men by their out-sides or as boyes Poetry with a tickled faith through such wide eares and observations crept in that Parasitisme on the one side and Pride and Usurpation on the other side that made the house of Lancaster and the Beauforts alias Somersets all one which whilst the house of York flourished was held to differ as much as Royall and Feudall Soveraignty and Suzeraignty for their modestie at first was very well pleased with that of Beaufort and it seem'd honourable enough untill the children of Iohn de Beaufort the eldest Brother being Earle of Somerset assumed the name of their Fathers greatest honour and Earledome for their Sir-name and the rest following quite left the name of Beaufort and made the other Hereditary From this Iohn de Beaufort Earle of Somerset and Marquesse of Dorset descended Henry Duke of Somerset Father naturall to Charles Somerset created Earle of Worcester by King Henry the eight And it is worth the noting that this Duke Henry left the Faction of Lancaster to follow Edward the fourth The first Beauforts legitimated by the Pope and Richard the second have no other Sir-names but Beaufort in either of the instruments Apostolicall nor any words to give or emure them to any capacitie of Royall Title or state of Soveraignty in the Crown onely purged them by the Popes spirituall power from the foulenesse of Bastardy allowing them as children legitimate and lawfully born but gives them no other title then Ioanna de Beaufort miles Henricus de Beaufort Clericus Thomas de Beaufort Domicellus Ioannus de Beaufort Domicella and more the Pope cannot doe As the Doctors of Sorbone and some of the best Canonists hold who peremprorily affirme That the Pope cannot make Bastards capable to inherit the Hereditary Lands of their Father neither can give them power to Constitute Successours or Heires or hold Offices Dignities or Titles without the Princes speciall dispensation to which the Civill and Imperiall Lawes agree and is Authentick in England as a Learned and eminent Judge reports though others thinke it of too severe a nature and moderately agreeable to reason and Law the Law much observing reason That Bastards being honest and worthy men the rather if they be avowed by their Fathers may be admitted to Honours Dignities Titles Feuds and other Ornaments of rewards and vertue Of this indulgence and connivence wee have examples in England by two worthy and deserving men flourishing in this Age who though Bastards held the greatest Offices in England So Richard the second in his Charter for the legitimation of the Beauforts would have men of desert and avowed by their Fathers capable of Advancement and Honours The Tenor of which Charter and Confirmation of it by Parliament I shall exhibite as it is taken out of the Archives and Tower Records opening the way by a short advertisement That in this Act of Parliament there is an Induction to the Charter made by Doctor Edmond Stafford Brother to the Earle of Stafford and Bishop of Exeter Lord Chancellour of England in the twentieth yeare of Richard the second which intimateth that Pope Vrbanus the sixt at the earnest request of the King vouchsafed to legitimate these Beauforts the base sonnes and the daughter of the Duke of Guyen and Lancaster That the King also having power to legitimate and enable Bastards in the same kind and in as ample manner as the Emperour hath or had for so he pressed and avowed in the Act was pleased at the humble request and suit of the Duke their Father to make them not onely legitimate but also capable of Lands Heritages Titles Honours Offices Dignities c. And that the King for the more authority therof crav'd the allowance and favourable assent of the Barons in Parliament which was granted The Charter runnes thus Charta Legitimationis Spuriorum Ioannis Ducis Lancastriae RIchardus dei gratia Rex Angliae Franciae Dominus Hiberniae charissimis Consanguineis nostris Nohilibus viris Ioanni de Beaufort Militi Henrico de B. Clerico Thomae de Beaufort Domicello Nobili mulieri Ioannae Beaufort domicellae praeclarissimi patrui nostri Nobilis viri Ioannis Ducis Aquitaniae Lancastriae Germanis natis liegis nostris salutem Nos pro honore meritis c. Avunculi nostri Proprio arbitratu meritorum suorum intuitu vos quia magno probitatis ingenio ac vitae ac morum Honestate fulgetis ex regali estis prosapia propagati c. hinc est quod Ioannis c. avunculi nostri genitoris vestri precibus inclinati vobis cum ut asseritur defectum natalium patimini hujusmodi defectum ejusdem qualitates quascunque abolere praesentes vos haberi volumus pro sufficientibus ad quoscunque honores dignitatis praeeminentias status gradus officia publica privata tam perpetua quam temporalia atque Iudicialia Nobilia quibuscunque nominibus nuncupentur etiam si Ducatus Principatus Comitatus Baroniae vel alia feuda fuerint etiamsi mediate vel immediate à nobis dependeant seu teneantur praefici praemoveri eligi assumi admitti illaque recipere pro inde libere ac licite valeatis ac side legitimo thoro nati existeritis quibuscunque Statutis seu Consuetudinibus regni nostri Angliae in contrarium editis seu observatis quae hic habemus pro totaliter expressis nequa quam obstantibus de plenitudine nostrae regalis potestatis de assenssu Parliamenti nostri tenore praesentium dispensamus vosque quemlibet vestrum natalibus restituimus Legitimanus Die Feb. Anno regni 20. R. 2. Here wee find large Graces Honours and Priviledges conferred upon those Beauforts for the King calls them Consanguineos sous and not onely confirmes their Legitimation but makes them by the helpe of the Parliament capable of Baronies Earledomes Dukedomes and Principalities enableth them for all Offices publique and private temporary and perpetuall to take hold of and injoy all Feuds as well noble as other all Lands and Signiories Hereditary as lawfully firmly and rightfully as if they had beene borne in lawfull matrimony but yet conferres no Royall Title nor interest in the Crowne at the least to the observation of those who allow not the claime of the Beauforts and Somersets and say that to reach that there must be words of a higher intent words of Empire Majesty and Soveraigntie such as Regni summa potestas Corona Sceptrum Diadema Purpura Majestas and the like Neither of these nor any importing their extent being in this grant so no Title to the Crowne nor Soveraigntie could passe to them To which the other side replyes That there is a word in the Charter that comprehendeth Empire Raigne and Soveraigntie that is Principatus whereof the King and Parliament make the Beauforts capable Principatus being the State of Princeps a Title of the most absolute Soveraigne Power for the Roman Emperours
Goods Chattells and Debts These be the words of the Act and if jus then jus summum in all extremity Those of note that were taken lost their heads at Leicester two dayes after being Saint Bartholmews day and had a glimpse like that Bartholmew in France in our time all such slaughters from thence call'd Bartelmies and Bartelemies simply in a perpetuall Stigma of that Butchery It is suggested the Duke of Norfolke was slaine in the Battaile by the Earle of Oxford and the Story of Croyland seemeth to say as much Comes Oxoniae valentissimus miles in eam alam ubi Dux Norfolciae constitutus erat in agro de Redmore tum Gallicorum tum Anglicorum militum Comitatu stipatus tetendit c. Amongst those that escaped the sad destiny of that day was the Earle of Surrey Sir Thomas Howard Viscount Lovel Sir Thomas Stafford and his Brother N. Stafford with many other Nobles and Gentlemen that got into Forraigne Countries and Sanctuaries obscuring themselves till the storme and smart of that dayes memory were past But some would maintain Thomas Earl of Surrey to be one of them that submitted to the new King at Bosworth immediately after the overthrow which must not be believed if wee understand the composition of those times affairs for certaine it is the Earl Richmond had peremptorily proscribed all those he had cause to feare or hate whose names are partly in the Rowles kept in the Chappell of the Convertites in Chancery-Lane and partly omitted by the Scribes Now the Earle of Surrey of all the rest was so terrible and distastefull to him there could be no excuse left for his life And therefore let no man thinke he was taken or submitted but tooke aâ— happier season some moneths after The Relation and truth is by the warrant of one that well knew him and the inter-passage of his Fortune the Earle opportunely left the Field but so wounded that faintnesse and night constrain'd him to the house of a Gentleman not farre from Nottingham and one that bare a faithfull respect to the Earle and his Family untill he was well recovered In the meane time that terrible Parliament held in the next November was concluded and the Kings desires reasonably well appeased in seeing the execution of his new Lawes past upon some of them After which some small distance of time followed a gracious pardon to all the offenders in that Cause which proffered mercy this Earle layd hold on hoping to restore himselfe by his submission his offence considered being but an Act of Loyaltie to his Master But this confidence sent him to the Tower for though the violence of the storme appear'd well calm'd yet the King retain'd some heavings of it in his thoughts And this Imprisonment continued from his first yeare of raigne unto the fourth and towards the beginning of that being in the Tower with the Queene Elizabeth to whom he was shortly after to be married he tooke occasion to call for the Earle bearing still a gust of the same tempest in his brow and challenged him upon the old quarrell his service to the late Usurper Tyrant as he usually termed King Richard the Earle humbly moved his pardon and more favourable consideration to the nature of his offence which thousands more conceived to be but a due effect of their Liege duties and Allegiance to a Prince so lawfully and with all generall sufferance Crowned whose Title he held himselfe bound to defend by the law of God and Nations and would dye in defence of him and that Crowne though he should find it upon a Stake The King left him with a sterne and ruffling reply but in cold blood better acknowledged his integritie and thought he would come of no lesse value to him having the advantage to merit him by his pardon which soone after he granted him nor did the Earle loose ought of that opinion Shortly after being made of the Privie Councell then Lieutenant or Governour of the North and Generall against the Scots whom he overthrew as fatall was he to them at Flodden field where he tooke their King in the time of Henry the eight who made him High Marshall and Treasurer of England and restor'd him to his Fathers Dukedome the Inheritance of his Grand mother Mowbray being a man of such a happy direction in his carriage and wisedome that all his Actions came home with prosperous successe and accumulated what was sometime spoken of his great Ancestour Hewardus of whom it was questioned Vtrum faelioior an fortior esset so Fortunate and Honourable hath that house beene in the Service to this State and in the infinite Alliance and Cognation it holds with the most Ancient Families the Extractions and propagations from Mowbray Warren Bruce Dalbery Marshall Segrave Plantagenet Brotherton Bigot Fitz-Alan Matraver Buckingham Oxford and Dacres The Father of which Haward was Leofrick Lord of Burne and the adjacent Countrey in Lincolneshire his Mother was the Lady Edina descended from the great Ostac a Duke amongst the Easterlings in King Edgars time In whose Family I also find a Noble Kins-man of his called Haward to note obiter This Haward was of a Noble and Magnificent note a goodly Personage answer'd with an equall Strength and Valour Et nimium Bellicosus much or too much devoted to Mars He served in the Warres of Northumberland Cornewall and Ireland and after in the lower Germany where he made up much of his Fame and married a faire Lady called Turfrida the Daughter of a Noble man in Flanders where he continued untill the death of his Father called him home About which time William Duke of Normandy made his Conquest of this Kingdome and had gratified Iohannes Talbois the French Counte now Earle of Holland with Leoffricks Countrey of Holland in the Marshand and the Counte very rudely had expuls'd the Lady his Mother out of her Possessions and Dower Hawardus set upon him with such forces as he could speedily rayse tooke and held him prisoner in despight of the Conquerour untill he redeem'd himselfe and accompted for what he had done with a large summe of money This drew those of the Nobility to the protection of his sword which the Conquerour had chased out of their Countrey who had fortified themselves in the Isle of Ely and made Hawardus their Generall where he built a Castle that a long time after had his name But the Normans tooke that advantage to infest his Countrey and put him againe to the recovery of it which he so fortunately setled that the Conquerour was contented to make him his and hold him in good favour whilst he lived He was buried in the Abbey of Croyland Concerning his Issue by the the Lady Turfrida there is mention onely of a Daughter named Tarfrida married to Hugo Enermâ—a Lord of Deeping But circumstance will perswade us he had other Issue if wee consider him in the likelyhood of his strength and abilitie and
