For in the Kings Palace a place there was for the Chancellor and clerks such as were imployed about writs or processes and the seale for Judges also that handled as well Pleas as they terme them pertaining unto the Kings Crown as between one Subject and another There was also the Exchequer wherein the Lord Treasurer Auditours and Receivers sat who had the charge of the Kings revenues treasure and coffers Every of these being counted of the Kings houshold in ordinary had allowed them from the King both dier and apparell Whereupon Gotzelinus in the life of S. Edward calleth them The Lawyers of the Palace John of Salisburie The Court Lawyers But beside these and above them all was one appointed for administration of Justice named Iustitia Angliae The Iustice of England Prima Iustitia The principall Iustice The Iusticer of England and chiefe Iusticer of England who with a yearely pension of a thousand Marks was ordained by a Commission or Charter running in these termes The King to all Archbishops Bishops Abbats Priors Earles Barons Sheriffes Forresters and all other liege and faithfull people of England greeting Whereas for the preservation of our selves and the peace of our Kingdome and for the ministring of Iustice to all and every person of our Realme we have ordained our beloved and trustie Philip Basset Chiefe Iusticer of England so long as it shall please us wee charge you upon the faith and allegiance that yee owe unto us and doe straightly enjoyne you that in all things which concerne the office of our foresaid Iusticeship and the preservation of our peace and Kingdome yee be fully attendant and assistant unto him so long as be shall continue in the said Office Witnesse the King c. But when as in the raigne of Henry the Third enacted it was that the Common Pleas of the Subjects should not follow the Kings Court but be held in some certain place within a while after the Chancerie and the Court of the Pleas of the Crowne together with the Exchequer were translated from the Kings Court and established in certaine places apart by themselves as some I know not how truely have reported Having premised by way of Preface thus much I will proceede to write briefly somewhat of these Courts and others that arise from them according as they are kept at this day And whereas some of them bee Courts of Law to wit the Kings Bench The common Bench or Pleas the Exchequer the Assises the Star-Chamber the Court of Wards and the Admirals Court others of Equitie namely The Chauncerie the Court of Requests The Counsels in the Marches of Wales and in the North parts of every of these in due order somewhat as I have learned of others The Kings Bench so called because the Kings were wont there to sit as Presidents in proper person handleth the pleas of the Crowne and many other matters which pertaine to the King and the Weale publique and withall it sifteth and examineth the errors of the Common Pleas. The Judges there beside the King when it pleaseth him to be present are the Lord chiefe Justice of England and other Justices foure or more as the King shall thinke good The common Pleas hath that name because in it are debated the common Pleas betweene Subject and Subject according to our law which they call common Heerein give judgement The chiefe Iustice of the common Pleas with foure Justices assistants or more Officers attendant there be The Keeper of the Brieffes or writs Three Protonotaries and inferiour Ministers very many The Exchequer tooke that name of a boord or table whereat they sat For thus writeth Gervase of Tilburie who lived in the yeere 1160. The Exchequer is a foure cornered boord about ten foote long and five foote broad fitted in manner of a table for men to sit round about it On every side a standing ledge or border it hath of the bredth of foure fingers Vpon this Exchequer boord is laid a cloth bought in Easter terme and the same of black colour and rewed with strikes distant one from another a foote or a span And a little after This Court by report began from the very Conquest of the Realme and was erected by King William howbeit the reason and proportion thereof taken from the Exchequer beyond Sea In this are all causes heard which belong unto the Kings treasury Judges therein be The Lord Treasurer of England The Chancellor of the Exchequer The Lord chiefe Baron with three or foure other Barons of the Exchequer The servitours and Ministers to this Court are The Kings Remembrancer The Lord Treasurers Remembrancer The Clerke of the Pipe The Controller of the Pipe Auditours of the old revenues five The Forrein Opposer The Clerke of the Estreights The Clerke of the Pleas The Mareschall The Clerke of the Summons The Deputie Chamberlaines Secondaries in the office of the Kings Remembrancer two Secondaries in the office of the Lord Treasurers Remembrancer two Secondaries of the Pipe two Clerkes in divers offices foure c. In the other part of the Exchequer called the Receipt these bee the Officers Two Chamberlains a vice Treasurer Clerke of the Tallies Clerke of the Pels Tellers foure Ioyners of Tallies two Deputie Chamberlaines two The Clerke for Tallies The Keeper of the Treasurie Messengers or Pursevants ordinarie foure Scribes two c. The Officers likewise of the Tenths and first Fruits belong to this Court who were ordained when as the Popes authoritie was banished and abolished and an act passed by which it was provided that the Tenths and First fruits of Churchmens Benefices should be paid unto the King Beside these three Kings Courts for law to cut off delaies to ease the subject also of travell and charges King Henrie the Second sent some of these Judges and others yearely into every Shire or Countie of the Realme who were called Iustices Itinerant and commonly Iustices in Eyre These determined and gave judgement as well of the Pleas of the Crowne as the Common Pleas within those Counties whereunto they were assigned For the said King as Matthew Paris saith By the counsell of his sonne and the Bishops together appointed Iustices to sixe parts of the Kingdome in every part three who should sweare to keepe and maintaine the right belonging to every man sincerely and uncorruptly But this ordinance vanished at length under Edward the Third Howbeit within a while after by Parliamentary authoritie it was in some sort revived For the Counties being divided into certaine Circuits as wee terme them two of the Kings Justices together twice in the yeare ride about and keepe their Circuits for to give definitive sentence of the Prisoners and as we use to speake to deliver the Goales or Prisons Whereupon in our Lawyers Latin they bee called Iusticiarii Gaolae deliberandae that is Justices for Goale deliverie as also to take Recognisances of Assises of new Deseisine c. whereof they be named
Iustices of the Assises to end and dispatch controversies depending and growne to an issue in the foresaid principall Kings Courts betweene plaintiffes and defendants and that by their Peeres as the custome is whence they are commonly called Iustices of Nisi prius which name they tooke of the writs sent unto the Sheriffe which have in them these two words Nisi Prius that is Vnlesse before c. The Star-Chamber or the Court rather of Kings Counsell wherein are discussed and handled criminall matters perjuries cousenages fraud deceit riots or excesse c. This Court in regard of time is right ancient and for dignitie most honourable For it seemes that it may claime antiquitie ever since the first time that Subject appealed unto their Soveraignes and the Kings Councell was erected Now the Judges of this Court are persons right Honourable and of greatest reputation even the Kings Privie Counsellors As for the name of Star-Chamber it tooke it from the time that this Counsell was appointed at Westminster in a Chamber there anciently garnished and beautified with Starres For we read in the Records of Edward the Third Counseil en la Chambre des Estoilles pres de la Receipt al Westminster that is The Counsell in the Chamber of Starres neere unto the Receit at Westminster But the Authoritie thereof that most sage and wise Prince Henry the Seventh by authoritie of Parliament so augmented and established that some are of opinion though untruely hee was the first founder of it The Judges heere are The Lord Chancellor of England The Lord Treasurer of England The Lord President of the Kings Counsell The Lord Keeper of the Privy Seale and all Counselors of the State as wel Ecclesiasticall as Temporall and out of the Barons of the Parliament those whom the King will call The two chiefe Iustices of the Benches or in their absence two other Iudges The Officers heerein are these The Clerke of the Counsell The Clerke of writs and processe of the Counsell in the Star-Chamber c. And causes here are debated and decided not by Peeres according to our common Law but after the course of Civill Law The Court of Wards and Liveries hath the name of Pupils or Wards whose causes it handleth was first instituted by Henrie the Eighth whereas in former times their causes were heard in the Chancerie and Exchequer For by an old Ordinance derived out of Normandie and not from Henry the Third as some doe write when a man is deceased Who holdeth possessions or Lands of the King in chiefe by Knights service as well the heire as his whole patrimonie and revenues are in the Kings power tuition and protection untill he be full one and twentie yeares of age and untill by vertue of the Kings briefe or letter restitution and re-delivery be made unto him thereof In this Court the Generall Master sitteth as Judge under whom are these The Supravisor or Surveior of Liveries The Atturney generall of the Court The generall Receiver The Auditour The Clerke of the Liveries The Clerke of the Court Fortie Fedaries and a Messenger There have sprung up also in these later times two other Courts to wit Of reforming Errours whereof the first is to correct Errours in the Exchequer the other to amend errours committed in the Kings Bench. The Judges in the former of these twaine are the Lord Chancellor and Lord Treasurer of England with others of the Kings Justices whom they are disposed to take unto them In the later The Iustices of the Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer The Admirals Court handleth Sea matters In this are reckoned the Lord Admirall of England his Lieutenant and a Iudge two Scribes a Serjeant of the Court and the Vice-Admirals of England Now proceede we to the Courts of Equitie The Chancerie drew that name from a Chancellor which name under the ancient Roman Emperours was not of so greate esteeme and dignitie as wee learne out of Vopiscus But now adaies a name it is of highest honour and Chancellors are advanced to the highest pitch of civill Dignitie Whose name Cassiodorus fetcheth from crosse grates or lattesses because they examined matters within places severed apart enclosed with partitions of such crosse bars which the Latins call Cancelli Regard saith hee to a Chancellor what name you beare It cannot bee hidden which you doe within Lattesses For you keepe your gates lightsome your barres open and your dores transparent as windows Whereby it is very evident that he sate within grates where he was to be seene on every side and thereof it may be thought he tooke that name But considering it was his part being as it were the Princes mouth eie and eare to strike and dash out with crosse-lines lattise like those letters Commissions Warrants and Decrees passed against law and right or prejudiciall to the comon-wealth which not improperly they termed to cancell some thinke the name of Chancellor came from this Cancelling and in a Glossarie of latter time thus we read A Chancellor is he whose Office is to looke into and peruse the writings and answers of the Emperour to cancell what is written amisse and to signe that which is well Neither is that true which Polydore Virgil writeth namely that William the Conquerour instituted a Colledge or fellowship of Scribes to write letters pattents c. and named the Master of that Societie Chancellor considering it is plaine and manifest that Chancellors were in England before the Normans Conquest How great the dignitie and authoritie of the Chancellor is at this day it is better knowne than I can declare but of what credit it was in old time have heere in a word or two out of a writer of good antiquitie The dignitie of the Chancellor of England is this He is reputed the second person in the Realme and next unto the King with the one side of the Kings Seale whereof by his Office he hath the Keeping he may signe his owne injunctions to dispose and order the Kings Chappell as hee liketh to receive and keepe all Archbishopricks Bishopricks Abbeies and Baronies void and falling into the Kings hand to be present at all the Kings Counsels and thither to repaire uncalled also that all things be signed by the hand of his Clerke who carrieth the Kings Seale and that all things be directed and disposed by advise of the Chancellor Item that by the helpfull merits of his good life through Gods grace he need not die if he will himselfe but Archbishop or Bishop And heereof it is that the Chancellor-ship is not to be bought The forme and manner of ordaining a Chancellor for that also I will note was in the time of King Henrie the Second by hanging the great Seale of England about the necke of the Chancellor elect But in King Henry the Sixth daies this was the order of it according to the notes I tooke out of the Records When the place of the Lord
Chancellor of England is void by death the Kings three great Seales to wit one of gold and other two of silver which remained in the custodie of the Chancellor presently after his death are shut up in a wooden chest fast locked and signed with the Seales of the Lords then present and so conveied into the Treasurie From thence brought they are to the King who in the presence of many Noblemen delivereth them into the hands of him that shall be Chancellor and undertaketh the charge of executing the Office of Chancellorship taking before an oath of him well and truely to exercise the same first he delivereth the great Seale of silver then that of gold and so the other of silver who receiving the same bestoweth them againe in the chest and being signed with his owne Seale conveieth it home to his owne house and before certaine of the Nobilitie causeth the Kings Patents and writs to be Sealed When a Chancellor is discharged of his place he delivereth up into the Kings hands in the presence of the Lords and Nobles those three Seales first the Seale of gold then one broad Seale of silver and so another of a lesse forme Howbeit at this day one Seale and no more is delivered unto the Chanchellor neither is there mention any where made of these three Seales but in the raigne of Henry the Sixth To this Chancellors Office in processe of time much authoritie and dignitie hath been adjoyned by authoritie of Parliament especially ever since that Lawyers stood so precisely upon the strict points of Law and caught men with the traps and snares of their law termes that of necessitie there was a Court of equitie to be erected and the same committed to the Chancellor who might give judgement according to equitie and reason and moderate the extremitie of law which was wont to bee thought extreme wrong In this Court there sitteth as President the Lord Chancellor of England and as assessors or assistants to him twelve Masters of the Chancerie whereof the chiefe and principall is the Keeper of the Rolls belonging to the same Court and thereupon he is called Master of the Rolles There belong also to this Court very many Officers of whom some attend especially upon the Kings Seale namely The Clerke of the Crown The Clerke of the Hanaper The Sealer The Chauff-wax The Controller of the Hanaper Cursitours twenty foure A Clerke for the writs of Sub-poena Others are attendant upon Bils of complaint there exhibited to wit A Protonotarie sixe Clerkes or Atturnies of the Court and a Register There belong also thereto the Clekes of the Petty Bag The Clerke of Presentations The Clerke of Faculties The Clerke for examination of Letters Patents The Clerke for dimissions c. There is another Court also derived out of the Kings Privie Counsell called The Court of Requests which giveth hearing likewise as in the Chancerie to causes betweene private persons but such as before are presented unto the Prince or his Privie Counsell as also to others In this are employed certaine Masters of the Requests and a Clerke or Register with two Atturneys or three But as touching those Counsels held in the Marches of Wales and in the North parts wee will speake with the leave of God in their due place As for Ecclesiasticall or Spirituall Courts there be two principall to wit The Synode which is called The Convocation of the Clergie and is alwaies kept with the Parliament and the Provinciall Synods in both Provinces After these are reckoned the Archbishop of Canterburies Courts to wit The Court of the Arches wherein sitteth as Judge the Deane of the Arches He is called Deane for that he hath jurisdiction in xiij Parishes of London exempt from the Bishop of London which number maketh a Deanrie and Deane of the Arches because the principall of his Churches is S. Maries Church in London the tower steeple or lanterne whereof is beautifully built of arched worke He hath to doe with appeales of all men within the Province of Canterburie Advocates there bee in this Court xvj or more at the pleasure of the Archbishop all Doctors of the Law two Registers and ten Proctours The Court of Audience which entertaineth the complaints causes and appeales of them in that Province The Prerogative Court in which the Commissarie sitteth upon Inheritances fallen either by the Intestate or by will and testament The Court of Faculties wherein there is appointed a chiefe President who heareth and considereth of their grievances and requests that are petitioners for some moderation and easement of the Ecclesiasticall law sometimes over-strict and rigorous and a Register beside who recordeth the Dispensations granted The Court of Peculiars which dealeth in certaine Parishes exempt from the Bishops jurisdiction in some Diocesses and are peculiarly belonging to the Archbishop of Canterburie Other Courts of meaner account I willingly overpasse Neither doe I wisely I assure you thus to entermeddle heerein and yet Guicciardine in his Description of the Neatherlands hath given me a precedent hereof to follow Heere in this place my purpose was to have interserted somewhat so farre forth especially as concerned antiquitie as touching the chiefe Magistrates and highest Offices of England as namely The Lord Chancellor aforesaid The Lord Treasurer The President of the Counsell The Lord Keeper of the Privie Seale The Lord high Chamberlain The Lord high Constable The Mareschall and Seneschal or Steward of the Kings houshold c. But understanding that others were in hand with these matters so farre am I from preventing them that right willingly I shall impart even to them whatsoever in this behalfe I have observed Some man perhaps heere looketh that I should out of Astrologicall rules adde to to the rest under what Signe and Planet our Britaine is seated And verily I will say somewhat to satisfie the Curious for in those learned errors I have I may tell you in my youth taken some paines although the Conjecturers of Astrologers touching this point are so divers that the very diversitie may seeme to weaken the thing it selfe and leave no place for the truth M. Manilius an ancient Poet in this verse of his seemeth to intimate that Capricorne heere beareth rule in Britaine Tu Capricorne regis quicquid sub Sole cadente Expositum Thou Capricorne doest governe all That lies to Sun at his down-fall Ptolomee Albumazar and Cardane doe make Aries our Tutelar Signe Iohannes de Muris the Planet Saturne The Frier Perscrutator Esquidus and Henrie Silen the Moone for that as they say it is in the seventh Climate Roger of Hereford Thomas of Ravenna Philologus and Hispalensis are of opinion Pisces governe us and last of all Schonerus and Pitatus see how they all disagree have with no better reason than the rest subjected us unto Gemini Now will I by Gods assistance make my perambulation through the Provinces or Shires of Britaine wherein according to the Preface that they
