pertinently Guaguin says That speaking Haughtily to the Points in question without sufficient Proofs of what he pretended to be the King commanded him to go out of his Realm in three days but doing him no hurt because he had given him his safe Conduct This Impostor being thus shamefully Driven away retir'd to Valenciennes in Haynault where being abandon'd by those whose hopes of advantage by this Novelty had made them promise him great assistance he disguis'd himself like a Trades-man intending to have past into Burgundy hoping to find countenance and support there but he was watcht and taken on his way by a Burgundian Gentleman Erard Castenac who sold him to the Countess Jane for four hundred Marks She put him to the torture and forc'd him by his torments to Confess his Imposture He said he was Born in Champagne and his name was Bertrand de Rayns he was led through all the Cities of Flanders and Haynault where after having been shew'd to the People he was publickly hang'd at Lisle in Flanders Famâ ancipiti jurene an injuriâ The greatest part of Europe was in doubt whether the Countess justly put this Impostor to Death The example of Peter Courtney Successor of the true Baldwyn and Henry in right of his Wife Yolante persuaded the possibility of so straight a Prison as might not give him Opportunity to inform his Subjects and Friends what misfortune had befallen him The Catastrophe of this false Baldwyn happen'd in the year of Christ 1225. and of the World 5186. CHAP. VIII Perkin Warbeck OR THE COUNTERFEIT Duke of York Son of Edward the Fourth King of England THis Impostor continued longer than any of the rest and had more Chances and happy Hours The Cruelty of Richard Duke of Glocester Son of Richard Duke of York and Brother of Edward the Fourth King of England gave Henry Earl of Richmond Grand-son of Owen Tudor and Catharine of France a Pretension to Arm against him for the Recovery of the Kingdom of England which Edward the Fourth before Duke of York and Head of the Red-Rose had usurp't from Henry the Sixth Richard Duke of Glocester had also usurp't the Crown from Edward the Fifth a young Prince of Twelve years old Eldest Son and Successor to King Edward the Fourth as likewise from his Brother Richard Duke of York his two Nephews whom he unnaturally and cruelly murthered in the Tower of London in the year 1483. It was the Person of this last Richard Duke of York and only Brother of King Edward the Fifth that this Impostor Peter Warbeck commonly called Perkin Warbeck so artfully imitated for Five or Six Years time from 1494 untill 1499 putting all England into combustion and perplexity on that Subject and giving much trouble to the new Conqueror Henry the Seventh who was before Earl of Richmond Margaret Sister to King Edward the Fourth Widow of Charles the Hardy Duke of Burgundy and Soveraign of the Seventeen Provinces of the Lower Germany produced and instructed this Counterfeit to take the Crown of England if she could have effected what she had often endeavoured from Henry the Seventh Chief of the House of Lancaster or the White-Rose whom she mortally hated This is the Truth of the Story as Polydore Virgil Historiographer to Henry the Eighth relates it in the Twenty-sixth Book of his History of England This Princess a Woman of an Ambitious and Intriguing humour had conceived a great Aversion to Henry the Seventh Exterminator of the Usurper Richard Duke of Glocester The principal cause of her Hatred proceeded from the long Enmity between his Family of Lancaster and her 's of the House of York which made her continually endeavour by all means imaginable his extirpation with the satisfaction of her own Revenge in the removal of the Crown to One of her own Party But finding all her endeavours miscarried and those of John Earl of Lincoln were come to nothing her old Inveterate temper prompted her with new Expedients more difficult for Henry to prevent She met a young man at Tourney who was handsom
the Pursuit believing the old Governour Gerald Earl of Kildare favoured them underhand wherefore he cunningly seized his Person and brought him to the King before whom this Earl so pleaded his Cause that he was sent back and restored to his Government being thought the most prudent way in that Conjuncture because of his great Interest and Authority with the Irish While these things were transacting in England Warbeck was extreamly grieved his Conspiracy was discovered and many of his chiefest Friends Executed Yet he notwithstanding resolved to cross the Sea accompanied by a great number of Vagabonds such Fugitives as would follow him 'T is true he had some Lords and good Captains in his Train to strengthen his hopes of the Crown His Fleet came upon the Coast of Kent where the weather being calm he Landed some of his Men for the better securing or persuading the Country People to his Party But the Impostor was already known every where and they had suffered much Misery and Desolation in the late Wars They knew the Soldiers of this false Richard were all Strangers who would make no distinction of Friends or Enemies where they were strong enough to Plunder and Pillage nor have respect to Churches or Places Sacred believing God had left them since several of their Party had been put to shameful deaths as a punishment of their Guilt Wherefore these Inhabitants endeavoured to destroy this Counterfeit by persuading him to Land all his Men promising to give notice to their Neighbours and make a considerable body while he prepared for his March Perkin distrusted their Intentions knowing the common People use no Ceremony in their Emotions but run on