the Prince there was a contest who took him first and the King was desired to point at him so he pointed at Howel and said this is the Man who took me There are authentick Records in some Welsh Manuscripts that confirm this Moreover they have a general Tradition and some Songs which continue fresh to this day how Howel did put a Bridle in the French King's Mouth with many other Expressions touching this great Act. Now for that signal exploit the Prince knighted him in the Field and he was ever after call'd Sir Howel y Fuyall Sir Howel with the Axe he had the Constableship of Crikyth Castle given him with the farms of Chester mills and other considerable things conferr'd upon him which surely would not have been but for the merit of some high signal Service The British Records besides Tradition and common Report that mention this were to be found in Sir John Winn's Library an honourable knowing Knight who was a curious collector of Antiquities These and many other glorious exploits were done by this King in France who ceased not his pursuits till he had got the Key of it hanging at his Girdle to wit the Town of Calais that in those days was looked upon to be impregnable which he carried after a long Siege This Kings Reign is also memorable upon many other accounts as for the Institution of the noble Order of the Garter for removing the staple of Wool from Flanders into England for that great Champion against Rome the famous Wickliff and for his own numerous issue by his Heroick Queen Phillipa being no less then seven Sons and five Daughters his Sons were these Edward the Black Prince the hopes of England and who died before his Father William of Hatfield Lioneâ— Duke of Clarence John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Edmund of Langley Duke of York William of Windsor and Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester he died at Richmond in 1377. when he had Reigned 50 Years and odd Months The cause of the War twixt the English and French in Edward the III. time was a claim to the Crown and Kingdom of France in right of his Mother Isabel which they would make invalid by their Salique or distaâ—â— Law to which the greatest Civilians do allow 〈◊〉 essence at all and Du Haillan the great French Historian hath no better Opinion of it but to be a meâ— Chymera or Imaginary thing but of this more presently OF THE Salique Law HERE I judge it no ways impertinent to be a little more particular yet touching the claim of this King Edward to the Crown of France and what grounds the French had by vertue of this Salique Law for the exclusion of him claiming from a Female and first we will briefly state his claim as it then stood and then come to the Law it self and it was thus Phillip the IV. surnamed the Fair had three Sons Lewis the Contentious Phillip the Long and Charles the Fair all these successively reigned after him and died without issue inheritable he had likewise a Daughter named Isabel I purposely omit the other being foreign to the present affair married to Edward the II. King of England and so was Mother to Edward the III. The issue male of Phillip the Fair thus failing Phillip Son and Heir of Charles Earl of Valois Beaumont c. who was Brother to Phillip the Fair laid claim to the Crown as next heir male against King Edward who made answer to the objection of the Salique Law that admitting it was as they asserted yet he was heir-male though descended of a Daughter and this in a publick assembly of the States of France first about the Protectorship of the Womb for Queen Joan Dowager of Charles the Fair was left with Child and delivered of a Daughter named Blanch afterwards Dutchess of Orleans was had in solemn dispute by Lawyers on both sides and applied at length also to the direct point of inheriting the Crown and so adjudged against King Edward What followed hereupon we have in some measure traced in the Preceding History of his Wars and are more at large recorded in Walsingham Froissart Aemilius and a multitude of more modern Writers whereby it appears and will in the Wars of this King's Successors in France how the denial of this Soveraignty to him by the French cost the lives of many thousands of their Men and involved that Country into long and miserable Calamities But as for the Law it self whereby they pretended such an exclusion of him it may well be said with Drayton in his Poly-Albion that every mouth speaks of it but few understand the thing it self or so much as the Etymology of its name and therefore to clear this point as well as we can we are necessitated to ascend a little higher then these times wherein it was made use of in prejudice to the English claim and to begin with the Original of the Francks with whom they affirm it was brought into France The Francks therefore according to many modern Historians came originally from Asia into Germany though others and perhaps upon better grounds make their original to be in Germany it self but this is certain that upon the decline of the Roman Empire they inhabited Franconia a Province of Germany and about the year 413 or according to Davila 119 invaded France under Pharamond whom they chose to be their King and Leader which Pharamond they make to be Son to Marcovir a Prince that governed them in Franconia but first before they began their Expedition they held a general Assembly near unto