to say that he had no purpose to keep a wife he must pay for a faculty to keep a wife if he would Quymund his Chaplain observing that unworthy men for the most part were advanced to the best dignities of the Church as he celebrated divine service before him and was to read these words out of St Iames 5. 17. It rained not upon the earth three years and six moneths he did read it thus It rained not upon the earth one one years and five one moneths The King observed this reading and afterwards rebuked his Chaplain for it But Quymund answered that he did it of purpose because such readers were soonest preferred by the King The King smiled and in short time after preferred him to the government of St. Frideswides in Oxford He died in the sixty seventh year of his age when he had raigned thirty five years and four moneths wanting one day He was buried at Reading which he had founded In him ended the line of the Norman Kings as concerning their heirs males after whom came in the French men by the title of the heirs generall CHAP. XIV King STEPHEN VIr solertis ingenii militaris artis peritissimus Polyd. Virg. He was of a comely stature of a good complexion and of body strong very skilfull in martiall affairs gentle courteous and exceeding bountifull not noted for any speciall vice but that upon an ambitious desire to raign he brake his Oath which he had made with Maud the Empress He was a most worthy Souldier and wanted nothing to have made him an excellent King but a just title And therefore hee was driven perforce to defend his usurped Authority by the sword which must needs procure him the hatred of many He was crowned at Westminster upon Saint Stephens day in presence of but three Bishops few of the Nobility and not one Abbot by William Archbishop of Canterbury with great solemnity Having his sword continually out and so many defections and rebellions against him he never put any great man to death Of Roger Bishop of Salisbury in this Kings Raign it is reported that he was so pressed with the miseries of a long imprisonment Vt vivere nolâ—â—erit mori nesciâ—rit That live he would not die he could not In his dayes flourished divers famous learned men but especially Historiographers viz. William of Malmesbury Henry Huntington Simon of Durham Gessrey of Munmouth and others Though his Raign were rough and tempestuous by reason of his perpetuall debates and contests with Maud the Empress and her Son concerning the title yet were there more religious Convents erected in his time then either before or after Although he had continuall Warres yet he required few or no tributes from the people He raigned almost nineteen years lived forty nine and was buried in the Abbey of Feversham in Kent which he had founded The Normans thus expiring give way to the Dynasty of the Plantagenets Before the division of the Houses of Yorke and Lancaster there run on evenly in an unquestionable line eight Kings in this manner 1. Henry the second 2. Richard the first 3. Iohn 4. Henry the third 5. Edward the first 6. Edward the second 7. Edward the third 8. Richard the second Henry the second The first King of this Island sirnamed Plantagenet from Plantagenista so called as some say for wearing a slip or stalk of Broom in his Cap or Hat toward his latter dayes in penance and contrition for his past sins He undertook to go to the holy Sepulchre in the poor and despised habit of a Broom-man and to signifie himself so bore a Broom-stalk in his Cap. Others say it was because he scourged himself with the stalks of Broom which grew upon the Plains where once the holy City stood Bucks Preface to his great Plantagenet Henry Duke of Anjou by his Father Geffery Plantagenet succeeded Stephen in the Kingdome of England by agreement whom he preceded by right as being son and heir of Maud sole daughter and heir of King Henry the first and was crowned at Westminster by Theobald Archbishop of Canterbury and was a greater Prince then any of his Ancestors He was sirnamed Court-mantle because he was the first that brought short Cloaks out of Anjou into England He was wise and learned He never ware Glove except he bare a Hawk on his fist and never sate but at his meat and delighted in hawking hunting riding and in all honest exercises Our English Chronicles do blame him for refusing to take the protection and defence of the distressed Christians in Ierusalem offered unto him by Heraclins the Patriark the troubles that befell him at home are ascribed to that cause In his time there were eleven hundred and fifteen Castles in England He caused them to be demolished He first kept Lions and made of the Arms of Normandy viz. the two Leopards and of the single Lion Aquitain one Coat so Arms for England as it is yet worn He associated his son Henry in the Government an act without example in this Kingdome The young King shewed shortly after That a Crown was no State to be made over in trust At the Feast of his solemnity the King to honour his son would needs carry up the first dish to his Table Roger Archbishop of Yorke standing by and saying merrily to the new King Gaude optime filio non est enim alter in toto orbe Princeps qui talem habeat in mensa administrum What an honour is this to you to have such a waiter at your Table Why saith he what great matter is it for him that was but the son of a Duke to do service to me that am the son of a King and Queen Which the old King hearing began to repent him now it was too late of that he had done He loved women too much especially one Rosamond the fair daughter of Walter Lord Clifford This his Concubine was a very beautifull young Lady of unparalleld wit He usually termed her the Rose of the world his Rose The true Etymology of her name is Rosemouth and seemeth to have been given in regard of her sweetness or colour of the lips or it may have been in recommendation of sweetness and eloquence of speech King Henry had made for her a Labyrinth at Woodstocâ— so that no man or woman might come to her but he that was instructed by the King or such as were right secret with him It was commonly said that at last Queen Elenor came to her by a Clew of Thread or Silk and so dealt with her that she lived not long after But when she was dead she was buried at Godstow in an house of Nunnes beside Oxford In whose Epitaph a Latin Poet not understanding the true Etymology of the name makes Mund which here is mouth to be Mundus and so calls her the Rose of the world Hic jacet in tumba Rosa mundi non
and of all other Civill States at this day exclude Bastards without a subsequent legitimation from inheritance yet by the Laws of Norway a Princes Son gotten on a Concubine bond or free was equally inheritable as any other born in wedlock which was I believe no small reason why he stood at first so much for the Laws of Norway to have been generally received in this Kingdome And some stories also say that Arlet or Arlee as she is sometimes written was to him a good while vice uxor is If she were so his Concubine between whom and a wife the old Imperialists make no other difference but honour and dignity and by them also some kind of inheritance is allowed to such Bastards as are naturales liberi that is gotten on Concubines it was much more reasonable that her son should be reputed as legitimate than that the son of every single woman bond or free whether Concubine or no should be so as those of Norway allow Mr. Seldens review of his History of Tythes First landing at Pemsâ—y in Sussex he fell down stumbling as he came out of his Ship O Dux Angliam tenes said one of his Knights Rex futurus so Matthew Paris and espying that he had brought up sand and earth in his hand added Yea and you have taken Livery and Seisin of the Conutrey Seldens Titles of honour in 4. to p. 34. When he had landed his Forces he fortified a piece of ground with strong trenches and caused all his Ships to be set on fire leaving to his Souldiers no hope to save themselves but only by victory After this he published the causes of his coming in Arms to challenge the Kingdome of England given to him by his Cousin King Edward the last lawfull possessor at that time thereof And to revenge the death of his Cousin Alfred Brother to the same King Edward cruelly and deceitfully slain by Earl Goodwin and his adherents In the Battell between King Harold and him at the last Hareld was struck with an arrow through the left eye into his brains of which wound he presently died He was buried by his Mother at Walsham Cross within the Monastery which he had founded Ibi Gulielmus perblandé ac perbenigné locutus simulque magnifica pollicitus ab omnibus quanquam non pari alacritate diem festum celebrantibus rex declaratur Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 9. Where this Battell was fought the Conquerour after founded Battail-Abbey He was crowned at Westminster by Aldred Archbishop of Yorke anno Dom. 1066. His strength was such that few men could draw his Bow and being about fifty of his age when he subdued this Kingdome it seems by his continuall actions he felt not the weight of years upon him till his last year He enclosed new-Forrest in Hamshire for which he dispeopled Villages and Towns about the space of thirty miles to make a desert for Beasts of chase in which place afterward two of his sons Richard and William ended their lives Richard by a fall from his Horse and William by the stroke of an arrow The Kings great delight in hunting was made the pretence of this Forrest but the true end was rather to make a free place of footing for his Normans and other friends out of France in case any great revolt should be made One Herlowin a Nobleman in Normandy married his Mother Arlotte and had by her a son named Hugh Lupus to whom he gave the Earldome of Chester to hold of him as freely by his sword as himself held England by his Crown by vertue of which Cranâ— the said Hugh ordained under him four Barons such an honour as no Subject before or since ever enjoyed the like Because conspiracies are commonly contrived in the night he commanded that in all Towns and Villages a Bell should be rung in the evening at eight of the Clock called Curfu-Bell and that in every house they should then put forth their fire and lights and go to bed which custome of ringing a Bell at that hour in many places is still observed William the first whom pride craft profit swayd Did England but his conscience first invade Dr. Holiday his Survey of the world Book 9. By the counsell of Stigand Archbishop of Canterbury and of Eglesme Abbot of St. Augustines who at that time were chief governers of Kent as the King was riding towards Dover at Swanescombe two miles from Graveseud the Kentish men came towards him armed and bearing boughs in ther hands as if it had been a moving wood they enclosed him upon the sudden and with a firm countenance but words well tempered with modesty and resâ—ect they demanded of him the use of their ancient Liberties and Laws that in other matters they would yeeld obedience to him that without this they desired not to live The King yeelded to them for the present knowing right well that the generall Customes and Laws of the residue of the Realm would in short time overflow these particular places So pledges being given on both sides they conducted him to Rochester and yeelded the County of Kent and the Castle of Dover into his power He took the review and account of all the Towns and land in England This Book was called the Roll of Winton because it was kept in the City of Winchester By the English it was called Doomes-day Book either by reason of the generality thereof or else corruptly instead of Domus Dei Book because it was layed in the Church of Winchester in a place called Domus Dei According to this Roll taxations were imposed sometimes two shillings and sometimes six shillings upon every Hide of land a Hide containing twenty Acres besides ordinary provision for his house Vide Seldeni Analecta Anglobrit l. 2. c. 4. Spelmanni Glossarium p. 352. He was too covetous Sola est do qua merito culpetur pecuniae cupiditas quam undecunque captatis occasionibus nihil unquam pensi habuit quin corroderet faceret diceret nonnulla pene omnia tanta majestate indigniora ubi spes nummi effulsisset Malmesb. de Wilielmo primo l. 3. He would often swear by Gods resurrection and his brightness Talia per resurrectionem splendorâ—â— Dei pronuncians quod solereâ— ex industria talia sacramenta facere quae ipso habitu oris terrificum quiddam auditorum memibus insonarent Malmesb. de Wilielmo primo He bare such reverence to Lanfrancke Archbishop of Canterbury that he seemed to stand at his directions Malmesbury l. 4. de Wilielmo secundo saith Diu dubitavit mundus quo tandem vergeret quo se inclinaret indoles ejus Inter initia vivente Lanfranco Archiepiscopo ab omni crimine abhorrebat ut unicum fore Regum speculum speraretur Quo defuncto aliquandiu varium se praestitit aequali lance vitiorum atque virtutum He respected Aldred Archbishop of York by whom he had been crowned King of England as
where his servant stood as prisoner and commanded him to be ungived and set at liberty William Gascoigne the chief Justice of the Kings Bench exhorted the Prince to be ordered according to the ancient Laws of the Realm or if he would have him saved from the rigour of the Laws that he should obtain if he might of the King his father his gracious pardon whereby no Law or justice should be impeached With which answer the Prince being more inflamed endeavoured himself to take away his servant The Judge considering the perillous example and inconvenience that might thereby ensue with a valiant courage and spirit commanded the Prince upon his allegiance to leave the prisoner and to depart his way with which commandement the Prince being set all in a fury in a terrible manner came up to the place of judgement some thinking that he would have slain the Judge or have done him some hurt but the Judge sitting still without moving declaring the majesty of the Kings place of judgement and with an assured bold countenance spake thus to the Prince Sir remember your self I keep here the place of the King your soveraign Lord and Father to whom you owe double obeysance wherefore in his name I charge you desist from your wilfulness and unlawfull enterprise and from henceforth give good example to those which after shall be your proper Subjects 〈◊〉 and now for your contempt and disobedience go you to the prison of the Kings Bench whereto I commit you and remaine you there prisoner untill the pleasure of the King your Father be further known With which wordes being abashed and also wondering at the marvellous gravity of that worshipfull Justice the Prince laying his weapon apart doing reverence departed and went to the Kings Bench as he was commanded whereat his servants disdaining came and shewed to the King all the whole affair He a while studying after as a man all ravished with gladness holding his hands and eyes towards heaven cried out with a loud voice O mercifull God how much am I bound to thy infinite goodness â—ffâ—ecially for that thou hast given me a Iudge who feareth not to minister justice and also a sin who can suffer semblably and obey justice Sir Thomas Eliot in his Governour saith here a man may behold three persons worthy memory First a Judge who being a Subject feared not to execute justice on the eldest son of his soveraign Lord and by order of nature his successor Also a Prince son and heir of the King in the midst of his folly more considered his evil example and the Judges conscience in justice then his own estate and wilfull appetito Thirdly a noble King and wise father who contrary to the custome of parents rejoyced to see his son and the heir of his Crown to be for his disobedience by his Subject corrected The Oath ex officio it should rather be called in officiosum was brought into the Church under him The Prelates requiring it to discover those which that age esteemed Hereticks and especially those which they called Lollards which Master Fox in his Acts and Monuments calls a bloudy Law In his admonition to his son at his death he said Of English men so long as they have wealth and riches so long shalt thou have obeysance but when they be poor they are alwayes ready to make insurrection at every motion All the time of his sickness his will was to have his Crown set upon his Bolster by him and one of his fits being so strong upon him that all men thought him directly dead the Prince coming in took away the Crown when suddenly the King recovering his senses missed his Crown and asking for it was told the Prince had taken it whereupon the Prince being called came back with the Crown and kneeling down said Sir to all our judgements and to all our griefs you seemed directly dead and therefore I took the Crown as being my right but seeing to all our comforts you live I here deliver it much more joyfully then I took it and pray God you may long live to wear it your self In his time were the two famous Poets Chaucer and Gower None of the sons of Henry the fourth did degenerate a thing not usuall in so large a family Henry the fifth died gloriously in the pursuit of his conquests the Duke of Clarence valiantly fighting and though of a naturall death and Glocester of a violent yet died they not with less fame then did the others Biondi his History of the Civil Warres of England l. 5. in Henry the sixth The Duke of Bedfords death is to be numbred among the chiefest causes of the loss of France He was a prudent Prince of long experience in Arms and Government obeyed by his own feared by his enemies Id. ibid. Fourth Henry was by some blind Bard foretold That he should never die till he had seen Ierusalem fourth Henry will be old Ierusalem for him shall be unseen No he shall see it when he least doth ween He swouns at prayers and by religious men Is straight convey'd unto Ierusalem Sir Francis Huberts History of Edward the second The like Prophesie we read of Pope Sylvester the second to whom being inquisitive for the time and place where he should die it was answered that he should die in Ierusalem who then saying Mass in a Chappell called likewise Ierusalem perceived his end there to be near and died In this Kings time Guild-Hall in London was built Gower being very gracious with him carried the name of the only Poet in his time He and Chaucer were Knights The King died in Ierusalem-Chamber in minster in the year of his age forty six He raigned thirteen years and a half wanting five dayes Fourteen years say others CHAP. XIX HENRY the fifth HE was just wise magnanimous valiant To this noble Prince by an assent of the Parliament all the Estates of the Realm after three dayes offered to do fealty before he was crowned or had solemnized his Oath well and justly to govern the Commonweal which offer before was never found to be made to any Prince of England Stowes Chron. His young years were spent in literature in the Academy of Oxford where in Queens-Colledge he was a Student under the tuition of his Uncle Henry Beauford Chancellour of that University When he came to be King he made Thomas Rodban a famous Astronomer in those dayes Bishop of St. Davids and Iohn Carpenter a learned Divine Bishop of Worcester having known them both whilest he lived in the University The Civil Wars of England by Sir Francis Biondi Presently after his Coronation he called before him all his old companions who had been disorderly with him strictly charging them not to presume to come within ten miles of his Court untill such time as they had given good proof of their amendment in manners and left any of them should pretend want of maintenance
