at London to Treat On the King's part Bishop Fox Lord Privy Seal Viscount Wells Kendal Prior of St. John's Warham Master of the Polls who began to gain much upon the King's opinion Urswick who was almost ever one and Risley On the Arch-Duke's part the Lord Bevers his Admiral the Lord Verunsel President of Flanders and others These concluded a perfect Treaty both of Amity and Intercourse between the King and the Arch-Duke containing Articles both of State Commerce and Free-Fishing This is that Treaty which the Flemings call at this day Intercursus Magnus both because it is more compleat than the precedent Treaties of the Third and Fourth years of the King and chiefly to give it a difference from the Treaty that followed in the One and twentieth year of the King which they call Intercursus Malus In this Treaty there was an express Article against the Reception of the Rebels of either Prince by other purporting that if any such Rebel should be required by the Prince whose Rebel he was of the Prince Confederate that forthwith the Prince Confederate should by Proclamation command him to avoid the Countrey Which if he did not within fifteen days the Rebel was to stand proscribed and put out of Protection But nevertheless in this Article Perkin was not named neither perhaps contained because he was no Rebel But by this means his wings were clipt off his Followers that were English And it was expresly comprised in the Treaty that it should extend to the Territories of the Duchess Dowager After the Intercourse thus restored the English Merchants came again to their Mansion at Antwerp where they were received with Procession and great Joy The Winter sollowing being the Twelfth year of his reign the King called again his Parliament Where he did much exaggerate both the Malice and the cruel Predatory War lately made by the King of Scotland That that King being in Amity with him and no ways provoked should so burn in hatred towards him as to drink of the Lees and Dregs of Perkin's Intoxication who was every where else detected and discarded And that when he perceived it was out of his reach to do the King any hurt he had turned his Arms upon unarmed and unprovided people to spoil only and depopulate contrary to the Laws both of War and Peace Concluding that he could neither with Honour nor with the safety of his People to whom he did owe Protection let pass these wrongs unrevenged The Parliament understood him well and gave him a Subsidy limited to the summ of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds besides two Fifteens For his Wars were always to him as a Mine of Treasure of a strange kind of Ore Iron at the top and Gold and Silver at the bottom At this Parliament for that there had been so much time spent in making Laws the year before and for that it was called purposely in respect of the Scottish War there were no Laws made to be remembred Only there passed a Law at the Suit of the Merchant-Adventurers of England against the Merchant-Adventurers of London for Monopolizing and exacting upon the Trade which it seemeth they did a little to save themselves after the hard time they had sustained by want of Trade But those Innovations were taken away by Parliament But it was fatal to the King to fight for his Money And though he avoided to fight with Enemies abroad yet he was still enforced to fight for it with Rebels at home For no sooner began the Subsidie to be levied in Cornwal but the people there began to grudge and murmur The Cornish being a race of men stout of stomach mighty of body and limb and that lived hardly in a barren Countrey and many of them could for a need live under ground that were Tinners they muttered extremely that it was a thing not to be suffered that for a little stir of the Scots soon blown over they should be thus grinded to Powder with Payments And said it was for them to pay that had too much and lived idly But they would eat the bread they got with the sweat of their brows and no man should take it from them And as in the Tides of People once up there want not commonly stirting Winds to make them more rough So this People did light upon two Ring-leaders or Captains of the Rout. The one was one Michael Joseph a Black-smith or Farrier of Bodmin a notable talking Fellow and no less desirous to be talked of The other was Thomas Flammocke a Lawyer who by telling his neighbours commonly upon any occasion that the Law was on their side had gotten great sway amongst them This man talked learnedly and as if he could tell how to make a Rebellion and never break the Peace He told the people that Subsidies were not to be granted nor levied in this case that is for Wars of Scotland for that the Law had provided another course by service of Escuage for those Journies much less when all was quiet and War was made but a Pretence to poll and pill the People And therefore that it was good they should not stand now like sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands Yet to do no creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the laying down of those grievous Payments and for the punishment of those that had given him that Counsel to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And said for his part he did not see how they could do the duty of true English-men and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such wicked Ones that would destroy both Him and the Countrey Their aim was at Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray who were the King 's Skreens in this Envy After that these two Flammocke and the Black-smith had by joynt and several Pratings found tokens of consent in the Multitude they offered themselves to lead them until they should hear of better men to be their Leaders which they said would be ere long Telling them further that they would be but their servants and first in every danger but doubted not but to make both the West-end and East-end of England to meet in so good a Quarrel and that all rightly understood was but for the King's service The People upon these seditious Instigations did arm most of them with Bows and Arrows and Bills and such other Weapons of rude and Countrey People and forthwith under the Command of their Leaders which in such cases is ever at pleasure marched out of Cornwal through Devonshire unto Taunton in Somersetshire without any slaughter violence or spoil of the Countrey At Taunton they killed in fury an officious and eager Commissioner for the Subsidie whom they called the Provoct of Perin Thence they marched to Wells where the Lord Audley with whom their Leaders had before some secret Intelligence a Noble-man of an ancient Family
was more to the holding of the Parliament which began but seven days after It was a Pestilent-Feaver but as it seemeth not seated in the Veins or Humors for that there followed no Carbuncle no purple or livid Spots or the like the Mass of the Body being not tainted only a malign Vapour flew to the Heart and seised the Vital Spirits which stirred Nature to strive to send it forth by an extreme Sweat And it appeared by Experience that this Disease was rather a Surprize of Nature than obstinate to Remedies if it were in time looked unto For if the Patient were kept in an equal temper both for Clothes Fire and Drink moderately warm with temperate Cordials whereby Natures work were neither irritated by Heat nor turned back by Cold he commonly Recovered But infinite Persons dyed suddenly of it before the manner of the Cure and attendance was known It was conceived not to be an Epidemick Disease but to proceed from a Malignity in the Constitution of the Air gathered by the predispositions of Seasons and the speedy Cessation declared as much On Simon and Jude's Even the King dined with Thomas Bourcchier Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and Cardinal and from Lambeth went by Land over the Bridge to the Tower where the morrow after he made Twelve Knights-Bannerets But for Creations he dispensed them with a sparing Hand For notwithstanding a Field so lately fought and a Coronation so near at hand he only created Three James Earl of Pembrook the King's Uncle was created Duke of Bedford Thomas the Lord Stanley the King's Father-in-Law Earl of Derby and Edward Courtney Earl of Devon though the King had then nevertheless a purpose in himself to make more in time of Parliament bearing a wise and decent respect to Distribute his Creations some to honour his Coronation and some his Parliament The Coronation followed two days after upon the Thirtyeth day of October in the year of our Lord 1485. At which time Innocent the Eighth was Pope of Rome Frederick the Third Emperour of Almaine and Maximilian his Son newly chosen King of the Romans Charles the Eighth King of France Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain and James the Third King of Scotland with all which Kings and States the King was at that time in good Peace and Amity At which Day also as if the Crown upon his Head had put Perils into his Thoughts he did institute sor the better Security of his Person a Band of Fifty Archers under a Captain to attend him by the name of Yeomen of his Guard and yet that it might be thought to be rather a matter of Dignity after the imitation of that he had known abroad than any matter of Diffidence appropriate to his own Case he made it to be understood for an Ordinance not Temporary but to hold in Succession for ever after The Seventh of November the King held his Parliament at Westmister which he had Summoned immediately after his coming to London His Ends in calling a Parliament and that so speedily were chiefly three First to procure the Crown to be entayled upon himself Next to have the Attaindors of all of his Party which were in no small Number reversed and all Acts of Hostility by them done in his Quarrel remitted and discharged and on the other side to attaint by Parliament the Heads and Principals of his Enemies The Third to calm and quiet the fears of the rest of that Party by a General Pardon not being ignorant in how great danger a King stands from his Subjects when most of his Subjects are conscious in themselves that they stand in his danger Unto these three special Motives of a Parliament was added that he as a prudent and moderate Prince made this Judgement That it was fit for him to hasten to let his People see that he meant to govern by Law howsoever he came in by the Sword and fit also to reclaim them to know him for their King whom they had so lately talked of as an Enemy or Banished man For that which concerned the Entayling of the Crown more than that he was true in his own Will that he would not endure any mention of the Lady Elizabeth no not in the nature of Special-Intail he carried it otherwise with great Wisdom and measure For he did not press to have the Act penned by way of Declaration or Recognition of Right as on the other side he avoided to have it by new Law or Ordinance but chose rather a kind of middle-way by way of Establishment and that under covert and indifferent words That the inheritance of the Crown should rest remain and abide in the King c. which words might equally be applied That the Crown should continue to him but whether as having former Right to it which was doubtful or having it then in Fact and Possession which no man denyed was left fair to Interpretation either way And again for the limitation of the Entail he did not press it to go further than to himself and to the Heirs of his Body not speaking of his right Heirs but leaving that to the Law to decide so as the Entail might seem rather a personal Favour to him and his Children than a total Dis-inherison to the House of York And in this form was the Law drawn and passed Which Statute he procured to be confirmed by the Pope's Bull the year following with mention nevertheless by way of Recital of his other Titles both of Descent and Conquest So as now the wreath of Three was made a wreath of Five for to the three first Titles of the two Houses or Lines and Conquest were added two more the Authorities Parliamentary and Papal The King likewise in the Reversal of the Attaindors of his Partakers and discharging them of all Offences incident to his service and succour had his Will and Acts did pass accordingly In the passage whereof exception was taken to divers Persons in the House of Commons for that they were Attainted and thereby not legal nor habilitate to serve in Parliament being disabled in the highest degree And that it should be a great incongruity to have them to make Laws who themselves were not Inlawed The truth was that divers of those which had in the time of King Richard been strongest and most declared for the King's Party were returned Knights and Burgesses for the Parliament whether by care or recommendation from the State or the voluntary inclination of the People many of which had been by Richard the Third attainted by Outlawries or otherwise The King was somewhat troubled with this For though it had a grave and specious Shew yet it reflected upon his Party But wisely not shewing himself at all moved therewith he would not understand it but as a Case of Law and wished the Judges to be advised thereupon who for that purpose were forthwith Assembled in the Exchequer-Chamber which is the Council-Chamber of the Judges and upon deliberation they gave a grave
few words That the French King and the Duke of Britain were the two persons to whom he was most obliged of all men and that he should think himself very happy if things should go so between them as he should not be able to acquit himself in gratitude towards them both and that there was no means for him as a Christian King and a common Friend to them to satisfie all Obligations both to God and man but to offer himself for a Mediator of an Accord and Peace between them by which course he doubted not but their King's Estate and Honour both would be preserved with more Safety and less Envy than by a War and that he would spare no cost or pains no if it were To go on Pilgrimage for so good an effect And concluded that in this great Affair which he took so much to heart he would express himself more fully by an Ambassage which he would speedily dispatch unto the French King for that purpose And in this sort the French Ambassadors were dismissed the King avoiding to understand any thing touching the re-annexing of Britain as the Ambassadors had avoided to mention it save that he gave a little touch of it in the word Envy And so it was that the King was neither so shallow nor so ill advertised as not to perceive the intention of the French for the investing himself of Britain But first he was utterly unwilling howsoever he gave out to enter into War with France A Fame of a War he liked well but not an Atchievement for the one he thought would make him Richer and the other Poorer and he was possessed with many secret fears touching his own People which he was therefore loth to arm and put Weapons into their hands Yet notwithstanding as a prudent and couragious Prince he was not so averse from a War but that he was resolved to choose it rather than to have Britain carried by France being so great and opulent a Dutchy and situate 〈◊〉 opportunely to annoy England either for Coast or Trade But the King's hopes were that partly by negligence commonly imputed to the French especially in the Court of a young King and partly by the native power of Britain it self which was not small but chiefly in respect of the great Party that the Duke of Orleance had in the Kingdom of France and thereby means to stir up Civil troubles to divert the French King from the Enterprize of Britain And lastly in regard of the Power of Maximilian who was Cotrival to the French King in that pursuit the Enterprize would either bow to a Peace or break in it self In all which the King measured and valued things amiss as afterwards appeared He sent therefore