ibidem patria jura interpretantur frequentavit c. About the Latter end of King Richard the Seconds dayes he flourished in France and got himself into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in learning After his return home he frequented the Court at London and the Colledges of the Lawyers which there interpretted the Laws of the Land and among them he had a familiar Friend called John Gower a Yorkshire man born a Knight as Bale writeth of him This Gower in a Book of his entituled Confessio Amantis tearmeth Chaucer a worthy Poet and maketh him as it were the judge of his works He married a Knights Daughter of Henault called Paon de Ruel King of Arms by whom he had issue his Son Thomas to whom King Edward the Third in recompense of his Fathers services in France gave him in marriage the Daughter and Heire of Sir John Burgershe Knight This Thomas Chaucer had onely one Daughter named Alice married thrice first to Sir John Philip Knight then to Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the third time to William de la Pole Earl and after Duke of Suffolk who for love of his Wife and the convenient seat of her estate he removed into Oxfordshire and Barkshire where his Wives Lands lay This Alice had a Daughter by her second Husband Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury named after her Mother Alice married to Richard Nevill Son to Ralph Earl of Westmerland by whom she had Richard John and George Richard espoused Anne sister and sole heir to the Lord Beauchamp and after Duke of Warwick in whose right he was created Earl of Warwick But to return to our ancient Poet Geffery Chaucer he had alwayes an earnest desire to inrich and beautifie our English Tongue which in those dayes was very rude and barren and this he did following the example of Dante 's and Petrarch who had done the same for the Italian Tongue Alanus for the French and Johannes Mena for the Spanish neither was Chaucer inferiour to any of them in the performance hereof and England in this respect is much beholding to him as Leland well noteth Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poetam Cui veneres debet patria lingua suos Our England honoureth Chaucer Poet as principal To whom her Countrey tongue doth owe her beauties all He departed out of this world the 25. day of October 1400. after he had lived about 72. years Thus writeth Bale out of Leland Chaucerus ad canos devenit sensitque senectutem morbum esse dum causas suas Londini curaret c. Chaucer lived till he was an old man and found old age to be grievous and whilest he followed his causes at London he died and was buried at Westminster The old Verses which were written on his Grave at the first were these Galfridus Chaucer vates famae poesis Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo But since Mr. Nicholas Brigham did at his own cost and charges erect a Monument for him with these Verses Qui fuit Anglorum vates ter maximus olim Gaufredus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo Annum si quaeras Domini si tempora vitae Ecce notae subsunt quae tibi cuncta notant Anno Domini 1400. die mensis Octob. 25. It will not be amiss to these Epitaphs to adde the judgements and reports of some learned men of this worthy and famous Poet. And first of all Thomas Occleve who lived in his dayes writeth thus of him in his Book De regimine Principis But welaway is mine hart woe That the honour of English Tongue is dead Of which I wont was confaile have and réed O maister dere and fadre reverent My maister Chaucer floure of Eloquence Mirror of fructuous entendement O universal fadre of science Alas that thou thine excellent prudence In thy bed mortal mightest not bequeath What eyld death alas why would she thée fie O death thou didst not harm tingler in slaughter of him But all the Land it smerteth But natheless yet hast thou no power his name sle Hâ—â— hie vertue asterteth Vnslain fro thee which ay us lifely herteth With Books of his ornat enditing That is to all this land enlumining John Lidgaete likewise in his Prologue of Bocchas of the fall of Princes by him translated saith thus in his commendation My Master Chaucer with his fresh comedies Is dead alas chief Poet of Brittain That Whilom made full pitteous Tragedies The faule also of Princes he did complain As he that was of making sovereign Whom all this Land should of right prefer Sith of our language he was the Loadsterr Also in his Book which he writeth of the Birth of the Virgin Mary he hath these verses And eke my Maister Chaucer now is in Grave The noble Rethore Poet of Britaine That worthy was the laurel to have Of Poetry and the Palm attaine That made first to distill and raine The Gold dew drops of speech and eloquence Into our Tongue through his eloquence And as for men of latter time Mr. Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy testimonies of their approving of him Mr. Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer and makes no doubt to say that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as ever he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek And in another place where he declareth his opinion of English versifying he useth these words Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy wits deserve just praise And last of all in his discourse of Germany he putteth him nothing behinde either Thucidides or Homer for his lively descriptions of site of places and nature of persons both in outward shape of body and inward disposition of minde adding this withall that not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever for his time have outstript him Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepards Kallender calleth him Tityrus the god of Shepards comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus Virgil in his Faerie Queene in his Discourse of Friendship as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucers friend for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had he writes that none that lived with him nor none that came after him durst presume to revive Chaucers lost Labours in that unperfect tale of the Squire but onely himself which he had not done had he not felt as he saith the infusion of Chaucers own sweet spirit surviving within him And a little before he calls him the most renowned and Heroicall Poet and his writings the works of heavenly wit concluding his commendation in this manner Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled On fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed I follow here the footing of thy feet That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet Mr. Cambden reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham and the other to Mr. Spenser and so drawing them together uttereth of him these words De Homero nostro Anglico illud verè asseram quod de
