news came he was got into Holland where being no welcome Guest he wandred up and down two or three years like a Fugitive and at Lorain in Brabant ended his life By this time the Lords had got matter enough against the King at least to justifie their Arms and thereupon with an Army of Forty thousand men they came to London where after some debate they were received and some of them went to the Tower to the King to whom after humble Salutations they shewed the Letter which he had written to the Duke of Ireland to levy an Army for their destruction likewise the Letters which the French King had written to him containing a safe Conduct for him to come into France there to do Acts to his own dishonour and the Kingdoms After which upon the Kings Promise that he would come the next day to Westminster to treat further of these matters the Lords departed only at the Kings desire the Earls of Nottingham and Derby stayed all Night but before the King went to bed his Mind was quite altered as to keeping promise with the Lords which they understanding sent peremptorily to him That if be came not according to his Word they would chuse another King who should hearken to the faithful Counsel of his Lords This touched the King to the quick so that the next morning he went met them they declared to him how much it concerned the good of the Kingdom that those Traitors so often spoken of should be removed from the Court To which the King though much against his Will at last condescended and thereupon the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Chichester fled no man knew whether the Bishop of Durham Lord Treasurer Lord Zouch Lord Burrel Lord Beumont and others were expelled the Court and constrained to put in Bail to appear the next Parliament Also cerâ—ain Ladies were expelled the Court as the Lady Poynings the Lady Mouling and others Several other Knights with three of the Kings Chaplains and the Dean of his Chappel were likewise committed to Prison Shortly after the Parliament began called afterward the Parliament that wrought wonders On the first day whereof all the Judges but one were arrested as they sate upon the Bench and sent to the Tower and several Lords and Bishops were impeached But the Lord Chief Justice Tresillian having made his escape was afterward taken and hanged at Tyburn Sir Nicholas Brember was Beheaded with an Axe which he had prepared for the beheading of others after this divers Lords and Knights and among the rest the Steward of the Kings Household were Beheaded on Tower-hill Also all the Judges were condemned to dye but by the Queens Intercession they were only banished the Realm and all their Lands and Estates Confiscated only a small Sallery was allowed them for their support Finally in this Parliament an Oath was required and obtained of the King that he would perform such things as the Lords should Order and this Oath was likewise required of all the People of the Kingdom After this the Duke of Glocester and some other Lords upon discontent conspire to seize upon the King the Dukes of Lancaster 〈◊〉 York and commit them to Prison and all the other Lords of the Kings Council they determined should be drawn and hanged but the King having notice thereof by a Wile he seizeth upon the Duke of Glocester and sends him presently to Callice where he soon after lost his life being smothered with Pillows as some write and divers other Lords are committed to the Tower and soon after the Earl of Arundel is beheaded on Tower-hill and a Parliament being called the King brought it so about that he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be conferred upon certain Persons or to any seven or eight of them and these by virtue of this Grant proceeded to conclude upon many things which concerned the whole Parliament to the great prejudice of the State and a dangerous Example in time to come A General Pardon was also granted for all the Kings Subjects but only to Fifty whose names he would not Express but reserved them to himself that when any of the Nobility offended him he might at his Pleasure name him to be one of the number excepted and so keep them still within his danger Also in this Parliament the Judges gave their Opinious That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament if other Articles be handled before those be first determined that it is Treason in them that do it And for the more strengthning the Acts of this Parliament the King purchased the Popes Bulls containing grievous Censures and Curses to those that should break them And now the Heads of the Opposite Faction having lost their Heads and all things as well setled as could be desired the King was secure as thinking himself safe and he had been indeed safe if Time and Fortune were not Actors in Revenge as well as men or rather if a Superiour Power did not interpose whose ways are as secret as himself is invincible About this time it happened that Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk and Henry Duke of Hereford accused each