forth with to the French King Christopher Urswick his Chaplain a person by him much trusted and employed choosing him the rather because he was a Church-man as best sorting with an Embassy of Pacification and giving him also a Commission That if the French King consented to Treat he should thence repair to the Duke of Britain and ripen the Treaty on both parts Urswick made declaration to the French King much to the purpose of the King's answer to the French Ambassadors here instilling also tenderly some overture of receiving to grace the Duke of Orleance and some tasted of Conditions of Accord But the French King on the other side proceeded not sincerely but with a great deal of art and dissimulation in this Treaty having for his end to gain time and so put off the English Succours under hope of Peace till he had got good footing in Britain by force of Arms. Wherefore he answered the Ambassador That he would put himself into the King's hands and make him Arbiter of the Peace and willingly consent that the Ambassador should straightways pass into Britain to signifie this his 〈◊〉 and to know the Duke's mind likewise well fore-seeing that the Duke of 〈◊〉 by whom the Duke of Britain was wholly led taking himself to be upon terms irreconcilable with him would admit of no Treaty of Peace Whereby he should in one both generally abroad veil over his Ambition and win the reputation of just and moderate proceedings and should withal endear himself in the 〈◊〉 of the King of England as one that had committed all to his Will Nay and which was yet more fine make faith in him That although he went on with the War yet it should be but with his Sword in his hand to bend the stiffness of the other party to accept of Peace and so the King should take no umbrage of his arming and prosecution but the Treaty to be kept on foot to the very last instant till he were Master of the Field Which grounds being by the French King wisely laid all things fell out as he expected For when the English Ambassador came to the Court of Britain the Duke was then scarcely perfect 〈◊〉 his memory and all things were directed by the Duke of Orleance who gave audience to the Chaplain Urswick and upon his Ambassage delivered made answer in somewhat high terms That the Duke of Britain having been an Host and a kind of Parent or Foster-father to the King in his tenderness of age and weakness of fortune did look for at this time from King Henry the renowned King of England rather brave Troops for for his Succours than a vain Treaty of Peace And if the King could forget the good Offices of the Duke done unto him 〈◊〉 yet he knew well he would in his Wisdom consider of the future how much it imported his own Safety and Reputation both in Foreign parts and with his own People not to suffer Britain the old Confederates of England to be swallowed up by France and so many good Ports and strong Towns upon the Coast be in the command of so potent a Neighbour-King and so ancient an Enemy And therefore humbly desired the King to think of this business as his own and therewith brake off and denyed any further Conference for Treaty Urswick returned first to the French King and related to him what had passed Who finding things to sort to his desire took hold of them and said That the Ambassador might perceive now that which he for his part partly imagined before That considering in what hands the Duke of Britain was there would be no Peace but by a mixt Treaty of force and perswasion And therefore he would go on with the one and desired the King not to desist from the other But for his own part he did faithfully promise to be still in the King's power to rule him in the matter of Peace This was accordingly represented unto the King-by Urswick at his return and in such a fashion as if the Treaty were in no sort desperate but rather stayd for a better hour till the Hammer had wrought and beat the Party of Britain more pliant Whereupon there passed continually Pacquets and Dispatches between the two Kings
is and from whom cometh both the will and the Deed. But yet it is agreeable to the Person that he beareth though unworthy of the Thrice-Christian King and the Eldest Son of the Church Whereunto he is also invited by the Example in more ancient time of King Henry the Fourth of England the First Renowned King of the House of Lancaster Ancestor though not Progenitor to your King who had a purpose towards the end of his time as you know better to make an Expedition into the Holy Land and by the Example also present before his eyes of that Honourable and Religious War which the King of Spain now maketh and hath almost brought to perfection for the Recovery of the Realm of Granada from the Moors And although this Enterprize may seem vast and unmeasured for the King to attempt that by his own Forces wherein heretofore a Conjunction of most of the Christian Princes hath found work enough yet his Majesty wisely considereth that sometimes smaller Forces being united under one Command are more effectual in Proof though not so promising in Opinion and Fame than much greater Forces variously propounded by Associations and Leagues which commonly in a short time after their beginnings turn to Dissociations and Divisions But my Lords that which is as a Voice from Heaven that called the King to this Enterprize is a Rent at this time in the House of the Ottomans I do not say but there hath been Brother against Brother in that House before but never any that had refuge to the Arms of the Christians as now hath Gemes Brother unto Bajazeth that reigneth the far braver man of the two the other being between a Monk and a Philosopher and better read in the Alcoran and Averroes than able to weild the Scepter of so warlike an Empire This therefore is the King our Master 's memorable and heroical Resolution for an Holy War And because he carrieth in this the person of a Christian Soldier as well as of a great Temporal Monarch he beginneth with Humility and is content for this cause to beg Peace at the hands of other Christian Kings There remaineth only rather a Civil Request than any essential part of our Negotiation which the King maketh to the King your Sovereign The King as the World knoweth is Lord in chief of the Duchy of Britain The Marriage of the Heir belongeth to him as Guardian This is a private Patrimonial Right and no business of Estate yet nevertheless to run a fair course with your King whom he desires to make another Himself and to be one and the same thing with him his Request is That with the King's Favour and Consent he may dispose of her Marriage as he thinketh good and make void the intruded and pretended Marriage of Maximilian according to Justice This my Lords is all that I have to say desiring your pardon for my weakness in the delivery THus did the French Ambassadors with great shew of their King's affection and many sugred words seek to adulce all matters between the two Kings having two things for their ends The one to keep the King quiet till the Marriage of Britain was past and this was but a Summers-fruit which they thought was almost ripe and would be soon gathered The other was more lasting and that was to put him into such a temper as he might be no disturbance or impediment to the Voyage for Italy The Lords of the Council were silent and said only That they knew the Ambassadors would look for no answer till they had reported to the King and so they rose from Council The King could not well tell what to think of the Marriage of Britain He saw plainly the ambition of the French King was to impatronize himself of the Duchy but he wondred he would bring into his House a litigious Marriage especially considering who was his Successor But weighing one thing with another he gave Britain for lost but resolved to make his profit of this business of Britain as a quarrel for War and that of Naples as a Wrench and mean for Peace being well advertised how strongly the King was bent upon that Action Having therefore conferred divers times with his Council and keeping himself somewhat close he gave a direction to the Chancellor for a formal Answer to the Ambassadors and that he did in the presence of his Council And after calling the Chancellor to him apart bade him speak in such language as was fit for a Treaty that was to end in a Breach and gave him also a special Caveat that he should not use any words to discourage the Voyage of Italy Soon after the Ambassadors were sent for to the Council and the Lord Chancellor spake to them in this sort MY Lords Ambassadors I shall make answer by the King's Commandment unto the eloquent Declaration of you my Lord Prior in a brief and plain manner The King forgetteth not his former love and acquaintance with the King your Master But of this there needeth no repetition For if it be between them as it was it is well if there be any alteration it is not words that will make it up For the Business of Britain the King findeth it a little strange that the French King maketh mention of it as matter of well-deserving at his hand For that Deserving was no more but to make him his Instrument to surprize one of his best Confederates And for the Marriage the King would not meddle in it if your Master would marry by the Book and not by the Sword For that of Flanders if the Subjects of Burgundy had appealed to your King as their Chief Lord at first by way of Supplication it might have had a shew of Justice But it was a new form of Process for Subjects to imprison their Prince first and to slay his Officers and then to be Complainants The King saith That sure he is when the French King and himself sent to the Subjects of Scotland that had taken Arms against their King they both spake in another Stile and did in Princely manner signifie their detestation of Popular Attentates upon the Person or Authority of Princes But my Lords Ambassadors the King leaveth these two actions thus That on the one side he hath not received any manner of satisfaction from you concerning them and on the other that he doth not apprehend them so deeply as in respect of them to refuse to treat of Peace if other things may go hand in hand As for the War of Naples and the Design against the Turk the King hath commanded me expresly to say That he doth wish with all his heart to his good Brother the French King that his Fortunes may succeed according to his hopes and honourable intentions And whensoever he shall hear that he is prepared for Grecia as your Master is pleased now to say that he beggeth a Peace of the King so the King will then beg of him a part in that War
Henry Wyat and such other Cattiffs and Villains of Birth which by subtil Inventions and Pilling of the People have been the principal Finders Occasioners and Counsellors of the Mis-rule and Mischief now reigning in England We remembring these Premisses with the great and execrable Offences daily committed and done by Our foresaid great Enemy and his Adherents in breaking the Liberties and Franchises of Our Mother the Holy Church upon pretences of Wicked and Heathenish Policy to the high displeasure of Almighty God besides the manifold Treasons abominable Murthers Man-slaughters Robberies Extortions the daily Pilling of the People by Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences and other unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions with many other heinous Effects to the likely destruction and desolation of the whole Realm shall by God's grace and the help and assistante of the great Lords of Our Blood with the counsel of other sad Persons see that the Commodities of Our Realm be employed to the most advantage of the same the intercourse of Merchandise betwixt Realm and Realm to be ministred and handled as shall more be to the Common-weal and prosperity of Our Subjects and all such Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions as be above rehearsed to be fore-done and laid apart and never from henceforth to be called upon but in such cases as Our Noble Progenitors Kings of England have of old time been accustomed to have the ayd succour and help of their Subjects and true Liege-men And further We do out of Our Grace and Clemency hereby as well publish and promise to all our Subjects Remission and free Pardon of all By-past Offences whatsoever against Our Person or Estate in adhering to Our said Enemy by whom We know well they have been mis-led if they shall within time convenient submit themselves unto Us. And for such as shall come with the foremost to assist Our Righteous Quarrel We shall make them so far partakers of Our Princely Favour and Bounty as shall be highly for the Comfort of them and theirs both during their life and after their death As also We shall by all means which God shall put into Our hands demean Our selves to give Royal contentment to all Degrees and Estates of Our People maintaining the Liberties of Holy Church in their Entire preserving the Honours Priviledges and Prebeminences of Our Nobles from contempt or disparagement according to the dignity of their Blood We shall also unyoak Our People from all heavy Burthens and Endurances and confirm Our Cities Boroughs and Towns in their Charters and Freedoms with enlargement where it shall be deserved and in all points give Our Subjects cause to think that the blessed and debonair Government of Our Noble Father King Edward in his last times is in Us revived And for as much as the putting to death or taking alive of Our said Mortal Enemy may be a mean to stay much effusion of Blood which otherwise may ensue if by Compulsion or fair Promises he shall draw after him any number of Our Subjects to resist Us whith We desire to avoid though We be certainly informed that Our said Enemy is purposed and prepared to flie the Land having already made over great masses of the Treasure of Our Crown the better to support him in Forein Parts We do hereby declare That whosoever shall take or distress Our said Enemy though the Party be of never so mean a Condition he shall be by Us rewarded with a Thousand Pound in Money forthwith to be laid down to him and an Hundred Marks by the year of Inheritance besides that he may otherwise merit both toward God and all good People for the destruction of such a Tyrant Lastly We do all men to wit and herein We take also God to witness That whereas God hath moved the Heart of Our dearest Cousin the King of Scotland to aid Us in Person in this Our righteous Quarrel it is altogether without any Pact or Promise or so much as demand of any thing that may prejudice Our Crown or Subjects But contrariwise with promise on Our said Cousin's part that whensoever he shall find Us in sufficient strength to get the upper hand of Our Enemy which we hope will be very suddenly he will forthwith peaceably return into his own Kingdom contenting himself only with the glory of so Honourable an Enterprize and Our true and faithful Love and Amity Which We shall ever by the Grace of Almighty God so order as shall be to the great comfort of both Kingdoms BUT Perkin's Proclamation did little edifie with the people of England neither was he the better welcom for the company he came in Wherefore the King of Scotland seeing none came in to Perkin nor none stirred any where in his favour turned his Enterprize into a Rode and wasted and destroyed the Countrey of Northumberland with fire and sword But hearing that there were Forces coming against him and not willing that they should find his men heavy and laden with booty he returned into Scotland with great Spoils deferring further prosecution till another time It is said that Perkin acting the part of a Prince handsomly when he saw the Scottish fell to waste the Countrey came to the the King in a passionate manner making great lamentation and desired That that might not be the manner of making the War for that no Crown was so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruine of his Countrey Whereunto the King answered half in sport that he doubted much he was careful for that that was none of his and that he should be too good a Steward for his Enemy to save the Countrey to his use By this time being the Eleventh year of the King the Interruption of Trade between the English and the Plemmish began to pinch the Merchants of both Nations very sore Which moved them by all means they could devise to affect and dispose their Savereigns respectively to open the Intercourse again Wherein time favoured them For the Arch-Duke and his Council began to see that Perkin would prove but a Runnagate and Citizen of the World and that it was the part of Children to fall out about Babies And the King on his part after the Attempts upon Kent and Northumberland began to have the business of Perkin in less estimation so as he did not put it to accompt in any Consultation of State But that that moved him most was that being a King that loved Wealth and Treasure he could not endure to have Trade sick nor any Obstruction to continue in the Gate-vein which disperseth that blood And yet he kept State so far as first to be sought unto Wherein the Merchant-Adventurers likewise being a strong Company at that time and well under-set with rich men and good order did hold out bravely taking off the Commodities of the Kingdom though they lay dead upon their hands for want of Vent At the last Commissioners met
