were there overthrown killed and hanged by troups In the yeare of our Lord 1525 there were certain husbandmen of Souabe that began to stand in resistance against the Earle of Lupsfen by reason of certaine burthens which they complained themselves to be overlaid with by him their neighbors seeing this enterprised the like against their Lords And so upon this small beginning by a certaine contagion there grew up a most dangerous and fearefull commotion that spread it selfe almost over all Almaine the sedition thus increasing in all quarters and the swaines being now full forty thousand strong making their owne liberty and the Gospels a cloake to cover their treason and rebellion and a pretence of their undertaking armes to the wonderfull griefe of all that feared God did not onely fight with the Romane Catholickes but with all other without respect as well in Souabe as in Franconia they destroyed the greater part of the Nobility sacked and burnt many castles and fortresses to the number of two hundred and put to death the Earle of Helfest in making him passe through their pikes But at length their strength was broken they discomfited and torn in pieces with a most horrible massacre of more than eighteen thousand of them During this sedition there were slaine on each side fifty thousand men The captaine of the Souabian swaines called Geismer having betaken himselfe to flight got over the mountaines of Padua where by treason he was made away In the yeare of our Lord 1517 in the Marquesdome of the Vandales the like insurrection and rebellion was of the commonalty especially the baser sort against the Nobility Spirituall and Temporall by whom they were oppressed with intolerable exactions their army was numbred of ninety thousand men all clowns and husbandmen that conspired together to redresse and reforme their owne grievances without any respect of civill Magistrate or feare of Almighty God This rascality of swaines raged and tyranized every where burning and beating down the castles and houses of Noblemen and making their ruines even with the ground Nay they handled the Noblemen themselves as many as they could attaine unto not contumeliously only but rigorously and cruelly for they tormented them to death and carried their heads upon speares in token of victory Thus they swayed a while uncontrolled for the Emperour Maximilian winked at their riots as being acquainted with what in juries they had been overcharged but when he perceived that the rude multitude did not limit their fury within reason but let it runne too lavish to the damnifying as well the innocent as the guilty he made out a small troup of mercinary souldiers together with a band of horsemen to suppresse them who comming to a city were presently so environed with such a multitude of these swaines that like locusts overspread the earth that they thought it impossible to escape with their lives wherefore feare and extremity made them to rush out to battell with them But see how the Lord prospereth a good cause for all their weak number in comparison of their enemies yet such a feare possessed their enemies hearts that they fled like troups of sheep and were slaine like dogges before them insomuch that they that escaped the sword were either hanged by flocks on trees or rosted on spits by fires or otherwise tormented to death And this end befell that wicked rebellious rout which wrought such mischiefe in that country with their monstrous villanies that the traces and steppes thereof remaine at this day to bee seene In the yeare of our Lord 1381 Richard the second being King the Commons of England and especially of Kent and Essex by meanes of a taxe that was set upon them suddenly rebelled and assembled together on Blackheath to the number of 60000 or more which rebellious rout had none but base and ignoble fellowes for their captaines as Wat Tiler Iacke Straw Tom Miller but yet they caused much trouble and disquietnesse in the Realme and chiefly about the city of London where they committed much villany in destroying many goodly places as the Savoy and others and being in Smithfield used themselves very proudly and unreverently towards the King but by the manhood and wisedome of William Walworth Major of London who arrested their chiefe captain in the midst of them that rude company was discomfited and the ringleaders of them worthily punished In like manner in the raigne of Henry the seventh a great commotion was stirred up in England by the Commons of the North by reason of a certaine taxe which was levied of the tenth peny of all mens lands and goods within the land in the which the Earle of Northumberland was slain but their rash attempt was soon broken and Chamberlain their captain with divers other hanged at Yorke for the same Howbeit their example feared not the Cornishmen from rebelling upon the like occasion of a tax under the conduct of the Lord Audley untill by woefull experience they felt the same scourge for the King met them upon Blackheath and discomfiting their troups took their captaines