third Monarch of the English II. date of accession 534 KENRICK his Son succeeded him both in the Kingdom and Monarchy III. date of accession 561 CHEVLIN his Son was the fifth Monarch but his Power being not adaequate to his Fame he in 33 years time could not so settle himself but that he was dispossest by his Brother IV. date of accession 592 CEARLICK who being not so good at keeping as in getting the Kingdom into his hands was himself depos'd in like manner by V. date of accession 598 CHELWOLPH Son of Cuth fifth Son of Kenrick a Prince worthy the Greatness he inherited who notwithstanding he was assaulted by the Picts and Scots and East-Angles all at once kept his Ground and left it to his Successor VI. date of accession 622 KINGILLS a Prince famous for his piety and courage who left his Son VII date of accession 643 KENWALD to succeed him whose beginning may be compar'd to the worst his ending to the best of Kings renouncing first his Faith after his Wife both which though he afterwards retain'd yet the sin stuck so close to him that the first left him without a Kingdom the last without a Son whereby VIII date of accession 675 ESWIN of the Line of Chelwolph took place who for six years kept out the right Heir IX date of accession 677 KENWIN younger Son of Ringills who utterly expuls'd all the Briâ—ains and forc'd them to seek their safety in those inaccessable Mountains of Wales whereby his Successor X. date of accession 686 CEADWALD had so much leisure as to fall upon his nearest Neighbours the South-Sexe and weaken them so far that they were forc'd to yield to his Successor XI INE worthily esteem'd the greatest Prince of his time and the most magnificent yet withal the most humble he dyed in a Pilgrimage to Rome nominating XII date of accession 762 ETHELWARD the Son of Oswald the Son of Ethelbald descended from Kenwaâ—d his Successor who reign'd fourteen years and left the Scepter to his Brother XIII date of accession 740 CUTHRED whose heart being broken by seeing his Son murther'd the Crown came to XIV SIGEBERT one whose vices were less obscure than his Parentage who murthering one of the best of his Friends was himself slain by one of the basest of his Enemies a Swineherd whereby XV. date of accession 755 KENWOLFE succeeded a person worthy of better sate than he met with being slain by the hand of an Outlaw at a time when he did not expect and consequently was not prepar'd for death and so XVI date of accession 784 BITHRICK succeeded the last King of this House lineally descended from Cerdick who being poyson'd by his own Queen this Kingdom came to Egbert the Son of Ingils and Brother of Ine who reduc'd the whole Heptarchy into a Monarchy and therefore worthily led the Van to the absolute Monarchs of England THIS was the third Kingdom of the Heptarchy and deservedly so call'd if we consider the largeness of its extent which measur'd by the Line of Circumvallation reach't if some of our modern Geographers say true above 700 miles in compass being commonly call'd the Kingdom of the West-Sexe by Bede the Kingdom of the Genevises by Cambrensis from Genesius Grandfather to Cerdick who had the honour to be esteem'd the first Founder of it although in truth he rear'd but a small part of this stately Fabrick the rest being the work of Time and Fortune and came not to perfection in almost 500 years He was for his fierceness sirnam'd the Dragon possibly in imitation of the British Kings who had that title and having beaten * The Britaine call'd him Mâ—â—ge Coâ—â—â—â—â— Natanleod the Dragon of the Western Britains forc'd him to retreat and leave 5000 of his people behind him in possession of no more of their own ground than serv'd to make them one common Grave from whom 't is thought he took this Shield of the Dragon He was thereupon declar'd the third Monarch of the English men his Son Kenrick was the fourth and his Grandson Cheulin the fifth Each of these shar'd with him in the honour of being the first raisers of this Kingdom the establisher of it was King Kenwin the ninth Monarch who expuls'd all the Britains the first that enlarg'd it was Ceadwald the tenth King who having made his way to the Conquest of Kent by that of the South-Sexe left his Successor Ine worthily therefore sirnam'd the Great to give his Neighbours a true estimate of his power by that of his wealth and a measure of his wealth by that of his munificence whereof there needs no other instances than in the Foundation of the Abbey of Glastenbury the Furniture of whose Chappel only took up 2835 pound weight of Silver and 337 pound weight of Gold a vast sum for those days which being for the ornamental part only could not be comparable to that which was left for the endowment He Founded also the Cathedral Church of Wells the West part whereof is perhaps one of the most stately Fabricks in the known World Yet neither of these are more lasting Monuments than those of his Laws translated for their excellency by the learned Lambert into Latin as being the Foundation of what we are govern'd by so long since This was he that gave the first Eleemosinary Dole of Peter-pence to the Church of Rome which was exacted in the next Age as a Tribute In this mans Reign this Kingdom was at its heighth declining after his death insensibly till the time of Egbert who being the Darling of Fortune as well as of his own Subjects and a Prince of great towardliness after he had corrected his youth by the experience he had in the Wars under Charles the Great being the first of all the Saxon Princes that were educated abroad he got so far the advantage of all his home-bred Contemporaries that he easily soar'd above the common height of Majesty and beat up the seven Crowns into one which placing on his own head he not only gave those Laws but that Name to the whole Isle which continued till King James his Reign who uniting Scotland to the rest of the Terra firma not reduc'd altered the style of King of England into that which only could make it greater writing himself King of Great Britain to which August and most Imperial Title we now pay homage and may we ever do so THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF EAST-SEXE IV. I. date of accession 527 ERCHENWIN the Son of Offa Great-Grandson of Sneppa third in descent from Seaxnod third Son of Woden the common Progenitor of the Saxons began this Kingdom with the happiness of a long Reign which however it be seldome desir'd was certainly very advantagious to his Successor II. date of accession 587 SLEDDA who thought the readiest way to keep what his Predecessor got was to add to it what his Successors were not like to keep a Peace with the Kings of Kent his next Neighbours
by his very first Treaty which was not to have been hop'd for by any long hostility which success though the execution seem'd not considerable amounted to a kind of Victory So that 't was no wonder he rested not contented with such a Proportion as he was before asham'd to wish for Ambition respecting not so much whence it comes as whither it is addressed pressing still forwards without any consideration but that of the felicity it aims at on which it fixes with so intense a look that it regards no dangers much less any faith being deny'd the Government of the Isle of Thanet he insisted upon that of the whole Province of Kent meeting with opposition there he supply'd force with fraud and both with Fortune and by the possession of that one only got the command of three Provinces more all lying so convenient for landing Supplies that this seem'd to be but an Earnest for an entire Conquest Neither thought he it sufficient to have the Power without he had the Title of a King Hitherto he had only studied his Security that being obtain'd he begins to affect Glory and in respect Kent was his Principal Seat he gives that the preheminence of giving the Name to his Kingdom being the first not to say the last too of the whole Heptarchy continuing near four hundred years supported by its own proper Forces before it fell under the common Fate of being incorporated into the Universal Monarchy of the English And as it was the first Kingdom so was it the first Christian Kingdom of the Seven from whom the East-Saxons borrow'd their light and from them the rest till an universal brightness oversp ead the whole Hemisphere which however it seems to have been a work of time as appears by that oâ—d Adage yet in use amongst us In Kent and Christendom was an occasion of so high regard to the People of that Province that all the Counties of England have ever since consented to allow them the honour of precedency in the Field by giving them the right of leading the Van as often as the Nation appears to give any Batgel Royal which Priviledge hath been by special Charter confirm'd to them from the time of King Knute the Zealous The long Reign of Engist not less as some say then fifty years contributed much to the Corroboration of his Conquest which being the Gift of Fortune rather then Nature he bestow'd it on his youngest Son Oeske from whom as I said before 't was call'd the Kingdom of Eskins which beginning at the time of Ambrosius the British King continued Three hundred seventy two years an intire Kingdom and after the West-Saxons reduc'd it under their Obedience had yet the repute of being a distinct Principality and by that Title was bestow'd upon the younger Sons of those Kings who defended it against the Danes till Ethelbert the second Son of Athelstan second Son of Egbert after the death of his Elder Brother Ethelwald entring upon the whole Monarchy of England Anno 860. united it inseparably to his Empire THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF SOUTH-SEXE II. I. date of accession 488 ELLA was the first King of this and second absolute Monarch of the whole Kingdom for which Honour he was more indebted to the length of his Reign then the greatness of his Dominions being indeed the very least of the Seven II. date of accession 514 CISSA his youngest Son the two elder being slain succeeded his Father he reigned peaceably seventy six years founded Chichester and Chisbury the one for the resort of his People t'other for the repose of himself where dying he left his Son III. EDELWOLPH to succeed the first Christian of this House who refusing to contribute to the War against the Britains in respect the West-Saxon lay betwixt him and danger Ceadwald the Tenth of those Kings sell upon him and slew him upon whose death IV. BERTHUN and AUTHUN Two Dukes collaterally sprung out of the Royal Stock of this Kingdome interpos'd themselves with equal merit in the common Calamity and Defence of their Country and forcing Ceadwald to retire rul'd jointly for six years till the same King returning upon them took from the one his Life from the other his Liberty whereby this became a Province to the West-Sexe BY the setting up of this Kingdom conteining no more but two Counties Sussex and Surrey and those none of the greatest we may take some measure of the Ambition of our Ancestors who had as great respect to their Glory as their Security being not content to have the Power without they had the Title of Kings This Ella was in the first place but a Colonel under Engist who made him Governour of Sussex to which having added Surrey with the loss of the lives of his two eldest Sons Kymen and Plenchin after the death of his General he set up for himself and being resolv'd to shew the greatness of his mind by the narrowness of his Dominions not onely declar'd himself the first King of the South-Sexe but made himself so considerable in the esteem of all his Country-men that they submitted to him as the second Monarch of the English which Glory he held up to the height near thirty years But that Sun which began in Kent the East part of the Isle and came towards him who was planted in the South hasted to set amongst the West-Sexe to whom his Successors were forc'd to become Tributary or if it may lessen the dishonour for these were all of them most deserving Princes we may say Contributioners towards the War against the Britains The West-Saxon Kingdom lying betwixt them and danger the non-payment of this Tax whether it were that the Kings hereof refus'd it as being too heavy a Burthen upon them or disdain'd the manner of Exaction or thought themselves not oblig'd to be longer charg'd having clear'd their own Territories is not certain was the first and only occasion of the downfall of this Kingdom being thereby ingag'd in a War with too potent a Neighbour against whom though they had no hopes to prevail yet they scorn'd to yield till their tottering State fell down about their Ears and buried them in the common Ruins of their Country which was so far wasted before it submitted to become a Province that when it was added to th' other it became rather a Burthen then a Strengthning for a great while so far had Famine and Plague the Peace-makers in all Civil Wars disabled them to all intents and purposes before this Curse fell upon them to be devour'd by their Friends which was so much more dishonourable then to be conquer'd by their Enemies by how much it was the first unhappiness of this kind THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF WEST-SEXE III. I. date of accession 522 CERDIC having conquer'd Natan-leod the Dragon of the Western Britains set up the third Kingdom which reaching from Hampshire to Cornwal was call'd the Kingdome of West-Sexe and gave him the repute of being the
tenth in descent from Whethelgeat the third Son of Woden was the last but by no means the least of the Heptarchs for he had seventeen intire Provinces which shews his head to be as active as his hands His Son II. date of accession 595 WIBBA thought he did enough in keeping what his Father got which he left well fortified to his Nephew III. date of accession 615 CEORL Son of Kinemund younger Brother to Cridda whose reign was neither long nor splendid perhaps overwhelm'd by the Glory of his Successor IV. date of accession 625 PENDA the Son of Wibba a minor when his Father dyed and so put beside the Crown but being King he over-aw'd all the rest that were Contemporaâ—y with him having slain six Kings of the East-Angâ—es and two of Northumberland But the last requited him blood for blood and took from him both Life and Kingdom which Oswy the Conquerour generously return'd to his eldest Son V. date of accession 655 PEADA who thereupon became his Son and his Subject and at once imbraced his Daughter and the Christistian Faith the last more fatal to him then the first his Life being thereupon taken away by her that first gave it to make way for his Pagan Brother VI. date of accession 658 WULPHERE who from his own Mother learnt to butcher his own Sons hearing that they were converted by St. Chad Bishop of Litchfield which yet could not prevent a Christian Successor for VII date of accession 675 ETHELRED came in after him his Son being under Age who as if he had had only intended to shew his Nephew what he would have him do devoted himself to a Religious Life to make way to VIII date of accession 700 KENRED who after eight years tryal being no better pleas'd with the sweet of Dominion surrender d to IX date of accession 709 CHELRED his Son who prov'd no less vigilant and valiant then his Grand father but being overmatch'd by the West-Saxon his Country lost a great part of the happiness and himself of the renown that justly might have been hoped from the continuance of his life whereby X. date of accession 716 ETHELBALD succeeded who was descended from a younger Brother of Penday against whom the villany of Whodert prevail'd more then the valour of his Enemies could being treacherously slain to make way for a stranger who yet was put beside the succession by XI date of accession 757 OFFA another Prince of the collateral Line descended from Koppa second son of Wibba who it seems was more indebted to Education then Nature and to Providence then to either for being born blind deaf and dumb he became miraculously restored to all his Senses and gave so great proofs of his Courage Prudence and Piety that his Reign is supposed to be the Meridian of the Mercian Kingdoms Glory for from his death it visibly fell under the Horizon XII date of accession 796 EGFRID his son succeeded who was the more famous in that he was made a King before he had a Kingdom but as Trees that blossom too soon never bear Fruit so his too early Honour was quickly blasted whereby XIII date of accession 796 KENULPH took place who was fifth in descent from Kenwalch younger Brother to Penda who seems to have been happier in himself then his Posterity for his Reign was not so long but XIV date of accession 820 KENELM his Sons was as short being murthred by his own Sister to make way for her Uncle XV. date of accession 820 CEOLULPH who was as barbarously dispatch'd by one XVI date of accession 822 BERNULPH an Usurper who prov'd a better King then he was a Man he contested hard with Egbert the West-Saxon and lost so much blood in the quarrel that his old Adversary the East-Angle perceiving how he was weakened set upon him and slew him XVII date of accession 826 LUDFCAN his successor attempting to revenge his death got his own whereupon XVIII date of accession 828 WITHLAF that came after him bought his security with a Tribute which his successor XIX date of accession 840 BERTULPH was content to continue but whiles he lookt foreright only an unexpected Enemy came upon him behind to wit the merciless Dane and over-run him but Ethelwulph the last Saxon recovering back the Kingdom gave it with his Daughter to one XX. date of accession 853 BURTHRED a Person worthy either who supported this tottering House ready to fall about his Ears till he was betray'd by his servant XXI CEOLWULPH whose treachery was rewarded by the Danes with the Title of King but King Edward the Eldest having slain him made it a Province of the English Monarchy THIS though it were one of the last was yet the very largest of all the Heptarchical Dominions and fitly setled to give Laws to all the rest as being in Umbilico Terrarum in the very Center or Navel of the Isle The wonder is how so great a Kingdom rose out of nothing with so little noyse the Founder leaving no more Constat of his Merit then of the method of his Ambition it being not yet known whether he attain'd that power that render'd him so great or receiv'd from Fortune the Greatness that render'd him so powerful Some ascribing it to his Wisdom others to his Courage but most to his Credit so that we may guess his Character to be not much unlike that which a foolish Athenian gave of God who being ask'd what he was answer'd He was neither Bowman nor Spearman Horsman nor Footman but one that knew well how to command all So 't is as probable this man was neither Souldier nor Scholar but as the Athenian said one that knew how to govern either otherwise he could not have dispos'd all things as he did so much to the advantage of his Successors that in fewer Months then others took up Years they spread their Wings over no less then six of the most goodly Provinces according to Ptolomey's accompt but by that of their own when they cantred the whole into Shires it was no less then seventeen which in Alfrids Tripartite Division made one third part of the whole Isle too great a Gripe to have been held long had not the Reign of his Successor who laid the Superstructure as wisely as he the Foundation fortunately confirm'd the Fabrick till it was setled and past shaking a happy beginning that made those that came after not only the Terrour of their Enemies but the Envy of their Neighbours whereof no less then Four assaulted his Grand-son at once and those not the meanest viz. the Northumber the East-Angle the West-Saxon and those of Kent keeping him at a Bay as a Lyon in a Toyl till Fate conspiring with his Forces drove some of them out of their Confidence others out of their Kingdoms and the rest out of the World Some compounding by a Tribute others by Homage the rest with loss of their Lives Prosperity prompting him to scorn all Conditions of Peace till he gave
them a greater advantage by their dispair then themselves could have hoped from their natural Fortitude for not knowing how to overcome he took from them all hopes of yielding and shewed them thereby a way to conquer him which they could not have found before he wrote himself Universal Monarch a Title he design'd to rip out of the Womb of Providence having not patience to expect the Birth of his Greatness His Fall so crush'd the growth of his Successors that they recover'd not in many years after but as backward Springs produce the best Fruit so the Glory that came late held the longer their heads proving as active as their hands their hands as bountiful as their hearts and their hearts as large as their purses Whilst they were Pagans they fortified themselves by extraordinary Acts of Cruelty but after they became Christians they rais'd them by as great works of Charity Once they were closely begirt and in so low a Condition that they were forc'd to redeem themselves by a Tribute from the Power of the Northumbers but having recover'd this they stood fair to have taken in the whole Heptarchy under the Government of Offa the Series of whose Prosperity had it not been interrupted by one unlucky Action the Guilt whereof not only dampt his own Spirit but cast a fatal Vale of Distrust on all his Successors had probably reach'd beyond the bounds of an insulary Glory as appears by the Emulation of his Contemporary Charlemain who much disdain'd he should have the honour to be stil'd The Great as well as himself but having inhospitably murther'd Ethelbert King of the East-Saxons coming to his Court under the Security of Publick Faith as a Suiter to his Daughter His Innocent blood was by Divine Vengeance charged so home upon his Posterity that their Greatness declin'd as Planet-struck from that very time So that of Nine Descents after him there was only one that had not a short but not any that had not a very sinister and unprosperous Reign till Fate drew the Circle of their Royalty to the full Compass stopping thereby the hand of Providence from any further motion So that from that time their Kingdom like a great Tree blown down but not quite rooted up lay so low that some Branches or other were lopt off daily from it till the West-Saxon seiz'd on the main Body as a Windfall due to him after it had stood the shock of Three hundred forty five Winters THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF EAST-ANGLES VI. I. date of accession 578 UFFA seventh in descent from Caesar second Son of Woden was the first King of the East-Angles from him call'd the Kingdom of the Uffins whose Reign was rather happy than long yet long enough to confirm the Succession to his Son II. date of accession 583 TITULUS who did nothing to make himself known more than being the Father of III. REDWALD who in assisting Edwin the Northumber lost his eldest Son and that broke his heart so that the second Son IV. date of accession 625 ERPENWALD took place the first Christian of this Race converted by the aforesaid King Edwin with so much dislike of his People that a base Villain adventur'd to murther him and so made a way to his younger Brother V. date of accession 636 SIGEBURT whose converse with Learning and Learned men being bred in France rendred him so favourable to both that the two Universities Oxford and Cambridge do to this day contend for the honour of having him their Founder He gave up his Royalty to his Kinsman VI. date of accession 638 EGRICK who with himself and the next in Succession VII date of accession 642 ANNA were all slain by the Pagan Penda who plac'd here the younger Brother VIII date of accession 654 ETHELHERD a Traytor to his Countrey and his own blood worthily depriv'd of Life and Kingdom by the famous Osâ— in the Northumber that put in IX date of accession 656 ETHELWOLD Regent in Trust for his Nephew X. date of accession 664 ALDULPH eldest Son of Ethelherd then a Child who wasted nineteen years without any memorable Action leaving his Brother XI date of accession 683 ELWOLPH to deserve a little of Posterity and his People Neither did the younger Brother XII date of accession 714 BEORN excel either of them for he left neither Wise Issue or Action to continue his memory whereby XIII date of accession 714 ETHELRED took place famous for nothing but being the Father of XIV date of accession 749 ETHELBERT the Unfortunate who was murther'd by Offa the Mercian after whose death the said Offa broke into this Kingdom of the one side and the West-Saxon on the other and the King of Kent on another side each preying like Vultures upon the headless Trunk or like Pikes in a Pond which devour one another till they were beaten off by a Stranger one XV. date of accession 771 EDMUND the Son of Alkmond a German Prince made Executor of one Offa a Prince of this Family and the next it seems in blood as well as in right who dying at Norimberg in his passage to the Holy Land adopted this Edmund his Heir who defending his Title was slain by the Danes who thereupon placed here a King of their own as will appear in its proper place THE Saxons having engaged their whole Nation to an entire Conquest of this Isle partly out of desire of glory but more of gain ceased not daily to oppress the dismay'd Britains with unequal numbers who growing base with their Fortune lost their Courage as fast as their Countrey fighting so faintly at the last that when they prevail'd they were afraid to pursue which made Fortune out of love with them that she seldom or never took their part The report hereof being carry'd into Germany every person that had any sense of Honour or Necessity emulous of his Neighbours Forwardness or asham'd of his own Sloth transplanted himself hither with whatsoever Forces he could get together And amongst the men that took advantage of this common Calamity was this Uffa in the beginning a Viceroy to the Kings of Kent in the Provinces of Suffolk and Norfolk who having over-run all the Countrey about the Isle of Ely to the uttermost parts of Cambridgshire joyn'd those to these and made up the sixt Kingdom stil'd the Kingdom of the East-Angles but with respect to him the Kingdom of the Uffins It was one of the least in dimensions but greatest in dignity of all the Seven for the Kings being but fifteen in number were deservedly esteem'd the wisest and valiantest of all this Nation by how much though their Title were the worst the best part obtain'd by treachery their Advantages the least their Territories the narrowest and their Adversaries the most numerous not to say the most puissant that is the haughty Northumber the implacable West-Saxon the cruel Mercian and the victorious Eskin the three last assaulting them all at one time yet they maintained a
a Tetrarchy but he was forc'd at the same time to banish Ten thousand of his other Country-men only to be rid of them two putting himself by an unusual Confidence upon the Faith of the English whom to oblige the more he taught the knowledge of their own Strength which till then they seem'd ignorant of shewing them the way to Victory in other Countries where while they became Conquerours under him they forgot the hate conceiv'd for being conquer'd by him Neither was he less careful in Peace to heal the wounds receiv'd in War by applying the Balsome of wholsome Laws in the making whereof he had a particular Art to meet with the Distempers of the Times wisely providing against such as were likely to have become Epidemical But more particularly severe was he against that sottish sin of Drinking then so much in fashion not without some secret instinct perhaps or presage of what did happen after that it would prove fatal to the Glory of his own House and not only cut off every Branch thereof but be the occasion of rooting out his Nation so full and wholly that in two Successions after him there should not be found scarce one Family in the whole Isle that could so trace their broken Pedigrees through the obscure windings and deviations of their so often interrupted History as to prove himself of Danish Extract both by Father and Mother But as it was too great an Undertaking to subdue the Vices of that indomitable Age where if they had not thirsted for wine they would perhaps for blood So much less was he able to contest with Heaven which had put them a period for a Penalty and bound them up by an invisible Chain of Causes beyond the length of which they could not make one step forward The Links whereof were peradventure no more and therefore the heavier then what was proper for the mystical number of their three Letter'd Name of DAN for as their Monarchy held only three Descents so the whole Systeme of their Conquest with every Action Accident and Atchievement therein seems to be circumscribed within the Circle of that hree corner'd square with like Fatality as the Britains were rul'd by the Number of Six and the Romans by that of Seven For as they were originally divided into three Tribes so each Tribe had as many Kingdoms and thereupon they gave for their ancient Arms three times three * Olao Worms Monument Dan. 431. Hearts which makes up Nine the great Square of the Number Three their Dominions then conteining just so many Islands as we learn from †Casp F. Epist Tho. Bartolinus to which they have added since Three Lions So when they began their Invasion here 't is observable they had but only Three Ships which yet landed not all at once but in three several places and that inconsiderable Party they brought over were conducted by three Generals each equal in Trust and Honour these were Gurmo Byorn and Sytherick who began that cruel war that followed upon their Departure came over Ingar Ivor and Hubbo three fierce Brothers which were seconded by Gurmo the younger Eskell and Amond as they again back'd by Cockric Hastang and Rollo The three great Triumviri in the height of the war were Edric Stroeg and Halidine after them succeeded Sytherick the Second Godfred and Anlaff after whom were Eric the Second Anlaff the Second and Swain not to mention Fran Frithegist and Frothoe whose names were over-whelm'd by Irtus Turkill and Knute who were the bringers up of the Rear and ended the war the last of whom was the first had the good fortune to shake off his right and left hand-men in the Government The like Order they observ'd in invading Ireland where the first Undertakers were Turges and the two Gurmo's Father and Son the second Expedition being managed by Thor Raglobert and Sytherick the same Sytherick I take it came after into England And as they had alwaies three Generals so all their Battalion's were divided into Tertia's and as divers Historians relate they never quit the Field how much soever over-press'd by their Enemies till they had been thrice broken Lastly as they had a Succession of three times three Kings here before they could get the intire Domination over the whole that is to say three in East-Anglia and twice three in Northumberland so they had three and but three Kings that continued the Succession after they became absolute And as their Monarchy held out but three Descents so it continued but three times nine years at longest Too short a space to compensate the loss of so much blood as the recovery of their short-liv'd Glory cost them much less to repair the Naufrages of the Common-wealth wasted by continual Storms whilst Fortune appear'd so indifferent which side to favour that there could be no measure taken of her Inclinations from the Success there being scarce any Battel fought in which the Conquerour had so much the better on 't to keep the Field long or the conquer'd so beaten as not to be able in very short time to take the Field again with confidence of getting the day next rising like Game-cocks after they were laid for dead to crow over them that had the better of them those that died intailing their Ambition on those that surviv'd infecting them if I may so say with their Courage So that that Character is very applicable to them which we find elsewhere Quos nulla fatigant Praelia nec Victi possunt absistere Ferro THE Order and Succession OF THEIR KINGS Before and after they got The Intire and Absolute Government OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 870 HUNGAR was the first Danish King in this Isle who assisted by his Brother Beorn that had marryed the Lady of Northumberland found Interest enough to give him admittance there whence marching directly into East-Anglia he sacrific'd King Edmund to the Ghost of his murther'd Father and possessing himself of that Kingdom left it to II. date of accession 874 GURMO a younger Brother of the Royal House of Denmark who to ingratiate himself to the English became a Christian and with his new Title took a new Name being by his Godfather King Elfred worthily call'd Athelstan that is to say as Verstegan interprets it the Noble he left his Title to his Brother III. date of accession 905 ERIC the first that had this name and last that had this honour who meeting with a Competitor that over-match'd him both in the dignity of his Person and the designation of his Power was betray'd by his own Subjects who put themselves under King Edward surnam'd the Elder the Northumbers and Mercians submitting to IV. date of accession 907 ERIC the Second or as some call him Sytherick a Norwegian who contracting an Allyance with King Athelstan and after the Example of Gurmo turning Christian was poyson'd by his own two Sons the eldest whereof V. date of accession 924 ANLAFF the First possess'd
himself of Northumberland Godfrid his younger Brother held Mercia but King Athelstan fell upon both and took from the last his Life from the first his Kingdom which was recovered again not long after by his Son VI. date of accession 946 ANLAFF the Second thereupon esteem'd the third King of the Northumbers His reign was not long for his Subjects weary of continual wars set him besides the Saddle to make way for VII date of accession 950 ERIC the Third or as some call him IRING Son of Harold the Grandson of Gurmo King of Denmark recommended to them by Milcolmb King of Scots but he being elected King of Sweden the Northumbers submitted to Edgar the younger Brother or next in succession to Edwyn and from that time it continued a Member of the English Crown till about the year 980 when VIII date of accession 980 ANLAFF the Third understanding they were affected to his Nation arriv'd with a fresh Supply and making his Claim was admitted King but being over prest the Title came to IX date of accession 1013 SWAIN King of Denmark who made this his first step to the Engâ—ish Throne into which as he was mounting death seiz'd on him and kept the Room empty for his Son Knute DANES Absolute Kings OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 1017 KNUTE was deservedly surnam'd the Great as being the very greatest and most absolute King that ever England or Denmark knew those of the Roman Line only excepted for he was King of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden and Lord of a great part of Poland all Saxony some part and not a little of Brandenburgh Bremen Pomerania and the adjacent Countries most of them not to say all besides Denmark and Norway reduc'd under his Obedience by the valour of the English only upon his death Denmark and Norway fell to his Son Hardycanute the rest as Sweden c. devolv'd upon the right Heirs whilst England was usurp'd by his Natural Son II. date of accession 1036 HAROLD surnam'd Harfager or Golden Locks who being the Elder and having the advantage to be upon the place entred as the first Occupant thereby disappointing his legitimate Brother III. date of accession 1041 KNUTE surnam'd the Hardy design'd by his Father to be the next Successor to him as bearing his Name though upon tryal it appear'd he had the least part of his Nature for he had not the Courage to come over and make any claim as long as Harold liv'd and after his death he drown'd himself in a Land-flood of Wine losing all the Glory his Predecessors had gotten by wading through a sea of blood which made the way to his Throne so slippery that those English that came after him could never find firm footing But upon the very first Encounter with the Norman caught such a Fall that could never recover themselves again This Gurmo came out of Ireland I take it in the second year of King Elfrid not without a confident hope of making good his Predecessors Conquest which had cost already so much blood as made his desire of Rule look like a necessity of Revenge the Monarchy of Denmark it self being put if I may so say into a Palsie or trembling Fit by the loss of the Spirits it had wasted here So that he came with this advantage which those before him had not That the Cause seem'd now to be his Countries more then his own who therefore bore him up with two notable props Esketel and Amon men of great Conduct and known Courage the one of which he plac'd as Vice-Roy in Northumberland t'other in Mercia And having before expelled Burthred the Saxon he fixed himself in East-Anglia as being nearer to correspond with Denmark and most commodious to receive Reâ—ruits Upon his first advance against King Elfrid Fortune appear'd so much a Neuter that either seem'd afraid of other and striking under line preferr'd a dissembled Friendship before down-right Hostility And to shew how much the edge of their Courage was rebated they mutually accorded to divide the Land betwixt them Gurmo was to be Lord of the North and East Elfrid to hold the South and West part of the Isle The politick Dane after this suffered himself to become what the English would have him to be a Christian to the intent that he might be what he would have himself to be absolute changing his Pagan name of Gurmo into that of Athelstan which being of all others the most grateful to the Saxons he render'd himself by that Condescension so acceptable to the whole Nation that they consented to his Marriage with the fam'd Princess Thyra King Elfrids vertuous Sister by whom he had Issue Harold Blaatand that liv'd to be King of Denmark after himself and another Knute whom he left in Ireland to make good the Acquests of the first Gurmo there a Prince of so great hopes and so belov'd by him that the knowledge of his death being slain at the Siege of Dublin gave him his own for he no sooner apprehended the tidings thereof by the sight of his Queens being in mourning but he fell into such a violent fit of Grief as left him not till he left the World whereby the Crown of Denmark fell to his Son Harold the Title and Possession of East-Anglia with its Appurtenances he bequeath'd to his Brother Eric who having perform'd the first Act of Security to himself in having taken an Oath of Allegiance of all his Subjects suffer'd them to perform the last Act of Piety towards him in giving him all the Rites of an honourable Interment at Haddon in Suffolk which place it seems he purposed to make the Burial place of all the East-Anglian Kings But this Ambition of his beginning where it should have ended with a design of assuring to himself more honour after he was dead then he was able to make good whiles he was living ended as soon as it began as will appear by his Story following Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Upon which his Queen frighted with the horrour of their Inhumanity fled back to her Brother Athelstan to seek from his Power Justice Protection and Revenge whiles Anlaff took upon him to be King The Equality of Power as well as of Ambition ripen'd the Factions on both sides very fast by the heat of their Contest But before they came to Maturity there was a Parliament conven'd at Oxford that took the matter into consideration where the Lords fearing that the Question if delay'd might be decided by Swords and not by Words out of a deep sence of the lingring Calamities of a new War all the wounds of the old being not yet cured or at least not so well but that the Scars were yet fresh in many of their Faces they declar'd for the King in possession but with such a wary form of Submission as shew'd they did it rather out of regard to themselves then him whereupon Goodwin produced the deceased Kings Will in opposition to theirs but the
