Lancashire whither there repaired to them Sir Thomas Broughton with some small company of English The King by that time knowing now the Storm would not divide but fall in one place had levied Forces in good number and in person taking with him his two designed Generals the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Oxford was come on his way towards them as far as Coventry whence he sent forth a Troop of Light-horsmen for discovery and to intercept some straglers of the Enemies by whom he might the better understand the particulars of their Progress and purposes which was accordingly done though the King otherwise was not without Intelligence from Espials in the Camp The Rebels took their way towards York without spoiling the Countrey or any act of Hostility the better to put themselves into favour of the People and to personate their King who no doubt out of a Princely feeling was sparing and compassionate towards his Subjects But their Snow-ball did not gather as it went For the People came not in to them Neither did any rise or declare themselves in other parts of the Kingdom for them which was caused partly by the good tast that the King had given his People of his Government joyned with the reputation of his Felicity and partly for that it was an odious thing to the People of England to have a King brought in to them upon the shoulders of Irish and Dutch of which their Army was in substance compounded Neither was it a thing done with any great Judgement on the Party of the Rebels for them to take their way towards York Considering that howsoever those parts had formerly been a Nursery of their Friends yet it was there where the Lord Lovel had so lately disbanded and where the King's presence had a little before qualified discontents The Earl of Lincoln deceived of his hopes of the Countries concourse unto him in which case he would have temporized and seeing the business past Retract resolved to make on where the King was and to give him Battel and thereupon marched towards Newark thinking to have surprised the Town But the King was somewhat before this time come to Nottingham where he called a Council of War at which was consulted whether it were best to protract time or speedily to set upon the Rebels In which Council the King himself whose continual vigilancy did suck in sometimes causeless Suspitions which few else knew inclined to the accelerating a Battel But this was presently put out of doubt by the great Aids that came in to him in the instant of this Consultation partly upon Missives and partly Voluntaries from many parts of the Kingdom The principal persons that came then to the King's aid were the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Strange of the Nobility and of Knights and Gentlemen to the number of at least Threescore and ten persons with their Companies making in the whole at the least Six Thousand fighting men besides the Forces that were with the King before Whereupon the King finding his Army so bravely re-enforced and a great alacrity in all his men to fight was confirmed in his former Resolution and marched speedily so as he put himself between the Enemies Camp and Newark being loth their Army should get the commodity of that Town The Earl nothing dismayed came forwards that day unto a little Village called Stoke and there camped that night upon the brow or hanging of a Hill The King the next day presented him Battel upon the Plain the fields there being open and champion The Earl couragiously came down and joyned Battel with him Concerning which Battel the Relations that are left unto us are so naked and negligent though it be an Action of so recent memory as they rather declared the Success of the day than the Manner of the Fight They say that the King divided his Army into three Battels whereof the Vaunt-guard only well strengthned with Wings came to fight That the Fight was fierce and obstinate and lasted three hours before the Victory inclined either way save that Judgement might be made by that the King's Vaunt-guard of it self maintained fight against the whole Power of the Enemies the other two Battels remaining out of action what the success was like to be in the end That Martin Swart with his Germans performed bravely and so did those few English that were on that side neither did the Irish fail in courage or fierceness but being almost naked men only armed with Darts and Skeins it was rather an Execution than a Fight upon them insomuch as the furious slaughter of them was a great discouragement and appalement to the rest That there dyed upon the place all the Chieftains that is the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare Francis Lord Lovel Martin Swart and Sir Thomas Broughton all making good the fight without any ground given Only of the Lord Lovel there went a report that he fled and swam over Trent on horseback but could not recover the further side by reason of the steepness of the Bank and so was drowned in the River But another report leaves him not there but that he lived long after in a Cave or Vault The number that was slain in the field was of the Enemies part Four thousand at the least and of the King's part one half of his Vaunt-guard besides many hurt but none of name There were taken Prisoners amongst others the Counterfeit Plantagenet now Lambert Simnel again and the crafty Priest his Tutor For Lambert the King would not take his Life both out of Magnanimity taking him but as an Image of Wax that others had tempered and molded and likewise out of Wisdom thinking that if he suffered death he would be forgotten too soon but being kept alive he would be a continual Spectacle and a kind of remedy against the like Inchantments of People in time to come For which cause he was taken into service in his Court to a base office in his Kitchin so that in a kind of Mattacina of humane fortune he turned a Broach that had worn a Crown Whereas Fortune commonly doth not bring in a Comedy or Farce after a Tragedy And afterwards he was preferred to be one of the King's Falconers As to the Priest he was committed Close-prisoner and heard of no more the King loving to seal up his own dangers After the Battel the King went to Lincoln where he caused Supplications and Thanksgivings to be made for his Deliverance and Victory And that his Devotions might go round in Circle he sent his Banner to be Offered to our Lady of Walsingham where before he made his Vows And thus delivered of this so strange an Engin and new Invention of Fortune he returned to his former confidence of mind thinking now that all his misfortunes had come at once But it fell out unto him according to the Speech of the common People in the beginning of his Reign that said It was a token he
had fortified themselves as well as the shortness of time would permit them and the Peasants thereabouts bring all their goods into the City as to a place of safeguard The City was of no great circuit yet at the beginning of the Siege it contained fourscore thousand People by reason whereof Victuals began quickly to fail them and they could no way hope for relief The French King was far off they had no Garrison the Citizens bad Soldiers two great Princes had begirt the Town with fifty thousand men but they had an Enemy within called Famine more cruel and insupportable than both So having for some few days held out the Siege the nine and Twentieth of September their lives being granted them they yield and to save themselves from spoil pay a hundred thousand Crowns The King makes them swear Fealty to him and appoints Sir Edward Poynings a Knight of the Garter their Governour Next he gives order for store of Warlike provision puts in a small Garrison and builds a Cittadel for the confirmation of his Conquest Neither amongst these Politick affairs did he neglect those of the Church For the Bishop being proscribed he conferrs the See with all the revenues upon Thomas Wolsey of whose first rising and immoderate Power we shall have much occasion to speak hereafter All things being thus ordered because Winter came on apace he began to bethink himself of returning with his Army into England This thought so far pleased him that having been absent scarce four Months he took Ship and about the end of October came home triumphing in the Glory of a double Conquest By the way he was entertained with the news of another Victory the Lord Howard Earl of Surrey having under his Fortune slain the King of Scots The King of France being encumbred with many Wars had conjured James the Fourth King of Scots By the ancient Laws of Amity and the late League made between them that He would not forsake him entangled in so many difficulties If He regarded not his Friend's case yet he should at least look to Himself sor whom it would not be safe to suffer a bordering Nation always at enmity with Him by such additions to arise to that height of power The King of England busied with a forein War was now absent and with Him the flower of the English Chivalry He should therefore forthwith take Arms and try to recover Berwick an especial Town of the Scottish Dominions but for many years with-held by the English He would easily be victorious if He would but make use of this occasion so happily offered It could not be but this War would be for His Honour and profitable to His Friend if not to Himself He should thereby also make known to His Enemies that the Scottish Arms were not to be contemned whose former Victories a long and to them hurtful Peace had obscured and buried in oblivion among the English As for the charges of it He need not be troubled for that he would afford Him fifty thousand Crowns towards the providing of Munition and Ordnance These Reasons so prevailed with the young King covetous of glory that notwithstanding he had lately made a League with our King whose Sister he had married and her vehement dissuasions he proclaimed War against Henry which proved fatal to him bloody to his and the cause of many ensuing calamities So having raised a great Army he breaks into our Marches and besiegeth Norham-Castle belonging to the Bishop of Durham the which having held out six days was at last yielded unto him Thence he removes his Camp to Berwick wasting all the Countrey as he marcht with Fire and Sword The news whereof are brought unto them to whom the government of the Kingdom was committed in the absence of the King and a levy being made through all the North parts of the Kingdom Alnewike is appointed the rendezvous where all the Troops should meet at a set day that thence they might set forward against the Enemy under the conduct of the Lord Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Among the first to his Father's great joy comes the Earl's Son Thomas Lord Admiral leading a veteran Troop of five thousand men of tryed valour and haughty in regard of their former Naval Victories obtained under the command of this young Lord. After him came the Lords Dacres Clifford Scrope Latimer Canyers Lumley and Ogle besides Sir Nicholas Appleyard Master of the Ordnance Sir W. Percie Sir William Sidney Sir William Bulmer Sir John Stanley Sir William Molineux Sir Thomas Strangwayes Sir Richard Tempest and many other Knights These sitting in Council thought it best to send an Herald to the King to expostulate with him concerning the outrages committed to complain that He had without all right or reason spoiled the Countrey of a Prince not only Ailied unto him but also his Confederate and therefore to certifie him that they were ready by Battel to revenge the breach of League if so be he durst await their coming but a few days in a ground that might be fitting for the meeting of both Armies The King makes answer by writing wherein He retorts the violation of the League calling God to witness that King Henry had first by his many injuries shown evident signs of an alienated mind For the English he pretended robbed all along the Marches of Scotland without restitution or punishment Andrew Barton a stout and bonest man had been unjusty slain by the King's command and one Heron who had murthered Robert Car a Scottish Noble-man vaunted himself openly in England the King taking no notice of so heinous a fact Of these things he had often complained by his Ambassadors but without effect There was therefore no other way for him but to betake himself to Arms for the common defence of himself and his Kingdom against the King's injustice As for the meeting he signified that he accepted of it and appointed both time and place for the Battel Neither party failed the prefixed day The Scot seeks to animate his men by taking away all hope of safeguard by flight commanding them I know not how wisely but the event shewed how unhappily for them to forsake their Horses forasmuch as they were to trust to their Hands not to their Horses heels and by his own example shewing what he would have done he alights and prepares himself to fight on foot The rest doing the like the whole Army encountred us on foot to whom after a long and bloody fight the fortune of the Victory inclined The Scots had two and twenty pieces of great Ordnance which stood them in no stead For our men climbing up a Hill where the Enemy sate hovering over us the shot passed over our heads Our chief strength were our Archers who so incessantly played upon four Wings of Scots for the King divided his Army into five Battalions that were but lightly armed that they forced them to flie and leave their fellows who
