Earl of Angus and Lady Margaret the King's Sister on the first day of November to the unspeakable good of this Island deceased in the Tower For this Margaret being after married to Matthew Earl of Lenox had by him Henry the Father of King James of sacred memory the most happy Unitor of divided Britain ANNO DOM. 1538. REG. 30. IT is at length after many Ages resolved That through the superstitious abuse of Images God was robbed of his due honour The King much prone to Reformation especially if any thing might be gotten by it thought it fit to remove this stumbling-block and the rather for that he conceived his Treasury would be thereby supplied There were some Images of more especial fame and Shrines of reputed Saints whereunto Pilgrimages were made from the farthest parts of the Kingdom nay even from forein Countries also the Oblations whereto were so many and so rich that they not only sufficed for the maintenance of Priests and Monks but also to the heaping up of incredible wealth The Shrine of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury was covered with plates of Gold and laden with Gifts of inestimable value The blind zeal of those and former times had decked it with Gems Chains of Gold of great weight and Pearls of that large size which in our Language find no proper term This Tomb was razed and his Bones found entire instead of whose Head the Monks usually obtruded the Scull of some other peradventure better deserving than did their supposed Martyr The spoil of this Monument wherein nothing was meaner than Gold filled two Chests so full that each of them required eight strong men for the portage Among the rest was a Stone of especial lustre called the Royal of France offered by Lewis the Seventh King of France in the year 1179 together with a great massy Cup of Gold at what time he also bestowed an annuity on the Monks of that Church of an hundred Tons of Wine This Stone was afterward highly prized by the King who did continually wear it on his thumb Erasmus speaks much of the magnificence of this Monument as also of the Image of our Lady of Walsingham both which he had seen and admired This Image was also stripped of whatsoever worthy thing it had the like being also done in other the like places and the Statues and Bones of the dead digged up and burned that they might be no further cause of Superstition Among the rest of these condemned Images there was a Crucifix in South-Wales called of the Inhabitants Darvel Gatheren concerning which there was a kind of Prophecy That it should one day fire a whole Forest. It chanced that at this time one Doctor Forest a Frier Observant who had formerly taken the Oath of Supremacy was upon his relapse apprehended and condemned of Treason and Heresie For this Frier a new Gallows was erected whereon he was hanged by the arm-pits and underneath him a fire made of this Image wherewith he was burned and so by his death made good the Prophecy Great was the Treasure which the King raised of the spoils of Churches and Religious Houses But whether the guilt of Sacriledge adhering like a consuming Canker made this ill gotten Treasure unprofitable or that he found he had need of greater supplies to withstand the dangers that threatned him from abroad not content with what he had already corraded he casts his eyes on the Wealth of the Abbeys that had escaped the violence of the former Tempest and not expecting as he deemed it a needless Act of Parliament seiseth on the rest of the Abbeys and Religious Houses of the Realm At first he begins with that at Canterbury dedicated to Augustine the English Apostle who was there interred This being the first-fruits of Christianity among this Nation I mean the Saxons for the Britans had been watred with streams derived even from the Fountains Apostolick far more pure than were those later overflows of Augustine he invades expels the Monks and divides their means between his Exchequer and Courtiers Battel-Abbey built by William the Conquerour in the same place where by the overthrow of Harold the last Saxon King he purchased this Kingdom to himself and his posterity did also run the same fortune So that it is not so much to be wondered at if those at Merton in Surrey Stratford in Essex Lewis in Sussex the Charterhouse Black-Friers Gray-Friers and White-Friers in London felt the fury of the same Whirlwind At the same time among many other Reformations in this Church that wholesom Injunction was one whereby the Bible translated and printed in English was commanded to be kept in every Parish Church and to be conveniently placed where any that were so desirous might read therein They who were more eagerly addicted to the superstition of their Ancestors brooked not these proceedings among whom were chief Henry Courtney Marquess of Exceter Henry Lord Mountague Brother to Cardinal Pool and Sir Edward Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergavenny who on the fifth day of November upon the aceusation of Sir Geoffry Poole Brother to the Lord Mountague were committed to the Tower for having maintained intelligence with the 〈◊〉 and conspired the King's destruction for which they were on the third of the ensuing January the Lord Audley sitting high Steward for the time arraigned and condemned and on the ninth of the same month beheaded Two Priests named Crofts and Colins with one Holland a Mariner as partakers in the same guilt were hanged and quartered at Tyburn This Courtney was by the Father's side of a very noble descent deriving himself from the Blood Royal of France by Hugh Courtney created Earl of Devonshire by Edward the Third But by his Mother he far more nearly participated of the Blood Royal of England being Son to Catharine Daughter to Edward the Fourth who was Sister to Queen Elizabeth the Mother of King Henry The King long favoured him as his Cousin-german but at length in regard of his near Alliance to the Crown became jealous of his Greatness whereof he had lately given more than sufficient testimony in suddenly arming some thousands to oppose against the Yorkshire Rebels The consideration whereof made Henry gladly entertain any occasion to cut off this Noble Gentleman About the same time John Lambert a religious and learned man was also condemned the King himself sitting Judge This Lambert being accused of Heresie appealed from his Ordinary to the King who fearing lest he should be accounted a Lutheran resolved upon this occasion to manifest to the World how he stood affected in Religion To this end summoning as many of the Bishops and other Peers of the Realm as could conveniently be present he caused Scaffolds to be built in Westminster Hall from whence the people might be spectators and witnesses of the Acts of that day On the right hand of the King were seated the Bishops and behind them
THE HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF HENRY the SEVENTH HENRY the EIGHTH EDWARD the SIXTH AND QUEEN MARY The First Written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Viscount St. ALBAN The other Three by the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS GODWYN Lord Bishop of HEREFORD LONDON Printed by W. G. for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell and J. Edwyn M. D C. LXXVI To the most Illustrious and most Excellent PRINCE CHARLES Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester c. It may Please Your Highness IN part of my acknowledgment to Your Highness I have endeavoured to do Honour to the Memory of the last King of England that was Ancestour to the King your Father and Your self and was that King to whom both Unions may in a sort refer That of the Roses being in him Consummate and that of the Kingdoms by him begun Besides his times deserve it For he was a Wise Man and an Excellent King and yet the times were rough and full of Mutations and rare Accidents And it is with Times as it is with Ways Some are more Vp-hill and Down-hill and some are more Flat and Plain and the One is better for the Liver and the Other for the Writer I have not flattered him but took him to life as well as I could sitting so far off and having no better light It is true Your Highness hath a Living Pattern Incomparable of the King Your Father But it is not amiss for You also to see one of these Ancient Pieces GOD preserve Your Highness Your Highness most humble and devoted Servant FRANCIS St. Alban AN INDEX ALPHABETICAL Directing to the most Observable Passages in the ensuing HISTORY A. AN Accident in it self trivial great in effect Pag. 108 Advice desired from the Parliament 33 35 56 Aemulation of the English to the French with the reasons of it 36 Affability of the King to the City of London 113 Affection of King Henry to the King of Spain 61 Affection of the King to his Children 136 Aid desired by the Duke of Britain 33 Aid sent to Britain 37 Aiders of Rebels punished 23 Alms-deeds of the King 131 Ambassadors to the Pope 24 into Scotland 25 Ambassadors from the French King 26 Ambassadors in danger in France 31 Ambassadors into France 54 Ambition exorbitant in Sir William Stanley 78 Answer of the Archduke to the King's Ambassadors 74 Appeach of Sir William Stanley 76 Arms of King Henry still victorious 133 Arrows of the 〈◊〉 the length of them 96 Articles between the King and the Archduke 91 Arthur Prince married to the Lady Katherine 116 Arthur Prince dies at Ludlow 117 Aton Castle in Scotland taken by the Earl of Surrey 98 Attainted persons in Parliament excepted against 8 Attaindor and corruption of Blood reacheth not to the Crown ibid. 15 Avarice of King Henry 134 Audley General of the Corhish Rebels 93 B. BAnishment of 〈◊〉 our of the Kingdom 74 Battel at Bosworth-field 1 at Stokefield 〈◊〉 at St. Albans in Britain 87 at Bannocksbourn in Scotland 〈◊〉 at Black-heath 〈◊〉 Behaviour of King Henry towards 〈◊〉 Children 117 Benevolence to the King for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence who the first Author ibid Benevolence 〈◊〉 by Act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence revived by Act of 〈◊〉 ibid A Benevolence 〈◊〉 to the King 23 Birth of Henry the 〈◊〉 35 Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the King 〈◊〉 Blood not unrevenged 112 122 Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 Three causes of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ibid. Britain united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Marriage 〈◊〉 Brakenbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murder King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broughton Sir 〈◊〉 joyned with the Rebels 11 A Bull procured from the Pope by the King for what causes 24 Bulloign besieged by King Henry 63 C. CArdinal Morton dieth 113 Capell Sir William fined 80 131 Cap of Maintenace from the Pope 101 Ceremony of Marriage new in these parts 48 Chancery power and description of that Court 38 Clifford Sir Robert flies to Perkin 70 revolts to the King 72 Clergy priviledges abridged 39 Christendom enlarged 61 Columbus Christopher and Bartholomeus invite the King to a discovery of the West Indies 107 Confiscation aimed at by the King 76 Conference between King Henry and the King of Castile by casualty landing at Weymouth 128 Conquest the Title unpleasing to the People declined by William the Conqu 3 and by the King 5 〈◊〉 for Perkin 70 Contraction of Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine 118 Conditional speech doth not qualifie words of Treason 77 Commissioners into Ireland 79 Commissioners about Trading 91 Coronation of King Henry 7 Coronation of the Queen 24 Counsel the benefit of good 25 Counsel of what sort the French King used 32 Counsel of mean men what and how different from that of Nobles ibid. Lord Cordes envy to England 48 Cottagers but housed Beggars 44 Counterfeits Lambert proclaimed in Ireland 15 Crowned at Dublin 19 taken at Battell 22 put into the King's Kitchin ibid. made the King's Faulconer ibid. Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin Wilford another counterfeit Earl of Warwick 111 Courage of the English when 37 Court what Pleas belong to every Court 38 Court of Star-chamber confirmed ibid. Creations 6 Crown confirmed to King Henry by Parliament 7 Cursing of the King's Enemies at Paul's Cross a custom of those times 72 122 D. DAm a Town in Flanders taken by a slight 59 Lord Daubeny 96 Devices at Prince Arthur's Marriage 117 Device of the King to divert Envy 64 Decay of Trade doth punish Merchants 90 Decay of People how it comes to pass 44 Declaration by Perkin to the Scottish King 85 Desires intemperate of Sir William Stanley 78 Dighton a murderer of King Edward's two Children 71 Dilemma a pleasant one of Bishop Morton 58 Diligence of the King to heap Treasures 120 Displacing of no Counsellors nor Servants in all King Henry's Reign save of one 138 Dissimulation of the French King 29 30 49 Dissimulation of King Henry in pretending War 56 A Doubt long kept open and diversly determined according to the diversity of the times 117 Dowry of Lady Katherine how much 116 Dowry of Lady Margaret into Scotland how much 119 Drapery maintained how 45 Dudley one of the King's Herse-leeches 119 Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin E. EArl of Suffolk flies into Flanders 121 returns 129 Earl of Northumberland slain by the People in collecting the Subsidy somewhat harshly 40 Earl of Warwick executed 111 Earl of Warwick counterfeit 13 110 Earl of Surrey enters Scotland 98 Edmund a third Son born to King Henry but died 109 Edward the Fifth murdered 85 Envy towards the King unquenchable the cause of it 111 Envy of the Lord Cordes to England 48 Enterview between the King and the King of Castile 128 Emblem 94 Empson one of the King's Horse-leeches 119 Errours of the French King in his business for the Kingdom of Naples 82 Errours of King Henry occasioning his many troubles 128 〈◊〉 service 92 Espials in