to him then his Wife especially since the right Heir took the wrong side Upon the first apprehension he recall'd them home but upon second thoughts he forbids their Return at first he seem'd impatient of their absence as the only Friends he could conside in but on a sudden he dreads their approach as the most Mortal Enemies he had forbids their landing by Proclamation and sets out no less then three Admirals to prevent it they in like manner whilst he prest for their Company delay'd their Recess but when they found themselves banish'd grew as impatient of being kept out The King of France not owning so vile a design so as to give any ready assistance to it they withdrew into Holland whose Earl being a rich and politick Prince upon the contracting Prince Edward to his Daughter he furnished them with Money and Shipping to transport them Landing at Harwich they were so welcom'd by the discontented Nobility that the poor King foreseeing the ensuing danger and not finding that Faith in the Londoners which he expected withdrew into the West in order to passing over into Ireland but meeting with a Storm at Sea that threatned as eminent danger as that by Land he was forced to comply with the contrary Winds and direct his Course towards Wales where destitute of Councel as well as Courage he lay obscurely till his Majesty extinguish'd like a Torch held downwards His Son though he was as yet under Wardship himself was made Guardian of the Kingdom a Title so much greater then that of King by how much he had the Superiority over both readily was he prevail'd with to take away the lives of the two fatal Favourites the Spencers so that 't was thought he would not be over-modest in taking the Crown after it being so easie a Temptation to consent to depose him who had already upon the matter depos'd himself However Nature prevail'd so much over Ambition contrary to all their Expectations or Grace rather over Nature that he refus'd to accept it till his Father might be prevail'd with to give it him as a Blessing who thereupon resign'd it but with such a moving Meekness as for the present time melted the very Queen her self and seemingly touch'd her with so much Regret at the Renuntiation that the Bishop of Hereford the great Engineer of this prosperous Treason doubting her Constancy in point of Malice to be as uncertain as her Faith in point of Affection or perhaps rather dreading the young Kings Piety back'd with the old Kings power hastned his Death by all means possible but finding himself for some time disappointed by the force of Providence or the strength of his Nature which neither ill Air ill Diet nor want of Rest could impair he put him into the hands of two Miscreants sit to be imploy'd in so black a Purpose to whom he inclos'd in a Letter one onely Line which was so twist up as might serve to strangle any Prince whatever comprehending a double sense to warrant them and excuse himself if need were the words were these Edvardum regem occidere nolite timere bonum est This being not pointed the Devil who invented it instructed them in the true meaning of the damnable Oracle which accordingly they put in execution with so much cruelty and horror that never King died as this poor Planet-struck Prince did having a Pipe thrust up into his Fundament to the intent that the Marks of their Violence might not be perceiv'd outwardly and through that with a red hot Iron they penetrated his Bowels to his Heart yet was not this Death possibly more miserable or grievous to him then his Life after he became forsaken of all his Subjects Friends and Allies in general and particularly of his own Wife Son and Brother not to say of himself too if so be we do not reckon them a part of himself considering with what strange abjection he resign'd first his Crown after his Life For to say truth never was King turn'd out of a Kingdom or out of the World as he was Many Kingdoms have been lost by the chance of War but this Kingdom as one observes was lost before any Dy was cast for it no blow struck no Battel fought lost before it was taken from him whilst by betraying himself first he taught others to do it after strange Riddle of State that a Crown should be gain'd forcibly yet without force violently yet with consent both Parties agreed yet neither pleas'd for he was not willing to leave his Kingdom and he that was to have it as unwilling to take it without he gave it him the Queen was not pleas'd he should part with it without he parted with his Life too judging that by having a part he might recover the whole or that her self having parted with the whole could not intitle her self to any part but by his Death and therefore having taken the Kingdom from him openly there was a kind of necessity of taking away his Life secretly Poor Prince how unkindly was he treated upon no other account but that of his own over-great kindness Other Princes are blam'd for not being rul'd by their Counsellors he for being so who whilst he liv'd they would have thought to be a Sot but being dead they could have found in their hearts to have made him a Saint How far he wrong'd his People doth not appear there being very few or no Taxations laid upon them all his time but how rude and unjust they were towards him is but too manifest But their Violence was severely repaid by Divine Vengeance not only upon the whole Kingdom when every Vein in the Body Politick was afterward opened to the endangering the letting out of the Life-blood of the Monarchy in the Age following but upon every particular Person consenting to or concern'd in his Death For as the Throne of his Son that was thus set in blood though without his own guilt continued to be imbru'd all his Reign which lasted above fifty years with frequent Executions Battels or Slaughters the Sword of Justice or his own being hardly ever sheath'd all his time So 't is said that the Queen her self dyed mad upon the apprehension of her own in Mortimer's disgrace who was executed at Tyburn and hung there two dayes to be a spectacle of Scorn His Brother Edmond had this punishment of his Disloyalty to be condemn'd to lose his Head for his Loyalty it being suggested and happy it had been for him if it had been prov'd that he indeavoured the Restoration of his Brother his death being imbitter'd by the mockery of Fortune whilst by keeping him upon the Scaffold five hours together before any Body could be found that would execute him he was deluded with a vain hope of being saved The Fiend Tarlton Bishop of Hereford who invented the cursed Oracle that justified the murther dy'd with the very same Torture as if the hot Iron that fear'd his Conscience had been thrust into
dispend a thousand Marks a day which I have the rather noted to shew how the Kingdom flourish'd as well as the King gaining as all wise States do by their layings out for the whole Revenues of the Crown in his Grand-fathers days were esteem'd to be not much above a hundred thousand Marks a year Five years the French King continued Prisoner here in England time enough to have determin'd the Fortune of that great Kingdom and dissolv'd their Canton'd Government into parts had it not been a Body consisting of so many strong Limbs and so abounding with Spirits that it never fainted notwithstanding all its loss of Blood but scorn'd to yield though King Edward came very near their heart having wounded them in the most mortal part their Head The Scotch King could not recover his Liberty in double the time being the less able to redeem himself for that he was upon the matter but half a King the other half being in the possession of Baliol who to secure a Moyety to himself surrendred the whole to King Edward whose Magnificence vying with his Justice he gave it back again upon Terms more befitting a Brother then a Conqueror shewing therein a Wantonness that no King perhaps besides himself would have been guilty of nor probably he neither had either his People been less bountiful to him or Fortune less constant which to say truth never forsook him till he like his Father forsook himself leaving all Action and bidding adieu to the World ten years before he went out of it declining so fast from the fortieth year of his Government that it may rather be said his famous Son Prince Edward commonly call'd the Black Prince reign'd then he and happy 't was for him that when his own Understanding fail'd him he had so good a Supporter who having it in his power to dispose of Kingdoms whilst he liv'd ought not to be denyed after he dyed the honour of being esteem'd equal to Kings in the Prerogative of a distinct Character Begin we then the Date of his Government from the Battel of Crassy which happening in the Sixteenth year of his Age makes the Computation of his Glory to commence near about the same time his Fathers did who however he was King at fourteen rul'd not till after Mortimer's death by which Battel he so topt the Fortune of France as his Father had that of England that he may be said to have taken thereby Livery in order to the Seisin of that Kingdom And after the Recovery of Calais it may be said the Keys of the Kingdom rather then of that Town were deliver'd into his hand for that he therewith open'd all the Gates of almost every Town he came to till the King of France incompassed him like a Lion in a Toil with no less then 60000 of the best Men of France and brought him to that streight that it seem'd alike disadvantageous to sight or yield and which made the danger more considerable as things then stood England it self was in some hazard of being lost with him here he seem'd to have been as well accomptable to his Country as to his Father for his Courage and Discretion and how well he acquitted himself appears by the Sequel when forcing Hope out of Despair like fire out of a Flint he necessitated his Men to try for Conquest by shewing them how impossible 't was for him to yield and by that incomparable Obstinacy of his made Fortune so enamour'd of his Courage that she follow'd him wherever he went while his Sword made its way to Victory and his Courtesie to the Affections of the Conquer'd whom he treated with that regard and generosity that many of them were gainers by the loss being dismiss'd with honourable Presents that made his second Conquest over them greater then the first the King of France himself being so well pleas'd with his Bondage that he return'd voluntarily into England after he was redeem'd to meet two Kings more that might be Witness of his Respect and Gratitude In short he was as King of England on the other side the Water as his Father was on this side keeping so splendid a Court in Acquitaine that no less then three Kings came to visit him too all at once these were the King of Majorque Navar and Castile the last of which craving Aid of him against an Usurper who was back'd by an Army consisting of no less then One hundred thousand men if the Writers of those times say true was re-instated accordingly by his single power to shew the World that he could as well make Kings as unmake them His second Brother who had the Title of King by marrying with the King of Castile's Daughter and Heir being principally indebted to him for the honour of that Title and it prov'd a fatal Debt both to him and his Son Richard the Second costing the one his Life the other both Life and Kingdom too for as himself never recover'd the health he lost in undertaking that Expedition so his Son never recover'd the disadvantage put upon him afterward by his Uncle Lancaster who by that means having got the Regency of his drooping Father King Edward who tyred with Action rather then Age fatally submitted to the loss of more years of his Government then he got by his unnatural Anticipation from his own Father and suffer'd himself to be buried alive as we may say under his Cradle put fair for setting his Nephew aside but wanting a Colour for so apparent an Injustice his jealous Father the Black Prince having declar'd him his Successor in his life time to prevent all tricks he thought it enough to make way for his Son to do it and accordingly put such an impression of dislike upon the innocent Youth at his very first Edition as prov'd Indelible in his riper years for the very same day he was presented to take his Grandfathers Seat in Parliament as Heir apparent to the Crown being then but eleven years old he taught him to demand a Subsidy purposely to turn the Peoples blood who were then big with their Complaint of Taxes But possibly he is made more splenetick as well as more politick then he was for it was scarce possible to make the Youth more odious then he had made himself before by disgusting those two potent Factions of the Church and the City of London who to shew how weary they were of his governing the old Child his Father would not after his Death let him longer Rule the young Child his Nephew but purposely depos'd him to the end as they said that he might not depose the other Thus this great King ended as ingloriously as he began who having stept into the Throne a little before he should 't is the less wonder he left it a little before it was expected he would especially if we consider that in out-living the best Wife and the best Son in the World he had a little out-liv'd himself being so unfortunate
death Jus Vitae Necis The Kings of this Isle the First Anointed Christian Kings 9. And as the Quatuor Vncti were before all other Kings so I take it that the Kings of this Isle ought to have the preference amongst them for that they were the first (g) Rhivallus ap Tooke in charism Sanct. Cap. 6. anointed Christian Kings as appears by the undeniable Testimony of the learned Gildas in his Book De excidio Britanniae written above a thousand years since which I take to be beyond any Remain of the like Extant in any Records of the Eastern or Western Empire (h) De Comitiis Imperat Cap. 2. Onuphrius would have that Ceremony to begin in the East with the Emperour Justin circ Ann. 525 but most of the learned Writers upon this Subject differ in opinion from him supposing he was more beholding for that honour to the gratitude of the Orthodox Clergy whom he always favour'd then to any real truth or Certainty in the thing The vulgar Historians will have it to begin in the West with the Merovignian line amongst the French but neither does Du Hailan Tilly nor those of the best Authority agree to it Regino and Sifridus go no higher then King Pepin who they say was the first anointed by Boniface Arch Bishop of Ments Ann. 750 which mistake may possibly be better understood by distinguishing betwixt the Ceremonies of the Regal and those of the Ecclesiastical Unction the last being no more but a sacred complement us'd in those times as a preparatory designation to an expected Regality whereof our own History is not without some Instances in which we find that Egbert Son to the great Mercian Offa was anointed in the life time of his Father Ann. 780 which was twenty years before Charlemaine who is suppos'd by most Writers to have been the very first King of the Francks anointed by Leo the Fourth Ann. 800. The like we read of Elfred the Son of Egbert anointed by the same Pope near about the same time in the presence of his Father but taking it to be as early in use with them as they themselves would have it thought to be yet falls it short of the times of our King Arthur affirm'd by J. of Monmouth to be a King anointed Cirea Ann. 505. and perhaps with sufficient Reputation if his be consider'd with the concurrent Testimonies of Bede and Malmesbury who prove the frequent use of it here not long after as likewise that of St. Oswald the most Christian King Ann. 635 that was two hundred years before Pepin As for the Kings of Jerusalem and Scicily however reckon'd in the Rank of the four yet were they not in being for near five hundred years after the honour they had therein being by composition with the Pope to whom they humbled themselves for this advancement so far as to declare themselves content to hold their Kingdoms of the Church whereas both Ours and those of France claim'd only by divine Right confirm'd if the Traditions of that age might be credited by manifestations from Heaven the Oil that consecrated those of France being brought down by a Dove in a Golden Viol and continu'd many hundred years after unwasted at Rheims that of ours being said to have been confirm'd to be coelestial by three distinct manifestations in three different Ages which certainly were as much abus'd themselves as they abus'd us if they conspired to transmit an untruth to us no more to their own advantage The first in the time of St. Oswald before mention'd when 't is said that there descended a great Quantity of holy Oil like Dew from Heaven and fell upon him by the sight and scent whereof for it perfum'd the place divers People were converted to the faith as (i) Bede Hist Aug. lib. 3. c. 3. Bede affirms The Second was at the time when the English Line were cut off by the Danes beyond any hope of Recovery the Danes being in quiet Possession of the Throne when St. Peter appearing to the holy Monk Brightwold assur'd him that England was God's Kingdom for whose Successors he would take due care and at the same time gave him a little Cruise of Oil telling him further that whomsoever he anointed therewith that man should be King and have power to heal the People by his Touch which was accordingly perform'd in the Person of Edward the Confessor on whom the Monk privately bestow'd the holy Unction with which he received likewise the gift of healing that disease call'd by Physitians (k) Now called the Kings Evil See Polidor Virgil. Hist 8. Scrofula continu'd to our Kings in a wonderful manner to this very day insomuch that 't is notoriously known how a Maid at Deptford born blind by reason of that distemper was cur'd by no other visible means but the Touch of a Cloath dipt in the blood of the late King Charles the Martyr The Third Manifestation was in the time of Henry the Second who having banisht St. Thomas Beckett the Virgin Mary appear'd to the holy Exile as the Clergy of that age stiled him and delivering into his hands another Golden Viol in form of an Eagle assur'd him that all the Kings who were anointed with the oil therein should be Patronizers of the Church and as long as they kept that Sacred Viol this Blessing should rest upon them that if any of their posterity should happen to be beaten out of their Kingdom they should be peaceably restor'd again Which Oil Walsingham an Author of unquestionable Credit affirms to have remain'd unwasted to the time of Henry the Fourth who saith he was anointed therewith but amongst other the dismal mischiefs attending the fatal War of the two houses of York and Lancaster this was not the least that it gave opportunity to some Sacrilegious hand unknown to convey this Viol away who stealing the Gold could not yet rob us of the Blessing which hath been miraculously made good to us in the happy Restauration of our present Soveraign Charles the Second of whom we may say with respect to this providence as the Poet in another case (l) Horace Hic posuisse gaudet In him likewise we find that other blessing confirm'd in the gift of healing that noisome disease afore mention'd which by long continuance of time having become Hereditary hath now got the known name of the Kings-Evil so call'd because it is hardly to be cur'd by any other human means but by the Kings touch only whereof we have every day so many and great Examples that I shall forbear to say what might perhaps be pertinent enough to this Subject The Kings of this Isle the First Christian Kings in the World 10. But besides that of their Chrism there hath been a further Circumstance of personal Excellence peculiar to the Kings of our Nation above most not to say all other Princes in respect to the Sanctity of their blood as deriving their (m) Bale
lib. 2. Gildas lib. de victor Au. Ambrosii descent from the first Christian (n) Marc. Sabel in Anead 7. lib. 5. Bale lib. 2. King and the first Christian Emperour of the World and so allow'd by the two great Councels of (o) The first Anno 1335. the last Anno 1414. Bazil and Constance for however the King of France would be thought Fils aisne de l'Eglise and accordingly stiles himself Christianissimus i. e. as they themselves interpret it Primus Christianus yet it is notorious that our first Christian King Lucius was three hundred and five years before their first Christian King Clouis and Constantine our first Christian Emperour no less than 466 years before Charles their first Christian Emperour And it is as evident that the very Title it self of (p) Bede vit Oswaldi Christianissimus take it in what sense they please was in use with us above two hundred years before any of their Kings took upon them to usurp it add to this that the Kings of England deduce a (q) Bed Hist Eccles Angl. Lineal descent from the Loins of Christian Princes for the space of near one thousand and three hundred years together without any Interruption or breaking of the Line which no other Princes of the World besides can pretend to or scarcely have been Christians half that time those of France only excepted but then 't is further noted that there have been more Princes out of our Royal Stock Priests Confessours Martyrs and Saints than of any (r) Vincentius other Royal Stock in the World those of France not excepted 11. The Excellence of the British Empire upon a Threefold Accompt The next thing considerable after the natural Dignity inherent in the Person of our Kings is that honour which may be said to be peculiar to them resulting from the Topical Excellence of their Dominion which as it is now branch'd into three Kingdoms so it may be said to have ever been thrice famous 1. For being disjoyn'd from all the World 2. For having no need of the rest of the World 3. For being it self esteem'd another World Though there seems to be no great matter in that remark of the Poet when speaking of us 1. In being disjoyn'd from all the World he saith that we were Toto divisos Orbe Britannos but what may be as applicable to any other Islanders in the World as to Us yet there is an Emphasis in the Conceit that shows he intended it for an Elogy as did our Countryman Mr. Waller by that queint Paraphrase of his 'T is not so hard for greedy Foes to spoil Another Nation as to touch our Soil Which agrees with that we find in old (s) De excidio Jerus l. 2. c. 9. Hegesippus who personating King Agrippa speaking to Claudius of the Britains concludes much like Florus speaking of the Ligurians Major erat Labor invenire quà m vincere as if the difficulty of conquering lay in the difficulty of finding them out hereupon the Isle was call'd by the Antients (t) In Catalect Virgil. de Sabino Insula Ceruli the Isle of the Sea So Lucan speaking of Cesar's conquest here saith (u) Lucan Pharsal 3. Vincula dedit Oceano Now the reason why they call'd this the Isle of the Sea more than any other Island was because that Britain saith the (w) Paniger Maximian Dict. Si mihi Panegyrist did not seem as the rest to be comprehended by the Sea but to comprehend the Sea it self the Ancients taking this Isle to be the very utmost bounds of Nature beyond which there was no day or light which when Agricola had detected by compassing it with his Fleet Tacitus saith of him that he did Aperire maris secretum enter into the very Closet of the Sea and hence it was that (x) Emeritae apud Gionhernon p. 49. Augustus claiming the Dominion of this Isle in right of his Uncle Julius whose Heir he was as Claudius after him in his own right look'd upon themselves to be by a Parasiopesis Lords of the Sea the first giving thereupon for his Symbol a Dolphin the last a Ship and from them our Kings have ever since with no less reason but more right prescrib'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in this more properly like Gods as Holy Writ stiles Kings in General than any other Princes whatever For that they do Incubare Aquis as a (y) T◠Dun. Serm. 43. on the Anniverse of the 5th of Novemb alluding to the 1. Gen. 2. Divine of great Eloquence has express'd it Move upon the Waters with such mighty Fleets as seem to give Laws to that Indomitable Element it self 2. In having no need of the rest of the World 12. The next Excellency ascrib'd to this Isle was that it had no need of any other part of the World Quae toto vix eget Orbe The reason whereof is plain from what has been said before Nam qui mare teneat cum necesse est rerum potiri saith Cicero He that possesses the Sea must necessarily command all things but to recite the benefits of the Sea were to enter upon a Subject as profound as that is and give occasion to our next Neighbour the Dutch who can give a better Account thereof than our selves to upbraid our glory with the shame of having so long suffer'd their depredations who with indefatigable Patience penetrate the Womb of that dark Element to seek for Treasure which we either know not how to find or how to value Pass we then to the consideration of the Land only on which Charles the Great who was wont to call it the Store-house of the Western World made this observation that it not only stands in no need of any other part of the World but every Nation else stood in need of it Cujus totus indiget Orbis ope Nature and Providence having placed us so advantageously as to supply the whole World out of our Superfluities being stor'd with all sorts of Grain saith Zosimus with all sorts of Cattel saith Tacitus with all kind of Timber saith Cesar with all kind of Minerals as Strabo with all kind of Jems but especially Pearl as Suetonius testifies indeed with so much variety of all things necessary profitable and delightful that without vanity we may conclude as (z) Ad An. 1246. Mathew Paris doth that England is the Lady Queen and Mistress of the Sea 13. All Nations have been ambitious to make themselves Masters of this Isle A Mistress that has had many Suitors of almost all Nations to whom the ROMANS that exacted Homage from all others willingly pay'd Homage themselves there having been no less than twenty of their Emperours to Court her here in Person the Canine appetite of whose insatiable Ambition having before devour'd all other honours was not to be Satisfied with any other Title but that of Britannicus Divus habebitur Augustus Horace Od. v. lib. 3. Adjectis
extraordinary Levies yet perhaps not exceeding those ordinary Forces kept in standing pay to supply every Quarter of the Empire there being scarce any Governour of a Province that had not a Guard of Britains to attend about his Person such was the Reputation of their faith and courage At Constantinople the Greek Emperours had a Guard of 2000 as Bodinus computes them which they call'd the Barangi The Praefect of Rome had for his standing Guard two Bands of them more call'd Invicti Juniores Britannitiani The Western Emperours had their Praesentales or life-Guard besides stil'd Exculcatores Jun. Britan. 500. The Praefect of Gaule had a Horse Guard call'd Britones Magistri Equitum Galliarum The Pro-Consul of Spain had a Foot-Guard of about 500 call'd Invicti Juniores Britones besides these we find in Germany the Cohort call'd Ala Britannica Milliaria containing about 1105 footmen and 132 Horsemen In Illyricum another call'd Britones Seniores in Egypt Ala IIII. Britonum nay they were disperst to the furthest parts of the East for we find in Armenia Cohors XXVI Britonum besides Cohors III. and Cohors VII Britannitiani sub Magistro Peditum in Panonia Cohors Prima Aelia Britonum and several others mention'd in the Notitia Provinciarum to the number of not so little as fifty or sixty thousand all these were abroad whilst at home there were no less than 190000 Foot and 17000 Horse as appears by Constantine's Establishment set forth by Panciroll 17. Less known was the Militia of the Saxons than that of the Romans in respect they had no Invitations to any Action abroad excepting only that single Undertaking in Barbary Ann. 905 when they unpeopled the City and Country round about Arzilla contenting themselves with that Insulary glory they had gotten here by conquering a Nation who had so long disputed with the most powerful People in the World So that the best measures of their strength is to be taken from that of their Weakness having lost if their own Historians tell Truth no less than 200000 men before they had half finish'd that great work yet some thought it strange they lost no more considering how those Blood-thirsty Heptarchs their Masters accounted the Lives of their Subjects the least part of the Price of their Victories being so prodigal of blood that they fought no less than (g) Malmesbury Vit. Elfredi nine set Battels in one year wasting their strength to that degree that by subduing they became subdu'd The Danes falling in upon them before they could recover their spirits oppress'd them with greater Numbers than they the Britains before vying with them both in fame and force till there were as many engag'd on either side as would have reduc'd far greater Territories than those they came from had not divine Justice made use of them as a Scourge to each other 18. What the number and strength of the Norman was may be nearly computed by what he did abroad in that holy and what he suffered at home in that unholy War commonly call'd the Barons War The first for Religion the last for Liberty The one having consum'd as many lives as there were stones in the Walls of the holy City they fought for The other not so fatal because pois'd with a more equal force but altogether as formidable there being at least 50000 always ready to do Execution on either side So stood the Case for the first two hundred and fifty years after the Entrance of Wâ—lliam the First The Computation of the middle times must be taken from the Preparations of Edward the Third when he took two (h) Jo. King of France Davâ—â— King â—f Scots Kings and mist but little of taking two Kingdoms at once ingaging himself in a double edg'd War that ended not with his own life nor theirs wherein though it is suppos'd he exhausted as much of the Force as the Treasure of the Kingdom yet he did not so weaken his Successour Richard the Second but that he was able to take the Field with 300000 Foot and 100000 Horse attending him as * Wals ngham Vit. R. 2. Walsingham tells us whose Testimony has the more Credit by how much it is Seconded by (i) Emil. vit Car. 6. Emilius the French Historian who had no cause to magnifie the number of the English at that time Later Computations may be taken from the Preparations of Henry the Eight at Bullen and of Q. Elizabeth at Tilbury at either not so little as 185000 foot and 40000 Porse in readiness for present Service for I am willing to pass by the consideration of those vast numbers which supported that unnatural Quarrel betwixt the two fatal Houses of York and Lancaster much rather to forget the late War betwixt K. Charles the First and the Republican faction wherein 't is believed there were no less than 300000 Foot and neer 100000 Horse actually engaged in Arms it is almost incredible to tell what numbers appear'd in Arms at the Reception of King James when he made his first Entry into England but what we saw with our own eyes at the happy Restauration of our Soveraign that now is must not be conceal'd whose Life-Guard at his Landing were no less than 50000 of the best Horse in the World not reckoning those appointed for the defence of the Realm However all the Computations of our Land Forces fall so short of our Maritime that as there is no Comparison to be made betwixt them so we may say that we have rendred our selves more formidable at Sea by our Canon Law than any other People by any Law of Arms whatsoever The Kings of this Isle are absolute Princes 19. The last instance of the super-excellent Majesty of the Kings of this Isle is that they hold of (k) Bracton lib. 5. Tr. 3. God to themselves and by their Sword not Ex foedore contracto as antiently the Kings of France nor Ex formulâ fiduciae as yet the Kings of Spain neither yet Jure restricto as the Kings of Hungary and the Kings of the Romans much less Ad placitum populi as those of Poland Nec Jure plebiscitâ— as antiently those of Sweden Denmark and Norway who till of late were as precarious as those of Poland But as those who succeeding the Cesars to whom this of (l) All other Provinces were Praesidial and subjected to the Senate Britain whilst it was under the Romans was particularly appropriated became by their voluntary resignation of the Government repossest of the primier right of their Ancestors Vt pro derelicto as the (m) Amifaeus de jure Majest lib. 1. c. 2. Civilians express it or by way of Remitter as our own Lawyers term it being absolutely independent and supream as any of the Roman Emperours their Predecessours were Qui tot tantas obtinuere Libertates quot Imperatores Imperia saith M. Paris and therefore when the Emperour Sigismund came over hither to mediate a peace betwixt our Henry
