with the day was done And all return'd In his Pavilion Brave Edward feasts his Royal Prisoner At which as Noble did the Prince appear As erst in battel and by sweetness won As great a Conquest as his Sword had don No fair respect or Honour that might cheer That Kings afflicted breast was wanting there No Reverence nor humble courtesie That might preserve his state and dignity But Edward shew'd at full And at the Feast In Person waited on his captive Guest But what content what Object fit could Fate Present to comfort such a changed State For him Whose State the Morning Sun had seen so high This night beholds in sad captivity His restless passions rowling to and fro No calm admit when thus his noble Fo Prince Edward spake Great King for such you are In my thoughts still whate're the Chance of War Hath lately wrought against you here forgive Your humble Kinsmans service if I strive To ease your sorrow and presume to do What is too much for me to counsel you Do not deject your Princely thoughts or think The Mnrtial Fame that you have gain'd can sink In one succesless Field Or too much fear Your Nations Honour should be tainted here Mens strength and Honours we most truly try Where Fields are fought with most equality But God was pleas'd to make this days success The more miraculous that we the less Might challenge to our selves and humbly know That in so great and strnge an overthrow Some secret Judgment of our God was wrought And that the Sword of Heaven not England fought c. And for your self Great King all History That shall hereafter to the VVorld make known Th' event of Poictiers Battel shall renown Your Personal Prowesse which appear'd so high As justly seem'd to challenge Victory Had not Gods secret Providence oppos'd But though his Will Great Sir hath thus dispos'd Your State remains your Person and your Fame Shall in my humble thoughts be still the same And till my Father see your Face to show How he respects your Worth and State to you As to himself were he in Person here In all observance Edward shall appear The Noble King a while amaz'd to see Victorious Youth so full of Courtesie At last replies Brave Cousin you have shown Your Self a Man built up for true Renown And as in Action of the Wars to be This Ages Phaenix in Humanity Why do you wrong me thus as to enthrall Me doubly Not insulting o're my Fall You rob me Cousin of that sole Renown Which I though vanquish'd might have made mine own To bear Adversity I might have shew'd Had you been proud a Passive Fortitude And let the world though I am fallen see What spirit I had in scorning misery But you have rob'd me of that Honour now And I am bound in Honour to allow That Noble Theft content since such are you To be your Captive and your Debtor too And since my Stars ordein'd a King of France Arm'd with such odds so great a Puissance Must in a fatal Field be lost to raise So great a Trophie to anothers Praise I am best pleas'd it should advance thy Story And Johns dishonour be Prince Edwards Glory After the Battel which was fought on the 19. day of September Anno Christi 1357. Prince Edward led King Iohn and the Captive Nobles Prisoners to Bourdeaux the Archiepiscopal See and chief City of his Dominions in France where he retained them till the Spring following But sent present News of this Victory to his Father who thereupon took speedy Order by Simon Arch-bishop of Canterbury that a Thanksgiving should be celebrated all over England for eight days together The Prince having sufficiently rested and refreshed his people the May following set sail for England with his Prisoners and safely arrived at Plimouth and was with great joy and acclamations received everie where At his coming to London where at that time a magnificent Citizen Henry Picard he who afterwards at one time so Nobly Feasted the four Kings of England France Scotland and Cyprus was Lord Major who received him with all imaginable Honour And the multitude of People that came to see the Victorious Prince with the King of France his Son Philip and the other Prisoners was so great that they could hardly get to Westminster between three a Clock in the Morning and twelve at Noon Great Edward saving that he forgat not the Majestie of a Conquerour and of a King of England omitted no kind of Noble courtesy towards the Prisoners King Iohn and his Son were lodged under a safe Guard at the Savoy which was then a goodly Palace belonging unto Henry Duke of Lancaster and the other Prisoners in other places Some time after Prince Edward by dispensation was maried to the Countess of Kent Daughter to Edmund Brother to King Edward the second and his Father invested him with the Dutchy