by him for a constant Memorial The Life of GEORGE VILLERS Duke of Buckingham TAll Cedars are shaken with the wind when the humble shrub rests secure Envy strikes not at the lowly person her aim is evermore at the tallest How vain then is that man who enjoying the quiet of a retired life ambitiously hunts after honour How few Favorites go to the grave in peace Histories make mention and this Age can testify this truth will be too sadly instanced in the late Lord Duke of Buckingham who from the mean estate of a private Gentleman being raised to the highest pitch of honour a subject could be capable of came at last to an untimely end His first rise began at the Earl of Somersets fall one upon whom King James had heaped many great favours for from the degree of a Knight he was first made Viscount Rochester next sworn a Privy Councellour then created Earl of Somerset and last of all made Lord Chamberlane But this serene Sky of favour was soon over-shadowed with Clouds by the Earls undeserving for having married the Lady Frances Howard Daughter to Thomas Earl of Suffolk and not long before divorced from the Earl of Essex the unfortunate Knight Sir Thomas Overbury for speaking against the match was by their procurement committed to the Tower and not long after poysoned as I have more at large treated of in his Life for which fact both the Lady and Earl were arraigned and condemned yet through the Kings great clemency had their lives spared but were for ever banisht his presence This great Favorite being thus disgusted King James who would not long be without an alter idem or Bosom-friend took into special regard as I have intimated Master George Villers a Gentleman of a good extraction but a younger Brother and finding him susceptible and of good form moulded him Platonically to his own Idea And that he might be a fit companion for a King raised him in honour next to himself yet not all at once but by degrees making him first a Knight and Gentleman of his Bed-chamber soon after a Viscount and Master of the Horse a while after erected Earl of Buckingham then Marquess of Buckingham and made Lord Admiral King James having thus hardened and pollished him about ten years in the School of observance for so a Court is and in the furnace of tryal about himself for he was a King that could peruse men as well as books he made him the Associate of his Heir Apparent together with the Lord Cottington an adjunct of singular experience and trust in forreign travel and in a business of love and of no equal hazard enough to kindle affection even between the distantest conditions so as by various and inward conversation abroad besides that before and after at home with the most constant and best natured Prince bana si sua nocint that ever any Nation enjoyed this Duke which last title was conferred on him in Spain now becomes seized of reiterated favour as it were by descent though the condition of that state commonly be no more then a tenancy at will or at most for the life of the first Lord and rarely transmitted it being a kinde of wonder to see favour hereditary yet in him it proved far otherwise as one writes The King loves you you him both love the same You love the King he you both Buck-in-game Of sport the King loves game of game the Buck Of all men you why you why see your luck And although it be ever the perpetual lot of those who are of choicest admission into Princes favours to feel as strong stroaks of envy and ill will from beneath as they do beams of grace and favour from above the Princes love procuring the peoples hate this Duke contrarily found their affection so great towards him that in open Parliament the generality honoured him with no lesser acclamation then the preserver of his Countrey But what odde turns are in the passions of men and how little time continue their affections may appear in this those very men in a Parliament holden the first year of King Charles accusing him as the onely cause of all bad events which happened in the Common-Wealth drew up a charge of thirteen Articles against him the Prologue whereof expressing the prodigious greatness of this Duke the influence of whose power this ensuing Letter of Sir Henry Wottons doth sufficiently express My most noble Lord When like that impotent man in the Gospel I had lain long by the Pools side while many were healed and none would throw me in it pleased your Lordship first of all to pitty my infirmities and to put me into some hope of subsisting hereafter therefore I most justly and humbly acknowledge all my ability and reputation from your favour you have given me incouragement you have valued my poor indeavours with the King you have redeemed me from ridiculousness who have served so long without any mark of favour by which arguments being already and ever bound to be yours till either life or honesty shall leave me I am the bolder to beseech your Lordship to perfect your own work and to draw his Majesty to the settling of some things that depend betwixt Sir Julius Caesar and me in that reasonable form which I humbly present to your Lordship by my Nephew likewise your obliged servant being my self by a late indisposition confined to my Chamber but in all estates such as I am Your Lordships Henry Wootton But to return where I left to the preface of his Titles as I finde them copied in the Parliaments Declaration against him For the speedy redress of the great evils and mischiefs and of the chief causes of those great evils and mischiefs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honour and fafety of our Sovereign Lord the King and of his Crown and Dignities and to the good and welfare of his People the Commons in this present Parliament by the authority of our said Sovereign Lord the King assembled do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Barron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoigne and Guyen General Governour of the Seas and ships of the said Kingdoms Lieutenant General Admiral Captain General and Governour of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Army lately set forth Master of the Horses of our Sovereign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellour and Admiral of the Cinque-Ports and of the members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Justice in Eyre of all Forrests and Chases on this side Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Lieutenant of Middlesex and Buckinghamshire Steward and Bayliff of Westminster Gentleman of his Majesties
the River of Trent purposely to let in the Waters the which course they continued till they had drowned 8000. Acres of Corn and Rape then growing and the Corn stacks generally half way with the greatest part of mens houses and habitations by the space of ten weeks Now fearing they should be punished for these insolencies and desirous to keep what they had thus gotten they drew to their assistance Mr. Lilburne J. W. and one Noddel a Solicitour who notwithstanding the Court of Exchequer made a decree for establishing the possession again with those from whom they had wrested it and that this decree was published upon the place in presence of divers of the inhabitants they openly declared That they would not give any obedience thereunto nor to any order of the Exchequer or Parliament and said they could make as good a Parliament themselves some said It was a Parliament of Clouts and that if they sent Forces they would raise Forces to resist them moreover from words they proceeded to action so that within ten dayes time they totally demolished the whole Town of Stantoft and other houses thereabouts to the number of eighty two habitations defaced the Church burnt Stables and Out-houses broke in pieces a Wind-mill destroyed all the Corn and Rape on the ground no less then 3400. Acres so as the dammage at that time was estimated to be 80000. pounds or more Moreover Lilburne with his associates agrees with several men of Epworth that in consideration of 2000 Acres of Land for him and J. W. and 200. Acres to Noddel they would defend them in all those riots and insurrections and maintain them in possession