in their greatest height were called Principes therefore Princeps is thus defined Princeps est penes quem summa Reip. potestas est qui primus omnium dominatur And Principatus and Dominatus are used as Synonomies But it is conceiv'd an errour now to take Principatus for Regnum Oâ— Supremus Dominatus being the word Principatus long before and in the age of Richard the second also ever since hath beene restrained to the Estate of Primogenitus and Heire apparant not onely of Kings but also of Dukes and Marquesses as well Feudall as Soveraigne And the next King Henry the fourth a wise discreet and wary Prince though he was much inclin'd to those Beauforts as being his naturall Brethren by the Paternall side and willing to advance them all he could yet he discovered clearely enough by that certaine Charter in which he entailed the Crowne successively to his soure Sonnes and to the Heires of their bodies that he reputed not the Beauforts to be Lancastrians or neare the Crown Neither is there the least clause or mention to leave any remainder therein to them First he intaild the Crowne to his eldest sonne Henry Prince of Wales after him to the Heires of his body If they faile then to Thomas of Lancaster his second sonne and to the Heires of his body so to his third sonne Iohn of Lancaster and to the Heires of his body Lastly to the fourth sonne Humphrey and to the Heires of his body for still and for every estate the words are Post ipsum successive Heredibus suis de ipsius Corpore legitime procreandis which is all and implicatively an expresse exclusion of the Beauforts This Charter was confirmed by Act of Parliament holden at Westminster the two and twentieth day of December in the eight yeare of Henry the fourth and sealed with his owne Signet Upon the Dexter side of that hung the seales of sundry Lords Spirituall on the left side the seales of the Lords Temporall witnesses And albeit the Earle of Richmond could not so well and rightly beare the name of Beaufort or Somerset being a Teador by his Father and so to be Sir-named or of some other Welch-name if there were any in his Family by his Mother he was descended from the Beauforts for the Lady Margaret Countesse of Richmond was daughter and heire to Sir Iohn de Beaufort Duke of Somerset and Grand-child to Iohn of Gaunt by Katherine the wife of Otho de Swinford which Iohn de Beaufort was created Duke of Somerset by Henry the fift his Wife was the daughter and at length the heire of Sir Iohn Beauchamp of Blet so and the widow of Sir Oliver Saint-Iohn when he married her But the Earle of Richmond by his Grand-mother Katherine Queene of England was descended from the Kings of France and I have seen him in a Pedigrce drawne after he was King derived from the ancient Kings Princes of Brittaine Polidore saith he was Ex fratre Nepos to King Henry the sixt who cal'd him Nephew and he the King Avunculum nostrum our Uncle insteed of Patruum as it is in the Records of Parliament Ann. 1. of Henry the seventh but not his Nephew as wee erroneously now take it that is his German younger Brothers Sonne for then he had beene a true Masculine Issue of the house of Lancaster and Royall blood of England But he was Nephew to him by his Brother Uterine Edmond Teudor Earle of Richmond the sonne of Owen Teudor or Meridock and of Queene Katherine daughter of Charles the sixt King of France and widow of Henry the fift King of England which the French well knew and gave him the better esteeme for it but those Honours were obscure Additions to him that must not goe lesse then for a Prince of the house of Lancaster and so of England which passed with such vulgar credit in France that Du Tillet mistooke Iohn Duke of Somerset Father of Margaret Countesse of Richmond for the true and lawfull Sonne of Iohn de Gaunt c. by his first Wife Blanch Plantagenet Daughter and Heire of the Earle and Earledome of Lancaster Philip de Comines Lord of Argent had better intelligence of his Pedigree and Title which he gives us thus Iln ' avoit croix ny pile ne null droit Come je croy a la Coronne d'Angleterre And this expresses he had no great opinion of either though he were then King when this was writ But let us suppose him lawfully from that Duke of Lancaster his claime must stand excluded whilst the house of Yorke survived for Richard Plantagenet Duke of Yorke and King of England designat by Act of Parliament holden 39 yeare of King Henry the sixt to whom these Titles of Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earle of Chester and Protector of England were given by the three Estates in that Parliament descended from the Daughter and Heire of the second Sonne of King Edward the third For as before so still I leave the Infant William of Hatfield without the Catalogue and King Henry the fourth and his Progeny descended from the third Sonne and King Henry the sixt being the best of the house of Lancaster then living did acknowledge in that Parliament the Title of Richard Duke of Yorke the onely lawfull and just Title so consequently next and better then that of Lancaster or any other and before any Beaufort or their Heires the Issue of the two daughters of Iohn Duke of Lancaster Philip and Katherine married to the King of Portugall and Castile were to be preferr'd if Forraigne Titles be not excluded by Parliament But the Earle of Richmond measuring his owne height by the advantage of a tumultuary and indisposed time and finding his Lancastrian pretence began to have a popular retinew he was now incompatible of any others precedency and propinquity for those great ones that led him by the hand unto the Action layd the line by their owne corrupted hopes and feares of the successe therefore would not let the fortune of their expectation faint in him Bishop Morton steered much in the course of their Affaires and was a great Oracle to the Earle who was noted too partiall and credulous especially where he believed the persons of any honesty vertue or learning for which his fame yet beares some staines of Morton Dudley Empson Bray Vrswike Knevett c. for there be two extreames observed in the Councells of Princes one when the Prince is subject to follow the councells of evill men the other when the Prince is too opinionated to consult with Counsell such an one as was Charles the hardy Duke of Burgundy so opinionated and overweening of his owne wisedome and judgement that he under-thought all mens else which wide conceit of his hath left this Monument Carolus pugnax altorum consilia rationes ne dicam sequi uix audire volebat ignominiae loco habens ab alijs discere judicavit
noting for a circumstance by the way that the Broome in Hieroglyphicall Learning is the Symbole of humility and the Poets particularly Virgil the best of Poets give it the Epithet of humilis humilis genista and the Etymologists derive it from genu the knee the part most applyed and as it were dedicate to the chiefe Act of Reverence kneeling to which the naturall Philosophers say there is so mutuall a correspondency and so naturall a sympathy between genu and genâ—sta that of all other plants or vegitals it is most comfortable and medicinable to the paines and diseases of the knees Pliny a great Master amongst them saith Genista tuscae cum c. genua dolentia sanat But the considerable reason is as I conceive it from the use he was constrained to make of the twigges of Broome when he came to be scourged at Jerusalem the place necessitating the use of them to that purpose being as Strabo relates a stony sandy and barren soyle only naturall and gratefull to the genest as the watry and moist to the Birch Willow and Withy of which there could be none there for that reason And from hence it must most conjecturally take the beginning of that Honour which afterward his Princely and Noble Posteries continued for their sirname who became Dukes Princes in sundry places and some of them Kings of England France Scotland and Ireland and as the pious people of that Age verily beleeved by their observation were the more prosperous and happy for his sake For the continuance of the Name some who pretend to see further and better in the darke then others as cleare sighted would have it taken of late time and not used by the Kings and Princes of England of the Angeume race But there are many proofes to be adduced against them Let us looke into Master Brookes genealogies of England we shall find nothing more obvious and frequent in the deductions of those Princes of the House of Anjou then the addition and sirname of Plantagenet Edm. Plantagenet Geo. Plantagenet Iohn Plantagenet Edward Plantagenet Lyonell Plantagenet Humphry Plantagenet c. In the French Historians and Antiquaries Ion de Tillet Girard du Haillon Clande Paradin Iean Baron de la Hay we shall often meet with Geoffry Plantagenet Arthur Plantagenet Richard Plantagenet and diverse the like all of the first Age when the Angeume Princes first became English and some before Master Camden also in his Immortall Pâ—â—tannia mentioneth some very ancient as Richard Plantagenet Iohn Plantagenet c. And witnesseth that the forenamed Geoffry Plantagenet used to weare a Broome-stalke in his Bonnet as many Nobles of the House of Anjou did and tooke it for their chiefe sirname It might be added that these Earles of Anjou were descended out of the great house of Saxon in Germany which hath brought forth many Kings Emperors and Dukes and that they were of kindred and alliance to the ancient Kings of France and sundry other Princes But I will close here for the high Nobility of King Richard as the good old Poet did for another Heroicall Person Deus est utroque parente Ovid. And come to the other matters of his private story And first for his Birth and native place which was the Castle of Fotheringay or as some write the Castle of Birkhamsteed both Castles and Honours of the Duke his Father about the yeare of our Lord 1450 which I discover by the calculation of the Birth Raigne and death of King Edward his brother who was borne about 1441 or 1442. and raigned two and twenty yeares dyed at the age of one and forty Anno 1483. The Dutchesse of Yorke their Mother had five children betwixt them so that Richard could not be lesse then seven or eight yeares younger then King Edward and he survived him not fully three yeares This Richard Plantagenet and the other children of Richard Duke of Yorke were brought up in York-shire and Northampton-shire but lived for the most part in the Castle of Midelham in York-shire untill the Duke their Father and his Sonne Edmund Plantagenet Earle of Rutland were slaine in the battell of Wakefield Anno Dom. 1641 upon which the Dutchesse of Yorke their Mother having cause to feare the faction of Lancaster which was now growne very exulting and strong and of a mortall enmity to the House af Yorke secretly conveyed her two younger sonnes George and Richard Plantagenet who was then about some ten yeares old into the Low-Countries to their Aunt the Lady Margaret Dutchesse of Burgundy Wife of Charles Duke of Burgundy and Brabant and Earle of Flanders They continued at Utrich the chiefe City then in Holland where they had Princely and liberall education untill Edward Earle of March their eldest Brother had revenged his Fathers death and taken the Kingdome and Crowne as his right from Henry the sixth when he called home his two Brothers and enters them into the practise of Armes to season their forwardnesse and honour of Knighthood which he had bestowed upon them and soone after invests George into the Dutchy of Clarence and Earledome of Richmond which Earledome he the rather bestowed upon him to darken the young Earle of Richmond Henry Teudor Richard had the Dukedome of Glocester and Earledome of Carlile as I have read in an old Manuscript story which Creation the Heralds doe not allow But whether he were Comes thereof after the ancient Roman understanding that is Governour or Comes or Count after the common taking it by us English or others that is for a speciall Titular Lord I will not take upon me to determine but affirme I have read him Comes Carliolensis And after the great Earle of Warwicke and Salisbury Richard de Neville was reconciled to the Kings favour George Duke of Clarence was married to the Lady Isabell or Elizabeth the elder Daughter of that Earle and Richard Duke of Glocester to the Lady Anne which Ladies by their Mother the Lady Anne de Beauchamp Daughter and heire of Sir Richard de Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke were heires of that Earledome But Anne although the younger sister was the better woman having been a little before married to Edward Plantagenet Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall only Sonne of King Henry the sixth and was now his Princesse and Dowager by whom Duke Richard had a sonne called Edward created Prince of Wales when his Father came to the Crowne The imployment of this Duke was for the most part in the North as the Countrey of his birth so more naturally affected by him according to the Poet Natale solum dulcedine cunctos mulcet Ovid. And there lay his Appanage and Patrimony with a great Estate of the Dutchesse his Wife of which the Signiory of Penrith vulgò Perith in Cumberland was part where he much resided and built or repaired most of the Castles all that Northerne side generally honouring and affecting his Deportment being magnificent
what that purpose was and what they had in Agitation at that instant is not disertly said onely from other places of the Story And those which follow Sir Thomas Moore it may be conceiv'd they doubted him for his affectation of the Soveraigntie some practice against the King and his Brother for those be the charges they presse upon him although it is neither said nor made good by any direct and just proofe But admit he was now growne jealous of him and sent Sir William Catseby a man in great credit with the Lord Hastings to â—ound what opinion he held of that Title and Claime he might lay to the Crowne who presuming upon Catsebies gratitude and trust that had beene advanced by him without circumstance and even with indignation exprest an utter mislike thereof and engaged himselfe his uttermost power and abilitie against it peremptorily adding he had rather see the death and destructions of the Protector and Duke of Buckingham then the young King deprived of the Crowne Which reply Catseby being more just to his employment then honour in this poynt returnes the Protector who layd hold upon the next occasion to seize his head which is the greatest and bloodiest Crime that brings any proofe against him and yet not so cleare but that there may be some other State-mistery or fraud suspected in it Let us leave it up on that accompt and but consider how much more wee forgive the fames of H. 1. E. 3. H. 4. E. 4. H. 7. because they had their happy Starres and successe and then Prosperum scelus virtus vocatur there is applause goes with the Act and Actor Iulius Caesar was and ever will be reputed a wise and a great Captaine although his Emulation cost an infinite quantitie of excellent humane blood and his Nephew Octa. Augustus never ceased proscribing banishing and massacring untill he had dispatched all his proud Emulators Iulius Caesar thought it Crimen sacrum vel crimen Regale or Crimen sacrum Ambitio whoâ—e rule was Si violandum est jus regnandi gratiâ Violandum est ali is rebus piet atem colas If right for ought may e're be violate It must be only for a Soveraign State Drawing it from that rule though Apocrypha in Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si injuste agere oportet pro tyrannide aut regno pulcherrimum est injuste agere in aliis pietatem colere expedâ—t And Antonius Caracalla alledged the Text to justifie the killing of his Brother Geta his Collegue in the Empire Polynicâ—s the Brother of Eteocles was of the same Religion and said A Kingdome could not be bought at too high a rate put in Friends Kindred Wife and Riches Via ad potentiam est tollere â—â—â—ulos premere Adversarios which the great Mâ—ster of Axiomes allowed hath beene countenanced by many great examples of State-reason and policie in all times even since the Ogygian Age for an old observation and generall in all forraigne Countries saith Regnum furto Et fraude ademptum antiquum est specimen imperii So King Atreus by his owne experience could say Vt nemo doceat fraâ—dis sceleris vias Regnum docebit But what those Ages call'd Valour Wisedome and Policy in those great Schollers of State who with credit practised their Artes Imperii and rules of Empire comes not under the license or warrant of our Christian times yet we may speak thus much for Richard to those who cry him so deepe an homicide that he had either more conscience or lesse cruelty then they attribute to him that by the same Act of power could not secure himselfe of others he had as just cause to feare especially Iasper Earle of Pembroke his Nephew Richmond and the subtill Doctor Morton who was extreamly his Enemy and the Chiefe Instrument that secretly mov'd against him And although the King had no certain notice which way his Engins wrought yet he knew enough to suspect him for and to remove him from the Councell-Table unto the custody of the Duke of Buckingham the man he had reason to suppose nearest to his trust though his expectation leaned on a broken Reed there for the Duke was now secretly in his heart defected from the King and become male-content Morton but toucht his pulse and knew how the distemper lay which he irritated into such sparklings as gave him notice where his constitution was most apt and prepared yea so subtilly mastred it that he had leave to steale from Brecknock Castle to Ely so for good store of Coine found safe passage into France whither his desires vehemently carried him in hope to fashion the Earle of Richmond to his Plot and under pretence of a Lancastrian Title to stirre him to take up Armes and invade England with the Assurance of many mightie friends here which would make the Designe of an easie and quick dispatch nor forgot he how much Artificiall and Eloquent perswasions adde to the Blaze of Ambition knowing the Earles temper like other mens in that and observing him with a kind of pleasure listen he gave such a studied glosse and superlation to the Text that the Earle was now so full of encouragement and hope for the invasion that their purposes spread as well into England as in France The Protector having also certaine intelligence of some particular Designes disposed himselfe in his actions more closely and knew what Friends and Confederates had engaged themselves to Richmond who yet kept a face of love and fidelitie towards him as did the Duke of Buckingham and the Countesse of Richmond who appeared at this instant an earnest Sutor to reconcile her Sonne into favour and that the King would bee pleased to bestow on him any of King Edward the fourth his Daughters But this took not the vigilancy of his eye from him and his partie the cause being of greater danger and apprehension now then in King Edwards time for the Earle had drawne unto him many of the English Nobilitie and Gentry and some Forraigne Princes had in favour to him promised their aydes But in the time of King Edward his Title and he was so little understood by his blood of Lancaster that the better judging-sort of the English Nobilitie and Gentry King Lewis the eleventh of France Francis the second Duke of Brittaine and other Forraigne Princes looked very slightly upon it And yet as Iohn Harding observed the King might be jealous of him being given out for an Heire of the House of Lancaster and Nephew to Henry the sixt With this he considered that some Forraigne Princes stood not well-affected to him or that some at home envying his House and Posteritie would catch at any sparke to trouble his peace and kindle a Sedition therefore he had good reason to thinke that as his libertie might make these beginnings more popular so their ends more dangerous and ingratefull the vulgar tasting all things by the eare and
