Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	daughter_n	heir_n	marry_v	22,785	5	9.8759	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43553	A survey of the estate of France, and of some of the adjoyning ilands taken in the description of the principal cities, and chief provinces, with the temper, humor, and affections of the people generally, and an exact accompt of the publick government in reference to the court, the church, and the civill state / by Peter Heylyn ; pbulished according to the authors own copy, and with his content for preventing of all faith, imperfect, and surreptitious impressions of it.; Full relation of two journeys	Heylyn, Peter, 1600-1662.	1656 (1656)	Wing H1737; ESTC R9978	307,689	474

eight Sols daily The Governor of them is the Duke of Chaune who is also the Lieutenant or Deputy Governour of the whole Province under the Constable their Captain Mr. Le Noyre said to be a man of good experience and worthy his place This Citadel was built by Henry 4. as soon as he had recovered the Town from the Spaniards anno 1597. It is seated on the lower part of the City though somewhat on the advantage of an hill and seemeth in mine opinion better situate to command the Town then to defend it or rather to recover the Town being taken then to save it from taking They who have seen it and know the arts of fortification report it to be impregnable Quod nec Jo●is ira nec ign●s Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas Nor am I able to contradict it For besides that it is a skill beyond my profession we were not permitted to come within it or to take a survey of it but at a distance As soon as we approached high unto it one of the Garrison proffes'd us the Musket a sufficient warning not to be too venturous So that all which I could observe was this that they had within themselves good plenty of earth to make their Gabions and repair their breaches With the same jealousie also are the rest of the Forts and Towns of importance guarded in this and other Countreys no people that ever I heard being so open in shewing their places of strength and safety unto strangers as the English For a dozen of Ale a foreiner may pace over the curtain of Portsmouth and measure every stone and bulwark of it For a shilling more he shall see their provision of powder and other munition And when that is done if he will he shall walk the round too A French crown sathometh the wals of Dover Castle and for a pinte of wine one may see the nakednesse of the blockhouses at Gravesend A negligence which may one day cost us dearly though we now think it not For what else do we in it but commit that prodigall folly for which Pltarch condemned Pericles that is to break open all the pal●s and inclosures of our land to the end that every man might come in freely and take away our fruit at his pleasure Jealousie though a vice in a man towards his wife is yet one of the safest vertues in a Governor towards his fortresse and therefore I could wish that an English man would in this particular borrow a little of the Italian Besides these souldiers which are continually in garrison for the defence of the Citadell there are also 300 which keep watch every night for the defence of the City The watchmen receive no pay of the King but discharge that duty amongst themselves and in turns every house finding one for that service twelve nights in the year The weapons which they use are pikes only and muskets there being not one piece of Ordinance all about the Town or on the wals of it The Governor of this Town as it hath reference to the King is a Bailly who hath belonging to him all the authority which belongeth to a siege Pres●dial Under him he hath a Lieutenant generall and particular seven Counsellors a publick Notary and other inferior Officers and Magistrates As it is a Corporation the chief Governor of it is a Maior and next to him the E●sohevins or Sheriffs as protectors of the inhabitants and their liberties besides those of the Common-councell Another circumstance there is which 〈◊〉 this Town of Amiens which is that it is a Visdamate or that it giveth honour to one of the Nobility who is called the Visdame of Amiens This title at this time belongeth to the Duke of Chaune Governor of the Ci●adell together with the Lordship of Piquigni both which he obtained by marrying the daughter and heir of the last Visdame of Amiens and Lord of Piquigni anno 1619. A marriage which much advanced his fortunes and which was compassed for him by the Constable Luynes his brother who also obtained for him of the King the title of Duke his highest attribute before being that of Mr. de Cadinet by which name he was known here in England at such time when he was sent extraordinary Embassador to King James This honour of Visdame is for ought I could ever see used only in France True it is that in some old English Charters we meet with this title of Vice-dominus As in the Charter of King Edred to the Abbey of Crowland in Lincolnshire dated in the year 948. there is there subscribed Ego Ingulph Vice-dominus but with us and at those times this title was only used to denote a subordination to some superior Lord and not as an honorary attribute in which sense it is now used in France Besides that with us it was frequently though falsly used for Vice comes Between which two offices of a Vicount and a Visdame there are found no small resemblances For as they which did gerere vicem Comitis were called Vicecomites or Vicounts so were they also called Vidames or Vicedomini qui