of the rest of the Land this bargain being made Lilburne with Noddel and others came to Stantoft Church on the Lords day and forced the Congregation from thence employing the same to the use of a Stable Cow-house Slaughter-house and to lay his Hay and Straw therein For these tumultuous practices as also for joyning with one Mr. Primate in seeking to defraud the Common-wealth of the Collory of Harraton in the County of Durham the sequestered estate of Thomas Wray Esquire which Mr. Primate pretended a right unto though upon examination it proved otherwise this following Act for his Fine and Banishment was publisht against him Whereas upon the fifteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred fifty one A Judgement was given in Parliament against the said Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne for high Crimes and Misdemeanours by him committed relating to a false malicious and scandalous Petition heretofore presented to the Parliament by one Josiah Primate of London Leather-seller as by the due proceedings had upon the said Petition and the Judgement thereupon given at large appeareth Be it therefore enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same that the fine of three thousand pounds imposed upon the said John Lilburne to the use of the Common-wealth by the Judgement aforesaid shall be forthwith levied by due process of Law to the use of the Common-wealth accordingly And be it further enacted that the sum of two thousand pounds imposed by the said Judgement upon the said John Lilburne to be paid to Sir Arthur Hesilrige for damages and the sum of two thousand pounds likewise imposed by the said Judgement upon the said John Lilburne to be paid to James Russel Edward Winslow William Molins and Arthus Squib in the said Judgement named that is to say to each of them five hundred pounds for their damages shall be forthwith paid accordingly And that the said Sir Arthur Hesilrige James Russel Edward Winslow William Molins and Arthur Squib their Executors and Administrators shall have the like remedy and proceedings at Law respectively against the said John Lilburne his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns for the recovery of the respective sums so given to them by the said Judgement as if the said respective sums had been due by several Recognizances in the nature of a Statute Staple acknowledged unto them severally by the said John Lilburne upon the said fifteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred fifty one And be it likewise enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the said John Lilburne shall within twenty dayes to be accompted from the said fifteenth day of January one thousand six hundred fifty one depart out of England Scotland Ireland and the Islands Territories and Dominions thereof And in case the said John Lilburne at any time after the expiration of the said twenty dayes to be accompted as aforesaid shall be found or shall be remaining within England Scotland Ireland or within any of the Islands Territories or Dominions thereof the said John Lilburne shall be and is hereby adjudged a Fellon and shall be executed as a Fellon without benefit of Cleargy And it is lastly enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all and every person and persons who shall after the expiration of the said twenty dayes wittingly relieve harbor or conceal the said John Lilburne he being in England Scotland or Ireland or any the Territories Islands or Dominions thereof shall be hereby adjudged accessary of Fellony after the Fact And all Judges Justices Majors Bayliffs Sheriffs and all other Officers as well Military as Civil in their respective places are hereby required to be aiding and assisting in apprehending the said John Lilburne and in putting this Act in due execution Lilburne hereupon sets Sail for Holland with a resolution as he set forth in print Never to see England so long as Cromwels hateful and beastly tyranny lasted unless it were in a way to pursue him as the grandest Tyrant and Traytor that ever England bred some report that during his abode there he negotiated with the Lord Hopton Collonel Charles Lloyd and others of the Royal Party that for the sum of ten thousand pounds he would destroy the Lord General Cromwel the Parliament and Councel of State that then sat at Westminster and settle Charles Stuart in his Throne in England or else he would have a piece of him nailed upon every post in Bruges But for the truth of this besides his own denyal I cannot conceive he should have any thought that Party would trust him especially with such a sum of money having before declared himself so great an enemy to the late King But what ever were the motives that induced him resolved he was to come into England again to which purpose he sent Cromwel this introducing Letter For his Excellency the Lord General Cromwel These present My Lord At my discourse with you in your Gallery about four or five moneths ago I had thought I had given your Lordwip so full satisfaction in every thing that might remove all jealousies from you of my disserving you in any kinde that of all men in the Parliament I little imagined to have found your honour to be the principal man to banish me into a strange Countrey where
ENGLANDS WORTHIES The Liues of the Most Eminent Persons from CONSTANTINE the Great to OLIUER CROMWELL Late Protector Printed for N Brooke at the Angel in Cornhill 1660. 1 C 2 K A 3 St D 4 K I 5 E d C 6 W th C 7 T B 8 R t 1 9 E t 3 10 B P 11 Sir J H 12 I C 13 H t 5 14 D B 15 E d W 16 R 3d 17 E d S 18 T W 19 T M 20 T C 21 Sr P S 22 E d L 23 W B 24 Sr F D 25 F W 26 N B 27 R E d E 28 R C 29 Sr T O 30 Sr W R 31 W C 32 T S 33 Sir F B 34 B p A 35 I D 36 D B 37 Sr H W 38 E o S 39 B p L 40 E d E 41 Sir C L 42 K C 43 L d C 44 ma M 45 B p V 46 47 O C England's WORTHIES Select LIVES of the most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to the death of Oliver Cromwel late Protector Polib Historici est ne quid falsi audeat dicere ne quid veri non audeat By WILLIAM WINSTANLEY Gent. N B London Printed for Nath. Brooke at the Sign of the Angel in Cornhill 1660. To the Right Honourable Somerset Lord Herbert of Ragland Son and Heir of Edward Marquess of Worcester Earl of Glamorgan c. To the Right Honourable William Seimor Lord Beuchampe Grand-childe and Heir to the Right Honourable the Marquess of Hertford To the Right Honourable Charles Dormer Lord Dormer of Wing Son and Heir to the Right Honourable the Earl of Canarvan My Lords I Have chosen to present you with this Volume not onely as it is worthy of the Ages past but also of your Lordships present view the Affinity of your Blood and Greatness challenging from me no less then these prostrate respects as I could desire no firmer nor safer an Anchorage then in so proper a Dedication no despairing that my Pen hath produc'd something worthy of your entertainments as I have set before your eyes forty seven Select Lives of our English Heroes the greatest Princes the most Reverend Cleargy-men eminent States-men and valiant Souldiers all deceast As to History it self a Modern Writer expresses 't is the study of the Holy Scripture that becomes a Gentleman of the Ecclesiastical History a Christian and of the Brittish History an English man all which Qualifications in some measure meeting in your Honours as well as in this Work it self gives me some assurance that these my weak endeavours would not be unwelcome to you My Lords he that hath