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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
son_n	earl_n	lord_n	marry_v	29,797	5	10.0300	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16489	Relations of the most famous kingdomes and common-wealths thorowout the world discoursing of their situations, religions, languages, manners, customes, strengths, greatnesse, and policies. Translated out of the best Italian impression of Boterus. And since the last edition by R.I. now once againe inlarged according to moderne observation; with addition of new estates and countries. Wherein many of the oversights both of the author and translator, are amended. And unto which, a mappe of the whole world, with a table of the countries, are now newly added.; Relazioni universali. English	Botero, Giovanni, 1540-1617.; Johnson, Robert, fl. 1586-1626.	1630 (1630)	STC 3404; ESTC S106541	447,019	654

Piedmont is taken up with Montferrat but that belongs to Mantua Though in all Piedmont there be reckoned one Duchie of Aosta Marquisates fifteene Earldomes fifty besides Baronies many but these alas bee but petty ones such as have but Fiefs being but Gentlemen holding Fees or Mannors of the Dukes favour of which one writes that singly they are not very rich though all together they make a great noise Three Counties are reckoned in it and in them seven good Cities besides an hundred and fifty walled Townes Whereupon a Gentleman of that Nation boasted that his Countrie was an intire Citie of three hundred miles compasse Piedmont is said no nourish seven hundred thousand soules whereof the lesser halfe may be reckoned within this Dukes Dominions so that he may have some eight or nine hundred thousand subjects in the whole number The Dukes chiefe Citie here is Turin honoured now with an Vniversitie A strong place but made lesse than it was when the French were Masters of it that it might be the more defensible Saluzzes is a Bishops See also The first Founder of this Noble Family was Beroaldus of Saxonie brother to Otho the third Emperour who flying hither for killing that brothers wife taken in the act of Adultery was first made Generall to the Duke of Burgundie for whom he conquered Maurienne on Italy side which Lands the Duke giving to him hee became Lord of Maurienne His sonne was first made Count or Earle of Maurienne who marrying the daughter and heire of the Marquesse of Susa joyned both those Titles together His grand-childe inlarged his Dominion by the conquest of some of the neighbour Valleyes and his sonne Amadeus was for service done to the Emperour Henry the fifth made Earle of Savoy His grand-childe Humbert marrying the Count of Geneva's daughter made his father in Law to submit and acknowledge obedience unto him This Prince also upon the sailing of the heires of the Princes of Piedmont ●●ts in for himselfe conquers divers places and takes Piedmont into his title also His son gains further upon his neighbours His grand-childe Peter winnes the Citie of Turine and gets confirmations of Richard Duke of Cornwall his kirsman and then Emperour in those Valleyes conquered by himselfe and his grand-father His sonne Philip marrying the heire of Burgundie was in her right made Earle of Burgundie and Savoy His brothers sonne Amadeus the fourth gained the Countrey of Bresse by marriage also His sonne Edward was made a Prince of the Empire and his son Amadeus wanne something from the Count of Geneva To whose sonne Amadeus the sixth part of Piedmont veelded itselfe He instituted the Order of Knight-hood of the Annanciada To his sonne Amadeus the seventh did the Countrey called Nizza en Provenza freely yeeld To honour his sonne Amadeus the eighth did the Emperour Sigismund advance Savoy to the title of a Dukedome Him did the Councell of Basile choose to be Pope which he afterwards quit to compound the schisme His sonne Lewis was in his fathers life-time first called Prince of Piedmont which is ever since the title of the heire apparrant he also obtained to be called Earle of Geneva Charles the first made the Marquesse of Saluzzes to performe homage Finally this present Duke of Savoy Charles Emmanuel first got that Marquisate of Saluzzes intirely into his hands which Henry the fourth of France wrung from him and made him release the County of Bresse to have Saluzzes againe And thus by degrees and yeares came this Family to these possessions Besides all which hee makes title and claime to the Marquisate of Montferrat the Earldome of Geneva the Principalitie of Achaia in Greece and the kingdome of Cyprus His ordinary Revenues are thus collected His customes upon Salt fiftie thousand crownes from Susa foure and twenty thousand forren Merchandize eighteene thousand from Villa Franca c. five and twentie thousand Ancient Rents c. threescore and ten thousand The ordinary tax of Piedmont two hundred threescore and three thousand from confiscations condemned persons commutations of punishments and of the Iewes c. fifty thousand The totall is five