Lieutenant of the English pale they were forced to retire and flye The Earle of S. Paul escaped to S. Omers but left many of his men of quality behind him and more taken Prisoners After this Thomas Duke of Clarence the Kings second sonne and the Earle of Kent with competent Forces entred the Haven of Sluce where they burnt foure ships riding at anchour and then returned to the reliefe of Callis besieged at that time by the French and in the way tooke three Carricks of Gânoua richly laden and brought them into the Chamber of Rye And these were the troubles of this King abroad But now at home the Reliques of the former Northerne Rebellion began to revive for now Henry Percy Earle of Northumberland Richard Scroope Archbishop of Yorke Thomas Mowbray Earle Marshall the Lords Hastings Fawconbridge and Bardolfe with divers others conspired at a time appointed to meet upon Yorkswould-Downes and there to bid defiance to king Henry Articles of Grievances were framed and set up in all publick places which drew multitudes to be partakers of the enterprize But now Ralph Nevill Earle of Westmeâland with the Lord Iohn the Kings third sonne the Lords Henry Fitz-Hughes Ralph Evers and Robert Vmphrevile make head against them and comming into a Plaine in the Forrests of Galltree they sate down right against the Archbishop and his Forces which were twenty thousand and Westmerland perceiving the Enemies forces to be farre more than theirs he used this policie he sent to the Archbishop demanding the reason why he would raise Forces against the king who answering that his Armes were not against the king but for his owne defence whom the king upon the instigation of Sycophants had threatned withall he sent him a scrowle of their grievances which Westmerland read and seemed to approve and thereupon desired a conference with him The Archbishop more credulous then wise perswaded the Earle Marshall to goe with him to the place appointed to conferre the Articles are read and allowed of and thereupon Westmerland seeming to commiserate the souldiersâ having beene in armour all day and weary wished the Archbishop to acquaint his Party as he would his with this their mutuall agreement and so shaking hands in most Courtly friendship dranke unto him whereupon the souldiers were willed to disband and repaire home which they had no sooner done but a Troâp of horse which in a colourable manner had made a shew to depart wheeled about and afterwards returned and being come in âight the Earle of Westmerland arrested both the Arcbishop and the Earle Marshall and brought them both Prisoners to the king at Poâfret who passing from thence to York the Prisoners likewise were carried thither and the next day both of them beheaded At Durham the Lords Hastings and Fâwconbridge with two knights were executed Northumberland with the Lord Bardolfe fled first to Barwick and after into Scotland where they were entertained by David Lord Flemming whereupon the king gave summons to the Castle of Barwick which at first they refused to obey but upon the planting and discharging of a Piece they presently yeelded without composition and here William Greystock Henry Baynton and Iohn Blinkânsop knights and five other were presently put to execution and many others committed to severall Prisons About this time Iames sonne and heire of Robert king of Scotland a childe of nine yeares old attended by the Earle of Orkney as he was sailing into France was taken by certaine Mariners of Norfolk who brought him to the King at Windsor the 30. of March 1408. and the King sent them to the Tower of London Northumberland and Bardolfe after they had been in Wales France and Flanders to raise a Power against King Henry returned back into Scotland and after a yeere with a great Power of Scots entred England and came into Yorkshire making great spoyle and waste as they passed but Sir Thomas Rokesby Sheriffe of Yorke levying the forces of the County upon Bramham-moore gave them battell in which Northumberland was slaine Bardolfe taken but wounded to death and the rest put to flight About this time also Sir Robert Vmphrevile Vice-admirall of England with ten men of warre entred Scotland burnt their Gallyât and many other ships over against Lieth and brought away with him fourteen tall ships laden with corne and other staple commodities which at his returne he sent into the Markets round about and thereby brought down the prizes of all things and purchased to himselfe the name of Mend-market The Prince had been a Student In Queenes Colledge in Oxford under the tuition of his Unkle Henry Beaufort Chancellor of that University afterwards Bishop of Lincolâe and Winchester and lastly made a Cardinall by the title of Eusebius From Oxford the Prince was called to Court and the Lord Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester was made his Governour but comming afterward to be at his owne disposing whether being by nature valorous and not yet well stayed by time and experience oâ whether incited by ill companions and emboldened by the opinion of his owne greatnesse he ranne into many courses so unworthy of a Prince that it was much doubted what he would prove when he came to be Prince Once it is said he lay in wait for the Receivers of his fathers Rents and in the person of a Thiefe set upon them and robbed them Another time when one of his companions was arraigned for felony before the Lord Chiefe Justice he went to the Kings Bench barre and offered to take the Prisoner away by force but being withstood by the Lord Chiefe Justice he stepped to him and struck him over the face whereat the Judge nothing abashed rose up and told him that he did not this affront to him but to the King his father in whose place he sate and therefore to make him know his fault he commanded him to be committed to the Fleete You would have wondred to see how calme the Prince was in his own cause who in the cause of his companion had been so violent for he quietly obeyed the Judges sentence and suffered himselfe to be led to Prison This passage was not a little pleasing to the King to thinke that he had a Judge of such courage and a Sonne of such submission but yet for these and such other pranks he removed him from being President of the Councell and placed in it his third sonne Iohn This made the Prince so sensible of his fathers displeasure that he thought it necessary to seek by al means to recover his âood opinion which he endeavored to doe by a way as strange as that by which he lost it for attiring himselfe in a garment of blew Sattin wrought all with Eylet-holes of black silke at every hole the needle hanging by which it was sowed and about his arme a thing in fashion of a hounds collar studded with SS of gold he came to the Court at Westminster to whom the King though not well in health caused himselfe in
who lived about the yeare 685. 6 Segebert King of the East Angles writ an Institution of Lawes in his later dayes became a Monke and was slaine by Penda King of the Mercians in the yeare 652. 7 Cymbertus Bishop of Lindsey in the kingdome of Mercia writ the Annals of that Country lived about the yeare 730 8 Daniel Wentanus a Bishop writ the History of his Province and the Acts of the South Saxons and dyed in the yeare 746. 9 Asserius Menevensis borne in Pembrokeshire Bishop of Salisbury writ the Story of Britaine and the Acts of King Alphred and lived about the yeare 890. 10 Alphredus the great King of the Angles âourth sonne of King Ethelwolph writ besides many other workes a Collection of Chronicles and dyed at Winchester in the yeare 901. 11 Osbernus a Benedictine Monke writ the life of the Arch-bishop Dunstan and other workes and lived about the yeare 1020. 12 Colmanâus Anglicus writ a Chronicle and a Catalogue of the English Kings and lived about the yeare 1040. in the time of King Harold the first 13 Gulielmus Gemeticensis a Norman and a Monke writ the lives of the Dukes of Normandy to William the Conqueror to whom he Dedicated his Worke and after enlarged it to the death of King Henry the first in the yeare 1135. at which time he lived 14 Marianus Scotus a Monke writ Annals from the beginning of the world to his own time and dyed in the yeare 1086. 15 Alphredus a Priest of Beverly writ a History from the first Originall of the Britaine 's to his owne time and lived about the yeare 1087. in the time of William the Conquerour 16 Veremundus a Spaniard and a Priest but who lived much in Scotland writ the Antiquities of the Scottish Nation and lived about the yeare 1090. 17 Lucianus a Monke and an English writer and lived in the first times of the Normans 18 Ingulphus Abbot of Croyland writ from the yeare 664. to the yeare 1066. and lived in the time of William the Conquerour whose Secretary he had beene 19 Turgotus an Englishman first Deane of Durham and afterward Bishop of Saint Andrewes in Scotland writ a History of the Kings of Scotland also Chronicles of Durham Annals of his own time and the life of King Malcolm and lived in the yeare 1098. in the time of King William Rufus 20 Gâlielmus Pictaviensis writ a Treatise of the Life of William the Conquerour 21 Gualterus Mappaeus writ a Booke De Nugis Curialium and lived about the Conquerours time 22 William of Malmesbury a Benedictine Monke writ a History of the English Nation from the first comming of the Saxons into Britaine to his owne time which Worke he Dedicated to Robert Duke of Glocester base Sonne of King Henry the First and lived to the first yeares of King Henry the Second 23 Florentius Bravonius a Monke of Worcester compiled a Chronicle from the Creation to the yeare 1118. in which yeare he dyed his Worke was continued by another Monke to the yeare 1163. 24 Eadmerus a Monke of Canterbury writ the lives of William the Conquerour William Rufus and King Henry the First in whose time he lived 25 Raradocus borne in Wales writ the Acts of the Britaine Kings from Cadwallader to his owne time and lived in the time of King Stephen 26 Gervasius Dorobernensis a Benedictine Monke writ a History of the English Nation lived about the yeare 1120 27 Johannes Fiberius commonly called De Bever writ short Annals of the English Nation and lived about the yeare 1110. in the time of King Henry the first 28 Henry Arch-deacon of Huntington writ a History of the Kings of England to the Reigne of King Stephen in whose time he lived 29 Geoffrey of Monmouth a Benedictine Monke and afterward Bishop of Asaph writ a History of the Britaines and was the first that makes mention of Brute and of Merlins Prophecies for which he is much taxed by divers Authours of his owne time and after he lived about the yeare 1150. in the time of King Stephen 30 William of Newborough borne at the beginning of King Stephens Reigne writ a History of the English Nation and bitterly inveighes against Geoffrey of Monmouth as a Deviser of Fables 31 Sylvester Gyraldus borne in Wales and thereof called Cambrensis after long travaile abroad was called home and made Secretary to King Henry the Second and after was sent Tutour to his Sonne John into Ireland he writ the History of that Nation very exquisitely also an Itinerarium of Wales and Britaine the Life of Henry the Second the Acts of King John and a Chronicle of the English Nation and lived about the yeare 1190. in the times of King Richard the First and King John 32 John of Hagulstad a Towne in the North a Benedictine Monke in Durham writ the most memorable things from the ninth yeare of King Henry the Second to the first yeare of King Richard the first in whose time he lived about the yeare 1190. 33 Roger Hoveden a Priest of Oxford writ the Annals of the Kings of England and the memorable passages under the Romans Picts Saxons Danes and Normans he lived in the time of King Richard the first and dyed in the time of King John 34 Johannes Tilberiensis a secular Priest writ a History of the English Nation and lived in the time of King Richard the first 35 Richardus Canonicus travelled with King Richard the first into Palestine and writ of his Iourney and Acts there 36 Aluredus Rivallensis or de Rivallis a Cistersian Monke in the Diocesse of Yorke writ the Life of Edward King of England and David King of Scots and dyed in the yeare 1166. 37 Simon Dunelmensis a Benedictine Monke writ a History of the English Nation from the death of Venerable Bede to the yeare 1164. and lived in the time of King Henry the second 38 John de Oxenford first Deane of Salisbury and after Bishop of Norwich writ the British History and continued it to his own time wherin he agreeth much with Geoffry of Monmouth and lived about the yeare 1174. in the timâ of King Henry the second 39 Johannes Sarisberiensis writ an excellent Book De Nugis Curialium and lived about the yeare 1182. in the time of King Henry the second 40 Gulielmus Parvus a Canon Regular in the Province of Yorke writ a History of the Norman Kings and liâed about the yearâ 1216. in the time of King John 41 Johannes Campobellus a Scotch man writte the History of the Scots from the first Originall of the Nation to his owne time and lived in the yeare 1260. 42 John Breton an Englishman Bishop of Hereford writ a Booke De Juribus Anglicanis and lived in the yeare 1270. in the time of King Henry the third 43 Thomas Wyke an Englishman a Canon Regular of Osney neere Oxford writ a short History from the commâng in of William the Conquerour to his owne time and lived in
Cingetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonax which division as it made the Britaines the more easie to be conquered so it made the Romans the longer in conquering For if they had beene one united body one or two battailes might have made a conquest of the whole where being thus divided there was need to be as many battailes as there were divisions So as it was many yeares before the Romanes could conquer the whole Island even from the time of Iulius Caesar to the time of the Emperour Domitian not much lesse then two hundred yeares It is true after Caesars first comming the Island grew sensible of this defect of their division and thereupon by consent of a great part made choyce of Cassibelan King of the Trinovants who had his seate at Verulam to be Generall of their warres which made indeed some little stoppe to the Romanes proceedings but after the losse of a battaile or two they fell againe into a relapse of their former defect and thought it better to secure every one his owne by his owne meanes then by a generall power to hazard all at once whereby it came afterward to be true Dum singuli pugnant universi vincuntur Yet before the Couâtry could bee wholly Conquered at first by reason of the Nations valour seeking to keepe themselves free and afterward by reason of the insolency of the garrison souldiers that sought to make them slaves many great oppositions were made amongst which the most memorable was that of Voadicia a certaine Queene of the Country who having beene by the Romane souldiers herselfe abused and her daughters ravished used meanes to levy an Army of six score thousand men whom she led herselfe into the field and set upon the Romanes in their chiefe townes which were London Verulam and Camalodunum now Malden in Essex of whom she flew above seventy thousand but then in a second battaile had fourescore thousand of her owne Army slaine after which defeate for avoyding of slavery she poysoned herselfe This Island for a long time was so much esteemed of the Romanes that their Emperors sometimes came hither in person as first the Emperor Adrian in the yeare 124. who made a great wall of earth betweene England and Scotland and having set the Country in order returned After him sometime Severus the Emperor in the yeare 212. came over into Britâine to represse the Incurâions of the Picts and Scots by whom in a battaile neere Yorke he was wounded and thereof dyed or as others say he dyed of age and sicknesse Afterward in the yeare 305. Constantius the Emperor came into Britaine and ended his life at Yorke making that City famous for the death and buriall of two great Emperors and yet more famous for the honor done to Constantine the Great sonne of Constantius who in that City was first saluted Emperor But notwithstanding the great estimation the Romanes a long time made of this Island yet at last after five hundred yeares they had kept it in subjection they voluntarily left it the charge of keeping it being greater then the benefit for to keepe it in subjection they maintained no fewer than fourescore thousand souldiers in pay and when warres grew amongst themselves at home they could no longer spare so many abroad but recalled them home but then though they left Britaine yet they left not the Britaines but carried them at least a great part of them away with them of whom the most were slaine in their service and the rest planted in that part of France which of them was afterward and is to this day called Britaine And now one would thinke the Island should be in good case being freed from them that kept them in subjection but it proved to bee in worse case being at liberty then it was before in servitude for being deprived of their ablest men and at the same time their King Lucius happening to dye without issue they were left as a few loose sticks without the bond of a Governour which the Picts and Scots observing thought now was the time to make the Country their owne and thereupon made invasions upon it with all their Forces Whereupon the Britaines having none left of their Native Kings to succeed and knowing they could ill manage the Body of an Army without a Head they make choyce of Vortigerne Earle of Cornwall one extracted from the British Line and he whether so advised by his Cabinet Counsellor the Propheticall Merlin or as finding his owne strength too weake to make resistance implores first ayde of the Romanes and they making answer they had businesse enough to do of their owne and leaving them to themselves he then fled to the Saxons for ayde a warlike people of Germany and who had greater swarmes then their hives would well hold And here we may plainly see how dangerous a thing it is for a Nation to call in strangers to their ayd and especially in any great number for though they come at first but mercenaries yet once admitted and finding their owne strength they soone grow Masters as here it proved with the Saxons But before we speake further of the comming in of the Saxons who were at that time Infidels and brought with them their two Idols Woden and Frya whereof two of our weeke dayes Wednesday and Friday take their names it will be fit to say something of the state of the Christian Church in this Island First then it is recorded that in the yeare 63. what time Arviragus raigned here Ioseph of Arimâthea who buried the body of Christ came into this Island and laid the foundation of the Christian Faith in the Westerne parts at a place called then Hvalon now Glastenbury and that there came with him Mary Magdalen Lazarus and Martha and more then this that Simon Zelotes one of the Apostles suffered martyrdome here in Britaine and more then this that both St. Peter and St. Paul came into this Island and Preached the Gospell all which and more to this purpose is Recorded by Authors of good Account though it be hard believing That persons and specially women of so great age as these must needes be at this time should take so long a journey But howsoever it was certaine it is that the doctrine of Christianity was about this time planted in this Island though it made afterwards but small progresse and that with some persecution as in which time St. Alban suffered martyrdome at Verulam and at Liechfield shortly after no fewer then a thousand After this in the yeare 180 what time Lucius was King of this Island Eleutherius then Bishop of Rome sent Faganus and Damianus to him upon whose preaching the Temples of the Heathenish Flamins and Arch-flamins one and thirty in number were converted to so many Bishops Sees whereof London Yorke and Caerleyn now St. Davids were made the Metropolitans of the Province And there is a Table remaining at this day in the Parish Church of St. Peter on Cornhill London which
his brother Prince Ethelred were then residing he out of his love to both would needs himselfe alone goe visit them where the cruell woman out of ambition to bring her owne Sonne to the Crowne caused one to runne him into the backe with a knife as he was drinking a cup of Wine on horse backe at his departing who feeling himselfe hurt set spurres to his horse thinking thereby to get to his company but the wound being mortall and he fainting thorow losse of much blood fell from his Horse but one foote being intangled in the stirrup he was thereby rufully dragged up and downe through Woods and Lands And lastly left dead at Corfes gate for which untimely death he was ever after called by âhe name of Edward the Martyr He Raigned onely three yeares and âix moneths and was Buryed first at Winchester without all Funerall pompe but after three yeares by Duke Alferus removed and with great solemnity interred in the Minster of Shaftsbury Queene Elfrid to expiate this her bloody fact built the two Monasteries of Almesbery and Worwell in the Counties of Wilâshire and Southampton in which latter with great repentance she lived till her death After the death of Edward the Martyr dying at the age of sixteene yeares his halfe brother Ethelred at the age of twelve yeares in the yeare 979. was Crowned King at Kingston upon Thames by Dunstan Arch-bishop of Canterbury though much against his will which King by reason of his backwardnesse in Action was commonly called the Unready Before whose time for two and twenty yeares pastâ the Danes had lived as quiet Inmates with the English but whether weary of so long doing nothing or finding now opportunity of doing something in the second yeare of this King they begin to stirre and inviting from home more forces who in seven Ships arrived upon the Coast of Kent they spoyled all the Country specially the Isle of Thanet and continued this course of forraging the Kingdome sometimes in one part and sometimes in another for eleven yeares together till at last in the yeare 991. the King by advice of his Lords of whom Siricius the now Arch-bishop of Canterbury was chiefe was contented to pay them ten thousand pounds upon condition they should quietly depart the Realme This served the turne for the present but was so farre from satisfying them that it did but give them the greater appetite for the yeare following they came againe and that with a greater Fleet then before against whom the King prepared a competent Navy and committed it to Elfricke Earle of Mercia but he proving treacherous as indeed all other for the most part did whom the King imployed against the Danes as with whom they were allyanced in blood the Danâs so prevailedâ that for the next Composition they had sixteene thousand pounds given them and a yeare after twenty thousand and so every yeare more and more till it came at last to forty thousand by which meanes the Land was emptyed of all Coyne and the English were brought so low that they were faine to Till and Eare the Ground whilest the Danes sate idle and ate the fruite of their labours abusing the Wives and Daughters of their Hosts where they lay and yet iâ every place for every feare were called Lord-Danes which afterward became a word of derision when one would signifie a lazy Lubber In this distressed state the King at last bethought himselfe of a course He sent forth a secret Commission into every City within his Dominions that at an appointed time they should massacre all the Danes that were amongst them The day was the thirteenth of November being the Festivall of Saint Bricius in the yeare 1002. His command was accordingly performed and with such rigour that in Oxford the Danes for refuge tooke into the Church of Saint Frideswyde as into a Sanctuary when the English neither regarding Place nor Person set the Church on site wherein many of the Danes were burnt and the Library thereof utterly defaced And who would not now thinke but that England by this Fact had cleane shaken off the Danish yoke for ever yet it proved cleane otherwise For the newes of this massacre adding a new edge of revenge to the old edge of ambition made the Danes sharper set against the English then ever they had beene before so as the yeare following their King Sweyne with a mighty Navy entred the Country razed and levelled with the ground the City of Exceter all along from the East Gate to the West against whom the King levyed an Army and made Generall over it the Earle Edricke his great Favourite whom he had created Duke of Mercia and given him his Daughter Edgyth in marriage yet all this great favour could not keepe him from being treacherous for being sent Embassadour to the Danes to mediate for Peace he revealed to them the weaknesse of the Land and treacherously disswaded them from consenting to any Truce Upon this King Ethelred gave order that every three hundred and ten Hydes of Land should build a Ship and every eight Hydes finde a compleat Armour furnished yet all this great preparation came to nothing but onely to make a shew After this the King seeing no end of their invasions nor promise kept upon any composition for three Danish Princes with a great Fleet were now newly arrived He intended to adventure once for all and to commit his cause to God by the fortune of a Battaile To which end he secretly gathered a mightily Power and comming unlooked for when the Enemy was unprepared he had certainely given an end to the Quarrell if the wicked Edricke had not disswaded him from fighting and put him into a causelesse feare by forged tales After this the Danes forraged many Countryes burnt Oxford Theâford and Cambridge and lastly entred Wiltshire which was the seventh shire in number they had laid waste like a Wildernesse The yeare after they make a new Expedition and besiege Canterbury which by treason of a Church-man they wonne tooke Alphegus the Arch-bishop and flew nine hundred Monkes and men of Religion besides many Citizens without all mercy for they Tythed the people slaying all by nines and reserving onely the tenth to live so that of all the Monkes in the Towne there were but foure saved and of the Lay people foure thousand eight hundred by which account Master Lambert collecteth that there dyed in this Massacre three and forty thousand and two hundred persons The Arch-bishop Alphegus for that he refused to charge his Tenants with three thousand pounds to pay for his ransome they most cruelly stoned to death at Greenâwich Turkillus the leader of these murtherers tooke into his possession all Norfolke and Suffolke over whom he tyrannized in most savage manner the rest compounding with the English for eight thousand pounds quietly for a while sojourned among them The yeare following came King Sweyne againe and with a great Navy arrived in the mouth of Humber and
him by Baldwyn Earle of Flaunders he tooke the Sea for England where comming to shoare Earle Goodwyn met him and bound himselfe by Oath to be his guide to his Mother Queene Emma but being wrought firme for Harold he led him and his company a contrary way and lodged them at Guilford making knowne to King Harold what he had done who presently committed them all to slaughter sparing onely every tenth man for service or sale Prince Alfred himselfe he sent Prisoner to the Isle of Ely where having his eyes inhumanely put out in griefe and torment he ended his life Some adde a more horrible kind of cruelty as that his belly was opened and one end of his bowels drawne out and fastned to a stake his body pricked with Needles or Poignards and forced about till all his Entrailes were extracted This done he then set upon Queene Emma confiscated her Goods and banished her the Realme And now further to secure himselfe he kept the Seas with sixteene Danish Ships to the maintenance whereof he charged the English with great payments by which if he procured the safety of his Person he certainly procured the hatred of his Subjects This King for his swiftnesse in running was called Harefoot but though by his swiftnesse he out-runne his Brother for the Kingdome yet could he not runne so fast but that death quickely overtooke him For having Raigned onely foure yeares and some moneths he dyed at Oxfordâ and was buryed at Westminster having never had Wife or Children Of the third and last Danish King in England KIng Harold being dead the Lords to make amends for their former neglect send now for Hardiknute and offer him their Allegeance who accepteth their offer and thereupon taking Sea arrived upon the Coast of Kent the sixth day after he had set saile out of Denmarke and with great pompe conveyed to London was there Crowned King by Elnothus Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the yeare 1040. His first Act was to be revenged of his deceased brother Harold whose body he caused to be digged up and throwne into the Thames where it remained till a Fisherman found it and buryed it in the Church yard of Saint Clement without Temple Barre commonly called Saint Clement Danes because it was the burying place of the Danes as some write But towards his Mother and halfe Brother Prince Edwârd he shewed true naturall affection inviting them both to returne into England where he received them with all the honour that from a Sonne or Brother could be expected But now as the King Harold for his swiftnesse in running was surnamed Harefooâe So this King for his intemperance in dyet might have been surnamed Swines-mouth or Boccâdi Porco for his Tables were spread every day foure times and furnished with all kindes of curious dishes as delighting in nothing but Gormandizing and Swilling and as for managing the State he committed it wholly to his Mother Qâeene Emma and to the politicke Earle of Kent Godwyn who finding this weaknesse in the King began to thinke himselfe of aspiringâ and to make the better way for it he sought by all meanes to alien the Subjects hearts from the Prince amongst other courses he caused him to lay heavy Taxes upon them onely for Ship-money to pay his Danes amounting to two and thirty thousand pounds which was so offensive to the people that the Citizens of Worcester slew two of his Officers Thurstaâ and Feâdax that came to Collect it But this King had soone the reward of his Intemperance For in a Solemne Assembly and Banquet at Lambeth Revelling and Carowsing he suddenly fell downe without speech or breath after he had Raigned only two yeares and was buryed at Winchester His death was so welcome to his Subjects that the day of his death is to this day commonly celebrated with open pastimes in the street and is called Hocks-tide signifying scorning or contempt which fell upon the Danes by his death For with him ended the Raigne of the Danes in England after they had miserably afflicted the kingdome for the space of two hundred and forty yeares though in Regall Government but onely six and twenty Of English Kings againe and first of Edward the Confessour KIng Hardiknute dying without issue as having never beene marryed and the Danish line cleane extinguished Edward for his Piety called the Confessour halfe Brother to the deceased Hardiknute and sonne to King Ethelred by his Wife Queene Emma was by a generall consent admitted King of England and was Crowned at Winchester by Edsyne Arch-bishop of Canterbury on Easter day in the yeare 1042. being then of the age of forty yeares He was borne at Islip neare to Oxford and after his Fathers death for safety sent into France to the Duke of Normandy his Mothers Brother from whence he now came to take upon him the Crowne of England His Acts for gaining the Peoples love were first the remitting the yearely tribute of forty thousand pounds gathered by the name of Danegilt which had beene imposed by his Father and for forty yeares together paid out of all mens Lands but onely the Clergy and then from the divers Lawes of the Mercians West Saxons Danes and Northumbrians he selected the best and made of them one Body certaine and written in Latine being in a sort the Fountaine of those which at this day we tearme the Common Lawes though the formes of pleading and processe therein were afterward brought in by the Conquerour The Raigne of this King was very peaceable Onely in his sixth yeare the Danish Pirates entred the Port of Sandwich which with all the Sea-coast of Essex they spoyled and then in Flanders made merchandise of their prey As likewise the Irish with thirty ships entred Severne and with the assistance of Griffyth King of Southwales burnt or âlew all in their way till at last Reese the brother of Griffyth was slaine at Bâlenden and his head presented to King Edward at Glocester His Domesticall troubles were onely by Earle Gâdwyn and his sonnes who yet after many contestations and affronts were reconciled and Godwyn received againe into as great favour as before But though King Edward forgave his Treasons yet the Divine Providence did not for soone after as he sate at Table with the King on Easter Munday he was suddenly strucken with death and on the Thursday following dyed and was buryed at Winchester Some make his death more exemplar as that justifying himselfe for Prince Alfreds death he should pray to God that if he were any way guilty of it he might never swallow downe one morsell of bread and thereupon by the just Judgement of God was choaked by the first morsell he offered to eate In this Kings time such abundance of snow fell in Ianuary continuing till the middle of March following that almost all Cattell and Fowle perished and therewithall an excessive dearth followed Two Acts are related of this King that seeme nothing correspondent to the generall opinion had of his Vertue
William and by a second two other sonnes William Earle of Argues and Maâger Archbishop of Roan So as Richard his eldest sonne by his first wife succeeded him by the name of Richard the fourth and dying without issue the Dukedome descended to Robert his second sonne by his first wife which Robert was father to our William the Conquerour of whom it is thus recorded that riding one time abroad he happened to passe by a company of Country Maides that were a dancing where staying a while to looke upon them he was so taken with the handsomnesse and gracefull carriage of one of them whose name was Arlotte a Skinners daughter from whence as some thinke our word Harlot comes that affection commanding him and authority her he caused her that night to be brought to his bed where being together what was done or said betweene them is no matter for History to record though some Historians have recorded both making her not so modest as was fit for a Maide onely tenne monthes after it appeared that at this time our Duke William was begotten who proving a man of extraordinary spirit we may attribute it to the heate of affection in which he was begotten His succeeding in the Dukedome notwithstanding his Bastardie IT appeares by many examples that Bastardie in those dayes was no barre to succession till a law was afterward made to make it a barre It brought some disgrace where the mother was meane but no impediment where the father was Noble and even his Bastardie seemed to have some allay if it be true as some write that his father tooke the said Arlotte afterward to be his wife and yet perhaps he had not the Dukedome so much by succession as by gift For when hee was about nine yeares old his father calling his Nobility together caused them to swear Allegeance to this base sonne of his and to take him for their Liege Lord after his decease Neither was this in those dayes infrequent for Princes to conferre their Principalities after their owne deceases upon whom they pleased counting it as lawfull to appoint successours after them as substitutes under them even in our time and Kingdome the Duke of Northumberland prevailed with King Edward the sixth to exclude his two sisters Mary and Elizabeth and to appoint the Lady Iane Grey daughter of the Duke of Suffolke to succeed him His Education and Tuition in his minoritie HIs father having declared and appointed him to be his Successour went soone after whether out of devotion or to do Penance for procuring his brothers death whereof he was suspected into the Holy Land in which Journey he died having left the tuition of his young sonne to his two brothers and the Guardianship to the King of France in whose Court for a time he was brought up A strange confidence to commit the tuition of a sonne that was base to Pretenders that were legiâiâate and to a King of France who aimed at nothing more then to reannexe this Dukedome to his Crowne But it seemes his confidence was grounded upon the proximitie of blood in his brothers and upon the merits of his owne service formerly done to the King of France which though it proved well enough with him yet is not to betaken into example to follow His Troubles in his minoritie FIrst Roger de Tresny who derived his Pedegree directly from Rollo and had won much honour by his valour in the warres notwithstanding the Oath of Allegeance he had formerly taken takes exception to his Bastardy and invites Complices to assist him in recovering the Dukedome to â legitimate Race a falâe pretext if the Fate of Duke William had not beene against it who though hee were himselfe but young and could not do much in his owne person yet the Divine Providence raised him up friends that supplied him with Assistance and particularly Roger de Beamont by whose valour this Roger de Tresny with his two brothers was defeated and slaine After Roger de Tresây William de Arques his Unckle layes claime to the Dutchy and assisted by the King of France comes to a battaile but by the valour of Count Gyfford the Dukes Generall was likewise defeated and these were troublâs before he arrived to seventeene yeares of age After this one Guy Earle of Burgoigne Grandchild to Richard the second Duke of Normandy grew sensible also of his Right to the Dukedome and joyning with Viscount Neele and the Earle of Besâin two powerfull Normans conspired Duke Williams death and had effected it if a certaine Foole about him had not stolne away in the night to the place where the Duke was and never left knocking and crying at the gate till he was admitted to his presence willing him to flye for his life instantly or he would be murthered The Duke considering that being related by a Foole it was like to be the more palpable and that there might be danger in staying none in going rode instantly away all alone toward Falaise his principall Castle but missing his way he happâned to passe where a Gentleman was standing at his doore of whom he asked the way and was by him as knowing him directed which he had no sooner done but the conspiratours came presently inquiring if such a one had not passed that way which the Gentleman affirmed and undertooke to be their guide to overtake him but leading them of purpose a contrary way the Duke by this meanes came safely to Fâlâise and from thence journeyes to the King of France complaining of his injâries and imploring his ayd as one that waââis homager and committed to his careâ by his âervant his Father The King of France moved with his distreâse and remembrance of his Fathers meriâs though he wishâd he was lesse then he was yet he âo ayded him that he made him greater then he was for himselfe in person suffering much in the Battaile procured him the Victory By which we may see that folly and fortune and even Enemies themselves are all assistants to the Destinies or to say better indeed to the divine Providence Many other affronts were offered him some by meaner Princes some afterward by the King of France himselfe who was now growne jealous of his Greatnesse all which he encountred with such dexterity that made his Bastardy as it were become Legitimate and Vertue her selfe to grow proud of his person His Carriage afterwards in Peace BY this time he was come to the age of two and twenty yeares and where all this while he had shewed himselfe a valiant Generall in Warre he now began to shew himselfe a provident Governor in Peace composing and ordering his state wherein he so carryed himselfe that as his Subjects did both feare and love him so his Neighbouring Princes did both feare and hate him or if not hate him at least emulate him His Incitements for Invading of England HE was now growne about fifty yeares old an Age that might well have arrested all ambitious thoughts in him
but who can thinke himselfe too old for a Kingdome when Galba for attaining the Romane Empire was contented to buckle on Armour being fourescore yeares old The Dâke in his time of peace came over into England to visite his cousin King Edward who besides his Princely entertainment made him at that time as some thinke a promise to leave him his Successour in the Kingdome Harold after this going over to the Dukâ in Normandy for procuring some friends of his to be released the better to effect it tooke his solemne Oath to assist him for obtaining the Kingdome So as having the word of Edward and the oath of Harold he had now sufficient obligations to expect it But hearing of the death of King Edward and that Harold was Crowned King he thought himselfe not more forgotten by Edward then wronged by Harold and therefore sent messengers to him to put him in mind of K. Edwards Pâomise and his owne Oath but Harold puffed up with the conceit of being a King as though that very name were enough to expiate all breach of Oathes and that nothing could binde him who had now the fetters in his owne hand returned onely sleight answers that his Oath was forced and voyd in it selfe as being made without consent of the Kingdome Whereupon the Duke thus sleighted by Harold endevours to make him an honest man by force assuring himselfe he should find him the weaker Enemy for finding him a perjured Friend The Reasons that facilitated his Conquest of England DUke William incensed with Harolds answers acquaints his Nobility with his purpose who with some adoe consented to ayd him as likewise many other great Lords of France but specially Baldwyn Earle of Flanders whose daughter he had marryed and who being at that time Guardian of the young King of France procured ayde from him also and to make the Enterprise the more successefull Pope Alexander the second sent him a Banner with an Agnus of Gold and one oâ the haires of Saint Peter So as the preparation of the Duke both by Sea and Land was very great having three hundred saile of ships and as some write 890â and as one Norman above a thousand and as Cemeticensis three thousand and though Harold had likewise provided a warlike Fleet to encounter him yet it was at thaâ time unfortunately diverted another way for Taustayâe his Brother being then in rebellion in the North and Harold Harfager King of Norway at the same time invading those parts and perhaps upon a bruite that the Dukesâ Fleet was not yet ready to come forth removed both his Fleet and Army thither where though he got the Victory at Stamford with the death both of his Brother Toustayne and of the King of Noâway yet it made way for the Duke to land quietly and he entred the Kingdome as one may enter a house when the doores are all left open By this meanes King Harâlds shipping the best wall of defence to an Island was utterly frustrate and as for his Land Forces they were by his Battaile at Stamford exceedingly both weakned and impaired yet hearing that Duke William was landed at Pemsey not farre from Hastings in Sussex he repaired thither with all speed and gathering together his broken Forces and encreasing them by all the meanes he could made himselfe ready to give the Duke Battaile Duke William in the meane time as soone as he had landed his men sent his ships presently away that there might be no thinking of any thing but either Death or Victory And then going himselfe on land it is said his foot slipped and he fell downe which some that stood by taking for an ill signe No saith he I have by this taken possession of this Land And indeed Presages are but as Animus ejus qui praesagit as in this Dukes fall it afterwards fell out Many wayes of composition betweene Duke William and King Harold were propounded yet Harold would hearken to none as nothing doubting of successe and perhaps thinking it a disgrace to capitulate for that which was now his owne and when one of his Brothers called Gyrth being lesse interessed and therefore clearer sighted intreated him to consider what a fearefull thing it was to breake an Oath which he so solemnely had sworne Harold seemed to conceive that nothing which he did being a private man could be of force to binde him now being a Prince and so on the fourteenth day of October being Saturday in the yeare 1066. which day he liked the better because it was his Birth-day hoping that the day of his Birth would not so much degenerate to prove the day of his death though even this also bred no good blood to the Action for the Souldiers of Harold thinking thereby to honour their Kings Birth-day spent the night before in revelling and drinking where the Souldiers of the Duke out of consideration of their next dayes worke spent the night in quietnesse and devotion they joyned battaile the Kentish-men being placed in the Fore-front as by an ancient custome is their due and King Harold with his Londoners leading the maine Battaile where though their Armies were not much unequall in number for they were each of them neare about threescore thouâand men yet there was great oddes in the expertnesse of their Souldiers and more in the advantage of their weapons for the Duke had with him all the flowre of France and Flanders where King Harold had lost his best men in his late Battaile and for advantage of weapons the Normans had long Bowes and Arrowes which of the English at that time were not at all in use what mervaile then that the Normans got the Victory though King Harold losing his life yet lost no Reputation and though the English Souldiers shewed no lesse valour in being Conquered then the Normans did in Conquering One circumstance may not be omitted that King âarold as an expert Generall had ordered his men in so firme a Body that no force of the Normans could disorder their Rankes till Duke Williamâ used a Stratagem commanding his men to retire and to counterfeit flight by which he drew the English on upon a hollow ground covered with earth whereinto many of them fell and perished and besides into an ambush of his Horsemen which unexpectedly fell upon them and cut them in pieces Withall there seemes one great errour to have beene committed at least if it were an errour and not rather a neceâsity that there was not a supplementall Army provided as his Brother Gyrth would have had it which might have come on if the first had failed and would have beene of great advantage against a wearyed Army But when Sic visum est superis all humane force is weake and cannot withstand all humane Providence is unprovided and cannot prevent The body of Harold at his Mother Thyrace suite was recovered and lyes buryed in Waltham Abbey which he had begunne to build at least to repaire But here Gyraldus
to the ground A very large and stately Palace this was and in that Age for building incomparable The Remaines whereof are the Chamber of assembling the High Court of Parliament and the next unto it wherein anciently they were wont to beginne the Parliament called Saint Edwards painted Chamber because the Tradition holdeth that the said King Edward dyed in it Adjoyning unto this is the White-hall wherein at this day the Court of Requests is kept Beneath this is the Great Hall where Courts of Justice are now kept This Hall which we now have was built by King Richard the second out of the Ground as appeareth by his Armes engraven in the stone worke when he had plucked downe the old Hall built before by William Rufus and made it his owne habitation But the aforesaid Palace after it was burnt downe in anno 15â2 lay desolate and King Henry the Eighth shortly after translated the Kings seat to a house not farre off built by Cardinall Woolseyâ and is called White-Hall The Tower of London also was anciently used by the Kings of England to lodge in Other Houses they anciently had one where Bridewell now standeth out of the ruines whereof the now Bridewell was built Another called the Tower Royall now the Kings Wardrobe Another in Bucklers-bury called Sernes Tower Another where now the Popes-head Taverne is over against the Old Exchange and oftentimes they made use of Baynards Castle But these are all long since demolished that we may see Palaces and places have their Faâes and periods as well as men His Death and Buriall TOwards the end of his Raigne he appointed his two sonnes Robert and Henry with joynt authority Governors of Normandy These went together to visit the King of France lying at Constance where entertaining the time with variety of sports Henry played with Lewis the Daulphin of France at Chesse and winning much money of him Lewis grew so cholericke that he threw the Chess-men at Henries face calling him the sonne of a Bastard and thereupon Henry strucke Lewis with the Chess-board and had presently slaine him if his Brother Robert had not stept in and stayed him Upon this the King of France invades Normandy and drawes Robert King Williams eldest sonne to joyne with him against his Father but King William comming presently over with an Army was soone reconciled to his Sonne yet being corpulent and in yeares was by this meanes much distempered in Body and so retyred to Roan where he stayed as not being well in health The French King hearing of his sicknesse scoffingly said that he lay in Childe-bed of his great belly Which so incensed King William that he swore by Gods Resurrection and his Brightnesse his usuall Oath that assoone as he should be Churched of that Childe he would offer a thousand Lights in France and indeed he performed it for he entred France in Armes and âet many Townes and Corne-fields on fire in which he was so violent that by reason of his travaile and the unreasonable heate being in the moneth of August it brought upon him a relapse of his sicknesse and withall leaping on horse-backe over a ditch his fat belly did beare so hard upon the pommell of his saddle that he tooke a rupture in his inner parts whereupon returning to Roan his sicknesse so encreased that in short time he dyed and that which is scarce credible yet Recorded for certaine the very same day he dyed at Roan his death was knowne at Rome a thousand miles off In all the time of his sicknesse he retained to the very last his memory and speech and shewed many demonstrations of Devotion and true contrition specially for his severity used towards the English And thus he who was a Conquerour of men was conquered himselfe by death the ninth day of September when he had Raigned twenty yeares and neare eleven moneths in the threescore and fourth yeare of his age I may well say he was conquered by Death seeing death used him more despitefullyâ then ever he living used any whom he had conquered For no sooner was the breath out of his body but his attendants purloyning what they could lay hands on forsooke him and fled leaving his body almost naked upon the Ground Afterwards William Arch-bishop of Roan commanded his body should be conveyed to Caen but his command was little regarded till at last one Hârlewyne a Country Knight at his owne charges caused his body to be Embalmed and conveyed thither where the Abbot and Monkes meeting the Corps suddenly in the middest of their solemnities a violent fire brake out in the Towne with the fright whereof every man left the place and thus was his body the second time left forlorne In the end a few Monkes returned and accompanyed the Herse to the Abbey Church but when the Divine Office was ended and the body ready to be laid in the Grave one Anselme Fits Arthur stood up and claimed that Ground to have beene the Floore of his Fathers house which King William had violently wrested from him and thereupon charged them as they would answer it before the dreadfull face of God not to cover his Body with the Earth of his Inheritance Whereupon after some pause agreement was made with him and three pound was payed in hand for the Ground broken up and a hundred pounds more afterward for the Ground it selfe payed him by Henry the Kings youngest Sonne who onely of all his Sonnes was present at the Funerall And yet this was not all but when his Body was to be put in the Earth it happened that the Sepulchre of Stone which stood within the Gâave was hewne somewhat too strait for his fat belly so as they were faine to presse it downe with some violence with which whether his bowels burst or whether some Excrements were forced out of their naturall passage such an intolerable stinke proceeded from him that none were able to endure it but made all the hast they could to be gone And yet neither was this the last of his miseries For in the yeare 1562. when Castillion tooke the City of Caen certaine dissolute Souldiers opened his Tombe and not finding the Treasure they expected threw forth his bones with great derision whereof some were afterward brought into England So that if we consider his many troubles in life and after his death we may well thinke that notwithstanding all his greatnesse a very meane man would hardly be perswaded to change fortunes with him Men of Note in his time MEn of Learning in his time were but rare in this Island yet some there were particularly Marianus Scotus a Historiographer and Alpheredus a Monke oâ Beverley a Writer also of Historicall Argument And as for Men of Valour they are not to be expected in a time of Servitude but as if all the English Valour were now remaining in the Kentish men they onely made resistance when all other Countries had submitted THE RAIGNE OF KING WILLIAM THE SECOND KING William
