of Manchester and the Lord Fairfax and with joynt Forces besieged York to raise the Siege Prince Rupert came with a great Army out of the South the three Generals left their Siege to fight the Prince under him also New Castle having drawn his Forces out of York served who on a great Plain called Marston Moor gave Battle to the three Generals The Victory at first enclined to the Royalists but by the valour of Cromwel who fought under Manchester their whole Army was utterly defeated Prince Rupert his Ordnance his Carriages and Baggage being all taken This was the greatest Battel of the whole Civil War and might have proved a great Remora to the Kings proceedings had he not soon after worsted Essex in Cornwall who having lost all his Artillery returned to London The Parliament soon after new modelled their Army Sir Thom as Fairfax was chosen General in the room of Essex and now the Idol of a Treaty was set up at Vxbridge in which to shew the clearness of his Majesties intentions I have included some of his most material proceedings conducible to an Agreement betwixt him and the Parliament His Majesties particular Prayer for a Blessing on the Treaty O most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a people sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do earnestly beseech thee to command a Blessing from Heaven on this Treaty brought about by thy Providence the onely visible remedy left for the establishment of a happy Peace soften the most obdurate hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens bloud for whom Christ himself hath shed his O Lord let not the guilt of our sins cause this Treaty to break off but let the truth of thy Spirit so clearly shine in our mindes that all private ends laid aside we may every one of us heartily and sincerely pursue the Publick good and that the people may be no longer so blindely miserable as not see at least in this their day the things that belong to their peace Grant this gracious God for his sake who is our peace it self even Jesus our Lord Amen His Majesties Message to the Houses of Parliament which drew on the following Treaty at Uxbridge December 13. 1644. His Majesty hath seriously considered your Propositions and findes it very dffiicult in respect they import so great an alteration in Government both in Church and State to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein those Propositions and all the necessary explanations and reasons for assenting dissenting or qualifying and all inconveniences and mischiefs which may ensue and cannot otherwise be so well foreseen may be discussed and weighed his Majesty therefore proposeth and desireth as the best expedient for peace that you will appoint such number of persons as you shall think fit to treat with the like number of persons to be appointed by his Majesty upon the said Propositions and such other things as shall be proposed by his Majesty for the preservation and defence of the Protestant Religion with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences as his Majesty hath often offered the Rights of the Crown the Liberty and Propriety of the Subjects and the Priviledges of Parliament And upon the whole matter to conclude a happy and blessed Peace Sent by the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton December 13. 1644 His Majesties Commission to certain Lords and Gentlemen to treat at Vxbridge with the Commissioners of the Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster c. Charles Rex Whereas after several Messages sent by us to the Lords and Commons of Parliament at Westminster expressing our desires of Peace certain Propositions were sent by them to us at Oxon in November last by the Earl of Denbigh and others and upon our Answers Messages and Propositions to them and their Returns to us it is now agreeed That there shall be a Treaty for a well-grounded Peace to begin at Uxbridge on Thursday the thirtieth day of this instant January as by the said Propositions Answers Messages and Returns in writing may more fully appear We do therefore hereby appoint assign and codnstitute James Duke of Richmond and Lennox William Marquess of Hertford Thomas Earl of Southampton Henry Earl of Kingston Francis Earl of Chichester Francis Lord Seymor Arthur Lord Capel Christopher Lord Hatton John Lord Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Knight one of cur principal Secretaries of State Sir Edward Hide Knight Chancellour and Vnder-Treasurer of our Exchequer Sir Richard Lane Chief Baron of our said Exchequer Sir Thomas Gardiner Sir Orlando Bridgeman Master John Asburnham and Master Jeffery Palmer together with Dr. Richard Steward upon the Propositions concerning Religion to be our Commissioners touching the Premises and do hereby give unto them or to any ten or more of them full power and authority to meet and on our part to treat with Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Basil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth Denzil Hollis William Pierpoint Esquires Sir Henry Vane the younger Knight Oliver St. John Bulstrade Whitlock John Crew and Edmond Prideaux Esquires for the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and John Earl of London Lord Chancellour of Scotland Archibald Marquess of Arguile John Lord Maytland John Lord Balmerino Sir Archibald Johnson Sir Charles Asking George Douglas Sir John Smith Sir Hough Kennedy and Master Robert Carly for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland together with Master Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion or with any ten or more of them upon and touching the matters contained in the said Propositions Answers and Messages or any other according to the manner and agreement therein specified or otherwise as they or any ten or more of them shall think fit and to take all the Premises into their serious considerations and to compose conclude and end all Differences arising thereupon or otherwise as they or any ten or more of them in their wisdoms shall think fit and upon the whole matter to conclude a safe and well-grounded Peace if they can and whatsoever they or any then or more of them shall do in the Premises we do by these presents ratifie and confirm the same Given at our Court at Oxon the 28. day of January one thousand six hundred forty and four in the 20. year of our Reign His Majesties Instructions to the Commissioners at Uxbridge Concerning the Militia and Ireland First concerning Religion In this the Government of the Church as is set forth Sect. 3. Numb 14. Next concerning the Militia After Conscience this is certainly the fittest Subject for a Kings quarrel for without it the Kingly Power is but a shadow and therefore upon no means to be quitted but maintained according to the known Laws of the Land yet to attain to this so much wished peace of all good men it is in a manner necessary
eminency of it but as many passages in it from his own lips give further illustrations of his Life The first Tryal of Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne was at the Guild Hall in London the 24. of October 1649. being Wednesday The Commissioners Names of the extraordinary Commission of Oyer and Terminer for the Tryal of Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburn were these Thomas Andrews Lord Mayor Richard Keble Lord Commissioner Philip Jermyn Judge of the upper Bench Thomas Gates Baron John Pulestone Justice of the Common Pleas. Francis Thorp Barron and Member Robert Nicolas Member Richard Aske Justices of the Upper Bench. Peter Warburton Justice of the Common Pleas. Alexander Rigby Baron but absent Sir Thomas Fowler Sir Henry Holcroft Sir William Row Sir Richard Saltonstall Sir Richard Sprignall Sir John Woolistone Sir William Roberts John Green John Clarke John Parker Serjeants at Law William Steel Recorder John Fowke Thomas Foote John Kendrick Thomas Cullum Simon Edmonds Samuel Avery John Dethick Robert Tichburn John Hayes Aldermen Henry Proby Common Sergeant Thomas Brigandine Nathaniel Snape Edward Rich Owen Roe Tobias Lisle Austin Wingfield Richard Downton Daniel Taylor William Wibend Silvanus Taylor The Court was called O yes made All persons that were adjourned to the Court required to make their appearance The Lieutenant of the Tower of London Collonel Francis West was called to bring forth his Prisoner according to the precept Whereupon Collonel West Lieutenant of the Tower brought up the Prisoner out of the Irish Chamber where he had been some time before the sitting of the Court and was guarded by the said Lieutenant and a special Guard of Souldiers besides And being brought to the Bar the Sheriffs of London were directed to take the Prisoner into their custody Silence commanded the Crier said John Lilburne hold up thy hand Lieutenant Collonel Lilburne directed himself to Master Keble one of the Keepers of the great Seal as the President of the Court and said to this purpose Sir will it please you to hear me and if so by your favour thus All the priviledge for my part that I shall crave this day at your hands is no more but that which is properly and singly the Liberty of every Free-born English-man viz. the benefit of the Laws and Liberties thereof which by my Birth-right and Inheritance is due unto me the which I have fought for as well as others have done with a single and upright heart and if I cannot have and enjoy this I shall leave this Testimony behinde me that I died for the Laws and Liberties of this Nation and upon this score I stand and if I perish I perish And if the Fact that I have done cannot be justified by the Law of England let me perish I mention none of this for the gaining of mercy or by way of merit no I scorn it for mercy I crave from none but from the hands of my God alone with whom I hope and am assured one day to rest whom I have set before my eyes and so walked as believing I am alwayes in his presence in whose power my confidence is fixed whom I take and own to be my stay my staff my strength and support and in whom I rest as the life of my life and whom I hope to meet with joy when this fading and uncertain life shall have an end to live with him in glory and blessedness for evermore And because I would not willingly trouble you with many words to cause you to spend your time impertinently therefore Sir in reference to the Court I shall crave but so much liberty from you as was given to Paul when he pleaded for his life before the Heathen Roman Judges which was free liberty of speech to speak for himself the which I now humbly crave as my right not onely by the Law of God and Man but also by the law and light of Nature And I shall do it with that respect reason and judgement that doth become a man that knows what it is to plead for his life I hope Gode hath given me ability to be master of my own passion and endowed me with that reason that will dictate unto me what is for my own good and benefit I have several times been arraigned for my life already I was once arraigned before the House of Peers for sticking close to the Liberties and Priviledges of this Nation and those that stood for them being one of those two or three me that first drew their swords in Westminster Hall against Collonel Lunsford and some scores of his associates At that time it was supposed they intended to cut the throats of the chiefest men then sitting in the House of Commons I say for this and other things of the like nature I was arraigned by the Kings special Command and Order the first of May 1641. I mention it to this end that when I came before the House of Peers where was about three or fourscore Lords then sitting at the beginning of the parliament who then were supposed the most arbitrary of any power in England yet I had from them free liberty of speech to speak for my life at their Bar without check or controll in the best manner that all those abilities God had given me would enable me and when I was at Oxford I was again arraigned as a Traytor before the Lord Chief Justice Heath for levying War at the Command of the then Parliament against the person of the King and when I came before him in the Guild Hall of Oxford he told me there being present with him as his fellow Judge Master Gardiner sometimes Recorder of the City of London now Sir Thomas Gardiner and others that sate by a special Commission of Oyer and Terminer from the King the which Commission I did not so well then understand as I hope I do now And my Lord Chief Justice Heath stood up and in the face of all the Court and in the face of all the Countrey present there told me Captain Lilburne you are brought here before us for High Treason for leavying War in Oxfordshire against your Sovereign Lord and King and though you be now in a Garrison and were taken in Arms in open hostility against the King yea Sir and I must now tell you in such hostility that we were but about seven hundred men at Brandford that withstood the Kings whole Army in the field about five hours together and fought it out to the very swords point and to the butt end of the Musket and thereby hindered the King from his then possessing the Parliaments Train of Artillery and by consequence the City of London in which very act I was taken a Prisoner without Articles or Capitulation and was by the King and his Party then lookt upon as one of the activest men against them in the whole company yet said Judge Heath we will not take advantage of that to try you by the rules of Arbitrary Marshal Law or any other
ibidem patria jura interpretantur frequentavit c. About the Latter end of King Richard the Seconds dayes he flourished in France and got himself into high esteem there by his diligent exercise in learning After his return home he frequented the Court at London and the Colledges of the Lawyers which there interpretted the Laws of the Land and among them he had a familiar Friend called John Gower a Yorkshire man born a Knight as Bale writeth of him This Gower in a Book of his entituled Confessio Amantis tearmeth Chaucer a worthy Poet and maketh him as it were the judge of his works He married a Knights Daughter of Henault called Paon de Ruel King of Arms by whom he had issue his Son Thomas to whom King Edward the Third in recompense of his Fathers services in France gave him in marriage the Daughter and Heire of Sir John Burgershe Knight This Thomas Chaucer had onely one Daughter named Alice married thrice first to Sir John Philip Knight then to Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the third time to William de la Pole Earl and after Duke of Suffolk who for love of his Wife and the convenient seat of her estate he removed into Oxfordshire and Barkshire where his Wives Lands lay This Alice had a Daughter by her second Husband Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury named after her Mother Alice married to Richard Nevill Son to Ralph Earl of Westmerland by whom she had Richard John and George Richard espoused Anne sister and sole heir to the Lord Beauchamp and after Duke of Warwick in whose right he was created Earl of Warwick But to return to our ancient Poet Geffery Chaucer he had alwayes an earnest desire to inrich and beautifie our English Tongue which in those dayes was very rude and barren and this he did following the example of Dante 's and Petrarch who had done the same for the Italian Tongue Alanus for the French and Johannes Mena for the Spanish neither was Chaucer inferiour to any of them in the performance hereof and England in this respect is much beholding to him as Leland well noteth Anglia Chaucerum veneratur nostra Poetam Cui veneres debet patria lingua suos Our England honoureth Chaucer Poet as principal To whom her Countrey tongue doth owe her beauties all He departed out of this world the 25. day of October 1400. after he had lived about 72. years Thus writeth Bale out of Leland Chaucerus ad canos devenit sensitque senectutem morbum esse dum causas suas Londini curaret c. Chaucer lived till he was an old man and found old age to be grievous and whilest he followed his causes at London he died and was buried at Westminster The old Verses which were written on his Grave at the first were these Galfridus Chaucer vates famae poesis Maternae haec sacra sum tumulatus humo But since Mr. Nicholas Brigham did at his own cost and charges erect a Monument for him with these Verses Qui fuit Anglorum vates ter maximus olim Gaufredus Chaucer conditur hoc tumulo Annum si quaeras Domini si tempora vitae Ecce notae subsunt quae tibi cuncta notant Anno Domini 1400. die mensis Octob. 25. It will not be amiss to these Epitaphs to adde the judgements and reports of some learned men of this worthy and famous Poet. And first of all Thomas Occleve who lived in his dayes writeth thus of him in his Book De regimine Principis But welaway is mine hart woe That the honour of English Tongue is dead Of which I wont was confaile have and réed O maister dere and fadre reverent My maister Chaucer floure of Eloquence Mirror of fructuous entendement O universal fadre of science Alas that thou thine excellent prudence In thy bed mortal mightest not bequeath What eyld death alas why would she thée fie O death thou didst not harm tingler in slaughter of him But all the Land it smerteth But natheless yet hast thou no power his name sle Hâ—â— hie vertue asterteth Vnslain fro thee which ay us lifely herteth With Books of his ornat enditing That is to all this land enlumining John Lidgaete likewise in his Prologue of Bocchas of the fall of Princes by him translated saith thus in his commendation My Master Chaucer with his fresh comedies Is dead alas chief Poet of Brittain That Whilom made full pitteous Tragedies The faule also of Princes he did complain As he that was of making sovereign Whom all this Land should of right prefer Sith of our language he was the Loadsterr Also in his Book which he writeth of the Birth of the Virgin Mary he hath these verses And eke my Maister Chaucer now is in Grave The noble Rethore Poet of Britaine That worthy was the laurel to have Of Poetry and the Palm attaine That made first to distill and raine The Gold dew drops of speech and eloquence Into our Tongue through his eloquence And as for men of latter time Mr. Ascham and Mr. Spenser have delivered most worthy testimonies of their approving of him Mr. Ascham in one place calleth him English Homer and makes no doubt to say that he valueth his Authority of as high estimation as ever he did either Sophocles or Euripides in Greek And in another place where he declareth his opinion of English versifying he useth these words Chaucer and Petrark those two worthy wits deserve just praise And last of all in his discourse of Germany he putteth him nothing behinde either Thucidides or Homer for his lively descriptions of site of places and nature of persons both in outward shape of body and inward disposition of minde adding this withall that not the proudest that hath written in any Tongue whatsoever for his time have outstript him Mr. Spenser in his first Eglogue of his Shepards Kallender calleth him Tityrus the god of Shepards comparing him to the worthiness of the Roman Tityrus Virgil in his Faerie Queene in his Discourse of Friendship as thinking himself most worthy to be Chaucers friend for his like natural disposition that Chaucer had he writes that none that lived with him nor none that came after him durst presume to revive Chaucers lost Labours in that unperfect tale of the Squire but onely himself which he had not done had he not felt as he saith the infusion of Chaucers own sweet spirit surviving within him And a little before he calls him the most renowned and Heroicall Poet and his writings the works of heavenly wit concluding his commendation in this manner Dan Chaucer well of English undefiled On fames eternal Bead-roll worthy to be filed I follow here the footing of thy feet That with thy meaning so I may the rather meet Mr. Cambden reaching one hand to Mr. Ascham and the other to Mr. Spenser and so drawing them together uttereth of him these words De Homero nostro Anglico illud verè asseram quod de
times If there be any persons living who though they are not named will still reflect so far on themselves as to be concerned such if they rightly understand themselves cannot be much displeased since they may imagine what will be said of them in plain truth hereafter this I am certain of I have not intermixed any passion in my relations to make my self a party in which some have shewed themselves better Advocates then Historians all that I shall pretend to in this work is no more then a bare narrative of matter of fact digested into order of time interposing of my own opinion in the interpretation of actions all which traverses as I have already expressed I have infused neither Vinegar nor Gall into my ink if I mention a charge or impeachment it relates to the defence that was made by the accused To be brief in this small Volume the Reader may see the prosperous and torne estates of Princes and other persons the declination of the Cleargy and the affairs of the Souldiery in all which transactions one life will smooth the way for another that he that considers the one without the other sees but with one eye indeed the chief materials this Volume is built up of are of the exploits and successes of my own Countreymen as well in their forreign expeditions as what was transacted at home In the composure of this Volume amongst the lives and draughts of the Worthies I must acknowledge through the perswasions of friends who prevailed with my pen. I have inserted some few inferiour Lives amongst the rest Master Lilburnes which though not agreeing with the title of my Book may as I have in his strange life expressed pass as a Wonder for some of the Royalists at the latter end of the Volume except I would have defaced my endeavours and spoiled the intention of my design I could not but particularize them as otherwise I must have made by themselves two little Volumes of the late King and the Protector to the improper alteration if not the spoiling the method of my designs as they are successively placed so their enemies if they love to read of their own sad triumphs of their former actions they will appear even to them as so many beauty spots in the face of this Epitome of the English History There are several other Lives which were never before writ these as I had no track in History to finde out the series of their transactions cost me many hours of conversation with their friends and such as best knew them from whom I received such light as that together with their own so well known splendours their more Heroick publick deportments which to me as also to themselves were their own History though it hath been my good fortune to represent them in their still surviving pictures which I question not but this present age as also posterity will be very well pleased with In the choice of these lives I have not so much tickled my own fancy as pursued our English History in no ordinary method but such a one as to my knowledge the like is not extant in our English tongue the general way of writing being of the Chronicles of the Kings which path in my opinion had been too vulgar and too much trode in the lives of particular persons being in them either obscured or too lightly toucht on whereas giving them their due lustre these Diamonds as relating to the Crown with their splendor illumniate the several Reigns as they fall in their succession of time and though every Prince is not inserted as so vulgarly known nevertheless his story in these Heroes is for the main continued I shall excuse my omission of these late Princes Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and King James as the people have from their continued reading their transactions imprinted in their mindes For those that are still behinde hand that are not versed in the English History I thought fit to give them this short advice for the election of their Authors Speed may be entertained though his Volume be large he hath fewer impertinencies then some other more volumnious Historians Sir Richard Baker is to be honoured for his handsome stile and method these two Authors the Student may make use of as intire in themselves though without dispute our English History hath been rendred best in parts the writers having bestowed more pains and have been more intent upon the Reigns they have undertook Thus the Readers best way will be to take the admirable Daniel the most succinct Authour and the most judicious and notable for his censures he writes from the beginning of our Story to Richard the Second Then he must make as good a shift as he can with Trussel who writes ad rem though not with so acute a pen he goes unto Henry the Seventh whose Reign above all others read the Lord Verulam Thence proceed to peruse Bishop Godwin whose Annals contain Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Mary the incomparable Cambden goes on with Queen Elizabeth The parcel Historians that have done excellently in particular Lives are Sir John Heyward Sir Robert Cotton the Lord Herbert Mr. Habington Dr. Heylin Mr. Fuller Mr. Le-Strange Squire Sanderson Mr. Rushworth and others But I fear I have already been too tedious I shall immediately conclude with this request that for the errours and failings of my pen as it is a common saying Humanum est errare so I submit my pen to the censures of the more learned entreating them in their better Judgements to correct my unwilling mistakes for the oversight of printing I shall onely crave pardon of course as it is a fate common to Books and Book-men not to be avoided whatsoever the faults are let them redound to my self I wish the profit to others but above all attribute the Glory to God William Winstanley The Names of the Authors cited in this Book A. ALluridus Rivallensis Mr. Ascham Mr. Charles Allen Alexander ab Alexandro Ausonius B Sir Richard Baker Bale Mr. Buckley Mr. Buck Sir John Beaumont St. Bede Du Bartus C Carton Cambden Chaucer Chronicum Chronicorum St. Chrysostom Comines Mr. Chrashaw Mr. Cleaveland Cattullus D Drayton Sir Simon D'ewes Sir Wil. Davenant E Eusebiue Eutropius Enguerrant Erasmus F Mr. Fuller Mr. Fox Froysart Fabian G Geoffery of Monmouth Gower Bishop Godwyn Giraldus Cambreusis Grafton H Habington Dr. Hackwel Hall Sir John Harrington Lord Herbert Herodian Dr. Heylin Hollingshead Hector Boetius Hoveden Horace Homer I Juvenal Joseph of Excester Isaacson K King James L Leiland Lucan Lidgate Lambert Mr. Le-strange M Mathew Paris Major Martin Sir Tho. Moor Marianus Scotus N Necham Ninius Mr. Alexander Nevil Sir R. Naunton St. Nazzianzen O T. Occleve Ovid P Paulus Orosius Platina Paradin Paulus Aemylius Plutarch Poggins Propertius Paulus Diaconus Polychronicon Polydor Virgil Paulus Jovius Pindarus Petrarch Q Mr. Quarles R John Rouce Tho. Randolph Rushanger S Sandys Shakespear
