of blood hee saild not voluntarily but violently driven by the tempests of his fortune And for the crueltie laid to him in the death of the Duke of Clarence he was certainly wrought to it by practise and the mis-information of an envious faction in Court The horrour of which fratricide possest him to the last houre of his life frequently complaining against the unhappy severitie of his justice and against the hard nature of his Councellors who would not interpose one word to him for mercy whereby so blacke a deede might have beene prevented But howsoever wee may wash away much of this blood from his memory yet there continue many foule staines upon it since publique mischiefes seldome happen but that the Prince though not actually nocent as in some degree guiltie As these so many confusions at home were the misfortune of his time so was abroad that so scandalous losse of the Easterne Empire to the Turke For though King Edward were not the occasion of so great ruine to the Christian Commonwealth and that this happened before hee attained the soveraigntie his father being head of the faction yet the civill warres of England raisd upon the quarrell which he was soone after to maintaine and the universall division among Princes of the West gave courage to the Infidells and denyed succours to the miserable Emperour opprest by an over potent enemy Whereby a Citie was prophaned in which the Christian faith had flourisht without interruption for a thousand yeares But as the Sea is sayd to gaine in another if it looseth in this place So about this time religion by the singular pietie and valour of Ferdinand and Isabella wonne ground upon the Moores in Spaine whence not long after they were totally and I hope for ever expeld But when the Warre licenc'd the King to attend his government we finde the administration of Lawes just and equall and many new statutes enacted wholesome against diseases crept into the State So that he appeard dilligent both to heale up any wound the tumults of his raigne had given the commonwealth and provident for the health of future ages And certainly no Prince could husband the benefits of peace better for the outward magnificence For his glory was much in hospitalitie and a pompous celebration of the principall feasts of our redemption In which way of bravery setling much of his happinesse hee had beene doubtlesse the most fortunate of any King of the Norman line had hee not faild in expectation of his daughters marriage His buildings were few but sumptuous for that time or more properly but reparations Which are yet to bee seene at the Tower of London his house of Eltham the Castles of Nottingham and Dover But above all at Windsor where he built the new Chappell finisht after by Sr. Riginald Bray Knight of the Order and indowed the Colledge with mightie revenues which hee gave not but transferd thither taking from Kings Colledge in Cambridge and Eaton Colledge a thousand pound by the yeare to inrich this at Windsor But our buildings like our children are obnoxious to death and time scornes their folly who place a perpetuitie in either And indeed the safer kinde of fate happened to King Edward in both these felicities His posteritie like his edifices lost in other names For his two sonnes before they had survived their father the ceremonious time of mourning were themselves inhumanly murderd and as obscurely buried His eldest daughter the Lady Elizabeth was married to the Earle of Richmond knowne by the name of Henry the seventh Whose heire in a strait line not liable to any doubt or question is his most sacred Majestie now glorious in government of this Realme The younger daughters were bestowed one in a monasterie others upon inferiour Lords Cicily married John Vicount Wells Anne Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolke Briget was profest Nunne at Dartford Mary was contracted to the King of Denmarke but died before consummation Margaret died an Infant Katherine married William Courtney Earle of Devonshire But of none of these younger Princesses at this day remaines any thing but their memory All dying issulesse but the Lady Katherine whose posteritie faild likewise in the third descent Henry her sonne Marquesse of Exceter suffered by attainder in the raigne of his Cosen German Henry the Eight being not long before designd heire apparent an honour fatall in England and his sonne Edward untimely came to his death at Padua in Italy in the raigne of Queene Mary by whose favour hee had regaind his fathers honours and possessions So that all the cleare streame from the spring of Yorke flowes in the house of Scotland The troubled and impure runnes in many veines of the English Gentry For by the Lady Elizabeth Lucy he had an illigitimate Sonne named Arthur who by his wives right was Vicount Lile and dying without issue Male left to his three daughters and their posteritie some tincture of the blood royall This disease of his blood was the crime which procured both to his government and memory many hard censures For though some excuse his lust as a sinne though blacke to the eye of heaven yet no way generally injurious In regard the incontinency of one man could not be so diffusive as to wrong a multitude Neverthelesse who observes the revolutions of Kingdomes shall finde no one iniquitie in Princes so punisht The dishonour of one Lady abused extending the disgrace of severall families and mightie factions knitting together for revenge In the whole stocke of injuries none being so cruell to humane nature and which with lesse patience can bee dissembled His frequent perjurie a sinne which strikes like a Sword with two edges both against divine and humane faith was the crime which renderd him most odious to the societie of man For impiously hee appeard in this to brave heaven slighting all solemne covenants made with God and foolishly preferring before a holy promise a little profit or the satisfaction of his revenge Which crime however for the present it might stand him in some benefit yet certainly it might have indangerd him to much losse in all after enterprises which depended upon faith The deaths of Wells and Dimock of Fauconbridge of Sommerset Lord Prior of St. Iohns and others were the wounds perjury gave his soule the scarres of which remaine yet foule upon his fame But perhaps hee thought no faith was to be held with an enemy Or promist not with intention of performance An impious equivocation but then in practise with his neighbour Princes both of France and Burgundy So that the custome may in some sort seeme to priviledge the fault In his youth he was so uncircumspect and even when he had the strongest arguments for jealousie so overconfident that it engaged him to extreame difficulties and endangerd absolute ruine But his fortune almost miraculously made up all those breaches which had beene by his carelesnesse and presumption laid open and delighting something wantonly to boast her power and favour to him raisd him then highest when all the world and almost his owne hopes forsooke him For presently upon the slaughter of his father at the battell of Wakefield and the overthrow of his great supporter the Earle of Warwick at that of Saint Alban Shee inthrond him in the Kingdome Making the Queene and all the favourers of Lancaster when doubly victorious retire as overcome and the universall acclamations of the people set the regall Diadem upon his head whose fathers head at that time like a Traytors was fixt upon the Walls of Yorke scornd with a paper Crowne And afterward when from a mightie Prince hee was become a miserable Exile forc'd by the treason of his chiefest Councellors and powers of his greatest enemie to flie into Burgundy where hee likewise met with but a dissembled amitie Shee restored him to what at first shee gave And whereas his Forces were so weake upon his returne into England that despayring more hee humbly onely desired to be invested in his fathers Dutchy and vowed never to attempt the Crowne Shee violently forc'd it on him protesting by the mouthes of the Nobilitie who resorted to him at Nottingham not to afford him safetie if hee refused the soveraingtie By which amorous way of threatning shee in a manner wooed him to accept what hee durst not then hope to recover And had the appetite of glory more prevail'd with him then the sence of pleasure as farre as we may conjecture of his fortune hee might have extended his victories over the world which are now straitned with the narrow limits of our Island FINIS
THE HISTORIE OF EDWARD THE FOVRTH KING OF ENGLAND BY WM. HABINGTON Esquire LONDON Printed by Tho. Cotes for William Cooke and are to be sold at his shop neere Furnivals-Inne Gate in Holburne 1640. TO THE KINGS MOST SACRED MAIESTIE Sir AN Humbler Dedication would seeme to lessen the memory of that great Prince whose History I here lay downe at your feete Your Majestie is heire to those Crowns his happy courage regain'd from the long and violent possession of a most Potent Family What can then by any Title appertaine to him but must be injustice to offer to another His life presents your eye with rugged times yet smooth'd by a prevailing Fortune and a just cause Faction begot many tempests but Soveraigntie found a happie calme in the destruction since no gentler way had authoritie of mighty opposers When we your subjects looke backe upon that age how ought we to congratulate the present Wherein free even from the noyse of warre we have hitherto by the excellent Wisedome of your Majesties government lived safe and envied The Almighty grant all your people knowledge of their owne felicity and their mindes so disposed that their blessings may feele no interruption May your Majestie long continue in peace the comfort and honour of these times and the best example for the future But if you shall be forc't to draw your sword may your enemies submit and tastpart of your mercy if not perish in your Victories This is the prayer of your Majesties Most Humble most Loyall and most Obedient Subject WM. HABINGTON THE HISTORIE OF EDWARD THE FOVRTH KING OF ENGLAND RICHARD Duke of Yorke overthrowne by his owne rashnesse and the happie conduct of Queene Margaret at the battaile of Wakefield left the justice of his Title with a more prosperous fortune to his Sonne Edward His head during life busied with expectations of Soveraigntie after death was mockt with a paper Crowne and fixt on a pole was set on the walls of Yorke For the Queene to make his pretentions to the Kingdome the common scorne forgot that compassion she owed humaine calamitie and in a phantasticke cruelty exposed it thus to the barbarous mirth of the be holders With him dyed his younger sonne Edmond Earle of Rutland then but twelve yeares old comming too soone with his tutor to the schoolâ— of Warre and learning at first the sharpest lesson from the Lord Clifford who most inhumanely â—tab'd him prostrate at his feete intreating but for life In the very Haven after a long and tempestuous voyage thus perisht the Duke of Yorke as if it had beene in the fate of al the Richards who were either in fact oâ— title Kings of England to end by violent deathes Richard the first and second preceding him His sonne Richard the Tyrant and Richard Duke of Yorke his Nephew following him in the like disaster though severall wayes and upon different quarrels This great overthrow was suddenly rumor'd through the whole Kingdome and stretched up to the highest to advance the reputation of the Queenes felicitie And soone it arrived at Glocester where Edward Earle of March lay with some small forces expecting directions from his Father By whose death perceiving himselfe in so foule weather to sit alone at the helme he began more warily to steere his course and considering how dangerous leasure is to increase the apprehension of misfortune removed to Shrewesbury By the way his armie swel'd up to three and twenty thousand fighting men which might appeare strange if we weigh the necessary unexperience of his youth being then but eighteene yeares of age and the slender retinue that usually weights on infelicitie But now he was the head of the great body of that faction which his Father at the expence of so long trouble had purchased to his side and them the Queenes nature implacable to mercy made resolute onely to hope for safety by running into the common danger Moreover all the men of power who inhabited betweene Glocester and Shrowsbury had dependancie on him as heire to Mortimer or held in chiefe of his mighty confederate the Earle of Warwicke With this sudden and unexpected accesse of forces he entertain'd a confidence to be able to revenge his fathers injurie and obtaine that greatnesse as yet had beene in vaine attempted Hee therefore lookt about where he might on the best advantage make experience of his fortune Fortune appearing easie to be courted as if enamord on his youth having beene seldome observed but froward to age in any designe that depends chiefely upon courage And occasion was immediately offerd certaine discovery being made of a great power raised by the adverse party with purpose to surprise him in the amazement of the late misfortune The Armie consisted of Welch and Irish according to the severall Nations of the two Commanders Jasper Earle of Pembrooke and Jaems Earle of Ormond Pembrooke halfe brother to Henry the sixt as sonne to Queene Catherin dowager to Henry the fifâ— by Owen Teuther and Ormond a most faithfull servant to the house of Lanchaster by whose gift in England he enjoyed the Earledome of Wiltshire Against these two the Earle of March led backe his Forces and in a large plaine neere Mortimers crosse on Candlemas day in the morning gave them battell Before the fight the Sunne as by many Authors it is averd appeared to the Earle in the resemblance of three Sunnes and suddenly united into one the truth of which I will not dispute But certainely the pretension of such apparitions strangely prevailes with the superstitious multitude and hath beene both the practise and advantage of the most expert Commanders Yet how this omen could bee expounded happie to his de signe I understand not unlesse we seeke the interpretation from the event for that indeed gave him the victory and brought the glory of the two adverse Generalls over to his side so that the three Sunnes which with equall brightnesse appeared in the morning before evening shin'd alone in him For the two Earles and the whole Armie were put to flight with the slaughter of three thousand eight hundred on the place many Welch and some English of name were taken prisoners and afterward at Hereford beheaded among whom an extraordinary fortune hath made Owen Teuther most the discourse of Posterity For the good luck of an amiable person wrought him into the affection and soone after advanced him to the marriage of Catherin daughter of France and Widdow to the most glorious Prince our Nation ever gain'd honour by Yet all that this so envied splendor in a wife got him was to render his life obnoxious to imprisonment and faction and his death more eminention a scaffold This victory raysed Edwards imaginations high so that now he resolved to spend his fortune no longer on small enterprises And least the spirit of his Armie should begin to languish having no enemie neere to finde him in imployment he resolved to search for one about London whether he had