and ring leaders and put them to most worthy and sharp death Thus we may see the unhappy issue of all such seditious revoltings and thereby gather how unpleasant they are in the sight of God Let all the people therefore learne by these experiences to submit themselves in the feare of God to the higher powers whether they be Lords Kings Princes or any other that are set over them CHAP. VI. Of Murtherers AS touching Murther which is by the second commandement of the second Table forbidden in these words Thou shalt not kill the Lord denounceth this judgment upon it That he which striketh a man that hee dieth shall die the death And this is correspondent to that Edict which he gave to Noah presently after the universall floud to suppresse that generall cruelty which had taken root from the beginning in Cain and his posterity being carefull for mans life saying That he will require the bloud of man at the hands of either man or beast that killeth him adding moreover That whosoever sheddeth mans bloud by man also his bloud shall be shed seeing that God created him after his owne Image which he would not have to be basely accounted of but deare and precious unto us If then the bruit and unreasonable creatures are not exempted from the sentence of death pronounced in the law if they chance to kill a man how much more punishable then is man endued with will and reason when malitiously and advisedly he taketh away the life of his neighbour But the hainousnesse and greatnesse of this sinne is most lively expressed by that ordinance of God set downe in the 21 of Deutronomy where it is enjoyned That if a man be found slain in the field and it be not knowne who it was that slew him then the Elders and Iudges of the next towne assembling together should offer up an expiatory sacrifice
and the whole Army of threescore thousand men by bare eight thousand English discomfited divers great Lords were found slain in the field and divers others with the King himselfe carried Prisoners into England which was a great shake to the whole Realme and the occasion of many tumults and disorders that ensued afterwards Moreover as it is a rash part to hazard the doubtfull event of battell indiscreetly and without cause so it is a point of no lesse folly to thrust ones selfe voluntarily into any action of war without charge not being particularly called and bound thereunto or having a body unsufficient and unfit for the same And this was also one of the warlike points of Discipline which the antient Romans used That none should presume to fight for his Countrey before he had been admitted by some Captain by a solemne Oath Of all the Histories that I ever read I know none more strange in matter of war than this which I now go about to recite of Henry of Luxenbourg Emperour of Germany who when he heard that his son Charles King of Bohemia was in the French Army and that Philip of Valois King of France was ready to give battell to the English albeit he was blinde and consequently unfit for war yet would needs take part with the French and therefore commanded his men at Armes to guide him into the place where the Field was to be fought that he might strike one blow They as foolish as himselfe not willing to crosse his minde and fearing to lose him in the prease tied him faste to the raines of their bridles being by this meanes so coupled together as if they meant all to perish together if need were as indeed they did for they were overcome in battell and the next day found all dead horse and men faste bound together This accident befell at Crecy neer Abrevile in which journey the French King sustained an inestimable damage for he lost fifteen of his chiefest Princes fourscore Ensignes twelve hundred Knights and about thirty thousand men In the yeer 1455. the Hungarians without any just cause or pretence made war upon the Emperour Otto onely moved with a desire of bringing under their subjection the Germane powers and the rather at this time because they supposed the Emperours strength of war to be weakened and his power of men lessened by those continuall troubles and wars which he had been daily occupied in notwithstanding Otto as by his former deeds of Armes he deserved the sirname of Great so in this exploit especially for he conscribed eight Legions of men out of Franconia Bavaria and Bohemia and with that small valiant handfull overturned and destroyed the huge unchristened multitude of his enemies for albeit the Bohemians being placed in the Rereward were as suddenly and unexpectedly assaulted by the enemy that craftily passed over the River Lycus to set upon them behinde as unhappily put to flight with the losse of the carriages and victuals which they were set to protect yet Otto with his other Legions renuing the battell and encouraging his souldiers gave the enemy such an encounter and repulse that he put them to flight and slew them with a miserable slaughter three of their Kings he took Prisoners and few of that vaste Army escaped with their lives On the Emperours side died many worthy