one of the deepest clerks of his time What a rare man and of heavenly speculations was Io de sacro bosco the Author of the sphaere which remaines yet engraven upon his tomb in Paris some ages after these the world of learned men did much esteem Reginald Poole Iohn Colet William Lillie Linacre Pace Cardinall Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas More Latimer Tindall Baleus Tunstall men inferior to none as well for sanctimony of life as for rare erudition and knowledg Toby Matthew Archbishop of York another Chrysostom Thomas Stapleton Nic. Wotton Iewell Cheek Humphreys Grindall Whitgift Plowden Ascham Cooke Smyth Whitaker Perkins Mountagu those great speculative Lords Baeon and Herbert Andrews Usher that rare Primat Selden who knows as much as both the Scaligers Camden the English Strabo Owen another Martiall with divers excellent Dramatique Poets and it is a great wrong to the Common-wealth of learning that their works are not made intelligible in a larger toung then that Insulary Dialect Add hereunto that for Physicians and Lawyers both Civill and Common there are as profound spirits there as any on earth And as for learning so for prowess and magnanimity the Inhabitants of Great Britain have been and are still very celebrous And though there hath been alwayes an innated kind of enmity twixt the French and the English yet they have extorted prayses out of their enemies mouths witnes Comines Froissard and Bodin who write so much in honor of the English Nor do they herein complement or flatter a whit What a bold Britain was Brennus who liv'd long before the English took footing there what notable feates did he perform in Italy Greece and Asia so that the old Britains or Welsh in honor of that Heroe call a King after his name to this day viz. Brennin and there is a Castle in Wales of his name to this day How manfully did the ancient Britains tugg with the Romans who receav'd fowler defeats there then in any other Region which one of their Poets seemes to confesse when he saith Invictos Romano Marte Britannos The Silures who are a peeple but of a few small shires in Wales viz. Monmouth Brecknock and others being animated by the courage of their King Cataracus and provok'd by the menaces of the Emperour Claudius who threatned to extinguish the very names of them met his army in open field and cutting off an auxiliary Regiment which was going to recreut the Emperour under Marius Valens they utterly routed him In so much that Ostorius the propraetor of Britanny for the Romans resenting this dishonor died out of a sense of grief Charles the Great had to doe with them in three battailes wherein there was such a slaughter of his men that he cryed Si vel semel tantùm cum illis adhuc depugnandum foret ne unum quidem militem sibi superfuturum If he were to encounter the Britains but once more he should not have a soldier left him a saying proceeding from such a man as Charlemain that tends much to the reputation of the Britains But the Gaules are they whom the Britains galld having in so many victories left their arrowes in their thighs in their breasts and some sticking in their hearts which makes Bodin complain Gallos ab Anglis in ipsa Gallia clades accepisse ac pene Imperium amisisse That the French receaved many overthrowes in France herself by the English and had almost lost their Kingdom whereupon the Poet sings wittily Anglorum semper virtutem Gallia sensit Ad Galli cantum non fugit iste Leo. For how often have the French Kings with their Nobles been routed defeated and discomfited by the English Gray-goose-wing how often hath it pierc'd the very center of the Kingdom what notable rich returnes have the English made from France And what pittifull looks must France have when Edward the fourth got such a glorious victory at Cressy where above thirty thousand perish'd among whom the King of Bohemia was found among the dead bodies ten Princes eighty Barons twelve hundred Gentlemen and the flower of the French fell that day and King Philip of Valois did hardly escape himself to a small town which being ask'd at the gate who he was qui va la answer'd la Fortune de France the Fortune of France This made France weare black a long time But in another battail she had as ill luck wherein her King Iohn and David King of Scots where taken prisoners and attended the prince of Wales to England yet such was the modesty of that prince though conquerour that he waited upon King Iohn bareheaded at table this was such a passage as happen'd in King Edgars raign who had foure Kings to row him upon the river Dee hard by Westchester viz. Kennad Kind of the Scots Malcolm King of Cumberland Maconus King of Man and another Welsh King The English reduc'd France to such a poverty at that time that she was forc'd to coin leather money In divers other battailes in the raignes of Charles the fift sixt and seventh and Lewis the elevenths time the English did often foyl the French untill the war pour le bien public begun by the Duke of Burgundy Such a large livery and seifin the English had taken in France that for three hundred and fifty years they were masters of Aquitain and Normandy Nay Henry the sixt of England was crowned King of France in Paris And so formidable were the English in France that the Duke of Britany when he was to encounter the French army in the field thought it a policy to cloth a whole Regiment of his soldiers after the English mode to make them more terrible to the French What shall I say of that notable Virago Queen Elizabeth who did such exploits again Spain by taking the united provinces of the Low Countreys under her protection How did she ply the Spaniard and bayt him by Sea and Land how did she in a manner make him a Bankrupt by making him lose his credit in all the banks of Europe And all that while Spain could do England no harme at all touching the strength of which Kingdom you may please to hear what a judicious Italian speaks of it Il Regno d'Ingliterra non há bisogno d'altri per la propria difesa anzi non solo é difficile mà si può dir impossible se non é divisione nel Regno che per via de force possa esser conquistato The Kingdom of England stands in no need of any other for her own defense so that it is not only difficult but a thing impossible unlesse there be some intestin division to make a conquest of that Countrey Philip offer'd very fairly for her in the year eighty eight when he thought to have swallowed her with his Invincible Fleet which was a preparing three yeers she consisted of above 150. saile 8000. Mariners 20000. foot besides voluntiers she carried 1600. Canons of brasse 1000. of iron
and a hundred and twenty thousand granados of all sorts The Fleet stood the King in every day thirty thousand Duckets insomuch that Bernardin Mendoza the Spanish Ambassadour in France being in a private conference one day with King Henry the fourth assured him that viis modis that Fleet had stood his Master in above tenne Millions first and last from the time that she set sayl from Lisbon This Fleet look'd like a huge Forrest at Sea as she made her way Good Lord how notably did that Masculine Queen bestirre her self in viewing her Armies in visiting her Men of Warre and Ships Royall in having her Castles and Ports well fortified in riding about and in the head of the Army her self in discharging the Office of a true Pallas wearing a Hat and Feather in lieu of a Helmet Henry the fourth of France sent her seasonable notice hereof so that most of the Roman Catholiques up and down were commanded to retire to the I le of Ely a fenney place and others were secured in Bishops houses till this horrid cloud which did threaten the destruction of England should be overblown But this prodigious Fleet being come to the British seas how did the little English vessels pelt those huge Gigantick Galeons of Spain whereof those few which were left for all the rest perisht were forc'd to fetch a compass almost as far as Norway in 62. degrees and so got to Spain to bring the sad tidings what became of the rest There were Triumphs for this not onely in England but all the United Provinces over where a Medal was coyn'd bearing this Inscription on the one side Classis Hispanica The Spanish Fleet on the other side Venit â—…vit fuit She came she went she was But had the Duke of Parma come out of Flanders with his Land Army then it might have prov'd a black day to England and herein Holland did a peece of Knight-service to England for she kept him from comming forth with a squadron of Men of Warre How gallantly did the English take Cales the Key of Spain and brought home such rich plunder How did they infest the Indies and what a masse of Treasure did Drake that English Dragon bring home thence he made his Sailes of Silk and his Anchors of Silver Most noble Princes you have heard something though not the tyth that might be said of the early Piety and Devotion of the exquisite Knowledge and Learning of the Manhood and Prowesse of Great Britain but these praises that I give her is but a bucket of water cast into her Seas Now touching both King and people it is observ'd that there is such a reciprocation of love betwixt them that it is wonderfull the one swayes the other submits obeyes and contributes to the necessities and preservation of the honour and majesty of the King for which he receives protection and security Touching the Regall Authority and absolute Power and Prerogatives of the Kings of Great Britain it is as high and supreame as any Monarchs upon Earth They acknowledge no Superior but God himself they are not feudetary or homageable to any they admit no forraign jurisdiction within the bounds of their Kingdomes and herein they have the advantage of the Kings of France and Spaine yea of the Emperour himself who is in a kind of vassalage to the Pope and may be said to divide authority with him in their own Dominions No they have long time shaken off that servitude and manumitted the Crown from those immense sums which were erogated and ported from England to pay for First fruits for Indulgences for Appeales Palls and Dispensations and such merchandises of Rome How many hundred of years did England pay Tribute though it went under the name of Peter-pence to Rome think you no less than near upon a thousand from the reign of King Inas the Saxon to Henry the eighth From the Power of the Kings of Great Britain let us goe to their Justice let us descend from the Throne to the Tribunall Now such is the Divinitie of the Kings of Great Britain that they cannot doe any Injustice it is a Canon of their Common Law that the King can doe no wrong if any be done it is the Kings Minister the Judge Magistrate or Officer doth doe it and so is punishable accordingly such a high regard the English have of the honour of their King and such a speciall care the Kings of England have us'd to take for punishing of Injustice and corruption such a care as King Edgar had to free the Iland from Wolves and corrupt Officers are no better than Wolves which he did by a Tribute that he impos'd upon a Welsh Prince for his ranson which was to bring him in three hundred skinnes of Wolves every year this produced â—…o good effects that the whole race of Wolves was extirpated in a short time so that it is as rare a thing to see a Wolf now in England as a Horse in Venice Touching the care that the Kings of England us'd to have to enrich their subjects hath been us'd to be very great and to improve the common stock Edward the third that Gallorum malleus the hammer of the French he quell'd them so was the first who introduced the art of making of Cloth into England whereby the Exchequer with the publique and private wealth of the Kingdome did receive a mighty increment for Wooll is the Golden Fleece of England and the prime Staple-commodity which is the cause that by an old custome the Judges Masters of the Rolls and Secretaries of State in Parliament time doe use to sit upon Woolsacks in the House that commodum lanarum ovium non negligendum esse Parliamentum moneatur that they put the Parliament in mind that the commodity of Wool and Sheep be not neglected The Swede the Dane the Pole the German the Russe the Turk and indeed all Nations doe highly esteem the English cloth The time was that Antwerp her self did buy and vend two hundred thousand English cloths yearly as Camden hath it And great and antient are the priviledges that the English have in Belgium for since the year 1338 which is above three hundred yeares agoe when Lewis Malan Earl of Flanders gave them very ample immunities in the Town of Bruges since which time it is incredible how all kind of commerce and merchantile affaire did flourish among the Flemins for which they were first obliged to the English for the English Wooll hath been a Golden Fleece also to the Flemins as well as the English themselves because it was one of the principal causes of enlarging their Trade whereunto the Duke of Burgundy related when he established the order of the Golden Fleece Guicciardin makes a computation that the Traffique and Intercourse betwixt England and Flanders amounted to twelve millions yearly where of five was for woollen manufactures What an Heroique incomparable Princesse was Queen Elizabeth who wore the English Crown and
France ther 's not a word syllable or letter of the Law but they will draw you arguments of strife from them for the propagation of Pleas. Nor is Justice lesse abus'd there by the multitude of Lawes which is beyond belief which the subtile capacities and working brains of that peeple use to wrest and distort as they please making therof a nose of wax As also the revocation of Ordinances and Arrests which is so frequent among them In so much that as Baudius observes the high supreme Court of France whose authority was held so sacred doth retain little of its pristin ancient Majesty the King Edicts which they verifie being so commonly repeal'd Now as in a working tempestuous Sea ther is not a drop of water stable and quiet but one wave struggles and thrusts one another forward and backward Or as a Shipp under sayl wrestleth as she makes her way with the tumbling billowes so France may be sayed to be over-whelm'd with an Ocean of confusion And as France at home is so subject to acts of oppression and injustice so whensoever she hath taken footing in any Countrey abroad her children shew themselves what they are and who was their mother by ther insolencies and extortions They corrupt the manners of all Nations where they com with their fashions and levity They do not only corrupt the mind but they infect the body with their foul disease and leave stigmatizations behind them Had the French administred justice in Sicily or had they comported themselves with that humanity prudence rectitude and moderation they shold have done the Sicilian Vespres had never happen'd when the Natives patience so often abus'd turn'd to fury and made a solemn conjuration to free themselves of them for their tyranny violation of virgins scortation ravishments stupration and insupportable taxes wherupon by a national unanimous consent and at the sounding of a bell they dispatch'd 8000. French into the other World not sparing the pregnant wombs and embryos ther was such a mortal hatred generally conceived of the Nation Having pittifully complain'd to the Pope Nicolas the third a little before imploring him that he wold cast out of Sicily that ill spirit wherwith she was so miserably possess'd so Charles Duke of Anjou brother to St. Lewis having tyranniz'd in Sicily 17. yeers was suddenly put out of his new Kingdom and the society of mankind all at once with all his proling Countreymen And he was ejected the same way as he entred which was by bloud for when King Manfredus was defunct a young Prince Conradinus the lawful Heir descended of the Imperial stemm of the Hohenstauffens was to succeed but he was betrayed by a Fisherman and surpriz'd and together with the Austrian Duke Frederique he was barbarously butcher'd Which made an Italian Author expresse himself pathetically Veramente di sasso sarebbe coluy