pardon at a hundred thousand Pounds and in this Synod he is with much ado by the Clergy of both Provinces declared next under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England and all forein power or authority whatsoever disclaimed The Province of York is moreover fined at eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds So this one fault if it may be so accompted it being certain that Wolsey was licenced to exercise his authority Legantine cost the Clergy a hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred and forty Pounds ANNO DOM. 1531. REG. 23. THe only publick memorable occurrents of this year were that the Laity for the most part as deep in a Praemunire as the Clergy were by Act of Parliament pardoned In which assembly Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour and other remarkable speakers related at large the Conclusions of the Universities concerning the unlawfulness of the King's marriage And yet perhaps the notorious villany of Richard Rose Cook to the Bishop of Rochester might crave a place in this History who with poysoned broth killed sixteen of the Bishop's servants The Bishop himself who was especially aimed at that day contrary to his accustomed diet forbearing broth escaped The poisoner according to a Law lately enacted was thrown into a cauldron of boyling water But the offence deserved tortures of a most exquisite strain ANNO DOM. 1532. REG. 24. ON the three and twentieth of August died William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury to whom Thomas Cranmer at that time in Germany about the King's affairs was appointed Successor He was not so ambitious as to aspire to such a dignity and some reasons made him unwilling to accept it being offered He knew before he could be consecrated he must swear obedience to the Pope which with a safe conscience he could not He feared what would be the issue of this abrupt separation from the See of Rome He knew the King's disposition to be violent such sudden changes to be full of danger and the Court although he had not yet purchased the acquaintance of it to be a meer School of fraud and dissembling The King's pleasure must necessarily be obeyed and if he slipped never so little envy the mischievous attendant of great felicity would help him forward to a break-neck Cranmer also having long since lost his Wife whom he had married in his youth had taken a liking to a certain maid Niece to Osiander's Wife whom he intended to make his second Wife yet he knew that the Canon Law permitted not Priests to marry and made them uncapable of holy Orders who had been twice married These considerations made him linger in Germany six whole months after the dispatch of his business hoping that his absence might afford means to some other to work a way to the Archbishoprick But the times were such that they to whom desert might give greatest hopes of attaining it did abhor this still tottering and slippery dignity and even they who were already advanced to the like endeavoured to betake themselves to the safety of meaner fortune As did Sir Thomas More the Lord Chancellour who by his continual earnest petitions obtained leave of the King on the fifteenth of May to resign his place and Sir Thomas Awdley on the fourth of June was in his stead made Lord Keeper Cranmer having privately married his Wife at Norimberg at length returned into England where the King's importunity prevailing beyond all scrupulous difficulties Cranmer is though much against his will made Archbishop of Canterbury the Pope also by his Bull confirming the Election He refusing the Archbishoprick because he must take an Oath to the Pope delivered the Bull to the King protesting that he would never accept of any Bishoprick in England but from the King who was Supreme Head of the Church of England and that he would not take any Oath that should any way derogate from the King's Authority At length the subtil heads of the Lawyers found out a quirk whereby to salve all He must first by a previous Protestation except against this Oath which was to be taken pro formâ that it should not hereafter be any way prejudicial to him Thus ascended Cranmer to the Archiepiscopal See where he sate near about twenty years until Queen Mary the Daughter of repudiated Catharine not only thrust this most innocent grave learned man out of his Bishoprick but with a barbarous cruelty condemned him to the fire as hereafter in its place we shall declare For the Treatise of a more strict League between the two Kings of England and France an interview is appointed between them To this end on the eleventh October the King with a mighty train passed to Calais The tenth day after going to Boloigne he was met half way by the French King and his Sons and conducted to Boloigne where the two Kings divided the Abbey between them Henry staid there four days and then brought Francis in whose company were the King of Navarre some Dukes and Cardinals a great number of Noblemen and of others at least twelve hundred to Calais At St. Joquebert the Duke of Richmond who was not at Boloigne with the King his Father received them After much solemn entertainment and the interchangeable favours from each King to the Princes of each others company from Henry to the King of Navarre or as the French write to Montmorency and Chabot the Admiral by the Order of the Garter From Francis to the Dukes of Narfolk and Suffolk by that of St. Michael these great Monarchs parted Jealousie of the Emperour 's still increasing power had now united these Princes and their natural dispositions wonderful agreeable had made them always prone to a mutual love which by this interview took such deep root that even in their own opinions they rested assured of each other And indeed had they been private persons their friendship in all likelihood had continued inviolable But Princes are not so much to be swayed by their own affections as the consideration of the publick Utility The effect of this interview was an agreement to repress the Turk about that time wasting Hungary to which end they should assemble together by their joint forces an Army of fourscore thousand men whereof there should be ten thousand horse with Artillery requisite for the said Camp A specious pretext For they both knew that the Turk had already retreated But in private they treated of other matters They had both many causes of discontent Francis not without cause was displeased with the Pope and Henry thinking it best to strike while the Iron was hot endeavoured an utter alienation between them Henry complains first of the wrong the Court of Rome did him touching the matter of his Divorce in the suit whereof full six years were now spent and yet at length after all their deceits and mockeries they seek to force him either to go in person to Rome or in a matter of so great importance to send
Deputies who should in the King's behalf follow the Suit An insolent proceeding and injury without example which did concern the French and all other Princes of Christendom For in like cases hapning among Sovereign Princes especially touching the conscience so near it was the usual custom of other Popes to send Judges to the place it being reasonable that the Persons should speak personally and not by their Attorneys and very unreasonable that a Sovereign Prince leaving the rule and government of his Estates should go and plead his cause at Rome Moreover he did complain of the intolerable exactions of the Church of Rome over the Clergy and people of England whereby the yoak before too heavy was now become insupportable neither did he doubt but the same courses were taken in France Germany had begun the way of freedom to the rest of Christendom why should not other Princes follow their example To conclude he did instantly require that they two should send their Ambassadors jointly together to the Pope to summon him to appear at the next general Council there to answer his extortions and by the authority and judgement of the Council to force him to a reformation affirming that there was no Nation in Christendom which did not desire that the insolencies of the Romanists should be repressed To this the French answered that he acknowledged these things to be true but it was not in his power to yield to the King's request yet for the brotherly love which he did bear unto him and the charitable regard of his own Countrey he professed himself ready to undergo all difficulties He wanted not sufficient injuries whereof to complain considering that he having so well deserved of the Apostolick See but more especially of this Pope yet he certainly found that Clement all this notwithstanding was not well affected towards him Clement had very lately suffered his reputation to be violated in his presence and by the Bishop of Verulo had secretly endeavoured to alienate the Suisses his Allies from him France groaned under the burthen of the new and undutiful exactions of the Pope's Officers by means whereof all the treasure was carried out of the Kingdom to the prejudice of his Subjects the Clergy especially who grew poor the Churches were unrepaired and the poor neither cloathed nor fed and if he himself levied any great summ of money the Tributes are longer coming in than usually they were wont But he thought it best before they proceeded to that harsh course to use some milder means whereto there was a fair occasion offered the