of Aquitain So that he was now Prince of Wales Duke of Aquitain Duke of Cornwal and Earle of Chester and Kent And not long after he with his Beloved Wife passed over into France and kept his Court at Bourdeaux The Prince of Wales was now grown famous over all the Christian world and the man to whom all wronged Princes seemed to Appeal and to fly for succour For which end there came at this time to his Court Iames King of Majorca and Richard King of Navarr just when his beloved Lady brought him a Son for whom these two Kings undertook at his Baptisme giving him the Name of Richard The Companies of Soldiers most of whose Captaines were English either by Birth or Obedience wanting employment because the Warrs of Britain were quieted for the Present ranged tumultuously up and down France But about this time Sir Bertram de Glequin having paid his Ransom found employment for them drawing the greatest part of that Millitary Pestilence into another Coast. For by the assistance of Peter King of Arragon and the Power of Glequin with his floting Bands called The Companions or Adventurers Peter King of Castile and Leon a cruel Tyrant was driven out of his Kingdome his Bastard Brother Henry being chosen in his room and Crowned King of Spain at Burgos This Peter was Son to Alphonsus the eleventh King of Castile and had to Wife a French Lady called Blanch Daughter to Peter Duke of Bourbon who was Father also of Ioan the French Kings Wife His Tyrannical cruelties were so many and so foul that the Spanish Stories scarce suffer Nero or Caligula to go beyond him For which by his Subjects he was deposed and his Brother Henry as is said before was substituted and Crowned in his room Peter thus driven out of his Kingdome by the aid of the French applyed himself to Prince Edward craving his assistance for his restitution making many and large Promises to him upon the accomplishment thereof And the Prince partly out of Charity to succour a distressed Prince and partly out of policy to keep
his souldiers in exercise having first sent to his Father and gotten his leave marched with a gallant Army of thirty thousand men burning with desire of Renown upon confidence of good pay for his men and other Commodities when Peter should be reestablished upon his Throne He made his way through the famous straits of Rouncevallux in Navarre by permission of the King thereof who yet suffered himself to be taken prisoner and carried into Castile that he might not seem to cross the Freneh Kings designes who favoured Henry the Usurper Our Prince had in his Company besides most of all the principal Captains of the English two Kings Peter of Castile whos 's the quarrel was and the King of Majorca As also John Duke of Lancaster who somewhile after Don Pedro his death having married his eldest daughter wrote himself King of Castile and Leon. On the other side King Henry for the defence of his new Kingdom had amassed together a very great Army consisting partly of French under Glequin their famous Captains and of Castilians and others both Christians and Saracens to the number of about an hundred thousand And upon the Borders of Castile it came to a bloody battel wherein the valiant Prince of Wales obtained a very great victory having slain many thousands of his enemies Henry himself fighting valiantly was wounded in the Groin but yet escaped There were taken Prisoners the Earle of Dene Bertram de Glequin who yet shortly after by paying a great Ransom was set at liberty The Marshal Dandrehen and many others Neither was this Victory less worth to Peter then a Kingdom For our most Noble Prince left him not till at Burgos he had set him upon his Throne again But this unworthy Kings falshood and ingratitude were odious and monstrous For the Prince notwithstanding his so great goodness extended to him was enforced to return to Burdeaux without money wherewith to pay his Army which was the cause of exceeding great mischiefs to himself and the English Dominions beyond the Seas as if God had been displeased with his succouring such a Tyrant The Prince himself though he came back with Victory yet he brought back with him such a craziness and indisposition of Body that he was never throughly well after And no marvel considering the Country the season and the action it self and it may be more marvelled that his Souldiers came home so well then that he came home so ill Being now returned there was presently to his indispositon of Body added discontentment of mind For not having money wherewith to pay his Soldiers he was forced to wink at that which he could not choose but see and seeing to grieve at For they preyed upon the Country for which the