Son so base That to Gaunt's Issue should give Soveraign place * He that from France brought John his Prisoner home As those great Caesars did their Spoyls to Rome * Whose Name obtained by his fatal Hand Was ever fearfull to that conquer'd Land His Fame encreasing purchas'd in those Wars Can scarcely now be bounded with the Stars With him is Valour from the base World fled Or here in me is it extinguished Who for his Vertue and his Conquests sake Posterity a Demy-god shall make And judge this vile and abject Spirit of mine Could not proceed from temper so divine What Earthly Humour or what vulgar Eye Can look so low as on our Misery When Bullenbrook is mounted to our Throne And makes that his which we but call'd our own Into our Counsels he himself intrudes And who but Henry with the Multitudes His Power desgrades his dreadfull Frown disgraceth He throws them down whom our Advancement placeth As my disable and unworthy Hand Never had Power belonging to Command He treads our sacred Tables in the dust * And proves our Acts of Parliment unjust As though he hated that it should be said That such a Law by Richard once was made Whilst I deprest before his Greatness lye Under the weight of Hate and Infamy My Back a Foot-stool Bullenbrook to raise My Looseness mock'd and hatefull by his praise Out-live mine Honour bury my Estate And leave my self nought but my Peoples Hate Sweet Queen I le take all Counsel thou canst give So that thou bidst me neither hope nor live Succour that comes when Ill hath done his worst But sharpens Grief to make us more accurst Comfort is now unpleasing to mine Eare Past cure past care my Bed become my Bier Since now Misfortune humbleth us so long Till Heaven be grown unmindfull of our Wrong Yet it forbid my Wrongs should ever dye But still remembred to Posterity And let the Crown be fatal that he wears And ever wet with wofull Mothers Tears Thy Curse on Percy angry Heavens prevent Who have not one Curse left on him unspent To scourge the World now borrowing of my store As rich of Woe as I a King am poor Then cease dear Queen my Sorrows to bewaile My Wound 's too great for Pity now to heale Age stealeth on whilst thou complainest thus My Grief be mortal and infectious Yet better Fortunes thy fair Youth may try That follow thee which still from me doth fly ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History This Tongue which then denounc'd my Regal State RIchard the Second at the Resignation of the Crown to the Duke of Harford in the Tower of London delivering the same with his own hand there confessed his disability to govern vtterly denouncing all Kingly Authority And left'st great Burbon for thy love to me Before the Princess Isabel was married to the King Lewes Duke of Burbon sued to have had her in Marriage which was thought he had obtained if this Motion had not fallen out in the mean time This Duke of Burbon sued again to have received her at her coming into France after the imprisonment of King Richard but King Charles her Father then crossed him as before and gave her to Charles son to the Duke of Orleans When Harford had his Judgement of Exile When the Combate should have been at Coventry betwixt Henry Duke of Harford and Thomas Duke of Norfolk where Harford was adjudged to Banishment for ten years the Commons exceedingly lamented so greatly was be ever favoured of the People Then being forc'd t' abridge his banish'd years When the Duke came to take his leave of the King being then at Eltham the King to please the Commons rather then for any love he bare to Harford repealed four years of his Banishment But Henry boasts of our Atchievements done Henry the eldest son of John Duke of Lancaster at the first Earle of Darby then created Duke of Harford after the death of Duke John his father was Duke of Lancaster and Hartford Earl of Darby Liecester and Lincoln and after he had obtained the Crown was called by the name of Bullenbrook which is a Town in Lincolnshire as vsually all the Kings of England bare the name of the place where they were born Seven goodly Siens in their Spring did flourish Edward the third had seven sons Edward Prince of Wales after called the Black-Prince William of Hatfield the second Lionel Duke of Clarence the third John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster the fourth Edmund of Langley Duke of York the fifth Thomas of Woodstock Dukes of Glocester the sixt William of Windsor the seventh Edward the top-branch of that golden Tree As disabling Henry Bullenbrook being but Son of the fourth Brother William and Lionel being both before John of Gaunt He that from France brought John his Prisoner home Edward the Black-Prince taking John King of France Prisoner at the Battel of Poictiers brought him into England where at the Savoy he died Whose Name atchieved by his fatal hand Called the Black-Prince not so much of his Complexion as of the famous Battels he fought as is shewed before in the Gloss upon the Epistle of Edward to the Countess