hundred thousand French crownes What his extraordinaries may amount unto cannot be knowne but certaine it is that in a few yeares he raised eleven millions of crownes out of Piedmont alone So that we may well allow him one million of yearely commings in one with another out of which these summes are yearely issued upon certaine expences Diet wages c. of the Dukes owne Court threescore thousand crownes Allowed to the Duchesse twenty thousand The Duke of Nemeurs his kinsman pension fourteene thousand Standing wages to Iudges Counsellors c. on both sides the Alpes fourescore and ten thousand Vpon Embassadors Intelligences c. sixteene thousand Vpon his Guard Pages Messengers c. ten thousand Given away in Pensions and favours twelve thousand Expences of pleasure ten thousand Charges of his souldiery ten thousand and of his Gallies two and twenty thousand The totall is three hundred and eightie thousand French crownes The rest goes into the Treasury But in this former account the expences upon building and repairing of Forts is not reckoned which must needs amount to a masse of money seeing that no Prince of Europe in so little ground unlesse those of the Low-Countries perchance hath so many fortified places and few stronger in the world either by Nature of Ar● eight hundred Castles being reckoned in Piedmont alone Of Land-souldiers his muster-bookes shewes him about twenty thousand often exercised by their Captaines and Collonels and three Gallies for scowring of the Coast. And now for the State and termes he stands in with other Princes his neighbours they be these To the Papacie is his Family much beholding the Pope having made his second son Victor a Cardinall and his third son Philibert Admirall of the Gallies of the Church A great dependancie hath he on the Pope besides for whereas Cardinall Aldabrandino Nephew to Clement the eighth hath purchased Raiensa in Piedmont to the Duke after whose decease that rich Territory must fall to the Church unlesse the Pope be pleased to confirme it upon the Duke With Spaine both the Duke and his elde●● son Philip Emanuel have very neere alliance A● time there was that the Spaniard with-held his Pension from the Duke and he againe discharged his garrison of Spaniards in Tur●ne c. but all being now piec't up betweene them it concernes Spaine not to displease him because hee may stop up the passages by which the Spanish forces might march out of Italy into Germanie Venice and hee are in a common league and correspondencie Divers States and persons of the Switzers take pension of him and the Citie of Geneva is in bodily feare of him so was Genoa in these late warres and may be againe With other Princes of Italy he is in good termes except with Mantua it equally concernes them all to see that one another grow not too great and

and in Armes the State being disarmed not looking for any such innovation So the Barbarians subdued the Empire of Rome The Arabians the Empire of the East of Aegypt and of Spaine Charles the eighth King of France gained Italy The Portugals India The Castilians the new world and Soliman the Kingdome of Hungary The division of the neighbouring States either into Common-wealths or into petty Seigniories and those of small power gave courage to the Romans to make themselves Lords of Italy and made an easie passage for the Venetians into Lumbardy This also made the attempt of Thusian light unto the Florentines and no lesse that of Barbary to the Castilians which they would have found very hard of either the one or the other had expected them with armed forces The variance and jarring of the adjoyning Princes did open the way to the Turks to enter so farre into Christendome and with little trouble to invest himselfe of many kingdomes therein So Amurath the third presuming upon the civill discords of the Princes of the bloud Royall of Persia made that attempt with great advantage So againe the Persian upon the difference of the Scrivano and the Bashawes of Syria hath resumed the advantage and accordingly prospered Neither doth the whole mischiefe arise out of these intestine jarres onely but in all factions one part will be sure to intreat the aid of some forren Prince against the other than which no man can have a better occasion because then he commeth armed into the owners house at his owne request So the Romans set foot in Sicil being cald in by the Mamertines In Greece by the Athenians In Numidia by the sonnes of Micipsa In Provence by the Marsilians In France by the Hedui and so from time to time by divers others So Amurath the first King of Turks got hold in Europe being requested in aid by the Emperour of the East being then in warre with the Princes of Greece So Soliman in Hungarie being intreated by Queene Isabel and afterwards by King Iohn So the Aragons in the kingdome of Naples being drawne thither by Queene Ioane the second and so Henry the second King of France made himselfe Lord of three great Cities of the Empire Often hath it beene seene that he that is now