THE HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF HENRY the SEVENTH HENRY the EIGHTH EDWARD the SIXTH AND QUEEN MARY The First Written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Viscount St. ALBAN The other Three by the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS GODWYN Lord Bishop of HEREFORD LONDON Printed by W. G. for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell and J. Edwyn M. D C. LXXVI To the most Illustrious and most Excellent PRINCE CHARLES Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester c. It may Please Your Highness IN part of my acknowledgment to Your Highness I have endeavoured to do Honour to the Memory of the last King of England that was Ancestour to the King your Father and Your self and was that King to whom both Unions may in a sort refer That of the Roses being in him Consummate and that of the Kingdoms by him begun Besides his times deserve it For he was a Wise Man and an Excellent King and yet the times were rough and full of Mutations and rare Accidents And it is with Times as it is with Ways Some are more Vp-hill and Down-hill and some are more Flat and Plain and the One is better for the Liver and the Other for the Writer I have not flattered him but took him to life as well as I could sitting so far off and having no better light It is true Your Highness hath a Living Pattern Incomparable of the King Your Father But it is not amiss for You also to see one of these Ancient Pieces GOD preserve Your Highness Your Highness most humble and devoted Servant FRANCIS St. Alban AN INDEX ALPHABETICAL Directing to the most Observable Passages in the ensuing HISTORY A. AN Accident in it self trivial great in effect Pag. 108 Advice desired from the Parliament 33 35 56 Aemulation of the English to the French with the reasons of it 36 Affability of the King to the City of London 113 Affection of King Henry to the King of Spain 61 Affection of the King to his Children 136 Aid desired by the Duke of Britain 33 Aid sent to Britain 37 Aiders of Rebels punished 23 Alms-deeds of the King 131 Ambassadors to the Pope 24 into Scotland 25 Ambassadors from the French King 26 Ambassadors in danger in France 31 Ambassadors into France 54 Ambition exorbitant in Sir William Stanley 78 Answer of the Archduke to the King's Ambassadors 74 Appeach of Sir William Stanley 76 Arms of King Henry still victorious 133 Arrows of the 〈◊〉 the length of them 96 Articles between the King and the Archduke 91 Arthur Prince married to the Lady Katherine 116 Arthur Prince dies at Ludlow 117 Aton Castle in Scotland taken by the Earl of Surrey 98 Attainted persons in Parliament excepted against 8 Attaindor and corruption of Blood reacheth not to the Crown ibid. 15 Avarice of King Henry 134 Audley General of the Corhish Rebels 93 B. BAnishment of 〈◊〉 our of the Kingdom 74 Battel at Bosworth-field 1 at Stokefield 〈◊〉 at St. Albans in Britain 87 at Bannocksbourn in Scotland 〈◊〉 at Black-heath 〈◊〉 Behaviour of King Henry towards 〈◊〉 Children 117 Benevolence to the King for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence who the first Author ibid Benevolence 〈◊〉 by Act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence revived by Act of 〈◊〉 ibid A Benevolence 〈◊〉 to the King 23 Birth of Henry the 〈◊〉 35 Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the King 〈◊〉 Blood not unrevenged 112 122 Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 Three causes of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ibid. Britain united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Marriage 〈◊〉 Brakenbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murder King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broughton Sir 〈◊〉 joyned with the Rebels 11 A Bull procured from the Pope by the King for what causes 24 Bulloign besieged by King Henry 63 C. CArdinal Morton dieth 113 Capell Sir William fined 80 131 Cap of Maintenace from the Pope 101 Ceremony of Marriage new in these parts 48 Chancery power and description of that Court 38 Clifford Sir Robert flies to Perkin 70 revolts to the King 72 Clergy priviledges abridged 39 Christendom enlarged 61 Columbus Christopher and Bartholomeus invite the King to a discovery of the West Indies 107 Confiscation aimed at by the King 76 Conference between King Henry and the King of Castile by casualty landing at Weymouth 128 Conquest the Title unpleasing to the People declined by William the Conqu 3 and by the King 5 〈◊〉 for Perkin 70 Contraction of Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine 118 Conditional speech doth not qualifie words of Treason 77 Commissioners into Ireland 79 Commissioners about Trading 91 Coronation of King Henry 7 Coronation of the Queen 24 Counsel the benefit of good 25 Counsel of what sort the French King used 32 Counsel of mean men what and how different from that of Nobles ibid. Lord Cordes envy to England 48 Cottagers but housed Beggars 44 Counterfeits Lambert proclaimed in Ireland 15 Crowned at Dublin 19 taken at Battell 22 put into the King's Kitchin ibid. made the King's Faulconer ibid. Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin Wilford another counterfeit Earl of Warwick 111 Courage of the English when 37 Court what Pleas belong to every Court 38 Court of Star-chamber confirmed ibid. Creations 6 Crown confirmed to King Henry by Parliament 7 Cursing of the King's Enemies at Paul's Cross a custom of those times 72 122 D. DAm a Town in Flanders taken by a slight 59 Lord Daubeny 96 Devices at Prince Arthur's Marriage 117 Device of the King to divert Envy 64 Decay of Trade doth punish Merchants 90 Decay of People how it comes to pass 44 Declaration by Perkin to the Scottish King 85 Desires intemperate of Sir William Stanley 78 Dighton a murderer of King Edward's two Children 71 Dilemma a pleasant one of Bishop Morton 58 Diligence of the King to heap Treasures 120 Displacing of no Counsellors nor Servants in all King Henry's Reign save of one 138 Dissimulation of the French King 29 30 49 Dissimulation of King Henry in pretending War 56 A Doubt long kept open and diversly determined according to the diversity of the times 117 Dowry of Lady Katherine how much 116 Dowry of Lady Margaret into Scotland how much 119 Drapery maintained how 45 Dudley one of the King's Herse-leeches 119 Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin E. EArl of Suffolk flies into Flanders 121 returns 129 Earl of Northumberland slain by the People in collecting the Subsidy somewhat harshly 40 Earl of Warwick executed 111 Earl of Warwick counterfeit 13 110 Earl of Surrey enters Scotland 98 Edmund a third Son born to King Henry but died 109 Edward the Fifth murdered 85 Envy towards the King unquenchable the cause of it 111 Envy of the Lord Cordes to England 48 Enterview between the King and the King of Castile 128 Emblem 94 Empson one of the King's Horse-leeches 119 Errours of the French King in his business for the Kingdom of Naples 82 Errours of King Henry occasioning his many troubles 128 〈◊〉 service 92 Espials in
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
yet stood stoutly to it But the main Battel where the King was consisting of choice men and better armed against our shot was not so easily defeated For the Scots although they being inclosed as it were in a toyl were forced to fight in a ring made most desperate resistance and that without doubt so much the rather because they not only heard their King encouraging them but saw him also manfully fighting in the foremost Ranks until having received wound upon wound he fell down dead They say there fell with him the Archbishop of St. Andrews his natural Son two other Bishops two Abbots twelve Earls seventeen Barons and of common Souldiers eight thousand The number of the Captives is thought to have been as many They lost all their Ordnance and almost all their Ensigns insomuch that the Victory was to be esteemed a very great one but that it was somewhat bloody to us in the loss of fifteen hundred This Field was fought the ninth of September near Flodon-Hill upon a rising Bank called Piperdi not far from Bramston I am not ignorant that the Scottish Writers constantly affirm the King was not slain in the field but having saved himself by flight was afterwards killed by his own people and that the Body which was brought into England was not the King 's but of one Alexander Elfinston a young Gentleman resembling the King both in visage and stature whom the King that he might delude those that pursued him and might as with his own presence animate them that fought elsewhere had caused with all tokens of Royalty to be armed and apparrelled like himself But to let pass the great number of Nobility whose carcases found about him sufficiently testifie that they guarded their true King and consequently that the counterfeit fought else-where It is manifest that his Body was known by many of the Captives who certainly affirmed that it could be no other than the King 's although by the multitude of wounds it were much defaced For his Neck was opened to the midst with a wide wound his left Hand almost cut off in two places did scarce hang to his Arm and the Archers had shot him in many parts of his body Thus was James the Fourth King of Scots taken away in the flower of his youth who truly in regard of his Princely Virtues deserved a longer life For he had a quick wit and a majestical countenance he was of a great spirit courteous mild liberal and so merciful that it was observed he was often forced against his will to punish offendors These virtues endeared him to his People in his life time and made them so much lament the loss of him being dead that as all Historians report they seemed to have lost only him in the whole succession of their Kings which sufficiently argues the improbability of the Subjects pretended Parricide But he had not fallen into this misery if he would have hearkned to the advice of those who perswaded him to have returned home before the Fight contented with what he had already performed in the Expedition that he should not upon so weak forces hazard the estate of his Kingdom he had won glory-enough and abundantly fulfilled his Friends request But the French Agent and some of the King's Mignons corrupted by the French urging to the contrary this haughty Prince even otherwise very desirous to give proof of his valour was easily perswaded to await our great Forces already marching His Body if at least that were his and not Elfinston's being enclosed in Lead and brought into England was by our King's I will not say cruel but certainly inhumane command cast in some by-corner or other without due Funeral Rites saying that It was a due punishment for one who had perjurously broken his League whereas if we examine the premisses we shall find he wanted not probale pretexts for what he undertook ANNO DOM. 1514. REG. 6. THE next year having begun his course Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey he who had been victorious over the Scots was created Duke of Norfolk the title and dignity of his Ancestors John his Father deriving his pedigree from Thomas de Brotherton Son to King Edward the First the Segraves and the Mowbrays who had been all Dukes of Norfolk enjoyed this Honour by right of Inheritance But because in Bosworth-Field where here he was flain he took part with the Usurper both he and his Posterity were deprived of that Honour This Thomas dying in the year 1524 his Son of the same name succeeded him who deceased in the year 1554. His Son Henry a young Lord of great hopes his Father then living was beheaded towards the end of this King's Reign He left Issue Thomas the last Duke of Norfolk who also lost his Head the year 1572 and Henry at nurse when his Father dyed a very learned and wise man whom King James no good man repining thereat created Earl of Northampton Thomas Duke of Norfolk had three Sons that survived him Philip Thomas and William Philip Earl of Surrey and by his Mother of Arundel condemned the year 1589 and after dying in prison left Issue Thomas then a little one who by King James his favour succeeded his Father in his Honours His Uncle Thomas out of the same fountain of Royal Goodness was created Earl of Suffolk with addition of the dignity of Lord Chamberlain Beside these this Family hath Charles Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral of England Nephew by the Lord William his Father to Thomas Duke of Norfolk that famous Triumpher over the Scots This is he who in emulation of his Grandfather's glory in the year 1588 under the fortune of Queen Elizabeth most happily overthrew that vainly called Invincible Armada of Spain Thomas also Viscount Bindon is derived from Thomas Duke of Norfolk by his Son the Lord Thomas So this noble House lately afflicted now gloriously flourishing hath four Earls and a Viscount all brave and famous men and of whom there will be occasion of much to be spoken hereafter I therefore thought it good in brief to set down their Genealogy lest I should trouble the Reader with too often repetition of their Race upon each mention of the Name At the time of this Duke's creation others were also honored with new Titles Charles Brandon made Duke of Suffolk and Charles Somerset Earl of Worcester and Edward Stanley Lord Mountegle Sir William Brandon Standard-bearer to Henry the Seventh in Bosworth-Field and there slain by the hand of Richard the Third was Father to this new Duke of Suffolk of whose Education he then a little one King Henry having obtained the Crown was very careful and made him rather a Companion than a Servant to the young Prince of whose houshold he was The Prince so greatly favoured him partly for his Father's deserts chiefly for his own that he being afterward King created him Viscount Lisle and intending at least many were so persuaded to give him to Wife the