who must slip down a narrow Channel where but few Ships could go in front and the like number opposed might easily defend it Where they could not enter but with the Tide and Wind and the first Ships repulsed in their falling back would have disordered the rest of the Fleet where of necessity they must fight under the favour of our Forts and Cannon which would easily have hindered their approach The Enemy being put off here consult of fortifying the Isle of Wight where at St. Helens Point they land two thousand men resolve forsooth to make that the Seat of the War and there to build three Forts but the valour of the Inhabitants made them change their design and forced them again to their Ships Thus every where affronted to their loss without any memorable act they set fail for Normandy The French Fleet consisted of a hundred and three Sail of all sorts ours of only sixty so that it was no way safe for us to encounter them Some light proffers were made on both sides wherein we always came off with the better As for the Mary Rose a Ship which with her loss buried Sir George Carow the Captain and seven hundred men the French do well to make use of casualties to their own glory But it was not the valour of the French or fury of their Cannons that sunk her but the supine negligence of the Mariners being wrecked in the very Haven in the presence of the King Boloign was not idle the while Upon hope of a Fort to be built by the Marshal of Biez Francis had made great preparations for an Enterprize upon Guisnes but was diverted by the death of the Duke of Orleans his younger Son and the lost hopes of his intended Fort near Boloigne and having for a while encamped at Mont-Lambert retired at last toward Amiens The nearness of the King's Camp at Mont-Lambert did daily invite both Nations to make trial of their valour the English sometimes sometimes the French having the better One day among the rest the English hotly charging the French the Duke of Aumale comes to relieve them who being strook with a Lance under his right Eye it breaks in pieces and leaves the Trunchion half a foot within his Head It was a token of an excellent spirit in this young Nobleman that for so rough a charge he lost not his stirrups and endured the torture whereto they put him in drawing out the three square head with such an invincible constancy as if they had picked a Thorn from out his Finger and beyond all expectation of the Chirurgions recovered The Victory remained to the English who could not long brag of it afterward seeking to cut off a Convoy of the Enemies defeated by the Rhinegrave with the loss of sixteen Captains and seven or eight hundred men The Earl of Surrey who led them saved himself by flight And were it not discourtesie in us not to requite the late visit of the French The Lord Admiral therefore landed six thousand men at Treport in Normandy burned the Town and Abbey with thirty Ships and a Barque in the Haven and returned with the loss of only fourteen men Neither were our employments less or fewer in Scotland than among the French Scotland had so many enemies at home that it needed not any abroad But their home-bred dissentions had caused War from us and the way to set them at Peace was to invade them In the beginning of March Sir Ralph Evers by the death of his Father Lord Evers with an Army entred Scotland making all the Countrey desert about Jedbury and Kelson Thence marching to Coldingham fortified the Church and Tower and leaving a Garrison there departed The Garrison partly out of covetousness partly to distress the Enemy if he should lay siege to them pillaged and wasted all the neighbouring Countrey The Regent according to their expectation besiegeth the Church with eight thousand men and batters it a whole day and a night But suddenly making none of the Nobles partakers of his determinations whether out of fear to be betrayed by his Army or some other cause took horse and posted away to Dunbar which occasioned the disbanding of the Army and the freedom of the besieged Our often success having emboldened us we adventure upon another impression the fury whereof disburdened it self in Merch Teifidale and Lauden the Inhabitants being either forced to yield or flie and leave their goods to be seiled on by Bellonas Harbingers The Scots at length make head and although of more than equal number they betake themselves to stratagems They understand by their Scouts of our approach and to deceive us by the advice of Walter Scot send their Horses to the adjoyning Hills Neither indeed was the place so advantageous for Horse as for Foot The Horses backed by the Grooms that kept them did from the Hills make shew of an Army and that flying We advance as loath to let our enemies escape in the pursuit of whom we unawares fall among the whole Army not disorderly flying but prepared to receive us It is not unusual to encounter men but if Heaven and the Elements oppose us how can we hope for victory We find the number of our adverse Army great beyond our expectation the Sun far declining to the West darted his rays in our faces and a violent wind drives the smoak of the shot into our mouthes which not only made the most necessary sense unuseful but with a foul stench corrupted the Air and hindred the breathing of the already panting Souldiers The many advantages give them the Victory We leave two hundred in the place and among them the Lord Evers a thousand are taken whereof Alderman Read was one A little after this Victory Francis sent into Scotland a supply of five hundred French Horse and three thousand Footmen under the command of the Lord of Lorges Earl of Montgomery not so much to cross our attempts against the Scots as to distract our Forces that the violence of them united might not at once fall on France This year among other accidents is also memorable through the death of the King's Brother-in-Law Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk a man of a mighty spirit yet so tempering it with mildness and fair demeanour that he was generally beloved both of Prince and people Who in that height of favour carried him so evenly as to die quietly in his Bed A happiness under this Prince rare even to Fortunes and His Favourites A Parliament assembled in November granted the King the Disposal of all Colledges Chantries and Hospitals the demesnes salaries and stipends thereto belonging or given to Priests to say Mass for the Souls of the departed The King personally gave thanks to both Houses promising to have a care that they should be employed to the honour of God and the publick good But we find not the effect of his promises ANNO DOM. 1546. REG. 38 ultimo VVE are now come to
much endeavoured Reformation in point of Religion The rest who were addicted to the Doctrine of Rome could for private respects temporize fearing indeed restitution of Church goods wherein each of them shared unless an irreconcilable breach were made with that See So that whiles some eagerly oppose Popery and others coldly defend it not only what had been enacted by Henry the Eighth concerning the abrogation of the Pope's authority is confirmed but many other things are added whereby our Church was so purged from the dregs of Superstition that for Purity of Doctrine and Institution of select Ecclesiastical Rites it excelled the most Reformed Churches of Germany All Images are pulled down Priests are permitted to marry the Liturgie set forth in the English tongue the 〈◊〉 administred under both kinds Auricular Confession forbidden no man prohibited the reading of the Scriptures no Masses to be said for the Souls of the departed and many other things ordained so far differing from the Institution of our Forefathers that it administred matter to the common people who are wont to judge not according to Reason but Custom of breaking out into Rebellion And it is somewhat remarkable that the same day wherein the Images whereof the Churches were dispossessed were publickly burned at London we obtained that memorable Victory over the Scots at Musselburgh This year at Archbishop Cranmer his invitation came into England Peter Martyr a Florentine Martin Buter of Selestadt and Paulus Phagius born in the Palatinate Who being very courteously received by the King and Nobles having reposed themselves some while at Canterbury were sent Martyr to Oxford Bucer and Phagius to Cambridge there publickly to Read Divinity but Phagius having scarce saluted the University deceased of a Quartan Ague the twelfth of November in the five and fortieth year of his age Neither did Bucer long survive him who died at Cambridge the last of February 1551 being then threescore years old Martyr shortly after his coming to Oxford maintained publickly in the Schools and that with solid Arguments against Tresham and Chedsey Opponents that the Popish Transubstantiation was but a meer fiction which Disputation he after published and enlarged ANNO DOM 1548. REG. 2. THe English having this year fortified and put a strong Garrison into Hadinton a Town seated in the most fertil soil of all Scotland did from thence and Lauder make often inroads upon the bordering Countrey burning and spoiling whatsoever might be useful to the Enemy from whom they expected a Siege In the mean time had the French sent six thousand ten thousand say we men into Scotland whereof three thousand were Lansquenets led by the Rhinegrave The Lord of Essé a man of tried valour famous in the Siege of Landrecy and other Expeditions was chief of the Army These adventures landing at Dunbar march speedily for Hadinton and joyning with the Scottish Forces consisting of eight thousand men straightly besiege it At the Abbey near the Town they call a Council treat of transporting the Queen into France and marrying her to the Daulphin They whom the respect of private ends had not corrupted and withdrawn from the care of the publick weal objected That they should so draw on them a perpetual War from England and betray themselves to the slavery of the French That the Propositions made by the English were reasonable who offered a ten years Truce and sought not to entrap the Scot in any bands or prejudicial compacts their demands being no other than this That if within the ten years either the King of England or the Queen of Scots should decease all things should on each side remain entire and in their former estate Delay had often in the like cases proved advantageous whereas speedy repentance commonly followeth precipitated hast The Popish Faction especially the Clergy to whom the amity of England was little pleasing in regard of the differences in Religion and some others obliged to the French either in respect of received benefits or future profit with might and main interposed to the contrary and chiefly the Regent bought with a Pension of four thousand Crowns and the Command of one hundred Lances The French Faction prevailed for her transportation The Fleet from Leith where it harboured setting sail as if for France fetching a compass round about Scotland put in at Dunbritton where they embarqued the six-year-old Queen attended by James her base Brother John Areskin and William Leviston who being put back by contrary winds and much distressed by tempest arrived at length in Little Bretaigne and from thence set forward to the Court of France so escaping our Fleet which hovered about Calais to intercept them if as we were perswaded they needs must they crossed those neighbouring Straights Hadinton in the mean time being straightly beleaguered Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Thomas Palmer are with seven hundred Lances and six hundred light Horse sent to relieve it Buchanan saith there were but three hundred Horse the rest Foot Of what sort soever they were it is certain that before they could reach Hadington they were circumvented and slain almost to a man Yet did not the besieged let fall their courages but bravely defended themselves until Francis Earl of Shrewsbury with an Army of twelve thousand English and four thousand Lansquenets disassieged them and forced the French to retreat The Earl having supplied the Town with necessaries and reinforced the Garrison returned to Berwick What they could not by force the Enemy hopes more easily to effect by a surprisal To this end D'Essé with some select Bands arrives at Hadinton about the break of day where having killed the Centinels and taken an Half-moon before the Port some seek to force the Gates some invade our adjoyning Granaries The noise and shouts of the assailants gives an alarm to the Garrison who give fire to a Cannon planted before the Port the Bullet whereof penetrating the Gate makes way through the close ranks of the Enemies and so affrights them that they seek to save themselves by flight Fortune was not so favourable to the Garrisons of Humes and Fastcastle where by the negligence of the Centinels the designs of the Enemy were crowned with success At Humes being conducted by some that knew all the secret passages they climb up a steep Rock enter massacre the secure Garrison and enjoy the place At Fastcastle the Governour had commanded the neighbouring Husbandmen at a prefixed day to bring in their contribution of Corn and other necessary provision The Enemy makes use of this opportunity Souldiers habited like Pesants at the day come fraught with their burthens whereof easing their Horses they carry them on their shoulders over the Bridge which joyned two Rocks together and so gain entrance The watch-word being given they cast down their burthens kill the Centinels open the Gates to their fellows and become masters of the place Neither were our Naval enterprises fortunate being at St. Minian and Merne repelled with loss
