Merlin and his wonderfull Prophesies CHAP. 1. Of the Birth of Merlin sirnamed Ambrosius whether he were a Christian or no and by what spirit hee prophesied c. TO Prophets there be severall attributes given some are called prophetae some vates others videntes that is Prophets Predicters and Prophets predicters and seers Seers and these have been from all antiquity The name of prophets was and ought to bee peculiar to those only that dealt onely in divine Mysteries and spake to the people the words which the Almighty did dictate unto them concerning those things which should futurely happen and such also are called in the holy Text Seers But vates was a title promiscuously conferd on prophets and poets as belonging to them both of the first were Moses Samuel David Isaiah Ieremiah Daniel and the rest whose divine Oracles are extant in the old Testament others there were in the time of the Gospell as Iohn Baptist of whom our Saviour himselfe witnesseth that he was not onely a prophet but more than a prophet and we reade in the Acts of the Apostles Cap. 11. 27. And in those days also came Prophets from Hierusalem to Antiochia And there stood up one of them called Agabus and signified Propheticall Poets by the spirit that there should be great famine in all the world which came to passe under Claudius Caesar of the Vaticall or propheticall poets amongst the Greeks were Orpheus Linus Homer Hesiod c. and amongst the Latins Publius Virgilius Maro with others But before I come to enquire in which of these lists This our Countryman Merlin whose sirname was Ambrosius ought to be filed It is needfull that I speak something of his birth and The birth of Merlin parents His mother being certain but his father doubtfull for so our most ancient Chronologers have left them that is whether hee were according to nature begot by a man and a woman or according to his mothers confession that hee was conceived by the compression of a fantasticall spirituall creature without a bodie which may bee easily believed to bee a meere fiction Meâ—…lin the sonne of a Kings daughter or excuse to mitigate her fault being a Royall Virgin the daughter of King Demetius or to conceale the person of her sweet-heart by disclosing of whose name shee had undoubtedly exposed him to imminent danger and this is most probable And yet we reade that the other fantasticall congression is not impossible For Speusippus the sonne of Platoes sister and Elearchus the Sophist and Amaxilides in the second book of his philosophie affirme in the honour of Plato that his mother Perictione having congression with the imaginary shadow Plato and Merlin had fathers alike of Apollo conceived and brought into the World him who proved to bee the Prince of Philosophers Apuleius also in his book intitled De Socratis Daemonio of Socrates his Daemon or genius writes at large that betwixt the Moone and the Earth Spirits inhabit called Incubi of which Spirits betwixt the Moone and the Earth opinion Plato was also who saith That their harbour was between the Moone and the Earth in the moyst part of the ayre A kinde of Daemons which hee thus defines a living creature moyst rationall immortall and passible whose property is to envy men because to that place from whence they were precipitated by their pride man by his humilitie is preferd and of these some are so libidinous and luxurious that sometimes taking humane shape upon them they will commixe themselves with women and generate children from whence they have the name of Incubi whom the Romans called Fauni and Sicarii and of such Saint Augustine Spirits called Incubi in his booke De civitate Dei makes mention It further may bee questioned whether hee were a Christian or a Gentile as also by what Whether Merlin were a Christian or an Heathen spirit he prophesied a Pythonick or Divine that is by the Devill who spake delusively in the Oracle of Apollo or by holy and celestiall revelation For the first it is not to be doubted but hee was a Christian as being of the British Nation This Kingdome having for the space of two hundred and odde yeeres before his birth received the Gospell under King Lucius the first King of this Land by the Substitutes of Pope Eleutherius by whose preaching the King and a great part of his people quite renounced all Pagan Idolatry and were baptized into the Christian Faith but by what spirit he so truly predicted is only knowne to the God Prophets and Prophetesses in all Nations of all spirits who in every Nation and Language pickt out some choice persons by whose mouthes hee would have uttered things which should futurely happen to posterity according to his divine will and pleasure and amongst these was this our Merlin to prove the former Holy Iob was but a Gentile a man of the land of Chus yet none of the holy Prophets of the The former proved Lord did more plainly more faithfully and more pathetically acknowledge Christ and the Resurrection than himselfe when hee saith in a most raptured Emphasis Iob 19. v. 23. O that my words were written even in a book and graven with an iron pen in lead or in stone for ever For I am sure my Redeemer liveth and hee shall stand the last on the earth and though after my skinne wormes destroy this body yet I shall see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold and none other for mee though my reines be consumed within me Neither was this any wonder in blessed Iob Of the Sibyls whose like for holinesse and uprightnesse of life was not to bee found upon the face of the whole earth when even all the Sibils who were Prophetesses and Virgins and Gentiles of severall Nations for so Varro affirmes predicted not onely of the Incarnation passion and death of our blessed Saviour but of his second comming to judgement of the consummation and dissolution of the World the Resurrection of all flesh the glory of the Saints and the condemnation of the Reprobates especially Sibylla Cumana whom the renowmed Doctors of the Church and more especially Saint Augustine S. Austine aâ—d other of the Fathers approve of the Sibyls prophesies quoted in her prophesies and not thought them altogether unworthy to be remembred in their works of which also Virgil makes menâ—ion in his fourth Eglogue in which Saint Augustine Virgil prophesied of Christ. himselfe witnesseth that hee though an Heathen predicted the Incarnation of our blessed Saviour for he insinuates that he is to speak of a great mystery in his first words which are these Sicelides Musae paulo major a canamus As speaking to the Muses or invocating their assistance that he is now to sing of more stupendious and high things and a little after it followeth Vltima jam venit Cumaei carminis aetas That is now
and soone after died at Shaftbury and was buried at Winchester when he had reigned nineteen yeeres leaving two sonnes Harold sirnamed for his swiftnesse in running Harefoot and Hardy Canutus whom Harold sonne of Canutus King of England in his life time hee caused to bee crowned King of Denmarke Harold succeeded his Father in the Crowne of England in the beginning of whose Reigne there was great doubt made of the Legitimacie of his birth or whether hee were the Kings sonne or no but more especially by Earle Goodwin who was a man of a turbulent spirit who to the utmost of his power would have disinherited him and conferred the Kingdome to his brother But Leofricus whom the King much loved and trusted by the assistance of the Danes opposed mightily Goodwin and his sonne so that they were utterly disappointed of their purpose Harold was no sooner setled in the Kingdome but hee robbed his stepmother Emma that good and devout Lady of her Iewels and Emma wife to Canutus banished Treasure and then banished her the Land wherefore she sailed to Baldwin Earle of Flanders where she was nobly entertained and continued all the Reigne of this Harold in which hee did nothing worth register or deserving memory who after three yeeres and some few moneths died at London or as some say at Oxford and having no issue left his brother Hardy Canutus heire to the Crowne with the death of whose elder brother I conclude this Chapter CHAP. 10. Merlins Prophesie of Hardy Canutus and Earle Goodwin which accordingly hapned his many Tyrannies amongst other his Tithing of the Norman Gentlemen the death of Prince Alured sonne to Canutus and Emma the strange death of Earle Goodwin After the death of Edward the Confessor Harold Earle Goodwins sonne usurpeth YOu see how hitherto Merlin hath predicted nothing which the successe and event have not made good wee will yet examine him further and prove if hee have beene as faithfull in the future as the former who thus proceedeth And Helluo then with open jaws shall yawne Devouring even till midnight from the dawn And he an Hydra with seven heads shall grace Glad to behold the ruine of his race And then upon the Neustrian bloud shall prey And tithe them by the pole now well away Burst shall he after gordg'd with humane blood And leave his name in part of the salt flood Iron men in woodden Tents shall here arrive And hence the Saxons with her Eglets drive c. It followeth in the History Hardy Canutus the Hardy Canutus the Dane crowned King of England sonne of Canutus and Emma began his Reigne over England in the yeere of Grace one thousand forty one who was oâ—… such cruelty as that he was no sooner setled in the State but he presently sent Alphricus Archbishop of Yorke and Earle Goodwin to Westminster to take up the A barbarous cruelty in a brother body of his deere brother and having parted the head from the shoulders to cast them into the River Thames which was by them accordingly performed the cause thereunto moving was for rifling and after exiling his mother Emma whom hee caused with great honour to be brought againe into the Land Hee revived also the almost forgotten Tribute His riot and eâ—…cesse called Dane gelt which hee spent in drinking Deep and Feeding high for these were his delights For besides his immoderate quaffing he had the Tables through his Court spred four times a day with all the riot and excesse that might be devised who himselfe minding only gormondizing and voracitie committed the whole rule of the Land to Emma and Goodwin who had married the Daughter of Canutus by his first wife Elgina by whom many things were much misordered to the great discontent of the Commons This Earle had many sonnes as witnesseth Polychronicon lib. 6. cap. 15. by his Earle Goodwins sons and daughter first wife who was sister to Canutus hee had but one who by the striking of an Horse was throwne into the Thames and there drowned whose mother after died by Lightning and was of such incontinent life that shee prostituted Virgins and young women to make base and mercenary use of their bodies she dead he married a second of whom hee begot sixe sonnes Swanus Harold Tostius Wilnotus Syrthe or Surthe and Leofricus with a daughter named Goditha who after was married to Edward the Confessor Hardy Canutus wholly devoted to all voluptuousnesse being at a Feast at Lambeth in the midst of his mirth and jollity drinking a carowse out of a bowle elbow-deep fell downe Hardy Canutus dieth drinking suddenly and rested speechlesse for the space of eight dayes at the end whereof he expired in the eight day of Iune when hee had raigned two compleat yeeres leaving no issue lawful of his body and was buried by his Father at Winchester in whom ended the Line and Progeny of Swanus so that after this King the bloud of the Danes was quite extinct and made uncapable of any Regall Dignity within this Land The end of the Danish persecution and how long it continued Their bloudy persecution ceasing which had continued counting from their first landing in the time of Brightricus King of the West Saxons by the space of two hundred fifty five yeeres or thereabout by this Hardy Canutus Merlin intended his Helluo as being a gluttonou Prince whose bibacity and voracity would continue from morning till midnight in the first yeere of whose Reigne The two sonnes of Egelredus and Emma namely Alphred and Edward who before were sent into Normandy came into England to see their Mother and were Princely attended by a great number of brave Norman Knights and Gentlemen of which Earle Goodwin that By the seven heads are meant he and his six sonnes who aâ—…sisted him in all his bloudy projects subtle seven-headed Hydra before spoken of having notice ' hee began to plot and devise how to match his only daughter Goditha to one of the two Princes but finding Alured the eldest to be of an high and haughty spirit and would disdaine so mean a marriage he thought by supplanting him to conferre her upon the younger who was of a more flexible disposition Earle Goodwins pâ—…te to compasse which hee pretended to the King and Councell that it might prove dangerous to the state to suffer so many strangers to enter the Land without license By which he got authority and power to manage that businesse according to his owne discretion as being most potent with the King and a great incourager of his profusenesse and riot therefore being strongly accompanied he met with the two Princes and their traine and set upon them as Enemies killing the greater part of them at the first encounter and having surpris'd the rest upon a place called Guil-downe hee slue nine and saved the tenths and then thinking the number of the survivors too Earle Goodwins great cruelty great he tithed againe
Soveraigniz'd fifteen yeares Madan began his Réigne in the yeare of the World foure thousand one hundred twenty two of whom is little left worthy memory but that hee tyrannized over his Subjects and in the fortieth of his Reigne being at his disport of Hunting and lost by his Traine hee The death of Madan was devoured of Wolves which were then plenteous in the Land leaving two Sons Memprisius and Manlius These two brothers were at mortall enmity till in the end Memprisias the elder caused the other to bee traiterously slain after which he fell into all kinde of vices and abandoning the bed of his lawfull wife used the company of many prostitutes and Concubines and then into the brutish sin of Sodomitry for which hee grew hated both of God and man whose body also was in hunting torn to pieces by wild beasts leaving behind him one The death of Memprisius sonne begotten in lawfull wedlâ—…cke named Ebrank Hee beganne his Reigne in the yeare of the World foure thousand one hundred fourescore and two hee had one and twenty wives of whom hee received twenty sonnes and thirty daughters The eldest of which was Gualeu al of Anumerous issue them he sent to Alba Silvius the eleventh King of Italy and sixt of the Latins to have them maried to the blâ—…ud of the Trojans Hee was a great Warriour and conquered in Germany and els-where he builded Caerbranke now called Yorke one hundred and forty yeares after the The building of York erecting of London hee built also in Scotland the Castle of Maidens now called Edenborough Edenborough Castle Castle And after with a strong army pierced Gallia returning thence with great triumph and riches who when hee had reigned sixty yeares died and was buried in Yorke leaving his eldest sonne Brute Greenshield to succeed him in the Kingdome of whom is left no memory worthy the recitall but that he expired and lyeth buried by his Father whose successour was his sonne Leil or Leir who built Careleir or Carleil The 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 who in the latter end of his Reigne gave himselfe wholly to sloth by which divers uprores grew in the Realme not at his death appeased whom succeeded his sonne Lud sirnamed Hurdebras who was inaugurated in the yeare of the world foure thousand two hundred The building of Canterbury Winchester Shaftsbury threescore and nineteen he prudently appeased those combustions begot in his fathers days He builded the Town of Kaerkin now called Canterbury and Caerguent now Winton or Winchester and another titled Mount Palatine now Sexton or Shaftsbury hee reigned thirty nine yeares and left a sonne called Bladud This Bladud professed himselfe a great Astrologer and studied the art of Necromancy he builded the Towne of Caerbadon now called Bath and was the first founder of the hot Baths Bathe and the hot Baths this King attempting to flie from the top of Apollo's Temple to the ground his art failing him he broak his neck in the fall when hee had raigned twenty yeares leaving his sonne Leir to The death of Bladud succeed him Leir was of noble conditions and kept the Land in peace and tranquillity hee built the City of Caerleir now Leicester hee Leicester had no sonne but three only daughters Gonovilla Ragan and Cordeilla the youngest whom he best loved who being grown in age desired to know which of his daughters affected him most the first protested she loved him better then her owne soule the second swore her love was inexpressible for shee preferr'd his love before all things under the Sunne which answers Leirs three daughters much pleased him then hee demanded the like of the youngest who told him shee could not flatter like her sisters but she loved him as far as he was worthy to be beloved and as much as a childe ought to love a father which answer much distasting him hee maried his eldest daughter to the Duke of Cornwall and the second to the Duke of Albania and betwixt them divided his Land after his disease but for the younger he reserved no dowre at all Notwithstanding which Aganippus a King amongst the Galls hearing of her great beauty and vertue came into this Kingdome and took her to wife to whom her father would neither part with gold nor jewels nor any remembrance of his love but glad to be so rid of her It was not long after that the two sisters grieved that he liv'd so long incited the two Dukes The ingratitude of the two sisters their husbands called Maâ—…glanus and Hemminus who rose up in armes against him and divided his Dominion betwixt them so that of force he was compeld to flie into France to bee relieved of his youngest daughter whom hee hâ—…d before so much despised whom shee no sooner saw but she exprest unto him all the filiall duty that could be expected from a father so that hee now began to distinguish betwixt flattery and faire words and naturall and pious indulgence briefly shee animated her Husband to The love of Co deilla to her Father take his quarrell in hand who entred into the Land with a puissant army and re-instated him in his thrâ—ne who after he had ruled the Kingdome forty yeeres died and was buried at Caerleil leaving his daughter Cordeilla to inherit the Kingdome who by the generall assent of all the Peeres and Commons was admitted as Queen who for the space of five yeares governed the Land with great prudence and the generall love of the multitude til Morgan and Cunedagius the sons to her two elder sisters invaded her Kingdome and surprising her put her into close prison which servitude her great spirit not able to endure shee with her owne hands slue her The death of Cordeilla selfe These two Nephews to Cordeilla Morgan and Cunedagius divided the Land betwixt them and so continued in great amity for the space of two yeares when some evilly disposed persons whispered in the eares of Morgan that it was a great dishonour unto him being descended from the elder sister Gonewilla and her Husband Maglanus should part from any of his right to Cunedagius sonne to Ragan the second sister and her Hemminius and not possesse himselfe of the whole principality therefore hee made war upon his cousin who sent to him messengers to intreat of amity and unity to which hee would by no meanes condescend Therefore Cunedagie compeld to an unwilling war gave him battaile and rowted his whole army and after chaced him into Wales where in a second field Morgan was slain which place is to this day called Glamorgan or Morgans Glamorgan Land after whose death the victor possessed the sole soveraignty of whom nothing is left worthy memory but that after he had reigned three and thirty yeares hee was buried at Troynovant leaving to succeed him a sonne called Rivallo Rivallo Hee governed the Realme honourably for the space of forty six yeares in
a certain number of Britaines and as many Saxons should meet upon a Mayday weaponlesse upon the Plaine of Salisbury on which prefixed day Hengist bethought him of a strange and persidious Treason charging all his Saxons that every one should put a long Knife in his hose and when hee gave this watch-word Nempnith your Sepis they should suddenly fall upon the A most unkâ—…ngly treason unarmed Britaines and kill them to one man Briefly they met at the time and place appointed where Hengist and his Saxons received him and his power with a countenance of peace and love but they had not long spoken together when Hengist giving the watchword the Britans were basely and barbarously butchered unlesse any by his manhood and strength wrest the Knife from his enemy and defend himselfe amongst the British Lords was one Edolf Earle of Chester who as Gunfride affirmes seeing his friends and fellows thus murdered he found the stake of an hedge by chance their scattered with which he not only saved his owne life but A valiant Britain slue seventeene of the opposite side and got safely into the City of Salisbury after which treason executed the King remained with Hengist as prisoner Hengist by his Treason having thus gotten the upper hand and reteining the King in his Vortiger suppressed by Hengist power and custodie hee compelled him to give him three Provinces in the East part of Britain Kent Suffex Norfolke and Suffolke to which some adde Essex c. of which being safely possessed hee suffered the King to goe at large sending for some other of his Kinsmen to take possession of other Provinces in the Kingdome crowning himselfe King of Kent and from his Britain first called England owne name caused this Realme to bee called Hengists Land or as wee now pronounce it England and the Saxons now spreading and quartering themselves in the best and most fertile soyles of the Land as having the Sovereignty over London Yorke Lincolne Winchester with most of the principall Cities in the Realme The Saxons still increasing in multitude and power and the Britains daily decreasing both in number and strength Vortiger was forced to flie or retire himself into Wales where Vortiger forced to fly into Wales after some writers thinking to fortifie himself he began to lay the foundation of a Castle called Generon or Gwayneren in the West side of the River Grana upon an Hill called Cloaricus But what successe he had in the building thereof and how Merlin came first to be knowne to the King with part of his Prophesies I will referre to the subsequent Chapter giving withall the intelligent peruser of this story to better his knowledge this Item that without the laying open of the true passage ofthose timâ—… which I have as briefly as possibly I could in the premises these our prophets predictions which now seeme plaine and easie would have beene much more intricate and hard to bee understood CHAP. 3. By what miraculous accident young Merlin came to be knowne to King Vortiger of the combat betwixt the red and the white Dragon and his prophesie thereof c. WHen Vortigers Architectors had caused the Hill to be digged and the foundation to bee laid on which to erect this new structure after the weake men had digged the circuit of the place where the great stones were to be set in order they were no sooner laid in the hollow of the earth but they instantly sunke down and were swallowed up and no more seen at which the Workmen wondred and the King himselfe was much astonished and the more proofs they made the greater cause of admiration they had especially the scituation being upon an Hill and no moorish or uncertaine ground therefore the King commanded a cessation from the worke for the present and sent to the Bards and Wisards of which that age afforded plenty Vortiger inquires of the Wizards to know a reason of that prodigie or at least what it might portend who being gathered together and having long consulted amongst themselves and not finding by any naturall or supernaturall reason what the cause thereof might be they concluded in the end to save their credits and to excuse their ignorance to put the King off with an impossiblitie and when hee came to demand of them what they had done in the matter they returned him this answer that those stones could never be laid together or the place built upon till they were cemented with the bloud of a man-childe who was borne of a mother but had no man to A cunning evasion his father With this answere the King satisfied the soothsayers departed from him not meanly glad that they had put him off according to our English word with a flam or delirement without any disparagement to their art and cunning who no sooner left his presence but the King cald his servants about him commanding them to ride and search into and through all Provinces and Countries till they could find such an one as the Wisards had spoken of and by faire or foule meanes to bring the party unto him but not acquainting him with the Cause but that the King seeing such an one would send him back richly and bountifully rewarded having received this commission or rather Imposition from the King their master wee leave them to their severall adventures every of them being sufficiently accommodated for so uncertaine a journey One of them amongst the rest hapned to come to a Towne or Citty called Kaier Merlin Merlins City since from him so called which implyes Merlins Towne or Merlins borrough which is no doubt the same which wee call at this day Marlborrow but my author termes it a City at whose gates the messenger of the king arriving it hapned that a great many young Lads were sporting themselves without the walls and of the company two of them in gaming fall out the one yong Merlin the other called Dinabutius who amongst other breathing words cast into Merlins teeth that hee was but some Moon-calfe as born of a mothsr who knew not his father The servant taking notice of this Language presently demanded what he was and who were his parents who returned him answer that for any father hee Merlin first discovered had they knew none but his mother was daughter to the King Demetius and lived a Votaresse in that Citie in a Nunnery belonging to the Church of Saint Peter which having heard her presently went to the chiefe Magistrates and shewed them his Commission from the King which they obeying sent both the mother and sonne under his conduct to attend the pleasure of his Majesty Of whose comming the King was exceeding joyfull and when they appeared before him Merlin and his mother appeare before the King both ignorant of the occasion why they were sent for the King first asked him if that were his naturall sonne Who reply'd that hee was and borne of her own body hee then
