Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	britain_n	king_n	saxon_n	1,762	5	10.7939	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56267	Epitome monarchiæ Britanicæ, or, A brief cronology of the Brittish kings from the first original of monarchial government, to the happy restauration of King Charles the Second : wherein many remarkable observations on the civil warrs of England and General Monks politique transactions in reducing this nation to a firm union for the resettlement of His Majesty, are clearly discovered / by Hamlet Puleston ...	Puleston, Hamlet, 1632-1662.	1663 (1663)	Wing P4190; ESTC R21043	34,516	68

affirm that our present King Charles the second in whose posterity we trust it will remain as long as the Sun and Moon endures deduces his pedegree in an indisputable line from all that ever did or could pretend a title or interest to the Crown which we think can hardly be verified of any Prince besides this day in the Christian world For proof whereof we appeal to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline not as altogether untrue but as very uncertain passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquer'd Provinces but only as instruments of Tyranny and wholly depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefects We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule and especially at that time when from a multiplyed Estate it grew towards an Union And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severn who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again which was fulfilled in the dayes of King Henry the seventh and more compleatly of King James as will appear when the series and progresse of the Story doth bring us thereunto The Saxons as hath been already hinted made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britains but the Kingdom of the West Saxons whose first stone was laid by Cerdic did so increase in superstructure that in the end it overtopped all the rest Ina the fifth descendent of Cerdic was the first advancer of it to this prehemenency but he dyed without issue and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed by the intrusion of four or five one after another of the Blood-Royal indeed but not in such a propinquity as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina of whose right and promising forwardnesse Britric the last of the Usurpers had so quick a sense that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert Which to avoid he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia or Middle England but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas daughter he escapes thence into France whence after the Tyrants death he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdome which had been so long and so unjustly detained from him This Prince which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence and all other perfections that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and heighth when it suffered a most terrible Ecclipse by the interposition of the Danes who made their first irruption in his predecessors dayes and though they were valiantly resisted and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other till they had reduced the whole to their subjection in which posture they held it but a little while as hath before been intimated and shall be more amply shewed in its due and proper place Egbert being dead Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince and though his Education and Profession had rendred him a greater Votary than Warriour yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow He had four Sons who were all Kings in their turns but the glory of the rest was Alfred the youngest no lesse famous for Arts than Armes in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder is reported to have been inferiour but in the last did equal if not exceed his renowned Father This Edward often worsted but could not totally extirpate the Danes who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation whose case at that time especialy required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate And upon this account it was that Athelstane Edwards bastard Son being at full maturity and ripenesse was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside but Edmond being now come to Age after his Brother Athelstanes death the noblenesse of whose life recompenced the blemish of his birth was admitted to his Fathers Throne which he did wisely and couragiously manage but was too soon deprived of it and his life together by a villanous Affassinate in his own house at a festival whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an imployment But upon the death of Eldred the Scepter which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature reverted to the right Heirs viz. the Sons of Edmond And first to Edwin the eldest whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest who matched any of his Predecessors in worth and excelled them all in power for he quieted and kept under Danes Welsh Scots insomuch as he is accounted at least from the Saxons entrance the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island In a word he was happy in his life and Reign but most unhappy in his Issue for having two Sons Edward and Ethelred by several venters the Step-mother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King and though now by this removal of his Brother whereunto possibly he might not be privy none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself yet did that innocent blood lye heavy upon him and his seed nor could it