Sleidan Speed Stow Sozomenus Sabellicus Stapleton Suetonius Spenser Sir Philip Sidney Serres Selden T Theodoritus Tibullus Tacitus Trussel Nicholas Trivet Tertullian V Victor Verstigan Virgil W Will. of Newberry Will. of Malmsbury Walsingham Weever Waller X Xenophon Z Zosimus The Reader is desired to correct these Errata's with his Pen the most material being in Sir Walter Raleigh's Life his Letter to the Duke of Buckingham should have been placed after his Voyage to Guyana PAge 17. line 30. read falne p. 24. l. 25. for Danes read English l. 32. r. depart p. 44 l. 17. r. Denmark p. 80. l. 1. r. his l. 11. r. sky p. 92. l. 6. for himself r. him p. 101. l 6. r. progress p. 129. l. 18. after enterprize r. which they refused p. 186. l. 8. r. the. p. 207. l. 12. r. they p. 228. l 27. r. bait p. 251. in the title r. Sir Walter Raleigh p. 253. l. 17. r. Rams l. 29. r. unfortunately p. 255. l. 16. r. intercessor p. 279. l. 18. r. Pallas p. 329. l. 2. r. Strafford p. 333. l. 19. r. Strafford p. 405. l. 3. r. Louden p. 477. l. 29. r. fit p. 520. l. last r. Ship p. 562. l. 33. r. tail The Names of those whose Lives are written in this Book 1 COnstantine the Great Folio 1 2 King Arthur Folio 8 3 Dunstan Folio 16 4 Edmond Ironside Folio 22 5 Edward the Confessor Folio 29 6 William the Conqueror Folio 38 7 Thomas Becket Folio 49 8 Richard the First Folio 55 9 Edward the Third Folio 66 10 Edw. the Black Prince Folio 79 11 Sir John Hawkwood Folio 88 12 Geoffery Chaucer Folio 91 13 Henry the Fifth Folio 98 14 John D. of Bedford Folio 115 15 Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick Folio 125 16 Richard the Third Folio 140 17 Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Folio 145 18 Cardinal Wolsey Folio 151 19 Sir Thomas Moor Folio 155 20 Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex Folio 170 21 Sir Philip Sidney Folio 179 22 Robert E. of Leicester Folio 186 23 The Lord Burleigh Folio 195 24 Sir Francis Drake Folio 205 25 Sir Francis Walsingham Folio 215 26 Sir Nicholas Bacon Folio 219 27 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex Folio 221 28 Sir Robert Cecil Folio 238 29 Sir Tho. Overbury Folio 241 30 Sir Walter Rawleigh Folio 250 31 Mr. Wil. Cambden Folio 261 32 Mr. Tho. Sutton Folio 268 33 Sir Francis Bacon Folio 273 34 Lancelot Andrews Bishop of Winchester Folio 289 35 Doctor Donne Folio 298 36 George Villiers Duke of Buckingham Folio 308 37 Sir Henry Wotton Folio 319 38 Tho. Wentworth Earle of Strafford Folio 329 39 William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury Folio 343 40 Robert Devereux Earl of Essex General of the Parliaments Forces Folio 350 41 Sir Charles Lucas Folio 356 42 King Charles Folio 363 43 The Lord Capel Folio 433 44 James Marquesse of Montross Folio 446 45 Bishop Usher Folio 469 46 John Lilburne Folio 479 47 Oliver Cromwel Folio 525 Englands Worthies Select Lives of the most Eminent PERSONS of the Three Nations from Constantine the Great to the Death of the late Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell COnstantine for his many Victories sirnamed the Great was Son to Constantius Emperour of Rome his Mother was named Hellena being Daughter unto Caelus a Brittish Prince though some Jews and Gentiles out of hatred to her Religion have reported her to be an Inholder or Hoastess he was born in England as all Writers affirm two petty Greek Authors only dissenting who deserve to be arraigned of felony for robbing our Country of its honor Colchester was the place where he first beheld the light as the Ancient Poet Necham sung From Colchester there rose a Star The Rayes whereof gave glorious light Throughout the world in Climates far Great Constantine Romes Emperour bright At such time as he was Caesar under Constantius his Father he was left at Rome as Hostage with Galerius the Emperour but perceiving his death to be by him attempted he posted to Brittain in all haste to his father who was newly returned to the City of York from an expedition he had made against the Picts and Caledonians Constantius at the time of his sons arrival was sick of the Plague whereof he died immediately afterwards the sight of his son at the present so revived his spirits that raising himself upon his bed he set the Crown Imperial upon his head and in the presence of his Privy Councellours spake to this effect Now is my death to me more welcome and my departure hence more pleasant seeing I shall leave my unaccomplished actions to be performed by thee my Son in whose person I question not but that my memorial shall be retained as in a monument of eternal fame What I had intended but by death prevented see thou accomplish let thine Empire be governed uprightly by Justice protecting the innocents from the tyranny of oppressours wiping away all tears from the eyes of Christians for therein above all things have I esteemed my self happy to thee therefore I commend my Diadem and their defence taking my Faults along with me to my grave but leaving my Vertues to revive and live in thee With the conclusion of which words he concluded his life leaving his Subjects sorrowful for his departure but the grief they received by the death of the Father was mittigated in the hopes they conceived of his Son who so resembled his Father in all vertuous conditions that though the Emperour was changed yet his good government remained For as one writes Sol occubuit nox nulla secuta est The sun was gone but night was none Another writes thus of him Great Constantine preserv'd by Heavens decree Of mighty Rome the Emperour to be Constantine thus chosen Emperour in Brittain was confirmed Emperour by the Senate of Rome who like the Persians adored the rising Sun giving approbation to what they could not remedy his first expedition was against the Picts and Caledonians which War his Father had begun but death prevented him to finish it leaving the prosecution thereof to his son Constantine that the Fabrick of so many victories by him atchieved might have the foundation thereof laid in Brittain nor was his success contrary to his expectation subduing the inhabitants that were most remote witnesses saith one of the suns set or going down Whilest Constantine was thus busied in Brittain Maxentius by the tumultuous souldiers was proclaimed Emperour at Rome whose sister Fausta Constantine had married but his tyrannical usurpation grew so odious to the Senate that they sent to Constantine for his aid who willingly hearkening to what they so earnestly desired prepared his forces against the new elected Emperour Maximianus the Father of the Tyrant faining to abhor the outragiousness of his son but seeking indeed to uphold him in his tyranny repaired to his Son in law Constantine with an intent to murther him but revealing his intentions to his Daughter Fausta was by her detected and being taken was
we have inserted as followeth Emma tantum nomina Regina filiis Edwardo Alfrido materna impertit salutamina c. Emma in name onely Queen to Edward and Alfred her sons sendeth motherly greetings whilst we severally bewail the death of our Soveraign my Lord and your Father and your selves dear sons still more and more dispossessed from the Kingdom your lawful inheritance I greatly marvel what you determine to do sith you know that the delay of attempts gives the Usurper more leasure to lay his foundation and more safety to set thereon his intended buildings never ceasing to post from Town to Town and from City to City to make the Lords and Rulers of them his friends by threats prayers or rewards but notwithstanding his policy they privately signifie that they had rather have one of you their Natives should reign over them then this Danish usurper Wherefore my advice is that either of you with all speed repair unto me that we may advise together what is best to be done in this so great an enterprise fail not therefore but send me word by this messenger what you intend to do herein and so fare ye well Your affectionate Mother Emma The bait thus laid to catch these two Princes was greedily swallowed by Alfred the youngest who though the last born had not the least hopes to wear the English Diadem and making Baldwine Earl of Flanders his and some few Bullogners increasing his Fleet he took the Seas for England where for his welcome he was betrayed by Earl Goodwin under the notion of friendship and by the command of King Harold inhumanely murthered but Edward whether mistrusting the plot or rather liking a private life with safety then a publick with danger tarried behinde and so escaped those miseries that Alfred encountred But as it is commonly seen that a sinful life is rewarded with a sudden death so King Harolds sweet beginning had a sowre end dying miserably after he had raigned four years and some few moneths his speedy death cutting off the infamy of a longer life in whose room succeeded his brother in law Hardi-Canute the son of Queen Emma by Canutus her last husband who though little differing from the other in conditions yet is better reported of by Writers of that age because he lovingly entertained his half brother Edward and made Earl Goodwin purge himself for the death of Prince Alfred so that we may in part wonder at former writers that they should conclude Earl Goodwin to be guilty of that murther and yet report he cleared himself of the same to Hardi-Canute but his oath say some was the lighter urged and the easier believed by reason he had not long before presented to the king most bountiful gifts namely a ship whose sterne was of Gold with fourscore Soldiers therein placed all uniformly and richly suited on each of their arms were two bracelets of Gold with gilt Burgonets on their heads and on their bodies a triple gilt Habergion a Sword with gilt Hilts guirded to their wastes a Battel Ax on their left shoulders a Target with gilt Bosses borne in their left hands and a Dart in the right The King now wholly following his pleasures or rather to say more truly his vices delighting in nothing but swilling and Epicurisme he soon received the reward of his intemperance for being at Lambeth at the celebration of a Marriage revelling and carousing in the midst of his Cups he suddenly fell down dead with the Pot in his hand after he had reigned two years and was buried at Winchester His death was so welcome unto his Subjects that they annually celebrated the day of his death with open pastimes in the streets which custom continued even to these our times being called Hoctide or Huckstide signifying a time of scorning or contempt The Danish Line now clean extinguished for Hardi-Canute left no issue behinde him the glory of the Saxons which had long lay buried in their own ashes began again to revive and flourish for the English Lords weary of the insulting Tyranny of the Danes and willing one of their own Natives should rule with a general consent chose Prince Edward for their King who being at that present with Duke William in Normandy they sent Ambassadors unto him to signifie his Election and that he might be ascertained their intentions were real they delivered him Pledges for his more assurance Edward accepting as indeed who would deny so honourable an offer with some few Normans repaired into Englad where he was entertained of the people with such acclamations of joy as might well gain credence of their hearty affections towards him The first thing he did after his Coronation was his remitting the yearly Tribute of forty thousand pounds gathered by the name of Danegilt imposed by his Father and for forty years together paid out of all mens Lands except onely the Clergies who were exempted from the same Because the Kings reposed more confidence in the Prayers of the Holy Church then in the power of Armies It is reported the Kings clemency was moved to this compassion on this following occasion When the Collectors of this money had gotten a great quantity of the same together they brought it into his chamber and laid it all on one heap the King being called to see this great heap of Treasure was at the first sight thereof much afraid protesting he saw the Devil dancing upon the same with exceeding great joy whereupon he commanded it should be restored again to the former owners and released his Subjects of that Tribute for ever Many such like stories are of this King related and perhaps more then with safety of truth may be either believed or delivered which we shall the rather overpass because that in stories of this nature they are less to be blamed for omitting two verities then relating one falshood Divers Laws being then used in several parts of the Kingdom viz. the Mercians West Saxons Danes and Northumbrians their multiplicity causing much confusion he extracted from them all the chiefest and best and made of them one universal and common Law throughout the Land being in a manner the fountain of those which at this day we tearm the Common Laws though the forms of pleading and process therein were afterwards brought in by King William the Conquerour His Wife was named Editha the vertuous Daughter of an infamous Father Earl Godwin a Lady incomparable for Beauty and Vertue in whose Breast was a School of all Liberal Sciences saith William of Malmesbury Her honourable qualifications might have expiated to her Husband King Edward her Fathers former treachery to his Brother Vnto to this Edward as that ancient Writer hath it in these following words was given to Wife the Daughter of Earl Godwin a most beautiful Damosel named Editha of excellent learning and for behaviour a Virgin most chaste and for humility most holy no way savouring of her Father or Brethrens barbarousness but milde and modest
Branches of Trees which not onely kept them from being discovered but induced him to think all the Woods thereabout of the like nature so that he willingly consented to what they desired which was the continuance of their former Laws and Pledges being given on both parts for performance Kent yieldeth up her Earldome and Castle of Dover to King William Now what the Kentish-men attained by arms the Citizens of London obtained by art for having to their Bishop one William a Norman they so wrought with him and he with the King that he granted them their first Charter written in the Saxon Tongue and sealed with green wax the coppy whereof followeth William Cyng greit William Biscop Godfreges Portgerefan ealle tha Burhwaren the on Lunden beon c. William King greeteth William Bishop and Godfrey Portreeve and all the Burgesses that in London be French and English friendly And I do you to wit that I will that you enjoy all the Law which you did in the dayes of Edward King And I will that each Childe be his Fathers Inheritour after his Fathers dayes And I will not suffer that any man you any wrong offer God you keep The Lord Major and Aldermen to honour his memory upon the Solemn Dayes of their resort to Pauls do still use to walk to his Grave-stone being in the midst of the great West Isle and on the same have affixed this Epitaph following Gulielmo viro sapientia vita sanctitate claro qui primùm divo Edwardo regi Confessori familiaris ruper in Episcopum Londinensem erectus nec multo post apud invictissimum principem Gulielmum Angliae Regem ejus nominis primum ob prudentiam fidemque singularem in consilium adhibitus amplissima huic urbi celeberrima privilegia ab eodem impetravit Senatus populusque Londinensis bene merenti posuit Sedic Episcopus Annos 20. Decessit anno à Christo nato 1070. Haec tibi clare pater posuêrunt marmora cives Praemia non meritis aequiparanda tuis Namque sibi populus te Londoniensis amicum Sensit huic urbi non bene praesidium Reddita libertas duce te donataque multis Te duce res fuerat publica muneribus Divitias genus formam brevis opprimat hora Haec tua sed pietas benfacta manent Thus turned into English by one of our modern Historians To William a man famous in wisdom and holiness of life who first with St. Edward the King and Confessour being familiar of late preferred to be Bishop of London and not long after for his prudency and sincere fidelity admitted to be of counsel with the most victorious Prince William King of England of that name the first who obtained of the same great and large Priviledges to this famous City The Senate and Citizens of London to him having well deserved have made this He continued Bishop twenty years and died in the year after Christ his Nativity 1070. These Marble Monuments to thee thy Citizens assign Rewards O Father far unfit to those deserts of thine Thee unto them a faithful friend thy London people found And to this Town of no small weight a stay both sure and found Their Liberties restor'd to them by means of thee have been Their Publick Weal by means of thee large gifts have felt and seen Thy riches stock and beauty brave one hour hath them supprest Yet these thy vertues and good deeds with us for ever rest The memories of this man Sir William Walworth Sir Thomas Gresham and such others deserve to be honoured with statues advanced in the most conspicuous places of the City lest otherwise she be reputed ingrateful to them from whom she derives so honourable a splendour But to leave the City and return unto the Court new troubles in Normandy arising in King Williams absence he was forced suddenly to raise an Army to suppress them carrying along with him those whom he most suspected might take the advantage of his troubles abroad so as to raise any new broils at home pretending their aid against his Rebells in Normandy but indeed fearing in his absence they should raise a new rebellion in England dealing therein as the politique Captain Sextorius did with the Spaniards whose children he kept under pretence of learning them the Latine Tongue but indeed as Hostages for their Fathers loyalties And because the common people are to be feared for their number as well as the Nobility for their greatnesse he disarmed them that so being left naked they might be uncapable of Insurrections yet notwithstanding his policy no sooner was he gone but Edrick Sylvaticus a man of great spirit and power aided by the Welsh-men made great spoils in Herefordshire wasting all to the mouth of Wye These troubles made the Englishmen so distasteful to King William that returning out of Normandy he laid such heavy Taxes and Impositions upon them that many of them preferring penurious liberty before fetters of gold left their habitations and lived as Outlaws in the woods and deserts The chiefest of these Male-contents were Edwyn and Morcar the two stout Earls of Yorkshire and Chester Hereward Gospatria and Syward with many other Lords to whom joyned Stigand and Aldred Archbishops with many of the Clergy who having Edgar Atheling amongst them endeavoured to recover that which for want of taking time by the foretop they had improvidently lost But their Forces being dissipated by Williams conquering sword every one sought how to save himself by flight some fled into Denmtrk others into Hungary most into Scotland whilest William with triumph returned to London from whence he sent Ambassadours to Malcolme Canmore then King of Scotland for the delivery of Edgar with the rest of his enemies which if he refused he would denounce open War against Scotland But King Malcolme not onely denied his request but also took to Wife the Lady Margret sister unto Edgar which occasioned bloody Wars on both sides and four several Armies were sent against the Scots The first under the conduct of one Roger a Norman who entering hastily into Northumberland was by the Scots discomfited and himself by his own Souldiers treacherously slain to second whose beginnings another Army was sent under the Command of Richard Earl of Glocester whose fortunes being not answerable to Williams expectations A third Army was sent led by Odo Bishop of Bayeux and Earl of Kent but he being more used to the Church then the Camp and fitter to handle a pen then a sword encountering with the Scots upon the first onset was quite defeated but King William nothing discouraged with these overthrows sent his son Robert with a far greater power then he sent before which notwithstanding did no far greater service then the fortifying of Newcastle at length a Peace was concluded betwixt them which though prejudicial to King Williams side yet as affairs then stood he could not well have acted otherwise which was that King Malcolme should enjoy that part
of Northumberland which lieth betwixt Tweed Cumberland and Stanemore doing homage to the Kings of England for the same By this Peace was Edgar Atheling and those other male-contented Lords restored to the Kings favour for William although a Martial Prince sought to establish his Crown rather by Peace then by the Sword which made him the more apt to forget former injuries And no doubt but this his too much lenity was one principle cause of his continual troubles for Edwin and Morcar the two stout Earls mentioned before combining with Fretherick Abbot of St. Albanes fell into a new conspiracy setting up Edgar Atheling once again their Generall William storming at these disloyal attempts with a mighty power hastneth against them who desperately bent to maintain what they had begun resolved to make the Sword their Judge but King William loath to lose that with shame which he had gotten by the effusion of so much blood prevailed so far with them that an Assembly was appointed to meet at Berkhamsted where he solemnly sware upon the Holy Evangelists and the Reliques of St. Albane the Martyr inviolably to observe the Ancient Laws of this Land especially those compiled by King Edward the Confessor which so wrought him into their good opinions that they all forthwith laid down their weapons But the storme being past the danger was soon forgotten and these mountains promises proved but molehill performances for notwithstanding his oath he dealt more roughly with the English now then before thrusting some into Exile and depriving others of their Lands which he bestowed upon his Normans whose Charters were of a far other tenour forme and brevity then those tedious and perplexed Conveyances since in use as may appear by this one taken out of on old Chronicle in the Library at Richmont I William King the third year of my reign Give to thee Norman Hunter to me that are both leef and dear The hop and the hopton and all the bounds up and down Vnder the Earth to Hell above the earth to Heaven From me and mine to thee and to thine As good and as fair as ever they mine were To witness that this is sooth I bite the white wax with my tooth Before Jug Maud and Marjery and my youngest sonne Henry For a Bow and a broad Arrow when I come to hunt upon Yarrow Nor need we wonder the King was so liberal to the Hunter since he himself loved hunting so well that to maintain his game he depopulated above 30. miles in Hampshire where had been saith Carton twenty six Towns and eighty Religious Houses so that where before God was Worshipped now wilde Beasts grazed a sin which God punished in his posterity his two sons William and Richard and his grandchilde Richard son to Duke Robert coming there to untimely ends which place was then and is to this day called by the name of the New Forrest The more to inrich his Coffers he laid great Subsidies upon the Land causing a strict Survey to be taken of the whole Kingdom exacting six shillings for every hide of Land to the so great impoverishing of the English Nation that they grievously groaned under their miserable estate nor would he permit any English man to bear any office of credit or countenance The English to ingratiate themselves with the Conquerour being forced to leave off their former customs and habits conforming themselves to the fashions of the Normans so that England was now wholly become French excepting Kent which retained their former Customs a long time after Towards the conclusion of his reign dissentions betwixt Philip King of France and him drew him once more over into Normandy where falling sick and keeping his bed more then he used to do the French King hearing that his disease was in his belly scoffingly said Our Cousin William is laid now in Childe-bed Oh! what a number of Candles must I offer at his going to Church surely I think a hundred thousand will not suffice This French frump being told to King William he made this answer Well our Cousin of France I trust shall be at no such cost but after this my Child-birth at my going to Church I will finde him one thousand Candles and light them my self And accordingly towards August following he enters France with a mighty Army spoiling all the West parts thereof before him And lastly set the City Meux on fire wherein he consumed the fair Church of our Lady in the Walls whereof were enclosed two Anchorites who might but would not escape holding it a breach of their Religious Vow to forsake their Cell though in never such extremity and so became their own murtherers The King busied in these attempts cheered his men to feed the fire and came himself so near the flames that with the heat of his harness he got a sickness which was encreased by the leap of his horse that burst the inward rim of his belly that returning to Roan he shortly after ended his life He was buried at Caen in Normandy in the Abby Church of Saint Stephen the first Christian Martyr to the Monks whereof he bequeathed two Mannors in Dorcetshire one Mannor in Devonshire another in Essex much Lands in Barkshire some in Norfolk a Mansion house in Woodstreet of London with many Advowsions of Churches as also his Crown and Regal Ornaments thereto belonging which his son Henry afterwards redeemed with the Mannor of Brideton in Dorcetshire his Tomb was afterwards opened by the Bishop of Bayeux in Anno. 1542. wherein was found a gilt Plate of Brass and this Epitaph engraven thereon Qui rexit rigidos Northmanos atque Britanos Audacter vicit fortiter obtinuit Et Caenomenses virtute coercuit enses Imperiique sui legibus applicuit Rex magnus parva jacet hac Gulielmus in urna Sufficit magno parva domus domino Ter septem gradibus se volverat atque duobus Virginis in gremio Phoebus hic obiit In English He that the sturdy Normans rul'd and over English raign'd And stoutly won and strongly kept what he so had obtain'd And did the swords of those of Mains by force bring under awe And made them under his command live subject to his law This great King William lieth here entomb'd in little Grave So great a Lord so small a house sufficeth him to have When Phoebus in the Virgins lap his circled course apply'd And twenty three degrees had past even at that time he dyed The Life of THOMAS BECKET Archbishop of Canterbury THomas Becket was the Son of one Gilbert Becket a Person of good Alliance and Riches who in his youth travelling to Jerusalem as he returned was taken prisoner by a Saracen Admiral with whom he remained a year and a half during which time the onely Daughter of the Admiral was so taken with his carriage and qualities that he having by flight obtained his liberty she wounded with his love abandoned her Fathers House and Countrey and followed him secretly into
intended to adjudge him a perjured person and also a traytor for not yielding temporal Allegiance to his temporal Sovereign as himself had sworn to do and accordingly the Prelates themselves by joynt consent adjudged him of perjury and by the mouth of the Bishop of Chichester disclaimed thence forward all obedience unto him as their Archbishop But Becket herewith nothing daunted caused to be sung before him the next day at the Altar that Psalm Principes fedent The Princes sit and speak against me and the ungodly persecute me c. and forthwith taking his Silver Crosier in his own hands enters armed therewith into the Kings Prefence who more and more enraged at Beckets insolency commandeth his Peers to sit in judgement on him as on a traytor and the Courtiers like Ecchoes answering the King the whole Court sounded nothing but Treason so that Becket afraid of being slain hasteth home and changing his costly Robes into course Rags passeth over into Flanders calling himself by the name of Dereman The Archbishop gone the King banishes all his Kindred out of his Dominions and he on the other side excommunicates all such as had to do against him at length the King of France with intreaty and the Pope with the terrour of the Churches censures made a full atonement and reconciliation between them the Archbishop in great triumph returned to England having been absent from his native Countrey for the space of seven years All controversies seemed now fully to be ended though the sequel thereof proved far otherwise for some excommunicated Bishops and other men of great account desiring to be absolved he refused to do it unless with this caution that they should stand to the judgement of the Church in those things for which they were excommunicated but they disdaining the pride of the Archbishop poste over into Normandy where the King was then informing him that Thomas was now grown more haughty then before that he went up and down with great Troops of men both Horse and Foot that attended on him as upon the Kings own Royal Person that to be a King indeed he wanted but the name and setting the Crown upon his head The King herewith highly incensed in a great rage said And is it possible that I cannot peaceably enjoy neither Kingdom Dignity nor Life and all this for one onely priest Cursed be all such as eat my bread since none will revenge me of this fellow These words being over-heard by four Knights Sir Morvil Sir William Tracy Sir Hugh Brito Sir Richard Fitz-urse they thinking to do the King a pleasure though as the sequel of his reign proved they could not have done him a greater injury hasted into England and in his own Church of Canterbury most barbarously murthered him being then about 48. years of age not long after he was Canonized by Pope Alexander and the day of his death being the 29. of December kept annually holy Many miracles are reported to have been done by him and his Shrine so inriched by Pilgrims which from all places came thither in devotion that at the defacing thereof in the time of King Henry the Eighth the spoil thereof in Gold and Precious Stones filled two great Chests such as six or eight strong men could do no more then convey one of them at once out of the Church Thus the Images of many men were richly clothed when many poor Christians Gods Image went almost naked so full of charity were those empty times of knowledge a shame to us who know more but practice less Draiton in his Polyolbion hath these verses on him Concerning whom the world since then hath spent much breath And many questions made both of his life and death If he were truly just he hath his right if no Those times were much to blame that have him reckoned so Stapleton a Jesuite put forth a book entituled Tres Thomas Saint Thomas the Apostle Thomas of Becket and of Sir Thomas Moor he Canonizes the two last of either of which he writes six times as much as of St. Thomas the Apostle The Life of RICHARD the First THis reign as it in part epitomizes the History of the holy War without being guilty of an omission of the most admired part of Chronical History I could not but insert Richard the first who for his inexpugnable and Lion-like heart obtained the sirname of Coeur de Lion he was a most valiant and magnanimous Prince accustomed to Wars he died in the fields of Mars of whom as a Prince we shall say nothing having so much to relate of him after he came to be King This martial Prince born in a martial age was third son to King Henry the Second and succeeded him in the Crown after his Decease his elder Brothers dying before their Father At his Coronation he commanded no Jews should be present but they desirous to see the solemnities hasted thither in great numbers but the price of their lives paid for the pleasure of their eyes the common people falling upon them and slaying a great number so ominous to the enemies of Christ was the first day of this Kings reign presaging saith one his following successes in the Jewish Countreys For intending a journey to Jerusalem not as a Pilgrim to see the City but as a Souldier to conquer the Countrey he raises an Army of thirty thousand Foot and five thousand Horse his next care was for money the sinews of War and notwithstanding his Father had left him eleven hundred thousand pound a vast sum for that age yet was it no thought sufficient for so great a journey Therefore to the end he might be able to go thorow with his work he sells the Castles of Berwick and Roxborough to the Scottish King for ten thousand pounds the Priory of Coventry to Hugh Bishop of Chester for 300. marks and the County of Northumberland to Hugh Bishop of Duresme for his Life jeasting he had made a new Earl of an old Bishop then feigning he had lost his old Seal he made a new one proclaiming that whosoever would safely enjoy those things which before time they had enrolled should come to the new Seal by which princely skill not to say cheat he squeezed much money out of his Subjects purses Having proceeded thus far towards his journey his next care was for securing the Kingdom of England in his absence On his Brother John whom he knew to be of an ambitious spirit and apt to take fire on the least occasion on him he heaped both riches and honour that by his liberality he might win him to loyalty but the chief Government of the Land he committed to William Longchamp Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellour of England chusing him for his Viceroy rather then any lay-Earl because a Coronet perchance may swell into a Crown but never a Mitre with him was joyned in Commission Hugh Bishop of Durham for the parts of England beyond Humber Yet as Suetonius reports of the