Lady Elizabeth Gray bewitcht him to her love and likewise another precontract with the Lady Edeanor Dutler daughter to the Earle of Shrewsbury and widdow to the Lord of Sudlye I cannot but beleeve all those scandals by some of the tyrants wicked instruments suggested into the mindes of that assembly For had there beene a just exception against this marriage neither George Duke of Clarence nor the Earle of Warwicke in their frequent calumnies against the King being in open rebellion had left it unmention'd But no sooner had King Edward obey'd his â—ancie in taking her to his bed and in that â—asted the forbidden fruite forbidden I meane by politique respects but he saw himselfe naked of friends at home and abroade to oppose against any new arising difficulty But as yet by the braverie of his carriage did he aâ—de an honour to the â—ct Courage and Love either denying himâ— to foresee or to regard the danger Though as soone as the marriage was deâ—â—â—ged hee presently I discern'd another face of men Moâ—â—â—â—iâ—r 〈◊〉 in the Extraordinary for France full of indignation return'd and the Nobility in generall lookâ— discontented or else but forc'd a smile The soâ— higâ— advancement of this one Lady and her children lately beneath so many in fortune begetting an universall envie in the rest But when the Earle of Warwicke understood how mighty an affront by this was given to his imployment he entertain'd none but disdainefull thoughts against his Prince And exprest so bold a discontent that Lewis of France who was quicke to perceive and carefull to â—omentany displeasure which might tend to the disturbance of another Kingdome began to enter into private communication with him For ever after this common injury so they cal'd the errour of love in the King the Earle held a dangerous intelligence in France which after occasion'd so many confusions to our Kingdome Neverthelesse upon his returne he dissembled â—ll discontent and in every circumstance of respect applyed himselfe to applaâ—de the mariage and in particular the excellent peâ—sonage of the Queene The King intâ—rpreted the intentions of the man according to the apparance unwilling perhaps to racke his owne nature so farre till it had confest that his carriage might dissemble danger And in the meane time to raise his wives kindred as neere as possibly to his owne greatnesse hee searchâ— out all meanes for their advancement The Lord Richard Widdevill her Father he created Earle of Rivers and High Constable of England with an annuall Fee of 200 pound out of the Exchequer whom shortly after he made Lord Treasureâ— Her brother Anthony hee created Lord Scales the daughter and heirâ— to which title by the Kings earâ—est sollicitation he not long before had wedded And her sonne Thomaâ— hee rais'd to the honour of Marquesse Dâ—rset for whom he procured in marriage the heire of the Lord Bonvile and Harrington By his owne free gift enobling them with titles and by the industry of his mediation enabling them with possessions to make those titles no scorne to the owners Every unmarried Lord imagin'd the bestowing of these two great heires on the Queenes kindred an injury to his owne hopes And Warwick thought every great office confer'd upon another misplac'd For his many Services begot so great an insolencie that he scarce allowed the King a share in the distribution of his owne Hereupon his thoughts grew dangerous and onely opportunity was wanting to thrust him into action He consider'd the vastnesse of his possessions the greatnesse of his authority among the Commons and the generall dependancies of the men of war upon him and hence concluded it was as easie for him to uncreate as to create a King But hee found the generall humor of the kingdome not yet fully ripe for mischiefe the vulgar enamor'd on the much curtesie of their Prince the Lords neerest to him in blood likeliest to incline to his Faction deare likewise to the King and all of the house of Lancaster who by probability would at first invitement take fire in any combustion of the state exil'd and poore Sedition therefore for the present was but an embrion in his braine which after when time had deliver'd became so vast and bloody a monster Neverthelesse hee was not unmindfull of his designe cherishing unkinde thoughts in any whom he saw distasted at the King and casting forth speeches which might lessen the honour of his publicke and private actions with which discourses as with slow poysons he infected many limbes of the general body Then upon pretention of infirmity and prescription of Pâ—isitions for the change of ayre with licence from the King he retired to his Castle at Warwicke Where his observation was what Lords great in power or treasure resorted to him and with what countenance whether they undervalued the weakenesse of the Kings judgement or hated the advancement of the Queene and her kindred whether they were troubled at any private repulse or open affront or generally at the publicke businesse or whether they repented not the so violent oppression of the family of Lancaster Any discontent making for his purpose which either pointed at the errors of the King pride of the Queene and her kindred or the misgovernment of the state Vpon the affections of the meaner sort begain'd by a profuâ—e hospitality â—â— open kitchen and buttery perswading more with them than any dutie to justice Vpon the good will of the better sort he wonne by bowing his entertainement downe to an endearing familiarity saluting every man curteously by his name and engaging them by triviall benefits And with all sorts by his great service to the Crowne and a carriage Noble both in warre and peace The King though he wanted that vertue of â—owards suspicion began neverthelesse to have the Earle in some jealousie his unusuall retirednesse from the Court and so expencefull purchasing the voyce of the people argued both distaste against his Prince and a hope to maintaine any unlawfull enterpise by Faction But either in pollicie he dissembled his distrust nor having yet any firme ground to build a just accusation or in good nature would ecclips the Earles greatnesse by which himselfe enjoy'd a benefit little lesse thaâ— the Crowne But that the storme threatned from France for incensing King Lewis in the diâ—â—ouâ—â—t marriage of the Lady â—ona might be diverted he made strong confederacies round about him With Henry King of Castle and John King of Arâ—agon that Spaine however far remoâ—e might bâ—e neere in friendship he enter'd into leagâ—â— and upon the conclusion of it granted licence for the transportation of certaine Cotswold sheepe thither a grant that is complain'd of still as a mighty enriching to the Spanish and as great an empoverishing to the English Merchant With Scotland hee made a trucâ— for fifteene yeeres that he invading France or invaded by the French might be secure however not to have that Nation according to their custome upon all advantages enemies at his
two of Holland presently imbarked having in his company the Duke of Glocester the Earle Rivers the Lords Scales and Say and in retinue about one thousand As soone as they were put to Sea the King encounterd dangers great as he had escapt at Land For the Easterlings a people ever famed for Sea affaires and then at enmitie both with France and England had set forth not long before some men of warre Who having descrted these shippes and guessing them to be English made saile after them The King by benefit of the wind got first to the coast of Holland and in regard it was ebbing water cast Anchor so neare the shore the Easterlings being shippes of farre greater burthen could not reach them But the next tide infallibly had exposed them a prize to the enemy had not the Lord Gronteere Lievetenant for the Duke in Holland by meere accident beene at that time at Alquemare a Sea towne close joyning to them He soone as he understood that those three small vessels carried in them the fortune of England commanded the Easterlings to forbeare hostility and licence those passengers a quiet landing And presently himselfe came abord the Kings shippe expressing in the obsequiousnesse of his respects as much ceremony and love as was due to so great a Majestie and the brother in law to his Prince And no sooner had he attended the King ashore and found how unprovided of all things necessary the suddennesse of his flight had made him and his followers but he furnisht him and them according to their quality and want For the Kings escape was so hasty that not onely his apparell and other furniture were lost or left behind but even his treasure So that to defray the charge of his transportation he was necessitated to give the Master of the ship a Gowne furr'd with Martins And remaine beholding to the Lord Gronteere for his expences to the Hâ—ge whether hee was conducted to expect the comming of the Duke Who soone as he had perfect knowledge of the Kings so ruinous successe in England and arrived in Holland as to a Sanctuary began to repent his so neare alhance and cast about how to close with the adverse faction And now indeede his time was to act the most cunning part of subtletie by endeavouring to retaine the good opinion of his brother in Law and yet secure himselfe from hostilitie with the Earle of Warwicke Whereupon before ever hee came to the Hage he dispatcht his Agent to Callice to show the chiefe of the towne that the peace heretofore concluded betweene King Edward and himselfe was no way personall But betweene whatsoever Princes should rule in either dominions and betwixt nation and nation and therefore by no change of King or length of time dissolvable Vpon which consideration hee intreated for loath he was at the same time to wrastle both with France and England that the name of Edward might bee changed into Henry and the former league continue sacred as before The unsetled state of England and the universall desires of the Merchants of the Sâ—aple at Callice soone affected the Dukes purpose For they who had continuall traffique into the Low Countries and vented all their wooll to the subjects of the Duke had beene unabled to pay their usuall tribute to the King if free intercourse had beene denyed Whereupon unwilling to discontent and impoverish so great a body at home and too hastily to run into a dangerous quarrell with a most potent enemy abroad the Earle for the present dissembled his inveterate hatred and recal'd his Souldiers who had spoyld all the Dukes territory bordering upon Callice And that the Duke might make himselfe strong in a faction potent with the present time hee renewed his friendship with the Dukes of Sommerset and Exceter whom hee solicited earnestly to endeare him to King Henry and revive in him the memory of their so neare kindred To acquaint him how zealous himselfe and his father had ever beene for the honour and safetie of the family of Lancaster in which himselfe did so much participate As likewise to promise all the perfect offices of a consederate and neighbour if so bee that his faithfull intentions might receive a true interpretation This did the Dukes voluntarily offer to negotiate Sommerset in respect of propinquity in blood Exceter of those many favours received in the Low Countries during his so miserable exile Both out of an extreame malice to the Earle of Warwicke who had subverted their families and to whose ayde they envied the King should owe his restitution And easily was the Duke brought upon good termes with King Henry his neighberhood and friendship being of so notable consequence and the very apparence of disclayming the adverse partie what secret ayde soever hee afforded being so disadvantageous to any pretence King Edward might have to renew the warre This aspect full of a smiling flattery did the Duke of Burgundy beare to the present fortune of the state While upon King Edward he cast such a supercilious look as the worlds wise men usually doe upon men in adversitie Often sharpely hee reprehended his so great carelesnesse and neglect of wholesome advice which had ruin'd him to this so wretched flight Hee objected the much contempt this misfortune would throw upon his quarrell and how loath friends would bee to adhere to his present necessities since hee knew so ill to manage profperitie Yet remembring that hereafter there might happily be a change in fortune he often chang'd his humour and amid these reprehensions mingled some passionate complements of love Hee protested seriously that hee wisht all happinesse to his affaires to advance which he would neglect no industry yet he desired his pardon if for the present hee dissembled Considering it might at once draw on a warre from his two most dangerous neighbours England and France Against both which nations should he be necessitated to a quarrell hee should be very unable to defend himselfe much lesse to serve another And when a Proclamation was set forth by the Duke prohibiting his subjects any way to ayde the pretences of King Edward or his faction and that it was with much indignation received by the King he protested the intention of it to be onely to betray King Henry to an unsafe security that in the interim he might without suspition levie a greater ayde for his designes King Edward whom a short adversitie had already instructed much appeard to take the false coine of these excuses for currant and by example of the Duke practis'd to dissemble But after this time it was noted that he never bore the Duke so sincere affection as before Princes best maintaining a nere friendship by keeping at large distance jealousie and aemulation take their growth with familiaritie and if eyther be necessitated to demand supply reason of state oftentimes weakens love and roots up good nature To increase King Edwards discontent abroad no newes came from England but what spoke