be abrogated that when a man marryed his Lord should lye the first night with his Bride Which custome by her indevour was altered to a payment in money After these troubles were ended in the North a new trouble ariseth in the West for now the Welsh men hearing of King Williams distractions enter upon the English borders making spoyle and havocke of men and Townes whom King William went with an Army to encounter but could doe no good upon them till he was faine to returne to London and provide him a stronger Army About this time also Robert Mowbray Earle of Northumberland by whom Malcolme King of Scots was in King Williams service formerly slaine finding his service not rewarded as he expected enters into Conspiracy against the King but the King being informed of the practise seiseth suddenly upon many of his Complâces and himselfe after many devises and shifts for flight is taken and put in prison in the Castle of Windsor After this King William to take a further revenge of the Welsh and to make an absolute conquest of that unquiet people with a farre greater Army then ever before enters Wales and thinkes with new devices of Castles and Forts utterly to subdue them but they defending themselves with their Woods and Mountainous passages tyre and weary out the King and his Army so as he leaves the businesse to two Hughes one Earle of Salop the other of Chester who first invaded and tooke Anglesey their Island of refuge where they used all kinde of cruelty pulling out of eyes and cutting off hands and noses in prosecuting of which businesse Hugh Earle of Salop was slaine but Hugh Earle of Chester entred Wales and in the end with the slaughter of Rees the last King of Wales made an absolute Conquest of the Country For after this though they often rebelled yet they were in a true subjection And these for the most part were all the troubles of his Raigne where we may observe that none of them did ever overtake him but still he met them and from none of them he ever fled but was still the pursuer and yet so many as might well have taken away all the comfort of a Crowne and have made him willing to change his Diadem for a paire of Beades but that Ambition though sometimes weary yet never tyâes His Exactions and Courses for raising of money IN the second yeare of his Raigne Lanfranke Arch-bishop of Canterbury dyed who had kept the kingdome and King in some good Order but assoone as he was dead the King as though he were then got loose ranged without reines in all licentiousnesse preying especially upon the Clergy as amongst whom he found the richest Booties When Bishoprickes or Abbeyes were vacant it was familiar with him to seise them into his owne hands as this of Lanfranke he kept to his owne use foure yeares together and longer would have kept it if a sicknesse of his Body had not healed this disease of his minde For finding himselfe in some hazard of death he then conferred the Arch-bishopricke of Canterbury upon Anselme and the Bishopricke of Lincolne upon Robert Bloet two eminent men of that time but assoone as hee was well againe it repented him of that he had done and was not quiet till hee had drawne from the said Bloet five thousand pounds and from Anselme also good summes of money For he repented not more in time of sicknesse for the evill he had done in health then being in health he repented him of the good he had done in sicknesse that it may in a manner be said there was nothing made him sicke but health and nothing made him be in health but sicknesse But this preying upon the Clergy was growne into such a custome with him that he kept in his hands at one time three Bishoprickes Canterbury Winchester and Salisbury and twelve Abbeys all which he let out to Farme and received the profits and from this King the use is said to have risen first in England that the Kings succeeding had the Temporalties of Bishops Sees as long as they remained voyd Having agreed to pay the King of France a great summe of money he raised it in this manner He caused twenty thousand men to be levied under pretence for his warres in Normandy but when they were ready to be shipped it was signified to them from the King that whosoever would pay tenne shillings towards the levying of Souldiers in Normandy should be excused from going and stay at home which was so plausible an offer to the Army that scarce a man was found that accepted not the condition When Duke Robert went into the Holy Land he pawned his Dâtchy of Normandy to his Brother King William for 6666. pounds or as some write for 12600. which money King William tooke up part by a grievous Imposition so that Bishops melted their Plate and the Temporall Lords spoyled their Tenants for the payment thereof and part by loane but chiefely of Religious persons He sold the Abbey of Glastenbury to Thurstan for five hundred pounds and when he built Westminster Hall he made that an occasion to lay a heavie taxe upon the people who grudged at it as done of purpose He usually sold all Spirituall preferments to them would give most and tooke Fines of Priests for Fornication as also he tooke money of Jewes to cause such of them as were converted to renounce Christianity and returne to Judaisme as making more benefit by their Unbeliefe then by their Conversion He caused divers of the Nobility to pay grievous Fines for transgressing his Laws though the fault were never so small He set forth a Proclamation that none should goe out of the Realme without his Licence by which he drew much money from many for either they must tarry at home and live discontented or else content him for giving them leave to goe abroad And from thence the Custome or Law of Ne exeas Regno seemes to have taken its beginning for Precedents of servitude are sure to live where Precedents of Liberty are commonly still-borne These were his wayes for raising of money wherein Promoters and Informers were his darling servants and the most officious of all was Ralph Bishop of Durham of whom he would often say there was not such another man in the world to serve a Kings turne And yet he was not so greedy of lucre but that he did some Acts that may serve for examples as one time an Abbey being vacant two Monkes of the Covent came suiters to him for the place offering great summes and each of them out-bidding the other whereupon the King looking about and espying another Monk standing not farre off asked him what he would give for the place Who answering he neither had any thing to give nor would give any thing if he had it Well said the King thou hast spoken honestly thou art fitter to be Abbot then either of these and so bestowed the place upon him gratis
French He commanded Robbers upon the High way to be hanged without redemption of whom a famous one at that time was one Dunne and of him the place where he most used by reason of the great Woods thereabouts is to this day called Dunstable where the King built the Borough as now it standeth Counterfeiters of money he punished with pulling out their eyes or cutting off their privy members a punishment both lesse then death and greater Affaires of the Church in his time AT his first comming to the Crowne he foâbore his claime to the Investitâres of Bishops but after he had beene King some time he claimed that both to invest Bishops and to allow or hinder appeales to Rome belonged to him In these Anselme Archbishop of Canterbury opposed him affirming that both of them belonged to the Pope The contention at last was brought to the Pope to whom King Henry sent William Warlewast elect Bishop of Exceter who saying to the Pope that his Master would not for the Crowne of his Realme lose the Authority of Investing his Prelates the Pope started up and answered Neither will I lose the disposing of Spirituall Promotions in England for the Kings head that weareth the Crowne before God said he I avow it So the contention grew long and hot and many messengers were sent to and fro about it the conclusion was which proved no conclusion that the King should receive homage of Bishops elect but should not Invest them by Staffe and Ring to which the King said noâhing for the present but forbore not to doe it ever the lesse for five yeares after the death of Anselme Ralph Bishop of Rochester was by the King made Arch-bishop of Canterbury and notwithstanding all former Decrees and Threatnings of the Pope he received his Investiture of the King About this time a Canon was made against the Marriage of Priests to which purpose Iohannes Cremensis a Priest Carâdinall by the Kings licence came into England and held a solemne Synod at London where inveighing sharpely against it affirming it to be no better then profest Adultery he was himselfe the night following taken in bed with a common harlot Even Anselme himselfe the most earnest enforcer of single life dyed not it seemes a Virgin for else he would never in his Writings make such lamentation for the losse thereof Anselme about this time dying Rodulph succeeded in the See of Canterbury and Thomas dying Thurstine succeeded in the Arch-bishopricke of Yorke betweene which two Prelates there arose great contention Rodulph would not consecrate Thurstine unlesse he would professe obedience Thurstine was content to embrace his benediction but professe obedience he would not In this contention the King takes part with Rodulph the Pope with Thurstine after many passages in the businesse upon the Popes threatning to Excommunicate the King Thurstine entred upon his Bishopricke and the King connived In the tenth yeare of his Raigne the Abbey of Ely was made a Bishops See and Cambridgeshire was appointed for the Diocesse thereof which because it belonged before to the Jurisdiction of Lincolne the King gave the Bishop of Lincolne in recompence thereof the Manor of Spalding This King also created a Bishopricke at Carlile and endowed it with many Honours In his time the Order of the Templars beganne and in the 27. yeare of his Raigne the Grey Fryers by procurement of the King came first into England and had their first house builded at Canterbury I may here have leave to tell two stories of Church-men for refreshing of the Reader Guymond the Kings Chaplaine observing that unworthy men for the most part were advanced to the best dignities of the Church as he celebrated Divine Service before him and was to read theâe words out of Saint Iames It rained not upon the Earth III yeares and VI moneths he read it thus It rained not upon the Earth one one one yeares and five one moneths The King observed his reading and afterwards blamed him for it but Guymond answered that he did it of purpose for that such Readers were soonest preferred by his Majesty The King smiled and in short time after preâerred him to the Government of Saint Frideswids in Oxford The other is this Thomas Arch-bishop of Yorke falling sicke his Physitians told him that nothing would doe him good but to company with a woman to whom he answered that the Remedy was worse then the diseaâe and so dyed a Virgin This King granted to the Church of Canterbury and to William and his successours the Custody and Constable-ship of the Castle of Rochester for ever Workes of Piety done by this King or by others in his time THis King Founded and erected the Priory of Dunstable the Abbey of Circester the Abbey of Reading and the Abbey of Shirborne He also new builded the Castle of Windsor with a Colledge there He made also the Navigable River betweene Torkesay and Lincolne a worke of great charge but greater use His Wife Queene Maude passing over the River of Lue was somewhat endangered whereupon she caused two stone-Bridges to be built one at the head of the Towne of Stratford the other over another Streame there called Channel-bridge and paved the way betweene them with Gravell She gave also certaine Manors and a Mill called Wyggon Mill for repairing the same Bridges and Way These were the first stone-Bridges that were made in England and because they were Arched over like a bow the Towne of Stratford was afterward called Bow This Queene also founded the Priory of the Holy Trinity now called Christs Church within the East Gate of London called Aldgate and an Hospitall of Saint Giles in the Field without the West part of the City In this Kings time Iordan Brifet Baron Founded the House of Saint Iohn of Hierusalem neare to Smithfield in London and gave 14. Acres of ground lying in the field next to Clerkenwell to build thereupon a House of Nunnes wherein he with Myrioll his Wife were buryed in the Chapter house Robert Fitsham who came out of Normandy with the Conquerour Founded anew the Church of Teukesbury and was there buryed Herbert Bishop of Norwich Founded the Cathedrall Church there The Priory and Hospitall of Saint Bartholomew in Smithfield was Founded by a Minstrell of the Kings named Reior who became first Prior there Before this time Smithfield was a Laystall of all ordure and filth and the place where Felons were put to Execution Hugh Lacy Founded the Monastery of Saint Iohn at Lanthony neare to Glocester Iuga Baynard Lady of little Dunmow Founded the Church there and gave to maintaine it halfe a Hide of Land This Lady Iuga was late Wife to Baynard that first built Baynards Castle in London Eudâ the Kings Sewer Founded the Monastery of Saint Iohn at Colchester of blacke Chanons and those were the first of that Order in England Simon Earle of Northampton and Mande his Wife Founded the Monastery of Saint Andrew in Northhampton In the seventh yeare
received in all places as she went peaceably and at London joyfully where Queene Matild made humble suite unâo her for the liberty of King Stephen her husband and that he might but be allowed to live a private life the Londoners also made suite to have the Lawes of King Edward restored but the Empresse not onely rejected both their suites but returned them answers in harsh and insulting language Indeed most unseasonably and which gave a stop to the current of all her fortunes for Queene Matild finding thereby how high the Empresse pulses did beate sent presently to her Sonne Eustace being then in Kent to raise Forces with all speed with whom the Londoners as much discontented as she doe afterwards joyne and Henây Bishop of Winchester as much discontented as either of them fortifies his Castles at Waltham and Farnham and specially Winchester where he stayes himselâe attending upon what Coast the next wind of the Empresse would blow Of all these things the Empresse had intelligence and thereupon secretly in the night she fled to Oxford sending streight charge to have King Stephen more narrowly watched more hardly used put as some write into fetters and fed with very bare and poore Commons withall she sends to her Unkle David Kings of Scots to come unto her with all speed possible who comming accordingly they fall into consultation what is first to be done the lot fals upon Winchester as being their greatest adversary now no lesse in apparence then in power so Winchester they besiege which Queene Matild hearing she with her Sonne Eustace and the Londoners come presently to the succour where a fierce battell being fought the end was that the party of Queene Matild prevailed and the Empresse to make her escape was faine to be laid upon a Horse backe in manner of a dead Corps and so conveyed to Glocester while Earle Robert her brother disdaining to flie was taken Prisoner whom Queene Matild caused to be used the more hardly in retaliation of the hard usage which the Empresse before had shewed to King Stephen Things standing in these termes propositions were made by the Lords for pacification but such were the high spirits of the Empresse and her brother Robert that no conditions would please them unlesse the Empresse might enjoy the Crowne But after long debate whether by agreement betweene themselves or by connivence of the keepers both King Stephen and Earle Robert got to be at liberty When the first thing King Stephen did was to looke out the Empresse to requite the kindnesse she had shewed him in prison and hearing her to be at Oxford he layes siege to the Towne and brings the Empresse to such distresse that she had no way to free her selfe but by flight and no way to flee but with manifest danger yet she effected it by this devise It was in the Winter season when frost and snow covered all the ground over she therefore clad her selfe and her foure servants that were with her in white cloathes which being of the colour of Snow made her passe the Watches without being discerned and by this meanes came safe to her friends at Wallingford Yet Mamesbury who lived at that time confesseth he could never learne certainely by what meanes she made her escape But howsoever she escaped this present danger yet it left such an impression of feare upon her that she never after had any mind to appeare upon this stage of Warre but left the prosecution of it to her Sonne Henry who was now about sixteene yeares of age and being forward of his age and able to beare Armesâ was by his great Unkle David King of Scots Knighted to make him more forward It was now the ninth yeare of King Stephens Raigne when Ralph Earle of Chester keeping possession of the City of Lincolne was in the night time assaulted by the King but the Earle perceiving the Kings Forces to be but small suddenly issued forth and repelled the King with the slaughter of fourescore of his men Yet two yeares after this the Earle was reconciled to the King and came of his owne accord to waite upon him when perfidiously he was detained by the King and not set at liberty till he had surrendred into the Kings hands all the Castles that were in his possession which though it brought the King some present benefit yet it wrought him a greater future losse for it lost him his credite with all men and no man afterward would trust his word Now was Duke Henry come to the age of nineteene yeares and was in possession of the Dukedome of Anjou by the death of his Father Geoffrey Plantagenet and not long after this he marryed Eleanor the Daughter and Heire of William Duke of Guyen by whom he had that Dutchy and also the Earledome of Poicton Normandy he had by his Mother but more by the peoples inclination So as being possest now of foure great Principalities this greatnesse of Estate added to the greatnesse of his spirit made him aspiring to recover his Right in England and over he comes bringing with him but small Forces but promising himselfe great from the people of this kingdome and many indeed resorted to him with whom he fell presently and besieged Marleborough but by the Kings greater Forces was repelled After this their Armies continued in the field still rather watching advantages to be doing then doing any thing sometimes advancing when no Enemy was neare and then retiring when the Enemy came till at last it was like to come to a set Battell when suddenly Eustace King Stephens onely Sonne unfortunately dyed Unfortunately for himselfe but fortunately for the kingdome For now King Stephen being left destitute of issue to succeed was the more easily drawne to conditions of Peace as likewise the Empresse Maude having lately lost her Brother Robert Earle of Glocester and Miles Earle of Hereford her two best Champions was no lesse willing of Peace then he which being furthered by the Lords of both sides was at last concluded upon these conditions that Stephen should hold the kingdome of England during his life and adopt Duke Henry as his Heire to succeed him And this agreement thus made and in a Parliament at Winchester confirmed Duke Henry ever after accounted King Stephen no lesse then a Father and King Stephen Duke Henry no lesse then a Sonne and well he might if it be true which some write that the Empresse when a Battell was to be fought betweene King Stephen and her Sonne went privily to him asking him how he could find in his heart to fight against him that was his owne Sonne could he forget the familiarity he had with her in her firt Widow-hood But this was no matter for the Writers of that time to deliver It touched too neare the interest of Princes then in being and Princes must not be touched while they live nor when they are dead neither with uncertainties as this could be no other But howsoever it was certaine
Matild builded the Hospitall of Saint Katherines by the Tower of London A knight called Sir William of Mount Fitchet Founded the Abbey of Stratford Langthorne within foure miles of London William of Ypre Founded Boxeley Abbey in Kent Robert Earle of Ferrers Founded the Abbey of Merivall in Warwickshire and in the same Shire Robert Earle of Glocester the Abbey of Nonne Eaten Also by others were Founded the Abbeys of Tiltey of Rievall of Newborough and Beeland of Garedon in Lâycestershire of Kirkstead in Yorkeshire and divers others in other places so that more Abbeys were erected in his dayes then had beene within the space of a hundred yeares before Of his Wife and Children HE marryed by his Unkle King Henries meanes Matild Daughter and Heire of Eustace Earle of Boleyne a Woman made for the proportion of both Fortunes In adversity not dejected in prosperity not elated while her Husband was at liberty a Woman during his durance as it were a Man Acting his part for him when he was restrained from acting it himselfe not looking that Fortune should fall into her lappe but industrious to procure it By this Queene he had onely one Sonne named Eustace a Prince more then of hope for he lived to the blossoming of much Valour though it came not to maturity as being cut off at eighteene yeares of age some say by drowning and some by a stranger accident But strange Relations must not alwayes be rejected for though many of them be forged yet some no doubt are true and who knowes but it may be of this kind which some Writers relate of the death of this Prince that being at the Abbey of Bury in Norfolke and denyed some money he required to have had he presently in a rage went forth and set fire on the Cornefields belonging to the Abbey but afterwards sitting downe to dinner at the first morsell of bread he put into his mouth he fell into a fit of madnesse and in that fit dyed Certainely the Persons of Princes are for more observation then ordinary people and as they make Examples so they are sometimes made Examples This Prince Eustace was so beloved of his father that he had a purpose to have joyned him King with himselfe but that the Pope upon the Bishops complaining to him of it diverted him from it Howsoever being dead he was buried in Feversham Abbey where his mother was buried a little before Other legitimate issue King Stephen had none but by a Concubine he had a sonne named William whom he made Earle of Norfolke which honour was confirmed upon him by a speciall Article in the agreement made betweene King Stephen and Duke Henry Onely a French Chronicle speakes of another sonne of his named Gervase made Abbot of Westminster and that hee died in the yeare 1160. and was there buried Of his Personage and Conditions HE was tall of stature of great strength and of an excellent good complexion Concerning the qualities of his minde there was apparent in him a just mixture of valour and prudence for if he had not had both hee could never have held out with such weake friends as he did against such potent adversaries as he had And specially it must be confest he was of an excellent temper for a souldier seeing he never kild any enemy in cold blood as Anthonie did Cicero nor any friend in hot blood as Alexander did Clitus What he would have beene in Peace we are left to Judge by onely a Patterne the short time betweene his agreement with Duke Heâry and his death which seeing he spent in travelling to all parts of the Realme and seeking to stiâch up the breaches which the violence of Warre had made we may well thinke that if his life had beene continued he would have given as good Proofes of his Justice in Peace as he had done of his Valour in Warre For of his extraordinary good nature we have a sufficient example in one Action of his which was this Duke Henry being on a time in some straights for money sent to his Mother Maude the Empresse desiring her to furnish him but she answered that she was in as great straights her selfe and therefore could not do it then he sent to his Unkle Earle Robert to furnish him and he answered he had little enough to serve his owne turne and therefore could not doe it at last he sent to King Sâephen and he though an Adversary and standing in termes of opposition yet sent presently and supplyed him with it He was withall a great oppugner of Superstition which made him on a time to ride into Lincolne with his Crowne upon his head onely to breake the people of a superstitious opinion they held that no King could enter into that City in such manner but that some great dysaster would fall upon him One speciall Vertue may be noted in him that he was not noted for any speciall vice whereof if there had beene any in him Writers certainly would not have beene silent Of his death and buriall AS a Fish cannot live out of Water no more was it in the Destiny of this King to live out of trouble as âoone as he came to enjoy quietnesse he left to enjoy life no more time left him betweene his Agreement with Duke Henry and his Death but onely so much as might reasonably serve him to take his last leave of all his Friends For it was but from Ianuary to October and the last Friend he tooke leave of was Theodoricke Earle of Flanders whom he met at Dover and as soone as he had dismissed him he was suddenly taken with the Iliake Passion and with an old disease of the Emeraulds and dyed in the Monastery there the five and twentyeth of October in the yeare 1154. when he had Raigned almost nineteene yeares Lived nine and forty and was Buryed in the Abbey of Feversham which he had Founded Men of note in his time OF Clergy men there was Thurstine Arch-bishop of Yorke and Henry Bishop of Winchester the Kings Brother also William another Arch-bishop of Yorke whom we may finde in the Calender of Saints as likewise Saint Bernard who lived in this time though not of this Country and if we may reckon strangers there lived at this time Peter Lombard Master of the Sentences Peter Comester writer of the Ecclesiasticall Story and Gratian Compiler of the Canon Law all three Brothers and all three Bastards also Avicen Averroes Mesues and Rabbi Salomon were in this time famous Of military men there was Ranulph Earle of Chester Reynold Earle of Cornwall Robert Earle of Leycester Hugh Bigot Earle of Norfolke but specially Robert Earle of Glocester the Kings base Sonne whose praises if any desire to heare sounded out to the full let him read William of Malmesbury who writ the History of those times of purpose to be his Trumpet Of the Writers of our Nation there was this William of Malmesbury Henry Huntington Simon Dunelmensis William Revellensis and
not succoured within three dayes then to surrender it King Henry hearing of this agreement promiseth to succour them by that day But here King Lewis useth a trick gets that by fraud which he could not doe by force for he sends to King Henry that if he were willing to have peace with his sonnes he should meet him at a place appointed at such a time and he doubted not to effect it King Henry glad of such an offer and with that gladnesse perhaps blinded and not suspecting any deceit promiseth to meete and comming to the place at the day which was the day he should have succoured Vernoill he stayed there all day looking for King Lewis comming who instead of comming sent word to Vernoill that King Henry was defeated and therefore their hope of succour was in vaine whereupon the Citizens thinking it to be so indeed because he came not according to his promise surrendred the Towne which King Lewis finding himselfe unable to hold set it on fire and so departed But King Henry when he perceived the fraud followed him with his Army and tooke a bloody revenge of his fraud with the slaughter of many of his men At the same time also King Henries forces encountred Hugh Earle of Chester and Robert Fulger who had taken Dole in Britaine tooke them prisoners and brought them to King Henry and about the same time likewise in England Robert Earle of Leycester thinking to surprise Raynold Earle of Cornwall and Richard Lacy King Henries Generals at unawares was himselfe by them overthrowne and the Towne of Leycester taken which onely the site of the place defended from being battered to the ground Robert Earle of Leycester being thus defeatedâ passeth over into France and being supplied by King Lewis with greater forces then before is together with Hugh Bigot sent backe into England to draw the Countrey to Henry the sonnes party who at first assault take Norwich and then setting downe before Bury they are in a great battell by Richard Lacy and other of King Henries Captaines overthrowne with the slaughter of tenne thousand men and as many taken prisoners amongst whom Earle Robert himselfe Yet were not Roger Mawbray and Hugh Bigot so daunted with this overthrow but that together with David the King of Scoâs brother they gather new forces and invade Northumberland and Yorkshire when Robert Scoccee Ralph Granula William Vesci and Barnard Bayliol of whom Baynards Castle in London first tooke the name Knights of those parts asâemble together and fighting a great battell with them overthrew them and tooke the King of Scoâs prisoner with many others Yet is not Hugh Bigot daunted with this neither but gathers new forces and takes Norwich and Robert Ferris Nottingham the newes whereof when King Henry the sonne heard he recovered new spirits and obtaining new assistance from King Lewis prepares himselfe afresh for warre which King Henry the Father hearing returnes speedily into England and to appease Saint Thomas Beckets Ghost goes to visit his Tombe and there askes him forgivenesse This done he goes into Suffolke and at Framingham Castle which belonged to Hugh Bigot stayes with his Army when suddenly moved by what instinct no man knowes unlesse the appeasing of Saint Thomas Ghost did worke it both Hugh Bigot delivers up his Castle into King Henries hands and likewise Roger Mawbray Robert Ferris and many others of that party come voluntarily in and submit themselves to the Kings mercy Hereupon King Henry returnes to London about which time he committed his wife Queene Eleanor to prison for her practises against him In the meane time King Lewis understanding that Normandy was but weakly guarded together with his sonne the young King Henry and Philip Earle of Flaunders he besiegeth Roan which the Kings forces valiantly defended till he came himselfe in person and thereupon King Lewis despairing of any good to be doâe sends messengers to King Henry for a truce and appointed a day to meete at Gysors where he doubted not to make a reconcilement betweene his sons and him K. Henry agreed willingly but of the meeting nothing was done It seemes it was but one of King Lewis his old tricks to come fairely off After this truce made with King Lewis King Henry hearing that his son Richard had in the meane time possest himselfe of a great part of the Province of Poictoâ goes thither with an Army where Richard at last after some hesitation as doubting his forces submits himselfe to his Father and askes his pardon which his Father as freely grants as if he had never committed any fault and thereupon King Henry imployes him to King Lewis and his brother Henry to perswade them to peace who wearied now with the warres were easily drawne and so reconciliation on all parts is made and to confirme the reconciliation betweene the two Kings Henry and Lewis his daughter Adela is affianced to King Henries sonne Richard as Earle of Aquitaine and because the Lady was but young she was committed to the care of King Henry till she should be fit for marriage Upon this King Henry sets Robert Earle of Leycester and Hugh Earle of Chester giving hostages and oath for their Allegeance at liberty and William also King of Scots paying a certaine mulct for which he delivered in pawne the strong Castles of Berwick Roxborough and Sterling to King Henry and was fined also to lose the County of Huntington and never to receive any Rebels into his protection These things done the King with his sonnes returnes into England where with all joyfulnesse they were received It was now the yeare 1179. when King Lewis beganne againe to grow discontented with King Henry because his daughter was not yet married to his sonne Richard as was agreed but King Henry making him promise to have them married within a few dayes gave him satisfaction though indeed he meant nothing lesse for it was thought he kept her for himselfe as with whom he had before that time had unlawfull familiarity The yeare after was memorable for nothing or for nothing so much as the death of the young King Henry who died then whose Widow Margaret returning into France was afterward married to Bela King of Hungary Now King Henries sonne Richard no longer enduring to have his marriage delayed which his Father often promised but would never suffer to be performed fals into his old fit of discontentment wherein though he cannot perhaps be justified yet he may justly be excused for to be kept from a wife at that time of his age for which a wife was most proper and especially having beene affianced so long before which could not chuse but make his appetite the sharper must needs be if not a just cause at least a strong provocation to make him doe as he did Howsoever from this fit of discontentment he fals into a relaps of Rebellion and infecting with it his brother Iohn and a great part of his Fathers Adherents they all take part
into England of purpose to visite the Shrine of Saint Thomas where having paid his Vowes he makes Oblations with many rich Presents The like many Princes since that time have done and many Miracles are reported to have beene done at his Tombe which yet may be unbeleeved without unbeliefe and with Faith enough Another difference in this Kings dayes was betweene the two Arch-bishops of England about the jurisdiction of Canterbury over Yorke which being referred to the Pope he gave judgement on Canterburies side Also in this Kings dayes there was a Schisme in the Church of Rome two Popes up at once of whom Alexander the third was one which Schisme continued the space of almost twenty yeares Also in this Kings dayes one Nicholas Breakespeare borne at Saint Albans or as others write at Langley in Hartfordshire being a bondman of that Abbey and therefore not allowed to be a Monke there went beyond Sea where he so profited in Learning that the Pope made him first Bishop of Alba and afterward Cardinall and sent Legate to the Norwayes where he reduced that nation from Paganisme to Christianity and returning backe to Rome was chosen Pope by the Name of Adrian the fourth and dyed being choaked with a Fly in his drinke In his dayes also Heraclius Patriarch of Hierusalem came to King Henry desiring ayde for the Holy Land but not so much of money as of men and not so much of men neither as of a good Generall as himselfe was to whom King Henry answered that though he were willing to undertake it yet his unquiet State at home would not suffer him with which answer the Patriarch moved said Thinke not Great King that Pretences will excuse you before God but take this from me that as you forsake Gods cause now so he hereafter will forsake you in your greatest need But saith the King if I should be absent out of my kingdome my own Sonnes would be ready to rise up against me in my absence to which the Patriarch replyed No marvaile for from the Devill they came and to the Devill they shallâ and so departed Also in this Kings dayes there came into England thirty Germans Men and Women calling themselves Publicans who denyed Matrimony and the Sacraments of Baptisme and of the Lords Supper with other Articles who being obstinate and not to be reclaimed the King commanded they should be marked with a hot iron in the forehead and be whipped which punishment they tooke patiently their Captaine called Gerard going before them singing Blessed are ye when men hate you After they were whipped they were thrust out of doores in the Winter where they dyed with cold and hunger no man daâing to relieve them This King after his conquest of Ireland imposed the tribute of Peter pence upon that kingdome namely that every house in Ireland should yearely pay a penny to Saint Peter Workes of piety done by him or by others in his time THis King Founded the Church of Bristow which King Henry the eighth afterward erected into a Cathedrall He also Founded the Priories of Dâver of Stoneley and of Basinwerke and the Castle of Rudlan and beganne the Stone Bridge over the Thames at London He caused also the Castle of Warwicke to be builded Maude the Empresse his Mother Founded the Abbey of Bordesly In his time also Hugh Mortimer Founded Wigmore Abbey Richard Lucye the Kings Chiefe Justice laid the Foundation of the Coventuall Church in the honour of Saint Thomas in a place which is called Westwood otherwise Lesâes in the Territory of Rochester in the new Parish of Southfleete He also builded the Castle of Anger in Essex Robert Harding a Burgesse of Bristow to whom King Henry gave the Barony of Barkeley builded the Monastery of Saint Augustines in Bristow In the tenth yeare of his Raigne London Bridge was new made of Timber by Peter of Cole-church a Priest Robert de Boscue Earle of Leycester Founded the monastery of Gerendon of Monkes and of Leycester called Saint Mary de Prate of Chanons Regular and his Wife Amicia Daughter of Ralph Montford Founded Eaton of Nunnes In the two and twentyeth yeare of his Raigne after the Foundation of Saint Mary Overeyes Church in Southwarke the Stone bridge over the Thames at London beganne to be Founded towards which a Cardinall and the Arch-bishop of Canterbury gave a thousand Markes Aldred Bishop of Worcester Founded a Monastery at Glocester of Benedictine Monkes Casualties that happened in his time IN the Eleventh yeare of this Kings Raigne on the six and twentyeth day of Ianuary was so great an Earth-quake in Ely Norfolke and Suffolke that it overthrew them that stood upon their feet and made the Bells to ring in the Steeples In the seventeenth yeare of his Raigne there was seene at Saint Osythes in Essex a Dragon of marveilous bignesse which by moving burned houses and the whole City of Canterbury was the same yeare almost burnt In the eighteenth yeare of his Raigne the Church of Norwich with the houses thereto belonging was burnt and the Monkes dispersed At Andover a Priest praying before the Altar was slaine with Thunder Likewise one Clerke and his Brother was burnt to death with Lightning In the three and twentyeth yeare a showre of Blood Rained in the Isle of Wight two houres together In the foure and twentyeth yeare the City of Yorke was burnt and on Christmas day in the Territory of Derlington in the Bishopricke of Durham the Earth lifted up it selfe in the manner of an high Tower and so remained unmoveable from morning till evening and then fell with so horrible a noyse that it frighted the Inhabitants thereabouts and the earth swallowing it up made there a deepe pit which is seene at this day for a Testimony whereof Leyland saith he saw the Pits there commonly called Hell-kettles Also in the same yeare on the tenth day of Aprill the Church of Saint Andrewes in Rochester was consumed with fire In the eight and twentyeth yeare of his Raigne Barnewell with the Priory neare unto Cambridge was burnt In the thirtyeth yeare the Abbey of Glastenbury was burnt with the Church of Saint Iulian. In the yeare 1180. a great Earthquake threw downe many buildings amongst which the Cathedrall Church of Lincolne was rent in peeces the five and twentieth of Aprill And on the twentieth of October the Cathedrall Church of Chichester and all the whole City was burnt This yeare also neare unto Orford in Suffolke certaine Fishers tooke in their Nets a Fish having the shape of a Man in all points which Fish was kept by Bartholomew de Glanvile in the Castle of Orford sixe moneths and more he spake not a word all manner of meates he did gladly eate but most greedily raw Fish when he had pressed out the juyce oftentimes he was brought to Church but never shewed any signe of adoration at length being not well looked to he stole to the Sea and never was seene after In the yeare 1188. on
goods both of the Clergy and Laity It may be reckoned amongst his Taxations that when the Monkes of Canterbury had displeased him about the election of their Arch-bishop he seised upon all their goods and converted them to his owne use and presently after this upon the like displeasure he deputes many Bishopricks Abbeys and Priories into the hands of Lay-men and confiscates all their Revenues To these may be added that he tooke eleven thousand Markes of Silver of the King of Scots for granting him Peace Adde to these also great summes of money exacted and gathered from the Iewes among whom there was one that would not be ransomed till the King caused every day one of his great teeth to be pulled out by the space of seven dayes and then he was content to give the King tenne thousand Markes of Silver that no more might be pulled out Adde to these that at his returne out of Ireland he summoned all the Prelates of the kingdome to appeare before him of whom he extorted for their redemption the summe of an hundred thousand pounds Sterling Adde lastly to these that at his returne out of Wales he exacts of every knight that attended him not in that expedition two Markes Of his Lawes and Ordinances HE was the first that appointed the Formes of Civill Government in London and other Cities endowing them also with their greatest Franchises The first that caused Sterling money to be here Coyned The first that ordained the Honourable Ceremonies in Creation of Earles The first that setled the Rates and Measures for Wine Bread Cloath and such other necessaries of Commerceâ The first that planted English Lawes and Officers in Ireland The first that enlarged the Royall stile with Lord of Ireland and both annexed that kingdome and fastned Wales to the Crowne of England Affaires of the Church in his time AFter the death of Hubert Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Monkes of thââ Covent secretly in the night Elected one Reginold their sub-prior to succeed him and caused him to goe to Rome for confirmation but afterward doubting how the King would take it being done without his knowledge they crave leave of the King to chuse a fit man the King is content to allow them the Election but requires himselfe to have the Nomination and thereupon commends unto âhem Iohn Grey Bishop of Norwich whom he specially favoured and accordingly the Monkes Elect him But the matter being afterward referred to the Pope which of these two Elections should stand good after many Allegations of both sides the Pope to shew himselfe indifferent to both disallowes them both and nominates a third man one Stephen Lancthon Cardinall of Saint Chrysogone an Englishman borne and a man of great learning The Monkes admit him but the King opposeth it and now as it were a Prize began to be played between the two Swords the Spirituall and the Temporall but he that used the Spirituall Sword proved so much the better Fencer that he disarmed the other and tooke away his temporall Sword from him It is true in the first Venue the King gave the Pope as good as he brought for as the Pope threatned the King to excommunicate him and to interdict the kingdome So the King threatned the Pope to nullifie his Authority and to banish Clergy men out of the Realme In the second Venue as the Pope acted as much as he had threatned for he interdicted the âingdome So the King performed as much as he had spoken for he drove the Monkes ouâ of their Cloyster yet at last when Pandâlphus the Popes Legat came into England and made appeare to the King in what great dângers he stood Firstâ of the King of France by Invasion and then of his owne Subjects by Rebellion for both which there was no other helpe but Reconcilement with the Pope he so touched him to the quicke that he made him leave his great words and fall to asking forgivenesse So as taking off the Crowne from his head he laid it downe at Pandâlphus feâte to be disposed of as the Pope should please And Pandulphus stucke not to ââke up his Crowne and to keepe it three or foure dayes in his hands before he restored it and did not then neither but upon condition that he ând his Successours shoâld hold the kingdome of the See of Rome at the annuall tribute of â thousand Markes And all those three or foure dayes in which Pandulphus kept the Crowne it might be truely said the kingdome was without a King And upon this no doubt it was that Peter an Herââte in a Propheticall Rapture had given out some time before that by Ascââsion day there should be no King of England Which though in some sort it was true yet in some sort it was not true and it was in the Prerogative of the King to make his owne interpretation And so it cost the poore Hermite and his Sonne their lives and they remaine as a pillar of Salt to make men take heed of Ludere cum Sanctis and of playing the Critickes in matters of State But by this meanes the kingdome was released of the Interdiction which had continued sixe yeares three moneths and foureteene dayes During all which time there was no publique Exercise of Religion no Churches open no Ecclesiasticall Sacraments administredâ but onely to them that were in danger of death and baptisme to children all that dyed were buryed like dogges in ditches and corners but onely such as had purchased or procured licence from the Pope In this Kings Raigne Saint Dominicke continued his Preaching ten yeares together against the Albigenses Also in his time Saint Francis renounced the world and when a Priest to whom he offered it would not take his money he cast it awayâ and entred into a Vow of perpetuall Poverty Also in this Kings time was held the Lâteran Councell under Pope Innocent the Third in which was established the Popes power over Princes and in matters of Faith Auricular confession and Transubstantiation Of his Irreligion I Need not relate a Speech of his though very unchristian that having beene a little before reconciled to the Pope and then taking an overthrow in France in great anger he cryed out that nothing had prospered with him since the time he was reconciled to God and the Pope Nor another speech of his which though spoken merrily was in good earnest very irreligious that being on a time a hunting at the opening of a fat Bucke he said See how this Deere hath prospered and how fat he is and yet I dare sweare he never heard Masse It is sufficient to relate one act of his if it be true which some write that being in some distresse he âent Thomas Hardington and Ralph Fits Nichols knights in Embassage to Mirââmâmalim King of Africke and Mârâcco with offer of his kingdome to him upon condition he would come and aide him and that if he prevailed he would himselfe become a Mahometanâ and renounce the
Nunnery of Marran neare to Linne Friers Minors first arrived at Dover nine in number whereof five remained at Canterbury and there builded the first Covent of Friers Minors that ever was in England the other foure came to London who encreasing in number had a place assigned them in Saint Nicholas Shambles which Iohn Iwyn Mercer of London appropriated to the use of the said Friers and became himselfe a Lay brother Also in this Kings time the new worke of Saint Pauls Church in London was begunne If it were piety in the Iew who falling into a Privie upon a Saterday would not be taken out that day because it was the Iewes Sabbath It was as much piety in the Earle of Glocester that would not suffer him to be taken out the next day because it was the Christian Sabbath and when the third day he was taken out dead whose piety was the greater A strange accident upon an act of piety is related in this Kings time which if true is a Miracle if not true is yet a Legend and not unworthy to be read that in a time of dearth one man in a certaine Parish who allowed poore people to relieve themselves with taking Corne upon his ground had at Harvest a plentifull crop where others that denied them had their Corne all blasted and nothing worth In this Kings time also Hugh Balsamus Bishop of Ely founded Saint Peters Colledge in Cambridge Hubert de Burgh Earle of Kent was buried in the Church of the Friers Preachers in London to which Church he gave his Palace at Westminster which afterward the Arch-bishop of Yorke bought and made it his Inne since commonly called Yorke place now White-Hall Casualties happening in his time AT one time there fell no Raine in England from the first of March to the Assumption of our Lady and at another time there fell so much Raine that Holland and Holdernes in Lincolneshire were over-flowed and drowned In the seventeenth yeare of his Raign were seene five Suns at one time together after which followed so great a Dearth that people were constrained to eate horse flesh and barkes of Trees and in London twenty thousand were starved for want of foode Also in his time the Church of Saint Mildred in Canterbury and a great part of the City was burnt Also the Towne of New-Castle upon Tine was burnt Bridge and all And though it may seeme no fit place to tell it yet here or no where it must be told that in this Kings time there was sent by the King of France the first Elephant that ever was seene in England Of his Wife and Children HE marryed Eleanor the second of the five Daughters of Raymond Earle of Provence who lived his Wife thirty seven yeares his Widow nineteene dyed a Nun at Aimesbury and was buryed in her Monastery By her he had sixe Sonnes and three Daughters of his Sonnes the foure youngest dyed young and were buryed three of them at Westminster and the fourth in the New Temple by Fleetstreet His eldest Sonne Edward surnamed Longshanke of his tall and slender body succeeded him in the kingdome His second Sonne Edmund surnamed Crouch-backe of bowing in his backe as some say but more likely of wearing the signe of the Crosse anciently called a Crouch upon his backe which was usually worne of such as had vowed voyages to Hierusalem as he had done He was invested Titular King of Sicilie and Apulia and created Earle of Lancaster on whose person originally the great contention of Lancaster and Yorke was Founded He had two Wives the first was Avelin Daughter and Heire of William Earle of Albemarle by whom he left no issue The second was Queene Blanch Daughter of Robert Earle of Artois Brother of Saint Lewis King of France Widow of Henry of Champaigne King of Navarre by her he had issue three Sonnes and one Daughter His eldest Sonne Thomas who after his Father was Earle of Lancaster and having marryed Alice Daughter and Heire of Henry Lacie Earle of Lincolne was beheaded at Pomfret without issue His second sonne Henry Lord of Monmouth who after his Brothers death was Earle of Lancaster and Father of Henry the first Duke of Lancaster his third Sonne Iohn who dyed unmarryed His Daughter Mary marryed to Henry Lord Percy Mother of Henry the first Earle of Northumberland This Edmund dyed at Bay in Gascoyne in the yeare 1296. when he had lived fifty yeares whose body halfe a yeare after his death was brought over into England and entombed at Westminster Of King Henries three Daughter the eldest Margaret was marryed to Alexander the third King of Scotland by whom she had issue two Sonnes Alexander and David who dyed both before their Father without issue and one Daughter Margarât Queene of Norway Wife of King Erike and Mother of Margaret the Heire of Scotland and Norway that dyed unmarryed The second Daughter of King Henry was Beatrice borne at Burdeaux marryed to Iohn the first Duke of Britaine and had issue by him Arthur Duke of Britaine Iohn Earle of Richmont Peter and Blanch marryed to Philip Sonne of Robert Earle of Artois Eleanor a Nunne at Aimesbury and Mary marryed to Guy Earle of S. Paulâ she deceased in Britaine and was buryed at London in the Quire of the Gray Fryers within Newgate The third Daughter of King Henry named Katherine dyed young and lies buryed at Westminster in the space betweene the Chappels of King Edward and Saint Benet Of his Personage and Conditions HE was of stature but meane yet of a well compacted body and very strong one of his eyelids hanging downe and almost covering the blacke of his Eye For his inward endowments it may be said he was wiser for a man then for a Prince for he knew better how to governe his life then his Subjects He was rather Pious then Devout as taking more pleasure in hearing Masses then Sermons as he said to the King of France He had rather see his Friend once then heare from him often His minde seemed not to stand firme upon its Basis for every sudden accident put him into passion He was neither constant in his love nor in his hate for he never had so great a Favorite whom he cast not into disgrace nor so great an Enemy whom he received not into favour An example of both which qualities was seene in his carriage towards Hubert de Burgh who was for a time his greatest Favourite yet cast out afterward in miserable disgrace and then no man held in greater haâred yet received afterward into grace againe And it is memorable to heare with what crimes this Hubert was charged at his Arraignment and âpecially one That to disswade a great Lady from marriage with the King he had said the King was a squint-eyed Foole and a kinde of Leper deceitfull perjuâed more faint-hearted then a Woman and utterly unfit for any Noble Ladies company For which and other crimes laid to his charge in the Kings Bench where
at Armes he is challenged at a Turneament with a pretence to solemnize his presence but with a purpose indeed to disgrace his person and though Prince Edward in many respects might justly have refused it yet the noblenesse of his mind would not suffer him to passe by any occasion of shewing his valour and in this ãâ¦ã as he made it appeare that âame had beene no ãâ¦ã the report it maâe of hiâ And here a great part of his English Nobility met ãâã from whence he passeth into France where the King Philip his âeare Couââ as being Sister Sonnes entertaines him with great solemnity and graceth his solemnity with so much courtesie that it wonne Prince Edward volântarily to do him homage for the Territories he held in France this voluntarines in Prince Edward won the King of France againe to grant quietly unto him all the Lands in France that belonged to him and so these two great Kings by reciprocall courtesie effected that which theiâ Predecessours by force could never effect From her ãâã passeth through Aâuitaine and having there taken homage of his Subjects and set all things in order he set Saile and arrived in England above a yeare after the death of his Father a long time for plotting of mischiefe and a strong temptation to plotters of mischiefe if all the causes of quietnesse had not concurred but such was the worthinesse of Prince Edwards person and such the undoubtednesse of his Title that as there could be no Competitour so there would be no Oppugnerâ And indeed the Divine Providence had shewed a speciall care over him from his Child-hood whereof one or two Examples will not be unfit to be related One was this that being yet but young and playing one time at Chesse with a Friend in the midst of his game without any apparent occasion he removed himselfe from the place where he sate when suddenly there fell from the roofe of the house a great stone which if he had stayed in the place but never so little had beaten out his braines Another Example of the Divine Providence over him though it happened afterwards was this Having prepared a great Fleete of Ships for a journey into Flanders and being at Winchelsey where the Ships were to meete it happened that riding about the Harbour his Horse frighted with the noyse of a Windmill which the wind drove violently about skrambled up and leapt over the Mudâwall of the Towne so as neither the King nor the Horse was to be seene but every one judged the King could not chuse but be throwne and killed yet such was the Divine Providence over him that the Horse lighted upon his feet and the King keeping the Saddle returned safe And under the wing of this Divine Providence he had now passed all the dangers of his tedious Journey and being safely come to London was on the fifteenth day of August in the yeare 1274. Crowned at Westminster together with his Wife Queene Eleanor by Robert Kilwarby Arch-bishop of Canterbury where five hundred great Horses were let loose for any that could take them and yet the outward solemnity was not more great then the inward joy was universall every man rejoycing not onely at a change which of it selfe is pleasing but at a change so much for the better as this was like to be Of his Acts done after he was Crowned THe Acts of this King after he was Crowned may not unfitly be divided into five parts His Acts with his Temporall Lords His Acts with his Clergy Then with Wales Then his Acts with Scotland And lastly with France And first concerning his Lords he gave them good contentment in the beginning of his Raigne by enlarging their liberties and granting them easier Lawes for which purpose he called a Parliament wherein were made the Statutes called of Westminster the first so as he had no difference with them till toward the end of his Raigne as shall be shewed hereafter In the next place concerning his Acts with his Clergy he began with them betimes for having lived to be of good age three or foure and thirty yeares old in his Fathers Raigne he observed in that time that their power was too predominant and therefore thought fit to clip their wings at least to keepe them from farther growing which he did by these meanes First in the sixth yeare of his Raigne he deprived many chiefe Monasteries of their Liberties and tooke from the Abbot and Covent of Westminster the Returne of Writs granted them by the Charter of his Father King Henry the third The next yeare after he got to be enacted the Statute of Mortmaine to hinder the encrease of their Temporall Possessions In the second Statute of Westminster he defalked the Jurisdiction of Ecclesiasticall Judges and growing more upon them he required the moity of all their Goods as well Temporall as Spirituall for one yeare Then cals he a Parliament of his Nobles at Salisbury without admission of any Church-men in it And it is worth the noting that Marchian his Treasurer acquainting him that in Churches and Religious houses there was much treasure to be had if it might be taken he made no scruple of it but caused it to be taken and brought into his Exchequer But finding his Prelates not well contented with it to please them againe he bids them aske something of him wherein they should see how much he favoured them And they asking of him to repeale the Statute of Mortmaine that had beene made so much to their hinderance He answered that this was a Statute made by the whole body of the Realme and therefore was not in his power who was but one Member of that Body to undoe that which all the Members together had done and perhaps whatsoever they should have asked else he would have had an answer to redeeme his Offer And thus much concerning his Clergy In the next place are the Welsh who had themselves begun with the King For their Prince Leolyn being summoned to attend at his Coronation refused to come and afterward at more leisure being required to come and doe his Homage he stood upon termes of safe conduct pretending doubt to be used as his Father Gryffin had beene who upon hard usage in the Tower seeking to make escape fell from the Walls and brake his necke But indeed it was alwayes a Custome with this Nation at every change of Princes in England to try conclusions hoping at one time or other to have a day of it and to change their yoke of bondage into liberty for which they were never better Provided then now especially which is the greatest matter in Warre having a Valiant Prince to be their Leader But there happened an accident which tooke off their edge at this time For the Lady Eleanor a Daughter of the late Earle Simon Montford whom Prince Leolyn extreamely loved being passing out of France into Wales was by the way upon the Sea taken by English ships and
