the great Impoverishment of Italy and the lands of the empire in the fortieth yeare of the King landed in England upon Innocents day in Christmas Richard Earle of Cornwall crowned Emperour weeke divers Princes of the Empyre and did their homage to Richard Earle of Cornwale as King of the Romans and Emperour who upon Ascention day after was crowned in Aquisgrane verifying Abroad the second whelp for prey will rore Beyond the Alps and to * Meaning the Eagle Ioves bird restore Her decai'd plumes In the 41 yeare about Saint Barabas day in the moneth of Iune the king called his high The mad Parliament Court of Parliament at Oxford which was called the mad parliament because in it divers Acts were concluded against the Kings pleasure for the reformation of the state for which after great dissention grew betwixt the King and his Nobles called the Barons Wars which proved the perishing of many of the Peeres and almost the ruine of the whole Realme for in that Session were chosen twelve Peeres whom they called the Douz Peeres who had full Commission to correct and reforme whatsoever was done amisse in the Kings Court the Courts of Iustice and Exchequer throughout Twelve of the Nobilitie chosen and called the Douz Peeres the Land to whose power the King and Prince Edward his sonne signed and assented unto though somewhat against their wills of all which passages such as would be fully satisfied I referre them to our English Chronicles or to Michael Draytons Poem of the Barâ—…ns Warres wherein they are amply discoursed and my narrow limits will not give mee leave to relate them at large yet I borrow permission to insist a little further on one particular All things being in combustion betwixt the The Baroâ—…s Letter to the King King and his Peeres and their Armies assembled on both sides the Barons framed a Letter to the King to this purpose To the most excellent Lord King Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Guian c. The Barons and other your faithfull servants their fidelity and oath to God and you coveting to keep sending due saluting with all reverence and honour under due obeysance c. Liketh it your Highnesse to understand that many being about you have before time shewed unto your Lordship of us many evill and untrue reports and have found suggestions not onely of us but also of your selfe to bring your Realme to subversion Know your excellency that we intend nothing but health and security to your person to the uttermost of our powers And not onely to our enemies but also yours and all this your Realme wee intend utter grievance and correction beseeching your grace hereafter to give to them little credence for you shall find us your true and faithfull subjects to the uttermost of our powers And wee Simon Mountfort Earle of Leceister and High Steward of England and Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester at the request of others and for our selves have put to our Seals the 10. of May. To which Letter the King framed this Answer The Kings answer to the Barons Letter Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland and Duke of Guian to Simon de Mountfort and Gilbert de Clare and their Complices Whereas by Warre and generall disturbance in this our Realme by you begunne and continued with also burnings and other enormities it evidently appeares that your fidelity to us due you have not kept nor the security of our person litle regarded for so much as our Lords and other our trusty friends which daily abide with us yee vexe and grieve and them pursue to the utmost of your powers and yet daily intend as you by the report of your Letters have us ascertained we the griefe of them admit and take for our owne especially when they for their fidelity which they to us daily impend stand and abide by us to suppresse your infidelity and untroth Wherefore of your favour and assurance we set little store but you as our enemies we utterly defie Witnesse our selfe at our Towne of Lewis the twelfth of May. Moreover Richard his Brother King of the Romans who was come over into England with his wife and son with Prince Edward and other Lords about the King sent them another Letter Richard the Emperour and Prince Edwards Letter to the Barons the tenour whereof was this Richard by the grace of Gâ—…d King of the Romans semper Augustus and Edward the Noble first begotten sonne of the King of England and all other Barons firmly standing and abiding with our Soveraigne Lord the King To Simonde Mountfort and Gilbert de Clare and all other their false fellowes c. By the Letters which yee sent to our Soveraigne Lord wee understand that wee are defied of you neverthelesse this word of defiance appeared to us sufficiently before by the deprivation and burning of our Mannors and carrying away of our goods wherefore we will that yee understand that we defie you as our mortall and publicke enemies and whensoever we may come to the revengement of the injuries that you to us have done wee shall requite it to the utmost of our power and where yee put upon us that neither true nor good counsell to our Soveraigne Lord we give you therein say falsely and untruely and if that saying yee Sir Simon de Mountfort and Sir Gilbert de Clare will testifie in the Court of our Soveraign Lord we are ready to purchase to your surety and safe comming that there wee may prove our true and faithfull innocency and your false and trayterous lying Witnessed with the Seales of Richard King of the Romans and Sir Edward Prince before named Given at Lewes the twelfth of May. The successe of the Battaile followeth in the next Chapter CHAP. 18. The deaths of Henry the third and Richard Earle of Cornwale King of the Romans Prince Edwards victories in the Holy Land his Coronation the prophesie of his Raigne his first reducing of Wales under his dominion for ever the beginning of his warres in Scotland c. WHen the Barons had received these letters they were resolved to try it out by the sword on wednesday being the 24 day of May early in the morning both hoasts met where the Londoners who took part with the Barons gave the first assault but were beaten back some-what to the The battaile betwixt the King and the Barons dismay of the Barons Army but they cheared their fresh and lusty Souldiers in such wise that they valiantly came on by whose brave resolution those before discomfited resumed their former strength and vertue fighting without fear in so much that the Kings vaward gave back left their places in this battaile the father spared not the sonne nor the sonne the father such was the misery of those home bred wars in so much that the field was every where strowed with dead bâ—…dyes for
and Palaces and drunke his Wine and occupied all such stuffe and necessaries as he there found and after his departing set them on fire as Saint German Mount-joy Pezzy c. In so much that the French King thinking it a great dishonour both to him and the whole Nation that the English should pierce the heart of his Kingdom unfought with hee therefore assembled all his prime Chevalry and met with the English farre inferiour to them in number neere to a town called Cressie and upon the twentie sixt of August was fought betwixt them a sharpe and The famous field of Cressy wonne by the English bloudy battaile in which at the end King Edward was the triumphant Victor where were at that time slaine of the French party The King of Bohemia sonne to Henry the Emperour the seventh of that name with the Duke of Loraine the Earle of Alonson brother to the King Charles Earle of Bloys the Earles of Flanders Sancer Harcourt and of Fiennes with divers other to the number of eight Bishops and Earls with seventeene Lords of name and of Bannerets Knights and Esquires more then sixteene hundred so that their owne Chroniclers report that the flower of France perisht in that battail besides of the commons above eight thousand and the French King with a small company sore wounded fled to a Towne called Bray and The French King wounded there lay the night following Whom King Edward pursued not being advertised of another great host comming towards him and therefore he kept the field and A second battell set watches and made great fires thorow the host and so continued till the munday following upon which day early in the morning appeared to them a new army of French men of which they slew more in number than the Saturday before and then having given thanks unto God for his great victorie he marches towards Bulloine and thence to Calais to which K. Edward besiegeth Calais he laid siege for the space of a whole yeare then came the French King with a numerous Army to remove him but before his comming it was Calais won by the English yeelded to King Edward so that hee departed thence sad and ashamed But King Edward staied in the towne a month and removed all the old Inhabitants which were French and stored it with English but especially Kentish men and having set all things in order hee sailed with great tâ—…iumph into England and arrived at London the twentie third day of October where he was magnificently received of the Citizens and so conveyed unto Westminster We have hither to spoke only of the father it followes that some thing should be said of the son the unparallel'd Edward Prince of Wales Why Prince Edward was called the Black Prince not for his complexion but for his terrour in battell surnamed the Black Prince who whilst his father rested him in Calais with a puissant host entred Gascoyne and made spoyle at his pleasure through the whole Country and with great riches and many noble prisoners hee retyred himselfe to Burdeaux and though the Earls of Armineck and of Foyz of Poytiers and Cleremont with Iames de Burbon and many other Knights who had double the number to the Prince were in his way yet passed he from Tholous to Nerbon and from Nerbon to Burdeaux without battaile where having reposed himself awhile and rested his army he sent many of his prisoners into England and there entred the province of Berray and therein made sharpe warre which King Iohn of France hearing he gathered a mighty number of people and made towards the Prince who in the mean season was passed the River of Loyer and encountred by divers of the Nobility of France betwixt whom was a sharp conflict but the fortune of the day fell to the Prince who slue many of his enemies P. Edward victorious against the French and took divers prisoners as the Lord of Craou and others of note to the number of fifty foure whom he had sent to safe custody in Burdeaux and himselfe sped to Towres whither also K. Iohn came against the prince who took his way to Poytiers where we for a while leave him upon his march c. CHAP. 22. The famous Battaile of Poytiers fought by Edward sirnamed the Black Prince in which he tooke Iohn the French King prisoner His other victories in France His conquest in Spaine The death of the victorious Prince Edward King Edward the Thirds death and Epitaph Richard the second made King a prediction of his Reigne The insurrection of the Commons The memorable Act of William Walworth Lord Major c. WE left Prince Edward upon his march toward Poytiers in keeping which way a French Army encountred A second battail against the French him but he chaced their multitude and besides many slaine took of them forty prisoners amongst which were the Earle of Sancer the Earle of Iurigny the Lord Chasterlin Master of the Kings palace and a Knight called Sir Guilliam de Daneham whom hee also sent to his rendevouz at Burdeaux and soone after hee lodged him and his Hoast neer Poytiers so that the Fronts of both Hoasts lay within a quarter of a mile each of other betwixt whom the Cardinall of Pernigvort sent from pope Innocent the sixt laboured to make a peace but finding his endevour frustrate hee retyred himselfe to Poityers to attend the successe of the battaile which was fought upon Monday the nineteenth of September in the yeere of Grace one thousand The famous battail of Poytiers three hundred fifty six and the sixt yeer of Ring Iohn the manner followeth The Duke of Athenes with such of the Nobility as were in the Kings Vaward about two aclocke in the afternoone set upon the English Hoast which was strongly munified with wood and trees in the manner of a Barricadoe so that the French Cavalry could not approch them but the shot of the English Archers was so violent that it overturned horse and man and whilest the Duke of Athenes with Sir Iohn Cleremont Marshall of France and others assaulted the prince and his people on one side The Duke of Normandy King Iohns eldest son and the Duke of Orleance the Kings brother set upon him on another part which two Dukes were Leaders of two strong Armies But these The manner of the battaile three battails did little harme to the English for by reason of their arrows the French were so gauled and wounded that they fled to the great dismay and discomfort of the King and the rest of his people Who then in person came on with his mayn Hoast but the English kept themselves whole without scartering and received them on the points of their weapons with such dexterity and courage that the French were forc't to give back of which the English taking the advantage rowted their whole Army in which battaile Noble men of France slaine in the battaile were