but unquiet and popular and aspiring to Ruine came-in to them and was by them with great gladness and cries of Joy accepted as their General they being now proud that they were led by a Noble-man The Lord Audley led them on from Wells to Salisbury and from Salisbury to Winchester Thence the foolish people who in effect led their Leaders had a mind to be led into Kent fancying that the people there would joyn with them contrary to all reason or judgment considering the Kentish-men had shewed great Loyalty and Affection to the King so lately before But the rude People had heard Flammock say that Kent was never Conquered and that they were the freest People of England And upon these vain Noises they looked for great matters at their hands in a cause which they conceited to be for the liberty of the Subject But when they were come into Kent the Countrey was so well setled both by the King 's late kind usage towards them and by the credit and power of the Earl of Kent the Lord Abergaveny and the Lord Cobham as neither Gentleman nor Yeoman came-in to their aid which did much damp and dismay many of the simpler sort Insomuch as divers of them did secretly flie from the Army and went home But the sturdier sort and those that were most engaged stood by it and rather waxed Proud than failed in Hopes and Courage For as it did somewhat appall them that the people came not in to them so it did no less encourage them that the King's Forces had not set upon them having marched from the West unto the East of England Wherefore they kept on their way and encamped upon Black-heath between Greenwich and Eltham threatning either to bid Battel to the King for now the Seas went higher than to Morton and Bray or to take London within his view imagining with themselves there to find no less Fear than Wealth But to return to the King When first he heard of this Commotion of the Cornish-men occasioned by the Subsidie he was much troubled therewith Not for it self but in regard of the Concurrence of other Dangers that did hang over him at that time For he doubted lest a War from Scotland a Rebellion from Cornwal and the Practices and Conspiracies of Perkin and his Partakers would come upon him at once Knowing well that it was a dangerous Triplicity to a Monarchy to have the Arms of a Foreiner the Discontents of Subjects and the Title of a Pretender to meet Nevertheless the Occasion took him in some part well provided For as soon as the Parliament had broken up the King had presently raised a puissant Army to war upon Scotland And King James of Scotland likewise on his part had made great preparations either for defence or for new assailing of England But as for the King's Forces they were not only in preparation but in readiness presently to set forth under the Conduct of Dawbeney the Lord Chamberlain But as soon as the King understood of the Rebellion of Cornwal he stayed those Forces retaining them for his own service and safety But therewithal he dispatched the Earl of Surrey into the North for the defence and strength of those parts in case the Scots should stir But for the course he held towards the Rebels it was utterly differing from his former custom and practice which was ever full of forwardness and celerity to make head against them or to set upon them as soon as ever they were in Action This he was wont to do But now besides that he was attempered by Years and less in love with Dangers by the continued Fruition of a Crown it was a time when the various appearance to his Thoughts of Perils of several Natures and from divers Parts did make him judge it his best and surest way to keep his Strength together in the Seat and Centre of his Kingdom According to the ancient Indian Emblem in such a swelling Season To hold the hand upon the middle of the Bladder that no side might rise Besides there was no necessity put upon him to alter this Counsel For neither did the Rebels spoil the Countrey in which case it had been dishonour to abandon his People Neither on the other side did their Forces gather or increase which might hasten him to precipitate and assail them before they grew too strong And lastly both Reason of Estate and War seemed to agree with this course For that Insurrections of base People are commonly more furious in their Beginnings And by this means also he had them the more at Vantage being tired and harrassed with a long march and more at Mercy being cut off far from their Countrey and therefore not able by any sudden flight to get to Retrait and to renew the Troubles When therefore the Rebels were encamped on Black-heath upon the Hill whence they might behold the City of London and the fair Valley about it the King knowing well that it stood him upon by how much the more he had hitherto protracted the time in not encountring them by so much the sooner to dispatch with them that it might appear to have been no Coldness in foreslowing but Wisdom in choosing his time resolved with all speed to assail them and yet with that Providence and Surety as should leave little to Venture or Fortune And having very great and puissant Forces about him the better to master all Events and Accidents he divided them into three parts The first was led by the Earl of Oxford in chief assisted by the Earls of Essex and Suffolk These Noble-men were appointed with some Cornets of Horses and Bands of Foot and good store of Artillery wheeling about to put themselves beyond the Hill where the Rebels were encamped and to beset all the skirts and descents thereof except those that lay towards London whereby to have these Wild Beasts as it were in a Toyl The second part of his Forces which were those that were to be most in Action and upon which he relyed most for the Fortune of the Day he did assign to be led by the Lord Chamberlain who was appointed to set upon the Rebels in Front from that side which is toward London The third part of his Forces being likewise great and brave Forces he retained about himself to be ready upon all Events to restore the Fight or consummate the Victory and mean while to secure the City And for that purpose he encamped in Person in St. George's Fields putting himself between the City and the Rebels But the City of London specially at the first upon the near encamping of the Rebels was in great Tumult As it useth to be with wealthy and populous Cities especially those which for greatness and fortune are Queens of their Regions who seldom see out of their Windows or from their Towers an Army of Enemies But that which troubled them most was the conceit that they dealt with a Rout of People with whom
according to the Law which inflicted a pecuniary Mulct they that were touch'd saith Polydor Virgil cryed out that this proceeded out of Covetousness rather than Severity But the wiser sort conceived the King's intent to be partly to curb the fierce mind of the People bred up in faction partly that by these Fines he might not only weaken the rich but also increase his own strength and fortifie himself against civil Attempts whereof he had lately seen some sparkles flie abroad if so be any smothered coal should happen to break out into a flame What-ever the matter was many there were who by accusing others sought the King's favour and enlarged their own Estates amongst whom two were chief the one was called Richard Empson the other Edmund Dudley both Lawyers and both for having served the King's turn lately made Barons of the Exchequer It is said that Empson was born at Torcester in Northampton-shire his Father was a Sievier Dudley though he were well descended yet being not befriended by Fortune long strugled with Adversity But after they had some Months taken pains in these matters both of them arise to that greatness that there were few of the Nobility that would not crouch to them and be ambitious of their favour Therefore it is not so much to be wondred at if they grew exceeding wealthy But this Wealth drew with it an Envy greater than it self which nevertheless did them little hurt during the life of Henry the Seventh but afterwards cast them both down as low as Envy could have wisht The King upon his death-bed commanded in his Will and Testament that restitution should be made to all who had been wronged by the Exchequer Whereupon infinite numbers flocking to the Court and demanding restitution there could not a fitter means be thought of to stop their mouthes than by committing of Empson and Dudley the occasioners thereof to the People as Sacrifices to appease their fury They were therefore arraigned and condemned of high Treason And these things were done presently upon Henry the Eighth his coming to the Crown So their goods being seized upon they for a whole year endured the miseries that usually accompany a Prison and yet were the Commons as eager against them as ever Whence it should first arise I know not but such a report there was that the Queen had begged the poor mens Pardons The Nobility disdaining that such mean fellows had been heretofore so prevalent with their Prince and the Commons being easily incited against them by some as eager enemies to them as themselves cried out that they were cheated of their just revenge and wearying the King with continual petitions for their death he was in a manner forced to satisfie them Whereupon on the seventeenth day of August they were both publickly beheaded Such was the end of Empson and Dudley who abounding with Wealth and flourishing under their Prince's favour while they set light by all things else became a Sacrifice to the giddy multitude And it may serve to teach us to use our power moderately and to take heed how we give offence to that Beast with many heads I mean the People which being angred and having once got the reins rageth like a tumultuous Sea Dudley left behind him a Son named John who as if he had been heir to his Father's fortune being created Duke of Northumberland concluded his powerful life with the like unhappy end leaving much Issue behind him even to our time but yet whereof the heirs male have long since failed ANNO DOM. 1511. REG. 3. THis year on New-years-day the Queen was delivered of a Son Heir-apparant to this Crown but he out-lived not the three and twentieth of the ensuing February to the great grief of the King and Kingdom About the same time there came Ambassadors from Ferdinand King of Arragon who craved of the King his Son-in-Law fifteen hundred auxiliary Archers He was then in hostility with the Moors inhabiting Africk The King very willingly granted their request and having levied the full number embarqued them for Spain in four Ships of the Navy Royal under the command of Thomas Lord Darcy They were scarce arrived there when news was brought that a Peace being made Ferdinando stood in no farther need of their aid Yet every one was liberally paid the General and those of greatest note that accompanied him were richly rewarded and all being dismissed with many thanks safely returned home In their absence Margaret Duchess of Savoy who