in old time a very small village it is at this day containing in it scarce foureteene dwelling houses and those but little ones and hath no monument of antiquitie to shew beside an ancient mount which they call Old-burie For on the one side Atherstone a mercate towne of good resort where there stood a Church of Augustine Friers now turned into a Chappell which neverthelesse acknowledgeth Mancester Church for her mother and Nun-Eaton on the other side by their vicinity have left it bare and empty Close unto Atherstone standeth Mery-Vale where Robert Ferrars erected a Monastery to God and the blessed Virgin Mary wherein himselfe enwrapped in an Oxe-hide for a shrouding sheet was interred Beyond these Northeastward is Pollesworth where Modwena an Irish Virgin of whom there went so great a fame for her holy life built a religious house for Nuns which R. Marmion a Noble man repaired who had his Castle hard by at Stippershull Neere unto this place also there flourished in the Saxons daies a towne that now is almost quite gone called then SECANDUNUM and at this day Seckinton where Aethelbald King of the Mercians in civill warre about the yeere of our Lord 749. was stabbed to death by Beared and soone after Offa slew Beared so that as by bloudy meanes he invaded the Kingdome of Mercia he likewise lost the same suddainely It remaineth now that we reckon up the Earles of Warwick for to passe over Guare Morind Guy of Warwick of whose actes all England resoundeth and others of that stampe whom pregnant wits have at one birth bred and brought forth into the world Henry the sonne of Roger de Beau-mont and brother to Robert Earle of Mellent was the first Earle descended of Normans bloud who had married Margaret the daughter of Ernulph de Hesdin Earle of Perch a most mighty and puissant man Out of this Family there bare this Honourable title Roger the sonne of Henry William the sonne of Roger who died in the thirtieth yeere of King Henry the Second Walleran his brother Henry the sonne of Walleran Thomas his sonne who deceased without issue in the sixe and twentieth yeere of King Henry the Third leaving behinde him Margery his sister who being Countesse of Warwicke and barraine departed this life yet her two husbands first Iohn Mareschal then John de Plessetis or Plessey in their wives right and through their Princes favour mounted up to the Honourable dignitie of Earles of Warwicke Now when these were departed without any issue by that Margery Waller and Uncle unto the said Margery succeeded them After whom dying also childlesse his sister Alice enjoyed the inheritance Afterwards her sonne William called Malduit and Manduit of Hanslap who left this world and had no children Then Isabell the said William Malduits sister being bestowed in marriage upon William de Beauchamp Lord of Elmesly brought the Earledome of Warwicke into the Familie of the Beauchamps who if I deceive not my selfe for that they came of a daughter of Ursus de Abtot gave the Beare for their cognisance and left it to their posteritie Out of this house there flourished sixe Earles and one Duke William the sonne of Isabell John Guy Thomas Thomas the younger Richard and Henry unto whom King Henry the Sixth graunted this preheminence and prerogative without any precedent to be the first and chiefe Earle of England and to carry this stile Henricus Praecomes totius Anglia Comes Warwici that is Henry chiefe Earle of all England and Earle of Warwicke he nominated him also King of the Isle of Wight and afterwards created him Duke of Warwicke and by these expresse words of his Parent graunted That he should take his place in Parliaments and elsewhere next unto the Duke of Norfolke and before the Duke of Buckingham One onely daughter he had named Anne whom in the Inquisitions wee finde entituled Countesse of Warwicke and shee died a child After her succeeded Richard Nevill who had married Anne sister to the said Duke of Warwicke a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrustie the very tennisse-ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the Sixth a most bountifull Prince to him from his regall dignitie placed Edward the Fourth in the royall throne and afterwards put him downe too restored Henry the Sixth againe to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of civill warre which himselfe at the length hardly quenched with his owne bloud After his death Anne his Wife by Act of Parliament was excluded and debarred from all her lands for ever and his two daughters heires to him and heires apparant to their mother being married to George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Glocester were enabled to enjoy all the said lands in such wise as if the said Anne their mother were naturally dead Whereupon the name stile and title of Earle of Warwicke and Sarisbury was graunted to George Duke of Clarence who soone after was unnaturally dispatched by a sweet death in a Butte of Malvesey by his suspicious brother King Edward the Fourth His young sonne Edward was stiled Earle of Warwicke and being but a very child was beheaded by King Henry the Seventh to secure himselfe and his posteritie The death of this Edward our Ancestors accounted to be the full period and finall end of the long lasting warre betweene the two royall houses of Lancaster and Yorke Wherein as they reckoned from the twenty eight yeere of Henry the Sixth unto this being the fifteenth of Henry the Seventh there were thirteene fields fought three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Marques eighteene Earles with one Vicont and twenty three Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives From the death of this young Earle of Warwicke this title lay asleepe which King Henry the Eighth feared as a fire-brand of the State by reason of the combustion which that Richard Nevill that whip-king as some tearmed him had raised untill that King Edward the Sixth conferred it upon Iohn Dudley that derived his pedigree from the Beauchamps who like unto that Richard abovesaid going about in Queene Maries daies to turne and translate Scepters at his pleasure for his Traiterous deepe ambition lost his head But his sonnes first Iohn when his father was now Duke of Northumberland by a courteous custome usually received held this title for a while and afterwards Ambrose a most worthy personage both for warlike prowesse and sweetnesse of nature through the fauour of Queene Elizabeth received in our remembrance the Honour of Earle of Warwick to him and his heires males and for defect of them to Robert his brother and the heires males of his body lawfully begotten This Honour Ambrose bare with great commendation and died without children in the yeere one thousand five hundred eighty nine shortly after his brother Robert Earle of Leicester
any expedition set out either by sea or land it served in proportion to five hides It hath beene likewise from time to time much afflicted once spoiled and sore shaken by the furious outrages of the Danes in the yeare of our redemption 875. but most grievously by Suen the Dane in the yeare 1003. at which time by the treacherie of one Hugh a Norman Governor of the citie it was raced and ruined along from the East gate to the West And scarcely began it to flourish againe when William the Conquerour most straightly beleaguered it when the Citizens in the meane while thought it not sufficient to shut their gates against him but malapartly let flie taunts and flouts at him but when a piece of their wall fell downe by the speciall hand of God as the Historians of that age report they yielded immediatly thereupon At which time as we find in the said survey-booke of his The King had in this Citie three hundred houses it paid fifteene pounds by the yeare and fortie houses were destroyed after that the King came into England After this it was thrice besieged and yet it easily avoided all First by Hugh Courtney Earle of Denshire in that civill warre betweene the two houses of Lancaster and Yorke then by Perkin Warbecke that imaginarie counterfeit and pretended Prince who being a young man of a very base condition faining himselfe to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the Fourth stirred up dangerous stirres against Henrie the Seventh thirdly by seditious Rebels of Cornwall in the yeare of Christ 1549 at which time the Citizens most grievously pinched though they were with scarcitie of all things continued neverthelesse in their faith and allegeance untill that Iohn Lord Russell raised the siege and delivered them But Excester received not so great damage at these enemies hands as it did by certaine dammes which they call Weares that Edward Courtney Earle of Denshire taking high displeasure against the Citizens made in the river Ex which stop the passage so that no vessell can come up to the Citie but since that time all merchandize is carried by land from Topesham three miles off And albeit it hath beene decreed by Act of Parliament to take away these Weares yet they continue there still Hereupon the little Towne adjoyning is call Weare being aforetime named Heneaton which was sometime the possession of Augustine de Baa from whom in right of inheritance it descended to Iohn Holland who in his signet which my selfe have seene bare a Lion rampant gardant among flowers de Lys. The civill government of this Citie is in the power of foure and twenty persons out of whom there is from yeare to yeare a Major elected who with foure Bailiffes ruleth heere the State As touching the Geographicall description of this place the old tables of Oxford have set downe the longitude thereof to bee nineteene degrees and eleven scruples the latitude fiftie degrees and fortie scruples or minutes This Citie that I may not omit so much hath had three Dukes For Richard the Second of that name King of England created Iohn Holland Earle of Huntingdon and his brother by the mothers side the first Duke of Excester whom Henrie the Fourth deposed from this dignitie and left unto him the name onely of Earle of Huntingdon and soone after for conspiracie against the King he lost both it and his life by the hatchet Some few yeares after Henry the Fifth set in his place Thomas Beaufort of the house of Lancaster and Earle of Dorset a right noble and worthy warriour When he was dead leaving no issue behind him John Holland sonne of that aforesaid John as heire unto his brother Richard who died without children and to his father both being restored to his bloud by the favour and bounty of King Henry the Sixth recovered his fathers honor and left the same to Henry his sonne who so long as the Lancastrians stood upright flourished in very much honor but afterwards when the family of Yorke was a float and had rule of all gave an example to teach men how ill trusting it is to great Fortunes For this was that same Henry Duke of Excester who albeit he had wedded King Edward the Fourth his sister was driven to such miserie that he was seene all tottered torne and barefooted to begge for his living in the Low countries And in the end after Barnet field fought wherein he bare himselfe valiantly against Edward the Fourth was no more seene untill his dead bodie as if he had perished by Shipwracke was cast upon the shore of Kent A good while after this Henry Courtney Earle of Denshire the sonne of Katharine daughter to King Edward the Fourth was advanced to the honour of Marquesse of Excester by Henry the Eighth and designed heire apparant But this Marquesse as well as the first Duke was by his high parentage cast into a great tempest of troubles wherein as a man subject to suspitions and desirous of a change in the State he was quickly overthrowne And among other matters because he had with money and counsell assisted Reginald Poole afterwards Cardinall then a fugitive practising with the Emperour and the Pope against his owne Country and the King who had now abrogated the Popes authoritie he was judicially arraigned and being condemned with some others lost his head But now of late by the favour of King Iames Thomas Cecill Lord Burleigh enjoyeth the title of Earle of Excester a right good man and the worthy sonne of so excellent a father being the eldest sonne of William Cecill Lord Burleigh high Treasurer of England whose wisedome for a long time was the support of peace and Englands happy quietnesse From Excester going to the very mouth of the River I find no monument of Antiquitie but Exminster sometime called Exanminster bequeathed by King Elfred to his younger sonne and Pouderham Castle built by Isabell de Ripariis the seat long time of that most noble family of the Courtneys Knights who being lineally descended from the stocke of the Earles of Denshire and allied by affinitie to most honorable houses flourish still at this day most worthy of their descent from so high Ancestors Under Pouderham Ken a pretty brooke entreth into Ex which riseth neere Holcombe where in a Parke is a faire place built by Sir Thomas Denis whose family fetcheth their first off-spring and surname from the Danes and were anciently written Le Dan Denis by which name the Cornish called the Danes But lower upon the very mouth of the river on the other banke side as the name it selfe doth testifie standeth Exanmouth knowne by nothing else but the name and for that some fishermen dwelt therein More Eastward Otterey that is The River of Otters or River-Dogs which we call Otters as may appeare by the signification of the word falleth into the sea which runneth hard under
againe forsaken by reason that another way through licence of the Bishops of London was laied open through High-gate and Bernet This Bernet for the beast mercat there kept beginneth now to be famous but it was more renowned for a field there fought when in the warre betweene the two Families of Lancaster and Yorke England dared to doe against her owne bowells whatsoever ambitious treachery and disloyaltie would command For upon Gledesmore hard by even on Easter day in the morning there was a bloudy battaile most fiercely fought and that with variable fortune for a great while by reason that a most thicke mist covered the face of the ground But in the end the victorie fell happily unto King Edward the Fourth by occasion that Richard Nevil Earle of Warwicke was there slaine whom as the favourable indulgence of Fortune made over-stout and bold yea and dangerous unto Kings so his death freed England from all feare of ciuill Warres Bernet hath for his neighbours Mimmes a seat of a Worshipfull Family of the Coningesbies descended to them by Frowick from the Knolles ancient possessours thereof and North-hall where Ambrose Dudley last Earle of Warwicke raised a stately house from the foundations This County of Hertford had Earles out of the Familie de Clare who notwithstanding were oftener called Earles of Clare from Clare in Suffolke their principall seate The first to my knowledge was Gilbert who under the title of Earle of Hertford is put downe as a witnesse in a Charter of King Stephens Likewise Roger de Clare in the time of King Henry the Second is in the Red-booke of the Exchequer named Earle of Hertford Likewise his successors whom you may see in their places But seeing both by right of inheritance and also through the Princes favour they attained to the Earledome of Glocester they bare both titles joyntly and were called unto Parliaments by the name of Earles of Glocester and Hertford And Richard de Clare who died in the yeere of our Lord 1262. is in plaine termes by Florilegus of Westminster called Earle of Glocester and of Hertford where he reporteth this Epitaph composed for him in that age to his great commendation Hic pâ—dâ—r Hippolyti Paridis gena sensus Vlyssis Aeneae pietas Hectoris ira jacet Chast Hyppolite and Paris faire Ulysses wife and slie Aeneas kinde fierce Hector here jointly entombed lie But not long since King Henry the Eighth honoured Sir Edward de Saint Maur or Seymâ—r with the title of Earle of Hertford who also was created Duke of Somerseâ— by King Edward the Sixth After whom succeeded in this Earledome his Sonne bearing the same name a right Honourable personage and a singular lover of Learning This Countiâ— hath Parishes 120. TRINOBANTES THey whom Caesar calleth TRINOBANTES Ptolomee and Tacitus TRINOANTES were next neighbours to the Cattieuchlani inhabiting in those countries which now having changed their names are commonly termed Middlesex and Essex Whence that ancient name sprung I dare not verily so much as guesse unlesse it come of the British word Tre-Nant which is as much as Townes in a vale For this whole region in a maner lieth low in a valley upon the Tamis But I doe not greatly please my selfe in this my conjecture And yet they that inhabited Galloway in Scotland lying altogether lowe in vallies were of old time in the British tongue called Noantes and Novantes and in the Vaile of Rhine in French named Le Vaule the people in old time called Nantuates had both their abode and their name thence so that this conjecture of mine may seeme as probable as that of others who over curiously have derived Trinobantes of Troy as a man would say Troia Nova that is New Troy But I wish them well and that heerein they may please themselves These were in Caesars time of all these countries well neere the strongest City or State for evermore he termeth by the name of Civitas a whole people living under the same lawe and their King in those daies was Immanuentius who being slaine by Cassibelinus his sonne Mandubratius saving his life by flight went into Gaule to Caesar and putting himselfe under his protection returned with him into Britaine At which time these Arinobantes petitioned Caesar by their Ambassadors that he would defend Mandubratius from the injuries of Cassibelinus and resend him to the State that he might be Governour and beare rule over them which being done they gave forty Hostages and were the first of all the Britanes that yeelded themselves under his allegeance This Mandubratius that I may note so much by the way is evermore called by Eutropius Bede and the later writers Androgeus But whence this diversitie of the name should arise I am altogether ignorant unlesse that be true which I have learned from a very skilfull man in the British history and language both that this name Androgeus was given unto him for his lewdnesse and perfidious treason For the signification of wickednesse doth most plainely shew it selfe in it And in the Booke of Triades among the three Traitors of Britaine he is counted the most villanous in that he was the first that made way to bring the forraine Romanes into Britaine and betraied his Country After Mandubratius when as now by reason of hote ciuill warres Britaine was neglected of the Romanes and left unto his owne Princes and lawes certaine it is that Cunobeline ruled as King in these parts of whose coine I exhibit heere unto you one or two peeces although I have already shewed the very same and others heeretofore Admimus this mans Sonne banished by his Father fled with a small retinue about him to the Romane Emperour Cajus Caligula and yeelded himselfe Which so puffed up the young Emperours minde that as if all the Island had absolutely and wholly yeelded into his hands he sent glorious letters to Rome admonishing oftentimes the bearers thereof not to deliver them unto the Consuls but in the Temple of Mars and in a frequent assembly of the Senate When Cunobelinus was dead Aulius Plautius by commission from Claudius the Emperour set upon this Country One of Cunobilinus his Sonnes named Togodumnus he slew and another called Catacratus he overthrew in the field over whom also as we finde in the Capitollin Record of the Romane Triumphes he rode Ovant in triumph and that with so great honour as Suetonius writeth that Claudius the Emperour went side by side with him both in his going to the Capitoll and also in his returne from thence And he himselfe shortly after transporting his forces hither brought these parts within few Moneths into the forme of a Province Thence-forth the Trinobantes rested a while in peace but that under the Empire of Nero they privily entered into a conspiracy with the Iceni to shake off the Romanes yoke But Suetonius Paulinus as Tacitus recordeth quickly quenched this flame of sedition with a great
that Towne where the King used to lye which Bede saith was situate neere unto the River Doroventio In which as hee also writeth Eumer that murderous Villaine thrust at Edwin King of Northumberland with a sword and had runne him through but that one of his men stepped betweene and saved the Kings life with the losse of his owne Yet could I never have said precisely which was the very place had not that most judicious Robert Marshall given me a light thereof For he gave me to understand that just at the very same distance from Yorke which I spake of there stands hard upon the River Darwent a little Towne named Auldby that is if you interprete the Saxon word The old Habitation where are extant yet in sight some tokens of Antiquity and upon a very high Hill neere unto the River the rubbish of an ancient Fortification so that it cannot chuse but to have beene the said City Derventio From hence glideth the River hard under Stanford-Bridge which also of the battaile there fought is called Battlebridge For at that Bridge Harald King of England after a great execution done upon the Danes flew in a pight field Harald Hardread King of Norway who with a Fleet of 200. saile grievously annoyed the Isle of Britaine and was now landed at Richall spoiling and wasting all in his way The King of England who having the honour of the field found among the spoiles such a masse of Gold as that twelve lusty young men had much adoe to carry it on their backes as Adam Bremensis recordeth This field was foughten scarce nine dayes before the arrivall of William Conquerour what time the dissolute and roiotous life of the Englishmen seemed to foretell their imminent overthrow and destruction But of this I have spoken before Derwent which when it is encreased with raine and as it were provoked to anger doth oftentimes contemne his bankes and surround the medowes lying about it passing from hence by Wreshil a proper and a strong Castle which Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester built runneth amaine under Babthorpe which yeeldeth both name and habitation to a worshipfull Family of Knights degree and so at length dischargeth himselfe into Ouse Out of this stocke it was for let us not thinke much to tell of those who performed faithfull service to their Prince and Country that both father and sonne fighting together under the banner of King Henry the Sixth lost their lives in the Battaile of Saint Albans and were there buryed together with this Epitaph Cum patre Radulpho Babthorp jacet ecce Radulphus Filius hoc duro marmore pressus humo Henrici Sexti dapifer pater Armiger ejus Mors satis id docuit fidus uterque fuit c. Behold where two Raulph Babthorps both the sonne and father lye Under a stone of marble hard interr'd in this mould dry To Henry the Sixth the father Squire the Sonne he Sewer was Both true to Prince and for his sake they both their life did passe And now Ouse by this time carrying a fuller streame runneth neere Howden a Mercate Towne famous not so much for any beauty in it or great resort thereto as because it hath given name to a little Territory adjoyning called of it Howdenshire and had therein not long since a prety Collegiat Church of five Prebendaries unto which joyneth the Bishops house of Durrham who have great lands thereabout One of which namely Walter Skirlaw who flourished about the yeere of our Lord 1390. as we reade in the booke of Durrham built a very great and large steeple to this Church that if there happened by chance any inundation it might serve the inhabitants for a place of refuge to save themselves in And not farre from hence stands Metham which gave both sirname and habitation also to the ancient house of the Methams Now the River Ouse being very broad swift and roring besides out powreth his streame into the Frith or salt water ABUS For so calleth Ptolomee that arme of the Sea which the English Saxons and we tearme Humber whereof also the Country beyond it by a generall name was called Northumberland Both these names may seeme to have beene drawne with some little change from the British word Aber which among them signifieth the mouth of a River and I would thinke it was imposed upon this River by way of excellency because Ure or Ouse having entertained and lodged many Rivers carryeth them all with him along into this yea and other Rivers of right great name are emptied into it And verily it is one of the broadest armes of the sea and best stored with fish in all Britaine It riseth high as the Ocean at every tide floweth and when the same ebbeth and returneth backe it carryeth his owne streame and the currant of the Sea together most forcibly and with a mighty noise not without great danger of such as saile therein whence Necham writeth thus of it Fluctibus aequoreis nautis suspectior Humber Dedignans Urbes visere rura colit More fear'd of shipmen Humber streame than waves of sea so deepe Disdaining cities great to see neere country townes doth keepe And following the British History as if it had beene so called of a King of the Hunnes he addeth this moreover Hunnorum princeps ostendens terga Locrino Submersus nomen contulit Humbris aquae A Prince of Hunnes whiles that he shew'd his backe to Locrine brave Was drowned heere and so the name to Humber water gave Touching whom another Poet also Dum fugit obstat ei flumen submergitur illic Dèque suo tribuit nomine nomen aquae Whiles he turn'd backe and tooke his flight the River stopt the same There drown'd was he and then of him the water tooke the name Neither were there indeed any Cities seene to stand by this Arme of the Sea in Nechams daies but before and after there flourished one or two Cities in these places Under the Roman Empire not farre from the banke by Foulnesse a River of small account where Wighton a little Towne of Husbandry well inhabited is now seene stood as we may well thinke in old time DELGOVITIA and that I may not take hold of the distance from DERVENTIO for a proofe both the resemblance and the signification also of the name doe concurre For Delgwe in the British tongue signifieth The Statues or Images of the Heathen Gods and in a small Village adjoyning to this little Towne there was a Temple of Idols even in the Saxons time of exceeding great name and request which of those Heathen gods was then termed Godmundingham and now is called in the same sense Godmanham Neither doubt I but that even when the Britans flourished it was some famous Oracle much frequented when superstition spread and swaying among all Nations had wholly possessed the weake mindes of ignorant people But when Paulinus preached Christ unto Northumberland men Coy-fi who had beene a Pontife or
fore-token of justice having the knot of white silke made in forme of a crosse with an hood upon their left shoulder But of these complements which my purpose was not to prosecute in particular this may bee thought sufficient if not superfluous Now as touching those Knights who simply without any addition bee called Knights and howsoever they are in order ranged last yet by institution they be first and of greatest Antiquitie For as the Romans a gowned nation gave unto them that were entring into mans estate a virile and plaine gowne without welt or gard even so the Germans our Ancestors bestowed upon their young men whom they judged meet for to manage armes armour and weapons Which Cornelius Tacitus will informe you of in these words of his The manner was not for any one to take armes in hand before the State allowed him as sufficient for Martiall service And then in the very assembly of Counsell either some one of the Princes or the father of the young man or one of his kinsfolke furnish him with a shield and a javelin This with them standeth in stead of a virile gowne this is the first honour done to youth before this they seeme to bee but part of a private house but now within a while members of the Common-weale And seeing that such military young men they termed in their language as we in ours Knechts from them I deeme the originall both of name and institution also ought to be fetched This was the first and most simple manner of creating a Knight this the Lombards this the Frankes this our countrymen all descended out of Germanie in old time used Paulus Diaconus reporteth thus among the Lombards This is the Custome that the Kings sonne dineth not with his father unlesse hee receive Armes before from some King of a forraine nation The Annals of France record that the Kings of the Franks gave armes unto their sonnes and to others and girded them with a sword yea and our Aelfred as William of Malmesburie witnesseth when he dubbed Athelstan his nephew Knight being a child of great hope gave him a scarlet mantle a belt or girdle set with precious stones and a Saxon-sword with a golden scabberd Afterwards when as religion had possessed mens minds so as that they thought nothing well fortunately done but what came from Church-men our Ancestors a little before the Normans comming received the Sword at their hands And this Ingulphus who lived in those daies sheweth in these words He that was to be cōsecrated unto lawfull warfare should the evening before with a contrite heart make confession of his sinnes unto the Bishop Abbat Monke or Priest and being absolved give himselfe to prayer and lodge all night in the Church and when hee was to heare divine service the morrow after offer his sword upon the Altar and after the Gospel the Priest was to pu◠the sword first hallowed upon the Knights neck with his Benediction and so when hee had heard Masse againe and received the Sacrament he became a lawfull Knight Neither grew this custome out of use streight waies under the Normans For John of Sarisburie writeth in his Polycraticon thus A solemne Custome was taken up and used that the very day when any one was to be honoured with the girdle of knighthood hee should solemnly goe to Church and by laying and offering his Sword upon the Altar vow himselfe as it were by making a solemne profession to the service of the Altar that is to say promise perpetuall service and obsequious dutie unto the Lord. Peter also of Blois writeth thus At this day young Knights and souldiers receive their Swords from the Altar that they might professe themselves Sonnes of the Church and to have taken the Sword for defence of the poore for punishment and revenge of malefactors and delivery of their Country But in processe of time saith he it is turned cleane contrary For in these daies since they are become adorned with the Knights cincture presently they arise against the Annointed of the Lord and rage upon the patrimonie of Christ crucified And as for this ceremonie that they would be girt with a Sword it may seeme no doubt to have proceeded from the militarie discipline of the Romans because as they denied it unlawfull to fight with their enemie before they were bound to their militarie oath by a drawn sword even so our Forefathers thought they might not go to warfare lawfully before they were by this ceremonie lawfully authorised according to which wee reade that William Rufus King of England was dubbed Knight by Lanfranke the Archbishop But this custome by little and little grew to disuse since the time that the Normans as Ingulphus writeth laughed and scorned at it and in a Synode at Westminster An. 1102. a Canon passed That no Abbats should dubbe Knights which some notwithstanding expound thus That Abbats should grant no lands of the Church to be held by Knights service or in Knights fee or service Afterwards Kings were wont to send their sonnes unto the neighbour Princes to receive Knighthood at their hands thus was our K. Henrie the Second sent unto David King of the Scots and Malcolme King of Scots unto our Henry the Second and our Edward the first unto the King of Castile to take of them Militarie or Virile armes for these termes and phrases they used in that age for the creation of a Knight Then it was also that besides the sword and girdle gilt spurres were added for more ornament whereupon at this day they are called in Latin Equites aurati Moreover they had the priviledge to weare use a signet for before they were dubbed knights as I gather out of Abendon Booke it was not lawfull to use a seale Which writing quoth he Richard Earle of Chester purposed to signe with the seale of his mother Ermentrud considering that all Letters which he directed for as yet he had not taken the Militarie girdle were made up and closed within his mothers signet In the age ensuing knights as it may be well collected were made by their wealth and state of living For they which had a great knights Fee that is if wee may beleeve old records 680. akers of land claimed as their right the ornaments and badges of knighthood Nay rather under Henry the Third they were compelled after a sort to be knights as many as in revenues of their lands might dispend fifteen pounds by the yeare so as now it seemed a title of burden rather than of honour In the yeare 1256. there went out an edict from the King by vertue whereof commandement was given proclamation made throughout the Realme that whosoever had fifteen pounds in land and above should be dight in his armes and endowed with knighthood to the end that England as well as Italie might be strengthned with Chivalrie and they that would not or were not able to maintaine the honour
