Diocesses Lucius the Pope in Gratian insinuateth thus much that the Ecclesiasticall Iurisdictions of the Christians followed the Iurisdictions of the Roman Magistrates and that Archbishops had their Seas in those cities wherein the Romane Presidents in times past made their abode The Cities and places saith he in which Primats ought to sit and rule were appointed not by the Moderne but long before the comming of Christ to the Primats of which Cities c. the Gentile also appealed in matters of greater importance And in those verie cities after Christs comming the Apostles and their Successors placed Patriarks or Primats unto whom the affaires of the Bishops and greater causes ought to be preferred Whereas therefore Britaine had in old time three Archbishops to wit of London of Yorke and Caerleon in Southwales I suppose that the Province which now we call of Canterburie for thither the Sea of London was translated made BRITANNIA PRIMA Wales under the Citie of Caer Leon was BRITANNIA SECVNDA and the Province of York which then reached unto the Limit or Borders made MAXIMAA CAESARIENSIS In the age next ensuing when the forme of the Roman Empire was daily changing either through ambition that more men might attaine to places of honour or the warie forecast of the Emperours that the power of their Presidents which grew over great might be taken downe and abridged they divided Britaine into five parts to wit BRITANNIA PRIMA SECVNDA MAXIMA CAESARIENSIS VALENTIA FLAVIA CAESARIENSIS VALENTIA seemeth to have been the northerly part of Maxiâ—â— Caesariensis which being usurped and held by the Picts and Scots Theodosius Generall under Valens the Emperour recovered out their hands and in honour of him named it Valentia which Marcellinus sheweth more plainly in these words The Province now recovered which was fallen into the enemies hands he restored to the former state in such sort as by his own procuring it had both a lawful governor was also afterwards called VALENTIA at the pleasure of the Prince Now that the son of this Theodosius who being created Emperour was named Flavius Theodosius and altered very many things in the Empire added Flavia we may very wel conjecture for that before the time of this Flavius wee read no where of BRITANNIA FLAVIA Wherefore to make up this matter in few words All the south coast which of one side lieth between the British sea and the river Thames with the Severn sea on the other side was called BRITANNIA PRIMA BRITANNIA SECVNDA was that which now is Wales FLAVIA CAESARIENSIS reacheth from Thames to Humber MAXIMA CAESARIENSIS from Humber to the river of Tine or the wall of Severus VALENTIA from Tine to the wall or rampier neere Edenburgh which the Scots call Gramesdike and was the utmost limit of the Roman Empire in this Island when this last division was in use And now I cannot chuse but note some want of judgement in certaine men who otherwise being very learned doe reckon Scotland in this account which some of them make to have beene Maxima Caesariensis and others Britannia Secunda As if forsooth the Romans neglected not that part of the Island lying under a cold climate and reckoned here those Provinces onely which they governed by Consular Lieutenants and Presidents for Maxima Caesariensis and Valentia were ruled by Consular Lieutenants Britannia Prima Secunda and Flavia by Presidents Now if any man would have me render a reason of this my division and accuse me as a false bounderer and surveior let him heare in briefe what hath induced mee to this opinion Having observed thus much that the Romans alwaies called those Provinces PRIMAS which lay nighest to Rome as Germania Prima Belgica Prima Lugdunensis Prima Aquitania Prima Panninia Prima all which lay neerer to Rome than those that were named Secundae and that these Primae were by the finer sort of writers termed Superiores or higher the Secundae Inferiores or Lower I resolved that the South-part of our Island and neerer to Rome was Britannia Prima By the same reason seeing the Provinces Secundae as they call them were more remote from Rome I supposed Wales was the Britannia Secunda Moreover having noted this also that in the decaying State of their Empire those Provinces onely had Consular Magistrates which lay against the enemies not onely in Gaule but also in Africke as appeareth in the booke of Notices also that in the said Booke Valentia with us and Maxima Caesariensis be accounted Consular Provinces I have judged them being next and exposed to the Scots and Picts to lie in those places which I have spoken of I can doe no other but guesse that Flavia Caesariensis here was in the midst betweene them all and in the very heart of England and so much the more confidently because that ancient writer Giraldus Cambrensis is just of the same opinion with me And thus much of the Divisions of Britaine under the Romans Afterwards when the Barbarians made invasion on every side and civill war daily increased among the Britans the Island as bereft of all life and vigour lay for a time languishing and forlorne without any shew at all of government But at length that part which inclineth to the North became two Kingdomes to wit of the Scots and the Picts and the Romans Pentarchie or five portions in this hither part became in processe of time the Heptarchie or seven Kingdomes of the Saxons For they divided the whole Province of the Romans setting Wales aside which the remnant of Britans possessed into seven Kingdomes that is to say Kent Southsex East-England Westsex Northumberland Eastsex and Mercia But what this Heptarchie of the English-Saxons was and what their names were in those daies in this chorographical table here adjoyned you may if you please behold Considering that in a Chorographicall Table or Map by reason of so narrow a roome those Regions or Counties which these Kingdomes contained could not well and handsomely bee described In this other Table heere rather than by heaping many words together I thinke good to propose and set downe the same that the Reader may once for all have a view of them The Saxons Heptarchie 1 The Kingdome of KENT contained the Countie of Kent 2 The Kingdom of SVSSEX or Southern Saxons contained the Counties of Suthsex Suthrey 3 The Kingdome of EAST-ENGLAND or East-Angles contained the Counties of Norfolke Suthfolke Cambridge shire with the Isle of Ely 4 The Kingdome of WESTSEX or West-Angles contained the Counties of Cornwall Devonshire Dorsetshire Somersetshire Wiltshire Southampton Berkshire 5 The Kingdome of NORTHVMBERLAND contained the Counties of Lancaster Yorke Durham Cumberland Westmorland Northumberland and the Countries of Scotland to Edenburgh-frith 6 The Kingdome of EAST-SEX or East-Saxons contained the Counties of Essex Middlesex and part of Hertfordshire 7 The Kingdome of MERCIA contained the Counties of Glocester shire Herefordshire Worcestershire Warwickshire Leicestershire Rotlandshire
Florus and Appian speake was a Britan the verae name doth evince which signifieth as much as A great Britan. Neither will I wrey to my purpose for to make the said Brennus a Britan borne that place of Strabo wherein he writeth That Brennus was by birth a Prausian Ne yet dare I whereas Ottho Frisingensis writeth That the Briones a generation of the Cimbri seated themselves at the head of the river Dravus change Briones into Britones And yet what dare not our Criticks doe now adaies But yet truely to speake my mind once for all As the Romans for all they grew to that greatnesse above others were not for a long time knowne either to Herodotus or to the Greeks the Gaules also and the Spaniards for many yeares utterly unknowne to the old Historiographers so of this mind I have alwaies beene that late it was ere the Greeks and Romans heard of the Britans name For that little booke Of the World which commonly goeth abroad under the name of Aristotle and maketh mention of the Britans of Albion and Hierne is not so ancient as the time wherin Aristotle lived but of later daies by far as the best learned men have judged Polybius verily the famous Historian who accompanying that noble Scipio travelled over a great part of Europe ccclxx yeares or there about before Christs nativitie is the ancient author as far as I remember that mentioneth the Britan Isles where hee writeth Of the utmost Ocean the Britan Isles the plenty of tynne gold and silver in Spaine old writers with different opinions have reported much But they seeme to have beene little more than by name may bee gathered by this hee writeth before in the same booke Whatsoever saith he betweene Tanis and Narbo bendeth Northward to this day there is no man knoweth and whoever they be that either speake or write any thing thereof they doe but dreame And no lesse may they seeme to do in these daies who in a prodigall humour of credulitie are perswaded that Himilco beeing commanded by the State of Carthage to discover the Westerne sea-coast of Europe entred into this Isle many yeares before that time seeing we have no records of the said navigation but onely a verse or two in Festus Avienus But why it was so late ere Britaine was knowne the reason may seeme to be partly the scite of the Island so remote and disjoyned from the continent and in part for that those old Britans then barbarous as all other people in these parts and living close to themselves had no great commerce and traffique with other nations And surely in this point Dio is of the same opinion The ancientest saith he as well of Greeks as Romans knew not for certaine so much as that there was any Britaine at all and those of later times after them made question whether it were the maine or an Island and much writing there was pro contrà of both opinions by those who verily had no assured knowledge thereof as who had neither seene the countrey nor learned of the native Inhabitants of what nature it was but relied onely upon bare conjecture every one according to his time and diligence emploied that way But the first Latine writer to my knowledge that made mention of Britaine was Lucretius in these verses concerning the difference of aire Nam quid Britannum caelum differre putamus Et quod in Aegypto est quà mundi claudicat axis For aire what difference is there in Britaine Isle thinke we And Aegypt land where Artick pole to stoupe men plainly see Now that Lucretius lived but a little before Caesar no man denieth at what time we are taught out of Caesar himselfe that Divitiacus King of the Soissons and the most mightie Prince of all Gaule governed Britaine But this is to bee understood of maritime coasts For Caesar himselfe witnesseth that no part of Britaine save onely the sea-side and those countreys which lie against Gaule was knowne unto the Gauls Howbeit Diodorus Siculus writeth that Britaine had experience of no forreiners rule for neither Dionysius nor Hercules nor any other Worthy or Demigod have we heard to have attempted war upon that people Now Caesar who for his noble Acts is called Divus was the first that subdued the Britans and forced them to pay a certaine tribute From this time and no further off must the writer of our Historie fetch his beginning of his worke if he throughly weigh with judgement what the learned Varro hath in times past written and my selfe already heretofore signified Namely that there bee of times three differences the first from the creation of man unto the Floud or Deluge which for the ignorance of those daies is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Obscure uncertaine the second from the Floud to the first Olympias being 3189. years after the Creation and 774. before Christ which in regard of many fabulous narrations reported in that time is named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Fabulous the third from the first Olympias unto our daies and that is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Historicall because the Acts therein done are contained in true Histories And yet I am not ignorant that albeit the learned nations setting aside the Hebrews have attained to the knowledge of nothing before this age yet the British History of Geffrey tooke beginning three hundred and thirtie yeares before the first Olympias being a very rude and ignorant age in these parts which he called Fabulous And even from hence for feare least the ground-worke being ill laid the rest of the building would goe on no better because both the present place seemeth to require it and also from it the chiefe light may arise to the traine of the narration ensuing let mee summarily gathering matter heere and there briefly deliver the acts of the Romans in Britaine not out of feined fables which were vanitie to recite and meere folly to beleeve but out of the incorrupt and ancient monuments wherein I will not intercept matter of glory and commendation from them who shall take in hand to pursue this argument in more ample manner ROMANS IN BRITAINE WHen Fortitude and Fortune were so agreed or Gods appointment rather had thus decreed that Rome should subdue all the earth Caius Julius Caesar having now by conquests over-run Gaule to the end that by a successive traine of victories atchieved both by land and sea he might joyne those Lands together which nature had severed as if the Roman world would not suffice cast an eye unto the Ocean and in the foure and fiftieth yeare before the incarnation of Christ endeavoured to make a journey into Britaine either for that in all his Gaulish warre there came under-hand aid from thence or because the Britaines had received the Bellovaci that were runne from him or as Suetonius writeth allured with hope of the
againe Thus they performed in all their fights the nimble motion of horsemen and the firme stabilitie of footmen so ready with daily practise exercise that in the declivity of a steepe hill they could stay their horses in the very full cariere quickly turn short moderate their pace run along the beame or spire of the Chariot stand upon the yoke and harnesse of the horses yea and from thence whip in a trice into their chariots again But by the cōming of Caesar to rescue them in so good time the Romans took heart afresh and the Britans stood still who having conceived good hope to free themselves for ever presuming upon the small number of the Roman forces together with the scarcitie of corne among them had assembled a great power and were come to the campe of Caesar. But he received them even before the campe with a battell put them to rout slew many of them and burnt their houses far and neare The same day came messengers from the Britans to Caesar intreating peace which they obtained upon condition that they should double the number of their hostages whom he commanded to be brought into Gaule And streight after because the Aequinox was at hand hee put to sea hoised saile from Britaine and brought all his ships safe unto the continent of France And thither two onely of all the States of Britaine sent hostages unto him the rest neglected it These exploits thus performed upon the relation of Caesars Letters the Senate decreed a solemne procession for the space of twentie daies although he gained nothing to himselfe nor to Rome but the glorie onely of an expedition enterprized The yeare next ensuing Caesar having gotten together a great fleet for what with ships for convoy of corne and victuals and what with other private vessels that every man had built for to serve his owne turne there was 800. saile and above and the same manned with five Legions and 2000. horsemen he launched from the port called Iccius and landed his forces in that part of the Isle where hee did the yeare before Neither was there an enemie to be seene in the place For albeit the Britans had beene there assembled with a great power yet terrified with so huge a number of ships they had secretly withdrawne themselves into the upland countrey Here Caesar encamped in a place convenient and left two cohorts and three hundred horsemen as a garrison or guard for his ships Himselfe having by night marched forward twelve miles espied the enemies who having gone forward as farre as to the river began to give battell but beaten backe by the cavallery they conveighed themselves into a wood and there lay hid as lodging in a place strongly fortified both by nature and mans hand But the Romans with a Testudo or targnet-roofe which they made and mount that they raised against their fortifications tooke the place and drave them out of the woods neither followed they them with any long pursuit for they were to fortifie the campe in that very place The next day Caesar divided his forces into three regiments and sent them out to pursue the Britaines but straightwaies called them back againe for that hee had intelligence by messengers of such a tempest at sea the night before that his navie was sore beaten run one against another and cast on shore And thereupon himselfe in person returned to the ships and with the labour of ten daies haled them all up to land and enclosed them and his campe together within one and the same fortification and so goeth to the place from whence he was returned Thither also had the Britaines assembled themselves with greater forces under the conduct of Cassivellaunus or Cassibelinus unto whom in a publike counsell of all the Britains the whole government and managing of the warre was committed whose cavallery and chariotiers together gave the Romanes a sharpe conflict in their march wherein many of both sides lost their lives But the Britans after some intermission of time whiles the Romans were busie in fortifying their campe charged fiercely upon those that kept ward before the campe unto whom when Caesar had sent for rescue two cohorts and those the principall and choysest of two legions they most boldly and with full resolution brake through the thickest of the enemies and from thence retired in safety The next morrow the Britans shewed themselves here and there in small companies from the hils but about noone they made an assault upon three legions and all the horsemen sent out for to forage yet beaten backe they were and a great number of them slaine Now by this time were all their auxiliarie forces that had met together departed neither encountred they afterward the Romans with their maine power Caesar then marched with his army to the river Thames and so to the confines of Cassivelaunus Vpon the farther banke of this river yea and under the water they had covertly stucke sharpe stakes and embattelled themselves with a great power But the Romans went and waded over with such violence notwithstanding they had but their heads cleere above the water that the enemy was not able to endure the charge but left the banke and betooke themselves to flight not skared as Polyaenus writeth at the sight of an Elephant with a turret upon his backe Cassivellaunus having now no courage to contend any longer retained onely foure thousand Charioters with him and observed the Romanes journeys and so often as their horsemen went foorth and straied out in the fields for forage or booty he sent out his chariots and kept them from ranging all abroad Meane while the Trinobantes submit themselves unto Caesar and intreated that he would defend Mandubratius whom Eutropius and Beda out of the Fragments of Suetonius now lost call Androgorius and our Britans Androgeus from the oppression of Cassivellaunus and send him unto them to be their soveraign Of them Caesar required and received forty hostages and corne for his army and therewith sent Mandubratius Then the Cenimagi Segontiaci Ancatites Bibroci aad Cassij following the example of the Trinobantes yeeld unto Caesar By whom he understood that Cassivellaunus his towne was not far off fortified with woods and bogs which as he assaulted in two severall places the Britans flung out at a back way but many of them in their flight were taken and put to the sword Whiles these things were a doing foure pety Kings that ruled Kent to wit Cingetorix Carvilius Taximagulus and Segonais by a mandate from Cassivellaunus did set upon the campe where the Romanes navy was kept but by a sally that the Romanes made they were driven backe and Cingetorix one of the said Kings was taken prisoner Then Cassivellaunus having received so many losses and troubled most of all with the revolt of the states sent Embassadour to Caesar by Conius of Arras tending unto him a surrendry Whereupon
billowes the one of the land and enemie conquered the other of the Ocean subdued The Britains as by the prisoners was understood were amazed also at the sight of the navie as though now the secrets of their sea were disclosed and no refuge remained if they were overcome Whereupon the Caledonians arming with great preparation and greater bruit thereof as the manner is of matters unknowne having of themselves first set in hand to assault our Castles braved our men and put them in feare as Chalengers in so much that some of our side who would seeme to be wise but were dastards indeed counselled the Generall to retire on this side Bodotria and that the best course was to depart of their own accord rather than to be repelled with shame in the mean while Agricola takes knowledge that the enemies meant to divide themselves and to give the onset in severall Companies whereupon lest hee should bee enclosed about and entrapped by their multitude and skill in the country he also marched with his armie divided in three Which when it was knowne to the enemie they on a sodaine changing advise and uniting their forces together joyntly assaulted by night the ninth Legion as being of weakest resistance and having slaine the watch partly asleep and partly amazed with feare brake into the campe And now were they fighting within the very trenches when Agricola having intelligence given him by Spies what way the enemies had taken and following withall their footsteps commanded the lightest horsemen and footmen to play on their backs and maintaine the skirmish and the whole armie anone to second them with a shout And when it drew neere to day the glittering of the ensignes was seene So the Britaines were quailed with a duple danger but the Romans recovered courage againe and being past perill of their persons fought now for their honour freshly assailing their late assailers And verily within the streights of the gates the conflict was sharpe and cruell till in the end the enemies were forced to flie whilest both our armies contended the one would seeme to have helped their fellows the other to have needed none other to help them and if the bogs and wood had not covered their flight that one victory had ended the warre Vpon this battell so manfully fought so famously wonne the armie presuming that to their prowesse all things were easie and open cried To lead into Caledonia and to find out the limit of Britan with a course of a continued Conquests and even those who ere while were so warie and wise waxt forward enough after the event and grew to speak bigly such is the hard condition of warres If ought fall out well all challenge a part misfortunes are ever imputed to one Contrariwise the Britans presupposing that not valour but the cunning of the Generall by using the occasion had carried it away abated no whit of their stomacke but armed their youth transported their children and wives into places of safetie and sought by assemblies and religious rites to establish an association of their Cities and States together And so for that yeare both parties departed away incensed The same summer a cohort of Vsipians levied in Germanie and sent over into Britan committed a hainous and memorable Act. For having slaine a Centurion and certaine souldiers intermingled among other manciples and set over them for direction of discipline they fled and embarqued themselves in three pinnaces compelling by force the Masters of the said vessels to execute their charge and only one doing his office the other two being suspected and thereupon slaine this strange going out and putting to sea the fact as yet not noised abroade was gazed and wondred at afterwards being driven uncertainly hither and thither and having skirmished with the Britains standing in defence of their owne often prevailing and sometimes repulsed they came at last to that miserie that they were enforced to eat one another first the weakest then as the lot lighted Thus after they had floated round about Britain and lost their vessels for lacke of government they were intercepted first by the Suevians then by Frisians as Pirats and Rovers Now some of them there were that being bought by merchants as slaves and by change of Masters brought to our side of the river grew into a name by giving first notice of so great and so rare an adventure In the beginning of Summer Agricola was deepely touched with a grievous mischance that happened in his owne house for he lost his owne Sonne about a yeare old Which infortunate hap he neither bare out as most of these great men do in the like case vaine-gloriously nor tooke it againe so impatiently with sorrow and lamentation as women are wont and amidst his mourning used the warre as one of his remedies Therefore having sent his fleete afore which by spoiling in sundry places should induce a greater and more uncertaine terrour upon his enemies hee made ready and followed after with his armie joyning thereto some of the valiantest Britaine 's whom by long experience in peace he had found most faithfull and so came as farre as to the mount Grampias where the enemies were lodged before For the Britans nothing danted with the event of the former battell and attending for nothing else but revenge or servitude and being taught at length that common danger must bee repelled with concord by embassages and league made had raised the power of all their Cities and States together And now by this time there were entred into the field the view being taken above thirty thousand armed men besides an endlesse number of youth which daily flocked to them still yea and lusty old men renowned in warr and bearing every one the badge due to their honour at what time among many other leaders Galgacus for his valour birth the principall man seeing the multitude thus assembled hotly to demand battell is said to have used this speech unto them When I view and consider the causes of this warre and our present necessitie I have reason me seemes to presume that this day and this your agreeing consent will give a happy beginning to the freedome of the whole Island For both have we all hitherto lived in liberty besides no land remaineth beyond no nor so much as sea for our safegard The Romane navie thus as you see hoovering upon our coasts so that Combat and armes which valiant men desire for honour the dastard must also use for his best securitie the former battels which have with divers events been fought against the Romanes had their hope and refuge resting in our hands Because we the flower of the British Nobilitie and seated therefore the furthermost in never seeing the coasts of the countries which serve in slaverie have kept even our eies unpolluted and free from all contagion of tyrannie Beyond us is no land beside us none are free us hitherto this very corner and the inward recesse
are commonly called Phari which give light by fire in the night time and direct ships at sea in their course to safe harbours The hearse then being mounted up into the second tabernacle they get together spices and odours of all sorts likewise all the sweet smelling fruits hearbs juices and liquors that the whole world can yield and thereon poure the same forth by heape-meale For their is not a nation citie or state nor any person of worth and marke above the rest but strive a vie every one to bestow in honor of the Prince those last gifts and presents Now when there is a mightie heape of the said spiceries gotten together so that the whole roome is filled therewith then all the Gentlemen of the Knights order first ride about that edifice marching in a certaine measure and therewith in their courses and recourses observe a warlike kind of motion round in just measure and number The open chariots likewise are driven about by courtiers in purple roabes of honor sitting thereupon to guide and direct them with vizards on their faces resembling all the redoubted captaines and renowned Emperors of Rome These ceremonies thus performed the Prince that next succeedeth in the Empire takes a torch and first himselfe sets it to the tabernacle aforesaid then all the rest from every side put fire under so that forthwith every place being full of the said dry fuell and odors kindle and catch fire mightily Then straightwaies from the highest and least tabernacle as it were out of some lower or high turret together with the fire put underneath an Eagle was let flie and the same was supposed to carry up the Princes soule into heaven And so from that time forward was the Emperor reputed and by the Romans adored among the rest of the Gods Thus much by way of digression and beside the matter now let us returne Antoninus Caracalla the sonne of Severus pursued the reliques of the war by his Captaines for a while in Britaine but soone after he made peace surrendring to the enemie their territories and castles Howbeit in a spirit of ambition hee assumed to himselfe in his stile the name of BRITANNICVS yea and of BRITANNICVS MAXIMVS His brother Geta likewise took upon him the title and addition of BRITANNICVS For we have seen his mony coined with this Inscription IMP. CAES. P. SEPT GETAPIVS AVG. BRIT PONTIF TRI. P. III. COS. II. PP From this time forward writers have in long silence passed over the affaires of Britaine For Alexander Severus was not slaine as some would have it in Sicila a town of Britaine but in Gaule This certaine evidence onely have wee out of an antique stone that Nonnius Philippus was here Propretor under Gordianus the yonger Whiles Gallienus the Emperor gave himselfe over to all manner of riotousnesse the State of Rome either through the carelesse managing of affaires or by some inclination of the Destinies lay dismembred as it were and maimed in all parts and a heavie rent there was and revolt of this Province from the Roman Captaine For thirty tyrants there were who in divers places usurped rule and dominion among whom Lollianus Victorinus Posthumus the Tetrici and Marius bare soveraigne sway as I suppose in this Island For their coines are here in great abundance digged up daily Under Aurelian that notable bibber Bonosus a Britan borne entred upon the Empire together with Proculus who claimed to himselfe all Britaine Spaine and Braccata Gallia which provinces Florianus had for two moneths governed but being in a long and bloudy battell vanquished by Probus he hanged himselfe whereupon this jest went commonly on him There hangs a tankard and not a man Howbeit Probus was welcommed into Britaine with new troubles and commotions For one whom Probus himselfe induced by the commendation of his familiar friend Victorinus Maurus had promoted to an office of state practised a revolt For which he fell out by way of expostulation with Victorinus who having gotten leave to depart unto the said party and feining that he fled and was escaped from the Emperor being kindly entertained of the tyrant slue him in the night and returned to Probus and therewith was the province rid of these broiles But who this tyrant was no man hath related Howbeit he may seeme to be that Cl. Corn. Laelianus whose pieces of coine are found in this Island and not elsewhere Moreover Probus sent hither the Burgundians and Vandals whom he had subdued and granted them places to inhabit who afterwards so often as any one went about to raise sedition stood the Romans in good stead Now whereas Vopiscus writeth that Probus permitted the Britans to have vines there is a right learned man that feareth lest hee have inconsideratly put this down in writing as if this land were unfit for vineyards yet it hath vines and for certain it is knowne that it had very many In regard of so many tyrants rising up in these daies within this Province Porphyrie who lived in this age cried out in these termes Britaine a fertile Province of tyrants After this Carus Augustus the Emperor allotted by decree this our country together with Gaule Spaine and Illyricum unto his son Carinus That he warred here some there be that slightly indeed but how truly I wot not gather out of these verses of Nemesianus Nec taceam quae nuper bella sub Arcto Foelici Carine manu confeceris ipso Pene prior genitore Deo Neither may I the wars in silence hide Dispatcht of late with happy hand in North By thee Carine thy Father Deifi'd Who dost well nere surpasse in works of worth Under Dioclesian Carausius a Menapian borne a man of very base parentage howbeit inventive and active withall who for his valour shewed in battels at sea became renowned was ordained Captaine of Bologne in Gaule to put backe and drive away the Saxons and Frankners that troubled the seas This Carausius having at first from time to time taken many of the Barbarians prisoners and yet neither brought in all the bootie and pillage into the Emperors treasury nor made restitution of goods unto the Provincials afterwards when as hee vanquished and subdued but few of them began deepely to be suspected that of set purpose he admitted the Barbarians to enter to the end in their passage by he might intercept them with booty and so by this occasion enrich himselfe whereupon Maximian Augustus the Emperour gave commandement that he should be killed Whereof he having certaine intelligence tooke upon him the Imperiall ensignes and seized Britan into his own hands withdrew the Navy that lay in defence of Gaule built many ships after the Roman manner adjoyned to himselfe the Roman Legion kept out the companies of forreine souldiers assembled and drew together the French Merchants to muster fortified Bologne with a garrison conveied away and tooke to his owne use the publike revenewes of Britan
