Orators pleading for the time in a bad cause with good words and handling an ill matter too-too well From thence he went couragiously against the whole company and what with the former Earles assaulting them on the one side and his owne charges on the other side as knowing how the Kings businesse stood to make an end of the warre the battaile began apace and not a man but prepared himselfe to fight it out till at last the Lord Dawbney engaged himselfe so farre that he was taken prisoner but whether for feare or through his owne wit and pollicie they quickly released him and he as quickly dispatched the matter and made an end of the warre For he put them all to flight so that a man may well say vnto them Via nulla saâ—utis Non fuga non virtus vix spes quoque mortis honestae and I may truely report of the contrary neuer was a battaile so well fought and so quickly determined For before the King was ready to goe to dinner there were slaine two thousand Rebels and many more taken prisoners the rest hardly escaped home who for all their defeature and vncomfortable newes to the people were rather accelerated to reuenge their companions wrongs then exanimated from further attempts or seemed grieued at the King and Countries molestation shewing sad lookes but stomachous hearts and so remained intoxicated in their braines and ready vpon euery occasion to a new rebellion as you shall heare hereafter When this battaile was ended and so delicately contriued for the King lost not aboue foure hundred men some imputed it to the Kings policy who appointing the same on Monday by way of anticipation fell vpon them on Saterday and so taking them somewhat vnprouided had the fortune to preuaile and thriue in his aduantage Such as were taken and apprehended had their pardon except the principall and fire-brands of the mischiefe For the Lord Audeley was drawne from Newgate to the Tower-Hill in a Coat of his owne armes painted vpon paper reuersed and all to torne and there beheaded the 28. of Iune Thomas Flamoch and Michael Ioseph were executed after the order of Traitors and their quarters sent into Cornwall for the terrifying of the people some were dispatched at sundry Townes as they deserued amongst whom the Smith and diuers others of his immodest friends had no excuse to make for this rebellion but whether they preuailed or no they were sure to be registred to eternity for daring to doe somewhat in behalfe of their Countries liberty and bidding battaile to Kings and Princes at their Pallace Gates and before the Citie Wals euen London it selfe that great Citie the Chamber for their treasury and strength of their roialtie which makes me remember a saying of Lucan Sed me velsola tueri Fama potest rerum toto quas gessimus orbe Et nomen quod mundus amat And in another place Quid plura feram tum nomina tanto Inuenies operi vel famam consule mundi and this was the end of the twelfth yeare In this time you must know that the King of Scots lay not idle but meerely vpon supposition of what would follow prepareth himselfe nor was so ill befriended but he had secret intelligences of all King Henries purposes and intendments whereupon he enlarged his Army barracadoed his passages entrenched and fortified the holds kept good Watch and Ward and stood on the pinacles of a high presumption to encounter with the proudest forces of England yea to giue defiance if need were to the King himselfe Notwithstanding he now lay a while only at defence watching with what warde the English would breake vpon him and wondring at my Lord Dawbneis retraction and why he came not forward as his espials had aduertised but when he vnderstood of the Westerne rebellion he then coniectured the truth and a while reposed himselfe till a Messenger of these Westerne men came vnto Perkin and profered their obedience and endeuours if he would come and ioine his Army with theirs and so as their Prince and Captaine reuenge there wrongs this was motioned to King Ieames who for all he confessed that if they would ioine with the Cornish men there might be a gate open indeed to preuaile and walke in the fields of Victorie yet he would by no meanes aduenture his people so farre and confessed plainly he wanted ships for transporting so great an Army into those parts Only because he would be doing to please the supposed Prince he