voce Richardus eram Tutor eram Patriae Patrius pro jure Nepotis Dirupta tenui regna Britanna fide Sexaginta dies binis duntaxat ademptis AEtatesque tulitunc mea Sceptra duas Fortiter in Bello certans desertus ab Anglis Rex Henrice tibi septime succubui At sumptu pius ipse tuo sic ossa dicaras Regem olimque facis Regis honore Coli Quatuor exceptis jam tantum quinque bis annis Acta trecenta quidem lustra salutis erant Antique Septembris undena luce Kalendas Redideram rubrae jura petita Rosae At mea quisquis eris propter commissa precarem Sit Minor ut precibus poena levata tuis Deo O. M. Trino Uno sit laus gloria aeterna AMEN EPIGRAMMA In Richardos Angliae Reges ex vet lib. M. S. transcriptum TRes sunt Richardi quorum fortuna erat aequa In tribus aescariis sua cujus propria sors est Nam Concors horum finis sine posteritate Corporis atque rapax vitae modus violentus Interitus fuerat sed major gloria primi Praelia terrarum qui gesserat redeuntem Tela Balistarum feriunt apud extera regna Alter depositus regno qui carcere Clausus Mensibus extiterat certis fame velle perire Elegit potius quam famae probra videre Tertius exbausto statim amplo divitiarum Edwardi cumulo proscribens auxiliares Henrici partes post annos denique binos Suscepti regni Bello confectus eisdem Mundanam vitam tum perdidit atque Coronam Anno milleno Centum quater octuageno Adjunctis quinque cum lux Sextilis adest Vndena duplex dentes apri stupuerunt Et vindex albae Rosa Rubra refloret in orbe FINIS A Table of the Heads contained in this BOOKE A. AMbition and Covetuousnesse the cause of unnaturall fends murders and infinite other mischiefes Example pag. 5. 12 13 14. 35 36. 98 99. 104. 141. c. Ambassadour of Scotland his speech to K. Richard 3. p. 139. 140. Angell Guardian Genius p. 106. Ann de la Poole a Nun. 35. Anjou Fulke Earle of Anjou sonne of Geofrey Grisegonnelle p. 4. his purjury and murder of his Nephew Drogo ib. his pilgrimage to the holy Sepulcher his penance ib. his great and famous posterity p. 6 7. Armes of France assumed by Ed. 3. p. 47. Armes of the ancient Earles of Anjou pag. 47. Armes of bastards differenced 46. Arrogation of royall rights 45. Arts Imperij and rules of policy in auncient times not warrantable p. 14. Ancesters or Antecestoures the duty and respect we owe unto their memories p. 69. Ambitious minds easily flattered 35. a sower sweet p. 30. B. BArrons of England their great priviledge 118. Bastards what they are 44. cannot inherit p. 45. not beare their fathers name or arms 46. without speciall indulgence p. 48. Take the mothers name 46. 47. The ancient custome of England and France herein ib. Great families discended from bastards p. 66. may bee capeable of offices and dignities 48. Battell of Bosworth 60. 61. Baynard Castle London formerly Yorke house p. 20. Beauforts naturall children of Iohn of Gaunt so called from a towne in Anjou 45. not permitted to the title of Lancas ib. A charter of their legitimation 48. 49. Benevolence the meaning of that word in Edw. 4. his time 133. in Margin Barwick recovered by the English 10. Bucking an auncient famly 67. how desended c. 68. of the name ib. Buckingham Henry Stafford D. of Buck. his speech to the Lord protector 20. 22. His revolt and rebellion 34. his pretended title to the Crowne 35. retires sides with Richmond 36 his forces are scattered himselfe betrayed and beheaded 37. D. of Brittaine chose Knight of the Garter 18. C. CHarter of Henry 4. entailing the Crown to his 4. sons successively 50. Camp-fight or single combates between Princes and Generalls and grounds of it 62. Catarhe to dye of a Catarhe what it meanes in France 123. Censure and censuring 63. K. Charles our most Gracious and dear soveraigne Lord his just undoubted right his many great and auncient titles to the Imperial Crowne of England 144 145 146. Clarence G. D. of Clarence rebells against his Brother Edward 4. is taken and beheaded 82 83. Clergy pride of Popish Clergy 53. Comlinesse of personage adds a grace to vertue 42. Comes or Count two fold signification of it 8. Constable-ship of England joyned to the Earledome of Hereford 34. Vice-Constable a new and politick institution 31. A coppie of their Commission ibid. Cole Harbour London at first Heralds Office 138. Conquerour and Conquest Licentious power of it 54 55. Titles by conquest not safe nor lasting 144. distasted of the people as tyranicall 54. Covetuonsness roote of all evill 5. c. as in Ambition Councel and Councellers 51 52. 55. 103 Counterfeit princes many examples p. 89. Cowardice Insolence over a conquered enemy a note of it 61. Crowne little pleasure in it 21. D. DEath the best men have dyed violent deaths 140. To dye in battell a glorious death ibid. Wee must not a mans life by the manner of his death 141. Decree of God not to be prevented 63. Deformity of body no blemish to vertue 80. Desires unlawfull alwaies unsatiable 5. 116. Detraction v. Slander Dimock Champion to K. Rich. 3. makes a challenge in defence of the Kings title to the Crowne 27. Divorce of Wives formerly usuall upon slight occasions 127. Copy of a Bill of divorse in use among the Iewes 128. Dux and Comes Ducatus and Comitatus were formerly Synonomies 4. Drogo Young Earle of Brittaine made away by his Vncle 5. E. EDward 3. King of England his linage 4. thought privie and consenting to his fathers deposition â—assacre 141. Edward Earle of March obtaines the Crowne 8. sends an army into Scotland to recover his tribute 10. received tribute of France 29. much feared for his prowess 19. His wantonnesse and many loves 115 116. His witty Leman 121. Had two wives at once 116 117. Ill consequences of his last marriage 118. His answer to his mother 120. Adjudged unlawfull the children illegittimate Parliam Anno 1. Rich. 3. p. 30. And refused by the Barons and Commons as incapeable of rule 20. 22. His daughters meane fortunes 143. His death supposed by treachery 11. by poyson 102. 123. Appointed his brother Ric. D. of Glocester protector 11 Edward 5. conveyed with an honorable conduct from Ludlow to London 11. reports of his death diverse but uncertaine 83 84. most probable that he died of sicknesse and infirmity 85. Edward Prince of Wales sonne of Hen. 6. Murdered 81. 141. Edw. Prince of Wales son of R. 3. dyed to the great griefe of the K. Q 44. Elianor Talbott alias Butler married to Edw. fourth 116. her wrongs and death 122. Elizabeth Gray her witty strengths against K. Edwards amorous assaults 117. Is marrid to him privately in a lodge 118. Is confined to an Abbey by
THE HISTORY of the Life and Reigne of RICHARD The Third Composed in five Bookes By GEO BUCK Esquire Honorandus est qui injuriam non fecit sed qui alios eam facere non patitur duplici Honore dignus est Plato de legibus Lib. 5. Qui non repellit a proximo injuriam si potest tam est in vitio quam ille qui infert D. Ambros. offic Lib. 3. LONDON Printed by W. Wilson and are to be sold by VV. L. H. M. and D. P. 1647. The true Portraiture of Richard Plantagenest of England and of France King Lord of Ireland the third King Richard TO THE FAVOVRABLE ACCEPTANCE Of the Right Honourable PHILIP Earle of Pembrooke and Mountgomery c. Sir HAving collected these papers out of their dust I was bold to hope there might be somthing in them of a better fate if mine obscure pen darken not that too Please your Lordshipp to let your name make them another witnesse of your noblenesse it may redeeme and improve them to a clearer opinion and acknowlegedment of these times in which I am to meet every Critick at his owne weapon who will challenge the Book at the very Title The Malicious and Malevolent with their blotted Coments the Captious Incredulous with their jealous praecisianâ—sines whose inclinations shewes them of envious perplexed natures to looke at other mens actions and memory by the wrong end of the perspective and me thinks I fancy them to our shaddowes which at noone creepe behind like Dwarfes atevening stalke by like Gyants they will haunte the noblest merits and endeavors to their Sun-set then they monster it but to the Common-rout they are another kind of Genius or ignis fatuus leades them into darke strange wanderings there they stick for to perswade the opinionated vulgar out of their ignorant selves is of as high a beliefe to me as to transpeciate a Beast into a man I therefore shall crave favour to protest these papers beyond their Censure and humour But to those they are wished I hope their weak accesses may be the more pardonable since they are the kindlings and scintillations of a modest Ambition to truth and gratitude which gives me the encouragement to assure your Lordship that if mine Authors be sincere and faithfull my penis free and innocent having learned that a story as it ought must be a just perspicuous Narration of things memorable spoken and don The Historiographer veritable free from all Prosopolepsyes or partiall respects and surely his pen should tast with a great deal of Conscience for there is nothing leaves so an infected a sting or scandall as History it rankles to all posterity wounds our good names to all memory places by an Authentick kind of preiudice I am with his opinion in his excellent Religio Medici who holds it an offence to Charity and as bloody a thought one way as Nero's in another My Lord under these humble addresses this sues to your honoured hand Presented by the unfained wishes of your Honours avowed and humble Servant GEO BUCK The ARGUMENT and CONTENTS of the First Booke The Linage Family Birth Education and Tirociny of King Richard the third THe Royall house of Plantagenest and the beginning of that name What Sobriquets were The antiquity of Sirnames Richard is created Duke of Gloucester his marriage and his issue His martiall imployments His Iourney into Scotland and recovery of Barwick The death of King Edward the 4 th The Duke of Gloucester made Lord Protector and soone after King of England by importunate suite of his Barons and of the People as the next true and lawfull heire Henry Teudor Earle of Richmond practiseth against the King He is conveyed into France The Noble Linage of Sir William Herbert his Imployment He is made Earle of Pembrooke King Edward the 4 th first and after King Richard sollicite the Duke of Brittaine and treat with him for the delivery of the young Earle of Richmond his Prisoner The successe of that businesse The quality and title of the Beauforts or Sommersets The Linage and Family of the Earle of Richmond The solemne Coronations of King Richard and of the Queene his wife his first at Westminster the second at Yorke Nobles Knights and Officers made by him Prince Edward his Son invested in the Principallity of Wales and the Oath of Allegeance made to him King Richard demandeth the Tribute of France His Progresse to Yorke His carefull charge given to the Iudges and Magistrates He holdeth a Parliament wherein the marriage of the King his Brother with the Lady Gray is declared and adjudged unlawfull their children to be illegitimate and not capable of the Crowne The Earle of Richmond and divers others attainted of Treason Many good Laws made The K. declared and approved by Parliament to be the only true and lawfull heire of the Crowne The King and Queene dowager are reconciled He hath secret advertisemeÌ„ts of Innovations and practises against him Createth a vice-Constable of England His sundry treaties with Forraigne Princes Doctor Morton corrupteth the Duke of Buckingham who becometh discontent demanding the Earledome of Hereford with the great Constableship of England He taketh Armes is defeated and put to death by marshall Law THE FIRST BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF RICHARD THE THIRD OF ENGLAND AND OF FRANCE KING AND LORD OF IRELAND RIchard Plantagenet Duke of Glocester and King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland the third of that name was the younger sonne of Sir Richard Plantagenet the fourth Duke of Yorke of that Royall Family and King of England designate by King Henry the sixth and by the most noble Senate and universall Synod of this Kingdome the High Court of Parliament The Mother of this Richard Duke of Glocester was the Lady Cecily Daughter of Sir Ralph de Neville Earle of Westmerland by his wife Ioane de Beaufort the naturall Daughter of Iohn Plantagenet alias de Gaunt Duke of Guiene and Lancaster King of Castile and Leon third Sonne of King Edward the third for in that order this Duke is best accounted because William of Hatfield the second Sonne of King Edward the third dyed in his infancy and this Duke of Yorke and King designate was propagated from two younger sonnes of the same King Edward the third whereby he had both Paternall and Maternall Title to the Crowne of England and France But his better and nearer Title was the Maternall Title or that which came to him by his Mother the Lady Anne de Mortimer the Daughter and heire of Phillippa Plantagenet who was the sole Daughter and heire of Lyonell Plantagenet Duke of Clarence and second Sonne of King Edward the third according to the account and order aforesaid And this Lady Phillip was the Wife of Sir Edmond de Mortimer the great and famous Earle of March and that Duke Richard King designate by his Father Richard Plantagenet Duke of York sirnamed also de Conningsbâ—rrough issued directly and in a