terra cujus Rex est Puer But here Sir there is exception of further consequence against them That they were not borne in lawfull Marriage the King having than another Wife living Dame Elizabeth Butler Besides the great dishonour and reproach he received by disparaging his Royall bloud with a woman so far unmeet for his bed These Considerations have resolutely turned all their eyes and Election towards your Grace as only worthy of it by your singular vertues and that interest in the Crownes of England and of France with the Rights and Titles by the high Authority of Parliament entailed to the Royall bloud and issue of Richard Duke of Yorke whose lawfull begotten Sonne and heire you are which by a just course of inheritance and the Common Lawes of this Land is divolv'd and come to you And unwilling that any inferiour Bloud should have the Dominion of this Land are fully determined to make your Grace King to which with all willingnesse and alacrity the Lords and people of the Northerne parts concurre And the Maior Aldermen and Commons of this City of London have all allowed and gladly embraced this generall Choice of your Grace and are come hither to beseech you to accept their just Election of which they have chosen me their unworthy Advocate and Speaker I must therefore againe crave leave in the behalfe of all to desire your Grace will be pleased in your noble and gracious zeale to the good of this Realme to cast your eyes upon the growing distresses and decay of our Estate and to set your happy hand to the redresse thereof for which we can conceive no abler remedy then by your undertaking the Crowne and Government which we doubt not shall accrew to the laud of God the profit of this Land and your Graces happinesse This speech of the Duke is recorded by Doctor Morton Sir Thomas Moore and other Chronicles and Historians to which the Protector gave this reply MY most noble Lords and my most loving friends and deare Country-men Albeit I must confesse your request most respective and favourable and the points and necessities alledged and urged true and certaine yet for the entire love and reverend respect I owe to my Brother deceased and to his Children my Princely Couzens you must give me leave more to regard mine honour and fame in other Realmes for where the truth and certaine proceedings herein are not knowne it may be thought an ambition in me to seeke what you voluntarily proffer which would charge so deep a reproach and staine upon my honour and sincerity that I would not beare for the worlds Diademe Besides you must not thinke me ignorant for I have well observed it there is more difficulty in the Government of a Kingdome then pleasure especially to that Prince who would use his Authority and Office as he ought I must therefore desire that this and my unfained Protestations may assure you the Crowne was never my ayme nor suits my desire with yours in this yet I shall thinke my selfe much beholding unto you all in this Election of me and that hearty love I find you beare me and here protest that for your sakes it shall be all one whether I be your King or no for I will serve my Nephew faithfully and carefully with my best counsels and endeavours to defend and preserve him and this Kingdome nor shall there want readinesse in me to attempt the recovery of that hereditary right in France which belongs to the Kings of England though of late negligently and unhappily lost There the Protector became silent and thought it not safe in his discretion or policy to open all the disgusts he had of the Soveraignty for that would have been matter of Exprobation of the Barons and toucht too neare the quicke though he had well observed by sundry experiences of the leading times and moderne too the inconstant ebbing and flowing of their dispositions how variable and apt they were to take up any occasion of change pursuing their Kings if once stirr'd so implacably that many times they never left without death or deposing Examples he had in the Raignes of King Edward his Brother and Henry the sixth not long before that in the time of Richard the second and his Grandfather Edward the second more anciently the extreame troubles and distresse of King Iohn and Henry the third all by the Barons being dreadfull warnings and insolent monuments of their haughtinesse and Levitie and this was Altamente repostum with the wise Prince But the Duke of Buckingham thinking the Protector set too slight a consideration upon so great a Concernment and the affection tender'd by himselfe and the Nobilitie and over hearing something he privately spake to the Lord Maior and Recorder tending to his mislike for an Epilogue or close to his former Oration he thus freely addes SIR I must now by the Priviledge of this Imployment and in the behalfe of those and my Countrey adde so much freedome unto my dutie as to tell your Grace It is immoveably resolved by the Barons and people that the Children of King Edward shall not Reigne over them Your Grace hath heard some causes nor need I intimate how these Estates have entred and proceeded so offensively to other men and so dangerously to themselves as is now too late to recall or retire And therefore they have fixt this Election upon you whom they thinke mostable and carefull for their safetie But if neither the generall good the earnest Petitions of the Nobility and Commonalty can move you wee most humbly desire your Answer and leave to Elect some other that may be worthy of the Imperiall Charge in which wee hope wee shall not incurre your displeasure considering the desperate necessitie of our welfare and Kingdome urges it And this is our last Suit and Petition to your Grace The Protector toucht by this round and braving farewell which made him very sensible For as Sir Thomas Moore disertly confesseth the Protector was so much moved with these words that otherwise of likelyhood he would never have inclined to their Suit And saith That when he saw there was no remedy but he must either at that instant take the Crowne or both he and his heires irrecoverably let it passe to another paradventure one that might prove an Enemy to him and his especially if Richmont stept in betwixt whom and this Prince the hatred was equally extreame Therefore it behoved the Protector to Collect himselfe and fixing his Consideration upon the effect of that necessitie they last urged gave this Reply MY most Noble good Lords and most loving and faithfull friends the better sense of your loves and most eminent inconveniencies insinuated by your Noble Speaker hath made me more serious to apprehend the benefit of your proffer and Election And I must confesse in the meditation thereof I find an alteration in my selfe not without some distraction when I consider all the Realme so bent
Richard pursued him with so much speed and fiercenesse that he forc't him to his Standard And now high in bloud and anger to see his Valour deluded by such a politicke Bravery with his Sword makes way and with his owne hand slew Sir Charles Brandon Standerd-Bearer thinking to have made the next blow as fatall to the Earle but the confluence of Souldiers interjecting rescued him Sir Iohn Cheney being one of the foremost whom the King stroke from his Horse to the Earth But Charged and invironed with multitudes that like a storme came on him Valiant Richard falls the Sacrifice of that day under their cruell Swords so rabious in their execution as if his body must suffer more because they could not kill his better part mangling and wounding his dead Corps whilst it lies drentcht in gore Et Lupus turpes instant morientibus ursi Et quaecunque minor nobilitate fera est As Currs in their kenells will bite and teare the skin of those beasts which in the fields they durst not barke at Occidit in bello miseranda caede Richardus Crinibus attractus dum ferro saeviat hostis And after all to compleate their barbarisme threw his body behind one upon a Jade and so conveyed it to Leicester A story to be thought incredible at least to charitable and modest eares and highly upbraided by the happier and Christian fame of William the Conquerour who severely punished a Souldier but for hacking the thigh of King Harold after he was dead though an Usurper and his perfidious enemy with all noblenesse causing the body to be delivered to his Mother for an honourable interment which was solemnly celebrated in his own Abbey at Waltham The Battle thus fought and won the Victor was Crowned in the field with that Crown K. Rich. wore which the L. Stanley put upon his head salutes him King by the stile of Hen. 7. K. of England c. And Henry Earle of Richmond Son of Edmund ap Meredith ap Teudor alias of Hadham Earle of Richmond and of Margaret Daughter and Heiâ—e of Iohn Beaufort Duke of Sommerset attained to the Crowne and had the easier ascent by the oversight and remissnesse of Richard in that Catastrophe of his Raign who gave too much opportunity and scope to the actings of his Enemies when they were under his power and arme And in the Fortune of his judgment at the closing Scene that did not better presuppose his Enemy too prudent and reserved to trust the advantage he had upon so sharpe and single an hazzard But Richard beleeving he had the odds in courage and monomachie of him which probably might make him Master of the Combate and so of the Field the straite being so desperate too resolved rather to trust to the Fate of his owne Valour then the chance of an uncertaine escape a resolution not so rash and overweening as commendable if we looke upon the very aymes and necessity of it neither is it new or improper for Princes to demand the tryall of campe fight or single Combate personaly in their Armies and to the Generals in their absence William the Conquerour challenged King Harold Before that a Combate was fought betweene Edmund Ironside and Canute the Danish King for the whole Kingdome of England our Richard the first and Edward the first in Palestine proffered the like to some of the Pagan Princes so did Edward the third Henry the fifth with the Kings of France In the last Age the valiant Prince Iaâ—es the fifth of Scotland in Person challenged Thomas Lord Howard Duke of Norfolke Generall for the King of England who accepted it But the King into his Demands would have the Country or Lands then in Controversie to be made Brabium victoris which was without the Generalls power to engage being the Inheritance of the King his Master but proffers better Lands of his owne upon the Combate which was not accepted so that concluded nothing The better end of these Challenges and Combates being at first levelled from Mercy and Piety for by this single adventure the Innocent bloud of Armies was more then stanched preserved Forraigne Stories brings this home to us and highly Characters their Kings and Generalls in the like examples which this Age draws a Curtaine before as not fit for imitation making too desperate a wound in a setled State and Succession the first who rendred that or some more Politike reason for Princes not to adventure themselves was Phi. the 2 K. of Spain as a late writer ascribeth but is mistaken For the more ancient Histories of Syria and Persia mentions some Kings that refrain'd from Warres long before as Herodotus Diodorus Trogus Pompeius tells us But let us take measure from that Times Wisedome Valour Policy c. to this and wee shall find them but tottering foundations of States which cannot uphold themselves or obvert the least Decree of God when he intends to scourge or alter kingdomes for where such vicissitudes are destin'd the Councells and faculties of men must be darkned and there will fall out all concurrences and advantages to further that purpose So in the extirpation and transferring of Families the Potter in Ieremy breaking one Jarre to make another whose fatall commutations should extimulate the pietie of our natures and make us modest censurers of their events For as wee see things but through a Cloud whilst wee measure them by accidents so wee intrude on Gods providence judging mens actions in their successe while wee over-act our owne Of such a composition was the ill-wishers of King Richard who forgot him not in his grave but indeavoured to be equally cruell to his memory And in November following a Parliament was holden in which he was attainted of High Treason a straine very high to make him guiltie of that being a King he could not commit By the same figure may others who were stiled chiefe ayders and assistants of King Richard in the Battaile of Bosworth as Sir Iohn Howard Duke of Norfolke c. though some would have him retired from the Court all King Richards raigne But Sir Thomas Moore affirmes He was constantly with him and neare his Counsells Sir Thomas Howard Earle of Surrey Sonne and heire apparent to the Duke Francis Lovel Viscount Lovel Sir Walter Devereux Lord Ferrers of Chartley Sir Iohn de la Sâ—uch Sir Robert Harrington Richard Charleton Richard Ratcliffe William Berkley William Catesby Thomas Broughton Iohn Buck Humphrey Stafford Robert Midleton Robert Brokenbury Iohn Kendall Secretary to the King Walter Hopton Ieoffry Saint-German Roger Wake Thomas Billington William Sapcoate William Brampton all Knights and some Heralds at Armes with divers other an Act of Parliament being made to disable and fore-judge them of all manner of Honour State Dignitie Also to â—orfeit all Mannors Castles Lordships Hundreds Franchises Lâ—berties Advowsons Priviledges Nominations Presentations Tenements Rents Suits Reversions Portions Annuities Pensions Rights Hereditaments
Strelley and was so constant in his Affection that although she dyed in his best Age he made a Religious Vow and became a Knight of the Rhodes his Armes are yet to be seene in the Ruines of the Hospitall of Saint Iohns neaâ—e Smithfield and in the Church of Alhallows at the upper end of Lumbard Street which was repaired and enlarged with the Stones brought from that demolished Caenoby he lived sub rege Edvardo filio Regis Henrici as I have seene by the date of his deed in Herthilâ— Anno 1 Ed. 1. Anno 22. Ed. 1. From this Knight of the Rhodes descended Sir Iohn Bucke who for his too much forwardnesse in charging a Fleet of Spaniards without the leave of the Earle of Arundell Lord Admirall was committed to the Tower testified by the Records there Anno 13. Richard the second Lawrence Buck his Son followed Edward Plantagenet Duke of Yorke and was at the Battel of Agin Court with him when he was slaine Iohn Bucke Knight the Sonne of this Laurence married a Daughter and Heire of the House of Staveley out of which are descended the Barons Parres of Kendall and Rosse Queene Katherine the last wife of King Henry the eighth the Lord Parre Marquesse of Northampton and the Herberts Earles of Pembrooke and Montgomery These Bucks residing for the most part at West-Stanton and Herthill in Yorkeshire and matched into the Families of Strelley or Stirely of Woodhall Thorpe Tilney then of Lincolnshire and Savill by which we have much Noble kindred Sir Iohn Bucke for his service to the House of Yorke especially at Bosworth lost his head at Leicester he married the Daughter of Henry Savill by whom he had Robert Bucke and other Children who were brought into the Southerne parts by Thomas Duke of Norfolke where they have remained ever since for the Children being Orphans were left in miserable estate by the Attainder of their Father But the Duke bestowed two Daughters in marriage one with the Heire of Buck The other with the Heire of Fitz-Lewis very Ancient Families from which Matches divers honourable and Noble Persons are descended The Sonnes were one a Souldier the other a Courtier the third a Priest afterward the Duke bestowed Robert Bucke the Eldest Sonne at Melford Hall in Suffolke and married him into the Families of Higham and Cotton as also did the Blounds of Elwaston the Talbots of Grafton from whom the Barons of Monioy and the late Earles of Shrewsbury descended one of the Daughters of this Bucke Married to Fredericke Tilney of Shelley Hall in Suffolke his nearest Kinsman by the Duchesse his Mothers side But some perhaps must call this my vanity I shall but answer them that I thinke my selfe bound by all the bloud and memory I claime from them to pay them my best Relations and endeavours acknowledging with the great Consulare Philosopher Parentes charissimos habere debemus quod ab ijs vita patrimontum libertas Civit as tradita est And I should thinke there is none who hath an interest in the quality of Gentile or Noble for all is one but lookes backe which some delight to their first Commemoration and finds a strong engagement due to the Vertues and worth of their first Fathers for that expresse charge to honour Father and Mother is not to be understood only of our Parents superstits and living here with us