and speech encouraged both Commanders and souldiers saying to them as I have heard If her brother Philip came she would give fire to the first Piece against him I might alledge the testimony of your greatest enemy in confirmation of your Majesties valour at Worcester-battle Kings bear a double image of God as they are men and as they are Magistrates The Scripture saith Those which rule over men should be just ruling in the fear of God One saith They should labour to be more religious and pious toward God than ordinary persons because of the great need they have of his illumination in their counsels of his conduct in their enterprises of his force in their executions and of his provident care in their various occurrents dangers difficulties The Kings seat was so set in the Temple that all might see him there Ezek. 46. 10. 2 Chron. 6. 12 13. 2 King 11. 14. 23. 3. that by his example the devotion of his people might be stirred up God having done such great things both abroad and at home for your Majesty expecteth great things from you I shall humbly implore the Almighty that he would so guide you in all your wayes that you may make his Interest your great interest by reforming what is amiss in Court and Kingdom by promoting his pure worship encouraging the power of godliness and all such as walk according to Scripture-rule are peaceable and hold the Fundamentals by discountenancing Atheisme errour and profaneness the fruits of abused peace and prosperity altering the old speech for the better Exeat aula Qui vult esse pius into impius So shall White-Hall answer its name and your Majesty approve your self to be what your Father desired Charles the Good which is the earnest prayer of Your Majesties most humbly devoted and Loyall subject Edward Leigh TO THE CURTEOUS AND CANDID READER Reader I Here present thee with Choice Observations of all the Kings of England I suppose the Subject will not be unpleasing to an Englishman if the work be answerable to the Title I have excerped my Materials out of the best Latine Writers the Monks to whom we are especially beholding for the History of our Kings of England and chiefest English Chroniclers and Annalists and such as have written of a few or any one of our English Princes Bedes Historia Gentis Anglorum set out by Wheelock of whom Petavius in his History of the world lib. 8. cap. 4. saith thus Bede made his Brittain famous with no lesse Godlinesse and Learning than History who even unto the year 735 hath concluded the Christian beginnings of that Nation Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam praecipui in Latine in folio set out by Sr Henry Savill containing the History of Gulielmus Malmesburiensis Henry Huntington Roger Hoveden and others Anglica Normannica Hibernica Cambrica a veteribus Scripta in Latine also in Folio put out by Camden Matthew Paris his Works set out by Dr Watts who is a faithfull Historian and hath written the Reigns of the first seven Kings after the Conquest Of the English Chroniclers Speed Martin and Baker seem to be the best Voluminous Hollingshead Stow and How are not much esteemed by the Learned Sr John Hayward hath written well of the three Norman Kings and Edward the sixth he hath written briefly also of Henry the eourth Godwin of Henry the eighth Edward the sixth and Queen Mary and also of the Bishops of England in Latine and English Sr Robert Cotton of Henry the third Habington of Edward the fourth Sr Thomas More of Richard the third both in Latine and English and Buck my Lord Bacon excellently of Henry the seventh my Lord Herbert of Henry the eighth Camden Annals of Queen Elizabeth and Dr Heylin as is said of King Charles the first History is both pleasing and profitable especially the memorable things of all our own Kings and Governours who have for so many years Raigned amongst us Examples of Superiours especially are very prevalent which of the Rulers believed in him One saith if King Edward the sixth had lived a little longer his only example had bred such a Race of worthy learned Gentlemen as this Realm never yet did afford Here are examples of all sorts good and bad to be followed and eschewed Some loose vain and licentious others learned wise valiant minding the publick welfare of the Nation The Pope could but little prevaile here in England during the Raign of King Edward the third and Richard the second Henry the eighth cast him out then when he had too great power and command over other Princes As he cast out the Pope so did his children Edward the sixth and Queen Elizabeth cast out Popery out of England and so freed us from his spirituall bondage as the other did from his Temporall May their memory be therefore still precious amongst us as the Reformation we enjoy chiefly by their means is a singular blessing Let Him be accounted our English Josias and Her our English Deborah on whom those Verses were made Spains Rod Romes Ruine Netherlands Relief Earths Joy Englands Gem Worlds Wonder Natures chief Prince Henry likewise eldest Son to King James was a virtuous and hopefull Prince had he not been taken away in the flower of his youth he would its thought have much opposed the Pope and Spaniard I have read somewhere of him that he would not swear no not at his Sports and Recreation and being demanded the reason tâ—ereof he said they were not of that weight as to draw an oath from him I hope therefore this Nation having had such worthy Princes and not being ignorant of the slavery they formerly indured when the Pope called England his Ass will never be so foolish as to turn back again into Egypt As long as Mr Foxe his Martyrology is so common to be read eighty eight and the fifth of November are so fresh in our remembrance let us valew the losse of Rome here amongst us no more than that Emperour Honorius did of whom Zonaras writes that he had a Hen called Roma and it being told him Rome was last he was troubled and said She was here even now yea said the other the Hen is here but the City is lost he was then well pleased Our Countriman Beda hath prophetically expounded that Roman S. P. Q. R. of our Englishmen travelling to Rome Stulâ—us Populus Quaerit Roman Though perhaps in some cases one may go too far from Rome yet since some of our Bishops formerly have written well against Antichrist and others have made the Pope to be Antichrist and since also the Iesuites are still busie amongst us I wish there may be no unwarrantable compliance either with the Romish Doctrine or Rites Thomas Lever who Preached before King Edward the sixth and escaped the fury of Queen Maries dayes is commended by Bullinger in his Epistle to Hooper He was the first
left nothing unattempted which might advance the glorious Gospel of Christ. He built St. Augustines a goodly Church in Canterbury He built also St. Pauls Church in London and St. Andrews in Rochester He died in the three and twentieth year of his Monarchy and the fifty sixth of his Kingdome of Kent Redwald The third King of the East-Angles and seventh Monarch of the English men Of this Redwald Cambden reporteth out of Bede that he was baptized and that to make sure as he thought of the right way of worship he had in the same Temple one Altar for Christian Religion and another for sacrifice to Devils He raigned eight yeares and was King of the East-Angles thirty one Edwine The Great King of Northumberland and the eighth sole Monarch of the English men He was slain in Battell by Penda and Cadwallo the seventh year of his Monarchy the seventeenth of his Kingdome He lived fourty eight yeares Oswald King of Northumberland and the ninth Monarch of the English men He was a religiouâ— King and took such care for the coâ—version and salvation of his Subjectâ— that he sent into Scotland for aid and a Christian Bishop to instruct his Northumbrians in the Gospel of truth Mira fuit in homine sanctitas mirum pietatis studium nulli unquam malum pro malo reddidit sed Christi regis summi exemplum imitatus ijs etiam bene precabatur beneque volebaâ— Ã quibâ—â—s accepisset injurias Polyd. Virg. Ang. Hist. l. 4. p. 82. He left the name to Oswalster in Shropshire Of this Oswald as also of Stephan King of Hungary it is storied that their right hands though dead never putrified because they had been much exercised in almes-deeds Bed hist. Angl. l. 3. c. 6. Bonsinius Quis suit Alcides quis Caesar Julius aut quit Magnus Alexander Alcides se superasse Fertur Alexander mundum sed Julius hostem Se simul Osuualdus mundum vicit hostem He died in the 23. year of his Monarchy and the 56. of his Kingdome of Kent Oswy King of Northumberland and the tenth Monarch of the English men He was Brother to Edwin and Oswald He founded the Cathedrall Church in Litchfield for a Bishops See Upon an occasion Oswin humble â— himself before the holyman Adrian who upon sight thereof wept and gave this reason of his weeping I know this King will not live long and this reason of his reason for I never before this saw an humble King He lived fifty seven yeares and raigned the space of twenty eiâ—ht yeares Wulphere The sixth King of the Mercians and the eleventh Monarch of the Englâ—â—â— men He becoming a â—hristian destroyed all those Temâ—les wherein his Heathen Gods had been worshipped converting them all into Christian Churches and religious Monasteries He raigned King over the Mercians seventeen yeares and Monarch of the English fuily four Ethelred The seventh King of Mercia and twelfth Monarch of the English A modest Prince which loved better to preserve then to encrease his power by Arms. He raigned above thirty yeares Kenred The eighth King of Mercia and the thirteenth Monarch of the English men He raigned in peace four yeares then weary of Government and desirous of contemplation be sought a more private and religious life and thereupon appointing â—helred his Cosen-germane to rule in his place in the fifth year of his Raign abandoned his Kingdome and Country and departed to Rome and in a Monastery in that City was made Monk Chelred The ninth King of the Mercians and the fourteenth Monarch of the English He had got as great reputation of military valour as any Prince of his time if he had not died so soon He raigned only seven yeares Ethelbald The tenth King of the Mercians and the fifteentth Monarch of the English A peaceable Prince but was over amorous Boniface the Archbishop of Mentz an Englishman by Nation sent an Epistle to him This is one passage in it Quapropter â—â—li charissime paeniteat te memora quam turpe sit ut tu qui multis gentihus dono Dâ—â— dominaris al injuriam ejus sis libidinis servus The Epistle is full of good counsell to be seen in Malmesbury He ruled forty two yeares Offa. The eleventh King of the Mercians and the sixteenth Monarch of the English men He was a warlike Prince and for the most part fortunate He built a Church in Warwickeshire where the adjoyning Town from it and him beareth the name Off-Church and caused a great Ditch to be made large and deep from Sea to Sea betwixt his Kingdome and Wales whereby he might the better defend his Country from the incursions of the Welsh men And this Ditch is to be seen in many places as yet and is called Offas Ditch at this day Lords History of Wales The Ditch began at the River Dee by Bassing-werke between Cheâ—ter and Ruthlan and ran along the hils sides to the South-Sea a little from Bristow reaching above a hundreth miles in length Id. the description of Wales He first gave the Peter-pence to Rome and was himself at the length shorne a Monk He raigned thirty nine yeares Egfrid The twelfth King of the Mercians and the seventeenth Monarch of the English He re-establisht the priviledges and liberties of all the Churches which his Father had supprest He raigned only four moneths he was taken away by sudden death in the hundreth fourty first day after his Fathers decease Kenwolfe The thirteenth King of the Mercians and the eighteenth Monarch of the English men At home he was an example of piety peace justice and Religion abroad temperate humble and courteous without vain ostentation or ambitious conceits In Warres he was stout and victorious in peace studious to enrich his Subjects he carried himself so at all times that envy could not touch him with her tongue Bede dedicateth his Ecclesiasticall History to him He raigned twenty two yeares CHAP. IV. OF the Saxons that reigned sole Kings of this Island 1. Egbert raigned thirty seven years 2. Ethelwulf the son of Egbert twenty years 3. Ethelbald the eldest son of Ethelwulf five years 4. Ethelbert the second son of Ethelwulf five years 5. Ethelred the third son of Ethelwulf five years 6. Alfred the youngest son of Ethelwulf five years 7. Edward sirnamed the elder twenty three years 8. Aethelstane the eldest son of Edward sixteen years 9. Edmund the second son of Edward six years 10. Edred the youngest son of Edward nine years 11. Edwin the elder son of Edmund four years 12. Edgar the younger son of Edmund sixteen years 13. Edward the elder son of Edgar forty years 14. Ethelred the younger son of Edgar thirty seven years 15. Edmund the son of Ethelred in whose time the Danes possessed the greatest part of England Egbert The eighteenth King of the West-Saxons the nineteenth but first sole and absolute Monarch of the English men Upon