Pope having by the Cardinal of Grandmont made him a promise of an interview at Nice or Avignon where if he could not obtain reason of him in the behalf of both he would endeavour to prevail by force where he could not by just intreaties In the mean time he desired him to attend the issue of their parley But Francis concealed the true cause of this intended interview for fear lest our Henry not approving it should seek to disswade him from it The French was implacable towards the Emperour against whom to strengthen himself he means to win the Pope by the marriage of his younger Son Henry Duke of Orleans who after reigned with Catharine de Medices Duchess of Urbin the Pope's Niece The Pope could not at first believe this potent Prince intended him so much honour but perceiving the French to be real he most eagerly farthered it appointing time and place for the consummation of it which was after done at Marseilles by Clement himself in the presence of the French King ANNO DOM. 1533. REG. 25. THe King's love brooked no delays Wherefore on the five and twentieth of January privately and in the presence of very few he marrieth the Lady Ann Bolen Shortly after by Act of Parliament the Marriage of the King and the Lady Catharine was declared void and incestuous and a Law enacted wherein all Appeals to Rome were forbidden and that none should stile Catharine other than Princess of Wales and Widow or Dowager of Prince Arthur By virtue and authority of the same Law the Archbishop of Canterbury accompanied with some other Bishops coming to Dunstable six miles from Ampthill where Catharine then resided caused her to be cited before him next under the King chief Judge in all Ecclesiastical causes within the Province of Canterbury to shew what reasons could be alledged why the Marriage not lawfully contracted between the King and her should not be disannulled and pronounced impious incestuous and consequently void To these things by one of her Servants she answered that it beseemed not the Archbishop to thrust his sickle into another's harvest this Cause did yet depend undecided before the Pope Christ's Vicar on earth whose Decree she would obey and other Judge would she acknowledge none Being called fifteen days together and not appearing she is pronounced Contumax and for her contumacy separated from the King's bed and company Whereupon the Lady Ann proclaimed Queen throughout the Kingdom on Easter-eve shewed her self publickly as Queen and was at Whitsontide crowned with as great pomp and solemnity as ever was Queen The particulars I will let pass excepting that prophetical Distich upon one of the Triumphant Arches purposely erected in London where she was to pass Regìna Anna paris Regis de sanguine Natam Et paries populis aurea secla tuis In English Ann thou a Daughter bearest to our King And to thy people golden days shalt bring Wafers also with the same impression were thrown about saith Stow. But I rather believe that this Distich was made after the Queens delivery Whensoever it were he that truly considers the felicity of the four and forty years Reign of this Queens Daughter will think this Oracle could not proceed from any but a Delphian Apollo For the Queen at the time of her Coronation was great with child whereof the seventh of September she was delivered at Greenwich which was that ever famous Queen Elizabeth who after the death of her Brother and Sister so gloriously ruled this Kingdom The Pope was certified of all these passages that his authority in England was abrogated that the late Queen Catharine was put away that Ann Bolen as Queen was taken to the King's bed that the King stiled himself Supreme Head of the Church of England that the Archbishop of Canterbury executed all those Offices which formerly the Pope only did and that not as the Pope's Legate but as Primate of England who under the King claimed chief authority in Ecclesiastical affairs throughout his whole Province Wherewith being netled he seemed to breath nothing but threats and revenge But knowing himself to have been the motive of it and doubtful of the event he was easily perswaded by the French King as yet not to proceed by Excommunication against Henry until he had made trial of some milder course Whereupon Francis by Bellay Bishop of Paris intreats Henry not to withdraw
consecrated by the Archbishop but he on whom the King by his Congé D'eslire or other his Letters had conferred that Dignity And whereas many complained that now all commerce with Rome was forbidden all means were taken away of mitigating the rigour of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Dispensation Papal authority is granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury the King reserving to himself the power of dispensing in causes of greater moment And that all Appeals formerly wont to be made from the Archbishop to the Pope should now be from the Archbishop to the King who by Delegates should determine all such Suits and Controversies Furthermore the King's Marriage with the Lady Catharine is again pronounced incestuous the Succession to the Crown established on the King's Issue begotten on Queen Ann. And all above the age of sixteen years throughout the Kingdom are to be bound by Oath to the observance of this Law Whosoever refused to take this Oath should suffer loss of all their goods and perpetual imprisonment Throughout all the Realm there were found but two who durst refractorily oppose this Law viz. Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More the late Lord Chancellor men who were indeed very learned but most obstinate sticklers in the behalf of the Church of Rome who being not to be drawn by any perswasions to be conformable to the Law were committed to prison from whence after a years durance they were not freed but by the loss of their lives But the King fearing that it might be thought That he took these courses rather out of a contempt of Religion than in regard of the tyranny of the Court of Rome to free himself from all suspition either of favouring Luther or any authors of new Opinions began to persecute that sort of men whom the Vulgar called Hereticks and condemned to the cruelty of that merciless Element Fire not only certain Dutch Anabaptists but many Professors of the Truth and amongst others that learned and godly young man John Frith who with one Hewet and others on the two and twentieth of July constantly endured the torments of their martyrdom The five and twentieth of September died Clement the Seventh Pope in whose place succeeded Alexander Farnese by the name of Paulus the Third who to begin his time with some memorable Act having called a Consistory pronounced Henry to be fallen from the Title and Dignity of a King and to be deposed reiterating withal the thunder of Excommunication with which bugbear his predecessor Clement had sought to affright him But this peradventure happened in the ensuing year after the death of Fisher and More A Parliament is again called in November wherein according to the Decree of the late Synod the King was declared Supreme Head of the Church of England and the punishment of all crimes which formerly pertained to the Ecclesiastical Courts is made proper to him So the Kingdom is vindicated from the usurpation of the Pope who before shared in it and the King now first began to reign entirely Also all Annats or First-fruits formerly paid to the Pope are granted to the King And Wales the seat of the remainder of the true antient Britans hitherto differing from us compounded of Normans and Saxons as well in the form of their Government as in Language is by the authority of this Parliament to the great good of both but especially that Nation united and incorporated to England Edward the First was the first who subdued this Countrey yet could he not prevail over their minds whom the desire of recovering their lost liberty animated to many Rebellions By reason whereof and our suspitions being for two hundred years oppressed either with the miseries of Servitude or War they never tasted the sweet fruits of a true and solid Peace But Henry the Seventh by blood in regard of his Father and birth a Welchman coming to the Crown as if they had recovered their liberty whereto they so long aspired they obeyed him as their lawful Prince So the English being freed of their former jealousies permitted them to partake of their Priviledges since common to both Nations the good whereof equally redounded to both I could wish the like Union with Scotland That as we all live in one Island professing one Faith and speaking for the most part one Language under the government of one and the same Prince so we may become one Nation all equally acknowledging our selves Britans and so recover our true Countrey Britain lost as it were so many hundreds of years by our divisions of it into England Scotland and Wales ANNO DOM. 1535. REG. 27. THe Coronation of the new Queen and other passages of entertainment had exhausted the Treasury The Pope and the Emperour were both enemies to Henry watchfully attending all opportunities to do him mischief Neither in regard that so many sided with the Pope were all things safe at home The King was therefore forced to a course seemingly rash and full of dangerous consequences but very necessary for the time He resolves to demolish all the Monasteries throughout England He is content the Nobility should share with him in the