the matter himself he was contented to be the stock whereon Wolsey should be graffed whom he made heir to his favour commending him to King Henrie the seventh for one fit to serve a King and command others And hereupon he was entertained at Court Soon after when Henrie his sonne came to the Crown Wolsey quickly found the length of his foot and fitted him with an easie shoe He perswaded him that it was good accepting of pleasure whilest youth tender'd it let him follow his sports whilest Wolsey would undertake every night briefly to represent unto him all matters of moment which had passed the Counsell-table For Princes are to take State-affairs not in the masse and whole bulk of them but onely the spirits thereof skilfully extracted And hereupon the King referred all matters to Wolsey's managing on whom he conferr'd the Bishopricks of Duresme Winchester and York with some other spirituall promotions Nothing now hindred Wolsey's prospect to overlook the whole Court but the head of Edward Stafford Duke of Buckingham who was high in birth honour and estate For as for Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk he stood not in Wolsey's way but rather besides then against him Brandon being the Kings companion in pleasures Wolsey his counsellour in policy Brandon Favourite to Henrie Wolsey to the King Wolsey takes this Buckingham to task who otherwise a brave Gentleman was proud and popular and that tower is easily undermin'd whose foundation is hollow His own folly with Wolsey's malice overthrew him Vainglory ever lyeth at an open guard and giveth much advantage of play to her enemies The Duke is condemned of high treason though rather corrivall with the King for his Clothes then his Crown being excessively brave in apparell The ax that kills Buckingham frights all others who turn contesting into complying with our Archbishop now Cardinall Legate à latere and Lord-Chancellour All the Judges stood at the barre of his devotion His displeasure more feared then the Kings whose anger though violent was placable the Cardinalls of lesse furie but more malice yet in matters of Judicature he behaved himself commendably I heare no widows sighes nor see orphans tears in our Chronicles caused by him sure in such cases wherein his private ends made him not a party he was an excellent Justicer as being too proud to be bribed and too strong to be overborn Next he aspires to the Triple Grown he onely wants Holinesse and must be Pope Yet was it a great labour for a Tramountain to climbe over the Alps to S. Peters Chair a long leap from York to Rome and therefore he needed to take a good rise Besides he used Charles the fift Emperour for his staff gold he gave to the Romish Cardinalls and they gave him golden promises so that at last Wolsey perceived both the Emperour and the Court of Rome delay'd and deluded him He is no fox whose den hath but one hole Wolsey finding this way stopt goes another way to work and falls off to the French King hoping by his help to obtain his desires However if he help not himself he would hinder Charles the Emperours designes and revenge is a great preferment Wherefore covertly he seeks to make a divorce betwixt Queen Katharine Dowager the Emperours Aunt and King Henrie the eighth his Master Queen Katharines age was above her Husbands her gravity above her age more pious at her beads then pleasant in her bed a better woman then a wife and a fitter wife for any Prince then King Henrie Wolsey by his instruments perswades the King to put her away pleading they were so contiguous and near in kinred they might not be made continuous one flesh in marriage because she before had been wife to Prince Arthur the Kings brother Besides the King wanted a male heir which he much desired Welcome whisperings are quickly heard The King embraceth the motion the matter is enter'd in the Romish Court but long delayed the Pope first meaning to divorce most of the gold from England in this tedious suit But here Wolsey miscarried in the Master-piece of his policy For he hoped upon the divorce of King Henrie from Queen Katharine his wife which with much adoe was effected to advance a marriage betwixt him and the King of France his sister thinking with their nuptiall ring to wed the King of France eternally to himself and mould him for farther designes whereas contrary to his expectation King Henrie fell in love with Anna Bullen a Lady whole beauty exceeded her birth though honourable wit her beauty piety all one for his love not lust so that there was no gathering of green fruit from her till marriage had ripened it whereupon the King took her to wife Not long after followed the ruine of the Cardinall caused by his own vitiousnesse heightned by the envy of his Adversaries He was caught in a Premunire for procuring to be Legate de latere and advancing the Popes power against the Laws of the Realm and eight other Articles were framed against him for which we report the Reader to our Chronicles The main was his Ego Rex meus wherein he remembred his old profession of a Schoolmaster and forgot his present estate of a Statesman But as for some things laid to his charge his friends plead that where potent malice is Promoter the accusations shall not want proof though the proof may want truth Well the broad seal was taken from him and some of his spirituall Preferments Yet was he still left Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York so that the Kings goodnesse hitherto might have seemd rather to ease him of burthensome greatnesse then to have deprived him of wealth or honour which whether he did out of love to Wolsey or fear of the Pope I interpose no opinion Home now went Wolsey into Yorkshire and lived at his Mannour of Cawood where he wanted nothing the heart of man could desire for contentment But great minds count every place a prison which is not a Kings Court and just it was that he which would not see his own happinesse should therefore feel his own misery He provided for his enstalling Archbishop State equivalent to a Kings Coronation which his ambition revived other of his misdemeanours and by command from the King he was arrested by the Earl of Northumberland and so took his journeys up to London By the way his soul was rackt betwixt different tidings now hoysed up with hope of pardon then instantly let down with news of the Kings displeasure till at Leicester his heart was broken with these sudden and contrary motions The Storie goes that he should breath out his soul with speeches to this effect Had I been as carefull to serve the God of Heaven as I have to comply to the will of my earthly King God would not have left me in mine old age as the other hath done His body swell'd after his death as his mind did whilest he was living which
