keep the passages undiscovered upon pain of death and so they had licence to depart And that which is worse they caused the King to sweare That in his proper person with his whole power he should take revenge of the Duke of Glocester of the two Earles and their adherents by causing them to bee put to death But God inspired into the hearts of the aforesaid Duke of Glocester the Earles of Arundel and Warwicke the spirit of valour and magnanimity who seeing the heap of ills that daily did arise by the practices of those cospirators they set almost in every part of the Kingdome intelligencers who should apprehend all Messengers and intercept all letters of the Kings or that went under the Kings name and should send them to the Commissioners And thus did they come to have intelligence of the whole plot of the conspirators all their Letters being indorced with Glory bee to God on high on earth peace and good will towards men and by comming to the knowledge of each circumstance they found that the Kingdome was at the point of destruction according to that Evangelicall saying Every Kingdome divided against it selfe shall be dissolved Wherefore they sought for a remedy every man according to his ability levied a power for the preservation of the King and Kingdome all which forces being united amounting to the number of 20000. fighting men and couragiously resolving to frustrate all the intended designes of the conspirators and to open the nut by cracking the shell they divided their Army committing part of it to the Earle of Arundel who by night marched away with his Forces and pitched his tents neer to London there fortifying himself in the Forrest adjoyning till such time as he had gained more convenient time and greater force by the comming of his consorts On the other side the conspirators intending to prevent their purposes by power of a certaine Spirituall Commission and by vertue of certaine Letters Patents in the hands of the Conspirators though nothing to the purpose yet to blind the people they caused to be proclaimed throughout the whole Citie of London that none upon paine of the forfeiture of all their goods should neither sell give or communicate privatly or publickly victual armour or any other necessaries to the Army of the Earle of Arundel but should barre them of sustentation comfort or help as Rebels to the King and countrey But on the other side they began to feare when they were denied their hoped-for aid by the Major and Communalty of the Citie of London And againe they were troubled at the rising of the Commoners to invade them Wherefore they counselled the King to absent himsent from the Parliament which was to begin at Candlemas next according as the King and Commissioners had appointed it and not consult of the affaires of the Kingdome nor of his owne Estate commodity or discommodity unlesse the Duke of Glocester the two Earles of Arundel and Warwicke with the rest of the Commissioners would sweare That neither they nor any in their name should accuse them or urge any accusation against them Not long after it happened that the King with the aforesaid five Conspirators came from his Mannor at Sheeve to Westminster to Saint Edmonds Tombe for the solemnizing of a Pilgrimage The Major and Aldermen of the Citie of London met him on horseback sumptuously attired honoring him very much And when they came to the Mewes they descended from their horses and went bare-foot to the Tombe of S. Edmond where as the Chaplaine of the Commissioners with the Abbot and Covent met them with a stately Procession In the mean time the three Noble-men viz. the Duke of Glocester and the Earles of Arundel and Warwicke having mustered their Troopes on the fourteenth of November in the same yeare at Waltham Crosse in the County of Hertford and from thence sent for the Commissioners that were there at Westminster in Parliament with the King sending an accusation in writing to the King against the aforesaid Conspirators viz. the Archbishop of Yorke Duke of Ireland Earle of Suffolke Robert Trisilian and Nicholas Brambre wherein they accused them of high treason which their appellation they did offer to maintain and that they were willing to prosecute the same and to prove it to be true they caused also the rest of the Commissioners to subscribe as parties to their appellation When these things came to the eares of the King he sent unto them requiring to know what their request was and what they wished to have been done They returned answer thus That they did desire that the Traytors which were alwayes about him filling his eares with false reports and did daily commit insufferable crimes and injuries might be rewarded with condigne punishment And likewise craved that they might have safe liberty of going and comming to his grace When the King heard their request he gave them is Royall consent and commanded them to appeare at Westminster and the King sitting on his Throne in the great Hall the three aforesaid Peeres Appellants with a great troop of Gentlemen entred making three lowly obeysances on their bended knees they reverenced the King and drawing neere the cause of their comming being alledged they there againe appealed the Archbishop Duke of Ireland Earle Treasurer and Brambre of hightreason according as they had done before at Waltham Crosse but they betaking themselves to the private corners of the Palace even as Adam and Eve from the presence of God not having the heart to appeare to justifie themselves The King called forth the Appellants to prove and prosecute the Appellation prescribing them a day and place for the triall which was to be on the day after Candlemas day and in the mean time the King commanded them upon their Honours