was Daughter to the Emperor Maximilian and Governess of the Netherlands under Charles the Infant of Spain prevailed with our King for the like number of Archers she having then Wars with the Duke of Gueldres against whom she meant to employ them These men in the space of five Months did many brave exploits at Brimnost Aske and Venloo under the command of Sir Edward Poynings a brave Souldier and in great favour with his Prince Of them fourteen hundred returned home much commended and well rewarded the fortune of War had cut off one hundred Four Captains in regard of their valour were Knighted by the Infant Charles afterwards Emperor viz. John Norton John Fog John Scot and Thomas Lynd. The King of Scots had then War with the Portugal under pretext whereof one Andrew Barton a famous Pirat took all Ships that coasted either England or Scotland affirming them always to be Portugals of what Nation soever they were or at least fraught with Portugal Merchandise The King sent Edward Howard Lord Admiral of England and his Brother the Lord Thomas Howard eldest Son to the Earl of Surrey with one John Hopton to take this Rover. When they had once found him out after a long and bloody fight they took him alive but mortally wounded with his two Ships and all his companions that survived the fight and brought them to London ANNO DOM. 1512. REG. 4. AS yet Henry had no War with any forein Prince neither did the wiser sort wish that he should have any But he a young King in the heat of one and twenty years was transported with a vehement desire of War which saith the Proverb is sweet to them that never tasted of it Although he had about a year or two before made a League with Lewis the Twelfth of France yet he was easily intreated by Pope Julius to renounce this Confederacy This Pope more like to that Caesar whose Name he bare than Peter from whom he would fain derive his Succession that like another Nero sitting still he might from on high be a Spectator while the whole World was on fire had written Letters to our King wherein he intreated his assistance towards the suppression of the French Who without fear of God or man these were the pretended Causes had not only sacrilegiously laid hold on the Revenues of the Church had caused Cardinal William to usurp the Papacy had upheld Alphonso of Ferara and the Bentivogli in Rebellion against him
been accordingly provided of other necessaries but they were wanting Wherefore they certified their King to what an exigent they were brought But he had his hands full elsewhere For the Spaniard had made an inroad into Aquitain and Navarre and the Suisses having lately overthrown Tremoville at Novarr had now coopt him up in Dijon in Burgoigne insomuch that his Forces being by these occasions distracted he himself had not under his Colours above twenty thousand Foot the moiety whereof were Lansquenets under the command of the Duke of Gueldres and two thousand five hundred Launces With these he comes to Amiens that the hope of Succours he being so near might encourage the Defendants For it much concerned him that the Siege should be drawn out at length In our Army were forty thousand Foot and five thousand Horse so that there was no likelihood of doing any good against us Neither indeed did the French intend especially at that time to hazard the fortune of a Battel the loss whereof in the judgment of the more expert would have been accompanied with no less than the loss of the Kingdom which would easily have followed our Victory The French King therefore sitting still at Amiens left he might seem to neglect such a City the danger whereof did throughly grieve him sends some Troops toward Therovenne with instructions to put into the City eighty Horse-men compleatly armed but without Horses the besieged desiring no other aid if possibly it could be effected as it easily was by reason of the negligence of our Centinels For indeed the desuetude of a long Peace had made our men altogether unapt for War But the indiscretion of the French far surpassed our negligence For whereas with the same hazard they might have victualled the besieged and furnished them with other necessaries which they wanted desiring but too late to amend this errour they would needs effect it the same way as before But our men had by this time raised a new Fortification to hinder their entrance and had withal placed in ambush store of Horse with fifteen thousand Foot to cut them off in their retreat The French came near the Walls but finding all entrance debarred returned without suspition of any intended mischief They had not gone far when some as if they had been out of their Enemies reach impatient of the heat cast off their Helmets some fell a drinking most leave their Horses of service and for their ease mount on little Nags Our men charge them unawares and without any resistance made put them to rout The French in this encounter lost three hundred Horse There were taken Prisoners Lewis de Longueville Marquis of Rotelin Badi Clermont d'Anjou 〈◊〉 d'Amboise Bayard La Fayet and Palisse who escapt out of Prison with many others It was then the opinion of most men that this Victory if we had but made due use of it laid an easie way for us to the Conquest of France For the French were so affrighted with the news of this overthrow that they thought of nothing but flying and the King himself with tears in his eyes bewailing his hard fortune cast about for some place of refuge and determined to post into base Bretaigne But we looking no farther than Therovenne brought our Prisoners into the Camp and without farther proscution left the Enemies to their fears The French call this The Battel of Spurs because they trusted more to their Heels than their Swords The Therovennois after this overthrow despairing of Succour came to a Parley and by the advice of their King yield up the City the three and twentieth of August upon condition That the Souldiers might depart with Bag and Baggage Colours flying and Drums beating and the Citizens permitted to carry away their goods A few days before the City was yielded Maximilian the Emperour came to our Camp and which deserves to be recorded to the eternal honour of our Nation taking for pay a hundred Crowns a day besides what was disbursed among his Souldiers disdained not to serve under our Colours wearing the Cross of England and a party-coloured Rose the usual Cognizance of our English Warfare But he rather came to be a Spectator than a Partaker in the danger Wherefore when he saw into what straights our King was likely to drive the French being weak if he would press hard upon him and pierce farther into the Kingdom although he were a profest Enemy to the French yet was he jealous of our prosperous proceeding and therefore by all means perswaded Henry To dismantle Therovenne and thence to proceed to the Siege of Tournay He blamed him not without just cause for his late setting forth Summer being first well-near spent Winter was now at hand when it would not quit cost to maintain such an Army good designs being not then to be put in execution He told him That Therovenne was so far from him that it could not be kept without great difficulty therefore he should do well to dismantle it that it might not hereafter serve for a Bulwark to the the Enemy That Tournay was a French City but like an Island with the Sea surrounded with Flanders and Hainault and far divided from the rest of France True it was that it was well stored with inhabitants and not meanly fortified but that there was no other Garrison than of Citizens and those he should find effeminate and for Provision that they had none He should therefore make speed and come on them unawares and with a few days siege force them to yield That the French King if he intended to succour them must first march through all Hainault and pass over two or three great Rivers amongst which were the Escaut and the Scarp That the Souldiers should find good booties there and the King himself the triumph of a most assured Conquest That the addition of such a City would be no mean increase of his Dominions and so much the less care to be taken of it for as much as it would be as easie for him to keep it in obedience as it was for the French for the space of so many years to defend it being placed amidst so many Enemies that still had a greedy eye over it King Henry by this time had so much of War that he began to be weary of the toil thereof and to cast his mind on the pleasures of the Court Wherefore although he wanted not Counsellors for the best he followed the Emperour's advice as being the more easie The Flemings who begged it of the King had leave to rase the Walls of Therovenne to fill the Ditches and to burn all the Buildings except the Church and the Chanons houses which they in regard of the dissentions usual to bordering Nations very gladly performed Therovenne being thus taken and destroyed away they march with all speed to Tournay endeavouring by their celerity to prevent the fame of their coming But the Citizens suspecting some such enterprize
withal acknowledging that France being now as it were in the Sun-set of its Fortune occasion was offered of advancing the English Colours farther than ever But it would neither beseem so magnanimous a King nor would it be for the good of England at this time to invade it A generous mind scorneth to insult over one already dejected Neither would the Victory beside the fortune of War want its dangers 〈◊〉 to be communicated with one already become so potent that no 〈◊〉 than the united Forces of all Europe would serve to stop the current of his fortune which must necessarily be done unless we could be content willingly to undergo the miseries of a Spanish servitude He therefore craved of his Majesty that leaving the Emperour who puffed up with his late success contemned his best Friends he would vouchsafe to make a League with the King his Master whom in this so great a time of need if he would be pleased to raise as it were from the ground he should by so great a benefit oblige him to a faithful Friendship which he should upon all occasions be ready to manifest unless for foul Ingratitude he had rather undergo the censure of the Christian World Having delivered thus much in Latin Sir Thomas More afterward Lord Chancellor returned this answer in Latin likewise That the King was well pleased that the French acknowledged he wanted not power to revenge old injuries that having felt his Force they should also tast of his Bounty that he would do the utmost of his endeavour to set their Captive King at liberty Which if he effected he hoped when he had occasion to make use of their King he would not be unmindful of so good a turn freely done in so urgent a season In the mean time he was content to make a perpetual Peace with them As for the Emperour he would consider what to determine of him So a most firm League is concluded with the French the Regent undertaking for her Son and a separation from the Emperour so openly made that the first thing concluded between them was That it should not be lawful for the French King in lieu of his ransom to consign any part of his Kingdom to the Emperour The French were glad of this League who now began to conceive some hope of good being secure of England Indeed it made so great an impression in the heart of Francis that in his care of our affairs for many years together he shewed himself mindful of so great a benefit These things were done in the Winter season A little after Francis having been a year Prisoner in Spain was upon these Conditions at length set at liberty That as soon as be came into France he should consign the Duchy of Burgoigne to the Emperour That he should quit the Sovereignty of Flanders and Arthois That he should renounce all his right pretended to the Duchy of Milan and Kingdom of Naples That he should restore to his honours the Duke of Bourbon and the rest that had revolted with him That he should marry Eleonor the Emperour's Sister Queen of Portugal That he should pay the whole summs of money heretofore due to the King of England his Sister the Queen of France and Cardinal Wolsey The payment whereof the Emperour had undertaken that we might not be endamaged by partaking with him For the performance of these and other things of less moment Francis not only bound himself by Oath but also delivered his two Sons Francis the Daulphin and Henry Duke of Orleans who should remain Hostages in Spain until all things were duly performed Francis as soon as he entred into his Realm ratified all the Articles of the Treaty but that concerning the Duchy of Burgoigne which he pretended he could not alienate without the consent of his Subjects Having therefore assembled