with other symptomes gave the suspicion that he poysoned himself It will suffice us to observe If a Great man much beloved dyeth suddenly the report goes that others poysoned him If he be generally hated then that he poysoned himself Sure never did a Great man fall with lesse pity Some of his own servants with the feathers they got under him flew to other Masters Most of the Clergy more pitying his Profession then Person were glad that the felling of this oke would cause the growth of much underwood Let Geometricians measure the vastnesse of his mind by the footsteps of his Buildings Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court And no wonder if some of these were not finished seeing his life was rather broken off then ended Sure King Henrie lived in two of his houses and lies now in the third I mean his Tombe at Windsor In a word in his prime he was the bias of the Christian world drawing the bowl thereof to what side he pleased CHAP. 4. The life of CHARLES BRANDON Duke of Suffolk CHarles Brandon was sonne to Sr. William Brandon Standerd-bearer to King Henry the seaventh in whose quarrell he was slain in Bosworth field wherefore the King counted himself bound in honour and conscience to favour young Charles whose father spent his last breath to blow him to the haven of victory and caused him to be brought up with Prince Henrie his second sonne The intimacy betwixt them took deep impression in their tender years which hardned with continuance of time proved indeleble It was advanced by the sympathy of their active spirits men of quick and large-striding minds loving to walk together not to say that the loosenesse of their youthfull lives made them the faster friends Henry when afterwards King heaped honours upon him created him Viscount Lisle and Duke of Suffolk Not long after some of the English Nobility got leave to go to the publick Tilting in Paris and there behav'd themselves right valiantly though the sullen French would scarce speak a word in their praise For they conceived it would be an eternall impoverishing of the credit of their Nation if the honour of the day should be exported by foreiners But Brandon bare away the credit from all fighting at Barriers with a giant Almain till he made an earth-quake in that mountain of flesh making him reel and stagger and many other courses at Tilt he performed to admiration Yea the Lords beheld him not with more envious then the Ladies with gracious eyes who darted more glaunces in love then the other ranne spears in anger against him especially Mary the French Queen and sister to King Henry the eighth who afterward proved his wife For after the death of Lewis the twelfth her husband King Henry her brother imployed Charles Brandon to bring her over into England who improved his service so well that he got her good will to marrie her Whether his affections were so ambitious to climbe up to her or hers so courteous as to descend to him who had been twice a widower before let youthfull pennes dispute it it sufficeth us both met together Then wrote he in humble manner to request King Henries leave to marrie his sister but knowing that matters of this nature are never sure till finisht and that leave is sooner got to do such attempts when done already and wisely considering with himself that there are but few dayes in the Almanack wherein such Marriages come in and subjects have opportunity to wed Queens he first married her privately in Paris King Henrie after the acting of some anger and shewing some state-discontent was quickly contented therewith yea the world conceiveth that he gave this woman to be married to this man in sending him on such an imployment At Calis they were afterward re-married or if you will their former private marriage publickly solemniz'd and coming into England liv'd many years in honour and esteem no lesse dear to his fellow-subjects then his Sovereigne He was often imployed Generall in Martiall affairs especially in the warres betwixt the English and French though the greatest performance on both sides was but mutuall indenting the Dominions each of other with inrodes When the divorce of King Henry from Queen Katharine was so long in agitation Brandon found not himself a little agrieved at the Kings expence of time and money for the Court of Rome in such matters wherein money is gotten by delayes will make no more speed then the beast in Brasil which the Spaniards call Pigritia which goes no farther in a fortnight then a man will cast a stone Yea Brandon well perceived that Cardinall Campeius and Wolsey in their Court at Bridewell wherein the divorce was judicially handled intended onely to produce a solemn Nothing their Court being but the clock set according to the diall at Rome and the instructions received thence Wherefore knocking on the table in the presence of the two Cardinalls he bound it with an oath That It was never well in England since Cardinalls had any thing to do therein And from that time forward as an active instrument he