Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	john_n	lord_n	treasurer_n	3,143	5	10.7684	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33434	The idol of the clovvnes, or, Insurrection of Wat the Tyler with his priests Baal and Straw together with his fellow kings of the commons against the English church, the king, the laws, nobility and royal family and gentry, in the fourth year of K. Richard the 2d, an. 1381.	Cleveland, John, 1613-1658.	1654 (1654)	Wing C4673; ESTC R5215	69,732	166

thinke it so and if they love you you have enough you cannot Capitulate not treat with your rebells without hazarding your honour and perhaps your royall faith if you yeild to the force of one sedition your whole life and reigne will be nothing but a continuation of broyles and tumults if you assert your soveraigne authority betimes not onely these doults these sots but all men else will reverence you remember Sir God by whom lawfull Princes reigne whose vicegerent you are would not forgive rebellion in Angels you must not trust the face Petitions delivered you upon Swords points are fatall if you allow this custome you are ruined as yet Sir you may be obeyed as much as you please Of this opinion was Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem newly Lord Treasurer of England a magnanimous and stout Knight but not liked by the Commons When this resolution was known to the Clownes they grow starke mad they bluster they sweat to seek out the Kings Traitours for such now they must go for No man was either good or honest but he who pleased them the Archbishop and Lord Prior to chop off their Heads here they might be trusted they were likely to keep their words Here upon without more consideration they advance toward London not forgetting to burne and rase the Lawyers and Courtiers houses in the way to the Kings honour no doubt which they will be thought to Arme for Sir Iohn Froissart and others report this part thus which probably might follow after this refusall The Rebells say they sent their Knight so they called him yet was he the Kings Knight for Tyler came not up to dubbing we finde no Sir Iohn nor Sir Thomas of his making Sir Iohn Moton to the King who was then in the Tower with his Mother his halfe brothers Thomas Holland Earle of Kent after Duke of Surry and the Lord Holland the Earles of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford the Archbishop Lord Prior and others The Knight casts himselfe downe at the Kings feet beseeches him not to looke upon him the worse as in this quality and imployment to consider he is forced to doe what he does He goes on Sir the Commons of this Realme those few in Armes comparatively to the rest would be taken for the whole desire you by me to speake with them Your Person will be safe they repute you still their King this deserved thanks but how long the kindnesse will hold we shall soone finde they professe that all they had done or would doe was for your honour For your glory your honour and security are their great care they will make you a glorious King fearfull to your enemies and beloved of your Subjects they promise you a plentifull and unparallell'd revenue They will maint●…ine your power and authority in relation to the Lawes with your royal person according to the duty of their allegeance their protestation their vow their solemne League and Covenant without diminishing your just power and greatnesse and that they will all the dayes of their lives continue in this Covenant against all opposition They assure you Sir That they intend faithfully the good of your Majesty and of the Kingdome and that they will not be diverted from this end by any private or selfe-respects whatsoever But the Kingdome has been a long time ill governed by your Uncles and the Clergy especially by the Archbishop of Canterbury of whom they would have an account They have found out necessary Counsels for you they would warne you of many things which hitherto you have wanted good advise in The conclusion was sad on the Knights part His Children were pledges for his returne and if he faile in that their lives were to answer it Which moved with the the King He allowes the excuse sends him back with this answer that he will speake with the Commons the next Morning which it should seeme the report of the outrages done by the Clownes upon his refusall this Message made him consent to At the time he takes his Barge is rowed downe to Redriffe the place nearest the Rebells ten thousand of them descend from the Hill to see and treat with him with a resolution to yeild to nothing to overcome by the Treaty as they must have done had not the Kings feare preserved him When the Barge drew nigh the new C●…uncell of state sayes out Knight howled and shouted as though all the Devills of Hell had been amongst them Sir Iohn Moton was brought toward the River guarded they being determined to have cut him in pieces if the King had broke his promise All the desires of these good and faithfull Counsellours contracted suddenly into a narrow roome they had now but one demand The King askes them what is the matter which made them so earnestly sollicit his Presence They have no more to say but to intreat him to land Which was to betray himselfe to them to give his Life and Soveraignty up to those fickle Beasts