knowne magnanimity and courage farre surpassest other men but the Kings false oath hath levied men to this unjust warre in which wee must either strive bravely to winne the mastery or else be basely overcome and we now are run into that hazard that none of us is safe which shall not acquit himselfe by his resolution and Knightly boldnesse therefore shew your valour and be assured of victorie Then Earle Baldwin standing in the front of Earle Baldwins incouragement to to the Kings Army the Kings battaile began to incourage his souldiers in this manner To men that shall fight three things are by them to be observed The first the Iustice of the cause lest they indanger their soules which is cleere on our part who sight for our King Country the second is the number of men and the accommodation of Armes for few are not to oppose a multitude nor naked men against armed and we parallel if not exceed them both in amunition and number the third is boldnesse and courage not for defence only but offence which me thinks I espy in your faces and therefore of all these three our Army is sufficiently furnished Now what bee our enemies A weake and distressed woman assisted by two weak supporters Robert Earle of Glocester a man daring without deed and accustomed to word with words not weapons and Ranulph Earle of Chester haughty but withall fool-hardy constant in nothing and conscious only of Conspiracies who proposeth great enterprizes but never brings any to good effect and for many Legions conducted by such Leaders the more they be in company the sooner they be overcome At which word he was cut off by the violent The battell betwixt the King and the Empresse comming on of the enemy and now beganne a cruell battaile resolutely and bravely fought on both sides the violence whereof lasted long uncertain who should be victors but in the end the Kings Hoast was utterly routed but hee of a more heroicke spirit as scorning to flie mayntained the fight with some few of his Knights The King takâ—…n prisoner and was taken prisoner and being brought before the Empresse shee commanded him to bee conveyed under safe custody to the Castle of Bristoll where he remayned indurance from Candlemasse to holy Rood day next ensuing after which victory she was so exalted in thought and puft up with pride that shee thought now shee had the whole Kingdome in her owne possession and came triumphantly to Winchester after to Wilton to Oxford to Reading to Saint Albans and lastly to London in all which places she was royally received and during her abode there the Queene made assiduate labour for the delivery of the King her husband promising he The Queenes pâ—…tition to the Empresse should surrender the whole Land into her possession and either be take himselfe to some Religious Order or to become a banisht Pilgrime to the end of his life but all was in vaine shee could receive no comfort from the Empresse upon any conditions The Citizens of London likewise petitioned unto her that they might use the Laws of Edward the Confessor as they were confirmed by the Conquerour and that she would be pleased to disanull the strict innovations imposed on the land by her Father Henry to which she nor her Counsell would in the least wise condiscend but the tyde soone turned for Kent tooke part The Londoners and Kentishmen take part with the King with the King and the Londoners being discontented at the deniall of their suite and being assured that the Kentish men would in all their Enterprizes assist them they purposed to have surprized her person of which she having secret intelligence left a great part of her Iewels and houshold-stuffe and fled to Oxford in which slight many of her adherents were disheartned and a great part of her forces dispersed and scattered Then the Queene before so much despised The Queene puâ—…sueth the Empresse by the ayde of her friends the Kentish men Londoners and others gathered a strong host under the conduct of one William De-Pre to pursue the Empresse who understanding the Queens forces daily to increase and hers assiduatly to diminish shee left Oxford and secretly escaped to Glocester whither the Queenes host followed her in defence of which City Robert brother Earle Bobert of Glocester taken prisoner of the Empresse making an excursion from the towne was surprised and taken Briefly a Communication was held between the two opposite parties in which after much debating the businesse on both sides it was concluded that there should be one exchange made of the two prisoners so that the King vpon Holy rood day in harvest King Stephen released in exchange of Earle Robert was released and delivered up to the Queen and her Army and Robert of Glocester was surrendred to his sister Maud the Empresse The Land in this time was much distressed by these two Armies who were in continuall agitation sometimes the King having the better and sometimes the Empresse to relate which at large would aske too long circumstance but in the end the King had the better in the seventeenth Yeare of whose Raigne dyed Ranulph Earle of Chester and Ieffry Plantaginet husband to Maud the Empresse after whose death their The death of Iâ—…ffery Plantaginet sonne Henry sirnamed short mantle because hee used to goe in a short Cloak was created Duke of Anjou and Normandy whose sonne few yeares after maried Elenor daughter to the Earl of Poyctow who had before bin maried to Lewis The marriage of Henry Duke of Normandy the French King but for the too neernesse of blood divorced after hee had received two daughters from her Mary and Alice so that this Henry was the Earle of Anjou by his father Duke of Normandy by his mother and Earle of Poyctow by his wife This King Stephen had a sonne named Eustace Eustace the sonne of King Stephen who by ayde of the French King warred upon the forenamed Henry in which the Duke so Knightly demeaned himselfe that it proved to their great disadvantage some say that King Stephen would have crowned his sonne in his life time but the Clergie would not agree thereto having a command from the Bishop of Rome to the contrary and therefore his purpose tooke no effect Then the King said siege to the Castles of Newbery Wallingford Warbycke and Warwell which had beene kept by the friends of the Empresse to her use in hope of the comming over of her sonne Duke of Duke Henry landeth in England Normandy c. who the same yeere with a great Hoast entered England and first wanne the Castle of Malmsbury and after came to London and possessed himselfe both of the City and the Tower which more by his policie and promise then his potencie and power performed Then King Stephen with his Hoast drew neer to Duke Henry but by the mediation of Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury and
place called Bellalaund or Brighland hee had like to have beene taken as he sat at dinner which could not have beene had he not had some traitours about him and now confer the premisses The King almost surprized at dinner with the Prophesie Two Owles shall from the Eagles ashes rise And in their pride the Forest beasts despise They fore't at first to take their wings and flie Shall back returning beare themselves so hie T' out-brave both birds and beasts and great spoyls winne By the Goats casing in a Lions skin The two Owls are the two Spencers who from the ashes of the Cornish Eagle Gaveston grew into the especiall favour of the King who were sayd to case the Goat in the skinne of the Lyon by animating the effeminate King to the warres against the Barons by whose deaths they got many rich spoyls and then forced to take their wings to fly where they were banisht the Realme at the parliament of white Bands c. The state of the kingdome thus standing and the two Spencers commanding all the Land had Warres with France about the Dutchy of Guian to attone which difference betwixt the two Kings the two Spencers being in all things The hate of the Spencers towards the Queene which was after the cause of their ruine opposite to the Queen whom they had brought to the bare allowance and pension of twenty shillings a day they further plotted how to rid her out of the Land and perswaded the King to send her into France to make peace betwixt the two Kingdomes having before seized on all her lands and those belonging to the Prince The Queen sent into France Briefely the Queene arrived in France and was royally received by her brother who hearing of her base usage and by whom he was much incensed against the K. and his wicked Counsellors and sent to him under his seale to come in person into France to doe him homage or he She is royally received by the King her brother should forfeit the Dutchy of Guian Of which K. Edward took little regard in hope his Queen would salve all things that were amisse betwixt the brother and husband After the Queenes three months abode in France the Prince desired of his Father that he might have leave to visite his mother and unckle which his Father granted and said to him at parting Goe my faire sonne in Gods blessing and mine and returne to mee againe as speedily as you may who passing the Sea and comming to the Kings Court hee joyfully received him and said Faire sonne you bee welcome and since your Father came not to doe homage for the Dutchy of Guian as his antecessors have done I give you the Lordship to hold of me in heritage and so the Prince was created and thence forward called the Duke P. Edward made Duke of Guien of Guien Which being knowne to King Edward hee was highly incensed especially because the Prince was instated into that honour without his consent and pleasure and finding that notwithstanding his often sending they made no haste to returne hee made Proclamation that if within such a day prefixed they made not their repaire into the Land they should be held as enemies to the Crowne and state but the Queene much fearing the malice of the Spencers whom she knew to bee her mortall enemies she removed not thence then the King made forfeiture of all their goods and Lands before seized and took the profits of them to his owne use and sent sharpe and threatning Letters to the French King if he suffered them The French King refuseth to aid his sister to sojourne longer in his Realme upon which he commanded them thence without any further comfort or succour At that time Sir Iohn Henaud brother to the Earle of Henaud a man of great courage and valour being in the French Court much commiserating the Queene and the Prince desired her to goe with him to his brother the Earle of which she was glad and taking his noble offer was there honourably received Then was a marriage concluded betwixt Prince Edward The Prince contracted to Philip daughter to the Earl of Henaud and Phillip the Earles Daughter upon certaine conditions one of which was that the Earle should send over into England the Queene and her sonne with 400 men at Armes under the conduct of his Brother In which interim the two Spencers sent three Barrells of Coyne with Letters to some of the French Peeres that if it were possible they should make away the Queene or her sonne or at least send them away disgraced out of the Realme which mony and Letters were taken by a ship of the Henauders and brought to the Queene during her abode The Spencers beat at their own weapons there which the Earles brother seeing said unto her bee of comfort Madam this is a good Omen the Spencers your enemies have sent you money to pay your souldiers Of which the King of England having intelligence he sent to all the Ports and Havens to interdict their landing notwithstanding which the Queene and Prince with these foure hundred Hollanders and a small company of English gentlemen who had fled to her in the time of her exile landed at a port called Orwel besides The Queene landeth in Suffolk Harwich in Suffolke the fifteenth of September Sir Iohn Henaud the Earles brother being their Captain and Leader without any opposition or resistance to whom after their landing the people resorted in great companies and sped towards London where the King and the Spencers were then resident who hearing of the multitudes that then drew unto her left Walter Stapleton Bishop of Exeter Custos of the Citie The King and Spencers flie to Wales and with a small company fled towards Wales she came then to London where the people were willing to receive her which the Bishop with many sharpe and bitter words opposing the Commons of the City tooke him violently and beheaded him with two of his Esquires at the Standard in West-cheap whose bodies were borne to the Thames side where the Bishop had begun a new edifice contrary to their liking and there unreverently buried The Queene with an easie march followed The Queene pursueth the King the king who came to Bristoll with the Earle of Arundell the two Spencers and his infamous Chancellour Baldock where after counsell taken it was agreed that Hugh Spencer the father should stay there and take charge of the towne and castle whilest the King and the rest tooke shipping thence for Wales to raise the Welshmen in his aid of which the Queene having notice sent thither the Earle of Kent Sir Iohn Henaud with others who with small difficultie The Town and Castle of Bristoll taken tooke the towne and castle with Hugh Spencer the father alive and delivered them to the Queene who remained there till the greatest part of her army pursued the King and his other Minions
into Wales who took the King the Earle of Arundell Hugh Spencer the son and the Chancellour and brought them all prisoners to Hereford in which interim the Citizens The tower of London taken by the Citizens of London won the tower of London and kept it to the Queenes use Upon the morrow after the feast of Simon and Iude the same day that the L. Major takes Hugh Spenâ—… the father put to death his oath was Hugh Spencer the father put to death and after buried at Winchester and upon Saint Hughs day following being the eighteenth Hugh the son drawn hanged and quâ—…rtered day of November was Sir Hugh the son drawne hanged and quartered at Hereford and his head sent to London and set upon the Bridge making good They after be themselves depriv'd of breath By her they scorn'd the flower of life and death The common fame went that after this Hugh was taken hee would take no manner of sustenance and that was the cause he was the sooner put to death of whom was made this Distich following Funis cum lignis à te miser ensis ignis Hugo securus equus abstulit omne decus Rope gallows sword and fire with a just knife Took from thee Hugh thy honour with thy life Foure dayes after was the Earle of Arondell put to death and Robert Baldock the Chancellour being committed to Newgate dyed miserably Baldock the Chancellour dyes in Newgate in prison then the Queene with the Prince her son with the rest of the Lords were with great joy the fourteenth day of December received at London and thence conveighed to Westminster where a Parliament was called the effect whereof expect in the following Chapter CHAP. 21. The deposing of Edward the second his repentance his death His sonne Edward made King A Prophesie of his Reigne His great victory over the Scots with the taking of Barwicke His famous victory at Sea over the French Hee layes claime to the Crowne of France instituteth the Order of the Garter His victory at Cressie His taking of Calice c. FRom this Parliament were Messengers sent to the King then prisoner in Kenelworth Castle three Bishops three Earles two Abbots two Barons two Iudges with Sir William Trussell Procurator of the Parliament to depose him of all Kingly dignity who the five and twentieth of Ianuary in the presence of the aforesaid Lords from the body of the whole House delivered unto him these words following I William Trussell in the name of all men of King Edward deposed from all Kingly power this Land of England procurator of this Parliament resigne to thee Edward the homage that was sometimes made to thee and from this time forth deprive thee of all Kingly power and I shall never be attendant on thee as King after this time And thus was Edward the second deposed and his sonne Edward made King when hee had raigned full eighteene yeeres sixe moneths and odde dayes who during his imprisonment first at Kenelworth and after at Barckley Castle grew greatly repentant of his former course of life finding at length what it Edward greatly repentant was to be misled by upstarts and people of mean condition many of whose penitentiall fancies are still extant And amongst the rest this following Most blessed Iesu Root of all vertue Grant I may thee sue In all humilitie Sen thou for our good List to shed thy blood And stretch thee on the Rood For our iniquitie I thee beseech Most wholsome leech That thou wilt seech For mee such grace That when my body vile My soule shall exile Thou bring in short while It in rest and peace Edward the third of that name sonne of Edward the second and Philip sole daughter of Philip Edward the third made King the Faire at fifteene yeeres of age began his Reigne his father yet living the six and twentieth of Ianuary in the end of the yeer of Grace one thousand three hundred and twenty six and was crowned at Westminster upon the day of the Purification of our Lady next ensuing at what time the earth yielded plenty the Ayre temper the Sea quietnesse and the Church peace hee confirmed the Liberties and Franchises of London and gave Southwarke to bee under the Lord Majors rule and government Of whose Reigne it was thus predicted The spirits of many Lions shall conspire To make one by infusion so intire He by his mighty courage shall restore What his sire lost and Grandsire wonne before Neptune his Navall triumphs shall advance His Coat he quarters with th' Flower of France And after mauger the Canicular Tyke Tweed shal he passe and win again the Wyke A numerous issue shall his Lionesse bring Black shall the first be and though never King Yet shall he Kings captive but ere mature Dye must this brave Whelp of a Calenture And then behind him shall he leave a Kid To undo all both sire and grandsire did The effect of all these will succeed in their order in the first yeere of this Kings Reigne the late King Edward was miserably slaine and put to a most cruell death by the meanes of Sir Roger The death of K. Edward Mortimer who notwithstanding in the Parliament after was made Earle of March the same yeere the foure and twentieth of Ianuary the young King married the Lady Philip daughter to the Earle of Henault in the City of Yorke A Parliament held at Northampton and soone after cald a Parliament at Northampton to which by the meanes of Sir Roger Mortimer and the old Queene an unprofitable and dishonorable peace was made with the Scots who caused the King to release them of all fealty and homage and delivered up to them all the old Writings sealed by their Kings and chiefe Lords of their Land with all Charters and Patents and many rich Iewels which had before beene wonne from them by the Kings of England amongst which the blacke Crosse of Scotland is especially named and the yeere following David the son of Robert le Bruce King of Scots married Iane sister to the King of England whom they after to the derision of the English called Iane make peace and amongst other The Scots taunt the English taunting Songs made of our Nation this was one Long beards heartlesse Painted bodies witlesse Gay coats gracelesse Maketh England thriftlesse But these merry and jigging tunes were turned to their most lamentable Aymee's within few moneths after During the Kings minority all the affaires of the Realme were managed by Sir Roger Mortimer The pride of Sir Roger Mortimer and the Mother Queene And the great persons appointed to that purpose were vilified and not set by which Sir Roger in imitation of K. Arthur was said to keep a round Table to which many noble Knights belonged to his infinite cost and expence But howsoever in the Articles objected by the Parliament against Mortimer third yeere of the King the said Sir Roger
death with the yong Earle of Warwicke the death of the king A prophesie of the reigne of Henry the eighth p. 293 Chap. 32. Prince Henry married to his brothers wife hee winneth Turwin and Turney in France Floden-field with the famous victory against the Scots Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke marrieth the French Queen the kings sister The Emperour Charles the fift made knight of the Garter c. p. 304. Chap. 33. The death of Henry the eighth Edward the sixt crowned a calculation of his reigne Musse Iborow field won by the Lord Protector c. p. 315. Chap. 34. The Lady Iane proclaimed Q. Northumberlands Commission to suppresse the Lady Mary He is arrested of high treason The Coronation of Q. Mary A prediction of her Reigne The Romish Religion restored The death of Northumberland Of Suffolke Of Guilford Dudley Of the Lady Iane Gray her character The death of Cranmer Ridley and Latimer The life of Cardinall Poole twice elected Pope c. p. 326 Chap. 36. King Philips entertainment into the Land presented with the Garter Hee is made K. of Naples and Hierusalem the great solemnity of the King and Queens Marriage at Winchester Their titles their riding through London The Queen rumoured to be with Child King Philips cautelous proceedings hee favoureth the Lady Elisabet He leaveth the Land Queen Maries discontent at his departure The losse of Callis p. 336 Chap. 37. A brief nomination of her troubles wrought by the Popish Clergie Her passage through London to her coronation with the speeches spoke in the pageants A short remembrance of the prime passages in her reign The former prediction fulfild her death other predictions fathered upon Merlin explained c. p. 347 Chap. 38. The title of King Iames to the Crown His comming into England A prophesie of his Reigne The first treason attempted against him The Gunpowder treason and what the conspirators were The king of Denmarke twice commeth into England King Charles proclaimed King his Fathers Funerals c. p. 361 A Chronographical History of the Kings of Britaine from the first plantation of this Island by Brute and his Cousin Corinaeus to the Reigne of King Vortiger In whose time Ambrosius Merlinus began to utter his Predictions CHAP. 1. Brutes first plantation in this Island How hee divided it amongst his three sonnes of several famous Cities builded here by sundry Kings and how divers Rivers took their first name of all the remarkable passages that hapened in their reignes A Catologue of the Kings continued from Brute to the end of his Line and off-spring FOr the better illustration of this present worke intended it shall not be amisse to shew you a briefe progresse of all the memorable passages of the time before wee come to the Prophesie with a Catalogue of the Kings of this Island and what Remarkable things happened in their reigne To begin with the first Brute who was of the ancient and noble bloud of the Trojans discended from Aeneas and Creusa the How Brute was discended daughter of King Priam These had a sâ—…nne called Ascanius after his Father King of Italy Brute was the sonne of Sylvius Aenaeas the son of Ascanius This Brute at fifteene yeares of age being hunting by the unfortunate glanceing of an Arrow slue his father and had beene also in his birth the death of his mother but for the last disasterous act hee willingly exiled himselfe and taking with him a choice company of adventurers thought to discover some new plantation To omit his many troubles both by Land and Sea in which hee was still most victoriously prosperous at length hee incountred with a small navy of ships of which a Trojane and his neare kinseman was Captain whose name was Corinaeus who joyning their Corinaeus cousin to Brute forces together and after divers and sundry perills landed in this Island of the white and chalky Cliffes called Albion where finding none but Giants of mighty stature he destroyed the most part of them of whom the greatest both in bulke and command was called Gogmagog with whom Corinaeus wrastling to prove their triall of strength Gogmagog in his gripe broke a rib in the side of Corinaeus at which he being inraged gathering all his spirits about him cast him downe the high Rocke of Dover the place where they proved the mastery which is called the fall of Gogmagog unto this day for which and other his valiant acts before The fall of Gogmagog atchieved hee gave him that intire Province which from his name beareth the title of Cornwall Brute then taking full view of the Island The building of Troynovant since called London searching up the River of Thames built upon it a City which in remembrance of the late subverted Troy he called Troynovant or new Troy now London this done he put his Souldiers to tilling of the Earth and governed the Realme peaceably for the space of twenty foure yeares He had by his wife Ignogen the daughter of Pandrusus three sonnes betwixt whom in his life time he divided his Kingdome to How hee divided the Kingdome Locrine the eldest hee gave all that is called England but then Logria after his name To the second Cambrius or Cambre hee left the Countrey of Wales at first from him called Cambria To the third Albanact hee gave the North part of the Land then titled from him Albania now Scotland That done hee expired The death of Brute and was buryed at Troynovant and this happened in the yeare of the world foure thousand fourescore and seven Locrine being King of Britaine hearing that a King of Scythia had invaded his brother Albanacts Dominions and having slaine him in battaile governed in his stead Hee with his brother Cambre assembled a mighty Hoast to avenge his death and in a sharpe conflict discomfited his whole Army and so hotly pursued him in his flight that this Scythian which was called Humber was drowned in that River Plow the River Humber came to be so cald which runneâ—…h up from Ravenspurn up to Hulâ—… which hath since borne his name even to this day After which victory Locrin who had espoused Guendolina daughter to Corinaeus Duke of Cornwall grew inamoured of Estrild a beauteous Lady and Daughter to the aforesaid Humber by whom He had a Daughter named Sabrina of which his Queene having intelligence the accited her Father and friends to make Warre upon her Husband and flew him in fight when hee had governed the Realme for the space of twenty yeares then the Masculine spirited Lady tooke his Concubine Estrild with her beautifull young daughter Sabrina and caused them to bee both drowned in that River which parteth England and Wales and from Sabrina is called Severne to all posterity The River Severne whence called Then Guendolina took upon her the government of the Land till her young Son Madan came to mature age and then resigned it up intirely into his owne hands after shee had
