Isle Lodhus So obtained Olave the kindgome of the Isles MCCXXXVII On the twelfth Calends of June died Olave the sonne of Godred King of Man in S. Patricks Iland and was buried in the Abbey of Russin He reigned eleven yeeres two by his brothers life and nine after his death Harold his sonne succeeded him being 14. yeeres of age and reigned 12. yeeres In the first yeere of his reigne he made a journey to the Ilands and appointed Loglen his cousin Custos of Man In the Autumne following Harald sent three sonnes of Nell namely Dufgald Thorquill Mormore and his friend Ioseph to Man for to consult about affaires On the 25. day therefore they meet at Tingull and by occasion of a certaine envious quarrell that arose between the sonnes of Nell and Loglen there was a sore fight on both sides wherein were slaine Dufgald Mormore and the foresaid Joseph In the spring ensuing King Harald came to the Isle of Man and Loglen as he fled toward Wales perished by Shipwracke with Godred Olaves sonne his foster child and pupill with 40. others MCCXXXVIII Gospatricke and Gillescrist the sonne of Mac-Kerthac came from the King of Norway into Man who by force kept Harald out of Man and tooke tributes to the Kings behoofe of Norway because he refused to come unto the King of Norwaies Court. MCCXL Gospatric died and is buried in the Abbey of Russin MCCXXXIX Harald went unto the King of Norway who after two yeeres confirmed unto him his heires and successours under his seale all the Ilands which his predecessours had possessed MCCXLII Harald returned out of Norway to Man and being by the inhabitants honourably received had peace with the Kings of England and of Scotland Harald like as his father before him was by the King of England dubbed Knight and after he had been rewarded with many gifts returned home The same yeere he was sent for by the King of Norway and married his daughter And in the yeere 1249. as he returned homeward with his wife and Laurence King elect of Man and many other Nobles and Gentlemen he was drowned in a tempest neere unto the coasts of Radland MCCXLIX Reginald the sonne of Olave and brother to Harald began his reigne the day before the Nones of May and on the thirtieth day thereof was slaine by one Yvar a Knight and his company in a medow neere unto the Holy Trinity Church on the South side and lieth buried in the Church of Saint Mary of Russin At that time Alexander King of Scots rigged and brought together many ships meaning to subdue the Iland and in the I le Kerwaray he died of an ague Harald the sonne of Godred Don usurped the name of King in the Ilands all the Nobles of Harald King Olaves sonne hee banished and placed in their stead all the Princes and Peeres that were fled from the said Harald MCCL. Harald the sonne of Godred Don being by missives sent for went unto the King of Norway who kept him in prison because he had unjustly intruded himselfe into the kingdome The same yeere there arrived at Roghalwaght Magnus the son of Olave and John the sonne of Dugald who named himselfe King but the people of Man taking it to the heart that Magnus was not nominated would not suffer them to land there many of them therefore were cast away and perished by shipwracke MCCLII Magnus the sonne of Olave came to Man and was made King The next yeere he went to the King of Norway and stayed there a yeere MCCLIV Haco King of Norway ordained Magnus Olaves sonne King of the Isles and confirmed the same unto him and his heires and by name unto his brother Harald MCCLVI. Magnus King of Man went into England and was knighted by the King of England MCCLVII The church of S. Maries of Russin was dedicated by Richard of Sodore MCCLX Haco King of Norway came unto the parts of Scotland and without any exploit done turned to the Orkneys where at Kirwas he ended his daies and lyeth enterred at Bergh MCCLXV Magnus Olaves sonne King of Man and of the Ilands departed this life at the Castle of Russin and was buried in the Church of S. Mary de Russin MCCLXVI The kingdome of the Ilands was translated by reason of Alexander King of Scots That which followeth was written in another hand and of a later character MCCLXX The seventh day of October a navy set out by Alexander King of Scots arrived at Roghalwath and the next morrow before sun rising a battaile was fought between the people of Man and the Scots in which were slain of the Manksmen 537. whereupon a certaine versifier played thus upon the number L. decies X. ter penta duo cecidere Mannica gens de te damna futura cave L. Ten times told X. thrice with five beside and twaine Ware future harmes I reed of thy folke Man were slaine MCCCXIII Robert King of Scots besieged the Castle of Russin which Dingawy Dowyll held against him but in the end the King won the castle MCCCXVI On the Ascension day Richard le Mandevile and his brethren with other Potentates of Ireland arrived at Ramaldwath requesting to be furnished with victuals and silver for that they had been robbed by the enemies warring upon them continually Now when the commonality of the country had made answer that they would not give them any they advanced forward against those of Man with two troops or squadrons untill they were come as far as to the side of Warthfell hill in a field wherein John Mandevile remained and there in a fought battell the Irish vanquished the Manksmen spoiled the Iland and rifled the Abbey of Russin and after they had continued in the Iland one whole moneth they returned home with their ships fraught with pillage Thus endeth the Chronicle of the K.K. of Man The Processe or course of the Historie following I will now continue summarily out of other Writers WHen Alexander the third King of Scots had gotten into his hands the Westerne Ilands partly by way of conquest and in part for ready money paid unto the King of Norway hee attempted the I le of Man also as one of that number and through the valiant prowesse of Alexander Stewart brought it under his dominion yea and placed there a petty King or Prince with this condition that hee should be ready alwaies at his command to serve with ten ships in his warres at sea Howbeit Mary the daughter of Reginald King of Man who was become the Liege-man of John King of England entred her suit for the Iland before the King of England but answer was made unto her that shee should demand it of the King of Scots for that he then held it in possession And yet her grand-child John Waldebeof for the said Mary married into the house of Waldebeofe sued for his ancient right in Parliament holden in the 33. yeere of King Edward the first before the K. of England as the superiour
