any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
mother to Edward Courtney the last Earle of Devonshire of that house and on the other side of the quier Iohn de Beaufort Duke of Somerset with his wife Margaret daughter and heire to Sir Iohn Beauchamp of Bletneshoe whose daughter Margaret Countesse of Richmond and mother of King Henry the Seventh a most godly and vertuous Princesse erected a Schoole heere for the training up of youth But now will I turne my pen from the Church to the Towne when the Danes by their crafty devices went about to set the Englishmen together by the eares and would have broken that league and unitie which was betweene King Edward the Elder and his cosen Aethelwald Aethelwald then lusting after the Kingdome and wholly set against his liege Prince fortified this towne as strongly as possibly he could But so soone as Edward came towards him with his forces and pitched his tents at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now called Badbury he fled and conveied himselfe to his confederates the Danes This Badbury is a little hill upon a faire doune scarce two miles off environed about with a triple trench and rampier and had by report in times past a Castle which was the seate of the West-Saxon Kings But now if ever there were any such it lieth so buried in the owne ruines and rubbish that I could see not so much as one token thereof But hard by a sight I had of a village or mannour called Kingston Lacy because together with Winburne it appurtained to the Lacies Earles of Lincolne unto whom by covenant it came from the Earles of Leicester by the meanes of Quincie Earle of Winchester For King Henry the first had given it to Robert Earle of Mellent and of Leicester and at the last both places from the Lacies fell unto the house of Lancaster whose bountie and liberalitie Winburne had good triall of From this Winburne Stoure as it passeth admitteth Alen a little brook over which standeth S. Giles Winburne the habitation of the worshipfull and ancient house of Astleys Knights also Wickhampton the inheritance sometime of the Barons de Maltravers of whom the last in the raigne of Edward the Third left behind him two daughters onely the one wedded unto Iohn de Arundell grandfather to Iohn Earle of Arundell who left unto his posteritie the title of Barons de Maltravers the other wife of Robert Le-Rous and afterwards of Sir Iohn Keines Knight From hence the Stoure passeth on by Canford under which not long ago Iames Lord Montjoy studious in Minerall matters began to make Calcanthum or Vitriol we call it Coperas and to boile Alome And out of which in old time Iohn Earle of Warren to the great disteining of his owne good name and the damage of England tooke as it were by strong hand and carried away as it is to be seene in our Chronicles Dame Alice Lacey the wife of Thomas Earle of Lancaster And now by this time Stoure leaveth Dorsetshire behind him and after hee hath travelled through some part of Hantshire at length taketh up his lodging in the Ocean and yet not before hee hath entertained a pretty river that runneth to Cranburne a place well watered Where in the yeare of Salvation 930. Aelward a noble Gentleman surnamed for his whitenesse Meaw founded a little monasterie which Robert Fitz-Haimon a Norman unto whom fell the possessions of the said Aelward leaving heere one or two Monkes in a cell translated to Theoksbury From whom in order of succession by the Clares Earles of Glocester and Burghs Earles of Ulster it came to Lionell Duke of Clarence and by him to the Crowne But now Cranborne hath his Uicount now Earle of Salisburie whom King Iames for his approved wisedome and worth honored first with the title of Baron or Lord Cecil of Essendon and the next yeare after of Vicount Cranborne South from hence lieth Woodland emparked sometime the seat of the worshipfull family of Filioll the heires whereof were married to Edward Seimor after Duke of Somerset and Willoughby of Wallaton As touching the Earles and Marquesses of this shire King William the Conqueror having now by conquest attained to the Kingdome of England made Osmund that was Earle of Seez in Normandie both Bishop of Sarisbury and afterward also the first Earle of Dorset and his Chancellor highly admiring the godly wisedome of the man and his notable good parts Long after that King Richard the Second in the one and twentieth yeare of his raigne advanced Iohn de Beaufort Iohn of Gaunt his sonne and Earle of Sommerset to be Marquesse Dorset of which dignitie King Henry the Fourth in hatred of Richard the Second deprived him And when as in the high Court of Parliament the Commons of England there assembled who loved him very dearely made earnest intercession that the said dignitie of Marquesse might bee restored unto him hee himselfe distasting this new title and never heard of before those daies utterly refused it And then his younger brother named Thomas Beaufort was created Earle of Dorset who afterward for his warlike prowesse and valour was by King Henrie the Fifth adorned with the title of Duke of Excester and with the Earledome of Harcourt For he valiantly defended Harflew in Normandie against the Frenchmen and in a pitched field encountring the Earle of Armignac put him to flight After he was dead without issue King Henry the Sixth nominated out of the same house of Lancaster Edmund first Earle afterwards Marquesse Dorset and lastly Duke of Somerset whose sonnes being slaine in the civill wars Edward the Fourth when as now the family of Lancaster lay as it were over troden in the dust created Thomas Grey out of the house of Ruthin who was his sonne in law for the King had espoused the mother of the said Grey Marquesse Dorset when in right of his wife he had entred upon a great state and inheritance of the Bonvilles in this country and the territories adjoyning After him succeeded in the same honour Thomas his sonne and Henrie his nephew by the said Thomas who also was created by King Edward the Sixth Duke of Suffolk having wedded Lady Frances daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Neece unto King Henry the Eighth by his sister This Duke in Queene Maries daies being put to death for high treason learned too late how dangerous a thing it is to marrie into the bloud royall and to feed ambitious hopes both in himselfe and in others From that time the title of Dorset was bestowed upon none untill King Iames at his first entrance into this Kingdome exalted Thomas Sackvill Baron of Buckhurst and Lord high Treasurer of England a man of rare wisedome and most carefull providence to the honour of Earle of Dorset who ended his life with suddaine death 1608. and left Robert his sonne his successor who deceasing within the yeare left the said honour againe to Richard his hopefull sonne whom he
puissance about the river Garumna and laying siege to Tolose with fortunate successe terrified not onely those of Province as farre as to Rhosne and the Alpes but also by raising fortresses subduing nations he made the princes of Spaine and France to quake for feare as if he had beene ever more at the point to set upon them all I will also if it please you adjoyne heereto a word or two concerning the same King out of Giraldus Combrensis From the Pyrenean mountaines saith hee unto the Westerne bounds and furthest limits of the North Ocean This our Alexander of the West hath stretched forth his arme As farre therefore as nature in these our parts hath enlarged the land so farre hath hee marched with Victories If the bounds of his expeditions were sought for sooner would the globe of earth faile than they end For where there is a valiant and courageous minde howsoever earth and land faile victories cannot faile well may there bee wanting matter of triumph but triumphs will never bee wanting How great an addition to his glorious titles and triumphs was Ireland with how great valour and praise-worthy prowesse pearced he through the very secrets and hidden places of the Ocean But lo heere an old verse of his death which briefely in one word containeth fully both all this and also the renowne of his sonne King Richard the first Mira cano Sol occubuit nox nulla sequuta est A wonder great the Sunne was set and night there followed none For so farre was King Richard his sonne from bringing darknesse with him that with the beames of his victories atchieved in Cypres and Syria he made our countrey of England most famous and renowned through the world But these are things without our Element Let us returne againe from persons to places This Monastery wherein that noble King Henrie the first was buried is now converted to bee the Kings house which hath adjoyning unto it a very goodly stable stored to the full with princelike and most generous steeds But as touching this place listen also to the Poet describing the Tamis as he passeth heereby Hinc videt exiguam Chawsey properatque videre Redingum nitidum texendis nobile pannis Hoc docet Aelfredi nostri victricia signa Begscegi caedem calcata cadavera Dani Vtque superfuso maduerunt sanguine campi Principis hîc Zephiro Cauroque parentibus ort Cornipides crebris implent binnitibus auras Et gyros ducunt gressus glomerantque superbos Dum cupiunt nostri Martis servire lupatis Haeccine sed pietas heu dira piacula primum Neustrius Henricus situs hîc inglorius urna Nunc jacet erectus tumulum novus advena quaerit Frustra nam regi tenues invidit arenas Auri sacra fames Regum metuenda sepulchris From hence he little Chawsey seeth and hastneth for to see Faire Reading towne a place of name where Cloth's ywoven be This shewes our Aelfrids victorie what time Begsceg was slaine With other Danes whose carcasses lay trampled on the plaine And how the fields ydrenched were with bloud upon them shed Where as the Prince in Stable now hath standing many a steed Of noblest kind that neigh and snort into the aire a lowd Tracing the ring and keeping pace that stately is and prowd Whiles they desire to learne with all in our warres for to serve But where alas is piety Such cursed deeds deserve Purged to be by sacrifice A King of Normans race Henry the first enterred heere now turn'd out of his place An out cast lies dishonoured Who seekes his tombe shall misse For Covetise envied that King the small mould which was his See see how Princes monuments it ransacks where it is Scarce halfe a mile from Reading betwixt most greene and flowring medowes the Kenet is coupled with the Tamis who now runneth with a broader streame by a small village called Sunning which a man would mervaile to have beene the See of eight Bishops who had this shire Wiltshire for their Diocesse yet our Histories report as much the same afterwards by Herman was translated to Shirburne and in the end to Salisburie unto which Bishopricke this place still belongeth Heereby falleth Ladden a small water into the Tamis and not farre off standeth Laurents Waltham where are to be seene the foote foundations of an old fort and divers Romane coines often times digged up and next to it Billingsbere the inhabitation of Sir Henry Nevill issued from the Lords Abergevenny From Sunning the Tamis passeth by Bistleham now called short Bisham at first a Lordship of the Knights Templars then of the Montacutes and amongst them William the first Earle of Salisburie of his familie founded a Priory wherein some say hee was buried Certes his wife the daughter of the Lord Grandison was buried there and in the Inscription of her tombe it was specified that her father was descended out of Burgundie cosin-german to the Emperour of Constantinople the King of Hungary and Duke of Baveire and brought into England by Edmund Earle of Lancaster Now is the possession of Sir Edward Hoby Knight of me especially to be observed whose singular kindnesse toward me the often consideration thereof shall keepe so fresh that it shall never vanish out of my remembrance Tamis having now left Bisham behind it fetcheth it selfe with a compasse about to a little towne named in the former ages Southe-alington afterward Maiden-hith and at this day Maindenhead of the superstitious worshipping of I wote not what British Maidens head one of those eleven thousand Virgins who as they returned from Rome into their country with Vrsula their leader suffered as Martyrs at Colein in Germanie under that scourge of God Attila Neither is this towne of any antiquity for no longer agoe then in our great Grandfathers daies there was a Ferry in a place somewhat higher at Babhams end But after they had built heere a bridge of timber piles it beganne to flourish with Innes and goe beyond her mother Bray hard by which notwithstanding is farre more ancient as having given name to the whole Hundred This parcell of the shire I have beene of opinion that the BIBROCI who yeelded themselves under Cesars protection inhabited in times past And why should I thinke otherwise The reliques of them remaine yet most evidently in the name For BIBRACTE in France is now also drawen shorter into Bray and not far from hence Caesar passed over the Tamis with his armie as I will shew in due place what time as the people of that small Canton put themselves to the devotion of Caesar. Certes If a man should hunt for these Bibroci elsewhere he should I beleeve hardly find them Within this Hundred of the Bibroci Windesore beareth a goodly shew in the Saxon tongue haply of the winding shore called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so it is named downe in the Charter of King Edward the Confessour who in this
forme of words made a grant unto the Monks of Westminster To the praise of almighty God I have granted as an endowment and a perpetuall Inheritance to the use and behoofe of those that serve the Lord Windle-shore with the appurtenances And I have read nothing more ancient concerning Windsore But the Monks had not long held it in possession when William of Normandie by making an exchange drew it backe to himselfe For in this tenure goeth his Charter With the consent and favour of the venerable Abbat of Westminster I have made a composition for Windlesor to be the Kings possession because that place seemed profitable and commodious by reason of water hard adjoyning to it and the wood fit for game many other particulars lying there meet necessary for Kings yea and a place very convenient to receive and entertaine the King in lieu whereof I have granted to the Monks Wokendune and Ferings Surely a Princes seat cannot lightly have a more pleasant site For from an high hill that riseth with a gentle ascent it enjoyeth a most delightfull prospect round about Fore-right in the Front it overlooketh a vale lying out farre and wide garnished with corne-fields flourishing greene with medowes decked with groves on either side and watered with the most mild and calme river Tamis Behind it arise hils every where neither rough nor over-high attired as it were with woods and even dedicated as one would say by nature to hunting game With the pleasantnes of this place Princes were allured very often to retire themselves hither and heere was Edward the Third that most puissant King borne to conquer France who heere built new out of the ground a most strong Castle in bignesse equall to a pretie Citie fortified with ditches and bulwarks made of stone and forthwith after he had subdued the French and Scots held at one and the selfe same time Iohn King of France and David King of Scotland prisoners together in the same This Castle is divided into courts the inner more toward the East containeth in it the Kings pallace than which for the order and contriving there can be no building more lightsome nor more magnificent On the north side where it looketh downe to the river Q. Elizabeth adjoyned a most pleasant Terrace or open walking place The utter base court hath at the very first entrance a most stately Church consecrated by King Edward the Third unto the blessed Virgine Marie and to Saint George of Cappadocia but brought unto that sumptuous magnificence which now we see it carrie by King Edward the fourth and Sir Reginald Bray In this place king Edward the third for to adorne martiall prowesse with honors the guerdon of vertue ordained that most noble order and society of Knights whom as some report for his owne garter given forth as signall of a battaile that sped fortunately hee called Knights of the Garter who weare on their left legge somewhat under the knee a blew garter carying this Impresse wrought with golden letters in French HONY SOIT QVI MALYPENSE and fasten the same with a buckle of gold as with the bond of a most inward society in token of concord and unity that there might bee among them a certaine consociation and communion of vertues But others there be that doe attribute it unto the garter of the Queene or rather of Ioan Countesse of Salisburie a Lady of incomparable beauty which fell from her as shee daunced and the King tooke up from the floore for when a number of Nobles and Gentle men standing by laughed thereat he made answere againe that shortly it would come to passe that garter should be in high honour and estimation This is the common and most received report Neither need this seeme to be a base originall thereof considering how as one saith Nobilitas sub amore jacet Nobility lies under love There be also that would have the invention of this order to be much more ancient fathering it upon King Richard the first and are verily perswaded that King Edward at length brought it into use againe but how truely I know not Yet in the verie booke of the first Institution which William Dethicke Garter principall King of armes a Gentleman most studious in all such things as concerne Honour shewed unto me thus we read Richardo cum contra Turcas Agarenos c. that is when K. Richard warred upon the Turkes and Saracens Cypres and Acon and was wearie of so lingring delay whiles the siege continued long in wonderfull care anxiety at length upon a divine inspiration by the comming in apparition as it was thought of S. George it came into his mind to draw upon the legs of certaine choise Knights of his a certaine Garter or tach of leather such onely as he had then readie at hand whereby they being distinguished and put in minde of future glorie promised unto them if they wonne the victorie they might be stirred up and provoked to performe their service bravely and fight more valiantly in imitation of the Romans who had such varietie of Coronets wherewith militarie men for divers and sundry causes were rewarded accordingly to the end that by these instigations as it were cowardise being shaken of the valour of mind and courage of heart might arise and shew it selfe more resolute But upon what occasion soever it beganne the mightiest Princes of Christendome reputed it amongst their greatest honour to be chosen and admitted into this companie and since the first institution thereof there have been alreadie received and enrolled into this order which consisteth of six and twentie Knights two and twentie Kings or thereabout besides our Kings of England who are named Soveraignes thereof to speake nothing of Dukes and others of most high calling verie many And here I am willing to set downe their names that were first chosen into this order and be commonly called the Founders of the Order for their renowne is not to be abolished who in those daies for stowt courage and warlike prowesse had few or no peeres and were in that regard advanced to this honour Edward the Third King of England Edward his eldest Sonne Prince of Wales Henrie Duke of Lancaster Thomas Earle of Warwicke The Capdall de Buch. Ralph Earle of Stafford William de Monteacute Earle of Sarisburie Roger Mortimer Earle of March Sir Iohn Lisle Sir Bartholomew Burgwash Sir Iohn Beauchampe Sir Iohn Mohun Sir Hugh Courtney Sir Thomas Holland Sir Iohn Grey Sir Richard Fitz Simon Sir Miles Stapleton Sir Thomas Walle Sir Hugh Wrothesley Sir Neel Loring Sir Iohn Chandos Sir Iames Awdeley Sir Otes Holland Sir Henrie Eme. Sir Zanchet D'brigecourt Sir Walter Pavely On the left side of the Church are the houses of the Custos or Deane and twelve Prebendaries On the right side standeth an house not unlike to the Graecians Prytaneum wherein twelve aged militarie men Gentlemen borne are maintained who wearing every day a red or skarlet
memory I will briefly runne them over Neere to Linne upon an high hill standeth Rising-castle almost marchable to the Castle of Norwich the seat in times past of the Albineys afterwards of Robert de Monthault by one of the sisters and coheires of Hugh Albiney Earle of Arundell and at last the mansion place of the Mowbrays who as I have learned came out of the same house that the Albineys did But now after long languishings as it were by reason of old age the said Castle hath given up the ghost Below it is Castle-acre where was sometimes the habitation of the Earles of Warren in a Castle now halfe downe on a little Rivers side which carrying no name ariseth not farre from Godwicke a lucky good name where there stands a small house but greatly graced by the Lord thereof Sir Edward Coke Knight a man of rare endowments of nature and as in the Common lawes much practised so of deepe insight therein which all England both tooke knowledge of whiles hee discharged the function of Atturney Generall many yeares most learnedly and now acknowledgeth whiles being Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas he administreth justice as uprightly and judiciously Neither is he lesse to be remembred for that he loveth learning and hath well deserved of the present and succeeding ages by his learned labours This Riveret or brooke with a small streame and shallow water runneth Westward to Linne by Neirford that gave name to the Family of the Neirfords famous in times past and by Neirborrough where neere unto the house of the Spilmans knights upon a very high hill is to be seene a warlike Fort of passing great strength and of ancient worke so situated as it hath a very faire prospect into the Country about it After upon the said Brooke is seated Penteney a prety Abbay the ordinary buriall place in ancient time of the Noblemen and Gentlemen in this Tract Neere unto it lieth Wormegay commonly Wrongey which Reginald de Warren brother of William de Warren the second Earle of Surry had with his wife of whom as I have read the said Earle had the donation or Maritagium as they use to speake in the law phrase and by his sonnes daughter streightwayes it was transferred to the Bardolphs who being Barons of great nobility flourished a long time in honorable state and bare for their Armes Three Cinque-foiles or in a Shield Azâ—r The greatest part of whose Inheritance together with the Title came to Sir William Phellips and by his daughter passed away to the Vicount Beaumont More Eastward are seated Swaffham a Mercat Towne of good note sometime the Possession of the Earle of Richmond Ashele Manour by Tenure whereof the Hastings and Greies Lords of Ruthin had the charge of table clothes and linnen used at the solemne Coronation of the Kings of England North Elmham the Bishops See for a good time when as this Province was divided into two Dioceses Dereham wherein Withburga King Annas daughter was buried whom because shee was piously affected farre from all riotous excesse and wanton lightnesse our Ancestours accounted for a Saint Next unto which is Greshenhall and adjoyning thereto Elsing the possessions in ancient time of the Folliots men of great worth and Dignity which in right of dowry came by a daughter of Richard Folliot to Sir Hugh de Hastings descended out of the Family of Abergevenny and at length by the daughters and heires of Hastings the last Greshenhall aforesaid fell unto Sir Hamon le Strange of Hunstanton and Elsing unto William Browne the brother of Sir Antonie Browne the first Vicount Mount-acute In this quarter also is Ick-borrough which Talbot supposeth to have beene that ICIANI whereof Antonine speaketh Neither have I cause to write any more of these places And now I thinke it is good time to set downe the Earles and Dukes of Northfolke that I may proceed to Cambridgeshire William the Conquerour made one Raulph Governour of east-East-England that is to say of Norfolke Suffolke and Cambridgeshire who forthwith gaping as I said after an alteration and change in the State was dispossessed of that place After certaine yeares in the Raigne of Stephen Hugh Bigod was Earle of Norfolke For when peace was concluded betweene Stephen and Henry Duke of Anjou who became afterwards King Henry the second by expresse words it was provided that William King Stephens sonne should have the whole Earledome of Norfolke excepting among other things The third peny of that County whereof Hugh Bigod was Earle Whom notwithstanding King Henry the Second created Earle againe of the third peny of Norfolke and Norwich Who dying about the 27. yeare of Henry the Second Roger his sonne succeeded who for what cause I know not obtained at the hands of King Richard the first a new Charter of his creation Him succeeded his sonne Hugh who tooke to his wife Mawde the eldest daughter and one of the heires of William Marescall Earle of Pembroch By whom he had issue one sonne named Roger Earle of Norfolke and Marescall of England who at Tournament having his bones put out of joint died without issue and another called Hugh Bigod Lord chiefe Justice of England slaine in the battaile of Lewis whose sonne Roger succeeded his Uncle in the Earldome of Norfolke and dignity of Marescall but having incurred through his insolent contumacy the high displeasure of King Edward the First was compelled to passe away his honors and well neere his whole inheritance into the Kings hands to the use of Thomas of Brâ—therton the Kings son whom he had begotten of his second wife Margaret sister to Philip the Faire King of France For thus reporteth the History out of the Library of Saint Austens in Canterbury In the yeare 1301. Roger Bigod Earle of Norfolke ordained King Edward to bee his heire and hee delivered into his hands the rod of the Marshals Office with this condition that if his wife brought him any children he should without all contradiction receive againe all from the King and hold it peaceably as before and the King gave unto him a 1000. pounds in money and a thousand pound land during his life together with the Marshalship and the Earldome But when he was departed this life without issue King Edward the Second honoured the said Thomas of Brotherton his brother according to the conveiance aforesaid with the Titles of Marshall and Earle of Norfolke Whose daughter Margaret called Marshallesse and Countesse of Norfolke wife to Iohn Lord Segrave king Richard the Second created in her absence Dutchesse of Norfolke for terme of life and the same day created Thomas Mowbray the daughters sonne of the said Margaret then Earle of Notingham the first Duke of Norfolke To him and his heires males unto whom he had likewise granted before the State and stile of Earle Marshall of England This is hee that before the king was challenged and accused by Henry of Lancaster Duke
of Hereford for uttering inconsiderately certaine reprochfull and derogatory words against the king And when they were to fight a combat at the very barre and entry of the Lists by the voice of an Herauld it was proclaimed in the kings name That both of them should be banished Lancaster for ten yeares and Mowbray for ever who afterwards ended his life at Venice leaving two sonnes behind him in England Of which Thomas Earle Marshall and of Nottingham for no other Title used hee was beheaded for seditious plotting against Henry of Lancaster who now had possessed himselfe of the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth But his brother and heire John who through the favour of King Henry the Fifth was raised up and for certaine yeares after called onely Earle Marshall and of Nottingham at last in the very beginning of Henry the Sixth his Raigne By authority of Parliament and by vertue of the Patent granted by King Richard the Second was declared Duke of Norfolke as being the sonne of Thomas Duke of Norfolke his father and heire to Thomas his brother After him succeeded John his sonne who died in the first yeare of Edward the Fourth and after him likewise John his sonne who whiles his father lived was created by King Henry the Sixth Earle of Surry and of Warren Whose onely daughter Anne Richard Duke of Yorke the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth tooke to wife and together with her received of his father the Titles of Duke of Norfolke Earle Marshall Earle of Warren and Nottingham But after that he and his wife both were made away in their tender yeares Richard the Third King of England conferred this Title of the Duke of Norfolke and the dignity of Earle Marshall upon John Lord Howard who was found next cozen in bloud and one of the heires to the said Anne Dutchesse of Yorke and Norfolke as whose mother was one of the daughters of that first Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke and who in the time of King Edward the Fourth was summoned a Baron to the Parliament This John lost his life at Bosworth field fighting valiantly in the quarrell of King Richard against King Henry the Seventh His sonne Thomas who being by King Richard the Third created Earle of Surry and by King Henry the Seventh made Lord Treasurer was by King Henry the Eighth restored to the Title of Duke of Norfolke and his sonne the same day created Earle of Surry after that by his conduct James the fourth King of the Scots was slaine and the Scottish power vanquished at Branxton In memoriall of which Victory the said King granted to him and his heires males for ever that they should beare in the midst of the Bend in the Howards Armes the whole halfe of the upper part of a Lion Geules pierced through the mouth with an arrow in the due colours of the Armes of the King of Scots I translate it verbatim out of the Patent After him succeeded his sonne Thomas as well in his honours as in the Office of Lord Treasurer of England and lived to the time of Queene Mary tossed to and fro betweene the reciprocall ebbes and flowes of fortune whose grand sonne Thomas by his sonne Henry the first of the English Nobility that did illustrate his high birth with the beauty of learning being attainted for purposing a marriage with Mary the Queene of Scots lost his life in the yeare of our Lord 1572. and was the last Duke of Norfolke Since which time his off-spring lay for a good while halfe dead but now watered and revived with the vitall dew of King James reflourisheth very freshly In this Province there be Parish Churches about 660. CAMBRIDGE Comitatus quem olim ICENI Insederunt CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE called in the English-Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lyeth more inward and stretched out in length Northward On the East it butteth upon Northfolke and Suffolke on the South upon the East-Saxons or Essexe and Hertfordshire on the West upon Bedford and Huntingdon shires and Northward upon Lincoln-shire being divided into two parts by the river Ouse which crosseth it over-thwart from West to East The lower and South-part is better manured and therefore more plentifull being some-what a plaine yet not altogether levell for the most part or all of it rather save onely where it bringeth forth saffron is laid out into corne fields and yeeldeth plentifully the best barly of which steeped in water and lying wet therein untill it spurt againe then after the said sprout is full come dried and parched over a Kill they make store of mault By venting and sending out whereof into the neighbor-countries the Inhabitants raise very great gaine The farther and Northerne part because it is Fennish ground by reason of the many flouds that the rivers cause and so dispersed into Islands is called The Isle of Ely a tract passing greene fresh and gay by reason of most plenteous pastures howbeit after a sort hollow by occasion of the water that in some places secretly entreth in yea and otherwhile when it overfloweth surroundeth most part of it Along the West side of the lower part runneth one of the two highwayes made by the Romans Ely booke calleth it Ermingstreet which passeth forth right to Hâ—ntingdon through Roiston that standeth in the very edge and entry of the Shire a towne well knowne yet but of late built whereof I have already spoken also by Caxton in times past the seate of the Barony of Stephen de Eschalâ—ers and from whose Posterity in the reigne of King Henry the Third it descended to the Frevills and from them by the Burgoins to the Iermins Neither is Gamlinghay far distant from hence where dwelt the Avenells whose Inheritance came by marriage to the ancient Family of Saint George out of which there flourished many Knights since the time of King Henry the First at Hatley which of them is called Hatley Saint George Above Caxton before mentioned is Eltesley where was in elder Ages a Religious house of Holy Virgines among whom was celebrated the incertaine memory of Saint Pandionia the daughter of a Scottish King as the tradition is But long since they were translated to Hinchinbroke And againe above Eltesley was the Priory of Swasey founded for blacke Monkes by Alan la Zouch brother to the Vicount of Rohan in the Lesser Britaine and was the common Sepulture a long time for the Family of Zouch More Westward a little river runneth through the middle of this part which issuing downe out of Ashwel hastneth from South to North with many turnings to joyn it selfe with the Ouse running by Shengay where be the goodliest medows of this Shire a Commandery in old time of the Knights Templars which Shengay Sibyl the daughter of Roger Mont-gomery Earle of Shrewsbury and wife of I. de Raines gave unto them in the yeere 1130. nor farre from Burne Castle in ancient times the Barony of
Shrop-shire adjoyning and held that I may note so much by the way the Hamelet of Lanton in chiefe as of the Honour of Montgomery by the service of giving to the King a barbdheaded Arrow whensoever he commeth into those parts to hunt in Cornedon Chace Lugg hasteneth now to Wy first by Hampton where that worthy Knight Sir Rouland Lenthal who being Maister of the Wardrobe unto King Henry the Fourth had married one of the heires of Thomas Earle of Arundell built a passing faire house which the Coningsberes men of good worship and great name in this tract have now a good long time inhabited then by Marden and Southton or Sutton of which twaine Sutton sheweth some small remaines of King Offaes Palace so infamous for the murdering of Ethelbert and Marden is counted famous for the Tombe of the said Ethelbert who had lien heere a long time without any glorious memoriall before that he was translated to Hereford Neere unto the place where Lugg and Wy meete together Eastward a hill which they call Marcley hill in the yeere of our redemption 1571. as though it had wakened upon the suddaine out of a deepe sleepe roused it selfe up and for the space of three daies together mooving and shewing it selfe as mighty and huge an heape as it was with roring noise in a fearefull sort and overturning all things that stood in the way advanced it selfe forward to the wonderous astonishment of the beholders by that kinde of Earthquake which as I deeme naturall Philosophers call Brasmatias And not farre from this hill toward the East also under Malvern hills which in this place bound the East part of this shire standeth Ledbury upon the River Ledden a Towne well knowne which Edwin the Saxon a man of great power gave unto the Church of Hereford being assuredly perswaded that by Saint Ethelberts intercession he was delivered from the Palsey Touching the Military fort on the next hill I need not to speake seeing that in this tract which was in the Marches and the ordinary fighting ground plot first betweene the Romanes and Britans afterwards betweene the Britains and the English such holds and entrenchments are to be seene in many places But Wy now carrying a full streame after it hath entertained Lugg runneth downe with more bendings and bowings first by Holm Lacy the feate of the ancient and noble Family of Scudamore unto which accrewed much more worship by marriage with an heire out of the race of Ewias in this shire and Huntercombe c. else where From hence passeth Wy downe betweene Rosse made a free Burrough by King Henry the Third now well knowne by reason of iron Smiths and Wilton over against it a most ancient Castle of the Greis whence so many worthy Barons of that name have drawne their originall This was built as men say by Hugh de Long-champ but upon publique and certaine credit of Records it appeareth that King John gave Wilton with the Castle to H. de Longchamp and that by marriage it fell to William Fitz-Hugh and likewise not long after to Reinold Grey in the daies of King Edward the first Now when Wy hath a little beneath saluted Goderick Castle which King John gave unto William Earle Mareschall and was afterward for a time the principall seate of the Talbots hee speedeth himselfe to Monmouth-shire and bids Hereford-shire farewell When the state of the English-Saxons was now more than declining to the downe-fall Ralph sonne to Walter Medantinus by Goda King Edward the Confessoursâ— sister governed this Countie as an Official Earle but the infamous for base cowardise was by William the Conquerour remooved and William Fitz-Osbern of Crepon a martiall Norman who had subdued the Isle of Wight and was neere allied to the Dukes of Normandy was substituted in his place When he was slaine in assistance of the Earle of Flanders his sonne Roger surnamed De Bretevill succeeded and soone after for conspiracie against the Conquerour was condemned to perpetuall prison and therein died leaving no lawfull issue Then King Stephen granted to Robert Le Bossu Earle of Leicester who had married Emme or Itta as some call her heire of Bretevill to use the words of the Graunt the Burrough of Hereford with the Castle and the whole County of Hereford but all in vaine For Maude the Empresse who contended with King Stephen for the Crowne advanced Miles the sonne of Walter Constable of Glocester unto this Honour and also graunted to him Constabulariam Curiae suae i. The Constableship of her Court whereupon his posteritie were Constables of England as the Marshalship was graunted at the first by the name of Magistratus Marescalsiae Curiaenostrae Howbeit Stephen afterwards stript him out of these Honours which he had received from her This Miles had five sonnes Roger Walter Henry William and Mahel men of especiall note who were cut off every one issuelesse by untimely death after they had all but William succeeded one another in their Fathers inheritance Unto Roger King Henry the Second among other things gave The Mote of Hereford with the whole Castle and the third peny issuing out of the revenewes of Plees of the whole County of Hereford whereof he made him Earle But after Roger was deceased the same King if wee may beleeve Robert Abbot De Monte kept the Earledome of Hereford to himselfe The eldest sister of these named Margaret was married to Humfrey Bohun the third of that name and his heires were high Constables of England namely Humfrey Bohun the Fourth Henry his sonne unto whom King Iohn graunted twenty pounds yeerely to be received out of the third penny of the County of Hereford whereof he made him Earle This Henry married the sister and heire of William Mandevill Earle of Essex and died in the fourth yeere of Henry the Third his reigne Humfrey the Fifth his sonne who was also Earle of Essex whose sonne Humfrey the Sixth of that forename died before his Father having first begotten Humfrey the Seventh by a daughter and one of the heires of William Breos Lord of Brecknock His sonne Humfrey the Eighth was slaine at Burrowbrig leaving by Elizabeth his wife daughter unto King Edward the First and the Earle of Hollands widow among other children namely Iohn Bohun Humfrey the Ninth both Earles of Hereford and Essex and dying without issue and William Earle of Northampton unto whom Elizabeth a daughter and one of the heires of Giles Lord Badlesmer bare Humfrey Bohun the Tenth and last of the Bohuns who was Earle of Hereford Essex and Northampton Constable besides of England who left two Daughters Aeleonor the Wife of Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester and Mary wedded to Henry of Lancaster Earle of Darby who was created Duke of Hereford and afterwards Crowned King of England But after this Edward Stafford last Duke of Buckingham was stiled Earle of Hereford for that hee descended from Thomas
County of YORKE in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly YORKE-SHIRE the greatest Shire by farre of all England is thought to bee in a temperate measure fruitfull If in one place there bee stony and sandy barraine ground in another place there are for it Corne-fields as rich and fruitfull if it bee voide and destitute of Woods heere you shall finde it shadowed there with most thicke Forests so providently useth Nature such a temperature that the whole Countrey may seeme by reason also of that variety more gracefull and delectable Where it bendeth Westward it is bounded with the Hilles I spake of from Lancashire and Westmorland On the North side it hath the Bishopricke of Durham which the River Tees with a continued course separateth from it On the East side the Germaine Sea lieth sore upon it and the South side is enclosed first with Cheshire and Darby-shire then with Nottingham-shire and after with Lincoln-shire where that famous arme of the Sea Humber floweth betweene into which all the Rivers well neere that water this shire empty themselves as it were into their common receptacle This whole Shire is divided into three parts which according to three Quarters of the world are called The West-Riding The East-Riding and The North-Riding West-Riding for a good while is compassed in with the River Ouse with the bound of Lancashire and with the South limits of the shire and beareth toward the West and South East-Riding looketh to the Sunne-rising and the Ocean which together with the River Derwent encloseth it North-Riding reacheth Northward hemmed in as it were with the River Tees with Derwent and a long race of the River Ouse In that West part out of the Westerne Mountaines or Hilles in the Confines issue many Rivers which Ouse alone entertaineth every one and carryeth them all with him unto Humber Neither can I see any fitter way to describe this part than to follow the streames of Done Calder Are Wherse Nid and Ouse which springing out of these Hilles are the Rivers of most account and runne by places likewise of greatest importance The River Danus commonly called Don and Dune so termed as it should seeme for that it is carried in a chanell somewhat flat shallow and low by the ground for so much signifieth Dan in the British language after it hath saluted Wortley which gave sirname to a worshipfull Family as also Wentworth hard by whence beside other Gentlemen as well in this Country as elsewhere the Barons of Wentworth have derived both their originall and name runneth first by Sheafield a Towne of great name like as other small Townes adjoyning for the Smithes therein considering there bee many iron Mines thereabout fortified also with a strong and ancient Castle which in right line descended from the Lovetofts the Lords Furnivall and Thomas Lord Nevill of Furnivall unto the Talbots Earles of Shrewesbury From thence Don clad with alders and other trees goeth to Rotheram which glorieth in Thomas Rotheram sometime Archbishop of Yorke a wise man bearing the name of the Towne being borne therein and a singular benefactor thereunto who founded and endowed there a College with three Schooles in it to teach children writing Grammar and Musicke which the greedy iniquity of these our times hath already swallowed Then looketh it up to Connisborrow or Conines-borrough an ancient Castle in the British tongue Caer Conan seated upon a Rocke into which what time as Aurelius Ambrosius had so discomfited and scattered the English Saxons at Maisbelly that they tooke them to their heeles and fled every man the next way hee could finde Hengest their Captaine retired himselfe for safety and few daies after brought his men forth to battaile before the Captaine against the Britans that pursued him where hee fought a bloudy field to him and his For a great number of men were there cut in peeces and the Britans having intercepted him chopt off his head if wee may beleeve the British History rather than the English-Saxon Chronicles which report that he being outworne with travell and labour died in peace But this Coningsborough in latter ages was the possession of the Earles of Warren Afterwards hee runneth under Sprotburg the ancient seat of that ancient family of the Fitz-Williams Knights who are most honourably allied and of kin to the noblest houses of England and from whom descended Sir William Fitz-Williams Earle of Southampton in our fathers remembrance and Sir William Fitz-Williams late Lord Deputy of Ireland But in processe of time this is fallen to the Copleys like as Elmesly with other possessions of theirs in this Tract are come by right of inheritance to the Savils From hence Done running with a divided streame hard to an old towne giveth it his owne name which we at this day call Dan-castre the Scots Don-Castle the Saxons Dona 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ninius Caer Daun but Antonine the Emperour DANUM like as the booke of Notices which hath recorded that the Captaine of the Crispinian Horsemen lay there in Garison under the Generall of Britaine This about the yeere of our Lord 759. was so burnt with fire from heaven and lay so buried under the owne ruines that it could scarce breath againe A large plot it sheweth yet where a Citadell stood which men thinke was then consumed with fire in which place I saw the Church of S. Georges a faire Church and the onely Church they have in the Towne Beneath this Towne Southward scarce five miles off is Tickhill which I am not willing to omit an old towne fensed with as old a Castle large enough but having onely a single Wall about it and with an high Mount whereon standeth a round Keepe It carryed in old time such a Dignity with it that the Manours and Lords belonging thereto were called The Honour of Tickhill In the Raigne of Henry the First Roger Busly held the possession thereof Afterwards the Earles of Ewe in Normandy were long since Lords of it by the gift of King Stephen Then King Richard the First gave it unto John his brother In the Barons Warre Robert de Vipont deteined it for himselfe which that hee should deliver unto the Earle of Ewe King Henry the Third put into his hands the Castle of Carleol and the County But when the King of France would not restore unto the English againe their possessions in France the King of England retained it unto himselfe when as John Earle of Ewe in the right of Alice his great Grandmother claimed of King Edward the First restitution thereof At length Richard the Second King of England liberally gave it unto John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster But now by this time Done that often riseth heere and overfloweth the fields gathering his divided waters into one streame againe when he hath for a while runne in one Chanell through Hatfeld Chace where there is great
when his first wife Avelina daughter and heire to William de Fortibus Earle of Albemarle was dead issuelesse who neverthelesse in her Will had made him her heire married Blanch of Artois of the roiall family of France to his second wife and by her had Thomas Henry and John that died an infant Thomas was the second Earle of Lancaster who tooke to wife Alice the onely daughter and heire of Henry Lacy Earle of Lincolne who by her deed passed over unto the house of Lancaster her owne inheritance and her mothers that which belonged to the family of Long Espee who were Earles of Salisbury like as her father the said Henry Lacy had made the like conveiance before of his owne lands in case Alice should dye without issue as it afterward happened But this Thomas for behaving himselfe insolently toward his soveraigne Edward the second and still supplying fewell to civill warres being taken prisoner in the field lost his head leaving no issue Howbeit when this sentence of death pronounced against him was afterwards by authority of Parliament reversed because hee had not his tryall by his Peeres according to the Law and great Charter his brother Henry succeeded after him in all his possessions and honours Hee also was advanced in estate by his wife Maude daughter and sole heire of Sir Patricke Chaworth who brought unto him not onely her owne patrimony but also great inheritances in Wales of Mauric of London and of Siward from whom she descended This Henry left behind him Henry his onely sonne whom King Edward the third from an Earle raised unto the honour of a Duke and he was second man of all our Nobility which received the name of Duke But hee having no issue male departed this life leaving behind him two daughters Maude and Blanch betweene whom the inheritance was divided Maud was married to William of Bavaria who was Earle of Holland Zeland Frisland Henault and in his wives right of Leicester And when as she deceased without children John of Gaunt so called because hee was borne at Gaunt in Flanders fourth sonne of King Edward the third who had married Blanch the other daughter of Henry aforesaid entred upon the whole inheritance and now being for wealth equivalent to many Kings and created withall by his father Duke of Lancaster he obtained also at his hands great roialties for hee having related what noble service he had performed to his countrey at home and abroad in the warres preferred the County of Lancaster to the dignity of a County Palatine by his letters Patent the tenour whereof runneth in this wise Wee have granted for us and our heires unto our foresaid sonne that he may have for tearme of his life his Chancery within the County of Lancaster and his writs to be sealed under his own seale to be appointed for the office of the Chancellour also Iustices of his owne as well to hold Plees of the Crowne as also other plees whatsoever touching common Law also the hearing and deciding of the same yea and the making of all executions whatsoever by vertue of their owne writs and officers there Moreover all other liberties and Roialties whatsoever to a County Palatine belonging as freely and in as ample maner as the Earle of Chester within the same County of Chester is known to have c. Neither was he Duke of Lancaster onely but also by his marriage with Constance the daughter of Peter King of Leon and Castile hee for a time was stiled by the name of King of Leon and of Castile But by a composition he gave this over and in the thirteenth yeere of King Richard the Second by consent of Parliament was created Duke of Aquitaine to have and hold the same for tearme of life of the King of England as King of France but to the universall dislike of Aquitaine repining and affirming that their Seigniory was inseparably annexed to the Crowne of England At which time his stile ranne thus Iohn sonne to the King of England Duke of Aquitaine and of Lancaster Earle of Derby Lincolne and Leicester and high Steward of England After him Henry of Bollinbroke his sonne succeeded in the Dukedome of Lancaster who when hee had dispossessed Richard the second and obtained the Kingdom of England he considering that being now King he could not beare the title of Duke of Lancaster and unwilling that the said title should be discontinued ordained by assent of Parliament that Henry his eldest sonne should enjoy the same and be stiled Prince of Wales Duke of Aquitain Lancaster and Cornwall and Earle of Chester and also that the liberties and franchises of the Dutchy of Lancaster should remaine to his said sonne severed from the Crowne of England and to make better assurance to himselfe his heires and successours in these inheritances by authority of Parliament he ordained in these words We not willing that our said inheritance or the liberties of the same by occasion of this present assumption upon us of our regall state dignity should be in any thing changed transferred diminished or impaired will that the same our inheritance with the foresaid rights and liberties thereof be kept continued and held fully and wholly to us our said heires in the said Charters specified in the same maner and forme condition and state as they descended and came unto us and also with all and every such liberties and franchises and other priviledges commodities and profits whatsoever in which our Lord and father whiles he lived had and held it for terme of his own life by the grant of Richard late King And by the tenour of these presents of our own certaine knowledge with the consent of this our present Parliament we grant declare decree and ordaine for us and our heires that as well our Dutchy of Lancaster as all other things and every one Counties Honours Castles Manours Fees or Inheritances Advocations Possessions Annuities and Seignories whatsoever descended unto us before the obtaining of our Regall dignity howsoever wheresoever by right of inheritance in service or in reversion or any way whatsoever remaine for ever to us and our said heires specified in the Charters abovesaid in forme aforesaid After this K. Henry the fifth by authority of Parliament dissevered from the crown and annexed unto this Dutchy a very great and large inheritance which had descended unto him in right of his mother Dame Mary who was daughter and one of the heires of Humfrey Bohun Earle of Hereford In this forme and estate it remained under Henry the fifth and Henry the sixth but King Edward the fourth in the first yeere of his reigne when hee had in Parliament attainted and forfeited Henry the sixth appropriated it as they use to speake unto the Crowne that is to say unto himselfe and his heires Kings of England From which King Henry the seventh notwithstanding forthwith separated And so it continueth having severall officers namely A Chancellor