men among whom Conrade the Emperours son in law and Burghard Duke of Suevia were two beside many other In this successive battell it is to be noted above the rest how religiously the Emperour both began and finished it the day before the Fight he enjoyned a Faste in his Army and directed his prayers to the Almighty relying more upon the presence of Gods helpe than his owne power after the Conquest gotten he caused solemne thankes to be given in all Churches to God for the great deliverance I would our moderne Generals and Captaines would learne by this example to follow his footsteps and not to make their prayers quaffings and their thanksgiving carousings as they use to do even as it were purposely to tempt the Lord and to stir up his wrath against them Penda King of middle England making war upon Anna King of East Angles slew him in open field with which victory being puffed up by pride he sent defiance to Osway King of Northumberland also who hearing of his approach proffered him great gifts and fair conditions of peace which when Penda obstinately refused he was slain in battell with thirty of his most noble Captaines although he had thrice the number of people which Osway had And thus the heathen and bloudy Pagan ended his cruelty and paid dear for his too much forwardnesse in war CHAP. XVIII Of such as please themselves overmuch in seeing Cruelties THe Romanes were so accustomed by long use of war to behold fightings and bloudshed that in time of peace also they would make themselves sports and pastimes therewith for they would compell poor captives and bondslaves either to kill one another by mutuall blowes or to enter combate with savage and cruell beasts to be torne in pieces by them The first according to Seneca that devised and put in practice this unkindely Combate of Beasts and Malefactours was Pompey who provided an Army of eighteen Elephants to fight with men and thought it a notable and commendable spectacle to put men to death after this new and strange fashion Oh how mens mindes are blinded with over much prosperity He esteemed himselfe at that time to be higher in dignity than all other when he thus threw to wilde beasts people of farre Countries and in the presence of the people caused so much bloud to be shed but not long after himselfe was betrayed by the treachery of the Alexandrians and slain by a bondslave a just quittance for murdering so many of that condition thus much of Seneca Now it is manifest that this was an ordinary pastime among the Romans albelt it is strange that any pastime or pleasure could arise by seeing poor Creatures interchangeably strike one another to death and humane bloud to run like water along the streets It was not then without cause but by a speciall will of God to revenge cruelty that the bondslaves conducted by Spartacus the Fencer rebelled against their masters in Rome after they had broken through the guards of Lentulus his house and issuing out of Capua gathered together above ten thousand fighting men and encamped themselves in mount Vesuvius where being besieged by Clodâ—us Glaber they sallied so rudely and boisterously upon him that the victory and spoil of their enemies tents remained on their sides after this they ran over all the Land forraged the Countrey and destroyed many Villages and Townes but especially these four Nola Nocera Terrenevae and Metaponte were by them sacked and spoiled with a strange and bloudy overthrow after all which having encountred two Consuls they overcame Lentulus on mount Appennine and discomfited Gaiuâ—
besieging him in his owne City took him at last prisoner and hanged him with his two sons Francis and William Diocles son of Pisistratus Tyran of Athens for ravishing a maid was slain by her brother whose death when Hippias his brother undertook to revenge and caused the maidens brother to be racked that he might discover the other conspiratours he named all the Tyrans friends which by commandment being put to death the Tyran asked whether there were any more None but onely thy selfe quoth he whom I would wish next to be hanged whereby it was perceived how abundantly he had revenged his sisters chastity by whose notable stomacke all the Athenians being put in remembrance of their liberty expelled their Tyran Hippias out of their City Mundus a young Gentleman of Rome ravished the chaste Matron Paulina in this fashion when he perceived her resolution not to yeeld unto his lust he perswaded the Priests of Isis to say that they were warned by an Oracle how that Anubius the god of Egypt desired the company of the said Paulina to whom the chaste Matron gave light credence both because she thought the Priests would not lie and also because it was accounted a great renowne to have to do with a god and thus by this meanes was Paulina abused by Mundus in the Temple of Isis under the name of Anubius Which thing being after disclosed by Mundus himselfe he was thus justly revenged the Priests were put to death the Temple beaten downe to the ground the Image of Isis throwne into Tiber