from both sides then setting foote to foote as if they fought man to man they maintained fight a longer time But when the English men had most valiantly received their first violent on set the Norman horsmen with full cariere put forward and gave an hot charge But seeing they also could not breake the battaile they retired for the nonce and yet kept their rankes in good order The Englishmen supposing them to flie presently disranged themselves and in disray preassed hard upon the enemies but they all on a sudden bringing backe their companies charged them a fresh on every side with all their joynt forces thicke united together and so enclosing them round about drove them backe with great slaughter who not withstanding having gotten the higher ground withstood the Normans a long time untill Harold himselfe was shot through with an arrow and fell downe dead for then straightwaies they turned their backes and betooke themselves every man to flight The Duke lofty and haughty with this victory and yet not unmindfull of God the giver thereof errected in memoriall of this battaile an Abbey to the glory of God and S. Martin which he called de Bello or Battaile Abbey in that very place where Harold after many a wound and stab among the thickest of his enemies gave up the ghost that the same might bee as it were an everlasting monument of the Normans victorie and therein he offered his sword and royall robe which he ware the day of his Coronation These the Monkes kept untill their suppression as also a table of the Normans gentry which entred with the Conquerour but so corruptly in later times that they inserted therein the names of such as were their benefactours and whosoever the favour of fortune or vertue had advanced to any eminencie in the subsequent ages About this Abbey there grew afterwards a towne of the same name or that I may use the words of the private History of this Abbey As the Abbey encreased there were built about the compasse of the same one hundred and fifteene houses of which the towne of Battell was made Wherein there is a place called by a French word Sangue lac of the bloud there shed which by nature of the ground seemeth after raine to wax red Whence William Newborough wrote although untruely thus The place in which there was a very great slaughter of the English men fighting for their countrey if peradventure it be wet with any small showre sweateth forth very fresh bloud endeed as if the very evidence thereof did plainely declare that the voyce of so much Christian bloud there shed doth still cry from the earth to the Lord. But to the said Abbey King William the Conquerour granted many and great priviledges And among other to use the very words of the Charter If any thiefe murderer or felon for feare of death fly and come to this Church let him have no harme but be dismissed and sent away free from all punishment Be it lawfull also for the Abbat of the same Church to deliver from the gallowes any thiefe or robber wheresoever if he chance to come by where such execution is in hand Henrie the First likewise that I may rehearse the words of his Charter instituted a mercate to be there kept on the Lords day free from all toll and tallage But Sir Anthony Browne Lord Vicount Mount-acute who not long since in that place built a goodly house obtained of late by authoritie of Parliament that this mercate should bee held upon another day And as for the priviledges of Sanctuary in those more heinous and grievous crimes they are here and every way els by Parliamentary authoritie quite abolished For they perceived well that the feare of punishment being once removed stout boldnesse and a will to commit wickednesse grew still to greater head and that hope of impunity was the greatest motive of ill-doing Neither heere or in that quarter nere adjoyning saw I any thing worth relation but onely Ashburnham that gave the name to a family of as great antiquity as any one in all this tract Hastings which I spake of called in the English Saxon tongue 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is situate somewhat higher upon the same shore Some there bee that ridiculously derive this name from out of our tongue from haste or quicknesse forsooth because as Matthew Paris writeth William Conquerour at Hasting did set up hastily a fortresse of timber But it may seeme to have taken this new name of Hastings a Danish Pirate who wheresoever hee landed with intent to spoile and raise booties built oftentimes fortresses as we read in Asserius Menevensis of Boemflote castle built by him in Essex as also of others at Appledor and Middleton in Kent The tradition is that the old towne of Hastings is swallowed up of the sea That which standeth now as I observed is couched betweene a high cliffe sea-ward and as high an hill land-ward having two streetes extended in length from North to South and in each of them a parish Church The haven such as it is being fedde but with a poore small rill is at the South end of the Towne and hath had a great Castle upon the hill which over commanded it now there are onely ruines thereof and on the said hill Light houses to direct sailers in the night time Here in the reigne of King Althelstan was a mint-house Afterward it was accounted the first of the Cinque Ports which with the members belonging to it namely Seford Peuensey Hodeney Bulverhith Winchelsey Rhy c. was bound to finde one and twenty ships for warre at sea In what manner and forme if you desire to know both this Port and the rest also were bound to serve the King in his warres at sea for the immunities that they enjoy in most ample manner have heere in those very same words whereby this was in times past recorded in the Kings Exchequer Hastings with his members ought to find at the Kings summons one and twenty ships And in every shippe there must bee one and twenty tall and able men well armed and appointed for the Kings service Yet so as that summons bee made thereof on the Kings behalfe fortie daies before And when the foresaid ships and men therein are come to the place whereunto they were summoned they shall abide there in the Kings service for fifteene daies at their owne proper costs and charges And if the King shall have farther neede of their service after the fifteene daies above said or will have them to stay there any longer those ships with the men therein being whiles they remaine there shal be in the Kings service at the kings costs and charges so long as it shall please the king to wit The Master of every ship shall receive sixe pence by the day the Constable sixe pence a day and every one of the rest three pence by the day Thus Hastings flourished
