Sunday before the Earles deaâh ensuing the Friday after and when she wâs dead hâr body was swolne unto a monstrous bignesse and deformity whereof the good Earle hearing the day following lamented the case greatly and said in the presence of his Servants Ah poore Alice the cup was not prepared for thee albeit it were thy hard destiny to taste thereof Yong Honnies also whose father is Master of the châldren of her Mâjesties chappell being at that time Page to the said Earle and accustomed to take the taste of his drinke though since entertâined also among other by my Lord of Leicester for better covering of matter by his taste that he then tooke of the compound cup though in very small-quantity as you know the fashion is yet was he like to have lost his life but escaped in the end being yong with the losse onely of his haire which the Earle perceiving and taking compassion of the youth called for a cup of drinke a little before his death and drunke to Honnies saying I drinke to thee my Robin and be not afraid for thiâ is a better cup of drinke then that whereof thou tookest the taste when we were both poysoned and whereby thou hast lost thy haire and I must lose my life This hath yong Honnies reported openly in divers places and before divers Gentlemen of worship siâhence his coming into England and the foresaid Lea Iâishman at his passage this way towards France after he had been present at the forenamed Mistris Draykâts death with some other of the Eaâles servants have and doe most constantly report the same where they may do it without the terrour of my Lord of Leicesters revenge Whârefore in this matter there is no doubt at all though most extreame vile and intollerable indignity that such a man should be so openly murdered without punishment What Noble-man within the Realme may be safe if this be suffered or what worthy personage will adventure his life in her Majesties service if this shall be his reward But Sir I pray you pardon me for I am somewhat perhaps too vehement in the case of this my Patron and noble Peere of our Realme And therefore I beseech you to goe forward in your talke whereas you left I was recounting unto you others said the Gentleman made away by my Lord of Leicâster with like art and the next in order I think was Sir Nicelas Throgmarton who was a man whom my Lord of Leicester used a great while as all the World knoweth to overthwart and crosse the doings of my Lord Treasurer then Sir William Cicill a man specially misliked alwayes of Leicester both in respect of his old Master the Duke of Somerset as also for that his great wisdome zeale and singular fidelity to the Realme was like to hinder much this mans designments wherefore understanding after a certaine time that these two Knights were secretly made friends and that Sir Nicholas was lâke to detect his doings as he imagined which might turne to some prejudice of his purposes having conceived also a sâcret grudge and griefe against him for that he had written to her Majesty at his being Embassadour in France that he heard reported at Duke Memorances table that the Queene of England had a meaning to marry her Horsâkeeper he invited the said Sir Nicholas to a supper at his house in London and at supper time departed to the Court being called for as he said upon the sudden by her Mâjesty and so perforce would needs have Sir Nicholas to sit and occupie his Lordships place and therein to be served as he was and soone after by a surfeit there taken he died of a strange and incurable vomit But tâe day before his death he declared to a deare friend of his all the circumstance and cause of his disease which he affirmed plainly to be of poison given him in a Salet at supper inveying most earnestly against the Earles cruâlty and bloody disposition affirming him to be the wickedest most perilous and peâfidious man under heaven But what availed this when he had now received the bait This then is to shew the mans good fortune in seeing them dead whom for causes he would not have to live And for his art of poisoning it is such now and teaâheth so far as he holdeth all his foes in England and elsewhere as also a good many of his friends in fear therof and if it were knowne how many he hâth dispatched or assaulted that way it would be marvailous to the posterity The late Eale of Sussex wanted not a scruple for many yeers before his death of some dram received that made him incurable And unto that noble Gentleman Monsieur Simiers it was discovered by great providence of God that his life was to be attempted by that art and that not taking place as it did not through his owne good circumspection it was concluded that the same should be assâulted by violence whereof I shall have occasion to say more hereafter It haâh beene told me also by some of the servaâts of the late Lady Lenox who was also of the blood Royall by Scotland as all men know and consequently lâttle liked by Leicester that a little before her death or siâknesse my Lord tooke the paines to come and visit her with extraordinary kindnesse at her house at Hackney bestowing long discourses with her in private but as soone as he was departed the good Lady fell into such a flâx as by no meanes could be slayed so long as she had life in her body whereupon both she her selfe and all such as were neere about her saw her disease and ending day were fully of opinion that my Lord had procured her dispatch at his being there Whereof let the women that served hâr be examined as also Fowler that then had the chiefe doings in her affâiâes and since hath beene entertained by my Lord of Leicester Maâet also a stranger borne tbat then was about her a sober and zealous man in religion and otherwise well qualified can say somewhat in this point as I thinke if he were demanded So that this art and exercise of poisoning is much more perfect with my Lord then praying and he seemeth to take more pleasure therein Now for the second point which I named touching marriages and contracts with Women you must not marvaile though his Lordship be somewhat divers variable and inconstant with himselfe for that according to his profit or pleasure and as his lust and liking shall vary wherein by the judgement of all men he surpasseth not onely Sardânapaâus and Nero âut even Heliogâbatus himselfe so his Lordshâp also changeth Wâves and Minions by killing the one denying the other using the third for a time and he fawning upon the fourth And for this câuse he hath his tearmes and pretences I warrant you of Contracts Precontracts Postcontracts Protracts and Retracts as for example after he had killed
and banishment Caligula the scourge of fâmous Rome Wishâ all the Romanes had onely one head That when he list to give their fatall doome He might with one great blow strâke all them dead So should he never need thâir hâte to dread Even sâch a mischiefe I wâsht to my foes That many men might pârish with fâw blowes But unto those that doe your favour seeke And by your helpe hope their low states to raise You must be courâeous bountifull and meeke Caesar by clemency won greatest praise And was esteem'd the mirrour of hâs dâyes For it belongs to men of great estate To spare the poore and rich mens mindes abate It 's ill to be a rub upon that ground Whereas the Prince the alley meanes to sweep Their owne conceits they fondly doe confound That into high attempts doe boldly creep And with their shallow pares âoe wade to deep To hinder what their Soveraigne doth intend Or to controule what they cannot âmend Calisthenes much torment did sustaine Because great Alexanders pride he checkt Grave Seneca choosing his death wâs slâine By Nero's doome whosâ faults he did correct Use not too shârpe rebukeâ but have respect Unto the persons when great men doe evill The vengeance leave to God or to the devill Be not too haughty pride ârocureth hate And meane mens hate may turne to your disgrace Nor too familiar be in high estate For that will breed contempt among the base Observe a meane whiâh winneth man much grace Speake well to all trust none use well your foes For this may purchase love where hatred growes And if that you doe feâre your friând should chance To mount too highly in the Princes grace Hiâ praise to heaven then stick not to advance Say that the charge he beareth is too base And that his worth deserves farre better place So may you by this praise rid him away And so supply his place another day Sây he will prove a terror in the field This private life doth much obscure his fame More fit to beare great Ajax sevenfold shield Then like Sardanapalus court a dame He idlely lives at home it is a shâme His very presence may his foes appall Let him be sent Lieutenant Generall Now if he chance to perish in some fight Iâ was not your worke but the chance of warres Or thus you may excuse your selves by fleight Bââming âhe influence of the angry starres Thââ thus by death his future fortune barres Aââ sighing we are sory you may say That this brave man would cast himselfe away But if in feats of armes he have no skill If he be learned wise and eloquent By praising him thus may you have your will Procure him in ambassage to be sent Far off lest he returne incontinent As to the mighty Châm or Prestor Iohn And triumph in his roome when he is gone Let no man think I exerciâ'd the ghost Of this great Peere that sleepeth in the dust Or conjur'd up his spirit to this coâst To presse him with despaire or praise unjust I am not partiall but gâve him his due And to his soule I wish eternall health Ne doe I think all written tales are true That are inserted in his Commonwealth What others wrote before I do survive But am not like to those incenst with hate And as I plainly write so doe I strive To write the truth not wronging his estate Of whom it may be said and censur'd well He both in vice and vertue did excell Iamque opus exegi Deus dedit his quoque finem FINIS Scholar The occâsiân oâ hâs ãâã and âeâtâng The persons and place of this conference A temperate Paâist The booke of Iustâce Lawâer Gentleman The Papists practices against the state Lawyer Two sorts of dealing against the sâate Directly Indirectly The state of all Subiects is a state of different religion The second kind of treason The application of the former example Gentleman Two degrees of treason Lawyer Gentleman Lawyer France Flanders Portugal The old hatred of East Grecians towards the West Latins Scholar Not all Papists propeâly traytors Lawyer The Priests and Seminaries that were executed Gentleman The considerations Misery moveth mercy A good wâsh Lawyer The nature and practice of the Guânâans Gentleman The Târant of Englâsh staâe Three ãâ¦ã in Eâgâand ãâã The âule of âeâceâteâ Gentlâman Lawyââ ãâã Lord Nââths pâââcy Gentleman A strange speculation Sâhâlâr The Queens Maiesties most excellent good nature Gentleman Fears that subiect have of my Lord of Leicester Sir Francis Walâingham Deepe disâimulâtion ãâ¦ã Edmund Dudley Robert Dudley Lawyer Gentleman The Law against talking Actâons of Leicester whereof he would have no speecâ Shâlaâ ãâ¦ã upon ãâã marriage To Sir Thomas Layton L. Treasurer L. Chambeâlaine M. Controler Sir Thomas Hibbot Gentleman Leicesters Father a traiterous Papist The honour and comâodities by the marriage with France Ethelbert King of Kent converted An. Dom. 603 Lawyer Tolleration in Religion with union in defence of our Country Gentleman Dâvers marriages of her Madeseaâed Leicesters devices to drive away all Sutors from her Maiesty Leicester convinced himselfe of impudency Lawyer The basenesse of Leâcesters ancestors Anno 1. R. Mary Gentleman Doctor Dale Doctor Iulio The Archbishops oâerâhâow for not allowing two wives to Leicester his Physician The Lady Sheffield now Embassadresse in France The death of Leicesters fiâst Lady and wife Sir Richard Varney Bald Baâtler The suspitious death of the Lord Sheffield The poisoning of the Earle of Essex The shâfâing of a châlde in dame Lettice belly The diverâ operation of Roylor Doctor Bayly the yonger Death of Cardinall Chatilian Schâlâr Lea. Honnieâ Mistris Draykot poisoned with the Earl of Essâx The Earle of Essex speech to his Page Robin Honnieâ Genâleman Death of Sir Nicholas Throgmarton Sir William Cicill now Lord Treasurer The poisoning of Sir Nicholas in a salet The Lord Chamberlin Monsieur Simiers The poisoning of thâ Lady Lenox Leicesters most variable dealing with women in contractâ and marriages Contracts Precontracts Postcontracts Retract Protract Leicesters two testaments Scholar Varius Heliogabalus and his most infamous death An Epitaph A pittifull permission The exâerpation of the Tarquinions Anno Dom. 959. Gentleman The intollerable lâcenciousnes of Leicesters carnality Mony well spent Anne Vauisour The punishments of God upon Leicester to do him good * The children of adulterers shall be consumed and the seed of a wicked bed shall be rooted out saith God Sap. 3. Leicesters oyntment Leicesters bottle Scholar A pretty device An act of atheism Lawyer Gentleman Lawyer Gentleman The first reason why Leicester slew his wife by violence rather then by poyson The second reason Doctor Bayly the elder A practice for poisoning the Lady Dudley Doct. Babington A third reason The intended murder of Monsieur Simiers by sundry meanes The intended murder of the Earle of Ormond William Killegre Scholar Preoccupation of her Maiesties person An ordinary way of aspiring by preoccupation of the Princes person A comparison The
preparation First in the privy Chamber next unto her Majesties person the most part are his own creatures as he calleth them that is such as acknowledge their being in that place from him and the rest he so over-ruleth either by flattery or feare as none may dare but to serve his turne As his reign is so absolute in this place as also in all other parts of the Court as nothing can passe but by his admission nothing can be said done or signified whereof hee is not particularly advertised no bill no supplication no complaint no sute no speech can pâsse from any man to the Princess except it be from one of the Councell but by his good liking or if there doe he being admonished thereof as presently he shall the party delinquent is sure after to abide the smart thereof Whereby he holdeth as it were a locke upon the eares of his Prince and the tongues of all her Majestâes servants so surely chained to his girdle as no man dareth to speak any one thing that may offend him though it be never so true or behovefull for her Majesty to know As well appeared in the late marriage with Dame Essex which albeit it was celebrated twise first at Killingworth and secondly at Waenstead in the presence of the Earle of Warwick Lord Noâth Sir Francis Knooles and others and this exactly known to the whole Court with the very day the place the witnesses and the Minister that married them together yet no man durst open his mouth to make her Majesty privy therunto untill Monsieur Simiers disclosed the same and therby incurred his high displeasure nor yet in many dayes after for feare of Lycester Which is a subjection most dishonorable and dangerous to any Prince living to stand at the devotion of his subject what to heare or not to heare of things that passe within his own Realme And herof it followeth that no sute can prevaile in Court be it never so meane except he first be made acquainted there with and receive not only the thankes but also be admitted unto a great part of the gaine and commodity therof Which as it is a great injury to the suter so is it a far more greater to the bounty honour and security of the Prince by whose liberality this man feedeth only and fortifieth himselfe depriving his soveraigne of all grace thanks and good will for the same For which cause also he giveth out ordinarily to every suter that her Majesty is nigh and persimoniouâ of her selfe and very difficile to grant any sute were it not only upon his incessant solicitation Whereby he filleth his own purse the more and emptieth the hearts of such as receive benefit from due thankes to their Princes for the sute obtained Hereof also ensueth that no man may be preferred in Court be he otherwise never so well a deserving servant to her Majesty except he be one of Leycesters faction or followers none can be advanced except he be liked and preferred by him none receive grace except he stand in his good favour no one may live in counâenance or quiet of life excepâ he take it use it acknowledge it from him so as all the favours graces dignities riches and rewards which her Mâjesty bestoweth or the Realme can yeeld must servâ to purchase this man private friends and favourers onely to advance his party and to fortifie his faction Which faction if by these meanes it be great so as indeed it is you may not marvile seeing the riches and wealth of so worthy a Common weale doe serve him but for a price to buy the same Which thing himselfe well knowing frameth his spirit of proceeding accordingly And first upon confidence thereof is become so insolent and impotent of his Ire that no man may beare the same how justly or injâstly soever it bee conceived for albeit he begin to hâte a man upon bare surmises onely as commonly it falleth out ambition being alwayâs the mother of suspition yet he presecuteth the same with such implacable cruelty as there is no long abiding for the party in âhât place As miâht bee shewed by the examples of many whom hee hath chased from the Court upon his only displeasure without other cause being known to be otherwise zealous Protestant As Sir Ierome Bâwes Mr. Geoâge Scot and others that we could name To âhâs insolency is also joyned as by nature it followeth mâst absolute and peremptory deâling in all things whereof it pleaseth him to dispose without respect either of reason order due right subordination custome conveniency or the like whereof notwithstanding Princes themselves are wont to have regard in disposition of their matters as for example among the servants of the Queenes Mâjestiâs houshold it is an ancient and most commendable order and custome that when a place of higher roome falleth voyd he that by succession is next and hath made proof of his worthinesse in an inferiour place should rise and possesse the same except it be for some extraordinary cause to the end that no man unexperienced or untâyed should be placed in the higher roomes the first day to the prejudice of others and disservice of the Prince Which most reasonable custome this man contemning and breaking at his pleasure thrusteth into higher roomes any person whatsoever so he like his inclination or feele his reward albeit he neither be fit for the purpose nor have beene so much as Clarke in any inâââiour office before The like hee useth out of thâ Court in all other places where matters should passe by order election or degree as in the Vniversities in electioâ of Schâlars and Heads of houses in Ecclesiasticall persons for dignities in Church in Officers Magistrates Stewârds of lands Sheriffes and knights of Shires in Burgesses of the Parliament in Commissiâners Judges Justices of the peace whereof many in every shire must weare his livery and all other the like where this mans will must stand for reason and his letters for absolute lawes neither is there any man magistrate or communer in the Realme who dareth not sooner deny their petition of her Majesties letters upon just causes for that her highnesse is content after to be satisfied with reason then to resist the commandement of this mans letters who will admit no excuse or satisfaction but onely the execution of his said commandement be it right or wrong To this answered the Lawyer Now verily sir you paint unto me a strange patterne of a perfect Potentate in the Court belike that stranger who calleth our State in his printed booke Leycestren sem Rempublicam a Leycestrian Commonwealth or the Commonwealth of my Lord of Leycester knoweth much of these matters But to hold siâ still within the Court I assure you that by considerations which you have laid downe I doe begin now to perceive that his party must needs be very great and strong within the said
