its worthiness Dr. Heylin termeth Primus in Historia When at last being desirous of his liberty he studied his exit acquainting the King with the avaritious Intelligence of a rich Mine which himself and one Captain Kemish had formerly discovered by the Informations of the Indians in the Countrey of Guiana For the obtaining of which if his Majesty would please to give him leave to make a journey thither he made no doubt but to benefit the State without prejudice to the Spaniard Which Proposition was condescended unto by the King as he then imagines he would be far enough from his Complices but he commanded to set down not onely the Countrey but the very River by which he was to enter it as also to name his ships number men and Artillery Which being known to Gundamore Leiger Ambassadour here for the King of Spain he writes to his Master with the purpose of his Voyage Upon which the King of Spain directed his Letters to all parts of the Indies to provide for his comming Nevertheless Sir Walter Raleigh prosecuted his design and having endured infinite dangers besides a tedious journey at last he came to Guyana where he was much cherished of the Indians of his acquaintance But falling desperately sick he gives order to five small ships to sail into Drinoque having Captain Kemish for their Conductour towards the Mines But passing up the River by Saint Thame they were set upon by the Spaniard whereupon they assaulted the Town and took it But in the charge Master Walter Raleigh Sir Walters son more desirous of honour then safety was slain The English finding such stout opposition that there was no way for them to obtain their purpose but onely by desperate designs the Spaniards having so fortified the passage to the Mines they were forced to return to the great grief of Sir Walter Raleigh who told Kemish upon his return that he had undone him and wounded his credit with the King past all recovery which caused Kemish desperately to kill himself And now Sir Walter Raleigh being returned into England Gundamore so exclaimed against him to the King for breach of Peace and so wrought upon his timerous disposition that he was committed to the Tower Where expecting every hour to be sacrificed to the Spanish cruelty some few dayes before he suffered he sent for Master Walter Burre who formerly printed his first Volumn of the History of the World whom taking by the hand after some other discourse he askt him how that Work of his had sold Mr. Burre returned this answer that it had sold so slowly that it had undone him At which words of his Sir Walter Raleigh stepping to his Desk reaches his other part of his History to Mr. Burre which he had brought down to the times he lived in clapping his hand on his breast he took the other unprinted part of his Works into his hand with a sigh saying Ah my Frend hath the first part undone thee the second Volume shall undo no more this ungrateful world is unworthy of it When immediately going to the fire side he threw it in and set his foot on it till it was consumed As great a loss to Learning as Christendome could have or owned for his first Volumn after his death sold thousands And now the time approached wherein he was to act his last part on the Stage of this world he first sent this following Letter to King James Sir Walter Raleigh to King James before his Trial. It is one part of the office of a just and worthy Prince to hear the complaints of his Vassals especially such as are in great misery I know not amongst many other presumptions gathered against me how your Majesty hath been perswaded that I was one of them who were greatly discontented and therefore the more likely to prove disloyal But the great God so relieve me in both worlds as I was the contrary and I took as great comfort to behold your Majesty alwayes learning some good and bettering my knowledge by hearing your Majesties discourse I do most humbly beseech your sovereign Majesty not to believe any of those in my particular who under pretence of offences to Kings do easily work their particular revenge I trust no man under the color of making examples should perswade your Majesty to leave the word merciful out of your stile for it will be no less profit to your Majesty and become your greatness then the word invincible It is true that the Laws of the Realm are as no lesse jealous of the Kings then Caesar was of Pompey's Wife for notwithstanding she was cleared for keeping company with Claudius yet for being suspected he condemned her For my self I protest it before God Almighty and I speak it to my Master and Sovereign that I never invented Treason against him and yet I know I shall fall in manibus corum à quibus non possum evà dere unlesse by your Majesties gracious compassion I be sustained Our Law therefore most merciful Prince knowing her own cruelty and knowing that she is wont to compound Treasons out of her own presumptions and circumstances and doth give this charitable advice to the King her supream Non solum sapiens esse sed misericors c. cum tutius est reddere rationem misericordiae quam judicii I do therefore on the knees of my heart beseech your Majesty from your own sweet and conformable disposition to remember that I have served your Majesty twenty years for which your Majesty hath yet given me no Reward and it is fitter I should be indebted to my Sovereign Lord then the King to his poor Vassal Save me therefore most merciful Prince that I may owe your Majesty my life it self then which there cannot be a greater debt Limit me at least my Sovereign Lord that I may pay it for your service when your Majesty shall please If the Law destroy me your Majesty shall put me out of your power and I shall have none to fear but the King of kings Walter Raleigh Being brought before the Lord Chief Justice at the Kings Bench in Westminster Hall the Attorney General demanded Execution according to the Judgement formerly pronounced against him Whereupon he was asked what he could say why he should not die according to the Law His answer was That this fifteen years he had lived by the meer mercy of the King and did now wonder how his mercy was turned into justice he not knowing any thing wherein he had provoked his Majesties displeasure and did hope that he was clear from that Judgement by the Kings Commission in making him General of the Voyage to Guiana for as he conceived the words To his trusty and well-beloved Subject c. did in themselves imply a pardon But the Court resolving otherwise he was committed into the hands of the Sheriff of Middlesex who presently conveyed him to the Gate-house in Westminster The Imputation of the first bringing in of Tobacco
Secondly for his dear Wife and Children with some passion but for her especially with most ardent affections recommending them to the Divine Providence with great confidence and assurance and desiring for them rather the blessings of a better life then of this Thirdly for the King Church and State And lastly for his enemies with almost the same ardour and affection After this sending for my Lord of Norwich and Sir John Owen I read the whole Office of the Church for Good Friday and then after a short Homily I used for the present occasion we received the Sacrament in which action he behaved himself with great Humility Zeal and Devotion And being demanded after we had done how he found himself he replyed very much better stronger and chearfuller for that Heavenly repast and that he doubted not to walk like a Christian through the vale of death in the strength of it But he was to have an Agony before his Passion and that was the parting with his Wife eldest Son Son-in-law two of his Vncles and Sir T. C. especially the parting with his most dear Lady which indeed was the saddest spectacle that ever I beheld In which occasion he could not chuse but confess a little of humane frailty yet even then he did not forget both to comfort and counsel her and the rest of his friends particularly in blessing the young Lord he commanded him never to revenge his death though it should be in his power the like he said unto his Lady He told his Son he would leave him a Legacy out of Davids Psalms and that was this Lord lead me in a plain path For Boy saith he I would have you a plain honest man and hate dissimulation After this with much ado I perswaded his Wife and the rest to be gone and then being all alone with me he said Doctor The hardest part of my work in this world is now past meaning the parting with his Wife Then he desired me to pray preparatively to his death that in the last action he might so behave himself as might be most for Gods glory for the endearing of his dead Masters memory his present Masters service and that he might avoid the doing or saying of any thing which might savour either of ambition or vanity This being done they were all carried to Sir Robert Cotton's house where I was with him till he was called unto the Scaffold and would have gone up with him but the Guard of Souldiers would not suffer me The same day he suffered he writ this following Letter to his Wife My dearest life My eternal life is in Christ Jesus my worldly considerations in the highest degree thou hast deserved let me live long here in thy dear memory to the comfort of my Family our dear Children whom God out of mercy in Christ hath bestowed upon us I beseech thee take care of thy health sorrow not afflict not thy self too much God will be unto thee better then an Husband and to my Children better then a Father I am sure he is able to be so I am confident he is graciously pleased to be so God be with thee my most vertuous Wife God multiply many comforts to thee and my Children is the fervent prayer of Thy c. March the 9. 1648. was the day appointed for his beheading as also of Duke Hamilton and the Earl of Holland A Scaffold being erected in the new Palace-yard at Westminster over against the great Hall Gate The first that mounted the same was Duke Hamilton attended with Doctor Sibbald who after much delay and many impertinent discourses hoping as it was thought for a politick Reprieve but none coming he submitted his neck to the Ax upon whom an unlucky Wit writing his Epitaph thus descants A politition yet a fool A teacher and yet went to School A Hempen cord of silken twist A Papist yet a Calvanist A meer OGYGES yet a stranger To prudence that foresees a danger Here lies hee 's but to Scotland gone No worser Hell 't is Hamilton The next that entered the lists of death was the Earl of Holland one whose oft changing from side to side had made him less acceptable in the eyes of the people though the disposition of affairs altering their postures so often may in part plead his excuse no doubt he was real in his last undertaking He came to the Scaffold attended on by Mr. Bolton having made a long speech to the people of his honest intentions for the good of the Kingdom and desiring of God that it would please him the people might look upon the posterity of the King and that they might be called in again after many fervent prayers he had his head severed from his body upon whom our forementioned Poet thus Satyrically goes on By Venus self beneath this stone Lies Holland that spruce Earle His carcase here his head is gone To Bridget his brave Girle Who makes it her memento mori While she lies close to Captain Pory Last of all our honoured Heroe mounted the Scaffold to court grim death with an undaunted brow he came not as the two-former attended with a Minister having before prepared his way for death Coming to the front of the Scaffold he said as followeth The conclusion that I made with those that sent me hither and are the cause of this violent death of mine shall be the beginning of what I shall say to you when I made an address to them which was the last I told them with much sincerity that I would pray to the God of all mercies that they might be partakers of his inestimable and boundless mercies in Jesus Christ and truly I still pray that prayer and I beseech the God of Heaven forgive any injury they have done to me from my soul I wish it and truly this I tell you as a Christian to let you see I am a Christian but it is necessary that I should tell you somewhat more That I am a Protestant and truly I am a Protestant and very much in love with the profession of it after the manner as it was established in England by the thirty nine Articles a blessed way of profession and such a one as truly I never knew none so good I am so far from being a Papist which some have very unworthily charged me withal that truly I profess to you that though I love good works and commend good works yet I hold they have nothing at all to do in the matter of Salvation my Anchor hold is this That Christ loved me and gave himself for me that is that I rest upon And truly something I shall say to you as a Citizen of the whole world and in that consideration I am here condemned to dye contrary to the Law that governs all the world that is the Law of the Sword I had the protection of that for my life and the honour of it but I will not trouble you much with this discourse because in
ENGLANDS WORTHIES The Liues of the Most Eminent Persons from CONSTANTINE the Great to OLIUER CROMWELL Late Protector Printed for N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1660. 1 C 2 K A 3 St D 4 K I 5 E d C 6 W th C 7 T B 8 R t 1 9 E t 3 10 B P 11 Sir J H 12 I C 13 H t 5 14 D B 15 E d W 16 R 3d 17 E d S 18 T W 19 T M 20 T C 21 Sr P S 22 E d L 23 W B 24 Sr F D 25 F W 26 N B 27 R E d E 28 R C 29 Sr T O 30 Sr W R 31 W C 32 T S 33 Sir F B 34 B p A 35 I D 36 D B 37 Sr H W 38 E o S 39 B p L 40 E d E 41 Sir C L 42 K C 43 L d C 44 ma M 45 B p V 46 47 O C England's WORTHIES Select LIVES of the most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to the death of Oliver Cromwel late Protector Polib Historici est ne quid falsi audeat dicere ne quid veri non audeat By WILLIAM WINSTANLEY Gent. N B London Printed for Nath. Brooke at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1660. To the Right Honourable Somerset Lord Herbert of Ragland Son and Heir of Edward Marquess of Worcester Earl of Glamorgan c. To the Right Honourable William Seimor Lord Beuchampe Grand-childe and Heir to the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hertford To the Right Honourable Charles Dormer Lord Dormer of Wing Son and Heir to the Right Honourable the Earl of Canarvan My Lords I Have chosen to present you with this Volume not onely as it is worthy of the Ages past but also of your Lordships present view the Affinity of your Blood and Greatness challenging from me no less then these prostrate respects as I could desire no firmer nor safer an Anchorage then in so proper a Dedication no despairing that my Pen hath produc'd something worthy of your entertainments as I have set before your eyes forty seven Select Lives of our English Heroes the greatest Princes the most Reverend Cleargy-men eminent States-men and valiant Souldiers all deceast As to History it self a Modern Writer expresses 't is the study of the Holy Scripture that becomes a Gentleman of the Ecclesiastical History a Christian and of the Brittish History an English man all which Qualifications in some measure meeting in your Honours as well as in this Work it self gives me some assurance that these my weak endeavours would not be unwelcome to you My Lords he that hath the Spirit and Blood of his Ancestours in his veins cannot be so much turned into a Statue as to stand still and admire the different Fortunes this mans greatness and of that mans lowness so as not onely to reflect on the tributary brooks of the former Matches of the Nobility but also to look back to matter of fact what our Predecessours have been as well as what we our selves at the present are least falling short of the imitation of their immortal actions we so strangely degenerate as not to understand what we our selves ought to be The clear Fountain flowing from the true Nobility of late being so disturbed it is the office of an honest and true Historian if not his duty to have so much of the Herald as to Register the Descents Issues worthy Acts Atchievements Mannagements of our of late so little imitated Ancestors of these several alterations in Nobility one observes there are three principle Actors on the Theater of great Families the Beginner Advancer and Ruiner in all these our uncivil troublesome times we have heard more of the latter then of the other two one experiencst though unfortunate good amongst the many mischiefs which a Civil War occasions is that in the ransacking of Studies accidentally though determined otherwise the Togati and the Armati meet several Manuscripts which otherwise would have remained useful only to private persons have been by Divine Providence miraculously preserved contrary to the intentions of the Agents whose Barbarismes had snuft out the candle to the present Age and deprived posterity of those Illustrations from which they might know that truth which otherwise they should never have been acquainted with as they endeavoured that the most remarkable Affairs of these times should have otherwise been hid under a bushel To your Honor my Lord Herbert I make this particular Address though this Dedication is joynt as in respect of your happy Assinities as you are Father-in-law to one of these youthful Branches of Honour in respect of your advantages of some years so your grandeur and experience renders you a History of your self and in respect of their tender ages another to them My Lord I know to your Honour it is no less then a Prodigy that our English Gentlemen should be more exact and refin'd in knowing the Religion Laws Governments Strengths Scites Customs and Fashions of Forreign Countreys then of their own wherein themselves are Natives which caused a deserving Historian as it were to sigh out this expression What pitty is it for a proper Gentleman to have such a crick in his neck that he cannot look so much as over his shoulder to know his own History much less so far behinde him as to reflect on actions long since performed I have presumed to intimate thus much to your Honor as you are another Burleigh or Raleigh to give better advice to your youthful Kinsmen My Lords I have chosen you as out of the Caesars to affix your names to this Epitome of Lives that as Julius was his own History and Commentary so your Honours though yet but in the abstract of time might pass it to posterity to which purpose I have chosen your united protections Since I have been writing this History there hath been no less then three alterations Regal Protectorship and now a Commonwealth I first undertook this enterprize in the time of Monarchy continued it in the short space of Protectorship and finished it in the immediate initiation of the Commonwealth in all which progressions if the Liberty of the Subjects modest prospects are shut up or not allow'd if in these days that Lots little one of truth by these present times posterity must be deprived of wise and honest men will be seriously sensible of such obstructions the maliciousness of such Machiavillians puts me in mind of what elegant Mr. Fuller cites what Naturalists observe of the Toad who before she can be surprized by death sucks up the supposed precious stone in her head which till then was but a jelly thus some men are so cowardly that they had rather have History buried with them then that the least part of civil truth should be writ whilest they live as if they deserved no Chronicle or were only to be suffered in Libellous Pamphlets which wise men scorn to cast their eyes on I confess we live in times of Jealousies nevertheless