let him enter a place sacred to our most mercifull God untill hee had granted to all there his mercy by a free pardon But this pardon betrayd them for on the Munday after they were taken out of the Church and all beheaded in the Market place at Teuxbury Among whom of principall note were the Duke of Sommerset and the Lord Prior of Saint Johns and many other Knights of great reputation and fortune By which violation of the Sanctuary he made good the opinion which the world before had conceived of him that Religion never could prevaile so farre upon his conscience as to bee any barre eyther to his pleasures or revenge The Queene halfe dead in her Chariot was taken in the battaile and not long after the Prince vvas brought prisoner to the King by Sir Richard Croft Who taking notice of the Proclamation vvhereby the revvard of a hundred pound by the yeare during life was promist to whosoever should yeeld the Princes body dead or alive up to the King with protestation not to offer any violence to his person if alive brought him unhappily to his death Which when the good Knight afterward found he repented what he had done and openly profest his service abused and his faith deluded For King Edward presently upon the delivery of the Prince caused him to be brought into his presence and intertained him with some demonstration of curtesie Mooved perhaps thereunto by the innocency of his youth compassion of his misfortune or the comelinesse of his person the composition of his body being guilty of no fault but a too feminine beauty At first it was supposed the King might have some charitable intention and resolve happily to have setled him in the Dutchy of Lancaster his Fathers inheritance a patrimony too narrow for a King and something too large for a Subject and thereupon to have enterd discourse with him whereby to make experience whether his spirit would stoope to acknowledge a Superiour He therefore question'd him what madde perswasion had made him enter into so rash an enterprise where the very attempt was rebellion being against his Soveraigne and folly being in opposition to a Prince so farre in power above him He expected an humble answer deprecatory for life or soft and gentle according to the complection either of his fortune or his face But he with a resolution bold as his Grandfather Henry the fifth would have replyed with answerd that to recover his Father miserably opprest and the Crowne violently usurped hee had taken armes Neither could he be reputed to make any unjust claime who desired no more then what had beene possest by Henry the sixt the fift and fourth his Father Grand-father and great Grandfather Kings of England And acknowledged by the approbation not of the Kingdome onely but the world and even by the progenitors of King Edward By the spirit of which language when the King perceived how much his life might threaten danger with a looke full of indignation hee turn'd from him thrusting him disdainfully away with his gantlet Which so mighty rage observ'd and his so distemper'd parting out of the roome The Dukes of Clarence and Glocester the Marquesse Dorset and the Lord Hastings seis'd suddenly upon the Prince and with their poniards most barbarously murthered him â— Of whom wee can make little mention his youth having perform'd nothing worth story though it promist much For under the governement of a Mother the worst education for a Sonne he had beene bred up untill this last sceane of life which hee acted alone and bravely so that posterity hath sence of his misfortune yet and applaudes the justice of the Almighty in punishment of his murtherers For all of them came to violent ends Glocester being executioner of the rest and of him the Earle of Richmond the next surviving kinsman of the butcher'd Prince The severity of which example holds a glasse before the eyes of the wicked and showes them how rotten is all that greatnesse which is not raised upon and maintained by vertue and as the conscience is ever after such a crying sinne inwardly tortured upon the racke of feare so seldome doth the body escape outwardly an exemplary death by violence After this generall defeate of the enemy the death of the Prince and all the great partakers with the house of Lancaster and the surprize of the Queene her selfe the King returned toward London This being the onely compleate victory he ever gain'd from which no man of eminency escaped and no man who might pretend to a competition was now preserved except King Henry and he issuelesse and in prison And to make this triumph resemble something of the Roman the King carryed with him his great captive the most afflicted Queene Margaret A woman most unfortunate to her selfe and most ruinous to this kingdome For after her marriage into England Soone finding her husbands weakenesse safe however in being directed and strengthened by sober councell she never left off inventing new machinations till she wrought him into her sole command with the destruction of his neerest friends So that to make the prospect from her greatnesse larger she broke downe and levelld his strong bullwarkes The Duke of Glocester which might perhaps a little checke her ambitious eye but being taken quite away left her open to every tempest Having therefore by fomenting dissention at home lost except onely Callice all our void territories abroad by the murther of the good Duke her Husbands Vncle shee gave liberty to the house of Yorke to make their just claime to the Crowne and in the end to put her out of that governement shee prepoâ—terously managed In her prosperity shee was rather ambitious then wanton though from the last opinion did not absolutely acquit her Which aspersion certainely was cast upon her by reason of her too intimate familiarity with some of the younger and finer Lords For the more discreete and aged either dislikt her projects or were disliked by her as persons too cautious to consult with a giddy woman Her mighty confidence in the Duke of Suffolke who wrought her marryage with England hath left the largest part of that false suspicion upon his name For who are just to her memory cannot but say beside that she was religious shee was even too busie to thinke of Love matters But perhaps the misfortune of her carriage gave some small occasion of the report Her prosperous fortune presents her to us in the worst colours a factious busie and imperious Queene â—er adverse in the best a most industrious woman to recover what her folly had lost an excellent Wife and a most indulgent Mother And had she never appear'd in action but when misfortune had compell'd her to it she had certainely beene numbred among the best examples of her Sex But now the merits of her later part of life by redeeming the errours of the former serve onely to lâ—vell her with the indifferent The time shee continued a prisoner in
England shee showed us no face but that of desolation the strength of her spirit eyther broken in the murther of her Son or else shee accounted it a needlesse imployment now to raise her selfe above her sorrowes After some time her Father with the sale of much of that poore estate remained yet in his possession ransomed her whereby she was redeemed to another ayre though not to a freer fortune In addition to her other miseryes she was punisht with a long life which shee spun out sadly and ingloriously living humbly upon the narrow exhibition her Father did steale from himselfe to afford her Her life was much the talke of the present and succeeding times because it concurr'd to the destruction of the house of Lancaster a Family beyond any then in the Christian world both in extent of dominion greatnesse of alliance and glory of action Her death was so obscure for who counts the steps of the unfortunate that it is not left certainely in story when she dyed But King Edward by her misfortunes reckoned his owne felicities and now justly conceived himselfe secure in that Throne he so passionately had endeavoured to sit at ease in But because the Sceane of his fortune had had more changes then any King in England yet except his Competitor he continued still with a most watchfull eye to looke about him And not knowing to how dangerous a growth his enemies might arrive which for the present appeared weake he thought fit to take order with Jasper Earle of Pembrooke who remained in Wales with a power unable to offend the King but able enough considering the nature of the place to defend himselfe Wherefore that without a publicke trouble he might destroy so private a person hee sent Roger Vaughan strong both in kindred and followers with commission by some stratagem to entrap him But the Earle had a discovery of his plot and to deceive the deceiver seemed to give opportunity for execution of the designe by which meanes hee got Vaughan into his possession and presently caused him to be beheaded But knowing this act concurring with the whole progresse of his life in opposition to the King Would bring him to ruine either by open power or secret practise he resolv'd to saile over into Brittaine and under the protection of that state to secure himselfe from the present storme With him he carryed his Nephew Henry Earle of Richmond heire of the Teuthers Family by the Paternall by the materiall side of the house of Sommerset for the civill warre had now destroy'd all those great Dukes who had with losse of their lives shewed their devotion to King Henry and left the inheritance of their honour with a farre more favourable aspect to this young Earle By the Duke of Britanny they were received not onely with promise of safety but with reliefe of pension Him perhaps the consideration of the instability of humane affaires moved to this noble pitty But Peter Landois the sole directour of the Duke and a wicked man perswaded his Master to give them entertainement out of an avaritious hope one day to make a good merchandize for himselfe by sale of them into England Yet could not the King bring his happinesse to that quiet he desired Some few small drops fell upon him after the great tempest For a base Son of William Nevill Earle of Kent commonly known by the name of the Bastard Fauconbrige having bin imployed Vice Admirall by the Earle of Warwicke during the late combustions of the kingdome to hinder all succors which might come frō the Low Countryes to King Edwards aide soone as he understood the Earles death set up for himselfe and fell to trade in open Pyracy His conditions were ignoble as his birth and onely can be said a fit instrument to move the baser multitude to sedition betweene Dover and Callice he robd most and had now got under his command a Navie great enough to worke mischiefe Especially having the chiefe of Callice who had sided lately with the Earle of his confederacy and by that meanes safetie upon all occasions in their harbor Gathering therefore into his retinue many of those who had escaped from the two former overthrowes and presuming upon the affection of the Kentish and Essex men he saild up the River of Thames The intention of his armes divulging to be for the common libertie and the redemption of the King and Queene imprisond by an usurper By which pretence ever powerfull to incline the vulgar to sedition he invited to the quarrell so great a multitude that the number was reckoned seventeene thousand fighting men Most of them the dregs and lees of former rebellions Such who having beene heretofore on King Henries side and wanting courage to make good the undertaking had by flight escapd or else men whom guilt of some enormous disorder had prepared for any attempt because neither could hope to remaine long secure from punishment when once the severe eye of a peaceable government should looke narrowly into their offences With this he marcht to Kingstone hoping there to have crost the River but being debard hee led his Army into S ◠Georges fields and from thence with his Ordinance made some small battery on the Citie And to strike the more terrour in the meane time he causd three thousand of his men to be transported by boate at Saint Katherines to make an assault on the other side at Algate and Bishopsgate Who being set a shore with a courage as desperate as their quarrell offerd to force an entrance but by the Citizens were bravely repulst The Lord Major and Aldermen directed by the great experience of the Earles of Essex and Rivers and the Marquesse Dorset neglecting no part of the best Commanders And so valiantly they pursued the rebels who soone began to shrinke that Fauconbridge with much difficultie recovered his shippes For hee overconfident of successe had commanded them to fall as low as the Downes little fearing he should so soone be forc'd to seeke safetie at Sea And having vainly deluded himselfe and his Souldiers with expectation of great Forces from Wales under the conduct of Jasper Earle of Pembrooke With much danger of being destroyed at Black-heath where for a while hee entrencht he got at length to Sandwich and fortefied the place Few of the Rebels who had any weake hope of pardon following their Generall upon a forc'd retreat The Commons entring thus upon every slight invitation into rebellion when the preservation of King Henry was but mention'd made the King begin to consider how dangerous his life was to the State and that his death would disarme even the hope of his faction for ever reslecting more upon the warres It was therefore resolv'd in King Edwards Cabinet Councell that to take away all title from future insurrections King Henry should be sacrificed For howsoever some either to cleere the memory of the King or by after cruelties guessing at precedent will have this murder to
