Hen. 7. from the Captains and military men pro pace habenda that they might have peace Neither interest of right nor jealousie of increasing power could draw Henry the 8. unto the quarrell of France until the Church complained against Lewis the 12. e who neither esteeming of God good fame nor conscience deteined the revenues of the Clergy supported the Cardinall William to aspire to the Papacy aided in the siege of Boucy Alfonso of Ferrara and the Bentivogli both Traytours to the Papall Sea where he intended to lay the foundation of his Empire to usurp all Italy besought him for the pitty of our Saviour and by the virtue of his famous Ancestours for I use the words of the Popes Briefe a that never forsook the Church of God in distresse and by his filiall obedience the strongest bond to enter into that holy League they having elected him against Lewis Caput foeder is Italici Head of the Italian League Edward the sixth b until urged with the touch of his honour being by his neighbours neglected in the marriage of their Mistresse never attempted any war against them The quarrells of France in the time of his succeeding sister after the marriage with Spain◠were neither properly ours nor begun by us although in the end we onely went away with the losse Her Sister of holy memory to effect the peace with France forbore c the demand of Callis for 8. years neglected to urge a just debt of four millions from that Crown d And the labours she spent to confirm amity with Spaine by many friendly offices of mediation are apparent to the whole world though in the end of her desires she failed whether happily in prevention of the Spanish Monarchy eternizing her memory or that this work of peace was by divine providence reserved for him that could and hath best effected it I know not Onely I conclude that as the first Monarch in Rome so the first in Britain might justly write Pace Populo Britanno terra marique parta Ianum clausi having setled Britain in peace by land and sea I have shut up the doors of Ianus Temple Forreign armes the ground of trouble at home by the Enemy who to divert will attempt Subjects wearied with Toyl Taxation Feared with the effect of tyranny Inured to wars can never sure after to a quiet life It is evident by our own examples that for the most part the Civil or Forreign Armies that have oppressed this State have been either bred out of our first attempting of others or out of the grievance of the Nobility people either wearied with the toil and charge or feared with the effect of Tyranny which might corrupt the good fortune of their King or else a plague no lesse of war that the better sort inured to command abroad have forgotten to obey at home and the inferiour by living there upon rapine and purchase unwilling here to tye themselves again to order and industry There is in the Register of State no time that so well expresseth either the danger or damage we underwent in waking an adversary as that of Edward the third Out of many examples I will select some few beginning with the tenth of his reign at what time his intention was to attempt somewhat in France but diverted by Philip who mustring in partibus Britanniae ad invadendum Regnum Angliae in the parts of Britany to invade the Kingdome of England a puissant Army enforced Edward the third to fall from his first purpose and insist upon his own guard for which cause to the infinite charge of himself and people he levied 80000. men out of the Shires of this Kingdome To withdraw his forces from France in the thirteenth of his reigne they invaded the Realm and burned the Towns of Plymouth and Southampton places that suffered from the same motive the like calamity In the first of Richard the second after the Battell of Cressy when they feared our too much footing and we too much believed our own fortune for she cito reposcit quod dedit quickly calls for back what she gave us the a Duke of Normandy to draw home our forces levieth an Army of forty thousand men at armes and forty thousand foot sharing by idle contracts before-hand with his confederates not the spoils only but the Kingdome it self the Honour and some other portion of benefits he reserved as his own meed the possessions of many English Subjects in pure alms he voweth to the Church of Normandy and to the French King an yearly tributary Fee of twenty thousand pound In these termes this Realm stood almost all the time of Edward the third The Coast-dwellers were so frighted from their habitation as in the thirteenth year the king commanded the Earle of Richmond b and other Peers to reside at their border houses and was inforced in