next Parliament declared Protector only and so moderate as to permit his two great Supporters the Earl of Salisbury then Lord Chancellor and the Earl of Warwick Captain of Callice to share with him for a while in the power who making up a kind of Triumvirate for the time being placed and displaced whom they pleased Upon which the King foreseeing the evil Consequences was moved with a condescention beneath his Majesty to offer an Accommodation which not taking effect both sides prepared to begin the War afresh which ended not with themselves The principal Persons for Quality Power and Interest that stuck to the King were the young Duke of Somerset the Dukes of Exeter and Buckingham the Earls of Oxford Northumberland Shrewsbury Pembroke Ormond and Wiltshire the Lords Clifford Gray Egremount Dacres Beaumont Scales Awdley Wells c. who having muster'd all the Forces they could make incamped near Northampton Thither came the Earl of March Son and Heir to the Duke of York his Father being then in Ireland to give them Battel assisted by the Duke of Norfolk the Earls of Warwick Salisbury Huntington Devon Essex Kent Lincoln c. all men of great Name and Power with whom were the Lords Faulconbridge Scroop Stamford Stanley c. and so fierce was the Encounter betwixt them that in less then two hours above ten thousand men lost their Lives amongst whom the principal on the Kings side were the Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lords Egremount and Beaumont the unfortunate King being made Prisoner the second time who by the Earl of Warwick was conveighed to the Tower Upon which the Queen taking with her the Prince and the young Duke of Somerset fled The rumour of which Victory brought the Duke of York over who laying aside all disguises in the next Parliament call'd for that purpose pâ—aced himself on the Throne and with great Assurance laid open his claim to the Crown as Son and Heir to the Lady Anne Daughter and Heir to Roger Mortimer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa sole Daughter and Heir of Lyonel Duke of Clarence third Son of Edward the Third and elder Brother to John of Gaunt Father of Henry the Fourth who was Grandfather to him that as he said now untruly stiled himself King by the Name of Henry the Sixth This though it was no feign'd Title but known to all the Lords yet such was their prudence that they left the King de facto to enjoy his Royalty during his Life and declar'd t'other only Heir apparent with this Caution for the Peace of the Kingdom That if King Henry 's Friends should attempt the disanulling of that that then the Duke should have the present Possession But this nothing daunted the Queen who having raised eighteen thousand men in Scotland resolv'd to urge Fortune once more and accordingly they met the Yorkists at Wakefield where to mock her with a present Victory Fortune gave her the Duke of York's Life who vainly had stil'd himself Protector of the Kingdom being not able it seems to protect himself but pity it was he could not save his innocent Son the Earl of Rutland a hopeful Youth of not above Twelve years old who being brought into the Army only to see fashions was inhumanly murther'd by the Lord Clifford kneeling upon his knees and begging for his life that angry Lord making him a Sacrifice as he said to appease the injured Ghost of his Father murther'd by t'others Father which Cruelty was fully and suddenly repaid by the Earl of March who in the Battel at Mortimer's Cross slew three thousand eight hundred of the Lancastrian Forces and having put the Earl of Ormond to slight cut off the head of Owen Tuthor who had married King Henry's Mother which it seems did not so weaken or dishearten them but that they recover'd themselves and took their full revenge at the Battel of Barnet-heath where the Queen was again Victorious But such was the activity of the Earl of March that before she could recover London he came up to her and passing by entred the City in Triumph before her whereby he had so far the Start in point of Opinion that he was forthwith elected King by the Name of Edward the Fourth leaving King Henry so much more miserable in that he lost not his Life with his Majesty But herein consisted his happiness That he was the only Prince perhaps of the World that never distinguish'd betwixt Adversity and Prosperity being so intent upon his Devotion as to think nothing Adversity that did not interrupt that Nature having rather fitted him for a Priest then a King and perhaps rather for a Sacrifice then a Priest that he might not otherwise dye then as a Martyr that had lived all his time so like a Confessor HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE The sudden end of these his Competitors gave K. Edward as sudden an end to all his Troubles though not to his Wars For having setled peace at home he was provok'd to take Revenge upon his Enemies abroad falling first upon the King of France after upon the King of Scots but they thinking themselves as unable to grapple with him as two Foxes with the Lion bought their Peace and avoided the ill Consequences of his Fury till Death the common Foe of Mankind made him turn another way forcing him to end the Race of his Fortune as he began it like the Great Augustus Caesar who at the same Age succeeded his slaughter'd Predecessor and by a like Fate was disappointed of his intended Successor HON · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE This was as much as Humane Policy could do but in vain doth he strive to preserve what Heaven had decreed to overthrow Having by his Will declar'd his ambitious Brother Gloucester Protector of both the Children he was resolv'd to let this act the part of King and no King no longer then till his Tyranny could support it self by its own Authority who having to do with the Mother a weak Woman for to her from whom they received their Lives was these helpless Princes to owe their Deaths he had that respect to her Frailty as to keep time with her slow pac'd fears in deferring his intended Paracide till she that was their Nurse thought it fit time to bring them to bed Unhappy Youths to whom the Tenderness of their Mother must prove no less fatal than the Cruelty of their Uncle Had she in the first place Insisted upon the keeping them herself as what fitter Guardian then their own Mother or had she not in the last place Rashly consented to the taking off that Guard which her Husband had so providently placed about them or had at least suffer'd the King to have continued for a while longer at that distance he was when his Father dyed where by his Education and Acquaintance he might have as well secured the Peoples Faith as he was secur'd by
was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
being to advise at the price of his own Head the Arch bishop of York like a man of great Faith was of Opinion to sight them with such present Strength as the King had trusting to the Justice of the Cause the Dukes of Ireland and Suffolk men of Action but wanting the means were for delivering up Calais to the French King to purchase his Assistance But the Majority of Voices coming from such men whose Fears made them rather wise then honest were for appeasing the Enemy with fair promises till there were a fit opportunity to suppress them the first Proposal was thought very hazardous the second much more besides there was such a bitterness in the Pill that no preparation could make the King to swallow it who not knowing what effect it might have when it was done utterly rejected it upon which they secretly withdrew that gave the Counsel and left him to himself Whereupon the Lords Regent found an opportunity to be admitted to a Parley with him who producing to him Letters from the King of France which they had intercepted pursuant to the Design of bringing in a Forreign Enemy they mov'd him no less by shame then dread of the Consequence to consent to the calling another Parliament Upon the day of the Convention the King came not to the House being infinitely troubled in his mind at News he had just then received of the Earl of Derby's Intercepting the Duke of Ireland who being gone as far as Chester in order to his passing into that Kingdom was set upon by the said Earl and totally defeated who hardly escaping fled into the Low-countries where not long after he dyed The Lords heightened with this Success sent a very harsh Message to him letting him know that they attended him there and if he would not come to the House according to promise they would chuse another King that should hearken to their faithful advice This though it were in effect no other but to tell him they would depose him without his consent if he would not come and consent to be depos'd yet having no Retreat from it but down a steep Precipice he chose rather to compâ—y and put himself under the mercy of Providence then under the uncertainty of their Mercy Upon his first appearance they presented him with a black Roll of those whom he call'd his Friends they his Enemies some to be prescrib'd some to be imprison'd and others banish'd and in this last List there were not only Lords but Ladies found Delinquents Some were accus'd of imbeziling his Treasure others of purloyning his Affection all for robbing him of his Honour whereupon some were to be try'd for their Lives others for their Fortunes and all for their Liberties but in respect of their other great Affairs which were in order to what followed they referred it to the succeeding Parliament not unfitly call'd the Parliament that wrought wonders which contrary to all other Parliaments that used to swear Obedience to the King requir'd an Oath of him himself to observe such Rules and Orders as they should prescribe to him Here now we have this unfortunate Prince brought to the last year of his Rule though not of his Reign beginning then to enter into his Wardship as he call'd it when he thought he was just got out of it All power was put into the hands of the Dukes of Lancaster and Gloucester who managed all Treaties abroad concluded War and Peace as they thought fit and were indeed absolute in every point but the Command of their own Passions and uncontroulable by any but themselves The Duke of Lancaster having now digested the Kingdom in his thoughts procures the Dutchy of Acquitaine to be setled on him as an earnest of what was to follow being the Inheritance of the Crown and descended on the King from Prince Edward his Father and having married up the King to a Child of eight years old by whom 't was impossible he could have Issue with a Portion that scarce defraid the Charge of the Solemnity he secur'd his own Pretensions by Legitimating three of his Bastard Sons in case his lawful Issue should fail The Duke of Gloucester had the same Ambition in his heart as well as the same Blood in his Veins but Nature having put a disadvantage upon him by placing him so far behind being the sixth Son of King Edward the Third he was forc'd to gratifie his Envy instead of his Ambition and rest content with the hopes of doing his Brother a Mischief when time serv'd without any great probability of doing himself good Accordingly he made a Faction who conspir'd with him to seize the King his two Brothers Lancaster and York and to put them all up in Prison and after to execute divers Lords whom he thought to be more his Enemies then their Friends but the end of his Treason being to be himself betray'd by those he made use of Lancaster came thereby to stand single like a great Tree which being at its full height spread his Limbs the wider and grew to be so conspicuous that the succeeding Parliament desired to shelter themselves under the shadow of his power hereupon he reduced the number of the thirteen Regents to seven only which being all his Confidents he with them concluded aforehand all Affairs of moment and directed how they should pass in Parliament An Example not less mischievous to the Kingdom then the King so that now there wanted no more to make him the Soveraign but the putting on the Crown But see the uncertainty of humane Glory Having just finished the great work of his Usurpation an unexpected blow from that invisible hand that turns about the great Wheel of Causes broke the frame of his projection in pieces His Son Henry Duke of Hereford accused by the Duke of Norfolk of Treason was forc'd to purge himself by the Tryal of Combat a Law that might condemn but never acquit him since it was only possible to discharge himself of the danger but never of the suspition of the Crime This being urg'd so far that they were both brought into the List there was no way left to avoid the uncertainty of the Fight but banishment of both wherein though the Duke of Lancaster got the favour to make the Exile of his Son but temporary when the others was perpetual yet the affront that Fortune seem'd to give him by this accidental Disgrace came so near his heart that his Son had no sooner taken leave of his Country but he bid adieu to the World and so left the King once more Hors de page Thus Time and Fortune seem to have conspir'd in vindicating the wrongs of this abused Prince ridding him at once of those two great Corrivals in Power whose Authority had so far outweighed his that they kept him in the condition of a Minor till they had made the People believe him insufficient for Government the one being remov'd beyond all possibility the other beyond all
