Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	army_n	battle_n	wing_n	1,209	5	8.9405	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40792	The history of the most unfortunate prince King Edward II with choice political observations on him and his unhappy favourites, Gaveston & Spencer, containing several rare passages of those times, not found in other historians / found among the papers of, and (supposed to be) writ by Henry Viscount Faulkland ...	Falkland, Henry Cary, Viscount, d. 1633.; Fannant, Edward.	1680 (1680)	Wing F314; ESTC R8909	44,640	88

accompanied with as strange a story which suggests the instigation of a Spirit that in likeness of a Cat had for two years space advised it The King with a true seeling grief lamenting his dishonourable Return from Scotland where his noble Father had so oft display'd his victorious Arms doth vow with a speedy rescue to revenge it He communicates his resolution with the whole body of his Council who are in their advice equally concurrent in the Action The former loss exacts a more care and a better provision York as the fittest place is made the Senate of this grave Assembly Thither resort all the Sages of the Kingdom and make it their first deliberation to secure Berwick that is one of the Keys of the Kingdom and exposed to the greatest hazard This Charge is given to Sir Peter Spalden who was believed able enough both in fidelity and valour A short time discovers him truly possest of neither A small Sum of Money with an expectant Preferment promised betrays the trust reposed and gives the Scots the full possession of the Charge to him committed The Pope wisely foreseeing into the misery of this dissention out of his Christian and pious care sends over two Cardinals to mediate a Peace and Agreement They being arrived in England find the King well disposed so the Conditions might be reasonable and such as might become his Interest and Honour They pass from hence into Scotland and are by the way with a barbarous Example surprized and robb'd The King is infinitely discontented with so inhuman an Act that threw a taint upon the whole Nation Great enquiry is presently made which finds out the Actors and sends Sir Peter Middleton and Sir Walter Selby to a shameful and untimely execution Immediately at the heels of this follows another Example no less infamous and full of danger Sir Gilbert Denvil and others pretending themselves to be Outlaws with a jolly Army to the number of Two hundred ramble up and down the Country acting divers notorious Insolencies and Robberies The Fame of an attempt so new and unexpected without a speedy prevention seemed to intimate a greater danger A Commission is immediately sent out which apprehends the heads of this encreasing mischief and delivers them over to the hand of Justice They which confest themselves out of the protection of the Law and glory in their being so fall under his rigour Those that duly examined the truth of this action believed the pretence to be but a Mask that hid a more perilous intention The King by his untemperate and undiscreet actions had lost the hearts of his People and there was a general face of discontent throughout the whole Kingdom The Ulcers festered daily more and more which seemed to presage and threaten without some speedy prevention a dangerous issue All Men discover their ill affections expecting but a Patron that durst declare himself and adventure to hang the Bell about the Cat 's Neck If this disorderly attempt which was but to tast the Peoples Inclinations had succeded the King as it was to be feared had much sooner felt the general loss and revolt of his whole Kingdom But this work was reserved to future time and the operation of those who had the time to effect it with more power and pretence of Justice The crying Maladies of this Climat were such that the Divine Power sent down at one and the self-same instant his three fatal Executioners Plague Dearth and Famine to call upon us for a repentant Reformation No part of the Kingdom is free but was grievously afflicted by the unmerciful Prosecution of one or all these fatal angry Sisters So great a Misery was too much but it is seconded with a sudden Invasion of the hungry Scots who apprehending the advantage of the present Visitation and ill Estate of their Neighbours like a Land-Flood over-run the naked and unprovided Borders The Arch-Bishop of York a grave and wise Prelate in his Element but as far from the Nature as Name of a Soldier resolves to oppose this over-daring and insolent Eruption He levies in hast an Army in number hopeful but it was compos'd of Men fitter to pray for the success of a Battel than to fight it With these and an undaunted hoping Spirit he affronts the Scots and gives them Battel making Mitton upon Swale that honoured his Enemies with the Glory of a second Triumph the place of his Disaster Many Religious Church-men with the purchase of their Lives begin their first Apprentiship in Arms whose loss christ'ned this overthrow The White Battel The intent of this grave Prelate was questionless worthy of a great and singular Commendation but the Act was wholly inconsiderate weak and unadvised It was not proper for his Calling to undertake a Military Function in which he had no experience neither did it agree with his Wisdom or Piety to be an Actor in Blood though the occasion were so great and weighty Too much care and confidence improperly exprest doth many times overthrow and ruin the Cause it seeks to strengthen and advantage There ought to be in all considerations of this nature a mature Deliberation before we come to Action else we lose the Glory of our Aims and commit all to the uncertain hazard of Time and Fortune The Cardinals are now returned out of Scotland by whom the King truly understands that the hopes of Peace are desperate Their leave taken and losses fairly repaired they return to Rome acquainting his Holiness with the success of their Employment The Pope being truly informed that the Scots were neither conformable to his Will or the general Good excommunicates both that usurping King and Kingdom The King nearly touch'd with the loss of Berwick enflamed with the Insolency of his barbarous Enemies and grieved with so great a loss of his People resolves no more to suffer but to transport the War into the very Bowels of Scotland To this effect with speed he hastens out his Directions and gives present Order for the levying of Men Arms and Money to begin the War and continue it The Royal Command and desire of Revenge gives Wings to this Resolution An Army is ready and attends the King's Pleasure before he conceits his Will truly understood or bruited Nothing is wanting but his own Person or a fit Commander to lead them he oseth no time but appears in the Head of his Army before his Enemies had the least knowledge of this Assembly With a hopeful expectation he leads them on and makes Berwick the Rendezvous that should make his Number compleat and perfect Before this Strength that had the warranty of Art and Nature he makes the first Experiment of this Expedition The Town begirt was not more confident of their own strength than assured of a speedy supply or rescue This gave the King a longer delay than he believed and his Enemies leasure to raise and enable their Provisions They saw it a work too full of Danger and Hazard to