meant to take this opportunitie of the King of Englands disturbance and once againe aduenture into his territories and so with a sufficient preparation he attempted the Castle of Norrham standing vpon the Riuer of Twede deuiding Scotland and England But Richard Fox Bishop of Durham a man of great learning courage experience and fidelitie suspecting as much had well stored and fortified the same and was in it with such power munition and prouision as he was able to raise sending the King word of the siedge and inuiting the Earle of Surrey to come to his reskue with all expedition The Earle was mustering of men in Yorke-shire when this newes extended it selfe and like a worthy seruitor hastned his iourney the rather and so with twelue Earles and Barons of the North Countrie one hundred Knights and Gentlemen of name and twentie thousand Soldiers well ordered and armed he came to raise the siedge in which this braue Prelate was so engaged Besides he furnished a hansome Nauy at Sea whereof the Lord Brooke was Admirall to giue their attendance whatsoeuer should chance But when the King of Scots and his counterfet Duke of Yorke had full and certaine notice of the Earle of Surreis approach and that the Lord Dawbenies army was also integrat and vnbroken yea ready to march forward as a second to the former they thought it better to retire with securitie then to tarry the aduenture with certeinty of losse if not hazzard both of life and honour and so by a voluntary consent they raised their campe and returned vnder colour of commiseration of the people whom they knew in the best war must be subiected to slaughter or captiuitie and to this purpose they could yield a reason out of our Poet to certain spirits that wondred at their affrightings and drawings back seeing no perill apparant nor hearing of any stedfast reports concerning a more forcible enemie and so calling for a book reading to them this leâ—â—on of satisfaction Potuit tibi Vulnere nullo Stare labor belli potuit fine caede subactum Captiuumque ducem violatae tradere paci Quiâ— furor â— Coeci scelerum Ciuilia bella Gesturimetuunt ne non cum sanguine vincant This answere of the Kings did rather harme then good to poore Perkin For they perceiued the King was weary of this warre and loth to take his part any longer and so they rested a while displeasingly pleased But the truth was the
of the world and times For the Maiestie of Kings will not be tied vp with the slender bindings of rebellion nor taught any lesson against their wils either of fauouring or disfauouring whom they please As for personall faults Alas Princes Prelates Officers Maiestrates and all sorts of men will runne the race of mortality and if it were possible to remoue offenders at pleasure the persons may be changed but the imperfections continue Let them therefore alone a Gods name for they must stand or fall to the estate of their liues which he hath appointed only this I will be bold to say I would haue no man for any priuate respect runne in the outragious races of sinnes himselfe or defend any wickednesse in others beare with great men in their vices flatter or temporize for profit or preferment yeeld vnto base or degenerating actions either for feare or fauour or in a word doe any thing contrary to Gods word wherein as in a glasse men may perspicuously behold the way of life and death and the infallible positions which in the affirmatiue and negatiue conclude all things either by precept or interdiction Eurip. Orest. Paruis enim res magnas quomodò caperet quis laboribus stultum etiam velle conarihaec quando enim excanduerit populus ad iram prolapsus similis est igni ad extinguendum vehementi si vero pedetentim quis ei concitato quidem cedens obsecundârit tempus cautè obseruans cum autem emiserit flatus forsan exhalauerit THE TRVE AND wonderfull History of PERKIN VVARBECK THE contentions betweene the houses of Yorke and Lancaster are the subiects of many discourses and therefore I will insist the lesse either vpon Genealogies Titles Vsurpations Warres Factions Encounters Reuenges Battails Slaughters or other accidentall outrages which for 90. yeares filled the wrinckles of the face of our Common-wealth of England with the blood and sweat of tenne Kings and Princes of the race roiall 60 Dukes and Earles 1000 Lords and Knights and 150000 Soldiers