to which he â—â—posed himself by discovering that secret began to gain ground upon him He made appear to him that he must either have been a fool or weary of life to have invented such a fable and more fully to convince him he recounted to him the whole story of the marriage of the Earl of Warwick his Father and that Anne Hemlock his real Mother dying in Child-bed of him the Lady Brandon substituted him in place of one of her Children which just then died having been born but a few days before him He put him in mind of what he had been told heretofore of the repugnance that the Lady made whom he believed to be his Mother when she was invited to be Nurse to the King And then perceiving him to be a little moved he had no great difficulty to convince him that he was the secret cause of that unwillingness which was so variously discoursed of amongst people and adding to this several other passages of his education which being all of the same strain and character gave evidence enough that there had always been some mystery in his fortune he past them but slightly over that at the same time he might insinuate that if he loved his life it behoved him not to remember them He only hinted to him that the secret of his birth should encourage him to resist his Rivals who believed themselves better descended than he and that if he could keep the secret as well as the Prince his Father had done who had seen him a hundred times out of his prison-Windows and who went to death accompanied with Frier Patrick without speaking a word of it heaven possibly had designed him for great matters That after all he was the only remaining bud of the White Rose whereof Merlin spake in his Prophesie and that his Mothers name so plainly expressed by the word Hemlock made it past all doubt seeing that in effect the Blood of York was fallen into that of Hemlock by his Birth But that these following words of the Astrologer Yet too much zeal doth oft annoy For an inn'cent maid shall it destroy put him in great perplexity That though the punishment of Simonel and death of Peter Warbeck who gave themselves out for Princes of the House of York were instances terrible enough to hinder him from bragging of his extraction yet as it was his opinion that he should continue his love to the Princess so that passion made him very apprehensive That he imagined already that he would discover to her all that had been told him and that though she might still love him yet it might too really happen that she should become the innocent maid that might destroy him if he concealed not from her as well as from every body else that important secret Hastings thus ending his discourse fell on his knees to Brandon that he might once in his life render him the respect which the interest of his safety suffered him not to pay in any other place and that he might beseech him never to entertain thoughts that any such honours were due to him But what difficulty soever this new Prince of York had at first to believe it yet he found at length all things that had been told him so well circumstantiated and so conform to the inclinations of his heart that he had no more power to doubt of the truth of what was told him He promised to be cautious and to conceal his birth and the Lord Hastings who was still his great Uncle by the Mother-side died shortly after either of old age or for fear lest the secret which he had revealed should be discovered In the mean time Brandon whom we must for some time still name so found his Courage by little and little raised by the knowledg of what he was He thereby grew more brisk and agreeable with the Princess more courteous and majestick with others and by the prudent management of the estate left him by Hastings became so considerable that the King himself took pleasure to see him imploy new measures one day to deserve all that he wished him the enjoyment of On the other hand his Rivals being returned from the Pyrenean hills where the designs of the King of Spain who had fallen upon Navar hindered them from atchieving any great exploits found him again of an humour less disposed to yield to them than formerly Sommerset after his return from Scotland could not regain that height upon him which he always pretended to before and Bourchier cured of his wound durst never on that account express to him the least discontent They all appeared to have submitted themselves to their fortunes and whilst Howard and Talbot the one made Admiral and the other Master of the Horse stifled their love by the satisfaction of their ambition Gray and the rest found it impossible for them to delight their eyes but by living in good correspondence with Brandon Their care therefore was only to out-do him in greatness of services and obsequiousness towards the Princess he was the man that was most assiduous that way who gave demonstration of greatest complaisance and there happened some days when it seemed that that Conduct might prove successful they obtained thereby at least more access to her and although through the favours which she was pleased sometimes to show them they perceived too well that they had no share in her affection yet at what rate soever they resolved to persist in rendering her their Services So true it is that with small pains and little care a lovely person is able to produce great effects in the minds of those who are captivated with its beauty Insomuch that all these Rivals began to live together with less contention and contributing severally to the publick pomp whilst the preparations for a War with France were vigorously carried on there was nothing to be seen at London but Plays Horse-races Balls and Dancing where the Ladys in rich dresses setting off the beauty which might procure them praise and esteem obliged likewise their Lovers to imploy their greatest advantages On these