himself of Northumberland Godfrid his younger Brother held Mercia but King Athelstan fell upon both and took from the last his Life from the first his Kingdom which was recovered again not long after by his Son VI. date of accession 946 ANLAFF the Second thereupon esteem'd the third King of the Northumbers His reign was not long for his Subjects weary of continual wars set him besides the Saddle to make way for VII date of accession 950 ERIC the Third or as some call him IRING Son of Harold the Grandson of Gurmo King of Denmark recommended to them by Milcolmb King of Scots but he being elected King of Sweden the Northumbers submitted to Edgar the younger Brother or next in succession to Edwyn and from that time it continued a Member of the English Crown till about the year 980 when VIII date of accession 980 ANLAFF the Third understanding they were affected to his Nation arriv'd with a fresh Supply and making his Claim was admitted King but being over prest the Title came to IX date of accession 1013 SWAIN King of Denmark who made this his first step to the Engâ—ish Throne into which as he was mounting death seiz'd on him and kept the Room empty for his Son Knute DANES Absolute Kings OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 1017 KNUTE was deservedly surnam'd the Great as being the very greatest and most absolute King that ever England or Denmark knew those of the Roman Line only excepted for he was King of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden and Lord of a great part of Poland all Saxony some part and not a little of Brandenburgh Bremen Pomerania and the adjacent Countries most of them not to say all besides Denmark and Norway reduc'd under his Obedience by the valour of the English only upon his death Denmark and Norway fell to his Son Hardycanute the rest as Sweden c. devolv'd upon the right Heirs whilst England was usurp'd by his Natural Son II. date of accession 1036 HAROLD surnam'd Harfager or Golden Locks who being the Elder and having the advantage to be upon the place entred as the first Occupant thereby disappointing his legitimate Brother III. date of accession 1041 KNUTE surnam'd the Hardy design'd by his Father to be the next Successor to him as bearing his Name though upon tryal it appear'd he had the least part of his Nature for he had not the Courage to come over and make any claim as long as Harold liv'd and after his death he drown'd himself in a Land-flood of Wine losing all the Glory his Predecessors had gotten by wading through a sea of blood which made the way to his Throne so slippery that those English that came after him could never find firm footing But upon the very first Encounter with the Norman caught such a Fall that could never recover themselves again This Gurmo came out of Ireland I take it in the second year of King Elfrid not without a confident hope of making good his Predecessors Conquest which had cost already so much blood as made his desire of Rule look like a necessity of Revenge the Monarchy of Denmark it self being put if I may so say into a Palsie or trembling Fit by the loss of the Spirits it had wasted here So that he came with this advantage which those before him had not That the Cause seem'd now to be his Countries more then his own who therefore bore him up with two notable props Esketel and Amon men of great Conduct and known Courage the one of which he plac'd as Vice-Roy in Northumberland t'other in Mercia And having before expelled Burthred the Saxon he fixed himself in East-Anglia as being nearer to correspond with Denmark and most commodious to receive Reâ—ruits Upon his first advance against King Elfrid Fortune appear'd so much a Neuter that either seem'd afraid of other and striking under line preferr'd a dissembled Friendship before down-right Hostility And to shew how much the edge of their Courage was rebated they mutually accorded to divide the Land betwixt them Gurmo was to be Lord of the North and East Elfrid to hold the South and West part of the Isle The politick Dane after this suffered himself to become what the English would have him to be a Christian to the intent that he might be what he would have himself to be absolute changing his Pagan name of Gurmo into that of Athelstan which being of all others the most grateful to the Saxons he render'd himself by that Condescension so acceptable to the whole Nation that they consented to his Marriage with the fam'd Princess Thyra King Elfrids vertuous Sister by whom he had Issue Harold Blaatand that liv'd to be King of Denmark after himself and another Knute whom he left in Ireland to make good the Acquests of the first Gurmo there a Prince of so great hopes and so belov'd by him that the knowledge of his death being slain at the Siege of Dublin gave him his own for he no sooner apprehended the tidings thereof by the sight of his Queens being in mourning but he fell into such a violent fit of Grief as left him not till he left the World whereby the Crown of Denmark fell to his Son Harold the Title and Possession of East-Anglia with its Appurtenances he bequeath'd to his Brother Eric who having perform'd the first Act of Security to himself in having taken an Oath of Allegiance of all his Subjects suffer'd them to perform the last Act of Piety towards him in giving him all the Rites of an honourable Interment at Haddon in Suffolk which place it seems he purposed to make the Burial place of all the East-Anglian Kings But this Ambition of his beginning where it should have ended with a design of assuring to himself more honour after he was dead then he was able to make good whiles he was living ended as soon as it began as will appear by his Story following Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Upon which his Queen frighted with the horrour of their Inhumanity fled back to her Brother Athelstan to seek from his Power Justice Protection and Revenge whiles Anlaff took upon him to be King The Equality of Power as well as of Ambition ripen'd the Factions on both sides very fast by the heat of their Contest But before they came to Maturity there was a Parliament conven'd at Oxford that took the matter into consideration where the Lords fearing that the Question if delay'd might be decided by Swords and not by Words out of a deep sence of the lingring Calamities of a new War all the wounds of the old being not yet cured or at least not so well but that the Scars were yet fresh in many of their Faces they declar'd for the King in possession but with such a wary form of Submission as shew'd they did it rather out of regard to themselves then him whereupon Goodwin produced the deceased Kings Will in opposition to theirs but the
