was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
such a silent Resolution as look'd like a belief of conquering them without a stroke for he fought only one Battle with the Danes and no more wherein he press'd upon them with that inconsideration as shew'd that the apprehensions of future danger had made him altogether contemn the present the slaughter on their side being so great that he thinking it not worth the trouble to bury their Carcasses in several Graves caus'd them to be gather'd into congested heaps and by those dismal Monuments of their unhappy Courage left to Posterity so many Land-marks of a second Conquest That which made this Victory of his appear more serene like the Air after a Thunder storm was the sudden Calm which followed after it all those fierce Infidels being so wholly dispers'd and defeated that having nothing more to do relating to War he bethought himself of performing some notable Act of Peace And accordingly made a Pilgrimage to Rome where it appears how welcom he was by the magnificent Reception he had of Pope Leo the Fourth who not only entertain'd him a whole year upon his own Charge but anointed his darling Son Elfrid who accompanied him thither to the expectation of his Kingdom after him wherein whether his Holiness intended an Obligation to the Father in honouring the Son that was thought most like him and certainly most belov'd of him or whether it were that being his God-son he could not bestow upon him any cheaper Blessing then an Airy Title which yet seem'd to be a Prophetical Designation to the Crown or what other Cause mov'd him to prop up the old with setting up a young King is not known But in the Consequence it prov'd a fatal Complement to them both For Ethelbald the elder Brother apprehending that he was rejected being a Prince of a furious and vindictive Spirit attempted to do himself right by such an unnatural Wrong as never any Son offer'd to a Father before taking his exception from the most unreasonable and one would have thought the most frivolous Ground that could be imaginable For the Father having given the Complement of Majesty to his young Queen the fair Daughter of the Emperour Charles the Bald whom he had married in his return through France contrary as his Son urg'd to a Law made by the West-Sexe who after Bithrick was poyson'd by his Queen ordain'd that no English Queen ever after should be allow'd the Title place or Priviledge of Majesty he took that Occasion from the respect shew'd to his Mother in Law to justifie himself so far in his disrespect to his Father that without more ado he seiz'd the Crown and kept out both Father and Brother the People who are apt to adore the rising Sun declaring their readiness to stand by him as he by the Laws The shame and horror of whâ—ch unexpected Repulse broke the heart of the good old King who dying seem'd to bemoan more the loss of his Subjects duty then that of his own Honour But that blessing which Providence deny'd to himself it gave to his four Sons each of which was King after him and all of them this Ethelbald only excepted so eminently virtuous that however we cannot rank Ethelwolph amongst the Fortunate we may yet number him amongst the happy Princes of this Isle ETHELBALD date of accession 857 AS we may presume that the Impudence and Impiety of this graceless Usurper did sufficiently amaze the present so it remain'd as a Riddle to those of future Times who were left to seek how it could come to pass that so bad a Son could so easily supplant so good a Father And which was yet more the Father of his Country as well as his own For however it is evident that he took the first advantage of his weakness by the rigour of that petulant Law before mention'd which was no less unreasonable for the matter of it then himself appear'd to be by the Execution making the People believe that his Father who had broken a Fundamental Law intended also to violate their Fundamental Priviledges whereof no Nation in the World is more jealous then the English Yet had not this single Ingratitude of his been double edg'd it could never have pierc'd to the heart of so wise a Prince but the hatred to the Father being bottom'd upon a love to the Mother whose Beauty Pride and Lust had prepared the first temptation for his Youth and Power The good old King could not resist that double Injury there being so good an Understanding betwixt the two Serpents that they engendred whilst they were hissing at one another And which is yet more strange the Incestuous Parricide after he had possess'd the Bed as well as the Throne so blind is Passion out-did his Father as much in that very point of respect to her for which he undid him as he out-did aâ—l other men in point of Inhumanity allowing her not only the stile of Queen but designing to make her by the formal pomp of a solemn Coronation alike Partner with him in his Royalty as she was in his Luxury had not Death and the Danes happily parted them After which she was forc'd to return home and by the way fell it seems into the hands of Baldwyn the Forrester of Arden by whom being taken Prisoner he entred at the Breach he found already made and took the Pleasure of her Beauty as lawful Prize ETHELBERT date of accession 858 SO monstrously rebellious was Ethelbald against his Father that Providence vouchsafed him not the honour of being a Father himself So that