either by dint of sword conquered or by surrender gat the whole into his owne hands and was the first that was stiled Earle of Ulster but when his great exploits and fortunate archievements had wrought him such envie that through his owne vertues and other mens vices he was banished out of the Realme Hugh Lacy the second sonne of Hugh Lacy Lord of Meth who had commandement to pursue him by force and armes was by King John appointed his successour being created Earle of Ulster by the sword of which honour notwithstanding the same King afterward deprived him for his tumultuous insolency and hee was in the end received into favour againe But for the sounder testimony hereof it were good to exemplifie the same word for word out of the records of Ireland Hugh de Lacy sometime Earle of Ulster held all Ulster exempt and separate from all other counties whatsoever of the Kings of England in chiefe by service of three Knights so often as the Kings service was proclaimed and be held all Pleas in his owne Court that pertaine to a Iustice and Sheriffe and held a Court of Chancery of his own c. And afterward all Ulster came into the hands of our Soveraigne Lord K. Iohn by the forfeiture of the foresaid Hugh unto whom after that K. Henry the third demised it for terme of the said Hughs life And when Hugh was deceased Walter de Burgo did that service unto Lord Edward K. Henries son Lord of Ireland before he was King And the same Lord Edward feoffed the aforesaid Walter in the said land of Ulster to have and to hold unto the same Walter and to his heires by the service aforesaid as freely and wholly as the above named Hugh de Lacy held it excepting the advowsons of Cathedrall Churches and the demesne of the same also the Pleas of the Crowne to wit Rape Forstall Firing and Treasure Trouve which our soveraigne Lord K. Edward retained to himselfe and his heires This Walter de Burgo who was Lord of Conaght and Earle of Ulster begat of the only daughter of Hugh de Lacy Richard Earle of Ulster who after hee had endured many troubles and calamities died in the yeere 1326. Richard had issue Iohn de Burgo who departed this life before his father having begotten upon Elizabeth sister and one of the heires of Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William who succeeded after his grandfather This William being slain by his own men when he was young left behind him a little daughter his only child who being married unto Leonell Duke of Clarence bare one daughter likewise the wife of Edmund Mortimer Earle of March by whom the Earledome of Ulster and Seigniory of Conaght came unto the Mortimers and from them together with the kingdome of England unto the house of Yorke and afterward Edward the fourth King of England adjoined it unto the Kings Domaine or Crowne land And when as at the same time England was divided into sides and factions whiles the civill warre grew hot and the English that abode here returned out of Ulster into England to follow the factions O-Neal and others of Irish blood seized these countries into their own hands and brought them to such wildnesse and savage barbarisme as it exceeded In so much as this province which in times past paied a mighty masse of money unto their Earles scarcely ever since yeelded any coin at all unto the Kings of England And verily in no one thing whatsoever pardon this my over-boldnesse have the Kings of England beene more defective in piety and policie than that they have for these so many ages seen so slightly to this Province yea and to all Ireland in the propagation of religion establishing the weale publike and reducing the life of the inhabitants to civility whether it was for carelesse neglect sparing or a fore-cast of dammage or some reason of state I am not able to say But that the same may be no longer thus neglected it seemeth of it selfe by good right to importune most earnestly being an Iland so great so neere a neigbour so fruitfull in soile so rich in pastures more than credible beset with so many woods enriched with so many mineralls if they were searched watered with so many rivers environed with so many havens lying so fit and commodious for failing into most wealthy countries and thereby like to bee for impost and custome very profitable and to conclude breeding and rearing men so abundantly as it doth who considering either their mindes or their bodies might be of singular emploiment for all duties and functions as well of warre as of peace if they were wrought and conformed to orderly civility I Intimated even now that I would speak touching the O-Neals who carried themselves as Lords of Ulster and I promised not long since a friend of mine that I would write of their rebellions raised in our age And verily I will performe my promise to his Manes whom whiles he lived I observed with all respect and being now in heaven I will not forget Thus much onely I will promise by way of Preface that I have compendiously collected these matters out of my Annales and here conjoined them which there are severed and divided according to their severall times and withall that whatsoever I shall write is not upon uncertaine rumours but gathered summarily from out oâ— their owne hand writings who managed those affaires and were present in the actions And this will I doe with so sincere an affection to the truth and so uncorrupt fidelity that I doubt not but I shall have thanks at their hands who love the truth and desire to understand the late affaires of Ireland and not incurre the blame of any unlesse they be such as having done ill take it not well if themselves be accordingly censured THE O-NEALES AND THEIR REBELLIONS IN OUR TIME TO say nothing of that GREAT NEALE who ruled by force and armes in Ulster and a great part of Ireland before the comming of Saint Patricke nor of those in the middle times who were but of meane note and memoriall to speake of this family after the arrivall of the English in Ireland lay close and obscure in remote lurking corners unlesse it were when Edward Brus brother to Robert King of Scotland named himselfe King of Ireland For then in a troublesome time Dovenald O-Neale started and rowsed himselfe out of his lurking holes and in his missives unto the Pope used this title in his stile Dovenald O-Neale King of Ulster and in right of inheritance the undoubted heire of all Ireland But after these stirres and troubles were laid this new King soone vanished away and Dovenalds posterity pluckt in their hornes and hid their heads untill that whiles England was all in a combustion kindled by the furious firebrands of civill warres betweene the houses of Yorke and Lancaster for the Imperiall Crowne those English that served and lived here abandoning Ulster and
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
and the most Noble so with our Ancestors the English-Saxons hee was named in their tongue Aetheling that is Noble and in Latine Clito of the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Glorious or Excellent see how that age affected the Greeke Language And hereupon of that Eadgar the last heire male of the English bloud royall this old said saw is yet rife in every mans mouth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And in the ancient latine Patents and Charters of the Kings wee read often times Ego E. vel Ae. Clyto Regis filius But this addition Clyto I have observed to be given even to all the Kings sonnes After the Norman conquest no certaine or speciall title of honour was assigned unto him nor any other to my knowledge than singly thus The Kings sonne and The first begotten of the King of England untill that Edward the first summoned unto the high Court of Parliament his sonne Edward by the name of Prince of Wales and Earle of Chester unto whom he granted afterwards the Dukedome also of Aquitain like as the same Prince being now King Edward the Second called unto the Parliament his young sonne Edward not full ten yeeres old by the title of Earle of Chester and of Flint But the said Edward having now attained to the Crowne and being Edward the Third created Edward his sonne a most valiant and renowned man of warre Duke of Cornwall Since which time the Kings first begotten sonne is reputed Duke of Cornewall at the houre of his birth And soone after he adorned the same sonne by solemne investure and creation with the title of Prince of Wales And gave the Principality of Wales in these words To be held of him and his heires Kings of England And as the declared or elect Successours of the Roman Empire as I said even now were named Caesares of the Greekish Empire Despotae of the Kingdome of France Dolphins and of Spaine Infants so from thence forward the Heires apparant of the Kingdome of England were entituled Princes of Wales And this title continued unto the daies of Henrie the Eight when Wales was fully united to the Kingdome of England But now whereas the Kingdomes of Britaine formerly divided are by the happy good luck and rightfull title of the most mighty Prince King Iames growen into one his Eldest sonne Henrie the Lovely Ioy and Dearling of Britaine is stiled PRINCE OF GREAT BRITAINE who as he is borne thus to the greatest hopes so all Britaine from one end to the other prayeth uncessantly from the very heart that God would vouchsafe to blesse him with the greatest vertues and continuance of honour that hee may by many degrees and that most happily exceede our hope surpasse the noble Acts of his Progenitours yea and outlive their yeeres As for our Nobilitie or Gentry it is divided into Superiour and Inferiour The Superiour or chiefe Noblemen we call Dukes Marquesses Earles and Barons which have received these titles from the Kings of this Realme for their Vertue and Prowesse DVKE is the chiefe title of honour among us next after PRINCE This was a name at first of charge and office and not of dignitie About the time of Aelius Verus the Emperour those who governed the Limits and Borders were first named Duces and this degree in the daies of Constantine was inferiour to that of Comites After the Romane government was heere in this Iland abolished this title also remained as a name of office and those among us who in old Charters during the Saxons time are so many of them called Duces were named in the English tongue onely Ealdermen and the verie same that were named Duces they called also Comites As for example that William the Conquerour of England whom most call Duke of Normandie William of Malmsburie termeth Comes or Earle of Normandie But as well Duke as Earle were names of charge and office as appeareth by this Briefe or Instrument of creating a Duke or Earle out of Marculphus an ancient Writer In this point especially is a Princes regall Clemencie fully commended that thorowout the whole people there bee sought out honest and vigilant persons neither is it meete to commit hand over head unto every man a judiciarie Dignity unlesse his faithfulnesse and valour seeme to have beene tried before seeing then therefore we suppose that we have had good proofe of your trustie and profitable service unto us wee have committed unto you the government of that Earledome Dukedome Senatourship or Eldership in that Shire or Province which your Predecessor untill this time seemed to have exercised for to manage and rule the same accordingly Provided alwaies that you evermore keepe your faith untouched and untainted toward our Royall governance and that all people there abiding may live and be ruled under your regiment and governance and that you order and direct them in the right course according to law and their owne customes That you shew your selfe a Protector to widowes and Guardian to Orphans that the wickednesse of theeves and malefactors be most severely by you punished that the people living well under your regiment may with joy continue in peace quietly and whatsoever by this very execution is looked for to arise in profit due to the Exchequer bee brought yeerely by your selfe into our Coffers and Treasurie This title of Duke began to be a title of honour under Otho the Great about the yeere 970. For hee to bind more streitly and neerer unto him martiall and politike men endowed them with Regalities and Roialties as hee termed them And these Roialties were either Dignities or Lands in fee. Dignities were these Dukes Marquesses Earles Capitaines Valvasors Valvasines Later it was ere it came to bee an Hereditarie title in France and not before the time of Philip the third King of France who granted that from thence forth they should bee called Dukes of Britaine who before time were indifferently stiled both Dukes and Earles But in England in the time of the Normans seeing the Norman Kings themselves were Dukes of Normandie for a great while they adorned none with this honour nor before that Edward the Third created Edward his sonne Duke of Cornwall by a wreath upon his head a ring on his finger and a silver verge or rod like as the Dukes of Normandie were in times past created by a Sword and Banner delivered unto them afterwards by girding the Sword of the Dutchie and a circlet of gold garnished with little golden Roses in the top And the same King Edward the Third created in a Parliament his two sonnes Lionel Duke of Clarence and Iohn Duke of Lancaster by the girding of a Sword and setting upon their heads a furred chapeau or cap with a circlet or Coronet of gold pearle and a Charter delivered unto them From which time there have beene many hereditary Dukes among us created one after another with these or such like words in
Canutus are in the Normans tongue translated under the name of Baro and loe what the very words are Exercitualia verò c. That is Let the Heriots or Relevies be so moderate as that they may bee tolerable Of an Earle as decent it is eight horses foure with saddles and foure without saddles foure Helmets and foure shirts of male eight launces or speares and as many shields foure swords and withall 200. mauces of gold Of a Viron or Baron to the King who is next unto him foure horses two with saddles and two without saddles two swords foure speares and as many targets one helmet and one coate of mauile and with fifty mauces of gold Also in the first time of the Normans Valvasores and Thani were ranged in degree of honour next after Earles and Barons and the Valvasores of the better sort if wee may beleeve those that write de Feudis were the very same that now Barons are So that the name Baro may seeme to bee one of those which time by little and little hath mollified and made of better esteeme Neither was it as yet a terme of great honor For in those daies some Earles had their Barons under them and I remember that I read in the ancient Constitutions and ordinances of the Frenchmen how there were under an Earle twelve Barons and as many Capitaines under a Baron And certaine it is that there be ancient Charters extant in which Earles since the comming in of the Normans wrote thus To all my Barons as well French as English Greeting c. Yea even Citizens of better note were called Barons For the Citizens of Warwick in Doomesday book were named Barones likewise Citizens of London and the Inhabitants of the Cinque-ports enjoyed the same name But some few yeares after like as at Rome in times past they chose Senators for their worth in wealth so were they with us counted Barons who held lands of their own by a whole Baronie that is 13. Knights Fees and a third part of one Knights Fee reckoning every fee as an old book witnesseth at 20. li. which make in all 400. marks For that was the value of one entire Baronie and they that had lands and revenues to this worth were wont to be summoned unto the Parliament And it seemed to bee a dignitie with a jurisdiction which the Court Barons as they terme them in some sort doe prove yea and the very multitude that was of these Barons perswaded me to thinke them to be Lords of this nature as that they might in some sort minister and execute justice within their circuit and seigniorie such as the Germans call Free-heires and especially if they had Castles of their owne For then they Jumped Just with the definition of that most famous Civilian Baldus who defineth him to be a Baron whosoever had a meere and subordinate rule in some castle by the grant of the Prince And all they as some would have it that held Baronies seeme to have claimed unto themselves this honor so that as divers learned in our lawes are of opinion a Baron and a Baronie a Count or Earle and a Countie a Duke and a Dutchie were Conjugata that is termes as one would say yoked together Certes in those daies Henrie the Third reckoned in England 150. Baronies And hereupon it is that in all the Charters and Histories of that age all noble men in manner be called Barons and verily that title then was right honorable and under the terme of Baronage all the superiour states of the kingdome as Dukes Marquesses Earles and Barons in some sort were comprised But it attained to the highest pitch of honor ever since that King Henrie the Third out of so great a number which was seditious and turbulent called the very best by writ or summon unto the high Court of Parliament For he out of a writer I speake of good antiquity after many troubles and enormous vexations betweene the King himselfe Simon of Mont-fort with other Barons raised after appeased did decree and ordaine that all those Earles and Barons of the Realme of England unto whom the King himselfe vouchsafed to direct his writs of Summons should come unto his Parliament and none others But that which he began a little before his death Edward the First and his successour constantly observed and continued Hereupon they onely were accounted Barons of the kingdom whom the Kings had cited by vertue of such writs of Summons as they terme them unto the Parliament And it is noted that the said prudent King Edward the First summoned alwaies those of ancient families that were most wise to his Parliaments but omitted their sonnes after their death if they were not answerable to their parents in understanding Barons were not created by Patent untill such time as King Richard the Second created Iohn Beauchamp de Holt Baron of Kiderminster by his letters Patent bearing date the eighth day of October in the eleventh yeare of his raigne Since that time the Kings by their Patâ—ents and the putting on of the mantle or roabe of honour have given this honour And at this day this order of creating a Baron by letters Patent as also that other by writs of Summons are in use in which notwithstanding they are not stiled by the name of Baron but of Chevalier for the Common law doth not acknowledge Baron to be a name of dignity And they that be in this wise created are called Barons of the Parliament Barons of the Realme and Barons of honor for difference of them who yet according to that old forme of Barons be commonly called Barons as those of Burford of Walton and those who were Barons unto the Count-Palatines of Chester and Pembroch who were Barons in fee and by tenure These our Parliamentarie Barons carie not the bare name onely as those of France and Germanie but be all borne Peeres of the Realme of England Nobles Great States and Counsellors and called they are by the King in these words To treat of the high affaires of the kingdome and thereof to give their counsell They have also immunities and priviledges of their owne namely that in criminall causes they are not to have their triall but by a Iurie of their Peeres that they be not put to their oath but their protestation upon their Honor is sufficient that they be not empanelled upon a Iurie of twelve men for enquest de facto No supplicavit can be granted against them A Capias cannot be sued out against them Neither doth an Essoine lie against them with very many other which I leave unto Lawyers who are to handle these and such like Besides these the two Archbishops and all the Bishops of England be Barons also of the kingdome and Parliament even as in our Grandfathers daies these Abbats and Priors following The Abbat of Glastenburie The Abbat of S. Augustines in Canterbury The Abbat of S. Peter in
deprived thereof by King Henrie the Fourth having the title onely of the Earle of Somerset left unto him The said Iohn had three sonnes Henry Earle of Somerset who died in his tender age Iohn created by King Henry the Fifth the first Duke of Somerset who had one sole daughter named Margaret mother to King Henry the Seventh and Edmund who succeeded after his brother in the Dukedome and having beene a certaine time Regent of France being called home and accused for the losse of Normandie after hee had suffred much grievance at the peoples hands in that regard was in that wofull war betweene the houses of Lancaster and Yorke slaine in the first battaile of S. Albans Henrie his sonne being placed in his roome whiles hee served the times siding one while with Yorke and anotherwhile with Lancaster in the battaile at Exham was by those of the houses of Yorke taken prisoner and with the losse of his head paied for his unconstant levitie Edmund his brother succeeded him in his honor who of this family was the last Duke of Somerset and when the whole power of the Lancastrians was discomfited at Tewkesbury was forcibly pulled out of the Church into which all embrued with bloud he fled as into a Sanctuary and then beheaded Thus all the legitimate males of this family being dead and gone first King Henry the Seventh honored with title Edmund his owne son a young child who shortly departed this world afterwards King Henry the Eighth did the like for his base sonne named Henry Fitz-Roy And seeing he had no children King Edward the Sixth invested Sir Edward de Sancto Mauro commonly Seimor with the same honour who being most power-able honorable and loaden with titles for thus went his stile Duke of Somerset Earle of Hertford Vicount Beauchamp Baron Seimor Vncle to the King Governor of the King Protector of his Realmes Dominions and subjects Lieutenant of the forces by land and sea Lord high Treasurer and Earle Marshall of England Captaine of the Isles Gernsey and Iarsey c. Was sodainely overwhelmed as it were by a disport of fortune which never suffereth suddaine over-greatnesse to last long and for a small crime and that upon a nice point subtlely devised and packed by his enemies bereaved both of those dignities and his life withall In this Countie are numbred Parishes 385. WILTONIAE Comitatus herbida Plâ—nicie nobilis vulâ—o will Shire pars olim BELGARVM WILSHIRE WIl-shire which also pertained to the BELGAR called in the English-Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine commly termed Wiltonia taking that denomination of Wilton sometime the chiefe towne like as it of the River Willy is altogether a mediterranean or mid-land country For enclosed it is with Somersetshire on the West Berkshire and Hampshire on the East on the North with Glocestershire and on the South with Dorsetshire and a part of Hampshire A Region which as it breedeth a number of warlike and hardy men who in old time with Cornwall and Denshire together challenged by reason of their manhood and martiall prowesse the prerogative in the English armie of that regiment which should second the maine battell as saith Iohn of Sarisburie in his Polycraticon so is it exceeding fertill and plentifull of all things yea and for the varietie thereof passing pleasant and delightsome The Northern and upper part which they call North-Wilshire riseth up somewhat with delectable hils attired in times past with large and great woods which now begin to grow thinne and watered with cleare rivers For Isis the principall and as it were Prince of all the English Rivers which afterwards taketh to him the name of Tamisis that is Thames being now as yet but little and shallow together with other Rivers of lesse name which I will speake of in their proper places water it plentifully The South part with large grassie plaines feedeth innumerable flocks of sheepe having his Rivers swelling Brookes and rils of everliving fountaines The middest of this shire which for the most part also lieth even and plain is divided overthwart from East to West with a Dike of wonderfull worke cast up for many miles together in length The people dwelling there about call it Wansdike which upon an errour generall received they talke and tell to have beene made by the divell upon a Wednesday For in the Saxon tongue it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say The Ditch of Wooden or Mercurie and as it should seeme of Wooden that false imagined God and Father of the English-Saxons But I have alwaies beene perswaded that the Saxons made it as a limit to divide the two Kingdomes of the Mercians and West-Saxons asunder For this was the very place of battell betweene them whiles they strove one with another to enlarge their Dominions And neere unto this Dike standeth Wodensburg a little Village where Ceauline the most warlike King of the West-Saxons in the yeare of grace 590. whiles hee defended his Marches in a bloudy fight received such a foile and overthrow by the Britans and Englishmen that he was forced to flie his countrey and to end his daies in exile a pitious and lamentable spectacle even to his very enemies And at this Dike to say nothing of other accidents Ina the West-Saxon and Ceolred the Mercian joyned battell and departed the field on even hand Like to this was that ditch whereby King Offa kept the Britans off from his Mercians called even at this day Offa-dike others also are still to be seene among the East-Angles in Cambridgeshire and Suffolke wherewith they limited their territory and defended themselves from the inrodes and invasions of the Mercians In the North-part of Wilshire which is watered with Isis or the Thames there is a towne called Creckelade by Marianus by others Greekelade of Greeke Philosophers as some are ready to beleeve who as the historie of Oxford reporteth began there an Universitie which afterwards was translated to Oxford West from that is Highworth highly seated a well knowne Market but South from Creckelade I saw Lediard Tregoze the seat of the Familie of Saint-Iohn Knights the which Margaret de Bello Campo or Beauchamp afterwards Duchesse of Somerset gave to Oliver of Saint Iohn her second sonne For to her it came as an inheritance by Patishul Grandison and Tregoze names of great honour Wotton Basset bordeth hard upon this having this primitive name from Wood the addition doth prove that it belonged to the Noble house of the Bassets But in the latter fore-going age it was as I have heard say the habitation of the Duke of Yorke who made there a verie large Parke for to enclose Deere in From hence Breden wood now Breden Forrest stretched it selfe farre and wide which in the yeare 905. by Ethelwald Clyto and the Danes that aided him was laid waste and the Inhabitants endured all calamities of warre On the West side whereof the River Avon above mentioned
menaces and censures were sent out from the Bishop of Rome against these Archbishops For these Monkes were in bodily feare least this would bee their utter undoing and a prejudice unto them in the Elections of the Archbishops Neither were these blustering stormes allaied untill the said Church newly begunne was laid levell with the ground Adjoyning hard to this is the most famous mercate towne and place of trade in all this shire which at this day they call The Burrough of Southwarke in Saxon speech 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is the Southworke or building because it standeth South over against London the Suburbs whereof it may seeme in some sort to bee but so large it is and populous that it gives place to few Cities of England having beene as it were a corporation by it selfe it had in our fathers daies Bayliffes but in the reigne of King Edward the Sixth it was annexed to the Citie of London and is at this day taken for a member as it were of it and therefore when wee are come to London wee will speake more at large thereof Beneath this Burrough the Tamis forsaketh Surry the East bound whereof passeth in a manner directly downe from hence Southward neere unto Lagham which had their Parliamentarie Barons called Saint Iohn de Lagham in the reigne of Edward the First whose Inheritance came at length by an heire generall to Iohn Leddiard and some-what lower in the very angle well neere where it bendeth to Southsex and Kent stands Streborow Castle the seate in ancient time of Lord Cobham who of it were called of Sterborow where the issue proceeding from the bodies of Iohn Cobham Lord of Cobham and Cowling and the daughter of Hugh Nevil flourished a long time in glory and dignitie For Reginald Cobham in King Edward the thirds daies being created Knight of the Garter was Admirall of the sea-coasts from Tamis mouth West-ward But Thomas the last male of that line wedded the Lady Anne daughter to Humfrey the Duke of Buckingham of whom he begat one onely daughter named Anne married unto Edward Burgh who derived his pedigree from the Percies and Earles of Athole whose sonne Thomas made by King Henry the Eighth Baron Burgh left a sonne behind him named William And his sonne Thomas a great favourer of learning and Lord Governour of Briell Queeene Elizabeth made Knight of the Garter and Lord Deputy of Ireland where hee honourably ended his life pursuing the rebels As touching Dame Eleanor Cobham descended out of this family the wife of Humfrey Duke of Glocester whose reputation had a flawe I referre you to the English Historie if you please Now are wee to reckon up the Earles of this shire William Rufus King of England made William de Warrena who had married his sister the first Earle of Surrey For in that Charter of his by which hee founded the Priory of Lewis thus wee read Donavi c. that is I have given and granted c. For the life and health of my Lord King William who brought mee into England and for the health of my Lady Queene Mawd my wives mother and for the life and health of my Lord King William her sonne after whose comming into England I made this charter who also created me Earle of Surry c. whose sonne William succeeded and married the daughter of Hugh Earle of Vermandois whereupon his posteritie as some suppose used the Armes of Vermandois vz. Chequy Or and Azure His sonne VVilliam dying in the Holy-land about the yeare 1148. had issue a daughter onely who adorned first William King Stephens sonne and afterward Hamelin the base sonne of Gefferey Plantagenet Earle of Anjou both her husbands with the same title But whereas her former husband died without issue William her sonne by Hamelin was Earle of Surry whose posterie assuming unto them the name of Warrens bare the same title This William espoused the eldest daughter and a coheire of William Marescall Earle of Pembroch the widow of Hugh Bigod who bare unto him Iohn who slew Alan de la Zouch in presence of the Judges of the Realme This Iohn of Alice the daughter of Hugh le Brune halfe sister by the mothers side of King Henry the third begat William who died before his father and hee of Ioan Vere the Earle of Oxfords daughter begat Iohn Posthumus borne after his decease and the last Earle of this house who was stiled as I have seene in the circumscription of his seale Earle of Warren of Surry and of Strathern in Scotland Lord of Bromfield and of Yale and Count-palatine But hee dying without lawfull issue in the twelfth yeare of Edward the thirds raigne Alice his sister and heire wedded unto Edmund Earle of Arundell by her marriage brought this honour of Surrey into the house of Arundells For Richard their sonne who married in the house of Lancaster after his father was wickedly beheaded for siding with his Soveraigne King Edward the Second by the malignant envie of the Queene was both Earle of Arundell and Surrey and left both Earledomes to Richard his sonne who contrary-wise lost his head for siding against his soveraigne King Richard the Second But Thomas his sonne to repaire his fathers dishonour lost his life for his Prince and country in France leaving his sisters his heires for the lands not entailed who were married to Thomas Mowbraie Duke of Norfolke c. to Sir Powland Lenthall and Sir William Beauchampe Lord of Abergeveny After by the Mowbraies the title of Surrey came at length to the Howards Howbeit in the meane while after the execution of Richard Earle of Arundell King Richard the Second bestowed the title of Duke of Surry upon Thomas Holland Earle of Kent which honour he enjoyed not long For while hee combined with others by privie conspiracies to restore the same King Richard to his libertie and kingdome the conspiracie was not carried so secretly but contrary to his expectation brake forth and came to light then fled hee and by the people of Cirencester was intercepted and cut shorter by the head After him Thomas Beaufort Chancellour to the King if we give credit to Thomas Walsingham bare this dignity For in the yeare of our Lord as hee saith 1410. The Lord Thomas Beaufort Earle of Surrey left this world Now let Walsingham in this point make good that which he writeth for in the Kings Records there is no such thing found but onely this that Thomas Beaufort about that time was made Lord Chancellour But certaine it is and that out of the Records of the Kingdome that King Henry the Sixth in the nine and twentie yeare of his raigne created Iohn Mowbray the sonne of Iohn Duke of Norfolke Earle Warren and of Surry And Richard second sonne of King Edward the Fourth having married the heire of Mowbray received all the titles due to the Mowbraies by creation from his father Afterward King Richard the Third having dispatched the
long inhabited with a warlike people and skilfull sailers well stored with barkes and craies and gained much by fishing which is plentifull along the shore But after that the peere made of timber was at length violently carried away by extreame rage of the sea it hath decaied and the fishing lesse used by the reason of the dangerous landing for they are enforced to worke their vessels to land by a Capstall or Craine In which respect for the bettering of the towne Queene Elizabeth granted a contribution toward the making of a new harbour which was begun but the contribution was quickly converted into private purses and the publike good neglected Neverthelesse both Court the Countrey and Citie of London is served with much fish from thence The whole Rape of Hastings and the Honour was holden by the Earles of Ew commonly called de Augi in Normandie descended from the base sonne of Richard the First Duke of Normandie untill the daies of Alice the heire of the house whom in the reigne of Henrie the Third Ralph de Issodun in France tooke to wife whose posteritie lost a faire patrimonie in England for that as our Lawyers spake in those daies they were Ad fidem Regis Franciae that is under the king of France his allegiance When King Henry the third had seazed their lands into his hands hee granted the Rape of Hastings first to Peter Earle of Savoy then to Prince Edward his sonne and after upon his surrender to Iohn sonne to the Duke of little Britaine upon certaine exchanges of lands pertaining to the Honour of Richmond which Peter Earle of Savoy had made over for the use of the Prince Long time after when the Duke of Britaine had lost their lands in England for adhering to the French King King Henrie the Fourth gave the Rape of Hastings with the Manour of Crowherst Burgwash c. to Sir Iohn Pelham the elder upon whose loialtie wisedome and valour he much relied Before we depart from Hastings as it shall not bee offensive I hope to remember that in the first daies of the Normans there were in this shire great gentlemen surnamed Hastings de Hastings of whom Mathew de Hastings held the Manour of Grenocle in this service that he should find at this haven an oaâ—e when the kings would crosse over the seas so now the honourable house of the Hastings that are Earles of Huntingdon enjoy this title of Hastings For King Edward the Fourth bestowed this title with certaine Royalties as they terme them upon Sir William Hastings his Chamberlaine Who is by Cominaus commended for that having received an yearely pension of Lewis the eleaventh the French King hee could not for any thing bee brought to give unto the French King an acquittance of his owne hand writing I will in no case saith hee that my hand-writing bee seene amongst the accounts of the French Kings Treasure But this man by diving so deepe into the friendship of Kings overwhelmed and drowned himselfe quite For whiles hee spake his minde and reasoned over franckly at a private consultation with the Usurper King Richard the Third all of a sodaine and unlooked for had hee was away and without pleading for himselfe presently made shorter by the head upon the next blocke Neither is this to be passed over in silence that King Henrie the Sixth adorned Sir Thomas Hoo a worthy knight whom hee also chose into the order of the Garter with the title of Baron Hoo and Hastings whose daughters and heires were married to Sir Gefferie Bollen from whence by the mothers side Queene ELIZABETH was descended to Roger Coplie to Iohn Carew Iohn Devenish From thence the shore passing under Farley hill farre seene both by sea and land whereon standeth a solitary Church full bleakly and a beacon is hollowed with an in-winding Bay and upon it standeth Winchelsey which was built in the time of King Edward the Frst when a more ancient towne of the same name in the Saxons tongue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was quite swallowed up with the rough and raging Ocean in the yeare of our Lord 1250. what time the face of the earth both heere and also in the coast of Kent neere bordering became much changed The situation thereof I will set before your eyes in the very words of Th. Walsingham Situate it is upon a high hill very steepe on that side which either looketh toward the sea or over-looketh the rode where ships lie at anchor Whence it is that the way leading from that part to the haven goeth not streight forward least it should by an over sodaine and downe right descent force those that goe downe to fall headlong or them that goe up to creepe rather with their hands then to walke but lying side-waies it windeth with curving turnes in and out to one side and the other At first it was inclosed with a rampier after-wards with strong wals and scarce beganne it to flourish when it was sacked by the French men and Spaniards and by reason that the sea shrunke backe from it began sodainely as it were to fade and loose the beauty And now only beareth the countenance of a faire towne and hath under it in the levell which the sea relinquished a Castle fortified by Henrie the Eighth and large marshes defended from sea-rages with workes very chargeably By the decay hereof and the benefit of the sea together Rhie opposite unto it and as highly seated began to flourish or rather to reflourish For that in old time it flourished and that William of Ipres Earle of Kent fortified it Ipres Tower now the prison and the immunities or priviledges that it had in common with the Cinque-ports may sufficiently shew But by occasion of the Vicinity of Winchelsey or the shrinking backe of the sea it lay for a good while in former ages unknowne But when Winchelsey decaied and King Edward the Third walled it where the cliffes defended it not it beganne to breath againe and revive and in our fathers daies the sea to make amends aboundantly for the harmes it had done raised with an unusuall tempest so rushed in and insinuated it selfe in forme of a bay that it made a very commodious haven which another tempest also in our daies did not a little helpe Since which time it greatly reflourished with inhabitants buildings fishing and navigation and at this day there is an usuall passage from hence into Normandie yet now it beginneth to complaine that the sea abandoneth it such is the variable and interchangeable course of that element and in part imputeth it that the river Rother is not contained in his channell and so looseth his force to carry away the sands and beach which the sea doth inbeate into the haven Notwithstanding it hath many fishing vessels and serveth London and the Court with varietie of sea-fish Now whether it have the name of Riue a Norman
word which signifieth a strond or Banke I cannot easily say But seeing that in Records it is very often called in Latine Ripa and they who bring fish from hence be termed Ripiers I encline rather this way and would encline more if the Frenchmen used this word for a stroud or shore as Plinius doth Ripa These two townes neither may it seeme impertinent to note it belonged to the Abbey of Fescampe in Normandie But when King Henry the Third perceived that religious men intermingled secretly in matters of State he gave them in exchange for these two Chiltenham and Sclover two Manours in Glocester-shire and other lands adding for the reason that the Abbat and Monkes might not lawfully fight with temporall armes against the enemies of the Crowne Into this haven the River Rother or Rither sheddeth it selfe which issuing forth at Ritheram fieldes for so the Englishmen in ancient times called that towne which wee doe Rotherfield passeth by Burgwash in old time Burghersh which had Lords so surnamed thereof among whom was that Sir Bartholomew Burgwash a mightie man in his time who being approved in most weighty Ambassages and warres in Aquitaine for his wisedome and valour deserved to be created a Baron of the Realme to be admitted into the Order of the Garter at the very first institution even among the Founders thereof and to bee made Constable of Dover Castle and Warden of the Cinque-ports And his sonne carrying the same fore-name not degenerating from his father lived in high honour and estimation but hee left behind him one daughter and no more issue married into the house of Le Despencer of which there remaineth still a goodly of-spring of Noble personages Echingham next adjoyning had also a Baron named William de Echingham in the time of King Edward the Second whose ancestours were the hereditarie Seneschals of this Rape And their inheritance in the end by the heires females name to the Barons of Windsor and to the Tirwhits Then the Rother dividing his water into three channels passeth under Roberts bridge where Alured de S. Martin in King Henrie the seconds daies founded a Monasterie and so running beside Bodiam a Castle belonging to the ancient Family of the Lewknors built by the Dalegrigs here falleth as I said into the Ocean Now I have passed along the Sea coast of Sussex And as for the mid-land part of the shire I have nothing more to relate thereof unlesse I should recount the woods and forrests lying out faire in length and breadth which are a remnant of the vast wood Anderida Among which to begin at the West those of greatest note are these The forrest of Arundill Saint Leonards forrest Word forrest and not farre off East Gren-sted anciently a parcell of the Barony of Eagle and made a Mercate by King Henry the seventh Ashdowne forrest under which standeth Buckhurst the habitation of the ancient house of the Sackviles out of which race Queene Elizabeth in our daies aduanced Thomas Sackvile her allie by the Bollens a wise Gentleman to be Baron of Buckhurst took him into her Privie Councell admitted him into the most honorable Order of the Garter and made him Lord Treasurer of England whom also of late K. Iames created Earle of Dorset Waterdown forrest where I saw Eridge a lodg of the Lord Abergevenny and by it craggie rocks rising up so thicke as though sporting nature had there purposed a sea Here-by in the very confines of Kent is Groomebridge an habitation of the Wallers whose house there was built by Charles Duke of Orleance father to K. Lewis the 12. of France when he being taken prisoner in the battaile at Agincourt by Richard Waller of this place was here a long time detained prisoner As touching the Earles Sussex had five by the line of Albiney who were likewise called Earles of Arundell but had the third pennie of Sussex as Earles then had The first of them was William D' Albiney the sonne of William Butler to King Henrie the first and Lord of Buckenham in Norfolk who gave for his armes Gules a Lion rampant Or and was called one while Earle of Arundell and another while Earle of Chichester for that in those places he kept his chiefe residence This man of Adeliz the daughter of Godfrey Barbatus Duke of Lorraine and of Brabant Queen Dowager or Widdow of K. Henrie the First begat William the second Earle of Sussex and of Arundell father to William the third Earle unto whom Mabile the sister and one of the heires of the last Raulph Earle of Chester bare William the fourth Earle Hugh the fifth who both died without issue and also foure daughters married unto Sir Robert Yateshall Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan Sir Roger de Somery and Sir Robert de Mount-hault After this the title of Arundell budded forth againe as I said before in the Fitz-Alans but that of Sussex lay hidden and lost unto this our age which hath seene five Ratcliffes descended of the most Noble house of the Fitz-walters that derived their pedigree from the Clares bearing that honour to wit Robert created Earle of Sussex by King Henrie the Eight who wedded Elizabeth daughter of Henry Stafford Earle of Buckingham of whom he begat Henrie the second Earle unto whom Elizabeth the daughter of Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk brought forth Thomas who being Lord Chamberlaine to Queene Elizabeth died without issue a most worthy and honourable personage in whose mind were seated joyntly both politike wisedome and martiall prowesse as England and Ireland acknowledged Him succeeded Sir Henrie his brother and after him Robert his onely sonne now in his flower This Province containeth parishes 312. THus farre of Sussex which together with Suth-rey was the habitation of the Regni in the time of the Britaines and afterwards the kingdome of the South-Saxons called in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which in the two and thirty yeare after the Saxons comming was begun by Ella who as Beda writeth First among the Kings of the English Nation ruled all their Southern Provinces which are severed by the River Humber and the limits adjoyning thereto The first Christian King was Edilwalch baptized in the presence of Wulpher King of Mercia his Godfather and he in signe of adoption gave unto him two Provinces namely the Isle of Wight and the Province of the Meanvari But in the 306. yeare after the beginning of this Kingdome when Aldinius the last King was slaine by Ina King of West-Saxons it came wholly under the Dominion of the West-Saxons CANTIVM NOw am I come to Kent which Countrey although master WILLIAM LAMBARD a man right well endued with excellent learning and as godly vertues hath so lively depainted out in a full volume that his painefull felicitie in that kind bath left little or nothing for others yet according to the project of this worke which I have taken in hand I will runne it over also and
rivelet Over the bridge whereof when the Danes with rich spoiles passed as Aethelward writeth in battail-ray the West-Saxons and the Mercians received them with an hote battaile in Woodnesfield where three of their Pettie Kings were slaine namely Heatfden Cinvil and Inguar On the same shore not much beneath standeth Barkley in the Saxon-tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of great name for a most strong Castle a Major who is the Head Magistrate and especially for the Lords thereof descended from Robert-Fitz-Harding to whom King Henry the second gave this place and Barkely Hearnes Out of this house are branched many Knights and Gentlemen of signall note and in the reigne of King Henry the seventh flourished William Lord Barkely who was honoured by King Edward the fourth with the stile of Viscount Barkely by King Richard the third with the honour of Earle of Nottingham in regard of his mother daughter of Thomas Moubray Duke of Norfolke and Earle of Nottingham and by King Henry the Seventh with the office of Marshall of England and dignity of Marquis Barkely But for that he died issuelesse these his titles died together with him If you be willing to know by what a crafty fetch Goodwin Earle of Kent a man most deeply pregnant in devising how to do injury got the possession of this place you may read these few lines out of Wal. Mapaeus who flourished 400. yeares ago and worth the reading believe me they are Barkley neere unto Severn is a towne of 500. pounds revenew In it there was a Nunnery and the Abbesse over these Nunnes was a Noble woman and a beautifull Earle Goodwin by a cunning and subtill wile desiring not her selfe but hers as he passed that way left with her a Nephew of his a very proper and beautifull young Gentleman pretending that hee was sickly untill he returned backe Him he had given this lesson that hee should keepe his bed and in no wise seeme to be recovered untill he had got both her and as many of the Nunnes as hee could with child as they came to visite him And to the end that the young man might obtaine their favour and his owne full purpose when they visited him the Earle gave unto him pretty rings and fine girdles to bestow for favours upon them and thereby to deceive them Hee therefore being willing entred into this course of libidinous pleasure for that the way downe to hell is easie was soone taught his lessons and wisely playeth the foole in that which seemed wise in his own conceit With him they were restant all those things that the foolish virgins could wish for beauty daintie delicates riches faire speech and carefull he was now to single them alone The Devill therefore thrust out Pallas brought in Venus and made the Church of our Saviour and his Saints an accursed Temple of all Idols and the Shrine a very stewes and so of pure Lambes hee made them foule shee-wolves and of pure virgins filthy harlots Now when many of their bellies bare out big and round this youth being by this time over wearied with conquest of pleasure getteth him gone and forthwith bringeth home againe unto his Lord and Master a victorious Ensigne worthy to have the reward of iniquitie and to speake plaine relateth what was done No sooner heard he this but he hieth him to the King enformeth him how the Lady Abbesse of Barkely and her Nuns were great with child and commonly prostitute to every one that would sendeth speciall messengers of purpose for enquirie heereof proveth all that he had said Hee beggeth Berkley of the King his Lord after the Nuns were thrust out and obtained it at his hands and he left it to his wife Gueda but because she her selfe so saith Doomes-day booke would eat nothing that came out of this Manour for that the Nunnery was destroied he purchased for her Vdecester that thereof she might live so long as she made her abode at Barkley Thus wee see a good and honest mind abhorreth whatsoever is evill gotten How King Edward the second being deposed from his Kingdome through the crafty complotting and practise of his wife was made away in the Castle heere by the wicked subtiltie of Adam Bishop of Hereford who wrote unto his keepers these few words without points betweene them Edwardum occidere nolite timere bonum est that by reason of their diverse sense and construction both they might commit the murther and he also cleanly excuse himselfe I had rather you should seeke in Historians than looke for at my hands Beneath this Barkley the little river Avon closely entereth into the Sea at the head whereof scarse eight miles from the waterside upon the hils neere Alderley a small towne there are found certaine stones resembling Coccles or Periwinckles and Oysters which whether they have beene sometimes living creatures or the gamesom sports of Nature I leave it to Philosophers that hunt after natures works But Fracastorius the principall Philosopher in this our age maketh no doubt but that they were living creatures engendred in the Sea and by waters brought to the mountaines For he affirmeth that mountaines were cast up by the Sea with the driving at first of sand into heapes and hillocks also that the sea flowed there where now hilles doe rise aloft and that as the said Sea retired the hilles also were discovered But this is out of my race TRAIECTVS that is The ferry whereof Antonine the Emperour maketh mention over against Abone where they were wont to passe over Severne salt water by boate was in times past as I guesse by the name at Oldbury which is by interpâ—eâ—â—tion The Old Burgh like as we doe ferry in these daies at Aust a little towne somewhat lower This in ancient times was called Aust clive for a great craggy cliffe it is endeed mounting up a great height And verily memorable is the thing which that Mapaeus whom I spake of writeth to have beene done in this place Edward the elder saith he Lay at Austclive and Leolin Prince of Wales at Bethesley now when Leolin would not come downe to parley nor crosse Severn Edward passeth over to Leolin whom when Leolin saw and knew who he was hee cast off his rich robe for hee had prepared himselfe to sit in judgement entred the water brest-high and clasping the boat with an embrace said Most wise and sage King thy humility hath overcome my insolency and thy wisedome triumphed over my folly Come get upon my necke which I have foole as I am lifted up against thee and so shalt thou enter into that land which thy benigne mildnesse hath made thine owne this day and after he had taken him upon his shoulders hee would needs have him sit upon his roabe aforesaid and so putting his owne hands joyntly into his did him homage Upon the same shore also is situate Thornebury where are to be seene the foundations brought up above ground
