saith Malmsbury that which I saw perform'd for not long after his Son Roger Possessing his Father's Inheritance was Banish'd by King Henry I. for putting an Officer of the King 's to Death in an head-long fury Malms de Gest. Pont. p. 271. And his Sheriffwick went to Beaumont who Married his Sister Camb. 578. Hugh Earl of Shrewsbury with Hugh Earl of Chester was sent by William Rufus to assail the Welch-men in Anglesey which they perform'd with great cruelty not sparing the Churches For the Earl of Shrewsbury made a Dog-kennel of the Church of St. Fridank laying his Hounds in it for the Night time but in the morning he found them mad But it chanced that Magnus King of Norway came in the mean time to take also the same Island and encountering the Earl of Shrewsbury at Sea shot him in the Eye where only he was unarm'd and the Earl thereupon falling out of the Ship into the Sea was both Slain and Drown'd and dy'd without Issue Girald Camb. Hov. in Ann. 1098. Holl. ib. Cat. EE Shrewsb Geoffrey the 16th Abbot of St. Albans living whilst he was young a Secular Man and teaching at Dunstable did there about the beginning of King Henry I. make a Play of St. Catharine call'd Miracula and for Acting of it did borrow of the Sexton of St. Albans divers Copes that belong'd to the Quire of St. Albans for the Service of God and having used them prophanely in his Play both the House wherein they were and the Copes themselves were the next Night casually Burnt Geoffery for great Grief hereupon gave over the World and by way of a Propitiatory Sacrifice offer'd up himself a Monk in St. Albans where afterward in the Year 1119. viz. 19 or 20. of Henry I. he was made Abbot Lib. MS. de Abbatibus Sti. Albani Madoc ap Meredith Prince of Powis spoiling two Churches in Anglesey and part of the Isle was with all his Men Slain in the return Stow p. 217. Sherbourne in Dorsetshire was made an Episcopal See in the Year 704 or 705. And as the use of the time was with many Curses no doubt against him or them that should violate it or should get or procure it to be alien'd from that Bishoprick St. Oswald who flourish'd 270 Years after fortifi'd those Curses as is reported with divers other bitter imprecations It continu'd peaceably in the Possession of the Bishops till the time of King Stephen then Roger Bishop of that See translated by his Predecessor to Salisbury building three sumptuous Castles one at Sherbourn another at Devizes and the third at Malmsbury the King supposing they might turn to his prejudice sent for the Bishop and took and imprison'd him with some others of his Coat and calling a Council of the Peers and Baronage obtain'd a Statute to this effect That all Towns of Defence Castles and Munitions through England wherein Secular business was went to be exercised should be the King 's and his Barons And that the Church-men and namely the Bishops as Divine Dogs should not cease to bark for the desence and safety of their Sheep and to take diligent heed that the invisible Wolf that malignant Enemy wory not or scatter the Lord's Flock Thus the King obtain'd these Castles that he thirsted after with the Bishop's Person and Treasure beside And being summon'd hereupon to a Synod at Winchester by his Brother Henry Bishop there and Legate of the Pope he sent Albery de Vere Earl of Guisne and Chamberlain of England a Man of excellent Speech and singularly well learned in the Law whom some report to be made Chief Justice of England after the said Roger him I say did the King send to the Synod as his Attorney or Sergeant at Law to defend his Cause which he did with so great Art and Dexterity that nothing was therein determin'd But mark the issue e'er a twelve Month came to an end the Earl Albery de Vere was Slain in London Florileg in Ann. 1140. The King himself within another twelve month taken Prisoner and being deliver'd upon an exchange for the Earl of Glocester spoileth divers Churches by his Flemish Soldiers and buildeth the Nunnery of Wilton into a Castle where the Town is fired about his Ears his Men slain his Sewer Plate and other things taken and himself driven to escape by a shameful Flight He continueth his Wars with unprofitable Success falleth at discord with his Barons and is driven to make Peace with Duke Henry his Adversary His Son Eustace displeased therewith applieth himself to spoil Cambridge-Shire and those parts falleth upon the Lands of the Abby of Bury and carrieth the Corn to his Castles and sitting down to Dinner as he put the first Morsel in his Mouth he fell Mad and dy'd miserably Mat. Par. Ann. 1152. Stow Ann. 1153. In the end he stated the Crown upon the Duke Henry being compell'd thereto and dying had no lawful Issue Male to propagate his Family his Sons of that sort being taken away