Appellation had been so entituled Which appeares more plainly by a particular of the Robes and Ornaments which were preparing for the day of this Solemnity as they are entred on Record in the book called The Catalogue of Honour published by Thomas Mills of Canterbury where it appeares also that they were prepared only but never used by reason of the Kings death which prevented the Sollemnities of it The ground of this Error I conceive first to be taken from John Stow who finding a creation of some Noble men and the making of many Knights to relate to the 18 day of October supposed it to have been done with reference to the Creation of a Prince of Wales whereas if I might take the liberty of putting in my own conjecture I should conceive rather that it was done with Reference to the Princes Christning as in like manner we find a creation of three Earles and five to inferiour Titles at the Christning of the Princesse Mary born to King James after his coming into England and Christened upon Sunday the fifth of May. 1604. And I conceive withall that Sir Edward Seimour Vicount Beauchamp the Queenes elder brother was then created Earle of Hartford to make him more capable of being one of the Godfathers or a Deputy-Godfather at the least to the Royall Infant the Court not being then in a condition by reason of the mournfull accident of the late Queenes death to show it selfe in any extraordinary splendour as the occasion had required at another time Among which persons so advanced to the Dignity and degree of Knighthood I find Mr. Thomas Seimour the Queenes youngest brother to be one of the number of whom we shall have frequent occasion to speak more fully and particularly in the course of this History No other alteration made in the face of the Court but that Sir William Pawlet was made Treasurer and Sir John Russell Comptroller of his Majesties Houshold on the said 18th day of October which I conceive to be the day of the Princes Christning both of them being principall Actors in the Afâ—aires and troubles of the following times But in the face of the Church there appeared some lines which looked directly towards a Reformation For besides the surrendring of divers Monasteries and the executing of some Abbots and other Religious Persons for their stiffenesse if I may not call it a perversenesse in opposing the Kings desires there are two things of speciall note which concurred this year as the Prognosticks or â—ore-runners of those great events which after followed in his Reign For it appeares by a Memoriall of the Famous Library of Sir Robert Cotton that Grafton now made known to Cromwell the finishing of the English Bible of which he had printed 1500. at his own proper charges amounting in the totall to 500. p. desiring stoppage of a surreptitions Edition in a lesse Letter which else would tend to his undoing the suit endeared by Cranmer Arch-Bishop of Canterbury at whose request Cromwell presents one of the Bibles to the King and procures the same to be allowed by his Authority to be read publiquely without comptrole in all his Dominions and for so doing he receives a letter of thanks from the said Arch-Bishop dated August the 13th of this present year Nor were the Bishops and Clergy wanting to advance the work by publishing a certain book in the English Tongue which they entituled The Institution of a Christian Man in which the Doctrine of the Sacraments the Creed the Lords Prayer and the Commandments were opened and expounded more perspicuously and lesse abhorrent from the truth then in former times By which clear light of Holy Scripture and the principall duties of Religion so laid opâ—n to them the people were the better able to discerne the errors and corruptionâ— of the Church of Rome From which by the piety of this Prince they were fully Freed And for a preamble thereunto the Rood of Boxley commonly called the Rood of Grace so Artificially contrived by reason of some secret wires in the body or concavities of it that it could move the eyes the lips c. to the great wonder and astonishment of the common people was openly discovered for a lewd imposture and broke in pieces at St. Pauls Cross on Sunday the 24. of February the Rood of Bermondsey Abby in South-work following the same fortune also within six dayes The next year brings an end to almost all the Monasteries and Religious houses in the Realme of England surrendered into the Kings hands by publâ—que instruments under the seales of all the severall and respective Convents and those surrenderies ratified and confirmed by Act of Parliament And this occasionally conduced to the future peace and quiet of this young Prince by removing out of the way some Great Pretenders who otherwise might have created to him no small disturbance For so it happened that Henry Earle of Devâ—nshire and Mary wife of Exceter descended from a daughter of King Edward the fâ—urth and Henry Pole Lord Mountacute descended from a daughter of George Duke of Clarence the second brother of that Edward under colour of preventing or revenging the Dissolution of so many famous Abbyes and religious houses associated themselves with Sir Edward Nâ—vill and Sir Nicholas Carew in a dangerous practise against the person of the King and the Peace of the Kingdom By whose endictment it appeares that it was their purpose and designe to destroy the King and advance Reginald Pole one of the younger brothers of the said Lord Mountacute of whom we shall hear more in the course of this History to the Regalâ— Throne Which how it could consist with the Pretensions of the Marquisse of Exceter or the Ambition of the Lord Mountacute the elder brother of this Reginald it is hard to say But having the Chronicle of John Speed to justifie me in the truth hereof in this particular I shall not take upon me to dispute the point The dangerous practise of which Persons did not so much retard the worke of Reformation as their execution did advance it to this year also appertaineth the suppressing of Pilgrimages the defacing of the costly and magnâ—ficent shrines of our Lady of Walsingham Ipswich Worcester c and more particularly of Thomas Becket once Arch-Bishop of Canterbury This last so rich in Jewells of most inestimable value that two great chests were filled with the spoyles thereoâ— so heavy and capacious as is affirmed by Bishop â—oodwin that each of them required no fewer then eight men to carry them out of the Church nothing inferiour unto Gold being charged within them More modestly in this then Sanders that malitious Sycophant who will have no lesse then twenty six waine load of silver Gold and precious stones to be seised into the Kings hands by the spoyle of that Monument Which proceedings so exasperated the Pope then being that without more delay by his Bull of January 1. he deprived the King
AFFAIRS OF CHURCH and STATE IN ENGLAND During the Life and Reign OF QUEEN MARY Heb. 11. 35 36 37. 35. Some of them were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection 36. And others had triall of cruell mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment 37. They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented c. Vell. Paterc Lib. 2. Hujus temporis fortunam ne deflere quidem quispiam satis dignè potuit nemo exprimere verbis potest Tantum Relligio potuit suadere malorum LONDON Printed for H. Twyford T. Dring J. Place and W. Palmer Anno 1660 The Parentage Birth and first Fortunes of the Princesse MARY The Eldest Daughter of K. Henry the Eighth before her comming to the CROWN With a brief Narrative of her Mother's Misfortunes from the first Agitating of the Divorce till the time of her Death and that which followed thereupon MARY the eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth and of Katherine his first wife daughter of Ferdinand and Issabella Kings of Spain was born at Greenwich on the 18 th day of February Anno 1516. Her Mother had before been married to Arthur Prince of Wales the elder Brother of King Henry but whether bedded by him or not more than as to some old Formalities of Court on the like occasions was not commonly known But he dying within few months after King Henry the Seventh the father of the deceased Prince was secretly dealt with by the Agents of the said Ferdinand and â—ssabella to proceed unto a second Marriage between Henry Duke of York his now onely son and their daughter Katherine To which King Henry readily condescendeth upon divers reasons partly to be assured of the assistance of the Kings of Spain against all practises of the French and partly that so great a Treasure as the Rents and Profits of the Princesse's Joynture might not be carried out of the Kingdom as needs must be if she should be married to a Prince of another Nation This being agreed on by the Parents of either side Pope Julius the 2 d. is sollicited for a Dispensation to the Grant whereof he willingly yielded knowing how necessary it was to the Peace of Christendom that those Kings should be united in the strictest Leagues of Love and Amity Which comming to the knowledge of the Princesse Katherine who understood her own condition better than her father or mother she caused those words vel forsan coâ—nitam to be inserted into the Bull or Dispensation and this she did for the preventing of all such disputes as might arise about the validity of the Marriage in case the consummation of it should be openly known though afterwards those words were used as the shrewdest Argument for the invalidating of the Marriage when it came in question And some such thing was thought to have prevailed with King Henry the seventh for deferring the advancement of Henry his second son to the Style Title and Dignity of Prince of Wales that he might first be well assued that no child was likely to be born of the former Marriage to whom that Title might more properly and of right belong The Dispensation being thus granted Prince Henry being then eleven years of age or thereabouts is solemnly contracted to the Princesse Katherine who must needs have a very great stock as well of Christian-Prudence as of Virgin-Modesty to wait the growing up of a Husband being then a child and one of whose affection to her when he should come to Man's estate she had no assurance and so it proved in the event For Henry had no sooner finished the fourteenth year of his age when either by the compunction of conscience the perswasion of some that wish'd him well or upon consideration of the disproportion of age which was then between them the Princesse being eight years the elder he resolved upon the breaking and annulling of the said Contract in which his Parents had engaged him To which end making his addresse to Doctor Richard Fox then Bishop of Winchester he openly renounceth the said Contract not by word onely but by the subscription of his name to a Legall Instrument containing the effect of that Renunciation his Resolution never to proceed any further in it and his Reasons for it Which Instrument he published in the presence of John Read a publick Notary the Bishop sitting then at Richmond as in Court or Consistory and witnessed unto by Miles Daâ—benâ—y Lord Chamberlain to King Henry the seventh and father of Henry Earl of Bridgwater Sir Charls Sommerset Banneret created afterwards Earl of Worcester Dr. Nicolas West after Bishop of Elâ— Dr. Thâ—mas Rowthall after Bishop of Durham and Sir Henry Mainiâ— The Instrument it self extant in the History of John Speed may be there consulted And in pursuance of this Act he waived the Consummation of the Marriage from one time to another till the death of his father which happened on the 22 of April An. 1509. he being then within two months of the age of eighteen years But being now come unto the Crown by the death of his father Reason of State prevailed so far beyond that of Conscience that he consented to the consummation of the Marriage which before he had solemnly renounced and did accordingly celebrate those unhappy Nuptialls the cause of so much trouble both to him and others on the second of June and caused her to be Crown'd with him on the 24 th of the same month This Marriage was blest within the year by the birth of a son whom the King caused to be Christned by the name of Henry and five years after with another who lived not long enough to receive his Baptism But Henry the first-born not living to be two months old the King remained childlesse till the birth of this daughter Mary the presumptive Heir of his Dominions committed in her Infancy to the care and charge of the Lady Margaret daughter of George Duke of Clarence and by the King in reference to her discent from the house of the Montacutes advanced unto the Style and Title of Countesse of Sarisbury An 1513. And herein it was thought that the Queen had a particular aim beyond that of the King and that she rather chose to commit her daughter to the care of that Lady than of any other in the Kingdom to the end that some affection growing to her by any of the Countesse's sons her daughter's Title to the Crown might be corroborated by the Interesse of the House of Clarence And so far her design succeeded that the Princesse Mary always carried such a dear affection to Reginald Pâ—le her second son best known by the name of Cardinal Pole in the following times that when she came unto the Crown she would have made choice of him for her husband before any other if the necessity of her affairs and
some artifices used to illude that purpose had not changed her mind She had scarce liv'd to the third year of her age when she was promised in marriage to the Daulphine of France with a Portion of 333000 Crowns to be paid by her Father and as great a Joynture to be made by the French King Francis as ever had been made by any King of that Country And so far did the businesse seem to be acted in earnest that it was publickly agreed upon in the treaty for the Town of Tournay that the Espousals should be made within four months by the said two Kings in the name of their children in pursuance whereof as the French King sent many rich gifts to some leading men of the Court of England to gain their good liking to this League so he sent many costly Presents to the Princesse Mary the designed wife if Princes could be bound by such designations of the heir of France But war beginning to break out between the French and the Spaniards it was thought fit by Charles the fifth being then Emperour of Germany and King of Spain to court the favour of the English for the obtaining whereof his neernesse to Queen Katherine being sister to the Queen his Mother gave him no small hopes Upon this ground he makes a voyage into England is royally feasted by the King installed solemnly Knight of the Order of the Garter in the Castle of Windsor and there capitulates with the King amongst other things to take to wife his daughter Mary as soon as she should come to the years of marriage it was also then and there agreed that as soon as she was twelve years old the Emperour should send a proxie to make good the contract espouse her per verba de praesenti in the usual form that in the mean time the King of England should not give her in marriage unto any other that a dispensation should be procured from the Pope at the charge of both Princes in regard that the parties were within the second degree of consanguinity that within four months after the contract the Princesse should be sent to the Emperour's Court whether it were in Spain or Flanders at the sole charge of the King of England and married within four dayes after her comming thither in the face of the Church her portion limited to 400000 crowns if the King should have no issue male but to be inlarged to 600000 crowns more if the King should have any such issue male to succeed in the Kingdom A jointure of 50000 crowns per annum to be made by the Emperour the one part thereof to be laid in Flanders and the other in Spain and finally that if either of the said two Princes should break off this marriage he should forfeit 400000 crowns to