occasions the lovely Brandon gained signal honour and whether it was for his good meen or his dexterity in all the exercises of body there was no Gentleman in the Kingdom that seemed not his inferiour So that amongst so many competitors who contended with him for the favour of the Princess there was not any so fortunate as to gain the least of it to his prejudice and though Edward Strafford the young Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Kildare Son to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland both of them lovely and handsom Gentlemen had newly declared themselves his Rivals yet it was without either jealousie or disquiet to him Mary of Lancaster adored by all had no passion for any but him But amidst the pleasures by which the Court of England the most gallant and pompous of that age prepared so sumptuously for the War of France the death
The English PRINCESS OR THE Dutchess-Queen A RELATION OF ENGLISH and FRENCH ADVENTURES A NOVEL In Two PARTS LONDON Printed for Will. Cademan and Simon Neale at the Popes-Head in the Lower-Walk of the New-Exchange and at the Three Pidgeons in Redford-street in Covent-Garden 1678. THE English Princess OR THE Dutchess QUEEN The First PART THE Monarchy of England having been long in dispute betwixt the two Roses the Red of the House of Lancaster and the White of that of York fell at length to the peaceable inheritance of the former and never appeared in greater splendour than in the time of Henry the Eighth This Prince being of a most sharp and piercing wit by study and learning advanced daily more and more in knowledg and was no sooner at the age of eighteen Crowned King but that he seemed already to hold in his hands the Fate of all Europe All that was to be blamed in him was his love of pleasures which in progress of time got the Dominion over him and some kind of sickleness the blemish of several of his Family he had a delicate and well-proportioned body a countenance of singular beauty and shewed always such an Air of Majesty and Greatness as inspired both love and reverence in all that beheld him At his Assumption to the Crown when his heart was not as yet subjected to the pleasures of sense it was but a meer scruple of conscience that made him unwilling to marry Catharine of Spain his Brothers Widow to whom the late King his Father had betrothed him three years before his Death no engagements in love with any other Mistresses at that time being any ways the cause of his aversion But two of his chief Ministers who had been formerly private Pensioners of Isabel of Castile having represented to him the losses that he was likely to sustain by a mis-understanding with Spain easily cleared all his doubts so that at length he made use of the dispensation which with much difficulty had been obtained at Rome for his marriage and the League which at the same time King Ferdinand his Brother-in-law proposed to him with Pope Julius the Second the Emperour Maximilian and the Swisses against Louis the Twelfth King of France filled him with so high an opinion of himself that there hath been nothing more lovely than the first years of his marriage and Reign And indeed he gave himself so wholly to jollity and mirth amidst the great designs which he contrived that his Example being a pattern to his Court it became so compleatly gallant that the Ladies themselves thought it no offence to decency publickly to own their Votaries The Princess Mary his younger Sister as she excelled in Quality so she exceeded the rest in Beauty Margaret the eldest married to the King of Scotland had only the advantage of her in Birth for in Beauty her share was so great that there was never any Princess who deserved more to be loved The qualities of her mind and Character of her Parts will sufficiently appear in the sequel of this discourse and as to her body nothing was wanting that might render it perfect her complexion was fair her soft skin enriched with that delicate whiteness which the Climate of England bestows commonly on the Ladies of that Countrey and the round of her face inclining near to a perfect Oval Though her eyes were not the greatest yet they possessed all that could be desired in the loveliest eyes in the World They were quick with mildness and so full of love that with a single glance they darted into the coldest breasts all the flames that sparkled in themselves Her mouth was not inferiour to her eyes for being very little and shut with lips of a perpetual Vermilion in its natural frame it presented an object not to be parallel'd for Beauty and when again it opened whether to laugh or speak it always afforded thousands of new Charms What has been said of her pretty mouth may be likewise said of her fair hands which by their nimbleness and dexterity in the smallest actions seemed to embellish themselves but more might be spoken of the Soveraign Beauty of her Neck which when age had brought it to perfection became the master-piece of Nature Her Stature was none of the tallest but such as Ladies ought to have to please and delight and her gate address and presence promised so much that it is no wonder that the Charms of Nature accompanied with a tender and passionate heart gained her before the age of fifteen the Conquest of most of her Fathers Subjects Before she was compleat twelve years of age she was promised in marriage to Prince Charles of Austria heir to the Kingdom of Castile and since named Charles the Fifth For Lowis the Twelfth of France having frustrated that young Prince of the hopes of marrying the Princess Claudia his daughter by designing her for the Duke of Valois his presumptive heir notwithstanding the natural aversion that Anne of Brittanie his Queen had against him Henry the Seventh no sooner understood that the alliance of the house of Austria with France was unlikely to succeed but