yâeld money he thaâ makâth title to what land or other thing he please and driveth the parties to compound for thâ same same he that âakeâh in whole Forests Commons Woods and Pastures to himsâlfe compelling the Tenants to make him pay new rent and what he cesseth he that vexeth and oppââsseth whomsoever hee lâst taketh fâom any whât hee lâât and maketh his owne claime suiâ and end as he list he thât selleth his favour with the Prince both abroad in forraine countries and at home and setteâth the price thereof what himselfe will demand he that hath and doth all this and besides this hath infinite presents daily brought unto him of great vâlue both in Jewels Plâte aâl kinde of Furniture and reâdy Come this man I sây may easily beare his owâe expences and yet lay up sâfficiently also to weary hââ Prince when need shall require You hâve said much sir qâoth âhâ Lawyer and such matter as toucheth nearly bâth her Majesty and the Commonwealth and yet in my conscience if I were to plead at âhe barre for my Lord I could not tell which of all these members to deny But for that which you mention in the last part of hâs gaining by her Mâjesties favour both at home and abâoad Touching his home-gaine it is evident seeing all that he hath is gotten onely by the opinion of her Majesties favour towards him and many men doe repaire unto him with fat presents rather for that âhey suppose he may by his favour do them hurt if he feele not their reward then for that they hope he will labour any thing in their affaires You remember I doubt not the story of him that offered his Prince a great yearly rent to have but this favour onely that hee might come every day in open audience and say in his eare God save your Majesty assuring himselfe that by the opinion of confidence and secret favour which hereby the people would conceive to be in the Prince towards him he should easily get up his rent againe double told Wherefore my Lord of Leycester receiving daily from her Majesty greater tokens of grace and favour then this and himselfe being no evill Merchant to make his owne bargaine for the best of his commodities cannot but gaine exceedingly at home by his favour And for his lucre abroad upon the same cause I leave to other men to conceive what it may bâ sithence the beginning of her Majesties reigne the times whereof and condition of all Christendome hath beene suâh as all the Princes and Potentaâes round about us have beene constrained at one time or other to sue to hâr Highnesse for aid grace or favour in all which sutes men use not to forget as you know the parties most able by their câedât to further or let the same In particular onely this I can say that I have heard of sundry Frenchmen that at such time as the treaty wâs betweene France and England for the re-delivery of Callis unto us againe in the first yeare of her Majesties reigne that now is when the Frenchmen were in great distresse and misâry and King Phiâip refused absolutely to make peace with them except Callis were restored to England whither for that purpose he had now delivered the French hostages the Frenchmen doe report I say that my Lord of Leycester stood them in gâeât stead at âhat necessity for his reward which you may well imagine was not small for a thing of such importance and became a suiter that peace might be conâluded with the release of Callis to the Frenchâ which was one of the most impiâus facts to say the truth that ever could be devised against his Common-wealth A small mâtter in him said the Gentleman for in this he did no more but as Christ said of the Jâwes âhat they filled up the measure of their Faâhers sinnes And so if you reade the story of Kiâg Edwards time you shall finde it most evident that this mans fâther before him sold Bulloâgâe âo the French by like treachery For it wâs dâlivered up upon compositâon wâthout necessiây or reason thâ five and twentieâh of April in âhe fourth year of King Edward the sixt when he I meaââ Duke Dudley had now put in the Tower the Lord Protector and thrust out of the Couâcell whom he listed as namâly thâ Earlâs of Aâundel and Southâmpton and so invaded the whole government himseâfe to sell spoile or dispose at his pleasure Wherefore this is but naturall to my Lord of Leycester by discent to make merchândise of the Sâaâe for his Grandfather Edmund also was such a kinde of Copesman An evill race of Merchants for the Common-wealth quoth the Lâwyer but yât Sir I pray you said he expound unto me somewhât more at large the nature of these licences which you named as also the changing of lands with her Mâjesty if you can set it downe any plainer for they seeme to be things of excâssive gaine especially his way of gaining by offending her Majesty or by her Highnesse offââce towards him for it seemeth to be a device above all skill or reasoâ Not so quoth the Gentleman for yoâ know that every falling out must have an attonement agâine whereof hee being suâe by the many ând puissant meanes of his frâends in Court as I have shewed before who shall not gâive her Majesty rest untill it be done then for this aââonement and in perfâct reconciliation on hâr Mâjâsties part she must gâant my Lord some suââ or other which he will have alwayeâ ready pâovided for that purpose and this sute shall hee well âble to reward his friends that laboured for his âecoâcilement and leave also a good remainder for himselfe And this is now so ordinary a practice with him as all thâ Realâe obsârvâth the same and disdaineth that her Majesty should bee so unworthily abâsed For if her Hâghnesse fall not out with him as often as he desireâh to gaine this way then he picketh some quarrell or other to shew himselfe discontented with her so that one way or other this gainfull reconciliation must be made and that often for his commodâty The like art he exerciseth in inviting her Majesty to his banquets and to his hoâses where if shee come she must grant him in sutes tenne times so muâh as the charges of all amount unto so that Robiâ playeth the Broker in all hiâ affâires and maketh the uttermost pânny of her Mâjesty every way Now for his change of lands I thinke I have beene reasonable plaine before yet for your fuller satisfaction you shall understand his further dealing therein to be in this sort Besides the good lands and of ancient possession to the Crowne procured at her Majesties hand and used as bâfore was declared hee useth the same tricke for his worst lands that he possesseth any way whether âhey come to him by extort meanes and plaiâe oppression or
whiles themselves in the meane space went about under hand to establish their owne ambushment Well quoth the Lawyer for the pretence of my Lord of Huntington to the Crowne I will not stand with you for thât it is a matter sufficâently known and seen throughout the Realme As also that my Lord of Leycesteâ is at this day a principall favourer and patron of that cause albeit some yeers past he were an earnest adversary and enemy to the same But yet I have heard some friânds of his in reasoning of these matters deây stoutly a point or two which you have touched here and doe seeme to beleeve the same And that is first that howsoever my Lord of Leicester do meane to helpe his friend when time shall serve yet pretendeth he nothing to the Crowne himselfe The second is that whatsoever may be meant for the title or compassing the Crowne after her Mâjesties death yet nothing is intended during her raigne And of both these points thây alledge reasons As for the first that my Lord of Leycester is very well knowne to have no title to the Crowne himselfe either by discent in blood alliance or otherwâyes For the second that his Lord. hath no cause to be a Mâlecontent in the present government nor hâpe for more preferment if my Lord of Huntington were King to morrow next then he receiveth now at her Majâsties hands having all the Realme as hath bin shewed at his owne disposition For the first quoth âe Gentleman whether he meane the Crowne for himsâlfâ or for his friend it importeth not much seeing both wayes iâ is âvident that he meaneâh to hâve all at his owne disposition And albeit now for the avoyding of envy he give it out as a crafty Fox that he meaneth not but to run wiâh other men and to hunt wâth Huntington and oâhââ hounds in the sâme chase yet is it not unlike but that he will plây the Beare when he coâeth to divâding of the pray and will snatch the best pârt to himselfe Yea and these sâlf same peâsons of his traine anââaction whom you call his friend though in publâque to excuse his doings and to cover the wholâ plot they will and must deny the matters to be so meant yet otherwise they both thinke hope and know the contrary and will not stick in secret to speâk it and among thâmselves it is their talke of consolation The words of his speciall Councellour the Lord North are known which he uttered to his trusty Pooly upon the receit of a letter from Court of her Majesties displeasure towards him for his being a witnesse at Leycesters second marriage with Dâme Lettice although I know he was not ignorant of the first at Wanstead of which displeasure this Lord making fâr lesse accompt then in reason he should of the just offence of his soveraigne said that for his owne part he was resolved to sinke or swimme with my Lord of Leycester who said he if once the Cards may come to shaffling I wâll use but his very own words I make no doubt but he alone shall beare away the Bucklers The words also of Sir Thomas Layton to Sir Henry Nevile walking upon the Taâresse at Windsor are known who told him after long discourse of their happy conceived Kingdome that hee doubted not but to see him one day hold the same office in Windsor of my Lord of Leycester which âow my Lord did hold of the Queene Meaning thereby the goodly office of Constableship wiâh all Royâlties and honours belonging to the same which now the said Sir Henry exerciseth onâly as Deputy to the Earle Which was plainely to signifie that he doubted not but to see my Lord of Leycester one day King or els his other hope could never possibly taââ effect or come to passe To the same point âended the words of Mistressâ Anne West Daâe Lettice sister unto the Lady Anne Askew in the great Chamber upon a day when her brothâr Robert Kâowles had danced disgratiously and scornfully before the Queen in pâesence of the French Which thing for that her Majesty tooke to proceed of wisâin him âs for dislâke of the strangers in presence and for the quarrell of his sister Essex it pleased her Majesty to check him for the same with additioâ of a reproachfull word or two full well deserved as though done for despite of the forced abseâce from that place of honour of the good old Gentlewoman I mitigate the worâs his sister Which words the other young twig receiving in deepe dudgen brake forth in great choler to her forenamed companion and said Thât she nothing doubted but that one day shee should see her sister upon whom the Queene railed now so much for so it pleased her to tearme her Majesties sharpe speech to sit in her place and throne being much worthier of the same for her qualities and rare vertues then was the other Which undutâfull speech albeit it were over-heard and condemned of divers that sate about them yet none durst ever report the same to her Majesty as I hâve heard sundry Courtiers affirme in respect of the revenge which the reporters should abide at my Lord of Leycesters hands whensoever the mâtâer should come to light And this is now concerning the opinion and secret speeches of my Lords owne friends who cannot but utter their conceit and judgement in time and place convenient whatsoever they are wâlled to give out publikely to the contrary for deceiving of such as will beleeve faire painted words against evident and manifest demonstration of reason I say reason for that if none of these signes and tokens were none of these preparations nor any of these speeches and detections by his friends that know his heart yet in force of plain reason I could alleadge unto you three arguments onely which to any man of intelligence wâuld easily perswade and give satisfactâon that my Lord of Leycester meaneth best and first for himsâlfe in this suât Whiâh three arguments for that you seeme to be attent I will not stick to run over in all brevity And the first is the very nature and quality of ambition it self which is such as you know that it never stayeth but passeth from degree to degree and the more it obtaineth the more it covereth and the more esteemeth it selfe both worthy and able to obtaine And in our matter that now we handle even as in wooing he âhât suâth to a Lady for another and obtaineth her good will entereth easily into conceit of his owne woâthinesse thereby and so commonly into hope of speedinâ himselfe while he speaketh for his friend so much more in Kingdomes he that sâeth himself of power to put the Crowne of another mans head will qâckly step to the next degree which is to set it of his owne seeâng that alwayâs the charity of such good men is wont to be so orderly as according to âhe precepâ it bâginneth
thought so quoth the Duke and not without great cause for as the white Paulfrey when he standeth in the stable and is well provendred is proud and fierce and ready to leape on every other horses back still neying and prauncing and troubling all that stand about him but when he is once out of his hot stable and deprived a little of his case and fat feeding every boy may ride and master him at his pleasure so is it quoth he with my Lord of Arundell Whereat many marvelled that were present to heare so insolent speech passe from a man of judgement against a Peere of the Realme cast into calamity But you would more have marvelled quoth the Gentleman if you had seene that which I did afterward which was the most base and abject behaviour of the same Duke to the same Earle of Arundel at Cambridge and upon the way towards London when this Earle was sent to apprehend and bring him up as prisoner If I should tell you how he fell down on his knees how he wept how he besought the said Earle to be a good Lord unto him whom a little before he had so much contemned and reproached you would have said that himselfe might as well be compared to this his white Paulfrey as the other Albeit in this I will excuse neither of them both neither almost any of these great men who are so proud and insolent in their prosperous fortune as they are easily led to contemne any man albeit themselves bee most contemptible of all others whensoever their fortune beginneth to change and so will my L. of Leicester be also no doubt at that day though now in his wealth he triumph over all and careth not whom or how many he offend and injure Sir therein I beleeve you quoth I for wee have had sufficient tryall already of my Lords fortitude in adversity His base and abject behaviour in his last disgrace about his marriage well declared what hee would doe in a matter of more importance His fawning and flattering of them whom he hated most his servile speeches his feigned and dissembled teares are all very well knowne Then Sir Christopher Hatton must needs be enforced to receive at his hands the hânourable and great office of Chamberlainship of Chester for that he would by any meanes reâgne the same unto him whether he would or no and made him provide not without his charge to receive the same though his Lordship never meant it as after wel appeared For that the present pange being past it liked my Lord to fulfill the Italian Proverbe of such as in dangers make vowes to Saints Scampato il pericolo gabbato il santo the danger escaped the Saint is deceived Then and in that necessity no men of the Realm were so much honoured commended served by him as the noble Chamberlaine deceased and the good Lord Treasurer yet living to whom at a certaine time he wrote a letter in all fraud and base dissimulation and caused the same to be delivered with great cunning in the sight of her Majesty and yet so as to shew a purpose that it should not be seen to the end her Highnesse might rather take occasion to call for the same and read it as she did For Mistris Francis Hâward to whom the stratagem was committed playing her part dexterously offered to deliver the same to the Lord Treasurer neare the doâre of the withdrawing Chamber he then comming from her Majesty And to draw the eye and attention of her Highnesse the more unto iâ shee let fall the paper before it touched the treasurers hand and by that occasion brought her Majesty to call for the same Which after she had read and considered the stile together with the metall and constitution of him that wrote it and to whom it was lent her Highnesse could not but breake forth in laughter with detestation of such absurd and abject dissimulation sayâng unto my Lord Treasurer there presânt my Lord believe him not for if he had you in like case he would play the Beare with you though at this present hee fawne upon you never so fast But now Sir I pray you goe forward in your speech of Scotland for there I remember you left off when by occasion we fell into these digressions Well then quoth the Gentleman to returâe againe to Scotland as you move from whence wee have digressed most certaine and evident it is to all the world that all the broyles troubles and dangers procured to the Prince in that countrey as also the vexations of them who any way are thought to favour that title in our owne Realme doe proceed from the drift and complot of these conspirators Which besides the great dangers mentionâd before both domesticall and forraine temporall and of religion must needs inferre great jeopardy also to her Maiesties person and present reign that now governeth through the hope and heat of the aspirârs ambition inflamed and increased so much the more by the nearenesse of their desired prey For as souldiers entred into the hope of a rich and well furnished Citie are more fierce and furious when they have gotten and beaten downe the Bullwaâks round about and as the greedy Burglârer that hath pierced and broken downe man waâls to come to a treasure is lesse patient of stay stop and delay when he commeth in sight of âhat which he desireth or perceiveth only some partition of wane skot or the like betwixt his fingers and the cofers or monie bags so theâe men whân they shall see the succession of Scotland extinguished together with all friends and favourârs thereof which now are to her Majesty as Bullwarks and wals and great obstacles to the aspirors and when they shall see onely her Maiâsties life and person to stand betwixt them and their fierie desires for they make little account of all other Competitors by King Hânries line no doubt but it will bee to them a great prick and spurre to dispatch Her Majestie also the nature of both Earles being well considered whereof the one killed his own wife as hath been shewed before onely upon a little vaine hope of marriage with a Queene and the other being so farre blinded and borne away with the same furious fume most impotent itching humor of ambition as his owne mother when she was alive seemed greatly to feare his fingers if once the matter should come so neare as her life had onely stood in his way For which cause the good old Countesse was wont to pray God as I have heard divers say that she might dye before her Majesty which happily was granted unto her to the enâ that by standing in her sonnes way who she saw to her grief furiously bent to weare a Crown there might not some dangerous extremiây grow to her by that nearenesse And if his owne mother feared this mischance whât may her Majesty doubt