Sleidan Speed Stow Sozomenus Sabellicus Stapleton Suetonius Spenser Sir Philip Sidney Serres Selden T Theodoritus Tibullus Tacitus Trussel Nicholas Trivet Tertullian V Victor Verstigan Virgil W Will. of Newberry Will. of Malmsbury Walsingham Weever Waller X Xenophon Z Zosimus The Reader is desired to correct these Errata's with his Pen the most material being in Sir Walter Raleigh's Life his Letter to the Duke of Buckingham should have been placed after his Voyage to Guyana PAge 17. line 30. read falne p. 24. l. 25. for Danes read English l. 32. r. depart p. 44 l. 17. r. Denmark p. 80. l. 1. r. his l. 11. r. sky p. 92. l. 6. for himself r. him p. 101. l 6. r. progress p. 129. l. 18. after enterprize r. which they refused p. 186. l. 8. r. the. p. 207. l. 12. r. they p. 228. l 27. r. bait p. 251. in the title r. Sir Walter Raleigh p. 253. l. 17. r. Rams l. 29. r. unfortunately p. 255. l. 16. r. intercessor p. 279. l. 18. r. Pallas p. 329. l. 2. r. Strafford p. 333. l. 19. r. Strafford p. 405. l. 3. r. Louden p. 477. l. 29. r. fit p. 520. l. last r. Ship p. 562. l. 33. r. tail The Names of those whose Lives are written in this Book 1 COnstantine the Great Folio 1 2 King Arthur Folio 8 3 Dunstan Folio 16 4 Edmond Ironside Folio 22 5 Edward the Confessor Folio 29 6 William the Conqueror Folio 38 7 Thomas Becket Folio 49 8 Richard the First Folio 55 9 Edward the Third Folio 66 10 Edw. the Black Prince Folio 79 11 Sir John Hawkwood Folio 88 12 Geoffery Chaucer Folio 91 13 Henry the Fifth Folio 98 14 John D. of Bedford Folio 115 15 Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick Folio 125 16 Richard the Third Folio 140 17 Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Folio 145 18 Cardinal Wolsey Folio 151 19 Sir Thomas Moor Folio 155 20 Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex Folio 170 21 Sir Philip Sidney Folio 179 22 Robert E. of Leicester Folio 186 23 The Lord Burleigh Folio 195 24 Sir Francis Drake Folio 205 25 Sir Francis Walsingham Folio 215 26 Sir Nicholas Bacon Folio 219 27 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex Folio 221 28 Sir Robert Cecil Folio 238 29 Sir Tho. Overbury Folio 241 30 Sir Walter Rawleigh Folio 250 31 Mr. Wil. Cambden Folio 261 32 Mr. Tho. Sutton Folio 268 33 Sir Francis Bacon Folio 273 34 Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester Folio 289 35 Doctor Donne Folio 298 36 George Villiers Duke of Buckingham Folio 308 37 Sir Henry Wotton Folio 319 38 Tho. Wentworth Earle of Strafford Folio 329 39 William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Folio 343 40 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex General of the Parliaments Forces Folio 350 41 Sir Charles Lucas Folio 356 42 King Charles Folio 363 43 The Lord Capel Folio 433 44 James Marquesse of Montross Folio 446 45 Bishop Usher Folio 469 46 John Lilburne Folio 479 47 Oliver Cromwel Folio 525 Englands Worthies Select Lives of the most Eminent PERSONS of the Three Nations from Constantine the Great to the Death of the late Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell COnstantine for his many Victories sirnamed the Great was Son to Constantius Emperour of Rome his Mother was named Hellena being Daughter unto Caelus a Brittish Prince though some Jews and Gentiles out of hatred to her Religion have reported her to be an Inholder or Hoastess he was born in England as all Writers affirm two petty Greek Authors only dissenting who deserve to be arraigned of felony for robbing our Country of its honor Colchester was the place where he first beheld the light as the Ancient Poet Necham sung From Colchester there rose a Star The Rayes whereof gave glorious light Throughout the world in Climates far Great Constantine Romes Emperour bright At such time as he was Caesar under Constantius his Father he was left at Rome as Hostage with Galerius the Emperour but perceiving his death to be by him attempted he posted to Brittain in all haste to his father who was newly returned to the City of York from an expedition he had made against the Picts and Caledonians Constantius at the time of his sons arrival was sick of the Plague whereof he died immediately afterwards the sight of his son at the present so revived his spirits that raising himself upon his bed he set the Crown Imperial upon his head and in the presence of his Privy Councellours spake to this effect Now is my death to me more welcome and my departure hence more pleasant seeing I shall leave my unaccomplished actions to be performed by thee my Son in whose person I question not but that my memorial shall be retained as in a monument of eternal fame What I had intended but by death prevented see thou accomplish let thine Empire be governed uprightly by Justice protecting the innocents from the tyranny of oppressours wiping away all tears from the eyes of Christians for therein above all things have I esteemed my self happy to thee therefore I commend my Diadem and their defence taking my Faults along with me to my grave but leaving my Vertues to revive and live in thee With the conclusion of which words he concluded his life leaving his Subjects sorrowful for his departure but the grief they received by the death of the Father was mittigated in the hopes they conceived of his Son who so resembled his Father in all vertuous conditions that though the Emperour was changed yet his good government remained For as one writes Sol occubuit nox nulla secuta est The sun was gone but night was none Another writes thus of him Great Constantine preserv'd by Heavens decree Of mighty Rome the Emperour to be Constantine thus chosen Emperour in Brittain was confirmed Emperour by the Senate of Rome who like the Persians adored the rising Sun giving approbation to what they could not remedy his first expedition was against the Picts and Caledonians which War his Father had begun but death prevented him to finish it leaving the prosecution thereof to his son Constantine that the Fabrick of so many victories by him atchieved might have the foundation thereof laid in Brittain nor was his success contrary to his expectation subduing the inhabitants that were most remote witnesses saith one of the suns set or going down Whilest Constantine was thus busied in Brittain Maxentius by the tumultuous souldiers was proclaimed Emperour at Rome whose sister Fausta Constantine had married but his tyrannical usurpation grew so odious to the Senate that they sent to Constantine for his aid who willingly hearkening to what they so earnestly desired prepared his forces against the new elected Emperour Maximianus the Father of the Tyrant faining to abhor the outragiousness of his son but seeking indeed to uphold him in his tyranny repaired to his Son in law Constantine with an intent to murther him but revealing his intentions to his Daughter Fausta was by her detected and being taken was
served with the same sauce he intended to serve another verifying therein the ancient Proverb He that for others digs a pit Doth oft himself fall into it Having escaped this eminent danger he makes Licinius Governour of Sclavonia Co-partner with him in the Empire and to assure him to his side gives him his sister Constantia to wife and then with an Army of 90000. Foot and 8000 Horse hasteth towards Rome against Maxentius his enemy Constantine at the time of his setting forth of Brittain was as appeareth by Authours unsettled in his Religion for though he observed the adoration of the Gods of the Gentiles to be altogether frivolous and deceitful yet was he not confirmed in the Christian Faith but was then rather of no Religion then truly of any the cause of his conversion Eusebius and other Authours write was that being in his march against Maxentius aforesaid being then piously affected to worship and to invocate the true God he cast his eyes towards the East part of the Heavens and had presented unto him the sign of a Cross wherein were stars as letters so placed that visibly might be read this sentence IN HOC VINCE this sign being seconded by the voice of Angels confirmed him in that whereof before he was doubtful so that changing the Imperial Standard to the form of this vision as one armed from Heaven he marched against his hellish Adversary Who thinking to over-reach Constantine by a stratagem framed a false bridge over the River of Tybur but the trap he set for another he fell into himself for joyning battel with Constantine and being by him overcome either for haste or forgetfulness took over the same himself which falling under him as he passed he with many more were drowned escaping thereby a more cruel and ignominious death Maximinus who then governed the East part of the Empire hearing of the prosperous proceedings of Constantine purposed the destruction of him and all his partakers but man proposeth and God disposeth for he who dreamt of nothing less then a glorious victory was himself overcome by Licinius at Tarsus where he shortly after died being eaten up with lice Licinius hereupon growing insolent his prosperous proceedings making him ambitiously mad was in conceit no less then Emperour of the whole world so that now he began to unvizard himself and to show he was not what he pretended for though before he had outwardly suffered the Christian profession yet now he raised a bloody persecution against them in the East Constantine according to his Fathers commandment which was to wipe away all tears from the Christians eyes prepared his forces against this bloody persecutor with whom he encountred in the Countrey of Hungary his success being answerable to the justness of his cause Licinius and his Army being overthrown but he afterwards recruting in a battel at Byzantium was again overthrown and taken prisoner yet by the mediation of his wife Constantia had his life spared and confined within the City of Nicomedia but he afterwards endeavouring to recover his former dignity was for his treasons afterwards put to death so that then as Mr. Speed writes the peace of Gods Saints manifestly appeared and the progress of the Gospel passed uncontrolled Maxentius Maximinus and Licinius being vanquished Constantine remained sole Emperour under whom the Christians enjoyed Halcyon dayes returning from the deserts where before they were hidden Churches were reedified Temples founded and Festival Dayes celebrated in every place And that this foundation might have as glorious a building he congregated 318 Christian Bishops in the City of Nice where divers things were decreed for the godly government of the Church in that primitive Age. His next care was to demolish and pull down idolatrous Temples and Images as the Grove and Temple of Venus in Phenicia which was a School of wickedness to those which were addicted to lust where men and women frequently committed adulteries and fornications Constantine thinking it unfit that the sun should behold such villany sent a band of Souldiers to suppress it as also the Temple of Aesculapius with the Image of Venus at Heliopolis and many such like in other places Nor was his zeal more shown in suppressing Pagan Temples then in erecting structures for the advancing of Christianity building a most magnificent Temple in the very place where our Saviours Sepulchre was though some report it to have been built by his Mother Hellena but we will not herein set the Mother and Son at odds it may be she built it at his cost or that it was built by him and dedicated by her as also those other two the one on the Mountain where our Saviour Ascended the other over the Cave where he was Born The Kingdome of Christ beginning to appear thus visibly resplendent the Devil envying the prosperity thereof raised a new sedition in Antioch the whole City being divided into two factions about the choice of a Bishop Constantine well knowing that the War of the Church was the Infidels Peace wrote perswasive letters to them to maintain peace and concord among themselves which like lenitive Physick allay'd and cool'd the hot distempers of their rage who else had certainly killed and masacred one another Hitherto is Constantine's reign commended of most but the latter part of his life applauded of few In the first beginning of his reign saith Stow he was worthy to have been compared with the chiefest Princes of the Romans but for the end thereof to be resembled to such as were of the meaner sort Eutropius and Victor tax him of cruelty for putting to death his wife Fausta and Crispus his son though he be thereof excused by Paulus Orosius and Zosimus who affirme the causes of there deaths were just However he is taxed by other writers to have more prejudiced the Roman Empire then any of his predecessours first in removing the Imperiall seat from Rome to Bizantium adorning the same with magnificent buildings and commanding all the Princes of the Empire to raise therein some memorable edifices Likewise for transporting from Rome more curious statues and other costly monuments then any twenty of his predecessours had brought thither as the Image of the Goddess Pallas supposed to be the same that Aeneas brought from Troy the Image of Apollo of an unmeasurable higness with the statues of Juno Venus and Minerva where he also built a famous Library wherein were an hundred and twenty thousand Books changing the name to Constantinople which it still retaineth unto this day Another errour of this famous Prince was his dividing the Empire between his Children for though saith our learned Dr. Heylin it was quickly again reunited yet by his example others learned the same lesson renting the Empire into many pieces which finally occasioned the loss of the whole Another defect was his translating the Legions from Brittain France and Germany unto the Eastern Countrey for a Bulwark against the Persians thereby opening a gap for the barbarous
the feast of Bacchus and Priapus of old it being a time more fit for our devotion then mirth His wife was named Guinever Daughter to the King of Biscay and near Kinswoman to Cador Duke or Earl of Cornwall a Lady who for her beauty was the miracle of her times had it not been accompained with a vicious minde not onely abusing her self by unlawfully accompanying with Mordred son to Lotho Kng of Picts but also in her husbands absence consented to be his wife so rarely is beauty and chastity found to dwell in one body that it hath caused many writers for the faults of some few to condemn the whole sex amongst the rest take these of an Epigramatist A woman is not to be credited If you will credit me though she be dead And again in another place There is not one good woman to be found And if one were she merits to be Crown'd Together with the old Adage Falere flere nere Haec tria sunt muliere Thus some in their critick fancies think all women to be bad and others again as much contrary think them all to be good certainly every man speaks as he findes and by the knowledge of one passes judgement of all the rest That they are all bad I cannot think it and that they are all good I could never finde it sure he that thought them all good was too much feminine and he that concluded them all to be bad had forgotten that ere he had a mother But to return to our History King Arthur to increase the courage of his Souldiers instituted the Order of Knights of the Round Table that he might reward the well deserving with titles of Honour none were admitted into this order but such of the Nobility as were most renouned for vertue and Chevalry they were in all the number of 150 the chiefest of them being Sir Lancelot Sir Tristram Sir Lamrock Sir Gawine and others These were all recorded for Knights of great renown and had not King Arthurs valour been most transcendent each of them might have passed for no less then a Worthy though they must fall short of the deeds of King Arthur of whom it is written that in one battel against the Saxons with his Sword named Callibourn he slew above 800 of them so much his valour exceeded all others if my Authors words exceed not the truth In twelve set Battels besides several Skirmishes is he said to have returned victor from the slaughter of the Saxons the names of the places where these battels were fought take here out of Ninius The first was at the mouth of the River Gleyn The second third fourth and fifth nigh unto the River Douglass in Lineux The sixth upon the River Bassus The seventh in the wood Calidon The eighth besides the Castle called Guynien The ninth at Carlien in Wales The tenth by the Sea side in a place called Trachenrith or Rithowode The eleventh upon a hill named Agned Cathergonien The twelfth at Bathe or Bathen-hill King Arthur in these battels having broken the force of the Saxons and not onely forced them to pay him tribute but to receive Majestrates of his appointment yet thought the glory of his actions to suffer an eclipse if his victories were atcheived onely in Great Brittain therefore with a well selected Army he passes over into Norway subduing the same with all the Regions thereabouts causing the people of those Countries to receive the Chistian Religion and obtained of the Pope to have Norway confirmed to the Crown of this Realm causing it to be called the Chamber of Brittain Then sailing into France he put Frolo Governour there for the Romans to flight and afterwards in combate manfully slew him But notwithstanding his wonderfull atchievements yet Lucius Hiberus the Roman Legate demanded of him a Tribute for Brittain which he not onely denyed but also threatned to have a tribute from Rome as appeareth in his letters sent unto the Senate where I finde it thus written in an old Manuscript Vnderstand among you of Rome that I am King Arthur of Brittain and freely it hold and shall hold and at Rome hastily will I be not to give you truage but to have truage of you for Constantine that was Hellens Son and other of mine Ancestors conquered Rome and thereof were Emperours and that they had and held I shall have yours Goddis grace and accordingly he set forward against Lucius Hiberus who with great power and vain confidence came marching against him where after a long and bloody fight the Romans were discomfited their General killed and his slain body sent to the Senate for the tribute of Brittain Whilst Arthur was thus busied in conquering Kingdoms abroad he had well near lost his kingdome at home for in his absence his Couzen Mordred confederating himself with Cerdicus King of the West Saxons usurped the kingdome which when Arthur understood he returned into Brittain and at Cambula in Cornwall this brittish Hector encountring with Mordred slew him but himself being deadly wounded was conveyed to Glastenbury where he dyed on the 21 day of May in the year of our salvation 542. when he had victoriously governed the Brittains the space of six and twenty years Here might we end his life were he not further remembred by our Modern Authours viz. how in the last year of the reign of King Henry the Second more then 600. years after the time of his death his body was found in the Church-yard of Glastenbury betwixt two Pyramides therein standing he was laid no lesse then sixteen foot deep in the ground for fear as Hollinshead writes the Saxons should have found him and surely the searchers for his body would have never digged so deep had they not at seven foot depth found a mighty broad stone to which a leaden Crosse was fastened and in that side that lay downwards in barbarous Letters according to the rudenesse of that Age this Inscription was written upon that side of the lead that was towards the stone Hic jacet sepultus inclytus Rex Arturius In Insula Avolonia Here lieth King Arthur buried in the Isle of Avalonia Nine foot deeper in the trunk of a tree was his body found buried his bones being of a marvellous bignesse the space of his forehead betwixt his two eyes if I could believe this Historians strange narration was a span broad and his shin-bone being set in the ground reached up to the middle thigh of a very tall man ten wounds appeared in his scull one whereof was very great and plain to be seen his wife Queen Guinever lay buried likewise with him the tresses of whose hair the last of our excrements that perish finely platted and of colour like the burnisht gold seemed whole and perfect until it was touched but then to shew what all beauties are it immediately fell to dust Henry de Bloys then Abbot of that house translated their bones into the great new Church for the old one was burned not long
