those who conspired against his Majesty and Authority likes not the Advice the King ought not says he venture his Person among such hoseless Ribaulds but rather dispose things so as to curb their Insolence Sir says he Your Sacred Majesty in this Storm ought to shew how much of a King you can play what you will go for hereafter by your present Carriage you will either be feared for the Future or contemned if you seriously consider the Nature of these rough hewn Savages you will find the gentle Ways pernicious your Tameness will undoe you Mercy will ever be in your Power but it is not to be named without the Sword drawn God and your Right hath placed you in your Throne but your Courage and Resolution must keep you there your Indignation will be Iustice good Men will think it so and if they love you you have enough you cannot capitulate not treat with your Rebels without hazarding your Honour and perhaps your Royal Faith if you yield to the Force of one Sedition your whole Life and Reign will be nothing but a Continuation of Broils and Tumults if you assert your Soveraign Authority betimes not only these Doults these Sots but all Men else will reverence you Remember Sir God by whom Lawful Princes Reign whose Vicegerent you are would not forgive Rebellion in Angels you must not trust the Face Petitions delivered you upon Swords Points are fatal if you allow this Custom you are ruined as yet Sir you may be obeyed as much as you please Of this Opinion was Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem newly Lord Treasurer of England a Magnanimous and stout Knight but not liked by the Commons When this Resolution was known to the Clowns they grow stark mad they bluster they swear to seek out the Kings Traitors for such they must now go for no Man was either good or honest but he who pleased them the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior and to chop off their Heads here they might be trusted they were likely to keep their Words Hereupon without more Consideration they advance towards London not forgetting to burn and raze the Lawyers and Courtiers Houses in the Way to the Kings Honour no doubt which they will be thought to arm for Sir Iohn Froissart and others report this part thus which probably might follow after this Refusal The Rebels say they sent their Knight so they called him yet was he the Kings Knight for Tyler came not up to Dubbing we find no Sir Iohn nor Sir Thomas of his making Sir Iohn Moton to the King who was then in the Tower with his Mother his half Brothers Thomas Holland Earl of Kent after Duke of Surrey and the Lord Holland the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and others The Knight casts himself down at the Kings Feet beseeches him not to look upon him the worse as in this Quality and Imployment to consider he is forced to do what he does He goes on Sir the Commons of this Realm those few in Arms comparatively to the rest would be taken for the whole desire you by me to speak with them Your Person will be safe they repute you still their King this deserved Thanks but how long the Kindness will hold we shall soon find they profess that all they had done or would do was for your Honour For your Glory your Honour and Security are their great Care they will make you a Glorious King fearful to your Enemies and beloved of your Subjects they promise you a plentiful and unparalell'd Revenue They will maintain your Power and Authority in Relation to the Laws with your Royal Person according to the Duty of their Allegiance their Protestation their Vow their solemn League and Covenant without diminishing your just Power and Greatness and that they will all the Days of their Lives continue in this Covenant against all Opposition They assure you Sir That they intend faithfully the Good of your Majesty and of the Kingdom and that they will not be diverted from this end by any private or Self-respects whatsoever But the Kingdom has been a long time ill governed by your Uncles and the Clergy especially by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of whom they would have an Account They have found out necessary Counsels for you they would warn you of many things which hitherto you have wanted good Advice in The Conclusion was sad on the Knights part His Children were Pledges for his Return and if he fail in that their Lives were to answer it Which moved with the King he allows the Excuse sends him back with this Answer that he will speak with the Commons the next Morning which it should seem the report of the Outrages done by the Clowns upon his Refusal and this Message made him consent to At the time appointed he takes his Barge and is rowed down to Redriffe the place nearest the Rebels Ten thousand of them descend from the Hill to see and treat with him with a Resolution to yield to nothing to overcome by the Treaty as they must have done had not the Kings Fear preserved him When the Barge drew nigh the new Council of State says our Knight howled and shouted as though all the Devils of Hell had been amongst them Sir Iohn Moton was brought toward the River guarded they being determined to have cut him in peices if the King had broke his Promise All the Desires of these good and faithful Counsellors contracted suddenly into a narrow Room they had now but one Demand The King asks them What is the matter which made them so earnestly sollicite his Presence They have no more to say but to intreat him to land which was to betray himself to them to give his Life and Soveraignty up to those fickle Beasts to be held of them during their good Pleasures which the Lords will not agree to The Earl of Salisbury of the ancient Nobility and Illustrious House of Montacute tells them their Equipage and Order were not comely and that the King ought not to adventure amongst their Troops They are now more unsatisfied and London how true soever to the Cause and faithless to the Prince shall feel the Effects of their Fury Southwark a friendly Borough is taken up for their first Quarters Here again they throw down the Malignants Houses and as a Grace of their Entrance break up the Kings Prisons and let out all those they find under Restraint in them not forgetting to ransack the Arch-bishops House at Lambeth and spoil all things there plucking down the Stews standing upon the Thames Bank and allowed in the former Ages It cannot be thought but that the Idol loved Adultery well enough but perhaps these publick Bawdy-houses were too unclean and might stink in his Nostrils we cannot find him any where quarrelling with the Bears those were no Malignants They knocked not long at the City-Gates which some say were never
c. Because we are given to understand that divers of our Subjects who against our Peace c. have raised and in divers Conventicles and Assemblys c. Do affirm that they the said Assemblys and Levies have made and do make by Our Will and Authority c. We make known to all Men That such Levies Assemblys and Mischiefs from Our Will and Authority have not proceeded He adds They were begun and continued much to his Displeasure and Disgrace to the Prejudice of His Crown and Damage of the Realm Wherefore he injoyns and commands c. To take the best Care for the keeping of his Peace and opposing of all such Levies with a strong Hand Further he commands every Man to leave such Assemblys and return Home to his own House under Penalty of Forfeiture of Life and Member and all things forfeitable to the King c. These Clowns charge not the King to be transsported furiously and hostily to the Destruction of the whole People which can never happen where the King is in his Wits but what is fully as mad they will suppose him to arm against his own Life and Power against his own Peace and the Peace of all that love him This Proclamation put Life into the Royalists into all honest Hearts and dismays as much the Rebels yet after this the Essex Traitors gather again at Byllericay near Hatfield Peverel and send to the King now at Waltham to know whether he intends to make good his Grants of Liberties and require to be made equal with their Lords without being bound to any Suits of Court View of Frank-pledge only excepted twice the Year The King and his Council are startled at this Impudence The King answers the Agents That if he did not look upon them as Messengers he would hang them up Return says he to your Fellow Rebels and tell them Clowns they were and are and shall continue in their Bondage not as hitherto but far more basely trampled on While we live and rule this Kingdom by Gods Will we will imploy all our Means and Power to keep you under So that your Misery shall frighten all Villains hereafter And your Posterity shall curse your Memory At the Heels of the Messenger the King sends his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock Earl of Buckingham and Sir Thomas Piercy with a Body of Horse to quell them The Rebels were intrenched according to the manner of Liâ—…sters Camp in the midst of Woods ten Lances of the Avant Currors rout them the Lords when they were come up inclose the Woods round five hundred are killed eight hundred Horses for Carriage taken the broken Remainders of the Defeat escape to Colchester a Town ever honest and faithful to the Prince where the Loyal Townsmen would not be gotten to stir they sollicite the Townsmen says the Monk with much Intreaty great Threats and many Arguments neither Intreaties nor Threats nor Arguments would move them From thence they get to Sudbury making every where such Proclamations as of old they had used where the Lord Fitzwalter whose Seat was at Woodham-Walters in Essex and Sir Iohn Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them the King meaning to visit Essex in his own Person comes to Havering at the Boure a Mannor of his own Demain of the Sacred Patrimony and from thence to Chelmsford where he appoints Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of his Bench of Pleas of the Crown to sit and inquire of the Malefactors and Troublers of the Country and to punish the Offendors according to the Customs of the Realm known and visible Five Hundred of these wretched Peasants who had no Mercy for others heretofore cast them selves down before the King bare-footed and with Heads uncovered implore his Pardon which he grants them on Condition they discover the great Conspirators the Captain Rogues The Jurors are charged by the chief Justices to carry themselves indifferently and justly in their Verdicts neither swayed by Love or Hatred to favour or prosecute any Man Many upon the Evidence given in and the finding of the Jury were condemned to be drawn and hanged nineteen of them were trussed upon one Gallows Heading had formerly been the Execution of others in Essex Kent and London because of the Numbers of the Guilty which was now thought a Death short of the Demerits of the most foul and heinous Offenders wherefore according to the Custom of the Realm it was decreed says the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countrys by the Justices in Commission where the King was in Person Here the King with the Advice of his Council revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we have in the late detestable Troubles c. manumised all the Commons our Liege Subjects of our Shires and them c. have freed from all Bondage and Service c. And also have pardoned the same our Liege Men and Subjects all Insurrections by riding going c. And also all manner of Treasons Felonies Trespasses and Extortions c. Notwithstanding for that the said Charters were without mature Deliberation and unduly procured c. To the prejudice of us and our Crown of the Prelates and great Men of our Realm as also to the disherison of Holy English Church and to the Hurt and Damage of the Common-wealth the said Letters we revoke make void and annul c. Yet our Intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormously their Allegiance they have forfeited c. As shall be useful to us and our Realm The Close commands to bring in to the King and his Council all Charters of Manumission and Pardon to be cancelled upon their Faith and Allegiance and under Forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witness our self at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5th Year of our Reign False for the 4th In the Case of a Subject and no reason Kings shall be more bound every Act extorted by Violence and Awe upon the Agent is void In the Time of Edward the Third two Thieves which was the Case here force a Traveller to swear that he will at a day appointed bring them a thousand Pound and threaten to kill him if he refuse their Oath he swears and performs what he had sworn By Advice of all the Justices these two were indicted of Robbery and the Court maintains that the Party was not bound by this Oath Yet if this be denyed as unsafe Violence or Force which strikes a just Fear into any Man makes any Contract void say the Casuists Bishop Andrews that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended Resignation of King Iohn urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such Act was done was done by Force and out of Fear Widdrington the most Loyal of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gunpowder Jesuits in Defence of the Right of Kings
with the Mischiefs of the Day drunk and asleep without Guards or Watch the Earl of Salisbury and the Nobility against whose Lives Honours and Fortunes these Beasts had conspired desire the King to try all fair and gentle Ways of appeasing them which Counsel he approves They were not so kind to themselves many lost their Lives by the Hands and Swords of their Companions every petty discontent or grudging being enough to provoke them Thirty two of them being drunk in a Cellar of the Savoy were immured there finding in the same place Death and the Grave together Some of them threw Barrels of Gunpowder which was little known then into the Fire and are blown up with part of the Palace Proclamations were formerly made in Tylers Name not in Straws as Polydore would have it Straw was this while busied elsewhere The Country about was by these Proclamations summoned to repair to London with all speed to spoil this Babylon the close Menaces lest they provoke Gods Iudgments pluck them down upon their Heads which themselves explain if ye fail if ye and your Officers give not Obedience freely to the Protector we will send out 20000 Men 20000 of our Locusts who shall burn the Towns of the Children of Disobedience Those of S. Albans and Barnet whose Famous Deeds challenge a place in this Story by themselves struck with the Thunder of this Edict haste to London in their Journey thither at Heibury a retiring House of the Lord Prior of S. Iohn near Istington they find 20000. or thereabouts casting down the firmer parts of the House which the Fire could not consume Iack Straw Captain of this Herd calls these new Comers to him and forces them to swear to adhere to King Richard and the Commons How long this Oath will be sworn to we shall see and how much the safer the King will be for it We shall see too what is lost by this new Union of King and Commons by the new Fellowship to observe the horrible Irreligious Hypocrisie of these Clowns who only would be thought the Protectors of his Crown and Person They alone had decreed his Ruin who swear thus often to prevent it to guard him from it A Treason not to be believed by some then till it had taken The Commons were then divided into three Bodies this with Iack Straw the second at Mile-end under the Essexian Princes Kirkby Treder Scot and Rugge the third on Tower-hill where the Idol and Priest Baal were in Chief This last Crue grew horribly rude and haughty the Commons there were not contented to be the Kings Tasters and no more they snatch the Kings Provision violently from the Purveyors he is to be starved for his own Good and after Harpies or Vultures chuse you whether strike high like brave Birds of Prey they will kill no more Flies this was the Way to secure their smaller Mischiefs Polydores conceit that the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior of S. Iohn were sent out by the King to allay their Heat is not probable Walsingham relates it thus that they demanded these two with full Crys no doubt of Iustice Iustice with some others Traitors by their Law a Fundamental never to be found or heard of before to be