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

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great concourse of most famous Souldiers Henry then entertained the French King at Guisnes in a House made of Timber framed partly in England partly in Holland and thence brought thither wherein there were four Mansions The out-side was covered with Cloth so painted that it would have deceived the beholders for squared Stone the in-side was hung with most rich Arras so that it every way seemed a most artificial and stately Building The form of it was much like that of the Exchange at Calais It being afterward taken asunder was transported into England and so stood the King in little or nothing saith Bellay Whereas we know and that by Records that there were sent over out of England for this Work three hundred Masons six hundred Carpenters two hundred Painters Glasiers and other Artificers in all eleven hundred which for the space of two months laboured continually on this Fabrick The day ensuing the French King prepares a Banquet the Banqueting-house was a Canopy every way extended sixty foot which without was covered with Cloth of Tissue within with blew Velvet pouldred with golden Flowers-de-Lys At each corner was a Pavilion of the same works the cords were of blew Silk twisted with Gold of Cyprus which was of great esteem But a most impetuous and tempestuous wind broke asunder the cords and laid all this bravery in the dirt Patience par force The French King suddenly makes another Banqueting-house in that place where there is now a Fort that takes its name from this Banquet The preparations were extraordinary and the magnificence outstripped the reach of humane judgment There wanted neither houses woods nor fields for disport for many men brought them entire on their backs But pleasures must have their intermission and Kings if not by their Greatness are by their Affairs severed Henry therefore returns to Calais and Francis to Boloign The tenth of the ensuing month the King gallantly attended visited the Emperour at Graveling The Emperour in requital accompanied him back to Calais Shews and Banquets are Princes usual Entertainments To this end the King so commanding a round building is made in the form of an Amphitheatre eight hundred foot in compass The sides were of planks in the middle was a Pillar made of eight great Masts tied together This Pillar supported the weight not only of the roof of the whole Fabrick whither as into a lower Heaven the Moon and Stars had descended but Organs also and places for the receipt of all sorts of Musick in abundance These places were adorned with Tapestry Statues and curious Pictures insomuch that the most fault-finding could not complain of any want in that kind All things were now prepared for the entertainment of such a guest and the Banquet ready to be served in when the same mischance that befel the French Canopy made our English Heaven and Earth meet together God as displeased with the mad prodigality of these two Kings sent a tempest the violence whereof scattered this counterfeit Heaven blew out above a thousand Wax-tapers defaced the glorious Thrones prepared for these Princes frustrated the expectation of the people and forced the King to the necessity of another place But to let pass the Tilting Masques and gorgeous Feasts during the six days the Emperour staid at Calais In these several Enterviews between all these Princes there was no one serious thing done but this that a firm Peace a perpetual League and faithful Friendship seemed to be concluded on all sides For who would have thought that it had been possible for discord it self to have dissolved this knot where Charles and Francis attributed so much to Henry that they made him Umpire of all controversies that should arise between them But that there is seldom any heed to be given to the Agreements of Princes where they are tied by no other bands as of Religion Affinity or manifest Utility than that weak one of their plighted Troth those foul dissentions and bloody wars which afterwards rent all Christendom and opened a way for that common enemy of our Faith may be a sufficient example The Emperour after all these passages of courtesie and humanity departs toward Graveling mounted on a brave Horse covered with a foot-cloth of cloth of gold richly beset with stones which the King had given him He would often speak of his Aunts happiness that was matcht to so magnificent a Prince The King staid some few days after at Calais from whence passing to Dover he with all his train arrived safe at London I cannot but envy their happiness who in so little time saw three the mightiest Monarchs in Christendom who for their exploits and the great alterations happening under each of them will without doubt be famous through all succeeding Ages ANNO DOM. 1521. REG. 13. E Dward Stafford Duke of Buckingham was about this time arraigned of high Treason He was descended of a Family which whether it was more antient or noble is questionable He derived himself by a direct line from Robert de Stafford to whom William the Conquerour gave large revenues which his posterity greatly enlarged by matching with the Heirs female of many noble Families By the Lady Ann Daughter to Thomas of Woodstock Duke of Glocester who was Brother to Edward the Third he participated of the Blood Royal. The first honourable Title of the Family was of Lord Stafford the next of Earl of Stafford as was Edmund that married the Daughter to Thomas of Woodstock Humphrey Son to Edmund was created Duke of Buckingham by Henry the Sixth who left that Honor to his Son Humphrey who was Grandfather to this Edward by his Son Henry the third Duke How Henry assisted the Usurper Richard the Third in oppressing Edward the Fifth how he after conspired with the Earl of Richmond afterwards Henry the Seventh against the Usurper but was cut off by the Tyrant before he could bring any thing to pass the Histories of those times declare Edward his Son restored to Blood and Dignities by Henry the Seventh for his Descent Wealth and Honors inferiour to none but the King not content with this was by N. Hopkins a Charterhouse-Monk induced to believe that Heaven had decreed to cut off King Henry after whose death he should reign and the Crown be for ever established on his posterity This the Monk affirmed God the Governour of all things had revealed unto him He further advised him by liberality and courtesie to win the minds of the people for the time was at hand wherein this should certainly come to pass if it were not through his own default The Duke no sot but blinded by ambition gave such credit to the Monk who was either mad or else flattered him in hope of reward that although the time prefixed for these Miracles were past yet was he still in hope fed the Impostor with gifts who fed him with air secretly vilified the King and gave profusely to all Nay he could not forbear but
admitted to intimate familiarity and made use of their counsels and endeavours as if he had advanced them to no other end but to depress them Wolsey had his turn Cromwell succeeds whose sudden downfal there want not those who attribute to God's Justice inflicted on him for the Sacriledge whereof he was reported to be the Author committed in the subversion of so many Religious Houses And indeed even they who confess the rouzing of so many unprofitable Epicures out of their dens and the abolishing of Superstition wherewith the Divine Worship had by them been polluted to have been an act of singular Justice and Piety do notwithstanding complain of the loss of so many stately Churches dedicated to God's service the goods whereof were no otherwise employed than for the satisfaction of private mens covetousness and although many have abused the Vail of Religion yet was that Monastical life instituted according to the pious example of antient Fathers that they who found themselves unfit for the execution of worldly affairs as many such there are might in such their voluntary retirements spend their days in Divine Writings or Meditations and are verily perswaded that for the taking away of these things God was offended both with the King and Cromwell But Sleidan peradventure comes nearer the matter touching the immediate cause of his death About this time saith he the King of England beheadeth Thomas Cromwell whom he had from fortunes answerable to his low parentage raised to great Honours repadiates the Lady Ann of Cleve and marrieth Catharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard who was Brother to the Duke of Norfolk Cromwell had been procurer of the Match with Ann. But the King loving Catharine is thought to have been perswaded by her to make away Cromwell whom she suspected to be a Remora to her advancement The actions of Kings are not to be sifted too nearly for which we are charitably to presume they have reasons and those inscrutable But let us see the process of this Divorce Six months this conjugal band lasted firm without scruple the King and Queen giving daily testimonies of their mutual love On the twentieth of June the Queen is willed to remove from London where the King stayed by reason of the Parliament to Richmond a place pretended in regard of the situation and air to be more for her health On the sixth of July Reasons are proposed by certain Lords purposely sent to the lower House of Parliament demonstrating the invalidity of the King's Marriage with the Lady Ann so that it was lawful for them both to marry where they pleased The same reasons are alledged in the Convocation-House and generally approved Whereupon the Queen also whether forced or willing consenting the Parliament pronounced the Marriage void What the allegations were is uncertain Some relate disability by reason of some defects to be objected to her which seems the more probable for that in her Letters wherein she submitted her self to the judgment and determination of the Parliament she affirmed that the King never knew her carnally Whether for this or for that Nature having not over-liberally endowed her with Beauty but a private woman she became and as such not enduring to return to her friends with dishonour she lived upon some Lands assigned her by the King who always used her respectively until the fifteenth of July Anno 1557 at what time she ended her discontented life and lieth buried at Westminster on the South side of the Quire in a Tomb not yet finished Scarce had the resolution of the Convocation-House and the Decree concerning it passed both Houses when this lusty Widower with as good success as before marrieth his fifth Wife Catharine Howard When their Nuptials were celebrated is not known but on the eighth of August in Royal habiliments she shewed her self as Queen The fautors of Reformation were much dismayed at the sudden unqueening of Ann fearing not without cause lest it proving occasion of enmity between Henry and the Princes of Germany he must of necessity rely on them who misliked our divorce from Rome But the King proceeding still in the course he had begun like a torrent bearing