without Reason or Deliberation Therefore he resolved not to Land himself but to venture part of his Men who were no sooner out of sight when the Country People Charged them driving them back to the Sea so that only the most Nimble and most Cowardly escaped the Stoutest and Robust were killed or wounded The latter were not treated as Prisoners of War but like Pirats and Thieves 150 being Hanged along the Shore The King himself was on his March from London against these Vagabonds till meeting the news of their Defeat he returned sending only Sir Richard Guilford to thank the Kentishmen for their Loyalty and assure them of his Grace and Favour incouraging them to persist in the same Fidelity and Zeal for his Interest Though this ill success troubled Warbeck and his Friends who returned to Flanders they gave not over for it taking new Resolutions of Landing in Ireland and Levying Men there for the Invading the Western parts of England And if that failed to go for Scotland which Nation had never Peace long with the English His Aunt giving him Money for the equipping a Fleet and making some Levies He Sayled with good Weather to the Irish Coasts where he soon found the inequality between those unarmed unexperienced People and the English Forces yet not daring to expose his Men to the Slaughter he rather chose the other Project of passing into Scotland where James the Fourth was not displeased at the Arrival of a Person so much discours'd of through all Europe out of the Aversion his People had for the English giving him Access to his Royal Person where Polydore Virgil says he made this Speech I know Great Prince you cannot be Ignorant what Calamities have late befallen the Family of Edward the Fourth King of England whose Son I assure your Majesty I am having by a Miracle escaped Death My Father e're he dyed made Richard Duke of Glocester my Uncle Guardian to Edward my Elder Brother and my self hoping the great kindness he always favoured him with would oblige him to more tenderness of us But alas how was he deceived for our Guardian became our Murderer Transported by his Ambition of Reigning he gave his positive Commands for our Destruction The Person he instructed with his Orders frighted with the horror of the Crime obey'd but half his Instructions For after he had taken away my Brother's sparing my life he suffered a faithful Servant to convey me out of the Kingdom who left me not till I was past all danger By these Methods my Vncle Richard seized the Crown as if it had been the Reward of his Crimes whilst I after this Deliverance wandring about the World almost forgot who I was At last coming to my Aunt Margaret Widow of that most excellent Prince Charles late Duke of Burgundy she received me with unspeakable joy as risen from the dead But that Princess having only her Joynture in Flanders and not able to assist me with Force enough for the recovery of my Kingdom I have been constrained to have Recourse to other Princes And by her advice I am come to Your Majesty though slenderly accompanyed Yet knowing your Princely Generosity which has filled the World with your Glory particularly for your Inclination to protect the Vnhappy Dispossessed of their Rights who becoming Objects of the Cruelty of wicked Men are so much the greater of Your Royal Clemency This encourages me to implore Your Majesty's Assistance for this Vnhappy Prince here before You for the Recovery of his antient Kingdom And I assure you I and my Successors will so acknowledge Your Majesty's Grace and Favour that this Crown will not repent the Kindness though to say truly it is above all we can do to express our Gratitude as we ought King James answer'd his Speech very civilly exhorting him to take Courage and assure himself he should not repent his coming thither He Assembled his Council who were much divided in their Opinions some taking him for an Impostor others whose Advice prevailed affirming that if he were the true Duke of York both He and all his Posterity must acknowledge this Favour and for it be obliged to Scotland Or although he should prove a Counterfeit this Pretence of War would make the English treat with more inclination to grant what they desired for the dis-engaging the Scots from his Interest This last Advice was followed by the King who shewed Perkin extraordinary Respects stiling him Highness and Duke of York And to advance his Credit he married him to his Kinswoman Katharine Daughter of Alexander Earl of Huntley a Lady of incomparable Beauty and Vertue whose Obedience to the King rather than the Ambition of having her Head Crowned one day with a Royal Diadem o're-came the Repugnance she had in her Heart to marry a Man so unknown whom many called an Impostor The Motives which perswaded the King to this Match were for a specious Pretext of War and breaking the Truce with the English He being by this obliged to protect his new Kinsman and Ally without being accounted rash in his Assistance if the Deceit should be discovered for this Marriage must needs perswade the World he thought him the true Duke of York King James raised Men and formed an Army which you will suppose gave the Impostor great