the party injured And now who could have thought but that the Princesse Mary must have been this Emperour's wife or the wife rather of any Prince then one that was to be begotten by this Emperour on another woman though in conclusion so it hapned As long as Charles had any need of the assistance and friendship of England so long he seemed to go on really in the promised marriage and by all means must have the Princesse sent over presently to be declared Empresse and made Regent of Flanders But when he had taken the French King at the battel of Pavia sackt Rome and made the Pope his prisoner he then conceived himselfe in a condition of seeking for a wife elsewhere which might be presently ripe for marriage without such a tedious expectation as his tarrying for the Princesse Mary must needs have brought him And thereupon he shuts up a marriage with the Lady Issabell Infanta of Pâ—lugull and daughter to another of his Mother's â—isters For which being questioned by the King he layes the blame upon the importunity of his Council who could not patiently permit him to remain unmarried till the Princesse Mary came to age and who besides had caused a scruple to be started touching her illegitimation as being born by one that had been wife to his elder brother King Henry thereupon proceeds to a new treaty with the French to whom his friendship at the time of their King's captivity had been very useful which is by them as cheerfully excepted as by him it had been franckly offered She had before been promised to the Daulphin of Francâ— but now she is design'd for the second son then Duke of Orleance who afterwards by the death of his elder brother succeeded his father in the Crown But whilst they were upon this treaty the former question touching her legitimation was again revived by the Bishop of Tarbâ—e one of the Commissioners for the French which though it seem'd not strong enough to dissolve the treaty which the French were willing to conclude as their affairs then stood upon any conditions yet it occasioned many troubles in the Court of Engâ—and and almost all Christendome besides For now the doubt being started a second time and started now by such who could not well subsist without his friendship began to make a deep impression in the mind of the King and to call baâ—k such passages to his remembrance as otherwise would have been forgotten He now bethinks himselfe of the Protestation which he had made in the presence of Bishop Fox before remembred never to take the Lady Katherine for his wife looks on the death of his two sons as a punishment on him for proceeding in the marriage and casts a fear of many inconveniences or mischiefs rather which must inevitably befall this Kingdome if he should dye and leave no lawful issue to enjoy the Crown Hope of more children there was none and little pleasure to be taken in a conversation which the disproportion of their years and a greater inequality in their dispositions must render lesse agreeable every day then other In this perplexity of mind he consults his Confessor by whom he was advised to make known his griefs to Cardinal Wolsie on whose judgement he relied in most other matters which hapned so directly to the Cardinal's mind as if he had contrived the project The Emperour had lately cross'd him in his suit for the Popedome and since denied him the Archbish prick of Tâ—ledo with the promise whereof he had before bound him to his side And now the Cardinal resolves to take the opportunity of the King's distractions for perfecting his revenge against him In order whereunto as he had drawn the King to make peace with France and to conclude a marriage for his daughter with the Duke of Orleance so now he hopes to separate him from the bed of Katherine the Emperour's Aunt and marry him to Madam Rhinee the French Queens sister who afterwards was wife to the Duke of Ferrara About which time the picture of Madam Margaret the sister of King Francis first married to the Duke of Alanzon was brought amongst others into
Ricot in reference perhaps to his fatheâ—s suffering in the cause of her mother from whom descended Francis Lord Norris advanced by King James to the Honors of Viscount Tame and Earl of Berkshire by Letters Patens bearing date in January Anno 1620. After him on the 7th of April comes Sir Edward North created Baron of Charâ—eleg in the Country of Cambridge who having been Chancellor of the Court of Augmentations in the time of King Henry and raised himself a fair Estate by the fall of Abbyes was by the King made one of his Executors and nominated to be one of the great Councill of Estate in his Son's Minority Sir John Bâ—ugis brings up the rear who being descended from Sir John Chandois a right noble Banneret and from the Bottelers Lords of Sudley was made Lord Chandois of Sudley on the 8th of April whiâ—h goodly Mannor he had lately purchased of the Crown to which it was Escheated on the death of Sir Thomas Seymour Anno. 1549. the Title still enjoyed though but little else by the seventh Lord of this Name and Family most of the Lands being dismembred from the House by the unparallel'd Impudence to give it no worse name of his elder brother Some Bishops I find consecrated about this time also to make the stronger party for the Queen in the House of Peers no more Sees actually voided at that time to make Rome for others though many in a fair way to it of which more hereafter Hooper of Glocester commanded to attend the Lords of the Council on the 22 of August and committed prisoner not long after was outed of his Bishoprick immediately on the ending of the Parliament in which all Consecrations were declared to be void and null which had been made according to the Ordinall of King Edward the 6 th Into whose place succeeded James Brooks Doctor in Divinity sometimes Fellow of Corpus Christi and Master of Bâ—liol Colledge in Oxon employed not long after as a Delegat from the Pope of Rome in the proceedings against the Archbishop of Canterbury whom he condemned to the stake To Jaylor of whose death we have spoken before succeeded Doctor John White in the See of Lincoln first School-master and after Warden of the Colledge near Winchester to the Episcopall See whereof we shall find him translated Anno 1556. The Church of Rochester had been void ever since the removall of Doctor Story to the See of Chichester not suffered to return to his former Bishoprick though dispoiled of the later But it was now thought good to fill it and Maurice Griffin who for some years had been the Archdeacon is consecrated Bishop of it on the first of April One suffrage more was gained by the repealing of an Act of Parliament made in the last Session of King Edward for dissolving the Bishoprick of Durham till which time Doctor Cuthbert Tunstall though restored to his Liberty and possibly to a good part also of his Churches Partimony had neither Suffrage as a Peer in the House of Parliament not could act any thing as a Bishop in his own Jurisdiction And with these Consecrations and Creations I conclude this year An. Reg. Mar. 2º An. Dom. 1554 1555. THe next begins with the Arrivall of the Prince of Spain wafted to England with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty sail of Ships twenty of which were English purposely sent to be his Convoy in regard of the warrs not then expired betwixt the French and the Spaniards Landing at Southampton on the 19 th of July on which day of the month in the year foregoing the Queen had been solemnly proclaimed in London he went to Winchester with his whole Retinue on the 24 th where he was received by the Queen with a gallant Train of Lords and Ladies solemnly married the next day being the Festival of St. James the supposed Tutelary Saint of the Spanish Nation by the Bishop of Winchester at what time the Queen had passed the eight and thirtieth year of her age and the Prince was but newly entred on his twenty seventh As soon as the Marriage-Rites were celebrated Higueroa the Emperors Embassador presented to the King a Donation of the Kingdoms of Naples and Cicily which the Emperor his father had resigned unto him Which presently was signified and the Titles of the King and Queen Proclaimed by sound of Trumpet in this following Style PHILIP and MARY by the grace of the God King and Queen of England France Naples Jerusalem Ireland Defenders of the Faith Princes of Spain and Cicily Arch-Dukes of Austria Dukes of Millain Burgundy and Brabant Counts of Ausperge Flanders and Tirroll c. At the proclaiming of which Style which was performed in French Latine and English the King and Queen showed themselves hand in hand with two Swords born before them for the greater state or in regard of their distinct Capacity in the publick Government From VVinchester they removed to Basing and so to VVindsor where Philip on the 5 th of August was Installed Knight of the Garter into the fellowship whereof he had been chosen the year before From thence the Court removed to Richmond by land and so by water to Suffolk-place in the Burrough of Southwark and on the 12 th of the same month made a magnificent passage thorow the principal streets of the City of London with all the Pomps accustomed at a Coronation The Triumphs of which Entertainment had continued longer if the Court had not put on mourning for the death of the old Duke of Norfolk who left this life at Framingham Castle in the month of September to the great sorrow of the Queen who entirely loved him Philip thus gloriously received endeavoureth to sow his Grandure to make the English sensible of the benefits which they were to partake of by this Marriage and to engratiate himself with the Nobility and People in all generous ways To which end he caused great quantity of Bullion to be brought into England loaded in twenty Carts carrying amongst them twenty seven Chests each Chest containing a Yard and some inches in length conducted to the Tower on the second of October by certain Spaniards and English-men of his Majesties Guard And on the 29 th of January then next following ninety nine Horses and two Carts laden with Treasures of Gold and Silver brought out of Spain was conveyed through the City of the Tower of London under the conduct of Sir Thomas Grosham the Queens Merchant and others He prevailed also with the Queen for discharge of such Prisoners as stood committed in the Tower either for matter of Religion or on the account of Wyaâ—'s Rebellion or for engaging in the practice of the Duke of Northumberland And being gratified therein according unto his desire the Lord Chancellor the Bishop of Ely and certain others of the Councill were sent unto the Tower on the 18 th of January to see the same put in execution which was accordingly performed to the great joy
for pressing him to the disinheriting of his foâ—mer children But whether this were so or not certain it is that his last wife being a proud imperious woman and one that was resolved to gain her own ends upon him never leâ—t plying him with one suspition after anoâ—her till in the end she had prevâ—iled to have the greatest part of his lands and all his Honourable Titles setled on her eldest son And that she might make sure work of it she caused him to obtaine a private Act of Parliament in the 32. yeare of Henry the Eighth Anno 1540. for entailing the same on this last Edward and the Heires male of his body So easie was he to be wrought on by those that knew on which side he did lie most open to assaults and batteries Of a farr different temper was his brother Thomas the youngest sonne of Sir John Seimour of a daring and enterprising nature arrogant in himselfe a dispiser of others and a Contemner of all Counsells which were not first forged in his own brain Following his sister to the Court he received the Order of Knighthood from the hands of the King at such time as his brother was made Earle of Hartford and on May day in the thirtieth yeare of the Kings Reign he was one of the Challengers at the Magnificent Justs maintained by him and others against all comers in the Pallace of Westminster in which together with the rest he behaved himselfe so highly to the Kings contentment and their own great Honoâ—r that they were all severally rewarded with the Grant of 100. Marks of yearely rent and a convenient house for habitation thereunto belonging out of the late dissolved order of Saint John oâ— Iâ—rusalem Which being the first foundation of his following greatness proved not sufficient to support the building which was raised upon it the Gentleman and almost all the rest of the challengers coming within few yeares after to unfortunate ends For being made Lord Seimour of Sudley and Lord High Admirall of England by King Edward the sixth he would not satisfie his ambition with a lower marriage then the widow of his deceased Soveraign aspiring after her death to the bed of the Princes of Elizabeth the second daughter of the King Which wrought such Jealousies and distrusts in the Head of his brother then being Lord Protector of the King and Kingdom that he was thereupon Arraigned Condemned and Executed of which more anon to the great joy of such as practised to â—ubvert them both As for the Barrony of Sudley denominated from a goodly Mannor in the County of Glâ—câ—ster it wasâ— ancâ—ently the Patrimony of Harrold the eldest Son of Ralph d' Mont. the son of 〈◊〉 Medantinuâ— or d' Mount and of Goda his wife one of the daughters of Ethilred and sister of Edmond sirnamed â—roâ—side Kings of England whose Posterity taking to themselves the name of Sudley continued in possession of it till the time of John the last Baron of this name and Famiâ—y VVhose daugâ—ter Joane conveyed the whole estate in marriage to Sir William Botteler of the Family of Wemm in Shropshire From whom deâ—cended Ralph Lord Botteleâ— of Sudley Castle Chamberlain of the Houshold to King Henry the sixth by whom he was created Knight of the Garter and Lord High Treasurer of England And though the greatest part of this Inheritance being devided between the sisters and co-heires came to other Families yet the Castle and Barony of Sudley remained unto a male of this house untill the latter end of the Reign â—f King Henry the eighth to whom it was escheated by the Attainder of the last Lord Botteller whose greatest Crime was thought to be this goodly Mannor which some greedy Courtiers had an eye on And being fallen unto the Crown it was no hard matter for the Lord Protector to estate the same upon his brother who was scarce warmed in his new Honour when it fell into the Crown again Where it continued all the rest of King Edwards Reign and by Queen Mary was conferred on Sir John Bruges who derived his Pedigree from one of the said sisters and co-heires of Ralph Lord Botteler whom she ennobled by the Title of Lord Chaundos of Sudley As for Sir Henry Seimour the second son of Sir John Seimour he was not found to be of so fine a metall as to make a Courtier and was therefore left unto the life of a Country Gentleman Advanced by the Power and favour of his elder Brother to the oâ—der of Knighthood and afterwards Estated in the Mannours of Marvell and Twyford in the County of Southhampton dismembred in those broken times from the see of Winchester To each of these belonged a Park that of the first containing no less then foure miles that of the last but two in compass the first being also Honoured with a goodly Mancion house belonging anciently to those Bishops and little inferiour to the best of the Wealthy Bishopricks There goes a story that the Priest Officiating at the Altar in the Church of Ouslebury of which Parish Marvell was a part after the Mass had been abolished by the Kings Authority was violently dragged thence by this Sir Henry beaten and most reproachfully handled by him his servants universally refusing to serve him as the instruments of his Rage and Fury and that the poore Priest having after an opportunity to get into the Church did openly curse the said Sir Henry and his posterity with Bell Book and Candle according to the use observed in the Church of Rome Which whether it were so or not or that the maine foundation of this Estate being laid on Sacrilidge could promise no long blessing to it Certain it is that his posterity are brought beneath the degree of poverty For having three Nephewes by Sir John Seâ—mour his only Son that is to say Edward the eldest Henry and Thomas younger sons besides severall daughters there remaines not to any of them one foot of Land or so much as a penny of money to supply their necessities but what they have from the Munificence of the Marquesse of Hartford or the charity of other well disposed people which have affection or Relation to them But the great ornament of thisâ— house was their sister Jane the only daughter of her father by whose care she was preferred to the Court and service of Queen Ann Bollen where she outâ—shined all the other Ladies and in short time had gained exceeding much on the King a great admirer of Fresh Beauties and such as could pretend unto no command on his own affections Some Ladies who had seen the pictures of both Queenes at White Hall Gallery have entertained no small dispute to which of the two they were to give Preheminence in point of beauty each of them having such a plentifull measure of Perfections as to Entitle either of them to a Superiority If Queen Ann seemed to have the more lively countenance Queen Jane was thought to carry it in the exact