spoil so enriching and strengthening himself by their necessary revolt from the Popish faction To this end they that were thought more especially in maintaining the Pope's authority to withstand the King's proceedings were condemned of high Treason and they that refused to acknowledge the King under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England are hanged For this cause on the third of May were executed John Houghton Prior of the Charterhouse in London Augustine Webster Prior of Bevaley and Thomas Lawrence Prior of Exham and with them Richard Reignalds a Monk and Doctor of Divinity and John Hales Vicar of Thistlehurst On the eighteenth of June Exmew Middlemore and Nudigate all Charterhouse-Monks suffered for the same cause And four days after John Fisher Bishop of Rochester a man much reverenced by the People for his holy life and great learning was publickly beheaded and his Head set over London Bridge Our Histories hardly afford a president of the execution of such a man But the Pope was the occasion of his death who to ease the burthen of his now a years imprisonment by the addition of a new Title had on the one and twentieth of May created him Cardinal The news whereof hastened him to a Scaffold The sixth of July Sir Thomas More for the same stiffness in opinion with Bishop Fisher suffered the like death This was that More so famous for his Eutopia and many other Works both in English and Latin As for his conversation the most censorious fault him in nothing but his too too jesting I will not say scoffing wit to which he gave more liberty than did beseem the gravity of his person not tempering himself in the midst of his calamity no not at the very instant of death After his condemnation he denied to give
of mind to accept of and retain this Benefit which God by his Vicar's Legate did proffer them For now nothing else remained but that he being present with those Keys which should open the Gates of the Church they should also abrogate those Laws which lately Enacted to the prejudice of the Church had rended them from the rest of its Body Having spoken a great deal to this purpose and ransacked Antiquity for examples of our Forefathers devotion to the See of Rome his grave delivery excellent language and methodical contexture of his speech wrought so effectually in the minds of those who were addicted to Popery that they thought not themselves until this day capable of Salvation But many of the lower House who deemed it a rare felicity to have shaken off the yoak of Rome eagerly withstood the readmittance of it But by the endeavours of the King and Queen all things were at last composed to the Cardinal 's liking The Authority which the Popes heretofore usurped in this Realm is restored the Title of Supreme Head of the Church is abrogated and a Petition drawn by the whole Court of Parliament for the Absolution of the People and Clergy of England from Schism and Heresie is by the Bishop of Winchester presented to the Legate who they all kneeling by the Authority committed unto him absolved them This being done they went to the Chappel in Procession singing Te Deum and the next Sunday the Bishop of Winchester in his Sermon at Pauls Cross made a large relation of what had passed These things being thus setled the Queen intends an honorable Embassy to Rome whereof she had at her first coming to the Crown made promise For having resolved to replant the Religion of Rome she had privily written to Pool requiring his advice therein The Pope was therefore pleased to send into England Giovanni Francisco Commendono his Chamberlain afterward Cardinal for the more perfect notice of the estate of the Realm To him the Queen after much private conference did under her Hand promise Obedience to the See of Rome desiring withal that the Kingdom might be absolved from the Interdict for the obtaining whereof she would by a solemn Embassy petition his Holiness as soon as the Estate was setled So now about the end of this year the Bishop of Ely Sir Anthony Brown and Edward Carne Doctor of Law are by the Kings sent to proffer their Obedience to the See of Rome But these costs and pains were fruitless For before they came to Rome the Pope was dead In the mean time the Queen considering all her actions hitherto to have passed with full applause began to treat with the Nobility to condescend that if not the Royal at least the Matrimonial Crown of our Queens might be imposed on Philip. But it being a matter without precedent and that might perchance to an ambitious Prince give some colour for claim to the Kingdom they proved averse and she content to surcease The next care was of restitution of Church-Lands But Henry had so divided them and that among the Nobility that nothing could be done therein Only it was decreed that the First-Fruits and Tenths granted to the King by the Clergy Anno 1534 should be remitted which Decree upon consideration of the Treasuries poverty and of the many Pensions granted by Henry to the ejected Religious Persons was quickly revoked About the same time an absurd I might say ridiculous accident happened by the Queens own credulity and the flattery of fawning Courtiers By reason of a Disease which Physicians term a Mole her Belly began to swell and some other reasons giving her cause to conjecture that she was with Child she not entertaining the advice of any Physicians but of Midwives and old Women believing what she desired should be affirmed that she felt the stirring of the Embryo in her womb To those that are affected with this malady that fleshy and inform substance which is termed Mola doth seem sometimes to move but that slowly and with the general motion of the whole Belly By this and other symptoms Physicians would quickly have discovered her Disease which unless very maturely prevented is commonly incurable So that in process of time her Liver being over-cooled she fell into a Dropsie which as Fuchsius and other Physicians write doth usually happen But these flattering hopes betrayed her to the laughter of the World and to her Grave For on the seven and twentieth of November the Lords of the Council sent some Mandates to the Bishop of London to disperse certain forms of Prayers wherein after Thanks given to God for his Mercies to this Kingdom by giving hopes of an Heir to the Crown and infusing life into the Embryo they should pray for the preservation of the Queen and the Infant and her happy delivery and cause Te Deum to be sung every where Then by Parliament many things were Enacted concerning the Education of the Babe and much clutter was otherwise kept about preparations for the Child's Swadling-clouts Cradle and other things requisite at the Delivery until in June in the ensuing year it was manifested that all was little better than a Dream This year were many Barons created On the eleventh of March William Howard was created Lord Howard of Effingham he was Father to Charles Lord Admiral and late Earl of Nottingham on the fifth of April John Williams Lord Williams of Tame on the seventh of April Edward North Baron of Chartlege on the eighth of April John Bruges Lord Chandois on the fourteenth of May Gerard Fitz-Gerard of whom before Earl of Kildare and on the second of September Anthony Brown Viscount Mountague And in September deceased Thomas Duke of Norfolk ANNO DOM. 1555. REG. MARIAE 2 3 PHILIPPI 1 2. ON the eighteenth of January the Lord Chancellour coming to the Tower with six other Lords of the Council set many brave Prisoners at liberty viz. the Archbishop of York Sir John Rogers Sir James Croft Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir George Harper Sir William Sentlow Sir Gawin Carew Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke of Northumberland's Brother William Gibs Cutbert Vaughan Harington Tremaine and others The Archbishop having married a Wife was deprived and Nicholas Heath sometimes Bishop of Worcester but deprived by King Edward and Hooper being ejected and condemned to the Fire lately restored by Queen Mary was substituted in his place Rogers and Croft were afterward Privy Counsellors to Queen Elizabeth under whom they many years flourished in great Authority Throckmorton a subtil man was thought to have been the plotter of Wyat's Rebellion his Head was therefore especially aimed at But being indicted and ten whole hours spent in sifting him he by such witty answers voided the accusation of his Adversary that the Jurors found him Not guilty for which they were afterward soundly fined About the beginning of April the Marquess of Exceter and a little after the Lady Elizabeth were
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh
is and from whom cometh both the will and the Deed. But yet it is agreeable to the Person that he beareth though unworthy of the Thrice-Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church Whereunto he is also invited by the Example in more ancient time of King Henry the Fourth of England the First Renowned King of the House of Lancaster Ancestor though not Progenitor to your King who had a purpose towards the end of his time as you know better to make an Expedition into the Holy Land and by the Example also present before his eyes of that Honourable and Religious War which the King of Spain now maketh and hath almost brought to perfection for the Recovery of the Realm of Granada from the Moors And although this Enterprize may seem vast and unmeasured for the King to attempt that by his own Forces wherein heretofore a Conjunction of most of the Christian Princes hath found work enough yet his Majesty wisely considereth that sometimes smaller Forces being united under one Command are more effectual in Proof though not so promising in Opinion and Fame than much greater Forces variously propounded by Associations and Leagues which commonly in a short time after their beginnings turn to Dissociations and Divisions But my Lords that which is as a Voice from Heaven that called the King to this Enterprize is a Rent at this time in the House of the Ottomans I do not say but there hath been Brother against Brother in that House before but never any that had refuge to the Arms of the Christians as now hath Gemes Brother unto Bajazeth that reigneth the far braver man of the two the other being between a Monk and a Philosopher and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes than able to weild the Scepter of so warlike an Empire This therefore is the King our Master 's memorable and heroical Resolution for an Holy War And because he carrieth in this the person of a Christian Soldier as well as of a great Temporal Monarch he beginneth with Humility and is content for this cause to beg Peace at the hands of other Christian Kings There remaineth only rather a Civil Request than any essential part of our Negotiation which the King maketh to the King your Sovereign The King as the World knoweth is Lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain The Marriage of the Heir belongeth to him as Guardian This is a private Patrimonial Right and no business of Estate yet nevertheless to run a fair course with your King whom he desires to make another Himself and to be one and the same thing with him his Request is That with the King's Favour and Consent he may dispose of her Marriage as he thinketh good and make void the intruded and pretended Marriage of Maximilian according to Justice This my Lords is all that I have to say desiring your pardon for my weakness in the delivery THus did the French Ambassadors with great shew of their King's affection and many sugred words seek to adulce all matters between the two Kings having two things for their ends The one to keep the King quiet till the Marriage of Britain was past and this was but a Summers-fruit which they thought was almost ripe and would be soon gathered The other was more lasting and that was to put him into such a temper as he might be no disturbance or impediment to the Voyage for Italy The Lords of the Council were silent and said only That they knew the Ambassadors would look for no answer till they had reported to the King and so they rose from Council The King could not well tell what to think of the Marriage of Britain He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to impatronize himself of the Duchy but he wondred he would bring into his House a litigious Marriage especially considering who was his Successor But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain as a quarrel for War and that of Naples as a Wrench and mean for Peace being well advertised how strongly the King was bent upon that Action Having therefore conferred divers times with his Council and keeping himself somewhat close he gave a direction to the Chancellor for a formal Answer to the Ambassadors and that he did in the presence of his Council And after calling the Chancellor to him apart bade him speak in such language as was fit for a Treaty that was to end in a Breach and gave him also a special Caveat that he should not use any words to discourage the Voyage of Italy Soon after the Ambassadors were sent for to the Council and the Lord Chancellor spake to them in this sort MY Lords Ambassadors I shall make answer by the King's Commandment unto the eloquent Declaration of you my Lord Prior in a brief and plain manner The King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with the King your Master But of this there needeth no repetition For if it be between them as it was it is well if there be any alteration it is not words that will make it up For the Business of Britain the King findeth it a little strange that the French King maketh mention of it as matter of well-deserving at his hand For that Deserving was no more but to make him his Instrument to surprize one of his best Confederates And for the Marriage the King would not meddle in it if your Master would marry by the Book and not by the Sword For that of Flanders if the Subjects of Burgundy had appealed to your King as their Chief Lord at first by way of Supplication it might have had a shew of Justice But it was a new form of Process for Subjects to imprison their Prince first and to slay his Officers and then to be Complainants The King saith That sure he is when the French King and himself sent to the Subjects of Scotland that had taken Arms against their King they both spake in another Stile and did in Princely manner signifie their detestation of Popular Attentates upon the Person or Authority of Princes But my Lords Ambassadors the King leaveth these two actions thus That on the one side he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you concerning them and on the other that he doth not apprehend them so deeply as in respect of them to refuse to treat of Peace if other things may go hand in hand As for the War of Naples and the Design against the Turk the King hath commanded me expresly to say That he doth wish with all his heart to his good Brother the French King that his Fortunes may succeed according to his hopes and honourable intentions And whensoever he shall hear that he is prepared for Grecia as your Master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a Peace of the King so the King will then beg of him a part in that War
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
War wherein the City was taken and partly in regard of other Pensions that were due unto him For the payment of which summs the French gave eight Hostages so saith Bellay But our Writers speak of a far different summ viz. Six hundred thousand Crowns for the City and four hundred thousand Crowns for the Cittadel besides three and twenty thousand Pounds Tournois which the City of Tournay ought the King and an annual Pension of a thousand Marks assigned to Cardinal Wolley for renouncing all claim and title to the Bishoprick of Tournay For the confirmation of these Articles the Earl of Worcester and the Bishop of Ely with some others were sent into France where both by the King and Princes of the Realm they were magnificently entertained ANNO DOM. 1519. REG. 11. THis year on the twelfth of January in the sixty third year of his age died the Emperour Maximilian having to prevent a disease to which he thought himself inclining unseasonably taken a Medicine of uncertain operation His death bred an equal desire in the minds of two great Princes who became Competitors for the Empire Francis King of France and Charles King of Spain But Charles although King of Spain yet being by birth born at Gand and descent a German at the age of nineteen years was chosen Emperour of Germany with the full consent and suffrages of all the Princes Electors This Election how-ever other slight matters were pretended was undoubtedly the cause of the ensuing dreadful War between these Princes The French King taking this repulse impatiently meditates nothing but revenge And that his designs might no way be crossed by us he labours amain for the confirmation of the Peace lately agreed upon between Henry and him Therefore by the Admiral Bonivet he deals with Wolsey that at an Enterview between the two Kings the League might be ratified To this end Henry intends to come to Guisnes Francis to Ardres and a convenient place between both is made choice of for their Enterview ANNO DOM. 1520. REG. 12. HEreupon the King setting forward towards France by easie journeys comes to Canterbury intending there to keep his Whitsontide The next day after being the twenty sixth of May the new created Emperour Charles the Fifth in his return from Spain arrives at Dover distant twelve miles from Canterbury The King gladly entertaines the news and although it were midnight takes horse and within little more than an hour comes by torch-light to Dover-Castle where the Emperour lay who Sea-weary was then asleep But being certified of the King's arrival he suddenly apparelled himself and met the King at the top of the stairs They embraced and saluted one another they long conferred together and the next morning being Whit-Sunday they rode together to Canterbury the Emperour alway keeping the right hand and the Earl of Derby bearing the Sword before them both Canterbury is a City more famous for antiquity than for modern beauty To let pass that it was above a thousand years since made an Archiepiscopal See our Chronicles do sufficiently testifie that both in respect of private mens fair Houses and the magnificent structure of its Churches it antiently excelled the bravest Cities of England But within these few years it hath lost so much of its greatness and beauty that a man shall find little of Canterbury beside the name Why it should so much in so short space decay many reasons may be alledged As the vicinity of London which swelling like the Spleen sucks both blood and moisture from all the other languishing Cities of the Kingdom Likewise the