and people Only I must make a little commorance and abiding in the wretched and ragged house of enuie and malice gouerned and ouerseene by a woman who was so opposite and aduerse to the Lancastrian family that for all King Henry the seuenth had obtained the Crowne by a strong hand and as we say diuinitùs praemunitus yea debarred all Titles or fuming shadowes of Titles by consummating that mariage with the Lady Elizabeth eldest daughter of Edward the fourth she yet contriued all the waies of his ouerthrow and inuit â fortunâ entertained euery occasion which might adde fuell to the fier of her inueterate hate and blood-thirstie humor of reuenge as if she had beene borne like certaine Antipathies in nature which cannot endure any neighbour-hood or commixture such as the Eugh and Palme the Figge and Vine the strings of Wolues and Sheep which makes me remember the story of Eteocles and Pollinices the sonnes of Oedipus whose hate was so great in their liues that after death the bones being burnt togeather the flame of the sacrifice deuided asunder This was Margaret Dutches of Burgundy sister of Edward the fourth and a sworne aduersary to cast the red Rose of England into the black pit of confusion who perceiuing her first hopes frustrated and annihilated concerning the progression of Lamberts enterprises studied night and day vpon further and further instigations yea houered ouer opportunitie like a hawke for her pray to torment and trouble the peace of England embracing euery strange and prestigious illusion and not caring with what pullies of ridiculous and impossible actions her malice and reuenges were woond vp so they might be hurried downe againe vpon the head of the King whom she cursed on her knees and hated euen beyond the tendernesse of her sex many of her owne friends for his sake Therefore to weary his patience a little more she set vp another puppet like the former one Peter Warbeck a Fleming to act a part of wonder on the Stage of dangerous Innouation and take vpon him the Title of Richard the fourth Prince of England and white Rose of the same But before I play the Midwife or if you will Phisitian with her to deliuer her wombe of this monstrous birth of Peter Warbeck whom she taught the cunning and audacious impudency of personating Richard Duke of Yorke murthered with his brother in the Tower by Richard the third some eight yeare before I thinke it not impertinent to our purpose in hand to tell you what this Lambert was and wherein he seemed cosened with the whorish smiles of an adulterate fortune by the only meanes and coadiutement of this Dutches of Burgundy The first and second yeares of Henry the seuenth swelled to so great a height of ioy blessednesse and contentment from the rivulets of King Richards slaughter the corroboration of his estate the amity of the Nobles the mariage with the eldest daughter of Yorke the birth of Prince Arthur the league and amitie of forraine Princes and the applause of all his subiects that the diuine prouidence thought it meet to temper and allay the excesse of the same with some mixtures of feares and displeasure lest mortalitie might presume too farre and man triumph that his owne arme of flesh had contriued his establishment So that the Lord Louel Humphrey and Thomas Stafford with Sir Thomas Broughton and diuers others attempted a dangerous rebellion and drew into the field a great Army against the King whom to preuent the Duke of Bedford with such forces as could be raised on a soddain made hast to an encounter but his fortune was so good that with a successefull Oratory not striking a stroake he preuailed to dissipate those threatning and thickning clouds of disturbance For after he had intimated the hainousnes of their transgression nature of their offences which were capital Treasons with al inferred the Kings great mercy which was willing to pardon their rashnesse and pitiful ouersights so they would desist and retire peaceably into their Countries the whole company surceased and quietly deposed their Armes whereupon the Lord Louel fled and the Staffords tooke Sanctuary in a Village called Culnaham two miles from Abington but because the Iudges of the law alledged that the Townes of refuge among the Iewes were ordained for other purposes and that Ioab was killed holding by the hornes of the Altar and the places of priuiledges in England were neuer meant to suborne Traitors Humphrey Stafford was taken by force from the Towne and sent to the Tower from whence they brought him to Tyborne and there put him to execution His yonger Brother Thomas was notwithstanding remitted as a man whom consanguinitie and brother-hood had rather deceiued then wilfulnesse and malice against the King abused O blessed wisedome that can so temper Iustice with the consideration of mens frailties and other maleuolent circumstances to keep her a while from contracting a brow of reuenge