but our forefathers that is beyond our great Grandfather for we have no proper word for them above that degree but Antecessours vulgò Ancestours whom the Romans called Majores and comprehendeth all our Progenitours departed sooner or later for the word Pater and Mater as also Parens Parentes extend very largely and reach up to the highest Ancestours The Ancient Roman Jurisconsults deliver in their Law for an Axiome that Appellatione Parentum omnes in infinitum majores utriusque sexus significantur and the word Parentes yet spreadeth further comprehending all Kinsfolkes and Cosins of our Bloud and Linage being used in that sense by AElius Lampridius by Iulius Capitolinus and other the best Writers in the times of the declined Empire as Isaac Causabonus hath well observed in his Annotations The Italians Spanish and French whose Language is for the most part Romanzi mongrell Latine and broken and corrupted Romane Language use Parenti Parentes and Parents for all their Kinsfolkes and Gentilitious Cosins We English-men being more precise follow the Ancient and Classique Latine Writers holding Parent strictly to the simple signification of Pater and Mater the present and immediate Parents But the using of the word Parentes as those Imperiall Historians use it serveth better for our purpose here And I could most willingly imitate the Pious Gentlemen of Italy Spainâ— and France in their Religious and Charitable indeavours to advance the happinesse of their Parents defunct if those desires could besteed them But where I should crave pardon I become more guilty and extravogant it is time therefore to know good manners and returne home to our proper taske which will be to refell the grosse and blacke Calumnies throwne unjustly upon the Memory and Person of King RICHARD And falls within the Circle of the next Booke Explicit Liber Secundus THE THIRD BOOKE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD The Contents of this Booke THe Defamations of King Richard examined and answered Doctor Morton and Sir Thomas Moore malevolent to the House of Yorke Their frivolous exceptions against his gestures lookes teeth shape and birth hie vertues depraved The death of King Henry the sixth and his Sonne Edward Prince of Wales The Actors therein The offence of killing an anointed King Valiant men hate treacheries and bloudy acts King Richard not deformed The Slanders of Clarence translated to King Richard The Cause of Clarences execution How the Sonnes of King Edward came by their deaths King Richard Exculpable thereof The story of Perkin VVarbeck compared with Don Sebastian King of Portugall who are Biothanati Counterfeit Prince detected young Prince marvellously preserved Many testimonies for the assertion that Perkin VVarbeck was Richard Duke of Yorke his honourable entertainment with forraigne Princes vox populi Reasons why it is not credible King Richard made away his two Nephewes the force of Confession The evill of Torture the guilt of attempting to escape out of prison what an escape is The Earle of Oxford severe against Perkin and his end The base Sonne of King Richard the third secretly made away The Sonne of the Duke of Clarence put to death The power of furies Demones Genii Apollonii Majestas Quid tibi non vis alteri ne feceris THE THIRD BOOKE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD THere is no story that shewes the planetary affections and malice of the vulgar more truly then King Richards and what a tickle game Kings have to play with them though his successor Henry the seventh play'd his providently enough with helpe of the standers by yet even those times which had promised the happiest example of a
allatum est id sibi relatum esse putant And if their injustice suffer under the same lash they must know this doome hath the credit of an Oracle quale verbum dixisti tale etiam audies But so much gall and envy is thrown upon King Richards story as cannot possibly fall into the stile of an ingenuous and charitable pen all his virtue is by a malitious Alchymy substracted into crimes and where they necessarily fall into mention either scornefully transmitted or perverted with injurious constructions not allowing him the resemblance of goodnesse or merit If his disposition be affable and curteous as generally it was which their owne relations cannot deny then he insinuates and dives into the peoples hearts so where he expresses the bounty and magnificence of his minde it is a subtle tricke to purchase friendship let him conceale the knowledge of his jujuries and his patience is deepe hypocrisie for his mercy and clemency extended to the highest offendors as to Fogge the Atturney who had made a Libell against him besides the counterfeiting of his hand and seale they were but palliated and his friendship meerely a Court brow They have yet a more captious and subtle calumny reproaching the casting of his eyes motions of his fingers manner of his gesture and his other naturall actions I confesse with Cicero that status incessus sessio occubatio vultus oculi mannum motio have a certaine kind of decorum but he makes it not a vice to erre in any of them nor that any errour committed in them was a vice although in him it must be so defined by the Lawes of Utopia nay they will dissect his very sleepes to finde prodigious dreames and bug-beares accidents frequent to themselves which they dresse in all the fright and horrour fiction and the stage can adde who would have sung Peans to his glory had his sword brought victory from Bosworth field but now their envy is borne with him from his mothers wombe and delivers him into the world with a strange prodigy of Teeth although I am perswaded neither Doctor Morton nor Sir Thomas Moore ever spake with the Dutchesse his Mother or her Midwife about the matter But if true it importeth no reason why those earely and natalatious teeth should presage such horrour and guilt to his birth when we shall remember those many Noble and worthy men who have had the like without any imputation of crime as Marcus Curius sirnamed thereupon Dentatus Cu. Papiene King of the Epirots a Prince much renowned for his victories and virtues Monodas Sonne of Prusias King of Bithynia borne with an intire semicircular bone in their mouthes instead of Teeth then they aggravate the pangs of the Dutchesse in her travaile with him which had not been sufferable without death if so extreame and intolerable as they would have them thought for Quod ferri potest leve est quod non breve est But she overcame them and lived almost fifty yeares after others have died in that Bed yet the children not made guilty of murther Iulia the daughter of Iulius Caesar Wife to great Pompey Iuliola the deare daughter of Marcus Cicero Wife of Dolabella and Iunia Claudilla the Empresse and Wife of Caligula died all of the difficulties and extremity of their childe-bearing so did Queene Elizabeth Wife of King Henry the seventh and since the Mother of that most towardly and hopefull Prince Edward the sixth in travaile of his birth with many thousands more whose deaths much lesse their paines were never imputed to their children The next objection is somewhat of more regard but as farre without the certainty of a proofe which is the pretended deformity of his body controverted by many some peremtorily asserted he was not deformed of which opinion was Iohn Stow a man indifferently inquisitive as in all their other affaires after the verball relations and persons of Princes and curious in his description of their features and lineaments who in all his inquiry could finde no such note of deformitie in this King but hath acknowledged viva voce that he had spoken with some ancient men who from their owne sight and knowledge affirmed he was of bodily shape comely enough onely of low stature which is all the deformity they proportion so monstrously neither did Iohn Rouce who knew him and writ much in his discription observe any other and Archienbald Qhuitlaw Ambassador unto this King from Scotland in his Oration saies he had corpus exiguum not otherwise so to my conceit Philip de Comines and the Prior de Croyland who had seen and knowne this Prince seeme to cleere him implicatively for in all their discourses of him they never directly nor indirectly covertly or apertly insinuate this deformity which I suppose they would not have passed And by his sundry Pictures which I have seen there was no such disproportion in his person or lineaments but all decently compacted to his stature his face of a warlike aspect which Sir Thomas Moore calleth a crabled visage of all the children being said to be most like his Father in favour and composition of shape who though not tall was of an even and well disposed structure And Sir Thomas Moore himselfe doth not certainely affirme the deformity but rather seemes to take it as a malitious report for saith he King Richard was deformed as the fame ranne by those that hated him habemus reuâ— consitentem and surely it had been a strange kinde of confidence and reason in Doctor Shaw to disclaime a thing which must be so palpable openly in the Pulpit at Saint Pauls Crosse whilst the Protector was present before many hundreds of people who had seen and known him before and might then better view and note him In these words the Lord Protector is a very noble Prince the speciall patterne of Knightly prowesse as well in all Princely behaviour as in the lineaments of his body and in the favour of his visage representing the very face of the Noble Duke his Father this is the Fathers owne figure this is his owne countenance the very sure and undoubted Image and expresse likenesse of that Noble Duke Now what can malice extract out of this to upbraid or stigmatize his honour if men of blemisht persons may containe a wise valiant learned liberall and religious soule and be in every part most absolute exampled to us in many famous men and at our home as well in this present age as in the more ancient we have had men of a harsh fabrick most nobly furnisht in the composures of their mindes But because these cavils could not fetch blood from him they will make him guilty of other men and first of King Henry the sixth whose murther they say and very favourably his Brother Edward contrived but wrought him to act it an accusation of very harsh credit that either King Edward so truly noble and valiant a Prince should put
a Prince and his owne Brother upon so horrid a thing or he indure to heare it Sir Thomas Moore holds King Edward would not ingage his Brother in so butcherly an office there being many reasons that he durst not neither doe his adversaries charge him directly by any credible Author of that time or discover by whom this murther was onely the Prior of Croyland maketh it somewhat suspitious Hoc tempore inventum est corpus regis Henrici sexti exanime in turre Londinarium Parâ—at Deus spatium poenitentiae ei donet quiâ—unque sacrilegas manus in Christum Domini ausus immittere unde agens tyranni patiens gloriosi martyris titulum mereantur Tyrannus in the proper construction being Rex for whosoever is Rex is Tyrannus according to the ancient signification for amongst the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was used for a King simply good or bad and this some hold makes against King Edward Richard being Duke of Gloucester then yet so doubtfully as may be refelled by good authority for it is the opinion of very grave men Henry the sixth was not murthered but died of naturall sicknesse and extreame infirmity of body Rex Henricus sextus ab annis jam multis ex accidente sibi aegrituâ—ine quaâ—dam animi incurreret infirmitatem sic aeger corpore impos mentis permansit diutius this considered with the aggravation of his griefe and sorrow in the losse of his Crown and liberty being then a prisoner the overthrow of all his friends and forces in the Battaile of Teuxbury but above all the death of his Sonne the Prince might master a stronger heart and constitution then his in a shorter time which opinion is received and alleadged by a learned and discreet Gentleman The occasion of the murther of King Henry the sixth hath no other proofe but the malitious affirmation of one man for many other men more truly did suppose that he died of meere griefe and melancholy when he heard the overthrow of his cause and friends with the slaughter of the Prince his Sonne And Iohannes Majerus saith it was reported King Henry the sixth died of griefe and thought Concerning the slaughter of the Prince his onely Sonne it is noted to be casuall and made suddaine by his owne insolence not out of any pretended malice or premeditated treachery and so it cannot be called wilfull murther for the King demanding him why he invaded his Kingdome his reply was he might and ought to doe it in defence and preservation of the right which the King his Father and his heires had in the Crowne and maintained this lofty answer so peremtorily and boldly the King in rage strooke him with his fist as some say armed with a Gantlet and instantly the Noblemen attending as George Duke of Clarence Marquesse Dorset the Lord Hastings and others drew their swords upon the Prince and killed him which they would make the particular fact of Duke Richard But to the contrary I have seene in a faithfull Manuscript Chronicle of those times that the Duke of Gloucester onely of all the great persons stood still and drew not his sword the reasons to credit this are first it might be in his meere sence of honour seeing so many drawn upon him there was no need of his or in his respects to the Princes Wife who as Iohannes Majerus saith was in the roome and neare akinne to the Dutchesse of Yorke his Mother and to whom the Duke was also very affectionate though secretly which he soone after demonstrated in marrying her nay this Duke bore such a sence of noble actions in his bosome that mislikeing the obscure and meane buriall of Henry the sixth this Princes Father he caused his corps to be taken from Chertsey and to be Honourably conveyed to the Royall and stately Chappell of Windsor ordained for Kings And Sir Thomas Moore saith further he was suspected to have the contriving part in the Duke of Clarence his Brothers death yet confesseth it was commonly said Richard opposed himselfe against the unnaturall proceedings of the King both privately and publiquely and the truth is it was the Kings owne immoveable and inexplorable doome who thought it justly and necessarily his due for Clarence stood guilty of many treasons and great ones and by his ingratidude had so forfeâ—ted himselfe to the Kings displeasure that no friend durst move in his behalfe this the King did afterward acknowledge with some discontent when his wrath had cooled as we may guesse in this expression of his O infaelicem â—ratrem pro cujus salute neâ—o homo rogavit yet Polidor Virgil doth not rightly understand here as I conjecture by the sequell but let us interpret that a little and take up another accusation which puts into the way That Richard Duke of Gloucester should scandall the birth of the King his Brother with basterdy and alleadge it for a speciall matter in Doctor Shawes Sermon that he should fame King Edward the fourth a bastard and that the Dutchesse his Mother had wanton familiarity with a certaine Gentleman this he might erroneously scatter in the Pulpit and take it up on the like intelligence by which in the same Sermon he called her to whom King Edward was betrothed before his marriage with the Lady Grey Elizabeth Lucy whose name was for a certaine Ellenor Butler alias Talbot so called by King Richard and written in the Records This drift had been too grosse for King Richard to lay an imputation of whoredome upon his owne Mother a virtuous and honourable Lady being it cast also a shame and basterdy upon himselfe for if she offended in one she might as likely offend in another and in the rest And to quit him of it Sir Thomas Moore Richard Grafâ—on Mr. Hall say that King Richard was much displeased with the Doctor when he heard the relation which the Duke of Buckingham also affirmed in his speech to the Lord Mayor of London That Doctor Shaw had incurred the great displeasure of the Protectour for speaking so dishonourably of the Dutchesse his Mother That he was able of his owne knowledge to say he had done wrong to the Protectour therein who was ever known to beare a reverend and filiall love unto her and to cut of all farther doubt and question it was proved and is testified upon records that George Duke of Clarence onely raised this slander in an extreame hatred to the King his Brother many jarres falling between them by which the King had a just cause to take notice of his malice Visus est dux Clarentiae magis ac magis a regis praesentia desuâ—trahere in consilio vix verbum proferre neque libenter bibere aut manducare in domo Regis When Richard even in that calamitous time Henry the sixth had overthrowne King Edward in a battaile recovered the Kingdome and proclaimed Edward an usurper so faithfull was his Brother that
