Parricides will not finde when they shall pay the score of this and their other crimes However the flattery of successe may abuse our death bed represents things in their owne shape and as they are after this the rout of Wolves enter prophanely roaring where is the Traitour where is the Robber of the Common-people He answers not troubled at what he saw or heard Yee are welcome my Sonnes I am the Archbishop whom you seek neither Traitour nor Robber Presently these Limbes of the Devill griping him with their wicked clutches teare him out of the Chappell neither reverencing the Altar nor Crucifix figured on the top of his Crosier nor the Host these are the Monkes observations for which he condemnes them in the highest impiety and makes them worse than Divells and as Religion went then well he might condemne them so They dragge him by the Armes and hood to Tower hill without the Gates there they howle hideously which was the signe of a mischiefe to follow He askes them what it is they purpose what is his offence tells them he is their Archbishop this makes him guilty all his eloquence his Wisdome are now of no use he addes the murder of their Soveraigne Pastour will be severely punished some notorious vengeance will suddenly follow it These destroyers will not trouble themselves with the idle formality of a mock-trial or Court of their own erecting an abominable Ceremony which had made their impiety more ugly they proceed down right and plainly which must be instead of all things He is commanded to lay his neck upon the block as a false traitour to the Commonalty and Realm To deale roundly his life was forfeited and any particular charge or defence would not be necessary his enemies were his Accusers and Judges his enemies who had combined and sworne to abolish his order the Church and spoile the sacred patrimony and what innocency what defence could save Without any reply farther he forgives the Heads-man and bowes his Body to the Axe After the first hit he touches the wound with his hand and speakes thus It is the Hand of the Lord The next stroke falls upon his hand ere he could remove it and cuts off the tops of his fingers after which he fell but died not till the eight blow his body lay all that day unburied and no wonder all men were throughly scared under the tyranny of these Monsters all Humanity all Piety were most unsafe The Archbishop dyed a Martyr of loyalty to his King and has his * miracles Recorded an honour often bestowed by Monkes friends of Regicide and Regicides on Traitours seldome given to honest men In his Epitaph his riming Epitaph where is showne the pittifull ignorant rudenesse of those times he goes for no lesse he speakes thus Sudburiae natus Simon jacet hic tumulatus Martyrizatus nece pro republica stratus Sudburies Simon here intombed lies Who for the Commonwealth a Martyr dies It is fit sayes Plato that he who would appeare a just man become naked that his virtue be despoiled of all ornament that he be taken for a wicked man by others wicked indeed that he be mocked and hanged The wisest of men tell us †There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousnesse and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickednesse The Seas are often calme to Pirates and the scourges of God the executioners of his fury the Gothes Hunnes and Vandalls heretofore Tartars and Turkes now how happy are their Robberies how doe all things succeed with them beyond their wishes Our Saviours Passion the great mysterie of his Incarnation lost him to the Jewes his Murtherers Whereupon Grotius notes It is often permitted by God that pious men be not onely vexed by wicked men but murdered too He gives examples in Abel Isaiah and others the MESSIAH dyed for the sins of the world Ethelbert and Saint Edmund the East-Angles Saint Oswald the Northumbrian Saint Edward the Monarch c. Saxon Kings are examples at home Thucydides in his narration of the defeat and death of Nician the Athenian in Sycily speaks thus Being the man who of all the Grecians of my time had least deserved to be brought to so great a degree of misery It is too frequent to proclaim Gods Judgments in the misfortunes of others as if we were of the Celestiall Councell had seen all the Wheels or Orbs upon which Providence turns and knew all the reasons and ends which direct and govern its motions men love by a strange abstraction to separate Facts from their Crimes where the fact is beneficiall the advantage must canonize it it must be of heavenly off-spring a way to justifie Cain Abimelech Phocas our third Richard Ravilliac every lucky parricide whatsoever Alexander Severus that most excellent Emperour assassinated by the Militia or Souldiery by an ill fate of the Common-wealth for Maximinus a Thracian or Goth Lieutenant Generall of the Army a cruell Savage tyrant by force usurped the Empire after him Replyed to one who pretended to foretell his end That it troubled him not the most renowned persons in all ages die violently This gallant Prince condemned no death but a dishonest fearfull one Heaven it selfe declared on the Archbishops side and cleared his innocency Starling of Essex who challenged to himselfe the glory of being Heads man fell and suddenly after ran through the Villages with his Sword hanging naked upon his brest and his Dagger naked behinde him came up to London confest freely the fact and lost his head there As most of those did who had laid their hands upon this Archbishop comming up severally out of their Countries to that City and constantly accusing themselves for the Parricide of their spirituall Father Nothing was now unlawfull there could be no wickednesse after this They make more examples of barbarous cruelty under the name of Justice Robert Lord Prior of St. John and Lord Treasurer of England John Leg or Laige one of the Kings serjeants at Armes a Franciscan a Physitian belonging to the Duke of Lancaster whom perhaps they hated because they had wronged his Master a Frier Carmelite the Kings Confessour were murdered there in this fury Whose heads with the Archbishops were borne before them through London streets and advanced over the Bridge This while the King was softning the Rebells of Essex at Mile-end with the Earles of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford and other Lords Thither by Proclamation he had summoned them as presuming the Essexians to be the more civilized and by much the fairer enemies as indeed they were There he promises to grant them their desires Liberty pretious Liberty is the thing they aske this is given them by the King but on condition of good behaviour They are to cease their burning and destruction of Houses to returne quietly to their homes and offend no man in their way Two of every Village were to stay as Agents behinde for the