he was ever ready to wait upon all his Atchievements in person The King therefore first called his Council together at the Charterhouse at Shine Which Council was held with great secresie but the open Decrees thereof which presently came abroad were three The first was That the Queen Dowager for that she contrary to her Pact and Agreement with those that had concluded with her concerning the Marriage of her Daughter Elizabeth with King Henry had nevertheless delivered her Daughters out of Sanctuary into King Richard's hands should be Cloystered in the Nunnery of Bermonsey and forfeit all her Lands and Goods The next was That Edward Plantagenet then Close-prisoner in the Tower should be in the most publick and notorious manner that could be devised shewed unto the People In part to discharge the King of the Envy of that opinion and bruit how he had been put to death privily in the Tower But chiefly to make the People see the levity and imposture of the Proceedings of Ireland and that their Plantagenet was indeed but a Puppet or a Counterfeit The third was That there should be again Proclaimed a General-Pardon to all that would reveal their Offences and submit themselves by a Day And that this Pardon should be conceived in so ample and liberal a manner as no High-Treason no not against the King 's own Person should be excepted Which though it might seem strange yet was it not so to a wise King that knew his greatest dangers were not from the least Treasons but from the greatest These Resolutions of the King and his Council were immediately put in execution And first the Queen Dowager was put into the Monastery of Bermonsey and all her Estate seized into the King's hands whereat there was much wondering That a weak Woman for the yielding to the menaces and promises of a Tyrant after such a distance of time wherein the King had shewed no displeasure nor alteration but much more after so happy a Marriage between the King and her Daughter blessed with Issue-male should upon a sudden mutability or disclosure of the King's mind be so severely handled This Lady was amongst the Examples of great variety of Fortune She had first from a distressed Suitor and desolate Widow been taken to the Marriage-Bed of a Batchelor-King the goodliest Personage of his time and even in his Reign she had endured a strange Eclipse by the King's flight and temporary depriving from the Crown She was also very happy in that she had by him fair Issue and continued his Nuptial Love helping her self by some obsequious bearing and dissembling of his Pleasures to the very end She was much affectionate to her own Kindred even unto Faction which did stir great Envy in the Lords of the King's side who counted her Blood a disparagement to be mingled with the King 's With which Lords of the King's Blood joyned also the King's Favorite the Lord Hastings who notwithstanding the King 's great affection to him was thought at times through her malice and spleen not to be out of danger of falling After her Husband's death she was matter of Tragedy having lived to see her Brother beheaded and her two Sons deposed from the Crown bastarded in their Blood and cruelly murthered All this while nevertheless she enjoyed her Liberty State and Fortunes But afterwards again upon the Rise of the wheel when she had a King to her Son-in-Law and was made Grand-mother to a Grand-child of the best Sex yet was she upon dark and unknown Reasons and no less strange Pretences precipitated and banished the World into a Nunnery where it was almost thought dangerous to visit her or see her and where not long after she ended her Life but was by the King's commandment Buried with the King her Husband at Windsor She was Foundress of Queens-College in Cambridge For this Act the King sustained great Obloquy which nevertheless besides the reason of State was somewhat sweetned to him by a great Confiscation About this time also Edward Plantagenet was upon a Sunday brought throughout all the principal Streets of London to be seen of the people And having passed the view of the Streets was conducted to St. Paul's Church in solemn Procession where great store of people were assembled And it was provided also in good fashion that divers of the Nobility and others of Quality especially of those that the King most suspected and knew the person of Plantagenet best had communication with the young Gentleman by the way and entertained him with speech and discourse which did in effect marr the Pageant in Ireland with the Subjects here at least with so many as out of Errour and not out of Malice might be mis-led Nevertheless in Ireland where it was too late to go back it wrought little or no effect But contrariwise they turned the Imposture upon the King and gave out That the King to defeat the true Inheritor and to mock the World and blind the Eyes of simple men had tricked up a 〈◊〉 in the likeness of Edward Plantagenet and shewed him to the People not sparing to prophane the Ceremony of a Procession the more to countenance the Fable The General-Pardon likewise near the same time came forth and the King therewithal omitted no diligence in giving straight Order for the keeping the Ports that Fugitives Male-contents or suspected Persons might not pass over into Ireland and Flanders Mean while the Rebels in Ireland had sent privy Messengers both into England and into Flanders who in both places had wrought effects of no small Importance For in England they won to their Party John Earl of Lincoln Son of John de la Pole Duke of Suffolk and of Elizabeth King Edward the Fourth's eldest Sister This Earl was a man of great Wit and Courage and had his thoughts highly raised by Hopes and Expectations for a time For Richard the Third had a Resolution out of his hatred to both his Brethren King Edward and the Duke of Clarence and their Lines having had his hand in both their Bloods to disable their Issues upon false and incompetent pretexts the one of Attaindor the other of Illegitimation and to design this Gentleman in case himself should dye without Children for Inheritor of the Crown Neither was this unknown to the King who had secretly an Eye upon him But the King having tasted of the Envy of the People for his Imprisonment of Edward Plantagenet was doubtful to heap up any more distasts of that kind by the Imprisonment of De la Pole also the rather thinking it Policy to conserve him as a Corrival unto the other The Earl of Lincoln was induced to participate with the Action of Ireland not lightly upon the strength of the Proceedings there which was but a Bubble but upon Letters from the Lady Margaret of Burgundy in whose succours and declaration for the Enterprize there seemed to be a more solid Foundation both for Reputation and Forces Neither did the Earl
promise of Pardon and good Conditions of Reward And above the rest to assail sap and work into the constancy of Sir Robert Clifford and to win him if they could being the man that knew most of their secrets and who being won away would most appall and discourage the rest and in a manner break the Knot There is a strange Tradition That the King being lost in a Wood of Suspitions and not knowing whom to trust had both intelligence with the Confessors and Chaplains of divers great men and for the better Credit of his Espials abroad with the contrary side did use to have them cursed at St. Pauls by Name amongst the Bead-Roll of the King's Enemies according to the Custom of those Times These Espials plyed their Charge so roundly as the King had an Anatomy of Perkin alive and was likewise well informed of the particular correspondent Conspirators in England and and many other Mysteries were revealed and Sir Robert Clifford in especial won to be assured to the King and industrious and officious for his service The King therefore receiving a rich Return of his diligence and great satisfaction touching a number of Particulars first divulged and spred abroad the Imposture and jugling of Perkin's Person and Travels with the Circumstances thereof throughout the Realm Not by Proclamation because things were yet in Examination and so might receive the more or the less but by Court-fames which commonly print better than printed Proclamations Then thought he it also time to send an Ambassage unto Archduke Philip into Flanders for the abandoning and dismissing of Perkin Herein he employed Sir Edward Poynings and Sir William Warham Doctor of the Canon Law The Archduke was then young and governed by his Council before whom the Embassadors had audience and Doctor Warham spake in this manner MY Lords the King our Master is very sorry that England and your Countrey here of Flanders having been counted as Man and Wife for so long time now this Countrey of all others should be the Stage where a base Counterfeit should play the part of a King of England not only to his Graces disquiet and dishonour but to the scorn and reproach of all Sovereign Princes To counterfeit the dead Image of a King in his Coyn is an high Offence by all Laws But to counterfeit the living Image of a King in his Person exceedeth all Falsifications except it should be that of a Mahomet or an Antichrist that counterfeit Divine Honour The King hath too great an Opinion of this sage Council to think that any of you is caught with this Fable though way may be given by you to the passion of some the thing in it self is so improbable To set Testimonies aside of the Death of Duke Richard which the King hath upon Record plain and infallible 〈◊〉 because they may be thought to be in the King 's own Power let the thing testifie for it self Sense and Reason no Power can command Is it possible trow you that King Richard should damn his Soul and foul his Name with so 〈◊〉 a Murther and yet not mend his Case Or do you think that Men of Blood that were his Instruments did turn to Pity in the middest of their Execution Whereas in cruel and savage Beasts and Men also the first Draught of Blood doth yet make them more fierce and enraged Do you not know that the Bloody Executioners of Tyrants do go to such Errants with an Halter about their neck So that if they perform not they are sure to die for it And do you think that these men would hazard their own lives for sparing anothers Admit they should have saved him What should they have done with him Turn him into London-Streets that the Watch-men or any Passenger that should light upon him might carry him before a Justice and so all come to light Or should they have kept him by them secretly That surely would have required a great deal of Care Charge and continual Fears But my Lords I labour too much in a clear Business The King is so wise and hath so good Friends abroad as now he knoweth Duke Perkin from his Cradle And because he is a great Prince if you have any good Poet here he can help him with Notes to write his Life and to parallel him with Lambert Simnel now the King's Falconer And therefore to speak plainly to your Lordships it is the strangest thing in the World that the Lady Margaret excuse us if we name her whose Malice to the King is both causlless and endless should now when she is old at the time when other Women give over Child-bearing bring forth two such Monsters being not the Births of nine or ten Months but of many Years And whereas other natural Mothers bring forth Children weak and not able to help themselves she bringeth forth tall Striplings able soon after their coming into the World to bid Battel to mighty Kings My Lords we stay unwillingly upon this Part. We would to God that Lady would once tast the Joys which God Almighty doth serve up unto her in beholding her Niece to Reign in such Honour and with so much Royal Issue which she might be pleased to accompt as her own The Kings Request unto the Archduke and your Lordships might be That according to the example of King Charles who hath already discarded him you would banish this unworthy Fellow out of your Dominions But because the King may justly expect more from an ancient Confederate than from a new reconciled Enemy he maketh his Request unto you to deliver him up into his hands Pirates and Impostures of this sort being fit to be accounted the Common Enemies of Mankind and no ways to be protected by the Law of Nations After some time of deliberation the Ambassadors received this short Answer THat the Archduke for the love of King Henry would in no sort ayd or assist the pretended Duke but in all things conserve the Amity he had with the King But for the Duchess Dowager she was absolute in the Lands of her Dowry and that he could not let her to dispose of her own THE King upon the return of the Ambassadors was nothing satisfied with this Answer For well he knew that a Patrimonial Dowry carried no part of Sovereignty or Command of Forces Besides the Ambassadors told him plainly that they saw the Duchess had a great Party in the Archduke's Council and that howsoever it was carried in a course of connivence yet the Archduke under-hand gave ayd and furtherance to Perkin Wherefore partly out of Courage and partly out of Policy the King forthwith banished all Flemings as well their Persons as their Wares out of his Kingdom commanding his Subjects likewise and by name his Merchants-Adventurers which had a Resiance in Antwerp to return translating the Mart which commonly followed the English Cloth unto Calice and embarred also all further Trade for the future This the King did being sensible in point of
Clifford and him he had said That if he were sure that that young man were King Edward's Son he would never bear Arms against him This Case seems somewhat an hard Case both in respect of the Conditional and in respect of the other words But for the Conditional it seems the Judges of that time who were Learned men and the three chief of them of the Privy Council thought it was a dangerous thing to admit Ifs and And 's to qualifie words of Treason whereby every man might express his malice and blanch his danger And it was like to the Case in the following times of Elizabeth-Barton the holy Maid of Kent who had said That if King Henry the Eighth did not take Catherine his Wife again he should be deprived of his Crown and dye the death of a Dog And infinite Cases may be put of like nature Which it seemeth the grave Judges taking into Consideration would not admit of Treasons upon Condition And as for the Positive words That he would not bear Arms against King Edward's Son though the words seem calm yet it was a plain and direct Over-ruling of the King's Title either by Line of Lancaster or by Act of Parliament Which no doubt pierced the King more than if Stanley had charged his Lance upon him in the field For if Stanley would hold that opinion that a Son of King Edward had still the better right he being so principal a person of Authority and favour about the King it was to teach all England to say as much And therefore as those times were that speech touched the quick But some Writers do put this out of doubt for they say that Stanley did expresly promise to ayd Perkin and sent him some help of Treasure Now for the Motive of his falling off from the King It is true that at Bosworth-Field the King was be-set and in a manner inclosed round about by the Troops of King Richard and in manifest danger of his life when this Stanley was sent by his Brother with three thousand men to his Rescue which he performed so that King Richard was slain upon the Place So as the condition of Mortal men is not capable of a greater benefit than the King received by the hands of Stanley being like the benefit of Christ at once to Saye and Crown For which service the King gave him great gifts made him his Counsellor and Chamberlain and some what contrary to his nature had winked at the great Spoils of Bosworth-Field which came almost wholly to this man's hands to his infinite enriching Yet nevertheless blown up with the conceit of his Merit he did not think he had received good Measure from the King at least not Pressing-down and Running-over as he expected And his ambition was so exorbitant and unbounded as he became Sultor to the King for the Earldom of Chester Which ever being a kind of Appennage to the Principality of Wales 〈◊〉 and using to go to the King's Son his Suit did not only end in a Denial but in a Distaste The King perceiving thereby that his Desires were intemperate and his Cogitations vast and irregular and that his former Benefits were but cheap and lightly regarded by him Wherefore the King began not to brook him well And as a little Leaven of new Distaste doth commonly sowre the whole Lump of former Merits the King's Wit began now to suggest unto his Passion that Stanley at Bosworth-Field though he came time