Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	king_n	law_n	5,822	5	4.7877	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33434	The idol of the clovvnes, or, Insurrection of Wat the Tyler with his priests Baal and Straw together with his fellow kings of the commons against the English church, the king, the laws, nobility and royal family and gentry, in the fourth year of K. Richard the 2d, an. 1381.	Cleveland, John, 1613-1658.	1654 (1654)	Wing C4673; ESTC R5215	69,732	166

London yet he promises if need be to send twenty thousand of the Saints who shall not ●…all to shave the beards of the Abbot and the rest which signified in plain English cutting off their heads The gracious Captaine Generall was yet more kind he vowes if it be convenient to assist them in his owne person He gives them directions and orders to governe themselves by and makes their obedience here a condition of his love These Orders were generally injoyned by our English Mahomet through all the Provinces of his Conquest and were framed according to the Law of his bloody Alchoran He sweares them to omit nothing either in his Commands or Doctrine A servant of the Abbot one of the spies upon the Townsmen rides in full career to S. Albanes and gives intelligence to the Abbie of the exploits of the New Masters at London He tells them in what manner that dist of a Captaine Tyler fullyed and polluted with the bloud of the Noblesse had butchered the English Patriarch and the Lord Treasurer That London the den of these ravenous beasts falsly called The Chamber of her Kings was likely now to become the Charnelhouse of Richard and his Loyall vassals That these Fiends who would goe for Saints and the onely good Patriots commit the acts of Theeves and Murtherers neither reverencing Religion nor Lawes And that the Conquering French who makes faire war nay the barbarous Scot broke out of the fastnesse of his owne Desart mortall enemies of the Nation could not spoile not ruine with more cruelty and villanie No Mercy sayes he yeild who will upon mercy no favour no goodnesse can be expected from this rout of Wolves He bids those pointed at and named by Greyndcob to Tyler shift for themselves which they are not long in resolving of The Prior four Monks and some of their servants one part horsed another on foot fly for their lives not assuring themselves till they got to Tynmouth a Priory of this Monastery of Saint Albane in Northumberland William Greyndcob and William Cadindon a Baker on Friday had hastened to S. Albanes that they might make the honour of the atchievement theirs by first appearing in the action these brag aloud of the prosperity of affaires that they were no more drudges and slaves but Lords for the time to come that they had brought about great and wonderfull feats against the Abbie they propose first to defie the Abbot to renounce all amity and peace with him then to breake downe his folds and gates in Fauconwood Eywood and his other words and to pull down the Underbowsers house standing over against the Fish-market and hindering the prospect of the Burgesses and Nobility of the Town this is their owne style a Nobility scarce to be parallel'd in the world discovered unlesse we fetch in the Man-eaters of Brasil who have neither Letters nor Lawes acknowledge neither God nor Prince This night the first Seene of the Tragedie is acted the next day being Saturday fatall to the Hangman Tyler the upstart Nobility of Churls assemble and make Proclamation That no man able to serve his Country presume to sleight the Lieutenants of the Idol but that every man furnish himself with such Arms as he can provide to attend them the Lieutenants in his own defence The Crew summoned are commanded to presse the Gentry for the survice and to cut off the heads of those who would not joyn with them and sweare to be faithfull to them beheading burning houses forfeiture of goods were menaced to all that would not assist the Forces raised by Tyler and fight the Lords Battels that is for the Cause This sayes our Monke was the charge of their Lord and Master Wa●… this was his Rubrie of blood Next with great pomp they march to Fauconwood to levell the slips of their haste and night-worke something they feared might be left whole upon review when Root and Branoh were pared and torne up they retire The other Growtnolls of the Neighbourhood subject to the distresse or Siegniory of Saint Albane wait for them these were cited upon the same threats to meet and promised belly-fulls care loads of Liberties Now or never for the Liberty of the Subject and the power of godlinesse This supply swells them into huge hopes it puffs them up Greyndcob and Cadindon more haughty now than ever Lead their Battaliaes blustering with surly pride and disdaine to the Gates of the Monastery which with the same loftinesse they command the Porter to set open Some of the company friends of the house had given private intelligence to the Abbots of the contrivances against him who had instructed his servants how to carry themselves towards this tag and rag of Swaines they observe them punctually That they may seeme pious in their entrance they free the publique Malefactors out of the Abbots prison but so that they shou●…d owe faith hereafter and grace of the benefit to the Commons a name the most honourable and which must swallow up all things else and ins●…parably stick to them One of the offenders whom they suppose unworthy of Liberty or life growne Judges and Executioners by the same inspiration and spirit they behead on the ground before the Gates then fi●… his head upon the Pillory roaring with that divelish cry they had learnt at London This was plaine murther by the Law whatsoever this mans crime was those Rogue●… were guilty in a most high nature so th●… besides the basenesse of their condition they were incapable of any jurisdiction by the antient foundamentall Lawes of England as being Traitours and out of the Kings faith but to wave all thi●… by these ancient Lawes every prisoner might demand Oyer hearing of the Judges Commission these villains had neither authority nor Commission but from Tylers Sword which was but a derivative of his usurpation No act of which can be just the foundation of his tyranny this way in being just and illegall at the first From the Idols first entrance no act of confirmation or grant was done could any such act be done and valid to establish or make a right by the power which had that right to bestow he asked for a Commission of life and death but was refused and his arbitrary acts were onely a continuance of his intrusion and of the violence upon which he began To fill up their tattered Regiments their fellow Leaguers or Covend●…ters of Barnet Luton Watford and the Townes round enter St. Albanes of the same Sacrilegious aff●…ction to the Abby in all these Conspiracies the Church was the maine marke aimed at about the carcasses of the Cathedralls and Abbies they were now nothing else did these vultures gather in the same conjuncture of time enters Richard Wallingford head borough or Constable of the place who tarried at London for the Kings Letters of Manumission and Pardon which Greyndcob had been so earnest for bearing the Kings Banner or Pennon of the Arms of S. George being