brought to King Edward and for the love of her Prince Leolyn was content to submit himselfe to any conditions which besides subjection of his State was to pay fifty thousand pounds Sterling and a thousand pounds per annum during his life and upon these conditions the marriage with his beloved Lady was granted him and was solemnized here in England whereat the King and Queene were themselves present Three yeares Leolyn continued loyall and within bounds of obedience in which time David one of his Brothers staying here in England and found by the King to be of a stirring Spirit was much honoured by him Knighted and matched to a rich Widow Daughter of the Earle of Darby and had given him by the King besides the Castle of Denbigh with a thousand pounds per annum though as it was afterwards found he lived here but in the nature of a spy For when Prince Leolyns Lady was afterward dead and that he contrary to his Conditions formerly made brake out into rebellion then goes his Brother David to him notwithstanding all these Favours of the King and they together enter the English Borders Surprise the Castles of Flynt and Rutland with the person of the Lord Clifford sent Justiciar into those parts and in a great Battaile overthrew the Earles of Northumberland and Surrey with the slaughter of Sir William Lyndsey Sir Richard Tanny and many others King Edward advertised of this Revolt and overthrow being then at the Vyzes in Wiltshire prepares an Army to represse it but before his setting forth goes privately to his Mother Queene Eleanor lying at the Nunnery of Aimesbury with whom whilest he conferred there was one brought into the Chamber who faigned himselfe being blinde to have received his sight at the Tombe of King Henry the third Aâsoone as the King saw the man he remembred he had seene him before and knew him to be a most notorious lying Villaine and wished his Mother in no case to beleeve him but his mother who much rejoyced to heare of this Miracle for the glory of her husband finding her sonne unwilling that his Father should be a Saint grew suddenly into such a rage against him that she commanded him to avoid her Chamber which the King obeyes and going forth meetes with a Clergy man to whom he tels the story of this Impostour and merrily said He knew the justice of his Father to be such that he would rather pull out the eyes being whole of such a wicked wretch then restore them to their sight In this meane time the Arch-bishop of Canterbury had gone of himselfe to Prince Leolin and had laboured to bring him and his brother David to a re-submission but could effect nothing for besides other reasons that swayed Prince Leolin the conceit of a Prophesie of Merlin that he should shortly be Crowned with the Diadem of Brute so overweighed him that he had no care for peace and shortly after no head for after the Earle of Pembroke had taken Bere Castle which was the seat of Prince Leolin he was himself slain in battell and his head cut off by a common Souldier was sent to King Edw. who caused the same to be Crowned with Ivie and to be set upon the Tower of London And this was the end of Leolin the last of the Welsh Princes betraied as some write by the men of Buelth Not long after his brother David also is taken in Wales and judged in England to an ignominious death First drawn at a horse taile about the City of Shrewsbury then beheaded the trunke of his body divided his heart and bowels burnt his head sent to accompany his brothers on the Tower of London his foure quarters to foure Cities Bristow Northââpton York and Winchester A manifold execution and the first shewed in that kind to this kingdome in the person of the son of a Prince or any other Noble man that we reade of in our History It is perhaps something which some here observe that at the sealing of this conquest King Edward lost his eldest son Alphonsus of the age of twelve years a Prince of great hope and had onely left to succeed him his sonne Edward lately borne at Carnarvan and the first of the English intituled Prince of Wales but no Prince worthy of either Wales or England And thus came Wales to be united to the Crowne of England in the eleventh yeare of this King Edwards Raigne who thereupon established the government thereof according to the Lawes of England as may be seene by the Statute of Rutland in the twelfth yeare of his Raigne The worke of Wales being setled King Edward passeth over into France upon notice of the death of Philip the Hardy to renew and confirme such conditions as his state in those parts required with the new King Philip the fourth intituled the Faire to whom he doth homage for Aquitaine having before quitted his claime to Normandy for ever After three yeares and a halfe being away in France he returns into England and now in the next place comes the businesse with Scotland and will hold him woâke at times as long as he lives and his sonne after him Alexander the third King of Scots as he was running his horse fell horse and man to the ground and brake his necke and died immediatelyâ by reason whereof he leaving no issue but onely a daughter of his daughter Margaret who died also soone after there fell out presently great contention about succession Ten Competitors pretend title namely Erick King of Norway Florence Earle of Holland Robert Bruce Earle of Anandale Iohn de Baylioll Lord of Galloway Iohn de Hastings Lord of Abergeveny Iohn Cummin Lord of Badenaw Patrick de Dunbarre Earle of March Iohn de Vescie Nicholas de Sulâs William de Rosse all or most of them deâcending from David Earle of Huntington younger brother to William King of Scots and great Unkle to the late King Alexander This title King Edward takes upon him to decide pretending a Right of Superiority from his Ancestours over that kingdome and proving it by authority of old Chronicles as Marianus Scotus William of Malmsbury Roger de Hoveden Henry of Huntington Ralph de Luceto and others which though the Scottish Lords who swaied the Interregnum opposed yet are they constrained for avoyding of further inconveniences to make him Arbiter thereof and the tenne Competitours bound to stand to his award Two are especially found betweene whom the âight lay Iohn de Baylioll Lord of Galloway and Robert Brâce the one descending from an elder daughter the other from a sonne of a younger daughter of Alan who had married the eldest daughter of this David brother to King William The controversie held long twelve of either kingdome learned in the Lawes are elected to debate the same at Berwick all the best Civilians in the Universities of France are solicited to give their opinions all which brought forth rather doubts then resolutions whereupon King Edward the better to
sway this businesse by his presence takes a journey Northward where being come as farre as Lincolnshire he lost his beloved wife Queene Eleanor and thereupon going backe to see her Funerall performed at Westminster that done he returnes presently to his Scottish businesse And now sixe yeares were passed since the death of King Alexander and yet nothing concluded in this controversie whereupon King Edward deals privately with Bruce who had the weaker Title but the more friends and promiseth him if he would sweare fealty and homage to the Crowne of England he would Invest him in that of Scotland But Bruce answers he was not so dâsirous to rule as thereby to infringe the liberties of his Countrey Whereupon with the like offer he sets upon Baylioll who having better right but lesse love of the people and more greedy of a kingdome then honour accepts the condition and thereupon is Crowned King at Scone hath fealty done him by all the chiefe Nobility except Bruce comes to New-Castle upon Tyne where King Edward then lay and there with many of his Nobles sweares fealty and doth homage to him as his Soveraigne Lord. Which act done to secure him overthrew him for being little beloved before hereby he became lesse such as stood for Bruce and others of the Nobility tender of the preservation of their Countries liberty took stomach against him and not onely for this but shortly after for his injustice in the case of the Earle of Fife one of the sixe Governours in the time on the Interregnum who had beene slaine by the Family of Alberneth the brother of which Earle prosecuting Law before King Baylioll in his high Court of Parliament and having no right done him King Baylioll giving judgement of the side of the Alberneths he appeales to the Court of the King of England whereupon King Baylioll is summoned appeares sits with King Edward in his Parliament till his cause was to be heard and then is cited by an Officer to arise and to stand in the place appointed for pleading then he craves to answer by a Procuratour but is denied and thereupon descends to the ordinary place and defends his cause himselfe which indignity as he tooke it so incenseth him that he returnes home with a breastfull charged with indignation meditates revenge renues the ancient league with France confirmes it with marriage of his sonne Edward to a daughter of Charles brother to King Philip glad in regard of late offences taken against the King of England to embrace the same which done Baylioll defies King Edward renounceth his Allegeance as unlawfully done being not in his power without consent of the State to doe any such Act. Hereupon brake out that mortall dissension betweene the two Nations which consumed more Christian bloud and continued longer then ever quarrell we reade of did between any two people in the world For he that beganne it could not end it but it lasted almost three hundred yeares and was never throughly abolished till the late blessed union wrought by him in whom Wisdome and Vertue Right and Power concurred all to make it firme And now the fatall Chaire in which the Kings of Scotland used to be Inaugurated seemes to recover its secret operation according to antient Prophesie that whither soever that Chaire should be removed the kingdome should be removed with it and this Chaire King Edward caused to be brought out of Scotland to Westminster and to be placed there amongst the Monuments where it still continues But now King Baylioll being summoned to appeare at New-Castle and refusing to come King Edward enters Scotland with an Army consisting of foure thousand horse and thirty thousand foot besides five hundred horse and one thousand foote of the Bishop of Durham Berwicke is first wonne with the slaughter of fifteene thousand Scots our Writers say more and after that the Castles of Dunbarre Roxborough Edinbough Sterliâg and Saint Iohns Towne and now King Balioll sues for Peace submits himselfe takes againe his Oath of Fealty to King Edward as his Soveraigne Lord which done a Parliament for Scotland is held at Berwicke where the Nobility likewise did Homage to him confirming the same by their Charter under their hands and seales onely William Dowglasse refuseth content rather to endure the misery of a Prison then yeeld to the subjection of the King of England But King Baylioll notwithstanding his submission is sent prisoner into England after his foure yeares Raigne in Scotland and King Edward returnes home leaving Iohn Warren Earle of Sussex and Surrey Warden of all Scotland Hugh Cressingham Treasurer and Ormesloy Chiefe Justice with Commission to take in his name the Homages and Fealties of all such as held Lands of that Crowne But this continued not long for King Edward being absent in France the Scots fell upon the Officers he had left slew Sir Hugh Cressingham with sixe thousand English recovered many Castles and regained the towne of Berwick and all by the animation and conduct of one William Walleys a poore private Gentleman though Nobly descended who seeing his Countrey without a Head and thereby without a Heart all the great men either in captivity or subjectionâ assembles certaine of as poore and desperate estate as himselfe and leads them to attempt upon whatsoever advantages they could finde to annoy the English and having therein good successe it so encreased both his courage and company that he afterward came to be the generall Guardian of the whole kingdome and was in possibility to have absolutely redeemed his Countrey from the subjection of the English if the speedy comming of King Edward had not prevented him For now King Edward to bring his worke neare together removes his Exchequer and Courts of Justice to Yorke where they continued above sixe yeares and thither he cals a Parliament requiring all his subjects that held of him by knights service to be ready at Roxborough by a peremptory day where there assemble three thousand men at Armes on barded horses and foure thousand other armed men on horse without bards with an Army of foote answerable consisting most of Welsh and Irish besides five hundred men at Armes out of Gascoyne and with this power he makes his second expedition into Scotland the Earles of Hereford and Norfolke with the Earle of Lincolne led his Vauntgard at the famous battell of Fonkirke where the shouts of the Scots were so great that King Edwards horse frighted withall cast him off and brake two of his ribs which notwithstanding he gets up againe goes on and gets the victory wherein are reported to be slaine two hundred knights and forty thousand foot of the Scots but William Walleys with some few escaped to make more work And here againe that kingdome might seeme as if quite overthrowne Most of the estates of the Earles and Barons of Scotland with their titles that had stood out were bestowed on the English and a Parliament is called at Saint Andrewes where all the great
Adversary endevours first to strengthen himselfe with Friends abroad seekes to match his Sonne Edward with a Daughter of Guy Earle of Flanders Marries one of his Daughters to the Dâke of Barrâ who pretended Title to Champaigne another to Iohn Duke of Braâant sends fifteene thousand pounds Sterling to Adolph de Nassaw the Emperour for recovery of certaine Lands which he claimed in France and with all these and many other conâining Princes he sets upon the King of France and then sends over his Brother Edmund Earle of Lancaster the Earles of Lincolne and Richmond with eight and twenty Banners seven hundred men at Armes and a Navy of three hundred and sixty Saile In the meane time the King of France having had intelligence of the intended alliance betweene King Edward and Guy Earle of Flanders sends for the said Earle as if knowing nothing thereof to come with his Wiâe and Daughter to make merry with him at Paris where instead of Feasting him he makes him Prisoner and takes from him his Daughter in regard he sought being his Vassall to match her with his capitall Enemy The Earle excuseth it the best he could and by much mediation is released himselfe but not his Daughter whereupon the Earle presuming upon aide from King Edward takes Armes and defies the King of France who thereupon comes with an Army of sixty thousand against him which caused King Edward with all speed possible to relieve this distressed Earle and so leaving the Government of the kingdome in his absence to the Bishop of London the Earle of Warwicke and the Lords Reynold Grey and Clifford with five hundred Saile and eighteene thousand men at Armes he passeth over into France but finding the Country distracted into many popular Factions and the King of France daily getting upon them having already won Lisle Doway Courtray Burges and Dam and the Emperour Adolph failing to send him aide as he had promised he fell into great perplexity and having stayed the whole Winter at Gaunt where by reason of many outrages committed by his Souldiers he was so affronted by the Gauntois that his owne person was not without some danger He thereupon in the Spring of the yeare concludes a Truce with the King of France for two yeares takes his sister Margaret to Wife and affianceth the Daughter of the same King to his Sonne Prince Edward and so returnes into England And these were all the troubles King Edward had with France But now must something be spoken of troubles with his Lords at home whereof this was the beginning In a Parliament at Salisbury the five and twentieth yeare of his Raigne the King requires certaine of his Lords to goe to the Warres in Gascoyne which needed a present supply by reason of the death of his Brother Edmund but the Lords make all their excuses every man for himselfe Whereupon the King in great rage threatned they should either goe or he would give their Lands to others that should Upon this Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford High Constable and Roger Bigod Earle of Norfolke Marshall of England make their Declaration that if the King went in Perâon they would attend him otherwise not Which answer offended the King more and being urged againe the Earle Marshall protested he would willingly goe thither with the King and march before him in the Vauntguard as by right of inheritance he ought to doe But the King told him plainely he should goe with any other though he weââ not himselfe in Personâ I am not so bound saith the Earle neither will I take tâât journey without you The King swore by God Sir Earle you shall either goe or hââââ And I sweare by the same Oath said the Earle I will neither goe noâ hangâ and so without leave departs Shortly after the two Earles assemble many Noble men and other their Friends to the number of thirty Bannereâs so as they were fifteen hundred men at Armes well appointed and stood upon their Guââdâ The King like a prudent Prince who knew his times prosecuâes them not as then bââ lets the matter passe in regard that his businesse called him presently into Flanders when being ready to take ship the Arch-bishops Bishops Earles Barons and the Commons send him a Roll of the Grievances of his Subjects concerning his Taxes Subsidies and other Impositions with his seeking to force their services by unlawfull courses to which the King sends answer that he could not aâtâr any thing without the advice of his Councell who were not now about him and therefore required them seeing they would not attend him in his Journey which they absolutely refused to doe though he went in Person unlesse he had gone into France or Scotland that they would yet doe nothing in his absence prejudiâiall to the peace of the kingdome and that at his returne he would set all things in good order to their contentment But having taken his Journey and being held there with long delayes to his exceeding great expenses he was forced to send over for more supply of Treasure and thereupon gave order for a Parliament to be held at Yorke by the Prince and because of his Minority for he was then but sixteene yeares of age by such as had the manage of the kingdome in his absence and to the end he would not be disappointed of aide he condescends to all such Articles as were demanded concerning the great Charter Promising from thenceforth never to charge his Subjects otherwise then by their consents in Parliament and to pardon all such as had denyed to attend him in this Journey After this in the 27. yeare of his Raigne a Parliament is called at Westminster wherein the promised Confirmation of the two Charters and the allowance of what disafforestation had heretofore beene made was earnestly urged and in the end with much adoe Granted and that with omission of the Clause Salva Iure Coronae nostrâ which the King laboured to have inserted but the people by no meanes would agree and the perambulation of the Forests of England was then committed to three Bishops three Earles and three Barons But some yeares after in the two and thirtieth yeare of his Raigne King Edward begunne to shew his resentment of the stubborne behaviour of his Nobles towards him in times past and so terrifies Roger Bigod Earle Marshall that to recover his favor the Earle made him his Heireâ in Possession though he had a Brother of his owne living reserving onely to himselfe a thousand pounds per annum during his life Of others likewise he goâ great summes for the same offence The Earle of Hereford escaped his fine by death But the Arch-bishop of Canterbury whom he accused to have disturbed his Peace in his absence he sends over to Pope Clement the fifth who succeeded Bonifacâ that he might be crusht with a double power This Pope was Native of Burdeaux and âo the more regardfull of the Kings desire and the Kingâ the more confident of
well he performed the third charge of his Fathers Will for subduing of Scotland It was now the sixth yeare after the death of his Father King Edward and Robert Bruce now gotten to be King of Scotland had stayed all this while to see how this new King Edward would prove and when he found by the courses he held that he was like to prove a good easie Enemy he thereupon tooke heart and began to stirre and in a very short time had brought almost all Scotland under his obedience and finding no opposition he entred the English Borders tooke and burnt Townes that now King Edward unlesse he would sit still and suffer Bruce to come and pull his Crown from his head he could not chuse but doe something to stop his proceeding Hereupon he prepares an Army but like himselfe fitter for a Court then for a Campe Many men and great Bravery but readieâ to take spoiles then to make spoile and accordingly they sped For going to raise the siege at Strâveling defended for King Edward by the valiant knight Philip Mowbray the Kings Army consisting of a hundred thousand was defeated and overthrowne by the Scots Army consisting of scarce thirty thousand So true is that saying of an ancient Souldier There is more hope of an Army where the General is a Lion though the Souldiers be but Sheepe then of an Army where the Generall is a Sheepe though the Souldiers be Lions But indeed the Scots besides Valour used Policy For having in their owne Army none but Foot no Horse at all they had made Trenches in the Ground three foot deepe covering them with Twigges and Hurdles where the English Horsemen were to passe who Floundring in those Trenches were killed no lesse by their owne Fellowes then by the Enemy In this Battell called of Bannocks borough were slaine the Lord Mawle the Lord Clifford the Lord Tiptoft the Lord William Marshall Sir Giles Doctor Argenton and seven hundred Knights and Squires specially Gylbert Earle of Glocester who had shewed much Valour that day and whom the Scots would willingly have kept for ransome if they had knowne him but he had forgotten to put on his Coate of Armes whereby to be knowne The slaughter of common Souldiers was certainely great though perhaps not so great as Hector Boetius speakes of who saith they were fifty thousand There were taken Prisoners Humfrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford Iohn Seagrave Iohn Claveringham William Latimer and Sir Roger Northbrooke bearer of the Kings shield the King himselfe with the Bishops the Earles of Hartford and Pembroke and Hugh Spenser saved themselves by flight Humfrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford was afterward released in exchange for Bruces Wife who had beene long kept a Prisoner in England After this many English fell away to the Scots and all the North parts from Carlile to Yorke came under their Subjection and the English grew so faint-hearted and into such contempt that three Scots durst venture upon a hundred English when a hundred English durst scarce encounter with three Scots And what can be thought the cause of this great dysaster to this King but the want of his Fathers blessing for not performing the charge he gave him dying which is commonly accompanyed with the want of a higher blessing without which a Vacat is set upon the labours of men that makes them all frustrate But Bruce not satisfied with his Acquests in England sends his Brother Edward into Ireland also who so farre prevailed that many Irish came in unto him and in the end Crowned him King of a great part of that Island and so continued the space of three yeares till the Primat of Armagh and the Lord Brinningham Justiciar of Ireland gathering Forces together opposed him and in a Battaile taking him Prisoner at Dundalke cut off his head with the slaughter of many thousands of the Scots besides With which the Scots are so incensed that they invade againe the English Borders forraging as farre as Yorke whereupon a Parliament is assembled at London wherein an ayde is granted of Armed men to goe against them London sets forth two hundred Canterbury forty Saint Albons ten and so proportionably for all Cities and Boroughs whereby a great Army was levyed which comming to Yorke through mutiny emulation and other impediments was soone dissolved and returned backe without effecting any thing Not long after the Towne of Berwicke was betrayed to the Scots through the treason of Peter Spalding the Governour and other Englishmen whom the King of Scots to make them an Example caused to be hanged for being Traitors to their Country King Edward hearing of the surrendring of Berwicke raiseth an Army and beleaguers it but the Scots to divert his Forces enter upon England by other wayes and were like to have surprised the person of the Queene lying then neare âorke The siege of Bârwicke is notwithstanding eagerly continued and the King in great possibility to have regained the Towne had not the Earle of Lancaster with his follâwers withdrawne himselfe upon discontent hearing the King say he would give the keeping thereof to Hugh Spenââr the younger who was now grown a speciall favourite of the Kings and therefârâ not to be enâured by the Earle In the mean ãâã the Scots wonne the Castles of ãâ¦ã and Midâord so as they possessed the greater part of all Northâmberland burning all before them ãâã they came to âââpon which Towne they spoyledâ and carrying there three dayes they received â thousand Markes to save the Towne from burning as they had done the Townes of Norâhallerton Borâugh-bridgâ and others In their returning backe they ãâã Knaresborough and Shipton in Cââven and all other afore them carrying into ââland a marvellous number of Cattell besides prisoners men and womenâ Theâ ââââshire men thus grievously endammaged gather together to the number of ten thousand and at the Towne of Mitton tenne miles from Yorke encounter the Scoââ where they lost three thousand of their men and were defeatedâ which bâttell because of the many Spirituall men that were in it was called the white battell Whereof when the King heardâ he left the siege of Beâwicke to follow the Scots but they returned another way The yeare following King Edward once againe with a great Army entred Scotland but the Scots having destroyed all afore the King oppressed with famine was forced to reâurneâ whom the Scots followed and in a place of the Forest of Blackmore seâ upon him that he hardly escaped where were taken Iohn Earle of Britaine and the Lord of Silâacâ the French Kings Embassadour and many others After this King Edward finding the Scots either too strong or too wily for him made a Truce with them for two yeares some say for thirteene And this was the successe of this unfortunate King in his warres with Scotland Of his trââbles at home BUt his troubles abroad were not so grievous as those at home or rather they were those at home that made his
battell saying They were but clouds and would soone passe away yet so watched him that what with light skirmishes and what with skarcity of victuals his forces were so diminished that of thirty thousand which went out of Callice there scarce retunred six thousand home which made King Edward say of this King Charles that he did him more mischiefe sitting still then his Predecessours had done with all their stirring And now by this time all Poictou is lost and all Aquitaine also but onely Burdeaux and Bayon when the Arch-bishop of Roan and others are sent from Pope Gregory the eleventh to mediate a Peace betweene the two Kings but each of them standing upon high termes of conditions nothing could be effected but Truce upon Truce for two or three yeares together In which time Edward Prince of Wales died and with him we may say the Fortune of England being a Prince so full of vertues that he left no place for any vice and if he had lived in the Heroicke times might well have beene numbâed amongst the nine Worthies His body was buried at Canterbury where his Monument standeth King Edward in his seven and fortieth yeare calleth a Parliament at Wâstminster which lasted but eight dayes and to which were Summoned by Writ of Clergy men onely foure Bishops and five Abbots Of King Edwards Acts after the death of the Prince IN the time of the Princes sicknesse King Edwârd cals a Parliament at Westminster in which when demands were made for supply of the King demands were presently made for redresse of grievances for the subjects It was required that the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Latymer then Lord Chamberlaine Dame Alice Pierce the Kings Concubine and one Sir Richard Sturry might be removed from Court And this was so vehemently urged by their Speaker Sir Peter la Moore that the King rather then not to be supplied gave way unto it and thereupon all these persons are presently put from Court but the Prince soone after dying they are all recalled to Court againe and restored to their former places About this time exâmplary justice was done upon Sir Iohn Minsterworth knight who was drawne hanged and quartered at Tiburne for Treason by him committed in defrauding Souldiers of their wages Thiâ was now the fâftieth yeare of King Edwââds Raigne and he for another Iubilee graââs another generall pardon to his subjectsâ onely William Wicâham Bishop of Winchester is excepted being lately by procurement of the Duke of Lancaster fallen into the Kings displeasureâ and forbiddââ to come to the Parliament This Parliament was called the good Parliamentâââough it wrought ill effects for Sir Peter de la Mare at the suite of Alice Pierce is committed to perpetuall imprisonment at Notâingham though within two years after by importunate suite of friends he regained his liberty This Alice Pierce presuming upon the Kings favour grew so insolent that she entermedled with Courts of Justice and other Offices where âhe herselfe would fit to countenance her Causes And now the Duke of Lancastââ is come to have the Regencie and to manage all the affaires of the kingdome but King Edward to prevent the mischiefes when by disordering the succession might grow in the kingdome providently settled the same in Parliament upon Richard of Burdeaux âreating him first Earle of Chester and Cornwall and then Prince of Wales and caused all the Lords of the Realme to talâe an Oath to accept him for their King as his lawfull Heire when himselfe should be dead In this meane time a Treaty was had about a marriage betweene this Prince Richard and Mâry a daughter of Charles King of France and an offer was made to King Edward to leave him foureteene hundred Townes and three thousand fortresses in Aqâitaine upon condition he would render Callice and all that he held in Picardy but before any thing could be concluded King Edward died Of his Taxations IN the eighth yeare of his Raigne in a Parliament holden at London there was granted him a fifteenth of the Temporalty a twentieth of the Cities and Boroughs and a tenth of the Clergy In his tenth yeare in a Parliament at Northampton is granted a tenth penny of Cities and Boroughs a fifteenth of others and a tenth of the Clergy Also all such treasure as was committed to Churches through England for the Holy Warre is taken out for the Kings use towards his warres with France The next yeare after all the goods of three orders of Monks Lomâards Cluniakes and Cistercians are likewise seised into the Kings hands and the like Subsidy as before granted at Nottingham In his twelfth yeare and as some write in absence of the King in a Parliament at Northampton is granted by the Laity one halfe of their Wooll but of the Clergy the whole The next yeare after a fifteenth was likewise paid in Wooll by the Commonalty In his foureteenth yeare in a Parliament at London is granted him for Customâ of every sacke of Wooll forty shillings for every three hundred Wooll Fells forty shilâ for every Last of Leather forty shillings and of other Merchandises according to the rate the same to endure from that Easter to the Whitsontide twelve moneth after Besides there was granted of Citizens and Burgesses a ninth part of goods of forraine Merchants and others a fifteenth of Husbandmen the ninth Sheafe the ninth Fleece the ninth Lamb for two years also another tenth of the Clergy and for his present supply he had Loanes of divers persons and the City of London lent twânty thousand Markes For the grant of which mighty Subsidy the King besides his Pardon to divers kinds of offendours remits all Amerciaments for transgressions in his Forests Reliefs and Scurage to the first time of his going into Flanders besides all aides for the marriage of his sonnes and daughters during his Raigne pardoning and remitting all ancient debts and ârrârages both of his Fermors and others till the tenth yeare of his Raigne and likewise confirmes the great Charter of Magna Chartae In his eighteenth yeare in a Parliament at London a tenth was granted by the Clergy and a fifteenth by the Laityâ Besides a Commission is sent into every Shire to inquire of mens abilities and all of five pounds to tenne of Lay Fee were appointed to finde an Archer on horsebacke of twenty five a Demilaunce and so ratably above There had formerly been made a certaine coyne of Gold called the Floren of base alloy for the Kings benefit towards his warres in France but this was now called inâ and Nobles of finer metall coyned to the great contentment of the people In his nine and twentieth yeare he hath by Parliament granted unto him fifty shillings upon every sack of Wooll for six years next ensuing by which Imposition it was thought the King might dispend a thousââd Markes Sterling a day the vent of Wooll was so great in that time But that which exceeded all his Taxations was the Ransome he had in
Anne married first to Edmund Earle of Stafford by whom she had Humphrey Duke of Buckingham secondly to William Bourchier Earle of Ewe by whom she had Henry Earle of Essex and Ioane married to Gylbert Lord Talbot and hâd issue by him a daughter who died young Of King Edwards daughters the eldest named Isabell was married at Windsor to Ingelram of Guysnes Lord of Coâcy Earle of Soysons and after Arch-duke of Austria created also by King Edward Earle of Bedford by whom she was mother of two daughters Mary married to Henry Duke of Barre and Philip married to Robert de Vere Earle of Oxford Duke of Ireland and Marquesse of Dublyn This Robert in the height of his fortunes forsooke his Lady Philip and married one Lancerona a Joyners daâghter as was said which came with King Richard the seconds wife ouâ of Bohemia and being for abusing the Kings eare driven out of the Land by the Lords he died at London in extreame poverty in the yeare 1392. Isabell his wives mother was buried in the Church of Friers Minorites neare Aldgate in London King Edwards second daughter Ioane was married by Proxie to Alphonsus King of Castile and Leonâ but passing into Spaine died by the way and King Alphonsus met her instead of consummating his Espousall to solemnise her Funerall His third daughter Blanch died young His fourth named Mary was married to Iohn Montford Duke of Britaine His youngest named Margaret borne in Callice was the first wife of Iohn de Hastings Earle of Pembroke but died without issue Of his Personage and Conditions HE was of stature indifferent tall of sparkling eyes of a comely and manly countenance in his later time something bald and concerning his conditions no man was more gentle where there was submission where opposition no man more sterne He was a Prince no lesse of his passions then of his people for he was never so loving as to be fond nor ever so angry as to be inexorable but this must be understood of the time while he was a man for in his old age when he came to be a childe againe he was Prince of neither He was no lesse fortunate then valiant and his fortunatenes was the greater by a kind of Antiperistatis as comming betweene two unfortunate Princes Successour to one and Predecessour to another He was of so warlike a disposition that his very sports were warlike for no delights were so frequent with him as Justs and Tournaments To shew his devotion one example may be sufficient for when neither Cardinals nor Counsellours could move him to make peace with France a tempest from Heaven did it to which may be added that he never wanne great battell of which he wanne many but he presently gave the glory of it to God by publike Thanksgiving He out-lived the best wife and the best sonne that ever King had and to say the truth he out-lived the best of himselfe for his later years were not answerable to his former Of his Death and Buriall KING Edward besides his being old and worne with the labours of warre had other causes that hastened his end his griefe for the losse of so worthy a sonne dead but tenne moneths before his griefe for the losse of all benefit of his conquests in France of all which he had little now left but onely Callice and oppressed thus in body and minde he was drawing his last breath when his Concubine Alice Pierce packing away what she could catch even to the Rings of his fingers left him and by her example other of his attendants seaâsing on what they could come by shift away and all his Counsellours and others forsooke him when he most needed them leaving his Chamber quite empty which a poore Priest in the house seeing he approaches to the Kings Bed-side and finding him yet breathing cals upon him to remember his Saviour and to aske mercie for his offences which none about him before would doe but now moved by the voyce of this Priest he shewes all signes of contrition and at his last breath expresses the name of Jesus Thus died this victorious King at his Manor at Sheene now Richmond the one and twentieth day of Iune in the yeare 1377. in the sixty fourth yeare of his age having Raigned fifty yeares foure moneths and odde dayes His body was conveyed from Sheene by his foure sonnes and other Lords and solemnly interred within Westminster Church where he hath his Monument and whereit is said the sword he used in battell is yet to be seene being eight pound in weight and seven foote in length Of Men of Note in his time MArtiall men were never more plentifull then in this Kings Raigne whetââr it were that the Starres have an influence to produce such men at one time more then another or whether it were that Regis ad exemplââ the Kings example made his subjects like himselfe or lastly that his continuall exercise of Armes put them as it were into a mould of fortitude The first of this kinde is worthily Edward the Blacke Prince and so worthily the first that Longe erit â primo quisque secundus erit Next him is Henry Earle of Lancaster the Princes right hand in all his great atâââevements then William the valiant Earle of Salisbury then Iohn Eure Ancestor to ãâã Lord Eures that now liveth then follow the Lord Iohn Chandos Sir Iames Audeââ Sir Walter de Manny Sir Robert Knolls then Sir Iohn Hawkewood born in Essex who ââough not much honoured at home having been a Taylour yet in forrain parts and ââecially in Italy so famous that his Statue was erected in publike for a Monument ãâã testifie his valour to posterity And here must not be forgotten Venileânight ânight a Norfolke man who when the Scots and English were ready to give battell â certaine stout Champion of great stature commonly called Tournboll comming ãâã of the Scots Army and challenging any English man to meete him in a single combate this Robert Venile accepteth the challenge and marching towards the Champion and meeting by the way a certaine blacke Mastiffe Dogge which waiâed on the Champion he suddenly with his sword cut him off at the loynes and afterwards did more to the Champion himselfe cutting his head from off his shoulders And as there was this great plenty of Martiall men so there was no lesse plenty of learned men Iohn Baconthorpe borne in Norfolke a Carmelite Frier who wrote divers excellent Treatises in Divinity Nicholas Trivet born also in Norfolk a black Frier who wrote two Histories and a book of Annals Richard Stradley born in the Marches of Wales a Monk and a Divine who wrote divers excellent Treatises of the Scriptures William Herbert a Welshman and a Frier Minor who wrote many good Treatises in Divinity Tho. Walleis a Dominican Frier and a writer of many excellent books Iohn Eversden a Monk of Bury in Suffolk an Historiographer Walter Burley a Doctor of Divinity brought up in Martin Colledge in
Beauchamp Earle of Warwick was brought forth and charged with the like Treasons but by the intercession of the Duke of Lancaster and other Lords after confession of his fault was only confin'd into the Isle of Man Likewise the lord Cobhaâ and Sir Iohn Cheyny were onely banished or as Fabian saith condemned to perpetuall Prison The Parliament after this was held at Shewsbery where for the love the king bore to the Gentlemen and Commons of the Shiâe of Chester he caused it to be Ordained that from thenceforth it should be called and known by the name of the Principality of Chester and herewith intitled himselfe Prince of Châster At this Parliament also called the Great Parliament He created five Dukes and â Dutchesse one Marquesse and foure Earles The Earle of Darby was created Duke of Hereford the Earle of Nottingham Duke of Norfolke the Earle of Râtlandâ Dâke of Aâbemarle the Earle of Kent Duke of Surrey the Earle of ãâã Duke of Exceter and the Lady Margaret Marshall Countesse of Norfolke was created Dutchesse of Norfolke The Earle of Somerset was created Marquesse Dorseâ the Lord Spenser was made Earle of Glocester the Lord Nevill Earle of Westâerlââd the Lord Scrââpe Earle of Wiltshire and the Lord Thomas Percy L. Steward of the kingâ house was made Earle of Worcester and for the better maintenance of their esââteâ he divided amongst them a great part of those lands that belonged to the Duke of Glocester the Earles of Aruâdell and Warwick Also in this Parliament the Judges gave their opinions That when Articles are propounded by the king to be handled in Parliament if other Articles be handled before those be first determined that it is Treason in them that doe it And in this Parliament the king brought it so âbout that he obtained the whole power of the Parliament to be conferred upon cerâtaine persons namely Iohn Duke of Lancaster Edmund Duke of Yorke Edmâââ Duke of Aâmerle Thomas Duke of Surrey Iohn Duke of Exceter Iohn Marqueââe Dorset Roger Earle of March Iohn Earle of Salisbury and divers others or to any seven or eight of them and these by virtue of this Grant proceeded to conclude upon many things which concerned generally the knowledge of the whole Parliament to the great prejudice of the State and a dangerous example in time to come A Generall Pardon was also granted for all offences to all the Kings subjects but only to Fifty whose names he would not expresse but reserved them to his own knowledge that when any of the Nobility offended him he might at his pleasure name him to be one of the number excepted and so keepe them still within his danger And for the more strengthening the Acts of this Parliament the King purchased the Popes Buls containing grievous censures and curses to them that should break them And now the heads of the opposite Faction having lost their heads and all things as well setled as could be desired the King was secure as thinking himselfe safe and he had indeed been safe if Time and Fortune were not Actours in Revenge as well as men or rather if a superiour Power did not interpose whose wayes are as secret as himselfe is invisible It now fell out though Wâiters differ what it was fell out for some write that Thomâs Mowbray accused the Duke of Hereford others that Henry Duke of Herefoâd accused Thomas Mowbrây Duke of Norfolke for speaking words sounding highly to the Kings dishonour to which the Duke of Norfolk being called to answer charged the Duke of Hereford before the King that he lyed falsly Whereupon a Combat was agreed upon between them The King labored to make them friends but not prevailing he gave way to proceed in Combat and the place to be at Coventry where at the day and houre appointed the Duke of Hereford mounted on a white Couâseâ bârded with green ând blew Velvet imbroidered sumptuously with Swans and Antelops of Goldsmiths worke approached the Lists Of whom the Marshall being the Duke of Surry demanding who he was he answered I am Henry of Lââcaster Duke of Hereford that am come hither to doe my endeavour against Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke as a Traitour untrue to God the King his Realme and me Then incontinently he swore upon the holy Evangelists that his quarrell was true and just and thereupon required to enter the Lists where in â Chaire of green Velvet he sate downe and reposed himselfe Then came the Duke of Nârfâlke his horse barded with Crimson velvet imbroidered richly with Lyons of Silver and Mulbery trees and when he had taken his oath before the Constable the Duke of Aâmerle that his quarrell was just he entred the Lists and sate him down in his Chaire of Crimson velvet curtained about with white and red Damask Then the Marshall viewed their speares to see that they were of equall lengâh and then the Heralds proclaimed on the Kings behalfe they should mount on horsebâck and addresse themselves to the Combat But when they were set forward and had their Speares in their Rests the King cast down his Warder and the Heralds cryed Stay Stay Then the king caused their Speares to be âaken from them and deliberated with his Councell what was âit to be done in so weighty a cause After two long houres it was at last concluded that Henry Duke of Hereford should within fifââen dayes depart out of the Realme and not returne before ten yeeres were expired upon paine of death And that Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke should likewise avoyd the Realme and never to returne into England upon the like paine It is observable that this Censure was passed against the Duke of Norfolke the very same day Twelve-moneth in which he had taken order to put the Duke of Glocester to death at Calliâ whereof he was then Governour When these Judgements were once read the king called before him both the Dukes and made them sweare that the one should never come in place where the other was After this the Duke of Nârfâolke went into Almâiââ and from thence to Venice where after some time he dyed with sorrow The Duke of Hereford at the taking his leave of the king had foure yeeres of his Banishment released ând then went to Callis and from thence to âaris where of the French king he was so kindly received that by his favour he had obtained in mariage the onely daughter of the Duke of Berry Unkle to the French king if King Richard by messengers had not hindered him It was a Custome in those dayes to punish the delinquencies of Great men by banishment out of the Realme a Custome not more grievous to the Subject then dangerous to the Prince for by this course they had meanes to worke so closely in their mines of Revenge that the Fabrick of a Kingdome was in danger to be blown up before their working could be perceived An example whereof was never more plainly seen then at this time in
Kings Writ Affaires of the Church in his time IN the second yeere of this Kings Reigne there came messengers from the new-elected Pope Vrban to require the Kings ayd against such Cardinals as he named Schismâticks that had elected another Pope whom they named Clemânt which Cardinalls sent messengers likewiâe to crave his ayd for them but through perswasion of the Archbishop of Canterbury Vrbans request was granted and Clement rejected In his fourth year Iohn Wickliffe set forth his opinion touching the Sacrament of the Altar denying the doctrine of Transubstantiation in such sort as the Church of Rome did then teach In his sixth year Henry Spencer Bishop of Noâwiâh received Bulls from Pope Vrbân to grant all priviledges of the Crusado to all such as would come over and assist him against the Anti-Pope Clement which being debated in Parliament It was after much opposition agreed that it should go forward and thereupon the Bishop not only gathered much money from such as would contribute to the expedition but drew many great Captaines to go themselves in person as namely Sir Hugh Calverley sir William Farington the Lord Henry Beauââât sir William Elmham sir Thoâas Tryvet and divers others The money raised by contribution came to 25000 Franks and the Army to 3000 Horse and 15000 Foot with which Forces the Bishop passing over into Flanders wonne the Towns of Graveling Dunkirke and Newport but at last encountred by a mighty Army of the French he was put to the worse and returned into England In the twelveth yeare of this Kings Reigne an Act was made that none should passe the Seas to purchase promotions or provisions as they tearmed them in any Church or Churches Also in this yeare Thomas late Earle of Lancaster by reason of miracles reported to be done by him was Canonized for a Saint At this time also the Wickliffs mervelously increased Preaching against Pilgrimages and Images whose greatest opposer was the Bishop of Norwich In his thirteenth yeare Proclamation was made that all Beneficed men abiding in the Court of Rome should return into England by a certain day under pain of forfeiting their Benefices and all other not Beneficed under a certain pain likewise Also about this time a Statute was made that no Ecclesiasticall person should possesse Manours Houses Lands Revenues or Rents whatsoever at the hands of the Feoffee without the Kings Licence and the chiefe Lords In his eighteenth yeare the Wickliffs were persecuted and excommunication pronounced against them by the Archbishop of Canterbury In this Schisme of the two Popes the French Clergy wrote in behalfe of Clement their Pope and sent it into England the Clergy of England on the contrary wrote in behalfe of Pope Vrban and so nothing was agreed Works of Piety in his time IN the 20th yeare of this Kings Reign William Bâteman Bishop of Norwich builded Trinitie Hall in Cambridge In the third year of his Reign Iohn Philpot Major of Loâdon gave to the Citie certain Tenements for the which the Chamberlain payeth yearly to thirteen poore people to every of them seven pence the week for ever and as any of those thirteen persons dyeth the Major appointeth one to succeed and the Recorder another In the one and twentieth yeare of his Reign King Richard caused the great Hall at Westminster to be repaired both the Walls Windows and Roofe In his time Siâââ Archbishop of Canterbury slain by the Rebels upon Tower hill built the West-gate of Canterbury and from thence to the North-gate commonly called the long wall Thomas Fits-Alaâ or Arundell being Bishop of Ely built the great Gatehouse of Ely house in Holborne and being after Bishop of Canterbury he built a faire spire steeple at the West-end of his Church there called to this day Arundell steeple and bestowed a tuneable ring of five Bells upon the same Of Casualties happening in his time IN his third yeare so great a mortality afflicted the North parts of England that the Country became almost desolate In his sixt yeare on the 24 day of May there happened so great an earthquake or as some write a watershake that it made Ships in the Havens to beat one against the other In Iuly in the year 1389. whilest the King was at Sheene there swarmed in his Court such multitudes of Flyes and Gnats skirmishing with one another that in the end they were swept away with brooms by heaps and bushels were filled with them In his twelveth yeare in March first there were terrible Windes afterward followed a great mortality and after that a great dearth that a bushelâ of wheat was sold for thirteen pence which was then thought a great price for the years before it was sold for six pence and Wooll was sold for two shillings a stone In his fourteenth year on Christmas day a Dolphin was taken at London-bridge being ten foot long and a monstrous grown fish Ind his eighteenth year an Exhalation in likenesse of fire appeared in the night in many places of England which when a man went alone went as he went and stayed as he stayed sometimes like a wheele sometimes like a Barrell sometimes like a timberlogge but when many went together it appeared to be far off Also in a Parliament time ther was a certain Image of waxe made by Necromancie as was sayd which at an houre appointed uttered these words The Head shall be cut off the Head shall be lift up aloft the feet shall be lift up above the Head and then spake no more This happened in the Parliament called the Marvellous Parliament not long before the Parliament that wrought wonders In his one and thirtieth yeare a River not far from Bedford suddenly ceased his course so as the channell remained dry by the space of three miles which was judged to signifie the Revolting of the Subjects from their naturall Prince In his two and twentieth yeare almost through all England old Bay-trees withered and afterwards grew green againe which was supposed to import some strange event About the yeare 1380. the making of Gunnes was found by a Germaâe which may well be reckoned amongst casualties seeing it was found by casualty for this Germane having beaten Brimstone in a morter to powder and covered it with a stone it happened that as he struck fire a sparke chanced to fall into the powder which caused such a flame out of the morter that it raised the stone a great heigth which after he perceived he made a Pipe of iron and tempered the powder with some other ingredients and so finished that deadly Engine The first that used it were the Venetians against the inhabitans of Geneva Of his Wives KING Richard in his time had two Wives the first was Anne Daughter to the Emperour Charles the Fourth and Sister to the Emperour Wenceslaus who lived his wife ten years and dyed without issue at Sheene in Surry in the year 1392 whose death King Richard tooke so heavily that he caused the buildings of that