report of the death of Britic he with great speed returned out of France where during the time of his abode he had served with good commendation in the Warres under Charles the Great by meanes whereof his reputation encreasing among his own Country-men he was thought worthy of the Government before he obtained it He first gave this Kingdom the name of England He ordained by publick Edict that the Heptarchy possessed by the Saxons should be called thence forward the Land of the English whence the Latines took also their name Anglia and the French that d' Angleterre There were three hundred years from King Egbert unto William the Conquerour He raigned over the West-Saxons thirty six years and seven moneths and Monarch of the whole Island seventeen Ethelwulfe The nineteenth King of the West-Saxons and the twentieth Monarch of the English men He being once himself nuzled in that order was alwayes good and devout to religious orders He was so well learned and so devout that the Clerks of the Church of Winchester did choose him in his youth to be their Bishop which function he took upon him and was Bishop of Winchester for seven years before he was King The History of Cambria by Lhoyd augmented by Doctor Powell p. 32. A Monk a Deacon and a Bishop yet elected King because they could not finde a fitter person for the Crown Necessitate cogente factus est Rex Roger Hoveden He ordained that Tythes and Church-Lands should be free from all taxes and Regall services Ethelwolphus Rex omnium historicorum consensu fide praestantissimus nec pietatis magis quà m rerumoptimé gestarum laude celebriâ— illustris Anti Sanderus Dialogo secundo Polyd. Virgil in the fifth Book of his English History saith of King Alfred Atqui Neotum inprimis monasâ—icae professionis virum sanctissimum ob eximiam eruditionem miro amore complexus est quo hortante Oxonij gymnasium instituit proposita mercede omnibus His second son by his Queen Iudith daughter of Charles the bald Emperour King of France Neote was much addicted to learning and was one of the first Divinity readers in the University of Oxford He was interred in the County of Huntington at a place then called Arnulphsbury and afterwards in regard of his interment St. Neots and now St. Needes This King was famous for having four sons who all of them were Kings of this Land successively He raigned twenty years one moneth and nine dayes Ethelbald The twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the twenty first Monarch of the English men He took Iudith his stepmother to be his wife this prodigious incest was soone punished by his untimely death He raigned five years Ethelbert The one and twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the two and twentieth Monarch of the English men The first Christned Prince of all the Saxon Nation Omnium Anglo-Saxonum regum Christi nominis primus hospes Twini Comment de rebus Brittanicis His name signifieth nobly-conceited or advised or of noble conceit or advisement Verstegan He raigned over the Kentish-South and East-Saxons ten years and was Monarch of the whole only five Ethelred The two and twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the twenty third Monarch of the English men Great was the valour of this King for in his short time of Raign as Malmesbury and other Writers record he fought no less than nine set Battels against the Danes in one year in most of them victorious At Wintburne in Darset-shire there is this Epitaph written on his Tomb. In hoc loro quiescit corpus S. Ethelredi Regis West-Saxonum Martyris qui anno Domini DCCCLXXII XXIII Aprilis per manus Danorum Pagâ—norum occuâ—â—uit He raigned in great trouble five years saith Malmesbury CHAP. V. Alfred Aelfred or Alvred THe twenty third King of the West-Saxons and twenty fourth Monarch of the English men He was the first annointed King of England as glorious for his most excellent Laws transcendent Justice and Civil Government as for his martiall exploits victories and for his incomparable piety and extraordinary bounty to the Clergy and learned men Of his great memory when he was young vide Asserium de Aelfredi rebus gestis He was accounted a good Grammarian Rhetorician Philosopher Musician and Poet. His Raign began with troubles and Warres in defence of the Land which the Pagan Danes intended to destroy and though his powers were small yet was he forced into the field within one moneth after his Coronation He fought no less than forty six bloudy Battels saith Spelman with the Danes by Land and Sea for his Countries liberties Vir in bellâ— per omnia strenuissimus Asserius He was once brought to that extremity that he was forced to leave his Companies and lurk in Somerset-shire Marshes The solitary place of his most residency was an Island inclosed with two Rivers Thane and Parret at their meetings in the County of Somerset commonly called Edeling seâ— where he in very poor attire disguised was entertained into a Cow-heards service where on a time as he sate by the fire in trimming of his Bow and shaâ—ts a Cake of dough baking on the hearth before him chanced to burn the Cowheardess coming in and seeing him minde his Bow more than his bread in a great â—ury cast away both his Bow and arrowes and checking him said Thou fellow dost thou see the bread burn before thy face and wilt not turn it and yet art thou glad to eat it before it be half baked Of the naturall dayes twenty four hours eight he allotted for devotion and contemplation eight for refection and recreation and the eight remaining for matters of the Commonwealth Iulius Caesar having spent the whole day in the field about his military affairs divided the night also for three severall uses one part for his sleep a second for the Commonwealth and publike business the third for his studies Peacham He translated Gregories Pastorals Bâ—les History and Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiae into the Saxon tongue and began to do the like with Davids Psalmes In divinis libris sacra lectione tam assiduus erat quod Davidicum Psalterium vel aliquem alium librum aedisicâ—â—torium in sinu suo semper ferret viros literatissimâ—s de terris exteris ad se accersens aliquandiu in Palatio suo secum pro sacris literis addiscendis retentos demum diversis praelatiis dignitatibus premoveret Ingulphi Historia p. 870. vide plura ibid. p. 871. He restored the decayed University of Oxford by fixing therein a Colledge now bearing the name of Vniversity-Colledge and annexed ample maintenance unto it He divided his Kingdome into Shires Hundreds and Tithings for the better ordering and administring of justice and for the abandoning of theeves which had formerly encreased by the meanes of long Warres whereby notwithstanding the multitude of Souldiers continually imployed
the eighth reckons him amongst other learned men of the Kings Progenitors The chiefest of his works for the service of God and good of his Subjects was the translation of the Bible into the Saxon tongue which was then the mother-tongue of the Land out of the Hebrew Of this work Leyland also speaks in the work before-mentioned His Laws are mentioned by Lambard in his Saxon Laws He raigned in great honour the space of fifteen years and odd moneths Edmund The twenty sixth King of the West Saxons and twenty seventh Monarch of the English men The good Laws he made are extant in Saxon and Latine by the industry of Mr William Lambard He had by his Queen Elgina two sons Edwin and Edgarus sirnamed Pacificus which both raigned after him By him were expelled the Danes Scots Normans and all forraign enemies out of the Land He raigned six years and a half At his Mannor of Puclekerkes in the County of Glocester whilest he interposed himself between his Sewer and one Leof to part a fray he was with a thrust through the body wounded to death when he had prosperously raigned the space of five years and seven moneths Rogerus de Hoveden annal part 1. Malmesbury l. 2. c. 7. and others say this Leof was a thief which the King espying at a festivall he pulled him by the hair and cast him to the ground but he drawing out his weapon stabbed the King Vide Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. Edred The twenty seventh King of the West Saxons and twenty eighth Monarch of the English men He suffered his body to be chastised at the will and direction of Dunstan Abbot of Glassenbury unto whose custody he also committed the greatest part of his treasure and richest Jewels to be lockt in his chests and under the keys of this Monastery where it remained till the King fell sick of his last sickness at which time it was demanded but never restored for Dunstan being on his journey with the same to the King a voice from heaven spake unto him and said Behold King Edred is now departed in peace at the hearing of which words his horse immediately fell down and died Whereupon he returned again to his Monastery and though he lost his horse yet was he recompenced thereby with the gain of the Kings treasure and Jewels He raigned in great honour nine years and odd moneths Edwin or Edwy The twenty eighth King of the West Saxons and twenty ninth Monarch of the English men He was but thirteen years old when he began to raign He was Nephew to Edred He favoured not the Monkes which made them write so scandalously of him He thrust them out of Malmesbury and Glassenbury placing married Priests in their room and banished Dunstan their great Champion into Flanders The true causes of his banishing him ejecting the Monkes and seizing their lands and treasures was that Dunstan had so bewitched Edmund Edward Aethelstan and Aedred his predecessours with the love of Monkery as they not only took violently from married Priests their livings to erect Monasteries but also lavishly wasted much of their own royall treasures lands and revenues upon them which they should rather have imployed in resisting the common enemies of God and their Countrey the Danes Ioscelin the Author of Antiq. Brit. Bishop Godwin Speed and others conceive that the true cause why the Mercians and Northumbrians and those only not the rest of his Subjects and Kingdome rejected him and set up his Brother Edgar whose vices were more exorbitant in some degrees than Edwins was the malice of Dunstan and Odo the pillars and Oracles of the Monkish Clergy who stirred up the Mercians and seditious rebellious Northumbrians against him to set up Edgar in his stead who was totally devoted to them and Dunstan by whose counsels he was afterwards wholly guided and built no less than forty seven new Monasteries for the Monks besides all those he repaired intending to build three more had he lived to make them fifty compleat He raigned but four years CHAP. VII EDGAR THe thirtieth Monarch of the English men The Raign of this King is said to have been altogether in a calm tranquillity and therefore he was sirnamed Pacificus the Peaceable His vertues were many and vices not a few the one gloriously augmented and the other fairly excused by those Monkish writers unto whose professions he was most favourable Tunc ordo Monasticus jamjudum lapsus pâ—acipuè caput erexit Malmesb. l. 2. c. 8. He unravelling the web his Brother had weaved recalled Dunstan out of banishment and made him Archbishop of Canterbury His Summer progresses and yearly chief pastimes were the sayling round abouâ— this whole Isle of Albion guarded with his grand Navy of four thousand sail at the least parted into four equall parts of petty Navies each being of a thousand Ships Dee's Brittish Monarchy p. 56 57. he calls him there that Saxonicall Alexander See more there and p. 55 58 59 60. He appointed the Prince of North Wales to bring him yearly three hundred skins of Wolves for a tribute which continued for three years space but in the fourth was not a Wolf to be found and so the tribute ceased Upon the River Dee he had seven petty Kings to row his Barge to shew his greatness He was very lascivious Leges apprimè utiles tulit quas vetustas in oblivionem fermè adduxit Of his Laws vide Lambardum de prisâ—is Anglorum legibus It is sure enough there have not been more famous men than some of no great stature as the instance of King Pipin in the French History and this King in our own will make manifest In the time that the Saxons had this Realm in subjection he had subdued all the other Kings Saxons and made them his Tributaries On a time he had tâ—all all with him at dinner and after it was shewed him that Rynaud King of Scots had said that he wondered how it should happen that he and other Kings that were tall and great personages would suffer themselves to be subdued by so little a body as Edgar was Edgar dissembled and answered nothing but faining to go on hunting took with him the Scottish King in his company and purposely withdrew him from them that were with him causing by a secret servant two swords to be conveyed into a place in the forrest by him appointed As soon as he came thither he took the one sword and delivered the other to Rynaud bidding him to prove his strength and to essay whether his deeds would ratifie his words Turpe est enim Regi in convivio esse dicaculum nec esse in praelio promptulum Whereat the Scottish King being abashed beholding the noble conrage of Edgâ—r with an horrible fear confessed his errour desiring pardon which he with most humble submission at the last obtained For his excellent vertues and prosperouâ— Raign he was called
Honor deliciae Anglorum Malmesbury Or as Ingulphus ter meth him Honor Rosa Regum In his time all Ecclesiasticall Orders flourished learned and vertuous men were highly esteemed all Civil and forrign Warres ceased and he was called the King of Albion being no less powerfull by Sea than by Land Mexia's Treasury of time vol. 2. l. 7. c. 1. He was Angliciorbis flos decus nâ—â—n minus memâ—rabilis â—â—nglis quam Cyrus Persis Romulus Romanis Alexander Macedonibus Arsaces Parthis Carolus Magnus Francis as Malmesbury Abbot Ethelred Florentius Wigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Henry Huntingdon Matthew Westminster Râ—ger de Hoveden and others record of him Immediately after his death Res spes Anglorum retro sublapsae sunt totius Regni status est perâ—urbatus post tempus laetitiae quod illius tempore vigebat pacified caepit tribulatio undique advenire as Malmesbury Wigorniensis Hoveden Simeon Dunelmensis and Bromton observe Such an incomparable loss was the death of so just pious and prudent a King to the whole Nation Qui 〈◊〉 vitiâ— posâ—e◠〈◊〉 virtutibus deleviâ— when most others do quite contrary He raigned sixteen yeares and two moneths in great tranquillity and honour and died in the 37th year of his age After Edgar's death the Danes so plagued this Realm that there was nothing setled in it either in Church or State till finally they obtained the Kingdome The Danes raigned in England 25. years But Speed saith they molested England for two hundred eighteen years See Ayscu his Declaration of the first Inhabitants of this Island The Danes by strength caused Husbandmen to ear and sow the land and to do all other vile labour that belonged unto Husbandry and the Dane held his wise at pleasure with daughter and servant When the Husbandman came home he should scantly have of his own as his servants had so that the Dane had all at his commandement and did eat and drink his fill of the best when the owner had scant his fill of the worst Besides this the common people were so oppressed by them that for fear and dread they called them in every such house as they had rule of Lâ—rd Dane But in process of time after the Danes were voided the Land this word Lord Dane was in derision and despight of the Danes turned by English men into a name of reproach called Lurdane which yet is not forgotten for if one English man will rebuke another he will say Thou art but a Lurdane Grafton Edward sirnamed the Martyr The thirty first Monarch of the English men He began his Raign at twelve years of age Adolescens summae sanctitatis frugi ea modestia regnare caepit ut omnibus charissimus esseâ— quippe qui paternas virtutes gnaviter imitabatur Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. The end of this young King was lamentable being stabbed by his Stepmothers treachery when he was drinking a cup of wine on Horseback when he in kindness came to visit her through which wound fainting and falling from his Horse he was dragged to death by his foot intangled in the stirrop He raigned three years and six some say eight moneths CHAP. VIII ETHELRED FOx calls him Egelred or Elred The two and thirtieth Monarch of the English men He was a man neither for ward in action nor fortunate in proceedings and therefore commonly called the unready He defiled the Font at his Baptism with his ordure whereupon Dunstan being troubled in his mind by the Lord said he and his blessed mother this childe shall prove a sloathfull person He was half Brother to King Edward who was treacherously murdered and so much lamented his Brothers murder saith Malmesbury l. 2. c. 10. being then but a childe of ten years old and so detested it that his Mother Elfrida falling therewith in a rage took wax Candles having nothing else at hand wherewith she scourged him so sore well near till he swouned that after the same he could never abide any wax Candles to butâ— befor him Of his Laws vide Lambardum de priscis Anglorum legibus The Danes grew upon him so fiercely that he was forced to purchase his peace from them with great summes of money to the undoing of his poor Kingdome To put a period to this insufferable vassâ—lage a bloudy massacre was executed upon them by the Kings secret Commission on St Brices day but such bruitish courses never find a wished close He most unfortunately raigned thirty seven years and nine dayes Edmund sirnamed Ironside The thirty third Monarch of the English men and the third son to Ethelred He was of personage tall for courage hardy strong of limmes and well could endure the travels of Warre whence some conceive that sirname was given him not for that he used to go alwayes in armour as some would have it He fought with Cnute a royall single duâ—ll first on horseback then on â—oot in the Isle of Olerenge or Olney near Glocester in the midst of Severn in the view of both their Armies with extraordinary courage and equall success till they were both quite tired but neither of them vanquished At last upon Cnuâ—es motion they began to parly in a friendly manner and divided the Realm between them Edmund enjoying that part which lay coasted upon France and Canutus entred upon the rest But Ironside enjoyed not long his part for Duke Edrick a very compound of treasons contrived the end of renowned Edmund who being retired to a place for natures necessity he thrust from under the draught a sharp spear into his body and having thus murthered him he cut off his head presenting it to Canutus with this â—awning salutation All hail thou now sole Monarch of England for herâ— behold the head of thy Co-partner which for thy sake I have adventured to cut off Canutus though ambitious enough of Soveraignty yet abhorring in his heart so detestable a murther and knowing that he who was faithless to his naturall Soveraign would never be faithfull to him a stranger commanded his head to be divided from his shoulders and placed upon the highest gate in London Mors hujus Principis sanè miserabilis fuit tum quod florem ejus aetatis rapuerit tum quod totum regnum in praeceps dederit His Raign continued only seven moneths in which time he fought seven or eight Battels in defence of his Countrey People and their Liberties By his untimely death the Saxonâ—Monarchy â—Monarchy was devolved to the Danes CHAP. IX The Danes Monarchs CANUTUS THe first Danish King raigning in England and the thirty fourth Monarch of the English men He is more truly called Cnute Cui ex magnitudine rerum gestarum magni nomen accessit Krantzii hist. Daniae l. 4. A valiant and prudent Prince This Invader of Ironside's Kingdome the better to secure his Empire against Prince Alfred and Edward Edmunds Brothers married Emma his Queen After this marriage to