domini episcopi vicem gerebant in temporalibus And as Vicounts from officers of the Earls became honorary so did the Vidames disclaim their relation to the Bishop and became Signieural or honorary also The Vidames then according to their first institution were the substitutes of the greater Bishops in matter of secular administration for which cause though they have altered their tenure they take all of them their denomination from the chieftown of some Bishoprick Neither is there any of them who holdeth not of some Bishoprick or other Concerning the number of them that are thus dignified I cannot determine Mr. Glover otherwise alled Somerset Herald in his Discourse of Nobility published by Mr. Milles of Canterbury putteth it down for absolute that here are four only viz. of Amiens of Chartres of Chalons and of Gerberey in Beauvais but in this he hath deceived both himself and his readers there being besides those divers others as of Rheimes Mans and the like But the particular and exact number of them together with the place denominating I leave to the French Heralds unto whose profession it principally belongeth CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principal Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the cut-side The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick THere is yet one thing which addeth more lustre to the City of Amiens then either the Vidamate or the Citadel which is the Church of Nostre Dame A name by which most of the principal Churches are known in France There have

●misit i●a victoria as Tacitus of the angred Romans For they spared neither man nor woman nor childe all equally subject to the cruelty of the sword and the Conquerour The streets paved with dead carkasses the channels running with the bloud of Christians no noise in the streets but of such as were welcoming death or suing for life Their Churches which the Goths spared at the sack of Rome were at this place made the Theatres of lust and bloud neither priviledge of Sanctuary nor fear of God in whose holy house they were qualifying their outrage this in the common places At dom●● interior gemi●u miser●que 〈◊〉 Mis●etur pe 〈…〉 tusque cavae plangoribus ●des 〈◊〉 ulu 〈…〉 A● Virgil in the ruine of Trey But the calamities which bese●● the men were mercifull and sparing if computed to those which the women suffered when the Souldiers had made them the objects of their lust they made them also the subjects of their 〈◊〉 in that only pittifull to that poor and distressed sex that they did not ●et them survive their honours Such of them who out of ●ear and ●aintness had made but little resistance had the favour to be stabbed but those whose virtue and courage maintaned their bodies valiantly from the rapes of those villains had the secrets of nature procul hinc este castae misericordes au●es filled with gun-powder and so blown into ashes Whither O you divine powers is humanity fled when it is not to be found in Christians or where shall we look for the effects of a pitifull nature when men are become so unnaturall It is said that the King was ignorant of this barbarousnesse and offended at it Offended I perswade my self he could not but be unlesse he had totally put off himself and degenerated into a Tyger But for his ignorance I dare not conceive it to be any other then that of Ner● an ignorance rather in his eye then understanding Subduxit oculos Nero saith Tacitus jussitque se●lera non spectavil Though the Protestants deserved affliction for their disobedience yet this was an execution above the nature of a punishment a misery beyond the condition of the crime True it is and I shall never acquit them of it that in the time of their prosperity they had done the King many affronts and committed many acts of disobedience and insolency which justly occasioned the war against them for besides those already recited they themselves first broke those Edicts the due execution whereof seemed to have been their only petition The King by his Edict of pacification had licenced the free exercise of both Religions and thereupon permitted the Priests and Jesuits to preach in the Towns of Caution being then in the hands of the Protestants On the other side the Protestants assembled at ●oudun strictly commanded all their Governors Majors and Sheriffs nor to suffer any Jesuits nor any of any other Order to preach in their Towns although licenced by the Bishop of the Diocese When upon dislike of their proceedings in that Assembly the King had declared their meeting to be unlawfull and contrary to his peace and this Declaration was verified against them by the Parliament they notwithstanding would not separate themselves but stood still upon terms of capitulation and the justifiableness of their action again Whereas it hapned that the Lord of Privas a Town full of those of the Religion dyed in the year 1620 and left his daughter and heir in the bed and marriage of the Viscount of Cheylane a Catholick this new Lord according to law and right in his own Town changed the former Garrison putting his own servants and dependants in their places Upon this the Protestants of the Town and Countrey round about it draw themselves in troops surprise many of the Towns about it and at last compelled the young Gentleman to flie from his inheritance an action which jumping even with the time of the Assembly at Rochell made the King more doubtfull of their sincerity I could add to these divers others of their undutifull practises being the effects of too much felicitie and of