all before him not only caused three Anabaptists to be burned but also many sincere Professors of the Truth for not subscribing to the Six Articles Among whom three Divines were most eminent viz. Robert Barnes Doctor of Divinity Thomas Gerard and William Jerome Bachechelors who by Parliament unheard being condemned for Heresie were on the one and thirtieth committed to the torments of the merciless fire At the same time and place three other Doctors of Divinity viz. Powel Able and Fetherston were hanged for denying the King's Supremacy the sight whereof made a French-man cry out in these words Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt gentes suspenduntur Papistae comburuntur Antipapistae Good God how do the people make a shift to live here where both Papists are hanged and Antipapists burned In August the Prior of Dancaster and six other for defending the Institution of the life Monastical a crime now become as capital as the greatest being also condemned by Act of Parliament were hanged The same day with the Lord Cromwell the Lord Hungerford was also Beheaded As their causes were divers so died they alike differently Cromwell's conscience quietly welcomed death to the other suffering for that most unnatural crime of Sodomy death presented it self with that horror that the apprehension of it made him as impatient as if he had been seised with a frenzy ANNO DOM. 1541. REG. 33. THe late Yorkshire Rebellion was not so throughly quenched but it again began to shew it self but by the punishment of the chief Incendiaries it was quickly suppressed Fourteen of the Conspirators were put to death Leigh a Gentleman Thornton a Yeoman and Tattershall a Clothier at London Sir John Nevil and ten others at York Which Commotion whether raised in favour of Religion or being suspected that it had any abettors beyond the Seas is thought to have hastened the death of the long since condemned Countess of Sarisbury who on the seven and twentieth of May was Beheaded in the Tower The eight and twentieth of June the Lord Leonard Grey Deputy of Ireland did on the Tower Hill publickly undergo the like punishment He was Son to the Marquis of Dorset near allied to the King and a brave Martial man having often done his Countrey good service But for that he had suffered his Nephew Gerard Fitz-Gerard Brother to Thomas lately executed proclaimed enemy to the Estate to make an escape and in revenge of some conceived private injury had invaded the Lands of the King's friends he was arraigned and condemned ending his life with a resolution befitting a brave Souldier The same day Thomas Fines Lord Dacres of the South with some other Gentlemen for the death of one Busbrig slain by them in a fray was hanged at Tyburn Many in
of a Battel entertaining him with skirmishes relieves the besieged and without any more ado under the covert of the night retreats Let us now conclude the year at home And to begin with the Church In February the people by Proclamation is licensed to eat White Meats in Lent but under a great penalty enjoyned to abstain from Flesh. The third of June Morogh O Brien a Nobleman of Ireland descended from the Kings of Limrick submitted himself to the King and was shortly after made Earl of Twomond which Honour his posterity at this day enjoyeth having given ample proof of their Loyalty to succeeding Princes The twelfth of July the King married his sixth Wife the Lady Catharin Parr Widow to the Lord Latimer and Sister of William Parr lately created Earl of Essex in the right of his Wife sole Daughter and heir to the late Earl Henry Bourchier At what time another of the same name Uncle to the Queen and the Earl was created Lord Parr and Chamberlain to the Queen The eight and twentieth of July for the Profession of their Faith were Anthony Parsons Robert Testwood and Henry Filmer Burned at London Marbeck was also condemned but afterward pardoned ANNO DOM. 1544. REG. 36. THe Lord Thomas Audley Chancellour of England deceasing the last of April the Lord Wriothsley chief Secretary of Estate is designed his Successour And the Earl of Hertford made Lieutenant of the North is sent thither with an Army to repress the incursions of the Scots The Viscount Lisle Admiral of England with a Navy of two hundred Sail entred the Forth of Scotland landed ten thousand men forced the rich Town of Leith and then marched toward Edenburg the Metropolis of the Kingdom The Regent was there with the Cardinal at whose dispose he now wholly was and many other Nobles guarded with six thousand Horse and a great number of Foot who upon sight of an invading Army betook themselves to flight and left the City void of defendants The Provost craving parley offered to yield the City upon condition of departure with Bag and Baggage and saving the Town from Fire But the breach of League and insolencies of the Inhabitants of Leith and Edenburg had inspired us with Revenge so that no Conditions were to be admitted but what the Victor should impose This drives the Provost to a desperate resolution of defence The English give a furious Assault enter at the Canigate put the Inhabitants to the sword pillage and fire it The like calamity felt the Countrey round about fire and sword cruelly feeding upon Villages Castles and Noblemens Houses Leith had hitherto been reprieved from the like misery but at our return to the Navy it is made its own Funeral pile and the Peer of the Haven utterly consumed New employments call home our Admiral Henry resolves once more to transport his Arms into France there to join with the Earls of Reux and Bures Imperial Commanders It was agreed between the Emperour and the King that the one should invade Champaigne the other Picardy and having united their Forces which should amount to fourscore thousand Foot and eighteen thousand Horse to march directly to Paris thereby either to force the French to fight with disadvantage or to suffer the ruin of his Countrey Henry lands at Calais and finds Picardy unfurnished of men Francis having withdrawn his Forces towards Champaigne to oppose them against the Emperour He therefore sends the Duke of Norfolk with the Earls of Reux and Bures to besiege Montrueil The Marshal of Biez seeing which way we turned the point of our Army being commanded by his King to have an especial care of that Territory puts himself into Montrueil and left the Lord of Vervein his Son-in-Law a man of small experience to command in Bouloign This opportunity invites Henry to encamp before Boloign a Town near to Calais and many ways commodious He causeth the Duke of Norfolk now in danger to be surprised by the French Army to arise from before Montrueil and omitting his intended Voyage to Paris frustrated by the Emperour's Peace with the French to enter into which Henry was invited by the Cardinal Bellay Raymond President of Rouen and Aubespine Secretary of Estate sent of purpose he investeth Boloign The Duke of Suffolk had first encamped upon a Hill on the East of Boloign from whence he after made his approaches into the Valley and the King encamping on the North shut up the Town on all sides The first assault is given on the Suburbs or Base Town which the French under the covert of a made smoak had forsaken They pretend it to have been purposely fired as unprofitable and the fire quenched by our industry Next the Tower of the Ordre called by us the Old-man defended by twenty Souldiers is yielded and the Town continually battered in four places whereof the most forcible was the Battery from the Hill on the East side which beat down the Steeple of our Ladies Church rent the houses and scoured the streets of the Town The breach made by the Cannon being not sufficient they fall to mining which happily succeeding they blow up a great part of the Wall We give a furious assault and are repulsed with loss yet did this assault carry the Town that brave Captain Philip Corse being slain in it whose valour alone had hitherto preserved it Vervein upon the loss of this man at his wits end sounds the intention of the King and yields him the Town upon composition That the Souldiers and Citizens might depart with their Baggage and that all the Artillery Munition and Victuals whereof there was great store should remain to the King The Inhabitants refuse this bad composition and the Mayor with the Townsmen offer to keep the Town Which had they accordingly undertaken Boloign in all probability had continued French For the Capitulation was no sooner concluded Hostages not yet given but a horrible Tempest of Wind and Rain overthrows our Tents and the soil being fat and slippery we should not have had any means to mount to an assault Moreover the Daulphin was on march with great Forces for their succour whose approach would have forced Henry to have changed his design But Vervein professing that he would keep touch even with his Enemy continued constant in his promise for which he soon lost his Head on a Scaffold at Paris The four and twentieth of September the City was delivered to the Duke of Suffolk and the French departed to the number of threescore and seven Horse a thousand five hundred threescore and three able Foot and a thousand nine hundred twenty and seven Women and Children many of the infirmer sort not able to depart staying behind The next day the King entred triumphantly and caused our Ladies Church to be demolished and in place thereof a Fortification to be raised and having ordered his affairs to his mind making the Viscount Lisle Governour set sail for Dover where he
