so dye ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History THis Epistle containeth no particular Points of History more than the generality of the Argument layeth open for after the Banishment of the Lord Robert Fitz-water and that Matilda was become a Recluse at Dunmow from whence this Reply is imagined to be written the King still earnestly persisting in his Sute Matilda with this chaste and constant Denyall hopes yet at length to find some comfortable Remedy and to rid her self of Doubts by taking upon her this Monastick Habit and to shew that she still beareth in mind his former Cruelty bred by the impatience of his Lust she remembreth him of her Fathers Banishment the lawless Exile of her Allies Friends Do'st thou of Father and of Friends deprive me Then complaining of her Distress that flying thither thinking there to find Relief she seeth her self most assailed where 〈◊〉 hoped to have found most Safety Fled I first hither hoping to have aid Here thus c. After again standing upon the precise Points of Conscience not to cast off this Habit she had taken Vowing my self religiously a Nun. And at last laying open more particularly the Miserie 's sustained by her Father in England the Burning of his Castles and Houses which she proveth to be for her sake as respecting only her Honour more then his Native Country and his own Fortunes And to withstand a Tyrant's lewd desire Beheld his Towns spent in revengefull Fire Knitting up her Epistle with a great and constant Resolution Though Dunmow give no Refuge here at all Dunmow can give my Body Burial FINIS QUEEN ISABEL TO MORTIMER The ARGUMENT Queen Isabel Wife to Edward the Second called Edward Carnarvan and Daughter of Philip de Beau King of France being in the glory of her Youth forsaken by the King her Husband who delighted only in the Company of Pierce Gaveston his Minion and Favourite drew into her especial Favour Roger Mortimer Lord of Wigmore a Man of an invincible Spirit who rising in Arms against the King with Thomas Earl of Lancaster and the Barons was taken e'er he could gather his Power and by the King committed to the Tower of London During his Imprisonment he ordained a Feast in honour of his Birth-day to which he invited Sir Stephen Segrave Lieutenant of the Tower and the rest of the Officers where by means of a Drink prepared by the Queen he cast them all into a heavy sleep and with Ladders of Cords being ready prepared for the purpose he escapeth and flieth into France whilst she sendeth this Epistle complaining of her own Misfortune and greatly rejoycing at his safe Escape THough such sweet comfort comes not now from her As Englands Queen hath sent to Mortimer Yet what that wants may it my Power approve If Lines can bring this shall supply with Love Me thinks Affliction should not fright me so Nor should resume those sundry shapes of Woe But when I fain would find the cause of this Thy absence shews me where my Error is Oft when I think of thy departing hence Sad Sorrow then possesseth ev'ry Sense But finding thy dear Bloud preserv'd thereby And in thy Life my long-wish'd Liberty With that sweet Thought alone my self I please Amidst my Grief which sometimes gives me ease Thus doe extreamest Ills a Joy possess And one Woe makes another Woe seem less That blessed Night that mild-aspected Hour Wherein thou mad'st escape out of the Towre Shall consecrated evermore remain Some gentle Planet in that Hour did reign And shall be happy in the Birth of Men Which was chief Lord of the Ascendant then * Oh how I fear'd that sleepy Juyce I sent Might yet want power to further thine Intent Or that some unseen Mystery might lurk Which wanting order kindly should not work Oft did I wish those dreadfull poys'ned Lees Which clos'd the ever-waking Dragons Eyes Or I had had those Sense-bereaving Stalks That grow in shady Proserpine's dark Walks Or those black Weeds on Lethe Banks below Or Lunarie that doth on Latmus flow Oft did I fear this moist and foggy Clime Or that the Earth wax'd barren now with time Should not have Herbs to help me in this case Such as do thrive on India's parched Face That Morrow when the blessed Sun did rise And shut the Lids of all Heav'n's lesser Eyes Forth from my Palace by a secret Stair * I stole to Thames as though to take the Air And ask'd the gentle Floud as it doth glide If thou didst pass or perish by the Tide If thou didst perish I desire the Stream To lay thee softly on his Silver Team And bring thee to me to the quiet Shoar That with his Tears thou might'st have some Tears more When suddenly doth rise a rougher Gale With that methinks the troubled