che non fosse Truly he shold be made of stone that wold not be mov'd at such a cruel tragaedy that so hopeful a young King descending from so many Caesars with such a valorus Duke being both but youths shold be so basely made away and that by the councel of a Pope Clement the fourth which aggravat's the businesse much Ther is another pregnant example how the State of the United Provinces having made a voluntary election of the Duke of Anjou for their Governor being induc'd therunto by the Letters of the Queen of England how unjustly perfidiously and ingratefully the said Duke did carry himself with his train of ruffling French by attempting in a proditorious way to make himself absolute and independent but the cocatrice was crush'd in the shell and his design frustrated yet for his person and domestiques he was suffer'd to depart civilly and peaceably though ingloriously in point of reputation to himself and his Countrey This was the reward the French gave the Belgians notwithstanding that among many other demonstrations of confidence affection and trust they had made him Duke of Brabant and given him the title of Governor which titles he wold not desert but wold have them to his death which happen'd a little after such are the humors such the ambition of the French which made Henry Fits Allen Earl of Arundel who first introduc'd the use of Coaches into England disswade Queen Elizabeth from matching with the said Duke of Alençon because he had had sufficient experience of the inconstancy arrogance and levity of the French and that few of them had upright and just hearts Nor do the Kings of France pay the debts or hold themselves bound to perform the promises of their immediat predecessors for they say that they come to the Crown not as much by Hereditary as Kingly right as appeers by the answer which Lewis the 12. gave the Parisians who humbly petitioning for som Armes and Canons which they had lent Charles the 8. he told them that he was not Charles his Heir much lesse his Administrator So the Swisses demanding of Francis the second a return of those large sommes which they had lent his father receiv'd this short injust answer that he was not tied to the solution of any mans debts Nor do the French wher they com bestow the Indian disease and infect the bloud of their Neighbours but in one part of France they have another disease as bad and more ugly which is the leprosie for in the South parts towards the Pyrency Hills in the Countrey of Bearn and other places ther is a despicable kind of peeple call'd the Capots and in another dialect Gahets most of them being Carpenters Coupers Tinkers or of such mean mechanique trades whose society all men do shun and abominat because they use to infect others with their leprosie therfore they are not permitted to enter into any Towns and hardly to live in the Suburbs they have distinct stations apart in Churches when any dye they can leave no lands but only their moveables to their Children scarce having the same priviledges in their own Countrey that Iewes have in Italy and Germany But to resume the threed of my discourse a little before if the Kings of France be not tied to pay the debts and legacies of their parents and predecessors what law of honesty do we think can bind the vassals of France to do so Caesar and Tacitus had felt the pulse of this Nation sufficiently when they call them Levissimum hominum genus a most light race of peeple that they have more of imagination then judgment more words then common honesty Yet Francis the first could vapour as Lipsius hath it of him Etiamsi fides toto Orbe exularet although Faith shold be banish'd from among mortals yet she shold be found among Kings who shold be tied to performance by her alone and not by fear You pleas'd to say Noble Cosen Ernest that the Kings of France never die shall they be eternal and their faith so mortal I am not ignorant that Bodin goes very far in the commendation of
besides And this happened when Rome was at her highest point of strength It was cryed up for a Triumph that Caligula brought and put in the Capitoll of Rome certain Cockle shels that he had gathered upon the Costs of Holland Augustus Caesar himself who was calld happy to a Proverb yet he receavd two overthrowes by the Germans calld Lolliana and Variana Clades Iulius Caesar conquerd the Gaules by the help of Germans and in the Pharsalian fields they performd the prime Service Then the Romans because they could not do much upon Germany by strength and valour they went another way to work they found means to raise and foment divisins among the Germans themselfs and did more that way then they could by Armes Which policy also Charles the fifth a German himself did put in practise to break the strength of the Lutherans But that I may return a little to the old times what shall I say of that German Legion which in Spain gave the denomination to the Kingdom of Legio now calld Leon. What shall I say of the Exploites of the Vandales who gave name to Andalusia Of the Longobards who denominated Lombardy in Italie and occupied it two hundred yeers What of the Goths who did lead a dance through all Europe All these were Birds of our Feathers And Charles the quint was usd to say that the prime Nobility of Christendom descended from the Gothique race and that ther was no one more entire body upon Earth then Germany if united But to go from lesse to great what a Mirroir of men was our Charlemagne who first translated the Roman Empire to Germany where it hath continued above eight ages By these rivulets you may gesse at the greatnesse of the River by these sparks you may conjecture what the flame is and by these Rayes you may know somthing of the Sun Indeed in Germany Caesar sits like the Sun himselfe in the Zodiac surrounded with seven Planets that is the Septemvirat of Electors with multitudes of other refulgent Stars And this Caesarean dignity is now so rooted in Germany that it is a Fundamentall Law Ne quis exterus non Germanus in Imperatorem eligatur That no Forrener that is no German be chosen Emperour And why should we seek for any abroad when there are so many Imperiall Families at home Now the Imperiall Majesty is without a fellow Caesar of any mortall is next to God and deserves Veneration all the world over his Dignity being supereminent and his power shold be transcendent Athalaricus the Goth could say so much that the Emperour is doubtlesse an earthly God and whosoever doth heave up his arm against him he is guilty of his own blood By Baldus words he is Summus superior Dominusque Orientis Occidentis Meridiei septentrionis He is the highest Superior and Lord of all the four Cardinall corners of the World He is the Supreme Judg from whom there is no appeal the prime Arbiter It is he who in sign of excellence wears a triple Crown on his head He is Creator of Kings the chief source of honor and Fountain whence all greatnesse flowes Nay the common and Capital Enemy of Christendom the Turk gives his Ambassadors more honor then to any other Potentate As among others ther is one pregnant example for when David Ungnadius was Ambassador for the Emperour in Constantinople and went to take his leave of the grand Turk and the Persian Ambassador being com to the Duana before him and taken the Chair before him he was going away without saluting the Sultan but the gran Visier the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief Minister of State perceaving that causd the Persian Ambassador though a Mahumetan to take a lower Seat Another time upon the Celebration of Mahomet the third's Circumcision which lasted forty daies and nights continually there being in Constantinople the Legats of the greatest Monarchs upon earth yet he who was Ambassador then in the Port for Rodulphus the second had alwaies the first place Now as the Emperour himselfe is the prime Potentat so the Princes and Nobles of Germany are the best descended of any other and wheras divers German Princes bore great sway abroad it is probable that they left there much of their Of-spring But in Germany there are no forren extractions Germany reducd and ruld other Countries but none ruld Germany but her own Children swarmes of Germans have gone abroad to Italy and other Provinces for Governors but no strangers have swayd in Germany T is tru that Captives of all Nations have been brought thither from Italy and other places and among those Captives ther might be haply som Princely Stemms As now in Westphalia among the Boors ther are som found who derive themselfs from the Caesarean and Consulary Families in Rome but in Rome her self there are very few of them left having bin ravisht and ransackt so often There are none left of the publicolae of the Iunij of the Fabij of the Valerij of the Manlij of the Cassij of the Cincinnati of the Menucij of the Papirij of the Bruti of the Fulvij of the Sempronij of the Tullij of the Hortensij of the Aurelij of the Tarquinij Hostilij Licinij Sempronij Caecilij Crassi and multitudes of other Illustrious Families of Rome they are all extinct onely the Lakes of Venice hath preservd som upon the inundation of the Goths Therefore sayeth Aeneas Sylvius Ita agamus ut nos potius Germani quam Itali nuncupemur c. Let us carry the businesse so that we may be calld Germans rather then Italians for ther the purest and certainst ancientst Nobility upon earth doth yet flourish And indeed most of the Nobles of Italy that now are of German extraction originally as the Lords of Colalta Della Scala di castel Barco della Rovere della Beccaria del caretto di monte feltro di porcia Fazzoni and Arogari Carrafi Bolchetti Rossi Landriani Gonraghi Gabrieli Palavicini Savorgnani Farnesi Bentivogli Soardi c. All which acknowledg themselfs to have had their first extraction from Germany The Pole in magnifying their Sigismunds the Dane in extolling their Christians the Sweds in glorying of their Gustavus Adolphus do all this while commend Germany whence they first descended Let England also boast of their Nobility Gentry and in so doing they praise Germany and Normandy Let Spain vaunt of their King and who knowes not but he is a German two wayes by the Gothique and Austrian Family with the best Stemms of Spain besides where he is accounted but an upstart Noble-man that is not derivd de la sangre de les Godos of Gothic Blood Let France stand as high a tiptoe as she will to vaunt of her twelve hundred yeers Monarks and she will confesse her three race of Kings Merovengians Carlovingians and Capevingians whence Lewis the fourteenth now regnant is descended came all primarily of the German race But let us com to Germany her self
slave whom he had bought in Spain the slave being told of the Constitutions of France came and told his Master Sir I have serv'd you hitherto in quality of a slave but I am now a Freeeman yet I am content to serve you still but as a free attendant according to the custome of this noble Countrey The like thing happen'd at the siege of Mets where a servant had play'd the fugitive and ran away with his Master Don Luis de Avila's horse who was Master of the horse to the Emperour Don Luis sent to the Duke of Guyse a Trompetor for his man and his horse The Duke understanding that the horse was sold caus'd the money to be sent the Spaniard but for the servant he sent him word That his servant had enter'd into the inner parts of France where the Law is that if any of a servile condition puts his foot once he instantly recovers his liberty which custom being so consonant to reason and agreeable to Christianity he could not nor would not violat Touching the magnanimity and valour of the French ther are infinit Examples all the World over Alexander the great hearing of their valour sent to know of them what they fear'd most They answer'd Ne coelum rueret Least the heaven should fall 'T is tru Gallia became a Province to the Romanes but presently after the death of Iulius Caesar she was declared free And Rome call'd the Gaules in their publique writings by the appellation of frends 'T is well known what footing the Gaules took in Italy for the best part of Lombardy was call'd Gallia Cisalpina We read in Caesar that the time was cum Germanos Galli virtute superarent that the Gaules were superior to the Germans in valour that they had conquer'd much of the Countrey about the Hercynian Forest Are not the Britains of the Gaulic or Wallic race are not divers Provinces in Spain and Portingal descended from Them Afterward in revolution of time the German Franconians and Gaules being neighbours came by coalition to be one Nation and they have continued so above these 12 Ages The Kings of Sicily descend from Tanered the Norman so do the Kings of England from William the Conqueror and the Plantagenets The Kings of Cyprus Syria and Greece com from Guy of Lusignan nay Constantinople was held awhile by Gallic Emperours What glorious Expeditions have bin made to the Holy Land by 5. French Kings in person Me thinks I see Godefroy of Bâ—…llion having sold his Duchy to that purpose marching with a huge Army through Germany Hungary and Greece and so passing to Asia and Syria to encounter the Forces of Soliman the Ottoman Emperour and Chalypha the Soldan of Egipt with other Barbarian Kings whom he put all to flight making himself Master of Nice of Antioch and Hieresulam her self with the holy Sepulcher of Christ Me thinks I see him when he was to be crown'd King of Hierusalem throwing away a Crown of gold and taking one of thorns in imitation of his Saviour Me thinks I see all the tributary Princes therabouts bringing offrings unto him and he clad in the habit of a common Gregarian Soldier wherat they being astonished som of them as the Archbishop of Tyre said How is it that so great a King so admirable a Conqueror who coming from the West hath shaken all the Eastern World shold go so plain and homely But to step back a little look upon Brennus ransacking Rome with an Army of Gaules look upon Charles Martel who was call'd Conservator of the Christian World which was then upon point of ruine and to fall under the yoke of Infidels and Saracens Look upon Pepin who chas'd the Longâ—…bards out of Italy upon Bertrand who depriv'd Peter King of Castile of his Kingdom for his tyranny I could instance in a great nomber who have their names engraven and their Ensigns hung up in the Temple of immortality Moreover for Cavalleers and horsemen it is granted by all Nations that the French are the prime It is recorded in good how in the African Warr 30. French repuls'd 2000. Moors But to come neerer home In the siege of Mets where the fifth himself commanded in chief What resolute Sallies did the French make out of the Town causing the Emperour at last to trusse up his bagg and baggage and go away by torchlight Inso much that the Town of Mets being then kept by a French Garrison put the last bounds to the Conquests of that Great Captain as a Poet could tell him Si metam nescis Urls est quae Meta vocatur Now to go from the Sword to the Crosier What brave Prelats and Champions against haeresie hath France bred St. Hilary the queller of the Arrian heresie St. Hierom Pontius Paulinus Bishop of Nola Rusticus Phaebadius Prosper â—…cditius Avitus Mamertus Archbishop of Vienna Sidonius Apollinaris Lupus Germanus Salvianus Remigius Archbishop of Rheims with multitudes more all of them most pioâ—…s and learned Prelats whose Monuments shew them to be so to this day And so well devoted were the French alwayes to the Church of God that they thought nothing too dear and precious to endow her withall witnesse those mighty revenues the Gallican Church possesseth For in the late Raign of Charles the 9. ther was a cense brought in of the demains of the Church and they amounted to 12 millions and 300. thousand Franks in annual rent besides voluntary oblations Now touching Learning and Eloquence Lucius Plotius a Gaul was the first began to read Latin Lectures at Rome and Cicero being then a boy and finding such a great confluence of Auditors to flock ev'ry day to hear him he griev'd that he could not do the like as Suetonius hath left it upon record Marcus Antonius Gnipho a Gaul did then florish also at Rome a man of singular Elocution and a prodigious Memory he delivered praecepts in Greek and Latin and among others Cicero himself when he was Praetor us'd to be his Auditor Marseilles was very renowned for great learned men having bin so many ages a Greek Colony so was Lions also a special seat of the Muses as it is now for Marchants of all Nations of whom the Kings of France have borrow'd Millions of money to supply their sudden necessities Valence was also famous for Philosophers and Poets witnesse Athenaeus as also Vienne where Latin was so vulgar according to that signal Epigram of Martial Fertur habere meos si vera est fama 〈◊〉 Inter delicias pulchra Vienna suas Me legit omnis ibi Senior Iuvenisque puerque Et coram tetrico cast a puella viro Hoc ego maluerim quà m si mea carmina cantent Qui nilum ex ipso protinus ore bibunt Quà m Meus Hispano si me Tagus impleat auro Pascat et Hybla meas pascat Hymettos apes c. And questionlesse no Countrey florish'd with Learning more then France in those daies witnesse St. Hierom when he writ Sola Gallia monstra
