promise of Pardon and good Conditions of Reward And above the rest to assail sap and work into the constancy of Sir Robert Clifford and to win him if they could being the man that knew most of their secrets and who being won away would most appall and discourage the rest and in a manner break the Knot There is a strange Tradition That the King being lost in a Wood of Suspitions and not knowing whom to trust had both intelligence with the Confessors and Chaplains of divers great men and for the better Credit of his Espials abroad with the contrary side did use to have them cursed at St. Pauls by Name amongst the Bead-Roll of the King's Enemies according to the Custom of those Times These Espials plyed their Charge so roundly as the King had an Anatomy of Perkin alive and was likewise well informed of the particular correspondent Conspirators in England and and many other Mysteries were revealed and Sir Robert Clifford in especial won to be assured to the King and industrious and officious for his service The King therefore receiving a rich Return of his diligence and great satisfaction touching a number of Particulars first divulged and spred abroad the Imposture and jugling of Perkin's Person and Travels with the Circumstances thereof throughout the Realm Not by Proclamation because things were yet in Examination and so might receive the more or the less but by Court-fames which commonly print better than printed Proclamations Then thought he it also time to send an Ambassage unto Archduke Philip into Flanders for the abandoning and dismissing of Perkin Herein he employed Sir Edward Poynings and Sir William Warham Doctor of the Canon Law The Archduke was then young and governed by his Council before whom the Embassadors had audience and Doctor Warham spake in this manner MY Lords the King our Master is very sorry that England and your Countrey here of Flanders having been counted as Man and Wife for so long time now this Countrey of all others should be the Stage where a base Counterfeit should play the part of a King of England not only to his Graces disquiet and dishonour but to the scorn and reproach of all Sovereign Princes To counterfeit the dead Image of a King in his Coyn is an high Offence by all Laws But to counterfeit the living Image of a King in his Person exceedeth all Falsifications except it should be that of a Mahomet or an Antichrist that counterfeit Divine Honour The King hath too great an Opinion of this sage Council to think that any of you is caught with this Fable though way may be given by you to the passion of some the thing in it self is so improbable To set Testimonies aside of the Death of Duke Richard which the King hath upon Record plain and infallible 〈◊〉 because they may be thought to be in the King 's own Power let the thing testifie for it self Sense and Reason no Power can command Is it possible trow you that King Richard should damn his Soul and foul his Name with so 〈◊〉 a Murther and yet not mend his Case Or do you think that Men of Blood that were his Instruments did turn to Pity in the middest of their Execution Whereas in cruel and savage Beasts and Men also the first Draught of Blood doth yet make them more fierce and enraged Do you not know that the Bloody Executioners of Tyrants do go to such Errants with an Halter about their neck So that if they perform not they are sure to die for it And do you think that these men would hazard their own lives for sparing anothers Admit they should have saved him What should they have done with him Turn him into London-Streets that the Watch-men or any Passenger that should light upon him might carry him before a Justice and so all come to light Or should they have kept him by them secretly That surely would have required a great deal of Care Charge and continual Fears But my Lords I labour too much in a clear Business The King is so wise and hath so good Friends abroad as now he knoweth Duke Perkin from his Cradle And because he is a great Prince if you have any good Poet here he can help him with Notes to write his Life and to parallel him with Lambert Simnel now the King's Falconer And therefore to speak plainly to your Lordships it is the strangest thing in the World that the Lady Margaret excuse us if we name her whose Malice to the King is both causlless and endless should now when she is old at the time when other Women give over Child-bearing bring forth two such Monsters being not the Births of nine or ten Months but of many Years And whereas other natural Mothers bring forth Children weak and not able to help themselves she bringeth forth tall Striplings able soon after their coming into the World to bid Battel to mighty Kings My Lords we stay unwillingly upon this Part. We would to God that Lady would once tast the Joys which God Almighty doth serve up unto her in beholding her Niece to Reign in such Honour and with so much Royal Issue which she might be pleased to accompt as her own The Kings Request unto the Archduke and your Lordships might be That according to the example of King Charles who hath already discarded him you would banish this unworthy Fellow out of your Dominions But because the King may justly expect more from an ancient Confederate than from a new reconciled Enemy he maketh his Request unto you to deliver him up into his hands Pirates and Impostures of this sort being fit to be accounted the Common Enemies of Mankind and no ways to be protected by the Law of Nations After some time of deliberation the Ambassadors received this short Answer THat the Archduke for the love of King Henry would in no sort ayd or assist the pretended Duke but in all things conserve the Amity he had with the King But for the Duchess Dowager she was absolute in the Lands of her Dowry and that he could not let her to dispose of her own THE King upon the return of the Ambassadors was nothing satisfied with this Answer For well he knew that a Patrimonial Dowry carried no part of Sovereignty or Command of Forces Besides the Ambassadors told him plainly that they saw the Duchess had a great Party in the Archduke's Council and that howsoever it was carried in a course of connivence yet the Archduke under-hand gave ayd and furtherance to Perkin Wherefore partly out of Courage and partly out of Policy the King forthwith banished all Flemings as well their Persons as their Wares out of his Kingdom commanding his Subjects likewise and by name his Merchants-Adventurers which had a Resiance in Antwerp to return translating the Mart which commonly followed the English Cloth unto Calice and embarred also all further Trade for the future This the King did being sensible in point of
nourish these bruits And it was not long ere these rumors of Novelty had begotten others of Scandal and Murmur against the King and his government taxing him for a great Taxer of his People and discountenancer of his Nobility The loss of Britain and the Peace with France were not forgotten But chiefly they fell upon the wrong that he did his Queen in that he did not reign in her Right Wherefore they said that God had now brought to light a Masculine-Branch of the House of York that would not be at his Courtesie howsoever he did depress his poor Lady And yet as it fareth in things which are currant with the Multitude and which they affect these Fames grew so general as the Authors were lost in the generality of Speakers They being like running Weeds that have no certain root or like Footings up and down impossible to be traced But after a while these ill Hamors drew to an head and setled secretly in some eminent Persons which were Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold the Lord Fitz-water Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Thomas Thwaites These entred into a secret Conspiracy to favour Duke Richard's Title Nevertheless none engaged their fortunes in this business openly but two Sir Robert Clifford and Master William Barley who sailed over into Flanders sent indeed from the Party of the Conspirators here to understand the truth of those things that passed there and not without some help of monies from hence Provisionally to be delivered if they found and were satisfied that there was truth in these pretences The person of Sir Robert Clifford being a Gentleman of Fame and Family was extremely welcome to the Lady Margaret Who after she had confeernce with him brought him to the sight of Perkin with whom he had often speech and discourse So that in the end won either by the Duchess to affect or by Perkin to believe he wrote back into England that he knew the Person of Richard Duke of York as well as he knew his own and that this Young-man was undoubtedly he By this means all things grew prepared to Revolt and Section here and the Conspiracy came to have a Correspondence between Planders and England The King on his part was not asleep but to Arm or levy Forces yet he thought would but shew fear and do this Idol too much worship Nevertheless the Ports he did shut up or at least kept a Watch on them that none should pass to or fro that was suspected But for the rest he chose to work by Counter-mine His purposes were two the one to lay open the Abuse the other to break the knot of the Conspirators To detect the Abuse there were but two ways the first to make it manifest to the world that the Duke of York was indeed murthered the other to prove that were he dead or alive yet Perkin was a Counterfeit For the first thus it stood There were but four persons that could speak upon knowledge to the murther of the Duke of York Sir James Tirrel the employed-man from King Richard John Dighton and Miles Forrest his Servants the two Butchers or Tormentors and the Priest of the Tower that buried them Of which four Miles Forrest and the Priest were dead and there remained alive only Sir James Tirrel and John Dighton These two the King caused to be committed to the Tower and examined touching the manner of the Death of the two Innocent Princes They agreed both in a Tale as the King gave out to this effect That King Richard having directed his Warrant for the putting of them to death to Brackenbury the Lieutenant of the Tower was by him refused Whereupon the King directed his Warrant to Sir James Tirrel to receive the Keys of the Tower from the Lieutenant for the space of a night for the King 's special service That Sir James Tirrel accordingly repaired to the Tower by night attended by his two Servants afore-named whom he had chosen for that purpose That himself stood at the stair-foot and sent these two Villains to execute the murther That they smothered them in their bed and that done called up their Master to see their naked dead bodies which they had laid forth That they were buried under the Stairs and some stones cast upon them That when the report was made to King Richard that his will was done he gave Sir James Tirrel great thanks but took exception to the place of their burial