probability of Return whereby he became so much at ease in his own thoughts that being upon the wing again he thought himself not only Master of himself but of every body else and now despising all after-claps he seized upon all the Dukes Estate to his own use which as it look'd like a Revenge now he was dead that might have past for a piece of Justice if he had been living so it gave many cause to pity the Duke his Son who otherwise could have been well enough content never to have seen him more Neither was this the worst on 't but apprehending from what the King did to him what possibly he might do to any of them they made his particular suffering the ground of their Publick Resentment which Hereford took upon the first bound and made that good use of it that when he came after to claim the Crown that it appear'd the best colour of Right he had was from this wrong whereof yet the King was no way sensible who as I said before despising all dangers at home directed all his Caution to those abroad only taking with him young Henry of Monmouth the Duke of Hereford's and since his Fathers Death Duke of Lancaster's Son and Heir into Ireland whither he went to suppress some Rebels This however it seem'd to be an occasion of Glory which the Bravery of his Youth could not suffer him to pretermit whilst those petty Kings who were eye witnesses of his disproportionate Power taught their undisciplin'd People Obedience by the Example of their own Submission yet it prov'd an empty Affectation and so much more fatal in the Consequence by how much it was scarce possible to conceal much less recover his Error till the Exil'd Duke of Lancaster took his advantage of it who finding him out of his Circle return'd into England with that speed as if he had been afraid lest Fortune should change her mind before he could change his condition Great was the concourse of People that congratulated his Arrival neither was their confluence less considerable for Quality then Number the Archbishop of Canterbury banish'd for being one of the Confederates with the Duke of Gloucester the Earls of Northumberland Westmoreland Darby and Warwick the Lords Willoughby Ross Darcy Beaumont and divers others besides Knights and Esquires of great Repute in their Countries who offer'd to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes and as they mov'd they increas'd so fast that the Duke of York left Regent during the Kings absence thought it convenient to attend him at Berclay Castle and from thence to Bristow where the first Tragedy began for there finding the Earl of Wiltshire the Lord High Treasurer with Sir Henry Ewin Sir Henry Bussy both men of great note of the Kings party they arraign'd them there for misgoverning of the King and having smote off their Heads proceeded to imprison the Bishop of Norwich Sir William Elmeham Sir Walter Burleigh and divers others upon the same account setting up a direct Tyranny which continued six Weeks before the King by reason of contrary winds heard any thing of it Upon the first notice given him he made a shew of being so little concern'd at it that he declar'd he would not stir out of Dublin till all things fitting for his Royal Equipage were made ready but understanding afterward that they had seiz'd several of his Castles he sent over the Earl of Salisbury to make ready an Army against his landing promising to follow him in six dayes after but the Wind or rather his Mind changing the Earls Forces believing he might be dead disbanded again and left their unfortunate General to himself Eighteen dayes after this the King arriv'd who finding how things stood for they had taken off the Heads of several of his chief Councellors imprison'd the principallest of his Friends and gotten the possession of many of his strong Forts and Castles his Heart so fail'd him on the sudden that he immediately gave Command to the Army that was with him to Disband and so degenerate were his Fears that when he could not prevail with them to quit him for they all resolv'd to dye in his Defence and being mov'd with no less Pity then Duty to see him so dejected solemnly vow'd never to leave him he most wretchedly gave them the Temptation to break their Faith by leaving them first withdrawing himself by night unknown to Conway Castle where he understood the Earl of Salisbury was But as a King can no more hide himself then the Sun which however eclipsed cannot be lost so it was not long ere the Duke of Hereford found him out and drawing his Forces to Chester sent from thence the Earl of Northumberland to assure him of his Faith and Homage upon Condition he would call a free Parliament and there permit Justice to be done to him Here Fortune seems to have made one stand more to give him time if possible to recover himself but he instead of giving an Answer worthy the Dignity of a King did what was indeed unworthy a Private man begging of the Earl to interpose with the Duke for him that he might only have an honorable Allowance to lead a private life deposing himself unexpectedly before t'other could have the time and opportunity however he might have the thought to do it solemnly The notice hereof did not a little surprize the Duke when he heard of it who doubting least there was something more in it then he perceiv'd wisely kept himself within the bounds of seeming Obedience and treated his Majesty with all imaginable respect till they arrived at London then under pretence of securing him he lodg'd him in the Tower where he made him the Instrument of his own destruction by calling a Parliament that had no other business but to arraign his Government and impeach him and accordingly Articles were drawn up against him which shew how small a matter turns the Scale when Power is put into the Ballance against Justice The chief of them were as followeth 1. That he had been very profuse a very grievous Crime in a King so young 2. That he had put some to death that conspired to depose him 3. That he had borrowed more money then he was well able to pay the first King that ever lost his Crown for being in Debt and yet was not to be said he was altogether a Bankrupt that had in his Coffers when he dyed the value of Seven hundred thousand pounds 4. That he said the Law was in his Breast and Head and perhaps the Lawyers would have made it good if they durst who have given it for an Axiome of the Law that the King is Caput Principium Finis Justitiae 5. That he chang'd Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his pleasure by making those Peers of the Realm whom he thought worthy the honour 6. That he said the Lives and Goods of his Subjects were under his power which shews what confidence he had in their
Falconbridge who with six hundred men at Arms had all the while stood conceal'd to take the first advantage offer'd them advanc'd upon the same mistake to reinforce the Battel who seeming in the Night more then they were for indeed the English suppos'd it the whole Body of the French Army return'd again upon them the King not knowing how to disperse them commanded all the Prisoners to be forthwith slain save some few Persons of Note who for common security were bound back to back This made it a bloody Victory indeed that look'd more like a Miracle before there being ten thousand of the Enemy slain and if we may believe Caxton not above twenty six of the English side P. Aemilius their own Historian saith not above ten private Souldiers two Knights and two Lords which were the Duke of York and the Duke of Suffolk that bore no proportion to the five hundred Knights and twenty six Lords lost on the other side amongst whom the Daulphin himself may be reckon'd for one though he died not on the place for struck with the apprehensions of this loss he surviv'd it a very little time after However the English got only the glory of being Victors but not a foot of ground more then they had before Providence having so ordained that King Henry should only gain a Name in Arms by his first Expedition that upon his next Arrival they might the more contentedly give him up the Crown and with it her that dazled his Eyes more then all the Jewels he found there the incomparable Lady Katherine to whose Excellency of Beauty was added that of Innocence which made her yet more desirable for a Wife then the other made her for a Mistress Not long after this Battel he return'd home as if to give and take breath and during the time of his stay here the Emperour Sigismund attended by the Arch-bishop of Rheimes gave him a personal Visit in hope to have made a Peace betwixt the two Kings at least 't was so pretended but time that is the best Expositor of all great Actions shews his coming to have had some further design in it otherwise his Mediation had not ended as it did in a League Offensive and Defensive leaving King Henry to follow Providence in the pursuit of his predestin'd Conquest who upon his second Expedition invaded Normandy and having in a short time taken in the City of Caen with most of the lesser Villes came at last to that proud Town of Roan which spent him some time longer then he expected in taking it But it prov'd not time lost for the Essay they made of their own Strength and Courage being at the beginning of the Seige no less then two thousand Persons in it most able to make Defence gave the World such proof of his that he gain'd much more in Interest then he lost in recovering the Principal there being surrendred to him upon the Fame of taking in that great City Hunflew Munster Devilliers Ewe New-castle Vernon Mant La Roch Gwyon and indeed the best if not the most part of that rich Province the ancient Inheritance of his Progenitors That which contributed much to his Success was the difference betwixt the new Daulphin and the old Duke of Burgundy The first as much disdaining that the other should have the Government of the King who was taken with a frenzy that made him incapable of Business as the other that he should have the Government of the Kingdom either thinking himself immediately concerned in the danger of the others Power neglected the Publick to abet their Private Factions The Queen Mother who could not be a Neuter took part with the Duke into whose hands she put the King purposely to curb the Daulphins pride that had most insolently seiz'd and detain'd her Jewels Plate and Money contesting for the Superiority without regard to him that put fair for subduing both But the noise of King Henry's unexpected Success in subduing almost all Normandy awaken'd them and now when 't was too late they reconcil'd to each other in hopes to drive back the English But finding that they had taken rooting in too many places to be suddenly over-turn'd the Duke of Burgundy proposes a Personal Treaty betwixt the two Kings whither came King Henry attended by his Brothers the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester his Cosin the Duke of Exeter his Uncle the Cardinal Beauford the Earls of March and Salisbury and a thousand Men at Arms being met by the Queen Regent and her Governour the Duke of Burgundy the Earl of St. Paul and several other Persons of the greatest Quality as well Ladies as Lords who were obliged to attend her Amongst the rest and therefore indeed did the rest come that they might be as Foyls to her appear'd the Princess Katherine design'd as it fell out after to conquer the Conqueror A Lady of that Perfection both of Body and Mind that had she not been the Daughter of a King she had yet been fit to be the Wife of one No sooner did King Henry look upon her but his Heart seem'd to melt within his Breast no Arms being proof against the Darts she shot yet his Wisdom had so much the better of his Affection that he conceal'd his Passion both from her and the Observation of the French Lords till the Duke of Burgundy trifling with him upon presumption of her Charms provok'd him to give a Reply more like an English then a French King and created such a Distast as broke off the present Treaty Happy had it been for that Duke if he had closed with him although his Enemy rather then agree as he did with his Friend the Daulphin who finding his turn serv'd by him in breaking off the Treaty having no further use of his Authority rewarded his Service with a Poniard which Butchery being perform'd in the view of all the Peers of France was look'd on like a piece of Justice rather then of Tyranny in respect the Duke himself had but a little before caus'd Lewis Duke of Orleance to be taken off in the like barbarous manner Successor to this slain Duke both in his Estate and Authority was his Son Philip Earl of Carolois a Politick Prince and Temperate who finding it would be an unequal Contest between him and the Daulphin if he should avowedly indeavour to revenge his Fathers blood wisely promoted Overtures of Peace betwixt the two Crowns in order to the doing that Execution by another Hand which his own was too weak to perform Ambassadours were thereupon sent to King Henry who having been all this while a Martyr to Love was no longer able to indure the Flames within his Breast but giving it vent told the Ambassadours he would not credit their Propositions unless the Lady Katherine would joyn with them whose Innocency he knew would never abuse him Notice hereof being given to the Queen the Bishop of Arras was dispatch'd away to signifie to him that if he would come to