and Batavia allured by the spoiles of whole provinces no small power of Barbarian forces to be his associates and the Franks especially whom he trained to sea-service and in one word made all the sea coasts every way dangerous for passage To the vanquishing of him Maximianus set forward with a puissant army out of which som there were who in the very voyage suffered death gloriously for Christs sake but when he was come to the sea-side being skared partly for want of sea-souldiers and partly with the rage of the British Ocean staied there and having made a fained peace with Carausius yielded unto him the rule of the Island considering he was taken to bee the meeter man both to command and also to defend the Inhabitants against the warlike nations Hereupon it is that wee have seene in the silver coines of Carausius two Emperours joyning hands with this circumscription CONCORDIA AVG. G. But Maximian turned his forces upon the Frankners who then held Batavia and had secretly under hand sent aide unto Carausius whom he surprized on such a sudden that he forced them to submission In this meane while Carausius governed Britain with incorrupt and unstained reputation and in exceeding great peace against the Barbarians as writeth Ninnius the disciple of Elvodugus hee reedified the wall betweene the mouthes of Cluda and Carunus and fortified the same with 7. castles and built a round house of polished stone upon the banke of the river Carun which tooke name of him erecting therewith a triumphall arch in remembrance of victory Howbeit Buchanan thinketh verily it was the Temple of Terminus as we will write in Scotland When Dioclesian and Maximian as well to keepe that which was won as to recover what was lost had taken to them Constantius Chlorus and Maximianus Galerius to bee Caesars Constantius having levied and enrolled an armie came with great speed and sooner then all men thought to Bologne in France which also is called Gessoriacum a towne that Carausius had fortified with strong garrison and they laid siege unto it round about by pitching logs fast into the earth at the very entry and piling huge stones one upon another in manner of a rampire he excluded the sea and tooke from the towne the benefit of their haven which damme the strong and violent current of the Ocean beating against it forcibly for many daies together could not breake and beare downe no sooner was the place yielded but the first tide that rose made such a breach into the said rampire that it was wholly dis-joyned and broken in sunder And whiles he rigged and prepared both heere and elsewhere an Armada for the recoverie of Britaine he rid Batavia which was held by the Francks from all enemies and translated many of them into the Roman nations for to till their waste and desert territories In this meane time Allectus a familiar friend of Carausius who under him had the government of the State slew him by a treacherous wile and put upon himselfe the Imperiall purple roabe Which when Constantius heard he having manned armed divers fleets drave Allectus to such doubtfull termes as being altogether void of counsell and to seek what to doe he found then and never before that he was not fenced with the Ocean but enclosed within it And withall hoyzing up saile in a tempestuous weather and troubled sea by meanes of a mist which over-spread the sea hee passed by the enemies fleet unawares to them which was placed at the Isle of Wight in espiall and ambush to discoved and intercept him and no sooner were his forces landed upon the coast of Britaine but he set all his owne ships on fire that his Souldiers might repose no trust in saving themselves by flight Allectus himselfe when he espied the Navy of Constantius under saile approaching toward him forsooke the sea-side which he kept and as he fled lighted upon Asclepiodotus Grand Seneschal of the Praetorium but in so fearful a fit like a mad man he hastned his own death that he neither put his footmen in battell ray nor marshalled those troopes which he drew along with him in good order but casting off his purple garment that he might not be knowne rushed in with the mercenary Barbarians and so in a tumultuary skirmish was slaine and hardly by the discovery of one man found among the dead carcases of the Barbarians which lay thick spread every where over all the plaines and hils But the Frankners and others of the barbarous souldiers which remained alive after the battell thought to sacke London and to take their flight and be gone at which very instant as good hap was the souldiers of Constantius which by reason of a misty and foggy aire were severed from the rest came to London and made a slaughter of them in all places throughout the citie and procured not only safetie to the citizens in the execution of their enemies but also a pleasure in the sight thereof By this victory was the Province recovered after it had beene by usurpation held seven yeares or there about under Carausius and three under Allectus Whereupon Eumenius unto Constantius writeth thus O brave victorie of much importance and great consequence yea and worthy of manifold triumphs whereby Britaine is restored whereby the nation of the Frankners is utterly destroyed and whereby upon many people beside found accessarie to that wicked conspiracie there is imposed a necessitie of obedience and allegiance and in one word whereby for assurance of perpetuall quietnesse the seas are scoured and cleansed And as for thee ô invincible Caesar make thy boast and spare not that thou hast found out a new world and by restoring unto the Roman puissance their glorie for prowesse at sea hast augmented the Empire with an element greater than all Lands And a little after unto the same Constantius Britaine is recovered so as that those nations also which adjoyne unto the bounds of the same Island become obedient to your will and pleasure In the last yeares of Dioclesian and Maximian when as the East Church had beene for many years already polluted with the bloud of martyrs the violence of that furious persecution went on and passed even hither also into the West and many Christians suffered martyrdome Among whom the principall were Albanus of Uerlam Julius and Aaron of Isca a citie called otherwise Caër Leon c. of whom I will write in their proper place For then the Church obtained victorie with most honourable and happy triumph when as with ten yeares massacres it could not be vanquished When Dioclesian and Maximinian gave over their Empire they elected that Constantius Chlorus for Emperour who untill that time had ruled the State under the title of Caesar and to him befell Italie Africke Spaine France and Britaine but Italy and Africke became the Provinces of Galerius and Constantius stood contented with the rest This Constantius what
time as hee served in Britaine under Aurelian tooke to wife Helena daughter of Coelus or Coelius a British Prince on whom he begat that noble Constantine the Great in Britaine For so together with that great Historiographer Baronius the common opinion of all other writers with one consent beareth witnesse unlesse it be one or two Greeke authors of late time and those dissenting one from the other and a right learned man grounding upon a corrupt place of Iul. Firmicus Howbeit compelled he was by Maximian to put her away for to mary Theodora his daughter This is that Helena which in antike Inscription is called VENERABILIS and PIISSIMA AVGVSTA and for Christian piety for clensing Ierusalem of Idols for building a goodly Church in the place where our Lord suffered and for finding the Saving Crosse of Christ is so highly commended of Ecclesiasticall writers And yet both Iewes and Gentiles termed her by way of ignominy and reproach Stabularia because shee a most godly Princesse sought out the crib or manger wherein Christ was borne and in the place where stood that hostelry founded a Church Hereupon S. Ambrose They say that this Lady was at first an Inholder or Hostesse c. Well this good hostesse Helena hastned to Ierusalem and sought out the place of our Lords passion and made so diligent search for the Lords crib This good hostesse was not ignorant of that host which cured the wayfaring mans hurts that was wounded by theeves This good hostesse chose to be reputed a dung-farmer that she might thereby gâ—ine Christ. And verily no lesse praise and commendation goeth of her husband Constantius for his piety and moderation A man who having utterly rejected the superstition of the ungodly in worshipping divers gods willingly of himselfe acknowledged one God the Ruler of all things Whereupon to try the faith and beleefe in God of his owne Courtiers hee put it to their free choice either to sacrifice unto those gods and so to stay with him or els to refuse and depart But those that would depart rather than renounce and forsake their faith to God hee kept with him still casting off all the rest who he supposed would prove disloiall unto him seeing they had abandoned their beleefe in the true God This most noble and worthy Emperor in his last British expedition against the Caledonians and the Picts died at Yorke leaving behind him his sonne Constantine Emperor his successor and Caesar elect Some few daies before the death of Constantius his sonne Constantius rode from Rome to Yorke on post horses and the rest which were kept at the charges of the State hee maimed and lamed all the way as hee went because no man should pursue him and there he received his fathers last breath Whereupon an ancient Orator spake thus unto him Thou entredst this sacred place not as a competitor of the Empire but as heire apparant and ordained already and forthwith that fathers house of thine saw thee the lawfull successor For there was no doubt but that the inheritance duly belonged unto him whom the destinies had ordained the first begotten sonne unto the Emperor Yet for all that constrained in maner by the souldiers and especially by the meanes of Erocus King of the Almanes who by way of aid accompanied him advanced hee was to the Imperiall dignity The souldiers regarding rather the publike good of the common-wealth than following his affections invested him in the purple roabe weeping and setting spurs to his horse because hee would avoid the endeavor of the armie that called so instantly upon him c but the felicity of the common-wealth overcame his modesty And hereof it is that the Panegyrist crieth out in these words O fortunate Britaine and more happy now than all other lands that hast the first sight of Constantine Caesar And now Caesar at his very entrance having first pursued the reliques of that war which his father had begun against the Caledonians and other Picts and set upon those Britans more remote and the Inhabitants of the Ilands lying there the witnesses as one said of the Suns setting some of them hee subdued by force and armes others for you must thinke he aspired to Rome and higher matters by offering fees and stipends he allured and drew to be associates and there were besides of them whom of open enemies he made his friends and of old adversaries his very familiars Afterwards having vanquished the Frankners in Batavia and that with so great glory that he stamped certaine golden pieces of coine whereof I have seene one with the Image of a woman sitting under a Trophee and leaning with one hand upon a crossebow or a brake with this subscription FRANCIA and this writing about it GAVDIVM ROMANORVM Having also overthrowne the Barbarians in Germany won unto him the German and French Nations and levied souldiers out of Britaine France and Germany to the number in all of 90000. foot and 8000. horsemen hee departed into Italie overcame Maxentius who at Rome had challenged to himselfe the Empire and having conquered Italy and vanquished the Tyrant he restored unto the whole world the blessed gifts of secure libertie and as we find in the Inscription of an Antiquitie INSTINCTV DIVINITATIS MENTIS MAGNITVDINE CVM EXERCITV SVO TAM DE TYRANNO QVAM DE OMNI EIVS FACTIONE UNO TEMPORE IVSTIS REMP. ULTVS EST ARMIS that is By instinct of the divine power with great magnanimitie and the helpe of his owne armie at one time in the behalfe of the Common wealth he was by lawfull warre revenged as well of the Tyrant himselfe as of his whole faction Howbeit that he returned againe into Italy Eusebius implieth in these words Constantine quoth he passed over to the Britans enclosed on every side within the bankes of the Ocean whom when hee had overcome hee began to compasse in his mind other parts of the world to the end he might come in time to succour those that wanted helpe And in another place After he had furnished his armie with mild and modest instructions of pietie he invaded Britaine that he might likewise instruct those who dwell environed round about with the waves of the Ocean bounding the Suns setting as it were with his coasts And of Britan are these verses of Optatianus Porphyrius unto Constantine to be understood Omnis ab Arctois plaga finibus horrida Cauro Pacis amat cana comperta perennia jura Et tibi fida tuis semper bene militat armis Resque gerit virtute tuas populosque feroces Propellit ceditque lubens tibi debita rata Et tua victores sors accipit hinc tibi fortes Teque duce invictae sustollunt signa cohortes From Northern bounds the land throughout where bleak North-west winds blowen Lov 's lawes of peace right ancient and ever during knowen Prest alwaies in their loyaltie for service in thy right With valiant and
couragious heart doth all thy battels fight Thus Nations fierce it drives to rout and doth in chase pursue Yielding to thee right willingly all paiments just and due Victors from hence most valorous thy lot it is to have And under thee unfoiled bands advance their ensignes brave About this time as evidently appeareth by the Code of Theodosius Pacatianus was the Vicarius of Britaine for by this time the Province had no more Propraetors nor Lieutenants but in stead thereof was a Vicar substituted This Emperor Constantine was right happy for very many praises those I assure you most justly deserved for he not onely set the Roman Empire in free estate but also having scattered the thicke cloud of Superstition let in the true light of Christ by setting open the Temples to the true God and shutting them against the false For now no sooner was the blustering tempest and storme of persecution blowne over but the faithfull Christians who in the time of trouble and danger had hidden themselves in woods desarts and secret caves being come abroad in open sight reedifie the Churches ruinate to the very ground the Temple of holy Martyrs they found build finish and erect as it were the banners of victorie in every place celebrate festivall holy-daies and with pure heart and mouth also performe their sacred solemnities And thereupon he is renowned under these titles IMPERATOR FORTISSIMUS AC BEATISSIMUS PIISSIMVS FOELIX URBIS LIBERATOR QUIETIS FVNDATOR REIPUBLICAE INSTAURATOR PUBLICAE LIBERTATIS AUCTOR RESTITVTOR URBIS ROMAE ATQVE ORBIS MAGNUS MAXIMUS INVICTVS INVICTISSIMUS PERPETUUS SEMPER AUGUSTUS RERUM HUMANARUM OPTIMUS PRINCEPS VIRTUTE FORTISSIMUS ET PIETATE CLEMENTISSIMUS And in the Lawes QUI VENERANDA CHRISTIANORUM FIDE ROMANUM MUNIVIT JMPERIUM DIVUS DIVAE MEMORIAE DIVINAE MEMORIAE c. That is Most valiant and blessed Emperour Most pious Happie Redeemer of Rome Citie Founder of Peace Restorer of Rome Citie and the whole world Great Most great Invincible Most invincible Perpetuall Ever Augustus The best Prince of the World For vertue most valiant and for pietie most mercifull Also Who fortified the Roman Empire with the reverend Faith of the Christians Sacred Of sacred Memorie Of Divine memorie c. And hee was the first Emperour as farre as I could ever to this time observe who in coines of money and publike workes was honoured with this Inscription DOMINUS NOSTER that is Our Lord. Although I know full well that Dioclesian was the first after Caligula who suffered himselfe openly to be called LORD Howbeit in this so worthy an Emperour his politike wisedome was wanting in this point that he made the way for barbarous people into Britaine Germanie and Gaule For when he had subdued the northerne Nations so as that now he stood in no feare of them and for to equall the power of the Persians who in the East parts threatned the Roman Empire had built Constantinople a new Citie those Legions that lay in defence of the Marches he partly translated into the East and in their stead built forts and holds and partly withdrew into Cities more remote from the said marches so that soone after his death the Barbarians forcing the townes and fortresses brake into the Provinces And in this respect there goeth a very bad report of him in Zosimus as being the main and first subverter of a most flourishing Empire Seeing moreover that Constantine altered the forme of the Roman government it shall not be impertinent in this very place to note summarily in what sort Britaine was ruled under him and afterward in the next succeeding ages He ordained foure Praefects of the Praetorium to wit of the East of Illyricum of Italie and of Gaule two Leaders or Commanders of the Forces the one of footmen the other of horsemen in the West whom they termed Praesentales For civill government there ruled Britaine the Praefect of the Praetorium or Grand Seneschall in Gaule and under him the Vicar Generall of Britaine who was his Vicegerent and honoured with the title Spectabilis that is notable or remarkable Him obeied respectively to the number of the Provinces two Consular Deputies and three Presidents who had the hearing of civill and criminall causes For militarie affaires there ruled the Leader or Commander of the footmen in the West at whose disposition were the Count or Lieutenant of Britaine the Count or Lieutenant of the Saxon-coast along Britaine and the Duke of Britaine stiled every one Spectabiles that is Remarkable The Count Lieutenant of Britaine seemeth to have ruled the in-land parts of the Island who had with him seven companies of footmen and nine cornets or troups of horsemen The Count or Lieutenant of the Saxon coast namely who defended the maritime parts against the Saxons and is named by Ammianus Comes maritimi tractus that is Lieutenant of the Maritime tract for defence of the Sea coast had seven companies of footmen two guidons of horsemen the second Legion and one cohort The Generall of Britan who defended the Marches or Frontiers against the Barbarians had the command of eight and thirty garrison forts wherein kept their Stations 14000. foot and 900. horsemen So that in those daies if Pancirolus have kept just computation Britaine maintained 19200. footemen and 1700 horsemen or much there about in ordinarie Besides all these Comes sacrarum Largitionum that is The Receiver of the Emperours Finances or publike revenues had under him in Britaine the Rationall or Auditor of the summes and revenues of Britaine the Provost of the Augustian that is Emperours Treasures in Britaine and the Procurator of the Gynegium or Draperie in Britaine in which the clothes of the Prince and souldiers were woven The Count also of private Revenues had his Rationall or Auditour of private State in Britaine to say nothing of the sword Fence Schoole Procurator in Britaine whereof an old Inscription maketh mention and of other officers of an inferiour degree When Constantine was dead Britaine fell unto his Sonne Constantine who upon an ambitious humour and desire of rule breaking into the possessions of other men was slaine by his brother Constans With which victory hee was so puffed up that he seized Britaine and the rest of the Provinces into his owne hands and with his brother Constantius came into this Island And thereupon Julius Firmicus not that Pagane the Astrologer but the Christian speaketh in this wise unto them Yee have in Winter time a thing that never was done before nor shall be againe subdued under your oares the swelling and raging billowes of the British Ocean The waves now of the sea unto this time well neere unknowne unto us have trembled and the Britaine 's were sore afraid to see the unexpected face of the Emperour What would ye more the very Elements as vanquished have given place unto your vertues This Constans it was that called a
the Arians their heresie crept into Britaine wherein from the first yeares of the great Constantine a sweete concent and harmonie of Christ the head and his members had continued untill such time as that deadly and perfidious Arianisme like to a pestiferous Serpent from the other side of the sea casting up her venom upon us caused brethren dwelling together to be dis-joyned piteously one from another and thus the way as it were being made over the Ocean all other cruell and fell beasts wheresoever shaking out of their horrible mouthes the mortiferous poison of every heresie inflicted the deadly stings and wounds of their teeth upon this our countrey desirous evermore to heare some noveltie but holding nought at all stedfastly In favour of these Arians Constantius summoned foure hundred Bishops of the West Church to Ariminum for whom the Emperour by his commandement allowed corne and victuals But that was thought of the Aquitanes French and Britaines an unseemely thing refusing therefore that allowance out of the Emperours coffers they chose rather to live at their owne proper charges Three onely out of Britaine for want of their owne had maintenance from the State refusing the contribution offered unto them from the rest reputing it more safe and void of corruption to charge the common treasure than the private state of any person After this when Constantius was departed this world Julianus that Apostata who had taken upon him the title of Augustus against Constantius first drave out Palladius who had been master of Offices into Britaine and sent away Alphius who had governed Britan as Deputy Lieutenant to reedifie Jerusalem but fearefull round balles of flaming fire breaking forth neere unto the foundations skarred him from that enterprize and many a thousand of Jewes who wrestled in vaine against the decree of God were overwhelmed with the ruines This dissolute Augustus and in his beard onely a Philosopher feared as hath erewhile been said to come and aid the poore distressed Britans and yet from hence he carried out every yeare great store of corne to maintaine the Roman garrisons in Germany When Valentinian the Emperour steered the helme of the Roman Empire what time as through the whole world the trumpets resounded nothing but the warlike Al Arme the Picts Saxons Scots and Attacots vexed the Britans with continuall troubles and annoyances Fraomarius then King of the Almanes was translated hither and by commission made Tribune or Marshall over a band of the Almanes for number and power in those daies highly renowned to represse the incursions of those barbarous nations Neverthelesse Britaine was through the generall conspiracie of those Barbarians afflicted and brought to extreme distresse Nectaridius Comes or Lieutenant of the maritime tract slaine and Bucholbaudes the Generall by an ambush of the enemies circumvented The intelligence of which occurrences when it was brought unto Rome with great horror the Emperour sent Severus being even then Lord High Steward of his houshold to redresse what was done amisse in case his hap had beene to have seene the wished end who being within a while after called away Iovinius went to the same parts sent backe Proventusides in post minding to crave the puissant helpe of an armie For they avouched than the urgent necessary occasions required so much At the last so many and so fearefull calamities were by daily rumors reported as touching the same Iland that Theodosius was elected and appointed to make speed thither a man of approved skill in warlike affaires most fortunatelie atchieved who having levied and gotten unto him a couragious company of young gallants to furnish as well Legions as cohorts put himselfe in his journey with a brave shew of confidence leading the way At the same time the Picts divided into two nations the Dicalidones and Vecturiones the Attacots likewise a warlike people and the Scots ranging in divers parts did much mischiefe where they went As for the cohorts of Gaule the Frankners and Saxons confining upon them brake out and made rodes where ever they could either by land or sea and what with driving booties with firing towns and killing poore captives made foule worke there To stay these wofull miseries if prosperous fortune would have given leave this most vigorous and valiant Captaine intending a voiage to the utmost bounds of the earth when he was come to the sea side at Boloigne which lieth divided from the opposite tract of land by a narrow streit ebbing and flowing where the water is wont to swell on high with terrible tides and againe to fall downe flat and lie like even plains without any harme of sailer or passenger from thence having sailed and leasurely crossed the said sea he arrived as Rhutupiae a quiet rode and harbour over against it From whence after that the Batavians Heruli Iovij and Victores companies confident of their strength and power who followed were come hee departed and marching toward London an old towne which the posteritie called Augusta having divided his troopes into sundry parts hee set upon those companies of roving and robbing enemies even when they were heavy loaden with bootie and pillage And having quickly discomfited those that drave before them their prisoners bound and cattell he forced them to forgoe the prey which the most miserable tributaries had lost In the end after full restitution made of all save onely some small parcels bestowed upon his wearied souldiers he entred most joyfully into the citie over set before with distresses and calamities but now suddenly refreshed so far forth as hope of recovery and safetie might effect and there being raised up with this luckie hand to adventure greater exploits and yet casting with himselfe projects promising securitie he staied doubtfull of the future event as having learned by the information of revolting fugitives and confession of captives that so great a multitude of sundry nations and a stiffe-necked people of so fell and fierce a disposition could not possibly be vanquished but by secret wiles and sudden excursions Finally after proclamations published and promises made of impunitie he summoned as well the traiterous runagates as many others that went with free pasport dispersed sundry waies to present themselves ready for service Vpon which summons given so soone as most of them were returned he as one pricked forward with so good a motive and yet held backe by heavie cares called for Civilis by name who was to rule Britaine as Deputie to bee sent unto him a man of a very quicke hastie nature but a precise keeper of Iustice and righteousnesse likewise for Dulcitius a redoubted Captaine and right skilfull in feates of armes Afterwards having gotten heart and courage to him he went from Augusta which in old time they called Londinum well appointed with industrious and considerate souldiers and so brought exceeding great succour to the ruinate and troubled estate of the Britaines gaining