seeing that it answereth backe againe with the encrease of an hundred fold that which is sowne Here may you see the high wayes and common lanes clad with apple-trees and peare-trees not set nor graffed by the industry of mans hand but growing naturally of their owne accord The ground of it selfe is enclined to beare fruits and those both in taste and beautie farre exceeding others whereof some will last a whole yeare and not wither and rivell so that they are serviceable untill new come againe for supply There is no countrey in all England so thicke set as this Province with Vine-yards so plentifull in encrease and so pleasant in taste The very wines thereof made affect not their mouthes that drinke of them with any unpleasing tartnesse as being little inferiour in sweetnesse and odour to the French wines The houses in it are almost innumerable the Churches passing faire and the townes standing very thicke But that which addeth unto all these good gifts a speciall glory is the river Severne than which there is not any one in this land for channell broader for streame swifter for fish better stored There is in it a daily rage and fury of the waters which I know not whether I may call a gulfe or whirle poole of waves and the same raising up the sands from the bothome winding and driving the same upon heapes commeth with a forcible violence and reacheth no further then to the bridge Sometimes also it overfloweth the bankes and when it hath roved about a great way it retireth backe as a conquerour of the land Vnhappy is that vessell which it taketh full upon the side The Water-men well ware hereof when they see that Higra comming for so they call it in English turne the vessell affront upon it and so cutting through the middest of it checke and avoide the violence thereof But that which hee saith of the hundred fold increase and yeeld of the ground doth not hold true Neither for all that would I thinke with these whining and sloathfull husbandmen whom Columella taketh up for it that the soile is now wearied and become barren with too much fruitfulnesse and over-free bearing in former ages Howbeit hereby if I should say nothing of other things it is to bee seene that wee have no cause to wonder why many places in this countrey and else-where in England are called Vine-yards seeing it hath affoorded wine and surely it may seeme to proceed rather of the Inhabitants idlenesse than any distemperature and indisposition of the ayre that it yeeldeth none at this day But why in some places within this Countrey as wee reade in our Statutes by a private custome which now is become of strong validitie as a law the goods and lands of condemned persons fall into the Kings hands for a yeare onely and a day and after that terme expired contrary to the custome of all England beside returne to the next heires let law-students and Statesmen looke to that for no part it is of my purpose to search thereinto Now I will take a superfiall survey such as I can of those three parts whereof I spake orderly one after another The part that lyeth more West beyond Severne which the Silures in old time possessed along the river Vaga or Wye that parteth England and Wales was wholy bespred with thicke tall woods we call it at this day Deane-forrest The Latine writers some name it of the Danes Danica Sylva the Danes wood others with Girald the Wood of Danubia But I would thinke if it had not this name of Dean a little towne adjoyning that by short cutting the word it was called Deane for Arden Which terme both Gauls and Britans in ancient times may seeme to have used for a wood considering that two mighty great woods the one in that part of Gaule called Gallia Belgica and the other among us in Warwick-shire are by one and the selfe same name termed Arden For this was a wonderfull thicke Forrest and in former ages so darke and terrible by reason of crooked and winding wayes as also the grisly shade therein that it made the inhabitants more fierce and bolder to commit robberies For in the reigne of Henry the sixt they so infested all Severne side with robbing and spoiling that there were lawes made by authority of the Parliament for to restraine them But since that rich Mines of Iron were heere found out those thicke woods began to wax thin by little and little In this Forrest upon the foresaid river stood Tudenham and Wollaston two townes of good antiquity which Walter and Roger the brethren of Gislebert Lord of Clare wrested out of the Welch-mens hands about the yeare 1160. As also Lidney is adjoyning to them where Sir William Winter Viceadmirall of England a renowned Knight for Sea-services as his brother Arthur slaine in Orkeney-Isles built a faire house But the most ancient towne of all others is ABONE or AVONE mentioned by Antonine the Emperour in his Iourney-booke which having not lost that name altogether is at this day called Aventon a small towne indeed but standing upon Severne just nine miles as hee writeth from VENTASILVRVM or Caer-went And seeing that Avon in the Brittish tongue importeth A River it shall be no strange thing if we thinke it so called of the river for in the very same signification that I may omit the rest we have Waterton Bourne and Riverton as the Latines had Aquinum and Fluentium And I suppose the rather that it tooke name of the river because people were wont at this place to ferry over the river whereupon the towne standing over against it is by Antonine called TRAIECTVS that is a passage or ferry but without doubt the number in that place set downe is corrupted For he maketh it nine miles betweene TRAIECTVS and ABONE whereas the river is scarce three miles broad It may seeme then to have beene utterly decaied or turned rather into a village either when as passengers began to ferry over below or when Athelstane thrust out the Welsh Britans from hence For hee was the first that drave them as William of Malmesbury witnesseth beyond the river Wye And where as before his time Severne was the bound betweene the English and Welshmen hee appointed Wye to be the limit confining them both Whence our Necham writeth thus Inde vagos vaga Cambrenses hinc respicit Anglos To Wales on this side looketh Wie On that againe our England he doth eye Not farre from Wye amongst blind by-wayes beset with thicke plumps of trees appeareth Breulis Castle more than halfe fallen downe remarkable for the death of Mahel youngest sonne of Miles Earle of Hereford For there his greedy devises bloody crueltie and covetousnesse ready to pray upon other mens estates for which vices hee is much blamed in Writers were overtaken with a just revenge from heaven For as Girald hath written being entertained guest-wise by