establish his Monarchy over England he endeavoured by all means to reconcile the English to him 1. By advancing some of the English Nobility to places of honour and trust 2. By granting to the English equall rights and priviledges with his Danes in consessu in consilio in praelio and advancing them both alike 3. By favouring and inriching the English Clergy and Church-men and manifesting extraordinary piety devotion bounty in repairing building endowing Monasteries and Churches throughout the Realm 4. By easing them of his Danish Forces 5. By ratifying all their former good old fundamentall Laws rights liberties priviledges which they used enjoyed under their Saxon Kings by enacting other good wholsome Laws repealing all unjust Laws and redressing all exactions and grievances A company of flatterers which extolled his greatness and power to be unmatchable he caused to place him in a chair where the Sea ebbs and flowes at South-hampton that by the disobedience of the Tide that would not stop at his command but presumed to dash his royall garments they might learn how low man is at the highest and not to applaud his fortune but fear his fall He acknowledged God alone to be King of this great Element because the Sea is his and he made it The flatterers of Alexander the great made him believe that he was the son of Iupiter but being one day sore hurt and seeing the blood gush out of his wounds What think you of this said he unto them Is not this blood of a lively red hew and meerly humane He was the greatest Prince of power that ever before him raigned over the English people England Denmarke Norway some adde also part of Sweden together with Scotland were wholly subject unto him Filiam suam Imperatori Romano cum ineffabilibus divitiis maritavit Hunting hist. l. 6. In a Parliament at Oxford he made good Laws whereof these were some that concern Religion First For the celebration of divine service it was ordained that all Ceremonies tending to the increase of reverence and devotion should be used as need required Secondly That upon the Sabbath day all publick Fairs Markets Synods Huntings and all secular actions should be forborn unless some urgent necessity should require it Thirdly That every Christian should thrice in the year receive the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper Fourthly That a married woman convict of adultery should have her nose and ears cut off Krantzius much extols him as the most famous of the Kings of Denmarke He was a just Prince in all saving his tyranny against the two young Princes the sons of Edmond The lustre of this new erected Monarchy had no sooner displayed its beams in Canutus but like an unthrifty Taper it began to glimmer in Harold and absolutely expired in Hard knute who dying issueless the current of royalty ran back again into the channell of the Saxon bloud which flowed in the veinsâ— of Edward sirnamed the Conâ—essor Philpot's Preface to his Villare Cantianum After he had in great glory reigned about nineteen years he deceased at Shafiesbury in the County of Dorset and was buried in the Church of the old Monastery at Winchester where Queen Emma made her abode ever after Harold The second Danish King raigning in England and the thirty fifth Monarch of the Land He was called Hare-foot by reason of his swiftness Canutus had him by a Concubine a Shoomakers daughter This base son of Cnute dispossessed his legitimate son Harde-Cnute of the Crown of England contrary to Cnutes will and contract banished and spoiled Queen Emma of her treasure and Jewels oppressed the people with taxes and was soon cut off by death without any issue He was an oppresser of his people and vitious He raigned four years and four moneths He was neither in Warres so hardy nor in Government so prosperous as his Father Canutus before him had been Harde-Canute The third Danish King that raigned in England and the thirty sixth Monarch of the English men For his noble courage he was called Harde-Canutus The first great Prince of the house of Burgundy was Philip sirnamed the Hardy His recalling his Mother Emma and half Brother Edward and entertaining them respectively deserves commendation His Epicurism left an ill custome to all posterity Four times a day his Table must be covered to invite men to intemperancy through which at a marriage he is thought to have choaked himself at Lambeth most rejoycing to be rid of him in memory whereof Hock-tide a Feast of scorning or triumphing was a long time continued after The English men learned of him their excessive gormandizing and unmeasurable filling of themselves with meates and drinkes At the death of this King died all rule of the Danes in this Land after they had miserably afflicted the Kingdome for the space of two hundred and forty yeares though in Regall government but only six and twenty under these three last Kings He raigned two yeares lacking ten dayes The Danes ruled in this Land almost thirty yeares and raged without all rule about three hundred and fifty Lamberts Perambulation of Kent CHAP. X. Edward the Confessor THe son of King Ethelred the thirty seventh Monarch of the English men He was born at Islip near unto Oxford and tenderly educated by Queen Emma his Mother and after his Fathers death for safety sent into France He was the last King of the Saxon race Such was the opinion conceived of his holiness of life as that shortly after his decease he was canonized amongst the Saints and named Edward the Confessour To gain the more love of his Subjects at his first entrance he remitted the taxe of forty thousand pounds yearly gathered by the name of Dane-gilt so grevous to the Commons Fertur Edwardus Confessor teste Ingulpho cùm se daemonem vidisse super dcervo Daingeldi exultantem protestatus esset aspectunique exhorruisset collecium illico restitui jussâ—sse retento ne iota uno feram exactionem perpetuum relaxasse Spelmanni Glossarium Danegaldi redditio propter pyratas primitus statuta est Hoved. dnnal pars posrerior p. 603. vide plura ibid. He collected the Laws of his predecessors into a body for the administration of justice which some say are the ground of our Common-Law though the pleading be altered since the Norman conquest He found the Realm governed by three different Laws the West-Saxon Law the Mereian Law and the Dane Law Out of these three Lawes partly moderated and partly supplied he composed one body of Law commonly called St Edwards Laws which were of so great equity that when they were abrogated by the Conquerour and the Crown fell into controversie between Maud the Empress and King Stephen the people alwayes inclined to favour that part who put them in fairest hope of restitution of those Laws And afterwards in many Civil dissensions the greatest demand of the people appeareth to have been the restitution of King
his Father At a time upon the repulse of a certain suit the Archbishop brake forth into discontentment expostulated sharply against the King and in a humorous heat offered to depart But the King stayed him fell down at his feet desired pardon and promised satisfaction in the best manner that he could The Nobility which were present put the Archbishop in minde that he should cause the King to arise nay answered the Archbishop let him alone let him still abide at St. Peters feet So with much ado he was appeased and entreated to accept his suit By reason of sickness he kept his chamber a long time whereat the French King scoffing said The King of England lyeth long in Childbed Which when it was reported unto King William he answered When I am Churched there shall be a thousand lights in France alluding to the lights that Women used to bear when they were Churched and that he performed within few dayes after wasting the French Frontiers with fire and sword Malmesb. de Wilielmo primo l. 4. Some of the Earls conspiring against him he perceiving his estate to be now brought into no small danger and loath to put all upon the hazard and fortune of a Battell against men so well provided and with desperation armed as a man perplexed entred into consultation with Lâ—nfrancke then Archbishop of Canterbury what course were now best for him to take for the appeasing of these so great and dangerous troubles By whose advice he came to a parl with the English Nobility where after much reasoning and debating of the matter a peace was at length concluded and agreed upon so that the English men laying down their Arms the Conquerour in the presence of the Archbishop Lanfrancke and others took a solemn Oath upon the holy Evangelists and all the reliques of the Churches of St. Albans from thence forth to observe and keep the good and ancient Laws of the Realm which the noble Kings of England his Predecessors had before made and ordained but especially those of St. Edwarâ— of all others supposed to be most equall and indifferent for the geneâ—all good of the people He courteously received and honourably maintained Edgar Etheling in his Court allowing him a pound weight of silver every day to spend a rare example of a victorious Conqueror shewed upon a man so unconstant who twice had broken his Oath of fidelity and dangerous to be so near unto his person being as he was a competitor of his Crown During all his Raign either the sword was not put up into the scabbard or if it were the hand was alwayes upon the hilt ready to draw it So unwilling on the one part were the English men to bear the yoke and so haughty on the other part were the Norman Conquerors that to be called an English man was in their eyes a great concumely insomuch as it made some of the more light-conceited of the English to seek to better their esteem by imitating the Normans both in apparrell and language which among the graver sort bred the Proverb that Jack would be a Gentleman if he could speak French He favoured learned men and drew out of Italy Lanfrancke Anselme Durand Trahern and divers others famous at that time for learning and piety 'T is better with William Hunter than with William the Conqueror 'T is better to have a name in the Book of Martyrs than in the Book of Chronicles Mr. Nortons life of Mr. Iohn Cotton Perceiving his own defects in some points for want of learning he did exhort his children oftentimes to learning with this saying An unlearned Prince is a crowned Ass which speech took great impression in his son Henry This is one speciall honour attributed unto him that from him we begin the Computation of our Kings of England From the Normans bearing of Armes began amongst us Ab eo posteriores series Regum inchoavere perinde acsi de integro ille regnum ipsum instituâ—isset Regesque qui seâ—uti sunt usi similiter sunt ut nunc utuntur insignibus Regiis quae dedisset Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 9. Nostrates priusquam in Angliam penetrasset Wilielmus primus hunc armorum cultum à Normannis videntur accepisse Spelmanni Aspilegia p. 40. Vide etiam p. 44. He ended his life upon the ninth day of September full both of honour and of age when he had raigned twenty years eight moneths and sixteen dayes in the threescore and fourth year of his age His dead body was not only abandoned but left almost naked upon the ground Being conveyed from Roan where he died to Cane one Fitz Arthur denied the King buriall in the Abbey-Church as ground which was wrongfully taken by the King from his Father till he had a hundred pounds paid him for it Mr. Ienkyn in his Exposition of the Epistle of Iude vers 4. p. 351. saith Of our twenty five Monarchs since the Conquest thirteen taking in three who are thought to be poysoned are said to have had violent and untimely deaths CHAP. XII K. William the second sirnamed Rufus or the Red. KIng William the first took to wife Matilde daughter to Baldwin Earl of Flanders a man for his wisdome and power both reverenced and feared even of Kings but because she was his Cousin-germane he was for his marriage excommunicate by his own Uncle Mauger Archbishop of Roan Hereupon he sued to Pope Victor and obtained of him a dispensation and afterwards so wrought that by a provinciall Counsell his Uncle Mauger was deprived of his dignity This King had by his Wife four sons Robert Richard William and Henry Robert his eldest son sirnamed Courtcuise by reason of the shortness of his thighs succeeded him in the Duchy of Normandy He was a man of exceeding honourable courage and spirit for which cause he was so esteemed by the Christian Princes in the great Warre against the Saracens that when they had subdued the City and Territory of Hierusalem they offered the Kingdome thereof first unto him The King of England to whom the Schola Salernitana was dedicated was this Robert eldest son of the Duke of Normandy which begins thus Anglorum Regi scribit Schola tota Salerni and it seems to be written when this Robert returned out of Palestina into Apulia and by reason of a Fistula from his poysoned wound he had consulted with the School of Salerne concerning it and preserving his health Neither doth that hinder that this Book is written to the King of England but Robert never raigned here for the Kingdome of right belonged to him which his younger Brother William Rufus possessed in his absence and for recovering of that he warred with his Brother but was overcome by him Richard had raised the good expectation of many as well by his comely countenance and behaviour as by his lively and generous spirit But he died young by misadventure
Rosa munda Non redolet sedolet quae redolere solet Being much incensed against Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury he once cried out Me miserum non possum in meo regno pacem cum uno sacerdote habere nec quisquam meorum omnium est qui me hac molestia liberare velit Which words were so interpreted by some that it occasioned his death Stapleton a Jesuit put forth a Book entituled Tres Thomae St. Thomas the Apostle Thomas of Becket and Sir Thomas More He canonizeth the two last and writes far more of them then of the first For the death of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury he was scourged with rods by the Monks of Canterbury and had eighty lashes Geffery Archbishop of Yorke and base son to King Henry the second used proudly to protest by his faith and the Royalty of the King his father To whom one said You may sometimes Sir as well remember what was the honesty of your mother Petrus Blesensis was Archdeacon of Bath under him There was a very strange presage of his death by a Meer or Pool in Normandy for all the Fishes therein leapt forth on land in the night time and fought together with such a dreadfull noise that men came in great numbers to behold the wonder and not one Fish could be found alive in the Pool Other strange accidents are also reported When he died there were found in his Coffers nine hundred thousand pounds besides Plate and Jewels His youngest son was called Iohn Lackland because he had no land assigned him in his fathers time Titles he lacked none for his father had made him Earl of Cornwall Dorset Sommerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster He raigned thirty four yeares seven moneths and five dayes CHAP. XV. RICHARD the first HE was for his valour sirnamed Coeur de Lion or the Lions heart Hugh Nevill a Gentleman of noble linage one of King Richards speciall familiars is recorded to have slain a Lion in the holy land driving first an Arrow into his brest and then running him through with his Sword Whereupon this Hexameter was made Viribus Hugonis vires periere Leonis The strength of Hugh a Lion slew Which atchievment belike was transferred from the man to the Master and the Story applied to the King by name of King Richard Coeur de Lion But this is only Weevers opinion He was crowned at Westminster by Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury He being at dinner in his Hall of Westminster hearing the French King besieged Vernoyâ—e he swore that he would never turn his face till he had fought with him if he did abide and caused the wall to be broken before him and so passed to Normandy and receiving his brother Iohn to mercy raised the siege for the French King fled as soon as he heard of Kings Richards coming A Prince of a most haughty mind and full of resolution born for the Weal of Christendome the honour of England and the terrour of Infidels With the beams of his victories atchieved in Cypres and Syria he made our Countrey of England most famous and renowned through the world He had trained up in his Court a Rymer or Minstrell called Blondell de Neste who being so long without the sight of his Lord his life seemed wearisome to him It was known that he came back from the holy land but none could tell in what Countrey he arrived Whereupon this Blondell resolving to make search for him in many Countries but he would hear some news of him after expence of divers dayes in travell he came to a Town by good hap near to the Castle where his Master King Richard was kept Of his Host he demanded to whom the Castle appertained and the Host told him it belonged to the Duke of Austria Then he enquired whether any prisoner was there detained or no for alwayes he made such secret questionings wheresoever he came and the Host answered that there was one only prisoner but he knew not what he was and yet he had been detained there more then the space of a year When Blondell heard this he used such meanes that he became acquainted with them of the Castle as Minstrels do easily win acquaintance any where but see the King he could not neither understand that it was he One day he sate directly before a window of the Castle where King Richard was kept prisoner and began to sing a song in French which King Richard and Blondell had sometime composed together When King Richard heard the song he knew it was Blondell that sung it and when Blondell paused at half of the song the King entreated him to sing the rest Thus Blondell won knowledge of the King his Master and returning home into England made the Barons of the Countrey acquainted where the King was Whereas before his time the City of London was governed by Portgraves he granted them to be governed by two Sheriffs and a Maior as now it is Iohn the Kings brother making an incursion up to Beauvois where the Bishop being also an Earl of the royall bloud and the eleventh Peer of France valiantly fighting was taken in the skirmish armed at all points and bravely mounted on whose behalf the Pope upon the Bishops humble suit pleading the Clergies immunity wrote somewhat earnestly to King Richard to set his very dear son for so he called the Bishop at liberty The King in a kind of pleasant earnestness caused the Habergeon and Curaces of the Bishop to be presented to the Pope with this question Vide an tunica filii tui sit an non Whereupon the Pope replied That he was neither his son nor the son of the Church and therefore should be ransomed at the Kings will because he was rather judged to be a servitor of Mars then a souldier of Christ. In his time were those famous Out-laws called Robin-hood and Little Iohn He was wounded in the arm by an Arrow shot at him out of a Cross-bow by Peter Bisile of which wound he died within four dayes after CHAP. XVI King Iohn WHose Raign had it not fallen in the time of so turbulent a Pope so ambitious neighbour-Princes so disloyall Subjects nor his Story into the hands of exasperated Writers he had appeared a King of as great renown as misfortunes His overhasty undertakings brought in those broyls of the Barons Wars Before this Kings time we seek in vain for any great Councel He first as may be gathered though darkly by the Record used their Councels and Assents in the sixth year of his Raign He had by his Wife Isabel a son Henry who succeeded him in the Kingdome In his voyage towards Ireland as he was in his journey in the borders of Wales there was one taken and brought before him who had killed a Priest The Officer desired to understand the Kings pleasure what he would have done to him Let him