other for speaking words sounding highly to the Kings dishonour whereupon a Combate is agreed upon between them which being ready to be begun the King interposeth and banisheth the Duke of Norfolk for ever and the D of Hereford for six years But soon after several discontented Lords sollicite the D. of Hereford to return into England take the Government upon him they would be ready to assist him who thereupon without much deliberation prepares to come over and landing at Ravenspur in Yorkshire where many Lords Gentlemen and Common people repaired to him to whom he solemnly protests That though some of them had invited him to come to take the Government yet he came only to take possession of the Inheritance descended to him from his Father which King Richard unjustly and contrary to his promise had seized into his hands Hereupon many more Lords join with him and all the Kings Castles are surrendred to him and the Lord Scroop Treasurer of England Sir Henry Bushy and Sir Henry Green being seized were condemned and beheaded for Misgoverning the King and the Realm King Richard was at that time in Ireland busie in suppressing the Rebels and had no notice of the Dukes Arrival in England till six weeks after but hearing of it he sends the Earl of Salisbury before to raise an Army and promiseth to come himself within six days the Earl provides an Army of Forty Thousand men but when the King came not at his time they all disbanded and went away The King coming over and finding how it was fell into despair and secretly the next night gets into Conway Castle The Duke of Hereford now Duke of Lancaster by his Fathers Death sends the Earl of Northumberland to the King that if his Grace would undertake there should be a
down to the Ground and that as he lay on the ground there came out of his Mouth a flame of fire with abundance of smoke this last being told the King he made a jest of it saying Well a Monk he is and he can dream only as Monks do that is for gain Go give him an hundred shillings lest he think he hath dreamed unprofitably But though he had these warnings yet the day after Lammas he would needs go a hunting in the New Forrest yet something resenting the many Presages he stayd within all the forenoon About dinner time an Artificer came and brought him six Crossbow Arrows very strong and sharp four whereof he kept himself and the other Two he delivered to S. Walter Tyrell a Knight of Normandy his Bow-bearer saying Here Tyrell take you two for you know how to shoot them to purpose And so having at dinner drank more berally than his custom as it were in contempt of Prodigies and Presages he rides out in the New Forest where S. Walter Tyrell shooting at a Deer the arrow glanced against a Tree or as some say grazed upon the back of the Deer and flying forward struck the King in the breast who hastily breaking off so much as stuck in his body with one onely groan fell down and dyed of which sudden mischance his followers having notice most of them went away and those that remained with much ado got his body put into a Colliers Cart which being drawn with one lean Horse through a very foul dirty way the Cart broke and there lay the Spectacle of worldly Glory all besmeared with his own bloud and filthyly bedaubed with mire till he was conveyed to Winchester where he was buried under a plain Marble stone in the Cathedral King Henry the 1. his brother and the youngest son of William the Conquerour succeeded him though his elder brother Robert Duke of Normandy was living which caused great Wars and disturbance In his time Anseâ—m Archbishop of Canterbury being returned called a Council of the Bishops at London wherein he offended both the King and Clergy for he excommunicated all married Priests half the Clergy of England at that time being either married or the Sons of Married Priests and depending upon the Popes assistance he deprived many great Prelats of their Promotions because they were invested in them by the King but they refused to resign them since they had them by the donation of their Soveraign upon which Anselm thinking himself much wronged appealed to the Pope and went to Rome in Person soon after The King likewise sent Herbere Bishop of Norwich and Robert Bishop of Litchfield Privy Counsellors and William Warwast his Procurator as Ambassadors to Rome and the last being a Clergyman of a bold and daring Spirit He in debating his Soveraigns cause before the Pope and Cardinals with threatning Language and Countenance avouched That the King his Master would not lose his Right in the Investitures of the Church though he lost his Kingdom Whereto Pope Paschal being upon his own dunghill as stoutly answered If thou sayest the King will not lose his donation of Churches for the loss of his Kingdom Know thou for certain that before God I will not suffer him to to enjoy them without punishment and will venture my head thereupon But notwithstanding these great words against the King yet the degraded Abbots were restored again through the