extreame griefe of the King and the generall sorrow of the Court who had him in a High degree of veneration for his birth and Galantry It appeares also by a passage in this Act of Parliament above mentioned that the King was not only hurried to this Marriage by his own affections but by the humble petition and intercession of mâ—st of the Nobles of his Realm moved thereunto as well by the conveâ—ienâ—y of her yeares as in respect that by her excellent beauty and purenesse of flesh and blood I speak the very words of the Act it selfe she was apt God willing to concieve issue And so accordingly it proved For on the 12th of October 1537. about two of the clock in the morning she was delivered of a young Prince Christened not long after by the name of Edward but it cost her deare she dying within two dayes after and leaving this Character behind her of being the Discreetest Humblest and Fairest of all the Kings Wives It hath been commonly reported and no lesse generally believed that that childe being come unto the birth and there wanting naturall strength to be delivered his Mothers body was ripped open to give him a passage into the World and that she died of the Incision in a short time after The thing not only so related in our common Heralds but taken up for a constant and undoâ—bted truth by Sir John Haywood in his History of the Life and Reign of King Edward the sixth which notwithstanding there are many reasons to evince the contrary For first it is observed by the said Sir John Haywood that children so brought forth were by the ancient Romans esteemed fortunate and commonly proved great enterprisers with happy successe And so it is affirmed by Pliny viz. Auspicatius Enecta Matre Nascuntur c. called first Caesones and afterwards more commonly Caesares as learned Writers do averr quia caeso matris utero in Lucem prodiissent because their Mothers bodies had been opened to make passage for them Amongst whom they reckon Caeso and Fabius who was three times Consull Scipio sirnamed Affricanus Renowned for his Victories in Spain his vanquishing of Haniball and humbling the proud Cities of Carthage And besides others Julius Caesar who brought the whole Roman Empire under his Command whereas the life of this Prince was short his Reigne full of troubles and his end generally supposed to be traiterously contrived without performing any memorable Action either at home or abroad which might make him pass in the account of a fortunate Prince or any way successefull in the enterprising of Heroick Actions Besides it may appeare by two severall Letters the one written by the appointment of the Queen her selfe immediately after her delivery the other by one of her Physitians on the morrow after that she was not under any such extream necessity though questionlesse she had a hard labour of it as report hath made her For first the Queen immediately upon the birth of the Prince caused this ensuing Letter signed with her own signet to be sent unto the Lordâ— of the Privy Counsell that is to say RIght trusty and well Beloved we greet you well And forasmuch as by the inestimable goodnesse and Grace of Almighty God we be delivered and brought in Childeâ—â—ed of a PRINCE concieved in most Lawfull Matrimony between my Lord the Kings Majesty and us Doubting not but that for the Love and affection you beare unto us and to the Common-Wealth of this Realme this knowledge shall be joyous and Glad Tidings unto you We have thought good to certifie you of this same To the intent ye might not only render unto God Condigne thanks and praise for so great a benefit but also continually pray for the long Continuance and preservation of the same here in this life to the Honour of God joy and pleasure of my Lord the KING and us and the Vniversall Weale quiet and tranquillity of this whole Realme Given under our signet at my Lords Mannor of Hamptonâ—Court the twelâ—th day of October But having a hard labour of it as before was said it brought her first into a very high distemper and after into a very great looseness which so accelerated the approach of death that she prepared her selfe for God according to the Rites of the Church then being And this appâ—ares by a letter of the Queenes Physitians directed in these words to the Lords of the Counsell viz. THese shall be to advise your Lordships of the Queenes Estate Yesterday afternoon she had a naturall lax by reason whereof she began to lighten and as it appeared to amend and so continued till towards night All this night she hath been very sick and doth rather appare then amend her Confessor hath been with her Grace this morning and hath done that to his office appertaineth and is even now preparing to Administer to her Grace the Sacrament of Vnction Subscribed at Hampton Court on Wednesday morning at eight of the clock by Thomas Cutland Robert Karhold Edward Bayntam John Chambers Priest William Butts George Owen So died this Noble Beautifull and Vertuous Queen to the Generall lamentation of all good Subjects and on the twelfth of November following with great Solemnity was conveyed to Windsor and there Magnificently interred in the midst of the quire In memory of whom I find this Epitaph not unworthy the greatest wits of the present times to have then been made viz. Phoenix Jana Jacet nâ—to Phaenice Dolendum est Saecula Phoenices nulla tulisse duas That is to say Here Jane a Phenix lies whose death Gave to another Phenix breath Sad case the while that no age ever Could show two Phaenixes together But to return unto the Prince It is affirmed with like confidence and as little truth that on the 13th day of October then next following that being but the sixth day after his birth he was created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earle of Chester c. In which though I may easily excuse John Stow and Bishop Goodwine who report the same yet I shall never pardon the late Lord Herbert for his incuriosity as one that had fit opportunities to know the contrary For first Prince Edward was never created Duke of Cornwall and there was no reason why he should he being actually Duke of Cornwall at the houre of his birth according to the Entaile which was made of that Dukedome to the Crown by King Edward the third And secondly he was never created Prince of Wales nor then nor any time then after following his Father dying in the midst of the preparations which were intended for the Pomp and Ceremony of that Creation This truth confessed by Sir John Haywood in his History of the Life and Reigâ— of this King and generally avowed by all our Heralds who reckon none of the children of King Henry the Eighth amongst the Princes of Wales although all of them successively by vulgar
in which he heard the greatest part of the Office till the Consecration and then Received the Blessed Sacrament on his knees as at other times saying withall as Sanders doth Relate the story That if he did not only cast himselfe upon the ground but even under it also he could not give unto the Sacrament the Honour which was due unto it The instant of his death approaching none of his Servants though thereunto desired by his Physitians durst acquaint him with it Till at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook that ungratefull office which the King entertaining with lesse impatience then was looked for from him gave order that Arch-Bishop Cramner should be presently sent for But the Arch-Bishop being then at his house in Croyden seven miles from Lambeth it was so long before he came that he found him speechlesse Howsoever applying himselfe to the Kings present condition and discoursing to him on this Point that Salvation was to be obtained only by Faith in Christ he desired the King that if he understood the effect of his words and believed the same he would signifie as much by some signe or other which the King did by ringing him gently by the hand and within short time after he gave up the Ghost when he had lived fifty five yeares seven moneths and six dayes over of which he had Reigned thirty seven yeares nine moneths and six dayes also Having brought King Henry to his death we must next see in what estate he left the Kingdome to his Son with reference to the condition of Affaâ—res both at home and abroad Abroad he left the Pope his most bitter enemy intent on all advantages for the recovery of the Power and Jurisdiction which had been exercised in England by his Predecessors and all the Princes of his Party in Germany Italy and elsewhere either in Action or Design concurring with him The Protestant Kings and Princes he had disobliged by repudiating the Lady Ann of Cleve and the precipitated death of Cromwell upon whose Power and favour with him they did most rely But nothing did moâ—e alienate their affections from him then the persecution raised at home upon the terrible Statute of the six Articles before remembered by which they saw themselves condemned and executed in the persons of those who suffered for the same Religion which themselves professed And as for the two great Kings of France and Spaine he had so carried himselfe between them that he was rather feared of both then beloved by either of them The Realms and Signeuries of Spaine excâ—pt Portugall only together with the Kingdomes of Naples Scicilie and Sardâ—nia and the Estates belonging to the House of Burgundy in the Belgick Provinces were all united in the Person of Chaâ—les the fifth to which he aâ—ded by his own proper Power and Valour the Dukedomes of Millain and Gulldress the Earldome of Zâ—tphen with the Estates of Grâ—iniâ—gen Vtrecht and Over-yssâ—ll And on the other side the French Kings were not only in the quiet possession of those goodly Territories Normandy Guienne and the rest which anciâ—ntly belonged to the Kings of England but lately had inpaâ—ronised themselves of the Dukedomes of Burgoine and Bretagne and the Earledome of Provence all meeting in the Person of King Francis the first Of which two great and puissant Princes the first being resolved to admit no equall and the second to acknowledge no superiour they endeavoured by all wayes and meanes immaginable to subdue each other whereby the Conqueror might attaine in time to the Empire of Europe It was therefore Kâ—ng Henries chiefest care as it was his interess to keep the scales to even between them that neither of them should preponderate or weigh down the other to the endangering of the rest of the Princes of Christendome Which he performed with so great constancy and courage as made him in effect the Arbitrer at all times between them So as it may be truely affirmed of him that he sate at the Helmne and Steered the great Affaires of Christendome to what point he pleased But then withall as his constant and continuall standing to thâ—s Maxime of State made him friend to neither so he was suspected of them both both having also their particular Animosities against his person and proceedings The Emperour irreconciliably incenst against him for the injury done unto his Aunt from whom he had caused himselfe to be divorced the French King no less highly enraged by the taking of Bâ—iloigne for which though the King had shuffled up a peace with France Prince Edward shall be called to a sober Reckoning when he least lookes for it To look to matters near at home we finde the Scots exasperated by his Annuall inrodes but more by his demanding the long neglected duty of Homage to be performed from that Kingdom to the Crown of England The Irish on the other side of the sea being kept under by strong hand but standing upon no good termes of affection with him the executing of the young Earle of Kildare and five of his Unckles at one time being fresh in memory and neither forgotten nor forgiven by the rest of the Clanns And as for England it self the People were generally divided into Schismes and Factions some being two stiff in their old Mumpsimus as others no lesse busie in their new Sumpsimus as he used to phrase it The Treasures of the Crown exhausted by prodigall gifts and his late chargeable Expedition against the French the Lands thereof charged with Rents and Pensions granted to Abbots Priors and all sorts of Religious Persons some of which remained payable and were paid accordingly till the time of King James and which was worst of all the Mony of the Realm so imposed and mixed that it could not pass for currant amongst Forreign Nations to the great dishonour of the Kingdome and the losse of the Merchant For though an infinite Masse of Jewels treasure in Plate and ready Mony and an incredible improvement of Revenue had acrued unto him by such an universell spoyle and dissolution of Religious Houses yet was he little or nothing the richer for it In so much that in the yeare 1543. being within lesse then seven yeares after the Generall suppression of Religious Houses he was faign to have recourse for moneyes to his Houses of Parliament by which he was supplied after an extraordinary manner the Clergy at the same time giving him a subsidy of 6. s. in the pound to be paid out of all their Spirituall Promotions poore stipendary Priests paying each 6. s. 8. d. to encrease the summe Which also was so soon consumed that the next yeare he prest his Subjects to a Benevolence for carrying on his Warr with France and Scotland and in the next obtained the Grant for all Chanteries Hospitalls Colledges and Free-Chappells within the Realm though he lived not to enjoy the benefit of it as before was said Most true it is that it was somewhat of the latest before he