given up to them by the King with all the Earnestness and Violence imaginable They give him his Choice bid him consider of it they will either have the Blood of these their Traitors or his they making all those Delinquents who attended on him or executed his lawful Commands whom say they the King with a high and forcible Hand protects will not be appeased unless they be delivered up conjuring him to be wise in time and dismiss his extraordinary Guards his Cavaliers and others of that Quality who seem to have little Interest or Affection to the publick Good Whether the Tower Doors flew open at this Fright or the Man-wolfs crowded in at the Kings going out to appease the Party at Mile-end as Sir Iohn Froissart tells it Wat the Idol with Priest Baal are now Masters of the Tower into which on Fryday the 16th of Iune they entred not many more than 400 of their Company guarding them where then were commanded six hundred of the Kings Men of Arms and six hundred Archers a Guard not so extraordinary as was necessary then all so faint-hearted so unmanned at the Apparition at the sight of these Goblins they stood like the Stones of Medusa remembred not themselves their Honour nor what they had been The Clowns the most Abject of them singly with their Clubs or Cudgels in their Hands venture into all the Rooms into the Kings Bedchamber which perhaps had been his Scaffold had he been there sit lie and tumble upon his Bed they press into his Mothers Chamber where some of the merry wanton Devils offer to kiss her others give her Blows break her Head She swoons and is carried privately to the Wardrobe by her Servants Some revile and threaten the Noblest Knights of the Houshold some stroke their Beards with their unclean Hands which beyond the Roman Patience in the same Rudeness from the Gauls is endured and this to claw and sweeten they meant it so they gloss with smooth Words and bespeak a lasting Friendship for the time to come they must maintain the Injuries done to themselves must not disturb the Usurpers of their Estates and Rights must not shew any Sense of Generosity of Faith of Honour it concerned Tyler that they should be the veriest Fools and Cowards breathing if they stir make any Claims they shall be reputed Seditious Turbulent and Breakers of the Publick otherwise and plainly Tylers Peace It was never heard says the Emperor Charles in Sleydan that it should be lawful to despoil any Man of his Estates and Rights and unlawful to restore him Our Tyler and his Anabaptists thought otherwise As Walsingham they went in and out like Lords who were Varlets of the lowest Rank and those who were not Cowherds to Knights but to Bores value themselves beyond Knights Here was a Hotchpotch of the Rabble a mechanick sordid State composed as those under Kettes Oak of Reformation after Of Country gnooffes Hob Dick and Hick with Clubs and clouted woon A medley or huddle of Botchers Coblers Tinkers Draymen of Apron-men and Plough-joggers domineering in the Kings Palace and rooting up the Plants and wholesome Flowers of his Kingdom in it This place was now a vile and nasty Stye no more a Kings Palace who will value a stately Pile of Building of Honourable Title or Antique Memory since Constantine when it is infected with the Plague haunted by Goblins or possessed by Thieves The Knights of the Court were but Knights of the Carpet or Hangings No Man seemed discontented all was husht and still White-hall was then a Bishops Palace The Tower was to be prepared for Tylers Highness and his Officers but the Cement of the Stratocracy of the Government by Sword and Club Law
could not be well tempered with vulgar Blood a Servant of the Arch-Bishops who had trusted himself to these Guards and Walls is forced to betray his Lord. He brings them into the Chappel where the Holy Prelate was at his Prayers where he had celebrated Mass that Morning before the King and taken the Sacred Communion where he had spent the whole Night in watching and Devotion as presaging what followed He was a Valiant Man and Pious and expected these Blood-hounds with great Security and Calmness of Mind when their bellowing first struck his Ears he tells his Servants that Death came now as a more particular Blessing where the Comforts of Life were taken away that Life was irksome to him perhaps his pious Fears for the Church and Monarchy both alike indangered and fatally tied to the same Chain might make him weary of the World and that he could now dye with more quiet of Conscience than ever a Quiet which these Parricides will not find when they shall pay the Score of this and their other Crimes However the Flattery of Success may abuse our Death-bed represents things in their own Shape and as they are After this the Rout of Wolves enter prophanely roaring where is the Traitor where is the Robber of the Common People He answers not troubled at what he saw or heard Ye are welcome my Sons I am the Arch-Bishop whom you seek neither Traitor nor Robber Presently these Limbs of the Devil griping him with their wicked Clutches tear him out of the Chappel neither reverencing the Altar nor Crucifix figured on the top of his Crosier nor the Host these are the Monks Observations for which he condemns them in the highest Impiety and makes them worse than Devils and as Religion went then well he might condemn them so They drag him by the Arms and Hood to Tower Hill without the Gates there they howl hideously which was the Sign of a Mischief to follow He asks them what it is they purpose what is his Offence tells them he is their Arch-Bishop this makes him guilty all his Eloquence his Wisdom are now of no Use he adds the Murder of their Soveraign Pastor will be severely punished some notorious Vengeance will suddenly follow it These Destroyers will not trouble themselves with the idle Formality of a Mock-trial or Court of their own erecting an abominable Ceremony which had made their Impiety more ugly they proceed down-right and plainly which must be instead of all things He is commanded to lay his Neck upon the Block as a false Traitor to the Commonalty and Realm To deal roundly his Life was forfeited and any particular Charge or Defence would not be necessary his Enemies were his Accusers and Judges his Enemies who had combined and sworn to abolish his Order the Church and spoil the Sacred Patrimony and what Innocency what Defence could save Without any Reply farther he forgives the Headsman and bows his Body to the Axe After the first hit he touches the Wound with his Hand and speaks thus It is the Hand of the Lord. The next Stroke falls upon his Hand e'er he could remove it cuts off the tops of his Fingers after which he fell but dyed not till the eighth Blow his Body lay all that day unburied and no Wonder all Men were throughly Scared under the Tyranny of these Monsters all Humanity all Piety were most unsafe The Arch-bishop dyed a Martyr of Loyalty to his King and has his Miracles recorded an Honour often bestowed by Monks Friends of Regicide and Regicides on Traitors seldom given to honest Men. In his Epitaph his riming Epitaph where is shewn the pittiful ignorant Rudeness of those times he goes for no less he speaks thus Sudburiae natus Simon jacet hic tumulatus Martyrizatus nece pro republica stratus Sudburies Simon here intombed lies Who for the Common-wealth a Martyr dies It is fit says Plato that he who would appear a just Man become Naked that his Vertue be dispoiled of all Ornament that be he taken for a wicked Man by others wicked indeed that he be mocked and hanged The wisest of Men tell us There is a Just Man that perisheth in his Righteousness and there is a wicked Man that prolongeth his Life in his Wickedness The Seas are often calm to Pirates and the Scourges of God the Executioners of his Fury the Goths Hunns and Vandals heretofore Tartars and Turks now how happy are their Robberies how do all things succeed with them beyond their Wishes Our Saviours Passion the great Mystery of his Incarnation lost him to the Iews his Murtherers Whereupon Grotius notes it is often permitted by God that pious Men be not only vexed by wicked Men but murdered too He gives Examples in Abel Isaiah and others the MESSIAH dyed for the Sins of the World Ethelbert and Saint Edmund the East-Angles Saint Oswald the Northumbrian Edward the Monarch c. Saxon Kings are Examples at Home Thucidides in his Narration of the Defeat and Death of Nician the Athenian in Sicily speaks thus Being the Man of all the Grecians of my Time had least deserved to be brought to so great a Degree of Misery It is too frequent to proclaim Gods Judgments in the Misfortunes of others as if we were of the Celestial Council had seen all the Wheels or Orbs upon which Providence turns and knew all the Reasons and Ends which direct and govern its Motions Men love by a strange Abstraction to seperate Facts from their Crimes where the Fact is Beneficial the Advantage must canonize it it must be of Heavenly Off-spring a Way to justifie Cain Abimelech Phocas our Third Richard Ravilliac every lucky Parricide whatsoever Alexander Severus that most excellent Emperor assassinated by the Militia or Souldiery by an ill Fate of the Common-wealth for Maximinus a Thracian or Goth Lieutenant General of the Army a cruel Savage Tyrant by Force usurped the Empire after him replyed to one who pretended to foretell his End That it troubled aim not the most Renowned Persons in all Ages dye violently This Gallant Prince condemned no Death but a dishonest fearful one Heaven it self declared on the Arch-bishops side and cleared his Inocency Starling of Essex who challenged to himself the Glory of being Headsman fell mad suddenly after ran through the Villages with his Sword hanging naked upon his Breast and his Dagger naked behind him came up to London confest freely the Fact and lost his Head there As most of those did who had laid their Hands upon this Arch-bishop coming up severally out of their Countrys to that City and constantly accusing themselves for the Parricide of their spiritual Father Nothing was now unlawful there could be no Wickedness after this they make more Examples of barbarous Cruelty under the Name of Justice Robert Lord Prior of St. Iohn and Lord Treasurer of England Iohn Leg or Laige one of the Kings Sergeants at Arms a
Franciscan a Physician belonging to the Duke of Lancaster whom perhaps they hated because they had wronged his Master a Friar Carmelite the Kings Confessoâ—… were murdered there in this Fury Whose Heads with the Arch-bishops were born before them through London Streets and advanced over the Bridge This while the King was softning the Rebelâ—… of Essex at Mile-end with the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford and other Lords Thither by Proclamation he had summoned them as presuâ—…ing the Essexians to be more civilized and by much the fairer Enemies as indeed they were There he promises to grant them their Desires Liberty precious Liberty is the thing they ask this is given them by the King but on Condition oâ—… good Behaviour They are to cease their Burning and Destruction of Houses to return quietly to their Homes and offend no Man in their Way Two of every Village were to stay as Agents behind for the Kings Charters which could not be got ready in time Farther the King offerâ—… them his Banners Some of them were simple honest People of no ill Meaning who knew not why the Garboils were begun nor why they came thither These were won and win others without more Stir those of Essex return whence they came Tyler and Baal are of another Spirit they would not part so easily Tyler the future Monarch who had designed an Empire for himself and was now sceleribus fuit ferox atque praeclarus famous for his Villainies and haughty would not put up so he and his Kentish Rabble tarry The next day being Saturday the 17th of Iune was spent as the other Days of their Tyranny in Burning ruining Houses Murthers and Depopulations The Night of this Day the Idol and his Priest upon a new Resolution intended to have struck at the Neck of the Nation to have murthered the King the Achan of the Tribes probably by Beheading the Death these Parricides had used hitherto the Lords Gentlemen the wealthiest and honestest part of the Citizens then to have pillaged their Houses and fired the City in four parts they intended this haste to avoid odious Partnership in the Exploit and that those of Norfolk Suffolk and other parts might not share in the Spoil This Counsel of Destruction was against all Policy more Profit might have been made of this City by Excise Assessment and Taxes upon the Trade Tyler might sooner have enriched himself and have been as secure Estates make Men lofty Fear and Poverty if we may trust Machiavel bend and supple every Man had been in Danger and obnoxious to him one Clown had awed a Street Near the Abby-Church at Westminster was a Chappel with an Image of the Virgin Mary this Chappel was called the Chappel of our Lady in the â—…iew it stood near the Chappel of S. Stephen since turned from a Chappel to the Parliament House here our Lady then who would not believe it did great Miracles Richards Preservation at this time was no small one being in the Hands of the Multitude let loose and enraged There he makes his Vows of Safety after which he rides towards these Sons of Perdition under the Idol Tyler Tyler who meant to consume the Day in Cavils protests to those who were sent by the King to offer those of Kent the same Peace which the Essex Clowns had accepted that he would willingly embrace a good and honest Peace but the Propositions or Articles of it were only to be dictated by himself He is not satisfied with the Kings Charters Three Draughts are presented to him no Substance no Form would please he desires an Accommodation but he will have Peace and Truth together He exclaims that the Liberty there is deceitful but an empty Name that while the King talks of Liberty he is actually levying War setting up his Standard against his Commons that the good Commons are abused to their own Ruin and to the Miscarriage of the great Undertaking that they have with infinite Pains and Labour acquainted the King with their humble Desires who refuses to joyn with them misled and carried away by a few evil and rotten-hearted Lords and Delinquents contrary to his Coronation Oath by which he is obliged to pass all Laws offered him by the Commons whose the Legislative Power is which Denyal of his if it be not a Forfeiture of his Trust and Office both which are now useless it comes near it and he is fairly dealt with if he be not deposed which too might be done without any Want of Modesty or Duty and with the Good of the Common-wealth the Happiness of the Nation not depending on him or any of the Regal Branches I will deliver the Nation from the Norman Slavery and the World says he of an old silly Superstition That Kings are only the Tenants of Heaven obnoxious to God alone cannot be condemned and punished by any Power else I will make here he lyed not an wholesome President to the World formidable to all Tyrannies I declare That Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Bourdeaux at this time is not in a Condition to govern I will make no Addresses no Application to him nor receive any from him though I am but a dry Bone too unworthy for this great Calling yet I will finish the Work I will settle the Government without the King and against him and against all that take part with him which sufficiently justifies our Arms God with Us says he owns them Success manifests the Righteousness of our Cause this is says he the Voice of the People by us their Representative and our Counsel After the Vote of no more Addresses which with all their other Votes of Treason were to be styled the Resolution of the whole Realm and while he swells in this Ruffle Sir Iohn Newton a Knight of the Court is sent to intreat rather than to invite him to come to the King then in Smithfield where the Idols Regiments were drawn up and treat with him concerning the additional Provisions he desired to be inserted into the Charter No Observance was omitted which might be thought pleasing to his Pride which Pride was infinitely puffing Flattery was sweet to him and he had enough of it that made him bow a little when nothing else could do it We may judge at the Unreasonableness of his Demands and Supplys of new Articles out of his Instrument by one He required of the King a Commission to impower himself and a Committee Team of his own choosing to cut off the Heads of Lawyers and Escheators and of all those who by Reason of their Knowledge and Place were any way imployed in the Law He fancied if those who were learned in the Law were knocked i'th'Head all things would be ordered by the Common People either there would be no Law or that which was should be declared by him and his subject to their Will with which his Expression the day before did well agree Then attributing all things to God the God of War and his