dying Childless his second Brother Ethelbert became his Heir and Successor a Prince fitted by the Government of part for the Soveraignty of the whole who having happily rul'd the Kentish South and East-Saxons for five years together was admitted by common Consent as well as by particular Right to the honour of being Fourth absolute Monarch of England However his Government was much disturb'd before he could settle upon the Lees of his Power by the increasing rage of the Danes who landing at Southampton sack'd all the Country to the Walls of Winchester and having afterwards buried that Loyal old Town in its own Ashes came on as far as Berkshire with intent to visit London it self but being stopt by the united Forces of that Country they were compell'd to repay the price of their Cruelties to those they had before harassed falling under the Fury of Osrick Earl of Southampton whose People provok'd with the sense of their Sufferings forc'd in upon them and slew Osbeeck and Crans their Chief Leaders exposing the rest to all the miseries that usually befall a routed Enemy in a strange Country and so great was the slaughter of them that the very Fame of it incourag'd the Kentish men to turn head upon another Party that had bridled and was about to saddle them Some have doubted the Courage of this King for that they find him not personally ingag'd all this while not considering
Bowl once put besides its Byass goes the further from its Mark the more 't is inforced THE FIFTH DYNASTY OF NORMANS OF NORMANS THE Normans so call'd by the French in respect of the Northern Clime from whence they came heretofore call'd * Dionis Patav l. 8. c. 4. Scandia since Norwey were another Branch of the antient Cimbri seated near the frozen Sea whose Country being too barren to nourish so fruitful a People they disonerated their Multitudes wheresoever force could make way for them Some stragling as far as the Mediterranian others farther Southward some few lost in the Frozen Sea attempting the Desert Isles far Northward but most following the Sun infested their Southern Neighbours About the time of Charles the Great they began to grow very troublesome by their frequent Pyracies making several Inroads into England but especially into France pressing so hard upon Lewis the Holy that he was fain to empty all his frontier Garrisons and quitting the Maritime draw them into the interior and more considerable parts of his Empire as the Spirits are drawn to the heart upon all Commotions to preserve life Their Successes in Germany England Scotland and Holland having made them so bold that they doubted not to advance as far as Paris where after divers disputes with Charles the Bald Charles le Grosse and Charles the Simple which concluded with an honourable Composition they six'd their two Chiefs Hastang and Rollo in the most fertile and best parts of that goodly Country the first being made Earl of Charters the last Duke of Neustria from him call'd afterwards Normandy the seventh in descent from whom was Duke William better known to us here by the Name of The Conquerour who with like confidence and not unlike Injustice invaded England as his Ancestors did France pretending a Donation of the Soveraignty from his near Kinsman King Edward the Confessor confirm'd as he alledged by his last Will and Testament in the presence of most of the English Nobility a pretence that could have been of no validity had it not been back'd by more then humane Power to disinherit Edgar Atheling who as being of the whole English Blood was rather Heir to the Kingdom then to the King and so by no Law could have his Right collated to a Stranger but the use he made of it was to convince the World that he had more Reason not to say Right to demand than Harold to detain the Crown who having put Prince Edgar besides the Succession desied the Justice of all Mankind as he was an Usurper and so it was a design worthy his Sword who had so fortunately vanquish'd even before he wrote Man those great difficulties at home given by the Opposition of Domestick Rivals no less puissant and populous then Harold to put him at least out of Possession But that which seems strange and was questionless a great surprize upon Harold was the conjunction of the Peers of France in an Action that was so apparently hazardous to the greatness of their own State every addition to so near and dangerous a Neighbour grown long before too powerful being a kind of diminution unto them whereof there can be no probable Cause assign'd beyond their natural affectation of Glory and wantonness of Courage but that Influence which the Conquerors Father in Law Baldwin Earl of Flanders had by being then Governour of the King and Kingdom of France who not only ingaged most of the grtatest Persons there as the Duke of Orleance the Earls of Champaigne Blois Brittain Ponthieue Maine Nevers Poictiers Aumale and Anjou but drew in the * Henry IV. Emperour himself and many of the German Princes to side with him This Preparation being such as it was it cannot be thought that the English lost any honour by mingling blood with men of that Quality and Condition the sound of whose Names was perhaps little less terrible then that of their Arms much less takes it from the reputation of their Courage to have heâ—d up the dispute but for one day only having fought it out as they did till the number of the