William who enjoyed it a short time dying also without issue So by Amice the second daughter of the forenamed Earle William married to Richard de Clare Earle of Hertford this Earledome descended to Gilbert her sonne who was stiled Earle of Glocester and Hertford and mightily enriched his house by marrying one of the heires of William Marshall Earle of Pembroch His sonne and successour Richard in the beginning of the Barons warres against king Henry the Third ended his life leaving Gilbert his sonne to succeed him who powerfully and prudently swaied much in the said wars as he inclined to them or the king He obnoxious to King Edward the First surrendred his lands unto him and received them againe by marrying Joane the Kings Daughter sirnamed of Acres in the Holy-land because shee was there borne to his second Wife who bare unto him Gilbert Clare last Earle of Glocester of this sirname slaine in the flower of his youth in Scotland at the battaile of Sterling in the 6. yeare of K. Edward the second Howbeit while this Gilbert the third was in minority Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer who by a secret contract had espoused his mother the Kings daughter for which he incurred the kings high displeasure and a short imprisonment but after reconciled was summoned to Parliaments by the name of Earle of Glocester and Hertford But when Gilbert was out of his minority he was summoned amongst the Barons by the name of Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer as long as he lived which I note more willingly for the rarenesse of the example After the death of Gilbert the third without children Sir Hugh Le De-Spenser commonly named Spenser the younger was by writers called Earle of Glocester because he had married the eldest sister of the said Gilbert the third But after that he was by the Queene and Nobles of the Realme hanged for hatred they bare to K. Edward the 2. whose minion he was Sir Hugh Audley who had matched in marriage with the second sister through the favour of King Edward the Third received this honour After his death King Richard the Second erected this Earledome into a Dukedome and so it had three Dukes and one Earle betweene and unto them all it prooved Equus Sejanus that is Fatall to give them their fall Thomas of Woodstocke youngest sonne to King Edward the Third was the first Duke of Glocester advanced to that high honour by the said King Richard the Second and shortly after by him subverted For when he busily plotted great matters the King tooke order that he should be conveyed secretly in all haste to Calis where with a featherbed cast upon him he was smouthered having before under his owne band confessed as it stands upon Record in the Parliament Rols that he by vertue of a Patent which hee had wrested from the King tooke upon him the Kings regall authority that he came armed into the Kings presence reviled him consulted with learned about renouncing his allegiance and devised to depose the King for which being now dead he was by authority of Parliament attainted and condemned of high Treason When hee was thus dispatched the same King conferred the Title of Earle of Glocester upon Thomas Le De-Spenser in the right of his Great Grand-mother who within a while after sped no better than his great Grand-father Sir Hugh For by King Henry the fourth he was violently displaced shamefully degraded and at Briston by the peoples fury beheaded After some yeares King Henry the Fifth created his brother Humfrey the second Duke of Glocester who stiled himselfe the first yeare of King Henry the Sixth as I have seene in an Instrument of his Humfrey by the Grace of God sonne brother and Uncle to Kings Duke of Glocester Earle of Henault Holland Zeland and Penbroch Lord of Friesland Great Chamberlaine of the Kingdome of England Protector and Defender of the same Kingdome and Church of England A man that had right well deserved of the common wealth and of learning but through the fraudulent practise and malignant envie of the Queene brought to his end at Saint Edmunds Bury The third and last Duke was Richard brother to King Edward the Fourth who afterwards having most wickedly murdred his Nephewes usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third and after two yeares lost both it and his life in a pitched field finding by experience that power gotten by wicked meanes is never long lasting Concerning this last Duke of Glocester and his first entry to the Crowne give me leave for a while to play the part of an Historiographer which I will speedily give over againe as not well able to act it When this Richard Duke of Glocester being now proclaimed Protector of the Kingdome had under his command his tender two Nephewes Edward the Fifth King of England and Richard Duke of Yorke he retriving after the Kingdome for himselfe by profuse liberality and bounty to very many by passing great gravitie tempered with singular affabilitie by deepe wisdome by ministring justice indifferently and by close devises wonne wholly to him all mens hearts but the Lawyers especially to serve his turne So shortly he effected that in the name of all the States of the Realme there should be exhibited unto him a supplication wherein they most earnestly besought him for the publike Weale of the Kingdome to take upon him the Crowne to uphold his Countrey and the common-weale now shrinking and downe falling not to suffer it to runne headlong into utter desolation by reason that both lawes of nature and the authority of positive lawes and the laudable customes and liberties of England wherein every Englishman is an inheritor were subverted and trampled under foote through civill wars rapines murthers extortions oppressions and all sorts of misery But especially ever since that King Edward the fourth his brother bewitched by sorcerie and amorous potions fell in fancie with Dame Elizabeth Greie widdow whom he married without the assent of his Nobles without solemne publication of Banes secretly in a profane place and not in the face of the Church contrary to the law of Gods Church and commendable custome of the Church of England and which was worse having before time by a precontract espoused Dame Aeleanor Butler daughter to the old Earle of Shrewsburie whereby most sure and certaine it was that the foresaid matrimony was unlawfull and therewith the children of them begotten illegitimate and so unable to inherite or claime the Crowne Moreover considering that George Duke of Clarence the second brother of King Edward the Fourth was by authority of Parliament convicted and attainted of high treason thereupon his children disabled and debarred from all right succession evident it was to every man that Richard himselfe remained the sole and undoubted heire to the Crowne Of whom they assured themselves that being borne in England he would seriously provide for the good of England neither could they make any doubt of his
first age of the Normans seeing that in the Raigne of King Edward the Confessour as we read in William Conquerours Domesday booke it discharged it selfe for one Hide and no more and had but six and twenty Burgesses As for the Towne it is seated upon a low ground but the River Ouse very commodious for Mils encircleth it about save onely on the North side The Castle standing in the middest raised upon an hill cast up whereof no Reliques in manner are now to bee seene divideth the Towne as it were in twaine The greater part of the Towne beareth North wherein standeth the Towne-house the other toward the South is the lesse wherein is the Church and that of no great antiquity but in it was the Shrine of S. Rumald a child who being borne in Kings-Sutton a Village thereby was canonized by our forefathers for a childe-Saint and much famed with many miracles From hence Ouse hasteneth faire and softly into the North and more Eastward from the River neere unto the woods ye have a sight of Whaddon the habitation in times past of the Giffords who were by Inheritance keepers of Whaddon Chase under the Earle of Vlster and from whom it came to the Pigots who passed it away by saile and alienation There standeth now a house of the warlike Family of the Greys Barons of Wilton who held the Manour neere adjoyning named Acton by Serjeanty of keeping one Gerfalcon of their Soveraigne Lord the King Whereupon that Family of the Greys hath for their Badge or Cognisance a Falcon Sejant upon a Glove Not farre from hence is Thorâ—ton an habitation of the Tirelles and Saulden where is a faire and lovely house built by Sir Iohn Fortescue a right honourable knight and deeply learned withall who for his wisdome was Chauncellor of the Exchequer and Dutchy of Lancaster and of the Privie Counsell to Queene Elizabeth and king Iames. On the other side of the River and not farre from the banke stand neighbour-like Stow a house of the Family of Temple Leckhamsted an habitation of the Greenwaies Lillinstone likewise the seat of the ancient Family De-Hairell commonly called Dairell and Luffeld where in times past was founded a Monastery by Robert Earle of Leicester but by reason that the Monkes were all consumed with the plague the house was utterly left desolate Somewhat higher on the South side of the River upon the very banke standeth Stony-Stratford a Towne of all the rest most frequented named so of Stones The Street way and a Fourd For the houses are built of a certaine rough stone which is digged forth in great abundance at Caversham hard by and it standeth upon the publike Street commonly called Watlingstreet which was a Militarie high way made by the Romanes and is evidently to be seene yet beyond the Towne with the banke or causey thereof and hath a fourd but now nothing shalow and hardly passable The Towne is of good bignesse and sheweth two Churches and in the mids a Crosse though it be none of the fairest erected in memoriall of Queene Aeleonor of Spaine wife to Edward the First with the Armes of England Castile and Leon c. also of the Earldome of Ponthieu whereof she was heire And where sometimes there had been a Fourd the River Ousâ— hath a stone bridge over it which keepeth in the River that was wont when it swelled with winter flouds to breake out and overflow the fields with great violence But upon the banke of the other side which riseth somewhat higher the Towne sometime stood as the inhabitants themselves report And there hard by is Pasham a place so called of passing over the River so that it may seeme in times past to have been that passage which King Edward the Elder kept against the Danes whiles he fortified Torcester But this passage or Ferry became quite forlet after that the Bridge was built at Stony-Stratford Now if I should guesse that LACTORODVM which Antonine the Emperour mentioneth stood heere beside the situation upon the Militarie Highway of the Romanes and the distance from other places the signification also of the olde name LACTORODVM fetched out of the British language maketh for me and favoureth my conjecture Which name accordeth passing well with this new English name For both names in both languages were imposed of Stone and Fourd From hence Ouse runneth hard by Wolverton anciently Woluerington the seat of an ancient familie so surnamed whose lands are named in Records The Baronie of Wulverington from whom it came to the house of the Longvilles of ancient descent in these parts and by Newport Painell which tooke that name of Sir Fulcoà Painell the Lord thereof and was from him devolved to the Barons Someries of Dudley who heere had their Castle Then by Terringham which gave both name and habitation to a worshipfull house and of great antiquity it goeth to Oulney a meetly good mercate towne This farre and a little further reacheth the County of Buckingham by Vse the limit and bound thereof The first Earle of Buckingham so farre as hitherto I could observe was Walter surnamed Giffard sonne to Osbern de Bolebec a man of great name and reputation among the Normans Who in a Charter of King Henrie the First is cited among the witnesses thereto by the name of Earle of Buckingham After him followed his sonne bearing the same name who in the booke of Abbingdon Abbay is called Earle Walter the younger and died issuelesse in the yeere 1164. Afterward in the reigne of Henry the Second that famous Richard Strangbow Earle of Pembroch called Conquerour of Ireland who derived his descent from the sister and heir of Walter Giffard the second in certaine publique instruments bare this title Then for a long time after lay this title as it were out of use and quite lost untill that in the yeere 1377. King Richard the Second conferred this honor upon his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock of whom I have already spoken among the Dukes of Glocester Of this Thamas his daughter married unto Edmund Earle of Stafford was borne Humfrey Earle of Stafford created Duke of Buckingham with an invidious precedence before all Dukes of England by King Henry the Sixt in whose quarrell he spent his life fighting most valiantly in the battaile at Northampton After him succeeded his Graund-child Henry by his Sonne Humfrey who made way for King Richard the Third the usurper unto the Kingdome and streightwaies practised to depose him for that he would not restore unto him the inheritance of the Bohuns by hereditarie right belonging unto him but hee being intercepted lost his head for it and found but all too late that Tyrants very often hew downe the staires and steps whereby they ascended His sonne Edward being restored againe through speciall favour of King Henry the Seventh by the wicked slights and practises of Cardinall Wolsey fell into disgrace with King Henry the Eighth and being condemned of high treason
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
Edward the Thirds sonne who after hee had married a wife out of that house was entituled by his father Duke of Clarence For he of this place with a fuller sound than that of Clare was stiled Duke of Clarence like as before him the sonnes of Earle Gislebert and their successors were hence surnamed De Clare and called Earles of Clare Who died at Languvill in Italy after he had by a second marriage matched with a Daughter of Galâ—acius Vicount of Millain and in the Collegiat Church here lieth interred as also Ioan Acres daughter to King Edward the first married to Gislebert de Clare Earle of Glocester Here peradventure the Readers may looke that I should set downe the Earles of Clare so denominated of this place and the Dukes of Clarence considering they have beene alwayes in this Realme of right honorable reputation and verily so will I doe in few words for their satisfaction in this behalfe Richard the sonne of Gislebert Earle of Augy in Normandy served in the warres under King William when hee entred England and by him was endowed with the Townes of Clare and Tunbridge This Gislebert begat foure sonnes namely Gislebert Roger Walter and Robert from whom the Fitz-walters are descended Gislebert by the daughter of the Earle of Cleremont had issue Richard who succeeded him Gislebert of whom came that Noble Richard Earle of Pembroch and Conquerour of Ireland and Walter Richard the first begotten sonne was slaine by the Welshmen and left behinde him two sonnes Gilbert and Roger. Gilbert in King Stephens dayes was Earle of Herford howbeit both he and his Successours are more often and commonly called Earles of Clare of this their principall seat and habitation yea and so many times they wrote themselves After him dying without issue succeeded his brother Roger whose sonne Richard tooke to wife Amice the daughter and one of the Heires to William Earle of Glocester in right of whom his posterity were Earles of Glocester And those you may see in their due place But when at length their issue male failed Leonel Third sonne of King Edward the Third who had married Elizabeth the Daughter and sole Heire of William de Burgh Earle of Vlster begotten of the Bodie of Elizabeth Clare was by his Father honoured with this new Title Duke of Clarence But when as hee had but one onely Daughter named Phillippa wife to Edmund Mortimer Earle of March King Henry the Fourth created Thomas his owne yonger sonne Duke of Clarence who being withall Earle of Albemarle High Steward of England and Governour of Normandy and having no lawfull issue was slaine in Anjou by the violent assault of Scots and French A long time after king Edward the Fourth bestowed this honour upon his owne brother George whom after grievous enmity and bitter hatred hee had received againe into favour and yet at the last made an end of him in prison causing him as the report currently goeth to be drowned in a Butte of Malmesey A thing naturally engraffed in men that whom they have feared and with whom they have contended in matter of life those they hate for ever though they be their naturall brethren From Clare by Long-Melford a very faire Almes-house lately built by that good man Sir William Cordal Knight and Maister of the Rolls Stour passeth on and commeth to Sudbury that is to say the South-Burgh and runneth in manner round about it which men suppose to have beene in old time the chiefe towne of this Shire and to have taken this name in regard of Norwich that is The Northren Towne Neither would it take it well at this day to be counted much inferiour to the Townes adjoyning for it is populous and wealthy by reason of Clothing there and hath for the chiefe Magistrate a Major who every yeare is chosen out of seaven Aldermen Not farre from hence distant is Edwardeston a Towne of no great name at this day but yet in times past it had Lords therein dwelling of passing great Honour of the surname of Mont-chensie out of which Family Sir Guarin Montchensie married the daughter and one of the heires of that mighty William Marescall Earle of Pembroch and of her begat a daughter named Ioan who unto the stile of her Husband William de Valentia of the family of Lusignie in France brought and adjoyned the title of Earle of Penbroch But the said Sir Guarin Mont-chensy as he was a right honourable person so he was a man exceeding wealthy in so much as in those dayes they accounted him the most potent Baron and the rich Crassus of England For his last will and testament amounted unto two hundred thousand Markes no small wealth as the standard was then From a younger brother or cadet of this house of Montchensie issued by an heire generall the Family of the Waldgraves who have long flourished in Knightly degree at Smalebridge neerer to Stoure as another Family of great account in elder ages at Buers which was thereof surnamed A few miles from hence Stour is enlarged with Breton a small Brooke at one of whose heads is seene Bretenham a very slender little towne where fcarce remaineth any shew at all of any great building and yet both the neere resemblance and the signification of the name partly induced me to thinke it to be that COMBRETONIUM whereof Antonine the Emperour made mention in this tract For like as Bretenham in English signifieth an Habitation or Mansion place by Breton so Combretonium in British or Welsh betokeneth a Valley or a place lying somewhat low by Breton But this in Peutegerius his Table is falsly named COMVETRONUM and ADCOVECIN Somewhat Eastward from hence is Nettlested seene of whence was Sir Thomas Wentworth whom King Henry the Eighth adorned with the title of Baron Wentworth and neere thereto is Offion that is to say The towne of Offa King of the Mercians where upon a clay Hill lie the ruines of an ancient Castle which they say Offa built after he had wickedly murdered Aethelbert King of the East-Angles and usurped his Kingdome But to returne to the River Breton Upon another brooke that joyneth therewith standeth Lancham a pretty Mercat and neere it the Manour of Burnt-Elleie whereunto King Henry the Third granted a Mercate at the request of Sir Henry Shelton Lord thereof whose posterity a long time heere flourished Hadley in the Saxons language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is watered with the same brooke a towne of good note in these dayes for making of Clothes and in old time much mentioned by our Historians because Guthrum or Gormo the Dane was heere buried For when Aelfred brought him to this passe that he became Christian and was baptized hee assigned unto him these countries of the East-Angles that he might to use the words of mine Author cherish them by right of inheritance under the Allegiance of a King
a small Towne which for no other thing is memorable but because Anna a Christian King was there buried whom Penda the Mercian slew in a pitched Field It was beautified by King Henry the First with a Colledge of Chanons who granted the same as a Cell to the Chanons of Saint Osiths And it was made a Mercate by the meanes of Iohn Lord of Clavering unto whom King Edward the Second gave this Liberty together with the Faire And verily a goodly Inheritance hee had in this Tract as who derived his Descent from the Daughter and Heire of William Cheney who held the Barony of Horsford in the County of Norfolke and erected the little Abbay at Sibton Heere the Promontory Easton-Nesse shooteth out and reacheth farre into the East which is deemed to bee the farthest East point in all Britaine Ptolomee calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or EXTENSIO And that you may not doubt that this is the very same which wee call Easton bee it knowne unto you that Eysteney in the British tongue is the same that in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latine Extensio that is A stretching forth although this name may seeme with as good probability to have beene imposed in our English Language of the Situation Eastward Upon the point of this Promontory standeth Easton a Village of Fishermen well neere eaten up by Sea and on South side of this Promontory Southwold lieth in the Plaine full against the open shore of the sea a Towne well enough frequented through the benefit of an Haven that the River Blith emptying it selfe there into the Sea maketh and at every high water it is so invironed with the waves that it seemeth to bee an Island and a man would wonder that it is not overflowne In so much as when I saw the manner thereof I called that saying of Cicero into my remembrance What should I speak of the Sea Tides about Spaine and Britaine and of their Flowing and Ebbing at certaine times Surely they cannot bee without the hand of God who hath restrained and gaged the waves within their bounds More within the land Wingfield sheweth it selfe where the walles of a Castle halfe downe are to bee seene which hath given name to a family in this Tract that is spred into a number of branches and is besides for knighthood and ancient Gentility renowned and thereof it was the principall seat Also Dunnington which standeth much upon the Lord thereof Sir Iohn Philips father to that Sir William who married the daughter and Heire of Baron Bardolph whose daughter and Heire likewise Iohn Vicount Beaumont tooke to Wife But now the Habitation it is of the ancient Family of the Rousses Not farre from hence standeth Huntingfield which had a Baron of that name in King Edward the Third his time and neere unto it Heveningham the residence of the Family of Heveningham knights who are knowne to bee of very great antiquity and not farre off standeth Halesworth in times past Healsworda an ancient Towne of the Argentons and now of the Alingtons unto which Sir Richard Argenton obtained at the hand of King Henry the Third the liberty of a Mercate I gave you to understand before that two small Rivers Ouse the least and Waveney on the North side divided this County from Norfolke which Riverets rising out of a Marish ground by Lophamford from two springs but a little a sunder one from another take their courses divers wayes with creekes full of shallow fourds Along by Ouse which runneth Westward there is nothing in this Quarter to bee seene worth the report By Waveney side that tendeth Eastward first is Hoxon in times past Hegilsdon ennobled by reason of King Edmunds Martyrdome For there the most cruell and bloudy Danes that I may use the words of Abbo having bound the most Christian King to a tree for that hee would not renounce Christianity shot him in with sharpe arrowes all his body over augmenting the paines of his torment with continuall piercing him with arrow after arrow and thus inflicted wound upon wound so long as one arrow could stand by another And as a Poet of middle time versified of him Iam loca vulneribus desunt nec dum furiosis Tela sed hyberna grandine plura volant Though now no place was left for wound yet arrowes did not faile These furious Wretches still they flie thicker than winter haile In which place afterwards stood a very faire house of the Bishops of Norwich untill they exchanged it not long since for the Abbay of Saint Benet Hard by at Brome dwelt a long time the family of Cornwalleis of knights degree of whom Sir Iohn Cornwal was Steward of Edward the Sixth his Houshold while hee was Prince and his sonne Sir Thomas for his wisdome and faithfulnesse became one of the privie counsell to Queene Mary and Controller of her royall House Beneath it lieth Eay that is The Island so called because it is watered on every side with brookes where are to bee seene the rubbish ruines and decayed walles of an old Castle that belonged to Robert Malet a Norman Baron But after that he under King Henry the First was deprived of his Dignity because he sided with Robert Duke of Normandy against the King the said King bestowed this Honour upon Stephen Earle of Bullen who being afterwards the Vsufructuary King of England left it unto his son William Earle of Warren But after hee had surrendred his State to King Henry the Second and lost his life in the expedition of Tholose the King held it in his owne hands untill that King Richard the First confer'd it upon Henry the Fifth of that name Duke of Brabant and of Lorain together with King Stephens Neece by his daughter who had beene a professed Nunne Long time after when it was now devolved againe upon the Kings of England King Edward the third gave it as I have read to Sir Robert Vfford Earle of Suffolke Neither must I passe over in silence Bedingfield neere adjoyning which gave the name to a worshipfull and ancient Family that received very much reputation and credit from the Heire of the Family of Tudenham From thence by Flixton in stead of Felixton so named of Faelix the first Bishop of these parts like as many other places in this Shire the River Waveney runneth downe to Bungey and spreadeth it selfe in manner round about it where Hugh Bigod fortified a Castle both by artificiall workmanship and also by naturall situation when as the seditious Barons tossed all England to and fro with stormes of rebellion Concerning which Castle as impregnable he was wont to vaunt in these termes Were I in my Castle of Bungey Upon the River of Waveney I would ne care for the King of Cockeney Yet notwithstanding afterwards he obtained at the hands of King Henry the Second by giving him
Picot Sheriffe of this Shire and of the Peverels from whom by one of the daughters this and other Possessions came unto Sir Gilbert Pech the last of whose house after he had otherwise advanced his children by his second wife ordained King Edward the First to be his Heire For in those dayes the Noble men of England brought into use againe the custome of the Romanes under their Emperours which was to nominate them their heires if they were in any disfavour with their Soveraignes But in the Barons warre in King Henrie the Third his dayes this Castle was burnt downe being set on fire by Ribald L' Isle At which time Walter de Cottenham a respective person was hanged for Rebellion By what name writers termed this River it is a question some call it Granta others Camus And unto these I rather incline both for that the course thereof is somewhat crooked for so much doth Cam in the British tongue signifie whence a certaine crooked river in Cornwall is named Camel and also because that ancient towne CAMBORITUM which Antonine the Emperour mentioneth in his third journey of Britaine stood upon this river as I am well neere induced to beleeve by the distance by the name and also by the peeces of Romane mony found here nigh unto the bridge in great store For CAMBORITUM signifieth A Fourd at Camus or a Fourd with crooked windings For Rith in our British or Welsh tongue betokeneth A Fourd which I note to this end that the Frenchmen may more easily perceive and see what is the meaning of Augustoritum Darioritum Rithomagus and other such like in France Howbeit the Saxons chuse rather to call our Camboritum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which name it keepeth still but whence it was derived I cannot yet see If I should fetch it from Gron a Saxon word that signifieth a Fenny place I might perhaps goe wide And yet Asserius termed once or twice certaine fennish and marish grounds in Somersetshire by a mungrell name halfe Saxon and halfe Latine Gronnas paludosissimas and very well knowne it is that a City in West Frisland which is situate in such a ground is named Groningen But let other hunt after the derivation of this name About the yeere of Christ 700. this was a little desolate Citty as saith Bede whiles hee reporteth that neere unto the walles there was found a little trough or coffin very cunningly and finely wrought of Marble and covered most fitly with a lidde of the like stone But now a small Village it is one part whereof Henry Lacie Earle of Lincolne gave unto his base sonne Henry with this condition that his sonnes and their posterity which a good while since be cleane worne out should have no other Christian name but Henry the other part Henry the Sixth King of England comming out of the house of Lancaster into whose hands the Patrimony of Earle Lacie fell graunted unto the Kings Colledge in Cambridge which was either a part or else a plant of that ancient Camboritum so neere it commeth unto it both in situation and name Neither can I easily beleeve that Grant was turned into Cam for this might seeme a deflexion some what too hardly streined wherein all the letters but one are quite swallowed up I would rather thinke that the common people reteined the terme of the ancient name of Camboritum or of the river Cam although writers used more often the Saxon name Grantbridge This Citty which being the other University of England the other eye the other strong-stay as it were thereof and a most famous Mart and store-house of good Literature and Godlines standeth upon the river Cam which after it hath in sporting wise besprinkled the West side thereof with many Islets turning into the East divideth it into two parts and hath a Bridge over it whence arose this latter name Cambridge Beyond the bridge is seene a large and ancient Castle which seemeth now to have lived out his full time nigh Maudlen Colledge On this side the Bridge where standeth the greatest part by farre of the City you have a pleasant sight every where to the eye what of fair streets orderly raunged what of a number of Churches and of sixteene Colledges sacred mansions of the Muses wherein a number of great learned men are maintained and wherein the knowledge of the best Arts and the skill in tongues so flourish that they may be rightly counted the fountaines of Literature Religion and all Knowledge whatsoever who right sweetly bedew and sprinkle with most holesom waters the gardens of the Church and Common-wealth through England Neither is there wanting any thing here that a man may require in a most flourishing Vniversity were it not that the ayre is somewhat unhealthfull arising as it doth out of a fenny ground hard by And yet peradventure they that first founded an University in that place allowed of Platoes judgement For he being of a very excellent and strong constitution of body chose out the Academia an unwholsome place of Attica for to study in that so the superfluous ranknesse of body which might overlay the minde might be kept under by the distemperature of the place Neverthelesse for all this our forefathers men of singular wisedome dedicated this place and not without divine direction unto learned Studies and beautified it with notable workes and buildings And least we should seeme in the worst-kinde unthankefull to those singular Patrons of learning or rather that I may use the words of Eumenius toward the Parents of our Children let us summarily rehearse both themselves and the Colledges also which they founded and consecrated to good Literature to their honourable memory and that out of the Cambridge Story The report goeth that Cantaber a Spaniard 375. yeeres before the Nativity of Christ first began and founded this University Also that Sebert King of the East-Angles restored it againe in the yeere after Christs birth 630. Afterwards being other whiles overthrowne and destroyed with the Danish stormes it lay a long time forlorne and of no account untill all began to revive under the Normans governement And not long after Innes Hostels and Halles were built for Scholers howbeit endowed with no possessions But Hugh Balsham Bishop of Ely in the yeere 1284. built the first Colledge called Peter-house and endowed it with Lands whose example these ensuing did imitate and follow Richard Badew with the good helpe and furtherance of Lady Elizabeth Clare Countesse of Vlster in the yeere 1340. founded Clare Hall Lady Mary S. Paul Countesse of Pembroch in the yeere 1347. Pembroch Hall The Guild or Society of Corpus Christi Brethren Corpus Christi Colledge which is called also S. Bennet Colledge William Bateman Bishop of Norwich about the yeere 1353. Trinity Hall Edmund Gonevil in the yeere 1348. and Iohn Caius Doctor of Physicke in our time Gonevil and Caius Colledge Henry the Sixth King
which King Henry the First gave unto the Church of Lincolne for amends of a losse when hee erected the Bishopricke of Ely taken out of the Diocesse of Lincolne as I have before shewed But where the River Nen entreth into this Shire it runneth fast by Elton the seat of the ancient Family of the Sapcots where is a private Chappell of singular workemanship and most artificiall glasse windowes erected by Lady Elizabeth Dinham the widow of Baron Fitz-warin married into the said Family But a little higher there stood a little City more ancient than all these neere unto Walmsford which Henry of Huntingdon calleth Caer Dorm and Dormeceaster upon the River Nen and reporteth to have beene utterly rased before his time This was doubtlesse that DUROBRIVAE that is The River passage that Antonine the Emperour speaketh of and now in the very same sense is called Dornford neere unto Chesterton which beside peeces of ancient Coine daily found in it sheweth apparant tokens of a City overthrowne For to it there leadeth directly from Huntingdon a Roman Portway and a little above Stilton which in times past was called Stichilton it is seene with an high banke and in an ancient Saxon Charter termed Ermingstreat This Street now runneth here through the middest of a foure square Fort the North side whereof was fensed with Wals all the other sides with a Rampire of earth onely Neere unto which were digged up not long since Cofins or Sepulchres of stone in the ground of R. Bevill of an ancient house in this Shire Some verily thinke that this City tooke up both bankes of the River and there bee of opinion that the little Village Câ—ster standing upon the other banke was parcell thereof Surely to this opinion of theirs maketh much the testimony of an ancient story which sheweth that there was a place by Nen called Dormund-caster in which when Kinneburga had built a little Monastery it began to be called first Kinneburge-caster and afterwards short Caster This Kinneburga the most Christian daughter of the Pagan King Penda and wife to Alfred King of the Northumbrians changed her Princely State into the service of Christ if I may use the words of an ancient Writer and governed this Monastery of her owne as Prioresse or mother of the Nunnes there Which afterwards about the yeare of Salvation 1010. by the furious Danes was made levell with the ground But where this River is ready to leave this County it passeth hard by an ancient house called Bottle-bridge so is it now termed short for Botolph-bridge which the Draitons and Lovets brought from R. Gimels by hereditary succession into the Family of the Shirleies And to this house adjoyneth Overton now corruptly called Orton which being by felony forfait and confiscate Neele Lovetoft redeemed againe of King John and the said Noeles sister and coheire being wedded unto Hubert alià s Robert de Brounford brought him children who assumed unto them the sirname of Lovetoft This County of Huntingdon when the English-Saxons Empire began now to decline had Siward an Earle by Office and not inheritance For as yet there were no Earles in England by inheritance but the Rulers of Provinces after the custome of that age were termed Earles with addition of the Earledome of this or that Province whereof they had the rule for the time as this Siward whiles he governed this County was called Earle of Huntingdon whereas afterwards being Ruler of Northumberland they named him Earle of Northumberland He had a sonne named Waldeof who under the Title of Earle had likewise the government of this Province standing in favour as he did with William the Conquerour whose Niece Judith by his sister of the mothers side hee had married but by him beheaded for entring into a conspiracy against him The eldest daughter of this Waldeof as William Gemiticensis reporteth Simon de Senlys or S. Liz tooke to wife together with the Earldome of Huntingdon and of her begat a sonne named Simon But after that the said Simon was dead David brother to Maud the Holy Queene of England who afterwards became King of Scots married his wife by whom hee had a sonne named Henry But in processe of time as fortune and Princes favour varied one while the Scots another while the Sent Lizes enjoyed this dignity First Henry the sonne of David aforesaid then Simon S. Liz sonne of Simon the first after him Malcolm King of Scots sonne to Earle Henry and after his death Simon Sent Liz the third who dying without issue William King of Scots and brother to Malcolm succeeded for so wrote he that then lived Raphe de Diceto in the yeare 1185. When Simon saith hee the sonne of Earle Simon was departed without children the King restored the Earldome of Huntingdon with the Pertinences unto William King of the Scots Then his brother David and Davids sonne John sirnamed Scot Earle of Chester who dying without issue and Alexander the third that had married the daughter of our King Henry the Third having for a time borne this Title the Scots by occasion of incident warres lost that honour and with it a very faire inheritance in England A good while after King Edward the Third created Sir William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon who dyed issuelesse And in his roome there was placed by King Richard the Second Guiseard of Engolisme a Gascoine who was his Governour in his minority and after his death succeeded Iohn Holland Iohn his sonne who was stiled Duke of Excester Earle of Huntingdon and Ivory Lord of Sparre Admirall of England and Ireland Lieutenant of Aquitane and Constable of the Towre of London and his sonne likewise Henry successively who were Dukes also of Excester This is that very same Henry Duke of Excester whom Philip Comines as himselfe witnesseth saw begging bare foote in the Low Countries whiles he stood firme and fast unto the house of Lancaster albeit he had married King Edward the Fourth his owne sister Then Thomas Grey who became afterward Marquesse Dorset a little while enjoyed that honour Also it is evident out of the Records that William Herbert Earle of Pembroch brought in againe the Charter of creation whereby his father was made Earle of Pembroch into the Chancery for to be cancelled and that King Edward the Fourth in the seventeenth of his Raigne created him Earle of Huntingdon at such time as he granted the Title of Pembroch to the Prince his sonne Afterward King Henry the Eighth conferred that honour upon George Lord Hastings after whom succeeded his sonne Francis and after him likewise his sonne Henry a right honourable Personage commended both for true Nobility and Piety But whereas hee dyed without issue his brother Sir George Hastings succeeded and after him his Grandchilde Henry by his sonne who at this day enjoyeth the said honour In this little Shire are numbered Parishes 78. CORITANI NOw must wee passe on to
in old time a very small village it is at this day containing in it scarce foureteene dwelling houses and those but little ones and hath no monument of antiquitie to shew beside an ancient mount which they call Old-burie For on the one side Atherstone a mercate towne of good resort where there stood a Church of Augustine Friers now turned into a Chappell which neverthelesse acknowledgeth Mancester Church for her mother and Nun-Eaton on the other side by their vicinity have left it bare and empty Close unto Atherstone standeth Mery-Vale where Robert Ferrars erected a Monastery to God and the blessed Virgin Mary wherein himselfe enwrapped in an Oxe-hide for a shrouding sheet was interred Beyond these Northeastward is Pollesworth where Modwena an Irish Virgin of whom there went so great a fame for her holy life built a religious house for Nuns which R. Marmion a Noble man repaired who had his Castle hard by at Stippershull Neere unto this place also there flourished in the Saxons daies a towne that now is almost quite gone called then SECANDUNUM and at this day Seckinton where Aethelbald King of the Mercians in civill warre about the yeere of our Lord 749. was stabbed to death by Beared and soone after Offa slew Beared so that as by bloudy meanes he invaded the Kingdome of Mercia he likewise lost the same suddainely It remaineth now that we reckon up the Earles of Warwick for to passe over Guare Morind Guy of Warwick of whose actes all England resoundeth and others of that stampe whom pregnant wits have at one birth bred and brought forth into the world Henry the sonne of Roger de Beau-mont and brother to Robert Earle of Mellent was the first Earle descended of Normans bloud who had married Margaret the daughter of Ernulph de Hesdin Earle of Perch a most mighty and puissant man Out of this Family there bare this Honourable title Roger the sonne of Henry William the sonne of Roger who died in the thirtieth yeere of King Henry the Second Walleran his brother Henry the sonne of Walleran Thomas his sonne who deceased without issue in the sixe and twentieth yeere of King Henry the Third leaving behinde him Margery his sister who being Countesse of Warwicke and barraine departed this life yet her two husbands first Iohn Mareschal then John de Plessetis or Plessey in their wives right and through their Princes favour mounted up to the Honourable dignitie of Earles of Warwicke Now when these were departed without any issue by that Margery Waller and Uncle unto the said Margery succeeded them After whom dying also childlesse his sister Alice enjoyed the inheritance Afterwards her sonne William called Malduit and Manduit of Hanslap who left this world and had no children Then Isabell the said William Malduits sister being bestowed in marriage upon William de Beauchamp Lord of Elmesly brought the Earledome of Warwicke into the Familie of the Beauchamps who if I deceive not my selfe for that they came of a daughter of Ursus de Abtot gave the Beare for their cognisance and left it to their posteritie Out of this house there flourished sixe Earles and one Duke William the sonne of Isabell John Guy Thomas Thomas the younger Richard and Henry unto whom King Henry the Sixth graunted this preheminence and prerogative without any precedent to be the first and chiefe Earle of England and to carry this stile Henricus Praecomes totius Anglia Comes Warwici that is Henry chiefe Earle of all England and Earle of Warwicke he nominated him also King of the Isle of Wight and afterwards created him Duke of Warwicke and by these expresse words of his Parent graunted That he should take his place in Parliaments and elsewhere next unto the Duke of Norfolke and before the Duke of Buckingham One onely daughter he had named Anne whom in the Inquisitions wee finde entituled Countesse of Warwicke and shee died a child After her succeeded Richard Nevill who had married Anne sister to the said Duke of Warwicke a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrustie the very tennisse-ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the Sixth a most bountifull Prince to him from his regall dignitie placed Edward the Fourth in the royall throne and afterwards put him downe too restored Henry the Sixth againe to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of civill warre which himselfe at the length hardly quenched with his owne bloud After his death Anne his Wife by Act of Parliament was excluded and debarred from all her lands for ever and his two daughters heires to him and heires apparant to their mother being married to George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Glocester were enabled to enjoy all the said lands in such wise as if the said Anne their mother were naturally dead Whereupon the name stile and title of Earle of Warwicke and Sarisbury was graunted to George Duke of Clarence who soone after was unnaturally dispatched by a sweet death in a Butte of Malvesey by his suspicious brother King Edward the Fourth His young sonne Edward was stiled Earle of Warwicke and being but a very child was beheaded by King Henry the Seventh to secure himselfe and his posteritie The death of this Edward our Ancestors accounted to be the full period and finall end of the long lasting warre betweene the two royall houses of Lancaster and Yorke Wherein as they reckoned from the twenty eight yeere of Henry the Sixth unto this being the fifteenth of Henry the Seventh there were thirteene fields fought three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Marques eighteene Earles with one Vicont and twenty three Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives From the death of this young Earle of Warwicke this title lay asleepe which King Henry the Eighth feared as a fire-brand of the State by reason of the combustion which that Richard Nevill that whip-king as some tearmed him had raised untill that King Edward the Sixth conferred it upon Iohn Dudley that derived his pedigree from the Beauchamps who like unto that Richard abovesaid going about in Queene Maries daies to turne and translate Scepters at his pleasure for his Traiterous deepe ambition lost his head But his sonnes first Iohn when his father was now Duke of Northumberland by a courteous custome usually received held this title for a while and afterwards Ambrose a most worthy personage both for warlike prowesse and sweetnesse of nature through the fauour of Queene Elizabeth received in our remembrance the Honour of Earle of Warwick to him and his heires males and for defect of them to Robert his brother and the heires males of his body lawfully begotten This Honour Ambrose bare with great commendation and died without children in the yeere one thousand five hundred eighty nine shortly after his brother Robert Earle of Leicester
Countries to present three hundred Wolves yeerely unto him by way of Tribute For when as William of Malmesbury writeth he had for three yeeres performed this at the fourth yeere he gave over upon his protestation that hee could finde no more Yet long time after this there remained some still as appeareth for certaine by irreproveable testimonies of Record The inhabitants who for the most part wholly betake themselves to breeding and feeding of cattaile and live upon white meaâ—es as butter cheese c. how ever Strabo mocked our Britans in times past as unskilfull in making of cheese are for stature cleere complexion goodly feature and lineaments of body inferiour to no Nation in Britain but they have an ill name among their neighbours for being too forward in the wanton love of women and that proceeding from their idlenesse They have but few townes Eastward where Dovy runneth standeth Mouthwy a Commot very well knowne which fell for a childes part of inheritance to William alias Wilcock of Mouthwy a younger sonne of Gruffeth Ap Gwenwynwin Lord of Powis and by his sons daughter it came unto Sir Hugh Burgh and by his sonnes daughters likewise unto the Families of Newport Leighton Lingein and Mitton of especiall respect in these parts Where the â—iver Avon runneth downe more Westward there is Dolegethle a little mercat towne so called of the Vale wherein it is built Hard by the sea in the little territory named Ardudwy the Castle Arlech in times past named Caer Colun standeth advanced upon a very steepe rocke and looketh downe into the sea from aloft which being built as the Inhabitants report by King Edward the First tooke name of the situation For Arlech in the British tongue signifieth as much as upon a Stony rocke Whiles England was disjointed and lay torne with civill broiles David Ap Ienkin Ap Enion a noble Gentleman of Wales who tooke part with the house of Lancaster defended it stoutly against King Edward the Fourth untill that Sir William Herbert Earle of Pembrock making his way with much adoe through the midst of these mountaines of Wales no lesse passable than the Alpes assaulted this Castle in such furious thundering manner that it was yeelded up into his hands Incredible it is almost what a cumbersome journey hee had of it and with what difficulty hee gat through whiles he was constrained in some places to climbe up the hilles creeping in others to come downe tumbling both he and his company together Whereupon the dwellers thereabout call that way at this day Le Herbert A little higher in the very confines of the Shires two notable armes of the Sea enbosome themselves within the Land Traith Maur and Traith Bachan that is The greater Wash and the lesse And not farre from hence neere unto a little Village called Fastineog there is a street or Port-way paved with stone that passeth through these cumberâ—ome and in manner unpassable Mountaines Which considering that the Britans name it Sarn Helen that is Helens Street it is not to be thought but that Helena mother to Constantine the Great who did many such like famous workes throughout the Romane Empire laied the same with stone Neither standeth farre from it Caer-Gai that is The Castle of Caius built by one Caius a Roman touching whom the common people dwelling thereby report great wonders In the East side of the Shire the River Dee springeth out of two Fountaines whence some thinke it tooke the name for they call it Dwy which word importeth also among them the number of two although others would needs have it so tearmed of some Divinity other of the blacke colour and forthwith passeth entire and whole through Lhintegid in English Pimble-Meare and Plenlin-Meare a Lake spreading farre in length and breadth and so runneth out of it with as great a streame as it entred in For neither shall a man see in Dee the fishes called Guiniad which are peculiar to the Meare nor yet Salmons in the Meare which neverthelesse are commonly taken in the River But see if you please the description of this Lake or Meare in verse by the Antiquarian Poet. Hispida quà tellus Mervinia respicit Eurum Est locus antiquo Penlinum nomine dictus Hîc lacus illimeis in valle Tegeius alta Latè expandit aquas vastum conficit orbem Excipiens gremio latices qui fonte perenni Vicinis recidunt de montibus atque sonoris Illecebris captas demulcent suaviter aures Illud habet certè lacus admirabile dictu Quantumvis magna pluvia non astuat atqui Aëre turbato si ventus murmura tollat Excrescit subito rapidis violentior undis Et tumido superat contempias flumine ripas On th' East side of Merioneth a Country rough that is A place there lies by ancient name cleped Penlin ywis Whereas within a Valley deepe there spreadeth farre a Lake With waters cleere without all mud which compasse huge doth take Receiving sundry pirles to it and many a running rill That spring and fall continually from every neighbour hill And with shrill noise and pleasant sounds allured eares doe fill And verily a wonder't is of this Lake strange to tell Although the raine powre downe amaine the waters never swell But if the aire much troubled be and windes aloft doe blow It swelles at once no streame so much and bankes doth overflow On the browe or edge heereof standeth Bala a little Towne endowed with many immunities but peopled with few inhabitants and as rudely and unhandsomely built neverthelesse it is the chiefe Mercate Towne for these Mountainers Hugh Earle of Chester was the first of the Normans that tooke this Country and held it with planting Garisons what time as he kept Gruffin Ap Conan that is the sonne of Conan prisoner But Gruffin afterwards recovered it with the rest of his Principality and left it unto his heires untill it came unto the fatall Periode and so ended in Lhewellin It reckoneth Churches 37. CAERNARVOÌ„ Comitatus pars olim ORDOVICVM CAERNARVON-SHIRE ABove Merionith-shire lieth that Country which the Britans call Sire Caer-ar-von and English men CAER-NARVON-SHIRE of the principall Towne therein and before that Wales was laied out into Shires they tearmed it by the name of Snowden-Forest and the Latine Historians Snaudonia of that Forest and Ar-vonia out of the British name because it hath Mona that is Anglesey just over against it The North side and the West butteth upon the Irish Sea the South-side is enclosed with Merioneth-shire and the East with Denbigh-shire from which it is severed by the River Conwy On that part which looketh toward the Sea especially where it shooteth forth a great way South-west with a Promontorie and stretcheth out the shores with crooked turning full against OCTOPITARUM or Saint Davids Land it is of a very fruitfull soile and garnished all a long with prety Townes As for the more in-land
