their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors
dispend a thousand Marks a day which I have the rather noted to shew how the Kingdom flourish'd as well as the King gaining as all wise States do by their layings out for the whole Revenues of the Crown in his Grand-fathers days were esteem'd to be not much above a hundred thousand Marks a year Five years the French King continued Prisoner here in England time enough to have determin'd the Fortune of that great Kingdom and dissolv'd their Canton'd Government into parts had it not been a Body consisting of so many strong Limbs and so abounding with Spirits that it never fainted notwithstanding all its loss of Blood but scorn'd to yield though King Edward came very near their heart having wounded them in the most mortal part their Head The Scotch King could not recover his Liberty in double the time being the less able to redeem himself for that he was upon the matter but half a King the other half being in the possession of Baliol who to secure a Moyety to himself surrendred the whole to King Edward whose Magnificence vying with his Justice he gave it back again upon Terms more befitting a Brother then a Conqueror shewing therein a Wantonness that no King perhaps besides himself would have been guilty of nor probably he neither had either his People been less bountiful to him or Fortune less constant which to say truth never forsook him till he like his Father forsook himself leaving all Action and bidding adieu to the World ten years before he went out of it declining so fast from the fortieth year of his Government that it may rather be said his famous Son Prince Edward commonly call'd the Black Prince reign'd then he and happy 't was for him that when his own Understanding fail'd him he had so good a Supporter who having it in his power to dispose of Kingdoms whilst he liv'd ought not to be denyed after he dyed the honour of being esteem'd equal to Kings in the Prerogative of a distinct Character Begin we then the Date of his Government from the Battel of Crassy which happening in the Sixteenth year of his Age makes the Computation of his Glory to commence near about the same time his Fathers did who however he was King at fourteen rul'd not till after Mortimer's death by which Battel he so topt the Fortune of France as his Father had that of England that he may be said to have taken thereby Livery in order to the Seisin of that Kingdom And after the Recovery of Calais it may be said the Keys of the Kingdom rather then of that Town were deliver'd into his hand for that he therewith open'd all the Gates of almost every Town he came to till the King of France incompassed him like a Lion in a Toil with no less then 60000 of the best Men of France and brought him to that streight that it seem'd alike disadvantageous to sight or yield and which made the danger more considerable as things then stood England it self was in some hazard of being lost with him here he seem'd to have been as well accomptable to his Country as to his Father for his Courage and Discretion and how well he acquitted himself appears by the Sequel when forcing Hope out of Despair like fire out of a Flint he necessitated his Men to try for Conquest by shewing them how impossible 't was for him to yield and by that incomparable Obstinacy of his made Fortune so enamour'd of his Courage that she follow'd him wherever he went while his Sword made its way to Victory and his Courtesie to the Affections of the Conquer'd whom he treated with that regard and generosity that many of them were gainers by the loss being dismiss'd with honourable Presents that made his second Conquest over them greater then the first the King of France himself being so well pleas'd with his Bondage that he return'd voluntarily into England after he was redeem'd to meet two Kings more that might be Witness of his Respect and Gratitude In short he was as King of England on the other side the Water as his Father was on this side keeping so splendid a Court in Acquitaine that no less then three Kings came to visit him too all at once these were the King of Majorque Navar and Castile the last of which craving Aid of him against an Usurper who was back'd by an Army consisting of no less then One hundred thousand men if the Writers of those times say true was re-instated accordingly by his single power to shew the World that he could as well make Kings as unmake them His second Brother who had the Title of King by marrying with the King of Castile's Daughter and Heir being principally indebted to him for the honour of that Title and it prov'd a fatal Debt both to him and his Son Richard the Second costing the one his Life the other both Life and Kingdom too for as himself never recover'd the health he lost in undertaking that Expedition so his Son never recover'd the disadvantage put upon him afterward by his Uncle Lancaster who by that means having got the Regency of his drooping Father King Edward who tyred with Action rather then Age fatally