when Justice flowed down from the Fountain in the ordinary Channel and which the Damm Head being thus troubled by this Wolf could flow no otherwise which was Authority sufficient by this Power Richards Captains must fight when he has them and kill those whom the Courts of Justice cannot deal with Tyler faints and shrinks to what he had been he was as cowardly as cruel and could not seem a Man in any thing but that he was a Thief and a Rebel He asks the brave Mayor in what he was offendedly him This was a strange Question to an honest Man he finds it so The Mayor says Froissart calls him false stinking Knave and tells him he shall not speak such Words in the Presence of his natural Lord the King The Mayor answers in full upon the accursed Sacrilegious Head of the Idol with his Sword He struck heartily and like a faithful zealous Subject Dagon of the Clowns sinks at his Feet The Kings Followers inviron him round Iohn Standish an Esquire of the Court alights and runs him into the Belly which thrust sent him into another World to accompany him who taught Rebellion and Murder first Event was then no Sign of a good Cause All History now brands him for a Traitor which by some will be attributed to his Miscarriage without Doubt had he prospered in the Work he had had all the Honours which goe along with Prosperity The King had been the wrong Doer and his Afflictions if nothing in so much Youth could have been found out had been Crimes we must over-power those whom we would make guilty Henry the Great of France under the Popes Interdict is told by a Gentleman Sir if we be overcome we shall dyne condemned Hereticks if your Majesty conquer the Censures shall be revoked they will fall of themselves He who reads the Mischiefs of his Usurpation will think he perished too late Now I come to an Act of Richards the most glorious of his History which the Annals past can no where parallel here his Infancy excells his after Man-hood Here and in the Gallantry of his Death he appears a full Prince and perhaps vies with all the Bays of his Usurpers Triumphs Alexander the Monarch of the World not more wondered at for his Victories than for that suppressing the Sedition of his Macedons in Asia tired and unable to march whither his Ambition carried him on Wings leaps from his Throne of State into the Battels of his Phalanges enraged seizes Thirteen of the Chief Malecontents and delivers them to the Custody of his Guards knows not what he should impute this Amazement of the Seditious to every Man returning upon it to his old Duty and Obedience and ready to yield himself up into the same Hands It might be says he the Veneration of the Majesty of Kings which the Nations submitted under Worship equally with the Gods or of himself which laid the Tempest That Confidence too of the Duke Alessandro of Parma in a Mutiny of the German Ruiters at Namurs is memorable who made his Way with his Sword alone through the Points of all their Lances into the middest of their Troops and brought thence by the Collar one of the Mutineers whom he commanded to be hang'd to the Terror of the rest The Youth of Richard begat rather Contempt than Reverence of which too these Clowns Breasts were never very full When the Fall of the Idol was known to the Rout they put themselves into a Posture of Defence thunder out nothing but Vengeance to the King and his whom they now arraign of Murder and Tyranny He is guilty of Innocent Blood a Tyrant a Traitor an Homicide the publick Enemy of the Common-wealth Richard Plantagenet is indicted in the Name of the People of England of Treason and other heinous Crimes He is now become less than Tylers Ghost a Traitor to the Free-born People His Treason was he would not destroy himself he would not open his Body to Tylers full Blow They roar out our Captain General is slain treacherously let us stand to it and revenge his precious Blood or dye with him I cannot pass this place without some little Wonder had these Ruffians with whom Kings hedged about by Holy Scripture and Laws Humane are neither Divine nor Sacred been asked whether Tyler the Idol of their own Clay and Hands might have been tryed touched or struck according to their resenting this Blow here Let his Tyrannies his Exorbitances have been what they would they would have answer'd no doubt in the Negative Though Richard might have been struck thorough and thorough Tyler who had usurped his Power must have been Sacred it must have been Treason to touch him Phocas must not be hurt In Tylers Case Straw would allow the old Text again The Powers were to be obeyed Their Bows were drawn when the King gallops up to them alonae and riding round the Throng asks them what Madness it was that armed them thus against their own Peace and his Life whether they would have no end of Things or Demands He tells them If Liberty be their only Aim as hitherto they have pretended they may assure themselves of it and that it is an extreme Folly to seek to make that our own with the Breach of Faith of Laws with Impieties violating God and Man which we may come by fairly But they trod not the Path to Liberty that where every Man commands no Man can be free the Liberty too they fancy cannot be had the World cannot subsist without Order and Subjection Men cannot be freed from Laws If they were there could be no Society no Civility any where Men must be shunned as much as Wolves or Bears Rapine and Blood-shed would over-run the World the Spoyler must fear the next Comer like savage Beasts who hurt others and know not it is ill to hurt them Men would devour Men the stronger Thief would swallow up the rest No Relations would be Sacred where every Man has the Power of the Sword the aged Sire could there be any such must defend his silver Hairs from the unnatural Violence of his own Sons He adds if there can be any just Cause of Sedition yet is the Sedition unjust which outlasts it which continues when the Cause is yielded to and taken away that if his Prerogative has been sometimes grievous his Taxes heavy and any of those they call evil Counsellors faulty they ought to remember in their first Risings and all along in all their Oaths and Covenants they swore continually not to invade the Monarchy nor touch the Rights of his free Crown You ought to remember your own Remonstrances you once declared that you acknowlegded the Maxim of the Law The King can doe no wrong if any ill be committed in Matters of State the Counsellors if in Matters of Law the Iudges must answer for it My Person was not to be violated He expects they should deal with him as the honest
to fire unless Iohn Lakinhethe Guardian of the Temporalities of the Barony in the Vacancy then were delivered to them which the Towns-men mingled in the Throng put them upon The Guardian stood amidst the Crowd unknown This Man out of Piety to preserve the Monastery it was Piety then though it may be thought Impiety now discovers himself he tells them he is the Man they seek and asks what it is the Commons would have with him They call him Traitor it was Capital to be called so not to be so drag him to the Market-place and cut off his Head which is set upon the Pillory to keep Company with the Priors and Chief Justices Walter of Todington a Monk was sought for they wanted his Head but he hid himself and escaped Our Hacksters Errant of the Round Table Knights of Industry would be thought General Redeemers to take Care of all men in Distress for the Burgesses Sake they command the Monks threatning them and their Walls if they obey not to deliver up the Obligations of the Townsmen for their good Behaviour all the ancient Charters from the time of King Knute the Founder any way concerning the Liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm by Charter the Liberties of the Town which could not be done in the Vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in Name by Provision of the Pope was a Prisoner at Nottingham nor had any Election been since the Death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the House are pawned to the Townsmen as a Gage that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should seal which Jewels were a Cross and Chalice of Gold with other things exceeding in value One thousand Pounds these were restored again in time of Peace but with much Unwillingness Upon the Bruit of the Idols Mishap and the Suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome and the rest of the Capital Villains in the General Audit or Doomesday for these Hurliburlies shall be called to a Reckoning for their Outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these Uproars the Towns-men with the Country Peasants about confederated together break up the Treasury of the University tear and burns its Charters they compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seals to release to the Mayor and Townsmen all Rights and Liberties all Actions and to be bound in 3000l not to molest the Burgesses by Suits of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bayliffs were fetched up by Writ to the next Parliament where the Deeds were delivered up and cancelled the Liberties of the Town seized into the Kings Hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the Piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names Had he set up one of his own begetting it must have had nothing else but the Name it would have been as destroying as the Field Norfolk the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses Zeal and Daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his own Empire and the Borders an Army of fifty thousand Men. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example he makes Presidents of his own and tramples not like a dull Beast the Road beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a Stock of Traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his Council yet so the Monk exceed them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his Life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full Sails else for his Presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolk Devil begins with Plunder and Rapine the only Way to flesh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings Party the rich and peaceable go under that Notion are made a Prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earl of Suffolk at his Mannor of Ufford near Debenham in Suffolk into the Company out of Policy that if the Cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the Shadow of that Peer The Earl warned of their Intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom of Sir Roger of Bois with a Portmantue behind him riding By-ways and about ever avoiding the Routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons failing here possess themselves of the places and Houses of the Knights near and compell the Owners to swear what they list and for greater Wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny Among those enthralled by this Compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephen of Hales and Sir Robert of Salle which last was no Gentleman born but as full of Honour and Loyalty as any Man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his Valour he was says Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a Man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords he had not the Solidity of Judgment as some more subtle than honest call it to accomodate himself to the times Like Messala he would be of the justest side let the Fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under Colour of following Prudence he thought it not in vain to prop up the falling Government perhaps his Judgment may be blamed he stayed not for a sit time had he not failed here he had not fought against Heaven against Providence whose Councils and Decrees are hid from us are in the Clouds not to be pierced our Understanding is as weak as foolish as Providence is certain and wise Our Hopes and Fears deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any Assurance to forsake our Duty for the time to come Gods Designs are known only to himself it is Despair not Piety Despair too far from that to leave our Country in her dangerous Diseases in her publick Calamities the Insolency of injust Men is a Prodigy of their Ruin and the Incertainty of things Humane may teach us That those we esteem most established most assured are not seldom soonest overthrown Plato would not have them refer all things to Fate there is somewhat in our selves says he not a little in Fortune Ours are but Cockfights the least Remainder of Force and Life may strike a necking Blow and by an unlooked for Victory raise what is fallen if Death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot he saved by our Attempts there is a Comliness in dying handsomly nor can any Man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of
Women who cast themselves into the fiery Pits where their dead Husbands are consumed of Vassals who stab themselves to follow their Prince into the next World of Otho's Praetorians of the Saguntines burning in their Cities Flames What can be so honourable as to dye for or with our Country or Faith our Religion or Honesty to dye with that which gave us Life and Liberty and Sense of these Litsters Hog-herds vow to burn Norwich unless this Knight will come out to them which he does well mounted and forsakes his Horse to please them They seem to honour him highly and offer him a fair Canton of the new Common-wealth if he will command their Forces The faithful Cavalier abhorred the proposition and could not dissemble his Dislike He tells them he will not to his eternal dishonour renounce his Soveraign whom all good Men obeyed to engage with the veryest perfidious Traitors living in their Villanies He attempts to horse himself again but fails it was Treason to speak against the Government The Commons grow furious they cry out Treason against Treason and Rebellion Thousands of Hands are lifted up against him as if they all moved by the same Nerves and Sinews they hew him down but he crushes some of them with his Ruin whosoever stood within his Reach lost either Head Legs or Arms he kills twelve of them at length a Villain of his own beats out his Brains Then do the Infernal Curs rush in with full Mouths and mangles him to bits who says Walsingham would have driven a Thousand of them before him had he had fair Play This amazes the rest of the Gentry they strive for Vassalage with the same Emulation others do for Liberty they observe Litster they receive his Commands upon their Knees who in all things imitates the State and Pomp of Kings Sir Stephen of Hales a Knight of Honour carves before him and tasts his Meats and Drinks the rest of the miserable Courtiers are imployed in their several Offices But when the Fame of the Kings good Fortune began to go strong and of his Preparations to assert his Right and Authority Litster sends on Embassy from North-Walsham the Throne of his Tyranny to London the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn Brews with three of the confiding Commons to obtain Charters of Manumission and Pardon with great Summs of Mony squeezed out of the Citizens of Norwich under Pretence of preserving the City from Slaughter Fire and Spoil or as others raised by an ordinary Tribute to Litster Which Monyes were sent for Presents to the King to win him to grant them Charters more ample and beneficial than had been given to any others These Messengers are met at Ichlingham near New-Market by Henry le Spencer Lord Bishop of Norwich of a noble Family stout and well-armed He had been at his Mannor of Burleigh near Okeham and there heard of the Tumults in Norfolk and was now hasting thither to see how things were carryed with eight Lances only in his