of Salisbury And proves our Acts of Parliament unjust In the next Parliament after Richard's Resignation of the Crown Henry caused to be annihilated all the Laws made in the Parliament called the Wicked Parliament held in the twentieth year of King Richards Reign FINIS Queen KATHERINE TO OWEN TUDOR The ARGUMENT After the Death of Henry the fifth Queen Katherine Dowager of England and France Daughter to Charles the French King holding her Estate with Henry her Son then Sixth of that name falleth in Love with Owen Tudor a Welchman a brave and gallant Gentleman of the Wardrobe to the young King her Son yet fearing if her Love should be discov'red the Nobility would cross her purposed Marriage or if her Princely promise should not assure his good success the high and great Attempt might perhaps daunt the forwardness of this modest and shamefull Youth She therefore writes to him this following Epistle JUdge not a Princes worth impeach'd hereby That Love thus triumphs over Majesty Nor think less Vertue in this Royal Hand That it intreats and wonted to command For in this sort tho' humbly now it woo The day hath been thou would'st have kneel'd unto Nor think that this submission of my State Proceeds from Frailty rather judge it Fate Alcides ne'r more fit for Wars stern Shock Then when with Women spinning at the Rock Never less Clouds did Phoebus glory dim Then in a Clowns shape when he covered him Joves great Command was never more obey'd Then when a Satyrs Antick parts he play'd He was thy King who su'd for love to me And she his Queen who sues for love to thee When Henry was my love was only his But by his death it Owen Tudors is My love to Owen him my Henry giveth My love to Henry in my Owen liveth Henry
conquer'd France Yet if my Fortunes be thus rais'd by thee This may presage a further good to me And our Saint David in the Britains Right May joyn with George the Sainted English Knight * And old Caermarden Merlin's famous Town Not scorn'd by London though of such renown Ah would to God that Hour my Hopes attend Were with my Wish brought to desired end Blame me not Madam though I thus desire Many there be that after you enquire Till now your Beauty in Nights Bosome slept What Eye durst stir where awfull Henry kept Who durst attempt to sail but near the Bay Where that all-conqu'ring great Alcides lay Your Beauty now is set a Royal Prize And Kings repair to cheapen Merchandize If you but walk to take the breathing Ayre Orithia makes me that I Boreas fear If to the Fire Jove once in Lightning came And fair Egina makes me fear the flame If in the Sun then sad Suspicion dreams Phoebus should spread Lucothoe in his Beams If in a Fountain you do cool your Blood Neptune I fear which once came in a Floud If with your Maids I dread Apollo's Rape Who cous'ned Chion in an old Wives shape If you do banquet Bacchus makes me dread Who in a Grape Erigone did feed And if my self your Chamber-door should keep Yet fear I Hermes coming in a Sleep Pardon sweet Queen if I offend in this In these Delays Love most impatient is And Youth wants pow'r his hot Spleen to suppress When Hope already banquets in Excess Though Henry's Fame in me you shall not find Yet that which better shall content your mind But onely in the Title of a King VVas his advantage in no other thing If in his love more pleasure you did take Never let Queen trust Britain for my sake Yet judge me not from Modesty exempt That I another Phaetons Charge attempt My Mind that thus your Favours dare aspire Shews that 't is touch't with a celestial fire If I 'm in fault the more is Beauties blame VVhen she her self is author of the same All Men to some one quality incline Onely to Love is naturally mine Thou art by Beauty famous as by Birth Ordain'd by Heav'n to cheer the drooping Earth Add faithfull Love unto your greater State And be alike in all things fortunate A King might promise more I not deny But yet by Heav'n he lov'd not more then I. And thus I leave till time my Faith approve I cease to write but never cease to love ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History And that the Helm the Tudors antient Crest THE Arms of Tudor was three Helmets whereof he speaketh as a thing prophetically foretold of Merlin When in thy presence I was call'd to dance Owen Tudor being a courtly and active Gentleman commanded once to dance before the Queen in a Turn not being able to recover himself fell into her Lap as she sat upon a little Stool with many of her Ladies about her And yet with them in Wales that famous be Our learned Bards c. This Berdh as they call it in the Brittish Tongue or as we more properly say Bard or Bardus be their Poets which keep the Records of Pedigrees and Descents and sung in Odes and Measures to their Harps after the old manner of the Lyrick Poets And boast my Blood from great Cadwallader Cadwallader the last King of the Britains descended of the Noble and ancient Race of the Trojans to whom an Angel appeared commanding him to goe to