indeavoured the abolishing of the Popes power in England For he was not onely as the Papists complain of him a principall agent in that Parliament Anno. 1534. wherein the Popes supremacy was abrogated but also a main means of the overturning of Abbeys as conceiving that though the head was struck off yet as long as that neck and those shoulders remained there would be a continuall appetite of reuniting themselves Herein his thoughts were more pure from the mixture of covetousnesse then many other imployed in the same service For after that our eyes justly dazled at first with the brightnesse of Gods Justice on those vitious fraternities have somewhat recovered themselves they will serve us to see the greedy appetites of some instruments to feed on Church-morsels He lived and dyed in the full favour of his Prince though as Cardinall Pool observed they who were highest in this Kings favour their heads were nearest danger Indeed King Henrie was not very tender in cutting off that joynt and in his Reigne the ax was seldome wiped before wetted again with Noble bloud He dyed Anno 1544. much beloved and lamented of all for his bounty humility valour and all noble virtues since the heat of his youth was tamed in his reduced age and lies buried at Windsor CHAP. 5. The wise Statesman TO describe the Statesman at large is the subject rather of a Volume then a Chapter and is as farre beyond my power as wide of my profession We will not lanch into the deep but satisfie our selves to sail by the shore and briefly observe his carriage towards God his King himself home-persons and forein Princes He counts the fear of God the beginning of wisdome and therefore esteemeth no project profitable which is not lawfull nothing politick which crosseth piety Let not any plead for the contrary Hushai's dealing with Absalom which strongly
Lady Jane the Duke hoping so to reigne in his daughter-in-law on whom King Edward the sixth by will passing by his own sisters had entayled the Crown And not long after that godly King who had some defects but few faults and those rather in his age then person came to his grave it being uncertain whether he went or was sent thither If the latter be true the crying of this Saint under the Altar beneath which he was buried in King Henries Chappell without any other monument then that of his own virtues hath been heard long since for avenging his bloud Presently after Lady Jane was proclaimed Queen of England She lifted not up her least finger to put the Diadem on her self but was onely contented to sit still whilest others endeavoured to Crown her or rather was so farre from biting at the bait of Sovereignty that unwillingly she opened her mouth to receive it Then was the Duke of Northumberland made Generall of an Army and sent into Suffolk to suppresse the Lady Marie who there gathered men to claim the Crown This Duke was appointed out of the policie of his friend-seeming enemies for that employment For those who before could not endure the scorching heat of his displeasure at the Counsell-table durst afterwards oppose him having gotten the skreen of London-walls betwixt him and them They also stinted his journeys every day thereby appointing the steps by which he was to go down to his own grave that he should march on very slowly which caused his confusion For lingring doth tire out treacherous designes which are to be done all on a sudden and gives breath to loyalty to recover it self His army like a sheep left part of his fleece on every bush it came by at every stage and corner some conveying themselves from him till his Souldiers were wash'd away before any storm of warre fell upon them Onely some few who were chain'd to the Duke by their particular engagements and some great Persons hopelesse to conceal themselves as being too bigge for a cover stuck fast unto him Thus those enterprises need a strong hand which are thrown against the bias of peoples hearts and consciences And not long after the Norfolk and Suffolk Protestant Gentry Loyalty alwayes lodgeth in the same breast with true Religion proclaimed and set up Queen Marie who got the Crown by Our Father and held it by Pater noster Then was the late Queen now Lady Jane Grey brought from a Queen to a prisoner and committed to the Tower She made misery it self amiable by her pious and patient behaviour Adversity her night-clothes becoming her as well as her day-dressing by reason of her pious deportment During her imprisonment many moved her to alter her religion and especially M r Fecnam sent unto her by Queen Mary but how wisely and religiously she answer'd him I referre the Reader to M r Fox where it is largely recorded And because I have mentioned that Book wherein this Ladyes virtues are so highly commended I am not ignorant that of late great disgrace hath been thrown on that Authour and his worthy Work as being guilty of much falsehood chiefly because sometimes he makes Popish Doctours well known to be rich in learning to reason very poorely and the best Fencers of their Schools worsted and put out of their play by some countrey poore Protestants But let the cavillers hereat know that it is a great matter to have the oddes of the weapon Gods word on their side not to say any thing of supernaturall assistance given them Sure for the main his Book is a worthy work wherein the Reader may rather leave then lack and seems to me like Aetna alwayes burning whilest the smoke hath almost put out the eyes of the adverse party and these Foxes firebrands have brought much annoyance to the Romish Philistines But it were a miracle if in so voluminous a work there were nothing to be justly reproved so great a Pomgranate not having any rotten kernell must onely grow in paradise And though perchance he held the beam at the best advantage for the Protestant party to weigh down yet generally he is a true Writer and never wilfully deceiveth