Countrey murmured against him And now to stop this murmuring his Chancellor the Bishop of Rhodes devised a new Imposition of levying a Frank for every Chimney and this to continue for five years to pay the Princes debts But this Imposition though granted in Parliament made the murmuring to be encreased For though some part of his Dominions as the Poictorians the Xantoigns and the Limosins in a sort consented to it yet the Count of Armigniac the Count of Cominges the Vicount of Carmain and divers others so much distasted it that they complained thereof to the King of France as unto their Supreme Lord Pretending that the Prince was to answer before King Charles as before his Superior Lord of whom they said he held by homage and fealty whereas King Edward and his Heirs by the Treaty at Bretagny were absolutely freed from all manner of Service for any of their Dominions in France King Charles did openly entertain this Complaint and hoping to regain by surprize and policy what the English had won by dint of sword and true Manhood he proceeded to summon the Prince of Wales to Paris there to answer to such Complaints as his subjects made against him Our stout Prince returned for Answer That if he must needs appear he would bring threescore thousand men in Arms to appear with him And now began the Peace between England and France to be unsetled and wavering For while our King Edward rejoyced in the excellent Vertues and Actions of his Sons and people Charles the French King warned by so many calamities as his Dominions had sustained by the English in fair War and withal earnestly coveting to recover the Honour of his Nation betook himself wholly to secret practices and designs Never adventuring his own Person in the Field but executing all by his Deputies and Lieutenants especially by the valour and service of Bertram de Glequin Constable of France who from a low estate was raised to this height for his prudent and magnanimous Conduct in War And our truly Noble King without suspicion of craft reposing himself upon the Rules of Vertue and Magnanimity did not reap the stable effects of so great and important victories nor of the Peace so Ceremoniously made that in the Worlds opinion it could not be broken without the manifest violation upon one side of all Bonds both divine and humane The Prince of Wales by Letters advised his Father not to trust to any fair words or overtures of further Amity made by the French because as he said they entertained Practices underhand in every place against him But his counsel was not hearkned to because he was judged to write thus out of a restless humour delighting in War though the event shewed that his words were true For now King Charles having by quick paiments and by one means or other gotten home all the Hostages which had bin impledged for performance of the Articles of Peace set all his wits on work to abuse the King of Englands credulity He courted him with loving Letters and Presents while in the mean time his Plots were ripened abroad and he surprized the County of Ponthieu our Kings undeniabe inheritance before King Edward heard thereof King Edward hereupon calls a Parliament declares the breach craves aid and hath it granted And then againe claims the Crown of France and sent over his Son Iohn Duke of Lancaster and Humfry de Bohun Earle of Hereford with a great Army to Calice to invade France Among the States and Towns made over to the English at the Treaty of Bretigni which had revolted to the French was the City of Limosin Thither did the Prince march and sat down with his Army before it And not long after came unto him out of England his two Brethren the Duke of Lancaster and the Earle of Cambridg with a fresh supply of Valiant Captains and Souldiers The City stood it out to the uttermost and was at last taken by storm where no mercy was shewed by the inraged Soldiers but the Sword and Fire laid all desolate After this Service the Princes health failing him more and more he left his Brethren in Aquitain to prosecute the Warrs and himself taking Ship came over to his Father in England his eldest Son Edward being dead a little before at Burdeaux and brought over with him his Wife and his other Son Richard The Prince having left France his Dominions were either taken away or fell away faster then they were gotten Gueschlin entred Poictou took Montmorillon Chauvigny Lussack and Moncontour Soon after followed the Country of Aulnis of Xantoyn and the rest of Poictou Then St. Maxent Neel Aulnay Then Benaon Marant Surgers Fontency and at last they came to Thouras where the most part of the Lords of Poictou that held with the Prince were assembled At this time