devotion He therefore resolved to endeavour the Advancement of Wolsey to the Chair from whom he promised to himself a success answerable to his desires Henry therefore sends away speedy Posts to Gardiner with with ample instructions in the behalf of Wolsey willing him to work the Cardinals some with promises others with gifts some with threats others with perswasions and to omit no means that might be any way available But this was to build Castles in the Air. The messenger had scarce set forth when report that had made Clement dead had again revived him ANNO DOM. 1527. REG. 19. THe sixth of May Rome was taken and sacked by the Imperials under the conduct of the Duke of Bourbon who was himself slain in the assault marching in the head of his Troops The Pope Cardinals Ambassadors of Princes and other Nobles hardly escaping into the Castle of St. Angelo were there for some days besieged At length despairing of succours and victuals failing the Pope for fear he should fall into the hands of the Lansquenets for the most part seasoned with Luther's Doctrine and therefore passionate enemies to the See of Rome agreeth with the Prince of Auranges after the death of the Duke of Bourbon chosen General by the Army yielding himself and the Cardinals to him who kept them close Prisoners in the Castle Rome was now subject to all kind of cruelty and insolencies usual to a conquered City intended for destruction Beside Slaughter Spoil Rapes Ruine the Pope and Cardinals were the sport and mockery of the licentious multitude Henry pretended much grief at this news but was inwardly glad that such an occasion was offered whereby he might oblige Clement in all likelihood as he had just cause offended with the Emperour for this so insolent and harsh proceeding Whereupon he dispatcheth Wolsey into France who should intimate to the King his perpetual Ally what a scandal it was to all Christendom that the Head of it should be oppressed with Captivity a thing which did more especially concern Francis his affairs The Cardinal set forth from London about the beginning of July accompanied with nine hundred Horse among which were many Nobles the Archbishop of Dublin the Bishop of London the Earl of Derby the Lords Sands Montegle and Harendon besides many Knights and Gentlemen Wolsey found the French King at Amiens where it is agreed that at the common charge of both Princes War shall be maintained in Italy to set the Pope at liberty and to restore him to the possessions of the Church Henry contributing for his part thirty thousand Pounds sterling a month Upon the return of the Cardinal Francis sent into England Montmorency Lord Steward and Mareschal of France for the confirmation of this League and to invest the King with the Order of St. Michael He arrived in England about the middle of October accompanied with John Bellay Bishop of Bayeux afterward Cardinal the Lord of Brion and among others Martin Bellay the Writer of the French History who in this manner describes the passages of this Embassage Montmorency arriving at Dover was honourably received by many Bishops and Gentlemen sent by the King who brought him to London where he was met by twelve hundred Horse who conducted him to his lodging in the Bishop of London's Palace Two days after he went by water to Greenwich four miles beneath London where the King oft resideth There he was very sumptuously entertained by the King and the Cardinal of York Having had Audience the Cardinal having often accompanied him at London and Greenwich brought him to a house which he had built a little before ten miles above London seated upon the banks of Thames called Hampton Court. The Cardinal gave it afterward to the King and it is this day one of the King 's chiefest houses The Ambassador with all his Attendants was there feasted by him four or five days together The Chambers had hangings of wonderful value and every place did glitter with innumerable vessels of Gold and Silver There were two hundred and fourscore Beds the furniture to most of them being Silk and all for the entertainment of Strangers only Returning to London we were on St. Martin's day invited by the King to Greenwich to a Banquet the most sumptuous that ever I beheld whether you consider the Dishes or the Masques and Plays wherein the Lady Mary the King's Daughter acted a part To conclude the King and Montmorency having taken the Sacrament together the King for himself Montmorency in the behalf of Francis swore the observation of the League The King bestowed great gifts on every one and dismissed Montmorency who left the Bishop of Bayeux Leiger for his King to endeavour the continuance of the amity begun between these Princes Shortly after were sent into France Sir Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort and Sir Anthony Brown Knight who together with John Clerre Bishop of Bath and Wells Leiger in France should take the French King's Oath not to violate the late League in any part and to present him with the Order of the Garter We had now made France ours Nothing remained but to let the Emperour know the effects of the late Confederacy To this end Sir Francis Pointz and 〈◊〉 King at Arms are dispatched away to the Emperour to demand the molety of the booty gotten in the Battel of Pavy and the Duke of Orleans one of the French King's Sons left Hostage for his Father to be delivered to Henry who had born a share in the charges of that War and therefore expected to partake in the gains To command him to draw his Army out of Italy and not to disturb the peace of Christendom by molesting Christ's Vicar This if he refused to do neither was there expectation of any thing else they should forthwith defie him They execute their Commission and perceiving nothing to be obtained Clarencieux and a certain French Herald being admitted to the Emperour's presence do in the names of both King 's proclaim War against him Charles accepts it chearfully But the Ambassadors of France Venice and Florence craving leave to depart are committed to safe custody until it be known what is become of his Ambassadors with these Estates The report hereof flies into England and withal that Sir Francis Pointz and Clarencieux were committed with the rest Whereupon the Emperour's Ambassador is detained until the truth be known as it shortly was by the safe return of them both But Sir Francis Pointz about the beginning of the next Summer died suddenly in the Court being infected with the Sweating Sickness The same happening to divers other Courtiers and the infection spreading it self over London the Term was adjourned and the King fain to keep a running Court But these were the accidents of the ensuing year ANNO DOM. 1528. REG. 20. POpe Clement was of himself naturally slow but his own ends made him beyond the infirmity of his nature protract time in this cause concerning the
partakers in this Tumult finding it confirmed by the King with promise moreover that he would have a care that these things whereof they complained should be redressed they laying aside their Arms peaceably repaired each one to his home They in the heat of this their fury had for six weeks straitly besieged Scarborough-Castle then kept by Sir Ralph Evers of the noble Family of Evers who without any other Garrison than of his Houshold-servants and Tenants and so slenderly victualled that for twenty days together they sustained themselves with Bread and Water manfully defended it against their furious attempts and kept it until the Commotion was appeased For which brave service the King made him Leader of the Forces appointed for the defence of the Marches towards Scotland which he with great credit performed until he was in the year of our Lord 1545 unfortunately slain Neither was the Estate of Ireland more peaceable than of England Girald Fitg-Girald Earl of Kildare having been twelve years Lord Deputy of Ireland was for some slight matters removed called into England and condemned to death which punishment he through the malice of Wolsey had undergone had not friendship shewed its effects in the Lieutenant of the Tower to whose custody the Earl was committed He having received a Mandate for the execution of the Earl durst hazard the displeasure of the potent Cardinal to save his friend Wherefore he repairs to the King at midnight desirous to know his Majesty's pleasure concerning the Earl who not only disapproved the Mandate but also pardoning the Earl received him into his favour and a few years after restored him to his former dignity of Lord Deputy But these garboils happening in England he is for as slight suspitions as before revoked and commanded to attend at the Council-Table where by his answers he appeared not altogether so innocent but that he was again committed to the Tower Before his departure out of Ireland the King had commanded him to substitute some one in his place for whose faith and diligence he would undertake He had a Son named Thomas little above twenty years old a haughty and stout young Lord very ingenious and exceedingly affecting his Father To this Son as to another Phaeton he commits the guidance of his Chariot Sed quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nec tam puerilibus annis which indeed proved fatal to them both and to almost the whole Family For no sooner was the Earl imprisoned but report raised as is conjectured by his enemies beheaded him threatning the like to his Off-spring and Brethren whose destruction the King had most certainly resolved The author of this report was uncertain and the young Lord as rashly credulous who taking Arms solicited the aid of his friends against the King's injustice He had then five Uncles Brethren to his Father three of which at first disswaded him from these violent proceedings But passion had excluded reason and they at length associate themselves with their Nephew with whom they were involved in the same ruine Many others flocking unto him he had suddenly raised a great Army wherewith marching up and down the Countrey he robbed and killed them who refused to obey him And among the rest he permitted the Archbishop of Dublin to be murthered in his sight The poor Earl already afflicted with a Palsie was so stricken to the heart with the news of this Tumult that he but a few days survived the knowledge of his unhappiness The King levying great Forces quickly curbed the unruly Youth and after some months forced him to yield His Uncles were either taken or willingly submitted themselves All of them were sent to London and there brought to their answer There goes a Story that those three Uncles who endeavoured to restrain their headstrong Nephew did half presume on the King's clemency until in the passage demanding of the Master the name of the Ship wherein they sailed and understanding it was called The Cow bethinking themselves of a certain Prophecy That five Sons of an Earl should in the belly of a Cow be carried into England never to return they forthwith despaired of pardon The event approved the skill of the Wizard For some enemies to this noble Family incensing the King by suggesting that he should never expect to settle Ireland as long as any of the race of the Fitz-Giralds remained easily prevailed with the King for their Execution In regard whereof I cannot blame Girald the Brother of Thomas who trusting not to the weak plea of his innocence then sick of the Measles as he was sought by making an escape to set himself out of the reach of malice Being therefore packed up in a bundle of clothes he was privately conveyed to one of his Friends with whom he lurked until he found an opportunity of escaping into France where he was for a time favourably received by the King But long he could not be there secure the Agents of Henry pressing hard That by the League all Fugitives were to be delivered wherefore he went thence into the Netherlands where finding himself in no less danger than before he fled into Italy to Reignald Pool who maintained and used him very nobly and at length procured him to be restored to his Countrey and the Honors of his Ancestors The mention of Pool falls fit with our time he being this year on the two and twentieth of December by Pope Paul the Fourth chosen into the Colledge of Cardinals He was near of blood to the King who first bestowed Learning on him and afterward finding his modesty and excellent disposition conferred on him the Deanry of Exceter But travelling afterwards to forein Universities he was in Italy quickly bewitched with the Sorceries of the Circe of Rome insomuch that he became a deadly enemy to his Fosterer his Prince his Kinsman For when he would neither allow of the Divorce from the Lady Catharine nor the abrogating of the Authority of the Pope and openly condemned other the King's proceedings in Ecclesiastical affairs refusing also to obey the King who commanded him home Henry disposed of his Deanry and withdrew the large stipend which he had yearly allowed him The Pope therefore intending to make use of this man as an Engin of battery against the King and being induced by the commendations of Cardinal Contaren bestowed on him a Cardinal's Hat and was thereby assured of him who had of late been suspected to have been seasoned with the Leaven of purer Doctrine But of that hereafter ANNO DOM. 1537. REG. 29. THe accidents of this year were Tragical and England the Scene of blood and deaths of many famous Personages On the third of February was Thomas Fitz-Girald beheaded for Treason his five Uncles hanged drawn and quartered and their members fixed over the Gates of London The same month Nicholas Musgrave and Thomas Gilby for that stirring a new Rebellion they had besieged Carlile were executed The tenth of March
was John Paslew Batchelor of Divinity and Abbot of Whalley put to death at Lancaster and with him one Eastgate a Monk of the same place and three days after them another Monk called Haydock was hanged at Whalley The Abbots of Sauley and Woburn with two Monks make the like end at Woburn And a little after one Doctor Macarell another Abbot the Vicar of Louth two other Priests and seven Lay-men All these for as much as I can any way collect were condemned for having been especial furtherers of the late Rebellions But the Chiestains and nobler sort were reserved until June at what time the Lords Darcy and Hussey were beheaded the one at Lincoln the other at London Sir Robert Constable Sir Thomas Percy Sir Francis Bigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir John Bulmer were likewise put to death Margaret Lady to Sir John Bulmer was burned at London William Thurst Abbot of Fountaines Adam Sudbury Abbot of Gervaux the Abbot of Rivers Wold Prior of Birlington George Lumley Nicholas Tempest Esquires and Robert Aske with many others as having been partakers in the late Insurrection did likewise partake in punishment for the same And for a Commotion in Somersetshire in April were threescore condemned whereof only fourteen suffered But lest any one may wonder at these severe and unheard of courses taken against the Clergy I think it not amiss to relate what Sleidan writes of Cardinal Pool who set forth one or two Books which as yet lurking at Rome about this time were spred abroad in Germany and came at length to the King's hands Wherein directing his stile to the King he sharply reprehendeth him for taking upon him the title of Head of the Church which only belonged to the Pope who is Christ's Vicar on earth c. Then he proceeds to the matter of his Divorce alledging That he neither out of terrour of conscience nor fear of God as he pretended but out of lust and blind love had forsaken the Lady Catharine his Wife whom his Brother Prince Arthur a weak young man and but fourteen years old had left a Virgin That it was not lawful for him to marry Ann Bolen whose Sister he had before used as his Concubine And that he himself had confessed to the Emperour and others That he found the Lady Catharine a Maid He also eagerly reproveth him for seeking the Opinions of the Universities concerning his former Marriage and triumphing in his own wickedness when some of them had pronounced it Incestuous and that he might be ashamed to prefer the Daughter of a Whore before one that was legitimate and a most Virtuous Princess Then speaking of the death of the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More he detests his cruelty He then rips up what tyranny he had exercised over his Subjects of all degrees in what miseries he had plunged this flourishing Realm what dangers he incurred from the Emperour in regard of the injury offered to his Aunt and the overthrow of Religion and that he could not expect any aid either from his own or forein Nations who had deserved so ill of the Christian Commonwealth After this he whets on the Emperour to revenge the dishonour of his Family affirming that Turcism meaning the Protestant Religion had found entertainment in England and Germany And after many bitter reproofs he invites Henry to repentance perswading him That for these evils there was no other remedy but to return to the bosom of the Church in the defence whereof a most glorious example he had made use not only of his Sword but his Pen also Neither did the Cardinal only by Book but by other personal endeavours manifest his spleen against the King being sent Ambassador from the Pope to the French under colour of reconciling him with the Emperour but his chief errant was to combine them both against Henry Whereof he having intelligence did by his Agent earnestly solicit Francis That in regard of their mutual amity he would cause Pool to be apprehended as guilty of high Treason and sent to him where he should undergo the punishment due therefore But because Religion and the Law of Nations had been violated in betraying any especially the Pope's Ambassador the French could not yield to the King's request But to shew that he would administer no cause of offence he refused to admit of his Embassy and commanded him speedily to depart out of his Dominions Hercules stature might be guessed at by the proportion of his and by this one man's endeavours Henry was taught what if need were he was to expect of his Clergy So that he was easily induced as any of them offended to send him to his grave for that a dead Lion biteth not And this course being taken with his professed enemies the fear of the like punishment would secure him of the rest On the twelfth of October the Queen having long suffered the throws of a most difficult travel and such a one wherein either the Mother or the Infant must necessarily perish out of her womb was ripped Prince Edward who after succeeded his Father in the Crown The Queen only surviving two days died on the fourteenth of October and on the twelfth of November was with great pomp buried at Windsor in the middle of the Quire on whose Tomb is inscribed this Epitaph Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phaenices nulla tulisse duas Here a Phenix lieth whose death To another Phenix gave breath It is to be lamented much The World at once ne'r knew two such On the eighteenth of October the Infant was created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Earl of Chester and with him his Uncle Edward Seymour Brother to the deceased Queen Lord Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford which Honours only and not those afterwards conferred on him he left to his posterity William Fitz-Williams Lord Admiral was made Earl of Southampton Then also William Powlet and John Russel began their races in the lists of Honour Powlet being made Treasurer and Russel Comptroller of the King's Houshold and both sworn of the Privy Council Neither was here their non ultra the one being afterward raised to Lord Treasurer of England and Marquess of Winchester the other to Earl of Bedford wherein he dying in the year 1554 his Son Francis that pious old man and liberal reliever of the Poor succeeded him who at the very instant of his death lost his Son Francis slain by a Scot Anno 1587. Which Francis was Father to Edward Earl of Bedford and Brother to William by King James created Lord Russel Powlet living to be a very decrepit old man had to his Successor his Nephew by his Son William named also William the sole Marquess of England And to end this year with death as it began Thomas Howard youngest Son to the Duke of Norfolk having been fifteen months imprisoned for affiancing himself without the King's consent to Margaret Daughter to Archibald Douglas