being too base for them that were King's children Where upon another night by the King's Warrant renewed their bodies were removed by the Priest of the Tower and buried by him in some place which by means of the Priest's death soon after could not be known Thus much was then delivered abroad to be the effect of those Examinations But the King nevertheless made no use of them in any of his Declarations whereby as it seems those Examinations left the business somewhat perplexed And as for Sir James Tirrel he was soon after beheaded in the Tower-yard for other matters of Treason But John-Dighton who it seemeth spake best for the King was forthwith set at liberty and was the principal means of divulging this Tradition Therefore this kind of proof being left so naked the King used the more diligence in the latter for the tracing of Perkin To this purpose he sent abroad into several parts and especially into Flanders divers secret and nimble Scouts and Spies some feigning themselves to flie over unto Perkin and to adhere unto him and some under other pretences to learn search and discover all the circumstances and particulars of Perkin's Parents Birth Person Travels up and down and in brief to have a Journal as it were of his life and doings He furnished these his employed-men liberally with Money to draw on and reward intelligences giving them also in charge to advertise continually what they found and nevertheless still to go on And ever as one Advertisement and Discovery called up another he employed other new Men where the Business did require it Others he employed in a more special nature and trust to be his Pioners in the main Counter-mine These were directed to insinuate themselves into the familiarity and confidence of the principal persons of the Party in Flanders and so to learn what Associates they had and Correspondents either here in England or abroad and how far every one engaged and what new ones they meant afterwards to try or board And as this for the Persons so for the Actions themselves to discover to the Bottom as they could the utmost of Perkin's and the Conspirators their Intentions Hopes and Practices These latter Best-be-trust-Spies had some of them further instructions to practise and draw off the best Friends and Servants of Perkin by making remonstrance to them how weakly his Enterprize and Hopes were built and with how prudent and potent a King they had to deal and to reconcile them to the King with
my self to expect the Tyrant's death and then to put my self into my Sisters hands who was next Heir to the Crown But in this season it happened one Henry Tidder Son to Edmond Tidder Earl of Richmond to come from France and enter into the Realm and by subtil and foul means to obtain the Crown of the same which to me rightfully appertained So that it was but a change from Tyrant to Tyrant This Henry my extreme and mortal Enemy so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive imagined and wrought all the subtil ways and means he could to procure my final Destruction For my mortal Enemy hath not only falsly surmised me to be a feigned Person giving me Nick-names so abusing the World but also to deferr and put me from entry into England hath offered large summs of Money to corrupt the Princes and their Ministers with whom I have been retained and made importune Labours to certain Servants about my Person to murther or Poyson me and others to forsake and leave my righteous Quarrel and to depart from my Service as Sir Robert Clifford and others So that every man of Reason may well perceive that Henry calling himself King of England needed not to have bestowed such great summs of Treasure nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant Labour and Industry to compass my Death and Ruine if I had been such a feigned Person But the truth of my Cause being so manifest moved the most Christian King Charles and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy my most dear Aunt not only to acknowledge the truth thereof but lovingly to assist me But it seemeth that God above for the good of this whole Island and the knitting of these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait Concord and Amity by so great an Obligation had reserved the placing of me in the Imperial Throne of England for the Arms and Succours of your Grace Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that were bereft and spoiled of the Kingdom of England as of late in fresh memory it was done in the Person of Henry the Sixth Wherefore for that your Grace hath given clear signs that you are in no Noble quality inferiour to your Royal Ancestors I so distressed a Prince was hereby moved to come and put my self into your Royal Hands desiring your Assistance to recover my Kingdom of England promising faithfully to bear my self towards your Grace no otherwise than if I were your own Natural Brother and will upon the Recovery of mine Inheritance gratefully do you all the Pleasure that is in my utmost Power AFter Perkin had told his Tale King James answered bravely and wisely That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hand And from that time forth though there wanted not some about him that would have perswaded him that all was but an Illusion yet notwithstanding either taken by Perkin's amiable and alluring behaviour or inclining to the recommendation of the great Princes abroad or willing to take an occasion of a War against King Henry he entertained him in all things as became the person of Richard Duke of York embraced his Quarrel and the more to put it out of doubt that he took him to be a great Prince and not a Representation only he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife the Lady Catherine Gordon Daughter to Earl Huntley being a near Kinswoman to the King himself and a young Virgin of excellent beauty and virtue Not long after the King of Scots in person with Perkin in his company entred with a great Army though it consisted chiefly of Borderers being raised somewhat suddenly into Northumberland And Perkin for a Perfume before him as he went caused to be published a Proclamation of this tenour following in the name of Richard Duke of York true Inheritor of the Crown of England IT hath pleased God who putteth down the Mighty from their Seat and exalteth the Humble and suffereth not the hopes of the Just to perish in the end to give Us means at the length to shew Our Selves armed unto Our Lieges and People of England But far be it from Us to intend their hurt and damage or to make War upon them otherwise than to deliver Our Self and them from Tyranny and Oppression For Our mortal Enemy Henry Tidder a false 〈◊〉 of the Crown of England which tolls by Natural and Lineal Right appertaineth knowing in his own Heart Our undoubted Right We being the very Richard Duke of York younger Son and now surviving Heir-male of the Noble and Victorious Edward the Fourth late King of England hath not only deprived Us of Our Kingdom but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our Life Yet if his Tyranny only extended it self to Our Person although Our Royal Blood teacheth Us to be sensible of Injuries it should be less to Our Grief But this Tidder who boasteth himself to have overthrown a Tyrant hath ever since his first entrance into his Usurped Reign put little in practice but Tyranny and the feats thereof For King Richard Our unnatural Uncle although desire of Rule did blind him yet in his other actions like a true Plantagenet was Noble and loved the Honour of the Realm and the Contentment and Comfort of his Nobles and People But this Our Mortal Enemy agreeable to the meanness of his Birth hath trod under foot the Honour of this Nation selling Our hest Confederates for Money and making Merchandize of the Blood Estates and Fortunes of Our Peers and Subjects by feigned wars and dishonourable Peace only to enrich his Coffers Nor unlike hath been his hateful Mis-government and evil Deportments at home First he hath to fortifie his false Quarrel caused divers Nobles of this Our Realm whom he held Suspect and stood in dread of to be cruelly murthred as Our Cousin Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Robert Ratcliff William Dawbeney Humphrey Stafford and many others besides such as have dearly bought their Lives with intolerable Ransoms Some of which Nobles are now in the Sanctuary Also he hath long kept and yet keepeth in Prison Our right entirely beloved Cousin Edward Son and Heir to Our Uncle Duke of Clarence and others with-bolding from them their rightful Inheritance to the intent they should never be of might and power to aid and assist Us at Our need after the duty of their Liegeances He also married by compulsion certain of Our Sisters and also the Sister of Our said Cousin the Earl of Warwick and divers other Ladies of the Royal Blood unto certain of his Kinsmen and Friends of simple and low Degree and putting apart all well-disposed Nobles he hath none in favour and trust about his Person but Bishop Fox Smith Bray Lovel Oliver King David Owen Risley Turbervile Tiler Cholmley Empson James Hobart John Cut Garth
of Days for payment of Moneys and some other Particulars of the Frontiers And it was indeed but a wooing Ambassage with good respects to entertain the King in good affection but nothing was done or handled to the derogation of the King 's late Treaty with the Italians But during the time that the Cornish-men were in their march towards London the King of Scotland well advertised of all that passed and knowing himself sure of War from England whensoever those Stirs were appeased neglected not his opportunity But thinking the King had his hands full entred the Frontiers of England again with an Army and besieged the Castle of Norham in Person with part of his Forces sending the rest to forrage the Countrey But Fox Bishop of Duresm a wise man and one that could see through the Present to the Future doubting as much before had caused his Castle of Norham to be strongly fortified and furnished with all kind of Munition And had manned it likewise with a very great number of tall Soldiers more than for the proportion of the Castle reckoning rather upon a sharp Assault than a long Siege And for the Countrey likewise he had caused the people withdraw their Cattel and Goods into Fact Places that were not of easie approach and sent in post to the Earl of Surrey who was not far off in Yorkshire to come in diligence to the Succour So as the Scottish King both failed of doing good upon the Castle and his men had but a catching Harvest of their Spoils And when he understood that the Earl of Surrey was coming on with great Forces he returned back into Scotland The Earl finding the Castle freed and the Enemy retired pursued with all 〈◊〉 into Scotland hoping to have overtaken the Scottish King and to have given him Battel But not attaining him in time sate down before the Castle of Aton one of the strongest