malignant disease was most merciful in its execution peradventure within twelve did sweat out their Souls Women children and old men it for the most part over-passed and wreaked it self on the robustious youth and well compact middle age who if in the beginning of their sickness did but slumber perished instantly If it seised on any that were full gorged the recovery was in a manner desperate Nay and of others whatsoever they were scarce one of a hundred escaped until time had found out a remedy the manner whereof was thus If any be taken in the day time he must without shifting of his apparel betake himself to bed If by night and in bed let him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence until twenty four hours be run In the mean let the coverture be such that it provoke not sweat but that it may gently distil of it self if it be possible for him so long to forbear let him not eat nor drink more than may moderately serve to extinguish thirst But above all let him so patiently endure hear that he uncover not any part of his body no not so much as a hand or a foot The strangeness of this disease I do not so much admire for that Pliny in his twenty sixth Book the first Chapter witnesseth and daily experience teacheth us that every Age produceth new and Epidemical diseases But that which surpasseth the search of humane reason is this that this Pestilence afflicted the English in what part of the World soever without touching the Natives but in England alone This dire contagion promiscuously impoverisht the Land of people of all sorts among those of especial note were Henry Duke of Suffolk and his Brother who were the Sons of Charles Brandon the King's Cousins germane young Gentlemen of great and lively hopes by the death of Henry the Duchy was for some few hours devolved to the younger Brother who had the unhappy honour but to be seised of the Title and die The Lord Gray Marquis of Dorset having married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon in the right of his Wife made claim to the Duchy and was on the eleventh of October invested in it At what time also John Dudley Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland William Fowlet Earl of Wiltshire Marquis of Winchester and Sir William Herbert Lord Cardif Master of the Horse Earl of Pembroke The masculine Line of Dudley and Gray hath been long since extinct Of the Family of the Powlets we have spoken already The Lord Herbert Brother-in-Law to Queen Catharine Parr derived himself from William Herbert in the time of Edward the Fourth Earl of Pembroke and was 〈◊〉 in the Earldom by his Son Henry Father to william the modern Earl whose mature wisdom and gravity even in his greener years long since ranked him in the sage 〈◊〉 of the Privy Council to two successive Kings and to Philip by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 Then also were knighted Sir John 〈◊〉 the King's Schoolmaster Sir Henry Dudley Sir Henry Novill and whom I cannot mention but with due honour Sir William Cecill Cecill I say who then Secretary of Estate was afterward by all Europe held in admiration for his wisdom whom Queen Elizabeth made Lord Treasurer of England and Baron of Burleigh and was whilest he lived a second prop of this Estate who on the fourth of August 1598 piously ended his long but for the publick weals sake ever restless life leaving two Sons Thomas by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 and Robert out of the same Fountain of Royal Goodness 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Lord Treasurer of England And now the ill cemented affections of the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland dissolved into open enmity In the prosecution whereof Somerset otherwise of a most mild disposition but Patience abused oft runneth into the extreme of Fury provoked by continual injuries resolved as some write to murther Northumberland To this end but under colour of a visit privily armed and well attended by Seconds who awaited him in an outer Chamber he comes to his Adversary at that time by reason of some indisposition of Body keeping his Chamber hath access unto him naked as he was in his Bed but is so courteously entertained and with such smooth language that the Duke of Somerset good man repenting himself of his Bloody Resolutions would not Execute what he purposely came for At his departure one of his Conspirators is reported to have asked him Whether he had done the Feat and upon his denial to have added Then you are undone This his intent being by his own Party bewrayed a second Accusation is engrossed against him The matter is reforred to the Council Table and he on the sixteenth of October again committed to the Tower together with the Duchess his Wife the Lord Gray of wilton Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Falmer Sir William Partridge Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundelt and many other of his Friends On the first of December the Marquis of Winchester being sot that day High Steward he is Arraigned for Treason against the Estate which he had not only ill but treacherously managed and for Conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland Of Treason he cleared himself and his Peers acquitted him For the Conspiracy he was by his own Confession condemned and that by virtue of a Law Enacted 3 Hen. 7. which made the very Intent nay Imagination of Killing a Privy Counsellour punishable by Death But howsoever the Law Enacted as some conceive upon somewhat differing intents and meaning were extended to the highest of its rigour yet can I not but wonder how a man so great in the regards of his Reigning Nephew of his Honours of the Popular Favour should be so destitute of Learned Advice as not to exempt himself from a Felonious Death by his Clergy But such were the Times such his Misfortunes in the minority of his Prince from whose revengeful Hand how could the adverse Faction presume themselves secure in the future Neither could they choose but be somewhat terrified with that Ecchoing Testimony of the Peoples Joy who seeing that fatal Virge the Ax usually marshalling Traytors to the Bar laid aside upon his freedom from the guilt of Treason from Westminster Hall certified that part of the City by their loud festival Acclamations of the gladsom tidings of their Favourite's conceived Absolution And these peradventure might be causes that his Execution was deferred Hitherto had the Estate patiently endured the obstinate Opposition of some Bishops in point of Reformation who for their Non-conformity are at length deprived and others substituted in their Bishopricks Of some of them we have occasionally already spoken whose Censures notwithstanding fall in with this Year Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was deprived the fourteenth of February Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester on the tenth of October Tonstall of Duresm on the twentieth of December committed to the Tower and Boner of London on the first of
the Water is scarce tainted with the Seas brackishness On the seventh day of October were three Whales cast up at Gravesend And on the third of August at Middleton in Oxfordshire was born a Monster such as few either Naturalists or Historians write of the like It had two Heads and two Bodies as far as the Navil distinct where they were so conjoined that they both had but one way of egestion and their Heads looking always contrary ways The Legs and Thighs of the one did always ly at the trunk of the other This Female Monster lived eighteen days and might have longer peradventure if it had not been so often opened to satisfie curiosity that it took cold and died This year the Monastery of the Franciscan Friers in London was converted into a brave Hospital wherein four hundred poor Boys are maintained and have education befitting free-born men It is at this day called Christ-Church In Southwark also was another like place provided for the relief of Poor sick persons and is dedicated to the memory of St. Thomas ANNO DOM. 1553. REG. 7. THis year sets a period to young Edward's Reign who by the defluxion of a sharp Rheum upon the Lungs shortly after became hectical and died of a Consumption Some attribute the cause of his sickness to Grief for the death of his Uncles some to Poison and that by a Nosegay of sweet Flowers presented him as a great dainty on New-years-day But what hopeful Prince was there ever almost immaturely taken away but Poison or some other treachery was imputed Our deluded hopes being converted into grief out of passion we bely Fate Had there been the least suspition of any such inhumane practice Queen Mary would never have suffered it to have passed as an act of indifferency without an inquest It was doubtless a posthumous rumour purposely raised to make the Great ones of that Reign distastful to the succeeding times Howsoever it were the Nobility understanding by the Physicians that the King's estate was desperate began every one to project his own ends The Duke of Northumberland as he was more potent than rest so did his ambition fly higher It was somewhat strange that being not any way able to pretend but a shadow of Right to the Crown he should dream of confirming the Succession of it in his Family But he shall soar so high that he shall singe his Wings and fall no less dangerously than he whom the Poets feign to have aspired to a like unlawful Government As for the Ladies Mary and Elizabeth two obstacles to be removed he doubted not by reasons drawn from their questionable Births to exclude them The next regard must be of the Daughters of Henry the Seventh But of the Queen of Scots who was Niece to Margaret the eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh he was little solicitous For by reason of our continual Enmity with the Scots and thence inveterate Hatred he imagined that any shew of Reason would put her by especially she being contracted to the French whose insolent Government he was confident the English would never brook In the next place consideration is to be had of Lady Frances Daughter to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk by Mary Dowager of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh who her two Brothers then alive had been married to Henry Gray Marquis of Dorset The two Brothers as before dying of the late mortality the Marquis is in the right of his Wife created Duke of Suffolk and this was another stop to his Ambition For the removal whereof he intends this course He imparts his designs to the Duke of Suffolk and desires that a Match may be concluded between the Lord Guilford Dudley his fourth Son and Lady Jane Grey the Duke of Suffolk's eldest Daughter And because if only right of Inheritance should be pretended the Duchess of Suffolk were in reason to be preferred before her Daughter he undertakes to perswade the King not only to disinherit his Sisters by Will and Testament but also by the same to declare the Lady Jane his next and immediate Successour Suffolk biting at this bait they complot by drawing the chiefest of the Nobility to contract Affinity either with the one or the other to procure the general assent of them all So on the same day that Lady Jane under an unhappy Planet was married to Lord Guilford the Duke of Suffolk's two youngest Daughters are married Catharine to Lord Henry eldest Son to the Earl of Pembroke and crouch-backed Mary to Martin Keyes Groom Porter Northumberland's eldest Daughter also named Catharine was married to the Lord Hastings eldest Son to the Earl of Huntington These Marriages were in June Solemnized at London the King at that time extremely languishing Having thus brought these things to a desired pass nothing now remained but to act his part with the weak King To Him he inculcates In what danger the estate of the Church would be if He dying provision were not first made of a pious Successour and such a one as should maintain the now established Religion How the Lady Mary stood affected was well known Of the Lady Elizabeth there might be peradventure better hopes But their causes were so strongly connexed that either both must be excluded or the Lady Mary be admitted That is was the part of a Religious and Good Prince to set apart all respects of Blood where God's Glory and the Subject's weal might be endangered They that should do otherwise were after this Life which is short to expect Revenge at God's dreadful Tribunal where they are to undergo the tryal either of eternal Life or eternal Death That the Duke of Suffolk had three Daughters nearest to him in degrees of Blood they were such as their Virtues and Birth did commend and from whom the violation of Religion or the danger of a Forein yoak by any Match was not to be feared for asmuch as their Education had been Religious they had as it were with their Milk suckt in the Spiritual food of true Christian Doctrine and were also matched to Husbands as zealous of the Truth as themselves He could wish and would advise that these might be successively called to the Crown but with this caution That they should maintain the now established Religion And although Lady Jane the eldest of the three were married to his Son he would be content that they should be bound by Oath to perform whatsoever his Majesty should decree For he had not so much regard to his own as the general good These Reasons so prevailed with the young King that he made his Will and therein as much as in him lay excluded both his Sisters from the Succession to the Crown and all thers whatsoever beside the Duke of Suffolk's Daughters This Will was read in presence of the Council and chief Judges of the Realm and by each of them confirmed with a strict command that no man should publish the contents of it