restraint of his liberty and stomaching his former disgraces indignities would endure no longer but studied euery hower how to escape not yet knowing what to do when he did escape to which purpose by faire promises and false perswasions he corrupted his keepers Strangwaies Blewet Astwood and long Roger seruants of Sir Iohn Digby Lieutenant of the Tower to slay their said Master and set both Perkin and the true Earle of Warwicke at large and so to make their fortunes as they could either by domestike or forraine friends to which when the innocent Prince condiscended as glad any way to enioy his libertie and to be freed of his imprisonment for you see birds kept in golden cages beat and flutter vp and downe as scorning their enclosure to get out into their natiue Country the region of the aire mischiefe and misfortune which plaies the tyrant with many men all their liues long neuer affordeth one day or breathing time to giue them a taste of any pleasure or contentment discouered the whole conspiracy to the King and his Councell not leauing out any circumstance which might either exasperate his rage or pull forward death and destruction to the delinquents Whereupon without further disputing the matter Perkin Warbeck Iohn a Water sometimes Maior of Corck and his sonne were the 16. of Nouember arraigned and condemned at Westminster of high Treason and the 23. hanged at Tyburn Perkin mounted on a scaffold reading his confession and contrary to all expectation aâ—king the King and Country forgiuenesse and dying penitently with great remorce of conscience and compunction of spirit Et sic â—inis Priami Not long after Edward Earle of Warwick who had beene the 21. of Nouember arraigned at Westminster before the Earle of Oxford high Constable of England for the present was vpon the 28. 1429. beheaded at the Tower Hill For he quietly confessed the enditement concerning his consent and willingnesse to obtaine his libertie though it were by violating the law in that kinde and breaking of prison whose simplicity I rather lament then condemne the offence For it was a dangerous time for any Plantaginet to liue in and I may well cry out Omne tulit secum Caesaris ira malum But the King was indeed glad of this occasion and fortune gaue vertue the check because as he had imprisoned him without a cause he knew not what to doe with him without a fault yet some report that the principall reason of accelerating his death was a speech of Ferdinando's king of Spaine who should sweare that the mariage betweene Lady Katherine his daughter and Prince Arthur of Wales should neuer be consummated as long as any Earle of Warwick liued For the very name and title was not only formidable to other Nations but superstitions to the wauâ—ring and vnconstant English whereupon the King was the gladder to take hold of this opportunitie where in the conuiction of Law had cast this stumbling-block of treason in his walke and race to a longer life and yet was there nothing done but by orderly proceedings and iustifiable courses more then when the silly Prince submitted to his mercy he thought it the greatest point of mercy to looke to himselfe and so for the benefit of his posteritie and the sedation of all troubles both present and to come struck off his head and with him the head of all diuision and dissention FINIS True Histories to be preferred before all prophane and deuised relâ—tions The house of Lancaster began the first wrong Rebellion in Ireland naturall Sparâ—ago Sebastian Mortimer Treason did neuer long prosper Margaret Duches of Burgundy chiefest enemy of Henry the seuenth The Lord Louel and Stafford rebell against Henry the seuenth No Saâ—ctâ—ary for Traitors â— new Earle of Warwick The end of diuelish deuices our destruction Lambert Earle