places then esteemed between Berwick and Edenburgh which in a small time he took And soon after the Scottish King retiring further into his Countrey and the weather being extraordinary foul and stormy the Earl returned into England So that the Expeditions on both parts were in effect but a Castle taken and a Castle distressed not answerable to the puissance of the Forces nor to the heat of the Quarrel nor to the greatness of the Expectation Amongst these Troubles both Civil and External came into England from Spain Peter Hialas some call him Elias surely he was the fore runner of the good Hap that we enjoy at this day For his Ambassage set the Truce between England and Scotland the Truce drew on the Peace the Peace the Marriage and the Marriage the Union of the Kingdoms a man of great Wisdom and as those times were not unlearned sent from Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain unto the King to treat a Marriage between Catherine their second Daughter and Prince Arthur This Treaty was by him set in a very good way and almost brought to perfection But it so fell out by the way that upon some Conference which he had with the King touching this business the King who had a great dexterity in getting suddenly into the bosom of Ambassadors of forein Princes if he liked the men Insomuch as he would many times communicate with them of his own affairs yea and employ them in his service fell into speech and discourse incidently concerning the ending the Debates and differences with Scotland For the King naturally did not love the barren Wars with Scotland though he made his profit of the Noise of them And he wanted not in the Council of Scotland those that would advise their King to meet him at the half-way and to give over the War with England pretending to be good Patriots but indeed favouring the affairs of the King Only his heart was too great to begin with Scotland for the motion of Peace On the other side he had met with an Allie of Ferdinando of Arragon as fit for his turn as could be For after that King Ferdinando had upon assured confidence of the Marriage to succeed taken upon him the person of a Fraternal Allie to the King he would not let in a Spanish gravity to counsel the King in his own affairs And the King on his part not being wanting to himself but making use of every man's humours made his advantage of this in such things as he thought either not decent or not pleasant to proceed from himself putting them off as done by the Counsel of Ferdinando Wherefore he was content that Hialas as in a matter moved and advised from Hialas himself should go into Scotland to treat of a Concord between the two Kings Hialas took it upon him and coming to the Scottish King after he had with much Art brought King James to hearken to the more safe and quiet Counsels wrote unto the King that he hoped that Peace would with no great difficulty cement and close if he would send some wise and temperate Counsellor of his own that might treat of the Conditions Whereupon the King directed Bishop Fox who at that time was at his Castle of Norham to confer with Hialas and they both to treat with some Commissioners deputed from the Scottish King The Commissioners on both sides met But after much dispute upon the Articles and Conditions of Peace propounded upon either part they could not conclude a Peace The chief Impediments thereof was the demand of the King to have Perkin delivered into his hands as a reproach to all Kings and a person not protected by the Law of Nations The King of Scotland on the other side peremptorily denied so to do saying That he for his part was no competent Judge of Perkin's Title But that he had received him as a Suppliant protected him as a person fled for Refuge espoused him with his Kinswoman and aided him with his Arms upon the belief that he was a Prince And therefore that he could not now with his Honour so unrip and in a sort put a Lye upon all that he had said and done before as to deliver him up to his Enemies The Bishop likewise who had certain proud instructions from the King at the least in the Front though there were a pliant clause at the Foot that remitted all to the Bishop's discretion and required him by no means to break off in ill terms after that he had failed to obtain the delivery of Perkin did move a second point of his Instructions which was that the Scottish King would give the King an Enterview in Person at Newcastle But this being reported to the Scottish King his answer was That he meant to treat a Peace and not to go a begging for it The Bishop also according to another Article of his Instructions demanded Restitution of the Spoils taken by the Scottish or Damages for the same But the Scottish Commissioners answered That that was but as Water spilt upon the ground which could not be
beyond Seas But whatsoever else was in the Man he deserveth a most happy Memory in that he was the principal Mean of joyning the two Roses He dyed of great years but of strong health and Powers The next year which was the Sixteenth year of the King and the year of our Lord One thousand five hundred was the year of Jubile at Rome But Pope Alexander to save the Hazard and Charges of mens Journeys to Rome thought good to make over those Graces by exchange to such as would pay a convenient Rate seeing they could not come to fetch them For which purpose was sent into England Jasper Pons a Spaniard the Pope's Commissioner better chosen than were the Commissioners of Pope Leo afterwards employed for Germany for he carried the Business with great wisdom and semblance of Holiness In so much as he levied great summs of Money within this Land to the Pope's use with little or no Scandal It was thought the King shared in the Money But it appeareth by a Letter which Cardinal Adrian the King's Pensioner wrote to the King from Rome some few years after that this was not so For this Cardinal being to perswade Pope Julius on the King's behalf to expedite the Bull of Dispensation for the Marriage between Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine finding the Pope difficil in granting thereof doth use it as a principal Argument concerning the King's merit toward that See that he had touched none of those Deniers which had been levied by Pons in England But that it might the better appear for the satisfaction of the Common people that this was Consecrate Money the same Nuncio brought unto the King a Brief from the Pope wherein the King was exhorted and summoned to come in Person against the Turk For that the Pope out of the care of an Universal Father seeing almost under his eyes the Successes and Progresses of that great Enemy of the Faith had had in the Conclave and with the Assistance of the Ambassadors of forein Princes divers Consultations about an Holy War and a General Expedition of Christian Princes against the Turk Wherein it was agreed and thought fit that the Hungarians Polonians and Bobemians should make a War upon Thracia the French and Spaniards upon Gracia and that the Pope willing to sacrifice himself in so good a Cause in Person and in Company of the King of England the Venetians and such other States as were great in maritim Power would sail with a puissant Navy through the Mediterrane unto Constantinople And that to this end his Holiness had sent Nuncio's to all Christian Princes As well for a Cessation of all Quarrels and Differences amongst themselves as for speedy Preparations and Contributions of Forces and Treasure for this Sacred Enterprize To this the King who understood well the Court of Rome made an Answer rather Solemn than Serious Signifying THat no Prince on Earth should be more forward and obedient both by his Person and by all his possible Forces and Fortunes to enter into this Sacred War than himself But that the distance of Place was such as no Forces that he should raise for the Seas could be levied or prepared but with double the charge and double the time at the least that they might be from the other Princes that had their Territories nearer adjoyning Besides that neither the manner of his Ships having no Galleys nor the Experience of his Pilots and Mariners could be so apt for those Seas as theirs And therefore that his Holiness might do well to move one of those other Kings who lay fitter for the purpose to accompany him by Sea Whereby both all things would be sooner put in readiness and with less Charge and the Emulation and Division of Command which might grow between those Kings of France and Spain if they should both joyn in the War by Land upon Grecia might be wisely avoided And that for his part he would not be wanting in Ayds and Contribution Yet notwithstanding if both these Kings should refuse rather than his Holiness should go alone he would wait upon him as soon as he could be ready Always provided that he might first see all Differences of the Christian Princes amongst themselves fully laid down and appeased as for his own part he was in none And that he might have some good Towns upon the Coast in Italy put into his hands for the Retrait and safeguard of his Men. With this Answer Jasper Pons returned nothing at all discontented And yet this Declaration of the King as superficial as it was gave him that Reputation abroad as he was not long after elected by the Knights of the Rhodes Protector of their Order All things multiplying to Honour in a Prince that had gotten such high Estimation for his Wisdom and Sufficiency There were these two last years some proceedings against Hereticks which was rare in this King's Reign and rather by Penances than by Fire The King had though he were no good School-man the Honour to convert one of them by Dispute at Canterbury This year also though the King were no more haunted with Sprites for that by the sprinkling partly of Blood and partly of Water he had chased them away yet nevertheless he had certain Apparitions that troubled him still shewing themselves from one Region which was the House of York It came so to pass that the Earl of Suffolk Son to Elizabeth eldest Sister to King Edward the Fourth by John Duke of Suffolk her second Husband and Brother to John Earl of Lincoln that was slain at Stockfield being of an hasty and Cholerick disposition had killed a man in his fury whereupon the King gave him his Pardon But either willing to leave a Cloud upon him or the better to make him feel his Grace produced him openly to plead his Pardon This wrought in the Earl as in a haughty stomack it useth to do for the Ignominy printed deeper than the Grace Wherefore he being discontent fled secretly into Flanders unto his Aunt the Duchess of Burgundy The King startled at it But being taught by Troubles to use fair and timely Remedies wrought so with him by Messages the Lady Margaret also growing by often failing in her Alchymy weary of her Experiments and partly being a little sweetned for that the King had not touched her name in the Confession of Perkin that he came over again upon good terms and was reconciled to the King In the beginning of the next year being the Seventeenth of the King the Lady Katherine fourth Daughter of Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain arrived in England at Plimouth the second of October and was married to Prince Arthur in Pauls the fourteenth of November following The Prince being then about fifteen years of age and the Lady about eighteen The manner of her Receiving the manner of her Entry into London and the Celebrity of the Marriage were performed with great and true Magnificence in regard of Cost