side then the Peasan in the Countrey which makes the Hollander oftentimes bring thither French Salt back again and gain by it One shall see somtimes the poor Roturier or yeoman to go from the market with his pockets cram'd with salt to avoid paying the gabel and women steal it home in their purses Now touching such an affluence of all things in France besides which you insist upon my Noble Cosen it may be so but then surely ther is the worst kind of government there upon earth and the most unproportionablest divident made of that plenty for I dare avouch France doth abound with beggars more then any Countrey under the Sun One cannot ride upon the high way but he shall have swarmes of little mendicants sing before his horse head as also when he remounts the next day The poor Vigneron and Husbandman go in their wooden shooes and canvas breeches to Church upon Sundayes and if their wifes have a buckram petticot she is brave Therfore wheras you say that France is the freest and frankest Countrey in the World and that she draws her etymology thence she may be so to strangers and passengers but for the Natives I beleeve they are the arrand'st slaves upon earth they are of a meer asinin condition not only in relation to the King who so grinds their faces with taxes but they are villains also to their Lords I will produce one example for all The Lord of Chasteauroux or red Castle in Berry had a Tenant that by his industry became Bourgesse of Paris Le seigneur vendica son serf qui s'estoiâ—… retiré et obtint la provision the Lord in open Court demands his slave which the Court could not deny and so pass'd sentence accordingly You say noble Cosen that France is adorn'd with all vertues truly I do not see how vertue can cohabit where such furies do tyrannize I am sure that Scaliger speaks of som parts of France quae ab omni humanitaâ—…e et literis vasta est ubi librorum et bonorum hominum maxima solitudo est Som parts which are void of all humanity and literature where ther is a kind of solitude and wildernesse both of books and good men Touching the magnanimity and prwoesse of the French 't is tru they did achieve som brave things while the German bloud continued fresh in them and untainted Cicero saith that Caius Marius by his divine vertu and valour influentes in Italiam Gallorum Copias repressit that he repress'd those swarmes of French who rush'd into Italie but Caesar who was a better Historian then Cicero saith they were Cimbri and Teutones both which are High Dutch as also those which Brennus brought to sack Rome and afterwards took Delphos from the Greeks Touching the French courage we know the trite proverb that the French are at the first onset more then men and afterwards les then women Indeed Florus sayeth Habent eorum corpora quiddam simile cum suis nivibus quae mox vt caluêrs pugnâ statim in sudorem eunt et levi motu quasi sole laxantur The French bodies bear some analogy with their snowes for as soon as they are heated in fight they vapour into sweat and they are as it were thaw'd by the Sun at the least motion But your Highnesse seems to extol mightily the power of the French King indeed 't is an old saying that Gallum in suo sterquilinio plurimum posse The cock Gallus can do much upon his own dunghill But this power is not so superlatif if we descend into the truth of things for touching the demeanes of the Crown the King cannot alienat one acre therof without the consent of the three Estates as ther is a pregnant example herof in the Assembly of Blois where Bodin lost the favour of Henry the third about this debate For the French King is by the law but an Usufructuary of the Crown possession nor could any of them be sold for the redemption of King Iohn in England though it was then propos'd nor of King Francis in Spain though this was the greatest necessity that could be We well know how often the Parlement of Paris hath clash'd with the King and rejected his Edicts Nor is the single testimony of the King valid enough in France to take away any ones life ther was a notable example herof in Henry the seconds raign who when he had commanded an Italian servant to be clap'd in prison and had solemnly sworn that he had found him in a most foul offence yet the Kings affidavit could not prevail with the Judges but they releas'd the prisoner But now the integrity and stoutnesse of those brave ancient Legislators and Judges in times past is much diminish'd because Kings do use to lend their eares to Parasits Sycophants and Buffons rather then to Helvidius Priscus Monsieur Lavacre or such Sages Ther is a tale of Bajazet the first that he had an Ethiop born in India about him and having upon a march one day his tent pitch'd nere a high tree he call'd the Ethiop and sayed Dre Areb if thou lov'st me go up to the top of that tree the Indian scambled up presently so the Emperour sent presently for som to hew down the tree the poor Ethiop begging his life all the while and that his Counsellors wold intercede for him but nothing prevailing the Ethiop pull'd down his breeches and with his Excrements and Urine did so beray the hewers that they gave over work and in the interim the Ethiop gets down telling the Turks Counsellors Wold all such Privy Counsellors as you were so beray'd whose oouncel cannot do as much as my Excrements The French Kings use to have many such weak Councellors Touching the unlimited power the French Kings have to make pecuniary Levies and lay taxes I pray hear what Philip Comines sayeth one of Lewis the xi chiefest Councellors of State and whom he employ'd in the most intricat and arduous ocasions Nemo omnium est Principum qui jus habeat vel teruncium vnum exigendi a suis praeter constitutum annuum censum nisi populus assentiatur sunt quidem principes quibus hoc frequens est in Sermone vt dicant habere se privilegia vt quantum velint exigant a populo Galliarum vero Rex omnium minimè causam habet vt istud de se jactet nec enim vel ipsi vel cui vis alii licet Ther is no Prince that hath right to raise the least farthing of his subjects besides his settled revenues without the peeples consent 'T is tru ther are som Kings who have it frequently in their mouthes that they have such praerogatives to impose what they please but the King of France hath the least cause to vaunt thus of himself The Exorbitancies of the French Kings this way hath bin the ground of all the warrs that were wag'd pour le Bien public for the common good which have harass'd France so often Charles the
greedy of Wine so are the Spaniards greedy of another mans wealth and so to interdict the German his wine were the same as to prohibit the Spaniard he shold not robb which was one of the ten Commandements of God Almighty where you shall not find any against drinking And as the peeple of Spain are such robbers so the Kings of Spain are the greatest of all They are Robbers of whole Kingdoms and Countreys they are the Harpies of the earth for whersoever they confine they cast about how to devoure their Neighbours using all artifices and picking any quarrell to that end in so much that those Virgilian Verses may very well quadrat with their practises Armati Terram exercent semperque resentes Convectare juvat praedas vivere rapto The greatnes of this Nation is but Modern and upstart when the fortune of France was a little wayning Spain began to shine first under Ferdinand King of Aragon Grandfather to Charles the V. so that as one sayd Ubi Galli desierunt Rerum potiri ibi Hispani inceperunt This Ferdinand the first Catholique King vail'd and varnish'd all his Enprizes with the plausible pretext of advancing Religion yet were his pen and his tongue double in doing this he carryed oftentimes two faces under one hood and played with a staff of two ends in his greatest negotiations specially in the performance of Articles 'twixt him and the French King Lewis the XII about the division of the Kingdom of Naples that he shold have Calaba and Apulia and the French Naples and Campania But afterwards he sent his great Captain Gonsalvo who conquer'd both He got also the Kingdom of Navarr by a trick for when an English Army who was sent from Hen. the 8. of England for his assistance was to passe from Spain to Aquitain and the King of Navarr who t is tru was then under Excommunication together with the King of France desiring his English son-in-lawes Forces leave to passe through his Country Ferdinand took his advantage hereby with the help of the English to seaze upon the Kingdom of Navar and thrust out Iohn Labretan who was then lawfull King And to make his cause more specious and pretend som right he insisted upon the censure of the Pope saying That they who were enemies to the Holy Father might be assaulted by any Christian King and that his Holines was to give the Countrey to the first Conquerour Now touching the East and West Indies the Spanish title is unquestionable there you will say but let us examin the busines a little The right which the Spaniards pretend to these two Indies is Right of Discovery For the East Indies it hath been so celebrated by ancient Pagan Writers that to hold the Spaniard to be the first De tector therof were to maintain the grossest paradox that ever was For Pliny relates how Hanno the Carthaginian being carryed about from the feet of Gibraltar to the farthest end of Arabia was the first discoverer of India by twice crossing the Equinoctiall And 't is easie to finde in antient Authors that Malacca was call'd Aurea Cherchonesus and that huge Iland Sumatra was known formerly by the name of Tatrobana what is he who is never so little vers'd in Antiquity but hath read the Orientall Brachman Philosophers and of the Sinenses the peeple of China Touching the West Indies they were not unknown to Plato for whereas he placeth Atlantidis at the mouth of the Gaditan Frete which is the mouth of the Mediterranean he sayeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ther is from Atlantidis a passage to other Ilands and from them to a great opposit Continent What doth he intimat herby but the great Canarie with other Ilands in the Atlantique Sea and by the other Ilands Cuba and Hispaniola by the opposit Continent Peru and Mexico Moreover the Spaniards themselfs confesse that in a valley call'd Cautis in the Province of Chyli they found among the Sauvages many pictures and formes of two-headed Eagles in midst of their houses therfore the Spaniards call that part of AMERICA The Imperiall Province to this day because the Armes of the Roman Empire were found there There is a greater evidence then this that the Spaniards were not the first discoverers of America for ther was a Welsh Epitaph found there upon Madoc a British Prince who it seems flying from the fury of the Saxons in England put himself in som Bark to the fortune of the Sea and landed in America And that the old Britains or Welsh were there it may be confirmd further in regard ther are divers British words found amongst them to this day But what shall we wander so far in the Indies We will come neerer home We know well that Solyman the Turk denied Charles the V. the title of Roman Emperor alledging that he himself was the tru successor of Constantin the Great who was Emperour of East and West And that consequently the City of Rome belongd to the Ottoman Empire and Selim Solymans son urgd such an argument when he took Cypres from the Venetians for he sayed that the sayed Ile appertained to the Soldans of Egipt which was now under his dominion But the Apostolicall concession and bounty of Pope Alexandor the VI. entitles the King of Spain to America touching that I pray here what Attabalipa a wild Pagan King sayd when he heard that his Kingdome was given by the Pope to the Spanish King surely said he that Pope must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foâ—…l or som injust and impudent Tyrant that will undertake to bestow othâ—…r mens possessions so freely But his title may be just you will say for the propagation of Christian Religion yet Christ enacted no such Law that any free peeple shold be made slaves much lesse murther'd and tortur'd either for refusing the Gospell or continuing in their former Religion ther was not any of the Apostles claym'd a Kingdom for his preaching Saint Paul preaching to the Romans did not demand the Empire Our Saviour sayd Go and preach the Gospell to all Nations The Spaniard's lesson is Go and preach the Roman Religion and the Spanish Empire to all Nations and keep under you or kill whosoever shall resist For the first Doctrine which the Spaniards were us'd to vent in any place was Vos Indiani hujus loci Yee Indians of this place we make known unto you All that there is but one God one Pope one King of Spain which you must all obey Thus Motezuna King of Mexico and Atabalipa Emperour of Peru were brought under the yoke though they gave a house full of Gold for their ransome But the Indians did more upon the Spaniards then the Spaniards could do upon them for they brought more Spaniards to adore the Indian Gold then the Spaniards brought Indians to adore Christ Herupon a company of Indians being ready to fall into the Spaniards hands carryed som Gold into the Market place saying This is the Spaniards God le ts dance
