over-commer to take all But there proving equality in the fitght there was likewise made equality in the command between them yet did not Edmona long enjoy his share being circumvented by the practice of Edric Earl of Stratton the Arch-Traytor of those times whose falshood had ruined the Father and now his ambirion destroys the Son for which Cnute invents a suitable reward causing his head to be set upon the highest place of the Tower of London therein performing his promise of advancing him above any Lord of the Land which was the mark that this faithlesse wretch aimed at and now attained but in a far different sence from that which he had vainly proposed to himself Cnute being thus rid of a Rival denied copartnership to the Sons of Edmond as pretending the whole to appertain to the Survivor and for fear they might prove thorns in his side he sent them far enough out of the way into Swedeland say some there to be murthered but they were mercifully preserved and conveyed to the Court of Hungary where Edmond dyed without issue but Edward had by Agatha Daughter to Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany a Son named Edgar and a Daughter called Margaret who was the cause as hereafter shall be shewed that the Saxon stem which now seemed withered doth once more reflourish though inocculated we confesse upon another stock Notwithstanding this transportation of Edmonds Sons yet did not Cnute hold himself sufficiently assured of his new accquired Kingdom till he had married Emma widdow of Ethelred whereby he gained the love of the English but the promise he made in marriage that the Children begotten on her should succeed was for some time frustrated by the preoccupation of Harold sirr named Harefoot the eldest son of Cnute by a Concubine but his reign was brief as likewise was that of his Brother Hardi Canute the lawfull Son of Cnute and Emma with whom expired the Danish Dominion here which had been but of a short duration though their incursions and molestations had continued for a longer space Edward styled the Confessor to distinguish him from Edward the Elder and Edward the Saint was next King being the Son of Emma also but by her first Husband Ethelred the Unready and did in some sort restore the Saxon blood For in truth there was a nearer relation to the Crown extant though not so near at hand for the present to wit Edward surnamed by reason of his Forein education the Outlaw the Son of Edmond Ironside the eldest Son by his first Wife of the above mentioned Ethelred the Unready who ought by the Law of Nature and Nations to have preceded Yet did the Confessor wanting Issue himself do his Nephew the Outlaw so much right as to recall him with his Children out of their Banishment in Hungary and designed him his Successor but the Outlaws death before the Confessors prevented that determination Neverthelesse the Confessor without delay pronounced Edgar the Outlaws Son and his own Grand Nephew Heir apparent and gave him the surname of Etheling which in those dayes were only peculiar to such as were inhopes and possibility of a Kingdome And more than so this poor Etheling never was For first he was debarred by his own Guardian Harold the Son of Goodwin Earl of Kent who disdaining the title of Regent which he was only constituted assumed that of King Afterwards by William Duke of Normandy who though he pulled down Harold yet did he not set up Edgar laying claim himself to the Crown by virtue of a pretended Donation from his Cosen Edward the Confessor which had been too weak a plea had it not been justified by a long sword which hath ever since given him the appellation of William the Conquerour Robert the eldest Son of the Conquerour should by right of primogeniture have succeeded his Father in all his Dominions but having proved a Rebel at the French Kings instigation he had only the Dukedom of Normandy assigned to him and the Crown of England was bequeathed to his Brother William surnamed Rufus who dying without any legitimate off-spring and Robert being absent in the Holy-land Henry the youngest Son of the Conquerour as Duke of Normandy but eldest as King of England seized upon it and to ingratiate himself with the Natives and to corroborate his Title he Married Maud Daughter of Margaret by Malcolme King of Scots Sister to Edgar Etheling Son of Edward the Outlaw Son of Edmond Ironside Son of Ethelred the Unready Son of Edgar the peaceable Son of Edmond Son of Edward Senior Son of Alfred and by which means the Royal seed of the Saxons became to be replanted in the English Soil For this Henry the first had not to mention his Son William who perished by water whilst he was young by the foresaid Maud a Daughter of the same name whom he first espoused to Henry the fifth Emperour of Germany afterwards to Ieffrey Plantagenet Earl of Aniou by whom she had a Son called Henry in whom did fully concur the Norman and Saxon Race But the true hereditary succession was some what intercepted by Stephen Earl of Bologne Son of Adela the Conquerours Daughter from whom he could derive but a slender title For had