and the young man banished A principall occasion of the Danes first arrivall here in England which after conquered the whole Land and exercised among the Inhabitants most horrible cruelties and outrages was a Rape committed by one Osbright a deputy King under the King of the West-Saxons in the North part This Osbright upon a time journeying by the way turned into the house of one of his Nobles called Bruer who having a wife of great beauty he being from home the King after dinner allured with her excellent beauty took her to a secret Chamber where he forcibly contrary to her will ravished her whereupon she being greatly dismayed and vexed made her mone to her husband at his returne of this violence and injury received The Nobleman forthwith studying revenge first went to the King and resigned to his hands all such services and possessions which he held of him and then took shipping and sailed into Denmarke where he had great friends and had his bringing up there making his mone to Codrinus the King desired his aid in revenging of the great villany of Osbright against him and his wife Codrinus glad to entertain any occasion of quarrell against this Land presently levied an Army and preparing all things for the same sendeth forth Inguar and Hubba two brethren with a mighty Army of Danes into England who first arriving at Holdernesse burnt up the Countrey and killed without mercy both men women and children then marching towards Yorke encountered with wicked Osbright himselfe where he with the most part of his Army was slain and discomfited a just reward for his villanous act as also one chief cause of the Conquest of the whole Land by the Danes In the year of our Lord 955. Edwine succeeding his uncle Eldred was King of England this man was so impudent that in the very day of his Coronation he suddenly withdrew himselfe from his Lords and in sight of certain persons ravished his owne kinswoman the wife of a Nobleman of his Realme and afterward slew her husband that he might have unlawfull use of her beauty for which act he became so odious to his Subjects and Nobles that they joyntly rose against him and deprived him of his Crowne when he had reigned four yeares CHAP. XXII Other examples of Gods Judgements upon Adulterers AMongst all other things this is especially to be noted how God for a greater punishment of the disordinate lust of men strucke them with a new yet filthy and stinking kinde of Disease called the French Pox though indeed the Spaniards were the first that were infected therewith by the heat which they caught among the women of the new-found lands and sowed the seeds thereof first in Spain and from thence sprinkled Italy therewith wherethe French men caught it when Charles the Eighth their King went against Naples From whence the contagion spread it selfe throughout divers places of Europe Barbary was so over-growne with it that in all their Cities the tenth part escaped not untouched nay almost not a Family but was infected From thence it ran to Aegypt Syria and the graund Cair and it may near hand truly be said that there was not a corner of the habitable world where this not onely new and strange for it was never heard of in antient ages but terrible and hideous scourge of Gods wrath stretched not it selfe They that were spotted with it and had it rooted in their bodies led a languishing life full of aches and torments and carried in their visages filthy markes of unclean behaviour as ulcers boyles and such like that greatly disfigured them And herein we see the words of Saint Paul verified That an Adulterer sinneth against his owne body Now for so much as the world is so brutishly carried into this sin as to none more the Lord therefore hath declared his anger against it in divers sorts so that divers times he hath punished it in the very act or not long after by a strange death Of which Alcibiades one of the great Captaines of Athens may stand for an example who being polluted with many great and odious vices and much given to his pleasures and subject to all uncleannesse ended his life in the midst thereof for as he was in company of a Phrygian strumpet having flowne thither to the King of Phrygia for shelter was notwithstanding set upon by certain Guards which the King induced by his enemies sent to stay him but they though in number many through the conceived opinion of his notable valour durst not apprehend him at hand but set fire to the house standing themselves in armes round about it to receive him if need were he seeing the fire leaped through the midst of it and so long defended himselfe amongst them all till strength failed in himselfe and blowes encreasing upon him constrained him to give up his life amongst them Pliny telleth of Cornelius Gallus and Q. Elerius two Roman Knights that died in the very action of filthinesse In the Irish History we finde recorded a notable judgement of God upon a notorious and cruell lecher one Turgesnis a Norwegian who having twice invaded Ireland reigned there as King for the space of thirty yeares This Tyran not onely cried havocke and spoil upon the whole Countrey abusing his victory very insolently but also spared not to abuse virgins and women at his pleasure to the satisfying