was surprized in Nottingham Castle though the keyes were day and night in his owne keeping and sent to the Tower who was accused of the Lords of the Parliament of these particulars following first of the bloudy murder of Edward of Carnarvan in Berkley Castle secondly that he had confederated with the Scots against the honour of the King thirdly that hee had received great summes of money from Sir Iames Douglas Captaine of the Scots delivering unto him the Charter called Ragman to the Scots great advantage and impoverishing of England Fourthly that hee had ingrost into his hands much of the Kings treasure which he had riotously wasted to his owne use by which meanes the King was forc't to borrow of his friends fiftly that he was more private and familiar with Queene Isabel the Kings Mother then was to Gods pleasure and the Kings honour of which Articles being convicted hee was by authority of the said Parliament judged to death and upon Saint Andrews Eve following at London drawne and hanged In his fourth yeere about the beginning of August Sir Edward Baliol the sonne of Sir Iohn The death of Mortimer Baliol sometime King of Scots obtained such favour of King Edward that with the aide of Sir Henry Beaumont Sir David Stocley Sir Iefferey Mowbray and two thousand Englishmen they entred Scotland by Sea where drew to them such multitude that in short time Sir Edward was Lord of a great Hoast and kept his way till he came to a place called Gladismore or as some write Crakismore where hee was encountred with the power of Scotland where betwixt them was fought a sharpe and cruell Sr. Edward Balioll crowned K. of Scots battaile in which a great multitude of the Natives was slaine by reason whereof hee was crowned King at the Towne of Stone shortly after and met with the King at New-castle where Edward received of him fealty and homage for the Crowne of Scotland but soone after the Scots laid plots against his life which he narrowly escaped being forc't to flie from place to place and hide himselfe which King Edward hearing with a strong army pierced K. Edward of England besiegeth Barwick the Realme of Scotland and laid siege to the Towne of Barwick Upon the nineteenth of Iuly the Scots with a mighty power made thither with purpose to remove the siege whom King Edward met and encountred on Halidon Hill giving them battaile over whom he had a triumphant victory insomuch that hee slue of them seven Earles nine hundred Knights and Bannerets four hundred The famous battaile at Hallidowne Hill Esquires and of the common people two and thirty thousand in which battail were slain of the English but 15 persons after which glorious victory the Captaine of Barwick the morrow following being Saint Margarets day yielded to the King both the Town and Castle which verifies that mauger the Canicular Tyke Tweed shall he passe and set his foot in Wyke Tyke is that which the Northerne men call a Dogge and by the Canicular Tyke is meant the Dog-starre Tweed is the water which parteth the two Kingdomes of England and Scotland and by Wyke as is before remembred meant the Towne of Barwicke I onely capitulate this one battaile of many against the Scots purposing the like compendiousnesse in his famous victories over the French During the dissention betwixt the two Kings of England and France which by no mediation could be atton'd though there were many meetings English ships taken by the French to that purpose the French King sent a strong Navy to Sea to take our English Merchants and encountred with two good ships of England called the Edward and the Christopher and after nine houres fight in which were slaine of both parties about sixe hundred men the two ships were taken and all the wounded Englishmen alive cast overboard into the Sea after King Edward in his fifteenth yeere in the moneth of Iune tooke shipping and sayled towards Flanders where met him Sir Robert Morley with the North Navy of England so that his Fleet consisted of three hundred sayle and at Midsomer upon Saint Iohns Eve hee met and fought with the French Navy which were foure hundred saile which lay in waite for him â—…eere to the Towne cald Sluce their chiefe Admirals were Sir Hugh Querret Sir Nicholas Buchet and Barbe Nore in English black beard The French Admirals Betwixt these two Royall Fleets was a strong and bloudy fight which continued for the space of eight houres before it could be distinguisht which way the victory was likely to incline yet in the end by Gods mercy and the manhood of the King the French were chaced and many of their ships burned and taken amongst which were the ships of the two Admirals Querret and Buchet who maugre the French were hanged up in their owne Vessels and amongst the rest were recovered the Edward and the Christopher manned with the French in this battaile the King himselfe was sore wounded in the thigh and of the French were slain thirty thousand A glorious Sea-victory in that one Navall conflict soon after or as some write a little time before by the advice of his confederate Princes hee layed claime to the Crowne of France as his rightfull inheritance King Edward lays claime to the Crowne of France and for the more authority to countenauce itâ—… hee quartered the English Lions with the French Flower de Lyces as they remaine to this day so that we see Neptune his Navall Triumphs did advance and He his Coat quarters with the Arms of France I am forc't to intermit many and divers conflicts and skirmishes with winning of Forts and Castles Challenges that past betwixt the two Kings with the particular valours and noble Gests of sundry of our Nation to relate which would aske a voluminous Tractate where my confinement is to a meer epitomy of Chronicle passing over all accidents saving what are most remarkable which brings me to the eighteenth yeere of his Reigne In which at a Parliament King Edwards eldest son created Prince of Wales held at West minster his eldest sonne Edward was created Prince of Wales and he in the yeer following first instituted the famous renowmed Order of the Garter which was solemnized at Windsor as it is continued to this day In his one and twentieth yeere hee landed in Normandy The Order of the Garter first instituted and burnt and spoyled all the Country before him wasting the Province of Constantine Then he laid siege to Caan the chief City and wonne it and amongst other he took there prisoners the Constable of France and the Kings Chamberlaine and all the spoyle of the City which was held to be inestimable and sent to his ships which was conveighed into England He then entred France and coasted towards Paris to Vernon to Poysie to Saint German still wasting as hee went Then hee tooke and made use of all the Kings Royall Mannors
married to the youthfull French King shee I say observing his provident and cautelous proceeding in all things for the security of his State and Kingdome with a false stampe coyned a new Duke of Yorke a stripling called Perkin Warbeck who being Christned by Edward the Perkin Warbeck a new impostor 4 th it might be suspected that being as hee was warlike so also much addicted to the love of women by too much familiarity with the mother the child might have some of the Yorkists blood in him Edward being both Father and Godfather But so or no most sure it was Edward the fourth Godfather to Perkin that the Dutchesse exposed him to the world for the young Duke of Yorke who was spared from death which his brother suffered in the Tower for so it was given out But after shee had fully tutor'd and instructed him to take upon him the Majesty and deportment of a Prince least he should be found to be her creature shee cunningly sent him from her The subtilty of the Dutchesse of Burgundy Court over into Ireland where hee was received for no lesse then he nam'd himselfe Thence King Charles sent for him into France where he had Princely entertainment and service suiting with his stile but a peace being concluded betwixt England and France finding no safety there hee came as a distressed stranger to shelter himselfe under the wings of the Dutchesse of Burgundy whom she cunningly at first lookt upon as strangely till she had questioned him about all things in which shee had before instructed him and then as a Prince whose injuries were much to bee pittied shee received him to her protection The newes of a surviving Duke of Yorke was greedily swallowed by the discontented Commons of England The chiefe of note A new conspiracy against the King who were drawne to this beliefe were the Lord Fitzwater Mountfort and Thwaytes with the Lord Standley who was Father in law to the King and then Lord Chamberlaine Ratcliffe and others But Henry then understanding the danger likely to ensue first made it manifest to the world how both the Princes were together murdered with the manner of their deaths by which he did infallibly evince that hee could not be Yorke then the politicke King thought there was no surer way to disable the Impostors claime then by taking away his abettours and whilst these things were thus in agitation Sir Robert Clifford who had undermined all the Dutchesse proceedings came over to the King Sir Robert Clifford chalengeth the L. Standly of treason and disclosed them unto him who challenged the Lord Standley of Treason as to bee a prime incourager of Perkins Faction for which the King notwithstanding the neere affinity as the name of Father and Sonne interchanged betwixt them and forgetting also that hee was the prime man who set the Crowne upon his head hee caused him the fifteenth of February following to bee beheaded on a Scaffold upon the Tower-hill not without a great aspersion The L. Standly beheaded of ingratitude which severity of Iustice was also executed upon Mountford and Stafford Then Perkin who had wintered with the Dutchesse in the spring made an attempt for England his forces subsisting meerely of male-contents banquerupts and fugitives and hearing the King was in the North landed to the number of sixescore and odde in Kent thinking Perkin landeth in Kent they would have adhered to his Faction but he himself kept a ship boord But the Kentish apprehending the danger of a Rebellion seeing no more would come a shore set upon them whom they found slew some and took the rest prisoners all which were put to death and not one amongst them spared Thence he sailed to Flanders to fetch more ayd and from thence to Ireland where he found small comfort after to Scotland whose arrivall there being by commendatory Letters prepared by Charles the The French K. an abetter of Perkin French King he was royally entertained and to the Scotch King and his Nobility hee delivered so smooth and passionate a Tale before dictated by the Dutchesse that they tooke not onely great commiseration of his former disasters but promised withall not onely to raise him but to establish him in the height at which hee aimed causing him to bee espoused to a beautifull Virgin the Lady Gordon and after with a potent Army entred Northumberland Perkin married to the Lady Gordon making Proclamation in the name of Richard Duke of Yorke with sugered promises of severall enfranchisements and immunities to the Commons if they would acknowledge him their King and Soveraigne all which nothing prevailed with the people so that King Iames hearing of Henries marching towards him with a puissant Hoast he retreated his Army into his owne Countrey After which there was a marriagâ—… concluded A match concluded betwixt Iames of Scotland and the Lady Margaret betwixt King Iames and the Lady Margaret the eldest daughter to King Henry from whom our King Iames of blessed memory descended as immediate and undoubted Heire to the Crown of England which match was consummate in the seventh yeare of King Henry and in the same year landed at Plimmouth Katherine daughter to the King of Spaine who upon St. Erkenwalds day was espoused to Prince Arthur eldest sonne to the King who in Aprill following Prince Arthur married to Katherine of Spaine The death of Prince Arthur expired in the Towne of Ludlow The yeare after began the famous and most glorious worke of the Kings Chappell ' at Westminster and upon the eleventh of February dyed Queen Elizabeth wife to King Henry in the Tower The death of Queen Elizab. lying then in Child bed c. There was also a commotion in Devonshire and Cornwall about the collection of sixescore A commotion in Devonshire and Cornwall thousand pound which the King had demanded in parliament the first raisers thereof were a Lawyer and a Blacke-smith who comming as farre as Wells the Lord Audley tooke upon him to be their Generall who passing through Kent came as farre as Black-Heath in the sight of London but were then encountred by the Kings forces the Lord Audley was taken and The chiefe of the Rebells executed beheaded the Lawyer Smith drawn hanged and quartered the rest by the King ' pardoned But after that fortunate match betwixt the Scotch King and the Lady Margaret there was no longer residence there for Perkin who exposed him to his further fortune yet would not his faire Bride Katherine Gordon leave him though he were forced to forsake the Land but associated him into Ireland from whence hee was presently sent for by a new company of Cornish and Devonshire Rebells who began first to assemble themselves at a Towne called Bodwin in Cornwall To whom Perkin was no sooner come but they made him their Captain and Prince who called him selfe no more Richard Duke of Yorke but Richard King of England