called in as a friend does after prove an enemie and if one party in a civill warre cals in a forren arbitrator both parties cannot get him out againe But another no lesse successefull opportunity hath also beene made use of and that by way of marriage By apprehending the opportunity of a marriage were the two houses of Yorke and Lancaster and the two kingdomes of England and Scotland united But no Prince hath made so great advantage of marriage as the Spaniard The match of Ferdinand and Elizabeth was the very foundation of their greatnesse By marriages were the severall Provinces of the Low Countries united all which fell to Spaines at a clap Finally for this advantage hath the house of Spaine three times purchased dispensations from Rome for incestuous marriages and more they intended too Charles the fifth Emperour was solemnly contracted to our Queene Mary and Philip the second King of Spaine sonne to the said Emperour both wedded and bedded her nay upon strong appearances suspected it then was that King Philips curtesies to Queene Elizabeth were for his owne ends that if Queene Mary should die without issue he might marrie her also which he afterwards attempted by the Count de Feria promising to obtaine a dispensation so should England have beene laid to Spaine and what should then have hindred his Monarchie Now besides those advantages of humane policie and strength before mentioned God himselfe hath reserved a power at his owne disposing in the giving away of victories and in the cutting short or inlargement of Empire And to this end hath ordained these naturall Agencies and Assistances of Seas Rivers Mountaines Marishes Wildernesses and the sandie Desarts By these helps he the weake to hedge and ditch out their incroaching neighbours and by granting the mastership over these to another Nation he can at pleasure scourge the rebellion or unthankfulnesse of those people whom before he defended by them And of these helps of nature something will we say and in their order And first for the benefit of the Sea Concerning the profits of Merchandize both for importing and exporting of commodities I will not here speake though even that tends so much to the inrichment and augmentation of the honour of the State that in all treaties of warre and peace I see that the articles concerning traffike are sometimes two thirds of the treatie for so were they I am sure in that politike and nice-driven negotiation of the peace betwixt England and Spaine in the beginning of the Reigne of King Iames the Lord Treasurer Cecil Northampton and the greatest Sages of the kingdome being Commissioners on our partie and the best pates of Spaine for theirs but here I will onely treat of the Sea as of a Soveraigne friend and bulwarke to that Nation that is neerliest situated unto it and a maine helpe towards the keeping or inlargement of dominion The Poets you know made a God of Neptune that obtained the soveraingty of the Sea as well as of him that had the government of the Land and truly to be Lord of the narrow Seas and to enjoy a royalty That the ships of all Nations shall strike faile to one of the Kings ships is none of the least honours and to bee master of the Sea is more of it selfe than a pettie Monarchie He that is so indeed may give the law as well as he that is master of the field The Sea-fight at Actium was it that made Augustus Caesar sole Emperour of the world and Pompey learned it of old Themistocles that he that had the best Navy would in the end prove the Conquerour The victory that the Christians got at Lepanto so arrested the in●●●aching of the Turkish greatnesse that they have done little upon Chirstendome never since I mention not 88. nor that the resistance that the Hollanders have beene able to make against the greatest Monarch of the world proceeds meerly from the advantage they have of him by their commodious situation upon the Sea and by having more havens and ships than he This certainly will prove true that if ever the Monarchie of Spaine be broken it must be by Sea even by the Fleets of England and Holland and that know the Counsellours of the Emperour and Spaine well enough who to make themselves masters of some good ports have supplied their defect of a Navy by a chargeable land army For what thinke you else should be the designe of Monsieur Tilly but to take the Sea by Land to make his master Lord of Stoad Hamborrough Luckstadt with other Hansee townes and the Sowndt of Denmarke and what makes the Emperour who yet had never greater vessel than a Punt or Yaugh upon the