by word of it Hengston downe well ywrought Is worth London deere ybought And it was an ordinarie place where every seven or eight yeere the Stannarie men of Cornwall and Denshire were wont in great frequencie to assemble together and to consult about their affaires At this hill in the yeere of savation DCCCXXXI the British Danmonij who calling the Danes to aid them of purpose to break into Devonshire that they might drive out the English from thence who alreadie possessed themselves of the countrey were pitiously defeated by King Egbert and slaine almost to the very last man Beneath it Tamar leaveth Halton the habitation of the Rouses anciently Lords of Little Modbery in Devonshire and running nigh unto Salt-Esse a prettie market Towne seated in the descent of an hill which hath a Major and certaine priviledges of their owne as I said erewhile it entertaineth the river Liver on which standeth that same Towne of Saint Germans whereof I spake before And now by this time spreading broader dischargeth it selfe into the Ocean making the haven which in the life of Saint Indractus is called Tamerworth after it hath severed Cornwall from Denshire For Athelstane the first English King that brought this countrey absolute under his dominion appointed this river to be the bound or limit between the Britans of Cornwal and his Englishmen after he had remooved the Britans out of Denshire as witnesseth William of Malmsburie who calleth it Tambra Whereupon Alexander Necham in his Praises of divine wisedome writeth thus Loegriae Tamaris divisor Cornubiaeque Indigenas ditat pinguibus Isiciis Tamar that Lhoegres doth divide from Cornwall in the west The neighbour-dwellers richly serves with Salmons of the best The place requireth here that I should say somewhat of the holy and devout virgin Ursula descended from hence as also of the eleven thousand British Virgins But such is the varietie of Writers whiles some report they suffered martyrdome under Gratian the Emperour about the yeare of our Lord CCCLXXXIII upon the coast of Germanie as they sailed to Armorica others by Attlia the Hun that scourge of God in the yeare CCCCL at Coline upon Rhene as they returned from Rome that with some it hath brought the truth of the History into suspition of a vaine fable And as touching that Constantine whom Gildas termeth a tyrannous whelpe of the uncleane Danmonian Lionesse as also of the Disforresting of all this country for before time it was reputed a Forrest let Historians speake for it is no part of my purpose As for the Earles none of British bloud are mentioned but onely Candorus called by others Cadocus who is accounted by late writers the last Earle of Cornwall of British race and as they which are skilfull in Heraldry have a tradition bare XV. Besaunts V. IIII. III. II. and I. in a shield Sable But of the Normans bloud the first Earle was Robert of Moriton halfe brother to William Conqueror by Herlotta their mother after whom succeeded William his sonne who when hee had sided with Robert of Normandie against Henry the First King of England being taken prisoner in battell lost both his libertie and his honours and at last turned Monke at Bermondsey Then Reginald a base sonne of Henrie the First by the daughter of Sir Robert Corber for that King plied getting children so lustfully as that hee was father of thirteene Bastards was placed in his roome This Reginald dying without issue male legitimate King Henry the Second having assigned unto his daughters certaine lands and Lordships reserved this Earledome to himselfe for the â—ehoore of his owne youngest sonne Iohn a child of nine yeares old upon whom his brother Richard the First conferred it afterwards with other Earledomes This Iohn afterward was crowned King of England and his second sonne Richard was by his brother King Henry the Third endowed with this honour and the Earledome of Poictou a Prince verily in those daies puissant in Gods service devout and religious in war right valiant for counsell sage and prudent who in Aquitaine fought battels with fortunate successe and shewed much valour and having made a voyage into the Holy Land enforced the Sarazens to make truce with him the Kingdome of Apulia offered unto him by the Pope he refused the troubles and tumults in England he often times composed and in the yeare of our Lord MCCLVIL by some of the Princes Electours of Germany was chosen King of the Romans and crowned at Aquisgrane whereupon as if he had made meanes thereto by money this verse was so riâ—e and currant every where Nummus ait pro me nubit Cornubia Romae For me my money saieth this Cornwall to Rome now wedded is For so well monied he was before that one who then lived hath put downe in writing that for ten yeares together hee might dispend one hundred markes a day But when as Germanie was all on a light fire with civil warres among competitors of the Empire he returned quickly into England where he departed this life and was interred in the famous Monastery of Hales which he had built a little after that his first begotten son Henry newly in his return from the Holy Land whiles he was at divine service devoutly occupied within a church at Viterbium in Italy was by Guy de Montfort son of Simon Montfort Earle of Leceister in revenge of his fathers death wickedly slaine Edmund therefore his second son succeeded in the Earledome of Cornwall who died without any lawfull issue and so his high and great estate of inheritance returned to King Edward the First as who was the next unto him in bloud and found as our Lawyers say his heire Whereas that Richard and Edmund his sonne Princes of the bloud Royall of England bare divers Armes from the Armes Royall of England to wit in a shield argent a Lyon rampant gules crowned or within a border sables Bezante I have with others oftentimes much marvelled at neither I assure you can I alleage any other reason but that they in this point imitated the house Royall of France for the manner of bearing Armes came from the French men unto us For the younger sonnes of the Kings of France even to the time wee now speake of bare other coats than the Kings themselves did as we may see in the family of Vermandois Dreux and Courtney and as Robert Duke of Burgundy brother to Henrie the First King of France tooke unto him the ancient shield of the Dukes of Burgundie so we may well thinke that this Richard having received the Earledome of Poictou from Henry the Third his brother assumed unto him that Lyon gules crowned which belonged to the Earles of Poictou before him as the French writers doe record and added thereto the border garnished with Besaunts out of the ancient coat of the Earles of Cornwall For so soone as the younger sonnes of the Kings of France began to beare the Armes of France with
mother to Edward Courtney the last Earle of Devonshire of that house and on the other side of the quier Iohn de Beaufort Duke of Somerset with his wife Margaret daughter and heire to Sir Iohn Beauchamp of Bletneshoe whose daughter Margaret Countesse of Richmond and mother of King Henry the Seventh a most godly and vertuous Princesse erected a Schoole heere for the training up of youth But now will I turne my pen from the Church to the Towne when the Danes by their crafty devices went about to set the Englishmen together by the eares and would have broken that league and unitie which was betweene King Edward the Elder and his cosen Aethelwald Aethelwald then lusting after the Kingdome and wholly set against his liege Prince fortified this towne as strongly as possibly he could But so soone as Edward came towards him with his forces and pitched his tents at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now called Badbury he fled and conveied himselfe to his confederates the Danes This Badbury is a little hill upon a faire doune scarce two miles off environed about with a triple trench and rampier and had by report in times past a Castle which was the seate of the West-Saxon Kings But now if ever there were any such it lieth so buried in the owne ruines and rubbish that I could see not so much as one token thereof But hard by a sight I had of a village or mannour called Kingston Lacy because together with Winburne it appurtained to the Lacies Earles of Lincolne unto whom by covenant it came from the Earles of Leicester by the meanes of Quincie Earle of Winchester For King Henry the first had given it to Robert Earle of Mellent and of Leicester and at the last both places from the Lacies fell unto the house of Lancaster whose bountie and liberalitie Winburne had good triall of From this Winburne Stoure as it passeth admitteth Alen a little brook over which standeth S. Giles Winburne the habitation of the worshipfull and ancient house of Astleys Knights also Wickhampton the inheritance sometime of the Barons de Maltravers of whom the last in the raigne of Edward the Third left behind him two daughters onely the one wedded unto Iohn de Arundell grandfather to Iohn Earle of Arundell who left unto his posteritie the title of Barons de Maltravers the other wife of Robert Le-Rous and afterwards of Sir Iohn Keines Knight From hence the Stoure passeth on by Canford under which not long ago Iames Lord Montjoy studious in Minerall matters began to make Calcanthum or Vitriol we call it Coperas and to boile Alome And out of which in old time Iohn Earle of Warren to the great disteining of his owne good name and the damage of England tooke as it were by strong hand and carried away as it is to be seene in our Chronicles Dame Alice Lacey the wife of Thomas Earle of Lancaster And now by this time Stoure leaveth Dorsetshire behind him and after hee hath travelled through some part of Hantshire at length taketh up his lodging in the Ocean and yet not before hee hath entertained a pretty river that runneth to Cranburne a place well watered Where in the yeare of Salvation 930. Aelward a noble Gentleman surnamed for his whitenesse Meaw founded a little monasterie which Robert Fitz-Haimon a Norman unto whom fell the possessions of the said Aelward leaving heere one or two Monkes in a cell translated to Theoksbury From whom in order of succession by the Clares Earles of Glocester and Burghs Earles of Ulster it came to Lionell Duke of Clarence and by him to the Crowne But now Cranborne hath his Uicount now Earle of Salisburie whom King Iames for his approved wisedome and worth honored first with the title of Baron or Lord Cecil of Essendon and the next yeare after of Vicount Cranborne South from hence lieth Woodland emparked sometime the seat of the worshipfull family of Filioll the heires whereof were married to Edward Seimor after Duke of Somerset and Willoughby of Wallaton As touching the Earles and Marquesses of this shire King William the Conqueror having now by conquest attained to the Kingdome of England made Osmund that was Earle of Seez in Normandie both Bishop of Sarisbury and afterward also the first Earle of Dorset and his Chancellor highly admiring the godly wisedome of the man and his notable good parts Long after that King Richard the Second in the one and twentieth yeare of his raigne advanced Iohn de Beaufort Iohn of Gaunt his sonne and Earle of Sommerset to be Marquesse Dorset of which dignitie King Henry the Fourth in hatred of Richard the Second deprived him And when as in the high Court of Parliament the Commons of England there assembled who loved him very dearely made earnest intercession that the said dignitie of Marquesse might bee restored unto him hee himselfe distasting this new title and never heard of before those daies utterly refused it And then his younger brother named Thomas Beaufort was created Earle of Dorset who afterward for his warlike prowesse and valour was by King Henrie the Fifth adorned with the title of Duke of Excester and with the Earledome of Harcourt For he valiantly defended Harflew in Normandie against the Frenchmen and in a pitched field encountring the Earle of Armignac put him to flight After he was dead without issue King Henry the Sixth nominated out of the same house of Lancaster Edmund first Earle afterwards Marquesse Dorset and lastly Duke of Somerset whose sonnes being slaine in the civill wars Edward the Fourth when as now the family of Lancaster lay as it were over troden in the dust created Thomas Grey out of the house of Ruthin who was his sonne in law for the King had espoused the mother of the said Grey Marquesse Dorset when in right of his wife he had entred upon a great state and inheritance of the Bonvilles in this country and the territories adjoyning After him succeeded in the same honour Thomas his sonne and Henrie his nephew by the said Thomas who also was created by King Edward the Sixth Duke of Suffolk having wedded Lady Frances daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk and Neece unto King Henry the Eighth by his sister This Duke in Queene Maries daies being put to death for high treason learned too late how dangerous a thing it is to marrie into the bloud royall and to feed ambitious hopes both in himselfe and in others From that time the title of Dorset was bestowed upon none untill King Iames at his first entrance into this Kingdome exalted Thomas Sackvill Baron of Buckhurst and Lord high Treasurer of England a man of rare wisedome and most carefull providence to the honour of Earle of Dorset who ended his life with suddaine death 1608. and left Robert his sonne his successor who deceasing within the yeare left the said honour againe to Richard his hopefull sonne whom he
in the North side to the river Tamis King Offa usurped and seized into his owne hands Neere unto it Northwest lieth Lee which by the daughter of a certaine worshipfull Knight surnamed thereupon de Lee fell to the familie of Besiles and thereof it came to bee called Besiles Lee and from that house in right of marriage to Richard Fetiplace whose Progenitor Thomas brought some honor to his posterity by matching with Beatrice the base daughter of Iohn the first King of Portugall and widdow to Gilbert Lord Talbot of whom they are descended But now let us returne Hard by Abendon Ocke a little river that runneth by the South side of the towne over which in times past Sir Iohn of Saint Helenes Knight built a bridge gently falleth into Isis This Ocke springeth in that vale of Whitehorse scarce a mile or two from Kingston-Lisle in olde time the possession of Warin de Insulâ or Lisle a noble Baron From whom when as Sir Iohn Talbot the younger sonne of that renowned warrior Iohn Earle of Shrewsburie was descended by his mother hee was created by King Henrie the Sixth Lord Lisle like as Warin de Insula in times past in regard of the possession of this place as if that dignity were annexed thereto and afterwards Vicount Lisle by a Patent without any such regard This title through the gratious favor of Kings flourished still in his posterity one after another successively For breifly to knit up their succession When Sir Thomas Talbot sonne of the said Iohn departed this life without issue beeing deadly shot into the mouth with an arrow in a skirmish defending his possessions against the Lord Barkley Sir Edward Grey who had married his sister received the same at the hands of King Richard the third and left it to Iohn his sonne and successour Whose onely daughter and heire King Henrie the Eighth assured to Sir Charles Brandon and thereupon created him Vicount Lisle But when as shee died in tender yeeres before the marriage was solemnized hee also relinquished that title Which King Henrie afterward bestowed upon Sir Arthur Plantagenet base sonne to King Edward the fourth Who had wedded Elizabeth sister to Sir Iohn Grey Vicount Lisle and widdow of Edmund Dudley And when hee deceased without heires male the said King honoured therewith Sir Iohn Dudley sonne of Edmund by the same Elizabeth Grey who in the time of King Edward the sixth was created Duke of Northumberland and afterward attainted by Queene Marie His sonne Sir Ambrose Dudley beeing restored in bloud was by Queene Elizabeth on one and the selfe same day created Lord Lisle and Earle of Warwicke who ended his life issuelesse And now lately Sir Robert Sidney his sisters sonne was honoured with the stile of Vicoun Lisle by King Iames who had before created him beeing Chamberlaine to the Queene his wife Baron Sidney of Pensherst Then runneth the river Ocke aforesaid betweene Pusey which they that are named de Pusey hold it yet by the horn from their ancestors as given unto them in ancient time by K. Canutus the Dane and the two Dencheworths the one and the other where flourished for a long time two noble and auncient houses to wit de Hide at the one and Fetiplace at the other which families may seeme to have sprung out of one and the same stocke considering they both beare one and the same coat of armes Then entertaineth Ock a namelesse river which issueth out of the same vale at Wantage called in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where some time there was a Manour house of the Kings and the place wherein Aelfred that most noble and renowned King was borne and bred which at his death he bequeathed to Alfrith Long time after it became a mercate towne by the meanes and helpe of Sir Fulke Fitzwarin that most warlike Knight upon whom Roger Bigod Mareschall of England had bestowed it for his martiall prowesse and at this daie it acknowledgeth for Lords thereof the Bourchiers Earles of Bath descended from the race of the Fitzwarins of whose familie some were here buried Isis being departed once from Abbendon straight waies receiveth into it out of Oxfordshire the river Tame of which elsewhere and now by a compound word being called Tamisis first directeth his course to Sinodun an high hill and fenced with a deepe trench were stood for certaine in old time a fortresse of the Romanes for the ground being now broken up with the plough yeeldeth otherwhiles to the ploughmen store of Roman pieces of coine as tokens of antiquitie Under it at Bretwell there was a Castle if it were not that upon this hill which King Henry the Second wonne by force a little before that he made peace with King Stephen From hence Tamis holdeth on his way to the chiefe Citie in times past of the Attrebatians which Antonius termeth GALLEVA of Attrebats Ptolomee GALEVA but both of them through the carelessnesse of the Scriveners name it wrong for GALLENA and they likewise in their Greeke copies have thrust upon us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Gallena by transposition of letters I have thought it was so named in the British tongue as it were Guall hen that is The old rampier or fort Which name being still kept and Ford added thereto which is a shallow place in the river the Englishmen in old time called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we at this day shorter Wallengford In King Edward the Confessors time it was counted a Burgh and contained as we find in that Book wherein K. William the Frst tooke the Survey of all England two hundred threescore and sixteene Hages that is to say Houses yielding nine pounds de Gablo and those that dwelt there did the King service on horsebacke or by water Of those Hages eight were destroyed for the Castle In old time it was compassed about with walles which as men may see by their tract tooke up a mile in circuit It hath a Castle scituate upon the river very large I assure you and stately so fortitified in times past that the hope in it as impregnable and invincible made divers over-bold and stout For when England burned as a man may say in a generall flame of warres we read that it was by King Stephen belaied once or twise with sieges but all in vaine The greatnesse and magnificence thereof I much wondered at when I was young and removed thither from Oxford for a place it is now for the Students there of Christ Church to retire unto as having a double range of walles about it and being compassed round likewise with a duple rampier and ditch and in the midst of it there standeth a tower to keepe raised upon a mightie high mount in the steepe ascent whereof by steps we saw a Well of an exceeding depth The Inhabitants are verily perswaded that it
seeing that it answereth backe againe with the encrease of an hundred fold that which is sowne Here may you see the high wayes and common lanes clad with apple-trees and peare-trees not set nor graffed by the industry of mans hand but growing naturally of their owne accord The ground of it selfe is enclined to beare fruits and those both in taste and beautie farre exceeding others whereof some will last a whole yeare and not wither and rivell so that they are serviceable untill new come againe for supply There is no countrey in all England so thicke set as this Province with Vine-yards so plentifull in encrease and so pleasant in taste The very wines thereof made affect not their mouthes that drinke of them with any unpleasing tartnesse as being little inferiour in sweetnesse and odour to the French wines The houses in it are almost innumerable the Churches passing faire and the townes standing very thicke But that which addeth unto all these good gifts a speciall glory is the river Severne than which there is not any one in this land for channell broader for streame swifter for fish better stored There is in it a daily rage and fury of the waters which I know not whether I may call a gulfe or whirle poole of waves and the same raising up the sands from the bothome winding and driving the same upon heapes commeth with a forcible violence and reacheth no further then to the bridge Sometimes also it overfloweth the bankes and when it hath roved about a great way it retireth backe as a conquerour of the land Vnhappy is that vessell which it taketh full upon the side The Water-men well ware hereof when they see that Higra comming for so they call it in English turne the vessell affront upon it and so cutting through the middest of it checke and avoide the violence thereof But that which hee saith of the hundred fold increase and yeeld of the ground doth not hold true Neither for all that would I thinke with these whining and sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella taketh up for it that the soile is now wearied and become barren with too much fruitfulnesse and over-free bearing in former ages Howbeit hereby if I should say nothing of other things it is to bee seene that wee have no cause to wonder why many places in this countrey and else-where in England are called Vine-yards seeing it hath affoorded wine and surely it may seeme to proceed rather of the Inhabitants idlenesse than any distemperature and indisposition of the ayre that it yeeldeth none at this day But why in some places within this Countrey as wee reade in our Statutes by a private custome which now is become of strong validitie as a law the goods and lands of condemned persons fall into the Kings hands for a yeare onely and a day and after that terme expired contrary to the custome of all England beside returne to the next heires let law-students and Statesmen looke to that for no part it is of my purpose to search thereinto Now I will take a superfiall survey such as I can of those three parts whereof I spake orderly one after another The part that lyeth more West beyond Severne which the Silures in old time possessed along the river Vaga or Wye that parteth England and Wales was wholy bespred with thicke tall woods we call it at this day Deane-forrest The Latine writers some name it of the Danes Danica Sylva the Danes wood others with Girald the Wood of Danubia But I would thinke if it had not this name of Dean a little towne adjoyning that by short cutting the word it was called Deane for Arden Which terme both Gauls and Britans in ancient times may seeme to have used for a wood considering that two mighty great woods the one in that part of Gaule called Gallia Belgica and the other among us in Warwick-shire are by one and the selfe same name termed Arden For this was a wonderfull thicke Forrest and in former ages so darke and terrible by reason of crooked and winding wayes as also the grisly shade therein that it made the inhabitants more fierce and bolder to commit robberies For in the reigne of Henry the sixt they so infested all Severne side with robbing and spoiling that there were lawes made by authority of the Parliament for to restraine them But since that rich Mines of Iron were heere found out those thicke woods began to wax thin by little and little In this Forrest upon the foresaid river stood Tudenham and Wollaston two townes of good antiquity which Walter and Roger the brethren of Gislebert Lord of Clare wrested out of the Welch-mens hands about the yeare 1160. As also Lidney is adjoyning to them where Sir William Winter Viceadmirall of England a renowned Knight for Sea-services as his brother Arthur slaine in Orkeney-Isles built a faire house But the most ancient towne of all others is ABONE or AVONE mentioned by Antonine the Emperour in his Iourney-booke which having not lost that name altogether is at this day called Aventon a small towne indeed but standing upon Severne just nine miles as hee writeth from VENTASILVRVM or Caer-went And seeing that Avon in the Brittish tongue importeth A River it shall be no strange thing if we thinke it so called of the river for in the very same signification that I may omit the rest we have Waterton Bourne and Riverton as the Latines had Aquinum and Fluentium And I suppose the rather that it tooke name of the river because people were wont at this place to ferry over the river whereupon the towne standing over against it is by Antonine called TRAIECTVS that is a passage or ferry but without doubt the number in that place set downe is corrupted For he maketh it nine miles betweene TRAIECTVS and ABONE whereas the river is scarce three miles broad It may seeme then to have beene utterly decaied or turned rather into a village either when as passengers began to ferry over below or when Athelstane thrust out the Welsh Britans from hence For hee was the first that drave them as William of Malmesbury witnesseth beyond the river Wye And where as before his time Severne was the bound betweene the English and Welshmen hee appointed Wye to be the limit confining them both Whence our Necham writeth thus Inde vagos vaga Cambrenses hinc respicit Anglos To Wales on this side looketh Wie On that againe our England he doth eye Not farre from Wye amongst blind by-wayes beset with thicke plumps of trees appeareth Breulis Castle more than halfe fallen downe remarkable for the death of Mahel youngest sonne of Miles Earle of Hereford For there his greedy devises bloody crueltie and covetousnesse ready to pray upon other mens estates for which vices hee is much blamed in Writers were overtaken with a just revenge from heaven For as Girald hath written being entertained guest-wise by
