come and intending to gayne by spoyle woulde come so much the later for hauing somuch ayde as so many rebelles to helpe them to spoyl Therfore when they come not in déede you must néedes say that you were falsly so borne in hand with a gay hope to make you the bolder to runne to your owne destruction An vnnaturall hope it is and beastly to ioyne with any strangers to the spoyle of their own countrey But such is the nature of that false religion to regard no countrey fayth nature or common honestie Remember I pray you what yelded the realme tributarie and the King Uassal I meane king Iohn but the treason of Popish Religion What gaue the Crowne to Ludouike the Dolphin of France that inuaded and possessed muche of the realme a long time by the ayde of disloyal Barons in England but the treason of popish religion What sente Legates and Messangers yea Englishe traytours about Christendom to forren Emperors and Kyngs to offer them this Realme to pray spoyle and conquest to exhort them to turne their prepared powers from inuading the Turk to make war vpon the king of Englande our Soueraigne Ladies moste noble father whom they termed worse than any Turk but treason of popish Religion What hazarded this Realme with subiection to strangers in our late memorie but treason of popish Religion What then deriued yet daily doth solemn pedigrees to Spaniards other foreins yea wresteth lawe for dangerous strangers to make them acceptable to the deceyued multitude as though they were our naturall princes but only treason of popish religiō But God hath hetherto preserued this land from being subdued by these horrible treasons and I trust hée will still and in your poore case is most likelie to leaue your vain trust disapointed For consider the likelyhod The example so toucheth the common state of al Kings and Princes as you being rebelles may loke for no foren ayde though it were but for presidents sake Such forens as mighte come to you by lande are truer frends to the Quéene than you be subiectes where by the waye looke for no retire nor safe refuge but her maiesties mercy Other strangers that in déede haue vttered more malice to her Maiestie and her realm haue interrupted the good loue and peace and ancient loue amitie and intelligence betwéen her Maiestie and those Princes of whome shée hath moste constantely well deserued alas they be neyther much terrible to her maiestie nor can be much cōfortable to you Wil they in such season as may serue you◠turnes hauing so fewe to spare where they be bring a meane power by Sea so farre so dangerous a viage along the Quenes highnesse coast in such time of yeare being neyther able to resist her nauie by the way lesse able when their men be landed and leaste able to come againe to fetch them when the enterprise is ended Be they so mad trowe you to leaue their Nobilitie Captains and Souldiours in their enimies lande inclosed betwéen enimies of bothe Realmes without more succour than vnlikely Fortune the trust of a fewe Rebelles No no they be not yet so madde though you be madder There muste be greater heades and power than you be or haue at libertie that they wil ioyne wythall They can be contente to giue you vaine hope perhaps For if England may be in tumult by their practize and you come to your deserued ende it contenteth and suffiseth them to haue ventured the state at your perill and to haue gréeued her Maiestie with alienation and destruction of so many poore deceyued Subiectes Looke vnto your selues well the greate bragges are not perfourmed the promises are not kepte you are betrayed by your owne leaders Call to God for mercie bytimes satisfie her Maiestie with returning to dutie and that with al spede least though ye scape slaughter by the true subiectes hand you may not with honor be too gently delt with Deliuer them that betrayed you that they which in proclamations haue published vnto you vayne and false hopes of treasons may vpon scaffolds preach vnto you the right frutes of rebellion and dutie of obedience that their death may do more good in example than euer their liues did in practise This counsell I hope you will followe when the light of true consideration shall shine into your hartes and chase away all darknesse of these erronious shewes and false colors that yet haue blinded you and so much the more when you shall further note all the necessarie circumstances that may reduce you to truthe What be your leaders Your two Erles you know wel are euen of the meanest of all Nobilitie in hauior credite and power to conducte you through so great and dangerous an enterprise The one you see hardly beareth the coūtenance of his estate with his smal portion of that which his ancesters sometime had and lost his dayly sales and shiftes for necessitie euen then when he hadde lesse charge than to mainteine an army both in Sussex and else where are well knowen suche power as he hath had vsed in those partes aboute you is to be ascribed to her Maiesties authoritie vnder whom he serued which now is bent against him otherwise neyther his pollicie great to rule or redresse a Realm nor yet to espie the true faultes much lesse the remedie an vnfitte iudge of Religion and a very euill chosen chastiser of disordered life The other of no credit no wisdome nor gouernance no abilitie no vertue Who knoweth not the enormities of his life the indiscretion of ruling his owne the great lackes dettes wherein he is by