the Fifth and the French King he was stopt before he Landed by the Duke of Gloucester and divers of the chief Nobility who coming into the very water with their Swords drawn in their hands stay'd his Boat and suffered him not to Land till he had declared Nil se contra Regis Superioritatem praetexere So likewise when (n) Sir Hen. Wotton State Observations 208. Baldwin the Greek Emperour came hither to pray aid of Henry the Third being beaten out of his Country the King sent him a Check instead of a Complement for Landing in his Territories before he had leave given him so to do being Jealous least it might be thought that he had pretended to something as an Emperour that might be Interpreted Superiority he himself being Monarcha in Regno suo as we find in the old Lawyer Baldus and descended from Ancestors that had the Imperial Stile of (o) See the Charter of the Abby of Malmesbury MCCCCLXXIV Rex Regum not only in respect of their having (p) Beauchampe King of the Isle of Wight The Kings of Man c. Kings to their Subjects but in regard to their enjoyment of all those fundamental rights which make up the whole Systeme of Supream power by the Feudists indifferently term'd Jura Regalia and Jura summi Imperii by the Civilians Sacra Sacrorum by our own Lawyers sometimes Prerotiva sometimes (q) As being so Inseparable that they cannot be dissolved by any humane power Inseparabilia which that they may be the better understood I shall consider them as I find them (r) Clapmarus lib. 1. de Arean Imper Cap 11. divided into ten parts reducing those ten like the Decalogue of old into two General Heads of Power i. e. Leges Ponere Legibus Solutum esse 20. For the First The Kings of this Isle have ever been the Lawgivers it is to be understood that however the Kings of this Isle have been pleas'd for the better and more equal Administration of Justice to Indulge the three Estates of the Kingdom who were heretofore call'd their Great Council but since the Parliament with the priviledg of making enlarging diminishing abrogating repealing and reviving all Laws and Ordinances relating to all Matters whether Ecclesiastick Capital Criminal Common Civil or Maritime yet it must be understood after all that neither houses of Parliament now both joyn'd together have in themselves no power as of themselves to do any thing without him much less (s) That is not only to be understood to his Dis nherison but the Diminution of his Prerogative Cook 4. Part. Institut fol. 25. against him no more than the body can make use of any of its members longer than it is actuated by the Soul For from him they have their life and motion Vt Caput principium finis as the Lawyers express it is he that gives them their Inchoation Continuation and Dissolution 'T is true that each Law receives its form Ex traduce Parliamenti that is as our vulgar Statutes express it by advice and consent of the Lords and Commons who sit with the resemblance of so many Kings but they find but the grosser substance or the material part 't is the Royal Assent that Quickens and puts the Soul Spirit and Power into it A Roy's avisero only much more A Roy ne veult makes all their Conceptions abortive when he pleases So that they can be but the Law-makers but the King only is the Law-giver and therefore Stiled in the old Books The Life of the Law and The Fountain of Justice The Kings of this Isle how far above Law 21. This prerogative I speak it out of a great States-mans observation consists in this not that Kings need not observe their Laws for that were a Brutal Tyranny insupportable in the most barbarous States but that they may change them And therefore St. Augustine made that a reason why the Emperours of old were not Subject to their own Laws because saith he they might make new when they pleas'd Now if the King of England should exceed the bounds of his own Laws which if it were lawful were no way convenient for him it being that becomes the wisdome of Princes saith Cicero to consider not how much they may do but what they ought to do in which sense (t) Senec. de cons lat cap. 6. Seneca is to be understood when he said that divers things were not lawful for the Emperour himself who might do all which he pleased It might be rather said in that Case as Grotius excellently distinguishes that he did not rightly then that he went beyond his right The Restraint by his Coronation Oath being like a Silken Coard that may be stretch'd without breaking upon any extraordinary force and violence offer'd as we see it happens upon the discovery and for the prevention of any publick mischief or Inconvenience Where our Kings have De proprio Jure suspended the Laws for a time that is until by advice with his Parliaments he might formally alter or totally repeal them Add to this that every Custom which is a Branch of the Common Law is void Si exultat se in Prerogativam Regis which I suppose is to be understood of the lesser Concerns of his Prerogative in points of Pre-eminence relating to civil Actions or Priviledges personal for as the Learned in the Laws tell us no Sale of his Goods alters his Propriety no Occupancy bars his Entry into his own Lands no Laches in point of time prejudices him as it does private men Again in doubtful cases say they Semper presumitur pro Rege No Estopel binds him nor Judgments final in Writs of Right These and many more such as these there are which we may call Minima Inseparabilia but in all cases where his Prerogative in point of Government is prejudic'd there our great Gownmen hold that he cannot be restrain'd no not by an Act of Parliament nor is he to be restrain'd as I take it in lesser cases unless named And to this it was questionless that the Sage Bracton and the Learned Plowden had respect when the one said the King was above Law to'ther that he was not bound by Law and if it were not so there would be no power left in him to grant any special Charter that in its proper nature is no other than a Dispensation with the positive Laws which can be understood to be binding to the King no otherwise than according to the natural Rule of Order as they are essential to the support of his Government In which Case Kings like good Husbands may be said to be Subjectis suis Subjectos mov'd by a Principle of Affection that voluntarily limits it self according to Rules of Prudence which upon all Emergencies of State on extraordinary occasions are wrested or broken as he himself only sees cause there being a necessity upon which the common safety depends that at such times Princes should be
absolute and that no less perhaps for the Subjects sake than their own (t) Plin. vit Trajan Nil majus à te Subjecti animo factum est quam quod Imperari Coepisti and the learned Grotius gives the genuine reason for it in his Treatise of Soveraignty because saith he as no man can be limited but by something superiour to him Seven Imperial Rights Inherent in the Kings of this Isle so no man can be superiour to himself But in respect that I find Seven general Topicks of absolute Soveraignty agreed by all the Feudists We will examine the Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle with relation to each of those Particulars apart 1. Census nummorum 22. The first I take to be that unlimited power of giving the form weight allay and value to all Moneys which as it hath been always and in all Nations esteem'd a Prerogative purely Imperial so it hath been as antient in use here as the knowledg of Money it self and so uncontrolled that we find some of our Kings I speak it not to their honour since the abasement of Coin is certainly an abasing of Majesty as betraying a necessity that shews a defect in Government have impos'd upon us Copper others Tinn and (u) Hen. 8. at Bulloigne One once Leather Money making it as currant as Silver or Gold neither have any of our Kings at any time Communicated this Priviledg to any of their Subjects though some of them have had the Title of King conferr'd on them but have kept that power in their own hands as one of the great Inseparabilia not to be parted with Whereas the Kings of France who have been more prest and less provident in that point have thereby given occasion to those Allodiarii that enjoy'd that priviledg to esteem themselves as indeed they were absolute and free Princes stiling themselves accordingly Dei gratia to publish they own'd no Subjection 2. Jus Vectigalium 23. The Second Prerogative stil'd Jus Vectigalium which I take to be that (w) Seld. Dissertat ad Flet. 478. 479. Jus Caesarium first brought in by the great Lawyer Papinian Temp. Imp. Severi is diversly understood sometimes comprehending all those Duties which the antient Feudists place under the heads of Angariae and Parangariae by some extended to Plaustrorum Navium praestationes by others to those Jurafisci under which our Civilians comprehend almost all kind of Impositions and Services Pecuniary and Personal Under all or either of these considerations we find the Kings of this Isle as well entituled as any other Princes of the World both De facto and de Jure whereof there needs no other proof in the time of our primitive Kings the Britains than the Impresses on their Coins stamping sometimes an Oxe or Sheep sometimes a Blade of Corn other while Instruments of Husbandry or perhaps an Armed man or Chariot and Horses denoting as the skilful in that Science tell us the several Tributes and services to which those Moneys had respect or for which they were paid Then passing by the Romans we find amongst the Saxons the next to them this Prerogative exercis'd by several Names as first by that of (x) Fitzherbert Nat. Brev. 226. Thol or Tol a Tax pro libertate vendendi emendi Secondly by the names of Bordland Drofland Burland and Drinkland Names given according to the several Natures of the Duty they related to being generally call'd in Cromton's Translation of Canutus's Laws Firmae adjutorium that held all the Danes time and was by the Normans comprehended under the common name of (y) Mat. Paris Edw. 1. Cap 35. Ed. 3. H. 4. H. 5. Curialitas The Common Lawyers have taken it in several Senses when it respects Releif for War they term it (z) 25 Ed. 1. Aides when it is related to a civil supply they stile it Loane-money which however latter times have familiarly call'd Benevolence yet we find by the Stat. of the twentieth of Hen. the Sixth The King demanded it in right of his Soveraignty and by Law and accordingly appointed Commissioners for gathering it who extorted it with Penalties so in the seventeenth of the said King the same was demanded upon pain of Imprisonment and Confiscation of Goods 'T is true that Statute of H. 6. seems to be branded by a Repeal in the third of Queen Mary But that Law that Repeal'd it being afterwards it self Repealed the King seems now in Remitter to his antient Right a Right so antient that it suffers more perhaps by its Antiquity than any unreasonableness in the thing 24. Touching that call'd Jus Comitiorum I need say nothing 3. Jus Comitiorum it being so well known that no man can be an officer of this Realm that holds not of the King whether it be Jure Magistratus or per Deputationem either as being Commission'd by a Writ or by Patent from him Et sine Warranto Jurisdictionem non habent saith Bracton neither can any of them so much as appoint a Substitute under him but is bound to Officiate propria Persona the Justice in Eyre only excepted and that by a particular Statute for Reasons therein express'd So that by consequence the King must have also in him that 4. Jus Armorum 25. Jus Armorum which our Lawyers call the defence of the Force of Arms and all other force against the peace of the Kingdom which the Civil Law brings under those two heads Bellum decernere Foedera inire This is so inherent a right in our Kings that it seems to have been always lodg'd in Scrinio Pectoris in the Shrine of his own breast as appears by the practice of all Times but it may suffice to look no further back than that Address of the Parliament to King (a) In the fifty fourth year of that King Edward the Third where they humbly beseech him to enter into League with the Duke of Brabant and those Addresses in the eighteenth and fourty fifth year of the said King which I should have first mention'd in the first whereof they desire him to break the peace with Flanders in the other to declare against the Easterlings So in the fiftieth year of the said King praying some alteration of the Articles of peace made with the Hollanders The Kings answer was he would do what seem'd meet to himself The same Answer was given in Terminis by Richard the Second his Grand-Son on the like occasion So by Henry the Fourth in the second year of his reign Henry the sixth in the II. of his upon Petitions against Merchants Strangers that related to Violations of a Peace concluded And as by the Julian Law Lib. 3. it was deem'd Capital for any man without leave of the Emperour to take upon him to denounce War so it is declared Trayterous by our Law and void in it self if any Subject shall presume to do the like without the Kings Commission
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
confirm'd by an Allyance with Ethelbert the Proto-Christian who converted his Son III. SIGEBERT that in honour to his Religion made that League perpetual which after his death was broken by his three graceless Sons IV. date of accession 609 SERED SEWARD SIGEBERT Who rul'd together like Brethren in Iniquity persecuting all that were Christians till Ingill the West-Saxon converted but a little before revenged the holy Cause by putting a period to their Triumvirat upon which V. date of accession 623 SIGEBERT Son of the middlemost took place he was surnam'd The Little probability of his little Credit rather then his little Person being so detested by his People that they put by his Son and Brother to admit another of the same Name but of different Temper VI. date of accession 640 SIGEBERT the third Son of Sigebald younger Brother of Sigebert the first who declaring for Christianity was surnam'd The Good and being murther'd during the minority of his Son his Brother VII date of accession 661 SWITHELM succeeded as if to taste of Royalty only falling under the same fate by the same hand and for the same cause by whose death VIII date of accession 663 SIGEHERE the Son of Sigebert the Little assisted by his Uncle Sebba got into the Throne His Successor was IX date of accession 664 SEBBA the Saint on whom Bede fastens that famous Miracle of lengthning the Marble Chest in which his Body was laid which he says was too short by a foot for the Corps till the Body was put into it which who so believes must stretch his Faith as much Successor to him was X. date of accession 694 SIGEHERE the Second one fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch giving up his Scepter for a pair of Beads to his Brother XI date of accession 698 SEOFRID who if he rul'd not with him rul'd very little after him and then came XII date of accession 701 OFFA the Son of Sigehere to succeed who impoverish'd himself by inriching the Church and having quit his Wife to perform a Pilgrimage to Rome tempted her to quit the World and become a Nun whereby either lost the other and both the hopes of any Issue which made well for XIII date of accession 709 SELRED the Son of Sigebert the Good whose old Age was crown'd with an unexpected Succession but he took not so much pleasure in it as to survive it whereby XIV date of accession 740 SUTHRED fill'd up his place who involv'd in the Fate of Baldred King of Kent attacht by the West-Saxons lost this as t'other did that Kingdom whereby it became a Province under the Victorious Egbert IN the midst of the Universal Conflagrations that near about this time began to spread over the Face of the whole Isle the flames whereof were not otherwise to be quench'd but by the blood of the miserable Natives it so â—apned that Essex however nearest to those Countries that first felt the sharpness of the Saxon Swords had the good Fortune to preserve it self untoucht till about the year 527 when Erchenwin landing in Norfolk and taking thence a view of the neighbouring Vales imagin'd there went no more to the taking possession then to enter and make a boâ—d claim But finding the Inhabitants obstinately resolv'd to make their Graves in no other place but where their Bones might mix with those of their Ancestors 't is hard to say Whether his Fury or his Fear prevail'd most with him whilst being ingaged beyond the safety of a Retreat he made his way into the heart of their Country with that precipitate Courage as if he had designed to fly through them into the Provinces beyond which they perceiving like men well acquainted with the violence of such Land Floods made him way to pass into Kent where promising to become a Feodary to that Prince he return'd him with that additional Strength as made him not only Master of this but by uniting Middlesex and a great part of Hertfordshire gave him the honour of setting up a fourth Kingdom call'd that of the East-Sexe which however it was not very great was well fortifi'd with the Ocean on the East the Thames on the South-side the River Coln on the West and the Stour on the North-side and being establish'd by the advantage of a long and peaceable Reign and the reputation of the Allyance he had with the potent King of Kent he was secur'd so far on that side as to put him in condition of securing himself on the other till such time as the East-Angles and the Mercian by the Interposition of their Territories betwixt him and the Common Enemy left him regardless of any further danger but withal so enervated his Successor that being seldome arm'd and never active Fortune grew out of Love with them and never vouchsafed any one of them the honour to be rang'd amongst the Monarchs of the Isle a favour every other House alternately enjoy'd according to the variation or vicissitude of their Successes but however they attained less it appears they aim'd at greater Glory then any of their Neighbours being the second Kingdom that oppenly profess'd Christianity and those that gave it the best entertainment Sacrificing to the Church what others spent in War being repaid with Pardons Benedictions and Indulgences whilst they liv'd and with Shrines Miracles and Canonizations after they were dead Kings in that Age being no less ambitious to be Sainted then Saints in our Age to be made Kings And to say truth they were better Men then Monarchs taking more care of the business of Religion then of State relying more on the Forces of the Kings of Kent with whom they had contracted a perpetual League having been hatch'd under their wings then on their own proper Strength whereby it fell out that they were crush'd with t'others fall and at the same time submitted to the same Fate to be a Province to the West-Saxon So easie it is to conquer those that contribute to their own destruction taking upon them to protect the unfortunate Baldred when they were not able to defend themselves But it is less strange that they fail'd now then that they held out so long their Territories being the very least of the whole Heptarchy and they the laziest of the whole Nation their Majesty being preserv'd by a kind of Antiperistasis lying incompassed with three puissant Neighbours Kent Mercia and West-Sexe who like three great Doggs equally match'd kept this Bone untouch'd betwixt them for two hundred and eighty years in which large portion of time they were preserv'd as by Miracle from the fury of either of them that wanted not appetites to desire nor mouths to devour nor perhaps occasion to urge them to fall upon them but restrain'd by the sense of eithers equal Power they left it to Fortune to give the odds who having declared on the West-Saxon side he run down all at last THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF MERCIA V. I. date of accession 560 CRIDDA the
continual being in arms surnam'd Iron-sides was so sensible of that he was forc'd to compound with an Enemy that afterwards took from him the whole by the same Power he compell'd him to let go the half however in two Descents after the English Line took place again in the Person of XVI date of accession 1042 EDWARD surnam'd the Confessor who proving regardless of Posterity tempted Providence to take no care of him whereby his Steward thought himself obliged amongst other things committed to his Charge to take that of the Crown which was the famous XVII date of accession 1065 HAROLD Son of Godwyn Earl of Kent who putting the undoubted Heir besides his Right taught the Norman how to disseize him who with his death put the period to the English Monarchy that reckoning from Engist by all Historians accompted the first King had lasted Six hundred and twenty years EGBERT date of accession 800 THIS was he that may be said to be the first of all the English whom Fortune declar'd to be her Heir having beaten up the Seven Crowns of his Predecessors into one Diadem to fit his Head To them she gave only Title to part but to him the Dominion of the whole Isle Nature agreeing to fit his Parts to the proportion of his Preferment For as he was young and hardy so he was temperate and discreet noble by Birth descended from Ingill Brother to Ine the Magnificent but nobler by his Bounty which had purchas'd him so universal an Affection that his Predecessor Bithrick suspecting the danger of his Vertues made them so far his Crimes as to give him a fair pretense to banish him by which means all his good Qualities came to be so refin'd breathing in a purer Air then that of his native Soil as leaves it yet in doubt Whether he were any whit less beholding to Providence then Nature his Afflictions contributing so much to his Experience his Experience to his Wisdom and his Wisdom to his Fame that they seem'd like so many steps fitly plac'd together by which he might ascend the Throne He serv'd the Emperour Charles the Great in that great Expedition of his into Italy which took up all the time of his banishment and there he so well govern'd himself that he return'd with a Testimonial of his fitness to govern others The Tyrant Bithrick who had expuls'd him finding when it was too late that by driving him further from his Country he had brought him nearer to the Affections of his Country-men especially those of the Vulgar sort who first pity then praise men in distress and not seldom by their Opinion make up the want in Merit and where there is no want add so great a Weight that 't is not in the power of Humane Policy to turn the Scale Yet he did not think fit to return till after Bithrick's death as judging it more danger then honor to serve one under whom 't was a Crime to be Victorious and Capital to be otherwise Besides he thought it greater to let Honour seek him then for him to seek it knowing that Necessity if not Choice would move his Country-men to call him home being begirt with potent Neighbours that wanted nothing but a Circulation of Intelligence to subvert them totally So much were they discouraged by their Fears from without and their Discontents within Neither miss'd he of the Invitation he look'd for being receiv'd with so universal Satisfaction that it appear'd he was their Lord before he became their Soveraign In this confidence he took up the Sword before the Scepter to the end his Title might be written in the blood of his Enemies the number whereof were more then those of his Subjects The first that wrestled with him were the sturdy Cornish who being laid on their backs by a trick they understood not The next that came on were the Welch their Allies who though they rather gave him Trouble then War yet he thought it worth the going in Person against them and pâ—rsu'd them so faâ— as made it appear it was more their dishonour then his that they were not totally subdued by him The next that fell under the power of his Arms was the haughty Northumber for both he and the disdainful Mercian dreading his growing Greatness burst with swelling This gave him leisure to look towards Kent the only considerable Foe left whose King flying into Essex like a spark of Fire into another mans House ruin'd that by the same way he had undone his own Kingdom That Prince taking a pattern of Cowardize from him to quit that as t'other had done his Kingdom so that Egbert whilst he pursued one conquer'd two of the Heptarchs This success inlarg'd his Dominions so wide that he began to bear himself up with an universal Obedience being no less Elevated with the prospect of his Power then Hercules after he had subdued the many headed Monster with the contemplation of his Fortune to manifest which he turn'd the Name of BRITAIN so venerable for its Age having been the only Appellation of this Isle for near 1800 years before into that of ENGLAND the Country from whence his Ancestors came A Vanity so displeasing to Providence that it set up the same Nemesis which had been so Instrumental to his Country-men in the destruction of the Britains to face about upon him and his Successors whose Necks it broke down the same Stairs by which they ascended setting up a People to be the dire Executioners of her Justice that were of their own Lineage spoke the same Language and had drove them our once before from those Possessions to which they had much better right then to any thing here This was the Dane which though they got not much in this Kings reign yet they so nipt the glory of his Conquest by beating down the Blossoms of his Reputation that he liv'd not to see the Fruit he expected being forc'd to divide before he had firmly united and cut his own Kingdom into two again Giving that of Kent to his younger Son Ethelbert not without a seeming Injury to his elder Son Ethelwolph that being the most fertile though the lesser this the most incumbred though the greater yet herein his Wisdom appears to have equall'd his Power in that he made both Kings but left but one Soveraign ETHELWOLPH date of accession 837 THIS St. Ethelwolph or as he is vulgarly call'd St. Adulph was at the time of his Fathers death a Deacon Hoveden says a Bishop and so much addicted to Devotion more then Action that he accepted the Government rather out of necessity then choice refusing to be crown'd as long as he could resist the importunity of his Friends or suffer the Insolence of his Enemies being at last made a King as it were in his own defence as well as the Kingdoms But no sooner had the loud Acclamations of his over joy'd People awaken'd his Lyon-like Dulness but rouzing up himself he confronted the Common Foe with
that all Motions were actuated by his Command and Countenance who could not be idle at the Stem whilst his Subjects were so busie in the middle part of the Weather-beaten Vessel and perhaps 't was not without great Reason as things then stood that he reserv'd himself for Victories of a deeper Dye the Oppositions he had hitherto met with being like flying Clouds that rather portended a Storm then made one Nature and Providence conspiring to make him happy by a kind of unhappiness whilst by the shortness of his Reign not exceeding five years they took from him those greater Occasions of danger which carried with them so much Glory to his Successor ETHELRED date of accession 863 EThelberts Sun being set in a Cloud behold a more refulgent rising in his room the heat of whose Rayes kindled new Courage and Affection in each English Breast This was perhaps that only Prince that seem'd to have been as well fitted for the Times he liv'd in as the People he liv'd with at least he was the first that taught them the right use of Necessity which is a Vertue if well improv'd that like Powder imprison'd in the womb of a Rock which makes its way as soon as fired quickens its execution by resistance Harder it was for him to get up an Army together then being up to lay down his Arms this appears by those Nine set Battels he sought in One year with so various success that while the Enemy routed him he pursu'd them keeping his Circulation like a hunted Hare which follows the Dogs upon the same Trail that they pursue her The first Volley discharg'd upon him was by the two furious Danes Hungar and Hubba men of that Ambition that to be equall'd to him in Title as they were in Force they stiled themselves Kings as well as he and as Fortune was not wanting to them so neither were they to her attending her motions with such undaunted Resolution and improving her Favours with such incredible diligence that they neither stoop'd at petty Victories nor stopt at petty Repulses but pressing forward with obstinate boldness pierc'd through the Bowels of Mercia as far as Nottingham here King Ethelred fell upon them and forc'd them to Retreat but it was so slowly as if they had designedly gone back to seek a more convenient place to fight as afterwards they did getting this Reputation by not being beaten though they did not beat him that the Stake still remain'd undispos'd betwixt them The next year they came over Humber whose red Banks look'd as if they had been dy'd with the blood of those that weâ—e slain in opposing their Passage thence directing their Course towaâ—ds East-Anglia the Country that lay most convenient to receive their Recruits they there made a grand Holocaust to their Idol Gods delighted it seems with humane Sacrifices and amongst the rest of their abominable Offerings presented the Crowned Head of that holy Martyr St. Edmond then King of that Province whose fall so shook the whole Isle that it made every English heart tremble with fear or desire of Revenge Religion being now at stake as well as Liberty each side prepared for slaughter success swell'd the number of the Pagans as dispair increas'd that of the Christians both Armies oppressed as it were with their Multitudes divided into two Battalions but having so little room to fight in that they were forc'd to charge through each other the right Wings of both were routed those that pursu'd return'd and led by equal Courage and like Destiny began which hath rarely been seen another Battel upon the same day and that so much more dreadful then the former by how much it lasted till either side were so weakned or wearied that neither could fly away Here Ethelred perform'd Wonders worthy the admiration of a greater part of the World then he could ever hope to be Master of gaining indeed the Victory but at a price more valuable then any gain the loss of his own life however he departed into the other World with the same Majesty he rul'd in this being attended by no less then two Kings one on each side of him and at his feet lay dead nine Earls and two hundred Barons and round about them at further distance such a Mountain of common Carcasses as if design'd by Destiny for a Monument to which no other Kings could pretend but such as sell like him his Countries Sacrifice and his own ELFRID date of accession 873 NO sooner was Ethelred fall'n but Elfrid stept in to take up his Sword and Scepter as one alike entituled to his Trouble as his Glory who however he was the last in Succession was first in Ordination of all King Ethelwolphs Children being anointed King by Pope Leo before he had a Kingdom and which was more in the presence of his Father in the life time of two elder Brothers and in his own Minority A strange Riddle to Ambition which knows no greater punishment then to be so near a Crown in Title and so far distant in point of Right as he was But the same Providence that made him a King before he had a Kingdom resolv'd it seems after he had the Kingdom to make him no King again for he was no sooner in the Throne ere he was laid upon the Ground and forc'd after the fighting seven almost equal Battels to give up a part to secure the rest of his Dominions and at last to retire almost out of his Kingdom but wholly out of himself being reduc'd to such extremity that for self preservation he was necessitated to personate a common Minstrel and under that disguise was lost till he found tâ—e opportunity to recover that from Fame which Fortune had denied him by sending so many of his Enemies to tâ—e dead who believed him not alive that there were not enough left to defend that Sacred * Called the Reafan Banner in which they fondly supposed the Fate of their Nation to be wrapt up And now having all that became him as a Souldier after twenty seven years War in all which time he seem'd to fight rather for Life then Honour he resolved to lose no opportunity of performing such Noble acts of Peace as might draw his Subjects by his own example to the study of Arts as well as Arms In order whereunto he took the whole Frame of his Government asunder which he made up again like a Master-workman better then it was before thereby preventing all those Insolencies and Disorders which are the natural effects of turbulent Times the Commotions of War like those of the Sea which rouls and runs high a long time after the Storm is over being such as commonly end in Ryots and Rapine giving security to the whole by fixing every individual Person throughout his Kingdom within such known Limits of Shires Hundreds and Tythings is made them answerable to the Law in case of breach of Faith of Peace by mutual obligations each for other
valiant and wise he despair'd by sensible degrees and as one grown weary of Greatness became less concern'd as he found Fortune more froward till at length he fell under the lowest Reproach that could befall an active Prince to be stil'd The Unready for so was he mis-call'd the apprehensions of which indignity so wholly relaxed his Spirits that he resolv'd to purchase what he could not win a little rest I cannot call it peace being rather like a Submission than a Cessation which yet he paid an incredible price for indeed no less than 10000 pounds a vast Sum for those times and so much the dearer pennyworth to his poor people in as much as it was the occasion of a Tax which not only was the very first they ever knew but was executed with so much rigour that the shame and indignation he conceived thereupon put him upon washing off the Stain of his dishonour with a deluge of innocent blood exasperating him to the hazard of the worst of remedies a general Massacre throughout his Territories which afterward was executed upon the Danes with so much secrecy and so little compassion that very few if any of them escap'd 'T was thought this one Act however cruel would have freed him from all future fears of the like necessity for the time to come but that weight which would have fixt the pillars of his Government upon their Bases had they continued upright leaning on one side overcharg'd and crack'd them for the bold Executioners of his rage upon the first preparation the Enemy made for Revenge finding themselves disappointed in the main ends of their Cruelty turn'd Cowards and by a strange infatuation quit his Protection to seek refuge from those whom yet they believ'd implacable who having no colour of right till this wrong was done to them had now so fair a Pretence to do what e're was foul that King Swain himself thought it obligatory upon him to cross the Sea to see right done to the incensed ghosts of his People The terrour of whose first approach made such impressions upon the very wisest of the English that they thought it better to give him the possession of their Country than hazard his undertaking it from them yielding up most of the great Towns and Cities to disappoint his Fury by unexpected submission Only London stood firm to King Ethelred in this extremity and left him not till he left them who having before the Storm came sent away his Wife and Children into Normandy follow'd them himself not long after leaving Swain in the sole possession of the Kingdom who from thence forward had nothing more to do but to bind those he had thus conquer'd with chains of Allegiance But see the mockery of human greatness whilst he thought himself above all Enemies having one foot upon the step to mount into the Throne death the common Enemy of mankind struck him to the ground the winged news of which unexpected Event taking its flight into Normandy so imboldned Ethelred that he believing himself now reconcil'd to Fortune immediately return'd and shew'd his People he was not that Unready man the World misnam'd him to be but behold instead of an aged Enemy who had more to do to contest with his own infirmity than with his Forces there appear'd a Successor more youthful and vigorous than himself one that was equal to him in conduct but surpass'd him in Ambition this was Knute the Son of Swain who finding the only way to be great at Land was to be Master at Sea made it his first business to corrupt the Fleet and by that advantage gave so fatal a blow to Ethelred's power that he could no longer resist the force of Desperation but languishing in mind as before in Body left the justice of his Title to be disputed with more equality by his Son Edmond who hoping to Overcome by yielding lost the whole by giving up a part only EDMOND Iron-sides date of accession 1016 THE unexpected Death of the last King surcharg'd with misfortunes rather than years as it made way for his Son to the Throne so happening before he was sufficiently prepar'd for so important a Charge it was was not the least occasion of the total overthrow of the English Monarchy However we may call this rather his Fate than his Fault being a Prince worthy a happier Father and a nobler Destiny who had Providence been pleas'd to have post-dated the birth of his glory till time had purg'd away the guilt of his Family and left him no more Enemies to grapple with than what his Sword could have reach'd might possibly by his personal Gallantry have recover'd his languishing power at least prevented those dire disputes which afterwards cost his Posterity more blood than the Dominions they Contended for could supply But the same hand that wrote his name in this period of Succession and as 't was thought ingrav'd his Destiny in that (*) Edmond signifying in the old Saxon Blessed Peace Name contrary both to the literal sense of it and the hopes conceiv'd by them that gave it him turn'd that of Blessed and Peaceable into that of Iron-sides an Adjunct which carried horror in the sound and perhaps more proper for him who was condemn'd to fight three set Battels in the space of three Months on the success of each of which depended no less than half a Kingdom which yet was his all the rest being in possession of his Foe who fought him with his own Weapons bringing Subject against Subject English against English King Edmond's General was the Earl of Essex the Earl of Northumberland was the Danes both men of great Conduct and Courage Not far distant from these appear'd the Earl of Merkland with another Body by his Father of English Descent by his Mothers side a Dane who pretending to affect both sides could by no means be drawn to declare for either having secretly however supported each till he had so far weakned them both by his Incouragements that neither was in Condition to punish his Treachery much less to refuse his Courtesie And now being drawn up in Battel to decide the great question of right he shew'd seeing him hovering at a distance with such a neutral party as gave them just apprehensions of both his Force and Fraud trusting to no Sword but their own they mutually accorded to decide the Justice of their quarrel by Combat rather than Battel obliging their respective Armies to submit to the success of him that conquer'd upon which entring singly into an Island on the Severn they charg'd each other with so much fury and so little Caution as if the desire of assaulting had wholly taken away the care of defence but being equal in Stomach and strength the Fight continued pois'd in the uncertainty of any advantage on either side till at length both being tired neither vanquish'd either hoping to win both scorning to yield with like desire though not with like reason they agreed