not any party to molest the other untill the next Parliament The Duke of Ireland under the guide of his grand Captaine the Divell marching into Cheshire Lancashire and Wales raised a new power amounting to the number of 6000 fighting men from thence marched towards London with his Army with a furious intent and resolution to performe his bloody designe And whilst these plots were laid the Appellants being suddenly advertised thereof raised a great power and joyning with them the Earle of Derby and the Earle of Nottingham and other Commissioners marched with long and wearied marches into a field neere a village called Whitney at a place called Lockeford Bridge In which field the Duke of Ireland was with his Army having a river on the one side of them whereas they stood ready prepared to give an overthrow to the Appellants and displaying the Kings Standard contrary to the Lawes of the land When they saw the Army of the Appellants march down from the mountaines like a Hive of Bees and with such a violent fury fear benummed them and they were so amazed that when they should give the assault God not suffering the effusion of blood they stood
Protestation to the Chappell of the Abbey where the Commons sate which was allowed of And then when the Appellants called for justice against the Conspirators the Lords of the Spiritualty arose and went into the Kings Chamber neere adjoyning But the King being moved in conscience and in charity perceiving that in every worke they are to remember the end and being willing contrary to the rigour of the Law to favour rather these that were guilty then the actors in that Treason if they were able to alledge any thing in their defence caused the Processe to cease but the Peeres being earnest requested That no businesse past present or to come might be debated untill this Treason were adjudged to which Petition the King graciously granted his assent On the 11. day of February when nothing could be alledged nor no witnesse produced in justification of the conspirators but that the definitive sentence of Condemnation must be pronounced against them the aforesaid Iohn Devoreux Marshall of the Court and for that time the Kings Lieutenant adjudged them this heavie doome That the said Archbishop of York Duke of Ireland Earle of Suffolke Tressilian and Brambre should be drawne from the Tower to Tyborne and there to bee hanged upon a Gibbet untill they were dead and all their Lands and Goods to be confiscated that none of their posterity might be by them any way enriched On the 12. day of February which was the first day of Shrovetide Nicholas Brambre appeared in Parliament and being charged with the aforesaid Articles of Treason he craved favour to advise of Counsell learned and some longer time for his more full answer to his accusation But the Judges charged him to answer severally to every point in the Articles contained whereunto Brambre answered Whosoever hath branded me with this ignominious marke with him I am ready to fight in the Lists to maintaine my innocency whensoever the King shall appoint The Appellants hearing this couragious challenge with resolute countenance answered That they would willingly accept of the Combat and thereupon flung downe their Gages before the King and on a sudden the whole company of Lords Knights Esquires and Commons flung downe their Gages so thicke that they seemed like Snow in a Winters day crying out We also will accept of the Combat and will prove these Articles to be true to thy head most damnable Traytor and so they departed for that day And although the Appellants were not idle in the night yet on the next day to aggravate their Appellation against the Conspira ors there came divers companies of the City of London complaining of the manifold injuries they had suffered by Brambre and other Extortions and Exactions wherewith they had beene daily charged But before they proceed with his tryall they were stayed by most unfortunate Tressilian who being got upon the top of an house adjoyning to the Palace and had descended into a gutter onely to looke about him hee was discovered by certaine of the Peeres who presently sent some of the Guard to apprehend him who entring into the house where hee was and having spent long time in vaine in looking for him at length one of the Guard stept to the Master of the house and taking him by the shoulder with his dagger drawne thus said Shew us where thou hast hid Tressilian or else resolve thy dayes are accomplished the Master trembled ready to yeeld up the ghost for fare answered Yonder is the place where he lyes and shews him a round Table covered with branches of Bay under which Tressilian lay close covered when they had found him they drew him out by the heeles wondring to see him as Vipers use to weare his head and beard o're-grown with old clowted shooes and patched hose more like a miserable poore beggar then a Judge Tressilian being come into the Hall was asked what he could say for himselfe why judgement should not passe upon him for his treason so often committed he became as one that had beene strucke dumbe and his heart was as it were hardned to the very last and would not confesse himselfe guilty of any thing And for this cause the Parliament arose deferring Brambres tryall till the next day But Tressilian was without delay led to the Tower that he might suffer the execution of the sentence passed against him Immediately Tressilian is upon a hurdle and drawne thorow the streets of the City with a wonderfull concourse of people following him at every furlongs end he was suffered to stand still to rest himselfe and to see if hee would confesse and report himselfe of any thing but what hee said to the Fryer his Confessor