Paternal Grand-mother Sister to the same Emperor and of the Cardinal Henry his Great Uncle A Desire to Augment his Glory by setting a Moorish Prince on the Throne of Fez in Africa imitating Alexander the Great who at his Age passed the Hellespont for the Conquest of Asia Perswaded him to do the same over the Straights of Gibraltar for the Subjugating Africk his Ancestors having shewed the way especially King Don Emanuel whose Heroick Vertues frequent Prosperities and Signal Victorys had vanquish't and made Tributary several Kings in those Extream Parts of the World Chiefly by the Conduct of the Famous Don Alphonso Albuquerque and also through his Care to plant the Christian Faith which Justly made him esteemed one of the Greatest and most Happy Princes in the World The same Motives of Religion and Glory with the Hopes that Muley Mahomet or Muley Hamet King of Fez whom he undertook to re-establish in the Throne would according to his Promise embrace the Christian Religion perswaded him to this most Unhappy Enterprize and as the Marquis of Pisani then Ambassador for the Crown of France in the Spanish Court declares That he was also push't on to this Engagement by the Vnsound and Pernicious Counsels of the Jesuites I have Read in their Catechism That this Prince being a Jesuite in his Heart would not Marry they having often sollicited him to make a Law That for the future none should be King of Portugal but a Jesuite and Elected by their Order as the Pope is by the Cardinals And because this young Prince could not or to say truely durst not condescend to it though Superstitious enough they assured him that God had so ordained it as he should understand by a Voice from Heaven when he came to the Sea-side so that he several times expected it but these good Apostles for so they called them in Portugal could not so well carry on their Mummery to procure the Voice However they so followed these Impressions as carryed him into this unhappy War in the Flower of his Age being about Twenty Two Years Old This Disaster one of the most terrible that ever the Sun beheld was presaged the Year before it happened that is in 1577. by the Appearance of a Prodigious Comet seen in the Ayr when all Portugal was in Armes Nunquam visus Terris impune Cometes if you believe the Poet. I will not leave my Subject to seek further any Reasons of the War That having been at large declared by Giovanni Botero Benese Abbot of St. Michael de la Chiusa in his first Volume of his General Description of the World which was augmented by Pierre Daviti of Tournay and continued by Me in the Year 1660. Cherif Xeque King of Fâ—z and Morocco gave his Kingdoms to his Sons Successively excluding his Grand-sons Abdalla Successor of Xeque to Frustrate his Fathers Will put all his Brothers to Death who were very Numerous being born of many Wives after the Mahumetan Fashion Only Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck and Hamet sled to Constantinople for the saving their Lives and for a better Expectation of the Crown to exclude their Nephews the Sons of Abdalla according to their Father's Establishment Muley Mahomet the Son of Abdalla tryed to secure his Fathers Scepter to the Prejudice of the Substitution made in his Uncles Favour And in truth Justice was on his side it being the Natural Order of Succession However his Uncle Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck assisted by the Turks beat him three several times This made him Cross the Sea to Implore the Assistance of King Don Sebastian who moved with hopes of converting the Moores through more Zeal than Prudence and heightned by his Desire of Glory heard the Affrican Kings Protestations from whom he promised himself great Advantages for the Christian Religion for the Reputation of his Name and the Utility and Profit of his Subjects With these Notions he passed the Seas at the Head of a very Powerful Army and joyning with Muley Mahomet he gave Battle to Muley Abdelmeleck near the City Alcazer on the Plains of Tamista in the Year 1578. where to his great Unhappiness his Army was defeated with an extream Slaughter and he doing the Office of a Valiant Captain was there kill'd Though the Portuguezes have always believed and yet affirm his Escape from the Fight into Italy where many saw him as we shall after declare Muley Moluc or Abdelmeleck in the Beginning of this Action was taken with an Appoplexy and carryed to his Tent where he dyed just when his Enemies were upon the Point of Flying Hamet his Brother Reaping the Sole Fruit of this Victory Mahomets Body was carefully sought for by his Order and being found his Skin was slayed off and stufft with Straw to be carryed before him at his triumphant Entry into the City of Fez. This Mahomet left a Son called Chirissi whom his Uncle Albequerin brought into Spain where turning Christian by the Munificence of Philip the Second he was made Commendator of the Order of S. James though commonly called the Prince of Morocco Some years after this King Don Sebastian came back out of Affrica But whether he were the True or an Impostor the World seems yet divided in their Opinions Daniel Hawley an Irish Man of the Order of St. Dominick called Arch-bishop of Goa when he was Ambassador in France from Alphonso the Sixth King of Portugal told me in Paris That he was fain to refuse the Licensing a Book which said This King Don Sebastian had lost his Life in that Battle of Alcazer till he had Obliged the Author to change his Language and Opinion And at this present to say That he was an Impostor and not the true Don Sebastian that returned from Affrica is forbidden and Criminal in Portugal Peter Mathâ—â—a in his History of Henry the Great in the Third Book and Mademoiselle des Jâ—â—â—â—as in the Seventh Part of her Aâ—nales Gallantes in the Eighth History tells by what good Fortune this young Prince got from among the Dead and how he wandred from the Field of Battle I will not determâ—ne any thing on the likelyhood or real Truth of the Action She says That this King though he were promised and engaged to Many the Princess Mary his near Kinswoman Daughter of Edw. Duke of Braganza and Isabel one of the Daughters of King Don Emanâ—eb fell so much in Love with Xerine Daughter of Muley Moluc who being born of a Greek was much whiter than Affricans commonly are that he promised to Marry her and underhand bring what Obstacles he could against the Dispensation to Marry his Cousin German This Moorish Princess understanding Don Sebastians Defeat whom she dearly Loved despiseing the Crowns of Fez and Morocco for the Hopes of that of Portugal and Transported with a Grief even to Despair Rann ere the Day-brake to the Plains of Tamista only accompanyed with Laura a Christian Slave her Confident resolving to Sacrifice her self with her own Hand on the Body of