their naturall Princes To speake in a word this victory was held to be so worthy and memorable that the Romans from thence forward solemnized that day every yeare as festivall There succeeded Theodosius in the West Empire his sonne Honorius a child ten yeares old over whom was ordained as Tutor and Protector Flavius Stilicho a man passing famous for a long time as who being an inward companion of Theodosius in all his warres and victories and by degrees of militarie service advanced unto high authoritie and the Princes affinitie in the end cloied and glutted with prosperitie and carried away through ambition miserably lost his life This man surely for certaine yeares had a provident regard of the Empires good estate and defended Britaine against the invasion of Picts Scots and Vandals And hereof it is that Britaine speaketh thus of her selfe in Claudian Me quoque vicinis pereuntem gentibus inquit Munivit Stilicho totam quum Scotus Hibernem Movit infesto spumavit remige Thetis Illius effectum curis ne bella timorem Scotica nec Pictum tremerem ne littore toto Prospicerem dubiis venientem Saxona ventis And me likewise at hand quoth she to perish in despight Of neighbour Nations Stilicho protected 'gainst their might What time the Scots all Ireland mov'd offensive armes to take And with the stroke of enemies ores the Sea much fome did make He brought to passe his care was such that I the Scotish warre Should feare no more nor dread the Picts ne yet ken from a farre Along the shore whiles I looke still when wavering winds will turne The Saxons comming under saile my coasts to spoile and burne And thus for that time Britaine seemed safe enough from any danger of enemies For in another place that Poet writeth thus Domito quod Saxona Thetis Mitior aut fracto Secura Britannia Picto What either seas more quiet now that Saxons conquer'd are Or Britaine become secure since Picts subdued were And when Alaricus King of the Gothes hovered about Rome seeking meanes to assault and spoile it that Legion which in the marches kept Station against the Barbarians was called from hence as Claudian signifieth when he reckoneth up the aids sent for from all parts Venit extremis legio praetenta Britannis Quae Scoto dat fraena truci ferroque notatas Perlegit exanimes Picto moriente figuras The Legion also came which did for British frontiers lie In garrison that curbs fell Scots and doth pursue with eie Those yron-brent markes in Picts now seene all bloudlesse as they die In these daies flourished Fastidius a Bishop of Britaine and wrote bookes of divine learning I assure you Chrysanthâ—s likewise the sonne of Bishop Martian who having beene a Consular deputy in Italy under Theodosius and made Uicar of Britan deserved that praise and admiration for his good mannaging of the common-weale that he was against his will enstalled at Constantinople Bishop of the Novatians who having made a schisme in that Church and calling themselves Cathari had Bishops apart of their owne and sectaries who stoutly but impiously denied that such as after baptisme received fell by relapse into sinne could not returne againe and bee saved This is that Bishop who as wee read in histories of all Ecclesiasticall revenues and profits was wont to reserve nothing for himselfe but two loaves of bread onely on the Lords day When as now the Roman Empire began to decline and decay and barbarous Nations every way made foule havocke of the provinces all over the Continent the British armes fearing least the flame of their neighbours fire might flash out and catch hold likewise of them supposing also that they stood in need of some Generall Soveraign commander to expell the Barbarians addressed themselves to the election of Emperors First therefore they enthronized in the royall seat Marcus and him they obeied as one that in these parts bare the chief soveraignty But afterward having made him away because his carriage was not answerable unto theirs they bring foorth and set up Gratian countryman of their owne him they crowned and arraied in the regall purple and him they dutifully attended upon as their Prince Howbeit upon a mislike that they tooke to him also at foure moneths end they deprive him of his Empire take away his life and made over the Soveraignty of State to one Constantine a souldier of the meanest place onely because his name imported as they thought the osse of good luck For they conceived assured hope that he by the fortunate name of Constantine would likewise constantly and fortunately governe the Empire and dispatch all enemies like as that Constantine he Great had done who in Britaine was advanced to the Imperiall dignitie This Constantine putting to sea from Britan landed at Bologne in France and easily induced withal the Roman forces as far as to the Alpes to joyne with him in his war Valentia in France he manfully defended against the puissance of Honorius Augustus the Roman Emperor the Rhene which long before had been neglected he fortified with a garison Upon the Alpes as well Cottiae and Peninae as those toward the maritime coasts where ever there was any passage he built fortresses In Spaine under the leading and name of his sonne Constans whom of a Monk he had denounced Augustus or Emperor he warred with fortunate successe and afterwards by letters sent unto Honorius requesting to be held excused for suffering the purple forcibly to be done upon him by the souldiers received at his hands of free gift the Imperiall roabe Whereupon he became prouder than before and after he had passed over the Alpes intended to march directly to Rome but hearing that Alaricus the King of the Goths who had sided with him was dead hee retired himselfe to Arles where he planted his Imperiall seat commanded the Citie to be called Constantina and ordained therein that the assemblies for Assizes of 7. provinces should be held His sonne Constans hee sendeth for out of Spaine to the end that meeting together they might consult as touching the State Who leaving the furniture of his Court and wife at Caesar Augusta and committing the charge of all matters within Spaine to Gerontius came speedily without intermission of journey to his father When they had met together after many daies Constantinus seeing no feare of any danger from Italy gave himselfe wholly to gluttony and belli-cheere and so adviseth his sonne to returne into Spaine But when he had sent his forces to march before whiles he abode still with his father newes came out of Spaine that Maximus one of his vassals and followers was by Gerontius set up and advanced to the Empire and having about him a strong power and retinue of barbarous nations prepared to come against them Whereat they being affrighted Constans and Decimius Rusticus who of the Master of Offices was
is The Deliverer of the world having procured securitie to the State and common-weale had this piece stamped in honour of him at Triers as appeareth by the Letters S. TR. that is Signata Treviris that is to say coined at Triers Flavius Canstantinus Maximus Augustus the great ornament of Britaine stamped this coine at Constantinople as we are taught by these characters underneath CONS with this GLORIA EXERCITVS that is The glory of the Armie to currie favour with the souldiers in whose choice in those daies and not at the dispose of the Emperour was the soveraigne rule and government Constantinus the younger Son of that Constantinus Maximus unto whom with other countries the Province Britaine befell stamped this piece while his Father lived For he is called only Nobilis Caesar a title that was wont to be given to the Heires apparant or elect Successours of the Empire By the edifice thereon and these words PROVIDENTIAE CAESS we understand that he together with his brother built some publike worke like as by these letters P. LON. that this piece of mony was coined at London This coine carrying the Inscription Dominus noster Magnentius Pius Foelix Augustus may seeme to have beene stamped by Magnentius who had a Britan to his father as also to win the favour of Constantius after hee had put to flight some publike enemie For these Characters DD. NN. AVGG that is Our LORDS AVGVSTI doe argue there were then two Augusti or Emperours And as for that Inscription VOTIS V. MVLTIS X. it betokeneth that the people at that time did nuncupate their vowes in these termes That the Emperour might flourish 5. yeares and by dupling the said number of 5. with lucky acclamations praied for many 10. yeares And hereto accordeth that speech in the Panegyrick oration of Nazarus as followeth The Quinquennall feasts and solemnities of the most blessed and happy Caesars hold us wholly possessed with joyes but in the appointed revolutions of ten yeares our hastning vowes and swift hopes have now rested The letters P. AR. doe shew that this denier was stamped at Arelate Constantius having defeated Magnentius and recovered Britaine in honour of his armie caused this to be stamped The letter R. in the basis thereof importeth haply that it came out of the mint which was at Rome In honour of Valentinian when hee had set upright againe the state of Britaine which was falling to ruine and called that part of it by him thus recovered after his own name Valentia this piece was coined at Antiochia as may be gathered out of the small letters underneath Vnto the Denier of Gratianus I can think of nothing to say more save only that which erewhile I noted upon that of Magnentius What time as Magnus Maximus was by the British armie created Augustus and his son likewise Flavius Victor named Caesar to grace and glorifie the souldiers were these pieces coined and Theodosius having subdued and made them away for the very same cause stamped that with this VIRTVTE EXERCITVS Vpon that golden piece of Honorius I have nothing to observe but that by this Inscription AVGGG there were at the same time three Augusti namely after the yeare of Grace 420. when as Honorius ruled as Emperour in the west Theodosius the younger in the East and with them Constantius by Honorius nominated Augustus who had vanquished our Constantine elected in hope of that fortunate name As for that Inscription CONOB it signifieth that it was fine and pure gold stamped at Constantinople For that same CONOB is no where read so farre as ever I could hitherto observe but in pieces of Gold for CONSTANTINOPOLI OBRIZVM I could annex hereunto many more pieces of Roman mony for infinite store of them is every where found among us in the ruines of cities and townes subverted in treasure coffers or vaults hidden in that age as also in funerall-pots and pitchers And how it came to passe that there should remaine still so great plenty of them I much marvelled untill I had read in the Constitutions of Princes that it was forbidden to melt such ancient coines Having now already represented these antike pieces as well of British as Roman mony in their owne formes I thinke it also profitable for the Reader to insert in this very place a chorographicall table or mappe of Britaine seeing it hath sometime beene a Province of the Romans with the ancient names of places and although the same be not exact and absolute for who is able to performe that yet thereby a man may learne thus much if nothing else that in this round Globe of the earth there is daily some change new foundations of townes and cities are laid new names of people and nations arise and the former utterly be abolished and as that Poet said Non indignemur mortalia corpora solvi Cernimus exemplis oppida posse mori Why fret should we that mortall men to death doe subject lie Examples daily shew that townes and cities great may die THE DOVVN-FALL OR DESTRVCTION OF BRITAINE WHen as Britaine now was abandoned of the Roman garrisons there ensued an universall and utter confusion full of woefull miseries and calamities what with barbarous nations of the one side making incursions and invasions what with the native Inhabitants raising tumultuous uprores on the other whiles every man catcheth at the government of State Thus as Ninnius writeth They lived in feare 40. yeares or thereabout For Vortigern then King stood in great dread of the Picts and Scots Troubled sore also he was with the violence of Romans that remained heere and no lesse stood he in feare of Ambrosius Aurelius or Aureleanus who during the conflict of these tempestuous troubles wherein his parents that had worne the Imperiall purple roabe were slaine survived them Hereupon the Saxons whom Vortigern had called forth of Germany to aid him made bloudy and deadly warre against those friends that invited and entertained them insomuch as after many variable and doubtfull events of warre they wholly disseised the poore wretched Britaines of the more fruitfull part of the Island and their ancient native seat and habitation But this most lamentable ruine and downfall of Britaine Gildas the Britaine who lived within a little while after all full of teares shall with his piteous pen depaint or deplore rather unto you As the Romans were returning quoth he to their owne home there shew themselves avie out of their carroghes wherein they passed over the Sciticke vale and as it were at high noone Sunne and in fervent heat issuing from out of most narrow holes and caves whole swarmes of duskish vermin to wit a number of hideous high-land Scots and Picts in flocks for manners and conditions in some respect different but sorting well enough in one and the same greedy desire of bloud-shed Who having intelligence that the Roman associats and Maintainers of the Britans were returned home
contrariwise Wherefore seeing these things make nothing to his cause I will second Buchanan by way as it were of a fresh supply with the aid of Egesippus who is commonly reputed a verie ancient writer For thus writeth he where he treateth of the Romans power They make Scotland to quake which is beholden to no land for any thing before them Saxony trembleth that for Marishes is inaccessible But heare you me this author shal stand behind in the rereward for he lived after Constantines daies as may be gathered out of his owne writings neither can it bee prooved out of him that the Scots dwelt in Britain no more than out of that verse of Sidonius which erewhile I alleaged Yea mary but there is another reason of more weight and moment indeed which M. Iohn Crag a right famous and learned man found by most exquisite and curious search in Ioseph Ben-Gorion writing of the destruction of Ierusalem to wit that in an Hebrew copie the Scots are expresly named where Munster in his Latine translation hath untruely put downe Britans for Scots But in what age that Ben-Gorion lived I cannot find for certaine sure I am that hee was after Flavius Iosephus because he maketh mention of the Franks whose name long after began to be knowne But surely if I may be so bold as to interpose my selfe in this question among so great Scholars so farre as I have beene able to observe the first time that ever the Scotish nation became named in authors was whiles Aurelianus was Emperour For Pophyrie who then wrote against the Christians as Saint Ierome informeth us mentioned them in these words Neither Britaine a fertile Province of tyrants nor the Scotish nations together with the barbarous people round about as farre as to the Ocean had any knowledge of Moses and the Prophets At which time verily or somewhat before those that are well seene in Antiquities have noted that the names of the most potent nations of French and Almanes were not heard of before the time of Gallienus the Emperour It is no assured truth therefore which some write That the name and Kingdome of the Scots flourished in Britaine many hundred yeeres before the birth of Christ. But hearken to Girald who will tell you the just time When Great O-Nel saith he held the Monarchie of Ireland six sonnes of Mured King of Vlster seized upon the North parts of Britaine Hereupon from them was there a nation propagated which by a peculiar name called Scotica that is Scotish inhabiteth that part even to this day And that this befel at the very time when the Roman Empire in every mans sight grew to decay it is collected thus Whiles Lagerius the sonne of that O-Nel raigned over the Irish Patrick the Apostle of the Irish-men came into Ireland much about the yeere after Christs nativitie 430. So as it may seeme this hapned neere the daies of Honorius Augustus For then whereas before time ranging up and downe without any certaine place of abode as Ammianus doth report they had long annoyed Britaine and the places appointed for the Marches they seeme to have set their footing in Britaine But they themselves will have it thus that they did but returne then out of Ireland whither they had retired before what time they were put to flight by the Britans and driven away and so they understood that place out of Gildas of this very time The Irish spoilers returne home minding shortly to come backe againe And much about this time some think that Reuda whom Bede mentioneth either by force and armes or through favour planted himselfe in this Island upon an arme of the river Cluid Northward And of this Captaine Reuda saith he the Dalreudini even to this day take their name For in their tongue Dal signifieth a part and others think that from this Reuda it was that wee called the Irish-Scots Redshanks It is thought also that the same Simon Brech whom the Scots avouch to bee the founder of their nation flourished in these daies Sinbrech in truth was the name of the man which is as much to say as Sin with the freckled face as we read in Fordon And peradventure the same Brech he was who about the time of S. Patricke together with Thuibai Mac-lei and Auspac Scots infested Britaine as wee read in the life of Saint Carantoc But why the High-land Scots living in Britaine call that countrey which they inhabite Alban and Albin and the Irish name it Allabany were a question for an ingenuous and liberall wit to travell in as namely whether this word Allabany may not have it in some token of the ancient Albion or whether it came of whitenesse which they call Ban and therefore may import as much in Scotish as Ellan-Ban that is a white Island or whether it bee derived of Ireland which the Irish Poets name Banne so that Allabanny may sound as much as another Ireland or a second Ireland For Historiographers were wont to call Ireland Scotland the greater and the Kingdome of the Scots in Britaine Scotland the lesse Moreover seeing these Scots in their own language terme themselves Albin whereupon Blondus called the Scots Albienses or Albinenses and Buchanan Albini let Criticks consider whether that in Saint Ierome where hee inveigheth against a certaine Pelagian a Scot borne it should not be read Albinum for Alpinum when hee taketh him up in these termes The great and corpulent Alpine dog and who is able to doe more harme with his heeles than his teeth for he hath his of-spring of the Scotish nation neere neighbours to the Britans of whom also in another place he said that hee was full fatned with Scottish pottage brewesse Of Alpine dogs I never remember that I have read ought but that Scotish dogs were in much request at Rome in those daies Symmachus sheweth unto us Seven Scotish Dogs there were saith he the day going before the Games which in Rome they wondred at so as they thought they were brought thither in yron-grated Cages But after that the Scots were come into Britaine and had joyned themselves unto the Picts albeit they never ceased to vexe the Britans with skirmishes and in-roades yet grew they not presently up to any great state but kept a long time in that corner where they first arrived not daring as Beda writeth for the space of one hundred and seven and twentie yeares to come forth into the field against the Princes of Northumberland untill at one and the same time they had made such a slaughter of the Picts that few or none of them were left alive and withall the Kingdome of Northumberland what with civill dissentions and invasions of the Danes sore shaken and weakned fell at once to the ground For then all the Northerne tract of Britaine became subject to them and tooke their name together with that hithermore countrey on this side Cluid and Edenburgh Frith For that
fighting now with him as it were for their libertie and native country hee overcame his enemies and when hee spoiled the naturall Inhabitants killed them up and in manner left not one alive their land according to his promise hee set out and appointed for the Conquerours to possesse who dividing the same by casting lots seeing many of them were slaine in the wars and that by reason of their fewnesse the whole country could not be occupied and peopled by them part of it that especially which lyeth Eastward they made over to coloners and new Inhabitants to every one according as by lot it fell out to be holden and tilled for a certaine rent and tribute All the rest they themselves possessed On the Southside verily these Saxons have the Franks and a remnant of the Thuringers whom the precedent whirlewind of hostilitie had not touched and are divided from them by the channell of the river Unstrote Northward dwell the Normans a most fierce Nation East from them the Obotrites inhabite and Westward the Frisians from whom continually without intermission they defended their territories and marches thereof either by Covenants of league or necessary skirmishing But now returne wee to our English-Saxons For a long time the State and Empire of the Saxons flourished exceeding well under the foresaid Heptarchie untill those Kingdomes bruised and impaired one of another with civill warres came all in the end to bee subjest unto the West-Saxons For Egbert King of these West-Saxons having conquered already foure of these Kingdomes and swallowed up as it were in hope the other twaine also to the end that they which were subdued and reduced to the rule of one Prince might bee conjoyned likewise in one name commanded by an Edict and Proclamation that the Heptarchie which the Saxons held should bee called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is England whereupon in Latine it was named Anglia taking denomination of the Angles as beeing of those three nations most in number and of greatest prowesse For they kept in their possession the Kingdome of Northumberland and Mercia very great and large countries together with East-England whereas the off-spring of the Jutes held Kent only and the Isle of Wight The Saxons East-sex South-sex West-sex a small parcell verily if it be compared with those spatious territories lands of the English Of whom long before this they were generally throughout called English in their owne language Englatheod Anglcynne Engl-cynn and Englisc-mon albeit every Kingdome therein had a speciall name of the owne by it selfe And this appeareth for certaine as well out of other writers as Beda who intituled his Story The Historie of the English-Nation Yea and in that Heptarchie those Princes that over-ruled the rest were stiled Gentis Anglorum Reges that is Kings of the English nation At this time the name of Britaine lay forgotten and growne quite out of use among the Inhabitants of this Island remaining only in books and not taken up in common speech And hereupō it is that Boniface the bishop of Mentz descended frō hence called this our country Saxony beyond the Sea Howbeit K. Eadred about the yeare of our Lord 948. used in some Charters and Patents the name and title of King of Great Britaine like as Edgar in the yeare 970. bare this stile also The Monarch of all whole Albion Being now called Anglia or England the state and puissance of these Angles was come to the full height and therefore such is the revolution of all mortall things hastened apace to their period and end For the Danes continually infesting our coasts many yeares together at the length began to enter ransacking and mangling this countrie most pittifully NAMES OF ENGLISH-SAXONS MY purpose was even here to have set downe the orderly succession of the English-Saxon Kings both in the Heptarchie and also in their Monarchie but seeing that they seeme not properly to belong unto this place neither is the bare heaping up of names onely delightfull to the Reader perhaps it will be more acceptable if I briefly annexe hereto what I have observed by much reading and especially in Alfricus our ancient Grammarian as touching the force reason and signification of the ancient English names Not that my meaning is to interpret every name severally for that were a piece of worke very laborious neither can such barbarous names in which there lieth couched great significancie succinct brevitie and some ambiguitie be easily delivered in another tongue But considering that most of them bee compounded and that of few simples I will explaine the said simples that the significations of the compound implying all the osse and presage of good lucke wished-for and happie fortune may evidently appeare and that we may throughly perceive there is among all nations that Orthotes of names which Plato speaketh of AEL EAL and AL in names compounded like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke compositions signifieth Al or Wholly Hereupon Aelwin is as much as Wholly or Fully Victor Albert All bright and dread wholly dread or reverend Alfred Altogether Pacificall or peacefull Whereunto in some sort are correspondent in Greeke Pammachius Pancratius Pamphilius c. AELF which with varietie of Dialect is pronounced Vlf Wolph Hulph Hilp Helfe and in these daies Helpe carrieth in it a signification of Helpe or Aide as for example Aelfwin that is a victorious aide Aelfwold a helpfull Governour Aelfgiva she that giveth helpe according to which are these Greeke names Boetius Symmachus Epicurus ARD betokeneth naturall disposition or towardnesse as Godard is as much as Divine towardlinesse or inclination Reinard Sincere disposition Giffard a franke and liberall nature Bernard a filiall and sonne-like affection ATHEL Adel and Ethel import Noble Thus Aethelred that is Noble in counsell Aethelard a noble nature or disposition Aethelbert famously Noble Ethelward a noble Tutor or Protectour BERT the same that with us at this day Bright and in Latin Illustris and clarus that is Splendent and cleare so Ecbert that is Bright and shining for ever Sigbert a splendent conquerour as also shee whom the Germans named Bertha the Greeke called Eudoxia as Luitprandus witnesseth And of this sort were Phaedrus Epiphanius Photius Lampridius among the Greekes Fulgentius and Illustrius c. among the Latins BALD with the people of the North parts is the same that Audax in Latine that is Bold as Jornandes sheweth a word that yet is not growne out of use So Baldwin and by inversion Winbald is the same that Bold Victour Ethelbald Nobly bold Eadbald Happily bold Unto which are consonant Thraseas Thrasimachus and Thrasibulus in Greeke c. KEN and KIN import Kinsfolke as Kinulph an helpe to Kinsfolke Kinhelm a Defender of his kin Kinburg a defence to kinred Kinric powerfull in or to kinsfolke CVTH beareth with it a signification of skill and cunning so Cuthwin that is a skilfull or politicke Conquerour
by fine force and true valour indeed get the upperhand betooke himselfe to stratagems commanding his men to sound the retreat and keeping them still in good order and array to give ground and retire The English men supposing now that they turned backe and fled and that themselves had the victorie in their hands display their ranks and being thus disraied presse hard upoÌ„ their enemies as making full account that the day was now sure enough theirs Wheras the Normans casting themselves suddenly againe into array and winding about charge the English afresh and thus setting upon them being scattered and out of order enclosed them round about and made an exceeding great slaughter of them Many of them whiles they stood doubtfull whether to fight or to flie were borne downe and slaine but more of them having recovered an higher ground casting themselves round into a ring and comforted with the exhortation one of another with good resolution turned head and resisted a long time as if they had made choice of that place for an honorable death until that Harold being shot through the head with an arrow together with his two brethren Gyth Leofwin lost his life Then Edwin and Morcar with some others that remained alive and escaped by flight yielded to the hand of God and gave place unto the time considering that the battell had continued without intermission from seven of the clock in the morning unto the evening twilight There were in this battell missed of Normans much about 6000. but of English many more by far William now Conqueror rejoyced exceedingly by way of a solemne supplication or procession which he appointed gave all honor to the Almightie and most gratious God and when he had erected his pavilion in the midst of the bodies lying slain by heapes there he passed that night The morrow after when he had buried his owne men granted leave unto the English men to do the like himselfe returned to Hastings partly to consult about following the traine of his victorie and in part to refresh awhile his wearied souldiers No sooner was the newes of this grievous overthrow by fearfull Messengers brought to London and to other cities of England but the whole land generally was striken into dumps and as it were astonied Githa the Kings mother like a woman gave her selfe to plaints and lamentations so as that she would admit no consolation but with most humble praiers intreated the Conquerour for the dead bodies of her sonnes And those she enterreth in the Abbey of Waltham Edwin sendeth Queen Algitha his sister into the farther parts of the Kingdome But the Lords and Peeres of the Realme will the people not to cast downe their hearts but lay their heads together about the State and Common wealth The Archbishop of Yorke the Citizens of London and the Sea souldiers whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gave their advice to consecrate Edgar King and to begin warre againe with William Edwin and Morcar plotted secretly to usurpe the Imperiall rule and dignitie for themselves but the Bishops Prelates and others who were terrified with the flashing thunderbolts of the Popes curse thought best to yield and not by doubtfull battell to provoke the Conquerours heavie indignation against them nor to strive against God who now for the sinnes of the people calling for vengeance had delivered England as it wâ—re into the hands of the Norman William all this while fortifying the Towne of Hastings purposed to march directly with his armie in warlike manner to London but because he would raise the greater terrour abroad and make all sure behinde having divided his forces he rangeth over part of Kent over Southsex Suthrey Southampton shire and Berk shire fireth villages and upland houses driveth booties at Wallangford hee passeth over the Thames and terrifieth all the countrey as hee goeth Yet for all this the Nobles and Peeres wist not what counsell or course to take neither could they be brought to lay downe private grudges and enmities and with one heart to consult in common for the good of the State The Prelates to be absolved from curses of the Church and censures of the Bishop of Rome whereby he now exercised his authoritie not only over mens soules but also over Kingdomes seeing that the state of the Realme was now not decaied but quite ruinate and past recoverie persisted in this mind to submit in so much as many seeking to save themselves secretly departed out of the Citie But Alfred Archbishop of Yorke Wolstan Bishop of Worcester and other Prelates together with Eadgar Aetheling Edwin and Morcar at Berkhamsted doe meete the Norman Conquerour who made them many and large promises and having given hostages committed themselves to his protection and submitted Then forthwith speedeth he to London where being received with great and joyfull acclamations he was saluted King for the solemnizing of his Coronation which he appointed should be on Christmas day he made all the preparation that might bee and meane while bent his whole mind and all his thoughts to the setling of the State Now was the period and revolution of the English-Saxons Empire in Britaine come about which was determined within the compasse of 607. yeeres and a notable alteration and change made in the Kingdome of England which some lay upon the base a varice of the Magistrates and the superstitious lazinesse of the Prelates others impute to that Comet or blazing Starre and the powerable influence of celestiall bodies some againe made God the Author thereof who in his secret judgements and those never unjust disposeth of Kingdomes Others also there were who looked into neerer secondarie causes and they found a great want and lacke of wisedome in King Edward in that whiles under a goodly shew and pretext of religious and vowed virginitie he casting off all care of having issue exposed the Kingdome for a prey to ambitious humours WHat an insolent and bloudie victorie this was the Monks that write of it have declamed with full mouth neither is it to be doubed but in this Victorie as it hapneth in other wickednes tooke head and bare the full sway William the Conquerour in token as it were of a Trophee for this conquest abrogated some part of the ancient positive lawes of England brought in some Customes of Normandie and by vertue of a decree commanded That all causes should be pleaded in the French tongue The English hee thrust out of their ancient Inheritances assigned their lands and Lord-ships to his souldiers yet with this reservation to himself that he should still remaine chiefe Lord and bind them to doe due service and homage unto him and his successors that is to say That all of them should hold their lands in Fee or fealty He caused also a Seale for himselfe to be made of purpose with this inscription upon the one side Hôc Normannorum Guilielmum nosce Patronum The Normans Patron William know by this stamp that you