of Ill May-day Long Peace having with us begate Plenty the Mother and Nurse both of good and bad Arts allured the most excellent Artificers of forein Nations to partake of our happiness by frequenting the City of London But the giddy multitude not conceiving what good became of communicating their skill unto us took it very heinously that Strangers should be permitted to enjoy the Priviledges of the City and our home-bred Artificers did most especially complain That their means were every day curtalled for as much as no small part was necessarily to be defalked for the maintenance of these Strangers This was now grown the common discourse and had gon so far that one Lincoln a ringleader of this tumultuous rout did not stick to persuade some Preachers publickly in the Pulpit to lay open these common grievances before the Estates of the Realm Our Ladies Hospital in London commonly called the Spittle is famous for the Easter-Sermons one of which was to be preached by Dr. Henry Standish afterward Bishop of St. Asaph a grave and learned man Lincoln had assayed him and had the denial as in a matter the very mention whereof a good Patriot should abhor But Dr. Bell a Divine who was after Standish to preach in the same Place without fear or wit seconding their seditious attempts did publickly in his Sermon read the Bill by them exhibited to him taking for his Text that of the Prophet in the hundred and fifteenth Psalm The heavens even the heavens are the Lords but he hath given the earth to the sons of men Thence most foolishly concluding that England was given to English-men only and that therefore it was not to be endured that Aliens should enjoy any part thereof Many things by him spoken to this purpose were accepted with great applause and approbation of the Vulgar who out of extreme hatred to Strangers breathed nothing but sedition And to add more fuel to this fire it happened that many outrages were about that time committed by some of these Strangers This evil then thus spreading it self Foreiners were every where ill intreated and commonly knockt down in the streets having not offered injury to any man The authors of these riots being by the Lord Mayor committed to prison a sudden rumor ran through the City That on May-day next all Strangers should be massacred This without doubt proceeded from some of this unruly crew and was intended as a watch-word to all the Faction but the Strangers made so good use of it that they had all withdrawn themselves before that time and the Magistrates very carefully attended each occasion endeavouring to crush all Tumultuous Designs in the shell On May-day-Eve therefore the next day being the Feast of the Apostles Philip and Jacob the solemnity thereof is usually augmented by the liberty granted to the younger sort to sport themselves and to make merry the Citizens in general are by Proclamation commanded to keep fast their doors and to restrain their Servants from going abroad until nine of the Clock the next day But before this had been throughly proclaimed an Alderman walking in the streets saw a troop of young men consisting of Apprentices and such like gathered together and playing at cudgels He sharply reproved them for not obeying the King's Edict withal threatning to punish them if they the sooner betook not themselves every one to his home Words not prevailing he laid hold on one or two intending to have committed them But what reckoning they made of Authority their resistance in rescue of their Companions shewed and by outcries giving an Alarm drew together all the rest of their Faction in that quarter of the City The fame of this hurliburly increased their numbers by sending Mariners Gentlemens Servants Beggars and Citizens but the greatest part were Apprentices Sedition like a torrent carried them headlong and animated them to all villany They break open the Prisons set those at liberty that were imprisoned for their outrages on Strangers flie about the City as in a whirlwind rob all Foreiners houses and not content with their goods seek after them for their lives They found their nests but the birds were fled Having thus spent the night in the morning hearing the King's forces to approach most of them slipt away only some three hundred remained whereof eleven were Women and being apprehended supplied their places whom they before had freed They were all arraigned only thirteen designed for death whereof nine suffered on divers Gibbets purposely erected in divers parts of the City Lincoln Sherwin and two Brethren named Bets Chieftains in this sedition were carried to Cheapside where Lincoln was deservedly hanged The Executioner ready to turn off another was prevented by the King 's gracious Pardon The mind of man being prone to pity we may imagine that others were well pleased at the news but certainly the condemned had cause to rejoyce The Queens of England the two Dowagers of France and Scotland both of them the King's Sisters and then at Court became incessant Petitioners to his Majesty and on their knees in the behalf of these condemned persons and at length Wolsey consenting by whom the King was wholly swayed their Petitions were granted to them and to the poor men their lives This was the last Scene of this Tragical Tumult the like whereof this well-governed City had not known in many Ages For the Laws very well provided in that case do under a great penalty forbid Assemblies especially of armed men if not warranted by publick Authority In August and September the Sweating-sickness termed beyond Sea Sudor Anglicus or the English sweat began a disease utterly unknown to former Ages Of the common sort they were numberless that perished by it of the Nobility the Lords Clinton and Grey of Wilton The symptoms and cure you may find in Polydor Virgil in Anno 1. Henr. 7. who as confidently as I believe truly maintains That this disease was never till then known to be much less to be mortal As if there were a concatenation of evils one evil seldom cometh alone A Pestilence succeeded this former mortality and so raged the whole Winter season in most parts of the Realm that the King for fear of infection attended by a few was fain every day to remove his Court from one place to another The eleventh of February was born the Lady Mary afterwards Queen of England ANNO DOM. 1518. REG. 10. THe Peace so long treated of between us and the French was now in September at length concluded on these Conditions That the Daulphin should marry the Lady Mary the King 's only Child and not yet two years old That Tournay should be restored to the French That the French should pay King Henry four hundred thousand Crowns viz. two hundred thousand for his charge in building the Cittadel for the Artillery Powder and Munition which he should leave there and other two hundred thousand Crowns partly for the expence of that
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
refrain the Business for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an Idol But contrariwise he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true because the false being sure to fall away of himself and the true to be made sure of by the King it might open and pave a fair and prepared way to his own Title With this Resolution he sayled secretly into Flanders where was a little before arrived the Lord Lovel leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir Thomas Broughton a man of great Power and Dependencies in Lancashire For before this time when the pretended Plantagenet was first received in Ireland secret Messengers had been also sent to the Lady Margaret advertising her what was passed in Ireland imploring Succours in an Enterprize as they said so pious and just and that God had so miraculously prospered the beginning thereof and making offer that all things should be guided by her will and direction as the Sovereign Patroness and Protectress of the Enterprize Margaret was second Sister to King Edward the Fourth and had been second Wife to Charles sirnamed the Hardy Duke of Burgundy by whom having no Children of her own she did with singular care and tenderness intend the Education of Philip and Margaret Grand-children to her former Husband which won her great Love and Authority among the Dutch This Princess having the Spirit of a Man and Malice of a Woman abounding in Treasure by the greatness of her Dower and her provident Government and being childless and without any nearer Care made it her Design and Enterprize to see the Majesty Royal of England once again re-placed in her House and had set up King Henry as a Mark at whose Overthrow all her Actions should aim and shoot in-so-much as all the Counsels of his succeeding Troubles came chiefly out of that Quiver And she bare such a mortal Hatred to the House of Lancaster and personally to the King as she was no ways mollified by the Conjunction of the Houses in her Neeces Marriage but rather hated her Neece as the means of the King's ascent to the Crown and assurance therein Wherefore with great violence of affection she embraced this Overture And upon Counsel taken with the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Lovel and some other of the Party it was resolved with all speed the two Lords assisted with a Regiment of two thousand Almains being choice and veterane Bands under the Command of Martin Swart a valiant and experimented Captain should pass over into Ireland to the new King Hoping that when the Action should have the face of a received and setled Regality with such a second Person as the Earl of Lincoln and the Conjunction and Reputation of Forein Succors the Fame of it would embolden and prepare all the Party of the Confederates and Male-contents within the Realm of England to give them Assistance when they should come over there And for the Person of the Counterfeit it was agreed that if all things succeeded well he should be put down and the true Plantagenet received Wherein nevertheless the Earl of Lincoln had his particular hopes After they were come into Ireland and that the Party took courage by seeing themselves together in a Body they grew very confident of success conceiving and discoursing amongst themselves that they went in upon far better Cards to overthrow King Henry than King Henry had to overthrow King Richard And that if there were not a