in his Life time Having spoken of those Curses set of old like Bulwarks about the Castle of Sherbourn to defend it against Sacrilegious Assailants and of the Operation they had in those Ancient Days it falleth very fitly in my way to shew also in what manner they have uttered their venome since that time of old for tho Poison temper'd by an Apothecary with over long keeping will lose its strength yet the Poison that lurketh in the Veins of Curses lawfully imposed is neither wasted nor weakened by Antiquity but oftentimes breaketh forth as violently after many Ages as if they were but of late denounced Like the implicite Curse that devour'd the seven Sons of Saul for breaking the Covenant with the Gibeonites made above Five Hundred Years before their time See therefore a farther Collection touching this matter delivered unto me above three Years since by a Person of great Place and Honour The Castle of Sherbourne was granted to the See of Salisbury by St. Oswel with several bitter Imprecations and Cursings on him or them that should get or procure Sherbourne to be aliened from that See St. Oswel praying that he or they might die Issueless or Unfortunately that should so take it King Stephen was the first that got it from that See after the first Donation Ann. 1139. His Death and his Son 's Dying Mad make it observable Will. Martel King Stephen's Sewer had it who being taken Prisoner gave it for his Ransome Ann. 1142. Reg. 7. Hoved ibid. p. 488. In Edward III. time the Earl of Salisbury had it who dy'd Issueless and not Fortunate Then the Duke of Northumberland had it who was Attainted After the Duke of Somerset had it who was Attainted After the Lord Paget had a Lease from the Bishop who was Attainted After him Sir Walter Rawleigh had it who was Attainted After him the Earl of Somerset had it who was Attainted for Felony The Crown had it Prince Henry had it
but King James would not suffer Prince Charles to have it for the success The Earl of Bristol hath it Received from my Lord Keeper 9th of May 1626. Lodwick Grevil owner of Micletin a Mannor belonging to Ensham Abby in Oxfordshire had two Sons whereof Edward the younger shooting a piece by chance slew his elder Brother and thereby succeeded in the Inheritance Lodwick himself in the ... Year of Eliz. standing mute upon his Arraignment for Poisoning of ... whose Will he had Counterfeited was Press'd to Death Edward afterward Knighted Mortgag'd the Abby to ... Fisher a Skinner of London for a small Sum and growing farther in with him by borrowing and Use upon Use it came at length by Forfeiture and Entanglement to be Fishers absolutely and Sir Edward Grevil having wasted his whole Patrimony and sold some part thereof in Warwickshire to the Lord Treasurer Cranfeild became Bailiff to the Lord Treasurer of the same Land Old Fisher put over the Abby to his Son Sir Edward Fisher who with extreme Suites Bribery c. so consum'd his Estate that he was judged to be Eleven Thousand or Twelve Thousand Pound in Debt and driven to sell his great Lease of Wrongey Blackbury and Grandcourts in Norfolk and yet liveth in fear of Bailiffs c. 12th of Octob. 1644. Ex relat John Wrenham partim Rob. Mordant Mil. Sir Edward Grevil had a Son that breaking his Leg over a Style dy'd his Daughters are one Married to Sir Arthur Ingram to whom he sold the Reversion of his chief Seat Milcote c. and hath a Hundred Pound per Ann. during his Life and the House Circa Ann. Dom. 1142. Stephen and Geffrey Mandevil Earl of Essex being call'd among other of the Nobility to a Council at St. Albans he was there by the King in revenge of a former Injury unduly taken at St. Albans prisoned and could have no liberty till he had delivered the Tower of London and the Castles of Walden and Plessy being thus spoil'd of his Holds he turned his fury upon the Abby of Ramsey it being a place of Security and invading it by force drove out the Monks and placed his Soldiers in their room and Fortified the Church instead of his Castle The Abbot and Monks betook them to their Arms and with all the force they could shot their Curses and Imprecations against him and his Complices thus prepared to his destruction he besieg'd the Castle of Burwel where a Peasant shooting him lightly in the Head with an Arrow contemning the Wound he dy'd of it in Excommunication leaving three Sons Inheriters of that Malediction but of no Lands of their Father the King having seized them Nub. lib. 1. c. 11. Stow. An. 9 Steph. Matth. Westm. Ann. 1143. Hen. Hunting Hist. lib. 8. pag. 393. Arnulph his eldest Son who still maintain'd the Church of Ramsey as a Castle was taken Prisoner by King Stephen striped of all his Inheritance banish'd and dy'd without Issue Hov. in Ann. 1144. Catal. Com. Essex pag. 177. Mat. Par. Ann. 