Christendome flourished with the best In so much as Englishmen were picked forth to guard the person of the Emperours of Constantinople For John the son of Alexius Comenus as our writer of Malmesburie reporteth having their fidelitie in great esteeme applied himselfe especially to their familiaritie commending their love unto his son after him and a long time since they were the Yeomen of the said Emperours guard called by Nicetes Choniata Inglini Bipenniferj that is English Halberdiers or Bill men and by Curopalata Barangi These attended upon the Emperour in every place carrying Polaxes or Halberds upon their shoulders which they tooke up and held upright whensoever the Emperour shewed himselfe from out his Closet and knocking then their Halberds one against another to make a clattering noise they in the English tongue praied for his long life As for that blot wherewith Chalcondilas hath besmutted our nation for having wives in common the truth it selfe washeth it cleane away and represseth the overlashing vanitie of the Grecian For as saith that most learned man and my singular good friend Ortelius in this very matter those things be not alwaies true which by every one are given out of all whatsoever Well these are the nations that seated themselves in Britaine whereof remaine the Britans Saxons or English men and Normans intermingled with them the Scots also in the North whereupon came the two Kingdomes in this Island to wit England and Scotland long time divided but most happily now in the most mightie Prince King Iames under one Imperiall Diademe conjoyned and united Touching the Flemings which flocked hither foure hundred yeares since and by permission of the Kings received a place in Wales to inhabit it is not requisite to speake of them now elsewhere I will treat of that matter But let us conclude this argument with Seneca By these it is manifest that nothing hath continued in the same place wherein it had the first beginning There is a daily stirring and mooving to and fro of mankind some change or other there is every day in so great a revolution of this world New foundations of Cities are laid New names of nations spring up whereas the old are either growne out of use or altered by the comming in of a mightier And considering that all these nations which have broken into Britaine were Northern as all the rest which about the same time over-ranne all Europe and afterwards Asia most truely from the authoritie of holy Scripture wrote Nicephorus Like as terrors oftentimes are sent from heaven by God upon men as lightning fire and tempestuous showers oftentimes from the earth as open gapings of the ground and Earthquakes often from the aire as whirlewinds and extraordinarie stormes so these terrours of the Northerne and Hyporborean parts God keepeth by him in store to send them forth for some punishment when and among whom it pleaseth him in his divine providence THE DIVISION OF BRITAINE NOw let us addresse our selves to the Division of Britaine Countries are divided by Geographers either Naturally according to the course of rivers and interpose of mountaines or Nationally according as the people inhabite them or Diversly and Civilly according to the wils and jurisdiction of Princes But forasmuch as wee shall treat here and there throughout the whole worke of the first and second kinds that third which is civill and politike seemeth properly pertinent to this place Which yet is overcast with so darke a mist through the iniquitie of former times that much easier it is in this case to confute what is false than to find out the truth Our Historiographers will needs have that division of Britaine to be most ancient whereby they divide it into Loegria Cambria and Albania that is to speake more plainely into England Wales and Scotland But I would think this division to be of a newer and later edition both because it is threefold for it seemeth to have risen of those three sorts of people English Welch and Scotish which last of all parted the Island among themselves and also for that such a partition is no where extant in approved Authors before our Geffery of Monmouth For the fable as the Criticks of our age doe thinke could not hang well together unlesse he the said Geffrey had devised three sonnes of Brutus to wit Locrine Camber and Albanact because so many Nations flourished heere when he lived Neither make they doubt but hee would have found out more children of Brutus if there had beene more nations distinct at the same time in Britaine The most ancient division of Britaine in the opinion of many learned men is that which is found in Ptolomee in the second booke of Mathematicall Construction where he threatneth the Parallels namely into Britaine the GREAT and the LESSE But by their leave as great learned men as they be they themselves shal see if it please them to examine throughly and exactly in that place the proportion of distance from the Aequator and compare the same with his Geographicall Descriptions that hee calleth this our Island there Britaine the GREAT and Ireland Britaine the LESSE Howbeit some of our later writers named the hither part of this Island toward the South GREAT and that farther part Northward the LESSE the Inhabitants whereof in times past were distinguished into MAIATAE and CALEDONII that is to say into the habitation of the Champian or Plaines and the Mountainers as now the Scots are divided into Hechtlandmen and Lawlandmen But for as much as the Romans cared not for that farther tract because as Appian saith it could not be profitable for them nor fruitfull having set downe their bounds not farre from Edenburgh at the first they made this hither part reduced already into a Province two-fold to wit the LOVVER and the HIGHER as it is gathered out of Dio. For the hither or neerer part of England together with Wales he termeth the HIGHER the farther and Northern part the LOVVER Which thing the very seats and abiding places of the Legions in Dio do prove The second Legion Augusta ich kept at Caerleon in Wales and the twentieth surnamed Victrix which remained at Chester or Deva he placeth in the Higher Britaine but the Sixth Legion Victrix that was resident at Yorke served as he writeth in the Lower Britaine This division I would suppose was made by the Emperour Severus because Herodian reporteth that hee after hee had vanquished Albinus Generall of the British forces who had usurped the Empire and therewith reformed and set in order the State of Britain divided the government of the Province in two parts betweene two Prefects or Governours After this the Romans did set out the Province of Britaine into three parts as is to be seen out of a manuscript of Sextus Rufus namely into MAXIMA CAESARIENSIS BRITANNIA PRIMA and BRITANNIA SECVNDA Which I take it I have found out by the Bishops and their ancient
frankly delivered him unto us for the deserts of his honest and valiant service in such sort as others may take example by this president to doe us faithfull service in time to come we have promoted the said Iohn to the place and degree of a Baneret and for the maintenance of the same state we have granted for us and our heires to the same Iohn five hundred pounde by the yeere to bee received for him and his heires c. Worth the remembrance it is to set downe heere out of Froissard the very maner and forme whereby Iohn Chandos a brave noble warrior in his time was made a Baneret What time as Edward Prince of Wales saith he was to fight a field in the behalfe of Peter King of Castile against Henry the Bastard and the Frenchmen Iohn Chandos came unto the Prince and delivered into his hands his own Banner folded and rolled up with these words My Lord this is my Banner may it please you to unfold and display it that I may advance it into the field this day For I have by Gods favour revenewes sufficient thereunto The Prince then and Peter King of Castile who stood hard by tooke the Banner into their hands unfolding the same delivered it again unto him with these or such like words Sir Iohn in the name of God who blesse this dayes service of yours that it may speed well and turne to your glorie Beare your selfe manfully and give proofe what a Knight you are Having thus received the Banner to his companies he went with a cheerefull heart My fellow souldiers quoth he Behold there is my Banner and yours in case yee defend it courageously as your owne Of later time he that is to be advanced unto this dignity either before the battell that hee may bee encouraged or after the battell ended that hee may receive due honor for his valour bearing an ensigne of a long fashion such as they call a Pennon wherein his owne armes are depainted in their colours is brought betweene two elderly Knights with trumpeters and Heralds going before into the presence of the King or his Regent and Lieutenant generall who after good words and wishes imparting happie fortune commandeth the tip or point of the said pennon to bee cut off that of a long pennon it might bee made a foure square banner Concerning Knights of the Bath in all my readings hitherto I could find no greater Antiquitie thereof than this that they were in use among the ancient French and that Henrie the Fourth King of England that day whereon hee was crowned in the Tower of London dubbed 46. Esquiers Knights who the night before had watched and bathed unto every one of whom hee gave greene side coats reaching downe to their ankles with streit sleeves and furred with minivere also they they wore upon their left shoulder two cordons of white silke with tassels thereto hanging downe These in former times were wont to be created and selected out of the flower of Nobilitie which had not before taken the degree of Knighthood at the coronation of Kings and Queenes and at their marriages sometimes also when their sonnes were invested Princes of Wales or Dukes or when they solemnly received the cincture or militarie girdle of Knighthood and that with many ceremonies which now for the most part are grown out of use But in our daies they that are called by the King to enter into this order neither will I handle this argument exquisitly the day before they are created being clad in an Eremits gray weed with a hood a linnen coife and booted withall come devoutly to divine service to begin their warfare there as if they would employ their service for God especially they suppe all together and upon every one of them there wait two Esquiers and one Page After supper they retire themselves into their bed-chamber where for each of them is prepared a prettie bed with red curtains and their owne armes fastened thereupon with a bathing vessell standing close by covered with linnen clothes wherein after they have said their praiers and commended themselves to God they bathe themselves that thereby they might bee put in mind to be pure in bodie and soule from thenceforth The next morrow early in the morning awakened they are and raised with a noyse of Musicall Instruments and doe on the same apparell Then the high Constable of England the Earle Marshall and others whom the King appointeth come unto them call them forth in order and tender an oath unto them namely that they shall serve and worship God above all defend the Church honour the King maintaine his rights protect widowes virgins orphans and to their power repell and put by all wrong When they have sworne thus to doe by laying their hand upon the Gospels they are brought with state to morning prayer the kings Musitians and Heralds going before and by them likewise they are conducted backe to their bed-chambers where after they have devested themselves from their Eremites weed they put on a mantle of martiall redde Taffata implying they should bee Martiall men and a white Hat with a white plume of feathers over their linnen coife in token of sincerity and tie a paire of white gloves to the pendant cordon of their mantle This done they mount upon Steedes dight with sadle and furniture of blacke leather with white intermingled and having a crosse in the frontlet Before every one of them rideth his owne Page carrying a sword with a gilded hilt at which there hang gilt spurres and of either hand of them ride their Esquiers With this pompe and trumptes sounding before them to the Kings Court they goe where when they are brought by two ancient Esquiers to the Kings presence the Page delivereth the Girdle and Sword hanging thereto unto the Lord Chamberlaine and he with great reverence unto the King who therewith girdeth the Knight overthwart and commandeth therewith two elder Knights to put on the Spurres who in times past were wont with good wishes and praiers to kisse his knees that was to bee Knighted And these new Knights thus created used in old time to bring up the service of meates to the Kings Table after this they dine altogether sitting to one side of the boord every one under the Escutcheon of his owne Armes fastened over his head At evening praier they repaire to the chapel offer their swords upon the high altar and by laying downe a piece of money redeeme the same againe Now as they returne from divine service the Kings Master-Cooke sheweth them his knife and admonisheth them to performe the part of good and faithfull Knights otherwise he would to their shame and reproch cut off those Spurres of theirs Upon the Coronation day in that solemne pompe they accompanie the King keeping their places with their Swords girt to them and their spurres on in Joviall blew mantles as a man would say in the colour of just Jupiter as a
is The high hill in the wood which some would have to be Exceter But the situation in Ptolomee and the name remaining still prove this to be the ancient Vzella In these our dayes a small towne it is and nothing populous because the river Fawey which aforetime was wont at every tide or high water to flow unto the very towne and to beare and bring in ships hath his channell so choked and damned up now with sands comming from the tin-workes wherewith all the havens in this province are like in processe of time to be choked up as that it is hardly able to beare the least barge that is Howbeit the chiefe towne it is of the whole countie where the Shiriffe sitteth judicially every moneth and determineth causes and there the Warden of the Stannaries hath his prison It enjoyeth also the priviledge by the bounteous favour as themselves say of Edmund Earle of Cornwall who there in times past had his honor to seale or coyne the tin But there bee two townes above the rest that hinder the light and eclipse the fame of this to wit on the East side thereof Leskerd situat on the top of a very high hill much frequented for the mercat and renowned for an ancient castle there and on the North side Bodman which standeth on the side hand of it scarse two miles off and is named if I be not deceived Bosuenna in the Cornish tongue and Bodminian in old Deeds and Charters This towne situate thus in no healthy seat between two hils and lying out in length East and West is for the mercat there kept of great resort for the inhabitants populous beautifull enough for building and of name for their priviledge of coinage of tin but more famous in ancient time for the Bishops See there For about the yeere of our salvation 905 when the State of the Church lay in this tract altogether neglected by vertue of a decree from Pope Formosus King Edward the Elder erected heere a Bishops See and granted at that time unto the Bishop of Kirton three villages in this countrie Polton Caeling and Lanwitham that from thence every yeere he should visit the people of Cornwall to fetch out of them their errours for before time they did what they could to resist the truth and obeied not the Apostolicall decrees But afterwards in the furious heat of that terrible Danish warre the Bishoprick was translated to Saint Germans Hard by Leskerd lyeth that which sometime was the Church of S. Guerir that is if you interpret it out of the British speech S. Leech or Physician where as writeth Asserius King Alfred lying prostrate at his prayers recovered out of a sicknesse But when Neotus a man of singular holinesse and learning was afterwards entombed in the same Church hee outshone the light of the other Saint so as that in his memorie it was named Neotestow that is The place of Neotus and now Saint Neoths and the religious men that served God therein were named Saint Neoths Clerkes and had for their maintenance rich and large revenues as we may see in William Conquerours booke Neere unto this as I have learned within the parish of Saint Clare there are to be seene in a place called Pennant that is The head of the vale two monuments of stone of which the one in the upper part is wrought hollow in manner of a Chaire the other named Otherhalfe stone hath an inscription of Barbarous characters now in manner worne out in this wise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which as I take it should be read thus DONIERT ROGAVIT PRO ANIMA unlesse it please you to give this conjecture that those little pricks after DONIERT are the reliques of the letter E and then to read it after this manner DONIERT EROGAVIT as if he had given and bestowed upon those religious men that peece of land for his soule As for Doneert I cannot but thinke he was that Prince of Cornwall whom the Chronicles name Dungerth and record that he was drowned in the yeere of our Salvation 872. Hard by there is a number of good big rockes heaped up together and under them one Stone of lesser size fashioned naturally in forme of a cheese so as it seemeth to be pressed like a cheese whereupon it is named Wring-cheese Many other Stones besides in some sort foure square are to be seene upon the plaine adjoyning of which seven or eight are pitched upright of equall distance asunder The neighbour Inhabitants terme them Hurlers as being by a devout and godly error perswaded they had beene men sometimes transformed into Stones for profaning the Lords Day with hurling the ball Others would have it to be a Trophee as it were or a monument in memoriall of some battell And some thinke verily they were set as meere stones or land marks as having read in those authors that wrote of Limits that stone were gathered together of both parties and the same erected for bounders In this coast the river Loo maketh way and runneth into the sea and in his very mouth giveth name to two little townes joyned with a bridge together That on the West side which is the newer flourisheth most but the other Eastward time hath much decayed although it bee a Corporation retaining still the priviledge of a Maior and Burgesses Somewhat West-ward from this lieth Kilgarth the habitation of the Bevils of especiall good note for antiquity and gentry From Loo East-ward you meet with no memorable thing but a small river passing by Minhevet whereby is Pole the seat of the Trelawnies to whom with others the inheritance of the Courtneys Earles of Devon accrewed untill you come to the Liver a little river stored with oisters that runneth under S. Germans a small towne unto which during the tempestuous Danish warre the Bishops Sees were for feare translated where there is a prety Church dedicated unto S. German of Antiziodorum who rooted out the heresie of Pelagius that sprung up againe in Britaine Wherein after that some few Bishops had sitten Levinus the Bishop of Kirton who was in great favour with Canutus the Dane obtained by vertue of the Kings authoritie that it should be Joyned to his See Since which time there hath beene but one Bishop over this Province and Denshire both whose seat is now at Exceter and who appointed the little Towne of S. Germans to be the seat of his Suffragan For at this day it is nothing else but a village consisting of fishermens cabins that make a good gainfull trade by catching store of fish in the Ocean and rivers neere adjoyning Some few miles from hence upon the same river standeth Trematon bearing the name of a Castle though the wall bee halfe downe in which as we find in Domesday booke William Earle of Moriton had his Castle and held his mercate and was the capitall seat of the Baronie belonging to the Earles
service of Chamberlaine in Chef from our soveraigne Lord the King But under Edward the Third I have read that this was held by Sergeantie namely by holding the Laver or Ewre for the King his Soveraigne Lord to wash upon his Coronation day Also Raulph Moien held the Mannour of Owres neere adjoyning by service of Serjeantie in the Kitchin of the gift likewise of King Henry the First and R. de Welles the Mannour of Welles heereabout since the Conquest of England by the service of the Kings Baker Which I note onely by the way Where Frome maketh his issue into that Bay whereupon Poole is scituate hard by the very mouth is planted Warham in the Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a towne strongly seated on every side but Westward as being fenced on all parts beside with the rivers Trent Frome and the Sea together In King Edward the Confessors time it had two Mint maisters but whiles William the Conquerour raigned it could not reckon above seven dwelling houses in it Yet afterwards it flourished againe fortified with the wall furnished with a mint house a great number of Inhabitants and a most strong Castle which that King William the First built it continued in a most flourishing state untill the daies of King Henry the Second who when hee came to challenge the Crowne of England in the yeare 1142 hee arrived heere besieged and tooke the Castle which was defended by Robert Lacy against him in behalfe of King Stephen and afterward Robert of Lincolne a man of mightie possessions in these parts defended the same against King Stephen But from that time by occasion partly of warres and partly of sudden casualtie by fires by reason also that the sea by little and little which draweth the commoditie of an haven it is almost run to ruine and in the very heart of the old towne it bringeth forth store of garlick At this mouth likewise is discharged another small river with Frome Asserius calleth it Trent but now the Inhabitants thereby name it Piddle From the North banke whereof scarce three miles off I saw the ruins of Middleton Abbey which King Athelstane founded as a satisfaction to appease the ghost and soule of his brother Edwine whom hee had deprived both of his Kingdome and life For when that solicitous desire of raigning had caused him quite to forget all Justice hee put the young Prince heire apparant to the Crowne with one page into a little whirrey without any tackling or furniture thereto to the end he might impute his wickednesse to the waves And so the young Prince overcome with griefe of heart and unable to master his owne passions cast himselfe headlong into the sea Under this Middleton there is voided also another river which runneth hard by Bere a little mercate towne where for a long time that ancient and famous family de Turbida villa commonly Turbervill had their chief habitation whereof as some were famous so Hugh Turburvill in the time of King Edward the First was infamous for his traiterous practises with the French But to goe backe againe to the West part of the shire At the spring head of Frome where the soile is most fruitfull the forrest of Blackmore sometimes thicke and full of trees but now thinner growne yeildeth plentifull game for hunting This by a more common and better knowne name is called The Forrest of white hart The reason of which name the Inhabitants by tradition from their forefathers report to be thus When King Henry the Third came hither to hunt and had taken other Deere he spared a most beautifull and goodly White-Hart which afterwards T. de la-Lynde a gentleman of this countrey with others in his company tooke and killed but how perillous a matter it was to bee twitching as they say of a lion they soone found and felt For the King conceived great indignation and high displeasure against them put them to a grievous fine of money for it and the very lands which they held pay even to this day every yeare by way of amercement a piece of money into the Exchequer which is called White hart silver There joyneth neere to this forrest Shirburne towne named also Shirburne Castle in old time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which by interpretation is Fons Limpidus or as it is else where writen Fons clarus that is Pure fountaine or cleare well scited on the hanging of an hill a pleasant and proper seate as William of Malmesburie saith as well for the frequent number of Inhabitants as the scituation and now it is the most populous and best haunted towne of all this country and gaineth exceeding much by clothing In the yeare of our redemption 704 an Episcopall seat was heere erected and Aldelme the first Bishop there consecrated afterwards also in the raigne of Etheldred Herman the Bishop of Sunning having obtained this Bishoprick translated his Episcopall see hither and joyned the said Bishoprick of Sunning unto this which under William Conqueror the same Bishop translated to Sarisburie and reserved Shirburne to bee a retiring place for his Successors unto whom it belongeth as yet And one of them namely Roger built a strong Castle in the East-part thereof under which lay sometime a wide meere and many fish pooles and now being filled up are converted into most pleasant and rich medow ground As for the Cathedrall Church presently upon the translation of the See it became a monasterie againe and beareth shew of great antiquitie although not many became a monasterie againe and beareth shew of great antiquitie although not many yeares past in a broile betweene the townesmen and the Monks it was fired which the burnt and scorched colour upon the stones doth as yet most evidently shew Under this the river Iuell whereof I will speake some where else winding in and out with many curving reaches runneth Westward to Chiston the seate sometime of the linage de Maulbauch from which it descended hereditarily unto the family of the Horsâ—ies Knights where it entreth into Sommersetshire More toward the East the most famous river Stoure passing full of tenches and Eeles especially arising in Wiltshire out of six fountaines commeth downe to Stourton the honor and seat of the Barons of Stourton So soone as it entred in this Shire it passeth through Gillingham forrest in which Edmund surnamed Iron-side in a memorable battell put the Danes to flight and three miles from thence saluteth Shaftsbury standing upon an hill top very defective of water sometimes called by the Britaines as it is commonly but falsely thought Caer Paladur and in Latine by later writers Septonia by the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 perhaps of the Churches Spire steeple such as they tearmed Scheafts A little before the Normans time it had in it 104. houses and three Mint masters as we read in that booke so often by me alleadged And afterwards it flourished the more by reason of a Nunnerie
were slaine This hill seemeth to be the very same which now is called Bannesdowne over a little village neere this Citie which they call Bathstone on which there are bankes and a rampier as yet to be seene Yet some there be I know who seeke for this hill in Yorkshire But Gildas may bring them backe againe to this place For in a manuscript Copie within Cambridge-Librarie where he writeth of the victorie of Aurelius Ambrose thus we read Vntill that yeare wherein siege was laid to the hill of Badonicus which is not farre from Severne mouth But in case this may not perswade them know they that the vale which runneth here along the river Avon is named in British Nant Badon that is The Vale of Badon and where we should seeke for the hill Badonicus but by the Vale Badonica I cannot hitherto see Neither durst the Saxons for a long time after set upon this Citie but left it for a great while to the Britans Howbeit in the yeare of Christ 577. when Cowalin King of the West-Saxons had defeated the Britans at Deorbam in Glocestershire being both straightly besieged and also assaulted it yeilded at first and within few yeares recovering some strength grew up to great dignity and therewith got a new name Ackmancester as I said For Osbrich in the yeare 676. founded a Nunnery there and immediately after when the Mercians had gotten it under them King Offa built another Church both which in the time of the Danish broiles were overthrowne Out of the ruines of these two arose afterwards the Church of S. Peter in which Eadgar surnamed the Peace-maker being crowned and sacred King bestowed upon the Citie very many Immunities the memorie of which thing the Citizens yearely with Solemne plaies doe yet celebrate In Edward the Confessors time as we read in Domes-booke of England it paied tribute according to 20. Hides when as the Shire paid There the King had 64. Burgers and 30. Burgers of others But this prosperitie of theirs endured not long for soone after the Normans comming in Robert Mowbray Nephew to the Bishop of Constance who had raised no small Sedition against King William Rufus sacked and burned it Yet in short space it revived and recovered it selfe by meanes of Iohn de Villula of Tours in France who being Bishop of Welles for five hundred markes as saith William of Malmesburie purchased this Citie of King Henry the First and translated his Episcopall chaire hither retaining also the title of Bishop of Welles and for his owne See built a new Church which being not long since ready to fal Olivar Bishop of Bathe began to found another hard by that old a curious and stately piece of worke I assure you and almost finished the same Which if he had performed indeed it would no doubt have surpassed the most Cathedrall Churches of England But the untimely death of so magnificent a Bishop the iniquitie and troubles of the time and the suppression of religious houses ensuing with the late avarice of some who have craftily conveied the money collected throughout England for that use another way if it be true that is reported have envied it that glory But neverthelesse this Citie hath flourished as well by clothing as by reason of usuall concourse thither for health twice every yeare yea and hath fortified it selfe with walles wherein there are set certaine Antique Images and Roman Inscriptions for the proofe of their antiquitie which now by age are so eaten into and worne that they can hardly be read And that nothing might be wanting to the state and dignitie of Bathe some noble men it hath honoured with the title of Earle For we read that Philibert of Chandew descended out of Bretaigne in France was by King Henry the Seventh stiled with this honor Afterwards King Henrie the Eighth in the 28. yeare of his reigne created Iohn Bourcher Lord Fitzwarin Earle of Bathe Who died shortly after leaving by his wife the sister of H. Daubeney Earle of Bridge-water Iohn second Earle of this familie who by the daughter of George Lord Roos had Iohn Lord Fitz-Warin who deceased before his father having by Fr. the daughter of S. Thomas Kitson of Hengrave William now third Earle of Bathe who endeavoureth to beautifie and adorne his nobilitie of birth with commendable studies of good letters The longitude of this Citie is according to Geographers measure 20. degrees and 16. minutes But the Latitude 51. degrees and 21. minutes And now for a farwell loe heere Nechams verses such as they bee of these hot waters at Bathe who lived 400. yeares since Bathoniae thermas vix praefero Virgilianas Confecto prosunt balnea nostra seni Prosunt attritis collisis invalidisque Et quorum morbis frigida causa subest Praevenit humanum stabilis natura laborem Servit naturae legibus artis opus Igne suo succensa quibus data balnea fervent Aenea subter aquas vasa latere putant Errorem figmenta solent inducere passim Sed quid sulphureum novimus esse locum Our Bathes at Bath with Virgils to compare For their effects I dare almost be bold For feeble folke and crasie good they are For bruis'd consum'd far-spent and very old For those likewise whose sicknesse comes of cold Nature prevents the painfull skill of man Arts worke againe helps nature what it can Men thinke these Baths of ours are made thus hot By reason of some secret force of fire Which under them as under brazen pot Makes more or lesse as reason doth require The waters boile and walme to our desire Such fancies vaine use errors forth to bring But what we know from Brimstone veines they spring Have heere also if you list to read them two ancient Inscriptions very lately digged up neere the Citie in Waldcot field hard by the Kings high way side which Robert Chambers a studious lover of antiquities hath translated into his garden From whence I copied them out G. MVRRIVS C. F. ARNIEN SIS FORO IVLI. MODESTVS MIL. LEG II. AD. P. F. IVLI. SECVND AN. XXV STIPEND H. S. E. DIS MANIBVS M. VALERIVS M. POL. EATINVS C. EQ MILES LEG AVG. AN. XXX STIPEND X. H. S. E. I have seene these Antiquities also fastened in the walles on the in-side betweene the North and West gates to wit Hercules bearing his left hand aloft with a club in his right hand In the fragment of a stone in great and faire letters DEC COLONIAE GLEV. VIXIT AN. LXXXVI Then leaves folded in Hercules streining two Snakes and in a grave or Sepulcher-table betweene two little images of which the one holdeth the Horne of Amalthaea in a worse character which cannot easily be read D. M. SVCC PETRONIAE VIXIT ANN. IIII. M. IIII. D. XV. EPO MVLVSET VICTISIRANA FIL. KAR. FEC A little beneath in the fragment of a stone in greater letters VRN IOP Betweene the West and