Rome to Pope Sergius where he ended his Life From old Caer-Septon in Mount Palador Caer-Septon now called Shaftsbury at whose Building it was said an Eagle prophesied or rather one named Aquila of the fame of that Place and of the recovery of the Isle by the Britains bringing back with them the Bones of Cadwallader from Rome And from Encons Line the South-Wales King From Theodor c. This Encon was slain by the Rebels of Gwentland he was a notable and worthy Gentleman who in his life did many noble Acts and was Father to Theodor or Tudor Maur of whom descended the Princes of South-Wales From her great Grandam fair Gwenellian Gwenellian the daughter of Rees ap Grisseth ap Theodor Prince of South-Wales married Ednivet Vaughan Ancestor to Owen Tudor By true descent from Leolin the Great This is the Lowhelin called Leolinus Magnus Prince of North-Wales Nor that word Croggen Nick-name of disgrace In the Voyage that Henry the Second made against the Welshmen as his Souldiers passed Offas Ditch at Croggen Castle they were overthrown by the Welshmen which word Croggen hath since been used to the Welshmen's Disgrace which was at first begun with their Honour And kept our Native Language now thus long The Welshmen be those ancient Britains which when the Picts Danes and Saxons invaded here were first driven into those parts where they have kept their Language ever since the first without commixtion with any other And old Caer-Marden Merlins famous Town Caer-Marden or Merlin's Town so called of Merlin's being found there This was Ambrose Merlins whose Prophesies we have There was another of that Name called Merlin Sylvestris born in Scotland sirnamed Calidonius of the Forrest Calidon where he prophesied FINIS ELINOR COBHAM TO Duke HVMPHREY The ARGUMENT Elinor Daughter to the Lord Cobham of Sterborough and Wife to Humphrey Plantaginet Duke of Gloucester the Son of Henry the fourth King of England sirnamed Bullingbrook This noble Duke for his great wisdom and justice called the good was by King Henry the fifth Brother to the Duke at his Death appointed Protector of the Land during the nonage of Henry the sixth this Elinor Dutchess of Gloucester a Proud and Ambitious Woman knowing that if young Henry died without issue the Duke her Husband was the nearest of the blood Conspired with one Bullingbrook a Great Magitian Hun a Priest and Jourdan Witch of Eye by sorcery to make away the King and by conjuration to know who should succeed Of this being justly convicted she was adjudged to do pennance three several times openly in London and then to perpetual banishment to the Isle of Man from whence she writes this Epistle MEthinks not knowing who these Lines should send Thou straight turn'st over to the latter end Where thou my Name no sooner hast espy'd But in disdain my Letter casts aside Why if thou wilt I will my self deny Nay I 'll affirm and swear I am not I Or if in that thy shame thou do'st perceive For thy dear sake loe I my Name will leave And yet methinks amaz'd thou shouldst not stand Nor seem so much appalled at my Hand For my Misfortunes have inur'd thine Eye Long before this to Sights of Misery No no read on 't is I the very same All thou canst read is but to read my shame Be not dismay'd nor let my Name affright The worst it can is but t' offend thy sight It cannot wound nor doe thee deadly harm It is no dreadfull Spell
sev'ral Nation And nothing more than England hold in scorn So live as Strangers whereas they were born But thy return in this I do not read Thou art a perfect Gentleman indeed O God forbid that Howards Noble line From ancient Vertue should so far decline The Muses train whereof your self are chief Only to me participate their Grief To sooth their humors I do lend them ears He gives a Poet that his Verses hears Till thy return by hope they only live Yet had they all they all away would give The World and they so ill according be That Wealth and Poets never can agree Few live in Court that of their good have care The Muses friends are every-where so rare Some praise thy Worth that it did never know Only because the better sort do so Whose judgment never further doth extend Than it doth please the greatest to commend So great an ill upon desert doth chance When it doth pass by beastly ignorance Why art thou slack whilst no man puts his hand stand * To raise the mount where Surrey's Towers must Or Who the groundsil of that work doth lay Whilst like a Wand'rer thou abroad do'st stray Clip'd in the Arms of some lascivious Dame When thou shouldst rear an Ilion to thy Name When shall the Muses by fair Norwich dwell To be the City of the learned Well Or Phoebus Altars there with Incense heap'd As once in Cyrrha or in Thebe kept Or when shall that fair hoof-plow'd Spring distill From great Mount-Surrey out of Leonards Hill Till thou return the Court I will exchange For some poor Cottage or some Country Grange Where to our Distaves as we sit and Spin My Maid and I will tell what things have bin Our Lutes