masculine line from Edmond Plantagenet alias de Langley the first Duke of Yorke and the fourth Sonne of King Edward the third who was the most renowned and glorious Progenitor to those Princes of Yorke and Lancaster and the first King in a Lineall descent from that great Henry sirnamed Plantagenet famous for his great Prowesse and many victories King of England in the right of his Mother the Empresse Matilâ—â— or Maud daughter and heire of King Henry the first and stiled Anglâ—rum Domina sometime wife of the Emperour Henry the fifth by which he was also sirnamed filius imperatricis The French men called him Henry du Court Manteaâ— or Court Mantle because he wore a cloake shorter then the fashion was in those times By his Father Galfride or Geoffry Plantagenet he was Earle or Duke of Anjou for then Dux Comes and Ducatus Comitatus were Synonomies promiscuous words he was also Earle of Maine of Torraine and hereditary Seneschall or High Steward of France and by his marriage of Elianor Queene of France Repudiate Daughter and heire of William Duke of Gascoigne and of Guiene and Earle of Poictou He was Duke and Earle of those Principalities and Signiories also by the Empresse his Mother Duke of Normandy He was Lord of Ireland by Conquest and confirmed by Pope Adrian But these were not all his Seigniories and Dominions for after he was King of England he extended his Empire and Principate in the South to the Pyrerean mountaines The Confines of Spaine and France in the North to the Isles of Orkney and in the East and West with the Ocean as Giraldus Cambrensis Gâ—l Neubrigensis Ioannes Sarisburiensis grave and credible Authors affirme who stiled him Regum Britanniae maximus and doubtlesse he was the greatest King of Brittaine since King Arthur But it is controverted amongst the Antiquaries and Heralds which Earle of Anjou first bare the sirname and Sobriquet of Plantagenest or Plantagenet after the vulgar Orthodoxe by what occasion and for what cause it was taken and borne and from what time and age it had beginning Some would have the forenamed Geoffry Plantagenet Father of this Henry the first Earle of Anjou which bare it But we shall finde stronger reasons to derive it from a much more ancient Earle of Anjou and better causes then can be found in him if we step but a little backe to their stories and compare the men and their times Geoffry Plantagenet being a man of a gallant and active fire disposed to the Courts of Princes to Justs Turnaments c. and to the Courtship of faire Ladies those of the highest ranke and had so amorous a Star That Philippe le Grosse K. of France suspected him for too familiar commerce with his bed But it was of better influence when he archieved and married the Empresse Matilda by which we may very well calculate he neither had nor would be intent or at leisure for such a mortified and perilous Pilgrimage to Jerusalem But if we would know the man let us looke upon the first Fulke Earle of Anjou who lived about an hundred yeares before the Norman Conquest of England and was Sonne of Godefray or Geoffry Grisegonell the first Earle of Anjou according to du Haillon Ancestor and Progenitor to the foresaid Geoffry Plantagenet some seven or eight degrees in the ascending Line as Paradin accounteth a man raised upon the foundation of a great courage and strength two of the best Principles when they have good seconds and make too a glorious man where they serve his vertues not affections as in this Prince they did whose disposition on the other side being let out into as vaste an ambition and covetousnesse ne're looked upon the unlawfulnesse of his desires how horrid soever which amongst the many rest run him upon the shelves of wilfull perjury and murder the one for defrauding spoiling a Church of certaine Rights and the other for contriving the Tragedy of his young Nephew Drogâ— Earle of Brittaine to make himselfe Lord of his Countrey and Principallity The secret checke and scourge of those crimes had a long time to worke upon his conscience and of a great sinner made a great Penitent being old and having much solitary time and many heavy thoughts which naturally accompany old age and suggest better considerations of our former and youthfull sinnes he opens the horrour of them and his afflicted mind to his Confessor as great Constantine to AEgyppus who enjoyned him to make the same confession before the holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem which Pilgrimage the Earle performed in all lowly and contemptible manner passing as a private and unworthy person without traine or followers save two of his meanest which he tooke rather for witnesses then servants whose service was when they came neare Jerusalem the one with a cord such as is used for the strangling of Criminals thrown about his Masters neck to draw or leade him to the holy sepulcher whilst the other did acoustré and strip him as a condemned person and with extremity scourge him untill he was prostrate before the sacred Monument where he gave evidence of his unfained contrition and sorrow Amongst other devout expressions uttering this Mon dieu Signeur recâ—y a Pardon le perjure homicide miserable Foulque And after this pilgrimage he lived many years of prosperity in his Country honoured of all men To justifie this there be many Examples of other Princes and Noble Persons who lived about the yeare of our Lord one thousand and somewhat before and in three or foure ages after who under went the like Pilgrimages imposed under base and mechanicke nick-names and persons as of a Carpenter a Smith a Fisher-man a Mariner a Shepheard a Woodman a Broome-man c. In my Inquiry after that of Plantagenet I met with an ancient Manuscript that afforded me a large Catalogue of many such by the French called Sobriquets from whence I have transcribed these few for a taste Sobriquets Berger Shepheard GrisegoÌ„nelle gray-coat Teste de Estoupe Head of towe Arbuste A Shrub Martell A Hammer Grande boeuf Ox-face LaZouch Branch upon a Stem Houlette a sheep-hook Hapkin Hatchet Chapelle Hood Sans-terre Lackland Malduit Ill taught Geffard Ieuvencas or Heyfer Filz de Fleau Son of a Flaile Plantagenest the Plant or stalk of a Broome And under the name and habit of a Broome-man our Pilgrim performed this Penance and tooke the Sobriquet of Plantagenest from wearing a stalke of Broome or plant of Genest this is generally received but the time and reason neither set downe nor rendred by any of our Heralds and Antiquaries French or English for the time when he performed this I observe it about the yeare of our Lord one thousand certainly But for the particular relation this Count had to chuse the genest plant or Broome stalke before any other vegitall or thing I shall lay downe that opinion which is mine owne
against the Sonnes of King Edward And therefore being certaine there is no man to whom the Crowne by just Title can be so due as to our selfe the rightfull Sonne and Heire of our most deare and Princely Father Richard Duke of Yorke to which Title of blood and nature your favours have joyned this of Election wherein wee hold our selfe to be most strong and safe And having the lawfull power of both why should I endure my professed Enemy to â—surpemy right and become a Vassall to my envious Subject The necessitie of these causes as admitting no other remedy urges me to accept your offer and according to your request and our owne right we here assume the Regall Praeheminence of the two Kingdoms England and France from this day forward by us and our heires to Govern and defend the one and by Gods grace and your good aydes to recover and establish the other to the Ancient Allegeance of England desiring of God to live no longer then wee intend and endeavour the advancement and flourishing Estate of this Kingdome at which they all cry'd God save King Richard And thus he became King But yet his Detractors stick not to slander and accuse all that was said or done in these proceedings of State for meer dissimulation by which justice they may as well censure At siâ— Reverentia dictum all the Barons worthy and grave Commons which had their Votes therein which would fall a most impudent and intolerable Scandall upon all the High Court of Parliament for in short time after all that was alledged and acted in that Treatie and Colloquy was approved and ratified by the Court of Parliament so that their Cavills onely discover an extreame malice and envy For it was not possible therefore not credible he could upon such an instant as it were by any practice attaine to that power and credit with all the Barons Spirituall and Temporall and Commons to procure and perswade them from the Sonnes of King Edward so unanimously to become his Subjects and put the Crowne upon his head with such Solemnitie and publicke Ceremonies Whilst those matters had their current the Northerne Gentlemen and his Southerne Friends joyned in a Bill Supplicatory to the Lords Spirituall and Temporall earnestly expressing their desires for the Election of the Lord Protector with the former causes urged Also that the blood of the young Earle of Warwicke was attainted and his Title confiscate by Parliament This Bill was delivered to the Lords Assembled in the great hall at Westminster the Lord Protector sitting in the Chaire of Marble amongst them upon the 26 of June some six or seven dayes after he was Proclaimed the tenor of the Bill was thus written in the Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland PRotector eodem die quo Regimen sub titulo regii nominis sibi vendicarit viz 26 o die Iunii Anno Dom. 1483. se apud Magnam Aulam Westmonasterii in Cathedram Marmoream Immisit tum mox omnibus proceribus tam Laicis quam Ecclesiasticis Caeteris assidentibus astantibus c. ostendebatur rotulus quidam in quo per modum supplicationis in nomine procerum populi Borealis exhibita sunt Primum quod silii Regis Edwardi erant Bastardi supponendo illum praecontraxisse matrimonium cum quadam Domina Elianora Boteler antequam Reginam Elizabetham duxisset in uxorem deinde quod sanguis alterius Fratris Georgii Scil Clarensiâ— ducis fuisset Attinctus Ita quod nullus certus incorruptus sanguis Linealis ex parte Richardi Ducis Eboraci poterat inveniri nisi in persona Richardi Protectoris Ducis Glocestriae jam eidem Duci suplicabant ut jus suum in Regno Angliae sibi assumeret Coronam acciperet But the Barons were all accorded before this Bill came both sides moving with an equall and contented forwardnesse And in July next following 1483. was Crown'd and receiv'd with as generall Magnificence and Acclamations as any King in England many years before For as a grave man writeth Fuit dignissimus regno c. non inter malos sed bonos principes Commemorandus That he was most worthy to Reigne and to be numbred amongst the good not bad Princes The Queene his Wife was Crowned with him and with no lesse State and Greatnesse Accompanied him from the Tower to Westminster having in their Traine besides the Nobilitie of the South parts foure thousand Gentlemen of the North. Upon the 19. of June 1483. in the 25. yeare of Lewis the French King he was named King of England the morrow Proclaimed and rode with great Solemnitie from London to Westminster where in the seat Royall he gave the Judges of the Land a strickt and religious charge for the just executing of the Lawes then departed towards the Abbey being met at the Church doore with Procession and the Scepter of King Edward delivered to him by the Abbot so Ascended to Saint Edwards Shrine where he offered the Monks in the meane time singing Te Deum From thence he return'd to the Palace where he lodged untill his Coronation Upon the fourth of July he went to the Tower by water with the Queene his Wife and the next day Created Edward his onely Son about ten yeares old Prince of Wales He Invested Sir Iohn Howard who was made Lord Howard and Knight of the Garter 17. Edward 4. in the Dukedome of Norffolke in a favourable admission of the right of the Lady Margaret his Mother Daughter of Sir Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norffolke and an heire generall of the Mowbrayes Dukes of Norffolke and Earles of Surrey descended from the Lord Tho. Plantagenet of Brotherton a younger Sonne of King Edward the first and Earle of Norffolke This King also made him Marshall and Admirall of England he was as rightfully Lord Mowbray Lord Segrave Lord Bruce as Lord Howard as I have seene him Stiled by Royall Warrant in a Commission for Treatie of Truce with Scotland His eldest Sonne Sir Thomas Howard was at the same time Created Earle of Surrey and made Knight of the Garter Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was made Constable of England for terme of life but he claimed the Office by inheritance Sir Thomas Moore writes That Sir Thomas Howard Executed the Office of Constable that day William Lord Berkley was Created Earle of Nottingham Francis Lovel Viscount Lovel and Chamberlain to the King the Lord Stanley restor'd to liberty and made Steward of the Household Thomas Rotheram Chancellour and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having beene committed for delivering the Great Seale to the Queene Widow receiv'd to grace and many Knights Addubbed of the old Order and some of the new or habit of the Bath whose names I have set downe to shew what regard was had of their Family and in those times accused of so much Malignity Sir Edward De-la-Poole Sonne to the Duke of Norfolke George Gray Sonne to the Earle of Kent William Souch Sonne to the