and worth the noting it is there is a vaine of potters earth highly commended and therefore the dearer sold for the making of those crucibles and small vessels which Gold-smiths use in melting their gold Nor farre from hence the cleare rivelet Wandle in Latin Vandalis so full of the best Trouts issueth forth from his head neare Cashalton and Wodcot where by a tuft of trees upon an hill-top there are to bee seene manifest signes of a pretty towne and diverse wels built of flint stones Concerning the populousnesse and wealth whereof the neighbour Inhabitants report very much This in my conceit was that Citie which Ptolomee called NOIOMAGVS and the Emperour Antonine NOVIOMAGVS Neither neede wee to seeke from else where proofe heereof but from the correspondencie of distance For as the old Itinerary noteth it is ten miles from London and twenty eight from Vagmiacj now Maidston Many a mile therefore went they out of the way that placed Noviomagus either at Buckingham or at Guildford This was a principall Citie of the REGNI not knowne to Marinus Tyrius a most ancient Geographer whom Ptolomee taking upon him to censure taxeth for that he had set NOVIOMAGVS of Britaine by Climate more North and by account of miles more South than London Wandle while it is yet small receiveth his first increase by a rill springing at Croidon in times past called Cradiden which standeth under the hils is very well known as well for the house of the Archbishops of Canterbury unto whom it hath belonged now this long time as for Char-coles which the townesmen make good chaffer of The inhabitants report that in old time there stood an house of the Kings in the West part of the towne neere unto Haling where the husbandmen dig up otherwhiles rubble stone which house the Archbishops having received it by gift from the King translated unto their owne neerer the river And neere unto this the right reverend father in God D. Iohn Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury of most praise worthy Memory in his pious affection founded and endowed with living a very faire Hospitall for the reliefe of poore people and a schoole for the furtherance of learning As for that sudden swelling water or Bourne which the common people report to breake forth heere out of the ground presaging I wote not how either dearth of corne or the pestilence may seeme not worthy once the naming and yet the events sometime ensuing hath procured it credit Neere unto this place stands Beddington wherein is to be seene a very faire house beautified with a delightfull shew of right pleasant gardens and orchards by Sir Francis Carew Knight For the ancient seat it is of the Carews who being descended from the Carews of Moulesford of whom also are come the Carews of Devonshire have for a long time flourished in this country but especially since Sir Iames Carew matched in marriage with the daughter and one of the coheires of the Baron Hoo and Hastings To digresse a little from the river Eastward from Croidon standeth Addington now the habitation of Sir Oliff Leigh wherby is to be seene the ruble of a Castle of Sir Robert Agvilon and from him of the Lords Bardolph who held certaine lands here in fee by Serianty to find in the Kings kitchin at the Coronation one to make a dainty dish which they called Mapigernoun and Dilgerunt What that was I leave to the skilfull in ancient Cookerie and returne to the river Wandle increased with Croidon water passing by Morden divideth it selfe to water Merton in the old English tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 situate in a most fruitfull soile A towne made famous in times past by the death of Kinulph King of the West Saxons who was by a Clito that is a Prince of the bloud slaine here in a small cottage of an harlot upon whom hee was enamoured and Clito himself by K. Kinulphs followers immediately stabbed suffered condigne punishment for his disloyall treachery Now it sheweth onely the ruines of a Monastery that K. Henry the First founded for blacke Chanons by the procurement of Gilbert High Sheriffe of Surry in the yeare 1127. which was famous for the Statute of Merton enacted here in the 21. of King Henrie the Third and also for Water de Merton founder of Merton Colledge in Oxford borne and bred heere Above Merton farther from the river is seated Wibandune now commonly Wimbledon where when over much prosperitie had hatched civill broiles among the English Saxons after the British warres were now ceased Ethelbert King of Kent struck up the first Alarme of civill warre against his owne country men but Ceaulin King of the West Saxons discomfited him in this place with a mightie great slaughter and losse of his men having slaine his principall leaders Oslan and Kneben of whom peradventure that entrenched rampier or fort which wee have heere seene of a round forme is called Bensbury for But now the greatest ornament of this place is that goodly house so beautifull for building and so delectable for faire prospect and right pleasant gardens which Sir Thomas Cecill Knight sonne to that most prudent Counsellour of State Lord Burleygh built in the yeare 1588. when the Spanish Armado made saile upon the coast of England Wandle now after a few miles entreth the Tamis when it hath given name to Wandlesworth betweene Putney the native soile of Thomas Cromwell one of the flowting-stocks of fortune and Batersey sometimes in the Saxon tongue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in latine Patricii Insula that is Patrickes Isle and which now we seeke an house of the Kings termed Kennington whereunto the Kings of England in old time were wont to retire themselves but now finde wee neither the name nor the rammell thereof Then is there Lambith or Lomehith that is to say a Lomy or clayish rode or hith famous in former times for the death of Canutus the Hardie King of England who there amid his cups yielded up his vitall breath For hee beeing given wholly to banqueting and feasting caused royall dinners foure times every day as Henry of Huntingdon reporteth to be served up for all his court choosing rather to have his invited guests to send away whole dishes untouched than other commers unbidden to call for more viands to be upon his table But now this place is of the greater name and more frequented by reason of the Archbishop of Canterburie his palace For Baldwine Archbishop of Canterbury about the yeare of Christ 1183. having made an exchange with the Bishop of Rochester purchased a manour in this place wherein hee began to build a palace for himselfe and his successours which they by little and little encreased But when they went about to erect a collegiat Church heere also good GOD what posting was there to Rome with complaints and appeales from the Monkes of Canterburie how many fiery thunderbolts
pulcherrima quid tibi gemma Pallet gemma tibi nec diadema nitet Deme tibi cultus cultum natura ministrat Non exornari forma beata potest Ornamenta cave nec quicquam luminis inde Accipis illa micant lumine clara tuo Non puduit modicas de magnis dicere laudes Nec pudeat Dominam te precor esse meam When Muses mine thy beauties rare faire Adeliza Queene Of England readie are to tell they starke astonied beene What booteth thee so beautifull gold-crowne or pretious stone Dimne is the Diademe to thee the gemne hath beautie none Away with trimme and gay attire nature attireth thee Thy lovely beautie naturall can never bett'red be All Ornaments beware from them no favour thou do'st take But they from thee their lustre have thou doest them lightsome make I shamed not on matters great to set small praises heere Bash not but deigne I pray to be my Soveraigne Ladie deere She after the Kings death matched in marriage with William de Albeney who taking part with Maud the Empresse against King Stephen and defending this Castle against him was in recompence of his good service by the saide Maude the Empresse and Ladie of Englishmen for this title she used created Earle of Arundell and her sonne King Henrie the Second gave the whole Rape of Arundell to that William To hold of him by the service of fourescore and foure Knights fees and one-halfe And to his sonne William King Richard the first granted in such words as these The Castle of Arundell with the whole Honor of Arundell and the Third penny of the Plees out of Sussex whereof he is Earle And when after the fifth Earle of this surname the issue male failed one of the sisters and heires of Hugh the fifth Earle was married to Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan Lord of Clun whose great grand sonne Richard For that he stood seised of the Castle Honour and Lordship of Arundell in his owne demesne as of Fee in regard of this his possession of the same Castle Honour and Seignorie without any other consideration or Creation to be an Earle was Earle of Arundell and the name state and honor of the Earle of Arundell c. Peaceably he enjoied as appeareth by a definitive judgement given in Parliament in the behalfe of Sir Iohn Fitz-Alan chalenging the Castle and tittle of Arundell by force of an entaile against Iohn Mowbray Duke of Norfolke the right Heire in the neerest degree Whereby it was gathered that the name state and dignitie of Earle was annexed to the Castle Honour and Seignorie of Arundell as it is to be seene in the Parliament Rolls of King Henry the Sixth out of which I have copied forth these notes word for word Of these Fitz-Alans Edmund second Earle sonne to Richard married the heire of the Earle of Surry and was beheaded through the malicious furie of Queene Isabell not lawfully convicted for that hee opposed himselfe in King Edward the Seconds behalfe against her wicked practises His sonne Richard petitioned in Parliament to be restored to bloud lands and goods for that his father was put to death not tried by his Peeres according to the law and great Charter of England neverthelesse whereas the attaindor of him was confirmed by Parliament hee was forced to amend his petition and upon the amendment thereof hee was restored by the Kings meere grace Richard his sonne as his grandfather died for his Soveraigne lost his life for banding against his Soveraigne King Richard the Second But Tho. his sonne more honourably ended his life serving King Henrie the Fifth valerously in France and leaving his sisters his heires generall Sir Iohn of Arundell Lord Maltravers his next cosin and heire male obtained of King Henrie the sixt the Earldome of Arundell as we even now declared and also was by the said King for his good service created Duke of Touraine Of the succeeding Earles I find nothing memorable Henrie Fitz Alan the eleventh and last Earle of that surname lived in our daies in great honor as you shall see After whom leaving no issue male Philip Howard his daughters sonne succeeded who not able to digest wrongs and hard measure offered unto him by the cunning sleights of some envious persons fell into the toile and net pitched for him and being brought into extreame perill of his life yeelded up his vitall breath in the Tower But his sonne Thomas a most honorable young man in whom a forward spirit and fervent love of vertue and glorie most beseeming his nobility and the same tempered with true courtesie shineth very apparently recovered his fathers dignities being restored by King Iames and Parliament authoritie Besides the Castle and the Earles Arundell hath nothing memorable For the Colledge built by the Earles which there flourished because the revenue or living is alienated and gone now falleth to decay Howbeit in the Church are some monuments of Earles there enterred but one above the rest right beautifull of Alabaster in which lieth in the mids of the Quire Earle Thomas and Beatrice his wife the daughter of Iohn King of Portugall Neither must I overpasse this Inscription so faire guilt set up heere in the Honor of Henrie Fitz-Alan the last Earle of this line because some there be whom liketh it well CONSECRATED TO VERTVE AND HONOVR THE MAGNANIMOVS AND VVORTHY KNIGHT VVHOSE PERSONAGE IS HERE SEENE AND VVHOSE BONES HERE VNDERNEATHLY ENTERRED VVAS BARLE OF THIS TERRITORIE ACCORDING TO HIS HOVSE AND LINAGE SVRNAMED FITZ ALAN LOKD MALTRAVERS CLVN AND OSVVALDESTRE PRINCIPAL HONOVRS STILED ALSO LORD AND BARON OF THAT MOST NOBLE ORDER OF THE GARTER THE AVNCIENTEST COMPANION VVHILES HE LIVED OF WILLIAM EARLE OF ARVNDELL THE ONELY SONNE AND SVCCESSOR COMPARTNER ALSO OF ALL HIS VERTVES VVHO BEING OF THE PRIVY COVNSEL TO KING HENRIE THE EIGHT KING EDVVARD THE SIXT MARIE AND ELIZABETH KINGS AND QVEENES OF ENGLAND VVAS GOVERNOR ALSO OF THE TOVVNE OF CALES AND VVHAT TIME AS THE SAID KING HENRIE BESIEGED BVLLEN VVAS HIGH MARESCHAL OF HIS ARMY AND AFTER THAT LORD CHAMBERLAIN TO THE KING ALSO VVHEN EDVVARD HIS SONNE VVAS CROVVNED KING HE BARE THE OFFICE OF L. MARESCHAL OF THE KINGDOME AND VNTO HIM LIKE AS BEFORE VNTO HIS FATHER BECAME LORD CHAMBERLAINE MOREOVER IN THE REIGNE OF QVEENE MARIE DVRING THE TIME OF HER SOLEMNE CORONATION HE VVAS MADE LORD HIGH CONSTABLE AFTERVVARD STEVVARD OF HER ROIAL HOVSE AND PRESIDENT OF THE COVNCEL EVEN AS TO QVEENE ELIZABETH ALSO HE VVAS LIKEVVISE LORD HIGH STEVVARD OF HER HOVSHOLD THVS THIS MAN NOBLE BY HIS HIGH PARENTAGE MORE NOBLE FOR VVEL PERFORMING THE PVBLICKE OFFICES OF STATE â—OST NOBLE AND RENOVNED BOTH AT HOME AND ABROAD FLOVRISHING STIL IN HONOVR BROKEN VVITH TRAVEL MVCH VVORNE VVITH YEERES AFTER HE VVAS COME TO THE LXVIII OF HIS AGE AT LONDON THE XXV DAY OF FEBRVARY IN THE YEERE OF OVâ— SALVATION BY CHRIST M. D. LXXIX GODLY AND SVVEETLY SLEPT IN THE LORD IOHN LVMLEY BARON OF LVMLEY HIS MOST
agoe an old towne and Cornelius Tacitus in like manner who in Nero his daies 1540. yeares since reported it to have been a place very famous for fresh Trade concourse of Merchants and great store of victuals and all things necessary This onely at that time was wanting to the glory thereof that it had the name neither of Free City nor of Colony Neither verily could it have stood with the Romans profit if a City flourishing with merchandize should have enjoyed the right of a Colony or Free City And therefore it was as I suppose that they ordained it to bee a Praefecture for so they termed townes where Marts were kept and Justice ministred yet so as that they had no Magistrates of their owne but rulers were sent every year to governe in them and for to minister Law which in publique matters namely of tax tributes tolles customes warfare c. they should have from the Senate of Rome Hence it commeth that Tacitus the Panegyrist and Marcellinus call it onely a towne And although it was not in name loftier yet in welth riches and prosperity it flourished as much as any other yea and continued in manner alwaies the same under the dominion of Romans English-Saxons and Normans seldome or never afflicted with any great calamities In the Raigne of Nero when the Britans had conspired to recover and resume their liberty under the leading of Boadicia the Londoners could not with all their weeping and teares hold Suetonius Paulinus but that after hee had levied a power of the Citizens to aide him hee would needs dislodge and remove from thence leaving the City naked to the enemy who foorthwith surprised and slew some few whom either weaknesse of sex feeblenesse of age or sweetnesse of the place had deteined there Neither had it susteined lesse losse and misery at the hands of the French if it had not soddenly and beyond all expectation by Gods providence beene releeved For when C. Alectus had by a deceitfull wile made away C. Carausius a Clive-lander who taking vantage of our rough seas of Dioclesians dangerous warres in the East and withall presuming of the French and most venterous Mariners and servitors at sea had withheld to himselfe the revenewes of Britain and Holland and borne for the space of six yeares the title of Emperour Augustus as his coines very often found heere doe shew when M. Aurelius Asclepiodotus likewise had in a battaile slain Alectus in the third year now of his usurpation of the imperiall purple and state those French who remained alive after the fight hasting to London forthwith would have sacked the City had not the Tamis which never failed to helpe the Londoners very fitly brought in the Roman souldiers who by reason of a fogge at Sea were severed from the Navie For they put the Barbarians to the sword all the City over and thereby gave the Citizens not onely safety by the slaughter of their enemies but also pleasure in the beholding of such a sight And then it was as our Chronicles record that Lucius Gallus was slaine by a little Brookes side which ran through the middle almost of the City and of him was in British called Nant-Gall in English Walbrooke which name remaineth still in a Street under which there is a sewer within the ground to ridde away filth not farre from London-stone which I take to have beene a Milliary or Milemarke such as was in the Mercate place of Rome From which was taken the dimension of all journies every way considering it is in the very mids of the City as it lyeth in length Neither am I perswaded that London was as yet walled Howbeit within a little while after our Histories report that Constantine the Great at the request of his mother Helena did first fense it about with a Wall made of rough stone and British brickes which tooke up in compasse three miles or thereabout so as it enclosed the modell of the City almost foure square but not equall on every side considering that from West to East it is farre longer than from South to North. That part of this Wall which stood along the Tamis side is by the continuall flowing and washing of the River fallen downe and gone Yet there appeared certaine remaines thereof in King Henry the Seconds time as Fitz-Stephen who then lived hath written The rest now standing is stronger toward the North as which not many yeares since was reedified by the meanes of Jotceline Lord Major of London became of a sodaine new as it were and fresh againe But toward East and West although the Barons in old time during their warres repaired and renewed it with the Jewes houses then demolished yet is it all throughout in decay For Londoners like to those old Lacedemonians laugh at strong walled Cities as cotte houses for Women thinking their owne City sufficiently fensed when it is fortified with men and not with stones This Wall giveth entrance at seven principall Gates for wittingly I omit the smaller which as they have beene newly repaired so they have had also new names given unto them On the West side there be two to wit Lud-gate of king Lud or Flud-gate as Leland is of opinion of a little floud running beneath it like as the Gate Fluentana in Rome built againe of late from the very foundation and Newgate the fairest of them all so called of the newnesse thereof where as before it was termed Chamberlangate which also is the publique Goall or Prison On the North side are foure Aldersgate of the antiquity or as others would have it of Aldrich a Saxon Creple-gate of a Spitle of lame Creples sometime adjoyning thereunto More-gate of a moory ground hard by now turned into a field and pleasant Walkes which Gate was first built by Falconer Lord Major in the yeare of our Lord 1414. and Bishopsgate of a Bishop which Gate the Dutch Merchants of the Stilyard were bound by Covenant both to repaire and also to defend at all times of danger and extremity On the East side there is Aldgate alone so named of the oldnesse or Elbegate as others terme it which at this present is by the Cities charge reedified It is thought also that there stood by the Tamis beside that on the Bridge two Gates more namely Belings-gate a Wharfe now or a key for the receit of Ships and Douregate that is The Water-gate commonly called Dowgate Where the Wall endeth also toward the River there were two very strong Forts or Bastilions of which the one Eastward remaineth yet usually called The Towre of London in the British tongue Bringwin or Tourgwin of the whitenesse A most famous and goodly Citadell encompassed round with thicke and strong Walles full of lofty and stately Turrets fenced with a broad and deepe ditch furnished also with an Armory or Magazine of warlike Munition and other buildings besides so as it resembleth a big towne
memory I will briefly runne them over Neere to Linne upon an high hill standeth Rising-castle almost marchable to the Castle of Norwich the seat in times past of the Albineys afterwards of Robert de Monthault by one of the sisters and coheires of Hugh Albiney Earle of Arundell and at last the mansion place of the Mowbrays who as I have learned came out of the same house that the Albineys did But now after long languishings as it were by reason of old age the said Castle hath given up the ghost Below it is Castle-acre where was sometimes the habitation of the Earles of Warren in a Castle now halfe downe on a little Rivers side which carrying no name ariseth not farre from Godwicke a lucky good name where there stands a small house but greatly graced by the Lord thereof Sir Edward Coke Knight a man of rare endowments of nature and as in the Common lawes much practised so of deepe insight therein which all England both tooke knowledge of whiles hee discharged the function of Atturney Generall many yeares most learnedly and now acknowledgeth whiles being Lord Chiefe Justice of the Common Pleas he administreth justice as uprightly and judiciously Neither is he lesse to be remembred for that he loveth learning and hath well deserved of the present and succeeding ages by his learned labours This Riveret or brooke with a small streame and shallow water runneth Westward to Linne by Neirford that gave name to the Family of the Neirfords famous in times past and by Neirborrough where neere unto the house of the Spilmans knights upon a very high hill is to be seene a warlike Fort of passing great strength and of ancient worke so situated as it hath a very faire prospect into the Country about it After upon the said Brooke is seated Penteney a prety Abbay the ordinary buriall place in ancient time of the Noblemen and Gentlemen in this Tract Neere unto it lieth Wormegay commonly Wrongey which Reginald de Warren brother of William de Warren the second Earle of Surry had with his wife of whom as I have read the said Earle had the donation or Maritagium as they use to speake in the law phrase and by his sonnes daughter streightwayes it was transferred to the Bardolphs who being Barons of great nobility flourished a long time in honorable state and bare for their Armes Three Cinque-foiles or in a Shield Azâ—r The greatest part of whose Inheritance together with the Title came to Sir William Phellips and by his daughter passed away to the Vicount Beaumont More Eastward are seated Swaffham a Mercat Towne of good note sometime the Possession of the Earle of Richmond Ashele Manour by Tenure whereof the Hastings and Greies Lords of Ruthin had the charge of table clothes and linnen used at the solemne Coronation of the Kings of England North Elmham the Bishops See for a good time when as this Province was divided into two Dioceses Dereham wherein Withburga King Annas daughter was buried whom because shee was piously affected farre from all riotous excesse and wanton lightnesse our Ancestours accounted for a Saint Next unto which is Greshenhall and adjoyning thereto Elsing the possessions in ancient time of the Folliots men of great worth and Dignity which in right of dowry came by a daughter of Richard Folliot to Sir Hugh de Hastings descended out of the Family of Abergevenny and at length by the daughters and heires of Hastings the last Greshenhall aforesaid fell unto Sir Hamon le Strange of Hunstanton and Elsing unto William Browne the brother of Sir Antonie Browne the first Vicount Mount-acute In this quarter also is Ick-borrough which Talbot supposeth to have beene that ICIANI whereof Antonine speaketh Neither have I cause to write any more of these places And now I thinke it is good time to set downe the Earles and Dukes of Northfolke that I may proceed to Cambridgeshire William the Conquerour made one Raulph Governour of East-England that is to say of Norfolke Suffolke and Cambridgeshire who forthwith gaping as I said after an alteration and change in the State was dispossessed of that place After certaine yeares in the Raigne of Stephen Hugh Bigod was Earle of Norfolke For when peace was concluded betweene Stephen and Henry Duke of Anjou who became afterwards King Henry the second by expresse words it was provided that William King Stephens sonne should have the whole Earledome of Norfolke excepting among other things The third peny of that County whereof Hugh Bigod was Earle Whom notwithstanding King Henry the Second created Earle againe of the third peny of Norfolke and Norwich Who dying about the 27. yeare of Henry the Second Roger his sonne succeeded who for what cause I know not obtained at the hands of King Richard the first a new Charter of his creation Him succeeded his sonne Hugh who tooke to his wife Mawde the eldest daughter and one of the heires of William Marescall Earle of Pembroch By whom he had issue one sonne named Roger Earle of Norfolke and Marescall of England who at Tournament having his bones put out of joint died without issue and another called Hugh Bigod Lord chiefe Justice of England slaine in the battaile of Lewis whose sonne Roger succeeded his Uncle in the Earldome of Norfolke and dignity of Marescall but having incurred through his insolent contumacy the high displeasure of King Edward the First was compelled to passe away his honors and well neere his whole inheritance into the Kings hands to the use of Thomas of Brâ—therton the Kings son whom he had begotten of his second wife Margaret sister to Philip the Faire King of France For thus reporteth the History out of the Library of Saint Austens in Canterbury In the yeare 1301. Roger Bigod Earle of Norfolke ordained King Edward to bee his heire and hee delivered into his hands the rod of the Marshals Office with this condition that if his wife brought him any children he should without all contradiction receive againe all from the King and hold it peaceably as before and the King gave unto him a 1000. pounds in money and a thousand pound land during his life together with the Marshalship and the Earldome But when he was departed this life without issue King Edward the Second honoured the said Thomas of Brotherton his brother according to the conveiance aforesaid with the Titles of Marshall and Earle of Norfolke Whose daughter Margaret called Marshallesse and Countesse of Norfolke wife to Iohn Lord Segrave king Richard the Second created in her absence Dutchesse of Norfolke for terme of life and the same day created Thomas Mowbray the daughters sonne of the said Margaret then Earle of Notingham the first Duke of Norfolke To him and his heires males unto whom he had likewise granted before the State and stile of Earle Marshall of England This is hee that before the king was challenged and accused by Henry of Lancaster Duke
which King Henry the First gave unto the Church of Lincolne for amends of a losse when hee erected the Bishopricke of Ely taken out of the Diocesse of Lincolne as I have before shewed But where the River Nen entreth into this Shire it runneth fast by Elton the seat of the ancient Family of the Sapcots where is a private Chappell of singular workemanship and most artificiall glasse windowes erected by Lady Elizabeth Dinham the widow of Baron Fitz-warin married into the said Family But a little higher there stood a little City more ancient than all these neere unto Walmsford which Henry of Huntingdon calleth Caer Dorm and Dormeceaster upon the River Nen and reporteth to have beene utterly rased before his time This was doubtlesse that DUROBRIVAE that is The River passage that Antonine the Emperour speaketh of and now in the very same sense is called Dornford neere unto Chesterton which beside peeces of ancient Coine daily found in it sheweth apparant tokens of a City overthrowne For to it there leadeth directly from Huntingdon a Roman Portway and a little above Stilton which in times past was called Stichilton it is seene with an high banke and in an ancient Saxon Charter termed Ermingstreat This Street now runneth here through the middest of a foure square Fort the North side whereof was fensed with Wals all the other sides with a Rampire of earth onely Neere unto which were digged up not long since Cofins or Sepulchres of stone in the ground of R. Bevill of an ancient house in this Shire Some verily thinke that this City tooke up both bankes of the River and there bee of opinion that the little Village Câ—ster standing upon the other banke was parcell thereof Surely to this opinion of theirs maketh much the testimony of an ancient story which sheweth that there was a place by Nen called Dormund-caster in which when Kinneburga had built a little Monastery it began to be called first Kinneburge-caster and afterwards short Caster This Kinneburga the most Christian daughter of the Pagan King Penda and wife to Alfred King of the Northumbrians changed her Princely State into the service of Christ if I may use the words of an ancient Writer and governed this Monastery of her owne as Prioresse or mother of the Nunnes there Which afterwards about the yeare of Salvation 1010. by the furious Danes was made levell with the ground But where this River is ready to leave this County it passeth hard by an ancient house called Bottle-bridge so is it now termed short for Botolph-bridge which the Draitons and Lovets brought from R. Gimels by hereditary succession into the Family of the Shirleies And to this house adjoyneth Overton now corruptly called Orton which being by felony forfait and confiscate Neele Lovetoft redeemed againe of King John and the said Noeles sister and coheire being wedded unto Hubert alià s Robert de Brounford brought him children who assumed unto them the sirname of Lovetoft This County of Huntingdon when the English-Saxons Empire began now to decline had Siward an Earle by Office and not inheritance For as yet there were no Earles in England by inheritance but the Rulers of Provinces after the custome of that age were termed Earles with addition of the Earledome of this or that Province whereof they had the rule for the time as this Siward whiles he governed this County was called Earle of Huntingdon whereas afterwards being Ruler of Northumberland they named him Earle of Northumberland He had a sonne named Waldeof who under the Title of Earle had likewise the government of this Province standing in favour as he did with William the Conquerour whose Niece Judith by his sister of the mothers side hee had married but by him beheaded for entring into a conspiracy against him The eldest daughter of this Waldeof as William Gemiticensis reporteth Simon de Senlys or S. Liz tooke to wife together with the Earldome of Huntingdon and of her begat a sonne named Simon But after that the said Simon was dead David brother to Maud the Holy Queene of England who afterwards became King of Scots married his wife by whom hee had a sonne named Henry But in processe of time as fortune and Princes favour varied one while the Scots another while the Sent Lizes enjoyed this dignity First Henry the sonne of David aforesaid then Simon S. Liz sonne of Simon the first after him Malcolm King of Scots sonne to Earle Henry and after his death Simon Sent Liz the third who dying without issue William King of Scots and brother to Malcolm succeeded for so wrote he that then lived Raphe de Diceto in the yeare 1185. When Simon saith hee the sonne of Earle Simon was departed without children the King restored the Earldome of Huntingdon with the Pertinences unto William King of the Scots Then his brother David and Davids sonne John sirnamed Scot Earle of Chester who dying without issue and Alexander the third that had married the daughter of our King Henry the Third having for a time borne this Title the Scots by occasion of incident warres lost that honour and with it a very faire inheritance in England A good while after King Edward the Third created Sir William Clinton Earle of Huntingdon who dyed issuelesse And in his roome there was placed by King Richard the Second Guiseard of Engolisme a Gascoine who was his Governour in his minority and after his death succeeded Iohn Holland Iohn his sonne who was stiled Duke of Excester Earle of Huntingdon and Ivory Lord of Sparre Admirall of England and Ireland Lieutenant of Aquitane and Constable of the Towre of London and his sonne likewise Henry successively who were Dukes also of Excester This is that very same Henry Duke of Excester whom Philip Comines as himselfe witnesseth saw begging bare foote in the Low Countries whiles he stood firme and fast unto the house of Lancaster albeit he had married King Edward the Fourth his owne sister Then Thomas Grey who became afterward Marquesse Dorset a little while enjoyed that honour Also it is evident out of the Records that William Herbert Earle of Pembroch brought in againe the Charter of creation whereby his father was made Earle of Pembroch into the Chancery for to be cancelled and that King Edward the Fourth in the seventeenth of his Raigne created him Earle of Huntingdon at such time as he granted the Title of Pembroch to the Prince his sonne Afterward King Henry the Eighth conferred that honour upon George Lord Hastings after whom succeeded his sonne Francis and after him likewise his sonne Henry a right honourable Personage commended both for true Nobility and Piety But whereas hee dyed without issue his brother Sir George Hastings succeeded and after him his Grandchilde Henry by his sonne who at this day enjoyeth the said honour In this little Shire are numbered Parishes 78. CORITANI NOw must wee passe on to