called Dixmue where part of the Flemish Forces joyned with them While they lay at this siege the King of England upon pretence of the safety of the English Pale about Calice but in truth being loth that Maximilian should become contemptible and thereby be shaken off by the States of Britain about this Marriage sent over the Lord Morley with a thousand men unto the Lord Daubigny then Deputy of Calice with secret instructions to ayd Maximilian and to raise the siege of Dixmue The Lord Daubigny giving it out that all was for the strengthning of the English Marches drew out of the Garrisons of Calice Hammes and Guines to the number of a thousand men more So that with the fresh Succours that came under the Conduct of the Lord Morley they made up to the number of two thousand or better Which Forces joyning with some Companies of Almains put themselves into Dixmue not perceived by the Enemies and passing through the Town with some re-enforcement from the Forces that were in the Town assailed the Enemies Camp negligently guarded as being out of fear where there was a bloody Fight in which the English and their Partakers obtained the Victory and slew to the number of eight thousand men with the loss on the English part of a hundred or thereabouts amongst whom was the Lord Morley They took also their great Ordnance with much rich spoils which they carried to Newport whence the Lord Daubigny returned to Calice leaving the hurt men and some other Voluntaries in Newport But the Lord Cordes being at Ipre with a great power of men thinking to recover the loss and disgrace of the Fight at Dixmue came presently on and sate down before Newport and besieged it and after some days siege he resolved to try the fortune of an Assault Which he did one day and succeeded therein so far that he had taken the principal Tower and Fort in that City and planted upon it the French Banner Whence nevertheless they were presently beaten forth by the English by the help of some fresh Succours of Archers arriving by good fortune at the instant in the Haven of Newport Whereupon the Lord Cordes discouraged and measuring the new Succours which were small by the Success which was great levied his Siege By this means matters grew more exasperate between the two Kings of England and France for that in the War of Flanders the auxiliary Forces of French and English were much blooded one against another Which Blood rankled the more by the vain words of the Lord Cordes that declared himself an open Enemy of the English beyond that that appertained to the present Service making it a common by-word of his That he could be content to lye in Hell seven years so he might win Calice from the English The King having thus upheld the Reputation of Maximilian advised him now to press on his Marriage with Britain to a conclusion Which Maximilian accordingly did and so far forth prevailed both with the young Lady and with the principal persons about her as the Marriage was consummate by Proxy with a Ceremony at that time in these parts new For she was not only publickly contracted but stated as a Bride and solemnly Bedded and after she was laid there came in Maximilian's Ambassador with Letters of Procuration and in the presence of sundry Noble Personages Men and Women put his Leg stript naked to the Knee between the Espousal-Sheets to the end that that Ceremony might be thought to amount to a Consummation and actual Knowledge This done Maximilian whose property was to leave things then when they were almost come to perfection and to end them by imagination like ill Archers that draw not their Arrows up to the Head and who might as easily have Bedded the Lady himself as to have made a Play and Disguise of it thinking now all assured neglected for a time his further proceeding and intended his Wars Mean-while the French King consulting with his Divines and finding that this pretended Consummation was rather an Invention of Court than any ways valid by the Laws of the Church went more really to work and by secret Instruments and cunning Agents as well Matrans about the young Lady as Counsellors first sought to remove the point of Religion and Honour out of the mind of the Lady her self wherein there was a double labour For Maximilian was not only contracted unto the Lady but Maximilian's Daughter was likewise contracted to King Charles So as the Marriage halted upon both feet and was not clear on either side But for the Contract with King Charles the Exception lay plain and fair for that Maximilian's Daughter was under years of Consent and so not bound by Law but a power of Disagreement left to either part But for the Contract made by Maximilian with the Lady her self they were harder driven having nothing to alledge but that it was done without the consent of her Sovereign Lord King Charles whose Ward and Client she was and he to her in place of a Father and therefore it was void and of no force for want of such Consent Which defect they said though it would not evacuate a Marriage after Cohabitation and Actual Consummation yet it was enough to make void a Contract For as for a pretended Consummation they made sport with it and said That it was an argument that Maximilian was a Widdower and a cold Wooer that could content himself to be a Bridegroom by Deputy and would not make a little Journey to put all out of question So that the young Lady wrought upon by these Reasons finely instilled by such as the French King who spared for no Rewards or Promises had made on his side and allured likewise by the present Glory and Greatness of King Charles being also a young King and a Batchelor and loth to make her Countrey the Seat of a long and miserable War secretly yielded to accept of King Charles But during this secret Treaty with the Lady the better to save it from Blasts of Opposition and Interruption King Charles resorting to his wonted Arts and thinking to carry the Marriage as he had carried the Wars by entertaining the King of England in vain belief sent a solemn Ambassage by Francis Lord of Luxemberg Charles Marignian and Robert Gaguein General of the Order of the Bonnes Hommes of the Trinity to treat Peace and League with the King accoupling it with an Article in nature of a Request that the French King might with the King 's good will according unto his right of Seigniory and Tutelage dispose of the Marriage of the young Duchess of Britain as he should think good offering by a Judicial proceeding to make void the Marriage of Maximilian by Proxy Also all this while the better to amuse the World he did continue in his Court and custody the Daughter of Maximilian who formerly had been sent unto him to be bred and educated in France not dismissing or renvoying her
that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand Marks And to shew further the Kings extreme Diligence I do remember to have seen long since a Book of Accompt of Empson's that had the King's hand almost to every Leaf by way of Signing and was in some places Postilled in the Margin with the King's hand likewise where was this Remembrance Item Received of such a one five Marks for the Pardon to be procured and if the Pardon do not pass the Money to be re-paid except the party be some other-ways satisfied And over against this Memorandum of the King 's own hand Otherwise satisfied Which I do the rather mention because it shews in the King a Nearness but yet with a kind of Justness So these little Sands and Grains of Gold and Silver as it seemeth helped not a little to make up the great Heap and Bank But mean while to keep the King awake the Earl of Suffolk having been too gay at Prince Arthur's Marriage and sunk himself deep in Debt had yet once more a mind to be a Knight-Errant and to seek Adventures in Forein parts And taking his Brother with him fled again into Flanders That no doubt which gave him Confidence was the great Murmur of the People against the King's Government And being a Man of a light and rash Spirit he thought every Vapour would be a Tempest Neither wanted he some Party within the Kingdom For the Murmur of People awakes the Discontents of Nobles and again that calleth up commonly some Head of Sedition The King resorting to his wonted and tryed Arts caused Sir Robert Curson Captain of the Castle at Hammes being at that time beyond Sea and therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King to flie from his Charge and to feign himself a servant of the Earl's This Knight having insinuated himself into the Secrets of the Earl and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had either Hope or Hold advertised the King thereof in great secrecy But nevertheless maintained his own Credit and inward trust with the Earl Upon whose Advertisements the King attached William Courtney Earl of Devonshire his Brother-in-Law married to the Lady Katherine Daughter to King Edward the Fourth William de la Pole Brother to the Earl of Suffolk Sir James Tirrel and Sir John Windham and some other meaner Persons and committed them to Custody George Lord Abergaveny and Sir Thomas Green were at the same time apprehended but as upon less Suspition so in a freer Restraint and were soon after delivered The Earl of Devonshire being interessed in the blood of York that was rather Feared than Nocent yet as One that might be the Object of others Plots and Designs remained Prisoner in the Tower during the King's life William de la Pole was also long restrained though not so straitly But for Sir James Tirrel against whom the Blood of the Innocent Princes Edward the Fifth and his Brother did still cry from under the Altar and Sir John Windham and the other meaner ones they were attainted and executed the two Knights beheaded Nevertheless to confirm the Credit of Curson who belike had not yet done all his Feats of Activity there was published at Paul's Cross about the time of the said Executions the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Curse against the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson and some others