the Spirit and Blood of his Ancestours in his veins cannot be so much turned into a Statue as to stand still and admire the different Fortunes this mans greatness and of that mans lowness so as not onely to reflect on the tributary brooks of the former Matches of the Nobility but also to look back to matter of fact what our Predecessours have been as well as what we our selves at the present are least falling short of the imitation of their immortal actions we so strangely degenerate as not to understand what we our selves ought to be The clear Fountain flowing from the true Nobility of late being so disturbed it is the office of an honest and true Historian if not his duty to have so much of the Herald as to Register the Descents Issues worthy Acts Atchievements Mannagements of our of late so little imitated Ancestors of these several alterations in Nobility one observes there are three principle Actors on the Theater of great Families the Beginner Advancer and Ruiner in all these our uncivil troublesome times we have heard more of the latter then of the other two one experiencst though unfortunate good amongst the many mischiefs which a Civil War occasions is that in the ransacking of Studies accidentally though determined otherwise the Togati and the Armati meet several Manuscripts which otherwise would have remained useful only to private persons have been by Divine Providence miraculously preserved contrary to the intentions of the Agents whose Barbarismes had snuft out the candle to the present Age and deprived posterity of those Illustrations from which they might know that truth which otherwise they should never have been acquainted with as they endeavoured that the most remarkable Affairs of these times should have otherwise been hid under a bushel To your Honor my Lord Herbert I make this particular Address though this Dedication is joynt as in respect of your happy Assinities as you are Father-in-law to one of these youthful Branches of Honour in respect of your advantages of some years so your grandeur and experience renders you a History of your self and in respect of their tender ages another to them My Lord I know to your Honour it is no less then a Prodigy that our English Gentlemen should be more exact and refin'd in knowing the Religion Laws Governments Strengths Scites Customs and Fashions of Forreign Countreys then of their own wherein themselves are Natives which caused a deserving Historian as it were to sigh out this expression What pitty is it for a proper Gentleman to have such a crick in his neck that he cannot look so much as over his shoulder to know his own History much less so far behinde him as to reflect on actions long since performed I have presumed to intimate thus much to your Honor as you are another Burleigh or Raleigh to give better advice to your youthful Kinsmen My Lords I have chosen you as out of the Caesars to affix your names to this Epitome of Lives that as Julius was his own History and Commentary so your Honours though yet but in the abstract of time might pass it to posterity to which purpose I have chosen your united protections Since I have been writing this History there hath been no less then three alterations Regal Protectorship and now a Commonwealth I first undertook this enterprize in the time of Monarchy continued it in the short space of Protectorship and finished it in the immediate initiation of the Commonwealth in all which progressions if the Liberty of the Subjects modest prospects are shut up or not allow'd if in these days that Lots little one of truth by these present times posterity must be deprived of wise and honest men will be seriously sensible of such obstructions the maliciousness of such Machiavillians puts me in mind of what elegant Mr. Fuller cites what Naturalists observe of the Toad who before she can be surprized by death sucks up the supposed precious stone in her head which till then was but a jelly thus some men are so cowardly that they had rather have History buried with them then that the least part of civil truth should be writ whilest they live as if they deserved no Chronicle or were only to be suffered in Libellous Pamphlets which wise men scorn to cast their eyes on I confess we live in times of Jealousies nevertheless
might enjoy her as his Wife for these and other notorious offences being boldly reprehended by Dunstan he banished him the Realm at whose departure the devil is said to rejoyce and to laugh aloud at the West end of the Church to whom Dunstan as it were by way of Prophecy said Well thou adversary do not so greatly rejoyce at the matter for thou doest not now so much rejoyce at my departure but by Gods grace thou shalt be as sorrowful for my return All the time of King Edwy's reign which was but short for Tyrants seldome are long lived he remained at the Monastery of Gaunt in Flanders where he received much friendship from the Governour of that Countrey but Edwy dying his brother Edgar succeeded in the Kingdome who unraveling the web his brother had weaved recalled Dunstan out of banishment making him first Bishop of Worcester after of London and last of all bestowed the Archbishoprick of Canterbury upon him This Edgar had Dunstan in high estimation by whose advice the English being given to excessive quaffing he put down many Ale-houses and would suffer but one to be in a Town and the more to deterr them from this swinish vice he ordained certain cups with pins or nails and made a law that whosoever drunk past that mark at one draught should undergo a certain penalty No doubt this was an act acceptable unto God and great need hath these times of another Edgar or Dunstan to deterr people from this beastly sin and to put down the multiplicity of Alehouses which now abound in every corner of which one of our modern Poets as followeth The way to Churches is o'regrown with grass But to the Alehouse fair and plain to pass And what is it think you doth cause it so But more to th' Alehouse then to Church do go Then what may we expect of this same evil Some may to God but most will to the devil Edgar dying great troubles ensued about the election of one of his sons to succeed him most of the Nobles combining for young Ethelred Dunstan and the Monks standing as stiffly for Prince Edward at last a Council being assembled to argue the matter the Archbishop came in with his Banner and Cross and not staying for further debating presented Prince Edward for their lawful King and the assembly consisting most of Clergy-men drew the approbation of the rest and so he was Crowned King at Kingstone by Archbishop Dunstan the year of our Lord 975. These troubles thus quieted about the Crown far greater arose concerning the Church for Alferus Duke of Mercia favouring married Priests would suffer no Monks to live in his Province on the other side Edelwyn Duke of East-Anglia and Brightnoth Earl of Essex favouring the Monks expulsed the married Priests out of their jurisdictions These sparks at last increast to such a flame that it was deemed nought but the blood of one side would quench the same but upon better advice they laid arms aside and referred the matter to be debated in a Council at Winchester where the Monks cause as being worsted had undoubtedly had the foyl had they not referred the matter to be decided by the Rood where the Council sate to this Oracle Saint Dunstan desired them to pray and to give diligent ear to what it should speak for the juggling Monks had