Selected quad for the lemma: justice_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
justice_n	chief_a	lord_n	plea_n	5,523	5	9.8646	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28237	The history of the reigns of Henry the Seventh, Henry the Eighth, Edward the Sixth, and Queen Mary the first written by the Right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban ; the other three by the Right Honourable and Right Reverend Father in God, Francis Godwyn, Lord Bishop of Hereford.; Historie of the raigne of King Henry the Seventh	Bacon, Francis, 1561-1626.; Godwin, Francis, 1562-1633. Rerum Anglicarum Henrico VIII, Edwardo VI, et Maria regnantibus annales. English.; Godwin, Morgan, 1602 or 3-1645.	1676 (1676)	Wing B300; ESTC R19519	347,879	364

is and from whom cometh both the will and the Deed. But yet it is agreeable to the Person that he beareth though unworthy of the Thrice-Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church Whereunto he is also invited by the Example in more ancient time of King Henry the Fourth of England the First Renowned King of the House of Lancaster Ancestor though not Progenitor to your King who had a purpose towards the end of his time as you know better to make an Expedition into the Holy Land and by the Example also present before his eyes of that Honourable and Religious War which the King of Spain now maketh and hath almost brought to perfection for the Recovery of the Realm of Granada from the Moors And although this Enterprize may seem vast and unmeasured for the King to attempt that by his own Forces wherein heretofore a Conjunction of most of the Christian Princes hath found work enough yet his Majesty wisely considereth that sometimes smaller Forces being united under one Command are more effectual in Proof though not so promising in Opinion and Fame than much greater Forces variously propounded by Associations and Leagues which commonly in a short time after their beginnings turn to Dissociations and Divisions But my Lords that which is as a Voice from Heaven that called the King to this Enterprize is a Rent at this time in the House of the Ottomans I do not say but there hath been Brother against Brother in that House before but never any that had refuge to the Arms of the Christians as now hath Gemes Brother unto Bajazeth that reigneth the far braver man of the two the other being between a Monk and a Philosopher and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes than able to weild the Scepter of so warlike an Empire This therefore is the King our Master 's memorable and heroical Resolution for an Holy War And because he carrieth in this the person of a Christian Soldier as well as of a great Temporal Monarch he beginneth with Humility and is content for this cause to beg Peace at the hands of other Christian Kings There remaineth only rather a Civil Request than any essential part of our Negotiation which the King maketh to the King your Sovereign The King as the World knoweth is Lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain The Marriage of the Heir belongeth to him as Guardian This is a private Patrimonial Right and no business of Estate yet nevertheless to run a fair course with your King whom he desires to make another Himself and to be one and the same thing with him his Request is That with the King's Favour and Consent he may dispose of her Marriage as he thinketh good and make void the intruded and pretended Marriage of Maximilian according to Justice This my Lords is all that I have to say desiring your pardon for my weakness in the delivery THus did the French Ambassadors with great shew of their King's affection and many sugred words seek to adulce all matters between the two Kings having two things for their ends The one to keep the King quiet till the Marriage of Britain was past and this was but a Summers-fruit which they thought was almost ripe and would be soon gathered The other was more lasting and that was to put him into such a temper as he might be no disturbance or impediment to the Voyage for Italy The Lords of the Council were silent and said only That they knew the Ambassadors would look for no answer till they had reported to the King and so they rose from Council The King could not well tell what to think of the Marriage of Britain He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to impatronize himself of the Duchy but he wondred he would bring into his House a litigious Marriage especially considering who was his Successor But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain as a quarrel for War and that of Naples as a Wrench and mean for Peace being well advertised how strongly the King was bent upon that Action Having therefore conferred divers times with his Council and keeping himself somewhat close he gave a direction to the Chancellor for a formal Answer to the Ambassadors and that he did in the presence of his Council And after calling the Chancellor to him apart bade him speak in such language as was fit for a Treaty that was to end in a Breach and gave him also a special Caveat that he should not use any words to discourage the Voyage of Italy Soon after the Ambassadors were sent for to the Council and the Lord Chancellor spake to them