unstrung shall hang upon the Wall Our Lessons serve to wrap our Towe withal And pass the Night whiles Winter tales we tell Of many things that long ago befell Or tune such homely Carrols as were sung In Courtly Sport when we our selves were young In prety Riddles to bewray our Loves In questions purpose or in drawing Gloves The Noblest Spirits to Vertue most inclin'd These here in Court thy greatest want do find Others there be on which we feed our Eye * Like Arras-work or such like Image'ry Many of us desire Queen Kath'rines state But very few her Vertues imitate Then as Vlysses Wife write I to thee Make no reply but come thy self to me ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Then Windsors or Fitz-Geralds Families THe cost of many Kings which from time to time have adorned the Castle at Windsor with their Princely Magnificence hath made it more Noble than that it need to be spoken of now as though obscure and I hold it more meet to refer you to your vulgar Monuments for the Founders and Finishers thereof than to meddle with matter nothing to the purpose As for the Family of the Fitz-Geralds of whence this excellent Lady was lineally descended the original was English though the Branches did spread themselves into distant Places and Names nothing consonant as in former times it was usual to denominate themselves of their Manours or Forenames as may partly appear in that which ensueth the light whereof proceeded from my learned and very worthy Friend Master Francis Thin Walter of Windsor the Son of Oterus had to Issue William of whom Henry now Lord Windsor is descended and Robert of Windsor of whom Robert the now Earl of Essex and Gerald of Windsor his third Son who married the Daughter of Rees the great Prince of Wales of whom came Nesta Paramour to Henry the First Which Gerald had Issue Maurice Fitz-Gerald Ancestor to Thomas Fitz-Maurice Justice of Ireland buryed at Trayly leaving Issue John his Eldest Son first Earl of Kildare Ancestor to Geraldine and Maurice his second Son first Earl of Desmond To raise the Mount where Surrey's Tow'rs must stand Alluding to the sumptuous House which was afterward builded by him upon Leonard's Hill right against Norwich which in the Rebellion of Norfolk under Ket in King Edward the Sixth's time was much defaced by that impure Rabble Betwixt the Hill and the City as Alexander Nevil describes it the River of Yarmouth râ—…s having West and South thereof a Wood and a little Village called Thorp and on the North the pastures of Mousholl which contain about six miles in length and breadth So that besides the stately greatness of Mount Surrey which was the Houses name the Prospect and Sight thereof was passing pleasant and commodious and no where else did that increasing evil of the Norfolk Fury enkennel it self then but there as it were for a manifest token of their intent to debase all high things and to profane all holy Like Arras-work or rather Imagery Such was he whom Juvenal taxeth in this manner Truncoque similimus Herme Nullo quippe alio vincis discrimine quam quod Illi marmorcum caput est tua vivit Imago Seeming to be born for nothing else but Apparel and the outward appearance intituled Complement with whom the ridiculous Fable of the Ape in Aesop sorteth fitly who coming into a Carver's House and viewing many Marble Works took up the Head of a Man very cunningly wrought who greatly in praising did seem to pity it that having so comely an outside it had nothing within like empty Figures walk and talk in every place at whom the Noble Geraldine modestly glanceth FINIS The Lady Jane Gray TO THE Lord GILFORD DVDLEY The ARGUMENT After the death of that vertuous Prince King Edward the Sixth the Son of that famous King Henry the Eighth Jane the Daughter of Henry Gray Duke of Suffolk by the consent of John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was proclaimed Queen of England being married to Gilford Dudley the fourth Son of the aforesaid Duke of Northumberland which Match was concluded by their ambitious Father who went about by this means to bring the Crown unto their Children and to dispossess the Princess Mary eldest Daughter of King Henry the Eighth Heir to King Edward her Brother Queen Mary rising in Arms to claim her rightful Crown taketh the said Jane Gray and the Lord Gilford her Husband being lodged in the Tower for their more safety which place being lastly their Pallace by this means becomes their Prison where being severed in sundry prisons they write these Epistles one to another MIne own dear Lord since thou art lock'd from me In this disguise my love must steal to thee Since to renue all Loves all kindness past This refuge scarcely left yet this the last My Keeper coming I of thee enquire Who with thy greeting answers my desire Which my tongue willing to return again Grief stops my words and I but strive in vain Where-with amaz'd away in hast he goes When through my Lips my Heart thrusts forth my Woes But then the doors that make a doleful sound Drive back my words that in the noise are drown'd Which somewhat hush'd the Eccho doth record And