fifty five yeeres And from the Reigne of Severus to the first yeere of Gratian one huadred fourscore and three and from the first of Gratian to the last yeare of their great misery before expressed forty three yeeres so that from the time that Iulius Caesar made this Isle of Britaine first tributary to the Roman Empire to the comming in of Constantine amounteth to foure hundred and one and thirty yeares after this small digression and yet worthy observation I returne to the passages and proceeding in this Land of An exact computation of the times Britaine and how it was governed The Archbishop with the Lords of this Realme having sealed to the Covenants before named they returned with a sufficient army under the conduct and command of Duke Constantius and safely arrived at Totnesse in Devonshire the place where Brute landed the first Prince and Planter of this Island whither assembled all the flower of the Nation who before were compeld to hide themselves in Dens and Caves and to seeke shelter amongst Rocks and Mountaines by whose power and martiall prowesse all the enemies of the Land were rowted and chaced not one daring to shew his head After which victory the Land being againe setled in peace and quietnesse they conveighed their Captain Constantine to the tower of Kaercegent now called Cicester and according to their former Covenants made with Aldroenus saluted him as their Chiefe Lord Sovereigne and there crowned him King in the Constantine King of the Britaines yeare of our blessed Saviours Incarnation foure hundred and three and thirty This Constantine governed the Realme with great manhood and policie so that he was not more beloved at home then dreaded abroad notwithstanding of any forreign atchievement done by Him the English Annals make no mention neither of any memorable thing performed by Him in His owne Kingdome save that He kept it in great tranquillity and rest and that He received by His Wife three sonnes the eldest named Constant or Constantius the second Constantines Royall Issue Aurelius Ambrofius the third Vterpendragon all which in processe succeeded Him in the Sovereignty But for Constance the eldest being somwhat heavy and dull witted thinking Him not able to take upon Him any Regall Soveraignty especially to govern so noble a Nation He caused Him to be shorne a Monke and put him into the Monastery of Saint Amphiable after cald Saint Swithins at Winchester and the other two How he disposed of his children being then but yong children Hee committed to Guardianship of the before-remembred Gosselin Archbishop of London In the Court of this Constantine was a certain Pict or Scot much favoured by the King and on whom hee had conferd many graces and Honours making him of His Closet Counsell and a partaker with Him in all his secrets which perfidious and ingratefull traitour watching his opportunity slue Him in his Chamber when he had ten years ruled the Land The death of K. Constantine There lived at that time in the Land a potent Duke called Vortigerus or Vortigernus who Vortiger or Vortigern was a man wondrously politick and exceedingly ambitious who taking the advantage of the time knowing the stupidity of the eldest sonne and the inability of the two yonger in regard of their minority to reigne He coloured his aspiring to the Crown by a notable project for hee pretending the right of the eldest brother had it as a matter of conscience to make Him King and therefore tooke him out of the former Monastery and invested him in the Throne in the year of Grace foure hundred forty three by which means he had the sole management of Constantius made K. of Britain the whole Kingdome and Constantine the name only whom after hee in short time supplanted and reigned in his stead in whose dayes Ambrosius Merlinus the subject of our discourse was born and uttered his predictions c. CHAP. 6. A necessary digression shewing the lives and reigns of 33 Kings of Britain scarce mentioned by any of our English remembrancers with an exact computation of the times c. TO make the former passages the more plain to the Reader it is fit to keep a true computation of the Times and looking back into our former historicall narration perfect those things which were left doubtfull especially in the Inter-regnum before spoken of In which the names of many Kings Princes and Governours of the Kingdome were conceald Divers Historiographers who write the passages of those times reck on from the last yeer of Eliodure to the first of Hely the father of K. Lud 186 yeers during Of three and thirty Kings before scarce remembred which times here raigned 33 Kings according to Galfridus and others whose names thus follow Gorbovinian whom Lanquet the Chronicler calleth Reygay son to Garbomanus reignned Gorbovinian for the term of ten yeers after him Morgan 14 yeers whom succeeded Emerianus or Emerian Morgan Emerianus who held the pincipaliâ—…y seven Iuall called also Ivall followed him and swayed the Scepter Ivall twenty after whom came Rimo and held the Dominion over the Britains 16 after whose expiration Rimo Geruntius was by the generall suffrage Geruntius of the peers and people admitted to the throne and governed in greatpeace and prosperity 20 compleat yeers who uo sooner expired but they made election of Catellus or Catel who ruled without any great molestation or disturbance Catellus ten and then left the Dominion to Coill who Coil ruled with great humanity and gentlenes for the space of 20 yeeres and dying in a mature age yielded up the crown and Scepter into the hands of Porrex who kept and maintained them Porrex though with some difficulty five yeers resigning the principality to Cherimus who tyrannizing Cherimus over the people was supplanted being compeld to yield up al his power and authority after he had governed but 12 months into the hands of Fulgen or Fulgentius who kept it peaceably Fulgentius and to the great liking and applause both of the Nobles and Commons three yeeres and some odde moneths who had no sooner yielded to the common fate due to all mortality but Eliud by some writers cald Eldred stept into his room Eliud or Eldred but enjoyed it but for a short season for he died within the compasse of one yeer after hee came to take upon him the Sovereignty Then Androgeus aspired unto the Regall dignitie Androgeus but bore him so proudly and haughtily in his Soveraignty that his subjects unanimous consented and made an insurrection against him surprizing him in his palace and forcing him to give up his Sword Scepter after he had tyrannized one whole yeer to his sonne Vrian who Vrian sate in the Throne but three yeers and then yielded up his due to Nature after whom Eliud was invested in the state who as the rest of his predecessors
Eliud left little or nothing behind him worthy memory and when he had been King five yeers departed this life Galfridus reckoneth 3 other Kings Three Kings by some Authors not admitted successively to follow Eliud namely Dedacus Cloterus and Gurginetus but Lanquet an Author well approved will not admit them into his Chronicle I therefore proceed with the rest It is agreed by all that Merianus was King and two yeares enjoyed the principality but of what condition Merianus hee was there is left no memory to posteritie Four yeers also reigned his successor Bledinus whom some call Bladunus a man raised to that honor by his Bledinus valor but being discended from obscure parentage therefore not knowing himself wel in his greatnes as is commonly seene by many it was the cause of shortning both of his life sovereignty for he was slain by the treason of his owne servants of whose treacherous murder Capenus taking advantage being Capenus a potent Lord and in great opinion with the people hee so far insinuated into their affections that with an unanimous suffrage they proclaimed him King for his predecessor died and left no heire behind him in which authority hee demeaned himself like a royall and worthy Prince and when hee had swayed the Scepter thâ—… years he died being very aged and much lamented Him succeeded one Owen a Cambrian Britain who Owen though hee could neither claime the priviledge of bloud birth or title yet being valiant prosperous in all his martiall employments as managing the wars under Capenus by whom he was greatly honoured being also politick and wise and a good souldiouâ—… so a discreet statesman he was thought the worthiest then in the Kingdome to take upon him the Dominion of the Realm and so ended some troubles raised in his predecessors days by his valor and wisdom he brought to a happy issue and so died a single man after he had two years governed the Kingdome next him was inaugurated Sisillius otherwise called Cecilius Cecilius who bore himselfe with great humanity and affability during the time of his living a subject studying popularity and by sundry ways insinuating himself into the hearts of the people but when hee came to the Regall Title and that the power and soveraignty was wholly in his owne dispose he then began to expresse his naturall avaritious conditions by exacting on the Commons imposing divers taxes and tributes upon them by which they were sore vexed and grieved in so much that a rumour was raised amongst them which they first only whispered but at length animated by their intolerable impositions they feared not to clamour aloud that their former King died not without suspition of poyson of which they spaâ—…ed not to accuse him not only as an accessary but the prime causer and procurer thereof and therefore rising in armes against him they drove him to that â—…rrow exigent that he was forc't to fly fâ—…om one place of refuge to another who at length gathering some few forces about him gave them battail in which he was slain after he had governed the Kingdom two yeers after whom Blegabredus 〈◊〉 reigned in his stead this man had in him more musicke then majesty for he was held most excellent both in minstrelsie and poesie so that hee seemed to be son or at least minion of Apollo for hee not only composed his own Hymnes and Dities but set them and then sung and playd to them and because it was an art rarein those times practised by few especially by any of generous condition quality being excellent and eminent in a Prince he was therefore by it the more honored and admired who having swayd the Scepter 20 yeers departed this life leaving to succeed him his brother Archemail who was of a more stern robustuous nature a man unlettered Archemail and therefore a contemner of all Arts and Sciences who after he had governed the Realm two yeeres but with more austerity and rigouâ—… then his brother before him had done in a full age expired After him reigned Eldon or Eldol no sonne but a kinsman for the two brothers died issuless who was Eldol a man of peace and therfore the more indeered unto the hearts of his subjects under whose Reigne they lived in great rest prosperity gathering great store of wealth about them during the foure yeers of his Reigne after which season he changed this life for a new being much lamenâ—…d of his people after whose death stept up into the â—…hrone Rodrech or Rodian Rodrech alias Rodian a man not like his predecessor beloved as being litigious and alwayes in contention with the Commons as holding them in contempt only favouring the Nobility and Genâ—…ry and to prefer and advance them greatly oppressed the other extorting from them by sundry exactions for which hee grew into great hatred amongst them of which having intelligence he thought severely to punish them by arms but was prevented by death after hee had governed the kingdome not fully 4 yeers In his place reigned Samuel Pennisel Samuel Pennisel whom some Writers would make two men but their judgments are not altogether approved this man with great care industry sought and laboured to pacifie the tumults and combustions before raised to that purpose kept the Nobility and Gentry more short so that he suffered them not as before to insult and tyrannize over the Country but granted to them sundry immunities and privileges for which he was greatly beloved by them but left the world after he had 5 yeers swayd the Scepter whom Pyrpyrhus next succeeds a man much affected Pyrpyrhus by the people and fortunate in all things saving his short Reigne who died after two yeers sovereignty Capoyr came next to the Crown governed an equall Capoyr time with them of whom no memorable thing is recorded for in two yeeres Reigne a Prince hath scarcely time to express himself what maner of King he would be whether a tyrant or father of his people whether addicted to peace or war he left one to succeed him named Gligurt Divill who was a Prince very sober and discreet in all his actions and was an upright Iusticer maintaining good Laws in his Dominions but reigned four yeers only his son Hely succeeded him before spoken of so that all the time of Hâ—…ly the father of King Lud. these severall Kings Reigns â—…y those who writ contemporaries of the passages of seasons and sought to reconcile them by their computation amounteth to 124 yeers Thus desiring the Reader to excuse this necessary digression without which there must needs be a great maym in the Chronicle I now fall punctually upon Merlin's Prophesies continuing them and confirming their truth by Chronologie from the time in which he uttered them to the Reign of King Charles our royall Lord and Sovereigne c. A true Historie of the strange Birth of Ambrosius
and Scots having knowledge of the death of their countrymen invaded the Land with great hostilitie in so much that hee was no way able to withstand their malice and fury in this great distresse retyring himselfe to Canterbury newes was brought him of theer great ships full of Ammunition and armed men landed in the Isle of Tenet at first hee feared that they were the late Kings brothers Ambrose and Vter who came to lay claime to the Kingdome but finding them to be strangers hee sent to know of what Nation they were and the purpose of their landing Who returned him answer that they were Saxons so called of a Province in The first landing of the Saxons Germany who came to seek adventures abroad and since fortune had brought them into this Land they besought him to receive them into service as being both ready and able to be his faithfull souldiers and to fight for him in the defence of his Country against all forreigne invaders and their Captaines were two brothers Hengist and Horsus The King in regard of his present necessitie which much moved him to correspondencie was exceeding glad of their liberall proffer and accepted of them yet sorry that they were Miscreants and of the Pagan beliefe for as Reverend Bede hath left recorded with Gulielmus de Regibus They at that time worshipped an Idoll or false god called Woden and a Goddesse named Fria in the honour of which god they called one day of the week Wodens-day which When Wednesday and Friday had their appâ—…llation we terme Wednesday and another in the honour of the Goddesse Fria Frisday by us still continuing the name Friday But it followeth in the story Vortimer by the ayde of these Saxons having freed his Land from all forreigne enemies Hengist in reward of his former service demanded of the King so much ground as the hide of a Bull would compasse which request appeared to the King so reasonable that hee easily granted it which skin hee caused to be cut into small and slender thongs with which hee measured a large circuit of earth upon which hee builded a great and strong Fort which he called The building of Thonge Castle Thonge Castle which standeth in the County of Lyndsee When news arrived in Germany of the plenty and goodnesse of this Land with all the commodities thereto belonging they came hither in multitudes covenanting with the Britains that they should only intend their Tillage and Husbandry and themselves would as their souldiers defend the Land from all incursiâ—…ns and invasions demanding for that service only competent means and wages in which interim Hengist The policy of the Saxons sent for sixteen saile more well furnisht with men and all necessary provision In which fleet came also his daughter Rowen a beautiful Lady concerning whom to cutoff all circumstances Hengist invited the King to his new Castle where his faire daughter gave him entertainment with whose beauty hee became so surprised and perditely enamoured that for her sake he repudiated his lawfull wife by whom he had three noble sonnes Vortimerus Catagrinus and Pascentius to marry with this young Saxon Lady and that hee might enjoy her gave to her Vortimer forsaketh his Queen to mary with Rowen the daughter of Hengist Father the Dukedome or Province of Kent though Garagonus then Lord thereof with divers other of the British Peeres thereat much grudged For which and many other honours and revenues conferred upon the Saxons as also that hee left his owne Christian Consort to marry with an Infidel and that Hengist had sent for his sonne Octa to come over with a fresh supply of his Countrymen The Lords of Britaine considering An assembly of the British Lords what dangers were like to fall upon the Land assembled themselves and comming to the King laid open to him the inconvenience and perill which was likely to fall both upon himselfe and the Kingdome by the multitude and strength of these strangers humbly beseeching him for their generall securitie to banish them all or the greatest part of them the Land But the King was deaf of that eare for the Saxons were in such favour with him by reason of his beautifull young Queene that hee preferred them before the love of his owne wife sonnes subjects kinsmen and friends wherefâ—re the Britains with one will and assent crowned his eldest sonne Vortimer King depriving him of all Regall dignity when hee had fully King Vortiger deposed reigned after the consent of the best Histories sixteen yeeres A word or two by the way of our new King Vortimer who assisted by the resolute Britaines Vortimers many brave victories over the Saxons in all haste pursued the Saxons and gave them a great battaile upon the River of Darwent in which the Saxons Hoast was quite discomfited He fought with them a second upon the Foord called Epiford or Aglisthorpe in which fight Catrignus the brother of Vortimer and Horsus the brother to Hengist meeting in the battaile fought together a brave combat and slue each other in which the Britaine 's also were Victors He gave them a third neere unto the Sea-side in which the Saxons were chaced and forced to take the Isle of Wight for their refuge and likewise a fourth mayne battaile upon Colemore which was long and couragiously maintained by the Saxons by reason that they now closed a great part of their Hoast so defensively that the Britaine 's could but with much difficulty approach them for the danger of their Vortimer conquered the Saxons in seven severall battails shot yet in the end they were rowted and many of them drowned and swallowed in the Moore And besides these foure principall and mayne battailes hee had divers other conflicts with them one in Kent another at Thetford in Norfolke a third in Essex neer unto Colchester from all which fields hee departed a glorious Victor neither did he leave their pursuite till he had deprived them of all their possessions in the Land saving the Isle of Tenet which he continually assaulted with his Navy by Sea which when his step mother Rowen saw and how much her Father Hengist with his Saxons by his Martiall Vortimer poysoned by his stopdame Rowen prowesse were distressed shee used such meanes that he was poysoned after hee had victoriously governed the Kingdome for the space of seven yeeres All which time Vortiger the Father of the late dead Vortimer lived privately in Chester where hee so well demeaned him towards the King his sonne by aiding him with his counsell and otherwise that by the Britains generall assent he was againe restored to the Kingdome Hengist againe pierced the Land with a mighty Vortiger restored to the Kingdome Hoast of his Countrymen which Vortiger hearing made towards him with his Army of Britains But Hengist who had before tasted of their hardnesse and courage made means of a treaty for peace whence lastly it was concluded that
Cadwallo Sainted now these seven Kings slaine by Cadwallo and his father in law Paeanda were Edwinus his sonne Offricus and Oswaldus the Saint spoken of which were three Kings of Northumberland Segebartus Egricus and Anna who raigned over the Orientall Britons and Cadamus the Scotch King concerning which Oswaldus his sanctity and other pious vertues the ancient Chronicles write largely as also the The story of Saâ—…t Oswaldus Lords of those â—…imes many panegyricks in his prayse which would be too tedious here to insert yet some 〈◊〉 of him howsoever credible or nâ—… I â—…hought fitting to remember it was said of him that when Aldanus Bishop of Scotland whose language neither he nor any of his Saxons understood did at any time pâ—…h before him and his people hee would put upon him a royall garment worn only on solemne Festivall days and whether by vertue of that or by divine rapture he would deliver all that Sermon word for word to his Countrymen in their proper and moderne language hee was also so Hâ—… temperance and charity to the poore temperate in his owne diet and withall so liberall to the poore that when he had guests at his Table hee would not only spare from his owne stomach but if hee saw any of them to gormondize or feed more then became them hee would bid them to eat more sparingly and toremember those hungry bellies at the gate which attended the reversion and fragments from his boord and bounty This reverent Bishop Aldanus being feasted by him on an Easter day the King commanded a great silver Charger fild with the best meats at his Table to bee carried to the beggars at his gate who when they had eaten the meat hee sold the dish and equally divided it amongst them which the Bishop seeing said aloud Live may that liberall hand ô may it always live and never taste of corruption which if we will believe the Roman Legend proved according to his propheticall acclamation for many yeeres after his death when his Tombe was searched and all the rest of his body according to the A prâ—…tended Miracle common course of Nature was putrified and turned to dust that hand and arme alone were preserved from corruption and rottennesse and remained as entire flesh bloud veines and arteries as when he was interred It followeth in the History six of these before named Kings being slaine in severall conflicts Cadwallo whose high spirit was irreconciliable towards the Saxons pursued this Oswald from province to province chasing him even to the wall which Severus the Roman Emperour built to part and divide the two Kingdomes of Britaine and Scotland and then sent his Generall and Father in law Paeana to give him battaile at a place called Hed-field or holy Camps in which by the prayers of this Oswaldus The Britons The battail of Headfield Hoast was quite discomsited of which defeat when King Cadwallo understood he gathered a fresh Army and gave him a second battaile at a place called Bourne in which Oswaldus and his Army were wholly routed and himselfe The death of Oswaldus died lamented in his owne pious bloud for whose charity and sanctitie hee was after canonized and remayneth to this day one of the Saints blessed in our Kalender whose death hapned in the yeere of our Saviour 644 which improved that part of Merlins prophesie Seven Kings shall bee slaine of which one shall bee Sainted By the brazen man mounted upon a steed of brasse who is said to do all these is antonomastiâ—…e meant King Cadwallo to honour whom after his death for his many brave victories and expelling Cadwallo the brazen man and why so called the Saxons out of the land the peeres and people caused his statue at his full size and proportion to be cast in brasse sitting also upon an Horse of brasse in whose buckler they intombed his embalmed body and after set it upon the prime gate of the Citie London it being a piece of admirable art and pulchritude and neere unto the same in further memory of him built a Church dedicated to Saint Martin therefore saith the Prophet The brazen Horse and Man shall watch the Gate whether the people wake or sleepe which continued for many yeeres after CHAP. 8. Hee prophesieth of the civill Warres that shall bee in Britaine in the time of Cadwallo and of the great dearth and desolation in the reigne of Cadwalloder of the Saxons exalting themselves and of the first comming in of the Danes into this land c. AS Merlin in all his prophesies aimeth at a continued History of the maine A continuation of the History passages in this I le of Britain so I also desire to observe a concordance of times left the neglect of either might breed a confusion in both as shall be made good in the sequell his prophesie followeth The crimson Dragon with his owne fierce pawes Shall teare his proper bowels gainst the Lawes Of wholsome Nature plague and famine then Shal fill the barren earth with shrowds of men After the Dragon whose smooth scales are white Hither the Almans daughter shall invite And crown themselves Against whom shall rise An Eagle from the Rock and both surprise Two Lions shall a dreadfull combate make Having their Lists incompast by a Lake At length be atton'd and after shall divide The glorious prey a speckledscale whose pryde Shall ayme at high things will his Lord betray Poysoning the Royall nest in which he lay Of the white Dragon so the Fates agree At length a Decemvirum there shall bee What time the Red shall to his joy behold The roofs of all his Temples deckt with gold c. By the Crimson Dragon is still meant England which after the death of Cadwallo being The conquering Britains fall at ods with themselves impatient of peace for want of forreigne Enemies shall be at Civill dissention in it selfe of which shall ensue much strage and mortality such Dearth also Famine and Desolation which shall happen by the plague that destroyeth the men and the Murrian that killeth the cattle that the Natives shall bee forced to leave the Kingdome as a Wildernesse unpeopled the remaynder of the living being scarce sufficient in number to bury the dead which strange depopulation sell in the third and last yeere of Cadwallader the sonne of Cadwallo which was in the yeere of Grace sixe hundred fourescore and sixe which maketh up the yeere of the World Cadwâ—…llader the last King of the Britains by the account of Polycronicon and other of our English Chronologers five thousand eight hundred fourescore and five so that it appeareth the native Britains had the title and soveraignty of this Kingdome from Brute first landing by the space of one thousand eight hundred and two and twenty yeeres Cadwalloder being the last King of the Britons after whom the Saxons or Angles had the full dominion thereof which maketh good that in the prophesie
The white Dragon shall invite the Almans daughter which implyeth a greater supply of the German nation and crowne themselves For from that time they bare the Scepter and had the absolute jurisdiction over the whole Land which they continued for a long season To passe over all the Saxon Kings to the time K. Etheldred the sonne of Alfride of Ethelredus in whose dayes An Eagle from the Rock which was Swanus King of Denmarke shall rise c. The better to explain our prophet and to carry the History along this Etheldred the sonne of the most Royall King Edward by his second Wife Alfrida by some cald Estrild when he came to bee crowned by Dunstane Archbishop of Canterbury hee could not containe himselfe but with a propheticall spirit uttered those words because by the bloudy slaughter of thy brother thou hast aspired to the Kingdome The sinne of thy most wicked and mischievous mother shall never bee expiated nor any who were of her Diabolicall counsell but by the greatest effusion of the Saxon bloud that ever was shed since their first comming into Britaine and further the beginning of thy Reigne shall be cruell the middle thereof miserable and the end shamefull all which accordingly hapned His Father King Edgar of ever surviving memory Edward the eldest sonne of King Edgar made King had by his first wife called Egelsleda a noble sonne named Edward and by his second Alfrida this Etheldred Edgar being dead the Barons assembled and made Edward King in the yeere of grace eight hundred threescore and fifteene at which his stepmother greatly repined using all the means both of power proofe and friends to have inaugurated her sonne Etheldred being then a lad but of seven yeeres old which in the end most traiterously shee accomplished for the King hunting in the Forrest neere unto the Castle of Corffe in the West Country who having lost all his company bethought himselfe that his stepmother with her A wicked stepmother sonne liv'd in that Castle to whom hee would give a friendly visit who spying from her window afarre of cald to a Villaine that attended her and whispered in his eare what hee should doe by this the King was come to the gate and shee descended to meet him saluting him with a Iudas kisse and intreated him to alight and sojourne with her for that night which hee modestly refusing said hee would only drinke a horsback and so be gone which being brought as the cup was at his mouth her trayterous servant with a long Dagger strooke him quite through the body at which hee put spurs to his horse thinking to have recovered his servants but through his great losse of bloud hee fainted and falling from his horse one of his feet was fastned in the stirrop and so hurried to a place called Corisgate where his miserably mangled body was found and not being knowne at that The base murther upon King Edward present to be the King without ceremony buried whom as you have heard his brother by the Fathers side succeeded In whose reigne hapned divers prodigies pretending great disaster among which was the sterility of the earth the burning of London by an accidentall fire but the most ominous and terrible was the invasion of the Danes and their many massacres inhuman butcheries committed through all the shires and provinces of the Kingdome as more amply hereafter but by the way is to be noted that in the eighth yeere of his reigne hee was espoused to Ithelgina whom Ethelredus marriage and Issue some call Elgina daughter to Earle Edgebertus by whom in processe of time he received a sonne called Edmund after for his notable valour sirnamed Ironside and two others Edwin and Ethelstane with a daughter named Egina About the eleventh yeere of his reigne the The Invasion of the Danes Danes pierced the land in sundry places against whom the King being wholy addicted to effeminacie and cowardise durst make no hostile opposure but for the present appeased them with great summes of mony which being spent they fell to new robberies Then the King bribed them with more notwithstanding which they spoyled Northumberland and at last laid siege to London and to increase his sorrow and trouble Earle Elphricus who was Admirall of The son punisht for the the Navy fled like a Traitour to the Danes and took part with them against his naturall Liege for which the King commanded that his sonne Algarus should have his eyes torne out of his head during which time burning Fevers and the bloudy Flix destroyeth many of the Natives to which was added scarcity and penury amongst the commons in so much that they were forced to rob and steale from one another so that what by their owne pilfering and pillage Fathers treason of the Danes the land was brought to extreame misery by whose continuall invasions and the Kings pusillanimity the Tribute paid unto them was raised from ten thousand pounds to forty thousand named for the continuance thereof Dane-gelt they yet not satisfied to adde to the former the British Peeres were so hollow brested Dane-gelt amongst themselves that when they were at any time assembled and had determined any thing to the impeachment of the Danes they were warned thereof by some of the falshearted Counsell of whom were most suspected Elphricus Edricus intended by the Snake and Edricus the Snake formerly mentioned in the prophesie The Land besides other distresses continuing under this grievous Tribute the King by the The Kings second mariage advice of those familiars who were about him married Emma the daughter of Richard the third Duke of Normandy and first of that name who was for his boldnesse and valour sirnamed Richard the Hardy or without feare and she by the French Chronicles Emma the flowre of Normandy by which Match hee was greatly animated and incouraged so that presuming on the power of his Father in Law hee sent into all the Townes Cities and Villages of this Land secret and straight Commissions charging the Rulers and Magistrates upon the night succeeding the day of Saint Brice that all A generall Massacre of the Danes throughout all the Land the Danes should be murdered in their beds the execution whereof they committed to their Wives and Women which was also accordingly performed a strange wonder that so great a secret should passe generally through that sex without uttering or discovery This generall Massacre of the Danes as same reports began at a little Towne in Hertfordshire twenty foure miles from London called Wealwin from which act it tooke first name as if there the weal of their Country was first warm and the day of Saint Brice hapned that yeare upon the Monday which to this day is called Hoc or Hop-monday but wherefore I know not unlesse by Hoc this day as a remarkablenote Hoc or Hâ—…p Monday to posterity or by Hop as that day the Danes according to