1143. pag. 77. lib. 6. Geffrey Mandevil second Son was restored by King Henry the II. and Married Eustachia the Kings Kinswoman but had no Issue by her William Mandevil the third Son succeeded his Brother and was twice Married but dy'd without Issue Thus the Name and Issue of this Sacrilegious Earl were all extinct and the Inheritance carried to Geffrey Fitz-Peter another Family by the Marriage of Beatrix Say his Sisters Grandchild Now we have related the Fortune of the Earl Mandevil and his Children we must not omit what Nubrigensis reporteth touching two of his Captains the one of his Horse-men the other of his Foot-men both of them cruel Executioners of his Impiety The first had his Brains dash'd out by a fall from his Horse and the other whose Name was Rayner the chief burner and breaker into Churches being passing over Sea with his Wife they were both of them turned out of the Ship into a Boat and so left to Fortune were there Drown'd More of the Story you may see in Nubrigensis lib. 1. c. 11. and Mat. Par. Ann. 1143. About the same time Rob. Marmion a Man of great power in like manner invaded the Church of Coventry and turning out the Monks placed his Soldiers in their room then going to Battle against the E. of Chester he shewed himself in a bravery before both the Armies and having forgotten privy Trenches which himself had made to entrap his Enemies or hinder their approach he fell as he pranced up and down before the Monastery into one of them and breaking his Thigh-Bone could not get out which a Peasant of his Enemies perceiving ran to him and cut of his Head Nub. lib. 1. c. 12. Mat. West Ann. 1143. Hunting lib. 8. p. 393. Mat. Par. 1143. William Albermarl whom I certainly take to be William le Gros Earl of Albermarl that dy'd 25th of Henry II. by the former examples thrust the Regular Priests out of the Church of Belingcon and Fortified it with his Soldiers But by example also of their grievous Punishment it pleased God to touch him with Repentance so that to expiate his Sin he did many Noble Works of Charity both in relieving the Poor abundantly and in Erecting of two if no more worthy Monasteries that of Melsa in the Year 1150. and the other of Torneton where he was Buried in Peace Yet God delighted rather in Obedience than Sacrifice cut off the Line of his Family and transposed his Inheritance by his only Daughter Hawis who was thrice Married to three several Families But in the two first it stuck not at all and but two Descents in the last of them Nub. l. 1. c. 12. Hov. An. 1179. Cat. E. Albermarl King Henry II. in the Year 1192. and the 16th of his Reign being in Normandy and hearing that Thomas of Becket Archbishop of Canterbury after a Peace lately made between them carried things so imperiously in England as there was no living under him growing into an extream Passion used as they say these words In what a miserable State am I that I cannot be quiet in my own Kingdom for one only Priest Is there no Man that will rid me of this Trouble Hereupon or upon what other Motives God knoweth four barbarous Knights Sir Hugh Murvill Sir Will. Tracy Sir Rich. Brittain and Sir Reynold Fitz-Vrs hasting into England slew the Archbishop at Even Song in his Cathedral Church at the very Altar embruing it with his Blood and Brains committing at once this horrible Murder and tripple Sacrilege First in respect of the Person secondly of the Place and thirdly of the Time and Business then in hand Yet Vengeance seized not presently on their Bodies but tormented their Souls upon the rack of Desperation so that neither trusting themselves one with another nor the solitary Woods nor the mantle of Night they fled into several Countries where they all within four Years after as 't is reported died
apprehend Will. de Bruce and his whole Family but he having Intelligence of it fled with his Wife Children and Kinsmen into Ireland whither the King coming afterward besieged his Wife and his Son William with his Wife in a Munition in Methe and having taken them they privily escaped to the Island of May where being again recovered and brought unto him he now bound them surely and sent them to Windsor-Castlâ— and there by his Commandment they all died miserably famished William himself the Father escaping into France died also shortly after and was buried at Paris leaving all according to St. Austin's Words to the King's Extortioners pag. 218 221. What Reax King John kept among Churches is generally well known Yet I find not that either he destroyed or profaned any of them otherwise than by rifling of their Wealth and persecuting the Clergy as his Enemies To say truth they were not his Friends But the last Riot that he committed among them was in Suffolk and Norfolk as he brought his Army