his Kingdome divers authors affirme to have granted by his Charter or Patent Ireland and England both unto the Church of Rome to be held of it ever after in fee and to have received it againe from the Church as a Feudatarie also to have bound his successours to pay three hundred Markes unto the Bishop of Rome But that most worthie and famous Sir Thomas Moore who tooke the Popes part even unto death affirmeth this to be false For hee writeth that the Romanists can shew no such grant that they never demanded the foresaid money and that the Kings of England never acknowledged it But by his leave as great a man as hee was the case stood otherwise as evidently appeareth by the Parliament Records the credit whereof cannot bee impugned For in an assembly of all the States of the Realme in the reigne of Edward the third the Lord Chancellour of England proposed and related that the Pope would judicially sue the King of England as well for the Homage as the tribute which was to be yeelded for England and Ireland to the performance whereof King Iohn in times past had obliged himselfe and his successours and of this point which hee put to question required their opinion The Bishops desired to have a day by them selves for to consult about this matter the Nobles likewise and the people or Communaltie The day after they all met and with one generall accord ordained and enacted That for asmuch as neither King Iohn nor any other King whatsoever could impose such servitude upon the Kingdome but with the common consent and assent of a Parliament which was not done and whatsoever he had passed was against his oath at his coronation by him in expresse words religiously taken before God Therefore in case the Pope should urge this matter they were most readie to the uttermost of their power to resist him resolutely with their bodies and goods They also who are skilfull in scanning and sifting everie pricke and tittle of the lawes cry out with one voice That the said Grant or Charter of King Iohn was voide in Law by that clause and reservation in the end thereof Saving unto us and our heires all our Rights Liberties and Regalities But this may seeme beside my text Ever since King Johns time the Kings of England were stiled Lords of Ireland untill that King Henrie the eighth in the memorie of our fathers was in a Parliament of Ireland by the States thereof declared King of Ireland because the name of Lord seemed in the judgement of certaine seditious persons nothing so sacred and full of majestie as the name of King This name and title of the Kingdome of Ireland were by the Popes authoritie what time as Queene Marie in the yeere 1555. had by her Embassadours in the name of the Kingdom of England tendred obedience unto the Pope Paul the fourth confirmed in these words To the laud and glorie of almightie God and his most glorious mother the Virgin Mary to the honour also of the whole Court of heaven and the exaltation of the Catholike faith as the humble request and suite made unto us by King Philip and Queen Marie about this matter wee with the advice of our brethren and of plenarie power Apostolicall by our Apostolicall authoritie erect for ever Ireland to bee a Kingdome and endow dignifie and exalt with the title dignitie honour faculties rights ensignes prerogatives preferments preeminencies royall and such as other Realmes of Christians have use and enjoy and may have use and enjoy for the times to come And seeing that I have hapned upon those Noblemens names who first of all English gave the attempt upon Ireland and most valiantly subdued it under the imperiall crowne of England lest I might seeme upon envie to deprive both them and their posteritie of this due and deserved glorie I will set them downe here out of the Chancerie of Ireland according as the title doth purport The names of them that came with Dermot Mac Morrog into Ireland Richard Strongbow Earle of Pembroch who by Eve the daughter of Morrog the Irish pettie King aforesaid had one only daughter and she brought unto William Mareschall the title of the Earldome of Pembroch with faire lands in Ireland and a goodly issue five sonnes who succeeded one another in a row all childlesse and as many daughters which enriched their husbands Hugh Bigod Earle of Norfolke Guarin Montchensey Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William Ferrars Earle of Derby and William Breose with children honours and possessions Robert Fitz-Stephen Harvey de Mont-Marish Maurice Prendergest Robert Barr. Meiler Meilerine Maurice Fitz-Girald Redmund nephew of Fitz-Stephen William Ferrand Miles de Cogan Richard de Cogan Gualter de Ridensford Gualter and sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald Alexander sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald William Notte Robert Fitz-Bernard Hugh Lacie William Fitz-Aldelm William Maccarell Humfrey Bohun Hugh de Gundevill Philip de Hasting Hugh Tirell David Walsh Robert Poer Osbert de Herloter William de Bendenges Adam de Gernez Philip de Breos Griffin nephew of Fitz-Stephen Raulfe Fitz-Stephen Walter de Barry Philip Walsh Adam de Hereford To whom may be added out of Giraldus Cambrensis Iohn Curcy Hugh Contilon Redmund Cantimore Redmund Fitz-Hugh Miles of S. Davids and others The Government of the Kingdome of Ireland EVer since that Ireland became subject unto England the Kings of England have sent over thither to manage the state of the Realme their Regents or Vice-gerents whom they tearmed in those writings or letters Patents of theirs whereby authoritie and jurisdiction is committed unto them first Keepers of Ireland then afterwards according as it pleased them Iustices of Ireland Lievtenants and Deputies Which authoritie and jurisdiction of theirs is very large ample and royall whereby they have power to make warre to conclude peace to bestow all Magistracies and Offices except a very few to pardon all crimes unlesse they be some of high treason to dub Knights c. These letters Patents when any one entreth upon this honourable place of government are publikely read and after a solemne oath taken in a set forme of words before the Chancellour the sword is delivered into his hands which is to be borne before him he is placed in a chaire of estate having standing by him the Chancellour of the Realme those of the Privie Councell the Peeres and Nobles of the kingdome with a King of Armes a Serjeant of Armes and other Officers of State And verily there is not looke throughout all Christendome againe any other Vice-Roy that commeth neerer unto the majestie of a King whether you respect his jurisdiction and authoritie or his traine furniture and provision There bee assistant unto him in counsell the Lord Chancellour of the Realm the Treasurer of the Kingdome and others of the Earles Bishops Barons and Judges which are of the Privie Councell For Ireland hath the very same degrees of States that England hath namely Earles Barons Knights
in the Hole so named of the miry way in Winter time very troublesome to Travellers For the old Englishmen our Progenitors called deepe myre hock and hocks So passing along fields smelling sweet in Sommer of the best Beanes which with their redolent savour doe dull the quicke sent of Hounds and Spaniels not without fuming and chaâ—ing of Hunters we mounted up by a whitish chalkey hill into the Chiltern and streightwaies were at Dunstable This Towne seated in a chalkey ground well inhabited and full of Innes hath foure Streetes answering to the foure quarters of the world in every one of which notwithstanding the Soile bee most dry by nature there is a large Pond of standing water for the publique use of the Inhabitants And albeit they bee fed onely by raine water yet they never faile nor become dry As for spring-veines there are none to bee found unlesse they sinke Wells or pits foure and twenty Cubits deepe In the middest of the Towne is a Crosse or Columne rather to be seene with the Armes of England Castle and Ponthieu engraven thereon adorned also with Statues and Images which King Edward the First erected as he did some others in memoriall of Aeleoner his Wife all the way as hee conveyed her Corps out of Lincoln-shire with funerall pompe to Westminster That this Dunstable was the very same Station which the Emperour Antonine in his Itinerary calleth MAGIONINIUM MAGIOVINIUM and MAGINTUM no man needs to make doubt or to seeke it else where For besides that it is situate upon the Romanes high way there are peeces of the Roman Emperours moneies found otherwhiles in the fields adjoyning round about by the Swine-heards which as yet they terme Madning mony and within a little of the very descent of the Chiltern hils there is a military modell raised up round with a Rampire and Ditch such as Strabo writeth the Britans Townes were containing nine Acres of ground which the people use to call Madning-boure and Madin-boure in which very name with a little change MAGINTUM most plainly sheweth it selfe But when the said MAGINTUM by the injury of warre or time was decayed king Henry the First heere reedified a Towne built a royall house at Kings-bury and planted a Colony to represse the boldnesse of Theeves that heere beset the wayes and lay in wait as the private History of the Priory that himselfe founded for the ornament of this his Colony doth evidently beare witnesse But heare the very words out of that private History although they savour of the Barbarisme of that age Note that the plot of ground where the two high waies Watling and Ikening meet was first by Henry the elder King of England cleered to keepe under and bridle the wickednesse of a certaine most notorious Theefe named Dun and his Companions and of that Dun the said place was named Dunstable The King our Lord built there the Burgh of Dunstable and made for himselfe a royall Manour or house neere under that place The King had in the same Towne both Faire and Mercat Afterwards hee founded a Church and by authority of Pope Eugenius the Third placed therein Regular Chanons and feoffed the said Religious Chanons in the whole Burgh by his Charter and bestowed upon them very many liberties As for Leighton Buzard on the one side of Dunstable and Luton on the other neither have I reade nor seene any thing memorable in them unlesse I should say that at Luton I saw a faire Church but the Quier then Roofelesse and overgrowne with Weedes and adjoyning to it an elegant Chappell founded by I. Lord Wenlocke and well maintained by the Family of Rotheram planted heere by Thomas Rotheram Archbishop of Yorke and Chancellour of England in the time of King Edward the Fourth As touching the Lords Dukes and Earles of Bedford First there were Barons of Bedford out of the Family of Beauchamp who by right of inheritance were Almners to the Kings of England upon their Coronation day Whose inheritance being by females parted among the Mowbraies Wakes Fitz-Ottes c. King Edward the Third created Engelrame de Coucy Earle of Suesons in France sonne to Engelrame Lord of Coucy and his Wife daughter to the Duke of Austria the first Earle of Bedford giving unto him his daughter in marriage Afterwards King Henrie the Fifth advaunced Bedford to the title of a Dukedome and it had three Dukes the first was John the third sonne of King Henrie the Fourth who most valiantly vanquished the French men in a Sea-fight at the mouth of Seyne and afterwards being Regent of France slaine in a battaile on land before Vernoil who was buried in Roan and together with him all the Englishmens good fortune in France At which time he was Regent of France Duke of Bedford Alaunson and Anjou Earle of Maine Richmond and Kendall and Constable of England For so was his stile Whose Monument when Charles the Eighth King of France came to see and a Noble man standing by advised him to rase it Nay answered he let him rest in peace now being dead of whom in war while he lived all France had dread The second Duke of Bedford was George Nevill a very child sonne to John Marquesse Mont-acute both whom King Edward the Fourth so soone as hee had raised them to that type of Honours threw downe againe and that by authoritie of the Parliament the Father for his perfidious disloyaltie in revolting from him the Sonne in dislike of his Father Howbeit there was a colourable pretense made that his estate was too weake for to maintaine the port and dignity of a Duke and because great men of high place if they be not wealthy withall are alwaies grievous and injurious The third was Iasper of Hatfield Earle of Pembroch Honoured with that title by his Nephew King Henrie the Seventh for that hee was both his Unckle and had delivered him out of extreame dangers who being aged and a Bachelar departed this life some ten yeeres after his Creation But within the remembrance of our Fathers it fell backe againe to the title of an Earledome what time as King Edward the Sixth created Iohn Lord Russell Earle of Bedford after whom succeeded his Sonne Francis a man so religious and of such a noble courteous nature that I can never speake ought so highly in his commendation but his vertue will far surpasse the same He left to succeed him Edward his Nephew by his Sonne Sir Francis Russell who was slaine a day or two before his Father departed this life by Scotishmen in a tumult upon a True-day in the midle marches 1585. This small Province hath Parishes 116. HERTFORDIAE Comitatus A. Cattifuclanis olim Inhabitatus HERTFORD-SHIRE HERTFORD-SHIRE which I said was the third of those that belonged to the Cattieuchlani lieth on the East and partly on the South side of Bedford-shire The West side is enclosed with Bedford-shire and Buckingham-shire The South with Middlesex
yeare of our Lord 1086. when as before time it had beene consumed by a woefull accidentall fire whereof William of Malmesbury writeth thus The beauty thereof is so magnificent that it deserveth to bee numbered in the ranke of most excellent Edifices so large is that Arched Vault underneath and the Church above it of such capacity that it may seeme sufficient to receive any multitude of people whatsoever Because therefore Maurice carried a minde beyond all measure in this project he betooke the charge and cost of so laborious a peece of worke unto those that came after In the end when B. Richard his Successour had made over all the Revenewes belonging unto the Bishopricke to the building of this Cathedrall Church sustaining himselfe and his Family otherwise in the meane while hee seemed in a manner to have done just nothing so that hee spent his whole substance profusely heereabout and yet small effect came thereof The West Part as also the Crosse-yle are spacious high built and goodly to bee seene by reason of the huge Pillars and a right beautifull arched Roufe of stone Where these foure Parts crosse one another and meete in one there riseth uppe a mighty bigge and lofty Towre upon which stood a Spire Steeple covered with Leade mounting uppe to a wonderfull height for it was no lesse than five hundered and foure and thirty foote high from the Ground which in the yeare of our Lord 1087. was set on fire with Lightning and burnt with a great part of the City but beeing rebuilt was of late in mine owne remembrance when I was but a Childe fired againe with Lightning and is not as yet reedified The measure also and proportion of this so stately building I will heere put downe out of an old Writer which you may if it please you reade Saint Pauls Church containeth in length sixe hundered ninety foote the breadth thereof is one hundered and thirty foote the height of the West Arched Roufe from the Ground carrieth an hundered and two foote and the new Fabrique from the Ground is foure score and eight foote high The stoneworke of the Steeple from the plaine ground riseth in height two hundred and threescore foote and the timber frame upon the same is two hundred seaventy foure foote high c. That there stood of old time a Temple of Diana in this place some have conjectured and arguments there are to make this their conjecture good Certaine old houses adjoyning are in the ancient records of the Church called Dianaes Chamber and in the Church-yard while Edward the First reigned an incredible number of Ox-heads were digged up as wee finde in our Annals which the common sort at that time made a wondering at as the Sacrifices of Gentiles and the learned know that Taurapolia were celebrated in the honour of Diana I my selfe also when I was a boy have seene a stagges head sticking upon a speare-top a ceremony suting well with the sacrifices of Diana carried round about within the very Church in solemne pompe and procession and with a great noise of Horne-blowers And that Stagge or Hart which they of the house de Bawde in Essex did present for certaine lands that there held as I have heard say the Priests of this Church arrayed in their sacred vestiments and wearing Garlands of flowers upon their heads were wont to receive at the steps of the quire Now whether this were in use before those Bawds were bound to exhibite such a Stagge I wote not but surely this rite and ceremony may seeme to smell of Diana's worship and the Gentiles errours more than of Christian Religion And verily no man neede to doubt that from them certaine strange and foraine and heathenish rites crept into Christian religion Which Ceremonies the first Christians as mankinde is naturally a pliant Sectary to superstition either admitted or else at the first tolerated thereby to traine and allure the Heathen from Paganisme by little and little to the true Service and Worship of God But ever since this Church was built it hath beene the See of the Bishops of London and the first Bishop that it had under the English about fifty yeares after that Theoâ— of the British Nation was thrust out was Melitus a Roman consecrated by Austin Archbishop of Canturbury In honour of which Austin flat against the Decree of Pope Gregorie the Great the Ensignes of the Archbishopricke and the Metropolitane Sec were translated from London to Canturbury Within this Cathedrall Church to say nothing of Saint Erkenwald and the Bishops there lye buryed Sebba King of the East Saxons who gave over his kingdome for to serve Christ Etheldred or Egeldred who was an Oppressour rather than a Ruler of this Kingdome cruell in the beginning wretched in the middle and shamefull in the end so outragious hee was in his connivency to a Parricidie committed so infamous in his flight and effeminacy and so miserable in his death Henry Lacy Earle of Lincolne Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Sir Simon de Burlie a right noble Knight of the Garter executed by encroched Authority without the kings assent Sir Iohn de Beauchamp Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports Iohn Lord Latimer Sir Iohn Mason knight William Herbert Earle of Pembroch Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England a man of a deepe reach and exquisite judgement Sir Philip Sidney and Sir Francis Walsingham two famous knights c. and Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Chancellour of England for whose perpetuall memory Sir William Hatton his Nephew by sister descended from the ancient Family of the Newports whom hee adopted into the name of Hatton dutifully erected a sumptuous monument well beseeming the greatnesse of his adoptive father Beside this Church there is not to my knowledge any other worke of the English Saxons extant in London to bee seene for why they continued not long in perfect peace considering that in short space the West-Saxons subdued the East-Saxons and London became subject to the Mercians Scarcely were these civill Warres husht when a new Tempest brake out of the North I meane the Danes who piteously tore in peeces all this Country and shooke this City sore For the Danes brought it under their Subjection but Aelfred recovered it out of their hands and after he had repaired it gave it unto Aetheldred Earle of the Mercians who had married his daughter Yet those wastefull depopulators did what they could afterwards many a time to winne it by Siege but Canut especially who by digging a new Chanell attempted to turne away the Tamis from it Howbeit evermore they lost their labour the Citizens did so manfully repulse the force of the enemy Yet were they not a little terrified still by them untill they lovingly received and saluted as their King William Duke of Normandy whom God destined to bee borne for the good of England against those Spoilers Presently then the windes were laid