next who was not asleep this while After he had cleared the City lately Tylers good Town of the Kentish frie he commands the Nobility and Gentry wh●… durst now peep abroad all the Kingdome over to repair to him at London well armed and well horsed as they loved him and his royall honour Their owne danger and late feares adde wings to their haste Within a few dayes forty thousand Horse meet at a Rendezvouz upon Black-heath whither the young King who had taken ●…his Sequestration off and restored himselfe to his Blood and Majesty rides daily upon a Royall Courser to view their Order with his Imperiall Banner born before him He delighted to be seen and acknowledged for what he was amongst his own Homagers Here he is informed that the Kentishmen a stirring people but with what generous resolution will soone be found are again in mutinie a mutinie however else contemptible not to be fl●…ighted at that time The King commands his Cavalrie on fire as much as himselfe to march and root out this persidious r●… of miscreants Here the Nobility and Gentry of the County interpose and become pledges for the Commons which appeases the King who now disbands his Army and resolves to take no other course of Justice but such as was ordinary and usuall by Judgements upon the known Lawes of the Land and by Juties of twelve men the a●…clent Birth-right of the Englishmen Lawes which could not have fitted Tylers Courts nor Tryals but which have beene ever the rule in all just and legal Tryalls in all calme and pious Ages The Law Martiall being proper to an Army marching to be exercised in it If otherwise all Sentences by colour of it are against the Magna Charta c. and to the manifest subversion of the priviledges of Subjects Upon this faire and Kingly conclusion of Richard Commissions were given and Justices of Oyer and Terminer to heare and determine the Treasons and Felonis committed in the late Insurrections and principally to inquire who were the chief authors fomenters and incendiaries of the broyles are sent into Kent Essex and the rest of the Provinces in Rebellion The most honourable Mayor of London with others in Commission with him sa●… upon those of Kent Essex Norfolke and Suffolke c. who were apprehended in London Straw taken in an old rotten house about London Kirkby Treder Sterling are condemned and beheaded Strawes head being set upon London bridge with Tylers but Iack Straw who was privy to all the contrivances and plots of the confederacy could give light into the mid-night darknesse of Tylers steps through all the close windings of his labyrinths of Treasons is urged the Major promising with some hon●…st Citizens to be at the charge of M●…sses for his soule the good of which they desire him to consider to declare his full knowledge of the Counsells and votes passed and to what end they had conjured up the wicked spirits of those Garboyles Iohn was obstinate at the first and would confesse nothing but gained by these promises and a little penitent which was much to be believed of one possessed with Legions he tells them because I have hopes of help from your suffrages after my death and because this discovery may be advantageous to the Common-wealth I will confesse truly to you what we intended when we met at B●…ck-heath and sent for the King by our Captaine Generalls Order we purposed to have massacred all the Nobility and Gentry with him then to have lead the King with us respected and treated Kingly from place to place to baite the vulgar by the authority of his presence into our League whom they might so have taken for the head of our Commotion he being by those meanes likely to have beene supposed by his owne party too to have trusted us when by the confluence of all the Counties our companies had been full and the supreame Executive power wholy ours we meant to have purged the Nation to have destroyed the Gentry and first the Knights of Saint Johns of Jerusalem with all the ragges of royalty which by this time had been but a ragge it selfe Afterwards to have killed the King whose Name could then have been of no use to us Their Oath to preserve him could not last longer then their conveniency and opinions which had then changed We meant so once but we meane otherwise now had beene a satisfactory excuse They had often sworne and Covenanted that they neither meant nor had power to hurt the Kings Prerogative that they intended to maintaine the Kings authority in his royall dignity the free course of Iustice and the Lawes of the Land with infinite expressions and protestations of this kind They might answer The time was when all this was reall when they would not have subverted the government not have destroyed the antient family to which sayes a Statute which we hope it can be no treason to Tylers Ghost to recite the dominions and rights of the realme of England c. Ought by inhaerent birth-right and lawfull and undoubted succession descend and come This we being bounden thus speake the members heretofore thereunto by the Lawes of God and man doe recognise c. The answer we say might have beene easy they would not have done it some time agon they swore and Covenanted and Covenanted againe they would not now they will Tyler is still Tyler but his Liberty false cheating liberty is every where free both to will and dislike as the safety of the Common-wealth shall require and carry him on This was the faith and honesty of that age by which we may guesse at the cause and men who acted for it who were the undertakers what trust is to be given to such perfidious knaves whose protestations and Covenants of one