with the present as to receive the same in a Sollemn Assembly of the Cardinalls and Court of Rome expressing the contentment which he took therein by a fluent Oration the Copy whereof we have in Speed Fol. 991. And whereas in former times the French were Honoured with the Title of Most Christian and the Spaniard lately with the Title of The Catholick King This Pope in due acknowledgement of so great a Merit bestowes on Henry the more Glorious Attribute of The Defender of the Faith Which Bull being dated on the tenth of Octob. Anno 1521. is to be found exemplified in The Titles of Honour and thither I referr the Reader for his satisfaction Twenty three yeares the King enjoyed this Title by no other Grant then the Donation of Pope Leo. But then considering with himselfe that it was first Granted by that Pope as a Personall favour and not intended to descend upon his Posterity as also that the Popes by the reason of such differences as were between them might possibly take a time to deprive him of it he resolved to stand no longer on a ground of no greater certainty And therefore having summoned his High Court of Parliament to Assemble on the 29th of March Anno 1544. he procured this Title to be assured unto his Person and to be made perpetuall to his Heires and Successors for all times succeeding For which Consult the Statute 35. Hen. 8. Cap. 3. And by the Act it was ordained that whosoever should malitiously diminish any of his Majesties Royall Titles or seek to deprive him of the same should suffer death as in case of Treason and that from thenceforth the Stile Imperiall should no otherwise be exprest then in this forme following that is to say N. N. by the Grace of God King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith and on Earth of the Churches of England and Ireland the Supreme Head By vertue of which Act Queen Mary still retained this Title though she disclaimed the other of Supreme Head by Act of Parliament in the first yeare of her Reign as being incompetible with her submission and Relations to the See of Rome As for the Title of King of Ireland it was first given unto this King by a Parliament there holden in the Month of June 1541. under Sir Anthony Saint-Leiger being then Lord Deputy The Acts whereof being transmitted to the King and by him confirmed he caused himselfe to be first Proclaimed King of Ireland on the 23th of January then next following Which though it added somewhat to him in point of Title yet it afforded him no advantage in point of Power but that the name of King was thought to carry more respect and awe with it amongst the Irish then the Title of Lord which only till that time had been assumed by the Kings of England For otherwise the Kings of England from the first Conqâ—est of the Country by King Henry the second enjoyed and exercised all manner of Royalties and Preheminences which do or can belong to the greatest Kings Governing the same by their Vice-Gerâ—nts to whom sometimes they gave the Title of Lord Lieutenants sometimes Lord Deputies of Ireland then whom no Vice-Roy in the VVorld comes nearer to the Pomp and splendor of a Soveraign Prince And though they took no other Title to themselves then Lords of Ireland yet they gave higher Titles to their Subjects there many of which they advanced to the Honour and Degree of Earles And at the same time when King Richard the second contented himselfe with no Higher Stile then Lord of Ireland he exalted his great Favourite Robert d' Vere the tenth Earle of Oxon of that Family first to the Dignity and Stile of Marquesse of Dublin and after to the invidious Appellation of Duke of Ireland which he enjoyed unto his death The Countrey at the same time changed it's Title also being formerly no otherwise called in our Records then Terra Hiberniea or the Land of Ireland but from henceforth to be called upon all occasions in Acts of Parliament Proclamations and Letters Patents by the name of Regnum Hiberniae or the Realm of Ireland At the assuming of which new Title by this King the Scots were somewhat troubled but the Pope much more The Scots had then some footing in the North parts of that Iland and thought the taking of that Title by the Kings of England to tend to the endangering of their possession or at least to bring them under a Subjection of a Foreign Prince And on the other side it was complained of in the Court of Rome as a great and visible encroachment on the Pâ—pall Power to which it only appertained to erect new Kingdomes and that the injury was the greater in the present case because the King holding that Iland by no other Title as it was then and there pretended then by the Donation of Pope Adrian to King Henry the second was not withâ—ut the Popes consent to assume that Title But the King cared as little for the Pope as he did for the Scots knowing how able he was to make good all his Actings against them both and not only for enjoying this Title for the rest of his life but for the leaving of it to his Heires and Successors though afterward Queen Mary accepted a new Grant of it from the Pope then being Having thus setled and confirmed the Regall Style his next care was for setling and preventing all disputes and quarrells which might be raised about the Succession of the Crown if the Prince his son should chance to dye without lawfull issue as he after did In which as he discharged the trust reposed in him so he waved nothing of the Power which he had took unto himself by Act of Parliament made in that behalfe in the 35 year of his Reign as before wasnoted In pursuance whereof finding himself sensibly to decay but having his wits and understanding still about him he framed his last Wil and Testament which he caused to be signed and attested on the 30 of December Anno 1546 being a full Month before his death First published by Mr. Fuller in his Church History of Brittain Lib. 5. Fol. 243 244. And out of him I shall crave leave to transcribe so much thereof as may suffice to show unto posterity the sence he had of his own condition the vile esteem he had of his sinfull body what pious but unprofitable care he took for the Decent Interment of the same in what it was wherein he placed the hopes of Eternall life and finally what course he was pleased to take in the intailing of the Crown after his decease by passing over the line of Scotland and setling the Reversion in the House of Suffolk if his own children should depart without lawfull Issue as in fine they did In which and in some other points not here summed up the Reader may best satisfie himselfe by the words and tenour of the VVill which are
work of his Hands or had been agitated and debated in no Head but his So did the Emperour Justinian in the Book of Institutes and Theodosins in the Code Boâ—iface in the Decretals and John the 22th in that part of the Canon Law which they call the Extravagants the honour of which Works was severally arrogated by them because performed by their Encouragement and at their Appointment But whosoever laboured in the Preparation of these Articles certain it is that they were onely a Rude Draught and of no signification till they had passed the Vâ—te of the Convocation and there we shall hear further of them In Reference to the Polity and good Order of the Common-Wealth there were two things done of great Importance the one redounding to the Present the other to the Future Benefit of the English Nation Of which last sort was the suppressiâ—g of the Corporation of Merchant-Strangers the Merchants of the Steel-Yard as they commonly called them Concerning which we are to know that the English in the Times foregoing being neither strong in Shipping nor much accustomed to the Seas received all such Commodities as were not of the growth of their own Country from the hands of Strangers resorting hither from all Parts to upbraid our Laziness Amongst which the Merchants of the East-Land â—arts of Almain or High Germany well known in former Stories by the Name of Easterlings used to bring hither yearly great quantities of Wheat Rye and other Grain as also Cables Ropes Masts Pitch Tar Flax Hemp Linen Cloth Wainâ—coats Wax Steel and other profitable Merchandises for the use of this Kingdom For their Encouragement wherein they were amply Privileged exempt from many Impositions which Merchant-Strangers use to pay in all other Countries erected into a Corporation by King Henry the Third commonly called Guilda Aula Theutonicorum permitted first to carry out Wools unwrought and afterwards a certain number of Cloaths when the English were grown skilfull in that Manufacture Their Court kept in a fair large House built near the Thames which from an open place wherein Steel had formerly been sold took the Name of the Steel-Yard Grown Rich and driving a great Trade they drew upon themselves the Envy as all other Merchant-Strangers did of the Londoners chiefly but generally of all the Port Towns of England who began now to think the Seas as open to them as to any others It was considered also by the Lords of the Council that by suffering all Commodities of a Foreign growth and a great part of the Commodities of the growth of England to be imported and exported in Out-landish Bottoms the English Merchants were discouraged from Navigation whereby the Shipping of the Realm was kept low and despicable It was therefore thought expedient in Reason of State to make void their Privileges and put the Trade into the hands of the English Merchant For the doing whereof the Easterlings or Merchants of the Steel-Yard had given cause enough For whereas they had antiently been permitted to ship away but eighty Cloaths afterwards one hundred and at last one thousand it was found that at this time they had transported in their own Bottoms 44000 English Cloatâ—â— there being but 1100 ship'd away by all Strangers else It was also found that besides the Native Commodities of their own growth they had brought in much Strangers goods of other Countâ—ies contrary to their agreement made with King Edward the Fâ—urtâ— and that upon a further search their Corporation was found imperfect their Numbers Names and Nations not sufficiently known This gave the Council ground enough for seising all their Liberties into the hands of the King and never after to restore them notwithstanding the great Embassies and Solicitations of the Cities of Hamborough and Lubeck and many other of the Hans-Towns in Germany who had seen their Factories and Factours And hereunto the seasonable coming of Sebastian Cabot of which more anon gave no small Advantage by whose Encouragement and Example the English Nation began to fall in Love with the Seas to try their Fortunes in the Discovery of unknown Regions and consequently to encrease their Shipping till by degrees they came to drive a wealthy Trade in most parts of the World and to be more considerable for their Naval Power then all their Neighbours But because all things could not be so well settled at the first as not to need the Help and Correspondencies of some foreign Nations it was thought fit to â—earken to an Entercourse with the Crown of Sweden which was then Opportunely offered by Gustavus Ericus the first of the Family now reigning By which it was agreed First That if the King of Sweden sent Bullion into England He might carry away English Commodities without Custom Secondly That He should carry Bullion to no other Prince Thirdly That if He sent Ozimus Steel Copper c. He should pay Custom for English Commodities as an English-man Fourthly That if He sent other Merchandise He should have free Intercourse paying Custom as a Stranger Whâ—reupon the Mint was set on work which brought the King for the first year the sum of twenty four thousand Pounds of which the sum of fourteen thouâ—and pounds was designed for Ireland and the rest lay'd up in the Exchequer some other waies were devised also that the Mint might be kept going and some agreement made with the Mint-Masters in the Point of Coynage which proved more to the Advantage of the King then the present profit of the Subject For hereupon on the ninth of July the base Money Coyned in the time of the King deceased was publickly decryed by Proclamation the Shilling to go for Nine Pence onely and the Groat for Three Pence And on the seventeenth of August then next following the Nine-Peny-piece was decryed to Six Pence the Groat to Two Pence the Half-Groat to a Peny By means whereof he that was worth one thousand pound on the eighth of July without any ill-husbandry in himself or diminution of his stock was found before the eighteenth day of August to be worth no more then half that Sum and so proportionably in all other Sums both above and under Which though it caused many an heavy heart and much repining at the present amongst all those whose Wealth lay most especially in Trade and Money yet proved it by degrees a chief Expedient for reducing the Coyn of England to it's antient Valew For on the thirtieth of October the Subjects had the taft of the future benefit which was to be expected from it there being then some Coyns Proclaimed both in Gold and Silver Pieces of thirty shillings ten shillings and five shillings of the finest Gold pieces of five shillings two shillings six pence one shilling six pence c. of the pureâ—t Silver Which put the Merchant in good hope that he should drive as rich a Trade under this young King as in the happiest dayes of his Predecessours before the Mony was debased And now we come
conformity as to believe that she was catholickly affected But the Queen was not the onely one who believed so of her though she behaved her self so warily as not to come within the danger of the Laws for acting any thing in opposition unto that Religion which was then established Concerning which there goes a story that when a Popish Priest had urged her very earnestly to declare her judgment touching the Presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament she very cautelously resolved the point in these following Verses 'T was God the word that spake it He took the bread and bâ—ake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it But all this caution notwithstanding her aversness from the Church of Rome was known sufficiently not to be altered while she lived and therefore she to live no longer to be the occasion of continual fears and jealousies to the Catholick party The times were then both sharp and bloody and a great persecution was designed against the Protestants in all parts of the Kingdom At what time Bishop Gardiner was heard to say That it was to no purpose to cut off the boughs and branches if they did not also lay the Ax to the root of the Tree More plainly the Lord Paget in the hearing of some of the Spaniaâ—ds That the King should never have a quiet Government in England if her â—â—ad were not stricken off from her shoulders With which the King being made acquainted he resolved to use his best endeavour not onely to preserve her life but obtain her liberty For he considered with himself that if the Princess should be taken away the right of the Succession would remain in the Queen of Scots who being married to the Daulphin of Frâ—â—ce would be a means of joyning this Kingdom unto that and thereby gain unto the French the Soveraignty or supream command above all other Kings in Europe He considered also with himself that the Queen was noâ— very healthy supposed at that â—ime to be with child but thought by others of more judgment not to be like to bring him any children to succeed in the Crown and hoped by such a signall favour to oblige the Princess to accept him for her husband on the Queens decease by means whereof he might still continue Master of the treasures and strength of England in all his wars against the French or any other Nation which maligned the greatness of the Austrian Family Upon which grounds he dealt so effectually with the Queen that order was given about a fortnight after Easter to the Lord Williams and Sir Henry Bedingfield to bring their prisoner to the Court which command was not more cheerfully executed by the one than stomach'd and repin'd at by the other Being brought to Hampton Court where the Queen then lay she was conducted by a back way to the Prince's Lodgings where she continued a fortnight and more without being seen or sent to by any body Bedingfield and his guards being still about her so that she seemed to have changed the place but not the Prison and to be so much nearer danger by how much she was nearer unto those who had power to work it At last a visit was bestowed upon her but not without her earnest sute in that behalf by the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellor the Earls of Arundel and Shrewsbery and Sir William Peter whom she right joyfully received desiring them to be a means unto the Queen that she might be freed from that restraint under which she had been kept so long together Which being said the Bishop of Winchester kneeling down besought her to submit her self to the Queen that being as he said the onely probable expedient to effect her liberty To whom