Pallace to be thrown down and defaced as though to revenge himselfe upon the place could ease his minde and mitigate his sorrow His second Wife was Isabel Daughter to Charles the Sixth King of France She was married to him at eight years of age and therefore never co-habited After King Richards death she was sent home and married afterwards to Charles Son and heire to the Duke of Orleance Of his Personage and conditions HE was the goodliest personage of all the Kings that had been since the conquest tall of stature of streight and strong limbes faire and amiable of countenance and such a one as might well be the Son of a most beautifull mother Concerning his Conditions there was more to be blamed in his Education than in his Nature for there appeared in him many good inclinations which would have grown to be abilities if they had not been perverted by corrupt flatterers in his youth He was of a credulous disposition apt to believe and therfore easie to be abused His greatest transgression was that he went with his friends ultra aras where he should have gone but usque ad aras His greatest imbecilitie that he could not distinguish between a flatterer and a friend He seemed to have in him both a French nature and an English violent at the first apprehension calm upon deliberation He never shewed himself more worthy of the Government than when he was deposed as unworthy to Governe for it appeared that his Regality was not so deare unto him as a private quiet lifââ which if he might have enjoyed he would never have complained that Fortune had done him wrong Of his Death and Buriall KIng Richard shortly after his Resignation was conveyed to the Castle of Leeds in Kent and from thence to Pomfret where the common fame is that he was served with costly meat like a King but not suffered once to touch it and so dyed of forced famine But Thomas Walsingham referreth it altogether to a voluntary pining of himselfe through grief of his misfortunes But one Writer well acquainted with king Richards doings saith that king Henry sitting one day at his Table said sighing Have I no faithfull friend that will deliver me of him who will be my deathâ This speech was specially noted by one Sir Piers of Exâon who presently with eight persons in his company went to Pomfret commanding the Esquire that tooke the Assay before king Richard to doe so no more saying Let him eat now for he shall not eat long King Richard sitting down to dinner was served without Assay whereat marvelling he demanded of his Esquire why he did not his duty Sir said he I am otherwise commanded by Sir Piers of Exâon who is newly come from king Henry When king Richard heard that word he tooke the Carving knife in his hand and stroke the Squire on the head saying The Devill take Henry of Lancaster and thee together And with that word Sir Piers entred the Chamber with eight armed men every of them having a Bill in his hand King Richard perceiving this put the Table from him and stepping to the foremost man wrung the bill out of his hands and slew foure of those that thus came to assaile him but in conclusion was felled with a stroke of a Poll-axe which Sir Piers gave him upon the head with which blow he fell down deadâ though it be scarce credible that â man upon his bare word and without shewing any warrant should be admitted to doe such a fact Sir Piers having thus slaine him wept bitterly a poore amends for so heynous a trespasse King Richard thus dead his body was embalmed and covered with Lead all save the face and then brought to London where it lay at Pauls three dayes together that all men might behold it to see he was dead The corps was after had to Langley in Buckinghamshire and there buried in the Church of the Friers Preachers but afterward by k. Henry the Fift it was removed to Westminster and there honorably entombed with Queen Anne his wife and that beautifull picture of a King sitting crowned in a Chaire of State at the upper end of the Quire in S. Peters at Westminster is said to be of him although the Scots untruly write that he escaped out of Prison and led a solitary and vertuous life in Scotland and there dyed and is buried as they hold in the Black-Friers at Sterling He lived three and thirty yeares Reigned two and twenty and three moneths Men of Note in this Kings time MEn of Valour in his time were so many that to reckon them all would be a hard taske and to leave out any would be an injury yet to give an instance in one we may take Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaâter whose valour was no lesse seen abroad then at home In France in Germany in Spaine in all which places he left Trophies of his Victories But of learned men we may name these William Thorne an Augustine Frier of Canterbury an Historiographer Adam Merimouth a Canon of Pauls Church in London who wrote two Historicall Treatises one intitled Chronicon 40. annoruâ another Chrânicon 60. ânnorum William Packington sometime Secretary to the Black Prince an excellent Historiographer William Badbye a Carmelite Frier Bishop of Worcester and Confessour to the Duke of Lancaster Iohn âourg Chancellour of the University of Cambridge William Scâade a Monke of Buckâast Abby in Devonshire Iohn Thârisbye Archbishop of Yorke Lord Chancellour of England and a Cardinall Williâm Berton Chancellour of Oxford an Adversary to Wickliffe Philip Repington Abbot of Leicester a Defender of Wickliffe Walter Brit a Scholar of Wickliffs a writer both in Divinity and other Arguments Iohn Sharpe a great adversary to Wickliffe who wrote many Treatises Peter Pateshall a great favourer of Wickliffe Marcell Ingelno an excellent Divine one of the first Teachers in the University of Heydelberg Richard Withee a learned Priest and an earnest follower of Wickliffe Iohn Swasham Bishop of Bangor a great adversary to the Wickliffs Adam Eston a great Linguist and a Cardinall Iohn Trevise a Cornish man and a secular Priest who translated the Bible Bartholmew De Proprietatibus Rerum Polichronicon of Ranulph Higden and divers other Treatises Iohn Moone an English man but a Student in Paris who compiled in the French tongue The Romant of the Rose translated into English by Geoffry Châwcer and divers others THE REIGNE OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH Of his comming to the Crowne AFter the Resignation of King Richard and the sentence of his Deposing openly read in Parliament Henry Duke of Lancaster riseth up from his seat and first making the Signe of the Crosse upon his forehead and breast he said In the name of the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost I Henry of Lancaster claime the Crown of England as descended by right line from King Henry the Third And having thus spoken he sate downe againe Upon this the Archbishop conferred with the
thousand men at Arms and foure and twenty thousand Archers whom about the middle of May he followeth himselfe and safâly aâriving at Câlliâ hasted to relieve Charters which the Dolphin with seven thousand men had besieged but hearing of the kings comming was retired to Tours The king of Scots with the Duke of Glocester about the eighth of Iuly besieged Dreux which agreed if it were not relieved by the twentieth of that moneth then to surrender it no reliefe comming it was surrendred The king pursuâd the Dolphin from place to place but could not overtake him but in the way surprized the Towne of Bâwgââcy where all that craved it he âooke to mercy as likewise he did at Roâgemoât from thence he went to Orleance and from thence to Vigneâ St. Toâ and from thence to Paris where having fitted himselfe with supplies he went and sate downe before Menixe in Brye which after some opposition he also tooke and thereby had possession of all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in ãâã in ârye and in Champaigne Upon St. Nicholas day in the yeare 1422 Queen Katherine was brought to bed of a Son at Windsor who was by the Duke of Bedford and Henry Bishop of Winchester and the Countesse of Holland Christned by the name of Henry whereof when the king had notice out of a Propheticke rapture he sayd Good Lord I Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reigne and much get and Henry borne at Windsor shall long time Reigne and lose all but Gods will be done About this time the Dolphin layd siege to Cosney which the king was intentive to relieve as being a Town of the Duke of Burgoignes and therefore tendredit more than if it had beene hiâ owne and making over-hasty journeys he over-heat himselfe with travell and comming to Sââlys found himselfe so ill at ease that he was forced to remaine there and to send his brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute his designe which the Duke performed and the Dolphin upon his approach retired into Berry whereof in mockage he was after called the king of Berry But the kings Feaver and flââ increasing he was removed to Boys de Vincens where growing worse and worse within a few dayes he dyed But somewhat before his departure he had made his Brother the Duke of Bedford Lievetenant Generall of Norâââdy and Regent of the kingdome of France and his Brother the Duke of Glocester he had made Protector of England and of his Sons Person Exhorting all to be true and faithfull to the Duke of âurgoâgâe to be at unitie amongst themselves to be loyall to their young Prince to be serviceable to his dearly beloved Queene to hold aâd preserve what he by his valour and Gods assistance had wonne and never to conclude contract of amitie with the Dolphin or Duke of Alanson untill they had submitted themselves to the kings Gracâ And so giving God thanks for all his favors and blessings bestowed upon him in the midst of saying a Psalme of David he departed this life who might justly have prayed God with David Take me âot away in the midst of my dayes for he dyed about the age of five or six and thirty years which in Davids account is the midst of the number of the dayes of mans life but though he dyed in the midst of his dayes yet he dyed in the fulnesse of his Glory and of whom it may he said Iamque arce potitus Ridet anhelââtes durâ ad fastigââ montis When he had Reigned nine yeares and five moneths Of his Taxations IN his first yeere an incredible sum of money was given him by the Clergy to diâert him from a motion propounded to take away their Temporalties And in the same yeere a Subsidie was granted him both by the Clergy and the Laity In his fourth yeere was granted him towards his warres in France two whole Tenths of the Clergy and a fifteenth of the Laity which being farre too short to defray his great charge he was forced to pawne his Crowne to the Bishop of Beauford his Uncle for a great sum of money as also certain Jewels to the Lord Major of London for ten thousand markes In his ninth yeere in a Parliament at Weââminster for revenge of the Duke of Clarence death two tenths of the Clergy and one fifteenth by the Laity which because the haste of the businesse could not stay the usuall course of collection the Bishop of Winchester brought in presently twenty thousand pounds to receive it againe when the Subsidie should be gathered The same yeere also the Duke of Bedford in the kings absence called a Parliament wherein was granted towards his warres one fifteenth to be paid in such money as was at that time current These are all the Subsidies that were given him notwithstanding his many and great atchievements by which it appeares what great matters a moderate Prince may doe and yet not grieve his subjects with Taxations Of Lawes and Ordinances made by him or in his âime HE ordained the king of Heralds over the English which is called Gârter In his ninth yeare in a Parliament holden at Westminster It was ordained that no man should offer Gold in payment unlesse it were weight and thereupon were appointed ballances and weights An act made in the thirteenth yeare of king Richard the Second which disabled the Alien Religious to enjoy any Bânefices within England was in the beginning of this kings Reigne put in execution and further this king excluded also the French from all preferments Ecclesiasticall and those Priors Aliens Conventuall who had institution and induction were bound to put in security not to disclose or cause to be disclosed the Counsell and secreâs of the Realme Affaires of the Church in his tiâe IN the beginning of his Reigne the Wickliffs increased greatly of whom Sir Iohn Oldcastle was a Chiefe who by mariage of a kinswoman of the Lord Cobhamâ of Cââling in Kent obtained that Title This knight being very valorous and in great favour with the king was in a Synod at London accused for maintaining of Wickliffâ doctrine whereof the king being informed sent for him and instantly dealt with him to submit himselfe to the censure of the Church But Sir Iohn Oldcastle told the King that he owed his subjection onely to his Majestie and as for others he would stand for the truth against them to the uttermost of his life Upon this he was served by Processe to appeare in the Archbishops Court and not appeaâing was condemned of Contumacy and afterwards in a Synod at Rochester was by the Archbishop pronounced to be an Heretick who then enacted that Decree That the Holy Scriptures ought not to be translated into the English tongue But marke the judgement that fell upon his owne tongue whoâe rootes and blade shortly after as is recorded grew so bigge in his mouth and throat that he could neither speake nor swallow downe meat but in horrour lay languishing till at last
February the foureteenth crowned at Westminster Shee surviving king Henry was re-married to Owen Teuâââ an Esquire of Wales who pretended to be discended from Cadwalladeâ the antienâ king of Wales though some write him to be the sonne of a Brewer whose meannesse of estate was recompensed by the delicacy of his personage so absolute in all the lineaments of his body that the only contemplation of it might well make her forget all other circumstances by him she had three sonnes Edmond Iâsper and Owen and a daughter that lived but a while Her sonne Owen tooke the habit of Religion at Westminster the other two were by king Henry the sixt their halfe brother advanced in honor Edmond was created Earle of Richmond and marrying the sole heyre of Iohn Beaufort Duke of Somerset was Father by her unto Henry the sâaventh king of England the only heyre of the house of Lancaster Iasper her second sonne was first created Earle of Pembroke and after Duke of Bedford but dyed without lawfull issue This Queenâ either for devotion or her owne safety âoke into the Monastery of Bermoâdsey in Southwarke who dying the second oâ January 1436. she was buried in our Ladies Chappell within St. Peters Church at VVestminster whose corps taken up in the Reigne of king Henry the sâaventh her Grand-childe when he laid the foundation of that admirable structure and her Coffin placed by king Henry her husbands Tombe hath ever since so remained and never since re-buried where it standeth the cover being loose to bee seene and handled of any that will By her king Henry had only one son named Henry who succeeded him in the Kingdom Of his Personage and Conditions HE was tall of stature leane of body and his bones small but strongly made somewhat long necked black haired and very beautifull of face swift in runing so as hee with two of his Lords without bow or other engine would take a wilde Buck or Doe in a large Parke Hee delighted in songs and musicall Instruments insomuch that in his Chappell amongst his private prayers he used certaine Psalmes of Dâvid translated into English meeter by Iohn Lydgate Monke of Bury And indeed it may be truly said of him as was said of Aenaeâs Quo justior alter Nec piâtate fuit nec bello major arâiâ for he seldom fought baââell where he got not the victory and never got victory whereof he gave not the glory to God with publique Thanksgiving He was a better man a King then a Subject for till then he was not in his right Orbe and therfore no mervaile if he were somthing exorbitant He was of a mercifull disposition but not to the prejudice of wisedom as thinking wise cruelty to be better then foolish pitty He was no lesse politick then valianâ for he never fought battell nor wonne Town wherein hee prevailed not asmuch by stratagem as by force He was so temperate in his dyet and so free from vain-glory that we may truly say he had something in him of Caesar which Alexander the Greââ had not that he would not bee drunke and somâhing of Alexander the Great which Caesar had not that he would not be flattered He was indeede a great affector of Glory but not of glory the blâst of mens mouthes but of the Glory that fills the sailes of Time He dyed of full yeeres though not full of yeeres if he had lived longer he might have gone over the same againe but could not have gone further If his love were great to Military men it was not small to Clergy men insomuch as by many he was called the Prince of Priests Of his Death and Buriall SOme say he was poysoned which Polydore Virgill saith was much suspected The Scots write that he died of the disease called St. Fiâcre which is a Palsie and a Crampe Eâguerant saith that he died of St. Anthonies fire But Peter Basset Esquire who at the time of his death was his Chamberlaine affirmeth that hee died of a Pleurisie which at that time was a sicknesse strange and but little known Being dead his body was embalmed and closed in lead and laid in a Chariot-Royall richly apparelled in cloath of Gold was conveyed from Boys de Vinâânâes to Paris and so to Roaâ to Aâbevyle to Câllys to Dâver and from thence through London to Westminster where it was interred next beneath King Edward the Confessor upon whose Tombe Queene Katherine caused a Royall picture to be layed covered all over with silver plate gilt but the head thereof altogether of massie silver all which at that Abbies suppression were sacrilegiously broken off and transferred to pâophaner uses Hee dyed the last day of August in the yeere one thousand foure hundred twenty two when he had reigned nine yeeres and five Moneths lived eight and thirty yeeres Of men of Note in his time MEN of valour in his time were so frequent that we may know it to be a true saying Regis ad exempluâ and men of learning likewise in such numbers that we may know the Prince to have been their Patron First Alayn de Lyn a Carmelite Frier in that Towne who wrote many Treatises Then Thomas Otterborne a Franciscan frier who wrote an History of England Then Iohn Seguerd who kept a Schoole in Norwich and wrote sundry Treatises reproving as well the Monkes and Priests as Poets for writing of filthy verses Robert Rosâ a Carmelite frier in Norwich who writing many Treatises yet said nothing against the Wickleâists Richard Câyster borne âo Nofolke a man of great holinesse of life favoring though secretly the doctrine of VVickliffâ William Wallis a Black frier in Liâ who made a booke of Moralizations upon Ovids Metamorphosisâ William Taylor a Priest and a Master of Art in Oxford a stedfast follower of Wickliffes doctrine and burnt for the same at Smithfield in London the last yeere of this âings reigne Bartholomew Florarius called so of a Treatise which he wrote called Florarium who writ also another Treatise of Abstinence wherein he reproveth the corrupt manners of the Clergie and the pâofession of the Friers Menâicants Alsâ Titus Liviââ de Foââ Lâvisâis an Itâlian bornâ but seeing he âas râsiant here and wâote the life of this King it is not unfit to make mention of him in this place also many others THE REIGNE OF KING HENRY THE SIXTH THere had beene a Race of Princes of which for three generations together it might be rightly sayd Pulcherrima proles Magnanimi Heroes nati melioribus Annis For King Edward the Third had many Sons not inferior in valour to the many Sons of King Priâââs not excepting his valiant Son Hector having so equall a match for him as Edward the blacke Prince who wanted but an Homer to have been an Achilles Then Iohn of Gâunâ likewise had divers Sons men as valorous as any that Age afforded Then Henry the Fourth had foure Sons oâ so heroicall disposition all that you might know them all to be
approaching neer the Queâns Aâmy he was certified by his scâuts that the Enemie farre exceeded his power both in number and in all warlike preparation he not having in his Army above five thousand men and thereupon the Earle of Salisbury advised him to retyâe and to attend the comming of the Earle of March who was gone into Wales to raise the March men but the pride of his former victory made him deale to all Counsell of declining the battell and so hastened on by his destiny from Sândâll Castle he marched on to Wakefield greene where the Lord Clifford on the one side and the Earle of Wiltshire on the other were placed in ambuscado The Duke of Yorke supposing that the Duke of Somerset who led the battell had no more forces then what were with him undauntedly marcheth towards him but being entred within their danger the ambushes on both sides brake out upon him and slew him with three thousand of his men the rest fled the Earle of Salisbury is taken prisoner and harmlesse Rutland not above twelve yeers old who came thither but to see fashions is made a sacrifice for his Fathers transgression who kneeling upon his knees with tears begging life is unmercifully stabbed to the heart by the Lord Clifford in part of revenge as he swore of his Fathers death and the Queen most unwomanly in cold blood caused the Earle of Salisbury and as many as were taken prisoners to be beheaded at Pâmfret Castle and to have their heads placed on poles about the walls of Yorke Thus dyed Richard Plantagenet Duke of Yorke who had taken to wife Cicely daughter of Ralph Nevyll the first Earle of Westmerland by whom he had issue eight sonnes and foure daughters his eldest sonne Henry dyed young his second son Edward was afterward king of England his third Edmund Earle of Rutland was slaine with his fatherâ Iohn Thomas and William died young his seventh sonne George was after Duke of Clarence his youngest sonne Richard sirnamed Crouchbâck wâs after king of England Anne his eldest daughter was married to Henry Holland Duke of Exeter his second daughter Elizabeth was married to Iohn de la Pâole Earle of Suffolk his third Margaret to Charles Duke of Burgoigne his fourth Vrsula dyed young This Duke being dead had his head crowned with a paper Crown together with many circumstances of disgracing him but this act of spight was fully afterwards recompensed upon their heads that did it The Earle of March hearing of his fathers death laboured now so much the more earnestly in that he laboured for himselfe and parting from Shrewsbury whose Inhabitants were most firme unto him he increased his army to the number of three and twenty thousand and presently took the field and having advertisment that Iasper Earle of Pembrooke with the Earle of Ormond and Wiltshire followed after him with a great power of Welsh and Irish he suddenly marcheth back againe and in a plaine neer Mortimers Crosse on Candlemas day in the morning gave them battell wherewith the slaughter of three thousand and eight hundred he put the Earles to flight Owen Tewther who had married Queen Catherine Mother to king Henry the sixth and divers Welsh Gentlemen were taken and at Hereford beheaded Before the battell it is said the Sunne appeared to the Earle of March like three sunnes and suddenly it joyned all together in one for which cause some imagine that he gave the sunne in its full brightnes for his badge or Cognisance The Queen in the mean time encouraged by the death of the Duke of Yorke with a power of Northern men marcheth towards London but when her souldiers were once South of Trent as if that river were the utmost limit of their good behaviour they fell to forrage the Country in most babarous manner Approaching S. Albans they were advertised that the Duke of Norfolke and the Earle of Warwick were ready to give them battell whereupon the Queens Vaward hasteth to passe through St. Albââs but being not suffered to passe they encountred with their Enemies in the field called Barnard heath who perceiving the maine battaile to stand still and not to move which was done by the treachery of Lovelace who with the kentish men had the leading of it they soone made the Southerne men to turne their backs and fây upon whose flight the rest in doubt of each others well meaning shifted away and the Lords about the King perceiving the danger withdrew themselves Only the Lord Bânvile comâing in a complementall manner to the King and saying it grieved him to leave his Majesty but that necessity for safeguard of his life enforced itâ was importuned and Sir Thoâas Kyriell a knight of Kent likewise by the king to stay he passing his Royall word that their stay should bee no danger to them upon which promise they stayed but to their cost for the Queen hearing that the Commoâs had beheaded Baron Thoâpe at High-gate âhe in revenge thereof caused both their heads to be stricken off at S. Albââs so as there were slaughtered at this battaile the full number of three and twenty hundred but no man of name but onely Sir Iohn Grey who the same day was made knight with twelve other at the village of Colney And now the King was advised to send one Thomâs Hoe thaâ had been a Barrister to the Victors to tell them that he would gladly come to them if with conveyance it might be done whereupon the Earle of Northumberland appointed divers Lords to attend him to the L. Clâffords Tent where the Queen and the young Prince met to their great joy but it was now observed as it were in the destiny of King Heâry that although he were a most Piousman yet no enterprise of warre did ever prosper where he was present that we may know the prosperity of the world to be no inseparable companion to men of Piety At the Queens request the king honored with knighthood thirty gentlemen who the day before had fought against the part where he was the Prince likewise was by him dubbed knight and then they went to the Abby where they were received with Anthems and withall an humble petition to be protected from the outrage of the loose souldiersâ which was promised and Proclamation made to that purpose but to small purpose for the Northern men said It was their bargaine to have all the spoyle in every place after they had passed Trent and so they robbed and spoiled whatsoever they could come at The Londâners hearing of this disorder were resolved seeing there was no more assurance in the Kings promise to keep the Northern men out of their gates insomuch that when they were sent to to send over to the Campe certaine Cart-loads of Lenton provision which the Major accordingly provided the Commons rose about Cripplegate and by strong hand kept the Carts from going out of the City Hereupon the Major sends the Recorder to the Kings Counsellâ and withall intreats
a King and for a sacrifice than a Priest and he could not choose but dye a Martyr who all his life had beene a Confessor He had one immunity peculiar to himself that no man could ever be revenged of him seeing he never offered any man injury By being innocent as a Dove hee kept his Crown upon his head so long but if he had been wise as a Serpent he might have kept it on longer But all this is not sufficient if we expresse not in particular his severall virtues So modest that when in a Christmas a shew of women was presented before him with their breasts layd out he presently departed saying fie fie for shame forsooth you be to blame So pittifull that when he saw the quarter of a Traytor over Cripplegate he caused it to be taken down saying I will not have any Christian so cruelly handled for my sake So free from swearing that he never used other oath but forsooth and verily So patient that to one who strooke him when he was taken prisoner he onely sayd forsooth you wrong yourselfe more than me to strike the Lords annointed So devout that on principall Holy-dayes he used to weare sackcloth next his skinne Once for all let his Confeââor be heard speak who in ten years confession never found that he had done or sayd any thing for which he might justly be injoyned Pennance For which causes King Henry the Seventh would have procured him to be Cannonized for a Saint but that he was prevented by deathâ or perhaps because the charge would have been too great the Canonization of a king being much more costly than of a private person Of men of Note in his time THere were men of valour in this Kings Reigne of extraordinary eminencie as first Iohn Duke of Bedford Regent of France whom when a French Lord upbraided that his sword was of lead he made him answer and made him feel that it was of steele Next him was Thomas Montacute Earle of Salisbury whose very name was a sufficient charme to daunt a whole French Army Then the next was Iohn Lord Talbot so great a terror to the French that when the women would still their children from crying they would use to say Talbot comes Then was Richard Nevill Earle of Warwicke so much greater than a king as that which makes is greater than that it makes and such a one was he Many other besides these not much inferior to these that we may truly say there never was a more heroicall King of England than Henry the Fifth nor ever a King of England that had more heroicall Subjects than Henry the Sixth And though Arms and Letters seem to be of different conditions yet they commonly grow up and flourish together as in this kings Reigne were Iohn Leland sirnamed the Elder who wrote divers Treatises for instruction of Gramarians William White a Priest of Kent professing the Doctrine of Wickliffe for which he suffered Martyrdome by fire Alexander Carpenter who wrote a booke called Destructorium vitiorum against the Prelates of that time Peter Basset Esquire of the Privy Chamber to king Henry the Fifth whose life he wrote Iohn Pole a Priest who wrote the life of St. Walhorayle an English woman Also Thomâs Walden alias Netter who wrote divers Treatises against the Wickliffifts Peâer Clerke a Student in Oxford and a defender of Wickliffes doctrine for which he fled and was put to death beyond Sea Thomas Walsingham born in Norfolk a diligenâ Historiographer Thomas Ringstead the younger an excellent Preacher who wrote divers Treatises Thomas Rudborn a Monke of Winchester and an Historiographer Peter Pâyne an earnest professor of Wickliffes doctrine for which he fled into ââbeâââ Nicholas Vpton a Civilian who wrote of Heraldry of colours in Armory and of the duty of Chivalry Iohn Capgrâve born in Kent an Augustine Frier who wrote many excellent Treatises particularly the Legend of English Saints Humphry Duke of Glocester Protector of the Realm well learned in Astrologie whereof he wrote a speciall Treatise intiâuâed Tabula Directionum Iohn Whethamstead otherwise called Frâmentariuâ Abbot of St. Albâns who wrote divers Treatises and amongst others a booke of the Records of things happening whiles he was Abbot which book Holinshead had seen and in some passages of his time followed Roger Oâlây accused of Treason for practising with the Lady Elâânor Cobham by sorcery to make the king away and therof condemned and dyed for it he wrote one Treatise intituled Contra ââlgi superstitiones and another De sua Innocentia Henry Walsingham a Carmelite Frier oâ Norwich who wrote sundry Treatises in Divinity Lidgateâ Monke of Bury who had travelled France and Italy to learne languages and wrote many workes in Poetry Thomas Beckington Bishop of Bath who wrote against the Law Salique of France Michael Trigurie born in Cornwâll whom for his excellent learning king Henry the Fifth made Governor of the Universitie of Caân in Normandy after he had conquered it Reynold Peacocke Bishop of Chichester who wrote many Treatises touching Christian Religion Robert Fleming who wrote a Dâctionary in Greeke ââd Latine and a worke in verse of sundry kindes Nicholas Mântacute an Historiographer Iohn Stow a Monke of Norwich and Doctor of Divinity in Oxfârd Nichâlââ Buâgeie born in a Town of Norfolke of that name who wrote an History called Adâââtiânes Chronicorum Robert âalsâcke who wrote a booke De âe Militâri Thomas Dââdâ a Carmelite Frier of Mârleborough who wrote the life of Alphred king of the West-Saxons Robert Bâle âirnamed the Elder Recorder of London who gathered a Chronicle of the Customs Laws Foundations Changes Offices Orders and publique Assemblies of the Citie of London with other matters touching the perfect discription of the same Citie he wrote other workes also touching the state of the same Citie and the Acts of King Edward the third THE REIGNE OF KING EDWARD THE FOURTH EDWARD Earle of March born at Roane in Normandy sonne and heire of Richard Plantagenet Duke of Yorke slaine in the battell at Wakefield succâeded his Father in the Right but exceeded him in the possession of the Crown of England and that by virtue of an act of Parliament lately made wherein the said Duke of York not only was declared heire apparent to the Crown and appointed Protector of the King and Kingdome but it was further enacted that if King Henry or any in his behalfe should attempt the disanulling of this Act that then the said Duke or his heire should have the present Possession which because his friends attempted to doe therefore justly doth Edward Earle of March his sonne by virtue of this act take possession of the Crown and is Proclaimed king of England by the name of Edward the fourth through the City of London on the fifth day of March in the yeer 1460. But before he could have leasure to be Crowned he was forced once againe to try his fortune in the field by battell For King Henry
Daughter of Richard Beauchamp Earle of Wârwicke deceased Upon this marriage the Earle of Warwicke discovered to hiâ what hitherto he had concealed concerning his project for the restoring of k. Hânry to which Clarence gave approbation with promise to assist him in it to his uttermoââ At this time Sir Thomas Cooke late Major of London was by one Hawkins appeached of Treason for the which he was sent to the Tower and his place in Londoâ seized by the Lord Rivers The case was this the sayd Hawkins came to Sir Thomas requesting him to lend a thousand Marks upon good surety who answered he would first know for whom it should be and for what intent and understanding it should be for the use of Queen Margaret he refused to lend a penny The matter rested two or three years till the sayd Hawkins was layd in the Tower and brought to the Brake called the Duke of Exeters Daughter by means of which paine hee confessed amongst other things the motion he had made to Sir Thomas Cookâ and accused himselfe so farre that hee was put death Sir Thomas Cooke lying in the Tower from Whitsuntide till Michaelmas had his place in Essex named Gyddihall spoyled his Deere in his Parke destroyed and though arraigned upon life and death he were acquitted of the Indictment yet could not be delivered till he had payd eight thousand pounds to the king and eight hundred to the Queen And now the Earle of VVarwicke sendeth to his brothers the Arcbbishop and the Marquesse to prepare all things ready to set on foot the intended revolt from king Edward and to procure some rebellious commotion in the North whil'st he and his new Son in law would provide to goe forward with the worke which they accordingly did in Yorkeshire an occasion being taken for the breach of an ancient custome there to give to the poore people of St. Leonards in the City of Yorke certain quantities of Corn and Grain This commotion the Archbishop and the Marquâsse underhand fomented yet to colour the matter the Marquesse opposed the Rebels and cut off the head of Robert Huldorne their Captain but his head being cut off the Rebels got them other Captains Henry Son and heir to the Lord Fiâzhugh and sir Henry Nevill Son to the Lord Latimer the one the Nephâw the other â Cozen-germane to the Earle of VVarwicke with whom they joyne the valiant Captaine Sir Iohn Conyers These when they could not enter Yorke came marching towards London all the way exclaiming against king Edward as an unjust Prince and an usurper King Edward hearing of this commotion sends Sir VVilliam Herbert whom of a meane Gentleman two years before he had made Earle of Pembrooke and his brother sir Richard Herbert together with the Lord Stafford of Southwick to suppresse the Rebels and they with an Army of seven thousand most Welchmen march towards them but the Lord Stafford being put from his Inne where he used âo lodge by the Earle of Peâbrooke tooke such a distaste at it that he withdrew his Archeâs and gave over the businesse yet the Earle of Pembâooke though thus forâââen with his own Regiment encountred the Rebels slew Sir Henry Nevill and divers othersâ when being upon the point of victory one Iohn Clappaâ a servant of the Eârle of VVarwicke comming in with five hundred rascally fellows and crying aloud a Wârwicke a Warwicke the Welchmen supposing the Earle had beene ãâã turned presently their backs and fled five thousand of them were slain the Eââle of Pembrââke himselfe and his much lamented brother Sir Richard Herbert a most goodly personage were taken prisoners brought to Banbury where both oâ thââ with ten other Gentlemen were put to death And now the Northamptonshire men joyning with the Rebels in this fury made them a Captain named Robert Hillaâd but they named him Robin of Riddesdale suddenly came to Grafton where they tooke the Earle Rivers father to the Queen and his sonne Sir Iohn Woodvile brought them to Northampton and there without Judgement beheaded them King Edward advertised of these mischances wrote to the Sheriffs of Somerset-shire and Dâvââ-shire to apprehend the Lord Stafford of Southwick who had treacherously âââsaken the Earle of Pembrooke and if they could take him to put him to death who being soon after found in a Village within Brentmarsh was brought to Bridgeâaâer and there beheaded After this battell fought at Hedgecote commonly called Bââbury field the Northern men resorted to Warwick where the Earl with great joy received them and hearing that king Edward with a great army was comming thither he sent for his sonne in Law the Duke of Clareâce with all speed to repaire ââto him who joyning together and using means cunningly by having some coââânication of Peace to make the king secure and to take little heed of himselfââ they took advantage of his security and in the dead of night set on his Campe and killing the watch before the king was aware at a place called Wolney foure miles from Barwick they took him prisoner in his bed and presently conveyed him to Middleham Castle in Yorkeshire to be there in safe custody with the Archbishop of Yorke And now they had the Prey in their hand if they had as well looked to keâp it as they had done to get it but king Edward whether bribing his Keepers or otherwise winning them by faire promises got so much liberty sometimes for his reâreation to goe a hunting by which he caused Sir William Stanley Sir Thomas of ãâã and divers of his friends at a certaine time to meet him who took him from hiâ Keepers and set him againe at liberty whil'st the Earle of Warwicke nothing doubting his brother the Archbishops care in safe keeping him thinking the brunt of the warres to be now past dismist his Army and intended only to finde out King Henryâ who was kept a prisoner but few men knew where King Edward being now at liberty posteth to York and from thence to Lancaââeâ where his Chamberlaine the Lord Hastings had raised some forces with which he marcheth to London aud is there joyfully received The Earle of Warwick likewise sends to his friends and makes preparation for a new army whil'st in the meân time by mediation of divers Lords an enterview in VVestminster-hall is agreed upon and solemn Oath taken on both sides for safety between King Edward the Duke of Clarence and the Earle of Warwicke but each party standing strictly upon terms tending to their own ends they parted as great Enemies as they met and so from thence the K. went to Canterbury the Duke and the E. to Lincolne whither they had preappointed their forces to repaire under the Conduct of Sir Robert Wâlâ Son heir of the L. Wels a man of great valour and experience in the wars K. Eââârd to take off so able a man from the Earles part sends for his Father the L. Wels to come unto him who taking with him his
Realme at least the City of London no small disquiet For now Thomas bastard Faâconbridge who had been imployed by the Earle of Warwick to scowre the Seas hearing of these defeats having enriched himselfe by Piracy gathered together an Army of seventeen thousand men and comming to London impâriously commanded admission into the City and releasement of King Henry out of prison but being denyed entrance and hearing that king Edward with a great power was comming towards him he brings up his shipping to Saint Katherines and taking with him his most desperate men with them he marcheth to Kingston-bridge but finding that bridge broken down and all the places of passage guarded he withdrew his forces into Saint Georges field from whence he prepared to assault the City of London for the effecting whereof he landed all his ship Ordinance and planted them all alongst the Banks-side with which he battered down many houses and much annoyed the City but the Citizens on the other side lodged their great Artillery against their Adversaries with which they so galled them that they durst not abide in any plaâe alongst the water side but were driven even from their own Ordinance Then he appointed his men to set fire on the bridge and withall caused three thousand to passe over the Thames and some of them to assault Aldgate and some Bishopsgate but were in all places by the industry of the Citizens repelled and chiefely by Robert Basset and Ralph Iocelyne Aldermen Upon this he retyred to Black-heath and there encamped by the space of three dayes but then hearing that king Edward was commming with a great Army he got him to his ship but the rest fled some one way some another The one and twentieth of May the king comming to London thanked the Citizens for their pains and care and dubbed the Major the Recordeâ Vrsewicke and Bâsset and Iocelyne Aldermen Knights And now the time was come for king Henry to be delivered out of all his troubles for the bloody Duke of Glocester entring the Tower where he found king Henry nothing at all troubled with all his Crosses struck him into the heart with his Dagger and there slew him And now we have had within the space of half a yeer one Parliament Proclaming king Edward an Usurper and king Henry a lawfull king and another Proclaming king Edward a lawfull king king Henry an Usurper that we may know in humane affairs there is nothing certaine but uncertainty nothing stable but instability King Edward presently after the inteârment of king Henry drawes his forces towards âandwich in Kent where some of the followers of Fâuconbridge to the number of eight or nine hundred had in the Castle there strongly fortified themselves but upon their asking Pardon and submitting themselves to the king with promise to be faithfull Subjects ever after they had their Pardon granted them and then they delivered up both Castle and Ships to the number of thirteen to the kings use But how this Composition was observed may be imagined when Fauconbridge who was comprised in the same Pardon was afterward taken and executed at Southampton Spicing and Quintine the Captaines that affailed Aldgate and Bishopsgate and were in Sandwich Castle at the surrender thereof were presently beheaded at Canterbury and their heads placed on poles upon those gates and by a Commission of Oyre and Teâminer many both in Essex and Kent were arraigned and condemned for this Rebellion and more fined And now king Edward desiring to be secured from all suspected persons sent the Archbishop of Yorke brother to the Earle of Warwick over to Guisnes there to be kept in safe custody and there he remained a long time till at length by friendship he was delivered and shortly after dyed Likewise Iohn Earle of Oxford who after Barnet Field yeelded himselfe to king Edward had his life pardoned but yet was seât over sea to the Castle of Hâmmes where for the space of twelve years he was shut up in strong prison and narrowly looked too As for the Earles of Pembrooke and Richmond who were fled out of the Realme to the Duke of Britaine king Edward sent to the Duke requiring to have them delivered up unto him upon promise of great rewards to which the Duke made answer that he could noâ with his honour deliver them up whom he had taken into his Protection but that for king Edwards sake he would take such care of them that he should need to take no care for them and to that end he sequestred their own servants from them and appointed Britaines to attend upon them It was now the thirteenth year of king Edwards reigne in which a Parliament was called at Westminster wherein all acts formerly made by him are confirmed or revived and all their Lands and Goods confiscated that had taken part against him and were fled and all their lands and goods restored to such as had taken part with him King Edward being destin'd to be alwayes in troubles now that he had quietnesse at home was drawn into new broyles abroad for the Duke of Burgoigne at this time having warres with France thought he could no way make a better harvest to himselfe then by sowing seeds of dissention between France and England and to this end he sends Ambassadours to king Edward to sollicite him to set on foot his Title to the Crown of France making great offers with Protestation to assist him in it both with Purse and Person This proposition being seriously debated by the Kings Privy Counsell is at last approved of as being both lawfull and behovefull for the honour of the King and good of the kingdome Onely means to beare the charges of the warre were wanting to supply which by a Parliamentary course would ask too much time a new course therefore is devised to procure mony from the Subject by way of Benevolence and this course was taken About this time Henry Holland Duke of Exceter and Earle of Huntington dis-inherited by Act of Parliament in the fourth yeer of this King though he had married King Edwards Sister yet grew to so great misery that passing over into Flanders he was there forced all ragged and bare-foot to beg his bread was found dead and stript naked between Dover and Callice but how he came to his death no enquiry could bring to light Provision for this French expedition being throughly made and order taken for the quiet government of the kingdome in his absence and the stop of incursions if any by the Scots should be made King Edward with an Army of fifteen hundred men at arms all of the Nobility and Gentry fifteen thousand Archers on horseback eight thousand Common souldiers and three thousand Pioners came down to Dover whither the Duke of Burgoigne had sent five hundred flat bottom'd boates to transport the Horse to Callice yet for all that helpe it was two and twenty dayes before the kings forces were all past over Before the kings departure
the Scottish Bishops had no Metropolitane but the Bishop of Yorke was Metropolitane and Primate of Scotland now in this Kings time Pope Sixâââ appointed the Bishop of Saint Andrews to be Metropolitane of Scotland who had twelve Bishops under his obedience Of Workes of Piety done in his time THIS King laid the foundation of the new Chappell at Windsoâ and his Queen Elizabeth founded the Queens Colledge in Cambridge and endowed it with large Possessions About his fifteenth yeere Doctor Woodlarke Provost of Kings Colledge in Cambridge Founded Katherine-hall there In his seventeenth yeer the Wall of the City of London from Cripplegate to Bishopsgate was builded at the charges of the Citizens also Bishopsgate it selfe was new built by the Merchants ãâã of the Styliard Also in this yeere dyed Sir Iohn Crosby Knight late Major of London who gave to the repairing of the Parish-Church of St. Helens in Bishopsgatestreet where he was buried 500 Marks to the repairing of the parish Church of Heâwârth in Middlesex forty pounds to the repairing of London-wall an hundred pounds to the repairing of Rochester-bridge ten pounds to the Wardens and Commonalty of the Grocers in London two large Pots of silver chased halfe gilt and other Legacies About this time also Richard Rawson one of the Sheriffs of London caused an house to be builded in the Church-yard of St. Mary Hospitalll without Bishopsgate where the Major and Aldermen use to sit and heare the Sermons in Easterholy-daies In his nineteenth yeere William Tailour Major of London gave to the City certaine Tenements for the which the City is bound to pay for ever at every Fifteene granted to the King for all such as shall dwell in Cordwainers-street-ward sessed at twelve-pence apiece or under And about the same time one Thomas ãâã Sheriffe of London builded at his own costs the great Conduit in Cheâpside In his three and twentieth yeere Edmund Shaw Goldsmith who had been Major of London at his own costs re-edified Cripplegate in London which gate in old time had been a Prison Of Casualties happening in his time IN his third yeare the Minster of Yorke and the Steeple of Christs Church in Norwich were burnt In his seventeenth yeere so great a Pestilence reigned in England that it swept away more people in foure moneths than the Warres had done in fifteen yeeres past Also in his nineteenth yeere was another Pesââlence which beginning in the later end of September continued till the beginning of November twelve-moneth following in which space of time innumerable people dyed Of his wife and issue KIng Edward had been contracted to Eleanor daughter of Iohn Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury maried after to Sir Thomas Butler Baron of Sâdely but he maried Elizabeth the widdow of Sir Iohn Grey daughter of Richard Woodvile by his wife Iaqueline Dutchesse of Bedford she lived his wife eighteene yeeres and eleven moneths by whom he had three sonnes and seven daughters Edward his eldest sonne borne in the Sanctuary at Westminster Richard his second sonne borne at Shrewsbury George his third sonne borne also at Shrewsbury but dyed a childe Elizabeth his eldest daughter promised in mariage to Charles Dolphin of France but maried afterward to King Henry thâ Seventh Cicely his second daughter promised in mariage to Iames Duke of âothsay Prince of Scotland but was maried afterward to Iohn Viscount Wells whom she outlived and was againe re-maried but by neither husband had any issue she lyeth buried at Quarena in the Isle of Wight Anne his third daughter was maried to Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke Earle Marshall and High Treasurer of England by whom she had two sonnes both dying without issue she lyeth buried at Framingham in Norfolk Bridget his fourth daughter borne at Eltham in Kent became a Nunne in the Nunnery of Dartford in Kent which king Edward had founded Mary his fifth daughter was promised in mariage to the King of Denmarke but dyed in the Tower of Greenwich before it could be solemnized she lyeth buried at Windsor Margaret his sixth daughter dyed an Infant Katherine his seventh daughter was maried to William Courtney Earle of Devoâshire to whom she bare Lord Henry who by King Henry the eighth was created Marquesse of Exeter Concubines he had many but three specially and would use to say that he had three Concubines who in their severall properties excelled One the merriest another the wyliest the third the holyest harlot in his Realme as one whom no man could lightly get out of the Church to any place unlesse it were to his bed The other two were greater personages than are sit to be named but the merriest was Shores wife in whom therefore he tooke speciall pleasure This woman was borne in London worshipfully descended and well maried but when the King had abused her anon her husband as he was an honest man and did know his good not presuming to touch a Kings Concubine left her up to him altogether By these he had naturall issue Arthur sirnamed Plantagenet whose mother as is supposed was the Lady Elizabeth Lucy created Viscount Lisle by King Henry the Eight at Bridewell in London And Elizabeth who was maried to Sir Thomas Lumley knight to whom she bare Richard afterward Lord Lumley from whom the late Lord Lumley did descend Of his Personage and Conditions HE was saith Comines the goodliest Personage that ever mine eyes beheld exceeding tall of statuâe faire of complexion and of most Princely presence and we may truly say he was of full age before he came to one and twenty for being but eighteen yeeres old when his Father dyed he sued out his livery presently so as he began the race of his forââne just like Augustus Caesar each of them at the same age succeeding an Ancestour after a violent death and each of them left to set on a roofe where but onely a foââââtion was laid before For his conditions he was of an erected composure both of body ând minde but something sagging on the Fleshes side and never any man that did marry for Love did so little love Mariage for he tooke as much pleasure in other mens wives as in his owne He was never more confident than when he was in danger nor ever more doubtfull than when he was sââure Of the foure Cardinall virtues Forâânde and Prudence were in him naturally Temperance ââd Justice but to serve his turne He was politick even to irreligion for to compasse his ends he would not stick to sweare what he never meant Yet he was Religious beyond Policy for before Battailes he used to make his Prayers to God after Victories to give him Thanks He was farre from being proud yet very ambitious and could use familiarity and yet retaine Majestie He was a great Briber and whaâ he could not get by force he would by Rewards as much as what he could not get by Battery he would by Mines Hâ was too credulous of Reports which made him be in errour sometimes to the hârt