though he may sometimes be unwillingly deceived To return to the Lady Jane Though Quâ—en Marie of her own disposition was inclined finally to pardon her yet necessity of State was such as she must be put to death Some report her to have been with child when she was beheaded cruelty to cut down the tree with blossomes on it and that that which hath saved the life of many women hastned her death but God onely knows the truth hereof On Tower-hill she most patiently Christianly and constantly yielded to God her soul which by a bad way went to the best end On whom the foresaid Authour whence the rest of her life may be supplied bestows these verses Nescio tu quibus es Lector lecturus ocellis Hoc scio quod siccis scribere non potui What eyes thou readst with Reader know I not Mine were not dry when I this story wrote She had the innocency of childhood the beauty of youth the solidity of middle the gravity of old age and all at eighteen the birth of a Princesse the learning of a Clerk the life of a Saint yet the death of a Malefactour for her parents offenses I confesse I never read of any canonized Saint of her name a thing whereof some Papists are so scrupulous that they count it an unclean and unhallowed thing to be of a name whereof never any Saint was which made that great Jesuit Arthur Faunt as his kinsman tell 's us change his Christian name to Laurence But let this worthy Lady passe for a Saint and let all great Ladyes which bear her name imitate her virtues to whom I wish her inward holinesse but farre more outward happinesse Yet lest Goodnesse should be discouraged by this Ladyes infelicity we will produce another example which shall be of a fortunate virtue ELIZABETH Queen of England She dyed at Richmond the 24 th of March 1602. in the 44 th yeare of Her Raign and 70 th of Her Life W Marshall Sculp CHAP. 15. The life of Queen ELISABETH WE intermeddle not with her description as she was a Sovereigne Prince too high for our pen and performed by others already though not by any done so fully but that still room is left for the endeavours of Posterity to adde thereunto We consider her onely as she was a worthy Lady her private virtues rendring her to the imitation and her publick to the admiration of all Her royall birth by her Fathers side doth comparatively make her Mother-descent seem low which otherwise considered in it self was very noble and honourable As for the bundle of scandalous aspersions by some cast on her birth they are best to be buried without once opening of them For as the basest rascall will presume to miscall the best
a masculine word to so heroick a spirit She was very devout in returning thanks to God for her constant and continuall preservations for one traitours stabbe was scarce put by before another took aim at her But as if the poysons of treason by custome were turn'd naturall unto her by Gods protection they did her no harm In any designe of consequence she loved to be long and well advised but where her resolutions once seis'd she would never let go her hold according to her motto Semper eadem By her Temperance she improved that stock of health which Nature bestowed on her using little wine and lesse Physick Her Continence from pleasures was admirable and she the Paragon of spotlesse chastity what ever some Popish Priests who count all virginity hid under a Nunnes veil have feigned to the contrary The best is their words are no slander whose words are all slander so given to railing that they must be dumbe if they do not blaspheme Magistrates One Jesuit made this false Anagram on her name Elizabeth Iezabel false both in matter and manner For allow it the abatement of H as all Anagrams must sue in Chancery for moderate favour yet was it both unequall and ominous that T a solid letter should be omitted the presage of the gallows whereon this Anagrammatist was afterwards justly executed Yea let the testimony of Pope Sixtus Quintus himself be believed who professed that amongst all the Princes in Christendome he found but two which were worthy to bear command had they not been stained with heresie namely Henry the fourth King of France and Elizabeth Queen of England And we may presume that the Pope if commending his enemy is therein infallible We come to her death the discourse whereof was more welcome to her from the mouth of her private Confessour then from a publick Preacher and she loved rather to tell her self then to be told of her mortality because the open mention thereof made as she conceived her subjects divide their loyalty betwixt the present and the future Prince We need look into no other cause of her sicknesse then old age being seventy years old Davids age to which no King of England since the Conquest did attain Her weaknesse was encreased by her removall from London to Richmond in a cold winter day sharp enough to pierce thorow those who were arm'd with health and youth Also melancholy the worst naturall Parasite whosoever seeds him shall never be rid of his company much afflicted her being given over to sadnesse and silence Then prepared she her self for another world being more constant in prayer and pious exercises then ever before yet spake she very little to any sighing out more then she said and making still musick to God in her heart And as the red rose though outwardly not so fragrant is inwardly farre more cordiall then the damask being more thrifty of its sweetnesse and reserving it in it self so the religion of this dying Queen was most turn'd inward in soliloquies betwixt God and her own soul though she wanted not outward expressions thereof When her speech fail'd her she spake with her heart tears eyes hands and other signes so commending herself to God the best interpreter who understands what his Saints desire to say Thus dyed Queen Elizabeth whilest living the first maid on earth and when dead the second in heaven Surely the