but Paper and a few Sols and doublesse of Brasse that made it so swell in all scarce eighteene pence sterling Hee is Oftentator a Craker who comming to such as have great horses to sell makes them beleeve he will buy some And at great Faires drawing to their shops that sell apparell cals to see a sute of an hundred pounds and when they are agreed of the price fals out with his boy for following him without his purse Such a one was the Gallant who in the middest of his discourse with many Gentlemen suddenly turned backe to his Lackie and saith Fetch me my Clocke it lies in my lodging in such or such a place neere such or such a Iewell The Lalero bethinks himselfe that it is in his pocket which hee knew well enough before presently he puls it out not so much to shew how the time passeth whereof he takes little care as the curiousnesse of worke and the beauty of the case whereof hee is not a little bragge and enamoured To speake thus particularly of all his severall humours and customes would be very prolix and not much necessary I will onely referre you to the fourth of Tullies Rhetorick where he speaketh of a bragging Rhodomonte and to the first Booke of Horace Satyres speaking of an endlesse and needlesse Prater a fastidious irksome companion Where you shall see the French naturall very lively and admirably well described I will only speake of his impatience and precipitation in deliberations of Warre or Peace and such other affaires of greatest importance and so end To this effect Bodin saith of him The French is of so sudden and busie disposition that he quickly yeelds to that a man demands being soone tired with messages to and fro and other delayes peculiar to the Spaniard And in another place The Spaniard had need of a more ready dispatch than he hath and the French of more moderation in his actions and passions And whereas Commines saith of us that we be not so craftie in our treaties and agreements as the French I thinke saving the credit of so great an Author he might better have said so head-strong and precipitate But where he saith that he that will treat and determine matters with us must have a little patience I yeeld unto him hee hath good reason so to say for his Countrey-men the French can endure no delay they must propound conclude all in one day By this haste of theirs they lost more saith Bodin by one Treatie at Cambrey Anno 1559. to the Spaniard than he had before got of the French in fortie yeares by warre Navarre TO the Title and Armes of France wee see these of Navarre annexed notwithstanding that this Kingdome lies Westward of the P●rencan mountaines touching upon Arragon on its South and Biscar on its North part two of the Spanish Provinces The old Inhabitants were the Vascones the Berones c. The present name of Navarre it hath either from the Spanish word Navas signifying a Campagnia or woodlesse champaigne Country or field naturally fenced with trees round about of which divers are in this Kingdome or else from Navarrin a towne in the mountaines and a chiefe Fort against the Moores of old time About the yeare 716. Garcia Ximenes freeing it from the Moores gained it the honour of a petty Kingdome which his Ancestors so well increased that within three hundred yeares after Sancho the great wrote himselfe King of Spaine for Leon he held by force Arragon had beene before united by marriage and himselfe obtained Castile in right of his wife out of other parts hee had driven the Moores also But this union himselfe againe disjoynted by a division of 〈◊〉 amongst his owne sonnes Navarre thus againe dissevered came about the yeare 1483. unto Katherine Countesse of ●●ix and Bigorre and Princesse of Bearne who unhappily marrying with Iohn Earle of Albret a French Coun●●●● 〈◊〉 those three of his wives also lost the Kingdome to the Spaniard The quarrell was this Lewis the twelfth of France falling at warres with the Spaniards Venetians and Germans was seconded by this Iohn of Albret and both for this opposed and excommunicated by the Pope Iulius t●e se●o●d Navarre being by a Bull exposed to the Invader Vpon this hint Ferdinand of Spaine puts in demands passage thorow Navarre for his Army pretended against the Moores which upon deniall of his request he turnes upon Navarre and before the slow succours could come out of France carries the whole Kingdome not so much as a box on the eare being given in resistance Thus the Spaniard ga● the possession though Henry of Albret sonne to Katherine and Iohn aforesaid retaines the title from whom also the French King challengeth it as being descended of this Henry and his wife Margaret of Valois Sister to King Francis of France from whom came Ioan Albret Queen of Navarre whose husband was Anthony Duke of Burbon whose son was Henry the great King of Navarre first and of France afterward whose sonne in Lewis the thirteenth the present King of France The chiefe Citie of Navarre is Pampelona the strength is made use of by the Spaniard as a Bulwarke against France there being but two passages thorow the Pyrenean mountaines out of this kingdome into Bearne in France which he easily keepes fortified Belgia Netherland NExt lyeth the seventeene Provinces called the Low-Countries the Netherlands or Germania Inferior concerning whom the world can but wonder how any Prince would neglect such a benefit and inheritance of goodnesse greatnesse and wealth which united with the love of the Inhabitants would have exceeded Spaine for Revenues