pray what can he want who hath Money unlesse he make such a foolish wish as Mydas did that whatsoever he touch'd might turn to gold for so he might starve medias inter opes inops Ther is a proverb in Spain that Don sin dinero no es Don si no Donayre A man without money is no man but a bable but a man with money commands the world according to those witty verses of Petronius Arbiter Quisquis habet nummos securâ naviget Aurâ Fortunamque suo temperet arbitrio Uxorem ducat Danaen ipsumque licebit Arisium jubeat credere quod Danaen Carmina componat declamet concremet omnes Et peragat causas sitque Catone prior Iurisconsultus paret non paret habeto Atque esto quicquid Servius Labeo Multa loquor quidvis nummis praesentibus opta Et Veniet Clausum possidet Arca Iovem I confesse it may be the Catholick King may be plung'd in a gulph of debt having allwayes his Sword drawn and being in perpetuall hostility with the common enemy of Christendom to his great glory as also in actuall Warr with some of the Princes of Europe who if they wold let him be quiet he might quickly subdue all Mauritania the opposit shore to Spain yet for all ther is never any the least appearance of want in the Catholique Court nor the least shew that Spain is in warr or want but all things flourish as if he did not ow peny or as if he were in peace with all the world It makes me think upon Glareanus a great learned man but much in debt who being asked by a friend of his how he liv'd He answer'd I lead the life of Kings and Princes for I drink I eet and indulge my genius I game and have money always in my purse yet I am in arrears to all so it may be said of the King of Spain But it is brave security the Spanish King gives to his Creditors no lesse then assignments upon his occidentall Fleet which weigh all circumstances well is one of the greatest glories that ever Monarch had Fortune her self may be call'd the King of Spaines wife who hath brought with her such a bottomles tresure for her dowry His closet is that punctum so often wish'd by Archimedes whence he moves the whole Globe of the Earth He hath more Kingdoms then the French King hath Provinces more Fleets then the French hath Shipps more Nations then the French hath Citties more Viceroys then he hath Marshals and more Captains by Land and Sea then he hath Common-Soldiers It is day It is Spring perpetually with him in one part or other of his dominions Strabo writes of one who had such a strong and piercing perspicuity of sight that he could discern an object 135. miles off for from Lilybaeum a promontory in Sicily he could discern and dinumerat the Shipps that went out of Carthage road But the Catholique King hath stronger Optiques for from his Councell Chamber he can see what is a doing in the Seralio at Constantinople in the Louvre in France at White-hall in England at Vienna in Austria in the Consistory at Rome his sight is so sharp that he can penetrat the very Cabinet-Chambers of Kings far and neer and pry into their intrinsecallst and secretst Councells All other Princes and States stand to him in the light and he in the dark to them But wheras you say that the Spaniard is irreconcilable unto the Reformed Religion let me tell you although the Theologues there do sometimes inveigh against Luther and Calvin alledging that the God of the Calvinists is the Author of sin Deum Calvinistarum esse Authorem peccati as may be infer'd out of Iohn Calvins own words yet you must not count the Spaniard an Antichrist for this Nor although he will rant it out sometimes that he will go arm'd to Paradis and rapp out other Rodomontado's 'T is tru the Spanish Soldiers are great Libertines but not Atheists nay som of them have good Consciences and capable of Repentance As ther is a true and memorable story of a Spanish Captain who wold have ravish'd a Lawyers daughter in Flanders 1578. who was of an alluring beauty but strugling with her she took his own dagger and mortally wounded him to preserve her pudicity The Spaniard thus wounded was taken away and he sending for a Surgeon 't was told him he could not escape death many howers therupon he call'd for his ghostly father to whom having confess'd and shewed great Evidences of repentance he was absolv'd from the attempt but this is not sufficient sayed he the party whom I wold have wrong'd must pardon me hereupon the yong Virgin came to whom he sayd in rathfull termes I am here upon my deaths bed therefore I desire you wold pardon my rash attempt and for your pardon and the expiation of the offence I bequeath unto you all my Estate provided that you will give me rites of buriall and assume hereafter the name of my wife The yong maid melting into teares did do all the Testator desir'd accordingly But my noble Cousin George Frederique I find 't was not enough for you to bespatter the Spaniard and tax him of pride prophanes and many other Vices but you bereave him of the glory for discovering the new World and of the right of that Discovery Seneca the Spanish Tragaedian was as much Prophet as Poet he was a tru Vates when he sung Venient annis Saecula seris quibus Oceanus Vincula Rerum laxet ingens Pateat Tellus Typhisque novos Detegat Orbes nec sit terris Ultima Thule Late yeers shall bring an Age wherin the Ocean shall slacken the ligaments of nature a mighty tract of Earth shall appeare and Neptune shall discover new Worlds so that Thule or Island will not be the furthest part of the Earth Now his Countreymen made Scneca a tru Prophet herein to whom that mighty blessing of discovery and dominion was reserv'd In so much that both the Prophet of this new tract of Earth and the propagators thereof were Spaniards So most humbly thanking this noble Auditory for this priviledg of reply I desire you most noble Cosen and illustrious Baron of Limburg to have a more charitable and just opinion of Spain DIXI THE ORATION OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS LORD EUBESWALD c. FOR GREAT BRITAIN Most Honorable and Heroique Princes IF any one of this Illustrious convention would set forth the glory of some great City which flow'd with plenty of all things that were requisit either for necessity or pleasure exceeding therein the very wishes of the Inhabitants a City which had also impregnable fortifications and strength both by art and nature with armes of all kinds such propugnacles such advantages by land and water both to defend her self and destroy the enemy Who had a grave way of administration of Justice whose Inhabitants did florish with all sorts of manufactures with all kind of vertu invention and
Sessions There confines to the Province of York the Bishoprick of Durham a County Palatine whereof the Bishop is perpetuall Sherif there is a sumptuous antient Cathedrall Church belongs to it and the soyl is so fat that the fertility thereof doth contend with the labour of the Tiller Then there is Lancashire that brings forth goodly Oxen with larger hornes than ordinary besides that Country produceth the handsomest and best favour'dst women of any in the whole Iland VVestmerland excells in the Town of Kendall for curious Artists in all sorts of Wooll Cumberland is singular for abundance of Fish and doth upbrayd the negligence of the Inhabitants who might make a farre greater emolument of them there runnes there the precious River of Irt which affords plenty of Pearle This County also hath Mines of Copper amongst which is found some Gold ore which Mines were first discovered by a Countryman of ours Gemanus Augustan insomuch that Caesar Cicero were in the wrong when one saith that he was forc'd to bring brasse to Britany for Coining of Money the other saith neque Argenti scrupulum ullum esse in Insula Britannica for in Cardigan in Wales there is both a Silver Mine and a Mint which emploies about three hundred men every day in the week and makes them rich returnes And for other Minerals there is not onely enough to satisfie the Natives but to furnish other parts of the World besides which is done by frequent transportation The most Northern County of England is Northumberland which is full of Warlike stout people for every Gentlemans house there is built Castlewise with Turrets and Motes I have hitherto most noble Princes spoken of the best part of Great Britain which is England I will now crosse Offa's Dike which is a continued Mount of Earth that extends from Sea to Sea which the Romans did cast up to make a partition twixt England and Scotland there is another Water-partition that Nature hath put betwixt them which is the Tweed but before I part with England I will give you that Character which Pope Innocent the 4th gave of her Anglia est verè hortus deliciarum puteus inexhaustus England saith he is a true Garden of delicacies and an inexhaustible Well But there is not any who can make a true estimate of England but he who hath seen her auget praesentia famam Touching this Elogium of mine I confesse it too barren to set forth her fertility I will now to Scotland which by King Iames was united to England he was the first who may be said to break down the partition-wall by way of descent Henricus Rosas Regna Iacobus Henry the eighth joyn'd the two Roses and King Iames joyn'd the two Kingdomes And here it is worth the observing how Keneth the Pict being utterly destroyed carried with him a fatal stone out of Ireland and placed it in a woodden chaire in Scone-Monastery with this inscription engraven upon it Ni fallat Fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem If Fate failes not The Scots where e're they find This stone there they shall raign and rule mankind This Northern Kingdome is fenc'd with the same salt ditch as England is It is much longer then it is in latitude in so much that there is never a house there that is much above twenty miles distant from the Sea There is plenty of Fish Foule and Flesh there In Sutherland there are Mountaines that afford fair white Marble and among the craggs of Craford there was a Gold Mine discover'd in the time of Iames the fourth But that which redounds most to the glory of Scotland is that they can shew a cataloge of Kings for above twenty ages which come to the number of 109. from Fergusius to Charles the first There hath a strong antient league been struck betwixt this Nation and the French who confederated alwaies with them against England upon all occasions In so much that the French King hath a gard of Scots ever about his person call'd la Garde de la manche then there is a gard of Swisse and the French is last I passe now from Scotland to Ireland which is no long voyage it is but twelve leagues distance over a working and angry Sea full of Rocks and little Ilands whereof there are hundreds about the two Iles call'd the Orcades and Hebrides Ireland is a Noble and very considerable Region if you explore either the fatnesse of the soyl the conveniency of Ports and Creekes the multitudes of fresh Rivers and huge loughs as also the Inhabitants who are a robustâ—… nimble and well timbred people In so much that Giraldus saith Naturam hoc Zephyri regnum benigniori oculo respexisse Nature did look upon this Western Kingdom with a more benign aspect then ordinary The temper of the air is such that neither the summer solstice forceth them to seek shades or Caves against the violence of the heat and in the Winter solstice they may make a shift to be without fire against the rigor of the cold There are cattle there in an incredible abundance In so much that in one of the four Provinces alone there were reckon'd there hundred and twenty thousand head of cattle at one time Bees do thrive and swarm there infinitely in hollow trees up and downe as well as in hives They were Christians with the first for Saint Patrik a Britain born did convert them where he did many miracles They so adore the memory of him that it is a common saying among them That if Christ had not been Christ when he was Christ Saint Patrik had been Christ. Hereupon many famous men flourished in Ireland both for sanctitie of the life and Doctrine which the Roman Ecclesiastic history speakes of as Caelius Sedulius the Priest Columba Colmannus Aidanus Gallus Kilianus Maydulphus Brendanus and divers of a holy and austere Monastique life who contemned the World with the vanity and riches thereof For it is recorded of Columbanus who being offered great matters by one of the Kings of France if he would not depart the Country as Eusebius writes also of Thaddeus he answer'd non decere videlicet ut alienas divitias amplecterentur qui Christi nomine suas dereliquissent It was not fitting that any should embrace other mens riches who for Christ's sake had abandoned their own Nay it is recorded in good story that the Saxons now English cross'd over those stormy Seas to the mart of learning which was then famous in Ireland so that you shall find it often mentioned in the English Annalls how such a one amandatus est in Hyberniam ad disciplinam he was sent to Ireland to be taught and in the life of Sulgenus who lived neere upon 700. years since these verses are found Exemplo patrum commotus amore legendi Ivit ad Hybernos sophiâ mirabile claros According to the example of his Ancestors he went to Ireland for love
whereof the noble Baron hath spoken so much they were very valiant indeed when a silly Shepheardesse Anne d' Arc did beat them away from before Orleans pursued them to Paris and so drive them over the Seine to Normandy and when they could not be reveng'd of this Mayd in the Field being taken by a Stratageme they cut her off by a forged accusation that she was a Sorceresse forsooth Then was the time if the English had comported themselves like men of prowesse and policy to have reduc'd all France under a perpetuall subjection King Charles the seventh being driven to such streights that he was constrain'd to fly to Bourges and so for the time was in a jeering way call'd King of Berry But that notable mayd at her execution being tied to the stake was nothing daunted but left prosperity and victory for a legacy to her Countrey men till the English should be beaten quite out of France as they were afterwards for being driven and dogg'd as far as Calais they kept that a while but afterwards they were by a writ of ejectment publish'd by sound of drum and trumpet as also by the Canon Musket of the Duke of Guise thrust out of Calais and so casheer'd quite out of France which sunck so deep and made such black impressions of sorrow upon the heart of Queen Mary of England that she would often say if she were open'd after death the town of Calais would be found Engraven in her heart Now for the piety goodnes and vertu of the English which the noble Baron did so much magnifie you may judge what it was in those dayes by the ingenuous confession of an English Captain who when he had truss'd up his bagg and bagage to go for England as he was going out of the gate he in a geering way was ask'd O Englishmen when will you back again to France The Captain with a sad serious countenance answer'd When the sinns of France are greater then the sinns of England then will the English return to France Nor indeed had the French much cause to affect the English in regard of their insolence and cruelty wherof there be divers examples for in some good successes they had the victory was more bloody then the battaill cutting of prisoners off in cold blood for their greater security But the English must needs be cruell in a Forren Countrey when they use to be so in their own What a barbarous act was that of Edward the fourth to clapp up his own brother George Duke of Clarence in prison and afterwards to drown him in a butt of Muscadin by a new invention of death But to descend to neerer times what an act of immanity and ignoblenes was that in Queen Elizabeth when she promis'd safety welcom to Mary Queen of Scotts and Dowager of France if she came to England for preventing the machinations of her rebellious subjects against her and afterwards to suffer her to be hurried from one prison to another for twenty yeares and then to suffer her head to be chop'd off and by a cunning kind of dissimulation to lay the fault upon Davison her secretary and throw the bloud into his face under pretence that he sent the warrant for her execution without her knowledge Truly this was a most inglorious act and the reproach of it will never be worn out but will stick as a black spot to England while she is an Iland nor can all the water of the Sea about her wash off the stain but it wil continue still indelible But 't is the more strange that Queen Elizabeth should doe this a Queen that had been herself bred up a good while in the school of affliction and might be said to have come from the Scaffold to the Throne I say 't is strange that she should not be more sensible of anothers calamity Dido the Pagan Queen out of a sweet tendernes could say Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco and it had more becom'd Queen Elizabeth to have said so being a Christian Queen That Queen Elizabeth should do this to her own Cosen and sister Queen one as good as herself who after an invitation to England would never suffer her to have the comfort of her presence all the while That Queen Elizabeth who was cryed up and down the world to be so just so vertuous so full of clemency should do this it doth aggravat the fact much more then if another had done it I must confesse she lost much repute abroad for it Satyres pasquills and invectives being made in every corner of Christendom among others I will recite unto you one that was belch'd out in France which was thus Anglois vous dites qu'entre vous Un seul loup vivant on ne trouve Non mais vous avez une Louve Pire qu'un million de loups No Wolfs ye Englishmen do say Live in your Ile or beasts of prey No but a Wolfesse you have one Worse then a thousand Wolfs alone Among other Kings and Queens of England the example of this Queen and her Father may serve to verifie the saying of Porphyrius which you alledg'd most noble Baron Britannia fertilis Provincia Tyrannorum That Great Britanny is a province fruitfull for Tyrants Now Nimrod was call'd the Robustus Venator the strong Hunter which the Divines do interpret to be a mighty Tyrant And certainly the chasing and hunting of beasts the killing of them the washing of the Kings hands in their blood and feasting with them afterwards must needs make the minds of princes more ferocious and lesse inclinable to clemency wherefore they have a wholsom law in England that no Butcher who is habituated to blood may be capable to be a Juryman to give verdit upon any mans life The Nobles of England may in some kind be call'd Carnificers of some sorts of beasts as the buck and the doe with other such poor harmeles creatures whereof some have no gall in them for having wounded them first and then worried them down with their doggs at last as a signall of victory they bath their fingers in the blood of the poor animall which they call to take the essay but certainly this must conduce to obdurat human hearts and as it were flesh them in blood Now 't is well known there are no Kings on earth such great hunters as the English and who have more of variety of sport in that kind then any for there are more Forests Chaces and Parks besides variety of Royall palaces annexed to the Crown of England then to any other of Europe which might make the Countrey far more copious of corn fuller of cattle and have fewer beggars if they were made arable grounds or turn'd to pasturage Moreover the English Kings may not improperly be call'd Nimrods as Bodin hath it herein considering what rigorous punishments use to be inflicted upon the poor peeple by vertu of the Forest lawes In the book call'd Liber Rufus there