the Earl of Bolloigne the Kings Brother in law whose Harbingers being kill'd in the Scuffle the King commanded Goodwin as Lord Lieutenant of that County to do Justice on the Offenders but he deny'd returning this popular Answer That it was against his Conscience to execute his Country-men unheard upon the complaint of Strangers This coldness of his rais'd such a sudden heat in the Common People that there wanted nothing to set the whole Kingdom in a Flame but to tell them their Liberties were in danger and that there was no body durst assert them but the Earl Goodwin King Edward perceiving his design and doubting least it might bring him himself into suspition with his People being upon the matter a Stranger as having been alwayes brought up in Normandy he resolv'd to question him in open Parliament and accordingly he summon'd him and his Sons to give their attendance but they refusing to appear both sides armed London was divided in the Quarrel for the King possessed all on this side the Thames the Earl all on the other side next Kent But such is the terrour of Guilt that the Night before the Battel was to be fought the Rebels quit their General and by that commendable Treachery forc'd him to quit the Realm who taking shipping at Greenwich fled away as fast by water as his Complices did by Land The King upon this turn was so changed in his humour incensed at this their gross contumacy that he grew extreamly cholerick and peevish discharging his Anger with that violence upon all the Earls Friends that it recoil'd back upon the spotless Queen her self whom in the transport of his Passion he accus'd of a * Incontinency Crime which if she had been guilty of himself could not have been Innocent having as he was not ashamed afterwards to confess never perform'd the Duty of a Husband to her under which pretended Jealousie she was forced to suffer a years Imprisonment in a Cloyster partaking patiently the Pennance of those who were under a Vow never to know any man only to satisfie him who had before vowed never to know any woman This Indignity offer'd to the Innocent Daughter in whom saith Ingulphus there was no fault but that she was a Rose of that prickly stock did so stimulate the guilty Father for whose sake she suffer'd that he meditated nothing but the extreamest Revenge and by frequent Piracies so disturb'd all Trade that the King finding that the popular were on his side was glad to compound with him for his quiet upon his own tearms yielding to the banishment of all Strangers which Concession did his business but undid the Kingdoms For as it made way for his Son to be as he design'd him a King so it was the fatal occasion of that unexpected Invasion of the Normans abetted by the Earl of Bolloigne that had the first affront given him which not long after not only overwhelm'd the particular honour of his own Family but the glory of the whole English Nation by a Conquest so universal and sudden as if the Strangers they banish'd had gone out of the Country for no other end but to fetch in more However Heaven suffered not him to see either the fruit or punishment of his dark purposes it so falling out that whilst he design'd to have devour'd the whole Kingdom he was himself choak'd with a small morsel of Bread that went the wrong way down and by his death put such a full point to all great Actions as shews that either he did all that was done then or the King did not long survive him whose Reign being nothing else but a Commentary upon that Earl's Ambition 't is no marvel that his Fame began where t'others ended being sounded upon Opinion rather then Action whilst his Magnanimity was interpreted Patience and his Patience judg'd the Effect of Wisdom But they that duly examine the whole course of his life will find that the active part of it declar'd him scarce a good man the passive certainly not a good King and however the Clergy who were well brib'd extoll'd his Chastity and Piety yet 't is evident that the first was not without manifest wrong to his Wife whom not to use was the highest abuse the last with no less Ingratitude towards his Mother whom upon like suspicion he put to such a kind of Purgation as might have condemn'd the greatest Innocence causing her to pass the * To go over 9 red hot Houghshares bare-footed blinded laid at uncertain distances either of which if she touch'd she was hold guilty Ordeale or Fiery Tryal then in fashion But this unkindness to them is the less when compar'd with that to himself in the total disregard of all Posterity affecting more to be a Benefactor to then a Father of his Country as believing Religious Houses more lasting Monuments then Religious Children whereby it came to pass that for want of Issue of his own Body he was fain to leave the Succession to one that was both a Child and a Stranger little knowing and less known to the English as not having so much of the Language as might serve to demand or declare his Right when he was to recover it nor so much Spirit or Judgment as to shew himself sensible of the Injury when he was afterwards put besides it A fit adopted Successor for such a Sacerdoting King of whom if I should give an impartial Character I must say that he was rather cold then chast rather superstitious then religious fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch indeed so sottish that as 't is reported of Vitellius he would have forgotten he was born a Prince if others had not put him in mind of it So that 't is no marvel considering either his own weakness or his that was to have come after him that his Steward Harold by having only the rule of his Houshold should take upon him as he did to rule the Kingdom and he thought the fittest man however half a Dane to support the English Monarchy HAROLD date of accession 1065 AS there is no temptation so powerful as that which arises from the knowledge of a mans Power so there is no Consideration of that force as to make a man quit his Ambition that thinks he hath merited a Crown Harold having resolv'd to be a King tarries not till the People made him so but to take the charge of Injustice off from them boldly steps into the Throne the better to out-face his Rivals from thence who being no less then three two on a pretended and one with a real Right he conceiv'd they must justle one another before they could come at him The pretenders were Swain King of Denmark whose claim was as the undoubted Heir of the last Knute and William Duke of Normandy that set up a Title by Gift and Conveyance from the last King Edward But of these the first was ingaged in a War with the Swede the last imbroyl'd in
derive themselves from a Monster by the Fathers side and from a Gipsy on the Mothers side But the name of Scot bearing the same signification with Gayothel we may more reasonably conclude it was first given them by the Saxons either for the reason aforesaid as the word (m) Scot illud dictum quod ex diversis rebus in unum Acervum aggregatum est Camb. ex M. Westm Scot like the word Alman with them signifi'd a Body aggregated out of many Particulars into one or else by contraction of the word Attacot for the High landers making their way into the Borders of the Low-lands inhabited by the Picts who were the ancient Britains beat out by the Romans the Picts thereupon remov'd into the West and left the East part of the Country intire to them who sithence which was near about Aurelian's time or a little after made themselves known to the Romans by the Name before mentioned of Attacots The Picts and they made War upon each other for a long time mov'd by want as other Nations by wantonness for the great Commodity they fought for was Bread the want whereof brought them to accord a Cessation of Arms every Season during Seed-time but the Corn being in ground they fought on till Harvest following after which every Victor was known by his Garland of several sorts of Grain as the Roman Conquerors by theirs of several sorts of Boughs But when the Roman Empire began to decline both of them united in one hope of recovering that part of the Isle which is since call'd England And after the Romans totally quit it they press'd so hard upon Vortigern the then Titular King that he was forc'd the Romans having deny'd him further assistance to call in the Saxons to his aid who finding them then call'd by the Name of Attacots after their