he began to think on means of contracting it with England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester was therefore sent to Calais to negotiate in his name that marriage with the Deputies of Flanders who thereupon concluded a Treaty to the satisfaction of all Parties But the alteration of the King changed all these measures Henry the Eighth having in a manner against his will married the Aunt of the young Arch-Duke found not in that second Union with Spain all the advantages which his Father seemed to foresee and whether it was already an effect of repentance as some termed it or that he had in it the particular design which men had ground to suspect since he many times in discourse approved the ancient custom of his Kingdom of not giving in marriage the Daughters or Sisters of the Kings out of the Island for which he was so applauded by all that even those of his Council who were the least complaisant made it by little and little as he did a reason of State to forget the proposals of Calais So that now the Princess Mary being free from the engagement of the late King her Father and the great Men of England eying her as a blessing to be enjoyed by the most happy she found her self amidst a croud of lovers who in the peace and quiet of the Kingdom made it their whole business to disquiet themselves Amongst the most sparkling and assiduous pretenders Edward Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset and Henry Bourchier Son to Thomas Earl of Essex appeared the chief Charles Son to Sir Charles Sommerset Lord High Chamberlain came next and Thomas Howard Son to Thomas Earl of Surrey Lord High Treasurer with William Talbot Son to George Earl of Shrewsbury Steward of the Kings Houshold put in amongst the rest These five Rivals being already very considerable by
the Duke of Suffolk This bereft him of all comfort for the rest of his days and being unable to abide longer at Court as well because of that loss as of the disorders of his King which encreased with age he choose rather to command the Army against the Rebels in Yorkshire where he fully crowned his Glory He had five Children by the Queen whereof the two Males dyed both in one day of the distemper which is called the English Sweating-sickness and of his three Daughters who were all married to the greatest Lords of the Kingdom the eldest named Frances married to Henry Gray Son to the Marquess of Dorset his intimate friend was the cause of his death She falling sick in one of her Countrey-houses and he loving that dear Daughter the more because she perfectly resembled his deceased Queen used so great diligence to come to her that he thereby dyed Thus the Prophesie of Merlin may be seen fulfilled in his person supposing that he had been the Grand-child of the Duke of Clarence Since that how innocent soever that daughter was of his Death yet the too great zeal that he had for her was that which destroyed him At least to judg by the event the words of that Astrologer seem pretty just The only thing that can make me doubt of it is the little care that I see in him during his life to make known his secret Quality of a Prince of York What tyranny soever may oblige a Prince to conceal himself for a time yet if he have a great and generous soul as Suffolk had it is hard for him to continue always obscure and truely royal blood soon or late becomes conspicuous in Heroes Vnless it may be said of him that the possession of what he loved having fulfilled all his desires he feared either to disturb his own felicity by discovering himself or to wrong his Children who according to the custom of England would have certainly been put to death upon the least suspicion of the truth FINIS Some Books Printed and are to be Sold by W. Cademan at the Popes-head in the New-Exchange PHaramond or the History of France a fam'd Romance in 12 Parts the whole work never before in English written by the Author of Cassandra and Cleopatra Fol. Parthanissa that most fam'd Romance in 6 Parts written by the Right Honourable the Earl of Orrery in Fol. Books 4 to Protestant Religion is a sure Foundation and Principle of a true Christian written by Charles Earl of Derby Historical Relations of the first discovery of the Island of Madera A Warning to the Unruly in two Visitation-Sermons Preached before the Arch-Bishop of York by Seth Bushell D. D. The great Efficacy of the Clergy a Visitation-Sermon by Tho. Duncomb D. D. Mr. Barn's Sermon Preached before the King Mr. Pigol's Sermon Preached before the Judges at Lancaster Books 8 vo Philosophical Essays or the History of Petrificatio by Thomas Sherley Dr. in Physick The History of Scurvey-Grass being an exact and careful description of the Nature and Medicinal vertues of that Plant teaching how to prepare out of it plain and approved Remedies for the Scurvey and most other Diseases as well Galenical as Chymical which are to be had of Scurvey-grass-Ale confirmed by Reason Experience and Authority The Spanish History or a Relation of the Differences that happened in the Court of Spain between Don John of Austria and Cardinal Nitard with other Transactions of that Kingdom together with all the Letters that past between Persons of the highest Quality relating to those affairs PLAYS Rival a Comedy Island-Princes Comedy Flora's Vagaries Comedy Town-shifts a Comedy Citizen turn'd Gentleman Comedy Morning-Ramble Comedy Careless Lovers Comedy Reformation Comedy Mall or Modish Lovers Comedy Rehersal a Comedy Mock-Tempest a Comedy Dumb Lady a Comedy Dutch-Lovers a Comedy Setle against Dryden Herod and Mariamne Love and Revenge Conquest of China Constant Nimph. Pastor Fide Tom Essence a Comedy Wandring Lovers Catalius Conspiracy Tragedy Fatal Jealousie Mackbeth English-Princess Marcelia Spanish-Rogue Piso's Conspiracy Alcibiades Siege of Memphis Cambyâ—â—â— Empress of Morocco