the Estates of the Countrey for the debating of this matter upon a sudden in the presence of the Emperour's Ambassadors is publickly proclaimed the League made between the Kings of England and of France the Pope the Venetians Florentines and Suisses called the Holy League for the common liberty of Italy The Ambassadors much amazed and seeing small hopes of the Duchy of Burgoigne for which they came return into Spain and advertise the Emperour that if he will be content with a pecuniary ransom and free the two Princes the King was willing to pay it other Conditions he was like to have none In the mean time Solyman not forgetting to make his profit of these horrible confusions invaded Hungary with a great Army overthrew the Hungarians slew King Lewis the Emperour's Brother-in-Law and conquered the greatest part of the Kingdom For the obtaining of this Victory our Rashness was more available to him than his own Forces The Hungarians in comparison of their Enemies were but a handful but having formerly been many times victorious over the Turks they perswaded the young King that he should not obscure the ancient glory of so warlike a Nation that not expecting the aids of Transylvania he should encounter the Enemy even in the open fields where the Turks in regard of their multitudes of Horse might be thought invincible The event shewed the goodness of this counsel The Army consisting of the chief strength and Nobility of the Countrey was overthrown a great slaughter made and the King himself slain with much of the Nobility and chief Prelates of the Realm and among them Tomoraeus Archbishop of Colocza the chief author of this ill advised attempt I cannot omit an odd jest at the same time occasioned by Wolsey his ambition It was but falsly rumoured that Pope Clement was dead The Cardinal had long been sick of the Pope and the King lately of his Wife Wolsey perswades the King there was no speedier way to compass his desires than if he could procure him to be chosen Pope Clement being now dead Stephen Gardiner a stirring man one very learned and that had a working spirit did then at Rome solicit the King's Divorce from Queen Catharine Wherein although using all possible means and that Clement was no friend to the Emperour yet could he not procure the Pope's favour in the King's behalf Nay whether he would not cut off all means of reconciliation with the Emperour if need were or whether being naturally slow he did not usually dispatch any matter of great moment speedily or peradventure whereto the event was agreeable that he perceived it would be for his profit to spin it out at length or which some alledge that he was of opinion that this Marriage was lawfully contracted so that he could not give sentence on either side without either offence to his Conscience or his Friend the Pope could not be drawn to determine either way in this business These delays much vexed the King If matters proceed so slowly under Clement on whom he much presumed what could he expect from another Pope one perhaps wholly at the Emperour's
admitted to intimate familiarity and made use of their counsels and endeavours as if he had advanced them to no other end but to depress them Wolsey had his turn Cromwell succeeds whose sudden downfal there want not those who attribute to God's Justice inflicted on him for the Sacriledge whereof he was reported to be the Author committed in the subversion of so many Religious Houses And indeed even they who confess the rouzing of so many unprofitable Epicures out of their dens and the abolishing of Superstition wherewith the Divine Worship had by them been polluted to have been an act of singular Justice and Piety do notwithstanding complain of the loss of so many stately Churches dedicated to God's service the goods whereof were no otherwise employed than for the satisfaction of private mens covetousness and although many have abused the Vail of Religion yet was that Monastical life instituted according to the pious example of antient Fathers that they who found themselves unfit for the execution of worldly affairs as many such there are might in such their voluntary retirements spend their days in Divine Writings or Meditations and are verily perswaded that for the taking away of these things God was offended both with the King and Cromwell But Sleidan peradventure comes nearer the matter touching the immediate cause of his death About this time saith he the King of England beheadeth Thomas Cromwell whom he had from fortunes answerable to his low parentage raised to great Honours repadiates the Lady Ann of Cleve and marrieth Catharine Howard Daughter to the Lord Edmond Howard who was Brother to the Duke of Norfolk Cromwell had been procurer of the Match with Ann. But the King loving Catharine is thought to have been perswaded by her to make away Cromwell whom she suspected to be a Remora to her advancement The actions of Kings are not to be sifted too nearly for which we are charitably to presume they have reasons and those inscrutable But let us see the process of this Divorce Six months this conjugal band lasted firm without scruple the King and Queen giving daily testimonies of their mutual love On the twentieth of June the Queen is willed to remove from London where the King stayed by reason of the Parliament to Richmond a place pretended in regard of the situation and air to be more for her health On the sixth of July Reasons are proposed by certain Lords purposely sent to the lower House of Parliament demonstrating the invalidity of the King's Marriage with the Lady Ann so that it was lawful for them both to marry where they pleased The same reasons are alledged in the Convocation-House and generally approved Whereupon the Queen also whether forced or willing consenting the Parliament pronounced the Marriage void What the allegations were is uncertain Some relate disability by reason of some defects to be objected to her which seems the more probable for that in her Letters wherein she submitted her self to the judgment and determination of the Parliament she affirmed that the King never knew her carnally Whether for this or for that Nature having not over-liberally endowed her with Beauty but a private woman she became and as such not enduring to return to her friends with dishonour she lived upon some Lands assigned her by the King who always used her respectively until the fifteenth of July Anno 1557 at what time she ended her discontented life and lieth buried at Westminster on the South side of the Quire in a Tomb not yet finished Scarce had the resolution of the Convocation-House and the Decree concerning it passed both Houses when this lusty Widower with as good success as before marrieth his fifth Wife Catharine Howard When their Nuptials were celebrated is not known but on the eighth of August in Royal habiliments she shewed her self as Queen The fautors of Reformation were much dismayed at the sudden unqueening of Ann fearing not without cause lest it proving occasion of enmity between Henry and the Princes of Germany he must of necessity rely on them who misliked our divorce from Rome But the King proceeding still in the course he had begun like a torrent bearing all before him not only caused three Anabaptists to be burned but also many sincere Professors of the Truth for not subscribing to the Six Articles Among whom three Divines were most eminent viz. Robert Barnes Doctor of Divinity Thomas Gerard and William Jerome Bachechelors who by Parliament unheard being condemned for Heresie were on the one and thirtieth committed to the torments of the merciless fire At the same time and place three other Doctors of Divinity viz. Powel Able and Fetherston were hanged for denying the King's Supremacy the sight whereof made a French-man cry out in these words Deus bone quomodo hic vivunt gentes suspenduntur Papistae comburuntur Antipapistae Good God how do the people make a shift to live here where both Papists are hanged and Antipapists burned In August the Prior of Dancaster and six other for defending the Institution of the life Monastical a crime now become as capital as the greatest being also condemned by Act of Parliament were hanged The same day with the Lord Cromwell the Lord Hungerford was also Beheaded As their causes were divers so died they alike differently Cromwell's conscience quietly welcomed death to the other suffering for that most unnatural crime of Sodomy death presented it self with that horror that the apprehension of it made him as impatient as if he had been seised with a frenzy ANNO DOM. 1541. REG. 33. THe late Yorkshire Rebellion was not so throughly quenched but it again began to shew it self but by the punishment of the chief Incendiaries it was quickly suppressed Fourteen of the Conspirators were put to death Leigh a Gentleman Thornton a Yeoman and Tattershall a Clothier at London Sir John Nevil and ten others at York Which Commotion whether raised in favour of Religion or being suspected that it had any abettors beyond the Seas is thought to have hastened the death of the long since condemned Countess of Sarisbury who on the seven and twentieth of May was Beheaded in the Tower The eight and twentieth of June the Lord Leonard Grey Deputy of Ireland did on the Tower Hill publickly undergo the like punishment He was Son to the Marquis of Dorset near allied to the King and a brave Martial man having often done his Countrey good service But for that he had suffered his Nephew Gerard Fitz-Gerard Brother to Thomas lately executed proclaimed enemy to the Estate to make an escape and in revenge of some conceived private injury had invaded the Lands of the King's friends he was arraigned and condemned ending his life with a resolution befitting a brave Souldier The same day Thomas Fines Lord Dacres of the South with some other Gentlemen for the death of one Busbrig slain by them in a fray was hanged at Tyburn Many in
regard of his youth and Noble Disposition much lamented his loss and the King 's inexorable rigour ANNO DOM. 1542. REG. 34. BY this time Henry began to find the conveniency of his change having married one as fruitful in evil as his former Wives were in good who could not contain her self within the sacred limits of a Royal marriage bed but must be supplied with more vigorous and active bodies than was that of the now growing aged and unwieldy King Alas what is this momentary pleasure that for it we dare hazard a treble life of Fame of Body of Soul Heaven may be merciful but Fame will censure and the enraged Lion is implacable such did this Queen find him who procured not only her to be condemned by Act of Parliament begun the sixteenth of January and with her the Lady Jane Wife to the Viscount Rochfort behold the thrift of the Divine Justice which made her an Instrument of the punishment of her own and others wickedness who by her calumnies had betrayed her own Husband and his Sister the late beheaded Queen Ann but two others also long since executed Francis Derham and Thomas Calpepper in their double condemnation scarce sufficiently punished Derham had been too familiar with her in her virgin time and having after attained to some publick Offices in Ireland was by her now Queen sent for and entertained as a houshold Servant in which time whether he revived his former familiarity is not manifest But Culpepper was so plainly convict of many secret meetings with the Queen by the means of the Lady Rochfort that the Adultery was questionless For which the Queen and the Viscountess Rochfort were both beheaded within the Tower on the twelfth of February Derham had been hanged and Culpepper beheaded at Tyburn the tenth of the preceding December Hitherto our Kings had stiled themselves Lords of Ireland a Title with that rebellious Nation not deemed so sacred and dreadful as to force obedience The Estates therefore of Ireland assembled in Parliament Enacted him King of Ireland according to which Decree he was on the three and twentieth of January publickly Proclaimed About the same time Arthur Viscount Lisle natural Son of Edward the Fourth out of a surfeit of sudden Joy deceased Two of his Servants had been executed the preceding year for having conspired to betray Calais to the French and the Viscount as being conscious committed to the Tower But upon manifestation of his innocence the King sent unto him Sir Thomas Wriothsley Principal Secretary of Estate by whom he signified the great content he received in the Viscount's approved fidelity the effects whereof he should find in his present liberty and that degree of favour that a faithful and beloved Uncle deserved The Viscount receiving such unexpected news imbellished with rich promises and Royal tokens the King having