multitude of people Cities shipping and all things else tending to worldly felicitie In observing the distraction whereof a discreet Reader may truly learne the inconstancie of worldly prosperitie most commonly procured by Princes themselves in following ill counsell and youthfull distemperature The Region containeth the Dukedomes of Brabant Limburk Luzzenburg and G●lderland the Earledoms of Flanders Artoys Hennalt Holland Zealand Nemours and Z●●ph●● the Marquesa●e of the Empire the Lordships of Friesland M●e●●lin Virech Over-isel and Groning East Friesland belongeth to a Prince of its owne who ever disclaimed to bee united to the residue belike to prevent all claime that either Empe●our or King might by cavill lay thereunto They invented the Art of Printing restored Musicke framed the Chario● devised the laying of colours in Oyle the working of colours in Glasse the making of Tapestrie Sayes Searges Woosteds Frisadoes and divers sorts of Linnen-cloth with innumerable other small trifles all sorts of Clocks and Dials and the Mariners Compasse In these Provinces are numbred two hundred and eight great Townes munited with wals ramparts ditches warlike ports draw-bridges and in which are continuall guards either of the Burgers of Souldiers lying there in garrison according to the proximitie of the enemie the importance of the place of necessitie of the time The Villages or Dorps are six thousand

onely still continued but since the last warres increased What the generall summe of all the revenues arise unto I have nothing certaine neither indeed is it certaine in it selfe a great part thereof as aforesaid consisting upon casualties as the Mines and Tenths c. But for mine owne particular conceit being not altogether unconfirmed by other mens opinions I cannot imagine how that it can arise to lesse than foure hundred thousand pound sterling yearely at the least Thus have I briefly runne over some few particulars of the great and noble Dukedome of Saxony worthy a much more ample discourse and a farre more worthier and better informed discourser being all things considered not onely the greatest and mightiest Princedome under the Empire but even greater and mightier I meane as it stood united in the time of Christianus than the Empire it selfe For though the Emperour by his sacred Imperiall Seat bee his Liege-Lord and in greatnesse of dominion farre superiour yet is he in revenue in great love of his people in warlike provision and in German leagues and confederacies farre inferiour The State of the Marquesse Elector of Brandenburg THis Prince possesseth a larger tract of land than doth the other Electors and hath more Noblesse Gentry and people yet is a great deale of his land very wilde and barren much of his people poore and himselfe though of great revenue yet farre short of that of Saxony Brandenburg lies on the East limited with Poland on the West with Saxonie touching upon Lusatia on the South The compasse is about five hundred miles wherein are reckoned fifty Cities great and small and threescore and foure walled Townes The whole Marquisate is divided into the Old the chiefe Towne whereof is Brandenburg and the Nen the greatest Citie therein being Franckford upon Oder famous for the Mart and Vniversity The Princes Seat is at Berlin This twofold division is againe subdivided into eight Provinces from which the Nobilitie take their titles one of these Crossen by name being a Dukedome For in Germany you are to understand a Dukedome may be contained within a Marquisate yea and a Duke come behinde a Count for that in the Empire precedencie goes not as with us by title but by bloud and antiquity The name of the present Elector is Iohannes Georgius in whose line the title hath continued these two hundred and eleven yeares Besides now the bare Country of Brandenburg this Prince hath other dominions many townes and lands both in Lusatia and Silesia which with that of Onspach by Nurenberg goe commonly away to the younger of the family all which write themselves Marquesses of Brandenburg The three Dukedomes of Cleve Iuliers and Berg have also beene united to this family though now almost twentie yeares since the Duke of Cleve dying without issue these three States are yet in controversie betwixt this Marquesse and the Duke of Newenburg Besides these is hee Duke of Prussia which is a great Country into which the King of Poland is to give him investiture So that hee and the Archbishop Elector of Cullen be Lords of the greatest tracts of lands of all the Princes of Germany The revenues out of Brandenburg are thought to amount to forty thousand pounds sterling and certainly his profits out of all his other Estates cannot but double that summe A sufficient rent for such a Prince if you consider the cheapnesse of all things in his Country He is Lord of much people and therefore of many souldiers The Duke of Brunswicke hath a large dominion well peopled well furnished and himselfe of a great revenue but both in place much inferiour being no