had won it for which cause he fortifies his Camp on all sides stopping all relief that might come to them by Sea with his Navy The French King not able to raise the Siege seeks to divert him by an invasion in England David the second King of Scots a sure friend to the French though allied to the English with an Army of threescore and two thousand enters England supposing considering what great numbers were abroad there were none left at home but Priests and Shepherds but he was utterly deceived of his expectation for at Nevils Cross in the Bishoprick of Durham he was encountred by the Archbishop of York with some Lords of the North who animated by the Queen who was there in person defeated this great Army slew the Earls of Murray and Strathern the Constable Marshall Chamberlain and Chancellour of Scotland with many other Nobles and fifteen thousand common Souldiers took King David himself prisoner together with the Earls of Douglass Fife Southerland Wigton and Menteith Thus France was not alone the stage of King Edwards Victories nor the French alone the Nation over whom he triumphed This loss of the Scots lost the French King the Town of Callis which after eleven moneths Siege was delivered up to King Edward who made Governour of the same one Aymery of Pavia and then with his Queen returned into England But good fortune attended not Edwards person alone it was likewise available in his Lievetenants Sir Thomas Dagworth in Little Brittain overthrew and took prisoner Charles de Bloys Monforts Competitor and besides many Knights and Esquires slew 700. common Souldiers Henry of Lancaster drave John Duke of Normandy King Philips eldest son from the Siege of Aquillon takes and sacks the Towns of Xaintoigne Poictou and Poityers and returns to Burdeaux with more pillage then his Army could well tell what to do withall Sir Walter Bentley puts the Marshall of France to flight with the slaughter of 13. Lords 140. Knights 100. Esquires and store of common Souldiers thus the English prosper every where and the French suffer King Edward was at that time elected King of the Romans but refused the tender as out of his way considering his French and other importunate affairs King Philip dying John his eldest son succeeds him who creates his son Charles Duke of Aquitain Edward herewith incenst bestows the same on the Prince of Wales commanding him to defend that right with his Sword against his adversaries hereupon an Army is raised for the Prince consisting of 1000. men at Arms 2000. Archers and a number of Welshmen with which he arives in Aquaitain and in emulation of his Fathers glory worketh wonders recovering multitudes of Towns and prisoners and loaden with booties returns to Burdeaux Winter being spent he again sets forth sacks spoils and destroyes where ever he goes whom to oppose King John with an Army of threescore thousand follows to Poicters and enforces him to fight the Princes army so small in comparison of his that he might say as Tygranes did of the paucity of the Romans if they come as Embassadours they are too many if to fight too few the French exceeding him six to one but what was wanting in number was made up in valor for after a long conflict they discomfitted their whole Army took King John and his Son Philip prisoners with many other Lords and about 2000. Knights and Gentlemen bearing armories slew 1700. Gentlemen whereof 52 were Bannerets and about 6000. common Souldiers of which victory a modern Poet sings Such bloody lines the English here did write Might teach posterity how they should fight The Prince with his prisoners marcheth in triumph to Burdeaux where resting a while he sets sail for England With what joy he was welcomed home may be easier immagined then expressed his acts exceeding all expection his performances afterwards as I referr to the description of his life and return again to his Father King Edward Who upon receit of the French King releases King David of his long imprisonment thinking it honour enough to have one King prisoner at once he had been here in durance the space of eleven years and was at the incessant suit of his Wife Queen Joan set at liberty yet not without a ransom of a hundred thousand markes with condition to demolish and raze down several of his Castles And now the third time on the behalf of the French two Cardinals solicite Edward for peace to which he yields but on such conditions that the Council of France will not condescend unto whereupon in great displeasure with a mighty Army he again enters France destroying all wheresoever he came and notwithstanding great offers were made him by the French yet would he not desist but concontinued inexarable God saith mine Author displeased thereat sent such a terrible storm of Hail with Thunder and Lightning upon his Hoast that it killed many of his men and horses whereupon wounded and struck with a remorse he vowed to make peace on reasonable conditions and not long after at a treaty at Bretagni concluded the same The chief Articles whereof were 1. That King Edward should have to his possession the Countries of Gascoigne Guyen Poytiers Limosin Balevile Exantes Caleis Guisness with divers other Lordships Castles and Towns without any dependancy but of God 2. That the two Edwards Father and Son should renounce all their right to the Crown of France the Dutchy of Normandy the Countries of Tourain Anjou and Maine as also to the homages of Brittain Armoricke and the Earldome of Flanders 3. That the King of France should pay for his ransom there millions of Crowns of Gold six hundred thousand in hand four hundred thousand the year following and the rest in two years after for assurance whereof a certain number of Hostages should remain in England 4. That the French should not aid nor assist the Scots against the English nor the English the Flemings against the French c. These Articles confirmed on both sides by seals and oaths King John is delivered from his imprisonment and King Edward with his Hostages returneth into England But notwithstanding seals and oaths it was not long ere these Articles were broken yet good correspondence was held during the life of King John who coming over into England to visit King Edward died of grief as one writes that the Duke of Anjou one of his pledges came not into England according as he had sworn after whom his son Charles sirnamed the Wise succeeded who with loving letters and presents works himself into the good opinion of King Edward whilest covertly he defrauds him of his interests in France it fortuned whilst his Ambassadours were in the Kngs presence news was brought him of the forcible invasion of the French in Poictow which when the King heard he commanded the Ambassadours to get them home with their deceitful presents to their treacherous Lord whose mocks he would not long leave unrevenged but King Edwards fortunes
Brother Earl of Longuevile Charles Earl of Vendosme the Earls of Tankervile Salbruch Nassaw Dampmarlin La Roch with many other Lords besides two thousand Knights and Gentlemen nor did the slain come far short of the prisoners the Chiefest whereof were Peter of Burbon Duke of Athens high Constable of France John Clermont Marshall George of Charney Lord great Chamberlain the Bishop of Chalons the Lords of Landas Pons and Chambly with others to the number of 1700. Knights and Gentlemen The Prince having commended his Souldiers needed not at that time reward them giving them the rich plunder of the Field which did sufficiently recompence them for their victory This indeed whetteth a Souldiers valour when desert is recompensed with reward The English whose valour was most conspicious were the Earls of Warwick Suffolk Salisbury Oxford and Stafford the Lords Cobham Spenser Berkley Basset and Audley which last named Lord for his valour was rewarded by the Prince with the gift of five hundred marks Fee simple in England which he presently gave to four of his Esquires whereupon the Prince demanding whether he accepted not his gift he answered that these men had deserved the same as well as himself and had more need of it with which reply the Prince was so well pleased that he gave him five hundred marks more in the same kinde an example worthy of immortal memory where desert in the Subject and reward in the Prince strive which should be greatest Nor did the Prince use less humanity towards his prisoners whom he entertained in most honourable manner so that King Johns Captivity was onely restraint of his liberty being attended on like a King in the hands of his enemy for noble spirits scorn to insult over misery 't is Plebean rage that is merciless Having refreshed his Army he marcheth with his prisoners to Burdeaux where he tarried a while longer to rest his Souldiers from thence he sets sail for England ariving at Plymouth King Edward as soon as he had knowledge of the Victory caused a general Thanksgiving all over England eight dayes together giving God the thanks and glory knowing him the Author and his Son but the instrument of this unparallel'd victory By reason of these his wonderful Atchievements his name grew famous all the Christian world over to whom for succour comes Peter King of Castile driven out of his kingdom by the French with the assistance of the King of Arragon and his Bastard Brother Henry placed in his room Prince Edward considering what a dangerous president this might be against all lawful Kings that any one should be thus dis-throned having obtained leave of his Father resolveth to aid him and taking along with him an Army of thirty thousand men makes his way through the streights of Rouncevallux in Navarr accompanied with the Kings of Castile and Majorca John Duke of Lancaster his Brother with many other Knights and Gentlemen On the other side King Henry for defence of his Diadem had assembled an Army of an hundred thousand consisting of French under Glequin their famous Captain as also of Castilians both Christians and Saracens On the borders of Castile at a place called Nazers it came to a Battel where the Prince obtained a glorious Victory slew many thousands of his enemies and took above two thousand prisoners nor left he off here but proceeded so far untill he had set him in Burgus upon his Throne again The greater the benefit is of him that receives it the more monstruous is his ingratitude that doth not acknowledge it this ungrateful King notwithstanding the benefits he had received of the Prince dismissed his without money to pay his Army which constrained him in his return to Burdeaux to coin his Plate but that not supplying his present necessities he layes upon his Dominions in Gascoigne a new taxation which was the cause of a most dangerous revolt But this was not all the mischief that he accrewed by this journey for the Prince brought back with him such an indisposition of body that he was never throughly well after Some report him to have been poysoned by King Peter and probable enough he might be guilty of such wickedness whose whole course of life was so full of vice Duke John of Lancester was not freed from the suspition of hastening his death though the heat of the Countrey and the unfitness of the Season might be the principal cause How ever it was certain it is he survived not long after dying at Canterbury upon Trinity Sunday Anno 1376. aged about six and forty years a Prince excelling all the princes which went before him and surpassing in Martial deeds all the Heroes that have lived after him His body was buried at Christ-Church in Canterbury where his monument standeth leaving behinde him onely one Son who was afterwards King of England by the name of Richard the Second unless we should reckon his natural issue Sir John Sounder and Sir Roger Clarendon Knights which latter is thought to be Ancestour to the house of the Smiths in Essex The Life of Sir JOHN HAWKWOOD AMongst those many Worthies which this Martial age produced that valiant Knight Sir John Hawkwood deserveth remembrance who though of low birth by his Martial prowess purchased his own renown over the Christian world He was born at Sible Heningham in the County of Essex and was in his youth bound apprentice at London with a Taylor from whence he was prest in the musters for service of King Edward the Third and sent into France as a common Souldier where contrary to the Proverb which saith Taylors are no men he behaved himself so valiantly that he was made a Captain over a Company of Foot Souldiers and not long after upon some further good service by him performed advanced unto the order of Knighthood but a peace being concluded between the French and English and his estate not able to maintain his Title he was loath to return home again to follow his old occupation it being something preposterous from a Knight to turn Taylor again wherefore he joyned himself with the Companies called the Late-comers who being about five or six thousand made great spoil upon the East parts of France passing through Champain Burgondy and Damphin even to the very Gates of Avignion in Province From thence he departed into Lumbardy having the leading of that part of the Companies which was called the White Band with whom he served valiantly in the Wars of John Marquess of Montferrat but Lionel Duke of Clarence Son to Edward the Third King of England coming over into Italy to marry with the Lady Violanta Daughter of Galeacio Duke of Millain he forsook that service and attended the Duke to the marriage To omit their sumptuous entertainment which by Paulus Jovius upon the life of Galeacio is written at large Barnaby the Brother of Galeacio having at that time great Wars with the State of Mantua obtained of the Duke of Clarence that Sir John Hawkwood
being a Captain and principal man of his retinue might come to aid him in his Wars for he himself being a warlike Prince had a desire to make some trial of the Discipline of the English Sir John Hawkwood hereupon undertaketh the service behaving himself so valiantly in several Assaults and Skirmishes that the Lord Barnaby for his valour importuned him to be his Son in Law and gave him in marriage the Lady Dowager his Daughter with the value of ten thousand Florences of yearly revenue for her portion By reason of this alliance his pay was encreased and his name became famous all over Italy for it was judged his deserts were not small that so great a Prince as Barnaby would ally himself with him yet notwithstanding all this upon some further hopes conceived he revolteth from Barnaby and joyneth himself with his enemy so true is that of Lucan Nulla fides pietasque viris qui castra sequntur Venalesque manus ibi fas ubi maxima merces Nor faith nor conscience common Souldiers carry Best pay's their right their hands are mercenary By reason of this revolt many of the Towns of Lombardy came to be wasted by the outragious spoils of the English men amongst other they took the Towns of Faera and Banacanallo whereof he sold one to the Marquess of East for twenty thousand Crowns and the other he kept Having both his Forces and pay encreased he determines to seek new adventures going first to the aid of Pope Gregory the twelfth and having with great commendation recovered the Cities of Province that had revolted from him for his service therein was worthily rewarded with the dominion of five Towns From him he went to the Florentine and not long after to the Pisans from thence to the Florentines again under whom he served with such a number of our Nation both horse-men and foot-men that all Italy feared him with that success and increase of his honour and glorious renown that he was reputed to be the best Souldier of that age for he had learned by his long experience in the Wars having an exceeding ripe and quick conceit to force occasions to frame his resolutions and to make speedy execution being also as the opportunity required both hot in his fight and notable for his delayes in so much as sundry great Captains who were afterward highly renowned proceeded out of his School as from an exact master of Martial affairs The exploits that he had atchieved with good success were accounted for sure grounds and principles of Discipline as well amongst his very enemies as also amongst his own followers After many Victories obtained and an incomparable Renown amongst all men he deceased an aged man at Florence the Senate in reward of his well deserving honoured his ashes with a stately Tomb and the Statue of a man at Arms having chiefly by his conduct courage and valour preserved that City The Italian Writers both Poets and Historians highly celebrating his matchless Prowess enstile him Anglorum decus decus addite genti Italicae Italico praefidiumque solo Englands prime honour Italy's renown Who held their honours up from sinking down His Friends and Executours here in England raised a Monument or Tomb for him at Sible Heningham where he was born arched over and engraven to the likeness of Hawks flying in a Wood and founded such was the Religion of those times a Chauntry there for the good of his soul The Life of GEOFFERY CHAUCER THis famous and learned Poet Groffery Chancer Esquire was supposed by Leland to have been born in Oxfordshire or Barkshire but as it is evident by his own words he was born in the City of London as we have it from him in his Testament of Love Also in the City of London that is to me so dear and swéet in which I was forth grown and more kindely love have I to that place then any other in yerth as every kindely creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindely ingendure and to wilne rest and peace in that stede to adide thilke peace should thus there have béen broken which of all wise men is commended and desired For his Parentage although Bale he termeth himself Galfridus Chaucer nobili loco natus summae spei juvenis yet in the opinion of some Heralds otherwise then his vertues and learning commended him he descended not of any great House which they gather by his Arms and indeed both in respect of the name which is French as also by other conjectures it may be gathered that his Progenitours were Strangers but whether they were Merchants for that in places where they have dwelled the Arms of the Merchants of the Staple have been seen in the glass windows or whether they were of other callings it is not much necessary to search but wealthy no doubt they were and of good account in the Commonwealth who brought up their son in such sort that both he was thought fit for the Court at home and to be employed for matters of State in Forreign Countreys His Education as Leland writes was in both the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as appeareth by his own words in his Book entituled The Court of Love and in Oxford by all likelihood in Canterbury or in Merton Colledge with John Wickliffe whose opinions in Religion he much affected For who shall read his Works will finde him not covertly but with full mouth to cry out against the vices and enormities of the Priests in those times Hear him in the Plough-mans tale Mennes Wives they wollen hold And though that they béen right sorry To speak they shall not be so bold For sompning to the Consistorey And make hem say mouth I lie Though they it saw with her eye His lemman holden oppenly No man so hardy to ask why Improving his time in the University he became a witty Logician a sweet Rhetorician a grave Philosopher a Holy Divine a skilful Mathematician and a pleasant Poet of whom for the sweetness of his Poetry may be said that which is reported of Stesichorus and as Cethegus was tearmed Suadae Medulla so may Chaucer be rightly called the pith and sinnews of Eloquence and the very life it self of all mirth and pleasant writing besides one gift he had above other Authours and that is by the excellencies of his descriptions to possesse his Readers with a stronger imagination of seeing that done before their eyes which they read then any other that ever writ in any tongue By his travel also in France and Flanders where he spent much time in his young years but more in the latter end of the Reign of King Richard the second he attained to a great perfection in all kinde of learning as Bale and Leland report of him Circa postremos Richardi secundi annos in Galliis floruit magnamque illic ex assidua in literis exercitatione gloriam sibi comparavit Domum reversus forum Londinense Collegia Leguleiorum qui
with Souldiers to the number saith Engnerrant of thirty thousand with whom he returneth again into France No sooner was he arrived but he sends the Earl of Dorset and the Lord Clifford with twelve hundred Horse and Foot unto Paris to relieve the Duke of Excester who was straightned of Victualls by the Dolphinois whilest he with the rest of the Army hasteth to relieve Chartiers besieged by the Dolphin with seven thousand Souldiers but hearing of King Henry's coming he packed up his pipes and retired to Tours though before he had given out that he would meet him in the Field Chartiers relieved Henry marcheth to Dreux which agreed to surrender if not relieved by a certain day the time expir'd and no relief come the Town was delivered the Souldiers permitted to depart upon their Oaths not to bear Arms against Henry for one whole year after then takes he in the Towns of Baugency and Rougemont where all that craved he took to mercy and supplying his Army with fresh Forces he layes siege to the Town of Meanx in Brie During the time of this Siege news was brought him that his Wife Queen Katherine was delivered of a Son named Henry at the Castle of Windsor whereat he rejoyced though he liked nor the place of her delivery having before commanded the contrary prophecying That what Henry of Monmouth should get Henry of Windsor would lose Queen Katherine for her disobedience to her Husband herein commanded at her death that her Coffin should be left open to be seen and handled of any that would Should the Coffins of all the women that have disobeyed their Husbands in our dayes be left open I fear we should have but few closed so much is the Apostle Pauls Precept forgotten Ephes 5.24 The Town of Nans holding out long without relief made their conditions the harder upon the surrender the Captain Vaurus having hanged many English and Burgundians upon a tree which he named Vaurus was now on the same hanged himself and his head fixed upon a pole on the top of the same tree Meaux being taken Crespi the Castle of Pierrepont Offemont Merlau and sundry other places submitted themselves so that now Henry had in possession all the Fortresses in the Isle of France Champagne Piccardy Brie and Normandy Yet though Henries part in France was great all was not reduced unto his obedience many places holding out for the Dolphin who with an Army of twenty thousand besieged Cosney a Town of the Duke of Burgundies upon the River Loir Henry hasting to raise the Siege at Senlis fell sick of a burning Feaver and Flux whereupon the command of the Army was committed to the Duke of Bedford who with Queen Katherine was lately come out of England whereof he was Regent to visit King Henry Upon the Dukes approach the Dolphin retired into Berry whereof in mockage he was after called King of Berry King Henries sickness encreasing more and more he was removed to Boys de Vencennois and finding himself not able long to continue he appointed his Brother John Duke of Bedford Regent of France and his Brother Humprey Duke of Glocester Protectour of England till his son came of age Then exhorting them to unity amongst themselves to be true and faithful to the Duke of Burgoigne loyal to their young Prince and serviceable to his Queen in a right mind hope and found memory he rendted his soul to his Creator after he had reigned nine years five moneths and fourteen dayes His Body with Pomp and Solemnity conveyed into England it was interred in the Abbey of Saint Peter at Westminster upon whose Tomb Queen Katherine caused a royal Picture to be laid covered all over with silver Plate gilt the head thereof altogether of massy silver all which at that Abbeys suppression in the time of King Henry the Eighth were sacrilegiously broken off and by purloyning transferred to far prophaner uses where at this day the headless Monument is to be seen with these Verses inscribed upon his Tomb. Dux Normanorum verus Conquestor eorum Haeres Francorum decessit Hector eorum Here Normans Duke so stil'd by Conquest just True Heir of France great Hector lies in dust We will end our Discourse of this renowned King with the commendations given him by Walsingham a learned Historian He was godly in heart sober in speech sparing of words resolute in deeds provident in counsel prudent in judgement modest in countenance magnanimous in action constant in undertaking a great Alms-giver devout to God-ward a renowned Souldier fortunate in Field from whence he never returned without victory Martin writes of this Prince that his Father King Henry the Fourth being seized on by a deadly Appolexy being near his last end he caused his Crown to be placed by him on his Pillow least peradventure in the extremity of his sickness it might be delivered to some other who had better right to it then he had but when his attendants verily supposed that he was dead this Martial Prince seized on the Crown whereat the King started up raised himself upon his armes and demanded who it was that had taken away his Crown the Prince answered that it was he Henry the Fourth fetching a deep sigh said My Son my Son what right I had unto this Crown and how I have enjoyed it God knows and the World hath seen Comfort your self in God sayes the Prince my good Father the Crown you have and if you dye I will have it and keep it with the Sword as you have done which his successfull Reign and hath been declared to his greatest honours afterwards made good The Life of JOHN Duke of Bedford JOhn Duke of Bedford was third Son to King Henry the Fourth a valiant Captain and a great help to his Son Henry in the Conquest of France I shall not therefore like the idle Levites of our times rehearse any of the former Transactions but begin with the pursuit of his life where we ended having chose the rather to write the History of this honourable person as with the exit of his life our English Affairs ceased to have any further footing in France He being Regent there to proceed his care was to preserve the same for his Nephew and knowing that what was won by the Sword must be kept by the Sword he strengthens the confines of his government with Garrisons assembleth his powers and labours to retain the hearts of his own party his chief assistants were the two French Dukes of Burgoignt and Brittain and those two terrours of France Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury and John Lord Talbot to whom after the Death of King Henry the Fifth he being then Regent made averation exhorting them to be true and faithfull to their young King Henry friend to his friends and enemy to his enemies that seeing the hatreds and enmities began now to dye between the French and English names it was too late for the French to be again renowned by their fraudulent