regard they had to the living being more prevalent then that of the dead the Queen urged her Articles of Marriage by which it was covenanted that her Children should Inherit to which their Lordships had all subscrib'd which being acknowâ—edged by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury the principal Verb in the Sentence his Authority led the sense of the whole Clergy and having as he was Legate the Scepter and Crown in his hand he laid them down on the Altar challenging the Usurper to take them up thence if he durst whereupon King Harold as quick of Apprehension as he was nimble of Foot allai'd this Thunder-clap with a shower of Go den Promises vowing to defend the Churches Rights with his Blood for which as he gave some Pledges in publick but many more as 't is thought in private so he carried the Cause with more Facility then Applause And now being fix'd I cannot say setled not without the suspiâ—ion of some foul play on Earl Goodwin's part whose unexpected Submâ—ssion sheâ—d that he had either quit his Wisdom or his Honesty he began he pleâ—sure of his Reign with that of Revenge and as he dreaded those Sons of the Queen she stood not for to wit those of the English Line Edward and Alfred more then him she did so he found out a Bait accorâ—inglâ— to draw the youngest of them who was the onâ—y man of Spiriâ— and oâ—rage within his reach by the temptation of a feigned Letter as from his Mother that invited him over into England to head an Army against the Usurper for so he was pleas'd to call himself when it serv'd his own turn assuring him there wanted neither hearts nor hands to serve him The Person who was to give him the first Reception after landing was the unsuspected Goodwin who pretending to conduct him privately to his Mother betray'd him into the Vulture's power who immediately put out his eyes manifesting to the World the necessity those have to be cruel that dare be unjust For as Ambition is that illustrious sin that claims Kinred with every great Vice so it hath this Prerogative above them all in respect of its noble Extract that the deeper 't is dyed the better colour it takes and of all Colours so none so natural to it as that Crymson Si jus violandum est regnandi causa violandum For he that cannot rule himself well may yet rule others better and make satisfaction for being an ill man by becoming a good King But this was not Harold's intention the Ills that he seard could not be secur'd but by those he did and therefore he provided for greater first banishing the innocent Queen after consiscating all her Estate to his own use and having little apprehensions of any danger from that dull Rival the elder Brother who seem'd to affect a Myter rather then a Crown he turn'd his thoughts toward his own Brother Knute resolving to reach h m by poyson under a gilded Pill which he believ'd he could not want hands to administer whilst the Furies were in Confederacy with him to secure the ill-got Greatness they had bestowed upon him Several persons were corrupted with golden promises of great Preferments in case they could effect the black deed but Providence being more kind to him then he to himself prevented his further guilt by putting an end to his loathed life which yet had concluded happily enough if either his infamy had ended with himself or himself had been at rest when he ended But being the Peoples terrour whiles he was alive the King his Adversary that succeeded him took that advantage to make him their scorn after he was dead raking up his Ashes out of the Dust where it was laid to expose it to another Element as restless as was himself whereby though in effect he did no more but rob the Worms to gratifie the Fishes yet the Common sort judging there was something more of Inhumanity in the manner then perhaps of Injustice in the matter of the Revenge it melted down their hate into a kind of pity and as their spight for the most part ends with their fears so forgetting their own they became so sensible of his wrong that from that time they withdrew their affections from that King and had doubtless expos'd him had he not prevented it by exposing himself to some danger as great as that he met with ENGLISH EDWARD the Confessor date of accession 1042 THE Danish Line being broken off before the ambitious Goodwin could fasten his Hook to it and all claim on that side made void by the immediate Revolt of Norwey and their dissentions at home he had only this advantage and it was a great one to make his own choice out of all the English that pretended to the right of Succession and to take whomsoever he thought would be the fittest mold for him to cast the Model of his own designed Greatness in The first in right to the Crown were Prince Edward and Edmond the Sons of Ironsides but the remoteness of their Persons being of greater consideration then the nearness of their Titles having ever since the death of their Father continued as Out-laws in Hungary to which Crown they were so nearly allyed that he was put beside all hope of tampering with them he prefer'd their Uncle Edward one of the younger Sons of Ethelred a Prince so soft and plyant that he seem'd to be fram'd by Nature for every Impression that was to be put upon him to him therefore he gave up the Crown and with it as a Bribe a Jewel perhaps of greater value if it had been rightly us'd or understood his vertuous Daughter Edith a Lady of so incomparable person and parts that he might be very well confident he had made all cock-sure as we vulgarly say knowing that whenever he came within the Circle of her Arms he must be so charm'd if he had any thing of man in him as never to be able to get loose again This assurance made our Politician very bold with his Son in Law that boldness quickly turn'd to Arrogance that Arrogance attracted great Envy and that Envy rais'd great Opposition Those of the Nobility that were men of Action became his Rivals in Glory performing as great things against the Scots as he and his Sons could do against the Welch whilst those that were men of Counsel made it their business to counter plot his Intreagues wherein they likewise prevail'd so far as to prefer Gemensis Bishop of London the very greatest Enemy he had to be Arch-bishop of Canterbury but he being a Norman which crossed a wise Ordinance made at the coming in of the King that no stranger should be admitted into any place of Profit or Trust Goodwin made it the Kingdoms grievance more then his own and rather then want an Occasion to puzzle the short sighted Multitude he took a very slight one from an accidental Fray at Canterbury between the Towns-men and some of the Followers of
the Earl of Bolloigne the Kings Brother in law whose Harbingers being kill'd in the Scuffle the King commanded Goodwin as Lord Lieutenant of that County to do Justice on the Offenders but he deny'd returning this popular Answer That it was against his Conscience to execute his Country-men unheard upon the complaint of Strangers This coldness of his rais'd such a sudden heat in the Common People that there wanted nothing to set the whole Kingdom in a Flame but to tell them their Liberties were in danger and that there was no body durst assert them but the Earl Goodwin King Edward perceiving his design and doubting least it might bring him himself into suspition with his People being upon the matter a Stranger as having been alwayes brought up in Normandy he resolv'd to question him in open Parliament and accordingly he summon'd him and his Sons to give their attendance but they refusing to appear both sides armed London was divided in the Quarrel for the King possessed all on this side the Thames the Earl all on the other side next Kent But such is the terrour of Guilt that the Night before the Battel was to be fought the Rebels quit their General and by that commendable Treachery forc'd him to quit the Realm who taking shipping at Greenwich fled away as fast by water as his Complices did by Land The King upon this turn was so changed in his humour incensed at this their gross contumacy that he grew extreamly cholerick and peevish discharging his Anger with that violence upon all the Earls Friends that it recoil'd back upon the spotless Queen her self whom in the transport of his Passion he accus'd of a * Incontinency Crime which if she had been guilty of himself could not have been Innocent having as he was not ashamed afterwards to confess never perform'd the Duty of a Husband to her under which pretended Jealousie she was forced to suffer a years Imprisonment in a Cloyster partaking patiently the Pennance of those who were under a Vow never to know any man only to satisfie him who had before vowed never to know any woman This Indignity offer'd to the Innocent Daughter in whom saith Ingulphus there was no fault but that she was a Rose of that prickly stock did so stimulate the guilty Father for whose sake she suffer'd that he meditated nothing but the extreamest Revenge and by frequent Piracies so disturb'd all Trade that the King finding that the popular were on his side was glad to compound with him for his quiet upon his own tearms yielding to the banishment of all Strangers which Concession did his business but undid the Kingdoms For as it made way for his Son to be as he design'd him a King so it was the fatal occasion of that unexpected Invasion of the Normans abetted by the Earl of Bolloigne that had the first affront given him which not long after not only overwhelm'd the particular honour of his own Family but the glory of the whole English Nation by a Conquest so universal and sudden as if the Strangers they banish'd had gone out of the Country for no other end but to fetch in more However Heaven suffered not him to see either the fruit or punishment of his dark purposes it so falling out that whilst he design'd to have devour'd the whole Kingdom he was himself choak'd with a small morsel of Bread that went the wrong way down and by his death put such a full point to all great Actions as shews that either he did all that was done then or the King did not long survive him whose Reign being nothing else but a Commentary upon that Earl's Ambition 't is no marvel that his Fame began where t'others ended being sounded upon Opinion rather then Action whilst his Magnanimity was interpreted Patience and his Patience judg'd the Effect of Wisdom But they that duly examine the whole course of his life will find that the active part of it declar'd him scarce a good man the passive certainly not a good King and however the Clergy who were well brib'd extoll'd his Chastity and Piety yet 't is evident that the first was not without manifest wrong to his Wife whom not to use was the highest abuse the last with no less Ingratitude towards his Mother whom upon like suspicion he put to such a kind of Purgation as might have condemn'd the greatest Innocence causing her to pass the * To go over 9 red hot Houghshares bare-footed blinded laid at uncertain distances either of which if she touch'd she was hold guilty Ordeale or Fiery Tryal then in fashion But this unkindness to them is the less when compar'd with that to himself in the total disregard of all Posterity affecting more to be a Benefactor to then a Father of his Country as believing Religious Houses more lasting Monuments then Religious Children whereby it came to pass that for want of Issue of his own Body he was fain to leave the Succession to one that was both a Child and a Stranger little knowing and less known to the English as not having so much of the Language as might serve to demand or declare his Right when he was to recover it nor so much Spirit or Judgment as to shew himself sensible of the Injury when he was afterwards put besides it A fit adopted Successor for such a Sacerdoting King of whom if I should give an impartial Character I must say that he was rather cold then chast rather superstitious then religious fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch indeed so sottish that as 't is reported of Vitellius he would have forgotten he was born a Prince if others had not put him in mind of it So that 't is no marvel considering either his own weakness or his that was to have come after him that his Steward Harold by having only the rule of his Houshold should take upon him as he did to rule the Kingdom and he thought the fittest man however half a Dane to support the English Monarchy HAROLD date of accession 1065 AS there is no temptation so powerful as that which arises from the knowledge of a mans Power so there is no Consideration of that force as to make a man quit his Ambition that thinks he hath merited a Crown Harold having resolv'd to be a King tarries not till the People made him so but to take the charge of Injustice off from them boldly steps into the Throne the better to out-face his Rivals from thence who being no less then three two on a pretended and one with a real Right he conceiv'd they must justle one another before they could come at him The pretenders were Swain King of Denmark whose claim was as the undoubted Heir of the last Knute and William Duke of Normandy that set up a Title by Gift and Conveyance from the last King Edward But of these the first was ingaged in a War with the Swede the last imbroyl'd in
a dispute with the French and so neither at leisure as he thought to disturb him The third who claimed as the right Heir by descent as well as by the Will of his Uncle was Edgar Atheling Son of Prince Edward eldest Son of Edmond Ironsides but he being a Child and having no Friends nearer then Hungary he oppos'd to him the good Omen of his own †Harold in old Saxon signified Love of the Army Name only that is to say concluded to overcome Right by Might having besides the advantage of his Years and Experience two great Supporters to participate of the danger with him in case the other two should joyn with Edgar that was Morcar Earl of York and Edwin Earl of Chester both Brothers to his Wife who being the Relict of Llewellin Prince of Wales seem'd to be a Pledge given by Fortune to secure to him the affections of that People also Neither wanted he something like a gilded Title to dazle the Common Peoples eyes for besides that he was Heir to the Fame and Fortune of the great Goodwin the Champion of their Liberties descended from the Kings of the West-Sexe which gave him the preferrence of the Norman so by the Mothers side he had in him the Royal Blood of Denmark which by the advantage of his present possession gave him the Superiority of those Kings too Thus fortified and adorned he undertook to make the People as happy as they had made him Great and because Trisles please Children as well as greater matters he call'd himself Prince Edgar's Protector fooling those of his Party into a belief that he intended something towards him that might amount to a Surrender in convenient time or at least to a Confirmation of the Succession after him which they were well contented with Thus having by many Lines drawn to himself an universal Consent that made his Right of Desert equivalent with t'others Right of Descent he hung like a Spider by the slender thread spun out of his own Bowels which how weak soever it seem'd was strong enough to bear him up till he had put his Affairs into as good a Posture of Security as the present necessity would permit And it so fell out that the first that question'd him was the last that assaulted him his next Neighbour the Norman who pretending to a Conveyance of King Edwards Right to him to which as he said Harold himself was Witness and which was more sworn by Oath to defend he tax'd him upon his Allegiance to make good the same to which Harold return'd a short Answer That Oaths exacted par Duresse were not binding for taking his pleasure as it is said one day at Sea he was by contrary winds drove into Normandy and there detain'd till he took that Oath 2. He said that his private compact with the Norman was of no validity without the consent of the whole State of England 3. That no Act of King Edward's could pass the Crown away being himself intitled to it but by Election and so holding only in Trust Lastly that the Kingdom of England and Dukedom of Normandy were enough for two Persons and too much to be rul'd by one and therefore Nature had well placed a Sea betwixt them which Sea because he thought the Norman could not pass he concluded he would not devest himself of the Dignity Providence had given him with the consent of the People By this Duke William finding that Arms not Arguments must decide the Controversie resolv'd to drive out one wedge with another and accordingly working upon the Revenge and Ambition of Toustan Harold's younger Brother then in his Court who was tainted with an irreconcileable Enmity both to his Brother and Country to him for a Box of the Ear given him in the presence of King Edward to it for a worse blow in deposing him from his Government in Northumberland and forcing him into Exile whereby he was necessitated to appear rather like a Pirate then a Prince he prevail'd with him to make the first Invasion who assisted by the King of Scots and the King of Norwey then ingaged in taking in the Northern Isles landed in his own Province and thence pierc'd into the very Bowels of the Kingdom forcing his Brother Harold though with apparent hazard to leave London to make what speed he could to check their forwardness who accordingly advanc'd as far as Stamford where he put an end to the troubles of his Brother and the Norweygian but not to his own For as he was allaying this Storm in the North he had notice of a more dreadful one in the South the Norman having so tim'd his business that he landed that very day that his Confederates were fighting with whom came over the Great Earl of Flanders Father in Law to Toustan as well as to himself accompanied with the Earl of Bulloigne who had been so inhospitably treated at Canterbury by Harold's Father Harold tarried not to sheath his blood-stain'd Swords lest rusting in their Scabards they should be hardly drawn forth again But leading his men on weary as they were to compleat the first by a second Victory in less time then could be thought possible to have march'd so far he fac'd the Invaders with so much confidence that Duke William loath to venture all at one stake sent him the offer of referring it to the Pope or putting the trial upon a single Combat betwixt them two But Harold deaf to all Conditions of Peace having in his memory the fatal Success of that dispute between Knute and Ironsides on the like Occasion return'd him this Answer That none but that Power which gave it him should judge his Right and that he would support it with more then singâ—e Courage superstitiously believing that that day would prove auspicâ—ous to him because it was his Birth-day Neither was he worse then his word for that single Battel cost the English near Seven thousand Lives besides what were lost on the Norman side the just number whereof their Historians have not thought fit to let us know Men worthy to be as they were then made Immortal who bravely strove with Destiny to save their Country from the Ca amity of Forreign Servitude but finding that they couâ—d not do it as scorning to out live their Liberties they fell round the Body of their vanquish'd King which lay wrapt up in his Royal Standard instead of a Winding sheet with more wounds upon him then he had reign'd Months in such congested heaps as shew'd the Normans that they had wâ—th him subdu'd the Kingdom there being scarce so much Noble blood â—eft unspilt as to keep the State alive if he had quit them much less to make a second Resistance From which Catastrophe we may conclude that the advantage which the English got over the Britains in the first place was no more then what the Normans got over them in the last not by an inequaliâ—y of Courage but partiality of Fortune which like a
Bowl once put besides its Byass goes the further from its Mark the more 't is inforced THE FIFTH DYNASTY OF NORMANS OF NORMANS THE Normans so call'd by the French in respect of the Northern Clime from whence they came heretofore call'd * Dionis Patav l. 8. c. 4. Scandia since Norwey were another Branch of the antient Cimbri seated near the frozen Sea whose Country being too barren to nourish so fruitful a People they disonerated their Multitudes wheresoever force could make way for them Some stragling as far as the Mediterranian others farther Southward some few lost in the Frozen Sea attempting the Desert Isles far Northward but most following the Sun infested their Southern Neighbours About the time of Charles the Great they began to grow very troublesome by their frequent Pyracies making several Inroads into England but especially into France pressing so hard upon Lewis the Holy that he was fain to empty all his frontier Garrisons and quitting the Maritime draw them into the interior and more considerable parts of his Empire as the Spirits are drawn to the heart upon all Commotions to preserve life Their Successes in Germany England Scotland and Holland having made them so bold that they doubted not to advance as far as Paris where after divers disputes with Charles the Bald Charles le Grosse and Charles the Simple which concluded with an honourable Composition they six'd their two Chiefs Hastang and Rollo in the most fertile and best parts of that goodly Country the first being made Earl of Charters the last Duke of Neustria from him call'd afterwards Normandy the seventh in descent from whom was Duke William better known to us here by the Name of The Conquerour who with like confidence and not unlike Injustice invaded England as his Ancestors did France pretending a Donation of the Soveraignty from his near Kinsman King Edward the Confessor confirm'd as he alledged by his last Will and Testament in the presence of most of the English Nobility a pretence that could have been of no validity had it not been back'd by more then humane Power to disinherit Edgar Atheling who as being of the whole English Blood was rather Heir to the Kingdom then to the King and so by no Law could have his Right collated to a Stranger but the use he made of it was to convince the World that he had more Reason not to say Right to demand than Harold to detain the Crown who having put Prince Edgar besides the Succession desied the Justice of all Mankind as he was an Usurper and so it was a design worthy his Sword who had so fortunately vanquish'd even before he wrote Man those great difficulties at home given by the Opposition of Domestick Rivals no less puissant and populous then Harold to put him at least out of Possession But that which seems strange and was questionless a great surprize upon Harold was the conjunction of the Peers of France in an Action that was so apparently hazardous to the greatness of their own State every addition to so near and dangerous a Neighbour grown long before too powerful being a kind of diminution unto them whereof there can be no probable Cause assign'd beyond their natural affectation of Glory and wantonness of Courage but that Influence which the Conquerors Father in Law Baldwin Earl of Flanders had by being then Governour of the King and Kingdom of France who not only ingaged most of the grtatest Persons there as the Duke of Orleance the Earls of Champaigne Blois Brittain Ponthieue Maine Nevers Poictiers Aumale and Anjou but drew in the * Henry IV. Emperour himself and many of the German Princes to side with him This Preparation being such as it was it cannot be thought that the English lost any honour by mingling blood with men of that Quality and Condition the sound of whose Names was perhaps little less terrible then that of their Arms much less takes it from the reputation of their Courage to have heâ—d up the dispute but for one day only having fought it out as they did till the number of the slain so far exceeded that of the living as made the Conqueror doubt there would not be enough left to be conquer'd Who knows not that Fate made way for the Normans where their Swords could not guiding them by a Series of Successes near about the same time to the expectation of an universal Empire having but a little before made themselves Lords of Apulia Calabria Scicily and Greece and inlarged their Conquests as far as Palestine But what we allow to the Courage we must take from the Wisdom of the English that being subdued they continued Nescia vinci vexing the Conqueror after they had submitted to him by such continual Revolts as suffered him not to sheath his Sword all his Reign or if he did urged him to continue still so suspicious of their Loyalty that he was sorc'd alway to keep his hand upon the hilt ready to draw it forth having not leisure to intend what was before established much less to establish what he before intended So that they put upon him a kind of necessity of being a Tyrant to make good his being a King Yet such was the moderation of his mind that he chose rather to bind them stricter to him by the old Laws then to gall them with any new guarding his Prerogative within that Cittadel of the Burrough Law as they call'd it from whence as often as they began to mutiny he batter'd them with their own Ordnance and so made them Parties to their own wrong and however some that design'd to pre-occupate the grace of Servitude gave him the ungrateful Title of Conqueror which he esteem'd the greatest misfortune his good Fortune had brought upon him thereby to proclaim his Power to be as boundless as his Will which they took to be above all Limitation or Contradiction yet we find he suffered himself to be so far conquer'd by them that instead of giving to he took the Law from them and contentedly bound himself up by those which they call'd St. Edward's Laws which being an Abbreviation of the great triple Code of Danique Merke and West-Sexe Laws was such a form of Combination as he himself could not desire to introduce a better and if any thing look'd like absolute 't was his disarming them when he found them thus Law-bound hand and foot After which he erected divers Fortresses where he thought fit dispos'd all Offices of Command and Judicature to such as he could best confide in and by that Law of Cover feu obliging them to the observation of better hours of Repose then they had formerly been us'd to gave himself more rest as well as them As for his putting the Law into a Language they understood not whereby they were made more learn'd or less litigious then they were before it was that the Lawyers only had cause to complain of whose practise at the first perhaps was a
by taking off his Caution so that after Dinner he would needs go hunt in the New Forrest and taking his Bow to shoot a Deer in that ominous place where before a * His Brother Richard Brother and a †The Son of Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Broth r. Brothers Son of his had both met with violent Deaths Tyrel his Bow-bearer being plac'd right against him as the best Marks-man let fly an Arrow that glancing against a Bough miss'd the Deer and found out him Pectus dum perforat ingens Ille rapit calidum frustrâ de Vulnere Telum Unâ eademque viâ Sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Being thus quietly stated he sweetned his Government by taking off all Taxes to shew his Beneficence and some of the principal Taxers to shew his Justice By the first he pleas'd the Multitude in point of Relief by the other the better sort in point of Envy and Revenge gratifying their Spleen by sacrificing the griping Bishop of Durham a man who being rais'd from a base Condition by baser means had attained to the honour of being Chief Minister to his Brother King William and was grown learn'd in the Science of selling Justice by the distribution of whose Bribes he brib'd those whom he thought fit to make his own Ministers neither thought it he enough to be an English man himself without assuring the State that he intended all his Posterity should be so too and therefore to the end to make sure the wise men that were as apt to be jealous as the weaker sort to be querulous he married Maud Sister to the Scotch King and Daughter to Margaret Sister to Edgar Atheling the right Heir of the English Blood a Lady that brought him an Inheritance of Goodness from her Mother and a good Title of Inheritance from her Uncle Thus firmly did he intrench himself before his Brother whom he had made a King in fame only that he might the easier make himself a real one return'd home who arriving unlook'd for was welcom'd by the Nobility of Normandy with more then ordinary Joy by whom being inform'd of what was done in England he made it the business of the first year to provide an Army and in the second landed it at Portsmouth in order to the recovery of his lost Right whereof he was the more assur'd in respect of those of the Norman Nobility here as he thought inclin'd to him who mov'd with revenge or discontent would be glad of any Occasion to Revolt This as it was a storm King Henry saw at a distance so he provided so well for it by cutting off all Assistances that Duke Robert and those with him doubting the success and seeing themselves certainly lost if they prevail'd not it being in his power to fight them where he pleas'd and when upon his desire to save the effusion of Christian Blood yielded to Articles of Peace the Substance whereof was this That Henry being born after his Father was rightfully King and being now invested in the Crown by act of the Kingdom should enjoy the same during life and pay Robert 3000 Marks per Annum as an Earnest of the Reversion after his Death in case Robert out-liv'd him With these Conditions Robert rather blinded then satisfied returns back again into his own Country and it had been well if he had never been blinded otherwise But such is the frenzie of Ambition that it suffers not unhappy Princes to consider either what they ought to do or what to suffer whilst like the Superior Orbs they are hurried with restless Motion without understanding by what Intelligences they are actuated Finding himself fallen from the height of his Expectation into some degree of Contempt with his own Subjects he assai'd by Profusion which some call Liberality to raise his Reputation at least to disguise his Impotency spending so freely that the Nobility fearing the Revenues of the Dutchy would not suffice to support his vanity complain'd thereof to King Henry who to shew his own power and t'others weakness sent for him over to chide him and indeed reprehended him so sharply as if he had been his Father and not his Brother and as if he would have him to know he rather expected the Reversion of the Dukedome after his death then to be accomptable to him for the Kingdom after his own and whether it were that he threatned him with a Detention of his Pension or drew him being of a yielding Nature as most indigent men are to give him a release for some inconsiderable Sum of ready Mony is not certain but so it was that upon his return he could no longer conceal the indignation he had conceived at it but took the very first Occasion to shew it by joyning himself with some mutinous Lords who having before begun an unsuccessful Combustion in England had fled over thither to commit what Outrages they could there King Henry for a while pretended himself touch'd in Conscience with the foulness of a Fraternal War but was indeed apprehensive that such trivial Injuries as the taking a few Castles was not worthy the trouble of drawing him over in Person at least not worth the charge of entring into such a War as might justifie the requiring his Dukedom for a satisfaction but having let them alone till he believ'd his sufferance had elevated them beyond the temper of hearkning to any conditions he then took his time to chastise their folly and by one single Battle upon the very same day and in the very same manner as 't is reported that his Father just forty years before won England he won Normandy and having made his brother prisoner depriv'd him first of his liberty after of his country and lastly of that which was dearer than either the light of his Eyes requiting his attempt which was but natural to escape out of prison with a punishment that was of all other most unnatural and as much beyond death as it was short of it which inhumanity to his brother though it was perhaps but a just judgment from Heaven upon him for his inhumanity to his Father whose life he had twice attempted being wilfully blinded by the King of France yet 't was such as was altogether undeserv'd as from him for t'other had him fast enough within his power circumscrib'd by all the rules of Hostility besieged within a Fort and half starv'd he was so far from pressing upon him that he pittied him and broke with his brother Friend to save his brother Enemy Poor Prince Robert how was he betraied by the goodness of his own Nature and tempted like a Child to save the bird which was to pick out his Eyes How did he live to see himself buried before he was dead invelop'd in dark and dismal thoughts whilst he contemplated his Sons loss with more affliction than his own a forward Prince born to two Crowns but now reduc'd to that necessity to borrow one to buy him bread So long
Officers whom their places confirm'd that stuck close to him and serv'd him to the last by whose Assistance he not only recover'd Ireland reduced Wales and kept those of Scotland to their good behaviour but notwithstanding all the Troubles he had at home forc'd the Chief men of either Place to give him as the manner was in those dayes their Children to be pledges of their future Subjection by which may be guest how far he had gone in the Recovery of his Transmarime Dominions had not the cross-grain'd Barons stood it out as they did who refusing to aid or attend him until he was absolv'd by the Pope and after he was absolv'd stopt until he had ratified their Priviledges and after they had the Grant of their Priviledges declined him yet until they had back the Castles he had taken from them resolv'd it seems to have both Livery and Seisin of their ancient Rights but whilst they thus over-bent the Bow they made it weak and unserviceable the visible force us'd upon him in bringing him to that Concession unloosing the Deed and taking so much from the validity of so solemn an Act by the bare illegality of their Coertion that his new Friend the Pope to whom themselves forced him to reconcile himself thought it but a reasonable recompence of his Humility towards him to discharge him from all his Condiscentions towards them dispensing with his Oath by which all the Agreement was bound and by definitive Sentence declaring the whole Compact null which was confirm'd by the Excommunication of the Barons till they submitted to the Sentence Here the Scene chang'd again and now the Pope being ingag'd on the Kings side the French King on the Rebels behold the whole Kingdom in Arms but because there were so few to be trusted at home the King sends for Forces abroad whereof he had so great Supplies that had there not been which is almost incredible to relate no less then forty thousand Men Women and Children drown'd coming over Sea out of Flanders he had even eat his way out to a Conquest of his own People as universal but more miserable then that of the Norman for with those he had left he marched over most of the Kingdom in less then half a years space reduced all the Barons Castles to the very Borders of Scotland and made himself once more absolute Master of all the Cities of note London only excepted which in regard of their united Power being so desperate as they were he thought not safe to attack This Extremity of the Barons drew over the French King in person to their relief who making incredible speed to land at Sandwich as quickly became Master of all Kent Dover only excepted which never would yield through which marching up to London he was there received with such universal joy that several great Lords quitting King John came to render themselves to him In the mean time the Pope pursued him with an Excommunication to please King John who all this while acted the part of a General so well beyond that of a King that many who never obeyed him in Peace were content to follow him through the War It was near a year that this unhappy Kingdom continued thus the Theatre of Rapine and Cruelty enduring the oppression and horrour of two great Armies headed by two great Kings each chasing the other with alternate Successes through the most fertile parts of the Isle till it pleased Providence in Mercy to the innocent People to take off this Indomitable Prince whose heart long flaw'd with continual Crosses broke at last by the slight stroke of a small loss the miscarriage of some few of his Carriages which in passing the Washes betwixt Lynn and Boston were it seems overtaken by the Tyde a misfortune which though of no great Consideration yet falling out in such a juncture of time when the Indisposition of his Body added not a little to that of his Mind carried him out of the World with no less Violence then he forced into it who however born to make himself Enemies had yet perhaps been happy enough had not himself been the very greatest Enemy himself had Upon his Death the King was crown'd as his unfortunate Father and Uncle before him the second time being willing the World should know he was now arriv'd at a degree of understanding to rule by himself which occasion the jealous Barons took hold of to press again for the Confirmation of their Liberties the Denyal whereof had cost his Father so dear This put him to a pause and that discover'd his inclination though not his intent for by not denying he hop'd to be thought willing to grant and yet not granting he had the vanity to be thought not to yield But this cunctation of his which shew'd him to be his Fathers own Son plunged him into such a Gulf of mistrust before he was aware of it that it was nothing less then a Miracle he had not perish'd in it for as he could never get clear out of it all his Reign the longest that ever any King of England had so he was necessitated as all shifting men are that entertain little designes they are asham'd or afraid to own to make use from that time of such Ministers onely as in serving him would be sure to serve their own turns upon him which reduced him to that indigence that had he not found out a way to prey upon them as they upon the People he had undoubtedly perished as never King did being at one time come so near to Beggery that for want of Provisions at his own he was forc'd to invite himself shamefully to other mens Tables his Credâ—t being brought so low that he could not take up an hundred Marks and his Spirit so much lower that he told one that deny'd him that Sum that it was more Alms to give him then to a Begger that went from Door to Door A speech betraying so strange abjection that it takes off the wonder of those affronts put upon him afterwards when a weak Woman durst tax him to his face with breach of faith and honour and a pitiful Priest threaten him with being no King when a private Lord durst give him the Lie publickly and tell him he was no Christian and which is undecent to tell had it not been so well known one of his * Hubert de Bâ—ughâ— was charg'd to have said thus own servants call'd him Squint-ey'd Fool and Leaper The first great action he was ingaged in was the recovery of the Ground his Father lost in France into which he was drawn not so much out of affectation of Glory as by the Solicitation of his Father in Law Hugh Earl of March who having a quarrel with the Queen Dowager of France upon the accompt of some dispute that had pass'd between her and his Wife the Queen Dowager of England call'd in the King her Son to take advantage of the present discontent Divers of the