William who enjoyed it a short time dying also without issue So by Amice the second daughter of the forenamed Earle William married to Richard de Clare Earle of Hertford this Earledome descended to Gilbert her sonne who was stiled Earle of Glocester and Hertford and mightily enriched his house by marrying one of the heires of William Marshall Earle of Pembroch His sonne and successour Richard in the beginning of the Barons warres against king Henry the Third ended his life leaving Gilbert his sonne to succeed him who powerfully and prudently swaied much in the said wars as he inclined to them or the king He obnoxious to King Edward the First surrendred his lands unto him and received them againe by marrying Joane the Kings Daughter sirnamed of Acres in the Holy-land because shee was there borne to his second Wife who bare unto him Gilbert Clare last Earle of Glocester of this sirname slaine in the flower of his youth in Scotland at the battaile of Sterling in the 6. yeare of K. Edward the second Howbeit while this Gilbert the third was in minority Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer who by a secret contract had espoused his mother the Kings daughter for which he incurred the kings high displeasure and a short imprisonment but after reconciled was summoned to Parliaments by the name of Earle of Glocester and Hertford But when Gilbert was out of his minority he was summoned amongst the Barons by the name of Sir Ralph de Mont-hermer as long as he lived which I note more willingly for the rarenesse of the example After the death of Gilbert the third without children Sir Hugh Le De-Spenser commonly named Spenser the younger was by writers called Earle of Glocester because he had married the eldest sister of the said Gilbert the third But after that he was by the Queene and Nobles of the Realme hanged for hatred they bare to K. Edward the 2. whose minion he was Sir Hugh Audley who had matched in marriage with the second sister through the favour of King Edward the Third received this honour After his death King Richard the Second erected this Earledome into a Dukedome and so it had three Dukes and one Earle betweene and unto them all it prooved Equus Sejanus that is Fatall to give them their fall Thomas of Woodstocke youngest sonne to King Edward the Third was the first Duke of Glocester advanced to that high honour by the said King Richard the Second and shortly after by him subverted For when he busily plotted great matters the King tooke order that he should be conveyed secretly in all haste to Calis where with a featherbed cast upon him he was smouthered having before under his owne band confessed as it stands upon Record in the Parliament Rols that he by vertue of a Patent which hee had wrested from the King tooke upon him the Kings regall authority that he came armed into the Kings presence reviled him consulted with learned about renouncing his allegiance and devised to depose the King for which being now dead he was by authority of Parliament attainted and condemned of high Treason When hee was thus dispatched the same King conferred the Title of Earle of Glocester upon Thomas Le De-Spenser in the right of his Great Grand-mother who within a while after sped no better than his great Grand-father Sir Hugh For by King Henry the fourth he was violently displaced shamefully degraded and at Briston by the peoples fury beheaded After some yeares King Henry the Fifth created his brother Humfrey the second Duke of Glocester who stiled himselfe the first yeare of King Henry the Sixth as I have seene in an Instrument of his Humfrey by the Grace of God sonne brother and Uncle to Kings Duke of Glocester Earle of Henault Holland Zeland and Penbroch Lord of Friesland Great Chamberlaine of the Kingdome of England Protector and Defender of the same Kingdome and Church of England A man that had right well deserved of the common wealth and of learning but through the fraudulent practise and malignant envie of the Queene brought to his end at Saint Edmunds Bury The third and last Duke was Richard brother to King Edward the Fourth who afterwards having most wickedly murdred his Nephewes usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third and after two yeares lost both it and his life in a pitched field finding by experience that power gotten by wicked meanes is never long lasting Concerning this last Duke of Glocester and his first entry to the Crowne give me leave for a while to play the part of an Historiographer which I will speedily give over againe as not well able to act it When this Richard Duke of Glocester being now proclaimed Protector of the Kingdome had under his command his tender two Nephewes Edward the Fifth King of England and Richard Duke of Yorke he retriving after the Kingdome for himselfe by profuse liberality and bounty to very many by passing great gravitie tempered with singular affabilitie by deepe wisdome by ministring justice indifferently and by close devises wonne wholly to him all mens hearts but the Lawyers especially to serve his turne So shortly he effected that in the name of all the States of the Realme there should be exhibited unto him a supplication wherein they most earnestly besought him for the publike Weale of the Kingdome to take upon him the Crowne to uphold his Countrey and the common-weale now shrinking and downe falling not to suffer it to runne headlong into utter desolation by reason that both lawes of nature and the authority of positive lawes and the laudable customes and liberties of England wherein every Englishman is an inheritor were subverted and trampled under foote through civill wars rapines murthers extortions oppressions and all sorts of misery But especially ever since that King Edward the fourth his brother bewitched by sorcerie and amorous potions fell in fancie with Dame Elizabeth Greie widdow whom he married without the assent of his Nobles without solemne publication of Banes secretly in a profane place and not in the face of the Church contrary to the law of Gods Church and commendable custome of the Church of England and which was worse having before time by a precontract espoused Dame Aeleanor Butler daughter to the old Earle of Shrewsburie whereby most sure and certaine it was that the foresaid matrimony was unlawfull and therewith the children of them begotten illegitimate and so unable to inherite or claime the Crowne Moreover considering that George Duke of Clarence the second brother of King Edward the Fourth was by authority of Parliament convicted and attainted of high treason thereupon his children disabled and debarred from all right succession evident it was to every man that Richard himselfe remained the sole and undoubted heire to the Crowne Of whom they assured themselves that being borne in England he would seriously provide for the good of England neither could they make any doubt of his