but unquiet and popular and aspiring to Ruine came-in to them and was by them with great gladness and cries of Joy accepted as their General they being now proud that they were led by a Noble-man The Lord Audley led them on from Wells to Salisbury and from Salisbury to Winchester Thence the foolish people who in effect led their Leaders had a mind to be led into Kent fancying that the people there would joyn with them contrary to all reason or judgment considering the Kentish-men had shewed great Loyalty and Affection to the King so lately before But the rude People had heard Flammock say that Kent was never Conquered and that they were the freest People of England And upon these vain Noises they looked for great matters at their hands in a cause which they conceited to be for the liberty of the Subject But when they were come into Kent the Countrey was so well setled both by the King 's late kind usage towards them and by the credit and power of the Earl of Kent the Lord Abergaveny and the Lord Cobham as neither Gentleman nor Yeoman came-in to their aid which did much damp and dismay many of the simpler sort Insomuch as divers of them did secretly flie from the Army and went home But the sturdier sort and those that were most engaged stood by it and rather waxed Proud than failed in Hopes and Courage For as it did somewhat appall them that the people came not in to them so it did no less encourage them that the King's Forces had not set upon them having marched from the West unto the East of England Wherefore they kept on their way and encamped upon Black-heath between Greenwich and Eltham threatning either to bid Battel to the King for now the Seas went higher than to Morton and Bray or to take London within his view imagining with themselves there to find no less Fear than Wealth But to return to the King When first he heard of this Commotion of the Cornish-men occasioned by the Subsidie he was much troubled therewith Not for it self but in regard of the Concurrence of other Dangers that did hang over him at that time For he doubted lest a War from Scotland a Rebellion from Cornwal and the Practices and Conspiracies of Perkin and his Partakers would come upon him at once Knowing well that it was a dangerous Triplicity to a Monarchy to have the Arms of a Foreiner the Discontents of Subjects and the Title of a Pretender to meet Nevertheless the Occasion took him in some part well provided For as soon as the Parliament had broken up the King had presently raised a puissant Army to war upon Scotland And King James of Scotland likewise on his part had made great preparations either for defence or for new assailing of England But as for the King's Forces they were not only in preparation but in readiness presently to set forth under the Conduct of Dawbeney the Lord Chamberlain But as soon as the King understood of the Rebellion of Cornwal he stayed those Forces retaining them for his own service and safety But therewithal he dispatched the Earl of Surrey into the North for the defence and strength of those parts in case the Scots should stir But for the course he held towards the Rebels it was utterly differing from his former custom and practice which was ever full of forwardness and celerity to make head against them or to set upon them as soon as ever they were in Action This he was wont to do But now besides that he was attempered by Years and less in love with Dangers by the continued Fruition of a Crown it was a time when the various appearance to his Thoughts of Perils of several Natures and from divers Parts did make him judge it his best and surest way to keep his Strength together in the Seat and Centre of his Kingdom According to the ancient Indian Emblem in such a swelling Season To hold the hand upon the middle of the Bladder that no side might rise Besides there was no necessity put upon him to alter this Counsel For neither did the Rebels spoil the Countrey in which case it had been dishonour to abandon his People Neither on the other side did their Forces gather or increase which might hasten him to precipitate and assail them before they grew too strong And lastly both Reason of Estate and War seemed to agree with this course For that Insurrections of base People are commonly more furious in their Beginnings And by this means also he had them the more at Vantage being tired and harrassed with a long march and more at Mercy being cut off far from their Countrey and therefore not able by any sudden flight to get to Retrait and to renew the Troubles When therefore the Rebels were encamped on Black-heath upon the Hill whence they might behold the City of London and the fair Valley about it the King knowing well that it stood him upon by how much the more he had hitherto protracted the time in not encountring them by so much the sooner to dispatch with them that it might appear to have been no Coldness in foreslowing but Wisdom in choosing his time resolved with all speed to assail them and yet with that Providence and Surety as should leave little to Venture or Fortune And having very great and puissant Forces about him the better to master all Events and Accidents he divided them into three parts The first was led by the Earl of Oxford in chief assisted by the Earls of Essex and Suffolk These Noble-men were appointed with some Cornets of Horses and Bands of Foot and good store of Artillery wheeling about to put themselves beyond the Hill where the Rebels were encamped and to beset all the skirts and descents thereof except those that lay towards London whereby to have these Wild Beasts as it were in a Toyl The second part of his Forces which were those that were to be most in Action and upon which he relyed most for the Fortune of the Day he did assign to be led by the Lord Chamberlain who was appointed to set upon the Rebels in Front from that side which is toward London The third part of his Forces being likewise great and brave Forces he retained about himself to be ready upon all Events to restore the Fight or consummate the Victory and mean while to secure the City And for that purpose he encamped in Person in St. George's Fields putting himself between the City and the Rebels But the City of London specially at the first upon the near encamping of the Rebels was in great Tumult As it useth to be with wealthy and populous Cities especially those which for greatness and fortune are Queens of their Regions who seldom see out of their Windows or from their Towers an Army of Enemies But that which troubled them most was the conceit that they dealt with a Rout of People with whom
it was a Race often dipped in their own Blood It hath remained since only transplanted into other Names as well of the Imperial-Line as of other Noble Houses But it was neither guilt of Crime nor reason of Estate that could quench the Envy that was upon the King for this Execution So that he thought good to export it out of the Land and to lay it upon his new 〈◊〉 Ferdinando King of Spain For these two Kings understanding one another at half a word so it was that there were Letters shewed out of Spain whereby in the passages concerning the Treaty of the Marriage Ferdinando had written to the King in plain terms that he saw no assurance of his Succession as long as the Earl of Warwick lived and that he was loth to send his Daughter to Troubles and Dangers But hereby as the King did in some part remove the Envy from himself so he did not observe that he did withal bring a kind of Malediction and Infausting upon the Marriage as an ill Prognostick Which in event so far proved true as both Prince Arthur enjoyed a very small time after the Marriage and the Lady Katherine her self a sad and a religious woman long after when King Henry the Eighth his resolution of a Divorce from her was first made known to her used some words That she had not offended but it was a Judgment of God for that her former Marriage was made in blood meaning that of the Earl of Warwick This Fifteenth year of the King there was a great Plague both in London and in divers parts of the Kingdom Wherefore the King after often change of Places whether to avoid the danger of the Sickness or to give occasion of an Enterview with the Arch-Duke or both sayled over with his Queen to Calice Upon his coming thither the Arch-Duke sent an honourable Ambassage unto him as well to welcom him into those parts as to let him know that if it pleased him he would come and do him reverence But it was said withal That the King might be pleased to appoint some place that were out of any Walled Town or Fortress for that he had denied the same upon like occasion to the French King And though he said he made a great difference between the two Kings yet he would be loth to give a President that might make it after to be expected at his hands by another whom he trusted less The King accepted of the Courtesie and admitted of his Excuse and appointed the place to be at St. Peter's Church without Calice But withal he did visit the Arch-Duke with Ambassadors sent from himself which were the Lord Saint-John and the Secretary unto whom the Arch-Duke did the honour as going to Mass at St. Omers to set the Lord Saint-John on his right hand and the Secretary on his left and so to ride between them to Church The day appointed for the Enterview the King went on Horse-back some distance from St. Peter's Church to receive the Arch-Duke And upon their approaching the Arch-Duke made hast to light and offered to hold the King's Stirrop at his alighting which the King would not permit but descending from Horse-back they embraced with great affection and withdrawing into the Church to a place prepared they had long Conference not only upon the Confirmation of former Treaties and the 〈◊〉 of Commerce but upon Cross Marriages to be had between the Duke of York the King 's second Son and the Arch-Duke's Daughter And again between Charles the Arch-Dukes Son and Heir and Mary the King 's second Daughter But these Blossoms of unripe Marriages were but friendly wishes and the Airs of loving Entertainment though one of them came afterwards to Conclusion in Treaty though not in Effect But during the time that the two Princes conversed and commoned together in the Suburbs of Calice the Demonstrations on both sides were passing hearty and affectionate especially on the part of the Arch-Duke Who besides that he was a Prince of an excellent good nature being conscious to himself how drily the King had been used by his Council in the matter of Perkin did strive by all means to recover it in the King's affection And having also his ears continually beaten with the Counsels of his Father and Father-in-law who in respect of their jealous hatred against the French King did always advise the Arch-Duke to anchor himself upon the Amity of King Henry of England was glad upon this occasion to put in ure and practice their precepts calling the King Patron and Father and Protector these very words the King repeats when he certified of the loving behaviour of the Arch-Duke to the City and what else he could devise to express his love and observance to the King There came also to the King the Governour of Picardy and the Bailiff of Amiens sent from Lewis the French King to do him honour and to give him knowledge of his victory and winning of the Duchy of Millan It seemeth the King was well pleased with the honours he received from those parts while he was at Calice For he did himself certifie all the News and Occurrents of them in every particular from Calice to the Mayor and Aldermen of London which no doubt made no small talk in the City For the King though he could not entertain the good will of the Citizens as Edward the Fourth did yet by affability and other Princely Graces did ever make very much of them and apply himself to them This year also dyed John Morton Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England and Cardinal He was a wise man and an eloquent but in his nature harsh and haughty much accepted by the King but envied by the Nobility and hated of the People Neither was his name left out of Perkin's Proclamation for any good will but they would not bring him in amongst the King's Casting-Counters because he had the Image and Superscription upon him of the Pope in his Honour of Cardinal He wan the King with Secrecy and Diligence but chiefly because he was his old Servant in his less Fortunes And also for that in his affections he was not without an inveterate malice against the House of York under whom he had been in trouble He was willing also to take Envy from the King more than the King was willing to put upon him For the King cared not for Subterfuges but would stand Envy and appear in any thing that was to his mind which made Envy still grow upon him more universal but less daring But in the matter of Exactions time did after shew that the Bishop in feeding the King's humour did rather temper it He had been by Richard the Third committed as in custody to the Duke of Buckingham whom he did secretly incite to revolt from King Richard But after the Duke was engaged and thought the Bishop should have been his chief Pilot in the Tempest the Bishop was gotten into the Cock-boat and fled over