Sword drawn against them in Ireland it was a sign the Swords in England would be soon sheathed or beaten down And first for a Bravery upon this accession of Power they Crowned their new King in the in the Cathedral Church of Dublin who formerly had been but Proclaimed only and then sate in Council what should further be done At which Council though it were propounded by some that it were the best way to Establish themselves first in Ireland and to make that the Seat of the War and to draw King Henry thither in Person by whose absence they thought there would be great Alterations and Commotions in England yet because the Kingdom there was poor and they should not be able to keep their Army together nor pay their German Soldiers and for that also the sway of the Irish-men and generally of the Men-of-War which as in such cases of popular Tumults is usual did in effect govern their Leaders was eager and in affection to make their Fortunes upon England It was concluded with all possible speed to transport their Forces into England The King in the mean time who at the first when he heard what was done in Ireland though it troubled him yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter the Irish as a Flight of Birds and rattle away this Swarm of Bees with their King when he heard afterwards that the Earl of Lincoln was embarqued in the Action and that the Lady Margaret was declared for it he apprehended the danger in a true Degree as it was and saw plainly that his Kingdom must again be put to the Stake and that he must fight for it And first he did conceive before he understood of the Earl of Lincoln's sayling into Ireland out of Flanders that he should be assailed both upon the East-parts of the Kingdom of England by some impression from Flanders and upon the Northwest out of Ireland And therefore having ordered Musters to be made in both Parts and having provisionally designed two Generals Jasper Earl of Bedford and John Earl of Oxford meaning himself also to go in person where the Affairs should most require it and nevertheless not expecting any actual Invasion at that time the Winter being far on he took his journey himself towards Suffolk and Norfolk for the confirming of those parts And being come to St. Edmonds-bury he understood that Thomas Marquess Dorset who had been one of the Pledges in France was hastning towards him to purge himself of some Accusations which had been made against him But the King though he kept an Ear for him yet was the time so doubtful that he sent the Earl of Oxford to meet him and forthwith to carry him to the Tower with a fair Message nevertheless that he should bear that disgrace with patience for that the King meant not his hurt but only to preserve him from doing hurt either to the King's service or to himself and that the King should always be able when he had cleared himself to make him reparation From St. Edmonds-bury he went to Norwich where he kept his Christmas And from thence he went in a manner of Pilgrimage to Walsingham where he visited our Ladies Church famous for Miracles and made his Prayers and Vows for help and deliverance And from thence he returned by Cambridge to London Not long after the Rebels with their King under the Leading of the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare the Lord Lovel and Colonel Swart landed at Fouldrey in
Now did the Sign 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 was come under 〈◊〉 Perkin should appear And therefore he was straight sent unto by the Duchess to go for Ireland according to the first designment In Ireland he did arrive at the Town of Cork When he was thither come his own Tale was when he made his Confession afterwards That the Irish-men finding him in some good clothes came flocking about him and bare him down that he was the Duke of Clarence that had been there before and after that he was Richard the Third's base Son and lastly that he was Richard Duke of York second Son to Edward the Fourth But that he for his part renounced all these things and offered to swear upon the Holy Evangelists that he was no such man till at last they forced it upon him and bad him fear nothing and so forth But the truth is that immediately upon his coming into Ireland he took upon him the said Person of the Duke of York and drew unto him Complices and Partakers by all the means he could devise Insomuch as he wrote his Letters unto the Earl of Densmond and Kildare to come in to his Ayd and be of his Party the Originals of which Letters are yet extant Somewhat before this time the Duchess had also gained unto her a near Servant of King Henry's own one Stephen Frion his Secretary for the French Tongue an active man but turbulent and discontented This Frion had fled over to Charles the French King and put himself into his service at such time as he began to be in open enmity with the King Now King Charles when he understood of the Person and Attempts of Perkin ready of himself to embrace all advantages against the King of England instigated by Frion and formerly prepared by the Lady Margaret forthwith dispatched one Lucas and this Frion in the nature of of Ambassadors to Perkin to advertise him of the King 's good inclination to him and that he was resolved to ayd him to recover his right against King Henry an Usurper of England and an Enemy of France and wished him to come over unto him at Paris Perkin thought himself in heaven now that he was invited by so great a King in so honourable a manner And imparting unto his Friends in Ireland for their encouragement how Fortune called him and what great hopes he had sailed presently into France When he was come to the Court of France the King received him with great honour saluted and stiled him by the name of the Duke of York lodged him and accommodated him in great State And the better to give him the representation and the countenance of a Prince assigned him a Guard for his Person whereof the Lord Congreshall was Captain The Courtiers likewise though it be ill mocking with the French applied themselves to their King 's bent seeing there was reason of State for it At the same time there repaired unto Perkin divers English-men of Quality Sir George Nevile Sir John Taylor and about one hundred more and amongst the rest this Stephen Frion of whom we spake who followed his fortune both then and for a long time after and was indeed his principal Counsellor and Instrument in all his Proceedings But all this on the French King's part was but a Trick the better to bow King Henry to Peace And therefore upon the first Grain of Incense that was sacrificed upon the Altar of Peace at Bulloign Perkin was smoaked away Yet would not the French King deliver him up to King Henry as he was laboured to do for his Honors sake but warned him away and dismissed him And Perkin on his part was as ready to be gone doubting he might be caught up under-hand He therefore took his way into Flanders unto the Duchess of Burgundy pretending that having been variously tossed by Fortune he directed his course thither as to a safe Harbour No ways taking knowledge that he had ever been there before but as if that had been his first address The Duchess on the other part made it as new and strange to see him pretending at the first that she was taught and made wise by the example of Lambert Simnel how she did admit of any Counterfeit stuff though even in that she said she was not fully satisfied She pretended at the first and that was ever in the presence of others to pose him and sift him thereby to try whether he were indeed the very Duke of York or no. But seeming to receive full satisfaction by his answers she then feined her self to be transported with a kind of astonishment mixt of Joy and Wonder at his miraculous deliverance receiving him as he were risen from death to life and inferring that God who had in such wonderful manner preserved him from Death did likewise reserve him for some great and prosperous Fortune As for his dismission out of France they interpreted it not as if he were detected or neglected for a Counterfeit Deceiver but contrariwise that it did shew manifestly unto the World that he was some Great matter for that it was his abandoning that in effect made the Peare being no more but the sacrificing of a poor distressed Prince unto the utility and Ambition of two Mighty Monarchs Neither was Perkin for his part wanting to himself either in gracious and Princely behaviour or in ready and apposite answers or in contenting and caressing those that did apply themselves unto him or in pretty scorn and disdain to those that seemed to doubt of him but in all things did notably acquit himself Insomuch as it was generally believed as well amongst great Persons as amongst the Vulgar that he was indeed Duke Richard Nay himself with long and continual counterfeiting and with oft telling a Lye was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be and from a Lyar to a Believer The Duchess therefore as in a case out of doubt did him all Princely honour calling him always by the name of her Nephew and giving him the Delicare Title of the White-Rose of England and appointed him a Guard of thirty persons Halberdiers clad in a party-coloured Livery of Murrey and Blew to attend his Person Her Court likewise and generally the Dutch and Strangers in their usage towards him expressed no less respect The News hereof came blazing and thundering over into England that the Duke of York was sure alive As for the name of Perkin Warbeck it was not at that time come to light but all the news ran upon the Duke of York that he had been entertained in Ireland bought and sold in France and was now plainly avowed and in great honour in Flanders These Fames took hold of divers in some upon discontent in some upon ambition in some upon levity and desire of change and in some few upon conscience and belief but in most upon simplicity and in divers out of dependance upon some of the better sort who did in secret favour and