sent him a Diamond of great value of assured favour being not sufficiently capable of so great joy free from all symptoms of any other disease the ensuing night expired After whose decease Sir John Dudley was created Viscount Lisle claiming that Honour as hereditary in the right of his Mother the Lady Elizabeth Sister and Heir to the Lord Edward Grey Viscount Lisle Wife to the late deceased Lord Arthur but formerly married to Edmund Dudley one of the Barons of the Exchequer beheaded the first year of this King's reign Which I the rather remember for that this man afterwards memorable for his power and dignities might have proved more happy in his Issue than his greatness had not his own ambition betrayed some of these fair sprouts to the blast of unseasonable hopes and nature denying any at least lawful Issue to the rest the name and almost remembrance of this great Family hath ceased Of which hereafter Scotland had been long peaceable yet had it often administred motives of discontent and jealousie James the Fifth King of Scots Nephew to Henry by his Sister having long lived a Bachelor Henry treated with him concerning a Marriage with his then only Child the Lady Mary a Match which probably would have united these neighbour Kingdoms But God had reserved this Union for a more happy time The antient League between France and Scotland had always made the Scots affected to the French and James prefer the alliance with France before that of England where the Dowry was no less than the hopes of a Kingdom So he marrieth with Magdalen a Daughter of France who not long surviving he again matcheth there with Mary of Guise Widow to the Duke of Longueville Henry had yet a desire to see his Nephew to which end he desired an interview at York or some other oportune place James would not condescend to this who could not withstanding undertake a long and dangerous voyage into France without invitation These were the first seeds of discord which after bladed to the Scots destruction There having been for two years neither certain Peace nor a just War yet incursions from each side Forces are assigned to the Duke of Norfolk to repress the insolency of the Scots and secure the Marches The Scot upon news of our being in Arms sends to expostulate with the Duke of Norfolk concerning the motives of this War and withal dispatcheth the Lord Gordon with some small Forces to defend the Frontiers The Herald is detained until our Army came to Berwick that he might not give intelligence of our strength And in October the Duke entring Scotland continued there ransacking the Countrey without any opposition of the Enemy until the middle of November By which time King James having levied a great Army resolved on a Battel the Nobility perswading the contrary especially unwilling that he should any way hazard his Person the loss of his Father in the like manner being yet fresh in memory and Scotland too sensible of the calamities that ensued it The King proving obstinate they detain him by force desirous rather to hazard his displeasure than his life This tenderness of him in the language of rage and indignation he terms cowardise and treachery threatning to set on the Enemy assisted with his Family only The Lord Maxwell seeking to allay him promised with ten thousand only to invade England and with far less than the English Forces to divert the War The King seems to consent But offended with the rest of the Nobility he gives the Lord Oliver Saintclare a private Commission not to be opened until they were ready to give the onset wherein he makes him General of the Army Having in England discovered five hundred English Horse led by Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Musgrave the Lord Saintclare commanded his Commission publickly to be read the recital whereof so distasted the Lord Maxwell and the whole Army that all things were in a confusion and they ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoyning Hill gave us a full prospect into their Army and invited us to make use of
arrived on the first of October But the King 's hasty departure permitted not all things to be sufficiently setled Part of the Artillery Victuals and Munition by the Capitulation left in Boloign were not removed from the Base Town which was fortified only with some small Trenches for the surprisal whereof the Daulphin in the night sends some Troops who before morning enter the place cut all in pieces they meet win the Artillery and Munition and think to have gotten an absolute Victory but being intent to pillage some Ensigns issue from the higher Tower find them in disorder set upon them and rout them Many of the Enemies were slain among whom was Fouquessolles another Son-in-Law of Biez the Victory not being without blood on our side Neither was our Fleet idle in the mean which scouring the Seas brought three hundred Prizes so fraught with Merchandise that the three spacious Churches of the Augustine the Gray and the Black Friers in London whose Monasteries had lately been suppressed were stored with nothing but Hogsheads of Wine The Earl of Lenox lately dispatched out of France for the managing of the affairs of Scotland to the behoof of the French found not entertainment there according to his expectation The Queen Mother and Cardinal as long as they had need of him deluded him with hopes of marrying the Queen Mother and by their secret calumnies rendred them suspected to the French At length finding his safety questionable he flies for refuge into England accompanied with Alexander Son and Heir to the Earl of Glencarn Walter Graham Brother to the Earl of Montross and Sir John Borthwick with others and were honourably received by Henry who most happily repaired the Earl's losses of Revenues in France fallen by the death of Robert Stuart of Aubigny and of his Marriage in Scotland with that most successful Match that beautiful Lady Margaret Niece to the King and Daughter to the Earl of Angus and an annual Pension of seven hundred Marks And once more he resolved to try his fortune in Scotland attended by Sir Rice Mansell and Sir Peter Mewtas Wintor Audley and Brooks with others who with eight Ships set sail from Bristol and hanging over the Coast of Scotland like a Cloud uncertain where to disburthen it self deterred the Scots from enterprising anything upon England in the absence of the King The Church of late had daily felt some change or other And this year in June the Letany set forth in English was commanded to be used in all Churches ANNO DOM. 1545. REG. 37. OUr late Expeditions had without doubt been very chargeable So that I should not wonder that the King began to want supplies if I did not consider the incredible summs raised of the spoils of the late suppressed Religious Houses All which notwithstanding whether it were that God not pleased with this authorized Sacriledge did not enlarge them with his Blessing Which only saith Solomon maketh Rich Or that a great part thereof was otherwise divided either among his Courtiers or for the maintenance of the ejected Religious Persons the Treasury was certainly very bare To which former reasons we may add the six new erected Bishopricks and the like number of Cathedral Churches as also the Stipends conferred on both Universities for the publick Professors of the Hebrew and Greek Tongues Divinity Law and Physick to each whereof he allotted an Annuity of forty Pounds Howsoever it were certain it is that levies being made in Germany for the King the Souldiers disbanded for want of Pay The Parliament had already granted him great Subsidies so that thence he could expect no more Yet Monies must be had Henry therefore resolves on an honest kind of Rapine The Intreaties of Princes little differ from Commands unless perhaps in this that they work more subtilly and render them pliable with whom Commands would not have prevailed which manifestly appeared in the execution of this Project He had twenty years since commanded Money by Proclamation a course so far from taking as was desired that it had like to have been the cause of much mischief But now by some fit Commissioners informing his Subjects of his necessities and desiring the richer sort one by one to contribute towards his support he quickly replenished the Exchequer The Commissioners begin first with the Citizens of London among whom two were more strait laced than the rest viz. Richard Read and William Roch but their parsimony shall cost them dear For Read being an old man and utterly unexpert of Martial Discipline is commanded to serve in person in the Wars of Scotland is taken by the Scots and forced to ransom himself at a high rate Roch as having used some uncivil language before those of his Majestie 's Council who sate Commissioners was for some months punished with straight imprisonment and at length not improbably bought his liberty In the mean time Boloign was a great eye-sore to the French They try to regain it by stratagems and surprisals but in vain They betake themselves to force with the like success The Marshal of Biez Governour of the Boloignois comes with a great Army to the Port a Town two miles from Boloign and begins to build a Fort on this side the River upon the point of the Tower of Ordre but is by the Earl of Hertford forced away and leaves his Castle in the Air. His intent was by this Fort to have kept the Garrison of Boloign within their Walls to have commanded the Haven so to cut off all Succours by sea and from Calais by land Which being done Francis resolved in Person to besiege Guisnes and there to fortifie thereby to famish Boloign and to keep Calais and the land of Oye in subjection But these designs proving fruitless he prepares his Naval forces giving forth that he intended to invade England hoping that this Alarm would have made us have a care of the main and neglect those pieces abroad so that Boloign for lack of aid should easily be reduced The noise of an invasion made Henry arm who having gathered together a sufficient Fleet awaited the Enemy at Portsmouth intent to all occasions Neither did the French only intend an Alarm landing in three several places in England but were every where with loss driven aboard their Ships Two days after they fall down to the Channel that divideth the Isle of Wight from the rest of Britain they seem to threaten Portsmouth where the King then was and seek to draw our Fleet to fight The French beside a sufficient Fleet of other Ships had twenty five Gallies no way probably useful in these tempestuous and rough Seas not brooking this flat kind of shipping but by their bulk and number to terrifie us Yet at this time an unusual calmness of the Sea without wind or current put them in hope of effecting wonders by their Gallies But our Fleet was not to be drawn to fight much less to be forced without apparent danger to the Enemy