of a Battel entertaining him with skirmishes relieves the besieged and without any more ado under the covert of the night retreats Let us now conclude the year at home And to begin with the Church In February the people by Proclamation is licensed to eat White Meats in Lent but under a great penalty enjoyned to abstain from Flesh. The third of June Morogh O Brien a Nobleman of Ireland descended from the Kings of Limrick submitted himself to the King and was shortly after made Earl of Twomond which Honour his posterity at this day enjoyeth having given ample proof of their Loyalty to succeeding Princes The twelfth of July the King married his sixth Wife the Lady Catharin Parr Widow to the Lord Latimer and Sister of William Parr lately created Earl of Essex in the right of his Wife sole Daughter and heir to the late Earl Henry Bourchier At what time another of the same name Uncle to the Queen and the Earl was created Lord Parr and Chamberlain to the Queen The eight and twentieth of July for the Profession of their Faith were Anthony Parsons Robert Testwood and Henry Filmer Burned at London Marbeck was also condemned but afterward pardoned ANNO DOM. 1544. REG. 36. THe Lord Thomas Audley Chancellour of England deceasing the last of April the Lord Wriothsley chief Secretary of Estate is designed his Successour And the Earl of Hertford made Lieutenant of the North is sent thither with an Army to repress the incursions of the Scots The Viscount Lisle Admiral of England with a Navy of two hundred Sail entred the Forth of Scotland landed ten thousand men forced the rich Town of Leith and then marched toward Edenburg the Metropolis of the Kingdom The Regent was there with the Cardinal at whose dispose he now wholly was and many other Nobles guarded with six thousand Horse and a great number of Foot who upon sight of an invading Army betook themselves to flight and left the City void of defendants The Provost craving parley offered to yield the City upon condition of departure with Bag and Baggage and saving the Town from Fire But the breach of League and insolencies of the Inhabitants of Leith and Edenburg had inspired us with Revenge so that no Conditions were to be admitted but what the Victor should impose This drives the Provost to a desperate resolution of defence The English give a furious Assault enter at the Canigate put the Inhabitants to the sword pillage and fire it The like calamity felt the Countrey round about fire and sword cruelly feeding upon Villages Castles and Noblemens Houses Leith had hitherto been reprieved from the like misery but at our return to the Navy it is made its own Funeral pile and the Peer of the Haven utterly consumed New employments call home our Admiral Henry resolves once more to transport his Arms into France there to join with the Earls of Reux and Bures Imperial Commanders It was agreed between the Emperour and the King that the one should invade Champaigne the other Picardy and having united their Forces which should amount to fourscore thousand Foot and eighteen thousand Horse to march directly to Paris thereby either to force the French to fight with disadvantage or to suffer the ruin of his Countrey Henry lands at Calais and finds Picardy unfurnished of men Francis having withdrawn his Forces towards Champaigne to oppose them against the Emperour He therefore sends the Duke of Norfolk with the Earls of Reux and Bures to besiege Montrueil The Marshal of Biez seeing which way we turned the point of our Army being commanded by his King to have an especial care of that Territory puts himself into Montrueil and left the Lord of Vervein his Son-in-Law a man of small experience to command in Bouloign This opportunity invites Henry to encamp before Boloign a Town near to Calais and many ways commodious He causeth the Duke of Norfolk now in danger to be surprised by the French Army to arise from before Montrueil and omitting his intended Voyage to Paris frustrated by the Emperour's Peace with the French to enter into which Henry was invited by the Cardinal Bellay Raymond President of Rouen and Aubespine Secretary of Estate sent of purpose he investeth Boloign The Duke of Suffolk had first encamped upon a Hill on the East of Boloign from whence he after made his approaches into the Valley and the King encamping on the North shut up the Town on all sides The first assault is given on the Suburbs or Base Town which the French under the covert of a made smoak had forsaken They pretend it to have been purposely fired as unprofitable and the fire quenched by our industry Next the Tower of the Ordre called by us the Old-man defended by twenty Souldiers is yielded and the Town continually battered in four places whereof the most forcible was the Battery from the Hill on the East side which beat down the Steeple of our Ladies Church rent the houses and scoured the streets of the Town The breach made by the Cannon being not sufficient they fall to mining which happily succeeding they blow up a great part of the Wall We give a furious assault and are repulsed with loss yet did this assault carry the Town that brave Captain Philip Corse being slain in it whose valour alone had hitherto preserved it Vervein upon the loss of this man at his wits end sounds the intention of the King and yields him the Town upon composition That the Souldiers and Citizens might depart with their Baggage and that all the Artillery Munition and Victuals whereof there was great store should remain to the King The Inhabitants refuse this bad composition and the Mayor with the Townsmen offer to keep the Town Which had they accordingly undertaken Boloign in all probability had continued French For the Capitulation was no sooner concluded Hostages not yet given but a horrible Tempest of Wind and Rain overthrows our Tents and the soil being fat and slippery we should not have had any means to mount to an assault Moreover the Daulphin was on march with great Forces for their succour whose approach would have forced Henry to have changed his design But Vervein professing that he would keep touch even with his Enemy continued constant in his promise for which he soon lost his Head on a Scaffold at Paris The four and twentieth of September the City was delivered to the Duke of Suffolk and the French departed to the number of threescore and seven Horse a thousand five hundred threescore and three able Foot and a thousand nine hundred twenty and seven Women and Children many of the infirmer sort not able to depart staying behind The next day the King entred triumphantly and caused our Ladies Church to be demolished and in place thereof a Fortification to be raised and having ordered his affairs to his mind making the Viscount Lisle Governour set sail for Dover where he
malignant disease was most merciful in its execution peradventure within twelve did sweat out their Souls Women children and old men it for the most part over-passed and wreaked it self on the robustious youth and well compact middle age who if in the beginning of their sickness did but slumber perished instantly If it seised on any that were full gorged the recovery was in a manner desperate Nay and of others whatsoever they were scarce one of a hundred escaped until time had found out a remedy the manner whereof was thus If any be taken in the day time he must without shifting of his apparel betake himself to bed If by night and in bed let him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence until twenty four hours be run In the mean let the coverture be such that it provoke not sweat but that it may gently distil of it self if it be possible for him so long to forbear let him not eat nor drink more than may moderately serve to extinguish thirst But above all let him so patiently endure hear that he uncover not any part of his body no not so much as a hand or a foot The strangeness of this disease I do not so much admire for that Pliny in his twenty sixth Book the first Chapter witnesseth and daily experience teacheth us that every Age produceth new and Epidemical diseases But that which surpasseth the search of humane reason is this that this Pestilence afflicted the English in what part of the World soever without touching the Natives but in England alone This dire contagion promiscuously impoverisht the Land of people of all sorts among those of especial note were Henry Duke of Suffolk and his Brother who were the Sons of Charles Brandon the King's Cousins germane young Gentlemen of great and lively hopes by the death of Henry the Duchy was for some few hours devolved to the younger Brother who had the unhappy honour but to be seised of the Title and die The Lord Gray Marquis of Dorset having married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon in the right of his Wife made claim to the Duchy and was on the eleventh of October invested in it At what time also John Dudley Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland William Fowlet Earl of Wiltshire Marquis of Winchester and Sir William Herbert Lord Cardif Master of the Horse Earl of Pembroke The masculine Line of Dudley and Gray hath been long since extinct Of the Family of the Powlets we have spoken already The Lord Herbert Brother-in-Law to Queen Catharine Parr derived himself from William Herbert in the time of Edward the Fourth Earl of Pembroke and was 〈◊〉 in the Earldom by his Son Henry Father to william the modern Earl whose mature wisdom and gravity even in his greener years long since ranked him in the sage 〈◊〉 of the Privy Council to two successive Kings and to Philip by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 Then also were knighted Sir John 〈◊〉 the King's Schoolmaster Sir Henry Dudley Sir Henry Novill and whom I cannot mention but with due honour Sir William Cecill Cecill I say who then Secretary of Estate was afterward by all Europe held in admiration for his wisdom whom Queen Elizabeth made Lord Treasurer of England and Baron of Burleigh and was whilest he lived a second prop of this Estate who on the fourth of August 1598 piously ended his long but for the publick weals sake ever restless life leaving two Sons Thomas by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 and Robert out of the same Fountain of Royal Goodness 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Lord Treasurer of England And now the ill cemented affections of the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland dissolved into open enmity In the prosecution whereof Somerset otherwise of a most mild disposition but Patience abused oft runneth into the extreme of Fury provoked by continual injuries resolved as some write to murther Northumberland To this end but under colour of a visit privily armed and well attended by Seconds who awaited him in an outer Chamber he comes to his Adversary at that time by reason of some indisposition of Body keeping his Chamber hath access unto him naked as he was in his Bed but is so courteously entertained and with such smooth language that the Duke of Somerset good man repenting himself of his Bloody Resolutions would not Execute what he purposely came for At his departure one of his Conspirators is reported to have asked him Whether he had done the Feat and upon his denial to have added Then you are undone This his intent being by his own Party bewrayed a second Accusation is engrossed against him The matter is reforred to the Council Table and he on the sixteenth of October again committed to the Tower together with the Duchess his Wife the Lord Gray of wilton Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Falmer Sir William Partridge Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundelt and many other of his Friends On the first of December the Marquis of Winchester being sot that day High Steward he is Arraigned for Treason against the Estate which he had not only ill but treacherously managed and for Conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland Of Treason he cleared himself and his Peers acquitted him For the Conspiracy he was by his own Confession condemned and that by virtue of a Law Enacted 3 Hen. 7. which made the very Intent nay Imagination of Killing a Privy Counsellour punishable by Death But howsoever the Law Enacted as some conceive upon somewhat differing intents and meaning were extended to the highest of its rigour yet can I not but wonder how a man so great in the regards of his Reigning Nephew of his Honours of the Popular Favour should be so destitute of Learned Advice as not to exempt himself from a Felonious Death by his Clergy But such were the Times such his Misfortunes in the minority of his Prince from whose revengeful Hand how could the adverse Faction presume themselves secure in the future Neither could they choose but be somewhat terrified with that Ecchoing Testimony of the Peoples Joy who seeing that fatal Virge the Ax usually marshalling Traytors to the Bar laid aside upon his freedom from the guilt of Treason from Westminster Hall certified that part of the City by their loud festival Acclamations of the gladsom tidings of their Favourite's conceived Absolution And these peradventure might be causes that his Execution was deferred Hitherto had the Estate patiently endured the obstinate Opposition of some Bishops in point of Reformation who for their Non-conformity are at length deprived and others substituted in their Bishopricks Of some of them we have occasionally already spoken whose Censures notwithstanding fall in with this Year Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was deprived the fourteenth of February Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester on the tenth of October Tonstall of Duresm on the twentieth of December committed to the Tower and Boner of London on the first of
