that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand Marks And to shew further the Kings extreme Diligence I do remember to have seen long since a Book of Accompt of Empson's that had the King's hand almost to every Leaf by way of Signing and was in some places Postilled in the Margin with the King's hand likewise where was this Remembrance Item Received of such a one five Marks for the Pardon to be procured and if the Pardon do not pass the Money to be re-paid except the party be some other-ways satisfied And over against this Memorandum of the King 's own hand Otherwise satisfied Which I do the rather mention because it shews in the King a Nearness but yet with a kind of Justness So these little Sands and Grains of Gold and Silver as it seemeth helped not a little to make up the great Heap and Bank But mean while to keep the King awake the Earl of Suffolk having been too gay at Prince Arthur's Marriage and sunk himself deep in Debt had yet once more a mind to be a Knight-Errant and to seek Adventures in Forein parts And taking his Brother with him fled again into Flanders That no doubt which gave him Confidence was the great Murmur of the People against the King's Government And being a Man of a light and rash Spirit he thought every Vapour would be a Tempest Neither wanted he some Party within the Kingdom For the Murmur of People awakes the Discontents of Nobles and again that calleth up commonly some Head of Sedition The King resorting to his wonted and tryed Arts caused Sir Robert Curson Captain of the Castle at Hammes being at that time beyond Sea and therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King to flie from his Charge and to feign himself a servant of the Earl's This Knight having insinuated himself into the Secrets of the Earl and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had either Hope or Hold advertised the King thereof in great secrecy But nevertheless maintained his own Credit and inward trust with the Earl Upon whose Advertisements the King attached William Courtney Earl of Devonshire his Brother-in-Law married to the Lady Katherine Daughter to King Edward the Fourth William de la Pole Brother to the Earl of Suffolk Sir James Tirrel and Sir John Windham and some other meaner Persons and committed them to Custody George Lord Abergaveny and Sir Thomas Green were at the same time apprehended but as upon less Suspition so in a freer Restraint and were soon after delivered The Earl of Devonshire being interessed in the blood of York that was rather Feared than Nocent yet as One that might be the Object of others Plots and Designs remained Prisoner in the Tower during the King's life William de la Pole was also long restrained though not so straitly But for Sir James Tirrel against whom the Blood of the Innocent Princes Edward the Fifth and his Brother did still cry from under the Altar and Sir John Windham and the other meaner ones they were attainted and executed the two Knights beheaded Nevertheless to confirm the Credit of Curson who belike had not yet done all his Feats of Activity there was published at Paul's Cross about the time of the said Executions the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Curse against the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson and some others by name and likewise in general against all the Abettors of the said Earl Wherein it must be confessed that Heaven was made too much to bow to Earth and Religion to Policy But soon after Curson when he saw time returned into England and withal into wonted Favour with the King but worse Fame with the People Upon whose return the Earl was much dismayed and seeing himself destitute of hopes the Lady Margaret also by tract of Time and bad Success being now becom cool in those attempts after some wandering in France and Germany and certain little Projects no better than Squibs of an Exiled man being tired out retired again into the Protection of the Arch-Duke Philip in Flanders who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile in the right of Joan his Wife This year being the Nineteenth of his Reign the King called his Parliament Wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the King took himself to be with his Parliament when Dudley that was so hateful was made Speaker of the House of Commons In this Parliament there were not made any Statutes memorable touching publick Government But those that were had still the Stamp of the King's Wisdom and Policy There was a Statute made for the disannulling of all Patents of Lease or Grant to such as came not upon lawful Summons to serve the King in his Wars against the Enemies or Rebels or that should depart without the King's licence With an exception of certain Persons of the Long-robe Providing nevertheless That they should have the King's Wages from their House till their return home again There had been the like made before for Offices and by this Statute it was extended to Lands But a man may easily see by many Statutes made in this King's time that the King thought it safest to assist Martial Law by Law of Parliament Another Statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of Manufactures of Silk wrought by it self or mixt with any other Thred But it was not of Stuffs of whole piece for that the Realm had of them no Manufacture in use at that time but of Knit-Silk or Texture of Silk as Ribands Laces Cawls Points and Girdles c. which the people of England could then well skill to make This Law pointed at a true Principle That where forein materials are but Superfluities forein Manufactures should be prohibited For that will either banish the Superfluity or gain the Manufacture There was a Law also of Resumption of Patents of Gaols and the Reannexing of them to the Sherifwicks Priviledged Officers being no less an Interruption of Justice than Priviledged Places There was likewise a Law to restrain the By-laws or Ordinances of Corporations which many times were against the Prerogative of the King the Common-law of the Realm and the Liberty of the Subject being Fraternities in Evil. It was therefore Provided that they should not be put in Execution without the Allowance of the Chancellor Treasurer and the two Chief-Justices or three of them or of the two Justices of Circuit where the Corporation was Another Law was in effect to bring in the Silver of the Realm to the Mint in making all clipped minished or impaired Coins of Silver not to be currant in payments without giving any Remedy of weight but with an exception only of a reasonable wearing which was as nothing in respect of the incertainty and so upon the matter to set the Mint on work and give way to New Coins of Silver which should be then minted There likewise was a long Statute against Vagabonds wherein two things
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh
and safe Opinion and Advice mixed with Law and Convenience which was That the Knights and Burgesses attainted by the course of Law should forbear to come into the House 'till a Law were passed for the Reversal of their Attaindors It was at that time incidently moved amongst the Judges in their Consultation what should be done for the King himself who likewise was attainted But it was with unanimous consent Resolved That the Crown takes away all defects and stops in Blood and that from the time the King did assume the Crown the Fountain was cleared and all Attaindors and Corruption of Blood discharged But nevertheless for Honours sake it was Ordained by Parliament that all Records wherein there was any memory or mention of the King's Attaindor should be defaced cancelled and taken off the File But on the part of the King's Enemies there were by Parliament attainted the late Duke of Glocester calling himself Richard the Third the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Surrey Viscount Lovel the Lord Ferrers the Lord Zouch Richard Ratcliff William Catesby and many others of degree and quality In which Bills of Attaindors nevertheless there were contained many just and temperate Clauses Savings and Proviso's well shewing and foretokening the Wisdom Stay and Moderation of the King's Spirit of Government And for the Pardon of the rest that had stood against the King the King upon a second advice thought it not fit it should pass by Parliament the better being matter of Grace to impropriate the Thanks to himself using only the Opportunity of a Parliament time the better to disperse it into the Veins of the Kingdom Therefore during the Parliament he Published his Royal Proclamation offering Pardon and Grace of Restitution to all such as had taken Arms or been participant of any Attempts against him so as they submitted themselves to his Mercy by a Day and took the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to him Whereupon many came out of Sanctuary and many more came out of Fear no less guilty than those that had taken Sanctuary As for Money or Treasure the King thought it not seasonable or fit to demand any of his Subjects at this Parliament both because he had received satisfaction from them in matters of so great Importance and because he could not remunerate them with any General Pardon being prevented therein by the Coronation-Pardon passed immediately before but chiefly for that it was in every mans Eye what great Forfeitures and Confiscations he had at that present to help himself Whereby those Casualties of the Crown might in reason spare the Purses of his Subjects especially in a time when he was in Peace with all his Neighbours Some few Laws passed at that Parliament almost for form sake amongst which there was One to reduce Aliens being made Denizens to pay Strangers Customs and another to draw to himself the Seisures and Compositions of Italian Goods for not employment being Points of Profit to his Coffers whereof from the very Beginning he was not forgetful and had been more happy at the Latter End if his early Providence which kept him from all necessity of Exacting upon his People could likewise have attemp'red his nature therein He added during Parliament to his former Creations the Innoblement or Advancement in Nobility of a few others The Lord Chandos of Britain was made Earl of Bath and Sir Giles Dawbeny was made Lord Dawbeny and Sir Robert Willoughby Lord Brook The King did also with great Nobleness and Bounty which Virtues at that time had their turns in his Nature restore Edward Stafford eldest Son to Henry Duke of Buckingham attainted in the time of King Richard not only to his Dignities but to his Fortunes and Possessions which were great to which he was moved also by a kind of Gratitude for that the Duke was the man that moved the first Stone against the Tyranny of King Richard and indeed made the King a Bridge to the Crown upon his own Ruins Thus the Parliament brake up The Parliament being dissolved the King sent forthwith Money to redeem the Marquess Dorset and Sir John Bourchier whom he had left as his Pledges at Paris for Money which he had borrowed when he made his Expedition for England And thereupon he took a fit occasion to send the Lord Treasurer and Master Bray whom he used as Counsellor to the Lord Mayor of London requiring of the City a Prest of six thousand Marks But after many Parlees he could obtain but two thousand Pounds Which nevertheless the King took in good part as men use to do that practise to borrow Money when they have no need About this time the King called unto his Privy-Council John Morton and Richard Fox the one Bishop of Ely the other Bishop of Exceter vigilant men and secret and such as kept watch with him almost upon all men else They had been both versed in his Affairs before he came to the Crown and were partakers of his adverse Fortune This Morton soon after upon the death of Bourchier ' he made Archbishop of Canterbury And for Fox he made him Lord Keeper of his Privy-Seal and afterwards advanced him by Degrees from Exceter to Bath and Wells thence to Durham and last to Winchester For although the King loved to employ and advance Bishops because having rich Bishopricks they carried their Reward upon themselves yet he did use to raise them by steps that he might not lose the profit of the First-fruits which by that course of Gradation was multiplied At last upon the Eighteenth of January was Solemnized the so long expected and so much desired Marriage between the King and the Lady Elizabeth which Day of Marriage was celebrated with greater Triumph and Demonstrations especially on the Peoples part of Joy and Gladness than the days either of his Entry or Coronation which the King rather noted than liked And it is true that all his life time while the Lady Elizabeth lived with him for she dyed before him he shewed himself no very indulgent Husband towards her though she was beautiful gentle and fruitful But his aversion towards the House of York was so predominant in him as it found place not only in his Wars and Councils but in his Chamber and Bed Towards the middle of the Spring the King full of confidence and assurance as a Prince that had been Victorious in Battel and had prevailed with his Parliament in all that he desired and had the Ring of Acclamations fresh in his Ears thought the rest of his Reign should be but Play and the enjoying of a Kingdom Yet as a wise and watchful King he would not neglect any thing for his Safety thinking nevertheless to perform all things now rather as an Exercise than as a Labour So he being truly informed that the Northern parts were not only Affectionate to the House of York but particularly had been Devoted to King Richard the Third thought it would be a Summer well spent to visit
honour not to suffer a Pretender to the Crown of England to affront him so near at hand and he to keep terms of Friendship with the Countrey where did set up But he had also a further reach for that he knew well that the Subjects of Flanders drew so great commodity from the Trade of England as by this Embargo they would soon wax weary of Perkin and that the Tumults of Flanders had been so late and fresh as it was no time for the Prince to displease the People Nevertheless for forms sake by way of requital the Archduke did likewise banish the English out of Flanders which in effect was done to his hand The King being well advertised that Perkin did more trust upon Friends and Partakers within the Realm than upon forein Arms thought it behoved him to apply the Remedy where the Disease lay and to proceed with severity against some of the principal Conspirators here within the Realm Thereby to purge the ill humours in England and to cool the hopes in Flanders Wherefore he caused to be apprehended almost at an instant John Ratcliff Lord Fitz-water Sir Simon Mountford Sir Thomas Thwaites William Daubigney Robert Ratcliff Thomas Chressenor and Thomas Astwood All these were arraigned convicted and condemned for High-Treason in adhering and promising ayd to Perkin Of these the Lord Fitz-water was conveyed to Calice and there kept in hold and in hope of life until soon after either impatient or betrayed he dealt with his Keeper to have escaped and thereupon was beheaded But Sir Simon Mountford Robert Ratcliff and William Daubigney were beheaded immediately after their Condemnation The rest were pardoned together with many others Clerks and Laicks amongst which were two Dominican Friers and William Worseley Dean of St. Pauls which latter sort passed Examination but came not to publick Tryal The Lord Chamberlain at that time was not touched whether it were that the King would not stir too many humours at once but after the manner of good Physicians purge the Head last or that Clifford from whom most of these Discoveries came reserved that Piece for his own coming over signifying only to the King in the mean time that he doubted there were some greater ones in the business whereof he would give the King further account when he came to his presence Upon All-hallows-day-even being now the tenth year of the King's Reign the King 's second Son Henry was created Duke of York and as well the Duke as divers others Noblemen Knights-Batchelors and Gentlemen of quality were made Knights of the Bath according to the Ceremony Upon the morrow after Twelfth-day the King removed from Westminster where he had kept his Christmas to the Tower of London This he did as soon as he had advertisement that Sir Robert Clifford in whose Bosom or Budget most of Perkin's secrets were laid up was come into England And the place of the Tower was chosen to that end that if Clifford should accuse any of the Great-ones they might without suspition or noise or sending abroad of Warrants be presently attached the Court and Prison being within the cincture of one Wall After a day or two the King drew unto him a selected Council and admitted Clifford to his presence who first fell down at his feet and in all humble manner craved the King's Pardon which the King then granted though he were indeed secretly assured of his life before Then commanded to tell his knowledge he did amongst many others of himself not interrogated appeach Sir William Stanley the Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold The King seemed to be much amazed at the naming of this Lord as if he had heard the news of some strange and fearful Prodigy To hear a man that had done him service of so high a nature as to save his Life and set the Crown upon his head a man that enjoyed by his favour and advancement so great a fortune both in Honour and Riches a man that was tyed unto him in so near a band of Alliance his Brother having married the King's Mother and lastly a man to whom he had committed the trust of his Person in making him his Chamberlain That this Man no ways disgraced no ways discontent no ways put in fear should be false unto him Clifford was required to say over again and again the Particulars of his Accusation being warned that in a matter so unlikely and that concerned so great a Servant of the King 's he should not in any wise go too far But the King finding that he did sadly and constantly without hesitation or varying and with those civil Protestations that were fit stand to that that he had said offering to justifie it upon his soul and life he caused him to be removed And after he had not a little bemoaned himself unto his Council there present gave order that Sir William Stanley should be restrained in his own Chamber where he lay before in the Square Tower And the next day he was examined by the Lords Upon his Examination he denyed little of that wherewith he was charged nor endeavoured much to excuse or extenuate his fault So that not very wisely thinking to make his Offence less by Confession he made it enough for Condemnation It was conceived that he trusted much to his former Merits and the interest that his Brother had in the King But those helps were over-weighed by divers things that made against him and were predominant in the King's nature and mind First an Over-merit for convenient Merit unto which reward may easily reach doth best with Kings Next the sense of his Power for the King thought that he that could set him up was the more dangerous to pull him down Thirdly the glimmering of a Confiscation for he was the richest Subject for value in the Kingdom there being found in his Castle of Holt forty thousand Marks in ready Money and Plate besides Jewels Houshold-stuff Stocks upon his grounds and other Personal Estate exceeding great And for his Revenue in Land and Fee it was three thousand Pounds a year of old-Rent a great matter in those times Lastly the Nature of the Time for if the King had been out of fear of his own Estate it was not unlike he would have spared his life But the Cloud of so great a Rebellion hanging over his head made him work sure Wherefore after some six Weeks distance of time which the King did honorably interpose both to give space to his Brother's Intercession and to shew to the world that he had a conflict with himself what he should do he was arraigned of High-Treason and condemned and presently after beheaded Yet it is to this day left but in dark memory both what the Case of this Noble Person was for which he suffered and what likewise was the ground and cause of his defection and the alienation of his heart from the King His Case was said to be this That in discourse between Sir Robert
and it stood not with the publick weal that he should live single especially the lawfulness of his Daughters birth being so questionable He married not again for his pleasure but to settle the Kingdom on his lawful Issue The Learned as many as he had conferred with did generally pronounce the first Marriage void yet would he have it lawfully decided that with a safe conscience he might make choice of a second Thus far had Wolsey willingly led him hoping to have drawn him to a Match in France But he was of age to choose for himself and had already elsewhere setled his affections And the more to manifest his love on the eighteenth of June he created his future Father-in-Law Sir Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort At the same time were created Henry Fitz-roy the King 's natural Son by Elizabeth Blount Daughter to Sir John Blount Knight Earl of Nottingham and Duke of Richmond and Somerset Henry Courtney Earl of Devonshire the King 's Cousin-german Marquess of Exceter Henry Brandon eldest Son to the Duke of Suffolk by the King's Sister the Dowager of France Earl of Lincoln Thomas Manners Lord Roos Earl of Rutland Sir Henry Clifford Earl of Cumberland and Robert Ratcliff Lord Fitzwalter Viscount Fitzwalter Cardinal Wolsey this year laid the foundation of two Colleges one at Ipswich the place of his birth another at Oxford dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST by the name of Christ-Church This latter though not half finished yet a magnificent and royal Work a most fruitful Mother of Learned Children doth furnish the Church and Commonwealth with multitudes of able men and amongst others acknowledgeth me such as I am for her Foster-child The other as if the Founder had also been the foundation fell with the Cardinal and being for the most part pulled down is long since converted to private uses The Cardinal 's private estate although it were wonderful great being not sufficient to endow these Colleges with revenues answerable to their foundation the Pope consenting he demolished forty Monasteries of meaner note and conferred the lands belonging to them on these his new Colleges It hath been the observation of some That this business like that proverbial Gold of Tholouse was fatal to those that any way had a hand in it We will hereafter shew what became of the Pope and the Cardinal But of five whom he made use of in the alienation of the Gifts of so many Religious men it afterward happened that two of them challenging the field of each other one was slain and the other hanged for it a third throwing himself headlong into a Well perished wilfully a fourth before that a wealthy man sunk to that low ebb that he after begged his bread and Dr. Allen the fifth a man of especial note being Archbishop of Dublin was murthered in Ireland I could wish that by these and the like examples men would learn to take heed how they lay hands on things consecrated to God If the Divine Justice so severely punished those that converted the abused yet not regarding the abuse but following the sway of their ambitious desires goods of the Church to undoubtedly better uses what can we expect of those that take all occasions to rob and spoil the Church having no other end but only the enriching of themselves Luther had notice of Henry his intended Divorce and that from Christiern the expelled King of Denmark who eagerly solicited him to write friendly unto the King putting Luther in hope that Henry being a courteous Prince might by mild perswasions be induced to embrace the Reformation which Luther had begun And indeed Luther foreseeing the necessary consequences of this Divorce was easily intreated and did write unto the King in this submissive manner He doubted not but he had much offended his Majesty by his late Reply but he did it rather enforced by others than of his own accord He did now write presuming upon the King 's much bruited humanity especially being informed That the King himself was not Author of the Book against him which thing he understood was captiously cavilled at by some Sophisters And having occasion to speak of the Cardinal of York he called him the Caterpillar of England He understood the King did now loath that wicked sort of men and in his mind to favour the Truth Wherefore he craveth pardon of his Majesty beseeching him to remember that we being mortal should not make our enmities immortal If the King would be pleased to impose it he would openly acknowledge his fault and blazon his Royal Virtues in another Book Then he wished him to stop his ears against those standerous tongues that branded him with Heresie for this was the summ of his Doctrine That we must be saved through Faith in Christ who did bear the punishment of our sins in every part and throughout his whole body who dying for us and rising again reigneth with the Father for ever That he taught this to be the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that out of this position he shewed what Charity was how we ought to behave our selves one towards another that we are to obey Magistrates and to spend our whole life in the profession of the Gospel If this Doctrine contain any Impiety or Errour why do not his Adversaries demonstrate it Why do they condemn him without either lawful hearing or confutation In that he inveigheth against the Pope and his Adherents he doth it not without good reason for asmuch as for their profits sake they teach things contrary to what Christ and the Apostles did that so they may domineer over the Flock and maintain themselves in Gluttony and Idleness That this was the mark at which their thoughts and deeds aimed and that it was so notorious that they themselves could not deny it That if they would reform themselves by changing their idle and filthy course of life maintained by the loss and wrong of others the differences might easily be composed That his Tenets were approved by many Princes and Estates of Germany who did reverently acknowledge this great blessing of God amongst whom he wonderfully desired he might rank his Majesty That the Emperour and some others opposed his proceedings he did not at all wonder for the Prophet David had many Ages since foretold That Kings and Nations should conspire against the Lord and against his Christ and cast away his yoak from them That when he did consider this and the like places of Scripture he did rather wonder that any Prince did favour the doctrine of the Gospel And to conclude he craved a favourable Answer The King made a sharp Reply to Luther's Letter accusing him of base Inconstancy He stands in defence of his Book which he said was in great esteem with many Religious and Learned men That he reviled the Cardinal a Reverend Father was to be regarded as from him from whose impiety neither God nor man could be free That both
pardon at a hundred thousand Pounds and in this Synod he is with much ado by the Clergy of both Provinces declared next under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England and all forein power or authority whatsoever disclaimed The Province of York is moreover fined at eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds So this one fault if it may be so accompted it being certain that Wolsey was licenced to exercise his authority Legantine cost the Clergy a hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds ANNO DOM. 1531. REG. 23. THe only publick memorable occurrents of this year were that the Laity for the most part as deep in a Praemunire as the Clergy were by Act of Parliament pardoned In which assembly Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour and other remarkable speakers related at large the Conclusions of the Universities concerning the unlawfulness of the King's marriage And yet perhaps the notorious villany of Richard Rose Cook to the Bishop of Rochester might crave a place in this History who with poysoned broth killed sixteen of the Bishop's servants The Bishop himself who was especially aimed at that day contrary to his accustomed diet forbearing broth escaped The poisoner according to a Law lately enacted was thrown into a cauldron of boyling water But the offence deserved tortures of a most exquisite strain ANNO DOM. 1532. REG. 24. ON the three and twentieth of August died William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to whom Thomas Cranmer at that time in Germany about the King's affairs was appointed Successor He was not so ambitious as to aspire to such a dignity and some reasons made him unwilling to accept it being offered He knew before he could be consecrated he must swear obedience to the Pope which with a safe conscience he could not He feared what would be the issue of this abrupt separation from the See of Rome He knew the King's disposition to be violent such sudden changes to be full of danger and the Court although he had not yet purchased the acquaintance of it to be a meer School of fraud and dissembling The King's pleasure must necessarily be obeyed and if he slipped never so little envy the mischievous attendant of great felicity would help him forward to a break-neck Cranmer also having long since lost his Wife whom he had married in his youth had taken a liking to a certain maid Niece to Osiander's Wife whom he intended to make his second Wife yet he knew that the Canon Law permitted not Priests to marry and made them uncapable of holy Orders who had been twice married These considerations made him linger in Germany six whole months after the dispatch of his business hoping that his absence might afford means to some other to work a way to the Archbishoprick But the times were such that they to whom desert might give greatest hopes of attaining it did abhor this still tottering and slippery dignity and even they who were already advanced to the like endeavoured to betake themselves to the safety of meaner fortune As did Sir Thomas More the Lord Chancellour who by his continual earnest petitions obtained leave of the King on the fifteenth of May to resign his place and Sir Thomas Awdley on the fourth of June was in his stead made Lord Keeper Cranmer having privately married his Wife at Norimberg at length returned into England where the King's importunity prevailing beyond all scrupulous difficulties Cranmer is though much against his will made Archbishop of Canterbury the Pope also by his Bull confirming the Election He refusing the Archbishoprick because he must take an Oath to the Pope delivered the Bull to the King protesting that he would never accept of any Bishoprick in England but from the King who was Supreme Head of the Church of England and that he would not take any Oath that should any way derogate from the King's Authority At length the subtil heads of the Lawyers found out a quirk whereby to salve all He must first by a previous Protestation except against this Oath which was to be taken pro formâ that it should not hereafter be any way prejudicial to him Thus ascended Cranmer to the Archiepiscopal See where he sate near about twenty years until Queen Mary the Daughter of repudiated Catharine not only thrust this most innocent grave learned man out of his Bishoprick but with a barbarous cruelty condemned him to the fire as hereafter in its place we shall declare For the Treatise of a more strict League between the two Kings of England and France an interview is appointed between them To this end on the eleventh October the King with a mighty train passed to Calais The tenth day after going to Boloigne he was met half way by the French King and his Sons and conducted to Boloigne where the two Kings divided the Abbey between them Henry staid there four days and then brought Francis in whose company were the King of Navarre some Dukes and Cardinals a great number of Noblemen and of others at least twelve hundred to Calais At St. Joquebert the Duke of Richmond who was not at Boloigne with the King his Father received them After much solemn entertainment and the interchangeable favours from each King to the Princes of each others company from Henry to the King of Navarre or as the French write to Montmorency and Chabot the Admiral by the Order of the Garter From Francis to the Dukes of Narfolk and Suffolk by that of St. Michael these great Monarchs parted Jealousie of the Emperour 's still increasing power had now united these Princes and their natural dispositions wonderful agreeable had made them always prone to a mutual love which by this interview took such deep root that even in their own opinions they rested assured of each other And indeed had they been private persons their friendship in all likelihood had continued inviolable But Princes are not so much to be swayed by their own affections as the consideration of the publick Utility The effect of this interview was an agreement to repress the Turk about that time wasting Hungary to which end they should assemble together by their joint forces an Army of fourscore thousand men whereof there should be ten thousand horse with Artillery requisite for the said Camp A specious pretext For they both knew that the Turk had already retreated But in private they treated of other matters They had both many causes of discontent Francis not without cause was displeased with the Pope and Henry thinking it best to strike while the Iron was hot endeavoured an utter alienation between them Henry complains first of the wrong the Court of Rome did him touching the matter of his Divorce in the suit whereof full six years were now spent and yet at length after all their deceits and mockeries they seek to force him either to go in person to Rome or in a matter of so great importance to send