by name and likewise in general against all the Abettors of the said Earl Wherein it must be confessed that Heaven was made too much to bow to Earth and Religion to Policy But soon after Curson when he saw time returned into England and withal into wonted Favour with the King but worse Fame with the People Upon whose return the Earl was much dismayed and seeing himself destitute of hopes the Lady Margaret also by tract of Time and bad Success being now becom cool in those attempts after some wandering in France and Germany and certain little Projects no better than Squibs of an Exiled man being tired out retired again into the Protection of the Arch-Duke Philip in Flanders who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile in the right of Joan his Wife This year being the Nineteenth of his Reign the King called his Parliament Wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the King took himself to be with his Parliament when Dudley that was so hateful was made Speaker of the House of Commons In this Parliament there were not made any Statutes memorable touching publick Government But those that were had still the Stamp of the King's Wisdom and Policy There was a Statute made for the disannulling of all Patents of Lease or Grant to such as came not upon lawful Summons to serve the King in his Wars against the Enemies or Rebels or that should depart without the King's licence With an exception of certain Persons of the Long-robe Providing nevertheless That they should have the King's Wages from their House till their return home again There had been the like made before for Offices and by this Statute it was extended to Lands But a man may easily see by many Statutes made in this King's time that the King thought it safest to assist Martial Law by Law of Parliament Another Statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of Manufactures of Silk wrought by it self or mixt with any other Thred But it was not of Stuffs of whole piece for that the Realm had of them no Manufacture in use at that time but of Knit-Silk or Texture of Silk as Ribands Laces Cawls Points and Girdles c. which the people of England could then well skill to make This Law pointed at a true Principle That where forein materials are but Superfluities forein Manufactures should be prohibited For that will either banish the Superfluity or gain the Manufacture There was a Law also of Resumption of Patents of Gaols and the Reannexing of them to the Sherifwicks Priviledged Officers being no less an Interruption of Justice than Priviledged Places There was likewise a Law to restrain the By-laws or Ordinances of Corporations which many times were against the Prerogative of the King the Common-law of the Realm and the Liberty of the Subject being Fraternities in Evil. It was therefore Provided that they should not be put in Execution without the Allowance of the Chancellor Treasurer and the two Chief-Justices or three of them or of the two Justices of Circuit where the Corporation was Another Law was in effect to bring in the Silver of the Realm to the Mint in making all clipped minished or impaired Coins of Silver not to be currant in payments without giving any Remedy of weight but with an exception only of a reasonable wearing which was as nothing in respect of the incertainty and so upon the matter to set the Mint on work and give way to New Coins of Silver which should be then minted There likewise was a long Statute against Vagabonds wherein two things
and it stood not with the publick weal that he should live single especially the lawfulness of his Daughters birth being so questionable He married not again for his pleasure but to settle the Kingdom on his lawful Issue The Learned as many as he had conferred with did generally pronounce the first Marriage void yet would he have it lawfully decided that with a safe conscience he might make choice of a second Thus far had Wolsey willingly led him hoping to have drawn him to a Match in France But he was of age to choose for himself and had already elsewhere setled his affections And the more to manifest his love on the eighteenth of June he created his future Father-in-Law Sir Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort At the same time were created Henry Fitz-roy the King 's natural Son by Elizabeth Blount Daughter to Sir John Blount Knight Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset Henry Courtney Earl of Devonshire the King 's Cousin-german Marquess of Exceter Henry Brandon eldest Son to the Duke of Suffolk by the King's Sister the Dowager of France Earl of Lincoln Thomas Manners Lord Roos Earl of Rutland Sir Henry Clifford Earl of Cumberland and Robert Ratcliff Lord Fitzwalter Viscount Fitzwalter Cardinal Wolsey this year laid the foundation of two Colleges one at Ipswich the place of his birth another at Oxford dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST by the name of Christ-Church This latter though not half finished yet a magnificent and royal Work a most fruitful Mother of Learned Children doth furnish the Church and Commonwealth with multitudes of able men and amongst others acknowledgeth me such as I am for her Foster-child The other as if the Founder had also been the foundation fell with the Cardinal and being for the most part pulled down is long since converted to private uses The Cardinal 's private estate although it were wonderful great being not sufficient to endow these Colleges with revenues answerable to their foundation the Pope consenting he demolished forty Monasteries of meaner note and conferred the lands belonging to them on these his new Colleges It hath been the observation of some That this business like that proverbial Gold of Tholouse was fatal to those that any way had a hand in it We will hereafter shew what became of the Pope and the Cardinal But of five whom he made use of in the alienation of the Gifts of so many Religious men it afterward happened that two of them challenging the field of each other one was slain and the other hanged for it a third throwing himself headlong into a Well perished wilfully a fourth before that a wealthy man sunk to that low ebb that he after begged his bread and Dr. Allen the fifth a man of especial note being Archbishop of Dublin was murthered in Ireland I could wish that by these and the like examples men would learn to take heed how they lay hands on things consecrated to God If the Divine Justice so severely punished those that converted the abused yet not regarding the abuse but following the sway of their ambitious desires goods of the Church to undoubtedly better uses what can we expect of those that take all occasions to rob and spoil the Church having no other end but only the enriching of themselves Luther had notice of Henry his intended Divorce and that from Christiern the expelled King of Denmark who eagerly solicited him to write friendly unto the King putting Luther in hope that Henry being a courteous Prince might by mild perswasions be induced to embrace the Reformation which Luther had begun And indeed Luther foreseeing the necessary consequences of this Divorce was easily intreated and did write unto the King in this submissive manner He doubted not but he had much offended his Majesty by his late Reply but he did it rather enforced by others than of his own accord He did now write presuming upon the King 's much bruited humanity especially being informed That the King himself was not Author of the Book against him which thing he understood was captiously cavilled at by some Sophisters And having occasion to speak of the Cardinal of York he called him the Caterpillar of England He understood the King did now loath that wicked sort of men and in his mind to favour the Truth Wherefore he craveth pardon of his Majesty beseeching him to remember that we being mortal should not make our enmities immortal If the King would be pleased to impose it he would openly acknowledge his fault and blazon his Royal Virtues in another Book Then he wished him to stop his ears against those standerous tongues that branded him with Heresie for this was the summ of his Doctrine That we must be saved through Faith in Christ who did bear the punishment of our sins in every part and throughout his whole body who dying for us and rising again reigneth with the Father for ever That he taught this to be the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that out of this position he shewed what Charity was how we ought to behave our selves one towards another that we are to obey Magistrates and to spend our whole life in the profession of the Gospel If this Doctrine contain any Impiety or Errour why do not his Adversaries demonstrate it Why do they condemn him without either lawful hearing or confutation In that he inveigheth against the Pope and his Adherents he doth it not without good reason for asmuch as for their profits sake they teach things contrary to what Christ and the Apostles did that so they may domineer over the Flock and maintain themselves in Gluttony and Idleness That this was the mark at which their thoughts and deeds aimed and that it was so notorious that they themselves could not deny it That if they would reform themselves by changing their idle and filthy course of life maintained by the loss and wrong of others the differences might easily be composed That his Tenets were approved by many Princes and Estates of Germany who did reverently acknowledge this great blessing of God amongst whom he wonderfully desired he might rank his Majesty That the Emperour and some others opposed his proceedings he did not at all wonder for the Prophet David had many Ages since foretold That Kings and Nations should conspire against the Lord and against his Christ and cast away his yoak from them That when he did consider this and the like places of Scripture he did rather wonder that any Prince did favour the doctrine of the Gospel And to conclude he craved a favourable Answer The King made a sharp Reply to Luther's Letter accusing him of base Inconstancy He stands in defence of his Book which he said was in great esteem with many Religious and Learned men That he reviled the Cardinal a Reverend Father was to be regarded as from him from whose impiety neither God nor man could be free That both