Clemency of the Papal See which is never wanting to any as long as The White and Red make intercession for them as the Monks own words were at that time A while after Cardinal Cremensis came into England from the Pope and calling a Council in London upon the Birth day of the Blessed Virgin he made a solemn Oration in praise of Virginity and Chastity and a terrible Invective against the Married Priests affirming it to be no less than professed Adultery And to amplifie their sin the more he shewed what great Impiety it was to rise from the Bed of unlawful Lust for so he termed chast Marriage and with polluted hands to touch the Sacrament of the Body of Christ yet but the very night following this holy Cardinal was found in Bed with a common Whore having himself consecrated the Host that very day so that he returned to Rome with much shame and but little success in the intended matter Yea Anselm himself the most earnest in favour of single life did not it seems die a Virgin for else he would never in his writings make such lamentations for the loss thereof Yet Anselm afterward called another Council at Westminster where it was ordained That Priests should no longer be suffered to have Wives and that there should be no more selling and buying men in England they being then sold like Horses or Oxen. Yet King Henry afterward suffered Priests to have Wives for Fines or rather took Fines of them whether they had Wives or no because they might have them if they would Duke Robert his Brother having sound that force would not prevail to settle him in his Right to the Kingdom he himself comes over to King Henry referring both his Dukedom and himself and all differences and debates to his will and pleasure but King Henry scarce vouchsafed to speak to him or at least to make him an answer but in a sullen humour turned away and so left him Which scornful usage put the Duke into such Indignation that he resolved upon Revenge and returning into Normandy raiseth a great Army But Henry knowing Robert to be a Souldier and considering his own Estate called his Lords together to London and there tickled their cars with this pleasing Speech My Friends faithful Counsellors and Native Country men You know all undoubtedly that my Brother Robert was elected and called by God himself to be the fortunate King of Jerusalem and how unfortunately or rather insolently he refused that sacred Estate whereby he is now most justly reprobated of God You also know by many other experiments his Pride and Arrogancy for being a man of a war like bumour he is not onely impatient of Peace but also earnestly desireth to trample upon you as men of object and contemptible dispositions and upbraid you for idle Drones Belly-gods and what not But I your King am naturally inclined to be both humble and peaceable and take delight in nothing more than in doing you good and to maintain your Tranquillity and ancient Liberty as I have often sworn unto you and meekly and willingly to yield my self to your advices whereby I may circumspectly govern you as a clement Prince And to that end even now will I confirm if your Wisdoms think fit your over-worn and undermined Charters and will corroborate them most firmly with a new Oath and Ratification In the mean time all the Laws which the holy King Edward by Gods inspiring did establish I do here command to be inviolably observed hereby to move you to adhere stedfastly unto me in chearfully
him for their Sovereign and so upon St. Stephens day 1135. he was crowned King at Westminster and to ingratiate himself be eased the People of divers Taxes and Impositions Yet Stephen was no sooner set in his Chair of State but David King of Scots enters England with an Army to defend the right of Maud but he was soon compounded with and so was Geoffrey Duke of Anjou Mauds husband Soon after Maud her self comes into England and was received by some Persons for Queen and Stephen hearing that some of her Forces had besieged Lincoln goes thither where his Army was overthrown and himself taken Prisoner and carried to Maud who committed him to Bristol Castle And being flusht with this success she takes her journey toward London and was there received joyfully as well as in other places where Matilda wife of King Stephen made humble suit to her for the Liberty of her Husband and that he might be suffered onely to live a private life The Londoners likewise having received her into the City as their Queen thought now as Subjects usually do with new Princes they might have what they would reasonably ask and therefore humbly besought her that the severe Laws imposed upon them by her Father might be remitted and those of King Edward might wholly be in force But she rejected both these Petitions some say out of Pride others out of mistaken Policy as thinking it most safe to act matters of importance not upon intreaty but freely and to govern the Subject with severity rather than mildness But those harsh and insulting Answers she gave them were at that time very unseasonable