usual manner of abbreviation they term'd them Scots The first of all their Kings at least the first worthy that Title that broke over the great Clausura or Mound then call'd the * By the Romans nam'd the Picts-Wall Wiath was one Fergus Sirnam'd the Fierce a Prince descended from the ancient Kings of Ireland for I take the first Fergus and his One hundred thirty seven Successors to be at too great a distance to have their height truly taken who not induring that his Territories should be bounded when his Ambition could not that broke in like a Land-flood and over-run all the adjacent Countries making his Name so terrible that the Romans themselves imputing that to his Fortune which any other Nation would have ascrib'd to his Fortitude made an honourable retreat and left the poor Britains to defend themselves who doubtless had been over-run by him had not the Picts emulous of his Glory interrupted his Successes by whose vicinity both he and his Successors were so much streightned that they could not much inlarge their Territories till the Reign of Keneth the First a wise Prince who reducing that Kingdom under him not so much by Puissance as Policy made that the middle which was before but the bounds of his Dominions deserving therefore to be esteem'd tanquam alter Conditor About Sixty years after him another of the same Name tenth in descent from him rais'd the Throne a step higher having got as great a Conquest over the People as the other did over the Picts by turning the Optimacy into a direct Monarchy for he made the Succession Hereditary that till then was but Elective The fittest and ablest saith Buchanan being till that time prefer'd before the nearest or noblest since which time the eldest Son of the King of Scots hath been alwayes stil'd the Prince of Scots This King however gain'd not so much upon the Nobility in point of Majesty but that they gain'd much more upon his Successors in point of Power so that their Superiority was scarce so distinguishable for a long time from a bare Precedency but that they might rather be call'd Regnantes than Reges so long as the Thanage lasted who being a kind of Palatines exercis'd an absolute Power over their particuâ—ar Tenants and Vassals cum Jure Furci Thus they continued as it were under their good behaviour absolute Princes but bounded with many Restrictions till the time of James the Fourth whose Predecessors having clear'd their Title from all Incumbrances by Competitors leaving him sole Heir of the Peoples Affections as well as of his Predecessors Glory he married the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter and at length Heir to our Henry the Seventh by which Match their Thistle being ingrafted into our Rose mended both its colour and smell And their Kings that had been a kind of Homagers to ours from the beginning almost of their Monarchy became as it were manumitted by the expectation of their Title Paramount and by the possibility of being Lords of the Imperial Crown of this Realm The primier Seizen of which happiness after the death of Queen Elizabeth without Issue was in James the Sixth who Sirnam'd himself the Peaceable to let the World know he came not in by Conquest but Consent having this honour above all that were before him and probably beyond what any shall have that come after him his way was made before him not by any humane power but by Divine Providence long since reveal'd by a written Prophesie ingraved though not understood in that fatal Stone which is plac'd within the Regal Chair where the Kings of Scots anciently and ours since have been crown'd brought by them out of Ireland in the first place and by our King Edward the First translated hither afterwards whose words now they are fulfill'd seem plain enough Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem This by the Ancients was call'd Saxum Jacobi as for that as Tradition had deliver'd it they believ'd this to be the Stone on which the Patriarch Jacob rested his Head But we of later times have found it to be Saxum Jacobi with relation to him who was to take up his rest here who being by a Decree from Heaven declared Head of this Nation may not improperly be call'd our Patriarch Jacob the first King of that People that ever was crown'd in this Kingdom by whom the Scots may be said to Reign here according to another Prophesie as ancient as the former recorded by Higden in his Polichronicon and evidently fulfilled at his coming in when he transplanted so many of his Country-men into our fat Soil that they grew up like Weeds to that degree of rankness as in the Age folâ—owing to choke the best Flowers in our Garden and taking advantage of us when we were drunk with Prosperity brought us like drunken men to quarrel one with another for what since we came to our selves we cannot find or are at least asham'd to tell having by the corrupted Principles we first received from them ingaged our selves in so groundless a War that after Ages will not believe
Astrology Tacitus to their exquisite skill in (d) The Art of Inspection into the Intrals of Beasts Extispacy the Metaphysicks of those times Pliny to their Judgment in Physick Suetonius and divers others to their perfection in Magick both Onomantical and Pneumatological in both which they were very famous The (e) Camdens Anagr. fol. 168. Onomanty was a Mystery something like if not the same with that the Jewish Rabbins call'd Bresith and affirm'd to be first reveal'd by God himself to Moses and after by him communicated to the LXX but by what means transmitted to the (f) The Phoemetans spoke the Language Druids is not certain unless by Correspondence with the Magi of the East For that they were acquainted with the Books of Moses and as he were learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians is not to be doubted In this was lodg'd all the (g) Vid. Archangel in Dogmat Cabalist cap. 19. Learning of Numbers whereby they took their Measures of good and bad Omens and accordingly to direct all their great Actions as believing there was in the Mystery of Numbers a Power predominant over all Persons and Things And accordingly we find they preferr'd one Number above all the rest as believing the Fate of their Nation lay conceal'd in the womb of it this was the Number 6 which was the just measure of the most ancient name of the Isle AABION as likewise of their Common Progenitor MESECH and of his Sire JAPHET to whom he was the 6th Son accordingly they divided the whole Isle into 6 parts that is to say following the British Historians Loegria since properly call'd England which they divided into two parts i. e. as we find in Dion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the higher and the lower part this latter call'd afterwards by the Romans Pars Maritima the other Pars Interior The second Division was Albania since call'd Scotland divided likewise into the High-land and Low-land the Inhabitants of the Low-land were those the Romans call'd Caledonii and we properly Scots Those of the High-land were the famous Picts The third Division was that of Cambria since call'd Wales divided into the South and North Country i. e. Demetia and Venedotia as the Romans call'd it or as we find it (h) Vide Seldens Book of Tythes cap. 9. pag. 149. elsewhere Dextralis and Sinistralis Britannia Now what the reason was that they pitch'd upon an even Number since all the Numbers that were of old esteem'd Sacred were odd is not certainly known But some think it was because this of all others was the most perfect Number