she answered as before that rather than she would betray her innocence by such submission she would be content to lie in prison all the days of her life For by so doing said she I must confess my self to be an offender which I never was against her Majesty in thought word or deed and where no just offence is given there needs no submission Some other Overtures being made to the same effect but all unto as little purpose she is at last brought before the Queen whom she had not seen in more than one year before about ten of the clock at night before whom falling on her knees she desired God to preserve her Malesty not doubting as she said but that she should prove her self to be as good a Subject to her Majesty as any other whosoever Being first dealt with by the Queen to confess some offence against her self and afterwards to acknowledge her imprisonment not to be unjust she absolutely refused the one and very handsomely declined the other So that no good being to be gotten on her on either hand she was dismissed with some uncomfortable words from the present Enterview and about a week after was discharged of Bedingfield and his guard of soldiers It was reported that King Philip stood behind the Hangings and hearkned unto every word which passed between them to the end that if the Queen should grow into any extremity he might come in to pacifie her displeasures and calm her passions He knew full well how passionately this Princess was beloved by the English Nation and that he could not at the present more endear himself to the whole body of the people than by effecting her enlargment which shortly after being obtained she was permitted to retire to her own houses in the Country remaining sometimes in one and sometimes in another but never without fear of being remanded unto prison till the death of Gardiner which hapned on the 12th of November then next following Some speech there was and it was earnestly endeavoured by the Popish Party of marrying her to Emanuel Philebert Duke of Savoy as being a Prince that lived far off and where she could give no encouragement to any male-contented party in the Realm of England Against which none so much opposed as the King who had a designe on her for himself as before is said and rather for himself than for Charls his son though it be so affirmed by Cambden the Princess being then in the twenty second year of her age whereas the young Prince was not above seven or eight So that a resolution being finally fixed of keeping her within the Kingdom she lived afterwards for the most part with less vexations but not without many watchfull eyes upon all her actions till it pleased God to call her to the Crown of England She had much profited by the Pedagogie of Ascham and the rest of her Schoolmasters but never improved her self so much as in the School of Affliction by which she learned the miseries incident to Subjects when they groan under the displeasure of offended Princes that the displeasures of some Princes are both made and cherished by the art of their Ministers to the undoing of too many innocent persons
end whereof he was restored to liberty by the death of the Lady who died a prisoner in the Tower And though the Lady Francis Dutchess of Suffolk might hope to have preserved her self from the like Court-thunder-claps by her obscure marriage with Adrian Stokes who had bin Gentleman of the Horse to the Duke her husband yet neither could that save her from abiding a great part of the tempest which fell so heavily upon her and all that family that William the nephew of this Earl by Edward Viscount Beauchamp his eldest son was prudently advised by some of his friends to procure a confirmation of his grand-fathers honors from the hand of King James which without much difficulty was obtained and granted by his Majesties Letters Patents bearing date the 14th of May in the 6th year of his Reign But such was the fortune of this House that as this Earl being newly restored unto the Title of Hertford by the great goodness of the Queen incurred her high displeasure and was thereupon committed prisoner for his marriage with the Lady Katherine Gray the onely heir then living of Mary the youngest daughter of King Henry the 7th so William above mentioned being confirmed in the expectancy of his grand-fathers honors by the like goodness of King James was committed prisoner by that King for marrying with the Lady Arabella daughter and heir of Charls Earl of Lennox descended from the eldest daughter of the said King Henry Such were the principal occurrences of this present year relating to the joynt concernments of Church and State In reference to the Church alone nothing appears more memorable than the publishing of an elegant and acute Discourse entituled The Apology of the Church of England first wait in Latin by the right reverend Bishop Jewel translated presently into English French Italian Dutch and at last also into Greek highly approved of by all pious and judicious men stomached by none excepting our own English fugitives and yet not undertook by any of them but by Harding only who had his hands full enough before in beating out an answer to the Bishopâ— challenge By him we are informed if we may believe him that two Tractats or Discourses had been writ against it the one by an Italian in the Tongue of that Country the other in Latine by a Spanish Bishop of the Realm of Naples both finished and both stopped as they went to the Press out of a due regard â—orsooth to the Church of England whose honour had been deeply touched by being thought to have approved such a lying unreasonable slanderous and ungodly Pamphlet which were it true the Church was more beholden to the modesty of those Spaniards and Italians than to our own natural English But whether it were true or not or rather how untrue it is in all particulars the exchange of writings on both sides doth most plainly manifest In general it was objected That the Apology was published in the name of the Church of England before any mean part of the Church were privy to it as if the Author either were ashamed of it or afraid to stand to it that the Inscription of it neither was directed to Pope nor Emperor nor to any Prince not to the Church nor to the General Council then in being as it should have been that there was no mans name seâ— to it that it was printed without the privilege of the Prince contrary to the Law in that behalf that it was allowed neither by Parliament nor Proâ—lamation nor agreed upon by the Clergy in a publick and lawful Synod and therefore that the Book was to be accounted a famous Libel and a scandalâ—us Writing To which it was answered in like Generals by that learned Prelate That the profession of the Doctrine contained in it was offered unto the whole Church of God and so unto the Pope and the Council too if they were any part or member of the Church that if names be so necessary he had the names of the whole Clergy of England to confirm that Doctrine and Harding's too amongst the rest in the time of King Edward that for not having the Princes privilege it might easily be disproved by the Printer that it was not conceived in such a dark corner as was objected being afterwards imprinted at Paris in Latine and having since been translated into the French Italian Dutch and Spanish Toungs that being sent afterwards into France Flanders Germany Spain Poland Hungary Denmark Sweden Scotland Italy Naples and Rome it self it was tendred to the judgment of the whole Church of God that it was read and seriously considered of in the convent of Trent and great threats made that it should be answered and the matter taken in hand by two notable learned Bishops the one a Spaniard and the other an Italian though in fine neither of them did any thing in it and finally that certain of the English Papists had been nibling at it but such as cared neither what they writ nor was cared by others And so much may suffice in general for this excellent Piece to the publishing whereof that learned Prelate was most encouraged by Peter Martyr as appears by Martyr's Letter of the 24th of August with whom he had spent the greatest part of his time when he lived in Exile And happy had it been for the Church of England if he had never done worse offices to it than by dealing with that reverend Bishop to so good a purpose But Martyr onely lived to see the Book which he so much longed for dying at Zurick on the 12th day of November following and laid into his grave by the Magistrates and People of that Town with a solemn Funeral Nothing remains for the concluding of this year but to declare how the three vacant Bishopricks were disposed of if those may say to be disposed of which were still kept vacant Glocester was onely filled this year by the preferment of Mr. Râ—chaâ—d Cheny Archdeacon of Hereford and one of the Prebendaries of the Collâ—giat Church of St. Peter in Westminster who received hâ—s Episcopal consecration on the 19th of April Together with the See of Glocester he held that of Bristol in commendam as did also Bullingham his Successor that is to say the Jurisdiction with the Profits and Fees thereof to be exercised and enjoyed by them but the temporal Revenue of it to continue in the hands of some hungry Courtiers who gnawed it to the very bone in which condition it remained under the two Bishops till the year 1589. when the Queen was pleased to bestow the remainders of it together with the title of Bishop on Doctor Richard Flesher Dean of Peterborough whom afterwards she preferred to the See of London And as for Oxon it was kept vacant from the death of King the first Bishop of it who died on the 4th of December 1557. till the 14th of October 1567. at which time it was conferred on Dr. Hugh Curwyn Archbishop of Dublin
Limitations and appointment to whom and of what Estate and of what Manner Fortune and Condition the said Imperiall Crowne and other the Premises shall remaine and come after our Decease And for default of Issue and Heires of the severall bodies of us of our said Son Prince Edward of our said Daughters Mary and Elizabeth lawfully begotten We by these Presents do make and declare our last Will and Testament conveying the said Imperiall Crowne and all other the Premises in manner and Forme following That is to say We will by these Presents that Immediately after our departure â—ut of this present life our said Son Prince Edward shall have and enjoy the said Imperiall Crowne and Realme of England our Title of France with all Dignities Honours Preheminences Prerogatives Authorities and Iâ—risdictions Lands and Possessions to the same annexed or belonging unto him or to the Heires of his body Lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue of our said Son Prince Edward's Body lawfully begotten We will the same Imperiall Crown and other the Premises after our Deceases shall wholly remaine and come to the Heires of our Body lawfully begotten upon the body of our entirely beloved wife Queene Katharine that now is or of any other our lawfull wife that we shall hereafter marry And for lack of such issue and Heires we will also that after our decease and for default of Heires of the severall bodies of us and of our said Son Prince Edward's lawfully begotten the said Imperiall Crowne and all other the Premises shall wholly remaine and come to our said Daughter Mary and the Heires of her body lawfully begotten upon condition that our said daughter Mary after our decease shall not marry nor take any Person to her Husband without the Assent and Consent of the Privy Counsellours and others appointed by us to our dearest Son Prince Edward aforesaid to be of Counsell or of the most part of them or the most of such as shall then be alive thereunto before the said Marriage had in writing sealed with their seales All which conditions â—s Declare Limit Appoint and Will by these Presents shall be knit and invested to the said Estate of our daughter Mary in the said Imperiall Crowne and other the Premises And if it fortune our said Daughter Mary to die without Issue of her body lawfully begotten We will that after our decease and for default of Issue of the severall bodies of us and of our said Son Prince Edward lawfully begotten and of our daughter Mary the said imperiall Crown and other the Premises shall wholly remain to come to our said daughter Elizabeth and to the Heires of her body lawfully begotten upon condition that our said daughter Elizabeth after our decease shall not marry or take any Person to her Husband without the Assent and Consent of the Privy Counsellors and others appointed by us to be of Counsell with our said dearest Son Prince Edward or the most part of them or the most part of such of them as shall be then alive thereunto before the Marriage had in writing sealed with their seales which Condition we Declare Limit and appoint and Will by these presents shall be to the said Estate of Our said Daughter Elizabeth knit and invested And if it shall fortune Our said Daughter Elizabeth to die without Issue of Her Body lawfully begotten We will that after our Decease and for default of Issue of the several Bodies of Vâ— and of Our said Son Prince Edward and of Our said Daughters Mary and Elizabeth the said Imperial Crown and other the Premisses after Our Decease shall wholly remain and come to the Heirs of the Body of the Lady Frances our Neece eldest Daughter to Our late Sister the French Queen lawfully begotten And for default of such Issue of the Body of the said Lady Frances We will that the said Imperial Crown and other the Premisses after Our Decease and for default of Issue of the several Bodies of Vâ— and of Our Son Prince Edward and of Our Daughters Mary and Elizabeth and of the Lady Frances lawfully begotten shall wholly remain and come to the Heirs of the Body of the Lady Elanor Our Neece second Daughter to Our said Sister the French Queen lawfully begotten And if it happen the said Lady Elanor to die without Issue of Her Body lawfully begotten We will that after Our Decease and for default of Issue of the several Bodies of Vs and of Our said Son Prince Edward and of Our said Daughters Mary and Elizabeth and of the said Lady Frances and of the said Lady Elanor lawfully begotten the said Imperial Crown and other the Premisses shall wholly remain and come to the next Rightfull Heirs And We will that if Our said Daughter Mary do marry without the assent and consent of the Privy Councellours and others appointed by Vs to be of Council to Our said Son Prince Edward or the most part of them that shall then be alive thereunto before the said Marriage had in writing sealed with their Seals as is afore-said That then and from thenceforth for lack of Heirs of the several Bodies of Vs and of Our said Son Prince Edward lawfully begotten the said imperial Crown shall wholly remain be and come to Our said Daughter Elizabeth and to the Heirs of Her Body lawfully begotten in such manner and form as though Our said Daughter Mary were then dead without any Issue of the Body of Our said Daughter Mary lawfully begotten Any thing contained in this Our Will or any Act of Parliament or Statute to the contrary in any wise notwithstanding And in case Our said Daughter the Lady Mary do keep and perform the said condition expressed declared and limited to her Estate in the said Imperial Crown and other the Premisses in this Our last Will declared And that Our said Daughter Elizabeth do not keep and perform for her part the said condition declared and limited by this Our last â—ill to the Estate of the said Ladâ— Elâ—zabeth in the said Imperial Crown in this Realm of England and Ireland and other the Premisses We will that then and from thence-forth after Our Decease and for lack of Heirs of the several Bodies of Vs and of Our said Son Prince Edward and of Our Daughter Mary lawfully begotten the said Imperial Crown and other the Premisses shall wholly remain and come to the next Heirs lawfully begotten of the said Lady Frances in such manner and form as though the said Lady Elizabeth were dead without any Heir of Her Body lawfully begotten Any thing contained in this Will or in any Act or Statute to the contrary notwithstanding The remainder over for lack of Issue of the said Lady Frances lawfully begotten to be and continue to such Persons like Remainders and â—states as is before limited and declared And We being now at this time thanks to Almighty God of perfect Memory do Constitute and Ordain these Personages following Our Executours and