to be held of them during their good pleasures which the Lords will not agree to The Earle of Salisbury of the antient Nobility and illustrious house of Montacute tells them their equipage and order were not comely and that the King ought not to adventure amongst their troopes They are now more unsatisfied and London how true soever to the Cause and faithlesse to the Prince shall feele the effects of their fury Southwark a friendly borough is taken up for their first quarters Here againe they throw downe the Malignants Houses and as a grace of their entrance breake up the Kings prisons and let out all those they finde under restraint in them not forgetting to ransack the Archbishops house at Lambeth and spoyle all things there plucking downe the Stews standing upon the Thames banke and allowed in the former ages It cannot be thought but that the Idol loved Adultery well enough but perhaps these publick bawdy-houses were too uncleane and might stinke in his nostrils we cannot finde him anywhere quarelling with the Beares those were no Malignants They knocked not long at the City-gates which some say were never shut against them or as others quickly opened The Citizens fancyed themselves privy Counsellours borne inspired from their shoppes for affaires of State and would not suppose the Reformation could be effected without them they were rich by lyes and all the most sordid wayes of falshood and must be sage and knowing pride the first sinne the Devill taught man tickles them The Major Sir William Waleworth whose memory while truth and loyalty shall be thought virtues must be honourable and nine of the Aldermen held for King Richard in vaine a prosperous wicked chief shall never want wicked instruments Three Aldermen and the greatest part of the people for the King of the Commons the Idol and his Priests Those the considers and well affected to Tyler forbid their Major to keep him out owne his actions as done

indangered and fatally tied to the same chain might make him weary of the World and that he cou●…d now die with more quiet of conscience than ever a quiet wh●…ch these Patricides will not finde when they shall pay the score of this and their other crimes However the flattery of successe may abuse our death-bed represents things in their owne shape and as they are after this the rout of Wolves enter p●…ophane'y roaring wh●…re is the Traitour where is the Robber of the Common-people He answers not ●…oubled at what he saw or heard Yee are welcome my Sonnes I am the Archbishop whom you seek neither Traitour nor Robber Presently these 〈◊〉 of the Devill griping him with their wicked clutches teare him out of the Chappell neither reverencing the Altar nor Crucifix figured on the top of his Crosier nor the Host these are the Monkes observations for which he condemnes them in the highest impiety and makes them worse than Divells and as Religion went then well he might condemne them so They dragge him by the Armes and hood to Tower hill without the Gates there they howle hideously which was the signe of a mischiefe to follow He askes them what it is they purpose what is his offence tells them he is their Archbishop this makes him guilty all his eloquence his Wisdome are now of no use he addes the murder of their Soveraigne Pastour will be severely punished some notorious vengeance will suddenly follow it These destroyers will not trouble themselves with the idle formality of 〈◊〉 mock-trial or Court of their own erecting an abominable Ceremony which had made their impiety more ugly they proceed down tight and plainly which must be instead of all things He is commanded to lay his neck upon the block as a false traitour to the Commonalty and Realm To deale roundly his life was forfeited and any particular charge or defenc●… would not be necessary his enemies were his Accusers and Judge●… his enemies who had combined and sworne to abolish his order the Church and spoile the sacred patrimony and what innocency what defence could save Without any reply farther he forgives the Heads-man and bowes his Body to the Axe After the first hit he touches the wound with his hand and speakes thus It is the Hand of the Lord The next stroke falls upon his hand ere he could remove it and cuts off the tops of his fingers after which he fell but died not till the eight blow his body lay all that day unburied and no wonder all men were throughly scared under the tyranny of these Monsters all Humanity all Piety were most unsafe The Archbishop dyed a Martyr of loyalty to his King and has his miracles Recorded an honour often bestowed by Monkes friends of Regicide and Regicides on Traitours seldome given to honest men In his Epitaph his riming Epitaph where is showne the pittifull ignorant rudenesse of those times he goes for no lesse he speakes thus Sudburiae natus Simon jacet hic tumulatus Martyrizatus n●…ce pro republica stratus Sudburies Simon here intombed lies Who for the Commonwealth a Martyr dies It is fit sayes Plato that he who would appeare a iust man become naked that his virtue be despoiled of all ornament that he be taken for a wicked man by others wicked indeed that he be ●…ocked and hanged The wisest of men tell us † There is a just man that perisheth in his ●…ghteousnesse and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickednesse The Seas are often calme to Pirates and the scourges of God the executioners of his fury the Gothes Hunnes and Vandalls heretofore Tartars and Turkes now how happy are their Robberies how doe all thing●… succeed with them beyond their wish●… Our Saviours Passion the great mysterie of his Incarnation lost him to the J●…wes his Murtherers Whereupon Grotius notes It is often permitted by God that pious men be not onely vexed by wicked men but murdered too He gives ex●…mples in Abel Isaiah and others the MESSIAH dyed for the sins of the world Ethelbert and Saint Edmund the East-Angles Saint Oswald the Northumbrian Saint Edward the Monarch c. Saxon Kings are examples at home Thucydides in his narration of the defeat and death of Nician the Athenian in Sycily speaks thus Being the man who of all the Grecians of my time had least deserved to be brought to so great a degree of misery It is too frequent to proclaim Gods Judgments in the misfortunes of others as if we were of the Celestiall Councell had seen all the Wheels or Orbs upon which Providence turns and knew all the reasons and ends which direct and govern its motions men love by a strange abstraction to separate Facts from their Crimes where the fact is beneficiall the advantage must canonize it it must be of heavenly off-spring a way to justifie Cain Abimelech Phocas our third Richard Ravilliac every lucky parricide whatsoever Alexander Severus that most excellent Emperour assassinated by the Militia or Souldiery by an ill fate of the Common-wealth for Maximinus a Thracian or Goth. Lieutenant Generall of the Army a cruell Savage tyrant by force usurped the Empire after him Replyed to one who pretended to foretell his end That it troubled him not the most renowned persons in all ages die violently This gallant Prince condemned no death but a dishonest fearfull one Heaven it selfe declared on the Archbishops side and cleared his innocency Starling of Essex who challenged to himselfe the glory of being Heads man fell mad suddenly after ran through the Villages with his Sword hanging naked upon his brest and his Dagger naked behinde him came up to London confest freely the fact and lost his head there As most of those did who had laid their hands upon th●…s Archbishop comming up severally out of their Countries to that City and constantly accusing themselves for the Parricide of their spirituall Father Nothing was now unlawfull there could be no wickednesse after this They make more examples of barbarous cruelty under the name of Justice Robert Lord Prior of St. Iohn and Lord Treasurer of England Iohn Leg or Laige one of the Kings serjeants at Armes a Franciscan a Physitian belonging to the Duke of Lancaster whom p●…rhaps they hated because they had wro●…ged his Master a Frier Carmelite the Kings Confessour were murdered there in this fury Whose heads with the Archbishops were borne before them through London streets and advanced over the Bridge This while the King was softning the Rebells of Essex at Mile-end with the Ea●…les of Sal●…bury Warwick and Oxford and other Lords Thither by P●…oclamation he had summoned them as presuming the Essexians to be the more civiliz'd and by much the fairer enemies as indeed they were There he promises to grant them their d●…sires Liberty pretious Liberty is the thing they aske this is given them by the King but on condition of good behaviour They are

keepe company with the Priors and chiefe Justices Walter of Todington a Monke was sought for they wanted his head but he hid himselfe and escaped Our hacksters errant of the round Table Knights of industry would be thought Generall redeemers to take care of all m●…nin distresse For the Burgesses sake they command the Monkes threatning them and their walls if they obey not to deliver up all the obligations of the Towns-men for their good behaviour all the antient Charters from the time of King Cnut the Founder any way concerning the liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm●… by Charter the Liberties of the Towne which could not be done in the vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in name by provision of the Pope was a prisoner at Notingham nor had any election beene since the death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the house are pawned to the Townsmen as a g●… that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should Seals which Jewels were a Crosse and Calice of Gold with other things exceeding in value one thousand pounds these were restored againe in time of peace but with much unwillingnesse Upon the brute of the Idol●… mishap and the suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome the rest of the capitall villeins in the generall audit or doomesday for these hurliburlies shall be called to a reckoning for their outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these uproars the Towns-men with the Country peasants about confederated together breake up the treasury of the Universi●…y tear and burn its Charters they compell the Chancelour and Schollars under their common Seals to release to the Major and townsmen all rights and Liberties all actions and to be bound in 3000●… not to molest the Burgesses by s●…its of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bailiffs were fetched up by writ to the