the Conquerours line Masculine failed then ought Theobald Earl of Bloys Stephens Eldest Brother by the same Adela to have been prelated And therefore his surest Tenure proceeded from his Election by the Nobility who notwithstanding their natural Allegiance and twice repeated Oath and among them Stephen himself is reckoned to be one that had sworn Fealty to Maud and her Heirs in the Reign of her Father Henry admitted this stranger and that for no other reason though other were alleged as that Maud was a woman and consequently uncapable of anointing that she was married out of the Realm without the consent thereof which if of any moment should before their solemn engagement have been taken into consideration than that he being a Creature of their own erecting was more obliged to them and would upon all occasions be more ready to gratifie their aspiring humour Yet wanted not the Empresse and her Son adherents both within and without the Kingdom to assert their right who raised such a cloud of trouble to Stephen that he could not dispel it during his whole reign so that at length he came to a composition and his own Son Eustace whom he had designed his Successour being already dead he adopts Henry fitz-Empresse and proclaims him heir apparent with this Proviso That he himself should enjoy the Crown as long as he lived which was not a full year after this peaceable agreement Henry the second of that name is now possessed of the Throne in processe of time adding the Lordship of Ireland to it and that upon a treble account First by vertue of the late Treaty with King Stephen Secondly by title of conquest as being great Grand-Child to William the Norman but Thirdly and chiefly by the equity of
welcomed and readily assisted by the Welsh from whose Princes he was descened as being the Son of Edmond of Haddam the Son of Owen Ap Teudor who could in a direct line derive his pedigree from the Noble Race of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severne as hath been before touched though a modern Writer more for the jest sake than out of reality sayes he was a Gentleman of no extraordinary lineage but lineaments which he makes to be the motive that induced Katherine of France Dowager of England after the death of Henry the fifth to take him for her second Husband Richmond having much increased his Army among his Country-men marches forward as far as Bosworth in Leicestershire where King Richard meets him and there the great controversy is finally decided in Battail Richard is slain and Richmond by a kind of military election saluted and in a manner Crowned King in the Field Henry the seventh for so must we now call him that was but lately Earl of Richmond sensible that the tumultuary approbation of Souldiers did of it self give him neither just or durable possession knowing likewise the weaknesse of the Lancastrian plea in opposition to that of York maries according to his solemn preingagement Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the fourth which brought security to his estate and happinesse to the Kingdom the two Roses whose divisions had put the English to much expence of blood being thereby concorporated and for ever after linked in a most firm and indissolvable knot But as in a body that hath been troubled with a Cronique Disease though recovered yet are there still some peccant humours to be purged out so notwithstanding this Union and Recorciliation there remains dregs of discontents whereof the Queen Mother was the supposed Parent and Margaret Dutchess of Burgundy the known Nurse the first because she thought her Daughter not sufficiently respected for King Henry is not accused to have been over uxorious or indulgent to his wife the other being Sister of Edward the fourth bore an endlesse hatred to any of the Lancastrian Race The first Spirit they raised to disturb King Henryes quiet was one Lambert Symnell a stripling but so instructed by Simon a Priest who had higher directors that he could well personate the young Earl of Warwick Son of George Duke of Clarence whom the credulous Irish greedily entertain and acknowledge for their King And when Henry to detect the forgery had publickly shown in London the very Earl of Warwick whom he kept his Prisoner they retort the fiction upon himself and give out he had suborned a counterfeit on purpose to delude the simple multitude But this Pageantry quickly vanished the Conspirators are dispersed and Lambert taken who had the honour to be first made a Turn-spit in the Kings Kitchen but was afterwards preferred to be one of the Kings Falconers This was but the Prologue as it were to a more deep contrived Comi-Tragaedy that was to follow whereof the restlessâ— Dutchesse of Burgundy was the Inventer and one Perkin Wâ—rbeke the principal Actor But the Name and Scene is somewhat altered His Cue assigned him is to play the part of Richard Duke of York second Son of Edward the fourth who is feigned to have miraculously escaped the hands of his bloody Unckle Perkin was so good a proficient and had learned and could repeat his lesson so exactly that