be inflamed so was the mischief more incapable of a present remedy The terror being over most men began to cast about for the first occasion of such a miserable misfortune the generality of the Zuinglian or Genevian party affirmed it for a just judgment of God upon an old idolatrous Fabrick not throughly reformed and purged from its Superstitions and would have been content that all other Cathedrals in the Kingdom had been so destroyed The Papists on the other side ascribe it to some practice of the Zuinglian faction out of their hatred unto all solemnity and decency in the service of God performed more punctually in that Church for examples sake than in any other of the Kingdom But generally it was ascribed by the common people to a flash of lightning or some such suddain fire from heaven though neither any lightning had been seen or any clap of thunder had been heard that day Which fiction notwithstanding got such credit amongst the vulgar and amongst wiser persons too that the burning of St. Paul's Steeple by lightning was reckoned amongst the ordinary Epoches or accounts of time in our common Almanacks and so it stood till within these thirty years now last past when an old Plumber at his death confessed that wofull accident to have hapned through his negligence onely in leaving carelesly a pan of coals and other fewel in the Steeple when he went to dinner which catching hold of the dry timber in the Spire before his return was grown so dangerous that it was not possible to be quenched and therefore to no purpose as he conceived to make any words of it Since which discovery that ridiculous Epoche hath no more been heard of But the Queen quickly hearing what a great misfortune had befallen the City regarded not the various reports of either party but bent her thoughts upon the speedy reparation of those fearful ruines And knowing right well without the help of an Informer that the Patrimony of that Church had been so wasted in these latter times that neither the Bishop nor the Dean and Chapter were able to contribute any thing proportionable to so vast a charge She directed her Letters to the Lord Mayor and city of London to take care therein as most concerned in the preservation of their Mother-Church and in the honor of their City In obedience to whose Royal pleasure the citizens granted a Benevolence and three Fifteens to be speedily paid besides the extraordinary bounty of particular persons or was to be issued from the chamber And that they might proceed therein with the greater zeal the Queen sent in a thousand Marks in ready money and warrants for one thousand load of timber to be served out of her Majesties woods Incouraged by which brave example the Clergy of the Province of Canterbury contributed towards the furtherance of the work the fortieth part of their Benefices which stood charged with first fruits and the thirtieth part of those which had paid the same The Clergy of the Diocess of London bestowing the thirtieth part of such of their Livings as were under the burthen of that payment and the twentieth part of those which were not To which the Bishop added at several times the sum of 900 l 1 s. 11 d. the Dean and Chapter 136 l. 13 s. 4 d. By which and some other little helps the benevolence the three fifteens and the contributions of the Bishop and Clergy with the aid aforesaid amounting to no more than 6702 l. 13 s. 4 d. the work was carried on so fast that before the end of April 1566. the timber work of the roof was not only fitted but compleatly covered The raising of a new spire was taken also into consideration but conceived unnecessary but whether because it was too chargeable or that some feared it might prove a temptation is not yet determined And now the season of the year invites the Popes Nuncio into England advanced already in his way as far as Flanders and there expecting the Queens pleasure touching his admittance For the Pope always constant to his resolutions could not be taken off from sending his Nuncio to the Queen with whom he conceived himself to stand upon tearms of amity It had been much laboured by the Guisiards and Spanish faction to divert him from it by telling him that it would be an undervaluing of his power and person to send a Nuncâ—o into England or to any other Princes of the same perswasions who openly professed a separation from the See of Rome To which he made this prudent and pious answer that he would humble himself even to Heresie it self in regard that whatsoever was done to gain souls to Christ did beseem that See And to this resolution he adher'd the rather because he had been told and assured by Karn the old English Agent that his Nuncio would be received by one half of the Kingdom with the Queens consent But as it proved they reckoned both without their Host and Hostess too who desired not to give entertainment unto any such guests For having designed the Abbot Martiningo to this imployment and the Abbot being advanced as far as Flanders as before was said he there received the Queens command not to cross the seas Upon advertisement whereof as well the King of Spain himself as Ferdinand of Toledo Duke of Alva the most powerful Minister of that King did earnestly intreat that he might be heard commending the cause of his Legation as visibly conducing to the union of all the Christian Church in a general Council But the Queen persevered in her first intent affirming she could not treat with the Bishop of Rome whose authority was excluded out of England by consent of Parliament Nor had the Popes Nuncio in France any better fortune in treating with Throgmorton the English Agent in that Court to advance the business who though he did solicit by his Letters both the Queen and the Council to give some satisfaction in that point to the French and Spaniards though not unto the Pope himself could get no other answer from them but the same denyal For so it was that on the first noise of the Nuncio's coming the business had been taken into consideration at the Council Table and strongly pleaded on both sides as mens judgements varied By some it was alleged in favour of the Nuncio's coming that Pope Pius was nothing of so rugged a nature as his Predessor that he had made a fair address unto the Queen by his last years Letters that his designs did most apparently tend to the peace of Christendome that the admitting of the Nuncio was a matter which 〈◊〉 nothing it being â—â—ill left in her Majesties power whether she would embrace or reject his Overtures but that the refusing to admit him to a publick audience was the most ready way to disoblige all Catholick Princes with whom she stood at that time in terms of amity On the other side it was alleged that King Henry
should be given to all of every Nation Province City and Place where any thing was preached taught believed contrary to that which was believed in the Church of Rome But the Legats might have spared themselves the trouble of these considerations the Protestant Bishops of England not being so forward to venture themselves into that Council on such weak assurance considering how ill the safe conduct had been formerly kept to John Hus and Jerom of Prague at the Council of Constance And as for those of the Papal party though they might have a good will to be gadding thither yet the Queen kept them safe enough from going abroad So that there was no hopes for any English Bishops of either party to attend that service The Queen had absolutely refused to admit the Nunciâ— when he was sent on purpose to invite them to it And some of the most learned of that sacred Order had shown sufficient reasons in their printed Manifest why no such service or attendance could be looked for from them One Scipio a Gentleman of Venice who formerly had some acquaintance with Bishop Jewel when he was a student in Padua had heard of Martiningo's ill success in his Negotiation which notwithstanding he resolved to spend some eloquence in labouring to obtain that point by his private Letters which the Nuncio could not gain as a public Minister And to this end he writes his Letters of expostulation to his old friend Mr. Jewel preferred not long before to the See of Salisbury in which he seemed to admire exceedingly that England should send no Ambassador nor Message or Letter to excuse their Nations absence from the general Appearance of Christianity in that Sacred Council In the next place he highly extolled the antiquity and use of General Councils as the onely means to decide controversies in Religion and compose the distractions in the Church concluding it a superlative sin for any to decline the authority of it But this Letter did not long remain unanswered that learned Prelate was not so unstudied in the nature of â—ouncils as not to know how little of a General Council could be found at Trent And therefore he returns an Answer to the Proposition so eloquently penned and so elaborately digested that neither Scipio himself nor any other of that party durst reply upon him the Answer to be found at large in the end of the history of this Council translated into English by Sir Nathaniel Brent late Warden of Merton College in Oxon c. which though it were no other than the Answer of one single Prelate and writ on a particular occasion to â— private friend yet since it speaks the sense of all the rest of the 〈◊〉 â—nd to justifie the result of the Council-Table on the debate about 〈◊〉 or refusing the Popes invitation it will not be amiss to present the sum and substance of it in a short Epitome In the first place he signifies to the said Scipâ—o that a great part of the world professing the name of Christ as Greeks Armenians Abâ—ssines c. with all the Eastern Church were neither sent â—o nor summoned to this Council Secondly That England's absence was not so great a wonder seeing many other Kingdoms and Free states as Denmark Sweden Scotland Princes of Germany and Hanse-towns were not represented in this Council by any of their Ambassadors Thirdly That this pretended Council was not called according to the antient custom of the Church by the Imperial Authority but by the Papal Usurpation Fourthly That Trent was a petty place not of sufficient receit for such multitudes as necessarily should repair to a General Council Fifthly That Pope Pius the 4th by whose command the Council was re-assembled purchaâ—â—d his place by the unjust practices of Simonie and Briberie and managed it with murder and cruelty Sixthly That repairing to Councils was a free act and none ought to be condemned of Contumacy if it stood more with their conveniency to stay at home Seventhly That antiently it was accepted as a reasonable excuse of holy Pisâ—ops absenting or withdrawing themselves from any Council if they vehemently suspected ought would be acted therein prejudicial to the truth lest their though not actual included concurrence might be interpreted a countenancing thereof Eighthly That our Bishops were employed in feeding their Flocks and governing their Churches and could not be spared from their charge without prejudice to their consciences Ninthly That the Members of that Council of Trent both Bishops and Abbots were by Oath pregaged to the Pope To defend and maintain his authority against all the world And lastly He desired to know in what capacity the English Clergy should appear in this Council not as free persons to debate matters therein in regard they had been pre-condemned as Hereticks by Pope Julius the 3d. nor as offenders to receive the sentence of condemnation to which they had no reason to submit themselves Of these refusals and the reasons of them neither the Pope at Rome nor the Cardinal Legâ—ts in the Council could pretend to be ignorant yet still the expectation of the comming of some English Bishops must be kept on foot partly for the encouragement of such as were there already and partly for the drawing on of others who came slowly forwards and sometimes also it was used for an artifice to divert the Prelates when any business was in agitation which seemed dangerous to them For so it hapned that some of the Prelates being earnest in the point of Residence none of the Legats could devise a better expedient to put off that Question than to propose that some means should be used to set at liberty the English Bishops which were imprisoned by their Queen that comming to the Council it might be said that that noble Nation was present also and not wholly alienated from the Church This pleased all but the common opinion was that it might sooner be desired than hoped for They concluded that the Queen having refused to receive a Nuncio expresly sent from the Pope it could not be hoped that she would hearken to the Council therefore all they could do was to perswade the Catholick Princes to mediate for them And mediate though they did as before was said both for the admitting of the Nuncio and the restoring of those Bishops to their former liberty they were not able to prevail especially as to the licensing of any of them to attend the Council which if the Queen had yielded to she must have armed so many of her enemies to disturb her peace who questionless would have practised with the Ambassadors of all Princes and with the Prelates of all Nations whom they found there present to work some notable alteration in the Government and affairs of England Of all the Bishops which were left in England at the end of the Parliament I find none but Pates of Worcester and Goldnel of St. Asaph who forsook the Kingdom though possibly many of the rest