fortune to escape it selfe This was called The battaile of the Standard because the English keeping themselves close together about the standard received the first onset and shock of the Scotish endured it and at length put them to flight And this Standard as I have seene it pictured in ancient bookes was a mighty huge chariot supported with wheeles wherein was set a pole of a great height in manner of a mast and upon the very top thereof stood a crosse to bee seene and under the crosse hung a banner This when it was advanced was a token that every one should prepare himselfe to fight and it was reputed as an holy and sacred altar that each man was to defend with all power possible resembling the same for al the world that Carrocium of the Italians which might never be brought abroad but in the greatest extremitie and danger of the whole state Within this litle shire also Threske commonly called Thruske is worth to bee mentioned which had sometime a most strong Castle out of which Roger Mowbray displaied his banner of rebellion and called in the king of Scots to the overthrow of his owne native Country what time as King Henry the Second had rashly and inconsiderately digged as it were his owne grave by investing his sonne King in equall authority with himselfe But this rebellion was in the end quenched with bloud and this Castle quite dismantled so that beside a ditch and rampire I could see nothing there of a Castle Another firebrand also of rebellion flamed out heere in the Raigne of Henry the Seventh For when the unruly Commons tooke it most grievously that a light subsidie granted by the States of the Kingdome in Parliament was exacted of them and had driven away the Collectors thereof forthwith as it is commonly seene that Rashnesse speeding once well can never keepe a meane nor make an end they violently set upon Henry Percie Earle of Northumberland who was Lieutenant of these parts and slew him in this place and having John Egremond to be their leader tooke armes against their Country and their Prince but a few daies after they felt the smart of their lawlesse insolency grievously and justly as they had deserved Heere hard by are Soureby and Brakenbake belonging to a very ancient and right worshipfull family of the Lâ—scelles also more Southward Sezay sometime of the Darels from whence a great family branched and afterwards the Dawnies who for a long time flourished heere maintaining the degree and dignity of Knights right worthily The first and onely Earle of Yorke after William Mallet and one or two Estotevils of the Norman bloud who they say were Sheriffes by inheritance was Otho son to Henry Leo Duke of Bavar and Saxony by Maude the daughter of Henry the Second King of England who was afterwards proclaimed Emperour and stiled by the name of Otho the fourth From whose brother William another sonne of Maud are descended the Dukes of Brunswicke and Luneburgh in Germanie who for a token of this their kinred with the Kings of England give the same Armes that the first Kings of England of Norman bloud bare to wit two Leopards or Lions Or in a shield Gueles Long after King Richard the Second created Edmund of Langley fifth sonne of King Edward the Third Duke of Yorke who by a second daughter of Peter King of Castile and of Leon had two sonnes Edward the eldest in his fathers life time was first Earle of Cambridge afterwards Duke of Aumarle and in the end Duke of Yorke who manfully fighting in the battaile at Agincourt in France lost his life leaving no children and Richard his second sonne Earle of Cambridge who having marryed Anne sister of Edmund Mortimer whose grandmother likewise was the onely daughter of Leonell Duke of Clarence and practising to advance Edmund his wives brother to the royall dignity was streightwaies intercepted and beheaded as if hee had beene corrupted by the French to destroy King Henry the Fifth Sixteene yeeres after his sonne Richard was restored in bloud through the exceeding but unadvised favour of King Henry the Sixth as being sonne to Richard Earle of Cambridge brother to Edward Duke of Yorke and cozin also to Edmund Earle of March. And now being Duke of Yorke Earle of March and of Vlster Lord of Wigmore Clare Trim and Conaght hee bare himselfe so lofty that shortly hee made claime openly in Parliament against King Henry the Sixth as in his owne right for the Crowne which he had closely affected by indirect courses before in making complaints of the misgovernment of the State spreading seditious rumours scattering Libels abroad complotting secret Conspiracies and stirring up tumults yea and open Warres laying downe his Title thus as being the sonne of Anne Mortimer who came of Philip the daughter and sole heire of Leonel Duke of Clarence third sonne of King Edward the Third and therefore to be preferred by very good right in succession of the Kingdome before the children of John of Gaunt the fourth sonne of the said Edward the Third And when answere was made unto him that the Nobles of the Realme and the Duke himselfe had sworne Alleageance unto the King that the Kingdome by authority of Parliament had beene conferred and entailed upon Henry the Fourth and his heires that the Duke claiming his Title from the Duke of Clarence never tooke upon him the Armes of the Duke of Clarence that Henry the Fourth held the Crowne in right from King Henry the Third hee easily avoyded all these allegations namely that the said oath unto the King taken by mans law was in no wise to bee performed when as it tended to the suppression of the truth and right which stand by the Law of God That there was no need of Parliamentary authority to entaile the Crowne and Kingdome unto the Lancastrians neither would they themselves seeke for it so if they had stood upon any right thereunto As for the Armes of the Duke of Clarence which were his by right hee forbare of purpose to give them untill then like as hee did to claime his right to the Imperiall Crowne And as for the right or Title derived from king Henry the Third it was a meere ridiculous devise and manifest untruth to cloake the violent usurpation of Henry the Fourth and therefore condemned of all men Albeit these plees in the behalfe of the Duke of Yorke stood directly with law yet for remedy of imminent dangers the matter was ordered thus by the wisdome of the Parliament That Henry the Sixth should enjoy the right of the Kingdome for tearme of life onely and that Richard Duke of Yorke should be proclaimed heire apparant of the Kingdome he and his heires to succeed after him provided alwaies that neither of them should plot or practise ought to the destruction of the other Howbeit the Duke immediately was transported so headlong with ambition that hee went about to preoccupate and forestall
or Band of the Exploratores with their Captaine kept their station heere under the dispose of the Generall of Britaine as appeareth for certaine out of the NOTICE of Provinces where it is named LAVATRES But whereas such Bathes as these were called also in Latine Lavacra some Criticke no doubt will pronounce that this place was named LAVATRAE in stead of LAVACRA yet would I rather have it take the name of a little river running neere by which as I heare say is called Laver. As for the later name Bowes considering the old Towne was heere burnt downe to the ground as the inhabitants with one voice doe report I would thinke it grew upon that occasion For that which is burnt with fire the Britans still at this day doe terme Boeth and by the same word the Suburbes of Chester beyond the River Dee which the Englishmen call Hanbridge the Britans or Welshmen name Treboeth that is The burnt Towne because in a tumult of the Welshmen it was consumed with fire Heere beginneth to rise that high hilly and solitary Country exposed to winde and raine which because it is stony is called in our native language Stane more All heere round about is nothing but a wilde Desert unlesse it bee an homely Hostelry or Inne in the very middest thereof called The Spitle on Stane more for to entertaine waifaring persons and neere to it is a fragment of a Crosse which wee call Rerecrosse the Scots Reicrosse as one would say The Kings Crosse. Which Crosse Hector Boetius the Scottish Writer recordeth to have beene erected as a meere stone confining England and Scotland what time as King William the Conquerour granted Cumberland unto the Scots on this condition that they should hold it of him as his Tenants and not attempt any thing prejudiciall or hurtfull to the Crowne of England And a little lower upon the Romanes high street there stood a little Fort of the Romans built foure square which at this day they call Maiden-Castle From whence as the borderers reported the said High way went with many windings in and out as farre as to Caer Vorran in Northumberland There have beene divers Earles of Richmond according as the Princes favour enclined and those out of divers families whom I will notwithstanding set downe as exactly and truely as I can in their right order The first Earles were out of the house of little Britaine in France whose descent is confusedly intricate amongst their owne Writers for that there were two principall Earles at once one of Haulte Britaine and another of Base Britaine for many yeeres and every one of their children had their part in Gavell kinde and were stiled Earles of Britaine without distinction But of these the first Earle of Richmond according to our Writers and Records was Alane sirnamed Feregaunt that is The Red sonne of Hoel Earle of Britaine descended from Hawise great Aunt to William Conquerour who gave this Country unto him by name of the lands of Earle Eadwin in Yorke-shire and withall bestowed his daughter upon him by whom he had no issue He built Richmond Castle as is before specified to defend himselfe from disinherited and outlawed Englishmen in those parts and dying left Britaine to his sonne Conan Le Grosse by a second wife But Alane the Blacke sonne of Eudo sonne of Geffrey Earle of Britaine and Hawise aforesaid succeeded in Richmond and he having no childe lest it to Stephen his brother This Stephen begat Alan sirnamed Le Savage his sonne and successour who assisted king Stephen against Maude the Empresse in the battaile at Lincolne and married Bertha one of the heires of Conan Le Grosse Earle of Hault Britaine by whom hee had Conan Le Petit Earle of both Britaine 's by hereditary right as well as of Richmond Hee by the assistance of King Henrie the Second of England dispossessed Endo Vicount of Porhoet his Father in Lawe who usurped the Title of Britaine in right of the said Bertha his Wife and ended his life leaving onely one daughter Constance by Margaret sister to Malcolne king of the Scots Geffrey third Sonne to King Henry the Second of England was advanced by his Father to the marriage of the said Constance whereby hee was Earle of Britaine and Richmond and begat of her Arthur who succeeded him and as the French write was made away by King Iohn his Unkle True it is indeed that for this cause the French called King Iohn into question as Duke of Normandy And notwithstanding he was absent and not heard once to plead neither confessing ought nor convicted yet by a definitive sentence they condemned him and awarded from him Normandy and his hereditary possessions in France Albeit himselfe had promised under safe conduct to appeare in personally at Paris there to make answere as touching the death of Arthur who as a Liege subject had bound himselfe by oath to bee true and loyall unto him and yet started backe from his allegeance raised a rebellion and was taken prisoner in battaile At which time this question was debated whether the Peeres of France might give judgement of a King annointed and therefore superiour considering that a greater dignity drowneth the lesser and now one and the same person was both King of England and Duke of Normandy But whither doe I digresse After Arthur these succeeded orderly in the Earldome of Richmond Guy Vicount of Thovars unto whom the foresaid Constance was secondly married Ranulph the third Earle of Chester the third husband of the said Constance Peter of Dreux descended from the bloud royall of France who wedded Alice the onely daughter of Constance by her husband abovenamed Guy Then upon dislike of the house of Britaine Peter of Savoy Unkle by the mothers side unto Eleonor the wife of king Henry the Third was made Earle of Richmond who for feare of the Nobles and Commons of England that murmured against strangers preferred to honours in England voluntarily surrendred up this Honour which was restored to Iohn Earle of Britaine sonne to Peter of Dreux After whom succeeded Iohn his sonne the first Duke of Britaine who wedded Beatrice daughter to Henry the Third King of England Whose sonne Arthur was Duke of Britaine and as some write Earle of Richmond Certes John of Britaine his younger brother immediately after the fathers death bare this honourable Title And he added unto the ancient Armes of Drewx with the Canton of Britaine the Lions of England in Bordeur Hee was Guardian of Scotland under King Edward the Second and there taken and detained prisoner for three yeeres space and dyed at length without issue in the Raigne of Edward the Third And John Duke of Britaine his nephew the sonne of Arthur succeeded in this Earledome After his decease without children when there was hote contention about the Dutchy of Britaine betweene John Earle of Montfort of the halfe bloud and Joane his brothers daughter and heire
of the whole bloud marryed to Charles of Bloys King Edward the Third affecting the said John Earle of Montfort and to strengthen his owne party in France favoured the Title of the said John Earle of Montfort for that he was a man and neerer in degree and therefore seemed to have better right and to bee preferred before his Niece to whom the Parliament of France had adjudged it and which is more for that he sware fealty to him as King of France for the Dutchy of Britaine In these respects he granted the Earldome of Richmond unto the said Iohn untill he might recover his owne possessions in France which being soone after recovered by aide of the English the said King bestowed it upon Iohn of Gaunt his sonne And he afterward surrendred it againe into the King his fathers hands for other possessions Who forthwith created Iohn Earle of Montfort Duke of Britaine sirnamed The valiant Earle of Richmond unto whom hee had given his daughter to wife that thereby hee might more surely oblige unto him a warlique person and then ill affected to the French But in the fourth yeere of Richard the Second he by authority of the Parliament forfaited his Earldome because he adhered unto the French King against England howbeit hee kept still the bare Title and left it unto his posterity But the possession was granted to Dame Ioane of Britaine his sister and the widdow of Ralph Lord Basset of Draiton After her decease first Ralph Nevill Earle of Westmorland had the Castle and Earldome of Richmond for the tearme of his owne life by the gift of King Henry the Fourth And after him Iohn Duke of Bedford Then king Henry the Sixth conferred the Title of Earle of Richmond upon Edmund of Hadham his halfe brother by the mothers side with this speciall and peculiar prerogative To take his place in Parliament next unto Dukes After him succeeded Henry his sonne who was King of England by the name of Henry the Seventh But during his exile George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Glocester received the Signiory of Richmond but not the Title from their brother king Edward the Fourth Last of all Henry the base sonne of king Henry the Eighth was by his father invested Duke of Richmond who departed this life without issue 1535. As for Sir Thomas Grey who was made Baron of Richmount by king Henry the Sixth was not Lord of this Richmond but of a place in Bedfordshire called Rugemound and Richmount Greies There are contained in this Shire Parishes 104. beside Chappels BISHOPRICK OF DVRHAM THe Bishopricke of Durham or Duresme bordering on the North side upon Yorke-shire is shaped in fashion of a triangle the utmost angle whereof is made up toward the West where the Northren limit and the Spring-head of Tees doe meete One of the sides which lieth Southward is bounded in with the continued course of the river Tees running downe along by it the other that looketh Northward is limited first with a short line from the utmost point to the river Derwent then with Derwent it selfe untill it hath taken unto it Chopwell a little river and afterward with the river Tine The Sea coast fashioneth out the Base of the Triangle which lieth Eastward and the German Ocean with a mighty roaring and forcible violence beareth thereupon On that part where it gathereth narrow to the Westerne angle the fields are naked and barren the woods very thin the hills bare without grasse but not without mynes of iron As for the Vallies they are reasonably grassie and that high hill which I termed the Apennine of England cutteth in twain this angle But on the East part or Base of the Triangle as also on both sides the ground being well manured is very fruitful and the increase yeeldeth good recompence for the husbandmans toile it is also well garnished with meddowes pastures and corn-fields beset everywhere with townes and yeelding plenty of Sea coale which in many places we use for fewell Some will have this coale to be an earthy black Bitumen others to be Gagates and some againe the Lâ—pis Thracius all which that great Philosopher in Minerals George Agricola hath prooved to be one and the same thing Surely this of ours is nothing else but Bitumen or a clammy kind of cley hardned with heat under the earth and so throughly concocted For it yeeldeth the smell of Bitumen and if water bee sprinkled upon it it burneth more vehemently and the cleerer but whether it may bee quenched with oile I have not yet tried And if the Stone called Obsidianus be in our country I would take that to bee it which is found in other places of England and commonly called Canole cole For it is hard bright light and somewhat easie to be cloven piece meale into flakes and being once kindled it burneth very quickly But let us leave these matters to those that search more deeply into Natures closets All this country with other territories also thereto adjoyning the Monasticall writers tearme the Land or Patrimonie of Saint Cuthbert For so they called whatsoever belonged to the Church of Durham whereof S. Cuthbert was the Patron who in the primitive state of the English Church being Bishop of Lindefarn led all his life in such holinesse and so sincerely that he was enrolled among the English Saints Our kings also and Peeres of the Realme because they verily perswaded themselves that he was their Tutelar Saint and Protectour against the Scots went not onely in Pilgrimage with devotion to visite his body which they beleeved to have continued still found and uncorrupt but also gave very large possessions to this Church and endowed the same with many immunities King Edgfride bestowed upon Cuthbert himselfe whiles he lived great revenewes in the very City of Yorke and Creake also whereof I spake and the City Luguballia as wee reade in the History of Durham King Aelfred and Guthrun the Dane whom hee made Lieutenant of Northumberland gave afterwards all the Lands betweene the Rivers Were and Tine unto Cuthbert and to those who ministred in his Church to have and to hold for ever as their rightfull Possession These bee the very words in effect of an ancient Booke whence they might have sufficient maintenance to live upon and not be pinched with poverty over and besides they ordeined his Church to bee a safe Sanctuary for all fugitives that whosoever for any cause fled unto his Corps should have peaceable being for 37. daies and the same liberty never for any occasion to bee infringed or denyed Edward and Athelstan Kings Knute also or Canutus the Dane who came on his bare feete to Cuthberts Tombe not onely confirmed but enlarged also these liberties In like manner King William the Conquerour since whose time it hath alwayes beene deemed a County Palatine yea and some of the Bishops as Counts Palatine have engraven in their seales a Knight or man at armes in compleat harnesse sitting
the West twenty degrees and forty eight minutes in Longitude Whiles I looked round about from the top of the said castle hill to see the mouth of Lone that issueth it selfe into the sea a little lower Fornesse the other part of this shire appeared in sight which the sea hath after a sort violently rent apart from the rest For when as the shore did from hence shoote out a maine way into the West the Ocean as it were much displeased and angry hereat obstinately ceased not to flash and mangle it nay which is more hath with his fell flowing at boisterous tides devoured the shore and thereby maketh three wide creâ—kes or bayes namely Kent-sand at which the river Ken powreth it selfe forth Leven-sand and Dudden-sand betweene which two the land beareth out so much that thereupon it tooke the name For with us in our language For-nesse Foreland is all one with the Latine Promontorium anterius that is a Fore-promontory All this part unlesse it be hard by the sea side mounteth up aloft with high topped hils and huge fels standing thicke together which they tearme Forness-fells Among which the Britans lived safe a great while trusting upon these strong naturall fenses although the victorious English Saxons made way through all in the end For in the yeere 228. after there comming in I gather that the Britans had their abode here because Egfride King of Northumberland gave unto Holy Saint Cuthbert the land called Carthmell and all the Britans in it thus we finde written in his life and it is very well knowne that Carthmell is a part of this shire by Kentsand and a little towne in it retaineth yet the same name Wherein William Mareschall the elder Earle of Pembroch built a Priory and endowed it with living If you read in Ptolomee SETANTIORUM 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Setantians Mere as some Copies have and not Setantiorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Setantians Haven I durst boldly avouch that these Britans here were called SETANTII For among these mountaines the greatest standing water in all England now called Winander-mere in the English Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 haply of his winding and turning in and out lieth stretched out for the space of ten miles or thereabout with crooked bankes and is all paved as it were with stone in the bottome in some places of wonderfull depth and breeding a peculiar kinde of fish found no where else which the inhabitants there by call A Chare And a little village standing hard by carrieth the name thereof In which Eathred King of Northumberland in the yeer of Christ 792. when he had by force fetched King Elfwolds sonnes out of Yorke flue them that by his owne wickednesse and their blood hee might secure the Kingdome to himselfe and his Betwixt this Mere and the river Dudden the promontory runneth out which wee commonly call Fornesse and hath the Iland Walney as a fore-fence or countremure lying along by it with a small arme of the sea betweene The gullet or entry into which is defended with a fort called the Pile of Fouldrey standing in the midst of the waves upon a rocke erected there by the Abbot of Fornesse in the first yeere of King Edward the third As for the Promontory it selfe there is nothing worth the sight in it unlesse it be the ruines of a monastery of Cistertian Monkes called Fornesse Abbey which Stephen Earle of Bullen afterwards King of England in the yeere of our redemption 1127. built in a place called sometimes Bekensgill or translated rather from Tulket in Andernesse Out of the Monkes whereof and from no place else as they themselves have reported the Bishops of the Isle of Man that lieth just over against were by an ancient custome wont to bee elected as having beene the mother as it were of many Monasteries in the said Man and in Ireland More Eastward standeth Aldingham an ancient hereditament belonging to the family of the Haveringtons or Harringtons unto whom it came from the Flemmings by the Cancefelds and whose inheritance descended by a daughter unto William Bonvill of Somersetshire and at last by him unto the Greies Marquesses of Dorset And somwhat higher is Ulverston in this regard not to bee passed over in silence for that King Edward the third gave a moity thereof unto Sir John Coupland a most brave warriour whom also he advanced to the dignity of a Banaret because in the battaile at Durham he took David the second King of the Scots prisoner But after his decease the same King granted it with other faire lands in this tract and the title also of Earle of Bedford unto Ingelram Lord Coucy of France as who had married his daughter Isabel and whose ancestours in right of Christiana Lindsey had great revenewes in England Touching the noble men which have borne the title of Lancaster there were in the first infancy of the Norman Empire three stiled Lords of the Honour of Lancaster namely Roger of Poictou the sonne of Roger Mont-gomery who was surnamed Pictavensis as William of Malmesbury writeth because hee had married a wife from out of Poictou in France But when he had by his perfidious disloyalty lost this honour William the sonne of King Stephen and Earle of Moriton and Warren had the same given unto him by his Father After whose death King Richard the first bestowed it upon his brother John who was afterward King of England For thus we read in an old History King Richard declared his singular love to his brother Iohn For beside Ireland and the Earledome of Moriton in Normandy he heaped upon him so many dignities in England that he was in maner a Tetrarch there Finally he conferred upon him Cornwall Lancaster Notingham Derby with the country adjoining and many more beside A good while after King Henry the third the sonne of John first advanced Edmund his second sonne called by some Crouth-backe to the title of Earle of Lancaster unto whom hee conveyed and made over the inheritances and honours of Simon Montfort Earle of Leicester Robert Ferrars Earle of Derby and John of Monmouth because they had risen and rebelliously born armes against him and he gave this Honor of Lancaster unto him in these words The Honour County Castle and Town of Lancaster with the Cow-pastures forrests of Wiresdale Lownsdale New castle under Lime the manour forrest and Castle of Pickering the manor of Scaleby the towne of Gomicester and the rents of the towne of Huntendon c. After hee the said Edmund had missed the kingdome of Sicily in which the Pope had invested him in vaine by a ring and not without ridiculous disgrace to the English nation caused in honour of him certaine peeces of gold to bee stamped with this title AIMUNDUS REX SICILIAE having first cunningly suckt a great masse of money from the credulous King in this regard This Edmund
an Attourney a Receiver a Clerke of the Court sixe Assistants a Messenger two Auditors 23. Receivers and three Supervisors c. There are counted in this shire beside very many Chappels Parishes 36. and no more but those wonderfull populous and which for multitude of inhabitants farre exceed the greatest parishes elsewhere WESTMORLANDIAE Comitatus qui olim Spectaint ad BRIGANTAS WEST-MOR-LAND BEYOND the furthest part of Lancashire more Northward lieth another lesser countrey of the Brigantes called by late Latine writers Westmaria and Westmorlandia in our tongue West-more-land and of some later Latine writers Westmoria bounded on the West and North side with Cumberland on the East with Yorke-shire and the Bishopricke of Durham Which because it lyeth all of it among moores and high hilles reaching one to another for our Apennine waxeth here broader and broader still as it runneth and was for the most part un-manured came by this name in our language For such barren places which cannot easily by the painfull labour of the husbandman bee brought to fruitfulnesse the Northren Englishmen call Moores and West-more-land is nothing else with us but A westerne moorish country Let that dreame therefore as touching King Marius bee excluded out of the schoole of reverend antiquity who forsooth as our Chroniclers have dreamed subdued the Picts and called this countrey after his owne name The more Southerly part of this shire contained in a narrow roome betweene the river Lone and Winander mere is reputed fruitfull enough in the vallies although it can shew many felles with rough and stony rockes lying ever bare without grasse and is all tearmed by one name The Barony of Kendale and Candale that is The Dale by Can for it took name of the river Can which running rough upon stones cutteth through it On the west banke whereof standeth Kandale or Kendale called also Kirke by Kandale a towne of very great trade and resort with two broad and long streets crossing the one over the other and a place for excellent clothing and for industry so surpassing that in regard thereof it carrieth a great name For the inhabitants have great trafficke and vent of their woollen clothes throughout all parts of England They count it also much for their credit that it hath dignified Barons and Earles with the title thereof As for their Barons they were the offspring of Iuo Taleboys of whose race William by consent of King Henry the second called himselfe William of Lancaster whose Niece and heire was wedded unto Gilbert the sonne of Roger Fitz-Reinfrid by whose daughters after her sonne William was dead the inheritance went to Peter Brus Lord of Skelton the second of that forename and unto William Lindesay from whom by the mothers side as we learne out of the Lieger book of Fornesse Abbey Ingelram Lord of Coucy in France fetched his descent By which Peter Brus his daughter the sister and heire of Peter Brus the third came this Barony to the Rosses of Werke and from them by right of inheritance this possession was devolved upon the Parres of whom Sir William Par was made Lord Par by King Henry the eighth As for the Castle the ancient seat of these Lords standing over against the towne it runneth to decay through age and neglect As for Earles of Kendale there have beene three in number John Duke of Bedford advanced to that honour by his brother King Henry the fifth John Duke of Somerset and John de Foix of that most noble and honorable family of the Foix in France whom King Henry the sixth for his faithfull service in the French warres had preferred to that dignity Whence perhaps it is that some of this house of Foix in France retain the name still of Candale As for any glory else of antiquity Kendall to my knowledge challengeth none And yet I was once of opinion that it was CONCANGII a station place sometimes of the Romanes but time hath now instructed mee better Somewhat beneath in the river Can are two Catadupae or water falls where the waters have a downefall with a mighty noise the one is by Levens a little village the other more Southward neere to Betham which to the neighbour inhabitants are as good as true prognostications for when that which standeth North from them soundeth more cleere and aloud in their eares they looke certainely for faire weather when that on the South side doth the same they expect no other than showers of raine and foggy mists Thus much for the South and narrower part of this region which Westward is bounded with the river Winster and the spatious Lake Winander-mere whereof I spake erewhile and Eastward with the river Lone or Lune At the upper corner of Winander-mere lieth the dead carcasse as one would say of an ancient City with great ruines of walls and many heapes of rubbish one from another remaining of buildings without the walls yet to bee seene The fortresse thereof was somewhat long fensed with a ditch and rampire for it tooke up in length 132. Ells and in bredth 80. That it had beene the Romans worke is evident by the British brickes by the mortar tempered with little peeces of bricke among by small earthen pots or pitchers by small cruets or vials of glasse by peeces of Roman money oftentimes there found and by round stones as much as milstones or quernstones of which layed and couched together they framed in old time their columnes and by the paved high waies leading unto it Now the ancient name thereof is gone unlesse a man would ghesse at it and thinke it were that AMBOGLANA whereof the booke of Notices maketh mention seeing at this day it is called Ambleside On the East side the river Lone serveth for a limit and after his name the tract lying about it is called Lonsdale the principall towne whereof is Kirkby Lonsdale whither all the people round about repaire to Church and mercate Above the Spring-head of Lone the countrey spreadeth broader and the hills shoot out with many turnings betweene which there lye some vallies marvellous steepe and deepe withall with many hollow places in manner of caves Among these hills that notable river Eden which Ptolomee calleth ITUNA shewing his head first in Yorkshire carrying a small and faint streame in the beginning but afterwards growing by little and little bigger with sundry beckes still augmenting it seeketh a way Northwest by Pendragon Castle which hath nothing left unto it unconsumed by time besides the bare name and an heape of stones From thence hee passeth by Wharton Hall the seat of the Barons Wharton of whom the first was Sir Thomas Wharton advanced to that dignity by King Henry the Eighth whom succeeded his sonne of the same name and after him Philip that now liveth the third Baron a right honourable person Afterwards it runneth downe by Kirkby Stephen a mercate towne well knowne and both the Musgraves two little villages
Romane high-way goeth straight into the West by Whinfield a large Parke shaded with trees hard by BROVONIACUM standing twentie Italian miles or seventeene English miles from VERTERAE as Antonine hath set it who also hath called it Brovocum like as the book of Notices Broconiacum which specifieth that a companie or band of Defensors had here their abode The beautie and buildings of this towne although time hath consumed yet the name remaineth almost untouched for we call it Brogham Here the river Eimot flowing out of a great lake for a good space dividing this shire from Cumberland receiveth the river Loder into it neere unto the spring head whereof hard by Shape in times past Hepe a little monasterie built by Thomas the sonne of Gospatrick sonne of Orms there is a Well or Fountaine which after the manner of Euripus ebbeth and floweth many times in a day also there be huge stones in forme of Pyramides some 9. foot high and fourteene foot thick ranged directly as it were in a row for a mile in length with equall distance almost betweene which may seeme to have beene pitched and erected for to continue the memoriall of some act there atchieved but what the same was by the injurie of time it is quite forgotten Hard by Loder there is a place bearing the same name which like as Stricland neere unto it hath imparted their names to families of ancient gentrie and worship Somewhat above where Loder and Eimot meet in one chanell in the yeere of our Lord 1602. there was a stone gotten out of the ground erected in the honour of Constantine the Great with these words IMP. C. VAL. CONSTANTINO PIENT AUG When Eimot hath served a good while for a limit betweene this shire and Cumberland neere unto Isan-parles a rocke full well knowne unto the neighbour inhabitants whereunto nature hath left difficult passage and there framed sundry caves and thosefull of winding crankes a place of safe refuge in time of danger hee lodgeth himselfe after some few miles both with his owne streame and with the waters of other rivers also in Eden so soone as he hath entertained Blencarne a brook that boundeth this county on Cumberland side Neere unto which I have heard there be the strange ruines of an old Castle the people call them the hanging walls of Marcantoniby that is of Marke Antony as they would have it As for such as have borne the title of Westmorland the first Lord to my knowledge was Robert de Vipont who bare Guels sixe Annulets Or in his coat armour For King John gave unto him the balliwicke and revenues of Westmorland by the service of foure Knights whereupon the Cliffords his successors untill our daies held the office of the Sherifdome of Westmorland For Robert de Vipont the last of that name left behind him only two daughters Isabel wife to Roger Lord Clifford and Idonea married unto Sir Roger Leybourne Long time after K. Richard the second created Ralph Nevill of Raby the first Earle of Westmorland a man of the greatest and most ancient birth of English nobility as descended from Ucthred Earl of Northumberland whose heires successively by his former wife Margaret daughter to the Earle of Stafford flourished in that honour untill that Charles by his wilfull stomack and wicked conspiracy casting off his allegeance to Q. Elizabeth and covering treason under the mantle of religion most shamefully dishonoured that most noble house and foully steined his owne reputation by actuall rebellion in the yeere 1599. Whereupon hee fled into the Low countries led a miserable life and died as miserably The said first Earle to note so much incidently by his second wife Catharine daughter to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster had so faire issue and the name of Nevill thereby so greatly multiplied that almost at one and the same time there flourished out beside the Earle of Westmorland an Earle of Salisbury an Earle of Warwicke an Earle of Kent Marquesse Montacute a Duke of Bedford Lord Latimer and Lord Abergevenny all Nevils In this shire are conteined Parishes 26. CVMBRIA Sive CVMBERLANDIA Quae olim pars Brigantum CUMBER-LAND WEstward Northward from Westmorland lieth CUMBERLAND the utmost region this way of the realme of England as that which on the North side boundeth upon Scotland on the South side and the West the Irish sea beateth upon it and Eastward above Westmorland it butteth upon Northumberland It tooke the name of the inhabitants who were the true and naturall Britans and called themselves in their owne language Kumbri and Kambri For the Histories testifie that the Britans remained here a long time maugre the English Saxons howsoever they stormed thereat yea and Marianus himselfe recordeth as much who tearmed this countrey Cumbrorum terram that is Thâ— land of the Cumbri or Britans to say nothing of the places that everie where here beare British names as Caer-Luel Caer-dronoc Pen-rith Pen-rodoc c. which most evidently declare the same and as cleerly prove mine assertion The country although it be somewhat with the coldest as lying farre North and seemeth as rough by reason of hills yet for the varietie thereof it smileth upon the beholders and giveth contentment to as many as travaile it For after the rockes bunching out the mountaines standing thicke together rich of metall mines and betweene them great meeres stored with all kindes of wilde foule you come to prettie hills good for pastorage and well replenished with flockes of sheepe beneath which againe you meet with goodly plaines spreading out a great way yeelding come sufficiently Besides all this the Ocean driving and dashing upon the shore affoordeth plentie of excellent good fish and upbraideth as it were the inhabitants thereabouts with their negligence for that they practise fishing no more than they doe The South part of this shire is called Copeland and Coupland for that it beareth up the head aloft with sharpe edged and pointed hills which the Britans tearme Copa or as others would have it named Copeland as one would say Coperland of rich mines of copper therein In this part at the very mouth of the river Duden whereby it is severed apart from Lancashire standeth Millum Castle belonging to the ancient house of the Hodlestones from whence as the shore fetcheth about with a bent Northward two rivers very commodiously enclose within them Ravenglasse a station or roade for ships where also as I have learned were to be â—eene Roman inscriptions some will have it called in old time Aven-glasse as one would say the blew river and they talke much of King Eueling that here had his Court and royall palace One of these rivers named Eske springeth up at the foot of Hard-knot an high steepe mountaine in the top whereof were discovered of late huge stones and foundations of a castle not without great wonder considering it is so steep and upright that one can hardly ascend up to it
to Henrie Earle of Lancaster who being descended of ancient bloud and renowned for his martiall prowesse was rewarded also by King Edward the third with faire possessions in Scotland created Earle of North-humberland by King Richard the second on the day of his Coronation and much enriched by his second wife Dame Maud Lucie although by her hee had no issue upon a fine levied unto her that hee should beare quarterly the Armes of the Lucies with his owne and lived in great honour confidence and favour with King Richard the second Yet full badly hee requited him againe for all his singular good demerits For in his adversitie hee forsooke him and made way for Henrie the fourth to the kingdome who made him Constable of England and bestowed upon him the Isle of Man against whom within a while hee feeling the corrosive and secret pricke of conscience for that King Richard by his meanes was unjustly deposed and besides taking at the heart indignantly that Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the true and undoubted heire of the Kingdome and his neere ally was neglected in prison hee conceived inward enmity grievously complaining and charging him with perjury that whereas hee had solemnly sworne to him and others that hee would not challenge the Crowne but onely his owne inheritance and that King Richard should be governed during his life by the good advice of the Peeres of the realme he to the contrary had by imprisonment and terror of death enforced him to resigne his Crown and usurped the same by the concurrence of his faction horribly murthering the said K. and defrauding Edmund Mortimer Earle of March of his lawfull right to the Crown whom he had suffered to languish long in prison under Owen Glendour reputing those traitours who with their owne money had procured his enlargement After the publication of these complaints he confident in the promises of his confederates who yet failed him sent his brother Thomas Earle of Worcester and his courageous sonne Henry surnamed Hot-Spurre with a power of men against the King who both lost their lives at the battaile of Shrewesbury Whereupon he was proclaimed traitour and attainted but shortly after by a kind of connivency received againe into the Kings favour unto whom he was a terrour yea and restored to all his lands and goods save onely the Isle of Man which the King resumed into his owne hands Howbeit within a while after being now become popular and over forward to entertaine new designes and having procured the Scots to bandy and joyne with him in armes himselfe in person entred with banner displayed into the field against the King as an Usurper and on a sudden at Barrhammore in a tumultuary skirmish in the yeere 1408. was discomfited and slaine by Thomas Rokesby the high Sheriffe of Yorke-shire Eleven yeeres after Henry this mans nephew by his sonne Henry Hot-Spur whose mother was Elizabeth daughter to Edmund Mortimer the elder Earle of March by Philippa the daughter of Leonel Duke of Clarence was restored in bloud and inheritance by authority of Parliament in the time of King Henry the fifth which Henry Percie whiles he stoutly maintained King Henry the sixth his part against the house of Yorke was slaine at the battell of Saint Albans like as his sonne Henry the third Earle of Northumberland who married Aelenor the daughter of Richard Lord Poinings Brian and Fitz-Pain in the same quarrell lost his life in the battaile at Towton in the yeere 1461. The house of Lancaster being now kept under and downe the wind and the Percies with it troden under foot King Edward the fourth made Iohn Nevill Lord Montacute Earle of Northumberland but he after a while surrendred this title into the Kings hands and was created by him Marquesse Montacute After this Henry Percy the sonne of Henry Percy aforesaid recovering the favour of King Edward the fourth obtained restitution in bloud and hereditaments who in the reigne of Henry the seventh was slaine by the countrey people that about a certaine levie of money exacted by an Act of Parliament rose up against the Collectours and Assessours thereof After him succeeded Henry Percy the fifth Earle whose sonne Henry by a daughter and Coheire of Sir Robert Spenser and Eleanor the daughter likewise and Coheire of Edmund Beaufort Duke of Somerset was the sixth Earle who having no children and his brother Thomas being executed for taking armes against King Henry the eighth in the first difference about Religion as if now that family had beene at a finall end for ever prodigally gave away a great part of that most goodly inheritance unto the King and others Some few yeeres after Sir Iohn Dudley Earle of Warwick got to himselfe the title of Duke of Northumberland by the name of Iohn Earl of Warwick Marshal of England Vicount Lisle Baron Somery Basset and Ties Lord of Dudley Great Master and Steward of the Kings house when as in the tender age of King Edward the sixth the Chieftaines and leaders of the factions shared titles of honour among themselves their fautors and followers This was that Duke of Northumberland who for the time like unto a tempestuous whirlewind began to shake and teare the publicke peace of the state whiles he with vast ambition plotted and practised to exclude Mary and Elizabeth the daughters of King Henry the eighth from their lawfull right of succession and to set the Emperiall Crowne upon Lady Jane Grey his daughter in law being seconded therein by the great Lawyers who are alwaies forward enough to humour and sooth up those that bee in highest place For which being attainted of high treason he lost his head and at his execution embraced and publikely professed Popery which long before either seriously or colorably for his own advantage he had renounced When he was gone Queene Mary restored Thomas Percy nephew unto Henry the sixth Earle by his brother Thomas unto his bloud and by a new Patent created him first Baron Percy and anon Earle of Northumberland to himselfe and the heires males of his body and for default thereof to his brother Henry and his heires males But this Thomas the seventh Earle for his treason to Prince and country under maske of restoring the Romish religion againe lost both life and dignity in the yeere 1572. Yet through the singular favour and bounty of Queen Elizabeth according to that Patent of Queene Mary his brother Henry succeeded after him as the eighth Earle who in the yeere 1585. ended his dayes in prison and had for his successor Henry his sonne by Katherin the eldest daughter and one of the heires of John Nevill Lord Latimer the ninth Earle of Northumberland of this family Parishes in Northumberland about 46. SCOTLAND SCOTIA Regnum SCOTLAND NOw am I come to SCOTLAND and willingly I assure you will I enter into it but withall lightly passe over it For I remember well that said saw In places not well knowne lesse while wee must stay
therein bee with the narrowest thrust close and pent together yet such is the convenience and commodiousnesse of the haven that for wealth fresh trading and frequent resort it is the second City in all Ireland and hath alwaies shewed a singular loialty fidelitie and obedience to the Imperiall Crowne of England For ever since that Richard Earle of Pembrok wanne it it hath continued so faithfull and quietly disposed that it performed at all times safe and secure peace unto the English on their backes whiles they went on in the conquering of Ireland Whence it is that the Kings of England have granted unto it very many and those right large Franchises which King Henry the seventh augmented and confirmed because the Citizens had demeaned themselves most valiantly and wisely against that Mock-Prince Perkin Warbeck who being a young man of base condition by hoising up the full sailes of impudence went about to mount up aloft unto the Imperiall diadem whiles he a meer suborned counterfeit tooke upon him to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the fourth This countie of Waterford together with the city King Henry the sixth gave unto Iohn Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury aforesaid by these words which because they testifie the valerous vertue of that most martiall Knight to the end that vertue might have the due honour thereto belonging I thinke it worth my labour and haply any man else would deeme no lesse to put downe out of the Record which may be Englished thus We therefore saith the King after other eloquent termes penned by the Secretaries of that age when there was but simple Latin weighing with due consideration the valiant prowesse of our most deere and faithfull cousin John Earle of Shrewsbury and of Weisford Lord Talbot Furnivall and Le Strange sufficiently tried and approved even unto his old age in the warres aforesaid upon his body no lesse bedewed with sweat many a time than embrued with blood and considering in what sort our Countie and Citie of Waterford in our land of Ireland the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Baronie of Dungarvan and all the Lordships Lands Honours and Baronies with the pertinences within the same County which by forfeiture of rebels by reversion or decease of any person or persons by escheat or any other title of law ought to come into our hands or our progenitors or in the same to be by reason of the hostile invasions of our enemies and rebells in those parts are become so desolate and lye so much exposed to the spoiles of warre wholly as it were wasted that they turne us to no profit but have and doe redound oftentimes to our detriment in this regard also that by the same our Cousin our foresaid land of Ireland may the more valiantly be defended in those parts against such attempts and invasions of our enemies and rebells doe ordaine promote and create him Earle of Waterford together with the stile title name and honour thereto belonging And because as the highnesse of his state and degree groweth all things consequently of necessity grow withall upon our speciall grace certaine knowledge and meere motion and for the estate of the Earle himselfe our Cousin to be maintained in more decent manner we have given granted and by these our letters confirmed unto the same Earle the County aforesaid together with the foresaid stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford yea and the foresaid City with the fee ferme of the same the Castles Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies with the pertinences within the County likewise all and every sort the Manors Hundreds Wapentakes c. all along the sea coast from the towne of Yoghall unto Waterford City aforesaid To have and to hold the foresaid County of Waterford the stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford and the City Waterford aforesaid the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Barony of Dungarvan and all other Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies within the said county as also all and every the foresaid Manors Hundreds c. unto the above named Earle and the heires males issuing out of his body to have I say and to hold of us and our heires by homage fealty and the service of being and to be our Seneschall or Steward and that his heires be the Seneschals of Ireland to us and our heires throughout our whole land of Ireland to do and that hee doe and ought himselfe to doe in the same his office that which his predecessors Seneschals of England were wont to doe hitherto in that office for ever In witnesse whereof c. But when as whiles the Kings of England and the Nobles who had large and goodly possessions in Ireland were much busied and troubled a long time first with the warres of France and afterward with civill warres at home Ireland lay in manner neglected and the State of English there falling still to decay was now in manner come to nothing but the Irishry by occasion of the others absence grew exceeding mighty for to recover these losses and to abate the power of the Irish it was ordained and enacted by the States of the Realme in Parliament that the Earle of Shrewsbury for his absence and carelesnesse in maintaining of his owne should surrender into the hands of the King and his successors the Earledome and towne of Waterford the Duke of Norfolke likewise the Baron Barkley the heires generall of the Earle of Ormond and all the Abbats Priors c. of England who had any lands should surrender up all their possessions unto the King and his successors for the same absence and neglect THE COUNTY OF LIMERICK HItherto have wee gone over the Maritime counties of Mounster two there remaine yet behind that bee in-lands Limericke and Tipperary which wee are now to goe unto The county of LIMERICK lieth behinde that of Corke Northward betweene Kerry the river Shanon and the county of Tipperary A fertile countrey and well peopled but able to shew very few places of any good account and importance The more Western part of it is called Conilagh wherein among the hills Knock-Patric that is Patricks hill mounteth up of a mighty height and yeelding a pleasant prospect into the sea beholdeth afarre off the river Shanon falling with a wide and wast mouth into the Vergivian or Ocean Under which hill a sept of Fitz-Giralds or Giraldines lived honourably a long time untill that Thomas called the Knight of the Valley or of the Glin when his gracelesse sonne that wicked firebrand suffered death for to set villages and houses a fire is by the lawes of Ireland high treason because himselfe advised his sonne and set him on to enter into these lewd actions by authority of the Parliament was disseized of his goodly and large possessions The head City of this county is Limerick which Shanon a most famous river by parting his chanell compasseth round about The Irish call it Loumeag and