Waves look pale And sighing with that little Gust that blows With this remembrance seem to knit their Brows Ev'n as this sudden Passion doth affright me The chearfull Sun breaks from a Cloud to light me Then doth the Bottom evident appear As it would shew me that thou wast not there When as the Water flowing where I stand Doth seem to tell me thou art safe on Land * Did Bulloin once a Festival prepare For England Almain Cicill and Navarre When France those Buildings envy'd only blest Grac'd with the Orgies of my Bridall Feast That English Edward should refuse my Bed For that lascivious shameless Ganimed * And in my place upon his Regal Throne To set that Girle-Boy wanton Gavesion Betwixt the Feature of my Face and his My Glass assures me no such diff'rence is * That a foul Witches Bastard should thereby Be thought more worthy of his Love then I. What doth avail us to be Princes Heirs When we can boast our Birth is only theirs When base dissembling Flatterers shall deceive us Of all that our great Ancestors did leave us * And of our Princely Jewels and our Dowres Let us enjoy the least of what is ours When Minions Heads must wear our Monarchs Crowns To raise up Dunghils with our famous Towns Those Beggars-Brats wrapt in our rich Perfumes Their Buzzard-wings imp'd with our Eagles Plumes * And match'd with the brave Issue of our Blood Ally the Kingdom to their cravand Brood Did Longshanks purchase with his conqu'ring Hand * Albania Gascoyne Cambria Ireland That young Carnarvan his unhappy Son * Should give away all that his Father won To back a Stranger proudly bearing down The brave Allies and Branches of the Crown * And did great Edward on his Death-bed give This Charge to them who afterwards should live That that proud Gascoyne banished the Land No more should tread upon the English Sand And have these great Lords in the Quarrel stood And seal'd his last Will with their dearest Blood * That after all this fearfull Massacre The Fall of Beauchamp Lacy Lancaster Another Faithless Favourite should arise To cloud the Sun of our Nobilities * And gloried I in Gaveston's great Fall
forreign King * But unto fair Elizabeth shall leave it Which broken hurt and wounded shall receive it And on her Temple having plac'd the Crown Root out the Dregs Idolatry hath sown And Sion's Glory shall again restore Laid ruine wast and desolate before And from Cinders and rude heap of Stones Shall gather up the Martyrs sacred Bones And shall extirp the power of Rome again And cast aside the heavy yoke of Spain Farewell sweet Gilford know our end is near Heaven is our home we are but Strangers here Let us make haste to go unto the blest Which from these weary worldly labours rest And with these lines my dearest Lord I greet thee Until in Heaven thy Jane again shall meet thee ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History They which begot us did beget this sin SHewing the ambition of the two Dukes their Fathers whose pride was the cause of the utter overthrow of their Children At Durham Pallace where sweet Hymen sang The buildings c. The Lord Gilford Dudley fourth Son to John Dudley Duke of Northumberland married the Lady Jane Gray Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk at Durham house in the Strand When first mine ears were pierced with the same Of Jane proclaimed by a Princess name Presently upon the death of King Edward the Lady Jane was taken as Queen conveyed by Water to the Tower of London for her safety and after proclaimed in divers places of the Realm as so ordained by King Edward's Letters-Patents and his Will My Grandsire Brandon did our House advance By Princely Mary Dowager of France Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk by the French Queen by which Frances he had this Lady Jane This Mary the French Queen was Daughter to King Henry the Seventh by Elizabeth his Queen which happy Marriage conjoyned the Noble Families of Lancaster and York For what great Henry most strove to avoid Noting the distrust that King Henry the Eighth ever had in the Princess Mary his Daughter fearing she should alter the state of the Religion in the Land by matching with a Stranger confessing the right that King Henry's Issue had to the Crown * But unto fair Elizabeth shall leave it A Prophesie of Queen Mary's Barrenness and of the happy and glorious Reign of Queen Elizabeth her restoring of Religion the abolishing of the Romish Servitude and casting aside the Yoke of Spain The Lord Gilford Dudley TO The Lady JANE GRAY AS the Swan singing at his dying hour So I reply from my imprisoning Tow'r Oh could there be that pow'r in my Verse