subversion of St. Augustine's Monastery the loss of Calais and the pulling down of Archbishop Becket's Shrine things which occasioned a great concourse of people and did by their loss and overthrow much impair this Cities splendour One only Ornament thereof survives which is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church with such a majesty piercing the skies saith Erasmus that it a far off fills the beholder with devout amazement This Church being at first dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST a few Ages past degenerated into the nick-name of St. Thomas This Thomas sirnamed Becket having obstinately opposed Henry the Second was in this Church slain by certain Souldiers and being afterward canonized for a Saint his Sepulcher mightily increased the glory of the place For from those times even almost to our days all sorts of people from all parts of Europe superstitiously frequented the Shrine of this upstart Saint with rich Oblations endeavouring to procure his favour Hence the Monastery was so enriched that of it and the Church Erasmus said That every place was enlightened with the lustre of most precious and huge stones and the Church throughout abounded with more than Royal Treasure But the Shrine especially that contained the Relicks of this Saint was so embossed with Jewels that Gold was the meanest thing about it Hither accompanied with King Henry came the Emperour Charles but whether out of devotion or curiosity I cannot say But this is certain that the Cardinal and the Clergy going in Procession to the Church they went directly where a great deal of time was spent in Ceremonious Worship and Oblations at Becket's Tomb not only by the Emperour but even by him who shortly after defaced the Monument and seized upon that infinite Treasure heaped up by the devout folly of many preceding Ages From the Church they went to the Archbishop's Palace where the Queen Aunt to the Emperour awaited them and very joyfully welcomed her Nephew Three days were spent in banqueting pastimes and then the Emperour went to his Navy at Sandwich the King and Queen to Dover from whence they passed to Calais that the intended Interview of the two Kings might work its due effects The seventh of June was the appointed day the place between Ardres and Guisnes There the two Kings mounted on Spanish Gennets attended by such a multitude of Nobility as the occasions of a hundred years before had not at once brought together the like encountred each other both in the flower of their age the goodliest Princes of the world and most expert in all kind of combats both on horse and foot It were needless to set forth the magnificence of these Princes when the bravery of their attendants was such that the place was thence named The golden Camp Having embraced each other on horse-back they alight and betake themselves to a Pavilion there purposely pitched Henry attended on by the Cardinal of York and the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk Francis by the Admiral Bonivet the Chancellor du Prat and some other Counsellors Having had familiar conference concerning some private matters they gave order for erecting a Theatre and enclosing a ground for a Tilt-yard that so they might solace themselves whiles their Council treated of graver matters the conclusion whereof they might at leisure every day know by relation Fourteen days these Princes gave each other the meeting with
devotion He therefore resolved to endeavour the Advancement of Wolsey to the Chair from whom he promised to himself a success answerable to his desires Henry therefore sends away speedy Posts to Gardiner with with ample instructions in the behalf of Wolsey willing him to work the Cardinals some with promises others with gifts some with threats others with perswasions and to omit no means that might be any way available But this was to build Castles in the Air. The messenger had scarce set forth when report that had made Clement dead had again revived him ANNO DOM. 1527. REG. 19. THe sixth of May Rome was taken and sacked by the Imperials under the conduct of the Duke of Bourbon who was himself slain in the assault marching in the head of his Troops The Pope Cardinals Ambassadors of Princes and other Nobles hardly escaping into the Castle of St. Angelo were there for some days besieged At length despairing of succours and victuals failing the Pope for fear he should fall into the hands of the Lansquenets for the most part seasoned with Luther's Doctrine and therefore passionate enemies to the See of Rome agreeth with the Prince of Auranges after the death of the Duke of Bourbon chosen General by the Army yielding himself and the Cardinals to him who kept them close Prisoners in the Castle Rome was now subject to all kind of cruelty and insolencies usual to a conquered City intended for destruction Beside Slaughter Spoil Rapes Ruine the Pope and Cardinals were the sport and mockery of the licentious multitude Henry pretended much grief at this news but was inwardly glad that such an occasion was offered whereby he might oblige Clement in all likelihood as he had just cause offended with the Emperour for this so insolent and harsh proceeding Whereupon he dispatcheth Wolsey into France who should intimate to the King his perpetual Ally what a scandal it was to all Christendom that the Head of it should be oppressed with Captivity a thing which did more especially concern Francis his affairs The Cardinal set forth from London about the beginning of July accompanied with nine hundred Horse among which were many Nobles the Archbishop of Dublin the Bishop of London the Earl of Derby the Lords Sands Montegle and Harendon besides many Knights and Gentlemen Wolsey found the French King at Amiens where it is agreed that at the common charge of both Princes War shall be maintained in Italy to set the Pope at liberty and to restore him to the possessions of the Church Henry contributing for his part thirty thousand Pounds sterling a month Upon the return of the Cardinal Francis sent into England Montmorency Lord Steward and Mareschal of France for the confirmation of this League and to invest the King with the Order of St. Michael He arrived in England about the middle of October accompanied with John Bellay Bishop of Bayeux afterward Cardinal the Lord of Brion and among others Martin Bellay the Writer of the French History who in this manner describes the passages of this Embassage Montmorency arriving at Dover was honourably received by many Bishops and Gentlemen sent by the King who brought him to London where he was met by twelve hundred Horse who conducted him to his lodging in the Bishop of London's Palace Two days after he went by water to Greenwich four miles beneath London where the King oft resideth There he was very sumptuously entertained by the King and the Cardinal of York Having had Audience the Cardinal having often accompanied him at London and Greenwich brought him to a house which he had built a little before ten miles above London seated upon the banks of Thames called Hampton Court. The Cardinal gave it afterward to the King and it is this day one of the King 's chiefest houses The Ambassador with all his Attendants was there feasted by him four or five days together The Chambers had hangings of wonderful value and every place did glitter with innumerable vessels of Gold and Silver There were two hundred and fourscore Beds the furniture to most of them being Silk and all for the entertainment of Strangers only Returning to London we were on St. Martin's day invited by the King to Greenwich to a Banquet the most sumptuous that ever I beheld whether you consider the Dishes or the Masques and Plays wherein the Lady Mary the King's Daughter acted a part To conclude the King and Montmorency having taken the Sacrament together the King for himself Montmorency in the behalf of Francis swore the observation of the League The King bestowed great gifts on every one and dismissed Montmorency who left the Bishop of Bayeux Leiger for his King to endeavour the continuance of the amity begun between these Princes Shortly after were sent into France Sir Thomas Bolen Viscount Rochfort and Sir Anthony Brown Knight who together with John Clerre Bishop of Bath and Wells Leiger in France should take the French King's Oath not to violate the late League in any part and to present him with the Order of the Garter We had now made France ours Nothing remained but to let the Emperour know the effects of the late Confederacy To this end Sir Francis Pointz and 〈◊〉 King at Arms are dispatched away to the Emperour to demand the molety of the booty gotten in the Battel of Pavy and the Duke of Orleans one of the French King's Sons left Hostage for his Father to be delivered to Henry who had born a share in the charges of that War and therefore expected to partake in the gains To command him to draw his Army out of Italy and not to disturb the peace of Christendom by molesting Christ's Vicar This if he refused to do neither was there expectation of any thing else they should forthwith defie him They execute their Commission and perceiving nothing to be obtained Clarencieux and a certain French Herald being admitted to the Emperour's presence do in the names of both King 's proclaim War against him Charles accepts it chearfully But the Ambassadors of France Venice and Florence craving leave to depart are committed to safe custody until it be known what is become of his Ambassadors with these Estates The report hereof flies into England and withal that Sir Francis Pointz and Clarencieux were committed with the rest Whereupon the Emperour's Ambassador is detained until the truth be known as it shortly was by the safe return of them both But Sir Francis Pointz about the beginning of the next Summer died suddenly in the Court being infected with the Sweating Sickness The same happening to divers other Courtiers and the infection spreading it self over London the Term was adjourned and the King fain to keep a running Court But these were the accidents of the ensuing year ANNO DOM. 1528. REG. 20. POpe Clement was of himself naturally slow but his own ends made him beyond the infirmity of his nature protract time in this cause concerning the