between the Lady Margaret the ãâã eldest daughter and him where the Earle by Proxie in the name of king Iames ãâã Masâer affied and contracted the said Ladie which Contract was published at ãâã Crosseâ the day of the Conversion of Saint Paul for joy whereof Te Deum ãâ¦ã and great fires were made through the City of London and if such joy weâe made when the match was made what joy should be made now at the issue of the match when by the Union of those persons is made an Union of these kingdomes and England and Scotland are but one great Britaine The Ladies portion was ten thousand pounds her joynture two thousand pounds a yeer after king Iames his death and in present one thousand When this match was first propounded at the Connsell Table some Lords opposed it objecting that by this means the Crown of England might happen to come to the Scottish Nation To which King Heâry answered what if it should It would not be an accession of England to Scoâlaâd but of Scotland to England and this answer of the kings passed for an Oracle ând so the match proceeded and in August following was Consummate at Ediâbârgh conducted thither in great State by the Earle of Northumberland Prince Arthur after his marriage was sent againe into Wales to keep that Countây in good order to whom were appointed for Counsellours Sir Richard Poole hiââinsman and chiefe Chamberlaine Sir Henry Vernon Sir Richard Crofâs Sir David ãâã Sir William Vdall Sir Thomas Englefield Sir Peter Newton Iohn Walleston ãâã Marton and Doctor William Smith President of his Counsell but within five moneths after his marriage at his Castle of Ludlow he deceased and with great soleââity was buried in the Cathedrall Church at Worcester His Brother Henry Duâe of Yorke was stayed from the title of Prince of Wales the space of halfe a yeer till to women it might appeare whether the Lady Katherine the Relict of Prince Arââââ were with childe or no. The towardlines in learning of this Prince Arthur is veây memorable who dying before the age of sixteen yeers was said to have read over alâ or most of the Latine Authours besides many other And now Prince Arthur being dead and the Lady Katherine of Spaine left a young widdow King Henry loath to part with her dowry but chiefely being desirous ãâã continue the Alliance with Spaine prevailed with his other Sonne Prince Henry though with some reluctation such as could be in those years for he was scarce âwelvâ years of age to be contracted with the Princesse Katherine his broâhârs widdow for which marriage a dispensation by advice of the most learned men at that ãâã in Christendome was by Pope Iulius the second granted and on the five and twentieth day of Iune in the Bishop of Salisburyâs house in Fleet-street thâ marriage was solemnized A little before this time ãâ¦ã Earle of Sâffolke Son to Iohn Duke of Suffolke and Lady Elizâbâtâ Sister âo king Edward the âourth had in his fury kill'd a mean personâ and was thereupon Iâdighted of Murther for which although he had the kings Pardon yet because he was brought to thâ Kings-bench-bârrâ and there arraigned he took it for so great ãâ¦ã his honour that in great rage he fled into Flanders to his Aunâ the Ladâ Mââgaret where having stayed a while when his pâssion was over he returnâd againe âut after the marriage between Prince Arthur and the Lady ãâã wââther it were that in that solemnity he had run himselfe in debt or ãâã he were ârawn to doe so by the Lady Margareâ he passed over the second time with his bâother Richard into Flânderâ This put the king into some doubt of his intentionâ whereupon he hath recourse to his usuall course in such cases and Sir ãâ¦ã Captaine of Hammeâ Castle to feigne himselfe one of that Conspiracy theââby to learn the depth of their intentions And to take away all suspââion of his imployment âhe first Sunday of November he caused the said Earle and Sir Robert Cârson with five others to be accursed openly at Pauls Crosse as Enemies to him and his Realme In conclusion Sir Robert Curson acquainted the king with divers of that faction amongst whom Williaâ Lord Courtâey and Williaâ de la Poole brother to the foresaid Earle of Suffolke who were taken but upon suspition yet held long in prison but Sir Iames Tyrrell the same that had murthered the two young Princes in the Tower and Sir Ioââ Windham who were proved to be Traytorâ were accordingly attainted and on the sixth day of May at the Tower-hill beheaded Whereof when the Earle heard despairing now of any good successe he wandred about all Germany and Frââcâ where finding no succour he submitted himselfe at last to Philip Duke of Austria by whom afterward he was delivered to king Henry by this occasion Ferdiâaâd king of Aragon by his Wife Isabella Queen of Câstile had onely two Daughters the eldest whereof named Ioaâe was married to this Philip Duke of Austria the younger named Katherine to Arthur Prince of England and now Queen Isabella being lately dead by whose death the kingdome of Castile descended in Right of his Wife to this Duke Philip they were sayling out of Germany into Spâine to take possession of the kingdome but by tempest and contrary windes were driven upon the coast of England and landed at VVeymouth in Dorsetshire where desiring to refresh themselves a little on shore they were invited by Sir Thomas Treâchaâd a principall knight of that Country to his house who presently sent word to the king of their arrivall King Henry glad to have his Court honoured by so great a Prince and perhaps upon hope of a courtesie from him which afterward he obtained âent presently the Earle of Arundell to waite upon him till himselfe might follow and the Earle went to him in great magnificence with a gallant troope of three hundred Horse and for more State came to him by Torch-light Upon whose Meâââge though king Philip had many reâsons of haste on his journey yet not to give king Heâry distaste and withall to give his Queen the comfort of seeing the Lady Katherine her Sister he went upon speed to the king at VVindsor while his Queen followed by easie journeys After great magnificence of entertainment king Henây taking a fit opportunity and drawing the king of Castile into a roome where they two onely were private and laying his hand civilly upon his arme said unto him Sir you have been saved upon my Coast I hope you will not suffer me to wrack upon yours The king of Castile asking him what he meant by that speech I mean it saith the king by that haire-brain'd fellow the Earle of Suffolke who being my subject is protected in your Country and begins to play the foole when all others are weary of it The king of Casâile answered I had thought Sir your felicity had been above those thoughts but if it trouble you I will
ãâã and founded the Chappell at Maclesfield in Cheshire where he was borne Also in his time Stephen Granings Major of London founded a free Grammâr Schoole ãâã VVolverhampton in Staffordshire where he was borne and gave lands sufficient for a Master and an Usher leaving the oversight to the Merchant-Taylours in London Thiâ Town of VVolverhampton commonly so called is originally and rightly called ãâã hampton upon this occasion The Town was antiently called Hampton to which a noble woman named VVilfrune a widdow sometime wise of Athelâs Duke of Northampton obtained of King Ethelred to give lands to the Church there whâch she had founded and thereupon the Town tooke the addition of the said VVilfrune In this Kings time also Iohn Collât Deane of Pauls founded Pauls Schoole in the Church-yard there Casualties happening in his time IN his first yeere happened the Sicknesse called the Sweating-sicknesse which though it continued not long yet tooke away many thousands and in his two and twentieth yeer the like Sweating-sicknesse happened againe but by reason of Remedies found in the former took away fewer In his second yeer Wheat was sold for three shillings the Quarter Bay-salt at the like price In his seventh yeer Wheate was sold at London for twenty pence the Bushell which was counted a great dearth In his tenth yeer Wheate was sold at London for six pence the Bushell Bay-salt for three pence halfe penny Nantwichâsalt âsalt for sixpence white Herrings nine shillings the Barrell red Herrings three shillings the Cade red Sprats six pence the Cade and Gascoigne wines for six pounds the Tââ In his fifteenth yeer Gascoigne wine was sold at London for forty shillings the Tunne a Quarter of Wheate foure shillings and Bay-salt foure pence the Bushell The two and twentieth of August 1485. the very day that King Henry got the victory of King Richard a great fire was in Bread-street in London in which was burnt the Parson of Saint Mildreds and one other man in the Parsonage there In his tenth yeer in digging to lay a new foundation in the Church of Saint Mary Hill in London the body of Alice Hackney which had been buried in the Church a hundred seventy five yeeres before was found whole of Skin and the joynts of her Armes pliable which Corpes was kept above ground foure dayes without annoyance and then againe buried In his twelveth yeere on Bartholomew day at the Towne of Saint Neâdes in Bedfordshire there fell Hayle-stones that were measured eighteene Inches about In his thirteenth yeer on the one and twentieth of December suddenly in the night brake out a fire in the Kings lodgings being then at his Manour of Sheeâ by violence whereof a great part of the old building was burnt with hangings beds Apparell Plate and mâny Jewells In his fifteenth yeer the Town of Babraâ in Norfolke was burnt Also this yeer a great Plague happened whereof many people died in many places but specially in London where there died in that yeer thirty thousand In his twentieth yeer Alum which for many yeers had been sold for six shillings a hundred rose to five nobles a hundred and after to foure marks In his two and twentieth yeer the Citty of Norwich was well neere consumed with fire Also in the same yeer in Iuly a gallery new builded at Richmond wherein the King and the Prince his Sonne had walked not an houre before fell suddenly downe yet no man hurt The great Tempest which drave king Philip into England blew down the Golden Eagle from the Spire of Pauls and in the fall it fell upon a signe of the Black-Eagle which was in Pauls Church-yard in the place where the School-house now standeth and battered it and brake it downe This the people interpreted to be an ominous Prognostick upon the Imperiall House as indeed it proved for this king Philip being the Emperours sonne arriving in Spaine sickned soon after and being but thirty yeeres of age deceased upon whose decease his wife Queen Iohn out of her tender love to him fell distracted of her wits Of his wife and children HE maried Elizabeth eldest daughter of King Edward the Fourth being of the age of nineteene yeeres whom two yeeres after his Mariage he caused to be Crowned She lived his wife eighteen yeeres and dyed in Child-bed in the Tower of London the eleventh of February the very day on which she was borne and is buried at Westminster in the magnificent Chappell and rich Monument of Copper and Guilt which her Husband had erected He had issue by her three Sonnes and foure Daughters his eldest sonne Arthur was born at Winchester the twentieth day of September in the second yeere of his Reigne and dyed at Ludlow at fifteen yeeres old and a halfe and of this short life some cause may be attributed to his Nativity being borne in the eighth moneth after conception He was buried in the Cathedrall Church of St. Maries in Worcester where in the South side of the Quire he lies enâombed in Touch or Jet without any remembrance of him by Picture His second sonne Henry was borne at Greenwich in âent on the two and twentieth day of Iune in the seventh yeere of his Fathers Reigne and succeâded him in the kingdome His third sonne Edmund was borne in the tenth yeere of his Fathers Reigne and dyed at five yeares of age at Bishops Hatfield and lyes buried at St. Peters in Westminster His eldest daughter Margaret was born the nine and twentieth day of November the fifth yeer of her Fathers Reigne and at fourteen yeers of age was married to Iames the fourth King of Scotland unto whom she bare three Sons Iames the fifth Arthur and Alexander and one Daughter which three last dyed all of them young and after the death of her husband king Iames slaine at Flodden field in ãâã against the English she was remarried to Archibâld Dowglâsse Earle of Augus in the yeer 1514. to whom she bare Margaret espoused to Mathew Earle of Lenox Father of the Lord Henry who died at the age of nine moneths and lyeth interred in the upper end of the Chancell in the Parish Church of Stepney neer London Her second Sonne was Henry Lord Dâânley reputed for personage the goodliest Gentleman of Europe who married Mary Queen of Scotland the Royall Parents of the most Royall Monarch Iames the first King of great Britaine Her third Sonne was Charles Earl of Lenox Father to the Lady Arbella King Henries second Daughter the Lady Elizâbeth was borne in the yeere 1492. at three yeers of age died and was buried at Westminster His third Daughter the Lady Mary had been promised to Charles King of Castile but was married to Lewis the twelveth King of France who dying three moneths after she was then married to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke His fourth Daughter the Lady Katherine was borne in the yeer 1503. in the eighteenth yeer of her Fathers Reigne and dyed ân Infant Of his Personage and Conditions HE
was of Body leane and spare yet of great strength of statuâe somewhat higher than the common sort his Eyes gray his Teeth single his Haire thinne of a faire complexion and pleasing countenance Concerning his Conditions âe had in him the virtue of a Prince and of a private man affable yet reserved We might say he was Politick if not rather that he was Wise for though he used ãâã of Cunning sometimes yet solid Circumspection more He loved not Warre but in case of necessity alwayes Peace but with conditions of Honour Never âây Prince was lesse addicted to bodily pleasures of any kinde than he Three pleasures he had but in three Cares One for Safety another for Honour and the third for Wealth in all which hee attained his end His great respect of the Church was seen by his great imployment of Church-men for through the hands of Bishop Morton Bishop Foxe and his Chaplaine Vrswick the greatest part of all his great negotiation passed He was Frugall from his youth not Covetous till ancient and sickly and therefore what defect he had in that kinde must be attributed to age and weaknesse This City of London was his Paradise for what good fortune ãâã befell him he thought he enjoyed it not till he acquainted them with it His Parliament was his Oracle for in all matters of importance he would aske their advice and he put his very Prerogative sometimes into their hands He was no great lover of women yet all his great fortune both Precedent and Subsequent came by women His own title to the Crown was by a woman His Confirmation in the Crown was by a woman His Transmission of the Crowne to his Posterity was by a woman The first by the Lady Margaret descended from Iohâ of Gaunt the second by the Lady Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward the fourth the third by the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of himselfe King of England and maried to Iames the Fourth King of Scotland by meanes whereof as he was the Prince that joyned the two Roses in one so he was the Founder of joyning the two Kingdomes in one And lastly it may be said of him as was said by one of Augustââ Caesar Hic âir hic est tiâi quem promitti saepius audis for Cadwalloder last king of the Britaines seven hundred yeeres before had Prophesied of him and of later time King Heâry the Sixth plainly fore-shewed him Of his Death and Buriall IN the two and twentieth yeer of his Reigne he began to be troubled with the Goute but a Defluction also taking into his Breast wasted his Lungs so that thrice in a yeer and specially in the Spring he had great fits and labours of the Tissick which brought him to his end at his Palace of Richmond on the two and twentieth day of April in the yeer of 1508. when he had lived two and fifty yeers Reigned three and twenty and eight moneths Being dead and all things necessary for his Funerall prepared his Corps was brought out of his Privy Chamber into the great Chamber where it rested three dayes and every day had there a Dirge and Masse sung by a Plelate Mitred and from thence it was conveyed into the Hall wherein it remained also three dayes and had a like service there and so three daies in the Chappell Upon Wednesday the nineth of May the Corps was put into a Chariot and over the Corpes was a Picture of the late King laid on Cushions of Gold and the Picture was apparelled in the Kings rich Robes with a Crown on the head and a Ball and Scepter in the hands when the Chariot was thus ordered the Kings Chappell and a great number of Prelates set forward praying then followed all the kings Servants in Black then followed the Chariot and after the Chariot nine Mourners and on every side were carried Torches to the number of six hundred and in this order they came from Richmond to St. Georges field where there met with it all the Priests and Religious men within the City and without the Major and Aldermen with many Commoners all cloathed in Blacke met with the Corpes at London-bridge and so the Chariot was brought throught the City to the Cathedrall of St. Paul where the Body was taken out and carried into the Quire and set under a goodly Hearse of Wax where after a solemne Masse was made a Sermon by the Bishop of Rochester The next day the Corps in like manner was removed to Westminster Sir Edward Haword bearing the kings Banner In Westminster was a curious Hearse full of lights which were lighted at the comming of the Corps and then was the Corpes taken out of the Chariot by six Lords and set under the Hearse which was double railed when the Mourners were set Gartâr king at Armes cryed For the Soule of the Noble Prince king Henry the seventh late king of this Realme The next day were three Masses solemnly sung by Bishops and after the Masses was offered the kings Banner and Courser his Coat of Arms his Sword his Target and his Helm and at the end of the Masse the Mourners offered up rich Palls of Choath of Gold and Bodkin and when the Quire sang Liberâ me the Body was put into the Earth then the Lord Treasurer Lord Steward Lord Chamberlaine the Treasurer and Comptroller of the kings houshold brake their Staves and cast them into the Grave Then Gartar cryed with a loud voice Vive le âoy Henry le ââitiesme Roy d'Angleterre de France syre d' Irlande and thus ended the Funerall Of men of Note in his time OF Men of Valour and Armes they are to be seene in the History of this Kings Reigne For men of letters in his time of forreigners were Sancts Paguiââs a great Hebrician Leonicenus Gattinaria Cabellus and Optatus Phisitians Augustinus Niphus Iacobus Faber Stapulensis and Pighius Philosophers Bembusâ and the famous Clerke Rheudin who restored againe the knowledge of the Hebrew Tongue Of our own Country there lived in his time George Rippley a Carmelite Frier of Boston who wrote divers Treatises in the Mathematicks and after his death was accounted a Necromancer Iohn Erghom borne in Yorke a Black-Frier studious in Prophesies as by the Title of the workes he wrote may appeare Thomas Mallorie a Welshman who wrote of King Arthur and of the round Table Iohn Rouse borne in Warwickshire a diligent searcher of Antiquities and wrote divers Treatises of Historicall Argument Thomas Scroope sirnamed Bradley of the Noble family of the Scroopes entred into divers orders of Religion and after withdrew himselfe to his house where for twenty yeeres he lived the life of an Anchorite and after comming abroad againe was made a Bishop in Ireland and went to the Rhodes in Ambassage from whence being returned he went bare-footed up and downe in Nârfolk teaching the ten Commandements and lived till neere a hundred yeeres old Iohn Tonâeys an Augustine Frier in Norwich who
Hereupon the Lord Howard and his Company went to Rendre the Lord Willoughby to Gorschaâg and Sir William Sands with many other Captaines to Fontarely King Henry in the meane time hearing what the King of Spaines intention was senâ his Herauld Windsor with Letters to the Army willing them to tarry thereâfor that very shortly he meant to send them a new supply of Forces under the conduct of the Lord Herbert his Chamberlaine but this message so incenseâ the Souldiers that in a great fury they had slaine the Lord Howard if he had âoâ yeelded presently to returne home who thereupon was forced to hire shippeââ and in the beginning of December they landed in England being taught âây this experience what trust is to be given to Spanish promises About the same time that the Marquesse went into Spaine Sir Edward Hââard Lord Admirall of England with twenty great ships made forth towardâ Brâttaine where setting his men on land he burned and wasted divers Townâ and Villages and being threatned by the Lords of Brittaine to be encountred to encourage his Gentlemen he made divers of them Knights as Sir Edwaââ Brook brother to the L. Cobham Sir Grifâeth Downe Sir Thomas Windham Sir Thomas Lucy Sir Iohn Burdet Sir William Pirton Sir Henry Sherburne and Sir Stephen Bull. The Brittains were tenne thousand the English but five and twenty hundred yet the Brittaines not contented with this advantage of number would neâds use policy besides for by the advice of an old experienced Captaine their Generall commanded his men that aâsoone as Battels were joynedâ they should retire a little meaning thereby to draw the English into some disadvantage but the common Souldiers not knowing their Generalls purpose and supposing he had seen some present danger instead of retyring tooke their heeles and fled so giving the English by their Brittish policy if not a Victory at least a safety to returne to their ships After which the Brittaines sued for truce and could not obtaine it for the English Admirall pursued his forraging the Countrey till fearing there were many French ships abroad at Sea he came and lay before the Isle of Wight King Henry in the meane time followed his pleasures and in Iune kept a solemne Just at Greenwich where he and Sir Charles Brandon took up all cummers and the King shewed himselfe no lesse a King at Arms then in Estate After this King Henry having prepared men and ships ready to go to Sea under the Governance of Sir Anthony Outâread Sir Edmund Ichingham William Sidney and divers other Gentlemen appointed them take the sea and to come before the Isle of Wight there to joyne with the Admirall which altogether made a Fleet of five and twenty faire ships and to Portesmouth he weât himselfe to see them where he appointed Captaines for one of his chiefest ships called the Regent Sir Thomas Knevet master of his horse and Sir Iohn Carew of Devonshire and to another principall ship called the Soveraigne he appointed for Captaines Sir Charles Brandon and Sir Henry Guildford and then making them a bankeâ sent them going The French King likewise had prepared a Navy of nine thirty ships in the Haven of Brest whereof the chief was a great Carrick called the Cordelyer pertaining to the Queen his wife These two Fleets met at the Bay of Brittaine and there entred a tirrible fight The Lord Admirall made with the great ship of Deepe and chased her Sir Charles Brandon and Sir Henry Guildford being in the Soveraigne made with the great Carrick of Brest and laid stemme to stemme to her but whether by negligence of the Master or by reason of the smoake from the Ordnance the Soveraigne was cast at the sterâe of the Carrick whereat the Frenchmen shoured for joy which Sir Thomas Knevet seeing suddenly he caused the Regent in which he was to make to the Carrick and to grapple with her a long boord and when they of the Carrick perceived they could not get a sunder they let slippe an Anchor and so with the streame the ships turned and the Carrick was on the Weather side and the Regent on the Lee side at which time a cruell fight passed between these two ships but in conclusion the Englishmen entred the Carrick which when a Gunner saw he desperately set fire on the Gunpowder as some say though others affirmed that Sir Anthonie Outhread following the Regent at the sterne bowged her in divers places and set her powder on fire but howsoever it chanced the Carrick and the Regent both were consumed by fire In the Carrick was Sir Piers Morgan and with him nine hundred men in the Regent were Sir Thomas Knevett and Sir Iohn Carew and with them seven hundred men all drowned and burnt King Henry to repaire the losse of the Regent caused a great ship to be made such a one as had never been seen in England and named it Henry Grace de Dieu Though King Henry had hitherto followed his pleasures as well agreeing with his youth and constitution yet he neglected not in the meane time severer studies for he frequented daily his Councell Table and no matter of importance was resolved on till he had heard it first maturely discussed as was now a War wiâh France which he would not enter into upon his owne head nor yet upon advise of his private Councell till he had it dâbâted and concluded in Parliament whereupon he called his High Court of Parliament wherein it was resolved that himselfe in person with a Royall Army should invade France and towards the charges thereof an extraordinary Subsidy was willingly granted On May even this yeer Edmund de la Poole Earle of Suffolke was beheaded on the Tower Hill This was that Earle of Suffolke whom King Phillip Duke of Austria had delivered up into the hands of King Henry the seventh upon his promise that he would not put him to death which indeed he performed but his sonne King Henry the eight was not bound by that promise and by him he was and shortly after to bring another Lord in his place Sir Charles Brandon was created Viscount Lisle For all the great preparation for France King Henry forbore not his course of Revelling but kept his Christmas at Greenwich with divers cuâious devises in most magnificent manner In March following the Kings Navy Royall to the number of two and forty ships was set forth under the conduct of Sir Edward Howard Lord Admirall accompanied with Sir Walter Deveraux Lord Ferrers Sir Wolston Browne Sir Edward Ichingham Sir Anthony Poynings Sir Iohn Walloppe Sir Thomas Windham Sir Stephen Bull William Fits Williams Arthur Plantagenet William Sidney esquires and divers other Gentlemen who sayling to Brittane came into Bertram Bay and there lay at Anchor in sight of the French Navie wherof one Prior Iohn was Admirall who keeping himselfe close in the Haven of Brest the English Admirall intended to assaile him in the Haven but because his ships were to
London where they were lodged at Marchantailors Hall The last of September the Embassadours went to the King at Greenwich where after long communication an Agreement was at last concluded under pretence of a marriage to be had betweene the Dolphin of France and the Lady Mary Daughter to the King of England that in name of her marriage money Tourney should be deliveted to the French King he paying to the King of England for the Castle he had made in that Citty six hundred Thousand Câownes in twelve yeeres by fiftie Thousand Crownes yeerly and if the marriage should chance not to take effect then that Tourney should be againe restored to the King of England for performance of which article Hrstages shotld be delivered namely Monsiâur de Memorancye Monsieur de Monpesac Monsieur de Moy and Monsieur Morett and moreover the French King should pay to the Cardinall of England a thousand markes yeerly in recompence of his Revenewes received before of his Bishoprick of Tourney All things thus concluded the Cardinall made to the Embassadours a solemne Banquet and after presented them with a stately Mummery The eighth of October the King feasted them at Greenwich and at night presented a stately Maske of Knights and Ladies with reare devises and great magnificence The next day Sir Thomas Exmew Major of London feasted them at Goldsmiths-Hall and then delivering their foure Hostages they tooke their leave At whose departure the King gave to the Admirall of France a Garnish of guilt vessell a paire of covered Basons gilt twelve great guilt Bowles fower paire of great guilt Pots a standing Cup of Gold garnished with great Pearles and to some other he gave Plate to some other cheins of Gold to some rich Apparell to the great comendation of his liberality Shortly after their departure the Earle of Worcester Lord Chamberlaine the Bishop of Ely the Lord of Saint Iohns Sir Nicholas Vaux Sir Iohn Pechy and Sir Thomas Bullen as Embassadours from the King of England accompanied with Knights Gentlemen and others to the number of above foure hundred passed over to Callice and from thence went to Paris where after Royall Entertainment by the King with diâerse Maskes and stately shewes they tooke their leaves and rode to Tourney to see the Citty delivered to the French men on the eighth of February to the great griefe of the English Garrison After the English Embassadours were returned King Henry to cheere up the foure French Hostages left heere for performance of covenants on the seaventh of May presented a solemne and stately Maske wherein himselfe the Duke of Suffolke and the French Queene were Actors and on the eight of March following was a solemne Just holden and with great magnificence performed In the eleventh yeere of King Henries Raigne died the Emperour Maximilian for whom the King caused a solemne obsequie to be kept in Paules Church After whose death the French King and the King of Spain endeavoured by sundry plots each of them to get the Empire but in conclusion Charles King of Castile afterwards called Charles the fifth was elected Emperour for joy whereof a solemne Masse was sung at Pauls the seaventh of Iuly at which were present the Cardinall Campeius the Cardinall of Yorke the Duke of Buckingham Norfolke and Suffolk with the Embassadours of Spaine France Venice and Scotland and this yeere the King kept Saint Georges feast at Winsor with great solemnity At this time diverse young Gentlemen that had been in France after the manner of that Country carried themselves so familiarly with the King that the Lords of his counsell thought it a disparagement to him and thereupon with his leave first obtained they banished them the Court and in their places brought in more staied aud graver men namely Sir Richard Winkefield Sir Richard Ierningham Sir Richard Weston and Sir VVilliam Kingston In the summer of this yeere the Queene lying at her Mannor of Havering in Essex desired the King to bring thither the foure Hostages of France to whom shee made a Royall Banpuet and in September following the King lying at his Mannor of Newhall in Essex otherwise called Beaulieu where he had newly built a stately Mansion invited the Queen and the French Hostages thither where after a sumptuous Banquet he presented them with an extraordinary Mask for the Maskers were the Duke of Suffolk the Earl of Essex the Marquesse Dorset the Lord Aburgaveny Sir Richard VVinkfield Sir Richard VVeston and Sir VVilliam Kingston the youngest of whom was fifty yeeres old at least that the Ladies might see what force they had to make age young againe At this time the French King was very desirous to see the King of England with whom he had entred into such a league of alliance and to that end made meanes to the Cardinall that there might be an Enterview betweene them at some convenient place to which the Cardinall noâ so much to satisfie the French King as to shew his owne greatnesse in France eâsily condiscended and thereupon perswaded King Henry how necessary it was that such an Enterview should be and then were sent unto Guysnes under the rule of Sir Edward Belknap three thousand artificers who builded on the plaine before the Castle of Guysnes a most stately Pallace of timber curiously Garnished without and within whither both the Kings in Iune next following agreed âo come and to answere all commers at the Tilt Tournies and Barriers whereof proclamation was made in the Court of England by Orleance King of Armes of France and in the Court of France by Clarentius King of Armes of England whilst these things were preparing on Candlemas Even as the King and Queene were come from Even-song at their Mannour of Greenwich suddainly there blew a Trumpet and then entred into the Queenes Chamber foure Gentlemen who brought with them a waggon in which sate a Lady richly apparelled which Lady acquainted the King that the foure Gentlemen there present were come for the love of their Ladies to answer all commers at the Tilts on a day by the King to be appointed which day was thereupon appointed on Shrovetuesday next ânsuing where they all behaved themselves with great valour to the great delight of the King and Queene By this time King Henry was ready for his journey into France and so removing from his Mannour of Greenwich on Friday the five and twentieth of May he with his Queene arived at Canterbury where he ment to keepe his Whitsontide At which time the Emperour Charles returning ouâ of Spaine arrived on the coast of Kent where by the vice Admirall of England Sir William Fitz-Williams he was conducted to land and there met aud received by the Lord Cardinall in great state After which the King himselfe rode to Dover to welcome him and on Whitsunday earely in the morning conducted him to Canterbury where they spent all the Whitsontide in great joy and solace The chiefe cause that moved the Emperour at this time
to come on land was to have disswaded the King from any Enterview with the French King but when he saw him âo forward in that jourâey he then onely endeavoured to perswadâ him that he should put no trust in the French Kings words and with great guiâts and promises prevailed with the Cardinall to joyne with him in this perswasion The last of May the Emperour tooke his leave and the same day the King made saile from Dover and landed at Callice together with the Queen and many Lords and Ladies The fourth of Iune the King and Queen removed from Callice to his Princely lodging beside the Towne of Guysnes the most Royall Building that was eâer seene likewise Francis the French King had his lodging prepared close to the Towne of Ard in a strange but most magnificent fashion Both Kings had given authority and power to the Cardinall to affirme and confirme âo bind or unbind whatsoever should be in difference betweene them no lesse an honour to the Cardinall then a confidence in the Kings On Thursday the seavenâh of Iune the Kings met in the vale of Andren so magnificently attired both themselves and all their followers that from thence it was called âhe campe of cloath of Gold Heere they spent that day in loving complements and at night departed the one to Guysnes the other to Ard. On Satureday the ninth of Iune were set up in a place within the English pale two Trees of honour with stately roomes and stages for the Queens and thither the two Kings came most Royally accompanâed wherein most magnificent manner they performed Acts of valour both on fooâe and horseback and after them all the great Lords both of France and England did the like this solemnity of Justs and Maskes was continued to the foure and twentieth day of Iune at which time the Kings and Queenes tooke leave of each other the French King and Qâeene removed to Ard the King and Queene of England to Callice where he remained till the tenth of Iuly and then ridings âoward Graveling was by the way met by the Emperour and by him conducted thithet and there in most royall manner enteâtained whereof when the French King heard he began from that day forward to have King Henry in a kinde of jelousie as though to love him and the Emperour both were inconsistent and could not stand together On Wednesday the eleventh of Iuly the Emperor and his Aunt the Lady Margaret Dutchesse of Savoy came with the King of England to the town of Callice and there continued with Feasting Dancing and Masking till the fourteenth of Iuly In which time all the Articles of the league tripartito betweene the Emperour and the Kings of England and France were reviewed to which the King of France had so fully condiscended that he had sent Monsieur de Roche to the Emperor with Letâers of credence that in the word of a Prince he would inviolably observe and keepe them all all which notwithstanding he dispenced with his conscience afterward in breaking them all On Saturday Iuly 14. the Emperor tooke his leave and went to Graveling the King with his Queene returned into England It was now the twelfth yeer of King Henries reigne when being returned from Callice he kept his Christmas at Greenwich with great magnificence on twelfth day he and the Earl of Devonshire maintained a solemn Justs against al commers The Cardinal had long born a grudg against the Duke of Buckingham for speaking certain words in his disgrace and now hath made his way for reveng for the Earl of Surrey Lord Admirall who had maried the Dukes daughter the Cardinall had caused to be sent Deputy into Ireland and the Earle of Northumberland the Dukes speciall friend he had caused upon certain suggested crimes to be Imprisoned so as the Duke having his friends sequestred from him he lay now open to accusations and accusations shall not long be wanting for the Duke having some time before put from him in displeasure one Charles Knevet that had been his Surveyar and inward with him him the Cardinall gets to him to see what he could get out of him against the Duke And whether it was out of desire of revenge or out of hope of reward or that the matter was so indeed this Knevet confessed to the Cardinall that the Duke had once fully determined to make away the King being brought into a hope to be King himselfe by a vaine Prophesie which one Nicholas Hopkins a Monke of an house of the Chartnar Order besides Bristow called Henton somtimes his Confessor had opened to him and as for the Cardinall that he had often heard the Duke sweare he would punish him soundly for his manifold misdoings And now had the Cardinall matter enough for Accusation which he so aggravated to the King that the King bid him do with him according to Law Hereupon the Duke is apprehended and brought to the Tower by Sir Henry Marney Captain of the Guard the fifteenth of April and shortly after in Guild-hal before Sir Iohn Brugge then Lord Major was indited of divers points of High-treason the substance whereof was that in the second yeer of the Kings reign and at divers times before and after he had imagined and compassed the Kings death at London and at Thornbery in Glocestershiâe and that in the sixth yeer of the Kings reign he went in person to the Priory of Henton and there had conference with the foresaid Nicholas Hopkins who told him he should be King and that he had often said to the Lord Aburgayne who had maried his daughter that if King Henry died without issue he would look to have the Crown himself Vpon these points hee was arraigned in Westminster-hall before the Duke of Norfolk sitting then as high Steward of Englaâd the Duke of Suffolk the Marquesse Dorset the Earls of VVorcester Devonshire Essex Shrewsbury Kent Oxford and Darby the Lords of Saint Iohns de la ware Fitz-water Willoughby Brook Cobhaâ Herbert Morley The Duke pleaded for himself til he swet again but al booted âot for by these Peeres he was found guilty and condemned and so on Friday the seventeenth of May was led by Iohn Keyme and Iohn Skevington Sheriffes of London to the scaffold on Tower-hill and there beheaded The Augustine Friers took his body and head and buried them This Edward Bohun Duke of Buckingham was the last high Constable of England the greatest place next the high Steward in the kingdome whose Power extended to restrain some actions of the King He was also Earl of Hereford Stafford and Northampton he maried Elianor the daughter of Henry Earle of Northumberland and had issue Henry Lord Stafford Father to Henry Lord Stafford laâe living and three daughters Elizabeth maried to Thomas Hâward Earl of Surrey Katherine maried to Ralph Nevil Earl of Wesâmerland and Mary maried to George Nevill Lord of Abuâgaâenie In this meane while a new Warre was begun between the Emperour and
the King of France for composing whereof the Cardinall of Yorke was sent attended with the Earle of Worceâter Lord Chamberline the Lord of Saint Iohns the Lord Ferrers the Lord Herbert the Bishop of Duâham the Bishop of Ely the Primate of Armagh Sir Thomas Bullen Sir Iohn Pechye Sir Iohn Hussey Sir Richard Winkfield Sir Henry Guildâord and many other Knights Gentlemen and Doctors On the twelfth of Iuly he arrived at Callice whether came to him the Chaâcellour of France and the Count de Palice attended with four hundred horse as Embassadours from the French King and from the Emperour the like with Commissions to treat and conclude of Peace There were also Embassadours from the Pope whom the Cardinall moved to have the Pope be a party also in their League but they wanting Commission Letters were presently sent to Rome about it and in the time till answer might be had the Cardinall went to Bruges to speak with the Emperour with whom having stayed thirteene dayes after most Royall entertainment he returned back to Câllice and then fell presently to the treaty of Peace with the French Commissioner but was colder in the matter then he was before as having had his edge taken off by some dealings with the Emperour so as nothing was concluded but that Fishermen of both the Princes might freely Fish on the Seas without disturbance till the end of February following whereof he sent advertisement to both the Princes to the Emperour by the Lord of Saint Iohns and Sir Thomas Bullen to the French King by the Earle of Worcester and the Bishop of Ely During all which time of the Cardinalls stay in Callice all Writs and Paâents were there by him sealed and no Sheriffe could be chosen for lack of his presence having the Great Seal there with him and full power in things as if the King had been there in person Before he returned he made a new League with the Emperour and intimated to the French King that he doubted the King of England would not hereafter be so much his friend as heretofore he had been whereat though the King of France were much offended yet he signifyed by his Letters perhaps dissemblingly that he would continue the King of Englands friend asmuch as ever onely he enveighed against the Cardinall as a man of no truth withdrew many Pensions which he had before given to some English Presently upon this was Tourney besieged by the Lord Hugh de Moncada a Spaniard and though the French King sent great Forces to succour it yet it was rendred up to the Emperour the last of November in the thirteenth yeer of King Henries Reigne This yeer Pope Leo died the first of December suspected to be poysoned by Barnabie Malespina his Chamberlaine whose office was alwayes to give him drinke After whose death Doctor Pace was sent to Rome to make friends in behalfe of the Cardinall of Yorke who was brought into a hope through the Kings favour to be elected Pope but that hope was soon quailed for before Doctor Pace could get to Rome Adrian the sixth was chosen Pope This Doct. Pace was a very learned and religious man yet thorow crosses in his imployment fell mad and dyed in whose place of Imployment succeeded Doct. Stephen Gardyner On the second of February King Henry being then at Greenwich received a Bull from the Pope whereby he had the Title given him to be defender of the Christian Faith for him and his successours for ever which Title was ascribed âo him for writing a Booke against Luther of which Booke saith Holingsâeard I will onely say âhus much that King Henry in his Booke is reported to rage against the Devill and Antichrist to cast out his foame against Luther to race out the Name of the Pope and yet to allow his Law which Booke Luther aâswered with as little respect to the King as the King had done to him In this meane time many displeasures grew between the two Kings of England and France specially two one that French-men seized upon English ships as they passed for remedy whereof one Christopher Cee an expert seaman was sent with six ships to safeguard the Merchants Another that the Duke of Albanye was returned into Scotland contrary to that which was Covenanted by the league which though the King of France denied to be done with his privity yet King Henry knew the Duke of Albanye had Commission from the French King to returne which did the more exasperate him and hereupon were Musters made in England and a note taken of what substance all men were This yeere died the Lord Brooke Sir Edwad Poynings Knight of the Garâer Sir Iohn Pechy and Sir Edward Belknappe all valient Captaines suspected to have poysoned at a Banquet made at Ard when the two Kings met last At this time Owen Dowglas Biship of Dunkell fled out of Scoâlnad into England because the Duke of Albanye being come thither had taken upon him the whole Government of the King and Kingdome whereupon Clarentiaux the Herald was sent into Scotland to command the Duk of Albany to avoid that Realm which he refusing the Herald was âommanded to defie him Thereupon the French King seized all English-mens goods in Burdeaux and impisoned their persons and retained not onely the money to be paid for the restitution of Tourney but also with-held the French Queenes Dower whereof when King Henry understood he called the French Embassadour residing in England to give account thereof who though he gave the best reasons he âould to excuse it yet was commanded to keep his house and the French Hostages remayning here for the money to be paid for the delivery of Tourney were restrained of their liberty and committed to the custody of the Lord of Saât Iohns Sir Thomas Lovell Sir Andrew Windsor and Sir Thomas Nevyle each of them to keep one and withall all French-men in London were committed to prison and put to their Fines and all Scots-men much more There were then also sent to sea under the conduct of Sir William Fitz-Williams Viceadmirall eight and twenty great ships and seven more towards Scotland who set fire on many Scottish-ships in the Haven and at length tooke many prisoners and returned King Henry hearing that the Emperour would come to Callice so to passe into England as he went into Spaine appointed the Lord Marquesse Dorsett to go to Câllice there to receive himâ and the Cardinall to receive him at Daverâ The Cardinall taking his Journey thither on the tenth of May rode thorow London accompanied with two Earles six and thirty Knights and a hundred Gentlemen eight Bishops ten Abbots thirty Chaplains all in Velvet and Sattin and Yeomen seven hundred The five and twentieth of May being Sunday the Marquesse Dorset with the Bishop of Chichester the Lord de Lawâre and divers others at the water of Graveling received the Emperour and with all honour brought him to Callice where he was received with Procession by the
Sir Edward Baynton and others The last of October the Duke of Albonye sent two or three thousand men over the water to besâedge the Castle of VVarke who by battery of their Ordnance won the ouâermost Ward called the Barnekins and continuing their battery won the second Ward but then Sir William Lisle that was Captaine of the Castle issuing forth with those few he had left drove the Frânch-mân from the place and slew of them to the number of three hundred a memorable service and for which the Earle of Surrey afterwards gave him great thankes The Earle would gladly have followed his enemies inâo their owne Borders but that his Commission was onely to defend England and not to invade Scotland Shortly after the Queeâe of Scots Mother to the King sent to her Brother the King of England for an abstinence from Warre till a further communication might be had which being graââed the English Army brake up and the Earle of Surrey returned to the Court. And now for a while we must be coââent to heare of petây Occurrances because greater did not happen which if it make us like the Story the worse it may make us like the times the better seeing they are ever the best times that afford lest matter to be talked of but this time will lasâ but a while for shortly we shall come to hear Occurrances that have been matter of talk to this day whereof the like have never scarce been seen and will hardly be beleeved when they are heard a Marriage dissolved after twenty yeeres coâsummation houses built in Piety under pretence of Piety demolished a King made a captiveâ a Pope held a prisonerâ Queenes taken out of love put to death out of loathing and the Church it selfe so shaken that it hath stood in distraction ever since At this time the Emperouâ Charles sent to the King of England two Mâses trapped in crimson Velvet richly embridered also eleven goodly Jeâits trapped with russeâ Velvet richly wrought foure Speares and two Javelins of strange timber and worke richly garnished and five brace of Greyhoândâ To the Queene he sent two Mules richly trapped and high Chaiâes after the Spanish fashion which Presents were thankfully received both of the King and Queene At this time in the moneth of October the Cardinall sent out Commissions that every man being worth forty pounds should pay the whole Subsedie before granted out of hand which he called an Anticipation which fine new word he thought would make them pay their money the more willingly but they loved their money better then any words he could devise In this yeere the King sent the Lord Morley Sir VVilliam Hussey knight and Doctor Lee his Almoner to Fârdinand Archduke of Austria with the Order of the Garter which he received in the towne of Norimberg to his great contentment In this yeere through Bookes of Prognosticatâons foreshewing much hurt to come by waters and ââoods many persons withdrew themselves to high grounds for feare of drowning specially one Bolton Prior of Sainâ Bartholâmewes in Smithfield builded him an House upon Harrow on the Hill and thither wenâ and made provision for two moneths These great waters should have fallen in February but no such thiââ happeniâg the Astronomers excused themselves by saying that in the computaâion they had miscounted in their number an hundred yeeres In this meane time many enterpriâes were attempted betweene the Englishmen of Callice and Guyââes and the Frenchmen of Bulloigne and the Froââtiers of Picardââ and still Sir VVilliam Fitz Williams Captaine of Guysnes Sir Robert Iârningham Captaine of Newnham Bridge Sir Iohn Walloppe and Sir Iohn Gage were the men that did the French most hurt This yeere the first of September was Docter Thomas Hannibell Master of the Rolles receaved into London by Earles Bishops and diverse Lords and Gentlemen as Embassadours from Pope Clement who brought with him a Rose of gold for a present to the Kingâ on the day of the Nativity of our Ladâ after a solemne Masse sung by the Cardinall of Yorke the said present was delivered to the King which was a Tree forged of fine Gold and with branches leaves and flowers resembling Roses About the beginning of Winter the adventârers called Krâekers being not above two hundred and of them five and twenty horsmen made an attempt to fetch some booty from a Village not farre from Mattrell wherof the Earle of Dâmmartine having notice he set upon them with a far greater number and slew most of them and this was the end of the Kreekers as brave men as ever served any Prince In December this yeere there came to London diverse Embassadours out of Scotland about a peace to be hadâ and a mariage to be concluded between the King of Scots and the Lady Mary daughter to the King of England At this time the Lord Leonard Gray and the Lord Iohn Grây brothers to the Lord Marquesse Dorset Sir George Cobham sonne to the Lord Cobham VVilliaâ Carye Sir Iohn Dudley Thomas VVyat Francis Poynts Francis Sidâây Sir Anthony Browne Sir Edward Seymor Oliver Manners Percivall Hart Sebastiââ Nudigatâ and Thomas Calen Esquires of the Kings Household made a challenge of Arms against the Feast of Christmas which was proclaimed by Windsor the Herauld and performed at the time appointed very Nobly at Tilts Târneys Barriars and the assault of a Castle erected for that purpose iâ the Tilt-yard at Greenwich where the King held his Christmas that yeer with great State and magnificence About this time Iohn Iokyn Steward of the Household to the French Kings Motheâ came into England and was received in secret manâer into the House of one Doctor Larke a Prebrendary of Saint Stephens who oftentimes talked with the Cardinall about a Peace to be concluded between the two Kings of ângland and France of whose often meetings Monsieur de Brate the Emperours Embassadour grew very jealous The four and twentieth of Ianuary Monsieâr Brynion President of Roan came to London as Embassadour from the French King and was lodged with the said Iohn Iokyn which small things should not be related but that they were preparatives to great matters afterward On Sunday the fifth of March were received into London Monsieur de Beuer Loâd of Campher Admirall of Flanders Monsieur Iohn de la Coose President of ãâã Master Iohn de la Gache as Embassadours from the Lady Margaret in the name of the Emperour who required three things First they demanded the Lady Mary the Kings only daughter to be presently delivered and she to be nââed Empresse and as Governesse take possession of all the Low-Countryes Secondly that all such summes of money as the King should give with her in maâriage should be paid incontinently Thirdly that the King of England should passe the sea in person and make Warre in France the next Summer The âârst two demands were not agreed too for certaine causes and as to the third the King said he would take time