and though they might have been more proper in a setled Government yet in this her green and unstable estate they gave a stop to the Current of all her Fortunes For Matilda finding by this how high the Empresses pulses beat sent to her son Eustace to raise Forces in Kent since their suits must be onely obtained by the Sword The Nobles likewise who set up King Stephen finding themselves slighted and the Londoners being as much discontented as they join with them and contrive how to seize upon the Empress in the City and so redeem King Stephen to whom their affections were firm Of which Maud having notice fled secretly out of London and went to Oxford and from thence sent strict command that King Stephen should be laid in Irons and narrowly watched and fed with very mean Commons and sending to David King of Scots for assistance they laid fiege to Winchester Matilda King Stephens wife hearing of this she with her Son Eustace and the assistance of the Londoners came presently to the relief of the place where a fierce Battle was fought and Matilda's Party prevailed and the Empress Maud to make her escape was fain to be laid upon a Horse back like a dead Corps and so conveyed to Glocester But Earl Robert her Brother disdaining to flie was taken Prisoner and used more hardly by Queen Matilda for her Husband King Stephens sake but a while after whether by agreement or connivance both Stephen and Robert also made their escape out of Prison King Stephen being at liberty seeks out the Empress to requite the kindness she had she wed him in Prison and hearing her to be at Oxford he follows her thither and lays siege to the Town and brought the Empress to such distress that she had now no way to save her self but by flight But being a Woman whose Sex hath often deceived wise men she resolved once more to over-reach her Enemy by Craft since she could not do it by Force For it being a very cold Winter the River Thames that runs by the Walls of Oxford was very hard frozen and at the same time a deep Snow covered the ground Maud takes the advantage thereof and clothing her self and four of her company in white linen garments to deceive the eyes of the Centinel she goes secretly in the night out of a Postern Gate and passing the frozen River ran on foot through Ice and Snow Ditches and Vallies for five miles together till she came to Abington the falling Snow beating in their faces all the way and there taking Horse the same night got into Wallingford Castle But though Maud escaped this present danger vet it left such an Impression of fear upon her that she never after had a mind to appear upon the Stage of War but left the prosecution of it to her son Henry who was now about sixteen years of Age. And not long after Eustace King Stephens only son died and being left destitute of Issue to succeed him he was the more easily drawn to conditions of Peace and so it was at last concluded that Stephen should hold the kingdom of England and adopt Henry as his Heir to succeed him This Agreement thus made and confirmed by Parliament Henry accounted King Stephen ever after as his Father and Stephen Henry as his son and well he might if it be true which some write that Maud his Mother when a Battle was to be fought between King Stephen and her son went privately to him asking him How he could find in his heart to fight against him that was his own Son Could he forget the familiarity he had with her in her Widowhood But however it was King Stephen and Henry continued in mutual love and concord as long as they lived together In the eighth year of King Stephen a Synod was held in London by Henry Bishop of Winchester where it was decreed that whosoever should lay violent hands upon any Clergy-man should not be forgiven but by the Pope himself and from this time forward Clergy-men were exempt from the power of the Civil Magistrate In this Kings time there appeared two Children a Boy and a Girl clad in Green in a Stuff unknown of a strange Language and of a strange Diet the Boy being baptized died shortly after but the Girl lived to be an old Woman and being asked from whence they were she answered They were of the Land of St. Martin where there are Christian Churches erected but that no Sun did ever rise unto them but where that Land is or how she came hither she her self knew not This Story is related by many very credible Historians and if true we may thereby learn that there are other parts of the World than those which to us are known In the fifteenth year of this King the River of Thames was so frozen at London that Horse and Cart passed over upon the Ice In his time likewise lived Johannes 〈◊〉 Temporibus of whom it is recorded that he lived Three hundred Sixty one years he was one of Charlemain the Emperours Guard and died in the Reign of Conradus the Third 1139. After the death of King Stephen Henry Duke of Anfou succeeded according to Agreement by the Title of King Henry the Second and was crowned at Westminster in the Year 1155. This King had very much vexation from