is not knowne neither am I able to search it out when he came to the place of execution hee would not climbe the Ladder untill such time as being soundly beaten with bats and staves he was forced to goe up and when he was up he said so long as I doe weare any thing upon me I shall not dye wherefore the Executioner stripped him and found certaine Images painted like to the signes of Heaven and the head of a Devill painted and the names of many of the Devils wrote in parchment the exorcising toyes being taken away and he was hanged up naked and because the spectators should bee certainly assured that hee was dead they cut his throat and because the night approached they let him hang untill the next morning and then his wife having obtained a licence of the King tooke downe his body and carried it to the Grey-Fryers where it was buried On the morow sentence was likewise pronounced against Brambre who being drawne upon a hurdle from the Tower to Tyborne thorow the City shewed himselfe very penitent humbly craving mercy and forgivenesse at the hands of God and men whom he had so grievously offended and whom he had so injuriously wronged in time past and did earnestly desire them all to pray for him when the rope was about his necke ready to be turned off a certaine young man the sonne of one Northampton asked if he had done justice to his Father or not for Northampton was sometimes Maior of the City of London more wealthy and more substantiall then any else in the City him did Brambre Tresilian accuse of Treason and Conspiracie against the State and condemned him to die being dispoiled of his estate he himself at length hardly escaped to whom Brambre answered and confessed with bitter tears that what he did was most vile and wicked and with an intent onely to murder and overthrow the said Northampton for which craving pardon of the young man being suddenly turned off and the Executioner cutting his throat he dyed These men being dispatched the Parliament discontinued their proceedings against the rest of the Conspirators till a more convenient time and tooke into their considerations other more weighty affaires of the weale publicke they made the Earle of Arundell Lord Admirall giving him authority to resist
and to repulse either by Sea or Land the enemies of the Crowne wheresoever he should â—inde them And it was further agreed on that for the appeasing of all private discontents if any were the King and the rest of the Appellants with the rest of the Commissioners should dine together in the great Hall which they did and there was great joy at this reconciliation throw all the Kingdome When these things were concluded they then began this arraignment of the Traytors whereupon John Blake and Thomas Vske were indicted on the fourth day of March who although they were men of inferiout quality yet were they found to be parties in the said Treason Vske was a Sergeant at Armes and was indicted amongst the Conspirators so that being late made Sheriffe of Middlesex he had indicted the five Appellants and the Commissioners as Traytors and Blake was an Intelligencer of Tresilians one that used to goe and come between the Conspirators and relate the state and successe of the treason from one to another And when they could say nothing to prove themselves cleare sentence was pronounced upon them as their Masters were before them they were carried to the Tower and from thence were dragged at the horse tayle to Tyborne and there hanged But Vske obtained this favour that his head was cut off after he was hanged and set aloft upon Newgate for Fowles of the aire to take repast On the sixth day of March there were called to answer Robert Belknap John Holt Roger Falthorpe William Burleigh John Locton and John Carey Baron of the Exchequer for their conspiracie against the Commissioners at Nottingham but because it is not needfull to rehearse every part of their indictment they were all condemned like as the rest Whilst the Peeres were trying them the Clergie were retired into the Kings Chambers but when word was brought to them of the condemnation of the Judges the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishop of Winchester the Chancellor the Treasurer Lord Keeper of the Privie Seale arose hastily and went into the Parliament House powring forth their complaints before the King and the Peeres humbly upon their knees beseeching them for the love of God the Virgin Mary and of all the Saints even as they hoped to have mercy at the day of Judgement they should shew favour and not put to death the said Judges then present and bitterly bewayling their iniquities in whose hearts the very life soule and spirit of our English Lawes lived flourished and appeared and there appeared great sorrow both on the one part of the Complainants and also of the Defendants The Duke of Gloucester likewise with the Earles of Arundel Warwicke Nottingham and Derby whose hearts began to be mollified and joyned with them in their latnentable Petition At length upon the intercession of the Clergie the execution upon the persons was ceased and their lives were granted them but were sent to the Tower to be kept close prisoners On the twelfth of March being Thursday it happened that the aforesaid Knights Simon de Burleigh John de Beauchamy James Baroverse and John Salesbury were brought into the Parliament House where their accusations was read proved they found guilty and not any way able to cleare themselves From this day almost till the Ascension of our Lord the Parliament House was only taken up with the tryall of Sir Symon Burleygh for three Appellants viz. The Duke of Glocester the Earles of Arundel and Warwick with the whole House of Commons urged that execution