was one law enacted in Canutus time Omnis homo abstineat a Venerijs meis super poenam vitae Upon pain of life let every man refrain from my deer and my hunting places The Swainmote Courts have harsh punishments and amercements and for the poor Husbandman ther 's no remedy for him against the Kings dear though they lye all night in his corn and spoile it Sarisburiensis a reverend and authentic Author comprehends all this in a few words when he speaks of the exorbitancies of England in this kind Quod magis mirere ait pedicas parare avibus laqueos texere allicere nodis aut fistula aut quibuscunque insidijs supplantare ex edicto saepe fit genus criminis vel proscriptione bonorum mulctatur vel membrorum punitur salutisque dispendio Volucres coeli pisces maris communes esse audieras sed hae Fisci sunt quas venatica exigit ubicunque volant manum contine abstine ne tu in poenam laesae majestatis venantibus caedas in praedam Anovalibus suis arcentur Agricolae dum ferae habeant vagandi libertatem illis ut pascua augeantur praedia subtrahantur Agricolis sationalia insitiva Colonis cùm pascua armentarijs gregarijs tum alvearia a floralibus excludunt ipsis quoque apibus vix naturali libertate uti permissum est But that which is more to be wondred at saith Sarisburiensis is that to lay netts to prepare trapps to allure birds by a whissle or to supplant them by any kind of wile becomes oftentimes a kind of crime by the Edicts of England and is punish'd either by amercement or some corporall punishment whereas in other climes the birds of the Air and the fish of the Sea are common but not in England they belong to the Fisk or some particular person you must hold your hand and refraine for fear of comitting treason The Yeoman is hunted away from his new plowd fields while wild beasts have liberty to wander in them at pleasure nay sometimes cattle are kept from pasture and the Bees are scarce permitted to use their naturall liberty of sucking flowers But the English tyranny doth not terminat onely in the King but it difuseth it selfe further among the Nobles In so much that as Camden relates there were in King Stephens raigne as many tyrants in England as there were Castellans or Governors of Castles Stephani Regis temporibus tot erant in Anglia tyranni quot Castellorum Domini Who arrogated to themselves regall rights and prerogatives as coyning of money marshall law and the like For now there is no Kingdom on earth Naples excepted where there have been more frequent insurrections then in England for as the Kings have been noted to be Tyrants so the subjects are branded for devills In the Civill warrs that happen'd in Comines time there were above fourescore that were slain by the fortune of war and otherwise of the blood Royall besides the Kings themselves that perish'd Whereupon when the Queen of Scots heard of the fatall sentence that was pronounc'd against her with an intrepid and undaunted heart she said as an Author of credit hath it Angli in suos Reges subinde caedibus saevierunt ut neutiquam novum sit si etiam in me ex eorum sanguine natam itidem saevierint If the English have been often so cruell in the slaughter of their own Kings it is no new thing then that they have grown so cruell to me that am descended of their blood What a horrid and destructive conjuration was that subterranean plot of the Gunpowder Treason so bloody a designe no age can parallell It was like the wish of Caligula who wish'd the peeple of Rome had had but one neck that he might cut it off at one blow He had it onely in wish but these had a reall attempt to blow up not onely the blood Royall but all the Nobility and chief Gentry of the Kingdom And Guido Faux who was to set fire to the powder did shew so little sign of feare and repentance that he boldly said It was none but the great Devill of Hell who had discovered the plot and hindred him from the execution of it that God Almighty had no hand in the discovery and prevention of that meritorious work Which if it had taken effect one of the Conspirators sayd it would have satisfied for all the sins of his whole life had he liv'd a thousand yeers after And whereas my Noble Baron you travelled in your highstrain'd and smooth Oration through all the Shires of England and pointed at some things extraordinary in every one of them you shall find that they have as many blemishes as they have blessings When you extoll the Province of Cornwall so much you should also have made mention of their Pyrrhocoracas their Sea-theeves and Pirates which are so thick as choughes among them And whereas you magnifie Drake so much he was no better then a Corsary or a Skimmer of the Seas and an Archpyrate who notwithstanding there was an Ambassador here resident from Spain and a firm peace twixt the two Crownes yet was he permitted to steal and robb by land as well as by Sea among the subjects of the King of Spain Nor did he exercise cruelty on the Spaniards and Indians only but upon his own Countrymen as for example when he landed at Port San Iulian and finding a Gallowes there set up by Magellan he hang'd up by his own power a gentleman better then himself which was Mr. Iohn Doughty meerly out of envy because he might not partake of the honor of his Expeditions You praise Devonshire and the Town of Exeter especially about which there growes nothing but thin Oates and eares without grains in many places but you should have remembred that whereas Henry Duke of that City had married Edward the fourths Sister yet in tattered raggs and barefooted he was forc'd to begge his bread up and down in Flanders Whereas you speak also of Dorsetshire you should have call'd to mind the tyranny of King Henry the third against de Linde for killing one of his Dear which was made a Hart in White Forrest for which he was not onely amerc'd in a great sum of money but the Tenants of those Gentlemen that hunted with him were condemn'd to pay every year such a tax call'd White heart Silver every year to the Exchequer You passe also over Portland a poor naked Iland without Woods or any kind of Fuel but the ordure of beasts which they use for fyring For Somersetshire what huge tracts of wast grounds are found there up and down without Inhabitants which makes it so subject to theeves and Robbers Touching Hampshire what a large act of sacriledge did King William commit there by demolishing divers Churches and takeing away the Glebes from God and men the space of thirty miles and upwards making it a wild Forrest to plant and people the Country with bruite beasts useful only for
his hunting venery and pleasure But the judgements of Heaven fell visibly upon his Children for Richard his second Son died of a Pestilential air in the same Forest. William Rufus another Son of his succeeding him in the Kingdome was kill'd there also by the glance of an arrow from Sir Walter Terrell Henry also his Granchild Sonne to Robert his first begotten breath'd his last there like Absolon hanging at a bow while he was a hunting 'T is true that Barkshire hath one goodly structure which is Winsor Castle but most of the Country about is inhabited by savage beasts who may be said to live better then the people thereabouts For Surrey you should have remembred what a perfidious act Godwin Earl of Kent perform'd at Guilford who betraying to Harald the Dane a young Prince that was sent from Normandy to receive the Crown of England was delivered to Harald the Dane Sussex is infamous for the murther of King Sigebert by a Swineheard And the Province of Kent will never wash away the foul stain she received for the sacrilegious murther of Thomas Becket a Saintlike man which assassinate was perpetrated in the very Church near the high Altar for which crying and flagitious deed they say that the race of the murtherers have ever have since a white tuffe of hair in their heads and the wind blowing in their faces whersoever they go For Glocestershire her inhabitants there are worthy of reproach that by idlenesse and ignorance they would suffer the Vineyards there to decay utterly and in lieu of Wine be content with windy Sider In Oxfordshire was that lustful Labarynth made at Woodstock where Henry the second kept Rosamond his Concubine whom the revengful Queen poysoned Now touching the City of London the Metropolis of Great Britain she may be well call'd a Monster for she being the head bears no proportion with the rest of the body but is farre too bigge for it and might serve a Kingdom thrice as bigge but what Saint Hierom spoake of Constantinople Eam nuditate omnium civitatum constructam fuisse that she was made up of the nakednesse and ruine of other Cities so may London be said to grow rich out of the poverty of other Towns She is like the Spleen in the natural body by whose swelling the rest of the members pine away And herein let me observe the poor policy of the fatheaded English who suffer this one Town to be pamperd up while other places though situated in as convenient places for Navigation are ready to starve for want of trade 'T is true that Queen Elizabeth King Iames and King Charles his Son did put forth Proclamations for restraint of building in London and that all the gentry should retire to their Country dwellings in the Vacation time and at Christmas but these Proclamations were like a fire put under a green wood which did flash a little but suffer'd presently to go again so those Royal Proclamations were put in hot execution for a while yet they quickly grew cold again But indeed such is the crossgrain'd and contumacious perverse nature of the Londoners specially the schismatical part that they suspect or repine at any new command that comes from authority For whereas there was a secure and comely durable way of structure inordred them that every one should build for the future with stone or brick and not with lath and wood and that they should build regularly for the beauty prospect and evennesse of the streets as also that the Houses might not be subject to firing Yet this obstinate selfwitted people do stand still in their own light and fall againe to build with lath and lime notwithstanding that they know well enough the great advantages that would redound to the City by the other mode of Edifice In so much that in England ther 's not near that Elegance of building generally as in other Cities nor are their streetes so streight and lightsome by reason the Houses paunch out and are not so uniform as else where I could condescend to the praises you give of Essex Suffolk were it not that in the one at Saint Edmunds Berry there have happened so many popular tumults twixt the Monks and Citizens And were it not for a sordid tenure that lands are held by them of Hemingstone where Baldwin call'd le Petteur held lands from the Crown by sarieanty pro quibus debuit Die Natali Domini singulis annis coram Domino Rege Angliae unum saltum unum suflatum unum bumbulum for which lands he was to pay one leap one puff and one crack of the taile before the King upon Christmas day every yeare under paine of forfeiting his Tenure O brave Knight service O Noble homage O brave devotion upon the birth day of Christ. Touching the Norfolk men they are naturally wranglers and Cavillers The Fenny situation of Cambridge is such that I cannot wonder sufficiently how that place should be chosen out to be made a seat for the Muses Huntingtonshire Countrymen have such a rustiquenesse that hardly admits any civility Northhampton and Leicestershire are so bald that you can hardly see a tree as you passe through them The people of Lincolnshire are infested with the affrightments of Crowlands Daemonical spirits Notinghamshire doth delude the labour of the husbandman with the Sandinesse of their soyl God deliver us from the Devills Posteriors at the Peak in Darbishire Warwik is choaked up with wood there as well as in Lincolnshire The Ordure of the Sow and Cow Doth make them fire and Sope enough I should like Worcester but for cold flatulent Perry Stafford relates many odde fables of her Lake and the River of Trent In Shropshire the sweating sicknesse took its first rise which dispers'd it self not onely all England over but cross'd the Seas found out and infested English bodies in other Regions Chester complaines for want of corn to make her bread In Herefordshire there are walking Mountains for in the year 1571. about 6. of the clock in the evening there was a hill with a Rock underneath did rise up as if she were awaken out of a long sleep and changing her old bed did remove herself to a higher place carrying with her trees and folds of sheep she left a gap behinde of forty foot broad and eighty ells long the whole peece of earth was above twenty Acres and the motion lasted above a natural day that the sayd Moantain was in travell Radnor with her crags would frighten one for the rest of Wales though the inhabitants be courteous and antient yet the country swels with such a conglobation of Mountains that strangers would be hardly invited to visit her which Mountaines in some places are so high and yet so near one to another that Shepheards may talk one to another from the tops of them and not be able to meet one another in a whole day by traversing from one Mountain to the other through the valley and precipices