the two and twentieth to injoyn by Ordinance that none should remove that dwelt within sex leucas à mari six leagues of the sea It was no whit altered under his successour Richard the second for in his entrance the French burnt the Town of Rye and in the third year after Gravesend And in the tenth year of his reigne to change his intended journey for France in person the French King prepareth an Army to invade this land This quarrel led us almost into an eternal charge at sea and in the Northern limits they and our neighbours there being tyed of old in strict assurance of mutual aid by whose desperate and perpetual incursion for nescit Plebs jejuna timere an half-starved rabble fears nothing the fattest parts of our borders were left wast the men and cattel of England as 16. of Edw. 2. impetus Scotorum fugientes being fled for safety to the Forrests and desert places The like I find in the first of Edward the third they ever thus interrupting us in our expeditions into France as in 20. Ed. 3. in the first and second of Richard the second in the fifth of Henry the fifth and in the fourth of Henry the eighth when he undertook his holy voyage against Lewis the twelfth And either being no lesse ready to nourish the least spark of rebellion in this State as that of the French King to counterpoize King Iohn or work out Henry the third from his Dutchy of Normandy as France did or moving underhand by the Duke of Britain the Earl of Hartford to reach the Crowne of Richard the second and when he had got the garland suborning Owen Glendowr with whom he contracted as Prince of Wales to busie the same King at home that he might divert his intended purpose from France or Scotland WHen Henry the third had devoured in his mind the kingdome of Sicily the Nobility finding the expence of Treasure and fearing the exposing of their own persons grew so unwilling that by the bent and course of the record it ap a
France added to this Crown As for the Kingdome of France the people of England were so little in love with that Title as any Honour to them that by Acts of Parliament 14. Edward 3. and 8. Edward 5. they provided that the Subjects of England should owe no Obedience to the King as King of France not the Kingdome of England be in any wise subjected by such Union to that Crown And so much we have ever been in fear of that place left it might leave this State to the misery of a Provinciall Government as in 17. of Henry 6. the Commons urged to contribute for the recovery of that Crown answered that the gaining of any footing in France would induce the Kings aboad there and by such absence cause great decay and desolation in this State besides the transport of our Money in the mean time which would inrich that Countrey and impoverish the Realm at home whereby we should justly again say a Britannia servitutem suam quotidie emit quotidie poscit The Britans are every day begging to be slaves every day giving money for it THe last motive is the advantage we now have of greater Facilitie and assurance of Successe in any forreign enterprise by this happy Union of both Kingdoms then ever any of our Ancestours had To which in answer nothing can be more full then laying down the motives and means that led on the Kings of this Realm to attempt and prosperously effect their undertakings in other parts weigh how they suite these times and whether that any or all the advantages we now have may be to them of equall worth and valuation The first consideration is in Place the next in Person In the wars of France whether those for the defence of particular Signiories or competition of the intire Kingdome we had ever Ports to land at Forts to retire to which now we have not The coast of Normandy was our own by which we might enter the midst of France And Edward 3. when he intended to annoy the East part sided with Montfort against Charles de Bloys whom he invested with the Dutchie of Britain that so he might have there an easy footing Thus by leave of his Confederats in Flanders he had safe entrance for all his Army to invade the other side and a sure retreat when upon any occasion he would come back as he did to Antwerp And wheresoever any army may have a quiet descent the greatest difficultie is overcome for the rest consisteth in Chance wherein Fortune is rather wont to prevaile then Vertue But a ibi grave est Bellum gerere ubi nullus est Classi Portus apertus non ager pacatus non Civitas Socia non consistendi aut procedendi locus quocunque circumspexeris hostilia sunt omnia There 't is a hard task to wage war where there is no Port open for our Navy the Countrey our enemy no City