their Subject This so possest the Dutchess with Rage and Jealousy that she destroy'd all she had before done for him and declared him an Impostor Xerine came soon after into Portugal to sollicite the Establishment of her Husband purely moved by her own Conjugal Affection notwithstanding his Ingratitude and had she come before he had left the Dutchess her Resentment might have been more Fatal Mademoiselle des Jardins contrary to the Idea that Strada gives of her says Her anger was the more Justifyable having granted this Counterfeit Sebastian many innocent Favours which this Accident made her think Criminal Her Aversion bearing a Proportion to her Former Kindness made her fly from one Extream to another She sent and declared to the Estates That he was a Counterfeit which she had discovered by the many Contradictions and different Stories she found him in Making a Voyage into Portugal more to raise him Enemies for his Perfidiousness than for the obtaining her Son Rainuccio that Crown And as her Anger saw plainer than her Love so it was more Active The Circumstances of the true Sebastians Death were examined by the Assembly of the Estates His defeat at Tamista was not so general but that several Persons of Note could give an Account of their Princes Fate They all affirmed They had followed him to the Side of the River Mucazen Some added They saw him drowned there And others said They had like to have perish't by endeavouring to Save him This Story no way agreed with what Xerine affirmed of finding him in the middle of the Battle But that which made most against him was the Account she gave of the Cloths he was wounded in The King's Officers affirming that they were no way like those he had on that Day But Nature had made the Subject so like the Prince and he so supported the Resemblance by his Wit and Courage that they knew not what to resolve The more they examined the greater Difficulties arose It was a horrid Crime to refuse their Lawful Prince his Crown And it could be no less to give it to an Impostor But the Death of the Counterfeit determined the Matter The Politicians look't on this Union of Don Sebastian with the Moors as very dangerous to Portugal He had Married Xerine by a most Signal Infidelity charmed with her Beauty before he came to Affrica She drew him from among the Dead and was Married to him before the Old Prince Boabdelin at Hoscore and it was impossible to bring any Obstacle by reason of the Difference of Religion she having promised to become a Christian and kept her word as soon as she Landed in Portugal Mademoiselle des Jardins says The Pretended Sebastian was with an Army raised in his Favour upon the Frontiers of Portugal where it is separated from the Kingdom of Oviedo and that being obliged to Fight his Ambition made his Courage so rash that he was made a Prisoner and carried to Lisbon where his Adversaries talked of no less than punishing his Insolence by a shameful Death But this supposed King died in Prison leaving great Suspicions that his Death was hastened He desired to see Xerine before he dyed and the last Breath being a Touch-Stone to the Artinces of Life he confest to this Princess of Morocco That he was not the King of Portugal and Conjured her not to disturb the Election after his Death This Declaration he found necessary for the Peace of his Conscience Xerine having had a Son by him who might have caused much disturbance He could not make such a Confession without great Signes of Remorse Crying Ah Madam I have deceived you more ways than one yet I can but weakly reproach my self for the Deceit which made me your Husband I should do it more not to have used it when in my Power than I can think my self Guilty for the accepting so great a Glory But Madam That which makes me Dye in Despair is That once I ceased to Love you for the hopes of a Crown which I obtained not and which a Thousand Accidents might take from me if I had gained it I was on the point of Renouncing a Heart that all the Diadems upon Earth could not justly Meritâ—â— Afflict not your self said the Generous Princess with 〈◊〉 too late and unuseful Repentance I Loved the Person of Don Sebastian more than the Splendour of his Condition I thought I had met that Person in you Those charmes which first touch't me have lost none of their Priviledge because they were not placed in a Monarch though I confess I should never have observed them in an Ordinary Man Neither my Spirit nor my Birth would have permitted me to Consider whom I had not thought a Prince but my Error became dear to me and is so still for all it is Fatal to my Peace The Name of Husband is so sacred to a Woman truely Vertuous that it wipes out any Stain which accompanies it Therefore try to overcome your Illness my dear Prince pardon that Name Fortune said she lifting her Eyes to Heaven might have given it where she gave me Rescue your self from the Arms of Death if it be