in War surnamed Ironside hew himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom For after the effusion of much blood on both sides and to stop the shedding of more it was agreed between the two Competitors Cnute and Edmond to try their right by single combate in proper person and the over-commer to take all But there proving equality in the sight there was likewise made equality in the command between them yet did not Edmond long enjoy his share being circumvented by the practice of Edric Earl of Stratton the Arch-Traytor of those times whose falshood had ruined the Father and now his ambition destroys the Son for which Cnute invents a suitable reward causing his head to be set upon the highest place of the Tower of London therein performing his promise of advancing him above any Lord of the Land which was the mark that this faithlesse wretch aimed at and now attained but in a far different sence from that which he had vainly proposed to himself Cnute being thus rid of a Rival denied copartnership to the Sons of Edmond as pretending the whole to appertain to the Survivor and for fear they might prove thorns in his side he sent them far enough out of the way into Swedeland say some there to be murthered but they were mercifully preserved and conveyed to the Court of Hungary where Edmond dyed without issue but Edward had by Agatha Daughter to Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany a Son named Edgar and a Daughter called Margaret who was the cause as hereafter shall be shewed that the Saxon stem which now seemed withered doth once more reflourish though inocculated we confesse upon another stock Notwithstanding this transportation of Edmonds Sons yet did not Cnute hold himself sufficiently assured of his new accquired Kingdom till he had married Emma widdow of Ethelred whereby he gained the love of the English but the promise he made in marriage that the Children begotten on her should succeed was for some time frustrated by the preoccupation of Harold surnamed Harefoot the eldest son of Cnute by a Concubine but his reign was brief as likewise was that of his Brother Hardi Canute the lawfull Son of Cnute and Emma with whom expired the Danish Dominion here which had been but of a short duration though their incursions and molestations had continued for a longer space Edward styled the Confessor to distinguish him from Edward the Elder and Edward the Saint was next King being the Son of Emma also but by her first Husband Ethelred the Unready and did in some sort restore the Saxon blood For in truth there was a nearer relation to the Crown extant though not so near at hand for the present to wit Edward surnamed by reason of his Forein education the Outlaw the Son of Edmond Ironside the eldest Son by his first Wife of the above mentioned Ethelred the Unready who ought by the Law of Nature and Nations to have preceded Yet did the Confessor wanting Issue himself do his Nephew the Outlaw so much right as to recall him with his Children out of their Banishment in Hungary and designed him his Successor but the Outlaws death before the Confessors prevented that determination Neverthelesse the Confessor without delay pronounced Edgar the Outlaws Son and his own Grand Nephew Heir apparent and gave him the surname of Etheling which in those dayes were only peculiar to such as were in hopes and possibility of a Kingdome And more than so this poor Etheling never was For first he was debarred by his own Guardian Harold the Son of Goodwin Earl of Kent who disdaining the title of Regent which he was only constituted assumed that of King Afterwards by William Duke of Normandy who though he pulled down Harold yet did he not set up Edgar laying claim himself to the Crown by virtue of a pretended Donation from his Cosen Edward the Confessor which had been too weak a plea had it not been justified by a long sword which hath ever since given him the appellation of William the Conquerour Robert the eldest Son of the Conquerour should by right of primogeniture have succeeded his Father in all his Dominions but having proved a Rebel at the French Kings instigation he had only the Dukedom of Normandy assigned to him and the Crown of England was bequeathed to his Brother William surnamed Rufus who dying without any legitimate off-spring and Robert being absent in the Holy-land Henry the youngest Son of the Conquerour as Duke of Normandy but eldest as King of England seized upon it and to ingratiate himself with the Natives and to corroborate his Title he Married Maud Daughter of Margaret by Malcolme King of Scots Sister to Edgar Etheling Son of Edward the Outlaw Son of Edmond Ironside Son of Ethelred the Unready Son of Edgar the peaceable Son of Edmond Son of Edward Senior Son of Alfred and by which means the Royal seed of the Saxons became to be replanted in the English Soil For this Henry the first had not to mention his Son William who perished by water whilst he was young by the foresaid Maud a Daughter of the same name whom he first espoused to Henry the fifth Emperour of Germany afterwards to Jeffrey Plantagenet Earl of Aniou by whom she had a Son called Henry in whom did fully concur the Norman and Saxon Race But the true hereditary succession was somewhat intercepted by Stephen Earl of Bologne Son of Adela the Conquerours Daughter from whom he could derive but a slender title For had the Conquerours line Masculine failed then ought Theobald Earl of Bloys Stephens Eldest Brother by the same Adela to have been prelated And therefore his surest Tenure proceeded from his Election by the Nobility who notwithstanding their natural Allegiance and twice repeated Oath and among them Stephen himself is reckoned to be one that had sworn Fealty to Maud and her Heirs in the Reign of her Father Henry admitted this stranger and that for no other reason though other were alleged as that Maud was a woman and consequently uncapable of anointing that she was married out of the Realm without the consent thereof which if of any moment should before their solemn engagement have been taken into consideration than that he being a Creature of their own erecting was more obliged to them and would upon all occasions be more ready to gratifie their aspiring humour Yet wanted not the Empresse and her Son adherents both within and without the Kingdom to assert their right who raised such a cloud of trouble to Stlphen that he could not dispel it during his whole reign so that at length he came to a composition and his own Son Eustace whom he had designed his Successour being already dead he adopts Henry fitz-Empresse and proclaims him heir apparent with this Proviso That he himself should enjoy the Crown as long as he lived which was not a full year after this peaceable agreement Henry the second of that name is