a River named Sala and there by the advice of the Salij their Priests or as others of the Salians whom they make to be the same with Francks enacted Laws for Government and amongst the rest one for the Exclusion of Females from inheriting the Crown which from the aforesaid appellations whether one or all it matters not came to be denominated the Salique Law But Goropius that fetches all our of Dutch and this perhaps more tollerably then many of his other Etymologies deriving the Salians name from Sal which in contraction he makes to be from Sadel inventors whereof says he the Salians were interprets them to be as much as Horse-men a name fitly applied to the War-like and most noble Persons of any Nation as Equites in Latin Chevaliers in French and Marchog in Welch do very well agree to so that upon the whole the Salique Law is made by him to be as much as a Chivalrous Law and Salique Land Quae ad equestris ordinis dignitatem in capite summo in caeteris membris conservandam pertinebat which very well agrees with a sentence given in the Parliament at Bourdeaux upon an ancient Will devising all the Testator's Salique Lands which was in point of Judgment interpreted to be a Fief and who knows not but that Fiefs were originally military Gifts but if things be so how then comes Salique to extend to the
surnamed Ceur de Lion was the third Son of Henry the II. but the Eldest when his Father died aged 35 years when he began his Reign the former part whereof was spent by him in the Wars in the Holy-Land William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Chancellor of England governing the Kingdom during his absence in this War he signalized his Valour to a wonder having first taken Cyprus in his way thither and at Acon in Syria so behaved himself that he became an object of Envy to other Christian Princes especially to King Phillip of France as you shall see hereafter where ever he went Terror was his forerunner insomuch that it grew common amongst those Eastern People to terrifie their Children with the apprehension of King Richard's coming in his return being driven upon the Coast of Dalmatia and thinking to pass home by Land incognito he was made Prisoner by the Duke of Austria who brought him to the Emperor Henry and was detained by him in Custody for a Year and five Months till he paid a great Ransom his unparallell'd Valour and Bravery was the occasion of this misfortune these and other Princes bearing him Envy especially the French King who invades Normandy during his absence which obliged Richard to make a Peace with Saladine for Three Years much to the disadvantage of the cause they fought for Phillip attacked Gisors and had it surrendred to him and many other Places and then hasted to lay Siege to Roan but found such a vigorous defence made by the Valiant and Noble Earl of Leicester that he was forced to quit his Enterprize and so returned into France On the 12th of March 1194. King Richard landed at Sandwich was recrowned again reduced the Kingdom entirely to his Obedience which was much divided because of his Brother John's pretentions in his absence and hearing the King of France had besieged Vernail he passed over into Normandy and arrived at Harfleur with 100 Ships full of Horsemen Armour c. the noise whereof so frighted the Monsieur that he left the Siege and went his ways whereupon Richard enters the French Dominions takes in several strong Places but the Noble Leicester had the misfortune to be taken Prisoner who afterward paid a great summ of Money for his Ransom and soon after ensued a Truce for a short time which was no sooner ended but Richard takes the Field possesses himself of the Castle of Brisen Novencourt c. the French King in the mean time besieging Albermarl whither Richard hastening to succour the Place a sharp Battle was fought between both Armies wherein the French prevailed chiefly upon the account of the English being wearied with their hard March But Richard had no sooner recruited and refreshed his Soldiers but he laid Siege to Miligio took it and burnt it down to the Ground whereupon ensued some overtures of Peace Albemarl in the mean time falling into the French hands and ran the same fate with Miligio Some three Years after Richard turned his Arms against the Barons of Poictiers that rebelled against him with prosperous success till at last besieging the Castle of Chaluz and having brought it to that extremity that he would grant no other Conditions but a surrender at Discretion he was shot in the left Arm out of a Cross-bow with an invenomed Dart by one Bartram de Gordon of which wound he died the 6th of April 1199. after he had reigned Nine Years and Nine Months and was buried at Fonteverard at his Fathers Feet The Causes were that while Richard went on so prosperously in the Holy Land the French King out of Envy and contrary to his Sacramental Oath invaded Normandy which forc'd King Richard to make peace with Saladine so much disadvantagious to all Christendom JOHN THe Brother of Richard who died without issue and youngest Son of Henry the II. succeeded his Brother to the prejudice of Arthur Geoffrey his Elder Brothers Son who was the real heir of Course This Arthur in right of his Mother was Earl of Bretagne in France so that by this exclusion England lost one of the best Provinces in that Kingdom and by advancing John to the