Saint Peter and be yeelded up without delay for ever unto the Abbot and to the Monkes there serving God yet King William the Conquerour cancelled and made voide this Testament who reserving a great part of it to himselfe divided the rest betweene Countesse Iudith whose daughter was married to David King of Scots Robert Mallet Oger Gislebert of Gaunt Earle Hugh Aubrey the Clerk and others And unto Westminster first he left the Tithes afterwards the Church onely of Okeham and parcels thereunto appertaining This County hath not had many Earles The first Earle of Rutland was Edward the first begotten Sonne of Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke created by King Richard the Second upon a singular favour that he cast unto him during his Fathers life and afterwards by the same King advanced to the honour of Duke of Aumarle This young man wickedly projected with others a practise to make away King Henry the Fourth and streight waies with like levity discovered the same But after his Fathers death being Duke of Yorke lost his life fighting couragiously amid the thickest troupes of his enemies in the battaile of Agincourt Long time after there succeeded in this Honour Edward the little young Sonne of Richard Duke of Yorke and he together with his Father during those deadly broiles of civill warre was slaine in the battaile fought at Wakefield Many yeeres after King Henry the Eighth raised up Sir Thomas Mannours to be Earle of Rutland who in right of his Grand-mother Aeleonor was possessed of a goodly and faire inheritance of the Barons Roos lying in the countries round about and elsewhere In his roome succeeded his Sonne Henry and after him likewise Edward his Sonne unto whom if I should say nothing else that commendation of the Poet was most aptly and truly appliable Nomen virtutibus aequat Nec sinit ingenium nobilitate premi His name so great with vertues good he matcheth equally Nor suffreth wit smuthring to lie under Nobility But he by over hasty and untimely death being received into Heaven left this dignity unto John his Brother who also departing this life within a while hath for his successor Roger his Sonne answerable in all points to his ancient and right noble parentage This small Shire hath Parish Churches 48. LINCOLNIAE Comitatus vbi olim insederunt CORITANI LINCOLNE-SHIRE VPon Rutland on the East side confineth the County of LINCOLNE called by the English-Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by the Normans Nicol-shire after their comming into the Land with some transposition of letters but usually LINCOLNE-SHIRE A very large Country as reaching almost threescore miles in length and carrying in some places above thirty miles in bredth passing kinde for yeeld of Corne and feeding of Cattaile well furnished and set out with a great number of Townes and watered with many Rivers Upon the Eastside where it bendeth outward with a brow fetching a great compasse the German Ocean beateth on the shore Northward it recheth to Humber an arme of the sea on the West side it butteth upon Nottingham-shire and on the South it is severed from Northampton-shire by the River Welland This whole Shire is divided into three parts whereof one is called Holland a second Kesteven and the third Lindsey Holland which Ingulph termeth Holland lyeth to the sea and like unto that Holland in Germanie it is so throughly wet in most places with waters that a mans foote is ready to sinke into it and as one standeth upon it the ground will shake and quake under his feet and thence it may seeme to have taken the name unlesse a man would with Ingulph say that Holland is the right name and the same imposed upon it of Hay which our Progenitours broadly called Hoy. This part throughout beareth upon that ebbing and flowing arme of the Sea which Ptolomee calleth METARIS instead of Maltraith and wee at this day The Washes A very large arme this is and passing well knowne at every tide and high sea covered all over with water but when the sea ebbeth and the tide is past a man may passe over it as on dry land but yet not without danger Which King John learned with his losse For whilest he journied this way when he warred upon the rebellious Barons the waters suddenly brake in upon him so that at Fosse-dyke and Welstream he lost all his carriage and princely furniture as Matthew of Westminster writeth This Country which the Ocean hath laied to the land as the Inhabitants beleeve by sands heaped and cast together they it terme Silt is assailed on the one side with the said Ocean sea and in the other with a mighty confluence of waters from out of the higher countries in such sort that all the Winter quarter the people of the country are faine to keepe watch and ward continually and hardly with all the bankes and dammes that they make against the waters are able to defend themselves from the great violence and outrage thereof The ground bringeth forth but small store of corne but plenty of grasse and is replenished abundantly with fish and water-fowle The Soile throughout is so soft that they use their Horses unshod neither shall you meet so much as with a little stone there that hath not beene brought thither from other places neverthelesse there bee most beautifull Churches standing there built of foure square stone Certaine it is that the sea aforetime had entred farther up into the Country and that appeareth by those bankes formerly raised against the waterwaves then in-rushing which are now two miles off from the shore as also by the hils neere Sutterton which they call Salt-Hils But of fresh water there is exceeding great want in all places neither have they any at all but raine water and that in pits which if they be of any great depth presently become brackish if shallow they dry up as soone Neither are there Quicksands wanting which have a wonderfull force to draw to them and to hold fast as both Shepheards and their poore Sheepe also finde other whiles not without danger This Holland or Hoiland whether you will is divided into two parts The Lower and the Higher The Lower hath in it soule and slabby quavemires yea and most troublesome Fennes which the very Inhabitants themselves for all their stilts cannot stalke through And considering that it lieth very low and flat fenced it is of the one side against the Ocean on the other from those waters which overwhelme the upper part of the Isle of Ely with mighty piles and huge bankes opposed against the same Of which Southybanke is of greatest name which least it should have a breach made through it with that infinite masse of water that falleth from the South part when the Rivers swell and all is overflowne by inundation the people watch with great care and much feare as against a dangerous enemy And yet for the draining away of this water the neighbour Inhabitants at the common charges