enough to save his life yet he stayed long enough to endanger it But yet having no matter against him he continued him in his Places until this his Fall After him was made Lord Chamberlain Giles Lord Dawbeny a man of great sufficiency and valour the more because he was gentle and moderate There was a common Opinion That Sir Robert Clifford who now was become the State-Informer was from the beginning an Emissary and Spy of the King 's and that he fled over into Flanders with his consent and privity But this is not probable both because he never recovered that degree of Grace which he had with the King before his going over and chiefly for that the Discovery which he had made touching the Lord Chamberlain which was his great Service grew not from any thing he learn'd abroad for that he knew it well before he went These Executions and especially that of the Lord Chamberlain's which was the chief strength of the Party and by means of Sir Robert Clifford who was the most inward man of Trust amongst them did extremely quail the Design of Perkin and his complices as well through Discouragement as Distrust So that they were now like Sand without Lime ill bound together especially as many as were English who were at a gaze looking strange one upon another not knowing who was faithful to their Side but thinking that the King what with his Baits and what with his Nets would draw them all unto him that were any thing worth And indeed it came to pass that divers came away by the Thred sometimes one and sometimes another Barley that was Joynt-Commissioner with Clifford did hold out one of the longest till Perkin was far worn yet made his Peace at the length But the Fall of this Great man being in so high Authority and Favour as was thought with the King and the manner of Carriage of the Business as if there had been secret Inquisition upon him for a great time before and the Cause for which he suffered which was little more than for saying in effect That the Title of York was better than the Title of Lancaster which was the Case almost of every man at the least in Opinion was matter of great Terrour amongst all the King's Servants and Subjects Insomuch as no man almost thought himself secure and men durst scarce commune or talk one with another but there was a general Diffidence every where Which nevertheless made the King rather more Absolute than more Safe For Bleeding Inwards and shut Vapours strangle soonest and oppress most Hereupon presently came forth Swarms and Volies of Libels which are the Gusts of Liberty of Speech restrained and the Females of Sedition containing bitter Invectives and Slanders against the King and some of the Council For the contriving and dispersing whereof after great Diligence of Inquiry five mean persons were caught and executed Mean while the King did not neglect Ireland being the Soil where the Musbromes and Upstart-Weeds that spring up in a Night did chiefly prosper He sent therefore from hence for the better setling of his affairs there Commissioners of both Robes The Prior of Lanthony to be his Chancellour in that Kingdom and Sir Edward Poynings with a Power of Men and a Marshal Commission together with a Civil Power of his Lieutenant with a Clause That the Earl of Kildare then Deputy should obey him But the Wild-Irish who were the principal Offendors fled into the Woods and Bogs after their manner and those
not Twelve Men but Four and twenty But it seemeth that was not the only reason for this reason holdeth not in the Appeal But the great reason was lest it should tend to the discouragement of Jurors in Cases of Life and Death if they should be subject to Suit and Penalty where the favour of Life maketh against them It extendeth not also to any Suit where the Demand is under the value of forty Pounds for that in such Cases of petty value it would not quit the Charge to go about again There was another Law made against a branch of Ingratitude in Women who having been advanced by their Husbands or their Husbands Ancestors should alien and thereby seek to defeat the Heirs or those in Remainder of the Lands whereunto they had been so advanced The remedy was by giving power to the next to enter for a forfeiture There was also enacted that Charitable Law for the admission of poor Suitors In Forma Pauperis without Fee to Counsellor Attorney or Clerk whereby poor men became rather able to vex than unable to sue There were divers other good Laws made that Parliament as we said before but we still observe our manner in selecting out those that are not of a Vulgar nature The King this while though he sate in Parliament as in full Place and seemed to account of the designs of Perkin who was now returned into Flanders but as a May-game yet having the composition of a wise-King Stout without and Apprehensive within had given order for the watching of Beacons upon the Coasts and erecting more where they stood too thin and had a careful eye where this wandering Cloud would break But Perkin advised to keep his fire which hitherto burned as it were upon green wood alive with continual blowing Sailed again into Ireland whence he had formerly departed rather upon the hopes France than upon any unreadiness or discouragement he found in that People But in the space of time between the King's Diligence and Poynings Commission had so setled things there as there was nothing left for Perkin but the blustring affection of wild and naked people Wherefore he was advised by his Council to seek ayd of the King of Scotland a Prince young and valorous and in good terms with his Nobles and People and ill affected to King Henry At this time also both Maximilian and Charles of France began to bear no good will to the King The one being displeased with the King's Prohibition of Commerce with Flanders the other holding the King for suspect in regard of his late entry into League with the Italians Wherefore besides the open Ayds of the Duchess of Burgandy which did with Sails and Oars put on and advance Perkin's designs there wanted not some secret Tides from Maximilian and Charles which did further his fortunes In so much as they both by their secret Letters and Messages recommended him to the King of Scotland Perkin therefore coming into Scotland upon those hopes with a well appointed company was by the King of Scots being formerly well prepared honourably welcomed and soon after his arrival admitted to his Presence in a solemn manner For the King received him in State in his Chamber of Presence accompanied with divers of his Nobles And Perkin well attended as well with those that the King had sent before him as with his own Train entred the room where the King was and coming near to the King and bowing a little to embrace him he retired some paces back and with a loud voice that all that were present might hear him made his Declaration in this manner HIgh and Mighty King your Grace and these your Nobles here present may be pleased benignly to bow your Ears to hear the Tragedy of a young Man that by right ought to hold in his hand the Ball of a Kingdom but by Fortune is made Himself a Ball tossed from Misery to Misery and from Place to Place You see here before you the Spectacle of a Plantagenet who hath been carried from the Nursery to the Sanctuary from the Sanctuary to the direful Prison from the Prison to the hand of the cruel Tormentor and from that hand to the wide-Wilderness as I may truly call it for so the World hath been to me So that he that is born to a great Kingdom hath not ground to set his foot upon more than this where he now standeth by your Princely Favour Edward the Fourth late King of England as your Grace cannot but have heard left two Sons Edward and Richard Duke of York both very young Edward the eldest succeeded their Father in the Crown by the name of King Edward the Fifth But Richard Duke of Gloceffer their unnatural Uncle first thirsting after the Kingdom through Ambition and afterwards thirsting for their Blood out of desire to secure himself employed an Instrument of his confident to him as he thought to murther them both But this Man that was employed to execate that execrable Tragedy having cruelly slain King Edward the eldest of the two was moved partly by Remorse and partly by some other mean to save Richard his Brother making a Report nevertheless to the Tyrant that he had performed his Commandment for both Brethren This Report was accordingly believed and published generally So that the World hath been possessed of an Opinion that they both were barbarously made away though ever Truth hath some sparks that flie abroad until it appear in due time as this hath had But Almighty God that stopped the mouth of the Lion and saved little Joas from the Tyranny of Athaliah when she massacred the King's Children and did save Isaac when the hand was stretched forth to sacrifice him preserved the second Brother For I my self that stand here in your presence am that very Richard Duke of York Brother of that infortunate Prince King Edward the Fifth now the most rightful surviving Heir-male to that Victorious and most Noble Edward of that name the Fourth late King of England For the manner of my Escape it is fit it should pass in silence or at least in a more secret Relation for that it may concern some alive and the memory of some that are dead Let it suffice to think that I had then a Mother living a Queen and one that expected daily such a Commandment from the Tyrant for the murthering of her Children Thus in my tender age escaping by God's mercy out of London I was secretly conveyed over Sea Where after a time the Party that had me in Charge upon what new Fears change of Mind or Practice God knoweth suddenly forsook me Whereby I was forced to wander abroad to seek mean Conditions for the sustaining of my Life Wherefore distracted between several Passions the one of fear to be known lest the Tyrant should have a new Attempt upon me the other of Grief and Disdain to be unknown and to live in that base and servile manner that I did I resolved with
my self to expect the Tyrant's death and then to put my self into my Sisters hands who was next Heir to the Crown But in this season it happened one Henry Tidder Son to Edmond Tidder Earl of Richmond to come from France and enter into the Realm and by subtil and foul means to obtain the Crown of the same which to me rightfully appertained So that it was but a change from Tyrant to Tyrant This Henry my extreme and mortal Enemy so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive imagined and wrought all the subtil ways and means he could to procure my final Destruction For my mortal Enemy hath not only falsly surmised me to be a feigned Person giving me Nick-names so abusing the World but also to deferr and put me from entry into England hath offered large summs of Money to corrupt the Princes and their Ministers with whom I have been retained and made importune Labours to certain Servants about my Person to murther or Poyson me and others to forsake and leave my righteous Quarrel and to depart from my Service as Sir Robert Clifford and others So that every man of Reason may well perceive that Henry calling himself King of England needed not to have bestowed such great summs of Treasure nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant Labour and Industry to compass my Death and Ruine if I had been such a feigned Person But the truth of my Cause being so manifest moved the most Christian King Charles and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy my most dear Aunt not only to acknowledge the truth thereof but lovingly to assist me But it seemeth that God above for the good of this whole Island and the knitting of these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait Concord and Amity by so great an Obligation had reserved the placing of me in the Imperial Throne of England for the Arms and Succours of your Grace Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that were bereft and spoiled of the Kingdom of England as of late in fresh memory it was done in the Person of Henry the Sixth Wherefore for that your Grace hath given clear signs that you are in no Noble quality inferiour to your Royal Ancestors I so distressed a Prince was hereby moved to come and put my self into your Royal Hands desiring your Assistance to recover my Kingdom of England promising faithfully to bear my self towards your Grace no otherwise than if I were your own Natural Brother and will upon the Recovery of mine Inheritance gratefully do you all the Pleasure that is in my utmost Power AFter Perkin had told his Tale King James answered bravely and wisely That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hand And from that time forth though there wanted not some about him that would have perswaded him that all was but an Illusion yet notwithstanding either taken by Perkin's amiable and alluring behaviour or inclining to the recommendation of the great Princes abroad or willing to take an occasion of a War against King Henry he entertained him in all things as became the person of Richard Duke of York embraced his Quarrel and the more to put it out of doubt that he took him to be a great Prince and not a Representation only he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife the Lady Catherine Gordon Daughter to Earl Huntley being a near Kinswoman to the King himself and a young Virgin of excellent beauty and virtue Not long after the King of Scots in person with Perkin in his company entred with a great Army though it consisted chiefly of Borderers being raised somewhat suddenly into Northumberland And Perkin for a Perfume before him as he went caused to be published a Proclamation of this tenour following in the name of Richard Duke of York true Inheritor of the Crown of England IT hath pleased God who putteth down the Mighty from their Seat and exalteth the Humble and suffereth not the hopes of the Just to perish in the end to give Us means at the length to shew Our Selves armed unto Our Lieges and People of England But far be it from Us to intend their hurt and damage or to make War upon them otherwise than to deliver Our Self and them from Tyranny and Oppression For Our mortal Enemy Henry Tidder a false 〈◊〉 of the Crown of England which tolls by Natural and Lineal Right appertaineth knowing in his own Heart Our undoubted Right We being the very Richard Duke of York younger Son and now surviving Heir-male of the Noble and Victorious Edward the Fourth late King of England hath not only deprived Us of Our Kingdom but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our Life Yet if his Tyranny only extended it self to Our Person although Our Royal Blood teacheth Us to be sensible of Injuries it should be less to Our Grief But this Tidder who boasteth himself to have overthrown a Tyrant hath ever since his first entrance into his Usurped Reign put little in practice but Tyranny and the feats thereof For King Richard Our unnatural Uncle although desire of Rule did blind him yet in his other actions like a true Plantagenet was Noble and loved the Honour of the Realm and the Contentment and Comfort of his Nobles and People But this Our Mortal Enemy agreeable to the meanness of his Birth hath trod under foot the Honour of this Nation selling Our hest Confederates for Money and making Merchandize of the Blood Estates and Fortunes of Our Peers and Subjects by feigned wars and dishonourable Peace only to enrich his Coffers Nor unlike hath been his hateful Mis-government and evil Deportments at home First he hath to fortifie his false Quarrel caused divers Nobles of this Our Realm whom he held Suspect and stood in dread of to be cruelly murthred as Our Cousin Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Robert Ratcliff William Dawbeney Humphrey Stafford and many others besides such as have dearly bought their Lives with intolerable Ransoms Some of which Nobles are now in the Sanctuary Also he hath long kept and yet keepeth in Prison Our right entirely beloved Cousin Edward Son and Heir to Our Uncle Duke of Clarence and others with-bolding from them their rightful Inheritance to the intent they should never be of might and power to aid and assist Us at Our need after the duty of their Liegeances He also married by compulsion certain of Our Sisters and also the Sister of Our said Cousin the Earl of Warwick and divers other Ladies of the Royal Blood unto certain of his Kinsmen and Friends of simple and low Degree and putting apart all well-disposed Nobles he hath none in favour and trust about his Person but Bishop Fox Smith Bray Lovel Oliver King David Owen Risley Turbervile Tiler Cholmley Empson James Hobart John Cut Garth