in Irish Bala-Mac-Andan that is The towne of Antonies sonne For it tooke both names of the founder Thomas Fitz-Anthonie an Englishman who flourished under King Henry the third whose heires are yet acknowledged the Lords thereof Beneath this towne the river Callan voideth his streame into Neore upon which standeth the third Burrough or incorporate towne of this county bearing the same name Callan Like as Inise-Teog which is the fourth The family of Butlers hath spread and branched farre and wide throughout this County men that with much honour bare a great port and for their worth and vertues were adorned with the titles of Earles of Carick Ormond Wiltshire in England and of Ossorie as is before said and at this day there remaine of their line beside the Earle of Ormond Vicount Thurles and Knight of the Order of Saint George Vicount Montgarret Vicount Tullo the Barons of Dunboyn and of Cahir a goodly race also and progenie of Noble Gentlemen The rest of the Gentry in this Tract that are of better birth and parentage be likewise of English descent as the Graces Walshes Lovells Foresters Shortels Blanch-felds or Blanchevelstons Drilanas Comerfords c. THE COUNTY OF CATERLOGH THe County of CATERLOGH by contraction Carlogh toward the Sunne rising adjoineth to the County of Kilkenny wholly in manner situate betweene the rivers Barrow and Slane of a fertile soile and shaded well with woods hath two townes in it of better note and importance than the rest both standing upon the West banke of Barrow namely Caterlogh which Leonel Duke of Clarence began to wall and Bellingham a most renowned Lord Deputy fortified with a castle Also Leighlin called in Latine Lechlinia where there was an Episcopall Chaire now united to the See of Fernes These townes have both of them their wards or garrisons and Constables over them And whereas the greatest part of this County belonged in right of inheritance unto the Howards Dukes of Norfolke who by the Earles of Warren drew their descent from the eldest daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Penbroch King Henry the eighth by a generall consent of the States of the Realme tooke unto himselfe both from them and also from other Noblemen yea and from Monasteries in England all their lands and possessions in Ireland for that the Lords thereof by neglecting in their absence their owne private estates carelesly brought therewith the publike state into danger as is already shewed From hence Barrow passeth through the Baronie Ydron which by right belonged to the Carews for Sir John Carew an English Knight died seised thereof in the time of King Edward the third and which Peter Carew within our memorie recovered as it were by a writ of remitter after it had been unlawfully usurped and a long time in the occupation of unjust detainers Upon the river Slane appeareth Tullo memorable in this regard that King James hath lately honoured Theobald Butler the Earle of Ormonds brothers sonne with the title of Vicount Tullo The Cavanaghs dwell a great many of them every way hereabouts who being descended from Dovenald a younger sonne as they say the Bastard of Dermot the last King of Leinster are spred and branched out into a very great sept or linage a warlike generation renowned for their good horse-manship and who as yet though they bee exceeding poore beare themselves in spirit answerable to their ancient nobilitie But being at deadly feud amongst themselves for I wot not what man-slaughters which many yeeres agoe they committed one upon another they daily work their owne mischiefe by mutuall wrongs and hurts When as the English had set some of these to oversee and mannage the possessions they had in this part of Ireland about King Edward the seconds time they by little and little usurped the whole country unto themselves and assumed the name of O-Mores and taking into their societie the Toles and Brenes by little and little disseized the English of all the territorie betweene Caterlogh and the Irish sea Among these is the confluence of Neore and Barrow which after they have travailed in a joint streame some few miles from hence in one channell present both their name and their waters unto their eldest sister the Shour which straightwaies is swallowed up at a mouth full of rockes within the gulfe of the Ocean where on the left hand there shooteth out a little promontorie with a narrow necke that sheweth a prettie high tower unto the sailers erected by the merchants of Rosse what time they were in their prosperity for their direction and safer arrivall at the rivers mouth QUEENES COUNTIE ABove Caterlogh toward the North-west there spreadeth out a little country full of woods and bogs named in Irish Lease and QUEENES Countie in English which Queene Mary ordained to be a Countie by Commission given unto Thomas Ratcliffe Earle of Sussex then Lord Deputie who reduced it into the tearmes of civill order and governement whence it is that the chiefe towne thereof is called Mary-Burgh where certaine garrison souldiers with their Seneschall keep ward and have much adoe to defend themselves against the O-Mores who beare themselves as the ancient Lords thereof against Mac-Gilpatric the O-Dempsies and others a mischievous and tumultuous kind of people who daily practise and plot all they can to annoy the English and to shake off the yoke of lawes For to subdue this wilde and hostile part of the countrey at the first entrie of the English thither Meilere was sent For whom Hugh Lacie governour of Ireland erected one Castle at Tahmelio like as a second at Obowy a third likewise upon the river Barrow and a fourth at Norrach But among the rest he fortified Donemaws an ancient Castle standing in the most plentifull part of the territorie which came hereditarily unto the Breoses Lords of Brecknocke by Eua the younger daughter of William Mareschall Earle of Pembroch and what way as Barrow which rising out of Slew Blomey hills Westward runneth solitarie alone amongst the woods he visiteth that ancient RHEBA mentioned by Ptolomee which keeping the name still intire is called at this day Rheban but insteed of a citie it is altogether as one saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is A citie citilesse or The remaines of that which was a citie even a few little cottages with a fortresse Notwithstanding it giveth the title of a Baronet unto that Nobleman Nicholas of Saint Michael the Lord thereof who is commonly called the Baronet of Rheban KINGS COUNTIE LIke as the Queenes Countie aforesaid was so named in honour of Queene Marie so the territorie bordering next unto it Northward divided with Barrow running betweene and called in times past Offalie was in honour of Philip King of Spaine her husband tearmed Kings Countie and the principall towne in it Philips Towne where is placed a Seneschall with a ward and divers Gentlemen of English blood are here planted
were slaine about foure hundred whose heads were sent to Dublin and wonders were afterwards seene there The dead as it were arose and fought one with another and cried out Fennokabo which was their signal And afterward about the feast of the translation of S. Thomas there were rigged and made ready eight ships and set out from Tredagh to Crag-fergus with victuals Which were by the Earle of Ulster much troubled for the delivery of William Burk who had been taken with the Scots and the Saturday following there were made friends and united at Dublin the Earle of Ulster and the Lord John Fitz-Thomas and many of the Nobles sworne and confederate to live and die for the maintenance of the peace of Ireland The same yeere newes came out of Connaght that O-Conghir slew many of the English to wit Lord Stephen of Excester Miles Cogan and many of the Barries and of the Lawlies about fourescore Item the weeke after Saint Laurence feast there arose in Connaght foure Irish Princes to make warre against the English against whom came the Lord William Burk the Lord Richard Bermingham the Lord of Anry with his retinue of the country and of the same Irish about eleven thousand fell upon the edge of the sword neere unto Anry which town was walled afterwards with the mony raised of armor and spoile gotten from the Irish because every one of the English that had double armours of the Irish gave the one halfe deale toward the walls of the towne Anry Slaine were there Fidelmic O-Conghir a petty King or Prince of Connaght O-Kelley and many other Princes or Potentates John Husee a butcher of Anry fought there who the same night at the request of his Lord of Anry stood among the dead to seek out and discover O-Kelley which O-Kelley with his Costrell or esquire rose out of their lurking holes and cried unto the foresaid man to wit Husee come with mee and I will make thee a great Lord in my countrey And Husee answered I will not goe with thee but thou shalt goe to my Lord Richard Bermingham Then said O-Kelley Thou hast but one servant with thee and I have a doughtie esquire therefore come with mee that thou maist bee safe unto whom his owne man also said Agree and goe away with O-Kelley that wee may be saved and inriched because they are stronger than we But the said John Husee first killed his owne servant and O-Kelley and his Esquire and cut off all their three heads and carried them to his Lord Richard Bermingham and that Bermingham gave unto the said John Hussee faire lands and dubbed him Knight as he well deserved The same yeere about the feast of S. Laurence came O-Hanlan to Dundalk for to destreine and the Dundalkers with their men killed a number Item on Monday next before the feast of the nativitie of Saint Mary came David O-Tothill with foure more and hid himselfe secretly all night long in Coleyn wood which the Dublinians and Sir William Comyn perceiving went forth and manfully pursued them for sixe leagues and slew of them about seventeen and wounded many to death Also there ran rumors to Dublin that the Lord Robert Brus King of Scotland entred Ireland to aid Edward Brus his brother and the Castle of Crag-fergus in Ulster was besieged by the foresaid Scots The Monasteries of St. Patrick of Dune and of Seball and many other houses as well of Monkes as of regular preaching Friers and Minors were spoiled in Ulster by the Scots Item the Lord William Burk leaving his son for an hostage in Scotland is set free The Church of Brught in Ulster being in manner full of folke of both sexes is burnt by the Scots and Irish of Ulster At the same time newes came from Crag-fergus that those which kept the Castle for default of victuals did eat hides and leather yea and eight Scots who before were taken prisoners great pity and griefe that no man relieved such And the Friday following newes were brought that Thomas the sonne of the Earle of Ulster was dead Also the Sunday following the feast of the nativitie of the blessed Virgin died Lord Iohn Fitz-Thomas at Laraghbrine neere unto Mayneth and he was buried at Kildare among the Friers Minors Of which Lord John Fitz-Thomas it is said that a little before his death he was created Earle of Kildare after whom succeeded his sonne and heire the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn a prudent and wise personage And afterwards newes came that the Castle of Crag-fergus was rendred to the Scots and granted there was to the keepers of it life and limbe Also upon the day of the exaltation of the holy Crosse Conghar and Mac-keley were slaine with five hundred of the Irish by the Lord William Burke and Richard Bermingham in Connaght Item on Munday before Holloughmas happened a great slaughter of the Scots in Ulster by John Loggan and Hugh Bisset to wit one hundred with double armour and two hundred with single armour The number of those men of armes that were slaine in all was three hundred beside footmen And afterward in the Vigill of Saint Edmund King there fell a great tempest of winde and raine which overthrew many houses and the Steeple of Saint Trinitie Church in Dublin and did much harme on land and sea Also in the Vigill of S. Nicholas Sir Alan Stewart taken prisoner in Ulster by John Loggan and Sir John Sandale was brought unto the Castle of Dublin In the same yeere newes arrived out of England that the Lord King of England and the Earle of Lancaster were at variance and that they were desirous one to surprize the other for which cause the whole land was in great trouble Item in the same yeere about the feast of St. Andrew the Apostle sent there were to the Court of Rome the Lord Hugh Despencer the Lord Bartholmew Baldesmere the Bishop of Worcester and the Bishop of Ely about important affaires of the Lord King of England for Scotland who returned into England about the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary Also after the said feast the Lacies came to Dublin and procured an inquisition to prove that the Scots by their meanes came not into Ireland which inquisition acquitted them Whereupon they had a charter of the Lord the King of peace and upon the Sacrament given unto them they tooke an oath to keepe the peace of the Lord King of England and to their power to destroy the Scots And afterwards even in the same yeere after the feast of Shrovetide the Scots came secretly as farre as to Slane with twenty thousand armed men and the armie of Ulster joyned with them who spoiled the whole countrey before them And after this on munday next before the feast of S. Matthias the Apostle the Earle of Ulster was taken in the Abbey of St. Mary by the Maior of the Citie of Dublin to wit Robert Notingham and brought to the castle of Dublin where
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
passed over into England leaving behind him Sir Thomas Dale Knight his Deputy-Custos and Justice of Ireland MCCCLXVII Great warre began between the Berminghams of Carbry and the men of Meth because many robberies by the foresaid were committed in Meth. Then Sir Robert Preston Knight and Lord chiefe Baron of the Exchequer set a strong guard in the castle of Carbry and laid forth a great deale of money against the Kings enemies to defend his owne right in regard of his wife Item Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond was made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCLXVIII And in the 42. yeere of the same King in Carbry after a certaine Parliament ended betweene the Irish and English there were taken prisoners Frier Thomas Burley Prior of Kylmaynon the Kings Chancellour in Ireland Iohn Fitz-Reicher Sheriffe of Meth Sir Robert Tirell Baron of Castle-knoke with many besides by the Berminghams and others of Carbry Then James Bermingham who had been kept in the castle of Trim in yron manacles and fetters as a traytour was delivered out of prison in exchange for the foresaid Chancellour the other were put to their ransomes Item the Church of Saint Maries in Trim was burnt with the fire of the same Monastery Also in the Vigill of St. Luke the Evangelist the Lord Leonell Duke of Clarence died at Albe in Pyemont First he was buried in the City of Papie hard by St. Augustin the Doctor and afterward enterred at Clare in the covent Church of Austin Friers in England MCCCLXIX And in the 43. yeere of the foresaid King Sir William Windesore Knight a doughty man in armes and courageous came as the Kings Lievtenant into Ireland the twelfth day of July unto whom gave place in the office of Justice-ship Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond MCCCLXX And in the 44. yeere of the same King began the third pestilence and the greatest in Ireland in which died many Noblemen and Gentlemen Citizens also and children innumerable The same yeere Gerald Fitz-Moris Earle of Desmond the Lord Iohn Nicolas and the Lord Thomas Fitz-Iohn and many other noble persons were taken prisoners upon on the sixth of July neere unto the Monastery of Maio in the county of Limerick by O-Breen and Mac-Comar of Thomond and many were slaine in regard of which occurrent the said Lievtenant went over to Limericke to the defence of Mounster leaving the warres against the O-Tothiles and the rest in Leinster In this yeere died Lord Robert Terel Baron of castle Knock the Lady Scolastica his wife and their sonne and heire by reason whereof Joan Terel and Maud Terel sisters of the said Robert parted the inheritance between themselves Item there departed this life Lord Simon Fleming Baron of Slane Lord John Cusake Baron of Colmolyn and Iohn Tailour somtime Maior of Dublin a rich and mighty monied man That which followeth was copied out of the Manuscript Chronicles of Henry Marleburgh MCCCLXXII Sir Robert Asheton came Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCLXXIII Great warring there was between the English of Meth and O-Ferdle in which warre many of both sides were slaine Item in May Lord John Husse Baron of Galtrim John Fitz Richard Sheriffe of Meth and William Dalton in Kynaleagh were killed by the Irish. MCCCLXXV Thomas Archbishop of Dublin died and in the same yeere was Robert of Wickford consecrated Archbishop of Dublin MCCCLXXXI There departed this life Edmund Mortimer the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland Earle of March and Ulster at Cork MCCCLXXXIII There was a great pestilence in Ireland MCCCLXXXV The bridge of the city of Dublin fell downe MCCCXC Robert Wickford Archbishop of Dublin died The same yeere Robert Waldebey Archbishop of Dublin of the order of Austen Friers was translated MCCCXCVII There hapned the translation and death of Frier Richard Northalis Archbishop of Dublin one of the Carmelites order Also in the same yeere Thomas Crauley was consecrated Archbishop of Dublin The same yeere the Lord Thomas Burgh and the Lord Walter Bermingham slew sixe hundred of the Irish and their captain Mac-Con Item Roger Earle of March Lievtenant of Ireland wasted the country of O-Bryn with the help of the Earle of Ormund and dubbed there seven Knights to wit Christopher Preson John Bedeleu Edmund Loundris John Loundris William Nugent Walter de la Hyde and Robert Cadell at the forcing and winning of a most strong Manor house of the said O-Bryn MCCCXCVIII Upon the Ascension day of our Lord the Tothils slew forty English among whom John Fitz-William Thomas Talbot and Thomas Comyn were killed which was a pitifull mishap In the same yeere on St. Margarets day Roger Earle of March the Kings Lievtenant was with many others slaine at Kenlys in Leinster O Bryn and other Irish of Leinster in whose place and office Roger Grey is chosen Justice In the same yeere upon the feast of S. Marke Pope and Confessor came to Dublin the noble Duke of Sutherey as the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland with whom at the same time arrived Master Thomas Crauley Archbishop of Dublin MCCCXCIX And in the 23. yeere of King Richard upon Sunday which fell out to be the morrow after S. Fetronill or Pernill the Virgins day the same glorious King Richard arrived at Waterford with two hundred saile Item the sixth day of the same weeke at Ford in Kenlys within the country of Kilâ—are were slaine of the Irish 200. by Ieâ—icho and other English and the morrow after the Dublinians made a rode in the country of O-Bryn and slew of the Irish 33. and fourescore men and women with their little children they took prisoners The same yeere the said King came to Dublin the fourth day before the Calends of July where hee heard rumours of Henrie the Duke of Lancaster his comming into England whereupon himself passed over with speed into England MCCCC In the first yeere of King Henry the fourth at Whitsontide the Constable of Dublin castle and many others encountred the Scots at sea before Stranford in Ulster whereupon fell out a lamentable accident for that many of the English were slaine and drowned there MCCCCI In the second yeere of King Henry the fourth Sir John Stanley the K. Lievtenant passed over into England in the month of May leaving in his roome Sir William Stanley In the same yeere upon the Vigill of Saint Bartholomew there entred into Ireland Stephen Scroop as deputy to the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings Lievtenant in Ireland The same yeere on the day of S. Brice Bishop and Confessor the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings sonne arrived at Dublin Lievtenant of Ireland MCCCCII On the fifth of July was the Church of the Friers Preachers at Dublin dedicated by the Archbishop of Dublin and the same day John Drake the Maior of Dublin with the citizens and men of the countrey slew in battell of the Irish neere unto Bree 493. and were victorious over the Irish. The same yeere in the moneth of September a Parliament was holden at Dublin at which time in Uriel Sir
Bartholomew Verdon James White Stephen Gernon and their complices slew John Dowdal Sheriffe of Louth MCCCCIII In the fourth yeere of King Henry the fourth and in the moneth of May was killed Sir Walter Beterley a valiant Knight then Sheriffe there and with him thirty men In the same yeere about the feast of S. Martin there passed over into England Thomas the Kings sonne leaving Stephen Scroop his Deputy who also himself upon the first day of Lent returned into England and then the Lords of the land chose the Earle of Ormond Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCCIV In the fifth yeere of King Henry died Iohn Cowlton Archbishop of Armagh the fifth of May whom Nicholas Fleming succeeded The same yeere on S. Vitalis day began a Parliament at Dublin before the Earle of Ormond then Lord Justice of Ireland wherein where confirmed the Statutes of Kilkenny and of Dublin also the charter of Ireland In the same yeere Patrick Savage in Ulster was treacherously slaine by Mac-Kilmori and Richard his brother given for an hostage who likewise was murdred in prison after he had payed two hundred Marks MCCCCV In the sixth yeere of King Henry and in the month of May were taken three Scottish Galions or Barkes two at Green-castle and one at Dalkey with the captaine Thomas Mac-Golagh The same yeere the merchants of Tredaght entred Scotland tooke pledges and preies The same yeere Stephen Scroope crossed the seas into England leaving the Earle of Ormond Lord Justice of Ireland And the same yeere in the month of June the Dublinians entred Scotland at Saint Ninians and there behaved themselves manfully then landed they in Wales and did much hurt to the Welshmen there yea and carried away the Shrine of S. Cubie unto the Church of the holy Trinitie in Dublin Also the same yeere on the Vigill of the blessed Virgin died James Botiller Earle of Ormond whiles he was Lord Justice to the griefe of many at Baligauran unto whom there succeeded in the office of Lord Justice Gerald Earle of Kildare MCCCCVI And in the seventh yeere of King Henry on Corpus Christi day the Dublinians with the people of the Countrey about them manfully overcame the Irish and killed some of them they tooke three ensignes and carried away divers of their heads to Dublin The same yeere the Prior of Conall fought valiantly in the plaine of Kildare and vanquished two hundred Irish well armed killing some and putting others to flight there were in the Priors company not above twenty English and thus God regardeth those that repose trust in him In the same yeere after the feast of S. Michael Sir Stephen Scroop Deputy Justice under the Lord Thomas the Kings sonne Lievtenant of Ireland entred into Ireland The same yeere died Pope Innocentius the seventh after whom succeeded Pope Gregory The same yeere beganne a Parliament at Dublin on Saint Hilaries day which ended at Trym in Lent and Meiler Bermingham slew Cathol O-Conghir in the end of February and Sir Gefferey Vaulx a noble Knight in the countie of Carlagh died MCCCCVII A certaine Irishman a most false villaine named Mac-Adam Mac-Gilmori who caused fortie Churches to be destroied one that was never christened and therefore termed Corbi tooke Patricke Savage prisoner and received of him for his ransome two thousand Marks and yet killed him afterwards with his brother Richard The same yeere in the feast of the exaltation of the Holy Crosse Stephen Scroop Deputy under Thomas the Kings sonne Lievtenant of Ireland accompanied with the Earles of Ormond and Desmond and the Prior of Kylmaynon with many out of Meth set forth from Dublin and in hostile manner invaded the land of Mac-Murgh where the Irish had the better of the field in the forepart of the day but afterwards they were manfully by the said Captaines repulsed where O-Nolam with his sonne and others were taken prisoners But hearing then and there that the Burkeins and O-Keroll in the countie of Kilkenny had for two daies together done much mischiefe sodainly the said Captaines rode in all haste with bridle on horse necke unto the towne of Callan and there meeting with the said enemies manfully put them to flight O-Keroll and to the number of eight hundred they killed in the place The same yeere Stephen Scroop sailed over into England and Iames Butler Earle of Ormond was by the country chosen Lord Justice of Ireland MCCCCVIII The said L. Justice held a Parliament at Dublin in which Parliament were confirmed the Statutes of Kilkenny and of Dublin and a Charter granted under the great seale of England against Purveyouris The same yeere the morrow after S. Peters day ad Vincula the Lord Thomas of Lancaster the Kings sonne arrived as Lievtenant of Ireland at Cartingford and in the weeke following came to Dublin and arrested the Earle of Kildare as he came unto him with three of his house and all his goods he lost by the servants of the said Lievtenant and in the castle of Dublin he imprisoned him untill he made paiment of 300. Marks for a fine The same yeere on Saint Marcellus day died the Lord Stephen Scroop at Tristel-Dermot The same yeere the said Thomas of Lancaster was wounded at Kylmainon and hardly escaped death and afterwards caused Proclamation to be made that whosoever by his tenures owed service to the King should appeare at Rosse And after Saint Hilaries feast he held a Parliament at Kilkenny for to have a tallage granted And afterwards upon the third day before the Ides of March he passed over into England leaving the Prior of Kylmainon his Deputy in Ireland In this yeere Hugh Mac-Gilmory was slaine at Cragfergus within the Oratory or Church of the Friers Minors which Church he before had destroyed and broken the glasse windowes thereof for to have the iron barres therein at which his enemies to wit the Savages entred MCCCCIX In the tenth yeere of King Henry and in the month of June Ianico of Artoys with the English slew fourescore of the Irish in Ulster MCCCCX On the thirteenth day of June began a Parliament at Dublin and continued three weeks the Prior of Kylmainon sitting as Lord Justice The same yeere on the tenth day of July the same Justice beganne the castle of Mibracly in O-Feroll and built De la Mare and a great dearth there was of corne In the same yeere the Justice entred the land of O-brin with a thousand and five hundred kernes of whom eight hundred departed unto the Irish and had not the Dublinians beene there there would have beene wailing and many a woe and yet Iohn Derpatrick lost his life there MCCCCXII About the feast of Tiburce and Valerian O-Conghir did much harm to the Irish in Meth and tooke prisoner 160. men The same yeere O-Doles a knight and Thomas Fitz-Moris Sheriffe of Limerik killed one another In the same yeere the ninth of June died Robert Monteyn Bishop of Meth after whom succeeded Edward Dandisey sometime Archdeacon of
Lord of the kingdome of Scotland But none other answer could he have than this if I may speake the words out of the very authenticall Records Sequatur coram Iustitiariis de Banco Regis c. that is Let him sue before the Iustices of the K. Bench let him be heard and let justice be done But that which he could not obtaine by right Sir William Montacute his kinsman for come he was of the race of the Kings of Man wonne by his sword For with a band of English mustered up in hast he drave all the Scots out of the Iland But being by this warre plunged deeply in debt and not having wherewith to make some paiment thereof he mortgaged it for seven yeeres to Antonie Bec Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem and made over the profits and revenues thereof unto him yea and soone after the King granted it unto the said Antonie for tearme of life Afterwards King Edward the second passed a grant thereof unto his minion Piers Gaveston what time as he created him Earle of Cornwall and when the said Piers was rid out of the way hee gave it unto Henry Beaumont with all the domaine and regall jurisdiction thereto belonging But shortly after the Scots under Robert Brus recovered it and Robert Randulph that right warlike Scot like as a long time after Alexander Duke of Albany used to stile themselves Lords of Man and bare the same coat of Armes as did the later Kings of Man namely three armed legges of a man linked together and bending in the hammes such for all the world as the Isle Sicilia gave the three legges naked in like forme in her coines of money in old time to signifie three Promontories Notwithstanding before time the Kings of Man used for their armes as we have seene in their Seales a ship with the saile hoised up with this title in the circumference Rex Manniae insularum that is King of Man and of the Islands Afterward about the yeere 1340. William Montacute the younger Earle of Salisbury wrested it by strong hand and force of armes from the Scottish who in the yeere of our Lord 1393. as Thomas Walsingham saith sold for a great summe of money Man with the crowne thereof unto William Scrope Who being for high treason beheaded and his goods confiscate it came unto the hands of Henry the fourth King of England who granted this Iland unto Henry Percy Earle of Northumberland as a conqueror triumphing over William Scrope whom he as yet a private person had intercepted and beheaded when he aspired to the crowne with this condition that himselfe and his heires should when the Kings of England were enstalled and crowned carry before them that sword which the said Henry wore by his side what time he came backe againe out of exile into England commonly called Lancaster sword But I think it good to set this down out of the Record in the very words of the K. himself De nostra gratia speciali dedimus that is Of our speciall grace we have given and granted unto Henry Earle of Northumberland the Isle Castle Pile and Seigniory of Man and all the Ilands and Lordships to the said Isle belonging which were Sir William le Scropes Knight now deceased whom in his life time we conquered and have decreed him so to be conquered and which by reason of our conquest of him we tooke into our hand as conquered which conquest verily and decree in our present Parliament with the assent of the Lords Temporall in the same Parliament being as touching the person of the foresaid William and all the lands tenements goods and chattels of his as well within our kingdome as without at the petition of the Communalty of our kingdome stand confirmed c. To have and to hold unto the said Earle and his heires c. by service of carrying at the daies of our coronation and of our heires at the left shoulder and the left shoulder of our heires either by himself or a sufficient and honourable Deputy of his that sword naked which we ware and were girt with when we arrived in the parts of Holdernesse called Lancaster sword c. But in the fifth yeere following the said Henry Percie entred into open rebellion and the King sent Sir Iohn Stanley and William Stanley to seize the Isle and castle of Man the inheritance whereof he granted afterward to Sir Iohn Stanley and his heires by letters Patents with the patronage of the Bishopricke c. And so his heires and successours who were honoured with the title of Earles of Derby were commonly called Kings of Man From Man untill we come to the Mull of Gallaway we meet with none but very small Ilands But after we be once past it in the salt water of GLOTTA or Dunbritton Frith appeareth the Iland GLOTTA whereof Antoninus maketh mention which the Scots now call Arran whereof the Earles of Arran in Scotland were stiled and neighbouring unto it is that which was in times past named Rothesia now Buthe of a sacred Cell which Brendan erected for so they terme a little Cell in Scottish thence come we to Hellan in times past called Hellan Leneaw that is as Iohn Fordon interpreteth it The Isle of Saints and to Hellan Tinoc that is The Isle of Swine and these Ilands are seen in the same Frith or Forth But of these I have spoken before Without this Bay or Frith lye a number of Ilands very thicke together which the Scots themselves that inhabite them call Inch-Gall that is haply The Isles of the Gallicians the English and the rest of the Scots The Western Isles the writers of the former age HEBRIDES but the ancient Ethnickes Bettoricae and Giraldus other where Inchades and Leucades Pliny Solinus and Ptolomee name them EBUDAS HEBUDAS and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which names have some consonant affinity with Epidium the promontory of Britain opposite unto them and an Isle among these so named The reason of the name I cannot picke out unlesse I should thinke they were so called because there groweth here no corne or graine For Solinus writeth that the inhabitants of these Ilands are not acquainted with corne and live onely upon fish and milke and Eb eid in British soundeth as much as without corne The inhabitants as saith the same Solinus have no skill or knowledge of corne they live of fish and milke onely They all have but one King For how many soever they be they are severed one from another by a narrow enterflow of the Sea betweene The King hath nothing that hee may say is his owne all things are common to them all and held hee is to equity by certaine lawes and lest hee should for covetousnesse swarve aside from the truth by his poore estate he learneth justice as who hath no house furniture and provision of his owne but all his maintenance is from the common coffer No woman is he allowed to have in
Bridge alias Stanford Bridge 709 e Battell Abbey founded 317 b Battell of the Standard 724 a Battell field 596 c Battell at Nevils crosse 741 b Battell at Solon Mosse 782 a Battell a towne 317 c Bauchadae 19 Bawdes a family in Essex 426 b Bawdsey haven 465 d Beachy point 313 d Beacons 272 d Beavons of Southhampton 250 e Beamfleot 441 b Beare the badge of the Earles of Warwicke 570 b Beanfield 695 a Beauchamps 399 d Henry Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke his stile 570 b. Duke also of Warwicke ibid. Iohn Beauchamp Baron of Keddermister 574 b Richard Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke 563 e. his tombe and epitaph 564 a Beauchamps Barons Lords Brooke 223 f William Beauchamp the blind Baron 574 b Beauchamps court 565 f Beauchamp Baron of Pewich 565 f Beauchiefe Abbey 555 e Beaucliffe 313 d Beaudley 573 e Beaudesert 585 a Sir Thomas Beaufoe of ancient descent 564 e Iohn de Beaufort Earle of Sommersert 230. refuseth the title of Marquesse Dorset 217 d Beauforts Dukes of Sommerset 414 e Beaulieu 260 b Beaumanour parke 521 d Beaumarish 672 d Beaumeis 594 a Iohn Beaumont the first Vicount in England 521 Beaumonts of Cole Orton aunciently and highly descended 519 Beaumont a family in Yorkeshire 693 a Rob. Beaumont of Pont Audomar Earle of Mellent and of Leceister 523 c his race or progenie ibid. e Beavior or Belvior castle 536 b Beauvoir or Belvoir vale 535 d Bebba 813 f Bebham ibid. e Ant. Bec or Beck Bishop of Durham untrusty to his Ward 328 a. 723. a Tho. Becket slaine by Courtiers 337 b Becco 20 Beda 6. a learned Englishman 137 Beda venerabilis 744 a Bedw 19 Beddington 302 c Bedfordshire 399 Bedford towne ibid. e Bedford Lords Earls and Dukes 402 f Iohn Duke of Bedford his style and monument 403 a Bedifoyd 208 a Bedingfeild a place and family 468 b De la Beech Knights 282 e Beeston a castle and family 607 b Saint Bees 766 a Saint Bega a devout Irish woman ibid. Beichiad 19 Belerium what cape 1 Belgae in Gaule and Britaine 219 b. whence so named ibid. d King Beleus his Habergeon 11 Robert de Belesmo rebelleth 591 d. a cruell man 599 b Bellisma aestuarium a frith 752 Bellister castle 799 e Beln Melin Phelin all one 98 Belingsgate in London 423 e Belinuntia 98 Belinus a god ibid. what it signifieth 391 e Belleland or Biland 723 b Bellasise a family 723 b Bellers a noble family sometime 522 f Bellotucadrus 691 d Benefician what towne 478 f Benedictine Monks 226 d Benington 407 f S. Benno 680 c S. Bennaventa is Wedon 508 c d S. Bennit in the Holme an Abbey 478 c Bengley 815 b Ben-Gorion 125 Bensted a family 407 f Bensbury for knebensbury 302 f Benson 388 d Bently 463 e Bere park or Beau park nere to Durham 741 Bericus a tratour to Britaine 40 Berengarius le Moigne that is Monke 510 c Berkhamsted 414 c Bermingham or Bremicham a towne and family 567 b Bermondsey Abbey 434 b Bernack 514 e Benrers a family 405 d Berniciae 817 a. 797 b Bernwood 393 e. 395 Berohdon or Baradon 525 f Berosus confuted 10 Berry by Wicomb 393 c Berstaple 208 b Bertelin an Eremite 584 d Berwick towne 816 e Berwicks what they be ibid. f Berwic in Elmet 696 b Bery 594 d Bery Pomerie 202 a Betula or Betulla 19 Betheney See Stafford Betony 20 Beverley a towne 711 d Iohn of Beverley ibid. Bevers in Tivy river what creatures they be 657 e Beverston castle 364 d Beufes of Lancashire 745 e Bevils a family 192.562 a Bezants or Bezantines what they be 421 a Bibroci 286 d Bie what it signifieth 543 b Begleswade 401 c Bigod the name of Rollo the Norman 144 Hugh Bigod Lord chiefe Iustice of England 482 c Hugh Bigod Earle of Norfolke 482 b Bigod the name of hypocrites and superstitious persons 144 Bigods a family 465 d Bigots a family 633 c Bigrames a family 501 c Billesdun 812 f Biland or Belleland 723 b Th. Billing Lord chiefe Iustice of the Kings bench 505 e Bindon 212 b Binchester 738 e Binchester penis ibid. Binbrige Isle 274 a Birdlip hill 365 f. 366 c Pirinus the Apostle of the West-Saxons 384 c Birling 332 d Birthin a river 636 c Birtport or Burtport 210 e Biscaw wonne 188 Bisham 286 b Bishops of Durham 735 Bishops of Bath and Wells 232 c Bishops castle 189 e Bishops Thorps 707 c Bishops whether they might hold castles 244 c Bishops gate in London 423 d Bishops their place and precedency in England 161 Bissemed 401 b Bissets an honourable familie 245.574 a Bittlesden 396 d Bitumen that is Sea cole 735 c Biwell castle 808 c Bihan castle 537 a Bithric Lords of Glocester 368 Bizacium in Africke 478 e Blackborne 752 d Blackburne shire ibid. e Blacklow hill 564 d Blackelead 767 b Blackemere a Baronie 598 d Blackemore forest 213 f Blackeamore 717 b Blacketaile Poincts 213 Blackewater a Creeke 443 e Rob. Blanchmains 518 b Blackeney 479 a Mercate Blandford 215 e Blatum Bulgium 775 c Blean Leveney castle 628 d Blatherwicke 514 b Blechindon 377 a Blencarn a brooke 763 c Blenkensop a place and family 800 b Blestium 617 c Blickling 478 b Bletso 399 d Blewets 224 c Blisworth 507 a Blith 551 a Blith a river 586 d. 466 e 812 a Bliphborough 486 e Blithfield 586 e Charles Blount or Blunt Lord Montjoy Earle of Devonshire 208 d Blounts or Blunts of Kinlets 574 why so called 591 b Blunts Barons Montjoy 555 c Gilbert Blund 461 d Boadicia or Bunduica wife to King Prasutaegus 49 Boadicia or Bunduica a noble and warlike Lady 406 e. 51 is vanquished and poisoneth herselfe 52 Bocking a fat Personage 446 a Bocton Malherb 331 b Bodine what he conceiveth of the name Britaine 5 Sir Th. Bodley a singular benefactor to Oxford Librarie 382 c Bodman 191. Boduarie 679 c Boeth what it signifieth 732 c Bohuns Earles of Hereford c. 621 e Humfrey de Behun Earle of Essex 454 Hugh de Bolebec 396 a Bolebec Baronie 809 e Bolebec Castle 396 a Bolerium 187 Bollin a river 610 b Bollingbrooke 541 f Bolsover Castle 556 c Bonosus a notorius bibber hangeth himselfe 71 Boniface See Winifride Bonvill Lord 206 c. 231 b. his calamities ibid. c Bolton castle 729 a Borrodale 767 a Bone-well 619 f Bonhommes a religious order 395 a Bonhommes Colledge 244 Bonium 602 e Booth a family 610 c Borsarse alias Brentwood 442 Borwick 809 d Borrovicus ibid. Boscastle 195 Boseham 306 f Bostoke a place and family 609 d Boston 532 c burnt and ransacked 532 d Bothal castle 812 d Bosworth towne 518 d Bosworth field ibid. d Botereux castle 195 Botereux a family 566 b Botherwic 544 d Botontines 515 d Bottlebrig or botolph Bridg 502 Bought on 510 a Bovium 643 c Bourchiers Earls of bath 598 c 207 c Bourchier Baron of Berners 405 d Bourchiers de Berners Lords 472 d Bourchiers an honorable
names The Britwales or Welshmen a very warlike nation for many yeares defended their libertie under pettie-kings and albeit they were secluded from the English-Saxons by a Ditch or Trench which King Offa cast a wonderfull piece of worke yet otherwhiles by fire and sword they spoiled their cities and in like sort suffered at their hands all extremities of hostilitie whatsoever At the length in the raigne of Edward the First as he writeth of himselfe The Divine providence which in the owne dispose is never deceived among other good gifts dispenced by it and with which it hath vouchsafed our Kingdome of England to bee adorned hath converted now full wholly and entirely of her good grace the Land of Wales with the Inhabitants thereof subject before time unto to us by fealtie and service into our proper dominion and without any let or barre whatsoever hath annexed and united it unto the Crowne of the foresaid Realme as a part of one and the same bodie politicke Howbeit in the age next ensuing they could no way bee induced to undergoe the yoke of subjection neither could the quarrels by any means possibly be taken up nor the most deadly hatred betweene the two nations extinguished untill that King Henry the seventh who descended of them assisted the oppressed Britans with his gracious hand and King Henry the Eighth admitted them unto the same condition of Lawes and Liberties that the English enjoy Since which time yea and very often also before the Kings of England have had triall of their constant fidelitie and loyall allegiance As for those Cornwallians although they stoutly bent all their force together in defence of their Country yet soone became they subject to the Saxons as who neither matched them in number neither was their Countrey sufficiently fenced by nature to defend them Let this suffice that hath beene said touching the Britans and Romans but since we treat of the Inhabitants we may not in this place omit although wee have heretofore spoken thereof already that which Zosimus reporteth How that Probus the Emperour sent over into Britaine the Vandals and Burgundians whom he had overcome who having seated themselves here stood the Romans in good stead as oft as any one raised tumult and sedition But where they were planted I know not unlesse it were in Cambridge-shire For Gervase of Tilbury maketh mention of an ancient rampier or hold in that shire which he calleth Vandelsbury and saith it was the worke of the Vandals Neither let any man surmize that in the daies of Constantius the Poeni had their abode here grounding upon these words of Eumenius the Rhetorician Except perhaps no greater ruine had fallen upon Britaine and borne it downe than if it had beene drenched throughout and overwhelmed with the over-flowing of the Ocean which being delivered from the most deepe gulfe Poenorum began to appeare and shew it selfe at the view and sight of the Romans For in the old Copie belonging sometime to Humfrey Duke of Glocester and afterwards to the right honourable Baron Burghly Lord high Treasurer of England we reade Poenarum gurgitibus that is The gulfes of punishments and not Poenorum gurgitib For he seemeth to speake of the calamities and miseries wherewith Britaine was afflicted under Carausius Whereas Agathias in the second booke of his Histories hath these words Hunnica natio Britones sunt that is The Britons are a nation of the Hunnes I would have no man hereby raise a slander upon the Britans or thinke them to bee issued from the savage cruell Hunnes For long since Francis Pithaeus a very learned man hath averred unto mee and now of late I. Lewenclaius a right worthy Historian published in writing that in a Greeke Copie it is read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not Britones PICTS NOw let us come to the other Inhabitants of Britaine and first unto the Picts whom for Antiquitie next unto Britains the Historiographers have accounted the second Hector Boetius deriveth these from the Agathyrsti Pomponius Laetus Aventinus and others from the Germans some from the Pictones in France and Beda from the Scythians It hapned saith hee that the nations of the Picts came in long ships and those not many out of Scythia as the report goeth into Ireland and of the Scots whom they found there requested but in vaine a place of habitation by whose perswasion they went into Britaine and inhabited the Northerne parts thereof and that was about the yeare of our Redemption as many would have it 78. I for my part in so great a varietie of opinions know not which I should follow yet that I may speake what I suppose to be true and deliver mine owne judgement were it not that in this point the authoritie of venerable Beda did over-weigh all the conjectures of all others I would thinke that the Picts came from no other place at all but were very naturall Britaines themselves even the right progenie of the most ancient Britaines those Britans I meane and none other who before the comming in of the Romans were seated in the North part of the Island and of those who afterwards casting off the yoke of bondage as they are a nation most impatient of servilitie repaired unto these in the North. Like as when the Saxons over-ran the Isle those Britaines which would not forgoe their libertie conveied themselves into the Westerne parts of the Island full of craggie hils as Wales and Cornwall even so doubtlesse when the Roman warre grew hot the Britaines lest they should undergoe servitude which is of all the miseries the extreamest gat them into these Northerne parts frozen with the bitter cold of the aire full of rough and rugged passages and full of washes and standing meeres Where being armed not so much with weapons as with a sharpe aire and climate of their owne they grew up together with the native Inhabitants whom there they found unto a mightie and populous nation For Tacitus reporteth that the enemies of the Romans were by his wives father Agricola driven into this part as it were into another Island and no man doubteth but Britans they where which inhabited these remotest parts of the Island For shall we dreame that all those Britans enemies to the Romans which brought out thirtie thousand armed men into the field against Agricola who gave unto Severus so great overthrowes that of Romans and Associats he lost in one expedition and journey 70000. were killed up every mothers sonne and none left for seed and procreation that they might give roome unto forrainers out of Scythia and Thracia So farre am I from beleeving this although Beda hath written so much by relation from others that I would rather affirme they were so multiplied that the very soile was not able either to relieve or receive them and were enforced therefore to over-flow and over-whelme as it were the Roman Province which came to passe wee know afterwards when the Scots came in
againe unto the English For Edward who in regard of his holinesse was surnamed The Confessor the sonne of Etheldred by his second wife recovered the Crowne and royall Dignitie Now began England to take breath againe but soone after as saith the Poet Mores rebus cessêre secundis Prosperitie perverted manners The Priests were idle drowsie and unlearned the people given to riot and loose life they grew also through rest to be lither discipline lay as it were dead the commonwealth sick as one would say of an infinite sort of vices lay in consumption and pined away but pride above all whose waiting maid is destruction was come to a mightie head And as Gervasius Dorobornensis of that time speaketh They fell so fast to commit wickednesse that to be ignorant of any sinfull crimes was held to be a crime All which most evidently foreshewed destruction The Englishmen of those times as William of Malmesburie writeth went lightly appointed with their garments reaching but to the mid knee their heads shorne their beards shaven but the upper lip uncut where the mustaches grew continually wearing massie bracelets of gold about their armes carrying markes upon their skin pounced in of sundry colours The Clergie contenting themselves with triviall literature could scarsly back and hew out the words of the Sacrament THE NORMANS LIke as in ancient times out of that East coast of Germanie in respect of us which tendeth Northward the Franks first and then the Saxons grievously annoied both France Gaule and Britaine with their depredations so that in the end the one became Lords of Britaine the other of France even so in these later daies ensuing the Danes first and afterward the Normans succeeding in their place from out of the same coast did the like As if it were fatally given unto that tract by the dispose and providence of Almightie God to conceive still and often times to send out of her wombe nations to afflict France and Britaine yea and to establish new Kingdomes therein These Normans were so called of the Northerne quarter or climate from whence they came for Normans be nothing else but Men of the North in which sense also they are named Nordleudi that is a Northerne people for a mixt nation they were of the most valiant Norvegians Suedens and Danes In the time of Charles the Great they practised roving and piracie in such cruell manner about Frisia Belgia England Ireland and France that when the said Charles the Great saw their roving ships in the Mediterranean sea he shed teares abundantly and with a grievous deepe sigh said Heavie I am at the heart that in my life time they durst once come upon this coast and I foresee what mischiefe they will worke hereafter to my posteritie Yea and in the publique Processions and Letanies of Churches this afterwards was added to the rest From the race of Normans Good Lord deliver us They drave the French to that extremitie that King Charles the Bald was forced to give unto Hasting a Norman Arch-pirate the Earledome of Charters for to asswage the mans furie King Charles the Grosse granted unto Godfrey the Norman a part of Neustria with his daughter also in marriage But afterwards by force and armes they seated themselves neere unto the mouth of the river Sein in a country which before time was corruptly called Neustria because it had beene a parcell of Westrasia For so the writers of the middle time named that which the Germans used to call Westen-rijch that is the West-kingdome and doth comprise all that lieth betweene the rivers of Loyre and Seine Which tooke the name of Normandie afterwards of them as it were the region of Northerne men when King Charles the simple had confirmed it unto their Prince Rollo whose Godfather he was at his Baptisme to bee held in Fee by homage and withall bestowed upon him his daughter in marriage At which time as we reade in an old Manuscript belonging to the Monasterie of Angiers Charles surnamed Stultus gave Normandie to Rollo and his daughter Gista with it This Rollo daigned not to kisse the foote of Charles and when his friends about him admonished him to kisse the Kings foote as his homager for the receit of so great a benefit hee answered in the English tongue Ne se by God which they interpret thus NO BY GOD The King then and his Courtiers deriding him and corruptly repeating his speech called him Bigod whereupon the Normans be at this day called Bigodi Hence also peradventure it is that the Frenchmen even still use to call hypocrites and superstitious folke Bigod This Rollo who being baptised received therewith the name of Robert some writers report to have become a Christian but in shew and colour onely others upon good deliberation and in earnest and they adde moreover that hee was warned so to doe by God in a dreame which I pray you give me leave being a man for all this that doateth not upon dreames to relate without suspicion of vanitie from the credit of writers in those daies The report goeth that as he sailed he dreamed he saw himselfe fouly infected with the leprosie but when hee was washed once in a most cleare spring at the foot of an high hill hee recovered and was cleansed thereof and anon climbed up to the top of the said hill This Dreame when he reported a Christian that was a captive in the same ship with him interpreted it in this wise The Leprosie was the impious worship of Idol gods wherewith he was tainted that the spring betokned the holy Laver of Regeneration wherewith being once cleansed he should ascend up the hill that is attaine unto high honor and heaven it selfe This Rollo begat William surnamed Long-espee of the long sword which he used to weare and William begat Richard the first of that name Whose sonne and nephew by his son carrying both his name succeeded after him in the Duchie of Normandie but when Richard the third was dead without issue his brother Robert was Duke in his stead who of his concubine begat that William whom wee commonly name The Conquerour and the Bastard All these were every one for their noble acts atchieved both at home and abroad most renowned Princes Now whiles this William being of ripe yeares ruled Normandie Edward the holy surnamed CONFESSOR King of England and the last of the Saxons line departed out of this world unto his heavenly country to the great misse and losse of his people who being the sonne of Ladie Emma cosen to William and daughter to Richard the first of that name Duke of Normandie whiles hee remained in Normandie banished had promised unto him that he should succeed after him in the Crowne of England But Harold the sonne of Godwin and Great Master or Steward of King Edwards house usurped the Kingdome whom to dispossesse his brother Tosto of one side
and the Normans of the other did what they could and left no stone unturned But when he in a pitched field had neere unto Stamford-bridg in Yorkshire slaine his brother Tosto and Harold King of Norway whom Tosto had drawn to take part with him in this war and so obtained a bloudy victorie behold within nine daies after the said WILLIAM surnamed the Bastard Duke of Normandie taking hold of the promises of King Edward late deceased and presuming of his adoption and neere alliance having levied a great armie arrived in England among the South-Saxons Against whom Harold forthwith advanced albeit his souldiers were sore wearied and his power by the former battaile much empaired And not farre from Hastings they encounter and joyne battaile where Harold engaging himselfe into the midst of the medley and fighting manfully lost his life with a great number of Englishmen left slaine in the place but how many they were just hard it is exactly to conceive and faithfully to put downe WILLIAM thus a Conquerour presently with banner displaid marched about in order of battaile by Wallingford to London where being received he was solemnly inaugurated King as unto whom by his owne saying The Kingdome was by Gods providence appointed and by vertue of a gift from his Lord and Cosen King Edward the Glorious granted and after some few lines the story runneth on and saith that the most beauteous King Edward had by adoption ordained him his heire in the Kingdome of England And if we list to believe the Historie of Saint Stephens in Caen of Normandie at his last breath he uttered these words The Regall Diadem which none of all my predecessours ever wore I got and gained by the grace of God only and no right of inheritance And a little after I ordaine no man heire of the Kingdome of England but I commend the same to the eternall Creator whose I am and in whose hands are all things For I became not possessed of so great honour by any hereditary right but by a terrible conflict and with much effusion of bloud I tooke it from that perjured King Harold and after I had either slaine or put to flight his favourers and adherents I subdued it under my Dominion But why doe I so briefly run over this so great alteration of the English state Have therefore if you thinke not much to read it what my selfe with no curious pen haply with as little studie and premeditation howbeit according to the truth of the Historie wrote when being but young not well advised nor of sufficiencie to undergoe so great a burthen I purposed to set forth our Historie in the Latine tongue VVHen Edward the Confessour was now without issue departed this life the Nobles and people of the land were in doubtfull care distracted about the setting up of a new King in his place Edgar surnamed Aetheling King Edmund Iron side his nephewes nephew by a sonne onely of all the issue male of the Saxons line remained alive unto whom by right of inheritance the kingdome was due But considering he was thought by reason of his tender yeares not meete to mannage the State and had beside intermingled his naturall disposition with forrain manners as being borne in Pannonia and the sonne of Agathra daughter to the Emperor Henrie the third who was in so remote a countrie farther off than that he could conveniently assist the young Gentleman either with aid or counsell in these regards hee was lesse affected of the Englishmen who desired nothing more than to have a King as it were out of their owne bodie And therefore all of them for the most part had their eies fixed with much respect upon Harold Goodwins sonne a man for his good parts as well in warre as peace very glorious For albeit he was of noble parentage but by one side and his father for his treacherie and treason as also for pilling and polling had incurred everlasting infamie and shame yet with his courteous affabilitie gentill deportment liberalitie and warlike prowesse he wound himselfe into exceeding great especiall favour with the people For there could not another bee set by him in whom there was more resolute hardinesse to adventure upon danger or more advised policie in the midst of dangers His valour also and fortitude shined out so apparantly in the Welsh warres which heretofore most happily hee had brought to an end that he was reputed verily a man passing well furnished with all vertues required in a soveraigne Commander and even borne to repaire the decaied state of England Moreover good hope there was that the Danes who onely terrified this country would bee the better contented and pleased with him because he was the son of Githa daughter to Sueno King of Denmarke And in case there should arise any other power against him either forraine or domesticall he was thought sufficiently enabled to make his part good with the affectionate hearts of the common people with the alliance also and affinitie that hee had among the Nobility For hee had to wife the sister of Morcar and Edwin two brethren men of exceeding great puissance and Edric surnamed the Wild a man of high spirit and in chiefe authoritie was linked to him in the neerest bond of Affinitie besides it fell out very well for him that at one and the selfe-same time Sueno King of the Danes had his hands full of warre with Sueden and betweene William Duke of Normandy and Philip the French King there fell some dislikes and emulation for that Edward the Confessor during his exile in Normandie had in expresse termes promised unto William of Normandie the Kingdome if hee died without issue For the performance of which promise Harold became as it were surety and bound himselfe with an oath what time hee was detained prisoner in Normandie but with this condition annexed that he might espouse the daughter of the said William of Normandie Whereupon most men thought it the wisest policy to set the Crowne upon William his head to the end that by performing oath and promise the warre that they foresaw now threatned and destruction which alwaies waiteth as a due punishment upon perjurie might be averted and withall by laying Normandie to England the Kingdome under so mightie a Prince might be surely established and the common-wealth very much advanced But Harold quickly preventing all consultations whatsoever thinking it not good for him to linger and delay any whit that very day on which King Edward was enterred contrary to the expectation of most men entred upon the soveraigne government and with the applause onely of such as were then present about him who with acclamations saluted him King without the due complements and solemnitie of Coronation set the Imperiall Diadem upon his owne head By which act of his as being a breach of ancient ordinance he exceedingly provoked and stirred up against him the whole Clergie and Ecclesiasticall state But he knowing well enough