Monkes severally and either of them outbid the other the King casting his eye upon the third who came as their servant thinking his businesse had been to the same purpose demanded of him if hee would give more then his brethren had proffered who answered him againe that he would neither offer nor give to the value of one penny neither would he take any such charge upon him which came unlawfully by symony whose words when the King had duly considered he said that he of the three was best worthy to take so holy a charge upon him and gave it him freely Duke Robert being at this time in the holy Henry usurpeth the crown Wars the yongest brother Henry third son to the Conquerour and first of that name began his Reigne the fift day of August in the yeere of our Lord eleven hundred and one and this was he whom Merlin cals Leo Iustitiae the Lion â—…f Iustice who banisht from his Court all flattering and effeminate Sycophants he was also abstinent and abhorring gormondizing and the excesse of Feasts hee was further well studied in the seven Liberall Arts and used to fight more with counsaile then the sword and yet upon just occasion hee would shew himselfe as valiant as he proved fortunate In the second yeere of whose Reigne Robert his brother being there imployed in the Wars of Palaestine against the Miscreants and Infidels receiving newes that his brother William was dead and that his brother Henry had usurped Duke Robeâ—…t offered to bee made King of Ierusalem the Crown of England notwithstanding that the Christian Princes offered to make him King of Ierusalem yet he refused that honour but with great speed returned into Normandie and there raised forces to claime his right unto the Crown of England and landed at Portsmouth but a mediation of peace was made betwixt them and that hee should have the same yeerly revenue of three thousand Marks which he had in the days of King William with which he returned fully satisfied at which his Lords and Peeres were much discontented as also for other things which in his easie nature hee had yielded to both against his honour and profit Duke Robert neglected by his Peeres for which he was by them lesse regarded and in the end quite neglected This Robert in his Fathers days was in all his enterprizes victorious and after did many brave exployts at the siege of Acan against the Turks and as is before said was by the great suffrage of the Christian Hoast chosen King of Ierusalem but whether hee thought it to be an honour with too much trouble or for the covetousnesse of the Crowne of England hee made refusall thereof for which it hath beene thought that hee sped the worse in all his endevours after For a dissention fell betwixt him and his Nobles so that they sent to King Henry his brother that if hee would come over into Normandy they would deliver up the whole Country into his hands and acknowledge him their sole Lord and Governour of which profer it is said Henry accepted but before any hostility was threatned Robert came into England to visit his brother and new sister for the King was lately married to Mawd the Duke Roberts easie and liberall disposition daughter of Malcolme King of Scotland at whose request he released to his brother the tribute of three thousand Marks by the yeere and so departed Notwithstanding which by the instigation of bad and wicked Counsellours this seeming brotherly love was quite abrogated and dissolved so that the King with a strong Army invaded Normandy and by reason that Roberts Peeres and Nobles fell from him hee chased him from place to place and won from him his Cities Cane Roan and Faloys with all other places defensible so that Robert was forced to defire aide of Philip the French King and after of the Earle of Flanders but they both failed him so that with those few forces which hee could make hee gave battaile to his brother in the which hee was surprized and taken prisoner and sent over into England and put Duke Robert taken prâ—…soner by his bâ—…other into the Castle of Cardiffe in Wales where hee remayned his whole life time and being dead was buried at Glocester and thus hee who might have been King of Ierusalem and twice King of England had he taken the opportunity offered The Duchy of Duke Robert him died with no greater title then the bare Duke of Normandy Warres then grew betwixt the King of England and the French King in which they sped diversly but in the end Henry beat him in his own Country and had of him a glorious victory to the great terrour and astonishment of all the French Nation and those lesser Princes of his Confederacie making good that of the Prophet The Lion next of Iustice shall appeare Who 'gainst the Celticke Towers shall ladders reare And cause the Lily like the Aspen shake Whose rore shall all the Island Serpents quake By the Lily is meant the Flowre de Lyce which The Prophesâ—…e explained the French King beares in his Scutcheon which was said to quake like an Aspen whose leafe of all others is soonest moved with the winde by reason of the great affright and terrour hee put the French into at the noyse of his Drummes the thundring of his Horses hoofs and the lowdnesse of his warlike instruments About the twentieth yeere of this Kings Reigne when he had been three yeeres together in Normandy the King took shipping at Harflute a part of that Duchie the foure and twentieth day of November and arrived safe in England not many houres after And soon upon that his two sonnes William who was Duke of Normandy with Richard his brother with Notha the Countesse of Parsie Richard Earle of Chester with his wife the Kings Niece The Archdeacon of Hereford with Knights Gentlemen and others to the number of an hundred and forty persons These took shipping at the same Port to follow the King but in their passage the ship sunke under them and they were all drowned to one man saving a Butcher who reported that this disastrous misfortune fell The Kings two sonnes with many others drowned by the negligence of the Master and Saylers who in the night being at dissention amongst themselves ran the Vessell upon a Rocke and split her from which danger the young Duke William was escaped by getting into a boat neer the shâ—…are but when hee heard the lamentable out-cry of the Countesse Notha hee commanded the Rowers to row back and if it were possible to save her life who having recovered her into the boat they were by a tempestuous gust so over-charged that it was violently overturned and they all swallowed in the Sea of which strange accident Merlin also prophesied in these words The Lions whelps their nature shall forsake Catuli Leonis in aequoreo pisces transformabuntur And upon them the shape
of sishes take The King to maintaine his former Warres which proved so terrible to the French and others was forced to exact money from all manner of people not sparing the Clergie nor the Laitie and therefore Merlin cals him A cunning Alcumist who hath the skill Gold both from flowers and Nettles to distill By the Flowers meaning the Spiritualty by the Nettles the Temporalty in the twenty seventh yeere of this Kings Reign died Henry the fourth Emperour of that name who had before married Mawd the daughter to Henry King of England after whose death she came to her Father in Normandy who because hee had no heires male left of his body hee caused all the Bishops and Barons to sweare in his presence that they The Lords sworne to the succession of Mawd the Empresse should keep the Crowne of England to the use of this Mawde the Empresse if hee died without issue male and she surviving In the eight and twentieth yeere of his Sovereignty Ieffery Plantaginet Earle of Anjoy was espoused unto Mawde the Empresse from whom Her second mariage descended Henry the second sirnamed Short-Mantle who after Stephen was King of England King William being in Normandy as some write fell either with his Horse or from his Horse which after was the cause of his death But Rainolph saith that he tooke a surfet by eating of a Lamprey and died of that when he had reigned thirty five yeers and odde moneths The death of Henry the first of that name whose body when it was embowelled before it could be embalmed cast such a stench that none could abide the place where hee was dissected and though it was wrapped in a Buls skin yet it little abated the smell in so much that divers were infected therewith and the Chyrurgion who clensed the head died of the unwholsome scent which proceeded from the braine which some conjectured to bee a just judgement laid upon him for his mercilesse cruelty shewed upon his brother Robert whose eyes as some have reported hee caused to bee torne out of his head during his imprisonment his body was brought into England and was afterwards buried in the Abbey of Reading which he before had founded after whose death Fame spoke of him as of all other Princes both in the better and worse part Divers said that he surpassed many of his Predecessour Kings in three How the King was spoken of after his death things in wit in eloquence and good successe in battaile and others spared not to say that he was pestilently infected with three notorious vices Covetousnesse Cruelty and Lechery CHAP. 13. A briefe relation of the troublesome Reigne of King Stephen and his opposition against Mawde the Empresse of Henry Short-Mantle and his proceedings with a continuance of our English History In every circumstance making good Merlins Prophesie STephen Earle of Bolloigne and sonne Stephen Earle of Bulloigne crowned King to the Earle of Bloys and Mawd sister to the wife of Henry late deceased began his Reigne over the Realme of England in the yeere of grace one thousand one hundred thirty six who was valiant and hardy but as some affirme contrary to the oathe made to King Henry concerning Mawd the Empresse he usurped the Crown and was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury at West minster upon the day of Saint Stephen in Christmasse weeke which Archbishop who had taken the same Oath died shortly Perjury punished by the hand of God after with diverse other Lords guilty of the same perjury which as some write was animated and incouraged by one Hugh Bigot who was Steward to King Henry and presently after his death came over into England and before the said Archbishop came other Lords tooke an Oath and sware that he was present a little before the Kings death when hee heard him to disinherit his Daughter Mawd for some distaste that hee had taken against her and had adopted as his lawfull Heire Stephen his Nephew to which the Archbishop with the rest gave too hasty battaile neither did this Hugh for his wilfull perjury escape unpunished who soone after with great trouble of conscience most miserably expired but before I proceed Hugh Bigot dyeth miserably further in the story I will deliver unto you Merlins Prophesie of those times which followeth Drop must a Sagittary from the Skies The prophesie But against him an Eglet will arise That in the Morian Mountains built her nest And against that Celestiall signe contest Shee fayling will a Lions whelpe appeare Whose rore shall make the Centaure quake with feare But when the two shap't Monster shall be tam'd By gentle means the whelpe will be reclaim'd And when the Iron brood in the Land shal fail The bloud of the white Dragon must prevail By the Sagittary which is one of the twelve Celestiall Signes and is the same which hee calleth Part of it exâ—…laned the two shap't Centaure is figured King Stephen who gave not the Lions as his former predecessours had done but emblazed the before-named Sagittary in his Scutcheon and therefore he is by the Prophet so stiled by the Eglet is also intended Maud the Empresse and by the Morian Mountaines a place in Italy so called siguratively including all Italy by a part thereof now let vs see how this with the rest is mâ—…de good by the event In the beginning of his reigne King Stephen King Stephen extorteth both from the Clergie and the Laity used great rigour against the Clergy as fining some Bishops and imprisoning others Besides he seised on all the strong holds and Castles within the Realm as still fearing the comming in of Maud the Empresse in which time Robert Earle of Glocester the base sonne of King Henry took displeasure against the King for seising the strong holds of Glocester Hereford Webly Bristol Dudly and others part of which belonged to his Inheritance and therefore he sent letters to his sister Maud promising to assist her in the iust claime of her Inheritance In the moneth of Iuly and sixth yeare of King Mawd the Empresse landeth in England Stephen â—…aud the Empresse landed at Portsmouth and made towards Bristol at what time Stephen layd siege to the Castle of Walling-ford who hearing of her arivall gathered all the forces hee could make and drew towards the Enemie in which time Robert Earle of Glocester Ranulph Earle of Chester were ioyned to the Empresse and when both their hoasts were in the field ready to give the alarme Ranulph Earle of Chester thus spoke to his souldiers and sayd I require you friends and Countrimen that I The Barons Oration to their souldiers who am the cause to bring you here to hazard lives may be the first man to put mine owne in danger whom Earle Robert interrupted and said It is not unworthy to thee who demandest the first stroake and hazard of this battaile who both for thy noblenesse of bloud and thy