to to morrow And yet the true and rightful Lancaster had no finger in it for this Earle was not then granted to be of the House of Lancaster untill the Pope by his Bull had given him that stile and himselfe after he was King by his Prerogative assumed it In this Parliament he was attainted of High Treason and with him Iohn Earle of Oxford Thomas Marquesse of Dorset Iasper Earle of Pembroke Lionell Bishop of Salisbury Peirce Bishop of Exceter the Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond Thomas Morton Bishop of Ely Thomas Naudick by the stile of Thomas Naudick of Cambridge Conjurer William Knevet of Buckingham smeared with the same pitch George Browne of Beechworth Thomas Lukenor of Tratton Iohn Cuilford Iohn Fogg Edward Poinings Thomas Fieries of Cherstmonceur Nicholas Gainsford William Clifford Iohn Darrell with others of Kent and the West Countrey There was further enacted for the approbation and confirming the true and lawfull Title of King Richard this clause or sentence It is declared pronounced decreed confirmed and established by the Authority of this present Parliament that King Richard the third is the true and undoubted King of this Realme as well by right of Consanguinitie and Heritage as by lawfull Election and Coronation c. And in a place of the Rowle of this Parliament there are Arguments to be gathered that the two sonnes of King Edward were living in the time of this Parliament which was at the least nine moneths after the death of their Father and sixe moneths after King Richard which will import thus much That if King Richard then lawfully and quietly possessed of the Crowne suffered them to live so long there is no reason why he should after make them away for their lives could not rectifie their Bloud or Titles nor their deaths advantage him neither can Bastards be dangerous or prejudiciall to the true and titular Lord or lawfull proprietary be he Prince or Subject Witnesse Forraigne Countries and England it selfe which holds Bastards uncapable of Heritage Honour or Offices In the Month of February towards the end of this Parliament the King in his providence to establish the Regall fortune and Succession in the Prince his Sonne and to fasten the affection of the Nobility and People unto him with the Crowne procures them to meet him in the Pallace at Westminster and there Interiori Caenaculo as mine Author saith tendred by the Duke of Norfolke unto them an Oath of Fealty and Allegeance in writing to be taken to the Prince of Wales which they tooke and subscribed most willingly the occasion of this was his jealousie of that new League struck up between the Earle of Richmond and the Duke of Buckingham who was now discovered more apparantly and the rest of the engagement To oppose and suppresse them therefore and stifle the Confederacy before it should grow more threatning The King makes a Commission by Letters Patents in the name of the Vice Constable of England unto Sir Ralph Ashton A Coppy whereof the President being unusuall and the Office great I have Transcribed verbatim from the Records in the Chappell of the Convertits Vice Constabulario Angliae Constituto REX dilecto fideli suo Rudolpho Ashton militi salutem Sciatis quod nos defidelitate circumspectione probitate vestrâ plenius confidentes assignavimus deputavimus ordinavimus vos hac vice Constabularium nostrum Angliae ac Commiâ—sionarium nostrum dantes concedentes vobis tenore presentium potestatem authoritatem generalem mandatum speciale ad audiendum examinandum ac procedendum contra quascunque personas de crimine laesae nostrae regiâ— majestatis suspectas culpabiles tam per viam examinationis testium quam aliter prout vobis melius visum fuerit ex officio vestro nec non in causis illis judicialiter sententialiter juxta casus exigentiam delinquentium demerita omni strepitu futura Iudicij appellaâ—ione quacunque remota quandocunque vobis videbitur procedendum judicandum et finali executione de maâ—dandum cum omnibus etiam clausulis verbis et terminis specialibuâ— ad executionem istius mandati et authoritatis nostrae de jure vel consuetudine requisitis quae etiam omnia hic expressa habemus assumpto vobiscum aliquo tabellione fide digno qui singula conscribat unà cum alijs quae in praemissis vel circa â—a necessaria videbuntur seu qualitercunque requisita mandantes firmiter vobis injungentes quod alijs quibuscunque praetermissis circa praedicta quoties quando opus fuerit intendatis caus as que antedictas audiatis examinetis in eisdem procedâ—tis ac eas judicetis finali executione ut praefertur demandetis Damus etiam omnibus singulis quorum interest in hac parte tenore praesentium firmiter in mandatis quod vobis in prâ—missis faciendis pareant assistant auxilientur in omnibus diligenter in cujus c. Teste Rege apud Covent 24. die Octobris Anno regni primo per ipsum Regem oretenus What successe this Commission and new Office had I find not reported but it might come too late or the new Officer forget what he was to execute for the faction lost none they could corrupt or winne yet surely the institution of it was very politicke and important as a plaine Image and pourtraict of the Office and Authority of the great or High-Constable of England which in the execution of a wise and valiant person is of a high and great use Having made mention of these Offices it shall not be a Parergue between these Acts to interadde the rest of this Kings Officers both Chiefe and others at the least such as were of Honour or Dignity I have before named the High-Constable the great Marshall high Admirall Lord Chamberlaine the rest were Sir Iohn Wood the Elder L. Treasurer the first yeare and Sir Iohn Touchet Lord Aâ—dley during the rest of his Reigne Doctor Russell Bishop of Lincolne had the great Seale Thomas Barrow was Master of the Rowles which place Henry the seventh continued to him and made him a Privy Counsellour Iohn Kendall was principall Secretary Sir William Hopton Treasurer of the Houshold Sir Thomas Peircy Controler after him Sir Iohn Buck Iohn Gunthorpe Keeper of the Privy Seale Sir William Hussey Chiefe Justice Thomas Tremaine and Roger Townsend the Kings Serjeants Morgan Kidwell Attorney Generall Nicholas Fitz-William Recorder of London For matters of Treaty betwixt this King and Forreigne Princes I have seen a memoriall of one for intercourse and commerce between him and Philip Duke of Burgundy and the Estates of Flanders who in the Record are called Membra Flandriae These Princes and States had each of them their Commissioners to treate and determine the Affaires which I find they dispatchâ— with approbation of the Princes their Masters There was also a Commission about these times to heare and redresse the
complaints made to the King by the Subjects of the King of France and of Denmarke which was well expedited Anno Regni 2. That Treatie of Peace and League with Scotland began before was continued and finished by Commissioners sent from Iames the fourth King of Scotland and by other Commissioners delegate for the King of England those for Scotland were Coli Earl of Argile Chancellor of Scotland N. Bishop of Aberdene the Lord Lisle the Lord Dromonde of Stobhall Master Archibald Quhitlaw Arch-Deacon of Lodion Secretary to the King Lion King at Arms and Duncan of Dundas they came to Nottingham in September Anno Domini 1484 and were honourably receiv'd in the great Chamber of the Castle the King sitting under his Royall Cloth of State Master Archibald Quhitlaw stepping before the rest addrest a very Eloquent Oration unto him in Latine which reflected upon the praise of Martial men Art Military including much to the honour and praise of King Richard This Treatie aimed partly at a Truce and Peace partly at a Marriage betweene Iames the Prince of Scotland and the Lady Anne Daughter of Iohn de la Poole Duke of Suffolke and Neice to King Richard Commissioners for the King of England were Iohn Bishop of Lincolne Richard Bishop of Asaph Iohn Duke of Norfolke Henry Earle of Northumberland Master Iohn Gunthorpe custos privati sigilli Sir Thomas Stanley Lord Stanley Sir N. Lord Strange Sir N. Lord Powis Sir Henry Lord Fitz hugh Sir Humphry Lord Dacres Master Thomas Barrow Master of the Rowles Sir Richard Ratcliff William Catesby and Richard Salkeld The other for the Treatie of Alliance and Marriage were Thomas Arch-Bishop of Yorke Iohn Bishop of Lincolne Iohn Bishop of Worcester Iohn Duke of Norfolke William Earle of Nottingham Iohn Sutton Lord Dudley N. Lord Scroope of Upsall Sir William Hussey Chiefe Justice of the Kings Bench Sir Richard Ratcliffe and William Catesby But the successe of that and many other good intendments were interposed by the inconstancy and contraste of the times The Lady Anne de la Poole upon the the breach thereof resolving to accept no other motion forthwith tooke a religious habit in the Monastery of Sion There was another Treatie of Peace and Truce in this second yeare betweene him and the Duke of Brittaine or at the least given out for peace yet was indeed but a part and pretext of the Treatie for the maine negotiations on the Kings side was how to get the Earle of Richmond out of his custody into his owne or be as well secured of him there as his Brother King Edward was And for this Treatie the chiefe Negotiators were the Bishop of Lincolne and Sir Thomas Hutton for the King the Bishop of Leon and others for the Duke The Treatie began Anno Domini 1484. and was finished and ratified in the yeare following but the Duke violated his part immediately by giving ayde to the Kings Enemies In the same yeare there were Letters made which are yet extant in the Treasury of the Exchequor that moved a Peace and Truce beweene King Richard and Charles the eighth King of France wherein it must be understood the tribute before mentioned was Articled Also in this yeare and the yeare before there was a private Treatie which we must not passe by for the Marriage of the Lady Elizabeth with King Richard himselfe what the successe of it was and how farre it proceeded will more aptly present it selfe in another place Wee are now to take notice of the Duke of Buckinghams revolt for this was the preparative and fourrier of the rest And to give it the more taking feature and specious pretence it must be given out That the cause was the Reformation of an ill Government and Tyranny under which species for Treason is ever fairely palliated and seldome wants the forme of some plea though at the Barre they must take up Armes against the King And here as some Rivers deriv'd from the Sea cannot suddenly loose their taste of saltnesse they discovered their ancient taint and inconstancy which the Prince wisely suspected from the first For the Duke of Buckingham how affably soever he trim'd his countenance it should seeme departed male-content from Court yet made not that generall publick pretended cause of the Kings Crimes all his quarrell but challenged him by some private grudges as denying to give or restore to him the Earledome of Hereford and Constableship of England for they went together a long time which he alledged belonged to the Partage that fell to his great Grand-mother the Lady Anne Daughter and Heire of Thomas Plantagenet alias Woodstock created by King Richard the second Duke of Glocester and Earle of Buckingham and of his Wife Elianor daughter and co-heire of Humphry de Bohun Earle of Hereford and Constable of England Which claime had he considerately look't upon could not rightly revolve to him but rather was for the Kings part For Humphry de Bohun Earle of Hereford of Essex and Northampton Lord of Brecknock and Constable of England in the time of King Edward the third and the last Earle of the Family of the Bohuns had by the Lady Iane his Wife Daughter of Richard Fitz-Allan Earle of Arundel two Daughters and Heires Elianor and Mary Elianor was Married to the same Thomas Plantagenet alias de Woodstock youngest Sonne of King Edward the third Duke of Glocester and Earle of Buckingham Mary the second Daughter was Married to Henry Plantagenet Duke of Lancaster and after King of England by the name of Henry the fourth and the Earledome of Hereford fell to his Wife In favour whereof he was Created Duke of Hereford by King Richard the second and the Earledome now a Dutchy and the rights therof remained in the King and in the Kings Heires and Successors untill the death of King Henry the sixt who dyed without Issue then all the Estate of Lancaster especially that of the Royall Family of Lancaster escheated to King Edward the fourth and from him it came to King Richard as Heire to his Brother and all his Ancestors But the Duke of Buckingham pretended Title to that Earledome by his said Grandmother Anne who was one of the Daughters and Heires of the aforesaid Lady Elianor Wife of Thomas de Woodstock Duke of Glocester and the Wife of Edmond Stafford Earle of Stafford and Grand-father to this Henry Duke of Buckingham who the rather presumed to make this Claime because the Issue of the other Sister Mary being extinct he tooke himselfe also to be her Heire But King Richard relishing something in this neare the disposition and inclination of Bullingbrooke answered That the Earledome of Hereford was of the inheritance of Henry the fourth who was also King of England though by tort and usurpation and will you my Lord of Buckingham Claime to be Heire of Henry the fourth You may then also happily Assume his spirits and lay Claime to the Crowne