the King Prince Edward the Duke of Lancaster and all the Great Lords of England set forward for their relief But being driven back by a Tempest and succour not coming Thouras was yeilded up upon composition In fine all Poictou was lost and then Aquitain all but only Burdeaux and Bayon And not long after Prince Edward died and with him the Fortune of England He was a Prince so full of Virtues as were scarce matchable by others He died at Canterbury upon Trinity Sunday June the eighth in the forty sixth year of his Age and the forty ninth of his Fathers Raign and was buried in Christs-Church there Anno Christi 1376. Among all the Gallant men of that Age this our Prince was so worthily the first that Longe erit a Primo quisque secundus erit He had a sumptuous Monument erected for him upon which this Epitaph was engraven in Brass in French thus Englished Here lyeth the Noble Prince Monsieur Edward the Eldest Son of the thrice Noble King Edward the third in former time Prince of Aquitain and of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Earle of Chester who died on the Feast of the Trinity which was the eighth of June in the year of grace 1376. To the Soul of whom God grant mercy Amen After which were added these verses in French thus Translated according to the homely Poetry of those times Who so thou art that passest by Where these Corps entombed lye Understand what I shall say As at this time speak I may Such as thou art somtime was I Such as I am such shalt thou be I little thought on th' hour of Death So long as I enjoyed Breath Great Riches here I did possess Whereof I made great Nobleness I had Gold Silver Wardrobes and Great Treasures Horses Houses Land But now a Caitife Poor am I Deep in the Ground lo here I lye My beauty great is all quite gon My Flesh is wasted to the Bone My House is narrow now and throng Nothing but Truth comes from my Tongue And if you should see me this Day I do not think but yet would say That I had never bin a Man So much altered now I am For Gods sake pray to th' Heavenly King That he my Soul to Heaven would bring All they that Pray and make accord For me unto my God and Lord God place them in his Paradise Wherein no wretched Caitiff lyes The Death of this Prince saith Daniel in his History of England was a heavy loss to the State being a Prince of whom we never heard no ill never received any other note but of goodness and the Noblest performance that Magnanimity and Wisdom could ever shew insomuch as what Praise could be given to Virtue is due to him FINIS * See the ignorance and superstition of those times and bless God for our clearer light
in Fee-simple in England which he divided among his four Esquires who had stood by him in all the fury and brunt of the Battel Hereupon the Prince asked him if he accepted not of his Gift He answered That these men had deserved it as well as himself and needed it more With which reply the Prince was so well pleased that he gave five Hundred Marks more in the same kind A rare Example where desert in the Subject and reward in the Prince strove which should be the greater This Lord Audley having vowed to be formost in the Fight made good his words accordingly It was the misfortune or rather the Glory of the French Nobles in these disasterous times that the loss fell ever heavily upon them For in this great overthrow and Carnage by their own confession there fell fifty and two Lords and about seaventeen Hundred Knights Esquires and Gentlemen that bore Coats of Arms Among the Knights were fifty two Bannerets The chief among the slain were Peter of Bourbon Duke of Athens The high Constable of France Iohn de Clermont Marshal Ieffery de Charmy High Chamberlain The Bishop of Chalons the Lords of Landas of Pons and of Chambly Sir Reginald Camian who that day carried the Auriflamb was slain also and as many others as made up the former number And of the common Soldiers there died about six Thousand So wonderfully did the great God of Battels sight for the English in those Days There escaped from this bloody Battel three of the French Kings Sons for he brought them all with him Charles Prince of Dauphin Lewis afterwards Duke of Anjou and Iohn Duke of Barry all of them great Actors in the times following The French Prisoners taken were John King of France and Philip his Son afterwards Duke of Burgoine The Arch-bishop of Sens James of Bourbon Earle of Ponthieu John of Artoys Earle of Eu Charles his Brother Earle of Longuevil Charles Earle of Vendosm The Earles Tankervile Salbruch Nassaw Dampmartin La Roch The Counts of Vaudemont Estampes and Iohn de Ceintre accounted the best Knight of France and many other great Lords and