possible it may be we may find you a Happiness more serene and easy than that which is denied you in Portugal He was so moved with this Excess of Generosity that he could no longer suffer the Transports of it But expired in the Arms of the Passionate Xerine whose Soul with much difficulty staid behind This Man had in the highest Degree abused the Princesses mistakes and the unconstancy which followed the first Fault was more Injurious than the Crime it self But Xerine truely Loved the Counterfeit Don Sebastian and religiously fulfilled his Desire as soon as her Grief permitted retiring into Affrica without giving the least Disturbance to the Competitors of the Crown I acknowledge to have borrowed the most agreeable Part of this Relation from Mademoiselle des Jardins her Annales Gallantes P. Mathieu in his History of Henry the Great says That Sebastian wandred through many of the Courts of Italy till he fell into the hands of the Viceroy of Naples who sent him to Philip the Second King of Spain By an Effect of whose Policy he dyed in Prison out of the sight of the World and without Witnesses He passed through all Christendom except in Portugal since the late Revolutions in 1639. for an Impostor CHAP. X. THE LIFE OF THE COUNTERFEIT Voldemar Elector and Marquis of Brandenbourg THis Man has past for an Impostor in the Opinion of most Historians as Hen. the Monk of Rebdorff in his Chronicle John Cuspinian in his Lives of the Emperors Nicholas Lutinger in his Life of Frederic the First of that Name Elector of Brandenburg and John Leunclavius in his Pandects of the Turkish History c. For my own Part after examining the Circumstances of his Story I am apt to conclude in his Favour and pity this Princes Disafter in losing his Country and being decryed by
so many Pens for a Counterfeit and placed in the number of Notorious Impostors whose Lives we treat of But this is the true History Voldemar the Second Marquis and Elector of Brandenburg was the Thirteenth descended in a Right Line from Albert de L'Ours of the Family of the Earls of Ascagne who bore that Dignity From which Albert are also descended the Dukes of Saxon Lavemburg and the Princes of Anhalt Voldemar was the Son of Henry stiled Without Land who dyed in 1313. and of Agnes or as others say Matilda de Sangerhuse the two Electors John the Third and Voldemar the First who preceded him were his great Uncles whom he Succeeded He had scarcely been three years Elector when a Fit of Devotion according to the Custom of those Times perswaded him to go a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land He left his Brother John the Fourth in Possession of his Country and discharged all his Servants except two whom he reserved for his Voyage not giving his Brother his Relations nor Subjects any Account which way he travelled nor what adventures befell him in his Journey For indeed there were then no Posts in use it being difficult sending from Forreign Countrys unless by express Messengers Voldemar believed he had taken sufficient Care of the Succession his Brother being only left alive of the Eldest Branch though in a short time there had been Nineteen Persons of the same who by Wars and Inveterate contentions for Avarice and Ambition drew God's displeasure on the Family and were suddenly scattered like the Dust of the Earth He obliged his Subjects not to receive the Princes of Anhalt who were of their House of the Counts of Ascagne for this Sovereigns in Case his Brother and He should dye without Heirs This their Subjects had Sworn justly to obey and execute But it not being Authorized by the Electors nor approved in the Empire the Emperor Lewis thought he had Power to dispose of it when he should receive News of Voldemar's Death He left his Country in the Year 1322 and appeared not till Three and Twenty Years after being in 1345. His Brother who govern'd in his Absence dyed Four and Twenty Days after he departed I know not whether by Sickness or Poison However Lewis of Bavaria then possessing the Empire disposed of the Electorate investing in it his Eldest Son Lewis by his First Wife Beatrix of Poland as a vacant Fief of the Empire Most of the German Histories tell this much in Favour of the House of Bavaria as follows Rodolph Duke and Elector of Saxony design'd to take the Electorate of Brandenbourg from Lewis of Bavaria Son to the Emperor Lewis the Fourth who had Invested him in it after the Death of John the Fourth State-holder and Governor of Brandenburg in the Absence of Voldemar his Elder Brother Rodolph pretended that being of the House of Ascagne of which Voldemar was the Head He ought to possess it before any Other or at least some Prince of his Family since Two Electorates could not possibly be in one and the same Person The better to compass his Design he reported his Cousin the Elector Voldemar was alive who had not appeared in Twenty Three Years Till understanding how matters went after many Pilgrimages to Holy Places like an ordinary Man and having escap't from the Captivity and Imprisonment of the Infidels he was now returned to his Country and to personate this Prince he brought on the Stage for a Principal Actor in this Tragedy a Miller of Landrestaw or as others say of Beltztize called James Rebok a Cunning Fellow and a Subtle Lyer being near the Age of Voldemar with something of his Meen Shape as much as so many years absence the changing of his Hair the Misery and Trouble he had suffered with the Weakness of Age could allow or perswade He had Lived many Years in Saxony where he was throughly instructed in the Life and Family of Voldemar His Application and Address