slain so far exceeded that of the living as made the Conqueror doubt there would not be enough left to be conquer'd Who knows not that Fate made way for the Normans where their Swords could not guiding them by a Series of Successes near about the same time to the expectation of an universal Empire having but a little before made themselves Lords of Apulia Calabria Scicily and Greece and inlarged their Conquests as far as Palestine But what we allow to the Courage we must take from the Wisdom of the English that being subdued they continued Nescia vinci vexing the Conqueror after they had submitted to him by such continual Revolts as suffered him not to sheath his Sword all his Reign or if he did urged him to continue still so suspicious of their Loyalty that he was sorc'd alway to keep his hand upon the hilt ready to draw it forth having not leisure to intend what was before established much less to establish what he before intended So that they put upon him a kind of necessity of being a Tyrant to make good his being a King Yet such was the moderation of his mind that he chose rather to bind them stricter to him by the old Laws then to gall them with any new guarding his Prerogative within that Cittadel of the Burrough Law as they call'd it from whence as often as they began to mutiny he batter'd them with their own Ordnance and so made them Parties to their own wrong and however some that design'd to pre-occupate the grace of Servitude gave him the ungrateful Title of Conqueror which he esteem'd the greatest misfortune his good Fortune had brought upon him thereby to proclaim his Power to be as boundless as his Will which they took to be above all Limitation or Contradiction yet we find he suffered himself to be so far conquer'd by them that instead of giving to he took the Law from them and contentedly bound himself up by those which they call'd St. Edward's Laws which being an Abbreviation of the great triple Code of Danique Merke and West-Sexe Laws was such a form of Combination as he himself could not desire to introduce a better and if any thing look'd like absolute 't was his disarming them when he found them thus Law-bound hand and foot After which he erected divers Fortresses where he thought fit dispos'd all Offices of Command and Judicature to such as he could best confide in and by that Law of Cover feu obliging them to the observation of better hours of Repose then they had formerly been us'd to gave himself more rest as well as them As for his putting the Law into a Language they understood not whereby they were made more learn'd or less litigious then they were before it was that the Lawyers only had cause to complain of whose practise at the first perhaps was a
Officers whom their places confirm'd that stuck close to him and serv'd him to the last by whose Assistance he not only recover'd Ireland reduced Wales and kept those of Scotland to their good behaviour but notwithstanding all the Troubles he had at home forc'd the Chief men of either Place to give him as the manner was in those dayes their Children to be pledges of their future Subjection by which may be guest how far he had gone in the Recovery of his Transmarime Dominions had not the cross-grain'd Barons stood it out as they did who refusing to aid or attend him until he was absolv'd by the Pope and after he was absolv'd stopt until he had ratified their Priviledges and after they had the Grant of their Priviledges declined him yet until they had back the Castles he had taken from them resolv'd it seems to have both Livery and Seisin of their ancient Rights but whilst they thus over-bent the Bow they made it weak and unserviceable the visible force us'd upon him in bringing him to that Concession unloosing the Deed and taking so much from the validity of so solemn an Act by the bare illegality of their Coertion that his new Friend the Pope to whom themselves forced him to reconcile himself thought it but a reasonable recompence of his Humility towards him to discharge him from all his Condiscentions towards them dispensing with his Oath by which all the Agreement was bound and by definitive Sentence declaring the whole Compact null which was confirm'd by the Excommunication of the Barons till they submitted to the Sentence Here the Scene chang'd again and now the Pope being ingag'd on the Kings side the French King on the Rebels behold the whole Kingdom in Arms but because there were so few to be trusted at home the King sends for Forces abroad whereof he had so great Supplies that had there not been which is almost incredible to relate no less then forty thousand Men Women and Children drown'd coming over Sea out of Flanders he had even eat his way out to a Conquest of his own People as universal but more miserable then that of the Norman for with those he had left he marched over most of the Kingdom in less then half a years space reduced all the Barons Castles to the very Borders of Scotland and made himself once more absolute Master of all the Cities of note London only excepted which in regard of their united Power being so desperate as they were he thought not safe to attack This Extremity of the Barons drew over the French King in person to their relief who making incredible speed to land at Sandwich as quickly became Master of all Kent Dover only excepted which never would yield through which marching