pardon at a hundred thousand Pounds and in this Synod he is with much ado by the Clergy of both Provinces declared next under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England and all forein power or authority whatsoever disclaimed The Province of York is moreover fined at eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds So this one fault if it may be so accompted it being certain that Wolsey was licenced to exercise his authority Legantine cost the Clergy a hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds ANNO DOM. 1531. REG. 23. THe only publick memorable occurrents of this year were that the Laity for the most part as deep in a Praemunire as the Clergy were by Act of Parliament pardoned In which assembly Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour and other remarkable speakers related at large the Conclusions of the Universities concerning the unlawfulness of the King's marriage And yet perhaps the notorious villany of Richard Rose Cook to the Bishop of Rochester might crave a place in this History who with poysoned broth killed sixteen of the Bishop's servants The Bishop himself who was especially aimed at that day contrary to his accustomed diet forbearing broth escaped The poisoner according to a Law lately enacted was thrown into a cauldron of boyling water But the offence deserved tortures of a most exquisite strain ANNO DOM. 1532. REG. 24. ON the three and twentieth of August died William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to whom Thomas Cranmer at that time in Germany about the King's affairs was appointed Successor He was not so ambitious as to aspire to such a dignity and some reasons made him unwilling to accept it being offered He knew before he could be consecrated he must swear obedience to the Pope which with a safe conscience he could not He feared what would be the issue of this abrupt separation from the See of Rome He knew the King's disposition to be violent such sudden changes to be full of danger and the Court although he had not yet purchased the acquaintance of it to be a meer School of fraud and dissembling The King's pleasure must necessarily be obeyed and if he slipped never so little envy the mischievous attendant of great felicity would help him forward to a break-neck Cranmer also having long since lost his Wife whom he had married in his youth had taken a liking to a certain maid Niece to Osiander's Wife whom he intended to make his second Wife yet he knew that the Canon Law permitted not Priests to marry and made them uncapable of holy Orders who had been twice married These considerations made him linger in Germany six whole months after the dispatch of his business hoping that his absence might afford means to some other to work a way to the Archbishoprick But the times were such that they to whom desert might give greatest hopes of attaining it did abhor this still tottering and slippery dignity and even they who were already advanced to the like endeavoured to betake themselves to the safety of meaner fortune As did Sir Thomas More the Lord Chancellour who by his continual earnest petitions obtained leave of the King on the fifteenth of May to resign his place and Sir Thomas Awdley on the fourth of June was in his stead made Lord Keeper Cranmer having privately married his Wife at Norimberg at length returned into England where the King's importunity prevailing beyond all scrupulous difficulties Cranmer is though much against his will made Archbishop of Canterbury the Pope also by his Bull confirming the Election He refusing the Archbishoprick because he must take an Oath to the Pope delivered the Bull to the King protesting that he would never accept of any Bishoprick in England but from the King who was Supreme Head of the Church of England and that he would not take any Oath that should any way derogate from the King's Authority At length the subtil heads of the Lawyers found out a quirk whereby to salve all He must first by a previous Protestation except against this Oath which was to be taken pro formâ that it should not hereafter be any way prejudicial to him Thus ascended Cranmer to the Archiepiscopal See where he sate near about twenty years until Queen Mary the Daughter of repudiated Catharine not only thrust this most innocent grave learned man out of his Bishoprick but with a barbarous cruelty condemned him to the fire as hereafter in its place we shall declare For the Treatise of a more strict League between the two Kings of England and France an interview is appointed between them To this end on the eleventh October the King with a mighty train passed to Calais The tenth day after going to Boloigne he was met half way by the French King and his Sons and conducted to Boloigne where the two Kings divided the Abbey between them Henry staid there four days and then brought Francis in whose company were the King of Navarre some Dukes and Cardinals a great number of Noblemen and of others at least twelve hundred to Calais At St. Joquebert the Duke of Richmond who was not at Boloigne with the King his Father received them After much solemn entertainment and the interchangeable favours from each King to the Princes of each others company from Henry to the King of Navarre or as the French write to Montmorency and Chabot the Admiral by the Order of the Garter From Francis to the Dukes of Narfolk and Suffolk by that of St. Michael these great Monarchs parted Jealousie of the Emperour 's still increasing power had now united these Princes and their natural dispositions wonderful agreeable had made them always prone to a mutual love which by this interview took such deep root that even in their own opinions they rested assured of each other And indeed had they been private persons their friendship in all likelihood had continued inviolable But Princes are not so much to be swayed by their own affections as the consideration of the publick Utility The effect of this interview was an agreement to repress the Turk about that time wasting Hungary to which end they should assemble together by their joint forces an Army of fourscore thousand men whereof there should be ten thousand horse with Artillery requisite for the said Camp A specious pretext For they both knew that the Turk had already retreated But in private they treated of other matters They had both many causes of discontent Francis not without cause was displeased with the Pope and Henry thinking it best to strike while the Iron was hot endeavoured an utter alienation between them Henry complains first of the wrong the Court of Rome did him touching the matter of his Divorce in the suit whereof full six years were now spent and yet at length after all their deceits and mockeries they seek to force him either to go in person to Rome or in a matter of so great importance to send
regard of his youth and Noble Disposition much lamented his loss and the King 's inexorable rigour ANNO DOM. 1542. REG. 34. BY this time Henry began to find the conveniency of his change having married one as fruitful in evil as his former Wives were in good who could not contain her self within the sacred limits of a Royal marriage bed but must be supplied with more vigorous and active bodies than was that of the now growing aged and unwieldy King Alas what is this momentary pleasure that for it we dare hazard a treble life of Fame of Body of Soul Heaven may be merciful but Fame will censure and the enraged Lion is implacable such did this Queen find him who procured not only her to be condemned by Act of Parliament begun the sixteenth of January and with her the Lady Jane Wife to the Viscount Rochfort behold the thrift of the Divine Justice which made her an Instrument of the punishment of her own and others wickedness who by her calumnies had betrayed her own Husband and his Sister the late beheaded Queen Ann but two others also long since executed Francis Derham and Thomas Calpepper in their double condemnation scarce sufficiently punished Derham had been too familiar with her in her virgin time and having after attained to some publick Offices in Ireland was by her now Queen sent for and entertained as a houshold Servant in which time whether he revived his former familiarity is not manifest But Culpepper was so plainly convict of many secret meetings with the Queen by the means of the Lady Rochfort that the Adultery was questionless For which the Queen and the Viscountess Rochfort were both beheaded within the Tower on the twelfth of February Derham had been hanged and Culpepper beheaded at Tyburn the tenth of the preceding December Hitherto our Kings had stiled themselves Lords of Ireland a Title with that rebellious Nation not deemed so sacred and dreadful as to force obedience The Estates therefore of Ireland assembled in Parliament Enacted him King of Ireland according to which Decree he was on the three and twentieth of January publickly Proclaimed About the same time Arthur Viscount Lisle natural Son of Edward the Fourth out of a surfeit of sudden Joy deceased Two of his Servants had been executed the preceding year for having conspired to betray Calais to the French and the Viscount as being conscious committed to the Tower But upon manifestation of his innocence the King sent unto him Sir Thomas Wriothsley Principal Secretary of Estate by whom he signified the great content he received in the Viscount's approved fidelity the effects whereof he should find in his present liberty and that degree of favour that a faithful and beloved Uncle deserved The Viscount receiving such unexpected news imbellished with rich promises and Royal tokens the King having sent him a Diamond of great value of assured favour being not sufficiently capable of so great joy free from all symptoms of any other disease the ensuing night expired After whose decease Sir John Dudley was created Viscount Lisle claiming that Honour as hereditary in the right of his Mother the Lady Elizabeth Sister and Heir to the Lord Edward Grey Viscount Lisle Wife to the late deceased Lord Arthur but formerly married to Edmund Dudley one of the Barons of the Exchequer beheaded the first year of this King's reign Which I the rather remember for that this man afterwards memorable for his power and dignities might have proved more happy in his Issue than his greatness had not his own ambition betrayed some of these fair sprouts to the blast of unseasonable hopes and nature denying any at least lawful Issue to the rest the name and almost remembrance of this great Family hath ceased Of which hereafter Scotland had been long peaceable yet had it often administred motives of discontent and jealousie James the Fifth King of Scots Nephew to Henry by his Sister having long lived a Bachelor Henry treated with him concerning a Marriage with his then only Child the Lady Mary a Match which probably would have united these neighbour Kingdoms But God had reserved this Union for a more happy time The antient League between France and Scotland had always made the Scots affected to the French and James prefer the alliance with France before that of England where the Dowry was no less than the hopes of a Kingdom So he marrieth with Magdalen a Daughter of France who not long surviving he again matcheth there with Mary of Guise Widow to the Duke of Longueville Henry had yet a desire to see his Nephew to which end he desired an interview at York or some other oportune place James would not condescend to this who could not withstanding undertake a long and dangerous voyage into France without invitation These were the first seeds of discord which after bladed to the Scots destruction There having been for two years neither certain Peace nor a just War yet incursions from each side Forces are assigned to the Duke of Norfolk to repress the insolency of the Scots and secure the Marches The Scot upon news of our