stiled because of his ruffe haire and beard This Robert the eldest because hee might Robert rebelleth against his Father not be possest of the Duchy of Normandy which his father had before promist him hee by the aide of the French King Philip and Lewis his sonne invaded that Dutchy and tooke divers prizes thence which put his Father to much grievance and trouble in so much that at length the father and the sonne with two great Hosts met in the plaine field where betwixt them was fought a cruell and bloudy battell in which King William was wounded and beaten from his horse and in great danger to be tooke or slaine which his sonne Robert hearing in true filliall piety hee restored his Father set him upon a fresh Horse and delivered him from all danger howsoever in that conflict many of the Kings men fell by the sword and his sonne William received many wounds so that they were compeld to forsake the field and yeeld the honour thereof to his Sonne Robert for which Robert gaineth the day of his Father rebellion as some have related he laid an heavy curse upon him which proved fatall unto him in the end Some write that by the leaping off an horse hee got such a straine meaning King William that it was the cause of his death and when hee found that hee was pasthope of life hee called his three sonnes unto him exhorting them to fraternall love and unity and by his will appointed to Robert the eldest the Duchie of Normandy to William the second the Kingdom of England and to his third sonne Henry because K. Williams admonition to his sons hee was a piece of a Scholer sirnamed Beauclerke hee bequeathed his moveables and treasure then he informed his two eldest sonnes of the disposition of the people whom they were to governe advising William to be affable courteous and liberall to the English and Robert to behave himselfe roughly and sternly towards the Normans which having uttered hee The death of William sirnamed the Conquerour died within few houres after in Normandy and was buried in the City of Cane in the third yeere of his Duchie but of his Reigne over England one and twenty yeeres and ten moneths in the moneth of Iuly in which time of his Sovereignty hee kept the English so streight and low that none of the Nation bore any office of profit or honour but hee somewhat favoured the City of London by granting them their first Charter which is written in the Saxon Londons first Charter granted by King William tongue and sealed with green Wax and is comprehended in eight or nine lines at the most with whose death I also conclude this Chapter CHAP. 12. The prediction of the two Dragons made good by the subsequent History in Robert and William the two sons of the Conquerour who the Lion of Iustice was and what was meant by his Alchymy c. WIlliam the second of that name sirnamed William the second crowned King of England Rufus or the Red beganne his Reigne in the moneth of Iuly in the yeere of Grace one thousand sourescore and nine but Rainolf Monke of Chester in his Polychronicon affirmes that Robert was absent at the death of his Father and hearing that hee had preferd his younger brother to the Crowne of England hee was greatly inraged and laid his Dukedome to pawne to his brother Henry for certaine summes of money with which hee hired an Army and landed at Hampton of which his brother having intelligence sent unto him with this submission following A strange submission of a King Thy brother William entreateth thee to be no way incensed at what I have done For he calleth himselfe not absolute King but Viceroy and thy Substitute and to reigne under thee being greater and therein better because before him borne who hath taken upon him this charge only because of thine absence yet since he is now in place and authority by thy sufferance he humbly prayes thee that he may under thee still so continue paying unto thee annually three thousand marke with condition that the survivour of the two may peaceably enjoy the Kingdome Duke Robert who was not unacquainted with the politick proceedings of his brother shaked his head and began to pawse about an answer and being of a loving and gentle disposition The two brothers attowd bountifull withall and still preferring his honour before his profit as in all his after proceedings hee made manifest condescended to his brothers request and returned into Normandy but William was of a more subtle and crafty condition and yet withall ambitious after vain-glory to maintaine which hee extorted both from the Spiritualty and Temporalty He builded He buildeth Westminster Hall Westminster Hall and by reason that his brother Robert was then in the holy Warres to redeeme Ierusalem from the Pagans hee spent some time in Normandy about his brothers affaires but at his returne the building of the Hall being finished he seemed much discontented with the littlenesse thereof saying it was more fit for a Dining Chamber then a Kings Hall purposing if hee had liv'd to have made a farre greater In the beginning of the thirteenth yeere of his Reigne the third day of August being hunting in the New Forrest by the glancing of an Arrow shot by the hand of one Sir Walter Tyrrell The King murthered to death by Sir Walter Tyrrell the King was wounded to death in the forty fourth yeere of his age who escaped and saved himselfe for none pursued him and few in regard of his former tyranny sorrowfull for his death some thinke that this arrow was purposely aymed at him to fulfill the prophesie of the two brothers One aimes at but attains not his desire By envies dart the other shall expire Now Robert though hee still aymed at the Kingdome yet never attained unto it and the other died according to Merlins words spiculo Invidiae by the dart of Envy the King thus wounded was laid in a Horse-litter and conveyed to Winchester where hee died and was buried In his life time he took upon him great The Kings Character things the day before hee died one asked him where he purposed to keep his Christmasse to which he answered at Poyctiers for the Earle intendeth a Voyage for Ierusalem meaning to seize upon his Earldome Henry of Huntington reporteth of him that though he was generally reported avaritious and gripple-handed yet he was in his owne condition bountifull and liberall as may appeare by the narration following The Abbot of a great Monastery being dead too wel-monied Monks of the same place made friends to the King offering Iustice and liberality in the King large summes to be promoted to that dignity there was also a third Monk who out of his meeknesse and humility had accompanyed them to the Court and to give attendance on him whom the King should admit to be Abbot who called to the
of sishes take The King to maintaine his former Warres which proved so terrible to the French and others was forced to exact money from all manner of people not sparing the Clergie nor the Laitie and therefore Merlin cals him A cunning Alcumist who hath the skill Gold both from flowers and Nettles to distill By the Flowers meaning the Spiritualty by the Nettles the Temporalty in the twenty seventh yeere of this Kings Reign died Henry the fourth Emperour of that name who had before married Mawd the daughter to Henry King of England after whose death she came to her Father in Normandy who because hee had no heires male left of his body hee caused all the Bishops and Barons to sweare in his presence that they The Lords sworne to the succession of Mawd the Empresse should keep the Crowne of England to the use of this Mawde the Empresse if hee died without issue male and she surviving In the eight and twentieth yeere of his Sovereignty Ieffery Plantaginet Earle of Anjoy was espoused unto Mawde the Empresse from whom Her second mariage descended Henry the second sirnamed Short-Mantle who after Stephen was King of England King William being in Normandy as some write fell either with his Horse or from his Horse which after was the cause of his death But Rainolph saith that he tooke a surfet by eating of a Lamprey and died of that when he had reigned thirty five yeers and odde moneths The death of Henry the first of that name whose body when it was embowelled before it could be embalmed cast such a stench that none could abide the place where hee was dissected and though it was wrapped in a Buls skin yet it little abated the smell in so much that divers were infected therewith and the Chyrurgion who clensed the head died of the unwholsome scent which proceeded from the braine which some conjectured to bee a just judgement laid upon him for his mercilesse cruelty shewed upon his brother Robert whose eyes as some have reported hee caused to bee torne out of his head during his imprisonment his body was brought into England and was afterwards buried in the Abbey of Reading which he before had founded after whose death Fame spoke of him as of all other Princes both in the better and worse part Divers said that he surpassed many of his Predecessour Kings in three How the King was spoken of after his death things in wit in eloquence and good successe in battaile and others spared not to say that he was pestilently infected with three notorious vices Covetousnesse Cruelty and Lechery CHAP. 13. A briefe relation of the troublesome Reigne of King Stephen and his opposition against Mawde the Empresse of Henry Short-Mantle and his proceedings with a continuance of our English History In every circumstance making good Merlins Prophesie STephen Earle of Bolloigne and sonne Stephen Earle of Bulloigne crowned King to the Earle of Bloys and Mawd sister to the wife of Henry late deceased began his Reigne over the Realme of England in the yeere of grace one thousand one hundred thirty six who was valiant and hardy but as some affirme contrary to the oathe made to King Henry concerning Mawd the Empresse he usurped the Crown and was inaugurated by the Archbishop of Canterbury at West minster upon the day of Saint Stephen in Christmasse weeke which Archbishop who had taken the same Oath died shortly Perjury punished by the hand of God after with diverse other Lords guilty of the same perjury which as some write was animated and incouraged by one Hugh Bigot who was Steward to King Henry and presently after his death came over into England and before the said Archbishop came other Lords tooke an Oath and sware that he was present a little before the Kings death when hee heard him to disinherit his Daughter Mawd for some distaste that hee had taken against her and had adopted as his lawfull Heire Stephen his Nephew to which the Archbishop with the rest gave too hasty battaile neither did this Hugh for his wilfull perjury escape unpunished who soone after with great trouble of conscience most miserably expired but before I proceed Hugh Bigot dyeth miserably further in the story I will deliver unto you Merlins Prophesie of those times which followeth Drop must a Sagittary from the Skies The prophesie But against him an Eglet will arise That in the Morian Mountains built her nest And against that Celestiall signe contest Shee fayling will a Lions whelpe appeare Whose rore shall make the Centaure quake with feare But when the two shap't Monster shall be tam'd By gentle means the whelpe will be reclaim'd And when the Iron brood in the Land shal fail The bloud of the white Dragon must prevail By the Sagittary which is one of the twelve Celestiall Signes and is the same which hee calleth Part of it exâ—…laned the two shap't Centaure is figured King Stephen who gave not the Lions as his former predecessours had done but emblazed the before-named Sagittary in his Scutcheon and therefore he is by the Prophet so stiled by the Eglet is also intended Maud the Empresse and by the Morian Mountaines a place in Italy so called siguratively including all Italy by a part thereof now let vs see how this with the rest is mâ—…de good by the event In the beginning of his reigne King Stephen King Stephen extorteth both from the Clergie and the Laity used great rigour against the Clergy as fining some Bishops and imprisoning others Besides he seised on all the strong holds and Castles within the Realm as still fearing the comming in of Maud the Empresse in which time Robert Earle of Glocester the base sonne of King Henry took displeasure against the King for seising the strong holds of Glocester Hereford Webly Bristol Dudly and others part of which belonged to his Inheritance and therefore he sent letters to his sister Maud promising to assist her in the iust claime of her Inheritance In the moneth of Iuly and sixth yeare of King Mawd the Empresse landeth in England Stephen â—…aud the Empresse landed at Portsmouth and made towards Bristol at what time Stephen layd siege to the Castle of Walling-ford who hearing of her arivall gathered all the forces hee could make and drew towards the Enemie in which time Robert Earle of Glocester Ranulph Earle of Chester were ioyned to the Empresse and when both their hoasts were in the field ready to give the alarme Ranulph Earle of Chester thus spoke to his souldiers and sayd I require you friends and Countrimen that I The Barons Oration to their souldiers who am the cause to bring you here to hazard lives may be the first man to put mine owne in danger whom Earle Robert interrupted and said It is not unworthy to thee who demandest the first stroake and hazard of this battaile who both for thy noblenesse of bloud and thy
others of the Clergie and Nobility who met at a place called the water of Vrme they were kept from A peace mediated betwixt the King and the Duke present hostility some endevouring peace others labouring warre as their humours and affections guided them After which the King took his way towards Ipswich in Suffolke the Duke towards Shrewsbury in which interim died and was drowned Eustace the sonne of King Stephen and was buried at Feversham in Kent in the Abbey which his Father before The death of Prince Eustâ—…ce had founded After which Theobald with others ceased not to bring these two Princes to an attonement which was so earnestly laboured that a peace was concluded upon the conditions following namely that the King having now no heire should continue in the sole Sovereignty during his life and immediately after the conclusion and establishing of that Edict Henrie should be proclaimed Heire apparant in all the chiefe Cities and Borâ—…ughs of England and that the King should take him for his sonne by adoption as immediate Heire to the Crowne and Kingdome wherein that part of the prophesie is fulfilled which saith She failing will a Lions whelpe appeare Whose rore should make the Centaure quake with feare But when the two shap't Monster shall be tam'd By gentle means the whelpe shall be reclaim'd By the Centaure and two shap't Monster or the Sagittary which are all one meaning the King and by the Lions whelpe Henry Duke of Normandy The death of King Stephen c. and after King of England In the end of this yeere died King Stephen when hee had reignâ—…d eighteen yeeres and odde moneths and was buried by his sonne Eustace at Feversham This King spent his whole Reigne in great vexation and trouble which as some conjecture hapned because hee usurped the Crowne contrary to his Oath made to Henry the first that hee should maintaine the inheritance of his daughter Mawd the Empresse this Stephen Vpon what grounds Stephen pretended his title to the Crown was the sonne of Eustace Earle of Bulloigne and of Mary sister to Mawd who was married to his predecessor Henry these two are the daughters of Margaret the wife of Malcolm King of Scots which Margaret was the sister to Edgar Etheling and daughter of Edward the outlaw who was sonne to Edmund Ironside Mawd the Empresse daughter to Henry Beauclarke had by her second husband Ieffery Plantaginet this Henry the second of that name by whom the bloud of the Saxons againe returned to the Crowne partly by King Stephen but more fully by him so that consequently the bloud of the Normans continued but threescore The Norman bloud in sixty yeeres extinguished and ten yeeres accounting from the first yeere of William the Conquerour to the last of the reigne of Henry first compleating those words the prophesie And when the iron brood in the land shall fail The bloud of the red Dragon must prevail CHAP. 14. Divers remarkable passages during the Reigne of Henry the second his numerous issue and how they were affected towards him his vices and vertues his good and bad fortune all which were by this our Prophet predicted HEnry the second sonne of Ieffery Plantaginet The Coronation of King Henry the second and Mawd the Empresse began his Reigne over England in the moneth of October and the yeere of our Lord God one thousand one hundred fifty five of whom before it was thus prophesied The Eglet of the Flawde league shall behold The prophesie of his Reâ—…gne The Fathers of her prime bird shine in gold And in her third nest shall rejoyce but hee Who from the height of the great Rocke may see The Countries round both neer and far away Shall search amongst them where hee best can pray Some of whose numerous ayrie shall retaine The nature of the Desert Pelican The all commanding keys shall strive to wrest And force the locke that opens to his nest But break their own wards of all flowers that grow The Rose shall most delight his smell and so That least it any strangers eyes should daze Hee 'l plant it close in a Dedalian Maze Fortune at first will on his glories smile But fail him in the end alack the while The first words of this Prophesie seeme to reflect Part of the prophesie explained upon the Empresse his Mother by rejoycing her third nest may be intended that having three sonnes Henry Ieffery and William the two later failing as dying in their youth shee might rejoyce in him whose Father being King she saw to shine in gold or else being first espoused to Henry the Emperour and next to Ieffery Plantaginet shee might in her death rejoyce in her third espousall with her Saviour but againe where hee stiles her the Eglet of the Flawde or Borbon League It may bee conferd upon the Queen who being first married to the King of France and through neernesse of bloud divorced from him and sent to her Father and after married to this King being then Duke of Normandy she may be said first to have built her nest in France secondly in Normandy and thirdly and last in England This Prince as the Chronicle describes him The Kings Character to us was somewhat high-coloured but of a good aspect and pleasant countenance fat full chested and low of stature and because hee grew somewhat corpulent hee used a sparing and abstinent diet and much exercised Hunting He was well spoken and indifferently learned Noble in Knighthood and wise in counsaile bountifull to strangers but to his familiars and servants gripple-handed and where hee loved once or hated constant and hardly to be removed he had by his wife Eleanor six sonnes and three daughters The names of five of them His Issue were William Henry Richard Godfery and Iohn of which two came to succeed him in the Throne Richard and Iohn of the sixt there is small or no mention the eldest of his daughters hight Mawd and was married to the Duke of Saxony the second Eleanor to the King of Spaine the third named Iane to William King of Sicily This King was prosperous in the beginning of his Raigne but unfortunate in the end as the sequell will make apparant he was of such magnanimity and courage that hee was often heard to say that to a valiant heart not a whole World sufficeth and according to his words hee greatly augmented his Heritage and much added The Kings Dominions to his Dominions For hee wonne Ireland by strength and in the seventh yeere of his Reigne for divers affronts offered him by William King of Scotland he made such cruell warre upon him that in the end hee tooke him He taketh the Scots King prisoner prisoner and compeld him to surrender into his hands the City of Carlile the Castle of Bamburch the new Castle upon Tyne with divers other holds and a great part of Northumberland which William before had wonne from the
was inscribed Hic jacet in tumba Rosamundi non Rosamunda Her inscription on her tombe Non redolet sedolet quae redolere solet Which by an ancient Writer was thus paraphrased into English The Rose of the World but not the clean flower Is graven heere to whom beauty was lent In this grave full darke now is her bower That in her life was sweet and redolent But now that she is from this life blent Though she were sweet now fouly doth she stink A mirrour good for all that on her think Such was their English poetry in those dayes Long after the death of Rosamond was shewed in that Abbey a rare Coffer or Casket of hers about two foot in length in which was a strange artificiall motion where were to be seen Giants fighting Beasts in motion Fowls flying and Fishes swimming This Henry was troubled by the Queenes animating of his sonnes against him betwixt whom were divers conflicts which would appeare tedious to bee rehearsed It is written of this King that in his Chamber at Windsore hee had painted an Eagle with foure Henries character of his foure sonnes young ones whereof three of them pulled and pecked the body of the old Eagle and the fourth picked at his eyes and being asked what that picture should signifie hee made answer This old Eagle figureth my selfe and the foure birds my foure sonnes who cease not to pursue my life but most of all my sonne Iohn whom I most have loved and therefore Some of his numerous ayrie will retain The nature of the Desert Pelican The nature of the Pelican in the Desert being to pierce her brest with her bill and feed her young ones with her owne bloud In the The death of King Henry sonne of King Henry twenty eight yeere of this Henry died his eldest sonne Henry whom hee had before crowned much repenting on his death-bed for his unnaturall rebellion against his Father Rainold Monke of Chester relates that soon after the death of the Lady Rosamond Lewis the French King and the eighth of that name sent to King Henry one of his daughters to bee kept for his second sonne Richard whom the King vitiated and laboured to Haguntia a Cardinall then in the Land for a Divorce betwixt Henry laboureth a divorce betwixt him and his wife him and his wife intending to have maried that French Lady but he failed of his purpose for he meant by that match to have disinherited his unnaturall sonnes It is further recorded that when William King of Scots was taken by the King of England Hee did him Homage at the City of Yorke and in witnesse of subjection he offered his Hat and Saddle upon Saint Peters Altar which were kept there many yeeres after This King had many strange admonitions for Sundry admonitions to the King to amend his life the amendment of his life one was that in his returne from Ireland as he was taking his horse there appeared unto him a man of a pale and meager aspect bare-foot and in a white Mantle who spake unto him and said I am sent to thee from the Lord of the Sabbaoth who commandeth thee to take order that no Markets bee kept nor any servile worke bee done on the Lords day dressing of meate excepted only which if thou feest performed whatsoever thou purposest thou shalt bring to a good and happy end whose speech the King seemed to distaste and said to him that held his bridle aske of this Churle if he have dreamed that which hee speaketh to which the apparition answered againe whether I have dreamed or not take thou heed to my words and amend thy life or what thou now mockest shall returne to thy great misery which having said he vanisht suddenly the strangenesse whereof though he seriously apprehended yet of the former there was nothing amended He had a second admonition by an Irishman His second admonition who told him all things which the King had done in secret which hee had thought none had knowne but himselfe and withall advised him to repentance and amendment of life but hee regarded it as the former about which time being the foure and twentieth yeere of his The bones of King Arthur and his Queen found Reigne were taken up the bones of King Arthur and his Queene Guenever in the Vale of Avalon the haire of her head seeming white and of a fresh colour but as soone as touched they turned to powder their bones were after translated to the Church in Glastenbury and there the second time buried they were found by a Bard or Singer of Rythmes under the root of an Oke fifteen foot within the ground his third admonition I leave to the next Chapter CHAP. 15. The inauguration of Richard the first sirnamed Cordelion a prediction of his Reigne His warres in the Holy Land his imprisonment by the Duke of Austria his brother Iohns usurpation his second Coronation with his unfortunate death c. A Knight called Sir William Chesterly alias Lindsey told him boldly that His third admonition there were seven severall things by him specially and suddenly to be reformed First to see better to the defence of the Church and provide for the maintenance thereof Secondly to see his Lawes better executed and Iustice more exercised Thirdly not to rob the rich nor extort from them their goods by violence Fourthly to make restitution of all those lands and goods as hee had so wrested Fiftly to make no demurre or delay in just sentence but suffer the right to have lawfull processe Sixtly to see his subjects satisfied for such things as had beene taken up to his use and to pay his servants and souldiers which fell to robbery for that default Seventhly that he should speedily cause the Iewes to avoid the Land But this advise prevailed with him as the former In his thirtieth yeere Heraclius Patriarch of Ierusalem came into England to solicite his aid against the Saracens who had invaded the Christian Territories and to defend the holy City which by Saladine King of Surry was wonne soon after For by the relation of Peter Desroy a French Chronicler Ierusalem was wonne by Godfrey of Bulloigne in the yeere of Grace one thousand fourescore and nineteene and continued under nine Christian Kings of which Guy of Resingham was the last this Heraclius Nine Christian Kings raigne successively over Hierusalem further profered the King the keyes of the holy City and of our Lords grave presenting him Letters from Pope Lucius the third of that name which charged him to take upon him the journey according to an Oath by him formerly made to which the King answered The King refuseth to be Generall foâ—… the Holy Land he could not leave his Land in trouble as a prey to the French and his owne aspiring sonne but he would give largely out of his owne coffers to such as would take that voyage in hand To which the Patriarch replyed we