up to London he was there received with such universal joy that several great Lords quitting King John came to render themselves to him In the mean time the Pope pursued him with an Excommunication to please King John who all this while acted the part of a General so well beyond that of a King that many who never obeyed him in Peace were content to follow him through the War It was near a year that this unhappy Kingdom continued thus the Theatre of Rapine and Cruelty enduring the oppression and horrour of two great Armies headed by two great Kings each chasing the other with alternate Successes through the most fertile parts of the Isle till it pleased Providence in Mercy to the innocent People to take off this Indomitable Prince whose heart long flaw'd with continual Crosses broke at last by the slight stroke of a small loss the miscarriage of some few of his Carriages which in passing the Washes betwixt Lynn and Boston were it seems overtaken by the Tyde a misfortune which though of no great Consideration yet falling out in such a juncture of time when the Indisposition of his Body added not a little to that of his Mind carried him out of the World with no less Violence then he forced into it who however born to make himself Enemies had yet perhaps been happy enough had not himself been the very greatest Enemy himself had Upon his Death the King was crown'd as his unfortunate Father and Uncle before him the second time being willing the World should know he was now arriv'd at a degree of understanding to rule by himself which occasion the jealous Barons took hold of to press again for the Confirmation of their Liberties the Denyal whereof had cost his Father so dear This put him to a pause and that discover'd his inclination though not his intent for by not denying he hop'd to be thought willing to grant and yet not granting he had the vanity to be thought not to yield But this cunctation of his which shew'd him to be his Fathers own Son plunged him into such a Gulf of mistrust before he was aware of it that it was nothing less then a Miracle he had not perish'd in it for as he could never get clear out of it all his Reign the longest that ever any King of England had so he was necessitated as all shifting men are that entertain little designes they are asham'd or afraid to own to make use from that time of such Ministers onely as in serving him would be sure to serve their own turns upon him which reduced him to that indigence that had he not found out a way to prey upon them as they upon the People he had undoubtedly perished as never King did being at one time come so near to Beggery that for want of Provisions at his own he was forc'd to invite himself shamefully to other mens Tables his Credâ—t being brought so low that he could not take up an hundred Marks and his Spirit so much lower that he told one that deny'd him that Sum that it was more Alms to give him then to a Begger that went from Door to Door A speech betraying so strange abjection that it takes off the wonder of those affronts put upon him afterwards when a weak Woman durst tax him to his face with breach of faith and honour and a pitiful Priest threaten him with being no King when a private Lord durst give him the Lie publickly and tell him he was no Christian and which is undecent to tell had it not been so well known one of his * Hubert de Bâ—ughâ— was charg'd to have said thus own servants call'd him Squint-ey'd Fool and Leaper The first great action he was ingaged in was the recovery of the Ground his Father lost in France into which he was drawn not so much out of affectation of Glory as by the Solicitation of his Father in Law Hugh Earl of March who having a quarrel with the Queen Dowager of France upon the accompt of some dispute that had pass'd between her and his Wife the Queen Dowager of England call'd in the King her Son to take advantage of the present discontent Divers of the
as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
which broke out like a Fire that being long smother'd was all in a Flame as soon almost as it was perceiv'd and however Fate for some time seem'd to make a Pause whether she should begin the Tragedy which she could not end turning the Storm another way by several Invasions from Scotland which held long enough to have diverted the virulent humour and let out blood enough to have cool'd all their heat allaying it so far that easie Intercessions prevail'd to keep them asunder for some years yet nothing could so stop the Course of Nature but that the monstrous Issue when it was come to its birth forc'd its way the Discontents that had been so long ripening even from the time of this Kings Great-grand-father breaking out like a Boyl surcharg'd with Anguish and Corruption which was no sooner emptied by the death of one but it was fill'd with Rancor and Envy by the Entertainment of New Favourites As Gaveston before so the two Spencers afterward the Farher and the Son took upon them to Monopolize his Grace and were thereupon generally charg'd with the odious design of bringing in an Arbitrary Government with imbezeling the Treasure of the Nation and doing several ill Offices betwixt the King and Queen maintaining their own by apparent wrong to the Estates of other Lords particularly of the Earls of Hereford and Mortimer out of whose hands it seems they had bought some Lands which