being the true measure of Time there going just 60 times 6 dayes and 6 over upon the whole to make up a compleat Year as we have since learn'd by the Julian Accompt which probably Caesar had first from their Scholars the Gauls Others conceive they had some respect to the Geometrical Form of the Isle it self which is a Triangle that hath three Sides and three Angles but most like it is that they were herein guided by the number of their Gods whereof they worshipt 6 only But be the reason what it will we find by Observation since that the Energie of this Number hath been more predominant in all the Changes and Alterations that have hapned in the various disposal of the Scepter of this Isle than any other For taking the whole time in pieces since there hath been any mention of Kings here and you will find just 6 Periods or Intervals of Time that the Aboriginal Natives rul'd here each Space containing only 6 Descents The first Space made up of those the Romans called BRITANNI or unmixt Britains being those that had the first and intire Rule without Interruption till their Arrival The second Sort were those whom they stil'd BRITANNICI i. e. Roman Britains such as were made up of their own Nation either born here or that had made some great Atchievment here The third Sort were call'd BRITONES which were properly the Camber Britains then taking a general view of the whole Series of Succession from that to our Times and it will appear there hath been just 6 Dynasties of 6 several Nations that is to say Britains Romans Saxons Danes Normans Scots And some have been so curious as to observe that each of their several (i) Brutus Caesar Eugist Caâ—â—te Victor Jaacob Chiefs had but just 6 Letters in his Name which 6 Master-Builders like those Politick Creatures the Bees who make up their Cells with Poligons of 6 sides have rear'd their Empire upon 6 great Pillars i. e. 1 Rex 2 Prelati 3 Proceri 4 Nobiles 5 Milites 6 Civites and adorn'd it with 6 different kinds of Law i. e. 1 Common Law 2 Statute Law 3 Civil Law 4 Canon Law 5 the Law of Merchants 6 Martial Law And observing the same Rule in the Structure of the Church as of the State have ordain'd 6 Orders of Priesthood as a Medium betwixt the Greek Church that have but 5 and the Roman that hath 9 These were 1 Clerks 2 Sub-Deacons 3 Deacons 4 Priests 5 Bishops 6 Archbishops who in the Primitive and purer times of Christianity are supposed to have taken their turnâ— to officiate daily in the Churches Service dividing the Natural day into 6 parts whereof each had four hours for his Devotion The Pneumatilogical Magick was that which was more properly call'd the Doctrine of (k) Picard in Ciltopaedia Spirits because it was perform'd by secret Intelligences inforc'd with unusual Conjurations Sometimes drawn from the mouth of a Teraphius a way much in use amongst the Jews and by them taught to the People of (l) Melancthon Camarâ—â— fol. 422. Asia and from thence brought as 't is conceiv'd by the Phoeniâ—iam hither Sometimes by the advantage of (m) Divination â—er Speculum Catoptromantical Inspection in imitation as 't is thought by the Learned (n) Poliolb l. 1. Selden of the Caballistick Doctours when they consulted the Urim and Thummim By this Faculty they could disclose it seems the greatest Secrets of Nature and deduce the knowledge of hidden forms to strange and wonderful effects beyond what the Natural Chymistry of humane Understanding could ever extract out of the choicest Elements of Reason Of this kind the Roman Historians Record wonderful Instances but amongst the rest I take that to be the most notable Example when in the beginning of (o) Suâ—tâ—nius Vespatians reign at such time as Civilis rais'd the Rebellion amongst the Batavi the Druids foretold the Removal of the Romans out of this Isle who then had but begun to settle their Possessions here They foretold likewise the Translation of their (p) Tacitus Empire to the Trans-Alpine Nations which has a conceipt so remote and seemingly then so extravagant that it was altogether slighted by Tacitus as a thing ridiculous to believe the first part of which Prophecy was not fulfill'd in near 400 years after
desert Woods and Mountains where tyred with flight or vanquisht with Famine they languisht under the oppression of their boundless liberty whilst each prey'd upon the other with such uncontrouled violence as made every one as terrible to his Neighbour as his Enemy was to him This brought them under the necessity of chusing another King who proving as careless of the common danger as he was inapprehensive of his own ruin'd them irrecoverably by the same means he hoped to have preserv'd them trusting to the assistance of a Foreign Nation that did them more mischief by being their Friends then it had been possible for them to have done by being as but a little before they were their profest Enemies I. CLASS OF BRITONES Vortigern An. Ch. 446. A. Ambrosius An. Ch. 481. Vter Pendragon An. Ch. 498. Arthur An. Ch. 517. Constantine An. Ch. 543. Caridic An. Ch. 586. VORTIGERN date of accession 446 Great were the hopes conceiv'd of this Prince his Virtue greater those of his Fortune whilst being both a Christian and a Chieftain of so high note no man could doubt his Power that did not distrust his Courage But standing single and alone like a high Tree upon a large Plain it was not in the power of Fate to keep him from being blown down Neither was it so great a wonder that he should fall being exposed as he was to such lasting Storms of Hostility as that his Son VORTIMER should so overtop him who rising like a dwarf'd Plant out of a Thicket of Brambles for his whole Reign was as one continued Battel of twelve Years grew so crooked in making his way out that it was not likely he should attain to any considerable height having this necessity added to the rest of his unhappiness that by the same means he expected to be Great he was obliged to be Impious The regard he pretended to have to his Country being so incompatible with that due to his Father that nothing but his own could have prevented his Fathers death This Vortigern foreseeing by instinct of Majesty that is a compound of Fear Jeaâ—ousie and Power and being naturally prone to fear his Friends more than his Enemies he took advantage of the common danger to prevent his own and with like rashness as that which Court flatterers call Resolution in Princes he call'd in Nine thousand Foreigners to his Assistance of the English Nation A race of People at that time grown so terrible even to the Romans themselves that their very Name made them way to Victory with these he pretended to subdue the Picts but intended to correct the Insolence and Envy of his Domestick Foes Their Leader was one Engist a politick Prince who to make his conquest sure brought along with him a fair young Daughter to be partaker of his Glory by reducing the amorous King under her power whiles he brought the clamorous People under his the weakness of both the one and the other being so notoriously known that he concluded him as little able to stand against her as they to withstand him neither was he deceiv'd in the conjecture the power of her Charms being so resistless that it was not long before the fascinated King repudiated his Christian Wife to espouse her that was a Pagan This as it aggravated the offence generally taken by his People so it particularly provoked his Son Vortimer to lay aside all obligations of Affection and Duty who neither respecting him as a Father not as a King punish'd his