so consequent and mighty as the recovery of a Kingdome neither were the times and opportunity yet ripe or propitious to fashion such an alteration as was projected and must be produced though there was pregnant hope of an induction to a change of Government stir'd by the Kings coveteousnesse and some acts of Tyrany Greivance and Rebellions in the North and West parts not long after which lent a seasonable hand to these designes great unkindnesse fell out betwixt Charles the French King and Henry the 7. who so far provoked the French that he besieged Bulloigne with a great army by land and Sea the quarrell was of good advancement to the Dutchesse of Burgondy's Plot and brought the Duke of Yorke better acquainted with forraigne Princes and their Courts who was sent into France into Portugall and other places where he was received and entertained like a Prince In which time such of the English Nobility as were interessed in the secret and knew where this Prince resided found some opportunity to give him assistance and sent Sr. Robert Clifford and Sr. William Barley into Flanders to give him a visit and intelligence of what noble friends he had ready to serve him though their more particular errant was to take a strict observance of him and such private marks as hee had bin knowne by from his Cradle there had beene some counterfeits incouraged to take upon them the persons of Edward E. of Warwick and Richard Duke of Yorke But here the certainty of their knowledge found him they looked for by his Face Countenance Lineaments and all tokens familiarly and privately knowne to them observing his behaviour naturaliz'd and heightned with a Princely grace and in his discourse able to give them a ready accompt of many passages he had heard or seene whilst hee was in England with such things as had beene done and discourst very privately speaking English very perfectly and better then the Dutch or Wallonish by which Sr. Kobert Clifford and the rest found themselves so well satisfied and were so confirm'd That they wrot to the Lord Fitzwater to Sir Symon Mountford and others who had a good opinion towards him the full accompt of what they had observ'd ex certa scientia supra visum corporis About this time to intermix the Scene with more variety and fill the Stage some principall persons well affecting the E. of Warwick and hoping to get him forth of the Tower in purpose to make him King had inticed a handsome young fellow one Lambert Simonell of Lancashire bred in the University of Oxford to become his counterfeit and so instructed him in the royall Genealogy that hee was able to say as hee was taught maintained and abetted cheifly by the Viscount Lovell the E. of Lincolne Sir Thomas Broughton and Sir Symon Preist c. who being presented to the Duke and Dutchesse of Burgondy and by them honorably entertained drew to him in Flanders one Martin Swartz a Captaine of a very eminent fame and some forces with which hee made over into Ireland where they received him as Edward Earle of Warwick as hee was of many here at home and when the deceit was discovered the excuse was those Lords but used this counterfet of the Earle for a Colour whilst they could get him out of the Tower to make him King But the vaile is easily taken from the face of such impostors examples giving us light in many for though some men may all cannot be deceived so Speudo-Agrippa in the time of Tiberius was soone found to bee Clemens the servant of Agrippa though very like to him and Puesdo-Nero in Otho's time who tooke upon him to be Nero revived was quickly unmasked Valerius Paterculus telleth of a certaine ambitious counterfet in Macedonia who called himselfe Philip and would be reputed the next heire of the Crowne but was discovered and nicknamed Pesudo-Philippus Also in the Raigne of Commodus one pretended to be Sextus Claudianus the son of Maximus with many such that are obvious in old stories and many of the like stampe have beene here convicted in England which bred the greater jealousy of this Richard when hee came first to be heard of Though those jealosies proceeded not from the detection of any fraud in him but of the late imposture of the said Lambert the Shooemakers son and the abuse of the Complotters for the Kingdome having been abused with those Pseudo-Clarences had reason to bee doubtfull of every unknowne person which assumed the name of greatnesse in regard whereof many shrunke in their opinions from this Perkin or Richard many others suspecting their beliefe were very curious to inform themselves who the further they inquired were the more confirmed that hee was no other but the second son of Edward the Fourth against whom those of the harder credulity objected it as an impossibility that this young Duke could bee conveyed out of the Tower so long and so concealed which the wiser sort could easily answer by many ancient examples which give us divers Relations of Noble Children preserved more admirably and this young Duke himselfe in his owne behalfe when such objections were made against him did alledge to Iames King of Scotland the History of Ioah mentioned in the Booke of the Kings and that most speciall one of Moses which the Dutches his Aunt Sister German to his Father was strongly confirmed in giving him all answerable and honorable accommodation so did the chiefe Nobility of those parts and as an heire of the house of Yorke there was rendred him the Title of La Rose-Blanch the proper and ancient devise of the house of Yorke with all a gallant Guard of Souldiers was allowed him for attendance and much was hee favored by the Arch-Duke Maximilian King of the Romans by Philip his Sonne Duke of Burgondy Charles the French King the King of Portugall and Scotland by the chiefest of Ireland and many Personages in England who at extreame perill and hazard avowed him to be the second son of Edward the fourth The Princes aforementioned readily supplying him with Coyne and assistance towards his atcheivements King Henry actively apprehends what it threatned and bestirs himselfe to take of their inclinations dispatching Doctor William Warkam after Archbishop of Canterbury with Sr. Edward Poynings a grave and worthy Knight to under-rare his credit with those Princes and such strong perswasions were used That Philip Duke of Burgondy for his Father Maximilian was before returned into Austria utterly declines himselfe and his subjects from his first ingagement but excepted the Widdow Dutchesse of Burgondy over whom hee had no power of command because shee had all justice and Jurisdiction in those large signories whereof her dowry was composed And thus Richard was supplanted here what hope of ayde hee had or did expect by his voyage into Portugall I cannot say though his entertainment there was honorable but by reason of the distance of the Country â—it may bee thought hee was
to build little upon any from thence his chiefe conâ—idence and refuge being in England and Ireland where he had a good party and sayled with a prety Fleete into Ireland there hee was welcomed and received as the the second Sonne of King Edward some of the Geraldins and other great Lords in Ireland purposing to make him their King To overtake him betimes there too Doctor Henry Deane Abbot of Lanthory a very wise able man was sent and made Chancellor of Ireland with him went the said Sr. Edward Poynings who so actively bestirred themselves that in short time they drew the Irish from Perkin so that now hee must returne home but by the way was encouraged to apply himselfe to Iames King of Scotland whither forthwith hee directs his hopes and found his entertainment answerable to them the King receiving him very Nobly by his title of Duke of York calls him Cozen with promises to give him strong footing in England and in earnest of his better intents bestowed in Marriage upon him the most Noble and faire Lady Katharine Gordon his neere kinswoman Daughter of Alexander Earle of Huntly This came home very sharpely to King Henry who knew King Iames to bee a Prince so Wise and Valiant that no easy delusion could abuse him And true it is King Iames was very precise in his consideration of this young Duke but very cleerely confirmed before hee would acknowledge him King Henry is very Studious how to thwaâ—t the event of this scene and unfasten the King but casts his conâ—idence againe upon the fortune of his judgement and sends many Protestations with rich promises to King Iames for Perkin for now wee shall so call him with the times which tooke small effect at first but King Henry being a man pregnant to finde any advantage and one whose providence would not let it die remembers the stong affinity and friendship betwixt King Iames and Ferdinando King of Castile one of the most Noble Princes then living At that time too it happened so happily there was a Treaty and intelligence betwixt Henry the Seventh and Ferdinando for proposition of a Marriage of Arthur the Prince of Wales and Katharine Daughter of King Ferdinando this occasion no sooner offered it selfe to his consideration but a Post was dispatcht to Castile with Letters and Instructions to give the King to know what had passed betweene him and King Iames of Scotland urging him to use the Power and Credit hee had with him for the delivery of Perkin to himselfe which Ferdinando undertooke and sends Don Pedro Ayala not one Peter Hialas or Peter Hayles as our vulgar stories have a wise and learned man and of a very Noble house who so ably used his Braine in this imployment that King Iames passed to him his promise to dismisse Perkin to his own fortunes But would by no meanes deliver him to the King Thus Perkin was againe supplanted Virtute vel dolo and of necessity driven into Ireland where hee was formerly received and entertained whilst they were agitating their first Plot of setling him King Charles the French King sends to him Lois de Laques and Estiene Friant to offer him his friendship and ayde with this good newes Perkin hasted into France where hee found his welcome very honorable as befitting a Prince a Guard appointed to attend him of which Monsieur Congre-Salle was Captaine before this King Henry had threatned France with an Army but now upon a better view and deliberation foreseeing what this had in it He propounds very faire Conditions for a Peace with the French King which the French King was as willing to intertaine and so it was concluded Perkin after this began to thinke the King shortned his respects and looked upon him as it were but imagine lusca with halfe a Countenance and fearing there might bee some capitulation in this new League that might concerne his liberty privately quits Paris returning to his Aunt of Burgondy Although Perkin was thus shortned in his forraine expectations hee had those both in England and Ireland that much favored him and his cause making another voyage into Ireland but returned with his first comfort for though they stood constantly affected and were willing the Kings Officers curbed them so they could not stir From Ireland hee sayled into England landing at Bodmin in Cornewall the Cornish and Westerne men thereabouts receiving him very gladly proclayming him King of England and of France c by the Title of Richard the Fourth as Hee had beene proclaimed before in the North parts of England by the Councell and Countenance of the King of Scots Out of Cornewall Hee marches into Devonshire to Exeter to which Hee layd Siege having then about five thousand men in his Army but the Kings being at hand and farre stronger Hee was forc't to rise from the siege upon which those few friends Hee had left finding His want and the King with greater strength approaching forsooke him to provide for themselves thus abandoned no way before him but flight and being well mounted with a traine of some forty or fifty resolute Gentlemen recovers the Abby of Beanely in Hampshire where Hee tooke Sanctuary from which the Kings party who persued Him would violently have surprised Him Which the Abbot and Religious persons would not indure as a thing too foule against their Priviledge The King after sends to him profers of favours and mercy with promises of such Honour and Condition as drew Him to the Court where the King looked upon him with a very Gratious and Bountifull usage as a Noble person But his prompting Jealousies and Feares soone east a dulnesse over this first favours and promises Then a Guard must bee set upon Perkin and his usuall freedome restrained these were harsh presages Hee thought which so justly moved His suspition and discontent that hee thought Sanctuary againe must bee his best safety and passing by the Monastery of Shrene hee suddenly slips into it from his Guard whither the King sends unto him with perswasions of the first Courtly and Honorable tincture But Perkin that had discerned the Hook was not easily to be tempted with the bait this second time Then the King dealt with the Prior for him who would not yeeld him but upon faithfull promise from the King to use him with all favour and grace which was protested although Perkin no sooner came into his power againe but hee was sent to the Tower where his imprisonment was made so hard and rude that it much dejected and troubled him oftentimes in private and with peircing groanes having beene heard to wish himselfe borne the Sonne of any Pesant And indeed every one could tell hee fared the worse for his Name it being an observation of those times that there was three men most feared of the King Edward Plantagenet Earle of Warwicke Perkin alias Richard Plantagenet and Edmond de la Poole Sonne of King Edwards Sister all of
to your Father-hood by the Passion of Jesus Christ this man is truly the King Don Sebastian he hath all the markes on his body without failing in any one as he had in his infancy only the wounds excepted which he received in that Battel at Affricke he gives the reason of his life account of all his passages c. He is knowne and re-known by the Conciergres by the Judges by the greater part of the Senate and by his owne Confessor c. and a great deal more of him upon knowledg he justifies as much witnesses Ion de Castro Sonne to Don de Alvaro de Castro one of the four Governours that ruled the Kingdome Conjunctly with the King Don Sebastian who in his letter the same man sayes thus The King Don Sebastian whom the enemies call a Calabrois is the very same which is detained here as certainly as you are Fryer Ioseph and my selfe Don Ion. He departed alive from the battaile but very sore wounded God having so delivered him with some other of his company amongst whom was the Duke Anegro c. as for the Exterior marks of his body he wants not one of them he is wounded on the brow of the right eye and on the head as many witnessed when they saw him in the Affrick Battell His hand-writing is still the same observing the very same method as is very well remembred by divers There might much more be instanced in the behalfe of this Sebastian but this may serve for better intelligence to which I may adde that men experienced in the Affaires and policy of State know it a rare thing to find in any History the examples of a Prince being seised and possessed of any Signiory or Principality how unlawfull soever who hath resigned them or any part to the true heires Have we not instances at home where the Sonne hath taken the Kingdome from the Father and would not let it goe againe but rather endeavoured to hast his Fathers fate Much after that manner when Henry Duke of Lancaster had got the Kingdome he held it and would not resigne to the right Heyr Richard the second nor after his death to the Earle of March though these were no Impostors neither was Edward Earl of Warwicke yet King Henry would not let his hold goe and the Cardinall Favourite finding he could not compasse his aymes one way contrived it another By the Machivilian advice he gave to Ferdinand King of Castile not to conclude the treaty of the Marriage betweene Prince Arthur and his Daughter Katherine untill this Earle and Perkin were disposed of which Ferdinando followed and urged the King pretending it the security of his Estate and Issue In briefe it is not possible to perswade a private man though wrongfully possessed to acknowledge the true proprietary hath a better title then he How unjustly have the Kings of Spaine detain'd sundry Signeuries and Principalities from the lawfull Heirs yet if the wrong done by such another disseising Lord be put to this former Usurper Malafide as the Imperiall Iurisconsults will terme him his sentence will be such a Rapinous Prince doth wrong But let us now take a more particular view of those witnesses who stood for Perkin And having formerly mentioned Sir Robert Clifford a Knight of the Noble Family of the Barons Cliffords I will proceed with that which may be the more remarkable in him because hee was of a Family that long hated the House of Yorke from the Battaile of Wakefield when and where they resolved an enmity so deadly as was not to bee reconciled or satisfied whilst one of them remained yet became followers againe of the White Rose family and this Sir Robert Clifford served King Edward very neare and in good credit so could not but have an assured knowledge of the Kings Sonnes and was therefore the more particularly sent to certifie his knowledge who certainely affirmed him to bee the younger sonne of Edward 4. and confirmed many with him such as had likewise served King Edward and had been acquainted with the Prince his conveying beyond Sea though much was done to alter Sir Roberts opinion the Lord Fitz-Walter was of the same beliefe and avowed Perkin the true Duke of York most constantly unto death as resolute was Sir William Stanley though he were Lord Chamberlaine to Henry the seventh and in great favour with Sir George Nevill Brother to the Earle of Westmorland Sir Symon Mountford Sir William Daubeny father to the Lord Daubeny Sir Thomas Thwaits Sir Robert Ratcliffe of the house of the Baron FitzWalter Sir Iohn Taylor Sir Thomas Chaloner Thomas Bagnall with many other Gentlemen of quality all maintaining him to be the Duke of Yorke sonne of Edward the fourth sundry of the Clergy who had beene Chaplaines to the King his Father or otherwise occasioned to attend the Court as Doctor Rochford Doctor Poynes Doctor Sutton Doctor Worsley Deane of St. Pauls Doctor Leyborn Doctor Lesly with many other learned Professors of Divinity who would not endure to heare him called Perkin The Lord FitzWater Sir William Stanley Sir Simon Mountford Sir Robert Ratcliffe Sir William Daubeny as martyrs of state confirmed their Testimonies with their bloods So did the Kings Serjant Ferrier who left the Kings service and applyed himself to Perkin for which he was executed as a Traitor and one Edwards who had served this Duke Richard was cut in pieces for the same cause also Corbet Sir Quinton Betts and Gage Gentlemen of good worth with 200. more at least put to death in sundry Cities and Townes particularly in Kent Essex Suffolke Norfolke and about London for their confidence and opinions in this Prince There were some great men though they made noe profession of their knowledge of him could whisper it one to another which in generall words is confessed by all our better writers who say that as well the Noblemen as others held the said Perkin to be the younger Sonne of King Edward the Fourth And Sir Thomas Moore after Doctor Morton thus writeth The man commonly called Perkin Warbeck was as well with the Prince as with the people held to be the younger Sonne of King Edward the Fourth Richard Grafton affirmeth the same in Flanders saith he and most of all here in England it was received for an undoubted truth not onely of the people but of the Nobles that Perkin was the Sonne of King Edward the Fourth And they all swore and affirmed this to be true The learned and famous Mr. Cambden averreth there were many wise grave and persons of good intelli gence who liued in that time and neere it That affirmed considently this Perkin was second Sonne to King Edward then both the Brothers were not made a way by King Richard and sarely it was little reason or policy to cut off the one spare the other neither indeed was there ever any proofes made by Testimony Argument or Presumption