in this sort MY Lords Ambassadors I shall make answer by the King's Commandment unto the eloquent Declaration of you my Lord Prior in a brief and plain manner The King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with the King your Master But of this there needeth no repetition For if it be between them as it was it is well if there be any alteration it is not words that will make it up For the Business of Britain the King findeth it a little strange that the French King maketh mention of it as matter of well-deserving at his hand For that Deserving was no more but to make him his Instrument to surprize one of his best Confederates And for the Marriage the King would not meddle in it if your Master would marry by the Book and not by the Sword For that of Flanders if the Subjects of Burgundy had appealed to your King as their Chief Lord at first by way of Supplication it might have had a shew of Justice But it was a new form of Process for Subjects to imprison their Prince first and to slay his Officers and then to be Complainants The King saith That sure he is when the French King and himself sent to the Subjects of Scotland that had taken Arms against their King they both spake in another Stile and did in Princely manner signifie their detestation of Popular Attentates upon the Person or Authority of Princes But my Lords Ambassadors the King leaveth these two actions thus That on the one side he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you concerning them and on the other that he doth not apprehend them so deeply as in respect of them to refuse to treat of Peace if other things may go hand in hand As for the War of Naples and the Design against the Turk the King hath commanded me expresly to say That he doth wish with all his heart to his good Brother the French King that his Fortunes may succeed according to his hopes and honourable intentions And whensoever he shall hear that he is prepared for Grecia as your Master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a Peace of the King so the King will then beg of him a part in that War

our advantages We charge them furiously the Scots amazedly fly many are slain many taken more plunged in the neighbouring Fens and taken by Scottish Freebooters sold to us Among the Captives were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassels the Lords Saintclare Maxwell Admiral of Scotland Fleming Somerwell Oliphant and 〈◊〉 besides two hundred of the better sort and eight hundred common Souldiers The consideration of this overthrow occasioned as he 〈◊〉 by the froward rashness of his own Subjects and the death of an English Herald slain in Scotland so surcharged him with rage and grief that he fell sick of a Fever and died in the three and thirtieth year of his age and two and thirtieth of his reign leaving his Kingdom to the usually unhappy government of a Woman a Child scarce eight daysold The chief of the Captives being conveyed to the Tower were two days after brought before the King's Council where the Lord Chancellour reprehended their treachery who without due denuntiation of War invaded and spoiled the Territories of their Allies and committed many outrages which might excuse any severe courses which might in justice be taken with them Yet his Majesty out of his natural Clemenoy was pleased to deal with them beyond their deserts by freeing them from the irksomness of a strict imprisonment and disposing of them among the Nobles to be by them entertained until he should otherwise determine of them By this time King James his death had possessed Henry with new hopes of uniting Britain under one Head England had a Prince and Scotland a Queen but both so young that many accidents might dissolve a contract before they came to sufficiency Yet this seeming a course intended by the Divine Providence to extirpate all causes of enmity and discord between these neighbouring Nations a Marriage between these young Princes is proposed With what alacrity and applause the proposition was on both sides entertained we may conceive who have had the happiness to see that effected which they but intended Which being a matter of so sweet a consequence it is to be wondered at that the conspiracy of a few factious spirits should so easily hinder it The hope of it prevailed with the King for the liberty of the Captives conditionally that they should leave Hostages for their return if Peace were not shortly concluded which as also the furtherance of this so wished conjunction they faithfully promised ANNO DOM. 1543. REG. 35. AFter their short Captivity the Scottish Lords having been detained only twelve days at London on New-years-day began their journey towards Scotland and with them Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus whom his Son-in-Law King James had a little before his death intended to recall Fifteen years had he and his Brother George lived Exiles in England Henry out of his Royal Bounty allowing to the Earl a Pension of a thousand Marks and to his Brother of five hundred The sudden return of these captive Lords caused in most as sudden a joy Only the Cardinal of St. Andrews who had by forgery made himself Regent and his Faction could willingly have brooked their absence They came not as freed