might be performed according to the Law and on the other side the King and Queen the Earles of Darby and Nottingham and the Prior of Saint John his Uncle with the major part of the upper House did labour to have him saved There was also some muttering amongst the common people and it was reported to the Parliament that the Commons did rise in divers parts of the Realm but especially about Kent in favour of the said Sir Simon Burleigh which when they heard those that before spake and stood for him now flew clean from him and by joynt consent on the fifth day of May sentence was pronounced only against the said Sir Simon that he should be drawne from the Tower to Tyborne and then to be hanged till he were dead and then to have his head strooke from his body But because he was a Knight of the Gaiter a gallant Courtier powerfull and once a Favourite of the Kings and much respected of all the Court the King of his speciall Grace was pleased to mittigate his doome that he should only be led to Tower-hill and there be beheaded On the twelfth of May the Thursday before Whitsontide in like manner were condemned John Beuchamp Steward of the houshold to the King James Bereverous and John Salsbury Knights Gentlemen of the privie Chamber whereof the two first viz. John Beuchamp and James Bereverous were beheaded on Tower-hill but John Salsbury was drawne from Tower-hill to Tyborne and there was hanged On the same day also was condemned the Bishop of Chichester the Kings Confessor but because of his great dignity he was pardoned And also concerning the translation of some Bishops because Pope Vrban the sixth after it came to his ears that the Archbishop of York was condemned to avoid all hope of Irregularity he created him Archbishop of S. Andrews in Scotland which Archbishop was under the power of Scots enemies to the Crown and in the gift of the Arch-Pope and because the Pope did chalenge halfe the title of all England to maintaine his wars but although he craved it yet he was denied therefore he dealt warily and craftily hoping to make up his mouth by the translation of Bishops the Bishop of Fly then Lord Chancellor was made Archbishop of York the Bishop of Dublin succeeded in his place the Bishop of Bath and Wells in his place the Bishop of Sarum in his place and the Lord John of Waltham Lord-keeper of the privie Seale in his place and this by his translation of Bishops he gained himself much money according to the laws of the Canon and when this came to the ears of the Parliament that such a sum of money should be transported out of the Land they strove what they could to hinder it but could not because the Clergie gave their consent On the last day of May the King appointed both Houses to meet at Keemington whereas they made a conclusion of all the trialls of the said treason granting license to Thomas Trenet William Ellingham and Nicholas Nagworth Knights Richard Metford Iohn Slake Iohn Lincolne Clerkes to put in bail provided they were sufficient and to go into a place of England where they listed without any let or hindrance of any of the Kings Officers Moreover the six Justices with the Bishop of Chichester who stood condemned with them were sent into Ireland there to remain for a tearm of life thus they were divided viz. Rob. Belknap Iohn Holr in the Village of Dromore in Ireland not to remain as Justices or any officers but live as banished offenders not to be out of Towne above the space of two miles upon paine of death but the King out of his gracious bounty was pleased to give a yearly annuity of 40. pound to Robert Belknap of twenty markes to Iohn Holt during their lives and to Roger Fulthrope the King allowed forty pound and to William Burleigh forty pound during life confining them to the City of Dublin granting Burleigh the liberty of two miles and to Fulthrope three miles for their recreation John Carey and John Locton with the yearly allowance of twenty pound during life are confined to the Towne of Waterford with the like liberty and the like penalty And the Bishop of Chichester is likewise sent to Corke there to remaine with some allowance and the like penalty On the third day of June which was the last day of the Parliament the King the Queen the Peeres of both Estates with the Commons came to the Abbey at Westminster whereas the Bishop of London because it was his Diocesse sung Masse and the Masse being ended the Archbishop of Canterbury made an Oration concerning the forme and danger of the Oath which being although the Peers and Commons had taken the Oath of Allegiance and homage to the King yet because the King was young when they tooke Oath anew as at the first at his Coronation These Ceremonies being performed the Metropolitan of England with all his Suffragans there present having lighted a Candle and putting it under a stoole put it out thereby excommunicating all such as should seeme to distaste dislike or contradict any of the fore passed Acts in the last Parliament And the Lord Chancellor by the Kings appointment caused all that were present to sweare to keep the said Statutes inviolably whole and undissolved as good and faithfull Liege-people of the Kings and the forme of the Parliament was observed throughout all the Realme On the morrow which was the fourth day of June many courteous falutations and congratulations having passed betweene the King the Nobility and Communalty the Parliament was dissolved and every man returned home And now let England rejoyce in Christ for the net which was laid so cunningly for our destruction is broken asunder and we are delivered To God be the praise for all This Parliament begunne at Westminster 1386. in the tenth yeare of the reigne of King Richard the second FINIS