Crown whose Reign lasted but to the beginning of Queen Elizabeth And now the affairs of Scotland which have without doubt been great and memorable crave a part in our History We have before made mention of our League with Scotland wherein it was determined concerning the Marriage between the now King Edward and the Queen of Scots The times since then were full of continual 〈◊〉 We at length resolved not to dally with them but to undertake the War with forces agreeable to the cause The Duke of Somerset by consent of the Privy Council is sent into Scotland with ten thousand Foot and six thousand Horse besides Pioners and Artificers thirteen hundred and and fifteen pieces of Brass Ordnance To the Lord Clinton is assigned a Navy consisting of four and twenty men of War one Galley and thirty Ships of burthen wherewith he was to scour the Seas and infest the maritim parts of Scotland On the third of September the Duke of Somerset made an hostile entrance upon the Enemies Countrey and forthwith dispatched Letters to the Earl of Arren Regent of Scotland much to this effect That he wished the Scots would consider that this War was waged among Christians and that our ends were no other than a just Peace whereto the endeavours of all good men should tend An occasion not only of a League but of a perpetual Peace was now happily offered if they would suffer the two differing and emulous Nations by uniting the Heads to grow together This as it had been formerly sought by us so had it been generally assented to by the Estates of Scotland Therefore he could not but wonder why they should rather treacherously recurr to Arms the events of War being usually even to the Victor sufficiently unfortunate than maintain inviolate their troth plighted to the good of both Nations They could not in reason expect that their Queen should perpetually live a Virgin-life And if she married where could she bestow her self bettter than on a puissant Monarch inhabiting the same Island and parlying the same language They saw what inconveniencies were the consequents of forein Matches whereof they should rather make tryal by the examples of others than at their own peril He demanded nothing but equity yet he so much abhorred the effusion of Christian blood that if he found the Scots not utterly averse from an accord he would endeavour that some of the Conventions should be remitted He would also permit that the Queen should abide and be brought up among them until her age made her marriageable at what time she should by consent of the Estates her self make choice of a Husband In the mean time there should be a Cessation of Arms neither should the Queen be transported out of her Realm nor entertain treatise of Marriage with the French or any other foreiner This if they would faithfully promise he would forthwith peaceably depart out of Scotland and whatsoever damages the Countrey had suffered by this invasion he would according to the esteem of indifferent Arbitrators make ample satisfaction The Scottish Army consisted of thirty thousand Foot some speak a greater number The chief Commanders whereof puffed up with confidence of their strength although they had lately lost eight hundred in a tumultuary skirmish and misconceiving our offers to proceed out of fear reject all Conditions of Accord And lest upon knowledge of the equity of our demands the Council should incline to resolutions of Peace they conceal our Letters And not only so but upon assurance of Victory spread a rumour that nothing would content the insolent English but the delivery of the Queen which if they could not otherwise they would by force obtain and proceed to the absolute conquest of the Kingdom This report enraged the Souldiers whom no motives could disswade from present engaging themselves in Battel The wiser sort were not ignorant of the necessities that long since began to press us who were brought to that pass that by reason of the difficulties of passages we could not make a safe retreat nor force the Enemy to fight in regard of the strength of the place where he was encamped But the vain hope of Victory had possessed the minds of the greater part and excluded reason Necessity forced us to a resolution brave and expedient which was to seek the Enemy in his lodging and endeavour to draw him to combat But the hot-spur Scots issuing from out their fastnesses seemed willing to prevent us So both Armies entertain a mutual resolution A little before the joyning of the Armies an accident happened which did not a little make way to our Victory The Enemy marching along near the Sea-shoar a piece of Ordnance discharged from our Galley took away five and twenty of their men whereof the eldest Son of the Lord Grimes was one Four thousand Archers terrified with so unexpected a slaughter made a stand and could never after be brought on The two Armies approaching each other the Duke of Somerset commanded the Lord Gray with the Cavallery to charge the Scots and find them employment until the Infantry had seized on an adjoyning Hill and if he could without much hazard to disorder the Enemy But they were gallantly received by a strong Squadron of Pikes whereon some of the formost having too far engaged themselves were cast away the rest retreated affirming that it was as easie to force a Wall as through the Scottish Ranks The Duke makes a second trial by the light Horse seconding them with the Ordnance and the Archers The Enemy either not able to stand so violent a charge or as some relate to draw us from the favour of our Cannon begins to give ground which we perceiving give a shout crying out withal They fly they fly which so amazed them that some began to fly indeed and at length the whole Army was routed The Scots complain that we tyrannized over the Captives especially the Priests and Friers whereof many served in this Field because by their instigation chiefly our Conditions were so arrogantly rejected Of the Enemies were flain thirteen thousand and among them beside the Earl of Lohemor and the Lord Fleming the chief of the Scottish Gentry with their Tenants who thought it a disgrace to survive their Lords In the chase were taken fifteen hundred among whom were the Earl Huntley Chancellour of Scotland the Lords Hefter Hobbey and Hamilton beside many other persons of Quality This lamentable overthrow was given the tenth of September The English become Victors beyond their expectation ransacked the Countrey five miles about fortified in the Forth the forsaken Islands Keth and Haymon took Brocth Castle by their terrour forced the Garrisons of Humes and Fastcastle to yield and having built a Fort at Lauder and repaired the ruines of Roxburgh by their departure recreated the dejected minds of the distressed Scots Our affairs thus succeeding abroad the Church at home had her changes Many of the Council but especially the Protector
over-run and spoil the Countrey murther those that favour not their proceedings and at length by the conflux of the baser sort and malecontents so increase their numbers that it was not to make head against them with small Forces And although this plague reigned more in Norforlkshire than any where else yet had it so spred its contagion over the most part of the Kingdom that it was scarce any where sincere and free from infection For the Counties of Kent Oxford Surrey Buckingham Essex Cambridge York Lincoln but especially Devon and Somerset were imbroiled in these tumults In Norfolk only had twenty thousand assembled who now confident of their strength did no more talk of Inclosures but stretched their complaints to a higher strain as that The free-born Commonalty was oppressed by a small number of Gentry who glut themselves with pleasure whiles the poor Commons wasted with daily labour do like pack-horses live in extreme slavery But howsoewer the calamities incident to this present life may with a constant patience be endured the Saul is to be redeemed even with a thousand deaths Holy Rites established by antiquity are abolished new ones are authorized and a new form of Religion obtruded To other evils death gives an end but if they suffer their Souls to be contaminated and polluted by this kind of impiety what thing is there that can equal them in miseries to whom the end of these present ones is but the beginning of some more horrid namely of the pains infernal which no death can ever terminate Why then should they not go to the Court and appoint the King yet in his minority new Counsellors removing those who now ruling as they list confound things sacred and prophane regarding nothing else but the enriching of themselves with the publick Treasure that they may riot it amid the publick calamities This was the common complaint and resolution especially of the Devonshire Rebels who having among them made choice of their Chieftains did endeavour to unite themselves with the rest of their fellow Rebels But to keep them from joyning Forces are dispatched some into Norfolk some into Devonshire For Norfolk are designed only fifteen hundred under the conduct of the Marquis of Northampton who for a time bravely defended that spacious but weak City Norwich against the insolent Clowns But his small Troops being much diminished by the loss of the Lord Sheffeild and some others he was at last fain to quit the City to the Enemy who after spoil barbarously set it on fire and consumed a great part of the edifices This ill success drave the Lords of the Council to a more serious apprehension of the danger who thereupon sent the Earl of Warwick with more competent Forces who as he was an excellent Commander not only forced the Rebels to relinquish the City but also pressed them so hard in their retreat that he compelled them to fight They seeing a necessity of battel imposed placed all their Captives for the most part Gentlemen manacled and chained together in front that they alone might bear the fury of the onset and dull both the swords and courages of the Royalists But their loyalty was not so ill recompenced as to suffer for it scarce any of them falling by the sword The Rebels were nevertheless overthrown and all either taken or slain except a very few who rallying themselves seemed desperately resolved to renew the fight But the proposal of a Pardon made them cast away their Arms and peaceably to depart The number of the chief authors of this Commotion who were hanged was great But Robert Ket a Tanner who in those times and by that trade had gathered a fortune of a brace of thousands was above all as in Fault so in Execution remarkable He had been the Chiestain in this Rebellion and was not in reason to be obscured among the common sort Wherefore it being thought fit that he should surmount them in the glory of a more notorious punishment he was fairly hanged in Chains on the very top of Norwich Castle While the Eastern parts of the Kingdom were thus possessed the Western parts were not less tormented with the same Furies Devonshire and Cornwall with some additions out of Somersetshire had on the same pretences armed fifteen thousand men who after they had licentiously ransacked the Countrey at length sate down before the famous City of Exceter Forty days they besieged it and were repulsed by the Inhabitants though utterly destitute of warlike provision On the sixth of August John Lord Russel after Earl of Bedford entring the City with forces and munition disassieged it pursued the Rebels slew some took others to the number of four thousand whereof many were after executed but especially Humfrey Arundell Captain of St. Michael's-Mount in Cornwall a man of antient descent and sufficiently ample revenues so that I cannot sufficiently wonder what madness drave him to associate himself with this desperate and unruly rabble With him were hanged Robert Bochin Jo. Tomson Roger Barret Jo. Ulcocke Will. Asa James Norton Jo. Baron and Richard Benet Priests and besides them John and James Rosogan Jo. Payne Tho. Underhill and Jo. Solman all prime incendiaries and chief authors of this tumult The City of Exceter in memory of this their delivery hath ever since with an anniversary solemnity kept the sixth of August holy As for the other Counties infested with the reliques of this Rebellion the evil being tempestively supprest before it spred it self and the ringleaders punished they were quickly reduced to their former temper Neither were our affairs more peaceable abroad than at home For Henry King of France taking advantage of our domestick sedition not regarding the League concluded between us and his Father invaded Boloignois where his success was such that he was animated to greater attempts He sets forth a Fleet for the taking in of the Isles of Jersey and Guarnsey the sole portions remaining to the English of the Duchy of Normandy At these Isles the French are with great loss driven aboard their Ships At the landing they lost a thousand men and we very few About Bouloigne Mont-Lambert Sellaque and Ambleteul were lost Sellaque was defended by two Ensigns But having been battered by the Enemy while we unwarily parley with Montmorency was on the five and twentieth of August forced by them At Ambleteul were six Ensigns of Foot who for some days made good the place But finding themselves unable long to hold out against so great forces upon no other terms than grant of lives yielded the Fort to the French The loss of these places so daunted the Garrison at Blanconet that having been scarce saluted by the Enemies Cannon upon condition of life and goods they quitted the place Neither was this the last important effect of our conceived terrour for the English at Mont-Lambert not so much as attending the coming of the Enemy fired their lodgings made their provision unuseful and