that way to waste the Lands of the Barons his Enemies and to pass by the Town of Lyn which stood faithful to him when the most of England had forsaken him into the North parts Having lodg'd there to his great Content and taking his Journey Spoliis onustus opimis over the Washes when he came upon the Sands of Wellstream a great part of his Sacrilegious Army with the Spoils he had taken and his Treasure Plate Jewels Horses and Carriages were all drowned So that it was judg'd saith the History to be a punishment by God that the Spoil which had been gotten and taken out of Churches should perish and be lost by such means together with the Spoilers Stow reporteth That the Earth opened in the midst of the Waves on the Marsties and the Whirlpit of the deep so swallowed up both Men and Horses that none escaped to bring King John Tidings For he with his Army going before escap'd more happily than Pharaoh but very narrowly with his Life especially if it were any Happiness to live in that miserable Condition he was now brought to having lost his Treasure and Fortunes at the very time wherein above all other he had most need of them as flying from his Enemy Lewis the Dauphin of France call'd in by his Subjects to take the Crown and possessing peaceably the City and Tower of London the Cities of Canterbury and Winchester with all the Castles of Kent except Dover which could not hold out and all the Barons in a manner with the Citizens of London and Winchester having sworn him Fealty and done him Homage as also the King of Scots for the Lands he held of the King of England who likewise had subdued all Northumberland except Barnard-Castle to him If after all this I say it were any Happiness to live yet enjoy'd he that miserable Happiness but a very short time for whether by Poyson given him at Swinsted-Abbey as the common report is or by a Surfeit taken with eating Peaches accompany'd with an intolerable Grief for his Losses as others deliver it he died about five or six Days after at Newark-Castle and wanting all civil Lamentation was presently so spoil'd by his Servants who fled every Man his way as they left nothing worth the Carriage to cover his dead Carcass Discite O Reges sacratae parcere turbae Robert Fitz-Walter so great a Baron in the time of King John that Mat. Paris saith of him Cui vix aliquis Comes in Anglia tum temporis potuit comparari was a grievous Enemy to the Monastery of St. Alban and prosecuting it with many Injuries did among others besiege the Priory of Binham in Norfolk a Cell of St. Albans as if it were a Castle and constrain'd the Monks there to extream Famine for that John the Abbot of St. Albans had removed Thomas the Prior of Binham and put another in his room without the assent of the said Robert who was Patron of the Priory and a singular Friend of Thomas The Complaint hereof being brought to the King he presently sent Forces to remove and apprehend the Besiegers but they having notice thereof departed Mat. Paris wondreth at the Revengeful wrath of which thereupon fell on Robert Fitz-Walter From that time saith he he never wanted manifest pursuit of Enemies or the afflictions of Infirmities All that he had is Confiscate and during the Life of King John he liv'd in Exile and Vagrant suffering great Adversities and Misfortunes And tho'King Hen. III. granted Peace to all yet did he never recover fully his Favour but died Dishonourable and Infamous Thus Mat. Paris in Vita Joh. Abbat S. Albani xxi MS. Falcasius de Brent a Valiant and Powerful Baron that on the part of King John grievously afflicted the Barons his Adversaries and all England beside pulled down the Church of St. Paul at Bedford to have the Stones and Materials thereof for the Building and Fortifying his Castle of Bedford He fell afterward in the ... Year of Hen. III. to be Fined before the Justices Itinerant at Dunstable a 100 l. a-piece for thirty forcible Entries and Disseissins made by him upon divers Men in all at 3000 l. Upon this he attempted by his Brethren and Followers to have taken the Justices sitting in Court and to imprison them in his Castle at Bedford But they all save Henry de Braybrock escaped him they Imprison'd and his Wife complaining thereon to the King and Parliament then sitting at Northampton they all set all other Business a-part and with all the Power they could make went and besieged the Castle which was to the utmost admirably defended against them and to the extream loss of the Assailants Yet by raising a Wooden-Tower close by it which they call Malvicine it was at length taken the Justice delivered 24 hang'd and his Brethren Himself being escap'd lost all his Possessions and whatsoever else he had But for the great Service he had done King John his Life upon his submission