not the silly Iriâ—h alone but the French and Scotish Kings with many of the Nobility and Gentry of England were or would be deceived Nay Sir William Stanly himself Lord Chamberlain the Kings especial favorite is so far trâ—panned as to utter this improvident Speech which was construed high Treason that if he certainly knew that the young man was the undoubted Son and Heir of King Edward the fourth he would never fight or bear Arms against him for which he became headlesse though he had been the chief help and setter of the Crown upon King Henryes head Perkin at length is taken and committed to the Tower where soliciting the Earl of Warwick to make an escape he hastens both his own merited and that poor Earls undeserved execution Henry having thus composed his affairs at home seeks honourable matches for his children abâ—oad and marries his eldest Daughter Margaret to the Scotish King providently foreseeing that in case his issue Male failed this conjunction might be a means to associate the separated Kingdoms as his own had the Roses and so remedy the inconveniences of two distinct estates in one single Island Arthur his eldest Son Prince of Wales was espoused to Katherine Infanta of Spain but he dying before consummation we mean as to conjugal duty his brother Henry by dispensation from the Pope takes her to wife who on the wedding day was aâ—tired all in white in token that she was a pure and spotlesse Virgin It is conceived that the young Prince who henceforward is to be styled Henry the eighth had never any great fancy to the Lady as somwhat his Superiour in years but did raâ—â—â—r comply with his Fathers will than his own iâ—clinations However for a long time he lived with her in an outward loving seeming respectful manner But at length satiated with her company whom from the beginning he had not truly affected he meditates a divorce and hopes by money and Cardinal Woolseys interest in the Court of Rome with speed to effect the same Woolsey who by his obsequiousnesse to the Kings pleasure in all things had from a mean condition mounted to the highest degree of favour and power that a Subject is capable of is reported to be the first that injected the scruple into the Kings head touching the unlawfullnesse of his marriage with his Brothers Wife which once in could not in haste be put out again But in the prosecution the King and Woolsey had different ends Woolsey to revenge himself of Charles the fifth Emperour of Germany and Nephew to Katherine who had been a back-Friend to Woolsey in his attempted advancement to the Popedom and by proposing a match to the King out of France he thought to ingratiate with that Crown which might be more auspitious in promoting his towring designs But the King had another though not so deep a reach which more concerned his own private satisfaction than policy or reason of State For he desired to be unyoked from his old Queen that he might make a new one of one of her maids of honour Anne of Bolen with whom he was desperately in love which the Cardinal smelling out proves cold in the businesse delays to exercise his legantine power instigates the Pope to recall the cause to himself and proceeds slowly therein all which is performed accordingly but it concludes with the ruine of Woolsey's and the Popes Authority For impatient of these procrastinations Henry discards the one and renounces the other rejects Katherine marries Anne grows weary of her of incest with her own Brother cuts off
and entwisted together But we cannot dissemble what few take notice of to wit that the better that is the more Masculine Bloud-Royal of the Saxon Race which in comparison of the Norman though both founded in Conquest was much to be preferred by reason of its much elder prescription did still reside in the House of Scotland For Margaret bare to Malcolm besides that Daughter Maud three Sons Edgar Alexander and David who to pass over the Intrusion of Donald the Brother and Duncan the Bastard of Malcolm because each did soon expire were all Kings in their Order but only David had Issue from whom the Kings of Scotland have ever since however they have alwayes abstained from their claim to the English Crown upon that account derived an undoubted and not to be disputed descent Henry David's only Son departed this life before his Father but left three Sons behind him Malcolm William and David which last was Earl of Huntington in England whereof Malcolm the 4. succeeded his Grandfather him being childless his Brother William him his Son Alexander the second him his Son Alexander the third and him should have his Grandaughter Margaret who was bred in and sent for out of Norway but that she died before her arrival on the Scotish Coasts And now the rest being extinct recourse must be had to the Off-spring of the late mentioned Earl of Huntington when lo two Grand Competitors appear Iohn Baliol who fetches his stock from the eldest Daughter Margaret and Robert Bruse who confessedly came from the younger Isabell but alledges that he is in a nearer degree of Consanguinity to Earl David than the other