Lancaster second son of K. Henry the third and his wife Aveline de fortibus Countesse of Albemarle William and Audomar of Valence of the family of Lusignian Earles of Pembroch Alphonsus Iohn and other children of King Edward the First Iohn of Eltham Earle of Cornwall son to K. Edward the second Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester the yongest son of K. Edward the third with other of his children Aeleanor daughter and heire of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex wife to Thomas of Woodstocke the yong daughter of Edward the fourth and K. Henry the seventh Henry a childe two months old son of K. Henry the eight Sophia the daughter of K. Iames who died as it were in the very first day-dawning of her age Phillippa Mohun Dutches of Yorke Lewis Vicount Robsert of Henault in right of his wife Lord Bourchier Anne the yong daughter and heire of Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke promised in marriage unto Richard Duke of Yorke yonger son to K. Edward the fourth Sir Giles Daubency Lord Chamberlaine to king Henry the Seventh and his wife of the house of the Arundels in Cornwall I. Vicount Wells Francis Brandon Dutches of Suffolke Mary her daughter Margaret Douglasse Countesse of Lennox grandmother to Iames King of Britaine with Charles her son Winifrid Bruges Marchionesse of Winchester Anne Stanhop Dutches of Somerset and Iane her daughter Anne Cecill Countesse of Oxford daughter to the L. Burghley Lord high Treasurer of England with Mildred Burghley her mother Elizabeth Berkeley Countesse of Ormund Francis Sidney Countesse of Sussex Iames Butler Vicount Thurles son and heire to the Earle of Ormond Besides these Humfrey Lord Bourchier of Cromwall Sir Humfrey Bourchier son and heire to the Lord Bourchier of Berners both slaine at Bernet field Sir Nicholas Carew Baron Carew Baronesse Powisse T. Lord Wentworth Thomas Lord Wharton Iohn Lord Russell Sir T. Bromley Lord Chancellour of England Douglas Howard daughter and heire generall of H. Vicount Howard of Bindon wife to Sir Arthur Gorges Elizabeth daughter and heire of Edward Earle of Rutland wife to William Cecill Sir Iohn Puckering Lord Keeper of the great Seale of England Francis Howard Countesse of Hertford Henrie and George Cary the father and sonne Barons of Hunsdon both Lords Chamberlaines to Queene Elizabeth the heart of Anne Sophia the tender daughter of Christopher Harley Count Beaumont Embassadour from the king of France in England bestowed within a small guilt Urne over a Pyramid Sir Charles Blunt Earle of Devonshire Lord Lieutenant Generall of Ireland And whom in no wise wee must forget the Prince of English Poets Geoffry Chauer as also he that for pregnant wit and an excellent gift in Poetry of all English Poets came neerest unto him Edmund Spencer Beside many others of the Clergy and Gentlemen of quality There was also another College or Free-chapell hard by consisting of a Deane and twelve Chanons dedicated to Saint Stephen which King Edward the Third in his princely Magnificence repaired with curious workmanship and endowed with faire possessions so as he may seeme to have built it new what time as he had with his victories overrun and subdued al France recalling to minde as we read the Charter of the foundation and pondering in a due weight of devout consideration the exceeding benefits of Christ whereby of his owne sweet mercy and pity he preventeth us in all occasions delivering us although without all desert from sundry perils and defending us gloriously with his powerfull right hand against the violent assaults of our adversaries with victorious successes and in other tribulations and perplexities wherein wee have exceeding much beene encombred by comforting us and by applying and in-powering remedies upon us beyond all hope and expectation There was adjoyning hereto a Palace the ancient habitation of the Kings of England from the time of King Edward the Confessor which in the Raigne of king Henry the Eighth was burnt by casuall fire to the ground A very large stately and sumptuous Palace this was and in that age for building incomparable with a vawmurâ— and bulwarks for defence The remaines whereof are the Chamber wherein the King the Nobles with the Counsellers and Officers of State doe assemble at the high Court of Parliament and the next unto it wherein anciently they were wont to beginne the Parliaments knowne by the name of Saint Edwards painted chamber because the tradition holdeth that the said king Edward therein dyed But how sinfull an Act how bloudy how foule how hainous horrible hideous and odious both to God and man certaine brute and savage beasts in mens shape enterprised of late by the device of that Arch Traitour Robert Catesby with undermining and placing a mighty deale of gunpowder under these Edifices against their Prince their Country and all the States of the Kingdome and that under an abominable pretence of Religion my very heart quaketh to remember and mention nay amazed it is and astonied but to thinke onely into what inevitable darknesse confusion and wofull miseries they had suddenly in the twinckling of an eye plunged this most flourishing Realme and Common wealth But that which an ancient Poet in a smaller matter wrote we may in this with griefe of minde utter Excidat illa dies aevo nè postera credant Secula nos certè taceamus obruta multa Nocte tegi propriae patiamur crimina gentis That cursed day forgotten be no future age beleeve That this was true let us also at least wise now that live Conceale the same and suffer such Designes of our owne Nation Hidden to be and buried quite in darknesse of oblivion Adjoyning unto this is the Whitehall wherein at this day the Court of Requests is kept Beneath this is that Hall which of all other is the greatest and the very Praetorium or Hall of Justice for all England In this are the Judiciall Courts namely The Kings Bench the Common Pleas and The Chancery And in places neere thereabout The Star-Chamber the Exchequer Court of Ward and Court of the Dâ—teby of Lancaster c. In which at certaine set times wee call them Tearmes yearely causes are heard and tryed whereas before king Henry the Third his dayes the Court of common Law and principall Justice was unsetled and alwaies followed the kings Court But he in the Magna Charta made a law in these words Let not the Common Pleas folâ—ow our Court but bee holden in some certaine place Which notwithstanding some expound thus That the Common Pleas from thenceforth bee handled in a Court of the owne by it selfe a part and not in the Kings Bench as before This Judgement Hall which we now have king Richard the Second built out of the ground as appeareth by his Armes engraven in the stone-worke and many arched beames when he had plucked downe the former old Hall that king William Rufus in the same place had built before and made it his
minde that this Ithancester was that OTHONA where a Band of the Fortenses with their Captaine in the declination of the Romane Empire kept their station or Guard under the Comes or Lieutenant of the Saxon-shore against the depredations of the Saxon Rovers For the altering of OTHONA to ITHANA is no hard straining and the situation thereof upon a Creeke into which many Rivers are discharged was for this purpose very fit and commodious and yet heere remaineth a huge ruine of a thicke Wall whereby many Romane Coines have beene found It seemeth not amisse to set downe how King Edward the Confessour graunted by a briefe Charter the keeping of this Hundred to Ranulph Peperking which I will willingly heere annex to the end that wee who sift every pricke and accent of the law may see the upright simplicity and plaine dealing of that age And thus goeth the tenour of it as it was taken forth of the Kings Records in the Exchequer but by often exemplifying and copying it out some words are mollified and made more familiar Iche Edward Koning Have given of my Forrest the keeping Of the Hundred of Chelmer and Dancing To Randolph Peperking and to his kindling With heorte and hinde doe and bocke Hare and Foxe Cat and Brocke Wild Fowell with his flocke Partrich Fesant hen and Fesant cocke With green and wilde stob and stocke To kepen and to yemen by all her might Both by day and eke by night And Hounds for to hold Good and swift and bolde Four Greahounds and six racches For Hare and Foxe and wild Cattes And therefore ich made him my booke Witnesse the Bishop Wolston And booke ylered many on And Swein of Essex our Brother And teken him many other And our Stiward Howelin That by sought me for him This was the plaine dealing trueth and simplicity of that age which used to make all their assurances whatsoever in a few lines and with a few gilt Crosses For before the comming in of the Normans as wee read in Ingulphus writings Obligatory were made firme with golden Crosses and other small signes or markes but the Normans began the making of such Bils and Obligations with a Print or Seale in wax set to with every ones speciall Signet under the expresse entituling of three or foure Witnesses Before time many houses and land thereto passed by grant and bargaine without script Charter or Deede onely with the Landlords sword or helmet with his horne or cup. Yea and many Tenements were demised with a spurre or horse-cury-combe with a bowe and some with an arrow In the Creeke of Blackwater which as I said closeth the North side of this Hundred and is stored with those dainty Oysters which wee call Walfleot Oysters their run two Rivers that water a great part of the Shire Chelmer and Froshwell The River Chelmer flowing out of the inner part of the country which is woody runneth downe first by Thaxted a little Mercate Towne seated very pleasantly upon an high rising hill also by Tiltey where Maurice Fitz-Gilbert founded in times past a small Abbay unto Estanues ad Turrim now Eston which noble Gentleman sirnamed De Lovaine inhabited as descended from Godfrey of Lovaine brother to Henry the Sixth of that name Duke of Brabant who being sent hither to keepe the Honor of Eye his posterity flourished among the Peeres of this Realme to the time of King Edward the Third when the heire generall was married into the house of Bourchier Thence it glideth downe to Dunmow of old time called Dunmawg and in the Tax booke of England Dunmaw a Towne pleasantly situate upon an hill with a prety gentle fall Where one Juga founded a Priory in the yeare 1111. But William Bainard of whom Juga held thus we finde it written in the private history of this Church the Village of little Dunmow by felony lost his Barony and King Henry the First gave it to Robert the sonne of Richard sonne to Gislebert Earle of Clare and to his heires with the honour of Bainards Castle in London which Robert at that time was King Henries Sewar These be the very words of the Author neither doe I thinke it lawfull for me to alter or reforme them otherwise than they are although there be in them some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a putting or mistaking of one time for another a thing that we meet with otherwhiles in the best Historiographers For there had not beene as then any Earle of Clare in the family of Clare Now let us for a while digresse and goe aside a little on either hand from the River Not farre from hence is Plaisy seated so called in French of Pleasing in times past named Estre the habitation both in the last yeeres of the English Saxons and also afterwards of the great Constables of England as witnesseth Ely booke At this towne the first William Mandevill Earle of Essex beganne a Castle and two Princes of great authority Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Earle of Essex who founded heere a College and Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon brother to King Richard the Second by the mothers side deprived of lost honorable title of Duke of Excester when they could not keepe a meane betweene froward stubbernesse and servile obsequiousnesse found thence their subversion For Thomas upon his rash and head-strong contumacy was on a sudden violently carryed from hence to Calice and there smothered and John for a seditious conspiracy was beheaded in this place by King Henry the Fourth that hee might seeme to have beene justly punished by way of satisfaction for the said Thomas of Woodstocke of whose death hee was thought to bee the principall practiser and procurer From thence passeth Chelmer downe not farre from Leez a little Abbay of old time founded by the Gernons which at this day is the chiefe seat of the Barons Rich who acknowledge themselves for this dignity beholden to Richard Rich a most wise and judicious person Lord Chancellor of England under King Edward the Sixth who in the first yeere of his raigne created him Baron Rich. A little beneath standeth Hatfield Peverell so denominated of Randulph Peverell the owner thereof who had to wife a Lady of incomparable beauty in those daies the daughter of Ingelricke a man of great nobility among the English-Saxons This Lady founded heere a College which now is in manner quite plucked downe and in a window of the Church whereof there remaineth still a small part lyeth entombed She bare unto her husband William Peverell Castellane of Dover Sir Payne Peverell Lord of Brun in the County of Cambridge and unto King William the Conquerour whose Paramore shee was William Peverell Lord of Nottingham But now returne we to Chelmer which by this time speedeth it selfe to Chelmerford commonly Chensford where by the distance of the place from CAMALODUNUM it may seeme that old CANONIUM sometimes stood This is a good bigge Towne situate in the
gods of bounds and limits they threw after the rest into the said pit Thus when all these Viands were consumed with fire they pitched the foresaid bound markes upon the hot ashes thereof and so with carefull diligence fastened them strongly and rammed them round about with fragments of stones that they might stand the surer But in what place soever this Ad Ansam was I betake my selfe againe to my former opinion for the signification of the word namely that Ad Ansam was either a bound marke or onely a resting place or some Inne by the high way side under such a signe and that I collect by the distance to have beene neere unto Cogeshall Neither were they any things else but bound markes or Innes that in the Romane age were named after the same forme of speech Ad Columnam Ad Fines Ad tres Tabernas Ad Rotam Ad septem Fratres Ad Aquilam minorem Ad Herculem c. that is At the Pillar At the Bounds At the three Taverns At the Wheele At the seven Brethren At the lesse Aegle At Hercules c. And therefore to search more curiously into these matters were nothing else but to hunt after the windes Yet I will heere impart what I incidently happened upon in a private note while I was inquisitive heereabout for Ad Ansam In a place called Westfield three quarters of a mile distant from Cogeshall and belonging to the Abbay there was found by touching of a plough a great brasen Pot. The Ploughmen supposing it to have beene hid treasure sent for the Abbot of Cogeshall to see the taking up of it and hee going thither met with Sir Clement Harleston and desired him also to accompany him thither The mouth of the Pot was closed with a white substance like paste or clay as hard as burned bricke when that by force was removed there was found within it another Pot but that was of earth that being opened there was found in it a lesser Pot of earth of the quantity of a Gollon covered with a matter like Velvet and fastened at the mouth with a silke-lace In it they found some whole bones and many peeces of small bones wrapped up in fine silke of fresh colour which the Abbot tooke for the Reliques of some Saints and layed up in his Vestuary But this by way of digression leaving it to your consideration From Malden the Shores drawne backe intertaine the Sea in a most large and pleasant Bay which yeeldeth exceeding great store of those Oysters of the best kinde which we call Walfleot And that our Coasts should not be defrauded of their due fame and glory I take these to bee those very Shores which as Pliny saith served the Romanes Kitchins seeing that Mutianus giveth unto British Oysters the third place after those of Cizicum in these very words of his The Oysters of Cizicum be greater than those that come from Lucrinum and sweeter than they of Britaine But neither at that time nor afterwards when Sergius Orata brought those Lucrine Oysters into such name and great request did the British Shores as hee saith Serve Rome with Oysters So that hee may seeme to have given the chiefe price unto British Oysters Neither thinke I were those Oysters other than these which Aâ—sonius called Mira that is Wonderfull in this Verse to Paulinus Mira Caledonius nonnunquam detegit astus The British Tides sometimes lay bare Those Oysters huge that wonderous are But of these Oysters and of their pits or stewes in this Coast I will give those leave to write who being deinty toothed are judicious Clerkes in Kitchenry Into this Creeke beside other Rivers Coln sheddeth himselfe which growing to an head out of divers Springs in the North part of this County passeth by the Towne of Hedningham or Hengham commonly called Heningham where was a goodly faire proper Castle in times past and the ancient habitation of the Earles of Oxford who procured a Mercat thereunto Over against which upon the other side of the River standeth Sibble Heningham the place as I have heard say wherein was borne Sir Iohn Hawkwood the Italians corruptly call him Aucuthus whom they so highly admired for his warlike prowesse that the State of Florence in regard of his notable demerites adorned him with the statue of a man of Armes and an honorable Tombe in testimony of his surpassing valour and singular faithfull service to their state The Italians resound his worthy Acts with full mouth and Paulus Iovius in his Elogia commendeth him But for my part it may suffice to adde unto the rest this Tetrasticon of Iulius Feroldus Hawkwood Anglorum decus decus addite genti Italicae Italico praesidiúmque solo Ut tumuli quondam Florentia sic simulachri Virtutem Iovius donat honore tuam The glory prime of Englishmen then of Italians bold O Hawkwood and to Italy a sure defensive hold Thy vertue Florence honoured sometime with costly grave And Iovius adorn's the same now with a statue brave This renowned Knight thus celebrated abroad was forgotten at home save that some of his kinde souldierly followers founded a Chantery at Castle Heningham for him and for two of his military Companions Iohn Oliver and Thomas Newenton Esquires From hence the River Coln holding on his course by Hawsted which was the seat of the Family of the Bourchiers whence came Robert Bourchier Lord Chauncellour of England in the time of King Edward the Third and from him sprang a most honorable Progeny of Earles and Barons of that name Thence by Earles Coln so called of the Sepulture there of the Earles of Oxford where Aubry de Vere in the time of King Henry the First founded a little Monastery and became himselfe a religious Monke it comes to Colonia whereof Antonine the Emperour maketh mention and which he noteth to bee a different place from the Colony Camalodunum Now whether this tooke name of a Colony hither brought or of the river Coln Apollo himselfe had neede to tell us I would rather derive it from the river seeing as I doe that many little Townes situate upon it are named Coln A Earles Colne Wakes Colne Colne Engaine Whites Colne bearing the names all of their Lords The Britaines called this Caer Colin the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and wee Colchester A proper and fine Burrough it is well traded and pleasantly seated as being situate upon the brow of an hill stretching out from West to East walled about beautified with 15. Churches besides that large and stately one without the walles which Endo Sewar to King Henry the First consecrated unto Saint Iohn now ruinated and converted into a private dwelling house In the middest of the Towne there is a Castle now yeelding to time ready to fall which as our Historians write Edward the sonne of Aelfred first raised from the ground what time as he repaired Colchester defaced with warres and long after Mawde the