submitted to the loss of more years of his Government then he got by his unnatural Anticipation from his own Father and suffer'd himself to be buried alive as we may say under his Cradle put fair for setting his Nephew aside but wanting a Colour for so apparent an Injustice his jealous Father the Black Prince having declar'd him his Successor in his life time to prevent all tricks he thought it enough to make way for his Son to do it and accordingly put such an impression of dislike upon the innocent Youth at his very first Edition as prov'd Indelible in his riper years for the very same day he was presented to take his Grandfathers Seat in Parliament as Heir apparent to the Crown being then but eleven years old he taught him to demand a Subsidy purposely to turn the Peoples blood who were then big with their Complaint of Taxes But possibly he is made more splenetick as well as more politick then he was for it was scarce possible to make the Youth more odious then he had made himself before by disgusting those two potent Factions of the Church and the City of London who to shew how weary they were of his governing the old Child his Father would not after his Death let him longer Rule the young Child his Nephew but purposely depos'd him to the end as they said that he might not depose the other Thus this great King ended as ingloriously as he began who having stept into the Throne a little before he should 't is the less wonder he left it a little before it was expected he would especially if we consider that in out-living the best Wife and the best Son in the World he had a little out-liv'd himself being so unfortunate
as all their Neighbours were to be manacled by the Civil or Roman Law so that in this their shame became their glory whilst being a mixt they yet continued a mighty People and gave the Rule to those that rul'd them Neither was their Discipline in War inferiour to their Government in Peace Witness the long resistance made against those that having conquer'd almost all the World before never wanted fresh Supplies to reinforce their Losses So that the Britains in fighting them v. Oresius l. 6. cap. 7. out of the best Copy of Suetonius encounter'd upon the matter all those numerous and potent Allies that were obliged to take part with them Yet we see upon the very first dispute betwixt them and the Romans their own Writers being Judges they acquitted themselves so well in point of Conduct and Courage that there needs no further Argument to prove they had the better of Caesar then the routing his Horse in the first Expedition and all his ‖ Dion Foot in the second And after they were over-power'd one private Prince with the assistance of nine Provinces only kept all the Legions at a Bay for some years which shews that to be true whereof we had had no proof had not (m) Cic. Aâ—t L. 4. Epist 17. Cicero thought fit to take notice of it in his Letters to his Correspondent Atticus telling him that they had very good Fortifications and Works in the most considerable parts of the Isle which must be understood according to the practice of that time And though he did much yet a Woman did more who rallying up as many of her Country-men as durst dye taught them the way to live by putting them upon the slaughter of 70000 of their chief Veterans reckon'd by Dion to be the greatest loss the Empire ever felt under that effeminate Tyrant Nero and so much the greater by how much Dux Faemina Facti In fine no People disputed their Liberties with less incouragements or more courage and therefore (n) Certè populi quos ille timorum Maximus hand urget leti metus indetuendi Inferrum mens prona viris c Lucan lib. 1. Lucan could not forbear giving them that testimonial And when they yielded 't was rather as I noted before by Composition then Compulsion being as Tacitus reports of the Germans Magis triumphati quam Victi And had the Pen been as much in use as the Sword doubtless they had given as good proof of the one as the other having had the start even of that proud Nation the Romans that undervalued them in that point of Glory so much insisted on their Learning the truest Badge of their so boasted Civility for except it were their Poetry in the beginning and their Oratory in the last place what had the Romans to boast of Can they shew us saith the Learned (o) Seld. Poliolb 166. Selden any steps of the first before Salinator Navius Paccuvius Actius and some few others who did not much precede Caesar or any Constat of the last before Fabius Pictor Valerius Annius and some such whose Names yet survive their Works Or what Records had they of the more useful parts of solid Knowledge as Physick Mathematicks Metaphysicks c. for which the Britains were so fam'd 't is true there was one Book of Physick very early extant amongst them which was said to have been written by Celsus but suspected to be a Translation out of Greek but of the latter sort we find not any Now if they had neither the true knowledge of Nature nor Numbers of Mathematicks nor Metaphysicks