from a Captivity but as Ambassadors for Peace by them earnestly perswaded which by the happy conjunction of these Princes might be concluded to perpetuity But the Cardinal with his factious Clergy the Queen Dowager and as many as were affected to the Flower 〈◊〉 interposed themselves for the good of France Yet notwithstanding the Cardinal's fraud being detected he is not only deposed from his Regency and James Hamilton Earl of Arren substituted but also committed to custody whence afterwards making an escape he was the author of more garboils In the mean time the Marriage of the young Queen and other conditions proposed to the Estate of Scotland by Sir Ralph Sadler the King's Ambassador are fully assented unto and Hostages promised for the performance of them But the adverse Faction became so prevalent that the Hostages were not delivered at the day neither did the Captive Nobility render themselves in England Only Gilbert Kenneda Earl of Cassels like another Regulus had rather commit himself to the mercy of his enemies than prostitute his Honour to the foul taint of base infidelity His Brethren had become Pledges for his return the importunity nay violence of his friends could not deter him from redeeming them So to London he came where the bountiful King duly honouring him for his constancy instead of receiving a Ransom gave him one dismissing him and his Brothers fraught with honour and rewards The Scots falling off from their late Agreement the King commandeth stay to be made of all their Ships and confiscateth their goods sends Letters full of threats and just complaints to the Estates at Edenborough Blaming them for arrogantly rejecting his Alliance the want whereof must needs be prejudicial to them neither had they only rejected it but unmindful of former benefits had sown seeds of new War and forced him to Arms. But Letters proving ineffectual Scotland is by the frontier Garrisons invaded in three several places forty Scots making resistance are slain five and fifty Villages burned five hundred and sixty prisoners taken and a booty brought into England of three thousand five hundred head of cattel eight hundred Horses and seven thousand Sheep beside great provision of housholdstuff But this obstinacy of the Scots proceeded not only from themselves France and Scotland were ever combined against England so that to invade one was to draw on a War with both We had been often victorious in France whereof many portions aneiently belonged to Us if we should make any claim to all or part of our Inheritance Scotland would serve either to distract our Forces or to transfer the seat of War nearer home The uniting of England and Scotland would by securing us at home facilitate our Enterprizes upon France These were motives sufficient for Francis notwithstanding the long inviolate amity between him and Henry secretly to cross our designs in Scotland Whereof Henry could not long be sensible and not revenge Wherefore he proclaims open hostility with France as he had already with Scotland and reconciles himself with the Emperour before thought irreconciliable in regard of his Aunts disgrace who professed that all causes of difference between them were buried with her yet is it certain that unto the Pope he accused Henry to have dispatched her by poison But now they are become Confederates and an aid of ten thousand English sent to joyn with the Imperials Landrecy a Town lately taken from the Emperour by the French is the first exercise of our Arms. The Emperour also coming in Person it is invested with forty thousand men is furiously battered and the Souldiers brought to the distress of half a provant loaf of Bread a day and to drink Water Francis being certified of their wants assembles his Forces draws near the Emperour feeding him with hope

the last year of Henry his Reign who having tired himself with the French Wars began at length seriously to bethink himself of Peace Neither was Francis less desirous of his Friendship To this end Deputies from both sides meet often between Guisnes and Ardres For Henry the Earl of Hertford Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Sir William Paget Secretary of Estate and Dr. Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury For Francis the Admiral Annebault Raymond first President of Rouan and Boucherel Secretary After many consultations a Peace was concluded on these Conditions That Francis within eight years should pay fourscore hundred thousand Crowns to the King as well for the arrerage of his Pension as for many other expences made by him in War in the fortification of Boloign and of the Countrey And upon receipt of the said Summ Henry should deliver unto the King of France Boloign and all the Countrey belonging to it with the ancient places or newly edified by him Mont-Lambert the Tower of Ordre Ambleteul and others with all the Artillery and Munition in them For the confirmation whereof the Viscount Lisle was sent Ambassador into France and from thence came the Admiral Annebault to receive the Oaths of each King and the Peace was Proclaimed in London On the sixteenth of July were burnt at London for their Religion John Lassels Nicholas Otterden John Adlam and Ann Askew a young Gentlewoman aged twenty five of an