underneath Touching the large Province of York whereas you averre that Constantine and his Mother Helen were Britaines and born there Nicephorus makes a question of it and would have them to be of Bithynia Towards Richmond there are such squalid uncouth places and horrid Mountaines that the English themselves call them the Northern Alpes and there be such roaring streames of water which rush out of them that the inhabitants name them Hell-becks that is Infernal or Stygian Rivers Now for Scotland Good Lord what a pittifull poor Country is it It were no petty kinde of punishment to be banisht thither for it is a Country onely for those to dwell in that want a Country and have no part of the earth besides to dwell upon In some parts the soyl is such that it turns trees to stones and wheat to oats apples to crabbs and melons to pumpions In some places as you pass along you shall see neither bird in the aire nor beast on the earth or worm creeping on the ground nor scarce any vegetall but a black gorsie soyl a raw rheumatique air or some craggy and squalid wild disconselate hils And touching Woods Groves or Trees as Stephen might have scap'd stoning in Holland for want of stones so if Iudas had betrayed Christ in Scotland he might as one sayd have repented before he could have found out a tree to have hang'd himself upon And most noble Auditors you may make easie conjectures of the poverty of Scotland by the demeans of the Crown which scarce amount to a hundred thousand Dollars a year which you know is the ordinary Income of a German Prince and this both Boterus and Bodin do testifie who were Eagle-ey'd Inspectors into the Revenues of all Kingdomes and States And the answer which the Duke of Norfolk made Queen Elizabeth when she reprehended him for his presumption to marry the Queen of Scots doth verifie this Madam said he it is no great presumption in me to attempt this for my Revenues are not much inferiour to the King of Scotlands This induced the Queen Elizabeth to give King Iames her Godsonne and Successor a Pension every year Nor were the Revenues of the Crown of England any thing considerable till of late years that Trade began to encrease so infinitely and consequently the Customes with Suits in Law since the demolition of Abbeyes and the alienation of Church-Lands to the Crowne with the First-fruits Fines and other perquisites by Offices and Courts of Justice I say before these additions to the Crown the Revenue of the Crown of England was but very contemptible in comparison of other Princes I must confesse indeed that in these late Wars the Wealth of England as well as the Strength thereof hath wonderfully appear'd for I believe on both sides there hath been above two hundred Millions consum'd And there is now coming into this new Republique I beleeve above twelve Millions of Crownes every year And for her Strength one may say England was like a Horse she knew not her own strength till now for who would have thought that England could have put forth a hundred thousand foot and forty thousand horse all arm'd besides her power at Sea I say who could have thought it Yet there were so many in number at least betwixt King and Parliament at one time But to reflect again upon Scotland as the Country is pittifully barren insomuch that long Keale and short Keale which is a kind of Cabbidge that they can dress twenty sorts of wayes is one of their principall food besides fish and some odde fowle as the Solan Goose which is their greatest Regalo yet the Eater must stop his nose when he takes a bit into his mouth the smell is so rank and strong I say as the Country is so steril so is the people sordid and subject to vermine Good Lord what nasty little huts and holes shall you finde there up and down what dirty courts and stables above the anckle deep cramm'd with dung The sight of an ordinary Scots woman is a remedy against Lust for they are as big as Cows in the middle Nature seems to make no distinction there between the two sexes but the women commonly are as bigge limb'd as the men These short commons at home drive the men commonly abroad to seek their fortunes in Swethland Denmark and Poland where they are in such multitudes that in case of necessity the King of Poland might put in the field thirty thousand Scots Pedlars though they passe by the name of Merchants for if one can come up to a horse and a pair of panniers he presently assumes that name unto him Now though abroad the Scots are kept under a strict discipline that they cannot steal yet at home they are notable theeves and indeed the Caledonians were ever so to a proverb they goe now under the names of Mossetroupers Hear I pray what their own Country man Iohn Lesley the Bishop of Rosse speaks of them Noctu turmatim per invia loca perque multos maeandros è suis finibus exeunt interdiu in prostitutis latibulis equos viresque suas recreant donec eò tandem per tenebras quo volunt perveniant Arrepta praeda similiter noctu per circuitus devia loca dunt axat ad sua redeunt Quò quisque peritior Dux per illas solitudines anfractus praecipitia media caligine tenebris esse potest is ut ingeniâ—… excellens majore in honore habetur tanta calliditate hi valeut ut rarissimè praedam sibi eripi sinant nifi canum odoratu quorum ductu rectis semper vestigiis insequentium ab adversariis non nunquam capiantur In the night time the Scots doe use to steal forth by troups through odde invious places and divers Meanders and windings they bait in the way in some odde nook or cave where they refresh themselves and their horses untill they come unto the places they aime at where they had intelligence there was booty for them which when they have got they return by some other devious passage wheeling about until they are come to their own home He who is the most cunning conductor through these unfrequented and craggy by-places in the dark is cried up to be a very knowing man and consequently he is held in greatest esteem And so cautious crafty they are in their art this way that their prey is seldome or never taken away from them unlesse they be pursued with Dogs But these Borderers or Mossetroopers which this description aimes at are far inferiour to the Highlanders or Redshankes who sojourne 'twixt craggs and rocks who in the art of Robbery go much beyond all other insomuch that it is a Law in Scotland St quis ex aliqua illorum gente damna intulerit quicunque captus fuerit aut damna resarciat aut capite luat When any of the Highlanders commit any Robbery let the next that is taken repair the losse or suffer death I
know I shall strike a horrour and astonishment into this Princely Assembly by relating here what Saint Hierome writes of this people he saith Se adolescentulum in Gallia vidisse Scotos gentem Britannicam humanis vesci carnibus cum per sylvas porcorum greges armentorum pecudumque reperiant pastorum nates faeminarum papillas solere abscindere has solas ciborum delicias arbitrar When I was a young man among the Gaules I saw Scots there a people of Britain who fed upon humane flesh for when they passed through the Woods where there were Swineheards and other Shepheards they us'd to seize upon and cut off the buttocks of the male and paps of the female which they us'd to feed upon as the greatest dainties For the Learning of the Scots once in an age haply they produce a Wit but tentimes they prove pestiferous witness Buchanan and Knocks which two villaines were fratres in malum what a world of troubles have they rais'd what a distraction did they bring on mens braines what proud rascals were they in their own conceit how they would vapour and raunt an humor that is more the Scotchmans own than any nay what a malitious and ingratefull monster was one of them I mean Buchanan who though a poor Paedagogue yet he presum'd to write in such familiar terms and disgorge such base invectives against so great a personage as Mary Queen Dowager of France and his own Soveraign Princesse and which sets forth his abject spirit further this Paedagogues pen was mercenary for he was hir'd to doe it Yet King Iames took him afterwards for his Tutor notwithstanding that he had been so ingratefull and bespatter'd his mother so fowly as appeares by these pedantick dunsticall incongruous lines this most base and scurrilous Libell which hee vomited against her with that virulencie O Maria O Scota O Meretrix O quà m bene nota Impurè illota Veneri dedidissima tota Quae stimulis mota moechos trahis ad tua vota Vinoque praepota facis id quod rancida Gota Reproba Regina mage salax quam Messalina Altera Faustina semper recubans resupina Pellex Palatina temerans conjugia bina Moribus lupina Regni jurata ruina Belie incepisti tu quando puella fuisti Inguine pruristi procaxque viros petiisti Hinâ—… excussisti pudorem aperuisti Seram tuae cistae quam claudere non potuisti Quid precor egisti tu in Francia quando fuisti Antequam nupsisti cum Cardinale coisti Marito tristi tu â—…ornua multa dedisti Contra jus Christi vitrico temet subegisti Nec minus arsisti postquam in patriam rediisti Nonne tuo mystae Davidi succubuisti Unde viro tristi causam vindictae dedisti Et huic isti mortis tu causa fuisti Nonne virâ—… est scitum te propinasse aconitum Blandéque accitum somno jugulasse sopitum Nec mora protritum moechum duxisti maritum Caede insignitum Regni scelerisque peritum At principatus moecho est pro munere datus Hinc Scotiae status tumultibus est cruciatus Miles armatus jugi in statione locatus Usque quò fugatus est Boshwellus dux sceleratus Itaque cunâ—… tota sic intus in cute nota Daemoni devota tam prudens ut est Idiota Ut sic amota cupimus ante omnia vota Fortunae Rota si reflectat vae tibi Scota But now that I have given a touch of Ingratitude I think the Scots are aâ—… guilty of that base vice as any Nation What mountaineÌ„s of favours did the two last Kings of England tumble upon them What honors offices and dignities did they conferr upon them What vast pensions had they from the English Exchequer how did the last King enervat his own prerogative to strengthen their priviledges What gracious concessions did he make them according to their own confessions how he pull'd down Bishops at their request and distributed the lands amongst them how at his last being in Scotland in Parliament he was so easy and yeelding unto them that they did nothing but ask and have In so much that as one said he had granted them so much of his Royall right that for the future he was but King of Scotland as he was King of France only Titular How at his deparâ—…ure they confessed that they had nothing to complain of for the government of Kirk or State that they could imagine and therefore in lieu of their gratitud their Parliament voted that the old Act should be reviv'd which is that it should be detâ—…stable and damnable treason in any of the subjects of Scotland of what degree condition or quality soever to make any military leviâ—…s or put themselves in armes without the Kings Royall commission to observe which Act they took their oths upon the Evangelist yet the yeer scarce revolv'd when they rais'd an Army and rush'd into England not only without his comission but point blanck and expresly against his Royall letters wherein he desir'd them as they confess'd themselves since they had nothing to complain of that they would be Spectators onely and no Actors in some differences which were 'twixt him and his English Subjects yet directly against his will and request they did thrust themselves into the busines And afterwards when their own Country-man and King had fled to them in his greatest extremity for shelter and comfort they most basely sold him away O monsters of men O horrid ingratitude and perâ—…idiousnes which hath cast such foule blemishes and indelible Spoâ—…ts upon that nation that I believe all the water of the Tweed will never be able to wash away But the judgments of heaven were never so visible upon any peeple as those which have fallen upon the Scots since for besides the sweeping furious Plague that raign'd in Edenburgh and the incredible multitude of Witches which have encreas'd and been executed there since besides the sundry shamefull defeats they have receav'd by the English who carried away more of them prisoners then they were themselves in number besides that many of them died by meere hunger besides that they were sold away slaves at half a crown a dozen for forren plantations among sauvages I say besides all this chaine of judgments with divers other they have quite lost their reputation among all mankind some jeer them some hate them and none pitty them What 's become now of their hundred and ten Kings which they us'd to raunt of so much What 's become of their Crown which they bragg'd to be more weighty and have more gold in it then any Crown in Christendome I will now by the continuance of the sweet gale of your Noble favours cross over to Ireland another rough hewn Country and crosse graind peope too and indeed the Irish and Scots are originally but birds of one feather the same tongue being maternal to both Yet for the soyl and the climes Ireland much exceeds Scotland Nevertheless the
she hath been bafled at Amboyna she made a dishonorable return from Cales she was fowly beaten at the I le of Rè the small handfulls of men she sent hither to Germany in the behalfe of the Daughter of England did her more discredit then honor And her two lasts Kings were overreach'd in the Treaty touching the match with Spain and the restitution of the Palatinate She hath been a long time in a declining condition her common people are grown insolent her Nobility degenerous her Gentry effeminate and fantasticall they have brought down their wasts to the knees where the points hang dangling which were us'd to tie the middle they weare Episcopal sleeves upon their leggs and though they are farre from observing any rites of the Roman Church yet they seem to keep Asâ—…wensday all the year long by powdring not onely their locks and haire but the upper parts of their doubletts with the capes of their cloakes and the time was not many yeers since that they made themselves ridiculous to all the world by a sluttish yellow kind of starch which was a pure invention of their own and not an imitation of others whereunto they are very subject specially of the French in so much that they may be said to be scarce men of themselves but other mens Apes Therefore most excellent President and Princes I see no reason why Great Britain should compare with the other noble Continents of Europe yet I allow Her to be Great within herself if she had the wit to make use of her Greatnes and to be the Queen of Iles. Dixi. THE ORATION OF THE Lord MAXIMILIAN A Mosch For POLAND Most Excellent President and Prince TWo Perusian Ambassadors were imployed to Pope Urban the fifth residing then at Avignon who being admitted and desir'd to deliver their Ambassage as succinctly as they could in regard of the Popes indisposition yet they made a long tedious Oration which did disquiet his Holinesse as it was observ'd by the Auditors The first Ambassador having at last concluded the second subjoyn'd very wittily saying We have this moreover given to us in Charge that if you will not condescend to our demands this my Colleague must repeat his speech again and make some additions to it The Pope was so much taken with this that he presently dismissed both of them very well satisfied for the businesse they came about But I being to speak for the Noble Kingdom of Poland need no such trick of wit to procure your consent that it may have the Principality of the rest of the Provinces of Europe Nor confiding so much in your judgements need I any Rhetorical florishes or force of Eloquence to induce you thereunto for the argument hath strength enough of it self to do the businesse Poland needs no artifice she needs no Mountibank to set forth her riches which nature hath scattered in every corner with a liberal hand It is a high and very Noble peece of the Continent she abounds with Mines of Iron Lead and Sulphureous Mettals and with Lazurium a kinde of stone of a blew caerulean colour which God himself pleas'd to make use of for the Adorning of his own Palace Lituania may be said to be Ceres Barn and Russia her Haggard for there if a field be sowd it will be the year following without necessity of throwing any new seed In Podolia there be grounds that return 100. graines for one besides there be Pasturages there that the horns of the Oxen feeding therein can hardly be seen The salt pits of Cracovia may compare with any on Earth there are such concamerations in them that make a little Town supported by great Pillars of Salt and the entrance is so high that you need not stoop your head to go in There is no where better Hony and mix'd with lesser Wax or whiter then that which is found in Samogitia The trunks of trees are full of their hives There is such abundance of Pears Apples Plumms Cherries and Nuts and these in such variety that no Country can