mens humours oft I fed Whilst hope this while a good opinion bred To learned Schollers I was something franck Not for the love that I to leaâning bore But either to get praise or pick a thanke Of such as could the Musâs aide implore To consecrate my name for evermore For he is blest that so befriended dyes Whose praise the Musâs will immortalize You that desire to have your fame survive When you within your graves intomb'd shall lye Cherish those sacred Sisters while you live For they be daughters of Dame memory Of âhe thundâing Monarch of the sky They have the gift to register with pen Th' eternall fame or infamy of men The Students of the Vniversity Oxford whereof I was the Chancellor That Nurse of science and Philosophy Knowing the greatnesse of my wit and power Did honour me as the faire springing flower That in the Princesse favour highly grew Whom she with showârs oâ gold did of bâdew At my command both Dee and Allen tended By Magick Art my pleasure to fulfill These to my service their best studies bended And why they durst not disobey my will Yea whatsoever was of secret skill In Oxford or in Cambridge to be sold I bought for love for feare or else for gold Doubtlesse the most renown'd Philosophers As Plato and Pithagoras have sought To learne the Hierogliphick Characters And secrets which by Magick skill are wrought Such as th' Egyptians sewes and Chaldees taught Th'art's not ill if men doe not abuse it No fault so bad but some men will excuse it Lopus and Iulio were my chiefe Physitians Men that were cunning in the Art to kill Good Schollers but of passing ill conditions Such as could ridde mens lives yet no blood spill Yea and with such dexterity and skill Could give a dram of poyson that could slay At end of the yeare the moneth the weeke or day I never did these wicked men imploy To wrong my Prince or my true loving friend But false deceitfull wretches to destroy And bring them to an vnexpected end Let them looke to it that did most offend Whose names are Registred in Pluto's scroules For I will never answer for their soules Knights and Esquires the best in every shire Did waite on me in England up and downe And some among them did my Livery weare My smiles did seeme to promise them renowne But dismall haps insu'd when I did frowne As when the starre Arcturus doth appeare Of raging Tempests Sea-men stand in feare As for the Souldiers and the men of warre At home in service some I did retaine Others I sent abroad not very farre At my commandment to returne againe These I with cost did secretly maintaine That if ought chanced otherwise then well I might haue sent my foes to heauen or hell Likewise I brought the Lawyers in some awe The worthy students of the Innes of court That then applied them to the common Law Did yeeld to me in matters of import Although sometimes I did the Lawe extoât And whether right or wrong my cause once heard To plead against me made great Lords afeard So the Lord Barkley lost good lands by me Whereof perchance at fiâst he did not dreame Might many times doth overcome the right It is in vaine to strive against the streame When he that is chiefe subiect in the Realme Vpon his Princes favour rests him bold He cannot or he will not be controld Thus by the Queene my puissance was upheld And for my foes I euer was too strong The grace I had from her all feare expeld I might wrong others but not suffer wâong So many men did unto me belong Which on my favour chiefely did depend And for my sake both goods and land would spend The best esteemed Nobles of the land On whose support the publique state relied Were linckt with me in friendships faithfull band Or else in kindred nerely were allied Their perfect loues and constant hearts I tried The inferior sort at our devotion stood Ready to execute what we thought good The Earle of Warwicke my owne loving brother My sisters Husband th' Earle of Huntington The bounteouâ Earle of Bedford was another Of my best friends belov'd of every one Sir Henry Sidneys power in Wales well knowne And there the Earle of Pembroke chiefe of all Of kinâe my ââiend what ever thence might fall In Barwicâ my wives Vncle had chiefe power The Lord of Hunsdon my assured fâiend In Ireland the Lord Grey was Governour Gernsey and Iersey likewise did depend Vpon such men as did my will attend Hopton my man Lieutenant of the Tower Was prompt to doe me service at an houre Sir Edward Horsey in the Isle of Wight And noble Sir George Câây next bore sway Men of great courage and no little might To take my part in any doubtfull fray In London the Recorder Fleetwood lay That often us'd good words that might incense The Citizens to stand in my defence The Premises did likewise take my part As I in private quarrels oft have tryde So that I had the very head and heart The Court and City leaning on my side With flattery some others with gifts I plyd And some with threats stern looks angry words I wonne to my defence with Clubs and Swords Thus I by wisedome and fine poilicie Maintain'd the reputation of my life Drawing to me the flowre of Chivalrie To succour me at need in civill strife Men that lov'd change in every place were rife And all the realme was with my power possest Think what this might have wrought but judge the best Like Claudius Marcellus drawne through Rome In his faire chariot which with Trophees deckt Crowned with Garlands by the Senates doome Whom they five times their Consul did elect That from their foes he might their lives protect When he wiâh conquest did his Country greet Loaden with spoyles lay prostrate at his feet So did I ride in tryumph through chiefe townes As if I had beene Vice-roy of this Land My face well grac'd with smiles my purse with crowneâ Holding the reynes of honour in my hand I managed the state I did command My lookes with humble majesty repleat Made some men wish me a Kings royall seat Thus waxt I popular to purchase fame To me the common peoples knees did bow I could my humour still so fitly frame To entertaine all men to outward shew With inward love for few my heart did know And that I might not seeme puft up with pride Bare-headed oft through Cities I did ride While some cry'd out God save you gracious Lord Lord how they did my fame hyperbolize My words and gestures did so well accord As with their hearts I seem'd to simpathize I charm'd their eares and did inchant their eyes Thus I was reckoned their chiefe Potentate No poller but a piller of the stâte Then I was call'd the life and th' heart o'th'Court And some I wot wisht I had beene the head I had so great a trayne
way of aspiring in Duke Dudley Gentleman Leycesters power in the privy Chamber Leycester married at Waenstead when her Maiesty was at M. Stoners Houf Doctor Culpeper Physition Minister No sute can passe but by Leycester Read Polidore in the 7. yeare of King Richard 1. and you shall find this proceeding of certaine about that K. to be put as a great cause of his overthrow No preferments but by Leycester to Leycestâians Leycesters anger and insolency Leycesters peremptory dealing Breaking of order in her Maiesties houshold Leycesters violatâng of all order in the Country abroad Lawyer A Leycestrian Commonwealth Gentleman Leycester called the heart and life of the Couât A demonstration of Leycesteâs tyranny in the Court. Leycester provideth never to come in the Qâeânes danger againe Anno Regni 3â Leyâesters puissance in the privy Councell L Keeper L. Chamberlain Matters wherin the Councell are inforced to wink at Leycester Leycesters intelligence with the rebellion in Ireland Acteons case now come in England Salvatour slaine in his bed Doughty hanged by Drake The story of Gates hanged at Tiborne Scholar This relation of Gates may serve hereafter for an addition in the second ediââon of this booke Gentleman The deck reserved for Leycester Leycesters puissanâ violence with the Prince her sâlfe The Earle of Sussex his speech of the Earle of Leycester The Lord Burghley Leycesterâ power in the countrey abroad Yorke Earle of Huntington Barwick The Lord Hunâden Wales Sir Henây Sidney The Earle of Pembrooke The West Earle of Bedford The Lord Grey â Her Maiesty âs he saith for striking of Master Fortesene calling him lame wretch that grieved him so for that he was hurt in her service at Lieth as he said he would live to be revenged * In Scotland or elswhere against the next inheritors or presenâ possessor Sir Iohn Parott Sir Edward Horsey Sir George Carew Sir Amias Paulet Sir Thomas Layton Her Maiesties stable her armour munition and artillery The Tower London Sir Rowland Heyward c. Mad Fleetwood Gentleman Scholar My Lord of Huntingtons preparation at Ashby Killingworth Castle Ralph Lane The offer and acceptation of Killingworth Castle Lawyer The prerogative of my Lord of Leycester Leycester the Star directory to Lâwyers in their claents affaires Leycesters furniture in money The saying of a Knight of the Shire touching Leycesters mony Gentleman The infinit waies of gaining that Leycester hath Sures Lands Licences Falling out with her Maiesty Offices Clergy Beneficeâ Vniveâsity Oppressions Rapines Princes favour Presents Lawyeâ Leycesters home gaine by heâ Maâesties faâour A pretty story Leycesters forraine gaine by her Maiesties favour Leycesters bribe for betraying of Callis Gentleman Leycesters father sold Bulloâgne Earles of Arundel and South-hampton pât out of the Councell by D. Dudley Lawyer Leycesters gaine by falling out with her Maiesty Gentleman Leycesters fraudulent chaâge of lands wiâh her Maiesty whereby he hath notably endammaged the Crowne Leycesters licenses Sâlkes and Velvetâ The Tyrannicall licence of alienation Gentleman Edmund Dudley Edmund Dudleis booke written in the Tower Gentleman The supplanting of the race of Henry the 7. The inserting of Huntington Edmund Dâdleies brood more cunning then himselfe Northumberland and Leycester with their Prince will not be roled Lawyer Gentlâman Leycester Master of Art and a cunning Logitioner Scholar Leycesters abusing and spoiling of Oxford The Lord Treasârer Caâbridge The disorders of Oxford by the wickednesse of their Chancellor Leases Leycesters instrumenâs * At Diââies house in Warwick shiâe dame Lettice ãâã and some othââ such pieces of pleasure Lawyeâ The perill of standing with Leycester in any thing * Poore men resisting Warwicks inclosure at North hall weâe hanged for hâ pleasure by Leycesters auâhority Gentleâân Great Tyranny Lawyer The Lordship of Denbigh and âeicesters oppression used therein The Manor of Killingworth and Leycesters oppression there The cause of Snowden forest most pitifull An old tyrannicall Commission A rediculouâ demonstration of excessive avaries A singular oppression Leycester extreamly hated in Wales Gentleman The end of tyrants Nero Vitellius A most terrible revenge taken upon a tyrant Leycesters oppression of particular men Master Robinson Master Harcourt M. Richrâd Lee. Ludowick Grâvel George Witney âord Barkley Archbâshop of Caâterbury Sir Iohn Throgmatton Lane Gifford Sir Drew Drewry The presentstate of my Lord of Leycester Leicesters wealth Leycest strength Leycest cunning Leycesters disposition Lawyer Causes of iust feare for her Maiesty A point of necessary policy for a Prince Scholar A philosophicall argument to prove Leycesters intent of soveraignty The preparationâ of Leycestâr declare his intended end How the Duke of Northumberland dissembled his end Gentleman The boldnesse of the titlers of Clarence Lawyer Gentleman The abuse of âhe Statute for silence in the true succession Lawyer Two excuses alleadged by Leycesters friends Gentlemen Whether Leycester meane the Crown siâceâely for Huntângton or for himselfe The words of thâ Lord North to Master Pooly Pooly told this to Sir Robert Iermine The words of Sir Thomas Layton brother in law to my Lord. The words of Mistris Anne West sister unto this holy Countesse Three arguments of Leycesters meaning for himselfe before Huntington The first arguâent the Nature of ambâtion The second argument Leycesters particular disposition Leycesters disposition to tamper for a Kingdome I meane the noble old Earle of Pembrooke The undutifull devise of Naturall issue in the Statutâ of succession The marriage of Arbella The third argument The nature of the cause it selfe The nâture of old reconciled enmity The reason of Machavell The meaning of the Duke of Northumberland with Suffolke South-house Lawyer The meaning of the D. of Northumberland towards the D. of Suffolke Scholar Gentleman The practise of King Richard for dispatching hâs Wife A new Triumvirââââtween ââtween Leycester Talbot and âhâ Coântesse of Shrâveâbury Lawyer Huntington Gentleman The sleights of Leycester for bringing all to himselfe Scambling between Leâcester Huntington at the upshot Richard of Glocester Aât 1. Edw. 5. 2. That the conspiratorâ meane in her Majesties dayes âoure considerations A thing worthy to be noted in ambitious men Hâstor 5. The Peâcies The two Neviles Leycesteâs hatred to her Majesty The evill nature of ingratitude Lâycesters speeches of her Majesty in the time of his disgrace The causes of hatred in Leycester towards her Majesty The force of female suggestions An evident conclusion that the execution is meant in time of her Majesty An errour of the Father now to bee corrected by the Sonne Lawyer Gentleman Her Majestâes life and death to serve the conspiratours turne A Proclamation with halters Lawyer Papisticall blessing The statute of concealing the heire apparant Richard going towards Hierusalem began the custome by Parliament as Polidore noteth Anno 10. of Richard the second to declare the next heire The danger of our Countrey by concealing the next heire Great inconveniences Sir Christopher Hattons Oration Intollerable Treasons The miseries to follow upon her Majesties death The danger to her
subtile fiâe and sox I âe the âever he was â like wâll the good motion propounded by the foresaid Gentlemaâ to his frâend at the same time and doe assure my self âât would be most pleasant to the Realme ând profitâble to her Majâsty to wit that this mans actions might be called publiquâly to triall and liberty given to good subjects to say what they knâw against the same as it was permitted in the fiâst yeer of Kinâ Henry the eight agâinst his Grandfather and in the first of Queen Mary against his Father and then I would not doubt but if these two his Ancestors were found worthy to lose their heads for treason this man would not be found unworthy to make the third in kindred whose treacheries doe farre sââpasse them both After thâ Gentleman hâd saâd this âhe Lawyâr stood still somewhat smiling to himsâlfe looking round about him as though he had bin hâlfe afraid and then sâid My masters doe you read over or study the Statutes that come forth have you not heard of the proviâo madâ in the last Parliament for punishment of those who speake so broad of such mân as my Lârd of Leicâstâr is Yes said the Gentleman I hâve heârd how that my Lord of Leicâster was very carefull and dilâgent at thât time to have suâh a Law to passe against talkârs hoping bâlikâ that his L. undeâ tâat generall restrâiât mighââye the more quiââly in harbor from thâ tempest of menâ toâââs which âaââed busily at that time of diâârs hâs Lorâshâpâ actions and asianâ whiâh perhaps himsâlf would have wished to pâssâ wiâh âore sâcresie As of his discontântment and pââpârâtion to rebâllion upon Monsâeurs fiâst coâiâg inâo the Land of his disgrâce and chââkâ râcââveâ iâ Câuââ of thâ ãâã dââth of the nobâe Pââle of Essâx of thâs mâns hâstly ãâ¦ã widow whoâ he seât up ând downe thâ Coântâây âom hââse tââouse by privâew ãâ¦ã to avâid the sight knowledge of thâ Qâeeâes Mâjesty Aâd albeât he hâd notâon by usâd her at hiâ good king bâfâre for saâisfyiââ of hâs owne last but âlso mârried and remarried her for contentation of her friends yet denied he the sâme by solemne oath to her Majesty and received the holy Communion thereupon so good a conscience he hath and conseqâentlâ threatned most shârp revenge towards all subjects which should dâre to speake thereof and so for the conââaling both of this and other his doings which he desired not to have publâkâ no maâvaâle though his Lorâshâp were so diligent a proâuâer of that law fâr silence Indeed said I it is very probable that his Lordshâp wâs in great distresse about that time when Monsiâuâs matteâs were in hând and that he did many things and purposed more whâreof he desired lâssâ spâech âmong the people âspecially afterwards whân hâs said desigâements tooke nât place I was my sâlfe that yâer not fâr from Warwiâk when he câme thither from the Court a full Mââe content and when it was thâught most certainly throughoât the Realm that he would hâve takân armes sooâ after if the marriage of her Majesty wiâh Monsâeuâ hâd gone fârward The thiâg in Cambridge anâ in all the Couâtâey âs I roâe was in âvâry maâs ãâã and it was a wonder to see not oâely âhe counâenâncâs but alsâ the bâhâviour and to ãâã the bold spââches of all such as were of his fâction My Lârd himselfe had given oât a little before at ãâã worâh that thâ matteâ woulâ cosâ maây brâkân hââds before ãâ¦ã next and my Lord of Waâwiâk hâd sâid opânly at his table in Greânwiâh Sir ãâ¦ã bâing by if I be not decâived thââ ãâ¦ã not âo âe suffârâd I meane the marrââgâ whiâh woâdâ of his oââe câming abroad ãâ¦ã by his own Lady then also preâeât ãâ¦ã common compânioâ ãâ¦ã Lordships part against the Queenes Mâjesty Such running there was such seâding and posting about the Realme such amplification of the poweâs and forces of Casimâre and other Princes ready as was affirmed to present themselves unto his aid for dâfence of the Realme and Râligion against strangers for that was holden to be his cause such numbring of parties and complices within the Realme whereof himsâlfe shewed the Catalogue to some of his friânâs for their comfort such debasing of them thât fâvoureâ the marriâge especially two or three Counâellâurs by name who were said to be the câuse of all and for that were appointed out to be shaâply punâshed to the âerrour âf all others such letters were written and intercâpâed of purpose impârting great powers to be ready and so mâny other things done and designed tending all to mânifest and open warre as I began hartâly âo be afrâid and wished my selfe baâke at Cambridge againâ hoping that bâing therâây Scholârs gâwne should excuse âe from necâssiây of âighting or if not I wâs resolved by my Lords good leâve to follow Aâistotle who prefâârâth âlway the Lyon beâore the Beare assuring my selfe withall thât hiâ Lordship should hâve no bâtter succâsse in this if it came to âriâll then his Faâher hâd in as bad a cause and so much the more for that I wâs privie to the mindes of some of his friends who mânt to hâve deceived him âf âhe matteâ hâd broken out And amongst othâr there was a certaân Vice-prâsident in the Wââld who being left in theâr come and absence of another to pâocure friânds said in a place secreâly not fâr from Ludlâw that if the mattâr came to blâwes he would follow his Mistresse and leave his Mastâr in the briars Marry sir qd the Geâtlâman and I trow many more would have followed that example For albeit I know âhat the Pâpâsts were most named and misdâubâed of his part in that cause for their open indiâation towards Mânsieur consequently for greater discredit of the thing it selfe iâ was given out every where by this Champâon of religion that her Majesties cause was the Papists cause even as his Father hâd done in the like enterprise before him though all upon dissimulation as appeared at his death where he professed himself an earnest Papist yet was there no man so simple in âhe Râalm which descried not this vizârd at the fiâst neither yet any good subject as I suppose who sâeing her Mâjâsty on the one part would not have taken against the other part what so ever he had beene And much more the thâng it selfe in controversie I meane the marriage of her royall Mâjesty with the brother and heire apparant of France being taken and judged by the best wisâst and faithfâllest Protâstants of the Realme to be âoth honourable convenâent profitable and needfull Whereby onely as by a most soveraigne and present remedy all our maladies both abroad and at home had at once been cured all foâraign enemies and domestical conspirators all differences all dangers all feares had ceased together France had bâene ours most assured Spaiâe