sin seemingly against Nature as well as Reason by a judgment no less strange and inhumane commanding that he should at once be deprived of life and honour by putting him into that condition as made them equally burthensome to him whiles he was immured betwixt two Walls within the narrow confines of such a dismal Dungeon as seeming like was yet so much worse then a Grave as the present shame and scorn worse then death Thus he continued dying all the time of his Sons life but he being slain by the Saxons by a rare accident in the fortune of Princes he recovered not only his Liberty and with it his Understanding but so far repossest himself of the affections of the People who naturally incline to pity men in misery and much more their Prince that believing him thoroughly sensible of his error and encouraged by his Example they set upon the Saxons unanimously and began a War that every body believed wouâ—d have ended even when it began being so merciless and bloody on both sides that 't is no little wonder how they found matter for their cruelty since equal force meeting with equal courage neither Nation yielding both must be destroy'd So fierce indeed was the execution on either side that Victory delighting in mischief seem'd to hover over both Armies as not resolv'd which deserv'd best of her The Britains strove to shut the door of Invasion the Saxons fought to keep it open and as long as they were upon even terms the Britains grapled desperately with them But the Saxons having possest themselves of several Ports by which they receiv'd continual recruits out of their own Country they not only tyred out all those that liv'd nearest the danger but which was yet more dangerous by picking one Arrow out of the Sheaf hazarded the falling out of all the rest for the gaining Kent made their way into Sussex the possession of that gave them admission into Suffolk and Norfolk the loss of those lost the North And in the end Vortigern too late finding how he was involved in the misery of his own folly not more confounded with sorrow then shame retired first into Cornwall after into Wales where he dyed as unpitied as he was miserable This extremity beat Vortigern off from his first confidence and mortified him so far that he was content to give up a third part of his Dominions that he might quietly enjoy the rest But as the pouring Water upon Fire if it do not utterly quench raises the flame higher so what he gave contributed so little to the satisfaction of their Avarice and so much less to that of their Ambition that it serv'd only to increase their desire of having more and to draw them on from one Proposal to another till they had so far wasted and weakened him in Reputation and Power that another Enemy seemingly less considerable was emboldened to put in his claim for the rest This was the present King who being a Prince of the same stock I cannot say of the same temper justled him out of the Throne at the first shock and finding him reeling prest so hard upon him that his fall made a greater noyse then his rise With this Aurelius Ambrosius came over his Brother Uter a Prince very early in action and for his fierceness sirnamed Pendragon to these the People as willingly opened their Purses as their Ports so that like two young Eagles being upon the wing they took their slight several wayes each
hold out than while it was preserv'd by the Courage of such active Princes as those that appear'd upon the Throne the four last Descents following who spight of Fate made good their Ground for an hundred years without any Interruption to the course of honour save by the Interposition of Edwin whom yet the hatred of the Clergy is suppos'd to have made worse than he was EDWARD the Martyr date of accession 975 THE Globe of Soveraignty like that of the Earth is so plac'd that it never stands still but as the Ocean the Emblem of human frailty has its Ebbs and Flows its Falls and Swellings so hath it its Turnings Tumblings and Revolutions No sooner were Edgar's Halcyonian daies done but there appear'd new Signs of the old Troubles and Commotions which like the meeting of contrary Tides prest in each upon other with dreadful noise and Tumult the Laiety opposing the Clergy the Nobility scorning the Populacy and they again dividing from one another But amongst the rest no Feud seemed so fatal as that betwixt the two Unhappy Sons of this so happy Father the one trusting to his Primogeniture t'other standing upon his Legitimacy the right of either being so equally ballanc'd that there wanted only the affections of the Multitude to turn the Scale either way whilst the Clergy favour'd the Eldest the Temporal Lords the younger The head of the Church-Faction was the A. B. Dunstan then and all the time of the last King chief Minister of State Principal of the Lay Faction was Ordgar the great Earl of Devon back'd by the Queen Mothers Party So equal was the power so pressing the necessity on either side that both Consented to stand to the determination of a Publick Convention of all the States at London Accordingly a Parliament was held at Westminster where the bold St. Dunstan not tarrying for the result of any Debate upon the point De Jure set the Crown upon the head of Edward the Elder Brother and so presented him De Facto to the Assembly as their lawful Soveraign which confident Act of his either satisfying or surprizing those of the opposite Party met with an universal submission every Body acquiescing and dissembling their discontent except the Queen only who being his Step-mother could not forget much less forgive an injury so grievous to the Son of her own Body turning therefore her passion of Ambition into that of Revenge she broke over all the bounds of Nature and Right to find the nearest way to the Throne nor wanted she a dismal opportunity however taken from a pretence of humanity and kindness to set up her Darling by the murther of this guiltless Prince who coming alone estray'd from Hunting and altogether unattended to visit her at her Castle of Corffe in the Isle of Purbeck was by her Command slain by an Assassme that took the advantage to stab him in the Reins of the Back as he was drinking her Health at the gate on Horse-back the helpless Youth finding himself wounded clapt spurs to his Horse in hopes to have out-rid her malice but his Spirits failing he fell out of his Saddle and so unfortunately that his Foot fastned in the Stirrup at which his poor Beast affrighted became alike accessary though not alike guilty of his death by dashing our his Brains before that Life had got its passage through his wounds So perished this harmless Prince in the infancy of his Royalty as well as of his Age being rather sacrific'd than slain by a kind of double Death without so much as a single Crime laid to his charge the same malice that envy'd him the honour of being a King becoming instrumental thereby to the dignifying him with the glory of being a Martyr the Charity of those times or rather the Affection of the Clergy leaving him enshrin'd in the Kalendar of Saints Which shews how deplorable his death was wherein the whole Nation were so much more sufferers than himself that it may be truly said that the Same stroak which took away his Life gave the Deaths wound to the English Monarchy bringing upon them the misery of being in Bondage to a Stranger Nation of all other the most cruel and insolent who ow'd their Rise next the immediate determination of Providence to nothing more than the unexpected Fall of this hopeful Prince