practices With many other words to the like effect which wrought so in the auditors that Henry is proclaimed King of England and France such French Lords as were present taking their oaths to be true unto him And great need had the Regent to bestir himself for Charles the French King surviving King Henry but 53. dayes died at St. Denis whose imbecillities were a great help to the English as the Infancy of King Henry was now an advantage to the Dolphin who upon his Fathers Death proclaims himself King by the name of Charles the Seventh and making all the force he could marcheth to relieve Crepan besieged by the English but his enterprise proved very unfortunate being routed with the loss of two thousand men yet nothing daunted at this disaster he resolveth to encounter adverse fortune with encrease of courage and hearing that many of the English had pillaged the Countries of Nugion and Main upon their return into Normandy he sets upon them recovers their booty and slayes fifteen hundred of them then speedily takes he Meulan upon the River of Sein putting all the English therein to the Sword but the possession was short and the revenge speedy being recovered by Thomas Montacute Earl of Salisbury who to quit scores with the Dolphin killed all the French were found there About this time the three great pillars of the English Monarchy in France the Dukes of Bedford Burgundy and Brittain met at the City of Amiens in Picardy to consult of the whole course and sum of Affairs adding to the old league this addition that it should be offensive and defensive respectively and to make the friendship the more firme the Duke of Bedford married Anne Sister to Philip Duke of Burgundy a Lady whose beauty surpassed the blush that glorified Luna when she kissed the Shepherd on the Hills of Latmos But whilst the Regent was thus busied in promoting the English cause the Parisians had a design to destroy it which was by delivering their City up to the French King but treason being seldome true to its self it came to the Regents ear which cost the chief conspirators their lives and now fresh forces coming out of England his Army augmented be takes from Charles the Towns and Fortresses of Crotoy Baside Riol Rula Gyrond Basile Mermound Milbam Femil Seintace and many other The French finding themselves too weak to deal with the English by force work by policy and allure from their sides the Duke of Richmond and his Brother Arthur who deliver up to the Dolphin the Castles of Crotoye and Yerney the Duke of Bedford hating their perfidiousness assaults and takes Crotoye and besieges Yerney who agree to surrender if not relieved by a certain time the Duke of Allanson with sixteen thousand French undertakes the rescue but finding the English numbers to surmount his Arithmetick he wheeleth about to Vernoyle in Perch whom the Regent overtaking a cruel Battel ensued which for two hours together was maintained with equall courage on both sides the Regent himself with a Battel-ax fought most fiercely winning immortal honour in that bloody journey At length the Victory fell to the English though with the loss of above two thousand of their men on the French side were slain 5. Earls 2. Viscounts 20. Barrons and above 7000. common Souldiers besides 2700. Scots lately arrived there were taken prisoners the Duke of Allanson himself the Lord of Herneys Sir John Towrnebull 200. Gentlemen and many common Souldiers This Battel was fought the 7. of August 1425. That which followeth till the siege of Orleance I have set down out of Paulus Aemytius as Speed hath done before me The fierce Conquerour besiegeth Mantz in Main and with Ordnance beats down part of the Walls it yields an English Garrison is left there after the taking which not being sufficient to keep the Town in due subjection is compelled to fly to a Tower for their safety the enemies which were admitted into it by the Burgers enjoying the rest The Lord Talbot that most noble Captain of the English with whose name Talbot is coming the French used to fright their children presently arrives to the rescue and puts the Malefactors to death The English Empire then extented it self at which time as bath been observed to the River of Loire Charles was called King of Berry Hitherto the English fortunes in France received no check their serene Sky was without Clouds so long as a good correspondence was held betwixt the Burgundian and the English but this knot of friendship was like to have been broken by occasion of the Duke of Glocester who married Jaqueline Countess of Haynoult Holland and Zealand notwithstanding John Duke of Brabant her husband were yet living The Duke of Burgundy his Cousin was greatly offended hereat insomuch that the controversie grew to be so great that the Duke of Glocester sent him a challenge but the Regent well knowing that the discord of the English might prove the union of the French so wrought betwixt them that the sore seemed indifferently well healed Much about that time likewise be compounded a difference between the Protector and Cardinal Beaufort Bishop of Winchester though to effect the same he was fain to come over into England substituting the Earl of Warwick Lieutenant General in his absence But France wanting his company he quickly returned carrying a great number of fresh men over with him During his abode in England Arthur Earl of Richmond made Constable of France by King Charles raiseth an Army of twenty thousand men and with them suddainly besiegeth St. Jean a Town in Normandy the Garrison were at first dismayed with their sudden arrivall but upon better advice they valliantly sallied out crying aloud a Salisbury a Suffolk whose names struck such a terrour into the besiegers that with loss of their Artillery and 800. of their Company they betook themselves to flight To rehearse each particular would make our discourse prove too prolix to come to the siege of Orleance Undertaken by these matchless Worthies the Earl of Salisbury and the Lord Talbot with a puissant Army the Citizens hearing of their intentions prepared to withstand them their Suburbs equall in bigness to a good City they level with the ground chusing rather to destroy a part then hazard the whole the English encompass it on every side and the Citizens begin to feel the misery of want God when mans help fails interposeth his hand the Earl of Salisbury looking out at a Window to take a view for a general assault is unfortunately slain a sad loss for the English for upon the death of this man saith Polydor Virgil the fortune of the War changed The Regent to repair this loss sendeth Sir John Falstaff with fresh supplies who arrived there safe in despite of the Lord De la Brets who with nine thousand men endeavoured to intercept him hereupon the City would yield but to the Burgundian not to the English a cunning plot to divide
five thousand men marched against them and although his numbers was nothing competent to his enemies yet would he not be advised but gave them Battel so that being encompassed on all sides thorow his own rashness was himself slain and his whole Army discomfitted his Son the Earl of Rutland being but twelve years old stabbed by the Lord Clifford his trusty friend the Earl of Salisbury beheaded by the common people and his own head fixt on a pole with a paper Crown was set on the Walls of York for the barbarous mirth of the uncivil multitude The unwelcome news of the Dukes overthrow coming to the Ears of VVarwick to stop the torrent of the Queens proceedings he musters all the men he could and taking King Henry along with him marches from London to oppose the Queen at St. Albans both Armies met where VVarwick lost the day with the slaughter of two thousand of his men King Henry also whom fortune neither favoured amongst friends nor foe was again taken This Victory of the Queens had it been discreetly mannaged might have turned the scales on the Lancastarian side but she wanton with success vainly imagined a security from future competition and either wanted power to restrain her Souldiers or licensed them to a free spoil by which unruly violence she untied the affections of the Commons who by their quiet and profit measure the vertues of their Princes So that the Citizens of London fearing to be plundered hearing of their approach shut up their Gates and arm'd for resistance The Queen hereupon with her plundering Army retires Northwards where we will leave her for a time and look back upon the Earl of March Who being at Glocester at such time as he heard news of his Fathers death spent not his time in womanish lamentation but considering how dangerous leasure in to increase the apprehension of misfortune having encreased his Army with some additional forces he marches against the Earls of Pembroke and Ormand who had raised a great power with purpose to surprise him Near Mortimers Cross on Candlemass-day they encountred each other where the two Earls and their whole Army were put to flight with the slaughter of there thousand eight hundred on the place Edward having obtained this Victory with his Triumphant forces directeth his march towards London in the way at Chipping-Norton he met the Earl of Warwick nothing daunted at his late misfortune and coveting nothing more then by the tryal of a new day to perswade or else to force back victory to his side then enter they London in a triumphant manner the Citizens receiving them with great acclamations of joy the Earl of March wich a joynt consent of them all is chosen King and accordingly proclaimed throughout the City by the name of Edward the Fourth This was done at London in the mean time the Queen and the Lords of her side were daring and vigilant in the North and having raised threescore thousand fighting men they resolved with expence of their blood to buy back that Majesty which the House of Lancaster by evill fate had lost Edward choosing rather to provoke then expect an enemy having mustered what Forces he could with his trusty friend the Earl of VVarwick marches against them and notwithstanding his Army came far short of the others in number yet by his Captains good conduct and his Souldiers valour joyning battel between Caxton and Towton he gave his enemies a mighty great overthrow In no one battel was ever poured froth so much English blood six and thirty thousand seven hundred seventy six persons all of one Nation many near in alliance some in blood fatally divided by faction were now united in death On the Lancastrian side were slain the Earls of Northumberland and VVestmorland the Lords Clifford Beaumont D'acres Gray and VVells John Lord Nevill Son to the Earl of VVestmorland with divers others On King Edwards side the Lord Fitz-VValter and the Bastard of Salisbury with many others of great reputation and courage King Henry with the poor remains of his party fleeth into Scotland whilest Edward in triumph returneth to London But notwithstanding this great overthrow yet did not the indefatigable Queen lose any thing from her spirit or endeavours but makes addresses to all Princes abroad whom alliance reason of state or compassion of so great a disaster might move to her assistance and notwithstanding all her endeavours she gathered together but five hundred French yet adding hope to her small number she crosses the Sea with them into Scotland Here some thin Regiments of Scots resorted to her in whose company taking her Husband King Henry along with her she enters England but this small number scarcely deserving the name of an Army were soon overthrown by the Lord Mountague most of the Lords of her side taken and beheaded King Henry escaped from the Battel but was soon after apprehended as he sat at dinner at VVaddington-Hall in Lancashire and by the Earl of VVarwick brought prisoner to London and committed to the Tower These great services done by VVarwick and his Brother Mountague for King Edward made them set so high a price upon their merits that the greatest benefits he could bestow upon them were received in the degree of a debt not a gift and thereupon their expectations being not answered according to their imaginations they begin to look upon Edward with a rancorous eye and certainly this was the main cause of their falling off from Edwards side though for a while they dissembled the same untill they should meet with a more plausible occasion which soon after was offered unto them for the Earl of Warwick being sent over into France to negotiate a marriage betwixt King Edward and the Lady Bona Sister to the French Queen whilest he was busie in courting this Lady Edward following more his fancy then reasons of State falls in love and marries the Lady Elizabeth daughter to the Dutches of Bedford and widdow of Sir John Gray slain on King Henries part at the Battel of St. Albans But when the Earl of Warwick understood how mighty an affront by this was given to his employment he entertained none but disdainfull thoughts against his Prince And exprest so bold a discontent that Lewis of France who was quick to perceive and carefull to foment any displeasure which might tend to the disturbance of another Kingdom began to enter into private communication with him for ever after this common injury so they called the errour of love in the King the Earl held a dangerous intelligence in France which after occasioned so many confusions to our Kingdom Nevertheless upon his return he dissembled all discontent and in every circumstance of respect applyed himself to applaud the Marriage and in particular the excellent personage of the Queen But long did not the fire of his revenge lie hid under the ashes of dissimulation for King Edward grown secure by an over-bold presumption the daughter of a long prosperity
high treason by the Earl of Northumberland for words importing a desire of revenge saith Sleidan from thence he was conveyed towards London by the Lieutenant of the Tower in which journey at Leicester Abbey he ended his life breathing out his soul with speeches to his effect Had I been as carefull to serve the God of Heaven as I have been to comply to the will of my earthly King God would not have left me in my old age as the other hath done Some have imagined he poysoned himself as not willing to survive his great glory and some have thought he was poysoned by others that with his feathers they might build themselves nests Surely the fall of this stately oak caused the growth of much underwood many rising by his ruine raising themselves great estates out of the fragments of his fall He left behinde him these glorious monuments of fame the buildings of Christ-Church White-Hall Hampton-Court Windsor His Master King Henry lived in the two first his Tomb being erected in the last Some Historians write that his body swelled after his death as his minde when he was living with his Ego et Rex meus On which ambition of the Cardinal one wrote these verses Dicere Gramatices ratio permittit Ego Rex Ethica te jubet ars dicere Rex Ego Haec est nimirum vivendi ars illa loquendi Principis haec Aulae serviat illa Scholae The Life of Sir THOMAS MOOR Hic est ille Thomas plebis de pulvere magnus Qui tulit incanum Principis ira caput SIr Thomas Moor one of the greatest Ornaments of his time was a man of those high employments and of so great parts to go thorow them that he is deservedly placed amongst our English Worthies He was the Son of Sir John Moor Knight and one of the Justices of the Kings Bench a man singular for his many rare perfections His Birth place was at Milk-street in London the year of our Lord 1480. Having attained some skill in the Latine Tongue Cardinal Moorton Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord High Chancellour of England took him into his house where his wit and admirable deportment appeared to be such that the Cardinall would often say of him to the Nobles that severall times dined with him This Childe here waiting at the Table whosoever shall live to see it will prove the miracle of men For his better proficiency in learning the Cardinal placed him in Canterbury Colledge in Oxford now called Christ-Church where when he was both in the Greek and Latine Tongue sufficiently instructed he was then for the study of the Law put into one of the Innes of Chancery called New Inne where for his time he highly improved from thence he removed to Lincolns-Inne where he was made an Utter-Barrister where for some time he read a Publick Lecture of St. Austine de Civitate Dei in the Church of St. Laurence in the Old Jury Afterwards he was made Reader of Furnivalls-Inne where he continued for the space of above three years after which time he gave himself up to his devotions in the Charter-House of London living religiously there for the space of four years Soon after he married the Daughter of Mr. John Colt of New Hall in Essex by whom he had one Son and three Daughters whom from their youth he brought up in vertue and learning About this time his rare endowments began to be looked upon with a publick eye which caused him to be called to the Bench and soon after chosen a Burgess of Parliament which happenned in the latter end of King Henry the Sevenths Reign who demanding one Subsidy and three fifteens for the Marriage of his eldest Daughter the Lady Margret unto the King of the Scots Sir Thomas making a grave Speech argued so strongly why these exactions were not to be granted that thereby the Kings demands were frustrated and his request denyed by which occasion he fell so deeply into the Kings displeasure that for his own safeguard he was determined to have gone over Sea had not the King soon after dyed which somewhat mittigated his fear and altered his resolution After this he was made one of the under Sheriffs of London by which office and his practice in Law he gained an estate of four hundred pounds per annum Now his learning wisdom knowledge and experience was grown into such note behaving himself so admirably that he gained a general applause from all men and fell into such an estimation with King Henry the Eighth that he made him master of the Requests soon after Knight and one of his Privy Councel and so from time to time advanced him continuing still in his singular favour and trusty service twenty years and above his pleasant disposition and readiness of wit so gaining him into King Henry's favour that upon the death of Mr. Weston Treasurer of the Exchequer the King bestowed on him the office of Treasurer and not long after made him Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster To render his History the more pleasant take these few tastes of the sharpness of his Wit Cambden reports of him that he used to compare the great number of women to be chosen for Wives unto a bag full of Snakes having amongst them but one Eel now if a man puts his hand into this bag he may chance to light on the Eel but 't is a hundred to one if he be not stung with a Snake Being in company where the master of the house commended his Beer for the well relish of the Hop Sir Thomas replyed but had it hopped a little further it had hopped into the Thames A supposed bribe being put upon Sir Thomas a great gilt Cup presented to him he being called before the Kings Council to answer this accusation Sir Thomas acknowledged that he did receive the Cup for a New-years-gift after some importunities he received it but immediately he caused his Butler to fill it with Wine and therein drank to the Gentlewoman that presented it and when that she had pledged him he as freely gave it her again for a New-years gift for her Husband This great Mountain of his accusation being brought scarcely to a little Mosehill When he was Justice of Peace he used to go to the Sessions at New Gate where one of the Ancientest Justice of Peace of the Bench was used to chide persons when their Purses had been cut for not being more carefull telling them that their negligence was the cause that so many Cut-purses were brought thirther Sir Thomas obs rving him to repeat this caution so often sent for one of the chiefest Cut-purses that was in prison and promised him to save him harmless if he would but cut the said Justices Purse the next day as he sat on the Bench and when he had done to make a sign of it to him The day after when they sat again the Thief was called one of the first who being accused of the fact
not to take him off which those that contrived it were certain could not but take as they knew that he was of so tender a conscience as that they could not fail of their project he was cited to appear at Lambeth before the Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Chancellour and Secretary Cromwell to take the oath of Supremacy and Succession which he refusing he was committed to the custody of the Abbot of Westminster for four dayes and afterwards by the importunity of Queen Anne to the Tower Whereat his landing Mr. Lieutenant was ready to receive him the Porter of the Tower demanded of him his upper Garment Mr. Porter said he here it is and took off his Cap and gave it him saying I am sorry it is no better for thee no Sir said the Porter I must have your Gown which he gave him This his pleasantness certainly argued a confidence he had in the justness of his cause After many endeavours during his abode in the Tower to get his consent to the taking of the Oath all which proving fruitless after a years imprisonment he was called to his arraignment at the Kings Bench Bar where his Indictment being read he pleaded not guilty and to the admiration of the hearers so quitted himself that he put the Bench to a stand untill at the last one Mr. Rich the Kings Solliciter deposited against him that he should say The Parliament could make the King no more Supreme Head of Church then they could make a Law that God should not be God To which Sir Thomas answered If I were a man my Lords that did not regard an oath I need not at this time in this place as it is well known to you all stand as an accused person And if this oath Mr. Rich which you have taken be true then I pray that I may never see God in the Face which I would not say were it otherwise to gain the whole world Yet notwithstanding his oath and the exceptions he took against the witness the Lord Chancellour proceeded to sentence That he should be brought back to the Tower of London by the help of William Bringston Sheriff and from thence drawn on a Hurdle through the City of London to Tyburne there to be hanged till he be half dead after that cut down yet alive his Privy Parts cut off his Belly ripped his Bowels burnt and his four quarters set up over four Gates of the City and his head upon London Bridge This Sentence was by the Kings pardon changed afterwards into onely beheading because he had borne the highest Office in the Kingdom Of which mercy of the Kings word being brought to Sir Thomas he answered merrily God forbid the King should use any more such mercies to any of my posterity or friends During the time he remained in the Tower after Sentence passed on him one of the Court came to visit him whose whole discourse was nothing else but urging Sir Thomas to change his minde who at last being wearied with his importunity answered him That he had changed it Whreupon presently he went and told the King and being by him commanded to know wherein his minde was changed Sir Thomas rebuked him for his inconsiderate rashness that he should tell the King those words that he spoke in jeast onely to be rid of his impertinency meaning a while after this merry expression came from him that whereas he intended to be shaved for which he was said so much to resembled Erasmus that he might appear to the people as before he now resolved that his beard should undergo the same tribulation he did which made the Courtier blank and the King very angry The day appointed for his execution being come about nine of the Clock he was brought out of the Tower ascending the Scaffold it seemed so weak that it was ready to fall whereupon he said merrily to the Lieutenant I pray you Mr. Lieutenant see me safe up and for my coming down let me shift for my self Then desired he all the people to pray for him and to bear witness with him that he should then suffer death in and for the Faith of the Holy Catholique Church a faithfull servant both of God and the King Which done he kneeled down and after his prayers ended he turned to the Executioner and with a chearful countenance said Pluck up thy spirits man and be not afraid to do thine Office my neck is very short take heed therefore thou strike not awry for saving thine honesty then laying his head upon the Block he bad the Executioner stay untill he had removed aside his Beard saying That that had never committed any Treason So with much chearfulness he received the Fatall blow of the Ax which at once severed his head from his body This jeast at his death the Catholiques so much distasted that at so serious a time he should be so airy and light that he had almost been scratched out of their Canonization for a Saint He was executed the sixth day of July following the decollation of Bishop Fisher who was for the same Cause beheaded on Tower-Hill The Life of this Bishop is extant incomparable well done by Doctor Bailie Thus died Sir Thomas Moor a man admirable in all kinde of learning Latine Greek Prophane Divine his Vtopia is admired over the world his Richard the Third till of late years of so much credit with Historians that they have placed it in their Works without the alteration of a word He was of such excellency of Wit and Wisdom that he was able to make his fortune good in what place soever he lived who wanted no skill either for the mannaging of private or publick businesses being experienced both in Countrey and City Affairs in giving solid and sound counsel in doubtful cases none more prudent to tell the truth without fear none more free as from all flatteries he was open and pleasant full of grace in delivering his judgement And to conclude one whose integrity made him a miracle of nature whist he was living and whose Books have made him an everlasting Monument now he is dead He was behead in the year 1535. his Monument is in Chelsey Church where it is reported Bishop Fisher lies buried with him in the same Grave that as they suffered for one Opinion it was thought fit they should not be parted Epitaphium Thomae Mori quod paulo post abdicatum munus Cancellarii ipse sibi composuit Sepulchro suo affixit Thomas Morus Vrbe Londinensi familia non celebri sed honesta natus in literis utcunque versatus quum ut causas aliquot juvenis egisset in foro in urbe suo pro Shyrevo jus dixisset ab invictissimo Rege Henrico Octavo cui uni regum omnium gloria prius inaudita contigit fidei defensor qualem gladio se calamo verè praestitit merito vocaretur aà scitus in aulam est delectusque in concilium creatus eques
contra Philippum secundum Hispanum numerosa classe exercitu Angliam 1588. invadentem Animam Deo Servatori reddidit anno salutis 1588. die 4. Septembris Optimo charissimo marito moestissima uxor Letitia Francisci Knollis Ordinis Sancti Georgii Equitis Aurati Reginae Thesaurii Filia amoris conjugalis fidei ergo posuit The Life of the Lord BURLEIGH Cecilius fidei cultor patriaeque Thesauri Custos spes miseris unica pauperibus THe exit of one Statesman occasions the entrance of another Secretary William Cecill on the death of the old Marquesse of Winchester rise up in his room a person of a most subtle and active spirit though he stood not altogether by the way of constellation and the making up of a part and faction for he was wholly intentive to the service of his Mistresse Queen Elizabeth and his dexterity experience and merit challenged a room in her favour which ecclipsed the others over-seeming greatnesse and made it appear that there were others that steered and stood at the helm besides himself and more stars in the firmament of her Grace then Vrsa major or the Bear with the ragged staff He was born as some say at Bourn in Lincolnshire but as others upon knowledge averre of a younger Brother of the Setsils or Cecils of Hereford-shire a Family of no mean Antiquity derived as some think from the Roman Cicilii Who being exposed and sent to the City as poor Gentlemen use to do their younger sons he came to be a rich man on London-Bridge and purchased Land in Lincolnshire where this man was born He was sent to Cambridge to St. Johns Colledge then to the Innes of Court to Grayes-Inne where he attained to a great knowledge of the Law though in all his life time he never sued nor was sued by any And so he came by degrees to serve the Duke of Somerset in the time of his Protectourship as Secretary and having a pregnancy to great Inclinations he came to rise to a higher conversation with the chiefest Affairs at State and Councels to be Master of the Requests the first that ever bore that Office But on the fall of the Duke he stood some years in umbrage and without employment till the State wanted his abilities and though we finde not that he was taken into any place during Queen Maries Reigh unlesse as some have said towards the last yet the Councel on several occasions have made use of him and at Queen Elizabeths entrance he was admitted Secretary of State the Queen as her Titles were sparing rendring them the more substantial afterwards he was made Master of the Court of Wards then Lord Treasurer A Person of most exquisite abilities and indeed the Queen began then to need and to seek out for men of both garbs Though our Burleigh lived in an age wherein it was present drowning not to swim with the stream yet whatsoever others write of him he opposed that act and unnatural will of King Edward the Sixth wherein the King passing by his Sisters Mary and Elizabeth entailed the Crown on Queen Jane This great Instrument of State was rankt amongst the Togati of state as by these following Letters may be perceived To the Right Honourable my very good Friend Sir Francis Walsingham Resident for the Queens Majesty in France Sir My hard case is such as either by business in health or by dolour in sickness I cannot account my self a free man but a slave to serve or an offendor to suffer torment the will of God be fulfilled in me to his honour for otherwise I finde no comfort in this world of this enough I am forced to write this in my bed with my hand whilest I groan for pain in my knee and foot and therefore I must be short I could no sooner get answer to your Letters brought by Rogers Your Lordships brought yesterday by Harcourt were I think welcome and well interpreted by her Majesty for I sent them with my own sentence aforehand of my good allowance of your discretion in your choice of taking and leaving The Queen of Scots you see is deferred whereof that portion which is written was for my ease indited by Sir Thomas Smith you must make the best of it and seek out reasons to satisfie them there that will mislike the delay Indeed it hath been onely devised to win delay I thank you for your private Letter Even now we have very good newes from the Borders that Dun-Brittain Castle was taken on Munday last in the night by cunning where was taken the Archbishop of St. Andrews and the Lord Flemming the manner how it was taken is not signified but it is of a greater importance then Edenborough Castle considering it was the Receptaculum to all the Scottish Queens Forraign Aid From Westminster out of my Bed this Saturday at five of the Clock the seventh of March 1571. Your assured Friend W. Burleigh To my very loving Friend Mr. Francis Walsingham Esq the Queens Majesties Ambassador in France Sir I have received your Letters both by Mr. Wigmore and Beal as by Harcourt I did late advertise you and having made her Majesty partaker both by hearing them read and by her own reading I am in this sort directed to answer you to the First of the Second that is to that of the 13. of February brought by Beal Her Majesty maketh good account of the person of him I mean the 36 t s 4 tio 30-0 uf I u'c 62 by the Intelligence which he gave you but it breedeth some doubt in her that the certainty can be no otherwise understood in that it is informed you that the practice continueth by late dispatching of an Englishman of high stature and lean of visage wherein is such incertainty as no man can thereby attain either to discover the practice or withstand it by apprehending the party And surely Sir her majesty wisheth you to endeavour your self with such as you shall think good to come to the knowledge of some persons by stay of whom such a matter might be deciphered for my own part I think it likely that these practices are devised but without more appearance I see no evident reason to move me that in time when the Queen of Scots her self and her factors are in hope to be delivered by treaty and with the favour of our Queen there should be any attempt otherwise for her escape Wherein how cunning soever men be in device yet the execution standeth upon many adventures and any mischance happening might breed ruine to the whole enterprise I have been acquainted with many of these like advertisement but surely I never found any substance in them in the event but yet with them and without them I ever finde it good to be circumspect I write not to have you forbear from hearing and reporting of any the like but my experience serveth to move you to procure the givers of such things to discover the matters more certainly