Homero eruditus ille Italus dixit Hic ille est cujus de gurgite facro Combibit arcanos vatum omnis turba furores The deservingly honoured Sir Philip Sidney in his defence of Poesy thus writeth of him Chaucer undoubtedly did excellently in his Troylus and Crescid of whom truly I know not whether to marvail more either that he in that misty time could see so clearly or that we in this clear age walk so stumblingly after him And Doctor Heylin in his elabourate Description of the World ranketh him in the first place of our chiefest Poets Seeing therefore that both old and new Writers have carried this reverend conceit of him and openly declared the same by writing let us conclude with Horace in the eighth Ode of his fourth Book Dignum Laude causa vet at mori Gower and Chaucer were both of the Inner Temple Mr. Buckley a learned Gentlemen of those times gives an account of a Record he read in the same Inner Temple wherein Geofery Chaucer no friend to the covetous and leacherous Cleargy-men of those times was fined two shillings for beating of a Franciscan Frier in Fleet-street a considerable sum money was so scarce in those dayes I intended to have presented the world with the lives of three more of the most eminent of our modern Poets viz. Mr. Edmond Spenser Michael Drayton Esquire and Mr. Benjamin Johnson not that I could thereby imagine to add unto their fames they having built themselves everlasting Monuments in their never dying Works but out of a desire to imitate forreign writers who have ever done their Worthies that right I have not been wanting of a most diligent inquiry but as yet I cannot meet with any of their friends and honorers that are able to render me so full and happy an account of them as that I might have registred them in this volumne to Posterity The Life of HENRY the Fifth HEnry the fifth was born at Monmouth in Wales 1388. Of whom several Authors write that he was the most dissolute Prince but all agree that he was afterwards the most Martial King that England ever bred For during his Father Henry the Fourths Reign his chief associates were men of evil fame wicked life dissolute carriage Robbers and Thieves by whose instigation he struck the Lord Chief Justice of England for which offence he was imprisoned and dismissed of the Presidentship of the Kings Council With these Fratres in malo he committed many insolent pranks but having attained unto the Crown he summoned these his companions before him and instead of preferring them as they expected he banisht them for ever from his presence yet least they should pretend want of maintenance to be a cause of their taking ill courses he gave to every one of them competent means whereby to subsist Having thus reformed himself his next care was to reform his Kingdom and to this end he assembleth a Parliament as best able to informe him for his more discreet grievances of his Subjects and best able to counsel him for their redress In this Parliament was a Bill preferred by the Commons against the Cleargy whose Temporalities they affirmed would maintain fifteen Earls fifteen hundred Knights six thousand two hundred Esquires an hundred Alms-Houses more then before and unto the Kings Coffers twenty thousand pounds by year The Cleargy nettled with the Commons Bill being loath to have their Estates looked into as men who were fuller of goods then of goodness exceeding in riches more then in righteousness and preaching for Gold more then for God to divert the Kings minde another way by the mouth of Chicholy Archbishop of Canterbury propound the recovering of his Rights in France Henry as he affected nothing more then true glory so in nothing more then in Warlike action condescends to the motion sends Ambassadours to the French King to surrender him his Land threatning Fire and Sword upon his refusal but a Crown though accompanied with a great many troubles is not so easily parted withall yet the French King propounds him fair if he would desist from his intended War though the Dolphin in derision sent him a tun of Paris Balls as fitter for him to exercise then to attempt the recovery of the French Crown which King Henry took in such scorn that he swore it should not be long ere he would send such London Balls amongst them that should beat down their houses upon their heads And to make good his promise he raises an Army of 6000. Spears and 24000. Foot besides Engineers and Labourers but being about to put forth to Sea a treason was discovered against his person plotted by Richard Earl of Cambriage Henry Scroop Lord Treasurer and Thomas Gray Earl of Northamberland These men for a million of Gold were procured by the French Agents to kill the King but were discovered by Edmond Earl of March whom they would have drawn into the same Conspiracy Upon their examination they confessed the Treason as likewise the receipt of the money and were for the same immediately put to death For as Mr. Charles Allen writes Man and Money a mutual falshood show Man makes false money Money makes man so This execution done and the winde blowing fair he puts forth to Sea accompanied with his two Brothers the Dukes of Clarence and Glocester his Uncles the Duke of York and Earl of Dorset the Earls of Kent Cornwall and Huntington with many other Lords Barons and men at Arms and on our Lady-Eve landeth at Caen in Normandy where falling devoutly upon his knees desired Gods assistance to recover his right making Proclamation That no man upon pain of death should rob any Church or offer violence to any that were found unarmed From thence with his Army he marcheth to Harflew which after a few dayes was surrendred unto him where he leaveth Sir John Falstaffe with fifteen hundred men and takes his way towards Callis through the Counties of Caux and Eu. Charles the sixth was then King of France a weak brain-sick King his Nobles divided and the whole Court swarming with Factions yet the common enemy endangering all they unite in Counsell and agree the English should be fought with ere they got to Callis wherefore to impede his process they brake down the Bridges plashed the Woods intrenched the wayes struck stakes in Fords and conveyed all victual out of the Countreys thorow which he should go Then having raised a mighty Army they sent Montjoy the French King at Arms to defie him and to let him know he should be fougt with King Henry notwithstanding his Souldiers were faint and weary having spent their provisions some twelve dayes before being forced in the mean time to feed upon nuts roots and berries and drink onely water yet accepted the Challenge and rewarded the Herald for his message then passing the River of Soam he came to a Village called Agen-Court encamping from the French Hoast not above two hundred and fifty paces Their power saith Paradin
their affections the Regent and his Council being sent unto thought it not reasonable that the English having been at all the cost should not reap the profit the Burgundian on the other side resented this repulse ill as thinking the English too nice in resentments of Honour Whilst matters stood thus betwixt the French and English there was presented unto King Charles at Chinon a young Maid about eighten years of age named Joan of Arc who pretended she was sent from God to deliver France from the English yoak whereupon she was called La pucelle de Dieu or the Maiden of God though many judged her but a meer imposter however credit is given to her words and she being armed like a man she rides to Bloyes where Forces and Victuals lay for the relief of Orleance her first attempt was successfull she with the Admirall and Marshall of France enters safe bringing fresh courage to the dying hopes of the Townsmen who upon her encouragements sally forth slew 600. of the English and adventured upon the Bastile where the Lord Talbot commanded who repelled them with great slaughter of their men but yet the next day the Earl of Suffolk gave over his Siege and dispersed his Army into their Garrisons In memory of this admirable deliverance they of that City erected a Monument where Charles the Seventh King of France and Joan the Martiall Maid were represented kneeling in Armour elevating their eyes and hands to heaven in sign of thanks and acknowledgement At this time the success of War began to be various on both sides the Lord Talbot took the Town of Laval with the Castle but this gains was small in respect of the loss they received at that time the Duke of Allanson with Joan and other great Captains take by assault the Town of Jargeux and in it the Earl of Suffolk with one of his Brothers slew another of his Brothers and 200. Souldiers and having his numbers augmented encounters the Lord Talbot at a village called Patay whom he discomfits and slew of the English above a thousand The Lords Talbot the glory of the English Scales Hungerford and Sir Thomas Rampestone were taken prisoners these losses shook the whole fabrick of the English greatness in France and caused the revolt of many Towns to King Charles who encouraged by these successes marcheth into Champaigne where by composition he taketh the Cities of Troys and Auxerre Chalous and Rheimes yield themselves in which last according to the Maids direction he was solemnly Crowned King The Duke of Bedford upon the upleasant tydings of Orleance rescued and Talbot taken opposeth himself and having an Army of ten thousand English besides Normans marcheth out of Paris sending letter of defiance to the French King affirming that deceitfully and by unjust means he had stollen many Cities and places of importance belonging to the Crown of England which he was come to justifie by Battel if he would appoint a time and place who returned answer by the Herald that he would sooner seek the Duke then the Duke should need to pursue him yet notwithstanding his brags upon the Dukes approach he marcheth away the Regent follows and overtakes him at Senlys there both the Armies encamped and embattelled yet onely some light Skirmishes passed between them for the French King either thorow sear or policy or both in the night time fled to Bray the English Souldiers deeming it fear would have pursued him but the Regent judging it to be his policy to draw him further from the City of Paris of whose fidelity he had no great assurance refused to follow him any further The Bishop of Winchester Cardinal Beaufort having at that present raised four thousand men in aid of the Pope to suppress the Bohemians who began to slight his Pontifical pomp at the request of the Duke of Glocester went over with them to the Regent for a present expedition against King Charles who by the subtil working of the Pucelle was received into Campaigne and had many Towns of importance rendred unto him Yet notwithstanding his numbers exceeded twice the Regents yet by no provocations could he be drawn to Battel but secretly fled to Crispis whereupon the Regent also returned to Paris where he staid but a while but passeth into Normandy to provide for a safe retreat there if the English by the inevitable will of God should be driven out of their other Dominions exhorting them as their ancestours had alwayes been to be true and faithful to the Crown of England In the mean while the French King was not idle but gets by practice the Town of St. Denis from whence he sends the Duke of Allanson and Joan the Martial Maid to try their Friends and Fortunes at Paris but Joans good Fortune having ascended the Meridian began now to decline for the English gave them so rough an encounter that Joan her self was wounded and the rest with much slaughter forced to fly the Regent hearing of these attempts returneth to Paris commending the Souldiers for their vigilancy and valour in resisting the French and having fresh supplies out of England marcheth to reduce Champaign to his obedience The French under the conduct of their Martial Virago attempt to raise the siege and enter in despight of the English and Burgundians that besieged it but afterwards sallying forth their troops were beaten and Joan her self taken prisoner by John of Luxemburgh a Burgundian Knight who for the value of ten thousand pounds Turnoyes and three hundred crowns yearly rent delivered her to the Regent and he to the Bishop of Beauvois in whose Diocess she was taken who judicially proceeding against her as a Sorceress and deceiver of the King and his Subjects she was condemned and afterwards burnt to death at Roan Many sundry opinions were conceived of this Woman some judging her miraculously raised up by God for the good of France others that she was but a meer Imposter we will suspend our judgement herein and refer you to the Epitaph which we finde thus written on her Here lies Joan of Arc the which Some count Saint and some count Witch Some count Man and something more Some count Maid and some a Whore Her life 's in question wrong or right Her death 's in doubt by laws or might Oh innocence take heed of it How thou too near to guilt doest sit Mean time France a wonder saw A woman rule ' gainst Salique Law But Reader be content to stay Thy censure till the judgement day Then shalt thou know and not before Whether Saint Witch Man Maid or Whore And now the Regent seeing the great success that had attended King Charles ever since his Coronation would needs have King Henry Crowned in France to see if the like effects would follow the English whereupon he is sent for over and by the Bishop of Winchester solemnly Crowned in the City of Paris such of the French Nobility as were present doing their Homage and now was France a
regaining the Dutchy of York wrongfully conferred on his Brother Clarence by the last Parliament Hereupon many of note joyned themselves with him so that whom they refused to serve as King which had been an act of loyalty they condescend to aid as Duke of York which was absolute rebellion it being high treason in a Subject though never so apparently injured to seek his remedy by Arms. Having thus increast his Army he marches towards London and although the Marquess Mountague Warwicks Brother with a far superiour power lay then at Pomfret to impeach his journey yet let he him quietly pass not permitting any act of hostillity to be shewed or advantage taken by which gross oversight he ruined himself and Warwick too for no sooner was Edward past this danger but many of the Nobility with mighty Forces repaired to him Whereupon forgetting his oath he takes upon him the title of King and marcht directly to Coventry fierce in his desire to give Warwick battel who lay there encampt and now his Brother Clarence with all his Forces forsakes his Father-in-law the Earl of Warwick and joynes with his Brother Hereupon uniting their Forces they march up to London which after some show of resistance submitted its self Warwick having now joyned with his Brother Mountague follows after him whom to oppose King Edward having settled the Town to his obedience led forth his Army at St. Albans they both met where betwixt them was fought a most bloody battel in which the Earl of Warwick and his Brother Mountague valiantly fighting were both slain and their whole Army totally routed To this violent end came the Earl of Warwick and indeed how was it possible such a stormy life could expect a calmer death he was questionless valiant for a Coward durst not have thought those dangers into which he entred upon the slightest quarrels His soul was never quiet distasted still with the present and his pride like a foolish builder so delighted to pull down and set up that at length part of the frame that himself had raised fell upon him and crusht him to death His varying so in approving contrary Titles shewed either a strange levity in judgement or else that ambition not conscience ruled his actions In sum that greatness he so violently laboured to confirme in his posterity came all to nothing Almighty God ruining their designs who think by pollicy though contrary to Religion to perpetuate their posterity The Life of King RICHARD the Third FRom the pen of so credible an Author as Sir Tho. Moor was to other Historians chiefly derived the History of this King they so admiring and trusting to what he delivered that without any alteration of his words an unusual respect we have hitherto except two or three other Modern differing Writers received all from the Knights Tradition He was a person indeed of unquestioned integrity but how carefully and honestly his Works by others might be publisht after his death is not yet well determined Sir Simon D'ewes Mr. Selden and other eminent Antiquaries of our times being in their learned discourses often too sensible of some abuses offered to the Chronicle of this Richard The truth is if as in respect of our own times we have known the best of men so traduce certainly where there hath been some more then ordinary failings envious persons will think they cannot render him odious or ugly enough Richard the Third vulgarly known by the name of Crook-Backt and so delivered by some Historians and Poets with what truth I know not since his Picture drawn in his life and as it is said to be to the life still preserved and suffered by his great enemy Henry the Seventh in the Long Gallery in White-Hall denotes the contrary and shews him him to be of a sweet and gracious aspect And John Stow who alwayes took great pains in his inquiry of the relations of the persons of Princes sayes That he had spoken with some ancient men who from their own sight and knowledge affirm that he was of body and shape comely Neither did John Rouce who knew him and wrote much in his description observes any otherwise But whether crooked or no if his actions were straight posterity hath the less to censure him He was the youngest Son of Richard Plantagenet the fourth Duke of York of that Royal Family born at the Castle of Fotheringham or as some write the Castle of Berkhamsteed about the year of our Lord 1450. a dutiful Son to his Father and a Loyal Subject to his Brother who stood alwayes firm to his side in that great defection of the Duke of Clarence and Earl of VVarwick as we have declared in the preceding life At the death of his Brother King Edward he was chosen Lord Protector and afterwards by the importunity of the people knowing his Abilities forced to take upon him the Regal Power and confirmed by Act of Parliament Therefore their cavils are vain and discover an extream malice and envy unto him that report him to have obtained the Sovereignty by indirect means As for his abillities for government hear Reverend Cambden an Author without exception Fuit dignissimus regno c non inter malos sed bonos Principes commemorandus That he was most worthy to Reign and to be numbered amongst the good not bad Princes And indeed those many and good Laws enacted in his time demonstrate him a good King though some have reported him to be a bad Man He was Crowned at Westminster with great solemnity most of the Peers of the Land being present soon after his Coronation he sent to the French King for his Tribute formerly paid to his Brother Edward in leiu of the Dutchy and Countries of Aquitain Normandy Poictou and Maine c. and now detained by the French King and doubtless King Richard had still compelled him to continue it had not eruptions of State and tumultary practices fatally diverted his Sword Soon after was a Parliament called wherein was attainted of High Treason Henry Earl of Richmond John Earl of Oxford Thomas Marques of Dorset Jasper Earl of Pembroke Lionel Bishop of Salisbury Pierce Bishop of Exeter the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond Thomas Morton Bishop of Ely with many others King Edwards Children for whom the world so much censures him were adjudged uncapable of Government and the Crown by a Parliament in those dayes confirmed to King Richard in these words It is declared pronounced decreed confirmed and established by the authority of this present assembly of Parliament that King Richard the Third is the true and undoubted King of this Realm as well by right of Consanguinity and Heritage as by lawful Election and Coronation c. So that here to tax so general an assent were to say there were not one honest nor just man in that High Court and what greater scandall to the whole Kingdom and to those that have since succeeded them But as Honour is alwayes attended on by Envy so