refrain the Business for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an Idol But contrariwise he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true because the false being sure to fall away of himself and the true to be made sure of by the King it might open and pave a fair and prepared way to his own Title With this Resolution he sayled secretly into Flanders where was a little before arrived the Lord Lovel leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir Thomas Broughton a man of great Power and Dependencies in Lancashire For before this time when the pretended Plantagenet was first received in Ireland secret Messengers had been also sent to the Lady Margaret advertising her what was passed in Ireland imploring Succours in an Enterprize as they said so pious and just and that God had so miraculously prospered the beginning thereof and making offer that all things should be guided by her will and direction as the Sovereign Patroness and Protectress of the Enterprize Margaret was second Sister to King Edward the Fourth and had been second Wife to Charles sirnamed the Hardy Duke of Burgundy by whom having no Children of her own she did with singular care and tenderness intend the Education of Philip and Margaret Grand-children to her former Husband which won her great Love and Authority among the Dutch This Princess having the Spirit of a Man and Malice of a Woman abounding in Treasure by the greatness of her Dower and her provident Government and being childless and without any nearer Care made it her Design and Enterprize to see the Majesty Royal of England once again re-placed in her House and had set up King Henry as a Mark at whose Overthrow all her Actions should aim and shoot in-so-much as all the Counsels of his succeeding Troubles came chiefly out of that Quiver And she bare such a mortal Hatred to the House of Lancaster and personally to the King as she was no ways mollified by the Conjunction of the Houses in her Neeces Marriage but rather hated her Neece as the means of the King's ascent to the Crown and assurance therein Wherefore with great violence of affection she embraced this Overture And upon Counsel taken with the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Lovel and some other of the Party it was resolved with all speed the two Lords assisted with a Regiment of two thousand Almains being choice and veterane Bands under the Command of Martin Swart a valiant and experimented Captain should pass over into Ireland to the new King Hoping that when the Action should have the face of a received and setled Regality with such a second Person as the Earl of Lincoln and the Conjunction and Reputation of Forein Succors the Fame of it would embolden and prepare all the Party of the Confederates and Male-contents within the Realm of England to give them Assistance when they should come over there And for the Person of the Counterfeit it was agreed that if all things succeeded well he should be put down and the true Plantagenet received Wherein nevertheless the Earl of Lincoln had his particular hopes After they were come into Ireland and that the Party took courage by seeing themselves together in a Body they grew very confident of success conceiving and discoursing amongst themselves that they went in upon far better Cards to overthrow King Henry than King Henry had to overthrow King Richard And that if there were not a Sword drawn against them in Ireland it was a sign the Swords in England would be soon sheathed or beaten down And first for a Bravery upon this accession of Power they Crowned their new King in the in the Cathedral Church of Dublin who formerly had been but Proclaimed only and then sate in Council what should further be done At which Council though it were propounded by some that it were the best way to Establish themselves first in Ireland and to make that the Seat of the War and to draw King Henry thither in Person by whose absence they thought there would be great Alterations and Commotions in England yet because the Kingdom there was poor and they should not be able to keep their Army together nor pay their German Soldiers and for that also the sway of the Irish-men and generally of the Men-of-War which as in such cases of popular Tumults is usual did in effect govern their Leaders was eager and in affection to make their Fortunes upon England It was concluded with all possible speed to transport their Forces into England The King in the mean time who at the first when he heard what was done in Ireland though it troubled him yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter the Irish as a Flight of Birds and rattle away this Swarm of Bees with their King when he heard afterwards that the Earl of Lincoln was embarqued in the Action and that the Lady Margaret was declared for it he apprehended the danger in a true Degree as it was and saw plainly that his Kingdom must again be put to the Stake and that he must fight for it And first he did conceive before he understood of the Earl of Lincoln's sayling into Ireland out of Flanders that he should be assailed both upon the East-parts of the Kingdom of England by some impression from Flanders and upon the Northwest out of Ireland And therefore having ordered Musters to be made in both Parts and having provisionally designed two Generals Jasper Earl of Bedford and John Earl of Oxford meaning himself also to go in person where the Affairs should most require it and nevertheless not expecting any actual Invasion at that time the Winter being far on he took his journey himself towards Suffolk and Norfolk for the confirming of those parts And being come to St. Edmonds-bury he understood that Thomas Marquess Dorset who had been one of the Pledges in France was hastning towards him to purge himself of some Accusations which had been made against him But the King though he kept an Ear for him yet was the time so doubtful that he sent the Earl of Oxford to meet him and forthwith to carry him to the Tower with a fair Message nevertheless that he should bear that disgrace with patience for that the King meant not his hurt but only to preserve him from doing hurt either to the King's service or to himself and that the King should always be able when he had cleared himself to make him reparation From St. Edmonds-bury he went to Norwich where he kept his Christmas And from thence he went in a manner of Pilgrimage to Walsingham where he visited our Ladies Church famous for Miracles and made his Prayers and Vows for help and deliverance And from thence he returned by Cambridge to London Not long after the Rebels with their King under the Leading of the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare the Lord Lovel and Colonel Swart landed at Fouldrey in
but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this
that knew themselves guilty in the Pale fled to them So that Sir Edward Poynings was enforced to make a Wild-Chase upon the Wild-Irish Where in respect of the Mountains and Fastnesses he did little good Which either out of a suspicious Melancholy upon his bad Success or the better to save his service from Disgrace he would needs impute unto the Comfort that the Rebels should receive under-hand from the Earl of Kildare every light suspition growing upon the Earl in respect of the Kildare that was in the Action of Lambert Simnel and slain at Stoke-field Wherefore he caused the Earl to be apprehended and sent into England where upon Examination he cleared himself so well as he was re-placed in his Government But Poynings the better to make compensation of the Meagerness of his Service in the Wars by acts of Peace called a Parliament where was made that memorable Act which 〈◊〉 this day is called Poynings Law whereby all the Statutes of England were made to be of force in Ireland For before they were not neither are any now in force in Ireland which were made in England since that time which was the tenth year of the King About this time began to be discovered in the King that disposition which afterward nourished and whet-on by bad Counsellors and Ministers proved the Blot of his times which was the course he took to crush Treasure out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures upon Penal Laws At this men did startle the more at this time because it appeared plainly to be in the King's Nature and not out of his Necessity he being now in Float for Treasure For that he had newly received the Peace-money from France the Benevolence-money from his Subjects and great Casualties upon the Confiscations of the Lord Chamberlain and divers others The first noted Case of this kind was that of Sir William Capel Alderman of London Who upon sundry Penal Laws was condemned in the summ of seven and twenty hundred Pounds and compounded with the King for sixteen hundred And yet after Empson would have cut another Chop out of him if the King had not died in the instant The Summer following the King to comfort his Mother whom he did always tenderly love and revere and to make Demonstration to the World that the proceedings against Sir William Stanley which was imposed upon him by necessity of State had not in any degree diminished the affection he bare to Thomas his Brother went in Progress to Latham to make merry with his Mother and the Earl and lay there divers days During this Progress Perkin Warbeck finding that time and temporizing which whilest his practices were covert and wrought well in England made for him did now when they were discovered and defeated rather make against him for that when matters once go down the Hill they stay not without a new force resolved to try his adventure in some exploit upon England hoping still upon the affections of the Common People towards the House of York Which body of Common People he thought was not to be practised upon as persons of Quality are But that they only practice upon their affections was to set up a Standard in the field The Place where he should make his Attempt he chose to be the Coast of Kent The King by this time was grown to such an height of Reputation for cunning and Policy that every Accident and Event that went well was laid and imputed to his foresight as if he had set it before As in this particular of Perkin's Design upon Kent For the world would not believe afterwards but the King having secret Intelligence of Perkin's intention for Kent the better to draw it on went of purpose into the North a-far-off laying an open side unto Perkin to make him come to the close and so to trip up his heels having made sure in Kent before-hand But so it was that Perkin had gathered together a Power of all Nations neither in number not in the hardiness and courage of the Persons contemptible but in their nature and fortunes to be feared as well of Friends as Enemies being Bankrupts and many of them Felons and such as lived by Rapine These he put to Sea and arrived upon the Coast of Sandwich and Deal in Kent about July There he cast Anchor and to prove the affections of the People sent some of his men to land making great boast of the Power that was to follow The Kentish-men perceiving that Perkin was not followed by any English of name or account and that his forces consisted but of strangers born and most of them base People and Free-booters fitter to spoil a Coast than to recover a Kingdom resorting unto the principal Gentlemen of the Countrey professed their loyalty to the King and desired to be directed and commanded for the best of the King's service The Gentlemen entring into Consultation directed some forces in good number to shew themselves upon the Coast and some of them to make signs to entice Perkin's Soldiers to land as if they would joyn with them and some others to appear from some other places and to make semblance as if they fled from them the better to encourage them to land But Perkin who by playing the Prince or else taught by Secretary Frion had learned thus much That People under Command do use to consult and after to march in order and Rebels contrariwise run upon an Head together in confusion considering the delay of time and observing their orderly and not tumultuary Arming doubted the worst And therefore the wily Youth would not set one foot out of his Ship till he might see things were sure Wherefore the King's Forces perceiving that they could draw on no more than those that were formerly landed set upon them and cut them in pieces ere they could flie back to their Ships In which Skirmish besides those that fled and were slain there were taken about an hundred and fifty persons Which for that the King thought that to punish a few for example was Gentleman's play but for Rascal-People they were to be cut off every man especially in the beginning of an Enterprize and likewise for that he saw that Perkin's Forces would now consist chiefly of such Rabble and scum of desperate people he therefore hanged them all for the greater terrour They were brought to London all rail'd in Ropes like a Team of Horses in a Cart and were executed some of them at London and Wapping and the rest at divers places upon the Sea-Coast of Kent Sussex and Norfolk for Sea-marks or Light-houses to teach Perkin's People to avoid the Coast. The King being advertised of the landing of the Rebels thought to leave his Progress But being certified the next day that they were partly defeated and partly fled he continued his Progress and sent Sir Richard Guilford into Kent in message Who calling the Countrey together did much commend from the King their fidelity manhood and well
of Days for payment of Moneys and some other Particulars of the Frontiers And it was indeed but a wooing Ambassage with good respects to entertain the King in good affection but nothing was done or handled to the derogation of the King 's late Treaty with the Italians But during the time that the Cornish-men were in their march towards London the King of Scotland well advertised of all that passed and knowing himself sure of War from England whensoever those Stirs were appeased neglected not his opportunity But thinking the King had his hands full entred the Frontiers of England again with an Army and besieged the Castle of Norham in Person with part of his Forces sending the rest to forrage the Countrey But Fox Bishop of Duresm a wise man and one that could see through the Present to the Future doubting as much before had caused his Castle of Norham to be strongly fortified and furnished with all kind of Munition And had manned it likewise with a very great number of tall Soldiers more than for the proportion of the Castle reckoning rather upon a sharp Assault than a long Siege And for the Countrey likewise he had caused the people withdraw their Cattel and Goods into Fact Places that were not of easie approach and sent in post to the Earl of Surrey who was not far off in Yorkshire to come in diligence to the Succour So as the Scottish King both failed of doing good upon the Castle and his men had but a catching Harvest of their Spoils And when he understood that the Earl of Surrey was coming on with great Forces he returned back into Scotland The Earl finding the Castle freed and the Enemy retired pursued with all 〈◊〉 into Scotland hoping to have overtaken the Scottish King and to have given him Battel But not attaining him in time sate down before the Castle of Aton one of the strongest places then esteemed between Berwick and Edenburgh which in a small time he took And soon after the Scottish King retiring further into his Countrey and the weather being extraordinary foul and stormy the Earl returned into England So that the Expeditions on both parts were in effect but a Castle taken and a Castle distressed not answerable to the puissance of the Forces nor to the heat of the Quarrel nor to the greatness of the Expectation Amongst these Troubles both Civil and External came into England from Spain Peter Hialas some call him Elias surely he was the fore runner of the good Hap that we enjoy at this day For his Ambassage set the Truce between England and Scotland the Truce drew on the Peace the Peace the Marriage and the Marriage the Union of the Kingdoms a man of great Wisdom and as those times were not unlearned sent from Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain unto the King to treat a Marriage between Catherine their second Daughter and Prince Arthur This Treaty was by him set in a very good way and almost brought to perfection But it so fell out by the way that upon some Conference which he had with the King touching this business the King who had a great dexterity in getting suddenly into the bosom of Ambassadors of forein Princes if he liked the men Insomuch as he would many times communicate with them of his own affairs yea and employ them in