Countries having given him the Kingdoms of Naples and Jerusalem before of the first of which the Pope either envying or fearing the Emperour's Greatness had made the French King some Assurance purposely to ingage him thereby in a War that might weaken them both Great Preparations were made by either Party to secure themselves both with Arms and Alliances the Emperor leaving all his Dominions on this side to his Son whilst himself retires into Spain to alarm the French on the other side and by his Vicinity to Italy whose petty Princes he suspected not to be firm to his Interest makes himself as terrible to his Neighbours as his Enemies But whilst this great design was in Prospect only King Philip was suddenly called home by a Brute that his Queen was with Child the Joy whereof was so universal that it is strange to tell how much it transported the whole Kingdom raising them by the hopes of a young Prince to a degree of seeming Infatuation for they not only mock'd God Almighty in the Church with causeless Thanksgivings but troubled the King and Queen every hour in Court withâ—s groundless Petitions for Places of Attendance on the unborn Child and so far did the Delirium prevail to delude even the Parliament themselves with extravagant apprehensions of their future happiness by the enjoyment of such a Prince who however he were like to be Lord of the greatest part of Christendom would yet in all probability make England the Seat of his Empire that they humbly besought the King in case the Queen should dye in Travel that he would be pleas'd to take upon him the rule and government of the Child and Kingdome such ado have great Princes to be born as well as to dye in quiet But this mistaken Embryo proving at length to be nothing else but a Mis-conception whereof she could not be delivered so as to make way for any better Conception turning to such a fleshy inform Substance as Physitians call a Mole and we vulgarly English a Moon-Calf it put King Philip so ouâ— of Countenance that he tarried not a Month here after her time of Reckoning was our but passing into Flanders put it out of his head since he could not put it out of her belly by beginning a War with France whereto he had a good ground upon the account of the Five years Truce being broken that had been made but a little before The Queen to requite him for her late Miscarriage broke with her People and resolving not to stand Neuter whilst her Husband was ingaged found occasion to make the French Aggressors upon the Crown of England Whereupon the Earl of Pembroke was sent over with Ten thousand Horse and Four thousand Foot who joyning with the Kings Forces which were Thirty five thousand Foot and Twelve thousand Horse before they came they all of them sate down before St Quintins a Town of great importance which the French in vain indeavouring to succour lost Twenty five thousand upon the place Amongst whom were divers of the greatest Quality as John of Bourbon Duke of Anguin the Dukes of Monpensier and Longevile the Viscount Turein c. the Lord Chadenier the Mareschal St. Andrew the Rhinegrave the Constable Mount Morency and his Son Brother to Count Lodowick Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantova the Admiral Coligny and his Brother with divers other Lords of no less eminence who being all taken with the Town made it look like the beginning of a War which every Body judged could not end till the Rupture reach'd to the middle of France The report of this Victory gave great matter of rejoycing to every Body but most especially to the Queen her self yet could it not divert that Melancholy occasioned by the conceit of her Misconception which brought her into a Distemper that not long after kill'd her by her Physicians mistaking her Malady who giving her improper Medicines without regard to the over-cooling of her Liver which it seems is the mischief attends those Moles found not their error till she was so far gone into that desperate kind of Dropsie which they call Ascites that there was no help for her now That which added to her Distemper was an over-nice resentment of the Popes displeasure who offended at her breach with the French punish'd her as Princes use to be by whipping their Favourites with taking away the Legatine Power from her beloved Minister Cardinal Pool to whom as she had ever a great regard so she opin'd that the disgrace put upon a Man of so great Authority and Credit who had been so active in the Conversion of the Nation would as indeed it did not only reflect something on her honour but hazard much the reputation of the Catholick Cause whiles the Roman Religion was not so fully establish'd as she design'd it should and the Enemies of the Church no less dangerous to that of her State This gave her great trouble of Mind and that trouble being heightened by the absence of her beloved Husband brought her into a burning Feaver that foretold a death that might have proved a living one had it not been hastned by the news of the revolt of Calais which being lost in less then six dayes time after it had continued English above Two hundred years came so near her heart that drying up all her Blood brought her under such a fix'd sadness as left her not till she left the World Now to say truth she had great reason to resent the loss for as it was the only Key left to let her into France so it was no small over-sight to hang it by her side with so slender a String as she did there being not above Five hundred Souldiers in it when it was attach'd which were much too few to defend a place of that Importance where there was a kind of necessity to keep the Gates alwayes open HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Christ was the Word that spake it He took the Bread and brake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it Which however it seem'd an obscure and uncertain Solution so baffled all her Adversaries that the Priests themselves who hop'd with like Success to have soil'd her as the First Temptor did the First Woman upon the First great Question of Take and Eat found themselves left in the dark to grope after her meaning as well as they could whilst she shut her self up from further Pressures within the Closet of her own private Sense But as Wisdom is perhaps the only Vertue that is distrustful of it self so to shew how little Confidence she had in the strength of her own Abilities she made it her first business to fortifie her self with able Counsellors In the choice of whom her Affections gave place to her Judgment as her Fears to her Foresight admitting divers of her Sisters great Ministers who having been privy to all the Secrets of State were like sharp
Discouragements Whilst those of the Royal Party impatient to see the King so much less then he should be thought it as necessary as just to attempt the making him something more then ever he had been but straining the Sinew-shrunk Prerogative beyond its wonted height disjoynted the whole Frame of Government and broke those Ligaments of Command and Obedience whereby Prince and People are bound up together Unhappy King to whom the love and hatred of his People was alike fatal who whilst himself was thus unhappily ingaged against himself was sure to be the Loser which side soever was the Gainer and so much the more miserable by how much even Victory it self must at once weary and wast him but great was his Prudence as great his Patience And next the Power of making Tempests cease Walleri Was in this Storm to have so calm a Peace Behold now the great Soveraign of the Seas expos'd as it were upon a small Raft to the raging of the People as a Shipwrackt Pilot to that of the Sea without any hope but what was next despair to recover some desolate Rock or Isle where he might rest himself in the melancholy expectation of being deliver'd as it were by Miracle So he being drove first from London to York from thence having in vain tryed to touch at Hull passed on to Nottingham where he set up his Standard but not his rest from thence he marched to Leicester so towards Wales and having a while refreshed himself at Shrewsbury after divers tossings and deviations fix'd at last at Oxford the famous Seat of the Muses ill Guards to a distressed King and perhaps no great Assistants to those about him who were to live by their Wits Here he continued near three years acting the part of a General rather then a King his Prerogative being so pinion'd and his Power so circumscrib'd that as none of his own People paid him Homage where he could not come to force it so the Neighbour States of the United Netherlands though they disown'd not a Confederation with him made so little shew of having any regard to his Amity as if it were Evidence enough of their being his Friends that they did not declare themselves his Enemies Only the Complemental State of France sent over a glorious * Prince liurcourt Ambassador who under the pretence of Mediating a Peace was really a Spy for continuing the War The only fast Friend he had was his helpless Uncle the King of Denmark who was so over-match'd by the Swede all that time that he could give little or no assistance to him During his abode here he did as much as the necessity of his streightned Condition would permit convening another Parliament there to Counter those at Westminster least it should be thought there was a Charm in the name where there appear'd no less then One hundred and forty Knights and Gentlemen in the lower House and in the upper House Twenty four Lords Nineteen Earls Two Marquesses and Two Dukes besides the Lord Treasurer the Lord Keeper the Duke of York and the Prince of Wales who if they were not equal in number as some think they were were much more considerable in quality then that other Parliament at London But being a Body without Sinews they sate as so many Images of Authority or if with decency we may say it like Legislators in Effigie Those at Westminster having in this the better of them that they had got into their hands that pledge of extraordinary Power the Dominion of the Sea which was a sufficient Caution for that by Land †Cic. ad Artic. lib. 10. Epist 7. Nam qui Mare teneat eum necesse est Rerum potiri This brought in Wealth that brought in Men the Men brought in Towns and Provinces under their Subjection so that we find they had an intire Association of divers whole Counties when the King could assure himself of no more then what he made Title to by his Sword Even Yorkshire it self the first County that he made tryal of entring almost as soon as he was gone out of it into Articles of Neutrality But notwithstanding all the disadvantages he had by want of Men and Money of Means and Credit yet we see he brought the Ballance of the War to that even poise that it rested at last upon the Success of one single Battel to turn the Scale either way for had they been beaten at Naseby where they got the day they had been as undoubtedly ruin'd as he was by loosing it which Battel being the last ended as Edge-hill did that was the first with that sinister Fortune to have the left Wings on each side routed by those of the right But the advantage the * So those who served the Parliament were call'd from the shortness of their hair as it was generally worn generally worn amongst those of the Puritan party Round-heads had in this was that they had not forgot the disadvantage of the former Fight but early quitting their pursuit return'd time enough to relieve their distressed Foot and so by their Wisdom recover'd that fatal advantage which the †The Kings Party were so call'd because those that appear'd first on his side were most of them Gentlemen on Horse-back Cavaliers lost by their Courage who pursuing their half-got Victory too far lost the whole unexpectedly In this Battel as in that the Royal Standard was taken and as the King lost his General then so he lost himself acting the Generals part now his Power crumbling away so fast after the loss of this Day for in less then four Months time twenty of his chief Garrisons surrendred General Goring was routed at Lamport the Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale near Sherborn which we know caus'd a more unlucky Rout after at Newark the Lord Wentworth was surpriz'd ar Bovy-tracy the Lord Hopton routed at Torrington the Lord Ashly at Stow upon the Wold that he was never able to repair the Breaches made daily upon him but was forc'd to quit his faultring Friends and cast himself into the hands of his fawning Enemies the Scots who having kept all this while hovering at a distance like Eagles that follow Armies for prey expecting what might be the Issue whilst the English were so busie in cutting one anothers Throats were resolv'd to let him know what value they put upon him and accordingly gave notice to the Parliament of his being with them which begot a hot dispute betwixt them for a while to whom of right the Royal Prisoner belonged till in the end it concluded with redeeming the good King by a good Sum who taught them thus to betray him by first betraying himself the failure of their Faith being grounded upon that of his own who had he kept upon the Wing as one observes whilst his Party was beating in the Covert might possibly have retreiv'd the Quarrey and by retiring into some place of present safety recover'd himself
distinct Priviledges 1. Jure (i) Senâ—c de benefic lib. 3. Cap. 28. Eut. lib. 10. formali by the distinction of Habit of which they had seven Sorts 1 Saga 2 Pretextae 3 Angusticlavia 4 Laticlavia 5 Paludamenta 6 Trabea and 7 Chlamys of these the Common People wore only the first Sort which were Coats without Sleeves the rest were worn only by Gentlemen and Noblemen differenc'd according to their respective Dignities 2. Jure (k) Aâ—l. Gâ—ll. lib. 3. Cap. 16. Petitionis by the right of their Offices for those that were Senators as afterwards all Noblemen had their Curules or blew Chariots with a Chair plac'd in it to ride through the Streets the Consuls being differenc'd by sitting in an Ivory Chair whereas the rest were wood only 3. Jure (l) Senec. de benef lib. 3. Cap. 18. Imaginum by the use of Images which were the same things to them in point of honour and Ornament as Eschocheons and Arms of Families are to us 4. Jure Gentilitiarum by having names that were hereditary for from the very time of the first League with the Sabins it was agreed that the Romans should praefix Sabin Names and the Sabins Roman before that of their families names which Prenomina being hereditary were therefore call'd Gentilitia whence came our word Gentlemen for at that time no part of the World had taken up that Custome now Tully tells us that these Gentiles were those Qui eodem inter se sunt nomine i. e. Men of the same name for the Common People were not permitted to call their Posterity by their own names but were obliged to give their Children always new uncouth and unheard of names which brought them under such contempt as if they had no names but were as Livy calls them Sine nomine turba a nameless Rabble The original Gentiles or Leaguers of the Latin Stock were the Fabii descended from the Kings of the Aborigines the Romuli Julii Junii Surgii Aurelii Curatii Horatii Servitii Priscorum who were of the Trojan Race that came in with Aeneas at the Conquest of Italy those of the Sabin Race were the Tatii the Issue of King Tatius the Pompilii whereof the Pinarii the Aemuli Mamurcenorum were younger branches the Ancimartii Claudii Regilenses the Tarquinii Publicolae Emilii Aenobarbi the Quintii Capitolinorum and Cincinatorum the Cornelii Scipiorum and Lentulorum these were all the antient Leaguers The Families of most note that sprung from them after they united and mixt together were the Posthumii Cossii Survii Sulpicii Sempronii of which the Gracchi were but a younger branch the