belonging to the Duke he was beset by one Mainart de Goresen but with losse of some of his traine he by his manhood escaped After at a towne named Frisach one Frederick de Saint Soon made a second attempt upon him and tooke six of his Knights but he by his noble valour made his way through the ambush of the enemy without surprizall and strooke up towards Germany but spies being set to know what course he King Richard taken took he was at length betrayed into the hands of the Duke of Lemple cousin to the Emperor who sent him to the Duke of Austria he presently rifled him of all the treasure and iewels hee had about him and committed him for a moneth to strait and close prison During which time as some write the Duke Hence he had the appeâ—…ation of Cur de Lyon put him to cope singly with a great and mighty Lion weaponlesse and unarmed who having conquered the beast ript up his heart and flang it in the Dukes face and after that with a blow under the eare he slew the Dukes sonne and further that his daughter being enamoured both of his person and great valour he left her vitiated and deflowred but howsoever in this all witnesses agree that when the moneth was expired he sent him to the Emperour who was Henry the first of that name and sonne to Frederick the first who put him into a darke and obscure dungeon covenanting with the Duke that he should have the third part of his ransome there he remained for the space of a yeere and three moneths at length upon a palm-sunday he caused him to be brought before his Princes and Lords to answer what could be obiected against him where hee appeared with such a manly and maiestick aspect and withal answered so directly and discreetly to whatsoever was laid to his charge that they generally comiserated his iniust durance then King Richard ransomed at an hundred thousand pound and set at liberty his ransome was set at an hundred thousand pound sterling and hostages given for the payment by such a time which done he was set at liberty which verefies Coopt up and cag'd then shall the Lion be But after sufferance ransomd and set free The King in the eight yeere of his Reigne The Kings arrivall into England about the latter end of March landed at Sandwich and came straight to London where he was ioyfully received and then calling a Counsaile of his Lords he first took order to pay his ransome and because his brother Iohn in his absence had usurped the Diadem was at that time in France he deprived him of all Honour and title and tooke from him all those Earledomes and revenewes that hee before had conferd upon him and caused him selfe at Winchester to be the second time crowned and then began the ancient grudge to revive betweene the two Kings of England and France which was the more aggravated because the French King supported Iohn against the King his Brother But Prince Iohn seeing how much his fame was magnified in the mouths of all men and that all the parts both of Christendome and Paganisme resounded with his praise he made means to his mother Queene Eleanor by whose mediation a Iohn reconciled to the K. his brother peace was made betwixt her two sonnes whilest the wars in Normandy and France went stil forwards Many wery the battailes fought betwixt the two Kings and much effusion of bloud on both sides where sometimes the one sometimes the other had the better but for the most part Richard the best during which combustion before the last 20000 pound for his ransome was payd his two hostages the Bishops of Bath in England and Roan in Normandy came unto him and told him that they were set at liberty by the Emperour and further shewed that his great enemy the Duke of Austria was accused of Innocent the third then Pope for the iniuries before offered him and that upon Saint Stephens day hee prickt his foot with a thorne which gangrend and should have beene cut off and being told hee must die he sent to his Bishops to be absolved which they had denied to doe till hee had showne himselfe repentant for the foresaid wrongs and released his hostages which being The death of the Duke of Austria accordingly done the Duke died and they were delivered In the processe of the wars before spoken of King Richard in the tenth yeere of his Reigne after Christmasse besieged a Castle in France neere Lymoges called Gaylyard the cause was that a rich treasure being found within the Seigniory of the King of England by one Widomer Vicount of Lemruke hee had denyed to render it up and fled thither for his refuge and defended it manfully till the fift day of April upon which day the King walking unadvisedly to The King too unadvised take view of the Fort and where it might be best entred one named Bertrand Genedow whom some Writers call Pater Basale marked the King and wounded him in the head but some say in the arme with a poysoned arrow after which hurt received hee caused a violent and desperate assault to be made in which hee wonne the Castle then hee made inquiry who hee was that had wounded him who being found and brought before him the King demanded of him why he should rather ayme at his person than any of those who were then about him who boldly made answer because thou slewest my Father and my brethren for which I vowed thy death whatsoever became of me the King after some pawsing leisure for that answer gave him his pardon and liberty but the rest of the souldiers he put to the sword and caused the Castle to bee razed to the earth The death of King Richard the firâ—… and dyed the third day after whose body was buried at Fount E-a-Bleu at the feet of his Father which no way erres from the prophesie For potent Kings whose prides Transcend 'twixt whom a sea-arm onely glides Ambitious truth shall many conflicts try Last by a poysonous shaft the King shall die Iohn the youngest sonne to Henry the second Iohn made King of England and brother to the late deceased Richard was proclaimed King the tenth day of April in the yeere of Grace one thousand one hundred fourescore and nineteene and was crowned at Westminster upon holy Thursday next ensuing of whom it was thus predicted The subtle Fox into the Throne shall creep Thinking the Lion dead who did but sleepe But frighted with his walking rore finds cause To flie the terrour of his teeth and paws After this Leopard stain'd with many a spot Shall lose all Rollo by his Gilla got Then shall those keyes whose power would awe the fates For a long time lock up his Temple gates Vnburthen him of all the charge he beares And wrest from him the Lawrell that he wears Woes me that from one Leopard should be
the great Impoverishment of Italy and the lands of the empire in the fortieth yeare of the King landed in England upon Innocents day in Christmas Richard Earle of Cornwall crowned Emperour weeke divers Princes of the Empyre and did their homage to Richard Earle of Cornwale as King of the Romans and Emperour who upon Ascention day after was crowned in Aquisgrane verifying Abroad the second whelp for prey will rore Beyond the Alps and to * Meaning the Eagle Ioves bird restore Her decai'd plumes In the 41 yeare about Saint Barabas day in the moneth of Iune the king called his high The mad Parliament Court of Parliament at Oxford which was called the mad parliament because in it divers Acts were concluded against the Kings pleasure for the reformation of the state for which after great dissention grew betwixt the King and his Nobles called the Barons Wars which proved the perishing of many of the Peeres and almost the ruine of the whole Realme for in that Session were chosen twelve Peeres whom they called the Douz Peeres who had full Commission to correct and reforme whatsoever was done amisse in the Kings Court the Courts of Iustice and Exchequer throughout Twelve of the Nobilitie chosen and called the Douz Peeres the Land to whose power the King and Prince Edward his sonne signed and assented unto though somewhat against their wills of all which passages such as would be fully satisfied I referre them to our English Chronicles or to Michael Draytons Poem of the Barâ—…ns Warres wherein they are amply discoursed and my narrow limits will not give mee leave to relate them at large yet I borrow permission to insist a little further on one particular All things being in combustion betwixt the The Baroâ—…s Letter to the King King and his Peeres and their Armies assembled on both sides the Barons framed a Letter to the King to this purpose To the most excellent Lord King Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland Duke of Guian c. The Barons and other your faithfull servants their fidelity and oath to God and you coveting to keep sending due saluting with all reverence and honour under due obeysance c. Liketh it your Highnesse to understand that many being about you have before time shewed unto your Lordship of us many evill and untrue reports and have found suggestions not onely of us but also of your selfe to bring your Realme to subversion Know your excellency that we intend nothing but health and security to your person to the uttermost of our powers And not onely to our enemies but also yours and all this your Realme wee intend utter grievance and correction beseeching your grace hereafter to give to them little credence for you shall find us your true and faithfull subjects to the uttermost of our powers And wee Simon Mountfort Earle of Leceister and High Steward of England and Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester at the request of others and for our selves have put to our Seals the 10. of May. To which Letter the King framed this Answer The Kings answer to the Barons Letter Henry by the grace of God King of England Lord of Ireland and Duke of Guian to Simon de Mountfort and Gilbert de Clare and their Complices Whereas by Warre and generall disturbance in this our Realme by you begunne and continued with also burnings and other enormities it evidently appeares that your fidelity to us due you have not kept nor the security of our person litle regarded for so much as our Lords and other our trusty friends which daily abide with us yee vexe and grieve and them pursue to the utmost of your powers and yet daily intend as you by the report of your Letters have us ascertained we the griefe of them admit and take for our owne especially when they for their fidelity which they to us daily impend stand and abide by us to suppresse your infidelity and untroth Wherefore of your favour and assurance we set little store but you as our enemies we utterly defie Witnesse our selfe at our Towne of Lewis the twelfth of May. Moreover Richard his Brother King of the Romans who was come over into England with his wife and son with Prince Edward and other Lords about the King sent them another Letter Richard the Emperour and Prince Edwards Letter to the Barons the tenour whereof was this Richard by the grace of Gâ—…d King of the Romans semper Augustus and Edward the Noble first begotten sonne of the King of England and all other Barons firmly standing and abiding with our Soveraigne Lord the King To Simonde Mountfort and Gilbert de Clare and all other their false fellowes c. By the Letters which yee sent to our Soveraigne Lord wee understand that wee are defied of you neverthelesse this word of defiance appeared to us sufficiently before by the deprivation and burning of our Mannors and carrying away of our goods wherefore we will that yee understand that we defie you as our mortall and publicke enemies and whensoever we may come to the revengement of the injuries that you to us have done wee shall requite it to the utmost of our power and where yee put upon us that neither true nor good counsell to our Soveraigne Lord we give you therein say falsely and untruely and if that saying yee Sir Simon de Mountfort and Sir Gilbert de Clare will testifie in the Court of our Soveraign Lord we are ready to purchase to your surety and safe comming that there wee may prove our true and faithfull innocency and your false and trayterous lying Witnessed with the Seales of Richard King of the Romans and Sir Edward Prince before named Given at Lewes the twelfth of May. The successe of the Battaile followeth in the next Chapter CHAP. 18. The deaths of Henry the third and Richard Earle of Cornwale King of the Romans Prince Edwards victories in the Holy Land his Coronation the prophesie of his Raigne his first reducing of Wales under his dominion for ever the beginning of his warres in Scotland c. WHen the Barons had received these letters they were resolved to try it out by the sword on wednesday being the 24 day of May early in the morning both hoasts met where the Londoners who took part with the Barons gave the first assault but were beaten back some-what to the The battaile betwixt the King and the Barons dismay of the Barons Army but they cheared their fresh and lusty Souldiers in such wise that they valiantly came on by whose brave resolution those before discomfited resumed their former strength and vertue fighting without fear in so much that the Kings vaward gave back left their places in this battaile the father spared not the sonne nor the sonne the father such was the misery of those home bred wars in so much that the field was every where strowed with dead bâ—…dyes for
the fight continued the greatest part of the day at last the victory fell to the Barons so that were taken the King the King of the Romans and prince Edward The King taken prisoner with the King of the Romans and P. Edward with five and twenty Barons and Bannerets and the people slaine on both sides amounted to above twentythousand These royall prisoners being put in safe keeping a peace was after debated and at length concluded and they released but it proved to small purpose for many battailes were after fought betwixt them in which sometimes the King sometimes the Barons had the better the circumstances are too long to relate in which Prince Edward bore himselfe bravely in processe the five fiftieth yeer of this Kings Reign the King of the Romans made attonement betwixt the King his brother and Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester who had continued the wars of the Barons upon condition that hee should take a Voyage into the Holy Land for the King for which hee should have towards his charge eight thousand Marks in hand and when hee was on shipboard foure thousand more and to bee ready the first day of May next following but this failing in him Prince Edward undertooke it in his stead and the yeere after abâ—…ut the end of March dyed Richard Emperour of The death of Richard K. of the Romans Almaine King of the Romans and Earle of Cornwall being the Kings brother after hee had governed the Empire betwixt fifteen and sixteene yeeres and was buried at Hales an Abbey of white Monks which hee had before time founded and the yeere following upon the sixteenth day of November died Henry the Third King of England after he had governed the Realme fifty The death of Henry the third six yeeres and twenty seven days leaving for his Heire Prince Edward who was then in the Holy Land and another sonne called Edmund Crowch-backe His body was buried in the Abbey of Westminster and over him inscribed Tertius Henricus jacet hic pietatis amicus His Epitaph Ecclesiam stravit istam quam post renovavit Reddat ei munus qui regnat trinus unus Thus Englished Third Henry here doth rest Of Piety possest Down first this Church he threw And after did renew O grant him thy immunity Thou Trinity in Vnitie The premisses confirme the prophesie of his Reigne towards the latter end of his time which was turbulent and troublesome to the exhausting of the Kings treasure the deaths of many of his Noble Barons and almost to the destruction and desolation of the whole Realm therefore it was truly said of him The King of beasts whose rage His youth conceal'd shall rouze him in his age Against the Boare the Talbot and the Beare The Mountaine Cat and Goat with whom cohere c. By the Lion the King is personated and by the rest of the beasts and birds named the severall Crests and Emblazons in the Barons Armes and Scutchions by which they were distinguisht Prince Edward his sonne was at the time of his death in the Land of Palaestine Of whom also it was thus predicted An Occident all Dragon bright as noone The Prophesie Shal breathing flames dark the Oriental Moon The Cambrian Wolves he through their Woods shall chace Nor cease till hee have quite extirpt their race Then from the North shall fiery Meteors threat Ambitious after bloud to quench their heat The Dragons bloud at which his Crest wil rise And his scales flame and where he treads as flyes Fright all shal him oppose the Northern Dyke Passe shall hee then and set his foot in Wyke After which showers of bloud will fall upon And barren the faire fields of Caledon Then having ended what he took in hand Die in the Marches of another Land Hee in the yeere one thousand two hundred Prince Edwards expeditioâ—… to the Holy Land threescore and eleven and in the yeere of his fathers Reigne fifty five upon the twentieth of August tooke shipping at Dover and sailed thence to Burdeaux but because the French Army bâ—…und upon the same adventure was removed thence he sped after and met with them at Tunis and from theâ—…ce he took shipping for the Holy Land and arrived with some French forces joyned with his owne At Acris or Acon what time the Christians possessed that City only and the City of Tyre holding some few Castles to preserve them from the rage of the Soldan There he was honorably received and with great joy after whose being there the Soldan or Saladine who had wonne all the Countrey there about came thither with an Hoast of an hundred threescore thousand Sarazens and besieged the City and made many bold and bloudy assaults But the Prince so Prince Edwards valour in defending Acris valiantly demeaned himselfe that hee defended the City the Castles belonging to it and all the Territories about that notwithstanding the multitude of the Soldans Army hee was compeld to forsake the siege to his great shame and dishonour Even the French Chronicles whose custome The French Chronicles testifie of P. Edwards valour is to write boastingly of themselves and sparingly of others bestow on him a character of invincible courage and that in all his stratagems and martiall exploits hee so honourably behaved himselfe that his very name was a terrour to the Turks for many yeers after who seeing his great boldnesse and that they were not able to stand him in battaile they plotted how to take away his life by Treason and to that purpose when he was resident in Acon they sent to P. Edward traitcrously wounded him a Sarazen in the name of a Secretary who in delivering unto him a counterfeit message wounded him in the arme with an empoysoned Knife which he wresting from the Infidels hand slue with the same weapon so that he died incontinently Then hee cald for a Surgeon and with incomparable sufferance commanded him to cut out all the putrified and corrupted flesh even to the scaling of the bone without the least shrinking or alteration of countenance of which base treachery hee was after revenged upon them to their great detriment and damage and thus The Occidentall Dragon bright as noon Did breathing flames dazle the orienial moon Hee is called Occidentall as being bred in this our Westerne Island and the Soldan is figured in the Orientall Moone being a Prince in the Easterne part of the World and bearing the semicircled Moone in his Banner Prince Edward during his aboad there had by the Princesse his wife a daughter called Ioane who tooke a His wife was Isabell of Spain Ioan of Acris name from the place and was called Ioane of Acris because there born and was after married to the Earle of Glocester After his being there some two yeeres and upward his father dying hee was called home to take possession of the Crowne of England Edward the first of that name and sonne of
Henry the Third by reason of his tall stature sirnamed Long-shanks began his Reign Novem. 17. the yeere of Grace one thousand two hundred threescore and twelve who came to London the second day of August and was crowned at Westminster the fourteenth of December following The Cororati of P. Edward sirnamed Loâ—…gshanks being the second yeere of his Reigne at whose Coronation was present Alexander King of Scots who the morrow following did homage to him for the Kingdome of Scotland but Lewellin prince of Wales refused to come to that solemnitie for which King Edward gathered a strong power and subdued him in his Lewellin P. of Wales rebeileth owne borders and in the yeere after hee called his high Court of Parlament to which also Lewellin presumptuously denied to come therefore after Easter he assembled new forces and entring Wales hee constrained him to submit himselfe to his mercy which with great difficulty Lewellin took to mercy hee obtained then the King built the Castle of Flint and strengthened the Castle of Rutland to keepe the Welsh in due obedience He gave also uuto David brother of Lewellin David brother to Lewellin the Castle of Froddesham who remayned in his Court and with his seeming service much delighted the King but David did it only as a spie to give his brother secret intelligence of whatsoever the King or his Counsell said of him or against him who tooke his opportunity and privatly left the Court stirring up his broâ—…her to a new Rebellion of which the King being informed hee could hardly thinke that hee could prove so ingratefull but being better ascertained of the truth he made fierce warre upon them at length Lewellin was strictly besieged in Swandon Castle from which when hee thought early in a morning to escape with ten Knights only hee was met by Sir Roger Mortimer upon whose Lands hee had before done great out-rage who surprized him and cut off his head and sent it to the King being then at The death of Lewellin P. of Wales Rutland who commanded it to bee pitcht on a pole and set upon the Tower of London and further that all his heires should be disherited and their claime to the Soveraignty of Wales to be deprived the right thereof solely remayning in the Kings of England and their Successours So one after was his brother David taken and after doomed to be drawn hanged and quartered The death of David his brother and his head sent to the Tower and placed by his brother Lewellins in which the prophesie is verified The Cambrian Wolves he through their woods shall chace Nor cease till he have quite extirpt their Race Of this Lewellin a Welsh Metrician writ this Epitaph Hic jacet Anglorum tortor tutor Venedorum Princeps Wallorum Lewelinus regula morum A Welsh poet upon the death of Lewellin Gemma Coaevorum flos regum praeteritorum Forma futurorum Dux Laus Lex Lux populorum Thus anciently Englisht Of Englishmen the scourge of Welsh the protector Lewellin the Prince rule of all vertue Gemme of Livers and of all others the flower Who unto death hath paid his debt due Of Kings a mirrour that after him ensue Duke and Priest and of the Law the right Here in this grave of people lyeth the light To which an English Poet of those times made this answer Hic jacet errorum princeps ac praedo virorum An English poets answer to the former Proditor Anglorum fax livida sectareorum Numen Wallorum Trux Dux Homicida piorum Fex Trojanorum stirps mendax causa malorum Here lyeth of Errour the Prince if yee will ken Thiefe and Robber and traytor to Englishmen A dimme brood a Sect of doers evill God of Welshmen cruell without skill In slaying the good and Leader of the bad Lastly rewarded as he deserved had Of Trojans bloud the dregs and not the seed A root of falshood and cause of many evill deed In the twentieth yeere of the King upon Saint Andrews Eve being the twentie ninth of November died Queene Eleanor sister to the The death of Q. Eleanor King of Spaine by whom the King had foure sonnes Iohn Henry Alphons and Edward the three first died and Edward the youngest succeeded his Father and five Daughters Eleanor who was married to William of Bar Ioan of The Kings Râ—…yall Issue Acris to the Earle of Glocester Gilbert de Clare Margaret to the Dukes sonne of Brabant Mary who was made a Nun at Ambrisbury and Elisabeth espoused to the Earle of Holland and after his death to Humphrey Bokun Earle of Hereford This yeere also died old Queene Eleanor wife The death of K. Edwards mother to Henry the third and mother to King Edward I come now to the twenty fourth yeare of his Reigne in which Alexander King of Scotland being dead hee left three Daughters the first was married to Sir Iohn Baliol the second to Sir Robert le Bruise the third to one Hastings Amongst which there fell dissention about the Title to the Crown as shall appeare in the next Chapter CHAP. 19. The right that the Kings of England have anciently had to the Crowne of Scotland for which they did them homage King Edwards victorious wars in Scotland The Prophesie fulfilled His death And Coronation of his sonne c. The death of Gaveston with a Prophesie of King Edward the Second THese three before-named Baliol Bruse and Hastings came to King Edward as chiefe Lord and Sovereigne Authority by which England claimed homage from the Scotch Kings of that Land to dispose of the right of their Titles to his pleasure and they to abide his censure who to the intent that they might know hee was the sole competent Iudge in that case caused old Evidences and Chronicles to be searcht amongst which was Marianus the Scot William of Malmsbury Roger of Hungtington and others in which were found and read before them that in the yeere of Grace nine hundred and twenty King Edward the elder made subject unto him the two Kings of Cambria and Scotland In the yeere nine hundred twenty one the said Kings of Wales and Scotland chose the same Edward to bee their Lord and Patron In the yeere nine hundred twenty six Ethelstane King of England subdued Constantine King of Scots who did him fealty and homage And Edredus brother and successor to Ethelstane subdued the Scots againe with the Northumbers who reigned under him It was also found in the said Chronicles that King Edgar overcame Alpinus the sonne of Kinudus King of Scots and received of him homage as hee had done of his father before time And that Canutus in the sixteenth yeere of his Reign overcame Malcolm K. of Scots and received of him oath and homage that William the Conquerour in the sixt yeere of his Reigne was victorious over Malcolme who before received the Kingdome of the gift of Edward the Confessor who did him fealty the