French K. was fore troubled at his returne having to withstand him all the Venetian forces with the most part of the Potentates of Italie notwithstanding he broke through them all after he had put the Venetians to the worst but being returned after this victorious and triumphant voyage it happened that one day as he led the Queen to the Castle of Amboise to see some some sport at Tenise he stroke his forehead against the upper door-poste of the gallery as he went in that he fell presently to the ground speechlesse and died incontinently in the place from whence though the filthiest and sluttishest place about the Castle they removed not his body but laid it on a bed of straw to the view of the world from two of the clocke in the afternoon till eleven at midnight and this good successe followed at last his so much desired divorce CHAP. XXVII Of those that either cause or authorise unlawfull Divorcements ALthough the Commandment of our Saviour Christ be very plain and manifest That man should not separate those whom God hath joyned together yet there are some so void of understanding and judgement that they make no conscience to dissolve those that by the bond of marriage are united Of which number was Sampsons father in Law who took his daughter first given in marriage to Sampson and gave her to another without any other reason save that he suspected that Sampson loved her not But what got he by it Marry this the Philistims provoked against him consumed him and his daughter with fire because that by the meanes of his injury Sampson had burned their corne their vineyards and their olive-trees After the same sort dealt Saul with David when he gave him his daughter Michol to Wife and afterward in despight and hatred of him took her away again and bestowed her upon another wherein as in many other things he shewed himselfe a wicked and prophane man and was worthily punished therefore as hath been before declared Hugh Spencer one of King Edward of Englands chiefest favourites insomuch that his ear and heart was at his pleasure was he that first persuaded the King to forsake and repudiate the Queen his Wife daughter to Philip the Faire King of France upon no other occasion but onely to satisfie his owne appetite and the better to follow his delights And thus by this meanes she was chased out of England and driven to retire to King Charles her brother where hoping to finde rest and refuge she was deceived for what by the crafts and practises of the English and what by the Popes authority who thrust himselfe into this action as his custom is she was constrained to dislodge her selfe and to change her countrey very speedily wherefore from thence she went to crave succour of the County of Henault who furnished her with certain forces and sent her towards England where being arrived and finding the people generally at her command and ready to do her service she set upon her enemy Hugh Spencer took him prisoner and put him to a shamefull death as he well deserved for he was also the causer of the deaths of many of the Nobles of the Realme therefore he was drawne through the streets of Hereford upon an hurdle and after his privie members his heart and head were cut off his four quarters were exalted in four severall places to the view of the world Now if these be found guilty that either directly make or indirectly procure divorcements shall we accuse them that allow and authorize the same without lawfull and just occasion No verily no though they be Popes that take it upon them as we reade Pope Alexander the sixth did who for the advancement of his haughty desires to gratifie and flatter Lewis the twelfth King of France sent him by his son a dispensation to put away his Wife daughter to King Lewis the eleventh because she was barren and counterfeit and to recontract Anne of Bretaigne the widow of Charles the eighth lately deceased But herein though barrennesse of the former was pretended yet the Duchie of the later was aimed at which before this time he could never attain unto But of what force and vertue this dispensation by right was or at least ought to be it is easie to perceive seeing it is not onely contrary to the words of the Gospel Matth. 