Fulvii Flacci Octavii Mutii Pompeii c. These I instance amongst many because it was (m) Vt pat per rescript Dioclesian forbid the Common People under a great penalty to name their Children by any of these names or indeed by any other name that had but a Sound like them or like any name of a Gentleman 5. Jure Suffragii by the difference of Places in all Publick Conventions and Assemblies where they had by the Law of Fulvia a very formal precedence given them as we may see at large in (n) Lip de Amphith c. 14. Lipsius and (o) Senec. de benef lib. 3. cap. 28. Seneca 6. Jure Connubii for by the Law of the Twelve Tables it was forbid under the pain of Degradation for any of the Gentiles to match with a Plebeian 7. Lastly they were distinguish'd Jure Ordinis according to their Titles of Honour wherein they had also Seven gradations of different Stiles the lowest whereof was that of Egregii which were such as we properly call Gentlemen or Esquires next them were the 2 Perfectissimi which were those of the Equestrian Order as our Knights then came the 3 Clarissimi these were the Correctores or Praestas of Provinces much like to our Lord Lieutenants of Counties the next above these were the 4 Spectabiles a title proper only to Dukes and Counts Provincial the 5 Illustres such were all that had any voice in Senate all Praefects Magistri Equitum Peditum the Questores Palatii the Comites Maritimi which were as our Lord Admirals and all Generals and Lieutenant Generals of Armies had the same Stile (p) C. Tit. de Feriis Epigr. L. quoniam 6 Nobilissimi which some barbarous Lawyers of late saith (q) Alciate dispunct lib. 3. Com. 4. Alciate have chang'd and as they think Elegantly into Super-Illustres which the modern more refinedly have render'd Serenissimi this was appropriated only to Princes by birth as were the (r) Seld. Tit. Hon. p. 285. Caesars or heirs apparent of the Empire who were written Principes Juventutis the Emperours took to themselves that of Divi or 7 Augusti which we at this day term Sacred It is further observable that as Romulus was the first of seven Kings so Kingship was the first of seven Orders of Government in that Commonwealth for there were 1 Reges 2 Patricii 3 Tribuni 4 Decemviri 5 Dictatores 6 Triumviri 7 Imperatores the Last of which Titles cost no less than the Lives of seven times seven thousand Citizens a Purchase so dear that it had been impossible for any person to have perswaded them to submit to it but such an one as had first slaughtered seven times seventy thousand Enemies and subdued seven times seven Nations as Caesar did if they that writ his life say truth before he offer'd this Violence to his Country and Friends Again 't is noted that there was just seven hundred years spent betwixt Romulus the first King and Founder and this Caesar the first Emperour and Confounder of the Commonwealth and they that have taken the pairs to compute the years altogether from the time of the Birth to that of the Obsequies of this great State have pointed out just seven Periods which as the seven Ages of man they have measur'd by the 1 Beginning 2 Increase 3 Confirmation 4 Continuation 5 Declination 6 Degeneration 7 Dissolution From the Foundation to the Consulship of Brutus and Tarquinius Colatinus is reckoned the first Age consisting of two hundred and twenty years or thereabouts which we may call its 1 Infancy the time from thence to the beginning of the second Carthaginian War which took up two hundred and fifty years more may be call d its 2 Adolescence the time from that War which happen'd in the Consulship of Ap. Claudius the Bold to the Dictatorship of Caesar being two hundred and twenty years more we may call its 3 Youth Augustus's his Reign passes for its Prime or 4 Full Age continuing so near three hundred years from the time of Gallenus the thirty third Emperour was a sensible 5 Declination unto the time of Arcadius and Honorius which was about two hundred and thirteen years more the time from theirs to the Death of Maximus who slew Valentinian the Third look'd like its 6 Dote Age in which it labour'd with many infirmities
defensive War for three hundred years with so good success that they not only kept what they call'd their own but were for the most part on the winning side being once in as fair a probability to have enlarg'd their Territories as any of their Neighbourhood had they not been over-charg'd in the Flank by an unequal Enemy and of all others least expected the Invincible Dane a People prepar'd for mischief and heightned by the Desolations they had made in Northumberland Yorkshire Nottinghamshire and the Countreys thereabouts the Fame of whose cruelty having made their way they broke in upon this tyred Province weary'd and weakned with giving and taking wounds from their own Countreymen surprizing them ere they had time to recover strength or means to recover time to make so good a defence as otherwise they would have done Yet they did not submit to the first misfortune nor fell like Fools or men affrighted but strugâ—ed with all their power near fifty years without any other aid than what was maintain'd by their own proper strength and courage being the Bulwark that defended all their Neighbours against the Dane who the whilst wasted each other with intestine Feuds till they fell a Sacrifice to their private lusts and ambition and these only to the publick safety THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF NORTHUMBERLAND VII I. date of accession 584 ETHERICK the fourth Son of Ida Lord of Bernicia was the first that stiled himself King of Northumberland though indeed he had but the half call'd Bernicia which descended on his Son II. date of accession 593 ETHELFRID sirnam'd the Wild a Prince of much fierceness and insolence which render'd him so odious to his Subjects that his Enemies easily found an opportunity to depose him and set up one III. date of accession 617 EDWIN the Son of Ella Lord of Deira which was the other part of Northumberâ—and who was the first Christian of this House and got such repute that he was acknowledged the eight Monarch of the Engâ—ishmen he was at last however unhappily overcome and slain by the Pagan Penda King of Mercia IV. date of accession 633 OSRICK Son of his Uncle Alfrid succeeded him whose Reign was as confus'd as the time he liv'd in he was Lord of Deira only which upon his death was united to Bernicia and so descended on V. date of accession 634 OSWALD the ninth Monarch whilst he liv'd and dying esteem'd the first Martyr of all the Englishmen his Successor was VI. date of accession 643 OSWY the tenth Monarch of the English who left the Succession to his furious Son VII date of accession 671 EGFRID who making War with the Picts that were backt by their Confederates the Irish he was by them slain and his Bastard Brother took place VIII date of accession 686 ALKFRID a Prince more beholding to Providence than Nature for the first gave him the right of a Son when the last deny'd him a Son to enjoy that right whereby the Crown devolv'd upon IX date of accession 705 OSRED a Child of eight years old of a collateral Branch and as indirect a Disposition not old enough to govern himself nor wise enough to govern others so that his Subjects withdrew their Allegiance to give it to X. date of accession 716 KENRED the next of the whole Blood who conspiring with Osrick the next of kin to himself to kill Osred the next of kin to the Crown was undermin'd by his Confederate who set up for himself XI OSRICK the second knew better it seems how to get than to keep a Kingdom for he was as easily depos'd by XII date of accession 729 CEONULPH younger Brother to Kenred one of the most glorious of all the Northumbrian Race this was he to whom Bede dedicated his History of England and one that render'd himself more glorious by a voluntary obscurity preferring a Capush before a Crown whose Example was a Rule to his Successor XIII date of accession 738 EGBERT who did the like being mov'd by the delusion of this pious fraud to surrender to his Son XIV date of accession 758 OSWOLPH who liv'd not long to enjoy the pleasure of his Royalty being made away by some of his Domesticks as was his Successor XV. date of accession 759 EDELMAULD commonly call'd Mollo slain by his own Steward XVI date of accession 765 ALURED who had no better Title than his successful Villany which being rais'd upon the sandy foundation of the Peoples favour quickly foundred and fell to the ground so that XVII date of accession 774 ETHELRED Son of the aforesaid Moâ—â— recâ—ver d the thrâ—ne who nâ—t answering the expectation was depos'd to make way for XVIII date of accession 778 ALFWALD Brother to Alured a Prince worthy of greater Title and better Subjects for the Northumbrians being flusht with the blood of their Princes began to be very tumultuous and disloyal and amongst the rest murther'd him to make way for one XIX date of accession 789 OSRED a worthless person but the Darling of the multitude he hâ—ld the Scepter till it was taken from him by XX. date of accession 790 ETHELRED who liv'd to revenge his indignity upon the Heirs of his Adversaries and being puff'd up with that success and an alliance he afterwards made with the great Mercian Offa grew cruel and provoked his People to fly to Arms who in one battel took from him both his Life and Kingdom XXI date of accession 794 OSWALD a common Man was put up in his place for the good Omen of his Name but his good Fortune lasted not above thirty days so fickle is the favour of the common People not unfitly compar'd to the Sea whose fluxes and refluxes are of no long continuation before XXII date of accession 794 ADULPH was set up in his stead he was a banisht Duke and look'd on as their Martyr for taking part with them against Ethelred but his glory was not much longer liv'd than the others so that XXIII date of accession 795 ALSWALD succeeded who having only shew'd himself upon the Stage turned about and made his Exit to give place to another XXIV date of accession 795 ETHELRED a Man of a hated Name and not very well belov d who stept up to make way for three of his Sons to come after him one of which having committed some insolence against a Danish Lady gave that cruel People a just occasion to fall into this Countrey and haraze it to that degree that it became not long after a prey to the West-Saxon THIS though it were the first intire Province the Saxons were Masters of yet it was the last made a Kingdom being the only part of the whole that cost them no blood to get it for it was by consent delivered up to them by the Britains to make a Colony against the Picts but that of all others cost most to defend it for besides those without they had Enemies within themselves having cut themselves into two distinct Principalities either
of which were more desperately bent against each other then either Picts or Britains against both The whole Continent of their Dominions took up six Counties as we now reckon them viz. Northumberland properly so call'd Westmerland Cumberland Yorkshire Lancashire and Durham These falling to the Charge of Otho and Ebusa they made an equal Dividend betwixt them taking three to each the first had all betwixt Humber and Tine and call'd it the Dukedom of Deira The second had all from Tine to the Frith of Edinburgh which was entituled the Dukedom of Bernicia Ninety nine years it continued under the distinct Government of their Posterity each independent of other and each as often as the Common Enemy gave them any rest pecking at the other with equal Enmity and not unequal Fortune till the time of Ella and Ida two famous Captains the one descended from Wealdeag fourth Son of Woden t'other from Bealdeag his fifth Son who thinking themselves less in Title then in Power urged by a mutual Emulation elevated their Dignity to the height of their Fortunes and stil'd themselves as all the rest of their Country-men Kings the last was the first Monarch the first the last King One getting the Start of Priority in Degree the other the advantage of Survivorship by which means it happened that the Government which hitherto had been as it were Party per Pale not long after became Checquy Fortune according to her Constant Inconstancy alternately deposing sometimes one sometimes the other disposing the Diadem like a Ball toss'd from one Hazzard to another so that the Spectators knew not which side to beat on till those of the House of Ella making a Fault Ethelrick won the Sett having got the honour to be the first absolute Lord of the whole which he united under the Title of the Kingdom of Northumberland banishing the other Names of Distinction This Malmesbury ascribes more to his Fortune then his Merit making him beholding to the bravery of his sprightly Son Ethelfrid the Wild for the continuance of any Memory of his Name which shews us the Founders themselves are oftentimes as the Foundations they lay under Ground unknown and obscure taking their Honour from the Superstructure that they rear not from themselves But as those of Bernicia claim'd the honour of building the House so those of Deira boasted they were the first took the Possession their Dignity becoming them so much the better in that they made their Power known where their Title was not by the Courage of their Magnanimous King Edwin who inlarged his Dominions as far as the Mavian Isles but by that Prosperity of his render'd himself rather Glorious then Great drawing himself out of his proper Strength by an Extent that weakned him and drew on him a more powerful Enemy then that he had subdued to wit the Neighbouring Mercian who by his death and his Sons made way to let in the Bernician Line again which continued uninterrupted ten Descents after which follow'd a Succession of Six Usurpers out of distinct Stocks who wasted near Thirty years with so little advantage to themselves or their Country that at length it became a Prey to several petty Tyrants of so low Rank that only One of Ten had the Confidence to stile himself a King which confusion tempted the Dane to fall in upon them with so resistless fury that they were fain to crave Protection of the West-Saxon who made them a Province unto him