others of the Clergie and Nobility who met at a place called the water of Vrme they were kept from A peace mediated betwixt the King and the Duke present hostility some endevouring peace others labouring warre as their humours and affections guided them After which the King took his way towards Ipswich in Suffolke the Duke towards Shrewsbury in which interim died and was drowned Eustace the sonne of King Stephen and was buried at Feversham in Kent in the Abbey which his Father before The death of Prince Eustâ—…ce had founded After which Theobald with others ceased not to bring these two Princes to an attonement which was so earnestly laboured that a peace was concluded upon the conditions following namely that the King having now no heire should continue in the sole Sovereignty during his life and immediately after the conclusion and establishing of that Edict Henrie should be proclaimed Heire apparant in all the chiefe Cities and Borâ—…ughs of England and that the King should take him for his sonne by adoption as immediate Heire to the Crowne and Kingdome wherein that part of the prophesie is fulfilled which saith She failing will a Lions whelpe appeare Whose rore should make the Centaure quake with feare But when the two shap't Monster shall be tam'd By gentle means the whelpe shall be reclaim'd By the Centaure and two shap't Monster or the Sagittary which are all one meaning the King and by the Lions whelpe Henry Duke of Normandy The death of King Stephen c. and after King of England In the end of this yeere died King Stephen when hee had reignâ—…d eighteen yeeres and odde moneths and was buried by his sonne Eustace at Feversham This King spent his whole Reigne in great vexation and trouble which as some conjecture hapned because hee usurped the Crowne contrary to his Oath made to Henry the first that hee should maintaine the inheritance of his daughter Mawd the Empresse this Stephen Vpon what grounds Stephen pretended his title to the Crown was the sonne of Eustace Earle of Bulloigne and of Mary sister to Mawd who was married to his predecessor Henry these two are the daughters of Margaret the wife of Malcolm King of Scots which Margaret was the sister to Edgar Etheling and daughter of Edward the outlaw who was sonne to Edmund Ironside Mawd the Empresse daughter to Henry Beauclarke had by her second husband Ieffery Plantaginet this Henry the second of that name by whom the bloud of the Saxons againe returned to the Crowne partly by King Stephen but more fully by him so that consequently the bloud of the Normans continued but threescore The Norman bloud in sixty yeeres extinguished and ten yeeres accounting from the first yeere of William the Conquerour to the last of the reigne of Henry first compleating those words the prophesie And when the iron brood in the land shall fail The bloud of the red Dragon must prevail CHAP. 14. Divers remarkable passages during the Reigne of Henry the second his numerous issue and how they were affected towards him his vices and vertues his good and bad fortune all which were by this our Prophet predicted HEnry the second sonne of Ieffery Plantaginet The Coronation of King Henry the second and Mawd the Empresse began his Reigne over England in the moneth of October and the yeere of our Lord God one thousand one hundred fifty five of whom before it was thus prophesied The Eglet of the Flawde league shall behold The prophesie of his Reâ—…gne The Fathers of her prime bird shine in gold And in her third nest shall rejoyce but hee Who from the height of the great Rocke may see The Countries round both neer and far away Shall search amongst them where hee best can pray Some of whose numerous ayrie shall retaine The nature of the Desert Pelican The all commanding keys shall strive to wrest And force the locke that opens to his nest But break their own wards of all flowers that grow The Rose shall most delight his smell and so That least it any strangers eyes should daze Hee 'l plant it close in a Dedalian Maze Fortune at first will on his glories smile But fail him in the end alack the while The first words of this Prophesie seeme to reflect Part of the prophesie explained upon the Empresse his Mother by rejoycing her third nest may be intended that having three sonnes Henry Ieffery and William the two later failing as dying in their youth shee might rejoyce in him whose Father being King she saw to shine in gold or else being first espoused to Henry the Emperour and next to Ieffery Plantaginet shee might in her death rejoyce in her third espousall with her Saviour but againe where hee stiles her the Eglet of the Flawde or Borbon League It may bee conferd upon the Queen who being first married to the King of France and through neernesse of bloud divorced from him and sent to her Father and after married to this King being then Duke of Normandy she may be said first to have built her nest in France secondly in Normandy and thirdly and last in England This Prince as the Chronicle describes him The Kings Character to us was somewhat high-coloured but of a good aspect and pleasant countenance fat full chested and low of stature and because hee grew somewhat corpulent hee used a sparing and abstinent diet and much exercised Hunting He was well spoken and indifferently learned Noble in Knighthood and wise in counsaile bountifull to strangers but to his familiars and servants gripple-handed and where hee loved once or hated constant and hardly to be removed he had by his wife Eleanor six sonnes and three daughters The names of five of them His Issue were William Henry Richard Godfery and Iohn of which two came to succeed him in the Throne Richard and Iohn of the sixt there is small or no mention the eldest of his daughters hight Mawd and was married to the Duke of Saxony the second Eleanor to the King of Spaine the third named Iane to William King of Sicily This King was prosperous in the beginning of his Raigne but unfortunate in the end as the sequell will make apparant he was of such magnanimity and courage that hee was often heard to say that to a valiant heart not a whole World sufficeth and according to his words hee greatly augmented his Heritage and much added The Kings Dominions to his Dominions For hee wonne Ireland by strength and in the seventh yeere of his Reigne for divers affronts offered him by William King of Scotland he made such cruell warre upon him that in the end hee tooke him He taketh the Scots King prisoner prisoner and compeld him to surrender into his hands the City of Carlile the Castle of Bamburch the new Castle upon Tyne with divers other holds and a great part of Northumberland which William before had wonne from the
belonging to the Duke he was beset by one Mainart de Goresen but with losse of some of his traine he by his manhood escaped After at a towne named Frisach one Frederick de Saint Soon made a second attempt upon him and tooke six of his Knights but he by his noble valour made his way through the ambush of the enemy without surprizall and strooke up towards Germany but spies being set to know what course he King Richard taken took he was at length betrayed into the hands of the Duke of Lemple cousin to the Emperor who sent him to the Duke of Austria he presently rifled him of all the treasure and iewels hee had about him and committed him for a moneth to strait and close prison During which time as some write the Duke Hence he had the appeâ—…ation of Cur de Lyon put him to cope singly with a great and mighty Lion weaponlesse and unarmed who having conquered the beast ript up his heart and flang it in the Dukes face and after that with a blow under the eare he slew the Dukes sonne and further that his daughter being enamoured both of his person and great valour he left her vitiated and deflowred but howsoever in this all witnesses agree that when the moneth was expired he sent him to the Emperour who was Henry the first of that name and sonne to Frederick the first who put him into a darke and obscure dungeon covenanting with the Duke that he should have the third part of his ransome there he remained for the space of a yeere and three moneths at length upon a palm-sunday he caused him to be brought before his Princes and Lords to answer what could be obiected against him where hee appeared with such a manly and maiestick aspect and withal answered so directly and discreetly to whatsoever was laid to his charge that they generally comiserated his iniust durance then King Richard ransomed at an hundred thousand pound and set at liberty his ransome was set at an hundred thousand pound sterling and hostages given for the payment by such a time which done he was set at liberty which verefies Coopt up and cag'd then shall the Lion be But after sufferance ransomd and set free The King in the eight yeere of his Reigne The Kings arrivall into England about the latter end of March landed at Sandwich and came straight to London where he was ioyfully received and then calling a Counsaile of his Lords he first took order to pay his ransome and because his brother Iohn in his absence had usurped the Diadem was at that time in France he deprived him of all Honour and title and tooke from him all those Earledomes and revenewes that hee before had conferd upon him and caused him selfe at Winchester to be the second time crowned and then began the ancient grudge to revive betweene the two Kings of England and France which was the more aggravated because the French King supported Iohn against the King his Brother But Prince Iohn seeing how much his fame was magnified in the mouths of all men and that all the parts both of Christendome and Paganisme resounded with his praise he made means to his mother Queene Eleanor by whose mediation a Iohn reconciled to the K. his brother peace was made betwixt her two sonnes whilest the wars in Normandy and France went stil forwards Many wery the battailes fought betwixt the two Kings and much effusion of bloud on both sides where sometimes the one sometimes the other had the better but for the most part Richard the best during which combustion before the last 20000 pound for his ransome was payd his two hostages the Bishops of Bath in England and Roan in Normandy came unto him and told him that they were set at liberty by the Emperour and further shewed that his great enemy the Duke of Austria was accused of Innocent the third then Pope for the iniuries before offered him and that upon Saint Stephens day hee prickt his foot with a thorne which gangrend and should have beene cut off and being told hee must die he sent to his Bishops to be absolved which they had denied to doe till hee had showne himselfe repentant for the foresaid wrongs and released his hostages which being The death of the Duke of Austria accordingly done the Duke died and they were delivered In the processe of the wars before spoken of King Richard in the tenth yeere of his Reigne after Christmasse besieged a Castle in France neere Lymoges called Gaylyard the cause was that a rich treasure being found within the Seigniory of the King of England by one Widomer Vicount of Lemruke hee had denyed to render it up and fled thither for his refuge and defended it manfully till the fift day of April upon which day the King walking unadvisedly to The King too unadvised take view of the Fort and where it might be best entred one named Bertrand Genedow whom some Writers call Pater Basale marked the King and wounded him in the head but some say in the arme with a poysoned arrow after which hurt received hee caused a violent and desperate assault to be made in which hee wonne the Castle then hee made inquiry who hee was that had wounded him who being found and brought before him the King demanded of him why he should rather ayme at his person than any of those who were then about him who boldly made answer because thou slewest my Father and my brethren for which I vowed thy death whatsoever became of me the King after some pawsing leisure for that answer gave him his pardon and liberty but the rest of the souldiers he put to the sword and caused the Castle to bee razed to the earth The death of King Richard the firâ—… and dyed the third day after whose body was buried at Fount E-a-Bleu at the feet of his Father which no way erres from the prophesie For potent Kings whose prides Transcend 'twixt whom a sea-arm onely glides Ambitious truth shall many conflicts try Last by a poysonous shaft the King shall die Iohn the youngest sonne to Henry the second Iohn made King of England and brother to the late deceased Richard was proclaimed King the tenth day of April in the yeere of Grace one thousand one hundred fourescore and nineteene and was crowned at Westminster upon holy Thursday next ensuing of whom it was thus predicted The subtle Fox into the Throne shall creep Thinking the Lion dead who did but sleepe But frighted with his walking rore finds cause To flie the terrour of his teeth and paws After this Leopard stain'd with many a spot Shall lose all Rollo by his Gilla got Then shall those keyes whose power would awe the fates For a long time lock up his Temple gates Vnburthen him of all the charge he beares And wrest from him the Lawrell that he wears Woes me that from one Leopard should be