high treason by the Earl of Northumberland for words importing a desire of revenge saith Sleidan from thence he was conveyed towards London by the Lieutenant of the Tower in which journey at Leicester Abbey he ended his life breathing out his soul with speeches to his effect Had I been as carefull to serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply to the will of my earthly King God would not have left me in my old age as the other hath done Some have imagined he poysoned himself as not willing to survive his great glory and some have thought he was poysoned by others that with his feathers they might build themselves nests Surely the fall of this stately oak caused the growth of much underwood many rising by his ruine raising themselves great estates out of the fragments of his fall He left behinde him these glorious monuments of fame the buildings of Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court Windsor His Master King Henry lived in the two first his Tomb being erected in the last Some Historians write that his body swelled after his death as his minde when he was living with his Ego et Rex meus On which ambition of the Cardinal one wrote these verses Dicere Gramatices ratio permittit Ego Rex Ethica te jubet ars dicere Rex Ego Haec est nimirum vivendi ars illa loquendi Principis haec Aulae serviat illa Scholae The Life of Sir THOMAS MOOR Hic est ille Thomas plebis de pulvere magnus Qui tulit incanum Principis ira caput SIr Thomas Moor one of the greatest Ornaments of his time was a man of those high employments and of so great parts to go thorow them that he is deservedly placed amongst our English Worthies He was the Son of Sir John Moor Knight and one of the Justices of the Kings Bench a man singular for his many rare perfections His Birth place was at Milk-street in London the year of our Lord 1480. Having attained some skill in the Latine Tongue Cardinal Moorton Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord High Chancellour of England took him into his house where his wit and admirable deportment appeared to be such that the Cardinall would often say of him to the Nobles that severall times dined with him This Childe here waiting at the Table whosoever shall live to see it will prove the miracle of men For his better proficiency in learning the Cardinal placed him in Canterbury Colledge in Oxford now called Christ-Church where when he was both in the Greek and Latine Tongue sufficiently instructed he was then for the study of the Law put into one of the Innes of Chancery called New Inne where for his time he highly improved from thence he removed to Lincolns-Inne where he was made an Utter-Barrister where for some time he read a Publick Lecture of St. Austine de Civitate Dei in the Church of St. Laurence in the Old Jury Afterwards he was made Reader of Furnivalls-Inne where he continued for the space of above three years after which time he gave himself up to his devotions in the Charter-House of London living religiously there for the space of four years Soon after he married the Daughter of Mr. John Colt of New Hall in Essex by whom he had one Son and three Daughters whom from their youth he brought up in vertue and learning About this time his rare endowments began to be looked upon with a publick eye which caused him to be called to the Bench and soon after chosen a Burgess of Parliament which happenned in the latter end of King Henry the Sevenths Reign who demanding one Subsidy and three fifteens for the Marriage of his eldest Daughter the Lady Margret unto the King of the Scots Sir Thomas making a grave Speech argued so strongly why these exactions were not to be granted that thereby the Kings demands were frustrated and his request denyed by which occasion he fell so deeply into the Kings displeasure that for his own safeguard he was determined to have gone over Sea had not the King soon after dyed which somewhat mittigated his fear and altered his resolution After this he was made one of the under Sheriffs of London by which office and his practice in Law he gained an estate of four hundred pounds per annum Now his learning wisdom knowledge and experience was grown into such note behaving himself so admirably that he gained a general applause from all men and fell into such an estimation with King Henry the Eighth that he made him master of the Requests soon after Knight and one of his Privy Councel and so from time to time advanced him continuing still in his singular favour and trusty service twenty years and above his pleasant disposition and readiness of wit so gaining him into King Henry's favour that upon the death of Mr. Weston Treasurer of the Exchequer the King bestowed on him the office of Treasurer and not long after made him Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster To render his History the more pleasant take these few tastes of the sharpness of his Wit Cambden reports of him that he used to compare the great number of women to be chosen for Wives unto a bag full of Snakes having amongst them but one Eel now if a man puts his hand into this bag he may chance to light on the Eel but 't is a hundred to one if he be not stung with a Snake Being in company where the master of the house commended his Beer for the well relish of the Hop Sir Thomas replyed but had it hopped a little further it had hopped into the Thames A supposed bribe being put upon Sir Thomas a great gilt Cup presented to him he being called before the Kings Council to answer this accusation Sir Thomas acknowledged that he did receive the Cup for a New-years-gift after some importunities he received it but immediately he caused his Butler to fill it with Wine and therein drank to the Gentlewoman that presented it and when that she had pledged him he as freely gave it her again for a New-years gift for her Husband This great Mountain of his accusation being brought scarcely to a little Mosehill When he was Justice of Peace he used to go to the Sessions at New Gate where one of the Ancientest Justice of Peace of the Bench was used to chide persons when their Purses had been cut for not being more carefull telling them that their negligence was the cause that so many Cut-purses were brought thirther Sir Thomas obs rving him to repeat this caution so often sent for one of the chiefest Cut-purses that was in prison and promised him to save him harmless if he would but cut the said Justices Purse the next day as he sat on the Bench and when he had done to make a sign of it to him The day after when they sat again the Thief was called one of the first who being accused of the fact
and attended his coming at Noon-tide walking in his Court-yard No sooner was the Lord Thomas Cromwell entred the same attended by several persons of Quality and Officers of the Crown but speedily alighting from his Horse he embraced his Friend Frescobald in the same manner he had done in the morning and perceiving that the Lords which accompanied him were amazed at such a disproportioned familiarity he told them that he was more obliged to Frescobald then to all the men in the world owing unto him the making of his Fortune and so proceeded to relate unto them the whole story which had befallen him at Florence So great a delight do generous mindes take to recount their foregoing Misfortunes when their Grandor hath elevated them to such a pitch as that they triumph over shame and are incapable of Ingratitude Frescobald was treated at Dinner with all the tenderness he could expect from so great a Personage and so great a Friend after which being carried up by the Lord Thomas Cromwell into his Closet he was there presented with four Bags of Gold each containing four hundred Duccats in return of his former Civilities which Frescobald being of a gallant spirit at first refused but after severall contestations was constrained to accept as an acknowledgement from the Lord Cromwell who moreover enquiring of him concerning his coming over and Affairs in England and understanding his Losses and that there were Moneys due to him caused him to write down his Debters names and by his Secretary summoned the severall Merchants which were indebted to Frescobald upon pain of his displeasure to clear their Accounts with him and to pay him within the space of fifteen dayes which was accordingly performed onely Frescobald freely forgave them the use Over and above all which the Lord Thomas Cromwell endeavoured to perswade his Friend Frescobald to have remained in England the rest of his dayes proferring to lend him a Stock of 60000. Duccats to trade withall But Frescobald being over-charged with all those grand Obligations which the Lord Cromwell had conferred on him having by his Lordships Generosity acquired enough to keep him from being necessitated all his life time and deeming that the trading in good Works was incomparably more sure and gainful then in the richest Wares and Merchandizes being resolved to quit Trading and to end the rest of his dayes peaceably and quietly he obtained leave of the Lord Thomas Cromwell to depart to his own Countrey freighted with so great obligations as caused in him a generous shame He afterwards arrived safe in his own Country where with great reputation he dyed in a good old age Having done him this honour to eternize the noble deportments of his life I shall now end with a short account of what he said at his death When he came upon the Scaffold on Tower-Hill he delivered his minde to the people I am come hither to die and not to purge my self as some perhaps may expect that I should and will for if I should so do I were a very wretch I am by the Law condemned to die and I thank my Lord God that hath appointed me this death for mine offence for I have alwayes lived a sinner and offended my Lord God for which I ask him hearty forgiveness It s not unknown to many of you that I was a great Traveller and being but of mean Parentage was called to high honours and now I have offended my Prince for which I heartily ask him forgiveness beseeching you to pray with me to almighty God that he will forgive me c. Then kneeling down on his knees he made a long and pithy prayer which being ended after a godly exhortation to those on the Scaffold he commended his Spirit into the hands of his Maker his head being dissevered from his body July 28 1540. The King not long after his death clapping his hands on his breast repented this haste wishing that he had his Cromwell alive again With him was beheaded the Lord Hungerford of Heitesbury who suffered death a just death for buggery Without question Cromwell was a person of singular qualifications unfortunate in nothing more then that he lived in the dayes of Henry the Eighth of whom if it could be possible one writes that for the time he Reigned he was guilty of more Tyranny then any of the Roman Emperours This great Statesman was condemned to death and yet never came to his answer by an act as it is said which he himself caused to be made of which Mr. Michael Drayton thus writes Those Laws I made alone my self to please To give me power more freely to my will Even to my equals hurtfull severall wayes Forced to things that most do essay were ill Vpon me now as violently seize By which I lastly perisht by my skill On mine own neck returning as my due That heavy yoke wherein by me they drew Thus whilest we strive too suddenly to rise By flattering Princes with a servile Tongue And being soothers to their tyrannies Work our much woes by what doth many wrong And unto others tending injuries Vnto our selves producing our own wrong In our own snares unluckily thus caught Whilst our attempts fall instantly to naught Questionless he was a man of an active and forward ripeness of nature ready and pregnant of wit discreet and well advised in judgement eloquent of tongue faithfull and diligent in service of an incomparable memory of a reaching pollitick head and of a most undaunted spirit The Life of the great King Henry the Eighth with the other Reigns of his Posterity I have omitted because they are so excellently penned by several Historians and so Vulgarly known to the people The Life of Sir PHILIP SIDNEY Carmen Apollo dedit belli Mars contulit artes Sed Juveni vitam Mors rapit ante diem AMongst the rest of our Worthies there is none of more precious memory then that famous and Heroick Knight Sir Philip Sidney in whom the Graces and Muses had their domesticall habitations whose Life as it was admirable so his Lines have not been excelled though the French of late in imitation have endeavoured to address them He was born of honourable parentage his Father Sir Henry Sidney was thrice Lord Deputy of Ireland a place of great honour and trust having power of themselves to call Parliaments and enact Laws nor cometh there any Vice-gerent in Europe more near the Majesty and prerogative of a King His Mother was Daughter to Sir John Dudley Duke of Northumberland and Sister to the Earls of Warwick and Leicester so that his descent was apparently noble of both sides Verstigan sayes the Sidney's are of a French extraction that they came over into England in Henry the Thirds dayes In his very childe-hood there appeared in him such excellent parts and endowments of nature as shewed him born for high enterprises having been educated in the principles of learning at home he was sent to the University of Oxford Cambridge
being nevertheless so happy to have a Colledge of his name where he so profited in the Arts and Sciences that after an incredible proficiency in all the species of Learning he left the Accademical life for that of the Court whither he came by the invitation of his Uncle the Earl of Leicester of whose faction he was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth he was of a comely presence framed by a naturall propension to arms and Warlike atchievements so that he soon attracted the good opinion of all men especially of the Queen fame having already blazed abroad his admirable parts she thought him fit for the greatest employments sent him upon an Embassy to the Emperour of Germany at Vienna which he discharged to his own honour and her approbation Yea his fame was so renowned throughout all Christendom that he was in election for the Kingdom of Poland and elective Kingdom but the Queen refused to further his advancement not out of emulation but for the loss of his company at Court He married Sir Francis Walsingams Daughter who impoverished himself to enrich the State from whom he expected no more then what was above all portions a Beautifull Wife and a Vertuous Daughter During his abode at the Court at his spare hours he composed that incomparable Romance entituled The Arcadia which he ded icated to his Sister the Countess of Pembroke A Book which considering his so Youthfull Years and Martial Employments it was a wonder that he had leasure for to write such a Volumn which as Dr. Heylin the Learned Ornament of our Nation in his exquisite Cosmography writes thus of Sir Philip Sidney of whom sayes he I cannot make too honourable a mention and of his Arcadia a Book which besides its excellent Language rare Contrivance and delectable Stories hath in it all the strains of Poesie comprehendeth the whole Art of Speaking and to them who can descern and will observe affordeth notable Rules of Demeanour both private and publick One writes that Sir Philip Sidney in the extream agony of his wounds so terrible the sense of Death is that he requested the dearest Friend he had living to burn his Arcadia On which one Epigrammatist writes thus Ipse tuam moriens sede conjuge teste jubebas Arcadiùm faevis ignibus esse cibum Sic meruit mortem quia flammam accendit amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste liber In librum quaecunque cadat sententia nulla Debuit ingenium morte perire tuum In serious thoughts of death 't was thy desire This sportful Book should be condemn'd with fire If so because it doth intend Love matters It rather should be quencht then drown'd i' th waters Which were it damn'd the Book the Memory Of thy immortal name shall never dye To make amends to such precise persons that think all that is not Divinity to be vain and lascivious he translated part of that excellent Treatise of Philip Morney de Plessis of the truth of Religion To pass by the follies of such supercillious Enthusiasts he wrote also severall other Works namely a defence of Poesie a Book entituled Astrophel and Stella with divers Songs and Sonnets in praise of his Lady whom he celebrated under that bright name so excellently