after they had stood the shock of Two hundred thirty five years with repute of being an absolute and intire Kingdom THE ORDER OF THE English Kings AFTER THE HEPTARCHY Was reduc'd into an Absolute Monarchy VIII I. date of accession 800 EGBERT was the first gave himself the Imperial Stile of King of England differing therein from his Predecessors who stiled themselves Kings of the Englishmen having reduc'd the Heptarchy into a Monarchy he gave Kent and Sussex to his younger Son Athelstan the rest descending on his eldest Son II. date of accession 837 ETHELWOLPH who put off a Myter to put on a Crown being Bishop of Winchester at the time of his Fathers death and being fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch he was accordingâ—y justled out of his Right by his ungracious Son III. date of accession 857 ETHELBALD whose ill got Glory pâ—ov'd so transitory that â—t serv'd him only to perform an act of Infamy outlasted it possessing himself of his Fathers Bed as well as of his Throne which prov'd his Grave so that his Brother VI. date of accession 858 ETHELBERT before Lord of a part as Heir to his Uncle Athelstan became now Lord of the whole and by managing that he learn'd how to manage this the number of his troubles exceeded that of the Months of his reign so that not able to bear up under the weight of the burthen of the Government he died and left his Brother V. date of accession 863 ETHELRED to succeed him as Heir both to his happiness and unhappiness who being likewise wearied rather then vanquish'd hy the continual Assaults of the Danes left the glory with the danger to his Brother VI. date of accession 873 ELFRID a Prince that in despight of War perform'd all the noblest Acts of Peace making as good use of his Pen as of his Sword at the same time securing and civilizing his People His Son VII date of accession 900 EDWARD surnam'd the Elder enjoy'd thereby such a happiness as was only worthy the Son of such a Father as St. Elfrid and the Father of such a Son as VIII date of accession 924 ATHELSTAN who knew no Peace but what he purchas'd with his Sword being more Forward then Fortunate and therein like his Brother IX date of accession 940 EDMOND who escaping all the Storm perished in a Calm being kill'd after he had escaped so many Battels in a private Fray betwixt two of his own Servants in his own House X. date of accession 946 EADRED succeeded who gave himself the stile of King of Great Britain a Title too great it seems for his Successor XI date of accession 955 EDWIN who discontinued it shewing thereby that Nature was mistaken in bringing him into the World before his Brother XII date of accession 959 EDGAR who reassum'd that Title again yet not before he had made himself Lord of the whole Continent but as one surfeited with Glory he dyed as we may so say before he began to live leaving his Son XIII date of accession 975 EDWARD surnam'd the Martyr to support his memory who fell as a Sacrifice to the Inhumane Ambition of a Step-mother who murther'd him to prefer his younger Brother but her eldest Son XIV date of accession 978 ETHELRED an excellent Prince had he not been blasted by the Curse of his Mothers Guilt who as an ill-set Plant wither'd before he could take firm Root being wind-shaken with continual storms all his reign which his Son XV. date of accession 1016 EDMOND from his
his Friends charging all his misfortunes upon disloyalty of the Earls and Barons that refus'd him aid whom therefore he fin'd first the seventh part of their Goods after that the thirteenth part of all their Moveables and not content with the aid of their Purses forced them at last with the hazard of their Persons to attend him in the prosecution of a no less chargeable then disadvantageous War where the recovery of part of his own indangered the total loss of their own Estates This as it was grievous to the Subject in general so more particularly to the Nobility being most of them descended out of Normandy and by his ill management shut out of their ancient Inheritances there had no other satisfaction for their Losses but by improving what was left here who finding themselves thus doubly damnified were inraged to that degree that using a Martial freedom sutable to the necessity of that stimulation by which they were urg'd they began to recollect all the wrongs done them by his Grandfather Father and Brother and to shew they were in earnest insisted upon renewing the great Charter of their Liberties neither were they unprovided of Arguments or Arms this contumacy of theirs being countenanced by the sullen Retirement of his own Brother Jeoffry the Archbishop who chose rather to cast himself into voluntary Exilement then submit any longer to his Tyranny In vain now demands he Pledges of their Faith whilst they believed him himself to have none Sending to the Lord Bruce for his Son to be deliver'd as an Hostage to him he receiv'd an answer from the Mother which it seems exprest the affections if not the sense of the Father That they would not commit their Son to his keeping who was so ill a keeper of his own Brothers Son which rash return cost him afterward his Estate her her life with the loss of two for the saving one only Child a Revenge so fully executed that it could meet with no counterbuff but what must come from Heaven Here began the breach that disjoynted the whole frame of his Government the King resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sâ—fferance he had got the Barons continuing as obstinately bent to recover what their Predecessors had so tamely lost Both sides prepare for War and whilst they face and parle like men loath to ingage yet scorning to quit their Cause either alike confident to hope the best and not unlike active to prevent the worst a new accident parted them by presenting a new Enemy which made the War give place as it were to a single Combat The Pope not allowing the King the Priviledge of Nominating a Successor to the deceased Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he makes a Truce I cannot call it a Peace with his Domestick Adversaries to try his Fortune with his Forreign Foe The Contest was not like that of Jacob and Esau who should be born first but like that of Caesar and Pompey who should be uppermost Now as desire of Rule brought these two great Champions into the List so the confidence each other had in his strength and skill to handle his Weapon made them unreconcileable The Pope made the first Pass who threatning to interdict the Kingdom was answer'd with a Menace of confiscating all the Lands of the Clergy and banishing their Persons The second Thrust given by his Holiness was a Threat of Excommunication of the Kings Person To this he returned that he would utterly disavow his Authority Thus far they were upon the even Terms and as it were hit for hit upon the next Pass they closed and as men desperately bent either maked good his Charge The Pope shuts up the Church doors the King those of the Cloysters the first took away all the Sacraments leaving the dead to bury the dead without Priest Prayer or Procession The last seized on all the Ecclesiastical Revenues and disposed them into Lay-hands Whilst they were thus in close grapple the King of France appeared as second to the Triple Crown Had the Barons then stept in as second to their King they had not only made good their own Honour as well as his but probably had secur'd the Liberties they contended for without any force there being more to be hoped for from this Kings Generosity then his Justice but which was most degenerous and leaves a stain upon their memory never to be washed off they finding him thus overlaid turn'd all their points upon his back poyson'd with the venome of the most opprobrious Calumnies that ever Majesty suffer'd under the Infamy of being not only a Tyrant but an Infidel all which he was fain to bear with more Constancy of Mind then Fortune But as we see a wild Boar when beaten out of breath chuses rather to dye upon the Spears of the Hunters then to be wearied by the Dogs so his Rancor turning into disdain he yielded to his Nobler Enemies and chose rather then not have his Revenge upon them whom he thought God and Nature had put under his dispose to humble himself to the Church hoping as 't is thought by their Keys to unlock the Rebels Power but over-acting his Revenge he stoop'd so low that the Crown fell from his Head which the Popes Legate taking up kept three dayes before he thought fit to restore it verifying thereby the Prediction of a poor innocent Hermite who foretold that there should be no King of England which however it was true yet being in some sense untrue too 't was in the Prerogative of him who never spar'd where he could shed Blood to make his own Interpretation which cost the poor Prophet his Life The Barons finding him thus incens'd and seeing how to make good his Revenge he had quit his Soveraignty they resolv'd to quit their Allegiance to make good their Security intending to call in the Dolphin of France and swear Fealty to him whilst the Common People were left to their Election whether to take the wrong King that promis'd to do them Right or the right King that persisted to do them so much wrong who as little understanding the Principles of Religion as the dictates of Reason the Bonds of Command and Obedience that should hold them together seem'd so wholly slackned that there was upon the Matter no other Tye on them then that of their Interest which sway'd them variously according to the divers Measures they took of it But as there are many Ligaments in a State that bind it so fast together that 't is a hard thing to dissolve them altogether unless by an universal concurrence of Causes that produce a general alteration thereof it being seldom seen of what temper soever Kings are but that they find under the greatest desertion imaginable a very considerable Party to stand by them upon the accompt of Affection or Ambition Honour or Conscience so this King the first of England we find put to this streight had yet many Members of Note and Power besides his chief
maintenance of their Authority the King himself was compell'd by Oath as he was a Man a Christian a Knight a King Crown'd and anointed to uphold them and acquit them of their Legal Obedience whensoever he went about to infringe the great Charter by which they held this Prerogative Here they had him bound up hand and foot with that Curse upon him which his Father of all others most dreaded and with which his Flatterers most terrified him whenever the Dispute of Liberty came in question of being a King without a Kingdom a Lord without a Dominion a Subject to his Subjects for they had invaded his Majesty usurp'd his Authority and made themselves so far Masters of his Person that they might seize it whenever they pleas'd to declare for a Common-wealth And now to make the Affront more notable as if they had forgotten what was the Fundamental Grievance on which their Usurpation was grounded the Entertainment of Strangers they take a Stranger to head them making Monford who was a French man by Birth and Descent their Chief who having designs of his own different from theirs as the Earl of Gloucester his Compeer found when 't was too late indeavour'd so to widen all Differences betwixt King and People that if possible there might never be a right Understanding betwixt them The King therefore well knowing his Malice and not being ignorant of his Ambition fell first upon him causing the Lord Mortimer to break in amongst his Tenants who quickly righted himself upon those of Mortimer's with whom the Prince thereupon took part as Llewellin Prince of Wales with t'other The Prince takes Brecknock-Castle Monford that of Gloucester and after that those of Worcester and Shrewsbury from whence he marched directly to the Isle of Ely without Resistance The King fearing his approach to London like those who to save their Lives in a Storm are content to sling their Goods overboard demanded a Peace and willingly yielded up all his Castles into the hands of the Barons to the intent they might be as a publick Security for the inviolable Observation of the Provisions of Oxford conceding to the banishment of all the Strangers that were left This Condescention of his however occasion'd rather a Truce then a Peace of which he had this benefit to gain time till he could be better provided A Parliament being hereupon call'd at London the freedom of Debate there renew'd the Quarrel and each side confident of the Justice of their Arms at Northampton they came to Battel which however it was well fought yet the worst Cause had the worst Success The Barons were beaten and amongst other Prisoners of note that were then taken was the young Monford the Heir and Hope of his Father Leicester and Fortune thus uniting with Authority made the Barons stoop though they could not submit to beg the Peace they had before refus'd wherein being rejected with scorn they became desperate who were before but doubtful which Leicester perceiving and being a man skilful in such advantages took that opportunity to bring them to a second Battel in which he supply'd his want of Hands with a Stratagem that shew'd he had no want of Wit placing certain Ensigns without Men on the side of a Hill not far from the place where he gave the onset whereby he so fortunately amuz'd the Enemy that he easily obtain'd a Victory and such an one as seem'd to turn the Scale beyond all possibility of Recovery For in it were taken the King himself his Brother the late King of the Romans the Prince and most of the principal Lords and by killing Five thousand of the common People on the place he so terrified all the rest of the Royal Party that for a year and an half afterwards no body durst look him in the Face all which time he spent in reducing the Kingdom under his own dispose putting in and out whom he pleas'd and filling up all places Military and Civil with Creatures of his own carrying the King about with him as a skilful Rebel to countenance the Surrender of Towns and Castles to him continuing thus the insolence of his Triumph till it swell'd to that disproportionate Greatness that his Confederate