go saith the King for he hath slain mine enemy Seeing one cut up a very fat Stag in his presence said he How easily and happily hath this creature lived yet he never heard Mass. Mr. Fox seems to approve of this speech as deriding the Mass though others say it was an Atheisticall speech In his Raign the Citizens of London first obtained of the King to choose yearly a Maior In whose time also the Bridge of London was first builded of stone which before was of wood Most Writers testifie that he was poysoned by a Monk of Swinsted-Abbey in Lincolnshire who to poyson him wittingly and willingly poysoned himself He died in the year of his age fifty and one and after he had raigned seventeen years six moneths and twenty seven dayes He lieth buried at Worcester-Colledge in the Quire there King HENRY the third He was happy in his Uncle the Earl of Pembroke the guide of his infancy and no less for thirty years whilest De Burgo the last servant of his Fathers against the French both in Normandy and England with Bigot Earl of Norfolke and others of like gravity and experience did manage the affairs The Author of the troublesome life and Raign of King Henry the third He was of a middle stature Robustus viribus sed praeceps in factis Matthew Paris He was crowned at Glocester by Peter Bishop of Winchester and Iosceline Bishop of Bath in the presence of Walo the Popes Legate Octob. 28. 1216. And after peace concluded with the Barons by Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury at Westminster on Whitsunday an 1219. In his Raign the Popes authority in England was at the highest He heard three Masses a day In a solemn conference between him and St. Lewis King of France the only devout Kings of that age when the French King said he had rather hear Sermons then Masses our King replied that he had rather see his loving friend meaning Christs reall presence in the Sacraments then to hear never so much good of him by others in Sermons He had a son by Elenor his wife whom he named Edward for the memory of Edward the Confessor who raigned a little before that the Normans vanquished England At whose birth appeared a Star of great magnitude for some dayes before the Sun rising which moved swiftly one while making a shew of fire another while leaving smoak behind it by which prodigy saith Polydore Virgil the future amplitude of Edward the father and the smalness and vanity of his son which he begat afterwards was declared as it were by an Oracle He had another son Edmund Crouchbacke so called not because he was crooked or deformed but because he wore the Cross upon his back or on his Buckler which he wore constantly at his back to shew that he had vowed to go to Ierusalem to recover the holy Sepulchre In the year 41 of his Raign the King held a Parliament at Oxford which was called Insanum Parliamentum that is to say the mad Parliament For in this Parliament were made many Acts against the Kings prerogative and pleasure for the reformation of the state of the Land which after turned to the confusion and hurt of the Land and the death and destruction of many noble men so that by occasion thereof began that hatefull strife called at this day the Barons War whereof ensued much trouble and mischief He was pressed by his Nobles Bishops and others to pass the great Charter in the ninth year of his Raign His son Edward the first in the twenty fifth of his Raign confirmed the great Charter The great Charter of England passed from this King for which the English men had no less striven than the Trojans for their Helena Lambard saith he may call that great Charter of the Liberties of England the first Letters of manumission of the people of this Realm out of the Norman servitude Matthew Paris the learned Monk of Saint Albans lived in his time and was highly esteemed by him Et cum esset cum ipso continue in mensa in palatio in thalamo qui haec scripsit direxit scribentis calamum satis diligenter amicahiliter In another place he speaks of his bold reproving the King Verstegan sayes the Sidneys are of a French extraction that they came over into England in Henry the thirds dayes Arms as honourary dignities and generous distinctions between family and family and person and person have been undoubtedly born from his time since which there is sufficient proof of them and though long before that many Families might be rich potent and noble yet some of them either had no Arms as many yet in Ireland have not or else kept no constant Coat but gave sometimes their paternall otherwhiles their maternall or aadopted Coats Mr. Waterhouse his discourse of Arms and Armory He raigned fifty six yeares and twenty dayes the longest number of years that ever any King of England raigned CHAP. XVII King EDWARD the first HE was absent in the holy Land when his father died At his first coming to the holy Land he rescued the great City of Acon from being surrendred to the Sultan after which out of envy to his valour one Anzazim a desperate Saracen who had often been employed to him from their Generall being one time upon pretence of some secret message admitted alone into his chamber with a poysoned knife gave him three wounds in the body two in the arm and one in the armpit which had been mortall if out of unspeakable love the Lady Elenor his wife had not suckt out the poison of his wounds with her mouth and licked them with her tongue and thereby effected a cure which otherwise had been incurable So soveraign a medicine saith Speed is a womans tongue annointed with the vertue of loving affection Leaving Garrisons in fit places for defence of the Countrey he with his wife Elenor takes his journey homewards and first passing by Sicilie was there most kindly received by Charles King of that Island where he first heard of his fathers death which he took more heavily far then he had taken the death of his young son Henry whereof he had heard a little before at which when King Charles marvelled he answered that other sons might be had but another father could never be had He was protected by the divine hand from his Childhood being young and playing one time at Chess with a friend in the midst of his game without any apparent occasion he removed himself from the place where he sate when suddenly there fell from the roof of the house a great stone which if he had stayed in the place but never so little had beaten out his brains The like is recorded of Luther that as he was sitting in a certain place upon his stool a great stone there was in the Vault over his head
overlaid Well then said the King return and tell them who sent you That so long at my son is alive they send no more to me whatever happen for I will that the honour of the day be his And so at last the English obtained the greatest victory they ever yet had against the French There were there found the dead bodies of eleven great Princes and of Barons Knights and men of Arms above one thousand and five hundred of the Commons above thirty thousand Not one man of honour or note slain upon the English side King Edward after the Battell aftectionately embracing and kissing his victorious son said Fair son God send you good perseverance to so prosperous beg innings you have nobly acquit your self and are well worthy to have the governance of a Kingdome entrusted to you for your valour Sir Eustace Rihamant in the encounter at Calis-Gate between Sir Walter Manny and the Lord Charney met with King Edward who disguising himself in common armour served under the banner of Sir Walter Manny and fought so stoutly with him that he stroke the King twice down on his knees but in the end the King took him prisoner and then he yeelded his Sword to the King but knowing what he was said thus Sir Knight I yeeld me as your prisoner upon which cause the King came after supper to him and with a merry countenance said thus to the Knight Sir Eustace you are the Knight in the world that I have seen most valiant either in assault of enemies or defence of himself I never â—ound Knight that gave so much ado body to body as ye have done this day wheâ—efore I give you the prize above all the Knights of my Court by right sentence and herewithall the King being bare-headed having a Chaplet of fine pearls that he ware on his head took the same Chaplet from off his head being fair goodly and rich and said to the Knight I give you this Chaplet for the best doer in Arms in this journey past of either party and I desire you to bear it this year for the love of me I know well you be fresh and amorous and oftentimes are among doubty Knights and fair Ladies yet say wheresoever ye come that the King of England did give it you and I quite your prison and ransome depart to morrow if it please you whereupon the Knight did not only wear the same Chaplet in remembrance of so gracious a benevolence of so worthy a Prince but also did bear after in his Arms three Chaplets garnished of pearls Fern his Glory of Generosity p. 210 211. Mr. Wren in his Monarchy asserted p. 125. saith The successes of the English in France alwayes followed the person of the Prince with us Edward the third and Henry the fifth wise and valiant Princes gaining Richard the second and Henry the sixth weak Princes losing with them Iohn and Charles the sixth men of no ability losing Charles the fifth and Charles the seventh brave Princes recovering Edward the black Prince of Wales who so long governed our Countrey of Guienne a man whose conditions and fortune were accompanied with many notable parts of worth and magnanimity having been grievously offended by the Limosins though he by main force took and entered their City could by no means be appeased nor by the wailfull out-cries of all sorts of people as of men women and children be moved to any pitty they prostrating themselves to the common slaughter crying for mercy and humbly submitting themselves at his feet untill such time as in triumphant manner passing through their City he perceived three French Gentlemen who alone with an incredible and undaunted boldness gainstood the enraged violence and made head against the fury of his victorious Army The consideration and respect of so notable a vertue did first abate the dint of his wrath and from these three began he to relent and shew mercy to all the other inhabitants of the Town Michael Lord of Montaigne his Essayes l. 1. c. 1. Having had great victories against the French and other neighbouring Nations he instituted the Order of the Garter and consecrated it to St. George He appointed a Garter to be the Ensign of this Order wrought richly with gold and precious stones which should circle the leg beneath the knee and on it to have these words apparently discerned Honi Soit Qui Mal Y â—ense Shame to him which evil thinks The number of these Knights are twenty six whereof the King himself is the chief These Knights wear the Ensign of Saint George fighting with a Dragon fastened to a rich Chain or Collar which weighed and was worth eighty pounds of English money See Montaigne his Essayes l. 2. c. 7. of the words of honour About this time the famous Dr. Iohn Wicklef a man of sharp wit profound learning and of great judgement did in the University of Oxford publickly maintain sundry Propositions and dogmaticall points against the Church of Rome His followers were in the phrase of those dark dayes called Lollards whereas in truth they endeavoured to extirpate all pernicious weeds which through time sloath and fraud had crept into the field of Gods Church Such was this Kings courtesie friendly behaviour toward the two captive Kings of France and Scotland while they remained together in England as that hereby he won their love and favour for ever after as appeared by their repair hither to visit the King and Queen and to recreate and solace themselves in their company Thus it came to pass that their captivity here turned more to their own advantage and the peaceable enjoying of their estates after the same then if it had never hapned unto them Mr. Thomas May wrote his victorious Raign in Verse in seven Books He raigned almost one and fifty yeares and lived about sixty five who of all the Kings of the Realm saith Mr. Fâ—x unto Henry the eight was the greatest bridler of the Popes usurped power whereby Iohn Wicklef was maintained with aid sufficient CHAP. XVIII RICHARD the second HE descended from four Edwards of which the first three were succeeding Kings the fourth Prince of Wales sirnamed the black Prince who dying before his father Edward the third did not attain the Crown The Civil Warres of England by Sir Francis Bâ—ondi an Italian He was crowned in the eleventh year of his age and sufficiently shewed the miserable condition of such States as are governed by an Infant King He was the goodliest personage of all the Kings that had been since the conquest The beautifull picture of a King sighing crowned in a Chair of Estate at the upper end of the Quire in St. Peters at Westminster is said to be of him which witnesseth how goodly a creature he was ilâ— outward lineaments Speed He had nothing worthy his great fortunes but his great birth When he had with full hand bestowed upon Simâ—â—â— Montford Earl of Leicester