and elegantly penned that as it is in a Poem 'T would make one think so sweet of Love he sings His Pens were Quills pluckt off from Cupids Wings So great were the Lamentations of his Funerals that a face might be sooner found without eyes then without tears no Persons of Honour at that time but thought it a dishonour not to mourn for him To recite the Commendations given him by several Authours would of its self require a Volumn to rehearse some few not unpleasing to the Reader Heylin in his Cosmography calleth him that gallant Gentleman of whom he cannot but make honourable mention Another in his Annals a most valiant and towardly Gentleman Speed in his Chronicle that worthy Gentleman in whom were compleat all vertues and valours that could be expected to reside in man Sir Richard Baker gives him this Character A man of so many excellent Parts of Art and Nature of Valour and Learning of Wit and Magnanimity that as he had equalled all those of former Ages so the future will hardly be able to equal him Nor was this Poet forgotten by the Poets who offered whole Hecatombs of Verses in his praise First hear the Brittish Epigrammatist Thou writ'st things worthy reading and didst do Things worthy writing too Thy Acts thy Valour show And by thy Works we do thy Learning know Divine Du Bartas speaking of the most Learned of the English Nation reckoneth him as one of the Chief in these words And world mourn'd Sidney warbling to the Thames His Swan-like tunes so courts her coy proud streams That all with childe with fame his fame they bear To Thetis Lap and Thetis every were The Renowned Poet Spenser in his Ruines of Time thus writes of him Yet will I sing but who can better sing Then thou thy self thine own self's valiance That whilest thou livedst thou mad'st the Forests ring And Fields resoun'd and Flocks to leap and dance And Shepheards leave their Lambs unto mischance To run thy shrill Arcadian Pipe to hear O happy were those dayes thrice happy were Sir John Harrington in his Epigrams thus If that be true the latter Proverb sayes Laudari à laudatis is most praise Sidney thy Works in Fames Books are enroll'd By Princes Pens that have thy Works extol'd Whereby thy Name shall dure to endless dayes Joyning with the rest that Kingly Poet King James the First late Monarch of Great Brittain amongst others writeth thus When Venus saw the noble Sidney dying She thought it her beloved Mars had been And with the thought thereat she fell a crying And cast away her Rings and Carknets clean He that in death a Goddess mockt and grieved What had he done trow you if he had lived These Commendations given him by so Learned a Prince made Mr. Alexander Nevil thus to write Harps others praise a Scepter his doth sing Of Crowned Poets and of Laureat King To conclude the Lord Burleigh the Nestor of those Times though otherwise an enemy to the Leicestrian Party both loved and admired him Yet was he not altogether addicted to Arts but given as much to the Exercise of Arms being a follower of Mars as well as a Friend to the Muses and although he himself used to say That Ease was the Nurse of Poesie yet his Life made it manifest that the Muses inhabited the Fields of Mars as well as the flowery Lawns of Arcadia that Sonnets were sung in the Tents of War as well as in the Courts of Peace the Muses Layes being warbled forth by a Warlike Sidney in as high a tune as ever they were sung by a peaceable Spenser And although the lamp of his life was extinguisht too soon yet left he a sufficient testimony to the world
shun the danger paid him eleven hundred and seventy pounds at the very instant yet did he deliver her the counterfeit coppy onely meaning to make use of the true one to get another some of the Earls adversaries This imposter being found out he was censured to perpetual imprisonment condemned in three thousand pounds two of which were to go to the Countess and his ears nailed to the pillory with this writing over his head A notorious Cheater I shall conclude all with some few observations on this unfortunate Earl as to his first rise my Lord of Leicester introduced him who had married his mother a tye of affinity Sure it is that he no sooner appeared in the Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I believe they all could not choose through the sacrifice of the Father but look on the living Son whose image by the remembrance of former passages was afresh like the bleeding of men murthered represented to the Court The Cicero of our modern times parallels him and Buckingham where the difference was is too transparent certain it is to use Sir Robert Nauntons own words that there was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate courtesie which both won the Queen and took too much on the people which amongst other disparities Buckingham never did attain to the latter What hath been imputed to his fall is that he drew too fast from the Queens indulgence like a childe sucking of an over uberous Nurse which caused him to express himself in such peremptory language when he heard that my Lord Mountjoy received a favour from the Queen for his running so well a tilt when as though he would have limited her respects he said Now I believe every fool must have a favour which made the Queen swear by Gods death it was fit that one or other should take him down and teach him better maners All Authours agree that he was a man of a rash spirit thirsty after the uncertain fame of popularity which helpt him on to his Catastrophe One writeth this Latine Epitaph on him Epitaphium de eodem Comite Ecce sub hoc tumulo situs est celeberrimus Heros Qui cecidit patrii spesque decusque soli Fama ingens annis juvenis fortissimus armis Nobilitate potens religione pius Terra Britannia parens testis Hibernia lethi Tristia fata gemunt fortia facta canunt Facta togae bellive magis praestantia mirer Optima pace domi Maxima marte foris Mors fera corpus habet Coelo Comes inclyte vivis Vita dicata Deo mors nonna vita data est The Life of Sir ROBERT CECILL Tu pater patriae Princeps Prudentia cujus Extulit immensum roges populosque Britannos THis Earwig of the Court Sir Robert Cecil afterwards Earl of Salisbury was the Son of the Lord Burleigh and the Inheritour of his Wisdom and by degrees Successour of his places and favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecil his elder Brother afterwards created Earl of Exeter He was first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of Queen Elizabeths Reign came to be Lord Treasurer all which were the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the Honour he left to his House For his Person he was not much beholding to Nature though somewhat for his Face which was the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and without Solecisme that he was his Fathers own Son and a pregnant Proficent in all Discipline of State He was a Courtier from his Cradle which might have made him betimes yet at the age of twenty and upwards he was much short of his after-proof but exposed and by change of climate he soon made shew what he was and would be He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of men of weight and among able ones this was a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the Tutourship of the times and Court which were then the Accademies of Art and Cunning. This great Master of State and the staff of the Queens declining age who though his little crooked person could not promise any great supportation yet it carried thereon a head and a head-piece of a vaste content and therein it seems Nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his memory and intellectuals she took care also of his senses and to put him in Linceos oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argus so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive Vertues his predecessour Walsingham had left him a receipt to smell out what was done in the Conclave and his good old father was so well seen in the Mathematicks as that he could tell you thorow all Spain every part every ship with the burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of enterprizes counsels and resolutions And that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little man was I will present a taste of his abilities The Earl of Devonshire upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Councel for such supplies to be sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did land and follow on his prosecution against the Rebels Sir Robert Cecill besides the general dispatch of the Councell as he often did wrote this in private for these two began then to love dearly My Lord Out of the abundance of my affection and the care I have of your well doing I must in private put you out of doubt for of fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible then in the way of honour that the Spaniard will not come unto you this year for I have it from my own what preparations are in all his Parts and what he can do For be confident he beareth up a reputation by seeming to embrace more then he can gripe But the next year be assured he will cast over unto you some Forelorn-hopes which how they may be reinforced beyond his present ability and his first intention I cannot as yet make any certain judgement but I believe out of my intelligence that you may expect there landing in Munster and the more to distract you in several places as at Kinsale Bur-haven Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Sea they will first fortifie and learn the strength of the Rebells before they dare take the field howsoever as I know you will not lesson not your care neither your defences and whatsoever lies within my power to do you and the publick service rest thereof assured And to this I would adde much more but it may as it is suffice to present much as to his abilities in the pen
that he was his Crafts-master in forreign intelligence and for domestique affairs as he was one of those that sat at the sterne to the last of the Queen so was he none of the least in skill and in the true use of the Compass And so I shall onely vindicate the scandal of his death and conclude him for he departed in the moneth of May 1612. at Saint Margrets near Marlborough in his retun home from the Bathe as my Lord Viscount Cranborne my Lord Clifford his Son and Son-in-law and many more can witness But that the day before he swounded in the way was taken out of the Litter and laid into his Coach was a truth out of which that falshood concerning the manner of his death had its derivation though nothing to the purpose or to the prejudice of his worth He was from his greatest enemies acknowledged to be a compleat Statesman a support of the Protestant Faction a discloser of Treasons the Mercury of his time His body lies buried at Macfield He was famous for his buildings more especially that called Brittains Burse with this and other rare edifices to his extraordinary cost with which he adorned his Countrey The Life of Sir THOMAS OVERBURY A mans best Fortune or his worst's a Wife Yet I that knew nor Marriage Peace nor Strife Live by a good one by a bad one lost my life A Wife like her I write scarce man can wed Of a false Friend like mine there 's none hath read THis Witty but unfortunate Knight Sir Thomas Overbury was the son of Sir Nicholas Overbury of Burton in Glocestershire who to his natural propension of Ingenuity had the addition of good Education He having been a while Student of the Law in the Middle Temple soon after he cast Anchor at Court the then Haven of hope for all aspiring spirits Yet upon some discontent he descended from those lofty Pinacles and travelled into France where having been some time he returned again and was entertained into the respects of Sir Robert Carre one who was newly initiated a Favorite to King James who put him in trust with his most secret employments in which he behaved himself honestly and discreetly purchasing by his wise carriage in that place good affection and respect not onely from Sir Robert Carre but of other eminent Persons In process of time this favour procured profit profit indulged honour honour large employments and in him expert execution for where diligence and humility are associate in great affairs there favour is accompanied with both So that many Courtiers perceiving great hopes grew into familiarity with him the Knights expectations are performed and his businesses accomplished beyond his expectation to his wishes so that his diligence and parts gained him extraordinary resentments from the Viscount to his uniting him into friendship with himself insomuch that to the shew of all the world this bond was indissolvable neither could there be more friendship used since there was nothing so secret or private but the Knight imparted it to Master Overbury After some continuance of time Sir Robert Carre is made Viscount and Master Overbury had the honour of Knighthood conferred on him who grew still more and more into the affections of the people so that now his worth and his wealth were so much taken notice of that he was likely to taper at Court These Eminencies as they are not unvaluable so in their spectatours they raise scruples and cause doubts especially in the Viscount for Sovereignty and Love can abide no Rivals And indeed what State on earth is so firm that is not changeable or what friendship so constant that is not dissolvable Who would imagine this Viscount should become instrumental to his death who had done him so faithful service and to whom he had embosomed his most secret thoughts We shall therefore in the next place lay down the grounds of this revolt of friendship on the Viscounts part for we finde no breach in Sir Thomas but that rather his constant affection and free delivery of his opinion scorning to temporize occasioned his death There had lately past a Divorce betwixt the Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard so that she being now free a motion of Marriage was propounded betwixt Viscount Carre and this Lady Sir Thomas Overbury who had written a witty Poem entituled The Wife thinking her not agreeable to his intentions of Matrimony disswaded the Viscount from it with words reflecting much on the Countesses reputation This counsel though it proceeded from an unfeigned love in Sir Thomas yet where beauty commands all discretion being sequestred created in the Viscount a hatred towards him and in the Countess the fury of a woman a desire of revenge who perswaded the Viscount That it was not possible that ever she should endure those injuries or hope for any prosperity so long as he lived That she wondred how he could be so familiar so much affected to this man Overbury that without him he could do nothing as it were making him his right hand seeing he being newly grown into the Kings favor and depending wholly upon his greatness must expect to be clouded if not ruined when his servant that knew his secrets should come to preferment The Viscount apt enough of his own inclination to revenge further exasperated by the Countesse resolves upon his death and soon he found an occasion to act it The Councel finding Overburies diligence and sufficiency nominates him as a fit man to be Ambassadour into the Low Countreys to the Arch Duke as thinking they could not serve him up to preferments worthy of his deserts Before he had given in his answer the Viscount comes to him acting his fatal part against Sir Thomas disswades him from undertaking it using this argument That his preferment and expectations depended not on Forreign Nations You are now said he in credit at home and have already made triall of the dangers of travel why then should you hazard all upon uncertainties being already in possession of that you can probably expect by these means Overbury not doubting the Viscounts fidelity towards him was perswaded by him forgetting the counsel of the Poet. Ne cuiquam crede haud credere quisquam Nam fronte politi Astutam vapido celant sub pectore vulpem Believe thou not scarce any man For oft a Phrygian face Is smoothly covered with a smile Within seeks thy disgrace King James deeply incensed with the refusal of his tendred honours for his contempt commits him to the Tower the Viscount aggravated his offence to the King but privately promised Sir Thomas by his intimacy with the King to bring him off from any troubles that might arise but whatsoever he pretended he practised the contrary And now having him in the place they desired their next study to secure their revenge was closely to make him away which they concluded to be by poyson To this end they consult with one Mrs. Turner the first inventor of