following between three and foure a clocke in the afternoone the Queene was delivered of a daughter that was named Elizabeth the Godfather at the christning was the Archbishop of Canterbury the Godmother the old Dutchesse of Norfolke and the old Marchionesse Dorset widow and at the Confirmation the Lady Marchionesse of Excester the Christning was performed with exceeding great state and great gifts were given by the Gossips This yeere one Pavier the Town-clerke of London hanged himselfe whom Hollinshead saith he heard once sweare a great oath that if he thought the thought the King would set forth the Scripture in English rather then he would live to see that day he would cut his owne throat which I therefore relate that the judgement of God may be seene upon such unhallowed oathes A little before this time one Elizabeth Barton named the Holy Maid of Kent came to be discovered whose abettours were Richard Master a Priest Parson of Aldington in Kent Edward Bocking Doctor of Divinity a Monke of Canterbury Richard Deering a Monke Edward Thwayts Gentleman Henry Gold Parson of Aldermary Hugh Rich a Fryar observant Richard Risby and Thomas Gold Centlemen This Maid had learned to counterfeit falling into Trances in which she would deliver many strange things and amongst others said that by Revelation from God and his Saints she was informed that if King Henry proceeded to the Divorce and married another he should not be King of England one moneth after And here we may see how credulous oftentimes great Schollars are in beleeving Impostures when VVarham Archbishop of Canterbury and Fisher Bishop of Rochester were thought to give credit to this Counterfeit that we need not wonder at Saint Austin who though he gave credit to many lying Miracles yet they were such as had more probability in them then this which consisted in nothing but making of faces as upon Examination of the Maide and her Abettours was confessed and thereupon she and most of them were condemned drawne to Tyburne and there hanged In this meane time the Scots had beene troublesome and made Intodes upon the Borders till at last Commissioners being sent to treat of agreement a Peace was concluded to continue both the Kings lives which on the twentieth of May this yeer was openly Proclaimed About this time at the suit of the Lady Katherine Dowage a Bull was sent from the Pope which cursed both the King and the Realme which Bull was set up in the Towne of Dunkerke in Flanders the Messenger not daring to come neerer and because it was knowne that the Lady Dowager had procured this Curse to be sent the Duke of Suffolke was sent to her lying then at Bugden besides Huntington to discharge a great part of her houshold servants yet leaving her a convenient number like a Princesse It was now the six and twentieth yeer of King Henries reigne when in a Parliament holden an Act was made for establishing the succession in the Crown upon the Lady Elizabeth to which first all the Lords Knights and Burgesses were sworne and after Commissioners were sent into all parts of the Realm to take the oath of all men and women to the said Act. Another Act was also made which authorized the King to be Supreame Head of the Church of England and the Popes authority to be utterly abolished But Doctor Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas Moore Knight and Doctor Wilson Parson of Saint Thomas Apostles in London expresly denied at Lamâeth before the Archbishop of Canterbury to take the Oathes of whom Doctor Wilson recanted but the other two persisting in their opinion were both of them beheaded Of these two Bishop Fisher was much lamented as reputed a man both of great learning and good life The Pope had elected him Cardinall and his Hat was come as farrâ as Callice but before it could come into England his head was off Sir Thomas Moore was both learned and very wise but so given to a vaine of jesting and merry scoffing that he could not refrain it at the very time of his death as when he was carried to the Tower being demanded his upper garment meaning his Gowne you shall have it said he and gave them his cap saying it was the uppermost garment he had also when being upon the Scaffold the Hangman kneeled downe and asked him forgivenesse I forgive thee said he but I promise thee thou wilt never have credit by cutting off my Head my necke is so short and when he was to lay his head downe upon the blocke having a great gray beard he stroked it out and said to the Hangman I pray you let me lay my beard over the blocke lest you should cut it for though you have Warrant to cut off my head you have none to cut my beard But his Devotion was no jesting matter for he used to weare a shirt of haire next his skin for a perpetuall penâance and oftentimes in the Church he would put on a Surplesse and helpe the Priest to say Masse which he forbore not to doe even when he was Lord Chancellour of England as one time the Duke of Norfolke comming to the Church found him doing it Two memorable things are recorded of him one which shewes his great integritie and the small reckoning he made of riches that having passed through so many great imployments and borne so many great Offices yet in all his time âe never Purchased above one hundred pounds land a yeere nor left any great stocke of money behinde him when he died The other which shewes his filiall piety that being Lord Chancellour of England at the same time that his Father waâ a Judge of the Kings Bench he would alwayes at his going to Westminster goe first to the Kings Bench and aske his Father blessing before he went to sit in the Chancery The ninth of Iuly this yeere the Lord Dacres of the North was arraigned at Westminster of high treason before the Duke of Norfolke as high Steward of England his Inditement being read he so answered every part and matter therein contained that by his Peeres he was found Not guilty a rare thing to stop a currant that ran with such violence The one and twentieth of September Doctor Taylour Master of the Roles was discharged of that Office and the ninteenth of October following Thomas Cromwell was sworne in his place This yeere the King of Scots was installed Knight of Garter by his Deputy the Lord Erskin and Stephen Gardiner who after the Cardinals death was made Bishop of Winchester was sent Embassadour Legier into France where he remained three yeeres Also in Ianuary of this yeere Katherine Princesse Dowageâ fell into her last sicknesse to whom the King sent the Emperours Embassadour Legier desiring her to be of good comfort but she finding her death to approach caused onely one of her Gentlewoman to write a Letter to the King commending to him her Daughter and his and beseeching him to be a good Father to
but neither yet was there an end of Commotions for in the latter end of this eight and twentieth yeer the Lord Darcy the Lord Hussey Sir Robert Constable Sir Iohn Bulmer and his wife Sir Thomas Percy brother to the Earl of Northumberland Sir Stephen Hamilton Nicholas Tempest Esquire and others began to conspire although each of them before had been pardoned by the King but this as being but the fagge end of Commotion was soon suppressed the Lord Darcy was beheaded on the Tower-hill the Lord Hussey at Lincolâe Sir Robert Cânstable was hanged in cheins at Hull Sir Iohn Balmers Paramout was burnt in Smithfield and most of the other were executed at Tyburne Tantae molis erat so great a matter it wasâ to make the Realme be quiet in so great innovations of Religion This yeer on Saint Georges-feast the Lord Cromwell was made Knight of the Garter and on the twelfth of October which is Saint Edwards-eveâ at Haâton-Court the Queen was delivered of a sonne but with so hard a labour that she was faine to be ript the child was named Edward whose Godfathers at the Christning were the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Norfolke his Godmother was his sister the Lady Mary at his Bishoping his Godfather was the Duke of Suffolk on the eighteenth of October he was made Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester but the birth of his sonne brought not so much joy to the King as the death of his Queene brought him sorrow for within two dayes after she died and was buried at Winsor and âo much was the Kings grief for her death that he continued a widdawer two yeeres after It is not unworthy the relating what a miserable dissolation befell the family of the Geraldynes or Fitz-Garrets Earle of Kildare in Ireland about this time for Gerald Fitz-Garret who had been ten yeers Deputy in Ireland upon complaint of some fault was sent for over into England where not making a satisfying answer he was committed to the Tower but before his commiâg over had with the Kings leave left Deputy there his own sonne a Young-man of not above twenty yeers of age but yet ripe of understanding and fit for the plaâe this young Lord hearing that his father was committed prisoner to the Tower and soon after as the rumour encreased that he was put to death in rage to be revenged rose up in Armes and having five Unckles in the Couâtry men of great estimatioâ drew them though some of them unwillingly to take his part amongst other outrages he committed the Archbishop of Dublin was slaine in his presenceâ the Father in the Tower hearing hereof with very griefe died the Sonne and his Uncles upon the Kings sending aâ Army were all either taken or submitted and being sent for over into England those of his Unckles that against their wils had been drawn into the Action had good hope of their lives till entring the ship of passage which was called the Cow they then presently dispaired because of a Prophesie that five sonnes of a certaine Earl should be carried into England in the belly of a Cowe and never after return and indeed it fell out true for through the malice of their adversaries exasperating the King against them and saying there would never be quietnes in Ireland as long as any of the Geraldines were left alive they were all put to death one onely sonne of the family remained a youth of thirteene yeers of age who though at that time sick of the smal-pox yet made shift to save himselfe by flight fled first into France and frighted from thence afterwards into Flanders and driven from thence at last into Italy where prâoected by Reginâld Poole ar that time made Cardinall by Pope Iulie the third he was afterward by this meaneâ restored to his dignity and his patrimony This yeere Edward Seymour Viscount Beauchamp the Queens brother was created Earl of Hartford and Sir VVilliam Fitz-VVilliams Lord Admirall was created Earl of Southamton Master Paulet was made Vice Treasurer Sir Iohn Russell was made Controller of the Kings House and diverse Gentlemen were made Knights In February diverse Roodes were taken downe by the Kings commandement as the Roode of Boxeley called the Rood of grace which was made with vices to move the eyes and lips also the Rood called Saint Saviour at Bermondsey Abbey in Southwarke aâd diverse others in May a Frier Observant called Frier Forrest who had taken the oath of Supremacy himselfe yet privately perswaded others that the King was not supreme head of the Church was thereupon examined and for his defence said that he took the oath with his outward man but his inward man never consented to it but this answer served not his turn from being condemned and on a paire of Gallowes prepared for him in Smithââeld he was hanged by the middle and arme-holes all quick and under the Gallowes was made a fire wherewith he was consumed a little before his executioâ a huge great Image was brought to the Gallowes fetched out of Wales which the Welch-men had in great reverence called Darvell Gatheren of which there went a Prophesie that thiâ Image should set a whole Forrest on fire which was thought to take effect in âerring this Frier Forrest on fire and consuming him to nothing In September by the speciall motion of the Lord Cromwell all the notable Images unto which were made any speciall Pilgrimages and offerings were taken downe and burnt as the Images of Walsingham Ipswicâ VVorcester the Lady of VVilsdon with many other and forthwith by meanes of the said Cromwell all the orders of Friers and Nunnes with theirs Cloysters and Houses were suppressed and put downe also the shrines of counterfeit Saints amongst others the shrine of Thomas Becket in the Priory of Christ-church was taken to the Kings use and his bones scull and all which was there found with a peece âroken out by the wound of his death were all burnt in the same Church by command of the Lord Cromwell and the one and twentieth of October the Church of Thomas Becket in London called the Hospitall of Saint Thomas of Acres was suppressed the sixteenth of November the Black-friers in London was suppressed the next day the VVhite-friers the Gray-friers and the Monkes of the Charter-house and so all the other immediately after ãâã three Abbots resisted the Abbot of Colechester the Abboâ of Reding and the Abbot of Glastenbury who therefore were all taken and executed The foure and twentieth of November the Bishop of Rochester Preached at Pauls-crosse and there shewed the blood of Hales affirming it to be no blood but honey clarified and coloured with saââron as it had been evidently proved before the King and Councell The number of Monasteries suppressed were six hundred forty five besides fourescore and ten Colledges one hundred and ten Hospitals and of Chantries and free Chappels two thousand three hundred seventy foure But now to make amends
came to Guisnes for the King of England the Earl of Hertford the Bishop of Winchester Sir Iohn Dudley Viscount Lisle Baron of Mawpas and high Admirall of England Sir William Paget the Kings Secretary Doctor Nicholas Wootton Dean of Canterbury For the French King there came to Ard Claude Danebolt Admirall of France the Bishop of Eureux Monsieur Reymond chiefe President of Roan and the Secretary Bouchetell Diverse times they met betwixt Ard and Guisnes and after long debating of matters and diverse breakings offâ at length the seventh of Iune a Peace was concluded and proclaimed in the City of London on Whitsunday the thirteenth of Iune by sound of trumpet and the same day in like manner at Paris and Roan the chiefe Article of which Peace was this that the French King paying to the King of England eight hundred thousand Crownes within the terme of eight yeeres should have Bulloigne againe restored to him which in the mean time should remain in possession of the King of England as a pledge for assurance of the said money and now for a full establishment of this Peace the Viscount Lisle Lord Admirall with the Bishop of Duresme and divers other Lords were sent into France to take oath of the French King and of the Dolphin as likewise at the same time divers Lords came from the French King to take oath of King Henry who by the way were met by the yong Prince and many Lords and conducted to the King at Hampton-Court In his seven and thirtieth yeere the three and twentieth of November a Parliament began at VVestminsâer wherein was granted to the King a Subsidie both of Spiritualty and Temporalty and all Colledges Chanteries and Hospitalls were given to him to dispose of the foure and twentieth of December the Parliament was prorogued on which day the King comming to the Parliament House the Speaker made to him an Oration which the Lord Chancelour was used to answere but at this time the King would answer himselfe the effect whereof was that where Master Speaker had commended him for many excellent qualities that were in him he thanked him for it not that he had them but for putting him in mind how necessary it was he should have them then he thanked the whole House for their Subsidie and for giving him the Colleges and Chanteries which hee promised to see bestowed to the glory of God and good of the Realme lastly he ackowledged their love to himselfe but found fault with want of love to one another for what love where there is not concord and what concord when one calleth another Heretick and Anabaptist and he againe calleth him Papist and Hipocrite and this not onely amongst those of the Temporalty but even the Clergy men themselves preach one against another inveigh one against another without Charity or Discretion some be so stiffe in their old mumpsimus and others so curious in their new sumpsimus that few or none Preacheth truly and sincerely the word of God now therfore let this be amended feare and serve God be in Charity amongst your selves to the which I as your supream Head and Soveraigne Lord exhort and require you and this said the Acts were openly read to some he gave his Royall assent and to diverse assented not Whilst oath for the peace was thus taken by both Kings Bulloigne remaining still in King Henries possession Monsieur de Chatillon Captain of Mont-pleasier began to make a new Bastillion at the very mouth of the Haven of Bulloigne naming it Chatillous Garden hereof the Lord Gray of VVilton as then Deputy of Bulloigne advertised the King by Sir Thomas Palmour requiring to know his pleasure whither he should race it as a thing very incommodious to the Town or let it stand the King asked advice of his Counsail who all agreed that the conditions of the peace ought in no wise to be infringed and therefore to let the Bastillian stand whereupon the King caused his Secretary the Lord Paget to write a letter to the Lord Gray to that purpose but then called Sir Thomas Palmour secretly to him bidding him tell the Lord Gray that whatsoever he had written in his letter yet with all speed possible he should race the fortification to the ground Sir Thomas Palmour replying that a message by word of mouth being contrary to his leter would never be beleeved wel said the King do you tell him as I bid you and leave the doing it to his choice upon the comming back of Sir Thomas Palmour the Lord Gray called a counsaile shewing them thâ Kingâ letter and withall Sir Thomas Palmours message and then asked their Advise what in this case he should doe who all agreed without any question that the letter was to be followed and not the message to which the Lord Gray himselfe said nothing but caused the message to be wtitten verbatim from Sir Thomas Palmours mouth and those of the Counsaile to set their hands to it this done the night following he issued forth with a company of Armed men and Pioners aud overthrew the fortification to the ground aâd then sent Sir Thomas Palmour with letters to the King who as soon as he saw him asked aloud what will he doe it or no Sir Thomas Palmour delivering his letter said your Majesty shall know by these but then the King halfe angry nay tell me saith he wil he doe it or no being then told it was done and the fortification clean raced he turned to his Lords and said what say you my Lords to this Chatillous Garden is raced to the âloore whereto one presently answered that he that had done it was worthy to loose his head to which the King streightlâ replyed that he would rather lose a dozen such heads as his was that so Jâdged then one such servants as had done it and therewith commanded the Lord Grays pardon should presently be drawn the which he sent vvith letters of great thanks and promise of reward the cause why the King took this course was this lest if he written the racing of the Fortification in his letter it might have come tâ the French-mens knowledge before it could have been done and so have been prevented and by this may be taken a scantling of King Henries great Capacitie It is now the eight and thirtieth yeere of his reigne when about Michaelmas Thomas Duke of Norfolke and Henry Earle of Surrey his Sonne and heire upon certaine surmises of treason were committed to the Tower of London and the thirteenth of Ianuary the King then lying at the point of death the said Earle was arraigned in the Guild-hall before the Lord Major the Lord Chauncellour and other Lords there in Commission the speciall matter wherewith he was charged was the bearing of certaine Armes that were said to belong to the King and to the Prince though the Earle justified the bearing of them as belonging to divers of his Ancestours affirming withall that he had the opinion
of Heraulds therein But this notwithstanding being no Lord of the Parliament he was tried by a common Jurie and by them was found guilty and thereupon had judgement of death and the nineteenth of Ianuary was beheaded on the Tower-hill The Duke was attainted by Parliament and kept in prison âill in the first yeer of Queen Mary the Attaindour was reversed The death of this Earle might lay an imputation of cruelty upon King Henry if a just jealousie growing from the many circumstances of the Earles greatnesse in the tender age of his owne Sonne did not excuse him Soone after the death of this Earle the King himselfe died having made his last Will in which he tooke order that his Sonne Edward should succeed him in the Crowne and he dying without issue his daughter Mary and she dying without issue his daughter Elizabeth although another order of succession had passed before by Act of Parliament The Executors of his last Will were these sixteene Thomas Cranmor Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Wriothsley Lord Chancellour Sir William Pawlet Lord Saint Iohn and great Master of the Houshold Sir Edward Seymor Earle of Hartford and high Chamberlin of England Sir Iohn Russell Lord Privie Seale Sir Iohn Dudley Viscount Lisle Lord Admirallâ Cutbert Tunstall Bishop of Durham Sir Anthonie Browne Master of the Horse Sir Edmund Montacute Lord chiefe Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Thomas Bromley one of the Justices of the Kings Bench Sir Edward North Chancellour of the Augmentation Sir William Paget Knight of the Order Sir Anthonie Dennie Sir William Herbert Sir Edward Wootton Treasurour of Callice and Nicholas VVootton Deane of Canterbury and Yooke To whom were adjoyned as assistance these twelve Henry Fitz Allan Earle of Arundell VVilliam Par Earle of Essex Sir Thomas Cheyney Treasurour of the Houshold Sir Iohn Gage Controlour Sir Anthony VVingfield Vice-chamberlaine Sir VVilliam Peter Principall Secretary Sir Richard Rich Sir Iohn Baker of Sissingherst in Kent Chancellour of the Exchequer Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell and Sir Edward Peckham And it was not without need to leave a full Councell Table considering in what termes he left the Kingdome when he died Abroad in league with the Emperour at Peace with the King of France but whether these were not personall onely and no longer binding then King Henry lived might be doubted with the Scots at deadly send with the Pope at utter defiance from both which coasts there could be expected but little faire weather at home the frame of Religion extreamly disioynted and the Clergie that should set it in frame out of frame themselves the mindes of the people extreamly distracted and the Nobility that should cyment them scarce holding themselves together And in this stare was the Kingdome when King Henry the eight dyed in the yeer 1547. the fifty sixth of his life and of his Reigne the eight and thirtieth Of his Taxations IN his fourth yeer in a Parliament at Westminster was granted to the King two Fifteens of the Temporalty and two Tenths of the Clergie and Head-money of every Duke ten marke an Earle five pound a Barron âoure pound a Knight foure markes and every man valued at eight hundred pounds in goods to pay âoure markes and so after that rate till him that was valued at forty shillings and he paid twelve pence and every man and woman of fifteen yeers upward four pence In his sixth yeer a Parliament was holden wherin divers subsidies were granted to the King towards the charges of his wars in France in his fourteenth yeer order was taken by the Cardinall that the true value of all mens substance might be knowne and he would have had every man swom to tell what they were worth and required a âenth part thereof towards the Kings charges in his present wars as the spiritualty had granted a fourth part this the Londoners thought very hard and thereupon were excused for taking oath and were allowed to bring in their bils upon their honesties but when all was done after much labouring by the Cardinall the Clergy granted one halfe of all their yeerly Spirituall Revenues for five yeers and the Temporalty two shillings in the pound from twenty pounds upwards and from forty shillings to twenty pounds of every twenty shillings twelve pence and under forty shillings of every head of sixteen yeers and upwards four pence to be paid in every two yeers in his sixteenth yeer the Cardinall of his owne head attempted by Comission to draw the People to pay the sixth part of every mans substance in plate or monie but this was generally opposed and the People in many Countries rise upon it so as comming to the Kings knowledg âe utterly disavowed it and blamed the Cardinall exceedingly for attempting it In his foure and twentieth yeer in a Parliament then holden a fifteenth was granted to the King towards his charges of making fortifications against Scotland In his one and thirâieth yeer a Subsidie of two shillings in the pound of lands and twelve of goods with foure fifteenes were granted to the King towards his charges of making Bulwarks In his five and thirtieth yeer a Subsidie was granted to be paid in three yeers every English-man being worth in goods twenty shillings and upwards to five pounds to pay four pence of every pound and from five pounds to ten pounds eight pence from ten pounds to twenty pound six penceâ from twenty pounds and upwards of every pound two shilings strangers as wel denizens as others being inhabitants to pay double and for lands every English-man paid eight pence oâ the pound from twenty shillings to five pounds from five pounds to ten pounds sixteen pence and from ten pounds to twenty pouâdâ two shillings and from twenty pounds and upwards of every pound three shillings strangers double the Clergy six shillings in the pound of Benefices and every Priest having no Benifice but an Anual stipend six shillings eight pence yeerly during three yeers Of Lawes and Ordinances in his time IN a Parliament holden in his sixth yeere diverse Lawes were made but two most spoken of one for Apparell another for Labourers In his twelvth yeere he caused the Statutes against Inclosures to be revived and Commanded that decaied houses should be built up againe and that inclosed grounds should be laid open which though it did some good yet not so much as it might have done if the Cardinall for his owne benefit had not procured liberty for great men to keep up their inclosures to the oppression of poor men In his seventeenth yeer the King lying at Eltham diverse ordinances were made bâ the Cardinall touching the Governance of the Kings House and were long after called the Statutes of Eltham In his eighteenth yeere in the month of May Proclamation was made against all unlawfull games so that in all places tables dice cards and Bowles were taken and burnt but this order continued not long for young men being
restrained from these Games fell some to drinking some to stealing of Conies and Deere aud such other misdemeanours also in this yeere was an inhauncing of Coyne for preventing the carrying it over to places where it went at higher rate so that the Angell which went before but for seven shillings should now goe for seven and six pence and every ounce of Gold should be five aâd forty shillings which was before but forty and other Coynes accordingly In his twentieth yeer Sir Iames Spencer being Major of London the watch used on Mid-somer night was laid downe In his three and thirtieth yeer in a Parliament then holden an Act was made that whosoevet should poyson any person should be boyled to death by which Statute one Richard Roose who had poysoned diverâe persons in the Bishop of Rochester place was boyled to death in Smithfield to the terrible example of all other In his two and twentieth yeer three Acts were made one foâ probate of Testaments another for Mortuaries the third against plurality of benefices Non-Residence buying and taking of Farmes by spirituall persons In his thirtieth yeer it was ordained by Cromwel the Kings Vicar General that in al Churches a Register should be kept of every Weddng Christning and buriall within the same Parish for ever In his one and thirtieth yeer the King first instituted and appointed fifty Gentlemen called Pensioners to waight upon his person assighning to each of them fifty pounds a yeer for the maintainance of thâmselvs and two horses in his six and thirtieth yeer Proclamation was made for the inhancing of Gold to eight and fortâ shillings and silver to foure shillings the ounce also he caused to be coyned base money mingling it with brasse which was since that time called downe the fifth yeere of Edward the sixth and called in the second yeer of Queen Elizibeth In his seven and thirtieth yeer the brothell houses called the Stewes on the Bank-side in Southwarke were pât downe by the Kings Commandement and was done by proclamation and sound of Trumpet In his three and twentieth yeer it was enacted that Butchers should sell their meat by weight Beef for a half-peny the pound and Mutton for three farthings also at this time forraigne Butchers were permitted their flesh in Leadenhall-market which before was not allowed in his time also the Government of the President in the North was first instituted and the first President there was Tunstall Bishop of Durham Affaires of the Church in his time IN the yeer 1517. the eighth yeer of this Kings Reigne Martin Luther of VVittemberg in Germany a Frier of the Order of the Hermisses taking occasion from the abuseâ of Indulgences began to Preach against the Authority of the Pope and to bring in a Reformation of Religion for repressing of whom the Counsaile of Trent was called by Pope Paul the third in the yeere 1542. which continued above forty yeers but was never received in the Kingdome of Franceâ which Counsaile by decreeing many things to be poins of faith which were not so accounted before hath made no small distraction amongst Pâpists themselves against this Luther King Henry wrote a booke with great bitternesse and with as great bitternesse was answered at the same time with Luther there arose also in the same Country other Reformers of Religion as Zuingliuâ Occloampadious Melancthon who differing from Luther in some few points made the difference which is at this day of Lutherans and Protestants so called at first Auspurg for making a protestation in defence of their Doctrine which soon after spread all Christendome over King Henry in the sixth and twentieth yeer of his Reigne had excluded the Popes Authority ouâ of his Realme but thinking the worke not sufficiently done as long as Abbeys and Prioâies kept their station which were as it were his Forteresses and Pillars there wâs not long after meânes found to have them suppressed for aspersioâs being lâid upon them and perhaps no more then truth of Adulteries and Murtherâ they by Act of Parliâment in his eight and twentieth yeer at lest neere foure hundred of them suppressed and all their lands and goods conferred upon the King In his one and thiâtieth yeer all the rest and lastly in his five and thirtinth yeer all Colledgeâ Chantries and Hospitals so as the hives being now all removed there have never since any Bees or Drones been seen in the Country in this Kings time the Citty of Rome was taken and sacked by the Imperiall Army forcing the Pope to fly to his Castle Saint Angelo and there kept a prisoner till he agreed to such conditions as his Adversaries propounded In the two and twentieth yeere of this Kings reigne a Proclamation was set forth that no person should purchase any thing from the Court of Rome and this was the first blow given to the Pope in England In his three and twentieth yeer the Clergy submitting themselves to the King for being found guilty of a Praemunire were the first that called him supream head of the Church In his foure and twentieth yeere a Parliament was holden wherein one Act was made that Bishops should pay no more Annats or money for their Buls to the Pope and another that no person should appeale for any cause out of this Realm to the Court of Rome but from the Commissary to the Bishop and from the Bishop to the Archbishop and from the Archbishop to the King and all causes of the King to be tried in the upper Hoâse of the Convocation In his six and twentieth yeer in Iuly Iohn Frith was burnt in Smithfield aâd with him at the same stake one Andrew Howet a Tailor both for denying the Reall presence in the Sacrament and in a Parliament holden tâis yeer an Act was made which Authorized the Kings Highnesse to be supreame head of the Church of England and the Authority of the Pope to be abolished and then also was given to the King the first fruits and tenths of all Spirituall livings and this yeer were many put to deaâh Papists for denying the Kings Supremecy Protestants for denying the Reall presence in the Sacrament and it is incredible what numbers for thesâ two causes were put to death in the last ten yeers of this Kings Reign of whom if we should make perticular mention iâ would reach a great way in the Book of Martyrs in his eight and twentieth yeer the Lord Cromwell was made Viâaâ General under the King over the Spiritualty and sate divers times in the Convocation House amongst the Bishops as head over them and in September thiâ yeere he set forth injunctions commandiâg all Parsons and Curates to âeach their Parishoners the Paâer Noster the Aâe and Creed with the ten Commandements and Articles of the Christian Fâith in the English tongue Iâ his one and thirtieth yeer was set forth by the Bishops the Book of the six Articles condemning all for Hereticks and to be burnt that should hold 1. That the body
of Christ was not Really present in the Sacrament after Consecration 2. That the sacrament might not truly âe Administred under one Kind 3. That Priests entred into Holy Orders might marry 4. That vowes of Chastity entred into upon mature deliberation were not to be kept 5. That private Masses were not to be used 6. That Auricular Confession was not necessary in the Church Tâis yeere also the Religion of St. Iohns in England commonly called the Order of Knights of the Rhodes was dissolved and on Assension day Sir William Weston Knight Prior of St. Iohns departed this life for thought as was reported after he heard of the dissolution of his Order for the King took all the lands that belonged to that Order into his owne hands in his six and thirtieth âeere the Letany or Praecession was set forth in English with commandement by the King to be generally used in Parish Churches Workes of Piety done by him or others in his time UPon the suppressing of Abbeys King Henry instituted six new Bishopricks ând six Cathedrall Churches endowing them with convenient mainteâance he also gave competent Pensions during their lives to such Riligious Persons as were turned out of their Cloysters he also instiâuted in both the Universities Professors of the Hebrew and Greek tongues of Divinity Civil-law and Physick allowing to each of them forty pound a yeer he also founded a Colledge at Cambridge he gave at his death a thousand markes to the poor and to twelve poore Knights of Windsore each of them twelve pence a day for ever and every yeere a long gowne of white cloath in the fifth yeer of this Kings reigne George Monor Major of London re-edified the decayed steeple of the Church of Waltham-stow in Essex adding thereunto a side Isle with a Chappel where he lieth buried on the North side of the Church-yard there he founded a faire Alms-house for a Priest and thirteen poor men and women giving them a weekly maintenance he also for the commodity of Travelours made a cawsey of timber over the marshes from Waltham-stow to Lock-bridg towards London In this Kings eighth yeer Richard Foxe Bishop of Winchester founded Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford minding to have made it a house for Monkes but Hugh Oldham Bishop of Exceter perswaded him to make it rather a Colledge for Schollars and joyned with him in it contributing great sums of money towards it contenting himselfe with the name onely of a Benefactour In his seventh yeâr King Henry builded the town of Greenwich In this Kings time Cardinall Woolsey Founded two Colledges one at Oxford another at Ipswich to his Colledge at Oxford he had given foure thousand pounds Land a yeere but his Lands being all confiscate to the King the King tooke the Lands but yet gave to the Colledge a competent maintenance for a Deane eight Prebends and a hundred Fellowes which Colledge is now called Christ-Church and accounts King Henry for their Founder His Colledge at Ipswich was demolished This Cardinall also built Hampton-Court the chiefest at this day of all the Kings houses and built or enlarged White-hall called then Yorke-Place King Henry in his foure and twentieth yeer built his Mansioâ House of Saint Iames where also he made a faire Parke This place before had âeene an Hospitall of Sisters with whom the King compounded giving them Pensions during their lives In his thirtieth yeere Nicholas Gibson Groâer then Sheriffe of London builded â Free-School at Ratcliffe nere London with maintenance for a Master and an Usher âe also builded an Alms-house there for fourteen poor and aged people In his one and thirtieth yeer Thomas Huntlow the then Sheriff of London gave certain tenements to the Haberdashers for finding of ten Almes-men of the same company In his six and thirtieth yeer Sir Iohn Allân who had been twice Major â London and of the Kings Counsaile gave at his death to the Citty of London a rich Coller of Gold to be worn by the Major which Collor was first worâe by Sâr William Laxton on Saint Edwards day at the Election of the new Major who gave to every Ward in London twenty pounds to be distributed amongst poore Housholders besides to sixscore persons whereof threescore men to every one a gowne of broad-cloth and a black cap and threescore women to every one a gowne of the like cloath ând a white Kerchiffe In his eight and thirtieth yeer King Henry gave to the Citty of London for reliefe of poore people Saint Barthalomews Spittle the Church of the Gray-Friers and two Parish Churches the one at Saint Nicholas in the âhambles the other Saint Ewins in Newgate-Markeâ all to be made one Parish Church of the Gray-Fryers and in Lands he gave for the maintenance of the same five hundred markes a yeere for ever and this Church to be named Christ-Church founded by King Henry the eighth Casualties in his time IN his ninth yeere happened a Sweaâing-sicknesse whereof infinite multitudes in many parts of England dyed specially in London and was so violent that in three and sometimes two houres it tooke away mens lives and spared neither rich nor poore for in the Kings Court the Lord Clinton the Lord Gray of Wilton and many Knights Gentlemen and Officers dyed of it It began in Iuly and continued to the midst of December In his thirteenth yeere was a great mortality in London and other places of the Realme and many men of Honour and Worship dyed amongst others Doctor Fitz-Iames Bishop of London in whose place Doctor Tunstall succeeded In his nineteenth yeere by extremity of raine in seed-time there followed a great dearth of Corne which would have caused great calamity but that it was relieved in London by Merchants of the Styliard out of Germany and a thousand quarters supplied out of the Kings owne provision In his twentieth yeere in the end of May began in London another Sweating-sicknesse which afterwards infected all places of the Realme by reason whereof the Tearme was adjourned and the Cicuit of the Assizes also many dyed in the Court as Sir Fraâcis Poynts Sir William Compton Knights and William Carew Esquire of the Kings Privie-Chamber the King himselfe for a space removed almost every day till he came to Tittinhanger a place of the Abbot of Saint Albones where he with the Queene and a small number remained till the sicknesse was past In his thirtieth yeere the manner of casting Pipes of Lead for conveyance of water under-ground without using of soder was first invented by Robert Brocke Clerke one of the Kings Chaplaines a profitable invention for by this two men and a boy will doe more in one day then could have beene done before by many men in many dayes Robert Cooper Goldsmith was the first that made the Instruments and put this Invention in practice In a Rebellion in the North in this Kings time when the Duke of Norâolke was sent with an Army against the Rebels and that a day oâ battaile
taken downe and Tables placed in their roomes In his fifth yeer the Book of Common Prayer was established Casualties happening in his time IN his second yeere Saint Annes Church within Aldesgate was burnt In his âifth yeere a sweating sicknesse infested first Shrewesbury and then the north parts and after grew most extreame in London so as the first weeke there dyed eight hundred persons and was so violent that it tooke men away in foure and twenty houres sometimes in twelve and somtimes in lesse amongst other of account that dyed of this sicknesse were the two Sonnes of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke who dyed within an houre after one another in such order that both of them dyed Dukes This disease was proper to the English Nation for it followed the English wheresoever they were in foraigne parts but seized upon none of any other Countrey In this yeere one Master Arden of Kent by procurement of his wife was murthered in his owne house being dead his body was carried out and laid upon the ground in a close hard by where this is memorable that for two yeers after the ground where his body lay bore no grasse but represented still as it were a picture of his body onely in the space between his legges and armes there grew grasse but where any part of his body touched none at all Yet this miraculous accident was not so much for the murther as for the curses of a widow-woman out of whose hands the said Master Arden had uncharitably bought the said close to her undoing And thus the divine justice even in this world oftentimes works miracles upon offenders for a mercifull warning to men if they would be so wise to take it In his sixth yeer the third of August at Middleton-stony eleven miles from Oxford a woman brought forth a childe which had two perfect bodies from the navill upward the legges for both the bodies grew out at the midst where the bodies joyned and had but one issue for the excrements of them both they lived eighteen dayes and were women children This yeere also were taken at Quinborow three Dolphins and at Black-Wall six more the least of which was bigger then any horse Works of Piety by him or other in his time THis King gave three houses to the reliefe of the poor first for the fatherlesse and beggers children he gave the late Gray-Fryers in London which iâ now called Christs Hospitall then for lame and diseased persons he gave the Hospitall of Saint Thomas in Southwarke and Saint Barthalomews in West Smithfield Thirdly for riotous and idle persons he gave his house of Bridâwell and for their maintenance he took six hundred pounds a yeer land from the house of the Savoy which had been long abused and bestowed it upon these houses to which he added four thousand marks a yeer more By his example Sir William Chester Alderman of London and Iohn Calthroppe Draper at their owne costs made the Brickwalls and way on the backside that leadeth to the Hospitall of Saint Barthalomews and also covered and vawted the Towne Ditch which before was very noysome In the second yeer of this King Sir Iohn Gresham then Major of London founded a free Schoole at Host in Norfolke also at his decease he gave to every Ward in London ten pounds to be distributed amongst the poor and to maids marriages two hundred pounds In his third yeer Sir Rowland Hill the âhen Lord Major of London caused to be made a Cawsway commonly called Overlane pavement in the high way from Stone to Nantwich in length four miles for the ease of horse and man He caused also a Cawsway to be made from Dunchurch to Bransen in Warwickshiere more then two miles in length and gave twenty pounds towards the making of Roitton Bridge three miles from Coventry He made likewise the high way to Kilborne neere to London Also four Bridges two of them of stone containing eighteen arches in them both the one over the River of Severne called Acham Bridge the other Terne Bridge and two other of Timber at Stoke where he built also a good part of the Church A free Schoole likewise he builded at ârayton in Shropshiere with Master and Usher and gave sufficient stipends to them both Also he purchased a free fair to the said Towne with a free Market weekly and every fourteen dayes a free Market for cartell Besides all thiâ he gave to the Hospitall of Christ-Church in London in his life time five hundred pounds and at his death a hundred In this Kings fourth yeer Sir Andrew Iud Major of London founded a notable free Schoole at Tunbridge in Kent he builded also an Almshouse for six poor people nigh to the Parish Church of Saint Helens in Bishopsgate-streete and gave threescore pounds land a yeer to the Skinners of London for which be bound to pay twenty pounds to the Schoolemaster and eight pounds to the Usher of his free Schoole at Tunbridge yeerly for ever and four shillings weekely to the six poor Almspeople and something more yeerly In his sixth yeer Sir George Barnes Major of London gave a Windmill in Finsbury-field to the Haberdashers of London the profits thereof to be destributed to the poor of that Company also to Saint Bartholamews the little certaine Tenements to the like use Of his personage and conditions COncerning his personage it is said he was in body beautifull of a sweete aspect and specially in his eyes which seemed to have a starry livelinesse and lustre in them Concerning his conditions in matter of fact there is not much to be said but in matter of disposition and inclination very much even to admiration For though his tree was not yet come to the maturity of bearing fruit yet it was come to the forwardnesse to bear plenty of buds and blossomes For proofe of his mercifull disposition this one example may be sufficient when one Ioan Butcher was to be burned for blasphemy and heresie all the Counsell could not get him to signe the Warrant till the Archbishop Cranmer with much importunity perswaded him and then he did it but not without weeping For his pregnancy of wit and knowledge in all kindes of learning we shall need but to hear what Cardan who coming into England had often conference with him reporteth of him that he was extraordinarily skilfull in Languages and in the Politicks well seen in Philosophy and in Divinity and generally indeed a very miracle of Art and Nature He would answer Embassadours somerimes upon the suddaine either in French or Latine he knew the state of forraigne Princes perfectly and his own more He could call all Gentlemen of account through his Kingdome by their names and all this when he had scarce yet attained to the age of fifteene yeers and died before sixteene that from hence we may gather it is a signe of no long life when the faculties of the minde are ripe so early Of his death and buriall IN
the sixth yeer of his reigne which was the yeer before he died he fel sick of the Measels and being well recovered of them he fell after soon into the smal Pox of them also was so well recovered that the summer following he rode a progresse with a greater magnificence then ever he had done before having in his traine no fewer then four thousand horse In Ianuary following whether procured by sinister practise or growing upon him by naturall infirmity he fell into an indisposition of body which soon after grew to a cough of the Lungs Whereupon a rumour was spread abroad by some that a Nosegay had been given him at Newyeerstide which brought him into this slow but deadly consumption by others that it was done by a Glister how ever it was he was brought at last to so great extremity that his Physicians despared of his life and when Physicians could do him no good a Gentlewoman thought to be prepared for the purpose tooke him in hand and did him hurt for with her applications his legges swelled his pulse failed his skinne changed colour and many other symptomes of approaching death appeared The hour before his death he was overheard to pray thus by himselfe O Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and wretched life O Lord thou knowest how happy it were for me to be with thee yet for thy chosens sake if it be thy will send me life and health that I maâ truly serve thee O Lord God save thy chosen people of England and defend this Realme from Papistrie and maintaine thy true Religion that I and my People may praise thy holy Name for thy Sonne Jesus Christs sake So âurning his face and seeing some by him he said I thought you had nor been so nigh Yes said Doctor Owens we heard you speak to your selfe then said the King I was praying to God O I am faint Lord have mercy upon me and receive my spirit and in so saying gave up the Ghost the sixth day of Iuly in the yeer 1553. and in the sixteenth yeer of his Age when he had reigned six yeers five moneths and nine dayes It is noted by some that he died the same moneth and the same day of the moneth that his father King Henry the eight had put Sir Thomas Moore to death His body was buried upon the ninth of August in the Chappell of Saint Peters Church in Westminster and laid neere to the body of King Henry the seventh his grandfather At his funerall which was on the tenth of August following his sister Queen Mary shewed this respect to him that though Doctor Day a Popish Bishop preached yet all the service with a communion was in English Men of note in his time THis Kings reigne being short and having but small warres had not many sword-men famous for any acts they did Gowne men there were some as Edward Holl a Councellour in the Law who wrote a notable Cronicle of the union of the two houses of Yorke and Lancaster William Hugh a Yorkeshireman who wrote a notable Treatice called The troubled mans medicine Thomas Sternehold borne in Southampton who turned into English Meeteâ seven and thirty of Davids Psalmes The Interregnum betweene the death of King Edward and the proclaiming at London of Queene Mary KIng Edward being dead the Duke of Northumberland tooke upon him to sit at the Sterne and ordered all things at his pleasure so two dayes after he with others of the Councell sent to the Lord Major that he with six Aldermen and twelve principall Commons should repaire presently to the Court to whom when they came it was secretly signified that King Edward was dead and that by his last Will to which all the Nobility and Judges had given assent he had appointed the Lady Iane daughter to the Duke of Suffolke to succeede him his Letters Patents whereof were shewed them and therupon they were required to take their Oathes of Allegeance to the Lady Iane and to secure the City in her behalfe which whether dissemblingly or sincerely whether for love or fear yet they did and then departed The next day the Lady Iane in great state was brought to the Tower of London and there declared Queene and by edect with the sound of Trumpet proclaimed so through London at which time for some words seeming to be spoken against it one Gilbert Pot a Vintâers servant was set in the Pilory and lost both his ears Before this time the Lady Mary having heard of her brothers death and of the Duke of Northumberlands designes removed from Hovesdon to her Mannour of Keninghall in Norfolke and under pretence of fearing infection having lately lost one of her houshold servants of the plague in one day she rode forty miles and from thence afterward to her Castle of Framingham in Suffolke where taking upon her the name of Queene there resorted to her the most part of all the Gentlemen both of Norfolke Suffolke offering their assistance but upon condition she would make no alteration in Religion to which she condiscended and thereupon soone after came to her the Earles of Oxford Bathe and Sussex the Lord Wentworth Thomas Wharton and Iohn Mordant Barrons eldest sonnes and of Knights Cornwallis Drury Walgrave Shelton Beningfield Ierningham Suliard Freston and many others The Lady Mary being thus assisted wrote her letters signed the ninth of Iuly to the Lords of the Councell wherein shee claimed the Crowne as of right belonging to her and required them to proclaime her Queene of England in the City of London as they tendred her displeasure To this letter of hers the Lords answered that for what they did they had good Warrant not onely by King Edwards last Will but by the Lawes of the land considering her Mothers divorce and her owne Illegitimation and therefore required her to submit her selfe to Queene Iane being now her Soveraigne This Letter was written from the Tower of London under the hands of these that follow Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Thomâs Elye Chancellour William Marquesse of Winchester Iohn Earle of Bedford Henry Duke of Suffolke Francis Earle of Shrewsbury Iohn Duke of Northâmberland William Earle of Pembrooke Thomas Lord Darcey Lord Chamberlin Cobham Rich Huntington Cheyney Iohn Gates William Peter William Ceâill Iohn Clerke Iohn Mason Edward North and Robert Bowes The quarell on both sides being thus begun by Letters is prosecuted by Armes and the Lords for their Generall make choyce of the Duke of Suffolke as a man most likely to be firme and sure in the imployment but the Queen his daughter cannot misse his presence and besides is not willing to hazard his person and thereupon she by intreaties and the Lords by perswasions prevaile with the Duke of Northumbârland to undertake the charge who before his going having conference with the Lords let them know how sensible he was of the double danger he under-went in this enterprize both in respect of the Lady against whom he went and
and the Cardinall on their right hand all the Lords Knights and Burgesses being present the Bishop of VVinchester Lord Chancellour made a short speech unto them signifying the presence of the Lord Cardinall and that he was sent from the Pope as his Legate a Latere to doe a worke tending to the glory of God and the benefit of them all which saith he you may better heare from his own mouth Then the Cardinall rose up and made a long solemne Oration wherin he first thanked them for his restoring by which he was enabled to be a member of their society then exhorting them to returne into the bosome of the Church for which end he was come not to condemne but to reconcile not to compell but to call and require and for their first worke of reconcilement requiring them to repeale and abrogate all such Lawes as had formerly beene made in derogation of the Catholicke Religion After which Speech the Parliament going together drew up a Supplication which within two dayes after they presented to âhe King and Queene wherein they shewed themselves to be very penitent for their former errours and humbly desired their Majesties to intercede for them to the Lord Cardinall and the See Apostolicke that they might be Pardoned of all they had done amisse and be received into the bosome of the Church being themselves most ready to abrogate all Lawes prejudiciall to the See of Rome This Supplication being delivered to the Cardinall he then gave them Absolution in these words Wee by the Apostolicke authority given unto us by the most Holy Lord Pope Iulius the third Christs Vicegerent on Earth doe Absolve and deliver you and every of you with the whole Realme and Dominions thereof from all Heresie and Schisme and from all Judgements Censures and Paines for that cause incurred and also Wee doe restore you againe to the unity of our Mother the holy Church The report hereof comming to Rome was cause that a solemne Procession was made for joy of the conversion of England to the Church of Rome And now the Queene had a great desire to have King Phillip crowned but to this the Parliament would by no meanes assent In October this second yeere of her reigne a rumour was spread of the Queenes being with childe and so forward that she was quicke and thereupon were Lettes sent from the Lords of the Councell to Bonner Bishop of London that Prayers of Thanksgiving should be made in all Churches and the Parliament it selfe was so credulous of it that they entred into consideration of the education of the childe and made an Act desiring the King our of ãâã confidence they had in him that if the Queene should faile he would be pleased âo take upon him the Rule and Government of the childe but after âll this in Iune following it came to be knowne that it was but a Tympany âr at lest the Queene so miscarried that there came no childe nor the Queene likely ever after to have any But howsoever in hope of the joy that was expected in Ianuâry of this yeere divers of the Councell as the Lord Chancellour the Bishop of Elye the Lord Treasurour the Earle of Shrewsbâry the Controlour of the Queens house Secretary Bourne and Sir Richard Soâthwell Master of the Ordinance were sent to the Tower to discharge and set at liberty a great part of the Prisoners in the Tower as âamely the late Duke of Northumberlands sonnes Ambrose Robert and Henry also Sir Andrew Dudley Sir Iames Croâts Sir Nicholas Throgmorton Sir Iohn Rogers Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir George Harper Sir Edward Warner Sir William Sentlow Sir Gowen Carow William Gybbs Esquire Cutbert Vaughan and some others About this time one William Fetherstone a Millers sonne of the age of eighteene yeeres named and bruted himselfe to be King Edward the sixth for which being apprehended and examined he answered as one lunaticke and thereupon was whipped at a Carts âayle and banished into the North but the yeere after spreading abroad againe that King Edward was alive and that he had talked with him he was arraigned and condemned of treason and at Tyburn hanged and quartered In the moneth of March the Queene was taken with a fit of Devotion and thereupon called unto her foure of her Privie Councell namely William Marquesse of Winchester Lord Treasurour Sir Robert Rochester Comptrolour Sir William Peter Secretary and Sir Francis Englefield Master of the Wards and signified unto them that it went against her conscience to hold the Lands and Possessions as well of Monasteries aud Abbeys as of other Churches and therefore did freely relinquish them and leave them to be disposed as the Pope and the Lord Cardinall should thinke fit and thereupon charged them to acquaint the Cardinall with this her purpose Aâd shortly after in performance hereof Iohn Fecknam late Deane of Pauls was made Abbot of Westminster and had possession delivered him and with him fourteen Monkes received the Habit at the same time and on the twentieth of November Sir Thomas was instituted Lord of Saint Iohns of Hierusalem and was put in possession of the Lands belonging unto it And when it was told herâ that this would be a great diminution of the Revenues of her Crowne she answered she more valued the salvation of her soule then a thousand Crownes a most religious speech and enough if there were but this to shew her to be a most pious Prince The fourth of September this yeer King Phillip waited on with the Earle of Arundell Lord Steward the Earle of Pembrooke the Earle of Huntington and others went over to Callice and from thence to Brussels in Brabant to visit the Emperour his Father who deliveâing him possession of the Low Countries in March following he returned into England but then on the sixth of Iuly following by reason of wars with France he passed again over to Callicâ and so into Flanders from whence he returned not till eighteene moneths after which made great muttering amongst the common people as though hee tooke any little occasion to be absent for the little love hee bore to the Queene In the third yeere of the Queene dyed Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester at his house in Southwarke of whose death it is memorable that the same day in which Bishop Ridley and Master Latimer suffered at Oxford he would not goe to dinner till foure a clocke in the aâternoone thoâgh the old Duke of Norâolke was come to dine with him the reason was because he would first heare of their being burnt and as soon as word of that was brought him he presently said Now let us goe to Dinner where sitting downe and eating merrily upon a sudden he fell into such extremity that he was faine to be taken from the Table and carried to his bed where he continued fifteen dayes without voyding any thing either by urine or otherwise which caused his tsongu to swell in his mouth and so dyed after whose death