Eurinnies and beleeved haunted those men that had purposed or acted a wickednesse upon which the Poet said well Patiturque unos mens saucia Manes And assigned to every man his protecting Spirit whom the Greekes called Doemones the Latines Genios concluding that when the Genius of him against whom the mischiefe aimes is stronger and more active then his who is to act it there the Plot hardly taketh effect For example produce the mortall enmity betweene Octavianus Caesar and M. Antonius in which Anthony could never prevaile by any Attempt who consulting with his Soothsayers they give the reason to beethe power of Octavians Genius above his It is reported the great Philosopher Appollonius had such a secret protection and so strong that the Emperour Domitian had no power over his life though hee studied meanes to take it Suidas adding that this Philosopher in confidence of his Genius when he left the Emperour added this verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Me non occides quia fataliter protectus sum which is that Flamius Vopiscus calleth Majestatem Apollonij as I ghesse and with it the Profestors of Christian Religion agree in the effects not in the causes for those whom the Heathen call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Daemones c. Genios the Christian Theologues call Angels or Spirits whereof they hold good and bad But to returne to the matters further Allegate Probate The industrious Antiquary Master Iohn Stow being required to deliver his opinion concerning the proofes of this murther affirmed it was never proved by any credible evidence no not by probable suspitions or so much as by the Knights of the Post that King Richard was guilty of it And Sir Thomas Moore being puzelled with his Equivocations sayes that it could never come to light what became of the bodies of these two Princes Grafton Hall and Hollinshead agreeing in the same report that the trueth hereof was utterly unknowne Then where is their farre seeing knowledge that will have them transported into Forraign Countreyes or drowned or their giganticke proofes that say peremptorily they were both murthered and buryed in the Tower by those foure named before if so we need go no further for the truth But these are splenitick reaches and the Parachronisme is too groste as the Comaedian said Quod dictum indictum est Quod modo ratum irritum est Besides if Perkin were not the second Sonne of King Edward he must bee nothing for the Flemish French and Wallons acknowledged no such Noble young man to be borne in Warbecke or in Tourney but make honourable mention of a young Sonne of the King of England who was brought to the Dutchesse of Burgundy his Aunt being then in Flanders and how hee was in France and in other Kingdomes And surely so many Noble and discreet English if they had not knowne him to be the same by most certaine tokens and evidence would not so confidently have laid downe their lives to confirme their knowledge of him or hazarded their judgements and honours upon an Imposture or vanity especially those who had places of Quality and Eminency neare the King then living and were in favour at Court Therefore I would be resolv'd from our Anti-Richards what aim those Noble-men could have in averring him the Son of Edward the Fourth by the hazard of their lives and Estates if the KING pleased and how could they expect lesse for though they were enough to justifie it a truth they were too few to maintaine it against him there could be no aime or hope to super-induce young Richard to be King but meerly I am perswaded in point of truth and honour as they thought themselves bound to doe they freely tendred their lives to make good what their Conscience knowledge witnessed for it would be an Imposture of a miraculous Deception so many worthy and wise persons both of the Nobility and Clergy some of them having served the King his Father and himselfe that they all in their particular and generall intelligence and understandings should be mistaken and cheated I say it was a strange delusion if it could bee so but indeede those that would have it so leave it in question and know not well what to make of their own relations or how to resolve his History and if wee marke Sir Francis Bacon in the life of Henry the Seventh though his speculation be tender and as favourable as hee can that way touching the History of this young Duke hee gently slides from it Explicit liber tertius THE FOVRTH BOOKE OF THE HISTORY OF KING RICHARD the Third The Contents UPon what occasion the sentence of Bastardy was given upon the Children of King Edward the 4 th and why The sundry Loves Wooings Contracts and Marriages of King Edward the Fourth His divers Concubines His device of the Fetterlock and the Faulcon His wooing the Lady Elianor Talbott alias Butler the Lady Bona of Savoy and the Lady Elizabeth Gray widdow his marriage with her His former Marriage or Contract with the said Elianor her wrongs and her death Kings must not marry the daughters of their Vassalls nor other without the consent of their Barons Doctor Stillington Bishop of Bath Imprisoned for speaking of King Edwards Marriage with the Lady Elianor Talbott Spuria vitulamina How King Edward might have salved those Errors and prevented all the mischiefes following them The Children of King Edward the Fourth declared and adjudged illegitimate King Edwards death suspected by poyson the mortality of the Plantagenets The Authority of Parliament Parliaments how so called and derived Parliaments against Parliaments The first Parliament of King Henry the seventh what Treason is whether Soveraigne Princes may be said to commit Treason against their Subiects The treaty of Marriage between K. Richard the third and the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet and cheifely sought by her selfe and the Queene her Mother The entertainement of the Lady Elizabeth at the Court the first Libell of Divorse the scruples of the Lady Elizabeth King Richard never meant to marry her The marriages of Neeces allowed by the Pope and usuall the true cause of Sir Thomas Moores Condemnation and execution The FOVRTH BOOK OF King Richard The Third THe Title King Richard the Third had to the Crown acâ—rued to him by the illegitimacie of the Children of King Edward the Fourth and the Attainder of the Duke of Clarence with the Corruption of his Blood and forfeiture of the Title in him and in his Heirs of which there was no question but of the forfeiture and disheritage of the sons of Edward the Fourth there hath been much The true cause hath not nor cannot be well known without the Narration of King Edward's sundry Loves and Wooings specially his Contracts and Marriages I shall not need to intimate how amorous and wanton this King was his many Mistrisses or Amasia's he kept in several private places whereof the most famous was Katharine de Clarington
then Tyranny according to the style of Sir Thomas Moore When King Henry the Seventh as soon as he had got the Crown sent this young Prince to the Tower afterwards cut off his head yet that was no Tyranny after Sir Thomas Moore But our King Iames of ever happie memory hath thought it an act of so much detestation that particularly he protested against it and shewed another temper of Justice and Power in his Royal Clemencie to certain Noble persons in one of his Kingdoms who being Regal Titulars and pretending title to the Crown there as descended from some King of that Countrey his gracious and pious inclination was so far from seeking their ruine or so much as the restraining them that he suffered their liberty with possession of what they had Then they call the punishment of Iane Shore a Tyrannie A common and notorious Adulteresse as the Duke of Buckingham who knew her very well censured her which she deserved so justly that it was rather favourable then severe or tyrannous Next the death of William Collingborn is made one of his Tyrannies who as some trivial Romancers say was hanged for making a Satyrical Rhyme when the truth is he had committed Treason and was arraigned and condemned of High Treason as may be yet seen in the Record and then it was Justice and not Tyrannie Another proof against their grosse Paralogisms take from this observation made by Demosthenes Tyrannus res est inimica Civibus legibus contraria But King Richard was ever indulgent to his people careful to have the Laws duely observed his making so many good ones being an evident argument of his love to Law and Justice It is further observed that Tyrants contemn good counsel are opinionated of their own wisedoms and obstinate to determine all matters by themselves These Plaintiffs being called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is self-Councellors who say they are natura plerumque occulti insidiosi Arte Astu ea Tagere dissimulare conantur quae agunt non communicantes quicquid de suis Conciliis aut rebus cum aliis nec ab aliis Concilium petentes neque admittentes sed tantum sua Concilia sequuntur Also Erasmus hath this Axiome Nullo Concilio quicquam magnae rei aggredi tyrannicum est But King Richard nor did nor would do any thing of importance without consultation with the wisest and noblest And if in any matters he had delivered his judgement yet his manner as his detractors confesse was to say in the end and conclusion My Lords this is my minde if any of you know what may else be better I shall be ready to change it for I am not wedded to my own will Thus Sir Thomas Moor. Eastly Largition and excessive expences are thought vices proper to Tyrants the rather because the Romane Tyrants for their extreme excesses were called Monstra prodigia lues Imperii pesâ—es reipublicae c. As Caligula Nero Vitellius Domitian Commodus Heliogabolus Caracalla c. King Kichard was ever held to be frugal with the preservation of his honour nor can they tax him with Palliardise Luxury Epicurism nor Gluttony vices following many Tyrants but moderate and temperate in all his actions and appetites which is confessed and therefore needeth no further proof Indeed it had been advantage and safety to him in the event if he had been a Tyrant a while for then he might have preserved his life and kingdom and given a timely check to the practice of Bishop Morton the Marquesse Dorset Earl of Devon and his brother the Bishop the Lord Talbot the Lord Stanley and his brother Sir William Stanley with the Countesse of Richmond his wife and the rest But his remisnesse and patience bred his ruine not his tyranny that had been his protection And now the black curtain of malice and detraction is drawn let us see this King in his proper Royalty and vertues casting up the general and particular notions of A good King and happie Government then peruse what was wanting in him First then There is necessarily required proper to Empire Wisedom Justice Fortitude Beauty Magnificence Temperance and Piety That he had Wisedom and Prudence need no other witnesse then his wise and provident managing both of his own private affairs and Government of the Publike Also in the Military actions in which he was tried both as a Subject and a King his adversaries can allow him to be a wise prudent politick and heroical Prince his Wisedom appearing with his Justice very clearly in the good Laws he made acknowledged and honourably predicated by our Reverend and most learned Professors of the Laws For his further knowledge and love of Justice there can be no fairer argument then his desire and custome to sit in Courts of Justice hearing and distributing Justice indifferently to all men And when he made his Progresse into York-shire being informed there of some extortioners and foul offenders who were apprehended not tried he caused the Law to take the just current giving strict charge and commandment to all Officers of Justice for just administration to all men without partiality or private respects The Fortitude and Magnanimity of this Prince though of lowe stature were so great and famous as they need no Trumpet or Praecony being bred from his youth in Martial actions and the Battels of Barnet Exham Doncaster the second of S t Albans and of Tewksbury will give him the reputation of a Souldier and Captain Being made General of the Kings Armies into Scotland he prevailed happily in his Expedition and particularly recovered that famous and strong Hold of Berwick which King Henry the Sixth had so weakly let go And in this you shall hear the Elogie of one that was loth to speak much in his favour yet occasion forced him to speak his knowledge though coldly and sparingly King Richard was no ill Captain in the War he had sundry Victories and sometimes Overthrows but never by his own default for want of hardinesse or politick order Whereunto he addeth concerning his Bounty Free was he called of dispence and liberal somewhat above his power To which I will adde one Elogie more above all for Credit and Authority recorded in an Act of Parliament and addressed to him in the name of the whole high Court of Parliament in these words We consider your great Wit Prudence Iustice and Courage and we know by experience the memorable and laudable acts done by you in several Battels for the salvation and defence of this Realm Here followeth another general and memorable testimony of him and of more regard and honour because it is averred by one that knew him from his youth the Duke of Buckingham who after Richard was made King and this Duke became ill affected acknowledged to Bishop Morton in private speeches between them That he thought King Richard from his first knowledge even
vires Major in exiguo regnabat corpore virtus In te enim sunt rei militaris virtus peritia foelicitas autoritas quae omnia in optimo exercitus principe Cicero requirit In te Serenissime Princeps praeclari Regis Imperatoris praecepta it a concurrunt ut nihil ad tuam Bellicam aut domesticam virtutem cujusquam oratoris verbis apponi possit Tu igitur Serenissime Domine Princeps de ineunda inter te nostrum Principem charitate amicitia sic age ut Angli Scoti dilectionis respectu nullum penitus discrimen habeatur sed in unum amoris benevolentiae vinculum videantur esse connexi sic numerabiles commoditates ex tui nostri populi dilectione dulci connubio unione Matrimonio Affinitate consurgent In freta dum fluvii current dum montibus umbrae Lustrabunt connexa polus dum sidera pascet Dum juga montis aper fluvios dum piscis amabit Dumque Thymo pascentur apes dum rore cicadae Semper honos nomenque tuum laudesque manebunt But what is this or more to malice and detraction that haunt him to his death and after that making the Catastrophe or last Tragical act of his life at Bosworth-field an immediate stroke of the divine vengeance for such offences as they please to particular from women or superstitious Clerks whose natures startle at the noise of War and Martial trial to whose fears and weaknesse such reasons would sound tolerable But if Bishop Morton and Sir Thomas Moor although they were men of the long Robe had considered with whom they conversed and where they most lived how could they forget That to die valiantly in the field for Countrey life and friends was always held a glorious farewel to the world or what infinite numbers of vertuous and most noble Captains have fallen so by the Sword and fate of War Lampridius affirmeth that all the best men have died violent deaths and what higher Quarrel could call any Heroical spirit then King Richard's fighting for a Crown kingdom and all his happie Fortunes here God hath many times taken away Princes and changed the Government of kingdoms for the iniquities of the people why then should not King Richard's fate be held in a modest Scale until we can better know or judge it Nor can it be safe to enquire or peremptorily to determine further after Gods proceedings in such cases He that owes him no malice things looked upon thorow judgement and charity may with more justice say he died valiantly and in a just quarrel when many of his enemies fell by deaths more vile and shameful Executions But he that hath but a reasonable pittance of Humanity will censure no mans life by the manner of his death for many good and holy men have suffered by violent deaths though it be this Princes fortune to fall under the ill affections of envious pens more then many that committed more publike and proved crimes then he which wanted much of his vertues and desert Examine him with Henry the First the good Clerk and learned Prince but so covetous and ambitious that he could not be content to usurp in this Kingdom the Right and Primogeniture of his elder brother Robert Courthose but by force took the Dukedom of Normandy from him and to make his injuries more exact and monstrous cast him into the Castle of Gloucester there kept him in cruel durance and caused his eyes to be put out so wearied him to most miserable death King Iohn by the general voice is charged with the murder of Arthur Plantagenet the son of his eldest brother and so the next Prince in right of blood to King Richard the First And it is written by good Authors that Edward the Third was not onely privie and consenting to the deposing the King his father a King anointed but also to his Massacre And because Edward Plantagenet Earl of Kent Protector and his Uncle moved him to restore the Crown to his father Edward the Second he called him Traitor and cut off his head at Westminster How King Henry the Fourth caused King Richard the Second the true and anointed King to be cruelly butchered at Pomfret is too notorious and this was Scelera sceleribus tueri King Edward the Fourth is accused of the murder and death of the King Saint Henry and of Edward Prince of Wales his son Ut supra King Henry the Seventh although amongst the best Kings in his general character is not thought guiltlesse of that Crimen sacrum vel regale in cutting off Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick an innocent Edwardum filium Ducis Clarenciae puerum infantem in suam suorum securitatem capite plexit And to secure his Estate had more then learnt other smart rules of Policie That reach of State upon Philip of Austrich Duke of Burgundy King of Castile and Arragon is not the least memorable This Prince Philip was by crosse Fortune put into the Kings hands purposing out of Flanders to go into Spain with the Queen his wife took shipping at Sluce and passing by the coasts of England was by a tempest forced for his safety to put into the Port of Weymouth in Dorset-shire the Queen being ill and distempered much with the storm was compelled to make some stay there Sir Iohn Carew and Sir Thomas Trenchard principal men in those parts gave speedy intelligence of this to the King who was glad of the accident and purposed to make good use of it as speedily returning his command to give them all honourable entertainment but not suffer them to depart until he had seen and saluted them The Duke ignorant of this as soon as the Queen and the rest had recover'd and refresht themselves thought he was onely to give those Knights thanks and take his leave which they by way of courtesie and request interpose in behalf of the Kings vehement desire to salute him and the Queen a motion the Duke much prest to be excused from as the necessity of his journey stood but the intreaty was so imperious he must stay and alter his journey for Windsor to meet the King who received him there in a magnificent manner and at the height of a Feast propounds a suit to the Duke for Edmund de la Pool then in his Dominions a pretender to the Crown of England and not so soundly affected to him a suit of a harsh exposition as the Duke apprehended it and to the blemish of his honour and piety as he nobly urged but no argument had vertue nor no vertue argument enough to excuse it the King must have him or the Duke must stay Cast upon this extreme and foreseeing what disadvantages were upon him some honourable conditions granted that he should neither lay punishment nor death upon him he gave his promise to send him and the King strictly and religiously bound himself to the exceptions