according to St. Dunstans predictions be expiated but by a long avengement In promoting of which divine justice the Danes were the principal instruments who had layn still under Edgar but taking advantage of Ethelreds unsettled condition who by reason of this fore-stalling the Crown was termed the unready forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace and then to relinquish his ill-gotten Kingdom of which death only prevented Swayn his expeiler to take actual possession and accumulate this to the Danish Crown But Cnute the Son of Swayn perfected his Fathers design and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad successe he quitted this and made another world his second place of refuge leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else but the miseries of an unfortunate house Yet did Edmond for his valour and hardinesse

of the aforesaid Robert the second c. but that it is demurred by some First Whether Nest Walter 's Mother were an Heir or no 2. Admitting that she were whether her Ancestor Cadelh were the eldest Son of Rodri Mawr who being King of all Wales was the first that did make a partition thereof George Owen Harry in a Book entituled The Genealogy of the high and mighty Monarch James by the Grace of God King of Great Brittaine c. Printed 1604. favours Cadelh with the first Colume among Rodri's Sons but D. Powel in his Chronicle written before and taken out of most Authentick Records is peremptory in vindicating the Birth-right to Anarawd Prince of Northwales and maintaining that though his two Brothers Cadelh Prince of Southwales and Mervyn Prince of Powis were sharers in the Inheritance yet did they hold from him and his Children or ought so to have done as from Lords Paramount and therefore we must only adhere to Anarawd's line and wave his Majesties descent from all other Princes of Wales which were either but Usurpers or at the best but of the youngest House and Vassals and Homagers to the Princes of Northwales In doing this we shall begin before the Fraction even with Cadwallader himself and so by Anarawd come down to his Majesty not meddling with Intruders upon any other score than as we have hitherto done to wit to shew that sometimes such there were by God's permission but never intended for perpetuity the succession always in the end these Imposters notwithstanding revolving to the genuine and legittimate Heir Cadwallader then surnamed Bendigaid or the Blessed having lost the greatest part of his Kingdome to the Saxons did by the perswasion of his Cousin Alan King of Little Brittain betake himself to Rome and there lived and died in God's Service bequeathing to his Posterity the fore-recited Prophecy That they should one day be Masters of his whole Isle again But Ivor the Son of Alan governed next after him his own Son Edwall Ywrch that is the Roe being unable or unwilling to divert the Helm in such turbulent and tempestuous weather Yet did his Son Rodri-Moel-Wynog undertake it and left it to his Son Conan Tyndaithwy whose Daughter Esylht was his Heir but she knowing how unfit feminine shoulders were to sustain so great a burthen in those Martial times took to Husband a Noble Prince Mervyn Vrych by whom she had Rodri Mawr or Roderick the Great who more consulting private affection than Reason of State made that unpollitick Division of Wales which being united was scarceable to defend it self against the Invasions of the Saxons their implacable and continually encroaching Neighbors Now though much of the Demean were defalcated from Anarawd by his Father Rodri yet did the Fee and Chiefeship remain to him and his which his Brother Cadelh did sparingly enough acknowledge and his Son Howel less for he not onely withdraws his Allegiance for Southwales but after the death of Edwal Voel the son of Anarawd seizes upon Northwales it self yet is he commonly stiled Dha or the Good not certainly for such undue acquisitions and unjust detentions but for the excellent Laws he made a thing not unusually practised by those who have less of equity on their side to warrant their ill-gotten and unlawfull Possessions Howel Dha being dead the Principality returned to Jevaf and Jago the Sons indeed but yet but the yongest Sons of Edwal Voel no respect being had by them of their elder Brother Meyric whose Son Edwall nevertheless obtained it having waited the leisure not only of Howel and Cadwalhan the sons of Jago but also of Meredith ap Owen ap Howel Dha who followed his Grandfathers steps and committed a second Rape upon Northwales herein the more excusable that he took it from one who had himself no other plea than that of force and extortion thereunto But Edwall ap Meyric having after the exercise of some patience gained what his Father was injuriously deprived of left both his bad and good Fortune to his son Jago or James viz. to the defrauded for a while by an Abator or two Aedan ap Blegared and Llewelyn ap Sitsylht but afterwards to recover his Paternal Right which yet he doth not long enjoy but loses it with his life to Gryffith ap Lewelyn ap Sitsylht and his Son Conan to preserve his life is forced to flee into Ireland where marrying with Ranulht Daughter of Alfred King of Dublyn he had by her a Son called Gryffith who will be found another Medium besides that of Fergus whereby more of the Irish Bloud-Royal is transmitted into His Majesty's most Princely veins And if as doubtless it will be it be objected that neither of these foundations are of sufficient strength to build a claim to a Kingdome upon it not appearing that Fergus or Alfred were Kings of Ireland entirely but supposed to be of parcels