Sir Walter Clifford in this Castle when the house was all on a light fire hee was killed with a stone that from the top of an high Turret fell upon his head and brained him Neither have I any thing else to be recounted in this wood-countrey beside Newnham a pretty mercate and Westbury thereby a seate of the Bainhams of ancient descent But that Herbert who had wedded the sister of the said Mahel Earle of Hereford in her right was called Lord of Deane froÌ„ whom that Noble house of the Herberts fetcheth their pedigree out of which family came the Lords of Blanleveney and of late daies the Herberts Earles of Huntingdon and Pembroch with others From hence also if wee may believe David Powell in his historie of Wales was descended Antonie Fitz-Herbert whose great learning and industrie in the wisedome of our law both the judiciall Court of Flees wherein he sate Iustice a long time and also those exact bookes of our common law by him exquisitely penned and published doe sufficiently witnesse But other have drawne his descent and that more truly if I have insight therein from the race of the Fitz-Herberts Knights in Derby shire The river Severn called by the Britains HAFFREN after it hath run a long course with a channell somewhat narrow no sooner entereth into this shire but entertaineth the river Avon and another brooke comming from the East Betwixt which is seated Tewkesbury in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by others Theoci Curia taking the name from one Theocus who there did lead an Eremites life It is a great and faire towne having three bridges to passe over standing upon three rivers famous for making of Wollen cloath and the best mustard which for the quicke heate that it hath biteth most and pierceth deepest but most famous in times past by reason of an ancient Monastery which Dodo a man of great power in Mercia founded in the yeare 715 where before time he kept his royall court as is testified by this inscription which there remained long after HANC AVLAM REGIAM DODO DVX CONSECRARI FECIT IN ECCLESIAM THIS ROIAL PALACE DVKE DODO CAVSED TO BE CONSECRATED FOR A CHVRCH And Odo his brother endowed the same which being by continuance of time and the fury of enemies ruinated Robert FITZ-HAIMON the Norman Lord of Corboile and Thorigny in Normandie reedified translating monks from Cranborn in Dorsetshire hither upon a devout mind verily and a religious that he might make some amends to the Church for the losse that the Church of Baieux in Normandie had sustained which K. Henry the first for to free him from his enemies had set on fire and burned and afterwards repenting that which he had done built againe It cannot writeth William of Malmesbury be easily reported how highly Robert Fitz-hamon exalted this Monastery wherin the beauty of the buildings ravished the eies and the charity of the Monks allured the hearts of such folke as used to come thither Within this both himselfe and his successours Earles of Glocester were buried who had a Castle of their owne called Holmes hard by which now is almost vanished out of sight Neither is this towne lesse memorable for that battell whereby the house of Lancaster received a mortal wound as wherein very many of their side in the yeere 1471. were slaine more taken prisoners and divers beheaded their power so weakened and their hopes abated especially because young Prince Edward the only sonne of King Henry the sixt a very child was there put to death and in most shamefull and villanous manner his braines dashed out as that never after they came unto the field against King Edward the Fourth In which respect Iohn Leland wrote of this towne in this wise Ampla foro partis spoliis praeclara Theoci Curia sabrinae quà se committit Avona Fulget nobilium sacrÃsque recondit in antris Multorum cineres quondam inclyta corpora bello Where Av'n and Severn meete in one there stands a goodly towne For mercat great and pillage rich there wonne of much renowne Hight Tewkesburie where noble men entombed many are Now gone to mould who sometimes were redoubted Knights in warre From thence we come to Deorhirst which Bede speaketh of scituate somewhat low upon the banke of Severn wherby it hath great losses many times when he over-floweth his bounds It had in it sometimes a little Monasterie which being by the Danes overthrowne flourished againe at length under Edward the Confessor who as we read in his Testament assigned The religious place at Deorhirst and the government thereof to Saint Denis neere unto Paris Yet a little while after as William of Malmesbury saith It was but a vaine and void representation of antiquitie Over against it lieth a place halfe incompassed in with Severne called in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Alney now the Eight that is The Iland Famous by the reason of this occurrence that when both the Englishmen and the Danes were much weakened with continuall encounters to make a finall dispatch at once of all quarrels the Fortune and destinie of both nations was committed to Edmund King of the English and to Canutus King of the Danes who in this Iland by a single combate tried it out unto whether of them the right of this Realme should belong But after they had fought and given over on even hand a peace was concluded and the kingdome divided betweene them But when streight upon it Edmund was dispatched out of the way not without suspicion of poison Canutus seized into his owne hands all England From Deorhirst Severne runneth downe by Haesfield which King Henry the Third gave to Rich. Pauncefote whose successours built a faire house heere and whose predecessours were possessed of faire lands in this Countrey before and in the Conquerours time in Wiltshire making many reaches winding in and out and forthwith dividing himselfe to make a river Iland most rich and beautifull in greene meddowes he passeth along by the head Citie of this Shire which Antonine the Emperour called CLEVVM and GLEVVM the Britans terme Caer Gloviè the English Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we Glocester the Vulgar sort of Latinists Glovernia others Claudiocestria of the Emperour Claudius as they imagine who forsooth should give it this name when hee had bestowed heere his daughter Genissa in marriage upon Arviragus the Britan. Touching whom Iuvenall writeth thus Regem aliquem capies vel de temone Britanno Excidet Arviragus Some King sure thou shalt prisoner take in chase or battaile heat Or else Arviragus shall loose his British royall seate As though hee had begat any other daughters of his three wives besides Claudia Antonia and Octavia or as if Arviragus had beene knowne in that age whose name was never heard of before Domitians time and scarce then But let them goe that seeke to build antiquitie upon a frame grounded on lies Rather yet would I
tooke to wife the onely daughter of the Baron Sands dwelt while he lived in a very faire house and on the other Chesham Bois where and at Draiton Beauchamp the Family of Cheneis hath anciently flourished From hence I passed scarse three miles North-ward but I came to the ridge of Chilturne-hils which divideth the whole region a crosse from the South-west to the North-east passing by many villages and small townes among which that of greatest note is Hamden which gave name to an ancient and well spred Family in these parts In the very East corner of these hils Ashridge a retiring house sometime of the kings standeth upon an ascent where Edmund Earle of Cornewall sonne to Richard king of the Romans founded a religious house for a new Order of religious men in those daies called Bon Hommes by him first brought into England Who professed the rule of S. Augustine and were according to the manner of the Order of the Eremitans clad in skie coloured garments From this ridge or edge of the Hils there is a large prospect every way downe into the Vale beneath which I said was the other part of the Shire This almost throughout is a plaine Champion standing likewise upon a clay-soile stiffe tough and fruitfull with pasture medowes most plentifull of grasse and fodder feeding innumerable flockes of sheepe whose soft and passing fine fleeces are in request even as farre as to the Turkish Nations in Asia But it is all naked and bare of woods unlesse it bee on the West side where among others is Bernewood whose Forresters surnamed de Borstall were famous in former times About this Forrest the yeare after Christs Nativity 914. the Danes furiously raged and then happily it was that the ancient Burgh was destroied whose antiquity Romane coined peeces of money there found doe testifie which afterwards became the royall house of King Edward the Confessour But now it is a Country Village and in stead of Buri-Hill they call it short Brill In this Vale although it be exceeding full of Townes and Villages yet very few of them are memorable and those either upon the River Tame or Vsa that is Ouse Not far from Tame which watereth the South part of the Vale upon the rising of a prety hill standeth a faire Mercat Towne well occupied and compassed about with many most pleasant greene medowes and pastures commonly called Ailesbury of which the whole Vale is termed the Vale of Ailesbury The Engish-Saxons called it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when Cuthwulf the Saxon won it in the yeare of our Lord 572. For the Brittish name whereby it was knowne before in continuance of time is utterly lost Famous it hath beene in times past especially for Ediths sake there fostered who having obtained of her Father â—rewald this Towne for her Dowry forthwith by persuasion of the religious people bad the world and her husband farewell and taking her selfe to the Vale for opinion of holinesse and devotion in that most pregnant and fruitfull age of Saints became wonderfully renowned even as farre as to working of miracles together with her sister Eadburg of whose name there is a little Towne among the Hils as yet called Eadburton In the time of King William the Conquerour it was a Manour of the Kings and certaine yard-lands were here given by the King with this condition that the Possessour or Holder thereof marke ye nice and dainty ones should finde 〈◊〉 for the Kings bed when the King came thither In the Raigne of Edward the First certaine Gentlemen named de Ailesbury who bare for their Armes Aâ—ure a Crosse Argent were by report but I know not how truely the Lords thereof certaine it is they were in those daies men of the better sort and of great good note and such as by marriage with the daughter and heire of the Caihaignes who were in times past Lords of Meddleton Caihaignes came to a faire and goodly inheritance which at last by heires generall came to the Chaworths the Staffords of Graâ—ton c. But now the greatest name and reputation that it hath is by grazing and feeding of Cattaile Very much beholden also it is unto Justice Baldwin who not onely adorned it with publique aedifices but also made a passing faire causey to it where the way was very deepe and cumbersome for three miles or thereabout in length Heere round about in every side flockes of sheepe pasture most plenteously in mighty numbers loden with fleeces to the great gaine and commodity of their Masters especially at Quarendon a Lordship belonging to Sir Henry Lee an honourable Knight of the Order of the Garter Eythorp which sometime was the Dinhams and now the Dormâ—â—s Knights and also Winchindon appertaining to the Family of the Godwins Knights likewise c. Lower wee meet with nothing memorable upon Tame unlesse Cheardesley be as many thinke it is the place which was called in the Saxon-tongue Cerdick-flega of Cerdic the Saxon who fought a very sharpe and bloudy battaile there with the Britans Neere unto it standeth Credendon now Crendon which was the Capitall house belonging to the Honour of Giffard for so were those lands termed which fell unto Walter Giffard at the Conquest of England whose sonne the second Earle of Buckingham and Ermingard his wife built the Abbay of Noteley thereby in the yeare 1112. But his cozen Hugh de Bolebec from whom by the females the Earles of Oxford are descended held of him no small possessions in these parts And the ruines of Bolebec Castle are seene hard by within the Parish of Whitchurch Neere unto which is Ascot the principall Mansion house of the Dormers from whence descended the Dutches of Feria in Spaine and others of noble note Usa or Ouse in times past Isa and the second Isis which with a soft and still streame passeth through the North part of this Province arising in Northampton-shire and presently from his head when being yet but small he closely entereth into this Shire runneth beside Bittlesden which Robert de Mapertshall Lord of the place gave unto Osbert de Clinton Chamberlaine to King Henry the First a powerfull Courtier that he might not be punished as a Fellon for stealing away one of the Kings Hounds But he restored it unto him againe with a cozin of his in marriage yet lost he the same in the hot broile of the civill war under King Stephen and Ernald Bois by way of a benefit and courtesie received it at the hands of Robert Earle of Leicester And hee in the yeare of Christ 1127. founded there a little Monastery for the Cistertien Monks Then Ouse saluteth Buckingham the Shire Towne which as Marian saith King Edward the elder in the yeare of our Lord 915. fortified with a Rampire and Sconces on both bankes against the Invasions and assaults of the Danes Yet was it of no great name as it may seeme in the
Littons descended from Litton in Darbyshire I saw certaine round hils cast up and raised by mans hands such as the old Romanes were wont to reare for Souldiers slaine in the wars of which the Captaine himselfe laied the first turfe Unlesse some man would rather say they had a reference to the bounds For such like little hils in old time were reared to signifie the bounds of lands under which they used to lay ashes coales lime bricke and tile beaten to powder c. as I will shew else-where more at large Beneath this more Southward the river Lea by our forefathers named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath his head who with a milde course passeth down first by Whethamsted a towne plentifull in wheate whereof it tooke name which place John of Whethamsted there borne and thereof named a man in King Henry the Sixth his daies much renowned by his due desert of learning made of more estimation From thence running by Brocket Hall the residence in late time of the Brockets Knights approcheth neere unto Bishops Hatfield situate upon the fall and hanging of a little hill in the upper part whereof stood a house of the Kings now the Earle of Salisburies in times past belonging to the Bishops of Ely whereupon it was named Bishops Hatfield which John Morton Bishop of Ely reedified For in this place King Eadgar gave unto the Church of Ely forty hides of land Afterwards it passeth under Hertford which in some Copies of Bede is named Herudford where he treateth of the Synode there holden in the yeare of our Salvation 670. which name some interprete The red Ford others The Ford of Harts This Towne in William the Conquerours time discharged it selfe for ten hides and in it were 26. Burgesses and at that time Ralph Limsey a Noble man built heere a Cell for Saint Albans Monkes But now it is neither greatly inhabited nor much frequented and in this respect most of all commended because it is ancient For why it hath given name to the whole County and is reputed the Shire-towne A Castle it hath upon the River Lea built as men thinke by King Edward the elder and enlarged first by the house of Clare whereunto it belonged For Gislebert of Clare about King Henry the Second his dayes was accounted Earle of this Hertford and Robert Fitz-walter of the same house of Clare what time as Stephen seized into his hands all the Castles of England wheresoever avouched franckly even to Stephen his face as we read in Mathew of Paris that the keeping of this Castle by ancient right appertained to himselfe Afterwards it was laid unto the Crowne and King Edward the Third granted unto Iohn of Gaunt his sonne then Earle of Richmond who afterward was Duke of Lancaster this Castle with the Towne and honour of Hertford where as the very words runne in the Graunt hee might according to his estate keepe house and decently make his aboade From hence Lea falleth downe forthwith to Ware so named of a barre or dam made to stay water streames which our Ancestours called a Weare or Ware This Towne even at the very first did much harme unto Hertford and afterwards by reason it became so greatly hanted darkened as it were the light thereof For when the Barons warre against King John was waxed hote this Ware presuming much upon their Lord the Baron Wake turned London high way to it whereas before it was but a little Village and knowne by a Friery which hee founded neither was it lawfull to passe that way with any Carts considering that the Bridge was chained up the Keyes whereof were in the custody of the Bailiffe of Hertford Neere about which time Gilbert Marescall Earle of Pembroch a principall and most potent Peere of the Realme proclaimed heere a disport of running on horsebacke with launces which they call Tourneaments under the name of Fortunie making a scorne of the Kings Authority whereby such Toureneaments were inhibited To which place when a great number of the Nobility and Gentry were assembled it fortuned that himselfe as hee ranne at tilt by occasion that his flinging horse brake bridle and cast him was trampled under foote and so pittifully dyed These Justs or Tourneaments were certaine publique exercises of Armes and more than flourishes practised among noble Gentlemen and instituted if wee beleeve Munster in the yeare of our Lord 934. having also speciall lawes thereto belonging which you may finde in the said Munster and the same exercises were used a long time in such an outragious manner and with such flaughter of Gentlemen in all places but in England most of all since that King Stephen brought them in that by divers Decrees of the Church they were forbidden upon paine that whosoever therein were slaine should want Christian Buriall in Church or Churchyard and heere with us King Henry the Third by advise of his Sages made an Act of Parliament that their heires who transgressed in this kinde should be disinherited Howbeit contrary to the said law so good and wholesome this naughty and wicked custome was practised a great while and grew not quite out of use before the happy dayes of King Edward the Third Betwixt these two Townes Hertford and Ware distant scarce two miles a sunder Lea is encreased by two rilles from the North Asserius termeth them Mimeram and Benefician I would guesse that to bee Benefician upon which standeth Benington where the notable family of Bensted had in old time a little Castle and also Woodhall an habitation of the Butlers who being branched from Sir Ralph Butler Baron of Wem in Shropshire and his wife heire to William Pantulfe Lord of Wem were Lords of Pulre-bach and enriched much by an heire of Sir Richard Gobion and another of Peletot Lord of this place in the time of King Edward the Third I take Mimeran to bee the other brooke whereupon Pukerich is seated which by the grant of King Edward the First at the mediation of William le Bland had a Mercate and Faire granted to it Whereupon also neighboureth Standon with a seemely house built by Sir Ralph Sadleir Chauncellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster Privie Counsellour to three Princes and the last Knight Baneret of England a man so advanced for his great services and staied wisedome At the backe of Pukerich Munden Furnivall sheweth it selfe a place to bee remembred if it were but for this that Geffrey Earle of Britaine gave it to Gerard de Furnivall of whom also it bare the name a younger sonne of Furnivall of Sheffeld But now let us returne to the River Lea and the Towne of Ware unto which the Danes being come with their light Pinnaces and Shallops raised a Fort as the said Asserius reporteth which when King Aelfred could not winne by force hee by digging three severall Chanels turned aside the water of Lea that they might not returne with their Vessels So as ever since it stood
Edward the Thirds sonne who after hee had married a wife out of that house was entituled by his father Duke of Clarence For he of this place with a fuller sound than that of Clare was stiled Duke of Clarence like as before him the sonnes of Earle Gislebert and their successors were hence surnamed De Clare and called Earles of Clare Who died at Languvill in Italy after he had by a second marriage matched with a Daughter of Galâ—acius Vicount of Millain and in the Collegiat Church here lieth interred as also Ioan Acres daughter to King Edward the first married to Gislebert de Clare Earle of Glocester Here peradventure the Readers may looke that I should set downe the Earles of Clare so denominated of this place and the Dukes of Clarence considering they have beene alwayes in this Realme of right honorable reputation and verily so will I doe in few words for their satisfaction in this behalfe Richard the sonne of Gislebert Earle of Augy in Normandy served in the warres under King William when hee entred England and by him was endowed with the Townes of Clare and Tunbridge This Gislebert begat foure sonnes namely Gislebert Roger Walter and Robert from whom the Fitz-walters are descended Gislebert by the daughter of the Earle of Cleremont had issue Richard who succeeded him Gislebert of whom came that Noble Richard Earle of Pembroch and Conquerour of Ireland and Walter Richard the first begotten sonne was slaine by the Welshmen and left behinde him two sonnes Gilbert and Roger. Gilbert in King Stephens dayes was Earle of Herford howbeit both he and his Successours are more often and commonly called Earles of Clare of this their principall seat and habitation yea and so many times they wrote themselves After him dying without issue succeeded his brother Roger whose sonne Richard tooke to wife Amice the daughter and one of the Heires to William Earle of Glocester in right of whom his posterity were Earles of Glocester And those you may see in their due place But when at length their issue male failed Leonel Third sonne of King Edward the Third who had married Elizabeth the Daughter and sole Heire of William de Burgh Earle of Vlster begotten of the Bodie of Elizabeth Clare was by his Father honoured with this new Title Duke of Clarence But when as hee had but one onely Daughter named Phillippa wife to Edmund Mortimer Earle of March King Henry the Fourth created Thomas his owne yonger sonne Duke of Clarence who being withall Earle of Albemarle High Steward of England and Governour of Normandy and having no lawfull issue was slaine in Anjou by the violent assault of Scots and French A long time after king Edward the Fourth bestowed this honour upon his owne brother George whom after grievous enmity and bitter hatred hee had received againe into favour and yet at the last made an end of him in prison causing him as the report currently goeth to be drowned in a Butte of Malmesey A thing naturally engraffed in men that whom they have feared and with whom they have contended in matter of life those they hate for ever though they be their naturall brethren From Clare by Long-Melford a very faire Almes-house lately built by that good man Sir William Cordal Knight and Maister of the Rolls Stour passeth on and commeth to Sudbury that is to say the South-Burgh and runneth in manner round about it which men suppose to have beene in old time the chiefe towne of this Shire and to have taken this name in regard of Norwich that is The Northren Towne Neither would it take it well at this day to be counted much inferiour to the Townes adjoyning for it is populous and wealthy by reason of Clothing there and hath for the chiefe Magistrate a Major who every yeare is chosen out of seaven Aldermen Not farre from hence distant is Edwardeston a Towne of no great name at this day but yet in times past it had Lords therein dwelling of passing great Honour of the surname of Mont-chensie out of which Family Sir Guarin Montchensie married the daughter and one of the heires of that mighty William Marescall Earle of Pembroch and of her begat a daughter named Ioan who unto the stile of her Husband William de Valentia of the family of Lusignie in France brought and adjoyned the title of Earle of Penbroch But the said Sir Guarin Mont-chensy as he was a right honourable person so he was a man exceeding wealthy in so much as in those dayes they accounted him the most potent Baron and the rich Crassus of England For his last will and testament amounted unto two hundred thousand Markes no small wealth as the standard was then From a younger brother or cadet of this house of Montchensie issued by an heire generall the Family of the Waldgraves who have long flourished in Knightly degree at Smalebridge neerer to Stoure as another Family of great account in elder ages at Buers which was thereof surnamed A few miles from hence Stour is enlarged with Breton a small Brooke at one of whose heads is seene Bretenham a very slender little towne where fcarce remaineth any shew at all of any great building and yet both the neere resemblance and the signification of the name partly induced me to thinke it to be that COMBRETONIUM whereof Antonine the Emperour made mention in this tract For like as Bretenham in English signifieth an Habitation or Mansion place by Breton so Combretonium in British or Welsh betokeneth a Valley or a place lying somewhat low by Breton But this in Peutegerius his Table is falsly named COMVETRONUM and ADCOVECIN Somewhat Eastward from hence is Nettlested seene of whence was Sir Thomas Wentworth whom King Henry the Eighth adorned with the title of Baron Wentworth and neere thereto is Offion that is to say The towne of Offa King of the Mercians where upon a clay Hill lie the ruines of an ancient Castle which they say Offa built after he had wickedly murdered Aethelbert King of the East-Angles and usurped his Kingdome But to returne to the River Breton Upon another brooke that joyneth therewith standeth Lancham a pretty Mercat and neere it the Manour of Burnt-Elleie whereunto King Henry the Third granted a Mercate at the request of Sir Henry Shelton Lord thereof whose posterity a long time heere flourished Hadley in the Saxons language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is watered with the same brooke a towne of good note in these dayes for making of Clothes and in old time much mentioned by our Historians because Guthrum or Gormo the Dane was heere buried For when Aelfred brought him to this passe that he became Christian and was baptized hee assigned unto him these countries of the East-Angles that he might to use the words of mine Author cherish them by right of inheritance under the Allegiance of a King
which he had overrunne by robbing and ransacking From hence Breton speedeth it selfe by Higham whence the family of Higham is so named to Stour which joyntly in one streame runne not farre from Bentley where the Talmachs of a celebrate ancient house flourished for a long time and after a few miles neere unto Arwerton the house long since of the family of the Bacons who held this Manour and Brome by conducting all the footemen of Suffolke and Norfolke from S. Edmunds dike in the warres of Wales Now it belongeth to the Parkers haereditarily who by the Fathers side derive their descent from the Barons Morley and by the Mothers from the Calthrops a Family sometime of great account in these parts Beneath this Stour falleth into the Ocean and at the very mouth thereof the river Orwell or Gipping dischargeth it selfe together with it This River springeth up in the very navell or centre as one would say of this shire out of two fountaines the one neere to Wulpet the other by Gipping a small Village Wulpet is a Mercat towne and soundeth as much as The Wolves pit if wee may beleeve Nubrigensis who hath told as prety and formall a tale of this place as is that fable called the TRUE NARRATION of Lucian namely how two little Boyes forsooth of a greene colour and of Satyrs kinde after they had made a long journey by passages under the ground from out of another world from the Antipodes and Saint Martins Land came up heere of whom if you would know more repayre to the Author himselfe where you shall finde such matter as will make you laugh your fill if you have a laughing spleene I wote not whether I were best to relate here into what a vaine hope of finding gold at Norton hard by a certaine credulous desire of having enticed and allured king Henry the Eight but the digging and undermining there sufficiently shew it although I say nothing But between Gipping and Wulpet upon an high hill remain the tokens of Hawhglee an ancient Castle taking up much about two Acres of ground Some affirme this to have beene called Hagoneth Castle which belonged to Ralph le Broc and that in the yeere 1173. it was by Robert Earle of Leicester won and overthrowne in the intestine warre betweene king Henry the Second and his unkindely disloyall sonne Upon the same River are seene two little Mercat Townes Stow and Needham and not farre from the banke Hemingston in which Baldwin Le Pettour marke his name well held certaine lands by Serjeanty the words I have out of an old booke for which on Christmasse day every yeere before our soveraigne Lord the King of England he should performe one Saltus one Suffletus and one Bumbulus or as wee read elsewhere his tenour was per saltum sufflum pettum that is if I understand these tearmes aright That hee should daunce puffe up his cheekes making therewith a sound and besides let a cracke downeward Such was the plaine and jolly mirth of those times And observed it is that unto this Foe the Manour of Langhall belonged Neere unto the mouth of this river we saw Ipswich in times past Gippwich a faire towne resembling a Citty situate in a ground somewhat low which is the eye as it were of this shire as having an Haven commodious enough fenced in times past with a trench and rampire of good trade and stored with wares well peopled and full of Inhabitants adorned with foureteene Churches and with goodly large and stately edifices I say nothing of foure religious houses now overturned and that sumptuous and magnificent Colledge which Cardinall Wolsey a Butchers sonne of this place here began to build whose vast minde reached alwayes at things too high The body politike or corporation of this towne consisteth as I was enformed of twelve Burgesses Portmen they terme them out of whom are chosen yeerely for the head Magistrates two Baillives and as many Justices out of foure and twenty others As touching the Antiquity thereof so farre as ever I could observe the name of it was not heard of before the Danish invasion whereof it smarted For in the yeere of salvation 991. the Danes sacked and spoyled it and all the Sea coast with so great cruelty that Siritius Archbishop of Canterbury and the Nobles of England thought it the safest and best course they could take to redeeme and buy their peace of them for the summe of ten thousand pounds Neverthelesse within nine yeeres they made spoyle of this towne againe and presently thereupon the Englishmen valiantly encountred them in the field but through the cowardly running away of one man alone named Turkill as writeth Henry of Huntingdon for in matter of warre things of small weight otherwise are of right great moment and sway very much our men were put to flight and let the victory slip out of their hands In the reigne of S. Edward as we finde in the Survey booke of England out of this towne Queene Edeva had two parts and Earle Guert a third part and Burgesses there were eight hundred paying custome to the King But after the Normans had possessed themselves of England they erected a pile or Castle here which Hugh Bigod defended for a good while against Stephen the usurping King of England but surrendred it in the end This fort is now quite gone so as there remaine not so much as the ruines thereof Some say it was in the parish of Westfield hard by where is to be seene the rubbish of a Castle and where old Gipwic as men say stood in times past I thinke verely it was then demolished when K. Henry the second laied Waleton Castle neer unto it even with the ground For it was a place of refuge for Rebels and here landed those three thousand Flemings whom the nobles of Englād had called in against him what time as he unadvisedly hee had made Prince Henry his sonne King and of equall power with himselfe and the young man knowing no meane would bee in the highest place or none set upon a furious desire of the Kingdome most unnaturally waged warre against his owne father Albeit these Castles are now cleane decaied and gone yet this Shore is defended sufficiently with an huge banke they call it Langerston that for two miles or thereabout in length lyeth forth into the maine Sea as hee saith not without great danger and terrour of such as saile that way howbeit the same serveth very well for Fishermen to dry their fishes and after a sort is a defence unto that spatious and wide Haven of Orwell And thus much for the South part of this Shire From hence the curving Shore for all this East part lyeth full against the Sea shooting forth Northward straight-way openeth it selfe to the Deben a Riveret having his spring-head neere unto Mendelesham unto which Towne the Lord of the place H. Fitz Otho Master