of so weake and inconstant a man as his brother Duke Charles who so often had beene entrapt From both these Princes he received such answer as showed they resolved to prosecute their designe but not to have him suspect it Giving faire protestations of their desire to be over-ruled by the Kings direction But neither of them understood the businesse in that dangerous nature as it was conceived in England For though King Lewys had no Sonne at that time yet was there every day expectation he might have the Queen likely to conceive and Lewys in much health and strength of body And indeed soone after a young Dolphin was borne who succeeded in the kingdome Moreover they considerd the malice betweene the brothers growne to that height that all feare of reconciliation was needlesse And that there was no such certaine way to maintaine a generall dissention in France as by enabling Duke Charles with a power to make good the former contestation Nothing likely to incline him to seeke friendship with his brother but being disabled to continue an enemy The King suspecting the reality of their intentions and resolved upon any termes to prevent the marriage had in his determination to have forgot all former discontents justly conceiv'd against King Lewys in abetting the contrary faction of Lancaster and to have enterd into a particular league with him against the Duke of Burgundy But before he would make the overture he tryed by his Embassadors to know the certaine resolution of the Duke himselfe who had in the marriage of his daughter alwayes held his thoughts apart from the world And in truth the end of his intentions was to keep all neighboring Princes in expectatiō but to conclude with none For at the same time when Duke Charles had so many underhand promises with the selfe same hope did hee entertaine Maximilian Sonne to the Emperour Fredericke the third Nicolas Duke of Calabria and Philibert Duke of Savoy His ambition being to create many dependancies upon himselfe and never to marry her to no man unlesse hee should bee forc'd to it by some evill fate in warre and then he doubted not but by her to worke himselfe safe and honorable conditions Much importuned by the English Embassador to give his resolution and not knowing to what danger the Kings suspition might grow or to what new leagues it might incline him he answered him faithfully that he intended no such neare alliance with Duke Charles And that all those apparences of treatie were onely to retaine him in discord with his brother who otherwise might chance to be reconcild and hazard to destroy that faction which the necessitie of his affaires did inforce him to advance Hee desired therefore the King not to listen to every false suggestion but to believe hee would doe nothing in so materiall a point without much advice and care had for satisfaction of so great a confederat and so neare an allye This so absolute resolution of the Duke tooke away the former jealousie which soone after would howsoever of it selfe have vanisht For Duke Charles not without a strong suspition of practise in King Lewys dyed of poyson and so fixt a period to those many civill wars which had distracted the state of France and to all those busie ambitions which had so much disquieted his owne content At home the King was continually stunge by a swarme of Creditors who during his late troubles had supplyed him with treasure and for whom gratitude did obliege him to provide repaiment He found his Exchequer emptie and a necessitie to desire the Commonaltie to contribute with their purses that many of his best friends might not be ruinated He therefore summond a Parliament to be held at Westminster wherein though the reformation of abuses and enacting Lawes wholsome for the present time was pretended a liberall subsidy was the ayme But in the beginning all those acts which had been heretofore made during the first part of King Edwards government and abrogated by King Henry the last Parliament when for a time he was restored were revived and enacted to continue in full force for ever And whatever other statutes were made by King Henry repealed By vertue of which acts all the Nobilitie who had adherd to the house of Yorke and had beene for that attainted were restored in blood and to their patrimonies and all of the contrary faction found guilty of high treason and their estates confiscated to the King Then for reliefe of the Kings great necessities for all those so mightie fortunes serv'd onely to reward the multitude of his adherents a full subsidy was granted In recompence of which he gave them a generall pardon And indeede by that liberally repaid them For by the late civill warres the laps into treason was so universall that scarce any estate could be safe if licence were given to informers the Cormarants of a Commonweale who swallow much seldome or never grow fat and least of all advance that they most pretend the Kings benefit Some few dayes before the Parliament began Lewys of Bruges a Netherlander Lord of Gruthuse and Prince of Steinhuse came over into England who was receav'd by the King with all the demonstrations of amitie And on the thirteenth of October in the Parliament Chamber created Earle of Winchester receiving with the title the ancient armes of Roger Quincy heretofore Earle of the place with addition of the coate of England in a canton The reason of this so extraordinary favour conferd upon a stranger was the much application of respect hee made to King Edward when by the prevayling fortunes of the Earle of Warwicke he was forc'd to fly for refuge under the protection of the Duke of Burgundy For hee being a noble man of that Country dedicated himselfe totally to comfort the King distracted with his present affliction Soone after him the Parliament being newly ended came Embassadours from the Low-Countries who after the first open audience wherein for the most part passed onely the complement of Princes admitted to the King and some few Lords most intimate to the Kings resolutions spoke to this purpose May it please your M tie VVEe are sent by our great Master the Duke of Burgundie upon an Embassy that may prove strange to the first apprehension and even in it selfe contradictory To congratulate your Majestie the glory of that peace you enjoy and to invite you from it to a new warre But glory is like time everlastingly in motion and when it stops it ends Your Majestie hath by the happy conduct of your power and fortune restored the Kingdome to itselfe That was an act of necessitie For you could not bee your selfe if your great enemies had not beene reduced to nothing Now as great a justice doth invite you and the recovery of a larger Kingdome Which wee know your high spirit cannot refuse to undertake least the world have just reason to suspect you tooke Armes to live not to raigne For if your
owne claime to the Crowne Your Majesties onely presence being of power to raise a fuller armie in the very heart of France then yet ever King of England led to conquer France This overture tooke generally with the great Lords who in their infancyes by their Nurses having beene told no stories but of our triumphs in France and those tales imprint deepely in the memory and now for many yeares ever acquainted with the warres at home embraced danger as the onely meanes to honour Moreover an appetite of glory mingled with a noble emulation of the prowes of their Fathers made every man of name thrust forward to this action Neither were the more covetous backeward considering they were to warre with a richer and a more effeminate nation and not unlikely to returne loaden with spoyle if not to remaine there in a fertiller and a pleasanter Country The Souldier who was in a manner all the gentry of the Land for the civill warres had engaged them all to the study of armes rellisht this businesse more then the great Lords For they having beene bred up in the free licence of warre abhord to be circumscribed within the narrow bounds of the Lawes which never have absolute power but in peace So that the whole body of the Kingdome passionately affected the quarrell and by their universall acclamations in praise of it perswaded the King soone to declare his assent Whereupon sending for the Embassadors he showed his resolution to the warre which hee would undertake in person and that very Spring for it was now presently after Christmas transport his Forces into France He desired therefore to understand in what readinesse the Duke of Burgundy had his army and where he would appoint the place for the English to joyne and which way should first be taken To which the Embassadors made answer that the Duke had his Forces so well prepared that if the King would nominate a certaine time when he would be at Callice the Duke would be sure three moneths before to waste the whole Country belonging to the French and to have his men so expert that they should be able to instruct the English unacquainted with the place And as for transportation of his Souldiers they desired his Majesty not to perplex himselfe in regard his Highnesse would provide boats for that purpose Then that the King might perceive how faithfully the Duke dealt with him they showed the Articles agreed upon betweene the Dukes of Burgundy Brittaine and the Count S. Paul to joyne in a warre offensive against King Lewys As likewise a Catalogue of the names of all the great Lords of France who held secret intelligence with them and who would revolt from the French King soone as the Dukes army tooke the field With this so satisfactory answer the Embassadors returned to the Duke who in this attained the ambition of many yeares working For all the feare which troubled his busie minde was least King Edward won by the practises of King Lewys might be induced to side with France or else to remaine a neuter And indeed the last he suspected most knowing the nature of our King so prone to voluptuousnesse to which the noyse and trouble of the warres never gives free licence He therefore by continuall Embassies kept him constant to his resolution and with larger promises of supply and clearer apparences of successe prickt forward his ambition to the enterprise But all these arts were needlesse for the King was forward to the quarrell Either out of a brave emulation of Henry the fift his Predecessor of the other line or out of a confidence as easily to throw King Lewys out of the throne of France as he had King Henry out of the Soveraignety of England or perhaps not to appeare backeward in an attempt of glory when the expectation of the kingdome called upon him to arme For unlesse some malice rancord in the genius of our Nation against the French the Saxon governement having received a finall overthrow by them in the conquest of Duke William though to that great businesse conspired all the adjacent Countries it would be our wonder why the English were never sparing of their lives or treasure when any warre might be advanced against the French And of this so extraordinary forwardnesse in his people the King tooke a great advantage To compact the body of this enterprise money the nerves and sinues of warre were wanting The ordinary course for supply was by Parlament and that at this time was held difficult if not impossible In regard the King but a little before had dissolved the assembly having received for discharge of his debts a large contribution and to urge them to a second aide would probably end in distaste if not in denyall Neither could it appeare lesse then extreame exaction to force the Farmers who make up the greatest number in any payment to yeeld to asubsidie considering the precedent troubles of the Kingdome had utterly impoverisht them by hindering tillage and all good husbandry And for the Nobility who pay a large share in all generall collections they for the most prepared themselves for the expedition And it could not but rebate the edge of their courages to be at a vast charge not onely in the particular setting forth of their owne persons and their retinue but in the generall preparations There was therefore a new way found out by former ages never knowne without oppressing the Commons to supply the King the name it bore was a benevolence though many disproved the signification of the word by their unwillingnesse to the gift and it was cunningly and discreetely required onely of the better sort of people who were knowne to have a plentifull revenue And especially of such whom ease and wealth were likely to detaine at home Knowing that the heaviest burthen might be laid on them without a publicke murmur as men hated by the Souldier and upon whose prosperity ever attends a common envy In advancing this contribution no pollicy was omitted either by private menaces or publicke entreaties Some came in led by feare not knowing to what indignation a denyall might provoke the state Other cunningly perswaded to a vaine hope of enjoying the Kings particular favour by their forwardnesse Few granted it for love to the enterprise Most onely because their neighbours did it and they wanted courage to disobey example In History a Widdow is much spoke of who having freely and somewhat above the proportion of her estate contributed twenty pound received from the King a kisse Which his so extraordinary favour extraordinary to a Widdow declin'd in yeares so overjoy'd her that she doubled the summe and presented it to the Collectors By which slight passage a judgement is easie to be made of the Kings nature either of it selfe full of humanity or without difficulty bending to the lowestcurtesie when it any way concern'd the advancement of his profit By this art monies were raised and now nothing was wanting to
the expedition The universall language of the Kingdome being of the warres and all exercises military No person of blood or quality but prepared for the journey except onely those whom infancy or extreame age exempted or the necessary administration of the Common weale And all they who went emulated each other in the glory of their armour the richnesse of their pavilions the bravery of their horses furniture and servants apparell Every man being held so farre to recede from honor as in his preparations he exprest an unwillingnesse to the businesse The army consisted of fifteene hundred men at armes fifteene thousand Archers eight thousand common Souldiers beside three thousand Pioners appointed to guard the ordinance and the carriage Three thousand good souldiers were sent into Brittaine to joyne with his forces and assault France on the other side All things disposed in so full a readinesse the King sent over to the Duke of Burgundy to acquaint him with the state of the army and to know in what forwardnesse businesses were on that side Who returned answers full of confident promises and exhortation to the King to make all possible haste over the Summer comming on a pace which if past further without action would indanger the losse of the whole expedition for that yeare He assertain'd him moreover of certaine Townes under the governement of the Count S. Paul which should be surrendred into the Kings hands for retreat to the English upon any occasion of the badnesse of weather or fortune And indeed how weake soever the Duke knew the condition of his army yet fearefull he was to expresse it least the King should take advantage to give over the undertaking The Kings nature being knowne diseased so much with the love of peace that the Duke was justly suspicious how sound soever it appeared for the present it might upon the least distemper fall into a relapse Vpon these assurances from the Duke the King gave order that all his Forces should repaire to London Whence after some few moneths spent in preparations he marcht toward Dover But before he tooke shipping that the progresse of the Warre might be the more successefull the beginning was made according to the old heroicke straine of bravery For the King sent a Herauld over with a letter of defiance to Lewys of France in which he was required to surrender up to the King of England the Realme of France as due to him by the lawes of inheritance and violently wrested away from Henry the sixth by Charles the seventh and as unjustly possest by Lewys By which voluntary resignation of the Crowne was showed how without effusion of blood the King of England should be inabled to restore the Clergy and Nobility to their ancient greatnesse and priviledges and the Commons to their liberty Of which they had all beene so cruelly deprived by the injurious usurpation and tyrannicall government of Charles and Lewys It shovved likevvise hovv farre the Kingdome of France in generall vvould by this receive benefit considering it would be eased