being in Arms sends to expostulate with the Duke of Norfolk concerning the motives of this War and withal dispatcheth the Lord Gordon with some small Forces to defend the Frontiers The Herald is detained until our Army came to Berwick that he might not give intelligence of our strength And in October the Duke entring Scotland continued there ransacking the Countrey without any opposition of the Enemy until the middle of November By which time King James having levied a great Army resolved on a Battel the Nobility perswading the contrary especially unwilling that he should any way hazard his Person the loss of his Father in the like manner being yet fresh in memory and Scotland too sensible of the calamities that ensued it The King proving obstinate they detain him by force desirous rather to hazard his displeasure than his life This tenderness of him in the language of rage and indignation he terms cowardise and treachery threatning to set on the Enemy assisted with his Family only The Lord Maxwell seeking to allay him promised with ten thousand only to invade England and with far less than the English Forces to divert the War The King seems to consent But offended with the rest of the Nobility he gives the Lord Oliver Saintclare a private Commission not to be opened until they were ready to give the onset wherein he makes him General of the Army Having in England discovered five hundred English Horse led by Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Musgrave the Lord Saintclare commanded his Commission publickly to be read the recital whereof so distasted the Lord Maxwell and the whole Army that all things were in a confusion and they ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoyning Hill gave us a full prospect into their Army and invited us to make use of
In Autumn the Earl of Rutland with three thousand Lansquenets and some Bands drawn out of the frontier Garrisons arrives at Hadington Who duly considering that this Town could not be kept any longer without the excessive charges of a just Army forasmuch as the Countrey about being miserably forraged it could not be victualled without great difficulty and danger rased the Walls fired the Houses brought away the Artillery and finding no resistance returned in safety to Berwick Buchanan refers it to the ensuing year but I follow the record of our own Historians And having thus far spent the year abroad I at length return home where I find Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in the Tower He was a man very learned and no less subtil adhering to the Popish Faction yet so as that he would be content to accommodate himself to the current of the times King Henry had employed him in many Embassages and that with ample authority under whom he durst not oppose the proceedings confirmed by enacted Laws And under Edward he repressed himself for a time seemingly consenting to the commenced Reformation But his dissimulation was at length manifestly discovered to the Privy Council who had commanded him in a Sermon at Pauls Cross to signifie his approbation of the present estate of the Church which he accordingly did on the nine and twentieth of June but so ambiguously and obscurely that he satisfied them not And being expresly forbidden to speak any thing concerning the Eucharist he knowing that by the Laws nothing was definitively determined in that point did so eargerly assert that Papistical I will not say Capernaitical Corporal and Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament that he wonderfully offended the minds of many but especially of the Lords of the Council Wherefore he was on the thirtieth of June committed and obstinately refusing to acknowledge his errour was two years after deprived of his Bishoprick and as he was of a turbulent spirit lest he should practise any thing against the Estate detained nevertheless in prison until the death of Edward In the mean time Archbishop Cranmer by writing oppugned that gross and carnal assertion of the Church of Rome concerning Christ's Presence in the Sacrament whom Gardiner secretly answered under the fictitious name of M. Constantius Neither did that Blood-sucker Boner Bishop of London who in Queen Maries Reign so heated the Kingdom with the Funeral Piles of so many Saints speed any better than Winchester For being likewise enjoyned to Preach at the Cross he did it so coldly omitting many of those points whereof he was commanded to speak that he was likewise committed deprived of his Bishoprick and so lived until Queen Mary set them both at liberty What the Objections were against Cutbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm and George Day Bishop of Chichester I do not find but that they ran the same fortune is manifest They were both very Learned Prelates but especially Tonstall a mild man and of most sweet conditions in regard whereof I do not a little wonder that he was so hardly dealt with But the drift of the punishments of such men who in Henry's time were accounted the chief Lights of our Church I conceive to have been that the rest of that Order might by their example be admonished without dissimulation either to resign their Bishopricks to others that were thought more worthy or be induced to conform themselves to the present Reformation of the Church according to the prescript of the Laws in that behalf lately Enacted And yet I would there were not sufficient cause to suspect that this was but a made opportunity the removal of these obstacles making way for the Invasion of these widow Seas For as soon as Tonstall was exautorated that rich Bishoprick of Duresm by Act of Parliament was wrecked the chief revenues and customs of it being incorporated to the Crown and the rest in despight of the Tenants so gelded that at this day it scarce possesseth the third part of its antient Revenues Yet did Queen Mary seriously endeavour the restitution of those religious portions Queen Elizabeth would hardly consent that it should lose any of its plumes yet some it did and King James hath lately enacted against the Alienation of Church-lands yea even to the Crown otherwise than upon reservation of a reasonable Rent and the return of them to the Church after the expiration of three lives or one and twenty years The hungry Courtier finding how good a thing the Church was had now for some years become acquainted with it out of a zealous intent to Prey Neither could the horridness of her sacred Skeleton as yet so work on him as to divert his resolutions and compassionately to leave the Church to her religious poverty Beside the infancy of the King in this incertain ebb and flow of Religion made her opportune to all kind of Sacriledge So that we are deservedly to thank the Almighty Guardian of the Church that these Locusts have not quite devoured the Maintenance of the Labourers in this English Vineyard For we yet retain that antient form of government in the Primitive Church by Bishops who have for the most part wherewith to support their honourable Function as likewise have other those subordinate Prelates Deans Archdeacons and Canons of Cathedral Churches And as for our Preachers of the more polite and learned sort we think him little befriended by Fortune who long liveth in expectation of a competent preferment I would the residue of the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been pared so near the quick by precise hands that but some few of them might in this kind be paralleled with ours And now behold two Brothers acting their several Tragedies Jealousie Envy and Ambition infernal Furies had armed them against each other and the Pride of the Feminine Sex prepared them for the Lists A lamentable exigent wherein the loss of his Adversary must be the destruction of each wherein the Kingdom must groan at the loss of one both being in the Estate incompatible wherein the King himself must as most suspect he did suffer that he might not suffer Thomas Seymour Lord Admiral had married Catharine Parr the Widow of the deceased King What correspondence there might be between Her who had been the Wife of the late Sovereign and the Duchess of Somerset whose Husband being Protector of the Realm in point of command little differed from a Sovereign and had over his Brother the Admiral the Advantages of Age Dignity and general Esteem if any man cannot without difficulty conjecture I refer him to the first Book of Herodian where let him observe the contentions arising between Crispina the Wife of Commodus and Lucilla who had been formerly married to L. Verus the Emperour But in this the divers dispositions of the Brothers set on edge on the emulous humours of their Wives The Duke was mild affable free open and no way malicious the Admiral was naturally turbulent
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh
Shew and Order The chief man that took the care was Bishop Fox who was not only a grave Counsellor for War or Peace but also a good Surveyor of Works and a good Master of Ceremonies and any thing else that was fit for the Active part belonging to the service of Court or State of a great King This Marriage was almost seven years in Treaty which was in part caused by the tender years of the Marriage-couple especially of the Prince But the true reason was that these two Princes being Princes of great Policy and profound Judgment stood a great time looking one upon another's Fortunes how they would go knowing well that in the mean time the very Treaty it self gave abroad in the World a Reputation of a strait Conjunction and Amity between them which served on both sides to many purposes that their several Affairs required and yet they continued still free But in the end when the Fortunes of both the Princes did grow every day more and more prosperous and assured and that looking all about them they saw no better Conditions they shut it up The Marriage-Money the Princess brought which was turned over to the King by Act of Renunciation was two hundred thousand Ducats Whereof one hundred thousand were payable ten days after the Solemnization and the other hundred thousand at two payments Annual but part of it to be in Jewels and Plate and a due course set down to have them justly and indifferently prized The Joynture or Advancement of the Lady was the third part of the Principality of Wales and of the Dukedom of Cornwal and of the Earldom of Chester to be after set forth in severalty And in case she came to be Queen of England her Advancement was left indefinite but thus That it should be as great as ever any former Queen of England had In all the Devices and Conceits of the Triumphs of this Marriage there was a great deal of Astronomy The Lady being resembled to Hesperus and the Prince to Arcturus and the old King Alphonsus that was the greatest Astronomer of Kings and was Ancestor to the Lady was brought in to be the Fortune-celler of the Match And whosoever had those Toys in Compiling they were not altogether Pedantical But you may be sure that King Arthur the Briton and the descent of the Lady Katherine from the House of Lancaster was in no wise forgotten