or so I leave it to bâ tried hereafter between my yong Lord of âenbighe and Master Philip Sidney whom the same most concerneth for that it is likâ to deprive him of a goodly inheritance if it take place as some will say that in no reason it can not only in râspect of the precedent adultery and murder betweene the parties but also for that my Lord was contracted at least to another Lady before that yet lâveth whereof Master Edwââd Diaâ and Mâster Edmond Tiney both Courtâers can be witnesses and consumated the same contract by generation of children But thâs as I said must be left to be tried hereafter by them who shâll have most interest in the case Onely for the present I must advertise you that you may not take hold so exactly of all my L. doings in wâmens affaires neither touching their marriages neither yet thâir hâsbands For first his Lordship hath a speciall fortuâe that when he dâsireth any womans favour then whât person so evâr standeth in his way hath the luâk to dye quickly for the finishing of his desire As for âxample when his Lordship was in full hope to marry hâr Majâsty and his owne wife stood in his light as he supposed he did but send her aside to the house of his servant Forster of Cumner by Oxford where shortly after she had the chance to fall fâom a paire of stâires and so to breake her neck but yet wiâhout hurting of her hood that stood upon her head But Sir Riâhard Varney who by commandement remaâned with her that day alone with one man onâly and hâd sent away perforâe all her Sârvants from hâr to a Market two miles of hâ I sây wiâh his man can tâll how she died whiâh man being taken afterward for a fellony in the marâhes of Wales and offering to publish the manner of the said murder was made away privily in the prâson and Sâr Richarâ himsâlf dying abâut the same time in London cried pitioâsly ând bâaâphemed God and said to a Gentleman of worship of mine acquâintance not long before his death that all the divels in hell did teare him in pieces The wife also of Balâ Buttleâ kinsman to my Lord gâve out the whole fact a littâe bâfoâe her death Bât to return unto my purpose this was my Lords good fortun to have his wife dye at that time when it was like to turne most to his profit Long after this he fâll in love with the Lady Sheffiâld whom I signified bâfore and then also had he the same fortune to have her husband dye quickly with an extreame rheume in his head as it was given out but as others sây of an artificiall caâârre that stopped his breath The like good chance had he in the death of my Lord of Essex as I have said before and that ât a time most fortunate for hiâ purpose for when he was coming home from Ireland with intent to revenge himselfe upon my Lord of Leycester for begetting his wife with âhilde in his absânce the childe was a dauâhter and brought up by the Lady Shandoies W. Knooles his wifâ my Lord of Ley hearing therof wantâd not a friend or two to accompâny the Dâputy as among other a couple of the Earles owne servants Crompton if I misse not his name yeoman of his bottles and Llâiâhis âhis Secretary entertained afterwârd by my Lord of Leiâester and so he dyed in the way of an extreame flux caused by an Italian Rââipe as all his friends are well assured the mâker wheââof was a Chyâurgeon as is belâeved that thân was newly come to my Lord from Italy a cunning man and sâre in operation with whom if the gâod Lady had beene sooner acquainted and âsed his helpe shâ should not have needed to sitten so pensive at home and fearefull of her husbands former returne out of the same Countrây but might have spared the yong childe in her bâlly which she was enforced to make away cruelly and unnaturally for clearing the house against the good mans arrivall Neithâr must you mârvaile though all these died dâvers manners of outward diseases for this is the excellenây of the Iââlian art for which this Chyruâgian and Doctor Iulio wâre entertained so carefully who can makâ a mân dye in what manâer oâ shâw of siâknessâ you wâll by wâose instructâons âo doubt but hâs Lorâship is now cunning espâcially âdding also to âhese âhe counsell of his Doctor Bayây a man also noâ a little studied as he seemeth in his art for I heard him once my selfe in publique Act in Oxford and thât in presence of my Lord of Leicâster if I be not deceived maintain that poyson might so be tempâred and given as iâ should not appeâre presently and yet should kill thâ pârty afâerward at what time should be appointed Which aâgument belike pleased well his Loâdship and thââefore was chosen to be discussed in his audience if I be not deceived of hâs being that dây present So though one dye of a flux and aâoâher of a catarrâ yât âhis impârâeth ââttle to thâ matter but shewâth rathâr the great cunning and skill of the Arâificâr So Cardinall Chatilian aâ I hâve saiâ before having accused my Lârd of Leicester to thâ Qâeens Majesty and after thât pâssiâg from Lonâon towards France about the marriage died by the way at Canterbury of a burning fever and so proved Doctor Bayâieâ asserâion ârue that poyson may be given to kill at a day At this the Lawyer cast up his eyes to heaven and I stood somewhat musing and thinking of that which had beene spoken of the Earle of Essex whose case indeed moved me more then all the rest for that he was â very noble Gentleman a great advancer of true Religion a Pâtron to many Preachers anâ Students and towards me and some of my friends in pârâicular he had bâene in some things very benâficiall and therefore I said that it grieved me extreamly to heare or thinke of so unworthy a death contrived by such meanes to so worthy a Peere And so much the more for that it was my chance to come to the understanding of divers particulars concerning that thing both from one Lea an Irish-man Robin âonnies and others that were present at Pentereis the Merchants house in Dublin upon the Key where the murder was committed The matter was wrought especially by Crompton yeoman of the bottels by the procurement of Lloyd as you haue noted before and there was poysoned at the same time and with the same cup aâ given of curtesie by the Earle one Mistresse Alâs Draykot a goodly Gentlewoman whom the Earle affectioned much who departing thence towards her owne house which was 18. miles off the foresaid Lea accompanying her and waiting upon her she began to fall sick very grievously upon the way and continued with increase of paineâ and excessive torments by vomiting untill she died which was the
his first wâfe and so broken that contract then forsooth would he needs make himselfe Husband to the Queenes Majesty and so defeat all other Princes by vertue of his precontract But after thâs his lust compâlling to another place he would needs make a postcontract with the Lady Sheffiâld and so he did begetting two children upon her the one a boy called Robin Sheffiâld now living some time brought up at Newington and the other a daughter borne as is knowne at Dudley Castle But yet after his concupiscence changed againe as it never stayeth he resolved to make a retract of this postconârâct thâugh ât were as surely done as I have said as bed and Bible could make the same and to make a certaine new protract which is a continuation of using her for a time with the widow of Essex but yet to stop the mouâhes of out-criars and to bury the Synagogue with some honour for these two wives of Leicester were merrily and wittily called his old and new Testaments by a person of great excellency within the Realme he was content to assigne to the former a thousand pounds in money with other petty consideratioâs the pittifullest abused that âver was poore Lady and so betake his lims to the latter which latter notwithstanding he so useth as we see now confessing now forswearing now dissembling the marriage as he will alwayes yet keâpâ a void place for a new surcontract with any other when occasion shall require Now by my truth sir quoth I I never heard nor read the like to this in my life yet have I read much in my time of the carnalâty and licenciousnesse of divers outragious persons in this kinde of sin as namely these whom you have mentioned before especially the Emperour Heliogabaluâ who passed all other and was called Varius of the varity of filth which he used in this kinde of carnality or carnall beastlinesse whose death was that being at length odious to all men and so slain by his own Souldiers was drawn through the City upon the ground lâke a dog and cast into the common privy with this Epitaph Hic projectus est indomitae rabide libidinis catulus Here is thrown in the Whelpe of unruly and raging lust which Epitaph may also one day chance to serve my Lord of Leicester whom you call the Beare-whelp if he go forward as he hath begun and dye as he deserveth But good sir what a compassion is this that among us Christians namely in so wel governed and religious a Common-wealth as ours is such a riot should be permitted upon mens wives in a subject whereas we read that among the very Heathens lesse offences then these in the same kinde were extreamly punâshed in Princes themselves and that not onely in the person delinquent alone but also by extirpation of the whole family for his sake as appeareth in the example of the Tarquinians among the Romans And here also in our owne Realme we have registred in Chronicle how that one King Edwin above six hundred yeeres past was deprived of his Kingdome for much lesse scandalous facts then these I remember well the story quoth the Gentleman thereby doe easily make conjecture what difference there is betwixt those times of old and our dayes now seeing then a crowned Prince could not passe unpunished with one or two outragious acts whereas now a subject raised up but yesterday from the meaner sort rangeth at his pleasure in all licenciousnesse and that with security void of fear both of God and man No mans wife can be free from him whom his fiery lust liketh to abuse nor their husbands able to resist nor save from his violence if they shew dislike or will not yeeld their consent to his doings And if I should discover in particular how many good husbands he had plagued in this nature and for such delights it were intolerable for his concupiscence and violence do run joyntly together as in furious beasts we see they are accustomed Neither holdeth he any rule in his lust besides onely the motion and suggestion of his own sensuality kindred affinity or any other bând of consanguinity religion honour or honesty taketh no place in his outragious appetite what he best liketh that he taketh as lawfull for the time So that kinswoman allie friends wife or daughter or whatsoever female sort besides doth please his eye I leave out of purpose and for honour sake tearmes of kinred more neere that must yeeld to his desire The keeping of the Mother with two or three of her daughters at once or successively is no more with him then the eating of an Hen her chicken together There are not by report two noble women about her Majesty I speake upon some accompt of them âhat know much whom he hath not solicited by potent wayes neither contented with this place of honour he hath descended to seeke pasture among the waitiâg Gentlewomen of her Majâsties great chamber offering more for their allurement then I thinke Lais did commonly takâ in Corinth if three hundreth pounds for a night will make up the sum or if not yet will he make it up otherwise having reported himselfe so little shame he hath that he offered to another of higher place an 100 pound lands by the yeere with as many jewels as most women under her Majesty used in England which was no mean bait to one that used traffick in such merchandize she being but the leavings of anothâr man before him wherof my Lord is nothing squemish for satisfying of his lust but can be content as they sây to gather up crums when he is hungry even in the very Landry it selfe or other place of baser quality And albeit the Lord of his great mercy to doe him good no doubt if he were revokeable hath laid his hand upon him in some chastisement in this world by giving him a broken belly on both sides of his bowels whereby misery and putrifaction is threatned to him daily and to his yong Sonne by the widow of Essex being Filius peccati such a strange calamity of the falling sicknesse in his infancy as well may be a witnesse of the Parents sinne and wickednesse and of both their wasted natures in iniquity yet is this man nothing amended thereby but according to the custome of all old adulterers is more libidinous at this day then ever before more given to procure love in others by conjuring sorcery and other such meanes And albeit for himselfe both age and nature spent doe somewhat tame him from the act yet wanteth he not will as appeareth by the Italian ointment procured not many yeers pâst by his Chyrurgion or Mountibanke of that Countrey whereby as they say he is able to move his flesh at all times for keeking of his credit howsoever his inability be otherwise for performance as also one of his
afraid to meet them in the field as a Knight should have done His treacheries towards the noble late Earl of Sussex in their many breaches is notorious âo all England As also the bloody practises against divers others But as among many none were more odious and misliked of all men then those against Monsieur Simiers a stranger and Embassadour whom first he practised to have poisoned as hath bin touched before and when that device tooke not place then he appointed that Robin Tider his man as after upon his Ale-bench he confessed should have slaine him at the Blackfriars at Greenwich as he went forâh at the garden gate but missing also that purpose for that he found the Gentleman better provided and guarded then he expected he dealt with certaine Flushiâers and other Pirates to sinke him at Sea with the English Gentlemen his favourers that accompanied him at his returne into France And though they missed of this practice also as not daring to set upon him for feare of some of her Majesties ships who to breake off this designment attended by speciall commandement to waft him over in safety yet the foresaid English Gentlemen were holden foure houres in chace at their coming backe as Master Rawley well knoweth being then present and two of the chasers namâd Clark and Harris confessed afterward the whole designment The Earl of Ormond in likewise hath often declared and will avouch it to my Lord of Leicesters face whensoever he shall be called to the same that at such time as this man had a quarell with him and thereby was likely to be enforced to the field which he trembled to thinke of he first sought by all meanes to get him made away by secret murder offering five hundred pounds for the doing thereof And secondly when that device tooke no place he appointed with him the field but secretly suborning his servant William Killigre to lye in the way where Ormond should passe and so to massacre him with a caliver before he came to the place appointed Which murder though it tooke no effect for that the matter was taken up before the day of meeting yet was Killigre placed afterward in her Majesties privy Chamber by Leicester for shewing his ready minde to doe for his Master so faithfull a service So faithfull a service quoth I truly in my opinion it was but an unfit preferment for so facinorous a fact And as I would be loth thaâ many of his Italians or other of that art should come nigh about her Majesties kitchen so much lesse would I that many such his bloody Champions should be placed by him in her Highnesse chamber Albeit for this Gentleman in particular it may be that with change of his place in service he hath changed also his minde and affection and received better instruction in the feare of the Lord. But yet in general I must needs say that it cannot be but prejudiciall and exceeding dangerous unto our noble Prince and Realme that any one man whatsoever especially such a one as the world taketh this man to be should grow to so absolute authority and commandry in the Court as to place about the Princes person the head the heart the life of the land whatsoever people liketh him best and that now upon their deserts towards the Prince but towards himselfe whose fidelity being more obliged to their advancer then to their soveraigne doe serve for watchmen about the same for the profit of him by whose appointment they were placed Who by their meanes casting indeed but nets and chaines and invisible bands about that person whom most of all he pretendeth to serve he shutteth up his Prince in a prison most sure though sweet and senselesse Neither is this art of aspiring new or strange unto any man that is experienced in affairâs of former time for that it hath been from the beginning of all government a troden path of all aspirers In the stories both sacred and prophane foraine and domesticall of all Nations Kingdomes Countries and States you shall read that such as ment to mount above others and to governe all at their owne discretion did lay this for the first ground and principle of their purpose to possesse themselves of all such as were in place about the principall even as he who intending to hold a great City at his owne disposition dareth not mak open war against the same getteth secretly into his hands or at his devotion al the Towns Villages Castles Fortresses bulwarks Rampires Waters Wayes Ports and Passages about the same and so without drawing any sword against the said City he bringeth the same into bondage to abide his will and pleasure This did all these in the Roman Empire who rose from subjects to be great Princes and to put downe Emperours This did all those in France and other Kingdomes who at sundry times have tyrannized their Princes And in our owne Countrey the examples are manifest of Vortiger Harold Henry of Lancaster Richard of Warwicke Richard of Glocester Iohn of Northumberland and divers others who by this meane specially have pulled downe their lawfull Soveraignes And to speake onely a word or two of the last for that he was this mans Father doth not all England know that he first overthrew the good Duke of Somerset by drawing to his devotion the very servants and friends of the said Dâke And afteâward did not he possesse himselfe of the Kings owne person and brought him to the end which is knowne and before that to the most shamefull disheriting of his owne royall Sisters and all this by possessing first the principall men that were in authority about him Wherefore sir if my Lord of Leicester have the same plot in his head as most men thinke and that he meaneth one day to give the same push at the Crowne by the House of Huntington against all the race and line of King Henry the seventh in generall which his Father gave before him by pretence of the House of Suffolke against the Children of King Henry the eight in particular he wanteth not reason to follow the same meanes and platform of planting speciall persons for his purpose about the Prince for surely his fathers plot lacked no witty device or preparation but onely that God overthrew it at the instant as happely he may doe this mans also notwithstanding any diligence that humane wisedome can use to the contrary To this said the Gentleman that my Lord of Leycester hath a purpose to shoot one day at the Diadem by the title of Huntington is not a thing obscure in it selfe and it shall bee more plainly proved hereafter But now will I shew unto you for your instruction how well this man hath followed his fathers platforme or rather passed the same in possessing himselâe of all her Majesties servants friends and forces to serve his turne at that time for execution and in the meane space for