Elector being as of body the strongest so also of minde the vilest natured people of all Germanie In other things likewise he is inferiour to the Duke of Saxonie a great part of his Country being barren and his subjects poore The Duke of Bavaria hath a large rich and goodly Country lying in great length on both sides the Danubie a great revenue and his subjects in good estate but as being almost the only Catholike great Prince of the temporalty of no great party and unfurnished of warlike provision but much more of treasure being exceedingly behinde hand principally through the abuse of his Iesuites by whom being wholly governed he hath spent and daily doth infinitely in building them Churches Altars and Colleges and endowing them with large revenues What is above written of the Duke of Bavaria's estate was something to the truth at the time of the former edition of this booke for certainly the house of Bavaria is wholly Iesuited insomuch as the father of this present Duke giving over the government retired himselfe into a house of Iesuites and this present Duke besides other his large bounties and buildings hath already estated eighteene hundred pound sterling a yeare upon the English Iesuites with condition that it shall goe to the Vniversity of Oxford so soone as that shall be converted to Popery So that the case is now altered with the Duke of Bavaria hee hath gotten part both of the Vpper and Lower Palatinate into his hands yea and the Electorship it selfe is estated upon him Thus for the time are the Palatinate and Bavaria fallen both upon one person againe as they were before the yeare 1294. when as Lewis the Emperour Prince of both of them gave the Palatinate to his elder sonne and Bavaria to the younger after which the Palatine marrying the heire of Bavaria againe united them But about 125. yeares since the Emperour Maximilian againe parted them giving Bavaria to the Ancestor of this present Maximilian He is Vncle to King Frederike himselfe hath no issue his second brother is the Elector of Cullen and a third brother he hath who is not childlesse Bavaria touches both Austria Bohemia and the Vpper Palatinate too aptly situated for the late warres both to distresse his nephew and to aid the Emperour What forces he is able to make did then appeare and his revenue must bee answerable The Duke of Wirtemberg as in dignitie he is inferiour to all these so doth hee if I be not deceived approach neerest in most particulars of greatnesse to the Duke of Saxonie having a Country in circuit but small being not much bigger by ghesse than Yorkeshire but very full of neat Townes and rich Villages very well peopled and they generally very rich The land is not so fruitfull as in other places but farre excelling the best in England that ever came under my view abounding exceedingly especially about Stutgard with wine and the Countrey so pleasantly diversified as that the hils whereof it is full and River sides being only imployed to Vines the plaines are every where full of corne of all sorts of excellent meadow and pasture with sufficient store of wood The Duke himselfe is well loved of his people very rich in treasure and yearely revenue so that setting the mines aside he is thought to be equall if not

to make reckonings even they supply the want with Corne and Salt For Pepper Frankincense Myrrh and Salt they give Gold and that by weight as for Silver it is in little request The greatest concourse of people is about the Kings Court which never stayeth long in one place but is ever in progresse sometime in one place sometime in another and ever in the open fields under Tents and Pavillions It is said to containe ten miles in circuit His government is tyrannicall for he intreateth his Vassals rich and poore more liker slaves than subjects which to doe with the greater safetie he carrieth himselfe amongst them with a holy and Saint-like adoration for at his bare name they bow their bodies and touch the earth with their hands They reverence his Pavillion yea though he be absent In old times they were accustomed to shew themselves to the people but once in three years but since they are growne lesse Majesticall shewing themselves thrice in one yeare to wit on Christmas-day on Easter-day and on Holy-Rood-day yea and in these times the Kings which now reigne are become more gracious When any matter is committed in the Princes name to any man hee is to attend his Commission starke naked to the middle Being called to witnesse a matter in controversie they hardly speake truth unlesse they sweare by the life of the King Hee giveth and taketh to whom and from whom he pleaseth neither dare he from whom he taketh for his life make shew of a discontented countenance He presenteth to holy Orders and disposeth at his good pleasure of the goods of the Spiritualtie as well as of the Laitie In travelling he rideth shadowed with red Curtaines high and deepe incompassing him round about He weareth on his head a Crowne the one halfe wrought with Gold and