But as it should seem it is not good to fetch Fortunes from the Stars For this young Prince that drew upon him at that time not only the Hopes and Affections of his Countrey but the Eyes and Expectation of Foreiners after a few Months in the beginning of April deceased at Ludlow-Castle where he was sent to keep his Resiance and Court as Prince of Wales Of this Prince in respect he dyed so young and by reason of his Father's manner of Education that did cast no great Lustre upon his Children there is little particular Memory Only thus much remaineth that he was very studious and learned beyond his years and beyond the Custom of great Princes There was a doubt ripped up in the times following when the Divorce of King Henry the Eighth from the Lady Katherine did so much busie the world whether Arthur was bedded with his Lady or no whereby that matter in fact of Carnal Knowledge might be part of the Case And it is true that the Lady her self denyed it or at least her Council stood upon it and would not blanch that Advantage although the plenitude of the Pope's power of Dispensing was the main Question And this Doubt was kept long open in respect of the two Queens that succeeded Mary and Elizabeth whose Legitimations were incompatible one with another though their Succession was setled by Act of Parliament And the Times that favoured Queen Maries Legitimation would have it believed that there was no Carnal Knowledge between Arthur and Katherine Not that they would seem to derogate from the Pope's absolute power to dispense even in that Case but only in point of Honour and to make the Case more favourable and smooth And the Times that favoured Queen Elizabeths Legitimation which were the longer and the later maintained the contrary So much there remaineth in Memory that it was half a years time between the Creation of Henry Prince of Wales and Prince Arthur's death which was construed to be for to expect a full time whereby it might appear whether the Lady Katherine were with Child by Prince Arthur or no. Again the Lady her self procured a Bull for the better Corroboration of the Marriage with a Clause of vel forsan cognitam which was not in the first Bull. There was given in Evidence also when the cause of the Divorce was handled a pleasant passage which was That in a Morning Prince Arthur upon his up-rising from Bed with her called for drink which he was not accustomed to do and finding the Gentleman of his Chamber that brought him the drink to smile at it and to note it he said merrily to him That he had been in the midst of Spain which was an hot Region and his Journey had made him dry and that if the other had been in so hot a Clime he would have been dryer than he Besides the Prince was upon the point of Sixteen years of Age when he dyed and forward and able in Body The February following Henry Duke of York was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and Flint For the Dukedom of Cornwal devolved to him by Statute The King also being fast-handed and loth to part with a second Dowry but chiefly being affectionate both by his Nature and out of Politick Considerations to continue the Alliance with Spain prevailed with the Prince though not without some Reluctation such as could be in those years for he was not twelve years of Age to be contracted with the Princess Katherine The secret Providence of God ordaining that Marriage to be the Occasion of great Events and Changes The same year were the Espousals of James King of Scotland with the Lady Margaret the King 's eldest Daughter which was done by Proxy and published at Paul's Cross the five and twentieth of January and Te Deum solemnly sung But certain it is that the Joy of the City thereupon shewed by Ringing of Bells and Bon-fires and such other Incense of the People was more than could be expected in a Case of so great and fresh Enmity between the Nations especially in London which was far enough off from feeling any of the former calamities of the War And therefore might be truly attributed to a Secret Instinct and Inspiring which many times runneth not only in the Hearts of Princes but in the Pulse and Veins of People touching the happiness thereby to ensue in time to come This Marriage was in August following consummate at Edenburgh The King bringing his Daughter as far as Colly-Weston on the way and then consigning her to the
Attendance of the Earl of Northumberland who with a great Troop of Lords and Ladies of Honour brought her into Scotland to the King her Husband This Marriage had been in Treaty by the space of almost three years from the time that the King of Scotland did first open his mind to Bishop Fox The Summ given in Marriage by the King was ten thousand Pounds And the Joynture and Advancement assured by the King of Scotland was two thousand Pounds a year after King James his Death and one thousand Pounds a year in present for the Ladys Allowance or Maintenance This to be set forth in Lands of the best and most certain Revenue During the Treaty it is reported that the King remitted the matter to his Council And that some of the Table in the Freedom of Counsellors the King being present did put the Case that if God should take the King 's two Sons without Issue that then the Kingdom of England would fall to the King of Scotland which might prejudice the Monarchy of England Whereunto the King himself replied That if that should be Scotland would be but an Accession to England and not England to Scotland for that the greater would draw the less And that it was a safer Union for England than that of France This passed as an Oracle and silenced those that moved the Question The same year was fatal as well for Deaths as Marriages and that with equal temper For the Joys and Feasts of the two Marriages were compensed with the Mournings and Funerals of Prince Arthur of whom we have spoken and of Queen Elizabeth who dyed in Child-bed in the Tower and the Child lived not long after There dyed also that year Sir Reginold Bray who was noted to have had with the King the greatest Freedom of any Counsellor but it was but a Freedom the better to set off Flattery Yet he bare more than his just part of Envy for the Exactions At this time the King's Estate was very prosperous secured by the Amity of Scotland strengthned by that of Spain cherished by that of Burgundy all Domestick Troubles quenched and all Noise of War like a Thunder a-far-off going upon Italy Wherefore Nuture which many times is happily contained and refrained by some Bands of Fortune began to take place in the King carrying as with a strong Tide his Affections and Thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of Treasure And as Kings do more easily find Instruments for their Will and Humour than for their Service and Honour He had gotten for his purpose or beyond his purpose two Instruments Empson and Dudley whom the people esteemed as his Horse-Leeches and Shearers bold men and careless of Fame and that took Toll of their Master 's Grist Dudley was of a good Family Eloquent and one that could put Hateful Business into good Language But Empson that was the Son of a Sieve-maker triumphed always upon the Deed done putting off all other respects whatsoever These two Persons being Lawyers in Science and Privy Counsellors in Authority as the corruption of the best things is the worst turned Law and Justice into Wormwood and Rapine For first their manner was to cause divers Subjects to be indicted of sundry Crimes and so far forth to proceed in form of Law But when the Bills were found then presently to commit them And nevertheless not to produce them to any reasonable time to their Answer but to suffer them to languish long in Prison and by sundry artificial Devices and Terrours to extort from them great Fines and Ransoms which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the end observe so much as the Half-face of Justice in proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to attach men and convent them before themselves and some others at their private Houses in a Court of Commission and there used to shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination without tryal of Jury assuming to themselves there to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to enthral and charge the Subjects Lands with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices and thereby to work upon them for Wardships Liveries Primier Seisins and Alienations being the fruits of those Tenures refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delays to admit men to traverse those False Offices according to the Law Nay the King's Wards after they had accomplished their full Age could not be suffered to have Livery of their Lands without paying excessive Fines far exceeding all reasonable Rates They did also vex men with Informations of Intrusion upon scarce colourable Titles When men were Out-lawed in Personal Actions they would not permit them to purchase their Charters of Pardon except they paid great and intolerable summs standing upon the strict Point of Law which upon Out-lawries giveth Forfeiture of Goods Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintained the King ought to have the half of mens Lands and Rents during the space of full two years for a Pain in Case of Out-lawry They would also ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to find as they would direct and if they did not Convent them Imprison them and Fine them These and many other Courses fitter to be buried than repeated they had of Preying upon the People both like Tame Hawks for their Master and like Wild Hawks for themselves in so much as they grew to great Riches and Substance But their principal working was upon Penal Laws wherein they spared none great nor small nor considered whether the Law were possible or impossible in Use or Obsolete But raked over all old and new Statutes though many of them were made with intention rather of Terrour than of Rigour having ever a Rabble of Promoters Questmongers and leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any thing found either for Fact or Valuation There remaineth to this day a Report that the King was on a time entertained by the Earl of Oxford that was his principal Servant both for War and Peace nobly and sumptuously at his Castle at Henningham And at the King 's going away the Earl's Servants stood in a seemly manner in their Livery-Coats with Cognisances ranged on both sides and made the King a 〈◊〉 The King called the Earl to him and said My Lord I have heard much of your Hospitality but I see it is greater than the speech These handsom Gentlemen and Yeomen which I see on both sides of me are sure your Menial Servants The Earl smiled and said It may please your Grace that were not for mine ease They are most of them my Retainers they are come to do me service at such a time as this and chiefly to see your Grace The King started a little and said By my faith my Lord I thank you for my good Cheer but I may not endure to have my Laws broken in my sight My Attorney must speak with you And it is part of the Report