Court seeing that hee hath so many wayes and meanes to encrease enrich and encourage the same and so strong abilities to tread dowâe his enemies The common speech of many wanteth not reason I perceive which calleth him the heart and life of the Court. They which cal him the heaât said the Gentleman upon a little occasion more would call him also the head and then I marvell what should bee left for her Majesty when they take from her both life heart and headship in her own Realme But the truth is that he hath the Court at this day in almost the same case as his father had it in King Edwards dâyâs by the same device the Lord forbid that ever it come fully to the same state for then we know what ensued to the principall and if you will hâve an evident demonstration of this mans power and favâur in that place call you but to minde the times when her Majesty upon most just and urgent occâsions did withdraw but a little her wonted favour and countenance towârds him did not all the Court as it were mutiny presently did not every man hang the lippe except a few who afterward paid sweetly for their mirth were there not every day new devices sought out that some should be on their knees to her Majesty some should weepe and put finger in their eyes other should find our certaine covert manner of threatning other reasons and perswasions of love other of profit other of honour other of nââessity and all to get him recalled back to favour againe And had her Mâjesty any rest permitted unto her untill she had yeelded and granted to the same Consider then I pray you that if at that time in his disgrace he had his faction so fast assured to himself what hath he now in his prosperity after so many yeares of fortification wherin by all reason he hath not been negligent seeing that in policy the first point of good fortification is to make that fort impregnable which once hath been in danger to be lost Wherof you have an example in Riâharâ Duke of York in the time of K. Henry the sixt who being once in the Kings hands by his own submission and dismissed againe when for his desârts he should have suffered provided after the King should never be able to over-reach hâm the second time or havâ him in his power to do him hurt but mâde himselfe strong enough to pull downe the other wiâh extirpation of his family And this of the Court houshold and Chamber of her Majesty But now if we shall passe from Couât to Councell we shall find him no lesse fortified but rather more for albeit the providence of God hath bin such that in this most honourable assemblie there hath not wanted some two or three of the wisest gravâst and most experienced in our state that have seen and marked this mans perillous proceedings from the beginning wherof notwithstanding two are now deceased and their placeâ supplied to Leyceâters good liking yet alas the wisdom of these worthy men hath discovered alwayes more then their authorities were able to redresse the others great power and violence considered and for the residue of that bench and table though I doubt not but there be divers who do in heart detest his doingâ as there were also no doubt among the Councellours of King Edward who misliketh this mans fathers attempts though not so hardy as to contrary the same yet for most part of the Councell present they are known to be so affected in particular the one for that he is to him a Brother the other a Father the other a Kinsman the other an allie the other a fast obliged friend the other a fellow or follower in faction as none will stand in the breach against him none dare resist or encounter his designemeât but every man yeelding rather to the force of his flow permitteth him to pierce and passe at his pleasure in whatsoever his will is once setled to obtaine And hereof were I not staied for respect of some whom I may not name I could alledge strang examples not so much in affaires belonging to subjects and to privat men as were the cause of Snowden forrest Denbigh of Kilâingworth of his faire Pâstures fouly procured by Southam of the Archbâsh of Canterbury of the L. Baâkley of Sir Iohn Throgmarton of M. Robânson and the like wherin those of the Councell that disliked his doings least dâred to oppose themselves to the same but also in things that appertaine directly to the Crown and dignity to the State and Common-weal and to the safety and continuance therof It is not secure for any one Councellor or other of authority to take notice of my Lords errours or misdeeds but with extreame perill of their owne ruine As for example in the beginning of the rebellion in Ireland when my Lord of Leycester was in some disgrace and consequently as hee imâgined but in fraile state at home he thought it not unexpedient for his better assurance to hold some intelligence also that way for all events and so he did whereof there was so good evidence and testimony found upon one of the first of accompt that was there slaine as honourable personages of their knowledge have assured me as would have beene sufficient to touch the life of any subject in the land or in any state Christian but onely my Lord of Leycester who is a subject without subjâction For what thinke you durst any man take notice hereof or avouch that he had seen thus much durst he that tooke it in Ireland deliver the same where especially hee should have done or they who received it in England for it came to great hands use it to the benefit of their Princesse and Countrey No surely for if it had beene but onely suspected that they had seene such a thing it would have beene as dangerous unto them as it was to Action to have seene Diana and her maidens naked whose case is so common now in England as nothing more and so doe the examples of divers well declare whose unfortunate knowledge of too many secrers brought them quickly to unfortunate ends For we heare of one Salvatour a stranger long used in great mysteries of base affaires and dishonest actions who afterward upon what demerit I know not sustained a hard fortune for being late with my Lord in his study well neare untill midnight if I be righâly informed went home to his chamber and the next morning was found slaine in his bed Wee heare also of one Doughây hanged in haste by Captaine Drake upon the Sea and that by order as is thought before his departure out of England for that he was over privy to the secrets of this good Earle There was also this last Summer past one Gates hanged at Tiborne umong others for robbing of Carriers which Gates had beene lately Clârke of my Lords
hath little cause to be solicitour for that God himselfe taketh care commonly that goods and honours so gotten and maintained as hiâ be shall never trouble the third heire Marry for himselfe I confesse the matter standing as you sây that he hath reason to forbeare that Country and to leave off his building begun at Denbigh as I heare say he hath done for that the universall hatred of a people is a perilous matter and if I were in his Lordships case I should often thinke of the end of Nero who after all his glory upon fury of the people was adjudged to have his head thrust into a Piloây and so to be beaten to death with rods and thongs Or rather I should feare the successe of Vitellius the third Empâror after Nero who for his wickednesse and oppression of the people was tâken by them at length when fortune began to faââeâh hâm and led out of his Palace naked with hooks of Iron fastned in his flâsh and so drâwn through the City with infamy whâre loâen in the streets with filth and ordure cast upon him and a priâk put under his chin to the end he should not loâke downe or hide hiâ fâce was brought to the banke of Tyber and there afâer many hundred wounds received was cast into the river So implacable a thing is the furâur of a muâtitude whân it is once stirred and hath place of reveâge And so heavy is the hand of God upon tyrants ân this world when it pleaseth his divine Majesty to take revenge of the same I have read in Leanâer in his description of Italy how that in Spoleto if I be not dâceived the chiefe City of the Country of Umbria there was a strange tyrant who in the time of his prosperity contemned all men and forbare to injury no man that came within his claws esteeming himself sure enough for ever being called to render account in this life and for the next he cared little But God upon the sudden turned upside-downe the wheele of his felicity and cast him into the peoples hands who tooke him and bound his naked body upon a planke in the Mârket place with a fire and iron tongues by him and then made proclamation that seeing this man was not otherwise able to make satisfaction for the publique injuries that he had done every private person annoyed by him should come in order and with the hot-burning tongues there ready should take of his flesh so much as was correspondent to the injury received as indeed they did untill the miserable man gave up the ghost and after too as this author writeth But to the purpose seeing my Lord careth little for such examples and is become so hardy now as he maketh no account to injury and oppresse whole Countries and Commonalties together it shall be bootlesse to speake of his proceedings towards particular men who have not so great strength to resist as a multitude hâth And yet I can assure you that there are so many and so pitifull things published daily of his tyranny in this kinde as doe move great compossion towards the party that doe suffer and horrour agâinst him who shameth not daily to offer such injury As for example whose heart would not bleed to heare the case before mentioned of Mâster Robinson of Staffordshire a proper yong Gentleman and well given both in religion and other vertues whose Father died at Newhaven in her Mâjâsties service under this mans brother the Earlâ of Warwick and recommended at his death this his eldest Son to the special protection of Leicester and his Brother whose servant also this Robinson hath bin from his youth upward and spent the most of his living in his service Yet notwithstanding all this when Robinsons Lands were intangled with a certaine Londoner upon interest forâs former maintenance in their service whose title my Lord of Leicester though craftily yet not covertly under Ferris his cloak had gotten to himselfe he ceased not to pursue the poore Gentleman even to imprisonment arraignment and sentence of death for greedinesse of the said living together with the vexation of his brother in law Master Harcourt and all other his friends upon pretence forsooth that there was a man slaine by Robinsons party in defence of his owne possession against Leicesters intruders that would by violence breake into the same What shall I speake of others whereof there would be no end as of his dealing with Mâster Richard Lee for his Manor of Hooknorton if I faile not in the name with Master Ludowick Grivell by seeking to bereave him of all his lâving at once if the drift had taken place with George Witney in the behalfe of Sir Henry Leâgh for inforcing him to forgoe the Controlership at Woodstock which he holdeth by Patent from King Henây the seventh with my Lord Barkley whom he enforced to yeeld up his lands to hâs brother Warwick which his ancestors had held quietly for almost two hundreâh yeeres together What shall I say of his intollerable tyranny upon the last Arâhbishop of Canterbury fâr Dâctor Iulio his sâke and that in so foule a matteâ Vpon Sir Iohn Thâoâmaâton whom he brought pitifully to his grave before his time by continuall vexations for a peece of faithfull service done by him to his Countrey and to all the line of King Henry against this mans Father in King Edward and Queen Maries dayes Upon divers of the Lanes for one mans sake of that name before mentioned that offered to take Killing worth-Castle upon some of the Giffords and other for Throgmartons sake for that is also his Lords disposition for one mans cause whom he brooketh not to plague a whole generation that any way pertaineth or is allied to the same his endlesse persecuting of Sir Drew Drewây and many other Courtiers both men and women All these I say and many others who daily suffer injuries rapines and opprâssions at his hands throughout the Realme what should it availe to name them in thâs place seeing neither his Lord careth any thâng for the same neither the parties agrieved are like to attain any least release of affliction thereby but rather âouble oppression for their complaining Wherâfore to return again wheras we began you see by this little who and how great what manner of mân my Lord of Leycester is this day in the state of England You see and may gather in some part by that which hath bin spoken his wealth his strength his cunning his disposition His wealth is excessive in all kinde of riches for a private man and must needs be much more then any body lightly can imagine for the infinite wayes he hath had of gaine so many yeâres together His strength and power is absolute and irresistable as hath beene shâwed both in Chamber Court Councell and Country His cunning in plotting and fortifying the same
owne passion and leese his commodity As for that which is alleadged before for my Lord in the reason of his Defenders that his present state is so prosperous as hee cannot expect better in the next change whatsoever should be is of small moment in the conceipt of an ambitious head whose eye and heart is alwayes upon that which he hopeth for and enjoyeth not and not upon that which already hee possesseth be it never so good Especially in matters of honour and authority it is an infallible rule that one degree desired and not obtained afflicteth more then five degrees already possessed can give consolation the story of Duke Hamân confirmeth this evidently who being the greatest subject in the World under King Assuerus after he had reckoned up all his pompe riches glory and felicity to his friends yet hee said that all this was nothing unto him untill he could obtaine the revenge which hee desired upon Maâdâchaeus his enemy and hereby it commeth ordinarily to passe that among highest in authority are found the greatest store of Male-contents that most doe endanger their Prince and Countrey When the Percies took part with Henry of Bolingbrooke against King Richard the second their lawfull Soveraigne it was not for lack of preferment for they were exceedingly advanced by the said King and possessed the three Earledomes of Northumberland Worâester and Stafford together besides many other offices and dignities of honour In like sort when the two Neviles tooke upon them to joyne with Richard of Yorke to put downe their most benigne Prince King Henry the sixt and after again in the other side to put downe King Edward the fourth it was not upon want of advancement they being Earles both of Salisbury and Warwick and Lords of many notable places besides But it was upon a vaine imagination of future fortune whereby such men are commonly led and yet had not they any smell in their nostrils of getting the Kingdome for themselves as this man hath to prick him forward If you say that these men hated their Soveraigne and that thereby they were led to procure his destruction the same I may answer of my Lord living though of all men he hath least cause so to do But yet such is the nature of wicked ingratitude that where it oweth most and disdaineth to be bound there upon every little discontentment it turneth double obligation into triple hatred This he shewed evidently in the time of his little disgrace wherein hee noâ onely did diminish vilipend and debase among his friends the inestimable benefits hee hath received from her Majestie but also used to exprobrate his owne good services and merits and to touch her highnesse with ingrate consideration and recompence of the same which behaviour together with his hasty preparation to rebellion and assault of her Majesties Royall person and dignity upon so small a cause given did well shew what minde inwardly he beareth to his Soveraigne and what her Majesty may expect if by offending him shee should once fall within the compasse of his furious pawes seeing such a smoke of disdainâ could not proceed but from a fierie fornace of hatred within And surely it is a wonderfull matter to consider what a little check or rather the bare imagination of a small overthwart may worke in a proud and disdainfull stomâcke The remembrance of his marriagâ missâd that hee so much pretended and desired with her Majestie doth sticke deeply in his breâst and stirreth him daily to revenge As also doth the disdaine of certaine checks and disgraces received aâ sometimes especially that of his last marriage which irketh him so much the more by how much greater feare and danger it brought him into at that time and did put his Widow in such open phrensie as shee raged many moneths after against her Majestie and is not cold yet but remaineth as it were a sworne enemy for that injury and standeth like a fiend or fury at the elbow of her Amadis to stirre him forward when occasion shall serve And what effect such female suggestions may worke when they finde an humour proud and pliable to their purpose you may remember by the example of the Duchesse of Somerset who inforced her Husband to cut off the head of his onely deare Brother to his owne evident destruction for her contentation Wherefore to conclude this matter without further dispute or reason saying there is so much discovered in the case as there is so great desire of raigne so great impatience of delay so great hope and hability of successe if it be attempted under the good fortune and present authority of the competitours seeing the plots be so well laid the preparation so forward the favourers so furnished the time so propitious and so many other causes conviting together seeing that by differing all may be hazarded and by hastening little can be indangered the state and condition of things well weyed finding also the bands of duty so broken already in the conspiratours the causes of mislike and hatred so manifest and the solicitours to exâcution so potent and diligent as women malice and ambition are wont to bee it is more then probable that they will not leese their present commodity especially seeing they have learned by their Archi-tipe or Proto-plot which they follow I meane the conspiracy of Northumberland and Suffolke in King Edwards dayes that herein there was some errour committed at that time which overthrew the whole and that was the deferring of some things untill after the Kings death which should have beene put in execution before For if in the time of their plotting when as yet their designements were not published to the world they had under the countenance of the King as well they might have done gotten into their hands the two Sisters and dispatched some other few affaires before they had caused the young Prince to die no dobut but in mans reason the whole designement had taken place and consequently it is to be presupposed that these men being no fooles in their owne affaires will take heed of falling into the like errour by delay but rather will make all sure by striking while the iron is hot as our proverbe warneth them It cannot bee denied in reason quoth the Lawyer but that they have many helpes of doing what they list now under the present a favour countenance and authority of her Majesty which they should not have after her Highnesse decease when each man shall remaine more at liberty for his supreame obedience by reason of the statute provided for the uncertainty of the next successor and therefore I for my part would rather counsell them to make much of her Majesties life for after that they little know what may ensue or befall their designements They will make the most thereof quoth the Gentleman for their owne advantage but after that what is like to follow the examples