kingdome had dyed with their Queen had not the fainting spirits thereof been refresh'd by the coming in of gratious King James She was of person tall of hair and complexion fair well-favoured but high-nosed of limbes and feature neat of a stately and majestick deportment She had a piercing eye wherewith she used to touch what metall strangers were made of which came into her presence But as she counted it a pleasant conquest with her Majestick look to dash strangers out of countenance so she was mercifull in pursuing those whom she overcame and afterwards would cherish and comfort them with her smiles if perceiving towardlinesse and an ingenuous modesty in them She much affected rich and costly apparell and if ever jewells had just cause to be proud it was with her wearing them CHAP. 16. The Embassadour HE is one that represents his King in a forrein countrey as a Deputy doth in his own Dominions under the assurance of the publick faith authorized by the Law of Nations He is either Extraordinary for some one affair with time limited or Ordinary for generall matters during his Princes pleasure commonly called a Legier He is born made or at leastwise qualified honourably both for the honour of the sender and him to whom he is sent especially if the solemnity of the action wherein he is employed consisteth in ceremony and magnificence Lewis the eleventh King of France is sufficiently condemn'd by Posterity for sending Oliver his Barber in an Embassage to a Princesse who so trimly dispatch'd his businesse that he left it in the suddes and had been well wash'd in the river at Gant for his pains if his feet had not been the more nimble He is of a proper at least passable person Otherwise if he be of a contemptible presence he is absent whilest he is present especially if employed in love-businesses to advance a marriage Ladyes will dislike the body for a deformed shadow The jest is well known When the State of Rome sent two Embassadours the one having scarres on his head the other lame in his feet Mittit populus Romanus legationem quae nec caput habet nec pedes The people of Rome send an Embassy without head or feet He hath a competent estate whereby to maintain his port for a great poverty is ever suspected and he that hath a breach in his estate lies open to be assaulted with bribes Wherefore his means ought at least to be sufficient both to defray set and constant charges as also to make sallies and excursions of expenses on extraordinary occasions which we may call Supererogations of State Otherwise if he be indigent and succeed a bountifull Predecessour he will seem a fallow field after a plentifull crop He is a passable scholar well travell'd in Countreys and Histories well studyed in the Pleas of the Crown I mean not such as are at home betwixt his Sovereigne and his subjects but abroad betwixt his and forrein Princes to this end he is well skill'd in the Emperiall Laws Common Law it self is outlawed beyond the seas which though a most true is too short a measure of right and reacheth not forrein kingdomes He well understandeth the language of that countrey to which he is sent and yet he desires rather to seem ignorant of it if such a simulation which stands neuter betwixt a Truth and a Lie be lawfull and that for these reasons first because though he can speak it never so exactly his eloquence therein will be but stammering compar'd to the ordinary talk of the
But he was forced to alter his resolution and assault it sooner for he heard his men muttering amongst themselves of the strength and greatnesse of the Town and when mens heads are once fly-blown with buzzes of suspicion the vermine multiply instantly and one jealousie begets another Wherefore he raised them from their nest before they had hatch'd their fears and to put away those conceits he perswaded them it was day-dawning when the Moon rose and instantly set on the Town and wonne it being unwalled In the Market-place the Spaniards saluted them with a volley of shot Drake returned their greeting with a flight of arrows the best and ancient English complement which drave their enemies away Here Drake received a dangerous wound though he valiantly conceal'd it a long time knowing if his heart stooped his mens would fall and loth to leave off the action wherein if so bright an opportunity once setteth it seldome riseth again But at length his men forced him to return to his ship that his wound might be dressed and this unhappy accident defeated the whole designe Thus victory sometimes slips thorow their fingers who have caught it in their hands But his valour would not let him give over the project as long as there was either life or warmth in it And therefore having received intelligence from the Negroes called Symerons of many mules-lading of gold and silver which was to be brought from Panama he leaving competent numbers to man his ships went on land with the rest and bestowed himself in the woods by the way as they were to passe and so intercepted and carried away an infinite masse of gold As for the silver which was not portable over the mountains they digged holes in the ground and hid it therein There want not those who love to beat down the price of every honourable action though they themselves never mean to be chapmen These cry up Drakes fortune herein to cry down his valour as if this his performance were nothing wherein a golden opportunity ran his head with his long forelock into Drakes hands beyond expectation But certainly his resolution and unconquerable patience deserved much praise to adventure on such a designe which had in it just no more probability then what was enough to keep it from being impossible yet I admire not so much at all the treasure he took as at the rich and deep mine of Gods providence Having now full fraughted himself with wealth and burnt at the House of Crosses above two hundred thousand