the other of Silver in his hand he beareth a Silver Crucifix He covereth his face with a peece of watchet Taftata which more or lesse he lifteth up and putteth downe according as hee is minded to grace him with whom he talketh Sometimes he sheweth his whole legge lifting it without the hangings then may no man approach but by degrees and after many courtesies and divers messages passing to and fro No man hath vassals but the King to whom once a yeare they doe homage and protest obedience as subjects to their Liege Soveraigne Hee derived his pedegree from Milech the sonne of Salomon and Saba In the reigne of Candaces they received the Christian Faith and about that time one Gasparis became famous in Aethiopia from whom after thirteene generations descended that Iohn who first tooke upon him the Surname of Sanctus and left it an hereditary Title to his house and successours This man having no issue of his body about the time of Constantine gave the Kingdome to the eldest sonne of his brother Caius and invested the younger Balthasar and Melchior the one with the Kingdome of Fatigar the other with the Kingdome of Goiam and so divided the bloud royall into three Families the Gaspars Balthasars and Melchiors To avoid sedition and innovation hee made a Law that the sonnes brethren and neerest kindred of the Emperour should be kept and shut up in the Castle of Amara and that they should neither succeed in the Empire nor enjoy any honourable estate for which cause the Emperours ever since have seldome married He manureth his Domaines with his owne slaves and Cattell who by reason they are suffered to marrie and their issues remaine in the same estate of villenage as doe their Fathers they increase to infinite multitudes Every man that hath any inheritance doth likewise pay tribute some Horses some Oxen others Gold Cotton-wooll or such like It is thought that he is Lord of infinite Treasures and to have store of houses full of Cloth Jewels and Gold In his Letters to the King of Portugal upon condition that he would wage war against the Infidels he offered him a Million of Gold and a Million of men with provision according He is reported to lay up yearely in the Castle of Amara three Millions of Gold And true it is that before the dayes of King Alexander he did hoord up great store of Gold in rude and unwrought Masses but no such quantity as is spoken because they know not how to refine it His Revenues are of three sorts the first ariseth of his Crowne-land the second of the Taxes of his people who pay every man by house somewhat besides the tenth of all that is digged out of their Mines the third he levieth of the great Lords and they give him the Revenue of any one of their Townes which he will chuse so he chuse not that wherein themselves inhabit And albeit the Prince be very rich yet the people are idle and beggarly partly because they are intreated as slaves which usage taketh from any people that courage alacritie of spirit which should be in men professing armes and undergoing dangers and partly because in respect of that base bond of servile fidelity wherewith they are over-awed to his Majesty they perceive their hands are fast bound through feare whereof they have no other weapon fit for service than a rusty head-peece a Scull or Curasse which the Portugals have brought thither So that having neither fortresse to slie unto nor weapons to repulse wrongs their Villages and substance lie alwayes open to the prey and spoile of whosoever will invade them Their offensive weapons are certaine darts and arrowes without feathers They observe a Lent of fifty dayes which by reason of their true or rather superstitious abstinence doth bring their bodies so weake and low that for many dayes after they are not able to gather strength to move themselves from one place to another At which time the Moores watching opportunity invading their Dominions carry away men women and wealth Francis Alvarez writeth that he is able to bring into the field an hundred thousand men but experience hath manifested that even in his extremities his numbers were far inferior to that reckoning He hath Knights of an order dedicated to the protecton of S. Anthony Every Gentleman Father of three sons except the eldest is bound to give one to the service of the King out of these are chosen twelve thousand Horsemen for the guard of his person Their vow and oath is to defend the bounds of the Empire and to fight against the enemies of the Christian Faith He is fronted with three puissant neighbours the King of Borno the great Turke and the King of Adel. The King of Borno is Lord of that Countrey which from Guangula Eastward stretcheth about five hundred miles betweene the desarts of Seth and Barca In situation it is very uneven sometime mountainous and sometime plaine the people indifferent civill the Countrey reasonably well inhabited and in regard of plenty of victuall somewhat resorted unto by Merchants On the Mountaines dwell Neat-herds and Sheep-herds living for the