his service fell into speech and discourse incidently concerning the ending the Debates and differences with Scotland For the King naturally did not love the barren Wars with Scotland though he made his profit of the Noise of them And he wanted not in the Council of Scotland those that would advise their King to meet him at the half-way and to give over the War with England pretending to be good Patriots but indeed favouring the affairs of the King Only his heart was too great to begin with Scotland for the motion of Peace On the other side he had met with an Allie of Ferdinando of Arragon as fit for his turn as could be For after that King Ferdinando had upon assured confidence of the Marriage to succeed taken upon him the person of a Fraternal Allie to the King he would not let in a Spanish gravity to counsel the King in his own affairs And the King on his part not being wanting to himself but making use of every man's humours made his advantage of this in such things as he thought either not decent or not pleasant to proceed from himself putting them off as done by the Counsel of Ferdinando Wherefore he was content that Hialas as in a matter moved and advised from Hialas himself should go into Scotland to treat of a Concord between the two Kings Hialas took it upon him and coming to the Scottish King after he had with much Art brought King James to hearken to the more safe and quiet Counsels wrote unto the King that he hoped that Peace would with no great difficulty cement and close if he would send some wise and temperate Counsellor of his own that might treat of the Conditions Whereupon the King directed Bishop Fox who at that time was at his Castle of Norham to confer with Hialas and they both to treat with some Commissioners deputed from the Scottish King The Commissioners on both sides met But after much dispute upon the Articles and Conditions of Peace propounded upon either part they could not conclude a Peace The chief Impediments thereof was the demand of the King to have Perkin delivered into his hands as a reproach to all Kings and a person not protected by the Law of Nations The King of Scotland on the other side peremptorily denied so to do saying That he for his part was no competent Judge of Perkin's Title But that he had received him as a Suppliant protected him as a person fled for Refuge espoused him with his Kinswoman and aided him with his Arms upon the belief that he was a Prince And therefore that he could not now with his Honour so unrip and in a sort put a Lye upon all that he had said and done before as to deliver him up to his Enemies The Bishop likewise who had certain proud instructions from the King at the least in the Front though there were a pliant clause at the Foot that remitted all to the Bishop's discretion and required him by no means to break off in ill terms after that he had failed to obtain the delivery of Perkin did move a second point of his Instructions which was that the Scottish King would give the King an Enterview in Person at Newcastle But this being reported to the Scottish King his answer was That he meant to treat a Peace and not to go a begging for it The Bishop also according to another Article of his Instructions demanded Restitution of the Spoils taken by the Scottish or Damages for the same But the Scottish Commissioners answered That that was but as Water spilt upon the ground which could not be
to hold or imprison began to stir For deceiving his Keepers he took him to his heels and made speed to the Sea-coasts But presently all Corners were laid for him and such diligent pursuit and search made as he was fain to turn back and get him to the house of Bethleem called the Priory of Shyne which had the priviledge of a Sanctuary and put himself into the hands of the Prior of that Monastery The Prior was thought an Holy Man and much reverenced in those days He came to the King and besought the King for Perkin's life only leaving him otherwise to the Kings discretion Many about the King were again more hot than ever to have the King take him forth and hang him But the King that had an high stomach and could not hate any that he despised bid Take him forth and set the Knave in the stocks And so promising the Prior his life he caused him to be brought forth And within two or three days after upon a 〈◊〉 fold set up in the Palace-Court at Westminster he was 〈◊〉 and set in the Stocks for the whole day And the next 〈◊〉 after the like was done by him at the Cross in Cheapside 〈◊〉 in both places he read his Confession of which we made 〈◊〉 before and was from Cheapside conveyed and laid up 〈◊〉 the Tower Notwithstanding all this the King was as 〈◊〉 partly touched before grown to be such a Partner with 〈◊〉 as no body could tell what Actions the one and what 〈◊〉 other owned For it was believed generally that Perkin was betrayed and that this Escape was not without the King's privity who had him all the time of his Flight in a Line and that the King did this to pick a Quarrel to him to put him to death and to be rid of him at once But this is not probable For that the same Instruments who observed him in his Flight might have kept him from getting into Sanctuary But it was ordained that this Winding-Ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true Tree it self For Perkin after he had been a while in the Tower began to insinuate himself into the favour and kindness of his Keepers Servants to the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir John Digby being four in number Strangways Blewet Astwood and Long-Roger These Varlets with mountains of promises he sought to corrupt to obtain his Escape But knowing well that his own Fortunes were made so contemptible as he could feed no man's Hopes and by Hopes he must work for Rewards he had none he had contrived with himself a vast and tragical Plot which was to draw into his Company Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick then Prisoner in the Tower whom the weary life of a long Imprisonment and the often and renewing Fears of being put to Death had softned to take any impression of counsel for his Liberty This young Prince he thought these Servants would look upon though not upon himself And therefore after that by some Message by one or two of them he had tasted of the Earl's consent it was agreed that these four should murder their Master the Lieutenant secretly in the night and make their best of such Money and portable Goods of his as they should find ready at hand and get the Keys of the Tower and presently let forth Perkin and the Earl But this Conspiracy was revealed in time before it could be executed And in this again the Opinion of the King 's great Wisdom did surcharge him with a sinister Fame that Perkin was but his Bait to entrap the Earl of Warwick And in the very instant while this Conspiracy was in working as if that also had been the King's industry it was fatal that there should break forth a counterfeit Earl of Warwick a Cordwainer's Son whose name was Ralph Wilford a young man taught and set on by an Augustin Frier called Patrick They both from the parts of Suffolk came forwards into Kent where they did not only privily and underhand give out that this Wilford was the true Earl of Warwick but also the Frier finding some light Credence in the People took the boldness in the Pulpit to declare as much and to incite the People to come in to his ayd Whereupon they were both presently 〈◊〉 and the young fellow executed and the Frier condemned 〈◊〉 perpetual Imprisonment This also hapning so opportunely to 〈◊〉 the danger to the King's Estate from the Earl of Warwick and thereby to colour the King's severity that followed together 〈◊〉 the madness of the Frier so vainly and desperately to divulge a Treason before it had gotten any manner of strength and the saving of the Frier's life which nevertheless was indeed but the priviledge of his Order and the Pity in the common People which if it run in a strong Stream doth ever cast up Scandal and Envy made it generally rather talked than believed that all was but the King's device But howsoever it were hereupon Perkin that had offended against Grace now the third time was at the last proceeded with and by Commissioners of Oyer and Determiner arraigned at Westminster upon divers Treasons committed and perpetrated after his coming on land within this Kingdom for so the Judges advised for that he was a Poreiner and condemned and a few days after executed at Tyburn Where he did again openly read his Confession and take it upon his Death to be true This was the end of this little Cockatrice of a King that was able to destroy those that did not espy him first It was one of the longest Plays of that kind that hath been in memory and might perhaps have had another end if he had not met with a King both wise stout and fortunate As for Perkin's three Counsellors they had registred themselves Sanctuary-men when their Master did And whether upon Pardon obtained or continuance within the Priviledge they came not to be proceeded with There was executed with Perkin the Mayor of Cork and his Son who had been principal Abettors of his Treasons And soon after were likewise condemned eight other Persons about the TowerConspiracy whereof four were the Lieutenant's men But of those eight but two were executed And immediately after was arraigned before the Earl of Oxford then for the time High-Steward of England the poor Prince the Earl of Warwick not for the Attempt to escape simply for that was not acted And besides the Imprisonment not being for Treason the Escape by Law could not be Treason but for conspiring with Perkin to raise sedition and to destroy the King And the Earl confessing the Indictment had Judgment and was shortly after beheaded on Tower-hill This was also the end not only of this Noble and Commiserable person Edward the Earl of Warwick eldest Son to the Duke of Clarence but likewise of the Line-Male of the Plantagenets which had flourished in great Royalty and Renown from the time of the famous King of England King Henry the Second Howbeit
that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand Marks And to shew further the Kings extreme Diligence I do remember to have seen long since a Book of Accompt of Empson's that had the King's hand almost to every Leaf by way of Signing and was in some places Postilled in the Margin with the King's hand likewise where was this Remembrance Item Received of such a one five Marks for the Pardon to be procured and if the Pardon do not pass the Money to be re-paid except the party be some other-ways satisfied And over against this Memorandum of the King 's own hand Otherwise satisfied Which I do the rather mention because it shews in the King a Nearness but yet with a kind of Justness So these little Sands and Grains of Gold and Silver as it seemeth helped not a little to make up the great Heap and Bank But mean while to keep the King awake the Earl of Suffolk having been too gay at Prince Arthur's Marriage and sunk himself deep in Debt had yet once more a mind to be a Knight-Errant and to seek Adventures in Forein parts And taking his Brother with him fled again into Flanders That no doubt which gave him Confidence was the great Murmur of the People against the King's Government And being a Man of a light and rash Spirit he thought every Vapour would be a Tempest Neither wanted he some Party within the Kingdom For the Murmur of People awakes the Discontents of Nobles and again that calleth up commonly some Head of Sedition The King resorting to his wonted and tryed Arts caused Sir Robert Curson Captain of the Castle at Hammes being at that time beyond Sea and therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King to flie from his Charge and to feign himself a servant of the Earl's This Knight having insinuated himself into the Secrets of the Earl and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had either Hope or Hold advertised the King thereof in great secrecy But nevertheless maintained his own Credit and inward trust with the Earl Upon whose Advertisements the King attached William Courtney Earl of Devonshire his Brother-in-Law married to the Lady Katherine Daughter to King Edward the Fourth William de la Pole Brother to the Earl of Suffolk Sir James Tirrel and Sir John Windham and some other meaner Persons and committed them to Custody George Lord Abergaveny and Sir Thomas Green were at the same time apprehended but as upon less Suspition so in a freer Restraint and were soon after delivered The Earl of Devonshire being interessed in the blood of York that was rather Feared than Nocent yet as One that might be the Object of others Plots and Designs remained Prisoner in the Tower during the King's life William de la Pole was also long restrained though not so straitly But for Sir James Tirrel against whom the Blood of the Innocent Princes Edward the Fifth and his Brother did still cry from under the Altar and Sir John Windham and the other meaner ones they were attainted and executed the two Knights beheaded Nevertheless to confirm the Credit of Curson who belike had not yet done all his Feats of Activity there was published at Paul's Cross about the time of the said Executions the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Curse against the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson and some others by name and likewise in general against all the Abettors of the said Earl Wherein it must be confessed that Heaven was made too much to bow to Earth and Religion to Policy But soon after Curson when he saw time returned into England and withal into wonted Favour with the King but worse Fame with the People Upon whose return the Earl was much dismayed and seeing himself destitute of hopes the Lady Margaret also by tract of Time and bad Success being now becom cool in those attempts after some wandering in France and Germany and certain little Projects no better than Squibs of an Exiled man being tired out retired again into the Protection of the Arch-Duke Philip in Flanders who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile in the right of Joan his Wife This year being the Nineteenth of his Reign the King called his Parliament Wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the King took himself to be with his Parliament when Dudley that was so hateful was made Speaker of the House of Commons In this Parliament there were not made any Statutes memorable touching publick Government But those that were had still the Stamp of the King's Wisdom and Policy There was a Statute made for the disannulling of all Patents of Lease or Grant to such as came not upon lawful Summons to serve the King in his Wars against the Enemies or Rebels or that should depart without the King's licence With an exception of certain Persons of the Long-robe Providing nevertheless That they should have the King's Wages from their House till their return home again There had been the like made before for Offices and by this Statute it was extended to Lands But a man may easily see by many Statutes made in this King's time that the King thought it safest to assist Martial Law by Law of Parliament Another Statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of Manufactures of Silk wrought by it self or mixt with any other Thred But it was not of Stuffs of whole piece for that the Realm had of them no Manufacture in use at that time but of Knit-Silk or Texture of Silk as Ribands Laces Cawls Points and Girdles c. which the people of England could then well skill to make This Law pointed at a true Principle That where forein materials are but Superfluities forein Manufactures should be prohibited For that will either banish the Superfluity or gain the Manufacture There was a Law also of Resumption of Patents of Gaols and the Reannexing of them to the Sherifwicks Priviledged Officers being no less an Interruption of Justice than Priviledged Places There was likewise a Law to restrain the By-laws or Ordinances of Corporations which many times were against the Prerogative of the King the Common-law of the Realm and the Liberty of the Subject being Fraternities in Evil. It was therefore Provided that they should not be put in Execution without the Allowance of the Chancellor Treasurer and the two Chief-Justices or three of them or of the two Justices of Circuit where the Corporation was Another Law was in effect to bring in the Silver of the Realm to the Mint in making all clipped minished or impaired Coins of Silver not to be currant in payments without giving any Remedy of weight but with an exception only of a reasonable wearing which was as nothing in respect of the incertainty and so upon the matter to set the Mint on work and give way to New Coins of Silver which should be then minted There likewise was a long Statute against Vagabonds wherein two things