of all those many and unsupportable exactions which by those covetous Princes had beene laid upon it It concluded with a threatning of all the mischiefes accompany warre and an absolute despaire of all future mercy or care to bee had of Lewys his provision if upon so faire an admonissiment and summons given he refused to yeeld the Kingdome This Letter saith Comines an Authour of that time happy in vvriting many cunning particulars of the Princes hee serv'd but rude in the art of History and ever blemishing the glory of our Nation was pen'd so elegantly both for language and matter that hee beleeved it vvas beyond the abilities of an English wit A bold and ridiculous censure For how could he who was borne no Native of France and never had beene instructed in any learning judge of language Or how of the witty contrivance of the Letter since in his owne History which is received by the world with so universall an applause there is an apparent defect in order and method And without vanity our Nation may assume to it selfe the praise considering the narrow limits of the Island to have produced as many Schollers admirable in all degrees of knowledge as any Country on this side the Alpes Neither was that age though according to the necessity of the time more expert in armes then arts without excellent wits famed for literature But this digression the reader must pardon a sence of our Nations honour thrust my pen out of the way if this be from the purpose Whatsoever the Letter was in the composure it was such in the substance that it discomposed King Lewys and troubled all his imaginations Hee read it softly and fearefully which was beneath that part of understanding he was most Master of even pollicy it selfe For it could not but beget strange interpretations in the Court when the message of an enemy delivered publickely by letter should be kept concealed The demand must probably be easily conjectured and this silent way of answering could not but procure suspicion that his resolution might discend to yeeld more then became a Prince But in the manage of this as in all other businesses King Lewys delighted to give order alone and show his authority independant of any Councell without perplexing himselfe at all to satisfie opinion Having read the Letter he withdrew himselfe into a Wardrobe and commanded the Herauld to be brought to his presence To whom hee in answer to the Letter said That he knew the King his Master had not resolved upon this enterprise out of his owne disposition but overcome by the sollicitation of his people and the perswasion of the Duke of Burgundy and the Count S. Paul His people infatuated with a vaine presumption of victory because heretofore the successe of their wars in France had beene fortunate never considering the disparity of the state of things or the uncertainety of events especially where fury and fortune two blind powers beare the wholesway The Duke of Burgundy loving warre for it selfe and having rashly engaged himselfe into many quarrels out of desire to draw the King of England into his dangers or at least at anothers cost to beate the bargaine of peace to a lower rate The reason why he had so laboured King Edward to take armes and revive an absolute title to the kingdome of France being onely for his owne preservation which was threatned by all his injured neighbours or else as it is reported of people diseased of the Plague in envy to the health of other Nations desirous to infect even his neerest allies with the contagion of his quarrell As for the Count S. Paul who had ever subsisted by dissimulation and setting division betweene Princes whereby his assistance either for the prosecution of the warre or conclusion of peace might be required as necessary All his hopes in this quarrell were onely to fish in troubled waters and by an universall combustion to raise
preserve the English in amitie was to keepe them at home Whereupon he frequently entertaind the King with Embassies full of curtesie such as might appeare rather the arguments of a sincere friendship then the forc'd expressions of ceremonie And ever communicated with him his private counsailes requiring his faithfull advice when indeed hee reserv'd his resolutions of any high nature wholly to himselfe all in the conduction of affaires though hee would listen to the opinion of King Edward he still obeyed his owne But this with his other Arts continued his reputation good with the English and purchast that quiet he suspected might by our armes be interrupted And what renderd his securitie the more troubles began betweene us and Scotland which wee may well beleeve hee underhand increast The occasion of them was the evill inclination and ungovernd spirit of James the third who disdaining to listen to the temperate counsailes of sober men obeyed onely his owne judgement which passion threw headlong into rash attempts The freedome of advice by the Lords of that countrey used toward their Princes renderd the speaker hatefull and frequently was rewarded with imprisonment or exile if not with death Among the multitude of them disfavour'd by him Alexander Duke of Albanie the King of Scotlands brother banisht into France resented the injury and endeavor'd revenge So that as hee past through England towards his exile being admitted to the King by all arguments he incenc'd him to a warre Which could not but prove most successefull the hatred of the Commons consider'd against so violent an oppressor And he protested that he knew the King falne into so low esteeme even with those he cherisht and into such hatred with all mankind that if assaulted by the English he would be constrain'd by submission of his Crowne to intreate for safetie This importunitie of the Duke of Albanie soone prevail'd with the King who by many injuries had beene exasperated and had onely waited opportunitie to warre upon Scotland For the boders on the English side had beene often infested and upon complaint no redresse nor reparation of damage Moreover the King having heretofore condiscended upon a motion from King James that his second daughter the Lady Cicilie should marry James Prince of Scotland and upon the agreement paid in a large part of the portion had receiv'd no satisfaction to his expectation The Articles of marriage neither being performed nor yet the money lent upon the bonds of the Provost and Merchants of Edenborough according to covenants repayd Hee was therefore the sooner wonne to undertake the businesse which he committed to the order of the Duke of Glocester who now had no competitor in greatnesse both of judgement and power No Prince of the house of Yorke remaining but such whom the want of yeares or love of ease indisposed to action For the King willing to decline labour waved the expedition and Glocester ambitious to gaine opinion especially with the Souldier most forwardly undertooke it The King desired to live to the best advantage of his pleasure Glocester of his honour And indeed Glocester began now like a cunning Phisition to examine the state of the Kings body which though he found strong and healthfull and by the ordinary reckoning of men likely to continue many yeares yet withall he observed evill symptomes of death in him being overgrowne with fat and both in his diet and lust subject to disorder Disorder a greater enemie to mankind and which hath destroyd more then age the sword or pestilence This Glocester perceiv'd and hence drew poyson which sweld his ambition higher He therefore with much alacritie prepared for the warre and with the title of Lievetenant Generall soone after set forward toward Scotland The Armie consisted of two and twentie thousand five hundred all commanded by men of great authority or experience Of the nobilitie in his retinue went Henry Earle of Northumberland Thomas Lord Stanley Lord Steward of the Kings house the Lords Levell Graistock Fitzhugh Nevill and Scroope of Bolton Of Knights Sir Edward Woodvile brother to the Queene Sir William Par Sir John Elrington Treasurer of the Kings house Sir James Harrington Sir John Middleton Sir John Dichfield and others The particular names of whom I mention onely to show how great a shadow Glocester began to cast toward the Sunset both of the Kings glory and life The Vantguard was led by the Earle of Northumberland the Rereward by the Lord Stanley the Maine battell by the Duke himselfe In whose company was the Duke of Albany Glocester willing perhaps to have him still in sight least if apart with sale of the Army he might purchase his owne peace Their first attempt was upon Barwicke surrendred heretofore by Queene Margaret to gaine a sanctuary for King Henry when expelled England into which partly by terrour of their Forces partly by the suddennesse of their approach they enterd without opposition The towne was soone at their discretion but the Castle the strongest Fort then in the North by the Earle Bothwell was made good against all battery Glocester foreseeing by the strength both of the place and the Commanders resolution that this siege would spend much time committed the charge to the Lord Stanley Sir John Elrington and Sir William Par with foure thousand Souldiers while he with the body of the Army marcht higher into Scotland perswaded as indeed it happend that they might force the King of Scotland either to an inglorious flight or else for safety to locke himselfe up in some strong hold By which they might so imprison him that his release should not bee without a full discharge for all injuries both against England and the Duke of Albany And according to expectation it happend the King upon the first rumour of an enemy inclosing himselfe in the Castle of Edenborough For in his governement having not studyed the safety of his people which is the supreame Law given to Kings he found himselfe now forsaken by them So farre that in opposition to the English against whom the Scots ever shewed a faire resolution no Army now tooke the field the Countrey lying open to the mercy of the invader Glocester therefore burning many townes by the way to strike a terror in the inhabitants marcht directly to Edenborough into which hee entred receiving such presents as the Citizens offerd to him for at the intreatie of the Duke of Albanie he spared the towne from spoile His entry was onely a spectacle of glory the people applauding the mercy of an enemy who presented them with a triumph not a battaile and welcom'd him as a Prince who tooke armes not for pecy or malice but for the safetie of a neighbouring kingdome disorderd and laid waste more by the licence of a tyrant in peace then it could have beene by the hand of war The Lords of Scotland considering the danger of their state and desirous to prevent ruin sent from Hadington to the Duke of Glocester to intreate
somewhat cleare Either conscience reforming him or by continuall sacietie growne to a loathing of it for the abstinence could not be imputed to age hee at his death not exceeding two and fortie But what endeard him so much to the affection of the people and especially to the Citizens of London was his being rich by his tribute from France and therefore not likely to lye heavy on them as likewise the so famed bountie of his hospitalitie Two thousand persons being daily served in his Court at Eltham where most solemnly hee celebrated the feast of the Nativitie And to recompence the great love which in both fortunes the Londoners had showed him to his last houre he used towards them a particular kindnesse Even so much that he invited the Lord Major and Aldermen and some of the principall Citizens to the Forrest of Waltham to give them a friendly not a pompous entertainement Where in a pleasant Lodge they were feasted the King himselfe seeing their dinner served in and by thus stooping downe to a loving familiarity sunke deepe into their hearts ordinary slight curtesies ordered thus to the best advantage taking more often even with sound judgements then churlish benefits And that the sex he alwayes affected might not bee unremembred he caused great plentie of Venison to bee sent to the Lady Majoresse and the Aldermens wives Thus was the outward face of the Court full of the beautie of delight and Majestie while the inward was all rotten with discord and envie For the Queene by how much shee considerd her selfe more unworthy the fortune shee enjoyed by so much she endeavord in the exterior height of carriage to raise her selfe foolishly imagining pride could set off the humilitie of her birth Shee was likewise according to the nature of women factious as if her greatnesse could not appeare cleare enough without opposition And they she opposed were the chiefest both in blood and power the weaker shee disdayning to wrastle with and they fearefull to contest with her But what subjected her to an universall malice was the rapine the necessary provision of her kindred engaged her to For they being many and great in title could not bee supplyed according to their ambition but by so common an injury as made her name odious through the kingdome Moreover the Lords of her blood by reason of their nearenesse to the Kings children being insolent and in regard of their youth indiscreet frequently ran into those errours which betraid them to the publicke scorne or hatred Against the Queene for through her kindred they aym'd at her opposed the Duke of Glocester the Duke of Buckingham the Lord Hastings and others of the most ancient nobilitie And to render odious her and hers Glocester laid the death of the Duke of Clarence which fratricide himselfe most barbarously contrived altogether upon their envie pretending a more then ordinary causion for his owne safetie least his person might by the same practise be brought in danger By which calumnie he both cleared his owne reputation and clouded the fame of a faction hee endeavord so much to ruine But this side had much the start in opinion and pollicie over the other who were young and unexperienc'd and president of whose Councell was a woman To compose these quarrells begot the King much trouble neither could he without extreame anxietie heare the continual complaints of persons so considerable both in power in the kingdome and kindred to his children not knowing to how dangerous a height this discord in time might grow But to increase his discontent everyday his jealousie increast concerning King Lewys his faith who now began to unmaske his intention and show how much hee had deluded the English For having ever since Maximilians marriage with Mary Dutchesse of Burgundie beene upon unkinde termes with him sometimes at open warre other times in an unfaithfull truce hee was now growing to an absolute peace And the conditions were whisper'd contrary to the treatie Piquignie which made the King suspicious they two might enter into some league prejudicall to the honour of the English For Maximilian having kept Lewys all