our Confederate no place to make a stand or to march out from but whithersoever a man looks he can see nothing but hostile intentions against us And this must be now our case which was never our Ancestours Advantage personall was either A Party found made For the Persons considerable they are the Subjects to our enemies or our own Confederats Of the first our Kings heretofore did either work upon the opportunity of any dissension ministred or by Pension Reward either make a fraction in Obedience or Neutrality in Assistance with the Subjects of their Adversary The Duke of Burgundy Earls of Britain Dreux and others in France offended with their Sovereign a Confoederati erant Comiti Britanniae Henrico Regi Angliae became Confederates with Henry Earle of Britain and King of England and thereupon drew him over into Britain b The same King by yearly Pensions of 7000. l. kept divers in Poictou in fraction against their Lord and their own Loyaltie Edward 3. had never undertaken the conquest of France if c Robert de Artoys displeased with the Sentence of Philip his Master for that Earldome had not incited and complotted for him as Godfrey of Harecourt did after Nor Henry d 5. if the unsound memory of the French King the jealousy of those Princes Orleantial Faction had not made his way and Fortune Confederates THe Confederates our Kings held formerly for mutuall Aide were of such consequence in all their affairs that those so best strengthened atchieved ever the greatest and most glorious victories As the first and 3d. Edwards the 5th and 8th Henries Whereas Henry the sixth that was of all the rest left most naked to himself although the greatest otherwise in opportunity lost all the purchase of his Ancestours in the end It is not amisse in such a foundation of Greatness as Confederacy to lay down successively first with whom we tied that knot of love then what were the motives or assurances and lastly whether the same in both is left to our occasions and will now or no Henry the first but to assure his own possessions beyond Sea a adscivit in praesidium Comitem Britanniae Theobaldum Comitem Blesensem called to his aide the Earle of Britain and Theobald Earle of Bloys Henry the second did the like with b Robert Earle of Flanders And again c cum Theodorico Comite Flandriae Baronibus Castellanis caeteris hominibus Comitis with Theodoric Earle of Flanders the Barons Governours of Castles and other the Subjects of the said Earle who stood bound to serve him in summonitione sua sicut Domino pro feodis quae de ipso teneant upon a summons as well as their own Lord for the Fees which they held of him Baldwin Earle of Flanders contracteth under Bond d mutui subsidii quod sine Rege Richardo Angliae non componeret cum Rege Francorum of mutuall aide that he would not come to agreement with the French King without Richard King of England And the e Britains relicto Rege Franciae Regi Richardo adhaeserunt forsaking the King of France did joyn with King Richard Between King Iohn a and the Earle of Flanders there was a Combination mutui auxilii contra Regem Francorum of mutuall assistance against the French King b The like with the City of Doway and Earle of Holland Henry 3. an. 11. drew c Peter Duke of Britany into Confederacy against the French and Fernand Earle of Flanders with a Pension annuall of 500. Marks d And anno 38. Alfonsus King of Castile combineth with him and his heirs contra omnes homines in mundo against all the men in the World To whom he remained so constant that an. 8. and 10. Edw. 1. he would not grant a Truce to the French King but ad preces instantiam at the instant suit of the King of England Edward 1. an. 13. e
none either by reason of Distance they come too late or if not by reason of Remoteness he who is to execute will be bolder with his Instructions then is fit for a Minister to be How dangerous is it then by addition of Territories for our Master a Alterum pene Imperio nostro suo quaerenti Orbem whilest he is seekng to joyn another world in a manner to his and our Empire to alter either the setled order of directions or walls of our securitie Besides as in the Frames of Nature Anima rationalis the rationall soul cannot informare give life sense or disourse to the matter of an Elephant or a Fly or any other body disproportionable to a Form so qualified so is there as well a bound of amplitude and strictness wherein the soul of Government is comprised b Between which extremes there are many degrees of Latitude some approaching to the greatest that nature seldome or never produceth some to the least and some to the mean beyond which proportions