the fight continued the greatest part of the day at last the victory fell to the Barons so that were taken the King the King of the Romans and prince Edward The King taken prisoner with the King of the Romans and P. Edward with five and twenty Barons and Bannerets and the people slaine on both sides amounted to above twentythousand These royall prisoners being put in safe keeping a peace was after debated and at length concluded and they released but it proved to small purpose for many battailes were after fought betwixt them in which sometimes the King sometimes the Barons had the better the circumstances are too long to relate in which Prince Edward bore himselfe bravely in processe the five fiftieth yeer of this Kings Reign the King of the Romans made attonement betwixt the King his brother and Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester who had continued the wars of the Barons upon condition that hee should take a Voyage into the Holy Land for the King for which hee should have towards his charge eight thousand Marks in hand and when hee was on shipboard foure thousand more and to bee ready the first day of May next following but this failing in him Prince Edward undertooke it in his stead and the yeere after abâ—…ut the end of March dyed Richard Emperour of The death of Richard K. of the Romans Almaine King of the Romans and Earle of Cornwall being the Kings brother after hee had governed the Empire betwixt fifteen and sixteene yeeres and was buried at Hales an Abbey of white Monks which hee had before time founded and the yeere following upon the sixteenth day of November died Henry the Third King of England after he had governed the Realme fifty The death of Henry the third six yeeres and twenty seven days leaving for his Heire Prince Edward who was then in the Holy Land and another sonne called Edmund Crowch-backe His body was buried in the Abbey of Westminster and over him inscribed Tertius Henricus jacet hic pietatis amicus His Epitaph Ecclesiam stravit istam quam post renovavit Reddat ei munus qui regnat trinus unus Thus Englished Third Henry here doth rest Of Piety possest Down first this Church he threw And after did renew O grant him thy immunity Thou Trinity in Vnitie The premisses confirme the prophesie of his Reigne towards the latter end of his time which was turbulent and troublesome to the exhausting of the Kings treasure the deaths of many of his Noble Barons and almost to the destruction and desolation of the whole Realm therefore it was truly said of him The King of beasts whose rage His youth conceal'd shall rouze him in his age Against the Boare the Talbot and the Beare The Mountaine Cat and Goat with whom cohere c. By the Lion the King is personated and by the rest of the beasts and birds named the severall Crests and Emblazons in the Barons Armes and Scutchions by which they were distinguisht Prince Edward his sonne was at the time of his death in the Land of Palaestine Of whom also it was thus predicted An Occident all Dragon bright as noone The Prophesie Shal breathing flames dark the Oriental Moon The Cambrian Wolves he through their Woods shall chace Nor cease till hee have quite extirpt their race Then from the North shall fiery Meteors threat Ambitious after bloud to quench their heat The Dragons bloud at which his Crest wil rise And his scales flame and where he treads as flyes Fright all shal him oppose the Northern Dyke Passe shall hee then and set his foot in Wyke After which showers of bloud will fall upon And barren the faire fields of Caledon Then having ended what he took in hand Die in the Marches of another Land Hee in the yeere one thousand two hundred Prince Edwards expeditioâ—… to the Holy Land threescore and eleven and in the yeere of his fathers Reigne fifty five upon the twentieth of August tooke shipping at Dover and sailed thence to Burdeaux but because the French Army bâ—…und upon the same adventure was removed thence he sped after and met with them at Tunis and from theâ—…ce he took shipping for the Holy Land and arrived with some French forces joyned with his owne At Acris or Acon what time the Christians possessed that City only and the City of Tyre holding some few Castles to preserve them from the rage of the Soldan There he was honorably received and with great joy after whose being there the Soldan or Saladine who had wonne all the Countrey there about came thither with an Hoast of an hundred threescore thousand Sarazens and besieged the City and made many bold and bloudy assaults But the Prince so Prince Edwards valour in defending Acris valiantly demeaned himselfe that hee defended the City the Castles belonging to it and all the Territories about that notwithstanding the multitude of the Soldans Army hee was compeld to forsake the siege to his great shame and dishonour Even the French Chronicles whose custome The French Chronicles testifie of P. Edwards valour is to write boastingly of themselves and sparingly of others bestow on him a character of invincible courage and that in all his stratagems and martiall exploits hee so honourably behaved himselfe that his very name was a terrour to the Turks for many yeers after who seeing his great boldnesse and that they were not able to stand him in battaile they plotted how to take away his life by Treason and to that purpose when he was resident in Acon they sent to P. Edward traitcrously wounded him a Sarazen in the name of a Secretary who in delivering unto him a counterfeit message wounded him in the arme with an empoysoned Knife which he wresting from the Infidels hand slue with the same weapon so that he died incontinently Then hee cald for a Surgeon and with incomparable sufferance commanded him to cut out all the putrified and corrupted flesh even to the scaling of the bone without the least shrinking or alteration of countenance of which base treachery hee was after revenged upon them to their great detriment and damage and thus The Occidentall Dragon bright as noon Did breathing flames dazle the orienial moon Hee is called Occidentall as being bred in this our Westerne Island and the Soldan is figured in the Orientall Moone being a Prince in the Easterne part of the World and bearing the semicircled Moone in his Banner Prince Edward during his aboad there had by the Princesse his wife a daughter called Ioane who tooke a His wife was Isabell of Spain Ioan of Acris name from the place and was called Ioane of Acris because there born and was after married to the Earle of Glocester After his being there some two yeeres and upward his father dying hee was called home to take possession of the Crowne of England Edward the first of that name and sonne of
Henry the Third by reason of his tall stature sirnamed Long-shanks began his Reign Novem. 17. the yeere of Grace one thousand two hundred threescore and twelve who came to London the second day of August and was crowned at Westminster the fourteenth of December following The Cororati of P. Edward sirnamed Loâ—…gshanks being the second yeere of his Reigne at whose Coronation was present Alexander King of Scots who the morrow following did homage to him for the Kingdome of Scotland but Lewellin prince of Wales refused to come to that solemnitie for which King Edward gathered a strong power and subdued him in his Lewellin P. of Wales rebeileth owne borders and in the yeere after hee called his high Court of Parlament to which also Lewellin presumptuously denied to come therefore after Easter he assembled new forces and entring Wales hee constrained him to submit himselfe to his mercy which with great difficulty Lewellin took to mercy hee obtained then the King built the Castle of Flint and strengthened the Castle of Rutland to keepe the Welsh in due obedience He gave also uuto David brother of Lewellin David brother to Lewellin the Castle of Froddesham who remayned in his Court and with his seeming service much delighted the King but David did it only as a spie to give his brother secret intelligence of whatsoever the King or his Counsell said of him or against him who tooke his opportunity and privatly left the Court stirring up his broâ—…her to a new Rebellion of which the King being informed hee could hardly thinke that hee could prove so ingratefull but being better ascertained of the truth he made fierce warre upon them at length Lewellin was strictly besieged in Swandon Castle from which when hee thought early in a morning to escape with ten Knights only hee was met by Sir Roger Mortimer upon whose Lands hee had before done great out-rage who surprized him and cut off his head and sent it to the King being then at The death of Lewellin P. of Wales Rutland who commanded it to bee pitcht on a pole and set upon the Tower of London and further that all his heires should be disherited and their claime to the Soveraignty of Wales to be deprived the right thereof solely remayning in the Kings of England and their Successours So one after was his brother David taken and after doomed to be drawn hanged and quartered The death of David his brother and his head sent to the Tower and placed by his brother Lewellins in which the prophesie is verified The Cambrian Wolves he through their woods shall chace Nor cease till he have quite extirpt their Race Of this Lewellin a Welsh Metrician writ this Epitaph Hic jacet Anglorum tortor tutor Venedorum Princeps Wallorum Lewelinus regula morum A Welsh poet upon the death of Lewellin Gemma Coaevorum flos regum praeteritorum Forma futurorum Dux Laus Lex Lux populorum Thus anciently Englisht Of Englishmen the scourge of Welsh the protector Lewellin the Prince rule of all vertue Gemme of Livers and of all others the flower Who unto death hath paid his debt due Of Kings a mirrour that after him ensue Duke and Priest and of the Law the right Here in this grave of people lyeth the light To which an English Poet of those times made this answer Hic jacet errorum princeps ac praedo virorum An English poets answer to the former Proditor Anglorum fax livida sectareorum Numen Wallorum Trux Dux Homicida piorum Fex Trojanorum stirps mendax causa malorum Here lyeth of Errour the Prince if yee will ken Thiefe and Robber and traytor to Englishmen A dimme brood a Sect of doers evill God of Welshmen cruell without skill In slaying the good and Leader of the bad Lastly rewarded as he deserved had Of Trojans bloud the dregs and not the seed A root of falshood and cause of many evill deed In the twentieth yeere of the King upon Saint Andrews Eve being the twentie ninth of November died Queene Eleanor sister to the The death of Q. Eleanor King of Spaine by whom the King had foure sonnes Iohn Henry Alphons and Edward the three first died and Edward the youngest succeeded his Father and five Daughters Eleanor who was married to William of Bar Ioan of The Kings Râ—…yall Issue Acris to the Earle of Glocester Gilbert de Clare Margaret to the Dukes sonne of Brabant Mary who was made a Nun at Ambrisbury and Elisabeth espoused to the Earle of Holland and after his death to Humphrey Bokun Earle of Hereford This yeere also died old Queene