his owne fault endangered the estimation of him as of a contemned man none otherwyse regarded than for the name sake of honor and some possibilitie that he might parhaps leaue a better son to amend the state of his house Thoughe his Father were touched with many great faults much noted in y e world some whereof this Gentleman hath as by inheritance receyued yet neuer dyd he so hurtfull a déed eyther to the cōmon weale or to his owne name and familie as when he begatte so vngracious a sonne Euen he that neuer gouerned well him selfe nor any thing that he hath whom no wiseman nor I thinke any of you as mad as ye be would priuately trust with ordering of a mean houshold now must take in publike charge the power of a shire or two yea of all the Realme if the rest wold aduenture as madly as you For the case of Religion doth any man knowe that euer he pretended any religion or conscience at all till now he makes an Apish counterfayting of fayned popish deuotion And now yet by your good iudgement he that knoweth neyther religion faith nor learning must come to comptroll the iudgement lerning faith of the Quenes Maiestie her Counsell and all her Clergie What madabsurdities are you runne into to beleue so apparant
inestimable benefit a most gracious Quéene our most deare mother nurse and protectrice to draw vpon vs the yoke of a cursed and abhominable rule of most vile and cruell example odious to God and man to shake away a most peasible gouernment to pull vpon our owne heades by Gods iust plage most miserable calamitie flauerie and to be parteners of his iuste reuenge for the notorious euils of those whose yoke we should so séeke to enter And yet a change must be made by our wyse leaders greate discretions a noble change forsothe Some of you parhaps sée nothing but the outward shewe colour bicause you loke to nothing else which yet God wot is full il fauoured Your great Captains a likely matter pitying the foule dysorder of the realme of England so empouerished and decaied frō the maruelous welthy state wherin Quéen Marie lefte it so far indetted beyond the expenses of infinite treasure that King Philip brought and left in this land so subiected to strangers that had so small lykelyhode to haue oughte to doe here in Quéene Maries raigne so troubled with forrein warres and inuasions as we haue ben in the. xj yeares more of the Quéenes noble gouernment so defrauded of due excution of iustice that no subiect can haue his right by lawe wher in déed none wanteth his right but they and you that yet wante your due execution but may haue it time ynough and that most lamentable is those good deuout men as your holy Earle of Westmerlande and other in whome no kinde of lewdnesse lacked but rebellion which they haue now added to make vp their full heape of iniquitie y t they might be perfitly starke nought being gréeued forsoth to sée God yll serued in the common order of prayers preaching and administration of sacramentes and specially in this that the boke of God lieth open to the people and that god is serued after gods own teaching to remedie al those mischiefs these notably well chosen men like themselues haue called a noble Parlament Conuocation that is a route of vnlearned rude Rebelles forgetting all dutie to God Prince Countrey Neighbours and al that euer honest is and in this déep wise and godly assemblie by the inspiration of the Diuels spirit whome vnder false name of the holie Ghost they haue in abhominable sacrifice called vpon it is at length decréed enacted and proclaimed that your two Earles with the rest of their faction are the Quenes true and faithful subiectes that they haue a good meaning that nobilitie haue giuen their fayth to further it that disordered and euill disposed persons about the Quene seking their own aduancements haue ouerthrowne true religion disordred the realm and seke destruction of the nobilitie that these your good Gouernours wil with the help of God and good people redresse things amisse restore ancient customes liberties to the Church and Realme Finally they enforme of a great purpose of strangers to correcte and chasten vs to the hazard of the Realme which they wil auoyd by hazarding it themselues And after the ende they saye God saue the Quéene when in their doings and discourses before out of all course of dutie they haue plainly shewed it is not our quéene Quéene Elizabeth that they meane Blind men may iudge no colors A man in a darke place without light or he whose eies be blindefild or couered with any thing that he can not sée through or he that obstinately winketh is as vnapt to discerne colours as he that is stark blinde Wherfore if you will rightly iudge of these coloures and sée what they be in déed you must come out of that blinde corner of rebellion and errour where no truthe shyneth you muste shake of the veyle or couering of wrongfull affection and misunderstanding and you must leaue winking at your owne faultes and follies And principally you must pray to Almighty God to open your eies to giue you his grace to sée truthe and finde mercie at his handes And thus prepared I besech you descende to conferre these gaye colours in the broade light Your Earles say they are the Quéenes true subiects Suppose it for the time and for the questions sake as they would haue you but for the time and for their purposes sake to take it that they vnderstād or mean therby Quéene Elizabeth our most