ancient Descent excellent beauty and acute wit whose examinations writings tortures and patient suffering are at large set down by Mr. Fox being before their Execution by Dr. Schaxton exhorted to Recant as he then was forced who some years passed had resigned his Bishoprick to enjoy his Conscience And here I may not omit an addition to the septenary number of Sleepers William Foxley a Pot-maker in London who without any touch of any preceding infirmity was seised with such a dead sleep that for fourteen days and fifteen nights no force nor invention could awake him on the fifteenth day this miraculous sleep forsaking him he was as it were restored to life and found as sound and entire as if he had taken no more than an ordinary repose Neither would he believe that he had taken other but that the building of a certain Wall made it apparent to him how much time he had slept away He lived above forty years after viz. to the year 1587. Let us conclude this year with the death of Martin Luther that famous impugner of the Church of Rome who being sent for by the Counts of Mansfield to compose some differences between them concerning their inheritance died among them in his Climacterical year and after much contention for his Body lieth buried at Wirtenberg ANNO DOM. 1547. HEnry long since grown corpulent was become a burthen to himself and of late lame by reason of a violent Ulcer in his Leg the inflammation whereof cast him into a lingering Fever which by little and little decaying his spirits he at length began to feel the inevitable necessity of death The cogitation of many things as in the like exigents usually happeneth oppressed him and chiefly of his Son's nonage but now entring into his tenth year an age infirm and opportune to treacheries against which he found small provision in his Friends having none amongst those on whose Loyalty he chiefly relied of so sufficient eminency as to underprop his weak Estate with those supporters of Royalty Power and Authority His Brother-in-Law the Duke of Suffolk was lately deceased Seymour the young Prince's Uncle was a man whose Goodness was not tempered with Severity and being descended of a Family more ancient than noble as having until now never transcended Knighthood would be subject to contempt They who more nearly participated of the Blood Royal as they any way excelled in Power or Virtue were the more suspected and hated by him The Family of the Howards was then most flourishing the chief whereof was Thomas Duke of Norfolk a man famous for his exploits in France Scotland and elsewhere long exercised in the School of Experience many ways deriving himself from the Crown popular of great command and revenues But the edge of the old man's disposition made mild and blunted with age administred the less cause of suspition Of his eldest Son Henry Earl of Surrey the King was certainly jealous and resolved to cut him off He had lately in the Wars of France manifested himself heir to the glory of his Ancestors was of a ripe wit and endued with great Learning so that the Elogy afterwards given to his Son Henry that He was the Learned'st among the 〈◊〉 and the Noblest among the Learned might have as fitly been applied to him was very gracious with the people expert in the Art Military and esteemed fit for publick Government These great Virtues were too great Faults and for them he must suffer Treason is objected to him and upon the surmise he and his Father sent to the Tower On the thirteenth of January he is arraigned the chief point of his accusation whereon they insisted being for bearing certain Arms which only belonged to the King and consequently aspiring to the Crown Of other things he easily acquitted himself and as for those Arms he constantly affirmed that they hereditarily pertained unto him yet notwithstanding he would not have presumed to have born them but being warranted by the opinion of the Heralds who only were to give judgment in these cases The Judges not approving of his answer condemn him and so the Flower of the English Nobility is on the nineteenth of January beheaded the King lying in extremity and breathing his last in Blood The Duke was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment where he continued until he was by Queen Mary set at liberty The King his disease growing on him at last makes his Will wherein by virtue of a Law lately Enacted he ordains Prince Edward his Successour in the first place and in the second Prince Edward dying Issueless substitutes the Lady Mary begotten of Catharine of Arragon and upon the like defect of Issue in Mary in the third place substitutes the Lady Elizabeth These three reigned successively and accomplished the number of fifty six years at the expiration whereof Queen Elizabeth ended her long glorious Reign and left the Diadem to King James in the many regards of his Learning Religion Goodness peaceable and happy Reign the Mirrour of late Ages The next care was of his Executors whom he also appointed Tutors shall I say or Counsellors to his Son and were in number sixteen viz. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Wriothsley Lord Chancellour William Paulet Lord Saint-John John Russel Lord Privy Seal Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford John Dudley Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Cuthbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir William Paget Sir William Harbert Sir Thomas