that knew themselves guilty in the Pale fled to them So that Sir Edward Poynings was enforced to make a Wild-Chase upon the Wild-Irish Where in respect of the Mountains and Fastnesses he did little good Which either out of a suspicious Melancholy upon his bad Success or the better to save his service from Disgrace he would needs impute unto the Comfort that the Rebels should receive under-hand from the Earl of Kildare every light suspition growing upon the Earl in respect of the Kildare that was in the Action of Lambert Simnel and slain at Stoke-field Wherefore he caused the Earl to be apprehended and sent into England where upon Examination he cleared himself so well as he was re-placed in his Government But Poynings the better to make compensation of the Meagerness of his Service in the Wars by acts of Peace called a Parliament where was made that memorable Act which 〈◊〉 this day is called Poynings Law whereby all the Statutes of England were made to be of force in Ireland For before they were not neither are any now in force in Ireland which were made in England since that time which was the tenth year of the King About this time began to be discovered in the King that disposition which afterward nourished and whet-on by bad Counsellors and Ministers proved the Blot of his times which was the course he took to crush Treasure out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures upon Penal Laws At this men did startle the more at this time because it appeared plainly to be in the King's Nature and not out of his Necessity he being now in Float for Treasure For that he had newly received the Peace-money from France the Benevolence-money from his Subjects and great Casualties upon the Confiscations of the Lord Chamberlain and divers others The first noted Case of this kind was that of Sir William Capel Alderman of London Who upon sundry Penal Laws was condemned in the summ of seven and twenty hundred Pounds and compounded with the King for sixteen hundred And yet after Empson would have cut another Chop out of him if the King had not died in the instant The Summer following the King to comfort his Mother whom he did always tenderly love and revere and to make Demonstration to the World that the proceedings against Sir William Stanley which was imposed upon him by necessity of State had not in any degree diminished the affection he bare to Thomas his Brother went in Progress to Latham to make merry with his Mother and the Earl and lay there divers days During this Progress Perkin Warbeck finding that time and temporizing which whilest his practices were covert and wrought well in England made for him did now when they were discovered and defeated rather make against him for that when matters once go down the Hill they stay not without a new force resolved to try his adventure in some exploit upon England hoping still upon the affections of the Common People towards the House of York Which body of Common People he thought was not to be practised upon as persons of Quality are But that they only practice upon their affections was to set up a Standard in the field The Place where he should make his Attempt he chose to be the Coast of Kent The King by this time was grown to such an height of Reputation for cunning and Policy that every Accident and Event that went well was laid and imputed to his foresight as if he had set it before As in this particular of Perkin's Design upon Kent For the world would not believe afterwards but the King having secret Intelligence of Perkin's intention for Kent the better to draw it on went of purpose into the North a-far-off laying an open side unto Perkin to make him come to the close and so to trip up his heels having made sure in Kent before-hand But so it was that Perkin had gathered together a Power of all Nations neither in number not in the hardiness and courage of the Persons contemptible but in their nature and fortunes to be feared as well of Friends as Enemies being Bankrupts and many of them Felons and such as lived by Rapine These he put to Sea and arrived upon the Coast of Sandwich and Deal in Kent about July There he cast Anchor and to prove the affections of the People sent some of his men to land making great boast of the Power that was to follow The Kentish-men perceiving that Perkin was not followed by any English of name or account and that his forces consisted but of strangers born and most of them base People and Free-booters fitter to spoil a Coast than to recover a Kingdom resorting unto the principal Gentlemen of the Countrey professed their loyalty to the King and desired to be directed and commanded for the best of the King's service The Gentlemen entring into Consultation directed some forces in good number to shew themselves upon the Coast and some of them to make signs to entice Perkin's Soldiers to land as if they would joyn with them and some others to appear from some other places and to make semblance as if they fled from them the better to encourage them to land But Perkin who by playing the Prince or else taught by Secretary Frion had learned thus much That People under Command do use to consult and after to march in order and Rebels contrariwise run upon an Head together in confusion considering the delay of time and observing their orderly and not tumultuary Arming doubted the worst And therefore the wily Youth would not set one foot out of his Ship till he might see things were sure Wherefore the King's Forces perceiving that they could draw on no more than those that were formerly landed set upon them and cut them in pieces ere they could flie back to their Ships In which Skirmish besides those that fled and were slain there were taken about an hundred and fifty persons Which for that the King thought that to punish a few for example was Gentleman's play but for Rascal-People they were to be cut off every man especially in the beginning of an Enterprize and likewise for that he saw that Perkin's Forces would now consist chiefly of such Rabble and scum of desperate people he therefore hanged them all for the greater terrour They were brought to London all rail'd in Ropes like a Team of Horses in a Cart and were executed some of them at London and Wapping and the rest at divers places upon the Sea-Coast of Kent Sussex and Norfolk for Sea-marks or Light-houses to teach Perkin's People to avoid the Coast. The King being advertised of the landing of the Rebels thought to leave his Progress But being certified the next day that they were partly defeated and partly fled he continued his Progress and sent Sir Richard Guilford into Kent in message Who calling the Countrey together did much commend from the King their fidelity manhood and well
Henry Wyat and such other Cattiffs and Villains of Birth which by subtil Inventions and Pilling of the People have been the principal Finders Occasioners and Counsellors of the Mis-rule and Mischief now reigning in England We remembring these Premisses with the great and execrable Offences daily committed and done by Our foresaid great Enemy and his Adherents in breaking the Liberties and Franchises of Our Mother the Holy Church upon pretences of Wicked and Heathenish Policy to the high displeasure of Almighty God besides the manifold Treasons abominable Murthers Man-slaughters Robberies Extortions the daily Pilling of the People by Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences and other unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions with many other heinous Effects to the likely destruction and desolation of the whole Realm shall by God's grace and the help and assistante of the great Lords of Our Blood with the counsel of other sad Persons see that the Commodities of Our Realm be employed to the most advantage of the same the intercourse of Merchandise betwixt Realm and Realm to be ministred and handled as shall more be to the Common-weal and prosperity of Our Subjects and all such Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions as be above rehearsed to be fore-done and laid apart and never from henceforth to be called upon but in such cases as Our Noble Progenitors Kings of England have of old time been accustomed to have the ayd succour and help of their Subjects and true Liege-men And further We do out of Our Grace and Clemency hereby as well publish and promise to all our Subjects Remission and free Pardon of all By-past Offences whatsoever against Our Person or Estate in adhering to Our said Enemy by whom We know well they have been mis-led if they shall within time convenient submit themselves unto Us. And for such as shall come with the foremost to assist Our Righteous Quarrel We shall make them so far partakers of Our Princely Favour and Bounty as shall be highly for the Comfort of them and theirs both during their life and after their death As also We shall by all means which God shall put into Our hands demean Our selves to give Royal contentment to all Degrees and Estates of Our People maintaining the Liberties of Holy Church in their Entire preserving the Honours Priviledges and Prebeminences of Our Nobles from contempt or disparagement according to the dignity of their Blood We shall also unyoak Our People from all heavy Burthens and Endurances and confirm Our Cities Boroughs and Towns in their Charters and Freedoms with enlargement where it shall be deserved and in all points give Our Subjects cause to think that the blessed and debonair Government of Our Noble Father King Edward in his last times is in Us revived And for as much as the putting to death or taking alive of Our said Mortal Enemy may be a mean to stay much effusion of Blood which otherwise may ensue if by Compulsion or fair Promises he shall draw after him any number of Our Subjects to resist Us whith We desire to avoid though We be certainly informed that Our said Enemy is purposed and prepared to flie the Land having already made over great masses of the Treasure of Our Crown the better to support him in Forein Parts We do hereby declare That whosoever shall take or distress Our said Enemy though the Party be of never so mean a Condition he shall be by Us rewarded with a Thousand Pound in Money forthwith to be laid down to him and an Hundred Marks by the year of Inheritance besides that he may otherwise merit both toward God and all good People for the destruction of such a Tyrant Lastly We do all men to wit and herein We take also God to witness That whereas God hath moved the Heart of Our dearest Cousin the King of Scotland to aid Us in Person in this Our righteous Quarrel it is altogether without any Pact or Promise or so much as demand of any thing that may prejudice Our Crown or Subjects But contrariwise with promise on Our said Cousin's part that whensoever he shall find Us in sufficient strength to get the upper hand of Our Enemy which we hope will be very suddenly he will forthwith peaceably return into his own Kingdom contenting himself only with the glory of so Honourable an Enterprize and Our true and faithful Love and Amity Which We shall ever by the Grace of Almighty God so order as shall be to the great comfort of both Kingdoms BUT Perkin's Proclamation did little edifie with the people of England neither was he the better welcom for the company he came in Wherefore the King of Scotland seeing none came in to Perkin nor none stirred any where in his favour turned his Enterprize into a Rode and wasted and destroyed the Countrey of Northumberland with fire and sword But hearing that there were Forces coming against him and not willing that they should find his men heavy and laden with booty he returned into Scotland with great Spoils deferring further prosecution till another time It is said that Perkin acting the part of a Prince handsomly when he saw the Scottish fell to waste the Countrey came to the the King in a passionate manner making great lamentation and desired That that might not be the manner of making the War for that no Crown was so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruine of his Countrey Whereunto the King answered half in sport that he doubted much he was careful for that that was none of his and that he should be too good a Steward for his Enemy to save the Countrey to his use By this time being the Eleventh year of the King the Interruption of Trade between the English and the Plemmish began to pinch the Merchants of both Nations very sore Which moved them by all means they could devise to affect and dispose their Savereigns respectively to open the Intercourse again Wherein time favoured them For the Arch-Duke and his Council began to see that Perkin would prove but a Runnagate and Citizen of the World and that it was the part of Children to fall out about Babies And the King on his part after the Attempts upon Kent and Northumberland began to have the business of Perkin in less estimation so as he did not put it to accompt in any Consultation of State But that that moved him most was that being a King that loved Wealth and Treasure he could not endure to have Trade sick nor any Obstruction to continue in the Gate-vein which disperseth that blood And yet he kept State so far as first to be sought unto Wherein the Merchant-Adventurers likewise being a strong Company at that time and well under-set with rich men and good order did hold out bravely taking off the Commodities of the Kingdom though they lay dead upon their hands for want of Vent At the last Commissioners met