respectively though some may have a will to effect they never can have a power to attaine And this we may see in the former accession of so much to us in France which we could never either with Profit or Assurance retain being gotten by Conquest and but tacked to by Garrison contrary to the nature of Hereditary Monarchies For some Kingdomes in which number this may be accounted are of the same condition that Demosthenes c maketh the Athenians Non ea vestra ingenia sunt ut ipsi aliis vi oppressis Imperiateneatis sed in eo magnae sunt vires vestrae ut alium potiri principatu prohibeatis aut potitum exturbetis It is not your way violently to oppresse other States and seize the Government but in this is your strength manifest that you can hinder another from possessing the Government or when he is possessed of it throw him out again Since then by Situation and Power we are the fittest either to combine or keep severall the most potent and warlike Nations of the West it is the best for Safety and the most for Honour to remain as we were Arbiters of Europe and so by Neutralitie sway still the Ballance of our mightiest Neighbours which by holding of our hands and onely looking on we shall easily do since Spain and France hang so indifferently that a little weight will cast the Beam imploying ours as Claudius did his Forces in a Germanie ut subsidio victis Victoribus terrori essent ne forte elati Pacem turbarent to assist the Conquered party and to over-awe the Victor lest he should be puffed up with pride and disturb our peace Thus did Hen. 8. with the French and Spanish Princes using as his Motto of Honour and Power this Cui adhaereo praeest He rules whom I stick to And the late Queen studied rather how to guard her Allies then to inlarge her Dominions multiplying her Leagues more by giving then receiving gratuities winking at her own wrongs rather then willing to revenge And as the great Mistris of the world once did what rather became her Greatness then what severity of Armes required Hence were her Seas for the most part freed from Pirates and her Land here cleared of Enemies For according to Micipsae's counsell to Jugurth Non exercitus neque Thesauri praesidia Regni sunt Neither Armyes nor Treasure are the safety of a Kingdome but such Allies as neither Armes constrain nor monyes purchase sed officio fide pariuntur And since by fortune of the times succeeding this State hath grown more upon Opinion then Deed and that we know Magis fama quam vi stare res nostras that our affairs stand rather by Fame then Force it is most safe neither to discover weakness nor hazzard losse by any attempt Besides standing as we do no waies obnoxious by Site to any of our neighbours they will alwaies be ready to referre the judgement order of their differences to us As the a Brabanters and Henowayes to the Arbitrement of Edward the third and b Charles the fifth and Francis the French King the decision of their quarrel to Henry the eighth Thus every part shall woe us all Princes by their Oratours shall resort unto us as to the Common Consistorie of judgement in their debates and thereby add more to our Reputation then any power of our own For as well in States as in Persons Suitours are an infallible token of Greatness which Demosthenes c told the Athenians they had lost since none resorted to their Curia or Praetorium By this way shall we gain the Seat of Honour Riches and Safety and in all other but endlesse Expence Trouble and Danger Robert Cotton Bruceus FINIS THE FRENCH CHARITY WRITTEN In French by an English Gentleman upon occasion of Prince Harcourt's coming into ENGLAND And translated into English by F. S. J. E. LONDON Printed by Roger Daniel Anno MDCLV THE FRENCH CHARITY ALthough we see that naturall causes produce sometimes contrary effects that the Sun which draws up the Clouds can also scatter them that the same Wind both lights and blow's out the taper that Vipers serve for wholesome medicaments and Scorpions carry about them an Antidote to their own poison it is not so neverthelesse in morall and politick affairs wherein that which is once ill is alwayes accounted such from whence is begot in us that quality which we call Experience whereby wise men are accustomed to judge of present and future actions by those that are past Which is the foundation whereupon all Monarchies and Republicks have established the Maxims of their subsistence and found out both what they ought to follow and what to avoid The Charity which France hath testified to pacify our differences is so great that it is become incredible so unseasonable that it is suspected and so contrary