to him would not be disagreeable to riper years nay prove perhaps a great pleasure Until that time came he should enjoy the present and not by hearkning to others needless persuasions any way interrupt the course of that felicity which the largeness of his Dominions would easily afford him He should hawk and hunt and as much as him list use honest Recreations If so be he did at any time desire suddenly to become an Old man by intermedling with Old mens Cares he should not want those meaning himself that would in the evening in one or two words relate unto him the effect of a whole days Consultation This speech hitting so pat with the King's humour made Wolsey so powerful that whereas the King before favoured him as much as any other he only was now in favour with and next the King with whom there was nothing to be done but by him For he was the man that was made choice of who like another Mercury should pass between this our Jove and the Senate of the lesser Gods offering their petitions to him and to them returning his pleasure therein Wherefore he was even at the first sworn of the Privy Council and besides the late collation of Tournay upon the death of Smith he was also made Bishop of Lincoln In the government of which Church he had not fully spent six months before he was translated from Lincoln to the Archbishoprick of York then vacant by the death of Cardinal Bambridge at Rome Shortly after that I may at once shew all his Honours William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury leaving the place he was by the King made Lord Chancellor of England and by the Pope Legate à latere Yet he stayed not there but as if the Archbishoprick of York and the Chancellorship of England had not been sufficient to maintain the port of a Cardinal besides many other Livings he procured of the King the Abbey of St. Albans and the Bishoprick of Bath and Wells And not content with these leaving Bath and Wells he addeth the Bishoprick of Durham to that of York and then leaving Durham seizeth on Winchester at that time of greatest revenue of any Bishoprick in England You now see Wolsey in his height rich his Prince's Favourite and from the bottom raised to the top of Fortunes Wheel What became of him afterward you shall know hereafter ANNO DOM. 1515. REG. 7. THe League lately made with Lewis the French King was confirmed by Francis his Successor and published by Proclamation in London the ninth day of April ANNO DOM. 1516. REG. 8. BUt the French King having taken into his protection the young King of Scots sent John Stuart Duke of Albany into Scotland to be Governour both of the King's Person and Kingdom The first thing this Duke undertook was either to put to death or banish those whom he any way suspected to favour the English Insomuch that the Queen Dowager who by this time was married to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus forced to save her self by flight came into England to her Brother with whom she stayed at London a whole year the Earl her Husband after a month or two without leave returning into Scotland King Henry being displeased at these French practices deals underhand with the Emperour Maximilian with whom the French then contended for the Duchy of Milan and lends him a great summ of Money whereby he might hire the Suisses to aid him in the expelling the French out of Italy But the Emperour although he had levied a sufficient Army returned home without doing any thing He was indeed accounted a wise Prince but unhappy in the managing of his Affairs whether it were that Fortune waiwardly opposed him or that he was naturally slow in the execution of his well-plotted Designs But shortly after he intends a second tryal of his Fortune Wherefore by his Ambassador the Cardinal of Suisserland he yet borrows more Money of the King which was delivered to certain Merchants of Genoa to be by a set day paid to the Emperour in Italy But they whether corrupted by the French or not of sufficient ability to make return deceived him and so his second designs vanished also into air I do not think it was the King's fault although we might justly suspect that the great Treasure left him by his Father being almost spent and the French secretly offering Peace upon good terms the friendship between him and the Emperour which he had so dearly purchased began at length to grow cold Certainly to speak nothing of the League which was afterwards concluded with France the Treasury was now grown so bare that the King was driven to invent new ways for the raising of Money The care of this business as almost of all others was committed to Cardinal Wolsey who casting up the Exchequer-Accompts found many deeply indebted to the King and whether by the negligence or treachery of the Officers never yet called to account Among others the Duke of Suffolk was found to be a great debtor who besides his own Revenues received yearly out of France his Wives Joincture amounting to sixty thousand Crowns Yet notwithstanding he was fain to withdraw himself from Court that by living thriftily in the Countrey he might have wherewith to pay this debt The Cardinal next bethinks himself of publick Misdemeanors of what sort soever as Perjury Rapes Oppression of the Poor Riots and the like the Offendors without respect of degree or persons he either publickly punished in Body or set round Fines on their heads By which means the Treasury before empty was replenished and the Cardinal by the people much applauded for his Justice These things having thus succeeded to his mind he undertakes more in the same kind He institutes a new Court where the Lords of the Privy Council with other of the Nobility should sit as Judges The aforesaid Crimes which then greatly reigned in this Kingdom and were punishable in this Court which as I conjecture from the Stars painted in the roof is called the Star-Chamber He erected also the Court of Requests where the complaints of the Poor were to be heard and ordained many other things in the Civil government of the Kingdom that were acceptable to the People and are in use at this day wherein he alike manifested his wisdom and love of his Countrey Certainly they that lived in that Age would not stick to say That this Kingdom never flourished more than when Wolsey did to whose Wisdom they attributed the Wealth and Safety that they enjoyed and the due Administration of Justice to all without exception ANNO DOM. 1517. REG. 9. THe Spring growing on the fear of a Commotion in London increased with the year The original and success whereof I will lay open at large forasmuch as Enormities of this nature by our wholesom Laws severely restrained are so rare that I remember when I was a child old men would reckon their Age from this day by the name
not knowing what course to run And this is thought to be the cause of his so extraordinary liberality toward the French The King being then in progress and hunting at Waltham it happened that Stephen Gardiner Principal Secretary of Estate after Bishop of Winton and Fox the King's Almoner after Bishop of Hereford were billeted in the house of a Gentleman named Cressey who had sent his two Sons to be brought up at Cambridge under the tutelage of Thomas Cranmer Doctor in Divinity a man both very learned and virtuous The Plague then spreading it self in Cambridge Cranmer with his two Pupils betook himself to Mr. Cressey their Father his house Where Gardiner and Fox among other table-talk discoursing of the King's Suit concerning his Divorce which had so many years depended in the Court of Rome undecided Cranmer said that he wondred the King required not the opinions of the most famous learned men that were any where to be found of whom the world had many far more learned than the Pope and and followed not their judgments What Cranmer had as it were let fall by chance they report to the King who suddenly apprehending it said that this fellow whosoever he was had hit the nail on the head and withal demanding his name caused Cranmer to be sent for whom he commended for his but too late advice which course if he had taken but five years before he should now have had an hundred thousand Pounds in his Purse which he had unprofitably in this Suit cast away on the Court of Rome he commands Cranmer to write a Tract concerning this Question wherein having drawn together what Reasons he could for the confirmation of his advice he should conclude with his own opinion Cranmer did it very readily and is thereupon with Sir Thomas Bolen lately created Earl of Wiltshire Carne Stokesley and Benet Doctors of Law with others sent on an Embassie to Rome Cranmer's Book is to be presented to his Holiness and they are commanded to challenge the Court of Rome to a Disputation wherein the Contents of that Book should be maintained the Argument whereof was That by the authority of holy Scripture ancient Fathers and Councils it was utterly unlawful for any man to marry his Brother's Widow and that no such marriage could be licensed or authorized by the Pope's Dispensation This being done the King's intent was they should procure the opinions of all the Universities throughout Europe by whom if he found his former Marriage condemned then without farther expecting the approbation of the See of Rome he was resolved to run the hazard of a second To this the amity of the French seeming very conducible the King had by his former liberality sought to oblige him The Ambassadors came to Rome had audience were promised a publick Disputation whereof they were held so long in expectation that perceiving their stay there to be to little purpose they all returned into England except Cranmer who with the same instructions that he had formerly been sent to the Pope was to go to the Emperour whose Court was then in Germany There this good and learned man hitherto no friend to Luther while he defends his own Book and the King's Divorce against the most learned either of Protestants or Papists is thought to have been seasoned with the leaven of that Doctrine for which after he had been twenty years Archbishop of Canterbury he was most cruelly burned While Cranmer thus laboured abroad the King at home deals with Langey the French Ambassador by whose means with the forcible Rhetorick saith one of some English Angels he obtained of the Universities of Paris with the rest throughout France Pavia Padua Bononia and others this Conclusion That the Pope who hath no power over the Positive Law of God could not by his Dispensation ratifie a Marriage contracted between a Brother and a Brother's Widow it being forbidden by the express words of Scripture The eighth of December the King graced three noble and worthy men with new Titles of Honour Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort the King 's future Father-in-Law was created Earl of Wiltshire Robert Ratcliff Viscount Fitz-Walter of the noble Family of the Fitz-Walters Earl of Sussex in which honour his Son Thomas his Nephews Thomas first then Henry Brother to Thomas and now Robert the Son of Henry have succeeded him And George Lord Hastings was made Earl of Huntingdon who left it to his Son Francis Father of Henry who deceased without issue and George Grandfather to Henry the now Earl by Francis who died before his Father ANNO DOM. 1530. REG. 22. VV Illiam Tyndal having translated the New Testament into English and procured it to be printed at Antwerp had secretly dispersed many copies thereof thoughout England Whereat the Bishops and Clergy especially those that were most addicted to the Doctrine of Rome stormed exceedingly saying that this Translation was full of errours and that in the Prefaces and elsewhere it contained many things contrary to the Truth The King being angry with the Pope had long since determined to free himself from his usurped power And therefore admonished the murmuring Clergy to correct this Book not to suppress it for it was a most profitable work and very necessary for the discovery of the deceits of the Court of Rome the tyranny whereof was become intolerable to all the Princes of Christendom Whereupon he giveth order to the Bishops and some other learned men to set forth a new Translation which his Subjects might read with safety and profit The hope of prevailing with the Pope by the French King's means had drawn Henry to send on a second Embassage to the Pope the Earl of Wiltshire Doctor Stokesley Elect of London and Edward Lee Wolsey his Successor in York They found the Pope at Bononia with the Emperour but had no other answer to their demands than that his Holiness when he came to Rome would endeavour to do the King justice Till then he could do nothing Fair means not prevailing the King runs another course By publick Proclamation throughout the Kingdom he forbids all commerce between his Subjects and the Bishop of Rome commanding that no man should receive any thing from or send any thing especially money unto him either by exchange or any other means calling him Tyrant the Harpy of the World the common Incendiary and deeming him utterly unworthy of that glorious title which he had vaingloriously usurped Christ's Vicar This in September But the wealth of the Clergy being very great and considering how they had in the Reigns of his Predecessors strongly sided with the Pope the King was somewhat jealous of them To curb them he condemns the whole Clergy throughout the Kingdom in a Praemunire for that without licence from his Majesty they had been obedient to the authority of the Pope in acknowledging Wolsey for his Legate The Clergy of the Province of Canterbury being assembled in Convocation buy their