the said Geffrey appointed Walden to bee the principall place and seat of his honour and Earledome for him and his Successours The place where hee built the Abbay had plenty of waters which rising there continually doe runne and never faile Late it is ere the Sunne riseth and shineth there and with the soonest he doth set and carry away his light for that the hilles on both sides stand against it That place now they call Audley End of Sir Thomas Audley Lord Chancellour of England who changed the Abbay into his owne dwelling house This Thomas created by King Henry the Eighth Baron Audley of Walden left one sole daughter and heire Margaret second wife to Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke of whom hee begat Lord Thomas Lord William Lady Elizabeth and Lady Margaret The said Thomas employed in sundry Sea-services with commendation Queene Elizabeth summoned by Writ unto the High Court of Parliament among other Barons of the Realme by the name of Lord Howard of Walden And King James of late girded him with the sword of the Earldome of Suffolke and made him his Chamberlaine who in this place hath begunne a magnificent Building Neere to another house of his at Chesterford there was a Towne of farre greater antiquity hard by Icaldun in the very border of the Shire which now of the old Burgh the rusticall people use to call Burrow Banke where remaine the footings onely of a Towne lying in manner dead and the manifest tract of the very walles Yet will I not say that it was VILLA FAUSTINI which Antonine the Emperour placeth in this Tract and albeit Ingrata haud lati spatia detinet campi Sed rure vero barbaróque laetatur It takes not up large ground that yeelds no gaine But Country like is homely rude and plaine Yet dare not I once dreame that this is that Villa Faustini which in these and other Verses is by that pleasant and conceited Poet Martiall depaincted in his Epigrams The fieldes heere on every side as I said smell sweetly and smile pleasantly with Saffron a commodity brought into England in the time of King Edward the Third This in the moneth of â—uly every third yeere when the heads thereof have been plucked up and after twenty daies spitted or set againe under mould about the end of September they put foorth a whitish blew flower out of the middle whereof there hang three redde fillets of Saffron we call them Chives which are gathered very early in the morning before the Sunne rising and being plucked out of the flower are dried at a soft fire And so great increase commeth heereof that out of every acre of ground there are made fourescore or an hundred pounds weight of Saffron while it is moist which being dried yeeld some tweâ—â—y pound in weight And that which a man would marvell more at the ground which three yeeres together hath borne Saffron will beare aboundance of Barley eighteene yeeres together without any dunging or manuring and then againe beare Saffron as before if the inhabitants there have not misinformed me or I mis-conceived them More into the South is Clavering seated which King Henry the Second gave unto Sir Robert Fits-Roger from whom the family of Evers are issued The posterity of this Sir Roger after they had a long time taken their name of their fathers forename or Christen-name according to that ancient custome as Iohn Fitz-Robert Robert Fitz-Iohn c. afterwards by the commandement of King Edward the First they assumed from hence the name of Clavering But of these I am to speake in Northumberland Stansted Montfichet heere also putteth up the head which I will not passe over in silence considering it hath been the Baronie or habitation in times past of the family De Monte Fisco commonly Mont-fitchet who bare for their Armes three Cheverus Or in a shield Gueles and were reputed men of very great nobility But five of them flourished in right line and at the last three sisters were seized of the inheritance Margaret wife of Hugh De Boleber Aveline wedded to William De Fortibus Earle of Aumarle and Philip wife to Hugh Playz The posterity male of this Hugh flourished within the remembrance of our great Grandfathers and determined in a daughter married to Sir Iohn Howard Knight from whose daughter by Sir George Vere descended the Barons Latimer and the Wingfeldes And a little below is Haslingbury to bee seene the residence of the Barons Morley of whom I shall speake more in Norfolke And close to this standeth an ancient Fort or Military fense thereof named Walbery and more East-ward Barrington Hall where dwelleth that right ancient Family of the Barringtons which in the Raigne of King Stephen the Barons of Montficheâ— enriched with faire possessions and more ennobled their house in our fathers remembrance by matching with one of the daughters and coheires of Sir Henry Pole Lord Montacute sonne of Margaret Countesse of Salisbury descended of the Bloud Royall Neither is Hatfield Regis commonly called of a broad spread Oke Hatfield Brad-Oake to be omitted where Robert Vere Earle of Oxford built a Priory and there lieth entombed crosse-legged with a French inscription wherein he is noted to be first of that name Robert and third Earle of Oxford After the comming of the Normans Mande the Empresse Lady of the English for so shee stiled herselfe created Geffrey De Magnavilla usually called Mandevil son to William by Margaret daughter and heire of Eâ—do the Steward or Shewar the first Earle of Essex that shee might so by her benefits oblige unto her a man both mighty and martiall Who in those troublesome times under King Stephen despoiled of his estate made an end of his owne turbulent life with the sword And hee verily for his wicked deeds as I finde in an old Writer justly incurred the worlds censure and sentence of excommunication in which while hee stood hee was deadly wounded in the head at a little Towne called Burwell When he lay at the point of death ready to give his last gaspe there came by chance certaine Knights Templars who laid upon him the habit of their religious Profession signed with a red Crosse and afterwards when hee was full dead taking him up with them enclosed him within a Coffin of Lead and hunge him upon a tree in the Orchard of Old Temple at London For in a reverent awe of the Church they durst not bury him because he dyed excommunicated After him succeeded Geffry his sonne who was restored by Henry the Second to his fathers honours and Estate for him and his heires but he having no children left them to his brother William who by his wife was also Earle of Albemarle and dyed likewise in his greatest glory issuelesse Some yeares after K. John promoted Geffrey Fitz-Petre Justicer of England a wise and grave Personage unto this honour in consideration of a great masse of
a great summe of money and pledges withall of his loyalty that it might not be overthrowne and rased Not farre thence from the banke you may see Mettingham where upon a plaine Sir Iohn sirnamed De Norwich Lord of the place built a foure square Castle and a Colledge within it whose daughter and in the end the Heire of the same Family Robert de Vfford aforesaid Earle of Suffolke tooke to Wife with a goodly Inheritance Now Waveney drawing neerer unto the Sea whiles hee striveth in vaine to make himselfe a twofold issue into the Ocean the one together with the River Yare and the other by the meere Luthing maketh a pretty big Demy Isle or Biland which some name Lovingland others more truely Luthingland of Luthing the lake spreading in length and bredth which beginning at the Ocean Shore is discharged into the River Yare At the entrance whereof standeth upon the Sea Lestoffe a narrow and little Towne and at the issue of it Gorlston where I saw the towre steeple of a small suppressed Friery which standeth the Sailers in good stead for a marke Within the land hard by Yare is situate Somerley towne the habitation in ancient time of Fitz Osbert from whom it is come lineally to the worshipfull ancient family of the Iernegans Knights of high esteeme in these parts farther up into the land where Yare and Waveney meet in one streame there flourished Cnobersburg that is as Bede interprereth it Cnobers City we call it at this day Burgh-Castle Which as Bede saith was a most pleasant Castle by reason of woods and Sea together wherein a Monastery was built by Fursaey a holy Scot by whose perswasion Sigebert King of the East-Angles became a Monke and resigned up his Kingdome who afterwards being drawne against his will out of this Monastery to encourage his people in battaile against the Mercians together with his company lost his life In that place now there are only ruinous wals in forme as it were foure square built of flint stone and British Bricke but all overgrown with briers and bushes among which otherwhiles are Romane peeces of coines gotten forth So that it may seeme to have been one of those fortifications that the Romans placed upon the River Y are to represse the piracies of the Saxons or rather that it was the ancient GARIANONUM it selfe where the Stablesian Horsemen had their Station and kepe Ward at the declination of the Romane Empire in Brittaine Suffolke hath had Earles and Dukes out of sundry families There bee of the later writers who report that the Glanvils in times past were honoured with this title But seeing they ground upon no certain authority whereas men may easily mistake and I have found nothing of them in the publike records of the Kingdome they must pardon me if I beleeve them not untill they produce more certainty Yet in the meane while I confesse that the family of the Glanvils in this tract was of right good note and high reputation Neither have I hitherto learned by witnesses of credite that any one was entituled Earle of this Province severally before the daies of King Edward the Third who created Sir Robert Vfford Earle of Suffolke a man much renowned both in peace and warre the sonne of Sir Robert Vfford Steward of the Kings house under King Edward the Second by Cecily de Valoniis Lady of Orford After him succeeded his sonne William who having foure sonnes that were taken away by untimely death during his life died himselfe suddenly in the Parliament house as he was about to report the minde of the Commonalty And then Sir Robert Willoughby Roger Lord Scales and Henrie Ferrars of Groby the next of his blood and his Heires divided the Inheritance betweene them Afterward King Richard the Second promoted Michael De-la-Pole to this Title and made him L. Chancellor of England Who as Thomas Walsingham writeth imployed himselfe more in trafficke and Merchandise as having beene a Merchant and a Merchants sonne than in martiall matters For he was the sonne of William De-la-pole that first Maior of Kyngston upon Hull and for his wealthy Estate adorned by King Edward the Third with the dignity of a Baneret But when as in the prosperous confluence of so many advancements the mans nature was not capable of so great fortunes he was enforced by his adversaries envy to depart out of his Country and so died a banished man His sonne Michael being restored died at the siege of Harflew and againe within one moneth his son Michael was slaine in the battell of Agincourt leaving daughters onely Then William his brother succeeded whom King Henry the sixt so favoured that hee made him also Earle of Penbroke and then Marquesse of Suffolke to him and the heires males of his body And that both hee and the heires of his body should carry the golden rod having a Dove in the top thereof on the Coronation day of the King of England and the like rod or verge Yuory at the Coronation of the Queenes of England And afterwards hee advanced the same William for his great service and deserts to the honour and title of Duke of Suffolke Certes hee was an excellent man in those dayes famous and of great worth For whereas his father and three brethren had in the French wars lost their lives for their Country he as we finde in the Parliament Rols of the 28. of King Henry the Sixth in the same war served full 34. yeeres For seventeene yeeres together he never returned home from warfare being once taken prisoner when he was as yet no better than a private Knight hee paid downe for his ransome twenty thousand pounds of our English mony hee was of the Kings privy Counsell 15. yeeres and a Knight of the Order of the Garter 30. Hereupon as he stood in especiall grace and favour with his Prince so he incurred therefore the greater envy of the common people and some emulatours being grievously charged with treason and misprisions And therefore called before the King and Lords of the Parliament after he had answered the Articles objected referred himselfe to the Kings order Whereupon the Chancellor by the Kings commandement pronounced that whereas the Duke did not put himselfe upon his Peeres the King touching the Articles of treason would be doubtfull and as for the Articles of misprision not as a Judge by advice of the Lords but as one to whose order the Duke had submitted himselfe did banish him the realme and all other his dominions for five yeeres But when he was embarked for France he was by his adversaries intercepted upon the sea and beheaded He left a son nam'd Iohn De-la-Pole who wedded K. Edward the fourth his sister and of her begate Iohn Earle of Lincolne by K. Richard the Third proclaimed heire apparant of the Crowne whose ambitious minde puffed up and giddy therewith could not containe it selfe but soone after brake out
and the chiefe Magistrate was termed a Consul which name may intimate that it was a Roman towne But when Bishop Herbert surnamed Losenga for that he was composed of Leafing and Flattery the third Prelate that by evill meanes and Simony climbed up to this Dignity had removed his seat from hence to Norwich it fell againe to decay and as it were languished Neither could it sufficiently bee comforted for the absence of the Bishop by the Abbay of Cluniac Monkes which by his meanes was built This Abbay Hugh Bigod built out of the ground For so writeth he in the Instrument of the foundation I Hugh Bigod Steward to King Henry by his graunt and by the advise of Herbert Bishop of Norwich have ordained Monkes of the Order of Cluny in the Church of S. Mary which was the Episcopall seat of Thetford which I gave unto them and afterwards founded another more meete for their use without the Towne Howbeit even then the greatest part of the Citty that stood on the hithermore Banke by little and little fell to the ground the other part although it was much decayed yet one or two Ages agoe flourished with seaven Churches besides three small religious Houses whereof the one was by report erected in the memoriall of the Englishmen and Danes slaine here For hard by as our Historians doe record Edmund that most holy King a litle before his death fought Seaven houres and more with the Danes not without an horrible slaughter and afterwards gave over the battaile on even hand such was the alternative fortune of the Field that it drave both sides past their senses By Waveney the other River of those twaine that bound this Shire and runneth Eastward not farre from the Spring head thereof are seene Buckenham and Keninghall This which may seeme to have the name left unto it of the Iceni is the Seat of that most honourable Family of the Howards whose glory is so great that the envy of Bucchanan cannot empaire it As for the other so named as I take it of Beech trees which the Saxons called Bucken it is a faire and strong Castle built by William de Aubigny the Norman unto whom the Conqueror had given the place and by his heires that were successively Earles of Arundell it descended to the Tatsalls and from them by Caly and the Cliftons unto the family of the Knevets These are of an ancient house and renowned ever since Sir Iohn Knevet was Lord Chancellour of England under King Edward the Third and also honourably allied by great marriages For over and beside these of Buckenham from hence sprang those right worshipfull knights Sir Thomas Knevet Lord Knevet Sir Henry Knevet of Wiltshire and Sir Thomas Knevet of Ashellwell Thorpe and others This Ashellwell Thorpe is a little Towne nere adjoyning which from the Thorpes in times past of Knights degree by the Tilneis and the L. L. Bourchiers of Berners is devolved at length hereditarily unto that Sir Thomas Knevet before named As for that Buckenham aforesaid it is holden by this tenure and condition that the Lords thereof should at the Coronation of the Kings of England be the Kings Butlers that day Like as a thing that may beseeme the noting in Charleton a little neighbour village Raulph de Carleton and some one other held lands by this service namely To present an hundred Herring-Pies or Pasties when Herrings first come in unto their Soveraigne Lord the King wheresoever he be in England But this river neare to his spring runneth by and by under Disce now Dis a prety towne well knowne which King Henry the First gave frankely to Sir Richard Lucy and hee straightwayes passed it over to Walter Fitz-Robert with his Daughter of whose Posterity Robert Fitz-Walter obtained for this place the liberty of keeping Mercat at the hands of King Edward the First From thence although Waveney bee on each side beset with Townes yet there is not one amongst them that may boast of any Antiquity unlesse it bee Harleston a good Mercate and Shelton that standeth farther of both which have given surnames to the ancient Families of the Sheltons and Harlestons but before it commeth to the Sea it coupleth it selfe with the river Yare which the Britans called Guerne the Englishmen Gerne and Iere of Alder trees no doubt so termed in British wherewith it is overshadowed It ariseth out of the mids of this Countrie not farre from Gernston a little Towne that tooke name thereof and hath hard by it Hengham which had Lords descended from Iohn Marescall Nephew by the brother to William Marescall Earle of Penbroch upon whom King John bestowed it with the Lands of Hugh de Gornay a Traitour and also with the daughter and coheire of Hubert de Rhia From this Marescals it passed in revolution of time unto the Lord Morleis and from them by Lovell unto the Parkers now Lords Morley A little from hence is Sculton otherwise called Burdos or Burdelois which was held by this Tenure That the Lord thereof on the Coronation day of the Kings of England should be chiefe Lardiner Joint-neighbour to Sculton is Wood-Rising the faire seate of the Family of Southwels which received the greatest reputation and encrease from Sir Richard Southwell Privie Councellour to King Edward the Sixth and his Brother Sir Robert Master of the Rowles More Eastward is to be seene Wimundham now short Windham famous for the Albineys Earles of Arundell there enterred whose Ancestor and Progenitor William D' Albiney Butler to King Henry the First founded the Priory and gave it to the Abbay of Saint Albans for a Cell which afterward was advanced to an Abbay Upon the Steeple whereof which is of a great height William Ke◠one of the Captaines of the Norfolke Rebels in the yeare of our Lord 1549. was hanged on high Neither would it bee passed over in silence that five miles from hence standeth Attilborrough the seate of the Mortimers an ancient Family who being different from those of Wigmor bare for their Armes A Shield Or Semè de floures de Lyz Sables and founded heere a Collegiat Church where there is little now to bee seene The Inheritance of these Mortimers hath by marriage long since accrued to the Ratcliffs now Earles of Sussex to the Family of Fitz-Ralph and to Sir Ralph Bigot But returne we now to the River The said Yare holdeth not his course farre into the East before he taketh Wentsum a Riveret others call it Wentfar from the South into his streame upon which neere unto the head thereof there is a foure square Rampier at Taiesborrough containing foure and twenty Acres It may seeme to have beene a Campe place of the Romans if it be not that which in an old Chorographicall Table or Map published by Marcus Welserus is called AD TAUM Somewhat higher upon the same River stood VENTA ICENORUM the most flourishing City for a little one in times past of all this