to their former proceedings that it is quite otherwayes understood Philosophers say we cannot passe from one extremity to another without some mean I cannot see by what steps they are come to this perfect goodness nor what good Genius can have made them in an instant so good friends of such dangerous neighbours to us I will passe my censure upon nothing yet let me have the liberty to judge of all I find so great a wonder in this change that I find a conflict in my self to believe it It is no common marvell that those who have for so long a time beheld all Europe in a flame and could not be moved by the bloud and destruction of so many people to cast thereon one drop of water should now have their bowells so tender as to compassionate the dissensions arising in a corner of the world which hath alwayes bin fatall to them That those who have made it their chiefest interest to divide us should now make it their glory to reunite us That those who place their rest
AN ANSWER made by Command of PRINCE HENRY to Certain Propositions of WARRE and PEACE Delivered to his HIGHNESSE by some of his Military Servants Whereunto is adjoyned THE FRENCH CHARITY OR An Essay written in French by an English Gentleman upon occasion of Prince Harcourt's coming into ENGLAND And translated into English by F. S. J. E. LONDON Printed by Roger Daniel Anno MDCLV PROPOSITIONS OF WARRE and PEACE Delivered to his Highness PRINCE HENRY by some of his Military servants Arguments for Warre FRames of Policy as well as works of Nature a are best preserved from the same grounds they were first founded on By Armes was layd the foundation of this State whether we respect the Saxon or the Norman It was Warre that of seven Crowns in the Heptarchy made one fit for that Monarchy that since by many glorious exploits hath made good in forreign parts the renown of her own greatnesse and crowned thereby this State with an eternall peace Times nor our owne vertues are not changed Necessity Benefit and Facility of Warre being the same that they were before â—o our forefathers Reasons of forraign War drawn from 1 Necessity for 1 Preservation of our own peace 2 Venting of factious spirits We never were so near peril by shipwrack in any tempest abroad as at home by the calm government of Henry the sixth For France by the awfull hand of his father reduced it fared with us as with the mistress of the world a Remoto Carthaginis metu et Imperii aemula when the fear of Carthage her competitour for the Empire was removed that fell not by degrees but Praecipiti cursu ab Armis ad voluptates à negotio ad otiuÌ„ rushed headlong from arms to pleasures from employment to idleness And from hence as greatest Nations cuÌ„ ab externis causis tutae videntur ipsae suis viribus onerantur when there is no longer fear of forreign enemies their own strength becomes a burthen to them so after many conquests abroad we were at home prest down wth the unnatural weight of civil armes For cum foris non habent hostem domi inveniunt when people have no enemies abroad they find some at home as all warlike fruitful Nations will no otherwise delivered either of their humours or people To add to this necessity the sending away oâ— our factious spirits it wil removâ— the seat of bloud from our own doors and prove the cheapest school to train up in armes the better dispositions whose military skil may after serve to defend the State and by the late accession of another Nation wil be now more needful a Ne novus populus otioâ—t nimia pecunia lasciviret lest that other people should grow wanton through too much wealth and idlenesse and we in the end be enforced with the Satyrist b to confesse Nune patimur longae pacis mala savior armis Luxaria incubuit We suffer now the harm of a long peace Whilst Riot worse then war doth thus increase 3 Instructing in arms our people 2 Benefits 1 Wealth by 1 Spoil of the Enemy 2 Addition of Revenue by subjectedterritories 2 Honour by addition of 1 Title 2 Dominion The benefis arise from Profit and Honour The Spoils we have brought away in our French Spanish attempts exceeding ever the charge in getting and the Revenues of the subjected Signiories as Normandy Aquitain c. supporting with much advantage the expence in keeping Our Honour as the Stile of our Kings by confluence of so many Titles increased and by accession of so many territories as we held in France our dominions and liberties so far inlarged 3 A more facility to effect then heretofore by 1 Addition of new strength 2 Substraction of diversions The facility to effect this being now more then ever by the addition of strength and substraction