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friend_n	appear_v	great_a	time_n	915	5	3.1574	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40792	The history of the most unfortunate prince King Edward II with choice political observations on him and his unhappy favourites, Gaveston & Spencer, containing several rare passages of those times, not found in other historians / found among the papers of, and (supposed to be) writ by Henry Viscount Faulkland ...	Falkland, Henry Cary, Viscount, d. 1633.; Fannant, Edward.	1680 (1680)	Wing F314; ESTC R8909	44,640	88

Pope a daily instigation to pity and reform so great and gross an Error On which an Admonition is presently sent out to the French King that he cause immediately the Queen of England to depart forth of his Dominions Whilst this device was in action the English discontented Barons send privily to the Queen informing her that they were almost crush'd to pieces with their suffering They solicit her to hasten her return and promise really to engage themselves and their Estates in her Quarrel With a joyful heart as it deserves she entertains this loving proffer And the more to advance her declining Affairs she instantly acquaints her Brother with the tender He had then newly received his Summons from the Pope which taking out of his Pocket he delivers her back wishing her to peruse and read it The amazed Queen when she beheld so sad a Sentence falls humbly on her Knees and desires That his Majesty would grant her but so much favour that she might more truly inform his Holiness and justifie her self by a fairer and noble trial With Tears she instanceth the malice of her Adversaries that had taken so strange a course both to abuse and wrong her Her Brother glad of such a Protection to shadow his dishonourable and unnatural falshood lets her know the necessity of his Obedience and that he must not for her sake adventure the Censure and Interdiction of himself and a whole Kingdom He wisheth her to arm her self with patience and to return and make a peace with her Husband in which Act himself would use both the persuasion and strength of his best Power and Interest letting her withal know that she had but a short time to deliberate for she must instantly leave his Kingdom Scarcely had he ended these his last unwelcom words when away he flings with a seeming discontented shew of sorrow rejoyceing inwardly that he had freed himself of the Expence of her Entertainment and found so fair a colour to avoid the Justice of her daily Importunity The drooping Queen thus abandoned with an amazed grief relates this unkind sad passage to her faithful Servants Cane and Mortimer Their valiant hearts make good the loss of their hopes they accuse the injustice of time and exclaim against the French unnatural baseness Mortimer whose inflamed Passion flew a higher pitch breaks out and with a bold freedom would have fallen to a bitter Expostulation The Queen that knew the danger and was loth to hazard that little miserable freedom she had left with sweet and mild persuasions reclaims him to a milder temper She had a second doubt lest in such a contestation she might be sent back against her will to her Husband This makes her temporize and cunningly seem to provide for a voluntary return which might prevent that danger She failing in the Master yet tasts a-new his Servants and leaves no means unattempted to bring about and alter so hard and strickt a Censure They that were the first betrayers of her hopes do now with a more confidence and constancy express it and with one voice sing the same Tune with their Master declining Misery the touchstone of Friendship finds it self shunn'd like some infectious Feaver The sunshine of Fortune hath as many Professors as Beams but if her Glory be once eclipsed they all with a coward baseness seek some other succour This Lesson that is so frequent and familiar should guide our election more by judgment than affection They are not to be chosen or valued that in the pretence of Love though it be for our proper good or service will act any thing that is base and unworthy the same in the least change will not be squeamish for a poor advantage to confirm their former practice though it be to our loss or destruction Where Virtue guides our choice it begins with truth and honour ending with a like resplendent glory No worldly cross nor height of affliction lessens the worth and value of such a Friend who like a goodly Rock in fury of the greatest Storms makes good his proper station Mutual correspondency in affections ought to be pure and innocent if private respects taint the sincerity of the intentions it makes this traffick rather a commerce than friendship Opinion of faith is a powerful Motive yet not weighty enough unless it become as well with real ability as appearance the subject of our Election But to proceed The Queen being in this distressed Agony finds an unexpected refuge The gracious God of Heaven who never forsakes those which are his sends her a comfort when her dying hopes were almost sunk and desperate Robert of Artois a Man as truly Valiant as Noble was one of the first that in the French Court had tendered the Queen his Service He was a wise