is man to expostulate the Intents Of his high Will or judge of strange Events The rising Sun to mortal sight reveals This earthly Globe but yet the stars conceals So may the sense discover Natural things Divine above the reach of humane wings Then not the Fate but Fates bad instrument Do I accuse in each sad accident Good men must fall rapes incests murthers come But woe and curses follow them by whom God Authors all mens actions not their sin For that proceeds from dev'lish lust within Thou then that suffer'dst by those forms so vile From whom those wicked Instruments did file Thy drossy part to make thy fame shine clear And shrine thy soul in Heavens all glorious Sphere Who being good nought less to thee befell Though it appear'd disguis'd i' th shape of Hell Vanish thy bloud and nerves true life alone In Vertue lives and true Religion In both which thou art deadless O behold If thou canst look so low as earths base mold How dreadful Justice late with lingring foot Now comes like whirlewind how it shakes the root Of lofty Cedars make the stately Brow Bend to the foot how all men see that now The breath of Infamy doth move their sails Whiles thy dear name by loves more hearty gales Shall still keep wing until thy Fames extent Fill ev'ry part of this vast Continent Then you the Syre of their murther'd Son Repine not at his fate since he hath won More honour in his sufferance and his death Succeeded by his vertues endless breath For him and to his Life and deaths example Love might erect a Statue Zeal a Temple On his true worth the Muses might be slain To die his honours web in purest Grain Though for his worth the Muses were all slain His honour'd Works would raise them up again An Elegy upon the untimely Death of Sir Thomas Overbury poisoned in the Tower 'T Would ease our sorrow 't would release our tears Could we but hear those high Celestial Spheres Once tune their motions to a doleful strain In sympathy of what we Mortalls plain Or see their fair Intelligences change Or face or habit when black deeds so strange As might force pitty from the heart of Hell Are hatcht by Monsters which among us dwell The Stars methinks like men inclin'd to sleep Should through their Chrystal Casements scarcely peep Or at least view us but with half an eye For fear their chaster Influence might descry Some murthering hand embrew'd in guiltless blood Blending vile juices to destroy the good The Sun should wed his beams to endless Night And in dull darkness canopy his Light When from the rank stews of adultrous Breasts Where every base unhallowed project rests Is belcht as in defiance of his shine A stream might make even Death it self to pine But those things happen still but ne're more clear Nor with more lustre did these Lamps appear Mercury capers with a winged heel As if he did no touch of sorrow feel And yet he sees a true Mercurian kill'd Whose birth his Mansion with much honour fill'd But let me not mistake those pow'rs above Nor tax injuriously those Courts of Jove Surely they joy to see these Acts reveal'd Which in blinde silence have been long conceal'd And Vertue now triumphant whilest we mourn To think that e're she was foul Vices scorn Or that poor Overburies blood was made A Sacrifice to malice and dark shade Weston thy hand that Couvre-feu Bell did sway Which did his life to endless sleep convay But rest thou where thou art I le seek no glory By the relation of so sad a story If any more were privy to the deed And for the crime should be adjudg'd to bleed To Heaven I pray with rear'd up hands and eyes That as their bodies fall their souls may rise And as those equally turn to one dust So these alike may shine among the just And there make up one glorious constellation Who suffered here in such a differing fashion The Life of Sir VVALTER RALEIGH SIR Walter Rawleigh the Learned Apollo and Oracle of our Nation was one that it seems Fortune had pickt out of purpose to make an example of her mutability or tennis-ball thereby to shew what she could do for she tost him up of nothing and too and fro to greatness and from thence down to little more then to that wherein she found him a mean Gentleman not that he was less for he was well descended and of good Alliance but poor in his beginnings And for my Lord of Oxfords Jeast of him the Jack and an upstart we all know it savours more of emulation and his humour then of truth and it is a certain note of the times that Queen Elizabeth in her choice never took into her favour a meer new man or a Mechanick as Comines observes of Lewis the Eleventh of France who did serve himself with persons of unknown parents such as was Oliver the Barber whom he created Earl of Dunoyes and made him ex secretis consiliis and alone in his favour and familiarity His approaches to the University and Inns of Court were the grounds of his improvement but they were rather excursions then sieges or settings down for he stayed not long in a place and being the youngest brother and the house diminished in patrimony he foresaw his own destiny that he was first to rowl thorow want and disability to subsist other wayes before he could come to a repose and as the stone doth by long lying gather moss he first exposed himself to the Land Service in Ireland a Militia which then did not yield him food and rayment for it was ever very poor nor had he patience to stay there though shortly after he came thither again under the command of the Lord Grey but with his own colours flying in the field having in the interim cast a new chance both in the Low Countries and in a voyage to Sea And if ever man drew vertue out of necessity it was he therewith was he the great example of industery and though he might then have taken that of the merchant to himself per mare per terras currit mercator ad Indos he might also have said and truly with the Philosopher Omnia mea mecum porto for it was a long time before he could brag of more then he carried at his back and when he got on the winning side it was his commedations that he took the pains for it and underwent many various adventures for his after perfection And before he came into the publique note of the world and that it may appear how he came up per ardua per varios casus per tot discrimina rerum not pulled up by chance or by any gentle admittance of Fortune I will briefly describe his native parts and those of his own acquiring which was the hopes of his rising He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsome and well compacted person a strong
Life of LANCELOT ANDREWS Bishop of Winchester IT is poetized of the Thracian Orpheus that his Oratotary was so powerful that with it he drew the senseless stones after him towards the building of Thebes which some moralize that his eloquence was such as attracted the senseless and stony multitude from Barbarism to frame themselves to a civil and well ordered life What was storied of Orpheus may fitly be applied to this learned Bishop who with his heavenly Oratory drew many stony senseless hearts out of the Captivity of Satan unto the glorious freedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ For his person we can add nothing to him to name him is enough to all that knew him and to read him will be enough to them that knew him not his piety being such as was esteemed comparable to that which was found in the primitive Church This right reverend father in God Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter was born in the City of London descended from the ancient Family of the Andrews in Suffolk his Father a Merchant of good repute and according to the Religion of those ancient times very devout being one of the Society and Masters of the Holy Trinity commonly called Trinity-House He in his tender years shewed great aptness to learning which he so improved under his two School-masters Mr. Ward Master of the Coopers Free School in Radcliffe and Mr. Mulchaster Master of the Merchant-Taylors Free School in London that he promised a golden Harvest from so hopeful a seed-time So that from his youth he declared an extraordinary worth that he was made up of learning and vertue in both of them so eminent that it was hard to judge which had the precedency and greater interest though it was truly asserted from his contemporaries that there was not any kinde of Learning that he was a stranger to but in his profession admirable which was as well if not better known abroad then admired at home Having under these two gained an excellent knowledge in the Greek and Hebrew Languages he was sent to Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge where he was by Doctor Wats Archdeacon of Middlesex a Benefactor to that house placed in one of the Greek Schollarships soon after he was made Bachellour of Arts and a Fellowship being void he and Thomas Dove afterwards Bishop of Peterburgh for the obtaining thereof were put to a trial of some Schollastical exercises upon performance whereof they chose him into the fellowship yet so well did they approve of his opponent that they made him some allowance for his present maintenance under the title of a Tanquam Socius Thus this great miracle of worth that arrived to such a fulness of material learning had yet room enough left him in the temper of his brain for almost all Languages to seat themselves so that his learning had all the helps that Language could afford and his language learning enough for the best of them to express so that it might be said of him as it was of Claudius Drusus that he was a man of great parts as mortal nature could receive or industry make perfect In process of time his endowments made him so eminent that he was invited unto Jesus Colledge in Oxford by Mr. Hugh Price who built the same whose decerning spirit presaging of his future abilities nominated him in his foundation to be one of his first Fellows there and having taken the degree of Master of Art he applied himself wholly to the study of Divinity Soon after was he chosen Catechist in the Colledge which he performed so well that not onely the University became his common auditors but many out of the Countrey resorted thither greatly admiring at his profound learning Henry Earl of Huntington hearing of his worth sent for him to accompany him into the North whereof he was President where by his painful preaching he converted many Recusants to the Protestant Religion And now his abilities being still better known to the world Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State to Queen Elizaheth took special notice of him and by his means he was preferred to be Vicar of Saint Giles without Cripple-Gate London then Prebend and Residentiary of St. Pauls and afterwards Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Southwell soon after upon the death of Doctor Fulk he was elected into the Mastership of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge Afterwards he was made Chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth who took such delight in his preaching that she resolved upon his higher preferment but having made him first Prebend and not long after Dean of Westminster death prevented her of her intentions But what was wanting in her was performed by her learned successour King James who admiring him for his transcendent abilities soon after his coming to this Crown made him Bishop of Chichester and Lord Almoner and withal added the parsonage of Cheyham in Surrey to his Commendam He now as he excelled most of his Brethren in dignity he thought it not enough unless he did more then imitate them in sanctity of life and knowing no better rule for his direction herein then what Saint Paul had prescribed to Timothy he resolved to make those precepts his rules of practice In these addresses of his to Heaven first he led his life as in respect to men blameless his vertues admired by all but imitated of few his life being like a candle set on a candlestick which gave light to the whole House drawing many souls to God as well by his holy conversation as pious preaching It is a true saying A mans pious carriage makes his speech perswasive Secondly his charity was most transcendent to pass over many vast sums he bestowed upon poor Parishes Prisons and Prisoners his private Alms in his last six years besides those publique amounted to the sum of 1300. pounds and upwards Notwithstanding by what hath been said he might seem in his life time to be his own Almoner yet extended he his works of compassion most abundantly at his death leaving four thousand pounds to purchase two hundred pounds land per annum for ever to be distributed by fifty pounds quarterly thus to aged poor men fifty pounds to poor widdows the wives of one husband fifty pounds to the binding of poor Orphans Apprentices fifty pounds and to the relief of poor prisoners fifty pounds Also he gave two hundred pounds to poor Maid-servants of honest report who had served one Master or Mistress seven years to be distributed presently after his decease Many other acts of Charity did this good Bishop do a fair coppy for new succeeding rich Cleargy-men who are all for the mountain word of Faith but have nothing to do with good Works to write after He had alwayes a special care of promoting sufficient and able men to Livings a great mans letter will do but little good with him if he saw not piety as well as personage in the party His enquiry was constantly to know what hopeful young men were in the
murther the King and the Archbishop may appear the Copy of the Archbishops Letter and his Majesties Notes thereupon for vindication of his Integrity I have here inserted The Archbishops Letter to the King upon the first overture of this Discovery May it please your Majesty As great as the secret is that comes herewith yet I chuse rather to send it in this silent covert way and I hope safe then to come thither and bring it my self First because I am no way able to make haste enough with it Secondly because should I come at this time and antedate the meeting September 24. there would be more jealousie of the business and more enquiry after it especially if I being once there should return again before that day as I must if this be followed as is most fit The danger it seems is eminent and laid by God knows whom but to be executed by them which are very near about you For the great honour I have to be in danger with you or for you I pass not so your sacred Person and the State may be safe Now may it please your Majesty this information is either true or there is some mistake in it A. If it be true the persons which make the discovery will deserve thanks and reward if there should be any mistake in it your Majesty can lose nothing but a little silence The business if it be true is extream foul The Discovery thus by Gods Providence offered I do hereby humbly beg it upon my knees of your Majesty that you will conceal B this business from every creature and his name that sends this to me And I send his Letters to me to your Majesty that you may see his sense both of the business and the Secrecy And such instructions as you think fit to give him I beseech you let them be in your own hand for his warrant without imparting them to any and if your Majesty leave it to his discretion to follow it there in the best way he can that in your own hand will be instruction and warrant enough for him And if you please to return it herewith presently to me I will send an express away with it presently In the mean time I have by this express returned him this answer C That I think he shall do well to hold on the Treaty with these men with all care and Secrecy and drive on to the discovery so soon as the business is ripe for it that he may assure himself and them they shall not want reward if they do the service That for my part he shall be sure of secrecy and that I am most confident that your Majesty will not impart it to any that he have a special eye to the eighth or the ninth Proposition Sir for Gods sake and your own safety secrecy in this business and I beseech you send me back D this letter and all that comes with it speedily and scretly and trust not your own pockets with them I shall not eat or sleep in quiet till I receive them And so soon as I have them again and your Majesties warrant to proceed no diligence shall be wanting in me to help on this discovery This is the greatest business that ever was put to me and if I have herein proposed or done any thing amiss I most humbly crave your Majesties pardon but I am willing to hope I have not herein erred in judgement E and in fidelity I never will These Letters came to me on Thursday September 10. at night and I sent these away according to the date hereof being extreamly wearied with writing this Letter copying out these other which come with this and dispatching my Letters back to him that sent these all in my own hand Once again secrecy for Gods sake and your own To his most blessed protection I commend your Majesty and all your Affairs and am Your Majesties most humble faithful Servant W. Cant. Lambeth Septemb. 11. 1640. His Majesties Notes and Apprehensions on this Letter A It is an unanswerable dilemma B I concur totally with you in opinion assuring that no body doth or shall know of this business and to shew my care to conceal it I received this but this Afternoon and now I make this dispatch before I sleep Herewith I send his warrant as you advise which indeed I judge to be the better way C I like your Answer extream well and promise not to deceive your confidence nor break your word D I have sent all back I think these Apostils will be warrant enough for you to proceed especially when I expresly command you to do so E In this I am as far from condemning your judgement as suspecting your fidelity York 13. C. R. This Letter I have inserted the rather because some men sharp-witted only in speaking evil have reported him to be a man of little Learning c. To wipe off such aspersions vulgarly cast on him that he was addicted to the Romish perswasion to which purpose they nick-name his honour Superstitious which wise and moderate men name a zeal to Gods house to his perpetual honour The North Door of Saint Pauls was repaired at his own charges the Workmen themselves not knowing from whence their money came Thus have you seen this Archbishop mounted on the top of Fortunes wheel but what estate on earth is so permanent that it remains unmoveable for Honor is like a mountain which seems to those who are at the foot of it with his towering head to touch the skies but to those that are at the top it seems with its Basis to reach the Abyss Anno 1641. he was by the House of Commons accused of fourteen Articles of High Treason and for four years together continued a Prisoner in the Tower Yet like his Master and King he enjoyed not so much as the quiet of a prison for oftentimes about fourscore several dayes he was carried from the Tower to Westminster and there arraigned in the House of Lords At last he was adjudged to be hang'd drawn and quartered but upon his Petition to the Lords that sentence was changed to beheading which was sadly performed on Tower Hill January 10. 1644. On the Scaffold he made a Sermon unto the people taking his Text out of Hebrews 12. and the 2. verse and having concluded his Sermon he made a short prayer upon the conclusion whereof the Executioner a sign given him cut off his head at the first stroak He in his prosperity furnished Oxford with many excellent Volumes and rare Manuscripts many other endeavours had he for the propagation of Learning but his untimely death hath prevented us of so great benefits as notworthy of so much happiness I have not enlarged my self in the writing of this Reverend Fathers Life like as I have done in others I must apologize as Mr. Speed in one of his Descriptions writes that such a Gentleman had begun who afterwards went through the greatest difficulties of a most