like did Malcolme and his two sonnes to VVilliam sirnamed the Red sonne to the Conquerour David King of Scots did homage also to Stephen King of England VVilliam King of Scots did the like to Henry the third at the time of his Coronation and when this Henry was dead This Henry cald the third was sonne to Henry the se cond and was crowned but dyed befoâ—…e his Father hee came after to his father Henry the second into Normandy and did the like to him also Alexander King of Scots in the thirty first yeer of Henry the second sonne of King Iohn married at Yorke the Daughter of the said Henry and did him homage for the Realme of Scotland c. Further was shewed unto them the Popes Bulls sent into Scotland by vertue whereof those of their Kings were accursed that would not bee obedient to their Lords the Kings of England Briefely they acknowledging all these Authoriy from Rome to be true Bonds were made on both sides in which thing Edward was tyed in an hundred thousand pounds to nominate their King and the Scots againe bound to obey him nominated as their Soveraigne After which writings sealed they delivered the possession of the Kingdome of Scotland into King Edwards hands to preserve it to his use of whom hee would make election who made choise of Sir Iohn Balioll as true and immediate heire by marrying Sir Iohn Balioll made king of Scots the eldest sister for which he did him homage and sware him fealty which done the Scots with their new King departed joyfully into Scotland But soone after Baliol repented him of his Oath and as some say by the Counsell of the Abbot of Menrosse others by the instigation of the King of France but whether by one or both certaine it is that hee perfidiously revolted and made warre upon England which Edward hearing sped him with a great hoast into The Scots revolt Scotland and laid siege to Barwicke but they bravely defended the Towne and burnt some of our English with which they were so inflamed with pride that they made this scornfull Rime upon the English What ween is King Edward with his long shanks To have won Barwicke all our unthankes Gaas pikes him And when he had it Gaas dikes him At which King Edward being mightily moved so incouraged his souldiers that they first wonne the Ditches and after with great difficulty the Bulwarkes and then came to the gates which they inforced and entring the Towne slew twenty five thousand and seven hundred Scots and lost no man of note save Richard King Edward winneth Barwicke Earle of Cornwall and of meaner people twenty seven and no more which hitherto upholds the former prediction Then from the North shall fiery Meteors threat Ambitious after blood to quench their heate The Dragons blood at which his Crest wil rise And his skales flame where he treads or flies Fright all shall him oppose the Northerne Dyke Passe shall he then and set his foot in wyke By the Northerne Dyke is implyed the River Tweede and by Wyke the Towne of Barwicke but I pursue the History The King having possest the Towne and Castle hee sent Sir Hugh Spencer with Sir Hugh Parcy and other Noble men to besiege Dunbar whither came a mighty Host to remove them thence with whom the English had a fierce and cruel battail A glorious victory at the taking of Dunbar in which were slaine of the Scots twenty two thousand and of the English a very small number wherefore the English to reproach the Scots in regard of their former Rime made this These scattered Scots Hold we for sots Of wrenches unware Earely in a morning in an evill timing Came yee to Dunbar After the taking of the Towne and Castle of Dunbarre the King besieged the City of Edenborough and wonne both it and the Castle Edenborough taken with the Castle Crown c. in which were found the Regalities of state which King Edward tooke thence and offered them at the shrine of Saint Edward upon the eighteenth day of Iune the year following Then Sir Iohn Baliol with diverse of his Clergy and Nobility submitted themselves to the kings grace and having setled the affaires of Scotland hee brought them up to London and then asked them what amends they would make him for all the trouble and damage they had put him to who answered they wholly submitted themselves to his mercy Hee then replyed your Lands nor your goods doe I desire but I will that you take the Sacrament to be my true Feodaries and never more to beare Armes against me to which they willingly assented of w ch were sir Iohn Commin the Earle of Stratherne the Earle of Carick and foure The Scotch sworne on the Sacrament Bishops took Oath in the behalfe of themselves and the whole Clergy which done the king gave them safe conduct into their Country But not long after they hearing the king was busied in his warres of Gascoyne against the French king they made a new insurrection having They breake their oath one VVill. Wallis a desperate Ruffin and of low condition to be their chiefe Leader which the King hearing having ordred his affaires in â—…rance hee sped towards Scotland and entring the Kingdome he burnt and wasted wheresoere he came sparing only all Churches Religious Houses and the poore people who besought him of mercy At length hee met with the Scottish Army upon Saint Mary Mawdlins day at a place called Fonkirke where hee gave them The bâ—…ve battaile at Fonkâ—…ke battaile and slue of them thirty three thousand with the losse only of twenty eight men and no more and finding no other enemies able to resist him hee returned into England and after married Margaret the French Kings sister by which King Edward marrieth the French Kings sister a peace betwixt England and France was concluded Then went king Edward a third time into Scotland and almost famished the Land and tooke the strong Castle of Estrevelin and soon after was taken William VVallis at the Town of The end of William Wallis Saint Dominick who was sent to London where he received his judgement and upon Saint Bartholomews Eve was drawne and quartred his head stooke off and set on London bridge and his foure quarters sent to bee hanged up in the foure chiefe Cities of Scotland after this Robert le Bruce claymed the Crowne of Scotland without acquainting king Edward therewith and drove all the Englishmen out of the Land of which he vowed revenge and to hang up all the Traytors in that kingdome who before hee set forward on that expedition made foure hundred and foure knights at VVestminster upon a Whitson Sunday with whom and the rest of King Edward maketh 400 and foure Knights his Army he once more pierced Scotland and upon Friday before the Assumption of our Lady hee met with Robert le Bruce and his Hoast
two Spencers c. BY the Cornish Eagle in the former Chapter is meant Pierce Gavestone Earle of Cornwall by his plumes of gold his pride and riches borrowed and extorted from others by the Goat the King who was given to all intemperate effeminacie by the Beare Thomas Earle of Lancaster c. This King was of a beautifull aspect King Edwards Character and excellent feature of a strong constitution of body but unstedfast in promise and ignoble in condition as refusing the company of men of honour to associate himselfe with lewd and vile persons he was much addicted to bibacity and apt to discover matters of great counsell and of stupration and adultery perswaded thereto by his familiars the French men for whose death the King vowed an irreconciliable revenge against the Barons which he after performed indeed so unking-like was his misgovernment that a base Villaine called Iohn Tanner named himself the son of Edward the Iohn Tanner an Impostor first and that by the means of a false nurse hee was stoln out of his cradle and this Edward being a Carters son was laid in his place which the people for the former reasons were easily induced to believe but the Impostor was discovered and by his own confession judged to be hanged and quartered In the seventh yeere of his Reigne Robert le Robert le Bruce wars against England Bruce King of Scots whom his Father made flye into Norway hearing of the misguiding of the Kingdome and the dissention betwixt him and his Barons warre strongly against him and his friends in Scotland and wonne from them Castles and Holds howsoever well munified to the great damage of the English who were interessed The Kings power against Scotland in the Land For which affront the King assembled a great power and invaded Scotland by Sea burning and destroying all such Townes and Villages as were in his way which Robert le Bruce hearing he hasted with a strong Army and upon S. Iohn Baptists day both Hoasts met at a place called Estrivelin neere unto a fresh River called Bannoksburne where betwixt them was fought a cruell battaile in which the English were compeld to forsake the field For which in derision of the English the Scots made this Ryme Doggerill Maidens of England sore may you mourn The Scots derision of the English For the Lemans you have lost at Bannocksborn With a heave and hoe What weened the King of England so soone to have wonne Scotland With a Rumby low In his ninth yeere Barwick was betrayed to the Scots by one Peter Spalding whom the King had Barwick betrayed to the Scots made Governour of the Town and Castle and in the eleventh yeâ—…re the Scots entred the borders of Northumberland most cruelly robbing and burning the Country even the houses of women who lay in Childbed not sparing age The cruelty of the Scots nor sex religious nor other therefore the King raised a new Army and laid siege to Barwick in which interim the Scots past the River of Swale and leaving the Coast where the Kings people lay came into the Borders of Yorkeshire to whom the Archbishop with Priests and ploughmen unexercised in armes gave battail but were discomfited in which so many Priors Clerks Canons and other Clergymen were slaine that they called it the white battaile when The white battaile the King heard of this overthrow hee broke up his siege and retyred to Yorke and soone after to London After this nothing was done without the advice of the two Hugh Spencers the father and the sonne and in a Counsell held at Yorke Hugh Spencer the sonne maugre the Lords was made high Chamberlain of England who bore him as haughtily as ever did Gavestone but let The pride of Hugh Spencer the sonne me take the prophesie along A Goat shall then appeare out of a Carr VVith silver hornes not Iron unfit for warre And above other shall delight to feed Vpon the flower that life and death doth breed By the Goat is figured lascivious Edward therefore said to appeare out of a Car as born in Carnarvan his hornes of silver and not of Iron denotes his effeminacie being unserviceable for warre as may appeare in his successe against the Scots by the Flower of life and death is intended his Queene Isabel the Flower of France at first deare to him as life but in the end as most Writers have suspected with Mortimer accessary to his death but to proceed with the History The Barons to a great number seeing how The assembly of the Barons the Spencers misled the King and misgoverned the affaires in the Land assembled themselves and tooke a solemne and unanimous vow to remove them out of the Kingdome and as their first attempt certain of them appointed to that purpose entred upon the Mannors and Castles of the Spencers in the Marches of Wales spoyling and ruining them to the earth of which riot they complained to the King who summoned them to appeare before his Counsell which The petition of the Barons to the King they refused to doe but gathered unto them a stronger Hoast and sent to his Majesty humbly beseeching him to remove from his person the two Spencers which daily did to him great dishonour and to the Common-weale which damage with humble request the King hearing and doubting his owne safety called a Parliament to be held at London to which the Barons came with a great Hoast all suited in demy-parted Iackets of yellow and greene with a list of white cast overthwart for which the common The Parlament of white-bands people called it the Parliament of white-bands in which the two Spencers were banished the Kingdome for ever But the yeere following the King revoked the Acts made in the former Parliament and called them into England contrary to the will of the Barons and set them in greater authority then before to the great disturbance and almost utter subversion of the Realme for now the whole Land was in combustion and the King animated by the Spencers tooke on him the shape of a Lion and ceased not till hee had cut off the chiefe and prime Nobility of the Land For besides those that were slaine none was brought to the Barre but was thence led to the blocke who having got the better of his Barons he called a Parliament at Yorke in which Hugh Spencer the Father was made Earle of Hugh Spencer the father made Earle of Winchester Winchester and soone after was one Robert Baldock a follow of debaucht life and condition made Chancellour of England Then forfeits Robert Baldock made Chancellour and sines were gathered without sparing of priviledged places or other till a mighty summe of money was gathered towards another expedition into Scotland and then his Army consisted according to Caxton and others of an hundred thousand men but hee sped in that as in the former for on Saint Lukes day at a
and Palaces and drunke his Wine and occupied all such stuffe and necessaries as he there found and after his departing set them on fire as Saint German Mount-joy Pezzy c. In so much that the French King thinking it a great dishonour both to him and the whole Nation that the English should pierce the heart of his Kingdom unfought with hee therefore assembled all his prime Chevalry and met with the English farre inferiour to them in number neere to a town called Cressie and upon the twentie sixt of August was fought betwixt them a sharpe and The famous field of Cressy wonne by the English bloudy battaile in which at the end King Edward was the triumphant Victor where were at that time slaine of the French party The King of Bohemia sonne to Henry the Emperour the seventh of that name with the Duke of Loraine the Earle of Alonson brother to the King Charles Earle of Bloys the Earles of Flanders Sancer Harcourt and of Fiennes with divers other to the number of eight Bishops and Earls with seventeene Lords of name and of Bannerets Knights and Esquires more then sixteene hundred so that their owne Chroniclers report that the flower of France perisht in that battail besides of the commons above eight thousand and the French King with a small company sore wounded fled to a Towne called Bray and The French King wounded there lay the night following Whom King Edward pursued not being advertised of another great host comming towards him and therefore he kept the field and A second battell set watches and made great fires thorow the host and so continued till the munday following upon which day early in the morning appeared to them a new army of French men of which they slew more in number than the Saturday before and then having given thanks unto God for his great victorie he marches towards Bulloine and thence to Calais to which K. Edward besiegeth Calais he laid siege for the space of a whole yeare then came the French King with a numerous Army to remove him but before his comming it was Calais won by the English yeelded to King Edward so that hee departed thence sad and ashamed But King Edward staied in the towne a month and removed all the old Inhabitants which were French and stored it with English but especially Kentish men and having set all things in order hee sailed with great tâ—…iumph into England and arrived at London the twentie third day of October where he was magnificently received of the Citizens and so conveyed unto Westminster We have hither to spoke only of the father it followes that some thing should be said of the son the unparallel'd Edward Prince of Wales Why Prince Edward was called the Black Prince not for his complexion but for his terrour in battell surnamed the Black Prince who whilst his father rested him in Calais with a puissant host entred Gascoyne and made spoyle at his pleasure through the whole Country and with great riches and many noble prisoners hee retyred himselfe to Burdeaux and though the Earls of Armineck and of Foyz of Poytiers and Cleremont with Iames de Burbon and many other Knights who had double the number to the Prince were in his way yet passed he from Tholous to Nerbon and from Nerbon to Burdeaux without battaile where having reposed himself awhile and rested his army he sent many of his prisoners into England and there entred the province of Berray and therein made sharpe warre which King Iohn of France hearing he gathered a mighty number of people and made towards the Prince who in the mean season was passed the River of Loyer and encountred by divers of the Nobility of France betwixt whom was a sharp conflict but the fortune of the day fell to the Prince who slue many of his enemies P. Edward victorious against the French and took divers prisoners as the Lord of Craou and others of note to the number of fifty foure whom he had sent to safe custody in Burdeaux and himselfe sped to Towres whither also K. Iohn came against the prince who took his way to Poytiers where we for a while leave him upon his march c. CHAP. 22. The famous Battaile of Poytiers fought by Edward sirnamed the Black Prince in which he tooke Iohn the French King prisoner His other victories in France His conquest in Spaine The death of the victorious Prince Edward King Edward the Thirds death and Epitaph Richard the second made King a prediction of his Reigne The insurrection of the Commons The memorable Act of William Walworth Lord Major c. WE left Prince Edward upon his march toward Poytiers in keeping which way a French Army encountred A second battail against the French him but he chaced their multitude and besides many slaine took of them forty prisoners amongst which were the Earle of Sancer the Earle of Iurigny the Lord Chasterlin Master of the Kings palace and a Knight called Sir Guilliam de Daneham whom hee also sent to his rendevouz at Burdeaux and soone after hee lodged him and his Hoast neer Poytiers so that the Fronts of both Hoasts lay within a quarter of a mile each of other betwixt whom the Cardinall of Pernigvort sent from pope Innocent the sixt laboured to make a peace but finding his endevour frustrate hee retyred himselfe to Poityers to attend the successe of the battaile which was fought upon Monday the nineteenth of September in the yeere of Grace one thousand The famous battail of Poytiers three hundred fifty six and the sixt yeer of Ring Iohn the manner followeth The Duke of Athenes with such of the Nobility as were in the Kings Vaward about two aclocke in the afternoone set upon the English Hoast which was strongly munified with wood and trees in the manner of a Barricadoe so that the French Cavalry could not approch them but the shot of the English Archers was so violent that it overturned horse and man and whilest the Duke of Athenes with Sir Iohn Cleremont Marshall of France and others assaulted the prince and his people on one side The Duke of Normandy King Iohns eldest son and the Duke of Orleance the Kings brother set upon him on another part which two Dukes were Leaders of two strong Armies But these The manner of the battaile three battails did little harme to the English for by reason of their arrows the French were so gauled and wounded that they fled to the great dismay and discomfort of the King and the rest of his people Who then in person came on with his mayn Hoast but the English kept themselves whole without scartering and received them on the points of their weapons with such dexterity and courage that the French were forc't to give back of which the English taking the advantage rowted their whole Army in which battaile Noble men of France slaine in the battaile were
slaine of men of note the Duke of Athenes the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn Cleremont Marshall of France Sir Henry Camian Banneret who bore that day the Oriflambe a special relick that the French Kings used in all battailes to have borne before them the Bishop of Chabous with divers others to the number of fifty foure Bannerets Knights and others And of prisoners taken in that battaile were Iohn King of France Philip his fourth sonne Iohn King of France tooke prisoner Sir Iaques of Burbon Earle of Poitou and brother to the Duke of Burbon Sir Iohn of Artoys Earle of Ewe Sir Charles his brother Earle of Noble men took prisoners Longevile Sir Giffard Cousin German to the French King Sir Iohn his sonne and heire William Archbishop of Sence Sir Simon Melen brother to the Earle Canlarvive and Earle of Vandature The Earles of Dampmartin of Vendosme of Salisbruch of Moyson the Martiall Denham with others as Bannerets Knights and men of name according to their owne Writers fifteene hundred and above from which battaile escaped Charles eldest son of King Iohn and Duke of Normandy with the Duke of Anjoy and few others of name And King Edward after due thanks given to Almighty God for his Charles Duke of Normandy escapeth from the battaile triumphant victory retyred himselfe to Burdeaux with his Royall prisoners where the King and the rest were kept till Easter following In the one and thirtieth yeere of the King the sixteenth of April Prince Edward being eight and twenty yeeres of age tooke shipping with his prisoners at Burdeaux and the foure and twentieth of May was received with great joy by the Citizens of London and thence conveyed to the Kings palace at Westminster where the King sitting in his estate Royall in Westminster Hall after hee had indulgently entertained the Prince he was conveyed to his lodging and the French King royally conducted to the Savoy where he lay long after and in the Winter following were royall Iusts held in Smithfield at which were present the King of Three Kings present at the Iusts in Smithfield England the French King the Scotch King then prisoners with many noble persons of all the three Kingdoms the most part of the strangers being then prisoners Whilst K. Iohn remayned in England which was for the space of 4 yeers and odde days The king of England and the blacke Prince his son with their Armies over-run the greatest part of France during the time of Charles his Regency over the kingdome who was king Iohns eldest son against whom they had many memorable victories spoyling where they list and sparing what they pleased in so much that king Edward The Father and sonne victorious in â—…rance made his owne conditions ere any peace could be granted at length the king was delivered and royally conveyed into his country who so well approved of and liked his entertainment here that in the thirty seventh yeere of king Edward he returned into England and at Eltham besides Greenwich dined with the king and in the same afternoon was royally received by the Citizens and conveyed through London to the Savoy which was upon the twenty fourth of Ianuary but about the beginning of March following a grievous sicknesse tooke him of which he dyed the eight of Aprill following King Iohn dyeth at the Savoy whose body was after solemnly conveyedto St. Denis in France and there royally interred In the fortieth yeere of the king one Barthran de Cluicon a Norman with an Army of Frenchmen entred the land of Castile and warred upon Peter king of that Country and within foure moneths chaced him out of his kingdome and crowned Henry his bastard brother in his stead wherefore hee was constrained to flie to Burdeaux and to demand aide of Prince Edward who commiserating his case as being lawfull king howsoever of a tyrannous and bloudy disposition he granted his request so that hee assisted Peter with his English Archers against the bastard Henry with his French Spear-men whose two Armies mâ—…t neere unto a town called Doming where betwixt them was a lâ—…ng P. Edwards victoryia Spaine and cruell fight but in the end the victory fell to the Prince and Henry with his whole army were rowted In which battail were taken Barthran de Claicon and Arnold Dodenham Marshall of France with divers others as well French as Britons and Spaniards and slain to the number of five thousand of the enemies and of the princes Army sixteen hundred after which hee enstated Peter in his kingdome who after perfidiously denyed to pay the princes army For which he was after divinely punished as also for killing his owne wife the daughter to the Duke of Burbon for his Bastard brother Henry knowing how hee was justly abandoned by the English having gathered new forces gave him battaile in which being taken his brother commanded his head to be strooke off which was immediately done after which Iohn of The death of Don Peter Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Kings sonne and Edward his brother Earle of Cambridge married the two daughters of this Peter late King of Castile Iohn espoused Constance the elder and Iohn a Gaunts title to Spain Edward Isabel the younger by which marriages the two brethren claimed to be inheritours to the Kingdome of Castile or Spaine In the one and fiftieth yeare of the King upon the eighth of Iune being Trinity Sonday dyed that renowned souldier Edward the black Prince in the palace of Westminster whose body The death of the blacke Prince was after carried to Canterbury and there solemnly interred who in his life time was much beloved both of the Commons and the whole kingdome especially for removing from the kings person all such as had misled him in his age by which the Common Weale was much oppressed amongst others was the Lord Latimer noted for principall and Alice Pierce the Kings Concubine with Sir Richard Skory Alice Pierce the Kings Conâ—…ine all which were according to the Commons just complaint by the Prince removed but hee was no sooner dead but the king contrary to his promise before made called them again admitting them to their former Offices and Honours and Alice his prostitute to his wonted grace and favour In the two and fiftieth yeer the two and twentieth day of Iune dyed at his Mannor of Sheen The death of K. Edward the third now called Richmond the royall and most victorious Prince king Edward the third of that name of whom it was truly predicted The spirits of many Lions shall conspire To make one by infusion so entire He by his mighty courage shall restore What his sire lost and grandsire wonne before As also that of the unparalleld blacke Prince his sonne who died before his Father A numerous issue shall his Lionesse bring Black shall the first be and though never King Yet shall he Kings captive but ere mature Die shall this brave Whelp of a
thence had him secretly conveyghed to Callis where he was pireously murthered After The murder of the Duke of Gloster the 2 Earles of Arundel Warwick were judged and executed After was called a parliament in which divers of the Nobility had more honourable titles conferred upon them And other upstarts neither of birth nor quality were advanced to office and honour in which parliament also many true heires were dis-inherited c. For which the people greatly murmured against the King and his Councell pretending that the revenues of the Crowne were wasted The rumour of the Commons and the causes thereof upon unworthy persons for which divers exactions were put upon the Commons that the chiefe rulers about the King were of low birth and little reputation and men of honour kept out of office and favour that the Duke of Gloster was secretly murdered without processe of Law and the Earles of Arnndel and Warwicke put to death contrary to the Kings owne proclamation with divers others to the number of eight and thirty severall Articles all which at his deposing were publickly protested against him Harding the Chronologer reports that King Richard was prodigall ambitious and luxurious The estate of the Kings Court. to whose Court resorted at their pleasures ten thousand persons pretending businesse there that in his kitchin were three hundred Serviters and in every office to the like number of Ladies Chamberers and Landresses three hundred who exceeded in costly and sumpâ—…uous apparell and farre above their degrees The very groomes and yeomen were cloathed in silke sattin and damaske scarlet imbroydery The great pride of the court gold chaines and Gold smiths worke were then common such was the pride then in the Court It was also commonly voyc'd that hee had let to farme the revenues of the Crowne to Bushy Baggot and Green which caused the Nobility also with the Commons to grudge against the King and his government And this yeare being the one and twentieth of his reign died Iohn a Gaunt the Duke of Lancaster at The death of Iohn a Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the Bishop of Elyes Palace in Holborne and was buried on the North side of the Quire in Paules where his Tombe remaineth to this day This yeare also fell a great difference betwixt Differences betwixt the two Dukes of Hereford and Norffolke the two Dukes of Hereford who was sonne to Iohn a Gaunt and the Duke of Norfolke the cause was after some Writers that the two Dukes riding from the Parliament the Duke Norfolke said unto the other Sir you see how unstedfast the King is in his word and how shamefully hee putteth his Kinsmen to death exiling some and imprisoning others and no doubt what hath hapned to them may in time fall upon us c. of which words the Duke of Hereford accused him unto the King which the one affirming the other denying a day of battaile was appointed them at Coventry upon the eleventh of September where the King and the greatest part of the Nobility were present where both appearing in the Lists and ready for the Combat the King threw down his warder and staid the fight and forthwith banished The two Dukes banished the Realme the Duke of Hereford for ten yeeres and the Duke of Norfolke for ever upon which sentence Hereford sayled into Britaine and Norfolke after passing divers Countries lastly came to Venice and there ended his life In his two and twentieth yeere the common fame ran that he had farmed the Realm of England to Sir VVilliam Scroop Earle of VViltshire and Treasurer and to Sir Iohn Bushy Sir Iohn Bagot and Sir Henry Green and in the moneth of Aprill the King with a potent Host sayled into Ireland leaving for his Pro-rex in England The Kings iourney into Ireland his Uncle Edmund Langley Duke of Yorke In which Voyage he prospered well and quieted the realme to his pleasure and whether it were for some noble act done or out of his grace and bounty I cannot say hee there Knighted Henry sonne to the Duke of Hereford then in exile which Henry after his Fathers death was crowned King of England by the name of Henry the first Whilst King Richard was thus busied in Ireland the Duke of Hereford late banisht with the Archbishop of Canterbury who had before left the Realme and Thomas sonne to the Earle of Arondell late beheaded these with others being a small company in number landed at Ravenspurre in the North and under pretence of The Duke of Hereford lanâ—…s at Ravenspurre laying claime to the Dukedome of Lancaster due to him by Iohn of Gaunt his Father deceased he raised the people as hee went to whom multitudes assembled being weary with the misgovernment of King Richard who hearing how the estate in England then stood made speedy returne from Ireland and in the beginning of September landed in Milford Haven and sped him thence to Flint-castle in VVales intending thither to gather more strength to oppose The King lands in Wales the Dukes proceedings Who in the interim proclayming himselfe Duke of Lancaster in the right of his Father Iohn a Gaunt came to Bristow where without resistance hee seised upon Sir William Scroope Earle of Wiltshire and Treasurer of England Sir Iohn Bushy and Sir Henry Green with Sir The Earle of Wiltshire with others executed Iohn Bagot who escaped and fled into Ireland but the other he there judged and put to execution which the King being then in Flint Castle hearing he much doubted his safety and so did all these who were then about him therefore Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Steward of the Kings Houshold contrary to his Allegiance broke his white Staffe openly in the Haâ—…l willing every onâ—… to shift for himselfe by reason of which the King was forsaken of all his people and soone after surprized and presented The King taken and presented to the Duke to the Duke who put him under safe keeping and himselfe hasted towards London Who comming neere to the City sent the The hate of the Commons to the King King secretly to the Tower of which some ill disposed persons ambusht him in the way and would have slain him because of his former misgovernment but the Citizens enformed of their malicious purpose rescued him from their fury then the Duke comming to London by consent of the King a Parliament was begun the thirteenth of September In which many accusations and Articles concerning his misruling the Realme to the number of eight and thirty the King was charged with and for which the King subscribing willing as it was then given out to his owne deposement hee was deprived from all Kingly Majesty the manner of the proceedings therein were too long to relate which sentence being publisht and openly read in Parliament Henry Duke of Hereford and now of King Richard deposed Lancaster rising from the place where hee before sate and