Cardinal Chastilion and other of the principal Leaders that they should put themselves under the protection of the Queen of England whâ— had not long before so seasonably relieved the Scots in the like distress No better counsel being offered nor any hope of succour to be had elsewhere the Vidame of Chartresse Governour at that time of the Port of Newhaven together with the Bayliâ—â— of Rowen the Seneshal of Diep and others made their address unto the Queen in the name of the Prince of Conde and of all the rest of the Confederates who professed the Gospel in that Kingdom they profered to her the said Towns whereof they had charge if it would please her Majesty to further their proceedings in defence of the Gospel as they called it And seemed to justifie their offer by a publick acknowledgement that her Majesty was not only true inheritour to those Towns but also to the whole Kingdom of France But neither their coming not their message was unknown unto her who had been secretly advertised of all passages there by Sir Nicholas Throgmorton a vigilant and dexterous man who being her Majesties Resident in that Kingdom had driven the bargain before hand and made all things in readiness against their coming Nor was the Queen hard to be intreated to appear in that cause which seemed so much to her advantage She was not ignorant of the pretensions of the Queen of Scots and the practices of her Uncles of the House of Guâ—se to advance her interess Who if they should possess themselves of all the strengths in the Dukedom of Normandy might from thence find an easie passage into England when she least looked for them On these and other considerations of the like importance it was agreed upon between them that the Queen should supply the Prince of Conde and his associates with a sufficient quantity of money corn and ammunition for the service of the French King against the plots and practices of the House of Guise that she should aid them with her forces both by land and sea for the taking in of such Castles Towns and Ports as were possessed by the faction of the said Duke that the said Prince of Conde and his associates should not come to any terms of peace with the opposite party without the privity and approbation of the Queen and that as well for securing the payment of all such monies as for the safe going in and out of all such forces as her Majesty should supply them with the Town and Port of Newhaven should be put unto her Majesties hands to be garrison'd by English souldiers and commanded by any person of quality whom her Majesty should authorise to keep and defend the same Immediately on which accord a Manifest was published in the name of the Queen in which it was declared how much she had preferred the peace of Christendom before her own particular intereâ—s that in persuance of that general affection to the publick peace she had relinquished her claim to the Town of Calais for the term of eight years when as all other Princes were restored by that Treaty to their lost estates that for the same reasons she had undertaken to preserve the Scots from being made vassals to the French without retaining any part of that Kingdom in her own possession after the service was performed that with the like bowels of commiseration she had observed how much the Queen-Mother of France was awed and the young King himself inthralled by the Guisian faction who in their names and under pretence of their authority endeavoured to root out the professors of the Reformed Religion that in persuance of that purpose they had caused such terrible massacres to be made at Vassey Paris Sene Tholouse â—loys Towers Angierâ— and other places that there were thought to be butchered no fewer than one hundred thousand of the naturall French between the first of March and the 20th of August then last past that with like violence and injustice they had treated such of her Majesties subjects as traded in the Ports of Bretagne whom they caused to be apprehended spoiled and miserably imprisoned such as endeavoured to preserve themselves to be cruelly killed their goods and merchandise to be seized without charging any other crime upon them but that they were Hâ—gonoâ—s and finally that in consideration of the Premises her Majesty could do no less than use her best endeavors for rescuing the French King and his Mother out of the power of that dangerous faction for aiding such of the French subjects as preferred the service of their King and the good of their Country before all other respects whatsoever for preserving the Reformed Religion from an universal destruction and the maintaining of her own subjects and Dominions in peace and safety Nor did she only publish the afoâ—esaid Manifest the better to satisfie all those whom it might concern in the reasons of her taking arms upon this occasion but she gives a more particulâ—â— account of it to the King of Spain whom she considered as the chief Patron of the Guisian League And knowing how unsafe it was for her to appear alone in a cause of that nature and importance she deals by Knollis and other of her Agents with the Princes of Germany to give their timely assistanâ—e to the Prince of Conde in maintenance of that Religion which themselves professed But howsoever not expecting the success of those counsels she proceeds to the supplying of the said Prince and his party with all things necessary for the war and sends over a sufficient strength of ships arms and men as well to scour the seas as secure the land The men amounting to 6000 were divided into two equal parts of which the one was destined to the defence of Rowen and Diepe then being in the hands of the Confederates the other to take possession of the Town of Newhaven which by the Townsmen and Inhabitants was joyfully surrender'd into the hands of the English The Town commodiously seated at the mouth of the Seine and having the command of a spacious Bay in former times not much observed or esteemed But being more carefully considered of by King Francis the first he caâ—sed the Bay to be inlarged the passages into iâ— cleared and the entrances of it to be strongly fortified which falling into the hands of any enemy might have destroyed the trade of Rowen and Paris being both built upon the River Called for this reason Franciscopolis by our Latine Writers Newhaven by the English Merchant and Haver d' Grace by reason of the beauty of it amongst the French it hath been looked on ever since as a place of consequence For her Commander in Chief she sends over the Lord Ambrose Dudley the eldest son then living of the late Duke of Northumberland whom on the 26th of December she had created Lord Lislâ— and Earl of Warwick And he accordingly preparing for his passage over took shipping at Portsmouth on the 17th
amongst some of the Clergy and render'd to the Bishops by the Prolocutor and ten others of that House on the 26th of February To which some additionals being made by the first contrivers it was a second time tender'd to them by the Prolocutor in the name of the lower House of Convocation by whom it had been generally and unanimously recommended to them But the Bishops let this sleep also as they did the other More was it to the profit of the Clergy generally to make inquiry into certain Articles which by the Archbishop with the consent of all the rest of the Prelates were delivered in writing The Tenour of which Articles was 1. Whether if the Writ of Melius inquirendum be sent forth there be any likelyhood that it will return to the Queens profit 2. Whether some Benefices ratably be not less than they be already valued 3. That they enquire of the manner of dilapidations and other spoliations that they can remember to have passed upon their Livings and by whom 4. To signifie how they have been used for the levying of the arrerages of tenths and Subsidies and for how many years past 5. As also how many Benefices they find that are charged with pensions newly imposed to discharge the pensions of Religious persons 6. And lastly to certifie how many Benefices are vacant in every Diocess But what return was made upon these enquiries I find as little in the Acts of this Convocation as either in allowance of the Catechism or the Book of Discipline Religion and the State being thus fortified and secured in England it will not be amiss to see what they do in Scotland where the young Queen was graciously enclined to forget all injuries and grant more liberty to her subjects in the free exercising and enjoying of their own perswasions than she could gain unto her self For in a Parliament held in May within few months after the end of that in England the Act for oblivion formerly condescended to in the Treaty at Edenborough was confirmed and ratified but without reference to that Treaty the results whereof the Queen by no means would acknowledge to be good and valid And thereupon it was advised that the Lords should supplicate on their knees in the House of Parliament for the passing of it which was accordingly performed by them and vouchsafed by her There also past some other Acts of great advantage to the Church as affairs then stood that is to say one Act for the repairing and upholding of Parish Churches and the Church-yards of the same for burial of the dead Another against letting Parsonages Glebes or Houses into long Leases or Fee But this came somewhat of the latest a great part of the Tythes Houses and possessions which belonged to the Church having been formerly aliened or demised for a very long term by the Popish Clergy when they perceived they were not likely to enjoy them longer for themselves But on the other side no safety or protection could be found for her own Religion no not so much as in the Chapel-Royal or the Regal City In contempt whereof a force was violently committed in the month of August in the Chapel of the Palace of Holy Rood House the Whitehall of Edenborough where certain of the Queens servants were assembled for their own devotions the dores broke open some of the company haled to the next prison and the rest dispersed the Priest escaping with much difficulty by a private passage The Queen was then absent in the North but questioned Knox at her return as the cause of the uproar By which expostulation she got nothing from that fiery spirit but neglect and scorn Return we back again to France where we find some alternations of affairs between the French King and the Reingrave on the one side the English and confederate Princes on the other but so that fortune seemed most favourable to the English party The Church of Hattivil a neighbouring Village to Newhaven taken and garrison'd by the Reingrave but presently abandoned and repossessed by the English The Castle of Tankervile cunningly taken by the English and soon after regained by the Reingrave The City and Castle of Cane held with a strong Garison by the Marquiss d' Elbeuffe and besiâ— ged by the confederate forces both French and English and finally surrender'd to the Admiral Chastilion to the use of the Princes March the 2d After which followed the surrendry of Bayeulx Faleise St. Lods and divers other Towns and Castles The Town of Hareflew on the Seine gallantly taken by the help of the English of Newhaven on the 10th and garrison'd by such souldiers and inhabitants as was sent from thence Which fortunate successes so amazed the heads of the Guisian faction that they agreed unto an Edict of pacification by which the French Princes were restored to the Kings favor the Hugonots to the free exercise of their own Religion and all things setled for the present to their full contentment But they must buy this happiness by betraying the English whom they had brought into the Country and join their forces with the rest to drive them out of Newhaven if they would not yield it on demand Of this the Queen had secret notice and offereth by Throgmorton to deliver up Newhaven in exchange for Callis The French resolve to hold the one and recover the other so that new forces are sent over to make good the Town The French draw toward it in great numbers under the conduct of the Marshals of Brissack and Mont Morency followed not long after by the Constable himself with many other French Lords of the highest quality The siege growes close and the service very hot on both sides but the English had a fiercer enemy within the Town than any whom they found without The pesâ—ilence had got in amongst them and raged so terribly for the time that the living were scarce able to bury the dead And to compleat the miseries of the besieged the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Montpensier shewed themselves openly amongst the rest in the Camp of the enemies that the last act of the Tragedy might be plaid in their presence All things conspiring thus against them the English are necessitated to a capitulation by which they left the Town behind them on the 29th of July but carried the plague with them into England Which might by some be looked on as an argument of Gods displeasure on this Nation for giving aid unto the Rebels of a Christian Prince though masked with the vizard of Religion Passe we on further toward Trent where we find the Fathers in high displeasure against Queen Elizabeth exasperated by her aiding the French Hugonots against their King But more for passing the Statute above mentioned for punishing all those which countenanced and maintained the Popes authority within her dominions The Pope hereby so much incensed that he dispatched a Commission to the Fathers of Trent to proceed to an
excommunication of the Queen of England The Emperour had his aims upon her being at that time solicitous for effecting a mariage betwixt her and Charles of Inspruch his second son of which his Ministers entertained him with no doubtful hopes In contemplation of which mariage on the first notice which was given him of this secret purpose he writ Letters both to the Pope and to the Legates in which he signified unto them that if the Council would not yield that fruit which was desired that they might see an union of all Catholicks to reform the Church at least they should not give occasion to the Hereticks to unite themselves more which certainly they would do in case they proceeded so against the Queen of England by means whereof they would undoubtedly make a league against the Catholicks which must needs bring forth many great inconveniences Nor did this Admonition coming from a person of so great authority and built on such prudential reasons want its good effect Insomuch that both the Pope desisted at Rome and revoked the Commission sent before to the Legates in Trent But the Ministers of the King of Spain would not so give over the Archbishop of Otranto in the Realm of Naples keeping the game on foot when the rest had left it And because he thought the proposition would not take if it were made only in relation to the Queen of England he proposed a general anaâ—heâ—atizing of the Hereticks as well dead as living Luther and Zuinglius and the rest which he affirmed to be the practice of all Councils in the Primitive times and that otherwise it might be said that the Council had laboured all this while in vain To which it was replyed by one of the Legates that diveâ—s times required different Counsels that the differences about religion in those elder times were between the Bishops and the Priests that the people were but as an accessory that the Grandees either did not meddle or if they did adhere to any Heresie they did not make themselves Heads and Leaders But now all was quite contrary for now the Hereticks Ministers and Preachers could not be said to be heads of the Sects but the Princes rather to whose interess their Ministers and Preachers did accommodate themselves that he that would name the true Heads of Hereticks must name the Queens of England and Navarr the Prince of Conde the Elector Palatine of the Reine the Elector of Saxonie and many other Dukes and Princes of Germany that this would make them unite and shew they were sensible of it and that the condemnation of Luther and Zuinglius only would so provoke them that some great confusion would certainly arise and therefore they must not do what they would but what they could seeing that the more moderate resolution was the better After which grave and prudent Answer it was not long before the conclusion of the Council which ended on the 3d. of December had put an end to all those practices or designs which otherwise might have much distracted the peace of Christendom and more particularly the tranquillity of the Realm of England And so I take my leave of the Council of Trent without making any other character or censure of it than that which is given by the Historian that is to say That being desired and procured by godly men to reunite the Church which then began to be divided it so established the schism and made the party so obstinate that the discords are become irreconcilable that being managed by Princes for the Reformation of Ecclesiastical Discipline it caused the greatest deformation that ever was since Christianity began that being hoped for by the Bishops to regain the Episcopal authority usurped for the most part by the Pope it made them lose it altogether and brought them into a greater servitude and on the contrary that being feared and avoided by the See of Rome as a â—otent means to moderate the exorbitant power of the Pope mounted from small beginnings by divers degrees unto an unlimited excess it hath so established and confirmed the same over that part which remaineth subject to it that it never was so great nor so soundly rooted Anno Reg. Eliz. 6. A. D. 1563 1564. HAving dispatched our businesse in France and Trent we shall confine our selves for so much of our Story as is to come to the Isles of Britâ—ain In the fouth part thereof the plague brought out of France by the Garison souldiers of Newhaven had so dispersed it self and made such desolation in many parts of the Realm that it swept away above 20000 in the City of London Which though it seemed lesse than some great plagues which have hapned since yet was it the greatest at that time which any man living could remember In which regard as Michaelmas Term was not kept at all so Canâ—lemas Term then following was kept at Hartford the houses in London being not well cleansed nor the air sufficiently corrected for so great a concourse Under pretence whereof the Council of the King of Spain residing in Brussels commanded Proclamation to be made in Antwerp and other places that no English ship with cloths should come into any parts of the Low Countries Besides which they alleged some other causes as namely the raising of Impost upon goods as well inwards as outwards as well upon English men as upon strangers c. But the true reason of it was because a Statute had been passed in the first year of the Queen by which divers Wares and Commodities were forbidden to be brought into this Realm out of Flanders and other places being the Manufactures of those Countries to the end that our own people might be set on work as also that no English or stranger might ship out any white cloths undrest being of price above 4 l. without special licence But at the earnest sute of the Merchant Adventurers the Queen prohibited the transporting of Wool unwrought and the Cloth-Fleet was sent to Embden the principal City in East Fruzland about Easter following where it was joyfully received and where the English kept their Factory for some years after And though the Hanse Towns made such friends in the Court of the Emperour that the English trade was interdicted under the pretence of being a Monopoly yet by the constancy of the Queen the courage of the Merchants and the dexterity of their Agents they prevailed at last and caried on the trade themselves without any Competitours The apprehension of this dealing from the Council of Spain induced the Queen to hearken the more willingly to a peace with France Which she concluded upon terms of as good advantage as the times would bear the demand for Calais being waved till the eight years end at which it was to be restored unto her by the Treaty of Cambray Which peace was first Proclaimed before her Majesty in the Castle of Windsor the French Ambassador being present and afterwards at London on the