the life time of his Lady from any further incroach upon her territory and by his fortune won into opinion with the French grew to bee must desired in the nearest friendship by them And he having buried his Dutchesse who owed her death to her modestie in respect that having broke her Thigh by a fall from a Horse she denied to expose it to the sight of Chirurgeons was willing to stand upon good termes with France Knowing how slender and how unfaithfull an obedience those Countries would yeeld to a Prince who was to rule by curtesie since to their naturall Lords they had ever shewed themselves insolent and rebellious These considerations prepared both sides to peace the conclusion of it to beget a more perfect amitie was that the Lady Margaret a child of two yeares old daughter â—o Maximilian and the Dutchesse of Burgundie should be affianced to the Dolphin then upon the age of twelve So that King Lewys in the marriage of his sonne was ever most disproportionable the daughter of England as much too old as this Lady too young but indeed his end was the same with Charles Duke of Burgundy and many other worldly fathers to match his sonne for the best advantage of his profit and convenience To confirme the uncertaine rumours of this perjurie in King Lewys the Lord Howard return'd out of France and made relation how hee saw the Lady Margaret brought with all pompe and ceremony to Ambois and there married to Charles the Dolphin And to heape yet more injuries not long after the tribute hitherto so carefully payd was denied The French now disclosing the innated malice they bore the English and with how little scruple they could dispence with the most solemne oath when no apparent danger threatned the crime For though the Dolphin when hee had attaind to the age of consent might have broke off this marriage and it could have beene onely term'd an act of discourtesie yet King Lewys who had sworne to this Article with so much ceremony cannot bee excused from a most foule impietie But what reason of state prevaild with him who heretofore awed by his feares had condescended in a manner to compound for his kingdome thus now to slight the English is not delivered in history And it may appeare difficult considering King Edward was now if possibly more absolute in his command at home his people better disciplin'd and no apparence of an enemy from abroad Adde to that his Coffers full increast every yeare by the tribute from France and his reputation high by the victory lately purchast against the Scots A nation though inferior to the French in the riches and extent of territory yet in martiall courage equall and in warring with whom we have found more sweat and danger It is therefore hard to know the cause of King Lewys his
proceedings in this injurious way if we looke on our selves onely as at home But if wee consider the state of businesses abroad wee may easily discerne his pollicie For now had the French Arts or the change of time quite dissolved all our confederacies and left us to maintaine with our owne armes our owne quarrell Saint Paul was annihilated in whose death expired all the discontents of the factious Nobilitie in France The Duke of Brittaine by an extreame melancholly which scarce was reputed lesse then madnesse was become unfit for government much lesse for any great attempt And being overcharged by the practises and armes of the French in a manner made resignation of his Dutchy to the disposition of some officers easie to be corrupted And Burgundie which in the victories of Henry the fift had so much advanced the English enterprises was by the last league with Maximilian wholly at the devotion of the French So that all they who heretofore had brought us over were now either reduc'd to bee unprofitable for our ayde or else become enemies should wee renew our ancient quarrell Moreover the long ease the King of England had lived in and the pleasures with which hee appeard altogether fascinated render'd him to the world nothing formidable And King Lewys having with so little difficultie hitherto deluded him and retain'd him in a kinde of servile amitie while hee threw injuries thicke upon him was now heightend to a presumption that the English would either connive at this affront or that by some new cunning they might bee appeasd were the indignitie never so much resented And if the worst should happen the French nothing feared the enmitie Considering that King Edward alone would bee unable to prevaile against them seconded by the forces of Maximilian whom his daughter now interessed in the warre These considerations of securitie to doe wrong according to the nature of wicked Princes made King Lewys so boldly attempt it And what was strange in a man so cunning hee left himselfe no excuse for the fact eyther in the way of honour or conscience And scarce in humane pollicie Vnlesse his expectation reacht beyond common reason in thought that Prince Phillip Sonne to Maximilian and the Dutchesse for shee was mother onely to a sonne and a daughter might chance to die and thus by the Lady Margaret all those large countries devolve into the power of France But how slight soever King Lewys his opinion was of the English this breach of faith was no sooner related to King Edward but hee resolved severely to take revenge And calling together all the Counsell and Nobilitie who for the suddennesse could be convoked hee to this purpose made a remonstrance of his wrongs and intentions how to right himselfe My Lords THe injuries I have receiv'd are divulged every where and the eye of the world is fixt upon mee to observe with what countenance I suffer And I must confesse they are of so strange a nature that I remaine rather amazed then enraged Had I dealt with any Prince not civilized by Lawes or inured to commerce I had yet the Religion of so many oathes and the reason of every pollitique circumstance so cleare that I could no way have suspected this foule and foolish breach of faith But in a Christian King and who pretends to be most Christian I have met with so horrid a perjurie and so disgracefull to our Nation that as all mankind must abhorre him as barbarous so in my owne particular I must neglect the principall office of a Prince if I omit to Chastise him Most of you my Lords are witnesses to the solemnitie of his vowes when humbly hee declined ruine to his Kingdome and I to avoide so great a massacre as the warre would have endangerd condescended to end all controversies by accord My clemency is now become my scorne and I reape indignities where I sowed favours For this ungratefull man Prince I must not tearme him who hath by perjury forfeited that sacred title in contempt of all Law both humane and divine denies not onely the marriage of the Dolphin to our daughter which would have proved so great an honour to his blood and securitie to his Kingdome but even the annuall tribute of fiftie thousand Crownes A slender rent for so large a countrey as by our permission hee hath hitherto enjoyed This contumelie I am resolved to punish and I cannot doubt successe Almightie God strengthen still his arme who undertakes a warre for justice In our expeditions heretofore against the French what prosperitie waited upon the English Armes is to the world divulged and yet ambition then appeard the chiefe Counsellor to warre Now beside all that right which led over Edward the third our glorious Ancestor and Henry the fift our Predecessor we seeme to have a deputieship from Heaven to execute the office of the supreame Iudge in chastising the impious When we were last in France an innate feare in this false man forc'd him downe to a sordid purchase of security How low will a wicked conscience which even makes the valiant cowardly to tremble bend him now Now when an implacable resolution for revenge sets a farre sharper edge upon our Swords Now when he hath no hypocrisie left undiscovered nor subterfuge for his former perjurie nor Art to gaine beleefe to new dissimulation Now vvhen our eares shall be deafe to all submission and when our conscience is so well resolved for the necessitie of this war that mercy will be thought a vicious lenitie and the most savage crueltie but an act of justice I neede not repeate how much age hath infirmed him And indeed I thinke it was his dotage committed this so foolish crime nor yet how hated he is renderd abroad by his unfaithfull dealing at home by his severe government The Commonalty sunke downe by his heavie impositions the Nobilitie by his proud neglect exasprated to desire any innovation But we want not advantage in the justice of our cause and valour of our people wee have enough It is confest our confederacies are quite dissolved And I rejoyce in that alone wee shall undertake this great businesse For experience in our last attempt showed that Princes of severall nations however they pretend the same have still severall aimes And oftentimes a confederate is a greater enemy to the prosperitie of a warre then the enemy himselfe Envie begetting more difficultie in a Campe than any opposition from the adverse Armie Our Brother of Bungurdy and Vncle of Saint Paul are both dead How little their amitie advanced us nay how a just jealousie of their secret practises hinder'd our designe then on France you all may well remember And how in our returne toward England wee had more feare to have beene assaulted by their trayterous weapons then by any armes from the enemy But wee will spare their memory they labor'd their owne safetie not our glory This I am secure that as by death they are render'd unprofitable
of Armes and never so forward to any quarrell as against the French from whom they ever reaped victory and treasure And concerning money the strength of an Army the Exchequer was full enough without any burdensome imposition to beginne the warre It was therefore questionlesse a surfet brought this great Prince so suddainly to his end For who observes well the scope of his pleasure findes it to have beene placed much in wantonnesse and riot the two mightie destroyers of nature And commonly those excesses with which wee solace life we ruine it Hee dyed upon the ninth of April 1483. at his Palace of Westminster and was interred at Windsor Sixtus the fourth being Pope Fredericke the third Emperour Fardinand and Isobella King and Queene of Arragon and Castile Iohn the second King of Portugall Iames the third of Scotland and Lewys the eleventh of France Betweene whom and King Edward as there was much intercourse in businesse so was there great concurrence in fortune Both began and ended their raignes in the same yeares both were held in jealousie by the precedent Kings Edward by King Henry Lewys by his father Charles the seventh both had titles disputable to the Crowne The house of Lancaster usurpiug against Edward the house of England clayming against Lewys Both were perplext with civill warre and both successefull Lewys infested by an insolent Nobilitie Edward by a Saint-like Competitor Lewys victorious by act Edward by courage Both were rebeld against by their owne brothers Lewes by Charles Duke of Berry Edward by George Duke of Clarence And both tooke a severe revenge Lewys freeing himselfe from so bosome an enemie by poysoning Charles Edward by drowning Clarence Both ended this life with apparence of much zeale Edward religiously Lewys something superstiously Both left their sonnes yet children to inherit who dyed issulesse and left the Crowne to their greatest enemies Edward the fift to his Vncle Richard Duke of Glocester Charles the eight to his kinsman Lewys Duke of Orleans But who lookes upon the lives of these two Princes on the other side may as in a table which presents severall faces perceive as great disparitie But I am onely to give you the picture of King Edward without flattery or detraction which is rare in history considering authors fashion for the most part Idaeas in their mindes and according to them not to the truth of action forme a Pince which though happily iâ— winne applause to the writer is a high abuse to the reader BUt this King was if we compare his with the lives of Princes in generall worthy to be â—â—â—berd among the best And whom though not an extraordinary vertue yet a singular fortune made conspicuous He was borne at Roane in Normandy his father at that time Regent in France The â—o satall division betweene the houses of Yorke and Lancaster with him in a manner having both their birth and growth For as he the faction of his family gatherd strength His education was according to to the best provision for his honour and safetie in armes A strict and religious discipline in all probabilitie likely to have softned him too much to mercy and a love of quiet He had a great extent of wit which certainly bee owed to nature That age bettering men little by learning which howsoever he had wanted leisure to have receiv'd The Trumpet sounding still too loud in his eare to have admitted the sober counsailes of Philosophy And his wit lay not in the slights of cunning and deceit but in a sharpe apprehensition yet not too much whetted by suspition In counsaile he was judicious with little difficultie dispatching much His understanding open to cleare doubts not darke and cloudie and apt to create new His wisedome look'd still directly upon truth which appeares by the manage of his affaires both in peace and warre In neither of which as farre as concernd the pollitique part he committed any maine errour T is true he was over-reacht in peace by King Lewys abused concerning the marriage of his daughter In warre by the Earle of Warwicke when upon confidence of a finall accord he was surpriz'd But both these misfortunes I impute to want of faith in his enemies not of iudgement in him Though to speake impartially his too great presumption on the oath of a dissembling Prince and want of circumspection a reconciliation being but in treatie cannot scape without reprehension His nature certainly was both noble and honest which if rectified by the strait rule of vertue had rendred him sit for example whereas he is onely now for observation For prosperitie raisd him but to a complacencie in his fortune not to a disdaine of others losses or a pride of his owne acquisitions And when he had most securitie in his Kingdome and consequently most allurements to tyrannie then showed he himselfe most familiar and indulgent An admirable temperance in a Prince who so well knew his owne strength and whom the love of riot necessitated to a love of treasure which commonly is supplyed by oppression of the Subject The heavie fine upon Sr. Thomas Cooke and displacing the chiefe justice blemisheth him with violence and a vorice But that severitie and the other when hee began to looke into the Poenall Lawes were but short tempests or rather small overcastings during the glorious calme of his government And what soever injurie the subject endured was not imputed to the King But to Tipâ—oft Earle of Worcester and some under informers Or else to the Queene and her necessitous kindred The world either judiciously or else favourably diverting all envie from his memory Great judgement in leading his armies and courage in fighting personally speakes him both a daring Souldier and an expert Commander And the many battailes hee fought in all which he triumpht delivers him as much to be â—â—mired for his militarie discipline as his happy successe Fortune not deserving to have all his mightie victories ascribed to her gift Valour and good conduct share at the least with her in the fate of warre But as in armes he appeares most glorious to posteritie so likewise most unhappy For all those bloody conquests hee obtaind were against his owne nation And the greatest adversaries he over came neere in consanguinitie to him so that he may more properly be sayd to have let himselfe blood then his enemies or rather for preservation of his owne body to have cut off his principall and most necessary limmes For beside those many Princes of the house of Sommerset Buckingham Excester Oxford Devonshire Northumberland Westmerland Shrewsbury and finally the tree it selfe and the onely branch Henry the sixt and his Sonne Prince Edward He slew even the Earle of Warwicke and the Marquesse Mountague Two brothers who having lost their father in his quarrell hazarded their lives and those mightie possessions and honours which peaceably they might have enjoyed onely to advance his title But this was rather his fate then his fault and into this Sea