Domaine of King William After the Normans time it valiantly withstood the Siege layed unto it by the Barons when they disquieted and troubled the whole Realme with injurious wrongs and slaughters being maliciously bent against King John for private causes which notwithstanding they so cloked with pretenses of Religion and the common good that they tearmed themselves The Army of God and the holy Church at which time they say that Trench and Rampire was made which they call Hunshil but it stood not out with like successe against Henry the third their lawfull King as it did against these rebels for when those Barons being nuzzelled up in sedition and rebellion from hence displaied their banners and sounded the battaile against him he made a breach through the Wall and soone wonne it by assault After this diverse times like as before the kings held their Parliaments here because it standeth very nere in the midst of England and in the yeere after Christ was borne 1460. here was a wofull and bloody field fought wherein such was the civill division of England in it selfe Richard Nevil Earle of Warwick after many a noble man slaine led away captive that most unhappy king Henry the Sixth in a piteous spectacle who was now the second time taken prisoner by his subjects To conclude the Longitude of Northampton our Mathematicians have described by 22. degrees and 29. scruples and the Latitude by 52. degrees and 13. scruples From hence Nen maketh haste away by Castle Ashby where Henry L. Compton began to build a faire sightly house close unto which lieth Yardley Hastings so named of the Hastings sometimes â—arles of Pembroch unto whom it belonged And to turne a little aside I may not omit Horton when as king Henry the Eighth created Sir W. Par Lord thereof unckle and Chamberlaine to Queene Catharin Par Baron Par of Horton which honor shortly vanished with him when he left only daughters who were married into the families of Tresham and Lane But to returne Nen goeth forward to Mercat Wellingborow in old time Wedlingborough and Wodlingborough made a mercat by K. John at the suit of the Monks of Crowland where there runneth into it a Riveret comming downe by Rushton and Newton belonging to the Treshams by Geddington also where the King had a Castle and where there remaineth yet a Crosse erected in the honour of Queene Aeleonor wife to King Edward the First by Boughton the seat of the Montacutes Knights by Kettering a Mercat Towne well frequented neere unto which standeth Rouwell much talked of for the horse Faire there kept by Burton likewise the Barony if I mistake not the name of Alane de Dinant For king Henry the First gave unto him a Barony of that name in this Shire for that in single fight he had slaine the French Kings Champion at Gizors and by Harrouden the Lord whereof named Sir Nicolas Vaulx Captaine of Guines in Picardy king Henry the Eighth created Baron Vaulx of Harrouden From hence goeth the Aufon or Nen to Higham a Towne in times past of the Peverels and after by them of the Ferrers from whom it is named Higham Ferrers who had heere also their Castle the ruines and rubbish whereof are yet seene nere unto the Church But the excellent ornament of this place was Henry Chicheley Archbishop of Canterbury who built All-soules College in Oxford and another here wherein he placed Secular Clerkes and Prebendaries and withall an Hospitall for the poore Then runneth it by Addington the possession in old time of the Veres and by Thorpston commonly called Thrapston belonging likewise to them and over against it Draiton the house in the foregoing age of Sir H. Greene but afterwards by his daughter of John and Edward Staffords Earles of Wiltshire but now the habitation of the Lord Mordaunt unto whom it descended hereditarily from those Greenes noble Gentlemen and of right great name in this Country in their time Then runneth it in manner round about a proper little Towne which it giveth name unto Oundale they now call it corruptly in stead of Avondale where there is nothing worth sight but a faire Church and a free Schoole for the instruction of children and an Almeshouse for poore people founded by Sir William Laxton sometime Major of London Neere adjoyning to this stands Barnewell a little Castle which now of late Sir Edward Mont-acute of the ancient family of the Mont-acutes as may be collected by his Armes hath repaired and beautified with new buildings In times past it was the possession of Berengary le Moigne that is Monke and not as some thinke of Berengary of Touraine the great Clerke whose opinion of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was condemned in a Synode of an hundred and thirteene Bishops assembled by the Bishop of Rome After this it passeth on by Fotheringhay Castle environed on every side with most pleasant medowes which in the Raigne of Henry the Third when the strong holds encouraged the Lords and Nobles to revolt William Earle of Aumarl surprised upon the sodaine and laied all the Country about waste as Mathew of Paris recordeth At which time it belonged unto the Earles of Huntingdon who were of the royall Race of Scotland A good while after King Edward the Third assigned it as it were for an inheritance or appennage as the French tearme it unto his sonne Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke who reedified the Castle and made the highest fortification or Keepe thereof in forme of an horse-fetter which both of it selfe and with a Faulcon in it was his Devise or Emprese as implying that hee was locked up from all great hope as a younger brother His sonne Edward Duke of Yorke in the second yeere of Henry the Fift his Raigne and in the yeere of Christ 1415. as appeareth by an inscription there in rude and barbarous Verses founded a passing faire Collegiat Church wherein himselfe when he was slaine in the battaile at Agâ—ncourt as also Richard Duke of Yorke his brothers sonne who lost his life at Wakefield and his wife Cecily Nevil had stately and sumptuous Tombes which were profanely subverted together with the upper part of the Church in King Edward the Sixth his time Yet in memoriall of them Queene Elizabeth comming thither commanded two Monuments to be erected in the nether part of the Church that now standeth which notwithstanding such was their pinching and sparing that had the charge of this worke are thought scarce beseeming so great Princes descending from Kings and from whom Kings of England are descended The forme of the Keepe beforesaid built like a fetter-locke occasioneth mee to digresse a little and I hope with your pardon when the gravest Authours in as small matters have done the like Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke who built that Keepe and garnished the glasse-windowes there with Fetter-lockes when hee saw his sons being young scholers gazing upon the
the eldest Daughter and hee built Saint Andrewes Church and the Castle at Northampton After him succeeded his sonne Simon the second who a long time was in suite about his mothers possessions with David King of Scots his mothers second husband and having sided with King Stephen in the yeere of our Lord 1152. departed this life with this testimoniall that went of him A Youth full fraught with all unlawfull wickednesse and as full of all unseemely lewdnesse His sonne Simon the third having gone to law with the Scots for his right to the Earldome of Huntingdon wasted all his estate and through the gracious goodnesse of King Henry the Second married the Daughter and Heire of Gilbert de Gaunt Earle of Lincolne and in the end having recovered the Earledome of Huntingdon and disseized the Scots dyed childelesse in the yeare 1185. Whereas some have lately set downe Sir Richard Gobion to have beene Earle of Northampton afterward I finde no warrant thereof either in Record or History Onely I finde that Sir Hugh Gobion was a Ringleader in that rebellious rable which held Northampton against king Henry the Third and that the inheritance of his house came shortly after by marriage to Butler of Woodhall and Turpin c. But this is most certaine that King Edward the Third created William de Bohun a man of approved valour Earle of Northampton and when his elder brother Humfrey de Bohun Earle of Hereford and of Essex High Constable also of England was not sufficient in that warlike age to beare that charge of the Constable he made him also High Constable of England After him his sonne Humfrey succeeding in the Earledome of Northampton as also in the Earledomes of Hereford and of Essex for that his Unckle dyed with issue begat two Daughters the one bestowed in marriage upon Thomas of Woodstocke the youngest sonne of King Edward the Third the other upon Henry of Lancaster Duke of Hereford who afterwards attained to the Crowne by the name of King Henry the Fourth The Daughter of the said Thomas of Woodstocke brought by her marriage this Title of Northampton with others into the Family of the Staffords But when they afterwards had lost their honours and dignities King Edward the Sixth honoured Sir William Parr Earle of Essex a most accomplished Courtier with the Title of Marquesse of Northampton who within our remembrance ended this life issuelesse And while I was writing and perusing this Worke our most sacred Soveraigne King James in the yeere of our Salvation 1603. upon one and the same day advanced Lord Henry Howard brother to the last Duke of Norfolke a man of rare and excellent wit and sweet fluent eloquence singularly adorned also with the best sciences prudent in counsell and provident withall to the state of Baron Howard of Marnehill and the right honourable name title stile and Dignity of Earle of Northampton There belong unto this Shire Parishes 326. LECESTRIAE COMITATVS SIVE Leicestershyre PARS OLIM CORITANORVM LEICESTER-SHIRE ON the North side of Northampton-shire boundeth LEICESTER-SHIRE called in that Booke wherein William the Conquerour set downe his Survey of England Ledecester-shire a champian Country likewise throughout bearing corne in great plenty but for the most part without Woods It hath bordering upon it on the East side both Rutland-shire and Lincoln-shire on the North Nottingham and Derby-shires and Warwick-shire on the West For the high Rode way made by the Romanes called Watling-streat directly running along the West skirt separateth it from Warwick-shire and on the South side as I noted even now lyeth Northampton-shire Through the middle part thereof passeth the River Soar taking his way toward the Trent but over the East-part a little River called Wreke gently wandereth which at length findeth his way into the foresaid Soar On the South side where it is divided on the one hand with the River Avon the lesse and on the other with the River Welland we meet with nothing worth relation unlesse it be on Wellands banke whiles he is yet but small and newly come from his head with Haverburgh commonly called Harborrow a Towne most celebrate heereabout for a Faire of Cattaile there kept and as for Carleton as one would say the husband-mens Towne that is not farre from it wherein I wote not whether it be worth the relating all in manner that are borne whether it bee by a peculiar property of the Soile or the water or else by some other secret operation of nature have an ill favoured untunable and harsh manner of speech fetching their words with very much adoe deepe from out of the throat with a certaine kinde of wharling That Romane streete way aforesaid the causey whereof being in some other places quite worne and eaten away heere most evidently sheweth itselfe passeth on directly as it were by a streight line Northward through the West side of this Province The very tract of which street I my selfe diligently traced and followed even from the Tamis to Wales purposely to seeke out Townes of ancient memory laugh you will perhaps at this my painfull and expencefull diligence as vainly curious neither could I repose my trust upon a more faithfull guide for the finding out of those said townes which Antonine the Emperour specifieth in his Itinerary This Street-way being past Dowbridge where it leaveth Northampton-shire behinde it is interrupted first with the River Swift that is indeed but slow although the name import swiftnesse which it maketh good onely in the Winter moneths The Bridge over it now called Bransford and Bensford Bridge which heere conjoyned in times past this way having been of long time broken downe hath beene the cause that so famous a way for a great while was the lesse frequented but now at the common charge of the country it is repaired Upon this way lyeth of the one side Westward Cester-Over but it is in Warwick-shire a place worth the naming were it but in regard of the Lord thereof Sir Foulke Grevill a right worshipfull and worthy knight although the very name it selfe may witnesse the antiquity for our ancestours added this word Cester to no other places but only cities On the other side of the way Eastward hard by water Swift which springeth neere Knaptoft the seat of the Turpins a knightly house descended from an heire of the Gobions lieth Misterton belonging to the ancient family of the Poulteneis who tooke that name of Poulteney a place now decaied within the said Lordship Neere to it is Lutterworth a Mercate Towne the possession in times past of the Verdons which onely sheweth a faire Church which hath beene encreased by the Feldings of knights degree and ancient gentry in this Shire That famous John Wickliffe was sometime Parson of this Church a man of a singular polite and well wrought wit most conversant also in the holy Scripture who for that he had sharpened the neb of his pen against the Popes authority the Church
of Rome and religious men was not onely in his life time most grievously troubled but also one and forty yeeres after his death his dead Corps was cruelly handled being by warrant from the Councell of Siena turned out of his grave and openly burned Neither is it to be forgotten that neere to this Towne is a spring so cold that within a short time it turneth strawes and stickes into stones From that Bensford bridge the foresaid old High way goeth on to High-crosse so called for that thereabout stood sometime a Crosse in stead of which is erected now a very high post with props and supporters thereto The neighbours there dwelling reported unto me that the two principall High-waies of England did here cut one another overthwart and that there stood a most flourishing City there named Cleycester which had a Senate of Aldermen in it and that Cleybrooke almost a mile off was part of it also that on both sides of the way there lay under the furrowes of the corne fields great foundations and ground workes of foure square stone also that peeces of Roman money were very often turned up with the Plough although above the ground as the Poet saith Etiam ipsae periere ruinae that is Even the very ruines are perished and gone These presumptions together with the distance of this place from BANNAVENTA or Wedon which agreeth just and withall the said Bridge leading hitherward called Bensford are inducements unto me to thinke verily that the station BENNONES or VENONES was heere which Antonine the Emperour placeth next beyond BANNAVENTA especially seeing that Antonine sheweth how the way divided it selfe heere into two parts which also goeth commonly currant For Northeastward where the way lieth to Lincolne the Fosse way leadeth directly to RATAE and to VERNOMETUM of which I will speake anon and toward the Northwest Watlingstreet goeth as streight into Wales by MANVESSEDUM whereof I shall write in his due place in Warwick-shire Higher yet neere the same streetside standeth Hinkley which had for Lord of it Hugh Grantmaismill a Norman high Steward or Seneschall of England during the Raignes of king William Rufus and Henry the First The said Hugh had two daughters Parnell given in marriage to Robert Blanch-mains so called of his faire white hands Earle of Leicester together with the High-Stewardship of England and Alice wedded to Roger Bigot Verily at the East end of the Church there are to be seene Trenches and Rampires yea and a Mount cast up to an eminent height which the inhabitants say was Hughes Castle Three miles hence standeth Bosworth an ancient Mercat Towne which liberty together with the Faire S. Richard Harecourt obtained for it at the hands of king Edward the First Under this towne in our great grandfathers daies the kingdome of England lay hazarded upon the chance of one battaile For Henry Earle of Richmond with a small power encountred there in pitched field king Richard the Third who had by most wicked meanes usurped the kingdome and whiles he resolved to die the more valiantly fighting for the liberty of his country with his followers and friends the more happy successe he had and so overcame and slew the Usurper and then being with joyfull acclamations proclaimed King in the very mids of slaughtered bodies round about he freed England by his happy valour from the rule of a Tyrant and by his wisdome refreshed and setled it being sore disquieted with long civill dissentions Whereupon Bernard Andreas of Tholous a Poet living in those daies in an Ode dedicated unto King Henry the Seventh as touching the Rose his Devise writ these Verses such as they are Ecce nunc omnes posuere venti Murmuris praeter Zephyrum tepentem Hic Rosas nutrit nitidósque flores Veris amoeni Behold now all the windes are laid But Zephyrus that blowes full warme The Rose and faire spring-floures in mead He keepeth fresh and doth no harme Other memorable things there are none by this Street unlesse it bee Ashby de la Zouch that lyeth a good way off a most pleasant Lordship now of the Earles of Huntingdon but belonging in times past to the noble Family De la Zouch who descended from Alan Vicount of Rohan in Little Britaine and Constantia his wife daughter to Conan le Grosse Earle of Britaine and Maude his wife the naturall daughter of Henry the First Of this house Alane De la Zouch married one of the heires of Roger Quincy Earle of Winchester and in her right came to a faire inheritance in this Country But when hee had judicially sued John Earle of Warren who chose rather to try the Title by the sword point than by point of Law he was slaine by him even in Westminster Hall in the yeere of our Lord 1269. and some yeeres after the daughters and heires of his grand sonne transferred this inheritance by their marriages into the Families of the Saint Maures of Castle Cary and the Hollands Yet their father first bestowed this Ashby upon Sir Richard Mortimer of Richards Castle his cozin whose younger issue thereupon tooke the sirname of Zouch and were Lords of Ashby But from Eudo a younger sonne of Alane who was slaine in Westminster Hall the Lords Zouch of Harringworth branched out and have beene for many Descents Barons of the Realme Afterward in processe of time Ashby came to the Hastings who built a faire large and stately house there and Sir William Hastings procured unto the Towne the liberty of a Faire in the time of King Henry the Sixth Here I may not passe over the next neighbour Cole-Overton now a seat of the Beaumontes descended from Sir Thomas Beaumont Lord of Bachevill in Normandy brother to the first Vicount This place hath a Cole prefixed for the forename which Sir Thomas as some write was hee who was slaine manfully fighting at such time as the French recovered Paris from the English in the time of King Henry the Sixth This place of the pit-coles being of the nature of hardned Bitumen which are digged up to the profit of the Lord in so great a number that they serve sufficiently for fewell to the neighbour Dwellers round about farre and neere I said before that the River Soar did cut this Shire in the middle which springing not farre from this Street and encreased with many small rils and Brookes of running water going a long Northward with a gentle streame passeth under the West and North side of the cheife Towne or City of this County which in Writers is called Lege-Cestria Leogora Legeo cester and Leicester This Towne maketh an evident faire shew both of great antiquity and good building In the yeere 680. when Sexwulph at the commandement of King Etheldred divided the kingdome of the Mercians into Bishoprickes hee placed in this an Episcopall See and was himselfe the first Bishop that sat there but a few yeeres after when the See was translated to
in the yeere 1588. leaving the fame onely of his greatnesse behinde him Within this Shire are 200. Parish Churches RVTLANDIAE Omnium in Anglia Comitatu um minimus Pars olim CORITANORVM RUTLAND-SHIRE RUTLAND in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is environed within Leicester-shire unlesse it be on the South-side where it lieth upon the river Welland and on the East-side where it butteth upon Lincoln-shire A Country nothing inferiour to Leicester-shire either in fruitfull qualitie of soile or pleasantnesse but in quantitie onely as being the least County of all England For lying in forme almost round like a circle it is in compasse so farre about as a light horseman will ride in one day Whence it is that the Inhabitants tell a tale of I wote not what king who should give to one Rut so much land as he could ride about in one day and that he forsooth rode about this shire within the time appointed and so had it given him and named it by his owne name Rutland But let such fables bee packing I would not have the trueth prejudiced with an extravagant tale And where as the earth in this shire is every where red and so red that even the sheepes fleeces are thereby coloured red whereas also the English-Saxons called Red in their tongue Roet and Rud may we not suppose that this Countrey was named Rutland as one would say a Redland For as saith the Poet. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepè suis. The names as often times we see With things themselves full well agree Now that places in all Nations have had their names of rednesse Rutlan Castle in Wales built on a shore of red earth Redbay Redhill Redland The Red Promontory The Red-Sea also betwixt Aegypt and Arabia Erytheia in Ionia and a number besides may proove most evidently So that there is no cause why we should give credit to fables in this behalfe As for this little County it may seeme to have beene ordained a Shire or County but of late daies For in King Edward the Confessors time it was counted a part of Northampton-shire and our Historiographers who wrote three hundred yeeres agoe and upward reckoned it not in the number of Shires Wash or Guash a little river which runneth from the West Eastward through the middle of it divideth it in twaine In the hithermore or South part riseth Uppingham upon an high ascent whence that name was imposed not memorable for any thing else but because it is counted a well frequented Mercat towne and hath for to shew a proper Schoole which together with another at Okeham R. Ihonson a Minister of Gods word in a good and laudable intent for the training up of children in good literature lately erected with the money he had gotten together by way of collection Under this standeth Drystoke which in no wise is to be passed over with silence considering it hath been the habitation from old time of a right ancient race of the Digbyes which I grieve to utter it but all men know it hath now caught a deepe steine by Sir Everard Digby drawne into that cursed crew who most horribly complotted with one divelish flash of hellish Gun-pouder to blow up both Prince and Country More Eastward upon the river Welland I saw nothing remarkeable unlesse it be Berohdon now Barodon which Thomas Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke held with South Leffingham now South Luffenham and other Hamelets by service to be the Kings Chamberlaine in the Exchequer On the further part beyond the river among the hils there spreadeth below a very pleasant and fruitfull vale named at this day The vale of Catmose happily of Coet maes which signifieth in the Brittish tongue a field full of woods In the middest whereof Okeham sheweth it selfe which by the like reason may seeme to have taken the name from Okes where hard by the Church which is large and faire remaine the crackt and decaying walls of an old Castle which Walkelin de Ferrariâ—s built in the first times of the Norman Kings And that it hath been the dwelling place of the Ferrars besides the credit of writers and generall report the great horse shoes which in times past that family gave in their armes fastned upon the gate and in the hall may sufficiently proove Afterwards it belonged to the Lords of Tatteshall But when King Richard the second had promoted Edward the Duke of Yorkes sonne to the Earledome of Rutland he gave unto him this Castle also But within our Fathers remembrance it befell unto Thomas Cromwel and was reputed the seat of his Baronie whom King Henry the Eighth advanced to the highest pitch of dignity and streightwaies when by his plotting and attempting of many matters he had cast himselfe into the tempestuous stormes of envy and displeasure bereft him on a sudden both of life and dignity Over against it Eastward there standeth Burley most daintily seated and overlooking the vale A stately and sumptuous house now of the Haringtons who by marrying the daughter and heire of Colepeper became Lords of so faire an inheritance that ever since they have flourished in these parts like as before time the Colepepers had done unto whom by N. Green the wealthy and goodly Livelod of the Bruses in part had descended As for those Bruses being men of the chiefe Nobility in England they were engraffed into the Roiall stocke and family of Scotland out of whom by Robert the eldest brother the race Roiall of Scotland are sprung-like as by Bernard the younger brother the Cottons of Connington in Huntingdon-shire of whom I have written already and these Haringtons In which regard and gracious respect King James advanced Sir Iohn Harington branched from that stem that the ancient Lords Harington to the title of Baron Harington of Exton a towne adjacent where he hath also an other faire house Moreover on the East side by the river Guash stands Brigcasterton whereof I will say more afterward and Rihall where when superstition had so bewitched our ancestours that the multitude of their pety Saints had well neere taken quite away the true God one Tibba a pety Saint or Goddesse reputed to bee the tutelar patronesse of Hauking was of Foulers and Faulkoners worshipped as a second Diana Essendon also is neere adjoyning the Lord whereof Sir Robert Cecil a good sonne of a right good father the strength and stay of our Common-wealth in his time was by King James created Baron Cecil of Essendon in the first yeere of his reigne This little County King Edward the Confessor by his last Will and Testament bequeathed unto his wife Eadith yet with this condition that after her death it should come to S. Peter of Westminster For these be the very words of the said Testament I will that after the death of Queene Eadith my wife ROTELAND with all the appertenances thereto be given to my Monastery of the most blessed