maintenance of their Authority the King himself was compell'd by Oath as he was a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crown'd and anointed to uphold them and acquit them of their Legal Obedience whensoever he went about to infringe the great Charter by which they held this Prerogative Here they had him bound up hand and foot with that Curse upon him which his Father of all others most dreaded and with which his Flatterers most terrified him whenever the Dispute of Liberty came in question of being a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion a Subject to his Subjects for they had invaded his Majesty usurp'd his Authority and made themselves so far Masters of his Person that they might seize it whenever they pleas'd to declare for a Common-wealth And now to make the Affront more notable as if they had forgotten what was the Fundamental Grievance on which their Usurpation was grounded the Entertainment of Strangers they take a Stranger to head them making Monford who was a French man by Birth and Descent their Chief who having designs of his own different from theirs as the Earl of Gloucester his Compeer found when 't was too late indeavour'd so to widen all Differences betwixt King and People that if possible there might never be a right Understanding betwixt them The King therefore well knowing his Malice and not being ignorant of his Ambition fell first upon him causing the Lord Mortimer to break in amongst his Tenants who quickly righted himself upon those of Mortimer's with whom the Prince thereupon took part as Llewellin Prince of Wales with t'other The Prince takes Brecknock-Castle Monford that of Gloucester and after that those of Worcester and Shrewsbury from whence he marched directly to the Isle of Ely without Resistance The King fearing his approach to London like those who to save their Lives in a Storm are content to sling their Goods overboard demanded a Peace and willingly yielded up all his Castles into the hands of the Barons to the intent they might be as a publick Security for the inviolable Observation of the Provisions of Oxford conceding to the banishment of all the Strangers that were left This Condescention of his however occasion'd rather a Truce then a Peace of which he had this benefit to gain time till he could be better provided A Parliament being hereupon call'd at London the freedom of Debate there renew'd the Quarrel and each side confident of the Justice of their Arms at Northampton they came to Battel which however it was well fought yet the worst Cause had the worst Success The Barons were beaten and amongst other Prisoners of note that were then taken was the young Monford the Heir and Hope of his Father Leicester and Fortune thus uniting with Authority made the Barons stoop though they could not submit to beg the Peace they had before refus'd wherein being rejected with scorn they became desperate who were before but doubtful which Leicester perceiving and being a man skilful in such advantages took that opportunity to bring them to a second Battel in which he supply'd his want of Hands with a Stratagem that shew'd he had no want of Wit placing certain Ensigns without Men on the side of a Hill not far from the place where he gave the onset whereby he so fortunately amuz'd the Enemy that he easily obtain'd a Victory and such an one as seem'd to turn the Scale beyond all possibility of Recovery For in it were taken the King himself his Brother the late King of the Romans the Prince and most of the principal Lords and by killing Five thousand of the common People on the place he so terrified all the rest of the Royal Party that for a year and an half afterwards no body durst look him in the Face all which time he spent in reducing the Kingdom under his own dispose putting in and out whom he pleas'd and filling up all places Military and Civil with Creatures of his own carrying the King about with him as a skilful Rebel to countenance the Surrender of Towns and Castles to him continuing thus the insolence of his Triumph till it swell'd to that disproportionate Greatness that his Confederate Gloucester began to be jealous if not afraid of it and out of that Distrust quarrel'd with him upon pretence of not having made equal distribution of the Spoil nor Prisoners charging him to have releas'd whom he pleas'd and at what rate without the consent of the rest of the Confederacy urging further that he did not suffer a Parliament to be conven'd as was agreed betwixt them to the end himself might be Arbitrary Lastly objected that his Sons were grown Insolent by his Example and had affronted several of the adhering Barons who would have satisfaction of him During this Dispute the Prince by connivance of some of the discontented Faction broke Prison to whom Gloucester joyn'd himself and rallying together the scatter'd Parties that had long attended the advantage of such a turn they made themselves so considerable that in short time they were able to bring the business to a poise Leicester put it to the Decision of another Battel but not without apparent dispondency as appears by what he said when they were going to give the first Charge for he told those Lords that were nearest him That they would do well to commit their Souls to God for that their Bodies were the Enemies However he omitted nothing that might speak him as he was a brave and valiant General till his Son first and after himself were slain at the instant of whose fall there happen'd such a Clap of Thunder as if Heaven it self had fought against him and that none could have given him his death but that power to which he owed his life And so the King was rid of him whom he once declar'd to have been more affraid of then of Lightning and Thunder a Person too great for a Subject and something too little to be a King But had he as he was descended from the stock of * His Father was Simon youngest Son of Simon Earl of Fureux descended from Almerick base Son of Robert sirnam'd the Holy King of France Kings master'd the Fate of this day he had undoubtedly made himself one and broke off the Norman Line to begin a new Race not less noble This happy Victory gave the King some ease but 't was not in the power of any Force to give him perfect rest whilst the distemperature of the Time was such that the Wound which seem'd perfectly heal'd broke out afresh Gloucester himself though he had deserted his old Competitor Leicester would not yet quit the good old Cause but imbracing the very first Occasion of Discontent he met with retired three years after from Court and having got new Forces sinds out new Evil Counsellors to remove Mortimer the great Man of merit with the King is now become the Object of his Envy and rather then not have
his Head he resolves once more to venture his own In the mean time those of the Isle of Ely the remainder of Leicester's Party that had held out from the time of his death with incredible courage and patience taking new life and hope from this Revolt make many excursions and spoils to the great charge and vexation of the King and the Publick Neither could the Pope 's Legate prevail with him to come in though upon tearms safe and honourable tendering the Publick Faith of the Kingdom and which was then thought greater that of the Church to them So much were they transported with the Opinion of their Cause or by the falshood of their hopes till this stubbornness of theirs provok'd the King to raise a new Army the Command whereof was given to his Son Edward that prosperous Prince whose Fortune then being not able to resist he had the honour to conclude that War and consequently to put a Period to all his Fathers turmoâ—ls who being shaken at the Root did not long survive the happiness of that tranquillity the end of whose Troubles were the beginning of his own ingaging upon the conclusion of that in a War so much more dangerous by how much more distant the benefit whereof was to be expected only in the other World this was that Undertaking in the Holy Land which separating him from his Father beyond all hope of ever seeing him again gave some occasion to question the old Kings Understanding others his good Nature But as the great concerns of Religion are as much above Reason as that is beyond Sense so we must impute that to the resolute Zeal of the Son which we cannot allow for Devotion in the Father who had he had any thoughts of going into the other World as his great Age might have prompted him to would rather have taken care for a Grave for himself then for so hopeful a Successor who only by seeking Death escap'd it Now whether the ingratitude of the Clergy or the Ambition of the temporal Lords were a greater tryal of his wisdom or Power I know not but the course he took to reduce either to terms of modesty and submission shows the world he had no want of understanding however he was forc't to put up the front of his Lay-peers in order to the facillitating his Revenge upon the other whom he mortified by a strain of State which none of his Ancestors durst venture upon Whilst he not only put them out of his Protection but all men out of theirs denying them not only his favour but his Justice not only the benefit of his ordinary Courts but the priviledg of sitting in that higher Court of Parliament A severity not to give any worse name to it of so acrimonious a nature that it not only expos'd them to all the injuries and affronts triumphant malice and scorn could put upon them but was made more intollerable and grievous by his docking their Revenues as after he did by several * Stat. 3 Edw. 1. cap. 19.33 Stat. cont formum collation Statute Laws amongst which I cannot but take notice though by the By of the particular contempt express'd in that odd Statute aginst †Stat. de Asportatis Religiosorum c. An. 3 cap. 34. ravishment where it is declared Felony to use force to any Lay-Woman and only a trespass to ravish a Nun. Neither was it thought enough to make what abscission he thought fit without their greatness were rendred incapable of any further growth to which intent he cauteriz'd if I may so say the wounds he had given them by that Statute of ‖ An. 3. C. 32. Mort-main which as it was the most fatal of all others to them so it might have prov'd so to himself had he not at the same time he thus disoblig'd them oblig'd the Laity by another suppos'd to be the wisest Law that ever was made to wit that of Westminster the second entituled De Donis Conditionalibus which tending so much to the preservation of particular Families and adding to their greatness no less then their continuance is by some Historians call'd Gentilitium Municipale and had this good effect that it brought the temporal Nobility firmly to adhere to him against the Pope when amongst many others that intituled themselves to the Soveraignty of Scotland a Kingdom too near to be lost for want of putting a claim his Holiness became his Rival and thought to carry it as part of St. Peter's Patrimony This Victory at home which brought the proud Prelates to purchase his Justice at a dearer rate then probably they might have paid for his mercy had their submission been as early as it was afterwards earnest I take to be much greater then all those he had got abroad by how much fortune had no share in it and fame was the least part of his gains extending to give him not long after as great an advantage over the Lay Nobility whom having first discern'd of their Patronage wholly and of their other priviledges in a very great part he did as it were cudgel them into Submission by the authority of his * vid. lib. Assis fol. 141.57 Trail Baston a commission which however it were directed to the Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators c. and so seem'd to have been aim'd at those of the lower rank onely which were guilty of those Enormities of Champorty Extortion Bribery and intrusion crimes much in fashion in those days yet by a back blow it knockt down several of the great Men who either countenanc'd or comply'd with the offenders and which was more terrible this writ was kept as a Weapon in the Kings hands to use as he saw occasion And to say truth he was so expert at it and indeed at all other points of skill that brought him in any profit that he was too hard at last for the Lawyers themselves those great masters of defence Canvasing his Judges as well as his Bishops when he found both alike rich both alike corrupt Beyond these he could not descend to the consideration of any Criminal save the Jews only for whom perhaps it had been no great Injustice to have taken their Estates if at least he could have been prevail'd with to have spar'd their Lives but as so great Courage as he had would not be without some mixture of Cruelty so 't is the less wonder to see that Cruelty heightened by Covetousness as that Avarice by Ambition the adding to his Treasure by these Exactions being in order to the adding to his Dominions which were not yet so entire as consistent with his safety much less the Glory he aim'd at Wales being then as a Canton of the same Piece divided by a small seam which yet had a Prince of their own blood descended from the antient Stock of the Unconquer'd Britains who it seems had so little sense of the inequality of Power betwixt them that he had given this King great provocations
as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
being to advise at the price of his own Head the Arch bishop of York like a man of great Faith was of Opinion to sight them with such present Strength as the King had trusting to the Justice of the Cause the Dukes of Ireland and Suffolk men of Action but wanting the means were for delivering up Calais to the French King to purchase his Assistance But the Majority of Voices coming from such men whose Fears made them rather wise then honest were for appeasing the Enemy with fair promises till there were a fit opportunity to suppress them the first Proposal was thought very hazardous the second much more besides there was such a bitterness in the Pill that no preparation could make the King to swallow it who not knowing what effect it might have when it was done utterly rejected it upon which they secretly withdrew that gave the Counsel and left him to himself Whereupon the Lords Regent found an opportunity to be admitted to a Parley with him who producing to him Letters from the King of France which they had intercepted pursuant to the Design of bringing in a Forreign Enemy they mov'd him no less by shame then dread of the Consequence to consent to the calling another Parliament Upon the day of the Convention the King came not to the House being infinitely troubled in his mind at News he had just then received of the Earl of Derby's Intercepting the Duke of Ireland who being gone as far as Chester in order to his passing into that Kingdom was set upon by the said Earl and totally defeated who hardly escaping fled into the Low-countries where not long after he dyed The Lords heightened with this Success sent a very harsh Message to him letting him know that they attended him there and if he would not come to the House according to promise they would chuse another King that should hearken to their faithful advice This though it were in effect no other but to tell him they would depose him without his consent if he would not come and consent to be depos'd yet having no Retreat from it but down a steep Precipice he chose rather to compâ—y and put himself under the mercy of Providence then under the uncertainty of their Mercy Upon his first appearance they presented him with a black Roll of those whom he call'd his Friends they his Enemies some to be prescrib'd some to be imprison'd and others banish'd and in this last List there were not only Lords but Ladies found Delinquents Some were accus'd of imbeziling his Treasure others of purloyning his Affection all for robbing him of his Honour whereupon some were to be try'd for their Lives others for their Fortunes and all for their Liberties but in respect of their other great Affairs which were in order to what followed they referred it to the succeeding Parliament not unfitly call'd the Parliament that wrought wonders which contrary to all other Parliaments that used to swear Obedience to the King requir'd an Oath of him himself to observe such Rules and Orders as they should prescribe to him Here now we have this unfortunate Prince brought to the last year of his Rule though not of his Reign beginning then to enter into his Wardship as he call'd it when he thought he was just got out of it All power was put into the hands of the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester who managed all Treaties abroad concluded War and Peace as they thought fit and were indeed absolute in every point but the Command of their own Passions and uncontroulable by any but themselves The Duke of Lancaster having now digested the Kingdom in his thoughts procures the Dutchy of Acquitaine to be setled on him as an earnest of what was to follow being the Inheritance of the Crown and descended on the King from Prince Edward his Father and having married up the King to a Child of eight years old by whom 't was impossible he could have Issue with a Portion that scarce defraid the Charge of the Solemnity he secur'd his own Pretensions by Legitimating three of his Bastard Sons in case his lawful Issue should fail The Duke of Gloucester had the same Ambition in his heart as well as the same Blood in his Veins but Nature having put a disadvantage upon him by placing him so far behind being the sixth Son of King Edward the Third he was forc'd to gratifie his Envy instead of his Ambition and rest content with the hopes of doing his Brother a Mischief when time serv'd without any great probability of doing himself good Accordingly he made a Faction who conspir'd with him to seize the King his two Brothers Lancaster and York and to put them all up in Prison and after to execute divers Lords whom he thought to be more his Enemies then their Friends but the end of his Treason being to be himself betray'd by those he made use of Lancaster came thereby to stand single like a great Tree which being at its full height spread his Limbs the wider and grew to be so conspicuous that the succeeding Parliament desired to shelter themselves under the shadow of his power hereupon he reduced the number of the thirteen Regents to seven only which being all his Confidents he with them concluded aforehand all Affairs of moment and directed how they should pass in Parliament An Example not less mischievous to the Kingdom then the King so that now there wanted no more to make him the Soveraign but the putting on the Crown But see the uncertainty of humane Glory Having just finished the great work of his Usurpation an unexpected blow from that invisible hand that turns about the great Wheel of Causes broke the frame of his projection in pieces His Son Henry Duke of Hereford accused by the Duke of Norfolk of Treason was forc'd to purge himself by the Tryal of Combat a Law that might condemn but never acquit him since it was only possible to discharge himself of the danger but never of the suspition of the Crime This being urg'd so far that they were both brought into the List there was no way left to avoid the uncertainty of the Fight but banishment of both wherein though the Duke of Lancaster got the favour to make the Exile of his Son but temporary when the others was perpetual yet the affront that Fortune seem'd to give him by this accidental Disgrace came so near his heart that his Son had no sooner taken leave of his Country but he bid adieu to the World and so left the King once more Hors de page Thus Time and Fortune seem to have conspir'd in vindicating the wrongs of this abused Prince ridding him at once of those two great Corrivals in Power whose Authority had so far outweighed his that they kept him in the condition of a Minor till they had made the People believe him insufficient for Government the one being remov'd beyond all possibility the other beyond all
France set forth his own Eloquence and the Kings Title so well deducing his Descent in a direct Line from the Lady Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fourth and Wife to his Grandfather Edward the Second and refuting all the old beaten Arguments brought from the Salique Law to oppose it as being neither consistent with Divinity Reason or Example he at once pleas'd and convinced all his Hearers but most especially the King himself who seem'd to be inspired with a Prophetick confidence of that success which after he had but scorning to steal any Advantage or wrong the Justice of his Title somuch as to seem to doubt 't would be denied before he would make any kind of preparation for the Conquest he sent Ambassadors to Charles the Sixth to demand a peaceable surrender of the Crown to him offering to accept his Daughter with the Kingdom and to expect no other pawn for his Possession till after his death This Message as it was the highest that ever was sent to any free Prince so he intrusted it to those of highest Credit and Trust about him these were his Uncle the Duke of Exeter a man of great esteem as well as of great Name the Arch-bishop of Dublin a very politick Prelate the Lord Gray a man at Arms the Lord High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich the first as much renown'd for his Courage as the last for his Contrivances to whom for the greater state there was appointed a Guard of five hundred Horse to attend them The Report of this great Embassy as it arriv'd before them so it made such a Report throughout all this side of the World that all the Neighbour Princes like lissening Deer when they hear the noyse of Huntsmen in the Woods began to take the Alarm and consider which side to sly to it being so that England and France never made any long War upon one another but they ingaged all Christendom with them However the Court of France pretending themselves ignorant of the Occasion of their coming dissembled their disdain and treated them with that magnificence as if they had design'd to Complement them out of their business but after the Message was delivered with that faithful boldness that became so great an Affair they were all in that confusion that it was hard to judge whether they were more ashamed incensed or afraid giving such a return as seem'd neither compatible with the honour wisdom or courage of so renown'd a People as they are For first as they did neither deny nor allow the Kings Title but said they would make Answer by Ambassadours of their own So in the next place they were so hasty in their Counsels and the dispatch of their Ambassadors hither that they arriv'd in England almost as soon as those sent hence And lastly at the same time they desired Peace and offer'd to buy it with the tender of some Towns they gave the King an Affront which was a greater Provocation then the denyal of ten such Kingdoms for the Daulphin who in respect of the King his Fathers sickness I might rather say weakness managed the State affecting the honour to give the first Box or perhaps desiring to make any other Quarrel the ground of the approaching War which he foresaw was not to be prevented rather then that of the Title which had been already so fatally bandi'd scornfully sent the King a Present of Tenis-balls which being of no value nor reckoning worthy so great a Princes acceptance or his recommendation could have no other meaning or interpretation but as one should say he knew better how to use them then Bullets The King whose Wit was as keen as t'others Sword return'd him this Answer That in requital of his fine Present of Tenis-balls he would send him such Balls as he should not dare to hold up his Racket against them Neither was he worse then his word however his preparations seem'd very disproportionable for so great a Work For the Army he landed was no more but six thousand Horse and twenty four thousand Foot a Train so inconsiderable and by the Daulphin judg'd to be so despicable that he thought not fit to come down himself in Person to take any view of them for fear he should fright them out of the Country too soon but sent some rude Peasants to attend their Motion who incouraged by some of the Troops of the nearest Garrisons as little understanding the danger they were ingaged in as they did the language of the Enemy they were ingaged with fell in upon the Rear of his Camp but as Village Curs which fiercely set upon all Strangers having the least Rebuke with a Stone or a Cudgel retreat home whining with their Tails betwixt their Legs so they having a Repulse given them ran away and made such Out-cries as dishearten'd the Souldiers that were to second them so much that after that he marched without any Resistance as far as Callice Neither indeed saw he any Enemy till he came to give Battel to the united Forces of France at that famous Field of Agencourt where notwithstanding he was out-numbred by the French above five for one he fought them with that Resolution as made himself Master of more Prisoners then he had men in his Camp to keep them an Occasion Fortune gave him to shew at once her Cruelty and his Mercy who whilst he might have kill'd did not but when he should not was forc'd to be cruel beyond almost all Example for as he gave Quarter in the beginning of the Battel to all that ask'd it his Clemency and Gentleness being such that as he was then pleas'd to declare he consider'd them as his Subjects not as his Captives So being over-charged with their Prisoners Numbers upon a sudden and unexpected accident however of no great Consequence if it had been rightfully understood he was forc'd to write the dismal Fate of France in cold Blood and in order to the saving life destroy it For as he was seeing his wounded men drest having gotten an intire Victory as he thought and as afterward it proved a sudden out-cry alarm'd his Camp occasion'd by a new Assault of some French Troops who being the first had quit the Field were the first return'd into it again in hopes by fighting with Boyes to regain the honour they lost in refusing to fight with men these under the Leading of the Captain of Agencourt set upon the Pages Sutlers and Laundresses following the pursuit with that wonted noyse as if they would have the English think the whole Army was rally'd again and chasing them Upon this the King caus'd all the scatter'd Arms and Arrows to be recollected and his stakes to be new pitch'd and put himself into a posture of Defence neither were the English only deceived by the Shreiks and Cries of those miserable People that fell into these mens hands but all those of the French likewise that were within hearing insomuch that the Earls of Marle and
Falconbridge who with six hundred men at Arms had all the while stood conceal'd to take the first advantage offer'd them advanc'd upon the same mistake to reinforce the Battel who seeming in the Night more then they were for indeed the English suppos'd it the whole Body of the French Army return'd again upon them the King not knowing how to disperse them commanded all the Prisoners to be forthwith slain save some few Persons of Note who for common security were bound back to back This made it a bloody Victory indeed that look'd more like a Miracle before there being ten thousand of the Enemy slain and if we may believe Caxton not above twenty six of the English side P. Aemilius their own Historian saith not above ten private Souldiers two Knights and two Lords which were the Duke of York and the Duke of Suffolk that bore no proportion to the five hundred Knights and twenty six Lords lost on the other side amongst whom the Daulphin himself may be reckon'd for one though he died not on the place for struck with the apprehensions of this loss he surviv'd it a very little time after However the English got only the glory of being Victors but not a foot of ground more then they had before Providence having so ordained that King Henry should only gain a Name in Arms by his first Expedition that upon his next Arrival they might the more contentedly give him up the Crown and with it her that dazled his Eyes more then all the Jewels he found there the incomparable Lady Katherine to whose Excellency of Beauty was added that of Innocence which made her yet more desirable for a Wife then the other made her for a Mistress Not long after this Battel he return'd home as if to give and take breath and during the time of his stay here the Emperour Sigismund attended by the Arch-bishop of Rheimes gave him a personal Visit in hope to have made a Peace betwixt the two Kings at least 't was so pretended but time that is the best Expositor of all great Actions shews his coming to have had some further design in it otherwise his Mediation had not ended as it did in a League Offensive and Defensive leaving King Henry to follow Providence in the pursuit of his predestin'd Conquest who upon his second Expedition invaded Normandy and having in a short time taken in the City of Caen with most of the lesser Villes came at last to that proud Town of Roan which spent him some time longer then he expected in taking it But it prov'd not time lost for the Essay they made of their own Strength and Courage being at the beginning of the Seige no less then two thousand Persons in it most able to make Defence gave the World such proof of his that he gain'd much more in Interest then he lost in recovering the Principal there being surrendred to him upon the Fame of taking in that great City Hunflew Munster Devilliers Ewe New-castle Vernon Mant La Roch Gwyon and indeed the best if not the most part of that rich Province the ancient Inheritance of his Progenitors That which contributed much to his Success was the difference betwixt the new Daulphin and the old Duke of Burgundy The first as much disdaining that the other should have the Government of the King who was taken with a frenzy that made him incapable of Business as the other that he should have the Government of the Kingdom either thinking himself immediately concerned in the danger of the others Power neglected the Publick to abet their Private Factions The Queen Mother who could not be a Neuter took part with the Duke into whose hands she put the King purposely to curb the Daulphins pride that had most insolently seiz'd and detain'd her Jewels Plate and Money contesting for the Superiority without regard to him that put fair for subduing both But the noise of King Henry's unexpected Success in subduing almost all Normandy awaken'd them and now when 't was too late they reconcil'd to each other in hopes to drive back the English But finding that they had taken rooting in too many places to be suddenly over-turn'd the Duke of Burgundy proposes a Personal Treaty betwixt the two Kings whither came King Henry attended by his Brothers the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester his Cosin the Duke of Exeter his Uncle the Cardinal Beauford the Earls of March and Salisbury and a thousand Men at Arms being met by the Queen Regent and her Governour the Duke of Burgundy the Earl of St. Paul and several other Persons of the greatest Quality as well Ladies as Lords who were obliged to attend her Amongst the rest and therefore indeed did the rest come that they might be as Foyls to her appear'd the Princess Katherine design'd as it fell out after to conquer the Conqueror A Lady of that Perfection both of Body and Mind that had she not been the Daughter of a King she had yet been fit to be the Wife of one No sooner did King Henry look upon her but his Heart seem'd to melt within his Breast no Arms being proof against the Darts she shot yet his Wisdom had so much the better of his Affection that he conceal'd his Passion both from her and the Observation of the French Lords till the Duke of Burgundy trifling with him upon presumption of her Charms provok'd him to give a Reply more like an English then a French King and created such a Distast as broke off the present Treaty Happy had it been for that Duke if he had closed with him although his Enemy rather then agree as he did with his Friend the Daulphin who finding his turn serv'd by him in breaking off the Treaty having no further use of his Authority rewarded his Service with a Poniard which Butchery being perform'd in the view of all the Peers of France was look'd on like a piece of Justice rather then of Tyranny in respect the Duke himself had but a little before caus'd Lewis Duke of Orleance to be taken off in the like barbarous manner Successor to this slain Duke both in his Estate and Authority was his Son Philip Earl of Carolois a Politick Prince and Temperate who finding it would be an unequal Contest between him and the Daulphin if he should avowedly indeavour to revenge his Fathers blood wisely promoted Overtures of Peace betwixt the two Crowns in order to the doing that Execution by another Hand which his own was too weak to perform Ambassadours were thereupon sent to King Henry who having been all this while a Martyr to Love was no longer able to indure the Flames within his Breast but giving it vent told the Ambassadours he would not credit their Propositions unless the Lady Katherine would joyn with them whose Innocency he knew would never abuse him Notice hereof being given to the Queen the Bishop of Arras was dispatch'd away to signifie to him that if he would come to