how hard it was for a new Prince and an usurper to maintaine his royall place and dignitie without an opinion of pietie and vertue for to blot out that his offence given and to establish his Scepter did all he possibly could for the promoting of religion and preferment of Churchmen and to beautifie and adorne Monasteries and religious houses Edgar Aetheling Earle of Oxford and all the nobles he entertained with all love and favour the people he eased of theire tributes he gave bountifully a great largesse of mony to poore people and in one word with faire speech and affable language with mild hearing of causes and equitie in deciding the same he wonn to himselfe singular love and no lesse authoritie and reputation So soone as William Duke of Normandie was truly advertised of these newes he seemed to take the death of King Edward very heavily whiles in the meane time he was vexed at the heart that England which hee had in conceit and hope already swallowed and devoured was thus caught away out of his very chawes Forthwith therefore by advice of his counsell and friends he dispatcheth Embassadors to Harold with instructions to put him in mind of the promises and stipulation past but withall in his name to make claime to the Crowne Harold after some pause and deliberation upon the point returneth this answer As touching the promises of King Edward William was to understand that the Realme of England could not be given by promise neither ought he to bee tied unto the said promise seeing the kingdome was fallen unto him by election and not by right of Inheritance And as for his owne stipulation extorted and wrung it was from him then a prisoner by force and by guile in feare of perpetuall imprisonment to the hinderance of the English common-wealth and prejudice of the State and therefore void which neither ought hee if he could nor might if he would make good since it was done without the Kings privitie and consent of the people And a very hard and unreasonable demand it was of his that hee should renounce and surrender unto a Norman Prince a meere stranger and of forrein linage that kingdome wherein hee was invested with so great assent of all sorts With this answere William was not well pleased and he thought that Harold thereby sought starting holes for to hide his perjurie Others therefore he sent out of hand in Embassage about the same matter who should admonish him how religiously hee had bound himselfe by oath and that forsworne persons should be sure of finall perdition at Gods hands and reproachfull shame among men But when as now the daughter of William affianced unto Harold in the covenant the very strength and knot of the foresaid stipulation was by Gods appoinment taken away by death the Embassadours were with lesse courtesie entertained and received none other answere than before So that now by this time there was nothing like to follow but open warre Harold riggeth and prepareth his navie mâ—sters and presseth souldiers and placeth strong garrisons along the sea coasts in convenient places and provideth all things in readinesse which were thought needefull and meet for to beat backe the Normans forces Howbeit the first tempest of warre beside the expectation of all men arose from Tosto the brother in whole bloud of Harold He being a man of a proud hautie and fell heart ruled in great authority a good while over Northumberland but growing outragious in cruelty to his inferiors in pride towards his Soveraigne and in hatred to his brethren was outlawed by Edward the Confessor and so withdrew himselfe into France and now by the advice of Baldwine Earle of Flanders and perswasion of William Duke of Normandie as it seemeth probable For Tosto and William married two daughters of Baldwine Earle of Flanders beginneth to trouble his brother with open warre whom a long time he deadly hated From Flanders hee tooke sea with a fleet of 60. rovers-ships wasteth the Isle of Wight and annoyeth the sea-coast of Kent but terrified at the comming of the Kings navie hee set up saile and directing his course toward the more remote parts of England landeth in Lincolneshire and there harrieth the Countrey where Edwin and Morcar give him battell but beeing discomfited and put to flight into Scotland hee goes from thence to renew his forces and so to warre afresh Now were all mens minds held in suspense with the expectation of a twofold warre of the one side out of Scotland of the other out of Normandie and so much the more because at the feast of Easter there was seene about a sevennight together a blazing starre of an hideous and fearefull forme which turned mens minds already troubled and perplexed as it falleth out in a turbulent time to the forefeeling of some unluckie events But Harold carried an heedfull eie to all parts of his kingdome and the south coast hee fortified with garrisons Lesse feare hee had from Scotland and Tosto because Malcolme King of the Scots was more disquieted with civill dissensions Meane while William much busted in his mind about England casting about what course to take ever and anon communicated with his Captaines about the point whom hee saw cheerefull and full of forward hopes But all the difficulty was how to make money for defraying the charges of so great a warre For when in a publike assembly of all the states of Normandie it was propounded as touching a subsidie answere was made That in the former warre against the French their wealth was so much empaired that if a new warre should come upon them they were hardly able to hold and defend their owne That they were to looke rather unto the defence of their proper possessions than to invade the territories of others and this warre intended just though it were yet seemed it not so necessary but exceeding dangerous beside the Normans were not by their allegeance bound to military service in forain parts Neither could they by any meanes be brought to grant a levie of money although William Fitzosbern a man in high favour with the Duke and as gracious among the people endeavoured what he could to effect it yea and to drawe others by his owne example promised to set out fortie tall ships of his owne proper charges towards this warre Duke William then seeing he could not bring this about in a publike meeting goeth another way to worke The wealthiest men that were he sendeth for severally one by one to repaire unto him he speaks them faire and requireth them to contribute somewhat toward this warre They then as if they had strived avie who should helpe their Prince most promise largely and when that which they promised was presently registred in a booke there was a huge masse of money quickly raised and more than men would ever have thought These matters thus dispatched he craveth aid and helpe of the Princes his neighbours to wit the
Earles of Anjou Poictou Maine and Bulloigne and unto them he promiseth faire Lands and possessions in England Philip also the French King he goeth unto and solliciteth voluntarily promising in case he aided him to become his vassall and leege man and for England to take the oath of fealtie unto him But it being thought nothing good for the state of France that the Duke of Normandie who already was not so pliable and obedient to the French King as he ought should bee bettered in his state by the addition of England for the power of neighbour potentates is alwaies suspected of Princes so far was the King from yeelding any helpe that he disswaded him rather from invading England But by no meanes could the Duke be reclaimed from his enterprise nay much more encouraged he was now and set on being once backed with warrant from Alexander the Bishop of Rome for even now began the Pope to usurpe authority over Princes who allowing of his cause and quarrell had sent unto him a sacred and hallowed banner as a luckie fore-token of gaining both the victory and Kingdome yea and with all cursed whosoever should oppose themselves against him He assembled therefore all the forces he could possibly raise and gathered together a mighty navie before the Towne of Saint Valeries which standeth upon the mouth of the river Some where he lay a long time windbound For the procurement whereof with many a vow he importuned Saint Valeric the patron-Saint of the Towne and heaped upon him a number of gifts and oblations Harold who with his forces had waited very long in vaine for his comming determined to dissolve his armie to withdraw his navie and to leave the sea-coast both for that he was compelled thereto for want of provision as also because the Earle of Flanders had written unto him that William would not stirre that yeere whom he soone beleeved as thinking that the time of the yeere was such as had locked up the seas and barred all navigation forasmuch as the autumnall Aequinox was neere Whiles he thus deviseth with himselfe driven he was upon an unexpected necessity of new warre to call backe his armie for Harold surnamed the Hard and Harfager king of Norway who had practised piracie in the North parts of Britaine and already subdued the Isles of Orknes being by Tosto sollicited and called forth in hope of the Kingdome of England arrived within the mouth of the river Tine with a fleet of 500. flibotes or thereabout where Tosto also came and joined his owne fleet When they had a good while forraged and spoiled the countrey heere they weighed anchor and sailing along the coast of Yorkshire put into Humbre and there began to commit outrages with all manner of hostility For the repressing of whom the two Earles Edwin and Morcar led forth a power of soldiers whom they had raised suddainly and in tumultuary haste but they not able to abide the violent charge of the Norwegians fled for the most part as fast as they could and together with the Earles made shift to escape howbeit many of them passing over the river Ouse were swallowed up with the waves thereof The Norwegianâ—â—hen goe in hand to lay siege unto the Citie of Yorke which straight waies they get by surrender hostages being given on both sides But after some few dayes King Harold having gathered his whole power from all parts together speedeth him to Yorke and from thence marcheth against the Norwegians who lay encamped strongly in a most safe place for backed they were with the Ocean flanked on the left hand with Humber wherein their fleet rid at anchor and had for their defence on the right side and afront the river Derwent Howbeit King Harold couragiously setteth upon them where first there was a cruell conflict at the Bridge standing over the river Darwent which one Norwegian souldier by report made good for a time against the whole armie of the Englishmen and held out so long untill he was shot through with a dart and died after this continued the battell a good while within the very campe fought with equall valour and indifferent fortune on both sides But in the end the Norwegians were disarraied and scattered and in the midst of the battell Harold himselfe King of the Norwegians and Tosto with the greater part of the Armie lost their lives Vpon this Victorie there fell unto King Harold an exceeding rich bootie a great masse both of gold and silver and that huge Armado except twentie small Barques onely which he granted unto Paul Earle of Orkney and Olave the Sonne of Harold who was slaine for to carry away those that were hurt taking their oath first that from thence forward they should not attempt any hostilitie agaist England This happie victorie encourged Harold and set him aloft now he thought that he should bee a terrour yea to the Normans howsoever hee grew odious unto his owne people because hee had not divided the spoile among his souldiers Howbeit wholly hee employed himselfe to reforme the disordered state of the countrey which in this part was pittifully out of frame and lay neglected Meane while Willam Duke of Normandie finding a fit season for his purpose about the end of September weighed anchor and launched forth then with a gentle gale of winde he sailed with all his shipping and arrived at Pevensey in Sussex where being landed upon the naked shore for to cut off all hope of return from his men he did set fire on his ships and having erected a fortresse there for his men to retire thither in safetie forward he marcheth to Hastings where also he raised another strong hold and placed therein a garrison Now by this time he maketh proclamation declaring the causes of this warre namely to revenge the death of Alfred his Cousin whom together with many Normans Godwin the Father of Harold had murthered Item to bee avenged of the wrongs that Harold had done who when he had banished Robert Archbishop of Canterburie even then by intrusion entred upon the Kingdome of England now pertaining to him treading under foot the religious respect of his oath Howbeit by an Edict he straightly charged his souldiers not in hostile manner to spoile the English men Newes hereof in all hast was brought to King Harold who by all meanes thinking it good to use prevention and as spedily as might be to encounter the Duke sendeth out his messengers every way calleth earnestly upon his subjects to continue in their faithfull allegiance assembleth all his forces in every place and with great journies hasteneth to London where there presented himselfe unto him an Embassadour from Duke William but as he made many words in claiming the Kingdom Harold in a furious fit of anger and indignation went within a little of laying violent hands upon the very person of the Embassadour For a hard matter it was to bereave a fresh Victour
of his pride and confident hope Forthwith he dispatched his Embassadours also unto William by way of insolent termes to menace him unlesse with all speed he retired backe into Normandie Yet William gave him a gentle answer and dismissed them with great courtesie Meane time Harold mustreth up souldiers in London and findeth that by the former battell against the Norwegians his forces were very much diminished yet a mightie armie hee levied of Nobles Gentlemen and others whom the love of their native countrey had raised and brought into the field for to put backe repell the common danger Presently he leadeth forth into Southsex notwithstanding his mother though in vaine did what she could to stay him and with an undaunted heart encamping upon a faire plaine scarce seven miles from Duke William sat him downe And thither also immediately the Norman approached with his Armie First there were secretly sent out on both sides Espies and they of the English part either not knowing the truth or disposed to lie made incredible report of the Normans number their furniture and provisiō of their good order also and discipline insomuch as Gyth a younger brother of King Harold a man renowned for martiall exploits thinking it no good policy to hazard all in the triall of one battel advertised the King that the events of war were doubtful that victories oftener depend of fortune than of valour that holding off and deliberate delay was the chiefest point of militarie discipline Also he advised him that in case he had made promise unto William of the Kingdom he should for his owne person withdraw himself for surely he could not with all his forces be fenced against his conscience and God no doubt would require punishment for breach of faith promise neither saith he wil any thing strike greater terrour into the Normans than if he should be levying and enrolling of a new Armie whereby they might bee received eftsoones with fresh battels Furthermore he assureth him in his owne behalfe that if he would commit the fortune of that battell into his hands hee would not faile to performe the part of a good brother and a valiant Captaine as who trusting upon the clearenesse of his heart and a good conscience might either more easily defeat his enemies or else more happily spend his life for his country The King was not well content to heare these admonitions and counsels which seemed to tend unto his dishonour for as he could willingly abide the event and issue of warre so in no wise could he endure the reproach of fearefull cowardise And therfore the praises of the Normans with bad words he depraved neither thought he that it would stand with his owne dignitie or the reputation of his former prowesse being now come as it were to the utmost point of perill and hazard like a milke-sop and dastard to draw foot backe and incurre the perpetuall staine and blot of shame Thus whom it pleaseth Almightie God to overthrow hee first maketh them uncapable of good counsell Whiles these matters thus passed between them Duke William upon a pious affection to preserve maintaine the state of Christendome and to spare the effusion of Christian bloud sendeth a Monke as a mediatour between both who proposed this offer condition unto Harold Either wholly to resigne up his Kingdom or to acknowledge from thence forth that he holdeth it of the Norman Duke as his superiour Lord or else to decide the quarrell with William by combate or at leastwise stand to the judgment of the Pope of Rome touching the Kingdom of England But he as one having no rule of himselfe and accepting of no condition whatsoever referred the whole triall of the matter to the tribunall seat of God made answer that the very next day following which was the second before the Ides of October he would bid him battell and this day upon a credulous errour he had assured himselfe would be fortunate unto him because it was his birth day All the night ensuing the Englishmen spent in licentious revels in riotous excesse of banqueting and in clamorous noises But the Normans bestowed the same in praiers and vows for the safetie of the armie and for victorie The next morning by day light they embattell thēselves on both sides Harold placed in the vant-guard the Kentish men with their billes and halberts for by an old custome the front of the battell was due to them and in the rereguard himselfe took place with his brother and those of middle England with the Londoners Of the Normans vaward Roger of Montgomerie and William Fitz-osberne had the leading the same consisted of horsemen out of Anjou Perch and little Britaine the most part of whom served under Fergentus the Briton The maine battell which stood of Poictovins Germans Geffery Mattell and a German Pensioner commanded In the rereguard was the Duke himselfe with the whole manhood of Normans and the flower of his Nobilitie and Gentrie But in every place were intermingled with the rest certaine companies of Archers The Normans having with no confused nor untunable shout sounded the battell and advanced forward with their Battalions at the first encounter did let flie lustily on every side a volley of arrowes like haile a kind of fight which as it was strange to the Englishmen so it terrified thē exceedingly for they flew so thick that they thought they had their enemies even in the midst of thēselves Then with a violent charge they assaile the vaward of the English and they for their parts who resolutely had determined to cover the place which they had taken up with their bodies rather than to give one foot of ground bending all their forces and keeping themselves close together right valiantly put the enemies backe and slew a number of them the Normans reenforced themselves againe upon them and with an horrible noise the battels of both sides gave the strok And now by this time were they come to the medley wherin as if foot to foot man to man they had coped together there was for a good while a fierce cruel fight The Englishmen standing thick close as if they had stuck one to another abid the brunt charge of the enemies with constant resolution insomuch as after many a bloudy wound received they were now at the point to have reculed had not William performing the part of a leader as well as of a souldier with his authoritie restrained them Thus the fight continuing still the Norman horsemen brake in upon them and withall from above the arrowes flew so thick about the English mens eares that they were in manner overwhelmed with them yet for all that they kept their array unbroken For Harold neglecting no dutie of a valorous Captaine was ready in person every where and William againe for his part bare himselfe as worthily who having one or two horses stabbed and slaine under him seeing that he could not
differences semblably they did among us and began first at Edward the First his children But whither am I carried away from my purposed matter as forgetting my selfe in the delight I take of mine owne studie and profession When Cornwall was thus reverted unto the Crowne King Edward the Second who had received from his father faire lands and possessions here bestowed the title of Earle of Cornwall upon Piers Gaveston a Gascon who had ensnared his youth by the allurements of corrupt life But when as hee for corrupting the Prince and for other heinous crimes was by the Nobles intercepted and beheaded there succeeded him Iohn of Eltham a younger sonne of Edward the Second advanced thereto by his brother Edward the Third who dying young and without issue also Edward the Third erected Cornwall into a Dukedome and invested Edward his sonne a Prince most accomplished with martiall prowesse in the yeare of Christ 1336. Duke of Cornwall by a wreath on his head a Ring upon his finger and a silver verge Since which time that I may note so much under warrant of record let the skilfull Lawyers judge thereof the King of Englands eldest sonne is reputed Duke of Cornwall by birth and by vertue of a speciall Act the very first day of his nativitie is presumed and taken to be of full and perfect age so that he may sue that day for his liverie of the said Dukedome and ought by right to obtaine the same as well as if hee had beene full one and twentie yeares old and he hath his Royalties in certaine actions in Stannary matters in wracks at sea customes c. yea and divers ministers or officers assigned unto him for these and such like matters But more plainly and fully instructed are we in these points by Richard Carew of Anthony a Gentleman innobled no lesse in regard of his Parentage and descent than for his vertue and learning who hath published and perfected the description of this countrey more at large and not in a slight and meane manner whom I must needs acknowledge to have given me much light herein There be in this Countie Parishes 161. DEVONIAE Comitatus Vulgo Den Shyre quam olim DANMONII Populi Incoluerunt DENSHIRE THe neerer or hithermore region of the Danmonians that I speake of is now commonly called Denshire by the Cornish-Britaines Deuinan and by the Welsh Britaines Duffneint that is Low valleies for that the people dwell for the most part beneath in vales by the English Saxons Deven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereof grew the Latine name Devonia and by that contraction which the vulgar people useth Denshire and not of the Danes as some smatterers of meane knowledge most stifly maintaine a countrey which as it extendeth it selfe both waies wider than Cornwall so is it harborous on either side with more commodious Havens no lesse inriched with tin mines especially West-ward garnished with pleasanter medowes sightly with greater store of woods and passing well replenished with Townes and buildings But the soile in some places againe is as leane and barren which not withstanding yieldeth fruit to the Husbandman plenteously so that he be skilfull in husbandry and both can take paines and be able withall to defray the cost Neither is there in all England almost any place where the ground requireth greater charges For in most parts thereof it groweth in manner barren if it be not overstrewed and mingled with a certaine sand from the Sea which is of great efficacie to procure fertilitie by quickning as it were and giving life unto the glebe and therefore in places far from the shore it is bought at a deare rate In describing of this region I will first travell over the West-side as the river Tamara runneth along and then the South coast which bordereth on the Ocean From whence by the Easterne bounds where it confineth upon Dorset Sommerset shires I will returne backe unto the Northern which is hemmed in with the Severne Sea Tamar which divideth these two shires first on this part receiveth into it from the East a rivelet called Lid which passeth by Coriton and K. Sidenham small townlets but which have given surnames to ancient and worshipfull families to Lidstow a little mercate Towne and Lidford now a small village but in ancient time a famous Towne which in the yeare 997. was most grievously shaken and dispoiled by the furious rage of the Danes which as it is written in that booke whereby William the First tooke the survey and value of England was not wont to be rated and asceased at any other time nor otherwise than London was That little river Lid here at the bridge gathered into a streight and pent in between rocks runneth downe amaine and holloweth the ground daily more and more so deepe that his water is not seene only a roaring noise is heard to the great wonder of those that passe over Beneath it Tamar receiveth Teave a little river on which Teavistok commonly called Tavistoke flourisheth a town in times past famous for the Abbey there which Ordulph the son of Ordgare Earle of Devonshire admonished by a vision from heaven built about the yeare of our Saviour Christ Dcccclxj. a place as William of Malmesburie describeth it Pleasant in regard of the groves standing so conveniently about it and of the plenteous fishing there for the handsome and uniforme building also of the Church for the sewers from the river passing downe along by the houses of office which runne with such a force of their owne that they carry away with them all the superfluitie they find Saint Rumon is much spoked of and lies as Bishop there There is to be seene also in the same Abbey the Sepulchre of that Ordgar before named and the huge bignesse of his sonnes tomb who was called Ordulph is thought to be a rare thing worth the sight for he was a man of a mighty stature giant like and of exceeding great strength as who was able to burst in sunder the bars of great gates and to stride over the rivelet there ten foote broad if ye list to believe the said William But scarcely had this Abbey stood thirty yeare after it was first founded when the Danes in their spoyling rage burnt it to the ground yet it flourished againe and by a laudable ordinance lectures therein were kept of our ancient language I meane the English Saxon tongue which continued even to our fathers daies for feare lest the said language a thing that now is well neere come to passe should be forgotten Tamar having thus received the Teave draweth now very neere unto his mouth where he and the river Plime together fall into the Ocean of which river the Towne adjoyning to it is called Plimmouth sometime named Sutton and seemeth to have consisted of two parts For we read in the Parliamentary Acts of Sutton Vautort and Sutton Prior because it belonged partly to the family of the
deed repenting herselfe when it was too late she sought afterward maruellously to wash out that sinfull staine by taking her selfe to the mantle and ring in the habite of an holy Votarie and to building religious houses This Purbeck is called an Isle although it be onely a Demy Island compassed round about with the sea save onely on the West-side For on the East the sea bendeth the bankes inward and breaking in at a very narrow straight betweene the two shores against which a small Isle with a block house called Brensey standeth maketh a broad and wide bay On the North side wherof in the said Biland there standeth over it the towne Poole so as it is wholly environed with waters except it be on the North-side where it closeth with the continent hath one gate and no more leading unto it We may well thinke it so named because that bay aforesaid lying under it in calme weather whē the waters be still resembleth a pond such as we call a poole in our language This of a Sedgeplot of a few fishermens cotages in the last foregoing age grew to be a mercate towne exceeding rich and wealthy beautified also with goodly houses and K. Henry the Sixth by consent of the Parliament granted unto it the priviledges of a port or haven towne which he had taken from Melcomb and licensed the Major thereof to wall it about which worke afterward was begun at the haven by King Richard the Third a Prince who deserved to be rancked among the worst men and the best Kings But ever since that time by what fatall destinie I know not or rather through the idlenesse and sloth of the townesmen it is decaied in so much as for want of Inhabitants the very houses at this day runne to ruine Into the West Angle of this Bay falleth the greatest and most famous river of all this tract commonly called Frome but the English-Saxons as witnesseth Aerius named it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereupon perhaps for that this Bay was in old time called Fraumouth the posteritie ensuing rooke the rivers name to be Frome The head thereof is at Eureshot neere unto the West limit of this shire From whence he taketh his course Eastward by Frompton whereto it gave the name and from the North receiveth a little river running downe by Cerne Abbey which Augustine the Apostle of the English nation built when hee had broken there in pieces Heil the Idol of the heathen English-Saxons and chased away the fog of paganish superstition Here was first bred among the religious men as I have read Iohn Morton Cardinall and Archbishop of Canterbury borne at S. Andrews Milborne worthily advanced to so high places for his good service in working Englands happinesse by the union of the two houses of Lancaster and York and of this family there hath issued both R. Bishop of worcester and many gentlemen of very good note in this country and elsewhere Under this somewhat lower the Frau or Frome chuse whether you will maketh an Island and so goeth to see that most ancient towne Dorchester which in Antoninus his Itinerarium is termed DVRNOVARIA that is the river Passage or Ferry and seemeth by Ptolomee to be named untruly in sundry copies DVRNIVM and DVNIVM This is the head Towne of the whole Shire and yet is neither great nor beautifull being long since despoiled of the walles by the Danes who raised as it is thought certaine trenches whereof one is called Maumbury being an acre inditched an other Poundbury somewhat greater and the third a mile off as a Camp with five trenches containing some ten acres called Maiden castle which a man may easily conjecture to have beene a summer station or campe of the Romans But of her antiquitie it sheweth daily expresse tokens namely the Roman causey of the Fosse high way and coine of the Romans both copper and silver found there and especially at Fordington hard by which the common people there call King Dorn his pence whom by some allusion to the name they dreame full sweetly to have beene the founder of the towne It had anciently a castle in that place where the Grey-friers built their Convent out of the ruines thereof and hath now but three parish Churches whereas the compasse of the old towne seemeth to have beene very large But the most grievous hurt that it tooke was when Sueno the Dane had in most outrageous crueltie renewed the Danish warre and Hush the Norman who ruled these countries a man of a persidious and treacherous mind suffered all to be spoiled and harried But in what estate it stood soone after the Normans first comming in take knowledge if it please you out of Domesday booke being the Survey of England In King Edwards daies there were in Dorchester 170. houses and these for all the Kings service discharged themselves and paid according to te◠Hides but to the use of Houscarles one marke of silver excepting the customes which pertaine ad firmam noctis that is to the entertainment of the King for one night There were in it two Mint Masters Now there be therein but 82. houses and one hundreth have beene utterly destroyed since the time of Sheriffe Hugh If these termes seeme to be very obscure as Sextus Cecilus said in the like matter impute it not to the fault of the writers but to their ignorance who cannot conceive the meaning From hence Frome runneth by Woodford where in old time Guy Brient a Baron and renowned warriour had a little Castle of his owne which afterward was the habitation of Hugh Stafford of Suthwick by one of whose daughters Inheritrices it came as I have heard to Thomas Strangwaies who being borne in Lancashire and brought hither by the first Marquesse Dorset obtained a great and rich inheritance in these parts and his issue built a very faire house at Milbery Then holdeth hee on his course besides Byndon in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which also had a monasterie where Kinegilsus in the yeare 614. in a doubtfull and dangerous battell vanquished the Britaines Not long since it was the seat of the Lord Marney now it giveth the honourable title of Vicount unto the Lord Thomas Howard Knight of the order of S. George whose father Thomas the second sonne of Thomas Howard the second of that name Duke of Norfolk Queene Elizabeth created Vicount Howard of Bindon when he having matched in marriage with the daughter and heire of Baron Marney was seized heere of a very great inheritance of the Newborows These who were anciently named de Novo Burgo and commonly Newboroughs derive their pedigree from a younger soone of Henry the first Earle of Warwick of the Norman line and held heere Winfrott with the whole Hundred of the gift of King Henry the First per servitium Camerarii these be the words out of the booke of the Offices in Capite de Domino Rege that is by
fought with good successe and slew all the valiantest men amongst them Yet did hee little or no good to his native country the Danes evermore renewing their forces still as they were overthrowne like unto that serpent Hydra A little from the fountaines where this river springeth standeth Gatton which now is scarce a small village though in times past it hath beene a famous towne To prove the antiquitie thereof it sheweth Roman coines digged forth of the ground and sendeth unto the Parliament two Burgesses Lower than it is seated Rhie-gat which if a man interpret according to our ancient language is as much as the Rivers course in a vale running out farre into the East called Holmesdale the Inhabitants whereof for that once or twice they vanquished the Danes as they wasted the country are wont in their owne praise to chaunt this Rythme The vale of Holmesdall Never wonne ne never shall This Rhie-gate carrying a greater shew for largenesse than faire buildings hath on the South-side a Parke thicke sette with faire groves wherein the right Noble Charles Earle of Nottingham Baron of Effingham and Lord Admirall of England hath a house where the Earles of Warren and Southrey had founded a prety Monasterie On the East side standeth a Castle mounted aloft now forlorne and for age ready to fall built by the same Earles and of the vale wherein it standeth commonly called Holmecastle under which I saw a wonderfull vault carried under the ground of arch-worke over head hollowed with great labour out of a soft gritte and crombling stone such as the whole hill standeth of These Earles of Warren as wee finde in the Offices or inquisitions held it in chiefe of the King in their Baronie from the conquest of England Hence runneth this river downe by Bechworth Castle for which Sir Thomas Browne obtained of King Henry the Sixth the libertie of holding a Faire For it is the habitation of the Brownes Knights out of which family since our grand-father can remember when Sir Anthony Browne had married Lady Lucie the fourth daughter of Iohn Nevil Marquesse Mont-a-cute Queene Mary honoured his sonnes sonne with the title of Vicount Mont-a-cute Some few miles from hence Westward Effingham sheweth it selfe the possession not long since of William Howard son to that Noble Thomas Duke of Norfolke that triumphed over the Scots who being created by Queene Mary Baron Howard of Effingham made Lord High-Admirall of England was first Lord Chamberlain unto Queene Elizabeth of most happy memorie and then Lord privie Seale whose sonne Charles now flourisheth Lord great Admirall of England whom in the yeare of our Lord 1597. the same Queene Elizabeth honoured also with the title of Earle of Nottingham of whom more in my Annales but now returne we to the river The Mole now being come as farre as Whitehill whereon the Box tree groweth in great plenty at the foote thereof hideth himselfe or rather is swallowed up and thereof the place is called the Swallow but after a mile or two neere unto Letherhed bridge boyling up and breaking forth taketh joy to spring out againe So that the Inhabitants of this tract may boast as well as the Spaniards that they have a bridge which feedeth many flockes of sheepe For this is a common by-word most rife in the Spaniards mouthes as touching the place where their river Anas now called Guadiana hideth himselfe for ten miles together Thus our Mole rising up a fresh hasteneth faire and softly by Stoke Dabernoun so named of the ancient possessors the Dabernouns gentlemen of great good note afterward by inheritance from them the possession of the Lord Bray and by Aesher sometimes a retyring place belonging to the Bishops of Winchester And then very neare Molesey whereunto it giveth name sheddeth himselfe into the Tamis After Tamis hath taken unto him the Mole hee carrieth his streame Northwardly and runneth fast by Kingstone called in times past Moreford as some will have it a very good mercate towne for the bignesse and well frequented well knowne also in old time by reason of a Castle there belonging to the Clares Earles of Glocester Which towne had beginning from a little towne more ancient then it of the same name standing upon a flat ground and subject to the inundation of Tamis In which when England was almost ruinated by the Danish warres Athelstan Edwin and Etheldred were crowned Kings upon an open stage in the Market place and of these Kings heere crowned it came to be named Kingstone as one would say The Kings Towne Tamis now turning his course directly Northward visiteth another place which the Kings chose for themselves sometimes to sojourne at which of the shining brightnesse they call Shene but now it is named Richmond wherein the most mighty Prince King Edward the Third when he had lived sufficiently both to glory and nature died with sorrow that hee conceived for the death of that most valiant and Martiall prince his sonne which sorrow pierced so deepe and stucke so neere him and all England beside that it farre exceeded all comfort And verily at this time if ever else England had a good cause to grieve For within one yeare after it lost the true praise of military prowesse and of accomplished vertue For both of them by bearing their victorious armes throughout all France struke so great a terrour wheresoever they came that as the father might most worthily with King Antiochus carrie the name of Thunder-bolt so his sonne with Pyrrhus deserved to bee named the Eagle Heere also departed Anne wife to King Richard the Second sister of the Emperour Wenzelaus and daughter to the Emperour Charles the fourth who first taught English women the manner of sitting on horsebacke which now is used whereas before time they rode very unseemely astride like as men doe Whose death also her passionate husband tooke so to the heart that he altogether neglected the said house and could not abide it Howbeit King Henry the Fifth readorned it with new buildings and in Shene a pretty village hard by he joyned thereto a little religious house of Carthusian Monks which he called The house of Iesu of Bethelem But in the raigne of Henry the seventh this Princely place was with a woefull sudden fire consumed almost to ashes Howbeit rising up againe forthwith farre more beautifull and glorious as it were a Phaenix out of her owne ashes by the meanes of the same King Henry it tooke this new name Richmond of the title hee bare being Earle of Richmond before he obtained the Crowne of England Scarce had that Noble King Henry the Seventh finished this new worke when in this place he yeilded unto nature and ended his life through whose care vigilancy policy and forecasting wisedome for time to come the State and common-weale of England hath to this day stood established and invincible From hence likewise his sonnes daughter Queene
This Hubert was a man who unfainedly loved his Countrie amidst the stormes of frowning Fortune performed all duties to the utmost that his Countrey could require of a right good patriot Yet at length he fell in disgrace and was dispoyled of his dignities whereby this title slept and lay as dead untill the time of King Edward the Second Who bestowed it upon his younger brother Edmund of Woodstocke who being Tutor of his nephew Edward the Third falling into the tempest of false injurious and malignant envie was beheaded for that he never dissembled his naturall brotherly affection toward his brother deposed and went about when hee was God wot murthered before not knowing so much to enlarge him out of prison perswaded thereunto by such as covertly practised his destruction Hee had two sonnes Edmund and Iohn who were restored by Parliament to bloud and land shortly after And with all it was inacted that no Peere of the land or other that procured the death of the said Earle should bee empeached therefore than Mortimer Earle of March Sir Simon Beresford Iohn Matravers Baious and Iohn Devoroil So these his two sonnes succeeded in order and when they were both dead without issue their sister Ioane who survived them for her lovely beautie called The Faire maid of Kent brought this honour unto the house of the Hollands For Sir Thomas Holland her husband was stiled Earle of Kent and shee after married by dispensation to the Black Prince heire to him King Richard the Second Her sonne Sir Thomas Holland succeeded in that honourable title who died in the twentieth yeare of King Richard the Second Him againe there succeeded his two sonnes Thomas and Edmund Thomas who also was created Duke of Surry and forthwith for complotting a conspiracie against King Henry the Fourth lost his head leaving no child Edmunds his brother being Lord High Admirall of England was wounded at the assault of Saint Brieu in little Britan and died thereof in the yeare of Salvation 1408. leaving likewise no issue Now when this dignitie was expired in this family of the Hollands their glasse being runne out and the Patrimony parted among Edmund sisters King Edward the Fourth honoured with the title of the Earldome of Kent First Sir William Nevill Lord Fauconberg and after his death Edmund Lord Grey of Ruthin Hastings and Weisford and who had to succeed him George his sonne Hee of Anne Widevile his first wife begat Richard Earle of Kent who having wasted his inheritance ended therewith his daies issuelesse 1523. But the said George by his second wife Katherine daughter to William Herbert Earle of Pembrooke was father of Sir Henry Grey of Wrest knight whose grand-sonne Reginald by his sonne Henrie Queene Elizabeth in the yeare 1571. advanced to the Earledom of Kent And after his decease without issue his brother Henrie succeeded a right honourable personage and endued with the ornaments of true nobility This province hath parishes 398. DOBVNI HItherto we have walked over all those Countries that lie betweene the British Ocean of the one side and the Severne sea and river Thames on the other Now according to the order which wee have begun let us survey the rest throughout and passing over the said river returne to the head of Thames and the salt water of Severne and there view the DOBVNI who in ancient times inhabited those parts which now are termed Oxford-shire and Glocester-shire This their name I verily suppose came of Duffen a British word because the places where they planted themselves were for the most part low and lying under the hils whereupon the name became common to them all and verily from such a kind of site Bathieia in Troas Catabathmos in Africk and Deep-Dale in Britan tooke their names I am the more easily induced to believe this because I see that Dio in the very same signification hath named certaine people BODVNNI if the letters be not misplaced For Bodo or BODVN as Plinie saith in the ancient French tongue which I have proved before was the same that in the British language betokeneth Deepe Hence was it that the City Bodincomagus as he writeth became so called for that it stood where the river Po was deepest hence had the people Bodiontij that name who inhabited a deepe vale by the Lake of Lozanne and Geneva now called Val de Fontenay to say nothing of Bodotria the deepest Frith in all Britan. Concerning these Bodunj I have found in all my reading no matter of great antiquity save only that A. Plautius sent as Propraetor by Claudius into Britan received part of them upon their submission into his protection to wit those that were under Cattuellani for they held the region bordering upon them and as Dio hath recorded about the forty and foure yeare after Christ was borne placed a garrison over them But when the English Saxons reigned in Britan and the name of Dobuni was worne out some of these as also the people dwelling round about them were by a new English Saxons name called Wiccij but whereupon I dare scarce venture to guesse without craving leave of the Reader Yet if Wic in the Saxons tongue soundeth as much as the creeke or reach of a river and the Viguones a nation in Germanie are so called because they dwell neere unto the creekes or baies of the Sea and of rivers for so doth Beatus Rhenanus constantly affirme It will bee no absurditie if I derive our Wiccii from thence who inhabited round about the mouth of Severne which is very full of such Coves and small creekes and reaches GLOCESTRLAE Comitatus olim sedes DOBVNORUM GLOCESTER-SHIRE GLocester-shire in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was the chiefe seat of the Dobuni on the West-side butteth upon on Monmouth-shire and Hereford-shire on the North upon Worcester-shire on the East upon Warwick-shire Oxford-shire and Barck-shire on the South upon Wilt-shire and Somerset-shire both A pleasant countrey and a fruitfull stretching out in length from North-east unto South-west The part that lyeth more East-ward rising up in height with hils and wolds is called Cotteswold the middle part settleth downe low to a most fertile plaine and is watered with Severne that noble river which doth infuse life as it were into the soile That part which bendeth more Westward on the further side of Severne is all over be spread with woods But what meane I to busie my selfe herein William of Malmesbury will ease mee of this labour who fully gives high commendations to this countrey Have therefore what he writeth in his booke of Bishop The countrey saith he is called of the principall Citie The vale of Glocester the ground throughout yieldeth plentie of corne and bringeth forth abundance of fruits the one through the naturall goodnesse onely of the ground the other through diligent manuring and tillage in so much as it would provoke the laziest body that is to take paines
give my voice and accord with Ninnius who writeth That it tooke the name from Glovus the great grandfathers father of King Vortigern but that long before it Antonine had named it Glevum which both the Distance from Corinium and the name also may prove But as the Saxon name Gleavecester came from Glevum so Glevum proportionably from the British Caer Glow which I suppose sprong from the word Glow that in the British tongue signifieth Faire and Goodly so that Caer Glow may bee as much as to say a faire Citie In which signification also the Greekes had their Callipolis Callidromos Callistratia the English men their Brightstow and Shirley and in this very Countie Faireford Faire-ley c. This Citie was built by the Romans and set as it were upon the necke of the Silures to yoake them And there also was a Colonie planted to people it which they called COLONIA GLEVVM For I have seene a fragment of antique stone in the walles of Bath neere unto the North-gate with this Inscription DEC COLONIAE GLEV VIXIT ANN. LXXXVI It lieth stretched out in length over Severne on that side where it is not watered with the river it hath in some places a very strong wall for defence A proper and fine Citie I assure you it is both for number of Churches and for the buildings On the South part there was a lofty Castle of square Ashler stone which now for the most part is nothing but a ruine It was built in King William the first his time and sixteene houses there about as wee read in the booke of Englands Survey were plucked downe for the rearing of this Castle About which Roger the sonne of Miles Constable of Glocester went to law with King Henry the second and his brother Walter lost all the right and interest hee had in this City and Castle as Robert de Mont hath written Ceaulin King of the West Saxons was the first that about the yeare of our redemption 570. by force and armes wrested Glocester out of the Britans hands After this the Mercians won it under whom it flourished in great honour and Osricke King of Northumberland by permission of Etheldred the Mercian founded there a very great and stately Monastery for Nunnes over whom Kineburg Eadburg and Eve Queenes of the Mercians were Prioresses successively one after another Edelfled also that most noble Ladie of the Mercians adorned this City with a Church wherein shee her selfe was buried and not long after when the Danes had spoyled and wasted the whole countrey those sacred Virgins were throwne out and The Danes as Aethelward that ancient authour writeth with many a stroake pitched poore cottages into the citie of Glenvcester At which time when those more ancient Churches were subverted Aldred Archbishop of Yorke and Bishop of Worcester erected another for Monkes which is now the chiefe Church in the Citie and hath a Deane and sixe Prebendaries But the same in these late precedent ages was newly beautified For Iohn Hanley and Thomas Farley two Abbats added unto it the Chappel of the blessed Virgin Mary N. Morwent raised from the very foundation the forefront which is an excellent piece of worke G. Horton an Abbat adjoyned to it the crosse North-part Abbat Trowcester a most daintie and fine Cloister and Abbat Sebrok an exceeding high faire steeple As for the South side it was also repaired with the peoples offerings at the Sepulcher of the unhappy King Edward the second who lieth heere enterred under a monument of Alabaster and not farre from him another Prince as unfortunate as hee Robert Curt-hose the eldest sonne of King William the Conquerour Duke of Normandy within a woodden painted tombe in the midest of the quire who was bereft of the Kingdome of England for that he was borne before his father was King deprived of his two sonnes the one by strange death in the New-forrest the other dispoiled of the Earledome of Flanders his inheritance and slaine he himselfe dispossessed of the Dukedome of Normandie by his brother King Henry the first his eies plucked out and kept close prisoner 26. yeares with all contumelious indignities untill through extreame anguish hee ended his life Above the quire in an arch of this church there is a wall built in forme of a semicircle full of corners with such an artificiall device that if a man speake with never so low a voice at the one part thereof and another lay his eare to the other being a good way distant he may most easily heare every sillable In the reigne of William the Conquerour and before it may seeme that the chiefest trade of the Citizens was to make Iron For as we find in the Survey booke of England the King demanded in manner no other tribute than certaine Icres of Iron and Iron barres for the use of the Kings Navy and some few quarts of hony After the comming in of the Normans it suffered divers calamities by the hands of Edward King Henry the third his sonne whiles England was all on a smoake and cumbustion by the Barons warre it was spoiled and afterward by casualty of fire almost wholy consumed to ashes but now cherished with continuance of long peace it flourisheth againe as fresh as ever it was and by laying unto it two Hundreds it is made a County and called the County of the Citie of Glocester Also within the memory of our fathers King Henry the Eighth augmented the state thereof with an Episcopall See with which dignitie in old time it had beene highly endowed as Geffery of Monmouth avoucheth and I will not derogate ought from the credit of his assertion considering that among the Prelates of Britaine the Bishop Cluviensis is reckoned which name derived from Clevum or Glow doth after a sort confirme and strengthen my coniecture that this is that Glevum whereof Antonine maketh mention Severne having now left Glocester behind it and gathered his waters unto one streame againe windeth it selfe by Elmore a Mansion house of the Gises ancient by their owne lineall descent being in elder times owners of Apsely-Gise neere Brickhill and from the Beauchamps of Holt who acknowledge Huber de Burgo Earle of Kent whom I lately mentioned beneficious to them and testifie the same by their Armories Lower upon the same side Stroud a pretty river slideth into Severne out of Coteswold by Stroud a Mercat towne sometimes better peopled with Clothiers and not farre from Minching-Hampton which anciently had a Nunnery or belonged to Nunnes whom our ancestors named Minchings Now Severn waxing broader and deeper by reason of the alternative flowing and ebbing of the sea riseth and swelleth in manner of a rough and troublous sea indeed and so with many windings and turnings in and out speedeth him unto the Ocean But nothing offereth it selfe unto his sight to count of as hee passeth along but Cam-bridge a little country towne where it receiveth Cam a small