Eleanor wife The death of K. Edwards mother to Henry the third and mother to King Edward I come now to the twenty fourth yeare of his Reigne in which Alexander King of Scotland being dead hee left three Daughters the first was married to Sir Iohn Baliol the second to Sir Robert le Bruise the third to one Hastings Amongst which there fell dissention about the Title to the Crown as shall appeare in the next Chapter CHAP. 19. The right that the Kings of England have anciently had to the Crowne of Scotland for which they did them homage King Edwards victorious wars in Scotland The Prophesie fulfilled His death And Coronation of his sonne c. The death of Gaveston with a Prophesie of King Edward the Second THese three before-named Baliol Bruse and Hastings came to King Edward as chiefe Lord and Sovereigne Authority by which England claimed homage from the Scotch Kings of that Land to dispose of the right of their Titles to his pleasure and they to abide his censure who to the intent that they might know hee was the sole competent Iudge in that case caused old Evidences and Chronicles to be searcht amongst which was Marianus the Scot William of Malmsbury Roger of Hungtington and others in which were found and read before them that in the yeere of Grace nine hundred and twenty King Edward the elder made subject unto him the two Kings of Cambria and Scotland In the yeere nine hundred twenty one the said Kings of Wales and Scotland chose the same Edward to bee their Lord and Patron In the yeere nine hundred twenty six Ethelstane King of England subdued Constantine King of Scots who did him fealty and homage And Edredus brother and successor to Ethelstane subdued the Scots againe with the Northumbers who reigned under him It was also found in the said Chronicles that King Edgar overcame Alpinus the sonne of Kinudus King of Scots and received of him homage as hee had done of his father before time And that Canutus in the sixteenth yeere of his Reign overcame Malcolm K. of Scots and received of him oath and homage that William the Conquerour in the sixt yeere of his Reigne was victorious over Malcolme who before received the Kingdome of the gift of Edward the Confessor who did him fealty the
place called Bellalaund or Brighland hee had like to have beene taken as he sat at dinner which could not have beene had he not had some traitours about him and now confer the premisses The King almost surprized at dinner with the Prophesie Two Owles shall from the Eagles ashes rise And in their pride the Forest beasts despise They fore't at first to take their wings and flie Shall back returning beare themselves so hie T' out-brave both birds and beasts and great spoyls winne By the Goats casing in a Lions skin The two Owls are the two Spencers who from the ashes of the Cornish Eagle Gaveston grew into the especiall favour of the King who were sayd to case the Goat in the skinne of the Lyon by animating the effeminate King to the warres against the Barons by whose deaths they got many rich spoyls and then forced to take their wings to fly where they were banisht the Realme at the parliament of white Bands c. The state of the kingdome thus standing and the two Spencers commanding all the Land had Warres with France about the Dutchy of Guian to attone which difference betwixt the two Kings the two Spencers being in all things The hate of the Spencers towards the Queene which was after the cause of their ruine opposite to the Queen whom they had brought to the bare allowance and pension of twenty shillings a day they further plotted how to rid her out of the Land and perswaded the King to send her into France to make peace betwixt the two Kingdomes having before seized on all her lands and those belonging to the Prince The Queen sent into France Briefely the Queene arrived in France and was royally received by her brother who hearing of her base usage and by whom he was much incensed against the K. and his wicked Counsellors and sent to him under his seale to come in person into France to doe him homage or he She is royally received by the King her brother should forfeit the Dutchy of Guian Of which K. Edward took little regard in hope his Queen would salve all things that were amisse betwixt the brother and husband After the Queenes three months abode in France the Prince desired of his Father that he might have leave to visite his mother and unckle which his Father granted and said to him at parting Goe my faire sonne in Gods blessing and mine and returne to mee againe as speedily as you may who passing the Sea and comming to the Kings Court hee joyfully received him and said Faire sonne you bee welcome and since your Father came not to doe homage for the Dutchy of Guian as his antecessors have done I give you the Lordship to hold of me in heritage and so the Prince was created and thence forward called the Duke P. Edward made Duke of Guien of Guien Which being knowne to King Edward hee was highly incensed especially because the Prince was instated into that honour without his consent and pleasure and finding that notwithstanding his often sending they made no haste to returne hee made Proclamation that if within such a day prefixed they made not their repaire into the Land they should be held as enemies to the Crowne and state but the Queene much fearing the malice of the Spencers whom she knew to bee her mortall enemies she removed not thence then the King made forfeiture of all their goods and Lands before seized and took the profits of them to his owne use and sent sharpe and threatning Letters to the French King if he suffered them The French King refuseth to aid his sister to sojourne longer in his Realme upon which he commanded them thence without any further comfort or succour At that time Sir Iohn Henaud brother to the Earle of Henaud a man of great courage and valour being in the French Court much commiserating the Queene and the Prince desired her to goe with him to his brother the Earle of which she was glad and taking his noble offer was there honourably received Then was a marriage concluded betwixt Prince Edward The Prince contracted to Philip daughter to the Earl of Henaud and Phillip the Earles Daughter upon certaine conditions one of which was that the Earle should send over into England the Queene and her sonne with 400 men at Armes under the conduct of his Brother In which interim the two Spencers sent three Barrells of Coyne with Letters to some of the French Peeres that if it were possible they should make away the Queene or her sonne or at least send them away disgraced out of the Realme which mony and Letters were taken by a ship of the Henauders and brought to the Queene during her abode The Spencers beat at their own weapons there which the Earles brother seeing said unto her bee of comfort Madam this is a good Omen the Spencers your enemies have sent you money to pay your souldiers Of which the King of England having intelligence he sent to all the Ports and Havens to interdict their landing notwithstanding which the Queene and Prince with these foure hundred Hollanders and a small company of English gentlemen who had fled to her in the time of her exile landed at a port called Orwel besides The Queene landeth in Suffolk Harwich in Suffolke the fifteenth of September Sir Iohn Henaud the Earles brother being their Captain and Leader without any opposition or resistance to whom after their landing the people resorted in great companies and sped towards London where the King and the Spencers were then resident who hearing of the multitudes that then drew unto her left Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter Custos of the Citie The King and Spencers flie to Wales and with a small company fled towards Wales she came then to London where the people were willing to receive her which the Bishop with many sharpe and bitter words opposing the Commons of the City tooke him violently and beheaded him with two of his Esquires at the Standard in West-cheap whose bodies were borne to the Thames side where the Bishop had begun a new edifice contrary to their liking and there unreverently buried The Queene with an easie march followed The Queene pursueth the King the king who came to Bristoll with the Earle of Arundell the two Spencers and his infamous Chancellour Baldock where after counsell taken it was agreed that Hugh Spencer the father should stay there and take charge of the towne and castle whilest the King and the rest tooke shipping thence for Wales to raise the Welshmen in his aid of which the Queene having notice sent thither the Earle of Kent Sir Iohn Henaud with others who with small difficultie The Town and Castle of Bristoll taken tooke the towne and castle with Hugh Spencer the father alive and delivered them to the Queene who remained there till the greatest part of her army pursued the King and his other Minions
slaine of men of note the Duke of Athenes the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn Cleremont Marshall of France Sir Henry Camian Banneret who bore that day the Oriflambe a special relick that the French Kings used in all battailes to have borne before them the Bishop of Chabous with divers others to the number of fifty foure Bannerets Knights and others And of prisoners taken in that battaile were Iohn King of France Philip his fourth sonne Iohn King of France tooke prisoner Sir Iaques of Burbon Earle of Poitou and brother to the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn of Artoys Earle of Ewe Sir Charles his brother Earle of Noble men took prisoners Longevile Sir Giffard Cousin German to the French King Sir Iohn his sonne and heire William Archbishop of Sence Sir Simon Melen brother to the Earle Canlarvive and Earle of Vandature The Earles of Dampmartin of Vendosme of Salisbruch of Moyson the Martiall Denham with others as Bannerets Knights and men of name according to their owne Writers fifteene hundred and above from which battaile escaped Charles eldest son of King Iohn and Duke of Normandy with the Duke of Anjoy and few others of name And King Edward after due thanks given to Almighty God for his Charles Duke of Normandy escapeth from the battaile triumphant victory retyred himselfe to Burdeaux with his Royall prisoners where the King and the rest were kept till Easter following In the one and thirtieth yeere of the King the sixteenth of April Prince Edward being eight and twenty yeeres of age tooke shipping with his prisoners at Burdeaux and the foure and twentieth of May was received with great joy by the Citizens of London and thence conveyed to the Kings palace at Westminster where the King sitting in his estate Royall in Westminster Hall after hee had indulgently entertained the Prince he was conveyed to his lodging and the French King royally conducted to the Savoy where he lay long after and in the Winter following were royall Iusts held in Smithfield at which were present the King of Three Kings present at the Iusts in Smithfield England the French King the Scotch King then prisoners with many noble persons of all the three Kingdoms the most part of the strangers being then prisoners Whilst K. Iohn remayned in England which was for the space of 4 yeers and odde days The king of England and the blacke Prince his son with their Armies over-run the greatest part of France during the time of Charles his Regency over the kingdome who was king Iohns eldest son against whom they had many memorable victories spoyling where they list and sparing what they pleased in so much that king Edward The Father and sonne victorious in â—…rance made his owne conditions ere any peace could be granted at length the king was delivered and royally conveyed into his country who so well approved of and liked his entertainment here that in the thirty seventh yeere of king Edward he returned into England and at Eltham besides Greenwich dined with the king and in the same afternoon was royally received by the Citizens and conveyed through London to the Savoy which was upon the twenty fourth of Ianuary but about the beginning of March following a grievous sicknesse tooke him of which he dyed the eight of Aprill following King Iohn dyeth at the Savoy whose body was after solemnly conveyedto St. Denis in France and there royally interred In the fortieth yeere of the king one Barthran de Cluicon a Norman with an Army of Frenchmen entred the land of Castile and warred upon Peter king of that Country and within foure moneths chaced him out of his kingdome and crowned Henry his bastard brother in his stead wherefore hee was constrained to flie to Burdeaux and to demand aide of Prince Edward who commiserating his case as being lawfull king howsoever of a tyrannous and bloudy disposition he granted his request so that hee assisted Peter with his English Archers against the bastard Henry with his French Spear-men whose two Armies mâ—…t neere unto a town called Doming