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
was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
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
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