pounds worth of Spanish Merchandise he returned with honour and safety into England and some years after undertook that his famous voyage about the world most accurately described by our English Authours and yet a word or two thereof will not be amisse Setting forward from Plimouth he bore up for Caboverd where near to the Iland of S. Jago he took prisoner Nuno-da-Silva an experienc'd Spanish pilot whose direction he used in the coasts of Brasil and Magellan straits and afterwards safely landed him at Guatulco in New Spain Hence they took their course to the iland of Brava and hereabouts they met with those tempestuous winds whose onely praise is that they continue not above an houre in which time they change all the points of the compasse Here they had great plenty of rain poured not as in other places as it were out of sives but as out of spouts so that a but of water falls down in a place which notwithstanding is but a courteous injury in that hot climate farre from land and where otherwise fresh water cannot be provided then cutting the Line they saw the face of that heaven which earth hideth from us but therein onely three starres of the first greatnesse the rest few and small compared to our Hemisphere as if God on purpose had set up the best and biggest candles in that room wherein his civilest guests are entertained Sayling the South of Brasile he afterwards passed the Magellan straits and then entred Mare pacificum came to the Southermost land at the height of 55 ½ latitude thence directing his course Northward he pillaged many Spanish Towns and took rich prizes of high value in the kingdomes of Chily Peru and New Spain Then bending Eastwards he coasted China and the Moluccoes where by the King of Terrenate a true Gentleman Pagan he was most honourably entertain'd The King told them They and he were all of one religion in this respect that they believed not in Gods made of stocks and stones as did the Portugalls He furnish'd them also with all necessaries that they wanted On the ninth of January following his ship having a large wind and a smooth sea ran a ground on a dangerous shole and strook twice on it knocking twice at the doore of death which no doubt had opened the third time Here they stuck from eight a clock at night till foure the next afternoon having ground too much and yet too little to land on and water too much and yet too little to sail in Had God who as the wiseman saith Prov. 30.4 holdeth the winds in his fist but opened his little finger and let out the smallest blast they had undoubtedly been cast away but there blew not any wind all the while Then they conceiving aright that the best way to lighten the ship was first to ease it of the burthen of their sinnes by true repentance humbled themselves by fasting under the hand of God Afterwards they received the Communion dining on Christ in the Sacrament expecting no other then to sup with him in heaven Then they cast out of their ship six great pieces of ordinance threw over-board as much wealth as would break the heart of a Miser to think on 't with much suger and packs of spices making a caudle of the sea round about Then they betook themselves to their prayers the best lever at such a dead lift indeed and it pleased God that the wind formerly their mortall enemy became their friend which changing from the Starboard to the Larboard of the ship and rising by degrees cleared them off to the sea again for which they returned unfeigned thanks to almighty God By the Cape of good hope and west of Africa he returned safe into England and landed at Plimouth being almost the first of those that made a thorow-light through the world having in his whole voyage though a curious searcher after the time lost one day through the variation of severall Climates He feasted the Queen in his ship at Dartford who Knighted him for his service yet it grieved him not a little that some prime Courtiers refused the gold he offer'd them as gotten by piracy Some of them would have been loth to have been told that they had Aurum Tholosanum in their own purses Some think that they did it to shew that their envious pride was above their covetousnesse who of set purpose did
in The names which Homer gives the Grecian Ceryces excellently import their virtues in discharging their office One was called Asphalio such an one as made sure work another Eurybates cunning and subtle a third Theotes from his piety and godlinesse a fourth Stentor from his loud and audible pronouncing of messages Therefore of every Heathen sacrifice the tongue was cut out and given to the Heralds to shew that liberty of speech in all places was allowed them He imbitters not a distastfull message to a forrein Prince by his indiscretion in delivering it Commendable was the gravity of Guien King of arms in France and Thomas Bevolt Clarenceaux of England sent by their severall Princes to defie Charles the Emperour For after leave demanded and obtained to deliver the message with safe conduct to their persons they delivered the Emperour the lie in writing and defying him were sent home safe with rewards It fared worse with a foolish French Herald sent from the Count of Orgell to challenge combat with the Count of Cardonna Admiral of Arragon where instead of wearing his Coat of Arms the Herald was attired in a long linen garment painted with some dishonest actions imputed to the said Count of Cardonna But Ferdinand King of Arragon caused the Herald to be whipt naked through the streets of Barcelona as a punishment of his presumption Thus his indescretion remitted him to the nature of an ordinary person his Armour of proof of publick credence fell off and he left naked to the stroke of justice no longer a publick Officer but a private offender Passe we now from his use in warre to his imployment in peace He is skilfull in the pedigrees and descents of all ancient Gentry Otherwise