standing where all might behold him first making the signe of the Crosse upon his forehead and after on his brest silence being commanded he spake as followeth In the name of the Father the Sonne and the holy Ghost I Henry of Lancaster Clayme the Realme of England with the Crowne and all the appurtenances thereto belonging as I am rightly discended from the right Line of the bloud comming from that good Lord K. Henry the third and through the right that God of his grace hath sent me with the help of my kinred and friends to recover the same which was in point to be undone for default of good governance and justice c. Which having spoken hee sate downe in his The Duke of Hereâ—…ord claymes the Crowne place then every one hearing his clayme spake what hee thought and after some distance of time the Archbishop of Canterbury knowing the minds of Lords stood up and asked the Commons if they would assent with the Nobility in their election which they thought to be needfull and for the good of the Kingdome to which with an unanimous voice they said yea yea after which the Archbishop approching the Duke uttered some words to him in private which done hee arose and taking him by the hand led him unto the Kings Seat and placed him therein after made a long Oration to that noble Assembly the effect whereof was to prove the Dukes Title to the Crowne and to justifie the deposing of the King verifying what was before predicted of him Foure Princely Lions were to him allide Gall shall be with his horns in his great pride At length a Fox clad in skin of gold Shall snatch the Kid from midst of all his fold By the foure Lions are figured his foure Princely Uncles sonnes to Edward the third whom he severally injured preferring men raised from nothing to be eminent above them both in honour and office and by the Fox Henry of Balwarke who clothed himselfe with all the golden ornament of Regall Majesty and snatcht him from the midst of all the fold that was from amongst his own subjects and people and after caused him to bee put to a violent and cruell death CHAP. 24. The Coronation of Edward the fourth with his great Feast held in Westminster Hall A great Conspiracy intended against him but prevented the lamentable murder of King Richard the second in Pomfret Castle by Sir Pierce of Exton his valour at his death His Epitaph The great riches found in his treasury A prosecution of sundry passages in the Reigne of King Henry He prepares a journey for the Holy land but is prevented by death HEnry the fourth of that name and sonne to Iohn a Gaunt Duke of Lancaster tooke possession of the whole Dominion of England upon the last day of September in the yeere of Grace one thousand three hundred fourescore and nineteene after which he made new Officers cleane through the Kingdome One and forty Knights of the Bath made and then gave order for his Coronation and the Eve before hee in the Tower made 41 knights of the Bath of which three were his owne sonnes and three Earles and five Lords c. Then the morrow after being Monday the thirteenth of October he was crowned at Westminster King Henries Coronation by the Archbishop of Canterbury after which solemnity ended a great and sumptuous feast was held in the great Hall where the king being sate in the middest of the table the Arch-bishop The manner of his great feast in Westminster Hall of Canterbury with three other Prelates were placed at the right hand of the same table and on the left hand the Arch-bishop of York with foure other of the Clergy Henry the kings eldest sonne stood by his Father on his right hand with a sword poyntlesse and the Earle of Northumberland new made Lord Constable with a poynted sword on his left hand both swords being held upright Before the king stood all dinner time the dukes of Aumerl of Surry and of Exceter with two other Earles and the Earle of Westmerland late made Marshall rov'd about the Hall with many Tip Staves to make roome that the Officers with more ease might serve the Tables Of which the chiefe upon the right side of the hall was begun by the Barons of the Cinque ports and at the Table next the Cupboord upon the left hand sate the Lord Major and the Aldermen of London which Major being Drewe Barendine Goldsmith was presented according to the custome with a cup of gold after the second course came in Sir Thomas Dimocke armed at all poynts and sitting upon a The Kings Champion good Steed road to the higher part of the Hall and before the King caused a Herald to make Proclamation that whosoever would affirme King Henry was not lawfull inheritour to the Crown and Kingdome of England he was there ready to wage battaile against him which Proclamation hee caused to bee made after in three other parts of the Hall in French and English with many more observances at such solemnities exercised and done which feast being ended the morrow after being tuesday the parliament was againe begunne of this King and his reigne it was thus predicted The Foxe being earth'd according to his mind In the Kids den a Magazine shall finde The prophesie of his reigne Yet all that treasure can his life not save But rather bring him to a timelesse grave Meane time shall study many a forrest beast By a new way to kill the King in jest But crafty Rainold shall the plot prevent And turne it all to their owne detriment Wales and the north against him both shall rise But he who still was politicke and wise Shal quell their rage much trouble he 'll indure And after when he thinks himselfe secure Hoping to wash the Kids bloud from his hand Purpose a voyage to the Holy Land But faile Yet in Hierusalem shall dye Deluded by a doubtfull augury In the former parlament were many Challenges of the peers one against the other which came to none effect but onething was there confirmed What was done in the Parliament that whosoever had hand in the good Duke of Glosters death should dye as traitors For which divers found guilty after suffered moreover sundry acts made in the time of Richards reigne were disannulled and made voyd and others held more profitable for the kingdomes good and Common-weales enacted in their stead Then was King Richard removed from the Tower and thence conveighed to Leedes and King Richard removed to Pomphret after to the Castle of Pomphret there was provision made for the King to keep his Christmas at Windsor in which interim the Dukes of Amerle of Surrey and of Exeter with the Earles of Salisbury and of Gloster with others of their affinity Lords Knights and Esquires made great provision for a Maske to be presented before the King upon Twelfth night which grew neere and
all things were in readinesse for the performance thereof But that day in the Morning A conspiracy of the Lords against King Henry came secretly unto the King the Duke of Aumerle and discovered unto him that he with the foresaid Lords gentlemen had made a solemne conjuration to kill him in the said Mask therefore advised him to provide for his safety upon which notice given the King departed privately from Windsor and came that night to London upon which the Lords finding their plot to be discovered they fled westward but the King caused speedy pursuit after them so that the Duke of Surry and the Earle of Salisbury were taken at Ciceter Sir Thomas Blunt Sir Benet Saly and Thomas Wintercell at Oxford Sir Iohn Holland Duke of Exeter at Pitwell in Essex and divers others in severall places the Noble men were beheaded the rest drawne and quartered but all of their Heads set upon the Bridge gate at London approving the premises Meane time shall study many a forrest beast By a new way to kill the Foxe in jest But crafty Rainold shall the plot prevent And turne it all to their owne detriment The King having well considered of this great conspiracy and that they intended by his death to restore the imprisoned King to his diadem The Foxes policy he bethought himselfe that he could live in no safety whilst the other was breathing and therefore he determined of his death and to that purpose called unto him one Sir Pierce of Exton to see his will executed who presently poasted to Pomphret and with eight more well armed entred the Castle and violently assaulted him with their Polaxes and Halberds in his Chamber who apprehending their purpose and seeing his owne present danger most valiantly wrested one of their weapons from him with which he manfully acquitted himselfe and slew foure of the eight before he himselfe fell but at the last he was basely wounded to death by the hand of Sir Pierce of Exton whose body was after laid in the Minster at Pomphret to the publicke view that all men might be satisfied of his The Death of K. Râ—…chard death and was after brought up to London and exposed to all eyes in Pauls least any man should after pretend to lay any plots for his liberty And now King Henry being in peaceable and quiet possession of the Kingdomes thought it time to rifle his predecessors Coffers in whose Treasury he found in ready Coyne three hundred thousand pound sterling besides Plate What King Richards treasure amounted to at his death Iewels and rich Vessels as much if not more in value Besides in his Treasurers hands hee found so many gold Noble and other summes that all of them put together amounted to seven hundred thousand pounds sterling yet could not all this summe afford him a better funerall than in the poore Friery of Langley which after by Henry the Kings sonne in the first yeare of his reigne was removed thence and with great solemnity interred amongst the Kings in the Chappell of Westminster All this processe verifying the former prediction The Foxe being earth't according to his mind In the Kids den a Magazin shall find Yet all that treasure can his life not save But rather bring him to a timelesse grave Over his Tombe in the Chappell the King caused these Verses following to be inscribed Prudens mundus Ricardus jure secundus K. Richards Epitaph Perfatum victus jacet hic sub marmore pictus Verus sermone suit plenus ratione Corpore procerus animo prudens ut Homerus Ecclesiam favit elatos suppeditavit Quemvis prostravit regalia qui violavit Thus Englished Wise and cleane Richard second of that name Conquered by fate lyes in this Marble frame True in his speech whose reason did surpasse Of feature tall and wise as Homer was The Church he favoured he the proudsubdude Quelling all such as Majesty pursude Concerning which Epitaph one of our English Chronologers seeing how it savoured more of flattery then truth thus exprest himself But yet alas though this meeter or rime Thus death embelisht this Noble Princes fame And that some Clerk which favoured him sometime List by his comming thus to enhance his name Yet by his story appeareth in him much blame Wherefore to Princes is surest memory Their lives to expresse in vertuous constancie In the second yeere of King Henries Reigne The rebellion of Owen Glendour Owen Glendour rebelled in Wales against whom the King entred the Countrey with a strong army but at the Kings comming hee fled up to the Mountaines whom the King for the endangering his Hoast durst not follow but returned without deeming any thing worthy note In the yeere following Sir Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester and Sir Henry Piercy sonne and heire to the Earle of Northumberland gathered The battaile at Shrewsbury a great power and upon the one and twentieth day of Iuly met with the King and his army neere unto Shrewsbury betwixt whom was fought a cruell and bloudy battail but at length the King was victor in which fight Thomas Percy Earle of Worcester was taken and his Nephew Sir Henry with many a brave Northerne man was slaine And upon the Kings part the Prince was wounded in the head and the Earle of Stafford with many others slaine It was observed that in this battail father fought against sonne sonne the father brother the brother and uncle the nephew the twenty fift of Iuly following was Sir Thomas Percy beheaded at Shrewsbury and in August after the Duchesse of Britain landeth at Flamoth in Cornwall K. Henries second mariage with the Duchesse of Britain and from thence conveyed to Winchester where shee was solemnely espoused to King Henry Soone after Richard Scroop Archbishop of Yorke with the Lord Mowbray Marshall of England with others to them allyed made a new insurrection against the King with purpose A nâ—… insurrection to supplant them to whom the King gave battaile on this side Yorke where after some losse on both sides the King had the better of the day the Archbishop and the Martiall being both taken in the field and soone after beheaded in that Kings Reigne was the Conduit builded in Cornwall as it now standeth The Market of the Stocks at the lower end of Cheapside and the Guild hall of London new edified and of a Sumptuous buildings during this kings Reigne small cottage and ruinous and decayed house made such a goodly structure as it appeares to this day Moreover the famous and stately Bridge of Rochester with the Chappell at the foot of the said Bridge was fully perfited and finished at the sole charge and cost of Sir Robert Knolls who in the time of Edward the third Sir Robert Knolls had atchieved many brave and memorable victories in France and Britain who also re-edified the body of the White Friers Church in Fleetstreet to which place hee left many good Legacies and
a Mars shall breed Who in his armes accommodate and fit Shall compasse more by warre then he by wit The Caduceus to a sword shall change And grim Orion shal though it seeme strange Sit in Astraea's orbe and from her teare The three leav'd flower she in her hand did bear And turn it to a lawrell to adorn The Lions brows whom late the Toad did scorn And after many a furious victory At length invested shall the Lion bce In a new Throne to which his clayme is faire As being matcht unto the Kingdomes heire Living this royall beast shall lose no time But be at last from earth snatcht in his prime Presently after his Coronation hee caused the corps of King Richard to be removed from the Fryers at Langley and solemnly interred upon the South side of Saint Edwards Shrine in Westminster by the body of Queene Anne his wife In the second yeere of his Reigne hee held his Parliament at Leicester where amongst other A parliament held at Leicester things the Commons put up their former Bill against the Clergy who kept so much of the Temporalties in their hands In feare whereof lest the King should give unto it any comfortable audience certaine Bishops and others of the Clergie put the King in minde to clayme his right in France for which they offered him great and notable summes by reason whereof that Bill was againe put by and the Prince listning to the motion of the Prelats aymed onely to set forward his expedition against France The King prepareth for France and sent his Letters to the French King to that purpose who returned him answer full of derision and scorne wherefore hee made speedy provision for war And in his third yeare road honorably accompanied through London and thence to Southampton where he had appoynted his army to meete him There Richard Earle of Cambridge Lords arrested of treason Sir Richard Scroope then Treasurer of England and Sir Thomas Gray were arrested of Treason arraigned and the nine and twentieth day of Iuly following beheaded The morrow after the King tooke the sea and the sixteenth of August landed in Normandy and laid siege to Hareflew and won it then leaving Sir Thomas Bewford his Noble Captaine there he sped him The King lands in Normandy from Calice with the Dolphin who had then the ruling government of France by reason of the Kings great sicknesse having broke the bridges to hinder the Kings passage over the river Sanne therefore hee was constrained to take the way toward Picardy and passe the River Pericon whereof the French being aware assembled their forces and lodged neere to Agencourt Roland court and Blangie When King Henry saw that hee was thus invironed K. Henry environed with the French with his enemies he pitcht his battaile betwixt Agincourt and Blangie having no more then seven thousand able men But in those dayes the yeomen had their limbes at liberty Their breeches fastned with one point and their jacks or coats of male long and easie to shoote in drawing bowes of great strength and shooting arrows of a yard long besides the head King Henry then considering the number of the enemy and that the French stood much upon their horse charged every Archer to take a sharpe stake and pitch it aslope before him that when the Cavalry with their speares assaulted them they should give back and so the horse should A rare policy of K. Henry foyle themselves upon the stakes and then to powre their shot upon them and when the king had thus providently ordered for the battaile over night the morrow after being the twenty fift of October and the day of Crispin and Crispianus hee attended the approch of the enemy who were in number forty thousand able fighting men The number of the French army Who about nine a clock in the morning with great pride and scorne set upon the English thinking to have overrid them with their horse and trod them underfoot but the Archers as they were before appointed retyred themselves within their stakes upon which the French horses were galled which the English Archers perceiving and that their horses being gored with K. Henries victorious battaile at Agencourt the stakes tumbled one upon another so that they which were foremost were the confusion of them which followed the Archers after their arrows were spent fell upon them with swords and axes so that the day fell with little losse to the English of whom were slaine that day the Slain of the English Duke of Yorke who had the leading of the Van and the Duke of Suffolke and not above six and twenty persons more But of the French were kild that day morethen Slain of the French 10000 common souldiers of the'nobility the three Dukes of Bar of Alonson and of Braban eight Earles and of Barons above fourescore with gentlemen in Coat Armours to the number of three thousand besides in that fight were taken prisoners the Duke of Orleance the Duke of Burbon the Earles of Vendosme of Ewe Prisoners takē of the French of Richmont and Bursigant then Marshall of France with knights and Esquires besides common men surmounting the number of two thousand and foure hundred when king Henry had by Gods helpe obtained this glorious victory and recalled his people from pursuit of the enemy newes was brought of a new Hoast comming towards him wherefore hee commanded his souldiers to bee imbattailed and then made proclamation through his Army A suddain policy of King Henry that every man should kill his prisoner which made the Duke of Orleance and the rest of the French Nobility in such feare that they by authority of the King sent to the Hoast to withdraw so that the King with his prisoners the morrow following took their way towards Calais where for a time he rested himselfe and his Army Thus it was truely prophesied of him Note a strange mixture in the planets seed For now a Mercury a Mars shall breed Who in his armes accommodate and fit Shall compasse more by warre than he by wit The Exposition is plaine by Mercury is meant the father who was politicke and ingenious and by Mars the sonne who by his Military Prowesse attchieved more then the other apprehended But it followeth the three and twentieth of November he was met upon Black Heath by the Lord Major and his brethren who conducted him through the City where were presented many pageants and Showes to The Kings comming into England gratulate his famous victory to Westminster whither the same houre came Sigismond the Emperour who lodged him in his owne palace and after was Saint Georges feast kept at Windsor in the time of which solemnity during the time of divine Service the King kept the estate but in the sitting at the Feast he gave it to the Emperour where he the Duke of Holland and The Emperour Sigismund made Knight of the Garter
his Queen feasted in Paris when they had rested a season Hee with the Duke of Burgoine laid siege to divers Townes which held with the Dolphin of Vien as the strong City of Meldane or Melian to Melden and others and tooke them and having done all his pleasure in France he and the Queen took leave of Charles the French king and sayled into England and at Westminster with great solemnity Q. Margaret Crowned at Westminster she was Crowned In the beginning of his tenth yeare was born at Windsor the sixt day of December Henry the sixt of that name at Easter after the Queene The birth of Henry the sixt tooke shipping at Southampton and sayled into France where she was royally received of her father and mother and King Henry being still busied in his warres of France and still gaining from them Cities and Townes in the ninth of August he fell grievously sick at Boys in Vincent and dyed the last day of the Month when hee had reigned nine yeares five months and ten dayes leaving issue behind him onely Henry aged The death of Henry the fift eight moneths and odde dayes then the Kings body was imbalmed and after brought to Westminster and there buried verifying Thus after many a famous victory At length invested shall the Lion be In a new Throne to which his claime is faire As being matcht unto the kingdomes heire Living this royall beast shall lose no time But bee at length from earth snatcht in his prime CHAP. 27. The Duke of Gloster made Protector The Duke of Bedford Regent of France of Ioan de pasill a Sorceresse Henry the sixt crowned in Paris A prophesie of his raigne the death of the Duke of Gloster The death of the Marquesse of Suffolke The insurrection of the Commons under Iack Cade His proceedings and death the Duke of Somerset gives up Normandy The Duke of Yorke taketh Armes his person seised against the Kings promise and for feare set at liberty HEnry the sixt of that name and the sole Henry the sixt made King sonne of Henry the fift and Queene Katherine beganne his Reigne over the Realme of England the first day of September in the yeare of grace one thousand foure hundred twenty two who during his Minority was committed to the guardianship of his two Vncles the Dukes of Gloster and Bedford the The Duke of Gloster protector the Duke of Bedford regent Duke of Gloster beeing protector of England and the Duke of Bedford regent of France In the first yeare of this Kings reigne dyed Charles the seventh King of France by whose death the Crowne and the Realme with the rights of them fell to the young king Henry the possession of which was by the Lords of France in generall excepting some few who took part with the Dolphin delivered to the duke of Bedford as Regent during the nonage of the King who in the second yeare of his reigne wonne from the Dolphin more than foure and twenty strong holds and Castles to the great Honour The Regents victories in France of the English Nation and with whom all attempts succeeded prosperously and victoriously till the fift yeare that the Earle of Salisbury who was called the good Earle with the Earle of Suffolke the Lord Talbot and others laying The death of the good Earle of Salisbury strong siege to the City of Orleance the Earle was slaine by a shot from the Towne after whose death the English still lost rather than wonne so that by little and little they were compelled from all their possession in France for where they prevailed in any battaile in three they were discomfited In the eighth yeare of his reigne and upon the ninth of his age King Henry was Crowned King Henries Coronation in St. Peters Church at Westminster where were made sixe and thirty knights of the Bath His Coronation with all honour and joy being finished provision was made for his journey into France and upon Saint Georges day following being the twenty third of April hee tooke shipping and landed at Callis with a great train of the English Nobility during whose abode there many battails were fought in divers parts of the kingdom betwixt the English and French in which the French for the most part prevailed Ione de Pucil a sorceresse some said by the help of a woman called Ioan de Pucil whom they stiled The Maiden of God who was victorious in many conflicts and at length came to a Town called Compeine with intent to remove the siege layd unto it by the Duke of Burgoine and the English but by the valour of a Burgonian knight called sir Iohn Luxemburgh her company was distressed and she took alive and after carried to Roan and there kept a season because she seigned her selfe with child but the contrary being found she was adjudged to Shee is burnt for a witch death and her body burnt to ashes In his tenth yeere and upon the seventh of December King Henry the sixt was crowned Henry the sixt crowned at Paris King of France in Paris by the Cardinal of Winchester at whose Coronation were present the Regent The Duke of Burgoine with others of the French Nobility after the solemnity of which royall Feast ended The King left Paris and kept his Christmasse in Roan and thence returned into England where hee was joyfully received and of whom it was thus predicted How comes the Sun to rise where he should set Or how Lambs Lions Lions Lambs beget The prophesie of King Henries reigne Yet so 't must be The Lambe though doubly crown'd And thinking his large Empire hath no bound Yet shall a Daulphin at a low ebbe land And snatch one powerful scepter from his hand Thus it falls out twixt father and the sonne Windsore shall lose what ever Monmouth A Tigresse then in title onely proud wonne In the Lambs bosome seeks her self to shroud A seeming Saint at first meek and devout But in small time her fiercenesse will break out Nor can her ravenous fury be withstood Vntill through sated with best English blood But a young Lion he at length shall tame And send her empty back from wheâ—…ce she came Much trouble shall be made about â—…he crown And Kings soon raised and as soone put down c. After sundry conflicts betwixt the English and the French in which they diversly sped at length Charles the Dolphin who tooke upon him to be King of France by the proffer of many Towns Castles Cities Provinces and Lordships so Charles the Dolphin and Philip Duke of Burgoin reconciled wrought upon the Duke of Burgoine that notwithstanding he had before slain his Father adhered to his party and proclaimed himself utter enemy to the English which was in the thirteenth of Henry in which yeere dyed the noble and valorous Iohn Duke of Bedford and Regent of France and was buried with great solemnity at Roan in the Church of