William Kingston who lately came thither with some of the King's Guard exhorted him to be of good comfort for that the King in whose name he saluted him had sent for him to no other end but that he might clear himself from those things which malice and detraction had forged against him neither did he doubt but that shortly he should see him more potent than ever if out of pusillanimity he gave not too much scope to the violence of his discontented passions Whereto the Cardinal in these his last words replied I am as truly glad to hear of his Majesty's health as I truly know my death to be at hand I have now been eight days together troubled with a Flux accompanied with a continual Fever which kind of disease if within eight days it remit nothing of its wonted violence by the consent of all Physicians threatneth no less than death per adventure an evil beyond death distraction But grown weak and my disease raging more and more I do each minute expect when God will be pleased to free this sinful soul from this loathsom prison of the body But should my life be a little prolonged do you think I perceive not what traps are laid for me You Sir William if I mistake not are Lieutenant of the Tower and I guess for what you come But God hath justly rewarded me for neglecting my due service to him and wholly applying my self to his Majesty's pleasure Woe is me wretch and sot that I am who have been ungrateful to the King of kings whom if I had served with that due devout observance that besits a Christian he would not have for saken me in the evening of my age I would I might be a general example even to the King himself how slipperily they stand in this world who do not above all things rely upon the firm support of G O D's Favour and Providence Salute his Majesty from me and deliver this my last petition unto him which is That he live mindful of the tryal he must undergo before G O D's high Tribunal so shall he by the secret testimony of his own conscience free me from those crimes wherewith my adversaries seek to burthen me More he would have spoken but his speech failed him and death presently ensued His body apparelled in his Pontifical Robes after it had all that day for he expired at the very break of day been exposed to open view was at midnight without any solemnity buried in our Ladies Chappel in the Church of the Monastery Thus unhappily ended Cardinal Wolsey his long happy life than whom England no nor I believe all Europe if you except the Bishops of Rome ever saw a more potent Prelate His retinue consisted of near about a thousand persons among which were one Earl commonly nine Barons many Knights and Gentlemen and of Officers belonging to his house above four hundred besides their Servants which far exceeded the former number His Chappel was served by a Dean a Sub-dean a Chanter thirty five Singers whereof thirteen were Clergy twelve Lay and ten Choristers four Sextons beside sixteen Chaplains the most sufficient for their Learning throughout all England two Cross-bearers and as many Pillar-bearers But nothing doth manifest his wealth and greatness so much as do his stately and incomparable Buildings We have already spoken of his Colledges Whitehal then called York-house as belonging to the Archbishop the place where our Kings do most reside was almost wholy built by him Hampton-Court the neatest pile of all the King's houses he raised entirely from the ground and having furnished it with most rich housholdstuff gave it to the King It was a gift fitter for a King to take than for a subject to give But in the opinion of the vulgar the Monument which he intended for the King far surpassed all these It was of solid Brass but unfinished and is to be seen in Henry the Eighth his Chappel in the Church of Windsor That three of his Children reigning after him none of them undertook by perfecting it to cover the as it were unburied bones of their Father what may we think but that the excessive charge of it deterred them But upon a farther inquity we may more justly ascribe it to the especial judgment of the Divine Providence who had decreed that he who had so horribly spoiled the Church should alone be debarred the honour afforded to each of his Predecessors in the Church And thus much concerning Wolsey who died the thirtieth of November 1530. In the mean time in June Anno 1529 after long debating the matter to and fro by the mediation of Louyse the French King's Mother and Margaret Aunt to the Emperour these two Princes are drawn to an accord and a Peace is concluded between them at Cambray thence commonly called The Peace of Cambray but by us The Peace of Women The chief Conditions whereof and that any way concerned us were That the French King should give to the Emperour for the freedom of his Children who had been three years Hostages in Spain for their Father two millions of Crowns whereof he should pay four hundred thousand due from the Emperour by the League made Anno 1522 to Henry and his Sister Mary Dowager of France Beside which huge summ he should also acquit the Emperour of five hundred thousand which he did owe to our King for the indemnity of the Marriage between the Emperour and the Lady Mary the King's Daughter whom having been long since contracted he left to marry with the Daughter of Portugal And that he should disengage and restore to the Emperour the Flower-de-Lys of gold enriched with precious stones and a piece of our Saviour's Cross which Philip truly called The Good Duke of Burgoigne the Emperour's Father being driven into England by contrary winds had engaged to Henry the Seventh for fifty thousand Crowns So that the summ to be paid to Henry amounted to nine hundred and fifty thousand Crowns besides sixteen hundred thousand more to be paid to the Emperour at the very instant of the delivery of the French King's Children The total summ was two millions five hundred fifty thousand Crowns which of our money make seven hundred sixty five thousand Pounds Francis not knowing which way suddenly to raise so huge a mass by his Ambassadors intreated our King to be pleased to stay some time for his moneys But Henry was much moved that he had not been made acquainted with this Treaty notwithstanding his secret designs made him temper his choler nay and with incredible liberality to grant more than was demanded For he absolutely forgave him the five hundred thousand Crowns due for the not marrying his Daughter he gave the Flower-de-Lys to his God-son Henry Duke of Orleans and left the other four hundred thousand to be paid by equal portions in five years The Pope had lately by his Legates deluded Henry who was thereupon much discontented
the chiefest and whose Abbots had voices among the Peers in the higher House of Parliament are these St. Peter's in Westminster St. Alban's St. Edmundsbury St. Benet's of Hulme Berdney Shrewsbury Crowland Abingdon Evesham Glocester Ramsey St. Augustine's in Canterbury Selbey Peterborough St. Maries in Tork Tewksbury Reding Battel Winchcomb Hide by Winchester Cirencester Waltham Walmesbury Thorney St. John's in Colchester Coventrey Tavestock The King that he might some way supply the want of the suffrages of so many learned and wise men in the Parliament House as also that of so great a prey he might consecrate if not the tenth to Hercules at least some part to God according to his promise erected some new Bishopricks whereof one was at Westminster a place so near and contiguous to London that it might rather seem a part of the Suburbs thereof than a distinct City But a City it is and so ennobled with many stately Monuments that for Beauty it contendeth with most in Christendom In it are the chief Seat of the Prince and Palaces of the Nobility the chief seats of Justice in the Land the most magnificent Church wherein are interred most of our Kings and Nobles whose sumptuous Monuments render it unparallel'd even by the World Another was at Oxford in the Colledge founded by Cardinal Wolsey The rest at Peterborough Bristol Chester and Glocester Westminster was by Queen Mary again reduced to an Abbey and furnished with Monks of St. Benet's Order whom Queen Elizabeth again expelled and converted the Revenues of the Bishoprick to the maintenance of Scholars and other pious uses As for the other Sees they remain to this day From those antient Cathedral Churches wherein Monks were seated nothing was taken away only Canons were placed there instead of Monks as likewise in the Cathedral Churches of the new erected Bishopricks The Churches wherein antiently canons and Prebendaries were instituted