next Parl. where the deeds were delivered up and Cancelled the Liberties of the towne seized into the Kings hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names had he set up one of his owne b●…getting it must have had nothing else but the name it would have beene as destroying as the field Norfolke the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses zeale and daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his owne Empire and the borders an Army of fifty thousand Men This upstart Kingling would not wholly move by example h●… makes presidents of his owne and tramples not like a dull beast the r●…ad beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a stock of traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his councell yet so the Monk exceede them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full sa●…les else for his presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolke Devil begins with plunder and rapine the onely way to fl●…sh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings party the rich and peaceable goe under that notion are made a prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earle of Suffolke at his Mannor of Ufford neer Debenham in Suffolke into the company out of policy That if the cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the shadow of that Peere The Earle warned of their intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom * of Sir Roger of Bois with a Port-mantue behind him riding by-waies and about ever avoiding the routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons Failing here possesse themselves of the places and houses of the Knights neare and compell the owners to sweare what they list and for greater wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny among those inthralled by this compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephan●… of Hales and Sir Robert of Sall●… which last was no Gentleman borne but as full of honour and loyalty as any man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his valour he was sayes Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords He had not the solidity of judgement as some more subtle than honest call it to accommodate himselfe to the times Like Messala he would be of the Justest side let the fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under colour of following prudence he thought it not in vaine to prop up the falling Government perhaps his judgement may be blamed he stayed not for a fit time had he not failed here he had not ●…ought against heaven against providence whose counsells and decrees are hid from us are in the clouds not to be pierced our understanding is as weake as foolish as providence is certein and wise Our hopes and feares deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any assurance to forsake our duty for the time to come Gods designes are knowne onely to himselfe It is despaire not piety despair too farre from that to leave our Country in her dangerous diseases in her publick calamities the insolency of injust men is a prodigie of their ruine and the incerteinty of thing●… humane may teach us that those we esteeme most established most assured are not seldome soonest overthrown●… Plato would not have men refer all things to fate there is somewhat in our selves sayes he not a little in fortune Ours are but cockfights the least remainder of force and life may strike a necking blow and by an unlooked for victory raise what is falne if death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot be saved by our attempts there is a comlinesse in dying handsomly nor can any man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of Women who cast themselves into the fiery pits where their dead husbands are consumed of Vassals who stab themselves to follow their Prince into the next world of Otho●… Praetorians of the Saguntines burning in their Cities flames What can be so honourable as to dye for or with our Countrey or Faith our Religion or Honesty to die with that which gave us life and liberty and sense of these Litsters Hog-herds vow to burne Norwich unlesse this Knight will come out to them which he does well mounted and forsakes his Horse to please them They seem to honour him highly and offer

killing had not fallen by the sword of Lancaster he had found his grave on Tower-hill or Smithfield where the faithfull lieges of his Crown were torn in pieces by these Canibals The reverence due to the annointed heads of Kings began to fall away and naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded with his owne fatall pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings sword and by his over-muoh hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a mark of the Divinity of of their Gods that they bestowed benefits upon mortal men and took nothing from them The Clownes of the Idoll upon this rule were not very heavenly they were the meeke ones of those times the onely inheritours of right the kingdom was made a prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-kings of the Commons so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the title of the Rebellion spoke fair was sh●…wn somewhat of ambition and no little of injust private interest no little of self-seeking which the good of the