to lodge with his Hoast in Southwarke but at length his malicious purpose broke out For dining one day with Philip Malpas Draper and Alderman hee robbed His robbery and spoyled his house and tooke thence a great quantity of plate or money which had hee not done it was supposed he might have attained to his owne ends for so hee served another in the same kind therefore the Major his brethren and commons consulted amongst themselves having The Rebels shut out of the Citie the assistance of the Tower the next day to shut their gates against him and keepe him out of the City which they did then the Captaine assaulted the Bridge which was valiantly defended and many slaine on both sides But at the length they were enforced to keep still in Southwarke whither the Archbishop of Canterbury sent a generall pardon from the King so they would disband themselves of which the multitude tooke the advantage and every one sped himself home into his Country Then proclamation was made that hee who could take the Captaine alive or dead should have a thousand Marks at length a Gentleman of Kent called Alexander Iden found him in a Garden in Sussex and in taking slue him whose body was brought through the high streets of the City to Newgate there headed and quartered his head set upon the bridge quarters sent to 4 sundry The death of lack Cade Towns in Kent to the terrour of like offenders In the 29 yeere by reason of the Duke of Somersets giving up the Dukedome of Normandy displeasure grew from some of the Lords against The Duke of Yorke opposeth the Queene and her counsell the Queen and her counsail so that the Duke of York father to K. Edward the fourth with many Lords to him allide opposed themselves against her in the 30 yeer the king with the D. of Somerset with other Nobles journied towards the Marches of Wales because they were informed the Duke of Yorke with divers of the Barons both of note and name had gathered a great strength who hearing the King made towards them swarved from the Kings Hoast and took their way towards London but when they knew they could not be received there they past over Kingstone bridge so into Kent and pitcht their field on Brentheath of which the king inform'd followed them pitcht his field on Blackheath Both their Hoasts being thus embattailed A mediation of peace mediation of peace was made betwixt the two Hoasts and to the Duke were sent the Bishops of Winchester and of Ely with the Earles of Salisbury and Warwicke who answered them that neither hee nor any of his company intended any hurt to the Kings person or any of his own counsail but his purpose was to remove some evill disposed persons about the Queen by whom the Land was oppressed and the Commons impoverished of whom it was finally agreed that hee should be committed to prison and to answer what the Duke of Yorke should object against him upon which promise made by the King the Duke the first of March being Tuesday disbanded his army and came to the Kings Tent where contrary to the promise made he found the Duke of Somerset waiting next the King and the Duke of Yorke was sent like a prisoner to London and now streightly The Duke of Yorke seised as prisoner had beene kept but that news was brought that Sir Edward his sonne Earle of March was comming thither with a strong power of Welshmen and Marchmen which so affrighted the Queene and her counsaile that the Duke was set at liberty to go whither it pleased him and so peace for a while with feigned love was dissembled Thus hitherto the prediction hath not failed in And set at liberty any particular which saith The Lambe though doubly crown'd And thinking his large Empire hath no bound Yet shall a Daulphin at a low ebbe land And snatch one powerful scepter from his hand Thus it falls out twixt father and the sonne Windsore shall lose what ever Monmouth wonne Henry for his meeknesse was compared to a Lambe being doubly crowned in London and The prophesie explained Paris The Dolphin of Vien being at the lowest ebbe of State yet in time by the perfidiousnesse of the Duke of Burgoine after recovered the whole Realme of France with the Dukedome of Normandy so that hee snatcht one Scepter from his hand so that Henry the sixt borne in Windsore no may participating the Noble and Heroick spirit of his father lost all by his pusillanimity that Henry the fift borne in Monmouth had atchieved by his unmatchable prowesse CHAP. 28. The ambition of Queene Margaret The battaile at Saint Albons Yorke made Protector The Queens practice against the Lords The battail at Northampton Yorke proclaimed heire to the Crowne Yorke slaine in the battaile at Wakefield Henry deposed and Edward Earle of March made King A prophesie of his Reigne The battaile at Exham King Henry taken and sent to the Tower The Mariage of Edward Hee flies the Land Henry againe made King IProceed with the History in his one and thirtieth yeere the King held a solemne Feast at Westminster upon the twelfth day in Christmasse where he created two Earles who were his brothers by the mothers side Queene Katherine Two Earles created by the King who after the death of Henry the fift was married to a Knight of Wales called Owen who had by her two sonnes the eldest named Edmond who was made Earle of Richmond the yonger Iasper Earle of Pembroke who was after by Henry the seventh made Duke of Bedford and so dyed and in the yeere thirty two the thirteenth of October Queene Margaret was delivered at Westminster of a Princely sonne named Edward who after grew to bee of faire personage and great hope but was after slaine by Edward the Fourth when hee had wonne the battaile fought at Tewxbury whom the people for the great hate they bore to his mother would not acknowledge to bee the naturall son The birth of Prince Edward of King Henry but rather a bastard or changeling to her great sorrow and dishonour During these passages great dissention grew betwixt the King and divers of his Lords but especially betwixt the Queens Counsell and the Duke of York and his bloudy and mayne cause was because the Duke of Somerset now her The Queene and her counsellsway all prime favourite lived at large was made Captaine of Calice and was in greater power about the Queen then before for the Queene governed all and the King was onely so in name but no more then a Cypher to fill up the number for which both the Nobles and commons much grudged at length the Duke of Yorke being in the Marches of Wales called to him the Earles of Warwicke and Salisbury with other Knights and Gentlemen and in the month of Aprill gathered a strong Hoast and marched towards London where the King Queen and
married to the youthfull French King shee I say observing his provident and cautelous proceeding in all things for the security of his State and Kingdome with a false stampe coyned a new Duke of Yorke a stripling called Perkin Warbeck who being Christned by Edward the Perkin Warbeck a new impostor 4 th it might be suspected that being as hee was warlike so also much addicted to the love of women by too much familiarity with the mother the child might have some of the Yorkists blood in him Edward being both Father and Godfather But so or no most sure it was Edward the fourth Godfather to Perkin that the Dutchesse exposed him to the world for the young Duke of Yorke who was spared from death which his brother suffered in the Tower for so it was given out But after shee had fully tutor'd and instructed him to take upon him the Majesty and deportment of a Prince least he should be found to be her creature shee cunningly sent him from her The subtilty of the Dutchesse of Burgundy Court over into Ireland where hee was received for no lesse then he nam'd himselfe Thence King Charles sent for him into France where he had Princely entertainment and service suiting with his stile but a peace being concluded betwixt England and France finding no safety there hee came as a distressed stranger to shelter himselfe under the wings of the Dutchesse of Burgundy whom she cunningly at first lookt upon as strangely till she had questioned him about all things in which shee had before instructed him and then as a Prince whose injuries were much to bee pittied shee received him to her protection The newes of a surviving Duke of Yorke was greedily swallowed by the discontented Commons of England The chiefe of note A new conspiracy against the King who were drawne to this beliefe were the Lord Fitzwater Mountfort and Thwaytes with the Lord Standley who was Father in law to the King and then Lord Chamberlaine Ratcliffe and others But Henry then understanding the danger likely to ensue first made it manifest to the world how both the Princes were together murdered with the manner of their deaths by which he did infallibly evince that hee could not be Yorke then the politicke King thought there was no surer way to disable the Impostors claime then by taking away his abettours and whilst these things were thus in agitation Sir Robert Clifford who had undermined all the Dutchesse proceedings came over to the King Sir Robert Clifford chalengeth the L. Standly of treason and disclosed them unto him who challenged the Lord Standley of Treason as to bee a prime incourager of Perkins Faction for which the King notwithstanding the neere affinity as the name of Father and Sonne interchanged betwixt them and forgetting also that hee was the prime man who set the Crowne upon his head hee caused him the fifteenth of February following to bee beheaded on a Scaffold upon the Tower-hill not without a great aspersion The L. Standly beheaded of ingratitude which severity of Iustice was also executed upon Mountford and Stafford Then Perkin who had wintered with the Dutchesse in the spring made an attempt for England his forces subsisting meerely of male-contents banquerupts and fugitives and hearing the King was in the North landed to the number of sixescore and odde in Kent thinking Perkin landeth in Kent they would have adhered to his Faction but he himself kept a ship boord But the Kentish apprehending the danger of a Rebellion seeing no more would come a shore set upon them whom they found slew some and took the rest prisoners all which were put to death and not one amongst them spared Thence he sailed to Flanders to fetch more ayd and from thence to Ireland where he found small comfort after to Scotland whose arrivall there being by commendatory Letters prepared by Charles the The French K. an abetter of Perkin French King he was royally entertained and to the Scotch King and his Nobility hee delivered so smooth and passionate a Tale before dictated by the Dutchesse that they tooke not onely great commiseration of his former disasters but promised withall not onely to raise him but to establish him in the height at which hee aimed causing him to bee espoused to a beautifull Virgin the Lady Gordon and after with a potent Army entred Northumberland Perkin married to the Lady Gordon making Proclamation in the name of Richard Duke of Yorke with sugered promises of severall enfranchisements and immunities to the Commons if they would acknowledge him their King and Soveraigne all which nothing prevailed with the people so that King Iames hearing of Henries marching towards him with a puissant Hoast he retreated his Army into his owne Countrey After which there was a marriagâ—… concluded A match concluded betwixt Iames of Scotland and the Lady Margaret betwixt King Iames and the Lady Margaret the eldest daughter to King Henry from whom our King Iames of blessed memory descended as immediate and undoubted Heire to the Crown of England which match was consummate in the seventh yeare of King Henry and in the same year landed at Plimmouth Katherine daughter to the King of Spaine who upon St. Erkenwalds day was espoused to Prince Arthur eldest sonne to the King who in Aprill following Prince Arthur married to Katherine of Spaine The death of Prince Arthur expired in the Towne of Ludlow The yeare after began the famous and most glorious worke of the Kings Chappell ' at Westminster and upon the eleventh of February dyed Queen Elizabeth wife to King Henry in the Tower The death of Queen Elizab. lying then in Child bed c. There was also a commotion in Devonshire and Cornwall about the collection of sixescore A commotion in Devonshire and Cornwall thousand pound which the King had demanded in parliament the first raisers thereof were a Lawyer and a Blacke-smith who comming as farre as Wells the Lord Audley tooke upon him to be their Generall who passing through Kent came as farre as Black-Heath in the sight of London but were then encountred by the Kings forces the Lord Audley was taken and The chiefe of the Rebells executed beheaded the Lawyer Smith drawn hanged and quartered the rest by the King ' pardoned But after that fortunate match betwixt the Scotch King and the Lady Margaret there was no longer residence there for Perkin who exposed him to his further fortune yet would not his faire Bride Katherine Gordon leave him though he were forced to forsake the Land but associated him into Ireland from whence hee was presently sent for by a new company of Cornish and Devonshire Rebells who began first to assemble themselves at a Towne called Bodwin in Cornwall To whom Perkin was no sooner come but they made him their Captain and Prince who called him selfe no more Richard Duke of Yorke but Richard King of England
But none without their faults since Adams fal He shall have many vertues but not all Who never spares for who can fraeilty trust Man in his rage or woman in his lust CHAP. 32. Prince Henry married to his brothers wife Hee winneth Turwin and Turney in France Floden-Field with the famous victory against the Scots Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke marrieth the French Queene the Kings sister The Emperour Charles the fift made Knight of the Garter Peace with France Both Kings defie the Emperour The death of Cardinall Wolsey Henry divorced from his first wife Marrieth the Lady Anne Bulloigne Her death He marrieth the Lady Iane Seimour He revolteth from Rome The Earle of Hartfords victories in Scotland Bulloigne besieged and wonne HEnry the Seventh who was loth to part with the Dower of the Spanish princesse wrought so by a Dispensation from the pope that his sonne prince Henry was married to the late Widdow of his own brother prince Arthur deceased who comming to the Crown some say by the counsell of his Father on his death-bed put to death Empson and Dudley who had gathered a great masse of money into the Kings treasury by exacting and extorting from the Commons of whom they were extreamly hated for which piece of justice he wonne the hearts of the people and soone after was borne at Richmond upon New yeares The birth and death of prince Henry day prince Henry the Kings sonne who died upon S. Matthews day the yeere following and soon after was the Lord Dacres sent into Spaine to aide the King against the Moores and Sir Edward Poynings into Gelderland to aide the prince of Castile And in his fourth yeere the King in person invaded France and tooke Turwin and Turney having discomfited the French King Henry aydeth Spaine invadeth France Floden Field in which the K. of Scots was slain Hoast at a place called Blewmy during which time the Scotch King raised against England an hundred thousand men whom the Earle of Surry the Kings Lievtenant encountred at a place called Flodden in which battaile the King himselfe was slaine with eight Bishops and eleven Earles besides of the common souldiers innumerable for which service by him done King Henry created him Duke of Norfolke and his sonne Earle of Surrey In his sixt yeere a peace was concluded betwixt England and France and in the seventh Peace betwixt England and France yeere the French King espoused the Lady Mary the Kings sister in the moneth of Iune and died upon New yeares day next ensuing wherefore The birth of the Lady Mary Charles Brandon married to the French Queen Mary the kings sister the King sent for her againe by Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke In February was borne the Lady Mary the Kings Daughter at Greenwich and in Aprill the French Queene came over into England and was married to the foresaid Duke of Suffolke in which yeere also Margaret Queene of Scots the Kings sister fled into England and lay at a place called Hare-bottle where she was delivered of a daughter called Margaret and came to London in May and tarried here a whole yeer and upon the eighth of May following returned again into her Country In October the tenth yeer of the King the Admirall An enteâ—… view betwixt the Kings of England and France of France came into England and Tournay was delivered againe to the French King whom after Henry met between Arde and Guiens where were great Triumphs after there was a solemne meeting betwixt the Emperour and Charles the fift and the King of England who went with him to Graveling and after hee went to Calice with the King where hee was royally entertained and feasted who in the thirteenth of the King the sixt of Iune was honourably received Charles the fift Emperor made Knight of the Garter into the City of London by the Lord Major the Aldermen and the Communalty who from London went to meet the King at Windsore where he was made Knight of the Garter which was done with great solemnity and then from Southampton hee sailed into Spain soone after Christian King of Denmarke came into England and had Royall entertainment from the King During these passages the Earle of Surrey Lord Admirall who before had appeased the tumults and manifold combustions stirred up in Britain Picardy France invaded by the English Ireland burnt divers Townes in Britaine and Picardy and the Duke of Suffolke invaded France with 10000 men and passing the River of Some spoyled many Towns and Villages and returned without opposition and the Duke of Albany in Scotland who before had made a vain e attempr against England besieged the Castle of Wark but hearing of the Earle of Surreys marching towards him he fled into his Countrey In the eighteenth yeere of the King Cardinall Cardinall Wolsey Embassadour into France Wolsey went over into France pompously attended where he concluded a league betwixt the King of England and the French King who both defied the Emperour and sent an Army into Italy to make war against him and upon the nineteenth of October the great Master of England and France defied the Emperour France came over to England to ratifie the League made betwixt the two Kings all which verifie that part of the prediction Rouze him shall this fierce Lion in his den Be favoured of the gods and fear'd of men Gallia shall quake Albania stand in awe And Caesars stoop when he but shews his paw To league with him Hesperia shall take pride Those whom the Africke Moores halfe blacke have dyde By Albania is meant Seotland so called from Albanactus the second sonne of Brute the first King thereof and by Hesperia Spaine who after the African Moores had long possessed the greatest part of the Land by enterchangable merceage betwixt them and the Natives the Spaniards are black and tawny even to this day In the one and twentieth yeare the King having cast his eye upon a new Mistris pretending A divorce sought by the King betwixt him and Queen Katherine a matter of conscience hee began to consider with himselfe that hee had long incestucusly lived with his brothers wife for which cause the Legats of Rome met with the King at Black Fryers about the lawfulnesse or unlawfulnesse of that marriage Amongst the rest Cardinall Wolsey standing stiffe against a Divorce in October following was discharged of his Chancellourship and presently after was a peace concluded betwixt the Emperour and the King and in the yeere after the great Cardinall who had been arrested of high Treason and by that meanes forfeited his infinite estate to the The death of Card. Wolsey King died on Saint Andrews in a poore Fryery not without suspition of poyson After by a legall course and due processe of Law the king was divorced from the Lady Katherine his brothers wife and soone after married to the Lady Anne Bulloigne who upon The King married
parish Church throughout England that no Coarse should be buryed before sixe a Clocke in the morning nor after sixe at night and that when any dyed the Bell should ring three quarter of an houre at least In this Interim the two great Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolke Dudly and Gray privately murmuring and openly maligning that The two Dukes of Northumberland and Suffolk the Kings two Uncles should beare such great authority in the Kingdome by which their glories seemed not onely eclipsed but quite darkned the elder brother commanding the Land the younger the Sea the one Lord Protector the other Lord High Admirall so that the whole Dominion and Soveraignty of the kingdome the kings name excepted was divided betwixt them And further considering that it was in vaine for them to attaine to their owne ambitious ends but by sundring this fraternall tye and unloosing this Gordian knot Their plots gainst the Protector and Admirall of Consanguinity which had beene so long inseparably continued betwixt them they therefore projected betwixt themselves how this almost impossible thing might be brought to passe and doubting the event if they should attempt to worke by their servants as to corrupt them with Bribes or the like they therefore tooke a nearer and more safe course to practise it by their Wives and to draw their balas from out of their owne bosomes and The Wives made themcans to betray the Husbands most successively to their purpose thus it happened Sir Thomas Seimer Lord High Admirall having married the Queene Dowager whose good Fortune it was of all the rest of the kings wives to survive her Husband contested with her sister in law for precedence and priority of place to which the Protectors wife standing upon her prerogative could by no meanes bee wonne to give way This emulation betwixt the two sisters fitly sorting to the Dukes purposes for the one challenged the right hand as once being Queene and the other claimed it as wise to the present Protector To this new kindled fire the two Dukes bring fuell Dudly incourageth the one secretly Gray the other privately so that the Wives set the Husbands at oddes by taking their parts so that by the instigation of those emulous and incensed Ladies a mortall hatred grew betwixt the two brothers insomuch that in the third year of the King the Admirall was questioned for the ill managing his Office and sundry Articles preferred in Court against him so that he was condemn'd in Parliament and his head The death of the Lord high Admirall strooke off the Protector his brother signing the Warrant for his death The one being thus removed there was the lesse difficulty to supplant the other for in the same Month of February in which the Admirall lost his head was the Protector committed to the Tower by the Lords of the Counsaile of which the two Dukes were chief and many Articles of Treason and ill government of the state commenced against him but about a yeare after his confinement by his submission to the Lords and intercession made for him by the K. upon the sixt of February hee was released injoy'd his former offices honors but all this was but a lightning before death for his two great potent adversaries stil prosecute their malice against him insomuch that not long after calling him to a second account when he had nobly acquit himself at the Barre of all treason objected against him he was in the Guild Hall of London not by a Iury of his peeres by The Lord Protector put to death for felony twelve men convicted and condemned of Felony for which on a Scaffold on Tower-Hill hee suffered death verifying what was before spoken of the young King Vpright he shall betweene two Bases stand One in the sea fixt th' other on the land These shall his pupillage strongly maintaine Secure the continent and scoure the maine But these supporters will be tane away By a Northumbers Wolfe and Suffolks Gray It is so manifest it needs no Comment This Edward Seimour was the sonne of Sir A Character of the L. Protector Edward Seimour knighted by Henry the eight who had married the Lady Iane his naturall sister He after created him Viscount Beauchamp in the yeare one thousand five hundred thirty sixe and the yeare following Earle of Hereford after that he was installed Knight of the Garter His honours and offices made Lord great Chamberlain of England one of the honourable privy Counsail much favoured of the eighth Henry who in his last Testament instituted him one of the chiefe of his sixteene Executors after this King Edward created him Baron de sancto Mauro then Duke of Somerset He was next by a generall voyce of parliament made Protector over the Kings person and of all his Kingdomes and Dominions Governour and Lord Generall of all the Kings forces by Land and Sea He was moreover Lord high Treasurer and Earle Martiall of England Captaine of the two Islands of Gernsie and Iersie and Chancellour of the University of Cambridge In all which Offices and Dignities he demeaned himselfe The Duke of Somerset catalogu'd amongst the English Martyrs with such Honourable bounty and singular piety that some have not doubted to Catalogue him amongst our English Martyrs But to returne to the History by this protectors meanes who was a constant Protestant Images were puld downe through all Churches of England Marriage of priests made lawfull The suppressing of the Romish Religion by parliament and Doctor Bonner with other Romish Prelates deposed from their Bishopricks and other of the Reformed Church supplyed their places making good what was before calculated of the young King By birth a Caesar and in hopes as great Shall next ascend unto th' Imperiall seat Who ' ere mature cropt in his tender bloome Shal more against then Caesar could for Rome He th' Aristocracy Monarchall makes This from the triple Crowne the Scepter takes This needs some explication Hee is called young Caesar as being produced into the world The prophesie explained by the cutting or ripping up of his mothers wombe from which the great Roman Iulius borne after the same manner had added to him the name of Caesar which Title hee left as Hereditary to all the succeeding Emperours after him who as hee reduced the Aristocracie which was the government of the Senate and Optimates into one entire monarchall Diadem placing the Empire in Rome so of the contrary this young King from the great Pontifex of Rome who in time wearing a Triple Diademe and thereby challenging power in Heaven potently upon earth regency and predominance over Hell and moreover making earthly Kings and Emperours to acknowledge unto him a preheminence and supremacie making them to kisse his feet with other servil officeâ—… â—…e by opposing this Soveraignty and shrinking his head out of so extreame a servitude may bee truly said to have done more against Rome in