only or that Ranulht Alfred's Daughter was also his Heir Our Answer is that we do not lay the whole stress of our King's Interest to that Kingdom upon such weak and infirm undersetters but affirm that the most considerable part of the Inhabitants as English Scotch Welsh are undoubtedly His Majesty's natural Leiges and as for the original Natives whom Conquest hath made Subjects this however seemingly imperfect Title joyned with that obliges them to continue so especially seeing it is such a Conquest as hath been confirmed by more Centuries of years than those within the compass of which Jephtha demanded of the Ammonitish King why he had not all that while recovered his now too late challenged Land And as concerning the Title it self as bad as it is a better it is presumed cannot be produced by any pretender whatsoever But to return from our digression Ireland lying somewhat out of our Road which is principally confined to Great Brittain Prince Gryffith ap Conan ap Jago with the assistance of the Irish reprieves that Countrey which properly belonged to him out of the Talons of Trahern ap Caradoc the last of the Usurpers there having been since Jago's death no fewer than four to wit Gryffith ap Llewelyn ap Sitsylht he that ejected and killed Jago Blethyn ap Convyn his Brother Rywalhan and this Trahern whom Gryffith the lawfull Heir slew at the battel of Carnarvan and after a long and prosperous Reign had this felicity superadded to his former that his eldest Son Owen was his Successor which happened not to Owen himself but his first-born Jorwerth Drwyndwn upon a pitiful Cavil that he had a deformity in his nose which his surname doth import was laid aside and his younger Brother David preferred before him Yet did that most noble and valiant Prince Llewelyn the Son of Jorwerth Drwyndwn dispossess his usurping Uncle David and not content to have repaired late losses proceeds to resume former alienations by reannexing to his Territories those several fragments of Wales which the weakness or improvidence of his Predecessors had suffered to be pared away from their already too slender and scanty Dominions And here two waies offering themselves to bring us to our journeys end we are at a stand which to elect that of Mortimer's or of Owen Tudyr's Race We have indeed engaged in the beginning of the progress to prosecute that of Sir Owen Tudyr's but an unexpected rub hath fallen out in our passage which we did not fore-see when we made that promise viz. that Gryffith ap Llewelyn the Father of Elewelyn ap Gryffith the last Prince of Wales the Father of Catherine the Mother of Eleanor the Mother of Margaret the Mother of Meredith the Father of Sir Owen was but the base Son of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth ap Drwyndwn and therefore his attempt to drive out his lawfully begotten Brother David was altogether lawless as likewise was his son Llewelyn's keeping out Gulladys Dhy or the Black the Sister and Heir of David because she was married to an English man namely Sir Ralph Mortimer Lord of Wigmor by whom he had Roger Mortimer the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of that Edmond who married Philippa the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionell Duke of Clarence third Son of King Edward the third and by her had that Roger from whom to make another deduction to His Majesty would be but an idle repetition of what hath been already declared and is obvious to every one that hath but heard of the great Controversie between the Yorkish and Lancastrian House But be it how it will whether Mortimer or Tudyr's Right be the firmest certain it is that both these different lines do centre in the same point wherein the Roses met and from thence like Rivolets that have formerly been divided do unitedly flow unto His Majesty so that he need not as the French do sodder up a broken Title with a devised Law salique repugnant to the Law of Nature or use so poor an evasion as the King of Spain is said to do when the Duke of Medina Sidonia once in a generation tenders a Customary Petition to have the Kingdom delivered up unto him as his due the Answer is that the place is already full but may dare the whole World to shew a more unexceptionable claim than his unto the Imperial Crown he now wears And long may it flowrish upon his head and the head of his Posterity even unto the end of the World And let all the People say Amen FINIS

now possessed of the Throne in processe of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it and that upon a treble account First by vertue of the late Treaty with King Stephen Secondly by title of conquest as being great Grand-Child to William the Norman but Thirdly and chiefly by the equity of his Mothers claim who was the true descendent of the long-rejected but now restored Saxon linage He took to wise Elenor the repudiate of Lewis the seventh King of France by whom he had large Dominions in that Kingdom but notwithstanding it augmented his estate yet was it the occasion of much trouble and vexation to him For the French King jealous of his growing fortunes and his own Queen of his fidelity to his marriage-bed incited his Sons Henry Richard Jeffrey and John to frequent rebellions to whom neverthelesse upon their submissions he was entirely reconciled Henry Sans issue departed this life before his Father Richard succeeded in the Throne but dyed childlesse also Jeffrey though extinct himself before it came to his turn had yet left a Son in being Arthur Duke of Britany who ought to have been considered of but him John prevented more too by power favour of the Nobles than by