to be able onely to blazon a Coat doth no more make an Herald then the reading the titles of Gally-pots makes a Physician Bring our Herald to a Monument ubi jacet epitaphium and where the Arms on the Tombe are not onely crest-fallen but their colours scarce to be discerned and he will tell whose they be if any certainty therein can be rescued from the teeth of Time But how shamefull was the ignorance of the French Heralds some fourty years since who at a solemn entertainment of Queen Mary of Florence wife to King Henrie the fourth did falsly devise and blazon both the Arms of Florence and the Arms of the Daulphin of France now King thereof He carefully preserveth the memories of extinguish'd Families of such Zelophehads who dying left onely daughters He is more faithfull to many ancient Gentlemen then their own Heirs were who sold their lands and with them as much as in them lay their memories which our Herald carefully treasureth up He restoreth many to their own rightfull Arms. An Heir is a Phenix in a familie there can be but one of them at the same time Hence comes it often to passe that younger brothers of gentile families live in low wayes clouded often amongst the Yeomanry and yet those under-boughs grow from the same root with the top-branches It may happen afterwards that by industry they may advance themselves to their former lustre and good reason they should recover their ancient ensignes of honour belonging unto them For the river Anas in Spain though running many miles under ground when it comes up again is still the same river which it was before And yet He curbs their Vsurpation who unjustly entitle themselves to ancient Houses Hierophilus a Ferrier in Rome pretended himself to be nephew to C. Marius who had seven times been Consul and carried it in so high a strain that many believed him and some companies in Rome accepted him for their Patron Such want not amongst us who in spight of the stock will engraff themselves into noble bloods and thence derive their pedegree Hence they new mould their names taking from them adding to them melting out all the liquid letters torturing mutes to make them speak and making vowels dumbe to bring it to a fallacious Homonomy at the last that their names may be the same with those noble Houses they pretend to By this trick to forbear dangerous instances if affinity of sound makes kinred Lutulentus makes himself kinne to Luculentus dirt to light and Angustus to Augustus some narrow-hearted Peasant to some large-spirited Prince except our good Herald marre their mart and discover their forgery For well he knows where indeed the names are the same though alter'd through variety of writing in severall ages and disguis'd by the lisping of vulgar people who miscall hard French Sirnames and where the equivocation is untruly affected He assignes honourable Arms to such as raise themselves by deserts In all ages their must be as well a beginning of new Gentry as an ending of ancient And let not Linea when farre extended in length grow so proud as to scorn the first Punctum which gave it the originall Our Herald knows also to cure the surfet of Coats and unsurcharge them and how to wash out stained colours when the merits of Posterity have outworn the disgraces of their Ancestours He will not for any profit favour wealthy unworthinesse If a rich Clown who deserves that all his shield should be the Base point shall repair to the Herald-office as to a drapers shop wherein any Coat may be bought for money he quickly finds himself deceived No doubt if our Herald gives him a Coat he gives him also a badge with it WILLIAM CAMBDEN Clarenciaux king of Armes He dyed at Westminster Anno Dni 1623 Aged 74 yeares W Marshall sculp CHAP. 23. The life of M r W. CAMBDEN WIlliam Cambden was born Anno 1550 in old Baily in the City of London His Father Sampson Cambden was descended of honest parentage in Staffordshire but by his Mothers side he was extracted from the worshipfull family of the Curwens in Cumberland He was brought up first in Christ-Church then in Pauls School in London and at fifteen years of age went to Magdalen Colledge in Oxford and thence to Broadgates Hall where he first made those short Latine Graces which the Servitours still use From hence he was removed and made student of Christ Church where he profited to such eminency that he was preferred to be Master of Westminster School a most famous seminarie of learning For whereas before of the two grand Schools of England one sent all her Foundation-scholars to Cambridge the other all to Oxford the good Queen as the Head equally favouring both Breasts of Learning and Religion divided her Scholars here betwixt both Universities which were enriched with many hopefull plants sent from hence through Cambdens learning diligence and clemency Sure none need pity the beating of that Scholar who would not learn without it under so meek a Master His deserts call'd him hence to higher employments The Queen first made him Richmond Herald and then Clarenceaux King of Arms. We reade how