by these Canibals The reverence due to the annointed heads of Kings began to fall away and naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded with his owne fatall pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings sword and by his over-much hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a mark of the Divinity of of their Gods that they bestowed benefits upon mortal men and took nothing from them The Clownes of the Idoll upon this rule were not very heavenly they were the meeke ones of those times the onely inheritours of right the kingdom was made a prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-kings of the Commens so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the title of the Rebellion spoke fair was shown somewhat of ambition and no little of injust private interest no little of self-seeking which the good of the people in pretence onely was to give way to and no wonder for the good of the people properly was meerely to be intended of themselves and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other men out of their possâ—ssions firing their houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods blessing any evidence of â—â— owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then the face of things estates were dangerous every Rich man was an enemy mens lives were taken away without either offence or tryall their reign was but a continuation of horrible injuries the Lawes were not onely silent but dead The Idolls fury was a Law and Faith and Loyaltie and Obedience to lawfull power were damnable Servants had the rule over Princes England was near a slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-man living in the times of King EDVVARD the third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased and out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albanes in Henry the sixth's dayes who sayes Bale in his centuries of him writes many the most choice passages of affairs and actions such as no other hath met with In the main and to the substance of things I have made no additions no alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their order No man saies Walsingham â—an recite fully the mischiefs murders sacriledge and cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the confusion of the combustions flaming in such varietie of places and in the same time Tyler Litster and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the discourse Westbrome is brought in by the halves the lesser Snakes are onely nameâ— in the Chronicle What had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but types of Tyler the Idoll â—nd acted nothing but acrording to the Original according to his great example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knowes all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Catalinâ— Thomas of Lancastor Rebels and Traitors of the former years are Canonised by the Monks generally the enemies of their Kings miracles â—ake their Tombeâ— illustrious and their Memories sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abhorred every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the world the enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pitied THE RUSTICK RAMPANT OR RURAL ANARCHY THe Reign of King Richard the second was but a throw of State for so many years a Feaver to whose distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by fits * the forraign part onely continuing faithfull in the fourth year of his reign and fifteenth of his age the dregs and off-scum of the Commons unite into bodies in severall parts of the Kingdome and form a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clownes which lead the rest and shewed the way of disobedience first Of whiâ—h may truly be said though amongst other causes we may attribute it to the indisposition and unseasonablenesse of the age that the fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence held back the hand the blow had faln the Government had broke into shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Uncle Earle of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the servants of his house in ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langly Earle of Cambridge after Duke of York with the Lords Beauchampe Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourney with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set saile for Portugall the Duke John of Lancaster another of his Uncles was in Scotland treating a peace when this commotion brake out Though no cause can be given for Seditions those who designe publick troubles can never want pretences Polidore as much out in this story as any gives this reason for this The Poll-mony sayes he imposed by Parliament a groat Sterling upon every head was intolerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custome of Engl. were intolerable not to be endured but we shall find in the tyranny breaking in not onely fifth and twentieth parts and loanes forced out of feare of plunder and death but subsidies in Troops and Regiments by fifties more than Sequestrations and Compositions not under foot low sales for what had these Rascalls to give but downright Robbery and violent usurpation of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in defence of his Priests who blew the fire and thrust the silly rout into the midst of it He takes it ill that Baal valle he calls him should be supposed by I know not what flaterers of the Nobles to have filled these sailes to have let these windes out of their Caverns In the fourth yeare of this King sayes the Monk there was a grievous Tax exacted in Parliament after cause of great trouble every Religious paid half a Mark every Secular Priest as much every Lay-man or Woman 12d This might discontent the people but who prepared the Mutineers for such dangerous impressions who fell in with them after and pushed them forward will be soon found Froissart complaines of the servitude of the villanes or Bond-men now Names worne out a miserable sort of drudges frequentlâ—â— knowne here in the Saxon times excluded from any right of propriety sold and passed away with the Mannour or Lands to which they belonged bound to til the Lords ground cut downe and carry in his Corne cleanse his Ditches cover his Halle Qâ— These Fraissart make the first stirrers