own Brother A strange ingratitude in one raised from so low degree even to the height of honour I will not derogate from the Authority of publick Records But an Act of Parliament against her shall not work on my belief Surely it carried so little shew of probability with forein Princes that they always deemed it an act of inhuman cruelty Especially the Estates of Germany Confederates for the defence of the Reformed Religion who having often treated with Fox Bishop of Hereford and other Ambassadors had decreed to make Henry Head of their League and had designed an Embassy by John Sturmius who should have brought with him into England those excellent Divines Philip Melancthon and Martin Bucer with one George Draco who should endeavour that and the Reformation of our Church But having heard of the lamentable and unworthy as they judged it end of the Queen loathing the King for his inconstancy and cruelty they cast off all farther thought of that matter I will not presume to discuss the truth of their opinion But freely to speak what I my self think There are two reasons which sway much with me in the behalf of the Queen That her Daughter the Lady Elizabeth was seated in the Royal Throne where she for so many years ruled so happily and triumphantly What shall we think but that the Divine Goodness was pleased to recompence the unjust calamity of the Mother in the glorious prosperity of the Daughter And then consider but the King 's precipitated Nuptials the very next day after the death of his former Wife yet scarce intorred and with whose warm blood his embrued hands yet reaked Consider this I say and you shall easily be perswaded with me that the insatiable Prince glutted with the satiety of one and out of the desire of variety seeking to enjoy another did more willingly give ear to the treacherous calumnies of the malicious Popelings than either befitted an upright Judge or a loving Husband For it seemeth wonderful strange to me that either the fault of the one or the pleasing conditions and fair language of the other Wife should so far possess the King as that he should procure his Daughter Elizabeth to be by Act of Parliament declared illegitimate the Matrimony contracted with both the former Queens Catharine and Ann to be pronounced invalid and the Crown to be perpetually established on the posterity of the third Wife or if the King had no Issue by her that then it should be lawful for him by Will and Testament to transfer it on whom he pleased Parliaments were not then so rigid but that they could flatter the Prince and condescend to his demands though unjust even in cases which most nearly concerned the publick Weal But servile Fear is oft times more ready than Love which slowly moves by apprehension of Good as the other is quickly forced by the apprehension of Danger On the twentieth of May the King married Jane Seymour Daughter of Sir John Seymour who on the nine and twentieth of May being Whitsonday clad in Royal habiliments was openly shewed as Queen So that the Court of England was now like a Stage whereon are represented the vicissitudes of ever various Fortune For within one and the same Month it saw Queen Ann flourishing accused condemned executed and another assumed into her place both of bed and honour The first of May it seemeth she was informed against the second imprisoned the fifteenth condemned and the seventeenth deprived of her Brother and Friends who suffered in her cause and the nineteenth executed On the twentieth the King married Jane Seymour who on the nine and twentieth was publickly shewed as Queen The death of this innocent Lady God seemed to revenge in the immature end of the Duke of Richmond the King 's only but natural Son a Prince of excellent form and endowments who deceased the two and twentieth of July for whom the King a long time after mourned In the mean time on the nineteenth of July John Bourchier Lord Fitz-waren was created Earl of Bath whose successours in that Honour were his Son John who begat John deceased before his Father whose Son William is now Earl of Bath At what time also Thomas Cromwell a poor Smith's Son but of a dexterous wit whose first rising was in the Family of Cardinal Wolsey in whose service by him faithfully performed he grew famous was made Lord Cromwell many dignities being also conferred on him to the increase of his estate and honour For first he was Master of the Rolls and principal Secretary of Estate then Sir Thomas Bolen Earl of Wiltshire resigning he was made Lord Privy Seal and after that dignified with the unheard of Title of The King's Vicar general in affairs Ecclesiastical For the authority of the Pope being abrogated many businesses daily happened which could not be dispatched without the King's consent who not able to undergo the burthen alone conferred this authority granted him by Act of Parliament on Cromwell not for that he thought a Lay-man fitter for this dignity than a Clergy-man but because he had determined under colour and pretence thereof to put in execution some designs wherein the Clergy in all probability would have moved very slowly and against the hair He was therefore President in the Synod this year Certainly a deformed spectacle to see an unlearned Lay-man President over an assembly of sacred Prelates and such as for their Learning England had in no preceding Ages known the like For indeed Henry is for that much to be commended who would not easily advance any one to place of Government in the Church but whom his Learning should make worthy By the authority of this Synod a Book was set forth wherein many points of Doctrine being proposed to be by the Curates expounded to their Parishioners mention was made of only three Sacraments Baptism the Eucharist and Penance some Holy-days also were abrogated and other things pertaining to Religion and Ecclesiastical discipline somewhat changed wherewith many were offended who preferred prescript Errours before the Truth The same time the Parliament assembled the fourth of January permitted all Monasteries the Revenues whereof exceeded not two hundred Pounds a year to the King's disposal who causing them to be suppressed to the number of three hundred seventy and six entred upon their Lands amounting to thirty two thousand Pounds a year and selling their goods even at very low rates most men accounting it sacrilegious to set to sale the goods of the Church raised above an hundred thousand Pounds These things of themselves were distastful to the vulgar sort Each one did as it were claim a share in the goods of the Church For many who being neither Monks nor relied to Religious persons did receive no profit of Ecclesiastical goods did notwithstanding conceive that it might hereafter come to pass that either their Children Friends or Kindred might obtain the places yet supplied by others
was John Paslew Batchelor of Divinity and Abbot of Whalley put to death at Lancaster and with him one Eastgate a Monk of the same place and three days after them another Monk called Haydock was hanged at Whalley The Abbots of Sauley and Woburn with two Monks make the like end at Woburn And a little after one Doctor Macarell another Abbot the Vicar of Louth two other Priests and seven Lay-men All these for as much as I can any way collect were condemned for having been especial furtherers of the late Rebellions But the Chiestains and nobler sort were reserved until June at what time the Lords Darcy and Hussey were beheaded the one at Lincoln the other at London Sir Robert Constable Sir Thomas Percy Sir Francis Bigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir John Bulmer were likewise put to death Margaret Lady to Sir John Bulmer was burned at London William Thurst Abbot of Fountaines Adam Sudbury Abbot of Gervaux the Abbot of Rivers Wold Prior of Birlington George Lumley Nicholas Tempest Esquires and Robert Aske with many others as having been partakers in the late Insurrection did likewise partake in punishment for the same And for a Commotion in Somersetshire in April were threescore condemned whereof only fourteen suffered But lest any one may wonder at these severe and unheard of courses taken against the Clergy I think it not amiss to relate what Sleidan writes of Cardinal Pool who set forth one or two Books which as yet lurking at Rome about this time were spred abroad in Germany and came at length to the King's hands Wherein directing his stile to the King he sharply reprehendeth him for taking upon him the title of Head of the Church which only belonged to the Pope who is Christ's Vicar on earth c. Then he proceeds to the matter of his Divorce alledging That he neither out of terrour of conscience nor fear of God as he pretended but out of lust and blind love had forsaken the Lady Catharine his Wife whom his Brother Prince Arthur a weak young man and but fourteen years old had left a Virgin That it was not lawful for him to marry Ann Bolen whose Sister he had before used as his Concubine And that he himself had confessed to the Emperour and others That he found the Lady Catharine a Maid He also eagerly reproveth him for seeking the Opinions of the Universities concerning his former Marriage and triumphing in his own wickedness when some of them had pronounced it Incestuous and that he might be ashamed to prefer the Daughter of a Whore before one that was legitimate and a most Virtuous Princess Then speaking of the death of the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More he detests his cruelty He then rips up what tyranny he had exercised over his Subjects of all degrees in what miseries he had plunged this flourishing Realm what dangers he incurred from the Emperour in regard of the injury offered to his Aunt and the overthrow of Religion and that he could not expect any aid either from his own or forein Nations who had deserved so ill of the Christian Commonwealth After this he whets on the Emperour to revenge the dishonour of his Family affirming that Turcism meaning the Protestant Religion had found entertainment in England and Germany And after many bitter reproofs he invites Henry to repentance perswading him That for these evils there was no other remedy but to return to the bosom of the Church in the defence whereof a most glorious example he had made use not only of his Sword but his Pen also Neither did the Cardinal only by Book but by other personal endeavours manifest his spleen against the King being sent Ambassador from the Pope to the French under colour of reconciling him with the Emperour but his chief errant was to combine them both against Henry Whereof he having intelligence did by his Agent earnestly solicit Francis That in regard of their mutual amity he would cause Pool to be apprehended as guilty of high Treason and sent to him where he should undergo the punishment due therefore But because Religion and the Law of Nations had been violated in betraying any especially the Pope's Ambassador the French could not yield to the King's request But to shew that he would administer no cause of offence he refused to admit of his Embassy and commanded him speedily to depart out of his Dominions Hercules stature might be guessed at by the proportion of his and by this one man's endeavours Henry was taught what if need were he was to expect of his Clergy So that he was easily induced as any of them offended to send him to his grave for that a dead Lion biteth not And this course being taken with his professed enemies the fear of the like punishment would secure him of the rest On the twelfth of October the Queen having long suffered the throws of a most difficult travel and such a one wherein either the Mother or the Infant must necessarily perish out of her womb was ripped Prince Edward who after succeeded his Father in the Crown The Queen only surviving two days died on the fourteenth of October and on the twelfth of November was with great pomp buried at Windsor in the middle of the Quire on whose Tomb is inscribed this Epitaph Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phaenices nulla tulisse duas Here a Phenix lieth whose death To another Phenix gave breath It is to be lamented much The World at once ne'r knew two such On the eighteenth of October the Infant was created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Earl of Chester and with him his Uncle Edward Seymour Brother to the deceased Queen Lord Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford which Honours only and not those afterwards conferred on him he left to his posterity William Fitz-Williams Lord Admiral was made Earl of Southampton Then also William Powlet and John Russel began their races in the lists of Honour Powlet being made Treasurer and Russel Comptroller of the King's Houshold and both sworn of the Privy Council Neither was here their non ultra the one being afterward raised to Lord Treasurer of England and Marquess of Winchester the other to Earl of Bedford wherein he dying in the year 1554 his Son Francis that pious old man and liberal reliever of the Poor succeeded him who at the very instant of his death lost his Son Francis slain by a Scot Anno 1587. Which Francis was Father to Edward Earl of Bedford and Brother to William by King James created Lord Russel Powlet living to be a very decrepit old man had to his Successor his Nephew by his Son William named also William the sole Marquess of England And to end this year with death as it began Thomas Howard youngest Son to the Duke of Norfolk having been fifteen months imprisoned for affiancing himself without the King's consent to Margaret Daughter to Archibald Douglas
regard of his youth and Noble Disposition much lamented his loss and the King 's inexorable rigour ANNO DOM. 1542. REG. 34. BY this time Henry began to find the conveniency of his change having married one as fruitful in evil as his former Wives were in good who could not contain her self within the sacred limits of a Royal marriage bed but must be supplied with more vigorous and active bodies than was that of the now growing aged and unwieldy King Alas what is this momentary pleasure that for it we dare hazard a treble life of Fame of Body of Soul Heaven may be merciful but Fame will censure and the enraged Lion is implacable such did this Queen find him who procured not only her to be condemned by Act of Parliament begun the sixteenth of January and with her the Lady Jane Wife to the Viscount Rochfort behold the thrift of the Divine Justice which made her an Instrument of the punishment of her own and others wickedness who by her calumnies had betrayed her own Husband and his Sister the late beheaded Queen Ann but two others also long since executed Francis Derham and Thomas Calpepper in their double condemnation scarce sufficiently punished Derham had been too familiar with her in her virgin time and having after attained to some publick Offices in Ireland was by her now Queen sent for and entertained as a houshold Servant in which time whether he revived his former familiarity is not manifest But Culpepper was so plainly convict of many secret meetings with the Queen by the means of the Lady Rochfort that the Adultery was questionless For which the Queen and the Viscountess Rochfort were both beheaded within the Tower on the twelfth of February Derham had been hanged and Culpepper beheaded at Tyburn the tenth of the preceding December Hitherto our Kings had stiled themselves Lords of Ireland a Title with that rebellious Nation not deemed so sacred and dreadful as to force obedience The Estates therefore of Ireland assembled in Parliament Enacted him King of Ireland according to which Decree he was on the three and twentieth of January publickly Proclaimed About the same time Arthur Viscount Lisle natural Son of Edward the Fourth out of a surfeit of sudden Joy deceased Two of his Servants had been executed the preceding year for having conspired to betray Calais to the French and the Viscount as being conscious committed to the Tower But upon manifestation of his innocence the King sent unto him Sir Thomas Wriothsley Principal Secretary of Estate by whom he signified the great content he received in the Viscount's approved fidelity the effects whereof he should find in his present liberty and that degree of favour that a faithful and beloved Uncle deserved The Viscount receiving such unexpected news imbellished with rich promises and Royal tokens the King having sent him a Diamond of great value of assured favour being not sufficiently capable of so great joy free from all symptoms of any other disease the ensuing night expired After whose decease Sir John Dudley was created Viscount Lisle claiming that Honour as hereditary in the right of his Mother the Lady Elizabeth Sister and Heir to the Lord Edward Grey Viscount Lisle Wife to the late deceased Lord Arthur but formerly married to Edmund Dudley one of the Barons of the Exchequer beheaded the first year of this King's reign Which I the rather remember for that this man afterwards memorable for his power and dignities might have proved more happy in his Issue than his greatness had not his own ambition betrayed some of these fair sprouts to the blast of unseasonable hopes and nature denying any at least lawful Issue to the rest the name and almost remembrance of this great Family hath ceased Of which hereafter Scotland had been long peaceable yet had it often administred motives of discontent and jealousie James the Fifth King of Scots Nephew to Henry by his Sister having long lived a Bachelor Henry treated with him concerning a Marriage with his then only Child the Lady Mary a Match which probably would have united these neighbour Kingdoms But God had reserved this Union for a more happy time The antient League between France and Scotland had always made the Scots affected to the French and James prefer the alliance with France before that of England where the Dowry was no less than the hopes of a Kingdom So he marrieth with Magdalen a Daughter of France who not long surviving he again matcheth there with Mary of Guise Widow to the Duke of Longueville Henry had yet a desire to see his Nephew to which end he desired an interview at York or some other oportune place James would not condescend to this who could not withstanding undertake a long and dangerous voyage into France without invitation These were the first seeds of discord which after bladed to the Scots destruction There having been for two years neither certain Peace nor a just War yet incursions from each side Forces are assigned to the Duke of Norfolk to repress the insolency of the Scots and secure the Marches The Scot upon news of our being in Arms sends to expostulate with the Duke of Norfolk concerning the motives of this War and withal dispatcheth the Lord Gordon with some small Forces to defend the Frontiers The Herald is detained until our Army came to Berwick that he might not give intelligence of our strength And in October the Duke entring Scotland continued there ransacking the Countrey without any opposition of the Enemy until the middle of November By which time King James having levied a great Army resolved on a Battel the Nobility perswading the contrary especially unwilling that he should any way hazard his Person the loss of his Father in the like manner being yet fresh in memory and Scotland too sensible of the calamities that ensued it The King proving obstinate they detain him by force desirous rather to hazard his displeasure than his life This tenderness of him in the language of rage and indignation he terms cowardise and treachery threatning to set on the Enemy assisted with his Family only The Lord Maxwell seeking to allay him promised with ten thousand only to invade England and with far less than the English Forces to divert the War The King seems to consent But offended with the rest of the Nobility he gives the Lord Oliver Saintclare a private Commission not to be opened until they were ready to give the onset wherein he makes him General of the Army Having in England discovered five hundred English Horse led by Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Musgrave the Lord Saintclare commanded his Commission publickly to be read the recital whereof so distasted the Lord Maxwell and the whole Army that all things were in a confusion and they ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoyning Hill gave us a full prospect into their Army and invited us to make use of
the last year of Henry his Reign who having tired himself with the French Wars began at length seriously to bethink himself of Peace Neither was Francis less desirous of his Friendship To this end Deputies from both sides meet often between Guisnes and Ardres For Henry the Earl of Hertford Gardiner Bishop of Winchester the Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Sir William Paget Secretary of Estate and Dr. Wotton the first Dean of Canterbury For Francis the Admiral Annebault Raymond first President of Rouan and Boucherel Secretary After many consultations a Peace was concluded on these Conditions That Francis within eight years should pay fourscore hundred thousand Crowns to the King as well for the arrerage of his Pension as for many other expences made by him in War in the fortification of Boloign and of the Countrey And upon receipt of the said Summ Henry should deliver unto the King of France Boloign and all the Countrey belonging to it with the ancient places or newly edified by him Mont-Lambert the Tower of Ordre Ambleteul and others with all the Artillery and Munition in them For the confirmation whereof the Viscount Lisle was sent Ambassador into France and from thence came the Admiral Annebault to receive the Oaths of each King and the Peace was Proclaimed in London On the sixteenth of July were burnt at London for their Religion John Lassels Nicholas Otterden John Adlam and Ann Askew a young Gentlewoman aged twenty five of an ancient Descent excellent beauty and acute wit whose examinations writings tortures and patient suffering are at large set down by Mr. Fox being before their Execution by Dr. Schaxton exhorted to Recant as he then was forced who some years passed had resigned his Bishoprick to enjoy his Conscience And here I may not omit an addition to the septenary number of Sleepers William Foxley a Pot-maker in London who without any touch of any preceding infirmity was seised with such a dead sleep that for fourteen days and fifteen nights no force nor invention could awake him on the fifteenth day this miraculous sleep forsaking him he was as it were restored to life and found as sound and entire as if he had taken no more than an ordinary repose Neither would he believe that he had taken other but that the building of a certain Wall made it apparent to him how much time he had slept away He lived above forty years after viz. to the year 1587. Let us conclude this year with the death of Martin Luther that famous impugner of the Church of Rome who being sent for by the Counts of Mansfield to compose some differences between them concerning their inheritance died among them in his Climacterical year and after much contention for his Body lieth buried at Wirtenberg ANNO DOM. 1547. HEnry long since grown corpulent was become a burthen to himself and of late lame by reason of a violent Ulcer in his Leg the inflammation whereof cast him into a lingering Fever which by little and little decaying his spirits he at length began to feel the inevitable necessity of death The cogitation of many things as in the like exigents usually happeneth oppressed him and chiefly of his Son's nonage but now entring into his tenth year an age infirm and opportune to treacheries against which he found small provision in his Friends having none amongst those on whose Loyalty he chiefly relied of so sufficient eminency as to underprop his weak Estate with those supporters of Royalty Power and Authority His Brother-in-Law the Duke of Suffolk was lately deceased Seymour the young Prince's Uncle was a man whose Goodness was not tempered with Severity and being descended of a Family more ancient than noble as having until now never transcended Knighthood would be subject to contempt They who more nearly participated of the Blood Royal as they any way excelled in Power or Virtue were the more suspected and hated by him The Family of the Howards was then most flourishing the chief whereof was Thomas Duke of Norfolk a man famous for his exploits in France Scotland and elsewhere long exercised in the School of Experience many ways deriving himself from the Crown popular of great command and revenues But the edge of the old man's disposition made mild and blunted with age administred the less cause of suspition Of his eldest Son Henry Earl of Surrey the King was certainly jealous and resolved to cut him off He had lately in the Wars of France manifested himself heir to the glory of his Ancestors was of a ripe wit and endued with great Learning so that the Elogy afterwards given to his Son Henry that He was the Learned'st among the 〈◊〉 and the Noblest among the Learned might have as fitly been applied to him was very gracious with the people expert in the Art Military and esteemed fit for publick Government These great Virtues were too great Faults and for them he must suffer Treason is objected to him and upon the surmise he and his Father sent to the Tower On the thirteenth of January he is arraigned the chief point of his accusation whereon they insisted being for bearing certain Arms which only belonged to the King and consequently aspiring to the Crown Of other things he easily acquitted himself and as for those Arms he constantly affirmed that they hereditarily pertained unto him yet notwithstanding he would not have presumed to have born them but being warranted by the opinion of the Heralds who only were to give judgment in these cases The Judges not approving of his answer condemn him and so the Flower of the English Nobility is on the nineteenth of January beheaded the King lying in extremity and breathing his last in Blood The Duke was adjudged to perpetual imprisonment where he continued until he was by Queen Mary set at liberty The King his disease growing on him at last makes his Will wherein by virtue of a Law lately Enacted he ordains Prince Edward his Successour in the first place and in the second Prince Edward dying Issueless substitutes the Lady Mary begotten of Catharine of Arragon and upon the like defect of Issue in Mary in the third place substitutes the Lady Elizabeth These three reigned successively and accomplished the number of fifty six years at the expiration whereof Queen Elizabeth ended her long glorious Reign and left the Diadem to King James in the many regards of his Learning Religion Goodness peaceable and happy Reign the Mirrour of late Ages The next care was of his Executors whom he also appointed Tutors shall I say or Counsellors to his Son and were in number sixteen viz. Thomas Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Wriothsley Lord Chancellour William Paulet Lord saint-Saint-John John Russel Lord Privy Seal Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford John Dudley Viscount Lisle Lord Admiral Cuthbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm Sir Anthony Brown Master of the Horse Sir Edward Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. Sir William Paget Sir William Harbert Sir Thomas
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
dispositions had bred a mutual affection to awake him for that having Elected him they were purposely come an accustomed ceremony to Adore him and dissolve the Conclave Priulo having signified to him with testimonies of excessive joy the intent of these Cardinals was gently blamed by him and they dismissed with this answer That a matter of so great consequence carrying with it so great a burthen that it would deterr an 〈◊〉 man from the acceptation of it was not to be tumultuously but upon mature deliberation orderly to be transacted as for the season it was utterly unfit for asmuch as God was the God of Light and not of Darkness they should therefore do well to deferr it until the next day and if then their resolutions proved the same he would submit himself to their pleasures The Italian Cardinals conceiving these delays to proceed out of stupidity began to contemn him and changing their determinations a little after pitched upon Cardinal Montanus whom they created Pope by the name of Julius the Third ANNO DOM. 1550. REG. 4. THe Duke of Somerset having now for three months continued a prisoner and not convicted of any crime which might touch his life it being not thought fitting that so great a man lately Protector of the King's Person and Realm should for a small offence be condemned to perpetual imprisonment is under-hand dealt with to submit himself with acknowledgement that he had deserved this or whatsoever greater punishment the King should be pleased to inflict on him and withal to implore the favour of his Majesty's Royal Clemency To this he easily condescended and was on the sixth of February set a liberty but not restored to the dignity of Protector only contenting himself with the rank of a Privy Counsellor But it being conceived that revenge might draw the Duke to new practices by mediation of Friends he is reconciled to the Earl of Warwick and that this atonement might be the more firm and sincere the Duke's Daughter is on the third of June married to the Viscount Lisle the Earl of Warwick's Son the King gracing the Nuptials with his presence Thuanus I know not upon what grounds writeth That the Earl by a kind of counterfeit shew that he was desirous of the restitution of the Romish Religion had setled himself in the good opinion of the vulgar who had not yet learned to renew themselves by casting off the old skin but reverenced Superstition for its reputed Antiquity and that his dissimulation being discovered fearing lest he should be forsaken of them whom he had with false hopes deluded the consideration thereof and of the Duke 's mild and free disposition would endear his Adversary to them to prevent this danger he contrived this alliance with the Duke and procured his liberty In the mean of these passages on the nineteenth of January the Lord Russel Lord Privy Seal was created Earl of Bedford William Lord saint-Saint-John Earl of Wiltshire and Sir William Paget Lord Paget The Earl of Bedford and the Lord Paget were within three days after with Sir William Peters and Sir John Mason dispatched into France for the Treaty of a Peace with the Deputies appointed by the French who were Montmorency Governour of Picardy Gasper Coligny Lord of Chastillon afterward Admiral of France Andrew Gillar Mortair and William Boucherelle The Lord Paget not long before had been sent to the Emperour to signifie how we were distressed on the one side by the Scots and on the other by the French and miserably rent at home by intestine dissentions that our necessities required speedy succours or would force us to condescend to an inconvenient Peace with France But perceiving nothing was to be obtained of him we strook hands with the French upon these conditions That Boloigne and all the Forts in Boloignois should be surrendred to the French together with the Artillery and other military provision That in lieu thereof the King of France should pay unto Edward four hundred thousand Crowns by equal portions at two payments That the English should restore to the Scots Lauder and Douglas and if the Queen of Scots should desire it should rase their Fortifications in Haymon and at Roxburgh The Emperour was on both sides comprehended in the League and the Queen of Scots by the French The two Kings presented each other with their Military Orders and as one writeth it was on both parts agreed on that Edward should marry one of the Daughters of France For the ratification of the Articles on the eighth of April Hostages were given By Us The Duke of Suffolk The Earl of Hertford Son to the Duke of Somerset The Earl of Arundel The Earl of Derby The Earl of Bath By the French John of Bourbon Duke of Anguien Glaud of Lorain Marquis of Mayenne Francis Son to the Constable Montmorency Lewis of Tremoville Francis of Vendosme Vidame of Chartres Claud d'Annebalt This Peace between us and France was on the third of March solemnly Proclaimed in London and on the five and twentieth of April Bouloigne being accordingly furrendred to the French our Hostages were returned On the thirtieth of July died the Lord Wriothsley Knight of the Garter late Lord Chancellour of England and Earl of Southampton He had about the beginning of this King's Reign delivered up the Seal the Custody whereof was committed to the Lord Rich. But having been about half a year past removed as was also the Earl of Arundel but for what cause is uncertain from the Council Table he at length whether out of Grief or some other cause fell sick and died He was Father to Henry the second Earl and Grandfather to Henry the third Earl of Southampton not long since deceased who having tasted of both fortunes did heretofore as generously behave himself in adversity as he did since moderately in prosperity whereto by the Clemency of our late Sovereign he was restored ANNO DOM. 1551. REG. 5. MEntion hath formerly been made concerning the Sweating Sickness a disease to which England hath given a name as well in regard of its original as of the known disposition of our Bodies to admit of this virulent contagion England had been formerly afflicted with it but never so mortally as this present year Shrewsbury was now the first place acquainted with this Pestilence there it began in April and thence diffusing it self over the most part of the Kingdom at length it vanished away in the North about the beginning of October The fury of it 〈◊〉 such as if it would never end but by its proper cruelty when it should not have left subjects whereon to feed The dead whom it swept away were numberless In London only eight hundred was scarce a seven-nights stint It made its first entry into this Island in the Reign of Henry the Seventh 〈◊〉 1486 and from hence it took its progress into other Nations The Infected flowed away and within the space of twenty four hours when this