his Master that employeth him 1. Speedy Not being such a sluggard as to write for news at noon That the Sunne is risen 2. True so farre forth as may be else he stamps it with a mark of uncertainty or suspicion 3. Full not filling the paper but informing those to whom it is written 4. Materiall not grinding his advises too small to frivolous particulars of love-toyes and private brawls as one layeth it to the charge of Francis Guicciardines Historie Minutissima quaeque narrat parum ex lege aut dignitate Historiae And yet such particulars which are too mean to be served up to the Counsel-Table may make a feast for Ladies or other his friends and therefore to such our Embassadour relates them by his private letters 5. Methodicall not running on all in a continued strain but stopping at the stages of different businesses to breath himself and the Reader and to take and begin a new sentence 6. Well-penned clear and plain not hunting after language but teaching words their distance to wait on his matter intermingling sententious speeches sparingly lest seeming affected And if constrained twice to write the same matter still he varieth his words lest he may seem to write like Notaries by presidents He will not have his house serve as a retreating-place for people suspected and odious in that State wherein he is employed Much lesse shall his house be a Sanctuary for Offenders seeing the very horns of Gods Altar did push away from them such notorious Malefactours as did flie unto them for protection He is cautious not to practice any treacherous act against the Prince under whom he lives lest the Shield of his Embassy prove too small to defend him from the Sword of Justice seeing that for such an offense an Embassadour is resolved into a private man and may worthily be punished as in the cases of Bernardinus Mendoza and the Bishop of Rosse Yea he will not so much as break forth publickly into any discourse which he knows will be distastfull in that Countrey wherein he is employed Learned Bodin who some seventy years since waited on Monsieur into England was here though highly admired for his learning condemned much for his indiscretion if his corrivals pen may be credited For being feasted at an English Lords table he fell into the odious discourse That a Princesse meaning Mary Queen of Scots was after Queen Elizabeth the presumptive Inheritrix of the English Crown notwithstanding an English Law seemed to exclude those which are born out of the land And yet said he I know not where this Law is for all the diligence that I have used to find it out To whom it was suddenly replyed by the Lord that entertain'd him You shall find it written on the backside of your Salick Law a judicious and biting rebound He is carefull of suspicious complying with that Prince to whom he is sent as to receive from him any extraordinary gifts much lesse pensions which carry with them more then an appearance of evil S r Amias Paulet was so scrupulous herein that being Embassadour in France in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth he would not at his departure receive from the French King the chain of gold wich is given of course till he was half a league out of the city of Paris If he hath any libera mandata unlimited instructions herein his discretion is most admirable But what go I about to do hereof enough already if not too much it better complying with my profession to practice S. Pauls precept to mine own parishioners Now then we are Embassadours for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be reconciled to God CHAP. 17. The good Generall THe Souldier whom we formerly described hath since by the stairs of his own deserts climb'd up to be a Generall and now we come to character him He is pious in the ordering of his own life Some falsely conceive that Religion spoyleth the spirit of a Generall as bad as a rainy day doth his plume of feathers making it droop and hang down whereas indeed Piety onely begets true Prowesse He acknowledgeth God the Generalissimo of all armies who in all battels though the number be never so unequall reserves the casting voice for himself Yet can I scarce believe what one tells us how Walter Pletemberg Master of the Teutonick order with a small number slew in a battel an hundred thousand Muscovite enemies with the losse of but one man on his side He hath gained skill in his place by long experience not beginning to lead others before himself ever knew to follow having never before except in Cock-matches beheld any battels Surely they leap best in their providence forward who fetch their rise farthest backward in their experience He either is or is presumed valiant Indeed courage in him is necessary though some think that a Generall is above valour who may command others to be so As if it were all one whether courage were his naturally or by adoption who can make the valiant deeds of others seem his own and his reputation for personall manhood once rais'd will bear it self up like a round body some force is required to set it but a touch will keep it agoing Indeed it is extreme indiscretion except in extremities for him to be prodigall of his person He is cheerfull and willing in undergoing of labour Admirable are the miracles of an industrious armie witnesse the mighty ditch in Cambridge-shire made by the East-Angles commonly call'd Devils-ditch as if the Pioners thereof came from hell Thus the effeminatenesse of our age defaming what it should imitate falsely traduces the monuments of their Ancestours endeavours He loves and is beloved of his souldiers Whose good will he attaineth 1. By giving them good words in his speeches unto them When wages have sometimes accidentally fallen short souldiers have accepted the payment in the fair language and promises of their Generall 2. By partaking with his souldiers in their painfull employments When the English at the Spanish Fleets approch in eightie eight drew their ships out of Plimouth haven the Lord Admirall Howard himself towed a cable the least joynt of whose exemplarie hand drew more then twentie men besides 3. By sharing with them in their wants When victuals have grown scant some Generalls have pinched themselves to the same fare with their souldiers who could not complain that their messe was bad whilest their Generall was Fellow-commoner with them 4. By taking notice and rewarding of their deserts never disinheriting a worthy souldier of his birthright of the next Office due unto him For a worthy man is wounded more deeply by his own Generalls neglect then by his enemies sword The latter may kill him but the former deads his courage or which is worse mads it into discontent Who had rather others should make a ladder of his dead