produce more in every one of the 32 County Palatines of Poland whence huge quantities of Wheat Barley and Oates with other Grains as also Hopps Hides Tallow Allum Hony Wax Pitch Taâ—… Pot-ashes Masts and Hemp are exported to other Countries The number of Oxen and Horses are infinite Now for the Wealth of the Subject and private men I will produce you one stupendous Example In the year 1363. about the season of Shrovetide the Emperor Charles the 4th his Nuptials were to be celebrated at Cracovia w th the Neece of Casimir the Great King of Poland the Kings of Hungary and Denmark Peter King of Cyprus and a great number of the Imperial Princes were present Vernicus Germanus being then Consul of Cracovia entertain'd all these Kings and Princes in his own Houses and feasted them for many daies dismissing them with presents whereof that which he bestowed upon Casimir was valued at 100 thousand Florins This Vernicus being infinitely rich exhausted his wealth in such publique Gallantries yet he looked to the main chance that he left himself a competence to live well and honestly a small pittance will suffice nature when immense possessions cannot satisfie opinion The Pole doth not glory much in high ostentous buildings measuring the vanities thereof by the frailty of his own body which is subject to decay in so short a time So he falls into contemplation that the proudest Fabriques will dissolve and crumble to dust at last What shall wee think of the Pyramides of Egipt towards the rearing thereof there were ninescore Talents erogated out of Garlike Leeks and Onions alone there were three hundred and sixty thousand opificers and labourers imployed for twenty years together in the work but what 's become now of those 4. Pyramids They are all turn'd to rubbish But observable it is that one of them was reard by Rhodope a Courtisan who was grown so infinitly rich by the publique use of her own The Temple of Ephesus was no lesse then 220. years a building to which all Asia did contribute the stupendous length whereof was 425 paces the Latitude 220. It had 120 columnes 60. foot in Altitude The Tomb of King Mausolus was an admirable thing and the love of Artemisia his Wife was more admirable in erecting such a Tomb and not onely so but taking some of the powder of her husbands body and drinking it in little doses next her heart saying that her body was the fittest Tomb for her dear Husband Now come in the Walls of Babylon 200 foot high and 60 miles compasse to finish which there came three Millions of people together I will now fix my eyes upon the Rhodian Colosse which did bear the image of the Sun in that glory It was 70 Cubits high the thumb of the Image could not be embrac'd with both the armes and so you may guesse at the vast proportion of the rest The statue of Iupiter Olympius compos'd of
still in the hearts of the peeple as appear'd by those sundry battails sieges and Skirmishings they had which were more then happen'd in any Countrey for the time considering the extent of ground But that addition of Scotland to England was unhappy and fatall to her for from that cold Northern dore blew all her troubles And now do I much admire what came into that Prince his mind who spoke of Germany to be so tart against her and to throw so much dirt into the face of his own Countrey surely as I beleeve he took those taunts and contumelies out of som forr ein Author who was no great friend to Germany but 't is as easie for Her to shake them off as feathers off a Cloak or small flies when they infest us in Sommer but as Tiberius answer'd one who told him of som aspersions that were cast abroad upon him Non indignamur aliquos esse qui nobis male dicat satis est si hoc habemus ne quis nobis malè faciat We are not angry that ther are some who speak ill of us It is enough that we are in such a condition that no body can do us any ill so may Germany say of her self 'T is too tru that Caesar hath receiv'd some deminution in point of power but though som Countreys which seem to have revolted from him seem to usurp his rights yet he still claims them and they acknowledg fealty We know that Frederique the second writ to the Pope Italia haereditas est mea hoc notum est toti orbi you know Italy is my inheritance and this is known to all the world therfore when Pius the fourth wold have made Cosmo of Medici King of Hetruria the Emperour did countermand it And afterwards when Pius the fift created him Gran Duke of Toscany Caesar did protest against it as an invasion of his imperiall prerogative though that title was afterwards confirm'd to Francis his Son by the Emperors special charter and intercession of friends yet with this proviso that he shold acknowledg himself Beneficiary of the Empire Moreover it continueth to this day that when any difference happen twixt any of the Italian Princes about extent of Territory the decision herof belongs to the Imperiall Court Ther is a late pregnant example herof for when the Genoways had encroached upon the Marquis of Final and had in a manner exterminated him from House and home the Emperour Ferdinand did summon them to answer for themselfs with this menacing addition Nisi Feciali suo parerent urbem agrum Genuensem se proscripturum If they wold not obey his Herald his Imperiall Majestie wold proscribe both the Town and Countrey of Liguria but they conform'd to his command Now ther is no Civilian Doctor but will confesse that Caesar is Lord paramount and consequently hath Jurisdiction over all the States of Italy and that it is an incontroulable truth and a Rule in Law Nullis Italiae civitatibus leges condere jus esse quae Romanorum legibus quas Fredericus promulgari jussit contrariae sint Ther is no City of Italy can by right establish any Law that may repugn any way the Roman Lawes which Frederique comanded to be promulgated Touching the Pope all the world know that he is no other de Iure but a Vassall or Chaplain to Caesar who gave him the praefecture of Rome and the Countrey adjacent a confirmation wherof he solemnly seeks of every new Emperour Therfore Caesar is not fallen from his property and Imperiall Right to Rome to this day Nor is it absolutely necessary for him to make his personall residence in Rome it being a Rule Ibi est Roma ubi est Imperator Ther Rome is where the Emperour is We know that when Constantine the Great did first transferr his Court to Constantinople and fixed there she being the fittest Citty to rule the world by reason of her situation yet he and his successors did still entitle themselfs Roman Emperours preserving still their first rights as the Athenians were sayed notwithstanding that they had relinquished the Citty to conserve Athens still in their Ships So that it may be sayd without much impropriety of speech that Rome is now at Vienna or Prague or Norimberg whersoever the imperiall person of Caesar is All the Hans Towns though they have made use of Caesar and procur'd large priviledges for som pecuniary contributions yet they acknowledg him still their supreme liege Lord Adde herunto that Savoy Lorrain and Burgundy are members of the Empire to this day as also the Neitherlands or Belgium therfore when the confederat Provinces having revolted from Spain had sent a splendid legation to Elizabeth Queen of England to take them under her protection the just and wise Princesse put it to deliberation of Councell as it appears yet upon Record An cum alterius principis subditis protectionis faedus inire liceret an Belgae faederati offerre jure possent sine Caesaris consensu qui supremus Feudi Dominus erat I say the said prudent Queen put it to debate whether it was lawfull to enter into a league with the Subjects of another Prince and whether those confederated Provinces could make such a proposall with the consent of Caesar who was Soveraign Lord of the Fee Wherupon the first answer she sent them was Nihil sibi antiquius esse quam fidem cum honore con unctam tueri nec dum sibi liquere quomodo salvo honore conscientia integrâ provincias illas oblatas in protectionem multo minus in possessionē accipere posset Nothing sayd Q. Eliz. was of more Religion to her then to conserve her Faith conjoyn'd with an honor worthy of a Prince and that it did not yet appear unto her how with safety of her honor and integrity of Conscience she cold undertake the protection much more the possession of those Provinces Yet afterwards som darknesses and jealousies encreasing 'twixt her and Spain she undertook the protection And she prov'd a brave Auxiliary unto them both for men and Money in so much that the foundation of that Free State may be sayd to be cimented with English blood 'T is tru that France concurr'd with her for pure politicall respects for they were both as Remoras to the Spanish greatnes Therfore although those sixe Fugitive Provinces which have revolted from Spain have been strangers to the Empire ever since yet all the rest of the Provinces acknowledg their old homage to Caesar. Now touching the Helvetians or Suisses although by an Imperiall Diplom or Charter they have Exemptionem à Iudicio Aulico Camerali Rotvillensi libertatem foederationum immunitatem ab omnibus oneribus realibus Imperio debitis tamen constitutione fractae pacis publicae tenentur pacem Imperii publicam violantes in Camera accusari possunt imo etiam contra omnes Imperii hostes exteros suppetias ferre sunt obstricti I say although the Swisses have exemption from
the first restaurator of learning in Germany 10 Leunclavius compild the History of the Mahumetans while he was Ambassador for Rodolphus in Constantinople 11 Lovain had 4000. Weavers loomes in the yeer 1330 13 The English first taught to make cloth by the Lovantans 13 Lubecks beer medicinall 18 Of Lorenzo de Medicis a memorable passage 22 Leo the tenth born for the restauration of letters 24 London and Genoa compar'd in Ingratitude and why 26 Latin toung two thirds Greek 38 Languages descanted upon 61 Laval in the raign of Francis the first a corpulent gentleman was the first Inventor of Coches 63 Lipsius his opinion of Oxford 44 Of London Englands Imperiall chamber 44 A Libell in Spain against the Jesuitts and another in France 18 Of love to ones Countrey 31 M MAn not tied to one place no more then a bird or fish 3. in the proeme Man Lord of all elementary creatures by divine charter 3. in the pro. Machiavill rebukes his Countrey men because they us'd German Mathematicians 10 Magdeburg the Metropolis of Germany 16 Many errors of the Ancients musterd up 17 The monstrous trade of Antwerp in times pass'd 20 The marvailous riches of Antwerp when she was plundred by the Spaniards 20 The memorable History of a Duchesse of Bavaria of conjugall love to Guelpho her husband 22 The miraculous story of a Countesse in Holland who brought forth so many children as dayes in the yeer 24 Lituania in some parts doth offer sacrifices to the Devil the maner of their worship 7 M. T. Cicero the great standard bearer of Orators 23 A maxime of Ilanders 35 A modest saying of Iulius the third though an odd one 37 A mighty clash 'twixt the Pope and the King of France 39 Moses Gods Chancelor 2. in the pro. Mets put bounds to the conquests of Charles the fift 43 Of the great Massacre in France and the horrid comet that follow'd a little after the eminent men that were slain 54 Medalls with the inscriptions after S. Bartholome massacre 55 Of Marseilles in France a Greek proverb 61 The Marquis of Ancre most barbarously murtherd 63 Of Maurice Prince of Orenge his speech upon his death bed 37 N NAtures Great Ordinance 2. in the pro. Nilus hath a strange property 7 Norimberg one of the most ingenious towns in Europe 13 A notable saying of Valentinian touching the French 24 The Normans a valiant peeple issued from Germany 25 How they came to be call'd Bygods 25 The Normans elegantly characteriz'd by Roger Hoveden 25 Notable exploits of the Germans against the Romans 25 The Normans chas'd first the Saracens out of Sicily 25 A notable resolution of the Gosack 5 No learning at all left in Greece at this time 37 A notable saying of Borgia Pope Alexanders son when he had lost 100000. crowns at dice 37 The notable cunning of Aeneas Sylvius touching Rome 39 Nogaret the French Ambassador takes the Pope a cuff under the eare 39 A notable letter the Greek Churches writ to Iohn the third 39 The notable speech of Charles the fift to Seldiâ—…s at Flushing 11 No River so full of Meanders as the Sein in France 14 Narbon curiously characteriz'd in Latin verse 41 A notable example of sacrilege 49 Of Nations in general their dexterity 51 Three notable stories in Germany 34 O THe occasion of this meeting 1. in the pro. Otho the Emperour scap'd imprisonment in Greece because he spoak the language so well 11 Of Mary Q. of Hungary a remarkable passage 21 Of the glory of the Emperor the Electors 26 Of Charlemain the first founder of the German Empire 26 Of the famous men in Poland 3 Of ploughs and culters of wood to which the pole doth attribut a kind of Divinity 7 Of some positions of the Canon Law 38 Of the Canonists who are great champions for the Pope 38 Of divers Emperours who summond Generall Councells 41 Of divers Popes who were elected and chastiz'd by Emperors 41 Of Italy France and England a proverb 57 Of the Jesuits their rise their progresse and policy all factors for Spain their strange tenets how they tugg'd to get into Paris how they were banish'd Venice Of the Indispositions of the Spanish monarchy 26 Of the gastly death of Philip the second and many circumstances belonging to it his Epitaph Of Portugall and her pittifull sterility Of the strongest Forts upon earth 34 The Opinion of an Italian touching the strength of England 38 The Order of the golden Fleece more proper to England then to any Countrey els 40 Of York the Seat of Emperours 47 Of Scotland 48 Of Ireland 49 Of the lightnes of the Britains 53 Of the prerogatives of the Emperour 48 Of curing the Kings evill by the French King the opinion of Crescentius 68 Of the base Ingratitude of the Scotts 65 P IN praise of Peregrination 3. in the pro Poyson cur'd in a strange way 6 A proverb the Italians have of the Germans 12 In the praise of Poland 1 Of the Perusian Ambassadors employed to the Pope a facetious passage 1. in Pol. Poland hath salt pitts under ground like palaces 1 Poland a very plentifull Countrey 2 A Polonian marchant nam'd Vernicius being Consull of Cracovia was rich to admiration famous entertainment he gave to 3 Kings 2 The Pole delights not much in sumptuous buildings 2 There were nine score talents erogated out of Garlik Onions and Leeks towards the building the pyramids oâ—… Egypt 2 The Pole measures his house by his own body 2 The Pole goes beyond all for manly attire 2 The Pole confines upon two potent neighbours the Turke and the Russe 4 The brave answer that Stephen King of Poland gave the Turk 4 Potts found naturally shapen in the earth neere Streme 4 Poland hath had very victorious Kings they are reckon'd up 4 King of Poland created a perpetuall friend to the Empire 5 Philip the second would not refer to the Pope the right to Portugall 39 The prerogative of the German Diet 1. in the proeme Plato against forren travell 1. in the pro. The famous pilgrimage of Otto the third to a saint in Poland the story belonging to it 4 The Pole can bring into the field 150. thousand fighting men 5 Of the Polish Nobility 5 The Poles three parts of foure are Arrians 8 In some Polish words there are 10. consonants to one vowell 9 The Polish words as so many stones thrown at a mans brain A proverb of Hungary 19 The power of Pisa in times pass'd when she had 100 gentlemen that could put every one a gally to sea upon his own charge 27 The power of Genoa in times pass'd ibid. Of Philip the second his consciousnes before he invested Portugall his sage cariage about his son before he died 12 Of the perfidiousnes of the English against the old Britains 34 Of Printing and Gunns 39 R. ROme recovered Learning by Urban the 4. who sent for Thomas Aquinas 23 As also afterwards by Cosmo