Throne we not only lost almost all our Possessions in France but England it self became vassal to the Pope the Clergy of those times growing strangely bigotted to Rome and perverse to the King King John was in Normandy when his Brother dyed and though he wasted over into England with all possible speed to take Possession of the Crown and that his presence was so necessary here for to keep his new Subjects in their Obedience to him yet he could make no long stay for before a Year came about he was forced to return into Normandy again upon information that Phillip King of France had with a powerful Army made an irruption into Normandy who took the Country of Main and several other places from the English the Britons at the same time possessing themselves of the City of Angiers the Towns of Gorney Butenant and Gensoline Arthur doing also Homage to King Phillip for Anjou Poictiers Turain Main Bretaign and Normandy but soon after a Peace was concluded between the Kings and thereby many places confirmed to the French King that he had taken and others yielded up by John upon the account of his neece Blanch's Marriage with Lewis heir of France besides 30000 Marks in Silver paid to Phillip and all this to the great dishonour as well as detriment of the English Nation About two Years after this to wit the third of the Kings Reign one Hugo Brune a Noble Man of Aquitain raised a Rebellion against King John in that Province but he and his Adherents being unable to withstand John's Forces made complaint of him to Phillip of France whereupon he was summoned by the Nobles of France as Duke or Earl of Aquitain and Anjou to appear before the French King and to stand to the Judgment of his Peers which he refused upon which the Court adjudged him to be deprived of all his Lands which he or his Predecessors held of the King of France King Phillip forthwith raises a great Army invades Normandy takes in many Castles and a great part of the Country without resistance but Arthur Duke of Bretaign besieging the Castle of Mirable with Queen Eleanor then in it King John fell upon him there with such Force and Fury that he routed his Army and took Arthur and many others of Note Prisoners Arthur sometime after was sent Prisoner to the Tower of Roan and was there barbarously Murdered some said by King John's own hands but in all this time Phillip prospered in so much that in a very short space King John was in a manner despoiled of all the Lands he held in Fee of the Crown of France King John once and again made great preparations to recover his lost Dominions and had the good success to destroy the French Fleet and recover the Province of Poictou but his Domestick troubles both
same day landed at Calais some overtures of aâ— accommodation were made him from France before he took Shipping but he was no sooner arrived at Calais but the calm Winds of Peace began to blow for he found Maximilian was unprovided of the assistance promised for lack of Money which soon spread through the Army and upon the neck of this he received news also that Ferdinand and Isabel had made peace with Charles King of France upon his restoring unto them the Counties of Rousillion and Perpignan formerly mortgaged unto France by John King oâ— Arragon however October 15th he left Calais and directed his march towards Bulloigne where hâ— arrived in four days and so sat down before it 〈◊〉 the Siege continued for near a Month but without any memorable action or accident of War only Sir John Savage a valiant Commander was slain as he was riding about to view the Walls the Town was well fortified and had a good Garrison yet it was much distressed and ready for an assault which if it had been given 't was believed it would have been carried when the Commissioners appointed for that purpose concluded a Peace which was to continue for both the Kings lives wherein there was no Article of importance being in effect rather a bargain then a treaty as my Lord Bacon observes for all things remained as they were save that there should be paid to the King Seven Hundred Forty Five Thousand Duckats at present for his charges in that Expedition and Five and Twenty Thousand Crowns yearly for his expenses sustained in the aids of the Britons and besides this was left indefinitely when it should determine or expire which made the English esteem it as a tribute carried under fair terms and the truth is it was paid both to this King and to his Son King Henry VIII longer then it could continue upon aâ—y computation of charges but this Peace gave no great contentment to the Nobility and principal Officers of the Army who had many of them sold or engaged their Estates upon the â—opes of the War and they stuck not to say that the King cared not to plume his Nobility and â—nd People to feather himself and others made themselves merry with what the King had said in Parliament that after the War was once begun he doubted not to make it pay it self saying he had kept his Promise However Charles was by this peace assured of the Possession of Bretaign and free to prosecute his designs upon Naples which Kingdom he won though he lost it afterward in a kind of felicity of a Dream after he had passed â—he whole length of Italy without resistance so that it was true what Pope Alexander was wont to say That the Frenchmen came into Italy with Chalk in their hands to mark