placed a Man behinde a Wall who through a trunck delivered these words to the beguiled Priests God forbid it should be so God forbid it should be so you judged well once but ye may not change well again But this deceit of the Monks being discerned by the Priests another assembly was held at Cleve in Wiltshire where whilst they were arguing with bitter invectives against each other the joysts of the loft wherein they sat suddenly brake and down fell the floar with the people thereon many were mained and some slain onely Archbishop Dunstan remained unhurt for the posts whereon his chair was set as it were by miracle remained untouched By this fall of the Floar fell the cause of the Priests and Dunstan deemed a demy God To this wooden miracle of his popish writers add another of the same nature namely how a huge beam of a house being sunk out of the frame and like to ruinate the whole building with onely making the sign of the Cross thereon with his fingers he made it return to his former place All the time of King Edwards reign was Dunstan had in high esteem but he being too good a Prince to live in so bad an age was bereft of his life by the cruelty of his step-mother that her own son might succeed in the kingdome Dunstan disallowing this act of the Queens refused to Crown her son King at length against his will he was compelled to solemnize his rights at Kingston on Thames the 14. of Aprill 979. This Ethelred favoured not greatly the Monks and therefore he was as little respected of them in their writings who report him to be sloathful person neither forward in action nor fortunate in proceedings at the time of his Baptism he is said to defile the Fount with his ordure whereupon Dunstan being troubled in his minde By the Lord saith he and his blessed Mother this childe shall prove to be a slothful person But the greatest matter laid to his charge was his making War upon the Bishop of Rochester whose peace being it would not be procured without the payment of a hundred pound in Gold Dunstan sent him word that since he made more account of Gold then of God more of money then of Saint Andrew Patron of the Church of Rochester and more of covetousness then of him being the Archbishop the mischiefs which the Lord had threatned should shortly come to pass but the same should not chance whilst he was alive he is likewise said to have foreseen the invasions of the Danes and to have foretold the miseries that soon after fell upon the English Nation as that they should not be free from Blood and the Sword till there came a people of an unknown tongue that should bring them to thraldome which predictions of his soon after his death came to passe as appears in the following Life of King Edmund this Clergy-man now waxing old the thread of his life being spun out to the last he was forced to yield to that from which none are exempted to the tyranny of death having tasted liberally in his time of the favours of Fortune which notwithstanding could not keep him from dying so true is that of the ancient Poet. Each living Corps must yield at last to death And every life must lose his vital breath The soul of man that onely lives on high And is an image of eternity He dyed on a Saturday the 25. of May the Year of our Lord 989. Happy in this that he lived not to see the miseries of his Countrey which happened presently after his death The Life of EDMUND IRONSIDE THe learned
Ships he had crost the Seas from Portsmouth into Normandy But King Richard made not so much haste to succour but the French King made as much haste to be gone here Earl John submits himself to his Brother who upon his submission restores his possessions unto him saying onely I wish you may as well remember your fault as I shall forget it King Richard following the French King overtakes him at Vendome who affrighted at his approach the second time flies without striking a stroak leaving behinde him all his bag and baggage Munition Tents and Treasure to a marvellous value together with the Indentures of such as had left King Richard to serve King Philip. Much about that time one Philip Bishop of Bevois a Martial man and who much annoyed the English borders was fortunately taken in a Skirmish by King Richards side who put him in prison the Bishop hereupon complained to the Pope who wrote in the behalf of his son as an ecclesiastical person and a Shepherd of the Lords The King sent unto the Pope the Armour he was taken in and engraved thereon the words which Jacobs sons used when they sold their Brother Joseph and presented their Father with his Coat Vide utrum filii tui tunica sit vel non See whether it be thy Sons Coat or no. Whereupon the Pope replyed That he was neither his Son nor the Son of the Church and therefore should be ransomed at the Kings will because he was rather judged to be a Servitor of Mars then a Souldier of Christ I am now come to the last act of this Kings Life which drew the black cloud of death over this triumphal and bright shining star of Chevalry one Widomare Vicount of Limoges having found a great hord of Gold and Silver sent part thereof to King Richard as chief Lord but he over covetous would not be contented without all pretending that treasure was wholly his by vertue of his Prerogative Royal. Thereupon marches with a great power to a Castle of the Vicounts called Chaluz where he supposed the riches were the Garrison of which place offered to yield the same and all therein if onely their lives and limbs might be saved but he would not accept of any conditions bidding them defend themselves as they could for he would enter by the Sword and hang them all but in the assault he was slain by a shot from an Arbalist the use of which warlike engine he first shewed unto the French Whereupon a French Poet made these verses in the person of Atropos Hoc volo non aliâ Richardum morte perire Vt qui Francigenis Balista primitùs usum Tradidit ipse sui rem primitùs experiatur Quamque aliis docuit in se vim sentiat artis It is decreed thus must great Richard dye As he that first did teach the French to dart An Arbalist 't is just he first should try The strength and taste the fruits of his own art The man which shot him was named Bertram de Gurdon who being brought before the King who neglecting his wound gave not over the assault till he had mastered the place boldly justified his action as done in defence of his Countrey and to revenge the death of his Father and Brother whom this King had slain with his own hand Which said the King caused him to be set at liberty and gave him an hundred shillings sterling but after the King was dead one Markadey a Captain of Rutters took him flead him quick and hanged him up Concerning his issue some report him to have none at all others two but illegitimate a Priest in Normandy is reported to have told him he had three daughters which he wished to bestow in marriage or else Gods wrath would attend him the King denying he had any daughter Yes said the Priest you have three Pride Covetousness and Leachery The King apprehensive of the Priests meaning called his Lords there attending and said My Lords this Hypocrite hath found that I have three daughters viz. Pride Covetousness and Leachery which he would have me bestow in marriage and therefore if any such I have I have found out most fit husbands for them all My Pride I bequeath to to thee haughty Templers and Hospitallers who are as proud as Lucifer himself My Covetousness I give to the white Monks of