after he had rebelled against Rhese his Prince and not able to make his part good with him very rashly and inconsiderately which hee afterward repented too late sent Enion a Nobleman to whom he had affianced his daughter to procure Robert Fitz Haimon sonne to Haimon Dentatus Lord of Corboil in Normandy to come out of England and aide him against Rhese who forthwith having mustered certaine forces and taking for to associate him in his journey twelve Knights first gave Rhese Battaile and slew him and afterwards being allured with the fertility of the Country whereof before hand he made full account to be Lord turning his power upon Jestine himselfe because hee had not kept touch with Enion nor performed his promise easily thrust him out of his ancient Inheritance and shared the Country among his Companions The hard and barraine hill Country he granted to the said Enion the more fertile parts he divided betweene him and those twelve Knights whom he tearmed Peres on this condition that they should hold them in Fee and vassallage of him as their chiefe Lord to maintaine one another in common with their aides and auxiliary forces to defend every one his owne Ward in his Castle of Caerdiffe and to bee present and assist him in his Courts in the administration of Justice It shall not be amisse to put downe their names out of a little Pamphlet which Sir Edward Stradling or Sir Edward Mounsel both Knights men of ancient descent and most skilfull in Antiquity I wot not whether for it goeth abroad under both their names wrote concerning this matter And these be their names William of London or de Londres Richard Granvil Pain Turbervill Oliver Saint John Robert de Saint Quintin Roger Bekeroul William Easterling for that he was borne in Germanie whose heires are now called Stradlings Gilbert Hamfranvill Richard Siward John Fleming Peter Soore Reinald Sully The River Remnie falling from the Mountaines is the limite on the East side whereby this Country is divided from Monmouth-shire and Remnie in the British tongue signifieth to Divide Not farre from it where the River holdeth on his course through places hardly passable among the hilles in a Marish ground are to bee seene the tottering walles of Caer-philli Castle which hath beene of so huge a bignesse and such a wonderfull peece of worke beside that all men well neere say it was a garison for t of the Romans Neither will I deny it although I cannot as yet perceive by what name they called it and yet it may seeme to have beene re-edified anew considering it hath a Chappell built after the Christians manner as I was enformed by John Sanford a man singular well learned and of exact judgement who diligently tooke view of it In later ages it was the possession of the Clares Earles of Glocester descended from Fitz-Haimon aforesaid neither doe any of our Chronicles make mention thereof before king Edward the Seconds time For then after that the Spensers by underhand practises had set the King Queene and Barons at debate the Barons besieged a long time Hugh Spenser the yonger whom they called Hugolin herein and could not prevaile By this river also but the place is not certainely knowne Faustus a very good sonne as Ninnius writeth of Vortigern so bad a father built a great Place where with other holy men hee prayed daily unto God that himselfe whom his father committing most abominable incest had begotten of his owne daughter might not be punished grievously for his fathers faults also that his father might at length repent heartily and his native Country be eased from the bloudy warres of the Saxons A little beneath hath Ptolomee placed the mouth of RATOSTABIUS or RATOSTABIUS using a maimed word in stead of Traith Taff that is The sandy Trith of the River Taff. For there the said River Taff sliding downe from the Hilles runneth toward the Sea by Landaff that is The Church by Taff a small City and of small reputation situate somewhat low yet a Bishops See having within the Dioecesse 154. Parishes and adorned with a Cathedrall Church consecrated to Saint Telean Bishop of the same which Church German and Lupus French Bishops then erected when as they had suppressed the Heresie of Pelagius that was dangerously spread all Britaine over and preferred Dubricius a most holy man to bee the first Bishop there unto whom Meurioke a British Lord freely gave all the land that lyeth betweene the Rivers Taff and Elei From hence goeth Taff to Caer diff called of the Britans Caerdid a proper fine Towne as Townes goe in this Country and a very commodious Haven which the foresaid Fitz Haimon fortified with a Wall and Castle that it might bee both a seat for warre and a Court of Justice wherein beside a Band of choise soldiers those twelve Knights were bound to keepe Castle-guard Howbeit a few yeeres after Yuor Bach a British Mountainer a little man of person but of great and resolute courage marching with a Band of men by night without any stirre suddenly surprised tooke Prisoner William Earle of Glocester Fitz Haimons daughters sonne together with his wife and young sonne and detained them in hold with him untill he had made him full satisfaction for all wrongs and losses But how Robert Curthose William the Conquerours eldest sonne a man over venterous and foole hardy in warlique exploits quite put by his hope of the Crowne of England by his younger brethren and bereft of both his eyes lived untill he was an old man in this Castle you may see if you please in our Historians and understand withall that royall Parentage is never assured either of ends or safe security Scarce three miles from the mouth of Taff in the very bending in of the shore there lye aflote as it were two small but pleasant Islands separated one from another and from the maine Land with narrow in-lets of the Sea The hithermore is called Sullie of the Towne right over against it which tooke the name as it is thought of Robert Sully for it fell to his part in the division if you would not rather have him to take his name of it The farther more is named Barry of Baruch an holy man buried there who as he gave name to the place so the place gave the sirname afterwards to the Lords thereof For that noble Family of Vicounts Barries in Ireland had their originall from hence In a Rocke or cliffe heereof by the sea side saith Giraldus there appeareth a very little chincke into which if you lay your eare you shall heare a noise as it were of Smithes at worke one while the blowing of bellowes another while the striking of sledge and hammer sometime the sound of the Grindstone and iron tooles rubbing against it the hissing sparkes also of steele-gads within holes as they are beaten yea and the puffing noise of fire burning in the
to recover the Holy Land That part of this Country which lyeth beyond the Haven and hath onely these two Rivers to water it the Britans doe call Ros making the name answerable to the thing for that it lyeth for the most part all low on a flat and greene plaine This Tract was inhabited by Flemings out of the Low Countries who by the permission of King Henry the First were planted heere when the Ocean by making breaches in the bankes had overwhelmed a great part of the said Low Countries These are distinctly knowne still from the Welsh both by their speech and manners and so neere joyned they are in society of the same language with Englishmen who come nighest of any Nation to the low Dutch Tongue that this their little Country is tearmed by the Britans Little England beyond Wales A Nation this is as saith Giraldus strong and stout and continually enured in warres with the Welsh a Nation most accustomed to seeke gaine by clothing by traffique also and merchandise by sea and land undertaking any paines and perills whatsoever A Nation of very great power and as time and place requireth ready by turnes to take plough in hand and till the ground as ready also to goe into the field and fight it out And that I may adde thus much moreover a Nation most loyally devoted to the Kings of England and as faithfull to Englishmen and which in the time of Giraldus was wonderfull skilfull in Sooth-saying by the Inspection of Beasts inwards whose worke also is heere seene as they are a people passing industrious namely The Flemish High way reaching out a great length The Welshmen have many a time banded all their Forces in one and to recover this country belonging sometimes unto their ancestors have violently set upon these Flemings and overrunne their lands spoiling and wasting where ever they went yet they most courageously have alwayes from time to time defended their estates their name and life Whereupon concerning them and King William Rufus the Historian Malmesbury writeth thus Many a time and often King William Rufus had but small successe against the Welsh men which any man may well mervaile at considering that alwaies otherwise he spread most fortunately in all adventures of Warre But I take it that as the unevennesse of the ground and sharpnesse of the ayre maintained their Rebellion so the same empeached his valour But King Henry who now Reigneth a man of an excellent wit found meanes to frustrate all their devices by placing Flemings in their Country who might be alwaies ready to represse and keepe them in And in the fifth booke King Henry with many a warlike expedition went about to force the Welsh men who ever and anon rose up in Rebellion for to yeeld and submit themselves and resting in the end upon this good and holsome policie for to take downe and abate their swelling pride he brought over thither all the Flemings that dwelt in England For a number of them who in those daies in regard of his Mothâ—rs 〈◊〉 by her Fathers side flocked thither were closely shrowded in England in so much 〈◊〉 they for their multitude seemed burdensome unto the Realme Wherefore he sent them altogether with their substance goods Wives and Children unto Ros a Country in Wales as it were â—â—to a common avoidance thereby both to purge and clense his owne Kingdome and also to quaile and represse the rash boldnesse of his enemies there By the more westward of these two Rivers is Harford West called by the English men in times past Haversord and by the Britans Hulphord a faire Towne and of great resort situate upon an hill side having scarce one even streete but is steepe one way or other which being a Countie by it selfe hath for Magistrates a Major a Sheriffe and two Bailiffs The report goeth that the Earles of Clare fortified it with Rampier and Wall on the North side and we read that Richard Earle of Clare made R. Fitz-Tancred Castellan of this Castle Beyond Ros there shooteth out with a mighty front farre into the West Ocean a great Promontory which Ptolomee called OCTOPITARUM the Britans Pebidiauc and Cantred Devi we Saint Davids land A stony barren and unfruitfull ground as Giraldus saith Neither clad with Woods nor garnished heere and there with Rivers ne yet adorned with Medows lying alwaies open to windes onely and stormes Yet a retyring place for most holy men and a nurserie of them For Calphurnius a Britaine Priest as some I know not how truly have written heere in the vale of Ros begat of his Wife Concha Sister to Saint Martin of Tours Patricke the Apostle of Ireland and Devi a most religious Bishop translated the Archiepiscopall See from Isca Legionum into the most remote and farthest angle heereof even to Menew or Menevia which afterwards the Britans of his name called Twy Dewy that is Devi his house the Saxons Dauy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the English men at this day Saint Davids and was for a long time an Archbishops See But by occasion of a pestilence that contagiously raged in this Country whereby the Pall was translated into little Britaine in France to Dole this Archiepiscopall dignity had an end Yet in the foregoing ages the Welsh men commensed an action heere about against the Archbishop of Canterbury Metropolitane of England and Wales but they were cast in the Law What this Saint Davids was and what maner of thing in times past a man can hardly tell considering it hath beene so often by Pirates rased but now it is a very small and poore Citie and hath nothing at all to make shew of but a faire Church dedicated to Saint Andrew and David which having been many times overthrowne Petre the Bishop in the reigne of King John and his successors erected in that forme which now it sheweth in the vale as they tearme it of Ros under the Towne and hard by it standeth the Bishops Pallace and faire houses of the Chaunter who is next unto the Bishop for there is no Deane heere of the Chauncellor Treasurer and foure Archdeacons who be of the number of the XXII Canons all enclosed round within a strong and seemely wall whereupon they call it the Close This Promontorie thrusteth it selfe so farre Westward that in a cleere Sunshine day a man may from thence see Ireland and from hence is the shortest cut to Ireland and by Plinies measure which he tooke false was from the Silures for he thought that the Silures reached thus farre thirty miles But that this land ran out farther and that the forme of the Promontory hath been changed it may be gathered out of these words of Giraldus What time saith he as King Henry the Second made his abode in Ireland by reason of an extraordinary violence of stormes the sandy shores of this coast were laide bare as farre as to the very hard ground and the face of
the earth which had lien covered many ages before was discovered Also the trunkes of trees standing in the very Sea that had aforetime been lopped on every side yea and the strokes of axes as if they had been given but yesterday were seene apparantly Yea and the earth shewed most blacke and the wood withall of the said trunkes like in all the points to Hebeny so as it seemed now no shore but a lopped grove as well empaired through the wonderfull changes of things either haply from the time of Noahs floud or long after but doubtlesse long agoe as worne by little and little and so swallowed up with the rage of the Sea getting alwaies more ground and washing the earth away Neither were these two lands severed here with any great Sea betweene as may appeare by a word that King William Rufus cast out who when he kenned Ireland from the rocks and cliffes of this Promontory said as we read in Giraldus that he could easily make a bridge with English Sips on which he might passe over the Sea on foote into Ireland A noble kinde of Falcons have their Airies here and breed in the Rocks which King Henry the Second as the same Giraldus writeth was wont to preferre before all others For of that kinde are those if the inhabitants thereby doe not deceive me which the skilfull Faulconers call Peregrines for they have that I may use no other words than the verses of Augustus Thuanus Esmerius that most excellent Pâ—et of our age in that golden booke entituled HIERACOSOPHIOY Depressus capitis vertex oblongique totâ— Corpore pennarum series pallentia crura Et graciles digiti ac sparsi naresque rotundae Head flat and low the plume in rewes along The body laid legges pale and wan are found With slender clawes and talons there among And those wide spread the bill is hooked round But from this Promontory as the land draweth backward the Sea with great violence and assault of waters inrusheth upon a little Region called Keimes which is reputed a Barony In it standeth First Fishgard so called in English of the taking of fish in British Abergwain that is the mouth of the River Gwain situate upon a steepe Cliffe where there is a very commodious harbour and rode for Ships then Newport at the foote of an high Mountaine by the River Neverns side in British Tref-draeth i. the Towne upon the sands and in Latine Records Novus Burgus which Martin of Tours built his posterity made an incorporation adorned with priviledges and set over it for governement a Portgreve and Bailive erected also for themselves a Castle over the Towne which was their principall seate Who founded likewise Saint Dogmales Abbay according to the order of Tours by the River Tivy low in a vale environed with hils unto which the Borrough adjoyning as many other Townes unto Monasteries is beholden for the originall thereof This Barony Martin of Tours first wrested out of the Welsh mens hands by force and armes from whose heires successively called Martins it came by marriage to the Barons of Audley who held it a long time untill that in the reigne of Henry the eighth William Owen that derived his pedigree from a daughter of Sir Nicholas Martin Knight after long suit in law for his right in the end obtained it and left it to his sonne George who being a singular lover of venerable antiquity hath informed me that in this Barony ouer and above three Borroughs Newport Fishgard and Saint Dogmaels there are twenty Knights fees and twenty sixe Parishes More inward upon the River Tivy aforesaid is Kilgarran which sheweth the reliques of a Castle built by Girald but being at this day reduced unto one onely street it is famous for nothing else but the most plentifull fishing of Salmon For there have you that notable Salmon Leap where the River from on high falleth downright and the Salmons from out of the Ocean coveting to come up further into the River when they meete with this obstacle in the way bend backe their taile to the mouth other whiles also to make a greater leap up hold fast their taile in the mouth and as they unloose themselves from such a circle they give a jerk as if a twig bended into a rondle were sudainely let goe and so with the admiration of the beholders mount and whip themselves aloft from beneath as Ausonius hath most elegantly written Nec te paniceo rutilantem viscere Salma Transierim latae cujus vaga verbera caudae Gurgite de medio summas reseruntur in undas Nor can I thee let passe all red within Salmon that art whose jerkes and friskes full oft From mids of streame and chanell deepe therein With broad taile flirt to floating waves aloft There have beene divers Earles of Pembroke out of sundry houses As for Arnulph of Montgomery who first wonne it and was afterwards outlawed and his Castellan Girald whom King Henry the First made afterward President over the whole Country I dare searcely affirme that they were Earles The first that was stiled Earle of Penbroke was Gilbert sirnamed Strongbow sonne of Gislebert de Clare in the time of King Stephen And hee left it unto his sonne Richard Strongbow the renowned Conquerour of Ireland who as Giraldus saith was descended ex clarâ Clarentium familiâ that is out of the noble Family of Clare or Clarence His onely daughter Isabell brought the same honour to her Husband William named Mareschall for that his Ancestours had beene by inheritance Mareschals of the Kings Palace a man most glorious both in warre and peace and Protector of the Kingdome in the minority of King Henry the Third Concerning whom this pithie Epitaph is extant in Rodburns Annales Sum quem Saturnum sibi sensit Hibernia Solem Anglia Mercurium Normannia Gallia Martem Whom Ireland once a Saturne found England a Sunne to be Whom Normandy a Mercurie and France Mars I am he After him his five sonnes were successively one after another Earles of Penbroke viz. William called The younger Richard who after hee had rebelled against King Henry the Third went into Ireland where hee was slaine in battaile Gilbert who in a Tournament at Ware was unhorsed and so killed Walter and Anselme who enjoyed the honour but a few dayes who every one dying in a short space without issue King Henry the Third invested in the honour of this Earledome William de Valentia of the house of Lusignian in Poicta his brother by the mother side who had to wife Joan the daughter of Gwarin de Mont-chensy by the daughter of the foresaid William Mareschall After William of Valence succeeded his sonne Aimar who under King Edward the First was Regent of Scotland whose eldest sister Elizabeth and one of his heires wedded unto John Lord Hastings brought this Dignity unto a new Family For Laurence Hastings his grandsonne Lord of Welshford and Abergevenny was made Earle of
clawbackes BRITANNICUS even when the Britans would have elected an Emperour against him And then it may seeme was this Statue of his set up when he prizing himselfe more than a man proceeded to that folly that he gave commandement he should be called The Romane Hercules Iupiters sonne For hee was portraied in the habite of Hercules and his right hand armed with a club under which there lay as I have heard such a mangled Inscription as this broken heere and there with voide places betweene the draught whereof was badly taken out and before I came hither was utterly spoiled CAESARI AUGUSTO MARCI AURELII FILIO SEN IONIS AMPLISSIMI VENTS PIUS This was to be seene in Nappa an house built with turrets and the chiefe seat of the Medcalfs thought to be at this day the greatest family for multitude of the same name in all England for I have heard that Sir Christopher Medcalfe knight and the top of this kinred beeing of late high-Sheriffe of the shire accompanied with three hundred men of the same house all on horsback and in a livery met and received the Justices of Assizes and so brought them to Yorke From hence runneth Vre downe a maine full of Creifishes ever since Sir Christopher Medcalfe in our remembrance brought that kinde of fish hither out of the South part of England and betweene two rockes whereof the place is named Att-scarre it runneth head long downe not far from Bolton a stately Castle the ancient seat of the Barons Scrops and which Richard Lord le Scrope and Chancellour of England under king Richard the Second built with exceeding great coste and now bending his course Eastward commeth to Midelham the honour whereof as wee reade in the Genealogie or Pedegree of the Nevils Alan Earle of Richmond bestowed upon his younger brother Rinebald with all the lands which before their comming belonged to Gilpatrick the Dane His nephew by his sonne Raulph named Robert Fitz-Raulph had all Wentsedale also by gift of Conan Earle of Britaine and of Richmond and at Midleham raised a most strong Castle His sonne Ranulph erected a little Abbay for Chanons at Coverham called now short Corham in Coverdale whose sonne Raulph had a daughter named Mary who being wedded to Robert Lord Nevill with this marriage translated this very faire and large inheritance as her portion into the family of Nevils Which Robert Nevill having had many children by his wife was taken in adultery unknowne and by the husband of the adulteresse being for revenge berest of his genitours shortly after dyed with extremity of paine Then Ure after it hath passed a few miles forward watereth Iervis or Iorvalle Abbay of Cistertians founded first at Fo rs and after translated hither by Stephen Earle of Britaine and Richmond but now wholly ruinated and after that Masham which was the possession of the Scropes of Masham who as they sprung from the stocke of the Scropes of Bolton so they were by marriages ingraffed againe into the same On the other side of this River but more inward standeth Snath the principall house of the Barons Latimer who derived their noble descent from George Nevill younger sonne of Raulph Nevill the first Earle of Westmorland and he received this Title of honour from king Henry the Sixth when as the ancienter house of the Latimers expired in a female and so by a continued succession they have flourished unto these our daies when for default of male issue of the last Baron Latimer that goodly and rich inheritance was divided among his daughters marryed into the families of the Percies Cecils D'anvers and Cornwallis Neither are there any other places in this part of the shire worth the naming that Ure runneth by unlesse it bee Tanfeld the habitation in times past of the Gernegans knights from whom it descended to the Marmions the last of whom left for his heire Amice second wife to John Lord Grey of Rotherfeld by whom he had two sonnes John that assumed the sirname of Marmion and died issuelesse and Robert who left behinde him one onely daughter and sole heire Elizabeth wife to Sir Henry Fitz-Hugh a noble Baron After this Ure entertaineth the River Swale so called as Th. Spot writeth of his swiftnesse selfe into it with a maine and violent streame which Swale runneth downe Eastward out of the West Mountaines also scarce five miles above the head of Ure a River reputed very sacred amongst the ancient English for that in it when the English Saxons first embraced Christianity there were in one day baptized with festivall joy by Paulinus the Archbishop of Yorke above tenne thousand men besides women and little children This Swale passeth downe along an open Vale of good largenesse which of it is called Swal-dale having good plenty of grasse but as great want of wood first by Marrick where there stood an Abbay built by the Askes men in old time of great name also by Mask a place full of lead ore Then runneth it through Richmond the chiefe towne of the Country having but a small circuit of walles but yet by reason of the Suburbs lying out in length at three Gates well peopled and frequented Which Alan the first Earle thereof built reposing small trust in Gilling a place or Manour house of his hard by to withstand the violence of the Danes and English whom the Normans had despoiled of their inheritance and hee adorned it with this name as one would say The rich Mount he fensed it with a wall and a most strong Castle which being set upon a rocke from an high looketh downe to Swale that with a mighty rumbling noise rusheth rather than runneth among the stones For the said house or Manour place of Gilling was more holy in regard of devout religion than sure and strong for any fortification it had ever since that therein Beda calleth it Gethling Oswy King of Northumberland being entertained guest-wise was by his hoste forelaid and murthered for the expiation whereof the said Monastery was built highly accounted of among our ancestours More Northward Ravenswath Castle sheweth it selfe compassed with a good large wall but now fallen which was the seat of the Barons named Fitz-Hugh extracted from the ancient line of the English Nation who were Lords of the place before the Normans Conquest and lived in great name unto King Henry the Seventh his daies enriched with faire possessions by marriage with the heires of the noble houses of Furneaux and Marmion which came at last by the females unto the Fienes Lords Dacres in the South and to the Parrs Three miles beneath Richmond Swale runneth by that ancient City which Ptolomee and Antonine call CATURACTONIUM and CATARRACTON but Bede Catarractan and in another place the Village neere unto Catarracta whereupon I suppose it had the name of Catarracta that is a Fludfall or water-fall considering hard by there
or Band of the Exploratores with their Captaine kept their station heere under the dispose of the Generall of Britaine as appeareth for certaine out of the NOTICE of Provinces where it is named LAVATRES But whereas such Bathes as these were called also in Latine Lavacra some Criticke no doubt will pronounce that this place was named LAVATRAE in stead of LAVACRA yet would I rather have it take the name of a little river running neere by which as I heare say is called Laver. As for the later name Bowes considering the old Towne was heere burnt downe to the ground as the inhabitants with one voice doe report I would thinke it grew upon that occasion For that which is burnt with fire the Britans still at this day doe terme Boeth and by the same word the Suburbes of Chester beyond the River Dee which the Englishmen call Hanbridge the Britans or Welshmen name Treboeth that is The burnt Towne because in a tumult of the Welshmen it was consumed with fire Heere beginneth to rise that high hilly and solitary Country exposed to winde and raine which because it is stony is called in our native language Stane more All heere round about is nothing but a wilde Desert unlesse it bee an homely Hostelry or Inne in the very middest thereof called The Spitle on Stane more for to entertaine waifaring persons and neere to it is a fragment of a Crosse which wee call Rerecrosse the Scots Reicrosse as one would say The Kings Crosse. Which Crosse Hector Boetius the Scottish Writer recordeth to have beene erected as a meere stone confining England and Scotland what time as King William the Conquerour granted Cumberland unto the Scots on this condition that they should hold it of him as his Tenants and not attempt any thing prejudiciall or hurtfull to the Crowne of England And a little lower upon the Romanes high street there stood a little Fort of the Romans built foure square which at this day they call Maiden-Castle From whence as the borderers reported the said High way went with many windings in and out as farre as to Caer Vorran in Northumberland There have beene divers Earles of Richmond according as the Princes favour enclined and those out of divers families whom I will notwithstanding set downe as exactly and truely as I can in their right order The first Earles were out of the house of little Britaine in France whose descent is confusedly intricate amongst their owne Writers for that there were two principall Earles at once one of Haulte Britaine and another of Base Britaine for many yeeres and every one of their children had their part in Gavell kinde and were stiled Earles of Britaine without distinction But of these the first Earle of Richmond according to our Writers and Records was Alane sirnamed Feregaunt that is The Red sonne of Hoel Earle of Britaine descended from Hawise great Aunt to William Conquerour who gave this Country unto him by name of the lands of Earle Eadwin in Yorke-shire and withall bestowed his daughter upon him by whom he had no issue He built Richmond Castle as is before specified to defend himselfe from disinherited and outlawed Englishmen in those parts and dying left Britaine to his sonne Conan Le Grosse by a second wife But Alane the Blacke sonne of Eudo sonne of Geffrey Earle of Britaine and Hawise aforesaid succeeded in Richmond and he having no childe lest it to Stephen his brother This Stephen begat Alan sirnamed Le Savage his sonne and successour who assisted king Stephen against Maude the Empresse in the battaile at Lincolne and married Bertha one of the heires of Conan Le Grosse Earle of Hault Britaine by whom hee had Conan Le Petit Earle of both Britaine 's by hereditary right as well as of Richmond Hee by the assistance of King Henrie the Second of England dispossessed Endo Vicount of Porhoet his Father in Lawe who usurped the Title of Britaine in right of the said Bertha his Wife and ended his life leaving onely one daughter Constance by Margaret sister to Malcolne king of the Scots Geffrey third Sonne to King Henry the Second of England was advanced by his Father to the marriage of the said Constance whereby hee was Earle of Britaine and Richmond and begat of her Arthur who succeeded him and as the French write was made away by King Iohn his Unkle True it is indeed that for this cause the French called King Iohn into question as Duke of Normandy And notwithstanding he was absent and not heard once to plead neither confessing ought nor convicted yet by a definitive sentence they condemned him and awarded from him Normandy and his hereditary possessions in France Albeit himselfe had promised under safe conduct to appeare in personally at Paris there to make answere as touching the death of Arthur who as a Liege subject had bound himselfe by oath to bee true and loyall unto him and yet started backe from his allegeance raised a rebellion and was taken prisoner in battaile At which time this question was debated whether the Peeres of France might give judgement of a King annointed and therefore superiour considering that a greater dignity drowneth the lesser and now one and the same person was both King of England and Duke of Normandy But whither doe I digresse After Arthur these succeeded orderly in the Earldome of Richmond Guy Vicount of Thovars unto whom the foresaid Constance was secondly married Ranulph the third Earle of Chester the third husband of the said Constance Peter of Dreux descended from the bloud royall of France who wedded Alice the onely daughter of Constance by her husband abovenamed Guy Then upon dislike of the house of Britaine Peter of Savoy Unkle by the mothers side unto Eleonor the wife of king Henry the Third was made Earle of Richmond who for feare of the Nobles and Commons of England that murmured against strangers preferred to honours in England voluntarily surrendred up this Honour which was restored to Iohn Earle of Britaine sonne to Peter of Dreux After whom succeeded Iohn his sonne the first Duke of Britaine who wedded Beatrice daughter to Henry the Third King of England Whose sonne Arthur was Duke of Britaine and as some write Earle of Richmond Certes John of Britaine his younger brother immediately after the fathers death bare this honourable Title And he added unto the ancient Armes of Drewx with the Canton of Britaine the Lions of England in Bordeur Hee was Guardian of Scotland under King Edward the Second and there taken and detained prisoner for three yeeres space and dyed at length without issue in the Raigne of Edward the Third And John Duke of Britaine his nephew the sonne of Arthur succeeded in this Earledome After his decease without children when there was hote contention about the Dutchy of Britaine betweene John Earle of Montfort of the halfe bloud and Joane his brothers daughter and heire