of England erected Kings Colledge in the yeere 1441. whereunto he joyned a Chappell which may rightly be counted one of the fairest buildings of the whole world His wife Margaret of Anjou in the yeere 1443. built Queenes Colledge Robert Woodlarke Professor of Divinity in the yeere 1459. S. Katharines Hall Iohn Alcocke Bishop of Ely in the yeere 1497. was the founder of Iesus Colledge Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond mother to King Henry the Seaventh about the yeere 1506. erected Christs Colledge and S. Iohns enlarged now in goodly manner with new buildings Sir Thomas Audley Lord Chancellour of England in the yeere 1542. built Maudlen Colledge which Sir Christopher Wray Lord chiefe Justice of England hath lately bewtified with new buildings and endowed with great possessions And that most puissant King Henry the Eight in the yeere of our salvation 1546. made Trinity Colledge of three others to wit of S. Michaels House or Colledge which Herveie Stanton in the reigne of Edward the Second built of Kings Hall founded by King Edward the Third and of Fishwicks Hostell Which Colledge that the Students might inhabite more pleasantly is now repaired nay rather new built with that magnificence by the carefull direction of Thomas Nevill Doctor of Divinity Master of the said Colledge and Deane of Canterbury that it is become a Colledge for stately greatnesse for uniforme building and beauty of the roomes scarce inferiour to any other in Christendome and he himselfe may bee accounted in the judgement even of the greatest Philosopher Truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for bestowing so great cost in publike and not in his owne private uses Also wherein I congratulate our Age and our selves in the behalfe of good learning that honourable and prudent man Sir Walter Mildmay knight one of the Privy Counsell to Queene Elizabeth who founded a new Colledge in the honour of Emanuel and Lady Francis Sidneie Countesse of Sussex in her last will gave a Legacy of 5000. pounds to the building of a Colledge that should be called Sidney-Sussex which is now fully finished I let passe here litle Monasteries and Religious houses because they were of small note unlesse it were Barnewell Abbey which Sir Paine Peverell a worthy and valiant warriour Standard-bearer to Robert Duke of Normandy in the holy War against Infidels translated in the reigne of Henry the first from S. Giles Church where Picot the Sheriffe had ordained secular Priests unto this place and brought into it thirty Monkes for that himselfe at that time was thirty yeeres of Age. The reason of that name Barnewell you may read if it please you out of the private History of that place in these words Sir Payne Peverell obtained of King Henry the First a certaine plot of ground without the Burgh of Cambridge Out of the very midst of that place there sprung up certaine Fountaines very pure and lively which in English they called Barnewell in those daies as one would say the wels of Barnes that is Children For that Boyes and Youthes meeting once a yeare there on the Even of Saint Iohn Baptists Nativity after the English manner exercised themselves in wrestling and other sports and pastimes befitting their age yea and merrily applauded one another with songs and minstralsie Whence it came that for the number of Boyes and Girles running thither and there playing grew to be a custome that on the suddaine a multitude of buyers and sellers repaired thither Neither was Cambridge albeit it was consecrated to the Muses altogether free from the furies of Mars For when the Danes robbed and spoyled up and downe many times they wintered here and in the yeere of Redemption 1010. when Sueno the Dane by most cruell and terrible tyranny bare downe all before him they spared not the honour of the place nor the Muses which we read that Sylla yet did at Athens but pittifully burnt and defaced it all Neverthelesse at the first comming in of the Normans it was sufficiently peopled For thus we read in the Domesday booke of King William the Conquerour The Burrough of Grentbridge is divided into tenne Wards and hath 387. Mansion houses But eighteene houses were destroyed for building of the Castle what time as the said King William the First determined to over-awe the English every where whom lately hee had conquered with Castles as it were with bridles of servitude Afterwards in the Barons warre it sustained great losse by the out-lawed Barons out of the Isle of Ely therefore Henry the Third to represse their outrages caused a deepe ditch to be cast on the East side which is still called Kings ditch Here happily there is a secret expectation of some that I should give mine opinion as touching the antiquity of this University But I will bee no dealer in this case For I meane not to make comparison betweene these two most flourishing Universities of ours to whom I know none equall Howbeit I feare me they have builded Castles in the Ayre and thrust upon us devices of their owne braines who extolling the antiquity thereof farre above any probability of truth have written that this Cantaber of Spaine streight after Rome was built and many yeeres before the Nativity of Christ erected this University True and certaine it is that whensoever it was first ordained it was a seat of learning about the time of King Henry the First For thus wee read in an old Additament of Peter Blessensis unto Ingulph Abbot Ioffred sent ouer to his Manour of Cotenham neere Cambridge Gislebert his fellow Monke and professour of Divinity with three other Monkes who following him into England being throughly furnished with Philosophicall Theoremes and other primitive sciences repaired dayly to Cambridge and having hired a certaine publike Barne made open profession of their sciences and in short space of time drew together a great number of Schollers But in the second yeere after their comming the number of their Scholars grew so great as well from out of the whole Country as the Towne that the biggest house and barne that was or any Church whatsoever sufficed not to receive them all Whereupon sorting themselves apart in severall places and taking the Vniversity of Orleance for their paterne earely in the morning Monke Odo a singular Grammarian and Satyricall Poet read Grammer unto Boyes and those of the younger sort assigned unto him according to the Doctrine of Priscian and of Remigius upon him At one of the clocke Terricus a most witty and subtile Sophister taught the elder sort of young men Aristotles Logicke after the Introductions of Porphyrie and the Comments of Averroes At three of the clocke Monke William read a Lecture in Tullies Rhetoricke and Quintilians Flores But the great Master Gislebert upon every Sunday and Holy-dayes preached GODS Word unto the People And thus out of this little Fountaine which grew to bee a great River wee see how the Citty of GOD now is become enriched and
military Fenses seeme to bee which are heere seene at Gildsborough and Dantrey betweene the Springheads of the two Aufons which run divers waies and where onely there is passage into the hither part of Britaine without any rivers to hinder it That fort at Gildsborough is great and large but this at Dantrey is greater and larger For being foure square upon an high hill from whence all the country beneath may bee seene farre every way about and having on the East side a Mount which they call Spelwell it encloseth within a banke cast up by mans hand more than one hundred acres of ground or thereabout Within which the country people other whiles finde coined peeces of money of the Roman Emperors as proofes of the antiquity thereof Much deceived are they therefore who will needs have it to bee a worke of the Danes and that of them the towne under it was named Dantrey which being a through-fare well knowne at this day by reason of the Innes there had a religious house of the Austen Friers that Sir H. de Fawesley founded as I have read At the head of Aufona or Nen standeth Catesby that gave name to an ancient Family but now of foule tainted memory for a most horrible and damnable complot never in any age exampled which that Robert Catesby of Ashby S. Leger the shame and indelible staine of his house and name detestably breathing forth savage cruelty in barbarous wise and compassing impiously the destruction of Prince and Country devised lately under a specious pretext of Religion Of whom let all times be silent least by making mention of him the foule staine and blot of our age appeare unto Posterity at the naming whereof we cannot chuse but with horror grieve and groane againe seeing the very dumbe and livelesse creatures seeme to be moved and troubled at so hellish Villany imagined by him and his complices Hard by it is Fawesley where have dwelt a long time the Knightleies worshipfull Knights descended from those more ancient Knightleies of Gnowshall in the County of Stafford and more Eastward hard by Nen as yet very small there is Wedon in the street sometimes the royall seat of Wolpher K. of the Mercians and converted into a Monastery by his daughter Werburg a most holy Virgine of whose miracles in driving away Geese from hence some credulous writers have made many a tale Verily I should wrong the Truth if I should not thinke albeit I have thought otherwise that this Wedon is the very station that Antonine the Emperour nameth BANNAVENNA BENNAVENNA BENNAVENTA and once corruptly ISANNAVENTA notwithstanding there now remaine no expresse tokens of that name considering how Time changeth all both names and things For the distance from the next stations and baiting Townes which were in ancient times answereth just and in the very name of BANNAVENNA the name of the River Aufon the head whereof is neere unto it in some sort doth plainly discover it selfe Likewise the high Port-way or Romane street goeth directly from hence Northward with a bridge or causey oft broken and worne out but most of all over against a Village named Creek where it was of necessity that there should be a bridge but in other places the bridge sheweth it selfe also as farre as to Dowbridge neere Lilborne most apparantly Somewhat more Northward wee saw Althorp the habitation of the Spensers knights allied to very many and those most honorable and worshipfull families out of which house Sir Robert Spenser the fifth Knight in a successive continued Descent a respective lover of vertue and learning was by our most gracious Soveraigne King James advanced to the honour of Baron Spenser of Wormeleighton Hard by Althorp Holdenby house a faire patterne of stately and magnificent building maketh a faire glorious shew which Sir Chistopher Hatton one of Queene Elizabeths Privie Councell Lord Chancellor of England and knight of the Order of the Garter built upon the lands and inheritance of his great grandmother heire unto the Family of the Holdenbeis for the greatest and last monument as himselfe afterwards was wont to say of his youth A man to say nothing of him but that which in truth is due for Religion and godlinesse right devout of approved faithfulnesse to the State of incorrupt equity for almesdeeds of all others most bountifull and one which is not the least part of his praise that was most willing and ready to support and maintaine learning Who as he lived a godly life so as godly he slept in Christ yet his commendation made knowne by the lightsome testimony of letters shall shine forth more cleerely than by that gorgeous Monument right well beseeming so great a Personage which Sir William Hatton his adopted sonne consecrated to his memory in the Church of Saint Paul in London Beneath these places Nen passeth on forward with a still and small streame and anone taketh in a small Brooke from the North and is thereby augmented where at the very meeting and confluence of both a City called after the River Northafandon and short Northampton is so seated that on the West side it is watered with the Brooke and on the South side with the foresaid Nen. Which City I was of late easily induced to guesse to have beene that ancient BENNAVENTA but if my conjecture missed the trueth the confession of my errour may salve it As for the name it may seeme to haue beene imposed of the situation thereof upon the North banke of the River Aufon The City it selfe which seemeth to have beene built all of stone is I assure you for houses very faire for circuit of good largenesse and walled about and from the Wall yee have a goodly prospect every way to a wide and spacious plaine Country On the West side it hath an old Castle and the very antiquity thereof giveth a grace unto it built by Simon de Sancto Lizio commonly called Senlyz the first of that name Earle of Northampton who also joyned unto it a beautifull Church called Saint Andrews for a place of his owne buriall and as men say reedified the Towne Simon also the younger his sonne founded without the Towne a Monastery commonly called De la prey for Nunnes During the Saxons Heptarchie it seemeth to have lien forlorne and of none account neither have Writers made any where mention of it in all those depredations of the Danes unlesse it were when Sweno the Dane in a furious and outragious moode made most cruelly havocke throughout all England for then as Henry of Huntingdon recordeth it was set on fire and burnt to the ground In the Raigne of Saint Edward the Confessour there were in it as we finde in the Survey Booke of England LX. Burgesses in the Kings Domaine having as many Mansions Of these in King William the Conquerours time Foureteene lay waste and voide and forty seaven remained Over and above these there were in the new Burrough forty Burgesses in the
or ends As for the cause let others search for mine owne part I have observed that this malady hath runne through England thrice in the age aforegoing and yet I doubt not but long before also it did the like although it were not recorded in writing first in the yeere of our Lord 1485. in which King Henry the Seventh began his Raigne a little after a great conjunction of the superior Planets in Scorpio A second time yet more mildly although the plague accompanied it in the thirtie three yeere after anno 1518. upon a great opposition of the same Planets in Scorpio and Taâ—rus at which time it plagued the Netherlands and high Almaine also Last of all three and thirtie yeeres after that in that yeere 1551. when another conjunction of those Planets in Scorpio tooke their effects But perhaps I have insisted too long herein for these may seeme vaine toies to such as attribute nothing at all to celestiall influence and learned experience Neere unto this Citie Severne fetcheth many a compasse turning and winding in and out but specially at Rossall where hee maketh such a curving reach that hee commeth well neere round and meeteth with himselfe Heere about is that most ancient kinde of boat in very great use which in the old time they called in Latine Rates commonly to wit Flotes certaine peeces of timber joyned together with rough plankes and rafâ—ers running overthwart which serve to convey burdens downe the River with the streame the use and name whereof our countrimen have brought from Rhene in Germanie and tearme them as the Germans doe Flores By the River side stand Shrawerden a Castle sometime of the Earles of Arundell but afterwards belonging to Sir Thomas Bromley late Lord Chancellor of England Knocking Castle built by the Lords Le Strange from whom it descended hereditarily unto the Stanleies Earles of Darbie and neere unto it Nesse over which there mounteth up right a craggie cliffe with a cave much talked of which together with Cheswarden King Henry the Second gave unto John Le Strange from whom by divers branches are sprung the most Honorable families of the Stranges de Knocking Avindelegh Ellesmere Blackmere Lutheham and Hunstanston in Norfolke Now from those of Knocking when as the last died without any issue male the inheritance descended by Joan a sole daughter and the wife of George Stanley unto the house of Darby Farther from the River even upon the West frontier of the shire lieth Oswestre or Oswaldstre in British Croix Oswalds a little Towne enclosed with a ditch and a wall fortified also with a pretie Castle and in it there is great trafficke especially of Welsh Cottons of a slight and thin webbe which you may call in Latine Levidensas whereof there is bought and sold heere every weeke great store It hath the name of Oswald King of the Northumbers whereas before time it was called Maserfield whom Penda the Pagan Prince of the Mercians both slew heere in a bloudy battaile and after he had slaine him with monstrous cruelty tare in peeces Whence a Christian Poet of good antiquity versified thus of him Cujus abscissum caput abscissosque lacertos Et tribus affixos palis pendere cruentus Penda jubet per quod reliquis exempla relinquat Terroris manifesta sui regemque beatum Esse probet miserum sed causam fallit utrámque Ultor enim fratris minimè timet Oswius illum Imò timere facit nec Rex miser imò beatus Est qui fonte boni fruitur semel sine fine Whose head and limbs dismembred thus that bloudy Penda takes And causeth to be hanged up fast fixed on three stakes His meaning was hereby to strike a terror to the rest And make him seeme a wretched wight who was a King much blest But this his purpose fail's in both Oswy his brother deare In his revenge was not afraid but rather makes him feare Nor miserable is this Prince but happy we may say Who now enjoy's the spring of good and shall enioy for aye This Towne seemeth to have had the first originall from devotion and religion for the Christians of that age counted it a most holy place and Bede hath recorded that here where Oswald was slaine strange miracles have been wrought But Madoc brother of Mereduc as Caradoc of Lancarvan writeth built it and the Norman Fitz-Allans who were Lords afterwards thereof and Earles of Arundell walled it about The Ecclipses of the sunne in Aries have been most dangerous unto it for in the yeers of our Lord 1542. and 1567. when the Ecclipses of the sunne in Aries wrought their effects it suffered very grievous losse by fire And namely after this later Ecclipse the fire spread it selfe so far that there were burnt within the Towne and suburbs about two hundred houses A little beneath this Northwestward there is an hill entrenched round about with a threefold ditch they call it Hen-Dinas that is The old palace The neighbour dwellers say confidently it hath been a Citie but others there be that thinke it was the Camps of Penda or Oswald Scarce three miles from hence standeth Whittington a Castle not long agoe of the Fitz-Guarins who deduced their pedegree from Sir Guarin de Metz a Loraineis but he tooke to wife the daughter and heire of William Peverell who is reported to have built Whittington and begat Fulke the Father of that most renowned Sir Fulke Fitz-Warin of whose doubtfull deedes and variable adventures in the warres our Ancestours spake great wonders and Poems were composed In the reigne of Henry the Third I finde that licence was granted unto Foulk Fitz-Warin to strengthen the Castle of Whittington in competent manner as appeareth out of the Close rolles in the fifth of King Henry the Third The dignity of these Barons Fitz-Warins had an end in an heire Female and in the age aforegoing passed by Hancford unto the Bourchiers now Earles of Bath Beneath this Whittington one Wrenoc sonne of Meuric held lands who for his service ought to be Latimer that is Truchman or Interpreter betweene the English and the Welshmen This note I out of an old Inquisition that men may understand what the said name Latimer importeth which no man almost knew heretofore and yet it hath been a surname very currant and rise in this kingdome At the North-west border of this shire there offer themselves to be seene first Shenton the seat of the respective familie of the Needhams Blackemere an ancient Manour of the Lords Le Strange and then Whitchurch or Album Monasterium where I saw some Monuments of the Talbots but principally of that renowned English Achilles Sir John Talbot the first Earle of Shrewsbury out of this house whose Epitaph that the reader may see the forme of the Inscriptions according to that age I will here put downe although it is little beseeming so