malignant disease was most merciful in its execution peradventure within twelve did sweat out their Souls Women children and old men it for the most part over-passed and wreaked it self on the robustious youth and well compact middle age who if in the beginning of their sickness did but slumber perished instantly If it seised on any that were full gorged the recovery was in a manner desperate Nay and of others whatsoever they were scarce one of a hundred escaped until time had found out a remedy the manner whereof was thus If any be taken in the day time he must without shifting of his apparel betake himself to bed If by night and in bed let him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thence until twenty four hours be run In the mean let the coverture be such that it provoke not sweat but that it may gently distil of it self if it be possible for him so long to forbear let him not eat nor drink more than may moderately serve to extinguish thirst But above all let him so patiently endure hear that he uncover not any part of his body no not so much as a hand or a foot The strangeness of this disease I do not so much admire for that Pliny in his twenty sixth Book the first Chapter witnesseth and daily experience teacheth us that every Age produceth new and Epidemical diseases But that which surpasseth the search of humane reason is this that this Pestilence afflicted the English in what part of the World soever without touching the Natives but in England alone This dire contagion promiscuously impoverisht the Land of people of all sorts among those of especial note were Henry Duke of Suffolk and his Brother who were the Sons of Charles Brandon the King's Cousins germane young Gentlemen of great and lively hopes by the death of Henry the Duchy was for some few hours devolved to the younger Brother who had the unhappy honour but to be seised of the Title and die The Lord Gray Marquis of Dorset having married Frances the eldest Daughter of Charles Brandon in the right of his Wife made claim to the Duchy and was on the eleventh of October invested in it At what time also John Dudley Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland William Fowlet Earl of Wiltshire Marquis of Winchester and Sir William Herbert Lord Cardif Master of the Horse Earl of Pembroke The masculine Line of Dudley and Gray hath been long since extinct Of the Family of the Powlets we have spoken already The Lord Herbert Brother-in-Law to Queen Catharine Parr derived himself from William Herbert in the time of Edward the Fourth Earl of Pembroke and was 〈◊〉 in the Earldom by his Son Henry Father to william the modern Earl whose mature wisdom and gravity even in his greener years long since ranked him in the sage 〈◊〉 of the Privy Council to two successive Kings and to Philip by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 Then also were knighted Sir John 〈◊〉 the King's Schoolmaster Sir Henry Dudley Sir Henry Novill and whom I cannot mention but with due honour Sir William Cecill Cecill I say who then Secretary of Estate was afterward by all Europe held in admiration for his wisdom whom Queen Elizabeth made Lord Treasurer of England and Baron of Burleigh and was whilest he lived a second prop of this Estate who on the fourth of August 1598 piously ended his long but for the publick weals sake ever restless life leaving two Sons Thomas by King James created Earl of 〈◊〉 and Robert out of the same Fountain of Royal Goodness 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 and Lord Treasurer of England And now the ill cemented affections of the Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland dissolved into open enmity In the prosecution whereof Somerset otherwise of a most mild disposition but Patience abused oft runneth into the extreme of Fury provoked by continual injuries resolved as some write to murther Northumberland To this end but under colour of a visit privily armed and well attended by Seconds who awaited him in an outer Chamber he comes to his Adversary at that time by reason of some indisposition of Body keeping his Chamber hath access unto him naked as he was in his Bed but is so courteously entertained and with such smooth language that the Duke of Somerset good man repenting himself of his Bloody Resolutions would not Execute what he purposely came for At his departure one of his Conspirators is reported to have asked him Whether he had done the Feat and upon his denial to have added Then you are undone This his intent being by his own Party bewrayed a second Accusation is engrossed against him The matter is reforred to the Council Table and he on the sixteenth of October again committed to the Tower together with the Duchess his Wife the Lord Gray of wilton Sir Ralph Vane Sir Thomas Falmer Sir William Partridge Sir Michael Stanhop Sir Thomas Arundelt and many other of his Friends On the first of December the Marquis of Winchester being sot that day High Steward he is Arraigned for Treason against the Estate which he had not only ill but treacherously managed and for Conspiracy against the Duke of Northumberland Of Treason he cleared himself and his Peers acquitted him For the Conspiracy he was by his own Confession condemned and that by virtue of a Law Enacted 3 Hen. 7. which made the very Intent nay Imagination of Killing a Privy Counsellour punishable by Death But howsoever the Law Enacted as some conceive upon somewhat differing intents and meaning were extended to the highest of its rigour yet can I not but wonder how a man so great in the regards of his Reigning Nephew of his Honours of the Popular Favour should be so destitute of Learned Advice as not to exempt himself from a Felonious Death by his Clergy But such were the Times such his Misfortunes in the minority of his Prince from whose revengeful Hand how could the adverse Faction presume themselves secure in the future Neither could they choose but be somewhat terrified with that Ecchoing Testimony of the Peoples Joy who seeing that fatal Virge the Ax usually marshalling Traytors to the Bar laid aside upon his freedom from the guilt of Treason from Westminster Hall certified that part of the City by their loud festival Acclamations of the gladsom tidings of their Favourite's conceived Absolution And these peradventure might be causes that his Execution was deferred Hitherto had the Estate patiently endured the obstinate Opposition of some Bishops in point of Reformation who for their Non-conformity are at length deprived and others substituted in their Bishopricks Of some of them we have occasionally already spoken whose Censures notwithstanding fall in with this Year Gardiner Bishop of Winchester was deprived the fourteenth of February Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester on the tenth of October Tonstall of Duresm on the twentieth of December committed to the Tower and Boner of London on the first of
the Church And to add more majesty to their act by some devout Solemnity they go in Procession to Pauls singing that admirable Hymn of those holy Fathers St. Ambrose and St. Augustine commonly known by its first words Te Deum Then they dispatcht away some Companies to seize on the Tower and command the Duke of Suffolk to render himself The Duke as easily dejected at the news as he had formerly been elevated by vain hope entring his Daughters Chamber forbad the farther use of Royal Ceremonies wishing her to be content with her return to a Private fortune Whereto she answered with a setled countenance Sir I better brook this message than my forced advancement to Royalty out of obedience to you and my Mother I have grievously sinned and offered violence to my self Now I do willingly and as obeying the motions of my Soul relinquish the Crown and endeavour to salve those faults committed by others if at least so great an errour may be salved by a willing relinquishment and ingenuous acknowledgement Having spoken thus much she retired into a withdrawing-room more troubled at the Danger she had incurred than the defeasance of so great hopes The Duke himself presently repaired to the rest of the Council and subscribed to their Decree This Proclamation was on the nineteenth of July published and entertained with such Acclamations that no part of it could be heard after the first mention of Queen Maries Name The Earl of Arundell and the Lord Paget having thus ordered this weighty Affair accompanied with thirty Horse rid post that night unto the Queen to certifie her of the gladsom tidings of her Subjects loyal intentions In the mean time the Lords of the Council certifie Northumberland of these Passages commanding him withal to subscribe to the Decree and dismiss his Army But he out of the Presage of his own Fortune had before the receipt of their Letters proclaimed her Queen at Cambridge where in a counterfeit joy he threw up his Cap with the sincerer multitude Then he cashiered the rest of his wavering Companies and almost all the Lords who had hitherto followed him with a Legal Revolt passing over to the Queen and making Northumberland the sole author and cause of these disloyal Distractions were upon their Submission pardoned Lady Jane having as on a Stage for ten days only personated a Queen was committed to safe custody and the Ladies who had hitherto attended her were commanded each to their homes The Duke of Northumberland was by the Queens command apprehended by the Earl of Arundell and committed to the Tower The manner of his taking is reported to have been thus After so many checks uncertain what course to take resolved to flie but not knowing whether the Pensioners who with their Captain Sir John Gates had followed him in this Expedition while he was pulling on his Boots seised on him saying that It was fit they should excuse themselves from the imputation of Treason by his testimony The Duke withstanding them and the matter being likely to grow to blows at the very instant came those Letters from the Council which commanded them all to lay aside their Arms and peaceably to repair to their homes These Letters took up the matter and set the Duke at liberty which notwithstanding lasted not long For the next morning as he was ready to take Horse the Earl of Arundell intercepted him and with him apprehended the Earl of Huntingdon the Earl of Warwick Northumberland's eldest Son and two others younger Lord Ambrose and Lord Henry Dudley Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke's Brother Sir Thomas Palmer Sir John Gates his Brother Henry Gates and Doctor Edwin Sands who on the five and twentieth of July were brought to London and presently committed to the Tower The Earl of Huntingdon was not long after set at liberty but his Son was presently Sir John Gates whom Northumberland accused to have been the contriver of all this mischief and Sir Thomas Palmer were after Executed The Earl of Warwick died in Prison The Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley were Pardoned Henry was afterward slain with a shot at the Siege of St. Quintin but Ambrose finding Fortune more propitious out-lived Mary and by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Warwick long flourished in the happiness of her Favour Sir Andrew Dudley after his Condemnation was also Pardoned Doctor Sands being then Vicechancellour of the University of Cambridge had by Northumberland's command in the Pulpit publickly impugned Queen Maries Cause and defended that of Lady Jane but with that Wisdom and Moderation although upon the short warning of some few hours that he abundantly satisfied the Duke and yet did not so deeply incur the displeasure of the adverse part but that his Friends prevailed with the Queen for his Pardon So that after a years Imprisonment he was set at liberty and presently fled over into Germany After the death of Queen Mary returning from his voluntary Exile he was Consecrated Bishop of Worcester from which See he was translated to London and thence again to the Archbishoprick of York A man for his Learning Virtue Wisdom and Extract very famous but most especially happy in his Issue whereof many were admirable for their Endowments both internal and external and of whom we have in our Age seen three honoured with Knighthood On the six and twentieth of July the Marquis of Northampton afterward Condemned and Pardoned Doctor Ridley Bishop of London who two years after was Burned at Oxford and beside many others Lord Robert Dudley that great Earl of Leicester under Queen Elizabeth were brought to the Tower On the seven and twentieth the Duke of Suffolk to whom the Queen with admirable Clemency within four days restored his liberty Sir John Cheeke King Edward's Schoolmaster Sir Roger Cholmley Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Sir Edmond Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas were committed to the same place who were all on the third of September set at liberty On the thirtieth of July the Lady Elizabeth accompanied by a great train of Nobles Knights Gentlemen and Ladies to the number of five hundred some say a thousand set forward from the Strand through London and so to Wansted towards the Queen to congratulate her happy Success in vindicating her Right to the Crown Who on the third of August having dismissed her Army which had not yet exceeded the number of thirteen thousand attended by all the Nobility made a triumphant entrance through London to the Tower where the Duke of Norfolk Edward Courtney Son to the Marquis of Exceter Beheaded in the year 1538 Gardiner late Bishop of Winchester and Anne Duchess of Somerset presented themselves on their Knees and Gardiner in the name of them all spake a congratulatory Oration which ended the Queen courteously raised them and kissing each of them said These are all my own Prisoners and gave order for their present discharge Edward Courtney she restored to his Father's honours making
of mind to accept of and retain this Benefit which God by his Vicar's Legate did proffer them For now nothing else remained but that he being present with those Keys which should open the Gates of the Church they should also abrogate those Laws which lately Enacted to the prejudice of the Church had rended them from the rest of its Body Having spoken a great deal to this purpose and ransacked Antiquity for examples of our Forefathers devotion to the See of Rome his grave delivery excellent language and methodical contexture of his speech wrought so effectually in the minds of those who were addicted to Popery that they thought not themselves until this day capable of Salvation But many of the lower House who deemed it a rare felicity to have shaken off the yoak of Rome eagerly withstood the readmittance of it But by the endeavours of the King and Queen all things were at last composed to the Cardinal 's liking The Authority which the Popes heretofore usurped in this Realm is restored the Title of Supreme Head of the Church is abrogated and a Petition drawn by the whole Court of Parliament for the Absolution of the People and Clergy of England from Schism and Heresie is by the Bishop of Winchester presented to the Legate who they all kneeling by the Authority committed unto him absolved them This being done they went to the Chappel in Procession singing Te Deum and the next Sunday the Bishop of Winchester in his Sermon at Pauls Cross made a large relation of what had passed These things being thus setled the Queen intends an honorable Embassy to Rome whereof she had at her first coming to the Crown made promise For having resolved to replant the Religion of Rome she had privily written to Pool requiring his advice therein The Pope was therefore pleased to send into England Giovanni Francisco Commendono his Chamberlain afterward Cardinal for the more perfect notice of the estate of the Realm To him the Queen after much private conference did under her Hand promise Obedience to the See of Rome desiring withal that the Kingdom might be absolved from the Interdict for the obtaining whereof she would by a solemn Embassy petition his Holiness as soon as the Estate was setled So now about the end of this year the Bishop of Ely Sir Anthony Brown and Edward Carne Doctor of Law are by the Kings sent to proffer their Obedience to the See of Rome But these costs and pains were fruitless For before they came to Rome the Pope was dead In the mean time the Queen considering all her actions hitherto to have passed with full applause began to treat with the Nobility to condescend that if not the Royal at least the Matrimonial Crown of our Queens might be imposed on Philip. But it being a matter without precedent and that might perchance to an ambitious Prince give some colour for claim to the Kingdom they proved averse and she content to surcease The next care was of restitution of Church-Lands But Henry had so divided them and that among the Nobility that nothing could be done therein Only it was decreed that the First-Fruits and Tenths granted to the King by the Clergy Anno 1534 should be remitted which Decree upon consideration of the Treasuries poverty and of the many Pensions granted by Henry to the ejected Religious Persons was quickly revoked About the same time an absurd I might say ridiculous accident happened by the Queens own credulity and the flattery of fawning Courtiers By reason of a Disease which Physicians term a Mole her Belly began to swell and some other reasons giving her cause to conjecture that she was with Child she not entertaining the advice of any Physicians but of Midwives and old Women believing what she desired should be affirmed that she felt the stirring of the Embryo in her womb To those that are affected with this malady that fleshy and inform substance which is termed Mola doth seem sometimes to move but that slowly and with the general motion of the whole Belly By this and other symptoms Physicians would quickly have discovered her Disease which unless very maturely prevented is commonly incurable So that in process of time her Liver being over-cooled she fell into a Dropsie which as Fuchsius and other Physicians write doth usually happen But these flattering hopes betrayed her to the laughter of the World and to her Grave For on the seven and twentieth of November the Lords of the Council sent some Mandates to the Bishop of London to disperse certain forms of Prayers wherein after Thanks given to God for his Mercies to this Kingdom by giving hopes of an Heir to the Crown and infusing life into the Embryo they should pray for the preservation of the Queen and the Infant and her happy delivery and cause Te Deum to be sung every where Then by Parliament many things were Enacted concerning the Education of the Babe and much clutter was otherwise kept about preparations for the Child's Swadling-clouts Cradle and other things requisite at the Delivery until in June in the ensuing year it was manifested that all was little better than a Dream This year were many Barons created On the eleventh of March William Howard was created Lord Howard of Effingham he was Father to Charles Lord Admiral and late Earl of Nottingham on the fifth of April John Williams Lord Williams of Tame on the seventh of April Edward North Baron of Chartlege on the eighth of April John Bruges Lord Chandois on the fourteenth of May Gerard Fitz-Gerard of whom before Earl of Kildare and on the second of September Anthony Brown Viscount Mountague And in September deceased Thomas Duke of Norfolk ANNO DOM. 1555. REG. MARIAE 2 3 PHILIPPI 1 2. ON the eighteenth of January the Lord Chancellour coming to the Tower with six other Lords of the Council set many brave Prisoners at liberty viz. the Archbishop of York Sir John Rogers Sir James Croft Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir George Harper Sir William Sentlow Sir Gawin Carew Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke of Northumberland's Brother William Gibs Cutbert Vaughan Harington Tremaine and others The Archbishop having married a Wife was deprived and Nicholas Heath sometimes Bishop of Worcester but deprived by King Edward and Hooper being ejected and condemned to the Fire lately restored by Queen Mary was substituted in his place Rogers and Croft were afterward Privy Counsellors to Queen Elizabeth under whom they many years flourished in great Authority Throckmorton a subtil man was thought to have been the plotter of Wyat's Rebellion his Head was therefore especially aimed at But being indicted and ten whole hours spent in sifting him he by such witty answers voided the accusation of his Adversary that the Jurors found him Not guilty for which they were afterward soundly fined About the beginning of April the Marquess of Exceter and a little after the Lady Elizabeth were
that it shall not remain undetected And the Queen although blindly misled in matter of Religion was so exact a fautrix of Justice that she was utterly averse from all mention of pardon So this Nobleman had the punishment due to his offence only in this preferred before other Murtherers and Parricides that he was not strangled with an Halter of Hemp but of Silk The seven and twentieth of April Thomas Stafford landing in the Northern parts of the Realm having raked together a small company of Exiles and some Foreiners surprized Scarborough Castle then as in time of Peace utterly destitute of provision for resistance Having thus seized on a place of defence he makes Proclamation that Queen Mary having her self no right to the Crown had betraied it to the Spaniard exhorting the people with him to take Arms for the recovery of their lost Liberty But by the diligence of Nicholas Wotton Dean of Canterbury then Ambassador for their Majesties with the French all his designs were revealed to the Council before his arrival in England So by the industry of the Earl of Westmerland he was within six days taken brought to London and on the eight and twentieth of May Beheaded Strechley Proctor and Bradford the next day following him but in a more due punishment being drawn hanged and quartered whom they had followed in their treacherous attempts The Emperour Charles having bequeathed the inheritance of his hate to France with his Crown Mary could not long distinguish her Cause from her Husbands Wherefore on the seventh of June the Queen set forth a Proclamation to this effect that Whereas the King of France had many ways injured her by supporting the Duke of Northumberland and Wyat in their Rebellions against her and that his Realm had been a receptacle for Dudley and Ashton who with the privity of his Ambassador had in his house contrived their treacherous designs and after their escape into France had been relieved by Pensions from the King as also for having lately aided Stafford with Shipping Men Money and Munition thereby if it were possible to dispossess her of the Crown She gave her Subjects to understand that they should not entertain Traffick with that Nation whose Prince she accounted her Enemy and against whom upon farther grievances she determined to denounce War Although these things were true yet had she abstained from denunciation of War had not the five years Truce between Philip and Henry by the Pope's instigation been lately broken by the French and so War arising between them she would not make her self and her Husband two For the Pope having long since maligned the Emperour knowing that he after the resignation of his Estates to his Son Philip had withdrawn himself into Spain by the Cardinal of Lorain still solicited the French King to arms against the Spaniard promising to invest him in the Kingdom of Naples Henry upon these fair hopes undertakes it and Mary resolves to assist her Husband That Mary took arms in the behalf of her Husband Pope Paul was much displeased And being he could not be revenged on her who indeed was the sole cause of our breach with France he determined to pour out his wrath on Pool whom he ever hated but now he thought he had more cause to manifest it because Pool knowing that this War was set on foot by the Pope had by Letters and Ambassadors sought to appease him and that though with most humble reverence yet roundly and according to his Conscience Having abrogated Pool's Legation he repeals him to Rome and for supply of his place he creates one Francis Petow a Franciscan Frier Cardinal and Legate and a little after designed him Bishop of Sarisbury The Queen having intelligence of these proceedings took especial care that Pool might have no notice of them prohibiting not only this new Cardinal to enter the Realm but all others whom she suspected to bring any Mandates to that purpose and with exact diligence causing his Letters to be intercepted by her Orators at Rome certified his Holiness what a hazard the Catholick Religion not yet fully established would incur if he should endeavour the disgrace of so great a man whose authority had been much availeable for the conversion of the Nation But while there is this intercourse between the Pope and the Queen concerning this matter Pool having some way or other had an inkling of it abstained from having the silver Cross the Ensign of his Legation born before him neither would he afterward exercise his authority Legantine until by the intercession of Ormaneto the Pope's Datary in England he was restored to his dignity By this time the War was very hot on both sides Philip besieging St. Quintin in Picardie with thirty five thousand Foot and twelve thousand Horse which number was after increased by a thousand Horse four thousand Foot and two thousand Pioners out of England under the Command of the Earl of Pembroke For the managing of this War Philip set sail out of England on the seventh of July On the tenth of August the French endeavouring to put Succours into the Town are overthrown The Spaniard chargeth the Constable Montmorency in his retreat routs the French and kills two thousand five hundred A Victory not so great in the execution as in the death and captivity of many brave men The Constable was wounded and taken Prisoner with his Son as also the Dukes of Montpensier and Longueville Ludovico Gonzaga Brother to the Duke of Mantua the Marshal of St. Andrew the Rhinegrave Roche-du-Maine the Count Rochfoucault the Baron of Curton with many other men of mark The chief of them that were slain were John of Bourbon Duke of Anguien the Viscount of Turen N. Tiorcellin Son to Roche-du-Maine the Lords of Chandenier Pontdormy and many others and in a manner all the Foot-Captains Philip lost only fifty men The eighth day after this Victory an assault is given and the Town carried by force wherein were taken the Admiral Coligny with his Brother d'Andelot who shortly after made an escape Jarnac St. Remy Humes and many other persons of quality the Son of the Lord of Fayette Salevert Ogier Vicques La Barre Estang and Gourdes were slain Of the English in this assault few of note were lost beside Lord Henry Dudley youngest Son to the Duke of Northumberland and Sir Edward Windsore who were the first that advanced Ensign on the Walls This year is alike memorable for the extreme dearth and contemptible cheapness of Corn. A little before Harvest Wheat was sold at four Marks the Quarter within the current of a month it fell to the low rate of five Shillings Wherein I rather admire the ensuing cheapness than the dearth having my self in the year 1597 paid double the former dear price But that which I shall now relate I should deem far more memorable had I not in later times my self seen the like On the night which ensued