as by the confession of some of their (p) Livy Decad 1. Lil. 6. Lucan who makes a scoff at the Immortality of the Soul and mocks the Britains for holding that Opinion best Writers 't is plain they had not how much then had the Britains the start of them especially if it be true which (q) â—â—ld Poliolâ— 166. Bales Century some have indeavoured to prove That (r) Translated by Cornelius Nepes and dedicated to Salust Dates however surnamed Phrygius the very eldest Historian of all the Gentiles was a Britain and if not by birth as (*) Joseph of Enon Joseph of Exeter would infer yet certainly by Education to which Testimony is added that of (s) Lib. 7. c. 5. Pliny cited by Diogenes Laertius Vit. Philosoph to prove that the Greeks themselves who were School-masters to the Romans had their first Rudiments of Knowledge from hence For as the Letters Cadmus brought to Thebes were supposed to have been first brought him from the Galeates or (t) As Vâ—rrâ— de ling. Latin lib. 17. Gauls who as Caesar affirms were but the Britains Scholars So those Timagines carried to Athens are by (u) Lazz l. 6. de Gent. migrat Lazzius more confidently affirmed to have been had from hence which may be something of the cause perhaps why the wise Masters that govern'd that State were call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or as we find it in (x) Lib. de Tranquil c. 3. Seneca 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Against this I know may be objected the Authority of Casar to prove the Britains understood not the Greek Tongue the Objection being grounded upon a Letter of his to Q. Ciser then closely besieged which was written in Greek Characters Nè interceptâ Epistolâ as himself gave the reason ab Hostibus cognoscerentur which can be understood no otherwise then either of some particular Cypher which none but Quintilis had a key to or possibly some such kind of Cryptography as (y) De occulia literarum significatiâ—ne Epist Caii Probus Grammaticus tells us he frequently us'd when he wrote to such of his intimate Friends as Caius Oppius and Balbus Cornelius which was by way of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transposition of Letters commuting the fourth Letter for the first c. after which manner he sometimes wrote likewise to the Senate many of which tricks are in use to this day and may puzzle those of the same Language to find out the meaning How else can Caesar be reconcil'd to himself who tells us that all the Accompts and Reckonings of the Britains were in Greek Cyphers and if he did not yet the Testimony of (a) Strab. l. 4. Strabo clears the point who assures us there was a great Trade driven betwixt them and the Graecians which could not be if they understood not one another But besides this we have some (b) Plato in Câ—â—â—id Authority to induce us to believe that those great Masters Chilo Thales Periander and the profound M. Trismigistus himself were beholding to the Druids for their reputation in the Mathematicks For till their arrival in (c) Circ A. M. 3560. Greece the Graecians saith Plato were but Children in that Science But what need we other proof of their great Learning then what the Romans themselves unwittingly give us doth not Caesar testifie to their knowledge in
Superstructure upon his Foundation Domitian had the good hap I cannot say (c) Being more beholden to the Virtue of his Lieutenants then his own honour to perfect the Work The death of the last King as it was no small discouragement to the Britains the brave Caractacus being at the same time taken Prisoner so it render'd the Romans so insolent that all the Time of (d) Who succeeded Claudius Nero's Government the Story is fill'd with nothing but Relations of Murthers Rapes and Rapines wherein the Virtue of his Lieutenant Suetonius seems to have contested with his Masters Vices for the Soveraignty in suppressing by his Wisdom or qualifying by his Courage their Outrage whom he had commission'd to perpretate all manner of Villanies being a Person of that excellent temper in War and Peace that it could not have been expected the (e) Having lost in one single Battel with him 80000 men by common compute Britains could long have resisted had not the flattery of his Country-men prevail'd as much over him at home as he did over those here Representing the state of things to that effeminate Tyrant not according to the Truth but as they thought most agreeable to his humour Whereupon he and the Consul Petronius Turpilianus that succeeded him being both remov'd that base Fellow Tribellius Maximus took place whose unworthiness was such that it provok'd his own Country-men to rebel as well as the Britains but his Reign ending with his Masters during all the time of Otho Galba and Vitellius his Government whereof he that held longest continu'd not above Eighth Months the Roman State was as busily imploy'd in conquering it self as before in conquering others so that they wholly pretermitted the thoughts of all Foreign Attempts till the entrance of Vespatian