made his Deceit very Successful for to all Persons he seemingly gave eminent Proofs that he was no Counterfeit but the true Marquis Voldemar The noise of his Return from Palestine and Turky where he had so many Years been detained spread through the Country and all Germany over he being assisted by the Emperor Charles the Fourth who was also King of Bohemia Grand-son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh who brought that Dignity into his Family of Luthzelburg This Prince recommended him to the Cyrcles of the Empire and severely treating many of his Enemies The Occasion of his Enmity to Lewis the Elector was because he got from his Brother Henry Margaret Countess of Tyrol with her vast Fortune His other Friends were the Dukes of Brunswick Pomerania and Mekelbourg the Arch-Bishop of Magdebourg Primate of Germany besides Fifteen others The most Zealous for his Interest being those of his own Family the Duke of Saxony and the Princes of Anhalt so that he wanted very little of expelling the Elector Lewis of Bavaria Voldemar presently Summoned an Assembly in the Year 1348. The Circle and near all the Nobility of the Marquisate acknowledging him for their Prince reiterated their Loyalty and Homage being transported with Joy to see their Antient Master His Old Subjects either touched with the Misfortunes and Calamities which he had suffred or pleased with Novelty being weary of the Bavarian Dominion after having Experimented the Glory and Justice of Voldemars Family the space of One Hundred and Eighty Years They lent him Mony to acquire his Right and drive out Lewis All the Citys in the Marquisate declaring for him except Francfort on the Oder Spandaw and Brizack Lutinger observes in the Two and Twentieth Book of his Commentarys of Brandenburg that the Family of Lockhow one of the Greatest in the Marquisate continued on Lewis's Side having the Principal Commands in his Army during the War which lasted Nine Years with various Success according to the Chance of Fortune Voldemar King of Denmark whose Name seemed a good Augury to Voldemar the Elector was nevertheless quite contrary for Carion in the Fifth Book of his Chronicle says He was the First that stop'd the Course of his Victorys and prevented his absolute Repossessing his Country Cassimir King of Poland Lewis called the Roman for his being Born at Rome Brother by a Second Venter to the Elector Lewis the Duke of Stetin that Dutchy being then separate from Pomerania with many Lords of Poland and Silesia then assisted Lewis Notwithstanding which Voldemar the Assailant gain'd a very Signal Battle absolutely defeating the Army of Lewis his Rival commanded by Lewis the Roman his Brother who very hardly himself escaped The Duke Rodolph Palatin of the Rhyne with Seventy nine Gentlemen bearing Shields of Arms of which number were Forty of Poland Fourteen being of the Family of Lettizia he maâ—e Prisoners of War and Trophies of his Victory This Blow extreamly lessened Lewis's Courage and reduced his Affairs to such a Point that many
Cities opened their Gates to the Governour Lewis tired with the War which according to Carion in his Life of the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria lasted Nine whole Years though Lunclavius in his German History mentions Three only went into his Earldom of Tyrol which he had had by his Wife Margaret Daughter of Henry Duke of Carinthia and Earl of Tyrol leaving the Marquisate and Electorate of Brandenbourg to his Brothers Lewis of the same Name sirnamed the Roman with Otho his Youngest The Emperour Charles the Fourth confirming by his Letter Pattents at Budissine in the Year 1350. his Transferring the Electorate to his two said Brothers This Emperour Charles had as we may say extreamly longed for the Electorship being vext that the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria had been more Fortunate than he in disposing it to his Eldest Son when the Death of Voldemar was reported Lewis the Eldest of the Three Brothers in Possession of Brandenbourg deceased in 1361. and Maynard his Eldest Son left the World before he was Fourteen Years old though Married yet having no Heirs He was born in 1349. and dyed in 1363. The Two remaining Brothers the Roman and Otho consented by their Agreement with the Emperour Charles to exclude their nearest Relations if they dyed without Heirs Male and substitute Winceslaus his Eldest Son Elector But if neither He nor the Emperour left a Son then it should pass to John Marquis of Moravia They allowed Winceslaus to use the Arms and Title of Marquis of Brandenbourg obliging their Subjects to swear Allegiance to him This Agreement was signed at Nuremberg in 1363. where it is still to be seen Now the Roman dying without Children in 1366. left in possession hereof Otho his Brother Son-in-law to the Emperour by the Marriage of his Daughter Agnes who being also without Children consented to sell the Marquisate and Electorate of Brandenbourg in his Life-time for Two Hundred Thousand Hungarian Ducats to the same Emperour Charles his Father-in-law and to his Eldest Son Winceslaus there being delivered to Otho several Towns in Bohemia as Pawns for a Security till Payment of the whole Sum. Thus the Electorate of Brandenbourg after having with various Fortune been One and Fifty Years possest by Voldemar and his Party was by the Three Sons of the Emperour Levis of Bavaria conveyed into the Family of Lutzelbourg where it remained Four and Forty Years being governed by State-holders in the Reigns of the Emperours Winceslaus and Sigismond which last sold and absolutely disposed of both this Marquisate and Eleotorate