was pardon'd and he banished yet Vengeance still pursued him for he died by Poyson I must not forget a memorable Relation which Matthew Paris further maketh touching this matter The Abbess of Helnestene hearing that Falcasius had pull'd down St. Paul's Church to build his Castle caus'd the Sword which was in the Hand of the Image of St. Paul to be taken out of it and would not suffer it to be restor'd till now that he had so worthily reveng'd himself Whereupon one writ thus Perdidit in mense Falco tam fervidus ense Omne sub saevo quicquid quaesivit ab aevo The fierce Sir Falco ere one Month was run Lost all the Wealth that in his Life he won William Earl of Pembroke sirnam'd The great Earl Marshal Tutor of King Henry 3. took by force of War two Mannors belonging to the Church and Bishoprick of Fernes in Ireland The Bishop a Godly Man requir'd Restitution and failing of it excommunicated the Earl who little regarded it The Earl so dieth the Bishop cometh into England and
at Noon Then the storm being ended the Irish by Boats fetch'd them to their Houses and reliev'd them It is said That Sir John Arundel lost in this storm besides his Life 52 Suits of very rich Apparel much princely stuff with his great Horse and other Horses and things of price to the value of Ten thousand Marks and twenty five other ships which followed him with Men Horses and other Provision all perishing with him Touching the residue not guilty of this Out-rage and Sacrilege Sir Thomas Piercy Sir Hugh Calverley Sir William Elmham and the rest of the Army they were far and near dispers'd on the Seas with the same dangers but it pleased God to preserve them Yet as soon as the storm was ended a new Misfortune fell upon Sir Tho. Piercy for being weak and weather-beaten with all his Company a Spanish Man of War now setteth upon him singled from the rest of the Navy and drives him to bestir himself as he could which he did so happily as at last he took the Spaniard and bringing him home brought also the occasion of double Joy one for his safety the other for his victory And then pawning that ship for 100 l. he presently furnish'd himself forth again and with as great Joy arriv'd safely at Brest whereof he was one of the Captains with Sir Hugh Calverly and thus supply'd that charge also very fortunately Sir Hugh Calverley also and Sir William Elmham with the rest of those Ships return'd safely into other parts and by the great Mercy of God lost not either Man Horse or any other thing in all this so furious a Tempest All this is much largerly related by Tho. Walsingham in An. 1379 p. 231. seq Though the Attempts of Rebels and Traitors be usually suppress'd by the Power of the Prince yet that notorious Rebel Wat Tyler and his Confederates prevail'd so against King Richard II. that neither his the King's Authority nor the Power of the Kingdom could resist them insomuch as they became Lords of the City and Tower of London and had the King himself so far in their disposition as they got him to come and go to do and forbear when and what they requir'd But after they had spoil'd and burnt the Monastery of St. John's of Jerusalem beheaded the Archbishop of Canterbury and done some other acts of Sacrilege their Fortune quickly chang'd and their Captain Wat Tyler being in the greatest height of his Glory with his Army behind him to do what he commanded and the King fearfully before him not able to resist was upon the sudden wounded and surpriz'd by the Mayor of London his prosperous Success over-turn'd and both he and they whom an Army could not earst subdue are now by the Act of a single Man utterly broken and discomfited and justly brought to their deserved Execution Holinshed and Stow in 4 Rich. II. CHAP. VI. The Attempt and Project upon the Lands of the Clergy in the Time of Henry IV. disappointed BY that Time King Henry IV. was come to the Crown the Clergy of England had passed the Meridian of their greatness and were onward in their declination For the People now left to admire them as before they had done and by little and little to fall off from them in every Place being most distracted though not wholly led away by the prime Lectures Sermons and Pamphlets of them that laboured for an alteration in Religion The Commons also of Parliament which usually do breath the Spirit of the People not only envied their greatness but thought it against reason that those whom the Laity had raised fed and fatted by their Alms and Liberality should use such rigorous Jurisdiction so they accounted it over their Patrons and Founders and against Religion also that they who had devoted themselves to Spiritual contemplation should be so much intangled with the Secular affairs But above all that they who laboured not in the Common-wealth nor