Manners of those Heathen Christians FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND QUEEN MARY The Third Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK III. QUEEN MARY ANNO DOM. 1553. REG. 1. WHen the Lady Mary long since acquainted with Northumberland's secret practices was also certified of her Brother's decease not thinking it safe to abide near London where her Enemies were in their full strength pretending a fear of the Plague by reason of the suspitious death of one of her Houshold she suddenly departed from St. Edmundsbury and came in one day to Framingham Castle in Suffolk distant from London fourscore miles and seated near the Sea from whence if Fortune frowned on her she might make an easie escape into France Here she took upon her the Title of Queen and by Letters to her Friends and the Nobles wished their speedy repair unto Her In the mean time Northumberland having for two days together consulted with his Friends concerning the managing of this great business the King's death being not yet published sent command to the Lord Mayor of London to repair forthwith to Greenwich with six Aldermen and twelve other Citizens of chiefest account To them he declares the King's departure and the seating of Lady Jane in the Throne of Sovereignty shewing withal the King's Testament under Seal which did import no less than the setling the Succession on her and that Family He causeth them either by terrour or promises to swear Allegiance to Lady Jane with command and that under a great penalty that they should not as yet divulge these secret passages What a furtherance it might be to his Affairs if he could assure himself of this City he was too wise to be ignorant of And as for suppressing the report of the King's death he thought it might prove a means to facilitate the surprisal of the Lady Mary as yet probably secure for lack of notice of her Brother's decease But understanding that she had made an escape into Suffolk Lady Jane was by almost all the Peers of the Realm pompously conducted to the Tower and with great Solemnity publickly proclaimed Queen She was of age about sixteen of feature not admirable but handsom incredibly learned very quick-witted and wise both beyond her Sex and above her Age wonderfully devoted to purity of Doctrine and so far from desire of this Advancement that she began not to act her part of Royalty without Tears manifesting it to the World that she was forced by her Parents and Friends ambition to this high but dangerous Ascent At her going through the City toward the Tower the Concourse of the People was great their Acclamations few as if the strangeness of some new Spectacle had drawn them together rather than any intent of Gratulation Which Queen Maries for so we must henceforth call her Friends hitherto distrustful more of Success than the Cause accepted of as an happy omen and were encouraged to assist her as occasion should invite them But the presence of Northumberland a man quick watchful and very politick was yet a remora to their Proceedings Him they must send farther off or be content to sit still The same day that Lady Jane entred the Tower Letters sent from Queen Mary are read openly at the Council Table wherein she commands the Lords to repair to her as being the next in Succession to the Crown and that they at last should take example from the general Votes of the Kingdom she being now every where acknowledged the lawful Sovereign And indeed the Norfolk and Suffolk men were become hers and the wiser sort did easily discern that the affections of the People were hers Wherefore it was thought at first expedient speedily to levy an Army and that while yet the Hearts of the People were free from any Impression and their Minds yet equally poised in the Ballance of Irresolution were either way to be swayed By this course they might be peradventure too strong for the Queen and preventing her Plea by Arms force her to plead more necessarily for her Life And an Army was raised whereof the Duke of Suffolk was appointed General But the fautors of Maries Cause whose main Project was to remove that grand obstacle the Duke of Northumberland slily insinuating themselves with Lady Jane perswaded her not to part with her Father but to dispatch Northumberland for this Employment the very terrour of whose Name his late Victory over the Norfolk Rebels being yet fresh in memory would effect more than the other could either by Policy or Arms And indeed to whose trust could a Daughter be better committed than to her Father's As for the City the Faith and wonted Wisdom of the Council now with her would contain it in Obedience and work it to her best Advantages She poor Lady swayed with these Reasons earnestly beseeched Northumberland himself to undergo this Burthen who at length though unwillingly consented His chief fear was lest the advantage of his Absence might encourage opposite Practisers to raise some Tumults But finding either excuses or absolute denials no way available he prepares himself for this Expedition and on the the thirteenth of July sets forth from London with an Army of six thousand At his departure it is reported he should say to the Lord Gray of Wilton who then accompanied him Do you see my Lord what a conflux of People here is drawn together to see us march And yet of all this multitude you hear not so much as one that wisheth us Success The Londoners stood very well affected in point of Religion so did also for the most part the Suffolk and the Norfolk men and they knew Mary to be absolute for Popery But the English are in their due respects to their Prince so loyally constant that no regards no not pretext of Religion can alienate their Affections from their lawful Sovereign whereof the miserable case of Lady Jane will anon give a memorable Example For although her Faction had laid a strong Foundation and as may appear by the premisses had most artificially raised their Superstructure yet as soon as the true and undoubted Heir did but manifest her Resolution to vindicate her Right this accurate Pile presently fell and dissolved as it were in the twinkling of an Eye and that chiefly by their endeavour of whom for their Religions sake Lady Jane might have presumed her self assured Neither were the People made any thing the more inclinable by publickly impugning Queen Maries Right in the Pulpit a course wherein Northumberland engaged many a Preacher Nay even in the City of London that learned and godly Prelate Nicholas Ridley upon the deprivation of Boner consecrated Bishop of London who I wish had not erred in this matter was scarce heard out with patience As for Queen Mary if that Rule of the Civilians be not true that Matrimony contracted without any conceived Impediment although it after chance to be dissolved
the seventh day of September almost two hours after Sun-set the Moon having risen an hour before a Rainbow was seen in the West That I may relate the like accident though of differing time the like apparition was seen by me on the four and twentieth of November 1604 when the Sun having two hours before declined to its lowest travelling towards Colebrook the form of a white Cloud shaped into a fragment of a Circle and just opposite to the Moon then newly risen appeared which did every way resemble a true Rainbow but that it was not diversified with colours and instead of the Sun had the Moon its opposite ANNO DOM. 1558. REG. ultimo H Enry some way to repair his losses at St. Quintin resolves an Enterprize upon Calais which Senarpont Governour of Boutoigne perswaded him was not so fortified according to report but that it might easily be taken The Marshal Strossy having under the favour of a disguise viewed the place confirmed Senarpont's assurance of taking it Philip whether having intelligence of Henry's designs or else presaging so much had often admonished the Queen to have an especial regard to that Town voluntarily offering his assistance for the security of it But we over-wisely jealous lest Philip had a practice on it it lying commodiously for his adjoyning Netherlands neglected both his advice and proffer But the reality of his advice was manifested by the event The Duke of Guise having by the King been declared Lieutenant General in all his Dominions levying a great Army flies suddenly to the Siege of Calais before which he sate down on New-years-day and intrenched at Sandgate Then dividing his Army into two parts he at the same time assaults Newnambridge and the Risbank two Forts wherein the chief strength of that Town consisted the taking whereof would have cut off all possibility of relieving the besieged either by Land or Sea The Garrisons of each place terrified with so unexpected a danger he at his first arrival gaines Newnambridge and the next day the Risbank The French then batter the Wall between the Water-gate and the Prison not so much out of hope to gain entrance that way as to divert us from guarding that part of the Town where they really intended to give an Assault Having for a while battered that part and we little suspecting an enterprize upon the Castle they suddenly with fifteen Peeces make a battery upon the Castle and continue it with such fury that the thunder of the Cannon was all that day heard at Antwerp which is distant from thence more than one hundred English miles Having by that time night drew on made a sufficient breach and yet in regard of the deep Dikes filled with Water wherein consisted the main hopes of the Defendants not able to come to an Assault the Enemy with great toil and labour by a cut from thence to the Sea draw the Dikes so low that by that time the Tide was gone out they march not above Navil-high through the Dikes to the Wall which we little feared could be done without resistance Finding the place void of Defendants they easily make themselves masters of the Castle and had as easily taken the Town if Sir Anthony Ager Marshal of the Town had not with some few others made head against them and forced them to retreat to the Castle in which conflict that valiant Knight was slain The Lord Wentworth Governour of the Town seeing little hopes of keeping the Town craved parley which was granted and at length yielded the Town upon these Conditions That the common Souldiers and Inhabitants should depart without transporting or carrying away any thing with them and that Lord Wentworth with fifty others such as the Duke of Guise should appoint should remain Captives to be put to ransom So was Calais lost which had continued English above two hundred years neither was the Siege long the Enemy sitting down before it on new-years-New-years-day and having it yielded up on Twelf-day Seven days after the Duke marcheth toward Guisnes which Town he took without any difficulty but the Castle which the Lord Gray commanded not so easily But that and Hames Castle were at length taken also and dismantled so that of all the Kingdom of France the greatest part whereof was for a long time held by our Kings and whereof Henry the Sixth had been Crowned King at Paris Anno 1431 nor in the Duchies of Normandy and Aquitain the ancient Inheritance of the Kings of England our Kings possess nothing but the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey which have proved Loyal to us ever since the Conquest While the French proceeded thus in Picardy the Queen certified thereof with great diligence prepares her Fleet to transport Succours for Calais but contrary winds kept them back so long until Calais was irrecoverably lost You shall not easily read of any Action wherein God hath by more manifest signs declared how displeasing those Wars are to him which undertaken for Ambition or Profit do dissolve the publick Peace Philip to begin with him against whom Henry and the Pope did most unjustly conspire enlarged himself with a double Victory each whereof were great and memorable The Cardinal Caraffa and the Duke of Paliane who for their own ends had perswaded the doating Pope to throw the Ball of Discord between these Princes were after for this very thing Beheaded by Pius the Fourth who immediately succeeded Paul Paul himself in the mean time the French being overthrown at St. Quintin was exposed to the mercy of the Spaniard whom he had irritated the French being forced to withdraw his Army out of Italy The rash violation of the League by Mary was punished with the loss of Calais and through grief thereof according to common belief of Life also What happened to the French who by the Pope's instigation first brake the five years Truce we have already declared And lest it might be conceived that his losses at and of St. Quintin were repaired by the taking of Calais another Overthrow given him within few months after will take away much from the content of that Victory In June the Marshal De Termes who succeeded Strossy lately slain Governour of Calais breaketh into Arthois and Flanders with an Army consisting of near about eleven thousand men leaving Graveling and Burburg at his back attempts Berghes takes it sacks it and so opens a way to Dunkirk which he also takes and spoils and the Countrey all about for they feared not the French there and the Towns which the Spaniard held throughout that Tract were ill furnished lying open to their mercy they ransack it most miserably and march as far as Newport Philip was affrighted with this Tempest fearing especially lest the Duke of Guise then in Arms should joyn with Termes But having intelligence that the Duke spent his time about Arlon and Vireton he resolves to intercept the French in their return In this Enterprize he employs Count Egmond his