themselves by leaving the English at Newhaven and by trusting to their Country-men the French Papists for their peace was but a snare and the Marriage of Henry of Bourbon Prince of Navarre with Margaret of Valois the French Kings sister was but a bait to entrap them for upon the confidence of this Marriage being drawn together into Paris they were the readier for the slaughter and a few dayes after the Marriage which were all spent in Feasts and Masks to make them the more secure upon a Watch-word given the bloody faction fell upon the Protestants and neither spared age nor sex nor condition but without mercy and sense of humanity slaughtered as many as they could meet with to the number of many thousands It was now the sixth yeer of Queen Elizabeths Raign a yeer fatall for the death of many great Personages First died William Lord Grey of Weâlon Governour of Berwick a man famous for his great Services in War then William Lord Paget a man of as great Services in Peace who by his great deservings had wrought his advancement to sundry dignities and honourable places and though zealous in the Roman Religion yet held by Queen Elizabeth in great estimation to his dying day Then Henry Mannors Earl of Rutland descended by his mother from King Edward the fourth And lastly Francis the Dutchesse of Suffolk daughter to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and mother to Queen Iane. And now Queen Elizabeth finding how fickle the French Protestants had carryed themselves towards her intended to make a Peace and to that end sent Sir Thomas Smith into France joyning Throgmorton in Commission with him and in conclusion a Peace was agreed on whereof amongst other Articles this was one That the Hostages in England should be freed upon the payment of six hundred thousand Crowns and this Peace was ratified by the Oath both of the Queen of England and the King of France About this time the English Merchants were hardly used both in Spainâ and in the Netherlands upon pretence of Civill differences but indeed out of hatred to the Protestant Religion whereupon the English removed the seat of their Trading to Embden in Freezlandâ but Gusman the Spanish Liegier newly come into England finding the great dammages that the Netherlands sustained by these differences endeavoured by all means to compose them and thereupon Viscount Mountague Nicholas Wootton and Walter Haddon Master of the Requests were sent to Bruges in Flanders who after many interruptions brought the matter at last to some indifferent agreement It was now the seventh yeer of Queen Elizabeth when making a Progresse she went to see Cambridge where after she had viewed the Colledges and been entertained with Comedies and Scholasticall Disputations she made her self a Latine Oration to the great encouragement of the Schollars and then returned Presently after her returnâ she made the Lord Robert Dudley Master of her Horse first Baron of Denbigh giving him Denbigh and all the Lands belonging to it and then Earl of Leicester to him and the heirs males of his body lawfully begotten which Honour was conferred upon him with the greatest State and Solemnity that was ever known And now Leicester to endear himself to the Queen of Scots accused Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper for being privy to the libell of Hales who affirmed the Right of the Crown to belong to the Family of Suffolk in case the Queen should die without Issue and thereupon was Bacon cast into prison till afterward upon his purgation and the mediation of Sir William Cecill he was set at liberty and restored to his place And now for a while we must cast our eyes upon Scotland for that was now the Stage where all the great businesses of State were acted Matthew Steward Earl of Lenox who had marryed Margaret Dowglas King Henry the eighth's Neece by his eldest sister had been kept as an Exile in England now twenty yeers him the Queen of Scots invites to come into Scotlandâ under pretence of restoring to him his ancient Patrimony but indeed to conferre with him about a Marriage with his son the Lord Darlie for being reputed heir to the Crown of England next after her self she thought by matching with his son to strengthen her own title and to prevent the hope of any other Queen Elizabeth upon sute made by his wife gave the Earl leave to go but soon after suspecting what the Queen of Scots intent was in sending for him she to hinder the proceeding sent Sir Thomas Randâll to her to let her know That if she proceeded in this Maâch she would exceedingly wrong her self for that it was a Match so much disliked by all the English that she was fain to prorogue the Parliament lest upon dislike thereof there should something be enacted against her Right of Succession But if she would marry the Earl of Leicester she should then by Parliament be declared her next Heir Hereupon in the month of November the Earl of Bedford and Sir Thomas Randoll for Queen Elizabethâ the Earl of Murray and Lidington for the Queen of Scots at Barwick entred into a Treaty concerning the Marriage with the Earl of Leicester The English Commissioners urged the great benefits that by this Match would accrew both to the Queen of Scots her self and to the whole Kingdom of Scotland The Scotish on the other side urged the great disparagement it would be to the Queen of Scots if refusing the offers made her of divers great Princes she should match her self with so mean a person as the Earl of Leicester This matter held long debate partly for that the English Commissioners were so appointed by Queen Elizabeth and partly for that the Scotish Commissioners had a good minde to hinder her from marrying at all and perhaps not the least for that the Earl of Leicester being verily perswaded he should at last obtain Queen Elizabeth her self by secret Letters warned the Earl of Bedford not to urge the Marriage with the Queen of Scots too far and was thought for this cause to favour Darly under hand The matter being in this manner protracted for two whole yeers together the Queen of Scots impatient of longer delay and being resolved in her minde what she would doâ used means that the Lord Darly got leave of Queen Elizabeth to go into Scotland for three months onely under colour to be put in possession of his fathers Lands though it be strange the Queen upon any teââms would let him go if she really intended to hinder the Marriage but such was the destiny if there were not a plot in it and âo in Febrâary he came to Edinburgh who being a young man of not above nineteen yeers of age of a comely countenance and most Princely Presence the Queen of Scots as soon as she saw him fell in love with him yet in modesty dissembling it for the present she sought to get a Dispensâon from Rome because of their neernesse in Consanguinity And now
thereupon for not coming into England as he had determined The Count found the Queen at Canterbury where she gave him Royall intertainment and Matthew Parker Archbishop of Canterbury Royall intertainment to them both All this while since the death of the Earl of Marre there had been no Regent in Scotland but now by the procurement of Queen Elizabeth chiefly Iames Dowglas Earl of Morton is made Regent who when his Authority in a Parliamentary Assembly was established Enacted many profitable Laws for the defence of Religion against Papists and Hereticks in the name of the King But the proâection and keeping of the Kings Person hee confirmed to Alexander Areskin Earl of Marre to whom the custody of the Kings in their tender yeers by speciall priviledge belongeth though hee were himself in his Minority Upon these conditions That no Papists nor factious persons should be admitted to his presence An Earl should come with onely two servants attending him A Baron with onely one All other single and every one unarmed The French King in the mean time sent his Embassadour Mounsier Vyriar to corrupt the Earls of Atholl and Hântley with large promises to oppose the Regent Queen ELISABETH as much laboured to defend him but though by the ministery of Killigrew shee had drawn Iames Hamilton Duke of Castle-Herald and George Gourdon Earl of Huntley and the most eminent of that Faction upon indifferent conditions to acknowledge the Regent yet VVilliam Kârââld Lord Graânge whom Murray when hee was Regeât had made Goveânour of Edingborough Castle The Lord Humâs Lydington the Bishop of Dunkeld and others would by no meanes admit of the Regents Government but held that Castle and fortified it in the Queen of Scots name having Lydington for their Counsellor herein and trusting to the naturall strength of the place and to the Duke D' Alva's and the Fâeâch Kings promises to send them supplies both of men and money Now when these persons could by no meanes drawne to accept of conditions of peace and to deliver up the Castle to the Regent Queen Elizabeth who could in no case endure the French in Scotland suffered her self at length to be intreated by the Regent to send Forces Gunnes and Ammunition for assaulting of the Castle upon certain conditions whereof one was that ten Hostages should be sent into England to be security foâ returning the men and Munition unlesse by the common hazard of War they should chance to miscarry The conditions being argued on William Drury Marshall of the Garrison at Barwick with some âreat Ordnance and Fifteen hundred Souldiers amongst whom were some noble Voluntiers George Carie Henry Carie Thomas Cecill Heâry Lee William Knolles Sutton Cotton Kelway VVilliam Killigrew and others entred into Scotland and besieged the Castle which after three and thirty dayes siege was delivered up to the Regent for the Kings use with all the persons that were in it amongst whom Kircald Lord Grange and Iames his brother Musman and Cook gold-smiths who had counterfeited Coyne in the Castle were hanged although to redeem Granges life a hundred of the Family of the Kircalds offered themselves to be in perpetuall servitude to the Regent besides an annuall Pension of three thousand Marks and twenty thousand pounds of Scottish money in present and to put in caution that from thence forth he should continue in duty homage to the King but it would not bee accepted Humes and the rest were spared through Queen Elizabeths mercifull intercession Lydington was sent to Leith where hee dyed and was suspected to bee poysoned A man of the greatest understanding in the Scottish Nation and of an excellent wit but very variable for which George Buchanan called him the Camelion And now from this time Scotland began to take breath after long Civill Warres and as well the Captaines of both parties as the Souldiers betook themselves into Swedeland France and the Low-Countries where they valorously behaved themselves and wonne great commendation As for Iohn Lesle Bishop of Rosse he was now set at liberty but commanded to depart presently out of England and being beyond the Sea he continued still to sollicite his Mistresse the Queen of Scots cause with the Emperour the Pope the French King and the German Princes of the Popish Religion who all led him on with faire promises but performed nothing For indeed he in whom he had greatest confidence which was the Duke D' Alva was at that time called away partly out of Jealousie of State as being thought to grow too great and partly out of opinion that by his cruelty he made the people to revolt and therefore in his place was sent Ludovicus Zuinga a man of great Nobility in Spain âut of a more Peaceable disposition then D' Alva âow this man did all good Offices to win Queen Elizabeth to him and minding his owne Affairs only would not intermeddle with the Scottish or English matters About this a frentick Opinion was held by one Peter Bourcheâ a Gentâeman of the Middle-Temple that it was lawfull to kill them that opposed the truth of the Gospell and so far was he possest with this opinion that he assaulted the famous Seaman Captain Hawkins and wounded him with a dagger taking him for Hutton who at that time was in great favour with the Queen and of her privy Counsell whom he had been informed to be a great Adversary to Innovations The Queen grew so angry hereat that she commanded Marshiall Law should be executed upon him presently till her Counsell advised her that Marshiall Law was not to be used but in the Field and in turbulent times but at home and in time of Peace there must be Legall proceedings Hereupon Bourchet was sent to the Tower where taking a brand out of the fire he strook it into the brains of one of his keepers named Hugh Longwroth and killed him for which fact he was condemned of murther had his right hand cutt off and nayled to the Gallows and then himselfe hanged After the violent death of this Varlet we may speake of the naturall death of two great persons First William Lord Howard of Effingham Son of that warlike Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk by his second wife Agnes Tilney This William was made a Baron by Queen Mary and Lord High Admirall of England and by Queen Elizabeth Lord Chamberlain till such time that being taken with age he yeelded up that place to the Earl of Sussex and was then made Keeper of the Privy Seal which is the fourth degree of honour in England His Son Charles succeeded him in the Dignity of his Barony who was after made Lord Chamberlain to the Queen and then Lord High Admirall of England A while after him dyed Reginold Grey Earl of Kent whom the Queen a yeer before of a private man had made Earl of Kent when as that Title from the death of Richard Grey Earl of Kent who had wasted his Patrimony and was elder brother to this mans
was Iohn of Austria come into the Low-countries with a large Commission for he was the Naturall sonne of the Emperour Charles the fifth to whom the Queen sent Edward Horsey Governour of the Isle of Wight to Congratulate his coming thither and to offer help if the States called the French into the Netherlands yet at the same time Swevingham being exceeding importunate on the States behalfe she sent them twenty thousand pounds of English mony so well she could play her game of both hands upon condition they should neither change their Prince nor there Religion nor take the French into the Low-countries nor refuse a Peace if Iohn of Austria should condiscend to indifferent Conditions but if he embraced a Peace then the money should be paid back to the Spanish souldiers who were ready to mutiny for lack of pay So carefull she was to retaine these declining Provinces in obedience to the King of Spaine At this time a Voyage was undertaken to trie if there could be found any sea upon the North part of America leading to the wealthy coast of Cathaia whereby in one Comerce might be joyned the riches of both the East and West parts of the worlde in which voyage was imployed Martyn Frobysher who set saile from Harwich the eighteenth of Iune and the ninth of August entred into that Bay or sea but could passe no further for Snow and Ice The like expedition was taken in hand two yeers after with no better successe About this time died the Emperour Maximilian a Prince that Deserved well of Queen Elizabeth and the English who thereupon sent Sir Philip Sidney to his sonne Ridolphus King of the Romanes to condole his Fathers death and congratulate his succession as likewise to doe the like for the decease of the Count Electour Palatine named Frederick the third with her surviving sonne And now Walter Deveruex Earl of Essex who out of Leicesters envie had bin recalled out of Ireland was out of Leicesters feare as being threatned by him sent back again into Ireland but with the empty title of Earl Marshall of Ireland with the grief whereof he fell into a bloody Flux and in most grievous torments ended his life When he had first desired the standers by to admonish his sonne scarce tenne yeers old at that time to have alwayes before his eyes the six and thirtieth yeer of his age as the utmost terme of his life which neither himself nor his father before him could out-go and the sonne indeed attained not to it as shall hereafter he declared He was suspected to be poisoned but Sir Henry Sidney Deputie of Ireland after diligent search made wrote to the Lords of the Counsell That the Earl often said It was familiar to him upon any great discontentment to fall into a Flux and for his part he had no suspition of his being poisoned yet was this suspition encreased for that presently after his death the Earl of Leicester with a great sum of money and large promises putting away Dowglasse Sheffield by whom he had a son openly marryed Essex his widdow For although it was given out That he was privately marryed to her yeâ Sir Francis Knolles his father who was well acquainted with Leicester's roving loves would not believe it unlesse he himself were present at the Marriage and had it testified by a publike Notary At this time also died Sir Anthony Cook of Gyddy-Hall in Essex who had been School-master to King Edward the sixth and was no lesse School-master to his own daughters whom he made skilfull in the Greek and Latine Tongues marryed all to men of great Honour one to Sir William Cecill Lord Treasurer of England a second to Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seal a third to Sir Thomas Hobby who died Ambassador in France a fourth to Sir Ralph Lowlet and the fifth to Sir Henry Killigrew At this time the sons of the Earl of Claâricard who scarce two months before had obtained pardon for their Rebellion fell into Rebellion again but were by the Deputy soon supprest and William Drury newly made President of Munster reduced the whole Provice to good Order except only the County of Kerry whither a number of Vagabonds were gotten trusting to the Immunities of the place For King Edward the third made Kerry a County Palatine and granted to the Earls of Desmond all the Royall Liberties which the King of England had in that County excepting Wreckby Fyre Forestall and Treasure Trouâe The Governour notwithstanding who wisely judged that these Liberties were granted for the better preservation of Justice and not for maintenance of outragious malefactors entred into it and violently put to flight and vanquished the mischievous crew which the Earl of Desmond had placed there in ambush The Earl in the mean while made great complaints of Drury to the Deputy and particularly of the Tax which they call Ceasse which is an exaction of provision of Victualls at a certain rate for the Deputies Family and the Souldiers in Garrison This Tax not he onely but in Leinster also many Lords refused to pay alleadging that it was not to be exacted but by Parliament but the matter being examined in England it appeared by the Records of the Kingdome That this Tax was anciently imposed and that as a certain Right of Majestie a Prerogative Royall which is not subjected to Laws yet not contrary to them neither as the wise Civilians have observed Yet the Queen commanded to use a moderation in exactions of this nature saying She would have her subjects shorn but not devoured It was now the yeer 1577 and the twentieth of Queen Elizabeths Raign when Iohn of Austria pretending to Queen Elizabeth nothing but Peace yet is found to deal secretly with the Pope to peprive her of her Kingdome and himself to marry the Queen of Scots and invade England of which his practices the Prince of Orange gives Queen Elizabeth the first intelligence Whereupon finding his deep dissembling she enters into a League with the States for mutuall defence both at Sea and Land upon certain Conditions but having concluded it because she would not have it wrongfully interpreted as though she meant to foster a Rebellion in the Netherlands she sent Thomas Wilkes to the King of Spain with these Informations That she had alwayes endeavoured âo keep the Low-Countryes in obedience to the King of Spain had perswaded even with threatnings the Prince of Orange to accept of Peace but withall if the King of Spain would have his Subjects obedient to him she then requests him to restore their Priviledges and to remove Iâhn of Austria from the Government who not onely was her deadly enemy but laboured by all means to bring the Netherlands into utter servitude If this be granted by the King of SPAIN she then faithfully promiseth That if the States perform not their Allegiance to him as by their Promise to her they are engaged to doe she will utterly forsake them and bend
to the Queen of England his deer Sister and doth now willingly make profer of the same Walsingham now dealt with him farther not to lay to the Queens charge what broyls had lately fallen out in Scotland sheweth how beneficiall to him and to both kingdoms Amity had been hitherto and would be in time to come also so it were not neglected and that the same might the better be confirmed if the variance between the Nobility were layd asleep by a Law of oblivion Enacted in Parliament The Peers which now were removed from the Court called back again Religion looked into and a firm League concluded between both kingdoms The King made answer that he gladly embraced Amity with England and that he would constantly defend the Religion already established Afterward he lovingly dismissed Walsingham though he held him no good friend to him and his Mother and carefully looking to matters with undestanding even above his yeers proposed and profered reconciliation to those that had surprized him if within a limited time they asked Pardon which they were so far from doing that the entred into new consultations to surprize him again whereupon they are commanded within a set time to leave the kingdom of which number Marre Glames Paslet and some other betook themselves into Ireland Boyde Zester Weeme Lochlevin into the Low-Countries Dumfermilin into France the Earle of Angus is confined to his Earldome Gowry onely to his owne ruine stayeth behinde after the limited time hatching new devises About this time happened a difference and thereupon a Warre between the Emperors of Muscovia and the King of Sweden when Iohn King of Sweden doubting himself to be no fit Match for the Emperour sent a Royââl Ambassage to Queen Elizabeth requesting her to intercede for him to ââe Emperour which she did without delay and by her Ambassadour drew the Muscovian to a Peace upon reasonable Conditions Bât the Muscovianââortly ââortly after dying and Theodorus his Successor granting free Traffique to âârchants of all Nations that would come thither the Queen importuned him to admit of none but English Merchants requiring him to confirm the Priviledges which his Father had granted them Whereto by way of Answer he demanded Free Trading for all the English saying It was not fit that a small Company should exercise a Monopoly and all other be âestrayned But as for Customes he promised to take lesse by one half of that Company then of any other because they first opened the way thither The next Summer Albertus Alasco a Palatine of Poland of a comely personage and great learning came into England to see the Queen who was nobly entertained both by her and the Nobility as also by the Schollârs of Oxford with learned Orations and other Recreations but having âârryed here four Months and run iâto much debt he secretly withdrew himself and departed This man I saw my self afterward in Crakow very bare though it was reported of him That he had in a Dowry with a wife fifây Castles of great value but what Myne can bear the charges of prodigality This yeer proved fatall to divers great men for there died this yeer âââst Thomas Ratcliffe the third Eârl of Sussex of this Family a man of greaâ spirit and great faithfulnesse to his Countrey There died also Henry Wriothsley Earl of Southampton one exceedingly devoted to the Romish Religion and a great favourer of the Queen of Scots which cost him Queen Elizabeths displeasure and imprisonment besides There died also Sir Humphrey Gilbert who was cast away at Sea in his return from the North pârt of America whither he lately sayled with five Ships having sold his Patrimony in hope to plant a Colony tâere There died also Edmund Grindall Arch-âishop of Canterbury being blinde through age a graâe and pious Pâelate who stood highly in the Queens favour for a long time till he lost ãâã last by favouring as was said the Puritans Conventicles but the ââue cause indeed was for disallowing the Marriage of Iuliâ an Italian Physitian with another mans wife against the Earl of Leicester's pleasure Grindâll dying Iohn Whiteguyft succeeded in the See of Canterbury being translaâed thither from the See of Worcester At this time certain popish Books written against the Queen and Princes Excommunicate withdrew divers from their Allegiance and particularly so intoxicated one Somervile an English Gentleman that he went privately âo the Court and breathing out nothing but blood and death against all Protestants set upon one or two by the way with his drawn Sword Being apprehended he stuck not to say That he would murder the Queen with his own hands Hereupon he and upon his intimation Ardenâis âis father in Law a man of an ancient House in Warwick-shire Ardens wife their daughter Somerviles wife and Hall a Priest were brought to the Bar and all condemned Somervile as principall the rest as accessaries Thâee dayes after Somervile was found strangled in the prison Arden was âââcuted and quartered the women and the Priest were spared Many piâied the old Gentleman Arden as misled by the Priest and as it was genârally believed brought to his end through the envy of Leicester whom he used to call Whore-master Upstart and many such opprobrious ââmes In the Netherlands the English Garrison at Alost in Flanders being neglected the Governour Pigot and the other Captains for want of pay upon Composition yeelded up the Town to the Spaniard and then fearing disgrace at home joyned themselves to the Prince of Parma at whose hands finding themselves slighted by degrees they stole all away and came all to unlucky ends In Ireland the famous Rebell Gyrald-Fitz Gyrald the eleventh Earl of Desmond of this Family having a long time in lurking places escaped the English was now by a common Souldier found out in a poor Cottage and slain His head was sent into England and set upon London-Bridge This end had this great Lord descended from Maârice the son of Gyrald of Wândsore an English-man famous amongst those who first set upon Ireland in the yeer 1170. He possessed whole Countries together with the County Palatine of Kerry and had of his own Name and Race at least five hundred Gentlemen at his command All whom and his own life also he lost within the space of three yeers very few of his House being left alive And this disaster he fell into by proving Trayterous to his Prince at the instigation of certain Popish Priests Of whom the chief was one Nicholas Sanders an English-man who at the same time died miserably of Famine being starved to death when as being forsaken and running mad upon his ill successe he roamed up and down the Mountains and Groves finding nothing to sustain him In his Scrip were found certain Orations and Letters written to hearten the Rebells and promising large rewards from the Pope and King of Spain Upon the Rebells ill successe Iames Fitz Eustace Viscount Baltinglas fled into Spain where he pined away with grief He
plainly by the Chancellour and Treasurer That if she refused to answer to such crimes as should be objected they would then proceed against her though she were absent Being brought at last with much ado to consent the Commissioners came together in the Presence Chamber a Chaire of Estate was set for the Queen of England in the upper end of the Chamber under a Canopy beneath over against it was placed a Chair for the Queen of Scots on both sides of the Cloth of Estate stools were set upon which on the one side sate the Lord Chancellor the Lord Treasurer the Earls of Oxford Kent Derby Worcester Rutland Cumberland Warwicke Pembrooke Lincolne and Viscount Mountacuteâ On the other side sate the Lords Aburgavany Zouch Morley St. Iohn of Bletsho Compton and Cheyney Next to these sate the Knights that were Privie Councellors Sir Iames Crofts Sir Christopher Hatton Sir Francis Walsingham Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Walter Mildââ and Sir Amis Pawlet Foreward before the Earls sate the two Chiefe Justices and the Lord chiefe Baron on the other side the two Barons and the other Justices Dale and Foord Doctors of the Civill Law at a Table in the midst Popham the Queens Atturney Generall Egerton her Solicitor âââdie her Serjeant at Law the Clerk of the Crown and two Notaries When the Queen of Scots was come and had placed her selfe silence being made Bromely Lord Chancellor turning towards her sayd That the Queen had appointed these Commissioners to hear what she could Answer to crimes layd to her charge assuring her that nothing would be cause of more joy to the Queen then to hear that she had proved her selfe innocent Upon this she rising up sayd That although being an absolute Prince she could not be compelled to appear before the Deâegates yet to manifest her innocency she was now content to appear Then Gawdie opened every speciality of the Law lately made against which she had taken excception shewing By Babingtons confession by Letters passed between them by the confessions of Ballard and Savage by the confessions of her Secretaries Nave and Curle that she was privy to their Treasons and consented to the Invasion of England and destruction of the Queen To which she answered That Letters might be counterfeited her Secretaries might be corrupted and rest in hope of life might be drawn to confesse that which was not true In this she stood peremptorily That she never consented to any Attempt against the Queens Person though for her own delivery she confessed she did After many other charges by the Commissioners and replies by the Queen of Scots At last she requested that she might be heard in a full Parliament or before the Queen her selfe and her Councell But this request prevailed not for on the 25. day of October following at the Star-Chamber in Westminster the Commissioners met again and there pronounced sentence against her Ratifying by their Seals and subscriptions that after the 1. day of Iune in the seven and twentieth year of our Soveraign Lady Queen Elizabeth divers matters were compassed and imagined in this Kingdom by Anthony Babington and others with the privity of Mary Queen of Scots pretending Title to the Crown of England tending to the hurt death and destruction of the Royall Person of our sayd Soveraigne Lady the Queen After a few dayes a Parliament was holden at Westminster the which was begun by Authority from the Queen derived to the Archbishop of Canterbury the Lord Treasurer and the Earl of Derby and the same not without some Presidents At this Parliament the Proscriptions of the Lord Paget Charls Paget Francis Inglefield Francis Throgmorton Anthony Babington Thomas Salisbury Edward Iones Chydâock Tichburne Charles Tilney and the other complices was confirmed and their goods and possessions adjudged confiscate Also the Peers of the Kingdom with an unanimous consent exhibit a Petition to the Queen by the Lord Chancellor that for the preservation of the true Religion and safety of the Queen of themselves and their Posterity the Sentence passed against Mary Queen of Scots might according to Law be presently Promulged They put the Queen in minde of the fearfull examples of Gods Judgements extant in Scripture upon King Saul for sparing of Agag and upon Ahab for not putting Benhadad to death But the Queen answereth them to this effect First acknowledging Gods miraculous preservation of her and then their constant affections towards her for whose sakes onely she desires to live Otherwise when she calls to minde things past beholds the present and expects what may happen in time to come that she accounts them most happy who go soonest hence That the Law lately made by which the Queen of Scots is condemned was not made as some maliciously have imagined to ensnare her but contâariwise to forewarn and deterre her from attempting any thing against it which though it had not been made yet were there other ancient Laws enough to condemne her Nothing could have been more grievous to me than that a Prince and one so neer Allied unto me should deserve the Sentence pronounced against her and seeing the matter is of rare example and of a very weighty consequence I hope you will not expect that I should at this present determine any thing Yet that there may be no danger in delayâ I will in due time signifie my minde unto you and in the meane time would have you to expect from me whatsoever good Subjects may looke for from a Gracious Prince Twelve dayes after having deeply weighed the matter in her minde she sent the Lord Chancellor to the Peers and Puckering to the Lower House entreating them to advise more diligently concerning so weighty a matter and to bethinke themselves of some wholesome remedy by which the life of the Queen of Scots might be spared and their security also provided for They when they had a long time in most serious manner deliberated hereof Return at last this Verdict That the Queenes life could not be in safety while the Queen of Scots lived unlesse she either repented and acknowledged her crimes or were kept in straight custody or bound by her oath and obligations or gave Hostages or lastly departed the Kingdome And seeing none of these were likely to be remedies It remained that only her death would be a remedy Repentance in her they could little hope for who would not so much as acknowledge her self faulty Close Imprisonment Obligations Oath and Hostages they accounted as nothing which all vanished if the Queens life were once taken away and if she departed the Kingdom they feared she would straightway go about to Invade it again These things the Lord Chancellor and Puckering the Speaker of the Lower-House declared to the Queen at large and urged her in their names to have the Sentence put in execution Hereupon the Queen after a short pawse spake at last to this effect I protest my chief desire hath been that for your security and my own safety some other
States sent for out of England to succour it the Town was furiously aâsaulted with seventeen thousand great shot and a mighty breach was made into it which neverthelesse Roger Williams Franis Vere Nicholas Baskervile with the Garrison of the English and Wallons were valiantly defended for a while but at last were enforced to yeild it upâ Leicester that came to relieve it finding himself too weak for the Besiegers being gone away And indeed the States would not commit any great Army to his Command who they knew had a determination to seâze Lâyden and some other Towns into his own hands and had a purpose to surprize the absolute Government Whereupon the States used means that Leicester was called home gave up the Government to the States and in his roome succeeded Maurice of Nassaw Son to the Prince of Orange bâing now but twenty years of age Peregrine Lord Willonghby was by the Queen made Geneâall of the English Forces in the Low-Countries to whom she gave command to reduce the English Factions into the States obedience the which with the help of Prince Maurice he easily effected Leicester being now come home and perceiving that an accusation was preparing against him by Buckhurst and others for his unfaithfull managing of affairs in Holland privately with tears he cast himself down at the Queens feet entreating her that she would not receive him with disgrace at his return whom she had sent forth with honor and so far prevailed with her that the next day being called to examination before the Lords he took his place amongst them not kneeling down at the end of the Table as the manner of Delinquents is and when the Secretary began to read the heads of his Accusation he interrupted him saying That the publick instructions which he had received were limited with private restriction and making his appeal to the Queen eluded the whole crimination with the secret indignation of his Adversaries This year was famous for the death of many great Personages In the moneth of February dyed Henry Nevill Lord of Aburgaveny great Grand-childe to Edward Nevill who in the Reign of King Henry the Sixth got this Title in the right of his Wife only Daughter and Heir to Richard Beauchamp Earl of Worcester and Lord of Aburgaveny In which right when as the only Daughter of this Henry Wife to Sir Thomas Fane challenged the Title of Baronesse of Aburgaveny a memorable contention arose concerning the Title between her and the next Heir Male to whom by Will and the same confirmed by Authority of Parliament the Castle of Aburgaveny was bequeathed This question being a long time debated at last in a Parliament holden in the second year of King Iames the matter was tryed by voyces and the Heir Male carried the Lordship of Aburgaveny and the Barony Le Dispencer was ratified to the Female This year also in the moneth of Aprill dyed Anne Stanhope Dutchesse of Somerset ninety years old who being the Wife of Edward Seymer Duke of Somerset and Protector of England contended for precedency with Katherine Parre Queen Dowager to King Henry the Eight There dyed also Sir Ralph Sadler Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster the last Baneret of England with which dignity he was adorned at the Battell of Musselborough in Scotland After him dyed Thomas Bromley Lord Chancellor of England and six dayes after He whom the Queen meant should have succeeded him Edward Earl of Rutland but he now fayling Sir Christopher Hatton was made Lord Chancellor who though he were a Courtier yet the Queen knowing him to be an honest man thought him not unfit for that place where conscience hath or should have more place than Law although some were of opinion That it was not so much the Queens own choice as that she was perswaded to it by some that wisht him not well both thereby to be a cause of absenting him from the Court and thinking that such a sedentary place to a corpulent man that had been used to exercise would be a means to shorten his life and indeed he lived not full out three years after This yeer Sir Iohn Perot was called home out of Ireland and left all in ãâã quiet to Fits Williams his Successor For hitherto the English ãâã it no hard matter to vanquish the Irish by reason of their unskilâulnesse in Arms eight hundred Foot and three hundred Horse was ââld an invincible Army but after that by Perots command they were ââââcised in Feats of Arms and taught to discharge Muskets at a Mark ãâã had in the Low-Countries learned the Art of Fortification they held the English better to it and were not so easily overcome And now we are come to the one and twentieth yeer of Queen Elizaââââs Raign being the yeer 1588 long before spoken of by Astrologers ãâã be a wonderfull yeer and even the Climactericall yeer of the World And yet the greatest Wonder that happened this yeer was but the wonderfull Fleet that Spain provided for invading of ENGLAND if the defeat of that wonderfull Fleet were not a greater Wonder It is true there was at this time a Treaty of Peace between England and Spaiâ and the Earl of Derby the Lord Cobham Sir Iames Crofts Dale and Rogers Doctors of Law Commissioners for the Queen for the Prince of Parma the Count Aurenberg Champignie Richardot Maâs and Garvyer Doctors had many meetings about it neer to Ostend but it seemed on the pârt of Spain rather to make the English secure that they should not make provision for War than that they had any purpose of reall proceeding seeing they accepted not of any reasonable Conditions that were offered but trifled out the time till the Spanish Navy was come upon the Coast and the Ordnance heard from Sea and then dismissed the English Delegates The Spanish Navy consisted of one hundred and thirty Ships whereof Galeasses and Galleons seventy two goodly Ships like to floating Towers in which were Souldiers 19290 Marriners 8350 Gally-slaves 2080 Great Ordnance 2630 For the greater holinesse of their Action twelve of their Ships were caâled The twelve Apostles Chief Commander of the Fleet was Don Alphonso Duke of Medina and next to him Iohn Martin Recalde a great Sea-man The twentieth of May they weighed Anchor from the River Tagus but were by Tempest so miserably disperst that it was long ere they mât again but then they sent before to the Prince of Parma That he with his Forces consisting of fifty thousand old Souldiers should be ready to joyn with them and with his Shipping conduct them into England and to land his Army at the Thames Mouth The Queens Preparation in the mean time was this The Lord Charles Howard Lord Admirall with all her Navy and Sir Francis Drake Vice-Admirall to be ready at Plimouth and the Lord Henry Seymor second son to the Duke of Somerset with forty English and Dutch Ships to keep the Coasts of the Netherlands to hinder the Prince of Parma's
the Queen for succour to whom upon certain conditions she granted an Army of four thousand men and some great Ordnance with which Sir Iohn Norris was sent into France whom yet the French King imployed not as was agreed to the great displeasure of the Queen But as for the Prince of Parma's coming into France hee was prevented by death when hee had governed the Netherlands under the Spaniard fourteen yeers a Prince of many excellent parts and whom Queen Elisabeth never mentioned but with honour And now Queen Elizabeth considering that the King of Spaines chiefe strength was in his Gold of America sends forth Sir Walter Ralegh with a Fleet of fifteene Ships to meete with the Spanish Fleet who passing by a Promontory of Spain received certain intelligence that the Spaâish Fleet was not to come forth that yeare Whereupon dividing his Navy into two parts whereof the one he committed to Sir Iohn Burâââghs the other to Sir Martin Forbysher he waited other opportunities when soon after a mighty Caraque came in view called The Mother of God which from the Beake to the Sterne was a hundred threescore and five foot long built with seven Decks and carrying six hundred men besides rich Merchandize This great Vessell they took and in it to the ââlue of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling over and above what the Commanders and Sea-men pilfered This yeare the Queene going in Progresse passed through Oxford where she was entertained by the Schollers with Orations Stage-Plâyes and Disputations and by the Lord Buckhurst Chancellor of the University with a sumptuous Feast At her departure She made a Latine Oration wherein she vowed a vow and gave them counsell Her vow was That as she desired nothing so much as the prosperity and flourishing estate of her Kingdome so she as much wished to see the Universities and Schools of learning to flourish likewise Her Counsell was That they would serve God above all not following the curiosity of some wits but the Lawes of God and the Kingdome That they would not prevent the Lawes but follow them nor dispute whether better Lawes might be made but observe those which were already Enacted This year dyed Anthony Browne Viscount Montacute whom Queene Mary honored with this Title because his Grandmother was Daughter and one of the Heirs of Iohn Nevill Marquesse Montacute who though he were a great Roman Catholike yet the Queen finding him faithfull alwayes loved him and in his sicknesse went to visit him There dyed at this time also Henry Lord Scroope of Bolton Knight of the Garter and long time Governour of the Westerne Border toward Scotland At this time Henry Barrow and his Sectaries condemning the Church of England to be no Christian Church and derogating from the Queens Authority in matters Ecclesiasticall he the sayd Barrow as Ring-leader of the rest was put to death in terror to all such disturbers of the peace of the Church About this time by reason of the Queens correspondence with the Turk to the end her Subjects might have free Trading in his Territories It was maliciously given out by some that she had excited the Turke to a War against the Christians which caused the Queen to write to the Emperour shewing him the falsenesse of this report wherein she gave him full saââsfaction And now a constant report came into England That the King of France had already embraced or was ready to embrace the Romish Religion which so much troubled the Queene that she presently sent Thomas Wilkes into France with reasons if it were not too late to divert him from it But before Wilkes came the King indeed had openly professed the Romish Religion at the Church of Saint Denis in Paris of which his Conversion he declared the causes to Wilkes at large shewing the necessity of it unlesse he would suffer himselfe to be utterly thrust out of the Kingdome And the French AMBASSADOR signifying as much to the Queene in great perplexity She writ to him to this effect Alas what grief what anxiety of minde hath befallen me since I heard this news was it possible that worldly respects should make you lay aside Gods feare ââuld you thinke That He who had hitherto upheld and kept you would now at the last leave you It is a dangerous thing to doe evill that gâod may come thereof But I hope your minde may alter In the meane while I will pray for you and beg of God That the hands of Esau may not hinder the blessing of Jacob. To this the KING Answered That though he had done this in his owne Person out of necessity yet He would never be wanting to those of the Reformed Religion but would take them into his speciall care and Protection And now was Richard Hasket condemned and executed for Treasoâ being sent from the English Fugitives beyond Sea to perswade Ferdinand Earle of Derby Sonne to Henry newly deceased to assume the Title of the Kingdome by right of Descent from Mary Daughter to Henry the Seventh and threatning him that unlesse he undertooke this enterprize and withall concealed him the Abettor he should shortly dye in most wretched manner But the Earle fearing a trap was layd for him revealed the matter yet the fellows threating proved not altogether vaine for the Earle within foure Moneths dyed a most horrible death This yeare Death had his tribute payd him from the Nobility for there dyed Henry Ratcliffe Earle of Sussex and three renowned Barons Arthur Grey of Wilton Henry Lord Cromwell and Henry Lord Wentworth besides Sir Christopher Carlile whose Warlike Prowesse at Sea and land deserves to be remembred In IRELAND at this time divers great men in Connaght Rebelled and Tuâlogh Leynigh being dead Tir-Oen assumed to himselfe the title of O-Neale which in IRELAND is more esteemed than to be called EMPEROVR But upon a sudden dissembling his disconteât hee submitted himselfe to the DEPVTY and promised all obedience Iâ was now the yeare 1594 and the seven and thirtieth of Queen ELIZABETHâ Raigne when the good correspondence betweene the King of Scots and Queen ELIZABETH gave the Papists small hope that ever he would prove an Instrument to restore the Catholike Religion Whereupon they began to bethinke themselves of some English Papist that might succeed the Queene but finding none of their owne Sect a fit person they fixed their thoughts upon the Earl of Essex who alwayes seemed a very moderate man and him they devised to have some right to the Crowne by Descent from Thomas of Woodstocke King EDVVARD the Thirds Sonne But the English Fugitives were for the Infanta of Spaine and desiring to set the King of Scots and the Earle of Essex at ods they set forth a Book which they Dedicated to Essex under the name of Doleman but was written indeed by Parsons Dolemans bitter Adversary Cardinall Allen and Francis Englefield The scope of which Booke was to exclude from Succession all persons whatsoever and how near soever Allied
Spain Sir Walter Rawleigh Captain of the Guard having defloured a Mayd of Honor whom afterward he married had lost the Queens favour and was held in Prison for certain moneths but afterward being set at liberty though banished the Court He undertook a Voyage to Guyana setting sayl from Plimmouth in February he arrived at Trinidada where he took St. Iosephs Town but found not a jot of money there From hence with Boats and a hundred souldiers he entred the vast River Orenoque ranging up in Guyana four hundred myles but getting little but his labour for his travell In like manner Amyas Preston and Sommers Pillaged sundry Towns of the King of Spains in the Western parts and three ships of the Earl of Cumberland set upon a huge Caraque which by casualty was fired when they were in fight and these were the enterprises of private persons but the Queen being informed that great store of wealth for the King of Spains use was conveyed to Port Rico in St. Iohns Island sent thither Hawkins Drâkâ and Baskervile with land Forces furnishing them with six ships out of her own Navy and twenty other men of War They set sayl from Plimmoâth the last of August and seven and twenty dayes after came upon the Coast of the great Canarie which being strongly Fortified they forbore to assault A moneth after they came to the Isle of St. Dominicke where five Spanish ships being sent forth to watch the English lighted upon one of the small English ships which was strayed from the Company and âââting the Master and Marriners upon the Rack understood by them That the English Navy was bent to Port Rico whereupon they make all possible speed to give notice thereof that being fore-warned they might accordingly be armed And thereupon as soon as the English had cast Anchors ãâã the Road at Port Rico the Spaniards thundered against them from the shore siâ Nicholas Clifford and Brute Browne were wounded as they sate at âupper and two dayes after died Hawkins also and Drake partly of disââse and partly of grief for their ill successe died soon after At the end of eight months the Fleet came home having done the enemy little hurt fired onely some few Towns and ships but received infinite damage themsâlves lost two such Sea-men as the Kingdom I may say all Europe had âot their like left For the Spaniards having of late yeers received great âârms by the French and English had now provided for themselves with Fortifications which were not easie to be won At this time the Queen made known to the States in the Low-Countries the great charges she had been at in relieving them ten yeers together for which she requiteth some considerable recompence The States again alleadge the great charges they were at in Eighty Eight in repelling the Spaniards in her cause yet not to fall out about the matter they were content to allow some reasonable retribution but yet for the present nothing was concluded Likewise at this time the Hanse Towns in Germany make complaint to the Emperour and the Princes of the Empire That the Immunities from customes antiently granted them by the Kings of England began to be Antiquated and that a Monopoly of English Merchants was set up in Germany to which the Queen by Sir Christopher Perkins first shewing the cause of the first Grant and then the Reason of Queen Maries prohibiting it afterward makes them so satisfactory an answer that those very Hanse-Towns which complained brought into England at this time such store of Corne that it prevented a mutiny which thorough dearth of Corn was like to have hapned in London This yeer was famous for the death of many great Personages Philip Earl of Arundel condemned in the yeer 1589. The Queen had all this while spared but now death would spare him no longer having since that time been wholly given to contemplation and macerated himself in a strict course of Religion leaving one onely son Thomas by his wife Anne Dacres of Gillisâand He had two brothers Thomas Lord Howard whom Queen Elizabeth made Baron of Walden and King Iames afterward Earl of Suffolk and William Lord Howard of the North who yet liveth and one sister the Lady Margaret marryed to Robert Sackvile afterward Earl of Dârset and father of Edward Earl of Dorset now living a Lady so milde so vertuous and so devout in her Religion that if her brother macerated himself being in prison she certainly did no lesse being at liberty whom I the rather mention because I had the happinesse to know her living and the unhappinesse to be a Mourner at her Funerall There died this yeer also William Lord Vaulx a zealous Papist and Sir Thomas Hineage Vice-Chamberlain and Chancellor of the Dutchy of Lancaster whose onely daughter marryed to Sir Moyle Finch of Kent was no small advancer of that House There died also William Whitaker Master of S. Iohns Colledge in Cambridge and Divinity Professor As likewise Sir Roger Williams and Sir Thomas Morgan so as this yeer was honoured with the deaths of two great Lords one exquisite Courtier one great Schollar and two famous Souldiers In Ireland at this time Russell the Deputy doubting a storm of War from Tir-Oen sent into England requiring to have some experienced souldier sent to him with Forces who though he desired Baskervyle to be the man yet Sir Iohn Norris was sent with thirteen hundred old souldiers besides a further supply whom Tir-Oen hearing to be coming set presently upon the Fort of Blackwater and in the absence of Edward Cornwall the Governour took it But now being doubtfull of his case in a subdolous manner as he was a double dealing man he both offereth his help to the Earl of Kildare against the Deputies servants and at the same time maketh promise to the Earl of Ormond and Sir Henry Wallope of loyalty and obedience but notwithstanding he was forthwith proclaimed Traytor under the name of Hâgh O Neal bastard son to Con O Neal. There was at this time with the Rebells in Ulster a thousand Horse and 6280 Foot and in Connaght two thousand three hundred all at Tir Oens command and the Forces of the English under Norris not much fewer with whom the Deputy himself joyned and marched together to Armagh which so terrified the Rebels that Tir Oen forsaking the Fort of Blackwater began to hide himself Whereupon the Deputy returned leaving Norris to follow the War with the Title of Generall of the Army But this satisfied not Norris and therefore out of emulation betwixt himself the Deputy he performed nothing worth the speaking of and seemed to favour Tir Oen as much as the Deputy hated him insomuch as he had private conference with him a thing not lawfull with proclaymed Traytors and upon his submission and Hostages given a Truce was granted both to him and Odonell till the first of Ianâary When the Truce was expired Tir Oen exhibited certain Petitions protesting if they