the Judges and chief Lawyers of the Realm at his left hand sate the Temporal Lords and behind them the Gentlemen of the Privy Chamber Lambert being brought to the Bar Day Bishop of Chichester by the King's appointment made an Oration wherein he declared the cause of this meeting saying That Lambert having been accused of Heresie before his Ordinary had made his Appeal unto the King as if expecting from his Majesty more favour for Heresie than from the Bishop So that he now found it to be true whereof he had been oft informed That the credulous People were verily perswaded that his Majesty abhorring the Religion of his Ancestors had embraced the new Tenets lately broached in Germany True it was the tyranny of the Court of Rome had been troublesom to his Predecessors but to Him intolerable and therefore had He shaken it off That Religion might no longer patronize Idleness He had expelled Monks who were no other than Drones in the Bee-hive He had taken away the idolatrous worship of Images had permitted to his Subjects the reading and knowledge of God's Word hitherto prohibited by the Church of Rome lest their wiles and cozenages should be discovered And had made reformation in some other things peradventure of less moment which no man could deny would much redound to the good both of Church and Commonwealth But as for other things He had determined there should be no change in the Church during his Reign Which his Resolution He now intended publickly to manifest His Majesty's desire was That the Delinquent renouncing his Errours should suffer himself to be received into the bosom of the Church To which end partly and partly to shew that He thirsted not after any one's blood out of his elemency He had procured the presence of those Grave and Learned men meaning the Bishops who by Authority and force of Arguments should if it were possible bring back this strayed Sheep into the Fold of the Church But if he perversly oppugned the Truth and all perswasions notwithstanding became immoveable He would by this man's exemplary punishment make known what others should in the like Case expect and instruct the Judges and Magistrates what they ought to do therein The Bishop having ended the King demanded of Lambert What he thought of the presence of Christ's Body in the Sacrament Whose answer being little to the King 's liking reasons and arguments were produced as if a Disputation in the Schools and not a Justiciary Session had been appointed Five whole hours this Disputation lasted the King being as it were Prior Opponent Archbishop Cranmer also and nine other Bishops forcibly pressing upon poor Lambert But neither this course nor the battery of threats and terrours prevailing against his constancy the King commanded the Lord Cromwell to pass sentence of condemnation upon him by virtue whereof within a day or two after he was burned Neither this dreadful Sentence nor his torturing death did any way appale him which he so little regarded that going to his death he merrily took his Breakfast with some Gentlemen into whose company he chanced as if he had been going to some sportful Game rather than his Execution ANNO DOM. 1539. REG. 31. ON the third of March Sir Nicholas Carew Knight of the Garter and Master of the Horse was beheaded for being of Counsel with the Marquess of Exceter and the Lord Mountague And on the eight and twentieth of April a Parliament began wherein Margaret Countess of Salisbury Mother to Cardinal Pool and Daughter to George Duke of Clarence who was Brother to Edward the Fourth was attainted of high Treason and condemned without hearing and with her the Cardinal her Son Gertrude Widow to the Marquess of Exceter Sir Adrian Fortescue and Sir Thomas Dingley Dingley and Fortescue were beheaded on the tenth of July and the Countess being then aged threescore and ten years suffered two years after In the same Parliament it was Enacted That the King might erect new Episcopal Sees in opportune places of the Realm For the performance whereof and of some other things no less specious the late dissolution of those Abbeys whereon the King seised was confirmed and all Religious Houses as yet unsuppressed were granted to the King for ever Upon notice whereof many either out of guilt of conscience or desirous to purchase the King's favour surrendred their charge even before they were required And first of all the Abbot and Convent of St. Albans the first Abbot of the Realm as St. Alban was the first Martyr which Honour was conferred on this House by Pope Adrian the Fourth whose Father had long lived a Monastical life therein forsake their rich Abbey seated near the ruins of Verolamium once a great and antient City and leave it to the mercy of the Courtiers Which dereliction afforded matter of example to many other few enjoying that security of conscience that they durst lay claim to their own Only three were found whose innocence made them so regardless of threats promises or reward that they could never be induced to betray the goods of their Churches to the merciless impiety of sacrilegious Harpies Which three were John Bech Abbot of Colchester in Essex Hugh Faringdon Abbot of the Abbey of Reding built by Henry the First for the place of his Sepulture and Richard Whiting Abbot of Glastonbury one of the stateliest and antientest Monasteries of Europe being first builded by Joseph of Arimathea who buried the Body of our Saviour Christ and is himself there interred as is also beside some Saxon Kings that most renowned King Arthur whose glorious Acts had they been undertaken by a fit Historian would have ranked him among the antient Worthies without the help of a fabulous Romance Against these men therefore other courses not availing that one was taken of administring the Oath of Supremacy which they refusing are as enemies to the Estate condemned of high Treason Bech was hanged at Colchester and Faringdon with two Priests named Rug and Ognion at Reding Whiting a man very aged and by reason thereof doating scarce perceiving that he had been condemned returning from the place of Judgment which was in the Bishop's Palace at Wells distant from Glastonbury four miles with conceit that he was restored to his Abbey was suddenly rapt up to the top of the Tor a Hill that surveys the Countrey round about and without leave of bidding his Convent farewel which he earnestly begged was presently hanged the stain of ingratitude sticking fast to the authors of this speedy execution of whom the poor Abbot is reported to have better deserved With Whiting were two Monks also executed named Roger James and John Thorn their Bodies all drawn and quartered and set up in divers places of the Countrey The punishment of these few so terrified the rest that without more ado they permitted all to the King's disposal The number of those that were supprest is not easily cast But the names of
or Foot And to make good Infantry it requireth men bred not in a servile or indigent fashion but in some free and plentiful manner Therefore if a State run most to Noble-men and Gentlemen and that the Husband-men and Plough-men be but as their Work-folks and Labourers or else meer Cottagers which are but Housed-Beggars you may have a good Cavalry but never good stable Bands of Foot like to Coppice-Woods that if you leave in them Staddles too thick they will run to Bushes and Bryars and have little clean Underwood And this is to be seen in France and Italy and some other parts abroad where in effect all is Nobless or Pesantry I speak of people out of Towns and no middle people and therefore no good Forces of Foot In so much as they are enforced to employ Mercenary Bands of Switzers and the like for their Battuilions of Foot Whereby also it comes to pass that those Nations have much People and few Soldiers Whereas the King saw that contrariwise it would follow that England though much less in Territory yet should have infinitely more Soldiers of their native Forces than those other Nations have Thus did the King secretly sow Hidra's teeth whereupon according to the Poets fiction should rise up Armed men for the service of the Kingdom The King also having care to make his Realm potent as well by Sea as by Land for the better maintenance of the Navy Ordained That Wines and Woads from the parts of Gascoign and Languedock should not be brought but in English Bottoms Bowing the ancient Policy of this Estate from consideration of Plenty to consideration of Power For that almost all the ancient Statutes incite by all means Merchant-strangers to bring in all sorts of Commodities having for end cheapness and not looking to the point of State concerning the Naval-power The King also made a Statute in that Parliament Monitory and Minatory towards Justices of Peace that they should duly execute their Office inviting complaints against them first to their Fellow Justices then to the Justices of Assize then to the King or Chancellor and that a Proclamation which he had published of that Tenor should be read in open Sessions four times a year to keep them awake Meaning also to have his Laws executed and thereby to reap either Obedience or Forfeitures wherein towards his latter times he did decline too much to the left hand he did ordain remedy against the practice that was grown in use to stop and damp Informations upon Penal Laws by procuring Informations by collusion to be put in by the Confederates of the Delinquents to be faintly prosecuted and let fall at pleasure and pleading them in Bar of the Informations which were prosecuted with effect He made also Laws for the correction of the Mint and counterfeiting of Forein Coyn currant And that no payment in Gold should be made to any Merchant-stranger the better to keep Treasure within the Realm for that Gold was the metal that lay in least room He made also Statutes for the maintenance of Drapery and the keeping of Wools within the Realm and not only so but for stinting and limiting the prices of Cloth one for the finer and another for the courser sort Which I note both because it was a rare thing to set prices by Statute especially upon our Home-Commodities and because of the wise Model of the Act not prescribing Prices but stinting them not to exceed a rate that the Clothier might drape accordingly as he might afford Divers other good Statutes were made that Parliament but these were the principal And here I do desire those into whose hands this Work shall fall that they do take in good part my long insisting upon the Laws that were made in this King's Reign whereof I have these reasons Both because it was the preheminent virtue and merit of this King to whose memory I do honour and because it hath some correspondence to my Person but chiefly because in my judgement it is some defect even in the best Writers of History 〈◊〉 that they do not often enough summarily deliver and set down the most memorable Laws that passed in the times whereof they write being indeed the principal Acts of Peace For although they may be had in Original Books of Law themselves yet that informeth not the judgement of Kings and Counsellors and Persons of Estate so well as to see them described and entred in the Table and Pourtrait of the Times About the same time the King had a Loan from the City of Four thousand pounds which was double to that they lent before and was duely and orderly payd back at the day as the former likewise had been the King ever choosing rather to borrow too soon than to pay too late and so keeping up his Credit Neither had the King yet cast off his cares and hopes touching Britain but thought to master the occasion by Policy though his Arms had been unfortunate and to bereave the French King of the fruit of his Victory The summ of his design was to encourage Maximilian to go on with his suit for the Marriage of Ann the Heir of Britain and to ayd him to the consummation thereof But the affairs of Maximilian were at that time in great trouble and combustion by a Rebellion of his Subjects in Flanders especially those of Bruges and Gaunt whereof the Town of Bruges at such time as Maximilian was there in person had suddenly armed in tumult and slain some of his principal Officers and taken himself prisoner and held him in durance till they had enforced him and some of his Counsellors to take a solemn Oath to pardon all their offences and never to question and revenge the same in time to come Nevertheless Frederick the Emperor would not suffer this reproach and indignity offered to his Son to pass but made sharp Wars upon Flanders to reclaim and chastise the Rebels But the Lord Ravenstein a principal person about Maximilian and one that had taken the Oath of Abolition with his Master pretending the Religion thereof but indeed upon private ambition and as it was thought instigated and corrupted from France forsook the Emperor and Maximilian his Lord and made himself an Head of the popular Party and seized upon the Towns of Ipre and Sluce with both the Castles and forthwith sent to the Lord Cordes Governour of Picardy under the French King to desire ayd and to move him that he on the behalf of the French King would be Protector of the united Towns and by force of Arms reduce the rest The Lord Cordes was ready to embrace the occasion which was partly of his own setting and sent forthwith greater Forces than it had been possible for him to raise on the sudden if he had not looked for such a summons before in ayd of the Lord Ravenstein and the Flemmings with instructions to invest the Towns between France and Bruges The French Forces besieged a little Town
gotten up again and that the King's People were better able to bear the loss than their Master to 〈◊〉 it But in the end as persons capable of Reason on both sides they made a kind of Recess than a Breach of Treaty and concluded upon a Truce for some Months following But the King of Scotland though he would not formally retract his judgement of Perkin wherein he had engaged himself so far yet in his private opinion upon often speech with the English-men and divers other advertisements began to suspect him for a Counterfeit Wherefore in a Noble fashion he called him unto him and recounted the benefits and favours that he had done him in making him his Allie and in provoking a Mighty and Opulent King by an Offensive War in his Quarrel for the space of two years together Nay more that he had refused an Honourable Peace whereof he had a fair Offer if he would have delivered him and that to keep his promise with him he had deeply offended both his Nobles and People whom he might not hold in any long discontent And therefore required him to think of his own Fortunes and to choose out some fitter place for his Exile Telling him withal that he could not say but the English had forsaken him before the Scottish for that upon two several Tryals none had declared themselves on his side But nevertheless he would make good what he said to him at his first receiving which was That he should not repent him for putting himself into his hands For that he would not cast him off but help him with Shipping and means to transport him where he should desire Perkin not descending at all from his Stage-like Greatness answered the King in few words That he saw his time was not yet come But whatsoever his Fortunes were he should both think and speak Honour of the King Taking his leave he would not think on Flanders doubting it was but hollow ground for him since the Treaty of the Arch-Duke concluded the year before but took his Lady and such followers as would not leave him and sailed over into Ireland This Twelfth year of the King a little before this time Pope Alexander who loved best those Princes that were furthest off and with whom he had least to do taking very thankfully the King 's late entrance into League for the defence of Italy did remunerate him with an Hallowed Sword and Cap-of-Maintenance sent by his Nuncio Pope Innocent had done the like but it was not received in that Glory For the King appointed the Mayor and his Brethren to meet the Pope's Orator at London-Bridge and all the Streets between the Bridge-foot and the Palace of St. Pauls where the King then lay were garnished with the Citizens standing in their Liveries And the morrow after being All-hallows day the King attended with many of his Prelates Nobles and principal Courtiers went in Procession to St. Pauls and the Cap and Sword were born before him And after the Procession the King himself remaining seated in the Choir the Lord Archbishop upon the greece of the Choir made a long Oration setting forth the greatness and Eminency of that Honour which the Pope in these Ornaments and Ensigns of Benediction had done the King and how rarely and upon what high deserts they used to be bestowed And then recited the Kings principal Acts and Merits which had made him appear worthy in the eyes of his Holiness of this great Honour All this while the Rebellion of Cornwal whereof we have spoken seemed to have no relation to Perkin save that perhaps Perkin's Proclamation had stricken upon the right Vein in promising to lay down Exactions and Payments and so had made them now and then have a kind thought