now possessed of the Throne in processe of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it and that upon a treble account First by vertue of the late Treaty with King Stephen Secondly by title of conquest as being great Grand-Child to William the Norman but Thirdly and chiefly by the equity of his Mothers claim who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon linage He took to wise Elenor the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom but notwithstanding it augmented his estate yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriage-bed incited his Sons Henry Richard Jeffrey and John to frequent rebellions to whom neverthelesse upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father Richard succeeded in the Throne but dyed childlesse also Jeffrey though extinct himself before it came to his turn had yet left a Son in being Arthur Duke of Britany who ought to have been considered of but him John prevented more too by power favour of the Nobles than by any colour of Justice nad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France conveyed to the Tower of Roan and there killed if not by the hands yet at least by the command of his inhumane Uncle However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawfull yet being gon Iohn becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown but pays dear for the manner of this his amisse procured purchase For the Pope excommunicates him his Subjects forsake him the French King invades him and bereavs him not only of his large Territories in France but also of the greatest part of his Kingdome of England and he dyes miserably not without suspicion of Poyson a just judgment upon him for his enormous Acts especialy the murder of his innocent Nephew Now though God shewed himself a severe inquisitor for blood yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father most willingly embrace the Son then a minor as naturally inclined says my Author to love and obey their Princes Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission whilst he was governed by a wise and faithfull Councel but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers that more intended their own than the publick good he so alienated the English affections as that they are as ready now to revolt from him as they were earnest at first to promote his interest To the former he adds new grievances to wit reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors and himself whence such discontents are engendred that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual commonly known by the name of the Barons war Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester on the Barons side was head who in a set Battail takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners but Edward escapes collects an Army defeats and kills Leicester and redeems his Father the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Barons commotions but the Catastrophe or latter part was serene and concluded in a perfect Calm Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude but the news of his Fathers death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprize wherein he had no lesse honourably demeaned himself And as he had encreased his own and Countries reputation abroad so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home by subduing most of Scotland and totally reducing of Wales of which last because it was then first annexed to this Crown it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation Wales the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britains the antient possessors of the whole had hitherto though not without much difficulty and struggling continued under their own proper Princes But the fatal period of their liberty which they had so long so stoutly maintained against so potent a Kingdome as this is now arrived Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnuntry being summoned to our Kings Coronation refused to appear saying He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin who came in safety to London but never returned thence This neglect Edward makes the ground of a quarrel enters into hostility against Llewellin forces him to a submission whereof he soon repents flyes out again is overcome and slain in fight his head cut off and that Merlins Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded which as he interpreted had promised him the Diadem of Brute it is Crowned with Ivy and set upon the Tower of London After the death of Llewellin and his brother David whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two too long divided Nations And though he found the Welsh Nobles very cautious how they brought their necks under a Forein yoke yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvon his Queen great with Child whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy he Assembles the Welsh Nobles and proposeth to them whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination that was born in their own Country could speak nere a word of English and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made Whereunto when they had assented he produces his own little Son Edward to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree Hence the custom took its original of investing our Kings eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud we shall indeavour when order brings us to it to find out a more unexceptionable Title whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion Edward the second called Edward of Carnarvon for the cause but even now rehearsed much degenerated from his Fathers Noblenesse and lost not only Scotland which his Father had well-nigh gained but ever England it self being deposed by his own Wife Isabel having only this comfort left him that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne Edward the third of that name Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King was when he came to years of Discretion Gods
the French Kings Court for at that time the Dukedom of Britany was a distinct Principality from whence having sworn to consummate the projected marriage with the Lady Elizabeth he hastens to redeem poor England from the jaws of an usurping Tyrant Richmond Lands at Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire where he was heartily welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Reconciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlesse Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Werbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Irish alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trepanned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abroad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was attired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did rather comply with his Fathers will than his own inclinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving and seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the