Lords Justices Adam Lofthouse Archbishop of Dublin and Chancellour and Robert Gardyner To this new Lieutenant Tir-Oen exhibiteth a Bill of his oppressions and greivances with request of pardon and at the same time stirreth up Mac-Hugh to a new Rebellion in Leinster In France at this time the French King being importuned by the Pope and by his own Subjects began to incline to a Peace with Spain which the Queen understanding she sent into France Sir Robert Cecill Herbert and Wâlks who dyed at his landing in France The States likewise sent thither Iustine of Nassaw and Barnevolt and others likewise into England to disswade the Peace but notwithstanding all they could say or do the French King shortly after concluded a Peace to the great discontentment of the Queen and the States but to the great good and establishment of the French Common-wealth And now the Queen providing for her own and her peoples safety sent Sir Francis Vere to the States to know if they were willing to joyn in a Treaty of Peace with the Spaniard if not what they would afford toward a Warre and to deal earnestly with them about repayment of money due to her from them At home in the mean time a great Consultation was holden whither a Peace with Spain were convenient for England or no and many Reasons were on both sides alleaged Burleigh Lord Treasurer was for Peace Essex for Warre and so vehement in it that the Treasurer after a long debating in a strange manner of Presage reached forth the Book of the Psalms to him pointing him to that Verse The bloody minded man shall not live out half his dayes Which made Essex afterward to set forth an Apology with Reasons for justification of his opinion But now another Consultation was held about a fit man to be Deputy of Ireland The Queen intended to send Sir William Knolles Essex his Uncle but Essex was violent for Sir George Carew whom hee had a minde to remove from the Court and when hee could not by any means perswade the Queen to it hee then forgetting himself and his duty uncivilly and contemptuously turned his back upon the Queen mutteriâg certain words Whereupon shee growing impatient gave him a box on the ear and bid him be gone with a vengeance Essex laid his hand upon his sword hilt and swore a great oath That he could not nor would not put up such an Indignity and that hee would not have taken it at King Henry the Eighth his hands and so in a rage flunâ avvay from the Court But aftervvard admonished by the Lord Keeper hee became more milde and in a short time returned into the Queens favour About this time William Cecill Lord Burleigh and high Treasurer of Engâand finding himself to droop with age for hee was now threescore and seventeen yeers old sent Letters to the Queen intreating her to release him of his publike charge whereupon shee went to visit and comfort him but within a few dayes hee ended his life after hee had been the principall stay of the English Commonwealth for many yeers together One great good hee did to his country a little before his death that hee brought the States of the Low-Countries to a Composition for the payment of Eight hundred thousand pounds by Thirty thousand pounds yeerly likewise a new League to be concluded with them The King of Denmarks Subjects having lately seized upon some goods of the English as Prize to the value of a hundred thousand Dollers the Queen sent the Lord Zouch and Christopher Perkins Doctor of Law in Embassage to the Dane both to congratulate his late marriage with the Electors daughter of Brandenburg and also to crave restitution of the English goods who obtained that in lieu thereof Threescore thousand Dollers were repaid And now George Clifford Earl of Cumberland having with a Navie of eleven ships waited for Portingall Cariques and the American Fleât till the season of the yeer was past they not daring to stirre forth he at last set upon Port-Rico and took it but seaven hundred of his men falling sick of Calentures and dying within forty dayes he was faine to returne home with some honour but little profit About this time one Edward Squire was Arraigned of high Treason he had been at first an ordinary Scrivener afterward a Groome in the Queen stable and going as a Souldier in Drakes last expedition was taken prisoner and carryed into Spaine there he came acquainted with one Wallpoole an English Jesuite who caused him to be put into the Inquisition for an Heretick and the fellow tasting of misery was easily drawn to become a Papist and afterward to attempt anything for the Catholique cause His ghostly father perswaded him it were meritorious to make away the Queen and the Earl of Essex and sent him into England with a certain poyson wherewith to anoint the pommell of the Queens Saddle and the chayre in which the Earl should sit which he accordingly performed but neither of them tooke effect whereupon Wallpoole suspecting Squires fidelity was bent to revenge it and sent one into England who in generall termes should lay this aspersion upon him whereupon Squire is called in question and never thinking that his Confessor would detect him directly denyed all at first but after seeing himself betrayed confessed all the matter and was executed This whole yeer the Rebellion was hot in Ireland For Tir-Oen notwithstanding his pardon lately obtâined all on a suddain besieged the Fort at Blackwater to the raising of which siege the Lieutenant Generall for there was as yet no Deputy sent 13 Companies under the command of the Marshall Tir-Oens sworre adversary him Tir-Oen slew and put his whole Army to rout and atchieved such a Victory with so great losse to the English as they had never âelt the like since they first set footing in Irelandâ for thirteen valiant Commanders and fifteen Hundred Common Souldiers were slain at this Skirmish and soon after the Fort of Blackwater was yeelded up And now Tir-Oens fame began to resound as the Assertor of the Liberty of the Nation and upon a suddain all Munster brake forth into rebellion For the cherishing whereof Tir-Oen sent thither Oâny Mac-Rorye and Tyrell who originally an Englishman was growne a deadly enemie to the English Nation with four hundred Kernes Against these Thomas Norris President of the Province marcheth to Killmallock with a good force but finding that the Irish Souldiers of his Company were ready to revolt he was faine to disperse his Army and retire to Corke Hereupon the Rebells grew insolent spoyled the Countrey and in cruell manner put all the English to the sword Furthermore they declare Fitz Thomas to be Earl of Desmondâ but upon condition he should hold of O-Nealâ that is of Tir-Oen who now dispatched Letters to the Spaniard relating his victories to the full and vowing to accept no termes of peace with the English and yet at the same instant after his
the like whereof had not been known in former Ages should not be drawn into Example In her fortieth yeer in a Parliament at Westminster were granted her by the Clergy three entire Subsidies and by the Laity as many with six fifteenths and Tenths In her two and fortieth yeer to furnish her self with money towards the Irish War she delegated certain Commissioners to confirm the Crown Lands to the possessors that held any of controverted Titles and to take money for the Confirmation thereby to take away the troubles by concealers who at this time were very busie Of her LAVVS and ORDINANCES IN a Parliament holden in her first yeer an Act was made That every person should go to Divine Service upon Sundayes and Holy-dayes or else pay twelve pence to the poor Also it was enacted That Bishops should not let the Lands of the Church longer then for one and twenty yeers or three Lives except to the Queen or her Successors In her third yeer Proclamation was made That the Teston coyned for twelve pence and in the Raign of King Edward embased to six pence should not be currant but for four pence the Groat but for two pence and the piece of two pence but for a penny And not long after all the said base Moneyes were called in and fine Sterling money was allowed for them after the Rate For Ireland also she coyned Sterling money where nine pence in England went for twelve pence there The Queen was the first that brought certain Counties to deliver Provision at a certain rate that so they might be freed from the Purveyors Also the first that granted allowance to Judges for their Circuit In her sixth yeer in a Parliament then holden it was made Treason to refuse taking the Oath of Supremacy yet with this limitation That by it the blood should not be dishonoured nor goods confiscate nor the Oath to be required of any Baron of the Kingdom Also this yeer by a Common Councell in London It was enacted That all such Citizens as from thenceforth should be constrained to sell their houshold-stuff Leases of houses or such like should first cause the same to be cried thorow the City by a man with a Bell and then to be sold by the common Outcryer appointed for that purpose and he to receive one farthing upon the shilling for his pains In her three and twentieth yeer she represseth by Proclamation excesse in apparell Gold Chayns and Clokes which men wore down to their heels The length of Swords was limitted to three Foot and Daggers to twelve Inches besides the Hilts. Buildings likewise in the Suburbs were restrained In-mates forbidden and expresse charge set forth That no dwelling house should be new built within three miles of any of the City Gates under pain of imprisonment and losse of the materialls In her time was set on foot by Sir Thomas Smith the Law made for the serving of Colledges with provision to the great benefit of those Scholasticall Societies In her two and fortieth yeer she setteth forth Proclamations against the Transportation of Gold or Silver wrought or unwrought according to the former Acts of Parliament in that case provided This yeer also she founded the Company of the East India Merchants and allowed them ample Priviledges In her three and fourtieth yeer all Monopolies are called in by Proclamation In her four and twentieth yeer severe Laws are made against Papists some inflicting death some fine and imprisonment In her eight and twentieth yeer a Proclamation was set forth prohibiting to sow Woâd within eight miles of any of the Queens Houses and four miles off any Cities or Towns Corporate AFFAIRS of the CHURCH in her time ON Sunday the first of Ianuary next after the Queens coming to the Crown by vertue of her Proclamation the English Letany was read accordingly as was used in her Graces Chappell in all Churches thorow the City of London and likewise the Epistle and Gospel of the day begun to be read at Masse-time in the English Toâgue Also in a Parliament holden in her first yeer the first Fruits and Tenths were restored to the Crown and the Supreme Government over the State Ecclesiasticall and the book of Common-Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments in the English Tongue was restored and by degrees the Protestant Religion was established The Bishops that refused the Oath of Supremacy were all removed and Protestant Bishops placed in their room It was enacted also That all persons should go to Divine Service upon Sundayes and Holy-dayes and a Fine of twelve pence imposed upon every one that should be absent and the same to be given to the poor In her fourth yeer the Queen was solicited by Pope Pius to send her Orators to the Councell of Trent which she refused as not acknowledging it a lawfull Councell In a Parliament holden in her eighth yeer it was enacted and by a generall consent declared That the Election of the Arch-bishops and Bishops in England together with their Consecration Confirmation and Investiture which some persons slanderously called in question was lawfull and Canonicall and that they were rightly and according to the Acts and Statutes of the Kingdom chosen and consecrated In her eleventh yeer there arose in England two contrary factions in Religion on the one side Thomas Harding Nicholas Sanders and other Divines that had fled out of England began to exercise the Episcopall Jurisdiction upon the Queens Subjects which they had derived from the Sea of Rome On the other side Colman Burton Hallingham Benson and other making profession of the pure Religion would allow of nothing but what was directly taken out of the Scriptures openly condemning the received Discipline of the Church of England together with the Church Liturgy and the very Calling of Bishops as savouriâg too much of the Romish Religion protesting in the Pulpiâs That it was an impious thing to hold any thing common with the Church of Rome and used all diligence to have the Church of England reformed in every point according to the Rule of the Church of Geneva These although the Queen commanded to be committed to prison yet it is incredible how upon a sudden their followers encreased known by the envious name of Puritans This sect so mightily encreased that in her sixteenth yeer the Queen and Kingdom was extremely troubled with some of the Clergy who breathing out nothing but Evangelicall parity cryed down the Ecclesiasticall Form of Government as a thing polluted with Romane drâggs and setting forth Books likewise Intituled The Admonition to the Parliament and the Defence of the Admonition they refused to resort to the Divine Service publikely in use and framed to themselves other Rites Whereupon the Queen to suppresse them whom by no means she liked commanded every where the severity of the Law touching the Uniformity of Common-Prayer to be put in execution and those books upon pain of Imprisonment to be delivered into the hands of the Bishops or some
persons but afterward all sorts of men without any difference were admitted that it came almost to bee doubted whether the Dignity of the Order did more grace the persons or the meanesse of the persons disgrace the Order and indeed when the Lawes of an Institution are not in some measure observed it seemes to make a kind of nullity in the collation About this time on Sunday the â4 of October an exemplar pennance was imposed upon Sir Peckâall Brââkas Knight which was to stand at Pauls Crosse in a white sheet holding a stick in his hand having been formerly convicted before the high Commissioners for many notorious Adulteries with divers women This yeare 1614. in the month of Iuly Christianus King of Denmark out of his love to his sister and King Iames came the second time into England but as being now secure of himselfe privately and with a small company so as he came to the Queen at Somerset house unexpected and before any knowledge was had of his comming but K. Iames being then in progresse in Bedford-shire and hearing of it came presently back and after he had entertained him here with Hunting Hawking running at Ring Bear-baiting Plays Fire-worksâ and Fencing on the first of August Prince Charles brought him aboard his Ship who then took his leave and returned home In Octob. this yeare was a call of Sarjeants at Law being 11. in number namely George Wild Wil Towes Richâ Bawtrie Henry Finch Thââ Chamberlain Francis Moârâ Thomas Attow Iohn Moâre Francis Harvie Charles Chibbourn and Tho. Richardson and in Trenity Terme before there had two other been called namely Sir Randal Creâ of Lincolâs Inne and Sir Robert Hitcham of Grayes Inne Knights About this time an Embassador came from the young Emperour of Russia to King Iames desiring his continuall love and amity and to be a means of making attonemeââ between him and the K. of Swethland and withall presented him with a rich present of Furs which was no smal honour to the K. of great Britain to have so great a Potentate as the Emperor of Russia a solicit him to be his mediator Though King Iames out of all naturall goodnesse was addicted to peace yet out of providence he neglected not to be prepared for war and thereupon in the yeare 1610. had granted priviledges to a society called of the Millitarie Garden and this year 1614 caused a Muster of men to be presented before him which was performed to his great liking and to the great commendation of the City About this time a memorable Act was performed by M. Hug. Middleton Citizen and Gold-smith of London and borne in Denâigh-shire who having an Act of Parliament for his Warrant with infinite cost and indefatigable labour brought water to the City of London from the two great springs of Chadwell and Amwell in Hartfort-shire having cut a Channell from thence to a place neere Islington whither he conveyed it to a large Pan and from thence in pipes of young Elmes to all places of the City for as the Poeth saith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Nothing is so commodious for the life of man as water Another memorable Act was about this time done on the North side on Lon. called Moore-fields which being before invironed with deep stinking ditches and noysome common showers was now not only made faire sweet but so levelled into walkes and let with trees that it is the pleasantest place of all the City The next yeare being 1615 another memorable Act for the benefit and beauty of the City of London was performed for Smith-field which was before a rude dirty place was now paved all over and strong railes sequestring the middle part of it were set up to make it a faire walking place and fit for Market or any other use The Lady Arbella a neare kinsewoman of the Kings had sometime before without the Kings privity secretly married Master William Seymour younger son of the Earle of Hartford now Earle of Hartford himselfe for which they were both committed to the Tower and now this yeare on the seven and twentieth day of Sep. she ended her lif there and was buried in the Chappell Royall at Westminster This yeare also in Iuly were Enstalled Knights of the Garter Francis Earle of Rutland Sir George Villers Master of the Horse and Sir Robert Sidney Viscount Lisââ and in another kind of Honour the Earle of Arundell the Lord Carews and Doctor Andrews Bishop of Ely were sworne Privie Counsellours Wales by the death of Prince Henry had been a good while without a Prince and now to supply that place Prince Charles is Created Prince of Wales In Ioy whereof the Town of Ludlow in Shropshire and the City of London performed great Triumphs and the more to honour his Creation There were made five and twenty Knights of the Bathe all them Lords or Barons sons and yet more to honour it there were forty selected Gentlemen of the Innes of Court that performed a solemne Iusts at Barries with great magnificence This yeare was a Censure of divers great Delinquents for first Sir Edward Cookâ was upon displeasure discharged from being Lord Chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench and two dayes after his discharge Sir Henry Montagâe the Kings Sergeant at Law was placed in his room Next to him the Lord Egerton whyther disabled by sicknesse or age to exercise the place or upon displeasure also had the Sele taken from him which was delivered to Sir Francis Bacon the King's Attourney he made first Lord Keeper and the Lord Egerton dying soon after Lord Chancellour Not long after him Sir Henry Yelverton the Kings Attourney for adding new priviledges to the Londoâers Charter without the Kings privity was in displeasure put from his place and in his room was placed Sir Thomas Coventry the Kings Sollicitor But awhile after Sir Henry âelverton was made a puny Iudge of the Common Pleas having indeed the reputation of an excellent Lawyer And yet this work of Censuring stayed not here for much about this time Thomas Earle of Suffolk Lord Treasurer of England had the staffe of his Office taken from him which was soon after delivered to Sir Henry Montagââ Lord Chiefe Iustice of the Kings Beâch If Sir Iohn Benet Iudge of the Prerogative Court had made a little more haste he mihght have made one in this number of Delinquents but he came short three or foure yeares and then being charged by his own servant with brybery he was put from his place and censured in the Starre-Chamber to pay twenty thousand pounds and in his roome was placed Sir William Byrde a man of more integrity Though King Iames upon the death of Queene Elizabeth came to reside in England yet âe forgot not that Scotland was his native Countrey and therefore after he had spent some yeares in England to acquaint himselfe with the State of the Kingdome In March this yeare one thousand six hundred and sixteentâ he made a Iourney into Scotland for though
he had left very able men to sit at the Helme there in his absence yet he knew that as it is the Masters Eye that makes the Horse fat So it is the Prince's presence sometimes that keeps out many distempers in a State that would otherwise creep inâ and now when in his staying six Months there he had seen all things well setled both in the Ecclesiasticall State and in the Temporall and made it appeare that he resided not in England out of any neglect of Scotland but to the end he migt be in the place of most conveniency to both Kingdoms on the fifteenth of September he returned to London not more to the griefe of the Scots to leave him than to the joy of the English to receive him so much was King Iames as a just and wise Prince beloved of both the Nations Now comes to be related a matter of speciall observation Sir Walter Râwlegh had lived a condemned man many yeares in the Tower and now his Destiny brought him to his end by liberty which it could not do by imprisonment for out of a longing for liberty he propounded a project to the King upon which as he was a well spoken man and of a great capacity he set such coulours of probability especially guilding it over with the Gold he would fetch from a Mine in Guyana and that without any wrong at all to the King of Spaâne if he might be allowed to go the Iourney that the King if he gave not credit that he could performe it at least gave way that he should undertake it and thereupon with diverse ships accompanied with many Knights and Gentlemen of quality he set forward on the Voyage but when after long search or shew of search no such place of Treasure or no such treasure could be found whether it were that he thought it a shame to returne home with doing nothing or that his Malus Genius thrust him upon the Designe He fell upon Saint Thâmâ a Towne belonging to the King of Spaine sacked it pillaged it and burnt it and here was the first part of his Tragicall Voyage acted in the death of his eldest son the last part was Acted in his own death at his returne For Gundomore the Spanish Lieger did so aggravate this fact of his to the King against him that it seemed nothing would give satisfaction but Rawlegh's head without which he doubted there would follow a breach of the League between the two Nations Rawlegh excused it by saying that he was urged to it by the Spaniards first assaulting of him and besides that he could not come at the Myne without winning this Town but Gundomor was too strong an Adversary for him and the King preferring the publique Peace before the life of one man already condamned gave way to have the Sentence of his former Condemnation executed upon him and thereupon brought to the Kings Bench Baââe he was not newly Arraigned or Indicted as being already Mârtuus in Lege but only hath the former Sentence averred against him and so carryed to the Gate-house and from thence the next morning to the Parliament Yard a Scaffold was there erected upon which after fourteen yeares reprivall his head was cut off at which time such abundance of bloud issued from his vâiâes that shewed he had stock of Nature enough left to have contiâued him many yeares in life âhough now above threescore yeares old if it had not been taken away by the hand of Violence And this was the end of the great Sir Walter Rawlegh great sometimes in the ââvour of Queene Elizabeth and next to Drake the great scourge and hate of the Spaniard who had many things to be commended in his life but none more than his constancy at his death which he tooke with so undaunted a resolution that he might perceive he had a certaine expectation of a better life afteâ it so farre he was from holding those Atheisticall opinions an aspersion whereof some traducing persons had cast upon him About this time King Iames made a progresse to the Vniversity of Cambridge who delighted with the Disputations and other scholasticall exercises he stayed three whole dayes and could have been content to have stayed as many yeares for next being a King he was made to be a Scholler In the yeare 1619. being the seventeenth yeere of King Iames his Raigne that knot of love which above twenty yeares had beene tyed betweene him and his Queene was by death dissolved for on Tuesday this yeere the second of March Queen Anne dyed at Hampton Court whose Corps was brought to Denmark house and from thence conveighed to Westminster wherein the Royall Chappell with great solemnity it was interred a Princesse very memorable for her vertue and not a little for her Fortune who besides being a Queene was so happy as to be Mother of such admired children as she brought into the World But the dissolving of this knot cast the King into an extreame sicknesse and after some recovery into a Relaps from which notwithstanding it pleased God to deliver him as having yet some great worke to doe This yeare on Munday the third of May one Mr. Williams a Barrister of the Middle Temple was arraigned at the Kings Bench for civilling and for writing Bookes against the King and upon Wednesday following was hanged and quartered at Charing Crosse. But an action of another nature was performed this yeare the seventeenth of Iuly not unworthy the relating which was this that one Bernard Calvert of Andover rode from St. Georges Church in Southwarke to Dover from thence passed by Barge to Calice in France and from thence returned back to Saint Georges Church the same day setting out about three a clock in the morning and returned about eight a clock in the Evening fresh and lustiâ In the yeare 1621. a Parliament was holden at Westminster wherein two great examples of Iustice were shewed which for future terrour are not unfit to bee here related One upon Sir Gyles Montpesson a Gentleman otherwayes of good parts but for practising sundry abuses in erecting and setting up new Innes and Alehouses and eâacting great summes of money of people by pretence of Letters Patents granted to him for that purpose was sentenced to bee degraded and disabled to beare any office in the Common-wealth though he avoyded the execution by flying the Land but upon Sir Erancis Michell a Iustice of Peace of Middlesex and one of his chiefe Agents the sentence of Degradation was executed and he made to ride with his face to the horse tayle thorough the City of London The other example was of Sir Francis Bacon Viscount St. Albans Lord Chancelour of England who for bribery was put from his place and committed to the Tower but after some few dayes enlarged in whose place Doctor Williams Deane of Westminster was made Lord Keeper The Count Palatine being now strengthned with the allyance of the King of Great Brittaine was thought a fit
destined to his bed and for this purpose the Earle of Carlile and the Earle of Holland were sent into France to treat of a marriage with a younger daughter of the Great Henrie the fourth King of France deceased and sister to the present King Lewis which marriage afterward took effect but was not accomplished in King Iames his dayes who dyed soon after the agreement It was now the yeare 1623. in which in Michaelmas Terme there was a Call of fifteene Sarjeants at Law who kept their Feast in the Middle-Temple Hall Some Passages of small moment I confesse are omitted by me in this Raigne of King Iames as whereof for want of knowing the particulars I dare not venture upon making the Relation which if some men would have done the truth of our Chronicles should not have been mingled with so many falsities Of his TAXATIONS IN his second yeare in the moneth of September he sent Privie Seales to the wealthiest Citizens of London for monies to bee borrowed of them and in October following the customes of Merchandises both outward and inward were raised and then were letten out to Farme In a Parliament holden at Westminster the third yeare of his Reigne there were given him three entire Subsidies and six fifteens by the Temporalty and by the Clergie foure entire Subsidies This yeare also Henry Lord Mordant convicted in the Star-Chamber for divers misprisions was fined to pay ten thousand Marks and Edward Lord Sturtân for the like offence to pay six thousand Marks and Henry Earle of Northumberland for offences laid to his charge to pay thirty thousand pounds and some yeares after Sir Iohn Bennet Iudge of the Prerogative Court was fined to pay twenty thousand pounds In his fourth yeare he repayed threescore thousand pounds to the Citizens of London which the Londoners had lent to Queen Elizabeth three yeares before her death an act by which he got more love than hee payed money In his seventh yeare hee had ayd throughoât England for making his eldest Son Prince Henrie Knight which though levied with great moderation brought him in great summes of money In his eighteenth yeaâe in a Parliament holden at Westminster the Temporalty gave him two Subsidies and the Clergie three and in another Parliament in the yeare 1623. the Temporalty gave him three subsidies and three fifteens the Clergy foure Subsidies Besides these Subsidies hee sent abroâd many great Privie Seales and had also a benevolence throughout the Realme not without some grudging but without any just cause for it should have been remembred that he took it not out of covetousnesse to gather wealth but out of very necessity to supply wants For by his imploying many Embassadours in Ordinary many Extraordinarie by his necessarie bounty to his followers and by his charge of keeping severall Courts none of all which hee could avoyd His expences were farre greater than any of his Predecessors had ever beene Of his Lawes and Ordinances THE day of his removing from Charter-house at his first comming into England he caused Proclamation to be made that all Monopolies and Protections should cease as likewise all oppressions done by Salt-Peeter men by Purveiers and Carters On the 26. of May following hee set forth a Proclamation restraining all persons under great penalties from killing of Deere or any kind of Fowle used for Hawking The seventeenth of May Proclamation was made against Robberies on the borders and on the nineteenth of May another for âniting the people inhabiting about the borders of England and âcââland to live in love ând quiâtnesse In this first yeare in a Parliament âhen holdenâ it was Enacted that neither Arch-bishop nor Bishop should Alienate Grant or Demise or in any sort convey no not to the King himselfe âây of the Honours Lands Tenements or Hereditaments being parcell of the possessions of his Arch-biââop or Bishoprick and if any were it should be utterly voyd and of no effect notwithstanding any former Law Act or Ordinance to the contrarie He then also caused himself by Proclamation to be Enstyled King of Great Britaine that the division of England and Scotland might be no more remembred In his second yeare by his Letters Patents he incorporated the Felâ-makers of London by the name of Master Wardens and Communalty of the Art or Mysterie of the Felt-makers granting them divers privileges and liberties for their good government of their Corporation In Novem. of his second yeare were Proclaimed in London certaine new pieces of coyne both of gold and silver with the true valuation and weights of them according to the Mint of both Nations English and Scottish In a Parliamenâ holden the 3. year of his Reigne the Oath of Allegiance was devised and ordained and soon after minââtred to all sorts of people This yeere also hee mâde Proclamation to redresse the misimployment of Lââds or goods given to ãâã uses Also this yeare he set forth a Proclamation for beariâg of ãâã in Sâips to be in this manner that from thenceforth all the Subjects of greââ ârittââââ should beaâe in their mayne top the Red-Crosse coâmonly called the ãâã Geââges Crâsse and the ãâã Crosse commonly callâd St. Andreâââ Crâsse joynâd togeâher and the Subjects of South-Britâââââ should caâây in their Foretop only the Red-âroâse as they were wont and ãâã âubjects of North-Briâââine only the White-Croâse In this âourth yeare on the ãâ¦ã he set âorth a Proclamation commanding all Iesuiâs Seminâry ãâ¦ã to depaââ the Realme before the first of August following and ãâ¦ã returne upon paâne of death according to diverse Statutes in that ãâã ârovided In his second yeare he had set forth a Proclamation against ãâ¦ã increase of new buildings which being little regarded Now in his fourââ yââre he renewed the said Proclamationâ adding withall that the ãâã and windowes of all new buildings should be either of Brick oâ stoneâ ãâã ââsobeying whereof many were called in the Star-chamber and there finedâ ãâ¦ã yeare he gave order for planting of Mulberry Trees and breeding of ãâã wormes that England might be a Country as well of silke as Cloath In his ââventh yeare he instituted the Order of the Baronets which hath much degeâââated âince his institution and thereby having been devised for the benefit of ãâã hath caused but little contentment unto England This yeare also the âing himselfe in person came to the Star-chamber where he had appointed the ãâã men to meetâ and there for the better keeping of Coynes of Gold within ãâã Realmeâ he raised the prizes of them ordayning the price called the Vnity which went before but for twenty shillings to bee curâant now for twâ and twenây the double Crowne and all other peeces to encrease in the lâke proportion in his fifteenth year he granted to the Apothecaries of London to be a Corporation for themselves and their successours for ever and by Letters Paâenâs made them a Body Politick and corporate In his time by his appointment â strict decree passed in the Star-chamber
St. Edmonds berry being by chance set on fire continued burning till it had consumed 160. houses but by the Kings bountifulnesse giving 500. loads of timber and the City of Londons reliefe the Towne was forthwith new builded in a fairer manner than it was before In the yeare 1613â on the seventeenth of April in the parish of Stândish in Lancashire a mayden child was borne having foure legges foure armes two bellies joyned to one back one head with two faces the one before the other behind like the picture of Ianus This year also on the 26. of Iune in the parish of Christs-Church in Hampshire on Iohn Hitchel a Carpenter lying in bed with his wife a yong child by them was himself the child both burned to death with a suddain lightning no fire appearing outwardly upon him and yet lay burning for the space of almost three dayes till he was quite consumed to ashes This yeare also on the seventh of August the Towne of Dorchister was quite consumed with fire begun on the house of a Tallow Chandler destroying all the houses except a few neare the Church and all their wares and goods to the value of two hundred thousand pounds yet not any man or woman perished About the same time also the Play-house called the Globe upon the Banks side neare London was quite consumed with fire by discharging a Piece of Ordnance and yet no man hurt and about foure years after a new built Play-house neare Golding-lane called the Fortune was by negligence of a Candle cleane burnt to the ground In the year 1614. the Town of Stâatford upon Avon was burned and left the water should be behind in doing of mischiefe so great Iundations were at this time in Norfolke and Lincoln-shire that the sea entred twelve miles into the land In the yeare 1612 on the 18. of Novemb. a Blazing star bgan to be seene in the South-east about five a clock in the morning the flame or streame whereof enclined towards the west This comet in the opinion of D. Bâmbridge the great Mathematician of Oxford was as far above the Moon as the Moon is above the earth what iâ portended is onely known to God but the sequell of it was that infinite slaughters and devastations followed upon it both in Germany and other Countries In the year 1622 on Friday the 24. of October a Roman Catholike Priest preached in the after-noon at Hunsdon house in the Black Friers in London in an upper chamber where there were assembled above 300 men and women when about the middle of the Sermon a great part of the Floore brake and fell down with such violence that it brake down the next floorâ under it in the fall whereof were slain the Preacher and almost 100â of his Auditors besides as many more hurt In this Kings time course paper commonly called white brown paper was first made in Engl. specially in Surry about Winsor Of his Wife and Children HE married Anne the daughter of Frederick the second King of Denmarke whose marriage was there solemnized in the yeare 1589. By whom he had borne in Scotland two Sons Henrie who dyed before him and Charles who succeeded him in the Crown and one daughter named Elizabeth married to Frederick the fiâth of that name Count Palatine of the Rheine by whom she had many children both Sons and Daughters King Iames had also by his wife Queen Anne two other daughters borne in England the Lady Marie and the Lady Sophia who both dyed youngâ the Lady Marie at about three yeares old the Lady Sophia the next day after she was borne and were both of them buried with great solemnity in the Chappell Royall at Westminster Of his Personage and Conditions HE was of stature somewhat higher than ordinary of a wel compacted body of an Ambourne haire of a full and pleasing viâageâ in his latter dayes enclining to be fat and buâleyâ of bodily exercises he tooke most delight in huntingâ which yet some thought hee used rather as a retiring himselfe from the importunity of Staâe affaires than for any great pleasure hee took in it It is said he had such a fashion in riding that it could not so properly bee said he rid as that his horse carried him for hee made but little use of his Bridle and would say a horse never stumbled but when hee was reined Hee was of an admirable pregnancie of wit and that pregnancy much improved by continuall study from his child-hood by which he had gotten such a promptnesse in expressing his mind that his extemporall speeches were little inferiour to his premeditated writings Many no doubt had read as much and perhaps more than he but scarce ever any concocted his reading into judgement as he did by which hee became so judicious that though hee could not Prophesie yet he could presage and his Conjectures were little lesse than Oracles In all the Liberall Sciences hee was we may say a Master of Arts but in Divinity a Doctor as he made appeare in the Conference at Hampton Court and is seene still by the learned Writings he hath leât behind him And as for that part of the Politicks which concernes Monarchie Regere Imperio populos which himselfe used to call King Craft in this he excelled Hee knew how to take the inclinations of the people at their first bound and never suffer them to rise higher than hee could well reach them nor to grow stronger than he could either alter or divert them He would be sure to keep his Subjects in a temper of contentment which if he could not doe by preventives he would by lenitives He was so wise that hee could dissemble without seeming a Dissembler be free in opening his mind and yet keep counsaile He was as a provident Pilot that in a calme would provide for a storme and you should never finde him committing the fault of Non pâtaram He was both Marti Mercurio but not tam morti quam Mercurio as being of his temper who said Cedant Arma Toga and indeed seeing peace is the end of both It were not wisedome to seeke it by Armes if it may be had by the Gowne as it is in the Aphorisme Consiliâ omnia experiri prius quam Armis sapientem Decet That which was bountie in him being a King would have beene frugality if he had beene a private person there being of both one radicall reason Of all the Morrall vertues he was eminent for chastity in which the Poet seemes to include all vertuâ where he saith Nulli fas casto sceleratum in sistere limen By nulli casto meaning no vertuous person it was a manifest argument of his being an excellent Prince that comming next to the admirable Queen Elizabeth which was in a manner to compare them together yet there appeared no inequallity that it might not untruely be said King Iames was but the continuation of Queen Elizabeth the same vertue though different sexes and now to
but these last more by humility shewed to their Prince Leolyn then by force of Aâmes But yet he must not have all the glory of his time some must be imparted to his sister Elflede who being marryed to Ethelred Earle of Mercia had by him a daughter but with so grievous paânes in her travaile that ever after she refused the nuptiall bed of her Husband saying it was a foolish pleasure that brought with it so excessive paines And thereupon after her husbands death made choyce to follow the warres assisting her brother both against the Welsh and against the Danes whom she brought to be at her disposing Dying she was buryed at Glocester in the Monastery of Saint Peter which her Husband and her selfe had built King Edwârd himselfe after foure and twenty yeares Raigne deceased at Faringdon in Barkshire in the yeare 924. and was buryed in the new Monastery of Winchester which his Father began and himselfe wholly finished having had by his three Wives six Sonnes and nine Daughters of whom his eldest sonne Athelstan succeeded him in the kingdome whom his Grandfather King Alfred had with his owne hands Knightedâ in an extraordinary manner putting upon him a purple Robe and girding him with a girdle wrought with Pearle His second sonne Elfred he so loved that he caused him to be Crowned King with himselfe which yet he enjoyed but a short time being taken away by death His third sonne Elsward presently upon his Fathers death dyed himselfe also His fourth son Edwyn was by his brother Athelstan out of jealousie of state put into a little Pinnace without either Tackle or Oares accompanyed onely with one Page with griefe whereof the young Prince leaped into the Sea and drowned himselfe His fifth and sixth sonnes Edmund and Edred came in succession to be Kings of England Of his Daughters the eldest Edytha was marryed to Sithricke the Danish King of Northumberland and he deceasing she entred into a Monastery which she began at Tamworth in Warwickshire and there dyed His second daughter Elflede tooke upon her the vow of Virginity in the Monastery of Ramsey in the County of South-hampton where she dyed and was interred His third daughter Eguina was first marryed to Charles the Simple King of France and after his decease to Herbert Eaâle of Vermandois His fourth daughter Ethelhild became a Nunne in the Monastery of Wilton which was sometime the head Towne giving name to the whole County of Wilâshire and anciently called Ellandon That we may see in those first times of Religion when there was leaât knowledge there was most devotion His fifth daughter Edhold was marryed to Hugh surnamed the Great Earle of Paris and Constable of France And Edgith his sixth daughter to Otho the Emperour of the West âurnamed the Great His seventh daughter Elgina was marryed to a Duke of Italy His ninth Edgina to Lewis Prince of Aquitaine in France After the death of King Edward his eldest sonne Athelstan succeeded and was Crowned at Kingstone upon Thames in the County of Surrey by Athelmuâ Archbishop of Canterbury in the yeare 924. The beginning of whose Raigne was molested with the Treason of one Elfrid a Nobleman who being apprehended and sent to Rome to purge himselfe and there denying the Act upon his Oath fell suddenly downe and within three dayes dyed to the eternall âerrour of all perjured persons Presently upon this another dysaster befell King Athelstan for having caused his brother Edwyns death as before is shewed chiefly procured by his Cupbearers suggestions It hapned not long after that his Cup-bearer in his service at a Festivall stumbling with one foote and recovering himselfe with the other and saying merrily See how one brother helpes another His words put the King in remembrance of his Brother whose death he had caused and with remorse thereof not onely caused his Cup-bearer to be put to death but did also seven yeareâ penance and built the two Monasteries of Middleton and Michelnesse in the County of Dorset in expiation of his offence This King ordained many good Lawes and those to binde as well the Clergy as the Laity amongst which one was the Attachment of Felons that stole aâove twelve pence and were above twelve yeares old Of this King there is one Act related that may seeme ridiculous another that may seeme miraculous For what more ridiculous then that going to visit the Tombe of Saint Iohn of Beverley and having nothing else of worth to offer he offered his knife in devotion to the Saint Yet the miracâlous is more apparent For going to encounter the Danes and praying to God for good successe he prayed withall that God would shew some signe of his rightfull cause and thereupon striking with his sword he strucke it an ell deepe into a hard stone which stood so cloven a long time after But whether this be true or no this certainly is true that he obtained many great victories against the Danes against the Scots against the Irâsh and against the Welsh whose Princes he brought to be his Tributaries entring Covenant at Herefârd to pay him yearely twenty pound weight of gold three hundred of silver and five and twenty hundred head of Cattell besides a certaine number of Hawkes and Hounds Lastly he joyned Northumberland to the rest of his Monarchy and enlarged his Dominions beyond any of his Predecessours which made all Neighbouring Princes to seeke his friendship and to gratify him with rare presents as Hugh King of France sent him the sword of Constantine the Great in the hilt whereof was one of the nayles that fastned Christ to his Crosse He sent him also the speare of Charles the Greaâ reputed to be the same that pierced Christs side as also part of the Crosse whereon Christ suffered and a piece of the Thorny Crowne put upon his head Likewise Otho the Emperour who had marryed his sister sent him a vessell of pretious stones artificially made wherein were seene Landskips with Vines Corne and Men all of them seeming so artificially to move as if they were growing and alive Likewise the King of Norway sent him a goodly Ship with a gilt Steâne purple âayles and the decke garnished all with gold Of these accounted Holy Reliques King Athelstan gave part to the Abbey of Saint Swithin in Winchester and the rest to the Monastery of Mamesbury whereof Adelm was the Founder and his Tutelar Saint He new built the Monasteries of Wilton Michelnesse and Middleton Founded Saint Germans in Cornwall Saint Petrocus at Bodmyn and the Priory of Pilton new walled and beautifyed the City of Exceter and enriched either with Jewels or Lands every speciall Abbey of the Land But the chiefest of his workes for the service of God and good of his Subjects was the Translation of the Bible into the Saxon Tongue which was then the Mother tongue of the Land He Raigned fifteenâ yeares Dyed at Glocestâr and was buryed at Mamesbery in the yeare 940. having never beene marryed
After the death of Athelstan his brother Edmund the fifth sonne of his Father succeeded and was Crowned at Kingstone upon Thames but no sooner was the Crowne set upon his head but the Danes were upon his backe and in Northumberland made Insurrections whom yet he not onely repressed in that part but tooke from them the Townes of Lincolne Leycester Darby Stafford and Nottingham compelling them withall to receive Baptisme and to become his Subjects so as the Country was wholly his as farre as Humber Cumberland also which had beene an entire Kingdome of it selfe and was now ayded by Leolyn King of South-wales he utterly wasted and gave it to Malcolme King of Scots to hold of him by Fealty After his returning home he âet himselfe to ordaine Lawes for the good of his People which Master Lambert hath since translaâed into Latine But after all his noble Acts both in Warre and Peace he came at last to a lamentable end for at his Manour of Pucklekerks in the County of Glocester interposing himselfe to part a fray betweene two of his servants he was thrust through the body and so wounded that he dyed and was buryed at Glastenbury after he had Raigned five yeares and seven moneths leaving behinde him two young Sonnes Edwyn and Edgar King Edmund dying his brother Edred in the minority of his Nephewes was Crowned at Kingstone upon Thames by Otho Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the yeare 946. Not as Protector It seemes that kinde of Authority was not yet come in use but as King himselfe though with purpose to resigne when the right Heire should come of age which at this time needed not for while the right Heire was scarce yet fourteene yeares old he resigned to him the Kingdome by resigning his life to Nature after he had twice repressed the rebelling Northumbrians and twice forgiven their rebelling which yet was not a simple Rebellion for they had sent for Anlafe the Dane out of Ireland and made him their King which place for foure yeares he held and then weary of his government they thrust him out and take one Hericus to be their King whom not long after they put downe also and then partly allured by the lenity of King Edred and partly forced by his Armes they submit themselves to him and aske forgivenesse to whom he as a mercifull Prince giants an Act of Oblivion and received them againe into protection This Prince was so devout and humble that he submitted his body to be chastised at the will of Dunstan Abbot of Glastenbury and committed all his Treasure and Jewels to his custody The stately Abbey of Mich at Abington neare Oxford built by King Inas but destroyed by the Danes he newly re-edified endowing it with revenues and Lands the Charters whereof he confirmed with seales of Gold He ordained Saint Germans in Cornwall to be a Bishops See which there continued till by Canutus it was annexed to the Episcopall See of Kyrton in Devonshire Both which Sees were afterward by King Edward the Confessor translated to the City of Exceter He left behinde him two Sonnes Elfred and Bertfred and was buryed in the old Minster without the City of Winchester whose bones with other Kings are to this day preserved in a gilt Coffer fixed upon the wall in the South side of the Quire After Edred not any of his sonnes but his Nephew Edwyn the eldest sonne of King Edmund succeeded and was annoynted and Crowned at Kingston upon Thames by Otho Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the yeare 955. This Prince though scarce fourteene yeares old and in age but a childe yet was able to commit sinne as a man For upon the very day of his Coronation and in sight of his Lords as they sate in Counsell he shamefully abused a Lady of great Estate and his neare kinswoman and to mend the matter shortly after slew her Husband the more freely to injoy his incestuous pleasure And whether for this infamous fact or for thrusting the Monkes out of the Monasteries of Mamesbury and Glastenbury and placing marryed Priests in their roomes as also for banishing Dunstan the holy Abbot of Glastenbury out of the Realme a great part of his Subjects hearts was so turned against him that the Mercians and Northumbrians revolted and swore Fealty to his younger brother Edgar with griefe whereof after foure yeares Raigne he ended his life and was buryed in the Church of the New Abbey of Hyde at Winchester After Edwyn succeeded his younger brother Edgar at the age of sixteene yeares but his Coronation when and where and by whom so uncertaine that some say he was Crowned at Kingston upon Thames by Otho Arch-bishop of Canterbury in the first yeare of his Raigne others say not till the twelfth and William of Mamesbery not till the thirtyeth Another Chronicle saith in his eleventh yeare and that in the City of Bathe by the hands of Dunstan Arch-bishop of Canterbury This King by reason of the tranquillity of his Raigne was surnamed the Peaceable for as he was something inclined to the Danes so the Danes never offered to stirre in all his time and as for the Saxons they acknowledged him their sole Soveraigne without division of Provinces or Titles His Acts were some Vertuous some Politick some Just some Pious and yet all these not without some mixture of vice To represse dunkennesse which the Danes had brought in he maâe a Law Ordaining a size by certaine pinnes in the pot with penalty to any that should presume to drinke deeper then the marke It was a Politicke device which he used for the destruction of Wolves that in his dayes did great annoyance to the Land For the tribute imposed on the Princes of Wales by King Athelstan he wholly remitted appointing in lieu thereof a certaine number of Wolves yearely to be paid whereof the Prince of North-wales for his part was to pay three hundred which continued for three yeares space and in the fourth yeare there was not a Wolfe to be found and so the tribute ceased He had in his Navy Royall three thousand and sixe hundred ships which he divided into three parts appointing every one of them to a severall Quarter to scowre the Seas and to secure the Coasts from Pirats and left his Officers might be carelesse or corrupted he would himselfe in person saile about all the Coasts of his Kingdome every Summer It was a notable Act of Justice that in his Circuits and Progresses through the Country he would take speciall account of the demeanour of his Lords and specially for his Judges whom he severely punished if he fonnd them Delinquents Warres he had none in all his Raigne onely towards his end the Welshmen moved some rebellion against whom he went with a mighty Army and chastised the Authours but when his Souldiers had gotten great spoyles and made prey upon the innocent Countrey people he commanded them to restore it all backe againe which if it made some few English angry it