in old time a very small village it is at this day containing in it scarce foureteene dwelling houses and those but little ones and hath no monument of antiquitie to shew beside an ancient mount which they call Old-burie For on the one side Atherstone a mercate towne of good resort where there stood a Church of Augustine Friers now turned into a Chappell which neverthelesse acknowledgeth Mancester Church for her mother and Nun-Eaton on the other side by their vicinity have left it bare and empty Close unto Atherstone standeth Mery-Vale where Robert Ferrars erected a Monastery to God and the blessed Virgin Mary wherein himselfe enwrapped in an Oxe-hide for a shrouding sheet was interred Beyond these Northeastward is Pollesworth where Modwena an Irish Virgin of whom there went so great a fame for her holy life built a religious house for Nuns which R. Marmion a Noble man repaired who had his Castle hard by at Stippershull Neere unto this place also there flourished in the Saxons daies a towne that now is almost quite gone called then SECANDUNUM and at this day Seckinton where Aethelbald King of the Mercians in civill warre about the yeere of our Lord 749. was stabbed to death by Beared and soone after Offa slew Beared so that as by bloudy meanes he invaded the Kingdome of Mercia he likewise lost the same suddainely It remaineth now that we reckon up the Earles of Warwick for to passe over Guare Morind Guy of Warwick of whose actes all England resoundeth and others of that stampe whom pregnant wits have at one birth bred and brought forth into the world Henry the sonne of Roger de Beau-mont and brother to Robert Earle of Mellent was the first Earle descended of Normans bloud who had married Margaret the daughter of Ernulph de Hesdin Earle of Perch a most mighty and puissant man Out of this Family there bare this Honourable title Roger the sonne of Henry William the sonne of Roger who died in the thirtieth yeere of King Henry the Second Walleran his brother Henry the sonne of Walleran Thomas his sonne who deceased without issue in the sixe and twentieth yeere of King Henry the Third leaving behinde him Margery his sister who being Countesse of Warwicke and barraine departed this life yet her two husbands first Iohn Mareschal then John de Plessetis or Plessey in their wives right and through their Princes favour mounted up to the Honourable dignitie of Earles of Warwicke Now when these were departed without any issue by that Margery Waller and Uncle unto the said Margery succeeded them After whom dying also childlesse his sister Alice enjoyed the inheritance Afterwards her sonne William called Malduit and Manduit of Hanslap who left this world and had no children Then Isabell the said William Malduits sister being bestowed in marriage upon William de Beauchamp Lord of Elmesly brought the Earledome of Warwicke into the Familie of the Beauchamps who if I deceive not my selfe for that they came of a daughter of Ursus de Abtot gave the Beare for their cognisance and left it to their posteritie Out of this house there flourished sixe Earles and one Duke William the sonne of Isabell John Guy Thomas Thomas the younger Richard and Henry unto whom King Henry the Sixth graunted this preheminence and prerogative without any precedent to be the first and chiefe Earle of England and to carry this stile Henricus Praecomes totius Anglia Comes Warwici that is Henry chiefe Earle of all England and Earle of Warwicke he nominated him also King of the Isle of Wight and afterwards created him Duke of Warwicke and by these expresse words of his Parent graunted That he should take his place in Parliaments and elsewhere next unto the Duke of Norfolke and before the Duke of Buckingham One onely daughter he had named Anne whom in the Inquisitions wee finde entituled Countesse of Warwicke and shee died a child After her succeeded Richard Nevill who had married Anne sister to the said Duke of Warwicke a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrustie the very tennisse-ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the Sixth a most bountifull Prince to him from his regall dignitie placed Edward the Fourth in the royall throne and afterwards put him downe too restored Henry the Sixth againe to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of civill warre which himselfe at the length hardly quenched with his owne bloud After his death Anne his Wife by Act of Parliament was excluded and debarred from all her lands for ever and his two daughters heires to him and heires apparant to their mother being married to George Duke of Clarence and Richard Duke of Glocester were enabled to enjoy all the said lands in such wise as if the said Anne their mother were naturally dead Whereupon the name stile and title of Earle of Warwicke and Sarisbury was graunted to George Duke of Clarence who soone after was unnaturally dispatched by a sweet death in a Butte of Malvesey by his suspicious brother King Edward the Fourth His young sonne Edward was stiled Earle of Warwicke and being but a very child was beheaded by King Henry the Seventh to secure himselfe and his posteritie The death of this Edward our Ancestors accounted to be the full period and finall end of the long lasting warre betweene the two royall houses of Lancaster and Yorke Wherein as they reckoned from the twenty eight yeere of Henry the Sixth unto this being the fifteenth of Henry the Seventh there were thirteene fields fought three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Marques eighteene Earles with one Vicont and twenty three Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives From the death of this young Earle of Warwicke this title lay asleepe which King Henry the Eighth feared as a fire-brand of the State by reason of the combustion which that Richard Nevill that whip-king as some tearmed him had raised untill that King Edward the Sixth conferred it upon Iohn Dudley that derived his pedigree from the Beauchamps who like unto that Richard abovesaid going about in Queene Maries daies to turne and translate Scepters at his pleasure for his Traiterous deepe ambition lost his head But his sonnes first Iohn when his father was now Duke of Northumberland by a courteous custome usually received held this title for a while and afterwards Ambrose a most worthy personage both for warlike prowesse and sweetnesse of nature through the fauour of Queene Elizabeth received in our remembrance the Honour of Earle of Warwick to him and his heires males and for defect of them to Robert his brother and the heires males of his body lawfully begotten This Honour Ambrose bare with great commendation and died without children in the yeere one thousand five hundred eighty nine shortly after his brother Robert Earle of Leicester