clawbackes BRITANNICUS even when the Britans would have elected an Emperour against him And then it may seeme was this Statue of his set up when he prizing himselfe more than a man proceeded to that folly that he gave commandement he should be called The Romane Hercules Iupiters sonne For hee was portraied in the habite of Hercules and his right hand armed with a club under which there lay as I have heard such a mangled Inscription as this broken heere and there with voide places betweene the draught whereof was badly taken out and before I came hither was utterly spoiled CAESARI AUGUSTO MARCI AURELII FILIO SEN IONIS AMPLISSIMI VENTS PIUS This was to be seene in Nappa an house built with turrets and the chiefe seat of the Medcalfs thought to be at this day the greatest family for multitude of the same name in all England for I have heard that Sir Christopher Medcalfe knight and the top of this kinred beeing of late high-Sheriffe of the shire accompanied with three hundred men of the same house all on horsback and in a livery met and received the Justices of Assizes and so brought them to Yorke From hence runneth Vre downe a maine full of Creifishes ever since Sir Christopher Medcalfe in our remembrance brought that kinde of fish hither out of the South part of England and betweene two rockes whereof the place is named Att-scarre it runneth head long downe not far from Bolton a stately Castle the ancient seat of the Barons Scrops and which Richard Lord le Scrope and Chancellour of England under king Richard the Second built with exceeding great coste and now bending his course Eastward commeth to Midelham the honour whereof as wee reade in the Genealogie or Pedegree of the Nevils Alan Earle of Richmond bestowed upon his younger brother Rinebald with all the lands which before their comming belonged to Gilpatrick the Dane His nephew by his sonne Raulph named Robert Fitz-Raulph had all Wentsedale also by gift of Conan Earle of Britaine and of Richmond and at Midleham raised a most strong Castle His sonne Ranulph erected a little Abbay for Chanons at Coverham called now short Corham in Coverdale whose sonne Raulph had a daughter named Mary who being wedded to Robert Lord Nevill with this marriage translated this very faire and large inheritance as her portion into the family of Nevils Which Robert Nevill having had many children by his wife was taken in adultery unknowne and by the husband of the adulteresse being for revenge berest of his genitours shortly after dyed with extremity of paine Then Ure after it hath passed a few miles forward watereth Iervis or Iorvalle Abbay of Cistertians founded first at Fo rs and after translated hither by Stephen Earle of Britaine and Richmond but now wholly ruinated and after that Masham which was the possession of the Scropes of Masham who as they sprung from the stocke of the Scropes of Bolton so they were by marriages ingraffed againe into the same On the other side of this River but more inward standeth Snath the principall house of the Barons Latimer who derived their noble descent from George Nevill younger sonne of Raulph Nevill the first Earle of Westmorland and he received this Title of honour from king Henry the Sixth when as the ancienter house of the Latimers expired in a female and so by a continued succession they have flourished unto these our daies when for default of male issue of the last Baron Latimer that goodly and rich inheritance was divided among his daughters marryed into the families of the Percies Cecils D'anvers and Cornwallis Neither are there any other places in this part of the shire worth the naming that Ure runneth by unlesse it bee Tanfeld the habitation in times past of the Gernegans knights from whom it descended to the Marmions the last of whom left for his heire Amice second wife to John Lord Grey of Rotherfeld by whom he had two sonnes John that assumed the sirname of Marmion and died issuelesse and Robert who left behinde him one onely daughter and sole heire Elizabeth wife to Sir Henry Fitz-Hugh a noble Baron After this Ure entertaineth the River Swale so called as Th. Spot writeth of his swiftnesse selfe into it with a maine and violent streame which Swale runneth downe Eastward out of the West Mountaines also scarce five miles above the head of Ure a River reputed very sacred amongst the ancient English for that in it when the English Saxons first embraced Christianity there were in one day baptized with festivall joy by Paulinus the Archbishop of Yorke above tenne thousand men besides women and little children This Swale passeth downe along an open Vale of good largenesse which of it is called Swal-dale having good plenty of grasse but as great want of wood first by Marrick where there stood an Abbay built by the Askes men in old time of great name also by Mask a place full of lead ore Then runneth it through Richmond the chiefe towne of the Country having but a small circuit of walles but yet by reason of the Suburbs lying out in length at three Gates well peopled and frequented Which Alan the first Earle thereof built reposing small trust in Gilling a place or Manour house of his hard by to withstand the violence of the Danes and English whom the Normans had despoiled of their inheritance and hee adorned it with this name as one would say The rich Mount he fensed it with a wall and a most strong Castle which being set upon a rocke from an high looketh downe to Swale that with a mighty rumbling noise rusheth rather than runneth among the stones For the said house or Manour place of Gilling was more holy in regard of devout religion than sure and strong for any fortification it had ever since that therein Beda calleth it Gethling Oswy King of Northumberland being entertained guest-wise was by his hoste forelaid and murthered for the expiation whereof the said Monastery was built highly accounted of among our ancestours More Northward Ravenswath Castle sheweth it selfe compassed with a good large wall but now fallen which was the seat of the Barons named Fitz-Hugh extracted from the ancient line of the English Nation who were Lords of the place before the Normans Conquest and lived in great name unto King Henry the Seventh his daies enriched with faire possessions by marriage with the heires of the noble houses of Furneaux and Marmion which came at last by the females unto the Fienes Lords Dacres in the South and to the Parrs Three miles beneath Richmond Swale runneth by that ancient City which Ptolomee and Antonine call CATURACTONIUM and CATARRACTON but Bede Catarractan and in another place the Village neere unto Catarracta whereupon I suppose it had the name of Catarracta that is a Fludfall or water-fall considering hard by there
brought letters to the Lord Roger Mortimer that he should addresse himselfe to repaire unto the King who did so and substituted the Lord William Archbishop of Cashil Custos of Ireland who at one and the same time was Lord Justice of Ireland Lord Chancellour and Archbishop And afterward at the three weekes end after Easter there came newes to Dublin that the Lord Richard Clare was slaine and with him foure Knights namely Sir Henry Capell Sir Thomas Naas Sir James Cannon and Sir John Caunton also Adam Apilgard with 80. other men by O-Brene and Mac-Carthy on the feast of Saint Gordian and Epimachus And it was reported that the said Lord Richard his body was in despightfull malice cut into small pieces but his reliques were enterred in Limerick among the Friers Minors Item on sunday in Mense Paschae that is a moneth after Easter Iohn Lacy was led forth of the castle of Dublin and brought to Trim for to be arraigned and to heare and receive his judgment there who was adjudged to be strait dieted and so he died in prison Item the sunday before the Lords Ascension Lord Roger Mortimer sailed over into England but paied nothing for his victuals that he had taken up in Dublin and elsewhere which amounted to the value of one thousand pounds Also the same yeere about the feast of S. Iohn Baptist the great grace and mercy of God was shewed in that wheat which before was sold for 15. shillings was now not worth above seven shillings and oates were bought for five shillings great plentie there was of wine salt and fish and that in such sort that about St. Iames day there was new bread to be had of new corne a thing that never or seldome had been seen afore in Ireland and this was a signe of Gods tender mercy and all through the praier of the poore and other faithfull folke Item the Sunday after the feast of Saint Michael newes came to Dublin that Lord Alexander Bykenore then the Kings Justice in Ireland and Archbishop of Dublin was arrived at Yoghall On S. Denis day he came to Dublin and with great procession and honourable pompe of the religious persons and of others as well of the Clergy as the Laity he was received Item on Saturday falling out to be the feast of Pope Calixtus a field was fought betweene the Scots and English of Ireland two leagues from the towne of Dundalk to which battell came of the Scots part the Lord Edward Brus who named himselfe King of Ireland the Lord Philip Mowbray the Lord Walter Soules the Lord Alan Stewart with his three brethren also Sir Walter Lacy Sir Robert and Sir Aumar Lacy John Kermerdyne and Walter White and about 3000. others Against whom came into the field of the English side the Lord John Bermingham Sir Richard Tuit Sir Miles Verdon Sir Hugh Tripton Sir Herbert Sutton Sir Iohn Cusack Sir Edward and Sir William Bermingham and the Primate of Armagh who assoiled them all Sir Walter Larpulk and certain came from Tredagh to the number of twenty well appointed and choice souldiers whom John Maupas accompanied and so they joined the said battell The English were the first that entred with great vigour upon the front and vaward where the said John Maupas manfully and with much honour in this conflict slew the Lord Edward Brus which John also was found slaine upon the body of the said Edward and all the Scots in manner were killed up even to the number of two thousand or thereabout whereby few of the Scots escaped beside the Lord Philip Mowbray who also was wounded to death and Sir Hugh Lacy Sir Walter Lacy with some few others that were with them made shift hardly to save themselves This fortuned between Dundalk and Faghird Now the head of the foresaid Edward the said Lord John Bermingham brought unto the said Lord King of England upon whom the King bestowed at the same time the Earledome of Louth to him and to his heires males and the Barony of Aterith And one quarter with the hands and heart of the foresaid Edward were carried to Dublin and the other quarters divided and sent to other places MCCCXIX The Lord Roger Mortimer returned out of England and is eftsoones made Lord Justice of Ireland The same yeere at the feast of All-Saints came a Bull from the Pope to excommunicate Robert Brus King of Scotland at every Masse Also the towne of Athisell and a great part of the country was burnt by the Lord John Fitz-Thomas whole brother of the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas In this yeere the foresaid Iohn Bermingham was created Earle of Louth Also the Stone bridge of Kil-Coleyn was built by Master Moris Iacke Canon of the Cathedrall Church of Kildare MCCCXX In the time of Pope John the 22. and of the Lord Edward sonne to King Edward which Edward after the comming of Saint Austin into England was the 25. King also under Alexander Bicknore then Archbishop of Dublin beganne the Universitie of the said Citie of Dublin The first that proceeded Master in the same Universitie was Frier William Hardite of the order of preaching Friers which William under the said Archbishop solemnly commenced Doctor in Divinity The second Master that proceeded in the same faculty was Frier Henry Cogry of the order of the Friers Minors the third Master that went forth was William Rodyard Dean of the Cathedrall Church of Saint Patricke in Dublin who solemnly commenced Doctor in the Canon law And this William was made the first Chancellour of the said University The fourth Master in sacred Theologie or Divinity that went out was Frier Edmund Kermerdin Item Roger Mortimer Lord Justice of Ireland returned into England leaving in his place the Lord Thomas Fitz-John then Earle of Kildare Item the Lord Edmund Botiller entred into England and so came to Saint James Also the bridge of the towne of Leghelyn was built by Master Moris Iack Canon of the Cathedrall Church of Kildare MCCCXXI A very great overthrow with much slaughter of the O-Conghors was given at Balibogan the ninth day of May by the men of Leinster and of Meth. Item the Lord Edmund Botiller died in London and lieth buried at Balygaveran in Ireland Also Iohn Bermingham Earle of Louth is made Lord Justice in Ireland Likewise Iohn Wogan departed this life MCCCXXII Andrew Bermingham and Nicolas de La-Lond Knight and many others are slaine by O-Nalan on St. Michaels day MCCCXXIII A truce is taken betweene the King of England and Robert Brus King of Scotland for 14. yeeres Also Iohn Darcie came chiefe Justice of Ireland Item John the first begotten sonne of the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn Earle of Kildare in the ninth yeere of his age ended this life MCCCXXIV Nicolas Genevile sonne and heire to the Lord Simon Genevile departed out of this world and was buried in the Church of the Friers Preachers of Trym Item there hapned a great wind on twelfe day at night Item a generall murrain
third day of February Also in the parts of Ireland the frost was so vehement that Aven-Liffie the river of Dublin was so frozen that very many danced and leaped upon the Ice of the said river they played at foot-ball and ran courses there yea and they made fires of wood and of turfe upon the same Ice and broyled herrings thereupon This Ice lasted very many dayes And as for the snow also in the parts of Ireland that accompanied the same frost a man need not speake any more seeing it was knowne to lye on such a wonderfull depth This hard time of weather continued from the second day of December unto the tenth day of February the like season was never heard of before especially in Ireland MCCCXXXIX All Ireland was generally up in armes Item an exceeding great slaughter there was of the Irish and a number of them drowned even 1200. at the least by the meanes of the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and the rest of the Geraldines in the parts of Kernige Item the Lord Moris Fitz-Nicolas Lord of Kernige was apprehended and imprisoned by the Lord Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond and died in prison being put to strait diet for that he openly went out and rebelled with the said Irish against the Lord King of England and against the Lord Earle Item a number of the O. Dymcies and other Irish were killed and drowned in the water of Barrow by the English and the hot pursuit of the Earle of Kildare Also a great booty of cattell of sundry sorts and such a booty as had not been seen in the parts of Leinster by the said Lord Thomas Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland and with the helpe of the English of that country was taken from the Irish in the parts of Odrone in the end of February MCCCXL The said Bishop of Hereford and Justice of Ireland being sent for by the King returned into England the tenth day of Aprill leaving in his place Frier Roger Outlaw Priour of Kylmaynon Also this Sir Roger Lord Priour of Kylmainon Justice and Chancellour of the said land died the thirteenth day of February Item the King of England granted by his letters patents unto Iohn Darcy the office of Lord Justice of Ireland for terme of life MCCCXLI Sir John Moris Knight came Lord Justice of Ireland in the moneth of May as Lievtenant unto Iohn Darcy in the foresaid land Item this wondrous prodigie following and such as in our age had not been heard of before hapned in the county of Leinster where a certain waifaring man as he travelled in the Kings high way found a paire of gloves fit as he thought for his owne turne which as he drew upon his hands forthwith instead of a mans voice and speech he kept a strange and marvellous barking like unto a dogge and from that present the elder folke and full growne yea and women too throughout the same county barked like bigge dogges but the children and little ones waughed as small whelpes This plague continued with some 18. daies with others a whole moneth and with some for two yeeres Yea this foresaid contagious malady entred also into the neighbour shires and forced the people in like manner to barke Also the King of England revoked all those gifts and grants that by him or his father had bin conferred by any meanes upon any persons whatsoever in Ireland were they liberties lands or other goods for which revocation great displeasure and discontent arose in the land and so the land of Ireland was at the point to have beene lost for ever out of the King of Englands hand Item by the Kings Councell there was ordained a generall Parliament of Ireland in the moneth of October To the same Parliament Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Desmond came not Before which time there was never knowne so notable and manifest a division in Ireland between those that were English by birth and English in blood The Maiors besides of the Kings cities in the same land together with all the better sort of the Nobility and Gentry of the said land with one consent upon mature deliberation and counsell had among other their conclusions decreed and appointed a common Parliament at Kilkenny in November to the utility and profit both of the King and the land before named without asking any counsell at all of the Lord Justice and the Kings officers aforesaid in this behalfe Now the Lord Justice and the rest of the Kings Ministers in no wise presumed to come unto the same Parliament at Kilkenny The Elders therefore of the land aforesaid together with the Ancients and Maiors of the cities agreed and ordained as touching solemne Embassadours to be sent with all speed unto the King of England about relieving the State of the land and to complaine of his Ministers in Ireland as touching their unequall and unjust regiment of the same and that from thenceforth they neither could nor would endure the realme of Ireland to be ruled by his Ministers as it had wont to be And particularly they make complaint of the foresaid Ministers by way of these Questions Imprimis How a land full of warres could be governed by him that was unskilfull in warre Secondly how a Minister or Officer of the Kings should in a short time grow to so great wealth Thirdly how it came to passe that the King was never the richer for Ireland MCCCXLII The eleventh day of October when the moone was eleven dayes old there were seen by many men at Dublin 2. moones in the firmament well and early before day The one was according to the course of nature in the West and appeared bright the other to the quantity of a round loafe appeared in the East casting but a meane and slender light MCCCXLIII St. Thomas street in Dublin was casually burnt with fire upon the feast of S. Valentine Martyr Item the 13. day of July the Lord Ralph Ufford with his wife the Countesse of Ulster came Lord chiefe Justice of Ireland Upon whose entring the faire weather changed sodainly into a distemperature of the aire and from that time there ensued great store of raine with such abundance of tempestuous stormes untill his dying day None of his predecessours in the times past was with griefe be it spoken comparable unto him For this Justicer bearing the office of Justice-ship became an oppressor of the people of Ireland a robber of the goods both of Clergy and Laity of rich and poore alike a defrauder of many under the colour of doing good not observing the rights of the Church nor keeping the lawes of the kingdome offering wrongs to the naturall inhabitants ministring justice to few or none and altogether distrusting some few onely excepted the inborne dwellers in the land These things did hee still and attempted the like misled by the counsell and perswasion of his wife Item the said Justice entring into Ulster in the moneth of March through a Pas called Emerdullan