a fortune which they could not govern Atqui animus meminisse horret luctuque refugit These their insolencies and unruly acts of disobedience made the King and his Counsell suspect that their designes tended further then Religion and that their purpose might be to make themselves a free State after the example of Geneva and the Low-countreymen The late power which they had taken of calling their own Synods and Convocations was a strong argument of their purpose so also was the intelligence which they held with those of their own faith At the Synod of Gappe called by the permission of Henry the fourth on the first of October anno 1603. they not only gave audience to Ambassadours and received Letters from forain Princes but also importuned his Majesty to have a generall liberty of going into any other Countries and assisting at their Councels a matter of especiall importance and therefore the King upon a foresight of the dangers wisely prohibited them to goe to any Assemblies without a particular Licence upon pain to be declared Traytors Since that time growing into greater strength whensoever they had occasion of businesse with King Lewis they would never treat with him but by their Ambassadours and upon especiall Articles An ambition above the quality of those that professe themselves Subjects and the only way as Du Seirres noteth To make an Estate in the State But the answers made unto the King by those of Clerac and Montauban are pregnant proofs of their intent and meaning in this kinde the first being summoned by the King and his Army the 21 of July Anno 1621. returned thus That the King should suffer them to enjoy their Lilerties and leave their Fortifications as they were for the safety of their lives and so they would declare themselves to be his Subjects They of Montauban made a fuller expression of the generall design and disobedience which was That they were resolved to live and die in the union of the Churches had they said for the service of the King it had been spoken bravely but now rebelliously This Union and Confederacy of theirs King Lewis used to call the Common-wealth of Rochell for the overthrow of which he alwayes protested that he had only taken armes and if we compare circumstances we shall finde it to be no other In the second of Aprill before he had as yet advanced into the field he published a Declaration in favour of all those of the Religion which would contain themselves within duty and obedience And whereas some of Tours at the beginning of the wars had tumultuously molested the Protestants at the buriall of one of their dead five of them by the Kings commandement were openly executed When the war was hottest abroad those of the Religion in Paris lived as securely as ever and had their accustomed meetings at Charenton so had

the affaires of the King This Court the main pillar of the Liberty of France La Tournelle and the Judges of it The five Chambers of Enquestes severally instituted and by whom In what cause it is decisive The forme of admitting Advocates into the Courts of Parliament The Chancellour of France and his Authority The two Courts of Requests and Masters of them The vain envy of the English Clergy against the Lawyers p. 104. CHAP. IX The Kings Palace of the Louure by whom built The unsutablenesse of it The fine Gallery of the Queen Mother The long Gallery of Henry IV. His magnanimous intent to have built it into a quadrangle Henry IV. a great builder His infinite project upon the Mediterranean and the Ocean La Salle des Antiques The French not studious of Antiquities Burbon house The Tuilleries c. p. 113. La BEAUSE OR THE THIRD BOOK CHAP. I. Our Journey towards Orleans the Town Castle and Battail of Mont l'hierrie Many things imputed to the English which they never did Lewis the 11. brought not the French Kings out of wardship The town of Chartroy and the mourning Church there The Countrey of La Beause and people of it Estampes The dancing there The new art of begging in the Innes of this Countrey Angerville Tury The sawciness of the French Fidlers Three kindes of Musick amongst the Antient. The French Musick p. 121. CHAP. II. The Country and site of Orleans like that of Worcester The Wine of Orleans Praesidial Towns in France what they are The sale of Offices in France The fine walk and pastime of the Palle Malle The Church of St. Croix founded by Superstition and a miracle Defaced by the Hugonots Some things hated only for their name The Bishop of Orleans and his priviledge The Chappell and Pilgrims of St. Jacques The form of Masse in St Croix C●n●ing an Heathenish custome The great siege of Orleans raised by Joan the Virgin The valour of that woman that she was no witch An Elogie on her p. 131. CHAP. III. The study of the Civill Law revived in Europe The dead time of learning The Schools of Law in Orleans The oeconomie of them The Chancellour of Oxford antiently appointed by the Diocesan Their methode here and prodigality in bestowing degrees Orleans a great conflux of strangers The language there The Corporation of Germans there Their house and priviledges Dutch and Latine The difference between an Academie and an University p. 145. CHAP. IV. Orleans not an University till the comming of the Jesuites Their Colledge there by whom built The Jesuites no singers Their laudable and exact method of teaching Their policies in it Received not without great difficulty into Paris Their houses in that university Their strictnesse unto the rules of their order Much maliced by the other Priests and Fryers