England's Heir I think thou wilt confess Wert thou a Prince I hope I am no less But that thy Birth doth make thy Stock divine Else durst I boast my Bloud as good as thine Disdain me not nor take my Love in scorn Whose Brow a Crown hereafter may adorn But what I am I call mine own no more Take what thou wilt and what thou wilt restore Only I crave whate'er I did intend In faithfull Love all happily may end Farewell sweet Lady so well may'st thou fare To equal Joy with measure of my Care Thy Vertues more then mortal Tongue can tell A thousand-thousand times Farewell Farewell ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Receive these Papers from thy wofull Lord. BAndello by whom this History was made famous being an Italian as it is the Peoples custome in that Clime rather to fail sometimes in the truth of Circumstance then to forgoe the grace of their Conceit in like manner as the Grecians of whom the Satyrist Et quicquid Graecia mendax Audet in Historia Thinking it to be a greater Triall that a Countess should be sued unto by a King then by the son of a King and consequently that the honour of her Chastitie should be the more hath caused it to be generally taken so but as by Polydore Fabian and Froisard appears the contrary is true Yet may Bandello be very well excused as being a stranger whose errors in the truth of our History are not so materiall that they should need an Invective lest his Wit should be defrauded of any part of his due which were not less were every part a Fiction However lest a common error should prevail against a truth these Epistles are conceived in those Persons who were indeed the Actors To wit Edward sirnamed the Black Prince not so much of his Complextion as of the dismall Battels which he fought in France in like Sense as we may say A black Day for some Tragicall event though the Sun shine never so bright therein And Alice the Countess of Salisbury who as it is certain was beloved of Prince Edward so it is certain that many Points now currant in the received Story can never hold together with likelyhood of such inforcement had it not been shaded under the Title of a King And when thou let'st down that transparent Lid. Not that the Lid is transparent for no part of the Skin is transparent but for that the Gem which that Closure is said to contain is transparent for otherwise how could the Mind understand by the Eye Should not the Images slide thorow the same and replenish the Stage of the Fancy But this belongs to Opticks The Latines call the Eye-lid Cilium I will not say of Celando as the Eye-brow Supercilium and the Hair on the Eye-lids Palpebra perhaps quòd Palpitet all which have their distinct and necessary vses ALICE Countess of SALISBVRY TO THE BLACK PRINCE AS One that fain would grant yet fain deny 'Twixt Hope and Fear I doubtfully reply A Womans Weakness lest I should discover Answering a Prince and writing to a Lover And some say Love with Reason doth dispence And our plain words wrests to another sense Think you not then poor Women had not need Be well advis'd to write what Men should read When being silent but to move away Doth often bring us into obloquy Whilst in our Hearts our secret Thoughts abide Th' invenom'd Tongue of Slander yet is ty'd But if once spoke deliver'd up to Fame In her Report that often is to blame About to write but newly entring in Methinks I end e'er I can well begin When I would end then something makes me stay For then methinks I should have more to say And some one thing remaineth in my Breast For want of Words that cannot be exprest What I would say as said to thee I feign Then in thy Person I reply again And in thy Cause urge all that may effect Then what again mine Honour must respect O Lord what sundry Passions doe I try To set that right which is so much awry Being a Prince I blame you not to prove The greater reason to obtain your Love That Greatness which doth challenge no denyal The only Test that doth allow my Tryal Edward so great the greater were his fall And my Offence in this were capitall To Men is granted priviledge to tempt But in that Charter Women be exempt Men win us not except we give consent Against our selves unless that we be bent Who doth impute it as a Fault to you You prove not false except we be untrue It is your vertue being Men to try And it is ours by Vertue to deny Your Faults it self serves for the Faults excuse And makes it ours though yours be the abuse Beauty a Beggar fie it is too bad When in it self sufficiency is had Not made a Lure t' intice the wand'ring Eye But an Attire t' adorn our Modesty If Modesty and Women once do sever We may bid farewell to our Fame for ever Let John and Henry Edward's instance be Matilda and fair Rosamond for me Alike both woo'd alike su'd to be won Th' one by the Father th' other by the Son Henry obtaining did our Weakness wound And lays the fault on wanton