the House of Yorke before the union of the two great Houses raiseth up againe the old contention betweene the Families of Yoâke and Lancaster wherein so much English bloud was spilt in times past and much more like to bee powred out now if the same contention should bee set on foot againe Seeing that to the controversie of Titles would bee added also the controversie of Religion which of all other differences is most dangerous Sir quoth the Gentleman now you touch a matter of consequence indeed and such as the very naming thereof maketh my heart to shake and tremble I remember well what Philip Cominus setteth downe in his History of our Countries calamity by that contention of those two Houses distinguished by the Red Rose and the White but yet both in their Armes might justly have borne the colour of Red with a fierie sword in a black field to signifie the abundance of bloud and mortality which ensued in our Countrey by that most wofull and cruell contention I will not stand here to set downe the particulars observed gathered by the foresaid author though a stranger which for the most part he saw himselfe while hee lived about the Duke of Burgundy and King Lewes of France of that time namely the pittifull description of divers right Noble men of our Realme who besides all other miseries were driven to begge openly in forraine Countries and the like Mine owne observation in reading over our Country affaires is sufficient to make me abhorre the memory of that time and to dread all occasion that may âead us to the like in time to come seeing that in my judgement neither the Civill warres of Marius and Silla or of Pompey and Caesar among the Romanes nor yet the Guelphians and Gibilines among the Italians did ever worke so much woe as this did to our poore Countrey Wherein by reason of the contention of Yorke and Lancaster were foughten sixteene or seventeen pitched fields in lesse then an hundred yeares That is from the eleventh or twelfth yeare of King Richard the second his raigne when this controversie first began to bud up unto the thirteenth yeare of K. Henry the seventh At what time by cutting off the chiefe titler of Huntingtons house to wit yong Edward Plantaginet Earle of Warwick Son and Heire to George Duke of Clarence the contention most happily was quenched and ended wherein so many fields as I have said were foughten between Brethren and Inhabitants of our owne Nation And therein and otherwise onely about the same quarrel were slaââ murdered and made away about nine or ten Kings and Kings Sonnes besides above forty Earles Marquesses and Dukes of name but many more Lords Knights and great Gentlemen and Captaines and of the Common people without number and by particular conjecture very neare two hundred thousand For that in one Battell fought by King Edward the fourth there are recorded to be slaine on both parts five and thirty thousand seven hundred and eleven persons besides others wounded and taken prisoners to be put to death afterward at the pleasure of the Conquerour at divers Battels after ten thousand slaine at a Battell And in those of Barnet and Tukesbury fought both in one yeare This suffered our afflicted Country in those dayes by this unfortunate and deadly contention which could never be ended but by the happy conjunction of those two Houses tâgether in Henry the seventh neither yet so as appeareth by Chronicle untill as I have said the state had cut off the issue male oâ the Duke of Clarence who was cause of divers perilâ to King Henry the sevenâh though he were in prison By whose Sister the faction of Huntinâton at thiâ day doth seeke to raise up the same contention againe with farre greater danger both to the Reaâmâ and to her Majesty that now raigneth then ever before And for the Realme it is evident by that it givetâ roome to strangers Competitours of the House oâ Lancaster better able to maintaine their owne titlâ by sword then ever was any of that linage before tâem And for her Majesties perill present it is nothing hard to conjecturâ seeing the same title in thâ fore-said Earle of Warwick was so dangerous anâ troublesome to her Grandfather by whom she holdeth as hee was faine twiââ to take armâs in defence of his right against the said title which was in those dayes preferred and advanced by the friendâ of Clarence before that of Henry as also this of Huntington is at this day by his faction before that of her Majesty though never so unjustly Touching Huntingtons title before her Majesty quoth the Lawyer I will say nothing because in reason I see not by what pretence in the World he may thrust himselfe so farre forth seeing her Majesty is descendâd not onely of the House of Lancaste but also before him most apparentây from the House of Yorke it selfe as from the eldest Daughter of Kâng Edwârd the fourth being the eldest Brother of that House Whereas Huntington claimeth onely by the Daughter of George Duke of Clarence the younger Broâher Marry yet I must confesse that if the Earle of Warwicks title were better then that of King Henry the seventh which is most false though many attempted to defend the same by sword then hath Huntângton some wrong at this day by her Majesty Albeit in very truth the atâaints of so many of his Ancestours by whom he claâmâth would answer him also sufficiently in that behalfe if his title were otherwise allowable But I know besides this they have another fetch of King Richard the third whereby he would needs prove hâs elder Brother King Edwaâd to bee a Bastard and consequently his whole line aswell male as female to be void Which devise though it be ridiculous and was at that time when it was first invented yet as Richard found at that time a Doctor Shaw that shamed not to publish and defend the same at Pauls Crosse in a Sermon and John of Northumberland my Lord of Lâyceââers Father found out divers Preachers in his time to set up the title of Suffolke to debase the right of K. Henries daughter both in London Cambridge Oxford and other places most apparently against all Law and reason so I doubt not but these men would finde out also both Shawes Sands and others to set out the title of Clareâce before the whole interest of King Henry the seventh and his posterity if occasion served Which is a point of importance to bee considered by her Majesty albeit for my part I meane not not now to stand thereupon but onely upon that other of the House of Lancaster as I have said For as that most honourable lawfull and happy conjunction of the two adversary Houses in King Henry the seventh and his Wife made an end of the shedding of English bloud within it selfe and brought us that most
desired peace which ever since wee have enjoyed by the raigne of their two most noble issue so the plot that now is in hand for the cutting off the residue of that issue and for recalling backe of the whole Title to the House of Yorke againe is like to plung us deeper then ever in civile discord and to make us the bait of all forraine Princes seeing there be among them at this day some of no small power as I have said who pretend to bee the next heires by the House of Lancaster and consequently are not like to give over or abandon their owne right if once the doore bee opened to contention for the same by disanulling the Line of King Henry the seventh wherein onely the keyes of all concord remaine knit together And albeit I know well that such as be of my Lord of Huntingtons party will make small accompt of the Title ãâã Lancasteâ as lesse rightfull a great deale then that of Yorke and I for my part meane not greatly to avow the same as now it is placed being my selfe no favourer of forraine Titles yet indifferent men have to consider how it was taken in times past and how it may againe in time to come if contention should arise how many Noble personages of our Realme did offer themselves to die in defence thereof how many Oaths and Lawes were given and received throughout the Realme for maintenance of the same against the other House of Yorke for ever how many worthy Kings were crowned and raigned of that House and Race to wit the foure most Noble Henries one after another the fourth the fift the sixt and the seventh who both in number government sanctity courage and feats of armes were nothing inferiour if not superiour to those of the other House and Line of Yorke after the division betweene the Families It is to bee considered also as a speciall signe of the favour and affection of our whole Nation unto that Family that Henry Earle of Richmond though discending but of the last Sonne and third Wife of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster was so respected for that onely by the universall Realme as they inclined wholly to call him from banishment and to make him King with the deposition of Richard which then ruled of the House of Yorke upon condition onely that the said Henry should take to Wife a Daughter of the contrary Family so great was in those dayes the affection of English hearts towards the Line of Lancaster for the great worthinesse of such Kings as had raigned of that Race how good or bad soever their Title were which I stand not here at this time to discusse but onely to insinuate what party the same found in our Realme in times past and consequently how extreame dangerous the contention for the same may be hereafter especially seeing that at this day the remainder of that Title is pretended to rest wholly in a stranger whose power is very great Which we Lawyers are wont to esteeme as a point of no smaâl importance for justifying of any mans title âo a Kingdome You Lawyers want not reason in that Sir quoth I howsoever you want right for if you will examine the succession of governements from the beginning of the Wârld untill this day either among Gentile Jew or Christian people you shall finde that the sword haâh âeene alwayes bâtter thân halfe the title to get estâbliâh or maintaâne a Kingdome which maketh ãâã âhââore apalled to heare you discourse in such sort of new contentions and forraine titles accompanied wâth such power and strength of the titlers which cannot bee but infinitely dangerous and fatall to our Realme if once it come to actâon both for the division thât is like to be at home and the variety of partâes from abâoad For as the Prince whoâ you signifie will not faile by all likelyhood to pursue his title with all forces that hee can make if occasion were offered so reason of state and policy will enforce other Princes adjoyning to let and hinder him therein what they can and so by this meanes shâll we become Juda and Isrâel among our selves one killing and vexing the othâr with the sword and to forraine Princes we shall be as the Iland of Salamina was in old time to the Athenians and Megatians and as the Iland of Cicilia was afterward to the Grecians Carthaginians and Romans and as in our dayes the Kingdome of Naples hath beene to the Spaniards French-men Germans and Venetians That is a bait to feed upon and a game to fight for Wherefore I beseech the Lord to avert from us all occasions of such miseries And I pray you Sir for that wee are fallen into the mention of these matters to take so much paines as to open unto me the ground of these controversies so long now quiet betweene Yorke and Lancaster seeing they are now like to bee raised againe For albeit in generall I have heard much thereof yet in particular I either conceive not or remember not the foundation of the same and much lesse thâ state of their severall titles at this day for that it is a study not properly pertaining unto my profession The controversie betweene the Houses of Yorke and Lancaster quoth the Lawyer took his actuall beginning in the issue of King Edward the third who died somewhat more then two hundred yeares agone but the occasion pretence or cause of that quarrell began in the children of King Henry the third who died an hundred yeares before that and left two Sonnes Edward who was King after him by the name of Edward the first and was Grandfather to Edward the third and Edmond for his deformity called Crookebacke Earle of Lancaster and beginner of that House whose inheritance afterward in the fourth discent fell upon a Daughter named Blanch who was married to the fourth Son of King Edward the third named John of Gaunt for that he was borne in the City of Gaunt in Flanders and so by this his first wife hee became Duke of Lancaster and heire of that House And for that his Son Henry of Bolingbrooke afterward called King Henry the fourth pretended among other things that Edmond Crookeback great Grandfather to Blanch his mother was the elder Sonne of King Henry the third and unjustly put by the inheritance of the Crowne for that he was Crook-backed and deformed hee tooke by force the Kingdome from Richard the second Nephew to King Edward the third by his first Sonne and placed the same in the House of Lancaster where it remained for three whole discents untill afterward Edward Duke of Yorke descended of Iohn of Gaunts yonger brother making claime to the Crowne by title of his Grandmother that was heire to Lionel Duke of Clarence Iohn of Gaunts elder Brother tooke the same by force from Henry the sixt of the House of Lancaster and brought it backe againe to the
House of Yorke where it continued with much trouble in two Kings onely untill both Houses were joyned together in King Henry the seventh and his noble issue Hereby wee see how the issue of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster fourth Son to King Edward the third pretended right to the Crowne by Edmond Crookebacke before the issue of all the other three Sonnes of Edward the third albeit they were the elder Brothers whereof wee will speake more hereafter Now Iohn of Gaunt though hee had many children yet had he foure onely of whom issue remaine two Sonnes and two Daughters The first Son was Henry of Bolingbrooke Duke of Lancaster who tooke the Crowne from King Richard the second his Unkles Sonne as hath beene said and first of all planted the same in the House of Lancaster where it remained in two discents after him that is in his Son Henry the fift and in his Nephew Henry the sixt who was afterward destroyed together with Henry Prince of Wales his onely Sonne and Heire and consequently all that Line of Henry Bolingbâooke extinguished by Edward the fourth of the House of Yorke The other Son of Iohn of Gaunt was Iohn Duke of Somersât by Katherine Sfinsford his third wife which Iohn had issue another Iohn and he Margaret his Daughter and Heire who being married to Edmond Tyder Earle of Richmond had issue Henry Earle of Richmond who after was named King Henry the seventh whose Line yet endureth The two Daughters of John of Gaunt were married to Portugall and Castile that is Philip borne of Blanch Heire to Edmond Crookeback as hath beene said was married to Iohn King of Portugall of whom is descended the King that now possesseth Portugall and the other Princes which have or may make title to the same and Katherin borne of Constanâe Heire of Castile was married back againe to Henry King of Castile in Spaine of whom King Philip is also descended So that by this wee see where the remainder of the House of Lancaster resteth if the Line of King Henry the seventh were extinguished and what pretext forraine Princes may have to subdue us if my Lord of Huntington either now or after hâr Majesties dayes will open to them the doore by shutting out the rest of King Henries Line and by drawing backe the title to the onely House of Yorke againe which he pretendeth to doe upon this that I will now declare King Edward the third albeit he had many children yet five onely will we speake of at this time Whereof three were elder then Jâhn of Gaunt and one yonger The first of the elder was named Edward the blacke Prince who died before his Father leaving one onely Sonne named Richard who afterward being King and named Richard the second was deposed without issue and put to death by his Cosin germain named Henry Bolingbrooke Duke of Lancaster Son to John of Gaunt as hath beene said and so there ended the Line of King Edwards first Sonne King Edwards second Sonne was William of Hatfââld that died without issue His third Sonne was Leonell Duke of Clarence whose onely Daughter and Heire called Phââip was married to Edmond Mortimer Earle oâ Marcâ and after that Anneâhe âhe Daughter and Heire of Mortimer was married to Richard Plantagiâet Duke of Yorke Son and Heire to Edmond of Langâây the first Duke of Yorkâ which Edmond was the fift Son of King Edward the third and younger Brother to John of Gaunt And this Edmond of Lanâley may bee called the first beginner of the Hâuse of Yorke even as Edmond Crookback the beginner of the House of Lancaster This Edmond Langley then having a Sonne named Richard that married Anne Mortimer sole Heire to Leonell Duke of Clarence joyned two Lines and two Titles in one I meane the Line of Leonell and of Edmond Langley who were as hath bin said the third and the fift Sonnes to King Edward the third And for this cause the childe that was borne of this marriage named after his Father Richard Plantaginet Duke of Yorke seeing himselfe strong and the first Line of King Edward the thirds eldest Son to be extinguished in the death of King Richard the second and seeing William of Hatfield the second Sonne dead likewise without issâe made demand of the Crowne for the House of Yorke by the title of Leonell the third Sonne of King Edward And albeit hee could not obtaine the same in his dayes for that hee was slaine in a Battell against King Henry the sixt at Wakefield yet his Sonne Edward got the same and was called by the name of King Edward the fourth This King at his death left divers children as namely two Sonnes Edward the fift and his Brother who after were both murdered in the Tower as shall be shewed and also five Daughters to wit Elizabeth Cicily Anne Katherine and Briget Whereof the first was married to Henry the seventh The last became a Nunne and the other three were bestowed upon divers other husbands Hee had alâo two Brothers the first was called George Duke of âlarence who afterward upon his deserts as is to be supposed was put to death in Callis by commandement of the King and his attainder allowed by Parliamânt And this man left behinde him a Sonne named Edward Earle of Warwick put to death afterward without issue by King Henry the seventh and a Daughter named Margaret Countessâ of âalisâury who was married to a meane Gentleman named Richarâ Poole by whom she had issue Cardinall Poole that died without marriage and Henry Poole that was attainted and executed ân King Henry the eight his time as also her selfe was and this Henry Poole left a Daughter married afterward to the Earle of Huntington by whom this Earle that now is maketh title to the Crowne And this is the effect of my Lord of Huntingtons title The second Brother of King Edward the fourth was Richard Duke of Gâocester who after the Kings death caused his two Sonnes to be murdered in the Tower and tooke the Kingdome to himselfe And afterward he being slaine by King Henry the seventh at Bosââorth-field left no issue behind him Wherefore King Henry the seventh descending as hath bin shewed of the House of Lancaster by John of Gaunts last Sonne and third Wife and taking to Wife Lady âlizabeth eldest daughter of King Edward the fourth of the House of Yorke joyned most happily the two Families together and made an end of all controversies about the title Now King Henry the seventh had issue three Children of whom remaineth posterity First Henry the eighth of whom is descended our Soveraigne her Majesty that now happily raigneth and is the last that remaineth alive of that first Line Secondly he had two Daughters whereof the first named Margaret was married twice first to James King of Scotland from whom are directly discended the Queene of Scotland that now liveth and her Sonne and