the Church And to add more majesty to their act by some devout Solemnity they go in Procession to Pauls singing that admirable Hymn of those holy Fathers St. Ambrose and St. Augustine commonly known by its first words Te Deum Then they dispatcht away some Companies to seize on the Tower and command the Duke of Suffolk to render himself The Duke as easily dejected at the news as he had formerly been elevated by vain hope entring his Daughters Chamber forbad the farther use of Royal Ceremonies wishing her to be content with her return to a Private fortune Whereto she answered with a setled countenance Sir I better brook this message than my forced advancement to Royalty out of obedience to you and my Mother I have grievously sinned and offered violence to my self Now I do willingly and as obeying the motions of my Soul relinquish the Crown and endeavour to salve those faults committed by others if at least so great an errour may be salved by a willing relinquishment and ingenuous acknowledgement Having spoken thus much she retired into a withdrawing-room more troubled at the Danger she had incurred than the defeasance of so great hopes The Duke himself presently repaired to the rest of the Council and subscribed to their Decree This Proclamation was on the nineteenth of July published and entertained with such Acclamations that no part of it could be heard after the first mention of Queen Maries Name The Earl of Arundell and the Lord Paget having thus ordered this weighty Affair accompanied with thirty Horse rid post that night unto the Queen to certifie her of the gladsom tidings of her Subjects loyal intentions In the mean time the Lords of the Council certifie Northumberland of these Passages commanding him withal to subscribe to the Decree and dismiss his Army But he out of the Presage of his own Fortune had before the receipt of their Letters proclaimed her Queen at Cambridge where in a counterfeit joy he threw up his Cap with the sincerer multitude Then he cashiered the rest of his wavering Companies and almost all the Lords who had hitherto followed him with a Legal Revolt passing over to the Queen and making Northumberland the sole author and cause of these disloyal Distractions were upon their Submission pardoned Lady Jane having as on a Stage for ten days only personated a Queen was committed to safe custody and the Ladies who had hitherto attended her were commanded each to their homes The Duke of Northumberland was by the Queens command apprehended by the Earl of Arundell and committed to the Tower The manner of his taking is reported to have been thus After so many checks uncertain what course to take resolved to flie but not knowing whether the Pensioners who with their Captain Sir John Gates had followed him in this Expedition while he was pulling on his Boots seised on him saying that It was fit they should excuse themselves from the imputation of Treason by his testimony The Duke withstanding them and the matter being likely to grow to blows at the very instant came those Letters from the Council which commanded them all to lay aside their Arms and peaceably to repair to their homes These Letters took up the matter and set the Duke at liberty which notwithstanding lasted not long For the next morning as he was ready to take Horse the Earl of Arundell intercepted him and with him apprehended the Earl of Huntingdon the Earl of Warwick Northumberland's eldest Son and two others younger Lord Ambrose and Lord Henry Dudley Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke's Brother Sir Thomas Palmer Sir John Gates his Brother Henry Gates and Doctor Edwin Sands who on the five and twentieth of July were brought to London and presently committed to the Tower The Earl of Huntingdon was not long after set at liberty but his Son was presently Sir John Gates whom Northumberland accused to have been the contriver of all this mischief and Sir Thomas Palmer were after Executed The Earl of Warwick died in Prison The Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley were Pardoned Henry was afterward slain with a shot at the Siege of St. Quintin but Ambrose finding Fortune more propitious out-lived Mary and by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Warwick long flourished in the happiness of her Favour Sir Andrew Dudley after his Condemnation was also Pardoned Doctor Sands being then Vicechancellour of the University of Cambridge had by Northumberland's command in the Pulpit publickly impugned Queen Maries Cause and defended that of Lady Jane but with that Wisdom and Moderation although upon the short warning of some few hours that he abundantly satisfied the Duke and yet did not so deeply incur the displeasure of the adverse part but that his Friends prevailed with the Queen for his Pardon So that after a years Imprisonment he was set at liberty and presently fled over into Germany After the death of Queen Mary returning from his voluntary Exile he was Consecrated Bishop of Worcester from which See he was translated to London and thence again to the Archbishoprick of York