on Perkin But now these Bubbles by much stirring began to meet as they use to do upon the top of Water The King's lenity by that time the Cornish Rebels who were taken and pardoned and as it was said many of them sold by them that had taken them for twelve pence and two shillings a piece were come down into their Countrey had rather imboldened them than reclaimed them Insomuch as they stuck not to say to their Neighbours and Countrey-men that The King did well to pardon them for that he knew he shouldl eave few Subjects in England if he hanged all that were of their mind And began whetting and inciting one another to renew the Commotion Some of the subtilest of them hearing of Perkin's being in Ireland found means to send to him to let him know that if he would come over to them they would serve him When Perkin heard this News he began to take heart again and advised upon it with his Council which were principally three Herne a Mercer that had fled for Debt Skelton a Taylor and Astley a Scrivener for Secretary Frion was gone These told him that he was mightily overseen both when he went into Kent and when he went into Scotland The one being a place so near London and under the King's Nose and the other a Nation so distasted with the People of England that if they had loved him never so well yet they could never have taken his part in that Company But if he had been so happy as to have been in Cornwal at the first when the People began to take Arms there he had been crowned at Westminster before this time For these Kings as he had now experience would sell poor Princes for shooes But he must rely wholly upon People and therefore advised him to sail over with all possible speed into Cornwal Which accordingly he did having in his Company four small Barques with some six score or seven score fighting men He arrived in September at Whitsand-Bay and forthwith came to Bodmin the Black-smith's Town Where there assembled unto him to the number of three thousand men of the rude People There he set forth a new Proclamation stroaking the People with fair Promises and humouring them with Invectives against the King and his Government And as it fareth with Smoak that never loseth it self till it be at the highest he did now before his end raise his Stile intituling himself no more Richard Duke of York but Richard the Fourth King of England His Council advised him by all means to make himself Master of some good walled Town as well to make his Men find the sweetness of rich Spoils and to allure to him all loose and lost People by like hopes of Booty as to be a sure Retrait to his Forces in case they should have any ill Day or unlucky Chance in the Field Wherefore they took heart to them and went on and besieged the City of Exceter the principal Town for Strength and Wealth in those Parts When they were come before Exceter they forbare to use any Force at the first but made continual Shouts and Out-cries to terrifie the Inhabitants They did likewise in divers places call and talk to them
from under the Walls to joyn with them and be of their Party telling them that the King would make them another London if they would be the first Town that should acknowledge him But they had not the wit to send to them in any orderly fashion Agents or chosen Men to tempt them and to treat with them The Citizens on their part shewed themselves stout and loyal Subjects Neither was there so much as any Tumult or Division amongst them but all prepared themselves for a valiant Defence and making good the Town For well they saw that the Rebels were of no such Number or Power that they needed to fear them as yet and well they hoped that before their Numbers increased the King's Succours would come-in And howsoever they thought it the extremest of Evils to put themselves at the mercy of those hungry and disorderly People Wherefore setting all things in good order within the Town they nevertheless let down with Cords from several parts of the Walls privily several Messengers that if one came to mischance another might pass-on which should advertise the King of the State of the Town and implore his ayd Perkin also doubted that Succours would come ere long and therefore resolved to use his utmost Force to assault the Town And for that purpose having mounted Scaling-Ladders in divers places upon the Walls made at the same instant an Attempt to force one of the Gates But having no Artillery nor Engins and finding that he could do no good by ramming with Logs of Timber nor by the use of Iron Bars and Iron Crows and such other means at hand he had no way left him but to set one of the Gates on fire which he did But the Citizens well perceiving the Danger before the Gate could be fully consumed blocked up the Gate and some space about it on the inside with Fagots and other Fuel which they likewise set on fire and so repulsed fire with fire And in the mean time raised up Rampiers of earth and cast up deep Trenches to serve instead of Wall and Gate And for the Escalada's they had so bad success as the Rebels were driven from the Walls with the loss of two hundred men The King when he heard of Perkin's Siege of Exceter made sport with it and said to them that were about him that The King of Rake-hells was landed in the West and that he hoped now to have the honour to see him which he could never yet do And it appeared plainly to those that were about the King that he was indeed much joyed with the News of Perkin's being on English ground where he could have no retreat by Land thinking now that he should be cured of those privy Stitches which he had long had about his Heart and had sometimes broken his Sleeps in the midst of all his felicity And to set all mens hearts on fire he did by all possible means let it appear that those who should now do him service to make an end of these troubles should be no less accepted of him than he that came upon the Eleventh Hour and had the whole Wages of the Day Therefore now like the end of a Play a great number came upon the Stage at once He sent the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Brook and Sir Rice ap Thomas with expedite Forces to speed to Exceter to the Rescue of the Town and to spread the Fame of his own following in Person with a Royal Army The Earl of Devonshire and his Son with the Caroes and the Fulfords and other principal Persons of Devonshire uncalled from the Court but hearing that the King's heart was so much bent upon this Service made haste with Troops that they had raised to be the first that should succour the City of Exceter and prevent the King's Succours The Duke of Buckingham likewise with many brave Gentlemen put themselves in Arms not staying either the King 's or the Lord Chamberlain's coming on but making a Body of Forces of themselves the more to indear their merit signifying to the King their readiness and desiring to know his pleasure So that according to the Proverb In the coming down every Saint did help Perkin hearing this Thunder of Arms and Preparations against him from so many Parts raised his Siege and marched to Taunton beginning already to squint one eye upon the Crown and another upon the Sanctuary Though the Cornish-men were become like Metal often fired and quenched churlish and that would sooner break than bow swearing and vowing not to leave him till the uttermost drop of their blood were spilt He was at his rising from Exceter between six and seven thousand strong many having come unto him after he was set before Exceter upon fame of so great an Enterprize and to partake of the Spoil though upon the raising of his Siege some did slip away When he was come near Taunton he dissembled all fear and seemed all the day to use diligence in preparing all things ready to fight But about midnight he fled with threescore Horse to Bewley in the New-Forest where he and divers of his Company registred themselves Sanctuary-men leaving his Cornish-men to the Four Winds But yet thereby easing them of their Vow and using his wonted Compassion Not to be by when his Subjects blood should be spilt The King as soon as he heard of Perkin's Flight sent presently five hundred Horse to pursue and apprehend him before he should get either to the Sea or to that same little Island called a Sanctuary But they came too late for the latter of these Therefore all they could do was to beset the Sanctuary and to maintain a strong Watch about it till the King's pleasure were further known As for the rest of the Rebels they being destituted of their head without stroke stricken submitted themselves unto the King's Mercy And the King who commonly drew Blood as Physicians do rather to save life than to spill it and was never Cruel when he was Secure now he saw the danger was past pardoned them all in the end except some few desperate persons which he reserved to be Executed the better to set off his Mercy towards the rest There were also sent with all speed some Horse to St. Michael's-Mount in Cornwal where the Lady Catherine Gordon was left by her Husband whom in all fortunes she entirely loved adding the virtues of a Wife to the virtues of her Sex The King sent in the greater diligence not knowing whether she might be with Child whereby the business would not have ended in Perkin's person When she was brought to the King it was commonly said that the King received her not only with Compassion but with Affection Pity giving more Impression to her excellent Beauty Wherefore comforting her to serve as well his Eye as his Fame he sent her to his Queen to remain with her giving her very honourable Allowance for the suport of her Estate which she enjoyed both
beyond Seas But whatsoever else was in the Man he deserveth a most happy Memory in that he was the principal Mean of joyning the two Roses He dyed of great years but of strong health and Powers The next year which was the Sixteenth year of the King and the year of our Lord One thousand five hundred was the year of Jubile at Rome But Pope Alexander to save the Hazard and Charges of mens Journeys to Rome thought good to make over those Graces by exchange to such as would pay a convenient Rate seeing they could not come to fetch them For which purpose was sent into England Jasper Pons a Spaniard the Pope's Commissioner better chosen than were the Commissioners of Pope Leo afterwards employed for Germany for he carried the Business with great wisdom and semblance of Holiness In so much as he levied great summs of Money within this Land to the Pope's use with little or no Scandal It was thought the King shared in the Money But it appeareth by a Letter which Cardinal Adrian the King's Pensioner wrote to the King from Rome some few years after that this was not so For this Cardinal being to perswade Pope Julius on the King's behalf to expedite the Bull of Dispensation for the Marriage between Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine finding the Pope difficil in granting thereof doth use it as a principal Argument concerning the King's merit toward that See that he had touched none of those Deniers which had been levied by Pons in England But that it might the better appear for the satisfaction of the Common people that this was Consecrate Money the same Nuncio brought unto the King a Brief from the Pope wherein the King was exhorted and summoned to come in Person against the Turk For that the Pope out of the care of an Universal Father seeing almost under his eyes the Successes and Progresses of that great Enemy of the Faith had had in the Conclave and with the Assistance of the Ambassadors of forein Princes divers Consultations about an Holy War and a General Expedition of Christian Princes against the Turk Wherein it was agreed and thought fit that the Hungarians Polonians and Bobemians should make a War upon Thracia the French and Spaniards upon Gracia and that the Pope willing to sacrifice himself in so good a Cause in Person and in Company of the King of England the Venetians and such other States as were great in maritim Power would sail with a puissant Navy through the Mediterrane unto Constantinople And that to this end his Holiness had sent Nuncio's to all Christian Princes As well for a Cessation of all Quarrels and Differences amongst themselves as for speedy Preparations and Contributions of Forces and Treasure for this Sacred Enterprize To this the King who understood well the Court of Rome made an Answer rather Solemn than Serious Signifying THat no Prince on Earth should be more forward and obedient both by his Person and by all his possible Forces and Fortunes to enter into this Sacred War than himself But that the distance of Place was such as no Forces that he should raise for the Seas could be levied or prepared but with double the charge and double the time at the least that they might be from the other Princes that had their Territories nearer adjoyning Besides that neither the manner of his Ships having no Galleys nor the Experience of his Pilots and Mariners could be so apt for those Seas as theirs And therefore that his Holiness might do well to move one of those other Kings who lay fitter for the purpose to accompany him by Sea Whereby both all things would be sooner put in readiness and with less Charge and the Emulation and Division of Command which might grow between those Kings of France and Spain if they should both joyn in the War by Land upon Grecia might be wisely avoided And that for his part he would not be wanting in Ayds and Contribution Yet notwithstanding if both these Kings should refuse rather than his Holiness should go alone he would wait upon him as soon as he could be ready Always provided that he might first see all Differences of the Christian Princes amongst themselves fully laid down and appeased as for his own part he was in none And that he might have some good Towns upon the Coast in Italy put into his hands for the Retrait and safeguard of his Men. With this Answer Jasper Pons returned nothing at all discontented And yet this Declaration of the King as superficial as it was gave him that Reputation abroad as he was not long after elected by the Knights of the Rhodes Protector of their Order All things multiplying to Honour in a Prince that had gotten such high Estimation for his Wisdom and Sufficiency There were these two last years some proceedings against Hereticks which was rare in this King's Reign and rather by Penances than by Fire The King had though he were no good School-man the Honour to convert one of them by Dispute at Canterbury This year also though the King were no more haunted with Sprites for that by the sprinkling partly of Blood and partly of Water he had chased them away yet nevertheless he had certain Apparitions that troubled him still shewing themselves from one Region which was the House of York It came so to pass that the Earl of Suffolk Son to Elizabeth eldest Sister to King Edward the Fourth by John Duke of Suffolk her second Husband and Brother to John Earl of Lincoln that was slain at Stockfield being of an hasty and Cholerick disposition had killed a man in his fury whereupon the King gave him his Pardon But either willing to leave a Cloud upon him or the better to make him feel his Grace produced him openly to plead his Pardon This wrought in the Earl as in a haughty stomack it useth to do for the Ignominy printed deeper than the Grace Wherefore he being discontent fled secretly into Flanders unto his Aunt the Duchess of Burgundy The King startled at it But being taught by Troubles to use fair and timely Remedies wrought so with him by Messages the Lady Margaret also growing by often failing in her Alchymy weary of her Experiments and partly being a little sweetned for that the King had not touched her name in the Confession of Perkin that he came over again upon good terms and was reconciled to the King In the beginning of the next year being the Seventeenth of the King the Lady Katherine fourth Daughter of Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain arrived in England at Plimouth the second of October and was married to Prince Arthur in Pauls the fourteenth of November following The Prince being then about fifteen years of age and the Lady about eighteen The manner of her Receiving the manner of her Entry into London and the Celebrity of the Marriage were performed with great and true Magnificence in regard of Cost