where betwixt them was a lâ—…ng P. Edwards victoryia Spaine and cruell fight but in the end the victory fell to the Prince and Henry with his whole army were rowted In which battail were taken Barthran de Claicon and Arnold Dodenham Marshall of France with divers others as well French as Britons and Spaniards and slain to the number of five thousand of the enemies and of the princes Army sixteen hundred after which hee enstated Peter in his kingdome who after perfidiously denyed to pay the princes army For which he was after divinely punished as also for killing his owne wife the daughter to the Duke of Burbon for his Bastard brother Henry knowing how hee was justly abandoned by the English having gathered new forces gave him battaile in which being taken his brother commanded his head to be strooke off which was immediately done after which Iohn of The death of Don Peter Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Kings sonne and Edward his brother Earle of Cambridge married the two daughters of this Peter late King of Castile Iohn espoused Constance the elder and Iohn a Gaunts title to Spain Edward Isabel the younger by which marriages the two brethren claimed to be inheritours to the Kingdome of Castile or Spaine In the one and fiftieth yeare of the King upon the eighth of Iune being Trinity Sonday dyed that renowned souldier Edward the black Prince in the palace of Westminster whose body The death of the blacke Prince was after carried to Canterbury and there solemnly interred who in his life time was much beloved both of the Commons and the whole kingdome especially for removing from the kings person all such as had misled him in his age by which the Common Weale was much oppressed amongst others was the Lord Latimer noted for principall and Alice Pierce the Kings Concubine with Sir Richard Skory Alice Pierce the Kings Conâ—…ine all which were according to the Commons just complaint by the Prince removed but hee was no sooner dead but the king contrary to his promise before made called them again admitting them to their former Offices and Honours and Alice his prostitute to his wonted grace and favour In the two and fiftieth yeer the two and twentieth day of Iune dyed at his Mannor of Sheen The death of K. Edward the third now called Richmond the royall and most victorious Prince king Edward the third of that name of whom it was truly predicted The spirits of many Lions shall conspire To make one by infusion so entire He by his mighty courage shall restore What his sire lost and grandsire wonne before As also that of the unparalleld blacke Prince his sonne who died before his Father A numerous issue shall his Lionesse bring Black shall the first be and though never King Yet shall he Kings captive but ere mature Die shall this brave Whelp of a
all things were in readinesse for the performance thereof But that day in the Morning A conspiracy of the Lords against King Henry came secretly unto the King the Duke of Aumerle and discovered unto him that he with the foresaid Lords gentlemen had made a solemne conjuration to kill him in the said Mask therefore advised him to provide for his safety upon which notice given the King departed privately from Windsor and came that night to London upon which the Lords finding their plot to be discovered they fled westward but the King caused speedy pursuit after them so that the Duke of Surry and the Earle of Salisbury were taken at Ciceter Sir Thomas Blunt Sir Benet Saly and Thomas Wintercell at Oxford Sir Iohn Holland Duke of Exeter at Pitwell in Essex and divers others in severall places the Noble men were beheaded the rest drawne and quartered but all of their Heads set upon the Bridge gate at London approving the premises Meane time shall study many a forrest beast By a new way to kill the Foxe in jest But crafty Rainold shall the plot prevent And turne it all to their owne detriment The King having well considered of this great conspiracy and that they intended by his death to restore the imprisoned King to his diadem The Foxes policy he bethought himselfe that he could live in no safety whilst the other was breathing and therefore he determined of his death and to that purpose called unto him one Sir Pierce of Exton to see his will executed who presently poasted to Pomphret and with eight more well armed entred the Castle and violently assaulted him with their Polaxes and Halberds in his Chamber who apprehending their purpose and seeing his owne present danger most valiantly wrested one of their weapons from him with which he manfully acquitted himselfe and slew foure of the eight before he himselfe fell but at the last he was basely wounded to death by the hand of Sir Pierce of Exton whose body was after laid in the Minster at Pomphret to the publicke view that all men might be satisfied of his The Death of K. Râ—…chard death and was after brought up to London and exposed to all eyes in Pauls least any man should after pretend to lay any plots for his liberty And now King Henry being in peaceable and quiet possession of the Kingdomes thought it time to rifle his predecessors Coffers in whose Treasury he found in ready Coyne three hundred thousand pound sterling besides Plate What King Richards treasure amounted to at his death Iewels and rich Vessels as much if not more in value Besides in his Treasurers hands hee found so many gold Noble and other summes that all of them put together amounted to seven hundred thousand pounds sterling yet could not all this summe afford him a better funerall than in the poore Friery of Langley which after by Henry the Kings sonne in the first yeare of his reigne was removed thence and with great solemnity interred amongst the Kings in the Chappell of Westminster All this processe verifying the former prediction The Foxe being earth't according to his mind In the Kids den a Magazin shall find Yet all that treasure can his life not save But rather bring him to a timelesse grave Over his Tombe in the Chappell the King caused these Verses following to be inscribed Prudens mundus Ricardus jure secundus K. Richards Epitaph Perfatum victus jacet hic sub marmore pictus Verus sermone suit plenus ratione Corpore procerus animo prudens ut Homerus Ecclesiam favit elatos suppeditavit Quemvis prostravit regalia qui violavit Thus Englished Wise and cleane Richard second of that name Conquered by fate lyes in this Marble frame True in his speech whose reason did surpasse Of feature tall and wise as Homer was The Church he favoured he the proudsubdude Quelling all such as Majesty pursude Concerning which Epitaph one of our English Chronologers seeing how it savoured more of flattery then truth thus exprest himself But yet alas though this meeter or rime Thus death embelisht this Noble Princes fame And that some Clerk which favoured him sometime List by his comming thus to enhance his name Yet by his story appeareth in him much blame Wherefore to Princes is surest memory Their lives to expresse in vertuous constancie In the second yeere of King Henries Reigne The rebellion of Owen Glendour Owen Glendour rebelled in Wales against whom the King entred the Countrey with a strong army but at the Kings comming hee fled up to the Mountaines whom the King for the endangering his Hoast durst not follow but returned without deeming any thing worthy note In the yeere following Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Sir Henry Piercy sonne and heire to the Earle of Northumberland gathered The battaile at Shrewsbury a great power and upon the one and twentieth day of Iuly met with the King and his army neere unto Shrewsbury betwixt whom was fought a cruell and bloudy battail but at length the King was victor in which fight Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester was taken and his Nephew Sir Henry with many a brave Northerne man was slaine And upon the Kings part the Prince was wounded in the head and the Earle of Stafford with many others slaine It was observed that in this battail father fought against sonne sonne the father brother the brother and uncle the nephew the twenty fift of Iuly following was Sir Thomas Percy beheaded at Shrewsbury and in August after the Duchesse of Britain landeth at Flamoth in Cornwall K. Henries second mariage with the Duchesse of Britain and from thence conveyed to Winchester where shee was solemnely espoused to King Henry Soone after Richard Scroop Archbishop of Yorke with the Lord Mowbray Marshall of England with others to them allyed made a new insurrection against the King with purpose A nâ—… insurrection to supplant them to whom the King gave battaile on this side Yorke where after some losse on both sides the King had the better of the day the Archbishop and the Martiall being both taken in the field and soone after beheaded in that Kings Reigne was the Conduit builded in Cornwall as it now standeth The Market of the Stocks at the lower end of Cheapside and the Guild hall of London new edified and of a Sumptuous buildings during this kings Reigne small cottage and ruinous and decayed house made such a goodly structure as it appeares to this day Moreover the famous and stately Bridge of Rochester with the Chappell at the foot of the said Bridge was fully perfited and finished at the sole charge and cost of Sir Robert Knolls who in the time of Edward the third Sir Robert Knolls had atchieved many brave and memorable victories in France and Britain who also re-edified the body of the White Friers Church in Fleetstreet to which place hee left many good Legacies and
and stratagems abroad French machins and the Italianated god The Spanish Engins Porteguized Iew. The Iesuitick mines and politick crew Of home-bred Traytors let their menaces come By private pistoll or by hostile Drum c. Yet notwithstanding over these and many others strengthened and protected by the hand of the Almighty shee was miraculously victorious whose fame can never faile or Her memory perish and therefore I draw my present conclusion from the premisses Though all these Dogs chace her with open cry Live shall she fear'd and lov'd then Sainted die Many other prophesies have beene disperst abroad under the name of Merlin of which I will give you the tast of one onely and that 's this When Hemp is ripe and ready to pull A prophesie conferd on Merlin Then Englishman beware thy scull In this word Hemp be five Letters H. E. M. P. E. now by reckoning the successive Princes from Henry the Eighth this Prophesie is easilie explaned H. signifieth Henry before named E. Edward his sonne the sixth of that name M. Mary who succeeded him P Philip of Spain who by marrying Queene Mary during the time of her life participated with her in the English Diadem lastly by E. Qu. Elizabeth after whose death there was great feare that some troubles might have rose about the Crowne or that King Iames her successour of like blessed memory might have come in after an hostile manner and so to have made that good Then Englishman beware thy scull Yet proved this augury true though not according to the former expectation or imagination for after his happy and peaceable proclamation and Inauguration there was great mortality not in London only but through the whole Kingdome from which the Nation was not quite clean in seven yeeres after CHAP. 38. The title of K. Iames to the Crown His comming into England A prophesie of his Reigne The first treason attempted against him The gun-powder treason and what the conspirators were The K. of Denmark twice commeth into England An Epitaph upon Prince Henry One of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox Another of Q. Anne An Epitaph upon K. Iames K. Charles proclamed King his Fathers Funeralls c. UPon Thursday being the twenty fourth of March about two of the clock in the morning deceased Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory at her palace of Richmond being aged three score and ten yeares and having reigned forty foure yeares five moneths and King Iames his lineall title to the Crown of England c. odde dayes and the same day about eleven of clock in the forenoone was proclaimed Iames the sixth King of Scotland King of England Scotland France and Ireland at the high Crosse in Cheapside with the Title of Defonder of the Faith being lineally descended from Margaret eldest daughter to King Henry the seventh by Elizabeth his wife who was the eldest daughter to King Henry the fourth the same Margaret was married to King Iames the fourth of that name King of Scotland in the yeare of Grace one thousand five hundred and three who had issue Iames the fifth who was Father to Mary Queene of Scotland Mother to Iames the sixth Monarch of great Britain and King of France and Ireland of whom ere I further proceed to speake any more let me acquaint you with one thing most remarkable A thing worthy to be observed namely how ominous the Thursday hath beene to King Henry the Eighth