Gloucester began to be jealous if not afraid of it and out of that Distrust quarrel'd with him upon pretence of not having made equal distribution of the Spoil nor Prisoners charging him to have releas'd whom he pleas'd and at what rate without the consent of the rest of the Confederacy urging further that he did not suffer a Parliament to be conven'd as was agreed betwixt them to the end himself might be Arbitrary Lastly objected that his Sons were grown Insolent by his Example and had affronted several of the adhering Barons who would have satisfaction of him During this Dispute the Prince by connivance of some of the discontented Faction broke Prison to whom Gloucester joyn'd himself and rallying together the scatter'd Parties that had long attended the advantage of such a turn they made themselves so considerable that in short time they were able to bring the business to a poise Leicester put it to the Decision of another Battel but not without apparent dispondency as appears by what he said when they were going to give the first Charge for he told those Lords that were nearest him That they would do well to commit their Souls to God for that their Bodies were the Enemies However he omitted nothing that might speak him as he was a brave and valiant General till his Son first and after himself were slain at the instant of whose fall there happen'd such a Clap of Thunder as if Heaven it self had fought against him and that none could have given him his death but that power to which he owed his life And so the King was rid of him whom he once declar'd to have been more affraid of then of Lightning and Thunder a Person too great for a Subject and something too little to be a King But had he as he was descended from the stock of * His Father was Simon youngest Son of Simon Earl of Fureux descended from Almerick base Son of Robert sirnam'd the Holy King of France Kings master'd the Fate of this day he had undoubtedly made himself one and broke off the Norman Line to begin a new Race not less noble This happy Victory gave the King some ease but 't was not in the power of any Force to give him perfect rest whilst the distemperature of the Time was such that the Wound which seem'd perfectly heal'd broke out afresh Gloucester himself though he had deserted his old Competitor Leicester would not yet quit the good old Cause but imbracing the very first Occasion of Discontent he met with retired three years after from Court and having got new Forces sinds out new Evil Counsellors to remove Mortimer the great Man of merit with the King is now become the Object of his Envy and rather then not have
France set forth his own Eloquence and the Kings Title so well deducing his Descent in a direct Line from the Lady Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fourth and Wife to his Grandfather Edward the Second and refuting all the old beaten Arguments brought from the Salique Law to oppose it as being neither consistent with Divinity Reason or Example he at once pleas'd and convinced all his Hearers but most especially the King himself who seem'd to be inspired with a Prophetick confidence of that success which after he had but scorning to steal any Advantage or wrong the Justice of his Title somuch as to seem to doubt 't would be denied before he would make any kind of preparation for the Conquest he sent Ambassadors to Charles the Sixth to demand a peaceable surrender of the Crown to him offering to accept his Daughter with the Kingdom and to expect no other pawn for his Possession till after his death This Message as it was the highest that ever was sent to any free Prince so he intrusted it to those of highest Credit and Trust about him these were his Uncle the Duke of Exeter a man of great esteem as well as of great Name the Arch-bishop of Dublin a very politick Prelate the Lord Gray a man at Arms the Lord High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich the first as much renown'd for his Courage as the last for his Contrivances to whom for the greater state there was appointed a Guard of five hundred Horse to attend them The Report of this great Embassy as it arriv'd before them so it made such a Report throughout all this side of the World that all the Neighbour Princes like lissening Deer when they hear the noyse of Huntsmen in the Woods began to take the Alarm and consider which side to sly to it being so that England and France never made any long War upon one another but they ingaged all Christendom with them However the Court of France pretending themselves ignorant of the Occasion of their coming dissembled their disdain and treated them with that magnificence as if they had design'd to Complement them out of their business but after the Message was delivered with that faithful boldness that became so great an Affair they were all in that confusion that it was hard to judge whether they were more ashamed incensed or afraid giving such a return as seem'd neither compatible with the honour wisdom or courage of so renown'd a People as they are For first as they did neither deny nor allow the Kings Title but said they would make Answer by Ambassadours of their own So in the next place they were so hasty in their Counsels and the dispatch of their Ambassadors hither that they arriv'd in England almost as soon as those sent hence And lastly at the same time they desired Peace and offer'd to buy it with the tender of some Towns they gave the King an Affront which was a greater Provocation then the denyal of ten such Kingdoms for the Daulphin who in respect of the King his Fathers sickness I might rather say weakness managed the State affecting the honour to give the first Box or perhaps desiring to make any other Quarrel the ground of the approaching War which he foresaw was not to be prevented rather then that of the Title which had been already so fatally bandi'd scornfully sent the King a Present of Tenis-balls which being of no value nor reckoning worthy so great a Princes acceptance or his recommendation could have no other meaning or interpretation but as one should say he knew better how to use them then Bullets The King whose Wit was as keen as t'others Sword return'd him this Answer That in requital of his fine Present of Tenis-balls he would send him such Balls as he should not dare to hold up his Racket against them Neither was he worse then his word however his preparations seem'd very disproportionable for so great a Work For the Army he landed was no more but six thousand Horse and twenty four thousand Foot a Train so inconsiderable and by the Daulphin judg'd to be so despicable that he thought not fit to come down himself in Person to take any view of them for fear he should fright them out of the Country too soon but sent some rude Peasants to attend their Motion who incouraged by some of the Troops of the nearest Garrisons as little understanding the danger they were ingaged in as they did the language of the Enemy they were ingaged with fell in upon the Rear of his Camp but as Village Curs which fiercely set upon all Strangers having the least Rebuke with a Stone or a Cudgel retreat home whining with their Tails betwixt their Legs so they having a Repulse given them ran away and made such Out-cries as dishearten'd the Souldiers that were to second them so much that after that he marched without any Resistance as far as Callice Neither indeed saw he any Enemy till he came to give Battel to the united Forces of France at that famous Field of Agencourt where notwithstanding he was out-numbred by the French above five for one he fought them with that Resolution as made himself Master of more Prisoners then he had men in his Camp to keep them an Occasion Fortune gave him to shew at once her Cruelty and his Mercy who whilst he might have kill'd did not but when he should not was forc'd to be cruel beyond almost all Example for as he gave Quarter in the beginning of the Battel to all that ask'd it his Clemency and Gentleness being such that as he was then pleas'd to declare he consider'd them as his Subjects not as his Captives So being over-charged with their Prisoners Numbers upon a sudden and unexpected accident however of no great Consequence if it had been rightfully understood he was forc'd to write the dismal Fate of France in cold Blood and in order to the saving life destroy it For as he was seeing his wounded men drest having gotten an intire Victory as he thought and as afterward it proved a sudden out-cry alarm'd his Camp occasion'd by a new Assault of some French Troops who being the first had quit the Field were the first return'd into it again in hopes by fighting with Boyes to regain the honour they lost in refusing to fight with men these under the Leading of the Captain of Agencourt set upon the Pages Sutlers and Laundresses following the pursuit with that wonted noyse as if they would have the English think the whole Army was rally'd again and chasing them Upon this the King caus'd all the scatter'd Arms and Arrows to be recollected and his stakes to be new pitch'd and put himself into a posture of Defence neither were the English only deceived by the Shreiks and Cries of those miserable People that fell into these mens hands but all those of the French likewise that were within hearing insomuch that the Earls of Marle and
thought the fittest Person to be tampered with for regaining the Point or at least to keep all quiet there whilst the King assisted by the Emperour with whom he had newly entred into a strict League sought more considerable Glory in the Invasion of France whither he resolved to go again in Person where notwithstanding that King out of dread of his power had summon'd all his Feises and brought together his Arrereban as they call them to oppose him he took the Town of Bulloigne and had undoubtedly inlarged his Conquests to the very Walls of Paris had not the Emperour privately patch'd up a Peace without him Upon notice whereof he thought fit to return home to reinforce the War in Scotland where though he did not much yet 't was more perhaps then was expected at that time For notwithstanding their conjunction with the French who entred upon one side whiles they prest in on the other both setting upon him like two Mastiffs upon a Lion yet he only rowsing himself shook them off again and pursuing them home to their own doors did them so much more mischief then they were able to do to him that they call'd for quarter choosing rather to treat then fight upon which there ensued a Peace the Conditions whereof whoe're examines will find that he knew how to yield as well as how to conquer giving them the reputation of having back their good Town of Bulloigne but they were to pay him for it Eight hundred thousand Crowns and the possession was to be his till the last payment were made And now having as it were tired himself with Victory it was time to retire into the consideration of taking his eternal rest having seen many of his brave men go before him as the valiant Lord Poynings the Hardy Duke of Suffolk his constant Favorite the Noble Lord Ferrers of Chartley the brave Lord Grey c. And it being now the Eight and thirtieth year of his Reign and the Six and fiftieth of his Age labouring under an unusual heaviness of Body and perhaps a greater of Mind having made Peace with all Enemies but the Scots and Pope having dis-joynted the Frame of Religion and drove away most of those that should put it in frame again having by the Severity of his Justice taken off two Queens two Cardinals for Pool stood condemn'd though not apprehended three Dukes Marquisses Earls and Earls Sons twelve Barons and Knights eighteen which could not but irritate much the Temporal Nobility and of Bishops Abbots Priors Monks Priests which as much incenst the Clergy no less then Seventy seven having offended his Roman Catholick Subjects by disowning the See of Rome and his Protestant Subjects by rejecting the Reformation he was brought at last to that unhappy period to leave the Crown to a Child whose condition was like to prove as uncertain under the Government of a Protector as the Kingdom under his which in case of want of Issue of his Body was to descend to his two Sisters successively of whose Legitimacy Religion and Title there were as many scruples before they parted from the Soveraignty as ever their Father conceiv'd in point of State Conscience or Honour before he parted from their Mothers So from the Catastrophe of his whole Story we may bring this remark That as no man could measure his Happiness by his Greatness so neither can they take any scantling of his Greatness by any thing that the World calls Happiness it being very true which the Marquiss of Dorset told him very plainly and not unpleasantly at a time when he was ill dispos'd to hear a Jest and not well prepared to be serious to wit That no man could be truly merry that had above one Wife in his Bed one Friend in his Bosom and one Faith in his Heart HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Now whether his Lady that had been the Wife of a King before did while she was alive put him upon any hopes of being so now for ambitious Men like seal'd Doves mount the higher for being blinded is not certain but certain it is that as soon as she died which was not long after he resum'd the confidence to approach so near the Throne as to Court the Lady Elizabeth the second time now grown a little riper for consent then when he first mov'd the Question to her Neither was it carried so secretly but that his Brother had an insight into the whole practice and at last discover'd the whole Plot but conceal'd his knowledge of it either out of pity or prudence as loath to ruin him with the hazard of losing himself or as doubting perhaps that the Sword of Justice was not long enough to reach him at least not sharp enough to cut thorough the knot of the whole Conspiracy But as Fate never fails undoing the man she has determin'd to destroy and when she falls upon him makes the first stroke at his head so happen'd it in this unhappy Lords case who being unexpectedly undermin'd was blown up by a Train that seems to have taken fire as it were by Lightning from Heaven his Treason being first detected out of the Pulpit and the Protector his Brother so prest by an eloquent Sermon of Bishop Latimer to Impeach him that he being not able to clear him was in some sence obliged to clear himself by a Speech which prov'd as ominous as it was obvious saying at the same time he caus'd him to be apprehended That he would do and suffer Justice And so he did when he sign'd the Warrant for his Execution after the Parliament found him Guilty with his own Hand A singular piece of Self-denial and such as is rarely found in Story there being very few that so much prefer the publick before their own private Interest as not to spare their own flesh and blood However looking so like Revenge it was by most men judg'd unnatural and taking no less from the honour of his Justice then t'other intended to have taken from the Prerogative of his Honour so shuck the frame of his Authority that it broke in pieces presently after and both Factions of Papists and Protestants falling off from him he was expos'd to the cunning of Warwick and the scorn of the Marquiss of Dorset his most unreconcileable Enemies The Papists quit him as believing the Obligation ceas'd by which when he ceas'd by whom they were held in having been true to him no otherwise but for his Brothers sake only The Protestants fail'd him because they doubted he might fail them for how could they think he would give them any Assistance that had given to his own Brother so little Thus when two great Trees grow up together out of one and the same Stock we see that the cutting down of the one commonly indangers the blowing down of the other which remaining single and expos'd to every storm cannot stand unless it have a firm ground as well as a spreading Root Neither