of diversions in this happy union of the Britain Empire AN ANSWER TO THE FORMER Arguments made by the command OF HIS HIGHNESSE AS he can give best Rules to preserve the health of a body naturall that by observing the divers humours accidents and dispositions thereof findeth at length the cause from whence it is or well or ill-affected and so by mixture of Art and Observation sets to his Patient rules of exercise and dyet so is it in a Kingdome or Commonwealth If then out of the Registers of Record and Story the true Remembrancers of Art and Errour in passages of State it shall appear that those times which have been Answers to the former Arguments 1 Affections of our wisest Princes ever to peace 2 Forraign expeditions 1 Rebellions at home 2 Cause of 1 Endless taxations 2 Vassalage 3 Danger to the State 3 Confederacy alliance the means of former victories no waies to be restored as heretofore glorified with the mightiest Princes and wisest Councells would ever acknowledge that a Pax una triumphis Innumeris potior one Peace outgoes for worth Innumerable triumphs That Combustions at home were like Meteors ever kindled in another Region but spent themselves there That our men instead of Lawrell and Olive garlands to adorn with victory peace our gates and Temples have ever brought home fire-balls to burn our Cities That forreign spoyls have been summed up with Taxes and Penury That this addition of Revenue hath tyed us to a perpetuall issue of our own Treasure That by these titles of Honour we have bought Slavery and by extenture of Territories Danger And that difficulty either to undertake or pursue any forreign enterprise now is much more then in any age before I think that no Englishman will either love his own errour so much or his Country so little as to advise a course so far estranged either from judgement or security IT is manifest by warrant of our own examples that the kings of England except in some heat of Youth which is not the best directour of Counsell preferred unjust Peace before the justest War none inthralling their minds with ambitious desires of extending Territories or imaginary humours of licentious Soveraignty every one willing to passe his time with content of his private fortunes Upon this ground Henry the second gave 20000 marks a Expensarum nomine under the notion of expences to the French king ut firmior Pax haberetur that he might have a firm and setled Peace His succeeding sonne pro quieta clamatione de sorore sua ducenda for a peaceable claim to the marriage of his sister which was like to make a fraction gave to the French King b decem millia librarum ten thousand pounds Three hundred thousand marks Iohn gave to the French king to match his calme entrance to a secure peace Until the confederacy with c Scotland and invading of the land by Charls de Valoys the French king provoked Edward the first he never disquieted France with noyse of war as after he did by the d Earls of Richmond and Lancaster
and with her c own Subjects after upon Mortgage of Land A course more moderate then either that of the first William that took out of Churches such money as severall men had committed thither for more security d or that of Charles the fifth that to repaire the waste of his Italian wars went in person to Barcilona to seize into his hands a Masse of money called Deposuum Tabulae which as well Strangers as Subjects had there laid up in Sanctuary But these are not the conditions of Princes of our times onely for in the lives of Caligula Nero and Vespasian Suetonius of them severally writeth Exhaustus egenus calumniis rapinisque intendit animum being drawn dry and grown poor they bent their minds to Calumnies and Rapines For Perniciosa res est in Imperante tenuitas Want in a Prince is a dangerous thing and as Theodoricus said Periculosissimum animal est Rex pauper a Poor King is the most dangerous creature living It hath abated the Regalties of Houses an. 16. of Richard the second and 18. a of Henry 6. when as well from want of means as the Subjects Petitions in Parliament for Expeditissima est ratio augendi Census detrahere Sumptibus the readiest way to raise the Revenue is to take down Expenses they have much lessened their Hospitality their Tables being either defrayed by their Subjects as of Henry the 6. or as Henry the 3. when by necessity b ita consueta Regalis Mensae hospitalitas abbreviata fuit ut pos posita solita verecundia cum Abbatibus Clericis viris satis humilibus hospitia quaesivit prandia the wonted hospitality of the Kings Table was sunk so low that without farther shame he many times lodged and dieted with Abbots