Company and a few Archers He charged the Lord Morley and Sir Iohn upon their Allegiance to tell him whether any of the Commons the Kings Traitors were with them They look upon the Bishop as a young rash Man and the Awe of their Masters was so prevalent he could hardly wrest the Secret from them After many Words they discover it and the Bishop causes the Heads of the Clowns to be struck off and fixed on a publick place at New-Market Then taking with him that Lord and Knight he posts for North-walsham The Gentry hearing of the Bishops Arrival in his Coat of Male with his Helmet upon his Head his Sword by his side and his Lance upon his Thigh croud in to him the Bishop quickly found himself in a Gallant Equipage and as quickly reaches North-walsham the sink of the Rebellion Litster was intrenched he had fortified his Ditch with Pales Stakes and Doors and shut himself in behind with his Carts and Carriages The Heroick Bishop like another Maccabeus charges bravely through the Ditch into the midst of the Rebels when all the Barons of England hid themselves so suddenly that the Archers could not let an Arrow fly at him and came to handy Blows As the French Historian de Serres observes in Affairs of the World oftentimes he that is most strong carrys it a good Fortune and a good Mind seldom go together Otho tells his Souldiers often times where the Causes of things are good yet if Judgment be wanting I may put in where the Counsels are unsound the Agents faithless where Money Arms and Men are wanting the Issue must be pernicious The Goods and Honours of this World which follow the Triumphers Chariots are common to the good and bad Grace Charity and Love are the Marks of a pious Man not Success to brag of which becomes rather a Spartacus or Mahomet who carry Faith and Law upon the Swords point than a Christian The God of the Christians is not the God of Robbery and Blood But things here fell out as could be wished the Innocency of the side prevailed and the righteous weak side overcame the strong unjust Litster touched with the Conscience of his Mischiefs struggles to the utmost to avert his Danger at length gives Ground and attempts to shift for himself by leaping over his Carriages in the Rere The Bishop pressed forward so fiercely that this Course proved in vain most of the unhappy Clowns are laid along upon the place Litster and the Captains of the Conspiracy are taken and condemned to be drawn hanged and beheaded which was done Others of the chief Conspirators dispersed over the Country are searched out and executed The Monk here tells us It was apparent by the Works of these Demoniacks by their Fruits that they had conspired he speaks of the whole not only the Destruction of the Church and Monarchy but of the Christian Faith too School-Masters were sworn by them never to teach Grammar more and whosoever was taken with an Inkhorn about him never saved his Head Our Monk attributes these Calamities to the remisness of the Bishops to the Conceits and Fangles of Presbyter Wycliff which if they be truly registred by the Monks his mortal Enemies were pestilential and damnable Indeed Presbyter Wycliff was then living but is not named in these Commotions as one busie in them by the Monk though busie he might be we shall find Sir Iohn Old-Castle Lord Cobham and others of Wycliffs Disciples Rebels and Traitors too too busie in Henry the Fifths Beginning Baal and Straw and Wraw were Priests of the Idol and his Lieutenants and might serve the turn to imbroil without fetching more Aid in He attributes too these Mischiefs to the licentious Invectives of the Clowns against their Lords generally to the Sins of the Nation inclusively taking in the Orders of Mendicants or Begging Fryers like factious Lecturers wâ—… had nothing of their own and were obliged 〈◊〉 flatter the People and make themselves
of fashion and I am afraid I shall be laughed at if I speak any thing in defence of the King yet thanks be to God there 's no great need on 't His Majesty's Vertues are his strongest Guard A King like a Porcupine is a living Quiver of Darts every Beam of Majesty is a Fulmen Terebrans to his Blaspheming Enemies My Fellow-traveller stept aside a little to give his Brain a Stool and now is return'd into the Road His Lordship he says multiplies and is fruitful in Absurdities 'T is true by an equivocal Generation for so he begat your Pamphlet meeting with the putrid Matter of your Invention as the Sun produceth Insect Animals The Absurdity is he hath no Notion of Subverting the Law Treasonable but by Force and here we must score up the second Quibble for then he says This Argument will never subvert the Law as having no Force Truly I am of a mind that if my Antagonist were both to Dispute and Answer himself he would have the best on 't and that 's the Course he takes here He frames an Argument where none is intended His Lordship says he knows no other nay and there is no other but he doth notinfer the latter from the former therefore there is no other because he knows no other so that this is a Brat of your own Brain not drawn from his Lordship's Ignorance as your scandalous Quill foam'd at the mouth but from your own Impudence and if it halt as you say it confesses its Father it halts before a Creeple You do well therefore to let Nature work to help your lame Dog over a Stile to cast it as you conceive in a right Frame There is no way of Subverting the Law but what I know but I know no way of Subverting the Law but by forcé You would be loath a man should say this is no Syllogism and yet 't is true There 's no Figure will give it a Tenement to hide its head in I could give you a Remove now and set you upright but I had rather you should take it asunder and my Lord and you part Stakes part Propositions he the Major you the Minor because in the first you say there is so much Knowledge in the latter so much Ignorance You see you are in a Bog but I will throw my Cloak about you and dance you out for lo a most Eloquent Si quis in quest of the Author of our Tenent Who says this Is it some ancient Iudge No I thank you as the Case goes Or is it one that looks more into the Court than the Inns of Court I perceive I must count Quibbles as they do Fish thou art three there he bounceth out with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Young Gentleman knows not the Law I do not wonder you writ it in other Characters for 't is a most acute Apothegm though I say it that should not say it and such on one as may well beseem the Rump-end of Licosthenes at the next Impression But he makes a Transition from Common Law to Common Reason and he hopes to be scored up for that Quarter-Quibble but I cannot afford it If nothing but Force can subvert Law then Iudges when they pronounce false Iudgments stop lawful Defences let loose the Prerogative and all that Rout of Instances which he hath rallied up do not subvert the Law Well to do you a Courtesie they do not 'T is one thing to stop a Pipe to cut an Aqueduct and divert a Conveyance and another to spoil a Spring-head The Law in this Case suffers a Deliquium but she is not dead The Subversion of Laws is Root and Branch A Castle may be dismantled made unserviceable and yet 't is not said then to be quite overthrown When you usurp'd the Chair of Logick and made a false Syllogism were the Laws of Logick then subverted No but transgress'd so that if our Author suffer by Injustice as I hope you are more Historian than Prophet he will not involve the Laws in his Ruin Your Apostrophe to Tressilian is a true Apostrophe for 't is from the Cause for will ye introduce a Parity in Offences too Scan the Cases and you shall find them diverse But give me leave by the way to admire your Phrase of the Iron Laws 'T is a good Argument to me that there is no Alchymy otherwise the Corruption of so many Judges by this time had turn'd them into Gold But my Lord must dispute again Do you carry the Knapsack of his Arguments My Lord hath a fine time on 't that you should feed him thus with a Spoon 'T is thus The Earl of Strafford ' s Practices have been as high as any The Practices of Tressilian have been as high as High Treason I wonder where you got all this Logick at Furnival's Inn But I know the Reason of it because Plutarch attributes Logick to a Fox and King Iames maintains Discourse in a Hound that 's it which puts you upon Syllogisms You would be loath to come short of any of your Fellows For the words of the Major which are only my Lord's and which indeed I had as lieve he should justifie as I you must know they are a Comparison Now Comparisons are betwixt things of the same kind As high as any that is in the rank of Misdemeanours The Painter when his Picture would not sell for a God made a special Devil of it and so he vented it Though my Lord cannot yield that the Earl of Strafford's Practices should be sublimated into Treason yet place them in the front of any lower Offences and it seems he will pass it This Similitude of mine doth not run of all four no more must you think of that As high as any But to make few words suppose I should grant you your Conclusion that the Earl of Strafford's Practices were as high as Treason yet if they be not specified by Statute for Treason my Lord doth justly abstain his hand from his Dispatch You ask how these words should sound in the Mouth of a Judge Truly I have not the measure of your Ears they are of too large a size for me I being a Judge hold your Guilt to be as high as Treason yet having no Law to give me Commission I 'll have no hand in your Sentence so that supposing all Cases to be like this I grant you the Assizes would be in vain the Judges Circuit would be like the wheeling of a Mill move continually but never nearer their Journey 's end but when the Law hath provided sufficiently unless in a Case as this extraordinary the Vanity and Mockery which you speak of recoils upon him that first discharged them For your last where you would have Sir Henry Vane's Oath to be prefer'd before my Lords Suspicion I would willingly answer as he did with Meditation at the first time nothing as much at the second and at the third Vouz avez Sir Henry Vane You say his
Oath gets an addition of Belief from the Speeches before and from the Memorials that day so that you imply what I dare not say that it is not full of it self but wants a Supplement of Credit to gain our Faith As for the words Recorded whencesoever they had their Venom it seems they were poysoned for to that and not to their Pregnancy do I attribute it that they swell'd into such a bigness that one Testimony appear'd double But that you should entitle Mr. Pym to this mistake that he should look through a Multiplying Glass in a case so weighty as that of Treason the Gentleman 's known Integrity saves me the labour of his Defence So that the Testimonies being but such though the Charges be many be the Earl of Strafford as high in his Practices as it pleases my Lord to make him yet my Lord 's Dipthong may easily be justified and the Earl both at once Condemn'd and Sav'd Thus I have entreated Patience of my self to Counterpuff your Pamphlet when by the help of a Penny-worth of Pears I could more sutably to your Defects have confuted you backward But I did it in hopes that you would muzzle your self hereafter for though your Teeth be hollow and cannot bite yet wanting Cloves they may Infect To the Protector after long and vile Durance in Prison May it please Your Highness RUlers within the Circle of their Government have a Claim to that which is said of the Deity they have their Center every where and their Circumference no where It is in this Confidence that I address to your Highness knowing that no place in the Nation is so remote as not to share in the Ubiquity of your Care no Prison so close as to shut me up from partaking of your Influence My Lord it is my Misfortune that after ten years Retirement from being engaged in the Differences of the State having wound up my self in private Recess and my Comportment to the Publick so inoffensive that in all this time neither Fears nor Jealousies have scrupled at my Actions Being about three Months since at Norwich I was fetch'd by a Guard before the Commissioners and sent Prisoner to Yarmouth and if it be not a new offence to make an enquiry wherein I offended for hitherto my Fault was kept as close as my Person I am induced to believe that next to my Adherence to the Royal Party the Cause of my Confinement is the Narrrowness of my Estate for none stand committed whose Estate can bail them I only am the Prisoner who have no Acres to be my Hostage Now if my Poverty be Criminal with Reverence be it spoken I implead your Highness whose Victorious Arms have reduced me to it as Accessory to my Guilt Let it suffice my Lord that the Calamity of the War hath made us poor do not punish us for it Who ever did Penance for being Ravished Is it not enough that we are stripp'd so bare but must it be made in order to a severer Lash Must our Sores be engraven with our Wounds Must we first be made Creeples anâ—… then beaten with our own Crutches Poverty if it be a Fault 't is its own Punishment who pays more for it pays use upon use I beseech your Highness put some Bounds to the Overthrow and do not pursue the chase to the other World Can your Thunder be levell'd so low as our Groveling Condition Can your Towring Spirit which hath quarried upon Kingdom 's make a stoop at us who are the Rubbish of these Ruins Methinks I hear your former Atchievements interceding with you not to sully your Glories with trampling upon the prostrate nor clog the Wheel of your Chariot with so degenerous a Triumph The most renowned Hero's have ever with such Tenderness cherished their Captives that their Swords did but cut out work for their Courtesies Those that fell by their Prowess sprung by their-Favour as if they had struck them down only to make them rebound the higher I hope your Highness as you are the Rival of their Fame will be no less of their Virtues The Noblest Trophy that you can erect to your Honour is to raise the Afflicted and since you have subdued all Opposition it now remains that you attack your self and with Acts of Mildness vanquish your Victory It is not long since my Lord that you knock'd off the Shackles from most of our Party and by a grand Release did spread your Clemency as far as your Territories Let not new Proscriptions interrupt your Jubilee Let not that your Lenity be slandered as the Ambush of your farther Rigour For the Service of his Majesty if it be objected I am so far from excusing it that I am ready to alledge it in my Vindication I cannot conceit that my Fidelity to my Prince should taint me in your Opinion I should rather expect it should recommend me to your Favour Had we not been Faithful to our King we could not have given our selves to be so to your Highness you had then trusted us gratis whereas now we have our former Loyalty to vouch us You see my Lord how much I presume upon the Greatness of your Spirit that dare prevent my Indictment with so frank a Confession especially in this which I may so safely deny that it is almost Arrogancy in me to own it For the Truth is I was not qualified enough to serve Him All I could do was to bear a part in his Sufferings and to give my self to be Crushed with his Fall Thus my Charge is doubled my Obedience to my Soveraign and what is the Result of that my want of Fortune Now whatever reflection I have upon the former I am a true Penitent for the latter My Lord you see my Crimes as to my Defence you bear it about you I shall plead nothing in my Justification but your Highness's Clemency which as it is the constant Inmate of a valiant Breast if you graciously be pleased to extend it to your Suppliant in taking me out of this withering Durance your Highness will find that Mercy will establish you more than Power though all the days of your Life were as pregnant with Victories as your twice auspicious third of September Your Highness's Humble and Submissive Petitioner J. C. To the Earl of Newcastle THough to Command and Obey be the fittest Dialogue betwixt you and us yet since your Lordship pleases to descend from your Right and only to Request pardon us if by your Example we intrench upon you and presume upon an Answer Sir we are sorry our Duty is not phras'd in Action nor can we determine whether it was more grateful to us that you requir'd our Service or grievous that at this time we could not express it for no sooner were we inform'd of your pleasure but so obligatory is your Will that poysing your Letters with our Laws we thought our Statutes were at Civil Wars The Colledge like an Indulgent Mother entails her Preferments on