and Lorenzo de Medici 23 Reasons that Great Britain may stand in competition for the primacy of Europe 50 Raphael Urbin design'd by Leo the tenth to be a Cardinal 37 Reasons why Great Britain cannot deserve the preheminence of other Countries 67 The Russe seldom travels abroad 2. in the Pro. Rodolphus the Emperours wise speech to a Traveller 6 The Rule of Providence not to powre down all blessings at once 8 Of Regiomontanus 10 A Remarkable passage of Everard Barbatus Duke of Wirtemberg 21 The Roman Emperours had a guard of Germans for their fidelity Of the Renowned Families of Germany and their antiquity and extent through all Europe 26 Rhodope a rich Courtisan built one of the Pyramids of Egypt 2 Rome in one Cense that was made had in her two millions and a half of soules 2 Rome when Pagan had above 400 Temples now Christian she hath scarce the 4th part 2 The sorry report the French gave of Poland at their return with Hen. 3 6 Rome often ravished 28 Rome shrunk into a Pigmey's skin from that Gigantick shape she was 34 The hugenesse of Rome conjectur'd by many arguments 34 S. SCotsmen Men-eaters 63 Spain first attempted and at last subdued by the Romans 2 Spain preferr'd before all countries by Charles the 5 1 Spain with her commodities laid opâ—… 2 Spain the fragrantst Country 2 In Spain Milk cannot turn to Whey in some places 2 Spain the Queen of horses 2 Of the chief Cities of Spain 3 Of the Mines of Spain 4 The site and form of Spain 4 Of the 150 Rivers that water Spain 4 Spain hath a bridge twenty miles long whereon cattle feed 4 Spanish Crown made of her own gold 4 Spain describ'd by Claudian 5 A Spanish Guard about Iulius Caesar Augustus had a Band of Biscainers 6 A notable example of the Spanish valour 6 The Spaniards right justified to the West Indies 7 The Spanish Discoverers of the West Indies the Discoverers of the East 7 Spaniards the sole Grandees of this Age 8 Spain hath bred notable Spirits 8 Of the Jesuits founded by a Spaniard 9 The Spanish Monarchy the vastest since the Creation 10 The Sun alwaies shines upon some part of the Philippian Monarchy 10 Sacriledge to dispute of the Emperours power 2. in the Pro. Spain taunted 6 Seneca's notable Speech against Forren Travell 6 Satan doth commonly set up his Chappel near Gods House 9 Scaligers witty saying of â—…lavius 12 Scaligers coÌ„parison 'twixt thunder canon 14 Scaligers witty saying of Printing of Canon Wheele-clocks 16 Scaligers Elogium of Antwerp 16 The Swisse scarce knew the use of Gold and Silver til the overthrow they gave the Duke of Burgundy near Granson 19 Spanish Souldiers made hilts of swords of massie Gold at the plundring of Antwerp 20 A notable speech of Philip the second when his Father resign'd him his dominions 22 The wondrous strength of Sigismund King of Poland who could crack a horshooe 8 Slavonique the most spacious Tongue 8 Strange examples of some learned men that lost their memory as not to remember their own names 34 Scaligers tart opinion of Rome 35 Sicily call'd by Gâ—…cero Romes Nurse and the peoples Pantry 35 Sannazarius writ three books of Jesus Christ and yet never names him 38 Spain hath afforded many brave Emperors 11 The Spanish Grandezas expressed and reasons alledged that the Spanish King is to be preferrred before all other Potentates 11 In Spain the Mule fares sometimes better than the Master 1â—… The sterillity of Spain discovered by a pleasant tale of the Count Palatin of the Rhine 15 Of the Spanish pride some examples 21 How Spain came to this greatness 22 A question whether the Spaniards were first discoverers of the East and West Indies 22 Of the Spanish cruelty in the Indies 23 Spanish King not so potent as we take him to be and the reasons 24 The Spanish valour question'd 26 Divers Spanish Rodomantadoes 26 The Spanish Fleet the highest Grandeza that ever was 27 The sharp sight of the Spaniard 27 A memorable story of a Spanish Captain in Flanderâ—… 27 Though the King of Spain be in perpetuall war and infinitely indebted yet there is no appearance at all in his Court 27 T A Traveller compar'd to a Horsleech and Paris of Troy 6 Tacitus his notable speech against Germany 7 Thuanus saith that Cambray makes 30000 linnen cloths yearly 13 Tacitus like to have been lost had he not been received in a monastery of Westphalia 15 Typography casts a bridle into times mouth 15 Typography Ars memoriae Mors oblivionis 15 Tacitus his opinion of Germany rectified 17 The Tower of Strasburg 574 foot high 17 Tacitus call'd by Budaeus the wickedest of all writers by Tertullian the lyingst by Orosius the flattringst 17 Tyrol abounds most with Mettals of any Country 17 The Turks call all Christians Freinks and the Abyssins call them Alfrangues 24 The Great Turk prefers the Christian Emperours Ambassador before all others 26 The temple of Ephesus 22 years a building 2 The Pope a great temporal Prince proud 33 A tart censure of the Italian 36 A tart saying touching Saints 37 V ULms excells in Drapery of all sorts 13 Utrecht stands betwixt 50 Cities whereof the remotest but a dayes journey 16 Vienna describ'd by Aeneas Sylvius 18 Vladislaus the perjur'd K. of Poland the horrid judgment that fell upon prince peeple 8 The Yew poysonous to those that sleep under it a brasse nayl beaten in takes away the poyson 40 The vertu of Iron 40 A strange vision Henry the 3 of France had before his death 56 How he was murther'd with his Epitaph ibid. Vulcan hath his chief forge and Mars his Armory in Bilbo 4 Of Viriatus the valiant Portuguez 6 A question discuss'd whither the old world got more by the new or the new by the old 8 The vanity of the Portuguais 20 Of the Spanish Inquisition 20 The three vowes of Solyman 29 W BOdin wittily taunted 53 A witty Epigram on Katherin de Medicis Q of France 54 A witty saying of Henry the 4. of France 57 A witty comparison touching Bodin 60 A witty character of the French by Pontumarinus 60 A witty Chronogram 12 Witty reparties 'twixt a German and a Dutchman touching their languages 61 A witty Epigram for drinking 38 A wise law of the Lacedemonians touching lascivious books 62 A witty saying touching the order of Knighthood in France 63 Two witty comparisons 64 A wise saying of an English Captain 57 A witty letter of Câ—…ligni to the French King 64 A witty Epigram upon Spain 24 A witty saying how Philip got the Kingdom of Portugaâ—…l 6 A wise saying of Philip the second 11 His wise speech at his death 11 A witty simile touching Spain 14 A witty speech of Henry the fourth touching Spain 14 The witty speech of King Iames touching the Spaniard 24 Whither the Indian gold hath done more hurt or good to Europe 24 Some witty sayings of the wild Indians reflecting upon the Spaniards 23 A witty saying of Robert Duke of Normandy 10 A witty speech of K. Iames touching Tobacco 5 A wise saying of Cosmo de Medici 27 Walloons that fled from the fury of the Duke of Alva in Flanders taught the English to make Bays and Serges 13 A witty character of a King 15 The Wines of Germany 18 Wine fo plentifull in Germany that in some places they macerat their lime and mingle their morter with it 18 The Walls of Babylon 200 foot high and 60 miles in compas 2 Of the seven wonders 2 Where the Turks horse sets his foot the grass never grows 4 A witty answer of Charles the sift 21 A wise saying of Scaurus 33 A wise saying of Sigismund the Emperor and of Aâ—…phonso of Aragon touching Learning 37 A witty Epigram upon Henry the 4 19 A wise speech of the Pontano Duke of Venice to the Popes Ambassadors 39 A wise sanction made at a Diet against the Popes power in the election of the Emp. 39 A wise saying of the Duke of Alva 24 Witty answers of som Emperors to the Pope 41 A witty saying of an Ambassadour 1 The witty answer of Hen. 4. to the Parisians 42 Of brave women 47 A witty saying of Hen. the 2. King of France 49 A witty saying of Lewis the 12 50 A witty saying of a Spanish Ambassadour 50 A witty Epigram upon Sir Francis Drake 42 Ward the English Pirat did a world of mischief to Christendom 36 A witty saying of a Spanish client to K. Phil. 26 A witty Pasquil against Spain when the Goletta was lost 26 A witty comparison of Europe 29 A witty Spanish Proverb 29 A Welch Prince freed England of Wolves 40 Why Woolsacks are in the House of Peers 40 The wise speech of King Canutus 43 A wise speech of Charles the 5 1 Of the 〈◊〉 of Wales 46 Women did ride astride til Queen Anne wife to Richard the second 54 Of Câ—…rdinal Wolsey 55 The weakness of the Empire 32 A witty Anagram 56 A witty comparison made to the French by Florus 66 A wise saying of the Emperour Frederique 46 Of the Warrs of the Low-Countries and the grounds of them 46 A wise answer of Tiberius 47 A wise answer of Q. Eliz. to the Hollanders 48 A witty comparison that Florus makes of the French valour 66 The witty saying of an Aethiop 67 Water in Moravia of great vertue 68 A witty saying of Henry the fourth 19 The wise speech of Paschasius against the Jesuits 19 A witty saying touching the Philosophers stone 20 A witty saying touching Portugall 20 A witty revenge of a Secretary 49 The witty answer of an Empress 36 A witty saying of Katharine de Medici 35 The woful catastrophe and last words of Henry the 8 58 To the Reader The plenâ—…y of matter wherewith this book doth swel might have made a larger Index but that the Authour had a regard to the Rule of Proportion viz. that the posterâ—…-gate should not prove too big for the Fabrique Errata Edw. the 6. for Hen. 6. pag. 38. best for left p. 31. Charls the first for fift p. 11.
sway'd the Scepter as politiquely prudently and stoutly as any of those Kings which wore swords before her or after her she raigned four and forty years in a marvellous course of prosperity and all the world yea her enemies did confesse that there was never such a Virgin and a Virago upon earth Her subjects lov'd her as their most indulgent Mother her foes fear'd her as a just Revengresse her Neighbour Princes and States did attribute their safety to her and all Europe yea the great Turk and the Emperour of Russia to whom she first open'd the way of commerce did behold her though a far off with the eyes of admiration They esteem'd her as a great Heroina and the Arbitresse of Christendome for she might as well as her Father have taken that Motto cui adhaereo praeest He whom I sti◅k to prevailes Nay she did more truly verifie that saying of her Father's Galliam Hispaniam esse quasi lances in Europae libra Angliam esse lingulā sive libripendem That France and Spain were like the Beams of the great balance of Christendom and England was the handle of that balance Touching the observance and fidelity which the English us'd to bear towards their Soveraign Prince it hath been us'd to be rare and exemplary They reverence him in his absence as wel as when he is present for whersoever the Chaire of State stands all goe uncover'd they honour his very shadow they serve him upon the knee The Preacher makes three profound reverences in the Pulpit before he beginnes his Sermon They pray for him five times in the publique Liturgy and for his Queen the Heir apparent by name with the rest of his children which I beleeve is not done so often to any Christian Prince Their fidelity and affectionate Allegiance is also very remarkable and may serve for a pattern to all subjects when the Spaniard by internunciall negotiation and secret practises did treat with the Duke of Norfolk and the Earle of Ormond that the one in England the other in Ireland should rise against Queen Elizabeth the people were so eager in the cause especially on the Sea side that it is wonderfull how they flocked to all the Ports voluntarily of themselves to prevent an Invasion insomuch that there came a command to restrain such confluences of people and that every one should retire home to his dwelling and business till there were occasion When Prince Charles return'd from Spain in safety what exultations of joy was in every corner of the Kingdome specially in the great City of London what huge Bonefires some of big massy timber were up and down streets which made them as lightsome in the night as if it had been noon insomuch as one said the flames of the fires might be seen as far as Spain what barrels of Beer Ale and Wine were brought out to drink carouses to his health But most Illustrious Princes in regard this Iland is so delicate a peece of Earth I 'le take her into parcels and present her to your view I will beginne with the Southernst part with Cornwall a Province which abounds with diversity of necessary commodities whereof Spain hath every year a good share being the nearest part of the Iland towards Her here besides Gold and Silver and Marble there is great store of Tinne digg'd out which is so pure and white that it may passe for Silver when it is hammer'd into Vessells This commodity is transported and dispers'd into all parts of the World rich returnes made of it Then they have a savory Fish call'd Pilchards which Spaniards call Sardinas which is found in incredible quantities in the Sea near that Coast whereof there be huge Cargasars carried to Spain and Italy every year and for barter they will give you Silke Wine Oyle Cotton and the best Commodities they have About November this Fish is taken and they shape the course of their Voyages so that they may be in Spain Italie a little before Lent which is the convenientest for their Market because in those Catholick Countries that season is observ'd so strictly There is in this Province of Cornwall a wonderfull thing and it is a great famous Stone call'd Mainamber a little distant from a small Market Town call'd Pensans That stone though it be as bigg as a little Rock and that a multitude of men cannot carry it away yet you may stirre and move it sensibly with your little finger Prince Arthur one of the 9. Worthies was born there who is so much celebrated through the World and by such a number of Authors among other things for his round Table which was made of stone about which a selected number of Chivalrous Kinghts were us'd to sit with him and they had special Orders and Lawes made among themselves which they were bound to observe punctually Good Lord what a Heroe was this Arthur being an old Britain born he overcame the Saxons in twelve several battells In so much that an ingenious Poet sung of him thus Prisca parem nescit aequalem postera nullum Exhibitura dies Reges supereminet omnes Solus praeteritis melior majorque futuris From Cornwall I passe to Devonshire where there is also quantity of choice Tinne not inferior in purity to that of Cornwall there is a place there also where Loadstone is found Winfrid who was the Apostle of the Germans was borne there at Kirton who converted the Thuringians and Friselanders to Christianity I will leave Exeter the Provincial Town Neat Rich and large and wil go to Plimouth a most comodious and safe well frequented Port. Here Sir Francis Drake was born for Naval glory and skill the ablest that any age hath afforded he did circumnavigate and compasse the World I mean the Globe of the Earth he saild further into the Southern Seas into mare pacificum then any other where starres are so scant to guide one's course by for there are but three of the first magnitude to be seen there He gave part of America a new name call'd new Albion Among other prizes he tooke from the Spaniard the Shippe Caga fuego was one which had seventy pound weight of Gold in her thirteen great Chests cramm'd with Patacoons and a huge quantity of barrs and sowes of silver which serv'd for Ballast This rich ship this English Iason brought with him to England with his own ship the Publican in safety But the Spanish Captain broke this jest for all the losse of his treasure that his ship and Drakes ship should change their names and that his should be call'd Caga plata and Drakes Caga fuego Thus this English Drake swom like the great Leviathan to the new and old World of whom that most ingenious Epigrammatist Owen hath this Hexastic Drake pererrati quem novit terminus Orbis Quemque semel mundi vidit utrumque latus Si taceant homines facient Te sidera notum Atque loqui de Te discet uterque polus Plus