gracious soueraigne Ladie not any other that woulde bring vpon vs Mariana tempora the miserablest dayes that euer Rome or Englande felte Farre doth the proportion of dutie of Subiectes to the Prince exceede the dutie of Seruants to Maisters or Children to Parents yea or Wiues to their Husbands the very neerest conioyning in humaine fellowship euen so farre as a Realme excéedeth a priuate Familie But if one of your owne seruantes children or wiues should do that without your wil yea against your wil and expresse commaundement that your Captains and you haue attempted without and against the Quenes highnes plesure would you accompt them good seruaunts good children or good wiues If the seruant shall departe from his maisters seruice wythout leaue the childe from his fathers obedience the wife frō the society of her husband without hys contentement or pleasure knowen the case being supposed your owne you can not like it If they shall put on armoure and weapon and become terrible or threaten force to the Master Father Husband or the rest of the familie if the case I say were your owne you would more myslike it If they shall threaten to pull away to banish to destroy those frends or good seruantes or the rest of the children whom the maister father or husbande dearely estemeth by whose good trauayle cherishing and dutiful ministerie and attendance the maister father or husband is serued preserued mainteyneth the cōmodities of his contenāce this being your own case you would yet more disalowe it If they shall misentreate rob spoyle mayheme and murder some of the rest of those other seruauntes friendes children that the maister father or husband so dearly loueth for his benefite cōfortably vseth were it in your own case you wold now abhor it If by no warning prohibition request promise of recōciliation threatning or otherwayes they wil cesse off prosecuting their enterprise the case being your owne you would hiely stomack it If notwithstāding all these doings procedings continuings neglecting of threatnings reiecting of faire speache and promises these risers withstanders inuaders robbers murderers cōtemners without licence against the authoritie ageinst the open declaration of his own wil and meanes of pacification sought by the maister father or husbande will still saye and maintayn that they be true and faithfull seruantes humble and obedient children good and louing wiues if the cases were you owne you would not beleeue it The Quenes maiestie Quene Elizabeth is by al right the soueraigne Ladie Maistresse of vs al and of you too that must ye
deceiue you with vayne hope of desperate succors You sée you finde it not you are destitute and disappoynted of it If suche leagues had bene neuer looke that they will kéepe fayth with you that breake it with their Prince or will ioyne with you being no stronger than you be to beare them harmlesse Looke sooner that Nobilitie will the rather employe them selues for her Maiestie agaynst you to cleanse and reuenge this great infamie and dishonor with your iuste destruction But be it that they had so and were ioyned together to aduaunce this good meaning whereof God wote you are fowly begyled What is it I praye you or what grounde hath it What hath her Maiestie or her counsell offended Wherin is the Realme so daungered and oppressed that it must haue violent remedy it may abide no delay of Counselling no ordinarie meane of reformation Northumberland Westmerland Swinborn like Catiline Lentulus and Manlius must erecte a newe Triumuirate to repaire or newe melte and fashion the decayed common weale of England Forsoth disordered and ill disposed persons aboute the Quéene haue marred all Disordered sayeth my Lorde of Westmerlande Ill disposed sayth my Lorde of Northumberlande about the Quéene say goods fellows wight riders and robbers in the borders of two Realmes O vertuous men O holy théeues O well meaning traytours O likely surmise Is there any greater disorder than rebellion Is there any worse disposition than Treason Is there any greater falshode than thus to defame the Quéenes moste Noble gouernemente Are you so blynde not to sée the Quene touched though to beguyle you her name be spared Come they whome you call disordered to the Quéene vncalled Are they not of hir Maiesties Counsell by her wise and good choyse Deale they not in the causes of the realme to such end and with such meanes as her maiestie appointeth Do they any thing without her authoritie and good liking as there is good cause Make they any laws require they any Subsidies do they the greatest thinges without assent of the whole Realme your owne assent by your deputies burgeses yea your owne forsworne captains in open parliament wherunto her Maiesties assent is had or in cases out of parliament is ought put in execution without her highnesse will and pleasure Do they their things here trow you as you do your things there O impudent beastes to bears you so in hande O deceyued fooles you to beleue it But O mad doltes so rashly to hazard your possessions liues good names wiues chyldren hauiour yea soules and all vpon credit of so false reports It is her Maiestie that dothe these good thinges her selfe and honorably auoweth and inuincibly will vpholde the doing of those things which your captaynes call misdoings and will defende the persons of those good and noble counsellers that serue her in so good gouernaunce of her estate with the