to his Favourite Fredrick de Zoltern the Burggrave of Nuremberg whom he had before made Governour Giving him the Investiture at the Council of Constance with great Ceremony the last Day of April being the Eve of St. Philip and Jacob and the Year 1415. Since which time the Heirs-Male descended in a Right Line from the before-mentioned Frederick have justly possest and gloriously governed the Countries of the Marquisate and Electorate of Brandenbourg But let us return to Voldemar What Lunclavius says of his being Condemned and Burnt alive for his Imposture is not true though he affirms it in the Chronicle of Germany Translated by him But it is most certain that he died of a Natural Death not at a Place called Korckei or at Stendeil in 1322 but at Dessaw in 1354 Nine Years after his Return and was buried in the Chappel called The Holy-Ghost which is the ordinary Place of Sepulture for the Princes of Anhalt as is testified by the Chronicle of Magdebourg The Reasons which oblige me to believe he was the True Voldemar contrary to the Opinion of those Historians whom we have cited are the Attestations of the Princes of his Family who then were the Electors of Saxony the Dukes of Lavemboâ—rg and the Princes of Anhalt which two last Branches are still in being These Princes would not have so much abused themselves to give such Honours to an Impostor nor have mingled his Ashes with Theirs who without doubt are one of the most Illustrious Sovereign Houses of Europe I have heard John George Head of the House of Anhalt Earl of Ascagne Lord of Zerbst and Bernberg Governour of the Provinces of the Marquisate of Brandenbourg say That he kept his Seal and believed him the True Elector Secondly The Arch-bishop of Magdebourg Primate of Germany a Man of great Vertue would never have owned him there being no Advantage in doing it and giving an ill Example to so many People Nor would the Emperor Charles the Fourth of whom we have been speaking and those other Princes have exposed their Lives and caused the Effusion of so much Blood for an Impostor Thirdly The ill Agreement where this pretended Counterfeit was born Sometimes he was a Miller of Landreslaw at other times of Beltzize which convinces me it is rather an Imposture to perswade it And further There was a Letter from the Electoral Colledge writ to the Pope at that time who had been a Cisterian Monk named James Tournier but then Bennet the Twelfth born at Saverdun in the Earldom of Foix. This Letter was sent Sixteen Years after his Absence and Seven before his Return in which his Name is with the rest of the Electors Henry Arch Bishop of Mayence Dean of the Electoral-Colledge is the first after him Baldwin Arch-Bishop of Treves Walram of Collen and this Voldemar the First of the Secular Electors that is before Rodolph Palatine and Rodolph Duke of Saxony contrary to the common Method of Precedence for sometimes the Younger let the Elder precede them out of Respect as the Elector of Saxony did to Joachim the Second Elector of Brandenbourg whom he always called Father Though there is no Date to this Letter it declares That they agreed on the Fifteenth of July 1338 to meet at Rinsse on the Rhyne near Franckfort and treat of Affairs of Importance which was to advertise the Pope that neither He nor his Successors could have any thing to do in the Election of Emperors either by their Consent Approbation or Confirmation or any other Matter belonging to it as likewise to oblige him to revoke his Excommunication against the Emperour Lewis This Letter is to be seen in the Archives of the Elector Palatine The ingenious Marquard Freherus one of his Councellors has inserted it in a Volume of the German History from Charlemaine to Frederick the Third It is to be observed that the Family of the Palatinate is the same with Bavaria and made War to extirminate Voldemar as an Impostor Therefore there was much Contradiction and Absurdity in these Elector's Proceedings who writ to the Pope in favour of the Emperour Lewis of Bavaria who had given the Electorate of Brandenbourg to his Son as vacant by the Death of Voldemar in putting his Name to this Letter if they believed him Dead for that was doing a notable Prejudice to Lewis Son of this Emperour who then possest the Dignity of Elector and the Marquisate to own
say Amissus fuit in Temiriano praelio The others escaped who were Lemir Solyman Isa Zelebis Zultan Muchemet and Casan Zelebis who was then very young I will not meddle with the Accidents Wars and Murders which happened amongst them only relate how after the Death of Lemir Solyman in the Year of Christ 1423. which is of the Hegyra 824 Amurath his Son being newly Placed on his Throne Twenty Years after Tamberlain's Famous Victory a certain Man called Dusmes Mustapha pretending to be the Son of Can Gilderum or Bajazet appeared in Romania And although Mahomet the First and Amurath the Second was assured that he was killed at Mount Stella yet the Grecian Emperor Emanuel Paleologus would never believe it but always thought him the true Mustapha and by giving him his utmost Assistance pulled many Unhappinesses on his own Head Amurath offered him great Advantages not to meddle with their Quarrel but to let them determine it among themselves with their own Arms. Carion in his Chronicle speaks not of Mustapha as an Impostor but says that the Greeks perceiving Amurath to raise the Ottoman Name and Power after that Fatal Overthrow at Mount Stella where his Grandfather lost both his Glory and Liberty and that he attacked all the little Christian Princes who had dependance on the Eastern Empire to extirminate one after another