Rosamond Matilda chast in life and death all one By her denial lays the fault on John By these we prove Men accessary still But Women only Principals of Ill. What Praise is ours but what our Vertues get If they be lent so much we be in debt Whilst our own Honours we our selves defend All force too weak whatever Men pretend If all the World else should subborn our fame 'T is we our selves that overthrow the same And howsoe'r although by force you win Yet on our Weakness still returns the sin A vertuous Prince who doth not Edward call And shall I then be guilty of your Fall Now God forbid yet rather let me dye Then such a Sin upon my Soul should lye Where is great Edward Whither is he led At whose victorious Name whole Armies fled Is that brave Spirit that conquer'd so in France Thus overcome and vanquish'd with a Glance Is that great Heart that did aspire so high So soon trans-pierced with a Womans Eye He that a King at Poictiers Battel took Himself led Captive with a wanton Look * Twice as a Bride to Church I have been led Twice have two Lords enjoy'd my Bridal Bed How can that Beauty yet be undestroy'd That years have wasted and two Men enjoy'd Or should be thought fit for a Princes store Of which two Subjects were possest before Let Spain let France or Scotland so prefer Their Infant Queens for Englands Dowager That Bloud should be much more then half divine That should be equal ev'ry way with thine Yet Princely Edward though I thus reprove you As mine own life so dearly do I love you My noble Husband who so loved you That gentle Lord that reverend Mountague Ne'r Mothers
Nobility should bear it If Counsel aid that France will tell I know Whose Towns lye wast before the English Foe When thrice we gave the conquer'd French the foil * At Agincourt at Cravant and Vernoyle If Faith avail these Arms did Henry hold To claym his Crown yet scarcely nine months old If Countries care have leave to speak for me Gray hairs in youth my witness then may be If peoples tongues give splendor to my Fame They add a Title to Duke Humphry's Name If Toyle at home French Treason English Hate Shall tell my skill in mannaging the State If forreign Travel my success may try * Then Flanders Almain Boheme Burgundie That Robe of Rome proud Beauford now doth wear In every place such sway should never bear * The Crosier staff in his imperious Hand To be the Scepter that controules the Land That home to England Dispensations draws Which are of power to abrogate our Laws And for those Sums the wealthy Church should pay Upon the needy Comm'nalty to lay His ghostly Counsels only do advise * The means how Langley's Progeny may rise Pathing young Henry's unadvised ways A Duke of York from Cambridge house to raise Which after may our Title undermine Grafted since Edward in Gaunts famous Line Us of Succession falsely to deprive Which they from Clarence fainedly derive Knowing the will old Cambridge ever bore To catch the Wreath that famous Henry wore With Gray and Scroop when first he layd the Plot From us and ours the Garland to have got As from the March-born Mortimer to reign Whose Title Glendour stoutly did maintain When the proud Percies haughty March and he Had shar'd the Land by equal parts in three * His Priesthood now stern Mowbray will restore To stir the fire that kindled was before Against the Yorkists that shall their Claim advance To steel the point of Norfolk's sturdy Lance. Upon the Breast of Harford's issue bent In just revenge of ancient Banishment He doth advise to let our Pris'ner go And doth inlarge the faithless Scotish Foe * Giving our Heirs in Marriage that their Dow'rs May bring invasion upon us and ours Ambitious Suffolk so the Helm doth guide With Beauford's damned Policies suppl'd He and the Queen in Counsel still confer How to raise him who hath advanced her But my dear Heart how vainely do I dream And fly from thee whose Sorrows are my Theam My love to thee and England thus divided Which hath the most how hard to be decided Or thou or that to censure I am loath So near are you so dear unto me both 'Twixt that and thee for equal love I find England ingrateful and my El'nor kind But though my Country justly I reprove Yet I for that neglected have my love Nevertheless thy Humphry's to the now As when fresh Beauty triumph'd on thy Brow As when thy Graces I admired most Or of thy Favours might the frankly'st boast Those Beauties were so infinite before That in abundance I was only poor Of which though Time hath taken some again I ask no more but what doth yet remain Be patient gentle Heart in thy distress Thou art a Princess not a whit the less Whilst in these Breasts we bear about this Life I am thy Husband and thou art my Wife Cast not thine eye on such as mounted be But look on those cast down as low as we For some of them which proudly pearch so hie Ere long shall come as low as thou or I. They weep for joy and let us laugh in Woe We shall exchange when Heav'n will have it so We mourn and they in after-time may