Earl of Angus and Lady Margaret the King's Sister on the first day of November to the unspeakable good of this Island deceased in the Tower For this Margaret being after married to Matthew Earl of Lenox had by him Henry the Father of King James of sacred memory the most happy Unitor of divided Britain ANNO DOM. 1538. REG. 30. IT is at length after many Ages resolved That through the superstitious abuse of Images God was robbed of his due honour The King much prone to Reformation especially if any thing might be gotten by it thought it fit to remove this stumbling-block and the rather for that he conceived his Treasury would be thereby supplied There were some Images of more especial fame and Shrines of reputed Saints whereunto Pilgrimages were made from the farthest parts of the Kingdom nay even from forein Countries also the Oblations whereto were so many and so rich that they not only sufficed for the maintenance of Priests and Monks but also to the heaping up of incredible wealth The Shrine of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury was covered with plates of Gold and laden with Gifts of inestimable value The blind zeal of those and former times had decked it with Gems Chains of Gold of great weight and Pearls of that large size which in our Language find no proper term This Tomb was razed and his Bones found entire instead of whose Head the Monks usually obtruded the Scull of some other peradventure better deserving than did their supposed Martyr The spoil of this Monument wherein nothing was meaner than Gold filled two Chests so full that each of them required eight strong men for the portage Among the rest was a Stone of especial lustre called the Royal of France offered by Lewis the Seventh King of France in the year 1179 together with a great massy Cup of Gold at what time he also bestowed an annuity on the Monks of that Church of an hundred Tons of Wine This Stone was afterward highly prized by the King who did continually wear it on his thumb Erasmus speaks much of the magnificence of this Monument as also of the Image of our Lady of Walsingham both which he had seen and admired This Image was also stripped of whatsoever worthy thing it had the like being also done in other the like places and the Statues and Bones of the dead digged up and burned that they might be no further cause of Superstition Among the rest of these condemned Images there was a Crucifix in South-Wales called of the Inhabitants Darvel Gatheren concerning which there was a kind of Prophecy That it should one day fire a whole Forest. It chanced that at this time one Doctor Forest a Frier Observant who had formerly taken the Oath of Supremacy was upon his relapse apprehended and condemned of Treason and Heresie For this Frier a new Gallows was erected whereon he was hanged by the arm-pits and underneath him a fire made of this Image wherewith he was burned and so by his death made good the Prophecy Great was the Treasure which the King raised of the spoils of Churches and Religious Houses But whether the guilt of Sacriledge adhering like a consuming Canker made this ill gotten Treasure unprofitable or that he found he had need of greater supplies to withstand the dangers that threatned him from abroad not content with what he had already corraded he casts his eyes on the Wealth of the Abbeys that had escaped the violence of the former Tempest and not expecting as he deemed it a needless Act of Parliament seiseth on the rest of the Abbeys and Religious Houses of the Realm At first he begins with that at Canterbury dedicated to Augustine the English Apostle who was there interred This being the first-fruits of Christianity among this Nation I mean the Saxons for the Britans had been watred with streams derived even from the Fountains Apostolick far more pure than were those later overflows of Augustine he invades expels the Monks and divides their means between his Exchequer and Courtiers Battel-Abbey built by William the Conquerour in the same place where by the overthrow of Harold the last Saxon King he purchased this Kingdom to himself and his posterity did also run the same fortune So that it is not so much to be wondered at if those at Merton in Surrey Stratford in Essex Lewis in Sussex the Charterhouse Black-Friers Gray-Friers and White-Friers in London felt the fury of the same Whirlwind At the same time among many other Reformations in this Church that wholesom Injunction was one whereby the Bible translated and printed in English was commanded to be kept in every Parish Church and to be conveniently placed where any that were so desirous might read therein They who were more eagerly addicted to the superstition of their Ancestors brooked not these proceedings among whom were chief Henry Courtney Marquess of Exceter Henry Lord Mountague Brother to Cardinal Pool and Sir Edward Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergavenny who on the fifth day of November upon the aceusation of Sir Geoffry Poole Brother to the Lord Mountague were committed to the Tower for having maintained intelligence with the 〈◊〉 and conspired the King's destruction for which they were on the third of the ensuing January the Lord Audley sitting high Steward for the time arraigned and condemned and on the ninth of the same month beheaded Two Priests named Crofts and Colins with one Holland a Mariner as partakers in the same guilt were hanged and quartered at Tyburn This Courtney was by the Father's side of a very noble descent deriving himself from the Blood Royal of France by Hugh Courtney created Earl of Devonshire by Edward the Third But by his Mother he far more nearly participated of the Blood Royal of England being Son to Catharine Daughter to Edward the Fourth who was Sister to Queen Elizabeth the Mother of King Henry The King long favoured him as his Cousin-german but at length in regard of his near Alliance to the Crown became jealous of his Greatness whereof he had lately given more than sufficient testimony in suddenly arming some thousands to oppose against the Yorkshire Rebels The consideration whereof made Henry gladly entertain any occasion to cut off this Noble Gentleman About the same time John Lambert a religious and learned man was also condemned the King himself sitting Judge This Lambert being accused of Heresie appealed from his Ordinary to the King who fearing lest he should be accounted a Lutheran resolved upon this occasion to manifest to the World how he stood affected in Religion To this end summoning as many of the Bishops and other Peers of the Realm as could conveniently be present he caused Scaffolds to be built in Westminster Hall from whence the people might be spectators and witnesses of the Acts of that day On the right hand of the King were seated the Bishops and behind them
the chiefest and whose Abbots had voices among the Peers in the higher House of Parliament are these St. Peter's in Westminster St. Alban's St. Edmundsbury St. Benet's of Hulme Berdney Shrewsbury Crowland Abingdon Evesham Glocester Ramsey St. Augustine's in Canterbury Selbey Peterborough St. Maries in Tork Tewksbury Reding Battel Winchcomb Hide by Winchester Cirencester Waltham Walmesbury Thorney St. John's in Colchester Coventrey Tavestock The King that he might some way supply the want of the suffrages of so many learned and wise men in the Parliament House as also that of so great a prey he might consecrate if not the tenth to Hercules at least some part to God according to his promise erected some new Bishopricks whereof one was at Westminster a place so near and contiguous to London that it might rather seem a part of the Suburbs thereof than a distinct City But a City it is and so ennobled with many stately Monuments that for Beauty it contendeth with most in Christendom In it are the chief Seat of the Prince and Palaces of the Nobility the chief seats of Justice in the Land the most magnificent Church wherein are interred most of our Kings and Nobles whose sumptuous Monuments render it unparallel'd even by the World Another was at Oxford in the Colledge founded by Cardinal Wolsey The rest at Peterborough Bristol Chester and Glocester Westminster was by Queen Mary again reduced to an Abbey and furnished with Monks of St. Benet's Order whom Queen Elizabeth again expelled and converted the Revenues of the Bishoprick to the maintenance of Scholars and other pious uses As for the other Sees they remain to this day From those antient Cathedral Churches wherein Monks were seated nothing was taken away only Canons were placed there instead of Monks as likewise in the Cathedral Churches of the new erected Bishopricks The Churches wherein antiently canons and Prebendaries were instituted are In ENGLAND York London Lincoln Sarisbury Exceter Wells Lichfield Hereford 〈◊〉 In WALES St. David's Landaff Bangor St. Asaph The CATHEDRALS founded with Monks were Canterbury Winchester Ely Norwich Worcester Rochester Duresm Carlile The new SEES where primarily were Abbeys are Oxford Bristol Glocester Chester Peterborough So there are six and twenty Bishopricks within this Realm and in every Cathedral Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ministers as also a Dean who governs the rest unless it be in St. David's where the Chanter and Eandaf where the Archdeacon is Head of the Chapter These things thus ordered the King still jealous lest it should be conceived that he had forsaken the Religion of his Fathers began to thunder out against the maintainers of new Tenets and much against Cranmer's will by Parliament enacted the Law of the Six Articles the summ whereof was I. That if any one should deny the True and Real presence of the Body of CHRIST in the Sacrament or should maintain That the substance of Bread and Wine remained after the words of Consecration pronounced by the Priest he should be burned as an Heretick II. If any should deny the Sacrament to be sufficiently administred under one Species only III. Or should hold it lawful for Priests to be married but much more he that having entred into holy Orders should presume to take a Wife IV. Or that Chastity vowed upon mature deliberation was not to be kept V. Or that private Masses ought not to be celebrated in the Church of England or elsewhere VI. Or that Auricular Confession was not expedient he should for his errours undergo loss of life by hanging These Laws like those of Drace written in Blood were the destruction of multitudes and silenced those who had been hitherto furtherers of Reformation Among whom Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Schaxton Bishops the one of Worcester the other of Salisbury were remarkable who that they might quietly enjoy themselves the Parliament being scarce dissolved did both on one day viz. the first of July resign their Bishopricks Latimer who for the freedom of his conscience could as willingly resign his life as he did this rich Bishoprick being burned for it in Queen Maries reign after his Resignation taking off his Rochet being a merry conceited man with a little leap lifted himself from the ground saying that He felt himself much more light and quick now he had freed himself of so great a burthen Henry in regard of his wiving disposition had long continued a Widower And that he should at length marry the consideration of his Estate being surrounded with Enemies passionate in the Pope's cause perswaded him Wherein he also gave ear to Cromwell who advised him to combine with those Estates whom the burthen of the Pope's tyranny had forced to the same courses and like fears By whose assistance he might countermine the secret practices of Rome A counsel without doubt good and befitting the times but producing the effects of Ill ones proving as is thought Pernicious to the Giver For the treatise of such a Match in September came into England Frederick Duke and Elector of Saxony Frederick Duke of Bavaria Otho Henry Count Palatine of Rhine and the Chancellour of the Duke of Cleve with some others who were for eight days Royally entertained by the King at Windsor where the Marriage with Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleve being concluded they returned to their own Countries This year died Margaret Queen of Scotland Sister to King Henry who was buried at the Charterhouse in the Town of St. John near the Tomb of James the First ANNO DOM. 1540. REG. 32. ON the Eve of the Circumcision the Lady Ann of Cleve destinated to the King's Bed arrived at Dover was on the third of January triumphantly received at Greenwich and on the Feast of the Epiphany ritely married to the King On the twelfth of March Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex the antientest Earl of the Realm thrown by an unruly young Horse which he sought to break brake his neck By whose death the Inheritance was devolved to his Daughter and from her deceasing without Issue to the Family of Deureux which Family in regard of their claim by descent was by Queen Elizabeth advanced to the Earldom of Essex But in the mean time Cromwell yet chief in the King's favour was on the eighteenth of April created Earl of Essex And here behold the frailty of Human affairs The current of few years had from very mean beginnings brought Cromwell to the height of Honour insomuch that his happiness was admired by all envied by many But Fortune intending a Tragedy he is unexpectedly apprehended sitting at the Council-Table and committed to the Tower where he continued until his Execution For in this Parliament begun the twelfth of April he is accused of Treason and Heresie without being brought to his answer condemned and on the twenty eighth of July beheaded This King may well be censured of cruel inconstancy who could so easily dispense with the death of those whom he had
our advantages We charge them furiously the Scots amazedly fly many are slain many taken more plunged in the neighbouring Fens and taken by Scottish Freebooters sold to us Among the Captives were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassels the Lords Saintclare Maxwell Admiral of Scotland Fleming Somerwell Oliphant and 〈◊〉 besides two hundred of the better sort and eight hundred common Souldiers The consideration of this overthrow occasioned as he 〈◊〉 by the froward rashness of his own Subjects and the death of an English Herald slain in Scotland so surcharged him with rage and grief that he fell sick of a Fever and died in the three and thirtieth year of his age and two and thirtieth of his reign leaving his Kingdom to the usually unhappy government of a Woman a Child scarce eight daysold The chief of the Captives being conveyed to the Tower were two days after brought before the King's Council where the Lord Chancellour reprehended their treachery who without due denuntiation of War invaded and spoiled the Territories of their Allies and committed many outrages which might excuse any severe courses which might in justice be taken with them Yet his Majesty out of his natural Clemenoy was pleased to deal with them beyond their deserts by freeing them from the irksomness of a strict imprisonment and disposing of them among the Nobles to be by them entertained until he should otherwise determine of them By this time King James his death had possessed Henry with new hopes of uniting Britain under one Head England had a Prince and Scotland a Queen but both so young that many accidents might dissolve a contract before they came to sufficiency Yet this seeming a course intended by the Divine Providence to extirpate all causes of enmity and discord between these neighbouring Nations a Marriage between these young Princes is proposed With what alacrity and applause the proposition was on both sides entertained we may conceive who have had the happiness to see that effected which they but intended Which being a matter of so sweet a consequence it is to be wondered at that the conspiracy of a few factious spirits should so easily hinder it The hope of it prevailed with the King for the liberty of the Captives conditionally that they should leave Hostages for their return if Peace were not shortly concluded which as also the furtherance of this so wished conjunction they faithfully promised ANNO DOM. 1543. REG. 35. AFter their short Captivity the Scottish Lords having been detained only twelve days at London on New-years-day began their journey towards Scotland and with them Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus whom his Son-in-Law King James had a little before his death intended to recall Fifteen years had he and his Brother George lived Exiles in England Henry out of his Royal Bounty allowing to the Earl a Pension of a thousand Marks and to his Brother of five hundred The sudden return of these captive Lords caused in most as sudden a joy Only the Cardinal of St. Andrews who had by forgery made himself Regent and his Faction could willingly have brooked their absence They came not as freed from a Captivity but as Ambassadors for Peace by them earnestly perswaded which by the happy conjunction of these Princes might be concluded to perpetuity But the Cardinal with his factious Clergy the Queen Dowager and as many as were affected to the Flower 〈◊〉 interposed themselves for the good of France Yet notwithstanding the Cardinal's fraud being detected he is not only deposed from his Regency and James Hamilton Earl of Arren substituted but also committed to custody whence afterwards making an escape he was the author of more garboils In the mean time the Marriage of the young Queen and other conditions proposed to the Estate of Scotland by Sir Ralph Sadler the King's Ambassador are fully assented unto and Hostages promised for the performance of them But the adverse Faction became so prevalent that the Hostages were not delivered at the day neither did the Captive Nobility render themselves in England Only Gilbert Kenneda Earl of Cassels like another Regulus had rather commit himself to the mercy of his enemies than prostitute his Honour to the foul taint of base infidelity His Brethren had become Pledges for his return the importunity nay violence of his friends could not deter him from redeeming them So to London he came where the bountiful