and chastised the Irish very well MCCCLVI And in the one and thirty yeere of the foresaid King Sir Thomas Rokesby was made the second time Justice of Ireland who tamed the Irish very well and paied as well for the victuals he tooke saying I will eat and drinke out of Treen vessels and yet pay both gold and silver for my food and apparel yea and for my pensioners about me The same yeere died that Sir Thomas Justice of Ireland within the Castle of Kilka MCCCLVII Also in the two and thirty yeere of the same Kings raigne Sir Almarick de Saint Aimund was made chiefe Justice of Ireland and entred into it At this very time began a great controversie between Master Richard Fitz-Ralfe Archbishop of Armagh and the foure Orders of the begging Friers but in the end the Friers got the mastery and by the Popes meanes caused the Archbishop of Armagh to hold his peace MCCCLVIII In the 33. yeere of the same King Sir Almarick Sir Amund chiefe Justice of Ireland passed over into England MCCCLIX In the 34. yeere of the same King Iames Botiller Earle of Ormond was made chiefe Justice of Ireland Item the Lady Ioan Burke Countesse of Kildare departed this life on St. Georges day and was buried in the Church of the Friers Minors of Kildare neere unto her husband the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn Earle of Kildare MCCCLX And in the 35. of the foresaid King died Master Richard Fitz-Ralfe Archbishop of Armagh in Hanault the sixteenth day of December whose bones were conveied into Ireland by the reverend father Stephen Bishop of Meth to be bestowed in S. Nicolas Church at Dundalk where he was born But doubted it is whether they were his bones or some other mans Item Sir Robert Savage a doughty knight dwelling in Ulster departed this life who with a few Englishmen slew of the Irish three thousand neere unto Antrim but before that he went forth to that battell he tooke order that there should be given unto every Englishman one good draught or pot of wine or ale whereof hee had a number of hogsheads and barrels full and the rest he saved against the comming of his friends he caused also to be killed sheepe oxen tame foule crammed fat wilde foule and for venison red Deere that they might bee dressed and made ready for such as returned winners out of the field whosoever they were And he was wont to say a shame it were if guests should come and not finde what to eate and drinke But when it pleased God to give the English victorie he invited them all to supper and they rejoiced with thanksgiving and himselfe said I give God thanks For better it is thus to keep it than to let it run forth upon the ground as some gave me counsell Buried he was in the covent Church of the preaching Friers of Coulrath neere to the river of Banne Also the Earle of Ormond Lord Justice of Ireland entred England in whose place Moris Fitz-Thomas Earle of Kildare was made Lord Justice of Ireland by this Charter and Commission as appeareth Omnibus ad quos c. that is To all whom these letters shall come unto Greeting Know ye that we have committed to our sweet and faithfull subject Moris Earle of Kildare the office of our L. Justice of our land of Ireland and our land of Ireland with the Castle and all pertenances thereto to keep and governe so long as it shall please us and to receive at our Exchequer in Dublin yeerely so long as hee shall remaine in that office five hundred pounds for which he shall keep that office and land and he shall be himselfe one of the twenty men in armes whom he shall finde with as many horses armed continually during our foresaid commission In witnesse whereof c. Given by the hands of our beloved in Christ Frier Thomas Burgey Prior of the Hospitall of S. John of Ierusalem in Ireland our Chancellour of Ireland at Dublin the thirtieth day of March and of our reigne the thirty five yeere Also Iames Botiller Earle of Ormond came again out of England Lord Justice of Ireland as before unto whom the Earle of Kildare resigned up the office of Justiceship MCCCLXI Leonell Earle of Ulster in right of his wives inheritance and being the Kings sonne of England came into Ireland as the Kings Lievtenant and arrived at Dublin the eighth day of September being the feast of the blessed Virgins nativitie bringing his second wife Elizabeth daughter and heire of the Lord William Burke Earle of Ulster In the same yeere was the second pestilence There died in England Henry Duke of Lancaster the Earle of March the Earle of Northampton Also on the sixth day of January Mons Doncref a Citizen of Dublin was buried in the Churchyard of the Friers Preachers of the same City unto which covent or brotherhood he gave forty pounds toward the glazing of their Church Item there departed out of this life the Lady Ioan Fleming wife to the Lord Geffery Trevers and the Lady Margaret Bermingham wife to the Lord Robert Preston on the Vigill of St. Margaret and were buried in the Covent Church of the preaching Friers of Tredagh Also the Lord Walter Bermingham the younger died on S. Laurence day who divided his inheritance between his sisters the one part thereof the foresaid Preston had for his share Item the foresaid Lord Leonell after hee was entred into Ireland and had rested some few daies made warre upon O-Brynne and proclaimed throughout his army that no man borne in Ireland should come neere unto his campe and an hundred of his owne Pensioners were slaine Leonell seeing this forthwith reduced the whole people as well of England as of Ireland into one and so hee prospered and strucke many battailes round about in all places with the Irish by the helpe of God and the people of Ireland Hee made also many Knights of English and Irish and among them Robert Preston Robert Holiwood Thomas Talbot Walter Cusacke Iames de La Hide Iohn Ash or de Fraxius Patricke and Robert Ash or de Fraxius and many besides Also he removed the Exchequer from Dublin to Carlagh and gave five hundred pounds to the walling of that towne Item on the feast of Saint Maur Abbat there rose a mighty wind that shooke and overthrew pinnacles battlements chimneys and other things higher than the rest trees without number divers Steeples and namely the Steeple of the Preaching Friers MCCCLXII Also in the 36. yeere of the same King the Church of St. Patricke in Dublin through negligence was set on fire and burnt the eighth of Aprill MCCCLXIV And in the 38. yeere of the foresaid King the Lord Leonel Earle of Ulster entred England the 22. of Aprill and left his Deputy-Justice of Ireland the Earle of Ormond and the same Leonell Duke of Clarence returned the eighth of December MCCCLXV Also in the 39. yeere of the said King the same Leonell Duke of Clarence
520 f Sir Henry Grey Baron Grey of Grooby 521 a Greys of Sandacro 553 d Greys Earles of Kent 553 c Th. Grey of Ruthin Marquesse Dorset 217 e Henry Grey Marquesse Dorset and Duke of Suffolk 217 f 470 c. beheaded 217 Greyes Barons of Wilton 396 d. their badge 621 a. 396 d Iohn Grey Earle of Tankervil 663 d Greystocks Barons 778 c Greystock Castle 778 b S. Grimbald 378 c Grimsby 542 c Grimstons-garth ibid. Grimstons a family 714 a Griphins a family 507 b. 607 e Grismunds tower 366 d Grâ—n and Gronnes what they signifie 486 b Grooby 520 f Grossement Castle 630 b Grossvenours commonly called Gravenours a famous family 604 b Grosthead or Grostest a worthy Bishop of Lincoln 540 b. c Ground most fat and battle 478 Ground burnt for tillage 675 c Gruffin ap Conan a noble Prince of Wales 670 a Guadiana 297 a Guaine 21 Gwain ibid. Gualt what it signifieth 20 Guarth what it signifieth 563 b Guarthenion why so called 624 Guash See wash Gueda wife to Earle Goodwin 363 b Guenliana a woman of manly courage 649 c Grerif 21 Guerir ibid. Gwif 19 Guild hall in London 435 a Guilford 295 b Guilfords a family 352 b Guineth Uranc 19 Guineth 659 f Guiniad fishes 666 b Guiscard of Engolism 502 c Gundulph Bishop of Rochester 333 a Gunora a Norman Lady 620 c Gunpowder treason 754 a Gunters a family 628 f Guorong what it signifieth 325 c Guortimer defeateth Hengist the Saxons 332 a. where buried 340 a Guvia 19 Gwin a colour 26 Guoloppum 132 Guy Brient a Baron 212 e Sir Guy of Warwick 267 a. 564 Guy cliff or Gibcliff 564 â— Gynâ—ecia 263 c H HAcomb 202 e Hadseigh 441 b Hadley 463 d Pope Hadrian the fourth choked with a flie 415 a Hadugato a Duke or Leader of the English Saxons 138 Hagmond Abbay 594 Haile a river 193 Haduloha 138 Haimon Dentatus 641 c Robert Fitz Haimon subdueth Glamorganshire 641 d Hakeds a kind of Pikes 499 Haledon 80â— d Hales Monastery 197 e. 365 a Halesworth 467 c Halifax 691 f Halifax law 69â— b Halton hall 808 f Halyston 812 f Hamden a towne and family 395 Hameldon hils 215 c Hamon 260 f Sir Hamon Mascy 610 c Hampton in Herefordshire 620 Hampton Court 420 b Hamsted hills 421 b Hanging walls of Mark Antony 763 c Hanley Castle 577 b Hanmere a place and family 68â— Hannibal never warred in Britain 32 Hans a river 587 c Hansacres a family 578 b Hansards a family 543 a Hantshire 258 Hanwell 376 e Hanworth 420 b King Harald slaine 317 a Harald Lightfoot 379 b Harald Haardred 707 d Harald the Bastard 143 Harald Goodwins sonne usurpeth the crowne of England 145 His worthy and Princely parts 146 Harborrow or Haaburgh 517 c Harbotle a place and familie 812 f Andrew of Harcla Earle of Carlile a traitour degraded 780 c Harcourts 584 e Harden or Hawarden 680 e Hardes ancient Gentlemen 339 d Harde-Cnut his death 303 b his immoderate feasting ibid. Th. Harding 208 e Fits Hardings Barons of Barkley 223 a Hard Knot a mountain 765 e Hardwick a towne 555 f. and a family ibid. Haresfield 419 c Harford West 653 b Haringtons or Haveringtons a family 755 d Haringtons Barons 526 b. of old descent ibid. Harington Lord 206 e Sir Iohn Harington Baron Harington of Exton ibid. Haringworth the honour of the Zouches Barons 414 a Harleston 472 e Harlestons a family ibid. Harold Ewias 617 d Harold a Gentleman ibid. Harptree 223 d Harrow on the hill 420 a Harrowden 510 a Hartle pole 738 b Harts hall in Oxford 381 d Harewich 451 e Harewood castle 698 e Haslingbury 453 d Hastings a noble family in times past 584 c Hastings Lords of Abergevenny 568 e Hastings Baron of Loughborow 394 c Sir Edward Hastings sole Baron thereof 521 b Baron Hastings and Hoo 319 b Sir william Hastings Lord Hastings 318 f Hastings great Gentlemen in Sussex ibid. Hastings a towne whence it tooke the name 317 f Rape of Hastings 318 d. Lords thereof ibid. George L. Hastings first of that name Earle of Huntingdon 503 a Hatfield Bradock 453 e Bishops Hatfield 406 f Hatfield Poveril 445 c Hatherton 607 e Hatfield Chace 690 e Hatley S George 485 d Hatterel hils 6â—1 c Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Chauncellor of England 508 his commendation ibid. his Monument 509 a Havelock a foundling 542 d Haverds a family 628 e Haudelo Lord Burnell 330 c Havering 441 â— Hawghton Conquest 401 e Hawghlee Castle 464 a Sir Iohn Hawkwood 450 b Haulton a towne and castle 611 Haure 21 The Haw 200 Hawsted 450 d Hawthorn at Glastenbury 227 e Hay a towne 627 f Hay castle 766 f Headon a towne 713 c Healy castle 583 e Hartly castle 760 d Heavenfield 806 d Hebrews called Huesi wherefore 23 Heidons or Heydons Knights 479 b Sir Christopher Heidon 326 c Heil an Idol of the Saxons 212 Heilston or Hellas 189 Heina a religious votary 699 e Heitsbury 245 d Hieu a religious woman 738 b Helbecks 727 â— Helbeck a crag 784 b Helena the mother of Constantine the Great borne at Colchester 451 a Helena a devout Empresse 74 Helenum 187 Helion a family 452 a Hell-Kettles deepe pits 737 â— Helmet of gold found 537 e Helvius Pertinax employed in Britan 66. Propraetor in Britan 67 Hemingston 464 a Hempe the best 210 d Hempsted 414 c Hen-Dinas 588 b Heneti whence they tooke name 26 Hengham Lords 472 f Hengist and Horsa brethren 127. they signifie an horse ibid. Hengrave 461 â— Hengston hill 196 d Henningham 450 a Henly in Arden 566 a Henly hundred 389 a Henly upon Tamis 389 b King Henry the sixt his vertues enterred and translated 294 d King Henry the seventh his vertues 297 f Henry the fourth Emperour enterred in Chester 605 c Henry of Lancaster claimeth the crowne of England 680 d Henry Fitz-Roy 240 b King Henry the second his commendation 284 e Henry Prince rebelleth against King Henry the second his father 465 a Henry the seventh proclaimed King 518 c King Henry the sixt twice taken prisoner by his owne subjects 509 e Heorten 738 b Heorthus 135 Heptarchie of the Saxons described with severall shires under every Kingdome 157 Heptarchie of the Saxons 136 reduced to a Monarchie 138 Herbert Bishop of Norwich 475 a Herbert Losenga Bishop 472 a Herbert Baron of Shurland 334 b Herberts Earles of Penbroch 359 a Sir Philip Herbert Baron of Shurland Earle of Montgomery 663 b Herberts an honourable family in Wales 655 d Le Herbert a way in Wales 665 f Hercules whether ever any 207 c Herefordshire 617 Hereford Citie 618 e Hereford Earles 621 b. c. c. Hereford Duke 622 a Hereford Viscounts ibid. Herring fishing by Hollanders c. 717 f Herrings in Yarmouth 478 a Herrings frequent our coast 718 a Herlaxton 537 d Herons or Heirons a family 806 b. 815 e Herlotâ—a 197 b Hermae 64 Herst Monceaux 315 a Herst what it
20 Ratcliffs Earles of Sussex 321 a Ravenglasse 765 Ravensburne river 326 Ravenswath castle 730 b Reads a family 577 b Reading 284 Readsquire a mountaine 802 a Reafan the Danes Baner 195 Reche a towne 490 c Recall a river 722 d Rech dike ib. Reculver 335 b Redcastle or Castle Rous 594 d Redin 20 Redhorse vale 561 c Red colour giveth name to many places 525 d Redbourne 413 d Redbridge 262 d Red rose and white for Lancaster and Yorke 725 e Redshankes 126 Redvers or Rivers Earles of Denshire 207 d Redverses or de Ripariis 201 c Redwald King of the East Saxons 465 c Reforming errours a Court 180 Reginald Pole his commendation 216 b Religious houses dissolved 163 Remney ariver 631 b. 642 a Remni what it signifieth 642 a Remigius Bishop of Dorchester 539 c Rendlesham 465 c Renimed 419 e Reptacester or Richborow 341 a Repton 553 f Requests Court 181 Rerecrosse 732 f Reuda 126 Rheda 18 Rheder ibid. Rhedec ibid. Rhedecfa ibid. Rhead a river 802 a Rheadsdale ibid. c Rhediad 18 Rhegium why so called 347 d Rhese ap Gruffin 623 a Rhese ap Thomas a valiant knight 650 e Rhie a river 722 d Rhidale ibid. Rhia Baron 472 Rhre whereof so called 319 d Rhodanus 21 Rutupina littora what they bee 342 Ribel a river 749 d Ribelchester 750 b Ribald L'isle 485 f Ricall 707 d Richard the Second renounceth the crowne 680 d Richard Duke of Yorke claimeth the crowne 725 b Richard a renowned Earle of Cornwal 197 d. his death and sepulchre his sonne Henry murdred 197 f Richard Coeur de Lion 380 a Richard the Third a bad man and a good Prince 212 a Richard Duke of Glocester an usurper 369 f. his practises to win the crowne 370 Richard the First his praises 285 Richard the Second his Reliques translated to Westminster 414 f Richard King of Romans c. 414 Richborow 341 a Richborow decayed ibid f Riches Barons 441 d Richard Lord Chancellour of England 445 Richards Castle 619 e Richmond shire 727 Richmond towne 729 f Richmond Earles 733 Richmond the Kings house 297 Richmonds a family 778 a Rickmansworth 415 c Rising Castle 481 c Risingham 803 d Rith what it signifieth 486 a Rivers had Divine honours 602 heaped upon them 698 a Robert bridge 320 c Robert Earle of Leicester 466 c Robert Crouchbacke Earle of Leicester 519 f Robert Consul or Earle of Glocester 368 d Robert Fitz Haimon 359 d Robin Hood 693 a Robin Hoods bay 718 c Roch a river 745 f Roch Dale a towne ibid. Rochester a castle 802 c Rochester city 332 c Rochester or Roffes a family 405 d Rochford towne and Hundred Rochford Barons ibid. Rochford Vicount ibid. Rockingham Castle and Forest 513 Rock-Savage 610 a Roden a river 594 c Roding a river 440 b Roger the magnificent Bishop of Salisbury 243 a Rogerses Knight 215. ibid. Roise a Lady 405 b Roiston ibid. Roises Crosse ibid. Rolrich stones 374 c Rollo the Norman 144 his dream and conversion 144 The Roll of Winchester 153 Rome called Constantina 85 Romania 24 Romeswork 343 f Romans foiled and massacred in Britaine 51 Roman Empire in Britaine at an end 87 Romans in Britaine 34 Romescot 411 a Romara a Norman Earle of Lincoln 544 e Roos Barons 532 f Rosamund Clifford King Henry the Second his paramor 375 Rosamunds bones translated and afterwards reduced againe 376 c Rose red and white for Lancaster and York 725 e Rosse 190.714 a Rosseland 190 Rosse in Penbrochshire 652 d Rosse in Cardiganshire 657 c Rosse Barons 714 a Rosebery Topping 721 d Rose Castle 778 c Rota temporum that is The wheele of Times an History 790 b Rother a river 320 a Rotherfield ibid. Rotherham 689 e Rotherham Archbishop of Canterbury 689 e Rowcliff Castle 781 c Rouchester 809 e Round table 265 b Rowles in London 428 c Rousses a family 467 c Routon Castle 592 e. 662 Rugby 562 Rudheath Sanctuary 609 a Ruffes fishes 476 c Rugemond or Richmont Greies in Bedfordshire 734 d Rugemont 204 c Rumalds shrine 396 d Rumford 441 f Rumon 199 e Rumney Marsh 350 b Rumney towne ibid. Runkhorne 510 d Rushbrooke 461 d Rushton 509 f Russel Lord Russel of Thornaugh 514 c Russels Knights 578 e Russels Earles of Bedford 394 e 403 Ruthin 676. Ruthlan 679 f Rutlandshire 525. why so called 525 b c d Rutland Earles 426 f Rutters what they were 812 b S SAbridgeworth 408 c Sacae 129. Sacasones ibid. Sadlier 408 a Sacvil Earle of Dorset and Chancellour of Oxford 382 Saer de Quincy Earle of Winchester 521 a Salisbury Church 248 a b Saffron 453 a Salisbury Earles 249 c Salarin a custome or Impost for salt 608 a Salisbury for Sarisbury 246 f Salisbury Hall 750 c Salkelds townes 777 e. and a family 778 a Salmons the best called Umbrae 627 Salmon leape in Penbrochshire 6â—4 e Salndie or Sandie 401 b Salston 48 e Salt made 268 b e Salt Esse 196 Salt hilles 529 e Salt artificially made 753 b Salt stones 739 d Saltpits 573 b c Saltry Abbey 500 b Salt pits in Cheshire 608 a b Salustius Lucullus in Britaine 62 Saltwood Castle 349 c Salwarp a river 574 d Salmonds or S. Amands 283 c Samonds or S. Amands Barons 244 a. 366 e Samothea 24 Sampier growing aboundantly 434 a Sandal Castle 693 d The Sand part of Notinghamshire 550 a Sandalum 19 Sandgate Castle 349 e Sandiacre or S. Diacre 555 d Sands Barons 269 b e Sandon 343 a Sandy See Saludica Sanctuaries 260 Sandwich 342 Sanguelac 317 e Sapcots a family 501 e Sarasins-heads 695 a Sarmatians are Scythians 121 Sarn Helen a Portway in Wales 666 a Sasson 23 Saxon language maintained by Lectures 200 a English-Saxons called into Britain 100.127 Saxons 119. their valour and cruelty 134 Saturn well affected to Britaine 556 e Savages a great family 610 a Saulden 396 c Scarborough Castle 717 Scardale 556 a Schilpor See Esquires 176 Scaeva his valour and advancement 37 Scalbie Castle 782 e Scilicester in the wall 806 b Scipio Africanus where buried 340 a Sclate-stones digged 514 d Scorby or Scurvie-grasse 328 b Scordium an herbe growing plenteously 491 f Scoteney a Barony 542 c Scottishmen of East-Scotland right English-Saxons 129 their fashions 133 Scots wild or Highlandmens habit sort well with the Gothes 123 Scots whence they tooke name 119 Scots of West Scotland are Highland men ibid. Scots came first out of Ireland 120 Scots when they came to be of name 125 Scot what it signifieth 124 Scots a family 349 Scotus aliâs Duns 814 b his pitifull death ibid. Scovies 20 Screking ham 535 c Screven a place and family 700 Scroby 551 b Scropes Barons 729 b Scruffel hill 767 e Scudamores a family 621 a Sculton 473 a Scutary 176 Scythica vallis 120 Scythians in Spaine 121 Scythicum a promentory in Spain 121 Seaton 206 e Sea Holly See Eryngium Sea heard to grone 720 c Sea sand good for ground 199 c