were the hundredth part of the People should possess as great a Portion almost of the Kingdom as the whole Body of the Laity For an Estimate hereof had been taken anciently by the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom which in Edward I. Time were found to be 67000 and that 28000 of them were in the Clergy's hands So that they had gotten well towards one half of the Knight's Fees of the Kingdom and had not the Statutes of Mortmain come in their way they were like enough in a short time to have had the better part Yet did not the Statutes otherwise hinder them but that with the King's Licence they daily obtained great accessions and might by the Time of King Henry IV. be thought probably enough to have half the Kingdom amongst them if not more considering that out of that part which remained to the Laity they had after a manner a tenth part by way of Tithe and besides that an inestimable Revenue by way of Altarage Offerings Oblations Obventions Mortuaries Church-Duties Gifts Legacies c. The Parliament therefore 6 Henry IV. called the Laymen's Parliament that all Lawyers were shut out of it casting a malevolent Eye hereon did not seek by a Moderate course a Reformation but as may be observed in other cases to cure a great excess by an extreme defect and at one blow to take from the Clergy all their Temporalities This was propounded to the King by Sir John Cheiney their Speaker who in former time had been himself a Deacon and lapping then some of the Milk of the Church found it so sweet as he now would eat of the Breasts that gave it He inforced this proposition with all the Rhetorick and Power he had and tickled so the Ears of the King that if the Archbishop of Canterbury had not that day stood like Moses in the gap the evils that succeeded might even then have fallen upon the Clergy But the Archbishop declaring that the Commons sought thereby their own enriching knowing well that they should be sharers in this Royal prey assured the King that as he and his Predecessors Edward III. and Richard II. had by the Counsel of the Commons confiscated the Goods and Lands of the Cells or Monasteries that the Frenchmen and Normans did possess in England being worth many thousands of Gold and was not that day the richer thereby half a Mark so if he should now which God forbid fulfill their wicked desire he should not be one Farthing the richer the next Year following This demonstrative and prophetical Speech pronounced with great vehemency by the Archbishop it so wrought upon the Heart of the King that he professed he would leave the Church in better State than he found it rather than in worse And thus that Hideous Cloud of Confusion which hung over the Head of the Clergy vapoured suddenly at this time into nothing Yet did it lay the Train that Henry V. did make a sore Eruption and in Henry VIIIth's Time blew up at the Monasteries The event of which
third Daughter was married to Martin Reyes a Groom-porter and their Father himself was also beheaded 5. The Earl of Oxon was John Vere the fiftieth of that Name whose Grandchild Edward Earl of Oxon not only utterly wasted the great and most ancient Inheritance of that Earldom but defaced also the Castles and Houses thereof and leaving a Son by his second Wife named Henry the 18th Earl of that Noble Family The same Henry died without Issue and this Male Line thus failing the Office of Great Chamberlain of England which had ever since Hen. the 1st's time gone in this Family was now by the Lady Mary Sister of this Edward being married to the Lord Willoughby of Eresby by Judgment of the Upper House of Parliament Anno ... transposed to her Son and Heir the now Earl of Lindsey 6. The Earl of South-Hampton was William Fitz-Williams who being Lord Privy Seal and Admiral of England was created Earl of South-Hampton at Hampton-Court Anno 29 Hen. 8. He married Mabell Daughter of Henry Lord Clifford of Westmorland and Sister and Heir of Henry the first Earl of Cumberland but died without Issue Anno 34 H. 8. 7. The Earl of Arundel was William Fitz-Alam who died 35 Hen. 8. He had a Son and by two Wives four Daughters which died without Issue His Son Henry Fitz-Alam succeeded in the Earldom a Man of great Dignities He was twice married by Catharine his first Wife he had Issue H. Lord ... who being married died without Issue in the life of his Father An. 1556. And so ended the Noble Family and Male line of these Earls of Arundel But he had also by that Wife two Daughters and Heirs whereof Jane the eldest was married to the Lord Lumley who had Issue by her Thomas Charles and Mary who died all without Issue Mary his second Daughter and Co-heir was married to Tho. Howard the last Duke of Norfolk and by her the Earldom Castles and Honours of Arundel were