The Duke accordingly sent this de la Pool into England who upon his arrival was delivered to the Tower but his life not toucht until the King lay a dying then he equivocated his Vow by a Mental Reservation enjoyning his son after his death to cut off his head which was done when he came to be King and was held some taint to them both though the son held himself acquit warranted by the example of King Solomon who was made the instrument of such another subtil slaughter by his father David that thought he kept himself by equivocation examples not to be imitated by any Christian Prince being a sin and sins are to be avoided not imitated The eldest brother of these de la Pools Iohn de la Pool heir to the Duke of Suffolk and Head of this Family was slain casually at the Battel of Stoke and is he who as neerest kinsman to King Richard the Third was proclaimed heir apparant The sister of these Princely de la Pools the Lady Katherine was kept close prisoner in the Tower until grief and sorrow bowed her to the grave Nor is it much from our purpose to note that the chief Plantagenets namely the children of King Edward the Fourth had but cold influences then for the Lady Bridget was thrust into a Nunnery at Dartford chiefly as it was thought that she should live sterile and die without issue The Lady Cecily was married to a base fellow that so her issue might be ignoble and contemptible the wrong being the greater in regard she was offered Matches to her quality the King of Scotland propounding Prince Iames unto her and the French King Lewis demanded her for the Dolphin Charles of France It was observed too that this King was but an unkinde and severe husband to his Queen indeed they had all but short lives and our Stories report he picked a quarrel with the Queen-Dowager-Mother for an old and venial errour because she delivered her son Richard to the Protector for which there was a Confiscation upon all her Goods Chattels and Revenues and she confined to Bermondsey Abbey where she lived not long care and grief untwisting the threed of her sad fate And when death had seized him from all the glories and policies of this world his son succeeds and then Residuum Locustae Bruchus comedit residuum Bruchi comedit Rubigo for what remained of the House of York he gave the last blowe to and after the dispatch of the aforesaid Edmund de la Pool caused the Lady Margaret Plantagenet Countesse of Salisbury then daughter and heir of George Duke of Clarence to be attainted of Treason by Act of Parliament and condemned unheard being dragged to the Block barbarously by the hair of her head though above Threescore yeers in age Anno 33 Henr. 8. Not long after Sir Henry Pool her eldest son was put to death and her son Reynold Pool was attainted of Treason with her no man knowing what the Treason was but got suddenly out of the Kingdom into Italy where he became much favoured by the Princes there and by the Popes afterward made Cardinal and highly renowned in those times for his Learning Piety and other noble merits Richard Pool another son of the Countesse of Salisbury fled and lived a banished man in forraign Countreys yet at the height of a good reputation until he was slain at the Battel of Pavia These be sad pauses which my Pen but touches at to note the Partiality of some on one side and the malignity of some on the other side who have made King Richard the worst of all Princes when other of our own have had as great an appetite of Empire whose fames and sacred names we gratulate with honour Nor let my just and plain meaning be mistaken which urges nothing in dislike or exprobation that King Henry the Seventh had the Crown whom our age must acknowledge a wise provident and religious Prince The restorer of the ancient Line of the British Kings to their Raign and Kingdom Nephew of King Henry the Sixth by his Grandmother Queen Katherine widow of King Henry the Fifth and mother of King Henry the Sixth and of his brother Uterine Edmund Teudor Earl of Richmond the father of this King Henry the Seventh and so he was Nephew also to Charles the Seventh King of France I onely conceive he took it by too violent a hand not staying tempus bene placiti And here I may fitly take occasion to make up a Defect or Brack covertly imputed to the Titles of the Normans and Princes of York by our vulgar Historians and Chroniclers And first we are to suppose If there be it grew by the errour of King Edwards Marriage by which they hold that Title was weakned at the least blemished but that could have no continuance being made sound again as soon as King Richard came to raign and after cured and confirmed by the mighty power of sundry Parliaments by which it was made as strong and firm as ever besides the aid of the Dispensations Apostolical in those times sacred and authentick And without that if need were our King now raigning hath other Royal Rights more then funiculusi Triplex some more ancient authentick and just therefore more secured and of more prosperous hopes then that Norman Title which was a violent acquest of the Sword and a purchase made by blood so consequently none of the best which was well conceived by that great Macedon when he said Non est diuturna possessio in quam gladio inducimus Neither would it avail in this behalf to cite or avouch the Donation of this Kingdom which the Confessor is said to have made to William the Conquerour being to no purpose because that gift or Legacy was disclaimed and disallowed by the Barons of this Land and found to be void Yet time now and prescription have also made that Title good for prescription hath power to ratifie and confirm the Titles both of Princes and of private men But our King is the immediate and sole lawful Heir of King Egbert who first gave the name of England to this Land and was absolute Lord of it from him by the glorious Kings Edgar Edmund Athelstan Alfred and many others as well Saxons and Angles as Anglo-Saxons the Right and Title of this Kingdom is duely descended and devolved to Edmund Ironside King of England who was father to the most Noble Clyto Edward sirnamed Exul whose fair daughter and heir a religious Lady the Princesse Margaret of England was married to Malcom Canmoire King of Scotland from which ancient and happie Alliance the King our Soveraign Lord is directly and certainly descended and is the true and onely Heir to the Rights and Titles which were without flaw so the most ancient and famous Title and Right of the first Kings of Britain are in him being the next Heir of our last British King Henry Teudor wose Genealogie I have seen derived from the antique Kings of Britain and from divers other British Princes And
Principatus Princeps The Charter of H. 4 for entayling the Crowne This Charter I saw in the hands of Sir Rob. Cotton from it tooke these Summary notes The Noblenes and Family of H. E. of Rich. Glover 1413. Poli l. lib. 25. So King R. 2. called Iohn of Gaunt Avunculum nostrum Rec. in Tower But that was the fault of the barbarous Latine Clerks not knowing the difference between patruos avunculos In his Booke Le Recuerl des Ranges c. Part 2. Philip Plant. Lyonel Plant. D. of Clarence Pe. Henterus Ioh. Megerus Ariost. cant 19. Fra. Goodwin in Catalogo Episcoporuâ— Iohn Stow. Qu. Elizabeth â—raâ— li. 2. Cap. 16. King H. 7. only affected the Title de jure Belli Seneâ— An. Dom. 1 486. An. Dom. 1490. I have seene this Bull in the Cabinet of Sir Rob. Cotton The Popes Charter for the Title of Lancast. Eâ— de jure Belli c. for the dispensing with the Kings incestuous marriage The second invasion of the E. of Rich. Comines pag. 536. Leicest inquit Rex Richarduâ— cuâ— maxima Pompa portanâ— dâ—adema in capiâ—e Chron. Croy. Why K. Rich. wore the Crowne at Bosworth Chron. Croy. S. Wil. Brandon Father to Charles Brandon afterward Duke of Suff. Ovid. trâ—st l. 2. Eâ—eg 5. Dr Iohn Hird in Hist. Angl. Mathew Paris Henry â—untington Henry of Richmond Crowned in the Feild The Challeng of the 5 King of Scots to The. Duke of Norfolke Princes go not to Campe. Cruelties done to the body of King Richard Noble persons attainted by Parliament Sir Tho. Moor. Parliament ann 1. H. 7. The Duke of Norfolk slain by the Earl of Oxenford The Earle of Surrey escapeth at Bosworth Scots 〈◊〉 thrown by the E. of Surrey Iugulsus Lib. Eliensis The honour of Bastards Homer Livy Sir Charles Howard Camden in Octad Camdâ—n Octa. Lodow. Guicci du Paes Baess The Ancientry of Buck. M. Paris M. Westminst Redulphus de Câ—geshall Tho. Walsing Erasmus in Chiliad Terentius in Adelph * This Booke was lately in the hands of Mr. Roper of Eltham as Sir Edward Hoby who saw it told me Herodotus * He wrote many Poems and Epigrams sundry petty Comedies and Entâ—rludes often times personating with the Act ors as his so ving and familiar friend â— rasmus reports Brixius Antimore Ioan. Baleus de scriptoribuâ— Brit. â—ent â—8 cap. 69. Richard Grafton saith he died mocking and scoffing as he lived Courinus In scrinijs div Ro Cotton Terent. Phorm Iliad 20. The virtues of King Richard malitiously censured Cicero de Ossic. lib. 1â— * Pliny Livy valel Maximus Plutarch This Dutchesse of Yorke died about the 1â— of King Hen. 7. at Berkhamsted and was buried at Totheringam Iohn Stow. Seneca King Richard not deformed Rot. in an 2 R. 2. Sir Thomas Moor apud Harliâ—gton Doctor Shaw Socrates AEâ—opus Epictetus Galâ—a a great and excellent Captain of the Romans all of deformed stature Chron. Croyland Idem Croyland Anonymuâ— M. S. Rex Hen. 6. in custodia ut alij referunt gladâ—o alij meâ—ore deperijt Ioan Majerus Annall Flandr lib. 17. The slaughter of the Prince sonnâ— of H. 6. Polidor Virgil. lib. 24. Chron in quarto M. S. apud Dom. Regis Rob. Cotton Anna. uxoâ— Ed. filij reg H. 6. capta est cum marito Ioan. Majerus in Annal Fland. l. 17. Richard not guilty of the Duke of Clarence Polidor Virgil. â—rrour of Dr. Shaw That the Duke of Gloucester raised not the slander against the Dutchesse his Mother nor of his Brothers basterdy * Anno. 10. Edward 4. a Lib. M. S. in quarto apud Dom. Rob. Cotton b Chronicle Croyland c Loyalty bindeth men Father allie Quod vulgo corrupte Father in law dicitur In Parliament anno 17. Ed. 4. Iu. Stow. vidit legit Erasmus Câ—iliad Ioan de Seâ—res Invent. Who made away the sonnes of King Edward the fourth Poodir Virgill l. 2. 6. Dr. Morton Sir Tho. Moore Prior Croy. land Moore Hallingshed Graston Hall Stow. Dion Tacitus Sâ—eionius Counterfeit Princes It s written by some of the old Historians that King Harold was not shine at the Battaile of Hastings by the Conquerer but that he survived went to Ierusalem c. But it not importeth whether He were the true Harold or Pseudo Harold because he never came to claime any thing in England The practice of Hen. 7. with the Duke of Burgondy The meanes used by Hen. 7. to prevent the practises of Perkin in Ireland This Lady was so rarely faire and lovely that King H. 7 wondred at her beauty and was inamored of her sending her to London to be safely kept till his returne out of the West Countries where he theu was and first saw her The practice of H. 7. to the King of Scots and of Castile â—o get or supplant Perkins Don Pedro Aylau Hall in H. 7. Perkins Entertainment in the Court. * Raâ—k The force and mischiefe of Torture August in Civitate Dei The French â—all torture la Gehenne Yorke and Warwick paralels Of escape The French word escape is to seeke to be free and the French men translâ—â—e escape in to the Latine Salvus Escape what Just Stanford in pleas de la Corone lib. 1. cap. 26 27. Whether Don Sebastian of Portugall were a Counterfeit or not 162. Hiâ— legatus haec Domino Baroni Darcey retulit Edward 2. and Edward 3. Moor Hollinsh Stow Gainssord Moor Hollinsh Stow Grafton Gainsford Hal. Idem Autor a He was the Noble â—rogenitor of the Earles of York Hollinshed Grafton Hall Stow. Iohn Morton Thomas Moor. Grafton Mr. William Cambden Some think he dyed unnaturally Publike sword Private sword The arts of treachery Reasons why King Richard should not destroy his Nephewes Other great â—ones pâ—ivy to the deaths of those Princes especially of King â—â—â—â—â—â—ds Sons Ausonius Ennius apud Ci ceronem offic lib. 2. Sir Tho. Moor. Edward Hall Ralph Hâ—llinshead Iohn Stow c. The Earle of Oxen persecutor of Perkin a This Earle Iohn died Anno 4. H. 8. 1512 Dominâ—s de Arundell viva voâ—e b I may call it a stately Erledome for the Earle of Oxenford when he came to the possession of it was offered by some 12000 pounds per Annum and leave to his occupation all Man nors Houses Castles Parks Woods Forrests all the Demesn lands thereto belonging which might be more worth by yearly value then many Erldoms in this age c The Mathematicians that calculated the Nativitie of this Earle Edward told the Earle his Father that the Earledome would fall in his Sons time d Bastards of King Richard Grafton Chron. M. S. in quarto apud Dn. Rob. Cotton e Why the pub lique justice deferred the death of the Princes Dâ—mones Gâ—nij Plutaâ—â—â— in Anton. Philostrat in vita Appollon Vopiscus in Aureliano Angels good and bad Terentius in Phormio How extreme his desires ' were you may see in the Speech of the Duke of Buckingham set down by Sir Thomas Moor. Philip
against the Sonnes of King Edward And therefore being certaine there is no man to whom the Crowne by just Title can be so due as to our selfe the rightfull Sonne and Heire of our most deare and Princely Father Richard Duke of Yorke to which Title of blood and nature your favours have joyned this of Election wherein wee hold our selfe to be most strong and safe And having the lawfull power of both why should I endure my professed Enemy to â—surpemy right and become a Vassall to my envious Subject The necessitie of these causes as admitting no other remedy urges me to accept your offer and according to your request and our owne right we here assume the Regall Praeheminence of the two Kingdoms England and France from this day forward by us and our heires to Govern and defend the one and by Gods grace and your good aydes to recover and establish the other to the Ancient Allegeance of England desiring of God to live no longer then wee intend and endeavour the advancement and flourishing Estate of this Kingdome at which they all cry'd God save King Richard And thus he became King But yet his Detractors stick not to slander and accuse all that was said or done in these proceedings of State for meer dissimulation by which justice they may as well censure At siâ— Reverentia dictum all the Barons worthy and grave Commons which had their Votes therein which would fall a most impudent and intolerable Scandall upon all the High Court of Parliament for in short time after all that was alledged and acted in that Treatie and Colloquy was approved and ratified by the Court of Parliament so that their Cavills onely discover an extreame malice and envy For it was not possible therefore not credible he could upon such an instant as it were by any practice attaine to that power and credit with all the Barons Spirituall and Temporall and Commons to procure and perswade them from the Sonnes of King Edward so unanimously to become his Subjects and put the Crowne upon his head with such Solemnitie and publicke Ceremonies Whilst those matters had their current the Northerne Gentlemen and his Southerne Friends joyned in a Bill Supplicatory to the Lords Spirituall and Temporall earnestly expressing their desires for the Election of the Lord Protector with the former causes urged Also that the blood of the young Earle of Warwicke was attainted and his Title confiscate by Parliament This Bill was delivered to the Lords Assembled in the great hall at Westminster the Lord Protector sitting in the Chaire of Marble amongst them upon the 26 of June some six or seven dayes after he was Proclaimed the tenor of the Bill was thus written in the Chronicle of the Abbey of Croyland PRotector eodem die quo Regimen sub titulo regii nominis sibi vendicarit viz 26 o die Iunii Anno Dom. 1483. se apud Magnam Aulam Westmonasterii in Cathedram Marmoream Immisit tum mox omnibus proceribus tam Laicis quam Ecclesiasticis Caeteris assidentibus astantibus c. ostendebatur rotulus quidam in quo per modum supplicationis in nomine procerum populi Borealis exhibita sunt Primum quod silii Regis Edwardi erant Bastardi supponendo