her own Progeny Your Lordship prefers a stranger whom to adopt were not only to Bastard her present Issue but disinherit all succeeding hopes If it seem a Delinquency to be thus tender of her own she will intitle her offence to your Lordship who when you honour'd her with your Admission taught her to set a greater price upon her Children Thus hoping you will abstract our Will from our Power we honour your Lordship desiring that occasion may present us with some Service whose difficulty may add a deeper Dye to the Observance of The Master and Fellows of S. I. To the Earl of Holland then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Right honourable YOU have rais'd us to that height by writing unto us that we dare attempt an Answer in which Presumption if we have dishonoured your Lordship you must blame your own Gentleness â—…ike the Sun who if he be mask'd with Clouds may thank himself who drew up the Exhalations Sir they that assign Tutelar Angels betroth â—…hem not only to Kingdoms and Cities but to each Company Your Goodness hovers not aloft in a general care of the University but stoops by a peâ—…uliar Influence to every private College That Omnipresence which Philosophy allots to the Soul â—…o be every where at once through the whole Man your Noble Diligence exemplifies in us There is not the least Joynt of our Body but in its Life and Spirits confesses the Chancellor Nor have we in special the least share of your Favours as appears by many pregnant Demonstrations of your Love among which this is not the meanest that you would deign to require our Service To offend against so gracious a Patron would add a Tincture to our Disobedience yet such is the Iniquity of our Condition that we are forced to defer our Gratitude We have many in the College whose Fortunes were at the last Gasp and if not now reliev'd their hopes extinct Whereas he whom your Lordship commends gives us farther day of Payment by his green years He is yet but young but the Beams of your Favour will ripen him the sooner for the like Preferment which if it please your Lordship to antedate by a present Acceptance of our future Obedience We shall gladly persevere in our old Title of To the Earl of Westmoreland My Lord IT were high Presumption in me not to be proud of this Occasion and I should be no less than a Rebel to Eloquence if your Lines you sent me had not rais'd me above my ordinary Level so that to express my Gratitude I must renounce my Humility and purchase one Virtue at the price of another And well may my Modesty suffer in the Service when my Reason it self is overwhelmed with the Favour To see a Person of your Lordship's Eminency possess'd of Nobility by a double Tenure both of Birth and Brain so to bend his Greatness as to stoop to me who live in the Vale both of Parts and Fortune is so high an Honour that who justly considers it if he be not stupidly sensless will be stupid with Extasie I for my part am lost in Amazement and it is mine Interest to be so for not knowing otherwise how to give your Present a fit Reception it is the best of my play to be beside my self in the Action You see my Lord how I empty my self of my Native Faculty to be ready for those of your Inspirings as the Prophets of old in a Sacred Fury ran out of their Wits to make room for the Deity I shall not need hereafter to digest my Love-passions I shall speak by Instinct For when your Honour deign'd to visit me with your lofty Numbers what was it else but to make me the Priest of your Lordship's Oracle Such is the Strength and Spirit of your Fancy that methought your Poems like the Richest Wine sent forth a Steam at the opening What flowed from your Brain fum'd into mine â—…t was almost impossible to read your Lines and be â—…ober You You my Lord are the Favourite â—…f the Muses Your Strain is so happy and hath â—…he Reputation for so Matchless as if you had a â—…ouble Key to the Temple of Honour to let in â—…our Lordship's self and exclude Competitors â—…t's you my Lord have cut the Clouds and reachâ—…d Perfection who having mounted the Cliff lends an â—…and to me who am labouring in the Craggy Asâ—…ent So tow'ring are the Praises you please to bestow on me and my Desert so groveling that tâ—… shew you my Head is not worthy your Height iâ—… is not able to bear them it grows giddy with the Precipice It pains me to be on the Laste of an Hyperbole you do but crucifie my tender Merits tâ—… distend them thus at length and breadth Consider I pray you that the Leanest Endowment would be plump and full thus blown up with 〈◊〉 Quill and that there are some so Dwarfish whoâ—… the Rack will not stretch to a proper man It iâ—… an excellent Breathing for a puissant Wit to overbear the World in the Defence of a Paradox anâ—… a good Advocate will weather out the Cause wheâ—… there is neither Truth nor Invention I perswadâ—… my self you had never undertaken to write mâ—… Panegyrick but that you saw it was to combâ—… with the Tide and to put your Abilities to the utmost Test in so unlikely a Subject Little do yoâ—… think what store of Opposers your Opinion wiâ—… breed you for though you be so powerful in thâ—… Art of Perswasion that should you turn Apostatâ—… there would need no more but to toll the Bell foâ—… Religion yet this is an Heresie where you stanâ—… alone and like Scaeva in the Breach with your single Valour duel an Army Now my Lord Iâ—… be not mistaken I have found the Motive that induced you to oblige me you are tyed by your Order to give Protection to the weak and Succourless So I must change my Addresses and thank you Reb Ribband for my Commendations Such aâ—… so many are the Flowers of Rhetorick you haâ—… heap'd upon me that I run the hazard of the Olympick Victor who was stiffed with Posies caâ—… upon him in approbation of his Worth which Frâ—… grant Fate if I should sustain what is there more to make me enamour'd of Death but that the same Flowers should strew my Corps in a Funeral Oration Could you think my Lord that your suppressing your Name was able to conceal you when it is easie to wind you by your Phrase The Sweetness of the Language discover'd the Author like that Roman Senator who hiding himself in time of Proscription his Persumes betray'd him But 〈◊〉 shall not arrest your Lordship too far with a farther Interruption My Lord you have Enobled me with your Testimony and I shall keep your Paper as the Diploma of my Honour Yet give me â—…eave to tell you that among all the Epithets you â—…ile so Artificially to raise my Fame there is one â—…anting to accomplish my Ambition and that
the Candle 's out But I profane thy Ashes gracious Soul Thy Spirit flew to high to truss these foul Gnostick Opinions Thou desired'st to meet Such Tenents that durst stand upon their Feet And beard the Truth with as intens'd a Zeal As Saints upon a fast Night quilt a Meal Rome never trembled till thy piercing Eye Darted her through and crush'd the Mystery Thy Revelations made St. Iohn's compleat Babylon fell indeed but 't was thy Sweat And Oyl perform'd the work to what we see Foret old in misty Types broke forth in thee Some shallow Lines were drawn and sâ—…onces made By Smatterers in the Arts to drive a Trade Of Words between us but that prov'd no more Than threats in cowing Feathers to give ore Thy Fancy laid the Siege that wrought her Fall Thy Batteries commanded round the Wall Not a poor loop-hole Error could sneak by No not the Abbess to the Friery Though her Disguise as close and subtly good As when she wore the Monk's hose for a Hood And if perhaps their French or Spanish Wine Had fill'd them full of Beads and Bellarmine That they durst sally or attempt a Guard O! How thy busie Brain would beat and ward Rally And reinforce Rout And relieve Double reserves And then an onset give Like marshal'd Thunder back'd with Flames of Fire Storms mixt with Storms Passion with Globes of ire Yet so well disciplin'd that Judgment still Sway'd and not rash Commissionated Will No Words in thee knew Order Time and Place The instant of a Charge or when to face When to pursue advantage where to halt When to draw off and where to reassault Such sure Commands stream'd from thee that 't was one With thee to vanquish as to look upon So that thy ruin'd Foes groveling confess Thy Conquests were their Fate and Happiness Nor was it all thy Business hereto war With forreign Forces But thy active Star Could course a home-bred Mist a native Sin And shew its Guilt 's Degrees how and wherein Then sentence and expel it Thus thy Sun An Everlasting Stage in labour run So that its motion to the Eye of Man Waved still in a compleat Meridian But these are but fair Comments of our Loss The Glory of a Church now on the Cross The transcript of that Beauty once we had Whilst with the Lustre of thy Presence clad But thou art gone Brave Soul and with thee all The Gallantry of Arts Polemical Nothing remains as Primitive but Talk And that our Priests again in Leather walk A Flying Ministry of Horse and Foot Things that can start a Text but ne'er come to 't Teazers of Doctrines which in long sleev'd Prose Run down a Sermon all upon the Nose These like dull glow-worms twinckle in the Night The frighted Land-skips of an absent Light But thy rich Flame 's withdrawn Heaven caught thee hence Thy Glories were grown ripe for Recompence And therefore to prevent our weak Essays Th' art crown'd an Angel with Coelestial Bays And there thy ravish'd Soul meets Field and Fire Beauties enough to fill its strong Desire The Contemplation of a present God Perfections in the Womb the very Road And Essences of Vertues as they be Streaming and mixing in Eternity Whiles we possess our Souls but in a Veil Live Earth confin'd catch Heaven by retail Such a Dark-lanthorn Age such jealous Days Men tread on Snakes sleep in Batalias Walk like Confessors hear but must not say What the bold World dares act and what it may Yet here all Votes Commons and Lords agree The Crosier fell in Laud the Church in thee On the death of his Royal Majesty Charles late King of England c. WHat went yout out to see a dying King Nay more I fear an Angel suffering But what went you to see A Prophet slain Nay that and more a martyr'd Soveraign Peace to that sacred Dust Great Siâ—… our Fears Have left us nothing but Obedient Tears To court your Hearse and in those Pious Floods We live the poor remainder of our Goods Accept us in these latter Obsequies The unplundred Riches of our Hearts and Eyes For in these faithful Streams and Emanations W' are Subjects still beyond all Sequestrations Here we cry more than Conquerors Malice may Murder Estates but Hearts will still obey These as your Glory 's yet above the reach Of such whose purple Lines confusion preach And now Dear Sir vouchsafe us to admire With envy your arrival and that Quire Of Cherubims and Angels that supply'd Our Duties at your Triumphs Where you ride With full Caelestial Ioes and Ovations Rich as the Conquest of three ruin'd Nations But 't was the Heavenly Plot that snatch'd you hence To crown your Soul with that Magnificence And bounden rites of Honour that poor Earth Could only wish and strangle in the Birth Such pittied Emulation stop'd the blush Of our Ambitious Shame non-suited us For where Souls act beyond Mortality Heaven only can perform that Iubilee We wrestle then no more but bless your day And mourn the Anguish of our sad delay That since we cannot add we yet stay here Fetter'd in Clay Yet longing to appear Spectators of your Bliss that being shown Once more you may embrace us as your own Where never Envy shall divide us more Nor City-tumults nor the Worlds uproar But an Eternal Hush a quiet Peace As without end so still in the Increase Shall lull Humanity asleep and bring Us equal Subjects to the Heavenly King Till when I 'll turn Recusant and forswear All Calvin for there 's Purgatory here An Epitaph STay Passenger Behold and see The widdowed Grave of Majesty Why tremblest thou Here 's that will make All but our stupid Souls to shake Here lies entomb'd the Sacred Dust Of Peace and Piety Right and Just. The Blood O start'st not thou to hear Of a King 'twixt hope and fear Shed and hurried hence to be The Miracle of Misery Add the ills that Rome can boast â—…rift the World in every Coast â—…ix the Fire of Earth and Seas With humane Spleen and Practices To puny the Records of time By one grand Gygantick Crime Then swell it bigger till it squeeze The Globe to crooked Hams and Knees Here 's that shall make it seem to be But modest Christianity The Law-giver amongst his own â—…entenc'd by a Law unknown â—…oted Monarchy to Death By the course Plebeian Breath The Soveraign of all Command â—…uffering by a Common Hand A Prince to make the Odium more Offer'd at his very door The head cut off O Death to see 't â—…n Obedience to the Feet And that by Iustice you must know If you have Faith to think it so Wee 'l stir no further than this Sacred Clay But let it slumber till the Iudgment Day Of all the Kings on Earth 't is not denyed Here lies the first that for Religion dyed A Survey of the World THe World 's a guilded Trifle and the State Of sublunary Bliss adulterate Fame but an empty Sound a
heavy as very Asses as himself He is said to be a crafty Fellow and of an Excellent Wit but wanting Grace yet crafty enough he was not for the great and dangerous Enterprize A Marius however Impious for such he must be pace pessimus fitter to remove things to overturn overturns than for Peace but as Plutarch of him subtil faithless one who could over do all Men in Dissembling in Hypocrisie practised in all the Arts of Lying and some of these good Sleights Tyler wanted not one who had Sense and Iudgment to carry things on as well as desperate Confidence to undertake had become this part incomparably had gone through with it how easily under such a Captain if we look upon the Weakness of the Opposition and the Villainous Baseness of the Gentry had the Frame of the ancient Building been rased the Model must have held Richard whose Endeavours of Defence or Loyalty alone should have been killing had not fallen by the Sword of Lancaster he had found his Grave on Tower-hill or Smithfield where the faithful Lieges of his Crown were torn in peices by these Cannibals The Reverence due to the Anointed Heads of Kings began to fall away and Naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded by his own fatal Pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings Sword and by his over-much Hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a Mark of the Divinity of their Gods that they bestowed Benefits upon Mortal Men and took nothing from them The Clowns of the Idol upon this Rule were not very Heavenly they were the meek Ones of those times the only Inheritors of Right the Kingdom was made a Prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-Kings of the Commons so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the Title of Rebellion spoke fair was shewn somewhat of Ambition and no little of unjust private Interest no little of Self-seeking which the Good of the People in Pretence only was to give Way to and no Wonder for the good of the People properly was meerly to be intended of themselves and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of Noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other Men out of their Possessions firing their Houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods Blessing any Evidence of his owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then the Face of things Estates were dangerous Every rich Man was an Enemy Mens Lives were taken away without either Offence or Tryal their Reign was but a Continuation of horrible Injuries the Laws were not only silent but dead The Idol's Fury was a Law and Faith and Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Power were damnable Servants had the Rule over Princes England was near a Slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious Spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-Man living in the Times of King EDWARD the Third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the Reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased And out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albans in Henry the Sixth's Days who says Bale in his Centuries of him writes many the most choice Passages of Affairs and Actions such as no other hath met with In the Main and to the Substance of things I have made no Additions no Alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their Order No Man says Walsingham can recite fully the Mischeifs Murders Sacriledge and Cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the Confusion of the combustious Flaming in such Variety of Places and in the same time Tyler Litstar and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the Discourse Westbrome is brought in by the Halves the lesser Snakes are only named in the Chronicle what had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but Types of Tyler the Idol and acted nothing but according to the Original according to his great Example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knows all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Cataline Thomas of Lancaster Rebels and Traitors of the former years are canonized by the Monks generally the Enemies of their Kings Miracles make their Tâ—…mbs Illustrious and their Memories Sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abhorred every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the World the Enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pittied THE Rustick Rampant OR RURAL ANARCHY THe Reign of King Richard the Second was but a Throw of State for so many Years a Feaver to whose Distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by Fits the forraign part only continuing faithful In the fourth Year of his Reign and Fifteenth of his Age the Dregs and Off-scum of the Commons unite into Bodies in several parts of the Kingdom and form a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clowns which lead the rest and shewed the Way of Disobedience first Of which may truly be said though amongst other Causes we may attribute it to the Indisposition and Unseasonableness of the Age that the Fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence held back the Hand the Blow had fallen the Government had broke into Shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Uncle Earl of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the Servants of his House in Ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langley Earl of Cambridge after Duke of York with the Lords Beauchamp Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourney with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set sail for Portugal the Duke Iohn of Lancaster another of his Uncles was in Scotland treating a Peace when this Commotion brake out Though no Cause can be given for Seditions those who design publick Troubles can never want Pretences Polidore as much out in this Story as any gives this Reason for this the Poll-mony says he imposed by Parliament a Groat Sterling upon every Head was intolerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custom of England were intolerable not to be endured but we shall find in the Tyranny breaking in not only fifth and twentieth Parts and Loans forced out of Fear of Plunder and Death but Subsidies in Troop and Regiments by Fifties more than Sequestrations and Compositions not under Foot low Sales for what had these Rascals to give but down-right Robbery and Violent Usurpations of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in Defence
a Day Tyler who had insinuated himself into the good Grace of these Churls by appearing the most stirring and active of the Kennel who began and ruled the Cry and was by I know not what Ceremony perhaps like that Irish Election by casting an old Shoe over his Head declared Prince of the Rabble leads them to Rochester which will not come behind Canterbury in Kindness The People of the Town says the Knight were of the same Sect it seems the Castle once one of the strongest in the Kingdom was now neither fortified nor manned the Governour Sir Iohn Moton yields himself into their Hands he was one of the Kings Family of his Houshold and must be thought awed as he was into the Engagement Here the Commons might be thought ashamed of their own Choice they offer Sir Iohn the General 's Staff which had he accepted he must have commanded according to the Motions of Lieutenant General Tylers Spirit and when this turn had been over at the least stamp of his Foot have vanished sneaked off the Stage They tell him Sir Iohn you must be our Captain and which shews the Power of his Commission you shall do what we will have you The Knight likes not their Company he trys his best Wit and Language to be rid of them but could not prevail They reply downright Sir Iohn if you will not doe what we will have you you must dye for it we will not be denyed but at your Peril Enough was said the Knight yields but his Charge of Captain General is forgotten we shall see hereafter what Use they make of him and in what manner he must be employed This Example is followed in the other Countrys The Gentry did not only lose their Estates and Honour but their Courage and Gallantry their Bloods were frozen Fear had stifled their Spirits The Clowns as the Knight had brought them into such Obeysance that they caused them to go with them whether they would or not they fawned on them humbled themselves to them like Dogs groveling at their Feet The Lord Molines Sir Stephen Hales Sir Thomas Guysighen this Sir Iohn Moton and others were Attendants and Vassals to the Idol Every Day new Heaps of Men flock to them like Catalines Troops all that were necessitous at Home Unthrifts broken Fellows such as for their Misdeeds feared the Justice of the Laws who resent the dangerous and distracted State of the Kingdom alike and will no doubt hammer out an Excellent Reformation they will mend their own Condition which will be enough we must expect no more and now the Confidence in their Strength made them bold enough to throw off their Mask of Hypocrisie they began to open the Inside They departed from Rochester says Froissart and passed the River he says the Thames at Kingstone and came to Brentford where I think he leads them out of their Way beating down before them and round about the Places and Houses of Advocates and Procurers and striking off the Heads of diverse Persons Walsingham tells us who those Advocates and Procurers were All Men says he were amused some looked for good from the new Masters others feared this Insurrection would prove the Destruction of the Realm The last were not deceived All the Lawyers of the Land so he goes on as well the Apprentices Counsellors as old Justices all the Jury-men of the Country this was Priest Baal's Charge they could gripe in their Clutches had their Heads chopped off It was a Maxim of the Cabal That there could be no Liberty while any of these Men were suffered to breath From little to great they fell upon things which they never thought of in their first Overflow which Guicciardine observes in civil Discords where the Rebellion is Fortunate and Mens Minds are puft up with Success to be Ordinary The Statue of Cumaean Apollo weeps for the Destruction of Cumae we shall here read of Men without Sense or Apprehensions both the Stories will seem as Incredible The stupid Nobility and Gentry sleep in their Houses till they are roused by these Blood-hounds that they might seem to deserve the Calamity tumbling upon their Heads They were becoming Tenants at Will in Villeinage to their Vassals under their Distress their Task and Taxes more by the sottish Baseness of themselves than any Vertue in these Rascals scorned and sleighted by every tatter'd Clunch Their Lands continually upon any Vote or Information to be sold or given away upon any Information of Loyalty or Faithfulness The ancient Vertues of the Gentleman not to be found in that Age and serving only for a Pretence to Ruin no one could form an Expectation of more than this to be the last Man born what was Polyphemus his Kindness to Ulysses to be devoured last all which they were contented to hazard and indure to preserve a Shred or jagg of an incertain ragged Estate for the Health or Mistresses Sake subject ever to the Violence of the same lawless spoiling Force which maimed and rent it before Next to return to this Riffraff their Cruelty reaches to Parchment Deeds Charters Rolls of Courts Evidences are cast by them into the Fire as if they meant to abolish all Remembrance of things this was to defeat their Lords in the Claims of any ancient Rights and to leave no Man more Title than themselves had to their Sword and Power The Kentish and Essexian Rout were joyned says the Monk but he tells us not where and approached near London at Black-heath they made an Halt where they were near 200000 strong Thither came two Knights sent by the King to them to inquire the Cause of the Commotion and why they had amassed such Swarms of the People They answer they met to conferr with the King concerning Business of Weight they tell the Messengers they ought to go back to the King and shew him that it behoves him to come to them they would acquaint him with their Desires we shall quickly discover why his Presence was required Upon Return of the Knights it was debated in Council by the Lords about the King whether he should go or no Some of the Table more willing to venture the King than themselves willing to throw him into the Gulph or perhaps not senting the Design of the Clowns perswade him to see them Your Majesty thus they must make a Tryal of these Men Necessity now must be looked on above Reason if any thing can give the Check to the Uproars it must be your Presence there can be no Safety but in this Venture it is now as dangerous to seem not to trust as to be deceived Fate is too much feared if it be imagined that this Tree of your Empire which has flourished so many Ages can fall in an Hour The Archbishop of Canterbury Simon Theobald of Sudbury Lord Chancellor of England the most Eloquent most wise and most pious Prelate of the Age Faithful to his Prince and therefore odious to
our Way Both these Counsels are approved William Greyndcob an Hind who had eaten the Bread of the Monastery for the most part of his Life is elected with others and sent on this Errand to the King before whom he kneels six times out of Zeal to prevail This Loâ—… too was made principal Prolocutor says our Monk or Speaker to the Idol before whose sordid Excellency and his unclean Counsel he complains of the grievous Tyranny of the Abbot and Prior some few Monks are thrust in to make up the Number of the Oppressures of the Commons of witholding the Wages of poor Labourers the Design was to rouze the Wolf Tyler meant not to leave London yet he promises if need be to send Twenty Thousand of the Saints who shall not fail to shave the Beards of the Abbot and the rest which signified in plain English cutting off their Heads The gracious Captain General was yet more kind he vows if it be convenient to assist them in his own Person He gives them Directions and Orders to govern themselves by and makes their Obedience here a Condition of his Love These Orders were generally enjoyned by our English Mahomet through all the Provinces of his Conquest and were framed according to the Law of his bloody Alchoran He swears them to omit nothing either in his Commands or Doctrine A Servant of the Abbot one of the Spies upon the Townsmen rides in full Career to S. Albans and gives Intelligence to the Abby of the Exploits of the new Masters at London He tells them in what manner that Dirt of a Captain Tyler fullyed and polluted with the Blood of the Nobless had butchered the English Patriarch and the Lord Treasurer That London the Den of these ravenous Beasts falsly called the Chamber of her Kings was likely now to become the Charnel-house of Richard and his Loyal Vassals That these Fiends who would goe for Saints and the only good Patriots commit the Acts of Thieves and Murtherers neither reverencing Religion nor Laws And that the Conquering French who makes fair War nay the barbarous Scot broke out of the Fastness of his own Desart mortal Enemies of the Nation could not spoil nor ruin with more Cruelty and Villany No Mercy says he yield who will upon Mercy no Favour no Goodness can be expected from this Rout of Wolves He bids those pointed at and named by Greyndcob to Tyler shift for themselves which they are not long in resolving of The Prior four Monks and some of their Servants one part horsed another on Foot fly for their Lives not assuring themselves till they got to Tynmouth a Priory of this Monastery of Saint Albans in Northumberland William Greyndcob and William Cadindon a Baker on Fryday had hastened to S. Albans that they might make the Honour of the Atchievement theirs by first appearing in the Action These brag aloud of the Prosperity of Affairs that they were no more Drudges and Slaves but Lords for the time to come that they had brought about great and wonderful Feats against the Abby they propose first to defie the Abbot to renounce all Amity and Peace with him then to break down his Folds and Gates in Fauconwood Eywood and his other Woods and to pull down the Under-Bowsers House standing over against the Fish-market and hindering the Prospect of the Burgesses and Nobility of the Town this is their own Style a Nobility scarce to be parallel'd in the World discovered unless we fetch in the Man-eaters of Brasil who have neither Letters nor Laws acknowledge neither God nor Prince This Night the first Scene of the Tragedy is acted the next day being Saturday fatal to the Hangman Tyler the Upstart Nobility of Churls assemble and make Proclamation That no Man able to serve his Country presume to slight the Lieutenants of the Idol but that every Man furnish himself with such Arms as he can provide to attend them the Lieutenants in his own Defence The Crew summoned are commanded to press the Gentry for the Service and to cut off the Heads of those who would not joyn with them and swear to be faithful to them beheading burning Houses Forfeiture of Goods were menaced to all that would not assist the Forces raised by Tyler and fight the Lords Battels that is for the Cause This says our Monk was the Charge of their Lord and Master Wat this was his Rubrick of Blood Next with great Pomp they march to Fauconwood to level the slips of their Haste and Night-work something they feared might be left whole upon Review when Root and Branch were pared and torn up they retire The other Growtnolls of the Neighbourhood subject to the Distress or Seigniory of Saint Albans wait for them these were cited upon the same Threats to meet and promised Belly-fulls Cart Loads of Liberties Now or never for the Liberty of the Subject and the Power of Godliness This Supply swells them into huge Hopes it puffs them up Greyndcob and Cadindon more haughty now than ever lead their Battalias blustering with surly Pride and Disdain to the Gates of the Monastery which with the same Loftiness they command the Porter to set open Some of the Company Friends of the House had given private Intelligence to the Abbot of the Contrivances against him who had instructed his Servants how to carry themselves toward this Tag and Rag of Swains they observe them punctually That they may seem pious in their Entrance they free the publick Malefactors out of the Abbots Prison but so that they should owe Faith hereafter and Grace of the Benefit to the Commons a Name the most Honourable and which must swallow up all things else and inseparably stick to them One of the Offenders whom they suppose unworthy of Liberty or Life grown Judges and Executioners by the same Inspiration and Spirit they behead on the Ground before the Gates then fix his Head upon the Pillory roaring with that devilish Cry they had learnt at London This was plain Murther by the Law whatsoever this Mans Crime was these Rogues were guilty in a most high Nature so that besides the Baseness of their Condition they were incapable of any Jurisdiction by the ancient fundamental Laws of England as being Traitors and out of the Kings Faith But to wave all this by these ancient Laws every Prisoner might demand Oyer hearing of the Judges Commission these Villains had neither Authority nor Commission but from Tylers Sword which was but a Derivative of his Usurpation No Act of which can be just the Foundation of his Tyranny this Way in being just and illegal at the first From the Idols first Entrance no Act of Confirmation or Grant was done could any such Act be done and valid to establish or make a Right by the Power which had that Right to bestow he asked for a Commission of Life and Death but was refused and his Arbitrary Acts were only a Continuance of his
resign the Powers to him which we received of him We have voted if you comply not to send for the Captain General Tyler and Twenty thousand of his Militia to the Danger of this Place and of the Monks Heads The Abbot here recites his good Deeds how often in their Necessities he had relieved them he had been he says their spiritual Father thirty two Years in all which time no Man had been grieved or oppressed by him this giving implyedly the Lye to Wallingford they grant but will not be denyed The Obligations and Charters which they require are delivered them which they burn in the Market-place near the Cross. This did not content them they ask for an ancient Charter concerning the Town Liberties the Capital Letters of which say they were one of Gold another of Azure The Abbot prays them to be satisfied for that time he protests they have all he has to give them he knew of no more yet he would make a search and if any such Deed could be found it should faithfully be delivered to them This too was the answer of the Covent it was agreed that the Abbot should after Dinner disclaim under his Hand and Seal in all Things prejudicial to their Liberty In Memory of an old Suit betwixt Abbot Richard the First and the Townsmen in the Reigns of William the Second and Henry the First wherein the Townsmen were overthrown were laid Milstones before the Door of the Parlor These Iohn the Barber with others took away as a Token of Victory over the Law these they break into small pieces and distribute amongst the Worthies as the Sacred Bread is given in the Eucharist Who could forbear Tears says Walsingham heavily bewailing these Changes to see Servants command their Lords who know not how to rule nor how to pity To see London once the noble Head of our Cities become a Stye for unclean Swine Who would not tremble to hear that the Arch-bishop and the Lord Treasurer should be offered Victims to wicked Spirits to the Kentish â—…dol the Kentish Saturn or Moloch and his Hob-goblins in the midst of the Kingdom Nay says he whose Heart would it not have wounded through to have seen the King of England who of Right for Majesty and Dignity ought to precede all Kings in the World out of Fear of his Head observe the Nods and Becks of these Varlets and the Nobility and Gentry mortified Beasts trampled on by these Scullions enslaved at their own Charge lick up their Dust. After Dinner a sad Dinner to the Monks this Merdaille these Stinkards throng before the Gates and demand the Charter of Liberties which the Abbot had promised them to seal which was sent and read to them in the thickest of the Rout If they please to accept it this was the Abbots Complement he is ready to seal They resolved never to be pleased with much Scorn and Pride answer by an Esquire of the Abbot That the Abbot must appoint some Clerk of his to attend them with â—…nk and Parchment themselves would dictate and after the Abbot and Covent should confirm what was done when this Humour was satisfied the Safety and Peace of the Monastery and Monks were as desperate as ever The old Charter which they will everlastingly believe concealed must be produced else they will bury the Covent in the Ruins of the Cloysters This Charter did certainly as they will have it contain all their ancient Liberties and Priviledges and if this was true there was no great Reason it should be in the Abbots keeping Here the Abbot imploys the most Honourable Esquires of the Country as Mediators to soften them and offers if they desire it to say Mass before them next Morning and to swear upon the Sacrament he should be about to take with what Monks they would name that he kept from them no such Charter with his Knowledge Make Choice says he of what Liberties you can you shall have my Charters drawn they shall be granted you by it I will seal you a real Charter instead of a fantastical one never seen by you no where to be had The Abbot struggles in vain against these Waves this Charter of their Fancies they will have Nor shall any other Price redeem the Monastery they intended the Subversion of the House and wrangle thus crossly that they might seem to have some Pretences to do it but because they had much Business to go about and could not be here and there too a Truce was taken for that Day and many of these pure Brethren betake themselves to other parts some of them would not be prevailed with the Bread and Ale of the Monastery brought forth to them in huge Fat 's would not work upon them to lay their Fury they staid only for a leading Hand Here an honest Burgess interposes Ribaulds says he what is it you purpose most of you here are Forreigners of the Villages about this is the most famous Mischief which can be acted in this Country this Beacon must set all on Fire and it is fit we who are Burgesses and Freemen of this Town should give the On-set By this Fineness they are gained to quit the Gates and joyn to the Assistance of their Fellow-Labourers The rest of the Day is spent by their united Forces in overthrowing of Houses clashing of Vessels and spoiling of Goods according to the Rule of Walter the false Founder of the Order At Night the Lieutenants make Proclamamation under the Kings Banner commanding strong Guards to be set about the Town that they may be assured against Surprizes and about the River Werlam and Saint Germains making it Loss of the Head to any Monk who should be found issuing from or entring the Monastery that Way this was done to set a Trap for the Prior and those who fled with him They proclaimed also that whosoever could challenge any Debts due to him from the Monastery might put in his Claim and little Proof should be needed the next Day and the Burgesses of the Town would discharge as far as the Goods of the Monastery would reach Much more was Magisterially thrown in to shew a Cast of the present Power Which was no sooner done but there appears a Farmer of the Mannor of Kingsbury belonging to this Abby arme I with his Sword and Buckler this Man was much in Arrears for his Farm and durst not peep abroad from his lurking Holes before these Broils which hiding of himself he imputes now to the Injustice and Cruelty of the Prior This Chuff demands one hundred Marks Damages for the Losses he had sustained in his Absence and threatens to burn the Grange of Saint Peter and Mannor-house of Kingsbury near the Abby if he be not repaired Twenty pounds he receives upon this Demand and goes away swearing he would freely give it back again for the Priors Head Saturday Night passed with much Perplexity to the Monks who were at their Wits
Ends and Lives too they could not hope better things about the Charter which was no where extant but in the Noddles of these Cluster-fists But Day and Comfort broke out together upon them suddenly this Overflow of Pride and Arrogancy abated their Loftiness fell and their Bristles were somewhat laid very unpleasing Rumours concerning the Army were spread and the Death of the Idol Tyrant Wat of stinking Memory was certainly known and divulged and what was as stabbing that the Citizens of London grown wise and resolute either out of Loyalty or which is the rather to be supposed Experience of their new Master began now to own their Prince their natural Lord unanimously and to side with him against all Seditious Opposers of his Majesty and the just Rights and Liberties of his People which they saw like to perish together Farther a Knight of the Court seconds the Report and by Proclamation in the Kings Name now legal again commands this Herd to keep the Kings Peace under forfeiture of Life and Members from that Hour The King now grown a Protector again of his Subjects sends his Letters Protectory to the Abbot in these Words RIchard c. To all our Lieges and Commons of Hartford c. We pray charge command straightly as we may c. by the Faith and Liegances which to us ye owe that to our Beloved in God the Abbot of St. Albans nor to our House and Monastery of the said Place of our Patronage nor to none of the People Monks nor others nor to none of the Goods of the said Monastery c. Ye suffer to be done as much as in you lies any Grievance Dammage c. Given under our Great Seal at our City of London c. Though now these Carles were well cooled yet e'er the Zeal was quite slackened and the Clouds dispelled which hovered weakly and were likely to scatter with the next Breath of Wind they conclude to perfect their Building which to the great Nuisance of this Monastery they had raised Besides the Lieutenants or Major Generals of Tyler thought it a much unworthiness to droop too soon before those whom they had summoned in to piece up their deformed Insurrection with so much Bravery and Insolence They continue and pursue their Requests to the Abbot but with less Noise than formerly the Abbot was advised by Letters from Sir Hugh Segrave Lord Steward of the Houshold and Sir Thomas Percy created after Earl of Worcester to grant all things assuring him these Grants being thus forced from him would be void in Law and could not hurt his Monastery The Abbots Chamber the Chappel all Places are full of them they give Directions to the Abbot's Clerk for their Charter of Liberties which now they were contented to accept but will have a Bond of One thousand pounds Sterling for the delivering up the Charter unknown before the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin next if it can be found if not that the Abbot with his twelfth Hand an ancient Saxon manner of purging or clearing the Offender where the Offence was secret with twelve of his chief Monks should swear that he neither has nor detains any such Charter with his Knowledge The Abbot agrees he and the Covent Seal but oh the Miracle not to be believed nor understood without another upon our Faith and Understanding the seal in which the Glorious Protomartyr was figured three times together could not be pulled from the Wax no sleight no Strength could doe it to pass by the pious Frauds and Dreams of Monks From thence the Black-bands depart to the Market-place there at the Cross they publish their new Acquisitions the Charters of the King and Abbot with the Kings Protection of the Monastery which was but a Counterfeit of their Love On Munday and Tuesday following the Villains of the Patrimony of our Protomartyr as the others did in all places else imbroiled exact of the Abbot Deeds of Manumission and Liberty according to the Effect of the Royal Charter before which Charter the Abbot recites and confirms From Villains these now conceive themselves Gentlemen of Welsh Pedegree descended of Princes nay as our Monk noble beyond the Line and Race of Kings they are meer Free-holders hold only of God and the Son rather of the Sun and Club and will neither perform their Customs and Services nor pay Rent The common People who are neither swayed by Religion or Honesty stop and check themselves not that they were contented but because they could not nay they durst not go on to more The Plague of this Distemper was not only epidemical but kept its Days on the fatal Saturday fifty thousand Clowns out of Suffolk Essex Cambridgeshire the Isle of Ely places miserably harrassed according to the former Presidents were incorporated by the jugling Tricks of the Essexian Impostors sent out by the Fathers of Disobedience in the first Conception of the Ruffle to inveigle Proselites to the Holy League This was but an indigested Mass without Shape or Form Wraw not Straw as sometimes he is called aâ—…most lewd Presbyter as Walsingham or Priest who came from London the Day before with Orders from Tyler who according to his own Establishment had the executive Power was imployed into those parts to lick and fashion the Monster He with Robert Westbrome King of this Congregation lead the tatter'd Reformers from Mildenhall to St. Edmunds-bury where then stood a most Glorious Monastery and where their Fellow Scoundrels expected them Wraw finds these Choperloches good Disciples willing to learn and quick of Apprehension so capable they understood his least Signs The same Frenzies are again acted by other Lunaticks the Lawyers or Apprentices of the Law as the Monk and their Houses are the first Objects of their spight they do not only cut off them but fire their Nests Sir Iohn Cavendish Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who had been one of the most able Serjeants of this Kings Grand-fathers Reign and was made Chief Justice by him they intercept and behead Orpheus Tracie Nero the Roman Belgabred the Brittain excellent in the Sweetness of a Voice and Skill of Song with Iohn of Cambridge Prior of Saint Edmunds lose their Lives in the same manner as they unluckily fell into their Hands The Cause of the Priors Death is made this He was discreet and managed the Affairs of his Monastery faithfully and diligently he was taken near Mildenhall a Town then belonging to Saint Edmund of the Demain of the Abby the Vassals Hinds Villains and Bond-men of the House sentenced him murthered him by Vote His Body lay five Days Naked in the Field unburied In Saint Edmunds-bury these Cut-throats compass the Priors Head round as in a Procession after they carry it upon a Lance to the Pillory where that and the Chief Justices Head are advanced The next Work was the levelling a new House of the Priors After they enter the Monastery which they threaten
within which time they were either tyed to agree with the Abby or render up Greyndcob to the Justices again The Townsmen fierce enough still yet earnest to preserve their Worthy are content to part with the Charters but this Greyndcob more Fool-hardy than wise would not consent to Nor does he as knowing the Stifness of his Clowns whine in a Religious Tone never used by him He prays them to consider how Beautiful Liberty is how sweet how Honourable Dangerous Liberty says he is more valuable than safe and quiet Slavery let us live or dye with Liberty in so generous so honest a Contention it will be Glorious to be overcome whatsoever our Fears are worse we cannot be then now we are about to make our Selves Success too doth not so often fail Men as their own Industry and Boldness Fear not for me nor trouble your selves at my Dangers I shall think my self more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to dye a Martyr of the Cause with the Reputation of such a Gallantry Let such Courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signal Mischiefs had I lost my Head at Hartford inflame your heavy Sprights Methinks I see the Hero Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish Cowardice and by the Blazes of his Fire-brands kindled in Hell and waved by Fiends about his Head lead on to noble Villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the airy Sounds of God and Saints he who fears Thunder-bolts is a Religious heartless Coxcomb and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the Raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcob's Stubbornness hardens on the Clowns they now accuse themselves of Baseness that they did not cut off the Knights Head and nail it on the Pillory to the Terror say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised Spirits which he could not lay when he would Three days being expired he is again sent to Hartford Goal where he hears News from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His Intelligence was to this Effect That Richard of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Piercie with a thousand armed Men were appointed to visit S. Albans At this Report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Book is received the rest put off till the next Day The Earl of Warwick sends only Excuses he heard his own House was on Fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and he leaves all things else to quell them This raises the fallen Courages of those of Saint Albans they now laugh at their late Fears If the Commons say they must quit their Right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the Renowned Mechanicks of St. Albans be their President And as in all Tumults which can never be observed too often Lying is necessary and must not be useless whatsoever else is they lay the Blame of their Obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred theirs before and submitted to the Kings Mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albans again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these Turnings who vows to sit personally in Judgment upon these Everlasting Malecontents The Abbot full of Pity and Charity who had saved some of these Enemies of his House from the Axe by Intercession at London continues his Goodness still He sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his Friends to mitigate the King's Displeasure and hinder his Journey thither which was not in their Power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the Tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their Defence and mediate with the Abbot wherethere was no Danger An Agreement is concluded the Day of the Kings Entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in Performance on their Part not to make any Complaints to the King of them that he would be a Suiter for their Peace if his Prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No Man had any Power or Authority to pardon or remit Treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This Doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their Innocency too much into Question They tell him his good Will was sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his Entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bells rang aloud and the Monks sang merrily his Welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this Train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next Day being Saturday the 13. of Iuly and first of the Dog-days sat in Judgment at the Moot-hall says Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn the Barber are fetched from Hartford and laid fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcoran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the Yoak of pure Discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albans the Day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last Days of his Life which were begged for his Repentance that certain hot and powerful Pastors of the Separation Brethren of simple Hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all Abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarchy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and Holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of Baal which Disciples says this Rabbi unless they be prevented and taken off will destroy the Realm in two Years He might have said two Months and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the Confusion of a barbarous impious Age which made England Glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a Custom and an hundred ill Customs quicklier
grow and prevail than one single good one There is a Proneness in unruly Man to run into Debauchments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly Multitude capable of any ill Impressions should deprave and disorder things where all Ties of Restraint are loofened nay where Disorders are not only defended by the corrupt Wits of Hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villanies made legal Acts. Had the Idol King Tyler with his Council not gone on too far in the Way of Extermination but endeavoured to repair the Breaches of his Entrance it would have been no small Labour to have restored things to any mean and tolerable Condition if Presbyter Wickliff and his Classes by their pernicious Doctrines as they are charged to this Day did first pervert and corrupt the People and broach that Vessel with which Father Baal and Straw poysoned them they must have ruined themselves by the Change sure enough they had been no more comprehended in any of Tylers Toleration than the Prelatical or Papistical Party In the Turmoils and Outrages of this Tyranny had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodness had been odious and dangerous The Profit and Advantage of the new Usurpers had been the Measure of Justice and Right The Noble and Ignoble had died Streets and Scaffolds with their Blood not by Laws and Judgment but out of Malice to their Height and Worth out of Fury and Covetousness to enrich publich Thieves and Murtherers The Jealousies too and Fears of Tyler had made all Men unsafe Yet the Repute the Renown of the Founders could not have been much The Glory of Success cannot be greater than the Honesty of the Enterprise there must be Justice in the Quarrel else there can be no true Honour in the Prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Iugurtha's Fame who is said to be Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all Men fall down and worship On Munday the Fifteenth of Iuly not of October as Walsingham is mis-printed the Chief Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such Discovery as is desired The Chief Justice puts them in Mind of the Kings Words to them upon the Way promising Pardon if they will find out the Offenders else threatning them with the Punishment they should have suffered who through such Silence cannot be apprehended Out they go again and the Chief Justice follows them He shews them a Roll of the principal Offenders Names tells them they must not think to delude and blind the Court with this Impudence and advises them out of a Care to preserve wicked Mens Lives not to hazard their own Hereupon they indict many of the Town and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and again affirmed by a third Jury of Twelve charged only for the Fairness of the Tryal So no Man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty six Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadindon and Barber and twelve more condemned Drawn and Hanged Wallingford Iohn Garleck William Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with Eighty of the Country were Indicted by their Neighbours and Imprisoned but forgiven by the King's Mercy and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercy for he had forbidden by Proclamation all Men to sue or beg for them a Command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and he shall be well thanked for it No Benefits can oblige some Men A true rugged Churl can never be made fast never be tyed by any Merit whatsoever Nothing can soften him See an unheard of Shamelesness till then These lazie tender-hearted Clowns who could hardly be got to discover the Guilty now run with full Speed to betray the Innocent They indict the Abbot as the principal Raiser and Contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own Life and the Being and Safety of his Monastery The Abbot as it is said sent to Tyler upon his Ordinances some of the Town and Monastery but to temporize and secure himself This is now supposed by the very Traitors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his Natural Liege Lord. This having not the Fear of God in his Heart c. but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil is compassing the Death c. the Deprivation and deposing of his Soveraign Lord from his Royal State c. as such Indictments use to run This must goe for levying War against the Lord the King adhering to comforting and aiding his Enemies by open Fact Which are the Words of the Statute of Treason declarative of the Common Law The Chief Justice abominating and cursing the treacherous Malice and Perfidiousness of these Brutes makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publickly they confess to be false in the Face of the Court. Villeinage was not now abolished though some think otherwise but by Degrees extinguished since this Reign Besides the Letters of Revocation before restoring all things to their old Course a Commission which the Abbot procured from the King out of the Chancery then kept in the Chapter-house of this Monastery makes this manifest which speaks to this Effect RIchard by the Grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland c. To his Beloved John Lodowick John Westwycomb c. We command you and every of you upon Sight of these Presents c. That on our Part forthwith ye cause to be proclaimed That all and singular the Tenants of our Beloved in Christ the Abbot of S. Albans as well free as bond the Works Customs and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to do and of ancient Time have been accustomed to perform without any Contradiction murmur c. Do as before they have been accustomed The Disobedient are commanded to be taken and Imprisoned as Rebels In the Time of King Henry the Seventh there were Villains This I observe to make it appear how little it is which the miserable Common People without whom no famous Mischief can be attained are Gainers by any of their Riots or Seditions whatsoever the Changes are their Condition is still the same or worse If some few of them advance themselves by the Spoils of the publick Shipwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent Sight offends their Eyes they see the Dirt of their own Ditches lord it over them and the Body of them perhaps more despised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so Destructive to Government as the Licentiousness of the base Commons would doubtless when his own Work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oak all the Forrest should have been his Bishopricks Earldoms nay the Kingdoms had been swallowed by him Instead of a
just legal Power by which the Kings acted an Arbitrary boundless unlimited Power must have been set up instead of a Fatherly Royal Monarchy a Tyranny after the Turkish Mode a Monarchy Seignioral and had he brought in upon the Fall of the Christian Faith and Worship which must have followed his Establishment Circumcision and the Creed of Mahomet as the Spirits of Men were than debased he must have been obeyed All the Kings Right and more must have been his Sultan Tyler's Prerogative would have been found more grievous more heavy more killing than all the Yokes and Scorpions of our Kings no Man when he went to Sleep could assure himself that one Law would be left next Morning the Ordinances of Tyler and his Council flew about in Swarms killing and rooting up the Laws One Proclamation of this Tyrant's was of Force to blow up the ancient Foundation enough to have made Men mad if ever they could wake and understand When the French had conquered Naples the People looked for a golden World they thought their new Master would as the King of Mexico's Oath used to say do Justice to all Men make the Sun to shine the Clouds to rain the Earth to be fruitful They promise themselves Liberty and that the accustomed Imposts of their former Kings of the House of Arragon should not only be taken off but the very Word Gabelle driven out of the Kingdom there should be no such thing in Nature left but foolish Dolts as they were they found an Alteration quickly instead of a Court Cavalry before the new Masters ill established and assured not daring to trust any thing standing Armies were continually to be kept on Foot instead of one Tax intolerable of late they are oppressed with ten their Backs and Shoulders crack under the Load Upon this Fancy of these abused Italians says the Historian This is the Custom for the most part of all People weary ever of the present Condition and inconsiderately gaping after a Change but they receive such Wages of their fond and disorderly Lightness The War undertaken against Lewis the 11th of France by the House of Burgundy Dukes of Berry Brittain and Bourbon called the Weal Publick was not made against the King says the Allies but against evil Order Injustice in the Government and for the Publick Good of the Realm In the Treaty for Peace these fine things are forgotten the wretched Peasants torn and ground with Taxes left to shift for themselves The Prince of the Burgundies demands the Towns upon the Some for himself Normandy for the Duke of Berry and other places Offices and Pensions for the rest some Overtures were made for the Weal Publick says the History that is all the Weal Publick was the least of the Question the Weal Publick was turned to Weal Particular Self-seeking was the Sum of the Business This has been the Fashion of all Rebels hitherto and will be to the Worlds End After these Proceedings the Hartfordshire Men betwixt the Ages of 15 and 60 present themselves according to Command and take the Oath of Allegiance they are sworn too to unkennel and apprehend the late Incendiaries The King having now quieted the Commotions removes to Berkhamsted eight Miles from St. Albans a Royal Castle then and at Easthamsted where he hunts is informed that the Bodies of the Traytors executed were taken down from the Gallows hereupon he directs his Writ or Letter to the Bayliffs of St. Albans commanding them under Penalty of forfeiting all things forfeitable to hang up again the said Bodies now rotten and stinking in Iron Chains which the Townsmen are forced to do with their own Hands A Parliament sitting in May the Fifth Year of this Kings Reign Iohn Wraw Priest of the Reformation at Mildenhall and St. Edmunds-bury was taken and upon the Petition of the House of Commons to the King judged to be drawn and hanged In the same Parliament too it was enacted That wheresoever any Clowns by six or seven in a Company kept suspicious Conventicles the Kings good and faithful Subjects should lay hold of them and commit them to the next Gaol without staying for the Kings Writ In the same Parliament of the King it was made Treason to begin a Riot Rout or Rumour by this Parliament and that of the 6. Provisions are made for those whose Deeds were burnt or destroyed in the late Insurrection and in the 6. of Richard the King pardons the Multitudes for their Misdemeanours in the Tumults The Clowns now every where return'd to their old Obedience and the Winds were laid in all their Quarter Richard a Prince born for Troubles shall be turmoyled with the Rebellions of his Peers and Parliaments deposed and murthered by them yet his Memory shall be Sacred his Peers and Clowns shall dig for him in his Grave Posterity too shall owe all things to his Person After the Death of Maximinius a wicked bloody Thief a cruel Tyrant who invaded the Roman Empire Capitolinus recites a gratulatory Letter written by Claudius Iulianus a Consul to the Emperors Maximus and Balbinus whom he calls Preservers and Redeemers of the Common-Wealth there the Council tells them they had restored to the Senate the House of Lords their ancient Dignity to the Romans their Laws Equity and Clemency established their Lives their Manners their Liberty the Hopes of Succession to their Heirs He adds they had freed the Provinces from the insatiable Covetousness of Tyrannies no Voice Language nor Wit can express says he the publick Happiness King Richard restored to the Church and Universities their Rights and Possessions to the Nobility their Honour to the Gentry their Respect to the Cities their free Trade the Plenty of his Harvest to the industrious Countryman Security Peace and Liberty to all Orders what Prince could bestow greater Benefits upon a People He was the Stator the Saviour of the Nation a Nation not worthy of him whose Ingratefulness to his Sacred Head whose Perfidiousness and Impiety in advancing an Usurper upon his Ruins were punished with a fatal Civil War which lasted Ages with an Issue of Blood which could not be stopped till the true and lawful Heir of this Prince was seated in the Imperial Throne according to the Faith and Oaths of this People which whatsoever may be pretended no Power on Earth can dispence with and according to the fundamental Laws of England FINIS A TABLE TO Mr. Iohn Cleveland's WORKS A. THe Antiplatonick Page 11 The mixt Assembly p. 32 Answer to a Pamphlet written against the Lord Dygby's Speech concerning the Death of the Earl of Strafford p. 100 Against Ale p. 304 Answer to the Storm p. 383 B. On Britannicus his Leap three Story high and his Escape from London p. 247 Elegy upon Ben. Johnson p. 310 A second Elegy p. 303 An Epitaph upon Ben. Johnson p. 353 To a Lady that wrought a Story of the Bible in Needle-work p. 359 On a Burning-Glass p. 375 C. AN Elegy