solemne investure and a kisse in full Parliament upon his eldest Sonne who gloriously bare the name of King Henry the Fifth His Sonne King Henry the Sixth who at his Fathers death was an Infant in the cradle conferred likewise this honour which he never had himselfe upon his young Sonne Edward whose unhappie fortune it was to have his braines dashed out cruelly by the faction of Yorke being taken prisoner at Tewkesbury field Not long after King Edward the Fourth having obtained the Crowne created Edward his young Sonne Prince of Wales who was afterwards in the lineall succession of Kings Edward the Fifth of that name And within a while after his Unkle King Richard the Third who made him away ordained in his roome Edward his owne Sonne whom King Edward the Fourth had before made Earle of Salisburie but he died quickly after Then King Henrie the Seventh created his eldest sonne Arthur Prince of Wales and when he was dead Henrie his other Sonne well knowne in the world by the name of King Henrie the Eighth Every one of these had the Principality of Wales given unto them by the foresaid solemne investure and delivery of a Patent To hold to themselves and their Heires Kings of England For Kings would not bereave themselves of so excellent an occasion to doe well by their Eldest Sonnes but thought it very good policie by so great a benefit to oblige them when they pleased Queene Mary Queene Elizabeth and King Edward the Children of King Henrie the Eighth although they never had investure nor Patent yet were commonly named in their order Princes of Wales For at that time Wales was by authoritie of Parliament so annexed and united to the Kingdome of England that both of them were governed vnder the same Law or that you may reade it abridged out of the Act of Parliament The Kings Country or dominion of Wales shall stand and continue for ever incorporated united and annexed to and with the Realme of England and all and singular person and persons borne and to be borne in the said Principalitie Country or Dominion of Wales shall have enioy and inherit all and singular freedomes liberties rights priviledges and Lawes within this Realme and other the Kings Dominions as other the Kings Subiects naturally borne within the same have enioy and inherit and the Lawes Ordinances and Statutes of the Realme of England for ever and none other shall he had used practised and executed in the said Country or Dominion of Wales and every part thereof in like manner forme and order as they be and shall be in this Realme and in such like manner and forme as heereafter shall be further established and ordained This Act and the calme command of King Henrie the Seventh preparing way for it effected that in a short time which the violent power of other Kings armes and especially of Henrie the Fourth with extreame rigour also of Lawes could not draw on in many yeeres For ever sithence the British Nation hath continued as faithfully and dutifully in their Loyall Allegiance to the Crowne of England as any other part of the Realme whatsoever Now am I to returne out of Wales into England and must goe unto the Brigantes BRIGANTES BRITAINE which hitherto hath as it were launched out with huge Promontories looking on the one side toward Germanie on the other side toward Ireland now as if it were afraid of the Sea violently inrushing upon it withdraweth it selfe farther in and by making larger separations of lands retireth backe gathered into a farre narrower breadth For it is not past one hundred miles broad from coast to coast which on both sides passe on in a maner with straight and direct shores Northward as farre as to Scotland All this part well neere of the Island while the Romane Empire stood upright and flourished in Britaine was inhabited by the BRIGANTES For Plinie writeth that they dwelt from the East Sea to the West A nation this was right valiant populous withall and of especiall note among ancient Authors who all doe name them BRIGANTES unlesse it be Stephanus onely in his booke Of Cities who called them BRIGAE in which place that which he wrote of them is defective at this day in the bookes by reason that the sentence is imperfect If I should thinke that these were called Brigantes of Briga which in the ancient Spanish tongue signified A Citie I should not satisfie my selfe seeing it appeareth for certaine out of Strabo that it is a meere Spanish word If I were of opinion with Goropius that out of the Low Dutch tongue they were termed Brigantes as one would say Free-hands should I not obtrude upon you his dreames for dainties Howsoever the case standeth our Britanes or Welsh-men if they see any of a bad disposition and audaciously playing lawlesse and lewde parts use to say of them by way of a common merry quippe Wharret Brigans that is They play the Brigants And the French-men at this day alluding as it seemeth to the ancient language of the Gaules usually terme such lewde fellowes Brigans like as Pirats Ships Brigantins But whether the force of the word was such in old time in the Gaules or Britanes language or whether our Brigantes were such like men I dare not determine Yet if my memory faile me not Strabo calleth the Brigantes a people about Alpes Grassatores that is Robbers and Iulius a Belgian a young man of desperate boldnesse who counted power authority honestie and vertue to be nothing but naked names is in Tacitus surnamed Briganticus With which kinde of vice our old Brigantes may seeme to have been tainted when they so robbed and spoiled the neighbour inhabitants that the Emperour Antoninus Pius for this cause tooke away a great part of their Country from them as Pausanias witnesseth who writeth thus of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Antoninus Pius cut the Brigantes in Britaine short of a great part of their Country because they began to take armes and in hostile maner to invade Genunia a Region subject to the Romanes Neither will any I hope take this as a reproach Surely I should seeme farre unlike my selfe if I fell now to taxe ignominiously any private person much lesse a Nation Neither was this counted a reproachfull imputation in that warlike age when all Nations reckoned that their right which they could winne or hold by might and dint of sword Roberies saith Caesar among the Germans are not noted with infamie such I meane as are committed without the borders of every State and they allow the practise thereof to exercise their youth withall and to keepe them from idlenesse And for a reason not unlike the Paeones among the Greekes are so called quia Percussores that is because they were cutters The Quadi among the Germans and the Chaldaei likewise are reported to have gotten those names because they used to robbe and kill Now in that Florianus Del-Campe a Spaniard hath