mourn Woe past may once laugh present Woe to scorn And worse then hath been we can never tast Worse cannot come then is already past In all extream's the only depth of ill Is that which comforts the afflicted still Ah would to God thou couldst thy Griefs deny And on my back let all the Burthen lye Or if thou canst resign make them mine own Both in one Carriage to be undergone Till we again our former hopes recover And prosp'rous Times blow these Misfortunes over For in the thought of those fore-passed years Some new resemblance of old Joy appears Mutual our Care so mutual be our Love That our Affliction never can remove So rest in peace where peace hath hope to live Wishing thee more then I my self can give ANNOTATIONS of the Chronicle History At Agincourt at Cravant and Vernoyle THe three famous Battels fought by the Englishmen in France Agincourt by Henry the fifth against the whole Power of France Cravant fought by Montacute Earl of Salisbury and the Duke of Burgoyne against the Dolphin of France and William Stuart Constable of Scotland Vernoyle fought by John Duke of Bedford against the Duke of Alanson and with him most of the Nobility of France Duke Humphry an especial Counsellor in all these Expeditions Then Flanders Almaine Boheme Burgundy Here remembring the ancient Amity which in his Embassies he had concluded betwixt the King of England and Sigismund Emperor of Almain drawing the Duke of Burgoyne into the same League giving himself as an Hostage for the Duke at Saint Omers while the Duke came to Calice to confirm the League With his many other Imployments to forreign Kingdomes That Crosier staff in his imperious hand Henry Beauford Cardinal of Winchester that proud and haughty Prelate received the Cardinals Hat at Calice by the Popes Legate which dignity Henry the fifth his Nephew forbad him to take upon him knowing his haughty and malicious spirit unfit for that Robe and Calling The means how Langley's Progeny may rise As willing to shew the House of Cambridge to be descended of Edmund Langley Earl of York a younger Brother to John of Gaunt his Grandfather as much as in him lay to smother the Title that the Yorkists made to the Crown from Lionel of Clarence Gaunts elder Brother by the Daughter of Mortimer His Priesthood now stern Mowbray doth restore Noting the ancient Grudge between the House of Lancaster and Norfolk ever since Moubray Duke of Norfolk was banished for the Accusation of Henry Duke of Harford after that King of England Father to Duke Humphry Which Accusation he came as a Combatant to have made good in the Lists at Coventry Giving our Heirs in Marriage that their Dow'rs James Stuart King of Scots having been long Prisoner in England was released and took to Wife the Daughter of John Duke of Somerset Sister to John Duke of Somerset Neice to the Cardinal and the Duke of Excester and Cousin-German removed to the King This King broke the Oath he had taken and became afterward a great Enemy to England FINIS WILLIAM DE-LA-POOLE Duke of SUFFOLK TO Queen MARGARET The ARGUMENT William De-La-Pool first Marquess and after created Duke of Suffolk being sent into France by King Henry the Sixth concluded a Marriage between the King his Master and Margaret Daughter to Rayner Duke of Anjou who only had the
of famous Willoughby Here Montacute rang'd his unconquer'd Band Here march'd we out and here we made a stand What should we sit to mourn and grieve all day For that which Time doth easily take away What Fortune hurts let Suff'rance only heal No wisdom with Extremities to deal To know our selves to come of humane Birth These sad Afflictions cross us here on Earth A punishment from the eternal Law To make us still of Heav'n to stand in awe In vain we prize that at so dear a rate Whose long'st assurance bear 's a Minutes date Why should we idly talk of our Intent When Heav'ns Decree no Counsel can prevent When our fore-sight not possibly can shun That which the Fates determine shall be don Henry hath Power and may my life depose Mine Honour 's mine that none hath power to lose Then be as chearful beautious Royal Queen As in the Court of France we oft have been * As when arriv'd in Porcesters fair Road Where for our coming Henry made aboad When in mine Arms I brought thee safe to Land And gave my Love to Henry's Royal Hand The happy Hours we passed with the King At fair Southampton long in Banqueting With such content as lodg'd in Henries Breast When he to London brought thee from the West Through golden Cheap when he in Pomp did ride To Westminster to entertain his Bride ANNOTATIONS on the Chronicle History Our Faulkons kind cannot the Cage endure HE alludes in these Verses to the Faulcon which was the ancient Device of the Pools comparing the greatness and haughtiness of his spirit to the nature of this Bird. This was the mean proud Warwick did invent To my disgrace c. The Commons at this Parliament through Warwicks means accused Suffolk of Treason and urged the Accusation so vehemently that the