that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand Marks And to shew further the Kings extreme Diligence I do remember to have seen long since a Book of Accompt of Empson's that had the King's hand almost to every Leaf by way of Signing and was in some places Postilled in the Margin with the King's hand likewise where was this Remembrance Item Received of such a one five Marks for the Pardon to be procured and if the Pardon do not pass the Money to be re-paid except the party be some other-ways satisfied And over against this Memorandum of the King 's own hand Otherwise satisfied Which I do the rather mention because it shews in the King a Nearness but yet with a kind of Justness So these little Sands and Grains of Gold and Silver as it seemeth helped not a little to make up the great Heap and Bank But mean while to keep the King awake the Earl of Suffolk having been too gay at Prince Arthur's Marriage and sunk himself deep in Debt had yet once more a mind to be a Knight-Errant and to seek Adventures in Forein parts And taking his Brother with him fled again into Flanders That no doubt which gave him Confidence was the great Murmur of the People against the King's Government And being a Man of a light and rash Spirit he thought every Vapour would be a Tempest Neither wanted he some Party within the Kingdom For the Murmur of People awakes the Discontents of Nobles and again that calleth up commonly some Head of Sedition The King resorting to his wonted and tryed Arts caused Sir Robert Curson Captain of the Castle at Hammes being at that time beyond Sea and therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King to flie from his Charge and to feign himself a servant of the Earl's This Knight having insinuated himself into the Secrets of the Earl and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had either Hope or Hold advertised the King thereof in great secrecy But nevertheless maintained his own Credit and inward trust with the Earl Upon whose Advertisements the King attached William Courtney Earl of Devonshire his Brother-in-Law married to the Lady Katherine Daughter to King Edward the Fourth William de la Pole Brother to the Earl of Suffolk Sir James Tirrel and Sir John Windham and some other meaner Persons and committed them to Custody George Lord Abergaveny and Sir Thomas Green were at the same time apprehended but as upon less Suspition so in a freer Restraint and were soon after delivered The Earl of Devonshire being interessed in the blood of York that was rather Feared than Nocent yet as One that might be the Object of others Plots and Designs remained Prisoner in the Tower during the King's life William de la Pole was also long restrained though not so straitly But for Sir James Tirrel against whom the Blood of the Innocent Princes Edward the Fifth and his Brother did still cry from under the Altar and Sir John Windham and the other meaner ones they were attainted and executed the two Knights beheaded Nevertheless to confirm the Credit of Curson who belike had not yet done all his Feats of Activity there was published at Paul's Cross about the time of the said Executions the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Curse against the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson and some others by name and likewise in general against all the Abettors of the said Earl Wherein it must be confessed that Heaven was made too much to bow to Earth and Religion to Policy But soon after Curson when he saw time returned into England and withal into wonted Favour with the King but worse Fame with the People Upon whose return the Earl was much dismayed and seeing himself destitute of hopes the Lady Margaret also by tract of Time and bad Success being now becom cool in those attempts after some wandering in France and Germany and certain little Projects no better than Squibs of an Exiled man being tired out retired again into the Protection of the Arch-Duke Philip in Flanders who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile in the right of Joan his Wife This year being the Nineteenth of his Reign the King called his Parliament Wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the King took himself to be with his Parliament when Dudley that was so hateful was made Speaker of the House of Commons In this Parliament there were not made any Statutes memorable touching publick Government But those that were had still the Stamp of the King's Wisdom and Policy There was a Statute made for the disannulling of all Patents of Lease or Grant to such as came not upon lawful Summons to serve the King in his Wars against the Enemies or Rebels or that should depart without the King's licence With an exception of certain Persons of the Long-robe Providing nevertheless That they should have the King's Wages from their House till their return home again There had been the like made before for Offices and by this Statute it was extended to Lands But a man may easily see by many Statutes made in this King's time that the King thought it safest to assist Martial Law by Law of Parliament Another Statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of Manufactures of Silk wrought by it self or mixt with any other Thred But it was not of Stuffs of whole piece for that the Realm had of them no Manufacture in use at that time but of Knit-Silk or Texture of Silk as Ribands Laces Cawls Points and Girdles c. which the people of England could then well skill to make This Law pointed at a true Principle That where forein materials are but Superfluities forein Manufactures should be prohibited For that will either banish the Superfluity or gain the Manufacture There was a Law also of Resumption of Patents of Gaols and the Reannexing of them to the Sherifwicks Priviledged Officers being no less an Interruption of Justice than Priviledged Places There was likewise a Law to restrain the By-laws or Ordinances of Corporations which many times were against the Prerogative of the King the Common-law of the Realm and the Liberty of the Subject being Fraternities in Evil. It was therefore Provided that they should not be put in Execution without the Allowance of the Chancellor Treasurer and the two Chief-Justices or three of them or of the two Justices of Circuit where the Corporation was Another Law was in effect to bring in the Silver of the Realm to the Mint in making all clipped minished or impaired Coins of Silver not to be currant in payments without giving any Remedy of weight but with an exception only of a reasonable wearing which was as nothing in respect of the incertainty and so upon the matter to set the Mint on work and give way to New Coins of Silver which should be then minted There likewise was a long Statute against Vagabonds wherein two things
Exactions having lived Two and Fifty Years and thereof Reigned Three and Twenty Years and Eight Months being in perfect Memory and in a most Blessed Mind in a great Calm of a Consuming Sickness passed to a better World the Two and Twentieth of April 1508. at his Palace of Richmond which himself had Built THis King to speak of him in Terms equal to his Deserving was one of the best sort of Wonders a Wonder for Wise-men He had parts both in his Virtues and his Fortune not so 〈◊〉 for a Common-place as for Observation Certainly he was Religious both in his Affection and Observance But as he could see clear for those times through Superstition so he would be blinded now and than by Humane Policy He advanced Church-men he was tender in the Priviledge of Sanctuaries though they wrought him much Mischief He built and endowed many Religious Foundations besides his Memorable Hospital of the Savoy And yet was he a great Alms-giver in secret which shewed that his Works in publick were dedicated rather to God's glory than his own He professed always to love and seek Peace and it was his usual Preface in his Treaties That when Christ came into the World Peace was sung and when He went out of the World Peace was bequeathed And this Virtue could not proceed out of Fear or Softness for he was Valiant and Active and therefore no doubt it was truly Christian and Moral Yet he knew the way to Peace was not to seem to be desirous to avoid Wars Therefore would be make Offers and Fames of Wars till he had mended the Conditions of Peace It was also much that one that was so great a Lover of Peace should be so happy in War For his Arms either in Forein or Civil Wars were never Infortunate neither did he know what a Disaster meant The War of his Coming in and the Rebellions of the Earl of Lincoln and the Lord Awdley were ended by Victory The Wars of France and Scotland by Peaces sought at his hands That of Britain by accident of the Duke's death The Insurrection of the Lord Lovel and that of Perkin at Exceter and in Kent by flight of the Rebels before they came to Blows So that his Fortune of Arms was still Inviolate The rather sure for that in the quenching of the Commotions of his Subjects he ever went in Person Sometimes reserving himself to back and second his Lieutenants but ever in Action and yet that was not meerly Forwardness but partly Distrust of others He did much maintain and countenance his Laws which nevertheless was no Impediment to him to work his Will For it was so handled that neither Prerogative nor Profit went to Diminution And yet as he would sometimes strain up his Laws to his Prerogative so would he also let down his Prerogative to his Parliament For Mint and Wars and Martial Discipline things of absolute Power he would nevertheless bring to Parliament Justice was well administred in his time save where the King was Party Save also that the Council-Table intermedled too much with Meum and Tuum For it was a very Court of Justice during his time especially in the Beginning But in that part both of Justice and Policy which is the Durable Part and cut as it were in Brass or Marble which is The making of good Laws he did excell And with his Justice he was also a Merciful Prince as in whose time there were but three of the Nobility that suffered the Earl of Warwick the Lord Chamberlain and the Lord Awdley Though the first two were instead of Numbers in the Dislike and Obloquie of the People But there were never so great Rebellions expiated with so little Blood drawn by the hand of Justice as the two Rebellions of Black-heath and Exceter As for the Severity used upon those which were taken in Kent it was but upon a Scum of People His Pardons went ever both before and after his Sword But then he had withal a strange kind of Interchanging of large and inexpected Pardons with severe Executions Which his Wisdom considered could not be imputed to any Inconstancy or Inequality but either to some Reason which we do not now know or to a Principle he had set unto himself That he would vary and try both ways in turn But the less Blood he drew the more he took of Treasure And as some construed it he was the more sparing in the One that he might be the more pressing in the Other for both would have been intolerable Of Nature assuredly he coveted to accumulate Treasure and was a little Poor in admiring Riches The People into whom there is infused for the preservation of Monarchies a natural Desire to discharge their Princes though it be with the 〈◊〉 charge of their Counsellors and Ministers did impute this unto Cardinal Morton and Sir Reginold Bray who as it after appeared as Counsellors of ancient Authority with him did so second his Humours as nevertheless they did temper them Whereas Empson and Dudley that followed being Persons that had no Reputation with him otherwise than by the servile following of his Bent did not give way only as the first did but shape him way to those Extremities for which himself was touched with remorse at his Death and which his Successor renounced and sought to purge This Excess of his had at that time many Glosses and Interpretations Some thought the continual Rebellions wherewith he had been vexed had made him grow to hate his People Some thought it was done to pull down their Stomachs and to keep them low Some for that he would leave his Son a Golden-fleece Some suspected he had some high Design upon Forein parts But those perhaps shall come nearest the truth that fetch not their reasons so far off but rather impute it to Nature Age Peace and a Mind fixed upon no other Ambition or Pursuit Whereunto I should add that having every day Occasion to take notice of the Necessities and Shifts for Money of other great Princes abroad it did the better by Comparison set off to him the Felicity of full Coffers As to his expending of Treasure he never spared Charge which his Affairs required and in his Buildings was Magnificent but his Rewards were very limited So that his Liberality was rather upon his own State and Memory than upon the Deserts of others He was of an High Mind and loved his own Will and his own Way as One that revered himself and would Reign indeed Had he been a Private-man he would have been termed Proud But in a wise Prince it was but keeping of Distance which indeed he did towards all not admitting any near or full Approach neither to his Power or to his Secrets For he was governed by none His Queen notwithstanding she had presented him with divers Children and with a Crown also though he would not acknowledge it could do nothing with him His Mother he reverenced much heard little For any Person