William Kingston who lately came thither with some of the King's Guard exhorted him to be of good comfort for that the King in whose name he saluted him had sent for him to no other end but that he might clear himself from those things which malice and detraction had forged against him neither did he doubt but that shortly he should see him more potent than ever if out of pusillanimity he gave not too much scope to the violence of his discontented passions Whereto the Cardinal in these his last words replied I am as truly glad to hear of his Majesty's health as I truly know my death to be at hand I have now been eight days together troubled with a Flux accompanied with a continual Fever which kind of disease if within eight days it remit nothing of its wonted violence by the consent of all Physicians threatneth no less than death per adventure an evil beyond death distraction But grown weak and my disease raging more and more I do each minute expect when God will be pleased to free this sinful soul from this loathsom prison of the body But should my life be a little prolonged do you think I perceive not what traps are laid for me You Sir William if I mistake not are Lieutenant of the Tower and I guess for what you come But God hath justly rewarded me for neglecting my due service to him and wholly applying my self to his Majesty's pleasure Woe is me wretch and sot that I am who have been ungrateful to the King of kings whom if I had served with that due devout observance that besits a Christian he would not have for saken me in the evening of my age I would I might be a general example even to the King himself how slipperily they stand in this world who do not above all things rely upon the firm support of G O D's Favour and Providence Salute his Majesty from me and deliver this my last petition unto him which is That he live mindful of the tryal he must undergo before G O D's high Tribunal so shall he by the secret testimony of his own conscience free me from those crimes wherewith my adversaries seek to burthen me More he would have spoken but his speech failed him and death presently ensued His body apparelled in his Pontifical Robes after it had all that day for he expired at the very break of day been exposed to open view was at midnight without any solemnity buried in our Ladies Chappel in the Church of the Monastery Thus unhappily ended Cardinal Wolsey his long happy life than whom England no nor I believe all Europe if you except the Bishops of Rome ever saw a more potent Prelate His retinue consisted of near about a thousand persons among which were one Earl commonly nine Barons many Knights and Gentlemen and of Officers belonging to his house above four hundred besides their Servants which far exceeded the former number His Chappel was served by a Dean a Sub-dean a Chanter thirty five Singers whereof thirteen were Clergy twelve Lay and ten Choristers four Sextons beside sixteen Chaplains the most sufficient for their Learning throughout all England two Cross-bearers and as many Pillar-bearers But nothing doth manifest his wealth and greatness so much as do his stately and incomparable Buildings We have already spoken of his Colledges Whitehal then called York-house as belonging to the Archbishop the place where our Kings do most reside was almost wholy built by him Hampton-Court the neatest pile of all the King's houses he raised entirely from the ground and having furnished it with most rich housholdstuff gave it to the King It was a gift fitter for a King to take than for a subject to give But in the opinion of the vulgar the Monument which he intended for the King far surpassed all these It was of solid Brass but unfinished and is to be seen in Henry the Eighth his Chappel in the Church of Windsor That three of his Children reigning after him none of them undertook by perfecting it to cover the as it were unburied bones of their Father what may we think but that the excessive charge of it deterred them But upon a farther inquity we may more justly ascribe it to the especial judgment of the Divine Providence who had decreed that he who had so horribly spoiled the Church should alone be debarred the honour afforded to each of his Predecessors in the Church And thus much concerning Wolsey who died the thirtieth of November 1530. In the mean time in June Anno 1529 after long debating the matter to and fro by the mediation of Louyse the French King's Mother and Margaret Aunt to the Emperour these two Princes are drawn to an accord and a Peace is concluded between them at Cambray thence commonly called The Peace of Cambray but by us The Peace of Women The chief Conditions whereof and that any way concerned us were That the French King should give to the Emperour for the freedom of his Children who had been three years Hostages in Spain for their Father two millions of Crowns whereof he should pay four hundred thousand due from the Emperour by the League made Anno 1522 to Henry and his Sister Mary Dowager of France Beside which huge summ he should also acquit the Emperour of five hundred thousand which he did owe to our King for the indemnity of the Marriage between the Emperour and the Lady Mary the King's Daughter whom having been long since contracted he left to marry with the Daughter of Portugal And that he should disengage and restore to the Emperour the Flower-de-Lys of gold enriched with precious stones and a piece of our Saviour's Cross which Philip truly called The Good Duke of Burgoigne the Emperour's Father being driven into England by contrary winds had engaged to Henry the Seventh for fifty thousand Crowns So that the summ to be paid to Henry amounted to nine hundred and fifty thousand Crowns besides sixteen hundred thousand more to be paid to the Emperour at the very instant of the delivery of the French King's Children The total summ was two millions five hundred fifty thousand Crowns which of our money make seven hundred sixty five thousand Pounds Francis not knowing which way suddenly to raise so huge a mass by his Ambassadors intreated our King to be pleased to stay some time for his moneys But Henry was much moved that he had not been made acquainted with this Treaty notwithstanding his secret designs made him temper his choler nay and with incredible liberality to grant more than was demanded For he absolutely forgave him the five hundred thousand Crowns due for the not marrying his Daughter he gave the Flower-de-Lys to his God-son Henry Duke of Orleans and left the other four hundred thousand to be paid by equal portions in five years The Pope had lately by his Legates deluded Henry who was thereupon much discontented
any thing to the Barber that trimmed him affirming That head about which he had bestowed his pains was the Kings if he could prove it to be his that did bear it he would well reward him To his Keeper demanding his upper garment as his fee he gave his Hat Going up the Scaffold he desired him that went before him To lend him his hand to help him up as for coming down he took no care Laying his head upon the block he put aside his beard which was then very long saying The Executioner was to cut off his head not his heard The executions of so many men caused the Queen to be much maligned as if they had been done by her procurement at least the Papists would have it thought so knowing that it stood her upon and that indeed she endeavoured that the authority of the Pope of Rome should not again take footing in England They desired nothing more than the downfal of this virtuous Lady which shortly after happening they triumphed in the overthrow of Innocence In the mean time they who undertook the subversion of the Monasteries invented an Engin to batter them more forcibly than the former course of torture and punishment They send abroad subtil-headed fellows who warranted by the King's authority should throughout England search into the lives and manners of Religious persons It would amaze one to consider what villanies were discovered among them by the means of Cromwell and others Few were found so guiltless as to dare withstand their proceedings and the licentiousness of the rest divulged made them all so odious to the people that never any exploit so full of hazard and danger was more easily atchieved than was the subversion of our English Monasteries ANNO DOM. 1536. REG. 28. THis year began with the end of the late Queen Catharine whom extremity of grief cast into a disease whereof on the eighth of January she deceased Queen Ann now enjoyed the King without a Rival whose death notwithstanding not improbably happened too soon for her For the King upon May-day at Greenwich beholding the Viscount Rochfort the Queens Brother Henry Norris and others running a-Tilt arising suddenly and to the wonder of all men departing thence to London caused the Viscount Rochfort Norris the Queen her self and some others to be apprehended and committed The Queen being guarded to the Tower by the Duke of Norfolk Audley Lord Keeper Cromwell Secretary of Estate and Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower at the very entrance upon her knees with dire imprecations disavowed the crime whatsoever it were wherewith she was charged beseeching God so to regard her as the justness of her cause required On the fifteenth of May in the Hall of the Tower she