se proprio cerebro omnia concilia habere recondita And to give us yet further character of Bishop Morton Sir Thomas Moore sometimes his Master tels us his best inclinations were swaid to the dangerous positions and rules of pollicie and Doctor Iohn Hird in his metricall History of England brings him in an Ambodexter and observer of fortune one while yorkeizing another while Lancastrizing thus delivering himselfe Si Fortuna meis fauisset partibus olim Et gnato Henrici sexti diadema dedisset Edwardi nunquam venissem regis in aulam Sed quia supremo stetit haec sententia Regi Henrico auferre ac Edwardo reddere sceptrum Tanta mea nunquam lusit dementia mentem Vt sequerer partes regis victi atque sepulti Adversus vivum c. Which may be thought well said by a meere Politician But from a friend it wants something of a Christian for true friendship and piety will owne us in the blackest adversity and silence of the grave as the divine Ariosto hath something neare observed in this elegant Stanza Nessum puo super du chi sia amato Quando felice in sula â—rota si ede Pere ch' haiveri ifiniti amici alato Chi mostran tuti una medessima fede Se poi si cangia in tristo il he'sto stato Volta laturba adulatrice il piede Et quel di cu or ' ama riman ' forte Et ama il suo amico doppola morte No man whilst he was happy ever knew Assuredly of whom he was belov'd For then he hath both feigned friends and true Whose faith seemes both alike till they be prov'd But he is left of all the flattering Crew When from his happy state he is remov'd But he who loves in heart remaines still one And loves his friend when he is dead and gone Doctor Mortons aimes were drawne from other rules which with good Alacrity made him Archbishop and Lord Chancellour of England and put him the next list into a Cardinallship and then he stood on tiptoes by the King according to the Roman Marshalling of states for in the Popes list of ranges and presence his holinesse is the first then the Emperour next a Cardinall then a King and in this Sir Tho. Moore notes the extremity of his pride to abuse his wisdome and piety which otherwise might have kept him and his memory unfullyed in these preferments so much our vices impostumate our fames hypocrisie leaving the scarre but of a deformed cure upon it at best But Doctor Goodwin Bishop of Hereford presents him nearer as it were in his Domesticke nature and reports when Doctor Morton was Archbishop of Canterbury he exacted and exrorted a far greater Summe of money from the Clergy of his Diocesse then was ever before and for his private Commodity which he covetously sought brought certaine Leames or bigger Ditches to his owne grounds about Wisbitch from the River Nine which was before navigable and of much publike use but hath since served for little or none And Iohn Stow saies he was the stirrerup of those great and grieveous taxes which raised the people to Armes and Rebellion These notes of his naturall dispositions stucke like wennes upon the face of his Religion and from that mind where by affections justle Religion and conscience out how hazardous may the Power and Counsell of such be to the inclinations of a wise Prince but this Prelate made his so Canonicall and fitted them to the times and his Mr temper that they deceived not his expectation but brought him home to his ends and to the favor of aprovident wise Prince that he was so the world must justly avow and in all his actions we may see-him of a safe and contracted wisedome governed by a most cautelous spirit as great a husband of those vertues he had as of his Glory not too modest if I be not much mistaken to heare of either of both which he hath left us pious tastes But the most surviving addition of memory is that great example of Majesty and her Sexe Queene Elizabeth who was said to be like this King her Grandfather as well in composition of qualities as favour and lineaments that she was his lively and perfect Image and to use an even hand in the extention of himselfe and his power it must not be denyed how far off soever he was at first after the Crown yeilded to him he was the true proprietary of all the Rights and Titles which carried it or had dependency thereon and to colleague all in a full and perfect strength the Title of Yorke was confirmed to him by marriage of Elizabeth Plantagenet Eldest Daughter of Edward 4 Prince or head of that Family to whom the Title of Lancaster instantly escheated as he was King which before was in controversie or in nubibus or Abeyance as our Lawyers say for no man being a Subject how Capitall and chiefe a Judg or of what judicatory power soever could give a definitive Sentence in any ambiguous cause or Act of the King but the King himself which is an ancient and Authentique paragraph in the Laws of England as learned Judge Bracton affirmeth De Chartis Regijs de factis regum non possunt Iusticiarij disputare nec si disputatio oriatur possunt eam interpretari sed in dubijs obscuriâ— ubi aliqua dictio contineat duos intellectus domini Regis erit expectandâ— interpretatio voluntas c. The reason is given in the Bookes of the Civill and Imperiall Lawes peremptorily quia de principali Iudicio non est disputandum So that Controversie whether the Beauforts or Sommersets were of the House of Lancaster and capable of the Crowne or no could not be determined untill there came a competent Judge a King and King of England who by that vertue and power decreed to himself the Title of Lancaster with all the Royall Apurtenances confirmed by the Pope as proper to him and then the Writers both English and French had some colour to say he was de la ligne de Lancastre caput gentis regalis Princeps familiae Lancastriensis But the Chancellour Morton by a more happy plausible insinuation termed the Marriage an union of Yorke and Lancaster and not improperly nor without a very favourable acceptance to the King at least in the beginning of his Raigne though after as may be observed he thought those attributions but small wyers to hold the weight and consequence of his Crowne nay so slender was his Affiance or rather none at all in his Titles of Yorke and Lancaster much lesse of Sommerset that he seemed tacitly to wave and quit them and stucke to that of his Sword and Conquest For the more publike vote and knowledge whereof there was at his Coronation Proclamations made with these Titles Henricus Rex Angliae jure divino jure humano jure Belli c. which the Barons could not fancy
which indeed struck a great discouragement in the expectation of all his Favourers and made his welcome the colder to the Duke of Brittaine the rather also because he had beene with the French King before he came to him which was taken but ill although the Earle could not otherwise doe being forc't upon the Coasts of Normandy And comming into the Road at Deipe landed to refresh himself and company From thence he intended to Roan which being so neare Paris ingaged him thither to the King being as Philip de Comines saith followed in a very honourable Port by 500 Englishmen In his stay there to shew us how much interest a provident and active spirit hath in fortune he so heightned and sweetned his behaviour to the Court as conciliated the favour and respect of the Greatest and Noblest Persons to him But most happily the faire opinion and esteeme of the Princely Lady Anne de France eldest Sister to King Charles the eight who had such an influence upon him in his minoritie that she out-pitched Lewis Duke of Orleance chiefe Prince of the Blood In envy or mis-like whereof he tooke Armes and raysed a Civill Warre in France as Iohn Tillet and others write she was wife to Pierce de Bourbon Lord of Beaujen after Duke de Bourbon but Beaujen being his most stately and honourable Signiory he was called Mounâ—ieur de Beaujen and this Lady had so flexible an inclination to the Earle of Richmonds Cause that she importuned the King to aide him with a good summe of mony and 3000 men but odde fellowes For Philip de Comines saith they were trois mille hommes les plus meschants que lux peut trouver no better then Rogues and Trewans men of base qualitie and as low courage Whilst these were Levying the Earle thriftie of all opportunities and as diligent to adde what advantage of time and ayde he could visits the Duke of Brittaine to the same purpose The Duke propounds it to his Councell which Peter Landois his Treasurer and chiefe Counsellour objects against with this reason That if the Enterpize succeeded well yet the event must fall out unhappily and ill to him the Earle having now interested himself to the favour and assistance of Charles King of France And this would be the first linke of so strong an ingagement that the Earle and his Confederacy must be lost to Brittaine when he came to be King being respectively tyed to lend the King of France ayde against them if any cause should happen which the King of France had a prepared stomack for and had not beene nice to seeke any provocation that might countenance a Quarrell against the Dutchy of Brittaine which was beyond his spanne so long as they continued in League with England that being untwisted and France and England Contracted how easie was it for the French to envade and swallow up both him and his Dukedome To make the present advantage therefore as profitable as safe his advice was to stay the Earle the Duke knowing his Coffers at that time very lanke and that the King of England would offer well for him approved the Counsell and resolved to be led by Landois whose respects notwithstanding were very affectionate to the Earle But whether by the secret caution of some friends or suggested to him by his better genius Sure it is by some unknowne meanes he had knowledge of it and yet this was determined but at night and designed for the morning But before midnight or the knowledge of their flight he and twelve Gentlemen his followers had left Vannes and recovered Aniow under the French Kings protection from thence to the French Court againe the King being still very pliable and constant to his promise concerning those French forces under his owne charge The next thing he works at is how to enlarge the Earl of Oxford out of the Castle of Hammes committed thither by Edward the fourth and in this he uses or rather followed indeed the contrivement of Doctor Morton who held good quarter with the Earle of Oxford and by his frequent visits had a familiar and easie doore open'd which the Earl readily tooke the opportunitie of least it might be shut againe by some miscarriage for Richmond thought or found the constitution of his Designe not a little strengthned by the Earle of Oxfords coâ—federacy nor did he mistake himselfe in his accompt when he set him downe of speciall use knowing him a man of an eminent power wisely and valiantly temper'd And to give him the stronger presumptions and confidence one that most mortally hated Edward the fourth and all the house of Yorke To begin therefore an Obligation the Earle of Richmond makes a Complementall journey to Hammes where the Earle of Oxford was then under the charge of Sir Iames Blound He finds all honourable and respective entertainment with fit libertie and occasion to propound himselfe unto the Earle who had beene partly prepar'd by Doctor Morton and therefore met him the nearest way engaging himselfe solely to the premises and by vertue of an indefatigable confidence sets upon his Keeper winnes him to the Faction and to Paris with them By which time all preparations were in readinesse and whilst they make this stay in the French Court the Earle of Richmond receives a faire excuse and protestation from the Duke of Brittaine with offer of Auxiliary Forces This supply came very acceptably and however he resented the Dukes late purpose upon him his wisedome told him he must now convert his anger into thanks which he returns with a reciprocall Protestation and Order to send the Troopes to Harflew where his Shipping lay and was the Rendezvous for his Souldiers In the end of July 1485. he tooke leave of the King and his most Noble Cousin Madam de Beaujen departing for the â—ort of Harflew in Normandy where he met with two thousand Brittaines from the Duke honourably accommodated But by the way he made some stay at Roven and had newes which much distemper'd him That the Lady Elizabeth was forthwith to be married to King Richard this quickned his hast for England presuming his landing would forbid the Banes otherwise he might sit downe with folded hands for upon this marriage insisted the maine hope and consequence of his Fortune without her all his great praetexts would faint yet seemed to heare it as a thing that could not concerne him so much having so present and provident a wit that in any chance he wanted not Councell and determination in himselfe for all Fortunes instantly resolving to apply his suit to her Sister the Lady Cecily but ere he could perfectly fashion these intents they were also counterchecked by the next packet which assured him the Lady Cecily was lately married neither did that after some Collection seeme much to discompose him but quickely varying his disposition to his fortune he would now fixe himselfe upon some choice in Brittaine Amongst his nobler friends for the most part