T' express the grief which my sad Heart doth pierce The very Walls that straitly thee inclose Would surely weep at reading of my Woes Let your Eyes lend I l'e pay you ev'ry tear And give you interest if you do forbear Drop for a drop and if you 'll needs have lone I will repay you frankly two for one Perhaps you 'll think your sorrows to appease That words of Comfort fitter were than these True and in you when such perfection liveth As in most grief me now most comfort giveth But think not Jane that cowardly I faint To beg man's mercy by my sad complaint That Death so much my Courage can controle At the departing of my living Soul For if one life a thousand lives could be All those too few to consummate with thee When thou this cross so patiently dost bear As if thou wert incapable of fear And do'st no more this dissolution fly Than if long Age constrained thee to dye Yet it is strange thou art become my Foe And only now add most unto my Woe Not that I loath what most did me delight But that so long depriv'd I'm of thy sight For when I speak complaining of my wrong Straightways thy name possesseth all my Tongue As thou before me evermore did'st lie The present Object to my longing Eye No ominous Star did at thy Birth-tide shine That might of thy sad destiny divine 'T is only I that did thy fall perswade And thou by me a Sacrifice art made As in those Countries where the loving Wives With their kind Husbands end their happy lives And crown'd with Garlands in their Brides Attire Burn with his body in the fun'ral fire And she the worthiest reck'ned is of all Whom least the peril seemeth to appall I boast not of Northumberland's great name * Nor of Ket conquer'd adding to our fame When he to Norfolk with his Armies sped And thence in chains the Rebels Captive led And brought safe peace returning to our dores Yet spread his glory on the Eastern Shores * Nor of my Brothers from whose natural grace Vertue may spring to beautifie our Race * Nor of Gray's match my Children born by thee Of the great bloud undoubtedly to be But of thy Virtue only do I boast That wherein I may justly glory most I crav'd no Kingdoms though I thee did crave It me suffic'd thy only self to have Yet let me say however it befell Methinks a Crown should have become thee well For sure thy Wisdom merited or none * To have been heard with wonder from a Throne When from thy Lips the Counsel to each deed Doth as from some wise Oracle proceed And more esteem'd thy Vertues were to me Than all that else might ever come by thee So chast thy love so innocent thy life As being a Virgin when thou wast a Wife So great a gift the Heav'n on me bestow'd As giving that it nothing could have ow'd Such was the good I did possess of late Er'e worldly care disturb'd our quiet state Er'e trouble did in ev'ry place abound And angry War our former Peace did wound But to know this Ambition us affords One Crown is guarded with a thousand swords To mean Estates mean sorrows are but show'n But Crowns have cares whose workings be unknown * When Dudley led his Armies to the East Of our whole Forces gen'rally possest What then was thought his enterprise could let * Whom a grave Council freely did abet That had the judgment of the pow'rful Laws In ev'ry point to justifie the cause The holy Church a helping hand that laid Who would have thought that these could not have swaid But what alas can Parliaments avail Where Mary's Right must Edward's Acts repeal * When Suffolk's pow'r doth Suffolk's hopes withstand Northumberland doth leave Northumberland And they that should our greatness undergo Us and our Actions only overthrow Er'e greatness gain'd we give it all our heart But being once come we wish it would depart And indiscreetly follow that so fast Which overtaken punisheth our hast If any one do pity our offence Let him be sure that he be far from hence Here is no place for any one that shall So much as once commiserate our fall And we of mercy vainly should but think Our timeless tears th' insatiate Earth doth drink All Lamentations utterly forlorn Dying before they fully can be born Mothers that should their wofull Children rue Fathers in death so kindly bid adieu Friends their dear farewell lovingly to take The faithfull Servant weeping for our sake Brothers and Sisters waiting on our Bier Mourners to tell what we were living here But we alas deprived are of all So fatal is our miserable fall And where at first for safety we were shut Now in dark prison wofully are put And from the height of our ambitious state Lie to repent our arrogance too late To thy perswasion thus I then rely Hold on thy course