is reported of him that like certain Vegetables he did bud and open slowly Nature sometime delighting to play an after-game as well as Fortune which had both their tides and turns in his course His first advancement to Court was by means of the Earl of Leicester yet not so much out of love to him as it was thought as out of envy to Sir Walter Raleigh whose splendour at Court he meant to allay with this young Earl His first appearance in the Fields of Mars was at Tilbury Camp Anno 1588. where he was by the Queen made in the Field Commander of the Cavalry as he was before in Court being much graced by her openly in the view of the Souldiery and people even above my Lord of Leicester himself But scarcely was he thus warmed in the Queens favour when without her consent or knowledge he thrust himself into the Portugal Voyage hazarding thereby his future fortunes besides the danger of incurring the Queens displeasure and laying himself open to the practice of the Court notwithstanding a noble report coming home before him as indeed his actions deserved no less at his return all those clouds were dispersed and this his excursion afterwards accounted but a sally of Youth Nay he grew every day taller in her Majesties grace and favour insomuch that the King of France imploring her assistance against the Prince of Parma who in hostile manner had invaded his Dominions the charge of that enterprize was committed unto him who full of valour though young in years being furnished with four thousand Foot and two hundred Horse besides many Pyoners and other Volanteers whose Heroick Aspects determined the courage of their hearts landed in Normandy and laid siege to the strong City of Roan in assaulting whereof his Brother Walter Devereux a Diamond of the time both of an hardy and delicate mixture was slain with a small shot to the excessive grief of the Earl who after a tedious Winters Siege challenged Mounsieur Villerse the Governour to a single combate who not desirous to purchase his honour with the effusion of his blood refufed it with contempt of his refusal the Earl returned into England The Queen having now experience of his valour soon found an occasion for him to show it the King of Spain threatning to invade her borders she thought it the best policy to invade his first to perfect so great a design a mighty Navy is made ready consisting of an hundred and fifty ships wherein were above 14000. souldiers and sailers Our intended brevity will not permit us to recount the several Officers in this expedition The Earl of Essex and Charles Howard Lord Admiral of England were commanders in chief The first of June they set forth from Plimouth and on the 18. of the same moneth came to Cabo St. Vincent where they lighted upon an Irish Bark who certified them that at Cales from whence they came were store of Gallies Ships of War and Merchant Ships laden with Munition Coyn Oyl Wine Wax Silk Cloth of Gold and Quicksilver news most acceeptable unto the Generalls The twentieth of June they cast Anchor on the West side of the Island where a fair Dove a fortunate presager of their success lighted upon the main yard of the Lord Admiralls ship and sat there quietly the space of three hours every man gazing but no man suffered to remove her The next day a Council being called it was determined the fight should be begun with the lesser ships because the road was too shallow for the greater the Lord Thomas Howard Sir Walter Rawleigh Sir Francis Vere Sir George Carew and Sir Robert Southwell with some Londoners and a squadron of Low Countrey ships undertook the same which they valiantly attempted manfully maintained and bravely continued nor were the Spaniards backward in performance of their duties but resolutely fought in defence of their lives each side striving to acquit themselves bravely which made the fight continue fierce and doubtful The valiant Essex though by a Council of War appointed to keep the main Battel upon the sudden from Port Saint Maries side thrust himself foremost in this Sea fight which the other General perceiving desirous to participate of the danger as well as of the honour of victory forsook his great ship too unweldy for those narrow waters took into his Pinnace that he might not be over-acted in point of Honour The scales of War which before were even now turned to the English side the Spanish Admiral a ship of fifteen hundred tun was by their own souldiers set on fire whose ruine was accompanied with two other ships that lay next her the rest of their fleet ran themselves on ground in the Bay of Port Real The Earl of Essex in pursuit of his design landed his men at Puntal a League from Cales to oppose his Forces half a mile from the Town appeared many horse and foot but they finding the English numbers exceed their expectation they presently gave back the English perceiving their stratagem to out-wit them counterfeiting a fear made a retreat by which means having enticed forth their enemies they returned with such violence that they forced them back into the Town but there they having an advantage from the higher ascent played so fore upon the English that their foremost ranks began to give back which valiant Essex perceiving to engage his souldiers resolutions caught his own Colours and cast them over the Wall into the Town the undaunted English ashamed to lose their Ensign forgot all danger ascending the wall with shot and sword make way through the thickest press of the enemy in the interim Sir Francis Vere broak the the Gate and rushed in and the rest with him divers were wounded with stones from the tops of houses and Sir John Wingfield slain in the Market-place with a shot from the Castle The Town thus surprized the Castle was summoned which the next day yielded the Citizens compounding with the Lords Generalls to pay an hundred and twenty thousand Duccats for their ransom were suffered to depart for the assurance of which payment forty of the chiefest Citizens were brought pledges into England Far worse sped the ships that had run themselves on ground who being assaulted by Sir Walter Rawleigh profferred two millions and a half of Duccats for their redemption but he telling them he was sent to destroy ships not to dismiss them upon composition they were by the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonian Admirall of Spain set altogether on fire it was judged by the wiser sort of people that the Spaniard was damnified by this expedition no less then twenty millions of Duccats The fortunacy of this enterprize gave occasion to one of the Wits then living to frame this excellent Annagram on the Earl of Essex name Deureux Vere Dux Which he afterwards englisht in this Distich Vere Dux Deureux verior hercule Gades Nam semel hic vidit vicit at ille simul Alcides yields
and Sir Christopher Blunt diswaded him yet within a moneth over he went and came with speed to the Court at None-such where falling upon his knees before the Queen after a little talk she bid him retire to his Chamber and soon after committed him to custody in the Lord Privy Seals house where having remained the space of six moneths he began to repent him of his former courses and shewed so great patience and so much submission that the Queen gave him leave to return to his own House again Neverthelesse the popular voice the croud of common people so extolled his innocency that she could not for the removal of suspicion of Injustice free her self and her Councellours but was forced to bring him to a trial which accordingly she did in the house of the Lord Privy Seal The chief Articles objected against him were That contrary to his Commission he had made the Earl of South-hampton General of the Horse had drawn his Forces into Munster neglecting the Arch Rebel Tir Oen entertained a parly with him against the Dignity of the Queens Majesty and the person of a Vice-Roy which he represented and that the Parley was suspicious in regard it was private The Earl remembring the words of Solomon Proverbs 16.14 The wrath of a Prince is as messengers of death but a wise man will pacifie it fell down upon his knees at the end of the board professing he would not contest with the Queen nor excuse the faults of his yong years either in whole or in part protesting that he alwayes meant well howsoever it fell out otherwise and that now he would bid his rash enterprizes adieu with many other words to the like purpose which made the Assembly there present to weep For indeed he was a man dearly beloved both of the Queen Peers and People nor do we read of any English Subject whose fall was more lamented then his At length this sentence was pronounced against him That he should be deposed from the office of a Privy Councellour suspended from the functions of Earl Marshall and Master of the Ordnance and be imprisoned during the Queens pleasure And indeed her pleasure was he should not endure Imprisonment long for upon his shew of humiliation and mortification she removed Berkley his Keeper and gave him leave to go at large onely admonishing him to make his own discretion his Keeper and not to come at the Court or in her presence Now the Earl thinking all danger was past and that a serene sky would succeed this storm in a presumptuous confidence of the Queens wonted favour he became an earnest suiter to her for the Farm of sweet Wines she to try the truth of his temper made him this answer That she must first know what it was worth and not give away things hand over head His high spirit not brooking a deniall falls into discontented expressions which came to the Queens ear That it was now plain the Queen intended to make him as poor as Job that he should live of the basket and gather crums under the table that the Queen was now old and decreped and withered as well in minde as in body And now again he runneth upon desperate counsels for the removeal of his Adversaries from the Court The Earl of Southampton is sent for out of the Low-Countreys his doors set open for all Commers decayed Souldiers and discontented persons admitted by Merrick his Steward to his own table Citizens flock thither each day in great numbers and all signs popularity appeared The chief of his Councel were the Earl of Southampton Sir Charles Danvers Sir Ferdinando Gorge Captain of the Garrison of Plimouth Sir Christopher Blunt his two servants Merrick and Cuffe with some others These meeting in consultation at Drury House resolve the Queens Palace shall be seized upon and his Adversaries secured who were nominated to be Raleigh Cobham Carew Cecill And the Admiral But before they could effect their designs the Queen by severall circumstances having suspicion of their actions sent Secretary Herbert to call him before the Councel the Earl doubting the matter excuseth himself that he was not very well But this slight excuse encreasing the suspicion four of the Lords were by the Queen sent unto him namely the Lord Keeper the Earl of Worcester Sir William Knolles and the Lord Chief Justice of England these comming to Essex House found there a confused number of people and the Earls of Essex Rutland and Southampton in the middest of them after some little talk the four Lords were secured Essex with a Troop of two hundred men at his heels making haste into City being falsely informed that the Citizens would take his part The Earl of Bedford the Lord Cromwell and other Lords meeting him by the way joyn themselves Essex crying out as he went For the Queen for the Queen they lay wait for my life Whilest thus he seeketh in vain for help of the Citizens certain of the Nobility entred the City with a Herald declaring him and all his adherents Traytours this so abated the edge of their courages that some of his followers began to shift for themselves amongst which was Sir Ferdinando Gorge who the better to obtain the Queens mercy freeth the four Lords that were kept prisoners in Essex House going along with them to the Court by water The Earl himself thinking to return was opposed by men in Arms at the West end of Pauls where after a short bickering he retired to Queen-hive and went to Essex-House by water By and by the Admiral besiegeth the House commanding them to yield which at first they refuse but afterwards finding their cause to be desperate they fall upon their knees and deliver up their weapons to the Admiral The chief of them as Essex Southampton Rutland Sands Cromwell Mounteagle Danvers and Bromley were committed to the Tower the rest were put in common Prisons The Earl being thus immured sent this Letter to Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Chancellour The Copy hereof the better to express the temper of his spirit I have word for word inserted The Earl of Essex Letter to the Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Chancellour My very good Lord though there is not a man this day living that I should sooner make judge of any question that might concern me then your self yet you must give me leave to tell you that in some cases I must appeal from all earthly Judges and if in any then surely in this when the highest Judge on earth hath interposed upon me the heaviest punishment without tryal or hearing since then I must either answer your Lordships arguments or else forsake mine own just defence I will force mine aking head to do me service for an hour I must first deny my discontentment which was forced to be an humerous discontent and so that it was unseasonable or is so long continuing your Lordship should rather condole with me then expostulate natural seasons are expected here below but violent
into England lies on this Heroick Knight but as in the Life of Sir Francis Drake I have cleared him that his Marriners first brought it in So for that report that when he went to his Trial he took three Pipes in the Coach I rather look on him as he was too guilty of occasioning the mode of this vanity rather then that it was any Institution of his own The day appointed for his Execution being come a Scaffold was erected for him before the Parliament House upon which being brought with a chearful countenance and undaunted look he spake as followeth My Honourable Lords and the rest of my good Friends that are come to see me die know that I much rejoyce that it hath pleased God to bring me from darkness to light and in freeing me from the Tower wherein I might have died in disgrace by letting me live to come to this place where though I lose my life yet I shall clear some false accusations unjustly laid to my charge and leave behinde me a testimony of a true heart both to my King and Countrey Two things there are which have exceedingly possest and provoked his Majesties indignation against me viz. A confederacy or combination with France and disloyal and disobedient words of my Prince For the first his Majesty had some cause though grounded upon a weak foundation to suspect mine inclination to the French Faction for not long before my departure from England the French Agent took occasion passing by my house to visit me we had some conference during the time of his abode onely concerning my Voyage and nothing else I take God to witness Another suspicion is had of me because I did labour to make an escape from Plimouth to France I cannot deny but that willingly when I heard a rumour that there was no hope of my life upon my return to London I would have escaped for the safeguard of my life and not for any ill intent or conspiracy against the State The like reason of suspicion arose in that I perswaded Sir Lewis Stenkly my Guardian to flee with me from London to France but my answer to this is as to the other that onely for my safeguard and nought else was my intent as I shall answer before the Almighty It is alledged that I feigned my self sick and by art made my body full of blisters when I was at Salisbury True it is I did so the reason was because I hop'd thereby to defer my coming before the King and Councel and so by delaying might have gained time to have got my pardon I have an example out of Scripture for my warrant that in case of necessity and for the safeguard of my life David feigned himself foolish and mad yet it was not imputed to him for sin Concerning the second imputation laid to my charge that I should speak scandalous and reproachful words of my Prince there is no witness against me but onely one and he a Chymical Frenchman whom I entertained rather for his Jeasts then Judgement This man to incroach himself into the favor of the Lords and gaping after some great reward hath falsely accused me of seditious speeches against his Majesty against whom if I did either speak or think a thought hurtful or prejudicial Lord blot me out of the Book of Life It is not a time to flatter or fear Princes for I am a Subject to none but deatb therefore have a charitable conceit of me that I know to swear is an offence to swear falsely at any time is a great sin but to swear falsely before the presence of Almighty God before whom I am forthwith to appear were an offence unpardonable therefore think me not now rashly or untruly to confirm or protest any thing As for other Objections in that I was brought perforce into England that I carried sixteen thousand pounds in Money out of England with me more then I made known that I should receive Letters from the French King and such like with many protestations he utterly denied Having ended his Speech he saluted the Company and after he had made his addresses to heaven submitted his neck to the stroak of the Axe Thus ended this worthy Knight a man of such admirable parts that he is more to be admired then sufficiently praised Leaving him to his repose till the last great day I shall onely set down this following Epitaph made by himself Even such is time which takes in trust Our youth and joyes and all we have And payes us but with age and dust Within the dark and silent grave When we have wandred all our wayes Shuts up the story of our dayes From the which earth death grave and dust The Lord shall raise me up I trust The Life of Mr. William Cambden THis learned Antiquary who so diligently preserved the memories of many noble Families of this Nation and whose laborious Works have been a great light to Histories already extent and such as future Ages shall produce is deservedly placed amongst our Heroes that he whose pen made so many others live in his never dying Brittania may likewise live here in this present Work amongst the rest of our English Worthies He was Son to Master Sampson Cambden descended of an ancient family in Staffordshire his Mother was extracted from the worshipful family of the Curwens in Cumberland as he himself witnesseth in his Britannia He was born in the Old-Baily in the City of London Anno. 1550. That he was well educated his learned Works make manifest being put to School first in Christ-Church then at Pauls At fifteen years of age so soon was he ripened for the University he went to Magdalen Colledge in Oxford where having much profited he removed from thence to Broadgates Hall where he gave some proofs of his learning in those short Latin graces the Servitors still use From thence he went to Christ-Church where he attained to such eminency as his abilities preferred him to be Master of Westminster School There is as a learned Gentleman observes scarce any profession in the Common-wealth more necessary which is so slightly performed The reasons whereof he takes to be these First young Schollars make this calling their refuge yea perchance before they have taken any degree in the Vniversity commence Schoolmasters in the Countrey as if nothing else were required to set up this profession but onely a Rod and a Ferula Secondly others who are able use it onely as a passage to better preferment to patch the rents in their present fortune till they can provide a new one and betake themselves to some more gainful calling Thirdly they are disheartned from doing their best with the miserable reward which in some places they receive being Masters to the Children and slaves to their Parents Lastly being grown rich they grow negligent and scorn to touch the School but by the proxie of an Vsher But our Schoolmaster was of another temper studying his Schollars natures as carefully as
French would advance no nearer until spying their advantage the English being to go over a narrow passage having salt-pits on either side they then came on amain powring great vollies of shot upon the English and having routed the Lord Montjoyes Troops and taken him prisoner they fell upon Sir William Coninghams but they most bravely fought it out even to the last man had the Lord Montjoyes Troops done the like a quarter so many had not perished but cowards are foes to their own lives and gain onely this by running away to be killed more basely and further off from their fellows The rear being thus routed they fall on upon the main Battel but Sir Edward Conways who commanded the van facing about made them retreat and having left a select company of musquetiers to guard the pass until night they burnt the Bridge lodging that night in a place called the Loose and the next day went on board Thus returned home the English with extream loss whereof the Duke as in Command the chief so did he share chiefly in the disgrace the French scoffingly saying Though the Duke could not take the Cittidal of St. Martins yet it was odds but he would take the Tower of London Doctor Moor also a Prebend of Winchester took occasion in his Sermon to cite that of Augustus in Cornelius Tacitus Quintili Vare redde Legiones which saith the Historian perished propter inscitiam temeritatem Ducis giving him a quaint wipe the Amphibology of the word Dux thus as the Poet hath it When we do think puft up with hope that we do fly aloft Then soonest clipped are our wings by angry stars full oft But the King was not so daunted at this disaster but that he resolved to give one pluck more for the relief of Rochell which the Earl of Denbigh attempting with ill success a third Fleet was made ready then which there never before appeared a more gallant Armado formed by our Nation The Duke desirous to recover his reputation much blemished by his discomfiture at the Isle of Rhee was by the King made Commander in chief but before his setting forth being at breakfast at Portsmouth with Subize and others of principal quality one John Felton sometimes a Lieutenant to a Foot Company in the Regiment of Sir John Ramsey watching his opportunity as the Duke was passing through an Entry with Sir Thomas Frier to whom he declined his ear in the posture of attention in the very instant of Sir Thomas his retiring from the Duke Felton with a knife stab'd him on the left side into the very heart saying as he struck him The Lord have mercy upon thy soul a Speech which the Duke had scarce time to say for himself such effusion of blood flowing from the wound after the knife was pulled out that he presently expired being onely heard to say some report with an oath The Villain hath killed me The motives that induced Felton to this execrable murther are said to be these he had long and in vain waited for his arrears of pay due for former service again he was twice repulsed upon his Petition for a Captains place and others super-inducted over his head But least private malice should be thought his onely motive to the fact he declared it to be the late Remonstrance of the House of Commons sticking a paper to the lining of his hat wherein he had written as followeth I would have no man commend me for doing it but rather discommend themselves for if God had not taken away their hearts for their sins he had not gone so long unpunished John Felton The man is cowardly base in mine opinion and deserves neither the name of a Gentleman or Souldier that is unwilling to sacrifice his life for the honour of God his King and Countrey John Felton Felton for this fact suffered at Tyburne very penitent and sorry for what he had done his body was from thence conveyed to Portsmouth and there hung in Chains Of this fact of Feltons a modern Wit thus writes Some say the Duke was vertuous gracious good And Felton basely did to spill his blood If it be so what did he then amiss In sending him the sooner to his Bliss All deaths seem pleasant to a good mans eye And bad men onely are affraid to dye Chang'd he this Kingdom to possess a better Then is the Duke become John Feltons debtor Many are said to be the warnings the Duke had of his end some two moneths before one Doctor Lamb a creature of the Dukes was by the rude multitude slain in the Streets they telling him as they were belabouring him with stones and cudgels That were his Master the Duke there they would give him as much This time also was common in many mens mouths Let Charles and Mary do what they can The Duke shall dye like Doctor Lamb. The same day that Lamb was slain the Dukes Picture fell down in the High Commission Chamber at Lambeth These with other the like accidents fore-bodeing something of present fatality to the Duke being spoken of in the Lady Davis her hearing she for certain reply'd No his time is not come till August The same Lady also as I was informed by a Gentleman of near relation unto me did by her servant certifie the Duke that at such time as a Mole which he had upon his Shoulder should go away the Duke should dye which accordingly came to pass But the most strange if true is that related by Lilly in his Observations on the Life and Death of King Charles namely that a Daemon appeared to one Parker in the likeness of Sir George Villers the Dukes Father bidding him go and tell his Son that unless he refrained such and such company he should ere long be killed and withal shewed him a knife appointed for the act Parker told the Duke of these things but being an old man was judged to doat not long after the Daemon appeared to him again telling him that the Duke should not long survive and also bid him set his own house in order for he should shortly dye Both which things accordingly came to pass He died the thirty sixth year of his age a time which by the course of Nature he might have doubled Never did so great a man fall so much unlamented though causeless as by the success of Affairs wise men have since determined The Life of Sir HENRY VVOTTON TO survey him at one single prospect Sir Henry Wotton was born at Bocton-Hall in the County of Kent in the year of our Redemption 1568. descended of an ancient and honourable Family great cherishers of Learning as appears by that excellent Antiquary Master William Lambert in his Perambulation of Kent He had three elder Brothers all Knights men eminent for Wisdom and Piety by all which it appears that Sir Henry Wotton was a branch of such a Kindred as left a stock of reputation to their posterity His Childehood being spent under the