King duly honouring him for his constancy instead of receiving a Ransom gave him one dismissing him and his Brothers fraught with honour and rewards The Scots falling off from their late Agreement the King commandeth stay to be made of all their Ships and confiscateth their goods sends Letters full of threats and just complaints to the Estates at Edenborough Blaming them for arrogantly rejecting his Alliance the want whereof must needs be prejudicial to them neither had they only rejected it but unmindful of former benefits had sown seeds of new War and forced him to Arms. But Letters proving ineffectual Scotland is by the frontier Garrisons invaded in three several places forty Scots making resistance are slain five and fifty Villages burned five hundred and sixty prisoners taken and a booty brought into England of three thousand five hundred head of cattel eight hundred Horses and seven thousand Sheep beside great provision of housholdstuff But this obstinacy of the Scots proceeded not only from themselves France and Scotland were ever combined against England so that to invade one was to draw on a War with both We had been often victorious in France whereof many portions aneiently belonged to Us if we should make any claim to all or part of our Inheritance Scotland would serve either to distract our Forces or to transfer the seat of War nearer home The uniting of England and Scotland would by securing us at home facilitate our Enterprizes upon France These were motives sufficient for Francis notwithstanding the long inviolate amity between him and Henry secretly to cross our designs in Scotland Whereof Henry could not long be sensible and not revenge Wherefore he proclaims open hostility with France as he had already with Scotland and reconciles himself with the Emperour before thought irreconciliable in regard of his Aunts disgrace who professed that all causes of difference between them were buried with her yet is it certain that unto the Pope he accused Henry to have dispatched her by poison But now they are become Confederates and an aid of ten thousand English sent to joyn with the Imperials Landrecy a Town lately taken from the Emperour by the French is the first exercise of our Arms. The Emperour also coming in Person it is invested with forty thousand men is furiously battered and the Souldiers brought to the distress of half a provant loaf of Bread a day and to drink Water Francis being certified of their wants assembles his Forces draws near the Emperour feeding him with hope
that it shall not remain undetected And the Queen although blindly misled in matter of Religion was so exact a fautrix of Justice that she was utterly averse from all mention of pardon So this Nobleman had the punishment due to his offence only in this preferred before other Murtherers and Parricides that he was not strangled with an Halter of Hemp but of Silk The seven and twentieth of April Thomas Stafford landing in the Northern parts of the Realm having raked together a small company of Exiles and some Foreiners surprized Scarborough Castle then as in time of Peace utterly destitute of provision for resistance Having thus seized on a place of defence he makes Proclamation that Queen Mary having her self no right to the Crown had betraied it to the Spaniard exhorting the people with him to take Arms for the recovery of their lost Liberty But by the diligence of Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury then Ambassador for their Majesties with the French all his designs were revealed to the Council before his arrival in England So by the industry of the Earl of Westmerland he was within six days taken brought to London and on the eight and twentieth of May Beheaded Strechley Proctor and Bradford the next day following him but in a more due punishment being drawn hanged and quartered whom they had followed in their treacherous attempts The Emperour Charles having bequeathed the inheritance of his hate to France with his Crown Mary could not long distinguish her Cause from her Husbands Wherefore on the seventh of June the Queen set forth a Proclamation to this effect that Whereas the King of France had many ways injured her by supporting the Duke of Northumberland and Wyat in their Rebellions against her and that his Realm had been a receptacle for Dudley and Ashton who with the privity of his Ambassador had in his house contrived their treacherous designs and after their escape into France had been relieved by Pensions from the King as also for having lately aided Stafford with Shipping Men Money and Munition thereby if it were possible to dispossess her of the Crown She gave her Subjects to understand that they should not entertain Traffick with that Nation whose Prince she accounted her Enemy and against whom upon farther grievances she determined to denounce War Although these things were true yet had she abstained from denunciation of War had not the five years Truce between Philip and Henry by the Pope's instigation been lately broken by the French and so War arising between them she would not make her self and her Husband two For the Pope having long since maligned the Emperour knowing that he after the resignation of his Estates to his Son Philip had withdrawn himself into Spain by the Cardinal of Lorain still solicited the French King to arms against the Spaniard promising to invest him in the Kingdom of Naples Henry upon these fair hopes undertakes it and Mary resolves to assist her Husband That Mary took arms in the behalf of her Husband Pope Paul was much displeased And being he could not be revenged on her who indeed was the sole cause of our breach with France he determined to pour out his wrath on Pool whom he ever hated but now he thought he had more cause to manifest it because Pool knowing that this War was set on foot by the Pope had by Letters and Ambassadors sought to appease him and that though with most humble reverence yet roundly and according to his Conscience Having abrogated Pool's Legation he repeals him to Rome and for supply of his place he creates one Francis Petow a Franciscan Frier Cardinal and Legate and a little after designed him Bishop of Sarisbury The Queen having intelligence of these proceedings took especial care that Pool might have no notice of them prohibiting not only this new Cardinal to enter the Realm but all others whom she suspected to bring any Mandates to that purpose and with exact diligence causing his Letters to be intercepted by her Orators at Rome certified his Holiness what a hazard the Catholick Religion not yet fully established would incur if he should endeavour the disgrace of so great a man whose authority had been much availeable for the conversion of the Nation But while there is this intercourse between the Pope and the Queen concerning this matter Pool having some way or other had an inkling of it abstained from having the silver Cross the Ensign of his Legation born before him neither would he afterward exercise his authority Legantine until by the intercession of Ormaneto the Pope's Datary in England he was restored to his dignity By this time the War was very hot on both sides Philip besieging St. Quintin in Picardie with thirty five thousand Foot and twelve thousand Horse which number was after increased by a thousand Horse four thousand Foot and two thousand Pioners out of England under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke For the managing of this War Philip set sail out of England on the seventh of July On the tenth of August the French endeavouring to put Succours into the Town are overthrown The Spaniard chargeth the Constable Montmorency in his retreat routs the French and kills two thousand five hundred A Victory not so great in the execution as in the death and captivity of many brave men The Constable was wounded and taken Prisoner with his Son as also the Dukes of Montpensier and Longueville Ludovico Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantua the Marshal of St. Andrew the Rhinegrave Roche-du-Maine the Count Rochfoucault the Baron of Curton with many other men of mark The chief of them that were slain were John of Bourbon Duke of Anguien the Viscount of Turen N. Tiorcellin Son to Roche-du-Maine the Lords of Chandenier Pontdormy and many others and in a manner all the Foot-Captains Philip lost only fifty men The eighth day after this Victory an assault is given and the Town carried by force wherein were taken the Admiral Coligny with his Brother d'Andelot who shortly after made an escape Jarnac St. Remy Humes and many other persons of quality the Son of the Lord of Fayette Salevert Ogier Vicques La Barre Estang and Gourdes were slain Of the English in this assault few of note were lost beside Lord Henry Dudley youngest Son to the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Edward Windsore who were the first that advanced Ensign on the Walls This year is alike memorable for the extreme dearth and contemptible cheapness of Corn. A little before Harvest Wheat was sold at four Marks the Quarter within the current of a month it fell to the low rate of five Shillings Wherein I rather admire the ensuing cheapness than the dearth having my self in the year 1597 paid double the former dear price But that which I shall now relate I should deem far more memorable had I not in later times my self seen the like On the night which ensued
Lieutenant-general in the Netherlands who having speedily out of the neighbour Garrisons of Betune St. Omer Aires Burburg and others assembled an Army of fifteen thousand puts himself between Dunkirk and Calais Termes had hitherto expected the Duke of Guise but upon notice that the Countrey was up in Arms he somewhat too late bethought himself of a retreat He was now every way enclosed and passage not to be gained but by dint of Sword The French therefore valiantly charge their Enemies and overthrow some Squadrons of Horse indeed despair animated them to do wonders and the Flemings were set on fire by the desire of revenging late Injuries The Spanish Troops renew the fight which was with equal order long maintained on both sides In the heat whereof ten English Men of War fortunately sailing by for De Termes had for his security betaken him to the shoar hoping that way with much less hazard to have gained passage upon discovery of the French Colours let fly their Ordnance furiously among the French making such a slaughter that they began to give ground were at last routed and overthrown The French in this Battel lost five thousand Their chief Commanders were almost all taken the Marshal himself was hurt and taken with d'Annebalt the Son of Claud the late Admiral the Earl of Chaune Senarpont Villebon Governour of Picardy Morvilliers and many others Two hundred escaped to our Ships whom they might have drowned but giving them Quarter they were brought Captives into England This Battel was fought on the thirteenth of July The Queen desirous by some action or other to wipe out the stain of the ignominious loss of Calais about the same time set forth a Fleet of one hundred and forty Sail whereof thirty were Flemings the main of the Expedition being from Brest in Bretaigne But the Lord Clinton Lord High Admiral of England finding no good to be done there set sail for Conquet where he landed took the Town sacked it and set it on fire together with the Abbey and the adjacent Villages and returned to his Ships But the Flemings somewhat more greedy after prey disorderly piercing farther into the Countrey and regardless of Martial discipline which commands obedience to their General being encounted by the Lord of Kersimon came fewer home by five hundred Philip about the same time lodging near Amiens with a great Army Henry with a far greater attended each motion of his They encamp at last Henry on the North of the River Somme Philip on the South of the River Anthy so near to one another that it might be thought impossible for two such spirited Princes commanding so great Armies to depart without a Battel But divers considerations had tempered their heat Philip being the weaker of the two saw no reason why to engage himself Henry had an Army which had twice felt the other victorious and was therefore loath on them to adventure his already shaken estate Wherefore they so entrenched themselves and fortified their Camps with Artillery as if they expected a Siege from each other Some months thus passed without any other exploits than Inroads and light Skirmishes At length they mutually entertain a motion of Peace both of them considering that their Armies consisting of Strangers the fruits of the Victory would be to the Aliens only but the calamity and burthen of the Defeat would light on the shoulders of the Vanquished or which comes all to one pass of the Subjects These motives drew together for a Treaty on Henry's side the Constable the Marshal of St. Andrew the Cardinal of Lorain Morvilliers Bishop of Orleans and Aubespine Secretary of Estate For Philip the Duke of Alva the Prince of Orange Puyz Gomes de Silva Granvell Bishop of Arras and others Much altercation was had about the restoring of Calais which the French were resolved to hold and Philip would have no Peace unless it were restored to Mary whom in point of Honour he could not so forsake But this difference was ended by the death of Mary a little before whom on the one and twentieth of September died also the Emperour Charles the Fifth which occasioned both the change of place and time for another Treaty And if the continual connexion of other memorable Affairs had not transported me I should ere this have mentioned the Marriage celebrated at Paris with great pomp on the eight and twentieth of April between the Daulphin Francis and Mary Queen of Scots But the fruits thereof were not lasting For two years after died Francis the Crown by the death of his Father Henry having been first devolved to him and left his Bed to a more auspicious Husband Henry the eldest Son to the Earl of Lenox Of these Parents was born our late Sovereign of ever sacred memory who was Nephew by his Mother to James the Fifth by Margaret the eldest Daughter Nephew to that wife King Henry the Seventh who the Issue of Henry the Eighth being extinct as the next undoubted Heir most happily united the Crowns of England Scotland and Ireland But now at length to draw nearer home this Autumn was very full of Diseases Fevers especially quartan reigning extraordinarily in England whereby many chiefly aged persons and among them a great number of the Clergy perished Of the sole Episcopal rank thirteen died either a little before the Queen or some few months after her Among the rest Cardinal Pool scarce survived her a day who having been for some weeks afflicted by this kind of Disease and brought to extreme weakness of Body as if he had at the news of the Quens death received his deaths wound expired at three a Clock the next morning His Corps inclosed in Lead was buried in his Cathedral at Canterbury with this brief Elogy on his Tomb instead of an Epitaph Depositum Cardinalis POLI. He was a man admirably learned modest mild of a most sweet disposition wise and of excellent dexterity in the managing of any affairs so that he had been incomparable if corrupted with the Religion of the Church of Rome he had not forced his nature to admit of those cruelties exercised upon the Protestants The Queen died at St. James on the seventeenth of November some few hours before day She was a Lady very godly merciful chast and every way praise-worthy if you regard not the errours of her Religion But her Religion being the cause of the effusion of so much innocent Blood that of the Prophet was necessarily to be fulfilled in her Blood-thirsty men c. shall not finish half their days For she was cut off in the two and fortieth year of her age having reigned only five Years four Months and eleven Days whereas her Sister who succeeded her most happily in a more mild Government ruled nine times as long and almost doubled her age Concerning the cause of Queen Maries Death there are divers conjectures To relate what I find in approved Authors it is reported that in the
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh