and negligent in performing those Royal Offices and Duties that God Almighty required at his â—ands for as subjection belonged to the People so â—e King was likewise obliged to afford them Proâ—…ction which yet he had most dishonourably and unâ—…scionably neglected by exposing his Subjects in â—…e North to the Rage and Fury of the Scots and to 〈◊〉 the Extremities of Hunger and Want And lastly â—hat if he would not instantly discharge those two â—aceless and wicked Councellors from bearing any â—…fice or Imployment in the Realm they then must â—…d would do it themselves though it were with the â—…ard of their Lives and whatsoever else was dear 〈◊〉 them in the World The King could not chuse but know that this brisk â—…monstrance of the Barons about their Grievances was nothing but Truth and founded upon Honour Conscience and true Zeal for their Countrey and waâ— as sensible that they were earnestly resolved to reâ—form what was amiss But though his Countenanâ—… proclaimed his inward discontent and declared hâ—… Intentions of surprizing and ruining those Noblemâ—… who discovered their hatred against his beloveâ— Spencers yet he returned the Barons a favourabâ—… Answer assuring them all that was amiss should bâ— redressed by the ensuing Parliament which he woulâ— assemble with all speed The Lords seemed very muâ—… rejoyced at this Answer as well as the commoâ— People but yet they very much suspected that thâ— King intended to seize and surprize them at that Solemn Meeting To prevent which they came to Loâ—… Son attended with so many of their Friends an Tâ—… pants all in the same Livery as composed a gallaâ—… Army sufficient to secure them against any siniste Attempts The King was much disturbed to find himself the prevented in his secret Designs but his greatest griâ— was that he found himself unable any longer to defend and protect his detested Favourites the Spenceâ— for whom he had a more tender affection than foâ— his Queen Children and all his Friends besides whom notwithstanding he was compelled by the Pâ—…liament to relinquish by whom it was Enacted wiâ—… his consent That they should be banished the Kiâ—…dom never to return again during their Lives undâ—penalty of High Treason This being concluded on the Barons longing to 〈◊〉 the Spencers under Sail provided several Ships 〈◊〉 their Transportation Being gone to the great saâ—faction of the People in general the King instead redressing the remaining Grievances wholly applâ—… his thoughts how to be avenged of those Loâ—… that had forced him to comply in decreeing thâ— Exile And to declare his resentment of it whâ— he was informed that the younger Spencer havâ— got a Squadron of Ships together was turned Pirate in the Narrow Seas Robbing and Plundering all Nations that he could meet with but especially the English Merchants to the unspeakable damage of the Realm having taken out of two Ships only at Sandwich goods to the value of 40000 pound Upon which great Complaints were made and many Petitions presented that a Fleet might be set out for taking him and his Associates and bringing them to punishment as Pirates and Robbers according to the Laws of the Land He was so far from being concerned at it or providing any Remedy that he seemed very merry at the News and soon after sent them a general Pardon of all their Crimes and the more to despight and inrage the Nobility he recalled them both from Banishment and honoured them with more Dignities Offices and Authority than ever they had before These strange proceedings of the King together with the notorious Injuries and Abuses which they daily suffered by the return and advancement of the two Spencers who now defied their utmost Power scorning and deriding them with the most pungent Affronts were sufficient Warnings to the Lords to take timely care of their Safeties Wherefore since neither Petitions Submissions nor any other Legal procedure could procure any Remedy of their repeated Wrongs they raised a strong Army and marcht into the Field and the King with the two Spencers and some few of the Nobility did the like Before any Action between them this odd Accident happened procured as was thought by the Contrivance of the King or his Evil Ministers A certain Knight belonging to John Earl Warren stole away the Wife of Thomas Earl of Lancaster one of the Chief of the Lord's Party from his House at Caneford in Dorsetshire and with great Pomp carried her To E. Warren's Castle at Rygate in Surrey in despight of her I and Husband where one Rich. Maurice a wretched lame deformed Dwarf challenged her for his Wife pretending he had been formerly Contracted to her and that he had lain with her The Countess though the noblest and richest Inheritrix of that Age confirmed his Allegations openly declaring to her immortal infamy that what he said was true and thereby acknowledging her self to be an impudent Strumpet Upon which this deformed Elf being incouraged by some great Persons had the confidence to lay claim to the Earldoms of Lincoln and Salisbury in her Right and the Honour of this great Earl was blasted by a debauched Woman This unhappy passage increased the fatal aversion between him and the King and the Earl and Humfry Bohun Earl of Hereford having likewise received some damage from the Spencers these two allured almost all the rest of the Nobility to join with them So that being now gotten into Arms they marched with Banners display'd under the command of the Earl of Lancaster whom they constituted their General and after many sharp skirmishes and encounters the Armies met at Burton upon Trent where both Parties fought with such obstinate desire of revenge that he was reckoned the most valiant man who drencht his Sword deepest in Blood The Nobles now forgot that they fought against their Sovereign Lord and the King would by no means acknowledge that his Tyranny and Misgovernment had compelled them to take Arms. Now neither Kindred Alliance Neighbourhood Religion Country nor any other obligation had the least power over their inraged minds Nothing but death and wounds must determine the controversie between them At length when many of the Lords and thousands of their Adherents were slain they fled and were pursued by the King the Earl of Hereford waâ— slain by a Welshman who thrust a Spear into his Body between the Chinks of a Wooden Bridge The Earl of Lancaster with eighty Lords and Knights were taken Prisoners The occasion of this great defeat of the Barons is attributed in some measure to an unhappy accident a while before For Queen Isabel who upon all occasions used her utmost interest to procure a right understanding between the King and the Peers coming from Canterbury to the Castle of Leeds in Kent where she designed to lodge that Night was denied entrance by Lord Badlesmere one of the Earl of Lancaster's Party wherewith she was so offended that she made great complaint thereof to the King who glad of any opportunity to be revenged of
being as destitute of Friends and Means to defend himself as he was of Courage and Counsel However he requested Aid of the Citizens of London whose Answer was That they would honour with all duty the King Queen and Prince their Son who was lawful Heir to the Kingdom but that they would shut their Gates against all Foreigners and Traytors to the Realm and with all their Powers withstand them but that they were not obliged to go out of their Ctiy to fight no farther than that according to their Liberties they might return home again before Sun-set This uncertain Answer so discouraged the King that he resolved to withdraw from the City to the Marches of Wales for the present levying of an Army attended with his inseparable Favourites the two Spencers and Robert Baldock Bishop of Norwich their intimate Friend Before he went he ordered the Tower of London to be fortified which he committed to the Custody of Sir John Weston who was well provided with Men and Victuals leaving also to his care his younger Son called Lord John of Eltham with the countess of Glocester the King's Niece Wife to the younger Spencer and gave the Government of the City to Walter Stapilton Bishop of Exeter a Creature of the Spencers his chief Treasure and caused a Proclamation to be published enjoyning all his Subjects to oppose kill and destroy all the partakers with the Queen her self her Son and the Earl of Kent his half Brother only excepted On the other side the Queen made Proclamation That no Person whatsoever should receive any hurt or damage from her Army but only those two notorious Miscreants the Spencers Bishop Baldock Lord Chancellor and their Associates and that she came over for no other end but to bring to condign punishment those notorious Traytors and Misleaders of the King promising a thousand pound to any who should bring her the Head of the younger Spencer The King had no sooner took his last leave of the City and thereby of his Crown and Dignity but the Londoners scorning to submit to their proud and insolent Governour apprehended Stapilton and two of his Servants and without any Tryal or Judicial proceeding beheaded them at the Standard in Cheapside with one John Marshal a Citizen and Friend of the Spencers They likewise surprized the Tower killing all that opposed them and declared Lord John the King's Son Keeper of the City securing that and the City for the use of the Queen and the young Prince All Prisoners throughout the Kingdom were likewise set at liberty and all Fugitives and banished Men recalled which much augmented the Queen's Power The King hearing of this Revolt altered his purpose of raising Forces But whither could this poor Prince flie What course could he take for his own safety who to gratifie a few profligate Miscreants had made his Wife his Son his Nobility and his People his avowed Enemies At length he concladed to flie to Bristol which he fortified as strongly as he was able giving the Government of the Town to the Earl of Arundel and Hugh Spencer the Elder himself with the younger Spencer retiring into the Castle which they resolved to defend to the utmost The Queen marched from Oxford to Glocester in her way to Bristol which she designed to besiege her Forces increasing all the way The Earls of Leicester and Marshal the Lords Peircy Wake and other Noblemen both from Wales and the North with the Bishops of Hereford Ely and Lincoln and a great number more of Barons Knights and Gentlemen coming in to her Assistance With this great Army she arrived at Bristol and besieged it The City was taken in a few days with the Elder Spencer the Governour whom the Queen at the earnest importunity of the common People commanded to be hanged without examination in his Armour on the common Gallows without the City and then cut down alive his Bowels taken out and burnt before his Eyes his Head cut off and then his Body hanged up again by the Feet and after having four days hung a miserable spectacle to all Beholders his Body was cut all to pieces and given to the Dogs to eat and his Head set upon Winchester Castle The King the younger Spencer and Bishop Baldock much distrusting their ability to defend the Castle retired from thence secretly in the night and getting into a small Fisher-boat determined to flie into the Isle of Lundy in the mouth of the River Severn about two Miles in length and as many broad stored with Rabbits Pigeons and other Fowls incompassed with the Sea and having only one passage into it so narrow that two Men can scarce go abreast But Divine Providence seemed to withstand their purpose as designing them to be brought to Justice so that every day for a week or more when they attempted to Row their Boat thither the Wind and Waves drove it back again toward the Castle which being at length perceived by the Lord Beumont he chased the Fisher boat with a small Vessel and boarding it found therein the King young Spencer and Baldock whom they so much desired and brought them to the Queen who caused them to be carried and set in sight of the Besieged in the Castle which was still defended by Hugolin Grandchild to the Elder Spencer with much courage and now finding no hope of relief surrendred it upon condition to have his own and his Companions Lives saved Some Authors write That the King going into a Vessel out of Bristol Castle designed to flie into Ireland and that after he had wander'd a week upon the Sea Sir Thomas Blount one of his Friends forsaking him and going to the Queen he came ashoar in Glamorganshire where with his few Friends he intrusted himself with the Welsh who had still a kindness for him The King not appearing Proclamation was made That the Barons and People desired his return to the Exercise of the Government provided he would remedy what was amiss Whereupon Henry Earl of Lancaster Brother to the late Earl Sir William Zouch and Rice ap Howel who had all Lands in Wales were sent with Money and Forces to discover him which so prevailed upon the Welsh-men that they delivered him up together with the younger Spencer Baldock and one Simon Reading and received a Reward of 2000 pound They were brought to the Queen who was then at Hereford with Adam Tarlton the active Bishop The King was conveyed by the Earl of Lancaster to Kennelworth Castle After which the Queen and Prince attended by the Barons and a strong Army marched toward London carrying with them young Spencer in Chains like a Slave before whom certain pitiful Fidlers and other Varlets scornfully played upon Pipes made of Reeds skiping dancing and singing through every Town as they passed along Spencer and Simon Reading another evil instrument were sentenced to Death by the Judge Sir William Trussel as Traytors Spencer in his Armour was with all manner of scorn and insults
two Towns in the Province of Gascoign in France and furnishing him with men and money sufficient to secure himself against his Enemies creating him Baron of Wallingford and Earl of Cornwal and giving him the whole Revenue of that County as well as of Ireland to be disposed of at his pleasure with such store of Plate and Jewels that he might well think his Banishment was but a splendid Ambassage and an occasion offered to the King by fortune to make him the more Rich and Honourable He was no sooner arrived there but the King sent Messengers to him with his gracious Letters requiring him to be cheerful and merry in his exile assuring him that his troubles should in the end be recompenced with greater dignities and favours than he had yet received and indeed the King's mind was so fondly transported that he could not live without him and the exigency of his affairs being over he soon made it appear that what he had done against him was absolutely contrary to his humour and that his Heart went not along with his Tongue and Hand He therefore sends for him back who arriving in Wales and coming to Flint Castle was there met by the â—…ing and received with such extraordinary satisfaction as if the greatest blessing of Heaven had been bestowed upon him and to fix him more strongly if possible in his affections he Married him to Joan of Acres Countess of Glocester his Sisters Daughter resolving with himself to retain his Gaveston in despight of all his Lords and People and to adventure his Crown and Life in protecting of him from their displeasure wherein both the King and He shewed much indiscretion it being as equally dangerous for a Prince to shew extravagant love to his Favourite as for him to accept and make use of the same and at length it proved fatal to them both For Gaveston who was naturally insolent and ambitious being thus above his hopes or expectationâ— advanced to an alliance with the Blood Royal seemen now to endeavour if possible to exceed in his former outrages and practifed many more notorious Villanies than ever he had done before wasting and consuming the King's Treasure with such monstrous profusion that he had not wherewithal to defray the ordinary expences of his Court or to provide necessaries for his Family For he continually studied to supply the King 's luxurious fancy with fresh and chargeable delights both in banqueting costly Wines and Lascivious dalliance whereby be clouded his understanding and viâ—ated his Soul insomuch that he abandoned the Lawâ—… Bed and Society of his Religious and Virtuous Queen and gave himself up to the imbraces of wanton and impudent Harlors The Queen was extreamly grieved at these unsufferable wrongs and abuses which she endeavoured to redress by her earnest Prayers to God and her obliging demeanor to the King but all her pains were fruitless for the beams of her excellent endowments could not disperse the thick mists of his debauched temper neither could her sighs nor tears soften his Heart hardned with the variety and continuance of sinning and the malevolent example of the cursed Gaveston Neither were the Common People silent but took much liberty to talk of these great misdemeanours of the King who still continued resolute in those dissolute courses to which he intiâ—ed him The Queen being thus abâ—…ed both in her Honour and Maintenance having not a sufficient Maintenance allowed her by the preâ—ominant Gaveston to support her Royal Dignity sends her â—…plaints to her Father the French King and the Abbot of St. Dennis in France being 〈…〉 Pope's Legate to demand the Legacy that thâ— King's Father lest for the recovery of the Holy Land used his earnest importunities with him to banish that lewd Companion Gaveston from his Court and Kingdom with whose Conversation all Mankind that had converse with him were infected but all was in vain After this the King Summoned a Parliament to meet at Northampton designing to go from thence to Scotland The Barons came thither well armed and guarded of which the King having intelligence sent them word he would not come yet at last he came as far as Stony-Stratford to whom the Lords sent the Earls of Warwick and Clare with their earnest intreaties that for his own safety and the benefit of the Kingdom he would appear at his Parliament Whereupon he was prevailed with to come in the Habit of an Esquire and the Lords were present unarmed and in conclusion an happy agreement was made and the Expedition to Scotland laid aside for the present Soon after the Parliament assembled at London to which came Lewes Brother to the French King and the Bishop of Poictou to endeavour to settle a lasting Concord between the King and the Peers At this Parliament many good Laws were Enacted and among others one for banishing Peirce Gaveston once again which the King was obliged to pass tho' sore against his will with this condition added by the Lords That if he were ever found again in any of the King's Dominions he should be taken as a Common Enemy and executed by Martial Law without any farther Tryal Hereupon Gaveston went into France but that King being his sworn Enemy upon the account of the Queen his Daughter he durst not continue long in any one place but wandred from one Country to another seeking for Rest but could find none Wherefore â—…ing still confidence in the love and favour of the 〈◊〉 whose Sister he had Married he with many Foreigners adventured once more to England having scarce been absent three months and coming to the King who then kept his Christmass at York he was received and entertained with the former endearedness and so much joy that an Angel from Heaven could not have been more welcom to the King who instantly made him Principal Secretary of State The Queen Nobility and People were all mightily disturbed at Gaveston's return and the Lords perceiving the irreclaimable Temper of the King they consulted how to put an end to those notorious mischiefs and at length concluded that there could be no peace in the Kingdom while Gaveston was alive Hereupon they resolved to venture their Lives and Estates for the destruction of this infamous Foreâ—gner who seemed to design nothing but the utter ruin of the Nation Pursuant to which resolution they constitute Thomas Earl of Lancaster to be their Leader and put themselves in Arms but being sensible of the miseries of intestine Wars they were willing first to try all peaceable Expedients and therefore several Great men were sent with an humble Petition to the King at York requesting him to deliver into their hands or drive out of his Company and Kingdom the wicked Gaveston assuring him that they were all of opinion that he would never have any Money in his Exchequer nor any love for his Queen whilst that profligate stranger was in so much Grace and threatning that if he did not gratifie them in their requests
they would renounce their Allegiance and prosecute him as a perjured Prince But the obstinate King would not condescend to their desires resolving to lose all rather than part with his dear Gaveston and therefore he instantly sent for several Foreign Souldiers and having hired three hundred Horsemen commanded by the Earl of Hannow and the Viscount Foix in their passage through France for England they were seized by that King who kill'd most of the Souldiers and hanged up the Officers He then solicited aid from Robert Bruce King of Scotland from 〈…〉 Thomas a Great man in Ireland and likewise from the Welsh but they all denied to give him any assistance against his Barons Whereat being inraged he fortified Windsor Castle and built Forts in several other parts of the Kingdom The Lords likewise raised Forces and resolved to march toward York from whence the King was gone to Sea for his recreation leaving Gaveston behind him who lodged in the Castle and caused that and the City also to be strengthned with new Fortifications The Barons rendezvoused at Bedford where they made Gilbert Earl of Glocester Lord Keeper of England and ordered strict Guards to be set upon the Sea-Coasts for preventing any Foreign Forces from landing to assist the Ring From hence they proceeded to York at whose approach Gaveston fled from thence to Scarborough the Lords pursued him thither and Besieging the Town they quickly took it and made him a Prisoner committing him to the Custody of Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke who carried him to a Village called Dathington between Oxford and Warwick designing to have conveyed him the next day to Wallingford Castle and going that night to lodge with his Countess who was hard by the next morning Guy Earl of Warwick with a strong Party took him away from thence and brought him to Warwick Castle And the Lords having called a Council of War it was unanimously resolved by the Earls of Lancaster Warwick and Hereford that he should be instantly put to death as a subverter of the Government and a notorious Traytor to the Kingdom And thereupon he was carried to a place called Blacklow and afterward Gaveshead where he was beheaded in the presence of the Lords aforementioned in 1312. His Body was by the Friers Predicant conveyed to Oxford and there kept above two years till the King caused it to be removed to Kings Langley in Hartfordshire where he in person to demonstrate his endeared affection to him dead as well as living attended with the Archbishop of Canterbury four Bishops with many Abbots and principal Clergy Men caused him to be interred in the Friers Church which he had built with all manner of Funeral Pomp and Solemnity Few or none of the Temporal Lords being present whose great Hearts could not comply to honour him being dead whom they so mortally hated when alive This was the fatal end of this angracious Favourite who if he had used moderation and discretion might have long enjoyed the grandeur to which he had arrived but the publick wrongs he was guilty of together with the private and personal abuses offered to the principal Nobility made him odious and abhorred no injuries being harder to be forgiven or forgotten than Scoffs and Jeers at mens Personal defects which have occasioned the destruction of many in all Ages and made this unfortunate man dye unpitied and unlamented being reckoned to fall a just Sacrifice both to publick and private vengeance Remarks on the Lives Actions and Fatal Fall of Hugh Spencer the Father Earl of Winchester and Hugh Spencer the Son Earl of Glocester Both Favourites to King Edward the Second INnumerable are the mischiefs that a Kingdom is subject to which is governed by a perverse and wilful Prince which commonly occasions great calamities both to himself and his People and of which we have scarce a more pregnant instance than in the Reign of that unhappy King Edward the second who though he had suffered so many troubles for his inordinate and unreasonable favours to Peirce Gaveston and by whose removal the Nobility seemed so well contented that he might now have settled himself and the Realm in Peace yet his violent nature was such that instead thereof he made it his Study how â—o destroy those Lords who had deprived him of his beloved Gaveston whose death so afflicted him that he seemed as if he had lost half of himself and whose Blood he designed to revenge upon them to the utmost as the only means to revive his languishing Spirit and remove the mourning and sorrow that had lain upon his mind ever since his fatal Fall The Barons were very sensible of his rage and displeasure against them and therefore resolved not to 〈◊〉 down their arms till they had sufficiently provided for their future security and settled the Government upon its antient and legal foundation This unnatural division between the King and his Peers was much heightned by the ill Offices of the Queens Kindred and Countrymen the French who coming over in great numbers to attend the solemnity of the Baptizing the King's Son afterward the Victorious King Edward III. who was about this time born at Windsor they so aggravated these proceedings of the Lords against him that he who was too much inflamed before seemed now irreconcileable to them So that nothing but the miseries of an Intestine War were expected To prevent which the young Queen the Bishops and some other Noblemen procured an enterview between them where the King sharply charged the Barons for their rebellious and presumptuous taking up Arms against him and for seizing and wickedly murdering his dear and faithful Friend Peirce Gaveston The Lords resolutely answered That they were not guilty of Rebellion nor had done any thing but what deserved his Royal thanks and favour since they had not raised any Forces against his Sacred Person but only in their own defence and to bring to Justice that impious Traytor Peirce Gaveston the publick Enemy and Fire-brand of the Realm But though both were very fierce in words yet the Queen and Bishops used all manner of means to prevent their coming to action and by their incessant endeavours wrought so effectually that the King seemed willing to be pacified if they would acknowledge their Fault And the Lords for preventing the dangers which now threatned them from Robert Bruce King of Scotland were contented to make their humble submissions to the King in open Court at Westminster and desired him to forgive all their offences against him which the King graciously granted them offering his Pardon to all that would Petition him for the same Upon which happy agreement the Parliament then sitting being sensible of the King 's great want of money freely granted him a fifteenth of their Estates for his support But Guy Earl of Warwick did not long survive this happy union being secretly Poisoned as the Lords reported by some of the King's Friends The Office of Lord Chamberlain being vacant by
in very good Order but this unexpected and dismal Discomfiture of his Horse in those mischievous Ditches utterly confounded all his measures so that he was compelled after some disordered Resistance to leave to the Scots the greatest Victory that ever they obtained against the English in any Age either before or since King Edward could hardly be persuaded to make his Escape it being the first time that ever he discovered any symptoms of the Courage of a Valiant English King but at length being over-persuaded by his Friends himself and his cowardly Favourite Spencer whom K. Edward's own Historian calls A Faint-hearted Kite fled with all speed to a place of safety All things proved unfortunate in this Battle for when the Foot perceived the Horse in that wretched condition they shot their Arrows at the Scots who came to kill them but they being Armed in their fore-parts received little or no damage so that they slew a great number of their Friends whose backs were towards them unarmed The loss fell much upon the Nobility for there was slain in this Battel Gilbert Clare Earl of Glocester a Man of singular Valour and Wisdom the Lord Clifford with several other Peers besides seven hundred Knights Esquires and Officers of Note The slaughter of the rest could not be great since the Scots fought on foot Hector Boetius saith There were 50000 English kill'd though no other Author will allow of above 10000. The Riches and Plunder taken doubtless was very valuable Among the Prisoners the chief was Humphrey Bohun Earl of Hereford who was after exchanged for King Robert's Queen who had been long time Prisoner in England This Battel was fought at a place called Bannocks Boum near Sterling in Scotland on Midsummer day June 24 1314. and King Robert having been formerly Resident in England Treated the Prisoners with all kind of Civility and sent the Bodies of the Earl of Glocester and Lord Clifford to England to be honourably buried with their Ancestors From this Overthrow King Edward and his Minion Spencer made their Escape to Berwick and came from thence to York where he publickly declared That he was resolved instantly to raise new Forces and to regain the Honour he had lost or else to lose his Life in the Attempt But all his Designs of that kind proved utterly fruitless For soon after the strong and almost impregnable Castle of Berwick was treacherously betrayed into the hands of King Robert by one Peter Spalding whom the King of England had made Governour thereof but he instead of the promised Reward was hanged by the King of Scots for his Treachery After this the King raised another Army against the Scots but received a second great and unhappy Overthrow returning home with much Ignominy and Shame leaving his Subjects in the North distrest and unrelieved from the continual Ravages of their Implacable Enemies the Scots in as lamentable a manner as ever any People were abandoned by an unworthy and careless Prince Of these Disgraces Losses and Troubles we may make this useful Observation That as the Heroick Virtues of excellent Princes are usually crowned with Blessings from Heaven so for the Iniquities and heinous Transgressions of wicked and ungodly Kings both themselves and their Subjects likewise are severely punished by the Almighty before whom Princes must fall as well as common Men except their true and hearty Repentance with amendment of their Lives do procure his Mercy and Favour before it be too late And indeed the Hand of God seem'd now stretcht out against this Kingdom for about this time so great a Pestilence and Mortality happened that the Living were hardly sufficient to bury the Dead This was attended with a dreadful Famine occasioned by immoderate Rains in Harvest which destroyed all the Corn almost throughout England and at length the Dearth grew so terrible that Horse-flesh was counted dainty Victuals The Poor stole fat Dogs to eat them yea some compelled with hunger are their own Children and others stole their Neighbours Children to eat them Thieves in Prison kill'd and tore in pieces those that came newly in and greedily devoured them half alive As for Cows Sheep Goats c. they were generally rotten and corrupted by eating the Grass which was infected as it grew so that those who eat of them were poisoned But neither these woful Visitations nor the innumerable dishonours afflictions and discontents under which the Nation lay had any influence upon the King or his Ministers which gave encouragement to one John Poydras a Tanner's Son at Exeter to attempt a very daring Enterprize he boldly affirming himself to be the truly begotten Son of the last King Edward the first and said That he was changed in his Cradle by his Nurse for a Carter's Child offering divers colourable Allegations to prove the same and among the rest he strongly insisted upon the unprincely and unworthy qualities and actions of the King such as none could be guilty of that was not of a mean sordid and obscure Birth and Descent His confident Claim and daring Assertions quickly affected the Minds of the common People so that many gathered to him and acknowledged him for their King But at length he was apprehended and having confest his Treason he was Condemned and Executed for his folly near Northampton declaring that he did it by the motion of a Familiar Spirit whom he had serv'd three years in the likeness of a Cat. About the same time divers notorious Thieves and Robbers near two hundred in number being all clothed like Grey Friers robbed and murdered and destroyed the Inhabitants of the North-Countrey without regard to Quality Age or Sex but some Forces being sent against them took the greatest part who were deservedly Executed for the same The Nobility and Gentry perceiving that the Distempers and Mischiefs in the Realm did daily increase and grow more dangerous they like good Physicians determined to search narrowly into the Causes of all these Maladies and to provide some Remedy for their Redress before it were too late and the miserable Oppressions and Violencies daily committed in their view made them take courage to inform the King That the two Spencers by their Mismanagement and ill Conduct in the Affairs of State of whom alone the King took Advice and Counsel were the immediate and only occasion of all those Calamities and Misfortunes which now miserably afflicted and disturbed the whole Kingdom and plainly told him That they had so great an Interest in the King's Person and Government that they judged themselves bound in Honour and Conscience to inform his Highness of all such Misdemeanours aâ— were committed by any of his Subjects which tended â—o the subversion of the State and to the disturbing of the Publick Peace thereof They concluded 〈◊〉 â—umbly imploring his Majesty That he would be pleased to dismiss the two Spencers from his Preâ—ence Court and Council for ever 〈◊〉 corrupted â—im with monstrous Vices and render'd him altogeher careless
the Barons came in Person with a very strong Party before the Castle many of the Queen Friends who were formerly on the other side joining with him The Lord himself was gone with the rest of the Noblemen to destroy the Lands and Estates of the two Spencers having left his Wife and Children in the Castle and a Captain to command there After some time spent in the Siege the Besieged finding little hope of relief were forced to surrender it to the King at Mercy who hanged five or six of the principal Persons And committed the Lord Badlesmere's Wife and Children to the Tower After which many of the Barons misdoubting their strength deserted their Chief the Earl of Lancaster which now made the Victory the more easily incline to the King The third day after the Battle the King resolving to take his full swing of Vengeance upon the Barons sate in Judgment in Person at Pomfret Castle together with the Earls oâ— Kent Pembroke Surrey and the two Spencers Before whom the Earl of Lancaster and the rest being brought Sentence was pronounced against them to be drawn hanged and quartered as guilty of High Treason by Andrew Harkley a man of small fortune but made Earl of Carlile and Lord Chief Justice for taking the Earl of Lancaster and several other Lords Prisoners after the late Fight The Earl of Lancaster being the King's Uncle was only Beheaded the same day at Pomfret but the other Lords were hanged and quartered in several parts of the Realm As the Lords Lisle Touchet Manduit Bradburn Fitz Williams Cheyney at Pomfret The Lords Clifford Mowbray and Deynvile hang'd in Chains at York The Lord Gifford at Glocester The Lord Teys at London The Lord Aldenham at Windsor and the Lords Badlesmere and Ashburnham at Canterbury And several other Baronets Knights Esquires and Gentlemen were executed in other places Never before did English Earth at one time drink up so much Blood of her Nobility and Gentry shed in so vile a manner which whatsoever was pretended was reckoned by the People to be spilt upon the account and in the quarrel of the two Ravenous Favourites the Spencers nor was it long unrevenged with the destruction of the principal Actors After this the King likewise seized all their Estates as forfeited to the Crown This havock being made of the Nobility to the astonishment of the rest and the terror of the Vulgar the Spencers were elated so intolerably with Pride by this Victory that instead of making good use thereof and reforming those abuses that might occasion the like again and giving the King good Counsel they now proceed to commit greater Rapines and Violences than before making their Will a Law in all things And then presuming that all affairs should for the future be managed according to their pleasure they advise the King to call a Parliament at York in which he created Edward his eldest Son Prince of Wales and Duke of Acquitain He also created Sir Hugh Spencer the Father Earl of Winchester and Sir Hugh the Son Earl of Glocester And exacted the sixth Penny of all Mens Estates and Goods to support his intended Wars against the Scots the levying of which Tax caused much murmuring and discontent among the People who affirmed That they were already totally impoverished and ruined by War Famine and the disordereâ— Government of the King and his Evil Counsellors The King was fully persuaded that his late Successes had rendered him as terrible to the Scots as to his own Subjects and that they were no way capable of resisting so great a Power as he had raised against them resolving now to call them to a strict account for all their Inroads Murthers and Robberies The Scots being secretly inform'd that King Edward was intended to Invade their Country and to revenge those wrongs he had received from Robert Bruce their King endeavoured to divert him by landing a great Army in Ireland but the King having timely notice of their design made such provision that the greatest part of the Assailants were slain and the rest fled to their Ships and returned shamefully to their own Country The King after this marched with a very gallant Army into Scotland and being arrived the Scots Nobility with some thousands of men pretended to give him Battel but intended nothing less For at his approach they retired in good Order into the Woods Forests and Mountains of their Country insomuch that the English were quite tired and dispirited in pursuing them through those difficult and uneasie passages so that in a short time for want of Provisions and Necessaries and by reason of the Rains Hail Snow and Frosts which are incident to that cold Region the King's Forces were so afflicted with Sickness and Mortality that they were obliged to retire without having performed any thing suitable to such mighty preparations Which when the Scots perceived they pursued them with much cruelty and one night assaulted them with so much fury that the King himself very narrowly escaped and finding his Forces broken and his Army scattered he was forced to save his Life by an ignominious flight and to leave behind him his Treasure Ordnance Tents and Furniture a joyful prize to the Victorious Scots This last disaster and danger was occasioned principally by the Treachery of Sir Andrew Harkley the new made Earl of Carlile who under pretence of making Peace with the Scots secretly agreed to Marry the Daughter of King Robert whereupon he was seized and carried to London in Irons and being brought to the Bar before the Judg Sir Anthony Lucy in the Robes of an Earl with his Sword girt Hosed Booted and Spur'd the Judg spake thus to him ' Sir Andrew the King for thy Valour and Good Service hath advanced thee to great Honour and made thee Earl of Carlile notwithstanding which thou as a Traytor to thy Lord and King leddest a Party that should have assisted him at the Battel of Bayland in Scotland away by Copland through Lancashire by which Falseness and Treason of thine our Lord the King was discomfited by the Scots whereas if thou hadst arrived in time he might have gained the Victory And this Treason thou didst wilfully commit for a great sum of Gold and Silver which thou didst receive from James Dowglas a Scot and the King's Enemy For which great Crime our Lord the King hath commanded that thou be deprived of the Order of Knighthood wherewith he hath honoured thee for a terror to all other Knights to avoid the like Treachery Then his Spurs were hewed from his Heels and his Sword with which he was Knighted and Girt when created an Earl was broken over his Head he was then unclothed of all his Robes of Honour and State and his Coat of Arms defaced After which the Judg proceeded thus ' Andrew thou art now no Knight but a Knave and for thy Treason the King hath appointed that thou shalt be hanged thy Head smitten off and placed on London
Bridg thy Bowels taken out and Burnt thy Body quartered and thy four Quarters set up in four principal Cities of England for an example to such heinous Offenders And this Sentence was accordingly executed upon him Thus ended this unfortunate expedition to the great reproach and loss of the English and the scandal of the King who was grown sufficiently infamous already for making the Kingdom a shambles for the Nobility Yet in the midst of these calamities the two Spencers rid Triumphant in the Chariot of Favour Power Honour and Riches enjoying great part of the Estate of the late unfortunate Earl of Lancaster and in this grandeur they continued for the space of five years notwithstanding the utmost efforts of their potent and numerous adversaries who continually meditated their destruction During which time the Queens Interest extreamly declined who for shewing some relentings for the severity used to the Lords and expressing her dislike of the overgrown authority of the two wicked Favourites by whose persuasions she was sensible the King her Husband abandoned her Company and Bed was extreamly hated by them So that they continued their impious Artifices to allure the King with the Company and Dalliance of Leud and Lascivious Harlots and to avoid any converse with her And it did appear that these evil minded and vile men working upon the King's inclination were the principal Authors and Advisers of that sharp revenge taken upon the Lords for their own ambitious and avaritious ends whereby at length they brought inevitable ruin upon the Crown Dignity and Life of their Soveraign Which the following instance seeâ—… plainly to confirm Among those who were condemned for joining with the Earl of Lancaster the King's Uncle there was one very poor Fellow for whose life because he had long continued at Court many great Courtâ—…rs interceeded very earnestly and pressed the matter so far that the King in a rage replied 'A plague upon you for a company of Cursed Whisperers malicious Backbiters Flatterers and wicked Counsellors who can beg so heartily for saving the life of a notorious wicked Knave and yet could not speak a word in the behalf of the most noble Knight Earl Thomas of Lancaster my near Kinsman whose Life and Counsels would now have been of great use and service to the Kingdom Whereas this wretch the longer he lives the more villanies will he commit having already made himself notorious throughout the Realm for his horrid Crimes and desperate Outrages For which by the Soul of God he shall dye the death he hath justly deserved And he was accordingly executed This may be some evidence that the King was over persuaded to commit those Tragedies upon the Lords 〈…〉 was reckoned to be naturally merciful and 〈◊〉 according to the Religion of those times but 〈◊〉 â—…iâ—led by depraved Counsellors though he 〈…〉 inexcusable since it is usually said That good 〈◊〉 cannot satisfie for publick Errors and Mischiefs The Spencers still continued their Rapines and Profligate courses and aspiring to more absolute Dominion resolved to leave nothing unattempted that might rivet them in the affections of the King and inrich themselves which begot implacable enmity in the People both against them and their Master their insolence rising to such an height that they abridged the Queen of her usual allowance so that she had not wherewith to maintain her self while themselves abounded in all manner of plenty and magnificence Which caused her publickly to complain ' That the Daughter and Sole Heir of the King of France was Married to a miserable Wretch who did not allow her necessaries and that being promised to be a Queen she was now become no better than a waiting Gentlewoman subsisting only upon a Pension from the Spencers And dreading their malice she took her Eldest Son Prince Edward and privately withdrew into France to her Brother King Charles by whom she was kindly received and comforted with solemn Oaths and Promises that he would effectually assist her against all her Enemies and redress the grievances of the Kingdom A while after the Barons by their Letters assured her of their best help and service to her Self and Son declaring that if she would return to England with the aid of only a thousand valiant men at Arms they would raise so great a strength here to join them as should make the Spencers feel the smart of their unsufferable follies The Queen was exceedingly rejoiced with the hopes of her fortunate success But the two Spencers much doubting the event if she should return with Forces and having the Treasure of the Kingdom at command they corrupted King Charles and his Council with such prodigious sums of Gold and Silver and of Rich Jewels that not only all succour was denied her but the French K. reprimanded her very sharply for having so undutifully and imprudently forsaken her Lord and Dear Husband Yea the Pope likewise and many of the Cardinals being ingaged with rich Presents by the Spencers required King Charles under the Penalty of Cursing to send the Queen and Prince to King Edward And doubtless she had been unnaturally betrayed by her own Brother had she not privately and speedily made her escape to the Earl of Heynault in Germany where she was entertained with extraordinary joy by the Earl and the Lord Beumont his Brother who resolved to accompany her to England In the mean time King Edward and his profligate Favourites having intelligence of their Intentions he sent to demand his Wife and Son to be returned home but not succeeding and the Spencers knowing that if an happy Agreement should have been made between the King his Queen and the Barons they must both have been made Sacrifices of Peace-Offering to appease the resentments of the People they therefore resolve to make the Breach irreconcileable by persuading the King to proclaim the Queen and Prince with all their Adherents Traytors and Enemies to the King and Kingdom banishing all that he thought were well-affected to them and keeping a severe Eye over the discoâ—ented Barons and it was reported That a secret Plot was laid to have taken away the Lives both of the Queen and her Son While the Queen continued in Heynault she concluded a Marriage between the Prince then about fourteen years old and the Lady Philippa that Earl's Daughter and with the Money of her Dowry Listed Souldiers in Germany and soon after with three hundred Knights and gallant Warriours and about 1700 Common Souldiers Germans and English commanded by the Earl of Heynault with the Earls of Kent Pembroke the Lord Beumont and many other English-men of Quality she safely arrived at Orwell in Suffolk Upon the first Intelligence of their Landing the Lords and Barons with joyful hearts and numerous Troops of resolute Gallants compleatly Armed repaired to her Assistance with all speed so that her Forces hourly increased Her Arrival being reported to the King He poor Prince was so surprized that he knew not what course to take
how much value the Courage and Conduct of a Prince is yet before he died by the contrivance of the Queen Mother Roger Mortimer and their Adherents such a dishonourable Peace is made with the Scots as exceedingly displeased the whole Kingdom and in the end proved fatal to the principal actor Mortimer For at this Treaty the King then in his Minority Sealed Charters to the Scots at Northampton contrived by the Queen her Favourite and Sir James Dowglas without the knowledge or consent of the Peers of England whereby that famous Charter called Ragmans Roll was surrendred to them with several Jewels and among them one of an extraordinary value called the Black Cross of Scotland all which were taken from the Scots by the Victorious King Edward I. The Scots Kings were likewise freed and discharged for ever from doing homage and fealty to the Kings of England or from acknowledging them to have any Right or Superiority over that Kingdom And that all Englishmen should forfeit their Lands in Scotland unless they went and resided there and swore Allegiance to that King Moreover under pretence of making reparation for damages King Robert was obliged to pay the King of England Thirty Thousand Marks Sterling which Money was given to Mortimer as a reward for his procuring this destructive and mischievous Treaty And to conclude all David Bruce Prince of Scotland a Child of Seven or Eight Years Old and Heir to K. Robert Married Jane Sister to K. Edward at Berwick whom the Scots in derision both of the Peace and Marriage scornfully nicknamed Jane Make Peace Lastly The Queen and Mortimer being sensible that some of the Principal Nobility disliked their proceedings and hindred their absolute Government they resolved to contrive some means for removing them out of the way and among others Edward Earl of Kent the King's Unckle To effect this it is said Mortimer caused a report to be spread abroad that K. Edward II. was still alive at Corf-Castle but not to be seen in the day time and to countenance the deceit for many Nights together there were Lights set up in all the Windows of the Castle and an appearance made of Masquing Dancing and other Royal Solemnities as if for the King's diversion This being observed by the Countrey People they confirmed the rumour of the late King 's being there which was soon dispersed throughout England The Earl of Kent hearing the news sent a Preaching Frier to the Castle to find out the truth of it who by giving Money to the Porter was admitted into the Castle lying very privately in his Lodg all day at night the Porter causing him to put off his own Priestly Robes and put on his the Frier was brought into the Hall where he saw as he imagined King Edward II. sitting in Royal Majesty at supper The Frier returning to the Earl assured him of the reality of what he had seen whereupon the Earl being discontented swore that he would endeavour by all ways possible to deliver his Brother out of Prison and restore him to his Throne To which purpose he ingaged several other Noblemen in the design with the Provincial of the White and Carmelite Friers the Bishop of London and others This Conspiracy being discovered though it were only a Lye and fancy the Frier being imposed upon only by a King made of Clouts Yet the Earl of Kent by his words and some Letters that were found about him was condemned as a Traytor for conspiring to set a dead Man at liberty But so generally was this Noble Lord beloved and honoured that he stood upon a Scaffold at the Castle-Gates at Winchester from Noon till five a Clock at Night for want of an Executioner none being to be found that would behead him till at length Mortimer sent for a poor wretched Fellow out of the Jayl who with much ado and many blows hack'd his Head from his Body The Malice and Ambition of Mortimer and his Associates in making so little conscience of shedding Royal Blood with the many other Male-administrations aforementioned raised inveterate discontents throughout the Kingdom against the Insolent Authors of them But in the mean time they who resolved to support their Grandeur in despight of Peers and People summoned a Parliament at Nottingham where Roger Mortimer appeared in the utmost splendor and glory being Created Earl of March and having greater attendance and stronger Guards than the King himself whom he would suffer to rise up to him and with whom he walked as his Companion yea went before him with his Officers He likewise very scornfully and insolently rebuked Henry Earl of Lancaster the King's Cousin that without his leave he had taken up Lodgings in the Town so near the Queen and obliged him with the Earl of Hereford and Effex to remove their Lodgings a Mile from Nottingham This notorious affront caused great murmuring among the Noblemen who said publickly That Roger Mortimer the Queens Gallant and the Kings's Master sought by all means possible to destroy all the Royal Blood thereby to Usurp the Crown and Government which some of the King's Friends being mightily concerned at endeavoured to make him sensible of his danger swearing that if he would espouse their Cause they would faithfully assist him and secure his Person The Young King began already to put on serious thoughts and acted the Man much beyond his years so that the Lords soon prevailed upon him to join with them in asserting his own Authority which he himself saw so much lessened by Mortimer's 〈◊〉 grown Power He was likewise informed that 〈◊〉 was commonly reported the Queen was with Child by Mortimer to the great dishonour both of his Mother and himself and to the grief of all his Loyal Subjects Hereupon he resolutely ingaged with the Peers to bring this Miscreant and his Abettors to punishment In order to which Robert Holland who had been long Governour of Nottingham-Castle and knew all the secret passages and conveyances therein was taken into the design Now there was in the Castle a private Passage cut through the Rock upon which it is built which was divided into two ways one opening toward the River of Trent which runs under it and the other went a great deal farther under the adjoining Meadows and was after called Mortimer's Hole The King lying one Night without the Castle was conducted by Torch-light through this Passage himself and his Valiant Attendants being all well Armed and their Swords drawn till he came to the door of the Queens Bed-Chamber which the secure and careless Lords had left wide open Some of the foremost entred the Room desiring the King to retire a little that the Queen might not see him and slew Sir Hugh Turpington who opposed them from whom they went towards the Queen Mother with whom they found Mortimer both just ready to go into Bed and seizing him they led him out into the Hall whom the Queen followed crying out Bel silz bel filz ayes pitie
associated to himself the Duke of Buckingham Lord High Constable and the Lord Hastings Lord Chamberlain of England two of the most powerful men in the Kingdom prevailing upon the former by promising him the Earldom of Hereford and the other being hereby in hopes to be revenged upon his former Enemies So that they joined with him in opinion that it was not necessary the Queens Kindred should so wholly engross the King and Persons of better Birth and Nobility should be neglected and therefore they ought to use their utmost endeavours to remove them The young King was now coming toward London with a great Attendance of Lords and their Followers in order to his Coronation which the Duke of Glocester judging to be another rub in his way since he could not bring about his purposes without seeming to make an open War He thereupon sends flattering Letters to the Queen with zealous pretences of Loyalty and Service persuading her to dismiss the great Guards about the King since it might raise Jealousies in the Minds of the rest of the Nobility that her Kindred did not raise these Forces for the security of the King's Person but for some Sinister intent and might cause them to raise a strength proportionable to encounter them and so occasion a Civil War in the Kingdom wherein her Kinsmen would by all the World be judged the first Aggressors These plausible reasons had such influence upon the innocent Princess that she sends positive Order to the King and her Brother instantly to disband their Guards for reasons best known to her self without mentioning by whose advice which if she had they would never have done it but upon the receipt of these Letters they presently discharged the Souldiers and came on with a very mean Train and having passed through Northampton were proceeding to Stony-Stratford twelve Miles from thence where the Dukes of Glocester and Buckingham met them But they pretending that the Town was too little for them and their Retinue went back to Northampton where the Earl Rivers had taken up his Quarters for that night intending the next Mornining to follow the King Several Complements passed upon their Meeting and Supper being ended the two Dukes pretend to retire to rest and the Earl went to his Lodgings The two Dukes wasted a great part of the Night in consulting with their Friends how to execute their enterprize and having got the Keys of the Inn Gate they suffered none to go in or out of which Earl Rivers having notice though he suspected mischief yet in confidence of his own innocence he went boldly into the Dukes Chamber where he found the Duke of Buckingham and the rest closely contriving their business with whom he expostulated the unreasonableness of their making him a Prisoner against his Will but instead of a reply they instantly command him to be seized accusing him of divers crimes whereof they themselves were only culpable and then putting him in safe custody they ride away to the King to Stony Stratford coming just as he was taking Horse whom they salute with much seeming reverence but presently begin a quarrel with the Lord Richard Grey the King 's half Brother The Duke of Buckingham giving the King an account that this Lord the Marquess of Dorset his Brother and the Earl Rivers had contrived and almost effected the ingrossing the management of all the affairs of the Kingdom among themselves which might be of dangerous consequence by raising discontents among the Nobility and dissention among the People and that the Marquess had taken out of the Tower of London a great quantity of Money and Arms without Warrant which might justly be suspected is not intended for any good end and that it was therefore thought necessary by the Lords and Peers that he should be seized at Northampton so to be ready to answer what he should be charged with The King not being sensible of their design mildly answered What my Brother Marquess hath done I cannot say but for my Uncle Rivers and my Brother here I am well satisfied that they are ignorant of any unlawful Practices either against me or you Oh says the Duke of Buckingham that hath been their policy to conceal their treachery from your Graces knowledge And thereupon they instantly in the King's presence seized the Lord Grey Sir Thomas Vaughan and Sir Richard Hall and carried the King with all his company back to Northampton turning away all his Old Officers and Servants and putting those in their rooms who were under their direction at which harsh usage the young King wept and was much discontented but without remedy Yet to colour their intents the Duke of Glocester being at Dinner sent a Dish of Meat from his own Table to the Lord Rivers biding him he of good cheer for in a short time all would be well The Earl thanking the Duke desired the Messenger to carry the Dish to the Lord Richard Grey with the same message for his comfort as one to whom such troubles were unusual but for himself he had been inured to them all his life and therefore could the better bear them But notwithstanding this pretended kindness the Duke of Glocester sent the Earl Rivers the Lord Grey and Sir Tho. Vaughan into the North and afterward to Pomfret Castle where they were all in the end beheaded by his Order without Trial. The Duke having gotten his Prey in his Clutches marches with the King toward London declaring to all People in the way that the Queens Relations had conspired to destroy the King and all the antient Nobility of the Kingdom and to subvert the Government of the Nation and that they were taken and imprisoned in order to be brought to a Legal Trial. And to make it more probable they carried along with them divers Waggons loaden with Arms with several Chests which they themselves had provided pretending they were full of Money which the Conspirators had provided to pay the Forces they designed to raise But the finest Intreague of all was that five of the Dukes own Creatures were brought along in Chains who in every place where the K. lodged were given out to be Persons of Quality that had been drawn into this horrid Plot and Treason by the Queens Brother who being now very sensible of their guilt had confessed the whole of these wicked contrivances This Pageantry was acted all the way till the King came to London but then the actors were discovered and the cheat was openly detected About midnight of the next day the Queen had notice of these sorrowful accidents and now too late repented her folly in being so treacherously imposed upon by the bloody Duke of Glocester as to dismiss the Guards about her Son's Person by his instigation and doubting that worse would follow she with her youngest Son Richard and five Daughters takes Sanctuary at Westminster lodging in the Abbot's House there The Young King having intelligence of these things with Sighs and Tears exprest
in the Morning they fell to rifling the Houses of several Foreigners but four or five hundred of them being seized by the Lord Mayor were committed to Prison and two hundred seventy eight were afterward indicted for High Treason but John Lincoln only was executed the King by the intercession of three Queens Katherine Queen of England and the French Queen and Queen of Scots his Sisters and by the persuasion of Cardinal VVoolsey without whose advice he would do nothing pardoning all the rest who being in number four hundred men and eleven women were brought by the Lord Mayor with Ropes about their Necks into VVestminster Hall where the Cardinal severely reprimanded the Lord Mayor and Aldermen for their negligence in not securing the peace of the City and then aggravated the high crime of the Prisoners who had justly deserved death Upon which they all cried to the King for mercy who thereupon told them That he would pardon them all which he had no sooner pronounced but the Prisoners gave a loud shout all at once throwing up their Halters toward the top of the Hall and so were dismissed and the Gibbets that had been set up in several parts of the City for their Execution were taken down and afterwards this was named The evil May Day About this time Maximilian the Emperor died and Charles V. his Son succeeded him in the Empire of Germany the Kingdom of Spain and the Low Countrys Upon which Cardinal VVoolsey was sent over to Bruges in Flanders to condole with and Congratulate the young Emperor who was then Resident there being furnisht for his Journey in all respects like a Great Prince his Attendants being clothed some in Crimson Velvet and Chains of Gold about their Necks Others in fine Scarlet edged with black Velvet and was received by the Emperor with as much honour as if he had been the King himself having the Great Seal of England with him which was always carried before him being served upon the knee by several English Noblemen and Gentlemen to the admiration of the Germans for his strange Pride and Insolence After which he returned into England in great Triumph being more in favâ—… with the King than before The French King Lewes being weary of the VVar with England and having a great Kindness for the Lady Mary King Henry's Sister sent Ambassadors to Treat of Peace and of a Marriage with her Both which were soon concluded and the Lady was sent to France and Crowned Queen at Paris the French declaring That they thought themselves the happiest People in the VVorld who had so good a King and fair a Queen to reign over them But King Lewes after twelve weeks converse with his most beautiful Lady died and his Brother Francis I. succeeded him who renewed the former amity between the two Kingdoms and for further confirmation of the same desired an enterview between them which the Cardinal persuaded the King to gratifie him in VVhereupon King Henry and his Queen attended by VVoolsey and a great number of Noblemen and Gentlemen sailed over to Callice and in a plain near Guisness a large Palace of Timber was framed where both the Kings met and imbraced each other with much seeming affection and where nothing was wanting as to Justs Turnaments and the other Princely Military Exercises of that age which were proper for such a Royal Assembly Soon after Charles the Emperor coming out of Spain to Sail into the Low Countrys landed at Dover where he was received and entertained by the Cardinal and King Henry went to Canterbury to meet with him and having sumptuously treated him for a few days the Emperor pursued his Voyage to Flanders in forty four men of VVar. A while after some differences happened between the French King and the Emperor to compose which Cardinal VVoolsey with some other Noblemen were sent but they not prevailing King Henry fell from the French King alledging that he had stirred up the Scots to make VVar with him but King Francis laid all the blame on the Cardinal's dissimulation and base treacherous practices However the VVar proceeded becteixt the two Kingdoms between the French King and the Duke of Bourbon insomuch that the Duke fled out of France to the Emperor to save his life the Cardinal having notice of it he contrived that he should be King Henry's General against the French King VVho thereupon raised a great Army against Burbon and drove him into the Town of Pavia in Italy where he was so closely besieged that he could get no Provisions the Cardinal being secretly corrupted by the French King to withhold his pay so that his Souldiers were ready to mutiny against their new General Hereupon finding his case desperate he resolved to attempt an escape and in the dead of the Night he sent part of his Forces to attack that part of the French Camp which was weakest himself marching out on the other side the City The Guards being weak and the Souldiers asleep it caused a very great disturbance among the French who turned their Cannon toward the Assaulters when Burbon falling unexpectedly upon the backs of them drove them from their Cannon which they turned upon themselves slew their Souldiers cut down their Tents and took Francis the French King Prisoner This great success so much incouraged these brave Germans that with their Imperial Ensigns displayed they marched to Florence and thence to Rome and gave three Assaults to the Walls thereof in one day in the last of which the Duke of Burbon was slain however his Army being commanded by the Prince of Orange and some other brave Generals the Popes Palace and the Castle of St. Angelo were taken and the Pope was made Prisoner with twenty four Cardinals that fled thither for security The City of Rome also was plundred where the Souldiers gained a very rich booty so that they were overloaden with valuable Jewels Plate and Money During the Siege the Souldiers would often Cloath a Man like the Pope and set him on Horseback with a Whore behind him who sometimes blest and sometimes curst as he rid along and whom the Souldiers called Antichrist The Cardinal hearing of the misfortune of his Father the Pope endeavoured by all means to induce K. Henry to declare War against the Emperour and to shew himself the Defender of the Church but the King replied ' My Lord I am more disturbed at this unhappy chance than my Tongue can express but whereas you say that I as Defender of the Faith ought to be concerned therein I do assure you my opinion is That this War between the Pope and the Emperor is not a War of Religion or for the Faith but for Temporal Possessions and Dominions and now Pope Clement is in the hands of Souldiers What can I do I can neither assist him with my Person nor my People cannot rescue him but if my Treasure will help him take what you think convenient Whereupon Woolsey took two hundred and
it not a marvellous thing to think into what great Debt this great Cardinal hath brought you to all your Subjects How so quoth the King Why says she there is not a man in your whole Kingdom worth an hundred pounds but he hath made you a Debtor to him Meaning the Loan which the Cardinal had borrowed for the King some years before and which he procured the House of Commons who were most the King's Servants to discharge without repaying a farthing to the great loss of the People Nay added she how many violencies and oppressions is he guilty of to your great dishonour and disgrace in divers parts of the Realm so that if my Lord of Norfolk my Lord of Suffolk my own Father or any other Nobleman had done but half so much wrong as he they well deserved to lose their Heads Then I perceive said the King that you are no friend of my Lord Cardinal 's Why Sir quoth she I have no cause no more have any others that love the King Neither has your Grace any reason to be kind to him considering his indirect and unlawful actions The King said no more but went away The Council and the Nobility perceiving that the King's Heart was estranged from Woolsey they resolved if possible utterly to depress him for he was generally hated for his excessive Pride insulting Tyranny grievous oppressions monstrous injustice unsatiable covetousness abominable debauchery malicious and cruel revenge and likewise for his secret Intreagues with the Pope and Church of Rome whereby the King's Authority and Prerogative Royal in all things touching the Church and Clergy were made void Hereupon they concluded him guilty of a Praemunire and that consequently he had forfeited all his Promotions Spiritual and Temporal with all the rest of his Estate and likewise his Liberty to the King These crimes the Nobility drew into Articles which were ingrossed and signed with their hands and then delivered to the King Which were as followeth I. That by subtil and indirect means he had procured himself without the King's consent to be made a Legate whereby he deprived the Bishops and Clergy of England of all jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical Affairs II. That in all his Letters to Foreign Princes he used the insolent stile of Ego Rex meus I and my King as if the King were his Inferior or Servant III. That he unchristianly and abominably slandered the Church of England to the Pope affirming That they were Reprobates and without Faith and that there was an absolute necessity for him to be made a Legate to reduce them to the true belief IV. That without the King's consent he carried the Great Seal of England to Flanders only for vain Glory and to the great damage of the Subjects of England V. That he being filthily powdered with the French Pox by reason of his excessive Letchery and Debauched Life did oft presume to discourse with and cast his unwholesome Breath into the King's Face VI. That he caused the Cardinals Hat to be put on the King's Coin VII That to obtain his Dignities he had conveyed out of the Realm 240000 l. at one time and incredible sums at other times And to inrich the K. again had of his own accord sent out Commissions for exacting infinite sums contrary to Law which raised hatred and insurrections among the People against the King These with many other Articles being charged against VVoolsey he with his own Hand freely Subscribed to them confessing all of them to be true throwing himself upon the King's mercy hoping he would have forgiven him but afterward finding that he disposed of his Offices and part of his Estate he secretly procured a Bull from the Pope to Curse and Excommunicate the King unless he would restore to him all his Dignities and Lands who likewise declared that the King himself nor no other authority on Earth but the Pope alone had power to punish any Clergyman for any crime or offence whatsoever This Bull with the Letters sent him by several Cardinals to incourage him not to faint or be discouraged assuring him of his Restoration and that the King should be certainly crost in the business of his Marriage so animated the Cardinal that he did not doubt of his re-advancement if not with yet without the King's consent so that he made great preparations for his in stalment into his Archbishoprick of York which he designed to solemnize with extraordinary Pomp and Magnificence to which purpose he had erected a stately seat of an extraordinary height in that Cathedral resembling the Throne of the King and writ Letters to the Nobility and Gentry of the North wherein he kindly invited them to be present at his Instalment for which he had made extraordinary provision of all manner of Dainties These mighty preparations being made without acquainting the King therewith and seeming to be in contempt of him who had been so kind to allow him the Bishopricks of York and VVinchester though justly forfeited to the Crown caused the King to put a stop to his aspiring purposes so that he sent order to the Earl of Northumberland to Arrest him and deliver him to the Earl of Shrewsbury Lord High Steward of the Houshold The Earl accordingly went to his Mannor of Caywood about seven Miles from York and coming into his Chamber told him he arrested him for High Treason in the King's name The Cardinal was so astonisht that for some time he stood speechless at length recovering himself he said You have no power to Arrest me who am both a Cardinal and a Legate and also a Peer of the See Apostolick of Rome and ought not to be Arrested by any Temporal Power for I am Subject to none and none I will obey Well said the Earl here is the King's Commission and therefore I charge you to submit I remember when I was sworn Warden of the Marches you your self told me that with my staff only I might Arrest any man under the degree of a King and now I am stronger for I also have a Commission for what I have done The Cardinal at length recollecting himself Well my Lord said he I am contented to submit but though by negligence I fell into the danger of a Praemunire whereby I forfeited all my Lands and Goods to the Law yet my Person was under the King's Protection and I was pardoned that offence therefore I much wonder I should be now Arrested especially considering I am a Member of the Sacred College at Rome on whom no Temporal Man ought to lay hands Well I find the King wants good Counsellors about him He was then kept close in one of his Chambers and Dr. Austin his Physician was at the same time Arrested for High Treason and sent to the Tower The Cardinal's Goods were all seized and his Servants discharged And he himself was so dejected that he continually lamented his hard fortune with such a mean and unbecoming forrow as such haughty Spirits are
were obliged by Act of Parliament to pay the King one hundred eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds Cromwel after this came into great Favour with the King who made him a Knight Master of his Jewel House and a Privy Councellour and soon after Knight of the Garter Earl of Essex Lord Privy Seal and Lord Great Chamberlain of England and lastly he was constituted Vicegerent in all Ecclesiastical Affairs by Virtue whereof both in Parliament and elsewhere he had the precedence of the Archbishop of Canterbury This Authority he used upon all occasions for the extirpating Romish Superstition and Idolatry to which he always was an utter Enemy and for which there was a fair occasion offered For the King being inraged against the Pope for refusing to annul his Marriage with Queen Katherine though he had the Judgement of nineteen Universities on his side he resolved to have the matter determined by the Clergy of his own Kingdom and having summoned a Convocation they after mature debate declared the Marriage null and void from the beginning and confirmed the Kings second Marriage with Queen Ann of Bullen which he had consummated some time before And a Parliament being called several Acts were passed against the Popes Supremacy whereby all Clergymen that should make any appeal to Rome were declared guilty of a Praemunire and that the King should have power to visit examine and reform all the Monasteries and Nunneries of the Kingdom and should give Licenses for electing Bishops to all Vacancies without the Popes consent or approbation and declaring the King Supream Head on earth of the Church of England after which a stop was put to the Persecutions which the Protestant Ministers had suffered many of whom were cruelly burnt by the Popish Clergy for want of stronger Arguments to convince them The Nobility and Gentry were generally well satisfied with this change but the Body of the People who were more under the Power of the Priests were by them possest with great fears of a change of Religion being told that the King had now joined himself with Hereticks and that Queen Ann Cranmer now Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Cromwel favoured them For the Monks and Friers saw themselves left at the King's Mercy the Trads of new Saints was now at an end they had also some Intimations that Cromwel was forming a Project for suppressing Monasteries so that in Confessions and Discourses they infused into the People a dislike of the Kings Proceedings which prevail'd so far upon them as they afterward broke out into formidable Insurrections and Rebellions in divers Parts of the Kingdom Cromwel by his Vicegerency had precedence of all next the Royal Family and as the King came in the Popes Room so the Vicegerents Authority was in all Points the same that the Legates had in the time of Popery the first Act of Cromwel's after his being Vicar General was with a Delegation of the Kings Supremacy to him to visit all the Monasteries and Churches in England of which the Bishops and Abbots were so jealous that of their own accord before any Law was made about it they swore to maintain the Kings Supremacy however the Visitation went on throughout England and in many places monstrous disorders were found as the Sin of Sodomy in some barbarous Murthers and Cruelties in others Tools for false Coining in others and great Factions and Divisions in many The Report that was made contained many other abominable Crimes not fit to be named hereupon Cromwel procured the Parliament to pass an Act that thirty Persons Spiritual and Temporal such as his Majesty should impower under his Great Seal should have Authority to make and establish Laws and Ordinances Ecclesiastical which should be obligatory upon all the Subjects of this Realm and likewise that all Religious Houses either Monasteries Priories or Nunneries whose revenues did not exceed two hundred pounds a Year should be supprest and dissolved and all their Possessions and Lands setled on the Crown for ever And the Reasons alledged for doing this were because these Houses were erected upon gross abuses and subsisted by them the Foundation of all their Wealth being founded upon the belief of Purgatory and of the Virtue that was in Masses to redeem Souls out of it and that these eased the Torments of departed Souls and at last delivered them out of them so it past among all for a piece of Piety to Parents and of care for their own Souls and Families to endow those Houses with some Lands upon Condition they should have Masses said for them the number of which were usually according to the value of the Gift this was like to have drawn the whole Wealth of the Nation into those Houses had not some restraint been put to that Superstition they also perswaded the People that the Saints interceded for them and would kindly accept offerings made at their Shrines and the greater they were the more earnestly would they use their Interest for them The credulous Vulgar measuring the Court of Heaven by those on Earth believed that Presents might be very prevalent there so that every new Saint must have new Gifts presented him Likewise some Images were believed to have an extraordinary Virtue in them and Pilgrimages to them were much extolled and there was great Contention among the Monasteries every one magnifying their one Saints Images and Reliques above others the Wealth that these Follies brought in occasioned great Corruptions so that the Monks and Friers were very debaucht and very Ignorant And the begging Friers under the appearance of Poverty course Diet and Cloathing gained much esteem and became almost the only Preachers and Confessort in the World but not being able to conceal their Vices they were now fallen under much Scandal and a general Disesteem and the King designing to create new Bishopricks thought it necessary in Order thereto to make use of some of their Revenues and that the best way to bring them into his hands would be to expose their vices that so they might quite lose the esteem they yet had with some and it would be the less dangerous to suppress them Cromwel was imploy'd in this Reforming Work and for removing all Images and Superstitious Pictures out of the Churches many of the Abbots surrendred their Monasteries and in most Houses the Visitors made the Monks sign a Confession of their former Vices and Disorders in which they acknowledged their Idleness Gluttony and Sensuality for which the Pit of Hell was ready to swallow them up others acknowledged that they were sensible that the manner of their former pretended Religion consisting only in some Dumb Ceremonies whereby they were blindly led without any Knowledge of God's Laws and being exempted from the Authority of their own Bishops and wholly subjecting themselves to a Forreign Power who took no care to reform their abuses it had occasioned great disorders among them but the most perfect way of Life revealed by Christ and
should the most celebrate the same and of which I have given a particular relation in a Book called Vnparallell'd Varieties or the Transcendent effects of Gratitude c. of the like value with this His Charity was very apparent in that foreseeing himself declining in the King's favour he like a kind and loving Master provided beforehand for almost all his Servants and gave twelve Children of his Musick twenty pound apiece And likewise in delivering many out of danger for having broken Popish Laws and Constitutions His Humility was very eminent in several instances particularly that He and Archbishop Cranmer riding once in state through Cheapside Cromwell seeing a poor Woman to whom he had formerly owed Money called her to him and bid her go to his House where he not only discharged the Debt but setled a Pension of four pound a year upon her during Life At another time observing a poor man at the Court of Sherin imployed in Sweeping the Cloysters and Ringing the Chappel Bell He in the Company of several Lords called him by his name and said This poor mans Father was a great friend to me having given me many a meals meat in my necessity and therefore I am resolved to provide for him as long as I live which he did accordingly His Wisdom and Policy in state affairs was very obvious in the management of all Treaties Negotiations and Transactions both at home and abroad with the utmost prudence dextegity and success Lastly and Principally his fervent zeal for the true Religion was sufficiently discovered by the Injunctions Proclamations and Articles published by his advice for promoting and advancing the same In a word many Ages before and since have not been blest with two such excellent Persons as the Lord Cromwell and Archbishop Cranmer who both flourisht together at this time Remarks upon the Life Actions and Fatal Fall of Robert Devereux Earl of Essex Favourite to Queen Elizabeth BY the fall of this Great Man we may observe that the Love of a People may be of no less dangerous consequence to a Subject to trust to than their hatred proves satal to such Princes as are so unwary to procuse it Nor is the affection of a Prince to a Favourite to be much relied on since their love is oftentimes inconstant and their anger deadly Of both which we can scarce find a more pregnant instance than in the Life and Death of this Eminent Favourite Robert Devereux was born in 1566. and was not above ten years of Age when his Father Walter Earl of Essex and Earl Marshal of Ireland deceased at Dublin Premonishing his Son never to forget the thirty sixth year of his Age as the utmost term of Life which neither himself nor his Father before him survived and which his Son never attained to After his Father's death he was under the Tuition of the Pious and Learned Dr. Whitgift and at sixteen years performed his publick Acts as Master of Arts. His first advancement at Court was procured by the Earl of Leicester his Father in Law and was thought to be designed not so much out of love to him as envy against Sr. Walter Rawleigh His Descent was very honourable his Title being derived from Evereux a City in Normandy His Title of Lord came by Marriage with Cicily the Daughter of William Bourchier whose Grandmother was Sister to Edward IV. King of England whose great Grandmother was Daughter to Thomas of Woodstock Son of King Edward III. born of one of the Daughters of Humfry Bohun Earl of Hartford and Essex whereupon the Title of Viscount Hartford was bestowed upon his great Grandfather Walter by King Edward VI. and that of Earl of Essex upon his Father by Q Elizabeth So that this high Birth might fill him with some ambitious thoughts He was with much ado at first made Master of the Horse the Queen being displeased with his Mother but afterward when by his observance and duty he had procured her full favour she forgave a great debt that his Father owed her made him a Knight of the Garter and a Privy Counsellor when he was scarce twenty three years old His first appearance in action was at Tilbury Camp in 1588. being made by the Queen General of the Horse to whom in the fight of the Souldiery and People she discovered a more than ordinary kindness And now Queen Elizabeth to follow the blow that she had given the Spanish Armada the next year sends Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Norris with a Fleet and some Forces to the aid of Don Antonio who pretended a Right to the Crown of Portugal but Philip II. of Spain being both ambitious and powerful sent the Duke of Alva with an Army thither who drove this new King out of his Country and after many skirmishes wholly possessed himself of that Kingdom for his Master The English Forces landed near the Groin in Gallicia and took the lower Town During this Voyage the Earl of Essex unwilling to be idle when honour was to be gotten went privately to Sea without the Queen's knowledge or consent and joined the Fleet At which she was much disturbed saying This young Fellow is so ventrous that he will certainly be knockt on the Head one time or other The English likewise took Peniche another Town in Portugal and approached Lisbon took the Castle of Cascays burnt the Town of Vigo and finding that the Portuguese did not declare for Don Antonio as he expected sickness likewise increasing among the Souldiers the Fleet returned home After this the Popish Princes of France entring into a League that they would have no Protestant reign over them raised an Army against the King of Navar their rightful Soveraign who thereupon craved aid of the Q. who readily assisted him with money and then with men under the Earl of Essex who gave sufficient proof of his Valour upon all occasions his Brother Walter being slain before the Walls of Roan Upon which the Earl challenged Villars the Governor of the City to a single Combat which he durst not accept of The Earl a while after returned to England being informed by his friends that many envious Courtiers were contriving to throw him out of the Queen's favour In 1595. Arch-Duke Albert Governor of the Spanish Netherlands for the King of Spain suddenly Besieged Callice and took it the news whereof so surprized the Queen because of the near Neighbourhood of this Potent Enemy that to divert the Tempest from England She and the States of Holland instantly set out a Navy of 140 Ships whereon were imbarqued about seven thousand Souldiers and as many Seamen commanded in chief by the Earl of Essex and Charles Howard joint Admirals with several other Inferior Commanders of great Courage and Conduct who Sailing to Cadiz in a short time took both the Town and Castle no man of Note being lost in this Expedition but Captain Wingfield and after having Ransackt the Town and Island whereon it is built
the Council going into the House with Essex The People cried Shut 'em up close keep 'em fast Whereupon the Earl bolted them into the room saying ' Be patient but a little my Lords I must needs go to the City to take order with my Lord Mayor and the Sheriffs and I will return instantly The Lords being thus made Prisoners the Earl issued forth with about 200 Followers without Order among whom were the Earl of Bedford the Lord Cromwell and some other of the Nobility and coming into London Essex cries out continually ' For the Queen for the Queen there is wait laid for my Life Exhorting the Citizens to take Arms and join with him but notwithstanding their pretended kindness not a man appeared for him And soon after he was proclaimed Traytor and the Earl of Nottingham marched with all speed against him which so discouraged him that casting away all hopes of success he thought of returning home and making his Peace with the Lords which he had in Custody But found his way Chained up at the West end of St. Pauls Whereupon he drew his Sword to have forced his passage but had three of his associates slain besides two Citizens and his own Hat shot through So that making haste to Queen Hith he there got a Boat wherein he returned to his own House where he was soon Besieged both by Water and Land and was advised by the Lord Sands to issue out upon his Enemies telling him ' The most valiant Counsels were the most safe and that it was far more honourable to dye fighting with Noblemen than by the hand of an Hangman But Essex his Mind being as inconstant as his Fortune he at length yields to the Admiral And soon after he is brought to a Trial for High Treason with the Earl of Southampton where they made the best defence they could but at length were both condemned the Lord Chief Justice Cork concluding his Sentence with this bitter Sarcasm against Essex ' That it wâ—…e to be wisht that this Robert should be last of the name of Earl of Essex who affected to be Robert the First of that name King of England ' Feb. 25. 1601. was the day appointed for his death on a Scaffold upon the Green within the Tower where sate several Lords and Aldermen of London The Earl mounting the Scoffold uncovered his Head and lifting his Eyes to Heaven confest the many and grievous sins of his youth and especially the last which he said was a bloody crying and contagious sin for which he asked God and the Queen forgiveness protesting he never had any ill design against her Person wishing her long life and a happy reign He thanked God that he was neither Atheist nor Papist but put all his trust and hopes in the Merits of Christ Beseeching God to strengthen him against the fears of death Then he forgave the Executioner and fitted his Neck to the Block Intreating the Spectators to join in a short but fervent prayer and â—aculation to God He then repeated the Creed and the five first verses of the 51. Psalm adding Lord I submit humbly and obediently to my deserved punishment Thou O Lord have mercy upon thy Servant that is cast down Into thy hand O Lord I commit my Spirit ' So laying down his Head it was stricken off at the third â—…w but the first took away all sense and motion Sir Walter Râ—wâ—eigh his great Enemy was present which many thought very unbecoming him King Henry IV. of France and Marshal Byron his Prime Favourite hearing the Christian manner of his death scoft at him saying He died more like a Parson than a Souldier ' But this very Byron was soon after beheaded by this very King for Treason raving at his Death against his Master and dying more like a madman than a Christian And King Henry having renounced the Protestant Religion was stab'd to Death in his Coach by a bloody Villain without having hardly time to say Lord have mercy upon him Thus was this noble E. snatcht out of the Arms of his Mistriâ—s and torn from the Hearts of the People that doted on him and by the subtilty of his Enemies brought to an untimely end in the sight of them both who were quiet Spectators of his ruin in the 34 year of his Age. The tears of her Subjects for his loss and the little kindness they discovered afterward for her for signing the Warrant for his Death together with her own passion for him cast the Q into a deep melancholy which was much augmented by the following Passage When Essex was in greatest favour with her which was on his return from Cales he importuned her to give him some token of her affection that might renew her favour to him if at any time his Enemies should mis-represent him Whereupon in much familiarity she gave him a Ring which she vowed and swore should free him from all danger upon his sâ—nding it to her even in the greatest distress After his Commitment to the Tower he sent this worthy Token to her Majesty by the Countess of Nottingham but Sir Robert Cecil would not suffer her to deliver it This made the Q think her self scorned and that what his Enemies had reported he should say was true That she grew old and doted and that her mind was now as crooked as her body Which she thoughâ— to be high Blasphemy against such a divine beauty as he◠〈…〉 persuaded her she was But the Lady Nottingham comâ—ing to her death-bed and finding by the daily sorrow the Q. exprest for the loss of Essex that she was the principal Agent in his destruction could not be at rest till she had sent for her and discovered all imploring mercy from God and Forgiveness from her Earthly Soveraign The relation of which so inraged the Q. that shaking her as she lay in her Bed she said she would never forgive her and sent her with most fearful Curses to the Judgment Seat of God Not long after the Queen's sickness appeared Mortal For having thus unfortunately cut off her endeared Favourite she took comfort in nothing besides But upon all occasions of signing Pardons would say to her Courtiers You can beg Pardons for these wretches but could never speak a word for the gallant Essex whose less to my self and the Nation can never be recovered Some thought Essex would have discovered some secret commerce between the Q. and himself at his Death but others were of opinion that nothing Criminal ever passed between them only a generous kindness that she had for a man noble lovely and every way accomplisht To conclude her happiness and her power both seemed to be buried in the Tomb of Essex whose absence with continued fighs and tears she bemoaned for some few months and then was likewise laid in her Grave The E. of Southampton was pardoned but Sir Christ Blount Sir Charles Danvers Sir Gill. Merick and Henry Cuffe were condemned and executed for this
fit to give or no. Are we come to an end of our Countries Liberties Are we secured for time future We are accountable to a Publick Trust and since there hath been a Publick Violation of the Laws by the King's Ministers nothing will satisfie but a Publick Amends and our desire to vindicate the Subject's Right is no more than what is laid down in former Laws Let us be sure that the Subject's Liberties go hand in hand with the supply and not to pass the one till we have good Ground and a Bill for the other Upon the Petition of Right which the House of Lords would have had this addition to ' We present this our Humble Petition to your Majesty with the care not only of preserving our own Liberties but with due regard to leave intire that Sovereign Power wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People Sir Tho. Wentworth spake thus ' If we admit of this Addition we shall leave the Subjects worse than we found them and we shall have little thanks for our labour when we come home Let us leave all Power to his Majesty to punish Malefactors but these Laws are not acquainted with Soveraign Power VVe desire no new thing nor do we offer to intrench on his Majesties Prerogative but we may not recede from this Petition either in part or in whole The King hearing of his ability and understanding used all means to gain him to himself by bestowing of Titles of Honour and Places of Trust upon him Creating him Viscount VVentworth Earl of Strafford and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whereby he made him wholly his own In Ireland he was very active in augmenting the King's Revenues and advancing the Royal Authority by all ways within his Power And upon his return into England he advised the King to go into Scotland and settle the Peace of that Kingdom by his Coronation there he having intelligence that if it were defer'd any longer the Scots might perhaps incline to Elect another King Upon the troubles that rose soon after there on the account of imposing the Common Prayer upon them and the King resolving to raise an Army to reduce them but doubting the Parliament would not supply him the Lords told the King that they would ingage their own Credits to forward the business and the Earl of Strafford for the incouragement subscribed 20000 l. other Noblemen following his example conformable to their Estates and some of the Judges contributed largely April 13. 1639 a Parliament being assembled the Earl of Strafford was led into the House of Peers by two Noblemen to give an account of his proceedings in Ireland having there obrained the Grant of four Subsides for maintaing 10000 Foot and 1500 Horse Implicitely hinting thereby that they should propostion their Supplies accordingly But the Parliament doubting that the Irish Forces might indanger Religion and seeming to allow the justness of the Scots Cause and of the good that might be obtained by favouring them in this Conjuncture the King doubting they might vote against the War with the Scots whom he resolved to Treat severely for not complying with his Will and Pleasure he thereupon suddenly Dissolves them to the great discontent of the People who for eleven years past durst scarce mention the name of a Parliament Being hereby disappointed of a supply the King sends to the Citizens of London to lend Money and to all Knights and Gentlemen who held Lands of the Crown to provide Men Horses and Arms for his Assistance The Citizens generally refused pleading poverty and want of Trade but by the assistance of the Gentry an Army was raised with great celerity of which the Earl of Strafford was made Lieutenant General and the King commanded in Chief The Scots having notice of these preparations speedily raised an Army with which they marched into England to make this the Seat of War The Lord Conway doubting they would take in Newcastle drew off 3000 Foot and about 1200 Horse to secure the Pass at Newburn Lesly the Scots General marching forward sent a Trumpeter to the Lord Conway to desire leave to pass to the King with their Petition which being denied they fell upon the English and kill'd 300 of them Which being accounted an unhappy Omen several of the Lords Petitioned the King for a Parliament which was seconded by another from the Scots and a third from the City of London At length the King consented to it having first by advice of the Peers consented to a Treaty with the Scots at Rippon they refusing to send their Commissioners to York alledging That the Lieutenant of Ireland resided there who proclaimed them Rebels in Ireland before the King had done it in England and against whom as a chief Incendiary they intended to complain in the next Parliament For the Parliament meeting Nov. 3. 1640. the Scotch Commissioners coming to London had many private Conferences with some of the House of Commons and it was concluded that the Earl of Strafford should be immediately Impeached at his first coming into the House of Lords which was done accordingly and thereupon he was instantly taken into Custody and in March following he was brought to his Trial in Westminster Hall The King Queen and Prince were present in a private Closet where they could here all but were seen of none And then Mr. Pym Impeached the Earl of twenty eight Articles of High Treason in the name of the Commons of England sharging him That he had Trayterously endeavoured to subvert the fundamental Laws and Government of England and Ireland and to introduce an Arbitrary Tyrannical Government by Trayterously assuming to himself Regal Power over the Laws Liberties Persons Lands and Goods of his Majesties Subjects Had countenanced and encouraged Papists Had maliciously endeavoured to stir up enmity and hostility between the Subjects of England and Scotland Had wilfully betrayed the King's Subjects to death by a dishonourable retreat at Newburn that by the effusion of blood and the dishonour and loss of New-Castle the People of England might be ingaged in a National and Irreconcileable quarrel with the Scots And that to secure himself from being questioned for these and other Trayterous Courses he had laboured to subvert the Rights of Parliament and to incense his Majesty against them by false and malicious slanders and that upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament he did treacherously and wickedly counsel and advise His Majesty to this effect That having tryed the affections of his People he was loose and absolved from all rules of Government and was to do every thing that power would admit Since having tried all ways he was refused so that he would now be acquitted both by God and Man And that he had an Army in Ireland meaning the Army of Papists who were his Dependants which the King might imploy to reduce this Kingdom to his obedience That he falsly maliciously and treacherously declared before some of the
Privy Council That the Parliament of England had forsaken the King and that in denying to supply him they had given him the advantage to supply himself by such ways as he should think fit and that he was not to suffer himself to be mastred by the frowardness of the People That he was very rigorous in levying the illegal Imposition of Shipmoney and Imprisoned divers Persons for not levying the same And a Great Loan of an hundred thousand pound being demanded of the City and some refusing to lend the Lord Mayoâ— and Aldermen were required to return their names which they with humility refusing to do the Earl said That they deserved to be put to fine and ransom and to be made examples and laid by the heels and that it would never be well till some of the Aldermen were hanged up That by wicked Counsel he had brought on the King excessive charges and then advised him to approve of two dangerous Projects To seize the Money in the Mint and to imbase his own Coin with a mixture of Brass That he had declared that Ireland was a conquered Nation and that the King might do with them what he pleased and speaking of the Charters of former Kings of England he said They were nothing worth and that he would neither have Law nor Lawyers question or dispute any of his Orders and that he would make all Ireland know that so long as he had the Government there any Act of State there made should be as binding to the Subject as an Act of Parliament That he did not only Tyrannize over the Bodies but over the Consciences of Men by forming and imposing a new and unusual Oath which because some Scots refused to take he fined and banished great numbers and called all that Nation Rebels and Traytors and said if ever he returned home from England he would root them out both stock and branch These and a multitude of other crimes he was charged to have committed both in Ireland and England Many of which he confest to be true but not with their aggravations Some he denied and others he extenuated and pleaded that though the whole were proved against him yet it did not amount to Treason Some of the Lords and Commons were of the same opinion Others urged That though he were not guilty of any of the Offences declared to be Treason by the 25 of Edward III. yet so great were his crimes that according to that Statute which impowers the Parliament to declare what is Treason they ought to be declared Treason At length it was concluded to proceed against him by way of Attainder which was much opposed likewise it being alleaged That no man could be convict of Treason but by the Letter of the Statute and the Lord Digby a Member of the House of Commons and an earnest Prosecutor of the Earl spake thus of it ' Mr. Speaker I am still of the same opinion and affections to the Earl Strafford I confidently believe him the most dangerous Minister and the most insupportable to free Subjects that can be found I believe his pâ—actices as high and as Tyrannical as any Subject ever ventured on and the malignity of them highly aggravated by those rare abilities of his whereof God hath given him the use but the Devil the application I believe him still the grand Apostate to the Common Wealth who must not expect to be pardoned in this World till he be dispatcht to the other I do not say but his Crimes may represent him a man as worthy to dye and perhaps worthier than many a Traytor and may justly direct us to enact that they shall be Treason for the future but God keep me from giving Judgment of Death on any man and to ruin his Posterity upon a Law made after the Crime is committed And by any Law yet made I do not believe he is guilty of Treason However the Bill of Attainder passed in the House of Commons and Mr. Sir John's endeavoured to satisfie the Lords in the reasonableness thereof to induce them to Pass it For said he though the proofs at the Trial were insufficient and nothing but Legal Evidence can prevail in Judicature yet by this way both Lords and Commons might proceed by the light of their own Consciences although no evidence were given at all And after many Aggravations of the Earl's Offences in subverting our Laws as he affirmed he concluded thus ' He that would not have had others have any Law should have none himself It is true we give Law to Hares and d ee because they be Beasts of Chase It was never accounted cruelty or foul play to knock Foxes or Wolves on the Head as they can be found because these be Beast of Prey The Warrenner sets Traps for Powl-cats and other Vermine for preservation of the Warren The Lords after this Speech shewing a greater propensity toward the Earl's condemnation than before the King having an account of it came next day to the House of Peers and sending for the House of Commons told them ' That Judgment being ready to pass on the Earl of Strafford he thought it necessary to declare his Conscience therein they being sensible that he had been present at the hearing this great Cause from one end to the other and yet that in his Conscience he could not condemn him of High Treason assuring them That he never intended to bring an Irish Army into England nor was ever advised by any body so to do That there was never any debate before him of the disloyalty of his English Subjects nor had he ever any suspicion of them That he was never Counselled by any to after all or any of the Laws of England since if any durst have been so impudent he should have made them examples to Posterity That he would be rightly understood for though in Conscience he could not condemn him of High Treason yet he could not clear him of such Misdemeanors as he did not think him fit to serve him or the Commonwealth hereafter in any Place or Trust no not so much as a Constable and therefore he hoped they would find out a way to satisfie Justice and their own fears and not oppress his Conscience since neither fear nor any other respect whatsoever should ever make him act against it This Speech relisht so ill with the two Houses that few of them attended next day being Sunday May 2. on the solemnity of the King 's Eldest Daughter Mary being Married to the Prince of Orange On Monday five or six thousand Apprentices and other tumultuous Citizens came down to Westminster to demand justice against the Earl of Strafford and Petitions subscribed with thousands of hands were presented to both Houses about redressing Grievances Soon after the Lords passed the Bill of Artainder but the King seemed very averse to Pass it and consulted both with Lawyers and Divines of the Lawfulness thereof The Bishop of Lincoln urged That the opinion
The Unfortunate Court-Favourites OF ENGLAND Exemplified In some Remarks upon the Lives Actions and Fatal Fall of divers Great Men who have been Favourites to several English Kings and Queens Namely I. Peirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwall II. Hugh Spencer Earl of Winchester â—II Hugh Spencer the Son E. of Glorester â—V Roger Mortimer Earl of March V. Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham VI. Thomas Woolsey Cardinal of York VII Thomas Cromwell Earl of Essex VIII Robert Devereux Earl of Essex IX George Villiers Duke of Buckingham X. Thomas Wentworth Earl of Stafford By R. B. LONDON Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultrey 〈◊〉 Cheapside 1695. The Kings and Queens of England to whom the following Unfortunate Great Men were Favourites I. PEirce Gaveston Earl of Cornwal Favourite to King Edward II. II III. Hugh Spencer the Father and Hugh Spencer the Son both Favourites to King Edward II. IV. Roger Mortimer Earl of March Favourite to Queen Isabel Widow to King Edward II. and Mother to King Edward III. V. Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham Favourite to King Richard III. VI. Thomas Woolsey Cardinal of York Favourite to King Henry VIII VII Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex Favourite to King Henry VIII VIII Robert Devereux Earl of Essex Favourite to Queen Elizabeth IX George Villiers Duke of Buckingham Favourite to King Charles I. and King James I X. Thomas Wentworth Earl of Stafford Favourite to King Charles I. To the Reader NOthing is more obvious than that Ambition Envy and Emulation are the usual Attendants on the Courts of Princes and that the effects of them have been often very fatal to many Great Men who had the fortune to have a larger share in their Masters affections than others It is likewise as notorious That there are certain Crises of Government wherein Princes have been obliged to Sacrifice their darling Ministers either to their own safety or to the importunity of their People Lastly it is as evident That some Court-Favourites have justly merited the unhappy Fate they met with for their many Rapines Insolencies and Enormities as that others have been ruined meerly from the Caprichio or inconstant Temper of the Prince whom they served Of all these in my opinion the ensuing Favourites are pregnant Instances But I shall leave the Reader to particularise them according to his own Judgment and will only add That they are not all to be condemned as Criminal meerly because they all happened to be unfortunate R. B. Remarks on the Life Actions and Fatal Fall of Peirce Gavestone Earl of Cornwall and Favourite to King Edward the Second THAT Unhappy Prince Edward the 2d was certainly the most Unfortunate in his Favourites of any King of England either before or fince his Reign The first and Fatal Favourite he had was in his Youth before he came to the Crown whose name was Peirce Gaveston born in Gascoigne a Province of France and for the good Service performed by his Father in the Wars in that Kingdom his Son was taken into such Favour at Court that by K. Edward the First 's own appointment he was Educated and made a Companion to the young Prince And indeed his outward Accomplishments seemed to render him worthy of such great Honour being a Person of a sharp Wir an excellent Shape and of a valiant Temper of which he gave notable proof in a Battel against the Scots and for which they afterward bore him a mortal Hatred But all these worthy Qualities were utterly defac'd and clouded by his vicious Incliâ—ations so that as to his Christian and Moral Vertues which are only really commendable in Men Authors are very silent in mentioning them though all give large accounts of his Faults and Immoraâ—ities And King Edward was so sensible that his Son the Prince had been debauched by the corrupt Conversation of Gavestone that some time before his Death he was banished the Kingdom And upon his Death-bed commanding the Prince his Son to repair to him with all speed to Carlisle in Cumberland where he was with a great Army ready to invade Scotland He gave him many worthy Admonitions and much good Advice particularly That he should be merciful just and kind faithful in word and deed an incourager of those that were good and ready to relieve those that were in distress That he should be loving to his two Brothers Thomas and Edmund but especially to honour and respect his Mother Queen Margaret That upon pain of his Malediction and Curse he should not presume without common consent to recall Peirce Gavestone from Exile who for abusing his tender Years with wicked practices by common Decree of the Nobility was banished He also added a strange Injunction for a dying man namely That after his Death the Prince should not presume to take the Crown of England till he had honourably revenged the Injuries his Father had received from the Scots and finisht the present Expedition against them and that he should carry his Father's Bones about with him in a Coffin till he had marched through all Scotland and subdued all his Enemies assuring him that while they were with him he should be always victorious Lastly Whereas by the continual Attempts of Bruce King of Scotland he was prevented from performing his Vow of going in Person for the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from the Infidels that he should send his Heart thither accompanied with 140 Knights and their Retinue for whose support he had provided Thirty two thousand pounds of Silver That after his Heart was conveyed thither he hoped in God all things would prosper with them Adjuring the Prince upon pain of Eternal Damnation that he should not expend the Money upon any other use After these Admonitions and having taken an Oath of this vain Young Prince to perform his Will he gave up the Ghost After his Father's Death the Son soon made it appear how little regard he had to perform his dying Requests and to shew what his future Behaviour was like to be he in the first place revenged himself upon Walter Langton Bishop of Chester Lord Treasurer of England and Principal Executor of his Father's Last Will whom he imprisoned in Wallingford Castle seizing upon all his Estate no man daring to intercede on his behalf because of the extream hatred which the King shewed against him the Bishop's Crime being only in using a modest freedom in K. Edward's days in gravely reproving 〈…〉 for his 〈◊〉 meanours and not suffering him to have what 〈…〉 he required to waste prodigally upon his 〈…〉 Gavestone against whom he likewise made such great and just Complaints as occasioned the imprisonment of the Prince the banishment of his leud Favourite Soon after the young King married Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fair of France the March being concluded before his Father's death and was now performed with extraordinary Magnificence at Bullen At which Solemnity there were five Kings namely Philip the French King the
K. of Almain the K. of Sicily the K. of Navar and K. Edward the Bridegroom and four Queens Mary Q. of France Margaret the Q. Mother of England her Daughter the Q. of Navar and Isabel the Bride Q. of England There were likewise present a great number of Persons of Honour and Quality and among them the beloved Peirce Gavestone who was entertained with the tenderest affection imaginable by K. Edward but the Nobility had such a detestation of him that they resolved to have hinder'd the Coronation of the King and Queen which soon after followed had not King Edward solemnly promised to give them a reasonable satisfaction in the matter yet was he so far from it that none appeare◠more great in Attendants Bravery and all other grandeur than Gavestone and as a particular mark of Esteem the King ordered him to carry Sr. Edward's Crown before him at that Solemnity This still increased the Abhorrence of the Lords against him who having the power and favour of the King on his side slighted all their Attempts and Designs and resolved to provoke them to the utmost by abusing miscalling and scoffing at the chief Peers of the Land naming Thomas Earl of Lancaster the Stage player Aymer de Valence Earl of Pembroke Joseph the Jew because he wa◠〈…〉 pale and Guy Earl of Warwick the 〈…〉 of Ardern all whom at a Tur 〈…〉 a most contemptible manner 〈…〉 took little notice of these base Af 〈…〉 rather enconraged his Insolence by heap 〈…〉 daily upon him and Gavestone to establish himself was still contriving those Diversions which he knew to be pleasing to his vain Mind so that the Court was filled with Fidlers Players Jesters Flatterers and all such pernicious People as by sensualities and riotous practices might withdraw him from attempting any Noble Enterprizes in performance of his Father's Last Will or for the good Government of his People and led him into all kind of Debauchery and Dissoluteness while Gavestone himself revelled in all outward felicity and wasted the Treasure of the Kingdom in Riot and Folly or else converted it to his private use and likewise transported great Summs beyond the Sea that he might have somewhat to trust to if Fortune should happen to turn her back upon him and force him to a second Banishment And indeed he had so absolutely and intirely ingrossed the King's Favour that he had thereby frequent opportunities of inriching himself for all Addresses to the King for obtaining Offices Honours Pardons or any other Advantages passed through his hands who always espoused their business not according to Justice but by the value of the Presents made him and it is scarce credible to relate with what Prodigality the King squandred away his Money upon him yea so prodigious was his kindness toward him that he bestowed on him the best Jewels Gifts or Rarities that he had nay the Imperial Crown 〈◊〉 Victorious Father and a very fine Table and Stands all of pure Gold with many other rich Ornaments which Gavestone privately conveyed away to the great damage of the Kingdom Nay he treated him by the name of Brother and publickly declared that if it were in his power he would make him his Successor to the Crown The Lords who had hitherto past by the private Affronts and Injuries they had daily received in hope that the King might in time have seen his Errours which they by their daily Admonitions endeavoured to make him sensible of finding that he still persisted in the same Courses which grew now intolerable resolved more plainly to remonstrate the matter to him telling him That to their great grief they perceived that his Dotage and ill-placed Affection was unlimited toward Gavestone a Person of a wicked and infamous Life whose Father was a Traytor to the French King and was hanged for the same That his Mother was burnt for a Witch and that he himself was banisht for being a Confederate with her in her cursed Witchcrafts and that they did verily believe he had bewitcht the King or else certainly he could never retain such an unreasonable Passion for so profligate a Wretch That they much doubted he would abuse his Greatness so far as to bring Foreigners into the Land to defend him in his lawless and destructive Courses to the utter Ruine of the Laws Liberties and Estates of his Subjects They therefore humbly desire him to hearken to the Advice of his Peers which would be both for his own Honour and the Welfare of his People and particularly 1. That he would confirm and maintain those Antient Laws and Customs which were contained in the Charters of the Kings his Predecessors 2. That he would not force any man to part with his goods without payment of the full value thereof 3. That whatever Money Lands Jewels or other valuable things had been given away or alienated from the Crown since his Father's death might be restored 4. That he would remember the Oath he had taken to his Father before his death not to recall Peirce Gaveston from his Banishment And for prosecuting the War against Scotland and that he would rectifie all that had hitherto been amiss that so his Enemies might have no cause to rejoice nor his Friends be any longer troubled and disquieted Lastly That no man should be restrained by the King 's Writ from prosecuting his Suits in any Court of Justice for defending his Right and Property but that Justice might be impartially administred throughout the Kingdom both to Rich and Poor according to the antient and approved Constitutions Customs and Laws of England The King taking Counsel of Peirce Gavestone and his Complices commanded the Lord Chancellor to tell the Lords that he would give them satisfaction to their demands at the next Session of Parliament The Barons were no sooner gone out of London to their own homes but the King ordered the Gates of City to be shut and the Streets to be chained and and strict Watch to be kept then with some Forces both English and Foreigners marched in company of Gaveston to Wallingford Castle and as his Conscience did not trouble him for the breach of his Oath so their dislike increased his love to Gavesion for none but Gaveston must do all and nothing was acceptable nor grateful but what came from his hand However the King's lavishness having quite emptied his Exchequer he was compelled to comply with the Parliament at their next Meeting in London so far as to pass an Act for Gaveston's perpetual Banishment and for securing the Liberty of the Subject and the due execution of Justice which the King confirmed by a solemn Oath and for which they gratified him with a subsidy of the twentieth part of their Estates In pursuance of this Decree Gaveston is sent by the King into Ireland himself accompanying him in Person as far as Bristol and giving him a Commission to be Chief Governor of that Kingdom bestowing likewise on him no less then thirty
from the People drag'd to a Gallows set up on purpose fifty foot high where being hanged he was afterward cut down and beheaded and quartered His head set upon London Bridge and his Quarters in four principal Towns of the Kingdom Simon Reading was hanged ten foot lower on the same Gallows and Robert Baldock was committed Prisoner to Newgate where with grief and hard usage he soon after died This happened in 1326. Thus Divine Vengeance pursued these two ambitious and profligate Wretches the Spencers Father and Son and brought those who set at defiance the Nobility Gentry and People of the Realm to such shameful and ignominious deaths as by their vile actions they had justly merited Since by their leud and prosligate Counsels they prevailed upon the King to commit all manner of Enormities by forsaking the Company and Bed of his lawful Wife and living in all manner of debauchery with common Strumpets By destroying and ruining his Nobility and Gentry by all manner of Rapines upon the Common People by suffering their Enemies to Plunder and Beggar them without any redress and by all other misdemeanors which rendred him odious to his Subjects and made him rule rather like a Tyrant than a King And thereby occasioned his Deposition and Death which soon after followed For the Queen having summoned a Parliament it was by General consent of the three Estates concluded That King Edward should reign no longer but his Son the Prince should be advanced to the Throne The Archbishop of Canterbury Preaching a Sermon and taking for his Text this Maxim Vox Populi Vox Dei The Voice of the People is the Voice of God Exhorting all his Auditors to Pray to the King of Kings to bless and prosper the King that they had Elected The Queen seemed very sorrowful and even distracted at her Husband's deposition and the P. lamented for his Mothers grief swearing that he would not accept of the Crown without his Father's consent To content them both Commissioners are sent to the King who persuaded him to make a formal Resignation of the Government and then his Son was Crowned King And not long after the Father being removed to Corf Castle was barbarously murdered by his Keepers who through a horn run a burning hot Spit into his Fundament of which he instantly died I shall add no more having already given a particular account of his Resignation and Death in a Book called Admirable Curiosities and Rarities in every County in England c. Remarks upon the Life Actions and fatal Fall of Roger Mortimer Earl of March Favourite to Queen Isabel Widow to King Edward II. and Mother to King Edward III. SUCH is the Malignity of Humane Nature that though there are daily examples of Divine Vengeance executed upon notorious Offendors yet men continue to perpetrate the same crimes that plunged their Predecessors into misery and ruin Of this Roger Mortimer is an obvious instance who though he were an Eye-witness of the fatal fall of the three unfortunate Favourites Gaveston and the two Spencers with divers of their Associates in the former Reign Yea though he himself was very instrumental in their destruction and very active in pretending to reform the Grievances of the Kingdom Yet no sooner was King Edward by his means deposed and a young Prince advanced to the Throne under the Government and Management of his Mother but he by managing the Queen occasioned many mischiefs not much inferior to those of the former abhorred Minions yea exceeding their wickedness in one point namely in being criminally concerned with the Queen Dowager that being one of the Articles the Parliament charged him with But as he wilfully disregarded these warnings and impudently committed the like faults so the Justice of Heaven visited him with the same deserved punishment He was descended from Roger called the Great Lord Mortimer of Wigmore in the Marches of Wales who was his Grandfather and revived and erected again the Round Table at Kennelworth after the Antient Order of King Arthur's Table with the Retinue of an hundred Knights and 100 Ladies in his house for the entertaining of such Adventurers as came thither from all parts of Christendom This young Roger inherited his Estate and Grandeur And Queen Isabel Wife to King Edward II. and Daughter to Philip the Fair King of France being in the glory of her youth forsaken by the King her Husband who delighted only in the company of Peirce Gaveston his Minion and Favourite she fell passionately in love with this Lord Wigmore though before she was accounted the most virtuous chast and excellent Lady of that Age. After the ignominious but deserved death of Gaveston the King instead of being reformed was presently infatuated with the love of two others the Spencers Father and Son who were as bad if not worse than he for all manner of leudness and debauchery Whereupon the Earls of Lancaster Hereford Warwick Lincoln and others rise in Arms against them they having taken an Oath to King Edward I. on his death bed to oppose and withstand his Son Edward if he ever recalled Gaveston from Exile and finding that his death had not much bettered the state of the Kingdom they thought themselves obliged by the same Oath to endeavour the ruin of them also and thereby the redressing the many oppressions and violencies under which the Nation groaned This Roger Lord Wigmore a man of an invincible Spirit and his Uncle Roger Mortimer the Elder resolved to join with the Lords in this attempt and being very busie in raising Forces were taken before they could muster them and by the King committed to the Tower of London But the Queen by means of Torlton Bishop of Hereford Beck Bishop of Durham and Patriarch of Jerusalem then both Mighty Men in the State prevailed so far with the King that upon the submission of the Mortimers the King was somewhat pacified But afterward when He had gained a great Victory against the Barons the young Lord Wigmore and his Uncle were condemned to be Drawn and Hang'd at Westminster and the day of Execution was appointed Whereupon the Younger Spencer some time before pretended to make a great Feast in honour of his Birthday inviting thereunto Sir Stephen Seagrave Constable of the Tower with the rest of the Officers belonging to the same and after he had made them very merry he gave to each a large Cup of a sleepy Drink prepared by Queen Isabel by which means he made his escape breaking through the Wall of his Chamber and coming into the Kitchen near the King's Lodgings and getting into the top thereof came into a Ward of the Tower and so with a strong Ladder of Ropes provided by a Friend he got over the Wall leaving the Ropes fastened thereunto which the next day the Spectators beheld with much astonishment considering the desperate danger which he ventured in the attempt He then swam over the Thames into Kent and avoiding the Highaways came at length
to the Seaside near Portsmouth where happily meeting with a Ship bound for France he passed over thither and lived in the French Court several years His Uncle Roger was detained in a loathsome Prison five years after and at length died and was Buried at Bristol King Edward was so inraged at his escape that he turned Sir Stephen Seagrave out of his place of Constable of the Tower and several Citizens were seized and accused of being accessary to his getting away and of corresponding with and maintaining him beyond Sea but there note being sufficient proof against them they were all acquitted Mortimer continued in France till Queen Isabel and the Prince arrived there to avoid the insults of the two insolent Spencers He after attended the Queen into Germany and came over with her and the rest of the English Lords accompanied with the Earl of Heynault and several German and English Forces And upon King Edward's Flight and afterward his Seizing and Imprisonment Mortimer presumed to manage all affairs according to his own pleasure and therefore the death of the Spencers Reading and some others not satisfying his revenge being high in the Queens favour who could not deny him the Heads of a few of his Enemies he procured that the Earl of Arundel and two Gentlemen more named John Daniel and Thomas Mochelden against whom he had a particular aversion should be Beheaded at Hereford After this the Queen her Son and the beloved Mortimer went to Wallingford Castle where they kept their Christmass with all manner of jollity From thence they proceeded to London where the Queen and Prince were received with much Joy and many rich Presents and a Parliament being called it was concluded that King Edward should be Deposed and his Son advanced to the Throne In the management whereof Mortimer discovered very much zeal activity and diligence as hoping thereby to become Chief Minister of State as well as principal Favourite of the Queen King Edward was Deposed accordingly and confined to Kennelworth Castle the Queen Roger Mortimer and Torlton Bishop of Hereford having concluded to allow him an hundred Marks a month for his necessary Expences And now it was hoped that the Kingdom having suffered so many Concussions and Miseries for several years would have been settled and restored to its former peace and tranquility But it soon appeared that though the Nation had changed its Master yet other evil Instruments succeeded to trouble and disquiet the already harassed People So that one Historian writes thus The beginning of the Reign of King Edward III. was very troublesome for he by reason of his tender Age being but fifteen years old when he came to the Crown was drawn aside by evil Counsel and committed many foul errors of State and Government The chief occasion of which were the Queen her Darling Roger Mortimer and some others For first they procured so great a part of the Revenue of the Nation to be settled for maintaining the Queen and her Family that the young King had scarce a third part of it for himself and his necessary Attendants and Officers So that she and her Favourite Mortimer lived in the greatest State and Grandeur imaginable and the People began to exclaim against him and say publickly That the great zeal and hatred he had shewed against the Rapines of the Spencers was not because they had been oppressive to the Subject but that he was desirous no Body should abuse them but himself Secondly The Queen and he having intelligence that several Great Persons and the whole Order of Friers Preachers taking pity of the late King's Captivity seemed to Consult for his deliverance and knowing that his Restoration would be their confusion they wickedly plotted and contrived to add Murther to their former Impieties and therefore Roger Mortimer was sent with that ambiguous Order to his Keepers devised by Torlton Bishop of Hereford Edwardum occidere nolite tinere bonum est To shed King Edward's Blood Refuse to fear I count it good Where by leaving out the stops they sufficiently incouraged the Murtherers and yet afterward produced the Writing under Queen Isabels Seal for their own Justification when the horrid Fact was committed Though this was very far from clearing them from the guilt of it in the opinion of the Vulgar whose Tongues spare none and who had before heard that though the Queen in her outward deportment pretended much grief and sorrow for the Imprisonment of the King her Husband yet instead of visiting him in his distress which he often desired as still retaining a very great love for her She only sent him fine Clothes and kind Letters but contrary to the Laws of God and Man refrained from rendring him any Nuptial Duties which they plainly reported she bestowed freely enough upon her bloody Adulterer Mortimer Pretending in the mean time that Reasons of State would not allow her to converse with him And soon after this desolate Prince was by an express order from the Young King wholly procured by them removed from Kennelworth to Corf Castle and there miserably deprived of his life Thirdly In the second year of the young King's Reign Robert Bruce King of Scotland denounced War against him and his Kingdom which occasioned the raising of a strong Army consisting of above fifty thousand men with which the King accompanied by the Queen Mother Roger Mortimer the Lord of Heynault John Lord Beumont and many others of the Nobility and Gentry marched toward the Scots who had Invaded England And had so happily incompast them in the Wood of Wiridale and Stanhope Park that the English seemed fully assured of Victory Yet by the Treachery of Roger Mortimer they were not only suffered to make a total escape without any loss but Sir James Dowglass in the dead of the Night with 200 Light-Horse assaulted the King 's own Pavilion and had certainly killed him had not one of his Chaplains a Valiant Man sacrificed his own life in defence of his Soveraign's Dowglass after this bold attempt escaped back without damage but not without honour for his daring Courage this misfortune was afterward charged upon Mortlmer as designing by the death of the King to Usurp the Crown The Scots left their Camp entire behind them wherein the English found 500 Oxen and Cows ready killed a Thousand Spits full of Roast-Meat 500 Caldrons made of Cow-hides new with the Hair on full of Flesh Boyling over Fires And Ten thousand pair of Shoes made of raw Hides with the Hair outward All which became a welcome booty to the hungry English Souldiers Fourthly After this dishonourable retreat of the King who was extreamly grieved to return so ingloriously notwithstanding the expence of a vast Treasure and the imminent danger of his own Person and just before the death of King Robert who died of the Leprosie being accounted one of the most Valiant Warriors of that Age as having redeemed his Country from Slavery and by whose loss it appeared of
de gentil Mortimer Good Son Good Son take pity upon the gentle Mortimer For she suspected the King was there though she did not see him Then were the Keys sent for and all the Castle with the Amunition and Provisions were delivered up to the King so secretly that none without the Castle had any knowledge of it but only the King's Friends This was counted a very daring enterprize in regard that Mortimer had usually 180 Knights besides Esquires and Gentlemen as a constant Guard for the security of his Person The next Morning early Roger Mortimer and his Accomplices were carried with mighty shoutings and rejoycings of the Common People the poor Earl of Lancaster though blind making up the cry toward London and was committed to the Tower And soon after in open Parliament at Westminster was Condemned by his Peers without being brought to Tryal by a Law of Mortimer's own contriving whereby the Earls of Lancaster Winchester Glocester and Kent were formerly out to Death The following Articles of High Treason were laid to his charge 1. That he was consenting to the Murther of the King's Father 2. That he Treacherously occasioned much loss and dishonour to the King at Stanhope Park by procuring the escape of the Scots for which he had received a great Sum of Money 3. That he caused several Ancient Deeds and Charters to be burnt wherein the King of Scots was obliged to do homage to the King of England and had made a dishonourable Contract between the King's Sister and David Bruce King Robert's Son 4. That he had prodigally and lewdly wasted the King's Treasures as well as those of the two Spencers 5. That he had been an Evil Councellor to the King and had been too familiarly conversant with the Queen Mother All which Articles are sum'd up in the following ragged Rymes which might very well have been in Prose but for their Antiqutty and brevity I will here insert them Five heinous crimes against him soon were had 1. That he caused the King to yield the Scot To make a Peace Towns that were from him got And therewithal the Charter called Ragman 2. He by the Scots was brib'd for private gain 3. That by his means King Edward of Carnarvan In Berkley Castle Treacherously was slain 4. That with his Prince's Mother he had lain 5. And finally with polling at his pleasure Had rob'd the K. and Commons of their Treasure For these Treasons he was sentenced to be hanged and afterward ignominiously drawn in a Sledg to Tyburn the common place of Execution then called the Elms and there upon the common gallows was as ignominiously Executed hanging by the King's command two Days and two Nights a publick and pleasing spectacle to the wronged People There died with him Sir Simon Bedford and John Deverel Esq as well for the expiation of the late King Edward's detestable Murther as in complement as it were to so great a Man's fall who seldom or never perish without company they suffered in 1330. The King by the advice of Parliament deprived the Queen of her excessive Dowry allowing her only a Thousand Pound a Year and confining her to a Monastery during Life but giving her the honour of a visit once or twice a Year though otherwise judging her scarce worthy to live in regard of her Debaucheries with Mortimer and her many other heinous practices From the sudden ruin of this great Favourite Mortimer we may Remark what Inchantments Honour Riches and Power are to the minds of Men how suddenly how strangely do they blow them up with contempt of others and forgetfulness of themselves And surely the frailty and uncertainty of Worldly felicity is very visible in this Great Person who when he was drunk as it were with all humane happiness so that he seemed to fear neither God nor Man was suddenly overtaken by Divine Justice and brought to utter confusion when he least dreamt of it But it was very equitable that he who would not take example by the wretched Fate of his Favourite Predecessors should himself be made an Example by the like shameful and Ignominious Death Remarks on the Life of Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham Favourite to King Richard the Third TWO Or three considerable Remarks do naturally result from the following History 1. That Tyrants being but single Persons could never perpetrate the many mischiefs which they are usually guilty of did they not meet with proper Instruments to imploy therein 2. That the pravity of Mankind is so deplorable that the temptations of Honour and Riches too often prevail upon Men and ingage them in the most vile and destructive designs 3. That those who are imployed by Tyrants must never boggle not strain at the greatest Villanies since if they be not as thoroughly wicked as their Master he will account them his implacable Enemies and they are subject to be justly ruined by his unjust and revengeful hand All these Maxims seem to be verified in the Life Actions and Fall of this Great Man Henry Stafford Duke of Buckinham He was Son to Humfry Stafford of Brecknock-shire in Wales who was created Duke of Buckingham and Lord High Constable of England by King Henry VI. Being descended from a Daughter of Thomas of Woodstock youngest Son to King Edward III. His Son succeeded him in his Titles and Honour and was a great Favourite to King Richard III. and very Instrumental in advising him to his Usurped Throne as by the following Relation appears When King Edward IV. died he left behind him two Sons Edward his Successor of thirteen and Richard Duke of York of eleven years of Age. The Young King and his Brother were by their Father's Will committed to the care of the Earl of Rivers the Queens Brother whom he made Protector of the King during his Minority The Court was at this time kept at Ludlow in Wales to retain the Welsh in obedience who began to be unruly and in the mean time the Earl of Rivers disposed of all Offices and Places of Preferment which very much dislatisfied the Duke of Glocester Brother to King Edward IV. and Uncle to the Present King who upon his Brother's Death possed from the North where he then was to London and finding the Queen and her Kindred had the whole Government of affairs about the King he was very much displeased as judging it a main obstacle to his Usurpation and and Advancement to the Throne which it seems he had long before designed for it was reported that the very night wherein King Edward IV. died one Misselbrook came early in the morning to one Potter living in Redcross street near Cripplegate and told him that the King was dead By my Troth man says Potter then will my Master the Duke of Glocester be King For surely if he had not been acquainted with his Master's Intentions he would not have thus spoke But the Duke knowing that a business of such consequence was not to be managed alone he
much grief but the two Dukes made so many protestations of their fidelity and care of his safety that they seemed to wonder at his being any way concerned Soon after the Lord Hastings sent a Messenger to the Archbishop of York then Lord Chancellor of England to signifie to him that he need not be disturbed at what happened assuring him that in a little while all would be well again I am sure replied the Archbishop Let it be as well as it will it will never be so well as we have seen it And presently after the Archbishop attended by all his Servants armed in the midst of the Night came to the distressed Queen whom he found sitting alone upon an heap of Rushes much disconsolate and in Tears whom he endeavoured to comfort by telling her That he had good hopes the matter would not be so bad as she suspected the Lord Hastings having by a Messenger sent on purpose assured him that all would end well ' Ah wretch quoth the Queen that man is one of those who endeavour to ruin me and my Family Madam quoth the Bishop pray be pacified for I will ingage that if they dare presume to Crown any but your Son whom they now have with them the next day we will Crown his Brother who is here with you And Madam I here deliver you the Great Seal which was committed to me by that Noble Prince your Husband and which I resign to you only for the use and benefit of your Son After which he departed and in his way home observed the River of Thames full of Boats with the Duke of Glocester's Servants watching to prevent any from going into Sanctuary without being first searcht and examined These proceedings were very distastful to many of the Nobility and Citizens doubting that all this was intended against the King's Person and to prevent his Coronation Whereupon they went armed about the streets and met together to consult of the common safety But the Lords of the Council being assembled the Archbishop of York fearing that he should be charged with want of understanding for delivering the Great Seal to the Queen without the King or Councils leave he privately sent for it again which being returned he brought it as usually into Council The Lord Hastings whose fidelity to the King was real assured the Lords that the Duke of Glocester was faithful and loyal to his Prince and that the Lord Rivers and Lord Richard with the other Knights were secured for some secret practices against the Dukes of Glocester and Buckingham and that the King should receive no damage thereby and that they should continue Prisoners no longer than till the whole matter was throughly examined before the King and Council He therefore advised the Lords not to judge of it before they had heard it nor to turn their private grudges and quarrels into publick contentions and thereby disturb the King's Coronation which might be of worse consequence than they could at present imagine For the Dukes were now coming to London to that purpose and if the Lords should take up Arms to oppose them they would be counted Rebels Since having the King in their Hands they would pretend his Authority to declare them so to be By these Arguments some of which he knew to be true and others not but chiefly by the near approach of the two Dukes to the City these commotions were pacified At the King's approach the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Sheriffs of London with five hundred Horse went as far as Hornsey to wait upon him and attended him from thence to London where he arrived May 4. 1483. And was Lodged in the Bishop's Palace A great Council was then held and the Dukes of Glocester and Buckingham with the rest of the Lords present swore Allegiance to the King and the Duke of Glocester carried himself so respectfully to him that all the former jealousies of his designing foul play vanished and he gained such reputation and credit with the Council that by their general consent and approbation he was chosen Protector of the King and Kingdom And thus was the Innocent Lamb delivered into the Custody of the Ravenous Wolf The Council severely check'd the Archbishop of York for so inconsiderately delivering the Great Seal to the Queen which was now taken from him and given to Dr. Russell Bishop of Lincoln one of the Honestest and Learnedst Men of that Time Several Knights and Gentlemen had Places bestowed upon them but the Lord Hastings kept his Office of Lord Chamberlain as formerly and so did divers others The Duke of Glocester knowing he could not finish his mischevious purposes without having the other Son Richard Duke of York in his hands for without them both he was as good have had neither Therefore as his actions had made the King Melancholly he now pretends that he ought to have his Brother's company to make him merry and at the next meeting of the Lords of the Council he represented to them That it was a very heinous 〈◊〉 in the Queen to keep the King's Brother in Sanctuary and not to let them come together and 〈◊〉 pleasure in each others conversation That it 〈◊〉 occasion the People to have ill thoughts of the 〈…〉 Councellors since the Queen durst not trust 〈…〉 Son in the hands or those who were 〈…〉 by the Peers of the 〈◊〉 to have the 〈◊〉 and Guardianship of the 〈◊〉 stoyal Person 〈…〉 and office consisted 〈…〉 in preserving him from Enemies or Poyson but in procuring for him such recreations and pleasures as were suitable to his Youth and Dignity and which he could not enjoy so properly in the company of Grave Councellors or Ancient Persons as in that of his own Dear Brother He therefore advised that the Archbishop of York might be sent to persuade the Queen to deliver her Son out of Sanctuary which would be so much to the advantage of the Young Duke the King 's most Noble Brother and after his Soveraign Lord himself his most Dear Nephew and might also prevent any sinister thoughts of the People concerning the Nobility and Council But if she continued obstinate and would not hearken to the Archbishop's Councel in this matter that then by the King's Authority he should be forcibly taken from her and brought to his Royal presence where he shall be so honourably received and treated that the World shall be convinced it was only the malice frowardness and folly of his Mother which occasioned his being kept in Prison so long already This subtil Speech had such effect upon the Council that they all concluded the motion to be just and reasonable And likewise comfortable and honourable both to the King and his Brother and would prevent Evil surmises provided the Queen could be induced quietly to deliver him The Archbishop undertook to use his utmost endeavours to incline her to it but added if she persisted in refusing it he thought it was not to be attempted against her
justly as a Man may take his Wife who is run away from him thither by the Arm and lead her out of St. Peter's Church without any offence to St. Peter For if none must be taken out of Sanctuary that have a mind to continue there then if a Child will run thither to prevent his going to School his Master must let him alone and as mean as this instance is yet there is less reason in our case than in that for that Child has some fear imaginary or real but this Young Gentleman has none at all To conclude I have often heard of Sanctuary Men but never before of Sanctuary Children Let those Men that desire and need it have the benefit of it but he can be no Sanctuary Man that hath not understanding to desire it nor malice to deserve it whose Life nor Liberty can by no Legal process be in Jeopardy and he that taketh one out of Sanctuary for his own advantage and benefit can never be challenged for a Sanctuary breaker The Duke having ended his long Harangue all the Temporal and most part of Spiritual Lords not having the least suspition of any Treachery were of opinion that if the Young Duke were not delivered he ought to be taken away from his Mother yet to avoid clamour they concluded that the Archbishop of York should be sent to persuade her the Protector and Council resolving to Sit in the Star-Chamber till his return Thereupon the Archbishop with divers other Lords accompanying him went to the Queen in Sanctuary both out of respect to her and to shew by their number that the Council were unanimous in the Message that was sent her And some were of opinion that the Protector had several of his Creatures among them to whom he had given private Instructions to seize him by force and bring him away if his Mother should persist in her denial and thereby prevent her from conveying him to a place of more security When they came into the Queens presence the Archbishop acquainted her that the Protector and all the Council had upon mature deliberation concluded that the detaining the King's Brother in Sanctuary was a thing that might occasion strange surmises of them among the People and seemed scandalous to them as well as grievous to the King 's Royal Majesty to whom the presence of his Dear Brother must needs be as pleasant and delightful as the keeping them apart was dishonourable to her and her Kindred as though one Brother were in danger of another That the Council had therefore sent him and the rest to require her delivery of him out of that place so that he might at full liberty and freedom visit and continue with the King his Brother and be respected and attended according to his High Birth and Quality the doing whereof would tend to the quiet of the Realm be very pleasing to the Council and advantagious to her self as well as to her Friends that were now in trouble And above all quoth the Archbishop and what I suppose you desire beyond all it will not only be comfortable and honourable to the King but to the Young Duke himself whose singular happiness it will be to be with his Brother and to partake in those Princely Sports and Recreations which are suitable to their Dignity and which they cannot so properly partake of in the company of any other For the Protector esteems it no such slight matter as it may be thought that the minds of the Young Princes should for their Healths be sometimes refresh'd with those diversions which may be both pleasant and proper for their Age and Quality My Lord replied the Queen I will not deny but it may be very convenient that this young Gentleman you require of me were in the Company of the King his Brother and in truth I think it might be as necessary that for a while yet they were both in the Custody and Company of their Mother their tender age considered but especially the younger who besides his Childhood hath been lately visited with a severe sickness and is yet only amended but not recovered so that it is very fit he should be carefully attended and that charge I will commit to no Person upon Earth but resolve to make it my own business considering that the Phisitians tell us a relapse is more dangerous than the first Sickness for nature being before weakned is less able to endure a second Combate and though it may be others might use their best skill and diligence about him yet none knows so well how to order him as my self who have so long been with him nor can any be so tender of him as his own Mother that bore him None can deny quoth the Archbishop but that your Grace is of all Persons the most proper about your Children and the Council would be very glad that you would take care of them if you please to do it in such a place as might be convenient and honourable but if you design to continue here they then think it more proper that the Duke of York should be with the King at liberty and in honour to the comfort of them both than to live here as a Sanctuary man to their high dishonour and disgrace Since it is not always necessary that the Child should be with his Mother but on the contrary that they be separated from each other And of this there is a late instance that when your dearest Son the Prince and now King did for his honour and the security of the Country reside at Ludlow in Wales far distant from your Grace yet you seemed very well contented therewith Not so well contented neither said the Queen but the case is not now the same for that Son was then in health and this is now sick and therefore I much wonder that my Lord Protector should be so desirous to have him in his company since if the Child should happen to miscarry he will be suspected of having a hand in his death and to have used foul play toward him Neither can I but admire that the Council should think it so dishonourable for him to be here when none can doubt but he will be in safety while I am with him and where by the Grace of God I intend to continue and not to bring my self into the danger that my Kindred are in whom I rather wish to be here with me in security Why Madam said one of the Lords do you know that your Kindred are in danger No verily Sir said she nor why they are wrongfully Imprisoned but I shall not marvel if those who have thus illegally confined them without reason should proceed to destroy them without Cause The Archbishop bid him forbear such discourse and told her that he did not doubt but the Lords in Custody would be quickly at liberty if nothing could be proved against them And that her own Person could not be in any peril The Queen replied What reason
so it was agreed between them that the Duke should assist the Protector to advance him to the Crown In recompence of which service the Protector 's only Son and Heir should marry the Duke's Daughter and should likewise have the Earldom of Hereford settled upon him and his Successors which he had claimed as his Inheritance from Edward IV. but could never obtain it He also promised the Duke a large sum of the King's Money and a great quantity of his Houshold-stuff Having entred into this cursed combination to delude the People they pretend to make great preparations for Crowning the young King To which purpose all the Lords of the Council were summoned to appear in the Tower Where they met accordingly but the Protector being sensible that the Lord Hastings would be a great obstacle in his way because of his firmness and fidelity to his old Master King Edward's Sons he resolved to be rid of him which he effected in the manner following The Protector coming into Council complemented all the Lords very affably seeming more than ordinarily merry and after some other discourses My Lord says he to the Bishop of Ely I hear you have very good Strawberries in your Garden in Holbourn pray let us have a dish of them With all my heart replied the Bishop and instantly sent for some The Protector then rose hastily up desiring them to excuse his absence for a while And returning about an hour after he appeared so extreamly disturbed and changed in his countenance uttering so many grievous sighs and using such passionate gestures that the Lords were in much admiration of the cause thereof He knit his Brows and bit his Lips appearing extreâ—mly concerned After long silence the more to prepare their attentions he asks confusedly what punishment they deserved who had compassed imagined and contrived the destruction of him who was so near allied to the King and Protector of his Person and Kingdom At this question the Lords were all amazed and sate looking upon each other without speaking a word at ength the Lord Hastings by the instigation of the Duke of Buckingham presuming upon his intimacy with the Protector replied That whoever they were they deserved to be punished as Traytors to which the other Lords assented Whereat the Protector rising up Why it is says he that old Sorceress my Brother Edward's Widow and her Partner that common Whore Jane Shore that have by Witchcraft and Inchantment contrived to take away my life And though by God's Mercy they have not been able to finish their Villany yet see the mischief they have done me for behold and then he shewed his left Arm naked and withered how they have caused this dear Limb of mine to wither and grow useless and my whole body had been in the same miserable plight if they had executed their Wills upon me The Lords who knew the goodness and virtue of the Queen and that his Arm had been always withered from his birth found it a false pretence but were so astonish'd at his confidence that they durst not utter a word till the Lord Hastings thinking to lay all the fault upon the Queen and excuse Jane Shore whom he had taken for his Mistress and Bed-fellow ever since King Edward's death and from whom he had risen that Morning submissively answered If the Queen have conspired which he had no sooner said but the Protector looking fiercely upon him What says he in a great rage dost thou tell me of If 's and And 's I tell thee they and none but they have done it and thou art Confederate with them in their Villany Who I my Lord quoth he Yea thou Traytor says the Protector and therewith striking a sound blow with his hand upon the Table Treason was cried in the next room and immediately a great number of armed men came rushing in as if to guard the Protector one of whom with a furious blow of a Pole-axe wounded the Lord Stanley in the head and had certainly kill'd him but that with the stroke he sunk under the Table The rest of the Council were seized and secured in several Rooms The Lord Hastings the Protector charged with High Treason and wished him to make haste and Confess himself swearing by St. Paul his usual Dath that he would neither eat nor drink till his Head were off It signified nothing to ask a reason for he knew the Protector would give none so he was carried to the Green in the Tower before the Chappel where his Head was laid upon a long peice of Timber and there struck off and his Head and Body afterward buried in Windsor Chappel near King Edward IV. In the Tragical end of this Lord we may observe how inevitable the strokes of destiny are for the very Night before his Death the Lord Stanley sent a secret Message to him at Midnight in all hast to inform him of a Dream he had in which he thought that a Boar with his Tusks had so goared them by the Heads that the Blood ran about their Ears and because the Protector gave the Boar for his Arms or Cognizance this Dream had made so dreadful an impression upon his mind that he was fully resolved not to stay any longer and had his Horse ready requiring the Lord Hastings to go along with him and that they might Ride so fast as to be out of danger before Morning But the Lord Hastings returned this Answer by the Messenger Ah good Lord Doth thy Master insist so much upon Trifles and has he such faith in Dreams which either proceed from fancy or from the thoughts of the preceeding Day but if they foretel things to come why may they not presage that if we run away and should be taken then the Boar might have some reason to use us ill Therefore commend me to thy Master and bid him 〈◊〉 merry and fear nothing for I am as sure of the â—…an he woteth of as I am of my own Right hand The 〈◊〉 he meant was one Catesby a Lawyer who was at 〈◊〉 advanced by his favour and now grown so intimate 〈◊〉 the Protector that he did not doubt but he would discover any ill design against him But he was much mistaken for after he became so great with the Pretector Catesby was the first Man that advised the taking off the Lord Hastings Likewise the same Morning he was Beheaded his Horse stumbled twice or thrice almost to falling which though it often happen by chance yet has been sometimes reckoned a token of misfortune Moreover at the same time coming to Tower-Wharf he there met a Pursivant of his own Name which made him recal what had happened to him some time before in that place for he was accused by the Lord Rivers in King Edward IV. Reign of some Crimes which for a time cast him out of the King's favour and indangered his Life but was after restored again into Grace Now seeing this Man Ah Hastings quoth the Lord
Thou canst not forget that the last time I met thee here it was with a heavy Heart Yes my Lord said the Purfivant I remember it very well but thanks be to God your Enemies gained nothing nor had your Lordship any damage thereby and now the danger is over Thou wouldest say so indeed said the Lord if thou knewest as much as I do for the World is well changed now and my Enemies are in greater danger as thou mayst happen to hear in a few days the Enemies he meant were the Lord Rivers and others of the Queens Kindre◠who were that very day secretly ordered to be Beheaded at Pomfret-Castle of which he had knowledge and I was never merrier nor in more safety since I was Born By this we may learn that there is no greater sign of ill fortune than to be too secure and that Men are blind as to their own Fate and though the Ax hangs over their Heads yet are not sensible of it but are oft most in danger when they think themselves safe and most safe when they judg themselves in danger For this Lord notwithstanding his great confidence lost his Head two hours after he spoke these words The same Morning as the Lord Hastings was going to the Council in tht Tower a Knight who pretended kindness to him but was thought to be privy to the Protector 's designs and sent to meet and hasten him thither offered to accompany him The Lord Hastings staid by the way in Tower-street to discourse with a Priest whom he met the Knight jokingly interrupted their talk saying Pray my Lord make haste for you have no need of a Priest yet seeming to be in jest but it was thought meant in earnest that he would in a short time have occasion for one The news of the Death of the Lord Hastings soon flew into the City and much surprized the People but the Protector to prevent any Commotion sent for several of the Principal Citizens to come to him with all speed At their appearance himself with the Duke of Buckingham received them in Old Rusty Armour to make a shew as if the present danger had obliged them to take what they could first come by and then the Protector declared to them That the Lord Hastings and other Conspirators had contrived to have slain him and the Duke of Buckingham in Council and then to have taken upon them to Govern the King and Kingdom at their pleasure Of which Treason they had made discovery but few hours before it should have been acted so that their sudden fear had caused them to put on such Armour as they first met with but that God had so far prevented their Traiterous purposes as some had already received their deserts This he required them to report to the People The Citizens seemed as if they had believed what he said though they all knew nothing was more false Presently after a Proclamation was published throughout the City reciting the aforenamed particulars and adding several reflections upon the Lord Hastings as that he was an Evil Councellour to King Edward IV. Advising him to do many things to his great Dishonour and the damage of the Kingdom by his ill Example and Conversation particularly in the lewdness of his Life which he still continued with Shore's Wife who was one of the principal Conspirators with whom he had converst the very last night and that it was no wonder if such a wicked course of Life had brought him to such an untimely Death which he was condemned to suffer by the special command of the King and his Honourable Privy Council before whom he was clearly Convicted to have contrived this horrid Treason and whose sudden Execution according to his demerits they hoped would prevent the other Conspirators from proceeding in their Traiterous purposes and secure the Peace of the Nation Now this Proclamation was published within two hours after the Lord Hastings was Beheaded and was so exactly perceived and fairly Written in Parchment and withal so long that all the World perceived it had been prepared long before which occasioned the School Master of St. Pauls at the Proclaiming it to say Here is a gay goodly cast foul cast away for haste To whom a Merchant Answered That it was written by Prophesie or Revelation After this the Protector like an Innocent continent Prince sent the Sheriffs of London to Jane Shore's House who lived from her Husband with an order to seize all her Goods which they did to the value of two or 3000 Marks and committed her to Prison He charging her with bewitching him and with conspiring with the Lord Hastings to destroy him but having no proof of any thing be then gravely accused her of what all the Kingdom knew before and she her self could not deny that she was Unchaste of her Body which made Men smile that it should be now told as new Hereupon he caused the Bishop of London to put her to open Pennance for Incontinency and the next Sunday she was brought out of Ludgate going before a Cross in Procession with a Wax Taper in her hand and though she was then in mean Apparel having only her Girdle on yet she appeared so fair and lovely the crowd of Spectators raising a comely blush in her Cheeks and withal so modest and sober that she was much commended by them who had more love for her Body than for her Soul yea those that hated her vitious life and were glad to see Sin punished yet pitied her misery and hard usage from him who inflicted it for wicked and politick ends and not out of love to Virtue or Chastity This Woman was a notable instance of the mutability of Fortune she was born in London of a good Family and very well Married to one Shore a sober worthy Citizen and Goldsmith but it was thought a little too Young so that she never shewed much affection to her Husband whom she was 〈◊〉 a capable of loving which might incline her the 〈…〉 imbrace King Edward's Kindness Which being attended with Honour Riches Fine Cloaths Ease Pleasure and all other humane delights was hardly to be resisted by such a tender heart as she had When the King had taken her for his Mistriss her Husband wholly abandoned her Bed After his Death the Lord Hastings who had an extream passion for her during the King's Life but either out of respect or faithfulness forbore Courting her now took her home to his House and maintained her in great splendor She was very fair and proper and nothing amiss in her whole Body but that some thought her not tall enough as some report who knew her in her Youth saith Sir Thomas More but now she is Old saith he who saw her she is lean withered and her Skin so extreamly shrivelled that it is scarce to be imagined so much beauty and comeliness ever resided in that wretched Carcass Yet she was not more admired for her handsomeness then for
her ready wit and brisk temper neither too full nor too sparing in discourse jesting oft without abuse but very pleasantly so that her company was extream entertaining King Edward used to say That he had three Concubines who were excellent for three different Qualities One being the merriest another the most politick and subtile and the third the most devout Harlot in the World who when he sent for to his Bed was usually at Prayers upon her knees in the Church the other two were Persons of greater Quality but Jane Shore was the merriest and therefore the King took much delight in her conversation for though he had many Mistresses yet he may be said only to love her and to say the truth she never abused the kindness he had for her to the detriment or hurt of any but to the relief of very many appeasing the King's anger toward some getting abatement of Fines restoring others to favour dispatching their Suits and Affairs and all for little or no reward Valuing any thing that was fine or pretty above great Summs of Money being contented either with the pleasure of doing kindnesses or of being Courted and Petitioned for them to shew what power she had with the King or lastly because wanton Women are not always Covetous It may be thought says Sir Thomas More That this Woman is too slight a Subject among matters of a greater consequence but says he She to me seems worthy of Remark that she should now be a miserable beggar without Friends or Money but what she gets by Charity who was formerly in such great favour with a renowned Prince was adored by the Courtiers addressed unto by Persons of the highest Quality for expediting their business as much as the greatest Favourites of this Age Had abundance of Riches and all other goods of fortune And yet should become so wretched a Creature as she is at this day being obliged to beg of those now living that must have begged themselves if it had not been for her kindness toward them To proceed It was contrived by the Protector the Duke of Buckingham and the the other bloody Councellours that the very day the Lord Hastings was Beheaded in the Tower and at the very same hour he himself consenting to it the Lord Rivers and the other Lords and Knights that were taken from the King at Northampton were Beheaded at Pomfret which was done in the presence and by the order of Sir Richard Ratcliff whose service the Protector much used in these affairs he being a Man of a malicious wit and cruel nature and fit for any mischievous designs Who bringing them out of Prison to the Scaffold and telling the People they were Traytors not suffering them to declare their Innocence lest their words should have inclined the People to pity them and hate the Protector he caused them hastily without Tryal Witnesses Sentence or any Legal Process to be Beheaded only because they were Loyal to the King and too near a Kin to the Queen his Mother These Noblemen being thus dispatched the Protector now resolved to advance himself to the Crown whilest the Peers and People being amazed and terrified at these proceedings durst not interpose to hinder him But because the matter would seem exceeding odious he and his wicked Council consulted how to put a fair gloss thereupon Several ways were proposed among the rest they thought it necessary to bring in Edward Shaw then Lord Mayor of London who upon promise of advancement should prepare the Peoples Inclinations and because Clergy-men are hearkned to in Matters of Conscience therefore Doctor Shaw the Lord Mayor's Brother and Doctor Pinke Provincial of the Augustine Friers are likewise ingaged in the Affair both great Preachers but of more Learning than Virtue and of more fame than Learning having a notable estimation among the Vulgar These two were appointed to Preach the one at Paul's-Cross and the other at the Spittle and to display the excellent Qualities of the Protector Pinke in his Sermon so lost his Voice that he was forced to break off and come down in the midst and Doctor Shaw by his Sermon lost his reputation and soon after his Life for he was so ashamed of it that he never after came abroad But the next perplexity was to get some plausible pretence for deposing the Young King and advancing his Uncle After several alterations they at length concluded to alledge Bastardy either in King Edward IV. himself or in his Children or both to lay Bastardy publickly to King Edward would reflect upon the reputation of the Mother both of his Brother and himself The Protector therefore ordered that point to be handled tenderly but the Bastardy of the Children he would have openly and boldly asserted and to ground their Allegations upon the following pretext After King Edward IV. had deposed King Henry VI. and got Possession of the Throne he determined to Marry and thereupon Richard Nevil the Great Earl of Warwick is sent to France to Treat of a Marriage between the King and the Lady Bona Daughter to Lewis Duke of Savoy and Sister to the Lady Carlote then Queen of France The proposition is readily imbraced in France the Match soon concluded In the mean time King Edward being Hunting in Wichwood Forrest near Stony Stratford happened to come to the Manour of Graston where the Dutchess of Bedford then lay and where her Daughter by Sir Richard Woodvile called the Lady Elizabeth Gray Widow of Sir John Gray of Groby Slain in the Battel of St. Albans came to Perition the King for some Lands of which her Husband had made her a Jointure With whose beauty and graceful mein the King was so surprized that he presently fell to Courting her The Lady perceiving his intent told him plainly That as she thought her self not worthy to be his Wife so she esteemed her self too good to be his Concubine The King who very seldom was denied such favours his handsomeness and dignity making him acceptable to most Ladies so much admired her Virtue that he resolved to Marry her His Mother having notice of it endeavoured to prevent the Match telling him That it would be both honourable and safe to Marry some Great Princess and thereby strengthen his Government by Potent Alliances That it was below him to Marry his own Subject and especially a Widow that had Children he being a Young Man and a Batchellor Lastly that he was already Contracted to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy The King Answered That as to Honour and Alliances they might bring more trouble than profit and whereas you object Madam says he That the Lady is a Widow and has Children By God's Blessed Lady I am a Batchellor and have some Children too and so we have both proof that we are not like to be Barren and for your alledging that I am already Contracted to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy Let the Bishop saith he charge me with it when I come to take Orders for I understand
it is forbidden to a Priest but I never heard before that it was prohibited to a Prince and soon after he Married the Lady Elizabeth Grey Upon this Pretext the Protector would found the Bastardy of King Edward's Children That he had been formerly Contracted to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy though the Lady her self upon Examination acknowledged she had a Child by him but denied there was any Contract between them However upon this ground Doctor Shaw took for his Text Bastâ—… Plants shall take no deep root and in his Sermon 〈…〉 King Edward was never Lawfully Married to 〈◊〉 Queen but was before God Husband to the Lady Lucy and so his Children were Bastards adding that those in the Family had great jealousie that neither King Edward IV. himself nor his Brother the Duke of Clarence were begotten by his Father they much resembling other Persons in Court that were well known but that the Noble Prince Richard Lord Protector had the the very Lineaments Complexion and Countenance as well as the Courage and Magnanimity of the Renowned Richard Duke of York his Father Now it was contrived That at the uttering these words the Protector should have come in and appeared to the People that the Preacher's words and his presence thus corresponding it might be thought he had spoke them by the special Inspiration of the Holy Ghost But this trick failed for either by the Protector 's delay in coming or the Doctor 's haste in Preaching he had proceeded for some time upon other matters At length observing the Protector was coming he without order or reason diverted from the matter he was upon and began to repeat the same words again This is that Noble Prince the Father 's own Picture his own Face and the express Image of his Father's Person In the mean time the Protector with the Duke of Buckingham pressed through the crowd to the Pulpit and there sate to hear the Sermon But the People were so far from crying out God save King Richard as was expected That they cried shame on the Preacher for abusing his Calling to such vile purposes The Tuesday following the Duke of Buckingham with divers Lords and Knights came to Guildhall London and the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Commons being their assembled the Duke of Buckingham made a long Speech to them to this effect ' That the Lord Protector and the rest of the noble Peers were come to acquaint the worthy Citizens with a matter of great consequence and which they did not doubt would be very pleasing and acceptable to them A matter they had long in vain desired and which was â—bsolutely necessary to their welfare and happiness even the future security of their Lives Wives Children and Estates which had been all indangered by the ill government of the late King Edward IV. who by tricks and shams endangered their Lives and by â—…reasonable Taxes Pillings and Pollings to maintain his Riot and Prodigality wasted their Estates and what people he respected most appeared by his favours to Shore's Wife who in his Reign was more sought unto and managed greater affairs by her influence over his vain mind than the greatest Peer in England whereby he raised the hatred and ill will of the People both against himself and his Children He then reminded them of the Doctor 's Sermon the last Sunday who being a Preacher of God's Word had by his God's Authority declared the just Right and Title of the Protector to the Crown of this Realm which he doubted not but they would regard considering the honesty and wisdom of the Preacher beyond what he could say to them he having so clearly proved that King Edward was before Married to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy and that therefore his Children by the Lady Gray cannot be Legitimate so that for want of lawful Issue the Lord Richard had an undoubted Right and Title to the Crown by whose Renowned Virtues and Valour he did not doubt but the Kingdom would enjoy all happiness and be freed from that woe which the Wise Man pronounces that Nation to be subject too whose King is a Child All which the Lords of the Council having taken into consideration had thereupon agreed to accept of him for their King ' And now said the Duke I am come to acquaint you with it and to require your consents which I do not doubt but for your own benefit you will readily give both in electing so worthy a Prince and thereby also obliging his Majesty who will be kind to those who are most zealous for his advancement to the Throne Having ended his long Oration the People stood mute as admiring at the motion but none cried King Richard King Richard as was expected At which the Duke being amazed supposing the Lord Mayor had before informed and prepared the Common Hall he whispered to him to know the meaning of this sullen silence The Lord Mayor answered It may be they did not hear or at least understand what he had said Hereupon the Duke repeated the same words more audibly and earnestly but this obstinate silence still continued Then the Duke desired that the Recorder who usually spoke to the People might move them in it But the Recorder named Fitz Williams being an honest man and newly come to his Office repeated the Duke's words only without adding any of his own So that this nothing prevailed upon their resolved sullenness At last the Duke told them plainly That all the Nobility and Commons of the Realm were determined to chuse the Protector for their King as the true and undoubted Heir and that it was only out of respect and kindness to the Citizens that they had acquainted them with it desiring them freely to speak whether they would join with them in this Election or No. Upon this some of the Duke's Servants and others planted on purpose at the lower end of the Hall threw up their Caps and shouted aloud King Richard King Richard while the Citizens stood murmuring and inquiring among themselves what the meaning of it was However the Duke took the advantage of it as of an unanimous consent A goodly cry quoth he Giving them all thanks for their universal approbation promising he would acquaint the Protector with their great kindness toward him requiring the Lord Mayor and Citizens to meet the Protector the next Morning at Baynard's Castle Being met accordingly the Duke of Buckingham sends up word to the Lord Protector that the Lord Mayor and his Bretheren were come to present a supplication to him in a matter of great consequence The Protector though pre-acquainted with the matter yet pretended to admire what the business should be and though he did suspect no ill from any thing which the Duke of Buckingham should offer yet desired some hint of what it might be It was Answered That the business was to be communicated only to himself in person and therefore they humbly desired to be admitted into his presence Hereupon as if not well
assured of their intent he appears to them in the Gallery to prevent any sinister practice against him The Duke of Buckingham with great reverence tells him That he hoped his Highness would pardon him in what he was going to declare in the behalf of the Lord Mayor and Nobility there present and after many circumstances proceeds to discover the cause of their coming That in regard of the urgent necessities of the Common-wealth they all humbly intreated him to take upon him the Government of the Kingdom in his own Right to whom they all tendered their Alleglance At which word the Protector started back as if extreamly surprized and passionately replied ' I little thought good Cousin that you of all Men would have moved me in a matter which of all things in the World I must decline Far be it from me to accept of that which without apparent wrong to the Children of my dear deceased Brother and my own upright Conscience I cannot well approve of And pretending to proceed in this dissembling Harangue the Duke seemed abruptly upon his Knees to stop him ' Since your Grace says he has been pleased to give free liberty to offer to you in the Name of this Great Assembly the free tender of their Obedience to you I must further add That it is unanimously concluded that your late Brother King Edward's Children as being generally known to be Illegitimate shall never be admitted to the Crown of England and therefore if your Grace shall neither regard your self nor us so far as to accept of the same we are fully determined to confer it upon some other of the House of Lancaster that will be more sensible of his own and our good â—hese words seemed to have such powerful effect upon the Protector 's mind that with a pretended change of countenance and feigned perturbation He replied ' Since I perceive the whole Kingdom are resolved by no means to admit my dear Nephews being but Children to Reign over them and since the Right of Succession justly belongs to me as the undoubted Heir of Richard Plantaginet Duke of York my Renowned Father We are contented to condescend to your Importunities and to accept the Regal Government of the Kingdom and will to the utmost of my power endeavour to procure and maintain the quiet and welfare thereof After this he came down from his Gallery and very formally Saluted them all which so pleased the giddy and inconstant Mobile that they presently shouted out Long live King Richard our Dread Soveraign Lord and so every Man departed Having thus Usurped the Soveraignty He was soon after Crowned Creating his Son Edward a Child of Ten years old Prince of Wales advancing several of the Nobility to higher Honours and Dignifying others And to shew his Clemency and good Nature several whom he suspected would have hindered his proceedings and had been therefore Imprisoned were now released but Morton Bishop of Ely who would never consent to the disinheriting King Edward's Children was committed to the custody of the Duke of Buckingham who secured him in his Castle of Brecknock in Wales And now King Richard with his Queen the Lady Ann Youngest Daughter of the Great Earl of Warwick and the Widow of Prince Edward Son to King Henry VI. whom he had newly Married made a progress to Glocester upon pretence of visiting the place of his former Honour But in truth to be absent while he had a special villany to be acted For though he had satisfied his Ambition by depriving his Nephews of their Livelyhood yet he could not remove his fears without taking away their Lives To perpetrate this villany he durst not use the assistance of his old Friend and Favourite the Duke of Buckingham as being sensible of his abhorrence thereof However it was too easie to find wicked Instruments for Money and upon inquiry he heard of two Brothers in his Court Sir Thomas and Sir James Tyrril the first of an honest sober temper but the other of a proud ambitious humour and ready to commit any wickedness for preferment Being told of this Man as he was at the Close-Stool he instantly rose and went to him whom he found more free to undertake the work than he was to imploy him so the bargain was soon made and nothing remained but an opportunity to effect it King Richard had before sent John Green one of his Privadoes to Sir Robert Brackenbury Lieutenant of the Tower to require him to do the deed he being raised by him but the Lieutenant declaring an absolute aversion thereto Good Lord says the King Whom can a Man trust So that finding he must be removed or else it was impossible to effect it he sends him an absolute Order by Sir James Tyrril immediately to deliver up the Keys of the Tower to him Tyrril being now Lieutenant for the time hires two Rascals like himself Giles Forest and James Leighton his Hostler a stout lusty fellow to join with him in the Murder of these Innocent Children who coming into their Chamber in the Night accompanied only with one Black Will or William Slaughter another bloody Villain they suddenly wrapt them up in the Bed-cloaths and keeping down the Pillow and Bed-cloaths with all their strength upon their Mouths they so stifled them that their breath failing they surrendred up their Innocent Souls to Heaven The Murtherers perceiving First by their strugling with the pangs of Death and then by their long lying still that they were thoroughly Dead they laid their Bodies out upon the Bed and then called Sir James to see them who presently caused their Bodies to be buried under the Stairs under a heap of Stones from whence they were afterward removed to a place of Christian Burial by a Priest of Sir Robert Brackenbury who dying soon after it was never known where they were laid which gave occasion to the Imposture in K. Henry VII Reign of Perkin Warbeck who pretended to be Richard Duke of York the Younger Brother that by the compassion of the Murtherers was saved and sent to seek his Fortune Others write that King Richard caused their Bodies to be taken up and being closed in Lead to be put into a Coffin full of holes hooked at the ends with Iron and so thrown into a place called the Black Deep at the Thames mouth to secure them from being ever seen or rising again But Divine Vengeance soon reached the Murtherers Miles Forrest rotting away alive peice meal at St. Martins Le Grand Leighton dyed at Callice detested of all Men and in great misery Sir James Tyrril was afterward Beheaded for Treason at Tower-Hill and King Richard himself after this execrable Fact never was quiet in mind being tormented with fearful Dreams starting out of his Bed and running about the Chamber with great horror as if all the Fiends in Hell had been about him to torture his vexed Soul And here we may observe That Confederacies in Evil seldom continue long but usually