illum praecontraxisse matrimonium cum quadam Domina Elianora Boteler antequam Reginam Elizabetham duxisset in uxorem deinde quod sanguis alterius Fratris Georgii Scil Clarensiâ— ducis fuisset Attinctus Ita quod nullus certus incorruptus sanguis Linealis ex parte Richardi Ducis Eboraci poterat inveniri nisi in persona Richardi Protectoris Ducis Glocestriae jam eidem Duci suplicabant ut jus suum in Regno Angliae sibi assumeret Coronam acciperet But the Barons were all accorded before this Bill came both sides moving with an equall and contented forwardnesse And in July next following 1483. was Crown'd and receiv'd with as generall Magnificence and Acclamations as any King in England many years before For as a grave man writeth Fuit dignissimus regno c. non inter malos sed bonos principes Commemorandus That he was most worthy to Reigne and to be numbred amongst the good not bad Princes The Queene his Wife was Crowned with him and with no lesse State and Greatnesse Accompanied him from the Tower to Westminster having in their Traine besides the Nobilitie of the South parts foure thousand Gentlemen of the North. Upon the 19. of June 1483. in the 25. yeare of Lewis the French King he was named King of England the morrow Proclaimed and rode with great Solemnitie from London to Westminster where in the seat Royall he gave the Judges of the Land a strickt and religious charge for the just executing of the Lawes then departed towards the Abbey being met at the Church doore with Procession and the Scepter of King Edward delivered to him by the Abbot so Ascended to Saint Edwards Shrine where he offered the Monks in the meane time singing Te Deum From thence he return'd to the Palace where he lodged untill his Coronation Upon the fourth of July he went to the Tower by water with the Queene his Wife and the next day Created Edward his onely Son about ten yeares old Prince of Wales He Invested Sir Iohn Howard who was made Lord Howard and Knight of the Garter 17. Edward 4. in the Dukedome of Norffolke in a favourable admission of the right of the Lady Margaret his Mother Daughter of Sir Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norffolke and an heire generall of the Mowbrayes Dukes of Norffolke and Earles of Surrey descended from the Lord Tho. Plantagenet of Brotherton a younger Sonne of King Edward the first and Earle of Norffolke This King also made him Marshall and Admirall of England he was as rightfully Lord Mowbray Lord Segrave Lord Bruce as Lord Howard as I have seene him Stiled by Royall Warrant in a Commission for Treatie of Truce with Scotland His eldest Sonne Sir Thomas Howard was at the same time Created Earle of Surrey and made Knight of the Garter Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was made Constable of England for terme of life but he claimed the Office by inheritance Sir Thomas Moore writes That Sir Thomas Howard Executed the Office of Constable that day William Lord Berkley was Created Earle of Nottingham Francis Lovel Viscount Lovel and Chamberlain to the King the Lord Stanley restor'd to liberty and made Steward of the Household Thomas Rotheram Chancellour and Arch-Bishop of Canterbury having beene committed for delivering the Great Seale to the Queene Widow receiv'd to grace and many Knights Addubbed of the old Order and some of the new or habit of the Bath whose names I have set downe to shew what regard was had of their Family and in those times accused of so much Malignity Sir Edward De-la-Poole Sonne to the Duke of Norfolke George Gray Sonne to the Earle of Kent William Souch Sonne to the
Lord Souch Henry Nevil Sonne to the Lord Abergaveny Christopher Willowby Henry Bainton Thomas Bullen William Say William Enderby Thomas of Vernon William Barkley Thomas Arundel Gervoise of Clifton Edmond Beddingfield Tho. Leukenor Iohn Browne William Berkley i. Another Berkley The fift day of July he rode from the Tower through the City in Pompe with his Sonne the Prince of Wales three Dukes and nine Earles twentie two Viscounts and simple Barons eighty Knights Esquires and Gentlemen not to be numbred besides great Officers of the Crowne which had speciall service to doe But the Duke of Buckingham carried the Splendour of that dayes Bravery his habit and Caparisons of blew Velvet imbroidered with golden Naves of Carts burning the trappings supported by Foot-men habited costly and sutable On the morrow being the sixt of July all the Prelates Miter'd in their Pontificalibus receiv'd him at Westminster-Hall towards the Chappell the Bishop of Rochester bare the Crosse before him the Cardinall and the Earle of Huntington followed with a pair of guilt Spurres and the Earle of Bedford with Saint Edwards Staffe for a Relique After the Precession the Earle of Northumberland beares a poyntlesse Sword naked the Lord Stanley the Mace of the Constableship but waited not for Constable the Earle of Kent bare the second Sword naked with a poynt upon the right hand of the King the Viscount Lovel another Sword on the Kings left hand with a poynt Next came the Duke of Suffolke with the Scepter the Earl of Lincoln with the Ball and Crosse then the Earle of Surry with the Sword of State in a rich Scabbard in place of the Constable of England the Duke of Norfolke on his right hand with the Crowne After him immediately the King in a SurCoat and Robe of Purple the Canopy borne by the Barons of the five Ports the King betweene the Bishop of Bath and Durham the Duke of Buckingham bearing up his Traine and served with a white Staffe for Seneshall or High Steward of England In the Front of the Queenes Traine the Earle of Huntington bare the Scepter Viscount Liste the Rod with the Dove the Earle of Wiltshire her Crowne and next to him followed the Queene her selfe in Robes like the King betweene two Bishops the Canopy borne by Barons of the Ports upon her head a Coronet set with precious Stones the Lady Margaret Somerset Countesse of Richmond carried up her Traine followed by the Dutchesse of Suffolke with many Countesses Baronesses and other Ladies In this manner the whole Procession passed through the Palace and entred the West doore of the Abbey the King and Queene taking their seats of State stayed untill divers holy Hymnes were sung then ascended to the high Altar shifting their Robes and putting on other open and voyded in sundry places for their Anoynting which done they tooke other Robes of Cloth of Gold so teturned to their seats where the Cardinall of Canterbury and the other Bishops Crowned them the Prelate putting the Scepter in the left hand of the King the Ball and Crosse in his right and the Queenes Scepter in her right hand and the Rod with the Dove in her left on each hand of the King stood a Duke before him the Earle of Surrey with the Sword as aforesaid on each hand of the Queene stood a Bishop by them a Lady kneeling the Cardinall said Masse and gave the Pax then the King and Queene descending were both housâ—ed with one host parted betweene them at the high Altar This done they offered at Saint Edwards Shrine where the King layd downe Saint Edwards Crowne put on another so returned to Westminster-Hal in the same State they came there dispersed and retired themselves for a season In which interim came the Duke of Norfolke Marshall of England mounted upon a brave Horse trapped with Cloth of Gold downe to the ground to submove the presse of people and void the Hall About foure of the clocke the King and Queene sat to Dinner the King at the middle Table of the Hall and the Queene on his left hand on each side a Countesse attending her holding a Cloth of Plaisance or rather of Essuyance for her Cup On the Kings right hand sate the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all the Ladies were placed on one side of a long Table in the middle of the hall against them at another Table the Lord Chancellour and all the Nobles at a Table next to the Cup-board the Lord Maior of London and the Aldermen Behind the Barons of the Kingdome sate the Barons of the Ports there were other Tables for persons of qualitie After all were seated came the Lord Marshall againe the Earle of Surrey Constable Pro illa vice tantum the Lord Stanley Lord Steward Sir William Hopton Treasurer of the Houshold and Sir Thomas Piercy Controler they served the Kings boord with one dish of Gold and another of Silver The Queene was served all in guilt Vessells and the Cardinall Arch-Bishop in Silver Dishes As soone as the second course was served in Sir Robert Dimock the Kings Champion makes Proclamation That whosoever would say King Richard the third was not lawfully King he would fight with him at all gutterance and for gage thereof threw downe his Gauntler then all the people cryed King Richard God save King Richard And this he acted in three severall parts of the Hall then an Officer of the Cellar brought him a guilded Bowle with Wine which he dranke and carries the Cup away as his ancient Fee After that the Heralds cryed Largesse thrice and returned to the Scaffold Lastly came the Maior of London with the Sheriffs with a Voyder serving the King and Queene with sweet Wines who had each of them a covered Cup of Gold for reward By which time the day began to give way to the night the King and Queene departing to their Lodgings And this is a briefe and true Relation of his Coronation testified by all the best Writers and Chroniclers of our Stories publicke and allowed which may confute the boldnesse of that slander that sayes he was not rightfully and Authentically Crowned but obscurely and indirectly crept in at the Window But all times have Detractors and all Courts their Parasits and many that have admired Princes to their graves even there have turn'd from them with ingratitude and murmur Soone after this the King dismissed and sent home all the Lords Spirituall and Temporall with a straight charge and direction to them the Judges of Oyer and Terminer with all other Magistrates and Officers in generall and particular for the Equitable and just Government of their Jurisdictions and Circuits And it is observed those times were under as happy an expectation of Law and Justice as those either before or after more flatter'd which Iohn Hide a Learned man and Doctor of Physick implyes in a Manuscript Poesy of his Solio juris rectique Minister Ille sedens alto tali sermone profatur Moses
Ships some to the Coasts of Brittaine but the Earle himselfe to the Coasts of Normandy And this was the successe of his first invasion which though it bore an inauspicate face it proved of a friendly event For had he landed about Poole or but stayed till the Kings Ships had come in that lay waiting not far off he had been a lost man every way the King being not only active to meet their contrivements but had some advantage upon them by the close intelligence of a friend and knew that the Forces of the Duke of Buckingham with the Earle of Devon and others were to meet neare Gloucester and march in their full and united strength towards the sea-Coasts of Dorset there to receive the Earle But the King encountred with the Duke of Buckinghams Army beate him and cut off his head before any of the rest could come at him daily putting the ordinary bands of these West Countries in a ready posture for guard of their Coasts and that if the Earle of Richmond or any of his French Forces came a shore they were to be entertained courteously by them pretending themselves of the Duke of Buckinghams Army who had routed the Kings Party and were sent thither to receive and conduct the Earle with his men to London This was the projected end But it is of remarkeable note to look into the various paths of this Earles fortune and how they brought him to his journies end when they appeared most doubtfull and threatning not only gave him advantage by the good successe of his Enterprises but made the most adverse accidents serve as prosperous unto them for was it not happy the storme at Poole drove him from the Coasts of England and no lesse fortunate that the Duke of Buckingham was defeated whereas had the Duke atcheived that day the Earle of Richmond not being there who was to be present in person and Generall of the field we may with reason conjecture his Emulation and Policy would have accumulated the honour and fortune of the Conquest to his owne pretended Title such Spirits like the Sea where they intrude or win making their advantage their right and not easily surrender so much is the engagements of Ambition too strong for all ties of faith and right The example is observable in the Earle of Richmond himselfe who although he knew the Children of the Duke of Clarence and others had better right to the Crowne yet once possest would not resigne no not to his owne Sonne whilst he could hold it nor did he want his Presidents as all men know who know any thing And to take all Relations in our way that may be levell with our Story betwixt this and his second Invasion some other passages offer themselves as an interim and not impertinent to supply the Readers observation Amongst other the Death of the Kings deare and only Sonne at least Legitimate who dyed in the Castle of Middleham in Yorkeshire in the Month of Aprill Anno Dom. 1484 which newes gave such a passionate Charge upon the Nature and Affections of the King and Queene being then in the Castle of Nottingham that as mine Author saith Subitis doloribus insanire videbantur Yet the King being a man of an equall moderation to his courage puts it into the Scale of his other worldly encounters and as it was said of Iulius Caesar that he soone passed the death of his only daughter Iulia most pretious in his affection Et tam facile dolorem hunc quam omnia vicit So King Richard tempered his griefe and businesse so together that the one made him not unsensible nor the other negligent but as the Prior of Croyland telleth did all things gravely and discreetly as before Rex Richardus nihilominus tamen suam partem defensione vacaverit although the Queene could not hold so proportioned a temper over her griefe the tendernesse of her Sexe letting it breake upon her in a more passionate manner and with such an Impression that it became her sickenesse past recovery languishing in weaknesse and extremity of sorrow untill she seemed rather to overtake death than death her which was not long after the Princes and added not a little to the Kings sufferings and sorrowes though traducing Spirits have charged him with shortning her life by poyson or some other practice which are prestigious and blacke Comments falsly plac't in the Margent of his Story and may mere nearely touch the credit of the Authors than his if we judiciously take a view of him and his Actions and looke upon the indulgent and active care for his Country which he gave a constant and sincere expression of instantly after his Sonnes death when by the deliberation and consent of the Barons he was industrious to thinke of a Successour and to nominate such an one whose bloud and worth might make him equally Heire to the Crown and the peoples affection with the highest approbation of the Kingdome and none more neare to either then Sir Iohn de la Poole Earle of Lincolne Sonne and Heire of Iohn de la Poole Duke of Suffolke and of the Lady Elizabeth Plantagenet Duchesse of Suffolke the Sister and Heire of this King Richard who was declared and proclaimed Heire apparant to the Kingdome This was a Contrecarre to the Faction of Richmond and indeed what greater affront could thwart them if those of the House of Lancaster or Beaufort were next Heire to the Crowne as the pretenders affirmed for the Earle of Richmond who would likewise have him to be Caput gentis Lancastriae Princeps familiae though they could scarcely prove him not without question I am sure Membrum illius familiae untill he came to be King for it was a question in those times and much disputed whether the Beauforts or Sommersets were of the House of Lancaster or no most true it is the Children of the House of Lancaster being lawfully borne and after Henry Plantagenet Duke of Lancaster had Conquered and deposed Richard the Second were to be held Princes of the Bloud Royall and capable of the Crowne in their naturall and due Order But those of Beaufort or Sommerset were as the Vulgar hath it filij populi or as the Imperiall Juris-consults say liberi vulgo quesiti who by the old Greeks were termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. sine Patre the Doctors of the Spirituall Law drawing the Originem of such children ab illicito damnato coitu of the polluted adulterous bed and so those Beauforts three males and one female begotten by Iohn of Gaunt as he believed according to the Lawes were to be reputed the children of Sir Otho Swinford begotten upon Katherine his Wife in his life time who was daughter of Sir Payen Rovet a French-man dwelling in Beauforts and was Guyen Herald to the Duke of Lancaster His Dutchesse Dona Constantia a most noble and vertuous Lady daughter of Don Pedro King of Castile was living also