the Cisteaux Order for they covet the Devil and all But for my Leachery I can bestow it no where better then on the Priests and Prelates of our times for therein have they their most felicity Doubtless saith Speed these marriages proved so fruitful that their issue hath now overflowed all Kingdoms of the earth In this Kings dayes lived that famous Out-law Robin Hood accompanied with one called little John and a hundred stout fellows more who as Sir Richard Baker saith molested all Passengers upon the High way of whom it is reported that he was of Noble Blood at least made Noble no less then an Earl for some deserving services but having wasted his Estate in Riotous courses very penury forced him to take this course in which yet it may be said he was honestly dishonest for he seldome hurt any man never any woman spared the poor and onely made prey of the rich till the King setting forth a Proclamation to have him apprehened it happened he fell sick at a certain Nunnery called Brickleys in York shire and desiring there to be let blood was betrayed and made bleed to death Of all Thieves saith Major this same was the Prince and the most gentle Thief The Life of King EDWARD the Third HAving already as it were in a Land-scape discovered some part of the holy War I shall now with a careful brevity pass through the transactions of our Wars with France as they were managed with victorious success in the Reigns of Edward the Third and Henry the Fifth to which to compleat the History I have added the Life of John Earl of Bedford with whose Life the Honour of our English Gallantry in France expired Edward the Third sirnamed of Windsor his Birth-place was eldest son to King Edward the Second who for some misgovernments during the time of his Reign was by the factious Nobility deposed from the Crown and not long after deprived of his life by the procurement as it is said of his Wife Queen Isabel Lord Mortimer and some others and young Edward Crowned King Anno. 1327. Who though he thus rise by Fathers ruine yet may in some sort be excused of the same First in regard of his adolescency for though he were then married yet had he not attained to 15. years of age nor could he be induced to accept of the Crown until he was certified by some of his Lords that his Father had voluntary resigned it unto him besides the exemplary punishment he took on the Lord Mortimer a chief actor in his Fathers Tragedy may in part assure as of his Innocency therein In the mean time to divert
other Knights and Esquires raised an Army about the edge of Wales and marched with the same towards London King Henry being informed thereof assembled likewise an host to resist them and being accompanied with the Dukes of Buckingham and Somerset the Earls of Northumberland Stafford Wiltshire Dorset Pembroke and Devonshire the Lords Clifford Sudley Barnes Rose and many others marched against him at Saint Albons both Armies met where betwixt them was fought a sore Battel which continuing doubtfull for a time the Earl of Warwick with great courage breaking in upon them and crying a Warwick a Warwick discomfitted the Kings side with a great slaughter no less then five thousand losing their lives among whom the chiefest was the Duke of Somerset the Earls of Northumberland and Stafford the old Lord Clifford with many other Knights and Gentlemen the King himself being wounded was taken prisoner and the next day carried to London Soon after began a Parliament at Westminster wherein the Duke of York was made Protector of the Realm the Earl of Salisbury Lord Chancellour and the Earl of Warwick Captain of Calice and the Territories of the same and thus the rule of the Realm rested in the Duke and Chancellour and all the Warlike Affairs in the Earl of Warwick the Kings authority consisting onely in name which they made use of for their own ends upon every occasion But the Queen stomacking these high indignities done to the King studies revenge and making sure to her side many of the Lords under a pretence of hunting conveyes the King to Coventry whither in a friendly way she sends for the Duke of York and the Earls of Warwick and Salisbury to which place the said Lords resort but having secret intelligence that mischief was intended against them they privately departed from the Court with mindes inrag'd against the Queen and her party but thorow the mediation of some Lords together with the Archbishop of Canterbury all parties meeting together at London a reconciliation was concluded on with many outward ceremonious shews of friendship But this calm lasted not long the Earl of Warwick upon some debate betwixt him and the Kings servants was by them assaulted and for safety of his life forced to fly unto Calice in a Barge this affront done unto him was seconded by another a Privy Seal being directed to him for the discharging of him of the Captainship of Calice the young Duke of Buckingham his enemy being constituted Captain in his room But for as much as he had his Commission from Parliament he would not obey the Privy Seal and to show his abilities fit for the mannagement of any design he with fourteen sail of Ships sets forth to scowre the Seas bringing home in little space prizes to the value of ten thousand pound a considerable sum in that age before the Indies wealth overflowed Europe In the mean time the Duke of York and Earl of Salisbury assemble an Army to revenge the injuries done to the Earl of Warwick to oppose whom the Queen sent James Twichet Lord Audley at Blore-heath near Mucklestone both Armies met where the Lord Audley was overthrown himself and 2400. of his men slain And now the Conquerours resolve to unvizard themselves and to raise what forces they could for the obtaining of their purposes The Earl of Warwick bringing to them a very great power from Calice the King on the other side raises a mighty great Army and having marched as far as Worcester to fave the effusion of blood sent unto them Richard Beauchamp Bishop of Salisbury with a general Pardon if they would give over their enterprise yet upon further advice having sent an excusatory Letter to the King they withdrew themselves into divers parts beyond the Seas Soon after was a Parliament holden at Coventry wherein the Duke of York Edward Earl of March his Son and Heire the Earls of Warwick Rutland and Salisbury with many other Lord and Gentlemen were attainted of Treason One Sir Baldwine Fulford undertook on pain of losing his head that he would destroy the Earl of Warwick but having spent the King a thousand marks returned without effecting his purpose On the other side the Earl of VVarwick sent some of his men who by night coming to Sandwich carried away the Lord Rivers and Sir Anthony VVoodvile his Son with many great Ships And now the Earls of March VVarwick and Salisbury being invited by the Kentishmen crossed the Sea and landed at Sandwich where they were met by Thomas Bourchier Archbiship of Canterbury and many others who conducted them to London in most solemn manner where having convocated the Cleargy in Saint Pauls Church the Earl of VVarwick in name of the rest took his oath upon the Cross of Canterbury that they had ever borne true faith and allegiance to King Henry Having by this oath gained credence of the Citizens they leave the Earl of Salisbury Governour thereof and with their Forces march down to Northampton where the King then lay with a strong power and first they affay to get him into their hands by fair means but