19. but also to their owne decrees secund part quest 7. Hi qui matrimonium where in is imported that marriage ought not to be infringed for any default or imperfection no not of nature But Popes may maim and clip both the Word of God and all other writings and do what soever themselves liketh be it good or bad CHAP. XXXIII Of Incestuous persons ALthough Incest be a wicked and abominable sin and forbidden both by the Law of God and man in so much that the very heathen held it in detestation yet are there some so inordinately vicious and dissolute that they blush not once to pollute themselves with this filthinesse Reuben the Patriarch was one of this vile crue that shamed not to defile himselfe with Bilha his fathers concubine but he was cursed for his labour for whereas by right of eldership and birth he ought to have had a certain prerogative and authority over his brethren his excellency shed it selfe like water and he was surpassed by his brethren both in encrease of progeny and renowne Ammon one of King Davids sonnes was so strongly enchanted with the love of his sister Thamar that to the end to fulfill his lust he traiterously forced her to his will but Absalom her naturall brother hunting for opportunity of revenge for this indignity towards his sister invited him two yeares after to a banquet with his other brethren and after the same caused his men to murder him for a farewell The same Absalom that slew Amnon for Incest with his sister committed himselfe incest with his fathers concubines moved thereto by the wicked counsell of Achitophel that advised him to that infamous deed of defiling his fathers bed but it was the forerunner of his overthrow as we have already heard Divers of the Roman Empetours were so villanous and wretched as to make no bones of this sin with their owne sisters as Caligula Antonius and Commodus and some with their mothers as Nero so much was he given over and transported to all licentiousnesse Plutarch telleth us of one Cyanippus that being overcome with wine defloured his owne daughter Cyane but he was slain of her for his labour Neither do I thinke it so unnaturall a part for her to kill her father as in him to commit incest with his owne daughter for the Oracle lessened or rather approved her fault when it abhorred and chastened his crime for when Syracusa was grievously infected with the pestilence it was pronounced by the Oracle That the plague should continue till the wicked person was
King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas whom hee loved most entirely but he againe requited him not with love but with hatred and stretched all his wits to install himselfe in his kingdome by deposing and murthering him which though he accomplished yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God for he continued not many dayes in his royalty but he was served with the same sauce that he had made Archelaus before him to taste of even betraied and murthered as he well deserved Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himselfe with the Dukedome of Millain spared not to shed the innocent bloud of his two Nephewes the sonnes of Galenchus together with their tutors and one Francis Calaber a worthy and excellent man but the Lord so disposed of his purposes that he in stead of obtaining the kingdome was taken prisoner by the King of France so that neither he nor any of his off spring injoyed that which he so much affected When Numerianus was to succeed â—arus his father in the Empire Arrius Axer his father in law to the end to translate the Empire unto himselfe entered a conspiracy and slew his sonne in law that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty but the Pretorian army understanding the matter discharged Arrius and elected Dioclesian in his roome who laying hold upon his competitour laied an action of treason to his charge and put him to death in the sight of the multitude Theodoricke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund King of the Visigothes to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdome And albeit that nature reclaymed them from the act yet they slew him without all compassion But after thirteene yeres reigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund And so though vengeance slept a while yet at length it wakened Aelias Antonius Gordianus Emperour of Rome though so excellent a young Prince that he deserved to be called the Love and Iewell of the World yet was he slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour called Philip Arabs when he was but two and twenty yeres old after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the Band and confirmed by the Senate All which notwithstanding after five yeres Decius rebelled and his owne souldiers conspired against him so that both he at Verona and his sonne at Rome were slaine by them about one time After the death of Constantine the Great his three sonnes dividing the Empire betwixt them succeeded their father Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine France the Alpes and England Constance the second held Italy Africa Graecia and Illyricum Constantine the younger was King and Emperour of the East But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other not content with his alotted portion made warre upon his brother Constance his Provinces and strove to enter Italy he was slaine in a battell by Aquileia when he was but five and twenty yeares old by which meanes all the provinces which were his fell to Constance and therewithall such a drowsinesse and Epicurisme for want of a stirrer up after his brothers death that he fell into the gout and neglected the governement of the Empire Wherefore in