assistance of almighty God in her right the dutifull seruice of all hir true Nobilitie her faithfull subiectes against al Rebelles traytours and enemies what soeuer they be eyther within this Realme or without Thus knowe ye that her Maiestie taketh vpon her the iustification of her gouernement and her Counsels ministerie therein Therefore when your Earles accuse these about the Quéene they accuse the Queene her selfe It is but coloure to abuse you They would say the Queene if they thought ye would well take it And it G O D were so farre angry with vs as to giue them miraculous victorie against all likelihode yea and in mans eye against all possibilitie no dout her Maiestie shoulde féele it with the fowlest indignitie that euer was séen in earth And if it lay in them to spoile her maiesty and the realme of her good counsellers their slender curtesie to her person would sone appere Ceasse then to be so beguiled take that shadow away and take it as truthe is that your Earles proclamation in déede sayth though not in the selfe same sillables that the Quéenes Maiestie with her Nobilitie Parliament and Counsell haue done these mischieus that my lord of Westmerland and his fellowes must redresse in hast And these Nobilitie and counsellers your wise good Rulers call disordered and euill disposed persons If you know them not will you beleue that so wyse learned vertuous and noble a Quéene calleth to her counsell disordered euil disposed persons Yea more if you know them not wil you beleue that so great weaknesse and pouertie wherein her maiestie found the realme is thankes be to God repaired so great quietnes and peace procured and kept so good equal distributing of iustice mainteined such amitie with neighboures such loue credit yea awe of her highnes among forein princes and Potestates conciled and vpholden so firmely and so many yeares will you beleue so great things so well done so long continued by disordered ill disposed persons If you knowe them then néede I say no more You know your proclamation is false you knowe they be slaundered you knowe your selues be deceyued God gyue you grace to know howe to recouer youre selues agayne But on the other side when you remember that which you daily see the vanities the doltishnesse the borrowings without caring to pay the prostitute abus◠without regard of chastitie the leude vnthriftinesse without respect of well getting or wel spending the rashnesse without discretion the vngodly life without al vertu the glorious lustinesse wythout feare of God and without all foundation of honestie the adulteries fornications theftes robberies spoyles murders and other mischiefes in some of your captaynes professedly open and dayly exercised euen with the gay name of a ioly stout Gentleman lusty courage and in some of greatest rauenie yet like Rainard the Foxe cloked with some more hypocrisie these when you marke and wey truly as you sée them daily apply the wordes of disordred and ill disposed persons as you sée them deserued Let euery worke haue his true name And now sée these coloures Rebels are called true subiectes the Quenes maiestie is named with honour and touched with dishonour her doings that they may be more fréely standered are imputed to other whō they dare more boldly defame you are led against the Quene born in hand against other Nobilitie is falsly charged fowle treason is called good meaning periurie chalēgeth to be beleued common robbers and theues adulterers murderers rebels are well disposed persons the Quéenes maiesties counsell and true nobilitie are called disordered and ill disposed Alas these colors are so blacke that they wil take none other hue Marke well If you beleue these you may not saye you are deceyued otherwyse than wilfully the matter is so plaine But what haue these disordred and euill disposed counsellers about the Quéene done say you ouercome true and Catholike religion disordered the realme seke the destruction of Nobility O shameles falshods O fading false and vayne colours Come out of darknes open your eyes
vntruthes dissimulations and bypocrisies The residue of your doltish Captaynes what be they think you they be men able to beare you out against the power of a Prince al her Nobilities Cities Realme subiects frends and allies One with little wit far set an other in his olde age wery of his welth an other a runne-away with a yong wilde braine tickled to sée fashions Alas what be these to carry you through the serious and earnest dangerous enterprise that you haue in hand ▪ They are rather méeter to fraye you from it méete men surely to followe your ominous fatall or vnluckie ensignes wounde and crosses the apte and due signes of iust slaughter or infamous execution But yet perhaps some of you haue this meaning that you owe them dutie and for dutie you will not forsake any danger If this consideration haue place in any dutie it hath it chiefly in the highest dutie which you haue despised A mad excuse it is to say you entred into danger for duty when the principall dutie did bid you sitte in quiet without danger at all Euen such a fonde doing of dutie it is as if one would kill his Father to please his Maister or rather murder Father Maister and him selfe to kepe promise with a théefe What be these duties that may moue you wey them and compare them The name of Percies and Neuilles haue long bene honourable and well beloued among you some of you and your for