resolved still to dy And when we shall so happily begone Leave it to Heav'n to give the rightful Throne And with that Health I thee regreet again Which I of late did gladly entertain ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History Nor of Ket conquer'd adding to our fame JOhn Duke of Northumberland when before he was Earl of Warwick in his expedition against Ket overthrow the Rebels of Norfolk and Suffolk encamped at Mount Surrey in Norfolk Nor of my Brothers from whose natural grace Gilford Dudley as remembring in this place the towardness of his Brothers which were all likely indeed to have raised that House of the Dudleys of which he was a Fourth Brother if not suppressed by their Fathers overthrow Nor of Gray's Match my Children born by thee Noting in this place the Alliance of the Lady Jane Gray by her Mother which was Frances the Daughter of Charles Brandon by Mary the French Queen Daughter to Henry the Seventh and Sister to Henry the Eighth To have been heard with wonder from a Throne Seldom hath it ever been known of any woman endued with such wonderful gifts as was this Lady both for her Wisdom and Learning of whose skill in Tongues one reporteth by this Epigram Miraris Janam Graio sermone valere Quo primum nata est tempore Graia fuit When Dudley led his Army to the East The Duke of Northumberland prepared his power at London for his expedition against the Rebels in Norfolk and making hast away appointed the rest of his forces to meet him at New-Market-Heath of whom this saying is reported that passing through Shoreditch the Lord Gray in his company seeing the people in great numbers came to see him he said The people press to see us but none bid God speed us Whom a grave Council freely did abet John Dudley Duke of Northumberland when he went out against Queen Mary had his Commission sealed for the Generalship of the Army by the consent of the whole Council of the Land insomuch that passing through the Council-Chamber at his departure the Earl of Arundel wished that he might have gone with him in that expedition and spend his bloud in the quarrel When Suffolk's pow'r doth Suffolk's hopes withstand Northumberland doth leave Northumberland The Suffolk men were the first that ever resorted to Queen Mary in her distress repairing to her succors whilst she remained both at Keningal and at Fermingham Castle still increasing her Aids until the Duke of Northumberland was left forsaken at Cambridge FINIS
sev'ral Nation And nothing more than England hold in scorn So live as Strangers whereas they were born But thy return in this I do not read Thou art a perfect Gentleman indeed O God forbid that Howards Noble line From ancient Vertue should so far decline The Muses train whereof your self are chief Only to me participate their Grief To sooth their humors I do lend them ears He gives a Poet that his Verses hears Till thy return by hope they only live Yet had they all they all away would give The World and they so ill according be That Wealth and Poets never can agree Few live in Court that of their good have care The Muses friends are every-where so rare Some praise thy Worth that it did never know Only because the better sort do so Whose judgment never further doth extend Than it doth please the greatest to commend So great an ill upon desert doth chance When it doth pass by beastly ignorance Why art thou slack whilst no man puts his hand stand * To raise the mount where Surrey's Towers must Or Who the groundsil of that work doth lay Whilst like a Wand'rer thou abroad do'st stray Clip'd in the Arms of some lascivious Dame When thou shouldst rear an Ilion to thy Name When shall the Muses by fair Norwich dwell To be the City of the learned Well Or Phoebus Altars there with Incense heap'd As once in Cyrrha or in Thebe kept Or when shall that fair hoof-plow'd Spring distill From great Mount-Surrey out of Leonards Hill Till thou return the Court I will exchange For some poor Cottage or some Country Grange Where to our Distaves as we sit and Spin My Maid and I will tell what things have bin Our Lutes unstrung shall hang upon the Wall Our Lessons serve to wrap our Towe withal And pass the Night whiles Winter tales we tell Of many things that long ago befell Or tune such homely Carrols as were sung In Courtly Sport when we our selves were young In prety Riddles to bewray our Loves In questions purpose or in drawing Gloves The Noblest Spirits to Vertue most inclin'd These here in Court thy greatest want do find Others there be on which we feed our Eye * Like Arras-work or such like Image'ry Many of us desire Queen Kath'rines state But