that divers continued of his Sir-name in that Countrey along time after him which makes it probable he had a naturall Son at least bearing his owne name of Heward that next to him was the Originall Ancestor of this house of Howards And let it not be thought any disparagement for a Noble Family to be raysed from a naturall Issue for many Princely Families have beene derived and propagated from naturall Sonnes as was Eneas Romulus the Founders of the Roman Families so was Theseus and Themistocles as Plutarch writeth others say as much of Hercules c. The King of Spaine descended from Henry de Trastamara base sonne of Alphonsus the Justicer King of Castile And who doth not honour the Princely Race of William the Conquerour Bastard son to the Duke of Normandy where was a more Heroicall man then Robert Earle of Glocester base sonne of King Henry the first The Earles of Warren descended from Hamelin a base sonne of Geoffry Plantagenet Earle of Aniow The Noble Herberts are also said to come from a base sonne of Henry the first And the Duke and Earles of Somerset which followed the Red Rose were the Off-spring of the Beauforts naturall sonnes of Iohn de Gaunt For a further conjecture why these Howards must be descended from Hewardus or Herewardus for so some Writers call him but Iugulfus who best knew him constantly calls him Hewardus both names may signifie in the Saxon or old Dutch a chiefe Captaine of an Army whom the Romans call'd Imperator And that the Titles and names of great Offices have given Sir-manes to many Noble Families wee have examples in plentie Particularly the Visconti of Millan the Chamberlaines of Normandy the Stewards of Scotland the Butlers of Ireland and divers others who had their Sir-names from the Offices of their Ancestours and Fathers and the same presumption or argument may be for taking the Sir-name of Howard and the Origine of their Family from Hewardus the Howards from the time of Heward dwelling in these Countries of Holland and Marshland and were Lords of some Lands belonging to him untill by their matches with the Daughters and Heires of Fitton Tendring Mowbray Tillney c. they became possessed in Norfolke suffolke and Berkeshire and were Lords sometime of Sunning-hill neare Windsor and bore the Sir-name ever since or with small interruption the old Sir-name written Heward or Hereward in Charters and Records and Howard in Stories But descend wee through the succession of those times to William Haward Chiefe Justice in the Raigne of Edward the first Grand-father to Sir Iohn Howard Admirall of the North Fleet in the Navall Warres of Edward the third his Sonne Sir Robert Howard married the Daughter of the Lord Scales and Sir Iohn Howard who lived in the time of Henry the fourth and dyed Anno 16. Henry the sixt had two Wives Margaret Daughter and Heire of Sir Iohn Plais Knight by whom hee had Eliza an onely Daughter married to Iohn de Vere Earle of Oxford who brought him a goodly part of the Howards Lands Her Heires were married to Latimer and Winckfield very fruitfull Families His second Wife was the Daughter and heire of Sir William Tendering of Stoke-Nayland in Suffolke by whom he had Sir Robert Howard his eldest Sonne who married Margaret Mowbray Daughter of a Cadet of the house of Lancaster who became Co-heire with her Sister the Lady Berkely Wife to Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke dead in Venice and left his Sonne Henry Haward heire to Haward and Mowbray and Iohn Howard the sonne of Iohn Howard was created Earle of Norfolke by King Richard the third in the right of his Mother Mowbray he married the Daughter of the Lord Moulines and by her had Thomas Howard the first Howard Earle of Surrey this is he who survived the danger of Bosworth Field and became afterwards Duke of Norfolke from whom all the Howards now living are descended whose Family hath beene so fruitfull to furnish this Kingdome with foure Dukes many Earles Viscounts and Barons three high Treasurers six high or great Marshalls tenne high Admiralls with some honourable Custos of the Privie Seale and sundry Chamberlaines of the Kings house and one lately lived who had borne the Offices of high Constable Lord Lieutenant Lord high Steward Marshall and Admirall of England Lord Chiefe Justice in Oyer of the better part of this Kingdome and Chamberlaine of the Royall house a man honourable in his deportments and fortunate in his undertakings as at the great Marine Battells against all the Navall powers of Spaine the Pope and Princes of Italy Anno Domini 1588. and in the siege of Gadys Anno Domini 1596. And this is the Grand-child of that Thomas Lord Howard who for his better distinction and perpetuall honour is stiled Triumphator Scotorum I have strayed into this digression as a gratefull tender of an acknowledgement I owe to that Illustrious Family for their Noble Patronage and Favour to my Ancestors especially to that unfortunate Bucke and his Children who withered with the White Rose bearing an Ancient and Hereditary love to the House of Yorke and stood in good Credit and Favour with the King his Master noâ— let this remembrance of him and his obscured Family seeme ostentation or vaine-glory whilst I say no more then what other Historios dictate which give him an able Character Master Camden Clarentius in his Immortall Brittannia deriveth this Sir Iohn Bucke from Sir Walter de Bucke of Brabant and Flanders who had that Sir-name of great Antiquity from the Castle de Bucke in Lisâ—e a City and Frontire Towne in Flanders where the Ancient Earles were accustomed much to reside the ruines of this Castle remained in the late time of Lodwicke Guicciardine who saith he saw the Carcasse thereof And this Walter Bucke was a Cadet of the House of Flanders employed and sent by the Prince then Duke of Brabant and Earle of Flanders to King Iohn with Auxiliary Troopes Roger Wondover saith Walter Bucke Gerardde Scottigni and Godescalius venerunt in Angliam cum tribus legionibus Flandrensium Braâ—antianoruâ— militum c. and he did the King excellent service here as many of our Historians report for which the King bountifully rewarded him with Lands in Yorkeshire and Northampton shire And in Yorkeshire where he made his Seat he found an Ancient Family of the Sirname of Bucke of Bucton in the Wapentake of Bucrosse where that Family had anciently been for the name is a Saxon or Dutch word and signifieth a Beech Tree or Beech Wood here Walter contracted alliance and Married Ralph de Bucke his Eldest Sonne to the Daughter and Heire of Gâ—celinus de Bucke Grandchild to Radolphus de Bucke who was a part Founder and Beneâ—actour to the Abbey of Bredlington as is mentioned in the Charter of Henry the first made for the foundation of that Monastery and from this Walter descended Iohn Bucke Knight who married a
so consequent and mighty as the recovery of a Kingdome neither were the times and opportunity yet ripe or propitious to fashion such an alteration as was projected and must be produced though there was pregnant hope of an induction to a change of Government stir'd by the Kings coveteousnesse and some acts of Tyrany Greivance and Rebellions in the North and West parts not long after which lent a seasonable hand to these designes great unkindnesse fell out betwixt Charles the French King and Henry the 7. who so far provoked the French that he besieged Bulloigne with a great army by land and Sea the quarrell was of good advancement to the Dutchesse of Burgondy's Plot and brought the Duke of Yorke better acquainted with forraigne Princes and their Courts who was sent into France into Portugall and other places where he was received and entertained like a Prince In which time such of the English Nobility as were interessed in the secret and knew where this Prince resided found some opportunity to give him assistance and sent Sr. Robert Clifford and Sr. William Barley into Flanders to give him a visit and intelligence of what noble friends he had ready to serve him though their more particular errant was to take a strict observance of him and such private marks as hee had bin knowne by from his Cradle there had beene some counterfeits incouraged to take upon them the persons of Edward E. of Warwick and Richard Duke of Yorke But here the certainty of their knowledge found him they looked for by his Face Countenance Lineaments and all tokens familiarly and privately knowne to them observing his behaviour naturaliz'd and heightned with a Princely grace and in his discourse able to give them a ready accompt of many passages he had heard or seene whilst hee was in England with such things as had beene done and discourst very privately speaking English very perfectly and better then the Dutch or Wallonish by which Sr. Kobert Clifford and the rest found themselves so well satisfied and were so confirm'd That they wrot to the Lord Fitzwater to Sir Symon Mountford and others who had a good opinion towards him the full accompt of what they had observ'd ex certa scientia supra visum corporis About this time to intermix the Scene with more variety and fill the Stage some principall persons well affecting the E. of Warwick and hoping to get him forth of the Tower in purpose to make him King had inticed a handsome young fellow one Lambert Simonell of Lancashire bred in the University of Oxford to become his counterfeit and so instructed him in the royall Genealogy that hee was able to say as hee was taught maintained and abetted cheifly by the Viscount Lovell the E. of Lincolne Sir Thomas Broughton and Sir Symon Preist c. who being presented to the Duke and Dutchesse of Burgondy and by them honorably entertained drew to him in Flanders one Martin Swartz a Captaine of a very eminent fame and some forces with which hee made over into Ireland where they received him as Edward Earle of Warwick as hee was of many here at home and when the deceit was discovered the excuse was those Lords but used this counterfet of the Earle for a Colour whilst they could get him out of the Tower to make him King But the vaile is easily taken from the face of such impostors examples giving us light in many for though some men may all cannot be deceived so Speudo-Agrippa in the time of Tiberius was soone found to bee Clemens the servant of Agrippa though very like to him and Puesdo-Nero in Otho's time who tooke upon him to be Nero revived was quickly unmasked Valerius Paterculus telleth of a certaine ambitious counterfet in Macedonia who called himselfe Philip and would be reputed the next heire of the Crowne but was discovered and nicknamed Pesudo-Philippus Also in the Raigne of Commodus one pretended to be Sextus Claudianus the son of Maximus with many such that are obvious in old stories and many of the like stampe have beene here convicted in England which bred the greater jealousy of this Richard when hee came first to be heard of Though those jealosies proceeded not from the detection of any fraud in him but of the late imposture of the said Lambert the Shooemakers son and the abuse of the Complotters for the Kingdome having been abused with those Pseudo-Clarences had reason to bee doubtfull of every unknowne person which assumed the name of greatnesse in regard whereof many shrunke in their opinions from this Perkin or Richard many others suspecting their beliefe were very curious to inform themselves who the further they inquired were the more confirmed that hee was no other but the second son of Edward the Fourth against whom those of the harder credulity objected it as an impossibility that this young Duke could bee conveyed out of the Tower so long and so concealed which the wiser sort could easily answer by many ancient examples which give us divers Relations of Noble Children preserved more admirably and this young Duke himselfe in his owne behalfe when such objections were made against him did alledge to Iames King of Scotland the History of Ioah mentioned in the Booke of the Kings and that most speciall one of Moses which the Dutches his Aunt Sister German to his Father was strongly confirmed in giving him all answerable and honorable accommodation so did the chiefe Nobility of those parts and as an heire of the house of Yorke there was rendred him the Title of La Rose-Blanch the proper and ancient devise of the house of Yorke with all a gallant Guard of Souldiers was allowed him for attendance and much was hee favored by the Arch-Duke Maximilian King of the Romans by Philip his Sonne Duke of Burgondy Charles the French King the King of Portugall and Scotland by the chiefest of Ireland and many Personages in England who at extreame perill and hazard avowed him to be the second son of Edward the fourth The Princes aforementioned readily supplying him with Coyne and assistance towards his atcheivements King Henry actively apprehends what it threatned and bestirs himselfe to take of their inclinations dispatching Doctor William Warkam after Archbishop of Canterbury with Sr. Edward Poynings a grave and worthy Knight to under-rare his credit with those Princes and such strong perswasions were used That Philip Duke of Burgondy for his Father Maximilian was before returned into Austria utterly declines himselfe and his subjects from his first ingagement but excepted the Widdow Dutchesse of Burgondy over whom hee had no power of command because shee had all justice and Jurisdiction in those large signories whereof her dowry was composed And thus Richard was supplanted here what hope of ayde hee had or did expect by his voyage into Portugall I cannot say though his entertainment there was honorable but by reason of the distance of the Country â—it may bee thought hee was