who having laid the Foundation of his Greatness here resolv'd to give the Britains the first taste of his Power by sending over those three excellent Generals Petilius Cerealis Julius Frontinus and Julius Agricola against whom there appear'd for the Britains mov'd by the Example of their Neighbours no less then by their own desire of Liberty three men of as great repute that is to say Arviragus whom the Natives after the manner of the Romans had saluted Imperator Britannorum the only Son of Cunobelin left alive Venutius Prince of the Brigantes and Galgacus Prince of the Caledonii These three divided the Forces of the whole Isle betwixt them thinking to have singled out the Roman Generals but they uniting whilst the other fought by Parties I cannot call them Armies routed them as fast as they met with them upon which Arviragus after the end of that sharp War strangely begun and maintain'd by his Sister Voadicia which cost near 100000 Roman lives retir'd into the North where some say he dyed others that he submitted to a Tribute perswaded by his Wife Genissa a Roman Lady and near Kinswoman to Claudius MERIOBELIN date of accession 98 AGRICOLA having by the death or recess rather of the last King as appears by that piece of Flattery of the (f) Juvenal Regem aliquem Capies aut I le Temone Britannorum excidet Arviragus Poet to Domitian his Master clear'd his way over the body of the Isle as far as Sterling in Scotland the non ultra of those days and planted Garrisons in the most convenient places betwixt Glota and Bodotria i. e. the two Arms of the two contrary Seas that run up into the Land there now call'd the Frith of Dunbritton and the Frith of Edenburgh the utmost Limits then design'd having neither desire nor provocation to pursue the Britains any further he resolv'd to crown his Victory with subduing the perversness of those that were already in his power whereby whiles he aspir'd to no less advantage over his Predecessors in point of Glory then he had over his Enemies in point of Power he shew'd the World that they only knew how to Conquer but he how to make good a Conquest The way he took to do this was by permitting the People their own Laws and their own Princes allowing their Kings the Stile State and Complements of Majesty after the rude manner their Ancestors had been serv'd in himself in the mean time using the Roman fashions so as he seem'd rather to tempt them by his Example then compel them by any Law to do the like The King that then rul'd was this Meriadoc whom the Romans call'd Marius suppos'd to be the Son of the last King whom to caress they call'd Muegan as much as to say the Freeman which Complement so irritated those under his Fathers Colleague Galgacus who were driven into the inaccessable parts of Scotland and forc'd to endure all the miseries incident to a barren Soyl and unwholsome Air whilst t'other enjoy'd all blessings but that of Liberty that their Envy turn'd to as great an Animosity against him and his people as against the Romans themselves and from that very time they wasted one another with alternate Incursions till an Enemy that neither of them dream'd of broke in upon them and did them more mischief then the Romans The only Action we find this Marius ingag'd in was that Expedition against the Picts for by that Name continued the custom of going naked and painting their body like their Ancestors the Romans distinguish'd them from the civiliz'd i. e. the subjugated Britains wherein he prov'd so successful in several Battles that the Romans to incourage him and all his Successors whom they design'd as Tacitus tells us to be Servitutis Instrumenta erected a Stone as a Trophy of his victorious memory by the Inscription of Marti Victoria that hath lasted till of late years the Glory whereof is deny'd him by some of our Modern Antiquaries who with more Envy perhaps then Ignorance ascribe it to Marius the Roman Consul with as much reason as Lloyd the British Historian would have him to be that Murigus on whom he fastens so many wonders both he and they being confident that in Relations at this distance no man is of sufficient Authority to suppress any mans fancy much less condemn it COELIBELIN date of accession 129 THE good Fortune of Agricola in reducing the Britains prov'd most unfortunate to himself while the jealous Tyrant his Master thinking the mock Triumph he had made but a little before in Germany was upbraided by the Fame of his real conquest here recall'd him out of ours to send him of an Errand into another World whereby the Britains being left to themselves to contest with the Picts who had chang'd their Natures from the time they chang'd their Names and become of Friends the most mortal Enemies knew not how to resist the approaching storm but were forc'd to give place whiles they made themselves Masters of all the Country about Edenburgh the news whereof being afterward brought to Adrian when he was Emperour he sent over Julius Severus and purpos'd to follow himself in Person to chastize the