Land was divided into two Armies the one consisting of Two and twenty thousand Foot and One thousand Horse commanded by the Earl of Leicester whose Post was at Tilbury The other consisting of Four and twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse which were the Guard of her Person were Commanded by the Lord Hunsden the Sea-ports being Garrison'd with Twenty thousand old Souldiers who were seconded by the Train'd Bands in the respective Counties where they lay The Guard by Sea consisted of One hundred and forty Ships divided into three Squadrons The two first consisting of Fifty each under the Lord Howard the Admiral and Sir Francis Drake the Vice-Admiral waited the coming of the Enemy in Plymouth Road The last Squadron of Forty Commanded by the Rere-Admiral the Lord Henry Seymour second Son to the Duke of Somerset rode between Dunkirk and Callais to prevent any Conjunction with the Prince of Parma With this great Body she design'd to shew the World her Grandeur but when she meant to shew her Power she made use but of Fifteen of them Now as it happens oftentimes that great Calmes precede great Storms so the Catholick King hoping to out-wit the Heretick Queen a little before his great Fleet was ready to come forth dissembling a passionate desire of Peace press'd hard for a Treaty but whilst he thought to deceive her he was deceiv'd by her For she to return the trick upon him consented to the Proposal and by the sending her Commissioners to Ostend so possess'd him of the suppos'd Advantage he had gotten by it that it's thought it made him appear a little sooner then he would for before they could enter into the business he was entred into the British Seas and was no less shock'd when he found her in readiness then he expected she should have been if he had taken her unawares This made them resolve rather to make a Chase fight then lye by 't though they had the advantage of the Wind their honour being preserv'd till they came to Callais for that it was suppos'd all the haste they made away tended only to the Conjunction with the Prince of Parma but after they cut their Cables having not the Courage to stay to weigh Anchor and made all the Sail they could to fly from only eight Fire-ships it then plainly appear'd they neither understood their own Strength nor hers But these Ships being the first of that kind that ever were seen we may allow them to be The Wonder that gave Name to that wonderful Year In this great Conflict were lost more then half of the Spanish Fleet of the English only one Ship and that of no great Consideration so that 't was believ'd having sounded the danger of our Dark Seas passing round by the North they had taken their final Leave of England However the Queen was resolv'd not to leave them so but after much mischief done them by several Privateers whom she permitted to go forth upon their own Charge she resolv'd to become her self the Aggressor and repay to him the great dishonour of his Invasion it being an Indignity not to be forgiven by Princes because it cannot be forgotten by their People who can never be discharg'd from the Fears they have of him who has once set upon them till there be some Confront given that may assure them their own Prince is not so weak as the Enemy by seeking him out would have the World believe The Fleet she set forth consisted of One hundred and fifty Sail yet was not call'd the Invincible though it prov'd so being commanded by the Earl of Essex as General at Land and the Lord Howard as General at Sea who setting upon Cales the second time took it and in it all the Wealth that may be imagin'd to be lodg'd in such a Store-house as that is and after having burn'd all the Ships they found there for which they were offer'd Two Millions of Ducats if they would spare them they spoil'd the whole Island and demolish'd all the Forts and did as 't is thought as much Damage as amounted to Twenty Millions of Ducats more To requite which the King of Spain rigg'd up another Navy and mann'd it with Irish Runnagado's but either their Skill or their Courage failed them at least the Winds did not so favour them but that the Expedition came to nought And now when all the Storms at Sea seem'd to have been blown over and past there rose a Cloud at Land which gave the Queen greater apprehensions of danger then ever she had before The French King who was joyn'd with her in a League Offensive and Defensive against Spain and had reap'd this good Effect by it to recover Amiens which the Spaniard had surpriz'd by the help of the English only yeilding to the Importunities of the Pope and his own People made his Peace without her who quitting his Religion at the same time he quit her Friendship 't was believ'd they would all joyn to set upon her at once Hereupon there were great Debates in Councel upon the point of her closing with the Spaniard who seem'd much to desire a Peace Essex the great Idol of the Sword-men was for continuing the War Burleigh who was the great Patron of the Pen-men was for the Peace And it seems they argued the matter so warmly that being scarce able to keep Peace amongst themselves 't was not likely they should obtain it abroad For Essex could not forbear unseemly Reflections upon the old man nor he from retorting them back as sharply who 't is said being more witty in his Anger call'd for a Bible at the Table and shewing him that Verse in the Psalms where 't is said The bloody minded man shall not live out half his dayes gave him grave warning by an ominous Presage of that which follow'd for we know how shortly after he swell'd and burst However the Queen mov'd with like Zeal to Religion as Essex was with hatred to the Spaniard inclin'd to his Opinion whereupon Cecil submitted to her Judgment but pray'd to have the Question put first to the States of Holland her Confederates Whether they would agree to her making Peace and knowing it to be against their Interest so to do he took the Advantage of their Refusal to demand an aid towards the carrying on of the War out of whom by that trick of State he did her this good Service against her will to screw Eight hundred thousand pounds which being to be paid by Thirty thousand pounds yearly for which the Queen had Cautionary Towns given as a Security it look'd so like a Tribute that after their having offer'd her the Soveraignty as they did 't is hard to prove it was not so And now casting up the Accompt betwixt her and the Spaniard who was her greatest and not to say her only Enemy for the Pope however he bore no less hatred to her yet being at that distance as he was he could not come to close
time they agniz'd his Right they admitted a Protestation for saving the Right of another James to wit the Duke of Chasteau Herauld who it seems had some Pretensions in Right of his Great-Grandmother the Daughter and Heir of James the Second So that this was as yet but to make him a King in Name and shew whilst he must continue under the Pupilage of Ambitious Regents that design'd rather to give Laws to him then advise him how to give Laws to others 'T is true whilst he was under the care of those two Patriots of known Honour and Loyalty his Grandfather Matthew Earl of Lenox and the old Earl of Marre the one his Governour by the right of Nature t'other by that of Custom he had some Satisfaction though no Security for how could they be able to protect him that were not able to defend themselves the first of them being murther'd the last heart-broke by the insupportable Troubles he met with in his short breath'd Regency But how melancholy a life he lead under his next Regent the Earl of Morton who under pretence of keeping all Papists and Factious Persons from him suffer'd him to see almost no body appears by that strict Order of his by which every Earl was forbid to approach his Presence with any more then two attending him every Baron with any above one and all of lesser Quality were not to come but single Upon this 't is true the offended Nobility to affront Morton declar'd him Major and made some shew of leaving him to his own dispose but in respect he was but twelve years old they thought fit to appoint him eleven Lords more to be assistant in Councel to him three and three by turns which in effect was to put twelve Regents over him instead of one which was design'd by some that intended their own advancement more then his Thus he suffer'd during the Nonage of his years How he suffer'd further during the Nonage of his Power will appear in the Sequel For Morton notwithstanding the Prescript Form of Government drew to himself being one of the twelve the Administration of all Affairs and keeping the Power still within his own hands as the King within his own Power admitted none to see or speak with him but whom he thought fit whereby he was now brought to loose his Liberty wholly because t'other had loss his Authority in part only This Tyranny held till the Lords headed by the Earl of Athole freed him by force of Arms After which believing himself clearly manumitted out of his Pupillage to shew himself accountable to none but himself he began to single out such Friends for his Confidents as by nearness of Blood or the nobleness of their Natures he judg'd most worthy to be trusted Two there were above the rest on whom he seem'd to cast a disproportionate Grace these were Esme Lord Aubigny Grandson of the Lord John Stuart his Grandfathers younger Brother whom he created first Earl and after Duke of Lenox and Charles Earl of Arran who being a Hamilton was his near Kinsman too but both of them being suspected to be of the French Faction it gave fresh occasion of offence to the chief of the Factions there and no less umbrage to the jealous Queen here who knew the former of the two to be much honoured by the Guises This new conceiv'd Envy heightned the old Rancor of the mutinous Nobility and made them have recourse to the same Remedy for prevention of the same Mischief as before whereunto there being a fair opportunity given by the absence of these Lords the one being in a Journey t'other at Edenburgh the Earl of Gowry with whom confederated the young Earl of Marre and the Earl of Lindsey finding the King alone at St. Johnstons invited him over to his Castle of Reuthen As soon as they had him there they made him Prisoner and accusing the two Lords as Enemies to the Protestant Religion having first put all his trusty Servants from him they forc'd him by an Instrument under his Hand and Seal to banish the Lord Aubigny and to imprison the Lord Arran and which was yet more insupportable compell'd him to approve all that they did by Letters to Queen Elizabeth But it was not long ere the death of the Duke of Lenox in France who 't is said however dyed a Protestant made the Conspirators so secure in the possession of him that he found the means to make his escape from them And recovering himself now the second time as one that once more became Lord of himself he recall'd his trusty Councellor the Lord Arran by whose advice he was guided in all his Concerns This so provoked Gowry beyond all patience that in defiance of all Reason as well as of all Right he made a second attempt upon him But as those who are fore-warn'd are fore-arm'd so the King having an eye upon him defeated his purpose and made him what he should himself have been made by him a Prisoner at Mercy whilst his Complices escap'd into England to seek Protection from Q. Elizabeth Who hoping to have prevented Gowry's Sentence dispatch'd away her Secretary Walsingham to the King to admonish him to take heed how he was led away by evil Counsellors and to shew him how difficult a thing it was to distinguish betwixt good and bad Counsel at his Age being then but eighteen years old to which the King return'd a sudden not to say a sharp Answer That he was an absolute Prince and would not that others should appoint him Counsellors whom he liked not Wherewith the testy Queen was so offended that she set her Terriers upon Incouraging the factious Ministry whereof there was good store there and those fit Tools for her purpose to say those things which became not her to own who clamoring upon his Government and raising many slanders upon Himself and Councel tending to the making them Popishly affected were thereupon cited to Answer for their Seditious Practises But they refused to appear avowing that the Pulpit was exempt from all Regal Authority and that no Ecclesiastical Persons were accomptible for what they preach'd to any but to God and their Consistory In the mean time the Queen follow'd the blow and furnishing the proscrib'd Lords with Money secretly dismiss'd them home Who as soon as they return'd upon the Credit of declaring for the Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel for freeing the King from evil Counsellors and maintaining Amity with the Protestant Interest of England rais'd Eight thousand men in an Instant with whom they marched up directly to Court and so far surpriz'd the King that he was forced to render himself to them and to ingage to give up to their Mercy all their Adversaries and who they were was left to their own liberty to declare Next he was compell'd to put into their hands the four Keys of the Kingdom Dumbritton Edinburgh Tantallon and Sterling Castles After which Glames one of the principal Rebels was