to hold or imprison began to stir For deceiving his Keepers he took him to his heels and made speed to the Sea-coasts But presently all Corners were laid for him and such diligent pursuit and search made as he was fain to turn back and get him to the house of Bethleem called the Priory of Shyne which had the priviledge of a Sanctuary and put himself into the hands of the Prior of that Monastery The Prior was thought an Holy Man and much reverenced in those days He came to the King and besought the King for Perkin's life only leaving him otherwise to the Kings discretion Many about the King were again more hot than ever to have the King take him forth and hang him But the King that had an high stomach and could not hate any that he despised bid Take him forth and set the Knave in the stocks And so promising the Prior his life he caused him to be brought forth And within two or three days after upon a 〈◊〉 fold set up in the Palace-Court at Westminster he was 〈◊〉 and set in the Stocks for the whole day And the next 〈◊〉 after the like was done by him at the Cross in Cheapside 〈◊〉 in both places he read his Confession of which we made 〈◊〉 before and was from Cheapside conveyed and laid up 〈◊〉 the Tower Notwithstanding all this the King was as 〈◊〉 partly touched before grown to be such a Partner with 〈◊〉 as no body could tell what Actions the one and what 〈◊〉 other owned For it was believed generally that Perkin was betrayed and that this Escape was not without the King's privity who had him all the time of his Flight in a Line and that the King did this to pick a Quarrel to him to put him to death and to be rid of him at once But this is not probable For that the same Instruments who observed him in his Flight might have kept him from getting into Sanctuary But it was ordained that this Winding-Ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true Tree it self For Perkin after he had been a while in the Tower began to insinuate himself into the favour and kindness of his Keepers Servants to the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir John Digby being four in number Strangways Blewet Astwood and Long-Roger These Varlets with mountains of promises he sought to corrupt to obtain his Escape But knowing well that his own Fortunes were made so contemptible as he could feed no man's Hopes and by Hopes he must work for Rewards he had none he had contrived with himself a vast and tragical Plot which was to draw into his Company Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick then Prisoner in the Tower whom the weary life of a long Imprisonment and the often and renewing Fears of being put to Death had softned to take any impression of counsel for his Liberty This young Prince he thought these Servants would look upon though not upon himself And therefore after that by some Message by one or two of them he had tasted of the Earl's consent it was agreed that these four should murder their Master the Lieutenant secretly in the night and make their best of such Money and portable Goods of his as they should find ready at hand and get the Keys of the Tower and presently let forth Perkin and the Earl But this Conspiracy was revealed in time before it could be executed And in this again the Opinion of the King 's great Wisdom did surcharge him with a sinister Fame that Perkin was but his Bait to entrap the Earl of Warwick And in the very instant while this Conspiracy was in working as if that also had been the King's industry it was fatal that there should break forth a counterfeit Earl of Warwick a Cordwainer's Son whose name was Ralph Wilford a young man taught and set on by an Augustin Frier called Patrick They both from the parts of Suffolk came forwards into Kent where they did not only privily and underhand give out that this Wilford was the true Earl of Warwick but also the Frier finding some light Credence in the People took the boldness in the Pulpit to declare as much and to incite the People to come in to his ayd Whereupon they were both presently 〈◊〉 and the young fellow executed and the Frier condemned 〈◊〉 perpetual Imprisonment This also hapning so opportunely to 〈◊〉 the danger to the King's Estate from the Earl of Warwick and thereby to colour the King's severity that followed together 〈◊〉 the madness of the Frier so vainly and desperately to divulge a Treason before it had gotten any manner of strength and the saving of the Frier's life which nevertheless was indeed but the priviledge of his Order and the Pity in the common People which if it run in a strong Stream doth ever cast up Scandal and Envy made it generally rather talked than believed that all was but the King's device But howsoever it were hereupon Perkin that had offended against Grace now the third time was at the last proceeded with and by Commissioners of Oyer and Determiner arraigned at Westminster upon divers Treasons committed and perpetrated after his coming on land within this Kingdom for so the Judges advised for that he was a Poreiner and condemned and a few days after executed at Tyburn Where he did again openly read his Confession and take it upon his Death to be true This was the end of this little Cockatrice of a King that was able to destroy those that did not espy him first It was one of the longest Plays of that kind that hath been in memory and might perhaps have had another end if he had not met with a King both wise stout and fortunate As for Perkin's three Counsellors they had registred themselves Sanctuary-men when their Master did And whether upon Pardon obtained or continuance within the Priviledge they came not to be proceeded with There was executed with Perkin the Mayor of Cork and his Son who had been principal Abettors of his Treasons And soon after were likewise condemned eight other Persons about the TowerConspiracy whereof four were the Lieutenant's men But of those eight but two were executed And immediately after was arraigned before the Earl of Oxford then for the time High-Steward of England the poor Prince the Earl of Warwick not for the Attempt to escape simply for that was not acted And besides the Imprisonment not being for Treason the Escape by Law could not be Treason but for conspiring with Perkin to raise sedition and to destroy the King And the Earl confessing the Indictment had Judgment and was shortly after beheaded on Tower-hill This was also the end not only of this Noble and Commiserable person Edward the Earl of Warwick eldest Son to the Duke of Clarence but likewise of the Line-Male of the Plantagenets which had flourished in great Royalty and Renown from the time of the famous King of England King Henry the Second Howbeit
according to the Law which inflicted a pecuniary Mulct they that were touch'd saith Polydor Virgil cryed out that this proceeded out of Covetousness rather than Severity But the wiser sort conceived the King's intent to be partly to curb the fierce mind of the People bred up in faction partly that by these Fines he might not only weaken the rich but also increase his own strength and fortifie himself against civil Attempts whereof he had lately seen some sparkles flie abroad if so be any smothered coal should happen to break out into a flame What-ever the matter was many there were who by accusing others sought the King's favour and enlarged their own Estates amongst whom two were chief the one was called Richard Empson the other Edmund Dudley both Lawyers and both for having served the King's turn lately made Barons of the Exchequer It is said that Empson was born at Torcester in Northampton-shire his Father was a Sievier Dudley though he were well descended yet being not befriended by Fortune long strugled with Adversity But after they had some Months taken pains in these matters both of them arise to that greatness that there were few of the Nobility that would not crouch to them and be ambitious of their favour Therefore it is not so much to be wondred at if they grew exceeding wealthy But this Wealth drew with it an Envy greater than it self which nevertheless did them little hurt during the life of Henry the Seventh but afterwards cast them both down as low as Envy could have wisht The King upon his death-bed commanded in his Will and Testament that restitution should be made to all who had been wronged by the Exchequer Whereupon infinite numbers flocking to the Court and demanding restitution there could not a fitter means be thought of to stop their mouthes than by committing of Empson and Dudley the occasioners thereof to the People as Sacrifices to appease their fury They were therefore arraigned and condemned of high Treason And these things were done presently upon Henry the Eighth his coming to the Crown So their goods being seized upon they for a whole year endured the miseries that usually accompany a Prison and yet were the Commons as eager against them as ever Whence it should first arise I know not but such a report there was that the Queen had begged the poor mens Pardons The Nobility disdaining that such mean fellows had been heretofore so prevalent with their Prince and the Commons being easily incited against them by some as eager enemies to them as themselves cried out that they were cheated of their just revenge and wearying the King with continual petitions for their death he was in a manner forced to satisfie them Whereupon on the seventeenth day of August they were both publickly beheaded Such was the end of Empson and Dudley who abounding with Wealth and flourishing under their Prince's favour while they set light by all things else became a Sacrifice to the giddy multitude And it may serve to teach us to use our power moderately and to take heed how we give offence to that Beast with many heads I mean the People which being angred and having once got the reins rageth like a tumultuous Sea Dudley left behind him a Son named John who as if he had been heir to his Father's fortune being created Duke of Northumberland concluded his powerful life with the like unhappy end leaving much Issue behind him even to our time but yet whereof the heirs male have long since failed ANNO DOM. 1511. REG. 3. THis year on New-years-day the Queen was delivered of a Son Heir-apparant to this Crown but he out-lived not the three and twentieth of the ensuing February to the great grief of the King and Kingdom About the same time there came Ambassadors from Ferdinand King of Arragon who craved of the King his Son-in-Law fifteen hundred auxiliary Archers He was then in hostility with the Moors inhabiting Africk The King very willingly granted their request and having levied the full number embarqued them for Spain in four Ships of the Navy Royal under the command of Thomas Lord Darcy They were scarce arrived there when news was brought that a Peace being made Ferdinando stood in no farther need of their aid Yet every one was liberally paid the General and those of greatest note that accompanied him were richly rewarded and all being dismissed with many thanks safely returned home In their absence Margaret Duchess of Savoy who was Daughter to the Emperor Maximilian and Governess of the Netherlands under Charles the Infant of Spain prevailed with our King for the like number of Archers she having then Wars with the Duke of Gueldres against whom she meant to employ them These men in the space of five Months did many brave exploits at Brimnost Aske and Venloo under the command of Sir Edward Poynings a brave Souldier and in great favour with his Prince Of them fourteen hundred returned home much commended and well rewarded the fortune of War had cut off one hundred Four Captains in regard of their valour were Knighted by the Infant Charles afterwards Emperor viz. John Norton John Fog John Scot and Thomas Lynd. The King of Scots had then War with the Portugal under pretext whereof one Andrew Barton a famous Pirat took all Ships that coasted either England or Scotland affirming them always to be Portugals of what Nation soever they were or at least fraught with Portugal Merchandise The King sent Edward Howard Lord Admiral of England and his Brother the Lord Thomas Howard eldest Son to the Earl of Surrey with one John Hopton to take this Rover. When they had once found him out after a long and bloody fight they took him alive but mortally wounded with his two Ships and all his companions that survived the fight and brought them to London ANNO DOM. 1512. REG. 4. AS yet Henry had no War with any forein Prince neither did the wiser sort wish that he should have any But he a young King in the heat of one and twenty years was transported with a vehement desire of War which saith the Proverb is sweet to them that never tasted of it Although he had about a year or two before made a League with Lewis the Twelfth of France yet he was easily intreated by Pope Julius to renounce this Confederacy This Pope more like to that Caesar whose Name he bare than Peter from whom he would fain derive his Succession that like another Nero sitting still he might from on high be a Spectator while the whole World was on fire had written Letters to our King wherein he intreated his assistance towards the suppression of the French Who without fear of God or man these were the pretended Causes had not only sacrilegiously laid hold on the Revenues of the Church had caused Cardinal William to usurp the Papacy had upheld Alphonso of Ferara and the Bentivogli in Rebellion against him