Why not sent into England with the Queen and of what order they were that came with her Our return to Paris p. 152. PICARDIE OR THE FOURTH BOOK CHAP. I. Our return towards England More of the Hugonots hate unto Crosses The town of Luzarch and St. Loupae The Country of Picardie and people Tho Picts of Britain not of this Countrey Mr. Lee Dignicoes Governour of Picardie The office of Constable what it is in France By whom the place supplyed in England The marble table in France and causes there handled Clermount and the Castle there The war raised up by the Princes against D' Ancre What his designes might tend to c. p. 162. CHAP. II. The fair City of Amiens and greatnesse of it The English feasted within it and the error of that action the Town how built-seated and fortified The Citadell of it thought to be impregnable Not permitted to be viewed The overmuch opennesse of the English in discovering their strength The watch and form of Government in the Town Amiens a Visdamate to whom it pertaineth What that honour is in France And how many there enjoy it c. p. 169. CHAP. III. The Church of Nostre Dame in Amiens The principall Churches in most Cities called by her name More honour performed to her then to her Saviour The surpassing beauty of this Church on the outside The front of it King Henry the sevenths Chappel at Westminster The curiousnesse of this Church within By what means it became to be so The sumptuous masking closets in it The excellency of perspective works Indulgences by whom first founded The estate of the Bishoprick p. 175. CHAP. IV. Our Journey down the Some and Company The Town and Castle of Piquigni for what famous Comines censure of the English in matter of Prophecies A farewell to the Church of Amiens The Town and Castle of Pont D' Armie Abbeville how seated and the Garrison there No Governour in it but the Major or Provost The Authors imprudent curiosity and the curtesie of the Provost to him The French Post-horses how base and tyred My preferment to the Trunk-horse The horse of Philip de Comines The Town and strength of Monstreuille The importance of these three Towns to the French border c. p. 183. CHAP. V. The County of Boulonnois and Town of Boulogne by whom Enfranchized The present of Salt butter Boulogne divided into two Towns Procession in the lower Town to divert the Plague The forme of it Procession and the Letany by whom brought into the Church The high Town Garrisoned The old man of Boulogne and the desperate visit which the Author bestowed upon him The neglect of the English in leaving open the Havens The fraternity De la Charite and inconveniency of it The costly Journey of Henry VIII to Boulogne Sir Walt. Raleghs censure of that Prince condemned The discourtesie of Charles V. towards our Edward VI. The defence of the house of Burgundy how chargeable to the Kings of England Boulogne yeilded back to the French and on what conditions The curtesie and cunning of my Host of Bovillow p. 192. FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse Iaqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all marryed and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull Brother The title of Monsieur in France Monsieur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 month King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monsieur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen Mother a wise

to redeem him To which he answered that we had carryed our selves like Gentlemen which gave him no distrust of a reall payment that he would take if we pleased a Bill of our hands for the money to be paid in Dover and desired that we would give him leave to send over a servant in our Boat with a basket of poultery who should receive the money of us and give back our Bond. This being agreed upon the next morning we took boat for England the Mariners knowing nothing else but that the servant went over only to sell his Poultery that being an opportunity frequently indulged by them unto those of the Town though we knew well enough he went on another errand and as we could not but commend my Host for his courtesie and his care taken of our credit so we had reason to esteem our selves in a kinde of custody in that he would not let us stir without a Keeper Nor did my Host lose any thing by his kindnesse to us For we not only paid him honestly all his full demands but bestowed a reward upon his servant and sent a present of Gloves and Knives commodities much prized in France to his Wife and Daughters that he might see we knew as well how to require as receive a curtesie Which said I must step back into France again that having taken a brief view already of the Principall Provinces I may render some accompt of the Government also in reference to the Courts the Church and the Civill State The End of the Fourth Book A SURVEY OF THE STATE of FRANCE FRANCE GENERAL OR THE FIFTH BOOK Describing the Government of the Kingdom generally in reference to the Court the Church and the Civill Sate CHAP. I. A transition to the Government of France in generall The person age and marriage of King Lewis XIII Conjecturall reasons of his being issuelesse ●aqueline Countesse of Holland kept from issue by the house of Burgundy The Kings Sisters all married and his alliances by them His naturall Brethren and their preferments His lawfull brother The title of Monseiur in France Monseiur as yet unmarried not like to marry Montpensiers daughter That Lady a fit wife for the Earl of Soissons The difference between him and the Prince of Conde