to build little upon any from thence his chiefe conâ—idence and refuge being in England and Ireland where he had a good party and sayled with a prety Fleete into Ireland there hee was welcomed and received as the the second Sonne of King Edward some of the Geraldins and other great Lords in Ireland purposing to make him their King To overtake him betimes there too Doctor Henry Deane Abbot of Lanthory a very wise able man was sent and made Chancellor of Ireland with him went the said Sr. Edward Poynings who so actively bestirred themselves that in short time they drew the Irish from Perkin so that now hee must returne home but by the way was encouraged to apply himselfe to Iames King of Scotland whither forthwith hee directs his hopes and found his entertainment answerable to them the King receiving him very Nobly by his title of Duke of York calls him Cozen with promises to give him strong footing in England and in earnest of his better intents bestowed in Marriage upon him the most Noble and faire Lady Katharine Gordon his neere kinswoman Daughter of Alexander Earle of Huntly This came home very sharpely to King Henry who knew King Iames to bee a Prince so Wise and Valiant that no easy delusion could abuse him And true it is King Iames was very precise in his consideration of this young Duke but very cleerely confirmed before hee would acknowledge him King Henry is very Studious how to thwaâ—t the event of this scene and unfasten the King but casts his conâ—idence againe upon the fortune of his judgement and sends many Protestations with rich promises to King Iames for Perkin for now wee shall so call him with the times which tooke small effect at first but King Henry being a man pregnant to finde any advantage and one whose providence would not let it die remembers the stong affinity and friendship betwixt King Iames and Ferdinando King of Castile one of the most Noble Princes then living At that time too it happened so happily there was a Treaty and intelligence betwixt Henry the Seventh and Ferdinando for proposition of a Marriage of Arthur the Prince of Wales and Katharine Daughter of King Ferdinando this occasion no sooner offered it selfe to his consideration but a Post was dispatcht to Castile with Letters and Instructions to give the King to know what had passed betweene him and King Iames of Scotland urging him to use the Power and Credit hee had with him for the delivery of Perkin to himselfe which Ferdinando undertooke and sends Don Pedro Ayala not one Peter Hialas or Peter Hayles as our vulgar stories have a wise and learned man and of a very Noble house who so ably used his Braine in this imployment that King Iames passed to him his promise to dismisse Perkin to his own fortunes But would by no meanes deliver him to the King Thus Perkin was againe supplanted Virtute vel dolo and of necessity driven into Ireland where hee was formerly received and entertained whilst they were agitating their first Plot of setling him King Charles the French King sends to him Lois de Laques and Estiene Friant to offer him his friendship and ayde with this good newes Perkin hasted into France where hee found his welcome very honorable as befitting a Prince a Guard appointed to attend him of which Monsieur Congre-Salle was Captaine before this King Henry had threatned France with an Army but now upon a better view and deliberation foreseeing what this had in it He propounds very faire Conditions for a Peace with the French King which the French King was as willing to intertaine and so it was concluded Perkin after this began to thinke the King shortned his respects and looked upon him as it were but imagine lusca with halfe a Countenance and fearing there might bee some capitulation in this new League that might concerne his liberty privately quits Paris returning to his Aunt of Burgondy Although Perkin was thus shortned in his forraine expectations hee had those both in England and Ireland that much favored him and his cause making another voyage into Ireland but returned with his first comfort for though they stood constantly affected and were willing the Kings Officers curbed them so they could not stir From Ireland hee sayled into England landing at Bodmin in Cornewall the Cornish and Westerne men thereabouts receiving him very gladly proclayming him King of England and of France c by the Title of Richard the Fourth as Hee had beene proclaimed before in the North parts of England by the Councell and Countenance of the King of Scots Out of Cornewall Hee marches into Devonshire to Exeter to which Hee layd Siege having then about five thousand men in his Army but the Kings being at hand and farre stronger Hee was forc't to rise from the siege upon which those few friends Hee had left finding His want and the King with greater strength approaching forsooke him to provide for themselves thus abandoned no way before him but flight and being well mounted with a traine of some forty or fifty resolute Gentlemen recovers the Abby of Beanely in Hampshire where Hee tooke Sanctuary from which the Kings party who persued Him would violently have surprised Him Which the Abbot and Religious persons would not indure as a thing too foule against their Priviledge The King after sends to him profers of favours and mercy with promises of such Honour and Condition as drew Him to the Court where the King looked upon him with a very Gratious and Bountifull usage as a Noble person But his prompting Jealousies and Feares soone east a dulnesse over this first favours and promises Then a Guard must bee set upon Perkin and his usuall freedome restrained these were harsh presages Hee thought which so justly moved His suspition and discontent that hee thought Sanctuary againe must bee his best safety and passing by the Monastery of Shrene hee suddenly slips into it from his Guard whither the King sends unto him with perswasions of the first Courtly and Honorable tincture But Perkin that had discerned the Hook was not easily to be tempted with the bait this second time Then the King dealt with the Prior for him who would not yeeld him but upon faithfull promise from the King to use him with all favour and grace which was protested although Perkin no sooner came into his power againe but hee was sent to the Tower where his imprisonment was made so hard and rude that it much dejected and troubled him oftentimes in private and with peircing groanes having beene heard to wish himselfe borne the Sonne of any Pesant And indeed every one could tell hee fared the worse for his Name it being an observation of those times that there was three men most feared of the King Edward Plantagenet Earle of Warwicke Perkin alias Richard Plantagenet and Edmond de la Poole Sonne of King Edwards Sister all of
The Duke of Gloucester as they desired prest it to the King who became more incens'd against the Bishop saying he had not onely betraid his trust but his children and upon that heat puts him from the Councel Table under a strict imprisonment for a long time which at length he redeemed himself from by a heavy fine as is testified by Doctor Goodwin Bishop of Hereford in his Catalogus Episcoporum who writeth thus Philip de Comines le Roy Edw. de supposé l'Evesque le tient in prison le Ranson d'un bon summe d'Argent Which was taken for a piece of more passion then justice the Bishop not deserving so to suffer in this case where his conscience might very well excuse what he did Not long after King Edward died of what disease it is doubtfully suggested Some thought of an Apoplexy or dead Palsie Polidor Virgil saith of a disease utterly unknown to all the Physitians which leaves it to a further construction The Author of the History of Britain delivers plainly that King Edward was killed by poison as the common report in France went Aucuns disopent que le Roy de Angleterre Edovart avoit estè Empoisonné au mois d'Aurill en l'an 1463. And Euguerrant de Moustrolet writeth that some said he died of an Apoplexy others he was poisoned in Wine of Creu which King Lewis the eleventh sent to him Philip de Comines to that purpose says Aucuns disent que le Roy Eduart mourut d'un Catarhe That is Some say that King Edward died of a Catarhe for that is their phrase in France when a great man is made away by Poison Of such a venemous Catarhe died the young King Edward the Sixth But by whose hand King Edward the fourth had his death it is not said Certain it is he was generally beloved of all his Subjects except those of the Lancastrian faction As soon as he was dead the silence brake into a general muttering against his Marriage then into loud and publike in veighing against it All tongues were at liberty and Pardons were hoped for all offences the general and common opinion being quite against it and the Children And Doctor Morton affirmed The Duke of Buckingham with other noble Lords saw and read certain authentick Instruments made and signed by learned Doctors Proctors and Notaries with the Depositions of sundy credible persons importing and testifying the Children of Edward the fourth were Bastards with which opinion the City of London was also possessed and Doctor Shaw Frier Pinke and other Preachers in the Pulpits declared them Spuria vitulamina To this consented all the people of the North parts in their Supplicatory Scroll before mentioned which the Court of Parliament adjudged and decreed to be so A fault of Improvidence in their Father who might have prevented all quarrels and questions about that and future claims repaired all flaws and defects of Titles also have taken away the errour and inconveniency of the post-Contract or later Marriage that gave the imputation of Bastards to his Children and so have avoided all the insuing mischiefs and calamities If first he had procured a Divorce of the former Contract with the Lady Elianor from the Pope who was then held to have all power both of heaven and earth Or if after the second Marriage and while he flourished which was by the space of Fourteen yeers he had either by a due consideration or counsel of his best friends wrought the Popes Pardon for breach of the Pre-contract with the Lady Elianor then his Apostolical Bull of Dispensation for his Post-Contract or Matrimony superinducted as they call it which might easily have been obtained at Rome for money And after that to have summoned a Parliament requiring the three Estates to have ratified and confirmed these Bulls for the approbation of the said Marriage with the Lady Gray and the Legitimation of his Children and made them lawful by Act of Parliament according to the Popes Indulgence which was then a sacred and most inviolable thing Lastly to have Declared Pronounced and Decreed in Parliament That the said Children of the King being so made legitimate were also capable of all Honours Dignities Estates Publike and Private of which the King stood seised or which were any ways appertaining and proper to the Kingdom of England and of France I say If he had done this he had composed all defects and prevented all succeeding dangers of Claims and Practices which might have been done with small or no trouble A course by another afterward opportunely thought on And surely it may be conjectured if this King had not been too secure and lost in his sensualities he would by the like Parliamentary power have rectified those errours these great high and difficult works being indeed proper to Parliaments and pregnant and strong proofs of their great and transcendent power holding in themselves a just desert and claim of such power and authority if assembled and held as they ought being a General Assembly and Convocation of the most wise honourable just and religious persons of the Kingdom Therefore the word Parliament saith one is compounded of Parium and lamentmm because as he thinketh the Peers of the Countrey did at these Meetings complain each to other of the enormities of their Countrey But the better opinion is That Parliament is simply from the French word parler and that from the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both signifying to speak and so by adding the termination ment which is common in the French Tongue as well to many Nouns as Adverbs do make up Parliament meaning thereby an Assembly of men called together to speak or confer c. And it may not unfitly be called Parliament for that each man should parler lament speak his minde But Laurence Valla misliketh that Etymologie It may be ghessed the word Parliament being transported out of France began shortly after the Norman Conquest One of the first authentical reports of that name is found in the Statute 3 E. 1. commonly called Westminster Parliament that Assembly being said to be Primier generall apres Coronamentâ—le Roy. But that is not the first word for in the Statutes called Articuli Cleri published 9 E. 2 these words are read Temporibus progenitorum nostrorum quondam Regum Angliae Parliamentis suis c. Which words Progenitorum quondam must needs reach higher then E. 1. that was but father to him that spake it But at what time soever after the Conquest this Court began to be called a Parliament the same was before known to the Saxons or Englishmen by the word Sinoth and Micell Sinoth of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now appropriated to Ecclesiastical meetings onely and sometimes by these terms Micell Gemote Witengemott and Calca Witengemott that is the meeting of wisemen or of all the wisemen for witona signifieth wisemen Calca all and Gemott a meeting of which last