of Wâ—rwicke saâ—â—eth into Ireland The Earle of Kildare a sauorer of this counterfet Margaret Duches of Burgundy entertaineth this quarrell Eurip. Mâ—dâ—â— Articles agreed vpon by the Councell to prâ—uent the warre The Earle of Warwicke shewne in publike Iohn de la Pooles sonne Duke of Susâ— folke by a sister of Edward the fourth Now Earle of Lincolne taketh part with Lambert The Earle of Lincolâ—e and Lord Louel goe into Ireland to Lambert The King raiâ—eth an Armie The Lord Marâ— quesse Dorceâ— sent to the Tower Eurip. Bacchâ— Mâ—rtinus Swart Lambert with his Armie commeth into England Lucan lib. 1. The King with his army is ready to the encounter Lucan lib. 2. The Earle of Lincolne commeth forward to Newarck to meet the King Stoke field The armies ioyne The King obtaineth the victory against the Rebells Lucan lib. 9. The Duches of Burgundy is rather enraged then daâ—nâ—ed with the newes Euriâ— Medea The Duches of Burgundy raiseth new troubles Another Richard the fourth Peter Warbâ—ck instructed by the Duches hâ—w to demeane himselfe Perkins Oration to the Irish Lords The French King sendeth for Perkin Lucan Lib. 7. Perkin welcommed to Lady Margaret Eurip. Hippolitus Coronatus England strangely possessed with the humor of Perkin Sr. Robert Clifford sent to Perkin Lucan lib 6. The King prepareth for Peâ—kin Paâ—â—â— Helâ—â—â— Embasie to the Arch-Duke Eurip. Andromache The Duches answer to Doctor Warrham oranâ—tion Oâ—id Epist. Petrâ—rck dâ— contemptu mu ndi dial 3. The Embassador returne into England Quid. de arte amandi lib. 3. Eurip. Iphigenia in aulide A riot 〈◊〉 the Esterlings Sir William Stanley accused Eurip. Herefuâ—â—â—â— Sir William Stanley beheaded Eurip Heraclida Libel â—rs hanged Speciall Commissioners sent into Ireland Lucan lib. 5. The North of Ireland Sueuorum morâ—scu Politianâ— The Earle of Kildare accused by Sr. Edward Poinings The King progresse intercepted vpon report of Perkins lanâ—ding 〈◊〉 lib. 9. Perkin commeth to Kent Eurip. Hecuba Perkins company defeated he driuen backe to seâ— Ouid. 6 6. â—aâ—torum Perkin resolueth for Ireland and so into Scotland Perkins Oration to the King of Scots The King of Scots resolueth to assist Perkin Ouid. Epist. Helena Paridi The King of Scoss prouideth Perkin of a wife The Ladies answer Perkin marieth the Ladie Katherin Gourdon daughter to the Earle Huntley The Scots inuade England in the behalfe of Perkin â—ucan lib. 2. Perkin lamenteth the English slaughters The Kings aâ—â—â—swer Lucan lib. 3. Perkins answer Eurip. Helena They prepare in England against Perkin Arebellionin the west diuerteth the army out of Scotland â—â—mock and Ioseph Captains of the Rebâ—lls Men in authority Eurip. Hâ—raâ—lida The Armies in England raised Lord Audley Captaine of the Rebels Black-Heathâ—ield London Lucan lib. 1. The Rebels â—uercome Lord Audeley executed Lib. 8. Lib. 9. The King of Scots prepareth against England King of Scots besiegeth Norham Castle The Earle of Surrey raiseth the siege Lucan lib. 7. The Earle of Surrey entreth Scotland The King of Scots offreth a priuate combate to the Earle of Surrey The King of Spaine would marry his daughter to Prince Arthur An Embassador to the King of Scots from Spaine Lucan lib. 7. An Embâ—ssador from Englâ—nd to Scotland The King of Scots will not deliuer Perkin Eurip suppliceâ— Perkin discharged out of Scotland Perkin retorneâ—h into Ireland Perkin ecâ—meth into England Perkin besiedgeth Excester Perkin discomfited leaueth Excester and departeth to Taunton The Lord Dawbney generall of the Kings forceâ— The King commeth forward with his Army The Duke of Buckingham Eurip. supplâ—ce◠〈…〉 Perkin desperat of all reliefe taketh Sauctuary Eurip. suppliceâ— The Lord Daubney sent after Perkin The Army of Perkin submitteth to the King without fighting The King râ—turneth to Exâ—ester Perkins Wife taken Eurip. Hecuba Perkin submittet to the King Lady Margaret much troubled with this discomfortable newes Perkin deceiueth his keepers anâ—â— escapeth Perkin commeth to the Prior of Shene Perkin once againe 〈◊〉 but ignominiously vsed 〈◊〉 lib. 5. Perkins confession Lib. 3. de pontâ— Perkin committed to the Tower Li. 4. de 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Perkin corrupting his keepers to escape out of the Tower is takâ—n and hanged at Tiburn The Earle of Warwicke beheaded