Clerks and very mean Persons It hath caused our Kings to sell and alienate the possessions of the Crown as Henry the c 3. who gave to Edward his son Licentiam impignorandi terram Vasconiae leave to pawn the Dutchie of Gascoign And caused himself not long after by the like occasions to sell for 300000. l. except some pittances reserved the d entire Signiorie of Normandie What our late Mistris and her Father did is yet fresh in memory But this mischief hath trenched deep into the Fortunes and Affections of the Subjects when Princes to repair the breach of their own Revenues have often resumed the possessions of their people as a Edward the second anno 5 8 10. Omnes donationes per Regem factas ad damnum diminutionem Regis Coronae suae all the Grants made by the King to the lessening and prejudicing of the King and his Crown b Richard the second an. 1. did the like of all Grants made to unworthy persons by his Grandfather and recalled all Patents dated since 40. of Edward 3. Thus did Henry c the 5. an. 1. and d Henry the 6. in the 28. of his Reign Edward the 4. in an. 3. with all Offices of his Crown granted either by the Usurper or his Brother Neither is this in it self unjust since as well by reason of State as Rules of best Government the Revenues and Profits e quae ad sacrum Patrimonium Principis pertinent which belong to the sacred Patrimony of the Prince should remain firme and unbroken But when neither Credit Frugality or Sale of Lands would stop the gulf of want our Princes have been so neer beset as with Nerva and Antonius the Emperors to sell and pawn their Jewells The Archbishop of York had power from Henry 3. an. 26. f in wars beyond Sea impignorandi Iocalia Regis ubicunque in Anglia pro pecunia perquirenda to pawn the Kings Jewells anywhere in England to raise money g Edward the first sendeth Egidius Andevar ad Iocalia sua impignoranda to pawn his Jewells h Edward the 3. pawneth his Jewells to pay the L. Beaumont and the Strangers their wages in war The Black i Prince was constrained to break his Plate into Money to pay his Souldiers a Richard the second pawned Vasa aurea diversa Iocalia vessels of Gold and divers Jewells to Sir Robert Knowles b Henry the 4. an. 3. to a Merchant for money invadiavit Tabellam Trisellas suas Argenteas de Hispania ingaged his Tablet and stools of Silver which he had from Spain c Henry the 6. gageth and selleth to the Cardinal of Winchester and others an. 10th 12th and 29. d many parcells of his rich Jewells And the late Queen in the end of her dayes to ease her Subjects did the like with many in the Tower And Extremity hath yet stretched some of our Kings to so high a stain of Shift that Edward the third e invadiavit magnam Coronam Angliae pawned his Imperiall Crown 3. severall times an. 17. in partibus transmarinis in forreign parts and twice to Sir Iohn Wesenham his Merchant first in the f 24. and after g an. 30. in whose custody it remained 8. yeares To Henry Bishop of Winchester Henry the 5. invadiavit magnam Coronam auream gaged his imperiall Crown of Gold in the 5. of his Reign And when Henry the third had laid to gage h omnia Insignia Regalia all his Robes and Kingly Ornaments and upon assurance of re-delivery or satisfaction had pawned Aurum Iocalia Feretri S. Edwardi Confessoris the Gold and Jewells belonging to the Shrine of S. Edward the Confessour A course more moderate then by force to have taken as William the Conquerour did the Chalices and Shrines of other Churches or as i Clement the 7. who to pay the Souldiers of Charles the fifth melted the Consecrated Vessels was in the end when he had neither means of his own left nor reputation with others constrained to beg relief of his Subjects in this low strain a Pauper sum omni destitutus Thesauro necesse habeo ut me juvetis nec aliquid exigo nisi per gratiam I am poor and have no Treasure left ye must needs relieve me neither do I demand any thing but of your mere love and courtesy And turning to the Abbot of Ramsey to say Amice obnixe supplico quatenus me juvas mihi centum libras conferendo My friend I beseech thee for Gods sake to help me with 100. pound adding withall majorem Eleemosynam fore sibi juvamen conferre pecuniamve quam alicui ostiatim mendicanti that it would be a greater deed of Charity to contribute to his Wants then to give to one that begged from door to door So that of the waste of these times and want of those Princes I may truly with the Satyrist say Ossa vides Regum vacuis exuta medullis Thou seest the Bones of Kings spoi'ld of their Marrow IT now resteth by some few particulars to observe with what Wealth we have returned