of Ill May-day Long Peace having with us begate Plenty the Mother and Nurse both of good and bad Arts allured the most excellent Artificers of forein Nations to partake of our happiness by frequenting the City of London But the giddy multitude not conceiving what good became of communicating their skill unto us took it very heinously that Strangers should be permitted to enjoy the Priviledges of the City and our home-bred Artificers did most especially complain That their means were every day curtalled for as much as no small part was necessarily to be defalked for the maintenance of these Strangers This was now grown the common discourse and had gon so far that one Lincoln a ringleader of this tumultuous rout did not stick to persuade some Preachers publickly in the Pulpit to lay open these common grievances before the Estates of the Realm Our Ladies Hospital in London commonly called the Spittle is famous for the Easter-Sermons one of which was to be preached by Dr. Henry Standish afterward Bishop of St. Asaph a grave and learned man Lincoln had assayed him and had the denial as in a matter the very mention whereof a good Patriot should abhor But Dr. Bell a Divine who was after Standish to preach in the same Place without fear or wit seconding their seditious attempts did publickly in his Sermon read the Bill by them exhibited to him taking for his Text that of the Prophet in the hundred and fifteenth Psalm The heavens even the heavens are the Lords but he hath given the earth to the sons of men Thence most foolishly concluding that England was given to English-men only and that therefore it was not to be endured that Aliens should enjoy any part thereof Many things by him spoken to this purpose were accepted with great applause and approbation of the Vulgar who out of extreme hatred to Strangers breathed nothing but sedition And to add more fuel to this fire it happened that many outrages were about that time committed by some of these Strangers This evil then thus spreading it self Foreiners were every where ill intreated and commonly knockt down in the streets having not offered injury to any man The authors of these riots being by the Lord Mayor committed to prison a sudden rumor ran through the City That on May-day next all Strangers should be massacred This without doubt proceeded from some of this unruly crew and was intended as a watch-word to all the Faction but the Strangers made so good use of it that they had all withdrawn themselves before that time and the Magistrates very carefully attended each occasion endeavouring to crush all Tumultuous Designs in the shell On May-day-Eve therefore the next day being the Feast of the Apostles Philip and Jacob the solemnity thereof is usually augmented by the liberty granted to the younger sort to sport themselves and to make merry the Citizens in general are by Proclamation commanded to keep fast their doors and to restrain their Servants from going abroad until nine of the Clock the next day But before this had been throughly proclaimed an Alderman walking in the streets saw a troop of young men consisting of Apprentices and such like gathered together and playing at cudgels He sharply reproved them for not obeying the King's Edict withal threatning to punish them if they the sooner betook not themselves every one to his home Words not prevailing he laid hold on one or two intending to have committed them But what reckoning they made of Authority their resistance in rescue of their Companions shewed and by outcries giving an Alarm drew together all the rest of their Faction in that quarter of the City The fame of this hurliburly increased their numbers by sending Mariners Gentlemens Servants Beggars and Citizens but the greatest part were Apprentices Sedition like a torrent carried them headlong and animated them to all villany They break open the Prisons set those at liberty that were imprisoned for their outrages on Strangers flie about the City as in a whirlwind rob all Foreiners houses and not content with their goods seek after them for their lives They found their nests but the birds were fled Having thus spent the night in the morning hearing the King's forces to approach most of them slipt away only some three hundred remained whereof eleven were Women and being apprehended supplied their places whom they before had freed They were all arraigned only thirteen designed for death whereof nine suffered on divers Gibbets purposely erected in divers parts of the City Lincoln Sherwin and two Brethren named Bets Chieftains in this sedition were carried to Cheapside where Lincoln was deservedly hanged The Executioner ready to turn off another was prevented by the King 's gracious Pardon The mind of man being prone to pity we may imagine that others were well pleased at the news but certainly the condemned had cause to rejoyce The Queens of England the two Dowagers of France and Scotland both of them the King's Sisters and then at Court became incessant Petitioners to his Majesty and on their knees in the behalf of these condemned persons and at length Wolsey consenting by whom the King was wholly swayed their Petitions were granted to them and to the poor men their lives This was the last Scene of this Tragical Tumult the like whereof this well-governed City had not known in many Ages For the Laws very well provided in that case do under a great penalty forbid Assemblies especially of armed men if not warranted by publick Authority In August and September the Sweating-sickness termed beyond Sea Sudor Anglicus or the English sweat began a disease utterly unknown to former Ages Of the common sort they were numberless that perished by it of the Nobility the Lords Clinton and Grey of Wilton The symptoms and cure you may find in Polydor Virgil in Anno 1. Henr. 7. who as confidently as I believe truly maintains That this disease was never till then known to be much less to be mortal As if there were a concatenation of evils one evil seldom cometh alone A Pestilence succeeded this former mortality and so raged the whole Winter season in most parts of the Realm that the King for fear of infection attended by a few was fain every day to remove his Court from one place to another The eleventh of February was born the Lady Mary afterwards Queen of England ANNO DOM. 1518. REG. 10. THe Peace so long treated of between us and the French was now in September at length concluded on these Conditions That the Daulphin should marry the Lady Mary the King 's only Child and not yet two years old That Tournay should be restored to the French That the French should pay King Henry four hundred thousand Crowns viz. two hundred thousand for his charge in building the Cittadel for the Artillery Powder and Munition which he should leave there and other two hundred thousand Crowns partly for the expence of that
Himself and the whole Realm had found the profitable and wholesom effects of the Cardinal's endeavours who should reap this fruit of Luther's railing that whereas he loved him very well before he would now favour him more than ever That among other of the Cardinal 's good deeds this was one that he took especial care that none of Luther's leprosie contagion and heresie should cleave to or take root in this Kingdom Then he upbraided him with his 〈◊〉 marriage with a Nun a crime as heinous and abominable as any At this Answer which the King caused to be printed Luther grieved much blaming his friends that had occasioned it saying That he wrote in that humble manner only to please his Friends and that he now plainly saw how much he was mistaken That he committed the like errour in writing friendly at the request of others to Cardinal Cajetan George Duke of Saxony and Erasmus the fruits whereof were that he made them the more violent That he shewed himself a fool in hoping to find Piety and Zeal in Princes Courts in seeking CHRIST in the Kingdom of Satan in searching for John Baptist among the Cloathed in Purple But being he could not prevail by fair means he would take another course The late mention of Erasmus puts me in mind of a Book written by him either this or the year passed at the entreaty of the King and the Cardinal as he himself in an Epistle confesseth entituled De Libero Arbitrio whereto Luther made a quick Reply writing a Book De Servo Arbitrio ANNO DOM. 1526. REG. 18. MAny reasons might move the Emperour to seek the continuation of a Peace with England The French although they concealed 〈◊〉 their King being not yet at liberty intend to revenge their late overthrow The Turk prepares for Hungary the King whereof Lewis had married Ann the Emperour's Sister Almost all Italy by the Pope's means combined against Charles whose power is now become formidable And Germany it self the Boors having lately been up in arms being scarce pacified doth yet every where threaten new tumults In this case the enmity of Henry must necessarily much impeach his proceedings But many things again urge him on the other side his Aunts disgrace for of this he long since had an inkling the late League concluded under-hand with the French but that which swaied above all was the dislike of his promised match with the King's Daughter That the Queen his Aunt might be reconciled to her Husband there might yet be some hope The League with France especially the French King's case being now so desperate might be as easily broken as it was made But this Match did no way sort to his mind which he had either for love or for some other private respects setled elsewhere Isabella Sister to John King of Portugal was a brave beautiful Lady and had a Dowry of nine hundred thousand Ducats Mary was neither marriagable nor beautiful yet her by agreement must he marry without any other Dowry than those four hundred thousand Crowns which he had borrowed of Henry The Wars had drawn his Treasury dry and his Subjects in Spain being required to relieve their Prince do plainly perhaps not without subornation of some principal persons deny it unless he marry Isabella one in a manner of the same Lineage of the same Language and Nation and of years sufficient to make a Mother By way of service Custom growing to a Law they are to give their King at his Marriage four hundred thousand Ducats if he will in this be pleased to satisfie their request they promise to double the usual summ For these reasons when Henry sent Ambassadors to treat again whether sincerely or no I cannot say concerning the renewing of the League the Marriage of the Lady Mary and of War in France to be maintained at the common charge of both Charles answered but coldly and at last even in the very Nuptial solemnities sends to excuse his Marriage to the King whereunto the undeniable desires of his Subjects had in a manner forced him Some do farther add that concerning that part of the Embassage of War against France our demands were such as if they had been purposely coined by Wolsey to force the Emperour to the priority of an apparent breach For the King demanded no smaller share in the Conquest than Picardy Normandy Guien Gascoign with the title of King of France and that the Emperour partaking both of Peril and Charge should himself serve in Person But Charles wanting money and tired with continual peril if he regard either his safety and ease or his profit must not give his assent especially considering that the captive-King made larger offers and those with Peace than these yea although he became victorious with War the event whereof being always doubtful no man can assure himself of wished success Neither indeed did Henry expect any other issue of his Embassy than a flat refusal For at the same time he deals with the Regent the captive-King's Mother to send over some trusty person with whom he might consult of the main chance which she gladly did dispatching away the Lord of Brion President of Rouen and John Joachim with a large Commission and Instructions by all submissive and fair language to perswade the King to persist in the prosecution of this new League For indeed she much feared lest the consideration of his advantages over the tottering Estate of France might make him flie off again France was already distressed what would it be if the Emperour pressing hard on the one side and Duke of Bourbon a home-bred enemy revolting besides many other occasions the English should infest it on the other side In England these Agents found their entertainments such that they could not but hope well especially making means to the Cardinal who yet swayed the King Wolsey long since disaffected the Emperour but now made his hate apparent Charles before the Battel of Pavy sent no Letters to the Cardinal but entirely written by himself and subscribed Your Son and Cousin CHARLES After this Victory he sent one or two subscribed barely with his Name without the usual solemn form or any signification of favour or respect These were evident tokens of an alienated mind and Wolsey durst view hates with him Neither did he deal otherwise with Henry than as one beneath him being now puffed up with the conceit of that great Victory for the obtaining whereof Henry did bear a part in the charge though indeed not so great as he promised The King's affairs now stood upon those terms that renouncing the strict alliance with the Emperour hitherto by so many ties kept inviolable he must make a party with the French Brion therefore at the Council-Table having audience Deplores his Prince's calamity and the miseries inflicted upon his Countrey by their late overthrow He calleth to mind what Trophies the English erected in France when the Estate of it was most flourishing