lying convenient to their Estates was in the first place offered to them These though they were such Objections as relating but to particular Persons perhaps not without particular Reasons might be excus'd if not justified yet being heaped up together made a general grievance and the Earl of Lancaster the Bell-weather of Rebellion at that time thought it worthy the Barons taking up of Arms to punish them The King answer'd for them and undertook they should come and answer for themselves the Father he said was imployed by him beyond the Seas and the Son was guarding the Cinque Ports according to his Duty and therefore he thought it was against Law and Custome to condemn them unheard But nothing would satisfie their Accusers without a Declaration of Banishment and though the President was such as might as well affect themselves as their Posterity yet Hatred being no less blind then Love they preser'd their present Revenge before the Fears of a future inconvenience All differences being thus compos'd I cannot say calm'd an accidental affront given to the Queen by one that was over-wise in his Office put all again out of order beyond recovery A Castelan of the Lord Badlismers at Leeds denying her Majesty Lodging there as she was passing by in her Progress out of a Distrust she might possess her self of the Castle and keep it for the King she exasperated the King to that degree that he besieged the place took it and in it the politick Governour whom without legal Process he hang'd up presently and seizing all the Goods and Treasure of his Lord sent his Wife and Children to the Tower This was taken for so great a violation of the Liberty of the Subject that being done by the King himself nothing could determine the Right but the Sword and accordingly they met the second time in Arms where Fortune was pleas'd to confirm the Sentence given by the King by giving up into his hands many more considerable Lives then that for which they were hazarded amongst the rest was that of the Earl of Lancaster himself the first Prince of the Blood that ever was brought to the Block here in England and with him fourteen of the Principal Barons none of which were spar'd but forc'd to give up their Lives and Estates as a Reward to the Victors And not long after the Spencers were recall'd and re-stated who finding the publick Treasure wholly exhausted and a chargeable War yet continued with Scotland thought it but necessary to make such Retrenchments as might enable his Majesty to carry on that great Work wherein he had been so unlucky without oppressing the People amongst the rest they presum'd unfortunately to abridge the Queen lessening hers as they had done the Kings Houshold-Train by which Improvident Providence they so irritated her being a Woman of a proud vindictive Spirit that she privately complain'd thereof to the King of France her Brother who took that occasion to quarrel with the King about his Homage for Gascoigne and upon his Refusal possessed himself of several Pieces there and notwithstanding all that Edmond Earl of Kent could do whom his Brother the King sent over with sufficient Strength as 't was thought to repell him by force continued his Depredations there this bringing a Necessity that either the King must go over himself or the Queen the first to compel or the other being his beloved Sister to mediate with hâ—m for a Truce each equally inconvenient to the Spencers who thought not sit that the King should go in respect of the general and were as loath the Queen should in respect of her particular discontent They chose the least of the Evils as they judged and sent over her who having a great Stomach and but a small Train meditated more upon her own then her Husbands Vindication and accordingly put an end to the difference betwixt her Brother and him but on such terms as afterward made a wider difference betwixt him and her self The Conditions were these that Kâ—ng Edward should give to the Prince his Son the Dutchy of Acquitain and Earldom of Ponthein and send him over to do the King of France Homage for the same which was to excuse that Homage before demanded from himself and thus she pretended to have found out an expedient to save the honour of both Kings in allowing each his end But having by this sineness got her Son into her own power she gave her self so wholly up to her Revenge that she suffer'd her self to be led by a hand she saw not through the dark Paths of dangerous Intreagues managed by those who having other ends then hers did work beyond though under her Authority Principal in her Councel as being so in her Affections was young Mortimer a Servant fit for such a Mistress and such a Master as this Queen and her Husband who having escaped out of the Tower where he had been long a Prisoner and as he thought very injuriously in respect he render'd himself to Mercy before the great Battel with the Barons and by his Submission contributed much to the Kings gaining that Victory contriv'd with her how to set up the Prince and with him himself and because the Earl of Kent was upon the place they made it their first business to work off him to the Party Here began that fatal breach from whence the World concluded that this unhappy King having lost one half of himself could not long hold out before he lost the whole it not being reasonable to expect that his Subjects should be truer