are In ENGLAND York London Lincoln Sarisbury Exceter Wells Lichfield Hereford 〈◊〉 In WALES St. David's Landaff Bangor St. Asaph The CATHEDRALS founded with Monks were Canterbury Winchester Ely Norwich Worcester Rochester Duresm Carlile The new SEES where primarily were Abbeys are Oxford Bristol Glocester Chester Peterborough So there are six and twenty Bishopricks within this Realm and in every Cathedral Archdeacons Prebendaries and other Ministers as also a Dean who governs the rest unless it be in St. David's where the Chanter and Eandaf where the Archdeacon is Head of the Chapter These things thus ordered the King still jealous lest it should be conceived that he had forsaken the Religion of his Fathers began to thunder out against the maintainers of new Tenets and much against Cranmer's will by Parliament enacted the Law of the Six Articles the summ whereof was I. That if any one should deny the True and Real presence of the Body of CHRIST in the Sacrament or should maintain That the substance of Bread and Wine remained after the words of Consecration pronounced by the Priest he should be burned as an Heretick II. If any should deny the Sacrament to be sufficiently administred under one Species only III. Or should hold it lawful for Priests to be married but much more he that having entred into holy Orders should presume to take a Wife IV. Or that Chastity vowed upon mature deliberation was not to be kept V. Or that private Masses ought not to be celebrated in the Church of England or elsewhere VI. Or that Auricular Confession was not expedient he should for his errours undergo loss of life by hanging These Laws like those of Drace written in Blood were the destruction of multitudes and silenced those who had been hitherto furtherers of Reformation Among whom Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Schaxton Bishops the one of Worcester the other of Salisbury were remarkable who that they might quietly enjoy themselves the Parliament being scarce dissolved did both on one day viz. the first of July resign their Bishopricks Latimer who for the freedom of his conscience could as willingly resign his life as he did this rich Bishoprick being burned for it in Queen Maries reign after his Resignation taking off his Rochet being a merry conceited man with a little leap lifted himself from the ground saying that He felt himself much more light and quick now he had freed himself of so great a burthen Henry in regard of his wiving disposition had long continued a Widower And that he should at length marry the consideration of his Estate being surrounded with Enemies passionate in the Pope's cause perswaded him Wherein he also gave ear to Cromwell who advised him to combine with those Estates whom the burthen of the Pope's tyranny had forced to the same courses and like fears By whose assistance he might countermine the secret practices of Rome A counsel without doubt good and befitting the times but producing the effects of Ill ones proving as is thought Pernicious to the Giver For the treatise of such a Match in September came into England Frederick Duke and Elector of Saxony Frederick Duke of Bavaria Otho Henry Count Palatine of Rhine and the Chancellour of the Duke of Cleve with some others who were for eight days Royally entertained by the King at Windsor where the Marriage with Ann Sister to the Duke of Cleve being concluded they returned to their own Countries This year died Margaret Queen of Scotland Sister to King Henry who was buried at the Charterhouse in the Town of St. John near the Tomb of James the First ANNO DOM. 1540. REG. 32. ON the Eve of the Circumcision the Lady Ann of Cleve destinated to the King's Bed arrived at Dover was on the third of January triumphantly received at Greenwich and on the Feast of the Epiphany ritely married to the King On the twelfth of March Henry Bourchier Earl of Essex the antientest Earl of the Realm thrown by an unruly young Horse which he sought to break brake his neck By whose death the Inheritance was devolved to his Daughter and from her deceasing without Issue to the Family of Deureux which Family in regard of their claim by descent was by Queen Elizabeth advanced to the Earldom of Essex But in the mean time Cromwell yet chief in the King's favour was on the eighteenth of April created Earl of Essex And here behold the frailty of Human affairs The current of few years had from very mean beginnings brought Cromwell to the height of Honour insomuch that his happiness was admired by all envied by many But Fortune intending a Tragedy he is unexpectedly apprehended sitting at the Council-Table and committed to the Tower where he continued until his Execution For in this Parliament begun the twelfth of April he is accused of Treason and Heresie without being brought to his answer condemned and on the twenty eighth of July beheaded This King may well be censured of cruel inconstancy who could so easily dispense with the death of those whom he had
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
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
would send him into his Countrey with the honorable Title and Authority of a Legate And now he feigned to himself a double hope of a Kingdom if not Secular at least Ecclesiastical by virtue of his authority Legatine and the dignity of Archbishop of Canterbury Queen Mary had her Education for some years under Margaret Countess of Salisbury the Mother of Pool who was then a Child and that by Queen Catharine's means who intended as it was thought to marry her Daughter the Lady Mary to one of the Countesses Sons thereby to strengthen her Daughters claim to the Crown if it should happen that Henry should decease without other lawful Issue the Countess being Daughter to George Duke of Clarence who was Brother to Edward the Fourth The Cardinal whether for this or some other reasons knowing himself to be in dear esteem with the Queen was confident if not of the Crown by Marriage yet at least of all advantages of her Favour Neither was he therein deceived for Mary having obtained the Crown earnestly sued unto him to restore himself to his Countrey and the Pope not ignorant how much he would advantage the Apostolick See at the Queens request dispatched him with most ample Authority But the Emperour having a Project on foot for his Son was somewhat jealous of the Cardinal and therefore began seriously to treat with Cardinal Dandino the Pope's Legate with him for the conclusion of a Peace between him and the French that so he might give a stop to Pool whose coming into England the Emperour's affairs being not yet setled might peradventure make all fly asunder Dandino to gratifie Charles by Franciseo Commendono sends Letters to Pool advising him not to set forth as yet forasmuch as this Legacy undertaken without the Emperour's consent was displeasing and the English Nation for the most part especially the Londoners did so hate the name of the Pope of Rome that his Legacy would be held in contempt among them A Legate therefore was not to be employed unto them until perswasions had brought them to a better temper Pool having received these Letters in his Cloister thought it fitting to expect his Holiness pleasure The Pope not brooking the increase of the Emperour's greatness by the addition of such Estates and fretting that Dandino had presumed to stay the Cardinal recalled Dandino and conferred on Pool alone the Legacy both into England for the one affair and to the Emperour and the French for the Treaty of a Peace He willingly undertaking it presently set forward from Trent certifying the Emperour and the French of his large Commission The Emperour perceiving that these devices would be no longer availeable sent Don Juan de Mendoza unto him with Letters wherein he plainly discovered his fear that the Cardinal's premature arrival in England might prove an obstacle to his proceedings there which were great and hopeful Wherefore it was his desire that he should either there attend his pleasure or if he would needs go further he might come to Liege and there expect the event of his designs The Cardinal upon receipt of these Letters returns to Dilling not far from Trent certifies his Holiness of the whole carriage of the Business and sends expostulatory Letters to the Emperour shewing therein what an indignity it was to Apostolick See that his Holiness Legat sent upon a Treaty of Peace and to reduce a Kingdom to the obedience of the Church should so disgracefully with contempt to his Holiness and that by the Emperour's command be detained in the midst of Germany in the sight of the Enemies of the Church That great Divine Domingo Soto Ordinary Preacher to the Emperour was then at Dilling By him he perswades the Emperour not to hinder this Legation being it would so much hazard the estate of the Church but especially of the Kingdom of England At length with much ado and that not until the Emperour had intelligence that the Articles concerning his Son's Marriage were agreed on he obtained leave to come to Brussels but on this condition that he should there reside until the Emperour were assured that the Marriage between Philip and Mary were Solemnized So to Brussels he came where having saluted the Emperour who received him very courteously and that time might not pass unprofitably with him he begins to put in execution one part of his Legation which was to draw the Emperor and