himself wholly from the obedience of Rome for as much as it was a matter of great danger He would therefore advise him once more by Ambassadors to Rome to signifie that he was not utterly averse from a reconciliation which if he did he made no doubt but all things would succeed to his mind Henry was certain of enjoying his Love and let the Pope decree what he list was resolved to keep her He had been formerly abused by the Court of Rome and was loath to make farther trial of their dilatory proceedings Yet had Bellay prevailed so far with him that he would be content once more to submit himself to the Church of Rome if he could be assured of the Pope's intention to do him equity The Bishop conceiving some hopes of a peace although it were in the Winter time goes himself to Rome gives the Pope an account of his actions and certifies him that the matter was not yet desperate Whereupon a day is appointed by which a Post returning from the King was to give notice of an intended Embassy But the Consistory gave so short a time to have an answer that the Post came short two days at his return The term expired they proceed hastily to the confirmation of their Censures notwithstanding the Bishop's instance to obtain six days more for as much as contrary winds or some other chance might hinder the Messenger and six days would be no great matter considering the King had wavered six whole years before he fell The more moderate thought the Bishop demanded but reason but the preposterous haste of the greater sort prevailed Two days were scarce past after the prefixed time but the Post arriving with ample authority and instructions from England did greatly amaze those hasty Cardinals who afterwards would fain but could not find any means to mend what they had so rashly marred For the matter to please the Emperour was so hudled up as that which could not ritely be finished in three Consistories was done in one So the King and the whole Realm was interdicted the Bull whereof the Messengers not daring to come nearer was brought to Dunkirk The report hereof coming to the King he lays all the blame on the Lady Catharine Whereupon the Duke of Suffolk was sent to lessen her Houshold They who might be any way suspected to have been employed by her in this business are turned away the rest are commanded to take their Oaths to serve her as Princess of Wales not as Queen of England They that refuse are cashiered and they that are content to swear are by her cast off so that for a time she had few or no Attendants In the mean time on the three and twentieth of June died Mary Queen of France the King's Sister and was buried in the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury ANNO DOM. 1534. REG. 26. ABout this time was discovered the grand Imposture of Elizabeth Barton which brought her to a deserved end She had formerly been sick of a strange disease which not only afflicted her inwardly but as often as her fitt took her so wonderfully distorted her mouth and other parts of her body that most were of opinion it could not proceed from any natural cause But Custom growing to a second Nature the continuance of the disease had taught her to distort her body after her recovery in the same manner as when she was sick Hoping to make a profit of this her counterfeit Convulsion she imparted the secret to the Curate of the Parish by whose device after long deliberation between them it was agreed that she should often feign her self to be in an Ecstasie and whereas she was wont when the fitt seised her to lie still without motion as if she had been dead she should now sometimes utter some godly sentences inveigh against the wickedness of the times but especially against Hereticks and broachers of new Opinions and should relate strange Visions revealed by God to her in the time of her Ecstasie By these jugling tricks not only among the Vulgar who termed her the Holy Maid of Kent but among the wiser sort such as were Archbishop Warham Bishop Fisher and others her sanctity was held in admiration The Imposture taking so generally her boldness increased She prefixeth a day whereon she shall be restored to perfect health and the means of her recovery must be procured forsooth by a Pilgrimage to some certain Image of our Lady The day came and she being brought to the place by the like cozenage deceived a great number of people whom the expectation of the Miracle had drawn thither and at last as if she had just then shaken off her disease she appears whole and straight unto them all saying That by especial command from God she must become a Nun and that one Dr. Bocking a Monk of Canterbury there present was ordained to be her Confessor which office he willingly undertook under pretext whereof this Nun living at Canterbury Bocking often resorted to her not without suspition of dishonesty The intended Divorce from Catharine and Marriage with Ann Bolen had much appalled most part of the Clergy for then a necessity was imposed on the King of a divorce from the Papal See in which the Church and all Ecclesiastical persons were likely to suffer The apprehension whereof wrought so with Bocking that making others conscious of the intent he perswaded Elizabeth Barton by denuntiation of God's revealed judgments to deterr the King from his purposed change She according as she was instructed proclaims it abroad That the King adventuring to marry another Catharine surviving should if in the mean time he died not some infamous death within one month after be deprived of his Kingdom The King hears of it and causeth the Impostrix to be apprehended who upon examination discovered the rest of the Conspirators who were all committed to prison until the next Parliament should determine of them Elizabeth Barton Bocking Masters the afore mentioned Curate of the Parish Deering and Risby Monks with Gold a Priest are by the Parliament adjudged to die The Bishop of Rochester and Adeson his Chaplain one Abel a Priest Laurence the Archdeacon of Canterbury his Register and Thomas Gold Gentleman for having heard many things whereby they might guess at the intents of the Conspirators and not acquainting the Magistrate with them are as accessory condemned in a Praemunire confiseation of their goods and perpetual imprisonment Elizabeth Barton and her Companions having each of them after a Sermon at Pauls Cross publickly confessed the Imposture are on the twentieth of April hanged and their Heads set over the Gates of the City By the same Parliament the authority of the Convocation to make Canonical Constitutions unless the King give his Royal assent is abrogated It is also enacted That the Collocation of all Bishopricks the Sees being vacant should henceforth be at the King's dispose and that no man should be chosen by the Chapter or
was John Paslew Batchelor of Divinity and Abbot of Whalley put to death at Lancaster and with him one Eastgate a Monk of the same place and three days after them another Monk called Haydock was hanged at Whalley The Abbots of Sauley and Woburn with two Monks make the like end at Woburn And a little after one Doctor Macarell another Abbot the Vicar of Louth two other Priests and seven Lay-men All these for as much as I can any way collect were condemned for having been especial furtherers of the late Rebellions But the Chiestains and nobler sort were reserved until June at what time the Lords Darcy and Hussey were beheaded the one at Lincoln the other at London Sir Robert Constable Sir Thomas Percy Sir Francis Bigot Sir Stephen Hamilton and Sir John Bulmer were likewise put to death Margaret Lady to Sir John Bulmer was burned at London William Thurst Abbot of Fountaines Adam Sudbury Abbot of Gervaux the Abbot of Rivers Wold Prior of Birlington George Lumley Nicholas Tempest Esquires and Robert Aske with many others as having been partakers in the late Insurrection did likewise partake in punishment for the same And for a Commotion in Somersetshire in April were threescore condemned whereof only fourteen suffered But lest any one may wonder at these severe and unheard of courses taken against the Clergy I think it not amiss to relate what Sleidan writes of Cardinal Pool who set forth one or two Books which as yet lurking at Rome about this time were spred abroad in Germany and came at length to the King's hands Wherein directing his stile to the King he sharply reprehendeth him for taking upon him the title of Head of the Church which only belonged to the Pope who is Christ's Vicar on earth c. Then he proceeds to the matter of his Divorce alledging That he neither out of terrour of conscience nor fear of God as he pretended but out of lust and blind love had forsaken the Lady Catharine his Wife whom his Brother Prince Arthur a weak young man and but fourteen years old had left a Virgin That it was not lawful for him to marry Ann Bolen whose Sister he had before used as his Concubine And that he himself had confessed to the Emperour and others That he found the Lady Catharine a Maid He also eagerly reproveth him for seeking the Opinions of the Universities concerning his former Marriage and triumphing in his own wickedness when some of them had pronounced it Incestuous and that he might be ashamed to prefer the Daughter of a Whore before one that was legitimate and a most Virtuous Princess Then speaking of the death of the Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More he detests his cruelty He then rips up what tyranny he had exercised over his Subjects of all degrees in what miseries he had plunged this flourishing Realm what dangers he incurred from the Emperour in regard of the injury offered to his Aunt and the overthrow of Religion and that he could not expect any aid either from his own or forein Nations who had deserved so ill of the Christian Commonwealth After this he whets on the Emperour to revenge the dishonour of his Family affirming that Turcism meaning the Protestant Religion had found entertainment in England and Germany And after many bitter reproofs he invites Henry to repentance perswading him That for these evils there was no other remedy but to return to the bosom of the Church in the defence whereof a most glorious example he had made use not only of his Sword but his Pen also Neither did the Cardinal only by Book but by other personal endeavours manifest his spleen against the King being sent Ambassador from the Pope to the French under colour of reconciling him with the Emperour but his chief errant was to combine them both against Henry Whereof he having intelligence did by his Agent earnestly solicit Francis That in regard of their mutual amity he would cause Pool to be apprehended as guilty of high Treason and sent to him where he should undergo the punishment due therefore But because Religion and the Law of Nations had been violated in betraying any especially the Pope's Ambassador the French could not yield to the King's request But to shew that he would administer no cause of offence he refused to admit of his Embassy and commanded him speedily to depart out of his Dominions Hercules stature might be guessed at by the proportion of his and by this one man's endeavours Henry was taught what if need were he was to expect of his Clergy So that he was easily induced as any of them offended to send him to his grave for that a dead Lion biteth not And this course being taken with his professed enemies the fear of the like punishment would secure him of the rest On the twelfth of October the Queen having long suffered the throws of a most difficult travel and such a one wherein either the Mother or the Infant must necessarily perish out of her womb was ripped Prince Edward who after succeeded his Father in the Crown The Queen only surviving two days died on the fourteenth of October and on the twelfth of November was with great pomp buried at Windsor in the middle of the Quire on whose Tomb is inscribed this Epitaph Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phaenices nulla tulisse duas Here a Phenix lieth whose death To another Phenix gave breath It is to be lamented much The World at once ne'r knew two such On the eighteenth of October the Infant was created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwal and Earl of Chester and with him his Uncle Edward Seymour Brother to the deceased Queen Lord Beauchamp and Earl of Hertford which Honours only and not those afterwards conferred on him he left to his posterity William Fitz-Williams Lord Admiral was made Earl of Southampton Then also William Powlet and John Russel began their races in the lists of Honour Powlet being made Treasurer and Russel Comptroller of the King's Houshold and both sworn of the Privy Council Neither was here their non ultra the one being afterward raised to Lord Treasurer of England and Marquess of Winchester the other to Earl of Bedford wherein he dying in the year 1554 his Son Francis that pious old man and liberal reliever of the Poor succeeded him who at the very instant of his death lost his Son Francis slain by a Scot Anno 1587. Which Francis was Father to Edward Earl of Bedford and Brother to William by King James created Lord Russel Powlet living to be a very decrepit old man had to his Successor his Nephew by his Son William named also William the sole Marquess of England And to end this year with death as it began Thomas Howard youngest Son to the Duke of Norfolk having been fifteen months imprisoned for affiancing himself without the King's consent to Margaret Daughter to Archibald Douglas
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
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
withal acknowledging that France being now as it were in the Sun-set of its Fortune occasion was offered of advancing the English Colours farther than ever But it would neither beseem so magnanimous a King nor would it be for the good of England at this time to invade it A generous mind scorneth to insult over one already dejected Neither would the Victory beside the fortune of War want its dangers 〈◊〉 to be communicated with one already become so potent that no 〈◊〉 than the united Forces of all Europe would serve to stop the current of his fortune which must necessarily be done unless we could be content willingly to undergo the miseries of a Spanish servitude He therefore craved of his Majesty that leaving the Emperour who puffed up with his late success contemned his best Friends he would vouchsafe to make a League with the King his Master whom in this so great a time of need if he would be pleased to raise as it were from the ground he should by so great a benefit oblige him to a faithful Friendship which he should upon all occasions be ready to manifest unless for foul Ingratitude he had rather undergo the censure of the Christian World Having delivered thus much in Latin Sir Thomas More afterward Lord Chancellor returned this answer in Latin likewise That the King was well pleased that the French acknowledged he wanted not power to revenge old injuries that having felt his Force they should also tast of his Bounty that he would do the utmost of his endeavour to set their Captive King at liberty Which if he effected he hoped when he had occasion to make use of their King he would not be unmindful of so good a turn freely done in so urgent a season In the mean time he was content to make a perpetual Peace with them As for the Emperour he would consider what to determine of him So a most firm League is concluded with the French the Regent undertaking for her Son and a separation from the Emperour so openly made that the first thing concluded between them was That it should not be lawful for the French King in lieu of his ransom to consign any part of his Kingdom to the Emperour The French were glad of this League who now began to conceive some hope of good being secure of England Indeed it made so great an impression in the heart of Francis that in his care of our affairs for many years together he shewed himself mindful of so great a benefit These things were done in the Winter season A little after Francis having been a year Prisoner in Spain was upon these Conditions at length set at liberty That as soon as be came into France he should consign the Duchy of Burgoigne to the Emperour That he should quit the Sovereignty of Flanders and Arthois That he should renounce all his right pretended to the Duchy of Milan and Kingdom of Naples That he should restore to his honours the Duke of Bourbon and the rest that had revolted with him That he should marry Eleonor the Emperour's Sister Queen of Portugal That he should pay the whole summs of money heretofore due to the King of England his Sister the Queen of France and Cardinal Wolsey The payment whereof the Emperour had undertaken that we might not be endamaged by partaking with him For the performance of these and other things of less moment Francis not only bound himself by Oath but also delivered his two Sons Francis the Daulphin and Henry Duke of Orleans who should remain Hostages in Spain until all things were duly performed Francis as soon as he entred into his Realm ratified all the Articles of the Treaty but that concerning the Duchy of Burgoigne which he pretended he could not alienate without the consent of his Subjects Having therefore assembled the Estates of the Countrey for the debating of this matter