no reports should cause any disaffection toward him But as soon as this young King was Crowned at Westminster he like king Saul seemed to have a new heart given him and became another man than he was before For calling his old Companions and brethren in evil before him he strictly charged them not to come within Ten miles of the Court till they had given proof of their Reformation And to prevent their proceding in ill courses he gave every one of them a sufficient allowance Immediately after a Parliament was called at Westminster where a Subsidy was granted without asking and the Commons began to harp upon the old string of taking away the Lands of the Clergy which the Bishops fearing the Kings inclination endeavoured to divert by shewing him the great Right he had to the Crown of France which they made so plainly appear that he alters his Arms and quarters the Flower de Luces like the King of France But to do it fairly he sends Ambassadors to Charles the sixth King of France Requiring him in a Peacable manner to surrender the Crown of France The Ambassadors had five hundred Horse to attend them and were at first honourably received and Treated by the Court of France but when their Message was known their Entertainment was soon altered and the Dauphin who managed the Affairs of State during the Kings sickness about this time sent a Tun of Tennis Balls to K. Henry in derision of his Youth as fitter to play with them than to manage Arms. Which King Henry took in such scorn that he promised with an Oath It should not be long before he would toss such iron Balls among them that the best Arms of France should not be able to hold a Racket to return them And accordingly he went with an Army into France and utterly routed the French Army at Agincourt though they were 6 times as many as the English killing about nine thousand of them and taking fifteen hundred prisoners and on the English part not above six hundred were slain in all In the beginning of his Reign the followers of Wickliff greatly encreased of whom Sir John Old-Castle was chief who by marriage came to be Lord Cobham and in great favour with the King But being accused in a Synod of London for maintaining Wickliffs Doctrine the King sent for him and persuaded him to submit to the censure of the Church who told the King he onely owed subjection to his Majesty and for others he would stand for the Truth against them with his life Upon which he was cited to appear in the Bishops Court which he refusing was condemned by a Synod for an Heretick in which Synod the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury caused it to be ordained That the Holy Scriptures ought not to be translated into the English Tongue But mark the Judgment of God that fell upon his own Tongue whose roots and blade shortly after as it is recorded grew so big in his mouth and throat that he could neither speak nor swallow down meat but in horrour lay languishing till at last starved by Famine so died After this Sir John Oldcastle was taken and he Sir Roger Acton and twenty eight more were executed at S. Giles in the Fields and in Smithfield for Heresie and all the Prisons in and about London were filled with his Followers In the third year of this Kings Reign on Candlemas day seven Dolphins came up the River of Thames whereof four were taken This King had such command in France that their own Chronicles testifie in the Court of Chancery in Paris all things were sealed with the Seal of King Henry of England In the second year of his Reign Moregate near Colemanstreet was first made by Thomas Fawkener Mayor of London who caused the Water of this City to be turned into the Thames in Walbrook by making Grates in divers places King Henry the fifth died the thirty fifth year of his age and the ninth of his Reign leaving his Son Henry to enjoy his Crown who was but eight months old when his Father died yet by the Duke of Bedford Regent of France is proclaimed King of England and France at Paris and at nine years old was crowned King there receiving the Oaths and Fealty of all the French Nobility This King was very weak in Judgment and was ruled onely by his Queen which occasioned him very great trouble for they used his Authority for the destruction of the Duke of Glocester and several other persons who were much beloved of the People About which time the Duke of York began to whisper his Right to the Crown as descended from Philippa Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence Elder Brother to John of Gaunt and Great Grandfather to the present King Henry the sixth and it was privately discoursed That King Henry was of a weak capacity and easily abused and the Queen who was near to the French Queen was of a malignant spirit and bloudily ambitious the Privy Council is wise enough yet not honest enough regarding more their own pravate profit than the publick good and that through their neglect all France was lost and that God would not bless the usurped Possession of King Henry With