that not prevailing they resolve force whereupon both Hosts encountred each other but the Lord Edmond Grey of Ruthen who commanded the Kings Voward forsaking his side and joyning with the Earl by that means set a palm of Victory upon his head and a Character of Treachery upon his own for betraying the trust reposed in him There were slain on the Kings part th Duke of Buckingham the Earl of Shrewsbury the Lords Beaumont and Egremont with many Knights and Esquires the King himself was taken prisoner and with seeming liberty conveyed to London And now to authorise their actions the better a Parliament is call'd wherein it was agreed that King Henry in relation to a long succession should enjoy the Crown during his natrual life which afterwards should devolve to Richard and his Heires in whom it was then apparently proved that the Title to the Kingdom did remain in which agreement was likewise manifested that Henry should make immediate forfeiture whensoever either he or any of his Party should attempt to disanul this act But the Queen with many of the Lords not being at the bargain making thought themselves not tied to the Conditions whereupon she having in her company the Prince her Son the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset the Earl of Devonshire the Lord Clifford and in effect all the Lords of the North with an Army of 18000. men marched from York to Wakefield with whom joyned the Lord Nevill Brother to the Earl of Westmorland who having gotten a Commission from the Duke of York under his name raised 8000. men but brought them all to the adverse party But the Duke of York whom fortune had hitherto waited on as his hand-maid nothing daunted at their number leaving the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of VVarwick to attend the King he with the Earl of Salisbury and his Son the Earl of Rutland with about some
Castle an honourable Mansion of his own where he continued and kept a bounteful house to the time of his death which happened in the fourscore and sixth year of his age He was buried at Thetford Abbey in Norfolk dying after a most generous life worth a large estate so clear from debt that at his death he owed not one groat to any person whatsoever an unusual happiness to attend so great a Souldier and Courtier as he was From this famous Duke is descended the Right Honorable James Earl of Suffolk whose great Grandfather Thomas Howard Duke of Norfolk married Margret sole Daughter and Heir to Sir Thomas Audley Lord Chancellour of England by whom he had issue Thomas Lord Howard of Walden and Earl of Suffolk who built that magnificent Structure at Audley-end who left the same to his Son and Heir Theophilus a worthy Gentleman the Father of James Earl of Suffolk now living Anno 1659. To whom with his most vertuous Lady I wish all encrease of true honour and felicity To the greater honour of these Progenies this Heroick Earl died so much a Laureat that his Songs and Sonnets by all those that rightly understand Poetry are looked upon as in those dayes to have been the Muses Parnassus so that for his Epitaph there needed no more to be writ but that here lies interred The greatest Courtier the most valiant Souldier and the most accomplisht Poet of those times The Life of CARDINAL VVOLSEY Fortunae variantis opus Wolsaeus ad alta Scandit iter dubium certa minitante ruina CArdinal VVolsey the Tennis-ball of Fortune was born at Ipswich in Suffolk of so poor and despicable Parents that were his story of an ancient date and not delivered by Authentique Historians it might pass for a fiction his Father being no more but a poor Butcher from so low a beginning did he rise to the highest pitch of honour His Education in youth was at Oxford in Maudlin Colledge from thence he was preferred to be School-master to the Marquess of Dorsets Children where he first learned to be imperious over noble blood the Marquess dying Wolsey went into France to seek his Fortune and coming to Callis became servant to Sir John Naphant then Treasurer of the Town where he behaved himself with so great discretion that his Master shortly preferred him to King Henry the Seventh Having thus cast Anchor at Court the Haven of hope and Port of Promotion he was more then double diligent in the Kings eye and very serviceable to Doctour Fox Bishop of Wincheter Secretary and Lord Privy Seal as also to Sir Thomas Lovel Master of the Wards and Constable of the Tower who perswaded King Henry having urgent business with Maximilian the Emperour to send Wolsey in Embassage unto him being at that present in the Countrey of Flanders who returned again before he was thought to be gone and withal concluded some Points forgot in his directions to the hight contentment of King Henry for the which he bestowed upon him the Deanry of Lincolne and not long after made him his Almoner But King Henries day now drawing towards night he adores the rising Sun Prince Henry and having found the length of his foot fitteth him with an easie shoe well knowing there could be no loss to humour him who was so able to give nor was he deceived in his expectation for Henry afterwards coming to be King and having conquered the City of Tourney in France bestowed the Bishoprick of the same upon VVolsey and not long after made him Bishop of Lincolne and Archbishop of York And now being Primas Anglia carried himself accordingly by erecting his Cross in the Kings Court although within the Jurisdiction of Canterbury which high presumption VVilliam Archbishop of Canterbury greatly checked But VVolsey not abiding any Superious obtained to be made Priest Cardinal and Legatus de Latere unto whom the Pope sent a Cardinals Hat with certain Bulls for his Authority in that behalf And now remembring the taunts he had received from Canterbury found means with the King that he was made Lord Chancellour of England and Canterbury which was Chancellour dismissed who had continued in that place long since before the death of King Henry the Seventh VVolsey now sitting at the Helm of Church and State had two Crosses and two Pillars born ever before him the one of his Archbishoprick the other of his Legacy by two of the tallest Priests that were to be found in the Realm To the better maintenance of which chargeable estate the King bestowed on him the Bishoprick of VVinchester and in Commendam the Abbey of St. Albans and with them he held in Farm the Bishopricks of Bathe VVorcester and Hereford enjoyed by strangers incumbents not residing in the Realm so that now being Bishop of Tourney Lincolne York VVinchester Bathe VVorcester and Hereford he seemed a Monster with seven heads and each of them crowned with the Mitre of a Bishop far different from the state of his Lord and Master Christ who had not a hole wherein to hide his head Yet his ambition resteth not here next he aspires to the Triple Crown he onely wants Holiness and must be Pope to the attaining of which Dignity he makes means to the Romish Cardinals as also to the Emperour Charles the Fifth Gold he gave to the Cardinals and they gave him golden promises although they proved but empty performances nor did the Emperour serve him any better promising much but performing nothing VVolsey hereat enraged studies revenge and by his instruments seeks to make a divorce betwixt Queen Katherine Dowager the Emperours Aunt and King Henry the Eighth his Master thereby to advance a Marriage betwixt him and the King of France's sister But though he effected the one he failed in