very few her Vertues imitate Then as Vlysses Wife write I to thee Make no reply but come thy self to me ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Then Windsors or Fitz-Geralds Families THe cost of many Kings which from time to time have adorned the Castle at Windsor with their Princely Magnificence hath made it more Noble than that it need to be spoken of now as though obscure and I hold it more meet to refer you to your vulgar Monuments for the Founders and Finishers thereof than to meddle with matter nothing to the purpose As for the Family of the Fitz-Geralds of whence this excellent Lady was lineally descended the original was English though the Branches did spread themselves into distant Places and Names nothing consonant as in former times it was usual to denominate themselves of their Manours or Forenames as may partly appear in that which ensueth the light whereof proceeded from my learned and very worthy Friend Master Francis Thin Walter of Windsor the Son of Oterus had to Issue William of whom Henry now Lord Windsor is descended and Robert of Windsor of whom Robert the now Earl of Essex and Gerald of Windsor his third Son who married the Daughter of Rees the great Prince of Wales of whom came Nesta Paramour to Henry the First Which Gerald had Issue Maurice Fitz-Gerald Ancestor to Thomas Fitz-Maurice Justice of Ireland buryed at Trayly leaving Issue John his Eldest Son first Earl of Kildare Ancestor to Geraldine and Maurice his second Son first Earl of Desmond To raise the Mount where Surrey's Tow'rs must stand Alluding to the sumptuous House which was afterward builded by him upon Leonard's Hill right against Norwich which in the Rebellion of Norfolk under Ket in King Edward the Sixth's time was much defaced by that impure Rabble Betwixt the Hill and the City as Alexander Nevil describes it the River of Yarmouth râ—…s having West and South thereof a Wood and a little Village called Thorp and on the North the pastures of Mousholl which contain about six miles in length and breadth So that besides the stately greatness of Mount Surrey which was the Houses name the Prospect and Sight thereof was passing pleasant and commodious and no where else did that increasing evil of the Norfolk Fury enkennel it self then but there as it were for a manifest token of their intent to debase all high things and to profane all holy Like Arras-work or rather Imagery Such was he whom Juvenal taxeth in this manner Truncoque similimus Herme Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quam quod Illi marmorcum caput est tua vivit Imago Seeming to be born for nothing else but Apparel and the outward appearance intituled Complement with whom the ridiculous Fable of the Ape in Aesop sorteth fitly who coming into a Carver's House and viewing many Marble Works took up the Head of a Man very cunningly wrought who greatly in praising did seem to pity it that having so comely an outside it had nothing within like empty Figures walk and talk in every place at whom the Noble Geraldine modestly glanceth FINIS The Lady Jane Gray TO THE Lord GILFORD DVDLEY The ARGUMENT After the death of that vertuous Prince King Edward the Sixth the Son of that famous King Henry the Eighth Jane the Daughter of Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk by the consent of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was proclaimed Queen of England being married to Gilford Dudley the fourth Son of the aforesaid Duke of Northumberland which Match was concluded by their ambitious Father who went about by this means to bring the Crown unto their Children and to dispossess the Princess Mary eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth Heir to King Edward her Brother Queen Mary rising in Arms to claim her rightful Crown taketh the said Jane Gray and the Lord Gilford her Husband being lodged in the Tower for their more safety which place being lastly their Pallace by this means becomes their Prison where being severed in sundry prisons they write these Epistles one to another MIne own dear Lord since thou art lock'd from me In this disguise my love must steal to thee Since to renue all Loves all kindness past This refuge scarcely left yet this the last My Keeper coming I of thee enquire Who with thy greeting answers my desire Which my tongue willing to return again Grief stops my words and I but strive in vain Where-with amaz'd away in hast he goes When through my Lips my Heart thrusts forth my Woes But then the doors that make a doleful sound Drive back my words that in the noise are drown'd Which somewhat hush'd the Eccho doth record And