Aâ—sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour one Magnentius whose life before time Constance had saved from the souldiers and therefore his treachery was the greater This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum yet in such sort that the conqueror could not greatly brag for he lost an infinit company of his men and yet missed of his chiefe purpose the taking of Magnentius for he escaped to Lyons and there massacring all that he mistrusted at last growing I suppose in suspition with his owne heart slew himselfe also and so his traiterous ingratefull and ambitious murther was revenged with his owne hands Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spaine and succeeded in his place seven yeares after another traitour slew him and succeeded also in his place Mauritius the Emperor was murthered by Phocas together with his wife and five of his children he seating himselfe Emperour in his roome Howbeit traitors and murtherers can never come to happy ends for as he had slaine Mauritius so Priscus Heraclianus and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines conspiring against him with three severall armies gave him such an alarme at once at his owne doores that they soone quailed his courage and after much mangling of his body cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding much bloud and at last King Edward himselfe lying at Barkley castle to the end that he might as it was supposed enjoy Isabel his wife with whom he had very suspitious familiarity After this he unjustly accused Edmund Earle of Kent of treason and caused him to bee put to death therefore and lastly he conspired against King Edward the third as it was suspected for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded Among this ranke of murtherers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third usurper of the Crowne of England and divers others which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect as namely Sir Iames Tirrèl Knight a man for natures gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard if he had well served God and beene endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit also Miles Forest and Iohn Dighton two villaines fleshed in murthers But to come to the fact it was on this sort When Richard the usurper had enjoyned Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murthering the young King Edward the fifth his Nephew in the Tower with his brother the Duke of Yorke and saw it refused by him he committed the charge of the murther to Sir Iames Tirrel who hasting to the Tower by the Kings Commission received the keyes into his owne hands and by the helpe of those two butchers Dighton and Forest smothered the two Princes in their bed and buried them at the staires feet which being done Sir Iames rode back to king Richard who gave him great thankes and as some say made him knight for his labour All which things on every part well pondered it appeareth that God never gave the world a notabler example both of the unconstancy of worldly wâ—ale and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despightfull cruelty for first to begin with the ministers Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at Saint Martins Sir Iames Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason King Kichard himselfe as it is declared elsewhere was slaine
dreaming of nothing lesse whereat they being at the instant amazed quickly gathered their spirits together and putting themselves in defence fought it out with such courage and eagernesse that the traitors Army was wholly discomfited and he himselfe with one of his sonnes slain The Gothes having gotten this victory broke off their voyage to France and turned their course backe again to Italie with purpose to destroy and spoil and so they did for they laid waste all the Countrey of Piemont and Lumbardy and elsewhere and besieged Rome it selfe so that from that time Italie never ceased to be scourged and tormented with the Gothes for the space of eighteen yeers Moreover whosoever else have been found to follow the steps of these truce peace and promise-breakers void of truth and regard of reputation alwayes underwent worthy punishment for their unworthy acts and fell headlong into confusion and ignominy making themselves subjects worthy to be curst and detested of all men CHAP. XVI Of Queenes that were Murtherers IF these and such like cruelties as we have spoken before be strange and monstrous for men what shall we then say of wicked and bloudy women who contrary to the nature of their sex addict themselves to all violence and bloudshedding as cursed Iezabel Queen of Israel did of whom sufficient hath been spoken before Athaliah Ahabs daughter and wife to Ioram King of Judah was a bird of the same feather for she was possessed with such a spirit of fury and rage that after the death of her son Ochosias that died without issue she put to death all the bloud royall to wit the posterity of Nathan Solomons brother to whom by right of succession the inheritance of the Crown