Hen. 7. and dies of greife 143. Elizabeth daughter of Ed. 4. desired by her letter to marry with Richard 3. 128. 129. Elianor Talbot alias Butler married to E. 4. 116. her wrongs death 122. Escape what the offence is 100. F. FAulcon Serrure a French devise of obseen signification 115. Faulconbridge a famous Pyrate apprehended by a wile 9. Flattery and Flatterers 52. 133. 78. Fortune inconstant 41. Vertuous Master of her 57. Fortitude a notable example in Rio. 3. 59. 60. 61. Friends and friendship 52 best known in adversity Ib. French King payes a tribute of 75000. crownes to K. Edw. 4. and rich pensions to diverse Noble men 29. G. GAston de Foix K. of Navarr 19. Gray Woodvile and others of the Reginists executed at Pomfret for treachery 13 Glocester City rewarded by Rich. 3. for their loyalty 28. Gâ—mot what it is 125. Genius or Angell Guardian 106. H. HAstings his affection to Edw. 4. his children 13. Is betrayed and executed in the Tower ibid. Henry 2. K. of England his great descent and spacious Empire 4. his penance for Tho Beckets death 5. Sirnamed du Court Mantea why 4. Henry 4. King of England caused his soveraigne Rich. 2. anointed King to bee Murthered 14. Entailes the Crowne to his heires 50. Henry 6. K. of England not murthered by Rich. 3. but dyed a naturall death of griefe and melancholy 80 81. Henry Teâ—dor Earle of Richm. borne in Pembrooke castle 16. His noble descent 144 145. by his mother 50. by his Grand-mother and Father Ib. His escape into France 16. And there detained prisoner 17 18 19. His various and doubtfull fortunes Ib. 43. 57. Is attainted of high Treason 30. A description of his Person and qualities 42 58. 144. A wise provident a religious Prince 58. 144. Laies claime to the Crowne of England 17. Made good by marriage 53. And the Popes Bull 55. And act of Parliament 145. His title de jure belli or of conquest confirmed by the Pope and distasted by the Barons 54 55. Invades England with ill successe 43. His 2. invasion by aid of the French 56 57. 59. Overthrowes K. R. 3. at Redmore heath and is crowned by the name of Henry 7 th 62. His vow at the high Altar in Vannes 42. Is very covetous 88. too partiall and credulous 51. Unkinde and severe to his Wife 143. And to the Wife and Children of Edw. 4. Ib. His pretence against the Ea of Warwick 105. 141. And Perk. Warbeck alias Rich. Plantag 95. His breach of promise 93. He feared 3. men specially Ib. His reach upon the Duke of Burgundy 142. His charge to his son upon his death-bed ib. Henry the first K. of England sirnamed Beauclerke 16. Or the good Clerk His ambition and covetousnesse 141. cruelty to his elder Brother ib. Heralds whence the name derived 138. a Colledg of Heralds founded by R. 3. ibid. Herbertus Chamberlaine to W. Rufus Ancestor to the Herberts of Pemb. and Mountgom founder of that name 16. Historians their great partiality 134 135. 143. The errours of vulgar Historians 41. Howards their great Nobility alliance and discent from Hewardus or Herewardus the story of him 66. signification of the name ib. of Hawardus 67. Tho Howard Barl of Surrey escapes Bosworth field 64. A notable speech of his showing his integrity ibid. Is advanced by Henry 7. ib. Triumphator Scotorum 67. Sir Charles Howard Lord Admirall in 88. His noble fame 67. I. IAmes the 4 th King of Scotland denies his tribute to England 10. An army is sent to recover it ib. But a Truce concluded ibid. James the 5 th of Scotland challenges Thomas Earle of Arundel in Campe fight 62. James King of Great Brittaine his Noble elemency to some regall Titulars 135. Jane Shore King Edw. 4. his Concubine 115. 135. Jerusalem a barren soile 6. Imperiall Ensigns of England their signification 26. Ingratitude ex 59 60. John King of England charg'd with the murther of his Nephew 141. K. KAtherin wife of Sir Otho Swinford Mother of the Beauforts 44. Kings have their bounds 29. Their prerogatives in Iudgments and Controversies 54. Cannot commit high Treason 63. May not marry their Subjects 119. A King deposed for so doing ib. Kings and kingdomes in Gods disposing 63. changed by him why 140. Two evils especially the overthrow of Kings and kingdomes 103. To kill an Anoynted King a sacrilegious offence p. 80. Knights and Lords created 25. L. LAncaster and Beaufort how they differ 30. 44. 47. Legitimation What the Popes legitimation is and what the Princes 47 48. Liars need of good memories 84. Lancaster escheated to Edward 4. 35. 47. Don Duart de Lancastro 45. Laws good Laws made by R. 3. Lawes against Bastards 48. Loyalty a rare example 64. M. MArgaret Plantag daughter of Geo. Duke of Clarence put to dearh 143 Matilda or Maud the Empress daughter and heir of H. 1. 4. Anglor Dom. ibid. Malice malitious 130. Height of malice 75. Marble stone or fatall stone prophesie of it 146. Brought out of Scotland into England by Edward the 1. And placed at Westminster ib. The stone that Jacob laid his head upon ib. Marriage not lawfull between those that have lived in adultery 45. Between Uncles and Nieces frequent in other Countreys 129. Monasteries supprest with the true cause of it 77. Monuments of the British Empirâ— 146 Sir Thomas Moore a great enemie of R. 3. 76. Came short of the learning is ascribed to him dyed scoffing ib. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. And a sworn vassall to the Pope 76. Morton Bishop of Ely a subtle man 15. A great enemie of K. R. 3. ib. 75 76 77. A temporizer 52. His extreame pride and covetousnesse 53. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. N. NAmes taken from Offices other occasions 5 6 66. Nandick a conjurer Parl. 1. H. 7. Natural Father natural sons daughters why so called Naturall daughters may take the sirname of France 46. Noblenesse of nature Examp. 61. c. O. OFficers of State 25. 32. Oxford Iohn de Vene Earl of Ox. fevere against nick-named Perkin Warb 105. he gave sentence of death gainst the innocent Earl of Warwick ib. Strange dissipation of a mighty estate ib. Oppression many examples of it 99. 141. and pastime alibi P. PArasites the nature of them p. 27. 78. Parliaments their power authority 124. From whence the word is derived ib. A Court of great antiquity 125. Called by the Saxons Witengemot the meeting of wise men ibid. The honour and obedience due unto them 126. Parl. 1. R. 3. Many good Lawes enacted Pater mater parentes or parents words of larger signification among other Nations then among us 69. Perkin Warbeck his story 84. Confirmed by many noble and learned men 100 101. Philip Duke of Burgundy K. of Castile driven by a storm with his Qu upon the coast of England 141 142. His entertainment ib. Plantaganest or Plantagenet original occasion of that
name 4 5. borne by the Earls of Anjou ib. Growes into contempt 46. Geoffery Plantagenet Earle of Anjou a Courtly Prince 4. Married Maud the Empress ib. Who was first founder of that name in England 45. Poole Edmund de la Poole commanded to be put to death by H. 7. contrary to his promise 142. Katherine de la Poole dyed in prison ib. Sir H. de la Pool put to death ib. All of the house of Yorke Reynold Poole after Cardinall fled beyond Sea ib. Iohn de la Pool Ea. of Lincoln proclaimed heire apparant to the Crowne of England 44. Popes their power anciently very great 124. Limited by Canonists 47. Cannot legitimate Bastards to inherit ib. That belongs only to the Magistrate 48. Their intollerable pride 53. Dispense with incestuous marriages 55. Their dispensations held sacred 144. Popes Bull 55. Their proud defiance to all Laws divine humane 1â—8 Prescription power of it 144. Prince formerly a title of Soveraigne power but now restrained 49 50. Prince of Wales Sonne to H. 6. barbarously murthered at Tewksbury 81. Rich. 3. cleare of it ib. Prophesie of a Hermite concerning de Vere Earl of Oxford the occasion event of it 105. Providence Divine providence worketh by conrtary meanes 43. Cannot be prevented 63. Q. QUeen Mother and Dowager of Ed. 4. reconciled to R. 3. 29. Confined to an Abbey and dyes of griefe 143. Quithlaw Commissioner for the K. of Scots an eloquent man 33. 139 140. R. RAcke and torture use of it condemned 94 95. and reasons ib. Restitution of ill-gotten goods a hard and rare thing 43. 99. Resolution a notable example in Rich. 3. 59 60. Ryot and riotous Princes 139. Richard 3. King of England his great and Noble discent page 3. Time and place of his birth p. 7. Brought up at Utricht in Holland p. 8. Is Knighted created Du of Glost. marries the Princesse Dowager of Wales ibid. 81. His wisedome courage constancy to his brother 9. makes a prosperous expedition into Scot. 10 11 is made protector ib. His care of his Nephewes and duty to the young K. in hope Edw. 5. ib. Is elected K. by the Lords and Commons in Parliam 20. 22. Is crowned with his Queene and anoynted with great Magnificence 24 25 26. Received at Yorke in great honour and crowned the 2 time ib. His title conferred 30. Is cleared from the death of his Nephewes 21 22 23. 31. 84 85 86. 101. 102 103 104 106 107. Of his brother Clarence 82. Of H. 6. Prince Edw. his son 81 82 of his own wife 107. 129. from the slaunder raised upon his mother and brother 82 83. Was no Tyrant 78. his mildnesse his ruine 61. 136 His great magnificence wisedome justice 8 9. 12. 15. 27. 28. His many eminent vertues 136 137 138. His pious workes 138 139. His vertues maliciously depraved 78. The partiality of his accusers 130. 135. His defamations examined and answered 75 76 77 78 79. His description and commendation 148. Was not deformed His politick woing the L. Eliza. his Niece 126 127. 129. His treaties with forraigne princes 32. 33. 34. His noble valour at Bosworth field Weares the Crowne Royall and why 59. 60 61. Invites Rich. to a single combat ib. Is slaine and barbarously mangled 62. Is buried at Leicester under a faire Marble 147. His Epitaph 149. attainted of high treason with his followers 126. Is compared with other Kings of England 141. Three Richards Kings of England compared an Epigram vpon them 150. Rowles domus conversorum or house convertits 139. S. SAnctuary great priviledge of iâ— 19. 92 93. Sebastian King of Portugal escaped the battell of Alcazar 97 98. After long travel gets to Venice is knowne ib. Is betrayed into the K. of Spains power charged for a counterfeit made away 99. Slander and Slanderers 77 78. 103. Sotbriquets nick-names or sir-nâ—mes examples 5 6. Somersets Earls of Worcester from whom descended 47. Sorcery witch-craft divers accused of 102. Subjects men are Subjects to that Prinâ— under whose protection they live 105. Suspition evill of it 30. Note of an evill minde ib. Honest mind nor suspitious Ib. T. TAlbot Elianor Talbot Widow of the Lord Butler forsaken of Edward 4 th which caused her death 122. Teeth many worthy men borne with teeth 79. Traitor reward of Traitors 37. 97 Treason and rebellion their pretext 34. Soveraign Princes cannot commit Treason 126. K. R. 3. attainted of Treason but unduely ibid. Tyrant what it signifies in the proper signification 80. 133 134. Torture vid. Racke V. VAlour a notable example 60 61. Valiana minds hate treachery and bloody acts 81. Vanity and uncertainty of humane States 36 37. 59. Upstarts 46. W. WAkefield battell 7. Warre between England and Scotland and the cause of it 9 10. 7. Warren Earl of Surrey 46. Warwick Richard Nevil the great Earl of Warwicke 117. Distasts K. Edw. 4. and takes up armes against him 118. Edward Earl of Warwick put to death 96. Wedding King of England 146. William Conquerour his noblenesse toward his dead enemy 61. Woolsey the great Cardinall his just commendations 78. Y. YOrke Edmond Plantagen alias de Langley first Duke of Yorke 4. The Title of that House to the Crowne of England 3. Richard Du of York and Father of K. R. 3. designed King by H. 6. And the High Court of Parliament 3. Crowne entailed to his Issue 20. 51. Richard Duke of Yorke 2 d son of Edw. 4. sent beyond sea and brought up privately at Warbecke in Planders for feare of the faction of Lancaster 85 87. Discovers himselfe 88. Is acknowledg'd by the English Nobility ib. Favoured of Forreign Princes 90 91. His various fortunes 92. Is proclaimed King 92. Is taken and sent to the Tower 93. His sufferings there 94. His offence forged for which he is hang'd at Tiburn 95. Duchesse of Yorke her speech to her Son King Edward 4. 119 120. Cruelty shewed to the remainers of the House of Yorke 143. A finall subversion of that house and name ibid. An Explication of some dark words and Sentences SOtbriquets or Sobriquets Nickenams 4. Angeume of or belonging to Anjou Naturall son i. a Bastard also a naturall Father Rodomantade p. 12. a brag or bravado Cloth of assuyance 27. Towel or napkin that wait on the cup. Contrast withstanding or repugnance Parergum 32. Something added that is not of the principall matter Tort 35. wrong injury and violence Vmbrage or Ombrage 35. Suspition also disgrace Disgust 36. Distaste Contrecar 44. A counter-strength c Filij populi 44. Bastards so called being children of common women in respect of the Father of uncertaine Parentage Ne Croix ny Pile 51. Neither cross nor pile not one title or jot of right c. Ambidexter a Iack on both sides Brother uterine 51. 1 by the mothers side Abbayance 53. In delay or dispute such as Lawyers use a term borrowed from another creature Apodixis 60. Plain demonstration