people in pretence onely was to give way to and no wonder for the good of the people properly was meeraly to be intended of themselvs and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other men out of their possessions firing their houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods blessing any evidence of his owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then tho face of things estates were dangerous every Rich man was an enemy mens lives were taken away without either offence or tryall their reign was but a continuation of horrible injuries the Lawes were not onely silent but dead The Idolls fury was a Law and Faith and Loyaltie and Obedience to lawfull power were damnable Servants had the rule over Princes England was near a slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-man living in the times of King EDVVARD the third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased and out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albanes in Henry the sixth's dayes who sayes Bale in his centuries of him writes many the most choice passages of affairs and actions such as no other hath met with In the main and to the substance of things I have made no additions no alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their order No man saies Walsingham can recite fully the mischiefs murders sacriledge and cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the confusion of the combustions flaming in such varietie of places and in the same time Tyler Litster and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the discourse Westbrome is brought in by the halves the lesser Snakes are onely named in the Chronicle What had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but types of Tyler the Idoll and acted nothing but according to the Original according to his great example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knowes all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Cataline Thomas of Lancaster Rebels and Traitors of the former years are Canonised by the Monks generally the enemies of their Kings miracles make their Tombes illustrious and their Memories sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abho●…ed every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the world the enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pitied THE IDOL OF THE CLOWNES THe Reigne of King Richard the second was but a throw of State for so many yeares a Feaver to whose distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by fits * the forrain part onely continuing faithfull in the fourth yeare of his reigne and fifteenth of his Age the dregs and off scum of the Commons unite into bodies in severall parts of the Kingdome and forme a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clownes which lead the rest and shewed the way of disobedience first Of which may truly be said Though amongst other causes we may attribute it to the indisposition and unseasonablenesse of the age that the fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence heldback the hand the blow had fallen the Government had broke into shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Unkle Earle of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the servants of his house in ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langly Earle of Cambridge after Duke of Yorke with the Lords Beauchamp Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourny with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set saile for Portugall the Duke Iohn of Lancaster another of his Unkles was in Scotland treating a peace when this commotion brake out Though no cause can be given for Seditions those who designe publick troubles can never want pretences Polidore as much out in this story as any gives this reason for this The Polle money sayes he imposed by Parliament a groat sterling upon every head was intollerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custome of England were intollerable not to be indured but we shall find in the tyranny breaking in not onely fifth and tentieth parts and loanes forced out of feare of plunder and death but subsidies in Troops and Regiments by fifties more than Sequeltrations and Compositions not under foot low sales for what had these Rascalls to give but downright Robbery and violent usurpation of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in defence of his Priests who blew the fire and thrust the silly rout into the midst of it He takes it ill that Baal valle he calls him should be supposed by I know not what slaterers of the Nobles to have filled these sailes to have let these windes out of their Caverns In the fourth yeare of this King sayes the Monk●… there was a grievous Tax exacted in Parllament after cause of great trouble every Religious paid half a Mark every Secular Priest as much every Lay-man or Woman 12d This might discontent the people but who prepared the Mutineers for such dangerous impressions who fell in with them after and pushed them forward will be soon found Frois●… sart complaines of the servitude of the villanes or Bond-men now Names worne out a miserable sort of drudges frequentth knowne here in the Saxon times excluded from any right of propriety sold and passed away with the Mannour or Lands to