Saint late Bishop carried upon their shoulders to his buriall Howbeit the memory of two Prelates I must needs renew afresh the one is Robert Grosthead a man so well seene both in literature and in the learned tongues in that age as it is incredible and to use the words of one then living A terrible reproover of the Pope an adviser of his Prince and Soveraigne a lover of verity a corrector of Prelates a director of Priests an instructor of the Clergy a maintainer of Schollers a Preacher to the people a diligent searcher into the Scriptures a mallet of the Romanists c. The other is mine owne Praeceptor whom in all duty I must ever love and honour that right reverend Father Thomas Cooper who hath notably well deserved both of all the learned and also of the Church in whose Schoole I both confesse and rejoice that I received education The City it selfe also flourished a long time being ordained by King Edward the Third for the Staple as they tearme it that is the Mart of Wooll Leather Lead c. Which although it hath not been over-laied with any grievous calamities as being once onely set on fire once also besieged in vaine by King Stephen who was there vanquished and taken prisoner forced also and won by King Henry the Third when the rebellious Barons who had procured Lewis of France to chalenge the Crowne of England defended it against him without any great dammage yet incredible it is how much it hath been empaired by little and little conquered as it were with very age and time so that of fifty Churches which it had standing in our Great-grandfathers daies there are now remaining scarce eighteene It is remooved that I may note this also from the Aequator 53. degrees and 12. scruples and from the West point 22. degrees and 52. scruples As that Street-way called Highdike goeth on directly from Stanford to Lincolne so from hence Northward it runneth with an high and streight causey though heere and there it be interrupted forward for ten miles space to a little Village called the Spittle in the Street and beyond By the which as I passed I observed moreover about three miles from Lincolne another High-port-way also called Ould-street to turne out of this High dike Westward carrying a bancke likewise evident to be seene which as I take it went to AGELOCUM the next baiting towne or place of lodging from LINDUM in the time of the Romanes But I will leave these and proceed in the course that I have begun Witham being now past Lincolne runneth downe not far from Wragbye a member of the Barony called Trusbut the title whereof is come by the Barons Roos unto the Mannours now Earles of Rutland Then approcheth it to the ruines of a famous Abbay in times past called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 commonly Bardney where Bede writeth that King Oswald was Entombed with a Banner of gold and purple hanged over his Tombe The writers in the foregoing age thought it not sufficient to celebrate the memory of this most Christian worthy King Oswald unlesse unto his glorious exploits they stitched also ridiculous miracles But that his hand remained heere uncorrupted many hundred yeeres after our Ancestours have beleeved and a Poet of good antiquity hath written in this wise Nullo verme perit nulla putredine tabet Dextra viri nullo constringi frigore nullo Dissolvi fervore potest sed semper eodem Immutata statu persistit mortua vivit The mans right hand by no worme perisht is No rottennesse doth cause it putrifie No binding cold can make it starke ywis Nor melting heat dissolve and mollifie But alwayes in one state persist it will Such as it was though dead it liveth still This Abbay as writeth Peter of Bloys being sometime burnt downe to the ground by the Danes furious outrage and for many revolutions of yeeres altogether forlorne that noble and devout Earle of Lincolne Gilbert de Gaunt reedified and in most thankfull affectionate minde assigned unto it with many other possessions the tithes of all his Manours wheresoever throughout England Then is Witham encreased with Ban a little River which out of the midst of Lindsey runneth downe first by Horne Castle which belonged in times past to Adeliza of Condie and was laid even with the ground in the Raigne of Stephen afterwards became a capitall seat of the Barony of Gerard de Rodes and pertaineth now as I have heard to the Bishop of Carlile From thence by Scrivelby a Manour of the Dimockes who hold it hereditarily devolved upon them from the Marmions by Sir J. Ludlow and that by service to use now the Lawyers words Of Grand Serjeanty viz. That whensoever any King of England is to bee crowned then the Lord of this Manour for the time being or some one in his name if himselfe bee unable shall come well armed for the warre mounted upon a good horse of service in presence of the Soveraigne Lord the King upon his Coronation day and cause Proclamation to bee made that if any man will avouch that the said Soveraigne Lord the King hath not right to his Kingdome and Crowne he will be prest and ready to defend the right of the King of his Kingdome of his Crowne and dignity with his body against him and all others whatsoever Somewhat lower The Ban at Tatteshall a little Towne standing in a Marish Country but very commodiously well knowne by reason of the Castle built for the most part of bricke and the Barons thereof runneth into Witham They write that Eudo and Pinso two Noblemen of Normandy loving one another entirely as sworne brethren by the liberall gift of King William the Conquerour received many Lordships and faire lands in this tract which they parted so as that Tatteshall fell to Eudo which he held by Barony from whose posterity it came by Dryby and the Bernacks unto Sir Raulph Cromwell whose sonne bearing the same name and being under King Henry the Sixth Lord Treasurer of England departed out of this world without issue but unto Pinso fell Eresby which is not farre off From whose progeny the inheritance descended by the Becks unto the Willoughbeies unto whom there came also an encrease both of honour and also of faire Livelods by their wives not onely from the Uffords Earles of Suffolke but also from the Lords of Welles who brought with them very faire possessions and lands of the family de Engain Lords of ancient Nobility and from the first comming in of the Normans of great power in these parts Among these Willoughbeis one excelled all the rest in the Raigne of Henry the Fifth named Sir Robert Willoughby who for his martiall prowesse was created Earle of Vandosme in France and from these by the mothers side descended Peregrine Berty Baron Willoughby of Eresby a man for his generous minde and military valour renowned
single life For then Oswald Bishop of this City who promoted the Monasticall life as busily as any whosoever remooved the Priests and brought in Monkes Which King Eadgar testifieth in these words The Monasteries as well of Monkes as of Virgins have beene destroied and quite neglected throughout England which I have now determined to repaire to the glory of God for my soules health and so to multiply the number of Gods servants and hand-maides And now already I have set up seven and forty Monasteries with Monkes and Nunnes in them and if Christ spare me life so long I am determined in offering my devout munificence to God for to proceed to fifty even the just number of a Iubilee Whereupon at this present that Monastery which the reverend Bishop Oswald in the Episcopall See of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amply enlarged to the honour of Mary the holy Mother of God and by casting out those Clerkes c. hath with my assent and favour appointed there Monkes the religious servants of God I my selfe doe by my royall authority confirme and by the counsell and consent of my Peeres and Nobles corroborate and consigne to those religious men living a sole and single life c. Long time after when the state of the Church and Clergy here partly by the Danes incursion and in part by civill dissentions was so greatly weakened and brought upon the very knees that in lieu of that multitude of religious persons whom Oswald had heere placed scarce twelve remained Wolstan Bishop of this Church about the yeer of the worlds redemption 1090. put to his helping hand raised it up againe and brought them to the number of 50. yea and built a new Church for them Wolstan I say a man not so learned the times then were such but of that simple sincerity without all hypocrisie so severe also and austere of life that as he was terrible to the wicked so he was venerable to the good and after his death the Church registred him in the number of Saints But King Henry the Eighth suppressed and expelled the Monkes after they had in all plenty and fulnesse lived more than 500. yeeres and in their roomes he substituted a Deane and Prebendaries and withall erected a Grammar-schoole for the training up of youth Hard by this Church the bare name and plot of a Castle remaineth which as wee reade in William of Malmesburies booke of Bishops Ursus appointed Sheriffe of Worcestershire by William the Conquerour built under the very nose and in the mouth well neere of the Monkes in so much as he cut away from them a part of their Church-yard But this Castle through the iniquity of time and casuality of fire was consumed many yeeres ago The City it selfe also hath been burnt more than once as being set on fire in the yeere of Christ 1041. by Hardy-Cnute who exceedingly incensed against the Citizens because they had slaine his Huscarles for so they tearmed those domesticall Gatherers of the Danes tribute did not only set fire on the City but slew the Citizens every mothers sonne unlesse it were those that saved themselves in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Island compassed in with the River Howbeit as we finde written in King William the Conquerours booke in King Edward the Confessours time It had many Burgesses and for fifteene Hides discharged it selfe when the Mint went every Minter gave twenty shillings at London for to receive coyning stamps of money In the yeere 1113. a skarfire that came no man knew how burnt the Castle caught also with the flames to the roofes of the Church Likewise in the Raigne of Stephen in the time of Civill Warres it was twice on fire but most dangerously when King Stephen who had to his owne damage given this City unto Wallerand Earle of Mellent seized it into his owne hands howbeit he was not able at that time to winne the Castle Neverthelesse it raised it selfe up againe out of the ashes in a goodlier forme alwaies than it had before and flourished in a right good state of civill government governed by two Bailiffes chosen out of 24. Citizens two Aldermen and two Chamberlains with a Common Counsell consisting of 48. Citizens As touching the Geographicall position of this City it is distant in Longitude from the West Meridian 21. Degrees and 52. Minutes and the North Pole is elevated 52. Degrees and 12. Minutes From Worcester the River Severn running on still Southward passeth beside Powicke the seat in times past of Sir Iohn Beauchamp whom King Henry the Sixth raised up to the state of a Baron and within a small time the female heires brought the inheritance to the Willoughbeies of Broke the Reads and the Lygons then runneth it through most rich and redolent medowes by Hanley Castle belonging sometimes to the Earles of Glocester and by Upton a Mercate Towne of great name where peeces of Romane money are oftentimes found Not farre from hence upon the banke on the right hand the Severn beholdeth Malvern-Hills hills in deed or rather great and high mountaines which for the space of seven miles or thereabout doe as it were by degrees rise higher and higher dividing this Shire from the County of Hereford On the brow of which Hills Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester did cast a Ditch in times past to make a partition betweene his possessions and the lands of the Church of Worcester a peece of worke which is at this day seene not without wonder Over against those hils and in like distance almost from the other banke Bredon Hills being farre lesse yet in emulation as it were to match them mount aloft among which Elmsley Castle belonging sometimes to Ursus or Urso D' Abtot maketh a goodly shew by whose daughter and heire Emeline it came hereditarily to the Beauchamps At the foote of these hills lieth Bredon a Village concerning the Monastery whereof Offa King of the Mercians saith thus I Offa King of the Mercians will give land containing seven times five Acres of Tributaries unto the Monastery that is named Breodun in the Province of the Wiccij and to the Church of blessed Saint Peter Prince of the Apostles there and in that place standing which Church Eanwulph my grandfather erected to the praise and glory of the everliving God Under these Bredon hils Southward you see two villages named Washborne whence came the sirname to a very ancient and worshipfull Family in this Tract standing in a parcell of this Province dismembred as it were from the rest of the body of which kinde there be other parcels here and there scattering all about But what should be the cause I am not able to resolve unlesse haply those that in old time were governours adjoined to their government their owne lands that lay neere unto the Region which they then governed Now Avon from above runneth downe and speeds himselfe to Severn who in this shire
afterward this honor at the hands of King Henry the Fifth Who shortly after in the French war lost his life at the siege of Meaux in Brye leaving one onely daughter married to Sir Edward Nevill from whom descended the late Lords of Abergevenny Afterward King Henry the Sixth created John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester But when he presently taking part with King Edward the Fourth had applied himselfe in a preposterous obsequiousnesse to the humor of the said King and being made Constable of England plaied the part as it were of the butcher in the cruell execution of diverse men of qualitie himselfe when as King Henry the Sixth was now repossessed of the crowne came to the blocke Howbeit his sonne Edward recovered that honor when King Edward recovered his Kingdome But after that this Edward died without issue and the inheritance became divided among the sisters of the said John Tiptoft Earle of Worcester of whom one was married to the Lord Roo◠another to Sir Edmund Ingoldesthorpe and the third to the Lord Dudley Sir Charles Somerset base sonne to Henry Duke of Somerset Lord Herbert and Lord Chamberlaine to King Henry the Eighth was by him created Earle of Worcester After whom succeeded in lineall descent Henry William and Edward who now flourisheth and among other laudable parts of vertue and Nobility highly favoureth the studies of good literature There are in this Shire Parishes 152. STAFFORDIAE COMITATVS PARS olim Cornauiorum STAFFORD-SHIRE THE third Region of the old CORNAVII now called STAFFORD-SHIRE in the English Saxons Language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Inhabitants whereof because they dwelt in the middest of England are in Bede termed Angli Mediterranei that is Midland Englishmen having on the East Warwick-shire and Darby-shire on the South side Worcester-shire and Westward Shropp-shire bordering upon it reacheth from South to North in forme of a Lozeng broader in the middest and growing narrower at the ends The North part is full of Hilles and so lesse fruitfull the middle being watered with the River Trent is more plentifull clad with Woods and embroidered gallantly with Corne fields and medowes as is the South part likewise which hath Coles also digged out of the earth and mines of Iron But whether more for their commodity or hinderance I leave to the Inhabitants who doe or shall best understand it In the South part in the very confines with Worcester-shire upon the River Stour standeth Stourton Castle sometimes belonging to the Earles of Warwicke the natall place of Cardinall Pole and then Dudley Castle towreth up upon an hill built and named so of one Dudo or Dodo an English Saxon about the yeere of our Salvation 700. In King William the Conquerours daies as we finde in his Domesday Booke William Fitz-Ausculph possessed it afterwards it fell to Noble men sirnamed Somery and by an heire generall of them to Sir Richard Sutton knight descended from the Suttons of Nottingham-shire whose Posterity commonly called from that time Lords of Dudley but summoned to Parliament first by King Henry the Sixth grew up to a right honourable Family Under this lyeth Pensueth Chace in former times better stored with game wherein are many Cole-pits in which as they reported to mee there continueth a fire begunne by a candle long since through the negligence of a grover or digger The smoke of this fire and sometime the flame is seene but the savour oftener smelt and other the like places were shewed unto mee not farre off North-West ward upon the Confines of Shropp-shire I saw Pateshull a seat of the Astleies descended from honourable Progenitours and Wrotesley an habitation of a Race of Gentlemen so sirnamed out of which Sir Hugh Wrotesley for his approoved valour was chosen by King Edward the Third Knight of the Garter at the first institution and so accounted one of the founders of the said honourable Order Next after this the memorable places that wee meet with in this Tract more inwardly are these Chellington a faire house and Manour of the ancient Family of the Giffards which in the Raigne of Henry the Second Peter Corbuchin gave to Peter Giffard upon whom also Richard Strongbow that Conquerour of Ireland bestowed in free gift Tachmelin and other Possessions in Ireland Theoten hall which is by interpretation The habitation of Heathens or Pagans at this day Tetnall embrued with Danish bloud in the yeere 911. by King Edward the Elder in a bloudy Battaile Ulfrunes Hampton so called of Wulfruna a most godly and devout woman who enriched the Towne called before simply Hampton with a religious House and for Wulfrunes Hampton it is corruptly called Wulver Hampton The greatest name and note whereof ariseth by the Church there annexed to the Warden or Deane and Prebendaries of Windsor Weadsbury in these dayes Weddsborrow fortified in old time by Aethelfled Lady of the Mercians and Walshall a Mercate Towne none of the meanest Neere unto which the River Tame carryeth his streame which rising not farre off for certaine miles wandereth through the East part of this Shire seeking after Trent neere unto Draiton Basset the seat of the Bassets who springing out from Turstan Lord of this place in the Raigne of Henry the First branched forth into a great and notable Family For from hence as from a stocke flourished the Bassets of Welleden of Wiccomb of Sapcot of Cheddle and others But of this of Draiton Raulph was the last who being a right renowned Baron had marryed the sister of John Montfort Duke of Britaine and in the Raigne of Richard the Second died without issue Then Tame passing through the Bridge at Falkesley over which an ancient high way of the Romanes went runneth hard under Tamworth in the Saxon Tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marianus calleth it Tamawordia a Towne so placed in the Confines of the two Shires that the one part which belonged sometime to the Marmions is counted of Warwick-shire the other which pertained to the Hastings of Stafford-shire As for the name it is taken from Tame the Riuer running beside it and of the English Saxon word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a Barton Court or Ferme-house and also an Holme or River Island or any place environed with water seeing that Keyserwert and Bomelswert in Germanie betoken as much as Caesars Isle and Bomels Isle Whiles the Mercians Kingdome stood in state this was a place of their Kings resiance and as we finde in the Lieger Booke of Worcester a Towne of very great resort and passing well frequented Afterward when in the Danes Warre it was much decaied Aethelfled Lady of Mercia repaired and brought it againe to the former state also Edith King Eadgars Sister who refusing Marriage for the opinion that went of her for holinesse was registred in the roll of Saints founded heere a little house for Nunnes and veiled Virgins which after some yeeres was translated to
Temple of Bellona by the errour of a rusticall Augur or Soothsaying Priest At which time the Tribunal or Justice Haul of this City was in this respect most happy because therein sat to minister justice that Oracle of the law Aemelius Paulus Papinianus as Forcatulus witnesseth And from this place it was for certaine that Severus and Antoninus Emperours being consulted in a case or question of Right gave forth their Imperiall constitution De rei Vindicatione An hundred yeeres or thereabout after the death of Severus Fl. Valerius Constantius sirnamed Chlorus an Emperour surpassing in all vertue and Christian piety who came hether When the Gods as the Panegyrist saith called him now to the inmost entry and doore of the earth ended his life also in this City and was deified as we may see by ancient Coines And albeit Florilegus recordeth that his Tombe was found in Wales as I have said yet men of credite have enformed me that in our fathers remembrance when Abbaies were suppressed and pulled downe in a certaine Vault or crowdes or a little Chappell under the ground wherein Constantius was supposed to have beene buried there was found a Lampe burning for Lazius writeth that in ancient time they preserved light in Sepulchres by resolving gold artificially into a liquid and fatty substance which should continue burning a long time and for many ages together This Emperor begat of his former wife Helena CONSTANTINE THE GREAT THE DELIVERER OF ROME CITY as ancient inscriptions give testimony THE FOUNDER OF PEACE AND THE REPAIRER OF THE COMMON VVEALTH Who was present in Yorke at his fathers last gaspe and forthwith proclaimed Emperour The souldiers as the Panegyricall Oratour saith regarding rather the good of the State than private affections cast the purple robe upon him whiles hee wept and put spurs to his horse to avoid the importunity of the Army attempting and requiring so instantly to make him Emperour But the happinesse of the State overcame his modestie Whence it is that the Author of the Panegyricall oration crieth out in these words O fortunate Britaine and now blessed above all lands which first sawest Constantine Emperor Hence it may be gathered in what and how great estimation Yorke was in those daies seeing the Romane Emperours Court was there held For our owne Country Writers record that this City was by Constantius adorned and graced with an Episcopall See But yet that Taâ—rinus the Martyr Bishop of Eureux sat heere and governed I will not say as others doe For Vincentius out of whom they sucked this errour would by his owne words convince me of untruth But when the Romanes were departed and had left Britaine for a prey to barbarous Nations this City sore afflicted with many calamities suffered her part also of miseries and was little or nothing better about the end of the Scottish or Saxons Warres than a poore small shadow of a great name For when Paulinus preached Christian Religion to the English Saxons in this Country it lay so desolate that there remained not so much as a Chappell in it for King Edwin to bee baptized in Who in the yeere after Christs Birth 627. built a little Oratory of wood and when as afterward he went in hand with building a greater Church of stone scarce had he laid the foundation thereof when he was prevented by death and left it to be finished by his Successour Oswald Ever since that time the Ecclesiasticall Dignity in this Church encreased and by a Pall sent unto it from Honorius the Pope became a Metropolitane City which beside twelve Bishoprickes in England exercised the power of a Primate over all the Bishops of Scotland But many yeeres since Scotland withdrew it selfe from this her Metropolitane and the Metropolitane City it selfe hath so devoured other Bishoprickes adjoyning being but little to say truth and of small account that it hath now but foure within the owne Dioecese namely the Bishoprickes of Durrham of Chester of Carlile and of Man or Sodorensis in the Isle of Man And the Archbishop Egbert who flourished about the yeere of our Salvation 740. erected at Yorke A most famous Library the Cabinet as I may so terme it these be the words of William of Malmesbury and Closet of all liberall Arts. Touching which Library Alcwin of Yorke Schoolemaster to Charles the Great first Founder of the University of Paris and the onely Honour of this City in an Epistle to the said Charles wrote thus Give mee the bookes of deeper and more exquisite scholasticall learning such as I had in mine owne Country by the good and most devout industry of the Archbishop Egbert And if it please your wisedome I will send backe some of your owne servants who may exemplifie out of them all those things that be necessary and bring the floures of Britaine into France that there may not be a Garden of learning enclosed onely within Yorke walles but that streames of Paradise may be also at Towres Then also it was that Princes bestowed many and great livings and lands upon the Church of Yorke especially Ulphus the sonne of Toral I note so much out of an old booke that there may plainly appeare a custome of our ancestour in endowing Churches with livings This Ulphus aforesaid ruled in the West part of Deira and by reason of the debate that was like to arise betweene his sonnes the elder and the younger about their Lordships and Signiories after his death forthwith hee made them all alike For without delay hee went to Yorke tooke the horne with him out of which hee was wont to drinke filled it with wine and before the Altar of God and blessed Saint Peter Prince of the Apostles kneeling upon his knees he dranke and thereby enfeoffed them in all his lands and revenewes Which horne was there kept as a monument as I have heard untill our fathers daies I might seeme to speake in derogation of the Clergy if I should report what secret heart-burnings or rather open enmities flashed out betweene the Archbishops of Yorke and of Canterbury upon worldly ambition whiles with great wast of their wealth but more losse of their credite and reputation they bickered most eagerly about the Primacy For the Church of Yorke as he writeth inferiour though it were unto that of Canterbury in riches yet being equall in dignity albeit of later time founded and advanced on high with the same power that Canterbury hath confirmed also with the like authority of Apostolicall Priviledges tooke it ill to bee subject unto that of Canterbury by vertue of a Decree of Alexander of Rome who ordained That the Church of Yorke ought to be subject unto Canterbury and in all things to obey the constitutions of the Archbishop thereof as Primate of all Britaine in such matters as appertaine to Christian Religion Concerning the Archbishops of Yorke it is no part verily of my purpose to write any thing heere although there bee very many of