of the river Annan which lost all the glorie and beautie it had by the English warre in the reigne of Edward the sixth In this territorie the Ionstons are men of greatest name a kinred even bred to warre betweene whom and the Maxwels there hath beene professed an open enmitie over long even to deadly feud and blood-shed which Maxwels by right from their ancestours have the rule of this Seneschalsie for so it is accounted This vale Eadgar King of Scots after hee was restored to his kingdome by auxiliarie forces out of England gave in consideration and reward of good service unto Robert Bruse or Brus Lord of Cliveland in Yorke-shire who with the good favour of the King bestowed it upon Robert his younger sonne when himselfe would not serve the King of Scots in his warres From him flowered the Bruses Lords of Annandale of whom Robert Brus married Isabel the daughter of William King of Scots by the daughter of Robert Avenall his sonne likewise Robert the third of the name wedded the daughter of David Earle of Huntington and of Gariosh whose sonne Robert surname The Noble when the issue of Alexander the third King of Scots sailed challenged in his mothers right the Kingdome of Scotland before Edward the first King of England as the direct and superiour Lord of the Kingdome of Scotland so the English give it out or an honourable Arbitratour for to say the Scots as being neerer in proximitie in degree and blood to King Alexander the third and Margaret daughter to the King of Norway although bee were the sonne by a second sister who soon after resigning up his own right granted and gave over to his son Robert Brus Earle of Carrick and to his heires I speak out of the verie originall all the right and claime which he had or might have to the Kingdome of Scotland But the action and suit went with John Balliol who sued for his right us descended of the eldest sister although in a degree farther off and sentence was given in these words For that the person more remote in the second degree descending in the first line is to bee preferred before a nâ—â—erer in a second line in the succession of an inheritance that cannot be parted How beit the said Robert sonne to the Earle of Carrick by his own vertue at length recovered the Kingdome unto himself and established it to his posteritie A Prince who as he flourished notably in regard of the glorious ornaments of his noble acts so he triumphed as happily with invincible fortitude and courage over fortune that so often crossed him NIDISDALL CLose unto Annandale on the West side lyeth NIDISDALE suficiently with corne-fields and pastures so named of the river Nid which in Ptolomee is wrongly written NOBIUS for NODIUS or NIDIUS of which name there bee other rivers in Britaine full of shallow foords and muddie shelves like as this NID is also It springeth out of the Lake Logh-Cure by which flourished CORDA a towne of the Selgova He taketh his course first by Sauqhuera Castle of the Creightons who a long time kept a great port as enjoying the dignitie of the Barons of Sauqhuer and the authoritie besides of hereditarie Sheriffs of Nidisdale then by Morton which gave title of Earle to some of the family of Douglas out of which others of that surname have their mansion and abiding at Drumlanrig by the same river neere unto the mouth whereof standeth Danfreys betweene two hills the most flourishing towne of this tract which hath to shew also an old Castle in it famous for making of woollen clothes and remarkable for the murder of John Commin the mightiest man for manred and retinew in all Scotland whom Roberts Brus for feare he should foreclose his way to the kingdome ranne quite through with his sword in the Church and soon obtained his pardon from the Pope for committing that murder in a sacred place Neerer unto the mouth Solway a little village retaineth still somewhat of the old name of Selgova Upon the verie mouth is situate Caer Laverock which Prolomee I supposed called CARBANTORIGUM accounted an imprenable sort when King Edward the first accompanied with the floure of English Nobilitie besieged and hardly wonne it but now it is a weake dwelling house of the Barons of Maxwell who being men of an ancient and noble linage were a long time Wardens of these West matches and of late advanced by marriage with the daughter one of the heires of the Earle of Morton whereby John Lord Maxwell was declared Earle of Morson as also by the daughter and heire of Hereis Lord Toricles whom I a younger sonne took to wife and obtained by the title of Baron Hereis Moreover in this vale by the Lake side lyeth Glencarn whence the Cunninghams of whom I am to write more in place convenient bare a long time the title of Earle This Nidisdale together with Annandale nourisheth a warlike kind of men who have beene infamous for robberies and depredations for they dwell upon Solway Frish a fourdable arme of the sea at low waters through which they made many times outrodes into England for to fetch in booties and in which the inhabitants thereabout on both sides with pleasant pastime and delightfull sight on horse-backe with speares hunt Salmons whereof there is abundance What manner of cattailestealers these be that inhabite these vales in the marches of both kingdomes John Lesley himselfe a Scottish man and Bishop of Rosse will tell you in these words They go forth in the night by troops out of there own borders through desart by-waies and many winding crankes All the day time they refresh their burses and recreate their owne strength in lurking places appointed before band until they be come thither as length in the dark night where they would be When they have laid hold of a bootie back again they returne home likewise by night through blinde waies onely and fetching many a compasse about The more skilfull any leader or guide is to passe through those wild desarts crooked turnings and steep downe-falls in the thickest mists and deepest darknesse hee is held in greaâ—â—ter reputation as one of an excelling wit And so craftie and 〈◊〉 these are that seldome or never they forgo their bootie and suffer it to be taken out of their hands unlesse it happen otherwhiles that they be caught by their adversaries following continually after and tracing them directly by their footing according as quick-senting Slugh-bounds doe lead them But say they be taken so faire spoken they are and eloquen so manie sugred words they have at will sweetly to plead for them that they are able to move the Iudges and adversaries both he they never so austere and severe if not to mercie yet to admiration amd some commiseration withall NOVANTES GALLOWAY FRom Nidisdale as you goe on Westward the NOVANTES inhabited in the vales all that tract which
tongue the Isle of Masses hereby may bee remembred when as it was a most famous Abbey of the order of Saint Augustin founded by the Earle of Strathern about the yeere 1200. When Ern hath joined his water with Tau in one streame so that Tau is now become more spatious hee looketh up to Aberneth seated upon his banke the royall seat in old time of the Picts and a well peopled Citie which as we read in an ancient fragment Nectane King of the Picts gave unto God and S. Brigide untill the day of Doom together with the bounds thereof which lye from a stone in Abertrent unto a stone nigh to Carfull that is Loghfoll and from thence as farre as to Ethan But long after it became the possession of the Douglasses Earles of Anguse who are called Lords of Aberneth and there some of them lye enterred The first Earle of Strathern that I read of was Malisse who in the time of King Henrie the third of England married one of the heires of Robert Muschamp a potent Baron of England Long afterward Robert Stewart in the yeere 1380. Then David a younger sonne of King Robert the second whose onely daughter given in marriage to Patricke Graham begat Mailise or Melisse Graham from whom King James the first tooke away the Earledome as escheated after that he understood out of the Records of the Kingdome that it was given unto his mothers grandfather and the heires males of his bodie This territorie as also that of Menteith adjoining the Barons Dromund governe hereditarily by Seneschals authority as their Stewarties Menteith hath the name of Teith a river which also they call Taich and thereof this little province they tearme in Latin Taichia upon the banke of which lieth the Bishopricke of Dunblan which King David the first of that name erected At Kirkbird that is Saint Brigids Church the Earles of Menteith have their principall house or Honour as also the Earles of Montrosse comming from the same stocke at Kin-Kardin not farre off This Menteith reacheth as I have heard unto the mountaines that enclose the East side of the Logh or Lake Lomund The ancient Earles of Menteith were of the family of Cumen which in times past being the most spred mightiest house of all Scotland was ruinated with the over-weight and sway thereof but the latter Earles were of the Grahams line ever since that Sir Mailise Graham attained to the honour of an Earle ARGATHELIA OR ARGILE BEyond the Lake Lomund and the West part of Lennox there spreadeth it selfe neere unto Dunbriton Forth the large countrey called Argathelia Argadia in Latin but commonly ARGILE more truely Argathel and Ar-Gwithil that is Neere unto the Irish or as old writings have it The edge or border of Ireland For it lyeth toward Ireland the inhabitants whereof the Britans tearme Gwithil and Gaothel The countrey runneth out in length and breadth all mangled with fishfull pooles and in some places with rising mountaines very commodious for feeding of cattell in which also there range up and downe wilde kine and red Deere but along the shore it is more unpleasant in sight what with rockes and what with blackish barraine mountaines In this part as Bede writeth Britain received after the Britans and Picts a third nation of Scots in that countrey where the Picts inhabited who comming out of Ireland under the leading of Reuda either through friendship or by dint of sword planted here their seat amongst them which they still hold Of which their leader they are to this very day called Dalreudini for in their language Dal signifieth a part And a little after Ireland saith hee is the proper Countrey of the Scots for being departed out of it they added unto the Britans and Picts a third nation in Britaine And there is a very great Bay or arme of the sea that in old time severed the nation of the Britans from the Picts which from the West breaketh a great way into the land where standeth the strongest Citie of all the Britans even to this day called Alchith In the North part of which Bay the Scots aforesaid when they came got themselves a place to inhabite Of that name Dalreudin no remaines at all to my knowledge are now extant neither finde wee any thing thereof in Writers unlesse it bee the same that Dalrieta For in an old Pamphlet touching the division of Albanie wee read of one Kinnadie who for certaine was a King of Scots and subdued the Picts these very words Kinnadie two yeeres before hee came into Pictavia for so it calleth the countrey of the Picts entred upon the Kingdome of Dalrieta Also in an historie of later time there is mention made of Dalrea in some place of this tract where King Robert Brus fought a field unfortunately That Justice should be ministred unto this Province by Justices Itinerant at Perth whensoever it pleased the King King James the fourth by authoritie of the States of the Kingdome enacted a law But the Earles themselves have in some cases their roialties as being men of very great command and authoritie followed with a mightie traine of retainers and dependants who derive their race from the ancient Princes and Potentates of Argile by an infinite descent of Ancestours and from their castle Cambell tooke their surname but the honour and title of Earle was given unto them by King James the second who as it is recorded invested Colin Lord Cambell Earle of Argile in regard of his owne vertue and the worth of his family Whose heires and successours standing in the gracious favour of the Kings have bin Lords of Lorn and a good while Generall Justices of the Kingdome of Scotland or as they use to speake Iustices ordained in Generall and Great Masters of the Kings royall household CANTIRE LOgh Fin a lake breeding such store of herrings at a certaine due season as it is wonderfull severeth Argile from a Promontorie which for thirtie miles together growing still toward a sharpe point thrusteth it selfe forth with so great a desire toward Ireland betwixt which and it there is a narrow sea scarce thirteene miles over as if it would conjoine it selfe Ptolomee termeth this the Promontorie EPIDIORUM betweene which name and the Islands EBUDAE lying over against it there is in my conceit some affinitie At this day it is called in the Irish tongue which they speake in all this tract CAN-TYRE that is The lands Head inhabited by the Mac-Conells a family that here swayeth much howbeit at the pleasure and dispose of the Earle of Argile yea and otherwhiles they make out their light pinnaces and gallies for Ireland to raise booties and pillage who also hold in possession those little provinces of Ireland which they call Glines and Rowts This Promontorie lyeth annexed to Knapdale by so thin a necke as being scarce a mile broad and the same all sandie that the mariners finde it the neerer
extended it selfe in old time farre and wide everie way in these parts As for the places herein they are of no great account but the Earles thereof are very memorable Thomas a younger sonne of Rolland of Galloway was in his wives right Earle of Athol whose sonne Patricke was by the Bissets his concurrents murdered in feud at Hadington in his bed-chamber and forthwith the whole house wherein hee lodged burnt that it might be supposed he perished by casualtie of fire In the Earldome there succeeded David Hastings who had married the aunt by the mothers side of Patricke whose sonne that David surnamed of Strathbogie may seeme to be who a little after in the reigne of Henrie the third King of England being Earle of Athol married one of the daughters and heires of Richard base sonne to John King of England and had with her a verie goodly inheritance in England She bare unto him two sonnes John Earle of Athol who being of a variable disposition and untrustie was hanged up aloft on a gallowes fiftie foot high and David Earle of Athol unto whom by marriage with one of the daughters and heires of John Comin of Badzenoth by one of the heires of Aumar de Valence Earle of Penbroch there fell great lands and possessions His sonne David who under King Edward the second was otherwhiles amongst English Earles summoned to the Parliaments in England and under King Edward Balliol made Lord Lievtenant Generall of Scotland was vanquished by the valerous prowesse of Andrew de Murray and slaine in battaile within the Forrest of Kelblen in the yeere of our Lord 1335. And his sonne David left two young daughters only Elizabeth wedded unto Sir Thomas Percie from whom the Barons of Burrough are descended and Philip married to Sir Thomas Halsham an English Knight Then fell the title of Athol unto that Walter Stewart sonne to King Robert the second who cruelly murdered James the first King of Scotland and for this execrable crueltie suffered most condigne punishment accordingly in so much as Aeneas Sylvius Embassadour at that time in Scotland from Pope Eugenius the fourth gave out this speech That hee could not tell whether hee should give them greater commendations that revenged the Kings death or brand them with sharper censure of condemnation that distained themselves with so hainous a parricide After some few yeeres passed betweene this honour was granted unto John Stewart of the family of Lorne the sonne of James surnamed The Black Knight by Joan the widow of King James the first daughter to John Earle of Somerset and Niece to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster whose posteritie at this day enjoy the same Tau bearing now a bigger streame by receiving Almund unto him holdeth on his course to Dunkelden adorned by King David with an Episcopall See Most writers grounding upon the signification of that word suppose it to be a towne of the Caledonians and interpret it The Mount or hill of Hazeles as who would have that name given unto it of the Hazel trees in the wood Caledonia From hence the Tau goeth forward by the carkasse of Berth a little desolate Citie remembring well enough what a great losse and calamitie hee brought upon it in times past when with an extraordinarie swelling flood hee surrounded all the fields layed the goodly standing corne along on the ground and carried headlong away with him this poore Citie with the Kings childe and infant in his cradle and the inhabitants therein In steed whereof in a more commodious place King William builded Perth which straightwaies became so wealthy that Necham who lived in that age versified of it in this manner Transis ample Tai per rura per oppida per Perth Regnum sustentant istius urbis opes By villages by townes by Perth thou runn'st great Tay amaine The riches of this Citie Perth doth all the realme sustaine But the posteritie ensuing called it of a Church founded in honour of Saint John Saint Iohns towne and the English whiles the warres were hot betweene the Bruses and the Balliols fortified it with great bulwarks which the Scots afterwards for the most part overthrew and dismantled it themselves Howbeit it is a proper pretie Citie pleasantly seated betweene two Greenes and for all that some of the Churches be destroyed yet a goodly shew it maketh ranged and set out in such an uniforme maner that in everie severall street almost there dwell severall artificers by themselves and the river Tau bringeth up with the tide sea commodities by lighters whereupon J. Jonston so often now by me cited writeth thus PERTHUM Propter aquas Tai liquidas amoena vineta Obtinet in medio regna superba solo Nobilium quondam regum clarissima sedes Pulchra situ pinguis germine dives agri Finitimis dat jura locis moremque modumque Huic dare laus illis haec meruisse dari Sola inter patrias incincta est moenibus urbes Hostibus assiduis ne vaga praeda foret Quanta virûm virtus dextrae quae praemia nôrunt Cimber Saxo ferox genus Hectoridum Felix laude novâ felix quoque laude vetustâ Perge recens priscum perpetuare decus PERTH Neere to the waters cleere of Tay and pleasant plaines all greene In middle ground betweene them stands Perth proudly like a Queene Of noble Kings the stately seat and palace once it was Faire for the site and rich with all for spring of corne and grasse To neighbour places all it doth lawes customes fashions give Her praise to give theirs to deserve the same for to receive Of all the Cities in these parts walled alone is she Lest she to foes continuall a scambling prey might be What Knights she bred and what rewards they won to knighthood due Danes Saxons fierce bold Britans eke the Trojans off-spring knew Happie for praises old happie for praises new of late New as thou art thine honour old strive to perpetuate And now of late King James the sixth hath erected it to the title of an Earldome having created James Baron Dromund Earle of Perth Unto Perth these places are neere neighbours Methven which Margaret an English Ladie widow unto King James the fourth purchased with readie money for her third husband Henrie Steward descended of the royall blood and for his heires and withall obtained of her sonne King James the fifth for him the dignitie of a Baron More beneath is Rethuen a castle of the Rethuens whose name is of damned memorie considering that the three states of the kingdome hath ordained that whosoever were of that name should forgoe the same and take unto them a new after that the Rethuens brethren in a most cursed and horrible conspiracie had complotted to murder their soveraigne King James the sixth who had created William their father Earle of Gourie and afterward beheaded him being lawfully convicted when he would insolently prescribe lawes to his soveraigne But of men
standing in a docke neere the Tamis to the outside of the keele whereof a number of such little birds without life and feathers stuck close Yet would I gladly thinke that the generation of these birds was not out of the logges of wood but from the very Ocean which the Poets tearmed the Father of all things A mightie masse likewise of Amber as bigge as the bodie of an horse was not many yeeres since cast upon this shore The learned call it Succinum Glessum and Chryso-Electrum and Sotacus supposed that it was a certaine juice or liquor which distilleth out of trees in Britain and runneth downe into the sea and is therein hardned Tacitus also was of the same opinion when he wrote thus I can verily beleeve that like as there be trees in the secret and inward parts of the East which sweat out frankincense and balme so in the Ilands and other countries of the West there bee woods and groves of a more fattie and firme substance which melting by the hot beames of the Sunne approching so neere runneth into the sea hard by and by force of tempest floateth up to the shores against it But Serapio and the Philosophers of later times write that it ariseth out of a certain clammie and bituminous earth under the sea and by the sea side and that the billowes and tempests cast up part thereof a land and fishes devoure the rest But I digresse extravagantly I will into my way againe and since I acknowledge my fault let my confession purchase pardon In the reigne of King Alexander the second Alexander Comin rose up to the honour of Earle of Buquhan who married the daughter and one of the heires of Roger de Quincie Earle of Winchester in England and his Niece by a sonne brought the same title unto Henrie de Beaumont her husband for he in King Edward the third his daies had his place in the Parliament of England by the name of Earl of Buquhan Afterwards Alexander Stewart sonne to King Robert the second was Earle of this place unto whom succeeded John a younger sonne of Robert Duke of Albanie who arriving in France with seven thousand Scottishmen to aide Charles the seventh King of France bare himselfe valiantly and performed singular good service against the Englishmen and that with so great commendation as having victoriously slaine Thomas Duke of Clarence brother to Henrie the fifth King of England at Baugie and discomfited the English he was made Constable of France But in the third yeere following when the fortune of warre turned hee with other most valiant Knights to wit Archibald Douglasse Earle of Wigton and Duke of Touraine c. was vanquished at Vernoil by the English and there slain Whom notwithstanding as that Poet said aeternum memorabit Gallia cives Grata suos titulos quae dedit tumulos France thankfully will ay recount as citizens of her owne On whom both titles glorious and tombes she hath bestowne Certes whereas under the K.K. Charles the sixth and seventh France was preserved and Aquitain recovered by thrusting out the English the Frenchmen cannot chuse but acknowledge themselves much beholden to the fidelitie and fortitude of the Scottish But afterwards King James the first gave the Earldome of Buquhan unto George of Dunbar moved thereto upon pitie and commiseration because hee had deprived him before of the Earldom of March by authority of Parliament for his fathers crime and not long after James the sonne of James Stewart of Lorn surnamed the Black Knight whom he had by Q. Joan sister to the Duke of Somerset and widdow to King James the first obtained this honour and left it to his posteritie but for default not long since of heires male it came by a daughter married to Robert Douglas a younger brother of Douglas of Lochlevin to the family of the Douglasses From Buquhan as the shore bendeth backward and turneth full into the North lieth Boena and Bamff a small Sherifdome also Ajuza a little territorie of no especiall account and Rothamay castle the dwelling place of the Barons of Salton surnamed Abernethy Beneath these lieth Strath-bolgy that is the vale by Bolgy the habitation in times past of the Earls of Athol who of it assumed their surname but now the principall seat of Marquesse Huntly For this title K. James the sixth conferred upon George Gordon Earle Huntly Lord Gordon and Badzeneth a man of great honour and reputation for his ancient noblenesse of birth and the multitude of his dependants and followers whose ancesters descended from the Setons by Parliamentarie authoritie took the name of Gordon when as Sir Alexander Seton had taken to wife the daughter of Sir Iohn Gordon Knight by whom he had a large and rich inheritance and received the honour of the Earle of Huntly at the hands of King James the second in the yeere 1449. MORAVIA or MURRAY THe VACOMAGI remembred by Ptolomee anciently inhabited on the further side of Crantz-baine-mountain which as it were in a continued range by hills hanging one by another driveth out his ridge with many a winding as far as to Murray frith where now lieth Murray in Latin Moravia celebrated for the fertilitie pleasant site and commoditie of fruitfull trees By this Province Spey a famous river maketh his issue into the sea wherein he lodgeth when hee hath watered Rothes Castle whence the family of the Lesleys tooke the title of Earle ever since that K. James the second conferred the honour of Earle of Rothes upon Sir George Lesley Concerning this Spey our Poet Necham hath thus written Spey loca mutantis praeceps agitator arenae Inconstans certas nescit habere vias Officium lintris corbis subit hunc regit audax Cursus labentis nauta fluenta sequens Spey raising heaps of sand amaine that shift oft times their place Inconstant he doth change eftsoones and keeps no certaine race A panier serves here for a boat some ventrous swaine it guides Who followeth still the rivers course while downe the streame it glides The river LOXA mentioned by Ptolomee which now is called Losse hideth himselfe in the sea hard by neere unto which Elgina appeareth in which and in Forres adjoining I. of Dunbar of Cumnock descended from the stock of the Earles of March hath his jurisdiction as Sheriff by inheritance But where it is now readie to enter into the sea he findeth a more plaine and soft soile and spreadeth abroad into a Meere full of swans wherein the herbe Olorina plentifully groweth hee hath Spiny Castle standing upon it whereof now the first Baron is Alexander of the linage of the Lindseys like as Kinlosse also a neighbour by sometime a famous Monasterie some call it Kill-flos of certaine flowers miraculously there springing up on a sudden when the carkase of King Duff murdred and hidden in the same place was found hath also for the Lord thereof Edward Brus M. of the Rolls in