grave and steddy well resolved Gentleman his first Devotion was not led by matter of Form or Complement but was truly grounded on a true Compassion and Honour This brave Friend beholding with a noble eye the Vanity of his fellow Friends and Courtiers and looking into the Misery of the Queens forsaken Condition sets up his rest to appear like himself a Friend in all her Fortune firm and constant In this resolution he waits a fitting opportunity to let her see and know it The time was favourable he finds her in her melancholy Chamber confused in her restless thoughts with many sad distractions She fancying the occasion of the coming of so great a person was great and weighty with a silent and attentive Ear expects his Message Madam quoth he It is the most excellent part of Wisdom with an equal Virtue to entertain the different kinds of Fortune This World is but a meer composition of Troubles which seems greater or less as is the quality of the Heart that entertains them I confess the Justice of your Grief and truly share it but Tears and Sorrow are not means to relieve or right you The just Heavens assist those that with an active and lively hope invoke their Succour The tenderness of your Sex and former free Condition is yet a stranger to these Trials Time will let you know they are the familiar attendants of our frail structure of flesh and blood when you will confess it too great a weakness to sink under the burthen of our Afflictions For your own goodness Noble Queen erect and elevate your thus dejected Spirits behold in me the Character of an unworthy but true Friend that am resolv'd my Life and State shall attend and run with you the self-same Fortune You may no longer make this unthankful Climate the place of your Birth the stage of your abiding the way is pav'd with Gold to your destruction Wherefore if my Advice may sway let speed prevent your danger The confines of the sacred Empire are near adjoining where are many brave Princes who may happily afford you Succour at the worst you may there enjoy a more assured peace and safety Neither do I presume to

not more dangerous than dishonourable But their Reasons were just and weighty the Earl of Lancaster had sent Sir Robert Holland to raise his Tenants and Friends which he hoped would in time reinforce his Army Valence Earl of Pembrook that commands his Master's Forces seeing the disorder of their going off lays hold of the advantage and chargeth them so hotly that they break and betake themselves to their heels with great losses and confusion Holland entrusted by the Earl of Lancaster having accordingly performed the work he was employed in marching up to the Rescue is advertized of the State of their Affairs which makes him seek his own Peace and resign this supply wholly up to be disposed of at the King's Will and Pleasure The Supply so unexpected is graciously received and there is a set resolution to employ it to the best advantage The despairing Lords with their Adherents with much ado recover Pomfret there a second Deliberation is taken which held it the safest course to pass on and to possess the Castle of Donstanborough which was deemed a strength tenable enough until they could reinforce their Party or work their own Conditions This Resolution is presently attempted with more hast than fortune Sir Andrew Harkely meets and encounters them at Burrowbrig where Hertford Clifford and others died honourably in maintaining a brave defence while Lancaster Mowbray and many of their Adherents were taken and with their Heads paid the ransom of their Errors The Spencers like two furious Tigers that had seized their Prey give not their incensed Master leave to deliberate on the weight of so sad a Work the Lives of many brave Subjects are taken away in an instant and each part of the Kingdom is stained with loss of that noble Blood that had been much more gloriously spent in a Foreign War than in these Domestic and Civil Tumults Edward that was apparently guilty of too many other Vices drowns their memory in this so cruel and bloody a Tyranny The wreaking Blood of so many brave Gentlemen so unfortunately and untimely lost doth cry for vengeance and hurry on the destruction of the chief and principal Actors Mercy should precede the severity of Justice if not to all yet to some since they were not alike guilty If Lancaster had been of so unnoble a Disposition the Spencers had neither had time nor cause to rejoyce in his Ruin How often had they by a full advantage had Power of these their Enemies yet made it evident their aims were not Blood but Reformation And assuredly in this their last Act their Intents towards the Crown were innocent in all other respects than the desire of supporting it with more Honour As things fell afterwards out it had been to the King a Happiness if their Arms had prevailed for this Victory was the principal and fundamental Cause of his ensuing Ruin Fear and the expectation of danger kept both him and his Favourites in a better temper so long as there was so strong a Bridle Certainly in the Regiment of a Kingdom it is a wise and discreet Consideration to maintain and uphold a divided Faction and to countenance them so that the one may be still a