Lord amongst others being one that gave his fatal Vote for the passing that Bill In those great differences betwixt the King and Parliament he constantly and faithfully adhered to his Majesty contributing very much to his aid both in purse and person and at such time as the King was secured in the Isle of Wight some hopes being given of his restauration to his former dignity by the coming in of Duke Hamilton with a potent Army as also of Langhorns Powels and Poyers declaring themselves for his Majesty together with the rising of the Countries in several places to the same unhappy purpose he with a selected number of his friends associates and servants joyned himself with the Lord Goring Sir Charles Lucas and others who with a great Party were up in Arms in Essex and having valiantly defended Colchester for the space of three moneths against a potent enemy sated with success were at length as I have already discoursed in the Life of Sir Charles Lucas for want of provision forced to yield both it and themselves the superior Officers to mercy the common Souldiers with the loss of their flying Garments the Townsmen to pay the mulct of fourteen thousand pounds which was above a thousand pounds a moneth for the time that they held out the Siege And for the Articles of agreement which the Cavaliers had made with General Fairfax they could not but imagine that they had ascertained their lives yet notwithstanding upon their surrender as hath been mentioned Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle were shot to death which to all discerning men must needs seem strange and unusual though the General in his Letter to the Parliament calls it Military Execution upon which the House debated and sent to the General to explain his Letter of the 29. of September His head Quarters were then at Saint Albanes from whence they had this answer That the General doth not take upon him to conclude but waving the business leaves them to the Civil Power and so in effect to Tryal for life The Lord Capel and divers others were committed to the Tower where whilest he remained he endeavoured an escape and had effected it had he not been betrayed by a second Banister a Water-man whom the Noble Lord intrusted himself with who ignominiously for the lucre of a little money discovered him not long after this his misfortune this honourable Lord together with the Earl of Holland Duke Hamilton the Earl of Norwich and Sir John Owen was brought to a Tryal before a High Court of Justice in Westminster Hall where for the brevity to omit the particulars after a formal Tryal they were all condemned the Earl of Norwich and the undaunted Welchman Sir John Owen whom they made march on Foot to his Tryal were reprieved It hath been reported that the Earl of Norwich who was ever pleasantly conceited was sent to by a dear friend of his the day after his Reprieve to know what he conceived as concerning the danger of his condition who returned this answer That he thought in all haste to have put off his Doublet but now he had leisure to unhook his Breeches But to return to our enterprise to furnish this Landskip rather then History of this honourable person concerning his deportment before and after the time of his condemnation when he was to encounter and look grim death in the face by way of introduction to a larger discovery of his Christian fortitude I shall set down the Copy of a Letter written by a reverend Doctor who knew the passages thereof as may be clearly perceived by the tenour of it SIR I hope this paper will finde you upon recovery you have my daily and hearty prayers for it not so much for your own sake for I doubt not but it would be much better for you in regard of your self to be dissolved and to be with Christ but in the behalf of the Church your Friends and poor Family to which notwithstanding be assured God will be merciful howsoever he disposeth of you either for this life or for a better But if you live as I pray and hope you will you shall do very well to write the Life and Death of that noble Lord and blessed Martyr who professed at his death That he dyed for the fifth Commandment and to dye in the defence and for the Testimony of any Divine truth is truly and properly to be a Martyr That which I can contribute towards this work is to communicate some few observations I made of him and from him before and after his condemnation I was several times with him and alwayes found him in a very chearful and well composed temper of minde proceeding from true Christiun grounds and not from a Roman resolution onely as his enemies are pleased to speak of him he told me often it was the good God he served and the good Cause he had served for that made him not to fear heath adding he had never had the temptation of so much as a thought to check him for his engagement in this quarrel for he took it for his Crown and Glory and wished he had a greater ability and better fortune to engage in it After his condemnation and the afternoon before his suffering we were a great while in private together when bewailing with that sense which became a true and not despairing penitent the sins of his life past the greatest he could remember was his voting my Lord of Straffords death which though as he said he did without any malice at all yet he confessed it to be a very great sin and that he had done it out of a base fear they were his own words of a prevailing party adding that he had very often and very heartily repented of it and was confident of Gods pardon for it Then he told me he had a great desire to receive the Blessed Sacrament so he called it before he dyed the next morning asking what Divine of the Kings party I would recommend to him I replyed that though many were more worthy yet none would be more willing to do that service then my self which he accepting very kindly told me he durst not desire it for fear it might be some danger to me After this and some conference in order to his preparation both for his viaticum and his voyage the Sacrament and his death he desired me to pray with him which after I had performed and promised to be with him by seven the next morning I left him for that time to his own devotions The next day I was there at the time assigned and after some short conference in order to the present occasion he desired me to hear him pray which he did for half an hour in an excellent method very apt expressions and most strong hearty and passionate affections First confessing and bewailing his sins with strong cries and tears then humbly and most earnestly desiring Gods mercy through the merits of Christ onely
Parliament by a solemn Vote and Ordinance changed the Monarchical Government into a Commonwealth The Kingdom of Ireland discontented at this change uniting themselves wned the late Kings eldest Son and solemnly proclaimed him King no place considerable standing out for the Parliament saving onely Dublyn and London Derry the first whereof was immediately besieged by an Army of two and twenty thousand men commanded by the Marquess of Ormond and the other by a considerable party of the Natives of the Countrey To the reducing of this Kingdom was Oliver Cromwel nominated Governour of Ireland by the Commonwealth who with a well appointed Army set sail for Dublyn where although he found things in an indifferent good posture the Marquesse of Ormond having been beaten off by the valour of Michael Jones the Governour yet he met with work enough for his Army for Droghedah one of the best and considerablest places in all Ireland held out stiffly against them and having a strong party bid defiance to his Army yet notwithstanding after many assaults and much valour shown on both sides he at last took it putting therein to death three thousand Irish who though enemies yet for their valour and undaunted resolution might have been lookt on with a more merciful eye as they were men and more especially Christians Soon after followed the surrender of Trim Dundalke Nury Wexford Rove Bandonbridge and Kingsale yet notwithstanding the reducing of these Towns many of the Irish retreating to their Bogs and inaccessible places held out for a long time in despite of the English To proceed not onely the Irish shewed their dislike of this change of Government but also the Collonies in Virginia and the Carybde Islands to the reducing of whom the Parliament sent Sir George Askue with a Fleet of ships who brought them again into obedience In the mean time the Scots were very busie they had commenced a Treaty with Prince Charles at Breda which at last was concluded on he assenting to their Presbyterian Government and they to install and reestablish him in that Kingdom and in the other accordingly as they questioned not but Fortune would answer their blinde zealous Covenant expectations The Prince puts forth to sea and in despite of foul weather and the English King fishers that lay there to intercept him he landed safely at the Spey in the North of Scotland now though the Scots had a King yet as if they had none every one did that which was right in his own eyes and as if they intended him onely the Title being now in their power they forced him to follow the dictates of their haughty Cleargy in all their fanatick humours and imperious decrees First then they bereaved him of all his old Friends Councellours and Confederates whether of the Cleargy or Layety as those who adhered to Episcopal Government and so not pure enough for so reformed a people Thus they hamstringed him not as what was formerly in the sign-post onely of printed papers Next they make him take the Solemn League and Covenant that strange fire which the Scotch believe descended from Heaven and by which they at their pleasures kindle those Wars wherewith they infest England then these Horse Farriers of the Conscience gave him another drench he is taught to renounce the sins of his Fathers house and of his own the Idolatry of his Mother by a constant adhering to the cause of God according to the Covenant in the firm establishment of Church Government as it is laid down in the Directory for publick Worship Confession of Faith and Catechisme These with divers others of the like nature they wrought so on his necessity they obtruded or rather rammed into his conscience although with much reluctancy he signed to making many strange faces at these bitter pills he swallowed yet it bettered not his condition which was like that of a childe under Tutours and Governours for there was not an Officer in that Kirk or Commonwealth how vile and abject soever in place or person but enjoyed more freedom both in body and minde then he Guarded indeed he was but no otherwise then he was surrounded with the ignis fatuus of their zealous suspitions of him so that move he must not but in the Sphere of the Kirk their primum mobile whereby its apparent that the Government of that Nation might be almost questioned whether it ever were truly Monarchicall though they had Kings To proceeed the Parliament having notice of all their proceedings recalled General Cromwell out of Ireland making him Generalissimo of the Commonwealths Armies in the Lord Fairfax his stead who at the same time laid down his Commission he with a choice Army marches into Scotland and after many petty defeats gives them a great overthrow at Dunbar September 3. 1650. and prosecuting his victory takes Leith a very considerable and advantageous place as also Edenburgh the Metropolitan City of all Scotland Thus he set firm there his sword hewing his way for him to conquer that Countrey which the King lost by his pen. Now were the Scots truly miserable for besides a raging enemy in the very heart of their Kingdom they were miserably divided amongst themselves even to the killing and slaying of one another one party in the North was for the King without the Kirk another party in the West was for the Kirk without the King a third party was for King and Kirk yet notwithstanding these losses and divisions they assumed new courage levyed more men and Crowned their King with the greatest magnificence as the indigency and necessity of their Affairs would permit The English on the other side being resolved to terminate this War with Scotland passed over into Fife and having defeated four thousand Scots they soon became Masters of Inchigravy Brunt-Island and St. Johns Town mean while the Scots Army consisting of 16000. abandoned their own Territories and by the way of Carlisle entred England General Cromwel advertised hereof leaves Collonel Monk with 7000. men in Scotland to perfect the conquest of that kingdom and with the rest of the Army pursues the Scots who wheresoever they came proclaimed their King to be King of Great Brittain France and Ireland c. But few stirred unto their aid amongst others the unfortunate Earl of Darby who having assembled 1200 men in Lancashire was defeated by Collonel Lilburne and to save himself was constrained to flee to Worcester where the Scots after a long and tedious march had pitched their Camp whither General Cromwel soon pursued them and having the aid of the Train Bands of several Counties gave them Battel which proved fatal unto the Scots their whole Army being overthrown The King in a disguise escaped into France not without much difficulty and danger the Parliament having promised five hundred pounds to any one that could discover his person Such a list of prisoners as were then taken we shall seldome meet with in any Battle but Cromwels The Earl of Darby the Earl
of the holy Catholique Church that I abhor all Sects Schisms Sedition and Tyranny in Religion Affirmatively so that as I hold communion with so I love and honour all Christians in the world that love the same Lord Jesus in sincerity and call on his name agreeing with those truths that are absolutely necessary and clearly demonstrated in the Word of God both in the Old and New Testaments though in Charity dissenting from some others that are not necessary And I as I am thus a Christian I hope for salvation through the merits of Christ Jesus his blood I rely on his merits I trust to for the salvation of my own soul Though to this Faith good works are necessary not meritorious in us but onely made meritorious by Christ his death by his all sufficiency by his satisfaction and his righteouss they become meritorious but in us they are no other then as defiled rags And truly as I am a Member of the Church so I told you I was a Member of this Community and so pleaded for the Liberties and Priviledges thereof I must now answer something I am aspersed withal in the world They talk of something of a Plot and a Treasonable design and that I had a great interest in the knowledge and practice thereof and that for the saving my life I would have discovered and betrayed I cannot tell what I hope my conversation hath not been such here in this City where I have been a long time very well known as to make one imagine I should intermeddle in such an action and go so contrary to the practice of my profession and I hope there are none so uncharitable towards me as to believe I had a knowledge of that design Here I must come to particulars for a Plot of having a design upon the City of London for the firing of it I so much tremble at the thought of the thing that should have been done as they say for the carrying on of such a design if my heart deceive me not had I known it I so much abhor the thing I should have been the first discoverer of it nor ever had I correspondency or meetings with such persons as would have carried on such a design It is said likewise I entertained the Earl the Marquess of Ormond to my remembrance I never saw the face of that honourable person in my life It is said One Lords day I did preach at Saint Gregory's and the next Lords day I was at Brussels or Bruges and kist the Kings hand and brought I cannot tell what orders and instructions from him this I shall say For these three years last past together I have not been sixty miles from this City of London and I think it is somewhat further to either of those places then threescore miles It is said that I kept correspondence with one Barrow and Bishop they are persons I have heard of their names but never saw their faces and to my knowledge I do not know they know me nor do I know them at all but onely as I have heard of their names And whosoever else hath suggested such things against me I know not His Highness was pleased to tell me I was like a flaming Torch in the midst of a sheaf of Corn he meaning I being a publick Preacher was able to set the City on fire by sedition and combustions and promoting designs Here truly I do say and have it from many of those that are Judges of the High Court that upon examination of the business they have not found me a meddler at all in these Affairs And truly I must needs say therefore that it was a very uncharitable act in them who ever they were that brought such accusations against me and irritated his Highness against me I will not say it was malice it might be zeal but it was rash zeal which caused me to be sentenced to this place the God of mercy pardon and forgive them all and truly as I am a Member of the Church and as a Member of the Community whereon behalf I have been speaking I cannot but do as our Saviour himself did for his Disciples when he was to be taken from them he blessed them and ascended up to heaven My trust is in the mercy of the most High I shall not miscarry and however my dayes are shortned by this unexpected doom and shall be brought untimely to the grave I cannot go without my prayers for a blessing upon all the people of this Land and cannot but bless them all in the Name of God and beseech God to bless them in all their wayes and his blessing be upon them Let us pray O most glorious Lord God thou whose dwelling is so far above the highest Heavens that thou humblest thy self but to look upon the things that are in heaven and that are in earth and thou doest whatsoever thou wilt both in heaven in earth in the sea and in all deep places in thy hands are the hearts of all men and thou turnest them which way soever thou wilt O Lord look in mercy and compassion we beseech thee on this great and innumerous people of this Land look upon them O Lord with an eye of pitty not with an eye of fury and indignation O look not upon all those great and grievous sins that have provoked thee most justly to wrath and displeasure against us Gracious God who can stand in thy sight when thou art angry when thou with rebuke doest correct man for sin thou makest his beauty to consume away like as it were a Moth fretting a Garment O Lord thy indignation and wrath lyes heavy upon us and thou hast vexed us with thy scourges thou hast made us a reproach and a by-word amongst our Neighbours and the very heathen laugh us to scorn O that thou wouldest turn us again O Lord God of Hosts that thou wouldest shew us the light of thy countenance that we may behold it that thou wouldest humble us for all those sins and grievous transgressions that are amongst us for those Atheisms for those infidelities horrid blasphemies and prophaneness for those sacriledges for those Heresies for those Schisms Errors and all those blindnesses of heart pride vain glory and hypocrisie for that envy hatred and malice and all uncharitableness that hath set us one against another that we are so dashed one against another even to destroy each other Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim and both against Judah O Lord we are like those Moabites and Ammonies c. This thou hast done to us O Lord because we have rebelled against thee O how greatly and grievously have we sinned against thee yet for all this thou hast not requited us according to our ill deservings for thou mightest have brought us to desolation and destruction fire might have come down from heaven and destroyed us our forreign enemies and the enemies of thee and thy Christ our Saviour might have swallowed us up