house of Suffolk bâfore them both A notable change quoâh the Gântleman that a title so much exalted of late by the Father above all order right ranke and degree should now be so âuch debased by the Son as thouâh it were not worthy to hold any degree but rather to be troden under-foot for plain bastardy And you see by thâs how true it is which I told you before that the race of Dudlies are most cunning merchants to make their gaine of all thângs men and times And as we have seene now two testâments alleaged the one of the Kings father and the other of the kings sonne and both of them in prejudice of the testators true successors so many good subjects begân greatly to fear that we may chance to see sâortly a third Testâment of her Mâjesty for the tituling of Huntington and exurpation of King Henries blood thât before her Majesty can think of sicknessâ wherein I beseech the Lord I be no Prophet But now sir to the foresaid Will and Testament of King Henry I have often heard in truth that the thing was counterfeit or at the least not able to be proved aâd that it was discovered rejected and defaced in Queen Maries time but I would gladly understand what you Lawyers esteeme or judge thereof Touching this matter quoth the Lawyer it cannot be denied but that in the 28. and 36 years of King Henries reign upon coâsideration of some doubt aâd irâesolution which the King himselfe had shewed to have about the order of succâssion in his owne children as also for taking away all occasions of controversies in those of the next blood the whole Parliament gave authority unto the said King to debate and determine âhose matters himselfe together with his learned councell who best knew the lawes of the Realme and titles that any man might hâve thereby and that whatsoever succâssion his Majesty should declare as most right and lawfull under his letters patents sealed or by his last Will and Tâstâment rightfully made and signed with his owne hand that the sâme should bee received for good and lawfull Upon pretence whereof soon after King Henries death there was shewed a Will with the kings stamp at the same and the names of divers witnesses wherein as hath beene said the succession of the Crowne after the kingâ owne children is assigned to the heyres of Frances and Elenore Neeces to the king by his younger Sister Which assignation of the Crown being as it were a meer gift in prejudice of the elder sisters right as also of the right of Frances and Elenor themselves who were omitted in the same assignation and their heires intituled onely was esteâmed to be against all reason law and nature and consequently not thought to proceed from so wise and sage a Prince as K. Henrie was knowne to be but rather either the whole forged or at least wise that clause inserted by other and the Kings stamp set unto it after his death or when his Majesty lay now past understanding And hereof there wanteth not divers most evident reasons and proofes For first it is not probâble nor credible that King Henrie would ever go about against law and reason to disinherit the line of his eldest sister without any profit or interest to himselfe and thereby give most evident occasion of Civill war and discord within the Realm seeing that in such a case of manifest and apparent wrong in so great a mâtter the authoritie of Paâlament taketh little effect against the true and lawfull inheritâr as well appeared in the former times and contentions of Henrie the sixth Edward the fourth and Richard the third in whose reignes the divers and contrarie Parliaments made and holden âgainst the neât inheritor held no longer with any man then untill the other was able to make his owne partie good So likewise in the case of King Edward the third his succession to Fâance in the right of his mother though he were excludâd by the generall assembly and consent of their Parliaments yet he esteemed not his right extinguished thereby as neither did other Kings of our Countrie that ensued after him And for our present case if nothing else should have restrained King Henrie from such open injustice towards his eldest sister yet this cogitation at least would have stayed him that by giving example of supplanting his elder sisters Line by vertue of a testament or pretence of Parliament some other might take occasion to displace his children by like pretence as we see that Duke Dudley did soone after by a forged testament of King Edward the sixt So ready Schollars there are to be found which easily will learne such lessons of iniquity Secondly there be too many incongruities and indignities in the said pretended Will to proceed from such a Prince and learned councell as King Henries was For first what can be more ridiculous than to give the Crowne to the heires of Francis and Elenor and not to any of themselves or what had they offended that their heires should enjoy the Crowne in their right and not they themselves What if King Henries Children should have dyed whiles Lady Francis had been yet alive who should have possessed the Kingdome before her seeing her Line was next and yet by this testament shee could not pretend her selfe to obtaine it But rather having marryed Adrian Stokes her horse-keeper she must have suffered her sonne by him if she had any to enjoy the Crown and so Adâian of a Serving man and Master of Horses should have become the great Master and Protector of England Of like absurditie is that other clause also wherein the King bindeth his owne daughters to marry by consent and direction of his counsell or otherwise to leese the benefit of their succession yet bindeth not hiâ Neices daughters to wit the daughters of Francis Elenor if they had any to any such condition Thirdly there may bee divers causes and arguments alledged in law why this pretended will is not authenticall if otherwise it were certaine that King Henrie had meant it first for that it is not agreeable to the mind and meaning of the Parliament which intended onely to give authoritie for declaration and explication of the true title and not for donation or intricating of the same to the ruine of the Reâlme Secondly for that there is no lawfull and authenticall Copie extant thereof but onely a bare inrolement in the Chancerie which is not sufficient in so weighty an affaire no witnesse of the privie Councell or of Nobilitâe to the same which had been convenient in so great a case for the best of the witnesses therein named is Sir Iohn Gates whose miserable death is well knowne no publike Notary no probation of the will before any Bishop or any lawfull Court for that puâpose no examination of the witnessâs or other thing orderly done for lawfull authorizing of
at his his companions hanâs when she onâly shall be the obstacle of all their unbridled and impatient deâres Cleare it is quoth the Lawyer that the nearenesse of aspirors to the ââowne endangereth greatly the present possessors as you have well proved by reason and I could shew by divers examples if it were need For when Henrie Bullingbrooke Duke of Lancaster saw not onely Richard the second to be without issue but also Roger Mortimer Earle of March that should have succeded in the Crowne to bee slaine in Ireland though before as is thought he meant not to usurpe yet seeing the possibility and neare cut that he had was inuited therewith to lay hands of his Soveraignes blond and dignity as he did The like is thought of Richard Duke of Glocester that he nâver meant the murther of his nephewes untill he saw their father dead and themselves in his owne hands his brother also Duke of Clarence dispatched and his onely sonne and heire âarle of Warwick within his owne power Wherefore seeing that it hath not pleased Almighty God for causes to himselfe best known to leave unto this noble Realm any issue by her most excellent Maiestie it hath been a poynt of great wisedome in mine opinion and of great safety to her Highnes person state dignity to preserve hitherto the line of the next Inheritors by the house of Scotland I meane both the mother and the sonne whose deaths hath been so diligently sought by the other Competitors and had beene long ere this atchieved if her Majesties owne wisedome and royall clemency as is thought had not placed speciall eye upon the conservation thereof from time to time Which Princely providence so long as it shalâ endure must needs be a great safety and fortresâ to her Majesty not onely against the claimes aides or annoyance of forraine Princes whâ wil not be so forward to advance strange titles while so manifest heires remain at home nor yeâ so willing in respect of policy to âelpe thaâ line to possession of the whole Island but also against practices of domesticall aspirers as yoâ have shewed in whose affairs no doubt but these two branches of Scâtland are great bâocks as also speciall bulwarks to her Majesties life and person seeing as you say these copartners make so little account of the other of that line who should ensue by order of succession Marry yet of the two I thinke the youth of Scotland be of much more importance for their purpose to bee made away both for that hee may have issue and is like in time to be of more ability for defence of his owne inheritance as also for that he being once dispatched his mother should soone ensue by one slight or other which they would devise unwitting to her Majesty albeit I must needes confesse that her Highnesse hath used most singular prudence for prevention thereof in placing her restraint with so noble strong and worthy a Peere of our Realme as the Earle of Shrewsburie is whose fidelity and constancy being nothing plyable to the others faction giveth them little contentation And for that cause the world seeth how many sundry and divers devices they have used and do use dayly to slander and disgrace him and thereby to pull from him his charge committed To this the Gentleman answered nothing at all but stood stâll musing with himselfe as though hee had conceived some deep matter in his head â and after a little pause he began to say as followeth I cannot truly but much marvaile when I do compare some things of this time and government with the doings of formâr Princes Progenitors to her Majesty Namely of Henrie the 7. and Henrie the 8. who had so vigilant an eye to the laterall line of King Edward the 4. by his brother of Clarence as they thought it necessary not only to prevent all evident dangers that might ensue that way but even the possibilities of all perill as may well appear by the execution of Ed. Earl of Warwick before named Son and heire to the said Duke of Clarence and of Maâgaâet his sister Countesse of Salisbury with the Lord Henry Montague her sonne by whose Dauâhter the Earle of Huntington now claimeth All which were executed for avoyding of inconveniencies and that at such times when no imminent danger could be much doubted by that Line especially by the latter And yet now when one of the same house and Line of more ability and ambition than ever any of his Ancestors were maketh open title and claime to the Crowne with plots packs and preparations to most manifest usurpation against all order all law and all rightful succession and against a special statute provided in that behalfe yet is he permitted boâne out favoured and friended therein and no man so hardy as in defeâcââf her Majestie and the Realme to contrââle hiâ for the same It may be that her Majestie is brought into the same oâinion of my Lord of Huntingtons fidelity as Iulius Caesar was of Marcus Brutus his dearest obliged friend of whose ambitious practises and aspiring when Caesar was advertised by his carefull friends he anâwered that hee well knew Brutus to be ambitious but I am sure quoth he that my Brutuâ will never attempt any thing for the Empire while Caesar liveth ând after my death let him shift for the same among others aâ he can But what ensued Surely I am loath to tell the event for ominations sake but yet all the world knoweth that ere many moneths passed this most noble and âlement Emperour was pittifully murthered ây the same Brutus and his partners in the publique Senate when least of all he expected such treason So dangerous a thing it is to be secure in a matter of so great sequell or to trust them with a mans life who may pretend preferment or interest by his death Wherefore would God her Majestie in this case might be induced to have such due care and regard of her own estate and royall person as the weighty moment of the matter requireth which containeth the blisse and calamity of so noble and worthy a kingdome as this I know right well that most excellent natures are alwayes furthest off from diffidence in such people as proves love and are most bounden by dutie and so it is evident in her Maiestie But yet surely this confidence so commendable in other men is scarce allowable oftentimes in the person of a Prince for that it goeth accompanyed with so great perill as is inevitable to him that will not suspect principally when dangers are foretold or presaged as commonly by Gods appoyntment they are fâr the speciall hand he holdeth over Princes affaires or when there is probable conjecture or just surmise of the same We know that the forenamed Emperor Caesar had not onely the warning given him of the inclination and intent of Brutus to usurpation but even the very day when
of doubt that Leicester the caster of these shadowes doth look to play his part first in these troublesome affaires so doe I heartily feare that unlesse the tyranny of this Leicestrian fury bee speedily stopped that such miserie to Prince and people which the Lord for his mercies sake turne from us as never greater fell before to our miserable Countrey is far nearer hand than is expected or suspectâd And therefore for the prevention of these calamities to tell you plainly mine opinion good Sirs and therewith to draw to an end of this our conference for it waxeth late I would thinke it the most necessarie poynt of all for her Majesty to call his Lordship to account among other and to see what other men could say against him at length after so mâny yeares of his sole accusing and pursuing of others I know and am very well assured that no one act which her Majestie hath done since her comming to the Crowne as shee hath done right many most highly to be commended nor any that lightly her Majesty may doe hereafter can be of more utility to Her selfe and to the Realme or more gratefull to her faithfull and zealous subjects than this noble act of Iustice would be for tryall of this mans deserts towards his Countrey I say it would be profitable to her Majesty and to the Realme noâ onely in respect of the many dangers befoâe mentioned hereby to be avoyded which are like to ensue most certainly if his courses bee still permitted but also for that her Majesty shall by this dâliver Her selfe from that generall grudge and griefe of mind with great dislike which many subiects otherwise most faithfull have conceived against the excessive favour shewed to this man so many yeares without desert or reason Which favour he having used to the hurt annoyance and oppression both of infinite severall persons and the whole common-wealâh as hath bin said the griefe and resentment thereof doth redound commonly in such cases not only upon the person delinquent alone but also upon the Soveraigne by whose favour authority he offers such iniuries though never so much against the others inteÌt dâsire or meaning And hereof we have examples of sundry Princes in all ages and Countries whose exorbitant favour to some wicked subiect that abused the same hath bin the cause of great dânger and ruine the sins of the favourite being returned and revenged upon the favourer As in the Historie of the Grecians is declared by occasion of the pittifull murther of that wise and victorious P. Philip of Macedony who albeit that he were well assured to have given no offence of himself to any of his subiects consequently feared nothing but conversed openly and confidently among them yet for that hee had favoured too much one âuke Attalus a proud ând insolent Courtier and had born him out in certain of his wickednes or at least not punished the same after it was detected and coâplained upon the parties grieved accounting the crime more proper and heinous on the part of him who by office should do iustice protect other than of âhe perpetrator who followeth his own passion and sensuality let pass Attalus made their âevenge upon the bloud life of the K himself by one Pausanias suborned for that purpose in âhe marriage day of the Kings owne daughter Great store of like examples may be repeated âut of the stories of other countries nothing beâng more usuall or frequent among all nations âhan the afâlictions of realms and kingdoms and the overthrow of Princes and great Potentates themselves by their too much affection towards some unworthy particular persons a thing in deed so common and ordinary as it may welâ seem to be the speciall Rock of all other whereat Kings Princes doe make their shipwracks For if we look into the states and Monarchie all Christendoâe and consider the ruines thaâ have bin of any Princes or Ruler within the same we shall find this poynt to have bin a great and principall part of the cause thereof and in our owne state and countrey the matteâ is too evident For whereas since the Conqueââ we number principally three just and lawfuââ Kings to have come to confusion by alienatioâ of their subjects that is Edward the seconâ Râch the second and Henrie the sixt this onlâ point of too much favour towards wicked persons was the chiefest cause of destruction in a threâ As in the first the excessive favour tâwards Peter Gaveston and two of the Spencer In the second the like extraordinarie and indicreet affecâion towards Robert Vere Eurle oâ Oxford and Marquesse of Dublin and Thomââ Mowbray two most turbulent and wicked meâ tâat set the K. against his own Vncles the nobility In the third being a simple and hoââ man albeit no great exorbitant affection wââ seene towards any yet his wife Queen Margârets too much favour and credit by him nâ controled towards the Marquesse of Suffolkâ that after was made Duke by whose instinââ and wicked Counsell she made away first tââ noble Duke of Gloucester and afterward coâmitted other things in great prejudice of tââ Realme and suffered the said most impious aââ sinfull Duke to range and make havock of all sort of subjects at his pleasure much after the fashion of the Earle of Leicester now though yet not in so high anâ extreame a degree this I say was the principall and originall cause both before Goâ and man as Polidore well noteth of all the calamity and extreme desolation which after ensued both to the King Queene and their onely child with the utter extirpation of their family And so likewise now to speak in our particular case if there be any grudge or griefe at this day any mislike repining complaint or murmure against her Majesties government in the hearts of her true and faithfull subjects who wish amendment of that which is amisse and not the overthrow of that which is well as I trow it were no wisedome to imagine there were none at all I dare avouch upon Conscience that either all or the greatest part thereof proceedeth from this man who by the favor of her Majesty so afflicteth her peoâle as never did before him either Gaveston Spencer Fere or Mowbray or any other mischievous âirant that abused most his Princes âavour within our Realme of England Whereby it is evident how profitable a thing it should bee to the whole Realme how honourable to her Majeâây and how gratefull to all her subjects if this man at length might be called to his account Siâ quoth the Lawyer you alleage great reason and verily I am of opinion that if her Majesty knew but the tenth part of this which you have here spoâen as also her good subjects desires and complaint in this behalfe she would well shew that her Highnesse feareth not to permit iustice to passe upon Leicester or any other within her Realme