in his Fourth Book and the 21. Chap. speaking of the time when they should be received neque illud praetereundum c. Neither is it to be over passed that it is remembred that to Legates and Forreign Nations admitted into the Senate the Roman Consuls were not accustomed to give any answers but onely in Latin who being admitted after the manner of the Fathers the Senate gave them power of that they would have but the Greeks by their Deputies appointed did declare their mindes if any body required any thing And the Arrebates and Belonaces did assemble their Councels by the sound of Trumpets but if they would speak any thing in their own Language to such being admitted in the Senate were interpreters given by whom they did propound what was needful and receive the agreement and answers of the Senate Many have been the priviledges immunities and advantages they have derived to their own honour and the happiness of those that have employed them Francis Dandalus the Venetian Orator being sent Ambassador into France to pacifie the French King and the great Clergy-man for that he was displeased with the States of Venice for the receiving of Feraria when he had divers times used his best arguments yet could not remove the anger of the Bishop of Rome falling on his hands and knees no compulsive but a free way of introducing the subtilty of his design being raised by the Pope he powred forth such a flood of Rhetorick that he so wrought on him that he reconciled him and the Venetians When Clement the Seventh Bishop of Rome and Charles the Fifth the Emperour had met at Bononia about divers affairs Francis Alvarez the Legate of Denide commonly called Presto John was King of the Abyssine Ethyopians which do possess the middle part of Africa being come to Benonia by the conduct of the Ambassadors of John King of Portugal did in the Senate in the name of the King promise Faith and Obedience to Clement Bishop of Rome in the year of our Lord 1533. For which wise dispatch of his Embassy after ages took notice of him I shall forbear to inlarge my self and onely insert a few of their Apothegms Policartidas an Orator being sent with others to certain Dukes when it was demanded of them whether his coming was publick or private they answered that if they had obtained the effect of their message they came publickly if not privately which subtil answer did admirably manifest their good intentions to their Countrey for if the legation succeeded to their mindes they would give the glory to their Countrey if otherwise they would have the reproach and repulse to appertain to the Common-wealth The Lacedemonians sending but one Legate to King Demetrius he highly resented it for an indignity asking if one man were enough to come to him To which the Ambassador answered Yes Sir we deemed it sufficient to send but one to one man Such another answer did Agis the Son of Archidamus use being sent to Philip King of Macedon When certain Lacons a people of Greece inhabiting Sparta went Ambassador to the tyrant Ligdanus who often deferred conference with them excusing himself that he was somewhat sickly they desired the messengers to return him this answer That they came to talk not to wrestle with the King The Romans dispatcht their Ambassadors to Bithnia to asswage a domestical breach betwixt Drusus the Father and Nicomodes the Son which Legates were such as one of them had many scars of wounds in his head and face another was diseased in his feet and the third but of a slender Wit of whom M. Cato was wont to jeast that the same Embassie lacked both head feet and heart Two Legates saith Poggius being sent from the Councel of Constance to Petrus de Luna the false Pope did amongst other bitter chidings and hard speeches which they used together upon the Title of the Pontificiality after that the Pope had said of himself This is the ark of Noah meaning that all the power of the Pontifical Sea remained in him they answered there were many beasts in the Ark of Noah expressing thereby that there were many vices in the Pope and many wicked men in the Church These with infinite more might be collected out of our English Authors but to knit up this discourse wherein I have epitomized the office management gravity magnanimity policy witty and wise answers of Ambassadors to conclude these messengers of Princes to Princes had as we may allude their first institution and original from the order of Archangels who have been the Ambassadors of God to such persons as God hath honoured in great matters either of revelation or successes of kingdoms as Gabrel was to Daniel or of opening some strange things as he was also to the Virgin of the conception of the Saviour of souls But enough of and perchance too much to some cavelling heads that there hath been so large a digression which I have onely enterprised to illustrate the perfection of our Knight in this illustrious employment he having observed all the laws of Ambassadors and so mannaged the Affairs of his Prince that he was the wonder of those times he lived in and an admirable example for ours Sir Henry Wotton returning home in the latter year of King James his Reign his estate much wasted with his continued Embassies very desirous to enjoy the quiet of a retired life he obtained to be made Provost of Eaton Colledge which how well it suited to his fancy this speech of his to a friend will sufficiently testifie I thank God and the King by whose goodness I am now in this condition a condition which that Emperour Charles the Fifth seem'd to approve who after so many remarkable victories when his glory was great in the eyes of all men freely gave his Crown and the Cares that attended it to Philip his Son making a holy retreat to a Cloystral life where he might by devout meditations consult with God which the rich or busie men seldome do and have leisure both to examine the errours of his life past and prepare for that great day wherein all flesh must give an account of their actions And after a kinde of tempestuous life I now have the like advantage from him that makes the out-goings of the morning to praise him even from my God whom I daily magnifie for this particular mercy of an exemption from business a quiet minde and a sufficient maintenance even in this part of my life when my age and infirmities seem to sound me a retreat from the pleasures of this world and invite me to a contemplation in which I have ever taken the greatest felicity This contemplative life he continued to his end so that this place seemed to be the beginning of his happiness the Colledge being to his minde as a quiet Harbour to a Sea-faring-man after a tempestuous Voyage where by the bounty of the pious Founder his very food and raiment were plentifully
that some conclude his death was for necessity and rather for the satisfaction of rancourous apprehensions then for any guiltiness in the cause The lower House perceiving by the Lieutenants insinuating and witty defences a great encrease of his friends in the Lords House they resolved of no more hearing of him in publique but to draw up a Bill of Attainder and present the same to the Lords whereby first the matter of Fact should be declared to have been sufficiently proved and then in the matter of Law that he had incurred the censure of Treason for intending to subvert the Fundamentall Laws of the Kingdom And they were confident the Lords would ratifie and approve of this Bill of theirs and give judgement accordingly But the Lords fearing such Proceedings as a beaten path troden out to the ruine of their own lives and estates told the House of Commons that they themselves as competent Judges would by themselves onely give sentence in the Cause nor was there course suitable to the practise and State of the Kingdom the safety of the Nobility or to Equity or common Justice It was replied by them of the Lower House that they were resolved to go on with their Bill and if the same should be rejected by the Lords they feared a rupture and division might follow to the utter ruine and desolation of the whole Kingdom That no content would be given to the Subject unless the man who had so much intruded upon their right and discontented the people might be punished as a Traytour and dealt withal according to his demerits But the Lords were resolute in their first determinations and resolved to give him a fair hearing in the matter of Law whereupon his Councel were called to the Bar Master Lane the Princes Attorney Master Gardiner Recorder of London Master Loe and Master Lightfoot who spake both much and to the purpose Yet would this nothing satisfie the House of Commons no though the King in person in a set Speech declared unto them That there never was such a project nor had the Lord Strafford ever offered such advice for the transporting of an Irish Army into England neither had advised him to establish an Arbitrary Government that he would never in heart nor hand concur with them to punish him as a Traytour and desir'd therefore that they would think of some other way how the business might be composed Nor should it ever be less dear to him though with the loss of his dearest blood to protect the innocent then to punish the guilty But this made the House of Commons a great deal the more pressing fearing by the Kings peremptory answer that there was some plot underhand But the House of Commons were not so much inflamed by the Kings Speech as the common people who to the number of five or six thousand having Weapons and Battoons in their hands came to VVestminster and at the entering at every Coach cryed out for speedy justice and execution with a wonderful and strange noise After this they drew up the names of those either in the House of Commons or the House of Lords whom they imagined to favour the Lieutenant and gave them the Title of Straffordians with this close That all those and all other enemies to the Common-wealth should perish with him and did post up the names of fifty five at the Corner of Sir William Brunkards house in the old Pallace-yard in Westminster writing underneath This and more shall be done to the Enemies of Justice afore-written The House of Commons in the mean time were not idle but brought forth a Protestation or band of Association as they termed it much like the Covenant taken not long before in Scotland which without further process or delay was subscribed by the whole House except the Lord Digby and an Uncle or Friend of his Not long after the Bill against the Lord Stafford past the Lords there were forty five present of which nineteen voyced for him and twenty six against him the greatest part of his friends absented themselves upon pretence whether true or suppositious that they feared the multitude otherwise his suffrages had more then counterpoised the voters for his death Nothing wanted now but the Kings assent to this Bill which the same afternoon was desired of him the King desired respite for two dayes consulting in the mean time with some Bishops and Judges what to do in this case who as the sequel shows advised him thereunto so that we may herein admire at the wonderful Providence of God to suffer not onely the King and the Country but the Church too to be involved in his blood who had stood so stiffly in the Churches maintenance But nothing gained his Majesties assent thereunto so much as a Letter from the Lieutenant himself wherein he desired his Majesty that for the preventing of such mischiefs as might happen by his refusal to pass the Bill intimating his consent therein as this following Letter of his testifies May it please your sacred Majesty It hath been my greatest grief in all these troubles to be taken as a person which should endeavour to represent and set things amiss between your Majesty and your people and to give Counsels tending to the disquiet of the three Kingdoms Most true it is that this mine own private condition considered it hath been a great madness since through your gracious favour I was so provided as not to expect in any kinde to mend my fortune or please my minde more then by resting where your bounteous hands had placed me Nay it is most mightily mistaken for unto your Majesty it is well known my poor and humble advises concluded still in this That your Majesty and your people could never be happy till there were a right understanding betwixt you and them no other means to effect and settle this happiness but by the Councel and assent of the Parliament or to prevent the growing evils upon this State but by intirely putting your self in the last resort upon the loyalty and good affections of your English Subjects Yet such is my misfortune this truth findeth little credit the contrary seemeth generally to be believed and my self reputed as something of separation between you and your people under a heavier censure then which I am perswaded no Gentleman can suffer Now I understand the mindes of men are more incensed against me notwithstanding your Majesty hath declared that in your Princely opinion I am not guilty of treason nor are you satisfied in your conscience to pass the Bill This bringeth me into a very great strait there is before me the ruine of my Children and Family hitherto untouched in all the branches of it with any foul crimes Here is before me the many ills which may befal your sacred Person and the whole Kingdom should your self and Parliament part less satisfied one with the other then is necessary for the preservation both of King and people Here are before me
Discord being now grown a Sea of Dissention the King and Queen poste to Hampton Court yet before he went that he might clearly demonstrate his real intentions to compose all differences he consented to the Petition of the Parliament to exclude the Bishops out of the House an act very prejudicial to himself for by this means the scale of Votes in the upper House which oft had turned to his advantage did by this diminution encline most commonly the other way Having staid about a moneth at Hampton Court the Queen went into Holland to accompany her Daughter Mary who was lately married to the young Prince of Orange The King the Prince the Palsgrave the Duke of Richmond and some other of the Nobility went down into the North intending to seize on the Magazine at Hull but the Parliament had before sent down one of their own Members Sir John Hotham who from the Walls denyed his Majesty entrance the King complaineth hereof to the Parliament but they justifie his Act yet what grains of affection towards his Majesty were wanting in Hull were found superabundant in the City of York who with the Counties adjacent declare unanimously for his Majesty Encouraged here with August 22. 1642. he sets up his Standard at Nottingham The Parliament in the mean time raised a considerable Army whereof the Earl of Essex commanded in chief And now were the gates of Janus unlocked and stern Mars released out of prison the seldom heard Drum rattled in every corner and the scarce known Trumpet sounded in every street now Factions banded Nick-names were invented Oaths framed and amongst the rest the Covenant obtruded against which his Majesty publisht this following Proclamation His Majesties Proclamation forbidding the tendring or taking of the late Covenant called A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation c. Whereas there is a printed Paper entituled A Solemn League and Covenant for Reformation and defence of Religion the honour and happiness of the King and the peace and safety of the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland pretended to be ordered by the Commons in Parliament on the one and twentieth day of September last to be printed and published which Covenant though it seems to make specious expressions of Piety and Religion is in truth nothing else but a trayterous and seditious Combination against us and against the established Religion and Laws of this Kingdom in pursuance of a trayterous design and endeavour to bring in Forreign Forces to invade this Kingdom We do therefore straitly charge and command all our loving Subjects of what degree or quality soever upon their Allegiance that they presume not to take the said seditious and trayterous Covenant And we do likewise hereby forbid and inhibit all our Subjects to impose administer or tender the said Covenant as they and every of them will answer the contrary at their utmost and extreamest perils Given at our Court at Oxon the 9. day of October in the nineteenth year of our Reign Hitherto have we beheld England like a curious Garden flourishing with all the choicest flowers both for scent and colour that ever Flora watred with pearly drops or Titans radiant beams gave birth unto whose flourishing branches adorn'd with Turtles twinn'd in chaste embraces as if they simpathized of each others peaceful and fruitful vertues that Nature her self was enamour'd to walk into the twined Meanders of her curious Mazes here might you see the Princely Rose the King of Flowers so full of fragrancy that for its smell and colour it was the envy of all the world there might you see the Lilly Queen of Flowers there might you see the Olive Plants the Royal Progeny placed round about a table where Kings and Queens had used to feast the Nobility and Gentry emulating each other to excell in sweetness But now alas with our late discords the Scene is so altered that this curious Garden hath been over-run with Weeds I mean the miseries which followed upon these dissentions For as one writes the War went on with horrid rage in many places at one time and the fire once kindled cast forth through every corner of the Land not onely sparks but devouring flames insomuch as the Kindom of England was divided into more Battles then Counties nor had she more Fields then Skirmishes nor Cities then Sieges almost all her Palaces of Lords and great Houses being turned every where into Garrisons they fought at once by Sea and Land and through all England who could but lament the miseries of his Countrey sad spectacles were of plundering and firing Villages and the Fields otherwise waste and desolate rich onely and terribly glorious in Camps and Armies The Kings side at first prospered exceedingly the Earl of New Castle his General in the North overthrowing the Lord Fairfax and driving him into Hull in the West Sir William Waller a Parliament Chieftain was utterly defeated by the Lord Wilmot who came from Oxford with an Army of the Kings and having lost all his Army made haste to London and such as the fortune of the Field was was the condition of Towns and Garrisons for immediately after Wallers defeat the two greatest Cities of all the West were yielded up Bristol to Prince Rupert and Excester to Prince Maurice So that now the King was master of all the West save onely Glocester which he besieged with a Royal Army Essex himself the great General at the same time his Army decreasing suddenly some dying of sickness others for want forsaking their Colours was constrained to leave the Field and return to London quartering the sick and weak remnant of his Army at Kingston and other adjacent places until a recruit could be made for him so that it was judged by wise men if the King leaving Glocester had marched directly with his victorious Army to London which was then not at all fortified and miserably distracted with Factions within it or besides if the Earl of New Castle letting alone the besieging of Hull which likewise proved fruitless had poured out his numerous Forces upon the Eastern associated Counties he had been more successful then he was But Fata viam invenient Destiny will finde wayes that never were thought of makes way where it findes none and that which is decreed in Heaven shall be effected by means of which earth can take no notice of The King to no purpose thus spending his time at Glocester Essex the whiles recruiteth his Army with which marching from London eighty miles he raiseth the Siege and having relieved the Town in his retreat from thence encountered and vanquished the Kings Army near to the Town of Newbery Both sides excepting onely the inexhaustible riches and strength of the City of London by this overthrow seemed of equal strength yet each of them endeavours to make themselves stronger the Parliament calling in to their assistance the Scots the King the Irish The Earl of Leven was General of the Scots to whom joyned the Earl
Isle of Wight for a certain Letter was left on the Table whereby the King was advertised the there were some that laid wait for his life whereupon being frighted he privily fled from Hampton Court leaving a Letter behinde him written with his own hand to the Commissioners to be by them communicated to both Houses of Parliament in which Letter after he had discoursed somewhat about Captivity and the sweetness of Liberty he ended in these following words Now as I cannot deny but that my personal security is the urgent cause of this my retirement so I take God to witness that the publick Peace is no less before mine eyes And I can sinde no better way to express this my profession I know not what a wiser man may do then by desiring and urging that all chief interests may be heard to the end each may have just satisfaction as for example the Army for the rest though necessary yet I suppose are not difficult to consent ought in my judgement to enjoy the liberty of their consciences and have an act of Oblivion or Indempnity which should extend to the rest of all my Subjects and that all their Arrears should be speedily and duly paid which I will undertake to do so I may be heard and that I be not hindered from using such lawful and honest means as I shall chuse To conclude let me be heard with freedom honour and safety and I shall instantly break through this cloud of retirement and shew my self ready to be Pater Patriae Charles Rex The King had not been long in the Isle of Wight but he sends a Letter of great length to the Parliament in which he delivered his sense and opinion concerning the abolition of Episcopacy he disputed out of the dictates of his conscience much and gave touches also of other matters of all which he hoped that he should satisfie the Parliament with his reasons if he might personally treat with them therefore he earnestly desired to be admitted with honour freedom and safety to treat personally at London the Commissioners of Scotland with great vehemence also pressed that this desire of the King might be granted But the Parliament pretending tumults and innovations that might arise by the Kings coming to London which as they said was then full of Malignants sent down four Propositions to him to Sign which being done he should be admitted to a personal Treaty The four were these 1. That a Bill be passed into an act by his Majesty for settling of the Militia of the Kingdom 2. That a Bil be passed for his Majesties calling in of all Declarations Oaths and Proclamations against the Parliament and those who have adhered to them 3. For passing an Act that those Lords who were made after the great Seal was carried to Oxford may be made uncapable of sitting in the House of Peers ever after 4. That power may be given to the two Houses of Parliament to adjorn as the two Houses of Parliament should think fit The Commissioners of Scotland would seem in no wise to give their consent that these four Bills should be sent to the King before he treated at London therefore in a very long Declaration they protested against it the King likewise denyed to Sign them when they were sent unto him Upon which denyal a Declaration and Votes passed both Houses of Parliament in this manner The Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament after many addresses to his Majesty for the preventing and ending this unnatural War raised by him against the Parliament and Kingdom having lately sent four Bills to his Majesty which did contain onely matter of safety and security to the Parliament and Kingdom referring the composure of other differences to a personal Treaty with his Majesty and having received an absolute negative do hold themselves obliged to use their utmost endeavours speedily to settle the present Government in such a way as may bring the greatest security to this Kingdom in the enjoyment of the Laws and Liberties thereof and in order thereunto and that the Houses may receive no delay nor interruptions in so great and necessary a work they have taken their resolutions and passed these Votes following viz. Resolved c. by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that no application or address to be made to the King by any person whatsoever without leave of both Houses Resolved c. by the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament that the person or persons that shall make breach of this order shall incur the penalty of High Treason Resolved c. That the Lords and Commons do declare that they will receive no more any message from the King and do enjoyn that no person whatsoever do presume to receive or bring any message from the King to both or either of the Houses of Parliament or any other person To these Votes of Parliament the Army declared their consent and approbation and that they would live and dye in defence of the House of Commons but the people though before they were enraged against the King now seeing their errours resolved to plead his Cause Petitions upon Petitions are presented for a personal Treaty with the King for the disbanding of the Army and for the removal of all other grievances Langhorn Powel and Poyer three eminent Commanders who had done many and great services for the Parliament now declare themselves for the King and with an Army of 8000. men fortifie Pembroke and Chepstow Castles Sir Thomas Glemham in the North seizes upon Carlisle and Sir Marmaduke Langdale upon Barwick and fortified it the strong Castle also of Pomfret was then taken by the Royalists and the Governour stain Against these Sir Thomas Fairfax was marching Northwards but far greater dangers detained him in the South for the Kentish men not far from Gravesend were gotten together into an Army with whom were above twenty Knights Esquires and Gentlemen of the Countrey and amongst them divers Commanders formerly of the Kings Armies upon the approach of the Parliaments Army some two thousand of them march to Maidstone which they resolved to make good against the Army Fairfax after the dispute of some passages breaks up to them and assaults the Town with a great deal of boldness they on the other side defend themselves with unspeakable courage at last the Kentish men are overcome 200. being slain and about 1400. taken prisoners But the Earl of Norwich with about 3500. with much ado kept together and got over the River Thames into Essex whereupon Sir Charles Lucas raises what strength he could possible in that County to whom joyned the Lord Capel the Lord Loughborough Sir George Lisle Sir Bernard Gascoigne Sir William Compton with many more Gentlemen and Souldiers and having first taken the Committee-men at Chelmesford they marched to Colchester a Town of great Antiquity but the people heretofore accounted no great friends to Monarchy nor the Town of that strength to withstand so enraged