end in reciprocal ruin And thus it happened with King Richard and the Duke of Buckingham his intimate Favourite who had been Confederates in the Death of many which now dissolves in the destruction of them both What the cause of the first breach was could not be known Whether the Duke did not think he was sufficiently rewarded for his Services Or that King Richard did not judg himself safe whilest he that set him on the Throne remained so Great Or that the Duke being Ambitious and Aspiring grew envious at his own ast in advancing him The last of which conjectures he seemed to confirm by pretending sickness to avoid being present at the Coronation Which King Richard was jealous of and therefore obliged him to come by sending word That if he did not he would ferch him Whereupon the Duke came with so ill a will that ever after there was no good understanding between them retiring presently after to his Castle at Brecknock And here the inscrutable depth of Divine Providence is very remarkable which the greatest Polititians cannot Fathom For the King had committed the Bishop of Ely to the Duke's custody as one that would secure him from doing any hurt and therefore designed it for the Bishop's punishment Whereas this very thing occasioned the Bishop's liberty and advancement and was a means of King Richard's destruction For the Duke retiring home seemed to be much disturbed and discontented in his mind and wanting rest would be sometimes talking with the Bishop who being a Man of great Wit and Judgment the Duke became at length extreamly pleased with his company and opened himself more freely to him whereby the Bishop perceived that the chief cause of his trouble was his envy to King Richard and thereupon he took an opportunity to discourse him to this purpose My Lord ' You know that formerly I took part with King Henry VI. and could have wished his Son had enjoyed the Crown but after God had ordained King Edward IV. to Reign I was never so mad to contend for a dead Prince against a living one and so I was a faithful Chaplain to King Edward and would have been glad his Child had succeeded him but since by the secret judgment of God it hath happened otherwise I will not strive to set up that which God hath pluck'd down And as for the Lord Protector and now King Here the Bishop made a sudden pause saying He had already medled too much in the World and would for the future be concerned with nothing but his Books and his Beads Because he ended with King the Duke was impatient to have him proceed saithfully promising no hurt should come from it but it may be much good assuring him that the reason why he desired the King to put him under his custody was that he might secretly ask his councel and advise My Lord Said the Bishop I humbly thank your Grace but I confess I do not much care to talk of Princes since it may often prove dangerous though nothing be ill meant But a Man's words may be interpreted not as he intended them but as the Prince pleases to construe them which puts me in mind of one of Aesop's Fables The Lyon had published a Proclamation That upon pain of death no Horned Beast should continue in an adjoining Wood now a certain Beast that had a bunch in his forehead flying away in great haste was met by a Fox who ask'd him whither he ran so fast Fast quoth he I think it is time to run if I intend to save my life Why Brother Reynard han't you heard of the Proclamation against Horned Beasts What then you Fool quoth the Fox That does not concern you for I am sure you have no Horns on your Head Ay marry quoth the Beast that I know well enough but what if the Lyon should call my bunch a horn where were I then Brother Reynard The Duke laughed at the story and said My Lord I warrant you neither the Lyon nor the Boar shall pick any matter out of any thing that has been spoken for it shall never come near their Ears In good faith Sir says the Bishop What we have said if taken as we meant it could only deserve thanks but being wrested as some would do might be of ill consequence to us both The Duke intreated him to go on in his former discourse My Lord said the Bishop As for the late Protector since he is now King in possession I shall not dispute his Title but for the good of the Kingdom I could wish he had in him those excellent Virtues wherewith God Almighty has qualified your Grace Here he stopt again My Lord said the Duke I much wonder at these sudden pauses which so interrupt your discourse that I can neither comprehend your thoughts of the King nor your affection to my self I therefore beg of you not to conceal your thoughts any longer but freely to discover your sentiments and upon my Honour I will be as secret as the Deaf and Dumb person is to the Singer or the Tree to the Hunter The Bishop upon the assurance of the Dukes thus followed his discourse My Lord ' I plainly perceive that this Realm is in great danger of being brought to confusion and desolation under the present Government but I have still some hope remaining by the dayly observation of your Noble Personage your Justice your ardent love to your Countrey and likewise the great love the People have toward you and should think the Kingdom fortunate which had a Prince so fit and apt to be their Governour as your self whose Person and actions contain in them all that is truly great just and honourable He then reproached the King for his many Murders Cruelties and Oppressions adding ' And now my Lord If you love God your posterity or your Native Country you must your self take upon you the Imperial Crown and Diadem of this Realm But if you refuse the same I then adjure you by the Faith you owe to God and the regard you ought to have for your Native Land in your Princely Wisdom to contrive some means whereby the Kingdom may be setled in Peace Liberty and safety under a Legal Government and if you think fit to advance again the House of Lancaster or to Marry the Eldest Daughter of King Edward IV. to some powerful Prince the new Crowned King may be quickly removed from his Usurp'd Throne and thereby Peace and Plenty and Tranquility will again be restored to the Nation The Bishop having ended his Speech the Duke remained silent for some time only breathing forth many deep sighs which much startled the Bishop and made his colour change The Duke perceiving it Be not afraid my Lord said he All promises shall be kept and so for that time they parted Next day the Duke sent for the Bishop and having repeated their former discourse he proceeded ' My Lord of Ely Because I discern you have a real
kindness and affection for me I will freely unbosom my Thoughts to you After I observed the dissimulation and falshood of King Richard and especially when I heard of the Barbarous Murther of the two Young Princes to which God is my witness I never condescended I so much abhorr'd his presence and company that I left the Court upon a pretended excuse he not in the least perceiving my discontent and so returned to Brecknock to you In my return whether by Inspiration or Melancholy I was possest with many Imaginations and Contrivances how to deprive this Unnatural and Bloody Butcher of his Royal Seat and Dignity First I fancied that if I had a mind to take the Crown now was the time the Tyrant being so generally abhorred and detested of all Men and believing that I had the nearest right to the Succession In this imagination I continued two days at Tewksbury and was ruminating whether I was best to take upon me the Crown as Conqueror but I presently thought that then certainly both the Nobility and Commons would use their utmost Efforts against me But at length I happened on something that I did not doubt would have brought forth fair Flowers yet proved at length nothing but Weeds For I was thinking that Edmund Duke of Somerset my Grandfather was with Henry VI. within two or three degrees of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and my Mother being Eldest Daughter to Duke Edmund I supposed my self to be next Heir to King Henry VI. of the House of Lancaster This Title was well pleasing to those whom I made of my Council but much more to my aspiring mind but while I was perplext whether it were best instantly to publish this my Right or wait some better opportunity observe what happened As I rid from Worcester to Bridgnorth I met the Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond now Wife to the Lord Stanley and Daughter and Sole Heir to John Duke of Somerset my Grandfather's Elder Brother whom I had as utterly forgot as if I had never known her so that she and her Son Henry Earl of Richmond have a Right before me By this I perceived my mistake and resolved to relinquish all Ambitious Thoughts and to endeavour the Establishment of the Earl of Richmond Right Heir of the House of Lancaster and that he should Marry the Lady Elizabeth Eldest Daughter to King Edward so that the two Roses might be hereby united And now said the Duke I have told you my whole Heart The Bishop was very glad that they had both hit upon the same design and extolling his well laid contrivance replied Since by your Graces incomparable prudence this Noble Conjunction is intended it will be necessary to consider who are fittest to be acquainted with it By my troth quoth the Duke we will begin with the Countess of Richmond the Earl's Mother who will inform us whether he be under Confinement or at Liberty in Brittain And thus was the Foundation of a League laid by these two Great Men which fully Revenged the Death of the two Innocent Princes And it was prosecuted with all Expedition one Reynold Bray being imployed by the Bishop to his Lady the Countess of Richmond Doctor Lewis the Dutchesses Physician was sent to Queen Elizabeth and two other Persons were ordered privately to wait upon the Earl of Richmond then in France and acquaint him with the Design and procure his consent to the intended Marriage Who coming to the Earl and giving him information of the Plot He thereupon discovers it to the Duke of Brittain who though by Hutton King Rich. Ambassador he had by many great offers been solicited to detain the Earl in Prison yet he readily promised and really offered him his utmost assistance Several Knights and Gentlemen were also brought into the Confederacy in England Bishop Morton though against the Earl's consent retires in disguise into the Isle of Ely where having prepared his Friends to espouse the Earl's Interest he went from thence to Brittain to him and continued there till the Earl when King sent for him home and made him Archbishop of Canterbury But though all was managed with the utmost Privacy and under Oaths of Secresie yet King Richard had made a discovery thereof but pretending Ignorance he sends for the Duke of Buckingham to come to him Which the Duke endeavouring to avoid by pretended excuses He at last peremptorily commands him to appear upon his Allegiance upon which the Duke returned this resolute Answer ' That ne owed no Allegiance to such a perjured inhumane Butcher of his own Flesh and Blood And so from that time preparations of War are made on each side The Duke had Assembled a good number of Welshman and the Marquess of Dorset having got out of Sanctuary was labouring to raise Forces in Yorkshire The two Courtneys were doing the same in Devonshire and Cornwall and the Lords Guilford and Rame in Kent King Richard sets forward with his Forces The Duke of Buckingham Marches to incounter him intending at Glocester to have past the Severn and joined the two Courtneys but the great Rains had so swelled the River that overflowing its Banks there was no Fording over This Inundation was so great that Men were drowned in their Beds Houses overturned Children carried about the Fields Swiming in Cradles and Beasts were drowned on Hills which rage of Water continued Ten days and is to this time in the Countreys adjacent called The Great Water or the Duke of Buckingham's Water The Welshmen were so affrighted with this accident that judging it an ill Omen they all secretly deserted him so that the Duke being alone without either Page or Footman retired to the House of one Humfrey Banister near Shrewsbury who having been advanced by him and his Father he thought himself safe under his roof But Banister upon King Richard's Proclamation of a reward of 1000. Pound to him that should discover the Duke Treacherously and perfidiously discovered him to John Mitton High Sheriff of Shropshire who took him in a Thread-bare Black Cloak walking in an Orchard behind the House and carried him to Shrewsbury where King Richard quartered and there without Arraignment or Legal Proceeding he was in the Market place Beheaded in 1484. Whether Banister received the proclaimed reward from King Richard's hand is uncertain but it is certain he received a reward of a Villain from the hand of Divine Justice for himself was after hanged for Manshughter his Eldest Daughter was Ravished by one of his Plowmen or as some say struck with a loathsome Leprosie his Eldest Son in a desperate Lunacy Murdered himself and his Younger Son was drowned in a small puddle of Water This was the fatal end of the Great Duke of Buckingham who went too far for a good Man in being accessary to the depriving the Innocent Princes of their Birth-right and declaring them Bastards But it seems he went not far enough for so bad a Man as King Richard because he would not
consent to the Murther of them However he fell by the same hand that advanced him to be his chief Favourite and Privado And though King Richard now Triumph'd over his Enemies yet in a very short time he lost both his Crown and Life in one day the foundation of his Ruin having been first laid by this unprosperous Conspiracy against him For a while after he was Slain in a Battle at Bosworth in Leicester shire by Henry Earl of Richmond who succeeded him by the name of King Henry the Seventh Remarks upon the Life Actions and Fall of Thomas Woolsey Cardinal of York Favourite to King Henry VIII THE Magnanimity of Spirit which appeared in the Life and Actions of this Great Cardinal doth clearly evince that Persons of Mean Birth may be indued with as generous and lofty Sentiments and be possessors of as much Grandure of Soul as those of Noble Descent which occasioned some to alledge that he must needs be the By-blow of some Prince and not the Issue of such mean Parents as his were generally reckoned For all Historians relate that he was the Son of an honest poor Butcher at Ipswich in Suffolk who in his Childhood being very apt to learn his Father with the assistance of Friends sent him to a Grammar School from whence he in a short time went to the University of Oxford where he was so great a Proficient that at Fifteen Years Old he was made Batchellour of Arts and therefore called the Boy Batchellour He was after made Fellow of Magdalen College and Master of Magdalen School and had the Education of the Marquess of Dorset's Sons committed to him by whose care they so well 〈…〉 in Learning that the Marquess bestowed 〈…〉 in his gift upon this Ingenious School-Maste◠〈…〉 left his Fellowship and came to reside in his Living Where he had not been long when one Sir James Pawlet upon some displeasure set him in the Stocks which affront was not forgotten nor forgiven by Woolsey Who when by the mighty favour of Fortune he came to be Lord Chancellour of England he sent for Sir James and after having sharply reproved him enjoined him not to stir out of the Middle-Temple without Special License from himself which he could not obtain in Six Year time After the Death of the Marquess of Dorset from whom he expected higher preferment his towring thoughts aimed at some greater imployment and since he found he must now make his own Fortune he resolved to take all opportunities to advance himself To this end he became acquainted with one Sir John Naphant an Ancient Noble Knight formerly Treasurer of Callice under King Henry VII to whom he was Chaplain and by his Wisdom and Discretion gained such favour with his Master that he committed all the care and charge of his Office to his Chaplain At length being discharged of his Imployment for his great Age he returned into England but retained so much kindness for Woolsey that by his Interest at Court he procured him to be made one of the Chaplains to King Henry VIII Having thus cast Anchor in the Port of Preferment he rose amain for he had opportunity hereby to be dayly in the King's Eye by reason of his daily attendance and saying Mass before him in his Closet Neither did he squander away his leisure time but would commonly attend those Great Men who were in most favour and power with the King and among others Doctor Fox Lord Thomas Lovell Master of the Wards and Constable of the Tower who perceiving him to be a Man of a very acute wit thought 〈◊〉 a fit Instrument to be imployed in matters of 〈…〉 And King Henry having occasion to send an Ambassadour to Maximilian Emperour of Germany These two Grave Councellours recommended His Chaplain Woolsey to him as proper for so Honourable an Office The King instantly sent for him and discoursing with him about Matters of State he found him endued with so much Eloquence Learning Judgment and Modesty that he caused his Commission and Instructions to be drawn up with all speed Which having received he took his leave of the King at Richmond at Four a Clock in the Afternoon and in Three Hours arrived at Gravesend from thence he Rid Post to Dover and going a board the Passage-boat he arrived next Day before Noon at Callice and the same Night he made such haste that he came to the Emperour's Court at Brussels in Flanders Who having notice of this arrival of the King of England's Ambassadour out of great Affection to his Master gave him Audience the same Evening The Ambassadour having delivered his Message and Credentials and humbly desiring his speedy dismission the Emperour readily granted all his Master's Requests and fully dispatched him the next Day Hereupon he Rides back that Night Post to Callice being attended by several Noblemen by the Emperour's Order and came thither in the Morning before the Gates were opened and the Pacquet Boat being ready to go off he arrived at Dover by Eleven at Noon and the same Night came Post to Richmond and the next Morning presented himself to the King at his coming out of his Bed Chamber to Mass who checked him for not being upon his Journey May it please your Highness said he I have been with the Emperour already and I hope have dispatched my Embassy to your Graces Satisfaction The King admired at his Expedition Asking him whether he met with the Messenger sent after him before he thought him gone from London with further Instructions of weighty Consequence Yes said Woolsey I met with him Yesterday by the way and though I did know his Message yet presuming upon your Highness goodness and judging those Matters very necessary to be done I made bold to exceed my Commission and dispatch them for which I humbly beg your Majesties Pardon The King much pleased herewith replied We not only pardon you but give you also our Royal Thanks both for your discreet management and great Expedition Soon after the King bestowed on him the Deanery of Lincoln being one of the greatest Promotions under the degree of a Bishop and in a short time made him his Lord Almoner wherein he behaved himself with so much discretion that he was advanced to be one of the Lords of the Privy Council and King Henry bestowed on him Bridewell in Fleetstreet one of his Royal Houses for his Residence and Family and he was observed by the People to be a Rising Favourite For the King was Young and much given to pleasure and his Ancient Councellours advising to be sometimes present in Council to consult about the weighty Affairs of the Government his Lord Almoner on the contrary dissuaded him from imbarasing himself in the Troubles and Intreagues of State assuring him that if he would allow him sufficient Authority he would ease him of those Fatigues and manage all Affairs to his content This Advice was quickly received by the Youthful Prince who gave him what Power he
demanded so that governing all things according to his own mind he seemed to Rule more than the King himself In the first Year of King Henry's Reign a difference happened between him and the French King Lewis XII who upon some private quarrel with Pope Julius II. Marched with a great Army into Italy and possest himself of the Rich City of Bolonia King Henry having a great respect for the Pope because he had dispensed with his late Marriage with Queen Katherine of Spain his Brother Arthur's Widow and likewise finding the Pope was unable to defend himself offered to be a Mediatour of Peace between them But the French King flushed with Success refused or neglected his Proposal which so inflamed the vigorous mind of the Young King that he declared to the World As he scorned to be neglected so he abhorred to be idle in this affair and therefore resolved by Invading the Dominions of France to withdraw that King out of the Pope's Territories In pursuance of this couragious resolution he instantly sends Ambassadors to King Lewis requiring him to deliver up to him the peaceable possession of his two Dutchies of Guien and Normandy together with his Ancient Inheritance of Anjon and Mayn which had for many Years been wrongfully detained from his Predecessors and himself The little acquaintance that the French King had with Henry and the contempt of his Youth caused him to return a slighting denial of this his demand whereupon King Henry proclaimed War against him and resolved to Invade his Countrey in Person with a gallant Army and believing no Man more proper to make provision for this great Expedition than his Almoner Woolsey The King committed the sole management thereof to his Wisdom and Policy and he scrupling no command of the King 's undertook this difficult charge and proceeded therein so dexterously that all things were in a very short time provided necessary for this noble Voyage Upon which the King Marched with his Army to Dover and Transporting them to Callice he proceeded in order of Battle to the strong Town of Tymyn which he vigorously assaulted and took In which Siege the Emperor Maximillan with Thirty Noblemen repaired to his Camp and were all inrolled in the King's Pay The King Marched from thence to Tournay which he likewise attack'd with such briskness that it was soon surrendred to him which Bishoprick the King bestowed upon his Almoner Woolsey in recompence for his care and diligence in this Expedition And then the King returned into England where he was welcomed with the News of a great Victory obtained by the Earl of Surrey against James King of Scotland he himself being Slain with divers of his Nobility and 18000 Scots and French who came to his assistance After the King's return the Bishoprick of Lincoln becoming void he bestowed the same upon his Lord Almoner and then the Archbishoprick of York which was likewise vacant Lastly he obtained of the Pope to be made a Cardinal and his Master Henry for his great Zeal to the Holy Chair had the new Title of Defender of the Faith confer'd upon him Being suddenly mounted to such a mighty height and the King's affection daily increasing it made him so extream proud and insolent that he thought none to be his equal and erected Ecclesiastical Courts and had the boldness to summon the Archbishop of Canterbury and all other Bishops and Clergymen to appear before him And as his Authority was superiour to all so he exceeded them all in Covetousness and Ambition so that for many Years the Kingdom groaned under his monstrous Oppressions and violent Depredations Yet his Ambition was so excessive that he still hunted after greater Dominion intermedling with affairs wherein he was not concerned especially in the Chancellorship which then pertained to the Archbishop of Canterbury who being Old and perceiving how great a Favourite Woolsey was with the King he chose rather to deliver up the Seals than have them taken from him Upon this surrender the King delivered them to Woolsey which Favours and Dignities might have satisfied any but the insatiable mind of this Mighty Prelate who was now Cardinal Archbishop Lord Chancellor and Councellor of State But he still aimed to be Higher and to gratifie his humour this occasion offered In 1517. Pope Leo sent Cardinal Campeius as his Legate to King Henry to Solicite him as he had done the Kings of France and Spain and the Princes of Germany to join in a League against the Turks who made horrible ravages into Christendom The subtil Cardinal being sensible that when Campeius arrived he must have the precedency of hiâ— upon all occasions on the account of his Legateship he privately sent two Bishops to Callice as if to attend on him who cunningly insinuated into Campeius that his Journey would be ineffectual unless Woolsey were joined in equal Authority with him in this matter Whereupon Campeius dispatched an account thereof to Rome and in Forty Days received a new Commission whereby Woolsey was made the Pope's Legate and joint Commissioner with him But Woolsey having notice of the ragged condition of his Brother's Retinue he instantly sent a great quantity of Red Cloath to Callice wherewith to Cloath his Servants answerable to the Dignity of so great a Personage When all things were ready Campeius passed the Seas and landed at Dover and in his passage to London by Woolseys Order he was received with Procession by the Clergy and Magistrates through every Town he came to and attended by all the Lords and Gentlemen of Kent Being arrived at Black-heath near Greenwich he was there met by the Duke of Norfolk a great number of Prelates and Clergy and many Persons of Quality The Cardinal was brought into a Tent covered with Cloth of Gold where he shifted himself into his Cardinals Robes Furred with Rich Ermin and then mounting his Mule rid toward London having Eight Mules more laden with his Equipage attending him but these not being sufficiently Magnificent in proud Woolsey's Eyes he therefore sent him twelve more to make the Pageantry more gay through the Streets of London The next day these Twenty Mules were led through the City as if loaden with treasures and other necessaries to the great admiration of the People that the Legate should be possest of such vast Riches but their wonder quickly ceased by an unlucky accident which turned all this vain Pomp into ridicule For in going through Cheapside one of the skittish Jades affrighted with the multitude of Spectators broke the Collar he was led with and running upon the other Mules put them all into such disorder that they threw their Sumpters to the ground which flying open discovered the Cardinal's gallant Wealth some of them being filled with old Cloaths Rags old Boots and Shoes Horshoes and old Iron Others with Marybones Scraps of Meat Roasted Eggs Mouldy Crusts and a great deal of other Trumpery which gave sufficient diversion to the People who shouted and clap'd
their hands at this ridiculous sight crying Behold the Cardinal 's Rich Treasure The Muliteers were much ashamed at this discovery however quietly gathering up these hungry relicks they peaceably marched on Cardinal Campeius was conducted through the City to St. Pauls where having bestowed his blessing upon the People he was then brought to Cardinal Woolsey's Palace where he lodged having his Golden Crosses Pillars Guilt Axe and Mace carried before him And now as Cardinal Woolsey had the Power so he maintained the Port and Grandeur of a Prince of which we have this account He had in his Hall three long Tables to which belonged three several Officers a Steward who was always a Priest a Treasurer a Knight and a Comptroller an Esq He had also in the Hall a Confessor a Doctor three Marshalls three Ushers two Almoners and two Grooms In the Hall Kitchin two Clarks a Comptroller a Surveyor over the Dresser a Clerk of the Spicery two Cooks twelve Labourers and Children In the Kitchin a Master Cook Clothed in Velvet or Sattin with a Gold Chain two Under Cooks six Labourers four Scullery-men two Yeomen of the Pastry and two Past-layers under him In the Larder a Yeoman and a Groom In the Buttery two Yeomen and two Grooms In the Eury as many In the Cellar three Yeomen three Pages In the Chandery two Yeomen In the Wayfary two Yeomen In the Wardrobe of the Beds the Master and twenty Persons besides In the Landrey a Yeoman a Groom and thirteen Pages two Yeomen Purveyors and a Groom Purveyor In the Bake-house two Yeomen two Grooms In the Woodyard a Yeoman and a Groom In the Barn a Yeoman Two Yeomen and two Grooms Porters at the Gate A Yeoman of his Bing A Master of his Horse A Clerk and Yeomen of the Stables A Farrier and Yeoman of the Stirrup A Malter and sixteen Grooms every one keeping four Geldings His Chappel was furnished with a vast number of costly Ornaments and Rich Jewels Forty four Copes gloriously imbroidered with Gold and Silver Silver Candlesticks and other necessary Utensils In which were the following Officers a Dean a Sub-Dean a Repeater of the Quire a Gospellor an Epistoler of the Singing Priests a Master of the Children In the Vestry a Yeoman and two Grooms beside other Retainers that appeared at principal Feasts He had likewise two Cross-bearers and two Pillar-bearers in the Great Chamber and in his Privy-Chamber the Chief Chamberlain Vice Chamberlain Gentleman Usher twelve Waiters six Gentlemen Waiters Also nine or ten Lords who had two or three Men to wait on them and the Earl of Darby five Then he had Gentlemen Cup-bearers Carvers and forty Sewers of the Great and Privy Chamber six Yeomen Ushers eight Grooms twelve Doctors and Chaplains daily Guests besides his own a Clerk of his Closet two Secretaries two Clerks of his Signet four Councellours Learned in the Law As he was Lord Chancellour of England he had a Riding Clerk a Clerk of the Crown of the Hamper of the Check four Footmen with gallant Liveries a Herald at Arms a Serjeant at Arms a Phisician an Apothecary four Minstrels a Keeper of his Tents when upon a Journey and an Armourer Also in his House a Surveyor of York a Clark of the Green Cloth All these attended daily At Dinner he had every day eight Tables furnisht for his Chamberlains and Gentlemen Officers half of whom were young Lords who had two or three Persons to wait on them and all the rest had one These were all his inrolled Servants besides Retainers and other Persons that came about business who daily Dined in his Hall which according to the List amounted to eight hundred Persons So that he was as bountiful an House-keeper as any in that Age and much superior to any since When he went to Westminster Hall to hear Causes as Lord Chancellor his Magnificence was as conspicuous as in other Offices He was clothed in red like a Cardinal his upper Garment all of Scarlet or else fine Crimson Taffety or Crimson Satrin in Grain A black Tippet of Sables about his Neck and an Orange in his hand the Meat taken out and filled with Confections to prevent the ill scents from the Crouds of People Being mounted his two Cross bearers and his two Pillar bearers all in fine Scarlet upon tall Horses rid before him then one with the Purse and Great Seal of England Another with his Cardinals Cap then a train of Gentlemen with every one a Pole-ax next the Cardinal himself attended on each side by four Footmen In the same State he used to go every Sunday to the Court at Greenwich in a very rich Barge and furnisht with Yeomen all round where when he arrived he was attended by the Lord Treasurer Comptroller and other principal Officers of the King's House who conveyed him in State into the King's Chamber In this grandeur he continued for fourteen or fifteen years managing all affairs of State to whom all foreign Ambassadors made their application and all Addresses and Petitions were offered And to secure this Soveraign Power which he had gained over the King's affections he contrived all kind of pleasures and divertisements suitable to his juvenile temper as Masking Dancing Banquetting Young Ladies and variety of other Pastimes I saw the King saith my Author come one time suddenly to the Cardinals Palace at Westminster now White-Hall which he had newly built with a dozen Masquers attired like Shepherds in cloth of Gold and Silver imbroidered with six Flambeux And others in Vizors clothed all in Sattin The King came thither privately by Water and arriving at the Stairs several great Guns were discharged which much surprized the Noblemen Gentlemen and Ladys a great number of whom the Cardinal at that time was treating at a sumptuous Supper he himself sitting at the upper end of the Table under a Cloth of State a Gentleman and Lady being placed together through all the Tables The Cardinal at the great noise as if ignorant of the matter desired the Lord Chamberlain to inquire the meaning thereof Who looking out of the Window into the Thames returned again and told him that he believed there were some Noblemen and Strangers coming to the Landing â—tairs My Lord said the Cardinal I intreat you who can speak French to go and receive them and conduct them to our Banquet desiring them to sit down and be merry with us The Lord Chamberlain went into the Hall And with twenty Torches and a great number of Drums and Trumpets brought them into the Dining Room who by two together went up to the Cardinal's Chair and saluted him To whom the Lord Chamberlain said My Lord Cardinal these Gentlemen being Strangers and not speaking English desire me to inform your Grace that they hearing of your Triumphant and Magnificent Banquet this Night and of such a number of handsome Ladies as were assembled thereto they presumed upon your Graces goodness to intrude into your Palace to take a
forty thousand pound out of the Exchequer which he carried over to Callice and from thence in 80 Waggons and a Guard of 1200 Horse 60 Mules and Sumpter Horses and attended with a great number of Lords and Gentlemen he conveyed this great Sum to the French Court at Amiens Having before his going hence sent out Commissions to all the Bishops of England to Sing the Litany after this manner Holy Mary pray for our Holy Pope Clement Holy Holy Peter pray for Pope Clement c. And thus was the Cardinal disappointed in advising the King to declare the Duke of Bourbon his General who proceeded farther then he could ever have imagined The Cardinals ambition being unlimited he during the Imprisonment of the Pope sent to the Emperour to use his interest to advance him to the Papacy but receiving a disobliging answer he grew thereupon so furious that he sent the Emperor word That if he would not endeavour his advancement he would make such a rustling among the Christian Princes as there had not been the like for an hundred years before though it should cost him the whole Kingdom of England The Emperour answering this insolent Letter in Print bid the Cardinal have a care of undertaking what might both ruin himself and the Kingdom Hereupon the Cardinal sent private Letters to Clarentius King at Arms to join with the French Herald and proclaim defiance to the Emperour Who suspecting that it was done without the King's knowledge ordered his Ambassadour at London to complain thereof The King much wondered to hear of it and the Cardinal confidently affirmed that he knew nothing of the matter but that it was the fault of Clarenâ—ius who had done it at the request of the French Herald for which he swore he should lose his Head when he came to Callice Clarentius having intelligence hereof instantly Imbark'd at Bullen and coming to Greenwich was introduced by some of his Friends into the King's Presence before the Cardinal knew of it and produced the Cardinals Letters Commission and Instructions for what he had done At which the King was so surprized that he stood some time silent and then said ' O Lord Jesus He that I trusted most hath deceived me and given a false account of my Affairs Well Clarentius for the future I shall take care whom I believe for I now find I have been informed of a great many things as true which I now find to be utterly false And from that time the King withdrew his favour and confidence from him Some time before this the Cardinal sent Letters to Doctor Stephen Gardiner the King's Orator at Rome and afterward Bishop of Winchester urging him to use all manner of means for advancing him to the Papal Dignity which he said nothing could induce him to aspire to but the vehement desire he had to restore and advance the Authority of the Church wherein no Man should be more Zealous and indefatigable than himself He likewise ingaged the French King and King Henry to write to the Cardinals on his behalf that he might succeed after the Death of Pope Clement and vast Sums of Money were wasted in this business but all the Cardinals ambitious thoughts proved abortive and as he already began to stagger in the King's favour so in a short time he fell into his high displeasure For these extravagant expences drained the King's Treasury so low that the Cardinal was compell'd to contrive new ways for filling them again To which end he without the King's knowledge and by his own Authority Issued out Commissions under the Great Seal to every County in England for taking an account of every Man's Estate and he that was worth Fifty Pound was charged to pay Four Shillings in the Pound All that were worth above Twenty and under Fifty Pound Two Shillings in the Pound and those not worth Twenty Pound to pay Twelve pence to be paid either in Money or Plate making himself chief Commissioner for raising the same in and about London The Clergy were likewise charged at four Shillings in the Pound for their Livings These unjust Proceedings were grievous both to the Clergy and People who generally refused to comply alledging That these Commissions were contrary to Law and against the Liberty of the Subject and that it was not possible for those who were worth more yet to raise the half of what they were charged with either in Plate or ready Money and therefore they Petitioned the Cardinal to intercede with the King for remitting it To whom he haughtily replied That he would rather have his Tongue pluck'd out of his Mouth with Pincers then move any such thing and that he was resolved to make them pay the utmost Farthing and the Lord Viscount Lisle one of the Commissioners in Hampshire sending a Letter to the Cardinal that he doubted the raising this Money would occasion an Insurrection he swore deeply that his not following the Instructions given him should cost him his Head But however the discontents of the People were so general that the Cardinal doubting the Event thought fit to recal those Commissions and to issue others whereby he demanded a sixth part of every Mans Estate according to the aforesaid Rates which he did not doubt but they would have complied with but on the contrary they renewed their complaints and cursed the Tyrannical Cardinal for his Arbitrary Proceedings which at length reach'd the King's Ear. who being told that all Places were filled with Clamours Discontents and Mutinies he openly protested that these Commissions were issued out without his Knowledge or Consent and to prevent farther Mischief he by Proclamation vacated them declaring that though his necessities were never so urgent yet he would never force his Subjects to pay any Tax without their own consent in Parliament but that his wants being extream at this time if they would of their own accord by way of Benevolence supply his present exigencies he should accept it as an infallible Proof of their Love and Duty toward their Soveraign The Cardinal perceiving himself obliquely struck at by this Proclamation as the principal Author of these heavy Pressures and publick Grievances he Politickly sent for the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London before him to whom he declared That perceiving the former Demands to be grievous to the People he had upon his Knees for the Love and Kindness he bore toward them perswaded the King to annul those Commissions and wholly to relie upon the free Gift of his People and though the King might have justly demanded the former Summs as a due Debt yet he freely released them of the same not doubting but they would equal if not exceed the Rates formerly required of them the Lord Mayor and Aldermen assembled their respective Wards and acquainted them with the King's desire but the Citizens absolutely refused to give any thing alledging that they had pay'd enough already and were able to do no more adding many opprobrious