THE HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF HENRY the SEVENTH HENRY the EIGHTH EDWARD the SIXTH AND QUEEN MARY The First Written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Viscount St. ALBAN The other Three by the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS GODWYN Lord Bishop of HEREFORD LONDON Printed by W. G. for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell and J. Edwyn M. D C. LXXVI To the most Illustrious and most Excellent PRINCE CHARLES Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester c. It may Please Your Highness IN part of my acknowledgment to Your Highness I have endeavoured to do Honour to the Memory of the last King of England that was Ancestour to the King your Father and Your self and was that King to whom both Unions may in a sort refer That of the Roses being in him Consummate and that of the Kingdoms by him begun Besides his times deserve it For he was a Wise Man and an Excellent King and yet the times were rough and full of Mutations and rare Accidents And it is with Times as it is with Ways Some are more Vp-hill and Down-hill and some are more Flat and Plain and the One is better for the Liver and the Other for the Writer I have not flattered him but took him to life as well as I could sitting so far off and having no better light It is true Your Highness hath a Living Pattern Incomparable of the King Your Father But it is not amiss for You also to see one of these Ancient Pieces GOD preserve Your Highness Your Highness most humble and devoted Servant FRANCIS St. Alban AN INDEX ALPHABETICAL Directing to the most Observable Passages in the ensuing HISTORY A. AN Accident in it self trivial great in effect Pag. 108 Advice desired from the Parliament 33 35 56 Aemulation of the English to the French with the reasons of it 36 Affability of the King to the City of London 113 Affection of King Henry to the King of Spain 61 Affection of the King to his Children 136 Aid desired by the Duke of Britain 33 Aid sent to Britain 37 Aiders of Rebels punished 23 Alms-deeds of the King 131 Ambassadors to the Pope 24 into Scotland 25 Ambassadors from the French King 26 Ambassadors in danger in France 31 Ambassadors into France 54 Ambition exorbitant in Sir William Stanley 78 Answer of the Archduke to the King's Ambassadors 74 Appeach of Sir William Stanley 76 Arms of King Henry still victorious 133 Arrows of the 〈◊〉 the length of them 96 Articles between the King and the Archduke 91 Arthur Prince married to the Lady Katherine 116 Arthur Prince dies at Ludlow 117 Aton Castle in Scotland taken by the Earl of Surrey 98 Attainted persons in Parliament excepted against 8 Attaindor and corruption of Blood reacheth not to the Crown ibid. 15 Avarice of King Henry 134 Audley General of the Corhish Rebels 93 B. BAnishment of 〈◊〉 our of the Kingdom 74 Battel at Bosworth-field 1 at Stokefield 〈◊〉 at St. Albans in Britain 87 at Bannocksbourn in Scotland 〈◊〉 at Black-heath 〈◊〉 Behaviour of King Henry towards 〈◊〉 Children 117 Benevolence to the King for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence who the first Author ibid Benevolence 〈◊〉 by Act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence revived by Act of 〈◊〉 ibid A Benevolence 〈◊〉 to the King 23 Birth of Henry the 〈◊〉 35 Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the King 〈◊〉 Blood not unrevenged 112 122 Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 Three causes of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ibid. Britain united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Marriage 〈◊〉 Brakenbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murder King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broughton Sir 〈◊〉 joyned with the Rebels 11 A Bull procured from the Pope by the King for what causes 24 Bulloign besieged by King Henry 63 C. CArdinal Morton dieth 113 Capell Sir William fined 80 131 Cap of Maintenace from the Pope 101 Ceremony of Marriage new in these parts 48 Chancery power and description of that Court 38 Clifford Sir Robert flies to Perkin 70 revolts to the King 72 Clergy priviledges abridged 39 Christendom enlarged 61 Columbus Christopher and Bartholomeus invite the King to a discovery of the West Indies 107 Confiscation aimed at by the King 76 Conference between King Henry and the King of Castile by casualty landing at Weymouth 128 Conquest the Title unpleasing to the People declined by William the Conqu 3 and by the King 5 〈◊〉 for Perkin 70 Contraction of Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine 118 Conditional speech doth not qualifie words of Treason 77 Commissioners into Ireland 79 Commissioners about Trading 91 Coronation of King Henry 7 Coronation of the Queen 24 Counsel the benefit of good 25 Counsel of what sort the French King used 32 Counsel of mean men what and how different from that of Nobles ibid. Lord Cordes envy to England 48 Cottagers but housed Beggars 44 Counterfeits Lambert proclaimed in Ireland 15 Crowned at Dublin 19 taken at Battell 22 put into the King's Kitchin ibid. made the King's Faulconer ibid. Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin Wilford another counterfeit Earl of Warwick 111 Courage of the English when 37 Court what Pleas belong to every Court 38 Court of Star-chamber confirmed ibid. Creations 6 Crown confirmed to King Henry by Parliament 7 Cursing of the King's Enemies at Paul's Cross a custom of those times 72 122 D. DAm a Town in Flanders taken by a slight 59 Lord Daubeny 96 Devices at Prince Arthur's Marriage 117 Device of the King to divert Envy 64 Decay of Trade doth punish Merchants 90 Decay of People how it comes to pass 44 Declaration by Perkin to the Scottish King 85 Desires intemperate of Sir William Stanley 78 Dighton a murderer of King Edward's two Children 71 Dilemma a pleasant one of Bishop Morton 58 Diligence of the King to heap Treasures 120 Displacing of no Counsellors nor Servants in all King Henry's Reign save of one 138 Dissimulation of the French King 29 30 49 Dissimulation of King Henry in pretending War 56 A Doubt long kept open and diversly determined according to the diversity of the times 117 Dowry of Lady Katherine how much 116 Dowry of Lady Margaret into Scotland how much 119 Drapery maintained how 45 Dudley one of the King's Herse-leeches 119 Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin E. EArl of Suffolk flies into Flanders 121 returns 129 Earl of Northumberland slain by the People in collecting the Subsidy somewhat harshly 40 Earl of Warwick executed 111 Earl of Warwick counterfeit 13 110 Earl of Surrey enters Scotland 98 Edmund a third Son born to King Henry but died 109 Edward the Fifth murdered 85 Envy towards the King unquenchable the cause of it 111 Envy of the Lord Cordes to England 48 Enterview between the King and the King of Castile 128 Emblem 94 Empson one of the King's Horse-leeches 119 Errours of the French King in his business for the Kingdom of Naples 82 Errours of King Henry occasioning his many troubles 128 〈◊〉 service 92 Espials in
those Parts and by his presence and application of himself to reclaim and rectifie those Humours But the King in his accompt of Peace and Calms did much overcast his Fortunes which proved for many Years together full of Broken Seas Tides and Tempests For he was no sooner come to Lincoln where he kept his Easter but he received news that the Lord Lovel Humphrey Stafford and Thomas Stafford who had formerly taken Sanctuary at Colchester were departed out of Sanctuary but to what place no man could tell Which advertisement the King despised and continued his Journey to York At York there came fresh and more certain advertisement that the Lord Lovel was at hand with a great power of men and that the Staffords were in Arms in Worcestershire and had made their approaches to the City of Worcester to assail it The King as a Prince of great and profound Judgement was not much moved with it for that he thought it was but a Ragg or Remnant of Bosworth-Field and had nothing in it of the main Party of the House of York But he was more doubtful of the raising of Forces to resist the Rebels than of the Resistance it self for that he was in a Core of People whose affections he suspected But the Action enduring no delay he did speedily levy and sent against the Lord Lovel to the number of three thousand men ill armed but well assured being taken some few out of his own Train and the rest out of the Tenants and Followers of such as were safe to be trusted under the Conduct of the Duke of Bedford And as his manner was to send his Pardons rather before the Sword than after he gave Commission to the Duke to proclaim Pardon to all that would come in Which the Duke upon his approach to the Lord Lovel's Camp did perform And it fell out as the King expected the Heralds were the Great-Ordnance For the Lord Lovel upon Proclamation of Pardon mistrusting his men fled into Lancashire and lurking for a time with Sir Thomas Broughton after sailed over into Flanders to the Lady Margaret And his men forsaken of their Captain did presently submit themselves to the Duke The Staffords likewise and their Forces hearing what had happened to the Lord Lovel in whose Success their chief Trust was despaired and dispersed The two Brothers taking Sanctuary at Colnham a Village near Abington which Place upon view of their Priviledge in the King's Bench being judged no sufficient Sanctuary for Traytors Humphrey was Executed at Tyburn and Thomas as being led by his elder Brother was Pardoned So this Rebellion proved but a Blast and the King having by this Journey purged a little the Dregs and Leaven of the Northern People that were before in no good affection towards him returned to London In September following the Queen was delivered of her first Son whom the King in Honour of the British-Race of which himself was named Arthur according to the Name of that ancient worthy King of the Britains in whose Acts there is truth enough to make him Famous besides that which is Fabulous The Child was strong and able though he was Born in the eighth Month which Physicians do prejudge THere followed this Year being the Second of the King's Reign a strange Accident of State whereof the Relations which we have are so naked as they leave it scarce credible not for the nature of it for it hath fallen out oft but for the manner and circumstance of it especially in the beginnings Therefore we shall make our Judgement upon the things themselves as they give light one to another and as we can dig Truth out of the Mine The King was green in his Estate and contrary to his own Opinion and Desert both was not without much Hatred throughout the Realm The root of all was the discountenancing of the House of York which the general Body of the Realm still affected This did alienate the Hearts of the Subjects from him dayly more and more especially when they saw that after his Marriage and after a Son born the King did nevertheless not so much as proceed to the Coronation of the Queen not vouchsafing her the Honour of a Matrimonial Crown for the Coronation of Her was not 'till almost two Years after when Danger had taught him what to do But much more when it was spread abroad whether by Errour or the cunning of Male-contents that the King had a purpose to put to death Edward Plantagenet closely in the Tower Whose case was so neerly parallel'd with that of Edward the Fourth's Children in respect of the blood like age and the very place of the Tower as it did refresh and reflect upon the King a most odious resemblance as if he would be another King Richard And all this time it was still whispered every where that at least one of the Children of Edward the Fourth was living Which Bruit was cunningly fomented by such as desired Innovation Neither was the King's nature and customs greatly fit to disperse these Mists but contrary-wise he had a fashion rather to create Doubts than Assurance Thus was Fuel prepared for the Spark the Spark that afterwards kindled such a Fire and Combustion was at the first contemptible There was a subtil Priest called Richard Simon that lived in Oxford and had to his Pupil a Baker's Son named Lambert Simnel of the age of some Fifteen years a comely Youth and well-favoured not without some extraordinary dignity and grace of Aspect It came into this Priest's fancy hearing what men talked and in hope to raise himself to some great Bishoprick to cause this Lad to counterfeit and Personate the second Son of Edward the Fourth supposed to be murthered and afterward for he changed his intention in the manage the Lord Edward Plantagenet then Prisoner in the Tower and accordingly to frame him and instruct him in the Part he was to play This is that which as was touched before seemeth scarcely credible Not that a false Person should be assumed to gain a Kingdom for it hath been seen in antient and late times nor that it should come into the mind of such an abject Fellow to enterprise so great a matter for high Conceits do sometime come streaming into the Imaginations of base persons especially when they are drunk with News and Talk of the People But here is that which hath no apparance That this Priest being utterly unacquainted with the true Person according to whose pattern he should shape his Counterfeit should think it possible for him to instruct his Player either in gesture and fashions or in recounting past matters of his Life and Education or to fit Answers to Questions or the like any ways to come near the Resemblance of him whom he was to represent For this Lad was not to personate one that had been long before taken out of his Cradle or conveyed away in his Infancy known to few but a Youth that 'till the age almost
refrain the Business for that he knew the pretended Plantagenet to be but an Idol But contrariwise he was more glad it should be the false Plantagenet than the true because the false being sure to fall away of himself and the true to be made sure of by the King it might open and pave a fair and prepared way to his own Title With this Resolution he sayled secretly into Flanders where was a little before arrived the Lord Lovel leaving a correspondence here in England with Sir Thomas Broughton a man of great Power and Dependencies in Lancashire For before this time when the pretended Plantagenet was first received in Ireland secret Messengers had been also sent to the Lady Margaret advertising her what was passed in Ireland imploring Succours in an Enterprize as they said so pious and just and that God had so miraculously prospered the beginning thereof and making offer that all things should be guided by her will and direction as the Sovereign Patroness and Protectress of the Enterprize Margaret was second Sister to King Edward the Fourth and had been second Wife to Charles sirnamed the Hardy Duke of Burgundy by whom having no Children of her own she did with singular care and tenderness intend the Education of Philip and Margaret Grand-children to her former Husband which won her great Love and Authority among the Dutch This Princess having the Spirit of a Man and Malice of a Woman abounding in Treasure by the greatness of her Dower and her provident Government and being childless and without any nearer Care made it her Design and Enterprize to see the Majesty Royal of England once again re-placed in her House and had set up King Henry as a Mark at whose Overthrow all her Actions should aim and shoot in-so-much as all the Counsels of his succeeding Troubles came chiefly out of that Quiver And she bare such a mortal Hatred to the House of Lancaster and personally to the King as she was no ways mollified by the Conjunction of the Houses in her Neeces Marriage but rather hated her Neece as the means of the King's ascent to the Crown and assurance therein Wherefore with great violence of affection she embraced this Overture And upon Counsel taken with the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Lovel and some other of the Party it was resolved with all speed the two Lords assisted with a Regiment of two thousand Almains being choice and veterane Bands under the Command of Martin Swart a valiant and experimented Captain should pass over into Ireland to the new King Hoping that when the Action should have the face of a received and setled Regality with such a second Person as the Earl of Lincoln and the Conjunction and Reputation of Forein Succors the Fame of it would embolden and prepare all the Party of the Confederates and Male-contents within the Realm of England to give them Assistance when they should come over there And for the Person of the Counterfeit it was agreed that if all things succeeded well he should be put down and the true Plantagenet received Wherein nevertheless the Earl of Lincoln had his particular hopes After they were come into Ireland and that the Party took courage by seeing themselves together in a Body they grew very confident of success conceiving and discoursing amongst themselves that they went in upon far better Cards to overthrow King Henry than King Henry had to overthrow King Richard And that if there were not a Sword drawn against them in Ireland it was a sign the Swords in England would be soon sheathed or beaten down And first for a Bravery upon this accession of Power they Crowned their new King in the in the Cathedral Church of Dublin who formerly had been but Proclaimed only and then sate in Council what should further be done At which Council though it were propounded by some that it were the best way to Establish themselves first in Ireland and to make that the Seat of the War and to draw King Henry thither in Person by whose absence they thought there would be great Alterations and Commotions in England yet because the Kingdom there was poor and they should not be able to keep their Army together nor pay their German Soldiers and for that also the sway of the Irish-men and generally of the Men-of-War which as in such cases of popular Tumults is usual did in effect govern their Leaders was eager and in affection to make their Fortunes upon England It was concluded with all possible speed to transport their Forces into England The King in the mean time who at the first when he heard what was done in Ireland though it troubled him yet thought he should be well enough able to scatter the Irish as a Flight of Birds and rattle away this Swarm of Bees with their King when he heard afterwards that the Earl of Lincoln was embarqued in the Action and that the Lady Margaret was declared for it he apprehended the danger in a true Degree as it was and saw plainly that his Kingdom must again be put to the Stake and that he must fight for it And first he did conceive before he understood of the Earl of Lincoln's sayling into Ireland out of Flanders that he should be assailed both upon the East-parts of the Kingdom of England by some impression from Flanders and upon the Northwest out of Ireland And therefore having ordered Musters to be made in both Parts and having provisionally designed two Generals Jasper Earl of Bedford and John Earl of Oxford meaning himself also to go in person where the Affairs should most require it and nevertheless not expecting any actual Invasion at that time the Winter being far on he took his journey himself towards Suffolk and Norfolk for the confirming of those parts And being come to St. Edmonds-bury he understood that Thomas Marquess Dorset who had been one of the Pledges in France was hastning towards him to purge himself of some Accusations which had been made against him But the King though he kept an Ear for him yet was the time so doubtful that he sent the Earl of Oxford to meet him and forthwith to carry him to the Tower with a fair Message nevertheless that he should bear that disgrace with patience for that the King meant not his hurt but only to preserve him from doing hurt either to the King's service or to himself and that the King should always be able when he had cleared himself to make him reparation From St. Edmonds-bury he went to Norwich where he kept his Christmas And from thence he went in a manner of Pilgrimage to Walsingham where he visited our Ladies Church famous for Miracles and made his Prayers and Vows for help and deliverance And from thence he returned by Cambridge to London Not long after the Rebels with their King under the Leading of the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare the Lord Lovel and Colonel Swart landed at Fouldrey in
Lancashire whither there repaired to them Sir Thomas Broughton with some small company of English The King by that time knowing now the Storm would not divide but fall in one place had levied Forces in good number and in person taking with him his two designed Generals the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Oxford was come on his way towards them as far as Coventry whence he sent forth a Troop of Light-horsmen for discovery and to intercept some straglers of the Enemies by whom he might the better understand the particulars of their Progress and purposes which was accordingly done though the King otherwise was not without Intelligence from Espials in the Camp The Rebels took their way towards York without spoiling the Countrey or any act of Hostility the better to put themselves into favour of the People and to personate their King who no doubt out of a Princely feeling was sparing and compassionate towards his Subjects But their Snow-ball did not gather as it went For the People came not in to them Neither did any rise or declare themselves in other parts of the Kingdom for them which was caused partly by the good tast that the King had given his People of his Government joyned with the reputation of his Felicity and partly for that it was an odious thing to the People of England to have a King brought in to them upon the shoulders of Irish and Dutch of which their Army was in substance compounded Neither was it a thing done with any great Judgement on the Party of the Rebels for them to take their way towards York Considering that howsoever those parts had formerly been a Nursery of their Friends yet it was there where the Lord Lovel had so lately disbanded and where the King's presence had a little before qualified discontents The Earl of Lincoln deceived of his hopes of the Countries concourse unto him in which case he would have temporized and seeing the business past Retract resolved to make on where the King was and to give him Battel and thereupon marched towards Newark thinking to have surprised the Town But the King was somewhat before this time come to Nottingham where he called a Council of War at which was consulted whether it were best to protract time or speedily to set upon the Rebels In which Council the King himself whose continual vigilancy did suck in sometimes causeless Suspitions which few else knew inclined to the accelerating a Battel But this was presently put out of doubt by the great Aids that came in to him in the instant of this Consultation partly upon Missives and partly Voluntaries from many parts of the Kingdom The principal persons that came then to the King's aid were the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Strange of the Nobility and of Knights and Gentlemen to the number of at least Threescore and ten persons with their Companies making in the whole at the least Six Thousand fighting men besides the Forces that were with the King before Whereupon the King finding his Army so bravely re-enforced and a great alacrity in all his men to fight was confirmed in his former Resolution and marched speedily so as he put himself between the Enemies Camp and Newark being loth their Army should get the commodity of that Town The Earl nothing dismayed came forwards that day unto a little Village called Stoke and there camped that night upon the brow or hanging of a Hill The King the next day presented him Battel upon the Plain the fields there being open and champion The Earl couragiously came down and joyned Battel with him Concerning which Battel the Relations that are left unto us are so naked and negligent though it be an Action of so recent memory as they rather declared the Success of the day than the Manner of the Fight They say that the King divided his Army into three Battels whereof the Vaunt-guard only well strengthned with Wings came to fight That the Fight was fierce and obstinate and lasted three hours before the Victory inclined either way save that Judgement might be made by that the King's Vaunt-guard of it self maintained fight against the whole Power of the Enemies the other two Battels remaining out of action what the success was like to be in the end That Martin Swart with his Germans performed bravely and so did those few English that were on that side neither did the Irish fail in courage or fierceness but being almost naked men only armed with Darts and Skeins it was rather an Execution than a Fight upon them insomuch as the furious slaughter of them was a great discouragement and appalement to the rest That there dyed upon the place all the Chieftains that is the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare Francis Lord Lovel Martin Swart and Sir Thomas Broughton all making good the fight without any ground given Only of the Lord Lovel there went a report that he fled and swam over Trent on horseback but could not recover the further side by reason of the steepness of the Bank and so was drowned in the River But another report leaves him not there but that he lived long after in a Cave or Vault The number that was slain in the field was of the Enemies part Four thousand at the least and of the King's part one half of his Vaunt-guard besides many hurt but none of name There were taken Prisoners amongst others the Counterfeit Plantagenet now Lambert Simnel again and the crafty Priest his Tutor For Lambert the King would not take his Life both out of Magnanimity taking him but as an Image of Wax that others had tempered and molded and likewise out of Wisdom thinking that if he suffered death he would be forgotten too soon but being kept alive he would be a continual Spectacle and a kind of remedy against the like Inchantments of People in time to come For which cause he was taken into service in his Court to a base office in his Kitchin so that in a kind of Mattacina of humane fortune he turned a Broach that had worn a Crown Whereas Fortune commonly doth not bring in a Comedy or Farce after a Tragedy And afterwards he was preferred to be one of the King's Falconers As to the Priest he was committed Close-prisoner and heard of no more the King loving to seal up his own dangers After the Battel the King went to Lincoln where he caused Supplications and Thanksgivings to be made for his Deliverance and Victory And that his Devotions might go round in Circle he sent his Banner to be Offered to our Lady of Walsingham where before he made his Vows And thus delivered of this so strange an Engin and new Invention of Fortune he returned to his former confidence of mind thinking now that all his misfortunes had come at once But it fell out unto him according to the Speech of the common People in the beginning of his Reign that said It was a token he
was broken up which lasted not long the King went on with his Preparations for the War of France yet neglected not in the mean time the affairs of Maximilian for the quieting of Flanders and restoring him to his Authority amongst his Subjects For at that time the Lord of Ravenstein being not only a Subject rebelled but a Servant revolted and so much the more malicious and violent by the ayd of Bruges and Ghent had taken the Town and both the Castles of Sluyce as we said before And having by the commodity of the Haven gotten together certain Ships and Barques fell to a kind of Pyratical trade robbing and spoyling and taking Prisoners the Ships and Vessels of all Nations that passed alongst that Coast towards the Mart of Antwerp or into any part of Brabant Zealand or Friesland being ever will victualled from Picardy besides the commodity of Victuals from Sluyce and the Countrey adjacent and the avails of his own Prizes The French assisted him still under-hand and he likewise as all men do that have been of both sides thought himself not safe except he depended upon a third Person There was a small Town some two miles from Bruges towards the Sea called Dam which was a Fort and Approch to Bruges and had a relation also to Sluyce This Town the King of the Romans had attempted often not for any worth of the Town in it self but because it might choak Bruges and cut it off from the Sea and ever failed But therewith the Duke of Saxony came down into Flanders taking upon him the person of an Umpire to compose things between Maximilian and his Subjects but being indeed fast and assured to Maximilian Upon this Pretext of Neutrality and Treaty he repaired to Bruges desiring the States of Bruges to enter peaceably into their Town with a Retinue of some number of men of Arms fit for his Estate being somewhat the more as he said the better to guard him in a Countrey that was up in Arms and bearing them in hand that he was to communicate with them of divers matters of great importance for their good Which having obtained of them he sent his Carriages and Harbingers before him to provide his Lodging So that his Men of War entred the City in good Array but in peaceable manner and he followed They that went before enquired still for Inns and Lodgings as if they would have rested there all night and so went on till they came to the Gate that leadeth directly towards Dam and they of Bruges only gazed upon them and gave them passage The Captains and inhabitants of Dam also suspected no harm from any that passed through Bruges and discovering Forces a-far-off supposed they had been some Succours that were come from their Friends knowing some Dangers towards them And so perceiving nothing but well till it was too late suffered them to enter their Town By which kind of Sleight rather than Stratagem the Town of Dam was taken and the Town of Bruges shrewdly blockt up whereby they took great discouragement The Duke of Saxony having won the Town of Dam sent immediately to the King to let him know that it was Sluyce chiefly and the Lord Ravenstein that kept the Rebellion of Flanders in life And that if it pleased the King to besiege it by Sea he also would besiege it by Land and so cut out the Core of those Wars The King willing to uphold the Authority of Maximilian the better to hold France in awe and being likewise sued unto by his Merchants for that the Seas were much infested by the Barques of the Lord Ravenstein sent straightways Sir Edward Poynings a valiant man and of good service with twelve Ships well furnished with Soldiers and Artillery to clear the Seas and to besiege Sluyce on that part The Englishmen did not only coop up the Lord Ravenstein that he stirred not and likewise hold in strait Siege the Maritim part of the Town but also assailed one of the Castles and renewed the assault so for twenty days space issuing still out of their Ships at the Ebb as they made great slaughter of them of the Castle who continually fought with them to repulse them though of the English part also were slain a Brother of the Earl of Oxford's and some fifty more But the Siege still continuing more and more strait and both the Castles which were the principal strength of the Town being distressed the one by the Duke of Saxony and the other by the English and a Bridge of boats which the Lord Ravenstein had made between both Castles whereby Succours and Relief might pass from the one to the other being on a night set on fire by the English he despairing to hold the Town yielded at the last the Castle to the English and the Town to the Duke of Saxony by composition Which done the Duke of Saxony and Sir Edward Poynings treated with them of Bruges to submit themselves to Maximilian their Lord which after some time they did paying in some good part the Charge of the War whereby the Almains and foreln Succours were dismissed The example of Bruges other of the Revolted Towns followed so that Maximilian grew to be out of danger but as his manner was to handle matters never out of necessity And Sir Edward Poynings after he had continued at Sluyce some good while till all things were setled returned unto the King being then before Bulloign Somewhat about this time came Letters from Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain signifying the final Conquest of Granada from the Moors which action in it self so worthy King Ferdinando whose manner was never to lose any virtue for the shewing had expressed and displayed in his Letters at large with all the particularities and Religious Puncto's and Ceremonies that were observed in the reception of that City and Kingdom Shewing amongst other things That the King would not by any means in person enter the City until he had first aloof seen the Cross set up upon the greater Tower of Granada whereby it became Christian ground That likewise before he would enter he did Homage to God above pronouncing by an Herald from the height of that Tower that he did acknowledge to have recovered that Kingdom by the help of God Almighty and the glorious Virgin and the virtuous Apostle St. James and the holy Father Innocent the Eighth together with the ayds and services of his Prelates Nobles and Commons That yet he stirred not from his Camp till he had seen a little Army of Martyrs to the number of seven hundred and more Christians that had lived in bonds and servitude as Slaves to the Moors pass before his Eyes singing a Psalm for their redemption and that he had given Tribute unto God by alms and relief extended to them all for his admission into the City These things were in the Letters with many more Ceremonies of a kind of Holy Ostentation The King ever willing to