up their Lodgings rather then with Swords to Fight However Henry in the 11th year of his Reign upon this occasion entred into a League with the Italian Potentates for the defence of Italy He had many intestine broils and insurrections and his Reign is noted for Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck's impostures and no less remarkable for the immense treasure he left behind him a testimony of his avaritious nature and after above 23 years reign and having lived 52 he died April the 22d at his Palace of Richmond which himself had built Anno. 1508. The Causes of his Wars were partly for the relief of Bretaign partly on behalf of the Arch-Duke Maximilian and partly for the recovery of his own right in France HENRY VIII HEir to both Houses of York and Lancaster and the only surviving Son of Henry VII succeeded his Father at the Age of 18 and proved a Prince of great Vertues as well as Vices Towards the fourth year of his Reign the French King making war upon Pope Julius King Henry wrote him monitory Letters to desist as being his Friend and Confederate which letters being little regarded Henry sent to demand his Dutchies of Normandy Guien Anjou and Main and the Crown of France it self but this had the same effect with the former the French King continuing his war in Italy which provoked King Henry so that entring into Confederacy with the Emperor Maximilian Ferdinando King of Spain and other Potentates he determined by the advise of his Council to make War upon France and made preparations both by Sea and Land accordingly and in concert with Ferdinando sends over into Biscay an Army of 10000 Men all foot under the command of the Marquess of Dorset with a design to invade France on that side first for the recovery of the Dutchy of Aquitain but Ferdinand failing in the promises he had made of Horse Ordinance Carriages c. the English after they had waited from May till December for performance returned into England without any memorable action performed their number being considerably diminished through sickness Henry nothing discouraged hereat calls a Parliament who gave him a plentiful supply for carrying on the War wherefore with a Puissant Army wherein were many noble Persons and over which as Captain General was constituted the Earl of Shrewsbury under the King's Person he lands at Calais on the last day of June being the fifth Year of his Reign and the day following lands the Admiral of England at Whitsand Bay entred the Town and burnt it and then returned From Calais about the 21st of July the King marches in great state and good order of Battle towards Turwin where he arrives on the fourth of August and laies close siege to it the French attempting to impede his march but without success Seven daies after came the Emperor Maximilian whom the King received with great Triumph between Aire and the Camp where he enters into the King's Pay and as a Testimony thereof wore St. George's Cross with a Rose the Town made no extraordinary defence for notwithstanding the Garrison consisted of 4000 whereof were 600 good Horse yet they capitulated the 23d and marched away the day following but the King did not think fit to keep the place and therefore rased all the Works and burnt the Town removing first the Ordinance that was in it to Aire from hence he directs his march towards the City of Turnay and about the 21st of September sets down before it it was but weakly Garrisoned but full of Inhabitants and so on the 29th of the same Month was by Capitulation surrendred the Citizens which were to the number of 60000 swearing Allegiance to him Here Sir Edward Poinings was made Governour and of this City Wolsey then the Kings Almoner was made Bishop and so by the way of Calais Henry returns for England and on the 24th of October lands at Dover the Earl of Surrey during his absence having fought the Scots slain their King James IV. and defeated their whole Army The King's Arms thus prevailing by Land in France it self and against the Scots its confederates proved no less successful by Sea for Sir John Wallop
〈◊〉 takes care to have sufficient Treasure for such an undertaking and therefore in a Parliamentary way raised a vast Summ of Money and so provides an Army and Fleet of Ships suitable to such an Expedition the Army rendevouz'd at Portsmouth the command whereof he gave to his Nephew John de Brytain Earl of Richmond with whom he joined in Commission John St. John and Robert Tripot two prudent Knights from whence they set Sail and Landed at St. Matthews in Bretaign and in the mean time set out three Fleets for the guard of the Seas and to prevent the Depredations of the Enemy they entred the Mouth of the Garonne towards Burdeaux and took two good walled Towns Burgo and Bleya from whence they marched to Lyons and had the town delivered to them about four years after he generously goes over in Person into Flanders for the relief of Guy Earl of that Country who was grievously assaulted by the French King and after many Noble atchievments performed a Peace was concluded Edward taking to Wife Margaret sister to Phillip the fair then King of France This King dyed in 1307 when he had reigned 34 Years 7 Months and odd days Aged 68 and was buried at Westminster 1. One cause of this Breach with France was the Depredations that were committed at Sea 2. The Relief of Guy Earl of Flanders