these suggestions the Kentish men seemed to be taken which being observed by an Instrument of the Duke of York one Mortimer he takes opportunity to tell the People That if they will be ruled by him he will shew them the way to make a thorough Reformation and prevent the Taxes that are upon every slight occasion laid upon them These promises of Reformation and Freedom so wrought with the People that they drew to a Head and make Mortimer otherwise called Jack Cade their Leader who stiled himself Captain Mendall with whom they came to Black-heath and lay thereabout a Moneth sending for whom and what he pleased He then presents the complaint of the Commons to the Parliament who sent them to the Privy Council but they explode them as frivolous and charge the Authors to be presumptuous Rebels and thereupon the King raiseth an Army and brings them to Greenwich but the Lords could get no Followers to fight against them who fought onely for Reformation of Abuses and for punishment of such Traitors as they said the Lord Say was The Lord Say is hereupon committed to the Tower and the King and Queen retire to London whom Cade follows and comes to Southwark where he Quarters his men and next morning marcheth to London Bridge where he caused his Followers to cut the Rope of the Draw-bridge no resistance being made against him and so in good order marched up to London-Stone upon which he strook his Sword saying Now is Mortimer Lord of London He then sent for the Lord Say out of the Tower and cut off his head at the Standard in Cheapside and also the head of Sir James Cromer High-Sheriff of Kent but upon the Kings General Pardon his Followers leave him and he is soon after
Parliament called wherein Justice might be done and himself pardoned all Offences he would be ready to come to him on his knees and as an humble Subject to obey him Yet upon this Conference with the Earl some say the King required only that himself and eight more whom he would name might have honourable allowance with assurance of a private quiet Life and that then he would resign his Crown and that upon the Earls Oath that this should be performed the King agreed to go with the Earl to meet the Duke but after four miles riding coming to the place where they had laid an Ambush the King was seized and carried Prisoner to Flint Castle where the Duke of Lancaster came to him and bowing the knee thrice came toward him whom the King took by the hand and lifted up saying Dear Cousin you are welcome the Duke humbly thanking him said My Soveraign Lord and King the Cause of my coming at this present is your honour saved to have restitution of my Person my Lands and Heritage whereto the King answered Dear Cousin I am ready to accomplish your Will so that you enjoy all that is yours without exception After this coming out of the Castle the King called for Wine and then mounted on Horseback and by easie Journeys came to London and the next day he was committed to the Tower As the King was carried toward London divers Citizens conspired to lye in wait by the way and suddenly slay him partly for private Grievances and partly for the Severity he had used toward the whole City But the Maior having notice thereof prevented it and rid forth with a Considerable Company to conduct him safely to the Tower and soon after a Parliament was called by the Duke of Lancaster but in the name of King Richard where many heinous points of Misgovernment were laid to his Charge and were drawn up into three and thirty Articles the Cheif whereof were Thâ—t be had wastefully spent the Treasure of the Realm upon unworthy Persons whereby great Taxes were laid upon the People That he had borrowed great sums of Money and given his Letters Patents to repay the same and yet not one peny ever paid That he had taxed men at the pleasure of himself and his unhappy Council and had spent the money in folly and not in paying poor men for their victual and viand That he said the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and Breast by reason of which phantastical Opinion he destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons That he most Tyranously and unprincely said that the Lives and Goods of all his Subjects were in his hands and at his disposition That when divers Lords as well spiritual as Temporal were appointed by Parliament to Treat of matters concerning the good of the Kingdom while they are busie therein he and others of his Party went about to impeach them of Treason and that the King caused all the Rolls and Records to be kept from them contrary to his promise made in Parliament and to his open dishonour That he had private Spies in every place and if any discoursed of his Lascivious living or his Illegal Actings he presently apprehended them and grievously fined them That he changed Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his Pleasure putting out divers Persons and placing others in their Room to serve his Will and Appetite That when divers Lords and Justices were sworn to speak the truth in many things which concerned the honour and profit of the Realm the King so threatned them that they durst not speak what was right That by force and threats he compelled the Judges of the Realm to condescend to him for destruction of divers of the Lords That he caused his Fathers own Brother the Duke of Glocester without Law to be Attached and sent to Callice and there without Cause to be secretly Murdered That contrary to the Great Charter of England he caused several lusty young men to Challenge divers old men upon matters determinable at Common Law in the Court Martial where Tryal is only by battel which old men fearing submitted themselves to his mercy whom he fined unreasonably at his pleasure That in all his Leagues with Forreign Princes his way of Writing was so subtill and dark that no other Prince nor his own Subjects could beleive or trust him That he craftily devised certain private Oaths contrary to Law causing several to swear the same to the utter undoing of many honest men That he assembled certain Lancashire and Cheshire-men to make War upon the Lords and suffered them to rob and spoil without prohibition That notwithstanding his pardon granted them he inforced divers of those who joined with the Lords to be again Intollerably fined to their utter undoing Upon these and some other Articles which were read it was demanded of the Nobility and the Commons what they judged both of the Truth and desert of these Articles who all agreed that the Crimes were Notorious and King Richard was worthy for the same to be deposed from all Princely Honour and Kingly Government The Duke of York who a little before had been Governour of the Realm for the King and directed him much thought it best that King Richard should both Voluntarily Resign and also be Solemnly deposed by consent of all the States of the Realm for Resignation only would be imputed to fear and deprivation to force and therefore this being concluded on there came Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury the Archbishop of York the Bishop of Hereford the Duke of Lancaster and several other Lords and Abbots to King Richard in the Tower of London When all were set in their places King Richard was brought forth apparelled in his Royal Robes the Crown on his head and the Scepter in his hand and was placed among them in a Chair of State Never was Prince so Gorgeous with less Glory and greater Grief to whom it was not disgrace sufficient to lose both the honour and Ornaments of a King but he must openly do even in great scorn renounce the one and deliver up the other After a little Pause and expectation the King rose from his Seat and spake to the Assembly these words or to this effect I assure my self that some at this present and many hereafter will account my Case lamentable either that I have deserved this Dejection if it be just or if it be wrongful that I could not avoid it Indeed I do confess that many times I have shewed my self both less Provident and less painful for the benefit of the Commonwealth than I should or might or intended to do hereafter and have in my Actions more respected the satisfying of my own particular humour than either Justice to some private persons or the Common Good of all yet I did not at any time omit duty or Commit Grievance upon natural dulness or set malice but partly by abuse of Corrupt Councellors partly by Error of my Youthful Judgment
willingly and powerfully repulsing the wrongs offered me by my Brother shall I say Nay by the most deadly Enemy both to me to you and the whole Nation For if I be guarded with the Valour and Affections of Englishmen I shall scorn the threats of him and his Normans and count them vain and not to be regarded With these fair promises which yet he afterward quite neglected he so won the hearts of the Lords and the Londoners that they engaged to die with him or for him against any opposition whatsoever Duke Robert being gone and Henry thus setled in the affection of the People he raised a very great Army and accompanied with divers of the Nobility sailed to Normandy where falling upon Robert before he was half ready to fight he obtained a compleat Victory over him and won Normandy with the slaughter of ten thousand men taking Robert himself prisoner whom he brought over and committed to Cardiff Castle in Wales where he remained a prisoner till he died yet had liberty of walking in the Kings Meadows and Pastures But being weary of this Confinement he endeavoured to make his escape which the King being afraid of ordered his eyes to be put out which to avoid the deformity of breaking the Eye-bals was done by causing his head to be held to a burning Basin till the Glassie Tunicles had lost the Office of retaining the Light This though it increased his misery yet did not shorten his life for he lived long after in all from the time of his Imprisonment twenty eight years And thus this great Duke who in his Birth was the joy of Nature in his Life was the scorn of Fortune And it is worth observing that the English won Normandy thâ— very same day fortieth year the Normans had won England Such Revolutions of Fortune there are in kingdoms and so unstable is the state of all wordly Greatness This Robert died 1134 and lies buried at Glocester One Author writes That King Henry sent him according to his Custom a Robe of Scarlet and putting it first on himself found that the Capouch or Hood as the Fashion was then was somewhat too little whereupon he said Carry this to my Brother his head is less than mine The Messenger delivering the Robe Duke Robert demanded if any had worn it and being told the King had first tried it on and what words he had said The Duke replied I have too long protracted a miserable life since my Brother is so injurious to me that he sends me his old Clothes to wear And from that time he would never taste any food nor receive any comfort This King Henry first instituted the Form of the High Court of Parliament for before his time onely certain of the Nobility and Prelates of the Realm were called to consultation about the most important Affairs of State but he caused the Commons also to be assembled by Knights Citizens and Burgesses of their own electing and made that Court to consist of three Estates the Nobility the Clergy and the Commons represeming the whole Body of the Realm and appointed them to fit in several Chambers the King the Lords and the Bishops in one and the Commons in another and to consult together by themselves He established likewise several other Orders as they are used to this day The first Parliament that was so held met at Salisbury upon the 19 of April in the 16 Year of his Reign 1019. He forbid wearing of long hair which at that time was frequent according to the French Mode He commanded Robers on the High-way to be hanged without Redemption He punished Counterfeiters of Money with pulling out their eyes or cutting off their privy members a punishment both less than Death and greater In this Kings time Guymond one of his Chaplains observing that unlearned and unworthy men were generally prefer'd to the best dignities in the Church as he celebrated Divine Service before him and was to read these words out of S. James It rained not upon the earth III years and VI Months he read it thus It rained not upon the Earth 1.1.1 years and 5.1 Months The King observed his Reading and afterwards blamed him for it but Guymond answered That he did it on purpose since such Readers were sconest advanced by His Majesty The King smiled and afterwards promoted him About this time Thomas Archb. of York falling sick his Physicians told him that nothing would do him good but to company with a woman to whom he answered That the Remedy was worse than the disease And so it is said died a Virgin Upon the Tenth of October the River of Medway that runs by Rochester failed so of water for many miles together that in the midst of the Channel the smallest Vessels could not pass and the same day also in the Thames between the Tower and London Bridge men waded over on foot for the space of two days A great fire happened in London which consumed a long Tract of buildings from Westcheap to Aldgate and several other great Cities in England were likewise burnt down about this time In the thirteenth of this King many Prodigies were seen a Pig was farrowed with a face like a child a Chicken was hatched with four legs and the Sun was so deeply eclipsed that by reason of the darkness many Stars did plainly appear This King left behind him onely one daughter named Maud who could never come to be Queen though born to a Kingdom She was married at six years old to the Emperour Henry the Fourth and after his death she was again married to Fulk Duke of Anjou Yet her Father took much care to establish the Succession in her and her issue and therefore he called his Nobility together and among them David King of Scots and made them take their Oaths of Allegiance to her and her Heirs This he did three years one after another wherein nothing pleased him so much as that Stephen Earl of Blois was the first man that took the Oath because he was known to be or it was known at least that he might be a pretender to the Crown But the King should have considered that no Oath is binding when the getting a Kingdom is the price of breaking it and especially to Stephen who was so deeply interested Yet Providence could do no more and the King was well satisfied with it especially when he saw his daughter Mother of two Sons for this though it gave him no assurance yet it gave him assured hope to have the Crown perpetuated in his Posterity Yet after King Henry was dead Stephen ascends the Throne as being Earl of Bulleign Son to Stephen Earl of Beis by Adela daughter of King William the Conquerour and though there were two before him that is Maud the Empress and Theobald his elder Brother yet taking hold of opportunity while the other lingred about smaller Affairs he solicites all the Orders of the Realm Bishops and Lords and People to receive