as himself observ'd for the most part their Graves the Vote of Non-Addresses being as Earth flung upon him Fortune cruelly brings him to Life again by the Cordial of unexpected hopes heightned by the Zeal of several Counties declaring for him Divers Lords in Arms again at Land and his own Son with others at Sea these incouraged by the Revolt of several Towns those by the coming in of several Ships so that there were no less then Two thousand in Arms for him at Sea with Twenty good Ships and not so litt e as Ten thousand at Land with Horses Arms and Ammunition suitable And which was yet more considerable the Grand * Call'd The Committee of Danger Committee of State in Scotland whose very name carried Danger in it allarm'd them by sending the Propositions following 1. To bring the King to London or some of his Houses near with Freedom and Safety 2. To disband the Army 3. To punish those that had deteined him in Obscurity 4. To restore the Secluded Members 5. To establish the Presbyterian Government and suppress Sectaries And that they might yet appear more like a Committee of Danger they sent a formidable Army under the Conduct of Duke Hamilton to make good their Demands and to give their Nation the Honour of being the last as they were the first in Arms in this unhappy War The terror of these formidable Preparations incourag'd by several Petitions out of the City and Country moved the affrighted Parliament to consent to a Personal Treaty whilst the Army was busie in disputing the Points with the Sword and accordingly they recalâ—'d the Vote of Non-Addresses and sent their Commissioners to wait on the King at the Isle of Wight where he argued so like a Divine with the Divines so like a Lawyer with the Lawyers so like a States-man with their Matchiavillians that they went all away fully satisfied in their belief of his Wisdom Piety and Justice and upon the publishing his Conditions the Houses voted him to be in Honour Freedom and Safety according to the Laws Here seem'd to be nothing wanting now but a Sword in his hand to have once more disputed it with the Sword-men too and then possibly he might have saved himself and the despairing Nation But just as every man was making ready to bring in his Peace-Offering in Confidence that the King and Parliament were fully agreed the inraged Army returning home from the Conquest of all those that had oppos'd them doubly dyed with Blood and Treason alike Enemies to Peace and Reason broke down the great Chain of Order which binds even the Divels themselves and first seizing on him next on them sent no less then Forty of their principal Members to Hell a Place purposely made their Prison not so much for any conveniency of Reception or nearness of Scituation as the Uncoughness of the Name that by the conceipt of being typically damn'd they might bring them into despair and tempt some of them as after they did to become their own Executioners Ninety more they turn'd quite out of the House and appointed a day for turning out all the rest In the mean time they publish'd a Modification which to make the more acceptable they term'd The Agreement of the People by which the number of the Representatives of the Nation was reduc'd to Three hundred half which were to have power to make a Law and during the Intervals of Sessions a Councel of State was to govern This Model was put into the hands of those Members of their own Faction who besides the Confirmation thereof had Instructions given them for passing six other Votes 1. For renewing that of Non-Addresses 2. For annulling the Treaty and Concessions at the Isle of Wight 3. For bringing the King to publick Justice to answer with his own all the Blood shed in the War 4. For summoning in his two Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to render themselves by a day certain to give satisfaction on their parts otherwise to stand exil'd as Traytors to their Country 5. For doing publick Justice upon all the Kings Partakers 6. For paying off all their own Arrears forthwith How obedient Slaves this Rump of a House were to these their own Servants who could not find in their Heart to pay the least respect to their natural Prince appears by the Sequel For immediately they gave them or rather permitted them to give themselves above Sixty thousand pounds and voted that the General should take care to secure the King and the Councel of war to draw up a Charge of High Treason against him Lord Faulâ—land Behold the frailty of all humane things How soon great Kingdoms fall much sooner Kings This as it was an Insolence beyond all hope of pardon so nothing could justifie it but such a Violation of all sacred and humane Rights as must not only out-do all Example but out-face all Divinity and Majesty at once by erecting that High Court of Justice as they call'd it to try him as a Rebel against himself Preparatory whereunto they made Proclamation at Westminster-hall Cheapside and the Old Exchange that all that had any thing to say against him should come in at the prefix'd time and be heard And for the greater solemnity of their intended Paricide the Law was silenced that is the Tearm put off for fourteen dayes in order to the better formalizing the disorder that was to follow And now having brought the Royal Prisoner to their Judgment Seat they proceed to arraign him with not unlike Impudence and Impiety to that of the Rascal Jews when they brought the King of Kings to Tryal whom as they charg'd to be a Perverter so these charg'd him with being a Subverter of his People both Prisoners being in this alike Guilty that eithers Crime was the owning himself to be a King which as the Jews could not indure then so neither could these now Their King thought not fit to give any Answer to his Accusers this King preparing to give sitting Answers could not be heard But he had this satisfaction to hear Pontius Bradshaw the President by whom he was to be condemn'd condemn himself first and all his Fellow Paricides by a Reply to him not less absurd then observable For his Majesty reasoning upon the unreasonableness of not being suffer'd to speak for himself said Where is there in all the World that Court in which no Place is left for Reason to which t'other unwittingly reply'd Sir you shall find that this very Court is such an one Nay then retorted the King in vain will my Subjects expect Justice from you who stop your Ears to your King ready to plead his Cause Thus they strangled him before they beheaded him and designing to murther his Soul if possible as well as his Body added to their Denial of Justice so many Contumelies Indignities and Affronts as were enough to have tempted him to despair had not his Faith been as strong
Person and each of these whilst they stood as free Agents and counterpoiz'd each others Greatness kept the Scale â—even maintaining by the Sword what was got by the Sword But after the King came to be declar'd Major and at his own dispose having not the Judgment to conceal his own Weakness much less to controul their Potency Faction and Ambition broke in upon the Government and made such a Rupture in the Reputation of their former Successes that the French King back'd by many Seconds who yet were not so much his Friends as Enemies to the English took that advantage to reinforce his Credit and press'd so hard upon them that all the well-built Frame of their Fortune crack'd from top to bottom However there were three fatal Breaches made in it before all fell to pieces The first Flaw was occasion'd by the Rupture betwixt the Duke of Bedford and the Duke of Burgundy who divided about a meer Punctillio of Honour who should first come to the place where they had appointed to treat of the Differences betwixt them The Duke of Bedford thought the other ought to attend his coming in respect he was Regent of France t'other thought he ought rather to expect him it being in his own Dominions where he was absolute Soveraign upon which they parted the Duke of Burgundy lest the English and the Duke of Bedford not long after the World And this unhappy King became so much the greater Sufferer by how much the reparation of that loss prov'd more fatal then the loss it self for as it was as difficult as necessary to find out a good Successor to that great Trust so he was not a little opprest by the Importunity of two Competitors who being men of like Anger and Ambition caus'd a more fatal Breach then the former These were the Dukes of Somerset and York the first Grandson to John of Gaunt and Grandfather to Henry the Seventh the last yet greater in respect of his Descent from Lyonel Duke of Clarence being Head of the White-rose Faction both equal in Blood and Merit either too Great to be displeas'd much more too Ambitious to be pleas'd In this Contest the Duke of York got the Ball and from his Success concluded 't was possible as he did afterward to get the Scepter too being by the Mothers side the right Heir to Richard the Second but the Duke of Somerset resolving to revenge his loss by the hazard of loosing the whole gave him so many Interruptions in his Dispatch of that great Charge that before he could arrive in France the Parisians had shuck off their Yoke and by their Example the Revolt became so general that even the Normans themselves ever before firm to the English were upon the point also of changing their Allegiance The third and most fatal Breach was that betwixt the Uncle and Nephew the Cardinal Beauford and the Duke of Gloucester The Duke charg'd the Cardinal with Affectation of Pre-eminence even to the Derogation of the Kings Prerogative and Contempt of his Laws the Cardinal not finding Matter to recriminate so Personally upon him himself accus'd his other self to wit his Wife to be a Sorceress and one that by Witchcraft attempted to take away the Kings Life Which whether it were true or no was so well managed that her pretended Crime was in effect made his for by the help of the Queen to whom the King had been espoused by advice of the Cardinal and the Marquiss after made Duke of Suffolk his Creature against the advice of this good Duke for so the People call'd him they prevail'd with the weak King first to exclude him the Councel after to deprive him of all Commands and lastly to take away his Life too not foreseeing so improvident was their Malice that as long as he liv'd his Primogeniture being descended from the Fourth Son of Edward the Third would have kept back the Duke of York's Claim that came from the Fifth Son For his Death gave the first Occasion of beginning that desperate War betwixt the two alike cruel Houses of York and Lancaster who so wasted themselves by Alternate Successes like Plants which cut in the Spring bleed themselves to death that they left no Issue to inherit their dear-bought Titles and were thereby necessitated for the same Reason to unite in the last as they divided in the first place to wit to entail that fatal Glory upon their Posterity which they found to wither do what they could as the Roses they gave for their Cognizances which by being so often cut down came at last to be over-topt by the Thistle of Scotland The Dukes of Somerset and Suffolk being the two principal Councellors that govern'd the Queen who govern'd the King and managed the whole Prosecution of the Duke of Gloucester The People after the Death of the Cardinal who did not long Survive the Execution of that good Duke for so they commonly call'd him fixt their Mark of Evil Councellors and prest so hard for their amoval from the King that the Queen was forc'd as commonly it falls out in such Cases to let go her hold and leave them to shift for themselves The last was the first fell into their Hands who attempting to fly their Fury being Impeached in Parliament was taken at Sea and Executed according to the Popular way of Justice without Ceremony or Sentence by chopping off his Head on the side of a Boat The Duke of Somerset being more above their reach one Mortimer whom for that end the Duke of York allow'd the honour to be reputed of his kindred better known by the name of Jack Cade alias Captain Mend-all undertakes to bring him to a Bay and backt with a multitude inraged with the sence of their just Complaints arriv'd to that power as to possess himself of London where he took off the head of the Kings Chamberlain and grew so terrible that the King himself was constraâ—ned to retire and give place but before he could reach the Duke of Somerset he fell himself Whereupon the Duke of York was forced to take off his Vizard and own the Justice of his Complaint barefac'd who having an Army ready to second them prevail'd so far with the Parliament as to get the Duke twice arrested but finding him to be still releas'd as soon as they were up who therefore were dissolv'd to the end that he might be discharg'd he advanced towards London to do himself as he said and the Kingdome Right But before he could pass St. Albans the King met him and gave him Battel wherein the unfortunate Duke of Somerset gave the last Testimony of his Loyalty to the King in the loss of his Life and the unhappy King the last Test of his Affection to him by the loss of his Liberty being forced to render himself a Prisoner to the Victor who was so modest as not to declare his Title to the Crown but contented himself to be by the good favour of the