counterpoise to the other by this means the King shall be more truly served and informed The Subject that is too far exalted and hath no one to contradict or question him considers not the Justice but the Means to preserve him by which the Judgment of the King is taxed and he is robb'd of the Hearts of his People The greater the height the stronger is the working to maintain it which seldom goes alone but is accompanied for the most part with those State-Actions of Impiety and Injustice which draws with it so perpetual an envy and hatred that it leads him headlong to a fatal and dishonourable Conclusion Though the Fury of this enraged King had so fully acted this bloody Tragedy yet Mortimer is spared rather out of Forgetfulness than Pity whose Life had been more available than all these that with so great a speed had felt his Rigour But he is reserved for a second course to teach the Spencers that same legem talionis and Edward the plain Song of his Error The Kingdom seems now in better Peace and setled the principal Pillars of the Common-wealth are taken away and those which remained are utterly disheartned in the danger of so fresh an Example This gains such a liberty to these triumphing Sycophants that they make the whole Kingdom as it were the just Fruits of an absolute Conquest The King approves and maintains their Actions giving them the Regal Power for their Warranty All kind of insolent and unjust Oppressions are now confidently practised without contradiction or question No Exaction or unlawful Action is left unattempted while the grieved Kingdom languisheth under the burden yet durst not stir to redress it The great Ones suffer basely beyond their Birth or Honour yet look faintly one upon another not daring to revenge their Quarrel The Commons murmuring complain yet find not a Man that will give them heart or leading The watchful Spencers that saw and knew the general hatred and infamy of their own conditions lessen not their height or fear the Sequel With a politic care they use their best means to prevent it The King's Humour naturally vicious they feed with all the proper objects that might please or more betray his senses They strive to make him alike hateful to his Subjects that in the change of Fortune they might together run one and the self-same hazard There is yet another piece of State to this great work as proper Edward is but a Man and a Creature in nothing more constant than his Affections yet these with age and time may alter this gap must be so stop'd that they may be more assured Hugh the younger of the Spencers who had a searching Brain wise and active believes this work had two several dependences the one to keep him in continual Fear the other in a perpetual Want These being marshalled with Discretion he knew would knit fast his Master's Love and add to the opinion of his Wisdom and Fidelity imposing a kind of necessary Impulsion still to continue him In his Breast alone was lock'd all the passages and mysteries of State whereby he was most able to provide for the future inconveniences From this ground with a kind of loose scorn he continues the French Correspondence and secretly contriveth a continuance of the Scotish Rebellion He omits no Act of Contempt against the antient Nobility that they might in the sence of their disgrace be or at least dayly threaten some new Combustion The confluence of so many threatning dangers work the wished effect and keep the king in perpetual fear and agitation The ill success of his Armies and Expeditions in their Memory help strongly to encrease it Yet is not his faithful Servant neglective in the second and remaining part He so orders his

and humble Message The Tenour whereof lets him know their Intentions were fair and honest and the Arms thus levied were rather to defend than offend his Person only they in all humility desire he would be graciously pleased to remove and punish those Vipers which had too near a Room in his Royal Heart whereby they had overthrown and undone the Peace and Tranquillity of the Kingdom The King that fears is enforc'd to believe he knew their Informations were just and he had no Power to deny or withstand them He assures a Reformation to make it more real he adjourns it to the ensuing Parliament which is immediately summoned to appear at London The jealous Lords that too well knew the cunning and hatred of their malicious Adversaries appear like themselves bravely attended with a Crew of lusty Yeomen well Arm'd which stiled this The Parliament of White Bands The Major seeing such a Confluence from all parts of the Kingdom so ill enclined and well appointed with a careful Providence reinforceth the City Guards and planteth a strong Watch throughout all the strengths and parts of his Jurisdiction This great Assembly being now met the complaining Barons find in both Houses a ready Belief and as sudden a Censure A solemn Declaration gives the King knowledge of their Sentence which commands both the Spencers Father and Son into perpetual Exile The King as weak in his disability as wilful in the least advantage gives a sad and unwilling consent which being known gives the Spencers no time of Imparleance their Judgment is immediately