agreeable to him for Society such as was Hastings to King Edward the Fourth or Charles Brandon after to King Henry the Eighth he had none Except we should account for such Persons Fox and Bray and Empson because they were so much with him But it was but as the Instrument is much with the Work-man He had nothing in him of Vain-glory but yet kept State and Majesty to the height Being sensible That Majesty maketh the People bow but Vain-glory boweth to them To his Confederates abroad he was Constant and Just but not Open. But rather such was his Inquiry and such his Closeness as they stood in the Light towards him and he stood in the Dark to them Yet without Strangeness but with a semblance of mutual Communication of Affairs As for little Envies or Emulations upon Forein Princes which are frequent with many Kings he had never any but went substantially to his own Business Certain it is that though his Reputation was great at home yet it was greater abroad For Foreiners that could not see the Passages of Affairs but made their Judgments upon the Issues of them noted that he was ever in Strife and ever A-loft It grew also from the Airs which the Princes and States abroad received from their Ambassadors and Agents here which were attending the Court in great number Whom he did not only content with Courtesie Reward and Privateness but upon such Conferences as passed with them put them in Admiration to find his Universal Insight into the Affairs of the World Which though he did suck chiefly from themselves yet that which he had gathered from them all seemed Admirable to every one So that they did write ever to their Superiours in high terms concerning his Wisdom and Art of Rule Nay when they were returned they did commonly maintain Intelligence with him Such a Dexterity he had to impropriate to himself all Forein Instruments He was careful and liberal to obtain good Intelligence from all parts abroad Wherein he did not only use his Interest in the Liegers here and his Pensioners which he had both in the Court of Rome and other the Courts of Christendom but the Industry and Vigilancy of his own Ambassadors in Forein parts For which purpose his Instructions were ever Extreme Curious and Articulate and in them more Articles touching Inquisition than touching Negotiation Requiring likewise from his Ambassadors an Answer in particular distinct Articles respectively to his Questions As for his secret Spials which he did employ both at home and abroad by them to discover what Practices and Conspiracies were against him surely his Case required it He had such Moles perpetually working and casting to undermine him Neither can it be reprehended For if Spials be lawful against lawful Enemies much more against Conspirators and Traytors But indeed to give them Credence by Oaths or Curses that cannot be well maintained for those are too holy Vestments for a Disguise Yet surely there was this further Good in his employing of these Flies and Familiars That as the use of them was cause that many Conspiracies were revealed so the Fame and Suspition of them kept no doubt many Conspiracies from being attempted Towards his Queen he was nothing Uxorious nor scarce Indulgent but Companiable and Respective and without Jealousie Towards his Children he was full of Paternal Affection Careful of their Education aspiring to their High Advancement regular to see that they should not want of any due Honour and Respect but not greatly willing to cast any Popular Lustre upon them To his Council he did refer much and sate oft in Person knowing it to be the Way to assist his Power and inform his Judgment In which respect also he was fairly patient of Liberty both of Advice and of Vote till himself were declared He kept a strait hand on his Nobility and chose rather to advance Clergy-men and Lawyers which were more Obsequious to him but had less Interest in the People which made for his Absoluteness but not for his Safety In so much as I am perswaded it was one of the Causes of his Troublesom Reign for that his Nobles though they were Loyal and Obedient yet did not Co-operate with him but let every man go his own Way He was not afraid of an Able Man as Lewis the Eleventh was But contrariwise he was served by the Ablest Men that were to be found without which his Affairs could not have prospered as they did For War Bedford Oxford Surrey Dawbeney Brook Poynings For other Affairs Morton Fox Bray the Prior of Lanthony Warham Urswick Hussey Frowick and others Neither did he care how Cunning they were that he did employ For he thought himself to have the Master-Reach And as he chose well so he held them up well For it is a strange thing that though he were a Dark Prince and infinitely Suspitious and his Times full of Secret Conspiracies and Troubles yet in Twenty-four Years Reign he never put down or discomposed Counsellor or near Servant save only Stanley the Lord Chamberlain As for the Disposition of his Subjects in General towards him it stood thus with him That of the Three Affections which naturally tye the Hearts of the Subjects to their Sovereigns Love Fear and Reverence he had the last in height the second in good measure and so little of the first as he was beholding to the other Two He was a Prince Sad Serious and full of Thoughts and secret Observations and full of Notes and Memorials of his own hand especially touching Persons As whom to Employ whom to Reward whom to Enquire of whom to Beware of what were the Dependencies what were the Factions and the like keeping as it were a Journal of his Thoughts There is to this day a merry Tale That his Monkey set on as it was thought by one of his Chamber tore his Principal Note-Book all to pieces when by chance it lay forth Whereat the Court which liked not those Pensive Accompts was almost tickled with sport He was indeed full of Apprehensions and Suspitions But as he did easily take them so he did easily check them and master them whereby they were not dangerous but troubled himself more than others It is true his Thoughts were so many as they could not well always stand together but that which did good one way did hurt another Neither did he at some times weigh them aright in their proportions Certainly that Rumour which did him so much mischief That the Duke of York should be saved and alive was at the first of his own nourishing because he would have more Reason not to reign in the Right of his Wife He was Affable and both Well and Fair-spoken and would use strange Sweetness and Blandishments of Words where he desired to effect or perswade any thing that he took to heart He was rather Studious than Learned reading most Books that were of any worth in the French Tongue Yet he understood the Latin as
Earl of Angus and Lady Margaret the King's Sister on the first day of November to the unspeakable good of this Island deceased in the Tower For this Margaret being after married to Matthew Earl of Lenox had by him Henry the Father of King James of sacred memory the most happy Unitor of divided Britain ANNO DOM. 1538. REG. 30. IT is at length after many Ages resolved That through the superstitious abuse of Images God was robbed of his due honour The King much prone to Reformation especially if any thing might be gotten by it thought it fit to remove this stumbling-block and the rather for that he conceived his Treasury would be thereby supplied There were some Images of more especial fame and Shrines of reputed Saints whereunto Pilgrimages were made from the farthest parts of the Kingdom nay even from forein Countries also the Oblations whereto were so many and so rich that they not only sufficed for the maintenance of Priests and Monks but also to the heaping up of incredible wealth The Shrine of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury was covered with plates of Gold and laden with Gifts of inestimable value The blind zeal of those and former times had decked it with Gems Chains of Gold of great weight and Pearls of that large size which in our Language find no proper term This Tomb was razed and his Bones found entire instead of whose Head the Monks usually obtruded the Scull of some other peradventure better deserving than did their supposed Martyr The spoil of this Monument wherein nothing was meaner than Gold filled two Chests so full that each of them required eight strong men for the portage Among the rest was a Stone of especial lustre called the Royal of France offered by Lewis the Seventh King of France in the year 1179 together with a great massy Cup of Gold at what time he also bestowed an annuity on the Monks of that Church of an hundred Tons of Wine This Stone was afterward highly prized by the King who did continually wear it on his thumb Erasmus speaks much of the magnificence of this Monument as also of the Image of our Lady of Walsingham both which he had seen and admired This Image was also stripped of whatsoever worthy thing it had the like being also done in other the like places and the Statues and Bones of the dead digged up and burned that they might be no further cause of Superstition Among the rest of these condemned Images there was a Crucifix in South-Wales called of the Inhabitants Darvel Gatheren concerning which there was a kind of Prophecy That it should one day fire a whole Forest. It chanced that at this time one Doctor Forest a Frier Observant who had formerly taken the Oath of Supremacy was upon his relapse apprehended and condemned of Treason and Heresie For this Frier a new Gallows was erected whereon he was hanged by the arm-pits and underneath him a fire made of this Image wherewith he was burned and so by his death made good the Prophecy Great was the Treasure which the King raised of the spoils of Churches and Religious Houses But whether the guilt of Sacriledge adhering like a consuming Canker made this ill gotten Treasure unprofitable or that he found he had need of greater supplies to withstand the dangers that threatned him from abroad not content with what he had already corraded he casts his eyes on the Wealth of the Abbeys that had escaped the violence of the former Tempest and not expecting as he deemed it a needless Act of Parliament seiseth on the rest of the Abbeys and Religious Houses of the Realm At first he begins with that at Canterbury dedicated to Augustine the English Apostle who was there interred This being the first-fruits of Christianity among this Nation I mean the Saxons for the Britans had been watred with streams derived even from the Fountains Apostolick far more pure than were those later overflows of Augustine he invades expels the Monks and divides their means between his Exchequer and Courtiers Battel-Abbey built by William the Conquerour in the same place where by the overthrow of Harold the last Saxon King he purchased this Kingdom to himself and his posterity did also run the same fortune So that it is not so much to be wondered at if those at Merton in Surrey Stratford in Essex Lewis in Sussex the Charterhouse Black-Friers Gray-Friers and White-Friers in London felt the fury of the same Whirlwind At the same time among many other Reformations in this Church that wholesom Injunction was one whereby the Bible translated and printed in English was commanded to be kept in every Parish Church and to be conveniently placed where any that were so desirous might read therein They who were more eagerly addicted to the superstition of their Ancestors brooked not these proceedings among whom were chief Henry Courtney Marquess of Exceter Henry Lord Mountague Brother to Cardinal Pool and Sir Edward Nevill Brother to the Lord Abergavenny who on the fifth day of November upon the aceusation of Sir Geoffry Poole Brother to the Lord Mountague were committed to the Tower for having maintained intelligence with the 〈◊〉 and conspired the King's destruction for which they were on the third of the ensuing January the Lord Audley sitting high Steward for the time arraigned and condemned and on the ninth of the same month beheaded Two Priests named Crofts and Colins with one Holland a Mariner as partakers in the same guilt were hanged and quartered at Tyburn This Courtney was by the Father's side of a very noble descent deriving himself from the Blood Royal of France by Hugh Courtney created Earl of Devonshire by Edward the Third But by his Mother he far more nearly participated of the Blood Royal of England being Son to Catharine Daughter to Edward the Fourth who was Sister to Queen Elizabeth the Mother of King Henry The King long favoured him as his Cousin-german but at length in regard of his near Alliance to the Crown became jealous of his Greatness whereof he had lately given more than sufficient testimony in suddenly arming some thousands to oppose against the Yorkshire Rebels The consideration whereof made Henry gladly entertain any occasion to cut off this Noble Gentleman About the same time John Lambert a religious and learned man was also condemned the King himself sitting Judge This Lambert being accused of Heresie appealed from his Ordinary to the King who fearing lest he should be accounted a Lutheran resolved upon this occasion to manifest to the World how he stood affected in Religion To this end summoning as many of the Bishops and other Peers of the Realm as could conveniently be present he caused Scaffolds to be built in Westminster Hall from whence the people might be spectators and witnesses of the Acts of that day On the right hand of the King were seated the Bishops and behind them
all his Villanies But his Actions discover his deeper Practices For having now somewhat increased his members his madness hath so transported him beyond the distast of Our Match that he now resolves on the custody of Our Person and absolute power of removing retaining punishing of Our Council whom he list In this great affair of Our Marriage We have done nothing but by the advice of Our Peers We have lived the greatest part of Our age single Neither do We now so long for a Husband but that if the Estates of Our Realm judge it convenient We will continue Our Virgin estate For that I should seek to endanger England and to confound all things by an unfortunate Match the love of Our Native soil the long knowledge of Our Peaceable disposition Our endeavours for your Good will perswade you to the contrary Persist therefore in your Loyal Resolutions and assist Us in executing Our due Revenge on these Monsters of men who conspire to take away the Head which was ordained to guide them and to suffer with them Neither are Our demands other than We may in reason expect from you who so maturely so unanimously admitted of Our Government as deeming Us the Undoubted Successour to Our Royal Father and Brother Having thus confirmed the minds of the Citizens she arms five hundred men the greater part Strangers to the choisest whereof she commits the defence of London-Bridge and disposes of the rest throughout the City Two days after to London comes Wyat with an Army of three or four thousand full of hope that having present admittance into the City Success should crown his Actions and that without either peril or pains But things answered not his expectation For coming to the Bridge he found it cut down the Gates shut and made good against him by armed Troops who disdainfully bid the Traytor avaunt Nevertheless he continued two days in Southwark hoping that time and industry of secret Practisers might work some alteration But his hopes being here also frustrated he turns his March for Kingston there to gain passage over the Thames But the woodden Bridge there was also broken and the opposite Bank defended by two hundred men whom the sight of two Peeces of Ordnance ready to be planted against them so terrified that they left their station and gave Wyat liberty to find out means to waft his Army Having surmounted this difficulty he once more resolves for that Queen of Cities and reposing all the success of this Adventure in celerity without suffering his Souldiers to repose themselves makes with a round march for London where he hoped to arrive before day and to surprise the secure Queen But God is the Protector of Princes who more especially are his Images and Lieutenants so that the practices of Rebels and Traytors against their lawful Sovereigns seldom prove successful Wyat had not improbably been Master of his desires had not God by an unexpected accident retarded him or rather so blinded him that by unnecessary delays he overslipped his opportunity He was now within six miles of London when the Carriages of one of his Brass Peeces being broken the Peece became for the present unserviceable because immovable In remounting this Peece some hours were lost notwithstanding their perswasions who advised him not to neglect more real Advantages as indeed he did for by this means he came short of the time prefixed by those Citizens who were fautors of his Cause The consideration whereof made many despair of Success and relinquish him so that his Army was quickly contracted to a smaller gross Among the rest Sir George Harper partaker of all Wyat's Stratagems that he might wipe away the stains of Rebellion and his dissembled Revolt by a loyal Treachery posted away to the Queen and revealed the whole series of Wyat's Projects The Queen amazed at the apprehension of this imminent danger gives Commission to the Earl of Pembroke for the speedy raising of some Forces and makes him General of the Field Wyat hearing that the Earl of Pembroke was in Arms betook himself to a slower march lest he should be forced against these fresh Souldiers to oppose his panting weary ones So by Noon he approached the Suburbs and planting his Ordnance upon a Hill beyond St. James left there the greatest part of his small Army to guard them He himself with five Ensigns made towards Ludgate and Cutbert Vaughan with two other Ensigns toward Westminster leaving St. James on the left hand