by their Spoils seeking to repair his own Losses though they most Religiously observed the Peace with his Father Wherefore the Greeks then brake it also taking out of Lemnos his Uncle Mustapha whom they had kept there under a sure Guard as a Rival capable of frustrating his Designs for which purpose they gave him all Imaginable Assistance that he might disposess Amurath and obtain the Empire for himself This Prince whither True or False is uncertain lived sometimes at Verdari a little City of Thessaly bearing the Name of a River which runs by it where severall Lords of the Family of the Eurenoses took his Party Assisted with whose Forces he Besieged the City Serra which with its Fortress he forced to a Surrender This great Success exalted his Hopes and gave him Courage to attempt Adrianople then Capital of the Ottoman Empire whose Inhabitants had a Favorable Opinion both of his Person and Title opening their Gates at his Approach and swearing Fidelity to him All Romagna followed their Example and submitted to his Government yet he still continued his Residence at Verdari Sultan Amurath thinking on little but his Pleasures at Bursa where he then kept his Court or Port heard what Progress Mustapha had made and sent against him Bassa Bajazet with a considerable Army but when he came before Adrianople this Trayterous Bassa abandoned his Conscience and his Honour joining with Mustapha's Army for Recompence of which Treason he was made Vizier which is like Chancellor or Prime Minister of State Zunaites Prince of Smyrna who had been Prisoner with the Impostor Mustapha in the strong Fortress of Monemuasia which was the antient Epidaurus armed also for him The Turks call'd this Man Chusines He raised a considerable Body of Men composed for the most part of Azapes being foot who fight with Bows and Arrows Laonicius supposes these to have been an Auxiliary of Strangers He gave great priviledges to all those who took up Arms in his Favour and that freely embraced his Party Having raised this Army he left Adrianople and Marched streight to Bursa and on the way finding his new Vizier the Bassa Bajazet was conspiring against him he caused him to be Excecuted publickly as a Traytor within one days Journey of Bursa Thus paying with an Ignominious Death his double Treason In the mean while Amurath advised with his Bassa's how he might best defend himself from the Storm that threatned him They counsell'd him to release out of Prison Mechemet Beg Chief of the Michalogli of whom Lunclavius in the Twenty Seventh Chapter of his Pandects gives this account Osman one of the Chief Heads of the Ottoman-Family the better to Establish his Greatness made a Friendship and Allyance with Three little Princes by whose Assistance he extraordinarily advanced his own Affairs and gained many great Victories over the Christians One of these Princes was called Michael another Mark both of the Eastern Imperial Family and the Third a Turk named Aurami From which Three were descended the most Considerable Persons then in the Ottoman-Empires Still retaining the Names of the Son of Michel Mark and Aurami or Michalogli Marcalogli and Auramogli the Turkish Pronounciation calls the last Eurenosogli whom Mustapha had on his side as Amurath had the Micaloglis and above all Beg Mechemet the Instrument of his Good Fortune who extirminated his Rival in this manner Amurath recalled him to the Port from Nisar the antient Nicocesaria often called also Tocat the Chief City of Capadocia where he was under Restraint kept like a Prisoner giving him with his Liberty the Command of his Army Mechemet without staying at Bursa March't to Lupadi or Vlabat a considerable Town in Natolia encamping near the Bridge Dusmes Mustapha likewise advanced with his Army on the other side of it opposite to him Mechemet apprehending the Danger of a Battle saw that Dusmes his Army was no way to be forced thought on a Stratagem more for his purpose He then in Disguise went to the Enemy's Guards and being one of the greatest Men among the Turks made himself known to them desiring to speak with the Officers that were his Friends to whom with Substantiall Evidence he represented and proved the Imposture of Dusmes Mustapha with the Interest the Greeks were able to make of their Division by indeavouring to set up a base unknown Impostor and Creature of theirs on the Ottoman Throne Telling them also what Recompences Amurath would give them Mechemet with the Sentiment of the Christian Religion had also renounced and disclaimed the Blood of the Imperial Family of Greeks of whom he was descended By this and other Arts he drew to his Master Amurath's side the most considerable Lords and Souldiers in Dusmes Army as Laonicius reports at large which over-threw all his Affairs without Hopes of any Re-establishment reducing him to the utmost Extremities Dusmes Mustapha and Amurath both sent Ambassadors to the Emperor of Constantinople Johannes Paleologus to obtain his Assistance making great Offers and solliciting his Ministers with mighty Promises This Affair was much debated in the Councel of State The Reasons of both Sides being considered the Emperor declared for Mustapha who was his Creature whom he had begun to oblige when he was in Prison And therefore promised himself more from his gratitude than Amurath would ever do This had great Reason to fright Amurath's Party and doubtless had it been known the greater part of his Captains would have declared for his Enemy But his Ambassadors foreseeing the danger of such a Report returned with speed after this denyal to give the Army an Account of their Expedition but Mechemet the