f Torksey 538 a Torneaments 407 d Tosto vanquished 145 Totnes 201 e Totnesse shore 202 Touchets a family 584 b. Barons de Audeley ibid. Tovie the Kings Standard bearer 439 d Tovie the river 649 d Toure d' Ordre 345 c Tower of London 423 e Towridge river 207 f Tourington 208 b Towton battell 696 d Trabucks 400 Tracies 36â— d Traiford a place and family 747 Traith Maur 666 a Traith Bichan ibid. Traith Taff 642 c Trebellius Max. Propretor in Britaine 52 Treboeth 605 f Trederman 783 b Trâ—es under ground 745 d. 607 Tregaron 657 d Tregonie 190 Tregian ibid. Tregoz Barons 617 d Trelawnies 192 Trematon 193 Trenewith 661 e Trent a riveret 213 Trent a river 547 Treutham a Monastery 583 Treshams a family 509 c Trevilions 196 b Triadum a British booke 33 Tribet 29 Tribunals or Courts of Iustice in England 177 Tribunitian auctority 101 Trihine what it was 159 Trimarcia 18 Tripetia 20 Trophee in Cornwall 188 Trubridge 244 e True-place 802 a Trusbut 540 e Tuddington 401 f Tufa a Banner 195 Tuisco the Saxons stock-father 135 Tuisday ibid. Tunbridge why so called 330 a Tunstall a worthy Prelate 744 d Turbervelis or de Turbida villa 213 e Turbevils a family 643 e Turkil a Coward 464 e Turkils of Arden 565 d Turkil the Dane 500 b Tirold Abbot of Peterborough 513 a Turton Chappell and tower 745 Turpins Knights 517 Turets a family 594 e Turvy 399 b Tuscets or Touchets Barons Audeley 609 a Tutbury Castle 587 f Twede the river 814 e Twifford 813 c Twinamburue 259 c Tyrants in Britain 23 Tzetzes a fabulous Greeke writer 32 V VAle a river 189 Vale 393 b Vale of Ailesbury 395 c Vale Roiall 608 d Vallachians why so called 11 Valle Crucis 677 a Valect what hee is 663. a worshipfull title 713 c Valoinois a family 465 f Valtorts 193 Valvasores 168 Vandals and Burgundians in Britaine 114 Vandals brought into Britaine by Probus 71 Vandelberia 489 d Vargae 19 Varia what it signifieth 679 c Vaulx Barons 786 b. 510 Ubbanford 816 b Uchel 21.190 Vectius Bolanus 53 Venables Barons of Kindreton 609 b Vandraeth Vehan a river 649 Venedocia 659 f Venutius a Potentate of Britain 48 Venutius warreth upon his wife Cartismandua 53 Verannius Propretor in Britaine 49 Verbeia the river Wherfe and a Goddesse 697 Veres Earles of Oxford 389 d Vere the good Earle 390 b Vere Earle of Oxford became a Monke 450 d Vere 202 f Vere Earle of Oxford and Marquesse of Dublin Verdons a family 517 f. 620 b Veriad 19 Vernaies Knights 565 a Vernons a family 567 a Verulam or Verlam Citie in old time 408 f Vesey Barons 722 c. neere to Saint Albons Verulam Tribute 409 c Vespasian his acts in Britaine 41 42 Uffa 458 a Ufkins ibid. Ufford a towne 465 c Valentinian an Arrian 83 Valentine a rebell in Britaine suppressed 80 Ufford Earle of Suffolke 465 c Uffords 813 b Vicarius or Vicegerent in Britan 76 Vicounts what title of Honour 167 Vicount of Honour who was first in England 521 e Victor the sonne of Maximus slaine 83 Victorina 271 b Victorinus a commendable governour under Honorius in Britaine 85 Victorie what names it hath in divers languages 457 e Vecturiones who so called 117 Vellocatus Costrell to Venutius marieth his wife 53 Victrix a Legion 604 c Vies 244 a Villa forinseca what it is 391 e Villiers a family 523 a Vineyards in Britaine 71 The Vine 269 d Vines in England ibid. e Vinyards in Glocestershire 357 f Vincents Rocke 239 a Virius Lupus Propretor 69 Virgins eleven thousand Martyrs 197 a. 286 c Visigothi 294 c Visi Saxones ibid. Viscounts a family Vitsan 347 d Vitrum 19 Viterinus 691 d Ulpius Marcellus a brave warriour 66. his vigilancy and temperance ibid. Ulphus his horne 704 e Ulse a lake 776 c Ulstley 773 a Ulysses whether ever in Britaine 32 Ulyssippo that is Lisbon whence it tooke name 32 Ulverston 755 c Umfranvils a family 806 b. 535 University Colledge in Oxford 381 c University a publicke schoole 381 b Unstrote a river 138 Voisy Bishop of Excester 567 Vortigern the last Monarch of British blood and the bane of his country 624 b. burnt with Lightning ibid. Vortigerne alias Gourtigern sendeth for Saxons 128 Vortimer a valiant Britaine where buried 538 e Uppingham 525 e Upton 577 Vortiporius a Tyrant of the Dimetae 113 Ursula an holy Virgin 197 Ursus de Abtot 570. Sheriffe of Worcestershire 578 e Usa or Isa that is Ouse a river 296 Usipians their venturous and memorable fact 57 Uske a river 628 a Uske a towne 636 c Utcester 587 e Uther Pendragon 195. why so called 410 Uxbridge 419 â— W WAda a Saxon Duke 719 b Wadensbourg 241 d Wadham 382 a Wahul Woodhil or Odill 399 c Barons de Wahul ibid. Wakes Barons Wake and Estotevill 202 d. 407 533 a Wakes of Blisworth 533 b Wakefield 693 d Wakeman of Rippon 700 d Wainfleete in Lincolne-shire 542 b Wales 615 c d. 22. annexed and united to the Crowne of England 114 Walch 22 Walcher Bishop of Durham slain in a Commotion 743 d Wall by Lichfield 582 e Wall of Turfe betweene Edenburgh Frith and Cluid 86 Walls end 811 b Wall of stone built in Britaine 86 Wallbery 453 d Walbrooke in London 423 a Walbeofs a family 628 e Walden 452 b Walde of Earle of Northampton and of Huntingdon 502 c 515 c. his disloyall treachery ibid. Walleran Earle of Mellent and first Earle of Worcester 579 a Wallers 330 e Wallerond 618 a Walfleot Oisters 444 d Walli Wallon 22.113 Wallingford 281 d Wallop or Welhope a place 262 Wallops a family ibid. b Wallot Isle 443 c Walmesford bridge 511 d Walnut-tree at Glastenburie 227 Walney an Island 755 c Walpole 481 b Walshal 581 f Walsh a family 364 Walsh what it signifieth 113 Walsingham 470 c Walsingham a towne 479 c Walsingham Knights ibid. Walter de Hemingford 721 Walter 752 f Walter Espec 709 d Waltham Crosse 437 d Waltham Forest 439 c Waltham Abbey or Waltham Crosse a towne 439 c Walton in Darbyshire 556 b Walton a place and familie 572 Walwick 802 a Walwort a herbe called Danes-blood 452 b Wandlesworth 303 a Wandle a river 287 f Wansdike 241 d Wantage 281 a Wantsum or Wentfar a riveret 473 c. see stour in kent Ware a towne 407 c Wapentakes what they bee 159 Ware a Priest and Baron of the Parliament 746 a Wests Barons de la Ware 312 Warburgton a place and familie 610 b Wards 179 Wardens of the Marches 799 b Warden of the Cinque ports 325 b Wardon 401 c Wardon Hundred in Northamptonshire 507 b Wardour a Castle 246 a Ward-staff 440 c Warham towne 213 c Warkworth 813 a Warington 748 b Warnford 269 a Warre civill betweene Yorke and Lancaster determined in the death of Edward the young Earle of Warwicke 570 Warwast 201 c Warwick-shire 561 Warwick towne 562 f Warwick Earles 569 f Warwicke in Cumberland 778 a Wash a