who was in danger of losing his Country EDWARD II. COmmonly called Edward of Caernarvan the first Prince of England that bore in his Fathers life time the Title of Prince of Wales proved an unworthy Successor to so brave a Father for he was a dissolute Prince and wholly guided by his favourites the first whereof was Pierce Gaveston who was bred up with him and on whom he conferred two and thirty Towns and as many Castles in Gascoigny besides great Summs of Money out of the Earldom of Cornwall during his life which together with his arrogance the Barons being not able to brook combined to force the King to banish him and so little did this Prince understand his true interest herein that instead of parting with such a pernicious Man and thereby securing his Interest at Home and taking measures for the same in France and elsewhere he intended to give up Gascoigny to the French King Scotland to Robert Bruce and Ireland and Wales to others as hoping thereby to obtain such aid as might secure him his favourite against all the just attempts of his Barons to the Contrary but no sooner was this Man removed but he had two others the Spencers Father and Son that were as pernicious as he and proved more fatal to Edward every way for though they received at length condign Punishment yet it was through their advice chiefly that Edward refused to go to the French King to do Homage for Aquitain and other lands he held of him and thereby lost Anjou and the Country of Poictiers and 't was his adherence to them that raised his Barons and Queen against him which ended in a sad Catastrophe first in his being deposed next in making a formal Resignation of the Crown and lastly in being soon after barbarously Murdered at Berkley Castle by the procurement of Roger Mortimer Earl of March the Queens favourite He reigned 19 Years 6 Months and odd days and died in 1327. EDWARD III. COmmonly called Edward of Windsor the eldest Son of Edward the Second succeeded his Father upon his Resignation of the Crown being then about the Age of 14 his Reign commencing from the 25 of January in the year of our Lord 1326. he proved a blessing to England and was a Prince of great Wisdom and very successful in his enterprises the younger part of his Reign was much ecclipsed by Roger Mortimer Earl of March the Queen his Mothers paramour but he got quickly rid of him for he was seised at Notingham by the Kings order and concurrence just as he was going to bed to the Queen and for all the Queens crying out to him Bel Fils Bel Fils ayes pitie de gentil Mortimer i.e. Good Son Good Son take pitty upon gentle Mortimer he was forthwith carryed away to London committed to the Tower condemned by his Peers in Parliament at Westminster hanged at Elmes and left hanging upon the Gallows two â—ays and Nights and all this unheard because he had done so by others before this King made several successful expeditions into Scotland and made the King thereof do him homage but the feat of his Wars was in France for Charles King of France dying the Masculine line of Hugh Capet failed and the Crown descended to Edward the Third as he alledged in right of his Mother Isabel who was Sister to the said Charles but Phillip de Valois Uncle to Charles intruded himself by force of Arms and took Possession and was not only Aggressor in this respect but grew so confident of his power that nothing would serve him but he must have all our King had left in France and therefore bends his Force against all the King's Castles and Towns in Aquitain and Poictiers and exercises abominable cruelties upon the English Inhabitants and all this under pretence of taking revenge for his Friends the Scots The King in the mean time holds a Parliament obtains considerable supplies and writes Letters to the French King exhorting him to continue his old amity but neither this nor the Pope's Mediation for a Peace would do so King Edward makes mighty preparation both by Sea and Land and the first Action happened to be by Sea and as memorable an one as any in the records of time for he took and sunk 200 Sail of French ships which Phillip de Valois had prepared in the Haven of Sluce for the Invasion of England which Fleet like that of 88 was held invincible but King Edward had equipp'd another as formidable a Fleet in opposition whereof he was Generalissimo and Admiral himself It was one of the most glorious Victories that ever was got at Sea for the Chronicles mention that the whole French Navy perished and 30000 Men Wounded Slain and Taken This great Naval Battel was fought upon Midsummer Eve and Heaven appeared much for the English for they had Wind and Sun favourable to them in the Fight and to make it more glorious King Edward himself was wounded in the Thigh with an Arrow whereof he was quickly cured He then goes in Person to France with 8000 common Soldiers 15000 Archers but he raised most of his Horse in France he took over with him his Son the Prince of Wales then but 15 years Old called afterwards the Black Prince He enters Normandy like a Whirle-wind and carries all the Countrey before him as far as Poissy about 10 miles from Paris and after divers hot Skirmishes a main Battel is appointed The English Army encamped near a Village called Cressy where it was divided into 3 Battallions the first was led by the Prince of Wales the second by the Earls of Arundel and