appertained to the end that she might install her selfe into the kingly diadem after this cruell butchery of all the royall male children except Ioas who by Gods providence was preserved alive she usurped the Crowne and Scepter of Juda full seven yeeres at the end of which date Ioas was exalted to the Crowne and she not onely deposed but slain by the hands of her Guard that attended upon her Semiramis the Queen of Assyria was a woman of an ambitious spirit who through her thirst of reigning counterfeited her sex and attired her selfe like a man to get more authority and reverence to her selfe She was the destruction of many thousand people by the unjust war which she stirred up besides that she was a notorious strumpet and withall a murderer of those that satisfied her lust for still as they came from her bed some lay privily in watch to kill them lest they should bewray her villany it is reported that she was so shamelesse that she solicited her owne son to commit incest with her who in detestation of her filthinesse and cruelty raised a power against her and conquering her in one great battell caused her most deservedly to be put to death Brunchild whom Histories call Brunhault a Queen of France by marriage but a Spaniard by birth was a woman that bred much mischiefe in her age and that wrought many horrible and death-deserving crimes for partly with her subtle devices and partly with her owne hands she murdered ten Kings of France one after another she caused her husband to slay his owne brother she procured the death of her nephew Meroveus whom against all equity and honesty she had secondly espoused for her husband for he being hated of his father for that vile incest and perceiving himselfe in danger of taking made one of servants thrust him through After she had committed these and many other foul facts she went aboutalso to defraud Clotairius the son of Chilpericke of the right of the Crowne which pertained unto him and to thrust in another in his room whereupon arose great war in the which as she dealt more boldly and manfully than the condition of her sexe would bear so she received the due wages of her brave and vertuous deeds for she was taken prisoner with three of her nephewes whose throats she saw cut before her face and after her selfe was set upon a Camell and led through the hoste three dayes together every man reviling mocking reproaching and despighting her and at last by the award and judgement of the Princes and Captaines of the Army she was adjudged to be tied by the hair of her head one arme and one foot to the tail of a wilde and unâ—â—med horse and so to be left to his mercy to be drawne miserably to her destruction which was no sooner executed but her miserable carkase the instrument of so many mischiefes was with mens feet spurned bruised trampled and wounded after a most strange fashion and this was the wofull end of miserable Brunchild Edilburga the daughter of Offa King of Mercia in England who was married to Brigthricus King of the West Saxons was a woman so passing all the bounds of humanity and so given to cruelty and other beastly conditions that she first poysoned divers of the Nobles of the Kingdom and then having practised this wickednesse upon them she at length poysoned also the King her husband for which cause flying over into France unto Charles the Great for fear of punishment among her owne people when by reason of her beautie it was offered unto her that she should marry either with the King himselfe or with his son because she chose the son before the father married neither the one nor yet the other but was thrust into a Monastery where she not forgetting her old trade playing the harlot with a Monke was expulsed from thence and ended her life in great penury and misery About the same time that this Edilburga was thus working her feats in England Irene another most idolatrous and cruell minded woman being Emperesse of the Greekes was as busie for her part at Constantinople This wicked woman through the meanes of Pope Adrian took up the body of Constantine Emperour of Constantinople her owne husbands father and when she had burned the same she caused the ashes to be cast into the sea because he disannulled images Afterward reigning with her son Constantine the sixth son to Leo the fourth and being at dissention with him for disallowing the worshipping of images caused him to be taken and laid in prison who afterward through power of friends being restored to his Empire again at last she caused the same her owne son to be cast in prison and his eyes to be put out so cruelly that within short space he died After this the said Emperesse as it were triumphing in her cruelty and idolatry caused a Councell to be held at Nice where it was decreed That images should again be restored to the Church but this Councell was after repealed by another Councell holden at Frankford by Charles the Great and at length this wicked woman was deposed by Nicephorus who reigned after and was expulsed the Empire and after the example of Edilburga