either did or could pretend himself to be The Controversie in regard of the Potency of both Parties being not capable of a decision at home without the danger of a Civil War it was referred to Edward the first King of England who rather brought Oyl to encrease than Water to quench the flame and was resolved to bestow it on him only who would profess homage and swear fealty unto the English Crown To this Imperious demand Baliol though conceived superior in Title yet proving meaner in Spirit did readily condescend which Bruse whose Plea was thought weaker but Courage found greater did utterly refuse to assent unto Whereupon Edward pronounces sentence on Baliols side who is acknowledged King by many of the Scotish Nobility but rather out of fear of Edward's power than any satisfaction or delight they took in this dishonourable and as they esteemed it unworthy submission Yea Baliol himself doth soon repent of it and bids defiance to Edward who now afresh cajols Bruse urging the performance of promises he returned a scornfull Negative As if saies he we had nothing else to do than to conquer Kingdoms for you to enjoy Baliol at last surrenders himself unto Edward and is by him sent Prisoner into England and there detained until the Pope's Intercession and Engagement that he should create no further trouble in Scotland he is released and retires into France where having resigned his whole right to his Counsin Bruse he spends the remainder of his days in a more quiet and contented estate But Robert Bruse Son of Robert the Author of the Contention which he lived not to see finished was little pleased with Eeglish Edward's fishing in disturbed streams and therefore he sets up trading for himself at first with smal probability of thriving but afterwards he caught the prey where at he aimed which was almost ravished out of the mouth of his Infant-Son David by Edward Baliol Son of that Iohn who had once renounced it but it was again rescued by Robert Stuart the Vice-roy and Baliol with his Issue if he had any failing the Brusians became legal Owners of that Kingdom whereinto at the beginning they seemed to have made but a violent and forcible entry Robert Stuart even now remembred was David's Sister's Son and consequently his Heir he having no Children of his own but David notwithstanding old benefits upon some new displeasure was inclinable to have put him by had he not been over-perswaded by the Nobility who were as well sensible of Robert's worth as that his Grandfather Robert the first had before his Son David was born designed him to the Kingdom Nay the Fates themselves if credit be to be given to some Scotish Chronicles had long ago destined no less for they report that Macbeth the after Tyrant and Banco one of Robert's Progenitors walking in a Wood encountred with three women of more than humane aspect who saluted Macbeth then a private person King of Scotland whereat when Banco shewed himself aggrieved they told him that Macbeth should only the King himself which presently came to pass but that the succession was reserved for his Posterity which though somewhat with the slowest is now at length exactly fulfilled For this Robert was the Son of Walter the Son of Iohn the Son of Alexander the Son of Walter the Son of Alexander the Son of Alan the Son of Walter Stuart the first of that Surname and Office in Scotland the Son of Fleance the Son of Banco whom Macbeth to defeat the Prediction slew and sought to do the like to his Son Fleance who prevented his bloudy intentions by fleeing into Wales and there as it hath already been touched in gross he married Nest by whom he had that first and famous Walter the Daughter of Giffith ap Llewelyn the Son of Angharad the Daughter and Heir of Meredith the Son of Owen the Son of Howel Dha the Son of Cadelh the Son of Rodri Mawr the Son of Esylht the Daughter and Heir of Conan Tyndaithwy the Son of Rodri Moelwynog the Son of Edwall Twrch the Son of Cadwallader last King of Brittany and first of Wales beyond whom in point of pedegree we dare not wander but must here erect our Pillars and fix our Ne plus ultra lest by wading further we should be swallowed up in the vast Abyss of an unbounded and fathomless Ocean And here we might likewise put a period to the whole Tract as having traced this Robert's lineage in the Brettish Story as far as with any confidence we can well proceed and being able with much more ease and assurance to resolve our present Sovereign's into his for Charles the second is the Son of Charles the first the Son of Iames the sixth the Son of Mary the Daughter and Heir of Iames the fourth the Son of Iames the fourth the Son of Iames the third the Son of Iames the second the Son of Iames the first the Son of Iohn whose name upon the Assumption of the Kingdom was converted into Robert the third the Son of the aforesaid Robert the second c. but that it is demurred by some First Whether Nest Walter 's Mother were an Heir or no 2. Admitting that she were whether her Ancestor Cadelh were the eldest Son of Rodri Mawr who being King of all Wales was the first that