wherein I believe his chief end was that by terrifying that part of the City and consequently distracting the Queens Forces Wyat might gain passage with less difficulty At Charing-Cross Sir John Gage Lord Chamberlain with part of the Guard and some other Souldiers made head against Wyat. But at length either the Queen for fear of Vaughan so commanding or not able to withstand the shock with more than an orderly march he made toward the Court and filled it with terrour and amazement The Earl of Pembroke followed Wyat still cutting him off behind by which kind of fight Wyat not turning head lost many of his Soldiers The rest of the Rebels couragiously marching up Fleetstreet with joyful Acclamations cryed out Queen Mary Queen Mary God save Queen Mary who hath granted us our Petitions and Pardon At length they came to Ludgate and desired entrance but by their feigned Acclamations they gained nothing but reproachful language Whereupon they intend to return the same way but are circumvented by the Earl of Pembroke's Horse Then Clarencieux perswaded him to yield and not beyond all his former madness to surcharge himself with the Blood of so many valiant men Wyat's Souldiers seemed desperately bent to make their way but his Courage was quailed So he yielded to Sir Maurice Barkley who mounting him behind him carried him presently to the Court Their Captain taken the Souldiers make no resistance some few of them escape by flight but the greater part fill the Prisons of the City These were the accidents of the sixth of February Having thus supprest the Faction the punishment of the Conspirators is next in execution The first that was reflected on as for whose sake this Rebellion had been set on foot was Lady Jane who having been Condemned on the thirteenth of November had her Execution hitherto deserred not without hope of Pardon But to take away all farther cause of Sedition her Death is now absolutely determined Whereupon Fecknam Dean of Pauls afterward Abbot of Westminster was sent unto her to admonish her to prepare for Death and withal to perswade her to entertain the Romish Religion This sad message so little moved her that She professed her self bound in this to acknowledge God's infinite goodness As for discussing matters of Controversie in Religion her time was so short that she could not dispense with the least loss of it that little that was allotted her she knew she might better spend in her Devotions to Heaven Fecknam
purposely arraied him and bitterly taunted at to be dragged to death and that death by the horrid tortures of Fire Being now fastned to the Stake as soon as ever the flame began to ascend lifting up his left Hand to Heaven he thrust forth his right hand into the flame and there with admirable constancy continued it until it was consumed only once drawing it in and with it stroaking his Beard At length the raging flame spreading it self lifting up his Eyes toward Heaven he cried out Lord receive my Spirit and his Body abiding as immoveable as the Stake whereto he was fastened he patiently endured the Fires violence until he at last expired His Body being consumed to ashes his Heart was found entire and untoucht Had any of the Romanists found the like in any one of their Faction it should have been recorded for a Miracle and that Miracle sufficed to have Sainted him Give me leave though it be contrary to the method of History to insert a few Verses written by Ralph Skinner concerning this great man's Martyrdom Succubuit sanctus Praesul Cranmerus iniquâ Pontificum rabie fraude doloque perit Quòd Verbi invicto dejecer at Ense Papatum Quòd docuit purâ quaerere mente Deum Quódque Antichristi subverterat impia regna Regna piis Anglis heu tolerata diù Hinc pius clemens crudeli addicitur igni Dantur innocui membra cremenda viri Huc ubi jam ventum est Dextram projecit in ignem Projectamque tenens talia dicta dedit Primùm peccasti primùm sentire dolorem Debes ah Christo dextra inimica meo Immotamque tenet dum deflagraverat omnis In cineres totam dum cecidisse videt Caetera cùm pereant flammâ mirabile dictu Cor manet illaesum post ubi flamma perit Ecce invicta fides cor inviotabile servat Nec mediis flammis corda perire sinit Which Verses may be thus rendred in English Through Papists rage and fraud good Cranmer dy'd Because he put their Doctrine to the Sword The two-edg'd Sword of Scripture and discri'd Christ's Foe instructing England with the Word For this meek man he had a Martyr's hire His Soul was burnt with Zeal his Corps with Fire But when he came unto the stake he thrust His right Hand in the flames Thou first he said Because thou first did'st sin here suffer must Thou first thy Lord and Master hast betrai'd There held he it his Eyes did see it fall Soon afterward he sent those Eyes withal But lo a wonder Heaven's sacred Oracle Had sure decreed that so admir'd a creature Should not be put to death sans Miracle His Body burnt his Heart in perfect feature Was found unsing'd See see the Faith he cherisht Once in that Heart preserv'd it still unperisht Beside Cranmer the cruelty of those times did the same year devour many Professors of the same Religion Of both Sexes no fewer than eighty four were this year martyred by Fire Neither did their cruelty exercise it self on the living only The Bones of Martin Bucer and Paul Phagius long since dead were digged up formally accused of Heresie and no man undertaking their Cause as who durst condemned and publickly Burned in the Market-place at Cambridge And Peter Martyr's Wife who died at Oxford was disinterred and with barbarous and inhumane cruelty buried in a Dunghil To Bucer and Phagius Queen Elizabeth did afterward with great solemnity restore their memory and honour And as for Peter Martyr's Wife she caused her Bones to be translated from that unclean place to be reinterred in the Church and commixed with the Relicks of Frideswid by Papists reputed a Saint that the like occasion of mockage might not again be offered On the same day whereon Cranmer thus ended his life Cardinal Pool was ordered Priest at Greenwich and the next day Naboth being dead took possession of his Vineyard being consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury Three days after being the Feast of the Annunciation accompanied by many Nobles Pool with great solemnity received the Pall at Bow-Church About the same time a notable Conspiracy was detected some having projected to rob the Exchequer at that time full of Spanish coin to the value of fifty thousand Pounds The names of the Conspirators were Udal Throckmorton Pecham Daniel Stanton and besides others that fled for it White who discovered his fellows The rest were all taken and suffered as Traitors Sir Anthony Kingston as partaker in their intentions was also apprehended but died before he could reach London In July new Tumults begun to be set on foot in Norfolk were maturely suppressed Cleber and three Brothers called Lincolne the authors of it suffering for their seditious attempt On the one and twentieth of November John Fecknam Dean of Pauls was installed Abbot at Westminster which Henry the Eighth had erected to an Archiepiscopal See There being at that time no Monks in England fourteen were found who were content with Fecknam to take the Religious habit of Benedictines ANNO DOM. 1557. REG. MARIAE 4 5 PHILIPPI 3 4. NOw after four or five years we found the effect of our Northern Navigation set on foot by Cabota About the beginning of this year arrived in England Osep Napea Ambassador from Basiliwitz Emperour of Russia for the Treaty of a perpetual League between our Kings and his Prince On the Scottish Coast he had suffered wrack and beside Merchandize of infinite value he lostthose Presents which were from the Emperour destinated to their Majesties But the loss of Richard Chanceller was beyond all these inestimable who being a most expert Pilot first discovered the passage into those Northern Regions and now more solicitous of the Ambassador's safeguard than of his own this man most worthy of immortal Memory was swallowed up in the Seas insatiate gulf I think the Entertainment of any Ambassador with us was never more Royal. On the five and twentieth of May Philip having about seven days before returned out of Flanders he was admitted into the presence of the Kings declared the purport of his Embassy and continued in London until the third of May and having then got a convenient season laden with Gifts he set sail for his Countrey On the sixth of March Charles Lord Stourton for having in his house cruelly murthered one Hargill and his Son with whom he had long been at variance was by a wholesom example to posterity Hanged at Sarisbury with four other of his Servants who were not only conscious but actors in the cruelty After he had beaten them down with Clubs and cut their Throats he buried their Carcases fifteen foot deep in the ground hoping by such sure work to stop the voice of Blood crying for revenge or if peradventure it were discovered the regard of his zealous persistance in the Religion of Rome would he hoped procure the Queens pardon But Murther is a sin that God hath by many memorable Examples manifested
Attendance of the Earl of Northumberland who with a great Troop of Lords and Ladies of Honour brought her into Scotland to the King her Husband This Marriage had been in Treaty by the space of almost three years from the time that the King of Scotland did first open his mind to Bishop Fox The Summ given in Marriage by the King was ten thousand Pounds And the Joynture and Advancement assured by the King of Scotland was two thousand Pounds a year after King James his Death and one thousand Pounds a year in present for the Ladys Allowance or Maintenance This to be set forth in Lands of the best and most certain Revenue During the Treaty it is reported that the King remitted the matter to his Council And that some of the Table in the Freedom of Counsellors the King being present did put the Case that if God should take the King 's two Sons without Issue that then the Kingdom of England would fall to the King of Scotland which might prejudice the Monarchy of England Whereunto the King himself replied That if that should be Scotland would be but an Accession to England and not England to Scotland for that the greater would draw the less And that it was a safer Union for England than that of France This passed as an Oracle and silenced those that moved the Question The same year was fatal as well for Deaths as Marriages and that with equal temper For the Joys and Feasts of the two Marriages were compensed with the Mournings and Funerals of Prince Arthur of whom we have spoken and of Queen Elizabeth who dyed in Child-bed in the Tower and the Child lived not long after There dyed also that year Sir Reginold Bray who was noted to have had with the King the greatest Freedom of any Counsellor but it was but a Freedom the better to set off Flattery Yet he bare more than his just part of Envy for the Exactions At this time the King's Estate was very prosperous secured by the Amity of Scotland strengthned by that of Spain cherished by that of Burgundy all Domestick Troubles quenched and all Noise of War like a Thunder a-far-off going upon Italy Wherefore Nuture which many times is happily contained and refrained by some Bands of Fortune began to take place in the King carrying as with a strong Tide his Affections and Thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of Treasure And as Kings do more easily find Instruments for their Will and Humour than for their Service and Honour He had gotten for his purpose or beyond his purpose two Instruments Empson and Dudley whom the people esteemed as his Horse-Leeches and Shearers bold men and careless of Fame and that took Toll of their Master 's Grist Dudley was of a good Family Eloquent and one that could put Hateful Business into good Language But Empson that was the Son of a Sieve-maker triumphed always upon the Deed done putting off all other respects whatsoever These two Persons being Lawyers in Science and Privy Counsellors in Authority as the corruption of the best things is the worst turned Law and Justice into Wormwood and Rapine For first their manner was to cause divers Subjects to be indicted of sundry Crimes and so far forth to proceed in form of Law But when the Bills were found then presently to commit them And nevertheless not to produce them to any reasonable time to their Answer but to suffer them to languish long in Prison and by sundry artificial Devices and Terrours to extort from them great Fines and Ransoms which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the end observe so much as the Half-face of Justice in proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to attach men and convent them before themselves and some others at their private Houses in a Court of Commission and there used to shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination without tryal of Jury assuming to themselves there to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to enthral and charge the Subjects Lands with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices and thereby to work upon them for Wardships Liveries Primier Seisins and Alienations being the fruits of those Tenures refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delays to admit men to traverse those False Offices according to the Law Nay the King's Wards after they had accomplished their full Age could not be suffered to have Livery of their Lands without paying excessive Fines far exceeding all reasonable Rates They did also vex men with Informations of Intrusion upon scarce colourable Titles When men were Out-lawed in Personal Actions they would not permit them to purchase their Charters of Pardon except they paid great and intolerable summs standing upon the strict Point of Law which upon Out-lawries giveth Forfeiture of Goods Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintained the King ought to have the half of mens Lands and Rents during the space of full two years for a Pain in Case of Out-lawry They would also ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to find as they would direct and if they did not Convent them Imprison them and Fine them These and many other Courses fitter to be buried than repeated they had of Preying upon the People both like Tame Hawks for their Master and like Wild Hawks for themselves in so much as they grew to great Riches and Substance But their principal working was upon Penal Laws wherein they spared none great nor small nor considered whether the Law were possible or impossible in Use or Obsolete But raked over all old and new Statutes though many of them were made with intention rather of Terrour than of Rigour having ever a Rabble of Promoters Questmongers and leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any thing found either for Fact or Valuation There remaineth to this day a Report that the King was on a time entertained by the Earl of Oxford that was his principal Servant both for War and Peace nobly and sumptuously at his Castle at Henningham And at the King 's going away the Earl's Servants stood in a seemly manner in their Livery-Coats with Cognisances ranged on both sides and made the King a 〈◊〉 The King called the Earl to him and said My Lord I have heard much of your Hospitality but I see it is greater than the speech These handsom Gentlemen and Yeomen which I see on both sides of me are sure your Menial Servants The Earl smiled and said It may please your Grace that were not for mine ease They are most of them my Retainers they are come to do me service at such a time as this and chiefly to see your Grace The King started a little and said By my faith my Lord I thank you for my good Cheer but I may not endure to have my Laws broken in my sight My Attorney must speak with you And it is part of the Report