A man for his Learning Virtue Wisdom and Extract very famous but most especially happy in his Issue whereof many were admirable for their Endowments both internal and external and of whom we have in our Age seen three honoured with Knighthood On the six and twentieth of July the Marquis of Northampton afterward Condemned and Pardoned Doctor Ridley Bishop of London who two years after was Burned at Oxford and beside many others Lord Robert Dudley that great Earl of Leicester under Queen Elizabeth were brought to the Tower On the seven and twentieth the Duke of Suffolk to whom the Queen with admirable Clemency within four days restored his liberty Sir John Cheeke King Edward's Schoolmaster Sir Roger Cholmley Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Sir Edmond Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas were committed to the same place who were all on the third of September set at liberty On the thirtieth of July the Lady Elizabeth accompanied by a great train of Nobles Knights Gentlemen and Ladies to the number of five hundred some say a thousand set forward from the Strand through London and so to Wansted towards the Queen to congratulate her happy Success in vindicating her Right to the Crown Who on the third of August having dismissed her Army which had not yet exceeded the number of thirteen thousand attended by all the Nobility made a triumphant entrance through London to the Tower where the Duke of Norfolk Edward Courtney Son to the Marquis of Exceter Beheaded in the year 1538 Gardiner late Bishop of Winchester and Anne Duchess of Somerset presented themselves on their Knees and Gardiner in the name of them all spake a congratulatory Oration which ended the Queen courteously raised them and kissing each of them said These are all my own Prisoners and gave order for their present discharge Edward Courtney she restored to his Father's honours making

to the number of eight thousand choise men and well armed who having a fair wind in few hours landed in Britain and joyned themselves forthwith to those Briton Forces that remained after the Defeat and marched straight on to find the Enemy and encamped fast by them The French wisely husbanding the possession of a Victory and well acquainted with the Courage of the English especially when they are fresh kept themselves within their Trenches being strongly lodged and resolved not to give Battel But mean-while to harrass and weary the English they did upon all advantages set upon them with their Light-horse wherein nevertheless they received commonly loss especially by means of the English Archers But upon these Atchievements Francis Duke of Britain deceased an accident that the King might easily have foreseen and ought to have reckoned upon and provided for but that the Point of Reputation when news first came of the Battel lost that somewhat must be done did over-bear the Reason of War After the Duke's decease the principal persons of Britain partly bought partly through faction put all things into confusion so as the English not finding Head or Body with whom to joyn their Forces and being in jealousie of Friends as well as in danger of Enemies and the Winter begun returned home five Months after their landing So the Battel of Saint Alban the death of the Duke and the retire of the English Succours were after some time the causes of the loss of that Duchy which action some accounted as a blemish of the King's Judgement but most but as the misfortune of his times But howsoever the temporary Fruit of the Parliament in their Ayd and Advice given for Britain took not nor prospered not yet the lasting Fruit of Parliament which is good and wholesom Laws did prosper and doth yet continue to this day For according to the Lord Chancellor's admonition there were that Parliament divers excellent Laws ordained concerning the Points which the King recommended First the Authority of the Star-Chamber which before subsisted by the ancient Common-Laws of the Realm was confirmed in certain Cases by Act of Parliament This Court is one of the sagest and noblest Institutions of this Kingdom For in the distribution of Courts of Ordinary Justice besides the High Court of Parliament in which distribution the King's-Bench holdeth the Pleas of the Crown the Common-Place Pleas-Civil the Exchequer-Pleas concerning the King's Revenue and the Chancery the Pretorian power for mitigating the rigour of Law in case of extremity by the conscience of a good man there was nevertheless always reserved a high and preheminent power to the King's Council in Causes that might in example or consequence concern the state of the Common-wealth which if they were Criminal the Council used to sit in the Chamber called the Star-Chamber if Civil in the White-Chamber or White-Hall And as the Chancery had the Pretorian power for Equity so the Star-Chamber had the Censorian power for Offences under the degree of Capital This Court of Star-Chamber is compounded of good Elements for it consisteth of four kinds of Persons Counsellors Peers Prelates and chief Judges It discerneth also principally of four kinds of Causes Forces Frauds Crimes various of Stellionate and the Inchoations or middle acts towards Crimes capital or heinous not actually committed