the third King of England of necessity must have where women are admitted to inherit better claime to the Crowne than Henry the sixt though in the fourth descent from Edward the third by John of Gaunt being but his fourth sonne For however Casuists may dispute or civill Lawyers argue The being removed one degree further can no way prejudice succession Whereby the younger brother may come to bee prefer'd before the elder brothers sonne if by chance the elder dye during his Fathers life An injustice so against reason and custome that whosoever yet attempted it was reputed to violate the lawes of Nature From St. Johns fields the principall of the armie and Common Councell of the Cittie brought newes of this Election to Edward Earle of March remaining at Baynards Castle Who soone as he understood the intention of their addresse with such modestie as some Clergie man may have used at his consecration who by simonaicall practise hath obtaind a Bishoprick refused that a while which most ambitiously he covered But soone the animation of the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Earle of Warwicke the Bishops of London and Exeter and divers others of eminence prevail'd and he at their request tooke on him the Royaltie That night he rested the next morning with as much ceremonie and state as the shortnesse and unquietnesse of the time could licence in solemne procession he went to Paules whence after Te Deum sung and oblation made hee rod to Westminster there seated in the most perspicuous place of the great Hall with the Scepter of St. Edward the Confessor in his hand himselfe made declaration of his double title to the Crowne First by descent as heire to the third sonne of Edward the third the Line of whose eldest sonne Edward the blacke Prince extinguisht in the deposition and parâ—icide of Richard the second procured by Henry of Bullingbrooke first King of the house of Lancaster Edward the thirds second sonne dying without issue Secondly by authority of Parlament which upon examination of the Duke of Yorkes title confer'd the possession of the Kingdome immediately on him or his heires when Henry the sixth should make forfeiture of it by death resignation or breach of that Accord sworne there so solemnely by them And that this accord was broken the slaughter of the Duke opprest with unequall numbers on King Henries partie at the battell of Wakefield did sadly manifest Neverthelesse he protested himselfe ready to forgoe the justice of his claime ratherthan to enter upon it without their free vote At which unanimously the Assembly cryed King Edward King Edward Ioyfull that their voyces might confirme him King who had daign'd them so humble a complement as to professe that he would not receive the title without their suffrage The formalitie of this second Election thus past he went in Procession to the Abbie whence after much solemnitie and homage of all the Nobility there present he returned by water to the Bishop of Londons Pallace and was immediately proclaimed King throughout the City by the name of Edward the Fourth The first fortnight of his Raigne was died I will not say stain'd with the blood of Walter Walker a Grocer who keeping shop at the signe of the Crowne in Cheapeside sayd he would make his sonne heire to the Crowne a bold jest broke in an evill time yet doe I not side with them in opinion who taxe the King of severity in this execution unlesse I could cleere this man from being particularly factious for the house of Lancaster or know that these words were uttered in innocent mirth without any scorne to King Edwards Title And however perhaps the extraordinary punishment of such saucie language was not then unnecessary to beget authority and make men cautious to dispute the descent of Princes when the question was so nice and arguments not improbable on either side But here in her very first curtesie Fortune raisd King Edward higher than the endeavours of a long ambition had done his Father For now was he consecrated King in the Imperiall City of this Realme adornd with every circumstance of Soveraigntie and all his enterpises hitherto so flattered with successe that he could promise nothing but prosperity to his hopes Yet was the ground whereon he built uncertaine and his state brought into comparison with his Competitor fraile and obnoxious to ruine For Henry had equall dignity with the advantage of a long Raigne an uninterrupted descent in Majestie for threescore yeares a soveraigntie acknowledg'd abroad by all Christian Princes and obeyd at home by all Engilshmen without dispute a title according to the Law Salique indubitable and which had beene confirmed at the first entry of his Grandfather Henry the fourth into the Kingdome not onely by resignation of Richard the second by generall acknowledgement of all the Nobilitie and by authority of Parliament but even by approbation nay particular negotiation of Edmond Duke of Yorke Edward Duke of Aumerle Richard Earle of Cambridge Grandfather Great Vncle and Great Grandfather to the late anointed King Edward the Fourth Onely a feeble judgement and a long evill fortune rendred Henry the sixt inferiour to counterpoise which Queene Margaret and the Lords of her side were daring and vigilant omitting on stratagem or endeavor that might adde to the honour or safety of their designes Whereupon slie continued still in the North and oblieging that people every day more to her devotion labourd to prepare such an armie as might upon the worst of fortune be able enough for defence And soone she found how much her owne and the authoritie of the great Lords of her side prevail'd having rais'd threescore thousand fighting men and they all resolv'd with expence of their blood to buy backe that Majestie which the house of Lancaster by evill fate had lost An armie if arm'd and order'd well able to oppose the mightiest enemie or undertake the boldest enterprise On sight of which the Queene entertain'd a confidence easily to scatter the Forces of the new Mushrome King who in a night seem'd to have sprung up to Majestie Especially when she understood how with unequall power hee marcht Northward A clime not unlikely to prove as distastrous to him as to his Father For King Edward soone as the voyce of the people had saluted him Prince resolv'd with hazard of his new gain'd Soveraigntie to extirpate his great opposer For while the side of Lancaster was supported with the devotion of so large a portion of the Kingdome as yet adhear'd to Henry he could be King but at the curtesie of his Faction and the body of the Land must of necessitie grow monstrous being charg'd with two heads each of which look'd divers wayes He therefore while his men had yet the memorie of their late good fortune fresh in their courage marcht toward the Queene and chose rather as worthier his spirit to provoke than expect an enemie Of his arrivall at Pomfret Castle when it was understood and that
and dying bodies the Northerne men began to hope for safety onely in flight Neither did they â—eeld to the prevailing Fortune of the Enemie untill their courages vvere dismayd vvith sight of so many eminent persons slaine before their eyes For the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland the Lords Beaumont D'acres Gray and Wells with divers others of greatest reputation for Nobility and courage had already falne and in their slaughter taught the survivers what to expect The Dukes of Sommerset and Exeter seeing all things desperate the greater part of the Armie slaine the rest broken and flying poasted to Yorke to carry the fatall newes of this overthrow to the unfortunate King whose vertue yet had a patience greater than his ruine In no battle was ever powred forth so much English Blood for in this and the two precedent dayes were slaine sixe and thirty thousand seven hundred seventy sixe persons all of one nation many neere in alliance some in Blood fatally divided by faction yet all animated with the same zeale to maintaine their Princes right which being so difficult to resolve doubtlesse made the quarrell on either side how ruinous soever to their famelies not unsafe to their Consciences And it is worthy observation that in this so long and cruell conflict betweene the two houses never any stranger of name was present at our battels as if we had disdaind to conquer or perish by other weapons than our owne Kind Henry perceiving how desperate his hopes were in England with the poore remaines of his partie secured himselfe by flight into Scotland And with such hast that before King Edward got to Yorke where he hoped to have surpris'd him dismaid with the late discomsiture nothing was there left but the Citie humbly devoted to the dispose of the Conqueror But on the walls yet remaind the heads of Richard Duke of Yorke and his friends an ignominious spectacle unluckily there standing to inâ—ence him to cruelty For on sight of so barbarous an injurie he gave present command that Thomas Earle of Deâ—â—aâ—â—iâ—â— should be beheaded with three others taken in the former battle that these new heads might râ—leeve them who had stood centinell so long and that his father and friends might not want that busie part of the body to be inclosed with them in the grave An action too much savouring of the ancient Heathen the soules of Christians no way requiring their murders to be revengd or their injuries appear'd with such an offering After this dire oblation he sent part of his Forces to cleere the coast toward Scotland from the dregges of warre where to terrifie that people prone to innovation in King Henries quarrell some examples of severitie were made In the interime he with as glorious triumph and large joy as victory could beget which begot no lesse to him than absolute Soveraignety marcht toward London By the inhabitants whereof who were deepely interessed in his Fortune he was with all the solemnity of a secure gladnesse entertaind To the triumph of his entrance soone succeeded that of his Coronation perform'd with usuall ceremonies but most unusuall congratulations Immediately that no circumstance of Soveraintie might be wanting a Parlament was Summond By which his title might be reconfirm'd his partakers rewarded his enemies punisht And though private respects were his chiefe businesse desiring to disaâ—â—ll all acts made heretofore in prejudice to the house of Yorke and its adherents yet the outward pretention was the safety and quiet of the Realme For he publickly profest his onely care to bee that such wholesome lawes might be enacted as might redresse disorders crept into the state by free licence given to rapin in the former troubles By which apparence of solicitude for quieting the republique he gain'd authority among the wise and created a beleefe in all that his government in peace vvould be as fortunate as his successe in warre Having by his wisedome and providence thus won opinion upon the generality he bestowed his graces on particular persons whom blood in merit rendred deare to him His brothers George and Richard he created Dukes the elder of Clarence the younger of Glocester Iohn Lord Nevill the Earle of Warwickes brother he made Vicount Mountague Henry Bourchier brother to the Archbishop of Canterbury Earle of Essex and William Lord Fauconbrige Earle of Kent He erected divers others to the Title of Barons and honour'd many with Knighthood The conclusion of this great assembly was punishment for John Earle of Oxford Aubery Vere his sonne Sir John Tiddenham Knight William Tirrell and Walter Mountgomery Esquires were without anâ—were convict ofâ— reason and behended A rough proceeding which favord something too much of the Conqueror Bâ—sinesses thus happily setled at home to check the â—udaciousnesse of our transmarin neighbours who had throwrie injuries on our Nation weakned by discord the Earles of Esseâ— and Kent with the Lord Audley were sent with ten thousand souldiers to scowre the narrow Seas who first landing in Britaine tooke the Towne of Conquest and afterward in the Islâ— of Râ—â— pillâ—g'd that little Country and with victory returned By vvhich enâ—erprise though of nâ— signall consequence to his affaires yet King Edward gave the French to understand hoâ—â— unfaâ—â—â— it vvas to â—â—â—â—tate the English govern'd by â—â—â— active Princeâ— vvho might perhaps 〈◊〉 in person appâ—â—â—e abroade for the recovery of â—â—â—ose Provinces nothing but â—â—â—â— dissâ—â—sion â—â—ould have losâ—o As likevvise to tâ—â—rifie all 〈◊〉 states from adhering to King Henry vvho both in câ—â—rage and fortune vvas â—o â—aâ—â—e inferioâ—â— And noâ—â— vvas the prosperitie of Edwardâ—n â—n so full splendor and so darke a cloud hung over the house of Lancaster that Henry Duke of Sommâ—rset and Sir Ralph Percie for â—â—â—â—e the â—â—ineâ— of that family they had â—â— long endeavour'd to support To King Edward the submission of tvvo so eminent persons appear'd vvelcome as a victory and they by his favour were presently restored to full possession both of honour and â—â—tarâ— the same grace promist to any who mighâ—â—â— example should perswade Yet did not the indefatigable Queene loose any thing from her sprit on endeavours Hâ—qlate so sad discomfiture and revolt now of her chiefe adherents able perhaps to 〈◊〉 forâ—â—â—â— not her And having upon full reckoning perceived that she must account of no powre at home she made her addresses to all Princes abroad whom allianee reason of state or compassion of so great a disaster might move to her assistance But as it is in the fate of all women who usurpe on their husbands she had beene â—o happie in mannage of his prosperitie and Towâ— wâ—somuch morâ—â—â—capable to â—â—gole against christ forâ—â—â— and 〈◊〉 in felicityâ— Gâ—â—â— undertakings being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 succesfull in 〈◊〉 whose government 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 selfe in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beene disorderly and 〈◊〉 But certainely how erronious hovvever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 she â—â—â— now defective onely in thâ—◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not ruled by ours but by a high