with whose blood they may be said to have mixt the Morter of that Foundation they after laid taking the same advantage of the Sins of the English as they before of those of the Britains and breaking in upon them as they upon t'other with a Resolution not so much to conquer as to confound them which may be some Excuse for the cruelty of the next King that massacred so many of them in cold blood whilst who like Sampson in the midst of his Enemies thought there was no way left but removing the Pillars of the house and perishing together with them ETHELRED date of accession 978 'T IS easie to imagine by the Title of Martyr given to the last King what Reflex his Death had upon this who like an ill-set plant unhappily plac'd in the same Room from which the other was taken never could recover any firm rooting and consequently never thriv'd being continually wind-shaken from the very first moment that he was set up and vext with uncessant troubles the Sword never departing from his House as 't is reported St. Dunstan preaching at his Coronation boldly foretold till the common Enemy became Master of his ill-got Glory repaying him with the misery of loss and that infelicity which always attends it shame and reproach For 't is observ'd that notwithstanding there were scarcely any King that ever setled the constitutions of his Government upon firmer principles that fought his Battels with braver Resolution that encountred all Emergencies of State with like indifferency and temperance yet neither could his vigilance or valour his prudence fortitude or patience so prevail against Destiny but that all his designs were stifled in the birth or frustrated at the very point of dispatch as if Heaven had decreed to lay such a curse upon the wickedness of his Parent as should weigh down all the merit of his Vertues and â—â—ast the hopes conceiv'd from them One while Famin was his Foe another time Pestilence and it was not rare for the very Elements themselves to fight against him it being more than once or twice that he had a kind of Battel with Heaven it self for his Fleets were in danger of being fired by unexpected Lightning and Thunder-Storms neither was it for a little time that he thus strugled with the perverseness of his Stars hoping the malignity of their Influences might spend it self in due season but finding they gave him no opportunity or incouragement to perform any worthy Action for several years together having plac'd all Glory so far above the reach of his Sword that 't was impossible he could at the same time appear to be
to divide the Kingdom between them And to make the attonement appear as acceptable to their Armies as to themselves they transacted their Persons by exchange of Cloaths and Arms Edmond appearing to the Danes in dress like Knute Knute like K. Edmond to the English a fatal exchange for this poor Prince who whilst they seem'd thus to become each other he only remain'd not himself falling by degrees from being half a King to be very shortly after none betray'd by false gâ—ounds of security into an unpittied Ruine whilst he prefer'd a bad Peace before a good War and neglected those means for the preservation of life which he might have learn'd from the continual expectation of death and that which made his end more deplorable was that with him perish'd the English Monarchy For however it seem'd to have recover'd it self again in the same age yet it prov'd like a plant new set after it had been long out of ground which whiles there remains any sap in the root will send forth fresh Sprouts but those so weak and tender that the least bruise makes them wither and die the mistaken Majesty of the Kings that succeeded him being no less crazed and infirm than they themselves who fainted away upon the first wounds given them and bled themselves to death in one single Battle THE FOURTH DYNASTY OF DANES OF DANES THE Danes were a People whose Original Tradition hath with much ado trac'd through the Dusky Foggs of the Euxine Sea unto the Fens of Meotis which being the first place they were ever known to Inhabit they liv'd there under the obscure name of the Cymeri till they were expuls'd thence by the Scythians who as Orosius Olaus Magnus and others affirm have continued there ever since Vellius will have it that they were drove out thence by a sudden Inundation of the Country upon which they petition'd the Romans then Lords of almost all the World for the assignation of some vacant place in their Dominions But the meanness of their Condition inclining the Romans to slight if not deny their request they were necessitated to rove up and down in an unsetled Condition for some years At last 't is said they fix'd in Scandia where possessing themselves of the strongest Part of those cold Islands in the Baltick Ocean they found an opportunity to justle out divers Roman Colonies This begat a quarrel and that at last a War in which the Romans lost several of their Generals before they could reduce them to any Terms of Submission A little after this which was yet before the Incarnation they began to undermine their next Neighbours the Jutes who as Munster relates dwelt right over against them on the Chersoness that jets out into the Aoust Sea By that Contest they gave the World so good an account of their skill in Naval Fights that the Jutes weary of their Vicinity left them the possession of that Promontory and came themselves over into this Isle of ours Thus by commanding the Sea they made themselves first Lords at Land and with their new Seats they got a new Name the broad-mouth'd Northern People about those parts calling them the DANS whether from Dan their King as some too ancient to be refuted fancy or from Dom the abbreviation of Dominus as the Spaniards got the Stile of Don amongst them being of that haughty humour that they would be called by no other name after they came hither but Lordanes or whether from DAN which as Junius tells us signified a Firr-tree whereof they had there such abundance that it continues yet their Staple Commodity I will not take upon me to determine Certain it is that most Writers reckon them amongst the Minores Gentes but if their own Records speak Truth we must look on them as the off-spring of the Scythians the noblest Race of People in the World from whom all the Northern Nations were as ambitious to derive themselves as those in the East from the Medians those in the South from the Aethiopians or those in the West from our Ancestors the Germans There are who reasonably enough conclude them to be a branch of these last For the Posâ—erity of Gomer planting in Italy disburthen'd part of their numbers into Germany and part into Gaul From those in Germany sprung two Branches the Francks and the Danes as * Fuag 8. lib. Goth. Procopius tells us both promiscuously at that time call'd Normans From those in Gaul sprung our Ancestors the Britains and those of Belgia by which 't is evident We that at this day are call'd English were originally all of one Stock Neither hath the change of Names or Nations much altered our Natures but that we continue to be still the same in humour as we were ever in point of Constitution They were as indeed most of the Inhabitants of the Septentrional part of the world a hardy and bold I cannot say brave People for their behaviour was plain and rude and they so affected their own manners that however they were led by Providence into Countries where they pertook more of Civility and the Sun yet they would not be mov'd to change any of their ancient