or perpetrated But that which was principally aimed at by this act was Force and the two chief Supports of Force Combination of Multitudes and Maintenance or Headship of Great persons From the general peace of the Countrey the King's care went on to the peace of the King's House and the security of his great Officers and Counsellors But this Law was somewhat of a strange composition and temper That if any of the King's Servants under the degree of a Lord do conspire the death of any of the King's Council or Lord of the Realm it is made Capital This Law was thought to be procured by the Lord Chancellor who being a stern and haughty man and finding he had some mortal Enemies in Court provided for his own safety drowning the envy of it in a general Law by communicating the priviledge with all other Counsellors and Peers and yet not daring to extend it further than to the King's Servants in Check-roll lest it should have been too harsh to the Gentlemen and other Commons of the Kingdom who might have thought their ancient Liberty and the clemency of the Laws of England invaded If the will in any case of Felony should be made the deed And yet the reason which the Act yieldeth that is to say That he that conspireth the death of Counsellors may be thought indirectly and by a mean 〈◊〉 conspire the death of the King himself is indifferent to all Subjects as well as to Servants in Court But it seemeth this sufficed to serve the Lord Chancellor's turn at this time But yet he lived to need a General Law for that he grew afterwards as odious to the Countrey as he was then to the Court. From the peace of the King's House the King's care extended to the peace of Private Houses and Families For there was an excellent Moral Law molded thus The taking and carrying away of Women forcibly and against their will except Female-Wards and Bond-Women was made Capital The Parliament wisely and justly conceiving that the obtaining of Women by force into Possession howsoever afterwards Assent might follow by Allurements was but a Rape drawn forth in length because the first Force drew on all the rest There was made also another Law for Peace in general and repressing of Murthers and Man-slaughters and was in amendment of the Common Laws of the Realm being this That whereas by the Common Law the King's Suit in case of Homicide did expect the Year and the Day allowed to the Parties Suit by way of Appeal and that it was found by experience that the Party was many times compounded with and many times wearied with the Suit so that in the end such Suit was let fall and by that time the matter was in a manner forgotten and thereby Prosecution at the King's Suit by Indictment which is ever best Flagrante crimine neglected it was Ordained That the Suit by Indictment might be taken as well at any time within the Year and the Day as after not prejudicing nevertheless the Parties Suit The King began also then as well in Wisdom as in Justice to pare a little the Priviledge of Clergy ordaining That Clerks convict should be burned in the hand both because they might taste of some corporal Punishment and that they might carry a Brand of Infamy But for this good Acts sake the King himself was after branded by Perkin's Proclamation for an execrable breaker of the Rites of Holy Church Another Law was made for the better Peace of the Countrey by which Law the King's Officers and Farmors were to forfeit their Places and Holds in case of unlawful Retainer or partaking in Routs and

but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this

the chiefest and whose Abbots had voices among the Peers in the higher House of Parliament are these St. Peter's in Westminster St. Alban's St. Edmundsbury St. Benet's of Hulme Berdney Shrewsbury Crowland Abingdon Evesham Glocester Ramsey St. Augustine's in Canterbury Selbey Peterborough St. Maries in Tork Tewksbury Reding Battel Winchcomb Hide by Winchester Cirencester Waltham Walmesbury Thorney St. John's in Colchester Coventrey Tavestock The King that he might some way supply the want of the suffrages of so many learned and wise men in the Parliament House as also that of so great a prey he might consecrate if not the tenth to Hercules at least some part to God according to his promise erected some new Bishopricks whereof one was at Westminster a place so near and contiguous to London that it might rather seem a part of the Suburbs thereof than a distinct City But a City it is and so ennobled with many stately Monuments that for Beauty it contendeth with most in Christendom In it are the chief Seat of the Prince and Palaces of the Nobility the chief seats of Justice in the Land the most magnificent Church wherein are interred most of our Kings and Nobles whose sumptuous Monuments render it unparallel'd even by the World Another was at Oxford in the Colledge founded by Cardinal Wolsey The rest at Peterborough Bristol Chester and Glocester Westminster was by Queen Mary again reduced to an Abbey and furnished with Monks of St. Benet's Order whom Queen Elizabeth again expelled and converted the Revenues of the Bishoprick to the maintenance of Scholars and other pious uses As for the other Sees they remain to this day From those antient Cathedral Churches wherein Monks were seated