Duke of Cornewall and Earle of Chester and his younger brother Richard created Duke of Yorke The fate of their honour and their ruine being still the same At this creation according to the ceremony many young Lords and Gentlemen of principall name were made Knights of the Bath among whom Brian chiefe Iustice of the Common pleas and Littleton that learned father of the Lawes are registred But the publicke glory of these extraordinary pompes and the wantonnesse of his private pleasures could not be maintaind with the ordinary revenue Therefore to make good the expence of his owne errours the King began to looke narrowly into those of his subjects that by this art in a manner he might sinne upon free cost And as it hath beene a certaine observation that the most delicate and voluptuous Princes have ever beene the heaviest oppressors of the people Riot being a far more lavish spender of the common treasure then Warre or magnificence so those parts of the Kings life which were wantond away with varietie of delights are noted to have bin severest But perhaps the subject repents not the free gift of the Kingdomes substance when hee sees the returne of it in triumph but repines if the least part of his contribution bee the reward of parasites or persons to whom fortune not merit gives a growth And Historians likewise have more leasure to examine the crimes of Princes in the silence of peace then in the noyse of warre Or else Princes want opportunitie to inclose their thoughts to the studie of private gaine when the Souldier in a manner layes the wealth of the kingdome open and makes a common of every mans particular treasure For now the King began to cause the Poenall Lawes to be put in execution and wanting higher aimes to looke downeward into every sordid way of enriching himselfe So that a generall feare possest the people that his after government would be both sharpe and heavie considering the first part of it was not without a foule blemish in that kind For in the seventh yeare of his raigne hee proceeded against many of the wealthiest Citizens with so much severitie that it was repoted tyranny The chiefe of them were Sr. Thomas Cooke Sr. John Plumer Knights Humphrey Hewward and other Aldermen And their crime in their having given assistance to King Henry Which considering the circumstance of things could hardly beare any capitall accusation had it beene clearely proved but against these men there was no testimony but what was forc'd with torture and even that testimony not high enough to bring them to the barre yet the King commanded them to be arraigned of high treason at Guild Hall and withall exprest an earnest desire that upon any tearmes they might bee found guiltie Their wealth being the principall witnesse that gave evidence against their lives But the Iurie well directed by Sir John Marckham Knight chiefe Iustice of the Kings Bench acquit them of their treason Which neverthelesse releast them not their estates however found guiltie and the greatest part escheated to the King VVith the offenders the Iudge was condemn'd and because hee prefer'd his integritie before a severe command made forfeiture of his dignitie The memory of these carriages heretofore in a businesse that concern'd the life of man reputed innocent drew the world into much feare that hee would now decline to rigour Neither was the King totally excused although this cruell avarice was laid to the Queene who having a numerous issue and kindred by favour raisd up to the highest titles was almost necessitated for supportance of their honours to wrack the Kingdome And happily the universall malice that waited on her and hers serv'd well for the King They being as a screene betweene him and the unwholesome ayre of envie which otherwise might have endangerd his reputation with the people From this rugged way hee was soone diverted by necessitie to looke abroad and perhaps by the gentlenesse of his nature or repentance of his former severitie For the face of the world adjoyning began von the sudden to change and while the Kings of England and France were dividing the territories of the Dutchesse of Burgundie a third stept in and got possession of her and her rich countrey Maximilian Arch Duke of Austria sonne to the Emperour Fredericke the third entertain'd heretofore politckly by Duke Charles was now seriously invited to this marriage For the Lady dispairing to receive succours from the English to the affection of whom she was perhaps inclined by the neighbour-hood of the countrey and perswasion of the Dutchesse Dowager whom deservedly shee much honourd condescended in the end to the desire of her subjects who ever labord to marry lier to some Prince of Germany in regard of the nearenesse in language and concordance in dispositions And although the hereditarie countries of this Prince lying farre remote were unlike to bee any support to her weakned state yet considering him as sonne to the Emperous and in probabilitie like to succeede for in an elective Kingdome scarce ever is the heire put by if equally deserving he might appeare necessary to her present affaires For he was young of a noble spirit strong and healthfull in constitution bold in any attempt of honour and what wonne upon the affections of the Low countreymen extraordinary affable and courteous I know both his actions and the histories of that time deliver him to us of no deepe judgement and so negligent that he ever left things imperfect oftentimes in maine businesse betrayd by his credulitie But this I impute to him as an errour of the climate under which he was borne and a certaine generous honesty which is above suspition The motion of this marriage was imbraced with much joy to accomplishment of which hee instantly prepared Neither could King Lewys with all his Engines batter the resolution of the Emperour who though a most passionate lover of peace which oftentimes hee bought with losse ran the hazard of a warre from France rather then let his sonne loose the advantage of so great a Countrey And suddenly sent him to the Dutchesse attended by many great Commanders who among a people so opprest with armes would bee the best witnesses of a marriage His presence although it did not absolutely turne the streame of Fortune yet gave a stay to the French conquests And after he appeard in the quarrell victory doubtfully inclind sometimes flattering Maximilian at other times King Lewys Maximilian by his brave valour overtaking Lewys who had the start in experience and pollicy So that frequent truces were concluded betweene them and unfaithfully observd the first opportunitie of advantage renewing the warre Lewys handled these businesses apart never admitting King Edward though hee ever officiously labord to interesse himselfe into any part of the warre of peace For as hee knew the strength of his understanding such that hee in treatie could loose nothing by the Arch-Duke so he well consider'd that the safest way to
absolute ruine to his hopes For though here hee heard first the comfort of his being father to a sonne yet was this sonne borne poorely in Sanctuary and christned without the ceremonies belonging to a Prince and if fortune beyond expectation alterd not heire apparent onely to his fathers misery Neither did that wild insurrection of the men of Kent which ensued presently upon his flight effect any thing or so much as openly pretend for King Edward But some disorder'd companies gathering into one hoped to fish faire in the troubled streame of the Kingdome and by the advantage of the present distraction of state to purchase treasure to themselves Whereupon they directed their march if such straglers can bee said to march towards London where by the Earle of Warwick and the Lord Major they were soone supprest and some for the generall terror made examples in their punishment But after this all things tended presently to quiet and King Henry set at libertie went in solemne procession to Pauls Church the Clergy Nobility and Commonalty reacknowledging all obedience to him And as if there were left no memory of King Edward or hope to re-establish his title every man addrest himselfe to King Henry and all his former servants recover'd their lost honours and places But that this might not appeare to be the act of faction but the universall consent of the Kingdome a Parliament was summond wherein nothing was denied which the prevailing partie thought fit to be authoriz'd King Edward therefore and all his adherents were attainted of high treason their lands and goods confiscated He and his posterity for ever disabled to inherit not onely the Crowne but any other hereditary estate His claime to the kingdome rejected as a most unjust pretention and his former government condemn'd as of tirannous usurper And that there might be a great example of their justice John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester Lord high Constable of England having beene apprehended in the Forrest of Waibrige on the top of a high tree which exprest the precipice of his fortune was on the Tower bill beheaded Next they proceeded to intaile the Crowne upon King Henry and his beires males for default of which to George Duke of Clarence and his heires forever By which inâ—â—ile the â—arle of Warwicke showed not onely the extent but the insolency of his greatnesse iâ—â—â— if the title of the kingdome appertained to them who were nearest in alliance to him not next in blood to the Crowne For if the justice of Lancasters claime had the preheminence for wâ—â—t of issue of King Henry why should not the soveâ—â—inty fall to the Duke of Soâ—â—â—inerâ—set Or iâ—â—haâ— line were crooked in respect of baâ—â—idie why not to the house of Portugall without any blemish desâ—ending from John of Gâ—int Or if the house of Yorke bad the better title why was George Duke of Clarence thâ—â— set downe but second in the liâ—â—â—ile Or if the right were in Was wick himselfe for his power order'd and disorder'd all why was the kingdome to descend first of all to the younger daughter But preposterous ambition never knew how to give an account to reason Their were â—he â—â—â—leâ— of Oxford Pâ—â—brooke and mâ—â—y otherâ— restored to their â—states and â—ilâ—s and â—he Duke of Clarence that greater hopes â—â—ight â—â—â— invite him to reâ—â—â—â—st to his brother possest of the Dutchy of Yorke And lastly the government of the King and kingdome â—o â—â—mitted to the Duke of Clarence and the Earle of Warwick so that King Henry in whose best of fortune it was never to possesse more then the name of King seem'd not to be set at libertie but onely to have changed his keeper and get his prison somewhat more enlarged But Queene Margaret and Prince Edward though by the Earle recald found their fate anâ— the winds so adverse that they could not land in England to taste this running banquet to which fortune had invted them And stayd so long by necessity that disâ—â—â—tion instructed them in the end there was no hope of felicitie scarce of safetiâ— in then returne The re-establishment of King Henry in the kingdome by the universall acclamation of the Parliament and the generall silence of â—â—â— other â—â—â—â—ion â— no man so much as mentioâ—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â—â— of Yorke to â—â—led â—hâ—â— servour of respect with which the Duke of Burgundy had aâ—â—â—â—st imbraced â—â—â—â—g Edward Especially which the tâ—â—ison'd â—â— Mouâ—siâ—ur â—â—itleere was apparens for of â—â—â—iceâ—â—â—â— â—â—â—â— the King and the Duke ever thought themselves secure he having declared himself â—â— for faithfully they rewarded him so liberally But â—ow the â—â—aytor turn'd his iâ—â—â—â—â— outward and with the loudest proclay â—â—â—â—â—â—â— joy for the prosperitie of Warwicke And so farre did vanitie of his former services betray him that he boasted even hiâ— treason for merit And what ev 〈…〉 ageâ— the King sent to him he rejected with sâ—â—â—â—e to â—â—â—â—se 〈…〉 ne â—â—iable affront hee wore enamel'd iâ—â— hisâ— hâ—â— the Beare and raggeâ—â— staffe the Earles â—â—â—â—â—zance The neglect which accompanied his adversitie made the King weaâ—y of any â—uither dependaâ—â—â—eâ— and urge the Duke to have licence for departing For although the Dutchesse neglected no duty of a sister and wooed him most passionately to a longer stay yet so little had his fortune instructed him to patience that neither love nor fright of danger could detaine him longer For the Duke was distemperd with such an ague of discurtesie that those fits which before came but every third or fourth day became now quotidian neither knew the King to how high and dangerous a malice the disease in time might rise His importunitie therefore in the end prevail'd and underhand obtain'd a large supply of money and some men Foure great Shippes of Holland and foureteene of the Easterlings men of warre well arm'd he hired for the transportation of his Forces Which consisted of the English who accompanied him in his flight and had escaped over after him and two thousand Dutch men With the Shippes hee convenanted that they should serve him till fifteene dayes after his landing and to the Dutch Souldiers hee gave such large promises that they vowed their lives to the greatest crueltie of his Fortune At Ravenspur in Yorke-shire he landed where the people naturally devoted to the house of Lancaster showed in the malice of their lookes what evill lucke they wisht him though they wanted courage with their armes to oppose him Which so dismall aspect made him more wary in his march to Yorke fearing it might presage the generall rising of the Countrey But when hee came thither and found the Citizens so well pleas'd with the present state and so in their opinion confirm'd for King Henry hee began to despaire the recovery of the Crowne And in that resolution perceiving them obstinate beyond any hope of remove fashion'd his behaviour to a new art Whereupon since he could not move them to obedience by the authority of his unquestion'd right to the Crowne by