put in Execution and they find more Servants than they desired to attend them to Dover where they are immediately ship'd to go seek a new Fortune The Elder whose Snowy age and more Innocence deserved Pity makes his Tears witness his true sorrow and his Tongue unfold them He taxeth his Son's Vanity and Ambition and his own Weakness that had so easily consented to his Ruin He laments his misfortune that in the Winter of his Age had cast him from his Inheritance and had made him the Sea-mark and scorn of a whole Kingdom He confesseth the folly that led him by indirect means to the preservation of his high and ill acquired Greatness He wisheth his carriage had been such that in this so sad a change of Fortune he might have found either Pity or Assistance But it is the inseparable Companion of Greatness that is gotten in the By-way and not by a just Desert or Vertue It labours to support it self more by cunning and falshood than by a sweet and winning temper when it is of all other the most erroneous Maxim that believes Affections can be in a subordinate way gotten or assured They are the proper Functions of the Soul which move alone in their own course without force or the least impulsion All other ways are but Temporary Provisions that serve the present advantage but he that by a just Desert wins the love and belief of his worth hath laid a sure Foundation making his Honour his own and the Succession hereditary and permanent to his everlasting Glory These imperious Servants thus removed the Father in obedience of his Doom betakes himself to a Foreign Quietness The Son of a more turbulent and revengeful Spirit keeps still a Seaboard in the skirts of the Kingdom and falling short in Power to requite the Authors of his disgrace he expresseth his malice to the whole Nation The Merchants free from all suspitions in their Voyages and Returns are pillaged and rifled and he the principal Actor Such a Domestic Piracy begets a general terror and exclamation which fills the King's ears and presseth as it required a speedy prevention or remedy He knew the Action was foul but it was one of his own that had done it and such a one that was too dearly valued to be either persecuted or punished He studies first to satisfie his own Passion before he right this injurious carriage against the Subject This makes him reject the wholesom Admonitions of Friends the Validity of his Laws and those fearful Apparitions that present him with the danger of so foul an Enterprize while with an Example new and full of assured hazard he repeals the sentence of their Exile This Act gave him too large a time of Repentance and may be a befitting instance to all ensuing posterity The Actions of a Crown are Exemplary and should be clean pure and innocent the stains of their Errors dye not with them but are registred in the story of their Lives either with Honour or Infamy But to proceed in this Historical Relation The Spencers thus recalled and reinvested in their former Favour they express themselves in another kind and now by a strong hand strive to crush by degrees all those of the adverse Faction Sir Bartholomew Baldsmer was the first that tasted their fury and injustice His Castle of Leedes in Kent under a pretended and feigned Title is surprized and taken from him without a due Form or any Legal Proceeding Their return and the abrogation of that Law that banished them was provocation enough there needed not this second Motive to enflame the hearts of the angry Barons But when the unjust Oppression of the Knight their Ally and Confederate was divulged and came to their ears they vow a bitter Revenge and make speed to put it in Execution They see the Fruits of their dalliance and long abused confidence and waken out of that slumber that had fed him with the Chimera's of so dull and cold a proceeding The King who formerly had been so often surprized in time arrives to provide a Remedy he knew his Arms and not his Tongue must plead the injustice of his Actions wherein if he again failed he feared another manner of Proceeding The Spencers that evidently saw the eminency of their own dangers make it their Master-piece to crush the Serpent in the head before it grew to perfection They knew the height of their Offences were beyond the hope of mercy and there was no way left of assurance but that which they must wade through in blood and make good with the Sword their Lives or else be sure to lose them An Army is provided and appears at Shrewsbury almost before it was bruited The first exploit seiseth the two Mortimers that had begun again their former Invasion of the Spencers Their strength was great enough for such an Incursion but much too weak to withstand or encounter this Royal Army This first hansel so fortunate gives life to their Adversaries and Imprisons them in the Tower before their Associates could be truly informed or ready to relieve them There is now left no time to dispute The Barons must with their Arms warrant their Proceedings or they must miscarry in the Action They had soon gathered a strength with which they resolve to encounter the King at Burton The knowledge of the great Power that came against them and their own Weakness wins them to a retreat