wit it seemes impossible By drinkes or charmes this worke to passe to bring Know then that Giges were invisible By turning the sigill of his Ring Toward his palme and thereby slew the King Lay with his wife of any man unseene Lastly did raigne by marrying with the queene King Salomon for Magick naturall Was held a cunning man by some Divines He wrote a booke of Science naturall To bind ill Spirits in their darke confines He had great store of wives and Concubines Yet was a Sacred King this I inferre The wisest man that now doth live may erre Also yee say that when I waxed old When age and time mispent had made me dry For ancient held in carnall Lust is cold Natures defect with Art I did supply And that did helpe this imbecility I us'd strong drinks and Oyntments of great price Whose taste or touch might make dead flesh arise To this I answer that those fine extractions Drams and electuaries finely made Serv'd not so much to helpe veneriall actions As for to comfort nature that 's decaid Which being with indifferent judgment weigh'd In noble men may be allowed I trust As tending to their health not to their lust What if I drinke nothing but liquid gold Lactrina christal pearle resolv'd in wine Such as th' Egyptians full cups did hold When Cleopatra with her Lord did dine A trifle care not for the cost was mine What if I gave Hippomenes to drinke To some fair Dames at smal faults you must wink Ye say I was a traytor to the Queene And thât when Monsieur was in greatest grace I being out of favour mov'd with spleene To see a Frenchman frolique in the place Forth toward Barwick then did post apace Minding to raise up a rebellious rout To take my part in what I went about That I was then a traytor I deny But I confesse that I was Monsieurs foe And sought to breake the league of amity Which then betwixt my Prince and him did grow Doubting Religion might be changed so Or that our Lawes and customes were in danger To be corrupt or altered by a stranger Therefore I did a faction strong maintaine Agâinst the Earle of Sussâx a stout Lord On Monsieurs side and then Lord Chamberlain Who sought to make that nuptiall accord Which none may breake witnesse the sacred Wordâ But thus it chânced that he striv'd in vaine To knit that kâot which heaven did not ordaine Thus did ye mis-interpret my conceiâs That for disloyalty my deâds did blame Yet many men have laid their secret baits T' intrap me in such snares to work my shame Whom I in time sufficiently did tame And by my Soveraignes favour bore them downe Proving my selfe true Liegeman to the Crowne Thinke yee I could forget my Soveraigne Lady Thât was to me so gracious and so kinde How many triumphs for her glory made I O I could never blot out of my minde What Characters of grace in her have shin'd But some of you which were by her pâefer'd Have with her bones almoââ her name inter'd When she was gone which of you all did weep What mournfull song did Pâilomela sing Alâs when she in deaths cold bed did sleep Which of you all her dolefull knell did ring How long wâll yee now love your crowned King If you so soon forget your old Queen dead Which foure and fourty yeares hath governed Yee say I sought by murder to aspire And by strong poyson many men to slay Which as ye thought might crosse my high desire And âloud my long expected golden day Perhaps I laid some blocks out of my way Which hindred me from comming to the Bower Whâre Cynthia shin'd like lamps in Pharohs tower Alas I came not of a Tygers kinde My hands with bloud I hated to defile But when by good experience I did finde How some with fained love did me beguile Perchance all pitty then I did exile And as it were against my will was prest To seek their deaths that did my life detest Lo then attend to heare a dolefull tale Of those whose death yâe doe suppose I wrought Yet wish I that the world beleeve not all That hath of me by envious men been wrought But when I for a Kingly fortune sought O pardon me my sâlfe I might forget And cast downe sâme my state aloft to set My first wife fell downe from a paire of staires And brake her neck and so at Comner dy'd Whilst her true servants led with small affaires Unto a Fure at Abingdon did ride This dismall hap did to my wife betide Whether yee call it chance or destiny Too true it is shâ dâd untimely dye O had I now a showrâ of teares to shed Lockt in the empty circles of my âyes All could I shed in mourning for the dead That lost a spouse so young so faire so wise So faire a corps so foule a coarse nâw lies My hope t' have married with a famous Queene Drave pitty back and kept my teares unseene What man so fond that would not lose a Pearle To finde a Diamond leave brasse for gold Or who would not forsake a gallant gitle To win a Qâeen great men in awe to hold âo rule âhe âtate and of none be control'd O but the stâps that lead unto a âhrone Aâe dângerous for men to tread upon Tâe Cardinall Chatillion was my foe Whose death peradventure did compact Because he let Queen Elizâbeth to know My false report given of a former act How I with her had made a precontract And the great Princes hope I bar'd thereby That sâught to marry with her Majesty The Prelate had bin better held his tongue And kist his holy Fathers feet in Rome A Masse the sooner for his soule was sung But he might thanke me had he staid at home Or late or never he to heaven had come Therefore I sent him nimbly from the coasts Perhaps to supper with the Lord of hosts When death by hap my first wives neck had crackt And that my suit unto the Queene âll sped It chaâced that I made a post contract And did in sort the Lâdy Sheffââld wed Of whom I had two goodly children bred For the Lord Sheffeild died as I was sure Of a Catarie which physicke could not cure Some thinke thâ rhume was artificiall Which this good Lord befoââ his end did take Tush what I gave to her was naturâll My plighted troth yet some amends did make Though her at length unkinde I did forsâke She must not blame me for a higher reach Made my sure promise finde a sudden breach The valiant Earle whom absent I did wrong In breaking Hymeneus holy band In Ireland did protract the time too long Whilst some in ângland ingled under hand And at his coming homeward to this land He dyed with poyson as they say infected Not without cause for veâgeance I suspâcted Because this fact notorious scandall bred And âor I did his gallant wife abuse To salve âhis sore
when this brave Lord was dead I for my selfe did this faire Lady chuse And flesh is fraile deare Lady me excuse It was pure love that made me undertake This haplesse recontract with thee to make Now in Joves pallace that good Lord doth sup And drinkâ full bowles of Nector in the skie Hunnies his pâge that tasted of that cup Did onely loose his hâire and did not dye True-noble Earle thy fame to heaven doth flye He doth repent his fault and pârdon crave That marr'd thy bed and too soon made thy grave Thou didst behinde thee leave a matchlesse Sonne A peerelâsse paterne for all princâly peeres Whose spaâks of glory in my time begun Kindled wâth hope flâm'd highly in few yeeres But death him struâk and drown'd this land in teares His Sonne doth live true imâge of him dead To grace this soil whâre showers of tears were shed Thây were to blame that said the Queen should marry With me her Hors keeper for so they call'd me But thou Throgmarton whâch âhis tale didst carry From France to England hast more shârply gall'd me Sith my good Qâeene in office high extold me For I was Mâster of her Highnesse Horse I scorne thy words which did my hate inforce But tell me then how didst thou likâ thy fare When I to supper last did thee invite If I did rid thee of a world of care By giving âhee a Salet gentle Knight With gastly lookes doe not my soule affrâght Lester I was whom England once did dread But now I am like thee Throgmarton dead My Lord of Sussex was too cholerick That call'd me traitor and a traitors sonne But I serv'd him a fine Italian triâk Had not I done so I had bin undone Now marke the end what conquest hath he won A litle scruple that to him I sent Did purge his choler till hâs life was spent He was a gallant Noble man indeed O but his life did still my life decrease Therefore I sent him with convenient speed To rest amongst his ancestors in peace ây rage was pacifi'd at his decease And now I come t' imbrace his love too late Him did I love whom living I did hate I came to visit as I chanc'd to walke My Lady of Lenox whom I found not well I took her by the hand hâd private talke And so departed a short tale to tell When I was gone into a flux she fell That never ceast her company to keep Till it had brought her to a senslesse sleep I dream'd she had not many dayes to live And this my dreame did shortly fall out true So as her Ghostly Father I did give Some comfort to her soule for well I knew That she would shortly bid the world adiew Some say I gave such physick as did spill her But I suppose that mâere conceit did kill her Some will object perhaps I did pretend To meet the Earle of Ormond on a day In single fight our quarrell for to end But did command my servant Killygray To lye in ambush that stout Lord to slay But heaven did not consent to work his spoile That was the glory of the Irish soile Perhâps I doubted that I was too weake And loath I was he should the conquest win If in this cause I did my promise breake I hope men will not count it for a sin Is it not gâod to sleep in a whole skin When Hannibal could not prevaile by blowes He used stratagems to kill his foes If I the death of Monsieur Simiers fought When he from France Ambâssadour was sent I had just cause to seeke it as I thought For towards me he bore no good intent Had he not fled betimes perhaps I ment T' have sent him in embassage for my pleasure To the black king that keeps Avernus treasuâe For when no man about the Court durst speak That I the Lady Lettice married This pratling Frenchman first the ice did breake And to the Quâene the fact discovered Which not without just cause the anger bred Thus th'ape did play his part control'd of none When he espi'd the Beare from home was gone One Salvadore an Italian borne Having once wâtâht with me till mid'st of night Was found slaine in his bed the next day morne Alas poore man I ruâ his wofull plight That did in nothing but in sinne deâight Had he to honest actions bent his wit He might have longer liv'd and scap'd this fit But what reward should such a man expect Whom gold to any lewdnesse could entice Ones turne once serv'd why should we not reject So vilde an instrument of damned vâce What if he were dispâtched in a trice Was it not better this mans blood to spill Then let him live the world with sinne to âil I doubted lest that Dâughty would bewray My counsell and with othârs party tâke Wherefore the sooner him to rid away I sent him forth to sea with Captaine Dââkâ Who knew how t' entertain him for my sake Before he went his lot by me was câst His death was plotted and perform'd in hast He hoped well but I did so dispose That he at Port St. Iulian lost his head Having no time permitted to disclose The inward griefes that in his heart were bred We need not feare the biting of the dead Now let him goe transported to the seas And tell my secrets to th' Antipodes My servant Gates did speed as ill or worse To whom I did my close intents impart And at his need with money stuft his purse And wil'd him still take courage at his heart Yet in the end he felt the deadly smart He was inveigled by some subtle witted To rob so he was taken and committed Of pardon I did put him still in hope When he of felony was guilty found And so condemn'd till his last friend the Pope Did him uphold from falling to the ground What hope of grace where vice did so abound He was beguil'd like birds that use to gape At Zâuxes table for a painted grape Yet I did to the man no injury And gave him time and leasure to repent And well he knew he had deserv'd to dye Therefore all future mischiefe to prevent I let him slip away with my consent For his reprivall lâke a crafty Fox I sent no pardon but an empty Box. Else as unfaithfull Banester betraid The Dâke of Buckinghâm his Master deare When he of Richards tyranny afraid Fled to his servants house for succour there So might my man for gaine or forc'd for feare Have brought my corps with shame unto my grave By too much trusting on a paltry knave Me seems at me great Norfolkes Duke doth frowne Because he thinkes I did his death contrive Perswading some he aimed at the Crowne And that by royall match he meant to strive A kingdome to his Lordship to revive Alas good Dâke he was too meek and milde And I too faithlesse that his trust beguil'd For that I found his humour first was bent To take the
Majesty bââhis statute Gentleman The hastning of the Conspiratours Schollar The Watch-word or the Conspiratours Lawyer Schollar Are you âatled A great mistery Lawyer Assemblies at Communions Strangers within the Land The perill of our Countrey if Huntingtons claime take place Gentleman The Red Rose âhe White The misery of England by the contention betweene Yorke and Lanâaster Guelphians and Gibilâneâ Edward Plantaginet Earle of Warwick The Battell by Taâââster on Pâlme Sunday An. 1460. The danger of Huntingtons claime to the Reâlme and to her Majesty Lawyer How Huntington maketh hiâ titâe before hâr Majesty * The most of Huâtingtons Ancestââs by whoâ hee makeâh âiâle aâtainâed of Treason The fâmous device âf king Richard the third ââlowed by Huâtington Anno 1. Mariae A point to be noâed by her Majesty The joyning of both houses The Line of Portugâll The old estimation of the House of Lancaster Henry Earle of Richmond The Line of Portugall Scholar The sword of greaâ fârce âo juâtifie the title of a kingdome Great dangers The beginning of the controveâsie betwixt York and Lancaster Edmond Crook-back beginner of the House of Lancaster Blanch. Iohn of Gaunt How the Kingdome was first brought to the House of Lancaster The issue of Iohn of Gaunt The pedegree of king Henry the seventh The two Daughters married to Portugall and Castile Forraine titles The issue of king Edwarâ thâ 3. Two Edmonds the two beginnerâ of the two Houses of Lancasteâ and Yorke The claime and title of Yorke The issue of king Edâard the fourth The Duke of Clarence attainted by Parliament Huntingtonâ title by the Duke of Clarence King Richard the third The happy conjunction of the two Houses The issue of King Henry the seventh The Line and Title of Scotland by Margaret eldest Daughter to King Henryâhe âhe 7. Arbââââ The Line and Title of Suffolke by Mary second daughter to King âenry the 7. The issue of Francis eldest Daughter to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke The issue of Francis eldest daughter to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk The issue of Elenor second daughter to Charles Brandon Scholar Huntington bebehind many other titles Gentleman The policy of the conspiratours for the deceiving of her Maiesty Scholar Leycesters variability Gentleman Barres pretended against the claâm of Scotland and Suffolke Against the Queen of Scotland and her sonne Against Arbella Against Darby Against the children of Hartford Scholar Leycesters dealing with the house of Suffolk Gentleman Bastardy Forraine biâth Lawyeâ Bastardie laâââl stops The impediments against Scotland three in number A protestation Touching the first impediment of foâraine birth An Alien may purchase The true Maxima against Alienâ The statute of King Edward whence the Maxima is gathered Reasons why the Scottish title is not letted by the Maxima against Aliens The first reason The rule of thirds Tenant by courtesie Division among daughters Executorâ The 2 reason The Crowne no such inherâtance as is meant in the statute The Crowne a corporation The â reason The Kings issue excepted by name Liberorum F. de verb. sign The fourth reason The Kings meaning The matches of England with foraigners The fift reason Examples of forainers admited Flores hist. Anno 1066. Pol. lib. 15. Flor. hist. 1208. K. Iohn a tyrant The 6. reason The iudgement and sentence of K. Henry the seventh The 7. reason The Queene of Scots and her son no Aliens The second impediment against the Q of Scots her son which is K. Henry the â his testament Forain birth no impediment in the âudgement of K. Henry the â The succession of Scotland next by the iudgement of the competitors Gentleman Lawyer The Duke of Northumberlandâ drift Gentleman The mutable dealing of the house of Dudley Lawyer The authority and occasion of King Henries testament The Kingâ Testament forged The first reason Injustice and improprobabilitâ The example of France The second reason Incongruities and indignities Adrian Stokes The third reason The presupposed Will is not authenticall The disproving of the Wil by witnesses The Loâd Paget Sir Edw. Montague William Claâke A meeting together about this matter of the Nobility Mâ Lord of Lâââest againe plâyââ double The old Earle of Penbrooks admonition to the Earl his son yet living The thiâd impediment of religion Princes of Germany Qu. Mary Queen Elizabeth * The Dudleis Monsieur King of Navarre Prince of Condy. My Lord of Huntingtons reâigion The title of those that ensue the Queene of Scots Schollar The yong King of Scotland Gentl. The device to set out her Majesty with the young King of Scotland The intolerable prâceedings of cârtâiââinistârs in Sâotlând aâainst tâeir âiâg â subornation of his enemies in Englaââ Schollar Sir Patriâk Adâm on Archbish. of St. Andrewes Gentl. Treasons plotted against the King of Scots Leycesters cunning device for overthrowing the D. of Norf. The impudency of Iudas Tâe speeches of Leycester âo the Duke of Norf. Leycest cousenâge of tâe Queene The Duke of Norf. flying into Norfolke Machivilian slights Leycesters devices for the overthrow of Sir Christopher Hatton Leycesters devices against the Earle of Shrewsbury Leycesteâs contâmpt of the ancient Nobility of England Lawyer New men most contemptuous D. Dudlies jest at the Earle of Arundell Gentl. The oft abiect behaâiour of Duke Dudley in adverse fortunes Schollar Leycesters base behaviour in adversitie Leycâsteâs deceiving of Sir Chrâstopher Hatton A pretie shift of my Lord of Leycester Her Maiesties speech of Leycestâr to the Tâeâsuâeâ Gentl. The danger of her Majesty by oppression of the favourers of the Scottish title A Similie true Earle of Leycester Earle of Huntington The old Countesse of Huntingtons speech of hâr sonne Lawyer Neaâenesse in competitors doth incite thâm to adventure Henr. Bullingbâook after King H. the 4 Richard Duke of Gloucester after King Richard the third The great wiâedome of her Majesty in conserving the next heires of Scotland The K. of Scotlands dâstruction of more importance to the conspirators then his mothers The Earle of Salisbury disâracâd by the competitors Gentl. Tâe vigilant eye that her Maiesties ãâã hâd to the âolatârall liâe Persons executed of the hâuse of ClaâeÌce The example of Iulius Caesaâs destruction Too much confidence verie perillous in a Prince The example of Alexander the gâeat bow hee was foretold his danger Schollar Lâte executions Gentl. Fraud to be feared in pursuing one part or faction only The comparison of Wolves and Rebels Richard Duke of Yorke D. Dudly A good rule of policy The speech of a certain Lady of the Court. More moderation wished in matters of faction The speech of a Courtier The perill of divisions factions in a Commonwealth The dangerous sequel of dissention in our Realme Gentl. Examples of tolleration in matters of religion Germany The breach reunion again in France Flanders Moderation impugned by the conspira Cicero Cateline The Conspirators opportunitie Leycester to be called to account The death K Philip of Macedonie and cause there of Pausââias Kings of England oveâtârâwn by too much favouring of some particular men K. Edw. 2 K Râch 2. K. Henr. 6. Pol. lib. 23 hist. Angl. Lawyer The punishment of William Duke of Suffolk The punishment of Edmond Dudley Gentl. The causes why Princes are chosen and do receive obedience Leycesters Thefts Leycesters murthers A heap of Leycesters enormities that would be ready at the day of his triall Schollar Her Maiesties tender heart towards the âealme Gentl. Lâycestârs dâsire that men should thnike âer Maiesty to stand in fâare of him Cicero in Officio A rule of Machivell observed by the Dudlies Leycester strong onely by her Maiesties favour An offer made for taking and tying the Beare Leicester what hee receiveth from his ancestors The comparison of Leycester with his father The weaknesse ãâã Leycesââr if âer Majâsty turne but her counteââce from him Lawyer The end and departure from the Gallerie The wicked mans pomp His joy His pride His fall His children His old age His bread His restitution His punishment His wickednesse His griefe His affliction His damnation His posterity