Essex and Sir John Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them The King meaning to visite Essex in his own person comes to Havering at the bouâ—e a Mannour of his own domain of the sacred Patrimony and from thence to Chelmsford where he appoints Sir Robert Tresilian chief Justice of his Bench of Pleas of the Crown to sit and inquire of the Malefactours and Troublers of the Country and to punish the offendours according to the customs of the Realm known and visible Five hundred of these wretched peasants who had no mercy for others heretofore cast themselves down before the King bare footed and with heads uncovered implore his pardon which he grants them on condition They discover the great Conspiratours the Captain Rogues The Jurors are charged by the chief Justices to carry themselves indifferently and justly in their Verdicts neither swayed by love or hatred to favour or prosecute any man Many upon the Evidence given in and the finding of the Jury were condemned to be drawn and hanged nineteen of them were trussed upon one Gallowes Heading had formerly been the execution of others in Essex Kent and London because of the numbers of the guilty which was now thought a death short of the demerits of the most foul and heynous offenders Wherefore according to the custom of the Realm It was decreed sayes the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countries by the Justices in Commission where the King was in person Here the King with the advice of his Counsell revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we have have in the late detestable troubles c. manumised all the Commons our Liege Subjects of our Shires and them c. have freed from all bondage and service c. And also have pardoned the same our Liege men and Subjects all Insurrections by Riding Going c. And also all manner of Treasons Felonies Trespasses and Extortions c. Notwithstanding for that the said Charters were without mature deliberation and unduly procured c. To the prejudice of us and our Crown of the Prelates and great men of our Realm as also to the disherison of holy English Church and to the hurt and damage of the Common wealth the said Letters we revoke make void and annull c. Yet our intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormiously their Allegeance they have forfeited c. As shall be usefull to us and our Realm The close commands to bring in to the King and his Councell all Charters of manumission and pardon to be cancelled upon their faith and allegeance and under forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witnesse our selfe at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5. year of our reign False for the 4. In the case of a Subject and no reason Kings shall be more bound every Act extorted by violence and awe upon the Agent is voyd In the time of Edward the third two Thieves which was the case here force a Traveller to swear that hee will at a day appointed bring them a thousand pound and threaten to kill him if he refuse their oath He swears and performs what he had sworn by advice of all the Justices these two were Indicted of Robbery and the Court maintaines that the party was not bound by this Oath Yet if this be denyed as unsafe Violence or Force which strikes a just fear into any man makes any Contract voyd say the Casuists Bishop Andrewes that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended resignation of King John urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such act was done was done by force and out of feare Widdrington the most loyall of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gun-powder Jesuits in defence of the right of Kings against those Jesuits who would have cut off the King the Royall Family the Bishops of the English Catholick Church the Nobility and Gentry as their Letter speaks with one blow sayes of this Resignation or Donation if we may so he call it so That it was not freely given The Jesuites challenge the perpetuall dictature or regency of the University of Pontamousson by Bull of Sixtus the fift contrary to the Statutes of the foundation by Gregory the thirteenth Were the Bull true sayes Barclaiâ— yet it ougt not to be of force because it was obtain'd presently after his Creation when things are presumed to be rather extorted than obtained Bodin denyes that a King deceived or forced can be bound by his grants The justice of Contracts is that alone which binds The distinction of Royall and Private acts is of more sound then strength and answers not the injustice of the impulsive violence which must be naturally vicious every where and corrupt and weaken the effects and cannot be good and bad by changes or as to this or that Grotius who loves this distinction in another place is positive There must be Equality in all Contracts He condemne all fear or awe upon the person purposely moved for the contracts sake and tels us out of Xenophon of those of Lacaedemon who annulled a sale of lands which the Elians had forced the owners to passe out of fear A Charter of King Henry the third imprisoned and forced is said by Aldenham to be voyd upon thâ—â— reason and I judge the justice of this revocation by the Law of England by which as our old Parliaments such force is Treason The fruits of wch were here more justly plucked up than they were planted He who gives up hiâ— money to Thieves according to his oath may lawfully take it away from them however they are bound to make restitution Nor can any prescription of time establish a right of possession in him who makes his seizure upon no other title but Plunder and Robbery The 5th of this King the Parliament declares these Grants to be forced and voyd Enough to clear the honour of King Richard as to this part At Chelmsford the King is informed of the whole History of mischiefs done at St. Albanes and resolved in person with all his Guards and Cavalry to ride thither and sentence the Malefactors with his own mouth but Sir Walter Leye of Hartfordshire fearing the much impoverishing theÌ„ Country if the King should make any long stay there with such numbers as then attended him beseeches him to make a tryal wehther things might not be composed without him and offers to reconcile the Abbot and Townsmen if the King would which was cnnsented to The King grants him a Commission and joyns with him Edward Benstude Geofrey Stukelyâ— and others of the Gently of that County The coming of these Commissioners was noysed at St. Albanes The fiâ—rcest of the Clowns knowing what they had done was condemned by the Law and not to be defended but by force which now they had not began to shake and