for that among other matters hee had consulted with a Wizard about succession of the Crowne was beheaded a noble man exceeding much missed and lamented of good men Which when the Emperour Charles the fifth heard he said as it is written in his life That a Butchers dogge had devoured the fairest Bucke in all England alluding to the name Buckingham and the said Cardinall who was a Butchers sonne Ever since which time the splendour of this most noble family hath so decaied and faded that there remaineth to their posterity the bare title onely of Barons of Stafford whereas they were stiled before Dukes of Buckingham Earles of Stafford Hereford Northampton and Perth Lords of Brecknock Kimbalton and Tunbridge There are reckoned in this small Shire Parishes 185. BEDFORD Comitatus olim pars CATHIFVCLANORVM BEDFORD-SHIRE BEDFORD-SHIRE is one of the three Counties which we said the Cattieuchlani inhabited On the East-side and the South it joyneth to Cambridge-shire and Hertford-shire on the West to Buckingham-shire and on the North to Northamton-shire and Huntingdon-shire and by the river OVSE crossing over it is divided into two parts The North-side thereof is the more fruitâ—ull of the twaine and more woody the other toward the South which is the greater standeth upon a leaner soile but not altogether unfertile For it yeeldeth foorth aboundantly full white and bigge Barley In the mids it is somewhat thicke of woods but Eastward more drie ground and bare of wood Ouse where it entereth into this shire first visiteth Turvy the Lord Mordants house who are beholden to King Henry the Eighth for their Barony For he created Iohn Mordant a wise and prudent man who had wedded the daughter and one of the coheires of H. Vere of Addington Baron Mordant then runneth it by Harwood a Village in old time called Hareleswood where Sampson surnamed Fortis founded a Nunnery and where in the yeere of our redemption 1399. a little before those troubles and civill broiles wherewith England a long time was rent in peeces this river stood still and by reason that the waters gave backe on both sides men might passe on foote within the very chanell for three miles together not without wondering of all that saw it who tooke it as a plaine presage of the division ensuing Afterward it passeth by Odill or Woodhill sometimes Wahull which had his Lords surnamed also De Wahul men of ancient Nobility whose Barony consisted of thirty knights fees in divers countries and had here their Castle which is now hereditarily descended to Sir R. Chetwood knight as the inheritance of the Chetwoods came formerly to the Wahuls From hence Ouse no lesse full of crooked crankes and windings than Maeander it selfe goeth by Bletnesho commonly called Bletso the residence in times past of the Pateshuls after of the Beauchamps and now of the Honourable family of S. Iohn which long since by their valour attained unto very large and goodly possessions in Glamorgan-shire and in our daies through the favor of Q. Elizabeth of happy memory unto the dignity of Barons when she created Sir Oliver the second Baron of her creation Lord S. Iohn of Bletnesho unto whom it came by Margaret Beauchamp an inheritrice wedded first to Sir Oliver S. Iohn from whose these Barons derive their pedigree and secondly to Iohn Duke of Somerset unto whom she bare the Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond a Lady most vertuous and alwaies to be remembred with praises from whose loines the late Kings and Queenes of England are descended From hence Ouse hastneth by Brumham a seat of the Dives of very ancient parentage in these parts to Bedford in the Saxon-tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principall towne and whereof the Shire also taketh name and cutteth it so through the middest that it might seeme to be two severall townes but that a stone bridge joyneth them together A towne to be commended more for the pleasant situation and ancientry thereof then for beauty or largenesse although a man may tell five Churches in it That it was Antonines LACTODORVM I dare not as others doe affirme considering that it standeth not upon the Romans Military road way which is the most certaine marke to finde out the station and Mansions mentioned by Antonine neither are there heere any peeces of Romane money ever digged up as far as I can learne I have read that in the Brittish tongue it was named Liswidur or Lettidur but it may seeme to have been translated so out of the English name For Lettuy in the British language signifieth Common Innes and so Lettidur Innes upon a river like Bedford in English Beds or Innes at a fourd Cuthwulf the Saxon about the yeere of our salvation 572. beneath this towne so vanquished the Britans in an open pitch field that then presently upon it finding themselves over-matched yeelded up many townes into his hands Neither should it seeme that the Saxons neglected it For Offa the most puissant King of the Mercians choose heere as we read in Florilegus for himselfe a place of sepulture whose tombe the river Ouse swelling upon a time and carrying a more violent and swifter streame than ordinary in a floud swouped cleane away Afterwards also when it was rased downe and lay along by occasion of the Danish depredations K. Edward the Elder repaired it and laid unto it upon the South-side of the river a prety townlet which in that age as we finde in the best copy of Hovedon was called Mikesgat In the time of King Edward the Confessor as we read in that booke which King William the Conqueror caused to be written when he tooke the survey of England It defended it selfe for halfe an Hundred in wars expeditions and shipping The land belonging to this towne was never bided After this it suffered far more grievous calamities under the Normans For when Pain de Beauchamp the third Baron of Bedford had built heere a Castle there arose not any storme of civill war but it thundred upon it so long as it stood Stephen when with breach of his oath he intercepted to himselfe the Kingdome of England first forced this Castle and with very great slaughter of men won it afterwards when the Barons had taken armes against King Iohn William de Beauchamp Lord thereof and one of the Captaines of their side surrendred it unto their hands But a yeere or two after Falco de Breaut laid siege thereto and forthwith the Barons yeelded and the King in free gift bestowed it upon him Yet the unthankefull man raised up a world of warre againe upon King Henry the third He pulled downe Churches to strengthen this Castle and exceedingly damnified the territory adjoyning untill the King besieged it and when after threescore daies he had quelled the stubborne stomackes of these rebels brought this nest and nourse of sedition into his owne hands It will not be I hope distastfull to the reader if I set
artificially arched over head For they were the lurking holes of whores and theeves He levelled with the ground the ditches of the Citie and certaine dens into which malefactours fled as unto places of refuge But the whole tiles and stones which he found fit for building he layed aside Neere unto the banke they did light upon plankes of oke with nailes driven into them cemented with stone-pitch also the tackling and furniture of Ships as anchors halfe eaten with rust and ores of firre A little after he writeth Eadmer his successor went forward with the worke that Ealfred began and his pioners overthrew the foundations of a Pallace in the mids of the old Citie and in the hollow place of a wall as it were in a little closet they hapned upon bookes covered with oken boords and silken strings at them whereof one contained the life of Saint Albane written in the British tongue the rest the ceremonies of the Heathen When they opened the ground deeper they met with old tables of stone with tiles also and pillars likewise with pitchers and pots of earth made by Potters and Turners worke vessels moreover of glasse containing the ashes of the dead c. To conclude out of these remaines of Verulam Eadmer built a new Monasterie to Saint Albane Thus much for the antiquity and dignity of Verulam now haue also with you for an over-deale in the commendation of Verulam an Hexastich of Alexander Necham who 400. yeeres since was there borne Urbs infignis erat Verolamia plus operosae Arti naturae debuit illa minus Pendragon Arthuri patris haec obsessa laborem Septennem sprevit cive superba suo Hic est martyrii roseo decoratus honore Albanus civis inclyta Roma tuus The famous towne whilom cal'd Verolame To Nature ought lesse than to painfull art When Arthurs Syre Pendragon gainst it came With force of Armes to worke her peoples smart His seven yeeres siege did never daunt their heart Heere Alban gain'd the Crowne of Martyrdome Thy Citizen sometime ô noble Rome And in another passage Hic locus aetatis nostrae primordia novit Annos foelices latitiaeque dies Hic locus ingenuus pueriles imbuit annos Artibus nostrae laudis origo fuit Hic locus insignis magnósque creavit alumnos Foelix eximio Martyre gente situ Militat hîc Christo noctéque dieque labori Invigilans sancto religiosa cohors This is the place that knowledge tooke of my Nativity My happy yeeres my daies also of mirth and Jollity This place my childhood trained up in all Arts liberall And laid the ground-worke of my name and skill Poeticall This place great and renowned Clerkes into the world hath sent For Martyr blest for nation for site all excellent A troupe heere of Religious men serve Christ both night and day In holy warfare taking paines duly to watch and pray Verolamium at this day being turned into fields The towne of Saint Albans raised out of the ruins thereof flourisheth a faire towne and a large and the Church of that Monastery remaineth yet for bignesse beauty and antiquity to be had in admiration which when the Monkes were thrust out of it was by the Townes-men redeemed with the sum of 400. pounds of our money that it might not be laid even with the ground and so it became converted into a parish Church and hath in it a very goodly Font of solid brasse wherein the Kings children of Scotland were wont to be Baptized which Font Sir Richard Lea Knight Master of the Pioners brought as a spoile out of the Scottish warres and gave vnto the said Church with this lofty and arrogant inscription CUM LAETHIA OPPIDUM APUD SCOTOS NON IN CELEBRE ET EDINBURGUS PRIMARIA APUD EOS CIVITAS INCENDIO CONFLAGRARENT RICHARDUS LEUS EQUES AURATUS ME FLAMMIS EREPTUM AD ANGLOS PERDUXIT HUJUS EGO TANTI BENEFICII MEMOR NON NISI REGUM LIBEROS LAVARE SOLITUS NUNC MEAM OPERAM ETIAM INFIMIS ANGLORUM LIBENTER CONDIXI LEUS VICTOR SIC VOLUIT VALE ANNO DOMINI M.D.XLIII ET ANNO REGNI HENRICI OCTAVI XXXVI When Leeth a Towne of good account among the Scots and Edinbrough their chiefe Cittie were on fire Sir Richard Lea Knight saved me from burning and brought me into England And I being mindefull of this so great a benefit whereas before I was wont to serve for Baptising of none but Kings Children have now willingly offered my service even to the meanest of the English Nation Lea the victor would have it so Farewell In the yeere of our Lord M. D. XLIII and of the Reigne of King Henrie the Eighth XXXVI But to the matter As antiquitie consecrated this place to be an Altar of Religion so Mars also may seeme to have destined it for the very plot of bloudie battaile For to let other particulars goe by when England under the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke bereft as it were of vitall breath was ready through Ciuill Warre to sinke downe and fall in a sound the chiefe Captaines of both sides joyned battaile twise with reciprocall variety of fortune in the very Towne First Richard Duke of Yorke gave the Lancastrians heere a sore overthrow tooke King Henry the Sixth captive and slew many Honourable personages Foure yeeres after the Lancastrians under the conduct of Queene Margaret wonne heere the field put the house of Yorke to flight and restored the King to his former liberty About this towne that I may let passe the mount or fortification which the common sort useth to call Oister-hils and I take to have been the Campe of Ostorius the famous Lieutenant of Britaine the Abbats in a pious and devout intent erected a little Nunnery at Sopwell and Saint Julians Spittle for Lepres and another named Saint Mary de pree for diseased women neere unto which they had a great Mannour named Gorumbery where Sir Nicholas Bacon Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England built an house beseeming his place and calling To this adjoyneth Redborn which is by interpretation Red-water and yet the water running thereby from Mergrate sometime a religious house now a seat of the Ferrers out of the house of Groby is no more red than is the Red-sea This Redborne in times past was a place renowned and resorted unto in regard of Amphibalus the Martyrs reliques heere found who instructed Saint Alban in the Christian faith and for Christs sake suffered death under Dioclesian At this day well knowne for that it is seated upon that common and Military high-way which we call Watlingstreet and hath hard by Wenmer called also Womer a brooke that never breaketh out and riseth but it foretelleth dearth and scarcity of corne or else some extremity of dangerous times as the vulgar people doe verily beleeve Nere unto this Redborn I have some reason to thinke that the Station Duro-Co-Brive stood whereof Antonine the Emperor maketh mention although the distance of
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
thereof For in this tenour runne the very words of the Charter She likewise bestowed it upon John de Lacy Constable of Chester and the heires whom hee should beget of the body of Margaret her daughter This John had issue Edmund who dying before his mother left this honour for Henry his sonne to enjoy who was the last Earle of that line For when his sonnes were taken away by untimely death and he had but one little daughter onely remaining alive named Alice hee affianced her being but nine yeeres old to Thomas the sonne of Edmund Earle of Lancaster with this condition That if he should fortune to dye without heires of her body or if they happened to dye without heires of their bodies his Castles Lordships c. should in Remainder come to the heires of Edmund Earle of Lancaster for ever But the said Alice had no childe at all by her husband Thomas But when Thomas her husband was beheaded shee that by her light behaviour had not a little steined her good name tooke Sir Eubul le Strange with whom she had lived before time too familiarly for her husband without the assent and privity of her Soveraigne who being hereat highly offended seised her possessions into his owne hands Yet both Sir Eubul Strange and Sir Hugh Frene her third husband are in some Records named Earles of Lincolne After Alice now very aged was departed this life without issue Henry Earle of Lancaster Nephew to Edmund aforesaid by his second sonne entred upon her large and faire patrimony by vertue of that conveiance which I spake of before and from that time it accrued to the House of Lancaster Howbeit the Kings of England at their pleasure have bestowed the name and honour of Earles of Lincolne as King Edward the Fourth gave it to Sir John De la Pole and King Henry the Eighth to Henry Brandon both the Sonnes of the Dukes of Suffolke who both ended this life without Issue the first slaine in the battaile at Stoke and the other taken away by the sweating sicknesse Afterward Queene Elizabeth promoted Edward Baron Clinton Lord high Admirall of England to the said honour which his sonne Henry enjoyeth at this day There are in this Shire Parishes much about 630. NOTINGAMIAE Comitatus olim pars CORITANORVM NOTTINGHAM-SHIRE VPon the West side of Lincolne-shire confineth the County of NOTTINGHAM in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in English Nottingham-shire being farre lesse in quantity limited Northward with York-shire Westward with Darby-shire and in some parts with York-shire and on the South side with Leicester-shire The South and East part thereof are made more fruitfull by the noble and famous River Trent with other Riverets resorting unto it The West part is taken up with the Forest of Shirewood which stretcheth out a great way This part because it is sandy the Inhabitants tearme The Sand the other for that it is Clayish they call the Clay and so have divided their Country into these two parts The River Trent in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some Antiquaries of small note and account have called Triginta in Latine for the affinity of the French word Trent that signifieth that number Triginta that is thirty having gone a long journey so soone as hee is entred into this Shire and hath recepto Souro flumine ex agro Leicestrensi taking in the River Soure from the field of Leicester runne by Steanford where I have learned there be many tokens remaining of old antiquity and peeces of Roman money oftentimes found and then by Clifton which hath given both habitation and sirname also to the ancient family of the Cliftons much enriched by one of the heires of Cressy taketh in from the West the little River Lin which rising neere unto Newsted that is New place where sometime King Henry the Second founded a small Abbay and which is now the dwelling house of the ancient Family of the Burons descended from Ralph de Buron who at the first comming in of the Normans flourished in great state both in this Countrey and also in Lancashire runneth hard by Wallaton rich in veines of cole where Sir Francis Willoughby a Knight nobly descended from the Greis Marquesse Dorset in our daies built out of the ground with great charges upon a vaine ostentation of his wealth a stately house with artificiall workemanship standing bleakely but offering a very goodly prospect to the beholders farre and neere Then runneth it by Linton or Lenton much frequented and famous in old time for the Abbay there of the Holy Trinity founded by William Peverell the base sonne of King William the Conquerour but now all the fame is onely for a Faire there kept Where on the other banke at the very meeting well neere of Lin and Trent the principall Towne that hath given name unto the Shire is seated upon the side of an hill now called Nottingham by softning the old name a little for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for so the English Saxons named it of certaine caves and passages under the ground which in old time they hewed and wrought hollow under those huge and steepe cliffes which are on the South side hanging over the little River Lin for places of receit and refuge yea and for habitations And thereupon Asserius interpreteth this Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Latine Speluncarum domum that is An house of Dennes or Caves and in the British Tui ogo bauc which signifieth the very selfe same The Towne for the naturall site thereof is right pleasant as where on the one hand lye faire and large Medowes by the Rivers side on the other rise hils with a gentle and easie ascent and is plentifully provided of all things beside necessary for mans life On the one side Shirewood yeeldeth store of wood to maintaine fire although many use for that purpose stinking pit cole digged forth of the ground on the other Trent serveth it aboundantly with fish And hence hath beene taken up this od barbarous Verse Limpida sylva focum Triginta dat mihi piscem Shire-wood yeelds me fuell for fire As Trent yeelds fish what I require At a word for largenesse for building for three faire Churches a passing spacious and beautifull Mercat place and a most strong Castle it maketh a goodly shew The said Castle is mounted upon an huge and steepe worke on the West side of the City in which place it is thought that Castle stood in times past upon whose strength the Danes presuming held out against the Siege of Aethered and Aelfrid so long untill they frustrate of their purpose brake up their Siege trussed up bagge and baggage and dislodged For when the Danes had taken this Castle Burthred King of the Mercians as mine Authour Asserius writeth and the Mercians addresse their messengers to Aethered King of the West Saxons and to
the Conquerour appointed over this Shire William Peverell his base sonne not with the Title of Earle but of Lord of Nottingham who had a sonne that dyed before his father and hee likewise had a sonne of the same name whom king Henry the Second disinherited for that he went about to poison Ranulph Earle of Chester Much about this time Robert de Ferrarijs who rifled and ransacked Nottingham in a Donation which he made unto the Church of Tuttesbury stiled himselfe thus Robertus Comes junior de Nottingham that is Robert the younger Earle of Nottingham But afterwards King Richard the First gave and confirmed unto his brother John the Earledome and Castle of Nottingham with all the Honour of Peverell Many yeeres after King Richard the Second honoured John Lord Mowbray with this Title of Earle of Nottingham who dying a young man without issue his brother Thomas succeeded after him He being by king Richard the Second created Earle Mareshall and Duke of Norfolke and soone after banished begat Thomas Earle Mareshall whom king Henry the Fourth beheaded and John Mowbray who as also his sonne and Nephew were likewise Dukes of Norfolke and Earles of Nottingham But when as their male issue failed and that Richard the young sonne of King Edward the Fourth being Duke of Yorke had borne this Title with others by his Wife the heire of the Mowbraies but a small while King Richard the Third honoured William Vicount Barkley descended from the Mowbraies with this Title of Earle of Nottingham and whereas hee dyed without issue king Henry the Eighth bestowed the same honour upon his illegitimate sonne H. Fitz Roy when hee created him Duke of Richmond but hee departed this life in the flower of his age leaving no childe Afterward this Title lay extinct untill in the yeere of our Lord 1597. Queene Elizabeth by solemne investiture adorned therewith Charles Lord Howard of Effingham and High Admirall of England descended from the Mowbraies in regard of his service as appeareth in the Charter of his Creation right valiantly and faithfully performed against the Spanish Armado in the yeere 1588. as also at the winning of Caliz in Spaine where he was Lord Generall of the forces by sea like as the Earle of Essex of those by land There are in this County Parish Churches 168. DARBY-SHIRE DARBY-SHIRE called in old English-Saxon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lieth close to Nottingham-shire Westward confining with Leicester-shire upon the Southside like as with Stafford-shire on the West and York-shire in the North resembling as it were the forme of a Triangle but not with equall sides For whereas about the point of it lying Southward it is scarce sixe miles broad it so enlargeth and spreadeth it selfe on both sides that where it looketh into the North it carrieth much about thirty miles in breadth The River Derwent that runneth along the middest of it divideth it after a sort in two parts which River breaking out of the North limit thereof and taking his course Southward sometimes with his blacke waters stained with the Soile and earth that it passeth by rumbleth downe apace into the Trent For Trent overthwarteth the said narrow point that I spake of lying Southward The East side and the South parts are well manured not unfruitfull and besides well stored with Parkes The West part beyond Derwent which they call the Peake being all of it hilly or a stony and craggy ground is more barraine howbeit rich in lead iron and coles which it yeeldeth plentifully and also feedeth Sheepe very commodiously In the South corner the first place worth the naming that offereth it selfe to sight is Greisely Castle more than broken downe which together with a little Monastery was founded in times past in honour of Saint George by the Greiseleies Lords thereof who fetching their descent from William the sonne of Sir Niele of Grieseley about the very Conquest of England by the Normans have flourished unto these dayes in great worship the which they have not a little augmented long since by marrying with the daughter and heire of the ancient family of Gasteneys Upon the River Dove which untill it entreth into Trent divideth this Country from Stafford-shire we meet with nothing in this Shire but small country Villages and Ashburne a Mercate towne where the house of the Cokains flourished a long time and Norbury where the right ancient family of the Fitz-Herberts have long inhabited out of which Sir Anthony Fitz-Herbert hath deserved passing well of the knowledge and profession of our Commons law Not farre from which is Shirley an ancient Lordship of the well renowned Family of the Shirleys who derive their pedegree from one Fulcher unto whom beside the antiquity of their house much honor and faire lands have accrued by marriage with the heires of the Breoses the Bassets of Brailesford the Stantons Lovets c. And heere stand round about many places which have given name and Habitation to worshipfull Families as Longford Bradburne Kniveton from whence came those Knivetons of Mercaston and Bradley of which house Saint Lo Kniveton is one to whose judicious and studious diligence I am deeply endebted also Keidelston where the Cursons dwelt as also at Crokhall But whether Sir Robert Curson knighted by King Henry the Seventh made a Baron of the Empire by Maximilian the Emperour in the yeere 1500. for his singular valour and thereupon by King Henry the Eigth made a Baron of England with a liberall pension assigned was descended from these Cursons I dare not affirme Heereby is Radborn where Sir John Chandos knight Lord of the place laid a goodly foundation of a great and stately house from whom by a daughter it came by hereditary succession unto the Poles who dwell heere at this day But these particularities I leave for him who hath undertaken the full description of this Shire But upon Trent so soon as ever he hath taken to him the river Dove is Repandunum to bee seene for so doe our History-writers call it the Saxons named it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we at this day Repton which from a great and faire Towne is become a poore small Village For in old time very famous it was by reason both of the buriall of Aethelbald that good King of the Mercians who through the treachery of his owne people lost his life and of the other Kings of Mercia as also for the unfortunate calamity of Burthred the last King of the Mercians who when hee had enjoyed his kingdome partly by way of entreaty and partly by meanes of bribery full twenty yeeres was heere deprived of his kingdome by the Danes or rather freed and exempted from the glittering misery of princely State and so became an example to teach men in how ticklish and slippery a place they stand which are underpropped onely with money Then not farre from Trent is Melborn a Castle of the Kings now decaying wherein John Duke of
Romanists But this See few yeeres after was removed againe to Lichfield yet so as that one and the selfe same Bishop carried the name both of Lichfield and of Coventry The first Lord of this City so farre as I can learne was this Leofricke who being very much offended and angry with the Citizens oppressed them with most heavie tributes which he would remit upon no other condition at the earnest suite of his wife Godiva unlesse she would herselfe ride on horse-backe naked through the greatest and most inhabited street of the City which she did in deed and was so covered with her faire long haire that if we may beleeve the common sort shee was seene of no body and thus shee did set free her Citizens of Coventry from many payments for ever From Leofricke it came into the hands of the Earles of Chester by Lucie his sonne Algars daughter for shee had beene married to Ranulph the first of that name and the third Earle of Chester out of this line who granted unto Coventrey the same liberties that Lincolne had and gave a great part of the City unto the Monkes the rest and Chilmore which is the Lords Manour hard by the City hee reserved to himselfe and to his heires After whose death when for want of issue male the inheritance was divided betweene the sisters Coventry came at length mediately by the Earles of Arundell unto Roger Mont-hault whose grand sonne Robert passed over all his right for default of issue male of his body begotten unto Queene Isabel mother to King Edward the Third To have and to hold during the whole life of the Queene herselfe and after her decease to remaine unto Iohn of Eltham the said Kings brother and to the heires of his body begotten and for default the remainder to Edward King of England c. For thus is it to be seene in the Fine in the second yeere of King Edward the Third Now the said John of Eltham was afterwards created Earle of Cornwall and this place became annexed to the Earldome of Cornwall From which time it hath flourished in great state Kings have bestowed sundry immunities upon it and King Edward the Third especially who permitted them to chuse a Major and two Bailiffes and to build and embattle a Wall about it also king Henry the Sixth who laying unto it certaine small Townes adjoyning granted That it should bee an entire County corporate by it selfe the very words of the Charter runne in that sort in deed and name and distinct from the County of Warwicke At which time in lieu of Bailiffes he ordained two Sheriffes and the Citizens beganne to fortifie their City with a most strong Wall wherein are beautifull Gates and at one of them called Gosford Gate there hangeth to bee seene a mighty great Shield bone of a wilde Bore which any man would thinke that either Guy of Warwicke or else Diana of the Forest Arden slew in hunting when he had turned up with his snout that great pit or pond which at this day is called Swansewell but Swinsewell in times past as the authority of ancient Charters doe proove As touching the Longitude of this City it is 25. Degrees and 52. Scruples and for the Latitude it is 52. Degrees and 25. Scruples Thus much of Coventrey yet have you not all this of me but willingly to acknowledge by whom I have profited of Henry Ferrars of Baddesley a man both for parentage and for knowledge of antiquity very commendable and my especiall friend who both in this place and also elsewhere hath at all times courteously shewed me the right way when I was out and from his candle as it were hath lightned mine Neere unto Coventrey North-west ward are placed Ausley Castle the habitation in times past of the Hastings who were Lords of Abergavenney and Brand the dwelling place in old time of the Verdons Eastward standeth Caloughdon commonly Caledon the ancient seat of the Lords Segrave from whom it descended to the Barons of Berkley by one of the daughters of Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolke These Segraves since the time that Stephen was Lord chiefe Justice of England flourished in the honorable estate of Barons became possessed of the Chaucombes Inheritance whose Armes also they bare viz. A Lion rampant Argent crowned Or in a Shield Sable But John the last of them married Margaret Dutchesse of Northfolke Daughter of Thomas Brotherton and begat Elizabeth a daughter who brought into the Family of the Mowbraies the Dignity of Marshall of England and Title of Duke of Norfolke Brinklâ— also is not farre from hence where stood an ancient Castle of the Mowbraies to which many possessions and faire lands thereabout belonged But the very rubbish of this Castle time hath quite consumed as Combe Abbay is scant now apparent which the Camvills and Mowbraies endowed with possessions and out of the ruines and reliques whereof a faire house of the Lord Haringtons in this very place is now raised As you goe East-ward you meet anon with Cester-Over whereof I spake incidently before belonging to the Grevills neere unto which the High port-way Watling-street dividing this shire Northward from Leicester-shire runneth on forward by High-crosse whereof also I have already written neere unto Nun-Eaton which in ancient time was named Eaton But when Amice wife to Robert Bossu Earle of Leicester as Henry Knighton writeth had founded a Monastery of Nunnes wherein her selfe also became professed it began of those Nunnes to be called Nun-Eaton And famous it was in the former ages by reason of those religious Virgines holinesse who devoting themselves continually to prayers gave example of good life A little from this there flourished sometimes Astley-Castle the principall seate of the Familie of Astley out of which flourished Barons in the time of King Edward the First Second and Third the heire whereof in the end was the second wedded Wife of Reginald Lord Grey of Ruthin from whom came the Greies Marquesses of Dorset some of whom were enterred in a most fine and faire Collegiat Church which Thomas Lord Astley founded with a Deane and Secular Chanons Somewhat higher hard by Watling street for so with the common people wee call the High-way made by the Romanes where as the riuer Anker hath a stone bridge over it stood MANDVESSEDUM a very ancient towne mentioned by Antonine the Emperour which being not altogether deprived of that name is now called Mancester and in Ninnius his Catalogue Caer Mancegued Which name considering there is a stone-quarry hard by I may ghesse was imposed upon it of the stones digged forth and hewed out of it For out of the Glossaries of the British tongue we finde that Main in the British language signified a Stone and Fosswad in the Provinciall tongue to digge out which being joyned together may seeme very expressely to import that ancient name MANDVESSEDUM But what how great or how faire soever it hath been
high and steepe Hill which hath no easie passage on even ground unto it but of one side are seene the manifest tokens of a Rampire some ruines of walles and of a Castle which was guarded about with a triple strength of Forts and Bulwarkes Some will have this also to have beene OLICANA But the trueth saith otherwise and namely that it is CAMBODUNUM which Ptolomee calleth amisse CAMULODUNUM and Beda by a word divided CAMPO-DUNUM This is prooved by the distance thereof on the one side from MANCUNIUM on the other from CALCARIA according to which Antonine placeth it Moreover it seemeth to have flourished in very great honour when the English Saxons first beganne to rule For the Kings Towne it was and had in it a Cathedrall Church built by Paulinus the Apostle of these parts and the same dedicated to Saint Alban whence in stead of Albon-bury it is now called Almon-bury But when Ceadwall the Britan and Penda the Mercian made sharpe warre upon Edwin the Prince of these Countries it was set on fire by the enemy as Beda writeth which the very adust and burnt colour as yet remaining upon the stones doth testifie Yet afterwards there was a Castle built in the same place which King Stephen as I have read confirmed unto Henry Lacy. Hard unto it lyeth Whitly the habitation of an ancient and notable Family of Beaumont which notwithstanding is different from that House of the Barons and Vicounts Beau-mont yet it was of great name in this Tract before their comming into England Calder now leaving these places behinde him and having passed by Kirkley an house in times past of religious Nunnes and the Tombe of Robin Hood that right good and honest Robber in which regard he is so much spoken of goeth to Dewsborrough seated under an high Hill Whether it had the name of DVI that tutelar God of the place of whom I wrote a little before I am not able to say Surely the name is not unlike for it soundeth as much as Duis Burgh and flourished at the very first infancy as it were of the Church springing up amongst the Englishmen in this Province for I have heard that there stood a Crosse heere with this Inscription PAULINUS HIC PRAEDICAVIT ET CELEBRAVIT that is PAULINUS HERE PREACHED AND CELEBRATED DIVINE SERVICE And that this Paulinus was the first Archbishop of Yorke about the yeere of our Redemption 626. all Chronicles doe accord From hence Calder running by Thornhill which from Knights of that sirname is descended to the Savills passeth hard by Wakefield a Towne famous for clothing for greatnesse for faire building a well frequented Mercate and a Bridge upon which King Edward the Fourth erected a beautifull Chappell in memoriall of those that lost their lives there in battaile The Possession sometime this was of the Earles of Warren and of Surry as also Sandall Castle adjoyning which John Earle of Warren who was alwaies fleshly lustfull built when he had used the wife of Thomas Earle of Lancaster more familiarly than honesty would require to the end he might deteine and keepe her in it securely from her Husband By this Townes side when the civill warre was hote heere in England and setled in the very bowels thereof Richard Duke of Yorke father to King Edward the Fourth who chose rather to hazard his fortune than to stay the good time thereof was slaine in the field by those that tooke part with the House of Lancaster The Tract lying heere round about for a great way together is called The Seigniory or Lordship of Wakefield and hath alwaies for the Seneschall or Steward one of the better sort of Gentlemen dwelling thereby Which Office the Savills have oftentimes borne who are heere a very great and numerous Family and at this day Sir John Savill Knight beareth it who hath a very sightly faire house not farre off at Howley which maketh a goodly shew Calder is gone scarce five miles farther when he betaketh both his water and his name also to the River Are. Where at their very meeting together standeth betweene them Medley in times past 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called for the situation as it were in the middest betweene two Rivers The seat it was in the age aforegoing of Sir Robert Waterton Master of the Horse to King Henry the Fourth but now of Sir John Savill a right worshipfull Knight and a most worthy Baron of the Kings Exchequer whom I acknowledge full gladly in his love and courtesie to have favoured me and out of his learning to have furthered this worke This river Are springing out of the bothom of the hill Pennigent which among the Westerne hils mounteth aloft above the rest doth forthwith so sport himselfe with winding in and out as doubtfull whether hee should returne backe to his spring-head or runne on still to the sea that my selfe in going directly forward on my way was faine to passe over it seven times in an houres riding It is so calme and milde and carryeth so gentle and slow a streame that it seemeth not to runne at all but to stand still whence I suppose it tooke the name For as I have said before Ara in the British tongue betokeneth Milde Still and Slow whereupon that slow River in France Araris hath his name The Country lying about the head of this River is called in our tongue Craven perchance of the British word Crage that is a Stone For the whole Tract there is rough all over and unpleasant to see to with craggy stones hanging rockes and rugged waies in the middest whereof as it were in a lurking hole not farre from Are standeth Skipton and lyeth hidden and enclosed among steepe Hilles in like manner as Latium in Italie which Varro supposeth to have beene so called because it lyeth close under Apennine and the Alpes The Towne for the manner of their building among these Hilles is faire enough and hath a very proper and a strong Castle which Robert de Rumeley built by whose posterity it came by inheritance to the Earles of Aumarle And when their inheritance for default of heires fell by escheat into the Kings hands Robert de Clifford whose heires are now Earles of Cumberland by way of exchange obtained of King Edward the Second both this Castle and also faire lands round about it every way delivering into the Kings hands in lieu of the same the possessions that he had in the Marches of Wales When Are is once past Craven hee spreadeth broader and passeth by more pleasant fields lying on each side of it and Kigheley among them which gave name to the worshipfull Family of Kigheley so sirnamed thereof Of which Family Henry Kigheley obtained of king Edward the First for this Manour of his The Liberty of a Mercate and Faire and free warren So that no man might enter into those lands to bunt and chace in them or
his owne hopes and so hee raised that deadly Warre betweene the Houses of Yorke and Lancaster distinguished by the white and red Rose wherein himselfe soone after lost his life at Wakefield King Henry the Sixth was foure times taken Prisoner and in the end despoiled both of his Kingdome and life Edward Earle of March sonne to the said Richard obtained the Crowne and being deposed from the same recovered it againe thus inconstant fortune disported herselfe lifting up and throwing downe Princes at her pleasure many Princes of the royall bloud and a number of the Nobility lost their lives those hereditary and rich Provinces in France belonging to the Kings of England were lost the wealth of the Realme wholly wasted and the poore people thereof overwhelmed with all manner of misery Edward now being established in his royall Throne and in the ranke of Kings carrying the name of Edward the Fourth gave unto Richard his second sonne the Title of Duke of Yorke who together with king Edward the Fifth his brother was by their Unkle Richard the Third murdered Then king Henry the Seventh granted the same Title unto his younger sonne who afterwards was crowned king of England by the name of Henry the Eight And even now of late King James invested Charles his second sonne whom before hee had created in Scotland Duke of Albany Marquesse of Ormond Earle of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanoch a childe not full foure yeeres of age Duke of Yorke by cincture of a sword imposition of a Cap and Coronet of gold upon his head and by delivering unto him a verge of gold after he had according to the order with due complements made the day before both him and eleven more of Noble Parentage Knights of the Bath Reckoned there are in this County Parishes 459. under which he very many Chappels for number of Inhabitants equall unto great Parishes RICHMOND-SHIRE THE rest of this Country which lyeth toward the North-West and carryeth a great compasse is called Richmond-shire or Richmount-shire taking the name from a Castle which Alan Earle of little Britaine had built unto whom William the Conquerour gave this Shire which before time belonged to Eadwin an Englishman by these short letters Patents as it is set downe in the booke of Richmond Fees I William sirnamed Bastard King of England doe give and grant unto thee my Nephew Alane Earle of Britaine and to thine heires for ever all and every the Manour houses and lands which late belonged to Earle Eadwin in Yorke-shire with the Knights fees and other liberties and customes as freely and in as honourable wise as the said Eadwin held the same Given at our Leaguer before the City of Yorke This Shire most of it lieth very high with ragged rockes and swelling mountaines whose sloping sides in some places beare good grasse the bottomes and vallies are not altogether unfruitfull The hilles themselves within are stored with lead pit-coale and Coper For in a Charter of king Edward the Fourth there is mention made of a Mine or Delfe of Copper neere unto the very towne of Richmond But covetousnesse which driveth men even as farre as to hell hath not yet pierced into these hilles affrighted perchance with the difficulty of carriage whereas there have beene found in the tops of these mountaines as also in other places stones like unto sea winkles or cockles and other sea fish if they be not the wonders of nature I will with Orosius a Christian Historiographer deeme them to be undoubted tokens of the generall deluge that surrounded the face of the whole earth in Noahs time When the Sea saith he in Noahs daies overflowed all the earth and brought a generall floud so that the whole Globe thereof being therewith surrounded and covered there was one face as of the Firmament so also of the Sea The soundest Writers most evidently teach That all mankinde perished a few persons excepted who by vertue of their faith were reserved alive for offspring and propagation Howbeit even they also have witnessed that some there had beene who although they were ignorant of the times past and knew not the Authour himselfe of times yet gathered conjecturally as much by giving a guesse by those rough stones which wee are wont to finde on hilles remote from the Sea resembling Cocles and Oisters yea and oftentimes eaten in hollow with the waters Where this Country bordereth upon Lancashire amongst the mountaines it is in most places so waste solitary unpleasant and unsightly so mute and still also that the borderers dwelling thereby have called certaine Riverets creeping this way Hell-beckes But especially that about the head of the River Ure which having a Bridge over it of one entire stone falleth downe such a depth that it striketh in a certaine horror to as many as looke downe And in this Tract there be safe harbors for Goates and Deere as well red as fallow which for their huge bignesse with their ragged and branching hornes are most sightly The River Ure which wee have often spoken of before hath his fall heere out of the Westerne Mountaines and first of all cutting through the middest of the Vale called Wentsedale whiles it is yet but small as being neere unto his Spring-head where great flockes of Sheepe doe pasture and which in some places beareth Lead stones plentifully is encreased by a little River comming out of the South called Baint which with a great noise streameth out of the Poole Semer. At the very place where these Rivers meete and where there stand a few small Cotages which of the first Bridge made over Ure they call Baintbrig there lay in old time a Garison of the Romanes whereof the very Reliques are at this day remaining For on the toppe of an hill which of a Fort or Burge they now call Burgh appeare the ground workes of an ancient Hold containing about five acres of ground in compasse and beneath it Eastward many tokens of some old habitation and dwelling places Where amongst many other signes of Roman Antiquity I have seene of late this fragment of an antique Inscription in a very faire letter with Winged Victory supporting the same IMP CAES. L. SEPTIMIO PIO PERTINACI AUGU IMP CAESARI M. AURELIO APIO FELICI AUGUSTO BRACCHIO CAEMENTICIUM VI NER VIORUM SUB CURALA SENECINON AMPLISSIMIO PERIL VISPIUS PRAELEGIO By this we may guesse that the said hold at Burgh was in times past named BRACCHIUM which before time had been made of turfe but now built with stone and the same layed with good morter Also that the sixth Cohort of the Nervians lay there in Garison who may seeme to have had also their place of Summer aboade in that high hill hard by fensed with a banke and trench about it which now they tearme Ethelbury And not long since there was digged up the Statue of Aurelius Commodus the Emperour who as Lampridius writeth was sirnamed by his flattering
as I have often said heeretofore shoote along through the middle of England and interpose themselves as umpires and Bounders betweene divers shires Lanca-shire lyeth toward the West in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly termed Lonka-shire Lanca-shire and The County Palatine of Lancaster because it is notably knowne by the title of a County Palatine It is so enclosed betweene Yorke-shire on the East side and the Irish sea on the West that on the South side where it boundeth upon Cheshire it is broader and by little and little the more Northward it goeth where it confineth upon Westmorland the narrower it groweth And there by an Arme of the sea insinuating it selfe is interrupted and hath a good part of it which butteth upon Cumberland beyond the said Arme. Where the ground is plaine and champion it yeeldeth good store of Barly and Wheat that which lieth at the botom of the hilles is better for Otes The soile every where is meetely good and tolerable unlesse it be in certaine moist places and unwholsome called Mosses which notwithstanding make amends for these their discommodities with more plentifull commodities For if their upper coate bee pared away they yeeld certaine unctuous or fattish Turffes for fewell and some times under-ground trees or which have lien a long time buried there Underneath also in divers places they affourd abundance of marle which serveth in stead of mucke to enrich their grounds Whereby the soile that in mans opinion was held most unapt to beare Corne beginneth now to be so kinde and arable that it may be justly thought mens idlenesse in times past was greater than any naturall barrainesse of the soile But a man may judge of the goodnesse of the soile partly by the constitution and complexion of the Inhabitants who are to see to passing faire and beautifull and in part if you please by the Cattaile For in their Kine and Oxen which have goodly heads and faire spread hornes and are in body well proportionate withall you shall finde in manner no one point wanting that Mago the Carthaginian doth require as Columella specifieth out of him On the South part it is separated from Cheshire with the River Mersey which springing forth of the midland hilles having passed a little from his head becommeth a bound to distinguish the Shires and with a slow current runneth Westward calling as it were other rivers to use the words of the Poet into his skie coloured and azure lappe and forthwith gladly biddeth welcome unto Irwell from the North which river bringeth along with him all the rivers of this Easterne part Among these Roch is of greatest name which hath standing upon it in the Vale Rochdale a Mercate Towne well frequented like as Irwell it selfe hath situate upon it Bury a Mercate Towne nothing inferiour to the other and hard by whiles I carefully sought for COCCIUM mentioned by Antonine the Emperour I saw Cockley a Chapell built of timber beset round about with trees Also Turton Chapell among very steepe downfalls and overgrowne unpleasant places Turton Towre and Entweissoll a proper faire house which had in times past Gentlemen of that name as Turton is the seate at this day of the right ancient family of Orell But where Irke and Irwell meet together on the left hand banke raised of a reddish kinde of stone scarce three miles from Mersey flourished that Towne of right great antiquity which we now call Manchester and Antonine the Emperour called MANCUNIUM and MANUCIUM according to the variety of the Copies This retaining the first part of his ancient name farre excelleth the Townes lying round about it for the beautifull shew it carrieth for resort unto it and for clothing in regard also of the Mercate-place the faire Church and College founded by Thomas Lord De-la-ware a Priest the last heire male of his Family and summoned to the Parliament among the Lords Temporall by the name of Magister Thomas de-la-ware For he descended from the Greleies who were the ancient Lords of this Towne and by Ioane sister of the said Sir Thomas it came to Wests now Lords De-la-ware But in the foregoing age this Towne was of farre greater account both for certaine wollen clothes there wrought and in great request commonly called Manchester Cottons and also for the liberty of a Sanctuary which under King Henry the Eighth was by Parliamentary authority translated to Chester In a Parke of the Earle of Derbies neere adjoyning called Alparke where the Brooke Medlocke entreth into Irwell I saw the plot and ground-worke of an ancient Fortresse built foure square commonly called Mancastle which I will not in any wise say was that ancient MANCUNIUM it is contained in so narrow a peece of ground but rather the Fort of Mancunium and station of the Romanes where they kept watch and ward at which I saw this ancient Inscription in a long stone to the memory of Candidus a Centurion ◠CANDIDI FIDES XX. IIII. As for this other Iohn Dee that most famous Mathematician and Warden of Manchester College who had a sight of the same heere copied it out for me COHO I. FRISIN ◠MASA VONIS P. XXIII Both which may seeme erected in honour of those Centurious for their loyalty and honesty so many yeeres approoved In the yeere of our Salvation 920. King Edward the Elder as Marianus writeth sent an Army of Mercians into Northumberland To reedifie the City of Manchester and to place a Garison there for it belonged formerly unto the Kings of Northumberland and seemeth to have beene quite destroyed in the Danish warre against whom because the inhabitants had borne themselves as valiant men they will have their towne to be called Manchester that is as they expound it The City of Men and in this conceit which implieth their owne commendation they wonderfully please and flatter themselves But full little know the good honest men that MANCUNIUM was the name of it in the Britans time so that the Etymologie thereof out of our English tongue can by no meanes seeme probable I for my part therefore would derive it rather from Main a British word which signifieth a Stone For upon a stony hill it is seated and beneath the very Towne at Colyhurst there are very good and famous quarries of stone But to returne againe Mersey now by this time carrying a fuller streame by reason of Irwell consociating with him holdeth on in his journey toward the Ocean by Trafford from whence the Traffords a Family of great good note tooke their name as they had their habitation also by Chatmosse a low mossie ground lying a great way in length and bredth a good part whereof the Brookes swelling high within our fathers remembrance carried quite away with them not without much danger Whereby the Rivers were corrupted and a number of fresh fish perished In which place now lyeth a Vale somewhat low watered with a little Brooke and trees