was arraigned the Duke of Norfolk sitting high Steward to whom were adjoined twenty six other Peers and among them the Queens Father by whom she was to be tryed The Accusers having given in their evidence and the Witnesses produced she sitting in a Chair whether in regard of any infirmity or out of honour permitted to the Wife of their Sovereign having an excellent quick wit and being a ready speaker did so answer to all objections that had the Peers given in their verdict according to the expectation of the assembly she had been acquitted But they among whom the Duke of Suffelk the King's Brother-in-Law was chief one wholly applying himself to the King's humour pronounce her guilty Whereupon the Duke of Norfolk bound to proceed according to the verdict of the Peers condemned her to death either by being Burned in the Green in the Tower or Beheaded as his Majesty in his pleasure should think fit Her Brother George Viscount Rochfort was likewise the same day condemned and shortly after Henry Norris William Brierton and Francis Weston Gentlemen of the King 's Privy Chamber and Mark Smeton a Musician either as partakers or accessory were to run the same fortune The King greatly favoured Norris and is reported to be much grieved that he was to die with the rest Whereupon he offered pardon to him conditionally that he would confess that whereof he was accused But he answered resolutely and as it became the progenitor of so many valiant Heroes That in his conscience he thought her guiltless of the objected crime but whether she were or no he could not accuse her of any thing and that he had rather undergo a thousand deaths than betray the Innocent Upon relation whereof the King cryed out Hang him up then hang him up then Which notwithstanding was not accordingly executed For on the thirteenth of May two days after his condemnation all of them viz. the Viscount Rochfort Norris Brierton and Smeton were Beheaded at Tower-hill Norris left a Son called also Henry whom Queen Elizabeth in contemplation of his Father's deserts created Baron of Ricot This Lord Norris was Father to those great Captains William John Thomas and Edward in our days so famous throughout Christendom for their brave exploits in England France Ireland and the Netherlands On the nineteenth of May the Queen was brought to the place of Execution in the Green within the Tower some of the Nobility and Companies of the City being admitted rather to be witnesses than spectators of her death To whom the Queen having ascended the Scaffold spake in this manner Friends and good Christian people I am here in your presence to suffer death whereto I acknowledge my self adjudged by the Laws how justly I will not say for I intend not an accusation of any one I beseech the Almighty to preserve his Majesty long to reign over you a more gentle or mild Prince never swayed Scepter his bounty and clemency towards me I am sure hath been especial If any one intend an inquisitive survey of my actions I intreat him to judge favourably of me and not rashly to admit of any hard censorious conceit And so I bid the World farewel beseeching you to commend me in your Prayers to God To thee O Lord do I commend my Soul Then kneeling down she incessantly repeated these words Christ have mercy on my soul Lord Jesus receive my soul until the Executioner of Calais at one blow smote off her Head with a Sword Had any one three years before at what time the King so hot in the pursuit of his love preferred the enjoying of this Lady beyond his Friends his Estate his Health Safeguard and his only Daughter prophetically foretold the unhappy fate of this Princess he should have been believed with Cassandra But much more incredible may all wise men think the unheard of crime for which she was condemned viz. That fearing lest her Daughter the Lady Elizabeth born while Catharine survived should be accounted illegitimate in hope of other especially male Issue whereof she despaired by the King now near fifty years old she had lasciviously used the company of certain young Courtiers nay not therewith content had committed Incest with her
Lieutenant-general in the Netherlands who having speedily out of the neighbour Garrisons of Betune St. Omer Aires Burburg and others assembled an Army of fifteen thousand puts himself between Dunkirk and Calais Termes had hitherto expected the Duke of Guise but upon notice that the Countrey was up in Arms he somewhat too late bethought himself of a retreat He was now every way enclosed and passage not to be gained but by dint of Sword The French therefore valiantly charge their Enemies and overthrow some Squadrons of Horse indeed despair animated them to do wonders and the Flemings were set on fire by the desire of revenging late Injuries The Spanish Troops renew the fight which was with equal order long maintained on both sides In the heat whereof ten English Men of War fortunately sailing by for De Termes had for his security betaken him to the shoar hoping that way with much less hazard to have gained passage upon discovery of the French Colours let fly their Ordnance furiously among the French making such a slaughter that they began to give ground were at last routed and overthrown The French in this Battel lost five thousand Their chief Commanders were almost all taken the Marshal himself was hurt and taken with d'Annebalt the Son of Claud the late Admiral the Earl of Chaune Senarpont Villebon Governour of Picardy Morvilliers and many others Two hundred escaped to our Ships whom they might have drowned but giving them Quarter they were brought Captives into England This Battel was fought on the thirteenth of July The Queen desirous by some action or other to wipe out the stain of the ignominious loss of Calais about the same time set forth a Fleet of one hundred and forty Sail whereof thirty were Flemings the main of the Expedition being from Brest in Bretaigne But the Lord Clinton Lord High Admiral of England finding no good to be done there set sail for Conquet where he landed took the Town sacked it and set it on fire together with the Abbey and the adjacent Villages and returned to his Ships But the Flemings somewhat more greedy after prey disorderly piercing farther into the Countrey and regardless of Martial discipline which commands obedience to their General being encounted by the Lord of Kersimon came fewer home by five hundred Philip about the same time lodging near Amiens with a great Army Henry with a far greater attended each motion of his They encamp at last Henry on the North of the River Somme Philip on the South of the River Anthy so near to one another that it might be thought impossible for two such spirited Princes commanding so great Armies to depart without a Battel But divers considerations had tempered their heat Philip being the weaker of the two saw no reason why to engage himself Henry had an Army which had twice felt the other victorious and was therefore loath on them to adventure his already shaken estate Wherefore they so entrenched themselves and fortified their Camps with Artillery as if they expected a Siege from each other Some months thus passed without any other exploits than Inroads and light Skirmishes At length they mutually entertain a motion of Peace both of them considering that their Armies consisting of Strangers the fruits of the Victory would be to the Aliens only but the calamity and burthen of the Defeat would light on the shoulders of the Vanquished or which comes all to one pass of the Subjects These motives drew together for a Treaty on Henry's side the Constable the Marshal of St. Andrew the Cardinal of Lorain Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans and Aubespine Secretary of Estate For Philip the Duke of Alva the Prince of Orange Puyz Gomes de Silva Granvell Bishop of Arras and others Much altercation was had about the restoring of Calais which the French were resolved to hold and Philip would have no Peace unless it were restored to Mary whom in point of Honour he could not so forsake But this difference was ended by the death of Mary a little before whom on the one and twentieth of September died also the Emperour Charles the Fifth which occasioned both the change of place and time for another Treaty And if the continual connexion of other memorable Affairs had not transported me I should ere this have mentioned the Marriage celebrated at Paris with great pomp on the eight and twentieth of April between the Daulphin Francis and Mary Queen of Scots But the fruits thereof were not lasting For two years after died Francis the Crown by the death of his Father Henry having been first devolved to him and left his Bed to a more auspicious Husband Henry the eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox Of these Parents was born our late Sovereign of ever sacred memory who was Nephew by his Mother to James the Fifth by Margaret the eldest Daughter Nephew to that wife King Henry the Seventh who the Issue of Henry the Eighth being extinct as the next undoubted Heir most happily united the Crowns of England Scotland and Ireland But now at length to draw nearer home this Autumn was very full of Diseases Fevers especially quartan reigning extraordinarily in England whereby many chiefly aged persons and among them a great number of the Clergy perished Of the sole Episcopal rank thirteen died either a little before the Queen or some few months after her Among the rest Cardinal Pool scarce survived her a day who having been for some weeks afflicted by this kind of Disease and brought to extreme weakness of Body as if he had at the news of the Quens death received his deaths wound expired at three a Clock the next morning His Corps inclosed in Lead was buried in his Cathedral at Canterbury with this brief Elogy on his Tomb instead of an Epitaph Depositum Cardinalis POLI. He was a man admirably learned modest mild of a most sweet disposition wise and of excellent dexterity in the managing of any affairs so that he had been incomparable if corrupted with the Religion of the Church of Rome he had not forced his nature to admit of those cruelties exercised upon the Protestants The Queen died at St. James on the seventeenth of November some few hours before day She was a Lady very godly merciful chast and every way praise-worthy if you regard not the errours of her Religion But her Religion being the cause of the effusion of so much innocent Blood that of the Prophet was necessarily to be fulfilled in her Blood-thirsty men c. shall not finish half their days For she was cut off in the two and fortieth year of her age having reigned only five Years four Months and eleven Days whereas her Sister who succeeded her most happily in a more mild Government ruled nine times as long and almost doubled her age Concerning the cause of Queen Maries Death there are divers conjectures To relate what I find in approved Authors it is reported that in the