is such a fall but neerer unto Richmond where Swale rusheth rather than runneth as I have said with foaming waters meeting heere and there with rockes whereby his streame is interrupted and broken And wherefore should he call it the Towne neere unto Catarracta if there were not there a water-fall That it was in those daies a most famous City may be gathered out of Ptolomee because he tooke there an observation of the heavens position for in the second booke and 6. chapter of his Great Construction he describeth and setteth downe the 24. Parallele through Catarractonium in Britaine and maketh it to bee distant from the Aequator 57. degrees yet in his Geographicall Tables he defineth the longest day to be 18. Aequinoctiall houres so that by his owne calculation and account it is distant from the Aequator 58. degrees But at this day as said that Poet. Magnum nil nisi Nomen habet Nothing hath the same But onely a great name For it is but a small Village called Catarrick and Catarrick-bridge howbeit well knowne both by the situation thereof nere unto the High street way which the Romans made that here passeth over the river and also by the heapes of rubbish here and there dispersed which carry some shew of Antiquity especially about Kettercikswart and Burghale somewhat farther off from the Bridge and more Eastward hard by the river where we beheld a mighty Mount and foure Bulwarkes raised as it were with exceeding great labour up to a great height What sorrow it susteined in times past at the Picts and Saxons hands when with fire and sword they made foule havocke of all the Cities in Britaine I cannot certainly tell but it seemeth to have flourished after the Saxon Empire was established Although Bede in every place calleth it Vicum that is a Village untill that in the yeere 769. it was set on fire and burnt by Eanred or Beanred the Tyrant who pitifully mangled the Kingdome of Northumberland But both he streight after miserably perished by fire and Catarractoninum also beganne to revive againe out of the very ashes For in the 77. yeere after King Etheldred solemnized heere his marriage with the daughter of Offa King of the Mercians Notwithstanding it continued not long in good and flourishing estate for in that confusion immediately ensuing of the Danes who laied all waste it was quite destroied Swale driveth on with a long course not without some lets heere and there in his streame not farre from Hornby Castle belonging to the Family of Saint Quintin which afterwards came to the Cogniers and seeth nothing besides fresh pastures country houses and Villages unlesse it be Bedal standing by another River running into him which Bedal glorieth much of a Baron it had named Sir Brian Fitz-Alan who flourished in the daies of King Edward the First in regard of his worth and his ancient Nobility as descended from the Earles of Britaine and Richmond But for default of heires males the inheritance came by the daughters to Stapletons and the Greies of Rotherfeld By this time Swale having left Richmond-shire behinde commeth neerer unto Ure or Ouse where hee visiteth Topcliffe the chiefe seat of the Percies Marianus calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who writeth that in the yeere of our Redemption 949. the States of Northumberland bound themselves there by an oath of Allegiance unto King Eldred the West-Saxon And at the very confluence of these Rivers standeth Mitton a small Village but remarkable by no small slaughter For the Scottish in the yeere 1319. when the pestilence had consumed in manner all the manhood of England having made an inrode thus farre robbing and ransacking all where they came soone discomfited and put to flight no small power of Priests and country people which the Archbishop of Yorke had led forth with banner displaied into the field But to returne backe againe to our matter From CATARACTONIUM the high street or Port way divided it selfe in twaine where it taketh Northward it leadeth by Caldwell and Aldburgh which betokeneth An old Burrough By what name it was knowne in ancient times I cannot easily guesse By the great ruines it should seeme to have beene some notable place and neere at hand there is seene a ditch by Stanwig a little Village that runneth eight miles in length betweene the River Tees and Swale Where the said High way goeth Northwestward about twelve miles off you meet with Bowes which also is written Bowgh now a little Village where in the ages aforegoing the Earles of Richmond had a prety Castelet a certaine custome called Thorough-toll and there Furcas i. power to hang. But that in old time it was called in Antonines Itinerary LAVATRAE and LEVATRAE both the account of distance and the site thereof by the High street which heere is evidently apparent by the ridge thereof doe easily prove But that which maketh much to confirme the antiquity of it is an ancient large Stone in the Church sometimes used by them for an altar stone with this inscription upon it to the honour of Hadrian the Emperour IMP. CAESARI DIVI TRAIANI PARTHICI Max. filio DIVI NERVAE NEPOTI TRAIANO Hadria NO AUG PONT MAXIM COS. I. P. P. COH IIII. F. IO. SEV This fragment also was there digged up NOL CAE FRONTINUS COH I. THRAC Whiles under Severus the Emperour Virius Lupus ruled as Lieutenant Generall and Propraetor of Britaine the first Cohort of the Thracians lay heere in Garison for whose sake he reedified the Bath or hote house as appeareth by this inscription which from hence hath beene translated to Cunnington unto the house of that right worshipfull and learned Sir Robert Cotton Knight DAE i. FORTUNAE VIRIUS LUPUS LEG AUG PR PR BALINEUM VI IGNIS EXUSTUM COH I. THRACUM RESTITUIT CURANTE VAL. FRONTONE PRAE F EQ ALAE VETTO Heere must I cause them to forgoe their errour who by this Inscription falsely copied forth whiles they read untruly BALINGIUM for BALINEUM are of opinion that the name of the place was BALINGIUM But if a man looke neerer to the words hee shall finde it most evidently engraven in the stone BALINEUM which word they used in old time as the learned know for BALNEUM that is A BATH or Hote-house who also are not ignorant that souldiers as well as others used ordinarily to bathe both for health and cleanlinesse as who every day before they did eate in that age were wont to bathe as also that such like bathing houses both publique and private were made every where with so great coste and superfluous excesse That he thought himselfe poore and a very begger who had not the walles of his bathing house resplendent with great and costly embossed Glasses In which Bathes men and women both washed one with another albeit this had oftentimes beene prohibited as well by the Imperiall lawes as the Synodall decrees In the declining estate of the Roman Empire the Company
and Westward with one and an halfe the name of the place is now Whiteley Castle and for to testifie the antiquity thereof there remaineth this imperfect inscription with letters inserted one in another after a short and compendious manner of writing whereby wee learne that the third Cohort of the Nervians erected there a Temple unto the Emperour Antonine sonne of Severus IMP. CAES. Lucii Septimi Severi AraBICI ADIABENICI PARTHICI MAX. FIL. DIVI ANTONINI Pii Germanici SARMA NEP. DIVIANTONINI PII PRON. DIVI HADRIANI ABN DIVI TRAIANI PARTH ET DIVI NERVAE ADNEPOTI M. AURELIO ANTONINO PIO FEL AUG GERMANICO PONT MAX. TR. POT X IMP. COS. IIII. P. p. PRO PIETATE AEDE VOTO COMMUNI CURANTE LEGATO AUG PR COH III. NERVIO RVM G. R.POS Whereas therefore the third Cohort of the Nervii served in this place which Cohort the booke of Notices in a latter time placeth at ALIONE or as Antonine nameth it ALONE and the little river running underneath is named Alne if I should thinke this were ALONE it might seeme rather probable than true considering the injury of devouring time and the fury of enemies have long agoe outworne these matters out of all remembrance Albeit when the State of the Romane Empire decaied most in Britain this country had been most grievously harried and spoiled by the Scots and Picts yet it preserved and kept long the ancient and naturall inhabitants the Britans and late it was ere it became subject to the English Saxons But when againe the English Saxons state sore shaken by Danish warres ran to ruine it had peculiar Governors called Kings of Cumberland unto the yeere of our Lord 946. at what time as the Floure-gatherer of Westminster saith King Edmund by the helpe of Leoline Prince of South-wales wasted and spoiled all Cumberland and having put out the eyes of both the sonnes of Dunmail King of the same Province hee granted that kingdome unto Malcolme King of Scots to be holden of him that he might defend the North parts of England by land and sea from the inrodes and invasions of the common enemies Whereupon the eldest sons of the Kings of Scotland were for a while under the English Saxons and Danes both called the Prefects or Deputy Rulers of Cumberland But when England had yeelded it selfe into the hands of the Normans this part also became subject unto them and fell unto the lot of Ralph de Meschines whose eldest sonne Ranulph was Lord of Cumberland and partly in his mothers right and partly by his Princes favour together Earle also of Chester But King Stephen to purchase favour with the Scots restored it unto them againe that they should hold it of him and the Kings of England Howbeit K. Henry the second who succeeded after him perceiving that this over great liberality of Stephen was prejudiciall both to himself and his realme demanded againe of the Scot Northumberland Cumberland and Westmorland And the K. of Scots as Newbrigensis writeth wisely considering that the King of England had in those parts both the better right and also greater power although he might have pretended the oath which he was said to have made unto his grandfather David what time hee was knighted by him yet restored he the foresaid marches according to his demand fully and wholly and received of him againe the Earledome of Huntingdon which by ancient right appertained to him As for Earles of Cumberland there were none before the time of King Henry the eighth who created Henry Lord Clifford who derived his pedigree from the Lords Vipont the first Earle of Cumberland who of Margaret the daughter of Henry Percy Earle of Northumberland begat Henry the second Earle hee by his first wife daughter to Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk had issue Margaret Countesse of Derby and by a second wife the daughter of Lord Dacre of Gillesland two sonnes George and Francis George the third Earle renowned for sea-service armed with an able body to endure travaile and a valorous minde to undertake dangers died in the yeere 1605. leaving one onely daughter the Lady Anne now Countesse of Dorset But his brother Sir Francis Clifford succeeded in the Earledome a man whose ardent and honorable affection to vertue is answerable in all points to his honourable parentage As for the Wardens of the West-marches against Scotland in this County which were Noblemen of especiall trust I need to say nothing when as by the union of both kingdomes under one head that office is now determined This shire reckoneth beside chappels 58. Parish Churches VALLUM SIVE MURUS PICTICUS That is THE PICTS VVALL THrough the high part of Cumberland shooteth that most famous Wall in no case to be passed over in silence the limit of the Roman Province the Barbarian Rampier the Forefence and Enclosure for so the ancient writers termed it being called in Dion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a crosse Wall in Herodian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a Trench or Fosse cast up by Antonine Cassiodore and others VALLUM that is the Rampier by Bede MURUS that is the Wall by the Britans Gual-Sever Gal-Sever Bal Val and Mur-Sever by the Scottish Scottishwaith by the English and those that dwell thereabout the Picts Wall or the Pehits Wall the Keepe Wall and simply by way of excellencie The Wall When the ambitious and valiant Romans finding by the guidance of God and assistance of vertue their successe in all their affaires above their wishes had enlarged their Empire every way so as that the very unwealdinesse thereof began now to be of it selfe fearefully suspected their Emperours thought it their best and safest policie to limit and containe the same within certaine bounds for in wisedome they saw That in all greatnesse there ought to be a meane like as the heaven in selfe reacheth not beyond the limited compasse and the seas are tossed to and fro within their owne precincts Now those limits or bounds according to the natures of the places were either naturall as the sea greater rivers mountaines wasts and desart grounds or artificiall as frontier-fenses namely trenches or dikes castles keeps or fortresses wards mounds and baricadoes by trees cut downe and plashed bankes rampiers and walls along which were planted garrisons of souldiers against the barbarous nations confining Whence it is that we read thus in the Novellae of Theodosius the Emperour Whatsoever lieth included within the power and regiment of the Romans is by the appointment and dispose of our Ancestors defended from the incursions of Barbarians with the rampier of a Limit Along these limits or borders souldiers lay garrisoned in time of peace within frontier-castles and cities but when there was any feare of waste and spoile from bordering nations some of them had their field-stations within the Barbarian ground for defence of the lands others made out-rodes into the enemies marches to discover how the enemies stirred yea and
his Kingdome divers authors affirme to have granted by his Charter or Patent Ireland and England both unto the Church of Rome to be held of it ever after in fee and to have received it againe from the Church as a Feudatarie also to have bound his successours to pay three hundred Markes unto the Bishop of Rome But that most worthie and famous Sir Thomas Moore who tooke the Popes part even unto death affirmeth this to be false For hee writeth that the Romanists can shew no such grant that they never demanded the foresaid money and that the Kings of England never acknowledged it But by his leave as great a man as hee was the case stood otherwise as evidently appeareth by the Parliament Records the credit whereof cannot bee impugned For in an assembly of all the States of the Realme in the reigne of Edward the third the Lord Chancellour of England proposed and related that the Pope would judicially sue the King of England as well for the Homage as the tribute which was to be yeelded for England and Ireland to the performance whereof King Iohn in times past had obliged himselfe and his successours and of this point which hee put to question required their opinion The Bishops desired to have a day by them selves for to consult about this matter the Nobles likewise and the people or Communaltie The day after they all met and with one generall accord ordained and enacted That for asmuch as neither King Iohn nor any other King whatsoever could impose such servitude upon the Kingdome but with the common consent and assent of a Parliament which was not done and whatsoever he had passed was against his oath at his coronation by him in expresse words religiously taken before God Therefore in case the Pope should urge this matter they were most readie to the uttermost of their power to resist him resolutely with their bodies and goods They also who are skilfull in scanning and sifting everie pricke and tittle of the lawes cry out with one voice That the said Grant or Charter of King Iohn was voide in Law by that clause and reservation in the end thereof Saving unto us and our heires all our Rights Liberties and Regalities But this may seeme beside my text Ever since King Johns time the Kings of England were stiled Lords of Ireland untill that King Henrie the eighth in the memorie of our fathers was in a Parliament of Ireland by the States thereof declared King of Ireland because the name of Lord seemed in the judgement of certaine seditious persons nothing so sacred and full of majestie as the name of King This name and title of the Kingdome of Ireland were by the Popes authoritie what time as Queene Marie in the yeere 1555. had by her Embassadours in the name of the Kingdom of England tendred obedience unto the Pope Paul the fourth confirmed in these words To the laud and glorie of almightie God and his most glorious mother the Virgin Mary to the honour also of the whole Court of heaven and the exaltation of the Catholike faith as the humble request and suite made unto us by King Philip and Queen Marie about this matter wee with the advice of our brethren and of plenarie power Apostolicall by our Apostolicall authoritie erect for ever Ireland to bee a Kingdome and endow dignifie and exalt with the title dignitie honour faculties rights ensignes prerogatives preferments preeminencies royall and such as other Realmes of Christians have use and enjoy and may have use and enjoy for the times to come And seeing that I have hapned upon those Noblemens names who first of all English gave the attempt upon Ireland and most valiantly subdued it under the imperiall crowne of England lest I might seeme upon envie to deprive both them and their posteritie of this due and deserved glorie I will set them downe here out of the Chancerie of Ireland according as the title doth purport The names of them that came with Dermot Mac Morrog into Ireland Richard Strongbow Earle of Pembroch who by Eve the daughter of Morrog the Irish pettie King aforesaid had one only daughter and she brought unto William Mareschall the title of the Earldome of Pembroch with faire lands in Ireland and a goodly issue five sonnes who succeeded one another in a row all childlesse and as many daughters which enriched their husbands Hugh Bigod Earle of Norfolke Guarin Montchensey Gilbert Clare Earle of Glocester William Ferrars Earle of Derby and William Breose with children honours and possessions Robert Fitz-Stephen Harvey de Mont-Marish Maurice Prendergest Robert Barr. Meiler Meilerine Maurice Fitz-Girald Redmund nephew of Fitz-Stephen William Ferrand Miles de Cogan Richard de Cogan Gualter de Ridensford Gualter and sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald Alexander sonnes of Maurice Fitz-Girald William Notte Robert Fitz-Bernard Hugh Lacie William Fitz-Aldelm William Maccarell Humfrey Bohun Hugh de Gundevill Philip de Hasting Hugh Tirell David Walsh Robert Poer Osbert de Herloter William de Bendenges Adam de Gernez Philip de Breos Griffin nephew of Fitz-Stephen Raulfe Fitz-Stephen Walter de Barry Philip Walsh Adam de Hereford To whom may be added out of Giraldus Cambrensis Iohn Curcy Hugh Contilon Redmund Cantimore Redmund Fitz-Hugh Miles of S. Davids and others The Government of the Kingdome of Ireland EVer since that Ireland became subject unto England the Kings of England have sent over thither to manage the state of the Realme their Regents or Vice-gerents whom they tearmed in those writings or letters Patents of theirs whereby authoritie and jurisdiction is committed unto them first Keepers of Ireland then afterwards according as it pleased them Iustices of Ireland Lievtenants and Deputies Which authoritie and jurisdiction of theirs is very large ample and royall whereby they have power to make warre to conclude peace to bestow all Magistracies and Offices except a very few to pardon all crimes unlesse they be some of high treason to dub Knights c. These letters Patents when any one entreth upon this honourable place of government are publikely read and after a solemne oath taken in a set forme of words before the Chancellour the sword is delivered into his hands which is to be borne before him he is placed in a chaire of estate having standing by him the Chancellour of the Realme those of the Privie Councell the Peeres and Nobles of the kingdome with a King of Armes a Serjeant of Armes and other Officers of State And verily there is not looke throughout all Christendome againe any other Vice-Roy that commeth neerer unto the majestie of a King whether you respect his jurisdiction and authoritie or his traine furniture and provision There bee assistant unto him in counsell the Lord Chancellour of the Realm the Treasurer of the Kingdome and others of the Earles Bishops Barons and Judges which are of the Privie Councell For Ireland hath the very same degrees of States that England hath namely Earles Barons Knights
Esquires c. The Courts of Justice or Tribunals of Ireland THe supreme Court of the Kingdome of Ireland is the Parliament which at the pleasure of the Kings of England is usually called by the Deputie and by him dissolved although in the reigne of King Edward the second a Law was enacted That every yeer there should be Parliaments holden in Ireland which seemeth yet not to have been effected There be likewise foure Tearmes kept as in England yeerely and there are five Courts of Justice The Star-chamber the Chancerie the Kings Bench the common Pleas and the Exchequer There are also Iustices of Assises of Nisi prius and of Oyer and Determiner according as in England yea and Iustices of Peace in every countie for the keeping of peace Moreover the King hath his Serjeant at law his Atturney Generall his Sollicitour c. Over and besides in the more remote Provinces there be Governours to minister Justice as a principall Commissioner in Connaught and a President in Mounster who have to assist them in Commission certaine Gentlemen and Lawyers and yet every of them are directed by the Kings Lievtenant Deputie As for the common lawes Ireland is governed by the same that England hath For we read in the Records of the Kingdome thus King Henry the third in the 12. yeere of his reigne gave commandement to his Iustice of Ireland that calling together the Archbishops Bishops Barons and Knights he should cause there before them to be read the Charter of King Iohn which he caused to be read accordingly and the Nobles of Ireland to be sworn as touching the observation of the lawes and customes of England and that they should hold and keepe the same Neverthelesse the meere Irish did not admit them but retained their owne Brehon lawes and leud customes And the Kings of England used a connivence therein upon some deepe consideration not vouchsafing to communicate the benefit of the English lawes but upon especiall grace to especiall families or sects namely the O Neales O Conors O Brien O Maloghlins and Mac Murough which were reputed of the blood roiall among them The Parliamentary or Statute lawes also of England being transmitted were usually in force in Ireland unto the time of K. Henrie the seventh For in the tenth yeere of his reign those were ratified confirmed by authoritie of Parliament in Ireland in the time of Sir Edw. Poinings government but ever since they have had their Statutes enacted in their owne Parliaments Besides these civill Magistrates they have also one militarie officer named the Mareshal who standeth here in great stead to restrain as well the insolencie of souldiers as of rebels who otherwhiles commit many great insolencies This office the Barons de Morley of England bare in times past by inheritance as appeareth by Records for King John gave it to bee held by right of inheritance in these very expresse words We have given and granted unto Iohn Mareschal for his homage and service our Mareshalship of Ireland with all appurtenances We have given also unto him for his homage and service the Cantred in which standeth the towne of Kilbunny to have and to hold unto him and his heires of us and our heires From whom it descended in the right line to the Barons of Morley This Mareshall hath under him his Provost Marshall and sometime more than one according to the occasions and troubles of the time who exercise their authoritie by limitation under the great seale of Ireland with instructions But these and such like matters I will leave to the curious diligence of others Touching the order of justice and government among those more uncivill and wilde Irish I will write somewhat in place convenient when I shall treat of their manners THE DIVISION OF IRELAND IRELAND according to the maners of the inhabitants is divided into two parts for they that refuse to be under lawes and do live without civilitie are termed the Irishry and commonly the Wild Irish but such as being more civill do reverence the authoritie of lawes and are willing to appeare in Court and judicially to be tried are named English-Irish and their country goeth under the tearm of The English Pale because the first Englishmen that came thither did empale for themselves certaine limits in the East part of the Iland and that which was most fruitfull Within which there bee even at this day those also that live uncivilly enough and are not very obedient unto the lawes like as others without the pale are as courteous and civill as a man would desire But if we look into higher times according to the situation of the country or the number rather of governors in old time it containeth five portions for it was sometimes a Pentarchie namely Mounster Southward Leinster Eastward Connacht in the West Ulster in the North and Meth well neere in the very middest In Mounster are these Counties Kerry Desmond Cork Waterford Limiricke Tipperary with the county of holy Crosse in Tipperarie In Leinster be these Counties Kilkenny Caterlough Queenes County Kings Countie Kildare Weishford Dublin In Meth are these Counties East Meath West Meath Longford In Connaght are these Counties Clare Galloway Majo Slego Letrim Roscoman In Ulster be these Counties Louth Cauon Fermanagh Monaghan Armagh Doun Antrim London-Derry Tir-Oen Tir-Conell or Donegall The Ecclesiasticall State of Ireland was ordered anciently by Bishops whom either the Archbishop of Canterburie consecrated or they themselves one another But in the yeere 1152. as we read in Philip Flatesburie Christianus Bishop of Lismore Legate of all Ireland held a most frequent and honourable Councell at Mell whereat were present the Bishops Abbats Kings Captaines and Elders of Ireland In which by authoritie Apostolicall and by the counsell of Cardinals with the consent of Bishops Abbats and others there in Consistorie he ordained foure Archbishopricks in Ireland Armach Dublin Cassile and Tuem or Toam The Bishopricks which were Diocessans under these seeing that now some of them are by the covetous iniquitie of the times abolished others confounded and conjoined others againe translated another way I am disposed here to put downe according as they were in old time out of an ancient Roman PROVINCIALL faithfully exemplified out of the originall Under the Arch-Bishop of Armagh Primate of all Ireland are the Bishops of Meath or Elnamirand Dune alias Dundalethglas Chlocor otherwise Lugundun Conner Ardachad Rathbot Rathluc Daln-Liquir Dearrih or Derriâ— Cloâ—macnois Dromor Brefem To the Archbishop of Dublin are subject the Bishops of Glendelach Fern. Ossery alias De Canic Lechlin Kil-dare or Dare. Under the Archbishop of Cassile are the Bishops of Laonie or De Kendalnan Limric The Isle Gathay Cellumabrath Melite or of Emileth Rossi alias Roscree Waterford alias De Baltifordian Lismore Clon alias De Cluanan Corcage that is Cork De Rosalither Ardefert or Kerry Unto the Archbishop of Tuam or Toam are subject the Bishops of Duac alias
hand in fight Afterwards upon the sixth day of the weeke being Good-friday when the foresaid John was unarmed and went by way of pilgrimage bare foot and in his linnen vesture a visiting the Churches as the manner is treacherously he was taken prisoner by his owne people for a piece of money given in hand and for a greater reward to be given afterward for a recompence and so was delivered unto Hugh Lacie But hee bringeth him unto the King of England who gave unto Hugh Lacie the Earldom of Ulster and the Seigniorie of Conaught which belonged unto John Curcie Then Hugh Lacie being Earle rewarded all the foresaid Traitours that had betraied John Curcie and gave unto them gold and silver more or lesse but straightwayes hung up all the Traitours aforesaid and tooke away all their goods and so Hugh Lacie ruleth over all Ulster and John Curcie is condemned to perpetuall prison because he had before time beene a Rebell to John King of England and would not doe him homage and besides blamed him about the death of Arthur the rightfull heire unto the Crowne But whiles hee was in prison and in extreme povertie having but little allowance and the same course and simple for to eat and drinke he said O God wherefore dealest thou thus by me who have built and re-edified so many Monasteries for thee and thy Saints Now when he had many times wailed and made loud moane in this wise and therewith fell asleep the holy Trinitie appeared unto him saying Why hast thou cast me out of mine owne seat and out of the Church of Doun and placed there my S. Patrick the Patron of Ireland Because indeed John Curcie had expelled the Secular Canons or Priests out of the Cathedrall Church of Doune and brought the blacke Monks of Chester and placed them in the said Church And the holy Trinitie stood there in a stately shrine or seat and John himselfe tooke it downe out of the Church and ordained a Chappell for that Image and in the great Church set up the image of S. Patrick which displeased the most High God therefore thus said God Know thou well that thou shalt never enter into thy Seigniorie in Ireland Howbeit in regard of other good deeds that thou hast done thou shalt with honour be delivered forth of prison which also came to passe And now by this time there arose a contention betweene John King of England and the King of France about a Seigniory and certain Castles and this suit or controversie still depending the King of France offered unto him a Giant or Champion to fight for his right Then the King of England called to remembrance his most valiant Knight John Curcie whom upon the information of others he had before cast into prison The King therefore sent for John Curcie and asked him if he were able to help and stand him in stead in a combat then John answered and said I will not fight for thee but for the right of the Kingdome for which afterward hee undertooke to doe his endeavour in single fight and so refreshed himselfe with meat drink and bathing and tooke the vertue of his owne fortitude and strength and a day was appointed betweene these Giants or Champions namely betweene John Curcie and the other But when the Champion of France heard of his exceeding great feeding and of his strength hee refused the combat and then was the said Seigniorie given unto the King of England Then the King of France requested to see a stroake given by the hand of John Curcie and he set a strong and doughtie good morion full of maile upon a great blocke or log of wood and the foresaid John taking his skeine or sword and looking back round about him with a stern and grim countenance smote the moâ—ion through from the very crest downeward into the blocke and the sword stucke in the wood so fast that no other man but himselfe was able to plucke out the sword then John at the request of the Kings easily pluckt it forth And the Kings demanded of the foresaid John wherefore he looked behind him with so grim a countenance before he gave the stroke who answered that if he had failed in giving that stroke he would have slaine them all as well Kings as others And the Kings gave unto him great gifts yea and the King of England rendred unto him also his Seigniorie of Ulster But John Curcie attempted 15. times to saile over sea into Ireland but was alwaies in danger and the wind evermore against him wherefore hee waited a while among the Monkes of Chester At length he returned into France and there rested in the Lord. MCCV. The Abbey of Wetheney in the countie of Lymericke was founded by Theobald the sonne of Walter Butler Lord of Karryke MCCVI. The order of Friers Minors was begun neere the citie Assisa by Saint Francis MCCVIII William Breos is expelled out of England and commeth into Ireland England is interdicted for the tyrannie of King John of England Likewise a great overthrow and slaughter hapned at Thurles in Mounster committed upon the Lord Justice of Irelands men by Sir Geffery Mareys MCCX John King of England came into Ireland with a great fleet and a puissant armie and for that the sons of Hugh Lacie to wit the Lord Walter Lord of Meth and Hugh his brother exercised tyrannie upon the Commons and especially because they slew Sir John Curson Lord of Rathenny and Kilbarrocke for they heard that the foresaid John accused them unto the King therefore I say the King drave the foresaid sonnes of Hugh Lacie out of the land and they fled into France and served in the Monasterie of Saint Taurin as unknowne working about clay and bricke and sometime in gardens as Gardiners but at length they were knowne by the Abbat of the said Monasterie and the said Abbat entreated the King for them because he had baptized his sonnes and was Godsib unto him as a Godfather many times and Walter Lacie paid two thousand and five hundred markes and Hugh Lacie payed a great summe of money unto the King for his ransome and at the request of the said Abbat restored they were againe unto their former degree and Seigniorie And Walter Lacie brought with him John the sonne of Alured that is Fitz-Acory sonne to the foresaid Abbats whole brother and he made him Knight and gave unto him the Seigniorie of Dengle and many other Lordships Item hee brought Monkes with him out of the same Monasterie and gave unto them many fermes and the Cell called Fourie in regard of charitie thankfulnesse and counsell and Hugh Lacie Earle of Ulster made a Cell for Monkes and endowed them in Ulster in a place called ..... But John King of England having taken many pledges and hostages as well of English as of Irish and hanged a number of malefactours upon Jebbits and setled the State of the land returned into England the same yeere that he came