therein bee with the narrowest thrust close and pent together yet such is the convenience and commodiousnesse of the haven that for wealth fresh trading and frequent resort it is the second City in all Ireland and hath alwaies shewed a singular loialty fidelitie and obedience to the Imperiall Crowne of England For ever since that Richard Earle of Pembrok wanne it it hath continued so faithfull and quietly disposed that it performed at all times safe and secure peace unto the English on their backes whiles they went on in the conquering of Ireland Whence it is that the Kings of England have granted unto it very many and those right large Franchises which King Henry the seventh augmented and confirmed because the Citizens had demeaned themselves most valiantly and wisely against that Mock-Prince Perkin Warbeck who being a young man of base condition by hoising up the full sailes of impudence went about to mount up aloft unto the Imperiall diadem whiles he a meer suborned counterfeit tooke upon him to be Richard Duke of Yorke the second sonne of King Edward the fourth This countie of Waterford together with the city King Henry the sixth gave unto Iohn Talbot Earle of Shrewsbury aforesaid by these words which because they testifie the valerous vertue of that most martiall Knight to the end that vertue might have the due honour thereto belonging I thinke it worth my labour and haply any man else would deeme no lesse to put downe out of the Record which may be Englished thus We therefore saith the King after other eloquent termes penned by the Secretaries of that age when there was but simple Latin weighing with due consideration the valiant prowesse of our most deere and faithfull cousin John Earle of Shrewsbury and of Weisford Lord Talbot Furnivall and Le Strange sufficiently tried and approved even unto his old age in the warres aforesaid upon his body no lesse bedewed with sweat many a time than embrued with blood and considering in what sort our Countie and Citie of Waterford in our land of Ireland the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Baronie of Dungarvan and all the Lordships Lands Honours and Baronies with the pertinences within the same County which by forfeiture of rebels by reversion or decease of any person or persons by escheat or any other title of law ought to come into our hands or our progenitors or in the same to be by reason of the hostile invasions of our enemies and rebells in those parts are become so desolate and lye so much exposed to the spoiles of warre wholly as it were wasted that they turne us to no profit but have and doe redound oftentimes to our detriment in this regard also that by the same our Cousin our foresaid land of Ireland may the more valiantly be defended in those parts against such attempts and invasions of our enemies and rebells doe ordaine promote and create him Earle of Waterford together with the stile title name and honour thereto belonging And because as the highnesse of his state and degree groweth all things consequently of necessity grow withall upon our speciall grace certaine knowledge and meere motion and for the estate of the Earle himselfe our Cousin to be maintained in more decent manner we have given granted and by these our letters confirmed unto the same Earle the County aforesaid together with the foresaid stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford yea and the foresaid City with the fee ferme of the same the Castles Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies with the pertinences within the County likewise all and every sort the Manors Hundreds Wapentakes c. all along the sea coast from the towne of Yoghall unto Waterford City aforesaid To have and to hold the foresaid County of Waterford the stile title name and honour of Earle of Waterford and the City Waterford aforesaid the Castle Seigniory Honour Land and Barony of Dungarvan and all other Lordships Honours Lands and Baronies within the said county as also all and every the foresaid Manors Hundreds c. unto the above named Earle and the heires males issuing out of his body to have I say and to hold of us and our heires by homage fealty and the service of being and to be our Seneschall or Steward and that his heires be the Seneschals of Ireland to us and our heires throughout our whole land of Ireland to do and that hee doe and ought himselfe to doe in the same his office that which his predecessors Seneschals of England were wont to doe hitherto in that office for ever In witnesse whereof c. But when as whiles the Kings of England and the Nobles who had large and goodly possessions in Ireland were much busied and troubled a long time first with the warres of France and afterward with civill warres at home Ireland lay in manner neglected and the State of English there falling still to decay was now in manner come to nothing but the Irishry by occasion of the others absence grew exceeding mighty for to recover these losses and to abate the power of the Irish it was ordained and enacted by the States of the Realme in Parliament that the Earle of Shrewsbury for his absence and carelesnesse in maintaining of his owne should surrender into the hands of the King and his successors the Earledome and towne of Waterford the Duke of Norfolke likewise the Baron Barkley the heires generall of the Earle of Ormond and all the Abbats Priors c. of England who had any lands should surrender up all their possessions unto the King and his successors for the same absence and neglect THE COUNTY OF LIMERICK HItherto have wee gone over the Maritime counties of Mounster two there remaine yet behind that bee in-lands Limericke and Tipperary which wee are now to goe unto The county of LIMERICK lieth behinde that of Corke Northward betweene Kerry the river Shanon and the county of Tipperary A fertile countrey and well peopled but able to shew very few places of any good account and importance The more Western part of it is called Conilagh wherein among the hills Knock-Patric that is Patricks hill mounteth up of a mighty height and yeelding a pleasant prospect into the sea beholdeth afarre off the river Shanon falling with a wide and wast mouth into the Vergivian or Ocean Under which hill a sept of Fitz-Giralds or Giraldines lived honourably a long time untill that Thomas called the Knight of the Valley or of the Glin when his gracelesse sonne that wicked firebrand suffered death for to set villages and houses a fire is by the lawes of Ireland high treason because himselfe advised his sonne and set him on to enter into these lewd actions by authority of the Parliament was disseized of his goodly and large possessions The head City of this county is Limerick which Shanon a most famous river by parting his chanell compasseth round about The Irish call it Loumeag and
hand in fight Afterwards upon the sixth day of the weeke being Good-friday when the foresaid John was unarmed and went by way of pilgrimage bare foot and in his linnen vesture a visiting the Churches as the manner is treacherously he was taken prisoner by his owne people for a piece of money given in hand and for a greater reward to be given afterward for a recompence and so was delivered unto Hugh Lacie But hee bringeth him unto the King of England who gave unto Hugh Lacie the Earldom of Ulster and the Seigniorie of Conaught which belonged unto John Curcie Then Hugh Lacie being Earle rewarded all the foresaid Traitours that had betraied John Curcie and gave unto them gold and silver more or lesse but straightwayes hung up all the Traitours aforesaid and tooke away all their goods and so Hugh Lacie ruleth over all Ulster and John Curcie is condemned to perpetuall prison because he had before time beene a Rebell to John King of England and would not doe him homage and besides blamed him about the death of Arthur the rightfull heire unto the Crowne But whiles hee was in prison and in extreme povertie having but little allowance and the same course and simple for to eat and drinke he said O God wherefore dealest thou thus by me who have built and re-edified so many Monasteries for thee and thy Saints Now when he had many times wailed and made loud moane in this wise and therewith fell asleep the holy Trinitie appeared unto him saying Why hast thou cast me out of mine owne seat and out of the Church of Doun and placed there my S. Patrick the Patron of Ireland Because indeed John Curcie had expelled the Secular Canons or Priests out of the Cathedrall Church of Doune and brought the blacke Monks of Chester and placed them in the said Church And the holy Trinitie stood there in a stately shrine or seat and John himselfe tooke it downe out of the Church and ordained a Chappell for that Image and in the great Church set up the image of S. Patrick which displeased the most High God therefore thus said God Know thou well that thou shalt never enter into thy Seigniorie in Ireland Howbeit in regard of other good deeds that thou hast done thou shalt with honour be delivered forth of prison which also came to passe And now by this time there arose a contention betweene John King of England and the King of France about a Seigniory and certain Castles and this suit or controversie still depending the King of France offered unto him a Giant or Champion to fight for his right Then the King of England called to remembrance his most valiant Knight John Curcie whom upon the information of others he had before cast into prison The King therefore sent for John Curcie and asked him if he were able to help and stand him in stead in a combat then John answered and said I will not fight for thee but for the right of the Kingdome for which afterward hee undertooke to doe his endeavour in single fight and so refreshed himselfe with meat drink and bathing and tooke the vertue of his owne fortitude and strength and a day was appointed betweene these Giants or Champions namely betweene John Curcie and the other But when the Champion of France heard of his exceeding great feeding and of his strength hee refused the combat and then was the said Seigniorie given unto the King of England Then the King of France requested to see a stroake given by the hand of John Curcie and he set a strong and doughtie good morion full of maile upon a great blocke or log of wood and the foresaid John taking his skeine or sword and looking back round about him with a stern and grim countenance smote the moâ—ion through from the very crest downeward into the blocke and the sword stucke in the wood so fast that no other man but himselfe was able to plucke out the sword then John at the request of the Kings easily pluckt it forth And the Kings demanded of the foresaid John wherefore he looked behind him with so grim a countenance before he gave the stroke who answered that if he had failed in giving that stroke he would have slaine them all as well Kings as others And the Kings gave unto him great gifts yea and the King of England rendred unto him also his Seigniorie of Ulster But John Curcie attempted 15. times to saile over sea into Ireland but was alwaies in danger and the wind evermore against him wherefore hee waited a while among the Monkes of Chester At length he returned into France and there rested in the Lord. MCCV. The Abbey of Wetheney in the countie of Lymericke was founded by Theobald the sonne of Walter Butler Lord of Karryke MCCVI. The order of Friers Minors was begun neere the citie Assisa by Saint Francis MCCVIII William Breos is expelled out of England and commeth into Ireland England is interdicted for the tyrannie of King John of England Likewise a great overthrow and slaughter hapned at Thurles in Mounster committed upon the Lord Justice of Irelands men by Sir Geffery Mareys MCCX John King of England came into Ireland with a great fleet and a puissant armie and for that the sons of Hugh Lacie to wit the Lord Walter Lord of Meth and Hugh his brother exercised tyrannie upon the Commons and especially because they slew Sir John Curson Lord of Rathenny and Kilbarrocke for they heard that the foresaid John accused them unto the King therefore I say the King drave the foresaid sonnes of Hugh Lacie out of the land and they fled into France and served in the Monasterie of Saint Taurin as unknowne working about clay and bricke and sometime in gardens as Gardiners but at length they were knowne by the Abbat of the said Monasterie and the said Abbat entreated the King for them because he had baptized his sonnes and was Godsib unto him as a Godfather many times and Walter Lacie paid two thousand and five hundred markes and Hugh Lacie payed a great summe of money unto the King for his ransome and at the request of the said Abbat restored they were againe unto their former degree and Seigniorie And Walter Lacie brought with him John the sonne of Alured that is Fitz-Acory sonne to the foresaid Abbats whole brother and he made him Knight and gave unto him the Seigniorie of Dengle and many other Lordships Item hee brought Monkes with him out of the same Monasterie and gave unto them many fermes and the Cell called Fourie in regard of charitie thankfulnesse and counsell and Hugh Lacie Earle of Ulster made a Cell for Monkes and endowed them in Ulster in a place called ..... But John King of England having taken many pledges and hostages as well of English as of Irish and hanged a number of malefactours upon Jebbits and setled the State of the land returned into England the same yeere that he came
with Gylly Cavinelagh Obugill and Mac-Derley King of Oresgael with the principall men of Kineoil Conail And many of the army of the said Justice were drowned as they passed over the water of Fin Northward and among them in the rescuing of a prey there were slaine Atarmanudaboge Sir W. Brit Sherif of Conacth and the young knight his brother And afterward the said army spoiled the country and left the Seigniorie of Kineoil Conail to Rory O-Coner for that time There was another expedition also by the said Justice into Tirconnell and great spoiles made and O-Canamayu was expelled out of Kenoilgain he left the territory of Kenail Conail with Gorry Mac-Donald O-Donnel There was another expedition also by the said Justice into Tireogaine against O-Neale but he gave pledges for the preservation of his countrey There was another expedition by the said Justice in Leinster against the Irishry whom he pitifully outraged and spoiled their land In another expedition also the said Justice destroied Kenoilgain and all Ulster in despite of O-Neale tarrying three nights at Tullaghoge MCCXLIII Hugh Lacy Earle of Ulster died and is buried at Crag-fergous in the covent of the Friers Minours leaving a daughter his heire whom Walter Burk who was Earle of Ulster espoused In the same yeere died Lord Girald Fitz-Moris and Richard Burk MCCXLVI An earthquake over all the West about 9. of the clocke MCCXLVIII Sir John Fitz-Gefferey knight came Lord Justice into Ireland MCCL. Lewis King of France and William Long Espee with many other are taken prisoners by the Saracens In Ireland Maccanewey a sonne of Beliol was slaine in Leys as he well deserved MCCLI. The Lord Henry Lacie was borne Likewise upon Christmas day Alexander King of Scotland a childe eleven yeeres old espoused at Yorke Margaret the King of Englands daughter MCCLV Alan de la Zouch is made Lord Justice and commeth into Ireland MCCLVII The Lord Moris or Maurice Fitz-Gerald deceaseth MCCLIX Stephen Long Espee commeth Lord Justice of Ireland The Greene castle in Ulster is throwne downe Likewise William Dene is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXI The Lord John Fitz-Thomas and the Lord Maurice his son are slaine in Desmund by Mac-Karthy likewise William Dene Lord Justice of Ireland dejected after whom succeeded in the same yeere Sir Richard Capell MCCLXII Richard Clare Earle of Glocester died Item Martin Maundevile left this life the morrow after Saint Bennets day MCCLXIV Maurice Fitz Gerald and Maurice Fitz Maurice took prisoners Rich. Capell the Lord Theobald Botiller and the Lord John Cogan at Tristel-Dermot MCCLXVII David Barrie is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXVIII Comin Maurice Fitz Maurice is drowned Item Lord Robert Ufford is made Lord Justice of Ireland MCCLXIX The castle of Roscomon is founded Richard of Excester is made Lord Justice MCCLXX The Lord James Audeley came Lord Justice into Ireland MCCLXXI Henry the Kings sonne of Almain is slaine in the Court of Rome The same yeere reigned the plague famine and the sword and most in Meth. Item Nicholas de Verdon and his brother John are slain Walter Burk or de Burgo Earle of Ulster died MCCLXXII The Lord James Audeley Justice of Ireland was killed with a fall from his horse in Twomond after whom succeeded Lord Maurice Fitz-Maurice in the office of chiefe Justice MCCLXXIII The Lord Geffrey Genevile returned out of the holy land and is made Justice of Ireland MCCLXXIV Edward the sonne of King Henrie by the hands of Robert Kelwarby a Frier of the order of Preaching Friers and Archbishop of Canterburie upon S. Magnus the Martyrs day in the Church of Westminster was anointed K. of England and crowned in the presence of the Lords and Nobles of all England whose protestation and oath was in this forme I Edward son and heire to King Henrie professe protest and promise before God and his Angels from this time forward to keep without respect the law justice and peace unto the holy Church of God and the people subject unto me so far forth as we can devise by the counsell of our liege and loiall ministers also to exhibite condigne and canonicall honour unto the Bishops of Gods Church to preserve inviolably whatsoever hath bin bestowed by Emperors and Kings upon the Church committed unto them and to yeeld due honour unto Abbats the Lords vessels according to the advise of our lieges c. So help me God and the holy Gospels of the Lord. In the same yeer died the Lord Iohn Verdon likewise the Lord Thomas Clare came into Ireland Item William Fitz-Roger Prior of the Hospitalers with many others are taken prisoners at Glyndelory and more there slaine MCCLXXV The castle of Roscoman is erected againe In the same yeere Moydagh was taken prisoner at Norragh by Sir Walter Faunte MCCLXXVI Robert Ufford is made Lord Justice of Ireland the second time Geffrey Genevile gave place and departed MCCLXXVII O-Brene is slaine MCCLXXVIII The Lord David Barry died Likewise the Lord John Cogan MCCLXXIX The Lord Robert Ufford entred into England and appointed in his roome Frier Robert Fulborne Bishop of Waterford in whose time the money was changed likewise the Round table was holden at Kenilworth by the Lord Roger Mortimer MCCLXXX Robert Ufford returned out of England Lord Justice as before Also the wife of Robert Ufford deceased MCCLXXXI Adam Cusack the younger slew William Barret and many others in Connaght Item Frier Stephen Fulborne is made Justice of Ireland Item the Lord Robert Ufford returned into England MCCLXXXII Moritagh and Arte Mac-Murgh his brother are slaine at Arclowe on the Even of Saint Marie Maudlen Likewise the Lord Roger Mortimer died MCCLXXXIII The citie of Dublin was in part burnt and the Belfray of Saint Trinitie Church in Dublin the third day before the Nones of Januarie MCCLXXXIIII The castle of Ley was taken and burnt by the Potentates or Lords of Offaly the morrow after Saint Barnabe the Apostle his day Alphonsus the Kings sonne twelve yeeres old changed his life MCCLXXXV The Lord Theobald Botiller died the sixth day before the Kalends of October in the castle of Arclowe and was buried there in the covent of the Friers preachers Item Girald Fitz-Maurice was taken prisoner by his own Irish in Offalie and Richard Petit and Saint Doget with many other and a great overthrow was given at Rathode with much slaughter MCCLXXXVI Norragh and Arstoll with other townes were one after another continually burnt by Philip Stanton the 16. day before the Calends of December In these daies Alianor Queen of England mother of King Edward tooke the mantle and the ring at Ambresburie upon the day of Saint Thomas his translation having her dower in the kingdome of England confirmed by the Pope to be possessed for ever Likewise Calwagh is taken prisoner at Kildare The Lord Thomas Clare departed this life MCCLXXXVII Stephen Fulborn Archbishop of Tuam died after whom there succeeded in the office of Lord chiefe Justice for a time John
William Vescy fled into France and would not fight Then the King of England gave all the Seigniories and Lordships which were the Lord William Vescies unto Sir John Fitz-Thomas to wit Kildare Rathemgan and many others The same yeere Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester returned out of Ireland into England likewise Richard Earle of Ulster soon after the feast of S. Nicholas was taâ—en prisoner by Sir John Fitz-Thomas and kept in ward within the Castle of Ley unto the feast of Saint Gregorie the Pope whose enlargement was then made by the counsell of the Lord the King in a Parliament at Kilkenny for the taking of whom the foresaid Sir Iohn Fitz-Thomas gave all his lands to wit Slygah with the pertenances which he had in Connaght Item the Castle of Kildare was won Kildare and the country round about it is spoiled by the English and Irish. Caluagh burnt all the Rolls and Tallies of the said Earle Great dearth and pestilence there was throughout Ireland this yeere and the two next ensuing Item Lord William Odyngzele is made Justice of Ireland MCCXCV Edward King of England built the Castle de Bello-Marisco that is Beaumaris in Venedocia which is called mother of Cambria and of the common sort Anglesey entring unto the said Anglesey straight after Easter and subduing the Venodotes that is the able men of Anglesey under his dominion and soone after this time namely after the feast of St. Margaret Madock at that time the elect Prince of Wales submitting himselfe to the Kings grace and favour was brought by Iohn Haverings to London and there shut up prisoner in the towre expecting the Kings grace and benevolence This yeere died Lord William Odingzele Justice of Ireland the morrow after S. Mary of Aegypt whom succeeded Sir Thomas Fitz-Maurice in the Justiceship Item about the same time the Irish of Leinster wasted Leinster burning New-castle with other townes Item Thomas Torbevile a traitor of the King and the realm being convicted was drawne through the middest of London lying along prostrate guarded with foure tormentors disguised under vizzards taunting and reviling him and thus in the end was hanged upon a jibbet in chaines so as his carcase might not be committed to sepulture but kites carrion crowes and ravens celebrated his funerals This Thomas was one of them which at the siege of the Castle of Rions were taken prisoners and brought to Paris Who spake unto the Peeres of France and said that he would betray the King of England into their hands and leaving there his two sonnes for hostages returned from the parts beyond-sea joining himself unto the King of England and his counsell relating unto them all how craftily he escaped out of prison and when hee had gotten intelligence of the Kings designement and the ordering of the kingdome hee put all in writing and directed the same unto the Provost of Paris For which being in the end convicted he received the sentence of judgement aforesaid Item about the same time the Scots having broken the bond of peace which they had covenanted with the Lord Edward King of England made a new league with the King of France and conspiring together rose up in armes against their owne soveraigne Lord and King Iohn Balliol and enclosed him within the inland parts of Scotland in a castle environed and fensed round about with mountaines They elected unto themselves after the manner of France twelve Peeres to wit foure Bishops foure Earles and foure Lords of the Nobilitie by whose will and direction all the affaires of the kingdome should be managed And this was done in despite and to disgrace the King of England for that against the will and consent of the Scots the said John was by the King of England set over them to be their Soveraigne Item the King of England brought an armie againe toward Scotland in Lent following to represse the rash arrogancie and presumption of the Scots against their owne father and King Item Sir Iohn Wogan was made Justice of Ireland and the Lord Thomas Fitz-Maurice gave place unto him Item the said John Wogan Justice of Ireland made peace and truce to last for two yeeres betweene the Earle of Ulster and Iohn Fitz-Thomas and the Geraldines Item in these dayes about the feast of Christ his Nativitie Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester finished this life Item the King of England sendeth his brother Edmund with an armie into Gascoigne MCCXCVI The Lord Edward King of England the third day before the Calends of Aprill to wit upon Friday that fell out then to be in Easter weeke wonne Berwicke wherein were slaine about 7000. Scots and of the English one onely Knight to wit Sir Richard Cornwall with seven footmen and no more Item shortly after namely upon the fourth of May he entred the Castle of Dunbar and tooke prisoners of the enemies about fortie men alive who all submitted themselves to the Kings grace and mercie having before defeated the whole armie of the Scots that is to say slaine seven hundred men of armes neither were there slaine of the English men in that service as well of horsemen as of footmen but ... footmen onely Item upon the day of Saint John before Port-Latin no small number of Welshmen even about fifteene thousand by commandement of the King went into Scotland to invade and conquer it And the same time the great Lords of Ireland to wit Iohn Wogan Justice of Ireland Richard Bourk Earle of Ulster Theobald Butler and Iohn Fitz-Thomas with others came to aide and sailed over sea into Scotland The King of England also entertaining them upon the third day before the Ides of May to wit on Whitsunday made a great and solemne feast in the Castle of Rokesburgh to them and other Knights of England Item upon the next Wednesday before the feast of Saint Barnabe the Apostle hee entred the towne of Edeâ—burgh and wonne the Castle before the feast of Saint John Baptist and shortly after even in the same summer were all the Castles within the compasse of Scotland rendred up into his hands Item the same Lord John Balliol King of Scotland came though unwilling upon the Sunday next after the feast of the translation of Saint Thomas the Archbishop to the King of England with Earles Bishops and a great number of Knights beside and submitted themselves unto the Kings grace and will saving life and limbe and the Lord John Balliol resigned up all his right of Scotland into the King of England his hand whom the Lord the King sent toward the parts about London under safe conduct Item Edmund the King of Englands brother died in Gascoigne MCCXCVII Lord Edward King of England sailed over into Flanders with a power of armed men against the King of France for the warre that was raised betweene them where after great expences and much altercation a certaine forme of peace was concluded betweene them with this condition that they should submit themselves unto the ordinance of