Customes having but little sense of honour and less of danger aiming more at gain then glory Insomuch that they were altogether strangers to such gay distinctions of Honour as are since in fashion and wherewith those now in Denmark have been but very lately acquainted the reason was for that all their Dignities were Personal and not Hereditary held by no other Charter but that of their Vertue So that their wise Kings observing that old Adage Virtutis Laus Actio never suffered them to want fresh Occasions of Action whereby they sold them the honour they pretended to give them by parting with it not so much as a Reward of past as an earnest of future Services Neither did this a little inhance the value of their Nobility which being for term of life only as it fell sooner into the Kings hands to be remunerated again with better improvement and advantage so the Persons dignifi'd were not apt to be infected with those haughty conceipts which most usually puff up the minds of such as are born Noble who believing something to be in their Blood that differences them from the common Rank of Subjects the Obligation whereof they have either forgotten or hold to be discharg'd by their Ancestors grow insolent and factious and by their disloyalty not seldom disturb both their own Families and the Kingdoms peace Of this Knute had so sad a proof that as soon as he came to be King of England he indeavoured to discharge all his Grandees that might any way pretend to have any share in his Conquest crushing the two great Paladines Irtus and Turkill the one Earl of Northumberland t'other of Merkland each of whose Principalities were so independent and govern'd by such distinct Laws as made them so absolute that the Monarchy till then looked like
their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors
Ingraven on it which denoted that wherever that Stone shou d be placed there should the Scotch Dominion take place a Prediction verisied in our days in the Person of King James the Sixth the first of their Kings ever crowned here With this he took away likewise all their Books and Bookmen as if resolved to rob them of all sense of Liberty as well as of Liberty it self only the brave Wallis continued yet Lord of himself and being free kept up their Spirits by the Elixir of his Personal Courage mixt with an Invincible Constancy and Patience till being betray'd by one of his Companions a Villain sit to be canoniz'd in Hell he was forc'd to yield though he would never submit first to the King after to the Laws of England which judging him to dye as a Traytor eterniz'd the Memory of his Fidelity and Fortitude and made him what he could never have made himself the most glorious Martyr that Country ever had No sooner was he dead but Robert Bruce Son to that Robert Earl of Carric who was Competitor with Baliol appeared as a new Vindictor who escaping out of the English Court where he had long liv'd unsuspected headed the confused Body which wanted only a King to unite them in Counsel Power and Affection but unfortunately laying the Foundation of his Security in Blood murthering his Cosin Cumin who had been one of the Competitors upon pretence he held correspondence with King Edward the horror of which fact was aggravated by the manner and place for he took him whilst he was at his Prayers in the Church it cost him no less blood to wipe off that single stain then to defend his Title the Partakers with the Family of Cumin who were many mighty and eager of Revenge joyning thereupon with the English against him This drew King Edward the fourth time personally into Scotland who had he suffered his Revenge to have given place so far to his Justice as to have pursued Bruce as an Offender rather then as an Enemy he might possibly have done more in doing less then he did but he not only sacrific'd the two innocent Brothers of Bruce making them after they became his Prisoners answer with their lives the penalty of their Brother's Guilt but declar'd he would give no Quarter to any of his Party whereby he not only drove them closer together but arm'd them with Desperation which as it hath a keeper edge then hope so it wounded so deep and inraged them to that degree of Courage as not only to give the greatest Overthrow to the greatest Army that ever the English brought thither but to repay the measure of Blood in as full manner as it was given or intended and in the end broke the great Chain of his well laid Design which was to have inâ—arged his Power by reducing the whole Isle Wales being taken in a little before under one Scepter with no less respect to the quiet then the greatness of England but maugre all his Power or Policy they let in a Race of Kings there that found a way to conquer his Successors here without a stroke of which he seems to have had some Prophetick knowledge upon his Death-bed when he took so much care to make his Revenge out-live himself by commanding his Son Edward to carry his Bones round about that Country having just begun his fifth Expedition as he ended his life and not suffer them to be buried till he had vanquish'd it wholly Thus this great King who spent most of his time in shedding others Blood was taken off by the excessive shedding of his own for he dyed of a Dissentery and like Caesar who terrified his Enemies with his Ghost seem'd not willing to make an end with the World afâ—er he had done with it but which never came into any Kings thoughts before or since resolv'd to Reign after his Dominion was determined being confident that his very Name like a Loadstone which attracts Iron to it would draw all the English Swords to follow its fate till they had made good that Union which he with so much harshness and horror had accelerated but as Providence which more respects the unity of Affections then the Unity of Nations did by the * Burrough on the Sands in the Bishoprick of Durham Place where he dyed shew the frailty of that Foundation he laid whilst he liv'd all his Glory expiring with himself so Nature as in abhorrence to the violation of her Laws by the effusion of so much blood as he had shed the most that any Christian King of this Isle ever did turn'd the Blessing she gave him into a Curse whilst she took from him before his Eyes three of his four Sons and the only worthy to have surviv'd him and left him only to survive who only was worthy never to have been born And now whether it was his Fault or his Fate to dote thus upon Gaveston who being only a Minister to his Wantonness could not have gain'd that Power he had over him to make himself so great by lessening him without something like an Infatuation the matter of Fact must declare For before his Coronation he made him Earl of Cornwal and Lord of Man both Honours belonging to the Crown at his Coronation notwithstanding the Exceptions taken against him by all the Nobility he gave him the honour to carry King Edward's Crown before him which of right belonged to a Prince of the Blood to have done and after the Coronation he married him up to his own Niece the Daughter of his second Sister Jone de Acres by Gilbert Clare Earl of Gloucester having indeed rais'd him to this pitch of Greatness as tempted him to raise himself higher being not content with the Power without he might aâ—so share in the Glory of Soveraignty most vainly affecting the Title of KING and if he were not King of Man as he desired he was at least King in Man ruling both there and in Ireland like an absolute Prince not without hopes of a fair possibility of being if the Kings Issue had fail'd King of England after him which Hope made him Insolent and that Insolence Insupportable so that the Lords finding it bootless to expect Justice from the King against him resolv'd to do themselves right and without more ado let fly a whole volley of Accusations at him This first forced him to part from the King and being separated they found it easie to make him part from himself for it was not long before he fell into their hands being taken Prisoner by the Earl of Pembroke who chopt of his Head a deaâ—h however esteem'd to be the most honourable of any other was to him questionless the most grievous in that it made him stoop who never could endure to submit This violent proceeding of the Lords as it shew'd a roughness of the Times suitable to that of their own Natures so it was the first occasion of the second Civil War of England