undertake his cause and use his best endeavours The King applauding his magnanimous resolution giving him thanks encouraged him to fit himself chearfully for so great a work and the better to carry on the design the King sent the Earl of Antrim into Ireland who engaged himself to be with Montross in Argile a part of Scotland bordering upon Ireland with ten thousand men by the first of April 1644. this promise being past to him in December 1643. for a sTock of men to set up withal the King wrote to the Marquess of New Castle to furnish him with aid and sent Sir John Cockeram his Ambassadour with a Commission and Instruction for forreign Aids and Arms. This being done he sets forward in his journey from Oxford towards Scotland having in his company about two hundred Horse most of them Noblemen and Gentlemen who had formerly been Commanders in Forreign Countreys Being come to Durham he sends the Kings Instructions to the Marquess of Newcastle and the next day they met and conferred but Newcastles wants were so great that he could spare him at present onely an hundred Horse and two Brasse Field Peeces but sent his Orders to his Officers and Commanders in Cumberland and Westmerland to afford him all the assistance they could who accordingly met him near to Carlile with eight hundred Foot and three Troops of Horse With these small Forces he enters Scotland but having come to the River Anan upon occasion of a Mutiny among the English most of them fly their Colours and run back to England Notwithstanding he with his own men came to Dumfrise and took the Town into protection upon surrender where he stayed a while that he might be ready to entertain Antrim and his Irish but the time appointed being past and no news stirring of them the Covenanters gathering themselves together on every side to secure himself from being surprized he returns to Carlile And not loving to lie idle joyns with the Kings Forces in Northumberland takes the Town and Castle of Morpet as also an hundred Foot at the mouth of the River of Tine and afterwards victuals New Castle then intending to joyn his Forces with Prince Rupert who was coming to raise the Siege at York he made all the haste he could but met him not till he was upon his retreat the day after that unfortunate Battle All things thus failing him he returns to Carlile and sends the Lord Ogleby and Sir William Rolluck disguised into Scotland to discover the state of the Countrey who returning back brought him word that all things were in a desperate condition and therefore counselled him to bend his course some other way But Montross thinking it unworthiness in him to despair of so good a cause resolves upon a strange adventure for delivering those few Gentlemen that had been constant unto him to the Lord Ogleby to be conducted to the King he with Sir William Rolluck and one Sibbald being disguized entred Scotland Montross passing as Sibbalds man Thus making all the haste they could they came at last to the house of his Couzen Patrick Graham of Innisbrake not far from the River of Tay in the Sherifdom of Perth not long had he been there but he receives news of eleven hundred of Irish sent over by Antrim who were then upon the Mountains who being made to understand of his being there they came marching unto him and submitted to his command The next day the men of Athol to the number of eight hundred put themselves in Arms and joyned with Montross so that now having gotten this handful of men he desires to be in action impatient therefore of further delay he marches from thence with a resolution to set upon his enemies and having marched as far as Bucknith five hundred more under the command of the Lord Kilpont Son to the Earl of Taith joyned with him by whom he understood that the Covenanters were thick in Arms at a Rendezvouz at Perth whereupon with all the haste he could he speedeth thither these were commanded by the Lord Elcho who upon Montrosses approach provided to fight they were in number six thousand Foot and seven hundred Horse so that contemning the paucity of their enemies they grew to a foolish confidence of Victory but Montross so well ordered his Army that their confidence failed them for joyning Battel they were overthrown two thousand being slain and more taken prisoners The City of Perth upon this overthrow submitted her self to the Conquerour to whom he did not the least harm where having staid three dayes many of his Athol men returning home he marches with the rest of his Forces to Aberdeen but the Town having a strong Garrison therein refused to submit and he thinking it no wisdom to hazard the honour he had gotten by his late Victory upon the doubtful success of a Siege turns away towards Esk whither came to him the Lord Ogleby with his two Sons Sir Thomas and Sir David who with admirable constancy continued with him to the very end of the War And now receiving intelligence that an Army of the Covenanters under the command of the Lord Burleigh lay at Aberdeen with long marches he hies thither sets upon them and after a long fight puts them to the rout with the loss of almost all their Foot who flying for refuge unto the City Montrosses men came in thronging amongst them through the Gates and Posterns and laid them on heaps all over the Streets This Battel was fought September the 12. 1644. After this defeat Montross calling his Souldiers back to their Colours entred the City and allowed them two dayes rest In the mean time news was brought that Argile was hard by with far greater Forces then those they had dealt with last whereupon he removes to Kintor a Village ten miles off from Aberdeen expecting some of the Gordons would have joyned with him but none appearing he resolved to withdraw his Forces into the Mountains and Fastnesses for though he had fought twice indeed very prosperously it could not be expected that seeing he was so beset on all sides with great and numerous Armies he should be able to hold out alwayes without relief whereupon hiding his Ordnance in a Bog he marches to an old Castle called Rothmurk intending to pass over the River of Spey but on the other side were the number of five thousand up in Arms to hinder his passage wherefore to save his Army from being oppressed with the enemies Horse he turned into Badenoth a Rocky and Mountainous Countrey here he fell very dangerously sick but recovering again he sends Mac-donel who commanded the Irish with a Party into the Highlands to invite them to take up Arms with him and if they would not be invited to force them he himself passes into the North of Scotland and having staid a while for recruit at Strathbogy he removed to Faivy Castle and possest it Secure now as he thought from Argile his confidence had well near
Prisoner at the Bar presented before the Court here take your Jury of Life and Death if therefore Master Lilburne you will challenge them or any of them you must challege them before that they go to be sworn Cryer Every man that can inform my Lords the Justices and the Atturney General of the Commonwealth against Master John Lilburn Prisoner at the Bar of any Treason or Fellony committed by him let them come forth and they shall be heard for the Prisoner stands upon his deliverance and all others bound to give their attendance are upon pain of forfeiture of their Recognizance to come in Master Lilburne desired to be heard a few words the Judge told him he must talk in his legal time and take legal exceptions and then he should be heard till midnight Master Lilburne desired to be heard he said he did not know the faces of two men that were read to him therefore he desired that he might have time to consider of them Judge Keeble told him that he ought not to have it Master Lilburne desired the Judge that he would at least vouchsafe him to have some friends by him that are Citizens of London that knew them to give him information of their quality and conditions without which he said they might as well hang him without a Tryal Mr. Sprat or Master Robert Lilburn challenged one of the Jury which the Judge excepted against and commanded the Fellow in the white cap should come out there pull him out Master Lilburne replied that they did not deal civilly according to their own Law and now there was a full noise the whole cry was to pull down the Stag of the Petition of Right The Jury being called he excepted against several persons of the Jury six lived about Smithfield one in Gosling-Street two in Cheapside two in Broad-street one in Friday-street After his particular exception Master Broughton proceeds and reads his Indictment Hold up thy hand John Lilburne Thou standest here indicted of High Treason by the name of John Lilburn late of London Gentleman for that thou as a false Traytour not having the fear of God before thine eyes but being stirred and moved up by the instigation of the Devil didst endeavour not onely to disturb the peace and tranquility of this Nation but also the government thereof to subvert now established without King or House of Lords in the way of a Commonwealth and a free State and happily established and the Commons in Parliament assembled being the supream Authority of this Nation of England to disgrace and into a hatred base esteem infamy and scandal with all the good true and honest persons of England to bring into hatred that is to say that thou the said John Lilburne on the first day of October in the year of our Lord 1649. and on divers other dayes and times both before and after in the Parish of Mary the Archess in the Ward of Cheap London aforesaid of thy wicked and devillish minde and imagination falsely malitiously advisedly and trayterously as a false Traytor by writing and imprinting and openly declaring that is to say by a certain scandalous poysonous and trayterous writing in paper entituled A salva libertate and by another scandalous poysonous and trayterous Book entituled An Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver Cromwel and his son-in-law Henry Ireton Esquires late Members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to publick view by Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburn close Prisoner in the Tower of London for his real true and zealous affection to the liberties of this Nation and by another scandalous poysonous and trayterous Book imprinted and entituled An Out-cry of the yong men and Apprentices of London or an inquisition after the lost fundamental Laws and Liberties of England directed August 29. 1649. in an Epistle to the private Souldiers of the Army especially all those that signed the solemn Engagement at New-Market Heath the fifth of June 1647. but more especially the private Souldiers of the Generals Regiment of Horse that helped to plunder and destroy the honest and true hearted Englishmen trayterously defeated at Burford the fifteenth of May 1649. And also by another scandalous poysonous and traiterous Book intituled The legal fundamental liberties of the people of England revised asserted and vindicated didst publish that the Government aforesaid is tyranical usurped and unlawful and that the Commmons Assembled in Parliament are not the Supreme Authority of this Nation and further that thou the said John Lilburne as a false Traitor God before thine eyes not having but being moved and led by the instigation of the Devil endeavouring and maliciously intending the Government aforesaid as is aforesaid well and happily established thou the said John Lilburne afterwards that is to say the aforesaid first day of October in the year of our Lord 1649. aforesaid and divers other dayes and times as well before as after at London aforesaid that is to say in the Parish and Ward aforesaid London aforesaid maliciously advisedly and traiterously didst plot contrive and endeavour to stir up and to raise force against the aforesaid Government and for the subverting and alteration of the said Government and to do those wicked malicious and traiterous advisement to put in execution c. and thou the said John Lilburne afterwards that is to say the aforesaid first day of October in the year of our Lord 1649. aforesaid and divers dayes and times as well before as after at London aforesaid that is to say in the Parish and Ward aforesaid of thy depraved minde and most wicked imagination in and by the aforesaid scandalous poysonous and trayterous book Intituled An impeachment of high Treason against Oliver Cromwel and his son-in-law Henry Ireton Esquires late Members of the late forcible dissolved House of Commons presented to publick view by Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne close prisoner in the Tower of London for his real true and zealous affection to the Liberties of his native Countrey falsly maliciously advisedly and traiterously didst publickly declare amongst other things in the said Book those false scandalous malicious and traiterous words following but my true friends meaning the friends of the said John Lilburne I meaning the foresaid John Lilburne shall here take upon me the boldness considering the great distractions of the present times to give a little further advice to our friends aforesaid from whose company or society or from some of them hath been begun and issued out the most transcendent clear rational and just things for the peoples liberties and freedoms That the foresaid John Lilburne hath seen or read in this Nation as your notable and excellent Petition of May the 20th 1647. burnt by the hand of the common-hangman recorded in my book called Rash Oaths Unwarrantable page 29 30 31 32 33 34 35. with divers Petitions of that nature and the Petition of the 19th of January 1648. recorded in the following discourse page 45 46 47 48. and the
Masculine Petition of the eleventh of September 1648. so much owned by petitions out of several Counties yea and by the Officers of the Armies large Remonstrance from Saint Albones the sixteenth of November 1648. page 67.68 69. the subtance of all which I thou the aforesaid John Lilburne meaning conceive is contained in the printed sheet of paper signed by my fellow prisoners Mr. William Walwin Mr. Richard Overton and Mr. Thomas Prince and my self dated the first of May 1649. and intituled The Agreement of the free people of England which false scandalous and traiterous Book called the Agreement of the people of England tends to the alteration and subversion of the Government aforesaid the principles of the aforesaid Agreement I meaning your self the said John Lilburne hope and desire you the friends of the aforesaid John Lilburne meaning will make the final centre and unwavering standard of all your desires hazards and endeavours as to the future settlement of the peace and Government of this distressed wasted and divided Nation the firme establishing of the principles therein contained being that onely which will really and in good earnest marry and knit the interest what ever it be that dwels upon them unto the distressed or oppressed Commons of this Nation Not to instance the particular application how these and his other Books were stigmatized more at large in the Indictment as also his traiterous intents purposes and designs to their extent displayed The Indictment being reading and the noise of the people in the Hall great the prisoner said he could not hear and had some few lines before read over to him Master Lilburne therefore prayed the people to hold their peace Gentlemen I beseech you be quiet speaking to the people Lord Keeble replyed Quiet you your self we will quiet them for you The Cryer said If any man can give any Evidence to my Lords the Justices of Oyer and Terminer against Mr. John Lilburne let him come in and he shall be heard Master Lilburne desired to be heard to speak two or three words Lord Keeble said It is not a fit time you shall be heard in your due time but hear what the witnesses say first Master Lilburne replyed He conceived he was much wronged in saying that he pleaded not guilty for he pleaded no such plea I appeal to the Court and to all that heard me whether I pleaded any such plea for before I pleaded the Court became engaged to me to take no advantage of my ignorance of the formalities of the Law and promised to give me as much priviledge as my Lord Duke of Hambleton and others enjoyed before the Court of Justice By your favours said he I pleaded conditionally and now I make my absolute Plea to the Indictment which was this that he excepted against the matter and form of it in matter time and place and humbly craved Counccel to assign and plead to the errors thereof He beseecht them to hear him a few words Sir with favour he humbly craved liberty to speak a few words he said I shall keep me close to that which is my right and my duty and that is to the matter of Law in my Indictment There are many things put into the Indictment by the Testimonies of Witnesses now sworn that are pretended to be acted in several Countries whether that be according to Law or no I do not know whether you will judge it so or no but sure I am if either those express Statutes that I have already cited to the Jury or the third part of Cooks Institutes be Law I ought not to be tryed for Treason but by a Jury of the next Neighbour-hood in the self-same County the fact is pretended to be committed in and therefore it is very questionable to me whether my Indictment be legal for that it chargeth me with facts of treason committed in three several Counties and that being matter of Law I desire Counsel to argue that point in the first place There are also a great many other exceptions I have to make against the Illegality of the Indictment and having particularized one I humbly crave that which is my right by Law that I may have Counsel assigned to me you have said you will do what shall become ingenious and understanding men and just Judges in it and therefore I crave leave according to my undoubted Right to have Counsel assigned to plead in matters of Law to the insufficiency of the Indictment and particularly to that point I have nominated There are also a great many things arise out of the matter of fact that will be points of Law likewise and some of them appear to be so there were never two clear and positive witnesses to one fact sworn against me but to most of the particular Treasons there is but one a piece and I cannot yield tha to be legal but questionable in the Law which I desire Counsel to dispute I know not any of all the Books fixed upon me but the Out-cry that hath two plain witnesses to it and yet it is not sworn that I am the Author of it the state of the first is this that I was at the Printers before the Copy was taken away and that I gave one of those Books to a Souldier to sum up the Notes of the matter of fact that thereon hath been endeavoured to be proved is too hard a task to be done by me immediately and therefore I conceive it but just for you to assign me Counsel to agree with the Counsel against me what are the points of fact upon the proof from which the points of Law are to be deducted and whatever you that call your selves my Judges may think of this yet I hope and verily believe that these my honest fellow Citizens that are the Gentlemen of my Jury who have thereby as men the issues of my life and death in their hands and will think it but a just and rational motion and request and therefore before them again I desire to have Counsel assigned to plead in Law to the errours of the Indictment and also to the Law arising upon the fact this with a larger priviledge was granted by one of your own brother-Judges to Major Rolfe last year as his right by Law and I do again appeal to Mr. Justice Nichols then one of Rolfes Counsel for the truth of this I pray speak Sir is it not true but the Judge sitting as if he had neither life nor soul Mr. Lilburne further said I hope Sir it doth not enter into your thoughts presently to put me to an undigested extemporary answer to so large an Indictment as that is that hath been read against me that it is possible for any mans brain if it were as big as the biggest Magazine in London to carry it in his head and Sir I hope you do not conceive that my memory is of a greater largeness then the greatest Magazine in this City you engaged unto me when I
this while having the subtlety not to acknowledge his own hand which occasioned Master Atturney Prideaux to say you may see the valiantness of the Champion for the peoples Liberties he will not own his own hand Master Lilburne said he denied nothing but would have them to prove it For his other Book an Impeachment of High Treason against Oliver and his Son-in-law Henry Ireton late Members of the late forcibly dissolved House of Commons presented to the publick view by Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne close Prisoner in the Tower of London Mr. Atturney said My Lord I doubt he will not own it Mr. Lilburne said again he should deny nothing he had done but he had read the Petition of Right which taught him to answer no questions against himself he said that he had read that it was practised by our Saviour Christ and his Apostles our Saviour answering Pilate with onely Thou sayest it For as to his Preparative to the hue and cry after Sir Arthur Haselrig the Lieutenant of the Tower said it was true that Lieutenant Collonel Lilburne gave him such a Book in the Tower but he could not say whether that was the same Book he delivered him Mr. Nutleigh and Mr. Radny two Witnesses put Mr. John shroudly to his shifts He was come to St. Francis his equivocation when one askt him that was newly robbed which way the thief went he stretching out his arm said not this way meaning through his sleeve For his Book called The Legal Fundamental Liberties of England the Atturney General did not put much weight upon that as also of his Book De salva libertate but he proceeded to produce an Act of Parliament of the fourteenth of May 1649. declaring what offences should be adjudged High Treason which were read over The chief clauses that Master Atturney insisted upon against Mr. Lilburne were these That if any person shall maliciously or advisedly publish by writing printing or openly declaring that the said Government is usurped tyrannical or unlawful or that the Commons assembled in Parliament are not the Supream Authority of this Nation These sayes Mr. Atturney we shall joyn together with Mr. Lilburnes books to which making particular application he inferred that Mr. Lilburns Books were accordingly trayterous to which purpose he caused the Clerk to make particular references to several pages of his Books Master Prideaux causing these words to be read out of one of Master Lilburns Books That the Parliament are usurping Tyrants and their new thing called their Councel of State undoubtedly the most if not all of them must go to Tyburn or Tower-hill there by the Halter or Ax to receive their just deserts to which he affixed Amen There is an Amen pronounced to us sayes Mr. Atturney let him have it that deserves it and according to the Atturneyes direction several pages of his Books were still quoted and read on then Mr. Atturney exprest himself to the Court to this purpose sayes he My Lords if I should say nothing more to the Iury but what hath been instanced and said there is pregnant proof already but yet my Lord further to prove the malice of Mr. Lilburnes heart and that he did intend to subvert and destroy the Parliament he caused the Clerk to read some other passages of his Books out of which he proved that he had blown a Trumpet for all his friends to take up Arms against the Parliament to which purpose he went about to seduce the Army which he calls his fellow Countrey-men Thus I have already exprest the particular advantages that might be for the Atturneys Plea to Master Lilburns detriment to the proving of no less then High Treason through several pages being quoted successively throughout every Book to that determined purpose Mr. Lilburne after he had compared the Judges to the Scribes and Pharisees and their usage of himself to Christ closing to his former expression Thou sayest Mr. Prideaux they are my Books he bid him prove it Mr. Prideaux speaking to the Jury said Gentlemen there are proofs enough and too many that he had no more to say to them but that if they respected the government of the Parliament the honour of the Councel of State the honour of the Nation or of the Army or the preservation of the Law they could not but say that the prisoner was guilty of such crimes and treasons as he was lawfully accused of and accordingly they could not but finde him so He ended that he desired the Act of Treason might be made use of Master Lilburne again pretended himself to be tired and oppressed but at the present not being understood he desired that he might refresh his body with the air which could not be obtained All this while he struggled out a little respite at last after these lingerings the Judge resolvingto be no longer delayed commanded the Chair to be taken away for it grew late Now it was time for Master Lilburne to show himself a right Collonel Iohn after his so long baffling and fooling of the Judges he was Counsel to himself he pleaded his own Cause with such subtilty with such a perfect recollection of all the former transactions of his Tryal and withal indisputably confident of his Jury he knew he could not tread awry he being left invulnerable except in the heel which was onely in his own most necessary inscrutable reservations he closed his long speech of clearing himself with some necessary insinuations to the Jury where the strength of this Sampson did chiefly lie To them he declared the integrity of his life his merits and the hard usage he had received from the present Government being interrupted he earnestly desired the Jury to take notice of the blood-thirsty cruelty and malice of his enemies all the while soundly clawing of his Jury with such words that he was happy in the care and conscience of his honest Jury fellow Citizens and Freemen of England who were to be the Conservators and Judges of his life having in themselves the Judicial power of the Land the Judges that sit there being no more if they pleased but as Ciphers to pronounce the sentence of their Clerks to say Amen They being at the best in their originals but the Norman Conquerers Obtruders He called his Jury the keepers of his life at whose hands if they did not do him justice the Lord would require his blood he desired the Lord God omnipotent to direct then the Governour of heaven and earth and all things therein contained to go along with them and give them counsel to do that which is just for his glory the people with one voice crying Amen Amen Which made the Judges look untowardly about them and caused Major Gen. Skippon to send for three fresh Companies more of Foot Souldiers After which Mr. Atturney General told the Jury that they had heard the evidence in the behalf of State laying the business to their conscience that they should be careful to do justice
the River of Trent purposely to let in the Waters the which course they continued till they had drowned 8000. Acres of Corn and Rape then growing and the Corn stacks generally half way with the greatest part of mens houses and habitations by the space of ten weeks Now fearing they should be punished for these insolencies and desirous to keep what they had thus gotten they drew to their assistance Mr. Lilburne J. W. and one Noddel a Solicitour who notwithstanding the Court of Exchequer made a decree for establishing the possession again with those from whom they had wrested it and that this decree was published upon the place in presence of divers of the inhabitants they openly declared That they would not give any obedience thereunto nor to any order of the Exchequer or Parliament and said they could make as good a Parliament themselves some said It was a Parliament of Clouts and that if they sent Forces they would raise Forces to resist them moreover from words they proceeded to action so that within ten dayes time they totally demolished the whole Town of Stantoft and other houses thereabouts to the number of eighty two habitations defaced the Church burnt Stables and Out-houses broke in pieces a Wind-mill destroyed all the Corn and Rape on the ground no less then 3400. Acres so as the dammage at that time was estimated to be 80000. pounds or more Moreover Lilburne with his associates agrees with several men of Epworth that in consideration of 2000 Acres of Land for him and J. W. and 200. Acres to Noddel they would defend them in all those riots and insurrections and maintain them in possession of the rest of the Land this bargain being made Lilburne with Noddel and others came to Stantoft Church on the Lords day and forced the Congregation from thence employing the same to the use of a Stable Cow-house Slaughter-house and to lay his Hay and Straw therein For these tumultuous practices as also for joyning with one Mr. Primate in seeking to defraud the Common-wealth of the Collory of Harraton in the County of Durham the sequestered estate of Thomas Wray Esquire which Mr. Primate pretended a right unto though upon examination it proved otherwise this following Act for his Fine and Banishment was publisht against him Whereas upon the fifteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred fifty one A Judgement was given in Parliament against the said Lieutenant Collonel John Lilburne for high Crimes and Misdemeanours by him committed relating to a false malicious and scandalous Petition heretofore presented to the Parliament by one Josiah Primate of London Leather-seller as by the due proceedings had upon the said Petition and the Judgement thereupon given at large appeareth Be it therefore enacted by this present Parliament and by the Authority of the same that the fine of three thousand pounds imposed upon the said John Lilburne to the use of the Common-wealth by the Judgement aforesaid shall be forthwith levied by due process of Law to the use of the Common-wealth accordingly And be it further enacted that the sum of two thousand pounds imposed by the said Judgement upon the said John Lilburne to be paid to Sir Arthur Hesilrige for damages and the sum of two thousand pounds likewise imposed by the said Judgement upon the said John Lilburne to be paid to James Russel Edward Winslow William Molins and Arthus Squib in the said Judgement named that is to say to each of them five hundred pounds for their damages shall be forthwith paid accordingly And that the said Sir Arthur Hesilrige James Russel Edward Winslow William Molins and Arthur Squib their Executors and Administrators shall have the like remedy and proceedings at Law respectively against the said John Lilburne his Heirs Executors Administrators and Assigns for the recovery of the respective sums so given to them by the said Judgement as if the said respective sums had been due by several Recognizances in the nature of a Statute Staple acknowledged unto them severally by the said John Lilburne upon the said fifteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred fifty one And be it likewise enacted by the Authority aforesaid that the said John Lilburne shall within twenty dayes to be accompted from the said fifteenth day of January one thousand six hundred fifty one depart out of England Scotland Ireland and the Islands Territories and Dominions thereof And in case the said John Lilburne at any time after the expiration of the said twenty dayes to be accompted as aforesaid shall be found or shall be remaining within England Scotland Ireland or within any of the Islands Territories or Dominions thereof the said John Lilburne shall be and is hereby adjudged a Fellon and shall be executed as a Fellon without benefit of Cleargy And it is lastly enacted by the Authority aforesaid that all and every person and persons who shall after the expiration of the said twenty dayes wittingly relieve harbor or conceal the said John Lilburne he being in England Scotland or Ireland or any the Territories Islands or Dominions thereof shall be hereby adjudged accessary of Fellony after the Fact And all Judges Justices Majors Bayliffs Sheriffs and all other Officers as well Military as Civil in their respective places are hereby required to be aiding and assisting in apprehending the said John Lilburne and in putting this Act in due execution Lilburne hereupon sets Sail for Holland with a resolution as he set forth in print Never to see England so long as Cromwels hateful and beastly tyranny lasted unless it were in a way to pursue him as the grandest Tyrant and Traytor that ever England bred some report that during his abode there he negotiated with the Lord Hopton Collonel Charles Lloyd and others of the Royal Party that for the sum of ten thousand pounds he would destroy the Lord General Cromwel the Parliament and Councel of State that then sat at Westminster and settle Charles Stuart in his Throne in England or else he would have a piece of him nailed upon every post in Bruges But for the truth of this besides his own denyal I cannot conceive he should have any thought that Party would trust him especially with such a sum of money having before declared himself so great an enemy to the late King But what ever were the motives that induced him resolved he was to come into England again to which purpose he sent Cromwel this introducing Letter For his Excellency the Lord General Cromwel These present My Lord At my discourse with you in your Gallery about four or five moneths ago I had thought I had given your Lordwip so full satisfaction in every thing that might remove all jealousies from you of my disserving you in any kinde that of all men in the Parliament I little imagined to have found your honour to be the principal man to banish me into a strange Countrey where