upon a sudden in the presence of the Emperour's Ambassadors is publickly proclaimed the League made between the Kings of England and of France the Pope the Venetians Florentines and Suisses called the Holy League for the common liberty of Italy The Ambassadors much amazed and seeing small hopes of the Duchy of Burgoigne for which they came return into Spain and advertise the Emperour that if he will be content with a pecuniary ransom and free the two Princes the King was willing to pay it other Conditions he was like to have none In the mean time Solyman not forgetting to make his profit of these horrible confusions invaded Hungary with a great Army overthrew the Hungarians slew King Lewis the Emperour's Brother-in-Law and conquered the greatest part of the Kingdom For the obtaining of this Victory our Rashness was more available to him than his own Forces The Hungarians in comparison of their Enemies were but a handful but having formerly been many times victorious over the Turks they perswaded the young King that he should not obscure the ancient glory of so warlike a Nation that not expecting the aids of Transylvania he should encounter the Enemy even in the open fields where the Turks in regard of their multitudes of Horse might be thought invincible The event shewed the goodness of this counsel The Army consisting of the chief strength and Nobility of the Countrey was overthrown a great slaughter made and the King himself slain with much of the Nobility and chief Prelates of the Realm and among them Tomoraeus Archbishop of Colocza the chief author of this ill advised attempt I cannot omit an odd jest at the same time occasioned by Wolsey his ambition It was but falsly rumoured that Pope Clement was dead The Cardinal had long been sick of the Pope and the King lately of his Wife Wolsey perswades the King there was no speedier way to compass his desires than if he could procure him to be chosen Pope Clement being now dead Stephen Gardiner a stirring man one very learned and that had a working spirit did then at Rome solicit the King's Divorce from Queen Catharine Wherein although using all possible means and that Clement was no friend to the Emperour yet could he not procure the Pope's favour in the King's behalf Nay whether he would not cut off all means of reconciliation with the Emperour if need were or whether being naturally slow he did not usually dispatch any matter of great moment speedily or peradventure whereto the event was agreeable that he perceived it would be for his profit to spin it out at length or which some alledge that he was of opinion that this Marriage was lawfully contracted so that he could not give sentence on either side without either offence to his Conscience or his Friend the Pope could not be drawn to determine either way in this business These delays much vexed the King If matters proceed so slowly under Clement on whom he much presumed what could he expect from another Pope one perhaps wholly at the Emperour's
any thing to the Barber that trimmed him affirming That head about which he had bestowed his pains was the Kings if he could prove it to be his that did bear it he would well reward him To his Keeper demanding his upper garment as his fee he gave his Hat Going up the Scaffold he desired him that went before him To lend him his hand to help him up as for coming down he took no care Laying his head upon the block he put aside his beard which was then very long saying The Executioner was to cut off his head not his heard The executions of so many men caused the Queen to be much maligned as if they had been done by her procurement at least the Papists would have it thought so knowing that it stood her upon and that indeed she endeavoured that the authority of the Pope of Rome should not again take footing in England They desired nothing more than the downfal of this virtuous Lady which shortly after happening they triumphed in the overthrow of Innocence In the mean time they who undertook the subversion of the Monasteries invented an Engin to batter them more forcibly than the former course of torture and punishment They send abroad subtil-headed fellows who warranted by the King's authority should throughout England search into the lives and manners of Religious persons It would amaze one to consider what villanies were discovered among them by the means of Cromwell and others Few were found so guiltless as to dare withstand their proceedings and the licentiousness of the rest divulged made them all so odious to the people that never any exploit so full of hazard and danger was more easily atchieved than was the subversion of our English Monasteries ANNO DOM. 1536. REG. 28. THis year began with the end of the late Queen Catharine whom extremity of grief cast into a disease whereof on the eighth of January she deceased Queen Ann now enjoyed the King without a Rival whose death notwithstanding not improbably happened too soon for her For the King upon May-day at Greenwich beholding the Viscount Rochfort the Queens Brother Henry Norris and others running a-Tilt arising suddenly and to the wonder of all men departing thence to London caused the Viscount Rochfort Norris the Queen her self and some others to be apprehended and committed The Queen being guarded to the Tower by the Duke of Norfolk Audley Lord Keeper Cromwell Secretary of Estate and Kingston Lieutenant of the Tower at the very entrance upon her knees with dire imprecations disavowed the crime whatsoever it were wherewith she was charged beseeching God so to regard her as the justness of her cause required On the fifteenth of May in the Hall of the Tower she was arraigned the Duke of Norfolk sitting high Steward to whom were adjoined twenty six other Peers and among them the Queens Father by whom she was to be tryed The Accusers having given in their evidence and the Witnesses produced she sitting in a Chair whether in regard of any infirmity or out of honour permitted to the Wife of their Sovereign having an excellent quick wit and being a ready speaker did so answer to all objections that had the Peers given in their verdict according to the expectation of the assembly she had been acquitted But they among whom the Duke of Suffelk the King's Brother-in-Law was chief one wholly applying himself to the King's humour pronounce her guilty Whereupon the Duke of Norfolk bound to proceed according to the verdict of the Peers condemned her to death either by being Burned in the Green in the Tower or Beheaded as his Majesty in his pleasure should think fit Her Brother George Viscount Rochfort was likewise the same day condemned and shortly after Henry Norris William Brierton and Francis Weston Gentlemen of the King 's Privy Chamber and Mark Smeton a Musician either as partakers or accessory were to run the same fortune The King greatly favoured Norris and is reported to be much grieved that he was to die with the rest Whereupon he offered pardon to him conditionally that he would confess that whereof he was accused But he answered resolutely and as it became the progenitor of so many valiant Heroes That in his conscience he thought her guiltless of the objected crime but whether she were or no he could not accuse her of any thing and that he had rather undergo a thousand deaths than betray the Innocent Upon relation whereof the King cryed out Hang him up then hang him up then Which notwithstanding was not accordingly executed For on the thirteenth of May two days after his condemnation all of them viz. the Viscount Rochfort Norris Brierton and Smeton were Beheaded at Tower-hill Norris left a Son called also Henry whom Queen Elizabeth in contemplation of his Father's deserts created Baron of Ricot This Lord Norris was Father to those great Captains William John Thomas and Edward in our days so famous throughout Christendom for their brave exploits in England France Ireland and the Netherlands On the nineteenth of May the Queen was brought to the place of Execution in the Green within the Tower some of the Nobility and Companies of the City being admitted rather to be witnesses than spectators of her death To whom the Queen having ascended the Scaffold spake in this manner Friends and good Christian people I am here in your presence to suffer death whereto I acknowledge my self adjudged by the Laws how justly I will not say for I intend not an accusation of any one I beseech the Almighty to preserve his Majesty long to reign over you a more gentle or mild Prince never swayed Scepter his bounty and clemency towards me I am sure hath been especial If any one intend an inquisitive survey of my actions I intreat him to judge favourably of me and not rashly to admit of any hard censorious conceit And so I bid the World farewel beseeching you to commend me in your Prayers to God To thee O Lord do I commend my Soul Then kneeling down she incessantly repeated these words Christ have mercy on my soul Lord Jesus receive my soul until the Executioner of Calais at one blow smote off her Head with a Sword Had any one three years before at what time the King so hot in the pursuit of his love preferred the enjoying of this Lady beyond his Friends his Estate his Health Safeguard and his only Daughter prophetically foretold the unhappy fate of this Princess he should have been believed with Cassandra But much more incredible may all wise men think the unheard of crime for which she was condemned viz. That fearing lest her Daughter the Lady Elizabeth born while Catharine survived should be accounted illegitimate in hope of other especially male Issue whereof she despaired by the King now near fifty years old she had lasciviously used the company of certain young Courtiers nay not therewith content had committed Incest with her
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
the full and free distribution of Bishopricks Benesices Favours Offices always remaining entire to the Queen That the Queen likewise should be assumed into the society of all the Realms wherein Philip either then was or should be afterward invested That if She survived Philip sixty thousand Pounds per annum should be assigned for her Joynture as had been formerly assigned to Lady Margaret Sister to Edward the Fourth and Widow to Charles Duke of Burgoigne whereof forty thousand should be raised out of Spain and Arragon twenty thousand out of the Netherlands and the Provinces thereto belonging And to prevent all future Jars and Contentions about the Division of the Inheritance of the Kingdoms and Provinces which either then were or afterward should be belonging to either it is agreed That the Issue begotten by this Marriage should succeed in all the Queens Kingdoms and Dominions and in all the Principalities of the Netherlands and Burgoigne whereof the Emperour did stand possessed That Charles the eldest Son to Philip by a former Marriage should likewise succeed in all the Kingdoms as well of his Father as of his Grandmother and his Grandfather the Emperour both in Italy and Spain and by reason thereof should stand obliged for the Payment of the ' fore-mentioned forty thousand Pounds If by this Matrimony no other Issue shall be begotten than Female the Eldest shall succeed in all the Provinces of the Netherlands but with this Caution that by the counsel and consent of her Brother Charles she shall make choice of an Husband either out of England or the Netherlands if she marry from elsewhere without his consent she shall be deprived of her right of Succession and Charles be invested therein But to her and her Sisters a convenient Dowry shall be assigned according to the Laws and Customs of the places If it happen that Charles or his Successours shall die without Issue in that case the First-born by this Marriage although it be a Female shall succeed in all the Kingdoms belonging to both these Princes as well of the Netherlands as of Spain and in all the Principalities of Italy and shall be bound to preserve inviolate all the Laws Priviledges Immunities ' and Customs of each Kingdom Between the Emperour Philip and his Heirs between the Queen and her Children and Heirs and between both their Realms and Dominions constant Amity Concord a perpetual and inviolable League shall be continued This League Agreement and Articles shall be renewed and confirmed at Westminster the two and fortieth year of this Seculum and four years after on the sixteenth of January at Utrecht As soon as the Decree concerning these Nuptial Compacts was divulged many out of a restless disposition misliking the present times but especially traducing the intent of this Accord as if by it the Spaniard were to become absolute Lord of all who should have the free managing of all Affairs and abolishing our ancient Laws and Customs would impose an intolerable yoak as on a conquered Nation This was the general conceit of this Action But in private every one according to their divers humours did mutter diversly Some censuring the Queens actions others complaining of the change of Religion contrary to her promise made to the Suffolk men Some lamented the case of Lady Jane who had been forcibly deposed and cruelly condemned to an ill-deserved Death Some were swayed by pity some by the regard of Religion but most by the fear of a Spanish Servitude And others were by their own hopes and the desire of change animated to a Rebellion A Chieftain only was wanting which defect was quickly supplied by Sir Thomas Wyat a Knight of Kent Who having communicated the matter with the Duke of Suffolk Sir Peter Carow of Devonshire and some others concluded that it would not be expedient to attempt any thing until the arrival of Philip that so they might not seem to have taken Arms to any other end than to secure their Countrey from the Usurpation of a Forein Prince So reserving themselves for opportunity they disperse themselves into several places Wyat into Kent a Countrey adjoyning to London and disjoyned from Calais by a little fret of Sea Sir Peter Carow into Devonshire a part of England in the West opposite to the main of France and the Duke of Suffolk withdrew himself to his Place in Warwickshire situated in the very heart of the Realm In these several places they secretly furnish themselves with Arms Money and all sorts of Munition and seek to draw others to partake in the Conspiracy Sir Peter Carow whether thrust on by his Fate or thinking delay would prove dangerous began secretly to levy some Forces in Cornwall but the matter being sooner detected than was hoped and he quickly oppressed he presently took Ship and fled into France where he lurked some time until at length being seemingly reconciled to the King he was taken at Brussels and brought Captive into England By what means he afterward made an escape I know not But he flourished many years under Queen Elizabeth and died at Rosse in Leinster a Province of Ireland in the year 1577 as appeareth by his Monument in the Cathedral Church at Exceter erected at the costs of his Nephew Peter who was Brother to George whom King James for his many Virtues not long since created a Baron With Sir Peter at the same time Sir John Cheeke who had been King Edward's Tutour was also taken who came from Strasburg towards Brussels and that not without Publick Licence upon no other business but to visit as saith Fox the Queens Agents there or rather according to 〈◊〉 to marry a Wife Whatsoever were the cause of his Journey certain it is that he was intercepted on the way from Antwerp to Erussels unhorsed by some of the Queens Servants and tied with Cords to a Cart at last muffled carried on shipboard and conveyed to the Tower at London not knowing all the way for what part of the World he was bound There having always in Conscience abhorred the Errours of Popery he was forced to Abjure his Religion for which he afterward became so repentant that out of extremity of Grief he languished and shortly died These passages I do the more exactly describe because there want not some who relate that both Sir Peter Carow and Sir John Cheeke for their Religion suffered at a Stake on on the thirteenth of June this present year But to return to Wiat he perceiving that his intents were divulged and that he had nothing to trust to no refuge but Valour incited the People in Kent to a Rebellion and as Rebels never want common pretexts to colour their actions that Because the Queen relying too much upon the Advice of bad Counsellors bad lately done and did daily endeavour many things prejudicial to the Estate of the Realm That therefore to prevent farther inconveniences those Counsellors must be removed and others substituted who should so manage