Words against the Cardinal who having notice of it sent for the Lord Mayor and Aldermen again saying he would examine them upon Oath what they were worth which they also denied to have done and one of their Counsellours pleaded that the demanding or paying of any Benevolence was contrary to the Statute made in the I. Year of King Richard III. What says the Cardinal do you quote a Law made by an Usurper and Murtherer the Counsellour replied the Act was made by the Lords and Commons of England and not by him alone Well my Lord Mayor and Aldermen said the Cardinal pray tell me what you will give My Lord pray excuse me said the Lord Mayor for if I should offer any thing I do not know but it may cost me my Life ' What for your kindness to your King that 's very strange said the Cardinal why then I am afraid you will constrain the King to force you to your Duty well my Lord pray go home and tell your Neighbours the King will be very kind to them if they do but shew their good will to him in some competent summ next day the Lord Mayor called a Common Council where it was unanimously Voted that the Meeting of the Aldermen in their respective Wards in order to the demanding a Benevolence of the Subject was contrary to Law and therefore not to be regarded two or three of the Common Council moved that every Man should go to the Cardinal and give him privately what they thought fit but this so inraged the rest that they required that these Men should be for ever banisht and excluded from sitting in the Common Council and so the Court broke up in disorder and every Man went to his own home Neither had this Project better success in other places of this Realm the People in Kent Essex Suffolk Norfolk c. assembling three or four thousand in a Company and openly declaring against the Benevolence and the Duke of Norfolk coming to them and demanding what was the cause of their Insurrection and who was their Captain was answered that Poverty was both their Cause and Captain the great Taxes they had already paid having so ruined their Trades that they had not Bread for their Families nor Work to imploy them in desiring the Duke to mediate with the King on their behalf The King having daily Intelligence of these disorders thought it dangerous to proceed further in this matter and therefore summoned a great Council to York Place now Whitehall where he again made a solemn Protestation That he never designed to demand any thing of his People which might tend to the breach of the Laws and therefore desired to know by whose Order those Commissions were issued out to demand the Sixth Part of every Man's Estate the Cardinal answered That it was done by the consent of the whole Council and by the Advice of the Judges for the supply of the King's wants who said it might lawfully be demanded and that he took God to witness he never designed to oppress the Subject but like a true and just Counsellour contrived how to inrich the King and some Clergy men had told him that it might be done by the Law of God because Joseph caused Pharaoh King of Egypt to take the Fifth Part of every Man's Goods in that Land ' But however said he since I find every Man is willing to free himself of this burden I am content to take upon me the scandal of it and bear the ill Will of the Multitude for my good Will toward the King and to clear you my Lords and Counsellours but the Eternal God knoweth all Well said the King I have been informed that my Realm was never so rich as now and that no trouble would have risen upon this demand since every Man would freely pay it at the first request but now I find all contrary at which all held their Peace Come said the King I 'll have no more of these disturbances pray send Letters to every County in England to recal the Benevolence I will freely pardon what is past but pray let me hear no more of it The Lords on their Knees returned the King thanks and Letters were sent accordingly wherein somewhat to excuse the Cardinal it was inserted That the Lords Judges and others of the Privy Council first contrived that demand and that the Cardinal only concurred with them in it but however the Common People had a mortal Aversion to him for this and many other illegal Practices and his Interest with the King seemed likewise daily to lessen and to disoblige the Court he insinuated into the King that his Family was much out of Order and thereupon undertook to reform the same by removing several Officers and Servants from their Places and putting ill Men in their Rooms He likewise presented his Mannor and Palace of Hampton-Court to the King a little to sweeten him in recompence of which the King gave him leave to keep his Court in his Palace at Richmond wherein King Henry VIIth did so extreamly delight which yet made him the more abhorr'd both by the Courtiers and Common People who reproachfully said Who would ever have thought to have seen a Butcher's Dog lye in the Palace of Richmond After this the Marriage of the King with Queen Katherine his Brother Arthur's Widow began to be questioned and some Authors say the scruple about it was first put into the King's Head by Cardinal Woolsey who being naturally revengeful and never forgiving any Injury moved it partly to be avenged on the Emperour whose Sister Queen Katherine was for not making him Pope and partly because the Queen had often secretly and modestly reproved him for his Tyranny Covetousness Oppression Pride and Lasciviousness King Henry seemed very much disturbed at this Motion and desired that the Legality of his Marriage might be debated among the Learned pretending that he had no design in it but only to satisfie his Conscience and to establish the Succession of the Crown in a rightful Heir which could not be done if Queen Katherine were not his lawful Wise upon this account a religious Sorrow seemed to seize upon him 〈◊〉 he refrained from the Queen's Bed till by a Ju 〈…〉 Sentence this grand Affair might be settled the Cardinal to advance his Reputation higher with the King procured a Commission from the Pope to himself and Cardinal Campeius that before them as Supream Judges this Question might be debated by legal Processes and Proceedings and determined according to the Laws of God and Man the King declared that he intended nothing but Justice in the Case and therefore allowed the Queen to chuse what Counsellours she pleased to defend her Cause who accordingly nominated Warham Archbishop of Canterbury West Bishop of Ely Fisher Bishop of Rochester the Bishop of St. Asaph and some others Cardinal Campeius being again arrived in England the two Legates caused a stately Court to be erected in Black Fryers
so weighty a business he made a visit to Mr. Cromwell and giving him an account of the affair he was very importunate with him to accompany him Cromwell knew very well the many Intreagues of the Roman Court and the unreasonable expences they must be at among those Spiritual Cormorants however having some knowledge of the Italian Tongue and being not yet well setled in Religion he was at length prevailed with to adventure with him When they arrived at Rome Cromwell finding it very difficult to get his Pardons dispatcht and being unwilling to spend much time or money he at length perceived that nothing was to be done without making a Present of some Rarity to the Pope and hearing that he was much delighted with delicate new found Dishes he prepared several fine Dishes of Jelly of divers colours according to the English fashion which were not as yet known at Rome Cromwell observing his time when the Pope was newly returned to his Pallace from Hunting he with his English Companions approached him with their Presents which they introduced with singing in English the three Mans Song as it is called The Pope wondring at the Song and understanding they were Englishmen and came not empty handed ordered them to be called in Cromwell making low obeysance presented his jolly junkets being such as he said none but Kings and Princes in England use to Eat desiring his Holiness to accept of them from him and his Companions who were poor Suitors at his Court and had presented them as Novelties proper only for his Table Pope Julius observing the strangeness of the Dishes bid a Cardinal taste them which he liked so well and the Pope after him that inquiring what their business was and then requiring them to give him an account how these Jellies were made he without delay Sealed both the Great and Lesser Pardons and fully dispatcht them All this while Cromwell had no great sense of Religion but was wild youthful and without regard to any thing that was serious as he often declared to Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury being very diligent with Jeffery Chambers in publishing the Pardons of Boston in all the Churches as he travelled and serving sometime under the Duke of Burbon at the Siege of Rome Thus he continued for some years till at length by learning the New Testament of Erasmus by Heart in his going to and from Rome he began to come to a better understanding About this time Cardinal Woolsey began to grow very great in England ruling all under or rather over the King so that Persons of the briskest Wits and noted Abilities addrest themselves to him for imployments Among whom Thomas Cromwell was by him prefer'd to be his Chancellor and at the same time Sir Thomas More and Stephen Gardiner were likewise taken into the Cardinals Family being all three almost of one Age one standing in Learning not much unequal in Wit and their advancements arising from the same foundation though afterward their Studies Dispositions and Fortune were greatly different The Cardinal designing to erect a famous Colledge in Oxford called then Frideswide now Christ Church obtained leave from the Pope to suppress several small Monasteries and Priories in divers parts of the Realm and to convert the Revenues thereof to his own use He committed the charge of this business to Cromwell who used such industry and expedition therein as was displeasing to some Great Persons both of the Nobility and Clergy But afterward the Cardinal who had risen suddenly began to fall as fast first from his Chancellorship which was bestowed on Sir Thomas More and then falling into a Praemunire his Family was dissolved Cromwel being thereby out of Office endeavoured to be retained in the Kings Service and Sir Christopher Hales Master of the Rolls though an earnest Papist yet had so great a kindness for him that he recommended him to the King as a Man most fit to be imployed by him but Cromwel had been so misrepresented by the Popish Clergy for his forwardness in defacing their Monasteries and Altars that the King abhorr'd the very name of him but the Lord Russel Earl of Bedford being present whose Life Cromwel had saved at Bononia in Italy where he was secretly imploy'd in the King's Affairs and was in great danger to be taken had he not been secured by Cromwel's Policy who not forgetting his Benefactor gave him an account of the whole matter and since His Majesty had now to do with the Pope his great Enemy he was of Opinion there was not a fitter Instrument for the King's purpose than he and told him wherein The King hereupon was willing to speak with him of which Cromwel having Private notice he got in readiness the Oath which the English Bishops took to the Pope at their Consecration and being called in after paying his Duty to the King answered to all Points demanded of him whereby he made it plainly appear that his Royal Authority was diminisht within his own Kingdom by the Pope and his Clergy who having sworn Allegiance to the King were afterward dispensed with for the same and sworn anew to the Pope so that he was but half King and they but half Subjects in his own Realm which was derogatory to his Crown and absolutely contrary to the Common Law of England and that his Majesty might therefore justly make himself rich with their forfeited Estates if he pleased to take the present occasion The King was very Attentive to his Discourse especially the last part of it and demanded whether he would justifie what he said He affirmed he would producing the Oath they had taken to the Pope which the King having read he took his Ring off his Finger and first admitting him into his Service by the Advice of his Council sent him therewith to the Convocation then sitting Cromwel coming boldly with the King's Signet into the Convocation House and placing himself among the Bishops Warham being Archbishop of Canterbury declared to them the Authority of the King and the Obedience due from Subjects especially from Bishops and Clergymen to the Laws of the Land which are necessarily provided for the Benefit and quiet of the Commonwealth which Laws notwithstanding they had all highly transgressed to the great Derogation of the King 's Royal Dignity and thereby brought themselves into a Praemunire not only in consenting to the Power Legantine of the late Cardinal Woolsey but also by Swearing to the Pope contrary to their Allegiance to their Soveraign Lord the King whereby they had forfeited all their Spiritual and Temporal Estates real or personal The Bishops were amazed at first to hear this bold Charge and began to deny it but Cromwell shewing them the very Copy of their Oath taken to the Pope at their Consecration made the matter so plain that they began to shrink and desired time to advise about it but however before they could get clear of this Praemunire the two Provinces of Canterbury and York
her demeanour so rude that he askt whether they had brought over a Flanders Mare to him and thenceforward had an absolute aversion for her Person Neither had he any kindness for her Religion and many Virtues she being a very Devout Protestant So that he resolved to break the Match if possible but for fear of disobliging the German Princes his affairs making their friendship very necessary to him at this time to obviate the designs of the Emperor Pope and French King now projecting against him he Married her but exprest his dislike of her so plainly that all about him took notice of it and the day after he told Cromwell that he had not consummated his Marriage with her and did believe he should never do it complaining of ill smells about her and that he suspected she was not a Virgin which so much increased his dislikes that he thought he should be never able to endure her Cromwell endeavoured in vain to overcome these prejudices so that though the King lived with her five Months and lay often in the Bed with her yet was his aversion rather increased than abated About this time all the ground that the Reformation gained after so much had been lately lost was a liberty for all private persons to have Bibles in their Houses the managing of which was put into Cromwell's hands by a particular Patent And a new Parliament being called as the Lord Chancellor declared the matters of State to them so the Vicegerent Cromwell spake to them concerning Religion telling them ' That the King desired nothing so much as an entire Union among all his Subjects but that some Incendiaries opposed it as much as he promoted it and that rashness on one side and inveterate Superstition on the other had raised great dissentions which were inflamed by the reproachful names of Papist and Heretick and though they had now the Word of God in all their hands yet they rather studied to justifie their Passions than amend and govern their Lives by it To remove which the King had appointed several Bishops to settle the Doctrine and Ceremonies and to publish an exposition of the Doctrine of Christ without corrupt mixtures and yet to retain such Ceremonies as should be thought necessary resolving afterward to punish all Transgressors of either side At this time Cromwell was created Earl of Essex which shâ—ws that the King's dislike of the Queen was not the chief cause of his ruin otherwise he had not now advanced him The Popish Bishops especially Gardiner being glad to be any way rid of a Protestant Queen heightned the King's aversion to the Lady Ann of Cleve by all means possible and persuaded the King to move for a Divorce The Queen seem'd little concerned at it and exprest much willingness to discharge him from a Marriage so unacceptable to him The Lords addrest to him that he would suffer the Marriage to be examined which being granted a Commission was sent to the Convocation to discuss it and Witnesses being heard it appeared that her Pre-contract with the Prince of Lorrain was not fully cleared And that the King had Married her against his Will And not having given an inward and compleat consent he had never consummated the Marriage so that no Issue could be expected from the Queen Whereupon the Convocation publisht an authentick Instrument under the Seals of the two Archbishops declaring to the Christian World that the King's Marriage with the Lady Ann of Cleve was a nullity void frustrate and of none effect because the said Lady under her own hand had upon due examination confest that the King never had nor could perform to her that Benevolence which by a Husband was due to a Wife This Sentence was confirmed by Parliament adding that it was lawful according to the Ecclesiastical Laws for the King to Marry another Wife and for the Lady Ann of Cleve to take another Husband according to the Laws of Holy Church And all such as by Writing Printing or Speaking did maintain the contrary should be punisht as for High Treason During this Transaction a sudden turn happened at Court The Lord Cromwell was suddenly Arrested for High Treason by the Duke of Norfolk in the Council Chamber at White-Hall and committed Prisoner to the Tower The lowness of his birth procured him many Enemies among the Nobility to see a Blacksmiths Son prefer'd to such high Dignity He being at the same time Lord Vicegerent Lord Privy Seal and Lord High Chamberlain of England Earl of Essex and Master of the Rolls The Popish Clergy hated him mortally the suppression of the Abbies and the Injunctions about Reformation in the Church being imputed to his Counsels And the King being freed from the fear of the Confederacy betwixt the Emperor and French King against him who could not agree upon the Terms Cromwells Counsel's now became useless to him and he hoped the making him a Sacrifice might somewhat appease the People who were much disturbed at some late proceedings And surther he now intended a Match with Katherine Howard Neice to the Duke of Norfolk a Papist and an Enemy to the Reformation The King was likewise told that Cromwell was an Enemy to the Six Articles and incouraged those that opposed them Of the truth of the fast we read this following Passage About two years before the King ordered Archbishop Cranmer to put in Writing all the Arguments he had used in Parliament against the six Articles He likewise sent Cromwell and the Duke of Norfolk to Dine with him and assure him of the continuance of his favour and kindness to him At Table they acknowledged that Cranmer had opposed the Articles with much Prudence and Learning expressing a great value for him and telling him that those who differed from his opinion could not but esteem him highly for his worth and since the King seemed to approve of them he need fear nothing Cromwell added That the King had so much respect for him above his other Counsellors that he would not give ear to any complaints against him and that as Cardinal Woolsey lost his friends by Pride the other gained upon his Enemies by his Humility and Moderation The Duke of Norfolk replied he could speak best of the Cardinal having been his man so long Cromwell replied warmly That he never liked his Manners but said he If he had been Pope I never intended to have gone into Italy with him as you my Lord Duke designed to have done The Duke swore he lied and gave him ill Language which put all the company into disorder and they were never friends afterward Cranmer drew up his Reasons against the six Articles and gave them to his Secretary to transcribe fairly for the King's use but crossing the Thames met with a very odd accident For a Bear being baited near the River broke loose and running into the Water overturned the Boat wherein the Secretary was whereby his Book fell into the Thames and was taken up
by the Bearward who shewed it to a Priest he presently perceived it was a Refutation of the six Articles and told the Bearward that the Author would certainly be hanged The Secretary coming to demand his Book which he said was the Archbishops and offering him a Crown to Drink for saving it The Fellow being an obstinate Papist replied he would not part with it for five hundred Crowns The Secretary acquainting Cromwell with the matter he sent for the Bearward who guessing at the business brought the Book with intent to have delivered it to Stephen Gardiner or Sir Anthony Brown both inveterate Enemies to Protestancy Cromwell seeing him snatcht the Book from him and giving it to the Secretary Here says he I know this is your hand take it with you and Sirrah says he to the Fellow you deserve to be punisht for detaining a Privy Counsellor's Book when demanded you being fitter to meddle with Bears than matters of State And so Cranmer was preserved from the danger of Fire which at this time threatned him by Water The blow at Cromwel was suddenly given and being in disgrace he had the common Lot of discarded Favourites to be forsaken by his Friends and insulted over by his Enemies of whom Gardiner was the most implacable only Cranmer stuck to him and in a Letter to the King on his behalf he assured him He had always found that the Lord Cromwel ever loved his Majesty above all things and that he had served him with such Fidelity and Success that he was of the Opinion no King of England had ever a more faithful Minister wishing the King might find a Councellor who was as willing and able to do him Service as he was But the King being freed from his Marriage and having made Katherine Howard his Queen in a few Weeks after the Duke of Norfolk had now an opportunity to be revenged on him she being Daughter to the Lord Edmund Howard Brother to the Duke So that from henceforth the King looked discontentedly upon his former intimate Favourite and inward Counsellor as being told that he was the cause of all his late Troubles Those who had long desired his Downfal soon perceiving this Alteration drew up a long Bill of Attainder against him in the House of Lords which was read twice in one day and sent to the Commons who after ten days debate passed it whereby he was condemned for High Treason and Heresie by that unjust way of Attainder without coming to an Answer wherein it was set forth That though the King had raised him from a low Estate to high Dignities yet it appeared by many Witnesses that were Persons of Honour that he was the most corrupt Traytor that ever was known That joining with the last Queen Ann he had favoured the Lutherans above measure and so strongly supported them against the Catholick Prelates and Priests of this Kingdom that when he was told by some of the Clergy that they doubted not but the King would shortly curb their Boldness and Presumption the said Lord Cromwel did reply That he was sure of the King and that about two Years before he had said the Preaching of Barnes and other Hereticks was good and that he would not turn though the King did turn but if the King turned he would fight in Person against him and all that turned and drawing out his Dagger he wisht he might be pierced to the Heart with it if he did not do it And that if he lived a Year or two longer it should not be in the King's Power to hinder it That he had set many at liberty who were condemned or suspected of Misprision of Treason That he had given Licenses for Transporting out of the Kingdom things prohibited by Proclamation had granted Pasports without searching and had dispersed many erroneous Books contrary to the belief of the Sacrament And had said that every man might administer it as well as the Priest That he had Licensed several Preachers suspected of Heresie and had discharged many that were committed on that account That he had many Hereticks about him and had discouraged Informers He was likewise charged with Bribery and Oppression and that when he heard some Lords were consulting about him he threatned that he would raise great disturbances in England Many of these things were charged upon him in general but no particulars produced And the words about the King being sworn to have been spoken two years before it was strange that they should be so long concealed considering the powerful Adversaries which he had As to the Licenses it was thought he had the King's Order for what he did in it Bribery and Oppression seem to be added only to render him odious who always appeared of a quite contrary temper And therefore Authors think that the chief cause of the King's Indignation was that having discovered his affection for the Lady Katherine Howard to him Cromwell used some words in defence of Queen Ann of Cleve and in dislike of the Lady Katherine which so much displeased the King that he thereupon delivered him up into the hands of his Enemies who thirsted for his Blood and fearing that he would clear himself from all their Calumnies by a Legal Trial they Tried Judged and Condemned him by a way which seems both against Nature and Reason and Justice not being suffered to appear or speak a word in his own defence When he was Prisoner in the Tower several Commissioners were sent thither to examine him who found him in a very composed sedate frame bearing his affliction with a Patient and Christian Constancy of Mind not at all ruffled with the suddenness of his Fall for he foresaw the Tempest before it came and prepared for the same And being sensible of the vigilance power and malice of his adversaries he called his Servants before him and told them that he found himself upon a very uncertain foundation and that a storm was approaching and therefore charged them that they should manage all their affairs with Uprightness and Justice that so he might not be blamed or suffer by any misdemeanors of theirs He entertained the Commissioners with much gravity and freedom and answered all their Interrogatories with great moderation and discretion being as well informed in all matters Ecclesiastical or Civil as themselves He once desired one of these Commissioners supposed to be Stephen Gardiner his most implacable Enemy to carry a Letter from him to the King who replied That he would carry no Letter to the King from a Traytor Then said the Lord Cromwell Pray deliver a Message to him by word of Mouth This he consented to provided it were not against his Allegiance ' Well my Lords said he to the rest pray be witnesses of what this Lord hath promised Pray then present my duty to the King and tell him That when he hath tried and proved you so throughly as I have done he will find you the falsest man that ever he had
about him Before this he writ a Letter to the King which none durst undertake to deliver him but Mr. Sadler his old friend willing to do him a kindness first went to understand the King's pleasure whether he would permit him to do it which the King granting he presented the Letter to him who commanded him to read it to him thrice over seeming much affected with it And some write that after his death the King being in a great exigency and not knowing whom to trust or with whom to advise he much lamented his Death saying O that I had my Cromwell again But the Act of Parliament being passed he could not conveniently dispense with it and his Enemies being so many and mighty was obliged to take him off So that July 28. 1541. the worthy and noble Lord Cromwell was brought to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill where he spake thus to the multitude that surrounded him ' I am come hither to dye and not to clear my self as some peradventure may think that I will I am condemned by the Law to dye and thank my Lord God that hath appointed me this death for mine offences For since the time that I came to years of discretion I have lived a Sinner and have offended my Lord God for which I ask him heartily forgiveness It is not unknown to many of you that I have been a great Traveller in this World and being of mean degree was called to an high estate and since I came thereto I have offended my Prince for which I ask him heartily forgiveness and beseech you all to pray to God with me that he will forgive me And now I pray you all to bear me record that I die in the Catholick Faith not doubting in any Article of my Faith no nor doubting in any Sacrament of the Church Many have slandered me and reported that I have been an Hearer of such as have maintained evil opinions which is untrue But I confess that as God by his Holy Spirit doth instruct us in the Truth so the Devil is ready to seduce us and I have been seduced but bear me witness that I die in the Catholick Faith of the Holy Church and I heartily defire you to pray for the King's Grace that he may long live with you in health and prosperity and that after him his Son Prince Edward that goodly Branch may long reign over you And once again I desire you to pray for me that so long as life remaineth in this flesh I may never waver in my Faith Then kneeling down on the Scaffold he prayed thus ' O Lord Jesus who art the only health of all men living and the everlasting life of them which dye in thee I wretched sinner submit my self wholly unto thy most Blessed Will And being sure that the thing cannot perish which is committed to thy mercy I now willingly leave this frail and wicked Flesh in sure hope that thou wilt in better wise restore it to me again at the last Day in the Resurrection of the Just I beseech thee most merciful Lord Jesus Christ that thou wilt by thy Grace strengthen my Soul against all Temptations and defend me with the Buckler of thy Mercy against all the assaults of the Devil I see and acknowledge that there is in my self no hope of Salvation but all my confidence hope and trust is in thy most merciful goodness I have no merits nor good works that I may alledge before thee Of sins and evil works alas I see a great heap But yet through thy mercy I trust to be in the number of them to whom thou wilt not impute their Sins but will take and accept me for Righteous and Just and to be an Inheritor of Everlasting Life Thou merciful Lord wert born for my sake Thou didst suffer both hunger and thirst for my sake Thon didst teach pray and fast for my sake All thy holy acts and works thou wroughtest for my sake Finally Thou gavest thy most precious Body and Blood to suffer on the Cross for my sake Now most merciful Saviour let all these things profit me who hast given thy self for me Let thy Blood cleanse and wash away the spots and foulness of my Sins Let thy Righteousness hide and cover my Unrighteousness Let the merits of thy Passion and Blood make satisfaction for my Sins Give me O Lord thy Grace that the Faith of my Salvation in thy Blood waver not in me but may be ever firm and constant That the hope of thy mercy and everlasting life in me may never decay nor thy love wax cold in me Finally That the weakness of my flesh be not overcome with the fear of Death Grant O merciful Saviour that when Death hath shut up the Eyes of my Body yet the Eyes of my Soul may still behold and look upon thee and when Death hath taken away the use of my Tongue yet my Heart may cry and say unto thee Lord into thy hands I commend my Soul Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen After this he quietly laid down his Head on the Block which was cut off at three or four strokes by the hand of an unskilful and butcherly Executioner Thus fell this Magnanimous Worthy who rose meerly by the strength of his natural Parts for his education was suitable to his mean extraction He carried his greatness with extraordinary moderation and his zeal for the Reformation created him many potent adversaries who continually sought for matter against him till in the end by lies falshood and flattery they had thrown him out of the King's favour He mixed none of the Superstitions of the Church of Rome in his Devotions at his Death and used the word Catholick Faith to express the antient Apostolick Doctrine of Christ in opposition to Popish Novelties With him fell the Office of Vicegerent and none since ever had that Character The miseries that befell the new Queen Katherine and the Duke of Norfolk and his Family were thought to be the Judgments of Heaven upon them for their cruel prosecuting this Unfortunate Favourite The Queen being in a few months beheaded for her former lewd Life together with the Lady Rochford her Bawd as the Act of Parliament called her who had been very instrumental in the ruin of Queen Ann Bullen and of her own Husband the Lord Rochford who being now discovered to be so vile a Woman it tended much to raise both their reputations again The Duke of Norfolk and his Son the Earl of Surrey were both condemned for High Treason a few years after and the Son was beheaded the Father happily escaping by the death of King Henry To conclude The Lord Cromwell had several eminent Virtues so conspicuous in him that they ought not to be concealed His gratitude eminently appeared toward one Frescobald an Italian Merchant who had relieved him in his necessities in that Country which he rewarded afterward with so excessive a generosity as several eminent Pens have strove who