venture the breach of the Body of so great an Army that in Worth and Number so far exceeded The memory of former Passages and Trials taught them how to understand their present condition this begets in them a Resolution more solid and hopeful They leave the Road-way and war rather by Discretion than Valour which succeeds so fortunately that they surprize all the English Provisions and enforce the King to a second Return more Fortunate yet much less Honourable It is true he retreated and brought back his Army in safety but he had quitted the Siege which he had vowed to continue against the United Power of Scotland and lost wholly all that Wealth and Luggage he had carried with him This fill'd all Men's mouths with a complaining Grief and made Foreign Nations think the English had lost their former luster and renowned valour It was wondred that an Enemy so weak and contemptible should three several times successively bear away the Garland from those that had so often and knew the way so well to win and wear it But now begins a second Fire of a higher Nature that made the Kingdom a Theater stain'd with the noblest Blood that within her Confines had or Life or Being The King discouraged with his Foreign Fortune lays aside the thoughts of Arms and recalls into his wanton Heart the bewitching vanities of his Youth that had formerly bred him such Distemper He was Royally attended but it was by those that made their Tongues rather the Orators of a pleasing falshood than a true sincerity These were fit Instruments for such an ear that would not hear unless the Music answered in an even correspondency The Infidelity of the Servant is in a true Construction the Misery of the Master which is more or less dangerous as is the weight and measure of his Employment It is in the Election of a Crown a principal Consideration to chuse such Attendants whose Integrity may be the Inducement as well as the Ability else the imaginary help proves rather a Danger than Assistance Neither is it safe or honourable for the Majesty of a King to seem to depend solely on the Wisdom Care or Fidelity of one particular Servant Multiplicity of able Men is the Glory and Safety of a Crown which falls by degrees into confusion when one Man alone acts all parts whence proceeds a World of Error and Confusion The King was not ignorant that such a course would make such as were his but at second hand yet he resolves to make a new choice of one to supply the room of his lost beloved Gaveston Though his diseased Court was furnished with a large variety yet his Eye fixeth on Hugh the younger of the Spencers who was always tractable and conformable to the King's Will and Pleasure This Man was in shew smooth and humble of an insinuating Spirit one that knew his Master's ways and was ever careful to observe them He had applied himself wholly to Edward's will and fed his wanton pleasures with the strains of their own Affection Heat of Spirit and height of Blood consult more with Passion than Reason and a short Deliberation may serve where the Subject was so pleasing and to each side agreeable The King to make his Resolutions eminent with more hast than advisement makes him his Lord Chamberlain and lets the World know it was his Love and Will that thus advanc'd him Scarcely is this new great Officer warm in his unbefitting Authority but he exactly follows his Predecessor-precedent to the Life making all things lawful that were agreable to his Master's Will or his fantastical Humour The Peers of the Kingdom that saw the sudden and hasty Growth of this undeserving Canker resolve to lop or root it up before it should o'retop their Luster Spencer that in the precedent Story of Gaveston beheld the danger of his own condition begins in time to provide and strengthen a Party His aged Father fitter for his Beads than Action he makes a young Courtier and wins the King to give him Power and Assistance He labours to remove from his Master's ear all such as might endanger him and supplies their places with such as were his Creatures Those that were too high for such a surprisal by Persuasion Money or Alliance he seeks to engage and make the Parties this his coming Faction The Body of the Court thus assured his Actions in the State went in an even Correspondency Those that held him at a distance valuing their Fidelity and Honour before so base an advantage saw themselves disgracefully cashier'd and others installed in their Rooms that had neither Worth Birth or Merit The Factious Entertainers of his proffered Amity not only enjoy their own but are advanced higher which made them but the Instruments to act and further the Corruptions of his Will and wicked Nature This Foundation laid they now seem to contemn all fear of danger and in that assurance express their Contempt and Scorn against the Nobility who they knew would never entertain their Society or Friendship While thus the Rule and Manage of all the Royal Affairs in their Power was daily more and more abused the Incensed Barons meet at Sherborough where the Earl of Lancaster the Prime Agent lays before them in a short and grave Discourse the Iniquity and Danger that seemed eminently to threaten both them and the whole Kingdom if such a Resolution were not taken as might assure a speedy Prevention The Fore-knowledge of their Soveraign's Behaviour which would observe no Rule or Proportion in his immodest Affections gave them small hope to prevail by Persuasion or Entreaty They too well understood that Spencer's Pride was too great and haughty to go less without Compulsion and they must sink a Key or neither the Kingdom or themselves against so Inveterate a Hatred could expect in reason Safety or Assurance Hertford Mowbray and Clifford sore a higher pitch and in plain terms affirm That all other Resolutions were vain and hopeless 't was only Arms that must right the Time and State so much disorder'd Benningfield and Mortimer approve this Resolution and as soon give it Life and Action They enter furiously on the Possessions of their Enemies spoyling and wasting like profess'd Enemies Such an Outrage flies with a nimble Wing to the ears of the Owner who as soon makes the King the sharer of his Intelligence and encreaseth it to his own advantage The King sensible of so great an Affront and as tender of the one as cruel to the other publisheth by Proclamation the sentence of his Royal Will and Pleasure The Actors of this Misdemeanor must appear and justifie themselves or presently forsake the Kingdom The Lords that saw their Interests at Stake as they had begun resolve to maintain the Quarrel New Levies and Preparations are dayly made to make good the succeeding Issue Yet the more to justifie those Arms that in the best construction was deemed Rebellions they send to the King a fair