King was forced to exile him for five years That only I by yielding up of Main Should be the loss of fertile Aquitain The Duke of Suffolk being sent into France to conclude a Peace chose Duke Rayners Daughter the Lady Margaret whom he espoused for Henry the sixth delivering for her to her Father the Countries of Anjou and Main and the City of Mauns Whereupon the Earl of Arminack whose Daughter was before promised to the King seeing himself to be deluded caused all the Englishmen to be expulsed Aquitain Gascoyne and Guyne With the base vulgar sort to win him fame To be the Heir of good Duke Humphry's name This Richard that was called the great Earl of Warwick when Duke Humphry was dead grew into exceeding great favour with the Commons With Salisbury his vile ambitious Sire In York's stern Breast kindling long hidden fire By Clarence Title working to supplant The Eagle-Airy of great John of Gaunt Richard Plantaginet Duke of York in the time of Henry the Sixth claymed the Crown being assisted by this Richard Nevil Earl of Salisbury and Father to the great Earl of Warwick who favoured exceedingly the House of York in open Parliament as Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the Third making his Title by Ann his Mother Wife to Richard Earl of Cambridge Son to Edmund of Langley Duke of York Which Ann was Daughter to Roger Mortimer Earl of March which Roger was Son and Heir to Edmund Mortimer that married the Lady Philip Daughter and Heir to Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of King Edward to whom the Crown after King Richard the Seconds Death lineally descended he dying without Issue and not to the Heir of the Duke of Lancaster that was younger Brother to the Duke of Clarence Hall cap. 1. Tit. Yor. Lanc. Urg'd by these envious Lords to spend their breath Calling revenge on the Protectors death Humphry Duke of Glouster and Lord Protector in the five and twentieth year of Henry the Sixth by means of the Queen and the Duke of Suffolk was arrested by the Lord Beaumont at the Parliament holden at Bury and the same Night after murthered in his Bed If they would know who rob'd him c To this Verse To know how Humphry dy'd and who shall reign In these Verses he jests at the Protectors Wife who being accused and convicted of Treason because with John Hun a Priest Roger Bullenbrook a Necromancer and Margery Jordan called the Witch of Eye she had consulted by Sorcery to kill the King was adjudged to perpetual Imprisonment in the Isle of Man and to do Penance openly in three publick places in London For twenty years and have I serv'd in France In the sixth year of Henry the Sixth the Duke of Bedford being deceased then Lieutenant General and Regent of France this Duke of Suffolk was promoted to that Dignity having the Lord Talbot Lord Scales and the Lord Mountacute to assist him Against great Charles and Bastard Orleance This was Charles the Seventh who after the death of Henry the Fifth obtained the Crown of France and recovered again much of that his Father had lost Bastard Orleance was Son to the Duke of Orleance begotten of the Lord Cawnies Wife preferred highly to many notable Offices because be being a most valiant Captain was a continual Enemy to the Englishmen dayly infesting them with divers Incursions And have I seen Vernoyla's batful Fields Vernoyle is that noted place in France where the great Battle was fought in the beginning of Henry the Sixth his Reign where most of the French Chivalrie were overcome by the Duke of Bedford And from Aumerle withdrew my Warlike Powers Aumerle is that strong defenced Town in France which the Duke of Suffolk got after four and twenty great Assaults given unto it And came my self in person first to Tours Th'Embassadours for Truce to entertain From Belgia Denmark Hungary and Spain Tours is a City in France built by Brutus as he came into Brittain where in the one and twentieth year of the Reign of Henry the Sixth was appointed a great Diet to be kept whither came Embassadors of the Empire Spain Hungary and Denmark to intreat for a perpetual Peace to be made between the two Kings of England and France By true descent to wear the Diadem Of Naples Cicil and Jerusalem Rayner Duke of Anjou Father to Queen Margaret called himself King of Naples Cicily and Jerusalem having the Title alone of the King of those Countries A fifteenth Tax in France I freely spent The Duke of Suffolk after the Marriage concluded between King Henry and Margaret Daughter to Rayner asked in open Parliament a whole Fifteenth to fetch her into England Seen thee for England but imbarqu'd at Deep Deep is a Town in France bordering upon the Sea where the Duke of Suffolk with Queen Margaret took Ship for England As when arriv'd at Porchesters fair Rhoad Porchester a Haven Town in the South-West part of England where the King tarried expecting the Queens arrival whom from thence be conveyed to Southampton Queen MARGARET TO WILLIAM DE-LA-POOLE Duke of SUFFOLK WHat news sweet Pool look'st