altogether improvided His will was good but he lacked money And this was made known and spread through the Army And although the English were therewithal nothing dismayed and that it be the manner of Soldiers upon bad news to speak the more bravely yet nevertheless it was a kind of preparative to a Peace Instantly in the neck of this as the King had laid it came news that Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain had concluded a peace with King Charles and that Charles had restored unto them the Counties of Russignon and Perpignian which formerly were Mortgaged by John King of Arragon Ferdinando's Father unto France for three hundred thousand Crowns which debt was also upon this Peace by Charles clearly released This came also handsomly to put on the Peace both because so potent a Confederate was faln off and because it was a fair example of a Peace bought so as the King should not be the sole Merchant in this Peace Upon these Airs of Peace the King was content that the Bishop of Exceter and the Lord Daubigny Governour of Calice should give a meeting unto the Lord Cordes for the Treaty of a Peace But himself nevertheless and his Army the fifteenth of October removed from Calice and in four days march sate him down before Bulloign During this Siege of Bulloign which continued near a Month there passed no memorable Action nor Accident of War only Sir John Savage a valiant Captain was slain riding about the Walls of the Town to take a View The Town was both well fortified and well manned yet it was distressed and ready for an Assault which if it had been given as was thought would have cost much blood but yet the Town would have been carried in the end Mean while a Peace was concluded by the Commissioners to continue for both the Kings Lives Where there was no Article of importance being in effect rather a Bargain than a Treaty For all things remained as they were save that there should be paid to the King seven hundred forty five thousand Ducats in present for his Charges in that Journey and five and twenty thousand Crowns yearly for his Charges sustained in the Ayds of the Britons For which Annual though he had Maximilian bound before for those Charges yet he counted the alteration of the Hand as much as the principal Debt And besides it was left somewhat indefinitely when it should determine or expire which made the English esteem it as a Tribute carried under fair Terms And the truth is it was paid both to the King and to his Son King Henry the Eighth longer than it could continue upon any computation of Charges There were also assigned by the French King unto all the King 's principal Counsellors great Pensions besides rich Gifts for the present Which whether the King did permit to save his own Purse from Rewards or to communicate the Envy of a Business that was displeasing to his People was diversly interpreted for certainly the King had no great fancy to own this Peace And therefore a little before it was concluded he had under-hand procured some of his best Captains and Men of War to advise him to a Peace under their hands in an earnest manner in the nature of a Supplication But the truth is this Peace was welcom to both Kings To Charles for that it assured unto him the possession of Britain and freed the enterprise of Naples To Henry for that it filled his Coffers and that he foresaw at that time a storm of inward troubles coming upon him which presently after brake forth But it gave no less discontent to the Nobility and principal persons of the Army who had many of them sold or engaged their Estates upon the hopes of the War They stuck not to say That the King cared not to plume his Nobility and People to feather himself And some made themselves merry with that the King had said in Parliament That after the War was once begun he doubted not but to make it pay it self saying he had kept promise Having risen from Bulloign he went to Calice where he stayed some time From whence also he wrote Letters which was a Courtesie that he sometimes used to the Mayor of London and Aldermen his Brethren half bragging what great summs he had obtained for the Peace knowing well that full Coffers of the King is ever good news to London And better news it would have been if their Benevolence had been but a Loan And upon the seventeenth of December following he returned to Westminster where he kept his Christmas Soon after the King's return he sent the Order of the Garter to Alphonso Duke of Calabria eldest Son to Ferdinando King of Naples an honour sought by that Prince to hold him up in the eyes of the Italians who expecting the Arms of Charles made great account of the Amity of England for a Bridle to France It was received by Alphonso with all Ceremony and Pomp that could be devised as things use to be carried that are intended for Opinion It was sent by Urswick upon whom the King bestowed this Ambassage to help him after many dry Employments AT this time the King began again to be haunted with Spirits by the Magick and curious Arts of the Lady Margaret who raised up the Ghost of Richard Duke of York second Son to King Edward the Fourth to walk and vex the King This was a finer Counterfeit Stone than Lambert Simnel better done and worn upon greater hands being graced after with the wearing of a King of France and a King of Scotland not of a Duchess of Burgundy only And for Simnel there was not much in him more than that he was a handsom Boy and did not shame his Robes But this Youth of whom we are now to speak was such a Mercurial as the like hath seldom been known and could make his own Part if at any time he chanced to be out Wherefore this being one of the strangest Examples of a Personation that ever was in Elder or Latter times it deserveth to be discovered and related at the full Although the King's manner of shewing things by Pieces and by Dark Lights hath so musfled it that it hath left it almost as a Mystery to this day The Lady Margaret whom the King's Friends called Juno because she was to him as Junb was to Aeneas stirring both Heaven and Hell to do him mischief for a foundation of her particular Practices against him did continually by all means possible nourish maintain and divulge the flying Opinion That Richard Duke of York second Son to Edward the Fourth was not murthered in the Tower as was given out but saved alive For that those who were employed in that barbarous Fact having destroyed the elder Brother were stricken with remorse and compassion towards the younger and set him privily at liberty to seek his Fortune This Lure she cast abroad thinking that this Fame and Belief together with the
Now did the Sign 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 was come under 〈◊〉 Perkin should appear And therefore he was straight sent unto by the Duchess to go for Ireland according to the first designment In Ireland he did arrive at the Town of Cork When he was thither come his own Tale was when he made his Confession afterwards That the Irish-men finding him in some good clothes came flocking about him and bare him down that he was the Duke of Clarence that had been there before and after that he was Richard the Third's base Son and lastly that he was Richard Duke of York second Son to Edward the Fourth But that he for his part renounced all these things and offered to swear upon the Holy Evangelists that he was no such man till at last they forced it upon him and bad him fear nothing and so forth But the truth is that immediately upon his coming into Ireland he took upon him the said Person of the Duke of York and drew unto him Complices and Partakers by all the means he could devise Insomuch as he wrote his Letters unto the Earl of Densmond and Kildare to come in to his Ayd and be of his Party the Originals of which Letters are yet extant Somewhat before this time the Duchess had also gained unto her a near Servant of King Henry's own one Stephen Frion his Secretary for the French Tongue an active man but turbulent and discontented This Frion had fled over to Charles the French King and put himself into his service at such time as he began to be in open enmity with the King Now King Charles when he understood of the Person and Attempts of Perkin ready of himself to embrace all advantages against the King of England instigated by Frion and formerly prepared by the Lady Margaret forthwith dispatched one Lucas and this Frion in the nature of of Ambassadors to Perkin to advertise him of the King 's good inclination to him and that he was resolved to ayd him to recover his right against King Henry an Usurper of England and an Enemy of France and wished him to come over unto him at Paris Perkin thought himself in heaven now that he was invited by so great a King in so honourable a manner And imparting unto his Friends in Ireland for their encouragement how Fortune called him and what great hopes he had sailed presently into France When he was come to the Court of France the King received him with great honour saluted and stiled him by the name of the Duke of York lodged him and accommodated him in great State And the better to give him the representation and the countenance of a Prince assigned him a Guard for his Person whereof the Lord Congreshall was Captain The Courtiers likewise though it be ill mocking with the French applied themselves to their King 's bent seeing there was reason of State for it At the same time there repaired unto Perkin divers English-men of Quality Sir George Nevile Sir John Taylor and about one hundred more and amongst the rest this Stephen Frion of whom we spake who followed his fortune both then and for a long time after and was indeed his principal Counsellor and Instrument in all his Proceedings But all this on the French King's part was but a Trick the better to bow King Henry to Peace And therefore upon the first Grain of Incense that was sacrificed upon the Altar of Peace at Bulloign Perkin was smoaked away Yet would not the French King deliver him up to King Henry as he was laboured to do for his Honors sake but warned him away and dismissed him And Perkin on his part was as ready to be gone doubting he might be caught up under-hand He therefore took his way into Flanders unto the Duchess of Burgundy pretending that having been variously tossed by Fortune he directed his course thither as to a safe Harbour No ways taking knowledge that he had ever been there before but as if that had been his first address The Duchess on the other part made it as new and strange to see him pretending at the first that she was taught and made wise by the example of Lambert Simnel how she did admit of any Counterfeit stuff though even in that she said she was not fully satisfied She pretended at the first and that was ever in the presence of others to pose him and sift him thereby to try whether he were indeed the very Duke of York or no. But seeming to receive full satisfaction by his answers she then feined her self to be transported with a kind of astonishment mixt of Joy and Wonder at his miraculous deliverance receiving him as he were risen from death to life and inferring that God who had in such wonderful manner preserved him from Death did likewise reserve him for some great and prosperous Fortune As for his dismission out of France they interpreted it not as if he were detected or neglected for a Counterfeit Deceiver but contrariwise that it did shew manifestly unto the World that he was some Great matter for that it was his abandoning that in effect made the Peare being no more but the sacrificing of a poor distressed Prince unto the utility and Ambition of two Mighty Monarchs Neither was Perkin for his part wanting to himself either in gracious and Princely behaviour or in ready and apposite answers or in contenting and caressing those that did apply themselves unto him or in pretty scorn and disdain to those that seemed to doubt of him but in all things did notably acquit himself Insomuch as it was generally believed as well amongst great Persons as amongst the Vulgar that he was indeed Duke Richard Nay himself with long and continual counterfeiting and with oft telling a Lye was turned by habit almost into the thing he seemed to be and from a Lyar to a Believer The Duchess therefore as in a case out of doubt did him all Princely honour calling him always by the name of her Nephew and giving him the Delicare Title of the White-Rose of England and appointed him a Guard of thirty persons Halberdiers clad in a party-coloured Livery of Murrey and Blew to attend his Person Her Court likewise and generally the Dutch and Strangers in their usage towards him expressed no less respect The News hereof came blazing and thundering over into England that the Duke of York was sure alive As for the name of Perkin Warbeck it was not at that time come to light but all the news ran upon the Duke of York that he had been entertained in Ireland bought and sold in France and was now plainly avowed and in great honour in Flanders These Fames took hold of divers in some upon discontent in some upon ambition in some upon levity and desire of change and in some few upon conscience and belief but in most upon simplicity and in divers out of dependance upon some of the better sort who did in secret favour and
nourish these bruits And it was not long ere these rumors of Novelty had begotten others of Scandal and Murmur against the King and his government taxing him for a great Taxer of his People and discountenancer of his Nobility The loss of Britain and the Peace with France were not forgotten But chiefly they fell upon the wrong that he did his Queen in that he did not reign in her Right Wherefore they said that God had now brought to light a Masculine-Branch of the House of York that would not be at his Courtesie howsoever he did depress his poor Lady And yet as it fareth in things which are currant with the Multitude and which they affect these Fames grew so general as the Authors were lost in the generality of Speakers They being like running Weeds that have no certain root or like Footings up and down impossible to be traced But after a while these ill Hamors drew to an head and setled secretly in some eminent Persons which were Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain of the King's Houshold the Lord Fitz-water Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Thomas Thwaites These entred into a secret Conspiracy to favour Duke Richard's Title Nevertheless none engaged their fortunes in this business openly but two Sir Robert Clifford and Master William Barley who sailed over into Flanders sent indeed from the Party of the Conspirators here to understand the truth of those things that passed there and not without some help of monies from hence Provisionally to be delivered if they found and were satisfied that there was truth in these pretences The person of Sir Robert Clifford being a Gentleman of Fame and Family was extremely welcome to the Lady Margaret Who after she had confeernce with him brought him to the sight of Perkin with whom he had often speech and discourse So that in the end won either by the Duchess to affect or by Perkin to believe he wrote back into England that he knew the Person of Richard Duke of York as well as he knew his own and that this Young-man was undoubtedly he By this means all things grew prepared to Revolt and Section here and the Conspiracy came to have a Correspondence between Planders and England The King on his part was not asleep but to Arm or levy Forces yet he thought would but shew fear and do this Idol too much worship Nevertheless the Ports he did shut up or at least kept a Watch on them that none should pass to or fro that was suspected But for the rest he chose to work by Counter-mine His purposes were two the one to lay open the Abuse the other to break the knot of the Conspirators To detect the Abuse there were but two ways the first to make it manifest to the world that the Duke of York was indeed murthered the other to prove that were he dead or alive yet Perkin was a Counterfeit For the first thus it stood There were but four persons that could speak upon knowledge to the murther of the Duke of York Sir James Tirrel the employed-man from King Richard John Dighton and Miles Forrest his Servants the two Butchers or Tormentors and the Priest of the Tower that buried them Of which four Miles Forrest and the Priest were dead and there remained alive only Sir James Tirrel and John Dighton These two the King caused to be committed to the Tower and examined touching the manner of the Death of the two Innocent Princes They agreed both in a Tale as the King gave out to this effect That King Richard having directed his Warrant for the putting of them to death to Brackenbury the Lieutenant of the Tower was by him refused Whereupon the King directed his Warrant to Sir James Tirrel to receive the Keys of the Tower from the Lieutenant for the space of a night for the King 's special service That Sir James Tirrel accordingly repaired to the Tower by night attended by his two Servants afore-named whom he had chosen for that purpose That himself stood at the stair-foot and sent these two Villains to execute the murther That they smothered them in their bed and that done called up their Master to see their naked dead bodies which they had laid forth That they were buried under the Stairs and some stones cast upon them That when the report was made to King Richard that his will was done he gave Sir James Tirrel great thanks but took exception to the place of their burial being too base for them that were King's children Where upon another night by the King's Warrant renewed their bodies were removed by the Priest of the Tower and buried by him in some place which by means of the Priest's death soon after could not be known Thus much was then delivered abroad to be the effect of those Examinations But the King nevertheless made no use of them in any of his Declarations whereby as it seems those Examinations left the business somewhat perplexed And as for Sir James Tirrel he was soon after beheaded in the Tower-yard for other matters of Treason But John-Dighton who it seemeth spake best for the King was forthwith set at liberty and was the principal means of divulging this Tradition Therefore this kind of proof being left so naked the King used the more diligence in the latter for the tracing of Perkin To this purpose he sent abroad into several parts and especially into Flanders divers secret and nimble Scouts and Spies some feigning themselves to flie over unto Perkin and to adhere unto him and some under other pretences to learn search and discover all the circumstances and particulars of Perkin's Parents Birth Person Travels up and down and in brief to have a Journal as it were of his life and doings He furnished these his employed-men liberally with Money to draw on and reward intelligences giving them also in charge to advertise continually what they found and nevertheless still to go on And ever as one Advertisement and Discovery called up another he employed other new Men where the Business did require it Others he employed in a more special nature and trust to be his Pioners in the main Counter-mine These were directed to insinuate themselves into the familiarity and confidence of the principal persons of the Party in Flanders and so to learn what Associates they had and Correspondents either here in England or abroad and how far every one engaged and what new ones they meant afterwards to try or board And as this for the Persons so for the Actions themselves to discover to the Bottom as they could the utmost of Perkin's and the Conspirators their Intentions Hopes and Practices These latter Best-be-trust-Spies had some of them further instructions to practise and draw off the best Friends and Servants of Perkin by making remonstrance to them how weakly his Enterprize and Hopes were built and with how prudent and potent a King they had to deal and to reconcile them to the King with
Clifford and him he had said That if he were sure that that young man were King Edward's Son he would never bear Arms against him This Case seems somewhat an hard Case both in respect of the Conditional and in respect of the other words But for the Conditional it seems the Judges of that time who were Learned men and the three chief of them of the Privy Council thought it was a dangerous thing to admit Ifs and And 's to qualifie words of Treason whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger And it was like to the Case in the following times of Elizabeth-Barton the holy Maid of Kent who had said That if King Henry the Eighth did not take Catherine his Wife again he should be deprived of his Crown and dye the death of a Dog And infinite Cases may be put of like nature Which it seemeth the grave Judges taking into Consideration would not admit of Treasons upon Condition And as for the Positive words That he would not bear Arms against King Edward's Son though the words seem calm yet it was a plain and direct Over-ruling of the King's Title either by Line of Lancaster or by Act of Parliament Which no doubt pierced the King more than if Stanley had charged his Lance upon him in the field For if Stanley would hold that opinion that a Son of King Edward had still the better right he being so principal a person of Authority and favour about the King it was to teach all England to say as much And therefore as those times were that speech touched the quick But some Writers do put this out of doubt for they say that Stanley did expresly promise to ayd Perkin and sent him some help of Treasure Now for the Motive of his falling off from the King It is true that at Bosworth-Field the King was be-set and in a manner inclosed round about by the Troops of King Richard and in manifest danger of his life when this Stanley was sent by his Brother with three thousand men to his Rescue which he performed so that King Richard was slain upon the Place So as the condition of Mortal men is not capable of a greater benefit than the King received by the hands of Stanley being like the benefit of Christ at once to Saye and Crown For which service the King gave him great gifts made him his Counsellor and Chamberlain and some what contrary to his nature had winked at the great Spoils of Bosworth-Field which came almost wholly to this man's hands to his infinite enriching Yet nevertheless blown up with the conceit of his Merit he did not think he had received good Measure from the King at least not Pressing-down and Running-over as he expected And his ambition was so exorbitant and unbounded as he became Sultor to the King for the Earldom of Chester Which ever being a kind of Appennage to the Principality of Wales 〈◊〉 and using to go to the King's Son his Suit did not only end in a Denial but in a Distaste The King perceiving thereby that his Desires were intemperate and his Cogitations vast and irregular and that his former Benefits were but cheap and lightly regarded by him Wherefore the King began not to brook him well And as a little Leaven of new Distaste doth commonly sowre the whole Lump of former Merits the King's Wit began now to suggest unto his Passion that Stanley at Bosworth-Field though he came time enough to save his life yet he stayed long enough to endanger it But yet having no matter against him he continued him in his Places until this his Fall After him was made Lord Chamberlain Giles Lord Dawbeny a man of great sufficiency and valour the more because he was gentle and moderate There was a common Opinion That Sir Robert Clifford who now was become the State-Informer was from the beginning an Emissary and Spy of the King 's and that he fled over into Flanders with his consent and privity But this is not probable both because he never recovered that degree of Grace which he had with the King before his going over and chiefly for that the Discovery which he had made touching the Lord Chamberlain which was his great Service grew not from any thing he learn'd abroad for that he knew it well before he went These Executions and especially that of the Lord Chamberlain's which was the chief strength of the Party and by means of Sir Robert Clifford who was the most inward man of Trust amongst them did extremely quail the Design of Perkin and his complices as well through Discouragement as Distrust So that they were now like Sand without Lime ill bound together especially as many as were English who were at a gaze looking strange one upon another not knowing who was faithful to their Side but thinking that the King what with his Baits and what with his Nets would draw them all unto him that were any thing worth And indeed it came to pass that divers came away by the Thred sometimes one and sometimes another Barley that was Joynt-Commissioner with Clifford did hold out one of the longest till Perkin was far worn yet made his Peace at the length But the Fall of this Great man being in so high Authority and Favour as was thought with the King and the manner of Carriage of the Business as if there had been secret Inquisition upon him for a great time before and the Cause for which he suffered which was little more than for saying in effect That the Title of York was better than the Title of Lancaster which was the Case almost of every man at the least in Opinion was matter of great Terrour amongst all the King's Servants and Subjects Insomuch as no man almost thought himself secure and men durst scarce commune or talk one with another but there was a general Diffidence every where Which nevertheless made the King rather more Absolute than more Safe For Bleeding Inwards and shut Vapours strangle soonest and oppress most Hereupon presently came forth Swarms and Volies of Libels which are the Gusts of Liberty of Speech restrained and the Females of Sedition containing bitter Invectives and Slanders against the King and some of the Council For the contriving and dispersing whereof after great Diligence of Inquiry five mean persons were caught and executed Mean while the King did not neglect Ireland being the Soil where the Musbromes and Upstart-Weeds that spring up in a Night did chiefly prosper He sent therefore from hence for the better setling of his affairs there Commissioners of both Robes The Prior of Lanthony to be his Chancellour in that Kingdom and Sir Edward Poynings with a Power of Men and a Marshal Commission together with a Civil Power of his Lieutenant with a Clause That the Earl of Kildare then Deputy should obey him But the Wild-Irish who were the principal Offendors fled into the Woods and Bogs after their manner and those
that knew themselves guilty in the Pale fled to them So that Sir Edward Poynings was enforced to make a Wild-Chase upon the Wild-Irish Where in respect of the Mountains and Fastnesses he did little good Which either out of a suspicious Melancholy upon his bad Success or the better to save his service from Disgrace he would needs impute unto the Comfort that the Rebels should receive under-hand from the Earl of Kildare every light suspition growing upon the Earl in respect of the Kildare that was in the Action of Lambert Simnel and slain at Stoke-field Wherefore he caused the Earl to be apprehended and sent into England where upon Examination he cleared himself so well as he was re-placed in his Government But Poynings the better to make compensation of the Meagerness of his Service in the Wars by acts of Peace called a Parliament where was made that memorable Act which 〈◊〉 this day is called Poynings Law whereby all the Statutes of England were made to be of force in Ireland For before they were not neither are any now in force in Ireland which were made in England since that time which was the tenth year of the King About this time began to be discovered in the King that disposition which afterward nourished and whet-on by bad Counsellors and Ministers proved the Blot of his times which was the course he took to crush Treasure out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures upon Penal Laws At this men did startle the more at this time because it appeared plainly to be in the King's Nature and not out of his Necessity he being now in Float for Treasure For that he had newly received the Peace-money from France the Benevolence-money from his Subjects and great Casualties upon the Confiscations of the Lord Chamberlain and divers others The first noted Case of this kind was that of Sir William Capel Alderman of London Who upon sundry Penal Laws was condemned in the summ of seven and twenty hundred Pounds and compounded with the King for sixteen hundred And yet after Empson would have cut another Chop out of him if the King had not died in the instant The Summer following the King to comfort his Mother whom he did always tenderly love and revere and to make Demonstration to the World that the proceedings against Sir William Stanley which was imposed upon him by necessity of State had not in any degree diminished the affection he bare to Thomas his Brother went in Progress to Latham to make merry with his Mother and the Earl and lay there divers days During this Progress Perkin Warbeck finding that time and temporizing which whilest his practices were covert and wrought well in England made for him did now when they were discovered and defeated rather make against him for that when matters once go down the Hill they stay not without a new force resolved to try his adventure in some exploit upon England hoping still upon the affections of the Common People towards the House of York Which body of Common People he thought was not to be practised upon as persons of Quality are But that they only practice upon their affections was to set up a Standard in the field The Place where he should make his Attempt he chose to be the Coast of Kent The King by this time was grown to such an height of Reputation for cunning and Policy that every Accident and Event that went well was laid and imputed to his foresight as if he had set it before As in this particular of Perkin's Design upon Kent For the world would not believe afterwards but the King having secret Intelligence of Perkin's intention for Kent the better to draw it on went of purpose into the North a-far-off laying an open side unto Perkin to make him come to the close and so to trip up his heels having made sure in Kent before-hand But so it was that Perkin had gathered together a Power of all Nations neither in number not in the hardiness and courage of the Persons contemptible but in their nature and fortunes to be feared as well of Friends as Enemies being Bankrupts and many of them Felons and such as lived by Rapine These he put to Sea and arrived upon the Coast of Sandwich and Deal in Kent about July There he cast Anchor and to prove the affections of the People sent some of his men to land making great boast of the Power that was to follow The Kentish-men perceiving that Perkin was not followed by any English of name or account and that his forces consisted but of strangers born and most of them base People and Free-booters fitter to spoil a Coast than to recover a Kingdom resorting unto the principal Gentlemen of the Countrey professed their loyalty to the King and desired to be directed and commanded for the best of the King's service The Gentlemen entring into Consultation directed some forces in good number to shew themselves upon the Coast and some of them to make signs to entice Perkin's Soldiers to land as if they would joyn with them and some others to appear from some other places and to make semblance as if they fled from them the better to encourage them to land But Perkin who by playing the Prince or else taught by Secretary Frion had learned thus much That People under Command do use to consult and after to march in order and Rebels contrariwise run upon an Head together in confusion considering the delay of time and observing their orderly and not tumultuary Arming doubted the worst And therefore the wily Youth would not set one foot out of his Ship till he might see things were sure Wherefore the King's Forces perceiving that they could draw on no more than those that were formerly landed set upon them and cut them in pieces ere they could flie back to their Ships In which Skirmish besides those that fled and were slain there were taken about an hundred and fifty persons Which for that the King thought that to punish a few for example was Gentleman's play but for Rascal-People they were to be cut off every man especially in the beginning of an Enterprize and likewise for that he saw that Perkin's Forces would now consist chiefly of such Rabble and scum of desperate people he therefore hanged them all for the greater terrour They were brought to London all rail'd in Ropes like a Team of Horses in a Cart and were executed some of them at London and Wapping and the rest at divers places upon the Sea-Coast of Kent Sussex and Norfolk for Sea-marks or Light-houses to teach Perkin's People to avoid the Coast. The King being advertised of the landing of the Rebels thought to leave his Progress But being certified the next day that they were partly defeated and partly fled he continued his Progress and sent Sir Richard Guilford into Kent in message Who calling the Countrey together did much commend from the King their fidelity manhood and well