demolisht the Forts burnt most of the Houses filled their Ships with Plunder and burnt several Spanish Vessels the Fleet returned victoriously home The King of Spain having lost in this Gallant Expedition thirteen of his best men of War forty Merchants Ships from New Spain an hundred Cannon with such vast Stores of Ammunition and Naval Provisions that he was not able to fit out another Fleet for many years after and the Spaniards themselves gave this Character of the brave English That they were Hereticks in Religion but in all other affairs Warlike Politick and truly Noble This happy Success advanced Essex in the opinion both of the Queen Souldiery and Common People though his making so many Knights some of them of very mean fortunes produced this Libel A Gentleman of Wales with a Knight of Cales And a Laird of the North Countree A Yeoman of Kent upon a Rack Rent Will buy them out all three The Queens indulgence increasing by this fortunate Expedition he grew wanton with her favours and was offended if she prefer'd any but those recommended by himself as particularly Sir Francis Vere being made Governour of Brill in Holland and Sir Robert Cecil Secretary of State both which he had designed for other Persons he discovered so severe a resentment for it that his Enemies and Enviers turn'd it at length to his disadvantage After this Essex is made Admiral of a Fleet that were sent against the Islands of Azores belonging to the Spaniard where the Island of Graciosa and Faial yielded to him and likewise Villa Franca And then returning Essex who would be sole Favourite had great contentions with Sir Walter Rawleigh and Cecil c. and likewise with Charles Howard who was now made Earl of Nottingham because the Queen had given him part of the honour of the Victory at Cales However the Queen's affections so blinded her that she passed by many Indignities offered her by him and to pacifie him created him Earl Marshal of England In 1598. Some Proposals being offered for concluding a Peace with Spain the Earl of Essex opposed it urging the Spanish Ambition for gaining the Universal Monarchy his inveterate hatred against the Queen and the Kingdom his Maxim That no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks and that the Pope could dispense with him to break all Leagues when for his advantage these and many such cogent Reasons made a Peace with him impracticable But other great Courtiers whether for Reasons of State or that they had received some Spanish Gold were very much displeased so that the Lord Burleigh told him That he breathed nothing but War and Slaughter and turning to the Psalm he bid Essex read that verse as seeming to presage his future Fate Blood-thirsty men shall not live out half their days Yet many much admired his Conduct as really designing nothing but the honour and security of his Country However the Queen and Essex were of a contrary opinion both as to the Peace and to a fit Person to be sent Lord Deputy into Ireland The Queen judged William Knolles the Earl's Uncle proper for the imployment Essex affirmed George Carew to be much fitter and because he could not persuade the Q. to be of his mind he contemptibly turn'd his back and seem'd to scoff at her At which she growing out of patience stept forward and giving him a sound box on the Ear bid him be gone with a vengeance At which he laid his hand upon his Sword but the Admiral coming up to him he vowed and swore ' That he neither would nor could put up so great an Indignity which he would never have taken from her Father King Henry much less from the hand of a Woman And then in a great rage he withdrew from Court Afterward the Lord Keeper sent him several Letters exhorting him to come and ask the Queen pardon whom if he had justly wronged he could not make her satisfaction and if she had wronged him yet his Prudence Duty and Religion should oblige him to submit himself to so good a Queen since there is a great inequality between a Prince and a Subject Essex answered very haughtily to these Advices and his Followers published his usual expressions upon this account As ' That he appealed for Justice from the Queen to God Almighty That no Tempest rageth more than the indignation of an Impotent Prince That the Queens Heart was hardned I know said he what I have to do as I am a Subject and what as I am an Earl and Marshal of England I cannot live as a Servant and a Bondslave If I should confess my self guilty I should both injure Truth and God the Author of Truth I have received a Dart through my whole body It is absolutely a Sin to serve after having received so great a disgrace Cannot Princes Err Cannot they Injure their Subjects Is their Earthly power Infinite 'T is the Fool says Solomon that being struck laughs They that receive benefit who by the Errors of Princes let them bear the injuries of Princes Let them believe the Queen's Power Infinite believe that God is not Omnipotent As for my part I being rent in pieces by injuries have long enough endured bitterness of Soul for them Yet after all the Queens Passion for him soon admitted of an easie submission so that he was pardoned and restored to favour by her who could be angry with him but could never hate him and soon after made him Lord Deputy of Ireland which was then in an ill condition by the Rebellion of the Natives and impowered him with so ample a Commission as was thought to be contrived by his Enemies on purpose by inflaming his ambition to procure his ruin for he had liberty to pardon or punish the Irish Rebels suitable to his own Will and Power to reward with Lands or Honours all he esteem'd worthy These were such Flowers of the Crown as they seemed designed by his Enemies to deck that head they meant to Sacrifice to their malice and revenge Upon his arrival in Ireland the Earl spent so much time in subduing the petty Rebels while he not only neglected the chief one Tyrone with whom instead of fighting he Treated and made a Truce that the Queen unsatisfied with his dilatory proceedings first reproaches his Conduct and then recalls him Essex was much discontented because the Queen in her Letters had chid him for making the Earl of Southampton General of the Horse and that Cecil his Enemy was prefer'd to be Master of the Wards in his absence So that within a Month after he unexpectedly returned to England having some thoughts to bring so great a force with him as to secure himself from any danger but was dissuaded therefrom by the Earl of Southampton and Sir Christopher Blunt So that only accompanied with six he comes to the Court at Nonsuch to inform the Queen of the affairs of Ireland In the way he met the Lord Grey of Willon his chief Adversary
whom one of his Attendants offered to kill to prevent him from doing further mischief but the Earl declaring his abhorrence of such wickedness hastned to Court and fell upon â—is Knees before the Queen who had not the least notice of his arrival She entertained him with a short Speech but not with her wonted kindness commanding him to go to his Chamber till he heard farther and afterward she committed him to the Custody of the Lord Keeper The Earl endeavoured to vindicate himself from all the aspersions charged upon him and among other expressions ' Can I says he be suspected to have any ill design upon mine Enemies who only came with six to Court but I abhor revenge knowing who hath said Vengeance is mine and I will repay it Shall my return be suspected who have worn out my body wasted my Fortunes and lain a suppliant at my Princes feet Shall I be suspected who have lost my Father and my Brother in the service of my Country who for thirteen years have served the Queen and for seven have been of her Privy Council Who for her saite have been hated by all that are Enemies to her or her Religion Who out of Duty to her have so exposed my self to their malice that no Country but this nor no Person but her self can secure me from falling by their bloody Machinations However his Enemies proceeded to Arraign his ill management of affairs in Ireland in which Cecil inlarged himself with much elocution while The Earl in custody of the Lord Keeper seemed wholly devoted to pious meditations and to have renounced all Worldly concernments with a religious contempt in several Letters to his Friends And likewise sent such humble and submissive Letters to the Queen that after six months Confinement under the Lord Keeper she admitted him to continue at his own Hâ—use under the inspection of Richard Berkley protesting that she did not design his ruin but amendment But the Common People who entirely loved him thinking he had received much wrong the Queen thought it necessary that he should have his Cause heard before four Earls two Lords and four Judges who having charged him with several misdemeanors and hearing his defence they at length sentenced him To be degraded from being a Privy Councellor suspended from his Offices of Earl Marshal and Master of the Ordinance and to remain in Custody during the Queens pleasure But still the People had hopes of his Liberty and Restoration because of the extream favour the Queen had for him who expresly commanded the Commissioners not to deprive him of being Master of the Horse as if she intended again to use his Service The Earl still exprest great humility of mind declaring both by Words and Letters That he had taken leave of the World that he had washt away with his tears the heat of Ambition which was formerly in his Heart and that he desired nothing more but that her Majesty would let her Servant depart in Peace The Queen was so delighted to hear of these expressions that she instantly discharged him from all confinement sending him word That he was now his own man and admonishing him to make his own discretion his Keeper but not to come near her Person or Court The Earl returned answer ' That he humbly kist the hand and rod of the Queen which only corrected but not overthrew him But that he was sure he should never live a happy day til he saw those blessed Eyes of hers which had hitherto been his Stars whereby he had fail'd on happily and had kept on in a direct course That now he resolved to repent in earnest and to say with Nebuchadnezzar My habitation shall be amongst the wild Beasts of the Field that I may eat Hay like an Oâ—e and be watered with the Dew of Heaven till such time as it shall please the Queen to restore me to my senses again The Queen was extream glad when she was told of it and said ' I wish his deeds and words would agree together He hath long tried my Patience and I have pretty well tried his humility Sure I am my Father would never have born with his perversness but I will not look back least like Lot's Wife I be turned into a Pillar of Salt All is not Gold that Glisters And so it happened for the Earl had so far regained her favour as to presume to beg the gainful Farm of the sweet Wines but the Queen would not give it him saying That she would first know what it was worth and that such kindnesses are not to be bestowed blindfold That they who intend to tame a Wild Horse must keep him without food That the more a corrupted and diseased body is fed the more hurt it does The Earl extreamly discontented at her answer and denial and that she had bestowed the Farm upon others began to hearken to the insinuations of one Henry Cuffe Sir Christopher Blount and Merrick his Steward who charged him with Pusillanimity and Cowardice for making such mean submissions telling him that the Queen the Council and his cruel Enemies had conspired to make him a Beggar so that he must hereafter live on the Alms-basket and the crums that fell from their Tables That so being poor neglected of the Queen and forsaken of his Friends he might become a scorn to his triumphant adversaries So they advised him that the only remedy against all these disasters was to make his own way to the Queen he having many of the Nobility Gentry and Common People that would stand by him and his Cause These suggestions pierced his Soul daily so that at length he gave himself up wholly to their directions and entertained great numbers of Souldiers and other discontented and indigent People keeping open House to which there was extraordinary resort Of which the Queen having notice sent the Lord Keeper and others to know the meaning of it who coming thither found the Earls of Essex Rutland and Southampton among a confused number of People in the Yard The Lord Keeper told the Earls That the Queen desired to know the design of this concourse promising that if any injury had been done him he should be righted both in Law and Equity The Earl answered aloud That wait had been laid for his Life and that some had been hired to Murther him in his bed That he had been Traiterously dealt with and that his Letters had been Counterfeited both with his Hand and Seal That they were therefore met together to defend themselves and to preserve their Lives since neither his Patience nor his Miseries would appease the Malice of his Adversaries unless they drank his blood also The Lord Keeper then desired him to give an account of his particular grievances but the multitude cried out ' Let us be gone come they abuse your patience they betray you my Lord kill them kill them away with the great Seal Come away make haste The Lord Keeper and the other Lords of
Insurrection And the Lord Grey Lord Cobham and Sir Walter Rawleigh professed Enemies to Essex and no mean instruments in his destruction fell into a Treason of a like depth with his in the Reign of K. James I. Gray and Cobham dying miserably in Prison and Rawleigh being beheaded at Tower-hill Remarks on the Life Actions and Fatal Fall of George Villers Duke of Buckingham Favourite to King James I. and King Charles I. THIS Favourite rose upon the Fall of the E. of Somerset upon whom K. James had heaped many honours advancing him from a Knight to Viscount Rochester Privy Counsellor E. of Somerset and L. Chamberlain But his Glory was soon overclouded for having married the Countess of Essex who had been divorâ—ed from her Husband the Son of the preceding Favourite that unfortunate Knight Sir Tho. Overbury for speaking against the Match was by their procurement poysoned in the Tower 〈◊〉 which the Earl and Countess were both Condemned but Pardoned and banisht the Court. K. James who could not live without a bosom Favourite cast his Eye upon George Villers a young Gentleman of a fine shape second Son to Sir George Villers of Brooksby in Leicestershire with whom the K. was so taken finding him a man of quick understanding and fit to make a Courtier that he advanced him by degrees in honour next to himself making him first a Knight then Gentleman of his Bedchamber Viscount Master of the Horse Lord Admiral Earl Marquess and lastly D. of Buekingham And now lying in the King's Bosom every man paid Tribute to his Smiles and he managed all affairs putting men in or out of Office according to his pleasure Yet his Mother who was a Papist having a great hand in all business and a great power over her Son directed him in all matters of Profit and Concernment and was addressed to first in order to procure any favour from him Which caused Gondemar the Spanish Ambassador to write merrily to his Master ' That there was never more hope of England's Conversion to Rome than now for there were more Prayers and Oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son He Married the Earl of Rutlands Daughter the greatest Match in the Kingdom who pretended to be a zealous Protestant but his Mother and the Jesuits reduced her to the Popish Religion so that between a Mother and a Wife Buckingham himself grew very indifferent being neither Papist nor Protestant K. James affected the name of a Peace-maker and designing the general quiet of Europe and the reconciling all parties he professed that if the Papists would renounce their K. killing Doctrine and some other gross errors he was willing to meet them half way And being zealous also to maintain the height of Regal Majesty after the death of Prince Henry he resolved to match his Son Prince Charles with some Princess of most high Descent though of a different Religion And there having been a Treaty of Marriage between P. Henry and a Daughter of Spain wherein the Spaniards deluded him with their accustomed gravity and formality he now set his thoughts upon a Match with France which the Spanish King doubting would be to his disadvantage he made new Overtures for a Marriage with his Daughter to Sir John Digby the King's Ambassador there though with as little sincerity as before And at length Articles were agreed on and signed by K. James whereby the Children of this Marriage were not to be constrained to be Protestants nor to lose their right of succession if they were Catholicks The Pope's Dispensation was to be procured the new Queen was to have Popish Chaplains Priests Confessors and all other Privileges The K. was mightily pleased with this Alliance but the People as much displeased who had not forgot the intended cruelty of 1588. and dreaded the consequence of this Popish Contract But the K. not thinking that the business went on with that speed he desired sends the Prince and Buckingham to Spain to consummate the Marriage where he is received with all manner of magnificence by that King and universal joy of that People in hope the Prince would turn Catholick they generally discoursing That he came thither on purpose to become a Christian Neither were any endeavours wanting to seduce him Pope Gregory writing a smooth Letter to him Yea condescended to write another to Buckingham his Guide and Familiar to incline him to the Romish Religion The Prince returned an answer to the Pope's Letter and among other expressions says ' Your Holines's conjecture of our desire to contract an Alliance and Marriage with a Catholick Family and Princess is agreeable both to your Wisdâ—m and Charity for we would never desire so vehemently to be joined in a strict and indissoluble Bond with any Mortal whatsoever whose Religion we hated For it is very certain I shall never be so extreamly affectionate to any thing in the World as to endeavour Alliance with a Prince that hath the same apprehension of the True Religion with my self Therefore I intreat your Holiness to believe that I have been always far from incouraging Novelties or to be a Partizan of any Faction against the Catholick Apostolick Roman Religion 〈…〉 on the contrary I have sought all occasions to take away â—…picion that might rest upon me And I will imploy my self for the time to come to have but One Religion and one Faith seeing that we all believe in one Jesus Christ Having resolved in my self to spare nothing that I have in this World and to suffer all manner of discommodities even to the hazard of my Estate and Life for a thing so pleasing to God I pray God to give your Holiness a blessed Health here and his Glory after so much Travel which yor Holiness takes within his Church After a while the Match was concluded in England and the Articles sworn to by K. James and some private ones much in favour of the Papists And the King was so transported with the assâ—rance of it that he was heard to say ' Now all the Devils in Hell cannot hinder it But a stander by said to one of his Attendants ' That there was never a Devil now left in Hell for they were all gone into Spain to make up the Match And indeed the Spirit of the Nation was so averse to this Union that they boldly vented their Sentiments both with their Tongues and â—ens And among others Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury writ a very warm Letter to the K. against a Toleration of Popery which was one of the Articles agreed to The Treaty was likewise Signed and Sealed by the K. of Spain and the Prince Who also obliged himself That as often as the Infanta pleased he would hearken to such Catholick Divines as she should appoint to debate matters of Religion with him but would never dissuade her from her own Religion and would take care to abrogate all the Laws made against Catholicks in three years But after all this Match
proved abortive and the Prince and Duke returning home again the K. declaring that unless the Emperor would restore the Palatinate taken from his Sâ—n in Law the Prince Palatine he would proceed no farther Which the K. of Spain declining to be concerned in the Treaty was totally dissolved to the great joy of all good Protestants The Duke gave the Parliament an account of the whole Transaction wherein he severely reflected upon the unfair and delusory practices of the Spanish Court which so incensed the Spanish Ambassadour that he sent to the K. to inform him that the Duke had some desperate design against his Life and that the least he could do against him would be to confine him to some of his Country Houses during Life the Prince being now fully ripe for Government This raised some jealousie in the old King so that the next time he saw Buckingham he cried ' Ah Stenny Stenny which was the Familiar name he always called him ' wilt thou kil me At which the Duke was at first amazed but finding afterward that a Spanish Jesuit was the Informer he told the King It was only their malice against him for breaking the match protesting his Innocency The K. was satisfied the Ambassador was his Enemy and that such an attempt could never be performed without the consent of the Prince whom the Ambassador reflected upon though he did not directly accuse him and He thought it so horrid and unnatural a design that he passed it by without any further notice But only in sending to the K. of Spain to defire justice of him against his Ambassadors false Accusation which he said wounded his Sons honour through Buck ingham's sides Soon after the Ambassador was recalled and for Forms sake had a little check given him but was in as much favour as ever Thus was this Information waved and the Duke so far re-established in favour that he doubted not but to crush all that opposed him and charged Cranfield Earl of Middlesex in Parliament with several mismanagements of the Revenue the Prince who was Buckingham's right hand joining with him in it The King being at New-Market to free himself from the noise of business hearing of it writ to the Prince ' That he should not take part with any Faction in Parliament against the Earl of Middlesex but be so indifferent that both parties might seek to him for if he bandied to remove old Servants the time would come that others would do as much by him This wise advice declared â—…eking ham to be a little declining in the King's favour or the King in his For if the King knew Buckingham to be the chief Prosecutor it looktill for the King to plead for him and if not there was not that intimacy between them as formerly However Cranfield's Actions were proved to be so dishonourable that he was sined severely and made uncapable of ever fitting in the House of Peers for the future Soon after the King died at Theobald's of a Tertian Ague as was then said and King Charles who in his Fathers Life time was linkt to the Duke now continued to receive him into an admired intimacy and dearness making him Partaker of all his Counsels and Cares and chief Conductor of his Affairs an example rare in this Nation to be the Favourite of two succeeding Princes But was not so fortunate as to Parliaments for though the last in King James's time had approved of his Conduct in breaking the Spanish Match yet the first Parliament of this King drawing up a Remonstrance of their Grievances inveighed against him in their Speeches as the chief occasion of all miscarriages in Government As the loss of the Royalty of the Narrow Seas by his mismanagement of the Office of Lord High Admiral His inriching himself and kindred to the impoverishing of the King and Crown His ill bestowing of Offices of Trust and Profit The increase of Popery occasioned by the Dukes Mother and Father in Law both Papists The scandalous sale of all Honours Offices and Imployments Ecclesiastical Military and Civil And his staying at home though Admiral when he should have commanded the Fleet which miscarried by his being absent In the same Parliament likewise the Earl of Bristol accused the Duke of High Treason and the Duke charged him with the same One of the Articles against Buckingham was ' That the Pope being informed of his inclination to the Catholick Religion sent the Duke a Bull in Parchment to perseade and incourage him to pervert the Prince of Wales After this the Parliament proceeded to Impeach the Duke upon 13 Articles of High Treason and other high Crimes and Misdemeanors one of which was his giving Porions and applying Plaisters to the late King James in his sickness without the advice and contrary to the directions of his sworn Physicians from whence proceeded drowths raving fainting and an intermitting Pulse which â—he King was so senfible of that being told by his Physâ—…ians that his Distemper increased by cold he replied ' No no it proceeds from that which I have from Buckingham The King was so angry at these ploceedings having cautioned them from medling with the Duke that he committed Sir Dudly Diggs who made the Prologue and Sir John Eliot the Epilogue of his Impeachment both Prisoners to the Tower After which the Duke gave in an answer to all the Articles charged against him as well of misimploying the Ship of Rochel as about the death of K. James wherein he acknowledges he did give the Potion to the King but it was by his own Order in presence of the King's Physitians who did not seem to diflike it some of them having tasted it And the Duke acquainting the King that some had reported that this Drink had made him worse and that he had given it him without advice the K. answered They are worse than Devils that say it However the Parliament proceeded with an Address to the K. for removing the D. from his Council and Presence and the House of Lords sent four Peers to intreat him to give audience to their whole House upon this Subject But the K. replied That his resolution was to hear no motion for that purpose but that he would Dissolve the Parliament which he did instantly by Commission which gave occasion to the People to utter their minds freely upon this Transaction After this the King declares VVar against France and 〈◊〉 Fleet being provided and an Army raised Buckingham is made both Admiral and General and lands his Army at the Isle of Rhee notwithstanding the opposition of the French both Horse and Foot whom the English defeated From whence they marched to St. Martin's and blockt up the Citadel But notwithstanding our Army at Land and 100 Sail of Ships at Sea yet the French got into the Harbour with relief of Provisions and afterward carried so great a supply into the Citadel that the Duke who had lain idle for many VVeeks being at length prevailed
of the Judges and the Judgment of the Parliament thereupon ought much to sway with him considering the terrible consequences of an inraged multitude and that no other expedient could be found out to appease the People But the main satisfaction of the King's Conscience it is said proceeded from a Letter sent to him by the Earl to this purpose ' Sir to set your Majesties Conscience at Liberty I do most humbly beseech you for preventing of such mischiefâ— as may happen by your refusal to pass the Bill by this means to remove I cannot say this accursed but I confess this unfortunate thing out of the way toward that blessed agreement which I trust God shall forever establish betwixt you and your Subjects Sir my consent herein shall more acquit you to God than all the World can do besides c. The next day the King Signed a Commission to several Lords to pass the Bill which was done accordingly But being unwilling to part with his indeared Favourite he sent a Letter by the Prince of Wales to the House of Lords that mercy might be extended to him as to Life but that he might fulfil the natural course of his Days in close Imprisonment But the Lords sent twelve of their number to the King to satisfie him that it could noâ— be done with safety neither to himself nor his Queen If it cannot says he then Fiat Justitia Let Justice be done May 12. 1641. The Earl was conveyed from the Tower to the Scaffold erected on the Hill with a sufficient Guard and Archbishop Usher to assist him where it is said he designed to have made a Speech already prepared to this effect ' People of my Native Country I wish my own or your Charity had made me fit to call you Friends It should appear by your concourse and gazing Aspects that I am now the only prodigious Meteor toward which you direct your wandring Eyes I would to God my Blood would cure your sad hearts of all your Grievances Though every drop thereof were a Soul on which a Life depended I could tender it with as much alacrity as some nay most of you are come to triumph in my final expiration In regard I have been by you my Native Country whose wisdom and justice in respect of the generality of it is no way questionable voted to this untimely end I have not one syllable to say in justification of my self or those actions for which I suffer Only in excuse of both give me leave to say my too much zeal to do my Master service made me abuse his Royal authority and howsoever I have been most unfortunate yet at all times a Favourite in the prosecution of my Places and Offices as I shall answer at the dreadful Tribunal whereunto your just anger hath before nature doomed me my intents were fairer than my actions but God knows the overgreatness of my Spirits severity in my Government the Witchcraft of Authority and Flattery of many to sharpen it are but ill Interpreters of my intentions which I have no argument to induce you to believe but that it proceeds from a dying man It would too much hinder your longing expectation of my shameful death to give an account of my Arraignment and Attainder for I have been and whilst I breath am the Pestilence which rages through your Minds your Estates and Trades and you will read the Bills of your losses though the disease that brought the destruct on be removed c. He then declared That he forgave all the World and acquitted them of his death And beseeched the God of Heaven heartily to forgive them That he was never against Parliaments as judging them the most happy constitution and the best means to make the King and People happy That it was a great comfort to him that the King did not think he merited so heavy a punishment as this So wishing all prosperity to the Kingdom he addrest himself to his Prayers and then laying down his Head on the Block it was cut off at one blow Instead of a Character of him I shall conclude with his Epitaph written by Mr. John Cleaveland Here lies Wise and Valiant Dast Hudled up 'twixt Fit and Just Strafford who was hurried hence 'Twixt Treason and Convenience He spent his Life here in a Mist A Papist yet a Calvinist His Princes nearest joy and grief He had yet wanted all relief The prop and ruin of the State The Peoples violent love and hate One in extreams lov'd and abhorr'd Riddles lies here And in a word Here lies blood and let it lye Speechless still and never cry FINIS A Catalogue of Books Printed for Nath. Crouch at the Bell in the Poultrey near Cheapside History 1. ENgland's Monarchs Or A Compendious Relation of the most remarkable Transactions from Julius Caesar to this present adorned with Poems and the Picture of every Monarch from K. Will. the Conqueror to the sixth year of K. Will. and Q. Mary With a List of the Nobility and the number of the Lords and Commons in both Houses of Parliament and many other useful particulars Price one shilling 2. THE History of the House of Orange Or a Brief Relation of the Glorious and Magnanimous Atchievements of his Majestie 's Renowned Predecessors and likewise of His own Heroick Actions till the Late Wonderful Revolution Together with the History of K. William and Q. Mary c. Being an Impartial Account of the most Remarkable Passages from their Majesties Happy Accession to the Throne to this time By R. B. Price one shilling 3. THE History of the two late Kings Charles the II. and James the II. being an Impartial account of the most remarkable Transactions during their Reigns and the secret French and Popish Intrigues in those Times With a Relation of the happy Revolution Pr. 1s 4. THE History of Oliver Cromwel being an Impartial Account of all the Battles Sieges and other Military Atchievements wherein he was ingaged in England Scotland and Ireland and likewise of his Civil Administrations while he had the Supreaâ— Government till his Death Relating only mothers of Fact without Reflection or Observation By R.B. pr. 1 s. 5. THE Wars in England Scotland and Ireland containing an Account of all the Bettels Sieges and other remarkable Transactions which happened from the beginning of the Reign of K. Charles I. His Tryal at large with his last Speech Pr. 1s 6. HIstorical Remarks and Observations of the Antient and Present State of London and Westminster shewing the Foundations Walls Gates Towers Bridges Churches Rivers Wards Halls Companies Government Courts Hospitals Schools Inns of Courts Charters Franchises and Privileges thereof with the most remarkable Accidents as to Wars Fires Plagues and other occurrences for above 903 years past Pr. 1 s. 7. ADmirable Curiosities Rarities and Wonders in England Scotland and Ireland or an account of many remarkable persons and places and likewise of the Battles Sieges prodigious Earthquakes Tempests Inundations Thunders
the death of Peirce Gaveston the Nobility recommended Hugh Spencer the younger to the King to succeed in his place because he had been formerly of their Party and they did not doubt but he would be a very faithful Counsellor But as the Proverb says Honours change Manners for though the King before hated him yet he soon insinuated himself so far into his weak Mind that he became as intimate a Favourite and succeeded in all the Graces Familiarity and Power of his Predecessor as well as in the Hatred and Envy of the Nobility and People occasioned by his Insolence Ambition and Lewdness wherein he seemed to equal if not exceed the Wicked Gaveston and thereby rendred himself so acceptable to the vitiated Soul of King Edward Hugh Spencer his Father an antient Knight was yet living and accounted a Person of great vertue a wise Counsellor and a Man of Valour but seeming very forward in promoting his Son's Interest and Grandeur he was likewise introduced into Court and in great favour with the King so that he was made partaker of the guilt and calamity of his Son rather out of Natural and Paternal Love and Tenderness than from the wilfulness or depravity of his Mind But young Spencer was nâ—… of a more lovely shape and comely Personage than he was of a profligate and flagitious temper The Spirit of Pride Rapine Oppression and all the most intolerable vices seeming to have wholly possest him So that in comparison of him the People were ready almost to wish for Gaveston again By his leud advice the K. pursued his former course of Debauchery spending his Time and Treasure among lascivious Harlots and Concubines and utterly renouncing the sweet Conversation of his excellent Consort which made him a scorn to Foreign Princes and hateful in the sight of all Civil Men. He was the cause of the ruin of divers Widows and Fatherless of the destruction of many Noblemen and Gentlemen and at length of the utter overthrow and confusion of Himself his Father and the King also This evil management of Affairs caused new dscords between the King and his Nobility whereby many mischiefs happened in the Kingdom and their Enemies had a fair opportunity to put in practice their designs against them Among others the Scots having joyfully Crowned the valiant Robert Bruce for their King resolved to use their utmost efforts for recovering their Country and Liberties which had been Ravished from them by the valiant King Edward I. who had made an entire Conquest of their Kingdom and appointed John Cummin Earl of Buquan a Scot to be Governour thereof for the English Him King Robert had vanquisht in Battel and was now grown so powerful while King Edward was buried in soft and unmanly luxury and delight that he sent his Brother Edward to Besiege the Castle of Sterling which bold attempt began to awaken the King of England out of his destructive Slumbers So that with all speed raising a very potent Army he with all diligence marched toward the relief thereof Hector Boetius the Scots Historian gives a very surprizing account of the number of Soldiers that King Edward carried with him to this Siege which he reckons to be one hundred and fifty thousand Horsâ—â—en and as many Foot and because this may seem incredible he adds That besides the English he had likewise the assistance of the Hollanders Zealanders Flemings Picards Boulonis Gascoigns Normans and many more from other Provinces in France and other Countries Besides which three hundred thousand Men of War he relates that there were a vast multitude of Women Children Servants yea whole Families with their House-hold-stuff which followed the Camp wherein this Author may be thought to have designed the magnifying the Valour of his Countrey-men who with far more inconsiderable Forces defeated this mighty Host His Darling Spencer accompanied the King in this Expedition but the Earls of Lancaster Warren Warwick and Arundel the greatest Peers of that Age positively refused to attend him since He and his Evil Ministers continued their Invasions and Depredations upon the Liberties and Estates of the People notwithstanding the provisions they had so often made and he had so often consented to for securing the same And as this must needs diminish his strength so it likewise deprived him of their Counsel and Conduct which was so absolutely necessary in Military Affairs However his number of Men was sufficient if Multitude without Discipline Piety or Courage could always obtain Victory But K. Edward and his Army seemed rather to be going to a Wedding or a Triumph than to engage a rough and hardy Enemy for their Targets Bucklers and other Habiliments of War were so glorious with Gold and Silver and their bright Armour gave such a dazling lustre against the Sun-beams as raised wonder in the admiring Spectators and seemed very much to correspond with the wanton Humour of the Prince And herein it is very apparent what great Advantages true and sober Courage usually obtains against vain Gallantry and ungrounded Confidence King Robert with his Forces which were much inferiour to the English being incampt near King Edward's he published a strict Order the Evening before That his Souldiers should prepare themselves for Battel the next day and that they should make humble Confession of their sins and offences in order to the receiving of the Blessed Sacrament and then no doubt the Lord of Hosts would give them Victory since they designed only to free themselves from the many woful Calamities which they had suffered from the English and to recover the Liberty and Freedom of their Countrey Far otherwise was it in the Camp of K. Edward for the Scots having the day before surprized and cut off several English Horse-men he was so far from being discouraged at such a slight presage of ill Fortune that he resolved the very next day to take a terrible Revenge upon them of which he had such a confident assurance that he triumpht before the Victory his Souldiers drinking carousing and threatning their Enemies with the utmost Cruelties that could be executed upon them But the Scots to obviate their strengâ—h by Policy had digged before the Front of their Battalions several Trenches three foot in depth and as many broad wherein they placed sharp Stakes with their points upwards and covered them over so exactly with Hurdles that Foot men might pass lightly over but Horse would certainly sink in and this Strategem nâ—xt to the Anger of Heaven against the English for their Vain-glory and Effeminacy was the principal cause of the Defeat of King Edward for he reposing much Confidence in his Cavalry the fury of their first Charge was intercepted and stopt by these Pit-falls into which the Horses plunging in great numbers the Riders were miserably destroyed with much ease by the Scots whom King Robert marching on foot in the head of led on with the utmost Courage and Gallantry The King of England had marshall'd his Army