fathers haue ben auanced by them and their ancesters some perhaps be knit in kinred some be tenantes some be seruants some be with like causes allied and bound to the meaner Captaines Greate things be these to moue loue and good neibourhed and of great importance and efficacie to draw honest true and kinde harted men to sticke by their Lords frends in all wars against the Princes enemies and in al honest quarels and perilles but small matters they be yea no causes at all to draw any man to stand with any man in rebellions and treasons Is Percie and Neuill more auncient more beloued and deare vnto you than your naturall Soueraigne Ladie the Quéene of England yea or England it selfe Doth one small tenancie moue you more than the holding of the whole realme Is not in all your homages and fealties vnto them saued your faith and allegeāce to your souerain Lady This is euen as vntoward a follie as if a mad foole in a tempest would trauayle to drowne the whole ship to saue one of the mariners cabbens This is not rightly considered of you The common weale is the ship we sayle in no one cā be safe if the whole do perish To god then to the realme to the croun to the law and gouernment your leaders and you we all do owe our selues and all that we haue in highest degrée of dutie Al other inferior duties are but meanes that these may be the better performed When now your Captains haue forsaken faith dutie to God naturall loue and dutie to the realme allegeance and dutie to the Croune obedience and duetie to lawe and gouernement it is no following of dutie to followe them against these duties no thoughe they were your fathers And that they haue done so you may not beléeue their pretenses you must beléeue the booke of GOD which you haue troden vnder foote ye must beleue the lawes of the Realme which you haue contemptuously broken you must beleeue the Quéenes Maiestie her selfe speaking in her Proclamations and by the mouthes of her officers whose gracious voice you haue rebelliously contemned Now as I haue compared your smal duties pretended with your great duties forsaken compare again your most due duties with your vndue doings You haue without warrant fro the Q. Maiestie or any by her authorized assembled yourselues in forcible maner adhered to those whom her maiestie hath declared traitors rebels you haue leuied war within y e realm against the realm within the Quenes dominions against the Quene you haue broken the common peace wherby your selues your families and possessions haue hitherto bene preserued you haue in your rebellious outrage committed many haynous and horrible factes you haue destroyed the monumentes of Gods moste holy Communion you haue torne and defaced the sacred Byble of Goddes most holy worde the very pledge of youre saluation you haue presumed to alter the forme of Christes Religion you haue in dishonoure of Christes most blissed and onely sufficient sacrifice sette vp the most abhominable and blasphemous sacrifice of wicked Masse you haue committed vnnaturall and vyle crueltie vppon Gods Ministers and dispensers of Gods mysteries and of the health of youre Soules you haue defaced Gods holy ordinance whereby all mankynde is preserued in chastitie and continued by lawefull encrease you haue robbed your neyghboures spoyled and destroyed the Quéenes true subiectes you haue wasted the prouision for your wiues and children you haue vndone your selues Trow you this be your dutie eyther as Christian men Englishmen subiectes tenauntes husbandes fathers neighbours yea or naturall men And when you haue thus done thynke you to beare it thus away A piece of the Bishoprike of Durhamme and Richmond shire conteyneth not all Englande Your courage may be good I would it were employed to better causes your power is but small You know you are but fewe weake vnarmed vnfurnished to holde out vnlawfully called vnskilfully guyded sclenderly prouided for falsely abused fondly blinded your captains not trustie to you nor bound by any authoritie so to be youre companie not holden togither by any iuste power but that they may slip away as their luste their werynesse their néede their businesse hope of pardon or better aduisement may come vppon them your succoures faile you within and without youre vittayles in a barren place not like long to endure the season harde your lodgings incommodious your housholdes in perill of famine or destruction in youre absence no stoare of armoure Weapon nor Munition youre number of Horsse though not nowe manie yet dayly like to be fewer those necessaries that you haue eyther for defence inuasion or sustenance being once spente no way to recouer more one ouerthrowe destroyeth you wholly you haue no meane to repaire yours force you are enclosed round about no refuge by Lande no escape by Sea Are not you in a gay taking And this you know to be true On the other side beholde the dreadefull maiestie of God the Lord of hostes is displeased with you ▪ the Quenes highnesse sometime your louing Soueraigne Lady now by your lewdnesse is enforced to be the heuie minister of Gods wrath against you The whole nobilitie for their dutie and the rather for reuenge of the dishonorable spots and suspitions sprinkled vpon them by your trayterous proclamations is earnestly bent to ouerthrowe you the whole number of her highnesse true subiects ready to die vpon you ▪ the number is great against you infinitely excéeding your petit