the Church And to add more majesty to their act by some devout Solemnity they go in Procession to Pauls singing that admirable Hymn of those holy Fathers St. Ambrose and St. Augustine commonly known by its first words Te Deum Then they dispatcht away some Companies to seize on the Tower and command the Duke of Suffolk to render himself The Duke as easily dejected at the news as he had formerly been elevated by vain hope entring his Daughters Chamber forbad the farther use of Royal Ceremonies wishing her to be content with her return to a Private fortune Whereto she answered with a setled countenance Sir I better brook this message than my forced advancement to Royalty out of obedience to you and my Mother I have grievously sinned and offered violence to my self Now I do willingly and as obeying the motions of my Soul relinquish the Crown and endeavour to salve those faults committed by others if at least so great an errour may be salved by a willing relinquishment and ingenuous acknowledgement Having spoken thus much she retired into a withdrawing-room more troubled at the Danger she had incurred than the defeasance of so great hopes The Duke himself presently repaired to the rest of the Council and subscribed to their Decree This Proclamation was on the nineteenth of July published and entertained with such Acclamations that no part of it could be heard after the first mention of Queen Maries Name The Earl of Arundell and the Lord Paget having thus ordered this weighty Affair accompanied with thirty Horse rid post that night unto the Queen to certifie her of the gladsom tidings of her Subjects loyal intentions In the mean time the Lords of the Council certifie Northumberland of these Passages commanding him withal to subscribe to the Decree and dismiss his Army But he out of the Presage of his own Fortune had before the receipt of their Letters proclaimed her Queen at Cambridge where in a counterfeit joy he threw up his Cap with the sincerer multitude Then he cashiered the rest of his wavering Companies and almost all the Lords who had hitherto followed him with a Legal Revolt passing over to the Queen and making Northumberland the sole author and cause of these disloyal Distractions were upon their Submission pardoned Lady Jane having as on a Stage for ten days only personated a Queen was committed to safe custody and the Ladies who had hitherto attended her were commanded each to their homes The Duke of Northumberland was by the Queens command apprehended by the Earl of Arundell and committed to the Tower The manner of his taking is reported to have been thus After so many checks uncertain what course to take resolved to flie but not knowing whether the Pensioners who with their Captain Sir John Gates had followed him in this Expedition while he was pulling on his Boots seised on him saying that It was fit they should excuse themselves from the imputation of Treason by his testimony The Duke withstanding them and the matter being likely to grow to blows at the very instant came those Letters from the Council which commanded them all to lay aside their Arms and peaceably to repair to their homes These Letters took up the matter and set the Duke at liberty which notwithstanding lasted not long For the next morning as he was ready to take Horse the Earl of Arundell intercepted him and with him apprehended the Earl of Huntingdon the Earl of Warwick Northumberland's eldest Son and two others younger Lord Ambrose and Lord Henry Dudley Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke's Brother Sir Thomas Palmer Sir John Gates his Brother Henry Gates and Doctor Edwin Sands who on the five and twentieth of July were brought to London and presently committed to the Tower The Earl of Huntingdon was not long after set at liberty but his Son was presently Sir John Gates whom Northumberland accused to have been the contriver of all this mischief and Sir Thomas Palmer were after Executed The Earl of Warwick died in Prison The Lords Ambrose and Henry Dudley were Pardoned Henry was afterward slain with a shot at the Siege of St. Quintin but Ambrose finding Fortune more propitious out-lived Mary and by Queen Elizabeth created Earl of Warwick long flourished in the happiness of her Favour Sir Andrew Dudley after his Condemnation was also Pardoned Doctor Sands being then Vicechancellour of the University of Cambridge had by Northumberland's command in the Pulpit publickly impugned Queen Maries Cause and defended that of Lady Jane but with that Wisdom and Moderation although upon the short warning of some few hours that he abundantly satisfied the Duke and yet did not so deeply incur the displeasure of the adverse part but that his Friends prevailed with the Queen for his Pardon So that after a years Imprisonment he was set at liberty and presently fled over into Germany After the death of Queen Mary returning from his voluntary Exile he was Consecrated Bishop of Worcester from which See he was translated to London and thence again to the Archbishoprick of York A man for his Learning Virtue Wisdom and Extract very famous but most especially happy in his Issue whereof many were admirable for their Endowments both internal and external and of whom we have in our Age seen three honoured with Knighthood On the six and twentieth of July the Marquis of Northampton afterward Condemned and Pardoned Doctor Ridley Bishop of London who two years after was Burned at Oxford and beside many others Lord Robert Dudley that great Earl of Leicester under Queen Elizabeth were brought to the Tower On the seven and twentieth the Duke of Suffolk to whom the Queen with admirable Clemency within four days restored his liberty Sir John Cheeke King Edward's Schoolmaster Sir Roger Cholmley Chief Justice of the King's Bench and Sir Edmond Mountague Chief Justice of the Common Pleas were committed to the same place who were all on the third of September set at liberty On the thirtieth of July the Lady Elizabeth accompanied by a great train of Nobles Knights Gentlemen and Ladies to the number of five hundred some say a thousand set forward from the Strand through London and so to Wansted towards the Queen to congratulate her happy Success in vindicating her Right to the Crown Who on the third of August having dismissed her Army which had not yet exceeded the number of thirteen thousand attended by all the Nobility made a triumphant entrance through London to the Tower where the Duke of Norfolk Edward Courtney Son to the Marquis of Exceter Beheaded in the year 1538 Gardiner late Bishop of Winchester and Anne Duchess of Somerset presented themselves on their Knees and Gardiner in the name of them all spake a congratulatory Oration which ended the Queen courteously raised them and kissing each of them said These are all my own Prisoners and gave order for their present discharge Edward Courtney she restored to his Father's honours making
him Marquis of Exceter As for Gardiner she not only reseated him in the Bishoprick of Winchester but also on the three and twentieth of August made him Lord Chancellour of England notwithstanding that he had not only Subscribed to the Divorce from Catharine the Queens Mother but had Published Books wherein he had defended King Henry's proceedings On the fifth of August Boner and Tonstall who had been formerly deprived of their Bishopricks the one of London the other of Duresm and shortly after Day of Chichester and Heath of Worcester were enlarged and restored to their Bishopricks the present Incumbents being without due process of Law ejected On the tenth of August were celebrated the Exequies of King Edward Day Bishop of Chichester Preaching executing in English and administring the Sacrament according to the manner and form received in the Reign of Edward For as yet nothing had been determined concerning any change in point of Religion So that when Bourn a Canon of Pauls afterward Bishop of Bath and Wells Preaching at the Cross did inveigh against the Reformation in King Edward's time and did in upbraiding manner argue the Injustice of those times which condemned Bonor to perpetual Imprisonment for matter delivered by him in that place that time four year who was now by a more just Clemency restored to his Liberty and Dignity The People 〈◊〉 to the Protestant Religion could hardly abstain from stoning him and one of them aiming a Poinyard at him missed him very narrowly The affections of the Assembly may by this be conceived that during the Reign of Queen Mary the Author of this bold attempt notwithstanding the diligence of earnest Inquisitors could never be discovered The uproar increasing and divers pressing toward the Pulpit Bourn protected by two Protestant Preachers Bradford and Rogers who were greatly Reverenced by the People and afterward Burned for their Religion was with great difficulty conveyed to the School at Pauls And now at length on the eighteenth of August the Duke of Norfolk sitting as High Steward of England were the Duke of Northumberland his Son the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton Arraigned at Westminster where the Duke of Northumberland pleading that he had done nothing but by authority of the Council his Plea being not admitted for sufficient he was condemned of High Treason The Sentence being pronounced he craved the favour of such a Death as was usually executed on Noblemen and not the other He beseeched also that a favourable regard might be had of his Children in respect of their age Thirdly that he might be permitted to confer with some learned Divine for the setling of his Conscience And lastly that her Majesty would be pleased to send unto him four of her Council for the discovery of some things which might concern the Estate The Marquis of Northampton pleaded to his Indictment that after the beginning of these Tumults he had forborn the Execution of any Publick Office and that all that while inteht to Hunting and other sports he did not partake in the Conspiracy But it being manifest that he was party with the Duke of Northumberland Sentence passed on him likewise The Earl of Warwick finding that the Judges in so great a Cause admitted not excuse of Age with great resolution heard his Condemnation pronounced craving only this favour that whereas the Goods of those who were condemned for Treason are totally Confifcated yet her Majesty would be pleased that out of them his Debts might be discharged After this they were all again returned to the Tower The next day Sir Andrew Dadley Sir John Gates who was thought in Northumberland's favour to have projected the Adoption of Lady Jane Sir Henry Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer were likewise condemned On the two and twentieth of the same month the Duke with the rest having two days before received the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper were conducted to the place of Execution Where Northumberland saith that excellent Historiographer thuanas by the perswasion of Nicholas Heath afterward Bishop of York making his own Funeral Oration to the People acknowledged himself guilty and craving pardon for his unseasonable Ambition admonished the Assembly That they should embrace the Religion of their Forefathers rejecting that of later date which had occasioned all the Miseries of the ' fore-passed thirty years And for prevention for the future if they desired to present their Souls unspotted to God and were truly affected to their Countrey they should expel those Trumpets of Sedition the Preachers of the Reformed Religion As for himself whatsoever he might pretend his Conscience was fraught with the Religion of his Fathers and for testimony hereof he appealed to his great Friend the Bishop of Winchester but being blinded with Ambition he had been contented to make wrack of his Conscience by temporizing for which he professed himself sincerely repentant and acknowledged the desert of his death Having spoken thus much he craved the charitable Devotions of the Assembly and commending his Soul to God prepared his Body for the stroke of Ax. This Recantation did variously affect the minds of the multitude who wondred that he should at last Apostatize from that Religion which he had for sixteen years professed and in favour whereof chiefly he perswaded King Edward to endeavour the exclusion of his Sisters from their lawful Succession Some write that being desirous of life he did it craftily out of hope of impunity but that hope being frustrated to have repented it afterwards He was suspected neither were the presumptions small to have administred a Poisonous potion to King Edward but in his Indictment there was no mention of it and that the rather for that the Judges had authority only to inflict Punishment on him for his Conspiracy against the Queen At the same time and place were also Executed Sir John Gates and Sir Thomas Palmer Many Bishops also who were thought to have been too too opinionate in point of Religion were sent for to London and there Imprisoned viz. Hooper of Glocester Farrar of St. Davies who were both crowned with Martyrdom and Coverdale of Exceter who at the request of Christiern the Third King of Denmark was Pardoned But the Clergy of what rank soever who would not forsake their Wives or were invested in Livings whereof any one had been for defence of Popery deprived or that would not by Oath promise the defence of the Romish Religion were generally forced to relinquish their Benefices Peter Martyr was then Professor at Oxford who presently upon the Death of King Edward was confined to his House But after some time his Friends so far prevailed that he might come to London where he betook himself to his Patron the Archbishop of Canterbury But he could not prove a Sanctuary to him The Archbishop himself began now to totter The Queen beside that she was wholly swayed by Gardiner who extremely hated him had resolved to wreak her self