for the Crown in case the line of Navarre fail How the Lords stand affected in the cause Whether a child may be born in the 11 moneth King Henry IV. a great lover of fair Ladies Monseiur Barradas the Kings favorite his birth and offices The omniregency of the Queen Mother and the Cardinall of Richileiu The Queen mother a wise and prudent woman HAving thus taken a survey of these four Provinces which we may call the Abstract and Epitome of the Realm of France and having seen in them the temper humors and conditions of the people of it We will next take a generall view of the Governors and Government thereof with reference to the Court the Church and the Civill State First for the Court we must in reason in the first place begin with the person of the King without whose influence and presence the Court is but a dead ●arkasse void of life and Majesty For person he is of the middle stature and rather well proportioned then large his face knoweth little yet of a beard but that which is black and swarty his complexion also much of the same hew carrying in it a certain boisterousnesse and that in a farther measure then what a gracefull majesty can admit of so that one can hardly say of him without a spite of Courtship which Paterculus did of Tiberius Quod visus praetulerit principem that his countenance proclaimed him a King But questionlesse his greatest defect is want of utterance which is very unpleasing by reason of a desperate and uncurable stammering which defect is likely more and more to grow upon him At this time he is aged 24 years and as much as since the 27 day of last September which was his birth day an age which he beareth not very plaufible want of beard and the swarthinesse of his complexion making him seem older At the age of 11 years he was affianced to the Lady Anna Infanta of Spain by whom as yec he hath no children It is thought by many and covertly spoken by divers in France that the principall cause of the Queens barrennesse proceedeth from Spain that people being loath to fall under the French obedience which may very well happen she being the eldest Sister of the King For this cause in the seventh Article of the marriage there is a clause that neither the said Infanta nor the children born by her to the King shall be capable to inherit any of the Estates of the King of Spain And in the eight Article she is bound to make an Act of Renunciation under her own hand-writing as soon as she cometh to be 12 years old which was accordingly performed But this being not sufficient to secure their fears it is thought that she was some way or other disabled from conception before ever she came into the Kings imbraces A great crime I confesse if true yet I cannot say with Tully in his defence of Ligarius Novum Crimen Caje Caear ante hoc tempus inauditum Iaqueline Countesse of Holland was Cousen to Philip Duke of Burgundy her fruitfulnesse would have debarred him from those Estates of Holland Z●aland and West Friezland therefore though she had three husbands there was order taken she should never have child with her first two husbands the Duke would never suffer her to live and when she had stolen a wedding with Frane of Borselle one of her servants the Dukes Physitians gave him such a potion that she might have as well marryed an Eu●uch upon this injury the poor Lady dyed and the Duke succeeded in those Countries which by his Grand-childe Mary were conveyed over into the house of Austria together with the rest of his estates I dare not say that that Family hath inherited his practises with his Lands and yet I have heard that the Infanta Isabella had the like or worse measure afforded her before she was bedded by the Arch Duke Albertus A Diabolicall trick which the prostitutes of the Heathen used in the beginning of the Gospell and before of whom Octavius complaineth Quod originem futuri hominis extinguant paricidium faciunt antequam pariunt Better luck then the King hath his Sister beyond the Mountains I mean his eldest Sister Madam Elizabeth marryed to the King of Spain now living as being or having been the mother of two children His second Sister Madam Christian is marryed unto Amadeo Victor principe major or heir apparent to the Duke of Savoy to whom as yet she hath born no issue The youngest Madam Henrietta Maria is newly marryed to his most Excellent Majesty of England to whom may she prove of a most happy and fruitfull womb Et pulcr● faciat te prole parentem

forced to pay deerly for every foot of ground which there he purchaseth For other strengths this Island is in part beholding unto Nature and somewhat also unto Art To Nature which hath guarded it with Rocks and Shelves and other shallow places very dangerous but neither these nor those of Art so serviceable and full of safety as they be in Guernzey Besides the landing places here are more and more accessible as namely the Bay of St. Owen and the Havens of St. Burlade Boule St. Katharines with divers others There is indeed one of them and that the principall sufficiently assured on the one side by a little Blockhouse which they call Mount St. Aubin and on the other by a fair Castle called the Fort Elizabeth The Harbour it self is of a good capacity in figure like a semicircle or a crescent and by reason of the Town adjoyning known by the name of the Haven of St. Hilaries On that side o● it next the Town and in a little Islet of it self is situate the Castle environed with the Sea at high water but at an ebb easily accessible by land but yet so naturally defended with sharpe