about two Thousand Knights Esquires and Gentlemen that bore Coats of Arms. And in this Expedition the English took an Hundred Ensigns But here great contention arose between many who should be the man that took King Iohn Prisoner The Prince wisely commanded them to forbear till they came into England where the matter being heard it was adjudged by King John's own Testimony that one Sir Denis Morbeck of St. Omers had taken him Prisoner for which service the Prince rewarded him with a Thousand Marks And now though King Iohn had the hard hap to fall into the hands of an Enemie yet he had the happiness to fall into the hands of a Noble Enemy For Prince Edward having conquered his Person by force of battel now strove to overcome his minde by his humble deportment expressing himself in a Language so ponderous humble grave and natural and yet so stately as none but the best Soul adorned with the best education was able to have performed And the next Day causing the Chaplains and the other Priests in the Army to celebrate Divine Service he put off from himself the whole Glory of Victory and most devoutly gave it unto God After which in the sight and hearing of the Prisoners he highly commended and heartily thanked his Souldiers with speeches full of life and affections sealing his words to every one with bountifull large fees as his present meanes would permit Mr. May in his Edward the third sets forth this Battel excellently in these words The first hot Charge The valiant Lord renowned Audley gave Who to perform a Noble vow in Deeds Almost the Prowess of a Man Exceeds And like the stroak of Joves resistless Thunder Shoots forth and breaks the strongest Ranks asunder Here in the thickest throng of Enemies Like Thracian Mars himself Black Edward plyes Deaths fatal task Here Noble Warwick gives A furious onset There brave Suffolk strives T' out go the formost Emulations fire Is kindled now and blazes high Desire Of Honour drowns all other Passions there Not in the Chiefs alone Each Soldier In that small Army feels bright Honours flame And labours to maintain his proper Fame Ne're was a Battel through all parts so fought Nor such high wonders by an handfull wrought White Victory that soar'd above beheld How every English hand throughout the Field Was stain'd with Blood Amaz'd to see the Day And that so few should carry her away The Fields no more their verdure can retain Enforced now to take their Purple stain And be obscur'd with slaughter while the wounds Of France manure her own unhappy Grounds Where mixed with Plebeian Funerals Her greatest Princes die There Bourbon falls And Marshal Clermont welters in his gore There Noble Charney's beaten down that bore The Standard Royal that sad Day Here dies Athens Great Duke There Valiant Eustace lyes Who as a badg of highest Honour wore A Chaplet of bright Pearls that had before Won by King Edward in a skirmish neer To Callice he was taken Prisoner As testimony of his Prowess shew'd Bin by that Royal Enemie bestow'd Great are the French Battalia 's and in room Of those that fall so oft fresh Souldiers come So oft the bloody Fight 's renewed that now The English weary with subduing grow And 'gin to faint oppress'd with odds so great When lo to make the Victory compleat Six hundred Bowmen whom to that intent Before the battel the brave Prince had sent Abroad well mounted now come thundring o're The Field and charge the French behind so sore As with confusion did distract them quite And now an Execution not a Fight Ensues All routed that great Army flies A Prey to their pursuing Enemies What his disheartned battel Orleans Forsakes the Field with him the Heir of France Young Charles of Normandy and thousands moe Not overthrown but frighted by the foe Nor are the English tho' enow to gain The day enow in number to maintain So great a chase And not so well suffice To follow as subdue their enemies Nor yet which more declar'd the Conquest sent From Heaven alone to strike astonishment In over-weening Mortals and to show Without that help how little Man can do Are all the English Conquerors in the Field Enow to take so many French as yield Nor to receive the Prisoners that come Tho' some in fields are Ransom'd and sent home Yet more from thence are Captive born away Then are the Hands that won so great a Day c. And now though King John had the unhappiness to fall into the hands of an enemy yet that which alleviated his affliction was that he fell into the hands of a Noble Enemy for Prince Edward used him with such respect and observance that he could not finde much difference between his captivity and liberty Mr. May gives us this Narrative of it The chase together