Troyes she should be there to be espoused to him and with her he should have the Assurance of the Crown of France after the Decease of her Father and to gain the more Credit the Bishop secretly deliver'd him a Letter from the Princess her own hand which contained in it so much sweetness as had been enough to have made any other man but himself have surfeited with Joy his happiness being now so full and compleat that he had nothing beyond what he enjoyed to hope for Upon his Marriage with her he was published Regent of the Kingdom and Heir apparent to the Crown the Articles being published in both Realms and the two Kings and all their Nobility Sworn to the observance of them only the Daulphin stood out in utter Defiance both of his Right and Power Against him therefore the two Kings his Father and Brother together with the King of Scots who was newly arrived the young Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Orange the Dukes of Clarence Gloucester and Bedford and twenty one Earls forty five Barons and Knights and Esquires sans nombre advanc'd with an Army of French English Scotch and Irish to the number of six hundred thousand if the Historians of that time may be credited and having taken in all the Towns and Places that denied to yield they return'd to Paris where King Henry the Articles being ratified the second time and a Counterpart sent into England began to exercise his Regency by Coyning of Money with the Arms of England and France on it placing and displacing of Officers making new Laws and Edicts and lastly awarding Process against the Daulphin to appear at the Marble Table to answer for the Murther of the Duke of Burgundy But being willing to shew his Queen how great a King he was before she brought him that Kingdom he left his Brother Clarence his Lieutenant General there and brought her over into England where he spent some time in the Administration of Justice and performing such Acts of Peace as spoke him no less expert in the knowledge of governing then in that of getting a Kingdom But he had not been long here before he received the sad News of the death of his Brother Clarence who betrayed by the Duke of Alansons Contrivance into an Ambuscade was slain together with the Earls of Tankervile Somerset Suffolk and Perch and about two thousand Common Souldiers whereupon he deputed the Earl of Mortaine in his room and not long after went back again himself with his Brother Bedford to reinforce the War taking in all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lovaine Bry and Champagne during which time the Daulphin was not idle but industrious to regain Fortunes savour if it were possible made many bold Attempts upon several places in possession of the English But finding the Genius of our Nation to have the Predominancy over that of his own he diverted his Fury upon the Duke of Burgundy betwixt whom and King Henry he put this difference That as he dreaded the one so he hated the other Accordingly he laid Seige to Cosney a Place not very considerable in it self but as it was a Town of the Duke of Burgundy's King Henry was so concern'd to relieve it beyond any of his own that he marched Night and Day to get up to the Enemy and making over-hasty Journeys over-heat himself with unusual Travel and fell so sick that he was fain to rest himself at Senlis and trust to the Care of his Brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute the Design who relieved the Town and forced the Daulphin to retreat as he thought a great Looser by the Seige but it prov'd quite otherwise For the loss of the Town was nothing in comparison of the loss of King Henry who died not long after and which made his Death the more deplorable was That he no sooner left the World but Fortune left the English whereof having some Prophetick Revelation 't is thought the knowledge thereof might not be the least reason of shortning his Dayes by adding to the violence of his Distemper For 't is credibly reported that at the News of the Birth of his Son Henry born at Windsor himself being then in France even wearied with continual Victories he cryed out in a Prophetick Rapture Good Lord Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reign and get much and Henry of Windsor shall long time Reign and lose all but Gods will be done Which saying has given occasion to some to magnifie his Memory above all the Kings that were before him not to say all that came after him in that he was in some sense both King Priest and Prophet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE A Prince of excellent Parts in their kind though not of kindly Parts for a Prince being such as were neither sit for the Warlike Age he was born in nor agreeable to the Glory he was born to but such rather as better became a Priest then a Prince So that the Title which was sometimes given to his Father with relation to his Piety might better have been applyed to the Son with reference to his that he was the Prince of Priests Herein only was the difference betwixt them That the Religion of the one made him bold as a Lion that of the other made him as meek as a Lamb. A temper neither happy for the times nor himself for had he had less Phlegme and more Cholar less of the Dove-like Innocence and more of the Serpentine subtilty 't is probable he had not only been happier whilst he liv'd but more respected after he was dead whereas now notwithstanding all his Indulgence to the Church and Church-men there was none of them so grateful as to give him after he was murther'd Christian Burial but left him to be interr'd without Priest or Prayer without Torch or Taper Mass or Mourner indeed so without any regard to his Person and Pre-eminence that if his Obsequies were any whit better then that which holy Writ calls the Burial of an Ass yet were they such that his very Competitor Edward the Fourth who denied him the Rights of Majesty living thought him too much wronged being dead that to him some kind of satisfaction he was himself at the charge of building him a Monument The beginning of his Reign which every Body expected to have been the worst and like to prove the most unsuccessful part in respect of his Minority being but Nine Months old when he was crown'd happen'd to be the best and most prosperous there being a plentiful stock of brave men left to spend upon who behaved themselves so uprightly and carefully that it appear'd the Trust repos'd in them by the Father had made a strong Impression of Love and Loyalty to the Son The Duke of Bedford had the Regency of France the Duke of Gloucester the Government of England the Duke of Exeter and the Cardinal Beauford had the Charge of his
next Parliament declared Protector only and so moderate as to permit his two great Supporters the Earl of Salisbury then Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Warwick Captain of Callice to share with him for a while in the power who making up a kind of Triumvirate for the time being placed and displaced whom they pleased Upon which the King foreseeing the evil Consequences was moved with a condescention beneath his Majesty to offer an Accommodation which not taking effect both sides prepared to begin the War afresh which ended not with themselves The principal Persons for Quality Power and Interest that stuck to the King were the young Duke of Somerset the Dukes of Exeter and Buckingham the Earls of Oxford Northumberland Shrewsbury Pembroke Ormond and Wiltshire the Lords Clifford Gray Egremount Dacres Beaumont Scales Awdley Wells c. who having muster'd all the Forces they could make incamped near Northampton Thither came the Earl of March Son and Heir to the Duke of York his Father being then in Ireland to give them Battel assisted by the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Warwick Salisbury Huntington Devon Essex Kent Lincoln c. all men of great Name and Power with whom were the Lords Faulconbridge Scroop Stamford Stanley c. and so fierce was the Encounter betwixt them that in less then two hours above ten thousand men lost their Lives amongst whom the principal on the Kings side were the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lords Egremount and Beaumont the unfortunate King being made Prisoner the second time who by the Earl of Warwick was conveighed to the Tower Upon which the Queen taking with her the Prince and the young Duke of Somerset fled The rumour of which Victory brought the Duke of York over who laying aside all disguises in the next Parliament call'd for that purpose pâ—aced himself on the Throne and with great Assurance laid open his claim to the Crown as Son and Heir to the Lady Anne Daughter and Heir to Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa sole Daughter and Heir of Lyonel Duke of Clarence third Son of Edward the Third and elder Brother to John of Gaunt Father of Henry the Fourth who was Grandfather to him that as he said now untruly stiled himself King by the Name of Henry the Sixth This though it was no feign'd Title but known to all the Lords yet such was their prudence that they left the King de facto to enjoy his Royalty during his Life and declar'd t'other only Heir apparent with this Caution for the Peace of the Kingdom That if King Henry 's Friends should attempt the disanulling of that that then the Duke should have the present Possession But this nothing daunted the Queen who having raised eighteen thousand men in Scotland resolv'd to urge Fortune once more and accordingly they met the Yorkists at Wakefield where to mock her with a present Victory Fortune gave her the Duke of York's Life who vainly had stil'd himself Protector of the Kingdom being not able it seems to protect himself but pity it was he could not save his innocent Son the Earl of Rutland a hopeful Youth of not above Twelve years old who being brought into the Army only to see fashions was inhumanly murther'd by the Lord Clifford kneeling upon his knees and begging for his life that angry Lord making him a Sacrifice as he said to appease the injured Ghost of his Father murther'd by t'others Father which Cruelty was fully and suddenly repaid by the Earl of March who in the Battel at Mortimer's Cross slew three thousand eight hundred of the Lancastrian Forces and having put the Earl of Ormond to slight cut off the head of Owen Tuthor who had married King Henry's Mother which it seems did not so weaken or dishearten them but that they recover'd themselves and took their full revenge at the Battel of Barnet-heath where the Queen was again Victorious But such was the activity of the Earl of March that before she could recover London he came up to her and passing by entred the City in Triumph before her whereby he had so far the Start in point of Opinion that he was forthwith elected King by the Name of Edward the Fourth leaving King Henry so much more miserable in that he lost not his Life with his Majesty But herein consisted his happiness That he was the only Prince perhaps of the World that never distinguish'd betwixt Adversity and Prosperity being so intent upon his Devotion as to think nothing Adversity that did not interrupt that Nature having rather fitted him for a Priest then a King and perhaps rather for a Sacrifice then a Priest that he might not otherwise dye then as a Martyr that had lived all his time so like a Confessor HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE The sudden end of these his Competitors gave K. Edward as sudden an end to all his Troubles though not to his Wars For having setled peace at home he was provok'd to take Revenge upon his Enemies abroad falling first upon the King of France after upon the King of Scots but they thinking themselves as unable to grapple with him as two Foxes with the Lion bought their Peace and avoided the ill Consequences of his Fury till Death the common Foe of Mankind made him turn another way forcing him to end the Race of his Fortune as he began it like the Great Augustus Caesar who at the same Age succeeded his slaughter'd Predecessor and by a like Fate was disappointed of his intended Successor HON · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE This was as much as Humane Policy could do but in vain doth he strive to preserve what Heaven had decreed to overthrow Having by his Will declar'd his ambitious Brother Gloucester Protector of both the Children he was resolv'd to let this act the part of King and no King no longer then till his Tyranny could support it self by its own Authority who having to do with the Mother a weak Woman for to her from whom they received their Lives was these helpless Princes to owe their Deaths he had that respect to her Frailty as to keep time with her slow pac'd fears in deferring his intended Paracide till she that was their Nurse thought it fit time to bring them to bed Unhappy Youths to whom the Tenderness of their Mother must prove no less fatal than the Cruelty of their Uncle Had she in the first place Insisted upon the keeping them herself as what fitter Guardian then their own Mother or had she not in the last place Rashly consented to the taking off that Guard which her Husband had so providently placed about them or had at least suffer'd the King to have continued for a while longer at that distance he was when his Father dyed where by his Education and Acquaintance he might have as well secured the Peoples Faith as he was secur'd by
better Neither was he less fortunate then forward in Peace as well as in War So that as upon the one side he look'd like Caesar or Augustus rather both of whom as they were armed with Lightning so their Pardons went ever before and after their Swords so on the other side he was not unlike those two famous Legislators Solon and Licurgus who principally regarding the People were yet so wise for themselves as with the publick safety to secure their own Authority for he was an excellent Judge of times and seasons and knew when to strain up the Laws to his Prerogative and when to let down his Prerogative to the Test of the Law And though 't was observ'd never any man lov'd his own way nor his own will better then he nor perhaps ever had so much Reason to do it being as another Solomon wiser then his Counsellors and yet they perhaps as well chose as ever any Kings Counsellors were yet we find he was sometimes content to part with both for the more orderly administration of Justice leaving the disposition of his Mint his Wars and his Martial Justice things of absolute power not to say the Concerns of his unsetled Title which was yet of higher and tenderer consideration to the wisdom of his Parliaments And least the thing called Propriety which is the same to the Subject as the Prerogative to Majesty should be thought to suffer in the least he gave himself the trouble of hearing many Causes at his Councel-board where sitting at the Fountain of Justice assisted by the most learn'd as well as the most reverend Professors of Law and Conscience it was not to be suppos'd that any Cause could lose any thing of its due weight and allowance yet it seems the Common Lawyers unwilling the determination of Meum and Tuum should go besides their own Courts traduc'd him with distrusting his Judges in matters of Common Right as the Souldiers complain'd of his not trusting his Generals in point of common Security And some there were who would have aggravated it to a Grievance however 't was apparent to be rather their own then the Peoples who are apter to complain of the chargeableness then the due Administration of the Laws But these Causes being for the most part heard in the Vacation time 't is possible he had in his Thoughts something beyond their reach with respect to the splendor of his Court and the profit of the City to which as he was alwayes a Friend so by this dispatch of Justice while there was no other Courts sitting he drew such a concourse of Clyents to Town as kept up a kind of Term all the Year round and so quickned Trade that by adding to theirs it increas'd his own Wealth to that degree that amongst other Reasons given of his neglecting the benefit of the Discovery of the Indies first offer'd to him by Columbus 't was not the least that he had no want of Money and having made himself a Member of the City that by the benefit of that Community he might find his account as well in their Chamber as his own Exchequer and prove as after he did the only Dragon that kept their Golden Fleece sharing with Solomon himself in those two great points of Glory to be reputed the wisest and richest King of his time 't is no wonder he should by Works Immortal as he did make his way to Immortality leaving his Son Henry nothing to do but to inherit his envied Felicity HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Now as he began his Reign at the time when every thing begins to grow and blossom it being in the Spring of the Year as well as of his Age so the Season complying with his Constitution made it hard for him to resist the heat of his blood yet we do not find that he ingaged in any War abroad till he had secured Peace at home making his Justice as renown'd amongst his People by revenging their wrongs as he made his power afterward when he came to revenge his own executing Empson and Dudley as a terrour to all Promoters to shew he did not esteem them faithful Servants to his Father that had so betraid their Country Which Act of Justice being clos'd with another of Universal Grace in restraining his Prerogative to inlarge the Subjects Confidence and Affection made him so clear a Conquest over all Discontents arising by the Oppression of his Predecessor that having nothing more to do at home he bethought himself of what was to be done abroad Providence offering him a Projection suitable to the greatness of his mind to render the esteem of his Piety no less famous then that of his Justice by undertaking to rescue the Pope out of the hands of the King of France as a Dove deliver'd out of the Talons of a Vulture who having already drove him to Covert as we say that is besieged him in his City of Bononia and having his Confederates the Emperour and King of Spain ready at hand to make a retreive doubted not but to devour him in a very short time This as it was a Design of Super-errogating Merit so it carried in it no less of Advantage then Glory giving him a fit occasion to shew at once his Zeal and Power and in serving him to serve himself upon him in the promotion of his Title to France it being no small addition of Credit to his Claim that his Hoâ—iness as an Earnest of his Spiritual Benediction had bestowed upon his Majesty the forfeited Stile of Christianissimus However before he would move himself in Person out of England he thought it necessary to prevent any Motion of the King of Scots into England who he knew would be ready to bruise his Heel as soon as he advanced to break the Serpents Head and accordingly he got not only a confirmation of that Excommunication which Julius the Second had formerly granted against the said Scotch King in case he broke his League with him the Curse whereof followed him to his Grave for violating his Faith he died in the attempt but obtain'd a plenary Indulgence for all that should assist him Thus arm'd as it were with the Sword of God and Gideon he entred that goodly Kingdom and long it was not ere he got the Maiden-head of that Virgin City Tournay who having repuls'd Caesar had the Testimony of her Pucillage written upon its Gates as the only Town had kept her self unconquer'd from that time but now was forced to yield to him by the Name and Title of Roy tres Christien as appears by the Original Contract yet extaâ—t The same day he receiv'd the News of the †James the Fourth slain in Flodden-field Scotch Kings death who attempting as I said before to divert the War lost his Life and 't was happy he lost not his Kingdom too a Victory so seasonable and super-successful that Fortune as enamor'd of him seem'd to prostitute her self
Conclusion from so bad a Beginning by making way for some Protestant Lady of that Country that might advance the Reformation begun by him there he vext the Question a long while and finding that the Pope over-aw'd by the Emperour durst not consent to a Divorce he to scandalize him the more set forth by many learned Arguments the unlawfulness of the Marriage and so nettled King Henry that the Pope doubting the effects of his Impatience propos'd by way of Expedient though but faintly to Gregory Cassalis the English Resident then at Rome that he would permit him ut aliam duceret Uxorem which in plain English was That if the King pleased he would allow him to have two Wives at once Now whether it were that the King doubted his power and thought he could not make good what he promised for that he could not make that Marriage out which he had already to be either lawful or unlawful so as to relieve him or dismiss it Or whether he had as is more probable a clear Sentiment of the Popes slight Opinion of him in making so unusual not to say unlawful a Proposal to him is not certain but certain it is he never forgave the Affront till by vertue of his own proper power he had divorced himself from his Authority which the Cardinal labouring to uphold by his Legatine power out of hope of being himself Pope nor only lost himself in the attempt but drew all he Clergy who took part with him into a Premunire Of whose Error his wise Servant Cromwel took the advantage making his Masters fall the occasion of his own rising by whom the thoroughly humbled Convocation weâ—e perswaded to petition the King for their pardon under the Title and Stile of Ecclesiae Cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput which rais'd a greater dispute upon the Supremacy not long after then was before upon the point of Divorce For the Bishop of Rochester who by reason of his great learning and sanctity of Life was a leading man refusing to subscribe the aforesaid Petition unless some words might be added by way of explanation of the Kings Supremacy Cromwel took the Defence thereof upon himself and by advice with Bishop Cranmer there were many Arguments brought to justifie the same both from the Authority of Kingship in general de Communi Jure by vertue of that Divine Law that has given the stile of a Royal Priesthood to all anointed Kings and to which by a parallel Case the Pope himself did not long after give more then a seeming allowance For Clement the Seventh at the interview of Marselles when he was urged by some that desired Reformation and prest for the liberty of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds by an Argument taken from the custome of the Kings of France who alwayes received both Elements he answered That it was a peculiar priviledge by which Kings were differenced from other men as being anointed with the Unction of Priesthood as likewise from the particular Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle de proprio Jure or by the Common Law of this Land which was of ancienter date then any Prescription made by the Pope having been ratified by the Sanction of several Acts of Parliament that had declar'd all Spiritual Jurisdiction to be inherent in the Crown This Doctrine of his wanted not its Use for the King had this immediate benefit of the Dispute to be restored to the Annates and First-fruits of the Bishopricks and now the Bond of his Holiness 's Authority being thus loosed one priviledge dropt out after another till at length they not only divested him of the profit but of the honour of his Fatherhood forbidding any to call him any more * Anciently written Pa. Pa. i. e. Pater Patriarcharum Papa or Pater for that there could be but one Lord and Father but only Bishop of Rome These Annates as they were some of the principal Flowers of the Triple Crown and could not well be pluck'd off without defacing the Sacred Tyara so the whole Conclave took such an alarm at the loss of them that apprehending no less then a total defection to follow they most peremptorily cited the King himself to appear at Rome under pain of Excommunication This was thought to be so unreasonable an Indignity offered to his Majesty in respect it was neither convenient for him to abandon his Kingdom by going so far in Person nor any way decent to trust the Secrets of his Conscience to a pragmatical Proctor that the Parliament who were conven'd to consider of the matter thought it but necessary to put a stop to all Appeals to be made out of the Realm under the penalty of Premunire and pray'd his Majesty without more ado to appoint a Court of Delegates here at home to determine the Cause Upon which the Marriage being not long after declared void Cromwell hastned on the Match with the Lady Anne Bulloigne but the Court of Rome judging the first Marriage good and the last void anathematiz'd all that were assistant in the Divorce and to shew how much they were incens'd by the precipitation of their Sentence they concluded it in one only which by the usual Form could not be finish'd in less then three Consistories This began that Fiery tryal which followed not long after wherein we may say his Holiness himself prov'd to be the very first Martyr dying immediately after the pronunciation of that great Curse as one blasted by the Lightning of his own Thunder whereby the Church Universal being without a Head The Reformists here took that opportunity to provide for their own by declaring the King Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England for the support of which Dignity they vested in the Crown the First-fruits of all Benefices as they had before of all Bishopricks Dignities and Offices whatever spiritual Setting forth in what manner Bishops Suffragans should be nominated and appointed and what their Priviledges and Authorities should be In defence of which their proceedings the King himself wrote an excellent Book or at least it pass'd for his De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem c. But there were many however and those of no small note who continued so obstinate in their Popish Principles that they could neither be moved by his Pen nor his Penalties to submit chusing rather to part with their Blood then their Blessing And whether they were real or mistaken Martyrs or not rather Sufferers then Martyrs I will not take upon me to say it being as hard for others to judge them as for themselves to judge the thing they died for Truth and Treason being in those dayes Qualities so like one another that they were scarcely to be discern'd as appears by the nice Cases of those two I think the most eminent persons of all that were so unhappy as to suffer for setting up the Papal above the Regal Authority the
Learned Bishop of Rochester and the Judicious Chancellor Sir Thomas Moore whose Contradiction could no way determine the Point though it was the occasion of determining their Lives their Cases being made worse by the same way they thought to have made their Causes better The first being found Guilty of saying too much for himself t'other of saying too little The Bishop desiring to add to his Oath those words by way of Explanation Quantum per Christi Legem liceret had this interpretation by the Lawyers upon his Interpretation that the addition amounted to a flat denial and depriving the King of his Title and Dignity within the Statute of 26. being in effect that per Christi Legem non liceret The wise Chancellor admonish'd as he thought sufficiently by the Bishops error to avoid the danger of any Interpretation ran into a worse for answering nothing when the Kings Councel ask'd his Opinion of the Supremacy his Silence was interpreted Misprision of Treason within the Statute aforesaid for that as the Indictment run Malitiosè Silebat Paul the third being in the Chair at the time when these two eminent men suffered hearing the King had seal'd his new Title in Blood thought it in vain to expect longer his Return to the Apostolick Obedience as he call'd it and therefore peremptorily summon'd him by a terrible Bull to appear within Ninety dayes and make his submission otherwise he and all that assisted him should be given up to utter Damnation as judged Hereticks The King depriv'd of his Realm the Realm depriv'd of his Benediction all the Issue by the last Match declar'd Illegitimate all Ties of Allegiance discharged all Commerce with other States forbidden the Leagues made by other Princes with him nullified the Nobility commanded to take up Arms against him and the Clergy to depart the Kingdom Now because this last seem'd to be the greatest Menace at least the Pope would have it thought so both in respect of his power over them and theirs over the Conscience the King took the first advantage of it and sent away many of them against their wills dissolving no less then Six hundred forty five of their Societies which much forwarded his Designs with the Confederate Princes of Germany whose Friendship now he seem'd to have some need of they believing by this he would wholly renounce all Papistry to which his late Queen was highly disaffected and against which his great Minister Cromwell was deeply ingaged and from which himself was sufficiently discharged by the Popes declaring him as he did a Heretick for now could he be no further bound to Paul the Third then his Ancestor Henry the Second was to Alexander the Third the first Pope that was ever acknowledged here to whom he made only a Conditional Oath Quod ab Alexandro summo Pontifice ab Catholicis ejus Successoribus non recederet quamdiu ipsum sicut Regem Catholicum habuerint Gern Dowbern Col. 1422. 18. then thereupon dispatch'd an Ambassador to him to desire him to accept the Title of Patron and Defender of their League But the News of Queen Anne's Execution which for the suddenness and severity of it not to say any thing of the Injustice because some were of Opinion that the least Cause of Jealousie in Queens is equivalent to guilt in private Women begat such an abhorrence of his dire Inconstancy for she was flourishing accused condemned beheaded and another placed in her room at Bed and Board and all within a Months space that they fell off again from the Treaty they had entertain'd almost as soon as they began it believing it a Scandal to their Cause as some of them said to need the protection of the Devil However the great Ministers here gave it out that the Discrepancy of Interest was the only cause of the Breach they requiring Money of him without being able to answer the Reciproc on their part But the true State-Reason was that some of the wiser sort conceiv'd they could not safely admit his Supremacy for fear they should be oblig'd by the same rule to set up a Title for their own Soveraign the Emperor in his Dominions which would be more inconvenient then to leave it where it was in the Pope who being at further distance could not so easily reach them But long it was not ere the unexpected cause of that Innocent Queens sufferings was made manifest by the unexpected Labour of Queen Jane her Successor who made so good speed to bring the King a Son and Heir which was the thing he desired above all things in the World that being married on the Twentieth of May she fell in Labour the Twelfth of October following But Providence that had decreed she should only Conceive but not bring forth to signalize the Revenge of Queen Anne's Death by that of hers put it into the Kings heart to turn himself Man-Midwife rather then lose the hopes of a Kingdom who accordingly commanded the Child to be rip'd untimely out of her Womb an act of great horrour and so much more unwillingly perform'd for that he was unprovided of another Wife for the present In this Condition Bishop Gardner found him at his Return out of Germany who putting him out of all hopes of any Closure with the Protestant Princes unless he would come under the Standard of their Faith and allow of the Augustan Confession easily perswaded him to purge himself of the scandal of Heresie by shewing the World he had only shook off the Pope but not the Religion Here the Scene chang'd again and the first thing appear'd was that bloody Statute containing the Six Articles which being discharg'd as a Murthering Piece amongst the new Reformists cut off most of those who stood in its way the Report whereof was so loud and terrible that the two great Prelates Latimer Bishop of Worcester and Shaxston Bishop of Salisbury were frightned out of their Bishopricks who not being willing to have any hand in the approbation or execution of them suffer'd as patiently under his Title of Defender of the Faith as the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore had before under that of his Supremacy And now Conscience being revolted from its ancient way of resolving Doubts to an abrupt Decision of the Common Law that did not instruct but force the Offender◠'t is not so much a wonder how so many came to suffer death under his Reign as how so many surviv'd it all Papists being in danger to be hang'd and all Anti-papists to be burn'd Yet in this great Storm Cromwell behav'd himself like a wise Pilot who finding he could not prevent the running of the Vessel in a contrary Course to his mind thought it enough that he kept it from being quite over-set and accordingly with great dexterity he brought on the Treaty once more with the Confederate Princes who were it seems alarum'd by the Counter-League which the Roman Catholicks set up under the Title of The Holy League the
to the Dutchess Dowager of Suffolk before the Lady Jane her Daughter in case the right of Inheritance was set up The other was that of the two next Heirs Females in case the right of Immediate Succession should take place There was a third also but he thought it not worth the consideration being so far off to wit the Title of the Queen of Scots from the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh which being in the French seem'd to be of less weight then if it had been in the Scots to neither of whom he believ'd the English would ever be brought to submit but all these Difficulties were quickly digested in his ambitious Thoughts The first which was the pretention of the Lady Jane's Mother he hop'd to set aside by introducing her as the next Successor and not as the next Heir by right of Descent and because the Kings Sisters were before her in the Succession so that nothing could be available to set aside their Right but a plain Disseisure he made use of the Interest of the one as a Wedge to drive out the other And finding that the King their Brother by the Equity of a Law made in his Fathers time had the power to nominate who he thought fit to come after him he made it his great business to work upon his weakness and to perswade him to set both aside and admit the Lady Jane taking his first Argument from his Piety and Care of the Church under the present establishment made by himself shewing him what danger 't was like to be in if so obstinate a Papist as his Sister Mary succeeded who having been convict before all the Lords of the Councel had most passionately justified her Popish Principles saying She would never change her Faith much less dissemble it Urging thereupon that Gods Glory ought to be dearer to him then his own Flesh and Blood that this was his last and greatest Act of which he knew not how soon he might be call'd to give an Accompt to the King of Kings and therefore desired him for Gods sake as well as for the Kingdoms and his own sake not to let her take place Then for the Lady Elizabeth whom he could not deny to be a Protestant he said if she should be prefer'd before her elder Sister it might possibly give an occasion to unconceivable Troubles and revive the Disputes about their Legitimacy which had cost too much blood already besides the hazard that would be of the Churches no less then their own Peace and the possibility of bringing the whole Nation under the Yoke of some stranger Prince to whose Tyranny the People would never submit concluding that as the three Daughters of the Duke of Suffolk were nearest in Blood and being married took off all fears of introducing Forreigners so having with their Natural suck'd in the Sincere Milk of the Word they could not but maintain the Truth of the Reformed Religion as well as the Dignity of the Succession with universal good liking And whereas the eldest of them to wit the Lady Jane before mention'd was his own Sons Wife he could be content they should both be bound by Oath to perform whatever his Majesty should Decree for that he had no such regard to his own as to the general good Which plausible pretences so prevaiâ—'d over the weak King whose Zeal had eaten up his Understanding that he made his Will and accordingly excluded both his own Sisters to let in the other After doing of which weak act having nothing more to do but to dye 't is thought the Duke was so grateful as to contribute much to the delivering him out of his pains as soon as might be and with as much ease for he slept away with that meekness that those that could not find in their hearts to pray for him living perform'd that Charity to him when he was dead However some there were who sower'd with a Religious Leaven took occasion to raise as great a scandal on the untimeliness of his death as others had before upon that of his Birth putting this remark upon it to make it look like a Judgment that it was in the same Moneth and in the very same day of the same Moneth that Sir Tho Moor was put to death by his Father Wherein whilst they maliciously reflected upon the Evil that was past they consider'd not how like another Josiah he was taken from the Evil to come departing with this Justification before Men and Angels That he had done as much as could be reasonably expected from the tenderness of his Years or his Power HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE And now it appear'd how ominous it was for the Innocent Lady Jane to have been brought as she was in state to the Tower But as she offer'd Violence to her own Inclinations out of Obedience to those of her Father and Mother so the assumption of that temporary was in order to the intituling her to a more lasting Glory being taught the vanity of all humane Greatness by the brevity of that of her own which lasted not so long as 't is reported a Dream of one did but a little before for there is a Story of one Foxley a Pot-maker to the Mint in Henry the Eight's time that slept fourteen dayes together and no body could wake him no not with pinching or burning whereas she came to her self in less then ten dayes and then poor Lady found herself where he was too in the Tower ready to be translated as after she was from a Kingdom to a Scaffold and from the Scaffold to a Kingdom again Happy had it been for her if it had prov'd a Dream only suffering not so much for any Crime of her own Ambition as for not resisting that of others having this aggravation of her affliction to see her Husband and the Duke his Father executed before her who both died for the same Fault but not with the same Faith that she did The Duke that had therefore importun'd King Edward to give her this fatal honour to the intent Popery might be utterly abolish'd declaring when he came to suffer that he himself was a Roman Catholick which most think he had not done had not some Promises of Life upon condition of turning deceiv'd him at the very instant time of his Death whereby Queen Mary was quit with him at the last though she could not deal with him in the first place For as he was reputed to have had no Faith whilst he lived so by this abrupt Apostacy he was judg'd to have no Religion when he dyed There is this further Remark upon him That as he suffer'd under the same Fate and upon the very same Block the late Duke of Somerset did so 't was his hap to be laid under the same Stone in the same Grave where they now lye side by side as good Friends that living were unreconcilable Enemies Two headless Dukes betwixt two