day are wiped out by an inspiration of the next We may say by an inspiration It was wondrous fit for these changes Our Proteus should bring inspiration in All those of Estates and Possessions Bishops Canons Parsons of Churches Monkes we would have rooted out of the earth onely the begging Fryers should have been preserved who would have served such sheep such Shepheards well enough for Church-duties which we may wonder after all these pranks that they should thinke of here would have beene a very plaine church Questionlesse after all these actions the devotion of these Reformers could not have beene much By that time our publick Theeves had cast lots for the Kings Churches Nobilities and Gentries Revenues what Boores of others Countries could have compared with the riches of our Peasants and their Captaine Tyler When there should have beene so Straw goes on none left more great more strong or more wise then our selves then we had set up a Law of our owne forging at our pleasure by which our Subjects should have beene regulated Necessary it was the old Law should be voted downe It condemned them in every line Then had we created us Kings Tyler

and quiet slavery let us live or die with Liberty in so generous so honest a contention it will be glorious to be overcome whatsoever our feares are worse we cannot be than now we are about to make our selves Successe too does not so often faile men as their owne industry and boldnesse Feare not for me nor trouble your selves at my dangers I shall thinke my selfe more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to die a Martyr of the Cause with the reputation of such a gallantry Let such courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signall mischiefs had I lost my head at Hartford inflame your heavy sprights Methinks I see the Heroe Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish cowardice and by the blazes of his fire-brands kindled in Hel and waved by Fiends about his head leade on to noble villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the aery sounds of God and Saints he who feares Thunder-bolts is a religions heartlesse Coxcombe and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcobs stubbornnesse hardens on the Clownes they now accuse themselves of basenesse that they did not cut off the Knights Head and naile it on the Pillory to the terrour say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised spirits which he could not lay when he would Three dayes being expired he is againe sent to Hartford Gaol where hee heares news from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His intelligence was to this effect That Rich of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Percie with a thousand armed men were appointed to visit S. Albanes At this report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Booke is received the rest put off till the next day The Earl of Warwick sends onely excuses ●…he heard his own house was on fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and hee leaves all thing●… else to quel them This raises the fallen courages of those of St. Albanes they now laugh at their late fear●… If the Commons say they must quit their right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the renowned Mechanicks of St. Albanes be their president And as in all tumults which can never be observed too often lying is necessary and must not bee uselesse whatsoever else is They lay the blame of their obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred their●… before and submitted to the Kings mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albanes again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these turnings who vows to sit personally in judgement upon these everlasting male-contents The Abbot full of pitty and charity who had saved some of these enemies of his House from the Axe by intercession at London continues his goodness still he sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his friends to mitigate the Kings displeasure and hinder his journey thither which was not in their power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their defence and mediate with the Abbot where there was no danger an agreement is concluded the day of the King's entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in performance on their part not to make any complaints to the King of them that he would be a suiter for their peace if his prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No man had any power or authoritie to pardon or r●…mit treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their innocency too much into question They tell him his good will was sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bels rang aloud and the Monke sang merrily his welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next day being Saturday the 13. of Iuly and first of the Dog-dayes sate in judgement at the Moot-hall saies Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn the Barber are fetched from Hartford and said fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcaran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the yoak of pure discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albanes the day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last dayes of his life which were begged for his repentance that certaine hot and powerfull Pastours of the Separation Brethren of simple hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarehy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of B●…l which Disciples saies this Rabbi unlesse they be prevented and taken off wil destroy the Realm in two years Hee might have said two moneths and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the confusion of a barbarous impious age which made England glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a custom and an hundred ill customes quicklier grow and prevaile than one single good one there is a proneness in unruly man to run into deboshments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly multitude capable of any ill impressions should deprave and disorder things where all ties of restraint are loosened hay where disorders are not onely defended by the corrupt wits of hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villainies made legal Acts Had the Idol King Tyler with his Councll not gone on too far in the way of examination but