all the benefits he could yea and given his own sister iâ— marriage he raised a most dangerous War and spoiled shamefully a great part of England under pretence of restoring the Commonwealth and maintaining liberty neither left he any thing undone to bring the King under to change the State of a Mâ—â—â—rchy to bring in an Oligarchy But in the 〈◊〉 after that fortune had for a good while favourably smiled upon him he was slain at Eveshâ—m in Worcestershire with many other of the Barons his Complices by the prowess of Prince Edward 〈…〉 〈…〉 Although the Kingdome endured great Crosses in the affairs of State under this King yet some have thought that it found as great a blessing in matters of Religion which in those dayes took so deep root in this our Land by the preaching of Iohn Wickliffe that the branches thereof did spread themselves even over the Seas Speeds Chronicle He was the onely Son of that famous Cheiftain the black Prince of Wales a renowned son of a renowned father but as a plant transplanted into a savage soyl in degree and disposition wholly degenerate retained a tincture of the light inconstancy of his Mother and the luxuriousness of his great Grandfather Edward the second and running his course came to his end He had in his Court a thousand persons in ordinary allowance of diet three hundred servitors in his Kitchin above three hundred Ladies Chamberers and Landerers His Apparel was sumptuous and so was it generally in his time he had one Coat of gold and stone valued at thirty thousand Marks One interview with the French King at Ards when his Wife Isabel was delivered unto him cost three hundred thousand Markâ— Queen Anne his Wife Daughter to the Emperour Charles the fourth first taught English women the manner of sitting on horseback which now is used whereas before-time they rode very unseemly astride like as men do The Civil Wars in England had their beginning from his bad Government Henry the fourth did first commence them and Henry the fifth suspended them but they again brake forth under Henry the sixth Wat Tyler the Master of the Kentish Rebels was slain with a Dagger by William Walworth Mayor of London close by the Kings side in the Kings defence who was therefore Knighted and the City since giveth for Arms the Dagger He was first deposed then slain Men are easily emboldened saith Guicciardine c. 3. of his History of Italy against a Prince that is fallen into contempt The most current report at that time went that he was Princely served every day at the Table with abundance of costly meats according to the order prescribed by Parliament but was not suffered to taste or touch any one of them and so perished of famine Mr. Fox saith he was at Pamfret Castle famished to death Sir Pierce of Extone at last killed him though he with an Axe wrested out of one of their hands first killed four of those which came with him to murther him At the point of his death he groaned forth these words My great Grandfather King Edward the second was in this manner deposed imprisoned and murthered by which means my Grandfather King Edward the third obtained possession of the Crown and now is the punishment of that injury powred upon his next successor Well this is right for me to suffer but not for you to do your King for a time may joy at my death and enjoy his desire but let him qualifie his pleasures with the expectation of the like justice for God who measureth all our actions by the malice of our minds will not suffer this violence unrevenged He lived three and thirty years raigned two and twenty and three moneths Thus far the Plantagenets have continued in an unquestionable right line now follows the division of the houses of Lancaster York three of each succeeding in their order Of Lancaster Henry the fourth sirnamed Bulling brook Henry the fifth of Monmouth Henry the sixth of Windsor Of Yorke three others succeeded upon a better title 1. Edward the fourth 2. Edward the fifth 3. Richard the third HENRY the fourth He was son to Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster from the loynâ— of whom the greatest number of the Kings of England Spain Portugall since his time as also several other persons of eminent dignity are descended Mr. Dugdalâ—s History of St. Pauls Cathedrall He was annointed with an oyl which a certain religious man gave unto Henry the first Duke of Lancaster Grandfather to the King by the mothers side when he served in the Wars of King Edward the third beyond the seas together with this Prophesie that the Kings which should be annointed therewith should be the Champions of the Church There was a great contest then between the white and red Rose the houses of Yorke and Lancaster The red Rose prevailed now he being the first renowned King of the house of Lancaster He first studied a popular party as needing all to support his titles There was in his Raign a Parliament held at Coventry called Parliamentum indoctorum the lack-learning Parliament either for the unlearnedness of the persons or for their malice to learned men During the time of this Kings Raign execution by fire was first put in practice within this Realm for controversies in points of Religion He shed the bloud of Gods Saints and raigned neither long nor hâ—pâ—ily Mr. Foxâ—aith â—aith his time was full of trouble bloud and misery He was the first of the Kings of England saith he that put out his hand to the shedding of the bloud of the Saints since the conquest Humphrey his son was by his brother King Henry the fifth created Duke of Glocester he was Protector of the Kingdome of England for twenty five years in the time of King Henry the sixth He was a man who nobly deserved of the Commonwealth and of learning as being himself very learned and a magnificent Patron and benefactor of the University of Oxford where he had been educated and was generally called the good Duke Speed This Duke Humphrey purchased a wonderfull number of Books in all Sciences whereof he freely gave to a Library in Oxford a hundred and twenty nine fair Volumes Bales Conclusion to Leylands New years gift to King Henry the eight One saith all the Henries of the house of Lancaster even to Henry the seventh were most eminent for great vertues Henry the fourth for his behaviour and courtesie Henry the fifth for his valour and magnanimity Henry the sixth for his justice and piety The renowned Prince King Henry the fifth during the life of his father was noted to be fierce and of wanton courage One of his servants whom he favoured was for felony by him committed arraigned at the Kings Bench whereof the Prince being advertised and incensed by light persons about him in furious rage came hastily to the Barre
whole should have been of had their sounder raigned to have finished them himself At Towton about four miles from Yorke the Armies of Edward the fourth and King Henry the sixth met where was fought the greatest Battell our Stories mention in all these Civil Wars where both the Armies consisted of above a hundred thousand men and all of our own Nation One day when he was washing his hands at a great Feast and cast his eye upon his son Henry then a young youth he said This is the Lad that shall possess quietly that we now strive for This shewed a very propheticall spirit to have been in King Henry that could so long before foretell a thing so unlikely to happen For this was he that was afterward King Henry the seventh before whom at that time there were many lives in being of both the houses of Yorke and Lancaster so some but my Lord Howard in his Defensative against the poyson of supposed Prophesies c. 4. seems not wholly to ascribe it to that King Henry the seventh after laboured his Canonization with the Pope but that succeeded not for however the world was assured of his piety there was much question of his Government So Habington a Papist in his History of King Edward the fourth Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 24. p. 532. saith thus Sed morte post statim obita id officium praestare nequivit Cambden in his Britannia in Surrey saith it was Pope Iulius and that the reason why this took no effect was the Popes covetousness who demanded too great a summe of money for a Kings Canonization as they term it so that he might seem ready to grant those kind of honours not for the Princes holiness sake but for gold Sir Francis Bacon in his History of Henry the seventh relates it thus About this time the King became suitor to Pope Iulius the second to canonize King Henry the sixth for a Saint the rather in respect of that his famous prediction of the Kings own assumption to the Crown The Pope referred the matter as the manner is to certain Cardinals to take the verification of his holy acts and miracles but it died under the reference The generall opinion was that Pope Iulius was too dear and that the King would not come to his rates But it is more probable that the Pope who was extreamly jealous of the dignity of the See of Rome and of the Acts thereof knowing that King Henry the sixth was reputed in the world abroad but for a simple man was afraid it would but diminish the estimation of that kind of honour if there were not a distance kept between Innocents and Saints William Alnwicke Bishop of Lincoln was his Confessor Dr. Litchfield in his Raign preached 3083 Sermons Never any came to be King so soon after his birth nor left to be King so long before his death for he came to be King at eight moneths old and he left to be King twelve years before his death Holy King Henry as they call him was crowned in Paris yet he lost all on that side before he was a man as I remember or soon after and before his unhappy death he lost this land also which loss of both came by striving for both Richard Duke of Glocester killed him that thereby Edward the fourth his brother might be freed from all hostile fear So Polyd. Virg. and others He successively ruled this Land the space of thirty eight years six moneths and four dayes EDWARD the fourth He came unto the Kingdome not by power or justice but by the peoples inclination Biondi He raigned thirty eight yeares six moneths and odde dayes and after his redemption of the Crown six moneths He lived two and fifty years having by his wife one only soâ— called Edward Prince of Wales He was the goodliest Gentleman saith Commines l. 4. c. 10. that ever I set mine eye on and l. 3. c. 5. the beautifullest Prince that lived in his time but after he grew gross and corpulent giving himself wholly to pleasures He was a fortunate Prince in the field for he wan at least nine great Battels fighting himself on foot in every one of them Phil. de Com. in his Hist. Book l. 3. c. 4. and 6. p. 188. saith that King Edward himself told me that in all Battels that he wan so soon as he had obtained victory he used to mount on Horseback and cry to save the people and kill the Nobles for of them few or none escaped Id. l. 3. c. 5. In his fourth Book c. 10. he speaks of an interview between King Edward and Lewis the eleventh King of France the French King after some discourse said pleasantly That he should come to Paris to solace himself there with the Ladies and that he would give him the Cardinall of Bourbon for his Confessor who would easily assoil him of sin if any were committed The King of England took great pleasure in this talk and answered with a merry countenance for he knew the Cardinall to be a good fellow Never lived Prince whom adversity did more harden to action and prosperity more soften to voluptuousness So improvident was his memory that he forgat the greatest injuries and resumed the Archbishop of Yorke into favour not bearing so much as a watchfull eye over a reconciled enemy The so fatall division between the house of Yorke and Lancaster with him in a manner had both their birth and growth I sing the Civil Wars tumultuous broils And bloudy factions of a mighty Land Whose people haughty proud with forraign spoils Upon themselves turn back their conquering hand Whilest kin their kin brother the brother foils Like Ensigns all against like Ensigns band Bowes against Bowes the Crown against the Crown Whilest all pretending right all right 's thrown down Our English Luean Daniel of the Civil Wars The first fortnight of his Raign was died I will not say stained with the bloud of Walter Walker a Grocer who keeping Shop at the Sign of the Crown in Cheapside said He would make his son heir to the Crown a bold jest broke in an evil time yet do I not side with them who taxe the King of severity in this execution unless I could clear this man from being particularly factious for the house of Lancaster or know that those words were uttered in innocent mirth without any scorn to King Edwards title And however perhaps the extraordinary punishment of such saucy language was not then unnecessary to beget authority and make men cautious to dispute the descent of Princes when the question was so nice and arguments not improbable on either side Habingtons History of Edward the fourth Speed saith his words intended no treason the Grocer not once dreaming to touch King Edwards title yet the time being when the Crown lay at stake the Law made them his death He hearing of a certain prophesie that G.
should dispossess his children of the Crown was consenting to his death interpreting G. to be George Duke of Clarence which fell out to be Glocester to whose tyranny he left them by this ungodly means He vanquished in nine Battels himself being present The Scene of his fortune had more changes then any King of England yet except his Competitor Lust was reputed his bosome-sin God severely punisht him in his sons who were both dispossest of their Kingdome and their lives by their unnaturall Uncle there being so much appearance of right by their fathers incontinency that even an Act of Parliament was made to bastardize them He was the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his Subject His usuall Oath was By Gods blessed Lady He sate on the Kings Bench in open Court three dayes together in Michaelmas Term anno 〈◊〉 of his Raign to understand how his Laws were executed Have we not seen the late King of England Edward the fourth of that name heir of the house of Yorke utterly destroy the house of Lancaster under the which both his father and he had lived many yeares Farther the said King Edward having done homage to King Henry the sixth being of the house of Lancaster did he not afterward hold him prisoner many years in the Tower of London the chief City of the Realm where in the end he was put to death Phil. de Commines hist. l. 5. c. 18. He saith that their King Lewis the eleventh of France in wisdome and sense far surmounted King Edward Lib. 6. c. 2. and l. 5. c. 13. he saith of Lewis undoubtedly he was one of the wisest and subtilest Princes that lived in his time That very day wherein an honourable peace was concluded between Edward the fourth and King Lewis the eleventh upon subscribed Articles it chanced a white Dove as Commines writes to repose her self upon King Edwards pavilion whereupon though many gathered an argument yet since she sate not equally between both the Kings I like much better of a Gascoines observation who having been present at the sight reported unto Philipde Commines as himself records that the Dove repaired to King Edwards Tent only to this intent to refresh and prune her self after a great rain because the Sun was warmest there Howards Defensative c. 24. Richard Nevill Earl of Warwicke was a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrusty the very Tennice-Ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the sixth a most bountifull Price to him from his royall dignity placed Edward the fourth in the royall Throne and afterwards put him down too restored Henry the sixth again to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of Civill War which himself at the length hardly quenched with his own bloud In his spirit birth marriage and revenue he was mighty which raised his thoughts above proportion The greatest and busiest Subject our later age hath brought forth That make-King Warwick having the English Crown Pinn'd on his sleeve to place where he thought best Who set up Princes and did pull them down How did he toyl the Land with his unrest How did his Sword rip up his mothers brests Whose greatness and his popularity Wrought both his own and others tragedy Sir Francis Huberts History of Edward the second Cecil Dutchess of Yorke his mother lived in Henry the sevenths Raign and died at her Castle of Barkhamsted being of extream years who had lived to see three Princes of her body crowned and four murthered He being near his death told his friends that if he could as well have foreseen things as now to his pain he proved them he would never have worn the courtesie of mens knees with the loss of so many heads He raigned two and twenty yeares one moneth and five dayes EDWARD the fifth He was scarce eleven years old when his father died and succeeded him in the Kingdome but not in the Crown for he was proclaimed King but never crowned and indeed it may not so properly be called the Raign of Edward the fifth as the tyranny of Richard the third He hearing that his Uncle had left the name of Protector and taken upon him the title of King and was with full consenting of the Lords to be crowned within a few dayes following with the same Crown and in the like Estate as had been provided for his solemnity the dejected Innocent sighed and said Alass I would my Vncle would let me enjoy my life yet though I lose both my Kingdome and Crown He and his brother Richard were murthered in the Tower Tâ—win brethren in their deaths what had they done O Richard sees a fault that they were in It is not actuall but a mortall one They Princes were 't was their original sin Why should so sweet a pair of Princes lack Their Innocents-day in th' English Almanack Aleyns History of Henry the seventh RICHARD the third He was king in fact only but Tyrant both in title and regiment He was ill featured of limmes crook-backed hard favoured of visage malicious wrathfull envious It is for truth reported that the Dutchess his mother had so much ado in her travail that she could not be delivered of him uncut and that he came into the world with the feet forward and as the same runneth also not untoothed whether men of hatred report above the truth or else that nature changed her course in his beginning which in the course of his life committed many things unnaturally Buck that writes his Raign writes favourably of him but the Chroniclers generally condemn him He was brother to King Edward the fourth and having most wickedly murthered his Nephews usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third and after two years lost both it and his life in a pitched field He slew with his own hands King Henry the sixth being prisoner in the Tower as men constantly said and that without commandement or knowledge of King Edward the fourth who undoubtedly if he had intended his death would have appointed that Butcherly office to some other then his own brother He slew also that Kings son in the presence of Edward the fourth Was the contriver of the death of the Duke of Clarence his brother He bare a white Bore for his Cognisance The Lord Lovell Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby were chief rulers under him of the which persons was made a seditious Rime and fastened upon the Cross in Cheapside and other places of the City It was this The Cat the Rat and Lovell the Dog Rule all England under a Hog For which one Colingborne was executed A Prince who deserved to be ranked among the worst men and the best Kings Yet Sir Francis Bacon in his History of Henry the seventh saith that his good Laws were but the brocage of an usurper