the other for contrary to his expectation King Henry fell in love with Anna Bullen a Gentlewoman nothing favourable to his Pontificial Pomp nor no great follower of the Rites of those times which moved the Cardinal the Pope having assumed the sentence of Queen Katherines cause unto himself to write unto his Holiness to defer the judgement of Divorce till he had wrought the Kings minde in another mould But though this was done secretly it came to the Kings ear and wrought his minde quite off from the Cardinal which finally was the cause of his confusion for upon the Kings dislike the Counsel articled against him and the Law found him in a Premunire for procuring to be Legatus de latere and advancing the Popes Power against the Laws of the Realm for which resentment the Kings displeasure was so incenst that the Broad Seal was taken from him and most of his other Spiritual Preferments his house and furniture seized on to the Kings use and himself removed to Cawood Castle in Yorkshire Yet was he still left Bishop of Winchester and Archbishop of York to which last providing for his installing state equivalent to a Kings Coronation he was arrested of
shun the danger paid him eleven hundred and seventy pounds at the very instant yet did he deliver her the counterfeit coppy onely meaning to make use of the true one to get another some of the Earls adversaries This imposter being found out he was censured to perpetual imprisonment condemned in three thousand pounds two of which were to go to the Countess and his ears nailed to the pillory with this writing over his head A notorious Cheater I shall conclude all with some few observations on this unfortunate Earl as to his first rise my Lord of Leicester introduced him who had married his mother a tye of affinity Sure it is that he no sooner appeared in the Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I believe they all could not choose through the sacrifice of the Father but look on the living Son whose image by the remembrance of former passages was afresh like the bleeding of men murthered represented to the Court The Cicero of our modern times parallels him and Buckingham where the difference was is too transparent certain it is to use Sir Robert Nauntons own words that there was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate courtesie which both won the Queen and took too much on the people which amongst other disparities Buckingham never did attain to the latter What hath been imputed to his fall is that he drew too fast from the Queens indulgence like a childe sucking of an over uberous Nurse which caused him to express himself in such peremptory language when he heard that my Lord Mountjoy received a favour from the Queen for his running so well a tilt when as though he would have limited her respects he said Now I believe every fool must have a favour which made the Queen swear by Gods death it was fit that one or other should take him down and teach him better maners All Authours agree that he was a man of a rash spirit thirsty after the uncertain fame of popularity which helpt him on to his Catastrophe One writeth this Latine Epitaph on him Epitaphium de eodem Comite Ecce sub hoc tumulo situs est celeberrimus Heros Qui cecidit patrii spesque decusque soli Fama ingens annis juvenis fortissimus armis Nobilitate potens religione pius Terra Britannia parens testis Hibernia lethi Tristia fata gemunt fortia facta canunt Facta togae bellive magis praestantia mirer Optima pace domi Maxima marte foris Mors fera corpus habet Coelo Comes inclyte vivis Vita dicata Deo mors nonna vita data est The Life of Sir ROBERT CECILL Tu pater patriae Princeps Prudentia cujus Extulit immensum roges populosque Britannos THis Earwig of the Court Sir Robert Cecil afterwards Earl of Salisbury was the Son of the Lord Burleigh and the Inheritour of his Wisdom and by degrees Successour of his places and favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecil his elder Brother afterwards created Earl of Exeter He was first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of Queen Elizabeths Reign came to be Lord Treasurer all which were the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the Honour he left to his House For his Person he was not much beholding to Nature though somewhat for his Face which was the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and without Solecisme that he was his Fathers own Son and a pregnant Proficent in all Discipline of State He was a Courtier from his Cradle which might have made him betimes yet at the age of twenty and upwards he was much short of his after-proof but exposed and by change of climate he soon made shew what he was and would be He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of men of weight and among able ones this was a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the Tutourship of the times and Court which were then the Accademies of Art and Cunning. This great Master of State and the staff of the Queens declining age who though his little crooked person could not promise any great supportation yet it carried thereon a head and a head-piece of a vaste content and therein it seems Nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his memory and intellectuals she took care also of his senses and to put him in Linceos oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argus so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive Vertues his predecessour Walsingham had left him a receipt to smell out what was done in the Conclave and his good old father was so well seen in the Mathematicks as that he could tell you thorow all Spain every part every ship with the burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of enterprizes counsels and resolutions And that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little man was I will present a taste of his abilities The Earl of Devonshire upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Councel for such supplies to be sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did land and follow on his prosecution against the Rebels Sir Robert Cecill besides the general dispatch of the Councell as he often did wrote this in private for these two began then to love dearly My Lord Out of the abundance of my affection and the care I have of your well doing I must in private put you out of doubt for of fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible then in the way of honour that the Spaniard will not come unto you this year for I have it from my own what preparations are in all his Parts and what he can do For be confident he beareth up a reputation by seeming to embrace more then he can gripe But the next year be assured he will cast over unto you some Forelorn-hopes which how they may be reinforced beyond his present ability and his first intention I cannot as yet make any certain judgement but I believe out of my intelligence that you may expect there landing in Munster and the more to distract you in several places as at Kinsale Bur-haven Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Sea they will first fortifie and learn the strength of the Rebells before they dare take the field howsoever as I know you will not lesson not your care neither your defences and whatsoever lies within my power to do you and the publick service rest thereof assured And to this I would adde much more but it may as it is suffice to present much as to his abilities in the pen