which were yet but in the quality of an honourable Guard but afterwards more and more abridges her liberty at which hard and unworthy usage of a suppliant and Heir apparent of the Crown some English Lords and Gentlemen conceiving a just disdain project and propose to her means of deliverance whereunto she as all other living creatures are most greedy of natural freedom doth readily assent but these are prevented and her Actions interpreted as yet tending to the destruction of Queen Elizabeth for which she is tryed by certain delegated Commissioners who much resembled a late thing called an High Court of Justice is by them found guilty and shortly after beheaded at Fotheringham Castle in Northamtonshire but the true cause why she suffered was expressed to her self by the Earl of Kent one of her Judges a little before her reputed Martyrdom Madam says he if you live our Religion is in danger of which words she desired the Auditors to take special notice that confessedly it was not Treason but Religion for which she was to dye James the 6th King of Scotland Son of the late executed Mary now come to years of discretion expostulates with Queen Elizabeth about his Mothers death but the Queen puts it off upon the precipitation of her Secretary Davison intimating that if he stirred in the least manner to revenge it would irrecoverably hazard his hopes of the Succession of which yet she gives him but a very faint assurance But in her declining age some about her who had been shie before to intermeddle with so ticlish and unpleasing a point grow more peremptory and presse her to a positive declaration to whom her answer was It is the King of Scots due and let him have it Conform whereunto James King of Scotland immediately after her death is proclaimed King of England both which he converts into the name of Great Britany and now is Cadwalladers Prophecy before remembred exactly compleated that his Race should recover the sole Dominion of this Island for King James besides his direct descent from King Henry the seventh brought another but higher title if the former had not been sufficient from Banco a Nobleman of Scotland whose Son Fleance fled from the tyranny of Macbeth the Usurper into Wales and there married the Prince his Daughter by whom he had Walter the first of the renowned Family of the Stewards but for the particulars of that conjunction we referre you to the British and and Scotish Historians King James arose in this our Horizon with much clearnesse notwithstanding Rawleighs mist and the smoak of the Gun-powder-plot which were soon dispell'd but his setting was obscured by a little Cloud which shortly did overspread the whole Land He had married his eldest Daughter Elizabeth to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhene who unadvisedly gaping after the Kingdom of Bohemia lost not only it but his own patrimonial possession King Iames who had more of Solomon than David in him sollicites restitution rather by Treaty than Arms and as the most conducing means to his peaceable ends entertains an overture of a match betwixt his Son Charles Prince of Wales and the Infanta of Spayn to whose King the Palatinate was by the Emperour consigned over But the English Parliament takes exception at this intended Spanish affinity and as if Religion were at the Stake declaims against it Notwithstanding the King sends his Son into Spain who returns thence without a wife yet in his passage thither had an accidental sight of her in France who was by Heaven his designed Spouse As soon as Iames was dead Charles his Son is proclaimed King who immediately marries Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter to Henry the great King of France of whom as was just now hinted he had a transient view in his voiage to Spain which when this Princesse understood she is reported to have said That he needed not to have gone so far for a wife But now the seed of discontent which had been sowed in his Fathers time did begin to bud forth Scotland yields the first-fruits which also too much thrives in the English Plantation The Scotish Nobility enter into Combination against Episcopacy and the Service-book which they allege to be obtruded upon them For redresse of these imaginary grievances the Scots with swords in their hand approach his Majesty to present a Petition as is given out A Parliament in England is called to compose differences which rather increases them for which it is soon dissolved The Scots Invasion continues but at length a Pacification is made another Parliament is convened which working so far upon the Kings necessities extorts from him an inseparable jewel of his Prerogrative to wit a privilege not before asked or granted not to be discharged without their own consent In strength of this concession they proceed to other unseasonable demands which together with the tumults of the City occasioned the King to retire Northward and being denyed entrance into Hull for which Sir Iohn Hotham did afterwards receive his reward from those that imployed him he repairs to Nottingham where understanding that an Army was formed under the Earl of Essex at London and then on their March to bring him back as it was given out to his Parliament he sets up his Standard Royal but the appearance not answering expectation he directs his course towards Shrewsbury where by the confluence of the loyal Welsh his small forces are so increased that he is able to confront the Earl of Essex then at Worcester who retreats into Warwickshire and is overtaken at Edge-hill by his Majesty where the first signal battail is sought in which both sides were great losers and yet both sides assume the victory to themselves The war continues doubtful for three years but the Battail at Naseby in Northamptonshire proves fatal to the Kings affairs for after that succeeds little else but the ruine of his party in all places and surrender of most of his Garrisons till he was necessitated in disguise to leave Oxford his prime and well-nigh alone remaining hold then in a manner beleaguered and betake himself for Protection to the Scotish Army The Scots though they had received all possible satisfaction as to their own concernments yet could not refrain from intermeddling in the English distempers and were at that time besieging Newark upon Trent They at first received the King with all seeming promises of security as to his Person but having carried him with them to Newcastle do there barter him with the English for 200000 l. a price which as the French Embassador observed did far exceed that which Judas received for betraying of our Saviour From Newcastle his bought and sold Majesty is conveyed by Commissioners deputed for that purpose from the Parliament of England to his house at Holdenby in Northamtonshire perhaps that he might be within prospect of that uncomfortable place Naseby where was given him his irreparable overthrow there to reside during the pleasure of the two Houses