my self to expect the Tyrant's death and then to put my self into my Sisters hands who was next Heir to the Crown But in this season it happened one Henry Tidder Son to Edmond Tidder Earl of Richmond to come from France and enter into the Realm and by subtil and foul means to obtain the Crown of the same which to me rightfully appertained So that it was but a change from Tyrant to Tyrant This Henry my extreme and mortal Enemy so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive imagined and wrought all the subtil ways and means he could to procure my final Destruction For my mortal Enemy hath not only falsly surmised me to be a feigned Person giving me Nick-names so abusing the World but also to deferr and put me from entry into England hath offered large summs of Money to corrupt the Princes and their Ministers with whom I have been retained and made importune Labours to certain Servants about my Person to murther or Poyson me and others to forsake and leave my righteous Quarrel and to depart from my Service as Sir Robert Clifford and others So that every man of Reason may well perceive that Henry calling himself King of England needed not to have bestowed such great summs of Treasure nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant Labour and Industry to compass my Death and Ruine if I had been such a feigned Person But the truth of my Cause being so manifest moved the most Christian King Charles and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy my most dear Aunt not only to acknowledge the truth thereof but lovingly to assist me But it seemeth that God above for the good of this whole Island and the knitting of these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait Concord and Amity by so great an Obligation had reserved the placing of me in the Imperial Throne of England for the Arms and Succours of your Grace Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that were bereft and spoiled of the Kingdom of England as of late in fresh memory it was done in the Person of Henry the Sixth Wherefore for that your Grace hath given clear signs that you are in no Noble quality inferiour to your Royal Ancestors I so distressed a Prince was hereby moved to come and put my self into your Royal Hands desiring your Assistance to recover my Kingdom of England promising faithfully to bear my self towards your Grace no otherwise than if I were your own Natural Brother and will upon the Recovery of mine Inheritance gratefully do you all the Pleasure that is in my utmost Power AFter Perkin had told his Tale King James answered bravely and wisely That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hand And from that time forth though there wanted not some about him that would have perswaded him that all was but an Illusion yet notwithstanding either taken by Perkin's amiable and alluring behaviour or inclining to the recommendation of the great Princes abroad or willing to take an occasion of a War against King Henry he entertained him in all things as became the person of Richard Duke of York embraced his Quarrel and the more to put it out of doubt that he took him to be a great Prince and not a Representation only he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife the Lady Catherine Gordon Daughter to Earl Huntley being a near Kinswoman to the King himself and a young Virgin of excellent beauty and virtue Not long after the King of Scots in person with Perkin in his company entred with a great Army though it consisted chiefly of Borderers being raised somewhat suddenly into Northumberland And Perkin for a Perfume before him as he went caused to be published a Proclamation of this tenour following in the name of Richard Duke of York true Inheritor of the Crown of England IT hath pleased God who putteth down the Mighty from their Seat and exalteth the Humble and suffereth not the hopes of the Just to perish in the end to give Us means at the length to shew Our Selves armed unto Our Lieges and People of England But far be it from Us to intend their hurt and damage or to make War upon them otherwise than to deliver Our Self and them from Tyranny and Oppression For Our mortal Enemy Henry Tidder a false 〈◊〉 of the Crown of England which tolls by Natural and Lineal Right appertaineth knowing in his own Heart Our undoubted Right We being the very Richard Duke of York younger Son and now surviving Heir-male of the Noble and Victorious Edward the Fourth late King of England hath not only deprived Us of Our Kingdom but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our Life Yet if his Tyranny only extended it self to Our Person although Our Royal Blood teacheth Us to be sensible of Injuries it should be less to Our Grief But this Tidder who boasteth himself to have overthrown a Tyrant hath ever since his first entrance into his Usurped Reign put little in practice but Tyranny and the feats thereof For King Richard Our unnatural Uncle although desire of Rule did blind him yet in his other actions like a true Plantagenet was Noble and loved the Honour of the Realm and the Contentment and Comfort of his Nobles and People But this Our Mortal Enemy agreeable to the meanness of his Birth hath trod under foot the Honour of this Nation selling Our hest Confederates for Money and making Merchandize of the Blood Estates and Fortunes of Our Peers and Subjects by feigned wars and dishonourable Peace only to enrich his Coffers Nor unlike hath been his hateful Mis-government and evil Deportments at home First he hath to fortifie his false Quarrel caused divers Nobles of this Our Realm whom he held Suspect and stood in dread of to be cruelly murthred as Our Cousin Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Robert Ratcliff William Dawbeney Humphrey Stafford and many others besides such as have dearly bought their Lives with intolerable Ransoms Some of which Nobles are now in the Sanctuary Also he hath long kept and yet keepeth in Prison Our right entirely beloved Cousin Edward Son and Heir to Our Uncle Duke of Clarence and others with-bolding from them their rightful Inheritance to the intent they should never be of might and power to aid and assist Us at Our need after the duty of their Liegeances He also married by compulsion certain of Our Sisters and also the Sister of Our said Cousin the Earl of Warwick and divers other Ladies of the Royal Blood unto certain of his Kinsmen and Friends of simple and low Degree and putting apart all well-disposed Nobles he hath none in favour and trust about his Person but Bishop Fox Smith Bray Lovel Oliver King David Owen Risley Turbervile Tiler Cholmley Empson James Hobart John Cut Garth
at London to Treat On the King's part Bishop Fox Lord Privy Seal Viscount Wells Kendal Prior of St. John's Warham Master of the Polls who began to gain much upon the King's opinion Urswick who was almost ever one and Risley On the Arch-Duke's part the Lord Bevers his Admiral the Lord Verunsel President of Flanders and others These concluded a perfect Treaty both of Amity and Intercourse between the King and the Arch-Duke containing Articles both of State Commerce and Free-Fishing This is that Treaty which the Flemings call at this day Intercursus Magnus both because it is more compleat than the precedent Treaties of the Third and Fourth years of the King and chiefly to give it a difference from the Treaty that followed in the One and twentieth year of the King which they call Intercursus Malus In this Treaty there was an express Article against the Reception of the Rebels of either Prince by other purporting that if any such Rebel should be required by the Prince whose Rebel he was of the Prince Confederate that forthwith the Prince Confederate should by Proclamation command him to avoid the Countrey Which if he did not within fifteen days the Rebel was to stand proscribed and put out of Protection But nevertheless in this Article Perkin was not named neither perhaps contained because he was no Rebel But by this means his wings were clipt off his Followers that were English And it was expresly comprised in the Treaty that it should extend to the Territories of the Duchess Dowager After the Intercourse thus restored the English Merchants came again to their Mansion at Antwerp where they were received with Procession and great Joy The Winter sollowing being the Twelfth year of his reign the King called again his Parliament Where he did much exaggerate both the Malice and the cruel Predatory War lately made by the King of Scotland That that King being in Amity with him and no ways provoked should so burn in hatred towards him as to drink of the Lees and Dregs of Perkin's Intoxication who was every where else detected and discarded And that when he perceived it was out of his reach to do the King any hurt he had turned his Arms upon unarmed and unprovided people to spoil only and depopulate contrary to the Laws both of War and Peace Concluding that he could neither with Honour nor with the safety of his People to whom he did owe Protection let pass these wrongs unrevenged The Parliament understood him well and gave him a Subsidy limited to the summ of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds besides two Fifteens For his Wars were always to him as a Mine of Treasure of a strange kind of Ore Iron at the top and Gold and Silver at the bottom At this Parliament for that there had been so much time spent in making Laws the year before and for that it was called purposely in respect of the Scottish War there were no Laws made to be remembred Only there passed a Law at the Suit of the Merchant-Adventurers of England against the Merchant-Adventurers of London for Monopolizing and exacting upon the Trade which it seemeth they did a little to save themselves after the hard time they had sustained by want of Trade But those Innovations were taken away by Parliament But it was fatal to the King to fight for his Money And though he avoided to fight with Enemies abroad yet he was still enforced to fight for it with Rebels at home For no sooner began the Subsidie to be levied in Cornwal but the people there began to grudge and murmur The Cornish being a race of men stout of stomach mighty of body and limb and that lived hardly in a barren Countrey and many of them could for a need live under ground that were Tinners they muttered extremely that it was a thing not to be suffered that for a little stir of the Scots soon blown over they should be thus grinded to Powder with Payments And said it was for them to pay that had too much and lived idly But they would eat the bread they got with the sweat of their brows and no man should take it from them And as in the Tides of People once up there want not commonly stirting Winds to make them more rough So this People did light upon two Ring-leaders or Captains of the Rout. The one was one Michael Joseph a Black-smith or Farrier of Bodmin a notable talking Fellow and no less desirous to be talked of The other was Thomas Flammocke a Lawyer who by telling his neighbours commonly upon any occasion that the Law was on their side had gotten great sway amongst them This man talked learnedly and as if he could tell how to make a Rebellion and never break the Peace He told the people that Subsidies were not to be granted nor levied in this case that is for Wars of Scotland for that the Law had provided another course by service of Escuage for those Journies much less when all was quiet and War was made but a Pretence to poll and pill the People And therefore that it was good they should not stand now like sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands Yet to do no creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the laying down of those grievous Payments and for the punishment of those that had given him that Counsel to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And said for his part he did not see how they could do the duty of true English-men and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such wicked Ones that would destroy both Him and the Countrey Their aim was at Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray who were the King 's Skreens in this Envy After that these two Flammocke and the Black-smith had by joynt and several Pratings found tokens of consent in the Multitude they offered themselves to lead them until they should hear of better men to be their Leaders which they said would be ere long Telling them further that they would be but their servants and first in every danger but doubted not but to make both the West-end and East-end of England to meet in so good a Quarrel and that all rightly understood was but for the King's service The People upon these seditious Instigations did arm most of them with Bows and Arrows and Bills and such other Weapons of rude and Countrey People and forthwith under the Command of their Leaders which in such cases is ever at pleasure marched out of Cornwal through Devonshire unto Taunton in Somersetshire without any slaughter violence or spoil of the Countrey At Taunton they killed in fury an officious and eager Commissioner for the Subsidie whom they called the Provoct of Perin Thence they marched to Wells where the Lord Audley with whom their Leaders had before some secret Intelligence a Noble-man of an ancient Family
from under the Walls to joyn with them and be of their Party telling them that the King would make them another London if they would be the first Town that should acknowledge him But they had not the wit to send to them in any orderly fashion Agents or chosen Men to tempt them and to treat with them The Citizens on their part shewed themselves stout and loyal Subjects Neither was there so much as any Tumult or Division amongst them but all prepared themselves for a valiant Defence and making good the Town For well they saw that the Rebels were of no such Number or Power that they needed to fear them as yet and well they hoped that before their Numbers increased the King's Succours would come-in And howsoever they thought it the extremest of Evils to put themselves at the mercy of those hungry and disorderly People Wherefore setting all things in good order within the Town they nevertheless let down with Cords from several parts of the Walls privily several Messengers that if one came to mischance another might pass-on which should advertise the King of the State of the Town and implore his ayd Perkin also doubted that Succours would come ere long and therefore resolved to use his utmost Force to assault the Town And for that purpose having mounted Scaling-Ladders in divers places upon the Walls made at the same instant an Attempt to force one of the Gates But having no Artillery nor Engins and finding that he could do no good by ramming with Logs of Timber nor by the use of Iron Bars and Iron Crows and such other means at hand he had no way left him but to set one of the Gates on fire which he did But the Citizens well perceiving the Danger before the Gate could be fully consumed blocked up the Gate and some space about it on the inside with Fagots and other Fuel which they likewise set on fire and so repulsed fire with fire And in the mean time raised up Rampiers of earth and cast up deep Trenches to serve instead of Wall and Gate And for the Escalada's they had so bad success as the Rebels were driven from the Walls with the loss of two hundred men The King when he heard of Perkin's Siege of Exceter made sport with it and said to them that were about him that The King of Rake-hells was landed in the West and that he hoped now to have the honour to see him which he could never yet do And it appeared plainly to those that were about the King that he was indeed much joyed with the News of Perkin's being on English ground where he could have no retreat by Land thinking now that he should be cured of those privy Stitches which he had long had about his Heart and had sometimes broken his Sleeps in the midst of all his felicity And to set all mens hearts on fire he did by all possible means let it appear that those who should now do him service to make an end of these troubles should be no less accepted of him than he that came upon the Eleventh Hour and had the whole Wages of the Day Therefore now like the end of a Play a great number came upon the Stage at once He sent the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Brook and Sir Rice ap Thomas with expedite Forces to speed to Exceter to the Rescue of the Town and to spread the Fame of his own following in Person with a Royal Army The Earl of Devonshire and his Son with the Caroes and the Fulfords and other principal Persons of Devonshire uncalled from the Court but hearing that the King's heart was so much bent upon this Service made haste with Troops that they had raised to be the first that should succour the City of Exceter and prevent the King's Succours The Duke of Buckingham likewise with many brave Gentlemen put themselves in Arms not staying either the King 's or the Lord Chamberlain's coming on but making a Body of Forces of themselves the more to indear their merit signifying to the King their readiness and desiring to know his pleasure So that according to the Proverb In the coming down every Saint did help Perkin hearing this Thunder of Arms and Preparations against him from so many Parts raised his Siege and marched to Taunton beginning already to squint one eye upon the Crown and another upon the Sanctuary Though the Cornish-men were become like Metal often fired and quenched churlish and that would sooner break than bow swearing and vowing not to leave him till the uttermost drop of their blood were spilt He was at his rising from Exceter between six and seven thousand strong many having come unto him after he was set before Exceter upon fame of so great an Enterprize and to partake of the Spoil though upon the raising of his Siege some did slip away When he was come near Taunton he dissembled all fear and seemed all the day to use diligence in preparing all things ready to fight But about midnight he fled with threescore Horse to Bewley in the New-Forest where he and divers of his Company registred themselves Sanctuary-men leaving his Cornish-men to the Four Winds But yet thereby easing them of their Vow and using his wonted Compassion Not to be by when his Subjects blood should be spilt The King as soon as he heard of Perkin's Flight sent presently five hundred Horse to pursue and apprehend him before he should get either to the Sea or to that same little Island called a Sanctuary But they came too late for the latter of these Therefore all they could do was to beset the Sanctuary and to maintain a strong Watch about it till the King's pleasure were further known As for the rest of the Rebels they being destituted of their head without stroke stricken submitted themselves unto the King's Mercy And the King who commonly drew Blood as Physicians do rather to save life than to spill it and was never Cruel when he was Secure now he saw the danger was past pardoned them all in the end except some few desperate persons which he reserved to be Executed the better to set off his Mercy towards the rest There were also sent with all speed some Horse to St. Michael's-Mount in Cornwal where the Lady Catherine Gordon was left by her Husband whom in all fortunes she entirely loved adding the virtues of a Wife to the virtues of her Sex The King sent in the greater diligence not knowing whether she might be with Child whereby the business would not have ended in Perkin's person When she was brought to the King it was commonly said that the King received her not only with Compassion but with Affection Pity giving more Impression to her excellent Beauty Wherefore comforting her to serve as well his Eye as his Fame he sent her to his Queen to remain with her giving her very honourable Allowance for the suport of her Estate which she enjoyed both
it was a Race often dipped in their own Blood It hath remained since only transplanted into other Names as well of the Imperial-Line as of other Noble Houses But it was neither guilt of Crime nor reason of Estate that could quench the Envy that was upon the King for this Execution So that he thought good to export it out of the Land and to lay it upon his new 〈◊〉 Ferdinando King of Spain For these two Kings understanding one another at half a word so it was that there were Letters shewed out of Spain whereby in the passages concerning the Treaty of the Marriage Ferdinando had written to the King in plain terms that he saw no assurance of his Succession as long as the Earl of Warwick lived and that he was loth to send his Daughter to Troubles and Dangers But hereby as the King did in some part remove the Envy from himself so he did not observe that he did withal bring a kind of Malediction and Infausting upon the Marriage as an ill Prognostick Which in event so far proved true as both Prince Arthur enjoyed a very small time after the Marriage and the Lady Katherine her self a sad and a religious woman long after when King Henry the Eighth his resolution of a Divorce from her was first made known to her used some words That she had not offended but it was a Judgment of God for that her former Marriage was made in blood meaning that of the Earl of Warwick This Fifteenth year of the King there was a great Plague both in London and in divers parts of the Kingdom Wherefore the King after often change of Places whether to avoid the danger of the Sickness or to give occasion of an Enterview with the Arch-Duke or both sayled over with his Queen to Calice Upon his coming thither the Arch-Duke sent an honourable Ambassage unto him as well to welcom him into those parts as to let him know that if it pleased him he would come and do him reverence But it was said withal That the King might be pleased to appoint some place that were out of any Walled Town or Fortress for that he had denied the same upon like occasion to the French King And though he said he made a great difference between the two Kings yet he would be loth to give a President that might make it after to be expected at his hands by another whom he trusted less The King accepted of the Courtesie and admitted of his Excuse and appointed the place to be at St. Peter's Church without Calice But withal he did visit the Arch-Duke with Ambassadors sent from himself which were the Lord saint-Saint-John and the Secretary unto whom the Arch-Duke did the honour as going to Mass at St. Omers to set the Lord Saint-John on his right hand and the Secretary on his left and so to ride between them to Church The day appointed for the Enterview the King went on Horse-back some distance from St. Peter's Church to receive the Arch-Duke And upon their approaching the Arch-Duke made hast to light and offered to hold the King's Stirrop at his alighting which the King would not permit but descending from Horse-back they embraced with great affection and withdrawing into the Church to a place prepared they had long Conference not only upon the Confirmation of former Treaties and the 〈◊〉 of Commerce but upon Cross Marriages to be had between the Duke of York the King 's second Son and the Arch-Duke's Daughter And again between Charles the Arch-Dukes Son and Heir and Mary the King 's second Daughter But these Blossoms of unripe Marriages were but friendly wishes and the Airs of loving Entertainment though one of them came afterwards to Conclusion in Treaty though not in Effect But during the time that the two Princes conversed and commoned together in the Suburbs of Calice the Demonstrations on both sides were passing hearty and affectionate especially on the part of the Arch-Duke Who besides that he was a Prince of an excellent good nature being conscious to himself how drily the King had been used by his Council in the matter of Perkin did strive by all means to recover it in the King's affection And having also his ears continually beaten with the Counsels of his Father and Father-in-law who in respect of their jealous hatred against the French King did always advise the Arch-Duke to anchor himself upon the Amity of King Henry of England was glad upon this occasion to put in ure and practice their precepts calling the King Patron and Father and Protector these very words the King repeats when he certified of the loving behaviour of the Arch-Duke to the City and what else he could devise to express his love and observance to the King There came also to the King the Governour of Picardy and the Bailiff of Amiens sent from Lewis the French King to do him honour and to give him knowledge of his victory and winning of the Duchy of Millan It seemeth the King was well pleased with the honours he received from those parts while he was at Calice For he did himself certifie all the News and Occurrents of them in every particular from Calice to the Mayor and Aldermen of London which no doubt made no small talk in the City For the King though he could not entertain the good will of the Citizens as Edward the Fourth did yet by affability and other Princely Graces did ever make very much of them and apply himself to them This year also dyed John Morton Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England and Cardinal He was a wise man and an eloquent but in his nature harsh and haughty much accepted by the King but envied by the Nobility and hated of the People Neither was his name left out of Perkin's Proclamation for any good will but they would not bring him in amongst the King's Casting-Counters because he had the Image and Superscription upon him of the Pope in his Honour of Cardinal He wan the King with Secrecy and Diligence but chiefly because he was his old Servant in his less Fortunes And also for that in his affections he was not without an inveterate malice against the House of York under whom he had been in trouble He was willing also to take Envy from the King more than the King was willing to put upon him For the King cared not for Subterfuges but would stand Envy and appear in any thing that was to his mind which made Envy still grow upon him more universal but less daring But in the matter of Exactions time did after shew that the Bishop in feeding the King's humour did rather temper it He had been by Richard the Third committed as in custody to the Duke of Buckingham whom he did secretly incite to revolt from King Richard But after the Duke was engaged and thought the Bishop should have been his chief Pilot in the Tempest the Bishop was gotten into the Cock-boat and fled over
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
but had also farther decreed to make Italy the Theatre of his Tyranny Wherefore he conjured him by the Love of our Saviour by the Piety of his Ancestors whose aids were never wanting when the Church stood in need and by the fast tye of Filial Obedience that he would enter into the Holy League of the Estates of Italy who had made choice of him for their General Jealousie and Reverence to the See of Rome so prevailed with him that he easily condescended to the Pope's request Yet that he might some way colour his action he would needs interpose himself as Umpire between the Pope and the French whom by his Ambassadors he intreats to lay aside Arms withal not obscurely threatning that if he did not so he intended to undertake the defence of the Pope against him the common disturber of the peace of Christendom The French set light by this Wherefore War is proclaimed by a Herald the French King commanded to part with the Kingdom of France and the Duchies of Normandy and Aquitain which he without right unjustly usurped Then entring into League with Maximilian the Emperor the Arragonois and the Pope they consult of assaulting the French with joynt forces The Arragonois invites us into Spain that thence we might invade France promising besides certain Troops of Horse store of Artillery Wagons for carriage Munition and many other things necessary for such an Expedition Our King relying on his Father-in-Law his promises levies a great Army whereof he ships one part for Spain and employs the other by Sea Edward Howard Lord Admiral had charge of the Sea forces who fought with the French Fleet in the Bay of Bretaigne In which Fight there was no memorable thing done besides the combat of the two great Ships the one having seven hundred English in it under the command of Sir Thomas Knevet the other nine hundred French under Primauget a Briton These Ships being both fast grapled after a long fight fell both on fire and were utterly consumed not a man being saved of whom it might be learned whether this fire happened by chance or were purposely kindled by a forced despair Our other Army under the command of the Lord Thomas Gray Marquis of Dorset amongst ten thousand tall English Souldiers had five hundred Germans under one Guint a Fleming This Army landed in Biscay where they spent some Months in expectation of due performances from the Arragonois who feeding them with promises only tempered the heat of our Men who were very eager upon the march for France It happened that Gaston of Foix Competitor for the Kingdom with John King of Navarr dyed about the same time The Navarrois had promised Ferdinand some aids toward this War But now fearing no Competitor he whether out of inconstancy or that he thought his affairs so required secretly by his Agents makes a League with the French Upon this Ferdinand turns his Arms upon the Navarrois and strains all his strings to draw our men to the same attempt but the Marquis of Dorset pleaded his Commission beyond which he could not with safety proceed The Navarrois was utterly unprovided and the Nobility so divided into the factions of the Egremonts and the Beaumonts that he could do nothing It was bruited that two mighty Kings came against him with no less forces what should he do To hope from France were vain the French were too far off and deeply engaged in other Wars At the approach of the Spaniard he quits his Kingdom and with his Wife and Children flying over the Pyrenaean Mountains makes Bern his receptacle Ferdinand having thus gotten a new Kingdom casts off all farther thought of France only intending the confirmation of his Conquest to which end he intreats of Henry the help of our Forces raised for France and prevails but to no purpose For the English having their Bodies inflamed with the intolerable heat of a strange Climate and the drinking of strong Wines dropt down every where insomuch that we lost about a thousand some say eighteen hundred men in an instant Wherefore impatient of farther delay they force their Commanders to set sail homeward The King was mightily enraged at their return insomuch that he once thought to have punished them for their obstinacy But the multitude of Delinquents proyed a pardon to all They did forth in May and returned a little before Christmass ANNO DOM. 1513. REG. 5. ABout the beginning of this year the King assembled the high Court of Parliament wherein War against France was determined and a mighty mass of Money granted by the Commons Whereupon in the very beginning of the Spring a Fleet is set forth consisting of two and forty Men of War besides Victuallers and lesser Vessels The Lord Admiral who had the charge of this Fleet too too eagerly hunting after Honour by his rashness frustrated the designs of so goodly preparations He attempts to land in the Haven near adjoyning to Brest where striving in person to set foot first in the Enemies Countrey he with a Spear born over-board and drowned was the only man of all that Fleet that came short home He therein performed rather the part of a private Souldier than of a Commander For his death brought back this headless Fleet into England Where the King makes the Lord Thomas Howard Admiral in the place of his deceased younger Brother exhorting him by employing his service for his Countries honour to revenge his Brother's inglorious death This new Admiral with great speed brings his Navy out of Harbour and scouring up and down the Seas strook such a terrour into the French that not so much as a Fisher-boat durst peep abroad At last he lands in Whitsand-Bay ransacks all the Countrey thereabout and without resistance returns safe to his Ships In the mean time the King having raised a mighty Army arrives at Calais the last of June with a Fleet of four hundred Sail. The one and twentieth of July he marcheth with all his forces into the French Territory and having sent some Ensigns before to besiege Terovenne a City in Picardy he takes his way thither intending in person to sit down before it with all the strength of his Army By the way he meets the French near Dernom They at first seem resolved to fight but whether they distrusted their own strength and so purposely declined an unequal combat or as by our side it is reported that our Ordnance being conveniently placed disordered them and that so they betook themselves to flight as if it had been all one for us to see them and conquer them away they went and could not any where afterward be discried by us So without any let our Army came before Terovenne This City had according to the relation of our Writers four thousand Defendants whereof six hundred were Horse The place being so well fortified it had been no hard matter to have defended it against a mighty Army if so be they had