person which was the Marquis of Winchester Lord Treasurer of England the other twelve being two Earls six Lords and four Knights the sacred part thereof performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury assisted by the Bishops of London and Rochester the funeral Sermon being pâ—eached by the Bishop of London which tended much unto the praise and commendation of that famous Emperor By which solemnity as she did no small honor to the dead so she gave great contentment to the living also the people being generally much delighted with such glorious pomps and the Church of England thereby held in estimation with all forein Princes Nothing else memorable in this year but the comming out of certain books and the death of Caâ—vin Dorman an English fugitive first publisheth a book for proof of certain of the Articles denyed in Bishop Jewel's challenge encountred first by Alexander Nowel Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Paul who first appeared in print against those of Lovain and is replyed upon by Dorman in a book entituled A Discovery of Mr. Nowel's untruths not published till the year next following But of more consequence to this Church was the death of Calvin by whose authority so much disorder and confusion was to be brought upon it in the times succeeding a name much reverenced not onely by those of his own party and perswasions but by many grave and moderate men who did not look at first into the dangers which ensued upon it His platform at Geneva made the onely pattern by which all reformed Churches were to frame their Government his Writings made the onely rule by which all Students in Divinity were to square their Judgments What Peter Lombart was esteemed to be in the Schools of Rome the same was Calvin reckoned in all those Churches which were reformed according to the Zuinglian doctrine in the point of the Sacrament But Hic Magister non tenetur as the saying was he was not so esteemed in England nor was there any reason why it should be so for though some zealous brethren of the Presbyteterian or Puritan faction appeared exceeding ambitious to wear his Livery and thought no name so honorable as that of Calvinist yet the sounder members of the Church the Royal and Prelatical Divines as the others called them conceived otherwise of him And the right learned Adrian Sararia though by birth a Dutch-man yet being once preferred in the Church of England he stomached nothing more than to be called Calvinian Anno Reg. Eliz. 7. A. D. 1564 1565. WE shall begin this year with the concernments of the Kirk of Scotland where Queen Eâ—izabeth kept a Stock still going the Returns whereof redounded more to her own security than to the profit and advantage of the Church of England The Queen of Scots was young poffessed of that Kingdom and next Heir to this first married to the Daulphin of France and sued to after his decease in behalf of Charls the younger son of the Emperor Maximilian as also of the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Bavaria But Queen Elizabeth had found so much trouble and danger from her first alliance with the French that she was against all Marriages which might breed the like or any way advance the power of that Competitor But on the contrary she commended to her the Earl of Leicester whom she pretended to have raised to those eminent honors to make him in some fort capable of a Queens affection Which proposition proved agreeable to neither party the Queen of Scots disdaining that unequal offer and Leicester dealing underhand with Randolph the English Resident to keep her still in that averseness He had foolishly given himself some hopes of marrying with Elizabeth his own dread Mistress interpreting all her favours to him to proceed from affection and was not willing that any Proposition for that purpose with the Queen of Scots should be entertained During these various thoughts on both sides the English began to be divided in opinion concerning the next heir to the Crown Imperial of this Realm One Hales had writ a discourse in favour of the House of Suffolk but more particularly in defence of the late marriage between the Earl of Hertford and the Lady Katherine for which he was apprehended and committed prisoner The Romish party were at the same time sub-divided some standing for the Queen of Scots as the next heir apparent though an alien born others for Henry Lord Darnlie eldest son to the Earl of Lenox born in the Realm and lineally descended from the eldest daughter of King Henry the 7th from whom the Queen of Scots also did derive her claim The Queen of Scots also at the same time grown jealous of the practices of the Lord James her bastard-brother whom she had not long before made Earl of Murrey and being over-powered by those of the Congregation was at some loss within her self for finding a fit person upon whose integrity she might depend in point of counsel and on whose power she might rely in point of safety After a long deliberation nothing seemed more conducible to her ends and purposes than the recalling of Matthew Earl of Lenox to his native Country from whence he had been forced by the Hamiltonians in the time of King Henry Being of great power in the West of Scotland from the Kings whereof he was extracted Henry conceived that some good use might be made of him for advancing the so much desired marriage between his onely son Prince Edward and the Infant-Queen The more to gain him to his side he bestowes upon him in marriage the Lady Margaret Dowglas daughter of Queen Margaret his eldest sister by Archibald Dowglas Earl of Angus her second husband of which marriage were born Henry Lord Darnly of whom more anone and Charls the second son whom King James created Earl of Lenox father of Arabella before remembred And that they might support themselves in the nobler equipage he bestowes upon him also the Mannor of Setrington with other good Lands adjoyning in the County of Yoâ—k passing since by the name of Lenox his Lands in the style of the people In England he remained above twenty years but keptâ— himself constant in all changes to the Church of Rome which made him the more estimable both with his own Queen and the English Papists Being returned into his Country he found that Queen so gracious to him and such a handsome correspondence with the chief Nobility that he sends for his two sons to come thither to him but leaves his wife behind in the Court of England lest otherwise Queen Elizabeth might take some umbrage or displeasure at it if they should all remove at once It was about the middle of February that the Lord Darnly came to the Court of Scotland Who being not full twenty years old of lovely person sweet behaviour and a most ingenuous disposition exceedingly prevailed in short time on the Queens affection She had now met with such a
following they were dismist with many rich Presents and an annual pension from the Queen conducted honourably by the Lord Aburgavenny to the Port of Dover and there shipped for Calais filling all places in the way betwixt that and Baden with the report of the magnificence of their entertainment in the Court of England And that the Glories of their entertainment might appear the greater it hapned that Rambouillet a French Ambassador came hither at that time upon two solemnities that is to say to be installed Knight of the Garter in the place and person of that King and to present the Order of St Michael the principal Order of that Kingdom to Thomas Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester The one performed with the accustomed Pomps and Ceremonies in the Chapel of St George at Windsor the other with like State and splendour in the Royal Chapel at Whitehall Such a well tempered piety did at that time appear in the Devotions of the Church of England that generally the English Papists and the Ambassadors of forein Princes still resorted to them But true it is that at that time some zealots of the Church of Rome had begun to slacken their attendance not out of any new dislike which they took at the service but in regard of a Decree set forth in the Council of â—rent prohibiting all resort to the Churches of Hereticks Which notwithstanding the far greater part continued in their first obedience till the coming over of that Roaring Bull from Pope Pius the 5th by which the Queen was excommunicated the subjects discharged from their obedience to the Laws and the going or not going to the Church made a sign distinctive to difference a Roman Catholick from an English Protestant And it is possible enough that they might have stood much longer to their first conformity if the discords brought into the Church by the Zuinglian faction together with their many innovations both in Doctrine and Discipline had not afforded them some further ground for the desertion For in this year it was that the Zuinglian or Calvinian faction began to be first known by the name of Puritans if Genebrard Gualier and Spondanus being all of them right good Chronologers be not mistaken in the time Which name hath ever since been appropriate to them because of their pretending to a greater Purity in the service of God than was held forth unto them as they gave it out in the Common Prayer Book and to a greater opposition to the Rites and Usages of the Church of Rome than was agreeable to the constitution of the Church of England But this Purity was accompanied with such irreverence this opposition drew along with it so much licenciousnesse as gave great scandal and offence to all sober men so that it was high time for those which had the care of the Church to look narrowly unto them to give a check to those disorders and confusions which by their practices and their preachings they had brought into it and thereby laid the ground of that woful schism which soon after followed And for a check to those disorders they published the Advertisement before remembred subscribed by the Archbishop of Canâ—erbury the Bishops of London Winchester Ely Lincoln Rochester and other of her Majesties Commissioners for Causes Ecclesiastical according to the Statute made in that behalf This was the only present remedy which could then be thought of And to prevent the like confusions for the time to come a Protestation was devised to be taken by all Parsons Vicars and Curates in their several stations by which they were required to declare and promise That they would not preach not publickly interpret but only read that which is appointed by publick authority without special Licence of the Bishop under his Seal that they would read the Service plainly distinctly and audibly that all the people might hear and understand that they would keep the Register book according to the Queens Majesties Injunctions that they would use sobriety in apparel and especially in the Church at Common Prayers according to Order appointed that they would move the Parishioners to quiet and concord and not give them cause of offence and help to reconcile them that be at variance to their utmost power that they would read dayly at the least one Chapter of the Old Testament and another of the New with good advisement to the increase of their knowledge that they would in their own persons use and exercise their Office and Place to the honour of God and the quiet of the Queens subjects within their charge in truth concord and unity as also observe keep and maintain such Order and Uniformity in all external Policy Rites and Ceremonies of the Church as by the Lawes good usages and Orders are already well provided and established and finally that they would not openly meddle with any Artificers occupations as covetously to seek a gain thereby having in Ecclesiastical Livings twenty Nobles or above by the year Which protestation if it either had been generally pressed upon all the Clergy as perhaps it was not or better kept by them that took it the Church might questionlesse have been saved from those distractions which by the Puritan Innovators were occasioned in it Anno Reg. Eliz. 8. A. D. 1565 1566. THus have we seen the publick Liturgy confirmed in Parliament with divers penalties on all those who either did reproach it or neglect to use it or wilfully withdrew their attendance from it the Doctrine of the Church declared in the Book of Articles agreed upon in Convocation and ratified in due form of Law by the Queens authority external matters in officiating Gods publick service and the apparel of the Clergy regulated and reduced to their first condition by the Books of Orders and Advertisements Nothing remaineth but that we settle the Episcopal Government and then it will be time to conclude this History And for the setling of this Government by as good authority as could be given unto it by the Lawes of the Land we aâ—e beholden to the obstinacy of Dr Edmond Bonner the late great slaughter-man of London By a Statute made in the last Parliament for keeping her Majesties Subjects in their due obedience a power was given unto the Bishops to tender and receive the oath of Supremacy of all manner of persons dwelling and residing in their several Diocesses Bonner was then prisoner in the Clink or Marshalsea which being in the Burrough of Southwark brought him within the Jurisdiction of Horn Bishop of Winchester by whose Chancellor the Oath was tender'd to him On the refusal of which Oath he is endicted at the Kings Bench upon the Statute to which he appeared in some Term of the year foregoing and desires that counsel be assigned to plead his cause according to the course of the Court The Court assigns him no worse men than Christopher Wâ—ay afterwards chief Justice of the Common Pleas that famous Lawyer Edmond