Constables a great family ibid. High Constables of England 621. c Constantius Chlorus riddeth Britaine of Usurpers 73. elected Emperor 74. espoused Helena mother of Constantine the great 74. putteth her away ibid. weddeth Theodora ib. a godly Emperour ibid. died at Yorke ibid. buried there 703 Constantine the Great Emperor 74. his warlike exploits 75. advanceth Christian religion 75 proclaimed Emperor in Yorke 703. e. f. his renowned titles 76. first entituled Dominus Noster 76. taxed for subverting the Roman Empire ibid. altereth the state of the government ibid. Constantine the younger ruleth Britaine 77. slaine by his brother Constans ibid. Constans an Emperiall Monke 264. c. 85. is killed ibid. Constans Emperour in Britaine 77. holdeth a councell at Sardica ibid killed by Magnentius ibid. Constantius the yonger Emperor ibid. favoureth Arianus 78. holdeth a councell at Ariminum 79 Constantine created Emperor in Britaine for the name sake 270. d. 85. his exploits ibid. his gourmandise ibid. Constantine a tyrant among the Danmoniâ— in Britaine 113 Constitutions of Clarinton 251 Conwey a river 667. b. 669. d Conwaie a towne 669 â— Convocation 181 Converts their house 428. b Sir Th. Cooke a rich Maior of London 441. f Counts Palatine See Earles Th. Cooper Bishop of Lincolne 540. c Copes a family 376. e Copper or Brasse mynes 767. a Coper as made 217. â— Copland or Coupland 765. d Iohn Copland or Coupland a brave warrior 775. e. made Baneret 171 Coquet the river 812. e Copthall 439. â— Corbets a great family 592 e 594 e Corbet a forename ibid. Sir Wil. Cordall Knight 462. e Corinaea and Corinaeus 184 Corinaeus and Gogmagog 200 c Coritani 504 Cornden hill 662 b Cornelius Nepos for Ioseph of Excestre 32 Cornavii 614 560 Cornovaille in little Britaine 184 Cornage 787 a Cornwalleies a family 467 f Cornwailes of Burford highly descended 590 f Cornwall a dukedome 198 c why so called 184 Cornwallians soone subjected to the Saxons 114 Corpus Christi Colledge in Oxford 383 a Court Barons 168 Cornishmens manners 186 Cornish Chough 188 Corham in Coverdale 729 Corbridge 808 b Corby Castle 777 f Corstopitum ibid. Corve a river 590 c Corvesdale ibid. Coway stakes 296 a Cowling Castle 329 d Cosham 243 c Coughton 565 â— Covinus 18 Costrells See Esquires Coy-fi a convert Bishop of the heathen 711 c Coteswold why so called 364 c Henry Courtney Marquesse of Excester 206 a Courtneyes knights 206 b. Earls of Denshire 207 208. Courtneyes 190 f Cottons knights 313 â— Coverts knights ibid. Cottons of Cambridge-shire knights 491 a Cottons of Cunnington 526 c Sir Robert Cotton of Cunnington a learned knight highly descended 500 d Covetousnesse complained of 562 â— Coventry 567 c Coventry Lords 568 a Councell of the Marches 590 e Cow a Towne West and East 274 c Cowbridge 643 c Cradiden 493 a Cranburn 217 b Crecan or Crey a river 328 f Creeke Lade 241 e Credendon or Credon 396 Creplegate in London 413 d Cressy a family 550 â— Crevequeurs 331 c Crawdundale 761 f Crew a place and notable family 608 c Creden a river 203 d Crediantun or kirton ibid. Craven 694 b Creake in Cliveland 723 e Le Craux 21 Croco or Croke a river 609 b De Croeun or de Credonio a Barony 532 f Crococalana 537 b Croidon 302 b Cromwells knights 497 d Sir Th. Cromwell 526 b. Earle of Essex 454 e Cromer 479 a Croft Castle 619 Crofts knights an ancient family 619 f Crophuls a family 620 c Crouch a creekâ— 443 b Crowland 530 b Crowland Abbey 530. the foundation and building of it 531 c. d. e Cruc Maur 537 c Cruc Occhidient ibid. Cuckmere 315 d Cucul 19 Saint Cudman 313 c Cuentford a brâ—oke in Coventry 567 d Culchil 747 c Culfurth 461 â— Cumberland 765 Kings and Earls of Cumberland 788 a Cumbermer Abbey 607 e. 799 Cumero 21 Cuneglasus a Tyrant in Britain 113 Cuno what it signifieth 98 Cunobelinus 418 a Cunobelin 447 b Curia Ottadinorum 818 b Curiales what they were 771 a Cursons a family 553 c Sir Rob. Curson Baron Imperiall ibid. Robert Curthose an unfortunate Prince 361 d Curcies 221 a Iohn Curcie his vertues ibid. Curtius Montanus a dainty teothed glutton 342 e Saint Cuthberts parcimony 735 Saint Cuthbert Bishop of Lindefarn ibid. Cworwf 20 Curwens knights 769 a Custodes or captaines in every shire 159 Cuthred King of the West Saxons 373 f Cyprus called Keraftis 184 Cyrch 18 Cythariftes 21 D DAbernoun 297 b D'acre Barons of Gillesland 594 c Dacre castle 776 c D'acre Baron ibid. Leonard D'acre a Traitour and Rebel 784 f Dacor a river 776 c D'airells or D' Hairells 369 e Dalaley castle 593 Dalison or D'alanson a family 544 c Dalrendini 126 Dan or Daven a river 608 d Danby 721 f Danbury 446 b Dancastre 690 b Danewort See Walwort Danes infest the coasts of England 139. why so called 141 they land in England c. 142 Danes massacred by the English 143 Their detestable sacrifice 142 Danegelt atribute ibid. Danmonii 183. whence their name commeth ibid. Daning-schow a riveret 608 e Dantesey a town 243 c Danteseys knights ibid. Dantrey towne 508 a. the fort there ibid. Henry Baron Danvers of Dantesey 243 c Darby shire 553 Darby towne 554 c Darby Lords and Earles 558 d Darcies de Nocton c. 543 c Darcies Barons de Chich 451 c Darent river 328 d Darenford or Dartford 328 â— Darwent a river and city 709 Davenport or Damport a place and notable family 609 a Saint Davids land 653 c Saint Davids an Archbishops See 653 d David bishop refuteth the Pelagians 657 b Davery or de alta rupe 312 b Dawnes of Utkinton foresters of Delamere 607 a Deben a river 465 b Depenham or Dapenham ibid. d ee a river 594 c. whence so called 602 c. Dee-mouth 604 b Dee head 666 b Devonshire or Denshire 199 a Walter and Robert Devreux Earles of Essex 455 a Iohn Dee a famous Mathematician 746 c Decimes See Tithings Decuman a Saint 220 e. murdered ibid. Decuriones what they were 771 Saint Decombs 220 e Deale or Dole 343 a Deanries how many in England 161 Deanforest 358 b Deane a place 514 a Deanes a family ibid. Deifying of Roman Emperours 70 Deiri that is Hol-der-Nesse 136 De la-mares 233 a De la mere forest 607 a De-la-pree a Nunnery 509 b D' eincourts Barons of Blankenay 535 f Edmund Baron D'eincourt desirous to perpetuate his name 536 a De la cres Abbay 787 c Iohn De la Pole Earle of Lincolne slaine 549 a. 388 f De la bere an ancient family 620 c D'elveseyes a family 607 e Delgovitia 711 b Delgwe what it signifieth 711 b De la val Baronie 811 f De la ware 364 c Dench-worth townes 281 a Denelage 153.159 Dengy or Dauncing hundred 443 c Dengy towne ibid. Dengy Nesse 352 a Dennington castle 284 a Edward Deny Baron of Waltham 439 b Denisses 206 c Denbigh-shire 675 Denbigh towne 675 d Denbigh Baron
fought with good successe and slew all the valiantest men amongst them Yet did hee little or no good to his native country the Danes evermore renewing their forces still as they were overthrowne like unto that serpent Hydra A little from the fountaines where this river springeth standeth Gatton which now is scarce a small village though in times past it hath beene a famous towne To prove the antiquitie thereof it sheweth Roman coines digged forth of the ground and sendeth unto the Parliament two Burgesses Lower than it is seated Rhie-gat which if a man interpret according to our ancient language is as much as the Rivers course in a vale running out farre into the East called Holmesdale the Inhabitants whereof for that once or twice they vanquished the Danes as they wasted the country are wont in their owne praise to chaunt this Rythme The vale of Holmesdall Never wonne ne never shall This Rhie-gate carrying a greater shew for largenesse than faire buildings hath on the South-side a Parke thicke sette with faire groves wherein the right Noble Charles Earle of Nottingham Baron of Effingham and Lord Admirall of England hath a house where the Earles of Warren and Southrey had founded a prety Monasterie On the East side standeth a Castle mounted aloft now forlorne and for age ready to fall built by the same Earles and of the vale wherein it standeth commonly called Holmecastle under which I saw a wonderfull vault carried under the ground of arch-worke over head hollowed with great labour out of a soft gritte and crombling stone such as the whole hill standeth of These Earles of Warren as wee finde in the Offices or inquisitions held it in chiefe of the King in their Baronie from the conquest of England Hence runneth this river downe by Bechworth Castle for which Sir Thomas Browne obtained of King Henry the Sixth the libertie of holding a Faire For it is the habitation of the Brownes Knights out of which family since our grand-father can remember when Sir Anthony Browne had married Lady Lucie the fourth daughter of Iohn Nevil Marquesse Mont-a-cute Queene Mary honoured his sonnes sonne with the title of Vicount Mont-a-cute Some few miles from hence Westward Effingham sheweth it selfe the possession not long since of William Howard son to that Noble Thomas Duke of Norfolke that triumphed over the Scots who being created by Queene Mary Baron Howard of Effingham made Lord High-Admirall of England was first Lord Chamberlain unto Queene Elizabeth of most happy memorie and then Lord privie Seale whose sonne Charles now flourisheth Lord great Admirall of England whom in the yeare of our Lord 1597. the same Queene Elizabeth honoured also with the title of Earle of Nottingham of whom more in my Annales but now returne we to the river The Mole now being come as farre as Whitehill whereon the Box tree groweth in great plenty at the foote thereof hideth himselfe or rather is swallowed up and thereof the place is called the Swallow but after a mile or two neere unto Letherhed bridge boyling up and breaking forth taketh joy to spring out againe So that the Inhabitants of this tract may boast as well as the Spaniards that they have a bridge which feedeth many flockes of sheepe For this is a common by-word most rife in the Spaniards mouthes as touching the place where their river Anas now called Guadiana hideth himselfe for ten miles together Thus our Mole rising up a fresh hasteneth faire and softly by Stoke Dabernoun so named of the ancient possessors the Dabernouns gentlemen of great good note afterward by inheritance from them the possession of the Lord Bray and by Aesher sometimes a retyring place belonging to the Bishops of Winchester And then very neare Molesey whereunto it giveth name sheddeth himselfe into the Tamis After Tamis hath taken unto him the Mole hee carrieth his streame Northwardly and runneth fast by Kingstone called in times past Moreford as some will have it a very good mercate towne for the bignesse and well frequented well knowne also in old time by reason of a Castle there belonging to the Clares Earles of Glocester Which towne had beginning from a little towne more ancient then it of the same name standing upon a flat ground and subject to the inundation of Tamis In which when England was almost ruinated by the Danish warres Athelstan Edwin and Etheldred were crowned Kings upon an open stage in the Market place and of these Kings heere crowned it came to be named Kingstone as one would say The Kings Towne Tamis now turning his course directly Northward visiteth another place which the Kings chose for themselves sometimes to sojourne at which of the shining brightnesse they call Shene but now it is named Richmond wherein the most mighty Prince King Edward the Third when he had lived sufficiently both to glory and nature died with sorrow that hee conceived for the death of that most valiant and Martiall prince his sonne which sorrow pierced so deepe and stucke so neere him and all England beside that it farre exceeded all comfort And verily at this time if ever else England had a good cause to grieve For within one yeare after it lost the true praise of military prowesse and of accomplished vertue For both of them by bearing their victorious armes throughout all France struke so great a terrour wheresoever they came that as the father might most worthily with King Antiochus carrie the name of Thunder-bolt so his sonne with Pyrrhus deserved to bee named the Eagle Heere also departed Anne wife to King Richard the Second sister of the Emperour Wenzelaus and daughter to the Emperour Charles the fourth who first taught English women the manner of sitting on horsebacke which now is used whereas before time they rode very unseemely astride like as men doe Whose death also her passionate husband tooke so to the heart that he altogether neglected the said house and could not abide it Howbeit King Henry the Fifth readorned it with new buildings and in Shene a pretty village hard by he joyned thereto a little religious house of Carthusian Monks which he called The house of Iesu of Bethelem But in the raigne of Henry the seventh this Princely place was with a woefull sudden fire consumed almost to ashes Howbeit rising up againe forthwith farre more beautifull and glorious as it were a Phaenix out of her owne ashes by the meanes of the same King Henry it tooke this new name Richmond of the title hee bare being Earle of Richmond before he obtained the Crowne of England Scarce had that Noble King Henry the Seventh finished this new worke when in this place he yeilded unto nature and ended his life through whose care vigilancy policy and forecasting wisedome for time to come the State and common-weale of England hath to this day stood established and invincible From hence likewise his sonnes daughter Queene
Elizabeth a most gracious Ladie ninetie and foure yeares after having lived fully to the contentment of nature For 70. yeare old she was or much thereabout when it pleased God to call her out of this world was received into the sacred and coelestiall society A Prince above her â—ex of manly courage and high conceit who lively resembled as well the royall qualities of her Grandfather as she did his princely presence and countenance the Worlds love and joy of Britaine And so farre was she a woman though shee were from degenerating and growing unlike her noble Progenitors in that continued course of their vertues that if she surmounted them not surely she equalled them to the full Well posteritie may one day hereafter be so thankefull as to yield heereto a gracious credit neither doe I heere by way of flatterie set a false colour and glosse upon the truth that a Virgin for the space of fortie foure yeares so ruled the royall Scepter as that her subjects loved her enemies feared her and every one with admiration honored her a thing in all foregoing ages of rare example For whose death England throughout running all to teares amid mones and grones should have lien forlorne in most piteous case comfortlesse had not presently upon her departure out of this world the most mild and gracious King Iames on whom as the true and undoubted heire to her Crowne all mens minds were set and eies fixed with his sacred and bright beames shone unto us and thereby put us into most comfortable hope of endlesse joy Whom so long as we behold heere wee beleeve not that shee is deceased And why should we once say that she is deceased whose vertues live still immortall and the memoriall of whose name consecrated in mens hearts and in eternitie of times shall survive for ever Thus farre swelleth the Tamis with the accesse of the flowing tide of the sea about lx Italian miles by water from his mouth Neither to my knowledge is there any other river in all Europe that for so many miles within land feeleth the violence of the Ocean forcing and rushing in upon it and so driving backe and with-holding his waters to the exceeding great commodity of the inhabitants bordering thereupon Whither this commeth by reason that from hence he hath in manner no crooked turnings and winding reaches but with a more streight and direct channell carrieth his currant into the East as being for the most part restrained and kept in with higher bankes and dilating himselfe with a wider mouth than all other rivers lyeth more exposed and open to the Ocean which by that most swift whirling about of the coelestiall Spheres from East to West is forceably driven and carried that way as sometimes I have beene of opinion let Philosophers discusse unto whom I willingly leave these matters and such like to handle Yet some few verses as touching these places and this argument have heere out of the Marriage betweene Tame and Isis if haply they may content your taste A dextra nobis Richmondia Shena vetustis Celsa nitet sapiens namque hanc Richmondia dici Henricus voluit sibi quod retulisset honorem Et titulos Comitis Richmondia jure paterno Hectoris Edwardi sed deflet funera nostri Proh dolor hîc illi regimens libera cessit Corpore contempto sedes aditura supernas Quem si non subito rapuissent ferrea fata Aut te Valesiis rapuisset Gallia victor Aut tibi Valesios Then on the right hand Richmond stands a faire and stately thing So cal'd of us but Shene of old which name that prudent King Henry it gave because to him it brought in fathers right The Honor and the Stile whereby he Earle of Richmond hight But it of Edward King halas our Hector wailes the death Whose soule here freed from body which it scorn'd with vitall breath Departed hence right willingly in heaven to live for ay Whom had not cruell-sudden death untimely fetcht away He would by sword have thee bereft O France of Valois line Or them of thee And after a few verses set betweene Tamisis alternum sentit reditumque fugamque Huc reflui pelagi quoties vaga Cynthia pronos Octavâ librat coeli statione jugales Aut tenet oppositam varianti lumine plagam Plenior increscit celeremque recurrit in aestum Atque superbus ait concedant flumina nobis Nulla per Europae dotatas nomine terras Flumina tam longè sic certis legibus undas Alternas renovant nisi fratres Scaldis Albis Tamis heere by turnes alternative doth feele both ebbe and flow Of Sea by course of wandring Moone that rules tide heere below As oft as she with each eight point of heaven above doth meete Or holds the points full opposit as lights doe change and fleete He growes more full and sooner hath recourse to flowing tide And then in pride of heart he saith All rivers else beside Vaile unto me No streame so farre through Europe keepes againe His tide so just unlesse the Scheld and Elb my brethren twaine About foure miles from the Tamis within the Country Nonesuch a retiring place of the Princes putteth downe and surpasseth all other houses round about which the most magnificent Prince King Henry the Eighth in a very healthfull place called Cuddington before selected for his owne delight and ease and built with so great sumptuousnesse and rare workemanship that it aspireth to the very top of ostentation for shew so as a man may thinke that all the skill of Architecture is in this one piece of worke bestowed and heaped up together So many statues and lively images there are in every place so many wonders of absolute workemanship and workes seeming to contend with Romane antiquities that most worthily it may have and maintaine still this name that it hath of Nonesuch according as Leland hath written of it Hanc quia non habeant similem laudare Britanni Saepè solent Nullique parem cognomine dicunt The Britans oft are wont to praise this place For that through all The Realme they cannot shew the like and Nonesuch they it call As for the very house selfe so invironed it is about with Parkes full of Deere such daintie gardens and delicate orchards it hath such groves adorned with curious Arbors so pretty quarters beds and Alleys such walkes so shadowed with trees that Amenitie or Pleasantnesse it selfe may seeme to have chosen no other place but it where she might dwell together with healthfulnesse Yet Queene Mary made it over to Henry Fitz-Alan Earle of Arundell for other Lands and he when he had enlarged it with a Librarie passing well furnished and other new buildings passed over all his right when he died to the L. Lumley who for his part spared no cost that it might be truely answerable to the name and from him now is it returned againe by compositions and conveiances to the Crowne Neere hereunto
we may see in the Histories whether by celestiall influence or other hidden causes I leave to the learned But so farre as I could hitherto reade it did never set foote in England before that time Besides these places before named of great name and marke wee must not overpasse neither Melton Mowbray neere unto this Burton a Mercate Towne bearing name of the Mowbraies sometime Lords thereof wherein is nothing more worth the seeing than a faire Church nor Skeffington standing farther off which as it hath given name to a worshipfull Family so againe it hath received worship and credit from the same The River that watereth this part of the Shire is by the Inhabitants about it called the Wreken along which upon resemblance of the name I have sought VERNOMETUM but in vaine This Wreken gathereth a strong streame by many lively Brookes resorting unto it whereof one passeth by Wimondham an ancient habitation of a younger branch of the house of the Lords Barkleis well encreased by an heire of Dela-Laund and so on by Melton Mowbray before mentioned by Kirkby Bellers where there was a Priory having that addition of the Bellers a respective rich and noble Family in their time by Brokesby a seat now of the Villiers of an old Norman race and descended from an heire of Bellers which Brokesby imparted formerly the sirname to the Brokesbies of especiall antiquity in these parts Then the Wreken speedeth by Ratcliffe high mounted upon a cliffe and within few miles conjoyneth it selfe to Soar neere unto Mont-Soar-hill before mentioned Whatsoever of this Shire lieth beyond the Wreken Northward is not so frequently inhabited and part of it is called the Wold as being hilly without wood wherein Dalby a seat of the old Family of the Noels of whom I shall speake elsewhere and Waltham on the Wold a meane Mercat are most notable Through this part as I have beene enformed passeth the Fosse-way made by the Romans from Lewing Bridge by Segrave which gave sirname to the honourable Family often mentioned and the Lodge on the Wold toward the Vale of Bever but the Tract thereof as yet I know not This Shire hath beene more famous from time to time by reason of the Earles thereof have beene very renowned And seeing it had under the Saxons government Earles by inheritance I will first reckon them up in order as Thomas Talbot a skilfull Antiquary hath delivered me a note of them out of the kings Records In the time of Aethelbald King of the Mercians and in the yeere of our Redemption 716. Leofrick was Earle of Leicester whom there succeeded in direct line Algar the first Algar the second Leofrick the second Leofstane Leofrick the third buried in Coventry Algar the third who had issue two sonnes Aeadwin Earle of March Morkar Earle of Northumberland and a daughter named Lucy first married to Ivon Talboys of Anjou afterwards to Roger of Romara who begat of her William of Romara Earle of Lincolne Now when as the issue male of this Saxon Family failed and the name of the Saxons was troden as it were under foot Robert Beaumont a Norman Lord of Pont Audomar and Earle of Mellent after that Simon an officiary Earle of Leicester was dead obtained his Earledome in the yeere of our Lord 1102. at the bountifull hand of King Henry the First which Robert A man for skill and knowledge excellent faire spoken subtile wise and witty and by nature wily who while hee lived in high and glorious estate an other Earle carried away his wife from him whereupon in his old age being much troubled in minde he fell into deepe melancholy After him succeeded from father to sonne three Roberts the first sirnamed Bossu because hee was crook-backed who after he had rebelled against King Henry the First weary of his loose irregular life became a Chanon Regular the second sirnamed Blanch-maines of his lily-white-hands who sided with the young King against King Henry the Second and dyed in the expedition of King Richard the First to the Holy Land the third sirnamed Fitz-Parnell because his mother was Parnels daughter and one of the heires to Hugh Grant-maismill the last in whose right hee was Seneschall or Steward of England and died issuelesse in the time of King John A few yeeres after Simon Montfort descended from a base sonne of Robert King of France who had married the sister of Robert Fitz-Parnell enjoyed this honour But after that hee and his were expelled in the yeere 1200. as wholy devoted to the French Ranulph Earle of Chester attained unto this Dignity not in right of inheritance but by his Princes favour Howbeit afterwards Simon Montfort sonne of the foresaid Simon obtained this honour when Almarik his eldest brother surrendred up his right before King Henry the Third This Simon stood in so gracious favour with King Henry the Third that hee called him home againe out of France when he was banished heaped upon him great wealth admitted him unto the Earledome of Leicester granted to him the Stewardship of England and to honour him the more gave him his owne sister in marriage But hee thus over-heaped with honourable benefits when he had no meanes to requite them such is the perverse wilfulnesse of men beganne hatefully to maligne him yea and did most wickedly molest the good King having so well deserved making himselfe Ringleader to the rebellious Barons and with them raising horrible tempests of civill warre in which himselfe also at length was overthrowne and slaine As for his Honours and Possessions King Henry the Third gave and graunted them to Edmund his owne younger sonne Earle of Lancaster So afterward this honour lay as it were obscured among the Titles of the house of Lancaster and Mawde the daughter of Henry Duke of Lancaster being married to Henry Duke of Bavaria Earle of Henault Holland Zeland c. added unto his other Titles this of Earle of Leicester also For in the Charter dated the five and thirty yeere of King Edward the Third hee is in plaine termes stiled William Earle of Henhault and of Leicester yea and as we finde in the Inquisition made Anno 36. of the said King Edward the Third shee by the name of Dutchesse of Bavaria held the Castle Manour and Honour of Leicester After whose decease without issue that honour reverted to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster who had wedded Blanch the other sister of Mawde From which time it became united to the House of Lancaster untill in our remembrance it reflourished in L. Robert Dudley who was by Queene Elizabeth girt with the sword of the Earledome of Leicester and extraordinarily favoured whereupon the States Generall of the united Provinces in their great troubles chose him triumphantly for their absolute Governour and soone after as contemptuously rejected him reserving all Soveraignty to themselves But after a short time he passed out of this transitory life
in the yeere 1588. leaving the fame onely of his greatnesse behinde him Within this Shire are 200. Parish Churches RVTLANDIAE Omnium in Anglia Comitatu um minimus Pars olim CORITANORVM RUTLAND-SHIRE RUTLAND in the old English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is environed within Leicester-shire unlesse it be on the South-side where it lieth upon the river Welland and on the East-side where it butteth upon Lincoln-shire A Country nothing inferiour to Leicester-shire either in fruitfull qualitie of soile or pleasantnesse but in quantitie onely as being the least County of all England For lying in forme almost round like a circle it is in compasse so farre about as a light horseman will ride in one day Whence it is that the Inhabitants tell a tale of I wote not what king who should give to one Rut so much land as he could ride about in one day and that he forsooth rode about this shire within the time appointed and so had it given him and named it by his owne name Rutland But let such fables bee packing I would not have the trueth prejudiced with an extravagant tale And where as the earth in this shire is every where red and so red that even the sheepes fleeces are thereby coloured red whereas also the English-Saxons called Red in their tongue Roet and Rud may we not suppose that this Countrey was named Rutland as one would say a Redland For as saith the Poet. Conveniunt rebus nomina saepè suis. The names as often times we see With things themselves full well agree Now that places in all Nations have had their names of rednesse Rutlan Castle in Wales built on a shore of red earth Redbay Redhill Redland The Red Promontory The Red-Sea also betwixt Aegypt and Arabia Erytheia in Ionia and a number besides may proove most evidently So that there is no cause why we should give credit to fables in this behalfe As for this little County it may seeme to have beene ordained a Shire or County but of late daies For in King Edward the Confessors time it was counted a part of Northampton-shire and our Historiographers who wrote three hundred yeeres agoe and upward reckoned it not in the number of Shires Wash or Guash a little river which runneth from the West Eastward through the middle of it divideth it in twaine In the hithermore or South part riseth Uppingham upon an high ascent whence that name was imposed not memorable for any thing else but because it is counted a well frequented Mercat towne and hath for to shew a proper Schoole which together with another at Okeham R. Ihonson a Minister of Gods word in a good and laudable intent for the training up of children in good literature lately erected with the money he had gotten together by way of collection Under this standeth Drystoke which in no wise is to be passed over with silence considering it hath been the habitation from old time of a right ancient race of the Digbyes which I grieve to utter it but all men know it hath now caught a deepe steine by Sir Everard Digby drawne into that cursed crew who most horribly complotted with one divelish flash of hellish Gun-pouder to blow up both Prince and Country More Eastward upon the river Welland I saw nothing remarkeable unlesse it be Berohdon now Barodon which Thomas Beauchamp Earle of Warwicke held with South Leffingham now South Luffenham and other Hamelets by service to be the Kings Chamberlaine in the Exchequer On the further part beyond the river among the hils there spreadeth below a very pleasant and fruitfull vale named at this day The vale of Catmose happily of Coet maes which signifieth in the Brittish tongue a field full of woods In the middest whereof Okeham sheweth it selfe which by the like reason may seeme to have taken the name from Okes where hard by the Church which is large and faire remaine the crackt and decaying walls of an old Castle which Walkelin de Ferrariâ—s built in the first times of the Norman Kings And that it hath been the dwelling place of the Ferrars besides the credit of writers and generall report the great horse shoes which in times past that family gave in their armes fastned upon the gate and in the hall may sufficiently proove Afterwards it belonged to the Lords of Tatteshall But when King Richard the second had promoted Edward the Duke of Yorkes sonne to the Earledome of Rutland he gave unto him this Castle also But within our Fathers remembrance it befell unto Thomas Cromwel and was reputed the seat of his Baronie whom King Henry the Eighth advanced to the highest pitch of dignity and streightwaies when by his plotting and attempting of many matters he had cast himselfe into the tempestuous stormes of envy and displeasure bereft him on a sudden both of life and dignity Over against it Eastward there standeth Burley most daintily seated and overlooking the vale A stately and sumptuous house now of the Haringtons who by marrying the daughter and heire of Colepeper became Lords of so faire an inheritance that ever since they have flourished in these parts like as before time the Colepepers had done unto whom by N. Green the wealthy and goodly Livelod of the Bruses in part had descended As for those Bruses being men of the chiefe Nobility in England they were engraffed into the Roiall stocke and family of Scotland out of whom by Robert the eldest brother the race Roiall of Scotland are sprung-like as by Bernard the younger brother the Cottons of Connington in Huntingdon-shire of whom I have written already and these Haringtons In which regard and gracious respect King James advanced Sir Iohn Harington branched from that stem that the ancient Lords Harington to the title of Baron Harington of Exton a towne adjacent where he hath also an other faire house Moreover on the East side by the river Guash stands Brigcasterton whereof I will say more afterward and Rihall where when superstition had so bewitched our ancestours that the multitude of their pety Saints had well neere taken quite away the true God one Tibba a pety Saint or Goddesse reputed to bee the tutelar patronesse of Hauking was of Foulers and Faulkoners worshipped as a second Diana Essendon also is neere adjoyning the Lord whereof Sir Robert Cecil a good sonne of a right good father the strength and stay of our Common-wealth in his time was by King James created Baron Cecil of Essendon in the first yeere of his reigne This little County King Edward the Confessor by his last Will and Testament bequeathed unto his wife Eadith yet with this condition that after her death it should come to S. Peter of Westminster For these be the very words of the said Testament I will that after the death of Queene Eadith my wife ROTELAND with all the appertenances thereto be given to my Monastery of the most blessed