had fortified themselves as well as the shortness of time would permit them and the Peasants thereabouts bring all their goods into the City as to a place of safeguard The City was of no great circuit yet at the beginning of the Siege it contained fourscore thousand People by reason whereof Victuals began quickly to fail them and they could no way hope for relief The French King was far off they had no Garrison the Citizens bad Soldiers two great Princes had begirt the Town with fifty thousand men but they had an Enemy within called Famine more cruel and insupportable than both So having for some few days held out the Siege the nine and Twentieth of September their lives being granted them they yield and to save themselves from spoil pay a hundred thousand Crowns The King makes them swear Fealty to him and appoints Sir Edward Poynings a Knight of the Garter their Governour Next he gives order for store of Warlike provision puts in a small Garrison and builds a Cittadel for the confirmation of his Conquest Neither amongst these Politick affairs did he neglect those of the Church For the Bishop being proscribed he conferrs the See with all the revenues upon Thomas Wolsey of whose first rising and immoderate Power we shall have much occasion to speak hereafter All things being thus ordered because Winter came on apace he began to bethink himself of returning with his Army into England This thought so far pleased him that having been absent scarce four Months he took Ship and about the end of October came home triumphing in the Glory of a double Conquest By the way he was entertained with the news of another Victory the Lord Howard Earl of Surrey having under his Fortune slain the King of Scots The King of France being encumbred with many Wars had conjured James the Fourth King of Scots By the ancient Laws of Amity and the late League made between them that He would not forsake him entangled in so many difficulties If He regarded not his Friend's case yet he should at least look to Himself sor whom it would not be safe to suffer a bordering Nation always at enmity with Him by such additions to arise to that height of power The King of England busied with a forein War was now absent and with Him the flower of the English Chivalry He should therefore forthwith take Arms and try to recover Berwick an especial Town of the Scottish Dominions but for many years with-held by the English He would easily be victorious if He would but make use of this occasion so happily offered It could not be but this War would be for His Honour and profitable to His Friend if not to Himself He should thereby also make known to His Enemies that the Scottish Arms were not to be contemned whose former Victories a long and to them hurtful Peace had obscured and buried in oblivion among the English As for the charges of it He need not be troubled for that he would afford Him fifty thousand Crowns towards the providing of Munition and Ordnance These Reasons so prevailed with the young King covetous of glory that notwithstanding he had lately made a League with our King whose Sister he had married and her vehement dissuasions he proclaimed War against Henry which proved fatal to him bloody to his and the cause of many ensuing calamities So having raised a great Army he breaks into our Marches and besiegeth Norham-Castle belonging to the Bishop of Durham the which having held out six days was at last yielded unto him Thence he removes his Camp to Berwick wasting all the Countrey as he marcht with Fire and Sword The news whereof are brought unto them to whom the government of the Kingdom was committed in the absence of the King and a levy being made through all the North parts of the Kingdom Alnewike is appointed the rendezvous where all the Troops should meet at a set day that thence they might set forward against the Enemy under the conduct of the Lord Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Among the first to his Father's great joy comes the Earl's Son Thomas Lord Admiral leading a veteran Troop of five thousand men of tryed valour and haughty in regard of their former Naval Victories obtained under the command of this young Lord. After him came the Lords Dacres Clifford Scrope Latimer Canyers Lumley and Ogle besides Sir Nicholas Appleyard Master of the Ordnance Sir W. Percie Sir William Sidney Sir William Bulmer Sir John Stanley Sir William Molineux Sir Thomas Strangwayes Sir Richard Tempest and many other Knights These sitting in Council thought it best to send an Herald to the King to expostulate with him concerning the outrages committed to complain that He had without all right or reason spoiled the Countrey of a Prince not only Ailied unto him but also his Confederate and therefore to certifie him that they were ready by Battel to revenge the breach of League if so be he durst await their coming but a few days in a ground that might be fitting for the meeting of both Armies The King makes answer by writing wherein He retorts the violation of the League calling God to witness that King Henry had first by his many injuries shown evident signs of an alienated mind For the English he pretended robbed all along the Marches of Scotland without restitution or punishment Andrew Barton a stout and bonest man had been unjusty slain by the King's command and one Heron who had murthered Robert Car a Scottish Noble-man vaunted himself openly in England the King taking no notice of so heinous a fact Of these things he had often complained by his Ambassadors but without effect There was therefore no other way for him but to betake himself to Arms for the common defence of himself and his Kingdom against the King's injustice As for the meeting he signified that he accepted of it and appointed both time and place for the Battel Neither party failed the prefixed day The Scot seeks to animate his men by taking away all hope of safeguard by flight commanding them I know not how wisely but the event shewed how unhappily for them to forsake their Horses forasmuch as they were to trust to their Hands not to their Horses heels and by his own example shewing what he would have done he alights and prepares himself to fight on foot The rest doing the like the whole Army encountred us on foot to whom after a long and bloody fight the fortune of the Victory inclined The Scots had two and twenty pieces of great Ordnance which stood them in no stead For our men climbing up a Hill where the Enemy sate hovering over us the shot passed over our heads Our chief strength were our Archers who so incessantly played upon four Wings of Scots for the King divided his Army into five Battalions that were but lightly armed that they forced them to flie and leave their fellows who
yet stood stoutly to it But the main Battel where the King was consisting of choice men and better armed against our shot was not so easily defeated For the Scots although they being inclosed as it were in a toyl were forced to fight in a ring made most desperate resistance and that without doubt so much the rather because they not only heard their King encouraging them but saw him also manfully fighting in the foremost Ranks until having received wound upon wound he fell down dead They say there fell with him the Archbishop of St. Andrews his natural Son two other Bishops two Abbots twelve Earls seventeen Barons and of common Souldiers eight thousand The number of the Captives is thought to have been as many They lost all their Ordnance and almost all their Ensigns insomuch that the Victory was to be esteemed a very great one but that it was somewhat bloody to us in the loss of fifteen hundred This Field was fought the ninth of September near Flodon-Hill upon a rising Bank called Piperdi not far from Bramston I am not ignorant that the Scottish Writers constantly affirm the King was not slain in the field but having saved himself by flight was afterwards killed by his own people and that the Body which was brought into England was not the King 's but of one Alexander Elfinston a young Gentleman resembling the King both in visage and stature whom the King that he might delude those that pursued him and might as with his own presence animate them that fought elsewhere had caused with all tokens of Royalty to be armed and apparrelled like himself But to let pass the great number of Nobility whose carcases found about him sufficiently testifie that they guarded their true King and consequently that the counterfeit fought else-where It is manifest that his Body was known by many of the Captives who certainly affirmed that it could be no other than the King 's although by the multitude of wounds it were much defaced For his Neck was opened to the midst with a wide wound his left Hand almost cut off in two places did scarce hang to his Arm and the Archers had shot him in many parts of his body Thus was James the Fourth King of Scots taken away in the flower of his youth who truly in regard of his Princely Virtues deserved a longer life For he had a quick wit and a majestical countenance he was of a great spirit courteous mild liberal and so merciful that it was observed he was often forced against his will to punish offendors These virtues endeared him to his People in his life time and made them so much lament the loss of him being dead that as all Historians report they seemed to have lost only him in the whole succession of their Kings which sufficiently argues the improbability of the Subjects pretended Parricide But he had not fallen into this misery if he would have hearkned to the advice of those who perswaded him to have returned home before the Fight contented with what he had already performed in the Expedition that he should not upon so weak forces hazard the estate of his Kingdom he had won glory-enough and abundantly fulfilled his Friends request But the French Agent and some of the King's Mignons corrupted by the French urging to the contrary this haughty Prince even otherwise very desirous to give proof of his valour was easily perswaded to await our great Forces already marching His Body if at least that were his and not Elfinston's being enclosed in Lead and brought into England was by our King's I will not say cruel but certainly inhumane command cast in some by-corner or other without due Funeral Rites saying that It was a due punishment for one who had perjurously broken his League whereas if we examine the premisses we shall find he wanted not probale pretexts for what he undertook ANNO DOM. 1514. REG. 6. THE next year having begun his course Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey he who had been victorious over the Scots was created Duke of Norfolk the title and dignity of his Ancestors John his Father deriving his pedigree from Thomas de Brotherton Son to King Edward the First the Segraves and the Mowbrays who had been all Dukes of Norfolk enjoyed this Honour by right of Inheritance But because in Bosworth-Field where here he was flain he took part with the Usurper both he and his Posterity were deprived of that Honour This Thomas dying in the year 1524 his Son of the same name succeeded him who deceased in the year 1554. His Son Henry a young Lord of great hopes his Father then living was beheaded towards the end of this King's Reign He left Issue Thomas the last Duke of Norfolk who also lost his Head the year 1572 and Henry at nurse when his Father dyed a very learned and wise man whom King James no good man repining thereat created Earl of Northampton Thomas Duke of Norfolk had three Sons that survived him Philip Thomas and William Philip Earl of Surrey and by his Mother of Arundel condemned the year 1589 and after dying in prison left Issue Thomas then a little one who by King James his favour succeeded his Father in his Honours His Uncle Thomas out of the same fountain of Royal Goodness was created Earl of Suffolk with addition of the dignity of Lord Chamberlain Beside these this Family hath Charles Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral of England Nephew by the Lord William his Father to Thomas Duke of Norfolk that famous Triumpher over the Scots This is he who in emulation of his Grandfather's glory in the year 1588 under the fortune of Queen Elizabeth most happily overthrew that vainly called Invincible Armada of Spain Thomas also Viscount Bindon is derived from Thomas Duke of Norfolk by his Son the Lord Thomas So this noble House lately afflicted now gloriously flourishing hath four Earls and a Viscount all brave and famous men and of whom there will be occasion of much to be spoken hereafter I therefore thought it good in brief to set down their Genealogy lest I should trouble the Reader with too often repetition of their Race upon each mention of the Name At the time of this Duke's creation others were also honored with new Titles Charles Brandon made Duke of Suffolk and Charles Somerset Earl of Worcester and Edward Stanley Lord Mountegle Sir William Brandon Standard-bearer to Henry the Seventh in Bosworth-Field and there slain by the hand of Richard the Third was Father to this new Duke of Suffolk of whose Education he then a little one King Henry having obtained the Crown was very careful and made him rather a Companion than a Servant to the young Prince of whose houshold he was The Prince so greatly favoured him partly for his Father's deserts chiefly for his own that he being afterward King created him Viscount Lisle and intending at least many were so persuaded to give him to Wife the
devotion He therefore resolved to endeavour the Advancement of Wolsey to the Chair from whom he promised to himself a success answerable to his desires Henry therefore sends away speedy Posts to Gardiner with with ample instructions in the behalf of Wolsey willing him to work the Cardinals some with promises others with gifts some with threats others with perswasions and to omit no means that might be any way available But this was to build Castles in the Air. The messenger had scarce set forth when report that had made Clement dead had again revived him ANNO DOM. 1527. REG. 19. THe sixth of May Rome was taken and sacked by the Imperials under the conduct of the Duke of Bourbon who was himself slain in the assault marching in the head of his Troops The Pope Cardinals Ambassadors of Princes and other Nobles hardly escaping into the Castle of St. Angelo were there for some days besieged At length despairing of succours and victuals failing the Pope for fear he should fall into the hands of the Lansquenets for the most part seasoned with Luther's Doctrine and therefore passionate enemies to the See of Rome agreeth with the Prince of Auranges after the death of the Duke of Bourbon chosen General by the Army yielding himself and the Cardinals to him who kept them close Prisoners in the Castle Rome was now subject to all kind of cruelty and insolencies usual to a conquered City intended for destruction Beside Slaughter Spoil Rapes Ruine the Pope and Cardinals were the sport and mockery of the licentious multitude Henry pretended much grief at this news but was inwardly glad that such an occasion was offered whereby he might oblige Clement in all likelihood as he had just cause offended with the Emperour for this so insolent and harsh proceeding Whereupon he dispatcheth Wolsey into France who should intimate to the King his perpetual Ally what a scandal it was to all Christendom that the Head of it should be oppressed with Captivity a thing which did more especially concern Francis his affairs The Cardinal set forth from London about the beginning of July accompanied with nine hundred Horse among which were many Nobles the Archbishop of Dublin the Bishop of London the Earl of Derby the Lords Sands Montegle and Harendon besides many Knights and Gentlemen Wolsey found the French King at Amiens where it is agreed that at the common charge of both Princes War shall be maintained in Italy to set the Pope at liberty and to restore him to the possessions of the Church Henry contributing for his part thirty thousand Pounds sterling a month Upon the return of the Cardinal Francis sent into England Montmorency Lord Steward and Mareschal of France for the confirmation of this League and to invest the King with the Order of St. Michael He arrived in England about the middle of October accompanied with John Bellay Bishop of Bayeux afterward Cardinal the Lord of Brion and among others Martin Bellay the Writer of the French History who in this manner describes the passages of this Embassage Montmorency arriving at Dover was honourably received by many Bishops and Gentlemen sent by the King who brought him to London where he was met by twelve hundred Horse who conducted him to his lodging in the Bishop of London's Palace Two days after he went by water to Greenwich four miles beneath London where the King oft resideth There he was very sumptuously entertained by the King and the Cardinal of York Having had Audience the Cardinal having often accompanied him at London and Greenwich brought him to a house which he had built a little before ten miles above London seated upon the banks of Thames called Hampton Court. The Cardinal gave it afterward to the King and it is this day one of the King 's chiefest houses The Ambassador with all his Attendants was there feasted by him four or five days together The Chambers had hangings of wonderful value and every place did glitter with innumerable vessels of Gold and Silver There were two hundred and fourscore Beds the furniture to most of them being Silk and all for the entertainment of Strangers only Returning to London we were on St. Martin's day invited by the King to Greenwich to a Banquet the most sumptuous that ever I beheld whether you consider the Dishes or the Masques and Plays wherein the Lady Mary the King's Daughter acted a part To conclude the King and Montmorency having taken the Sacrament together the King for himself Montmorency in the behalf of Francis swore the observation of the League The King bestowed great gifts on every one and dismissed Montmorency who left the Bishop of Bayeux Leiger for his King to endeavour the continuance of the amity begun between these Princes Shortly after were sent into France Sir Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort and Sir Anthony Brown Knight who together with John Clerre Bishop of Bath and Wells Leiger in France should take the French King's Oath not to violate the late League in any part and to present him with the Order of the Garter We had now made France ours Nothing remained but to let the Emperour know the effects of the late Confederacy To this end Sir Francis Pointz and 〈◊〉 King at Arms are dispatched away to the Emperour to demand the molety of the booty gotten in the Battel of Pavy and the Duke of Orleans one of the French King's Sons left Hostage for his Father to be delivered to Henry who had born a share in the charges of that War and therefore expected to partake in the gains To command him to draw his Army out of Italy and not to disturb the peace of Christendom by molesting Christ's Vicar This if he refused to do neither was there expectation of any thing else they should forthwith defie him They execute their Commission and perceiving nothing to be obtained Clarencieux and a certain French Herald being admitted to the Emperour's presence do in the names of both King 's proclaim War against him Charles accepts it chearfully But the Ambassadors of France Venice and Florence craving leave to depart are committed to safe custody until it be known what is become of his Ambassadors with these Estates The report hereof flies into England and withal that Sir Francis Pointz and Clarencieux were committed with the rest Whereupon the Emperour's Ambassador is detained until the truth be known as it shortly was by the safe return of them both But Sir Francis Pointz about the beginning of the next Summer died suddenly in the Court being infected with the Sweating Sickness The same happening to divers other Courtiers and the infection spreading it self over London the Term was adjourned and the King fain to keep a running Court But these were the accidents of the ensuing year ANNO DOM. 1528. REG. 20. POpe Clement was of himself naturally slow but his own ends made him beyond the infirmity of his nature protract time in this cause concerning the
have been given for the King Henry having I know not how conceived some hope of the Legates good intents caused a seat to be placed for himself behind the hangings under the covert whereof he might unseen hear whatsoever was spoken or passed in Court The Cardinals being seated the King's Advocates earnestly requiring that sentence might be given on their side Campegius made this Oration well beseeming the constancy of a man not unworthy of the place he supplied I have heard and diligently examined whatsoever hath been alledged in the King's behalf And indeed the arguments are such that I might and ought pronounce for the King if two reasons did not controll and curb my desires of doing his Majesty right The Queen you see withdraws her self from the judgment of this Court having before us excepted against the partiality of the place where she saith nothing can be determined without the consent of the Plaintif Moreover his Holiness who is the fountain and life of our authority hath by a messenger given us to understand that he hath reserved this cause for his own hearing so that if we would never so fain proceed any farther peradventure we cannot I am sure we may not Wherefore which only remaineth I do here dissolve the Court Other than this as the case stands I cannot do and I beseech them whom this Cause concerns to take in good part what I have done Which if they will not although it may trouble me yet not so much as to regard the threats of any one I am a feeble old man and see death so near me that in a matter of so great consequence neither hope nor fear nor any other respect but that of the Supreme Judge before whom I find my self ready to appear shall sway me How the King was pleased at this you may easily conceive It is reported that the Duke of Suffolk knowing the King to be present and conscious of his infirmity in a great rage leaping out of his Chair bountifully bestowed a volley of curses upon the Legates saying It was never well with England since it had any thing to do with Cardinals To whom Wolsey returned a few words saying That it was not in his power to proceed without Authority from the Pope and that no man ought to accuse them for not doing that whereto their power did not extend But the King 's implacable anger admitted of no excuse Wolsey himself must become a Sacrifice to appease it As for Campegius he tasted nevertheless of the King's bounty and had leave to depart But at Calais his carriages were searched by the King's command The pretence was that Wolsey intending an escape had by Campegius conveyed his treasures for Rome But the Bull was the Treasure so much sought after The King could not believe it was burned and if it were found it was enough to countenance his second Marriage But found it was not no nor scarce so much money in all the Cardinal's carriages as had been given him by the King Wolsey his rising and his fall were alike sudden neither of them by degrees but as the Lion gets his prey by leaps Shortly after the departure of his Collegue upon the eighteenth of October the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk in his Majesties name commanded him to surrender the Great Seal But he pleaded That the King had by Patent made him Lord Chancellour during term of life and by consequence committed the custody of the Great Seal to him Nevertheless he would resign his place if his Majesty so commanded But he thought it not fit having received the Seal from the King to deliver it to any other but upon especial Command The Lords returning to Windsor where the Court then was the next day brought the King's Letters whose Mandate the Cardinal forthwith obeyed In this Dignity the six and twentieth of October Sir Thomas More succeeded whose admirably general Learning is so well known to the world that I shall not need to speak any thing of it Wolsey being removed from the Chancellorship is presently after accused of Treason and that which hath been seldom seen in the Parliament that so without hearing he might be condemned by Act. But he perceiving the drist of his Adversaries procured one of his attendants Thomas Cromwel he who afterward became so potent to be elected a Burgess of the Lower House The Cardinal being daily informed by him what things were laid to his charge did by Letter instruct him what to answer Cromwel although no Scholar was very wise and eloquent Which good parts he so faithfully employed in the defence of his Lord that the House acquitted him and himself became famous opening withal by these means a way to those Honours to which the current of a few years advanced him Even they who hated Wolsey honoured Cromwel whose wisdom industry but above all fidelity in defending his dejected Lord was admirable Now the Cardinal because he would not be found a Traytor is faln into a Praemunire Whereupon he is thrust as it were naked forth his own house his great wealth is seized on by the King's Officers and he fain to borrow furniture for his house and money for his necessary expences Judges are sent into the house whereto he was confined to take his answer to the objected crime which was that without leave from the King he had dared so many years to exercise his power Legatine To which calumny for can any man believe it to be other he made this answer I am now sixty years old and have spent my days in his Majesties service neither shunning pains nor endeavouring any thing more than next my Creatour to please him And is this that heinous offence for which I am at this age deprived of my Estate and forced as it were to beg my bread from door to door I expected some accusation of a higher strain as Treason or the like not for that I know my self conscious of any such matter but that his Majesties wisdom is such as to know it little beseems the constancy and magnanimity of a King for a slight fault to condemn and that without hearing an ancient servant for so many years next his Person greatest in his favour and to inflict a punishment on him more horrid than death What man is he who is so base minded that he had not rather a thousand times perish than see a thousand men so many my Family numbreth of whose faithful service he hath had long tryal for the most part to perish before his eyes But finding nothing else objected I conceive great hope that I shall as easily break this machination of combined envy as was that late one against me in the Parliament concerning Treason It is well known to his Majesty of whose justice I am confident that I would not presume to execute my power Legatine before he had been pleased to ratifie it by his Royal Assent given under his Seal which
Earl of Angus and Lady Margaret the King's Sister on the first day of November to the unspeakable good of this Island deceased in the Tower For this Margaret being after married to Matthew Earl of Lenox had by him Henry the Father of King James of sacred memory the most happy Unitor of divided Britain ANNO DOM. 1538. REG. 30. IT is at length after many Ages resolved That through the superstitious abuse of Images God was robbed of his due honour The King much prone to Reformation especially if any thing might be gotten by it thought it fit to remove this stumbling-block and the rather for that he conceived his Treasury would be thereby supplied There were some Images of more especial fame and Shrines of reputed Saints whereunto Pilgrimages were made from the farthest parts of the Kingdom nay even from forein Countries also the Oblations whereto were so many and so rich that they not only sufficed for the maintenance of Priests and Monks but also to the heaping up of incredible wealth The Shrine of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury was covered with plates of Gold and laden with Gifts of inestimable value The blind zeal of those and former times had decked it with Gems Chains of Gold of great weight and Pearls of that large size which in our Language find no proper term This Tomb was razed and his Bones found entire instead of whose Head the Monks usually obtruded the Scull of some other peradventure better deserving than did their supposed Martyr The spoil of this Monument wherein nothing was meaner than Gold filled two Chests so full that each of them required eight strong men for the portage Among the rest was a Stone of especial lustre called the Royal of France offered by Lewis the Seventh King of France in the year 1179 together with a great massy Cup of Gold at what time he also bestowed an annuity on the Monks of that Church of an hundred Tons of Wine This Stone was afterward highly prized by the King who did continually wear it on his thumb Erasmus speaks much of the magnificence of this Monument as also of the Image of our Lady of Walsingham both which he had seen and admired This Image was also stripped of whatsoever worthy thing it had the like being also done in other the like places and the Statues and Bones of the dead digged up and burned that they might be no further cause of Superstition Among the rest of these condemned Images there was a Crucifix in South-Wales called of the Inhabitants Darvel Gatheren concerning which there was a kind of Prophecy That it should one day fire a whole Forest. It chanced that at this time one Doctor Forest a Frier Observant who had formerly taken the Oath of Supremacy was upon his relapse apprehended and condemned of Treason and Heresie For this Frier a new Gallows was erected whereon he was hanged by the arm-pits and underneath him a fire made of this Image wherewith he was burned and so by his death made good the Prophecy Great was the Treasure which the King raised of the spoils of Churches and Religious Houses But whether the guilt of Sacriledge adhering like a consuming Canker made this ill gotten Treasure unprofitable or that he found he had need of greater supplies to withstand the dangers that threatned him from abroad not content with what he had already corraded he casts his eyes on the Wealth of the Abbeys that had escaped the violence of the former Tempest and not expecting as he deemed it a needless Act of Parliament seiseth on the rest of the Abbeys and Religious Houses of the Realm At first he begins with that at Canterbury dedicated to Augustine the English Apostle who was there interred This being the first-fruits of Christianity among this Nation I mean the Saxons for the Britans had been watred with streams derived even from the Fountains Apostolick far more pure than were those later overflows of Augustine he invades expels the Monks and divides their means between his Exchequer and Courtiers Battel-Abbey built by William the Conquerour in the same place where by the overthrow of Harold the last Saxon King he purchased this Kingdom to himself and his posterity did also run the same fortune So that it is not so much to be wondered at if those at Merton in Surrey Stratford in Essex Lewis in Sussex the Charterhouse Black-Friers Gray-Friers and White-Friers in London felt the fury of the same Whirlwind At the same time among many other Reformations in this Church that wholesom Injunction was one whereby the Bible translated and printed in English was commanded to be kept in every Parish Church and to be conveniently placed where any that were so desirous might read therein They who were more eagerly addicted to the superstition of their Ancestors brooked not these proceedings among whom were chief Henry Courtney Marquess of Exceter Henry Lord Mountague Brother to Cardinal Pool and Sir Edward Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergavenny who on the fifth day of November upon the aceusation of Sir Geoffry Poole Brother to the Lord Mountague were committed to the Tower for having maintained intelligence with the 〈◊〉 and conspired the King's destruction for which they were on the third of the ensuing January the Lord Audley sitting high Steward for the time arraigned and condemned and on the ninth of the same month beheaded Two Priests named Crofts and Colins with one Holland a Mariner as partakers in the same guilt were hanged and quartered at Tyburn This Courtney was by the Father's side of a very noble descent deriving himself from the Blood Royal of France by Hugh Courtney created Earl of Devonshire by Edward the Third But by his Mother he far more nearly participated of the Blood Royal of England being Son to Catharine Daughter to Edward the Fourth who was Sister to Queen Elizabeth the Mother of King Henry The King long favoured him as his Cousin-german but at length in regard of his near Alliance to the Crown became jealous of his Greatness whereof he had lately given more than sufficient testimony in suddenly arming some thousands to oppose against the Yorkshire Rebels The consideration whereof made Henry gladly entertain any occasion to cut off this Noble Gentleman About the same time John Lambert a religious and learned man was also condemned the King himself sitting Judge This Lambert being accused of Heresie appealed from his Ordinary to the King who fearing lest he should be accounted a Lutheran resolved upon this occasion to manifest to the World how he stood affected in Religion To this end summoning as many of the Bishops and other Peers of the Realm as could conveniently be present he caused Scaffolds to be built in Westminster Hall from whence the people might be spectators and witnesses of the Acts of that day On the right hand of the King were seated the Bishops and behind them