nothing was taken away only Canons were placed there instead of Monks as likewise in the Cathedral Churches of the new erected Bishopricks The Churches wherein antiently canons and Prebendaries were instituted are In ENGLAND York London Lincoln Sarisbury Exceter Wells Lichfield Hereford 〈◊〉 In WALES St. David's Landaff Bangor St. Asaph The CATHEDRALS founded with Monks were Canterbury Winchester Ely Norwich Worcester Rochester Duresm Carlile The new SEES where primarily were Abbeys are Oxford Bristol Glocester Chester Peterborough So there are six and twenty Bishopricks within this Realm and in every Cathedral Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ministers as also a Dean who governs the rest unless it be in St. David's where the Chanter and Eandaf where the Archdeacon is Head of the Chapter These things thus ordered the King still jealous lest it should be conceived that he had forsaken the Religion of his Fathers began to thunder out against the maintainers of new Tenets and much against Cranmer's will by Parliament enacted the Law of the Six Articles the summ whereof was I. That if any one should deny the True and Real presence of the Body of CHRIST in the Sacrament or should maintain That the substance of Bread and Wine remained after the words of Consecration pronounced by the Priest he should be burned as an Heretick II. If any should deny the Sacrament to be sufficiently administred under one Species only III. Or should hold it lawful for Priests to be married but much more he that having entred into holy Orders should presume to take a Wife IV. Or that Chastity vowed upon mature deliberation was not to be kept V. Or that private Masses ought not to be celebrated in the Church of England or elsewhere VI. Or that Auricular Confession was not expedient he should for his errours undergo loss of life by hanging These Laws like those of Drace written in Blood were the destruction of multitudes and silenced those who had been hitherto furtherers of Reformation Among whom Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Schaxton Bishops the one of Worcester the other of Salisbury were remarkable who that they might quietly enjoy themselves the Parliament being scarce dissolved did both on one day viz. the first of July resign their Bishopricks Latimer who for the freedom of his conscience could as willingly resign his life as he did this rich Bishoprick being burned for it in Queen Maries reign after his Resignation taking off his Rochet being a merry conceited man with a little leap lifted himself from the ground saying that He felt himself much more light and quick now he had freed himself of so great a burthen Henry in regard of his wiving disposition had long continued a Widower And that he should at length marry the consideration of his Estate being surrounded with Enemies passionate in the Pope's cause perswaded him Wherein he also gave ear to Cromwell who advised him to combine with those Estates whom the burthen of the Pope's tyranny had forced to the same courses and like fears By whose assistance he might countermine the secret practices of Rome A counsel without doubt good and befitting the times but producing the effects of Ill ones proving as is thought Pernicious to the Giver For the treatise of such a Match in September came into England Frederick Duke and Elector of Saxony Frederick Duke of Bavaria Otho Henry Count Palatine of Rhine and the Chancellour of the Duke of Cleve with some others who were for eight days Royally entertained by the King at Windsor where the Marriage with Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleve being concluded they returned to their own Countries This year died Margaret Queen of Scotland Sister to King Henry who was buried at the Charterhouse in the Town of St. John near the Tomb of James the First ANNO DOM. 1540. REG. 32. ON the Eve of the Circumcision the Lady Ann of Cleve destinated to the King's Bed arrived at Dover was on the third of January triumphantly received at Greenwich and on the Feast of the Epiphany ritely married to the King On the twelfth of March Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex the antientest Earl of the Realm thrown by an unruly young Horse which he sought to break brake his neck By whose death the Inheritance was devolved to his Daughter and from her deceasing without Issue to the Family of Deureux which Family in regard of their claim by descent was by Queen Elizabeth advanced to the Earldom of Essex But in the mean time Cromwell yet chief in the King's favour was on the eighteenth of April created Earl of Essex And here behold the frailty of Human affairs The current of few years had from very mean beginnings brought Cromwell to the height of Honour insomuch that his happiness was admired by all envied by many But Fortune intending a Tragedy he is unexpectedly apprehended sitting at the Council-Table and committed to the Tower where he continued until his Execution For in this Parliament begun the twelfth of April he is accused of Treason and Heresie without being brought to his answer condemned and on the twenty eighth of July beheaded This King may well be censured of cruel inconstancy who could so easily dispense with the death of those whom he had