the Lord the Pope From the one side and the other were sent certaine messengers to the Court of Rome but whiles King Edward abode in Flanders William Walleis by the common counsell of the Scots came with a great armie to the bridge of Strivelin and gave battle unto John Earle Warren in which battell on both sides many were slaine and many drowned But the Englishmen were discomfited and defeated Upon which exploit all the Scots at once arose and made an insurrection as well Earls as Barons against the King of England And there fell discord betweene the King of England and Roger Bigod Earle Mareschall but soone after they were agreed And Saint Lewis a Frier minor sonne of the King of Sicily and Archbishop of Colein died Also the sonne and heire of the King de Maliagro that is of the Majoricke Ilands instituted the order of the Friers minors at the information of Saint Lewis who said Goe and doe so Item in Ireland Leghlin with other townes was burnt by the Irish of Slemergi Item Calwagh O-Hanlan and Yneg Mac-Mahon are slaine in Urgale MCCXCVIII Pope Boniface the fourth the morrow after the Feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul after all tumults were appeased ordained and confirmed a peace betweene the King of England and the King of France with certaine conditions that after followed Item Edward King of England set forth with an armie againe into Scotland for to subdue the Scots under his dominion Item there were slaine in the same expedition about the feast of Saint Marie Maudlen many thousands of the Scots at Fawkirk The sunne the same day appeared as red as bloud over all Ireland so long as the battell continued at Fawkirke aforesaid Item about the same time the Lord King of England feoffed his Knights in the Earldomes and Baronies of the Scots that were slaine More in Ireland peace and concord was concluded between the Earle of Ulster and Lord John Fitz-Thomas about the feast of the Apostles Simon and Iude. Also on the morrow after the feast of the 7. Saints sleepers the sun-beames were changed almost into the colour of bloud even from the morning so that all men that saw it wondred thereat Moreover there died Sir Thomas Fitz-Maurice Knight and Sir Robert Bigod sometime Lord chiefe Justice of the Bench. Item in the Citie Artha as also in Reathe in the parts of Italie whiles Pope Boniface abode there at the same time there happened so great an Earthquake that towres and palaces fell downe to the ground The Pope also with his Cardinals fled from the Citie much affrighted Item upon the feast of the Epiphany that is Twelfe day there was an earthquake though not so violent in England from Canterburie as farre as to Hampton MCCXCIX Lord Theobald Botiller the younger departed this life in the Manour de Turby the second day before the Ides of May whose corps was conveied toward Weydeney that is Weney in the countie of Limeric the sixth day before the Calends of June Item Edward King of England tooke to wife the Ladie Margaret sister to the noble King of France in the Church of the holy Trinitie in Canterburie about the feast of the holy Trinitie Item the Soldan of Babylon was defeated with a great armie of Saracens by Cassian King of the Tartars MCCXCIX The day after the feast of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Marie there was an infinite number of the Saracens horsemen slaine besides the footmen who were likewise innumerable Item in the same yeere there was a battell or fight of dogges in Burgundie at Genelon castle and the number of the dogges was 3000. and everie one killed another so that no dogge escaped alive but one alone Item the same yeere many Irishmen came to trouble and molest the Lord Theobald Verdon to the Castle of Roch before the feast of the Annuntiation MCCC The Pollard money is forbidden in England and Ireland Also in the Autumne Edward King of England entred Scotland with a power of armed men but at the commandement of Pope Boniface hee was stayed and he sent solemne messengers unto the Court of Rome excusing himself of doing any injurie Item Thomas the Kings sonne of England was the last day of May born at Brotherton of Margaret sister to the King of France Item Edward Earle of Cornwall died without leaving behind an heire of his owne bodie and was enterred in the Abbey of Hales MCCCI. Edward King of England entred into Scotland with an armie unto whom failed over sea Sir John Wogan Justice of Ireland and Sir John Fitz-Thomas Peter Bermingham and many others to aide the King of England Also a great part of the Citie Dublin was burnt together with the Church of Saint Warburga on S. Columbs day at night More Sir Geffrey Genevil espoused the daughter of Sir John Montefort and Sir John Mortimer espoused the daughter and heire of Sir Peter Genevil And the Lord Theobald Verdon espoused the daughter of the Lord Roger Mortimer At the same time the men of Leinster made warre in winter burning the towne of Wykynlo and Rathdon with others but they escaped not unpunished because the more part of their sustenance was burnt up and their cattell lost by depredation and the same Irish had beene utterly almost consumed but that the seditious dissention of certaine Englishmen was an hinderance thereto Item a defeature and slaughter was made by the Toolans upon a small companie assembled of the Brenies in which were slaine almost three hundred robbers Item Walter Power wasted a great part of Mounster burning many ferme houses MCCCII There died the ladie Margaret wife to Sir John Wogan Justice of Ireland the third day before the Ides of April and in the week following Maud Lacy wife to Sir Geffery Genevil died also Edward Botiller recovered the manour de S. Bosco with the pertenances from Sir Richard Ferenges Archbishop of Dublin by a concord made between them in the Kings bench after the feast of S. Hilarie Item the Flemings gave an overthrow at Courteray in Flanders unto the army of the French the Wednesday after the feast of the Translation of S. Thomas wherein were slaine the Earle of Arthois the Earle of Aumarle the Earle of Hue Ralph Neel Constable of France Guy Nevil Mareschal of France the sonne of the Earle of Hennaund Godfrey Brabant with his sonne William Fenys and his son Iames S. Paul lost his hand and fortie Baronets lost their lives that day with Knights Esquires and others sans number Item the tenths of all Ecclesiasticall benefices in England and Ireland were exacted by Boniface the Pope for 3. yeeres as a Subsidie to the Church of Rome against the King of Aragon Also upon the day of the Circumcision Sir Hugh Lacie raised booties from Hugh Vernail In the same yeere Robert Brus then Earle of Carrick espoused the daughter of Sir Richard Bourk Earle of Ulster Item Edward Botiller espoused the daughter of Sir Iohn Fitz-Thomas also
were torne and tormented at Carlele the rest hanged upon jebbits Item upon St. Patricks day there was taken prisoner in Ireland Mac-Nochi with his two sonnes neere unto New castle by Thomas Sueterby and there Lorran Oboni a most strong thiefe was beheaded MCCCVII The third day preceding the Calends of Aprill was Marcord Ballagh beheaded neere unto Marton by Sir David Caunton a doughtie Knight and soon after was Adam Dan slaine Also a defeature and bloodie slaughter fell upon the English in Connaght by Oscheles on Philip and Iacob the Apostles day Item the preading Brigants of Offaly pulled down the Castle of Cashill and upon the Vigill of the translation of Saint Thomas they burnt the towne of Ly and besieged the Castle but soone after they were removed by Iohn Fitz-Thomas and Edward Botiller Item Edward King of England departed this life after whom succeeded in the kingdome his sonne Edward who most solemnly buried his father at Westminster with great reverence and honour Item the Lord Edward the younger took to wife the Ladie Isabel daughter of the French King in St. Maries Church at Bologne and shortly after they were both crowned in the Church of Westminster Item the Templars in the parts beyond sea being condemned as it was said of a certaine heresie were apprehended and imprisoned by the Popes Mandat In England likewise they were all taken the morrow after the feast of the Epiphany Also in Ireland they were arrested the morrow after the feast of the Purification and laid up in prison MCCCVIII The second day before the Ides of April died Sir Peter or Piers Bermingham a noble vanquisher of the Irish. Item on the fourth day before the Ides of May was burnt the Castle of Kenir and certaine warders in it slaine by William Mac-Balthor and Cnygnismi Othothiles and his abetters More on the sixt day preceding the Ides of June Lord Iohn Wogan Justice of Ireland was defeated with his armie neere Glyndelory where were slaine Iohn called Hogelyn Iohn Northon Iohn Breton with many other Also the sixteenth day going before the Calends of July were burnt Dolovan Tobyr and other townes and villages bordering upon them by the foresaid malefactors Item in England shortly after was holden a great Parliament at London wherein arose a dissension and in manner a mortall conflict betweene the King and the Barons occasioned by Piers Gaveston who was banished out of the kingdome of England the morrow after the feast of Saint John Baptist his Nativitie and he passed over sea into Ireland about the feast of the Saints Quirita and Julita together with his wife and sister the Countesse of Glocester and came to Dublin with great pomp and there made his abode Moreover William Mac-Baltor a strong thiefe and an Incendiarie was condemned and had judgement in the Court of the Lord the King in Dublin before the chiefe Justice Lord John Wogan upon the twelfth day preceding the Calends of September and was drawne at horses tailes unto the gallowes and there hanged according to his deserts Item in the same yeere there was erected a certaine cisterne of marble to receive water from the conduict head in the Citie of Dublin such an one as never was there before by the dispose and providence of Master John Decer then Maior of the Citie of Dublin who of his owne money defraied the charges for the building thereof and the same John a little before the time caused a certaine bridge to be made beyond the river Aven-Liffy neere unto the Priorie of St. Wolstan also the Chappell of Saint Maâ—ie to the Friers Minours and there lieth he buried the Chappell likewise of Saint Marie to the Hospitall of Saint Johns in Dublin c. Item the same John Decer was very beneficiall to the Covent of the Friers Preachers in Dublin to wit in making one Columne of stone in the Church and giving one great broad altar-stone with the ornaments thereto belonging More upon the sixth day of the weeke hee entertained the Friers and tabled them at his owne charges thus say Elders to the younger in regard of charitie More in the Autumne Lord Iohn Wogan sailed over the sea unto the Parliament of England in whose place the Lord William Burke was made Custos of Ireland Item the same yeere in the Vigill of Simon and Jude the Apostles day the Lord Roger Mortimer arrived in Ireland with his wedded wife the right heire of Meth the daughter of the Lord Peter sonne of Sir Gefferie Genevil they entred I say into Ireland and took seisin of Meth Sir Gefferie Genevil yeelding unto them and entring into the order of the Friers Preachers at Trym the morrow after the day of St. Edward the Archbishop Also Dermot Odympoy was slaine at Tully by the servants of Sir Peter or Piers Gaveston More Richard Burgo or Burk Earle of Ulster kept a great feast at Whitsontide in Trym and dubbed Walter Lacie and Hugh Lacie Knights And on the even of the Assumption the Earle of Ulster came against Piers Gaveston Earle of Cornwall at Tradag And at the same time he went backe againe and tooke his passage into Scotland Item in the same yeere Maud the Earle of Ulsters daughter sailed over into England to contract marriage with the Earle of Glocester and soone after within one moneth the Earle and she espoused one the other Also Maurice Caunton slew Richard Talon and the Roches killed the foresaid Maurice Item Sir David Caunton is hanged at Dublin Item Odo the sonne of Catholl O-Conghir slew Odo O-Conghir King of Connaght Item Athi is burnt by the Irish. MCCCIX Piers Gaveston subdued the O-Brynnes Irishmen and re-edified the new Castle of Mackingham and the Castle of Kemny he cut downe and cleansed the Pas betweene Kemny Castle and Glyndelaugh mawgre the Irish and so departed and offered in the Church of Saint Kimny The same yeere Lord Piers Gaveston passed the seas over into England on the Vigil of S. John Baptists Nativitie Item the wife of the Earle of Ulsters sonne daughter unto the Earle of Glocester upon the 15. day of October arrived in Ireland Also on Christmas even the Earle of Ulster returned out of England and landed at the Port of Tradagh More on the feast of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary Sir John Bonevile neere unto the towne of Arstoll was slain by Sir Arnold Pover and his complices and buried at Athy in the Church of the Friers Preachers Item a Parliament was held at Kilkenny in the Outas of the purification of the blessed Virgin Mary by the Earle of Ulster and John Wogan Lord Justice of Ireland and other Lords wherein was appeased great discord risen betweene certaine Lords of Ireland and many Provisoes in maner of Statutes were ordained commodious and profitable to the land of Ireland if they had been observed Item shortly after that time returned Sir Edmund Botiller out of England who there at London was before Knighted Item there crossed the
that hee should be apprehended and brought unto William King of Scotland that with him he might be kept in prison And Olave lay prisoner in irons and chaines almost seven yeeres In the seventh yeere died William King of Scotland after whom succeeded his sonne Alexander Now before his death he gave commandement that all prisoners should be set free Olave therefore being enlarged and at liberty came to Man and soone after accompanied with no small traine of Noblemen he went to S. James and after he was thus returned Reginald his brother caused him to marry a Noble mans daughter of Kentyre even his owne wives whole sister named Lavon and gave him Lodhus in possession to enjoy Some few daies after Reginald Bishop of the Ilands having called a Synod canonically divorced Olave the sonne of Godred and Lavon his wife as being the cousin german of his former wife After this Olave wedded Scristine daughter of Ferkar Earle of Rosse For this cause Reginalds wife Queene of the Ilands was wroth and directed her letters in the name of Reginald the King into the I le Sky unto Godred her sonne that he should kill Olave As Godred was devising meanes to worke this feat and now entring into Lodhus Olave fled in a little cog-boat unto his father in law the Earle of Rosse aforesaid Then Godred wasteth and spoileth Lodhus At the same time Pol the son of Boke Sheriffe of Sky a man of great authority in all the Ilands because he would not give his consent unto Godred fled and together with Olave lived in the Earle of Rosses house and entring into a league with Olave they came both in one ship to Sky At length having sent forth their spies and discoverers they learned that Godred lay in a certain Iland called St. Columbs Ile having very few men with him misdoubting nothing Gathering therefore about them all their friends and acquaintance with such voluntaries as were ready to joine with them at midnight with five shippes which they drew from the next sea-shore distant from the Island aforesaid some two furlongs they beset the Isle round about Godred then and they that were with him rising by the dawning of the day and seeing themselves environed on every side with enemies were astonied but putting themselves in warlike armes assaied right manfully to make resistance but all in vaine For about nine a clocke of the day Olave and Pol the foresaid Sheriffe set foot in the Iland with their whole army having slain all those whom they found without the enclosure of the Church they tooke Godred put out his eyes and gelded him Howbeit to this deed Olave did not yeeld his consent neither could he withstand it for Bokes sonne the Sheriffe aforesaid For this was done in the yeere 1223. The Summer next following Olave after he had taken hostages of all the Lords and potentates of the Isles came with a fleet of 32. saile toward Man and arrived at Rognolfwaht At this very time Reginald and Olave divided the kingdome of the Ilands between themselves and Man was given to Reginald over and beside his owne portion together with the title of King Olave the second time having furnished himselfe with victuals from the people of Man returned with his company to his portion of the Iland The yeere following Reginald taking with him Alane Lord of Galway went with his souldiers of Man to the Iland parts that hee might disseize his brother Olave of that portion of land which hee had given unto him and bring it under his owne dominion But because the Manksmen were not willing to fight against Olave and the Ilanders for the love they had to them Reginald and Alan Lord of Galway returned home without atchieving their purpose After a little while Reginald under pretence of going to the Court of his Soveraigne the Lord King of England tooke up of the people of Man an hundred Markes but went in very deed to the Court of Alan Lord of Galway At the same time he affianced his daughter unto the son of Alan in marriage Which the Manksmen hearing tooke such snuffe and indignation thereat that they sent for Olave and made him their King MCCXXVI Olave recovered his inheritance to wit the kingdome of Man and of the Ilands which his brother Reginald had governed 38. yeeres and reigned quietly two yeeres MCCXXVIII Olave accompanied with all the Nobles of Man and a band of the strongest men of the country sailed over into the Ilands A little after Alan Lord of Galway and Thomas Earle of Athol and King Reginald came unto Man with a puissant army all the South part of Man they wasted spoiled the Churches and slew all the men they could lay hold of so that the South part of Man was laid in manner all desolate After this returned Alan with his army into his owne country and left his bailiffes in Man to gather up for him the tributes of the country But King Olave came upon them at unwares put them to flight and recovered his owne kingdome Then the people of Man which before time had been dispersed every way began to gather themselves together and to dwell with confidence and security In the same yeere came King Reginald out of Galway unlooked for at the dead time of night in winter with five ships and burnt all the shipping of his brother Olave and of the Lords of Man at Saint Patrickes Iland and suing to his brother for peace stayed forty daies at the haven of Ragnoll-wath Meane while he won and drew unto him all the Ilanders in the South part of Man who sware they would venture their lives in his quarrell untill hee were invested in the one halfe of the kingdome On the contrarie part Olave had the Northren men of the Isle to side with him and upon the 14. day of February at a place called Tingualla there was a battell strucke betweene the two brethren wherein Olave had the victorie and King Reginald was by some killed there without his brothers knowledge And certaine rovers comming to the South part of Man wasted and harried it The Monks of Russin translated the body of King Reginald unto the Abbey of S. Mary de Fournes and there enterred it was in a place which himselfe had chosen for that purpose After this went Olave to the King of Norway but before that hee was come thither Haco King of Norway ordained a certaine Noble man named Huâ—bac the sonne of Owmund for to bee King of the Sodorian Ilands and called his name Haco Now the same Haco together with Olave and Godred Don Reginalds son and many Norwegians came unto the Ilands and at the winning of a fort in the Iland Both Haco chanced to be smit with a stone whereof he died and lieth buried in Iona. MCCXXX Olave came with Godred Don and the Norwegians to Man and they divided the kingdome among themselves Olave held Man and Godred being gone unto the Ilands was slaine in the
river or Guash 525 e Washes a dangerous arme of the Sea 480 d Washburnes villages and families 577 d Wasts 806 a Waterfall 730 c Water divided 399 c Water Germander See Scordium Watford 415 a Watch-tower erected by C. Caligula 40 Watlesbury 592 f Watling-street highway 64 Watling-street a towne 593 Waveney a river 467 d Waver a river 773 b Wauburn 479 a Wauburnham ibid. Weably 620 b Weably Ale ibid. Weald in Kent 329 d Weare a towne 205 c Weares the Decay of Excester haven 205 c Weddesborrow 581 f Wedensday 135 Weedon in the Street 508 c Weimouth 211 b Well ebbing and flowing 558 c Welles medicinable 497 d Welch Poole a towne 662 b Welles Barons 541 e. 542 b Welles vicount 542 Welles the City 223 d Welland river 505 b Welledon 514 d Welhop a riveret 738 c Wellingborow 509 f Wenlock 591 e Wemme 594 c Wenmans a family 384 a Went a river 690 f Wentsbeck a river 812 b Wentsdale 727 e Wentworth a place and familie 689 e Wentworths Barons 463 c Weorth what it signifieth 582 Were a river 738 Werburga or Warburga an holy virgin 508 c. 583 Werburgs Church in Chester 605 Werith what colour 26 Werke Castle 815 a Werlam or Verlam Citie in great distresse 51 Werlam-street 64 Werminster 245 c Werywall 754 d Wests Barons de la Ware 312 d 746 b Westminster sometime Thorney 428 e Westminster Church 428 f Monuments therein 429 f Westminster hall 431 e Westmorland 759 Westmorland Earles 763 d Westriding 489 d West Saxons bring the Heptarchie to a Monarchie 138 Westâ— sexenlage 153. 159 West Saxons kingdome 294 c West wales 647 b West weales 184 Wetherby 699 a Wetherill 778 a Wever a river 601 e Wever an hill 586 f Wey river 294 e Whaddon 396 d Wiatts a family 331 e Wiat his unfortunate end ibid. e Wic what it signifieth 326.355 Wiceii 354 f. 573 d Wiches that is Salt pits 573 b Wich a towne 575 b Wich wood forest 374 b Wich a learned Canonist 575 a Wichliff died 517 f Wickham Bishop of Winchester 265 e. his praise 266 c. d his equivocant mot 288 d Wicombe or wickham a towne 393 d Widdevile or Woodvill a family 506 c Widdevill Lord Rivers ibid. d Earle Rivers ibid. High Constable of England ibid. c. beheaded ibid. e Widdevill Earles rivers 405 e Wie river 358 e. 618 a A wife demised to another 312 f Wigenhall 481 b Wight Isle 273 c. c. why so called ibid. the Lords thereof 276 c. d Wiggin 749 c Wigmore 619 c Wigton 774 b Wilberhams or Wilburhams a family 607 d Wilberham 490 b A wild man caught in the Sea 466 a Wilfride Bishop 275 d. 308 c Wilfride Archbishop of Yorke 700 c Wilfreeds Needle ibid. c Willebrode a learned Englishman 137 Willey or Willeley 591 d a river and village 245 e. 246 Wharton Castle 701 d Wheallep Castle 701 d Wheathamsted 406 e Iohn of Wheathamsted ibid. f Wherfe the river 696 d. why so called ibid. f Whetstons 339 c Whitehart forest 213 f whereupon so called 214 a Whitehart silver ibid. Whitchurch in Shropshire 598 Whitgaraburge 275 c Whitgift Archbishop of Caterbury 542 d. his good deeds 302 b Whitby 718 b White Hall the Kings house 432 Whitham 446 b Whitehorse vale 279 c Whitney a place and family 618 Whitsan 348 b White spurres 176 Whittington 598 b Whorwel 262 a William of Newborough 8 William or Wilcock of Mouthwy 665 William of York 695 c William of Malmesbury 242 f William Long-Espee 145 249 d slaine neere Damiata 249 e William the Bastard or Conquerour 145. his title to the crowne ibid. where he landed 316 e. invadeth England 145 he fought with King Harald ibid. f. sworne to keepe all the ancient lawes of England 414 c. is inaugurated King 152 disavoweth his title and Conquest 152. his behaviour presently upon victorie 152. his seale ibid. hee enacteth excellent lawes 153 His policy to root out and weaken the English 152 Williams of Tame 384 a Willibourne a river 245 d Willimots wicke 801 e Willoford 785 c Willoughby frozen to death in a voiage 555 d Willoughbyes Barons of Brooke 244 c. 577 b Willoughbies Barons 465.541 e Willoughby of Parrham 543 d Willoughby earl of Vandosme 54r Willoughby knight 547 c Wilshire 241 Wilshire Earles 256 d. e Wilton a towne 246 c Wilton Castle 621 a. 721 a Wimundham or windham 473 d Wimundham in Leicestersh 522 Wimondly 406 c Winander mere 755 b Winburne what it signifieth 216 a Winburne minster 215 e Wincaunton 221 d Winchelcombe towne Abbay 365 d Winchelsey 319 b Winchel See Ore Old Winchester 809 e. 269 a Winchester 262 Winchester bishops 265 e Winchester tower in windsor Castle 288 d Winchester Earles and Marquesses 267 b. d Winchindon 395 f Windesor Barons 289 a. 320 â— Windesors a family 419 c Windesor towne 286 d. e Windsor Castle 288 d Windlesor forest 293 b Windrush river 374 a Wingfeld in Darbyshire 555 e Winfeilds Knights 512 a Winifride a learned Englishman 137. the Apostle of Germanie 203. d Winkles or cockles on Hil-tops 727 c Winster a river 760 a Winterton a Cape 478 d Winwidfield 694 e Winwicke 748 b Wipped fleet 340 a Wire a river 753 a Wire-dale ibid. Wirkington 769 Wirral 601 e. 606 d Wiske a river 723 e Withburga a Saint 482 a Witherington or Woderington a castle and name of a martiall familie 812 e Wittlesmere 500 d Witton a Castle 738 c Wiza a riveret 773 b Wye a towne in Kent 335 d Woad 19 Woburn 401 e Woden 241 d Woden a Saxons god 135 Woderington See Witherington Wold in Leicestershire 523. a Wollaton 547 Woodvil See Widvil Wolpher a Pagan King killeth his two sonnes 583. became a Christian 512. d Wolsey Cardinal a Butchers son 469 c Wollover 815 c Wolstane Bishop of Worcester canonized a Saint 576 d Wolvehunts a family 556 d Wolverton a towne and family 397 Wolves destroyed 665 Wondy 634 c Woodbridge 465 d Wooden how pourtraied 135 Woodhall 407 Woodham Walters 446 b Woodland a part of Warwickshire 561 b Woodnoths 607 e Woodstock 375 d Wooton Basset 242 a Woodrising 473 a Worcestershire 573 Worcester 575 c Worcester Earles 578 f Workensopl 550 f Workesworth 556 e World how it began to be peopled 11 Wormhill 556 d Wormleighton 561 d Wormgay or Wrongey 481 e Worsted a towne 478 c Worsted stuffe whence so called 478 c Wortley a place and family 689 Wotton under Wever 586 Wottons a familie and Baron Wotton of Merlay 331 a Wotton under Edge 364 c Woulds what they be 364 â— Wragby 540 e Wreke a river 517 b Wreken a river in Leicestershire 522 c Wreken an hill 593 d Wreshill castle 710 a Wrexham 677 b Wriothesleys or Writhosleies Earles of Southamton 273 a Wringcheese 19â— Writtle a large parish 445 e Wrotesley or Wrothesley a place and family 581 d Wroxcester 593 b Wroxhall 566 d Wulfrune a devout woman 581 Wulfrunes
Sampford archbishop of Dublin In the same yeer the King of Hungary forsaking the Christian faith became an Apostata and when hee had called fraudulently as it were to a Parliament the mightier potentates of his land Miramomelius a puissant Saracene came upon them with 20000. souldiers carrying away with him the King with all the Christians there assembled on the even of Saint John Baptists day as the Christians therefore journied the weather that was cleere and faire turned to be cloudie and suddenly a tempest of haile killed many thousands of the Infidels together The Christians returned to their owne homes and the Apostata King alone went with the Saracenes The Hungarians therefore crowning his sonne King continued in the Catholike faith MCCLXXXIX Tripolis a famous citie was laied even with the ground not without much effusion of Christian blood and that by the Soldan of Babylon who commanded the images of the Saints to bee drawne and dragged at horses tailes in contempt of the name of Christ through the citie newly destroyed MCCXC Inclyta Stirps Regis Sponsis datur ordine legis In lawfull guise by hand and ring Espoused is the Kings off-spring The Lord Gilbert Clare tooke to wife the Ladie Joan a daughter of the Lord King Edward in the Abbey or Covent Church of Westminster and the marriage was solemnely celebrated in the Moneth of May and John the Duke of Brabant his sonne married Margaret the said Kings daughter also in the Church aforesaid in the moneth of July The same yeere the Lord William Vescie was made Justice of Ireland entring upon the office on Saint Martins day Item O Molaghelin King of Meth is slaine MCCXCI Gilbert Clare the sonne of Gilbert and of the Ladie Joan of Acres was borne the 11. day of May in the morning betimes Item there was an armie led into Ulster against O-Hanlon and other Princes hindering the peace by Richard Earle of Ulster and William Vescie Justice of Ireland Item the Ladie Eleanor sometime Queene of England and mother of King Edward died in the feast of St. Iohn Baptist who in the religious habite which she desired led a laudable life for the space of foure yeeres eleven moneths and sixe dayes within the Abbey of Ambresby where she was a professed Nun. Item there resounded certaine rumours in the eares of the Lord Pope Martin on the even of St. Mary Maudlen as touching the Citie Acon in the holy land which was the only refuge of the Christians namely that it was besieged by Milkador the Soldan of Babylon an infinite number of his souldiers and that it had been most fiercely assaulted about fortie daies to wit from the eighth day before the Ides of April unto the fifteene Calends of July At length the wall was plucked down by the Saracens that assaulted it and an infinite number of them entred the Citie many Christians being slaine and some for feare drowned in the sea The Patriarch also with his traine perished in the sea The King of Cypres and Otes Grandison with their companies pitifully escaped by a ship Item granted there was unto the Lord Edward King of England by the Lord Pope Martin the tenth part of all the profits of Ecclesiasticall benefices for seven yeeres in Ireland toward the reliefe of the holy land Item the eldest sonne of the Earle of Clare was borne MCCXCII Edward King of England eftsoones entred Scotland and was elected King of Scotland Lord John Balliol of Galwey obtained the whole kingdome of Scotland in right of inheritance and did homage unto the Lord Edward King of England at New-castle upon Tine on S. Stephens day Florentius Earle of Holland Robert Brus Earle of Carrick John Hastings John Comyn Patrick Dunbar John Vescie Nicolas Soules and William Roos who all of them in that kingdome submitted themselves to the judgement of the Lord King Edward Item a fifteene of all secular mens goods in Ireland was granted unto the soveraign Lord King of England the same to be collected at the feast of S. Michael Item Sir Peter Genevile Knight died Item Rice ap Meredyke was brought to York and there at horses tailes drawne c. MCCXCIII A generall and open war there was at sea against the Normans Item no small number of the Normans by fight at sea was slain by the Barons of the Ports of England and other their co-adjutors between Easter and Whitsuntide For which cause there arose war between England and France whereupon Philip King of France directed his letters of credence unto the King of England that he should make personall appearance at his Parliament to answer unto Questions which the same King would propose unto him whose mandate in this behalf being not fulfilled straightwaies the King of France declaring by the counsell of the French the King of England to be outlawed condemned him Item Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester entred with his wife into Ireland about the feast of S. Luke MCCXCIV William Montefort in the Kings counsell holden at Westminster before the King died sodainly which William was the Dean of S. Pauls in London in whose mouth the Prelates Bishops and Cleargy putting their words which he was to utter and doubting how much the King affected and desired to have of every one of them and willing by him to be certified in whom also the King reposed most trust being returned to the King and making hast before the King to deliver expresly a speech that he had conceived became speechlesse on a sodain and fell downe to the ground and was carried forth by the Kings servants in their armes in piteous manner In regard of which sight that thus happened men strucken with feare gave out these speeches Surely this man hath beene the Agent and Procurator that the Tenths of Ecclesiasticall benefices should bee paied to the King and another author and procurer of a scrutinie made into the fold and flocke of Christ as also of a contribution granted afterward to the King crying against William Item the Citie of Burdeaux with the land of Gascoigne adjoining was occupied or held by the ministers of the King of France conditionally but unjustly and perfidiously detained by the King of France for which cause John Archbishop of Dublin and certaine other Lords of the Nobilitie were sent into Almaine to the King thereof and after they had their dispatch and answer in Tordran the Lord Archbishop being returned into England ended his life upon S. Leodegaries day The bones of which John Sampford were enterred in the Church of Saint Patrick in Dublin the tenth day before the Calends of March. The same yeere there arose debate betweene Lord William Vescy Lord Justice of Ireland for the time being and the Lord John Fitz-Thomas and the said Lord Williliam Vescy crossed the seas into England left Sir William Hay in his stead Justice of Ireland but when both of them were come before the King to fight a combat under an Appeal for treason the foresaid