renewedness of true love John Lilburne From Dover Castle the place of the present injoyed delightful dispensations of the eternal everlasting love of God unto my soul the 4th day of the 10th moneth 1655. Tempora Mutantur Thus the Protector first made him tremble and the single-soul'd Shoe maker afterwards made him quake and now he resolves never hereafter to be an user of a temporal Sword more nor a Joyner with those that so do And accordingly he made good his resolutions living in his strict way of opinion to the day of his death which happened not long after whilest he remained a prisoner in Dover Castle His body was seized upon by the Quakers and conveyed from thence to London and at the Bull and Mouth in Saint Martins their meeting-place was put into a plain Coffin without any covering and from thence with his head forwards that his burying might be as preposterous as his actions carryed through Moor Fields where formerly he had received a hurt on his eye to the new Church-yard in Bedlam where it was put into the earth that as his turbulent life came near to madness so the place of his burial was near to the distracted crew I shall conclude this relation of our Wonderful Impetuous Magna Charta Petition of Right Lieu. Collonel John with these merry verses which a choice Wit bestowed on him Vntimely cause so late and late because To save much mifchief it no sooner was Is John departed and is Lilburne gone Farewel to both to Lilburne and to John Yet being dead take this advice from me Let them not both in one Grave buried be Lay John here lay Lilburne there about For if they both should meet they would fall out There are many Anagrams upon him but being they are too abusive remembring the old Saw de mortuis nil nisi bonum though to John Lilburne himself I thought in more civil to omit them The Life of OLIVER CROMWEL late Lord Protector THe sweet-lipt Poet Ovid sings of Icarus and of a Phaeton that would ride in the Chariot of the Sun to whom his displeased father gave this advice Non est tua tuta voluntas Magna petis Phaeton quae non viribus istis Munera conveniunt nec tam puerilibus annis Plus etiam quam superis contingere fas est Which the incomparable Translatour Mr. Sandyes renders thus What 's so desir'd by thee Can neither with thy strength nor youth agree Too great intentions set thy thoughts on fire Thou Mortal dost no mortal thing desire Through ignorance affecting more then they Can undertake that should Olympus sway In our Modern Histories we read of some men otherwise Wall-flowers for their growth that have had the luck to be strangely active in Political Affairs such as have boldly adventured to cut down all trees of State that have hindred their own prospect taking the Reins of the horses of the Sun into their own hands which in their managements of they have either been too slack or else pulling them too hard in by over-winding the strings of Authority have rendred themselves unfortunate slowly perceiving the errours of their ambitions till at last too late they were forced to pluck down those stairs by which they intended to ascend to their own greatness so dangerous is an unlimitted power a sail too great for a vessel of Mortality to bear though it were never so well ballasted with Justice Moderation and Piety It shall be my enterprise void of all partiality neither inclining to the right hand or left scorning so much as to reflect on the flatteries much less as they are under my feet to take up any of the dispersed Libels the one party by their adulations as the Papists and Puritans did Mary Queen of Scotland making him to be more then a Saint the other desperately malicious as we have taken it up on Tradition from some Writers rendering him to posterity more deformed then Richard the Third it shall be my care to wave these petty factions the flies that guilded themselves in his sun-shine as also those other mice which whilest this Martial Lion seemed to them to sleep yet without their large distance they dursts not approach him I am resolved though in this Epitome to search the Cabulla of our late Affairs to keep close to the unbyassed truth though I shall be forced to take up that old unavoidable excuse Bernardus non vidit omnia He was born at Huntington descended of the ancient Family of the Williams's of the County of Glamorgan and by adoption into that of the Cromwels the more noble Family as descended of Thomas Cromwel Earl of Essex the axe that hew'd down the Abbeys in the time of King Henry the Eighth His education in his youth was for a time at the University of Cambridge where though he attained to no great perfection in learning yet with his other additionals the Foxes tail with the Lions skin his strength of reason with the sharp edge of his sword stood him in great stead in his after Transactions and which together with his indefatigable industry rendred him so fortunate that he never fell short of what he undertook After his return from the University without any extraordinary respects from the Muses whose unkindeness he afterwards most severely retaliated he resolved for the future upon the first advantage to try the fortune of Mars but long it was ere the blinde goddess provided him any action during which time he married a Gentlewoman of the ancient Family of the Bourchiers whence the Earls of Essex were descended by whom he had two sons which survived him Richard and Henry and three daughters Bridget Mary and Frances For his private fortunes they were competent a mediocrity betwixt riches and poverty the one blunting the edge of wit and industry the other by its hardship whetting it quite away But what was wanting in his Estate was supplied in the greatness of his minde which put him upon high attempts which proved so successful that at last they placed him at the Helm of Government He took his first rise from the long Parliament whereof he was a Member being chosen Burgess for the University of Cambridge in this Parliament that fire burst forth which had been long before in kindling that fatal division betwixt King and Parliament with which last he wholly sided what motives induced him thereunto I know not nor will I determine of the integrity of his choice this I am sure of he took the more fortunate or by his man-hood made it so When he delivered his minde in the House it was with a strong and masculine eloquence more able to perswade then to be perswaded his expressions were hardy opinions resolute asseverations grave and vehement alwayes intermixt Andronicus-like with Sentences of Scripture to give them the greater weight and the better to insinuate into the affections of the people he expressed himself with some kinde of passion but with such a
for fear or favour backslide or depart from the same and give them the assistance of thy Spirit that may enable them so to preach thy word that may keep the people upright in the midst of a corrupted and corrupt generation And good Lord bless thy people every where with hearing ears understanding hearts conscientious souls and obedient lives especially those over whom I have had either lately or formerly a charge that with meek heart and due reverence they may hear and receive thy holy word truly serving thee in righteousness and holiness all the dayes of their lives And we beseech thee of thy goodness and mercy to comfort and succour all those that in this transitory life be in trouble sorrow need sickness or any other adversity Lord help the helpless and comfort the comfortless visit the sick relieve the oppressed help them to right that suffer wrong set them at liberty that are in prison restore the banished and of thy great mercy and in thy good time deliver all thy people out of their necessities Lord do thou of thy great mercy fit us all for our latter end for the hour of death and the day of judgement and do thou in the hour of death and at the day of judgement from thy wrath and everlasting damnation good Lord deliver us through the cross and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ In the mean time O Lord teach us so to number our our dayes and me my minutes that we may apply our hearts to true wisdom that we may be wise unto salvation that we may live soberly godly and righteously in this present world denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts Lord teach us so to live that we may not be afraid to dye and that we may so live that we may be alwayes prepared to dye that when death shall seize upon us it may not surprise us but that we may lift up our heads with joy knowing that our redemption draws nigh and that we shall be for ever happy being assured that we shall come to the felicity of the chosen and rejoyce with the gladness of the people and give us such a fulness of thy holy Spirit that may make us stedfast in this faith and confirme us in this hope indue us with patience under thy afflicting hand and withal a chearful resolution of our selves to thy divine disposing that so passing the pilgrimage of this world we may come to the Land of promise the heavenly Canaan that we may reign with thee in the world to come through Jesus Christ our Lord in whose blessed name and words we further call upon thee saying Our Father c. Let thy mighty hand and out-stretched arme O Lord be the defence of me and all other thy servants thy mercy and loving kindness in Jesus Christ our salvation thy true and holy word our instruction thy grace and holy Spirit our comfort and consolation to the end and in the end through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen His Speech and Prayer ended with much meekness and spiritual consolation He submitted his neck to the stroak of the Axe to as great a loss of the Church of Christ and of all good men as hath happened in our times I have the more enlarged my self that my Reader might not without a kinde of a consternation or possession of strange amazement pass by the concernments of this blessed Heroe The same day of Doctor Hewets tryal was also tryed John Mordant of Clement Danes Esquire with whom he was a fellow-prisoner the charge against him was for combining with Henry Bishop of Parham in Sussex Gent. Hartgil Baron and Francis Mansil with divers others for raising War against Oliver Lord Protector in the behalf of Charles Stuart and confering with J. Stapely Esq Henry Mallory and others how to effect the same and delivering Commissions to several persons in the name of and as from the said Charles Stuart c. He stood long upon it as did the Doctor before to have Councel assigned him and that he might be tryed by a Jury but finding it would not be granted he at last pleaded not guilty many witnesses deposited against him yet he by his ingenuity so cleared himself that notwithstanding many endeavours to the contrary he was discharged July the 17. following Collonel Ashton and John Betley were executed the one in Tower-street the other in Cheapside Collonel Ashton was the first being drawn on a Sled that Worthy Divine Doctor Warmestry submitting for the good of a poor Christians soul to lye along with him upon the Sled that he might lose no time for his spiritual converse They were drawn from Newgate to Towerstreet over against Mark-lane end where a Gibbet was erected As he ascended the Ladder Doctor Warmestry said Almighty God who is a strong Tower be with thee and make thee know and feel that there is no other name under heaven whereby to attain everlasting life but by the name of Jesus The Blessing of God the Father the Son and Holy Ghost be with you henceforth and for ever Amen He being upon the Ladder exprest a great deal of confidence he had in the merits and mercies of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ not doubting but that through the red Sea of his blood he should arrive at the heavenly Canaan and in little space behold his Saviour whom his soul so much longed after Then fixing his eyes upon the multitude he spake to this effect I am brought here to a shameful death I am an English man borne and as many know a Gentleman born I was drawn into this business by several persons and am now brought here for my former sins God hath delivered me several times from several judgements he hath visited me at this time because I slighted and did not pursue that repentance that I promised Therefore I desire all good people to leave off their sins for Christ his sake and become new men for it is that that brings all men to ruine I beseech God of mercy have mercy upon my soul Lord God I come to thee Lord the Father of heaven have mercy upon me O God the Son Redeemer of the world have mercy upon me O God the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son have mercy upon me Remember not my offences but spare me good Lord God I beseech thee spare thy servant whom thou hast redeemed for thy dear Sons sake I have no more to say but desire the prayers of all good people Having ended his Speech he committed his spirit into the hands of God and having said Lord have mercy upon my soul he was turned off the Ladder and instantly cut down his belly ripped up and his bowels burnt in a fire ready prepared for that purpose he being not yet dead then was his head cut off and his body divided into four quarters put into a basket and conveyed back to Newgate Next they proceeded and fetcht John Betley for there was a great deal
son is alive but let him either vanquish or bravely dye because the honour of this brave day shall be his if God suffer him to survive This answer would have wrought despair in cowards but to these valiant Heroes brought increase of courage who now bestir themselves more then before sending such numbers to grisly Charon that his leaking boat was ready to sink under the pressure of their numerous weight Twice was King Philip beat off his horse and twice by the Lord Beaumont mounted again but being wounded in the Neck and Thigh was forced to retire himself out of the fight upon whose departure the French gave way and staid not long but betook them to flight The French King with a small company flies to Bray and being questioned by the guard who he was answered The Fortune of France whereupon being known he was received into the Town with the tears and lamentations of the people The number of the slain are reported to be 30000. the same number which King Edward brought to the Battel the chief whereof were the two Kings of Bohemia and Majorca Charles Earl of Alanson John Duke of Bourbon Ralph Earl of Lorrain Lewis Earl of Flanders the Dolphin of Viennois the Earls of Sancerr Harecourt Aumarl Nevers c. Thus under the conduct of this valiant Prince the English obtained a glorious victory whom King Edward the Father thus congratulates Son God send you good perseverance to so prosperous beginnings you have nobly acquit your self and are well worthy to have the governance of a Kingdom entrusted unto you for your valour Wars greatest tempest now blown over some little mists remained behinde like to the gleanings after harvest certain troops of French under the command of the Archbishop of Roan and the Prior of France ignorant of what had happened were coming from Abbevile Roan and some other Towns thereabouts to the aid of King Philip and to enrich themselves by the spoil of the English but that they might be sensible of the ill fortune of a bad market they found King Philip discomfitted before they came and they themselves must become the English spoil From his victory at Crescy I shall proceed to his conquest at Poytiers as I have already intimated in the Life of Edward the Third Philip King of France dying his son John succeeds him who invests his Son Charles with the Dutchy of Aquitain King Edward bestows the same on the Prince of Wales commanding him to defend that right with his Sword hence grows the quarrel and a small matter will cause a great difference where both parties wait for an occasion The Prince with an Army lands is Aquitain conquering all where ever he comes unto whom Pope Clement the sixth sends a messenger with an overture to intercede for a Peace the Prince returns answer that the message must be sent to the King his Father for he could not meddle without command from him Mean while he takes Cities and Towns at his pleasure and without impeachment returneth to Burdeaux where for that year he takes leave of Martial Atchievements The prince could not continue long without action for no sooner had the Son rid through his Winters stage but with an uncontrouled march he advances through Bruges Perigort and Limosin intending to return to Burdeaux through the Countries of Turain Paictou and Saintcin But John King of France hasting to go beyond his Father in misfortunes seeks to intercept his passage and with a mighty Army follows after whom he overtakes about the City of Poytiers Both Armies preparing themselves for fight two Cardinals from Pope Clement labour to take up the quarrel but King John whom the Destinies drave headlong to destruction would accept of no conditions but that the Prince should deliver him four Hostages and as vanquished render himself and his Army to his discretion but this being with just indignation rejected it came to a most bloody and fearful tryal The French Army exceeded the English six to one by reason the Prince had not long before sent a great part thereof to defend Aquitain wherefore that he might be able to deal with the French numbers he takes all the advantage he could of the ground and providently got the benefit of Vines Shrubs and Bushes with iron Spikes with other incumbrances on that part he was like to be assailed to impester and intangle the French horse which he saw were to come furiously upon him then dividing his Army into three Battalions he committeth the vaward to the Earls of Warwick and Oxford the middle-ward was guided by himself and the Reer-ward led by the Earls of Salisbury and Suffolk The Army thus marshalled the noble Prince standing conveniently to be heard encouraged his Souldiers with this following speech as I received it from an ancient Manuscript Your manhood most noble companions in Arms hath been so often experimented under my Father and me that it proves you are not degenerate from true Sons of English men but to be descended from those whose lively couragiousness hath heretofore tamed the French the Cyprians the Siracusians the Calabrians and the Palastines brought under the stiff-necked Scots unruly Irish and stubborn Welch unto whom no labour was painfull no place invincible no ground unpassable no Hill were it never so high inaccessable no Tower unscaleable no Army impenetrable no armed Souldier or whole Hoasts formidable At this time gallant Countreymen the honour love of our Countrey and the rich spoil of the French call upon us to be valiant let not their numerous Army affright you since they are the same men who not long ago were vanquisht by a handfull of us at the Battel of Crescy Remember withall that I am Edward your Leader who will participate with you either in weale or in woe either sharing with you in the honor of their overthrow or dying with you if overthrown Scarcely could the Prince make an end of his Speech when the French like an impetuous torrent slighting the petty numbers of the English came furiously on as to an assured victory but upon their first assault were so wrapt in molested and encombred amongst the Vines that the Archers galled and anoyed them at their pleasure for the French King to give the honour of the day to his Cavallery imployed them onely without his Infantry so as they being disordered and put to rout his whole Army was soon utterly defeated as Drayton describes this Victory Here a hand sever'd there an ear was cropt Here a chap falne and there an eye put out Here was an arm lopt off there a nose dropt Here half a man and there a less piece fought Like to dismembred statues they did stand Which had been mangled by times iron hand Few such lists of prisoners do we meet withall in any story as here were taken at this Battel viz. John King of France Philip his Son the Archbishop of Sens James of Burbon Earl of Ponthieu John of Artoyer Earl of Eu Charles his
of business done by the Executioner that day into Cheapside where formerly the Cross stood where was likewise a Gibbet set up being come to the place with a Minister the Minister read and the people sung with him a Psalm beginning thus O Lord consider my distress c. Then he went up the Ladder and said as followeth Lord receive my soul and be merciful to me I commit my soul into Almighty Gods hands for he is my Protector and Redeemer I am not ashamed to live nor afraid to dye for my conversation hath been such in Christ Jesus I hope I shall finde mercy As concerning them that are my enemies I pray God forgive them their sins I freely forgive them all that have done me wrong As for the late Plot I was never but once in company with them concerned therein I did know of such a thing but deny that I acted therein Shall I damn my soul at this instant I will speak the truth One Brandon that was one of them drew me into the business and his man I carrying work to him could not refrain his house he so often enticed me thereto and would not let me alone till he had got me into a house where we drank together I have no more to say as to the Plot but desire mercy from God Having this said the Executioner turned him off and the rest of the Sentence was executed upon him as before upon Collonel Ashton and his Head and Quarters were conveyed also to Newgate Some two dayes after one Edmund Stacy also about the same Conspiracy was executed in Cornhil over against the Exchange as also a Youth in Smithfield having the rope about his neck the horror of death being worse then death it self but for his souls health was reprieved the torrent of Blood being for a while stayed Whilest these Tragedies were acting on the Land a strange accident no less prodigeous happened on the water a Whale of a monstrous bigness at least sixty foot and of a proportionable breadth was cast up on the River of Thames near London which by the common people was accounted a Prognostication of the Protectors death which ensued not long after But to return to Flanders where we formerly left the Sea whereof like a sharp humour did alwayes nourish the wounds of incurable evils nor was the French their letting of her blood sufficient she wanted an English Physician to treat her Our Armies whose valours made not a stand at Mardike but with a gallant Resolution besieged Dunkirk which being a place of great importance the Spaniard intended to relieve and with an Army of sixteen thousand came within an English mile and a half of the French Quarters whereupon the English and French uniting their Forces leaving some part of them before Dunkirk to make good the approaches and guard the trenches with fifteen thousand men and ten Peeces of Cannon set upon the Spaniard whom after a long and sharp Fight they put to a total rout and confusion with the loss of three thousand five hundred men which Victocy was in a manner wholly attributed to the valor of the English The loss of this day lost the Spaniard Dunkirk who quickly after surrendered up the Town upon these following Conditions 1. That the Town shall be yielded up with all their great Guns their stores of Victuals Magazines of Arms and Ammunition without any embezlement 2. That all Officers and Souldiers shall have liberty to march out with their Arms Drums beating Colours flying two Peeces of Ordnance and their Baggage 3. That they shall have the liberty to march with a Convoy to conduct them to Saint Omers 4. That the Inhabitants should remain indempnified in their persons and goods and enjoying their former customs and priviledges for two years and not be molested touching the exercise of their Religion The Articles signed the Spaniards marched out being about one thousand Horse and Foot and seven hundred more that were wounded the French according as it was articled before put the English in possession thereof which ever since they have maintained I have heard of an expression of the Governours of Ostend A little before the Massacre there a person of quality being sent thither about the exchange of Prisoners after he was civilly treated the glasses of wine going freely about the Governour being in a safe place began to throw forth words to this effect Sir is this the mode of your Mushrom Protector hath he no other way to pay my Master the King of Spain for his Bullion but with Bullets Soon after the taking of Dunkirk deceased the Lady Cleypoll second Daughter to the Protector a Lady whom posterity will mention with an honourable Character who often interposed and became an humble Supplicant to her Father for many persons designed to dye her last requests as it was thought for some eminent persons being denied was a means of hastening her death which much sadned her fathers spirits nor did he long survive her her death causing more wounds in his heart then all he received in the Wars But as his severity was great towards his enemies so did he excell in gratitude unto his friends amongst other examples I shall instance in the person of one Duret a Frenchman who attended him during his Generalship and served him with so much fidelity and zeal as that he entrusted him with the mannaging and conduct of the greatest part of his Domestick Affairs alwayes retaining him nigh his person bearing so great an affection towards him and reposing so entire a confidence in him that during a great sicknes which he had in Scotland whereof it was thought he would have died he would not be served by any one nor receive any nourishment or any thing else that was administred unto him save from the hands of Duret who both day and night continued to watch by his Master tending him with a special care and assiduity not giving himself a moments rest until his master had recovered his perfect health which long and continual watches of Duret and the great pains he had taken drove him into a sad fit of sickness to recover him his endeared Master in retribution of his great services spared no cost but applied all the possible means that could be procured not onely by his commands but by his personal visits so oft as his urgent Affairs would permit him Duret dying he sends over into France for his Mother Sister and two Nephews to requite in them the obligations he owed to his deceased Friend and Servant and whereas by reason of the continuance of the Stotch Wars he was as it were confined to the North he wrote unto his wife That she should proportion that kindness which during his absence she should shew unto them unto the Love which she bare unto him Insomuch that Durets mother was admitted into her own Family and seated at her own Table his Sister was placed in the rank and quality of a