Troyes she should be there to be espoused to him and with her he should have the Assurance of the Crown of France after the Decease of her Father and to gain the more Credit the Bishop secretly deliver'd him a Letter from the Princess her own hand which contained in it so much sweetness as had been enough to have made any other man but himself have surfeited with Joy his happiness being now so full and compleat that he had nothing beyond what he enjoyed to hope for Upon his Marriage with her he was published Regent of the Kingdom and Heir apparent to the Crown the Articles being published in both Realms and the two Kings and all their Nobility Sworn to the observance of them only the Daulphin stood out in utter Defiance both of his Right and Power Against him therefore the two Kings his Father and Brother together with the King of Scots who was newly arrived the young Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Orange the Dukes of Clarence Gloucester and Bedford and twenty one Earls forty five Barons and Knights and Esquires sans nombre advanc'd with an Army of French English Scotch and Irish to the number of six hundred thousand if the Historians of that time may be credited and having taken in all the Towns and Places that denied to yield they return'd to Paris where King Henry the Articles being ratified the second time and a Counterpart sent into England began to exercise his Regency by Coyning of Money with the Arms of England and France on it placing and displacing of Officers making new Laws and Edicts and lastly awarding Process against the Daulphin to appear at the Marble Table to answer for the Murther of the Duke of Burgundy But being willing to shew his Queen how great a King he was before she brought him that Kingdom he left his Brother Clarence his Lieutenant General there and brought her over into England where he spent some time in the Administration of Justice and performing such Acts of Peace as spoke him no less expert in the knowledge of governing then in that of getting a Kingdom But he had not been long here before he received the sad News of the death of his Brother Clarence who betrayed by the Duke of Alansons Contrivance into an Ambuscade was slain together with the Earls of Tankervile Somerset Suffolk and Perch and about two thousand Common Souldiers whereupon he deputed the Earl of Mortaine in his room and not long after went back again himself with his Brother Bedford to reinforce the War taking in all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lovaine Bry and Champagne during which time the Daulphin was not idle but industrious to regain Fortunes savour if it were possible made many bold Attempts upon several places in possession of the English But finding the Genius of our Nation to have the Predominancy over that of his own he diverted his Fury upon the Duke of Burgundy betwixt whom and King Henry he put this difference That as he dreaded the one so he hated the other Accordingly he laid Seige to Cosney a Place not very considerable in it self but as it was a Town of the Duke of Burgundy's King Henry was so concern'd to relieve it beyond any of his own that he marched Night and Day to get up to the Enemy and making over-hasty Journeys over-heat himself with unusual Travel and fell so sick that he was fain to rest himself at Senlis and trust to the Care of his Brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute the Design who relieved the Town and forced the Daulphin to retreat as he thought a great Looser by the Seige but it prov'd quite otherwise For the loss of the Town was nothing in comparison of the loss of King Henry who died not long after and which made his Death the more deplorable was That he no sooner left the World but Fortune left the English whereof having some Prophetick Revelation 't is thought the knowledge thereof might not be the least reason of shortning his Dayes by adding to the violence of his Distemper For 't is credibly reported that at the News of the Birth of his Son Henry born at Windsor himself being then in France even wearied with continual Victories he cryed out in a Prophetick Rapture Good Lord Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reign and get much and Henry of Windsor shall long time Reign and lose all but Gods will be done Which saying has given occasion to some to magnifie his Memory above all the Kings that were before him not to say all that came after him in that he was in some sense both King Priest and Prophet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE A Prince of excellent Parts in their kind though not of kindly Parts for a Prince being such as were neither sit for the Warlike Age he was born in nor agreeable to the Glory he was born to but such rather as better became a Priest then a Prince So that the Title which was sometimes given to his Father with relation to his Piety might better have been applyed to the Son with reference to his that he was the Prince of Priests Herein only was the difference betwixt them That the Religion of the one made him bold as a Lion that of the other made him as meek as a Lamb. A temper neither happy for the times nor himself for had he had less Phlegme and more Cholar less of the Dove-like Innocence and more of the Serpentine subtilty 't is probable he had not only been happier whilst he liv'd but more respected after he was dead whereas now notwithstanding all his Indulgence to the Church and Church-men there was none of them so grateful as to give him after he was murther'd Christian Burial but left him to be interr'd without Priest or Prayer without Torch or Taper Mass or Mourner indeed so without any regard to his Person and Pre-eminence that if his Obsequies were any whit better then that which holy Writ calls the Burial of an Ass yet were they such that his very Competitor Edward the Fourth who denied him the Rights of Majesty living thought him too much wronged being dead that to him some kind of satisfaction he was himself at the charge of building him a Monument The beginning of his Reign which every Body expected to have been the worst and like to prove the most unsuccessful part in respect of his Minority being but Nine Months old when he was crown'd happen'd to be the best and most prosperous there being a plentiful stock of brave men left to spend upon who behaved themselves so uprightly and carefully that it appear'd the Trust repos'd in them by the Father had made a strong Impression of Love and Loyalty to the Son The Duke of Bedford had the Regency of France the Duke of Gloucester the Government of England the Duke of Exeter and the Cardinal Beauford had the Charge of his