Maid of Honour and his two Nephews were admitted to be her highnesses Pages which love of his he extended towards them to the day of his death One writes that when he came to have more absolute power towards the latter end of his dayes that he hath been heard often to wish that those that had been put to death were yet alive protesting solemnly that if he could not have changed their hearts he would have changed their Dooms and converted their deaths into Banishment Waving this digression as in respect of the distance of time we are now come to his own approaching Catastrophe His death was ushered in by an extraordinary Tempest and violent gust of Weather which blew down some houses tore the trees up at the roots one in the old Palace Yard by the Parliament House which by the event hath signified no otherwise then the root and branch of his Government It was a horrid Tempest as if Nature would have the Protectours death to be accompanied with a general horrour The same is elegantly set forth in a Poem by the same Laureat I shall set down his smooth Poem which was answered as roughly in respect of the single rapier'd sense though otherwise in the same Virgil stile line for line the latter as too Satyrical I have omitted the other follows We must resign Heaven his great soul doth claim In Storms as loud as his immortal fame His dying groans his last breath shakes our Isle And trees uncut fall for his funeral Pile About his Palace their broad roots were tost Into the Air so Romulus was lost New Rome in such a Tempest mist their King And from obeying fell to worshipping On Aetna's top thus Hercules lay dead With ruin'd Oaks and Pines about him spread Those his last fury from the mountain rent Our dying Hero from the continent Ravisht whole Towns and Forts from Spaniards reft As his last Legacy to Brittain left The Ocean which so long our hopes confin'd Could give no limits to his vaster minde Our Bounds enlargement was his latest toil Nor hath he left us Prisoners to our Isle Vnder the Tropick is our Language spoke And part of Flanders hath receiv'd our yoke From Civil Broyles he did us disengage Found nobler objects for our Martial rage And with wise conduct to his Countrey show'd Their ancient way of conquering abroad Vngrateful then it were no tears t' allow To him that gave us Peace and Empire too Princes that fear'd him grieve concern'd to see No pitch of Glory from the Grave is free Nature her self took notice of his death And sighing swell'd the Sea with such a breath That to remotest shores here Billows roll'd The approaching fate of their great Ruler told September the third 1658. he marcht off from his earthly honours and received his Writ of Ease from all his labours as death alone was able to encounter him which was on a day one year after another Anno 1650. and Anno 1651. rubrickt with two of his remarkable Victories as Antipater died the same day of his rising But as concerning the manner of his death after he had been sick about a fortnight of the Disease which at the beginning was but an Ague of which Tamberlain died on Friday being the third of September 1658. in the morning he gave all the signs of a dying person he remained in that manner till three of the clock in the afternoon he had to his last a perfect and intire understanding his greatest and most important Affair was to name a Protectour to be his successor which after his decease was consentaneously confirmed on his eldest Son Richard he died in the midst of his Victories and Triumphs and in a bed of Bucklers On his death-bed he dispatcht several businesses of consequence answering the Physicians who reproved him as the Emperour did That a Governour ought to dye standing Alexander the Great was born on the sixth day of April on the like day the famous Temple of Diana at Ephesus was burnt presaging that fire which this Conquerour should kindle in Asia The same Gnatho from whom I borrow this example who hath many more but at last saith he to look no further then our own Countrey into our own Histories it is observed that the late Richard the succeeding Protectour was installed in his Protectorship the third day of September when as Richard the First so much spoken of in our Histories begun his Reign an accident saith he which cannot but promise him a most favourable omen and good token But a blunt Fellow in two rustical Verses hath since as to the event better specified That his Successors Government ne're staid A stray'd Sheeps time not to be year'd and day'd As to the remarkable passages which happened on the like dayes of Olivers Life some have observed that on the third of September he was confirmed in his Protectorship by the Parliament on the third of September he gained that Battle of Dunbar on the third of September he gained that great Battle of Worcester and on the third of September he died at White Hall with all the comforts that good hopes could give in his posterity His Corps being embalmed and wrapped up in a sheet of lead were September the 26. about ten of the clock at night privately removed from White Hall to Somerset-House where it remained till the 23. of November lying in the mean time in so great state as would puzzle Antiquity to shew such a President which by some was accounted an unnecessary vanity the Commonwealth at that time being so involved in debts both to the Souldiery the Navy and others The three first Rooms at Somerset-House where the Spectatours entered where hung with black having in each of them a Cloth of State with a Chair of State under the same at the head of each cloth of State was fixed a large Majestick Scutcheon fairly painted and gilt upon Taffaty and all the Rooms furnished with Scutcheons of his Arms crowned with the Imperial Crown The fourth Room where both the Corps and the Effigies did lye was compleatly hung with black Velvet the Roof ceiled with Velvet and a large Canopy or Cloath of State of black Velvet fringed was plated over the Effigies made to the life in wax The Effigies it self being apparel'd in a rich suit of uncut Velvet robed in a little Robe of Purple Velvet laced with a rich gold lace and furr'd with Ermins upon the Kirtle was the Royal large Robe of the like Purple Velvet laced and furred with Ermins with rich strings and tassels of Gold the Kirtle being girt with a rich embroidered Belt wherein was a fair Sword richly gilt and hatch'd with Gold hanging by the side of the Effigies In the right hand was the golden Scepter representing Government in the left hand the Globe denoting Principality upon the head a Purple Velvet Cap furr'd with Ermins signifying Regality Behinde the head there was placed a Rich Chair of State of tissued
the Abbey Church in Westminster the Hearse with the Effigies thereon was taken off again from the Chariot by those ten Gentlemen who placed it thereon before and in their passing on to carry it into the Church the Canopy of State was by the former six Gentlemen born over it again In which stately manner it was carried up to the East end of the Abbey and there placed in a magnificent Structure purposely erected there to receive it being interred amongst the Kings and Queens at Westminster for all which vaste expences his Son Richard might have taken up that sad expression in Virgil Infandum Regina jubes renovare dolorem had not the Parliament since dealt so generously with him as to order the payment of his debts contracted by his Fathers Funeral Certainly the Gentleman expressed noble truly dutiful respects to his memory fit for brave minds to imitate Thus as great Oliver lived victoriously so he was buried honourably Sic exit It was a report that his Effigies was taken down and preserved from a threatning multitude of the rascally people even he that had swayed and governed these three Nations five years his Reign being troublesome was necessitated after his death to be protected in his Picture his Posterity after him being suddenly levelled Thus after many a weary step having traversed so many Crowns I must now set my Reader down at a Commonwealth I shall end all with a glimpse rather then a Character some gleaned observations on this great Favorite of Fortune I hope in terms agreeing to truth such as are neither below nor above his estate In his person he somewhat exceeded the usual middle stature proportionable without any unevenness either of lineaments or parts accordingly being of a becoming fatness well shaped his aspect having somewhat of the Soldiers inclining to redness his usual posture in his walking was his hand upon his sword he had a sparkling fierce eye nevertheless his usual deportments were both courteous and harsh at once in his encounters where he found the least opposition He was hardy and resolute in his reprehensions subtil temperate and meek in his Councels he was of a strong constitution and of an active body an enemy both to ease and excess being ever suspitious circumspect and over vigilant of a notable head-piece yet if he had any spare time he disdained not to confer though in matters of least moment he delighted to read men more then books his eloquence being Masculine and Martial rather a natural gift then an effect of Art in which he did not want his holy vestments alwayes mannaging some passages of the sacred Writ to which most charming part as well as that of the Sword he owed most of his victories He was alwayes accustomed to exhort his Souldiers at the undertaking of any great enterprize or before a Battle He had a strict eye over his Army his greatest care being to see them provided of all necessaries by which foresight he was the better able to execute severe punishment on them for their misdemeanours He took great delight to discourse of the Affairs of the World of the interests of other Princes in which his judgement did so guide him that without entering into their Cabinets or partaking of their secret Councels he could discourse very pertinently of their Affairs and foresaw their several issues and events he was an excellent Physiognomer having once seriously considered any one he was seldom deceived in the opinion he had of him He was no friend to the vain-gloriousness of habit and though he was alwayes as it were fierce of a passionate constitution yet he was so sly as to keep his passions in but when there was occasion to carry a business on he exposed himself with so much vigour as gave those he had to do withal to understand that he was not easily perswaded from the thing he had once resolved He had one knack above all the rest which stood him in much stead he had a deep insight into the natures and dispositions of the common people who as they are impatient of servitude so are they incapable of intire liberty frighted with the sight of the rod but mutinous in the feeling of it none talking more of liberty nor understanding it less then they more troubling themselves then their heads with their grievances considering nothing but repining at every thing bold talkers so you suffer them but to talk Above all most tenacious of their liberty of Conscience rather to follow any new fangled opinion then to remain constant to the old his policy herein was to allow them something to induce others to their dear liberty or license rather of their tongues which he knew he could not help but so as that he had his Eves-droppers every where who seldom brought him word of what they said except they also gave an account of what they had and then their Estates paid for the malepertness of their tongues and for their chiefest darling of all to erre in their opinions He permitted them to follow and embrace what Sect they pleased so that they all remained in obedience to Civil Government This was his Method whilest mens reasons did comprehend so little as that they needed their own experience to believe how he Atlas like could support so mighty a Frame and Mathin composed of so many different and disjoynted parts yet to keep them from slipping and falling in pieces which he did rivetting them so fast together and making them all firmly cohere amongst themselves as so many pieces of soft wax melted and moulded all in one could not cleave faster in a Ball or Globe this was the great work he had begun which had not death prevented him he was on point of finishing as he was a person indefatigable both of body and minde Politicians hold that in the changing the Government all things if it were convenient and possible ought to be changed the very Religion it self if any were prophane enough to meddle with it To wave their Atheistical opinions this may be observed that both in respect of his policy and fortunes he might very well having so many advantages over the present distractions of the times raise his thoughts to more then ordinary ambitions It is onely for God to search the heart and try the Reins he knows what our religious affections are we ought to conjecture charitably of what we cannot determine this we are certain of he could so well see through Superstition as in these times they term it for his better advantage as that his political conscience could dispence with more then ordinary Transactions nevertheless he was still under the priviledge of the Sanctuary some of the Cleargy as they have ever done stuck close to him to raise him and themselves whereas the late King undid himself for the then flourishing Cleargy and they themselves for him 'T is true his actions were complying with a military soul so that he had the less leisure
Dispensatory in what Language soever 86. Cabinet of Jewels Mans Misery Gods Mercy Christs Treasury c in eight excellent Sermons with an Appendix of the nature of Tythes under the Gospel with the expediency of Marriage in publique Assemblies by J. Crag Minister of the Gospel 87. Natures Secrets or the admirable and wonderful History of the generation of Meteors describing the Temperatures of the Elements the heights magnitudes and influences of Stars the causes of Comets Earthquakes Deluges Epidemical Diseases and Prodigies of Precedent times with presages of the weather and descriptions of the weather-glass by T. Wilsford 88. The Mysteries of Love ane Eloquence or the Arts of Wooing and Complementing as they are managed in the Spring Garden Hide Park the New Exchange and other eminent places A work in which is drawn to the life the Deportments of the most Accomplisht Persons the Mode of their Courtly entertainments Treatment of their Ladies at Balls their accustomed Sports Drolls and Fancies the Witchcrafts of their perswasive Language in their Approaches or other more Secret Dispatches c. by E. P. 89. Helmont disguised or the vulgar errors of imparcial and unskilful Practicers of Physick confuted more especially as they concern the Cures of Feavers the Stone the Plague and some other Diseases by way of Dialogue in which the chief rareties of Physick are admirably discourcoursed of by J. T. Books very lately Printed and in the Press now Printing 1. Geometry demonstrated by Lines and Numbers from thence Astronomy Cosmography and Navigation proved and delineated by the Doctrine of Plain and Spherical Triangles by T. Wilsford 2. The English Annals from the Invasion made by Julius Caesar to these times by T. Wilsford 3. The Fool transformed A Comedy 4. The History of Lewis the eleventh King of France a Trage-Comedy 5. The Chaste woman against her will a Comedy 6. The Tooth-drawer a Comedy 7. Honour in the end a Comedy 8. Tell-tale a Comedy 9. The History of Donquixiot or the Knight of the ill favoured face a Comedy 10. The fair Spanish Captive a Trage-Comedy Sir Kenelm Digby and other Persons of Honour their rare and incomparable secrets of Physick Chyrurgery Cookery Preserving Conserving Candying distilling of Waters extraction of Oyls compounding of the costliest Perfumes with other admirable Inventions and select Experiments as they offered themselves to their Observations whether here or in Forreign Countreys 11. The soul 's Cordial in two Treatises the first teaching how to be eased of the guilt of sin the second discovering advantages by Christs Ascension by that faithful Labourer in the Lords Vineyard Mr. Christopher Love late Minister of Lawrence Jury the third Volume of his Works 12. Jacobs seed the excellency of seeking God by prayer by the late Reverend Divine Master Jeremiah Burroughs 14. The Saints Tomb-stone or the Remains of the Blessed A plain Narrative of some remarkable Passages in the holy Life and happy Death of Mistress Dorothy Shaw Wife of Mr. John Shaw Preacher of the Gospel at Kingston upon Hull collected by her dearest Friends especially for her sorrowful Husband and six Daughters consolation and imitation 15. The so well entertained Work the New World of English Words or a general Dictionary containing the Terms Etymologies Definitions and perfect Interpretations of the proper significations of hard English Words throughout the Arts and Sciences Liberal or Mechanick as also other subjects that are useful or appertain to the Language of our Nation to which is added the signification of Proper Names Mythology and Poetical Fictioâ—s Historical Relations Geographical Descriptions of the Countreys and Cities of the World especially of these three Nations wherein their chiefest Antiquities Battles and other most memorable Passages are mentioned A Work very necessary for Strangers as well as our own Countrey-men for all persons that would rightly understand what they discourse or read Collected and published by E. P. for the greater honour of those learned Gentlemen and Artists that have been assistant in the most Practical Sciences their Names are presented before the Book 16. The so much desired and learned Commentary on Psalm the fifteenth by that Reverend and Eminent Divine Mr Christopher Cartwright Minster of the Gospel in York to which is prefixed a brief account of the Authours Life and of his Work by R. Bolton 17 The Way to Bliss in three Books being a learned Treatise of the Philosophers Stone made publick by Elias Ashmole Esq 18. Wit restored in several Select Poems not formerly publisht by Sir John Mennis Mr. Smith and others 19. The Judges Charge delivered in a Sermon before Mr. Justice Hall and Mr. Serjeant Crook Judges of the Assize at St. Mary Overies in Southwark by R. Purre M. A. Pastor of Camerwel in the County of Surrey a Sermon worthy of the perusal of all such persons as endeavour to be honest and just Practitioners in the Law 20. The Modern Assurancer the Clerks Directory containing the Practick part of the Law in the exact Forms and Draughts of all manner of Presidents for Bargains and Sales Grants Feoffements Bonds Bills Conditions Covenants Joyntures Indentures to lead the uses of Fines and Recoveries with good Proviso's and Covenants to stand seized Charter parties for Ships Leases Releases Surrenders c. And all other Instruments and Assurances now in use intended for all young Students and Practicers of the Law by John Hern. 21. Moor's Arithmetick the second Edition much refined and diligently cleared from the former mistakes of the Press A Work containing the whole Art of Arithmetick as well in Numbers as Species Together with many Additions by the Authour to come forth at Machaelmas Term. Likewise 22. Exercitatio Elleiptica Nova or a new Mathematical Contemplation on the Oval Figure called an Elleipsis together with the two first Books of Midorgius his Conicks Analiz'd and made so plain that the Doctrine of Conical sections may be easily understood a Work much desired and never before publisht in the English Tongue by Jonas Moor Surveyor General of the great Level of the Fennes to come forth at Michaelmas Term 27. Naps upon Parnassus a sleepy Muse nipt and pincht though not awakened such voluntary and Jovial Copies of Verses as were lately receiv'd from some of the Wits of the Universities in a Frolick dedicated to Gondibert's Mistress by Captain Jones and others Whereunto is added for D monstration of the Authors Prosaick Excellencies his Epistle to one of the Universities with the Answer together with two Satyrical Characters of his own of a Temporizer and an Antiquary with Marginal Notes by a Friend to the Reader 24. America painted to the Life the History of the Conquest and first Original undertakings of the advancement of the Plantations in those Parts with an exquisite Map by F. Gorges Esq 25. Culpeper's School of Physick or the Experimental Practice of the whole Art so reduced either into Aphorisines or choice and tried Receipts that the free born Students of the three Kingdoms may