any colour of Justice nad whilst the young Prince endeavours the recovery of his right he is taken prisoner as he besieged the Castle of Mirabell in France conveyed to the Tower of Roan and there killed if not by the hands yet at least by the command of his inhumane Uncle However the course taken to be thus rid of a Competitor was utterly unlawfull yet being gon Iohn becomes the lawful proprietor of the Crown but pays dear for the manner of this his amisse procured purchase For the Pope excommunicates him his Subjects forsake him the French King invades him and bereavs him not only of his large Territories in France but also of the greatest part of his Kingdome of England and he dyes miserably not without suspicion of Poyson a just judgment upon him for his enormous Acts especialy the murder of his innocent Nephew Now though God shewed himself a severe inquisitor for blood yet did he seem appeased with the punishment of the person that was guilty of it For he so disposed the hearts of the English Nation that they generally withdrew themselves from the French party and notwithstanding the iniquity of the Father most willingly embrace the Son then a minor as naturally inclined says my Author to love and obey their Princes Such this Prince Henry the third found his Subjects at his first admission whilst he was governed by a wise and faithfull Councel but afterwards suffering himself to be ruled by strangers that more intended their own than the publick good he so alienated the English affections as that they are as ready now to revolt from him as they were earnest at first to promote his interest To the former he adds new grievances to wit reiterated breach of Charters granted by his Predecessors and himself whence such discontents are engendred that at length there is begotten between the King and his people an actual commonly known by the name of the Barons war Hereof Simon de Monfort Earl of Leicester on the Barons side was head who in a set Battail takes King Henry and his Son Edward prisoners but Edward escapes collects an Army defeats and kills Leicester and redeems his Father the beginning of whose reign was overcast with a French mist the middle was very tempestous by reason of the Barons commotions but the Catastrophe or latter part was serene and concluded in a perfect Calm Edward the first of that name since the Norman conquest having proved the deliverer of his Father from captivity makes an expedition into the Holy-land to perform the like office to the Christians there that were grievously afflicted under the Turkish servitude but the news of his Fathers death quickly recalls him from further prosecution of that honourable enterprize wherein he had no lesse honourably demeaned himself And as he had encreased his own and Countries reputation abroad so doth he likewise enlarge their power and jurisdiction at home by subduing most of Scotland and totally reducing of Wales of which last because it was then first annexed to this Crown it will not be impertinent to afford the Reader a brief and summary relation Wales the small remnant of this Island that was left to the Britains the antient possessors of the whole had hitherto though not without much difficulty and struggling continued under their own proper Princes But the fatal period of their liberty which they had so long so stoutly maintained against so potent a Kingdome as this is now arrived Llewellin the then Prince of that Cnuntry being summoned to our Kings Coronation refused to appear saying He too well remembers the end of his Father Gryffin who came in safety to London but never returned thence This neglect Edward makes the ground of a quarrel enters into hostility against Llewellin forces him to a submission whereof he soon repents flyes out again is overcome and slain in fight his head cut off and that Merlins Prophecy might be fulfilled or eluded which as he interpreted had promised him the Diadem of Brute it is Crowned with Ivy and set upon the Tower of London After the death of Llewellin and his brother David whose head was shortly sent to accompany the others in the same place Edward contrives the perpetual union of these two too long divided Nations And though he found the Welsh Nobles very cautious how they brought their necks under a Forein yoke yet doth he accomplish his ends by this neat and Artificial devise He conveys secretly into the Castle of Carnarvon his Queen great with Child whom when he understood to be delivered of a boy he Assembles the Welsh Nobles and proposeth to them whether they would accept of a Prince of his Nomination that was born in their own Country could speak nere a word of English and against whom for Life or Conversation no objection could be made Whereunto when they had assented he produces his own little Son Edward to whom the aforesaid qualifications did exactly agree Hence the custom took its original of investing our Kings eldest Sons in the Principality of Wales but because there may here seem to have been a mixture of force and fraud we shall indeavour when order brings us to it to find out a more unexceptionable Title whereby our Kings lay claim to that Dominion Edward the second called Edward of Carnarvon for the cause but even now rehearsed much degenerated from his Fathers Noblenesse and lost not only Scotland which his Father had well-nigh gained but ever England it self being deposed by his own Wife Isabel having only this comfort left him that his Son Edward was to succeed in the Throne Edward the third of that name Son of the late deposed and shortly after murdered King was when he came to years of Discretion Gods