and to all his posterity for hee himselfe died upon Thursday the eight and twentieth of Ianuary his sonne King Edward the sixth on Thursday the sixth of Iuly Queen Mary on Thursday the seventeenth of November and Queene Elizabeth on Thursday the twenty fourth of March but I returne to King Iames and the prediction made of him and his prosperous Reigne On Boreas wings then hither shall be borne Through Week o're Tweed a Princely Vnicorn The prophesie of K. Iames. Who brought into the world his own fair crest A rampant Lion figured on his brest And to his Armes six Lions more shall quarter With six French Flowers inviron'd with the Ioyning by fates unchangable dispose Garter The Northern Thistle to the Southerne Rose He shall the true Apostolike Faith mayntain With pious zeale During the blessed Reigne Of this faire sprig deriv'd from Richmonds stock No Noble head shall stoop unto the block Yet shall from th' old Lupanar Wolves be sent To undermine both Crown and Government Striving in Hell to register their names By blowing up the State in powder flames Ah wo the while Rebellion and prestigion Should masque themselves in visors of religion All which the holy book meerly gain-says But man's corrupt God Iust in all his wayes Witnesse their wretched ends but happy they Who keep for that an annuall holiday That King shall be a second Salomon Whom all Kings else with wonder gaze upon Who as to an Oracle to him shall come And when he speaks be silent all and dumbe Peace shall he keep within him and without him Whilst all lands else combustions are about him Him shall a second issue male succeed Gracious in word victorious in his deed Though divers adulterate copies something alluding to this purpose have been frequent in the mouths of many yet this best agreeing with the Authors meaning ought to be first received which though it need no explanation at all yet thus much briefly for the satisfaction of the vulgar By Boreas is meant the North-wind upon whose wings the Vnicorne is borne is implide King Iames who gives the Unicorne in The Vnicorne part of the Scottish Arms. Heraldry Through Week over Tweed that is he came through Barwick over the River Tweed which parteth England and Scotland Hee King Iames born with a Lion on his brest was also borne with the exact portraiture of a Lion upon his brest presaging that the white Lion of Scotland should have a proximity and alliance with the three red Lions of England quartered with the three Flower delyces of France the noble remembrance of Edward sirnamed the Black Prince sonne to Edward the Third who by taking the King prisoner in battaile added them to the Arms of England which are incompast by the Garter an Order first made by the aforesaid Edward the Third Theâ—…e came into the peaceable possession of King Iames who also brought the Thistle part of the Arms of Scotland to joyne The Thistlâ—… joyned with the Rose with the two united Roses the White and Red figuring of the two divided Houses York and Lancaster to make one perfect Damaske I omit the manner of his Majesties comming out of Scotland and his Royall entertainment into this Kingdome with joyfull acclamations of the people and the unanimous suffrage of the whole Nation with his Inauguration Coronation and solemne and pompous passing from the Tower through the City of London to Westminster with the severall pageants and showes his Creating of Barons Viscounts and Earles and making of Knights
an oath all which were convicted condemned drawne hanged and quartered also upon Friday the twentie eight of March in the fourth yeare of the King Henry Garnet the Henry Garnet provinciall of the Iesuits executed provinciall or principall of the English Iesuites was arraigned at Guild Hall in London upon the same Treason and condemned and after drawn from the Tower to the West end of Pauls was executed like the former Traitors Thus wee see That from the old Lupanar Wolves were sent To undermine both crown and government Striving in Hell to register their names By blowing up the State in powder flames c. The word Lupanar comes from Lupa a shee Wolfe or Prostitute so was the wife of Fanstulus the Nurse to the two Infants Romulus and Lupanar shee was also called Acca Laneratia Remus the first erectors of Rome called from Lupa comes also Lupanar that is a brothelhouse and Idolatry is called fornication almost through the whole Scripture and from Rome had these Arch-traytors their Incendiary c. Amongst other Royall Visitants Christianus the fourth of that name King of Denmarke came into England royally attended to see his The King of Denmarke commeth into England brother in law King Iames and his naturall sister Queene Anne whom the King in person met a shipboord with Prince Henry The Duke of Lenox and divers of the Nobility and dined with him in his Cabin the two Kings afterward rode triumphantly through the City of London the Embassadors of France Spaine and Venice being spectatours of the solemnity Here Hee was royally and magnificently entertained and feasted till his returne c. who liked his welcome so well that hee came hither the second time And in all the passages of His Majesties Reigne where was nothing seen but peace tranquillity and quietnesse there is no subject to write on but of sundry Plantations during his Reigne as in Virginia Bermudas or the Summer Islands c. Of men raised to Office and Honour of his severall Embassies into Forreign Countries to make peace and attonement betwixt divided Kingdomes and his enterchangeable entertayning of their Embassadours of the mariage of the Lady Elizabeth to the prince Palatine of the death of that most hopefull plant of Honour and Royalty Prince Henry of whom I have read this Epitaph In Natures law 't is a plain case to die No cunning Lawyer can demurre on that An Epitaph upon Prince Henry For cruell death and fat all destinie Serve all men with a finall Latitat tryde So brave Prince Henry when his cause was Confest the action paid the debt and dyde I may also put you in remembrance of the new erecting of the Artillery Garden of the New River brought to London of the building of the New Exchange in the Strand and Hicks Hall of Censures in the Star-chamber in the High Commission Court the burning of the Banquetinghouse c. of Sir W. Raleigh's execution at Westminster c. the creating of George Villiers Gentleman Duke his Mother Countesse of Buckingham with infinite other peaceable passages but these are now out of my road In the year one thousand six hundred and eighteene upon Wednesday the eighteenth of November ablazing Starre appeared and upon Tuesday the second of March following at Hampton Court dyed Queene Anne of whom was made this Epitaph The death of Queen Anne Her to invite the great God sent his star Whose friends and kindred mighty Princes are Who though they run the race of men and die Death seems but to refine their majesty So did this Queen frō hence her Court remove And left the earth to be inthron'd above Then she is chang'd not dead no good Prince dyes But like the day-star only set to rise Upon Monday the sixteenth of February one thousand six hundred twenty three the King with the Nobility prepared to goe to the Parlament House but that morning dyed Lodowick Duke of Richmond and Lenox at Vpon the death of the Duke of Richmond and Lenox his lodging at the Court in White Hall who is worthily remembred in this Epitaph following Are all diseases dead or will death say She could not kill this prince another way Yes it was so for time and death conspired To make his death as was his life admired The Commons were not summond now I see Meerly to move laws but to mourne for thee No lesse then all the Bishops could suffice To wait upon so great a sacrifice The Court the Altar was the Waiters peeres The mirrh and frankineense great Cosins tears A braver offering with more pompe and state Nor time nor death could ever celebrate Of King Iames his wisdome integrity bounty his study of peace which hee made good in his Motto Beati Pacifici and for all his other singular vertues He with a superarrogative overplus made good what was before for many yeares predicted of him all which may be included in this one Epitaph made upon him Can Christendomes great Champion sink away Thus silently into a bed of clay Can such a Monarch die and not to have An Earthquake at the least to ope his grave Did there no Meteors fright the Vniverse Nor Comet hold a torch to light his Herse Was there no clap of thunder heard to tell All Christendom their losse and ring his knell Impartiall Fates I see all princes then men Though they liv'd Gods yet they must die like And the same passing bell may toll for them Which rung but now the beggers requiem When such a soule is from the earth bereaven Me thinks there should be triumph made in Heaven The stars should run at tilt at his decease To welcome him into the place of peace Who whilst hee liv'd in peace liv'd and did Being in peace to keepe peace still alive strive No widows curses and no Orphants cryes Shall interrupt his hallowed obsequies For their slain husbands or their fathers lost In bloudy war to wake thy peacefull ghost Let thy great predecessors boast the pryse Of glorious and yet bloudy victories Let them upon their sepulchers expose Triumphs of war and spoyle of forreigne foes And glory to have turn'd the harvest field To a pitcht Campe and ploughshare to a shield So that on bloudy furrows there were born As many blades of steele as now of corne Yet shall thy prayse be greater since thy joy Was to plant nations rather then destroy And though no mortall trophy speak thy prayse Because no drop of bloud hath staind thy dayes Yet this sure truth their greatest fame controls They subdu'd bodies thou hast conquered souls Truth was thy banner the thrice sacred word Thy target and thy pen a two edg'd sword But lo when Spanish coast Romes canon shot False Gowries treason Cateshy's powder-plot Could not destroy all these thy fate did brave A Fever would needs bring thee to thy grave For being mortall fate could not invent His passage by a nobler instrument Then his own bloud which made him compre VVithin himselfe the glory of his end hena Like to a circle this rich Diamond must Be cut by no means else then it 's owne dust Thus is our Sun set never to return Pay therefore tri◅ute to his funerall urn All peacefull souls and with true sorrows sence Give unto him your hearts benevolence Of pious teares then turn you from the VVest To see the new Sun rising in the East King Charles the first of that name King of Prince Charles proclaymed King England began his Reigne on Sunday the twenty seventh of March one thousand six hundred twenty five and the next day after commanded by proclamation that all Officers and Magistrates of what degree or quality soever through out his whole Dominions should sti◅l use and exercise all such power and authoritie as they held from his Father of blessed memory untill his pleasure were further knowne and on Saturday the seventh of May next ensuing were performed the Funerall rites of his Father King The Funerall of King Iames Iames and his corps with all magnificence and state carried from Denmark house in the Strand to VVestminster Abbey Church King Charles being the chiefe and principall Mourner artended with all the Nobility Clergy and Iudges with sundry Embassadors and all his officers and domesticke servants in mourning habits His Herse being more royally adorned and attended then any of his predecessour Kings in which magnificent solemnity his corps was interred in the Chappell Royall c. I should now pr◅ceed to the Reigne of the high mighty and invincible Prince Charles concerning whose sacred person my rude pen dare not be so bold nor with any of his just and Of Prince Charles royall proceedings but am rather content to leave them to those of more knowing and bet ter approved judgements and more frequently verst in state businesse and the laws and limits that belong to History and Chronologie then my selfe yet thus farre according to my weake Talent and crassa Minerva let me borrow leave to confer on him though far short of his great meed and merit a briefe character Hee is a Prince wise and just crowned with all the especiall gifts of nature and fortune but which farre transcends the rest plenteously endowed with all heavenly graces Blest in a Royall chast and beautifull Consort blest with a most hopefull and numerous Issue conspicuous in the four Cardinall vertues Iustice Prudence Temperance and Fortitude grounded in the three Theologicall Graces Faith Hope and Charity illustrious in all other Vertues which generally adorne men but make a Prince greatly admired and gloriously eminent whom with his incomparable Queen the unparalleld Prince his sonne with the rest of his Royall Issue God Almighty in his great providence and infinite mercy continue in long life health prosperity and happinesse c. FINIS