whiles in hostile manner made inrodes into his lands untill the moderate carriage of the good and worthy man and processe of time pacified these quarrels Here along the sea shore you may see in many places heaps of sand whereupon they powre water untill it gather a saltish humour which afterwards with turfes they boile untill it be white salt There be also here uncertaine sands not to bee trusted but ready to catch and swallow they call them Quick-sands so dangerous for travellers whiles at a low water when tide is past they seeke to goe the nearest way that they had need to take very good heed lest in going a foot I use Sidonius his words they suffer not shipwracke and be cast away on the land But especially about the mouth of Cocar where as it were in a field of Syrts or Quick-sands Cokar sand Abbey an Abbey not long since of the Cluniack Monkes built by Ranulph de Meschines but open to the violence of windes stood betweene the mouths of Cocar and Lune or Lone and hath a bleake prospect into the wide Irish sea This river Lone commonly called Lune springing out of the mountaines of Westmorland running Southward in a chanell now broad now narrow with many a reach in and out hindring his streame enricheth the dwellers thereby in Summer time with great store of Salmons which because they delight in cleere water and especially in shallow places that are sandy come up thicke together into this and other rivers of this coast As soone as Lune is entred into Lancashire Lace a little brooke from out of the East joyneth his streame with it In which place now standeth Over-Burrow a very small village of husbandmen which as the inhabitants enformed mee had beene sometimes a great City and tooke up all those large fields betweene Lacce and Lone and after it had suffered all miseries that follow famine was driven to composition through extremity This tradition they received from their ancestours delivered as it were from hand to hand unto them And in very truth by divers and sundry monuments exceeding ancient by engraven stones pavements of square checker worke peeces of Romane coine and by this new name Burrow which with us signifieth a Burgh that place should seeme to bee of great antiquity But if it recover the ancient name it may thanke other and not mee although I have sought as narrowly and diligently for it as for Ants pathes neither is any man to thinke that the severall names of every towne in Britaine are precisely noted and set done in Ptolomee Antonine The Notice of Provinces and other approved and principall Authors But if a man may goe by ghesse I would willingly thinke that it was BREMETONACUM which Ierome Surita a Spaniard in his notes upon Antonine or Rible-chester deemeth truely to be a different place from BREMENTURACUM and that by the distance from COCCIUM or Rible-chester From this Burrow the river Lune runneth beside Thurland Tunstalls a fortresse built by Sir Thomas Tunstall in the time of King Henry the fourth when the King had given him Licence to fortifie and kernell his mansion house that is to embatle it also by Hornby a faire castle which glorieth much of the first founder N. de Mont Begon and of the Lords thereof The Harringtons and Stanleys Barons Stanleyes of Mont-Eagle descended from Thomas Stanley the first Earle of Derby of that house and advanced to that title by King Henry the eighth of whom the third and the last named William left behind him his onely daughter and heire Elizabeth wife to Edward Parker Baron Morley mother to Sir William Parker whom in that regard King James commanded to be summoned to Parliament by the title of Lord Mont-Eagle and whom wee and all our posterity may acknowledge to have beene borne for the good of all Britain For by a short letter obscurely penned and secretly sent unto him and by him dutifully discovered in a happy houre was detected at the very last houre in a maner when the whole State was at the point to perish by the most horrible and detestable treason that ever any barbarous impiety could contrive what time certaine godlesse and irreligious monsters of men masking under the mantle of religion having bestowed a great quantity of gun-powder under the Parliament house stood ready with match in hand to give fire thereto for to blow up both Prince and Countrey with one blast in a moment Lone having passed on some few miles from hence commeth within the sight of Lancaster standing on his South banke the chiefe towne of this region which the inhabitants more truly call Loncaster as the Scots also who name it Loncastell of the River Lone Both the name still remaining and the river running under it doe argue in some sort that it is LONGOVICUM where under the Lievtenant Generall of Britaine as wee finde in the Notice of Provinces a company of the Longovicarians who of the place borrowed that name kept their station Although the towne at this day is not very well peopled nor much frequented and all the inhabitants thereof are given to husbandry for the territory all round about is well manured lying open fresh and faire and not voide of woods yet for proofe of Romane antiquity they finde otherwhiles peeces of the Emperours coine especially where the Friery stood for there they say was the plot upon which the ancient City was planted which the Scots after they had with a sudden out-road wasted all in their way in the yeere of our Redemption 1322. set on fire and burnt Since which time they have begunne to build nearer unto a greene hill by the river side on which standeth the castle great I cannot say nor of any antiquity but faire and strong And hard by it standeth upon the height of the hill the onely Church they have where the Monkes aliens had in times past a cell founded by Roger of Poictiers A little beneath which by a faire bridge over Lone in the descent and side of the hill where it is steepest hangeth a peece of a most ancient wall of Romane work seeming ready to reele Wery wall they call it after a later British name as it should seeme of this towne For they called it Caer Werid as one would say The Greene City happely of that fresh greene hill But I leave this to others John Lord of Moriton and of Lancaster afterwards King of England confirmed by Charter to his Burgesses of Lancaster all the liberties which he had granted unto the Burgesses of Bristoll And King Edward the third in the sixe and thirtieth yeere of his reign granted unto the Mayor and Bailives and Commonalty of the towne of Lancaster that Plees and Sessions should not elsewhere bee holden This towne seeth the Pole Arcticke that I may note so much elevated foure and fifty degrees and five minutes and standeth removed from the utmost line of
the Fresian sea and the Scottish sea and the Eulogium Morwiridh Upon this after you be past Tantallon are seated first North-Berwick a famous place sometime for an house there of religious Virgins and then Dyrlton which belonged in times past to the notable family of the Haliburtous and now to S. Tho. Ereskin Captain of the guard whom James K. of great Britain for his happy valour in preserving him against the traiterous attempts of Gowrye first created Baron of Dirlton and afterward advanced him to the honourable title of Vicount Felton making him the first Vicount that ever was in Scotland Against these places there lyeth in the sea not far from the shore the Iland Bas which riseth up as it were all one craggy rocke and the same upright and steep on every side yet hath it a Block-house belonging to it a fountaine also and pastures but it is so hollowed with the waves working upon it that it is almost pierced thorough What a multitude of sea-foules and especially of those geese which they call Scouts and Soland geese flocke hither at their times for by report their number is such that in a cleere day they take away the sunnes light what a sort of fishes they bring for as the speech goeth a hundred garrison souldiers that here lay for defence of the place fed upon no other meat but the fresh fish that they brought in what a quantity of stickes and little twigges they get together for the building of their nests so that by their meanes the inhabitants are abundantly provided of fewell for their fire what a mighty gaine groweth by their feathers and oyle the report thereof is so incredible that no man scarcely would beleeve it but he that had seene it Then as the shore draweth backe Seton sheweth it selfe which seemeth to have taken that name of the situation by the sea side and to have imparted the same unto a right noble house of the Setons branched out of an English family and from the daughter of King Robert Brus out of which the Marquesse Huntley Robert Earle of Wentoun Alexander Earle of Dunfirmling advanced to honors by K. James the sixth are propagated After this the river Eske dischargeth it selfe into this Frith when it hath runne by Borthwic which hath Barons surnamed according to that name and those deriving their pedegree out of Hungary by Newbottle that is The new building sometimes a faire monasterie now the Barony of Sir Mark Ker by Dalkeith a very pleasant habitation of the late Earles of Morton and Musselborrow hard under which in the yeere of our Lord 1547. when Sir Edward Seimor Duke of Somerset with an army royall had entred Scotland to claime and challenge the keeping of a covenant made concerning a marriage betweene Marie Queene of Scotland and Edward the sixth King of England there happened the heaviest day that ever fell to the adventurous youth of the most noble families in all Scotland who there lost their lives Here I must not over-passe in silence this Inscription which John Napier a learned man hath in his Commentaries upon the Apocalyps recorded to have beene here digged up and which the right learned Knight Sir Peter Young teacher and trainer of King James the sixth in his youth hath in this wise more truely copied forth APOLLINI GRANNO Q. LUSIUS SABINIA NUS PROC AUG V. S.S.L.V.M Who this Apollo Granus might bee and whence hee should have this name not one to my knowledge of our grave Senate of Antiquaries hitherto could ever tell But if I might be allowed from out of the lowest bench to speak what I think I would say that Apollo Granus amongst the Romans was the same that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Apollo with long haire amongst the Greekes for Isidor calleth the long haire of the Gothes Grannos But here I may seem to wander out of my way and therefore will returne to it Lower yet and neere unto the Scotish Forth is seated EDENBUROUGH which the Irish Scots call Dun Eaden that is the towne Eaden or Eden Hill and which no doubt is the very same that Ptolomee named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is The Winged Castle for Adain in the British tongue signifieth a wing and Edenborrow a word compounded out of the British and Saxon language is nothing else but The Burgh with wings From Wings therefore wee must fetch the reason of the name and fetched it may be if you thinke good either from the Companies of Horsemen which are called Wings or else from those Wings in Architecture which the great Master builders tearme Pâ—eromaâ—â— that is as Vetruvius sheweth two Wallâ— so rising up in heigth as that they resemble a shew of Wings which for that a certaine City of Cyprus wanted it was called in old time as wee read in the Geographers Aptera that is Without Wings But if any man beleeve that the name was derived from Ebrâ—â—k a Britaine or from Heth a Picâ— good leave have he for me I will not confront them with this my conjecture This Citie in regard of the high situation of the holsome are and plentifull soile and many Noble mens towred houses built round about it watered also with cleere springing fountaines reaching from East to West a mile out in length and carrying halfe as much in bredth is worthily counted the chiefe Citie of the whole Kingdome strongly walled adorned with houses as well publike as private well peopled and frequented by reason of the opportunity from the sea which the neighbour haven at Leth affordeth And as it is the seat of the Kings so is it the oracle also or closet of the Lawes and the very Palace of Justice For the high Courts of Parliament are here for the most part holden for the enacting or repealing of Lawes also the Session and the Court of the Kings Justice and of the Commissariat whereof I have spoken already are here settled and kept On the East side hard unto the Monastery of Saint Crosse or Holy ruide is the Kings palace which King David the first built over which within a Parke stored with game riseth an hill with two heads called of Arthur the Britaine Arthurs Chaire On the West side a most steepe rocke mounteth up aloft to a stately heigth every way save onely where it looketh toward the City on which is placed a Castle with many a towre in it so strong that it is counted impregnable which the Britans called Castle Myned Agneâ— the Scots The Maidens Castle and the Virgins Castle of certaine young maidens of the Picts royall blood who were kept there in old time and which may seeme in truth to have beene that Castrum Alatum or Castle with AVVING abovesaid How Edenborrow in the alternative fortune of warres was subject one while to the Scots and another while to the English who inhabited this East part of Scotland untill
standing in a docke neere the Tamis to the outside of the keele whereof a number of such little birds without life and feathers stuck close Yet would I gladly thinke that the generation of these birds was not out of the logges of wood but from the very Ocean which the Poets tearmed the Father of all things A mightie masse likewise of Amber as bigge as the bodie of an horse was not many yeeres since cast upon this shore The learned call it Succinum Glessum and Chryso-Electrum and Sotacus supposed that it was a certaine juice or liquor which distilleth out of trees in Britain and runneth downe into the sea and is therein hardned Tacitus also was of the same opinion when he wrote thus I can verily beleeve that like as there be trees in the secret and inward parts of the East which sweat out frankincense and balme so in the Ilands and other countries of the West there bee woods and groves of a more fattie and firme substance which melting by the hot beames of the Sunne approching so neere runneth into the sea hard by and by force of tempest floateth up to the shores against it But Serapio and the Philosophers of later times write that it ariseth out of a certain clammie and bituminous earth under the sea and by the sea side and that the billowes and tempests cast up part thereof a land and fishes devoure the rest But I digresse extravagantly I will into my way againe and since I acknowledge my fault let my confession purchase pardon In the reigne of King Alexander the second Alexander Comin rose up to the honour of Earle of Buquhan who married the daughter and one of the heires of Roger de Quincie Earle of Winchester in England and his Niece by a sonne brought the same title unto Henrie de Beaumont her husband for he in King Edward the third his daies had his place in the Parliament of England by the name of Earl of Buquhan Afterwards Alexander Stewart sonne to King Robert the second was Earle of this place unto whom succeeded John a younger sonne of Robert Duke of Albanie who arriving in France with seven thousand Scottishmen to aide Charles the seventh King of France bare himselfe valiantly and performed singular good service against the Englishmen and that with so great commendation as having victoriously slaine Thomas Duke of Clarence brother to Henrie the fifth King of England at Baugie and discomfited the English he was made Constable of France But in the third yeere following when the fortune of warre turned hee with other most valiant Knights to wit Archibald Douglasse Earle of Wigton and Duke of Touraine c. was vanquished at Vernoil by the English and there slain Whom notwithstanding as that Poet said aeternum memorabit Gallia cives Grata suos titulos quae dedit tumulos France thankfully will ay recount as citizens of her owne On whom both titles glorious and tombes she hath bestowne Certes whereas under the K.K. Charles the sixth and seventh France was preserved and Aquitain recovered by thrusting out the English the Frenchmen cannot chuse but acknowledge themselves much beholden to the fidelitie and fortitude of the Scottish But afterwards King James the first gave the Earldome of Buquhan unto George of Dunbar moved thereto upon pitie and commiseration because hee had deprived him before of the Earldom of March by authority of Parliament for his fathers crime and not long after James the sonne of James Stewart of Lorn surnamed the Black Knight whom he had by Q. Joan sister to the Duke of Somerset and widdow to King James the first obtained this honour and left it to his posteritie but for default not long since of heires male it came by a daughter married to Robert Douglas a younger brother of Douglas of Lochlevin to the family of the Douglasses From Buquhan as the shore bendeth backward and turneth full into the North lieth Boena and Bamff a small Sherifdome also Ajuza a little territorie of no especiall account and Rothamay castle the dwelling place of the Barons of Salton surnamed Abernethy Beneath these lieth Strath-bolgy that is the vale by Bolgy the habitation in times past of the Earls of Athol who of it assumed their surname but now the principall seat of Marquesse Huntly For this title K. James the sixth conferred upon George Gordon Earle Huntly Lord Gordon and Badzeneth a man of great honour and reputation for his ancient noblenesse of birth and the multitude of his dependants and followers whose ancesters descended from the Setons by Parliamentarie authoritie took the name of Gordon when as Sir Alexander Seton had taken to wife the daughter of Sir Iohn Gordon Knight by whom he had a large and rich inheritance and received the honour of the Earle of Huntly at the hands of King James the second in the yeere 1449. MORAVIA or MURRAY THe VACOMAGI remembred by Ptolomee anciently inhabited on the further side of Crantz-baine-mountain which as it were in a continued range by hills hanging one by another driveth out his ridge with many a winding as far as to Murray frith where now lieth Murray in Latin Moravia celebrated for the fertilitie pleasant site and commoditie of fruitfull trees By this Province Spey a famous river maketh his issue into the sea wherein he lodgeth when hee hath watered Rothes Castle whence the family of the Lesleys tooke the title of Earle ever since that K. James the second conferred the honour of Earle of Rothes upon Sir George Lesley Concerning this Spey our Poet Necham hath thus written Spey loca mutantis praeceps agitator arenae Inconstans certas nescit habere vias Officium lintris corbis subit hunc regit audax Cursus labentis nauta fluenta sequens Spey raising heaps of sand amaine that shift oft times their place Inconstant he doth change eftsoones and keeps no certaine race A panier serves here for a boat some ventrous swaine it guides Who followeth still the rivers course while downe the streame it glides The river LOXA mentioned by Ptolomee which now is called Losse hideth himselfe in the sea hard by neere unto which Elgina appeareth in which and in Forres adjoining I. of Dunbar of Cumnock descended from the stock of the Earles of March hath his jurisdiction as Sheriff by inheritance But where it is now readie to enter into the sea he findeth a more plaine and soft soile and spreadeth abroad into a Meere full of swans wherein the herbe Olorina plentifully groweth hee hath Spiny Castle standing upon it whereof now the first Baron is Alexander of the linage of the Lindseys like as Kinlosse also a neighbour by sometime a famous Monasterie some call it Kill-flos of certaine flowers miraculously there springing up on a sudden when the carkase of King Duff murdred and hidden in the same place was found hath also for the Lord thereof Edward Brus M. of the Rolls in
the great preparation for the English warre hanging so neere over his head he betooke himselfe into the protection of King Henry the second without trying the hazzard of battell But when as forthwith he brake his allegeance and revolted Miles Cogan was the first Englishman that gave the attempt upon Conaght yet sped hee not in his enterprise Howbeit that King of Conaght abovesaid was driven to this exigent as to acknowledge himselfe the King of Englands Liegeman to serve him faithfully as his man and to pay unto him yeerely of every tenth beast one hide mercateable c. And King John granted that the third part of Conaght should remaine unto him still to bee held hereditarily for an hundred Markes But William Fitz-Adelme whose posterity are called in Latin de Burgo and Burke or Bourke in Irish Robert Muscegros Gilbert Clare Earle of Gloster and William de Birmingham were the first English that fully subdued this country and laboured to bring it to civill government And William Bourk and his lineall posterity being called Lords of all Conaght governed that province together with Ulster for a long time in great peace and tranquility yea and raised thereout rich revenues untill the onely daughter of William Burke sole heire in grosse of Conaght and Ulster both was matched in marriage with Leonell Duke of Clarence King Edward the thirds sonne But when as he abode for the most part in England and the Mortimers his heires and successours looked but negligently to their patrimony and inheritance in Ireland the Bourkes there allies whom they had appointed as overseers of their lands taking the advantage of their Lords absence and presuming upon the troubles in England despising the authority of lawes entring into alliance with the Irish and contracting marriage with them seized upon all Conaght to their owne behoofe and degenerating by little and little have laid downe English civility and taken up Irish behaviour Whereof some who fetched their pedegree from Richard Burke were called Clan-Ricard others Mac William Oughter that is The upper others Mac William Eughter that is The lower even as they who in the countie of Maio were of greatest power and authority affected to be tearmed simply Mac-William as being a name full of honour glory and authority because they descended from William de Burgo or Burke whom I mentioned erewhile under countenance of which name they for a long time tyrannized over the poore inhabitants with most grievous exactions ULTONIA OR ULSTER ALL the land beyond the mouth of the river Boyn Meath the County Longford and the mouth of the river Ravie that stretcheth Northward is counted the fifth part of Ireland called in Latin Ultonia and Ulidia in English Ulster in Irish Cui Guilly that is The Province Guilly and of our Welsh Britans Ultw Which Province was wholly inhabited in Ptolomees time by the VOLUNTII DARNI ROBOGDII and ERDINI A large country bespred with many and those very large loghes and lakes shaded with many and thicke woods in some places fruitfull in others barren howbeit fresh and green to see to in every place and replenished with cattell But as the countrey for want of manuring is growne to be rough so the naturall dispositions of the people wanting civill discipline are become most wild and barbarous Yet to the end that they might be kept within the bounds of their duty who were wont to breake in sunder all bands of equity of honesty and of duty the hether part of it was in times past divided into three counties Louth Downe and Antrim and now the rest is laid out into seven new counties that is to say Cavon Fermanagh Monaghan Armagh Colran Tir-Oen and Donegall or Tir-Conell by the provident care of Sir Iohn Perot L. Deputy who being notable and worthy man well acquainted with the humours and haughty spirits of the Province foreseeing that no policy would serve better to appease the tumults of Ireland than to reduce these parts of Ulster into order and to keepe them downe going thither in a dangerous and ticklish time when the King of Spaine hovered and gaped both for Ireland and England with his gravitie and authority whiles by barring all wrongs hee did cut off the causes and quarrells of warre brought all the Potentates or Captaines of Ulster to this passe that willingly they suffered their Seigniories to bee divided into Counties and Sheriffes to bee appointed for the government thereof But he being within a while after recalled home and climbing still higher unto honours the heavie displeasure and envie of some whom hee was not able to counterpoise and his owne lavish tongue together for unadvisedly he had let flye somewhat against the Princes Majestie which to impaire in word is a capitall matter plunged him headlong ere he was aware upon his owne destruction as I have declared elsewhere more amply THE COUNTIE OF LOUTH THe county of LOUTH in ancient bookes written Luva and Luda called in the Irish tongue Iriel or Uriel if that be not rather a part of this territory situate beyond Meth and the mouth of the river Boyn turning full upon the Irish sea runneth out with a shore much winding into the North the soile whereof is so full of forage and so fruitfull that it soone answereth and recompenseth the husband mans toile and charges Neere unto Boynes mouth is seated Drogheda or Droghda in English Tredagh a fine towne well peopled and frequented so called of the bridge and divided by the river Boyne running through it Unto which King Edward the second for Theobald Verdons sake granted licence for a mercate and Faire the Kings confirmed many and great liberties and among other a Mint Neere unto this standeth Mellifont Abbey founded by Donald a King of Uriel and much praised by Saint Bernard which Queene Elizabeth when as the religious Monkes were before thrust out gave unto Sir Edward More of Kent for his good deserts both at home and abroad in the warres Ardeth seven miles from hence is a dry in-land towne well knowne and above it Dundalk with a commodious haven and in times past strongly walled which Edward Brus brother to the King of Scots who had proclaimed himselfe King of Ireland burnt but hee within a while after was with eight thousand two hundred of his men slaine neere thereabout And in our remembrance Shan O Neale laied siege unto it but straightwaies hee was forced with shame enough to dislodge Eight miles from hence standeth Carlingford a port also of good request and resort neither be there to my knowledge any other places in this county worth the naming This Louth had for Earle Sir Iohn Birmingham an Englishman whom in reward of his martiall valour when hee had discomfited and in a pitcht field slaine that Edward Brus who assuming the title of King of Ireland for a time had made soule work with fire and sword in Ireland King Edward the second advanced to the
Lismore sometime Legate of Ireland an earnest follower of the vertues which he had seen and heard of his devout father Saint Bernard and Pope Eugenius a venerable man with whom hee was in the Probatorie at Clarevall who also ordained him to be the Legate in Ireland after his obedience performed within the monasterie of Kyrieleyson happily departed to Christ. Jerusalem was taken with the Lords Crosse by the Soldan and the Saracens after many Christians slaine MCLXXXVII Upon the Calends or first day of July was the Abbey of Ynes in Ulster founded MCLXXXIX Henry Fitz-Empresse departed this life after whom succeeded his sonne Richard and is buried in Font-Ebrard In the same yeere was founded the Abbey de Colle victoriae that is of Cnokmoy MCXC. King Richard and King Philip make a voiage into the holy land MCXCI. In the Monasterie of Clarevall the translation of Malachie Bishop of Armagh was honourably celebrated MCXCII The Citie of Dublin was burnt MCXCIII Richard King of England in his return from the holy land was taken prisoner by the Duke of Austrich and he made an end by composition with the Emperour to pay for his ransome one hundred thousand markes and with the Empresse to pay thirtie thousand also with the foresaid Duke 20. thousand markes in regard of an obligation which he had made unto them for Henrie Duke of Saxonie Now hee remained in the Emperours prison a yeere sixe moneths and three daies For whose ransome all the Chalices in manner throughout England were sold. In the same yeere was founded the Abbey de Iugo Dei that is of Gods yoke MCXCIIII The reliques of S. Malachie Bishop of Clareval were brought into Ireland and with all honour that might be received in the Monasterie of Mellifont and the rest of the Monasteries of the Cistertian order MCXCV. Matthew Archbishop of Cassile Legate of Ireland John Archbishop of Dublin carried away the corps of Hugh Lacie the conquerour of Meth from the Irish and solemnely enterred it in the Monasterie of Blessednesse that is Becty But the head of the said Hugh was bestowed in the Monastery of Saint Thomas in Dublin MCXCVIII The order of Friers Preachers began in the parts about Tolouse by Dominicke the second MCXCIX Richard King of England died after whom succeeded John his brother who was Lord of Ireland and Earle of Mortaigne which John slew Arthur the lawfull heire sonne of Geffrey his whole brother And in this manner died Richard When K. Kichard besieged the Castle of Chaluz in little Britaine wounded he was to death with an arrow by one of those in the said Castle named Bertram Gurdon And when he dispaired of his life hee demised the Kingdome of England and all his other lands unto his brother to keep All his Jewels and one fourth part of his Treasure he gave unto his Nephew Otho and another fourth part of his Treasure he gave and commanded to be dealt among his servants and the poore Now when the said Bertram was apprehended and brought before the King the K. demanded of him in these termes what harme have I done thee that thou hast slaine me Unto whom without any manner of feare he answered thus Thou killedst my father and two of my brethren with thine owne hand and me also thou wouldest now have killed Take therefore what revenge so ever thou wilt of me for I passe not so thou maist be slaine that hast wrought so many mischiefes to the world Then the King forgave him his death and commanded that hee should be let goe at libertie and to give him besides one hundred shillings sterling But after the King was dead some of the Kings ministers slayed the said Beâ—â—â—am and hung him up And this King yeelded up his vitall breath the eighth day before the Ides of April which fell out to be the fourth day of the weeke before Palme-Sunday and the eleventh day after he was wounded and buried hee was at Foâ—â— Eâ—â—ard at the feet of his father Touching whose death a certaine versifier saith thus Istiâ— in morte perimit formica leonem Proh dolor in tanto funere mundus obit In this mans death as is well seene the Ant a Lion slaies And in so great a death alas the world doth end her daies The Corps of which King Richard is divided into three parts Whence was this verse made Viscera Carceolum Corpus Fons servat Ebrardi Et Cor Rhothomagum magne Richarde tuum Thy bowels onely Carceol keeps thy Corps Font-Everard And Roan hath keeping of thy heart O puissant Richard When King Richard was departed this life his brother John was girt with the sword of the Duchy of Normandie by the Archbishop of Rhoan the seventh day before the Calends of May next ensuing after the death of the aforesaid King which Archbishop did set upon the head of the said Duke a Circle flower with golden roses in the top round about Also upon the sixth day before the Calends of June hee was anointed and crowned King of England all the Lords and Nobles of England being present within the Church of Saint Peter in Westminster upon the day of the Lords Ascension and afterwards was John King of England called to a Parliament in France by the King of France to answer as touching the death of his Nephew Arthur and because he came not he deprived him of Normandy The same yeere was the Abbey of Commerer founded MCC Cathol Cronerg King of Conaght founder of the Monastery de Colle Victoriae that is of the Hill of Victorie is expelled out of Conaght The same yeere was founded the Monasterie de Voto that is Tynterne by William Marshall Earle Marshall and of Pembroch who was Lord of Leinster to wit of Weisford Ossory Caterlagh and Kildare in regard and right of his wife who espoused the daughter of Richard Earle of Stroghul and of Eve the daughter of Dermot-Mac-Murogh But because the foresaid William Earle Marshall was in exceeding great jeopardie both day and night in the sea he vowed a vow unto our Lord Jesus Christ that if he might be delivered from the tempest and come to land hee would make a Monasterie unto Christ and Marie his mother and so it came to passe when hee was come safe to Weisford he made I say the Monasterie of Tyntern according to his vow and called it the Monasterie De voto that is Of the vow In the same yeere was founded the Monasterie de Flumine Dei that is Of Gods river MCCII. Gathol Cronerg or Crorobdyr King of Conaght was set againe in his kingdome The same yeere is founded the house of Canons or Regular Priests of St. Marie by Sir Meiler Fitz-Henrie MCCIII The Abbey of S. Saviour that is Dowiâ—ky being founded was in this yeere and the next following built MCCIV. There was a field fought betweene John Curcie Earle of Ulster and Hugh Lacie at Doune in which battell many on both sides lost their lives But John Curcie had the upper
a forest in Warwickeshire 565 c Arderns a family 604 b Argentons 406 d. 489 e Arians condemned 77 Arianisme in Britaine 78 Ariconium 618 d Aristobulus mentioned by Saint Paul in Britaine 68 Arlech castle 665 e Armanthwaite 777 f Armaturae what they were 783 Armes of Ailsburies 395 d Armes of Will de Albeny 320 e Armes of the Alfretons Barons 555 e. of the Bainards 271. d of the Argentons 406 d. of the Bardolps 481 e. of the Blewets 271 d. of the Bowes 737 b. of the Bohuns 311 f. of Brabant 820 e. of Charleton Lord of Powis 663 c. of Colchester 451 a. of Cusanz 271 d. of Ela Countesse of Salisbury 249 d. of the Ferrars 526 a. of Sir Hen. Guildford 352 b. of Harold 617 d. of Hollands Knights 749 d. of Th. Howard Duke of Norfolk 483 c. Of the first Kings of England of Norman blood 724. of the Lucies 768 f. of Lumlies 742 b. of the Mauleis 719. of Montfichets 453 of the Monthaults 690 e. of the Mortimers de Attilborough 473 b. of the Musards 555 f. of the Muschamps 815 c. of Saier Quincy and Roger his sonne 267 Armes of the Percies 768. of the Percies and Lucies ibid. of Redvers Earles of Denshire 207 e. of the Scales 405 e. of the Segraves 568 f. of the Sturmies 254 f. of the Lord Stourton 245 b. of Vaulx 786 e. of Vermandors 304 b. of Vescy 723 a. 722 f. of Viponts 763. of Warren Earle 304 b Armie of God and Holy Church 509 d Armorica what it signifieth 111 Armorica 19.12 Armorican Britons whence they came 5 Arnulph of Montgomery conquerour of Penbrochsh 655 a Arrow a river 565 d Arrow a towne 566 a Arthur a British Prince 128 Arthurs place of Nativitie and death 194 Ap. Arthur a writer 632 f Arthurs battell against Mordred 194 Arthurs sepulchre 227 f Arthurs Epitaph 230 a b Arthurs table 776 d King Arthurs Palace 221 b Artisans or Craftsmen 177 Arvandus his children killed 262 d. 276 a Arveragus 62 Arundell Earles 309.310 Th. Arundel Baron of Wardour 246 a. Count of the Empire ib. Arundale 308 d Arundels Knights 193 Arwerton 463 e S. Asaph a Bishops See 679 d S. Asaph a goodly and upright man ibid. e Ascohes Knights 543 a Ascot 396 a Ashbie Mares 507 b Ashbie de la Zouch 519 a Ashburnham 317 e Ashburne in the Peake 553 d Ashle manour 481 f Ashdown 442 f Ashridge 395 a Ashford 335 d Ashwell 406 a Ashwell Thorp 472 d Askerton castle 782 f Askes a family 729 f Asserius a learned Monk 378 c Assises what they are 445 â— Astbury 608 f Astley castle 569 b Astleies Barons ibid. b Astleies a noble family 581 d Astleis Knights 217 a Astons a family 584 e Th. Aston the first head-schoolemaster of Shrewsbury 596 b Astroites a stone 536 c Astwell 505 e Athelney 224 b Athelwold murdered by Edgar 262 b Athyrston 569 d Attrebatii 278 Attacotti 79.127 Attal-Sarisin 185 Attilbridge 473 d Attilburgh ibid. b Attila the scourge of God 197 a Atton a place and family 722 b Avallon an Iland â—25 e Aubrey a family 628 e Audience court 181 Audre causey 459 d Audre 492 e S. Audre or Etheldreda ibid. f S. Audries Liberties 493 c Aventon 258 d Aven a river in Hantshire 258 e Avens a family 485 d Averham or Aram a place 549 Aufon river See Nen. Augusta See London Augusta what they be 424 d Augustus Caesar intended a voyage into Britaine 39. he neglecteth Britaine ibid. Augustine Apostle of the English nation 336 d. 136. where enterred 337 f. S. Augustines crosse 342 a. Augustines oke 578 d. e Aulus Atticus slaine 61 Aulus Plautius sent into Britaine 40. his exploits there 41 Mercate Aultun 269 a Awdleys or Aldeleghs Barons 583 â— Henry Awdley 583 f. 584 a Iames Lords Awdley 584 a Awdley end 452 a Baron Awdley of Walden 452 d Awkenbury 501 c Awkland 738 d Aulaf the Dane adopted 261 f Aulbemarle Earles 715 b Auldby 709 e Aulcestâ—r 566 b Aulton castle 587 c Avon a river in Somersetshire 236 c Avon what it signifieth 358 a Avon a river in Wiltshire 242 a Avon river the lesse 515 b. 517 Avon a river in Wales 665 e Avon-well 515 b Aure a yellow or golden colour 26 Aurelius Conanus a tyrant 113 Aurelius Ambrose 259 a Aurenches or de Abrincis 349 b Ausley castle 588 e Aust-clive 363 d S. Astins Church in Canterburie 337 e Ax a river 206 f Axan minster ibid. f Axelholme an Isle 544 b B BAblac 373 c Babthorp name of a place and family 710 Babthorps father and sonne ib. b Bacons a family 463 e Sir Nicholas Bacon L. Keeper 461 f Iohn Baconthorpe the resolute Doctor 479 b Bad 21 Badbury hill 216 e Baddeley 607 e Bartholmew Lord Badilsmeere 331 d Badesley 566 d Baggington 562 e Bagots 586 e Bagmere Poole 609 b Baines or Bathes much used 732 Bainards castle in London 424 b Bainards 243 f Bailliol colledge in Oxford 381 c Baine a river 727 f Bainhams 359 a Baintbrig ibid. Baskewell a river 557 b Bala a towne 666 c Baldach 473 f Baldock 406 c Baldwine a Iustice 395 e Baldwine le Pettour 464 b Balshall a Commander of the Templars 566 d Bamborow 813 e Bampfeilds a family 203 e Bampton 207 b Ban a river in Lincolnshire 541 Banbury 376 a Banchor or Bangor Monasterie 603 a Bannavenna that is Wedon 508 Bannes Downe 234 b Bandogs or Mastives 434 e Banerets what title of Gentrie 171 a Baram Down 345 a Barangi 154 Barbacan in London 433 d Bard 4.14.15 Bard 19 Bardolphs Lords their tenures of certaine Lands 302 d Bardus 19 Bardney Abbey 540 f Bardolphs Barons 481 e. 548 f Bariden a river 473 d Barkley Barons 239 a William Vicount Barkley Earle of Notingham 551 c Barklow 452 a Bark-shire 129 Barkway 405 f Barnard castle 736 e Saint Barnard Colledge in Oxford founded 382 b. re-edified 383 b Barley a towne and famly 405 f Barley the best 485 b Barnwel Abbey 487 f. Castle 510 c Barnet 425 e Barnet field 415 d Barry an Island 643 a Barries Vicounts in Ireland 643 Baringtons a family 453 d Barington Hall ibid. Baro what it signifieth 168 Barons what degree of honor ib. Baronies many in Northumberland 799 c Barons to the Count Palatine of Chester 612 a. their office ib. Barow 521 b Barows or Burrows 255 b Barton upon Humber 542 f Baruch an holy man 643 a Bascaads or Baskets 491 e Basilicae 743 f Basile 473 f Basing 269 b. the honour of the Barons S. Iohn Poinings and Powlets Basing Stoke 269 b Basing Werk 680 b Baskervils worthy knights 620 c Bassets a notable familie 581 f Bassets of Welledon 514 d Bassets of Brailesford 553 d Baston 21 Batable ground 782 a Bateau 21 Batersey 303 a Batherton 607 e Bath gate 557 Bath Earles 235 a Bath Knights 172. their dubbing ibid. Bath Citie 233 b. the hot Waters thereof ibid. Battell
in Huntingdon-shire 501 d Leiton 439 f Leightons a family 667 d Leicestershire 517 Leicester towne 519 d Leike a towne 587 c Lemster or Leinster 619 f Lemster Ore 620 a Lemster bread 620 Lenae 17 Leneham 331 a Leofrike Earle of Mercians 567 e Leofrike first Bishop of Excester 204 d Leofrike Lord of Brane or Burne 533 a Leoftane Abbot of S. Albanes 393 c Leolin Prince of Wales his behaviour to King Edward 363 e Lean Vaur a fabulous Giant 604 Leon Vaur what it signifieth ib. Leonell Duke of Clarence 462 d Leprosie why termed Elephantiasis 522 d. when it came first into England ibid. Lestoff 468 d Leskerd 191 Lestuthiel 190 Lettuy what it is 399 f Leuca 21 Leven a river 781 c. 782 b Leveney a river 628 c Levensand 754 f Lever Maur 67 Leventhorps a family 408 c S. Lewis King of France taken prisoner 249 e Lewis of France his pretended title to the Crowne of England 340 Lewis a towne 313 e Lewknors 312 e Ley-mouth 440 a Lhan what it signifieth 631 d Lhan Beder 657 d Lhan Badern vaur 658 a Lhan Stephen 650 c Lhan Devi Brevi 657 b Lhanthony Abbey 631 c Lhan Vais 672 e Lhan Vethlin 662 d Lhan Heron 193 Lhan Stuphadon or Launstaveton 196 c Lhein 668 b Lhewellin ap Sisil Prince of Wales 680 a Lhewellin ap Gryffith the last British Prince of Wales 670 b Lhewellin last Prince of Wales of Brittish race 624 c. slaine ib. Lhuyd his opinion concerning the name of Britain 5.24 Library in Oxford furnished 381 Lichfield 585 b. an Archiepiscopall See 585 d Lickey Hill 574 d Lid what it is 491 d Lid river 199 d. 781 f Lida towne 351 a Lid Castle 781. Liddesdale ibid. Lidgate a village 461 f Iohn Lidgate a Monke ibid. Liesnes Abbey 328 b Lievtenants in every County or Shire instituted by King Aelfred 159 Lilborne 515 c Lime river and towne 210 b Limestone great store 694 f Limits of the Roman Empire 789 e d. see Scotland Limseies a family 567 e Lime a port towne 549 e Line or flax of the best 620 a Lillinstone 396 c Lincolnshire 529 Lincoln City 538 b. whence the name is derived ibid. Lincoln Earles 544 e f Lindsey a part of Lincolne-shire 537 f Robert of Lincoln 313 d Lincolne Colledge in Oxford 381 Linstock Castle 778 a Lingeins a family 665 d Lin 480 d. why so called ibid. Old Lin 480 King Lin ibid. Linnum Episcopi ibid. Lin peris poole 668 d Lin a river 547 c Dâ— la Linde 213 f Linton or Lenton a towne 547 d Lionesse 187 Lisls a family in the Isle of Ely 494 d L'isle a family 276 a L'isle of Rougmount 490 b Listers a family 592 e Vicount L'isle 280 d Liver a river 192 Littons a family 406 e Litchfield in Hantshire 272 c Littleborough 549 e Lites Cary 224 f Littletons a family 574 d Littleton alias Westcot a learned Lawyer and a famous ibid. Livery and seisin in old time 340 The Lizard 189 Llydan what it is 111 Louder a river and family 792 Lode workes 184 Looghor 646 a Lollius Urbicus Propretor in Britain 66 Lollham bridges 512 a London 421 d London an ancient Colony 50 London called Augusta 79 80 London stone 423 a London wall ibid. c London bridge 434 a London highway from Saint Albanes turned out of Watling-street 415 b London or Londres a family 649 d Maurice de Londres or London ibid. c Lonchamps a family 532 Longford a place and family 553 d Long-Meg a stone 777 e Longvils a family 397 c Lonsdale 760 Loo a river 192 Lophamford 467 d Lora Countesse of Leicester a reclused votary 339 a Lortie the name of a family 221 d Lothbrooke the Dane 207 a Lottery used by Saxons 135 Lovain a family 444 e Lovels 374. a family 505 d Lords of Castle Cary 514 a Lovets a family 553 d Loughborough 521 d Lowland-men 126 Louth 542 c Lowy of Tunbridge 330 a Lowy of Briony ibid. Luceni in Ireland 121 Lucensii in Spaine ibid. Sir Rich. Lucy Lord Iustice of England became a Chanon 328 b Lucies a family 769 f Lucius King of Britaine 67 Lucies Knights an ancient family 564 f Luculleae certaine speares 62 Ludgate 423 c Ludham 478 d Ludlow 590 c Ludlowes a family 594 b Luffeilds 396 f Luffenham or Leffingham South and North townes 525 Lug a river 619 d Lugus what it signifieth 779 a Lullingstone a town and family 328 e Lumley Castle 742 b Lumleys Barons ibid. Lune or Lone a river 753 c Lupicinus sent into Britaine 78 Lupus Earle of Chester 611 a Lusoriae naves 811 d Luthing a lake 468 d 442 a Luthingland ibid. Luton 402 e Lutter worth 517 f. an Episcopal See 519 d Lygons a family 577 b Th. de la Lynde 213 f Lyquorice in great plenty growing 550 f Lyrpoole or Litherpoole 748 d M MAchleneth 661 b Maclesfield a towne and forest 610 b Madin-boure or Madning boure Madning money ibid. Madock falsly dealt withall by his Guardian Iohn Earle of waren 677 b Maeatae 796 d Magicke practised in Britaine 234 a Magnavills alias Mandevil 452 b. Earles of Essex 453 e Magnavil his end ibid. f Magnentius an usurper 77. called Taporus ibid. a fortunate Prince 77. killed himselfe ibid. Magnus a Dane 314 c. his monument ibid. Magoclunus a tyrant in Britain 113 Magon a god 803 d Mahel Earle of Hereford 358 f Maiden Castle 212 c Maiden Bradley 24 Maiden way 761 e Maiden-head or Maiden-Hith 286 c Maidstone 330 e Maidulph the Irish Scot 242 c Main what it signifieth 569 c Maior of London first ordeined Main Amber 188 Malcolm Can Mor King of Scots 500 c Maldon 446 e. forced by Queen Boadicia 448 Malduit or Manduit 570 Mallets a family 223 e Malliveries 700 b Malmesbury 242 b Malpas 603 e. Barons thereof ibid. Maltravers Barons 217 a Malvern hils 577 b Malveisin 814 a Mamignot 326 d Maminots Barons 332 d Mancastle 746 b Mancester 569 c Manchester 746 a Manchet the finest 420 a Manchester why so called 747 a Mandrubatius See Androgeus oppressed by Cassibilinus 37 Manduites a family 591 e Mangonells 400 d Mannours or de Maneriis a family 815 e Mannours Earles of Rutland 527 a b. 536 b Manober Castle 651 c Mansions what they were 65 Mansfield a great mercate town in Shirewood 550 b Manwarings or Memilwarings a family 608 a Sir Peter Manwood Knight 339 b Sir Roger Manwood Knight ibid. Marble quarrey 736 e Marca 18 Marden 620 d The Marches 589 b Marga what it is 536 e Margan Castle 644 e Marga 20 Margaret Countesse of Richmond 216 d Margaret Countesse of Salisbury beheaded 250 d Lord Marchers 589 c. 165 Marcley hill 620 b. moveth ibid. Marcus made Emperour in Britaine by the armies 84 Mareschall of Harlots 294 b Mareschall Earle of Penbroch why so named 655 b Mareschall Earle of Penbroch slaine at a Turnament 407 d Mary Queene of Scots her end her tombe 511 c.
called Knights of the Rhodes and now of Malt. Templars * Lords of S. Johns Charter-house Barbacan Galâ—ottus Martius London Bridge See of Southwarke in Suthrey Saint Saviour Suffolkehouse S. Thomas Hospitall Stewes Band-dogges or Mastives Societies or Companies of Citizens â—â—ibus Wards * Or Portgrave Praetor or Major 1411. 1405. The Burse 1567. Royall Exchange Grehams College Guicciardin * Orpheus harpe a star * Or beyond Radcliffe Isle of Dogs Edmonton Waltham Crosse. Enfield Chase. Waltham Forest. Waltham Abbay Baron Deny Copthall Durolitum Berking Roding the river The Booke of Ely Chipping Angre Liber Inq. de Ripariu * Marshes Holes cut out In Kent pag. 334. Tilbury Convennos thâ— Isle Canvey Beamfleot S. Shobery Anno 894. Rochford Lord Rochfoâ— * Lawlesse Court Havering Rumford See the the Annalles Brent-wood Caesaromagus called in the Itinerary table Baromagus South-Okindon Bruin Thorndon Baron Petre. Ashdowne Arpen Wine Radulphus de Dicero The family of the Essex Dengy hundred Essex cheese The Normans call him Peverell In the Records Saint Hilary terme E. 2.17 in the keeping of the Treasurer and Chamberlaine of the Exchequer Seales or signets first taken up among Englishmen Barons Rich. The Booke of Saint Martins in London Canonium Cogeshall Tirell Easterford Whitham Camalodunum Maldon Camulus a God Claudius in Britannia Servius * Deified The Altar and Temple of Claudius Dio saith fourescore thousand Idumanuâ— * Domesday The bounds of Colonies Cogeshall Lib. 9. cap. 54. Hawkwood * 4. Verses * 14. H. 4. Colonia Colchester 1105. Helen Great Constantines mother S. Osith Chic Barons Darcy of Chich. Nesse Giants Giants bones Harewich * Barklow * Ancient tombes Danes-bloud Walden Commonly called Mandevilles Baron Audley of Walden 1597. Burrow-banke Saffron Barons of Clavering See in Northumberland Barons Montfichet The Montfichet Coat of Armes Playz Haslingbury Barington Hatefield Brad-oke Earles of Essex Register of Walden Register of Walden Monastery See the Earles of Hereford Eliz. sister to Rich. Duke of Yorke Ichenild-street Sphen Seneca his usury in Britanny Andates or Andrastes The Goddesse Victory In Kent * Earle or Lieutenant * Seven kingdomes East-Angle Uff kines Ralph President of East-Angle Cheeses Novus mercatus Newmercate Newmarket Heath S. Edmunds Bury Guord or worth Bery the Britan. Malmesburiensis Eversden * Now but two * Or Scâ—eschal * Humfrey Duke of Glocester Ikesworth Blund * Drury 1173. Hengrave Culfurth Sir Nicholas Bacon Lidgate John Lidgate Stoke Clare Earles of Clare * Ad Albam Pompiam * Aucensis or Ewâ— Guliel Gemiâ—icensis Lib. 7. c. 37. Rob. Montensis Dukes of Clarence 1421. Sudbury Edwardeston * Barones Monte-chensie Minor Histor. Matth. Paris * Waldgrave Buers Cumbretonium Bretenham Barons Wentworth * Lancham Hadley Gathrum or Garmo the Dane Bentley Arwerton Wulpet Vera narratio Norton Hagoneth Farter A prety conceited tenure Ipswich Domesday booke Waleton Langerston * Others call it Thredling Boutetort Rendelisham * Cedde * Some name it Winchell Framlingham Parrham Barons Willoughbey of Parrham Oreford Tritons and Monsters of the Sea Aldburgh Pease growing out of the Rockes Dunwich Allectum or Halecum Blithborrow * De Casineto Easton-Nesse Extensio A Promontory Lib. 3. de Natura Deorum Wingfield Philips Huntingfield Henningham Halesworth Hoxon King Edmunds Martyrdome Cornwalleis Eaye Liber inquisitionum * By intrusion reaping the commodities thereof Bedingfield Flixton Bungey Mettingham Luthingland Lestoffe Somerley towne Cnoberi urbs Dukes and Earles of Suffolke Inquisit 5. Rich. 2. Leland in his Commentary upon his Cygnea Cantio Walsingham pag. 358. Regist. Monal de Melsâ— See Hull in Yorkeshire Sitomagus Thetford Magus The Family of the Knevets Barons Bourchiers of Berners Hengham Lord of Rhia * Sculton Wood rising Windham Attilborough Mortimers Venta Icenorum Caster Horsford * De Casineto Norwich Wic in the Saxons tongue what it signifieth * In the English Saxon Grammer Augusta Raâ—racorum * Fine as some take it * Or Dutchmen of the Low countries A Ruffe De Rariorum animatium Historia * Halles-hall Hobart Garieniâ— Ostium Yarmouth Garianonâ—â— * Caurus * Aquilo Cerdicus the Saxon. Cerdick sand William Worcester * Domesday booke * Portuenses * Lieutenant Hertings * Halecum Portuenses The river Thyrn Blickling Ailesham * Worsted Worsted Stuffe Saint Benets in the Holme Ludham Clipsby A most fat and battle ground Bronholme * Paston Gimmingham Wauburne Blackney 1321. John Baconthorp The Resolute Doctor Meales oâ— Miles Walsingham Regulares Houghton The Neirfords * Petronillae Vaâ—lx Brannodunum Brancastor Hunstanton Le Strange Sharnborn Foelix a Bishop The Washes Mecaru Aestuarium Lynne * Welâ—h Tilney S. Maries Reports Neirford Wormegay Bardolphs Barons Greshenhall Elsing Folliots Ickborrough Iciani Earles and Dukes of Norfolke Composition betwixt King Stephen and Henry Duke of Anjou Parliament 21. Richard 2. Rot. Parl. 3. Hen. 6. Floddon field See in the Adages of Hadrianus Junius Achilleum Voâ—um * Byne Mault Roiston See in Hertfordshire Caxton Hatley Saint George * Shengay A Commandery Burne Barones de Burne Barnwell Historie The King heire to private persons Camboritum Rith what it signifieth in British and French Grantcester Cambridge Colledges John Caiuâ— * Decently magnificent Barnewell Historia Barnewallensis Historia Barnwellensis * Paganut Joffred made Abbot of Crowland Anno 1109. Studium Aurelianense * Stourbridge Faire Gogmagog Hills A Military Fort. Wandlesbury Salston Horsheath See in Hertfordshire Castle Camps Magistra Cameraria Angliae Lord Great Chamberleine * Inq. 6. E. 2. Ditches Fleamdyke * De Rubeo monte De Insula Divels Dyke Abbo died anno 1003. Canutus began his reigne Anno. 1018. Anno. 905. Burwell Lanheath Wicken * Isleham Peyton Kirtling Barons North. 977. The Fennes and Isle of Ely Girviâ— Scordium Pausanias in Corinth Audre Ely Saint Etheldreda commonâ—y S. Audrye Saint Audrieâ— Libertie Ely booke The Lanterne Thorney Wisbich Walepoole Newleame Clowcrosse Earle of Cambridge * Or Aufon 1. Nen. Saint Needs Ainsbury Holsome and medicinable welâ— Huntingdon Godman-chester Durosiponte Saint Ives Somersham Ramsey Ramsey Mere. Hakeds Kingsdelfe Sawtry commonly Cunnington Saltria Turkill the Dane Edwardus Exul Bruse or Bruis Mosses Wittlesmere Lake The little History of Ely The foundation of Saltry Swerdesdelfe differing from Kings Delfe Kimbolton Stephen Segrave Mat. Paris Leighton Elton Walmsford Durobrivae Stilton Ermingstreet Caster in Northampton-shire Bottle Bridge * Nigellus Earles of Huntingdon See the Earles of Northampton In the last booke cap. 16. Iohn Forden in Scotocronico l. 8. c. 3.6 39. Mat. Paris 1243. * See Dukes of Excester Paâ— 26. H. 6. Utopia of Sir Thomas More Barony of the Pinkeneys Parliament 27. H. 6. 7. Edw. 4. Constable of England Sacy Forest. Foresta de Salceto Fines 18. Rich. 2. Bannavenna which untruly is called Isannaventa and Isanavatia Althorp or Oldthorp Baron Spenser Sir Christopher Hatton He died anno 1591. Northampton 1075. Register of Saint Andrewes * De Pratis Gods hoast or Army * Yardley Lord Parr of Horton Kettering The booke of Inquisit in