thereby to win the hearts of the people as being conscious to himself that the true obligations of Soveraignty in him failed He put to death Hastings A greater judgement of God then this upon Hastings I have never observed in any Story For the self same day that the Earl Riners Grey and others were without triall of Law or ostence given by Hastings advice executed at Ponfret I say Hastings himself in the same day and as I take it in the same hour in the same Lawless manner had his head stricken off in the Tower of London He had little quiet after the murther of his two Nephews in the Tower of London Sir Iohn Beaumont hath well described Bosworth-field in Verse The night before he was slain he dreamed that he saw divers images of Devils which pulled and haled him not suffering him to take any rest the which vision stroke him into such a troubled mind that he began to doubt what after came to pass Charles the ninth King of France after the massacre in Paris and divers other Cities wherein were slaughtered about thirty thousand never saw good day but his eyes rolled often uncertainly in the day with fear and suspition and his sleep was usually interrupted in the night with dismall dreams and apparitions He being near his end vomited out bloud pittifully by all the conduits of his body as a just judgement for him that barbarously shed it throughout all the Provinces of the Realm He raigned two yeares two moneths and one day CHAP. XIX HENRY the seventh THe fourteen Plantagenets thus expiring with Richard the third five Tudors take their turns in this manner Henry the seventh Henry the eighth Edward the sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth They are called Tudors because Henry the fifth his widow being a French woman married Owen Tudor from whom Henry the seventh did lineally descend In this Nation how hath the Crown walked even since Christs birth from Britains to Saxons Danes Normans Plantagenets Tudors Stuarts Mrs Shawes Tomb-stone This King pretended a six-fold title to the Crown By Conquest Military election of Souldiers in the fields near Bosworth by Parliament by Birth by Donation and Marriage He did never stand upon his marriage with the right heir as the foundation of his right unto the Crown for he knew well enough that if that had been his best and only title though it might make the power good unto his children yet while she was living he must hold the Crown in her right not in his own and if she died before him it was lost Because he was crowned in the field with King Richards Crown found in an Hawthorn-Bush he bare the Hawthorn-Bush with the Crown in it He was crowned the thirtieth day of October in the year of our Lord 1485 by Thomas Bourehier Archbishop of Canterbury and Cardinall At which day he did institute for 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 then 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 Through whose care vigilancy policy and forecasting wisdome for times to come the State and Commonwealth of England hath to this day stood established and invincible Camdens Britannia in Surrey A politick Prince he was if ever there were any who by the engine of his wisdome beat down and overturned as many strong oppositions both before and after he wore the Crown as ever King of England did Whose worthy renown like the Sun in the midst of his sphere shineth and ever shall shine in mens remembrance What incomparable circumspection was in him alwayes found that notwithstanding his long absence out of this Realm the disturbance of the same by sundry seditions among the Nobility Civil Warres and Battels wherein infinite people were slain yet by his most excellent wit he in few years not only brought this Realm in good order and under due obedience revived the Laws advanced justice refurnished his dominions and repaired his mannours but also with such circumspection treated with other Princes and Realms of leagues of alliance and amities that during the most part of his Raign he was little or nothing disquieted with War hostile or martiall business And yet all other Princes either feared him or had him in fatherly reverence He could never endure any mediation in rewarding his servants and therein exceeding wise for whatsoever himself gave he himself received back the thanks and the love on the contrary in whatsoever he grieved his Subjects he wisely put it off on those that he found fit ministers for such actions By his happy marriage being next heir to the house of Lancaster with Elizabeth daughter and heir to Edward the fourth of the house of Yorke the white and red Roses were conjoyned Sir Francis Bacon saith of Iohn Morton Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England and Cardinal He deserveth a most happy memory in that he was the principall means of joyning the two Roses From the twenty eighth year of Henry the sixth unto the fifteenth of Henry the seventh the Civil War between Lancaster and Yâ—â—ke continued wherein as they reckoned there were thirteen fields fought three Kings of England one Prince of Wales twelve Dukes one Mâ—rquesse eighteen Earles with one Vicount and twenty three Barons besides Knights and Gentlemen lost their lives Cambd. Brit. in Warwickeshire The King in honour of the Brittish race of which himself was named his first son Arthur according to the name of that ancient worthy King of the Brittains in whose acts there is truth enough to make him famous besides that which is fabulous King Arthur fought twelve Battels with the Saxons and overthrew them Hollinsh Arthurus belliger illis temporibus dux militum Regum Brittanniae contra Saxones invictissimè pugnabat duodecies dux belli fuit duodecies victor bellatorum Hunting hist. l. 2. That Arthur was one of the nine Worthies There were three Jewes Ioshua David Iudas Maccabaeus three Gentiles Hector of Troy Alexander the Great and Iulius Caesar three Christians Arthur of Britain Charlemain of France and Godfrey of Bullen Arthur ursum significat quasi ursinum diceres Burhillus in MS. The Prince Arthur died before his father and lieth buried in the Quire of the Cathedrall Church at Worcester After was born to the King at Greenwich the Lord Henry his second son which was created Duke of Yorke and after Prince of Wales who succeeded his father in governance of this Realm by the name of Henry the eighth His time did excell for good Common-wealths Laws so as he may justly be celebrated for the best Law-giver to this Nation after
pay yearly upon Lammas day one peny to the Pope which at first was contributed under the name of the Kings alms but afterwards was paid by the name of Peter-pence The Pope of Rome had out of every Chimney of England Ireland and Scotland Wales and Cornwall a penny a year for five hundred years together Omnis qui habet triginta denariatas vivae pecuniae in domo sua de proprio suo Anglorum lege dabit denarium sancti Petri. Hoved. Annal pars posterior p. 603. King Henry first forbad this to be paid to the Pope There preached one before him whose Sermon the King liked not as there was reason the King willed Sir Thomas More then being Lord Chancellor to give the Preacher thanks worthy such a Sermon He being a man of a pleasant wit spake aloud to the Preacher that the King might hear and said The Kings Majesty thanketh you for your notable Sermon which when the King heard he called Sir Thomas to him and said What mean you my Lord to give such thanks in our name If it like you quoth he there be some things notable evil It is a note worthy to be remembred that Thursday hath been a fatall day to King Henry the eight and all his posterity for himself died on Thursday the twenty eighth of Ianuary King Edward on Thursday the sixth of Iuly Queen Mary on Thursday the seventeenth of November and Queen Elizabeth on Thursday the twenty fourth of March. After Dr. Collets Sermon preached to him and long communication with him by occasion thereof he dismissed him with these words Lot every one have his Doctor as he liketh this shall be my Doctor Being necessitous he was offered by the House of Commons in a Parliament toward his latter end all the lands and houses of the two famous Universities to be confiscated to his Exchequer by a most mechanick prostitution of the learning the honour and the piety of the Nation but he told them not without a just scorn that he had too much of a Scholar in him to destroy two such Universities as the world had not the like His purpose was if he had lived to have made a perfect Reformation of Religion saith Mr. Fox in his second Volume of his Acts and Monuments oâ— the Church p. 647. and he gives there two reasons of his opinion But the secret working saith he of Gods holy providence which disposeth all things after his own wisdome and purpose thought it good rather by taking the King away to reserve the accomplishment of this Reformation of his Church to the peaceable time of his son Edward and Elizabeth his daughter whose hands were yet undefiled with any bloud and life unspotted with any violence or cruelty Cardinal Woolsey and after him Archbishop Cranmer were in great favour with him Sir Thomas Moor and the Lord Cromwell were also highly esteemed by him Francis King of France after the death of King Henry the eight was much disposed to melancholy whether for that he being some years the younger was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times He celebrated the Funerals of King Henry in the Cathedrall at Paris though excommunicated by the Pope Many learned men lived in his dayes Iohn Collet Dean of Pauls and founder of the School there William Lilly the first Schoolmaster of Pauls School after it was erected Thomas Linacer or rather Linaker a learned Physician and well seen in the tongues Richard Pace a good Linguist Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas More an excellent Scholar Iohn Frith and William Tindall Robert Barnes Martyrs Robert Wakefield a good Linguist Sir Thomas Eliot Edward Lee Archbishop of Yorke Iohn Leland a great Antiquary William Grocin very expert in Greek and Latine Hugh Latimer Bishop and Martyr who hath put out an elegant Oration in Latine thus entituled Hugonis Latimeri Anglicani pontificis Oratio apud totum Ecclesiasticum Conventum antequam consultatio publica iniretur de Regni statu per Evangelium reformando Regni invictissimi Regis Henrici 8â— 6â— anno vigessimo octavo habita where he speaks of many things fit then to be reformed and well concludes Si nihil est emendandum in communi saltem emendemus nos ipsos singuli He raigned thirty seven years and nine moneths and died in the six and fiftieth year of his life leaving behind him three children Edward Mary and Elizabeth all which also raigned after him EDWARD the sixth Next after the death of King Henry succeeded King Edward his son being of the age of nine years A Prince although but tender in years yet for his sage and mature ripeness in wit and all Princely ornaments as I see but few to whom he may not be equall so again I see not many to whom he may not justly be preferred Fox his Acts Monuments of the Church vol. 2. p. 65 2. He fitly compares him there to good Iosias Favour and love saith he of Religion was in him from his childhood such an Organ given of God to the Church of England he was as England had never better Id. ib. All King Henries issue for themselves in their severall kinds were Princes of eminent vertue As Henry the eighth with Solomon was blame-worthy for women so he left but one son and two daughters Solomon had Rehoboam a fool and unfortunate his daughters but obscure and both of them Subjects But Henry was more happy in Edward his son another Iosiah and his sisters both Soveraignes of an Imperiall Crown Speed Lever compares him to Iosiah in severall respects He was born at Hampton-Court on the twelfth day of October anno 1537 being the only surviving son of King Henry the eight by Iane his third wife daughter to Sir Iohn Seymer Knight It hath been commonly reported and no less generally believed that Prince Edward being come unto the birth and there wanting naturall strength to be delivered his mothers body was ripped open to give him a passage into the world and that she died of the Incision in a short time after Whence this Epitaph was made upon her Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phaenices nulla tulisse duos Alluding to the Crest of her father a Phenix in flames within a Crown Yet Dr. Heylin in his Ecclesia restaurata saith there are many reasons to evince the contrary that he was not so born The other was not more poetically then truely written he being considering his years an admirable President for all ages of piety learning clemency magnanimity wisdome and care in governing his people As Iulius Caesar in the midst of his greatest actions wrote an exact and curious Commentary of his notable enterprises by Arms so King Edward during all the time of his Raign but most especially towards the
end kept a most judicious Journall of all the most principall passages of the affairs of his estate Inclytus Edvardus formatus ab ubere matris Confestim doctis à praeceptoribus artes Ingenuas omnes didicit qui Graeca Latinis Adjungens studio paucis profecerat annis Ut foret inferior nulli quem terra Britanna Protulerat claro magnorum ex stemmate Regum Nullus adaequari posset si flexilis â—tas In puero egresso nondum tria lustra duosque Annos ingenii aut praecox spectetur acumen Quantum ad doctrinas virtutesque attinet almas Ille erat Europae Phoenix quem funere acerbo Ut flos vere novo viridanti carpitur horto Sustulit ante diem mors immatura Britannis Invidet haec terris pietatem jura colentes Oclandi Anglorum praelia In his childhood being about to take down something which seemed to be above his reach one of his fellowes offered him a bossed plated Bible to stand upon and heighten him for taking that which he desired But he perceiving it to be a Bible with holy indignation resused it and sharply reproved him that made the offer A strong assurance of that dear esteem and veneration in which he held that sacred Book in his riper years Dr. Heylins History of Edward the sixth He hath this observation in his Diary the originall of which is in the hands of Sir Thomas Cotton At the sixth year of my age I was brought up in learning by Dr. Coxe who was after my Almner and John Cheek Master of Arts two well learned men who sought to bring me up in learning of tongues of the Scripture of Philosophy and all liberall Sciences Also John Belmain French man did teach me the French tongue He was annointed King at Westminster by Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury being of the age of nine years A Prince of great devotion constancy of mind love of the truth and incredibly studious Godwins Annals of England He knew all the principall Ports in England Scotland Ireland France and other Countries not far distant how they lay when the tide served what vessels of burden they could receive and what winds served for entrance He reformed Religion He caused Images and all monuments of Idolatry to be destroyed and a great Bible in English to be set up in every Church He was in body beautifull of a sweet aspect and specially in his eyes which seemed to have a starry liveliness and lustre in them He would answer Embassadors sometime upon the suddain either in French or Latin He could call all Gentlemen of account through his Kingdome by their names When Ioan Butcher a blasphemous Heretick was to be burned all the Counsell could not procure him to set his hand to the Warrant Wherefore they employed Thomas Cranmer Archbishop of Canterbury to deal privily with him for his subscription But the King remained firm both in reason and resolution affirming that he would not drive her headlong to the Devil but because Hereticks for the most part have a strain of madness he thought it best to apply her with some corporall chastisements which with respite of time might happily reduce her to good order The Archbishop was violent both by perswasions and entreaties and when with meer importunity he had prevailed the King in subscribing his name said that he would lay all the charge thereof upon the Archbishop before God Not many years passed but this Archbishop also felt the smart of the fire and it may be that by his importunity for bloud he did offend for a good thing is not good if it be immoderately desired A Miller who had been busie in rebellion against the King knowing the danger willed his man to take the name of the master if any enquired after him Sir Anthony Kingston Provost Martiall came to the Mill and calling for the master the man in his name presented himself who strait commanded him to the Gallows the servant then seeing the danger of death confessed he was not the master but the man Well said the Knight thou canst never do thy master better service then to hang for him and thereupon trusted him up in the next tree The Lord Protector in his dayes marcht with a powerfull Army into Scotland to demand their Queen Mary in marriage to our King according their promises The Scots refusing to do it were beaten by the English in Musleborough fight One demanding of a Scotch Lord taken prisoner Now Sir how do you like our Kings marriage with your Queen I alwayes quoth he did like the marriage but I do not like the wooing that you should fetch a Bride with fire and sword The Kings Uncles Edward-Duke of Somerset Protector of his person Realms and Dominions and Thomas Lord Seymour Baron of â—udley the younger high Admirall of England were both beheaded Strife between their wives about place and precedency caused the death of their husbands and the death of the young King followed speedily after Sir Thomas Seymour Admirall and the younger brother married the Queen Dowager whose hap it was of all the rest to survive her husband She contested with her sister in law for priority of place both were privately encouraged neither would give way to the other The one claimed it as she had been once Queen the other challenged it as she was the present wife of the Protector The wives set their husbands at oddes and their enemies took hold of this advantage The Admirall was shortly questioned for treason by consent of his brother condemned in Parliament and lost his head In the same moneth was the Protector committed to the Tower by the Lords of the Counsell and after beheaded In this Kings dayes when Bonner was kept in prison reverend Ridley having his Bishoprick of London would â—ever go to dinner at Fulham without the company of Bonners mother and sister the former alwayes sitting in a Chair at the upper end of the Table These guests were as constant as Bread and Salt to the Board no meal could be made without them He died in the seventh year of his Princely Government in the sixth of Iuly anno 1553. Some write that he was poysoned The death of this Prince was lamented of all the godly within Europe for the graces given unto him of God as well of nature as of erudition and godliness passed the measure that accustomably is used to be given to other Princes in their greatest perfection and yet exceeded he not sixteen years of age Knoxe his Ecclesiasticall Hist. of Scotland l. 1. p. 97. I wonder that Doctor Heylin in his Epistle before his Ecclesia Restaurata should say therefore Whose death I cannot reckon for an infelicity to the Church of England Cardan made this Epitaph of him Flete nefas magnum sed toto flebitis orbe Mortales vester corruit omnis honos Nam Regum decus juvenum flos spesque bonorum Deliciae saecli