the King of France to some indifferent terms of Peace The Emperour professing that he would not reject Peace upon any reasonable conditions the Cardinal goes into France to treat with Henry concerning the same thing Who made as fair shews as did the Emperour but their minds exulcerated with inveterate hate made all his pains fruitless Henry at his departure embracing him signified the sorrow he had conceived that he had not sooner occasion to be acquainted with his worth For had he truly know him his endeavours should have been totally for his advancement to the Papacy A little after his return to Brussels came the Lords Paget and Hastings Ambassadors to the Emperour from their Majesties of England who signified their joint-longing to see the Cardinal and therefore desired he might be forthwith dismissed that by virtue of his Authority he might rectifie the Church of England wonderfully out of tune by reason of the Schism wherewith it had been afflicted So in September he had leave to go for England but was by contrary winds detained at Calais until November in which month he at length arrived at Dover His entertainment was most honourable the Kings and Nobles alike striving to manifest their joy And because being in the year 1539 by Parliament declared Enemy to the Estate and by the same Law condemned to die the Estates then assembled in Parliament repealed that Act and restored him to his Blood the Kings themselves coming to the House extraordinarily for the confirmation of the Act before his arrival at London A little after his coming both Houses were sent for to the Court where the Bishop of Winchester Lord Chancellour having in the presence of the Kings and the assembly spoken something concerning the Cardinal's grateful arrival the Cardinal himself began a long Oration in English wherein He acknowledged how much he was bound to the Kings and the Estates of the Realm by whose favour those Laws for his Exile and Proscription were repealed and he once more made a Native of the Land He was bound by the Laws of Gratitude to endeavour the requital of this Benefit whereto an occasion happily offered it self The late Schism had separated them from the Union of the Church and made them exiles from Heaven by the Authority conferred on him by the Pope St. Peter's Successor Christ's Vicar he would bring them back into the Fold of the Church the sole means of attaining their celestial Heritage Wherefore he exhorted them ingenuously to acknowledge the Errours of these later years and to detect them with sincere alacrity
beginning of her Sickness her friends supposing that she grieved at the absence of her Husband whom she saw so engaged in Wars abroad that she could not hope for his speedy return used consolatory means and endeavoured to remove from her that fixed sadness wherewith she seemed to be oppressed But she utterly averse from all comfort and giving her self over to melancholy told them That she died but that of the true cause of her Death they were ignorant which if they were desirous to know they should after her death dissect her Heart and there they should find Calais Intimating thereby that the loss of Calais had occasioned this fatal grief which was thought to have been increased by the Death of the Emperour her Father-in-Law But the truth is her Liver being over-cooled by a Mole these things peradventure might hasten her end which could not otherwise be far from her and cast her by degrees into that kind of Dropsie which Physicians term Ascites This Dropsie being not discovered in time deceived her Physicians who believed that she had conceived by King Philip whereas she alas did breed nothing but her own Death So mature remedies being not applied and she not observing a fit Diet she fell into a Fever which increasing by little and little at last ended in her Death She lieth interred at Westminster in the midst of that Chappel which is on the North side of her Grandfather Henry the Seventh his Monument where her Sister Queen Elizabeth was after Buried with her and over both by the pious Liberality of that most Munificent Prince King James hath since been erected a most stately Monument well befitting the Majesty of such great Monarchs QVEEN ELIZABETH ANNO DOM. 1558. HAving thus briefly run over the Reigns of these three Princes Queen Elizabeth's times in the next place offer themselves which deservedly requiring a more accurate Style I will here set a period to this Work not so much with intent to pretermit them as reserving them for a more exact labour In the mean time to give some satisfaction to the Reader I will make this short Addition Some few hours after the decease of Queen Mary the Estates then assembled in Parliament on the seventeenth of November declared her Sister the Lady Elizabeth Queen who was Daughter to Henry the Eighth and Ann Bolen Having most gloriously reigned forty four years four months and seven days she ended her Life and Reign on the four and twentieth of March Anno 1603 the Crown being by her death devolved to the renowned King of Scots James the Sixth to whom it was so far from feeling it a burthen to have succeeded so good a Princess that never was any Prince received with greater Applause and Gratulation of his People Many think their condition happy if they exchange a Caligula for a Claudius or a Nero for a Vitellius or an Otho But that any Mortal should please after Elizabeth may seem a Miracle and is a great argument both of rare Virtue in the succeeding King and of a right Judgment in the Subject For this great Lady was so far beyond Example that even the best Princes come short of her and they who most inveigh against that Sex contend that Woman is incapable of those Virtues in her most eminent Wisdom Clemency variety of Languages and Magnanimity equal to that of Men to which I add fervent Zeal of Piety and true Religion But in these things peradventure some one or other may equal her What I shall beyond all this speak of her and let me speak it without offence to my most Excellent Sovereign James the Pattern of Princes the Mirrour of our Age the Delight of Britain no Age hath hitherto parallel'd nor if my Augury fail not none ever shall That a Woman and if that be not enough a Virgin destitute of the help of Parents Brothers Husband being surrounded with Enemies the Pope thundring the Spaniard threatning the French scarce dissembling his secret hate as many of the neighbouring Princes as were devoted to Rome clashing about her should contain this Warlike Nation not only in Obedience but in Peace also and beyond all this Popery being profligated in the true Divine Worship Hence it comes to pass that England which is among the rest of it self a Miracle hath not these many years heard the noise of War and that our Church which she found much distracted transcends all others of the Christian World For you shall at this day scarce find any Church which either defiled with Popish Superstitions or despoiled of those Revenues which should maintain Professors of the Truth hath not laid open a way to all kind of Errours gross Ignorance in Learning especially Divine and at length to Ethnick Barbarousness But to what end do I insist on these or the like they being sufficiently known even to the Barbarians themselves and Fame having trumpetted them throughout the World Which things when and how they were done how bountifully she aided and relieved her Allies how bravely she resisted brake vanquished her Enemies I have a desire in a continued History to declare and will God willing declare if I can attain to the true intelligence of the passages of those times have leisure for the compiling it and that no other more able than my self which I wish may happen in the mean time engage themselves therein LAUS DEO * * The Original of this Proclamation remaineth with Sir Robert 〈◊〉 a worthy Preserver and Treasurer of rare Antiquities from whose Manuscripts I have had much light for the furnishing of this Work His Privy-Council The Funerals of K. Henry the Seventh St. Stephen's Chappel The Coronation of Henry the Eighth His Marriage The death of Lady Margaret Countess of Richmond Empson and Dudley An Expedition into Africk Into Gueldres Barton a Pirat taken War with France A fruitless Voyage into Spain The Spaniard seiseth on Navarr The Lord Admiral drowned Terovenne besieged The Battel of Spurs Terovenne yielded Maximilian the Emperor serveth under King Henry The Siege of Tournay Tournay yielded Wolsey Bishop of Tournay The King of Scots slaim Flodden-Field The descent and Honours of the Howards Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk Charles Somerset Earl of Worcester Peace with France The Lady Mary the King's Sister married to Lewis the Twelfth King of France Cardinal Wolfey A breach with France The Star-Chamber and The Court of Requests instituted by Wolsey Ill May-day The Sweating-Sickness Peace with France The death of the Emperour Maximilian The Emperour Charles the Fifth in England Canterbury Interview betwixt the Kings of England and France Henry visits Emperour at Graveling The Duke of Buckingham accused of Treason King Henry writeth against Luther Luther's departure from the Church of Rome The Kings of England by the Pope stiled Defender of the Faith The death of Leo the Tenth Cardinal Wolsey and others sins Ambassadors to the Emperour and French King The Emperour Charles the second time in England Windsor The