the Parliament by the name of William Beauchamp de Saint Amando flourished among other Barons like as his sonne Richard who left no issue lawfully begotten Kenet keeping on his course downward from thence betweene Hemsted Marshall which sometimes was held by the rod of Marshalsee and appertained to the Mareschals of England where S. Thomas Parry Treasurer of Queene Elizabeths houshold built a very proper house and Benham Valence in a Parke so called because it belonged to William de Valencia Earle of Pembroch But Queen Elizabeth gave it to Iohn Baptista Castilion a Piemontes of her privie chamber for faithfull service in her dangers So the river passeth on to that old town Spinae wherof Antonine made mention which retaining still the name is at this day called Spene but now in steed of a towne it is a very little village standing scarce a mile off from Newbury a famous towne that arose and had beginning out of the ruins of it For Newbury with us is as much to say as the Newburgh in respect no doubt of that more ancient place of habitation which is quite decayed and gone and hath left the name also in a peece of Newburie it selfe which is called Spinham Lands And if nothing else yet this verily might prove that Newburie sprang out of Spine because the inhabitants of Newbury acknowledge the village Spene as their mother although in comparison of Spene it be passing faire and goodly as well for buildings as furniture become rich also by clothing and very well seated in a champian plaine having the river Kenet to water it This towne at the time that the Normans conquered England fell to Ernulph de Hesdin Earle of Perch whose successour Thomas Earle of Perch being slaine at the siege of Lincolne the Bishop of Chalons his heire sold it unto William Marescall Earle of Pembroke who also held the Manour of Hempsted hard by whereof I have spoken and his successors also Mareschals of England untill that Roger Bigod for his obstinacie lost his honor and possessions both which notwithstanding by intreaty he obtained againe for his life time Kenet passeth on hence and taketh into him Lamborn a little river which at the head and spring thereof imparteth his name to a small mercate towne that in old time by vertue of King Aelfreds testament belonged unto his cousin Alfrith and afterward to the Fitz Warens who of King Henrie the Third obtained libertie of holding a mercate but now appertaineth unto the Essexes Knights A familie that fetcheth their pedigree from William Essex Vnder-treasurer of England under King Edward the Fourth from those who in times past carried the same surname flourished as men of very great fame in Essex From thence he runneth under Dennington which others call Dunnington a little castle but a fine and proper one situate with a faire prospect upon the brow of a prety hill full of groves and which inwardly for the most part letteth in all the light Built they say it was by Sir Richard de Abberbury Knight who also under it founded for poore people a Gods-house Afterward it was the residence of Chaucer then of the Dela Poles and in our fathers daies of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke Kenet having now finished a long course by Aldermaston which King Henrie the First gave unto Robert Achard From whose posterity by the Delamares it came at length in right of marriage to the Fosters a familie of Knights degree falleth at the last into Tamis presently after it hath with his winding branches compassed a great part of Reading This towne Reading called in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Rhea that is The River or of the British word Redin that signifieth Fearne which groweth heere in great plentie excelleth at this day all other townes of this shire in faire streets and goodly houses for wealth also of the Townsmen and their name in making of cloth although it hath lost the greatest ornaments it had to wit a beautifull Church and a most ancient Castle For this the Danes kept as their hold so Asserius writeth when they made a rampier betweene Kenet and Tamis and into this they retired themselves for safety when at Inglefield a village neere unto it which gave name to an ancient familie they were by King Aethelwolfe discomfited and put to flight But King Henrie the Second so rased it because it was a place of refuge for King Stephens followers that nothing now remaineth of it but the bare name in the next street Nigh whereunto King Henrie the First having plucked downe a little Nunnerie that Queene Alfrith had founded in former times to make satisfaction for her wicked deeds built for Monks a stately and sumptuous Abbay and enriched it with great revenewes Which Prince to speake out of his very Charter of the foundation Because three Abbaies in the Realme of England were in old time for their sinnes destroied to wit Reading Chelseie and Leonminster which a long time were held in Lay mens hands by the advise of the Bishops built a new Monasterie of Reading and gave unto it Reading Chelseie and Leonminster In this Abbay was the founder himselfe King Henrie buried with his wife both vailed and crowned for that shee had beene a Queene and a professed Nunne and with them their daughter Mawde as witnesseth the private Historie of this place although some report that she was enterred at Becc in Normandie This Mawde as well as that Lacedemonian Ladie Lampido whom Plinie maketh mention of was a Kings daughter a Kings wife and a Kings mother that is to say daughter of this Henrie the First King of England wife of Henrie the Fourth Emperour of Almaine and mother to Henrie the Second King of England Concerning which matter have you here a Distichon engraven on her tombe and the same verily in my judgment conceived in some gracious aspect of the Muses Magna ortu majorque viro sed maxima partu Hîc jacet Henrici filia sponsa parens The daughter wife the mother eke of Henrie lieth heere Much blest by birth by marriage more but most by issue deere And well might she be counted greatest by her issue For Henrie the Second her sonne as Iohn of Salisburie who lived in those daies wrote was the best and most vertuous King of Britaine the most fortunate Duke of Normandie and Aquitain and as well for valiant exploits as for excellent vertues highly renowned How courageous how magnificent how wise and modest he was even from his tender yeeres envy it selfe can neither conceale nor dissemble seeing that his acts bee fresh and conspicuous seeing also that he hath extended forward and held on in a continued traine the titles of his vertue from the bounds of Britaine unto the marches of Spaine And in another place of the same King Henrie the Second the most mighty King that ever was of Britaine shewed his
Littons descended from Litton in Darbyshire I saw certaine round hils cast up and raised by mans hands such as the old Romanes were wont to reare for Souldiers slaine in the wars of which the Captaine himselfe laied the first turfe Unlesse some man would rather say they had a reference to the bounds For such like little hils in old time were reared to signifie the bounds of lands under which they used to lay ashes coales lime bricke and tile beaten to powder c. as I will shew else-where more at large Beneath this more Southward the river Lea by our forefathers named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath his head who with a milde course passeth down first by Whethamsted a towne plentifull in wheate whereof it tooke name which place John of Whethamsted there borne and thereof named a man in King Henry the Sixth his daies much renowned by his due desert of learning made of more estimation From thence running by Brocket Hall the residence in late time of the Brockets Knights approcheth neere unto Bishops Hatfield situate upon the fall and hanging of a little hill in the upper part whereof stood a house of the Kings now the Earle of Salisburies in times past belonging to the Bishops of Ely whereupon it was named Bishops Hatfield which John Morton Bishop of Ely reedified For in this place King Eadgar gave unto the Church of Ely forty hides of land Afterwards it passeth under Hertford which in some Copies of Bede is named Herudford where he treateth of the Synode there holden in the yeare of our Salvation 670. which name some interprete The red Ford others The Ford of Harts This Towne in William the Conquerours time discharged it selfe for ten hides and in it were 26. Burgesses and at that time Ralph Limsey a Noble man built heere a Cell for Saint Albans Monkes But now it is neither greatly inhabited nor much frequented and in this respect most of all commended because it is ancient For why it hath given name to the whole County and is reputed the Shire-towne A Castle it hath upon the River Lea built as men thinke by King Edward the elder and enlarged first by the house of Clare whereunto it belonged For Gislebert of Clare about King Henry the Second his dayes was accounted Earle of this Hertford and Robert Fitz-walter of the same house of Clare what time as Stephen seized into his hands all the Castles of England wheresoever avouched franckly even to Stephen his face as we read in Mathew of Paris that the keeping of this Castle by ancient right appertained to himselfe Afterwards it was laid unto the Crowne and King Edward the Third granted unto Iohn of Gaunt his sonne then Earle of Richmond who afterward was Duke of Lancaster this Castle with the Towne and honour of Hertford where as the very words runne in the Graunt hee might according to his estate keepe house and decently make his aboade From hence Lea falleth downe forthwith to Ware so named of a barre or dam made to stay water streames which our Ancestours called a Weare or Ware This Towne even at the very first did much harme unto Hertford and afterwards by reason it became so greatly hanted darkened as it were the light thereof For when the Barons warre against King John was waxed hote this Ware presuming much upon their Lord the Baron Wake turned London high way to it whereas before it was but a little Village and knowne by a Friery which hee founded neither was it lawfull to passe that way with any Carts considering that the Bridge was chained up the Keyes whereof were in the custody of the Bailiffe of Hertford Neere about which time Gilbert Marescall Earle of Pembroch a principall and most potent Peere of the Realme proclaimed heere a disport of running on horsebacke with launces which they call Tourneaments under the name of Fortunie making a scorne of the Kings Authority whereby such Toureneaments were inhibited To which place when a great number of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled it fortuned that himselfe as hee ranne at tilt by occasion that his flinging horse brake bridle and cast him was trampled under foote and so pittifully dyed These Justs or Tourneaments were certaine publique exercises of Armes and more than flourishes practised among noble Gentlemen and instituted if wee beleeve Munster in the yeare of our Lord 934. having also speciall lawes thereto belonging which you may finde in the said Munster and the same exercises were used a long time in such an outragious manner and with such flaughter of Gentlemen in all places but in England most of all since that King Stephen brought them in that by divers Decrees of the Church they were forbidden upon paine that whosoever therein were slaine should want Christian Buriall in Church or Churchyard and heere with us King Henry the Third by advise of his Sages made an Act of Parliament that their heires who transgressed in this kinde should be disinherited Howbeit contrary to the said law so good and wholesome this naughty and wicked custome was practised a great while and grew not quite out of use before the happy dayes of King Edward the Third Betwixt these two Townes Hertford and Ware distant scarce two miles a sunder Lea is encreased by two rilles from the North Asserius termeth them Mimeram and Benefician I would guesse that to bee Benefician upon which standeth Benington where the notable family of Bensted had in old time a little Castle and also Woodhall an habitation of the Butlers who being branched from Sir Ralph Butler Baron of Wem in Shropshire and his wife heire to William Pantulfe Lord of Wem were Lords of Pulre-bach and enriched much by an heire of Sir Richard Gobion and another of Peletot Lord of this place in the time of King Edward the Third I take Mimeran to bee the other brooke whereupon Pukerich is seated which by the grant of King Edward the First at the mediation of William le Bland had a Mercate and Faire granted to it Whereupon also neighboureth Standon with a seemely house built by Sir Ralph Sadleir Chauncellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster Privie Counsellour to three Princes and the last Knight Baneret of England a man so advanced for his great services and staied wisedome At the backe of Pukerich Munden Furnivall sheweth it selfe a place to bee remembred if it were but for this that Geffrey Earle of Britaine gave it to Gerard de Furnivall of whom also it bare the name a younger sonne of Furnivall of Sheffeld But now let us returne to the River Lea and the Towne of Ware unto which the Danes being come with their light Pinnaces and Shallops raised a Fort as the said Asserius reporteth which when King Aelfred could not winne by force hee by digging three severall Chanels turned aside the water of Lea that they might not returne with their Vessels So as ever since it stood
the said Earle having an oath tendered unto him swore upon the Sacrament that hee would never worke or procure by himselfe or by any of his friends and followers harme or grievance upon the occasion of his apprehension unto the Citizens of Dublin but that which himselfe might by order of law obtaine or get against the offenders or transgressours in that behalfe and thereupon hee had time and day untill the feast of the Nativitie of S. John Baptist at which day he came not Also in the same yeere Corne and other victuals were exceeding deere A Cranok of wheat was sold for three and twenty shillings and wine for eight denires and the whole land in maner was wasted by the Scots and Ulster-men yea many house-holders and such as had sustained and relieved a number of folk were driven to begge and a number were famished So great also was the death and dearth together that the poore were pined with famine and many died At the same time came messengers to Dublin out of England with grants of pardon which they had at their will and pleasure but before their comming the foresaid Earle was delivered And at the feast of Pentecost Mortimer the Lord chiefe Justice took his journy towards Tredagh and from thence to Trim and sent his letters for the Lacies to repaire unto him who contemptuously refused to come And afterwards Sir Hugh Crofts Knight was sent unto the Lacies to treat about a peace who by them was slain the more the pity And after that Mortimer L. Justice assembled his army against the Lacies who seized upon their goods cattell and treasure and brought them to finall destruction slew many of their men and chased them into the parts of Connaght And it was said that Sir Walter Lacie went forth as farre as to Ulster to seeke Brus. Item in the towne of St. Cinere in Flanders about the feast of Pentecost the Lord Aumar Valence and his sonne were taken prisoners and conveied into Almaini And the same yeere on Munday after the feast of the nativitie of S. John Baptist the Potentates of Ireland assembled themselves to the Parliament at Dublin and there was the Earle of Ulster enlarged who tooke his oath and found mainprisers or sureties to answer the writs of law and to pursue the Kings enemies both Irish and Scots Item upon the day of the Saints Pnocesse and Martinian Sir Iohn Atly encountred at sea Thomas Dover a right strong thiefe and took him and about forty of his men well armed he slew and his head he brought with him to Dublin Also upon the day of the translation of S. Thomas Sir Nicholas Bolscot came out of England with newes that two Cardinals were come from the Court of Rome into England to treat concerning a peace and they brought a Bull to excommunicate all the troublers of the peace of the Lord the King of England Likewise the Thursday next before the feast of St. Margaret Hugh and Walter Lacie were proclaimed seducers and felons to the King because they had advanced their banner against the peace of the Lord King of England More on the sunday following the Lord Roger Mortimer Justice of Ireland took his journey to Tredagh with all his souldiers At the same time the Ulster-men raised a bootie neere unto Tredagh and the men of Tredagh went out and fetched the bootie backe againe where was slaine Miles Cogan with his brother and sixe other great Lords of Ulster were taken prisoners and brought to the castle of Dublin And afterwards Mortimer the Lord Justice assembled his army against O-Fervill and commanded the Mal-passe to be cut downe and destroied all his houses and afterwards the said O-Fervil rendred himselfe to the peace and put in hostages Also the Lord Roger Mortimer Justice tooke his journey toward Clony and made an inquisition or inquest as touching Sir Iohn Blound to wit White of Rathregan which inquest accused the said Iohn whereupon he was of necessity to fine for two hundred marks and afterward on sunday after the feast of the nativity of blessed Marie the said Mortimer with a great power marched against the Irish of O-Mayl and came to Glinsely where many were slaine both of Irish and English but the Irish went away with the worst and soone after came O-brynn and rendred himselfe to the peace of the King And Roger Mortimer with his company came to the castle of Dublin And upon the day of Simon and Jude the Apostles the Archbales had peace by mainprise of the Earle of Kildare And at the feast of Saint Hilary following there was a Parliament holden at Lincolne about a treaty of peace betweene the Lord King of England and the Earle of Lancaster and between the Scots and the Scots continued in peace and by reason of that Parliament the Archbishop of Dublin and the Earle of Ulster staied in England by the Kings commandement And about the feast of the Epiphany there came newes to Dublin that Sir Hugh Canon the Kings Justice in his bench was slaine by Andrew Bermingham between Naas and Castle-Martin Item at the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary there came the Popes Buls so that Alexander de Bicknor was confirmed and consecrated Archbishop of Dublin and those Buls were read and published in the Church of the holy Trinity And at the same time was read another Bull that the Lord Pope ordained peace between the Lord King of England and the Lord Robert Brus King of Scotland for two yeeres to which time the said Brus refused to condescend and agree These things passed about the feast of St. Valentine Item the sunday following came the Lord Roger Mortimer to Dublin and dubbed Iohn Mortimer Knight with foure of his fellowes and the same day Mortimer kept a great feast in the castle of Dublin Item at the same time a great slaughter was made of Irishmen in Conaght through a quarrell betweene two Lords of Princes there and slaine there were of both sides about foure thousand men and afterwards there was taken great revenge upon the men of Ulster who in the time that the Scots spoiled and preaded in Ireland had done much harme and eate flesh in Lent not of necessity therefore much tribulation came upon them insomuch that they did eat one another so that often thousand there remained about 300. and no more who escaped in maner all for to be punished And here appeared the vengeance of God Item it was reported of a truth that some of the foresaid evill doers were so hunger-starved that in Church-yards they tooke the bodies out of their graves and in their skuls boiled the flesh and fed thereupon yea and women did eat their owne children for starke hunger MCCCXVIII In the Quindene of Easter newes out of England arrived in Ireland that the towne of Berwicke was betraied and taken by the Scots and afterwards in the same yeere Master Walter Islep the Kings Treasurer in Ireland landed and