transported to Philip Howard her Son and so to her Grandchild Tho. Earl of Arundel and Earl Marshal of England now living in whose line God hold them 8. The Earl of Shrewsbury was Francis Talbott who by his first Wife Mary Daughter of Tho. Lord Dacres of Gilsland had Issue George his eldest Son the sixth Earl of Shrewsbury and Tho. who died at Sheffield without issue Earl George had two Wives and four Sons besides three Daughters by his first Wife no Issue by his second Francis Lord Talbott his eldest Son was married but died without Issue Gilbert his second Son was the 7th Earl of that Family married and had Issue two Sons John and George but both of them died in their Infancy without other Issue-Male of their Father whose Heirs therefore were three Daughters Edward 3d. Son of George was the 8th Earl he married but died without Issue 2 Feb. 1617. Henry the 4th's Son married and died without Issue-Male Thus was all the Issue-Male of Francis Earl of Shrewsbury one of the Peers of the Upper-House at the passing of the Act aforesaid utterly extinct and the Earldom translated to another Family of that Name the Talbotts of Grafton descending from John Talbott the second Earl of Shrewsbury who died Anno 39. Henry VI. by his 3d. Son Sir Gilbert Talbott Captain of Calice York in Tit. Shrewsbury 9. The Earl of Essex Henry Bourchier that was a Peer of Parliament at the Act of Dissolution in 27. Henry VIII broke his Neck by a fall from an Horse about 10 Weeks before this Parliament viz on the 12th of March in 31. Henry VIII and having no Issue-Male the King gave his Earldom to Thomas Lord Cromwell who in his Bipartite Dignity sate among the Ecclesiastical Peers and first of the Rank as the King's Vicegerent in Spiritualibus and here among the Lay-Peers as in his own Right a Temporal Earl and Temporal indeed for not long after he was turned out of all his Offices attainted and beheaded as we have formerly shewed He brought in the Bill the 3d. time and it was expedited the 23d of May but within two Months following viz 29. July himself was attainted in the same Parliament and condemned so that vengeance fell speedily upon him 10. The Earl of Darby was Edward Lord Stanley a Peer of the Realm both in this and in 27. of the King he had divers Sons and Daughters his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him and left two Sons Ferdinando and William Ferdinando succeeded in the Earldom and died without Issue-Male 1594. leaving 3 Daughters and Heirs who shared so deep in the Patrimony of his goodly Earldom as they not only pulled the Feathers from the Wings of it whereby in times past it hath been so powerfull but the Wings from the very Body 11. The Earl of Worcester was Henry Somerset Lord Herbert a Peer also in 27. This honourable Family seems more fortunate than any of the precedent for their lineal descent remains entire and without blemish having at this day many Noble Branches Yet was not the Issue of Earl Henry free from the Hand of God for his 3d. Son Thomas Somersett died in the Tower of London Francis his 4th and youngest Son was slain at Massellborough-Field and his Son-in-Law the Earl of Northumberland that married his Daughter the Lady Anne was beheaded at York 1572. 12. The Earl of Rutland was Tho. Manours both in this Parliament and the 27th He had 5 Sons and 6 Daughters and died in 35. Henry VIII his eldest Son Henry was Earl after him and had Issue Edward the 3d. Earl of that Family who had only a Daughter an Heir and died without Issue-Male John Brother of Edward was the 4th Earl he had 3 Sons Edward that died an Infant Roger and Francis Roger succeeded and was the 5th Earl he had only one Daughter his sole Heir married to Sir Philip Sydney slain at Zutphen and died without Issue-Male Francis after his Brother Roger was the 6th Earl he was twice married by his first Wife he had Issue only the Lady Catherine married to the Duke of Buckingham who was murthered by Felton And two Sons by his second Wife Henry Lord Rosse and Francis Lord Rosse of Homelake who died both young without Issue 13. The Earl of Cumberland both in 27 and 31. Henry VIII was Henry Clifford who died 34. of the King He had Issue Henry the 2d Earl of Cumberland who had Issue George the 3d. Earl a valiant Soldier successfull in his Enterprizes He had Issue two Sons Francis Lord Clifford and Robert that died young and a Daughter the Lady Anne married to Richard Sackvill Earl of Dorsett who died as did also this Earl of Cumberland without Issue-Male Francis Brother of George was the 4th Earl who had Issue Henry Lord Clifford 14. The Earl of Sussex was Robert Ratcliff created 8. Decemb. 21. Henry 8. He had three Wives and more Sons besides Daughters and died 28. Nov. 1541. 34. Henry 8. his Son and Heir Henry