Countries having given him the Kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem before of the first of which the Pope either envying or fearing the Emperour's Greatness had made the French King some Assurance purposely to ingage him thereby in a War that might weaken them both Great Preparations were made by either Party to secure themselves both with Arms and Alliances the Emperor leaving all his Dominions on this side to his Son whilst himself retires into Spain to alarm the French on the other side and by his Vicinity to Italy whose petty Princes he suspected not to be firm to his Interest makes himself as terrible to his Neighbours as his Enemies But whilst this great design was in Prospect only King Philip was suddenly called home by a Brute that his Queen was with Child the Joy whereof was so universal that it is strange to tell how much it transported the whole Kingdom raising them by the hopes of a young Prince to a degree of seeming Infatuation for they not only mock'd God Almighty in the Church with causeless Thanksgivings but troubled the King and Queen every hour in Court withâ—s groundless Petitions for Places of Attendance on the unborn Child and so far did the Delirium prevail to delude even the Parliament themselves with extravagant apprehensions of their future happiness by the enjoyment of such a Prince who however he were like to be Lord of the greatest part of Christendom would yet in all probability make England the Seat of his Empire that they humbly besought the King in case the Queen should dye in Travel that he would be pleas'd to take upon him the rule and government of the Child and Kingdome such ado have great Princes to be born as well as to dye in quiet But this mistaken Embryo proving at length to be nothing else but a Mis-conception whereof she could not be delivered so as to make way for any better Conception turning to such a fleshy inform Substance as Physitians call a Mole and we vulgarly English a Moon-Calf it put King Philip so ouâ— of Countenance that he tarried not a Month here after her time of Reckoning was our but passing into Flanders put it out of his head since he could not put it out of her belly by beginning a War with France whereto he had a good ground upon the account of the Five years Truce being broken that had been made but a little before The Queen to requite him for her late Miscarriage broke with her People and resolving not to stand Neuter whilst her Husband was ingaged found occasion to make the French Aggressors upon the Crown of England Whereupon the Earl of Pembroke was sent over with Ten thousand Horse and Four thousand Foot who joyning with the Kings Forces which were Thirty five thousand Foot and Twelve thousand Horse before they came they all of them sate down before St Quintins a Town of great importance which the French in vain indeavouring to succour lost Twenty five thousand upon the place Amongst whom were divers of the greatest Quality as John of Bourbon Duke of Anguin the Dukes of Monpensier and Longevile the Viscount Turein c. the Lord Chadenier the Mareschal St. Andrew the Rhinegrave the Constable Mount Morency and his Son Brother to Count Lodowick Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantova the Admiral Coligny and his Brother with divers other Lords of no less eminence who being all taken with the Town made it look like the beginning of a War which every Body judged could not end till the Rupture reach'd to the middle of France The report of this Victory gave great matter of rejoycing to every Body but most especially to the Queen her self yet could it not divert that Melancholy occasioned by the conceit of her Misconception which brought her into a Distemper that not long after kill'd her by her Physicians mistaking her Malady who giving her improper Medicines without regard to the over-cooling of her Liver which it seems is the mischief attends those Moles found not their error till she was so far gone into that desperate kind of Dropsie which they call Ascites that there was no help for her now That which added to her Distemper was an over-nice resentment of the Popes displeasure who offended at her breach with the French punish'd her as Princes use to be by whipping their Favourites with taking away the Legatine Power from her beloved Minister Cardinal Pool to whom as she had ever a great regard so she opin'd that the disgrace put upon a Man of so great Authority and Credit who had been so active in the Conversion of the Nation would as indeed it did not only reflect something on her honour but hazard much the reputation of the Catholick Cause whiles the Roman Religion was not so fully establish'd as she design'd it should and the Enemies of the Church no less dangerous to that of her State This gave her great trouble of Mind and that trouble being heightened by the absence of her beloved Husband brought her into a burning Feaver that foretold a death that might have proved a living one had it not been hastned by the news of the revolt of Calais which being lost in less then six dayes time after it had continued English above Two hundred years came so near her heart that drying up all her Blood brought her under such a fix'd sadness as left her not till she left the World Now to say truth she had great reason to resent the loss for as it was the only Key left to let her into France so it was no small over-sight to hang it by her side with so slender a String as she did there being not above Five hundred Souldiers in it when it was attach'd which were much too few to defend a place of that Importance where there was a kind of necessity to keep the Gates alwayes open HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Christ was the Word that spake it He took the Bread and brake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it Which however it seem'd an obscure and uncertain Solution so baffled all her Adversaries that the Priests themselves who hop'd with like Success to have soil'd her as the First Temptor did the First Woman upon the First great Question of Take and Eat found themselves left in the dark to grope after her meaning as well as they could whilst she shut her self up from further Pressures within the Closet of her own private Sense But as Wisdom is perhaps the only Vertue that is distrustful of it self so to shew how little Confidence she had in the strength of her own Abilities she made it her first business to fortifie her self with able Counsellors In the choice of whom her Affections gave place to her Judgment as her Fears to her Foresight admitting divers of her Sisters great Ministers who having been privy to all the Secrets of State were like sharp
derive themselves from a Monster by the Fathers side and from a Gipsy on the Mothers side But the name of Scot bearing the same signification with Gayothel we may more reasonably conclude it was first given them by the Saxons either for the reason aforesaid as the word (m) Scot illud dictum quod ex diversis rebus in unum Acervum aggregatum est Camb. ex M. Westm Scot like the word Alman with them signifi'd a Body aggregated out of many Particulars into one or else by contraction of the word Attacot for the High landers making their way into the Borders of the Low-lands inhabited by the Picts who were the ancient Britains beat out by the Romans the Picts thereupon remov'd into the West and left the East part of the Country intire to them who sithence which was near about Aurelian's time or a little after made themselves known to the Romans by the Name before mentioned of Attacots The Picts and they made War upon each other for a long time mov'd by want as other Nations by wantonness for the great Commodity they fought for was Bread the want whereof brought them to accord a Cessation of Arms every Season during Seed-time but the Corn being in ground they fought on till Harvest following after which every Victor was known by his Garland of several sorts of Grain as the Roman Conquerors by theirs of several sorts of Boughs But when the Roman Empire began to decline both of them united in one hope of recovering that part of the Isle which is since call'd England And after the Romans totally quit it they press'd so hard upon Vortigern the then Titular King that he was forc'd the Romans having deny'd him further assistance to call in the Saxons to his aid who finding them then call'd by the Name of Attacots after their usual manner of abbreviation they term'd them Scots The first of all their Kings at least the first worthy that Title that broke over the great Clausura or Mound then call'd the * By the Romans nam'd the Picts-Wall Wiath was one Fergus Sirnam'd the Fierce a Prince descended from the ancient Kings of Ireland for I take the first Fergus and his One hundred thirty seven Successors to be at too great a distance to have their height truly taken who not induring that his Territories should be bounded when his Ambition could not that broke in like a Land-flood and over-run all the adjacent Countries making his Name so terrible that the Romans themselves imputing that to his Fortune which any other Nation would have ascrib'd to his Fortitude made an honourable retreat and left the poor Britains to defend themselves who doubtless had been over-run by him had not the Picts emulous of his Glory interrupted his Successes by whose vicinity both he and his Successors were so much streightned that they could not much inlarge their Territories till the Reign of Keneth the First a wise Prince who reducing that Kingdom under him not so much by Puissance as Policy made that the middle which was before but the bounds of his Dominions deserving therefore to be esteem'd tanquam alter Conditor About Sixty years after him another of the same Name tenth in descent from him rais'd the Throne a step higher having got as great a Conquest over the People as the other did over the Picts by turning the Optimacy into a direct Monarchy for he made the Succession Hereditary that till then was but Elective The fittest and ablest saith Buchanan being till that time prefer'd before the nearest or noblest since which time the eldest Son of the King of Scots hath been alwayes stil'd the Prince of Scots This King however gain'd not so much upon the Nobility in point of Majesty but that they gain'd much more upon his Successors in point of Power so that their Superiority was scarce so distinguishable for a long time from a bare Precedency but that they might rather be call'd Regnantes than Reges so long as the Thanage lasted who being a kind of Palatines exercis'd an absolute Power over their particuâ—ar Tenants and Vassals cum Jure Furci Thus they continued as it were under their good behaviour absolute Princes but bounded with many Restrictions till the time of James the Fourth whose Predecessors having clear'd their Title from all Incumbrances by Competitors leaving him sole Heir of the Peoples Affections as well as of his Predecessors Glory he married the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter and at length Heir to our Henry the Seventh by which Match their Thistle being ingrafted into our Rose mended both its colour and smell And their Kings that had been a kind of Homagers to ours from the beginning almost of their Monarchy became as it were manumitted by the expectation of their Title Paramount and by the possibility of being Lords of the Imperial Crown of this Realm The primier Seizen of which happiness after the death of Queen Elizabeth without Issue was in James the Sixth who Sirnam'd himself the Peaceable to let the World know he came not in by Conquest but Consent having this honour above all that were before him and probably beyond what any shall have that come after him his way was made before him not by any humane power but by Divine Providence long since reveal'd by a written Prophesie ingraved though not understood in that fatal Stone which is plac'd within the Regal Chair where the Kings of Scots anciently and ours since have been crown'd brought by them out of Ireland in the first place and by our King Edward the First translated hither afterwards whose words now they are fulfill'd seem plain enough Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem This by the Ancients was call'd Saxum Jacobi as for that as Tradition had deliver'd it they believ'd this to be the Stone on which the Patriarch Jacob rested his Head But we of later times have found it to be Saxum Jacobi with relation to him who was to take up his rest here who being by a Decree from Heaven declared Head of this Nation may not improperly be call'd our Patriarch Jacob the first King of that People that ever was crown'd in this Kingdom by whom the Scots may be said to Reign here according to another Prophesie as ancient as the former recorded by Higden in his Polichronicon and evidently fulfilled at his coming in when he transplanted so many of his Country-men into our fat Soil that they grew up like Weeds to that degree of rankness as in the Age folâ—owing to choke the best Flowers in our Garden and taking advantage of us when we were drunk with Prosperity brought us like drunken men to quarrel one with another for what since we came to our selves we cannot find or are at least asham'd to tell having by the corrupted Principles we first received from them ingaged our selves in so groundless a War that after Ages will not believe
time they agniz'd his Right they admitted a Protestation for saving the Right of another James to wit the Duke of Chasteau Herauld who it seems had some Pretensions in Right of his Great-Grandmother the Daughter and Heir of James the Second So that this was as yet but to make him a King in Name and shew whilst he must continue under the Pupilage of Ambitious Regents that design'd rather to give Laws to him then advise him how to give Laws to others 'T is true whilst he was under the care of those two Patriots of known Honour and Loyalty his Grandfather Matthew Earl of Lenox and the old Earl of Marre the one his Governour by the right of Nature t'other by that of Custom he had some Satisfaction though no Security for how could they be able to protect him that were not able to defend themselves the first of them being murther'd the last heart-broke by the insupportable Troubles he met with in his short breath'd Regency But how melancholy a life he lead under his next Regent the Earl of Morton who under pretence of keeping all Papists and Factious Persons from him suffer'd him to see almost no body appears by that strict Order of his by which every Earl was forbid to approach his Presence with any more then two attending him every Baron with any above one and all of lesser Quality were not to come but single Upon this 't is true the offended Nobility to affront Morton declar'd him Major and made some shew of leaving him to his own dispose but in respect he was but twelve years old they thought fit to appoint him eleven Lords more to be assistant in Councel to him three and three by turns which in effect was to put twelve Regents over him instead of one which was design'd by some that intended their own advancement more then his Thus he suffer'd during the Nonage of his years How he suffer'd further during the Nonage of his Power will appear in the Sequel For Morton notwithstanding the Prescript Form of Government drew to himself being one of the twelve the Administration of all Affairs and keeping the Power still within his own hands as the King within his own Power admitted none to see or speak with him but whom he thought fit whereby he was now brought to loose his Liberty wholly because t'other had loss his Authority in part only This Tyranny held till the Lords headed by the Earl of Athole freed him by force of Arms After which believing himself clearly manumitted out of his Pupillage to shew himself accountable to none but himself he began to single out such Friends for his Confidents as by nearness of Blood or the nobleness of their Natures he judg'd most worthy to be trusted Two there were above the rest on whom he seem'd to cast a disproportionate Grace these were Esme Lord Aubigny Grandson of the Lord John Stuart his Grandfathers younger Brother whom he created first Earl and after Duke of Lenox and Charles Earl of Arran who being a Hamilton was his near Kinsman too but both of them being suspected to be of the French Faction it gave fresh occasion of offence to the chief of the Factions there and no less umbrage to the jealous Queen here who knew the former of the two to be much honoured by the Guises This new conceiv'd Envy heightned the old Rancor of the mutinous Nobility and made them have recourse to the same Remedy for prevention of the same Mischief as before whereunto there being a fair opportunity given by the absence of these Lords the one being in a Journey t'other at Edenburgh the Earl of Gowry with whom confederated the young Earl of Marre and the Earl of Lindsey finding the King alone at St. Johnstons invited him over to his Castle of Reuthen As soon as they had him there they made him Prisoner and accusing the two Lords as Enemies to the Protestant Religion having first put all his trusty Servants from him they forc'd him by an Instrument under his Hand and Seal to banish the Lord Aubigny and to imprison the Lord Arran and which was yet more insupportable compell'd him to approve all that they did by Letters to Queen Elizabeth But it was not long ere the death of the Duke of Lenox in France who 't is said however dyed a Protestant made the Conspirators so secure in the possession of him that he found the means to make his escape from them And recovering himself now the second time as one that once more became Lord of himself he recall'd his trusty Councellor the Lord Arran by whose advice he was guided in all his Concerns This so provoked Gowry beyond all patience that in defiance of all Reason as well as of all Right he made a second attempt upon him But as those who are fore-warn'd are fore-arm'd so the King having an eye upon him defeated his purpose and made him what he should himself have been made by him a Prisoner at Mercy whilst his Complices escap'd into England to seek Protection from Q. Elizabeth Who hoping to have prevented Gowry's Sentence dispatch'd away her Secretary Walsingham to the King to admonish him to take heed how he was led away by evil Counsellors and to shew him how difficult a thing it was to distinguish betwixt good and bad Counsel at his Age being then but eighteen years old to which the King return'd a sudden not to say a sharp Answer That he was an absolute Prince and would not that others should appoint him Counsellors whom he liked not Wherewith the testy Queen was so offended that she set her Terriers upon Incouraging the factious Ministry whereof there was good store there and those fit Tools for her purpose to say those things which became not her to own who clamoring upon his Government and raising many slanders upon Himself and Councel tending to the making them Popishly affected were thereupon cited to Answer for their Seditious Practises But they refused to appear avowing that the Pulpit was exempt from all Regal Authority and that no Ecclesiastical Persons were accomptible for what they preach'd to any but to God and their Consistory In the mean time the Queen follow'd the blow and furnishing the proscrib'd Lords with Money secretly dismiss'd them home Who as soon as they return'd upon the Credit of declaring for the Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel for freeing the King from evil Counsellors and maintaining Amity with the Protestant Interest of England rais'd Eight thousand men in an Instant with whom they marched up directly to Court and so far surpriz'd the King that he was forced to render himself to them and to ingage to give up to their Mercy all their Adversaries and who they were was left to their own liberty to declare Next he was compell'd to put into their hands the four Keys of the Kingdom Dumbritton Edinburgh Tantallon and Sterling Castles After which Glames one of the principal Rebels was
others all men of good Families and of as good Education one would have thought it a soberer and deeper design then it proved to be Some think their intention was to have seiz'd on the Persons of the King and Queen and their Children and so to have made Conditions with him for the Kingdom in general and perhaps for themselves in particular being perswaded by some cunning Casuist amongst them That it could be no Treason being enter'd into before the King was Crown'd and Anointed And in case they could not bring the King to their terms 't was said they resolv'd to set up the Title of the Lady Arabella as the next presumptive Heir to the Crown being sole Daughter of Charles Earl of Lenox younger Brother to the Kings Grandfather whom the King when her Father dyed put besides that Title as by Custom of Scotland he might being a Donation during his Minority to give it to his Cosin Esme Lord Aubigny the Heir Male of the Lord John the other younger Brother Now that which gave colour to this unreasonable Conjecture of setting up this Lady was the particular respect Sir Walter Rawleigh profest to her but if his enmity to Spain had not been a more unpardonable sin then his amity with her the Charge Count Gundamore brought against him could not have been so much more pressing upon him then the Attorney Generals upon his Fellows to make his much Merit no less criminal then their much Guilt and which was more unlucky to render him a greater Sufferer by the Kings Mercy then divers of them were by his Justice who having freed him after Condemnation was prevail'd with by the Spaniard to condemn him after that freedom contrary to the opinion of divers learned Gown-men who held that his Majesties Pardon lay inclusively in that Commission he gave him afterward upon his setting out to Sea it being incongruous that he should have had the disposing of the lives of others who was not clearly Master of his own But herein those that were his particular Friends and Relations were not more surpriz'd then all the World beside For as they expected to have been indebted to his Sword for bringing home more Gold then would have paid the price of his forfeited Head so every Body eâ—se hoped to have been no less indebted to his Pen for finishing that most excellent Piece of his The History of the Old World which ended as untimely as himself by attempting a Discovery of The new One Now as this Plot seems to have been as dark as the place it self where it was first hatch'd so it was made yet darker by the wisdom of the King who kept the Cause unknown to the intent it might have no Seconds However some have concluded from the appointment of that Conference of Divines which hapned not long after at Hampton-Court that whatever Reasons of State topt the Plot Religion lay at the bottom of it which being at all times a sure foundation for any treasonable practices was at this time so much more seasonably pretended by how much the King being as yet a stranger and unsetled not knowing whom to suspect much less whom to trust would necessarily be dâ—stracted with various apprehensions and not think himself secure in the Glory of being Defender of the Kingdom till he appeared to be The True Defender of the Faith here in England as well as Defender of the True Faith for so run his Title in Scotland Neither were they deceiv'd that took this measure of his Zeal or Fears it being well known that he was as ambitious to shew the first as other Princes were careful to conceal the last Witness the pleasure he took in wrestling as I said before with Pope Pius the Fourth not as Jacob wrestled with the Angel to obtain his Blessing but as he contested with Esau to shew how little he regarded his Cursing After which he entred the List to grapple with that more dreadful Monster the Presbyter who professing to hate the pomp of Superstition disdain'd to give Obedience to any kind of Order in the Church being like the Chymara which the * Vid. Ovid. Metam lib. 6. Poets feign'd to have breath'd out fire having the head and breast of a Lyon a bold voracious Creature but very dull with the belly of a Goat and therefore much followed by the Female Sex and the tail of a Dragon to sting the Consciences of those that follow him and make them spiritually mad Betwixt him and the Pope finding Religion to be placed as his own Arms were betwixt the Lyon and the Unicorn who trampled under their feet his Beati Pacifici with as much scorn as they have since Diâ—u Mon Droit He thereupon deferr'd the matter no longer but calling before him the ablest of those that took upon them to oppose the Monarchy of the Church he resolv'd to preside himself in the Controversie betwixt them and the Bishops He that was the Prolocutor of the Non-conformists hapning to be a man worthy a better imployment then that Religious Drudgery they had ingaged him in was so modest notwithstanding it was his business to oppose all Formality as to offer nothing that was altogether void of Form beginning with a General Discourse of the Necessity of a thorow Reformation he brought the Desires of his dissatisfied Brethren under four Heads beseeching his Majesty that there might be 1. An establishment of true Doctrine in the Church as if that receiv'd from Christ and his Apostles had not been as yet sufficiently clear'd 2. That there might be a settlement of true and faithful Pastors meaning men of known simplicity and plainness and if not Fishermen as were the Apostles yet of any other Trade or Occupation 3. That there might be a sincere Administration in point of Government meaning that the Presbyter might he joyn'd in Commission with the Bishop as Calves-head and Bacon are better meat together then either of them alone that by his letting in as many at the back door as the Bishop did at the fore door great might be the multitude of Preachers 4. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to a more increase of Piety by lengthening the Prayers which as one of the Fraternity and doubtless a Taylor objected were like short shreds or ends of threds that were too quickly wrought off and spiritualizing them with some less intelligible Phrases to prevent praying by rote These Proposals of his being inforced by a not unlearned Discourse however more like an Orator then a Divine he concluded with sundry Objections 1. Against Confirmation as being altogether needless and unnecessary because it added nothing as he said to the Validity and Sufficiency of the Sacrament To which Answer was given That the Church held it no essential part of the Sacrament but judg'd it a thing most reasonabâ—e that Children who at their Baptism had made Profession of their Faith by others should so soon as they came to years of
when he was so seemingly lost by the help of the same Invisible Hand that after led his Son thorow many greater dangers and brought him home safe beyond all hope but stooping to this low Pitch to subject himself to those who had so much despis'd all Subjection they thought it a Complement to him to estimate him at so high a rate as that of their Arrears Had he cast himself upon the Parliament in the first place 't is possible by letting go his hold so unexpectedly as he did he might have given them the Fall when they were so hard tugging with him it being more then probable that the long abus'd People finding how he not only sought Peace but pursu'd it might have been mov'd to have indeavour'd his Restoration as tumultuously as they did his Dethronation restoring his Dignity as disorderly as they took it from him which how much the Hogen Mogens of Westminster dreaded appears by the surprize upon them when a little before his giving himself up to the Scots it was bruted that he was conceal'd in London But as in great Storms great Pilots are forc'd when they can no longer bear Sail to let the Vessel drive and take its chance so he being no longer able to Stem the Tide after having done all that could be hop'd for from Prudence was fain to commit himself to Providence and follow it without Light or Compass thorow many dark Dispensations and fantastick Changes the result of their Inconstancy Inhumanity and Impiety from whom he was afterward to expect his doom Trust makes us our own Traytors nor could he Alâ—yn Vit. H. 7. Be sav'd by Faith but Infidelity Having now lost his Authority from the time he lost his Liberty as the last was the occasion of ending the first Civil War so the first was the cause of beginning a second For now all the Doggs fell together by the Ears over the Marybone The Army quarrelled with the Parliament they with one another the Commons differed from the Lords the Scots divided as much from the English the Presbyterians from the Independants Great was the Dissention amongst the Brethren and all for Place Power or Profit for either of which the King appearing to be the best Pawn the Army took him from the Parliament Commissioners to secure him in their own Custody which was so ill resented by the ruling Members that all their Consultations were about disbanding them Upon which the Army drew up a Charge and disbanded Eleven of them the first * The now Lord Hollis whereof was the first of those Five Members impeached by the King who were so little able to trifle with them as they did with him that they were fain not only to quit the House but the Kingdom After this the Army sent up a †The A mies Representation An. 1647. Representation as they call'd it to the two Houses propâ—sing 1. To purge out all those that ought not to sit there meaning all the Presbyterian Party 2. To disable those who had shew'd themselves disaffected to the Army that they might do no mischief meaning those who had voted with the Eleven Secluded Members 3. To settle a determinate Period for their Sitting intending to have all rul'd by the Sword 4. To give Accompt of the vast Sums they had received during the War intending the Overplus to be divided amongst themselves This so incouraged the Independent Party that they voted in favour of the Army to take the Militia of the City of London out of the Citizens hands who were for the most part of the Presbyterian Faction Upon which a Party of Apprentices came down and making the grand Representatives Prisoners in their own House did as I may say ram their Vote down their Throats making them not only retract it but Vote the Militia back again to the City Hereupon they call'd for Aid to the Army and the apprehensions of what Effects their coming up might have divided the Common-Councel of London as much as the last Riot had those of Westminster so that the General easily entred at the breach and possess'd himself of the Strength of the City Now as Maggots are ingendred by warmth out of Corruption so by the heat of these corrupted Factions there was kindled a Generation of Vermin call'd Agitators which were like the Locusts that rose out of the smoak of the bottomless Pit mentioned in the Revelations c. 9. v. 3. to whom sayes the Text was given power like as the Scorpions of the Earth have power who not liking that the King should continue so near as Hampton-Court found an expedient to fright him from thence by muttering something like an intended Assassination the discovery whereof they knew would quickly be brought to him and tempt him to make a private Escape knowing well that they had him as a Bird in a string and could take him again when they pleas'd which Counsel if it had been rejected by him 't is probable he had been murther'd in good earnest but he flying thereupon to the Isle of Wight where he was secur'd by their fast Friend the * Hamen Governour there they thought they might adventure to treat with him at that distance Accordingly they consented that the Parliament should tender him these four modest Propositions following to be reduced into Acts. 1. That it should be lawful for the Parliament to order and dispose the Militia as they pleas'd for the future without his consent and Treason for any to assemble in Arms above the number of Thirty without Commission from them 2. That the Houses should sit at what time they pleas'd and adjourn their sitting to what place they pleas'd and meet at their own pleasure and discretion for ever after 3. That all Oaths Interdictions and Declarations set forth in Publick by the King against either House should be accompted and declared void 4. That all whom the King had dignified with any Titles from the time himself departed with the Great Seal should be degraded of their Honour Which the Scotch Commissioners we must remember it to their Honour thought so derogatory to that of the Kings and contrary to former Ingagements that they follow'd after the Parliament Commissioners with a kind of State Hue and Cry and protested against them I hope it was not all a Juggle for they had been undone doubtless if the King had sign'd them but it took effect as they desired The King refused them and thereby gave them as they would have it thought just cause to refuse him Whereupon they pass'd that never to be forgotten Vote of Non-Addresses After which the Agitators vanish'd and the Committee of Darby-house took place which consisting most of Officers were now the Plenipotentiaries of the Kingdom And near the same time the Power of England was thus given up to them they had the Resignation made of that of Ireland too The King being now civilly dead and one would think buried the Prisons of Princes proving