Rocks and craggy cliftes that though the accesse unto it may be easie yet the surprizall would be difficult It was built not long since by our late Queen of famous memory at such times as the Civill warres were hot in France about Religion and the Kings Forces drawn downwards towards Narmandy Furnished with 30 pieces of Ordinance and upwards and now upon the preparations of the French there are some new works begun about it for the assurance of that well On the East side just opposite and in the view of the City of Constantia there is seated on an high and craggy rock a most strong Castle and called by an haughty name Mount Orgueil of whose founder I could learn nothing nor any other thing which might concern it in matter of antiquity save that it was repaired and beautified by Henry V. It is for the most part the inhabitatiou of the Governour who is Captain of it stored with about some forty pieces of Ordinance and guarded by some five and twenty wardours A place of good service for the safety of the Island if perhaps it may not be commanded or annoied by an hill adjoyning which doth equall if not overtop it This Island as before we noted is some 33 miles in compasse comprehending in it 12. Parishes whereof the principall is that of S. Hilaries A● Town so called from an antient Father of that name and Bishop of Poyctiers in France whose body they suppose to be interred in a little Chappell neer unto the Fort Elizabeth and consecrated to his memory But of his buriall here they have nothing further then tradition and that unjustifiable for St Jerome telleth us that after his return from Phrygia whereunto he had been confined he dyed in his own City and we learn in the Roman Martyrclogie that his Obit is there celebrated on the 13 of January The chief name the which this Town now hath is for the convenioncy of the Haven the Market there every Saturday and that it is honoured with the Cohu or Sessions house for the whole Island The other Villages lie scattered up and down like those of Guernzey and give habitation to a people very painfull and laborious but by reason of their continuall toyle and labour not a little affected to a kinde of melancholy 〈…〉 surlinesse incident to plough men Those of Gue●nzey on the other side by continuall converse with strangers in their own haven and by travailing abroad being much more sociable and generous Add to this that the people here are more poor and therefore more destitute of humanity the children here continually craving almes of every stranger whereas in all Guernzey I did not see one begger A principall reason of which poverty I suppose to be their exceeding populousnesse there being reckoned in so small a quantity of ground neer upon thirty thousand living souls A matter which gave us no small cause of admiration and when my Lord of Danby seemed to wonder how such a span of earth could contain such multitudes of people I remember that Sir John Payton the Lieutenant Governour made him this answer viz. That the people married within themselves like Conies in a burrow and further that for more then thirty years they never had been molested either with Sword Pestilence or Famine A second reason of their poverty add also of their numbers may be the little liking they have to Trafick whereby as they might have advantage to improve themselves and employ their poor so also might that service casually diminish their huge multitudes by the losse of some men and diverting others from the thought of marriage But the main cause as I conceive it is the tenure of their Lands which are equally to be divided amongst all the Sons of every Father and those parcels also to be subdivided even ad infinitnm Hence is it that in all the Countries you shall hardly finde a field of Corne of larger compasse then an ordinary Garden every one now having a little to himself and that little made lesse to his posterity This Tenure our Lawyers call by the name of Gavel-kinde that is as some of them expound it Give all-kinne because it is amongst them all to be divided For thus the Law speaking of the customes of Kent in the 16 Chap. De praerogatlva Regis Ibidem omnes haetedes masculi participabant haereditatem ●orum similiter soeminae sed soemine non participabunt cum viri● A tenure which on the one side hath many priviledges and on the other side as many inconveniences For first they which hold in this Tenure are free from all customary services exempt from wardship at full age when they come to 15 years and if they please they may alienate their estates either by gift or sale without the assent or knowledge of the Lord. But which is most of all in case the Father be attaint of Felony or Murder there is no Escheat of it to the Lord the whole Estate after the King hath had Diem annum vastum descending on the Heires Et post annum diem terrae tenementa reddentur revertentur porximo haeredi cui debuerant descendisse si felonia facta non fuisset so the Lawyers On the other side by this means their estates are infinitely distracted their houses impoverished the Kings profits in his Subsidies diminished and no little disadvantage to the publick service in the finding of Armours for the Wars Whereupon as many Gentlemen of Kent have altered by especiall Acts of Parliament the antient Tenure of their Lands and reduced it unto Knights-service so is it wished by the better sort of this people and intended by some of them that their Tenure may be also altered and brought into the same condition A matter of no little profit and advantage to the