over-run and spoil the Countrey murther those that favour not their proceedings and at length by the conflux of the baser sort and malecontents so increase their numbers that it was not to make head against them with small Forces And although this plague reigned more in Norforlkshire than any where else yet had it so spred its contagion over the most part of the Kingdom that it was scarce any where sincere and free from infection For the Counties of Kent Oxford Surrey Buckingham Essex Cambridge York Lincoln but especially Devon and Somerset were imbroiled in these tumults In Norfolk only had twenty thousand assembled who now confident of their strength did no more talk of Inclosures but stretched their complaints to a higher strain as that The free-born Commonalty was oppressed by a small number of Gentry who glut themselves with pleasure whiles the poor Commons wasted with daily labour do like pack-horses live in extreme slavery But howsoewer the calamities incident to this present life may with a constant patience be endured the Saul is to be redeemed even with a thousand deaths Holy Rites established by antiquity are abolished new ones are authorized and a new form of Religion obtruded To other evils death gives an end but if they suffer their Souls to be contaminated and polluted by this kind of impiety what thing is there that can equal them in miseries to whom the end of these present ones is but the beginning of some more horrid namely of the pains infernal which no death can ever terminate Why then should they not go to the Court and appoint the King yet in his minority new Counsellors removing those who now ruling as they list confound things sacred and prophane regarding nothing else but the enriching of themselves with the publick Treasure that they may riot it amid the publick calamities This was the common complaint and resolution especially of the Devonshire Rebels who having among them made choice of their Chieftains did endeavour to unite themselves with the rest of their fellow Rebels But to keep them from joyning Forces are dispatched some into Norfolk some into Devonshire For Norfolk are designed only fifteen hundred under the conduct of the Marquis of Northampton who for a time bravely defended that spacious but weak City Norwich against the insolent Clowns But his small Troops being much diminished by the loss of the Lord Sheffeild and some others he was at last fain to quit the City to the Enemy who after spoil barbarously set it on fire and consumed a great part of the edifices This ill success drave the Lords of the Council to a more serious apprehension of the danger who thereupon sent the Earl of Warwick with more competent Forces who as he was an excellent Commander not only forced the Rebels to relinquish the City but also pressed them so hard in their retreat that he compelled them to fight They seeing a necessity of battel imposed placed all their Captives for the most part Gentlemen manacled and chained together in front that they alone might bear the fury of the onset and dull both the swords and courages of the Royalists But their loyalty was not so ill recompenced as to suffer for it scarce any of them falling by the sword The Rebels were nevertheless overthrown and all either taken or slain except a very few who rallying themselves seemed desperately resolved to renew the fight But the proposal of a Pardon made them cast away their Arms and peaceably to depart The number of the chief authors of this Commotion who were hanged was great But Robert Ket a Tanner who in those times and by that trade had gathered a fortune of a brace of thousands was above all as in Fault so in Execution remarkable He had been the Chiestain in this Rebellion and was not in reason to be obscured among the common sort Wherefore it being thought fit that he should surmount them in the glory of a more notorious punishment he was fairly hanged in Chains on the very top of Norwich Castle While the Eastern parts of the Kingdom were thus possessed the Western parts were not less tormented with the same Furies Devonshire and Cornwall with some additions out of Somersetshire had on the same pretences armed fifteen thousand men who after they had licentiously ransacked the Countrey at length sate down before the famous City of Exceter Forty days they besieged it and were repulsed by the Inhabitants though utterly destitute of warlike provision On the sixth of August John Lord Russel after Earl of Bedford entring the City with forces and munition disassieged it pursued the Rebels slew some took others to the number of four thousand whereof many were after executed but especially Humfrey Arundell Captain of St. Michael's-Mount in Cornwall a man of antient descent and sufficiently ample revenues so that I cannot sufficiently wonder what madness drave him to associate himself with this desperate and unruly rabble With him were hanged Robert Bochin Jo. Tomson Roger Barret Jo. Ulcocke Will. Asa James Norton Jo. Baron and Richard Benet Priests and besides them John and James Rosogan Jo. Payne Tho. Underhill and Jo. Solman all prime incendiaries and chief authors of this tumult The City of Exceter in memory of this their delivery hath ever since with an anniversary solemnity kept the sixth of August holy As for the other Counties infested with the reliques of this Rebellion the evil being tempestively supprest before it spred it self and the ringleaders punished they were quickly reduced to their former temper Neither were our affairs more peaceable abroad than at home For Henry King of France taking advantage of our domestick sedition not regarding the League concluded between us and his Father invaded Boloignois where his success was such that he was animated to greater attempts He sets forth a Fleet for the taking in of the Isles of Jersey and Guarnsey the sole portions remaining to the English of the Duchy of Normandy At these Isles the French are with great loss driven aboard their Ships At the landing they lost a thousand men and we very few About Bouloigne Mont-Lambert Sellaque and Ambleteul were lost Sellaque was defended by two Ensigns But having been battered by the Enemy while we unwarily parley with Montmorency was on the five and twentieth of August forced by them At Ambleteul were six Ensigns of Foot who for some days made good the place But finding themselves unable long to hold out against so great forces upon no other terms than grant of lives yielded the Fort to the French The loss of these places so daunted the Garrison at Blanconet that having been scarce saluted by the Enemies Cannon upon condition of life and goods they quitted the place Neither was this the last important effect of our conceived terrour for the English at Mont-Lambert not so much as attending the coming of the Enemy fired their lodgings made their provision unuseful and
as unlawful is of such force that the Children begotten in such Wedlock are to be accounted lawful Yet why they should seek to exclude the Lady Elizabeth I cannot but wonder neither can I think that any probable reason therefore could be yielded by them who deemed Queen Mary Illegitimate To let pass also in the mean time Mary Queen of Scots to whom without doubt the Issue of Henry the Eighth being extinct the Crown properly belonged Whatsoever the Reasons urged by these Preachers were they were so far from making any impression in the minds of the People that they every where flocked abundantly to Queen Mary and this not out of a vulgar levity many of the Nobility and other prime men having followed her Party even from the beginning such were the Earls of Bath and Sussex the Heirs of the Lords Wharton and Mordant Sir William Drury Sir John Shelton Sir Henry Bedingfeild Sir Henry Jernegam Sulierd Freston and others But above all Sir Edward Hastings Brother to the Earl of Huntingdon was most famous who having Commission from the Duke of Northumberland to raise four thousand Foot after he had levied them revolted to Queen Mary For which act she afterward created him Baron of Lowborough honouring also Sir John Williams with another Barony as a reward of his faithful Service And Serjeant Morgan not coming short of these in his devoir became afterward one of the chief Judges of the Realm But an unexpected Accident did most advantage Queen Maries Affairs Six Ships had Northumberland set forth on that part of the Kingdom where it is confined with the German Ocean that he might intercept the Queen if she sought to make an escape and to have them ready for all occasions These Ships were then by Tempest driven in at Yarmouth when in the Town there was a Press of Souldiers for the Queen The Mariners and Souldiers induced partly by threats partly by intreaty yield the Ships to Sir Henry Jernegam for Queen Maries use and associate themselves with the new raised Companies This was to her a matter of great consequence and that such she deemed it her joy well testified And now encouraged with these accessions of Men Ordnance and Munition she feared not Northumberland and resolved not so much her own defence as the speedy suppression of her Competitrix The Lords who had hitherto adhered to Lady Jane were somewhat terrified with this adverse accident And the Queens Friends living at Court who had reserved themselves for opportunity and were as yet concealed were now so emboldened as to reveal themselves to each other desiring nothing more than that being set at liberty for yet the Tower was the Court they might but gain entrance into the City that they might more freely discover themselves But they must either make the way or be content to pray only for her whom they could not otherwise advantage It happened that Northumberland had written for more Aids At his setting forth he was besides his four Sons accompanied with the Marquis of Northampton the Earl of Huntingdon the Lord Gray and many other persons of note and had when he came to Cambridge an Army consisting of eight thousand Foot and two thousand Horse Removing thence toward St. Edmondsbury he found that many of his Souldiers had forsaken their Colours and was wonderfully jealous lest of the remainder many would do the like Wherefore returning to Cambridge he plied the Lords of the Council with continual demands of supplies to fill his Companies grown thin by the departure of so many fugitives The Lords that favoured Maries Cause laying hold on this occasion obsequiously tendring their Services for the furtherance of the Duke's designs decree speedy Aids for him but pretend that it were dangerous to employ any other in these Levies than such of whose Loyalty they might rest assured lest the like Treachery might be committed as had been already by Sir Edward Hastings and proffer themselves for the execution of this Affair So by the Duke of Suffolk his permission they all let loose as it were out of Prison disperse themselves over the City The chiefest of them that were resolved for the Queen were the Marquis of Winchester Lord Treasurer the Earl of Pembroke the Earl of Arundell whom after a years Imprisonment with the Lord Paget the Duke of Northumberland had lately set at liberty and Sir Thomas Cheyney Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports By the industry of these as many of the Lords of the Council as were within call excepting the Duke of Suffolk and as many other of the Nobility as were known to be at least not Enemies to Queen Maries Cause had a meeting at Baynards-Castle under pretence of conference with the French Ambassador Lavall about I know not what important business But indeed to consult of a mean how to reduce Lady Jane to her first original of a Private fortune There Henry Earl of Arundell bitterly inveighing against the Duke of Northumberland after he had ripped up the Acts of former times and burthened him with all that had been done unjustly cruelly or amiss in the Reign of King Edward he at last comes to that treacherous act of the Disherison of the Children of Henry the Eighth professing that He wondred how he had so enthralled such Personages intimating those Nobles present as to make them Instruments of his Wickedness For by their consent and suffrages it came to pass that the Duke of Suffolk's Daughter the same Northumberland's Daughter-in-Law did now personate a Queen the gross and power of Sovereignty remaining indeed with Northumberland that he might freely wreak his Tyranny on their Lives and Fortunes Religion is indeed the thing pretended But suppose we have no regard to these Apostolical Rules Evil must not be done that good may come thereof and We must obey even evil Princes not for fear but for conscience sake yet how doth it appear that Mary intends any alteration in Religion Certainly having been lately Petitioned unto in this point by the Suffolk men she gave them and that was true a very hopeful answer And what a mad blindness it is for the avoidance of an uncertain Danger to precipitate our selves into most certain Destruction I would we had not erred in this kind But Errours past cannot be recalled some may peradventure be amended wherein speedy execution of times happily supplieth former defects Recollect your selves then and so make use of your Authority that Mary the undoubtedly lawful Heir may be publickly Proclaimed After he had spoken to this purpose the Earl of Pembroke readily and generously professed that he subscribed to the Earl of Arundell's motion and grasping his Sword signified his Resolution to maintain the Right of Mary against all Opposers The rest take after them and decree the same So commanding the repair of the Lord Mayor and the rest of the Aldermen they in Cheapside proclaim Lady Mary Queen with addition also of the Title of Supreme Head of
him Marquis of Exceter As for Gardiner she not only reseated him in the Bishoprick of Winchester but also on the three and twentieth of August made him Lord Chancellour of England notwithstanding that he had not only Subscribed to the Divorce from Catharine the Queens Mother but had Published Books wherein he had defended King Henry's proceedings On the fifth of August Boner and Tonstall who had been formerly deprived of their Bishopricks the one of London the other of Duresm and shortly after Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester were enlarged and restored to their Bishopricks the present Incumbents being without due process of Law ejected On the tenth of August were celebrated the Exequies of King Edward Day Bishop of Chichester Preaching executing in English and administring the Sacrament according to the manner and form received in the Reign of Edward For as yet nothing had been determined concerning any change in point of Religion So that when Bourn a Canon of Pauls afterward Bishop of Bath and Wells Preaching at the Cross did inveigh against the Reformation in King Edward's time and did in upbraiding manner argue the Injustice of those times which condemned Bonor to perpetual Imprisonment for matter delivered by him in that place that time four year who was now by a more just Clemency restored to his Liberty and Dignity The People 〈◊〉 to the Protestant Religion could hardly abstain from stoning him and one of them aiming a Poinyard at him missed him very narrowly The affections of the Assembly may by this be conceived that during the Reign of Queen Mary the Author of this bold attempt notwithstanding the diligence of earnest Inquisitors could never be discovered The uproar increasing and divers pressing toward the Pulpit Bourn protected by two Protestant Preachers Bradford and Rogers who were greatly Reverenced by the People and afterward Burned for their Religion was with great difficulty conveyed to the School at Pauls And now at length on the eighteenth of August the Duke of Norfolk sitting as High Steward of England were the Duke of Northumberland his Son the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton Arraigned at Westminster where the Duke of Northumberland pleading that he had done nothing but by authority of the Council his Plea being not admitted for sufficient he was condemned of High Treason The Sentence being pronounced he craved the favour of such a Death as was usually executed on Noblemen and not the other He beseeched also that a favourable regard might be had of his Children in respect of their age Thirdly that he might be permitted to confer with some learned Divine for the setling of his Conscience And lastly that her Majesty would be pleased to send unto him four of her Council for the discovery of some things which might concern the Estate The Marquis of Northampton pleaded to his Indictment that after the beginning of these Tumults he had forborn the Execution of any Publick Office and that all that while inteht to Hunting and other sports he did not partake in the Conspiracy But it being manifest that he was party with the Duke of Northumberland Sentence passed on him likewise The Earl of Warwick finding that the Judges in so great a Cause admitted not excuse of Age with great resolution heard his Condemnation pronounced craving only this favour that whereas the Goods of those who were condemned for Treason are totally Confifcated yet her Majesty would be pleased that out of them his Debts might be discharged After this they were all again returned to the Tower The next day Sir Andrew Dadley Sir John Gates who was thought in Northumberland's favour to have projected the Adoption of Lady Jane Sir Henry Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer were likewise condemned On the two and twentieth of the same month the Duke with the rest having two days before received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper were conducted to the place of Execution Where Northumberland saith that excellent Historiographer thuanas by the perswasion of Nicholas Heath afterward Bishop of York making his own Funeral Oration to the People acknowledged himself guilty and craving pardon for his unseasonable Ambition admonished the Assembly That they should embrace the Religion of their Forefathers rejecting that of later date which had occasioned all the Miseries of the ' fore-passed thirty years And for prevention for the future if they desired to present their Souls unspotted to God and were truly affected to their Countrey they should expel those Trumpets of Sedition the Preachers of the Reformed Religion As for himself whatsoever he might pretend his Conscience was fraught with the Religion of his Fathers and for testimony hereof he appealed to his great Friend the Bishop of Winchester but being blinded with Ambition he had been contented to make wrack of his Conscience by temporizing for which he professed himself sincerely repentant and acknowledged the desert of his death Having spoken thus much he craved the charitable Devotions of the Assembly and commending his Soul to God prepared his Body for the stroke of Ax. This Recantation did variously affect the minds of the multitude who wondred that he should at last Apostatize from that Religion which he had for sixteen years professed and in favour whereof chiefly he perswaded King Edward to endeavour the exclusion of his Sisters from their lawful Succession Some write that being desirous of life he did it craftily out of hope of impunity but that hope being frustrated to have repented it afterwards He was suspected neither were the presumptions small to have administred a Poisonous potion to King Edward but in his Indictment there was no mention of it and that the rather for that the Judges had authority only to inflict Punishment on him for his Conspiracy against the Queen At the same time and place were also Executed Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer Many Bishops also who were thought to have been too too opinionate in point of Religion were sent for to London and there Imprisoned viz. Hooper of Glocester Farrar of St. Davies who were both crowned with Martyrdom and Coverdale of Exceter who at the request of Christiern the Third King of Denmark was Pardoned But the Clergy of what rank soever who would not forsake their Wives or were invested in Livings whereof any one had been for defence of Popery deprived or that would not by Oath promise the defence of the Romish Religion were generally forced to relinquish their Benefices Peter Martyr was then Professor at Oxford who presently upon the Death of King Edward was confined to his House But after some time his Friends so far prevailed that he might come to London where he betook himself to his Patron the Archbishop of Canterbury But he could not prove a Sanctuary to him The Archbishop himself began now to totter The Queen beside that she was wholly swayed by Gardiner who extremely hated him had resolved to wreak her self
the Estate as should answer the Trust reposed in such men whose Loyalty should render them more careful of the Publick than their Private Profit But above all they must endeavour that some means must be used to impeach this determined Match by which he plainly foresaw 〈◊〉 free Realm would be oppressed with the 〈◊〉 of a most 〈◊〉 Servitude 〈◊〉 a floud-gate would be opened to let in a perpetual 〈◊〉 of Superstition That the effects of their Arms would prove very profitable to the Queen 〈◊〉 whose happiness he should ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the general good of the Kingdom But howsoever he fed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with specious words the Duke of 〈◊〉 at that time running the same course in Warwickshire it was 〈◊〉 that their drift was to Depose Mary and once more to 〈◊〉 Captive Jane 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the 〈◊〉 twentieth of 〈◊〉 Fame had 〈◊〉 London with the news of this Kentish Rebellion For the repression whereof the Duke of Norfolk was the same day 〈◊〉 with some small Forces consisting for the most part of the Queens Guard which were a little increased by the accession of five hundred Londoners who were the next day sent down by Water to Gravesend where the Duke expected them With these he resolves to encounter Wiat whom his madness had not yet carried beyond Rochester which notwithstanding its weakness being no way fortified he intended to make good against the Duke and had encamped within the ruines of the Castle Rochester is a City seated upon the River Medway where falling into the Thames it is most violent 〈◊〉 and flowing like a Streight and is made passable by an arched stone Bridge of excellent artifice This Bridge had the Rebels seized and planted on it some brass double Cannons that they might debar the Duke whom they understood by their Scouts to be upon march of passage But he nothing daunted with their proceedings sent a Herald to proclaim Pardon to such as forsaking Wiat should return to their Obedience resolving withal to force the Bridge and gain entrance into the City The Herald executed his office but with so submiss a voice that he was heard by few for indeed a Pistol held at his Breast so terrified him that he was content for his own safety to yield to the Rebels so commanding and was returned with this answer that they knew not themselves to be so far Delinquent as that they should need any such Pardon Only Sir George Harper faining a Revolt made over toward the Duke of Norfolk but indeed with intent to perswade Alexander Bret Captain of those five hundred Londoners to partake in this Action of common Disloyalty Which he performed so effectually that Bret whose Company made the Vauntguard before he came so near the Bridge as to give an assault suddenly drawing his Sword turned about to his Souldiers and thus bespake them Valiant Countrey-men we now engage our selves in a Cause which before we farther proceed would require mature Deliberation We march but against whom Are they not our Friends our fellow-natives with whom we seek to make a deeper mixture of our Bloods Have they not taken Arms for the preservation of the ancient glory of the English name and to vindicate our common Liberties against the Insolencies of the cruel Spaniard You whose degenerate Spirits can brook the indignities of Servitude continue in God's name with your brave General who without doubt will deserve the service of such Worthies As for me who had rather undergo many the most torturing Deaths than betray my liberty to the Spaniard I here happy and prosperous may it prove enrol my self under Wyat's Colours and am confident that some of you out of Affection to your Countrey will follow my example He had scarce spoken thus much when they all crying out a Wyat a Wyat turned the Cannon against their fellows who followed in the Rere Which unexpected Revolt so terrified the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Arundell and Sir Henry Jernegam Captain of the Guard who followed the Duke in this Expedition that they instantly betook themselves to flight The remainder of that small Army prepared themselves according to the example of their Commanders when Wyat with some Horse intercepted their flight and seised on eight Brass Peeces with all the Duke's Munition Then used he some perswasions to pervert their Loyalty professing withal that If any one would be an Instrument of his own Misery by assisting the Queen he should have free licence to depart desiring all such that they would certifie all men but especially her Majesty that Wyat calling God and men to witness did protest that he took not Arms any way to prejudice Her but to maintain the Liberties of his Countrey inviolate against Forein Machinations The five hundred Londoners many of the Guard and the greatest part of the headless Army forthwith joyn with Wyat who now upon confidence of his Forces resolves to make speedily for London Whiles Wyat thus acts his part in Kent the Duke of Suffolk who with his Brothers Lord John and Lord Leonard Gray departed from London on the five and twentieth of January did every where incite the People to take Arms against the Spaniard But finding that this Alarm took not and knowing he had waded too far to hope for a second Pardon he determined to endeavour an Escape by flight But the Earl of Huntingdon sent by the Queen with three hundred Horse to take him made him alter his resolution The Duke's Company consisted not of above fifty with which small number in a Countrey that no way favoured his proceedings to oppose the Earl were desperate madness Therefore distributing his Money amongst them feigns a flight adviseth his Brothers and the rest to disperse themselves and having thus freed himself from the danger of obsequious Eyes committed himself to the trust of one Underwood whom he had formerly made his Ranger at Astley But Benefits oblige not Ignoble minds which either mercenary or timid treacherously fail in their reposed Trust. Such did this man prove who having promised for a while to shelter his Lord until he should bethink himself of some other expedient course either out of fear or hope of reward betrayed him to the Earl of Huntingdon by whom guarded with three hundred Horse he was brought to London and on the eleventh of February committed to the Tower In the mean time the Queen jealous of the Londoners especially since Bret's Revolt on the first of February attended by most of the Nobility came to Guildhall where the Commons of the City were assembled in their Liveries to whom she spake after this manner Although We doubt not of your Loyalty and so need not give an account of Our actions yet having intelligence that many seduced by this Arch-traytor's gay Pretexts do secretly favour his Designs We have to give satisfaction to all condescended to this days meeting with the Infant of Spain is that forsooth that must colour
all his Villanies But his Actions discover his deeper Practices For having now somewhat increased his members his madness hath so transported him beyond the distast of Our Match that he now resolves on the custody of Our Person and absolute power of removing retaining punishing of Our Council whom he list In this great affair of Our Marriage We have done nothing but by the advice of Our Peers We have lived the greatest part of Our age single Neither do We now so long for a Husband but that if the Estates of Our Realm judge it convenient We will continue Our Virgin estate For that I should seek to endanger England and to confound all things by an unfortunate Match the love of Our Native soil the long knowledge of Our Peaceable disposition Our endeavours for your Good will perswade you to the contrary Persist therefore in your Loyal Resolutions and assist Us in executing Our due Revenge on these Monsters of men who conspire to take away the Head which was ordained to guide them and to suffer with them Neither are Our demands other than We may in reason expect from you who so maturely so unanimously admitted of Our Government as deeming Us the Undoubted Successour to Our Royal Father and Brother Having thus confirmed the minds of the Citizens she arms five hundred men the greater part Strangers to the choisest whereof she commits the defence of London-Bridge and disposes of the rest throughout the City Two days after to London comes Wyat with an Army of three or four thousand full of hope that having present admittance into the City Success should crown his Actions and that without either peril or pains But things answered not his expectation For coming to the Bridge he found it cut down the Gates shut and made good against him by armed Troops who disdainfully bid the Traytor avaunt Nevertheless he continued two days in Southwark hoping that time and industry of secret Practisers might work some alteration But his hopes being here also frustrated he turns his March for Kingston there to gain passage over the Thames But the woodden Bridge there was also broken and the opposite Bank defended by two hundred men whom the sight of two Peeces of Ordnance ready to be planted against them so terrified that they left their station and gave Wyat liberty to find out means to waft his Army Having surmounted this difficulty he once more resolves for that Queen of Cities and reposing all the success of this Adventure in celerity without suffering his Souldiers to repose themselves makes with a round march for London where he hoped to arrive before day and to surprise the secure Queen But God is the Protector of Princes who more especially are his Images and Lieutenants so that the practices of Rebels and Traytors against their lawful Sovereigns seldom prove successful Wyat had not improbably been Master of his desires had not God by an unexpected accident retarded him or rather so blinded him that by unnecessary delays he overslipped his opportunity He was now within six miles of London when the Carriages of one of his Brass Peeces being broken the Peece became for the present unserviceable because immovable In remounting this Peece some hours were lost notwithstanding their perswasions who advised him not to neglect more real Advantages as indeed he did for by this means he came short of the time prefixed by those Citizens who were fautors of his Cause The consideration whereof made many despair of Success and relinquish him so that his Army was quickly contracted to a smaller gross Among the rest Sir George Harper partaker of all Wyat's Stratagems that he might wipe away the stains of Rebellion and his dissembled Revolt by a loyal Treachery posted away to the Queen and revealed the whole series of Wyat's Projects The Queen amazed at the apprehension of this imminent danger gives Commission to the Earl of Pembroke for the speedy raising of some Forces and makes him General of the Field Wyat hearing that the Earl of Pembroke was in Arms betook himself to a slower march lest he should be forced against these fresh Souldiers to oppose his panting weary ones So by Noon he approached the Suburbs and planting his Ordnance upon a Hill beyond St. James left there the greatest part of his small Army to guard them He himself with five Ensigns made towards Ludgate and Cutbert Vaughan with two other Ensigns toward Westminster leaving St. James on the left hand wherein I believe his chief end was that by terrifying that part of the City and consequently distracting the Queens Forces Wyat might gain passage with less difficulty At Charing-Cross Sir John Gage Lord Chamberlain with part of the Guard and some other Souldiers made head against Wyat. But at length either the Queen for fear of Vaughan so commanding or not able to withstand the shock with more than an orderly march he made toward the Court and filled it with terrour and amazement The Earl of Pembroke followed Wyat still cutting him off behind by which kind of fight Wyat not turning head lost many of his Soldiers The rest of the Rebels couragiously marching up Fleetstreet with joyful Acclamations cryed out Queen Mary Queen Mary God save Queen Mary who hath granted us our Petitions and Pardon At length they came to Ludgate and desired entrance but by their feigned Acclamations they gained nothing but reproachful language Whereupon they intend to return the same way but are circumvented by the Earl of Pembroke's Horse Then Clarencieux perswaded him to yield and not beyond all his former madness to surcharge himself with the Blood of so many valiant men Wyat's Souldiers seemed desperately bent to make their way but his Courage was quailed So he yielded to Sir Maurice Barkley who mounting him behind him carried him presently to the Court Their Captain taken the Souldiers make no resistance some few of them escape by flight but the greater part fill the Prisons of the City These were the accidents of the sixth of February Having thus supprest the Faction the punishment of the Conspirators is next in execution The first that was reflected on as for whose sake this Rebellion had been set on foot was Lady Jane who having been Condemned on the thirteenth of November had her Execution hitherto deserred not without hope of Pardon But to take away all farther cause of Sedition her Death is now absolutely determined Whereupon Fecknam Dean of Pauls afterward Abbot of Westminster was sent unto her to admonish her to prepare for Death and withal to perswade her to entertain the Romish Religion This sad message so little moved her that She professed her self bound in this to acknowledge God's infinite goodness As for discussing matters of Controversie in Religion her time was so short that she could not dispense with the least loss of it that little that was allotted her she knew she might better spend in her Devotions to Heaven Fecknam