of their Father which was ten moneths after for King Edward dyed in April before and this is plaine in the Records of the Parliament of Anno 1. Rich. 3. where there is mention made of this Prince as then living and Sir Thomas Moore confesseth that they were living long after that time before said But I conjecture Edward the Eldest brother lived not long after but died of sicknesse and infirmity being of a weake and sickly disposition as also was his Brother which the Queene their Mother intimated in her speech to the Cardinall Boursier and the weake constitutions and short lives of their sisters may be a naturall proofe to infer it probable enough this Prince dyed in the Tower which some men of these times are the rather brought to thinke certaine bones like to the bones of a Child being found lately in a high desolate Turret supposed to be the bones of one of these Princes others are of opinion it was the â—aâ—râ—asse of an Apekept in the Tower that in his old age had happened into that place to die in and having clamber'd up thither according to the light and idle manner of those wanton Animals after when he would have gone down seeing the way to be steepe and the precipice so terrible durst not adventure to descend but for feare stayed and starved himselfe and although hee might bee soone mist and long sought for yet was not easily to be found that Turret being reckoned a vast and damned place for the hight and hard accesse no body in many yeares looking into it But it is of no great consequence to our purpose whether it were the Carcasse of a Child or of an Ape or whether this young Prince dyed in the Tower or no for wheresoever hee dyed why should it not be as probable hee dyed of a naturall sicknesse and infirmity as for his young Cozen german the sonne and heire of King Richard many reasons conducing why the qualities and kinde of their death might be the same and neere one time being even parallels almost and in their humane constitutions and corporall habitude sympathizing of one Linage and Family of one blood and age of the same quality and fortune therefore not unlikely of the same Studies Affections Passions Distemperatures so consequently subject to the same infirmities to which may be added equall and common constellations the same compatient and commorient fates and times and then there is reason and naturall cause they might both die of like Diseases and infirmity and were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 taken away by violence secret or overt for it may with asmuch Argument bee suspected the son of King Richard being in the like danger of secret violence for the same cause as his Cozen was might suffer so But to open the circumstance a little neerer what danger could the lives of those two Princes be to Richard who was accepted King by a just title and his Nephewes declared illegitimate by the high Court of Parliament and whilst they were reputed such by so great and generall a conclusion why should he be lesse secure of them then Hen. 2. was of Robert E. of Glocester base sonne to Hen. 1. or Richard the first of his base Brother Geoffrey Plantagenet So although Iohn of Gaunt left base sonnes aspiring enough yet they were of no danger to the Lancastrian Kings neither did Henry 7. or Henry 8. stand in any jealousy of Arthur Plantagenet and surely Richard the third was as valiant wise and consident as any of his predecessors and had as little cause to dread his Nephewes as they stood adjudged or be more cruell and bloudy neither hath my reading found any Bastards of France or Spaine who have aspired so publickly onely except Don Eurique E. of Trastamara who was drawne into that action by the violent rages of the people and by the perswasions of the revolted states of Castile to put downe a monster of Soveraignty the hatefull tyrant Don Pedro Cruell But being Sir Thomas Moore and our best Chroniclers make it doubtfull whether these two Princes were so lost in King Richards time or no and infer that one of them was thought to be living many years after his death that might be enough to acquit him which opinion I like the better because it mentioneth the survivance but of one of them Neither doe our most credible stories mention the transportation of more then one into Flanders nor had they reason it will bee sufficient if one of them survived him more or lesse time we will follow therefore the examination of his story under the opinion of those times and the attestation of grave and credible men because it will be more conspicuous in the true and simple narration of this one Brother every story being fraught with reports concerning him and few or none of his brother finding no mention of the Elder Bothers being in Flanders but of the youngers much and of his other adventures The prudent and honorable care of sending away this younger Brother by some is ascribed to Sr. Robert Brakenbury by others to the Queene his Mother and it may well be the projection of them both though no doubt there was the advise and assent of other well affected friends And it is the more credible the Queen wrought in it for the story of Sr. Thomas Moore saith shee was before suspected to have had such a purpose which was objected to her by some of the Lords and the Cardinall Boursier told her the maine Reason which made the Protector and Nobles so urgeing to have him sent to his Brother being then in the Tower was a suspition and feare they had shee would convey Him forth of the Realme So then it may be cleerly supposed he was sent into a forraine Country and that Flanders as all our stories testify there commended to a liberall education under the curature of a worthy Gentleman in Warbeck a Towne in Flanders but kept very privately all the life time of his Uncle his Friends not daring to make him of the councell After his death knowing Henry Richmond a cruell enemy to the house of Yorke for his better safety was committed to the care of Charles of Burgundy and his Dutchesse the Lady Margaret Aunt to the Prince as formerly the Dutchesse of Yorke upon a like cause of feare and jealousy had sent thither her two younger sons George and Richard The Dutchesse being very tender to let this young Duke have all Princely and vertuous education in Tornay in Antwerp and after in the Court of the Duke of Burgundy as hee had bin in Warbeck c. And with the greater circumspection because the Dutchesse of Burgundy had as jealous an opinion of Henry the Seventh as the Queene Widdow had of Richard 3. Therefore as yet it was advised to conceale his Name and Quality being not come to the growth nor age to have experience in his own affaires much lesse to undertake an attempt
voce Richardus eram Tutor eram Patriae Patrius pro jure Nepotis Dirupta tenui regna Britanna fide Sexaginta dies binis duntaxat ademptis AEtatesque tulitunc mea Sceptra duas Fortiter in Bello certans desertus ab Anglis Rex Henrice tibi septime succubui At sumptu pius ipse tuo sic ossa dicaras Regem olimque facis Regis honore Coli Quatuor exceptis jam tantum quinque bis annis Acta trecenta quidem lustra salutis erant Antique Septembris undena luce Kalendas Redideram rubrae jura petita Rosae At mea quisquis eris propter commissa precarem Sit Minor ut precibus poena levata tuis Deo O. M. Trino Uno sit laus gloria aeterna AMEN EPIGRAMMA In Richardos Angliae Reges ex vet lib. M. S. transcriptum TRes sunt Richardi quorum fortuna erat aequa In tribus aescariis sua cujus propria sors est Nam Concors horum finis sine posteritate Corporis atque rapax vitae modus violentus Interitus fuerat sed major gloria primi Praelia terrarum qui gesserat redeuntem Tela Balistarum feriunt apud extera regna Alter depositus regno qui carcere Clausus Mensibus extiterat certis fame velle perire Elegit potius quam famae probra videre Tertius exbausto statim amplo divitiarum Edwardi cumulo proscribens auxiliares Henrici partes post annos denique binos Suscepti regni Bello confectus eisdem Mundanam vitam tum perdidit atque Coronam Anno milleno Centum quater octuageno Adjunctis quinque cum lux Sextilis adest Vndena duplex dentes apri stupuerunt Et vindex albae Rosa Rubra refloret in orbe FINIS A Table of the Heads contained in this BOOKE A. AMbition and Covetuousnesse the cause of unnaturall fends murders and infinite other mischiefes Example pag. 5. 12 13 14. 35 36. 98 99. 104. 141. c. Ambassadour of Scotland his speech to K. Richard 3. p. 139. 140. Angell Guardian Genius p. 106. Ann de la Poole a Nun. 35. Anjou Fulke Earle of Anjou sonne of Geofrey Grisegonnelle p. 4. his purjury and murder of his Nephew Drogo ib. his pilgrimage to the holy Sepulcher his penance ib. his great and famous posterity p. 6 7. Armes of France assumed by Ed. 3. p. 47. Armes of the ancient Earles of Anjou pag. 47. Armes of bastards differenced 46. Arrogation of royall rights 45. Arts Imperij and rules of policy in auncient times not warrantable p. 14. Ancesters or Antecestoures the duty and respect we owe unto their memories p. 69. Ambitious minds easily flattered 35. a sower sweet p. 30. B. BArrons of England their great priviledge 118. Bastards what they are 44. cannot inherit p. 45. not beare their fathers name or arms 46. without speciall indulgence p. 48. Take the mothers name 46. 47. The ancient custome of England and France herein ib. Great families discended from bastards p. 66. may bee capeable of offices and dignities 48. Battell of Bosworth 60. 61. Baynard Castle London formerly Yorke house p. 20. Beauforts naturall children of Iohn of Gaunt so called from a towne in Anjou 45. not permitted to the title of Lancas ib. A charter of their legitimation 48. 49. Benevolence the meaning of that word in Edw. 4. his time 133. in Margin Barwick recovered by the English 10. Bucking an auncient famly 67. how desended c. 68. of the name ib. Buckingham Henry Stafford D. of Buck. his speech to the Lord protector 20. 22. His revolt and rebellion 34. his pretended title to the Crowne 35. retires sides with Richmond 36 his forces are scattered himselfe betrayed and beheaded 37. D. of Brittaine chose Knight of the Garter 18. C. CHarter of Henry 4. entailing the Crown to his 4. sons successively 50. Camp-fight or single combates between Princes and Generalls and grounds of it 62. Catarhe to dye of a Catarhe what it meanes in France 123. Censure and censuring 63. K. Charles our most Gracious and dear soveraigne Lord his just undoubted right his many great and auncient titles to the Imperial Crowne of England 144 145 146. Clarence G. D. of Clarence rebells against his Brother Edward 4. is taken and beheaded 82 83. Clergy pride of Popish Clergy 53. Comlinesse of personage adds a grace to vertue 42. Comes or Count two fold signification of it 8. Constable-ship of England joyned to the Earledome of Hereford 34. Vice-Constable a new and politick institution 31. A coppie of their Commission ibid. Cole Harbour London at first Heralds Office 138. Conquerour and Conquest Licentious power of it 54 55. Titles by conquest not safe nor lasting 144. distasted of the people as tyranicall 54. Covetuonsness roote of all evill 5. c. as in Ambition Councel and Councellers 51 52. 55. 103 Counterfeit princes many examples p. 89. Cowardice Insolence over a conquered enemy a note of it 61. Crowne little pleasure in it 21. D. DEath the best men have dyed violent deaths 140. To dye in battell a glorious death ibid. Wee must not a mans life by the manner of his death 141. Decree of God not to be prevented 63. Deformity of body no blemish to vertue 80. Desires unlawfull alwaies unsatiable 5. 116. Detraction v. Slander Dimock Champion to K. Rich. 3. makes a challenge in defence of the Kings title to the Crowne 27. Divorce of Wives formerly usuall upon slight occasions 127. Copy of a Bill of divorse in use among the Iewes 128. Dux and Comes Ducatus and Comitatus were formerly Synonomies 4. Drogo Young Earle of Brittaine made away by his Vncle 5. E. EDward 3. King of England his linage 4. thought privie and consenting to his fathers deposition â—assacre 141. Edward Earle of March obtaines the Crowne 8. sends an army into Scotland to recover his tribute 10. received tribute of France 29. much feared for his prowess 19. His wantonnesse and many loves 115 116. His witty Leman 121. Had two wives at once 116 117. Ill consequences of his last marriage 118. His answer to his mother 120. Adjudged unlawfull the children illegittimate Parliam Anno 1. Rich. 3. p. 30. And refused by the Barons and Commons as incapeable of rule 20. 22. His daughters meane fortunes 143. His death supposed by treachery 11. by poyson 102. 123. Appointed his brother Ric. D. of Glocester protector 11 Edward 5. conveyed with an honorable conduct from Ludlow to London 11. reports of his death diverse but uncertaine 83 84. most probable that he died of sicknesse and infirmity 85. Edward Prince of Wales sonne of Hen. 6. Murdered 81. 141. Edw. Prince of Wales son of R. 3. dyed to the great griefe of the K. Q 44. Elianor Talbott alias Butler married to Edw. fourth 116. her wrongs and death 122. Elizabeth Gray her witty strengths against K. Edwards amorous assaults 117. Is marrid to him privately in a lodge 118. Is confined to an Abbey by
Hen. 7. and dies of greife 143. Elizabeth daughter of Ed. 4. desired by her letter to marry with Richard 3. 128. 129. Elianor Talbot alias Butler married to E. 4. 116. her wrongs death 122. Escape what the offence is 100. F. FAulcon Serrure a French devise of obseen signification 115. Faulconbridge a famous Pyrate apprehended by a wile 9. Flattery and Flatterers 52. 133. 78. Fortune inconstant 41. Vertuous Master of her 57. Fortitude a notable example in Rio. 3. 59. 60. 61. Friends and friendship 52 best known in adversity Ib. French King payes a tribute of 75000. crownes to K. Edw. 4. and rich pensions to diverse Noble men 29. G. GAston de Foix K. of Navarr 19. Gray Woodvile and others of the Reginists executed at Pomfret for treachery 13 Glocester City rewarded by Rich. 3. for their loyalty 28. Gâ—mot what it is 125. Genius or Angell Guardian 106. H. HAstings his affection to Edw. 4. his children 13. Is betrayed and executed in the Tower ibid. Henry 2. K. of England his great descent and spacious Empire 4. his penance for Tho Beckets death 5. Sirnamed du Court Mantea why 4. Henry 4. King of England caused his soveraigne Rich. 2. anointed King to bee Murthered 14. Entailes the Crowne to his heires 50. Henry 6. K. of England not murthered by Rich. 3. but dyed a naturall death of griefe and melancholy 80 81. Henry Teâ—dor Earle of Richm. borne in Pembrooke castle 16. His noble descent 144 145. by his mother 50. by his Grand-mother and Father Ib. His escape into France 16. And there detained prisoner 17 18 19. His various and doubtfull fortunes Ib. 43. 57. Is attainted of high Treason 30. A description of his Person and qualities 42 58. 144. A wise provident a religious Prince 58. 144. Laies claime to the Crowne of England 17. Made good by marriage 53. And the Popes Bull 55. And act of Parliament 145. His title de jure belli or of conquest confirmed by the Pope and distasted by the Barons 54 55. Invades England with ill successe 43. His 2. invasion by aid of the French 56 57. 59. Overthrowes K. R. 3. at Redmore heath and is crowned by the name of Henry 7 th 62. His vow at the high Altar in Vannes 42. Is very covetous 88. too partiall and credulous 51. Unkinde and severe to his Wife 143. And to the Wife and Children of Edw. 4. Ib. His pretence against the Ea of Warwick 105. 141. And Perk. Warbeck alias Rich. Plantag 95. His breach of promise 93. He feared 3. men specially Ib. His reach upon the Duke of Burgundy 142. His charge to his son upon his death-bed ib. Henry the first K. of England sirnamed Beauclerke 16. Or the good Clerk His ambition and covetousnesse 141. cruelty to his elder Brother ib. Heralds whence the name derived 138. a Colledg of Heralds founded by R. 3. ibid. Herbertus Chamberlaine to W. Rufus Ancestor to the Herberts of Pemb. and Mountgom founder of that name 16. Historians their great partiality 134 135. 143. The errours of vulgar Historians 41. Howards their great Nobility alliance and discent from Hewardus or Herewardus the story of him 66. signification of the name ib. of Hawardus 67. Tho Howard Barl of Surrey escapes Bosworth field 64. A notable speech of his showing his integrity ibid. Is advanced by Henry 7. ib. Triumphator Scotorum 67. Sir Charles Howard Lord Admirall in 88. His noble fame 67. I. IAmes the 4 th King of Scotland denies his tribute to England 10. An army is sent to recover it ib. But a Truce concluded ibid. James the 5 th of Scotland challenges Thomas Earle of Arundel in Campe fight 62. James King of Great Brittaine his Noble elemency to some regall Titulars 135. Jane Shore King Edw. 4. his Concubine 115. 135. Jerusalem a barren soile 6. Imperiall Ensigns of England their signification 26. Ingratitude ex 59 60. John King of England charg'd with the murther of his Nephew 141. K. KAtherin wife of Sir Otho Swinford Mother of the Beauforts 44. Kings have their bounds 29. Their prerogatives in Iudgments and Controversies 54. Cannot commit high Treason 63. May not marry their Subjects 119. A King deposed for so doing ib. Kings and kingdomes in Gods disposing 63. changed by him why 140. Two evils especially the overthrow of Kings and kingdomes 103. To kill an Anoynted King a sacrilegious offence p. 80. Knights and Lords created 25. L. LAncaster and Beaufort how they differ 30. 44. 47. Legitimation What the Popes legitimation is and what the Princes 47 48. Liars need of good memories 84. Lancaster escheated to Edward 4. 35. 47. Don Duart de Lancastro 45. Laws good Laws made by R. 3. Lawes against Bastards 48. Loyalty a rare example 64. M. MArgaret Plantag daughter of Geo. Duke of Clarence put to dearh 143 Matilda or Maud the Empress daughter and heir of H. 1. 4. Anglor Dom. ibid. Malice malitious 130. Height of malice 75. Marble stone or fatall stone prophesie of it 146. Brought out of Scotland into England by Edward the 1. And placed at Westminster ib. The stone that Jacob laid his head upon ib. Marriage not lawfull between those that have lived in adultery 45. Between Uncles and Nieces frequent in other Countreys 129. Monasteries supprest with the true cause of it 77. Monuments of the British Empirâ— 146 Sir Thomas Moore a great enemie of R. 3. 76. Came short of the learning is ascribed to him dyed scoffing ib. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. And a sworn vassall to the Pope 76. Morton Bishop of Ely a subtle man 15. A great enemie of K. R. 3. ib. 75 76 77. A temporizer 52. His extreame pride and covetousnesse 53. Lord Chancellor of Eng. 77. N. NAmes taken from Offices other occasions 5 6 66. Nandick a conjurer Parl. 1. H. 7. Natural Father natural sons daughters why so called Naturall daughters may take the sirname of France 46. Noblenesse of nature Examp. 61. c. O. OFficers of State 25. 32. Oxford Iohn de Vene Earl of Ox. fevere against nick-named Perkin Warb 105. he gave sentence of death gainst the innocent Earl of Warwick ib. Strange dissipation of a mighty estate ib. Oppression many examples of it 99. 141. and pastime alibi P. PArasites the nature of them p. 27. 78. Parliaments their power authority 124. From whence the word is derived ib. A Court of great antiquity 125. Called by the Saxons Witengemot the meeting of wise men ibid. The honour and obedience due unto them 126. Parl. 1. R. 3. Many good Lawes enacted Pater mater parentes or parents words of larger signification among other Nations then among us 69. Perkin Warbeck his story 84. Confirmed by many noble and learned men 100 101. Philip Duke of Burgundy K. of Castile driven by a storm with his Qu upon the coast of England 141 142. His entertainment ib. Plantaganest or Plantagenet original occasion of that