as himself observ'd for the most part their Graves the Vote of Non-Addresses being as Earth flung upon him Fortune cruelly brings him to Life again by the Cordial of unexpected hopes heightned by the Zeal of several Counties declaring for him Divers Lords in Arms again at Land and his own Son with others at Sea these incouraged by the Revolt of several Towns those by the coming in of several Ships so that there were no less then Two thousand in Arms for him at Sea with Twenty good Ships and not so litt e as Ten thousand at Land with Horses Arms and Ammunition suitable And which was yet more considerable the Grand * Call'd The Committee of Danger Committee of State in Scotland whose very name carried Danger in it allarm'd them by sending the Propositions following 1. To bring the King to London or some of his Houses near with Freedom and Safety 2. To disband the Army 3. To punish those that had deteined him in Obscurity 4. To restore the Secluded Members 5. To establish the Presbyterian Government and suppress Sectaries And that they might yet appear more like a Committee of Danger they sent a formidable Army under the Conduct of Duke Hamilton to make good their Demands and to give their Nation the Honour of being the last as they were the first in Arms in this unhappy War The terror of these formidable Preparations incourag'd by several Petitions out of the City and Country moved the affrighted Parliament to consent to a Personal Treaty whilst the Army was busie in disputing the Points with the Sword and accordingly they recalâ—'d the Vote of Non-Addresses and sent their Commissioners to wait on the King at the Isle of Wight where he argued so like a Divine with the Divines so like a Lawyer with the Lawyers so like a States-man with their Matchiavillians that they went all away fully satisfied in their belief of his Wisdom Piety and Justice and upon the publishing his Conditions the Houses voted him to be in Honour Freedom and Safety according to the Laws Here seem'd to be nothing wanting now but a Sword in his hand to have once more disputed it with the Sword-men too and then possibly he might have saved himself and the despairing Nation But just as every man was making ready to bring in his Peace-Offering in Confidence that the King and Parliament were fully agreed the inraged Army returning home from the Conquest of all those that had oppos'd them doubly dyed with Blood and Treason alike Enemies to Peace and Reason broke down the great Chain of Order which binds even the Divels themselves and first seizing on him next on them sent no less then Forty of their principal Members to Hell a Place purposely made their Prison not so much for any conveniency of Reception or nearness of Scituation as the Uncoughness of the Name that by the conceipt of being typically damn'd they might bring them into despair and tempt some of them as after they did to become their own Executioners Ninety more they turn'd quite out of the House and appointed a day for turning out all the rest In the mean time they publish'd a Modification which to make the more acceptable they term'd The Agreement of the People by which the number of the Representatives of the Nation was reduc'd to Three hundred half which were to have power to make a Law and during the Intervals of Sessions a Councel of State was to govern This Model was put into the hands of those Members of their own Faction who besides the Confirmation thereof had Instructions given them for passing six other Votes 1. For renewing that of Non-Addresses 2. For annulling the Treaty and Concessions at the Isle of Wight 3. For bringing the King to publick Justice to answer with his own all the Blood shed in the War 4. For summoning in his two Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to render themselves by a day certain to give satisfaction on their parts otherwise to stand exil'd as Traytors to their Country 5. For doing publick Justice upon all the Kings Partakers 6. For paying off all their own Arrears forthwith How obedient Slaves this Rump of a House were to these their own Servants who could not find in their Heart to pay the least respect to their natural Prince appears by the Sequel For immediately they gave them or rather permitted them to give themselves above Sixty thousand pounds and voted that the General should take care to secure the King and the Councel of war to draw up a Charge of High Treason against him Lord Faulâ—land Behold the frailty of all humane things How soon great Kingdoms fall much sooner Kings This as it was an Insolence beyond all hope of pardon so nothing could justifie it but such a Violation of all sacred and humane Rights as must not only out-do all Example but out-face all Divinity and Majesty at once by erecting that High Court of Justice as they call'd it to try him as a Rebel against himself Preparatory whereunto they made Proclamation at Westminster-hall Cheapside and the Old Exchange that all that had any thing to say against him should come in at the prefix'd time and be heard And for the greater solemnity of their intended Paricide the Law was silenced that is the Tearm put off for fourteen dayes in order to the better formalizing the disorder that was to follow And now having brought the Royal Prisoner to their Judgment Seat they proceed to arraign him with not unlike Impudence and Impiety to that of the Rascal Jews when they brought the King of Kings to Tryal whom as they charg'd to be a Perverter so these charg'd him with being a Subverter of his People both Prisoners being in this alike Guilty that eithers Crime was the owning himself to be a King which as the Jews could not indure then so neither could these now Their King thought not fit to give any Answer to his Accusers this King preparing to give sitting Answers could not be heard But he had this satisfaction to hear Pontius Bradshaw the President by whom he was to be condemn'd condemn himself first and all his Fellow Paricides by a Reply to him not less absurd then observable For his Majesty reasoning upon the unreasonableness of not being suffer'd to speak for himself said Where is there in all the World that Court in which no Place is left for Reason to which t'other unwittingly reply'd Sir you shall find that this very Court is such an one Nay then retorted the King in vain will my Subjects expect Justice from you who stop your Ears to your King ready to plead his Cause Thus they strangled him before they beheaded him and designing to murther his Soul if possible as well as his Body added to their Denial of Justice so many Contumelies Indignities and Affronts as were enough to have tempted him to despair had not his Faith been as strong
wherein his Clemency so interpos'd betwixt his Wisdom and his Power that it is hard to judge whether he rul'd more by Awe Art or Affection tying them to no Rule or Order which he did not with more severity impose upon himself So that what Martiaâ— sayes of Fronto may be applyed to him That he was Clarum Militiae Togâ—que decus there being that harmony in his natural Constitution as inclined him to that gentle Science of Musick which as it served him to good purpose in his utmost extremity so it brought him to such a strict habit in keeping of Time that to make himself sure of every moment of his whole life he divided the Day into three equal spaces allowing the first to the business of Devotion the second to the care of Nature and the third to that of his State of each of which he was so excellent a manager that he is not undeservedly placed in the first rank of the Conditores of this Nation And if he were not the first Founder of Oxford which cannot be conceiv'd without apparent injury to the memory of his Grandfather whom the Annals of Winchester commemorate as the greatest Patron that ever the Muses had there yet we cannot deny him the glory of being one of those great Patrons or Foster-fathers whereof there were many almost in all Ages from the very time of the Britains whose beneficence Alexander Necam celebrates with much gratitude who nourisht up Learning and learned Men and gave Incouragement to all those who studied knowledge And this he did in such unsetled and disorderly Times when he had much ado to bear up himself with all the helps he had from the Wisdom and Courage of all about him the Troubles of his Reign being so incessant like one continued Storm that he was as is said before once forc'd to quit the Stearn another time to cut the Cable and never enjoy'd so much tranquillity as to be able to put out all his Sayls so that it was esteem'd a great good luck that he was not wreckt since he could not reach his Port which doubtless he owed to the Faith of his People the universality of whose Affections supply'd the defects of his Power being as superstitious in the confidence of his good Fortunes as Caesars Souldiers are said to have been of his who never thought themselves in danger while he was safe nor ever thought him the less safe for being in the midst of danger Who would not follow him into the Field Who cannot chuse but conquer though he yield Whose Sword cut deep yet was his wit more keen Some Fence ' gainst that but this did wound unseen To thee is due great Elfrid double praise To thee we bring the Laurel and the Bays Master of Arts and Arms. Apollo so Sometimes did use his Harp sometimes his Bow And from the other Gods got this Renown To reconcile the Gauntlet to the Gown But who did e're with the same Sword like thee Execute Justice and the Enemy Keep up at once the Law of Arms and Peace And from the Camp issue out Writs of Ease EDWARD THE ELDER date of accession 900 AS Elfrid was thought to be dead long after he was living so long after he was dead he seem'd to live still in the Person of this his Son Edward who was so like him that he might rather have been call'd Elfrid the Younger then Edward the Elder being so immediate a Successor to his Vertues as well as his Titles that 't was not discernable whether the Peoples grief or joy was greater out of the apprehensions they had of the loss of the one or the hopes conceived by the fruition of the other In Learning he was his Fathers Inferiour in Courage his Equal but in Fortune his Superiour For however he was attach'd on all sides by tumultuary Troops of Danes who by this time were grown very numerous and were a People of that stomach and patience that they grew greater by being lessned and which is strange to tell prosper'd by being beaten yet he acquitted himself so well of them that they got no more Ground from him than what might be allowed them for their Graves which they purchas'd at the price of their blood and measur'd out by the length of their Swords However the first provocation he had to arm was from his own flesh and blood an Enemy so much more dangerous for that he had something of his own Nature in him this was Ethelward the Son of Ethelbert his Fathers second Brother who having been declar'd Clyto which amongst the Saxons was as much as Caesar amongst the Romans that is to say the Heir Apparent he thought it not so much an Injury to be put besides the Right of Succession by his two Uncles as an Indignity to be disappointed by a Cosin who however surnam'd the Elder was in truth the Younger of the two aâ—d perhaps according to the Rule of those times had the weaker-Title This spark of Indignation being kindled in his Breast was quickly blown into a Flame and wanting not matter to nourish it was easily kept up at its height by other mens discontents as well as his own who urging him to arm without due consideration of King Edwards Possession Power and Reputation all great Check-mates to Rebellion brought him and themselves under a necessity of craving help from the common Enemy who having no other way but by this division to preserve themselves intire readily accorded to acknowledge him King Upon this the two Rivals meeting at a place call'd St. Edmunds-Ditch gave Battel to each other where King Edward got the Victory but lost the day the Battel being so equally poys'd that it not being known which had the better either side was suppos'd to have the worst of it King Edward lost the greater number of men King Ethelward the most considerable for both himself and the Danish General his Colleague were slain their Bodies lying conceal'd under such vast heaps of the English that their dishonour seems to be cancell'd by those that conquer'd them Upon this there was a Truce concluded with the Dane I cannot call it a Peace since the shortness of it made it seem no more then a Repose to take breath to fight again during this Cessation Fame partial to the English had so divuâ—g'd the loss of the Enemy that the Countess of Mercia Sister to King Edward and as nearly related to him in Fortune as in Blood arm'd her self like another Zenobia and fell upon those that were nearest her Country who by the death of two great Princes Cowilph and Healidine gave her Brother time to refresh his tired Forces But he as doubting his Sword might rust if it were put up into the Sheath bloody pursu'd his Successes with so indefatigable a Rage that all those of East-Anglia dreading the Consequences of being conquer'd compounded for their own Lives by giving up that of their King chusing rather to be disloyal than
miserable but lost them their Freedom by the same way they hop'd to preserve it For K. Edward was so incensed at the sight of their Butchery that however the Paracide made for him to the recovery of that whole Kingdom yet he determin'd to give the Traytours no Conditions Upon which they fled into Northumberland where he thought not fit to pursue but left the Glory of clearing that Province to his Successor who neither deceiv'd his nor the Kingdoms expectation ATHELSTAN date of accession 924 THEY that will take the height of this King must begin near about the time his Reign began to end his rising being like that of the Sun in a Cloud which being not discernable at first after looks red and bloody but at last recovers its wonted lustre and brightness The inequality of his Mothers condition to that of his Fathers being but a private Gentlewoman contracted to him in the life of the Grandfather so obscur'd his Birth that there were great doubts whether he were not illegitimate and that which gave the suspicion of it was his Fathers not owning of him after he came to be King who caus'd his second Brother to be Crown'd in his own life-time to entitle him the nearer to the Succession in order to the putting this man by By which frowardness of Fate or rather of his own Friends he was so over-shadow'd at the time of his Fathers death that had he not shew'd himself to be the true Son as well as the eldest and the undoubted Heir of his Courage if not to his Crown fitted for Government by parts as well as by years 't is probable he had been wholly set aside it being scarce possible for him to have penetrated so thick a cloud of malice as his merit had exhal'd much less to have sustain'd the shock of his Fathers envy alone who malign'd him upon no other account but that of his Grandfathers Indulgence who was so fond of him that 't was thought he would have given him a share of the Government with himself whilst he lived as an earnest of the rest when he was dead to the hazard of setting aside his Son Edward Thus the kindness of his Grandfather and the unkindness of his Father being alike unfortunate to him 't is no marvel the melancholly he had contracted thickned his blood and corrupted his good nature inclining him to frowardness and cruelty after he recover'd the Zenith of his Power taking a president of unnaturalness from his Father to fall upon his innocent Brother jealousie the canker of Majesty having so far eaten out the coar of his vertues that he could entertain no other thoughts but what were rank with revenge being so far transported that when death had remov'd the Brother that was his Rival he was not satisfied till himself had remov'd the other that was not whom resolv'd it seems to have no body stand near his Throne he expos'd to the rage and fury of the Sea in a Bark without Sails or any kind of Tackle where the helpless Youth believing that rude Element more merciful than his Brother cast himself into its bosom and so put a speedy end to his unhappiness and fear This was so crying a crime that it needed not a second to weigh down all his vertues and would questionless have condemn'd him to all eternity had he not timely condemn d himself for it and by a suitable Penance which ended not but with his own life pacifi'd the Ghost of his murther'd Brother and the horrour of his own guilty Conscience that came to be as strangely awaken'd as it was at first abus'd by the very same person who put him upon that execrable action who as the Story goes stumbling accidentally in his presence as he was bringing up a Dish of meat to his Table having recover'd himself without falling said as he thought pleasantly but unwittingly See Sir how one Brother meaning one Leg helps another which unexpected Jest gave so sudden a touch to the Kings Conscience that in as sudden a passion he reply'd Villain it was thou that didst cause me to murther my innocent Brother and so commanded him to be strangled in his presence This was thoâ—ght to be an effect of rage rather than remorse till it appear'd otherwise by those voluntary punishments he afterwards laid upon his own Person and more upon his Purse the expiating of this one sin costing him no less Treasure than all his Wars though he knew no Peace all his Reign and had it not been for this blood in the beginning of his Story no King had left his Name to Posterity under a fairer Character for being just in his promises resolv'd in his purposes constant in his resolutions and as his Father before him fortunate in that constancy having rul'd well liv'd better and at last dy'd desired which could not have been had he not been as much Lord of himself as others and rightly temper'd to maintain by his Courage what be got by his Wisdom of both which Qualifications he gave so signal proof that the memory of his Magnanimity hath outlived himself it being agreed by all Historians that he once oppos'd himself single to the force of a whole Army and notwithstanding the odds of number kept them at a stand till he was reliev'd by his own People who turn'd the Duel into a Battle but could not part the Enemy and he till he had made his way through them to their King with whom he fought hand to hand he yielded himself Prisoner after which as if he were not satisfied with conquering him but once he dismist him again with a generous scorn saying 'T was greater to make a King than be one Pity 't was that Nature was not so kind to him as Fortune for this made his way to the Crown but t'other deny'd him Issue to enjoy it so that for want of Heirs of his own Body he was forc'd to leave the Succession to his younger Brother the first Son of his Father by a second Venter EDMOND date of accession 940 THIS Prince being but three years old at the death of his Father and not full fifteen at the death of his Brother lost all those Advantages he might have hop'd for by observing the Vertues of the one or the Vices of the other however the loss of the Example of his Father was so well supply'd by the Care and Providence of his Mother who gave him an Education fit for those active times that he may worthily be said to have been fitted for Majesty before Majesty was fitted for him shooting up to that unexpected height that the Danes finding they could not keep down his growth by open Hostility endeavour'd to supplant him by unperceiv'd Hypocrisie casting themselves under the Sanctuary of Religion as profess'd Proselytes to the two great Prelates that then rul'd him and his Kingdom the Archbishops of Canterbury and York By the solemnity of which holy Cheat ratifi'd with the Seal
unsettledness of the Times or of mens Minds rather whilst some were led by Conscience others by their Temporal Concerns some out of Love to Reformation and others out of fear of Superstition some again out of desire of Change but most out of dread of Forreign Servitude that the Conclusion of this Match gave beginning to a desperate Rebellion which though at first it seem'd despicable enough being headed by no better a man then Sir Thomas Wyat a private Knight of Kent the Duke of Suffolk who was in the Conspiracy being apprehended almost as soon as he appear'd yet before it could be supprest the wise Match-makers found they had met with their Match in that Rebel who was so fortunate as to rout the Queens General and take all their Ordnance and Ammunition Upon which he march'd up with full Assurance of taking the chief City into which though he brought but sive Ensigns 't is probable he might have carried it had not Heaven taken part against him as usually it doth against Rebels first arming them with Impudence and then disarming them with Fear making the Arch-Traytor a terrible Example of unparallel'd Insolence who whiles he was at large continued bold as a Lion but being once apprehended prov'd so base a Coward that brib'd with the hopes of Life he made himself guilty of a greater Treachery then he was to dye for accusing Edward Earl of Devon and the Princess Elizabeth the Queens Sister to have been privy to his Conspiracy which gain'd Credit not so much from the Suspect of any private Affection betwixt them two although he alleadged they were to be married as from the secret disaffection either of them had he to the King that should be as being his Rival she to the Queen that was as being her Disseisor the two Sisters as little agreeing in point of Right of Succession as their two Mothers in point of Right of Marriage but fain he would have acquitted them when he found he could not be acquitted himself by it for having serv'd their turn of him the Statesmen gave the fatal turn to him However the malitious Chancellor Gardner resolving to take the Truth at the wrong end and believe it as he pleas'd secur'd them in several Prisons till he were at leisure to examine the matter being then deeply ingaged in providing Fire and Faggots for those Learned Hereticks Cranmer Ridley and Latimer c. who were to make a Holocaust preparatory to the Queens Nuptials which having been defer'd by this unexpected Rising was now propos'd in Parliament For the greater confirmation the three States of the Kingdom assenting thereto upon the Conditions following First That King Philip should admit no Stranger into any Office but only Natives Secondly That he should Innovate nothing in the Laws and Customes of the Realm Thirdly That he should not carry the Queen out of the Realm without her consent nor any of her Children without consent of the Councel Fourthly That surviving the Queen he should challenge no Right in the Kingdom but suffer it to descend to the next Heir Fifthly That he should carry away none of the Crown Jewels nor remove any Shipping or Ordnance Sixthly and lastly That he should neither directly nor indirectly intangle the Realm of England with the Wars betwixt Spain and France Upon which Terms 't was hop'd by those affected not the Match that Philip would knock off there being neither Youth or Beauty to tempt him But as the House of Austria did ever prefer their Ambition before their Love so designing the universal Monarchy he thought he made a great step to it by being put in possession of England and so near intituled to France And now the most Catholick King being joyn'd with the Faith defending Queen it cannot be imagin'd but that they must begin with Religion In order to the Regulation whereof Cardinal Pool being first restored again in blood and reputation was sent for over who arm'd with his Legatine Power and a natural Force of Eloquence press'd hard upon the Parliament and shewed them the danger they were in by their late Schism being become as he said Exiles from Heaven and in no capacity to have been ever readmitted had he not brought from Rome the Keys that opened the gates of Life and thereupon he advised them to abrogate those Laws which lay as blocks in their way urging them thereto from the Example of their good King and Queen who he said had resigned their Title of Supream Head to shew themselves true Members of the Mystical Body and had made Restitution of those Lands which had been sacrilegiously taken from the Church by their Predecessor Which Speech of his being very Methodically digested and delivered with great gravity startled many of the Lords who reflected upon their Fore-fathers Devotion to the holy See but those of the lower House having it seems lower thoughts and deeming it a rare Felicity to have shaken off that heavy Yoke that had so long gall'd their Fore-fathers necks did not so readily assent to receive his profer'd Fenediction at so dear a rate as to part with their Lands which having been divided by the Queens father amongst them were by several Settlements and Alienations so translated from one Family to another that without great Inconvenience they could not be sever'd from their Temporal Proprieties However they so far complyed as to agree That the first Fruits and Tenths granted by the Clergy to King Henry Anno 1534 should be remitted But after they came to consider the Poverty of the Treasure the reason of the several Pensions that had been granted in Lieu thereof by the said King to divers Religious Persons that were still living they revok'd their Decree again Upon which the Legate not skilful enough to deal with a Multitude as appear'd afterward by his loosing the papal dignity desisted content it seems with the honour of having prevail'd over the more devout Queen the heat of whose Zeal had so softned her heart that it was fit for any Impression Now as he had a better Faculty in Canvassing of the Feminine Sex which Cardinal Carraffa afterward Pope Paul IV upbraided him withal in the open Conclave so he prevail'd with her to give up all that she had in her own possession who to move others to imitate her piety did it with that detestation of the Sacriledg of her Predecessors that when one of her wise Counsellors yet of the same Religion told her it would be a great Diminution to the Revenues of her Crown she answered piously and as she thought prudently that she had another Crown to look after that she valued a thousand times more then that But while she is thus careful for the eternal King Philip her Husband was no less busie to secure his Temporal Crown In order to which he went over to receive the Blessing of the Emperour his Father then in Flanders who upon his Arrival delivered up to him the possession of the Low
France and Spain being her secret Friends and Well-wishers not to mention the nearer Obligations of her own Son being then but young and the Pope ever ready to pack the Cards for her as occasion served The advantage Queen Elizabeth had was by the Knaves in her hand all the factious Demagogues of Scotland being at her Devotion and so dependant on her Power that their disloyalty stood her in better stead than the Loyalty of her own Subjects whereof she made so good use that her over-match't Rival being never able to fix their Obedience much less recover their Affections was fain to seek for help abroad And after she became a Prisoner finding none she could trust was forc'd to attempt her Freedom singly proceeding therein for want of due intelligence by such indirect wayes and means as prov'd very unprosperous for the more she stirr'd the more she intangled herself fastning the Bonds beyond all possibility of being shaken off again which had she sate still might possibly have loosed of themselves Neither could it prove otherwise whiles she was neither able to take right measures of her Adversaries strength nor of her own weakness Queen Elizabeth having more Subjects then she knew of for she had got the Ascendant of her Neighbours so far that like her Father Henry where she made not Kings she gave them Laws The Protestants 't is true the only useful Party to her were few in comparison of the Papists who were all inc ined to the other side But the Security of Princes rests not so much in the number as in the affections of their People of whom whilst by extraordinary methods of Love she testified her self to have so great a care they made to her as extraordinary Returns of Loyalty witness that voluntary Association as 't was call'd which the Protestants so solemnly enter'd into as soon as they found her imbarrased by the Queen of Scots Faction binding themselves with mutual Oaths and Subscriptions to each other to prosecute all those to death who should attempt any thing against the Queens life This was it gave her that high repute without which she could not have given that protection she did to those of other Countries who afterward applyed themselves to her as the only Defender of the Faith for though it were no more then what they were before bound to do by their Oath of Allegiance yet being a voluntary Recognition resulting out of the Sense they had of their own in her danger it made such a noise in all Christendom that all those who chose rather to change their Country then their Religion cast themselves at her feet and where they could not come to her she sent to them witness the aid she gave to the persecuted Protestants of France when they were overwhelmed by the unholy Confederates of the Holy League that had set up a Priest to make way for a Cardinal by the Murther of a King and by the Murther of many Thousands more afterward made may to set up themselves to whom as she sent no ordinary supply of Men so she gave so extraordinary a supply of Money that Henry the Fourth himself was pleas'd to acknowledge he never saw so much Gold together at any one time in his whole life before More notable yet was that aid given to the distrested Protestants of the Netherlands when Duke D'Alva falling on them with like Fury as Vespatian upon the Jews put them in as great a fear of being drown'd in a deluge of Blood as they were but a little before of being overwhelm'd by that of Water who when their Courage was sunk as low as their hopes and that lay as low as their Country for she put them into a Condition not only to defend their own Liberty but to assert her Soveraignty their gratitude prompting them to swear Allegiance to her for that she had as they said an indubitable Title to those Provinces by Philippa Wife of Edward the Third who was one of the Daughters and Coheirs of Earl William the Third of Holland a right precedent as they alledged to that of the King of Spain But whether it were so that she rather approved the change of their Principles then of their Prince or would have the World believe she rather favour'd their Religion then their Rebellion or judg'd it would be hard to make good what was so ill got or was unwilling to do any thing that might give King Philip cause to question her Gratitude no less then her Justice or what other motives moderated her Ambition is not known but so it was that she laid aside for the present the consideration of her own Right and to shew she sincerely intended that Self-denyal she assisted the Spaniard with men at the same time she supplyed the Dutch with Money thereby giving those cause to extoll her Generosity whiles these magnified her Bounty both alike desiring her Friendship and admiring her Wisdom whiles the one could not tell how she affected Peace nor t'other how far she inclined to War Thus she preserv'd her self by Arts as well as by Arms which was the less easie for her to do in respect of the many cross Designs that were then on foot in France Spain Germany and Italy in each of which she was deeply concern'd not to say in Scotland which being on the same Continent was under her Eye as their Queen under her keeping But the King of Spain finding that whatever was pretended overtly she did underhand abet the Rebels of the Netherlands he set his thoughts upon supporting the Rebels of Ireland which how much she dreaded appears by her ready acceptance of that seign'd Submission of the Earl of Tyrone the first that gave her trouble and the last that repented him of it But before he made any Rupture upon her there happen'd a lucky hit which contributed much to defraying the Charge she foresaw she must be at whenever he broke the Peace made with her A mighty Mass of Money which King Philip had taken up from the Genoveses and other Italian Merchants to be sent by Sea to the Duke D'Alva for carrying on that War of the Low-Countries was drove into one of her Ports by a French Man of War which she seizing to her own use and justifying her self by necessity of State the only reason for all unreasonable actions thought it enough to give the Proprietors Security for the Principal without any consideration of Interest This so incens'd D'Alva that he forthwith laid an Imbargo upon all the English Merchants in the Low-Countries She to requite that did the like upon the Dutch Merchants here upon which Letters of Mart were granted on both sides and so that War began which she liv'd not to see and end of For the King of Spain as is said before knowing the Irish to be naturally inclined to break out with the Itch of Rebellion resolv'd to inflame their Blood with the hopes of a new Change combining with Gregory
the Thirteenth to reassume the Country into his hands as one of the Kingdoms reputed parcel of St. Peter's Patrimony and held of the Church as he alledged by the Kings of England upon no other Condition but that of Fealty to the See of Rome and therefore Forfeited by the Heresie of the Queen His Holiness who has been ever very captious of all Advantages of this kind was easily prevail'd with to bestow it upon his Natural Son the Marquiss of Vincula to whom one Stukely an Englishman being therefore dignified with the Title of Marquiss of Lempster and Earl of Wexford was appointed General having Eight hundred Italians under his Command Before whom was sent as a Vant-Currier one Fitz-Morris with a Consecrated Banner two Priests and three Ships These dull Rebels were to joyn with those more active ones the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers and were to take Livery and Seisin till the rest could come upon the Place But as was the Cause so was the Success and sitter it was that he should meet with a Cross then a Crown that being but Christs Vicar should be so ambitious of having a Kingdom in this World when his Lord had none for himself Stukely ended his life before he began his Rebellion Fitz-Morris was betray'd by his Fellow-Traytors before his own Treachery could take any effect San Joseph that succeeded him one that was half Jew and half Italian was glad to secure his own with the loss of all their Lives that were under him whiles Desmond the Great Rebel was forc'd to yield to lower Conditions then any of them and the two Priests that attended the holy Banner were starved upon the Mountains But after these there started up yet several others as the Mac Williams since call'd the Burks the Mac Connels in Connaught the Mac Mahons and O Rorks in Monagan the O Connors and O Mulloys in Ophaly and some of the O Brians and Cavenaghs in Lempster who did what they could to raise Tumults but so faintly that we may rather call them Riots then Rebellions signifying no more to her than the bitings of Fleas to a Lion However doubting how she might be pestred with more such Vermine in the heat of the Summer following she took timely care to prevent the worst and having Intelligence given her that they intended to dispute her Soveraignty at Sea as they had done her Right by Land she muster'd up all her Naval Forces determining to carry the War as far from home as possibly she could These were commanded by the famous Drake who resolving to fight them in the other World as well as in this advanced to the place where 't was said the Golden Apples grew where finding no Dragon to keep them so fierce as himself he made himself Master of as much Treasure as might have been a sufficient Found for a greater Empire then that he fought for had either his Covetousness held any proportion with his Courage or his Ambition with his Activity for he brought home besides what was imbezled and conceal'd above two thousand pound weight of uncoyn'd Silver and twelve Chests of ready coyn'd and no less then five hundred pound weight of Gold besides Jewels of an inestimable value having several Carcanets of Diamonds Rubies Topazes Saphires and Emeralds of an incredible Magnitude issued Silks and other rich Commodities of the growth and manufacture of the Country being thought not worth the Portage This added no less to the Fame then to the Wealth of this great Queen who being before compar'd to Solomon for her Wisdom seem'd now not unlike him for her Opulence But not content with this single income of Glory she commanded her Fortunate Admiral back again the second time to brave them at Land as before at Sea where after having taken St. Jago St. Domingo and Cartagena three of the most considerable Towns they had he return'd even surfeited with Victory his Head being as giddy with new Contrivances as his mens were with the Calenture who in the midst of all their Abundance wanting health only were forc'd to take leave of the place being troubled that they could bring home no greater a booty then what was esteem'd at One hundred thousand pounds Sterling and Two hundred and forty pieces of brass Cannon to report their Victory But because this look'd like wounding that King in the hinder parts only she was not satisfied till she gave him one blow in the Face and accordingly sent to defie him before his own Doors entring his chief Port of Cales in which they took and fired no less then One hundred Ships and furnishing themselves with great store of Ammunition and Victuals made for the Cape of St. Vincent where having demolish'd the Forts they pass'd on to the Assores under the great Meridian where they took a great Carack returning from the East-Indies which having the name of St. Philip it was by the Superstitious Seamen look'd on as an ominous Presage of the Future ill Fortune of their King Philip by Sea Whilst Drake was thus active to the Southward Candish was no less busie to the Westward who having destroy'd several Colonies in Chily Peru and Nova Hispania return'd home Laden with the Spoils of Nineteen rich Ships taken in his way And now King Philip provok'd no less by the shame then the continued loss he had sustain'd for above two years together with redoubled diligence and charge got ready a mighty Fleet hoping to perform some wonders suitable to the Expectation of the Time as well as of the Importance of the Affair it being by Astronomers call'd The wonderful Year and being the great Clymacterich of the World they concluded it must produce some extraordinary Effects Neither indeed was there any thing then in the World so extraordinary and amazing as the sight of that moving Wood of his consisting of no less then One hundred and fifty tall Ships which carri'd in them besides all Habiliments of War Twenty thousand men and expected Fifty thousand more to be joyn'd with them that the Duke of Parma was to bring out of Flanders all which were to be Landed in the Thames mouth that so by seizing on the Head they might the more easily command every Member of the whole Body of the Kingdom Well may we imagine that the report of such a Preparation as this the work of no less then three years time was heard further then the noise of their Cannon could though 't is incredible how far they were heard and one would have thought the Sound of that terrible Name they gave their Fleet El Invincible Armado might have been sufficient to have made an universal Earth-quake throughout Christendom But it seems the Adamantine hearts of the Neighbour Princes were so impenetrable that it did not much move them for being satisfied in the Counterpoise of the Queens Power they stood at Gaze seemingly unconcern'd The Queen had prepar'd a double Guard one for the Land t'other for the Sea that by