out of French by Queen Elizabeth and written with her own hand in the life time of her father and sent to her brother Prince Edward for a new years gift she being at that time not above thirteen years of age Abraham Hartwell in his Regina literata written in Verse speaks of Queen Elizabeths coming and doings at Cambridge She was honourably received in Kings Colledge where she lay during her continuance there At the breaking up of the Divinity Act there she made within St. Maries Church a notable Oration in Latine beginning thus Etsi faeminilis iste 〈◊〉 us pudor c. See Dr. Heylins Ecclesia restaurata p. 163 164. Vide Hadriani Juniâ— Epist. Elizabethae Angliae Reginae inter Epistolas suas p. 544. She was of personage tall of hair and complexion fair and therewith well favoured but high nosed of limbs and feature neat and which added to the lustre of those exteriour graces of stately and majestick comâ—ortment She was crowned in St. Peters Church in Westminster by Dr. Oglethorp Bishop of Carlisle according to the Order of the Roman Pontificall There was great speech of a match between her and a French Mounsieur the Duke of Alencon of which he had great hopes being ignorant as Bernardine Mendoza wrote from London to the Prince of Parma Reginam singulis annis sponsam esse nunquam vero nuptam That the Queen was every year a Spouse but never married The silencing and ejection of Ministers in her dayes Reformation being newly begun and the enemies to it many the friends and those that faithfully engaged few was looked upon by the godly prudent of that age as very unseasonable because of the scarcity of preachers at that time Beams of former Light c. 7. She had so great a command over her appetite that her brother Edward usually called her by no other name but his sweet sister Temperance* She was so far from pressing her Subjects with Impositions that when the Parliament once offered her a great summe of money she refused a great part thereof giving them thanks and adding withall that the money was as sure in her Subjects Coâ—â—ers as her own A Prince above her sexe of a manly courage and high conceit who lively resembled as well the royall qualities of her Grandfather as she did his princely presence and countenance the worlds love and joy of Brittain A Virgin for the space of fourty four years so ruled the royall Scepter as that her Subjects loved her enemies feared her and every one with admiration honoured her She was about seventy years old when she died A most gracious and excellent Prince worthy of superlative praise for her most wise and politick government of the Commonwealth and for her heroick vertues far above that sexe In Queen Elizabeth besides her sexe there was nothing woman-like or weak Sclater Yet Sâ—nders calleth her Lupam Anglicanam Rhiston Leaenam nostram omnes Athalias Maachas Jezabeles Herodiades superantem The very Heathen and Mahumetans the Persians and Idolaters the Aethiopians and Muscovites do name her with reverence Balsac in his second Book of Letters Letter 1. to my Lord Cecil saith Even he that excommunicated her spake of herwith honour Some think my Lord of Essex his death and the long concealing of the message he sent to her when discovered occasioned a deep melancholy first and after her death Osborn in his Miscellanies saith No act of hers was registred so contrary to the grain of her own people as the death of the Earl Others say the death of the Queen of Scots In her time the pure interest of England was the protection of Protestants and War with Spain For her mercifull returning home certain Italians which were taken prisoners in the eighty eight Invasion she was termed Saint Elizabeth by some at Venice One told the Lord Carleton being there Embassadour that although he were a Papist yet he would never pray to any other Saint but the Saint Elizabeth Mr. Trap on Ezraâ—c 1. My Lord Howard in his Manuscript in Oxford Library a learned piece worthy to be published stiled A dutifull defence of the lawfull regiment of women dedicated to Queen Elizabeth quotes divers Papists commending her In his Defensative against the poyson of supposed Prophesies c. 16. he saith thus When divers upon greater scrupulosity then cause went about to disswade her Majesty lying then at Richmond from looking on the Comet which appeared last with a courage answerable to the greatness of her state she caused the window to be set open and cast out this word Jacta est alea The Dice are thrown Affirming that her stedfast hope and confidence was too firmly planted in the providence of God to be blasted or affirighted with those beames which either had a ground in nature whereupon to rise or at least no warrant out of Scripture to pretend the miâ—haps of Princes She equalled the best of her Predecessors and in learned endowments excelled them all A wise man that was an eye witness of many of her actions and of those which succeeded her many times hath said That a Courtier might make a better meal of one good looke from her then of a good gift from some other King The Parliament having been a moneth Queen Elizabeth sent for Mr. Popham the Speaker of the House and asked him What past since they sate He answered Iust twenty eight dayes Much might be said of her prosperity 1. She was advanced to the Regall Throne from a private and adverse fortune The more happy was her Government because it ensued upon the stormy times of Queen Mary She came as a fresh Spring after a sharp Winter and brought the Ship of England from a troublous and tempestuous Sea to a safe and quiet harbour Though the Author of Ierusalem and Babel saith she profest her self a Catholick during the Raign of her sister and speaks of the Duke of Feria's Letter to King Philip yet to be seen wherein is certified that the Queen had given him such assurance of her belief and in particular concerning the point of reall presence that for his part he could not believe she intended any great alteration in Religion yet I suppose he wrongs her therein as he doth Dr. Reynolds likewise in saying that he framed that combate which he published between himself and Mr. Hart at his own pleasure Anti-Sanderus in his second Dialogue saith thus Non solum nobilium potentissimos sed Episcopos omnes à quorum aliquo juxta priscam Angliae consuetudinem ungi coronari debuit factio Pontificia sic abripuerat ut cam quod Lutherano dogmate tingi crederetur solennitatibus illis usitatis decorare ad tempus procacissimè recusaverint Vide plura ibid. p. 179. Tot magnatibus in Anglia tempore Reginae Mariae deficientibus animosè perstitere Elizabetha postea Regina Johanna Graia Voet. Sel. Theol. Disputat part 3. Her time produced a world
which the Scots signifie by the name of Stuart or Steward He so faithfully discharged the trust reposed in him without the least reproach or wasting of the Kings Moneys that the sirname of Stuart was imposed on him and given also to his posterity This was the original of the Illustrious Family of Stuart From this Walter descended that Robert Steward who was after in right of his wife King of Scotland since which time there have been successively nine Soveraigns of that name in Scotand Margaret eldest daughter of King Henry the seventh and Elizabeth his Queen was twice married in Scotland first to King Iames the fourth then to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angis her son by the King was King Iames the fifth our King Iames his mothers father her daughter by the Earl was Margaret Countess of Lennox our King Iames his fathers mother David Bruse King of Scotland being dead without issue of his body Robert Steward his sisters son by the generall consent of all the Estates was crowned King of Scotland in the year of our Lord 1370. This family hath ever since born the Crown of Scotland even unto this day King Iames united both the Kingdomes of England and Scotland and testified this conjunction in the Money that was coined both silver and gold with these words Quae Deus conjuxit nemo separet and also Tueatur unita Deus The twenty shillings pieces had this Inscription Faciam eos in gentem unam other golden Coines had these words Henricus rosas regna Iacobus He was born in the Palace of Edinborough on the nineteenth of Iuly anno 1566 and solemnly crowned King of the Scots on the same day of the Moneth anno 1567 and joyfully received to the Crown of England on the fourteenth of March 1602. He had a great dexterity in discovering an imposture and a marvellous sagacity to discuss natural things He detected the forgery of Richard Haydock a Physitian pretending to preach at night in his sleep who acknowledged his forgery to the King It was his custome to discourse during Meals with one or more Divines concerning some point of controversie in Philosophy There was a Conference or Disputation at Hampton Court before him Some of our Divines taxe Dr. Barlow Dean of Chester for a partial Penman of that Conference See Mr. Ley his Discourse of Disputat concerning matters of Religion c. 4. p. 46. Besides the relieving by Pensions all the poorer sort he hath honoured more Martial men than all the Kings of England have done for this hundred years Had his Apothegmes or wise speeches and also Queen Elizabeths been collected by a skilfull hand I suppose they would have been very usefull to the publick There is one that hath written a Book in Latine of Favourites where I think my Lord Car the Earle of Somerset the Duke of Buckingham are reckoned for the English Favourites the later of which was in great favour both with the Father and Son King Iames and King Charles Vossius in his Preface to his Book de Arte Grammatica if I forget not much commends King Iames. Isaac Causabone that famous Schollar was much respected and encouraged by him He was both a wise and learned Prince of disposition merciful and gracious a great seeker of peace according to that Motto which he ever used Beati pacifici In the stile of the Court he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any excursion beyond the precincts of verity to say that neither Britain nor any other Kingdome whatsoever could ever since Solomons dayes glory in a King for recondite learning and abstruse knowledge so near a match to Solomon as he Mr. Rushworths Historicall Collections 23. Iacobi p. 161. He was compared to Solomon in severall respects by Bishop Williams in his Funerall Sermon on 1 King 11. 41 42 43. Archbishop Spotswood saith he was the Solomon of this age admired for his knowledge of all manner of learning Hist. of Scotland l. 7. His Works shew his great learning especially his Basilicon Doron or Kingly gift It cannot be said how well it was accepted in England and what admiration it raised in all mens hearts of him and of his piety and wisdome Certain it is that all the Discourses which came forth that time for maintaining his right to the Crown of England prevailed nothing so much as did that Treatise Spotsw Hist. of the Church of Scotland l. 6. Iustinians Institutes Caesars Commentaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are prized for their Authors as well as matter He had such a promptness in exprâ—ssing his mind that his extemporall sâ—eeches were little inferiour to his premeditated writings His invention was as quick as his first thoughts and his words as ready as his invention I' advouois franchement de n' avoir Iamais veu Prince dont la sincerité la prudence l' equaunimité meritast plus de gloire de louanges Que l' ayant tonsiours trouné d' un courage urayement Royal tout genereux d' un esprit plus intelligent plus vif plus penetrant plus judicieux que nul de son Conseil I' avois aussi tonsiours passionnement desiré de terminer conclurre avec luy les affaires non avec eux Memoires de Mounsier de Rosny Duc de Sully Tom. 2. p. 141. He was a good Poet. A very good Horseman He had such a fashion in riding that it could not so properly be said he rid as that his Horse carried him for he made but little use of his bridle and would say a Horse never stumbled but when he was reined He was a great lover of quiet and much given to hunting and to his Book and wholly fixt in Warring by writings with the Church Bentivoglio his History of Flanders part 3. l. 8. See his Relation of the united Provinces of Flanders c. 3. In his apparrell and civill garb he seemed naturally to affect a majestick carelesness in his pecuniary dispensations to his favourites he was excessive liberall King Iames being invited in a hunting journey to dine with Sir Thomas I. of Barkshire turning short at the corner of a Common happened near to a Countryman sitting by the heels in the stocks who cryed Hosanna unto his Majesty which invited him to ask the reason of his restraint Sir Thomas said It was for stealing a Goose from the Common The fellow replyed I beseech your Majesty be judge who is the greater thief I for stealing Geese from the Common or his Worship for robbing the Common from the Geese By my sale Sir said the King to Sir Thomas I 'le not dine to day on your dishes till you restore the Common for the poor to feed their flocks Which was forthwith granted to them and the witty fellow set free He spake broad in the Scottish tone and dialect Sir Kenelme Digby in his Discourse touching
the cure of wounds by the powder of Sympathy saith he had a strange antipathy to a naked sword of which he there ascribes the cause He alleadged this reason to an English Divine wherefore the Scottish Church was never troubled with heresie for if said he it sprang up in a Purish there was an Eldership itoâ— suppress it if it had escaped them the Presbytery was ready to crush it if the Presbytery should be negligent than the Synod would opposeâ—it if it had not been by them suppressed the Generall Assembly would take strict order concerning it Philip de Mornay Lord of Plessis often complained that the King of England was too much taken up with some petty differences amongst his own but was not carefull enough to heal the deep wounds and breaches which were in the Church Yet his sending certain select and worthy Divines to the Synod of Dort to compose the unhappy differences then in the Law Countries and his causing the Bible to be translated into English by judicious Divines and set forth more exactly than formerly it had been done were noble works He had two sons Prince Henry and King Charles and one daughter that lived the Lady Elizabeth Queen of Bohemia The order of Knight Baronets was instituted by him they must be Gentlemen of three descents and should be worth a thousand pounds per annum the number to be installed was not to exceed two hundred I may for his learning and respect to the learned his eloquence and his profound questions at meals compare him to Charles the Great of whom Eginhardus de vita gestis Caroli Magni Inter caenandum aut aliquod acroamia aut lectorem audiebat Legebantur ei historiae antiquorum Regum gesta Delectabatur libris S. Augustini prâ—cipuè iis quos de civitate Dei inscripsit Erat eloquentia copiosiu exuberans poterátque quicquid vellet apertissimè exprimere Artes liberales studio sissimè coluit earúmque doctores plurimum veneratus magnis afficiebat honoribus Vide plura ibid. The Moneth of November is memorable for the seventeenth 1558 the initiation of Queen Elizabeth in which the purity of the Gospel brake forth and fifth in King Iames his Raign in which the treachery of the Gospels enemies brake out Dr. Heylin in his Historia Quinqu-Articularis c. 22. saith it was an usuall practice with him in the whole course of his Government to ballance one extream by the other countenancing the Papists against the Puritan and the Puritan sometimes against the Papist that betwixt both the true Religion and professors of it might be kept in safety But in the Epistle of his Book to his Son he shews what he means by Puritan He died at Theohalds in the year 1625 the twenty seventh of March the fifty ninth year of his age having raigned over all Great Brittain twenty two years compleat CHARLES the First the second Monarch of Great Brittain He was born November the nineteenth anno Dom. 16â—0 at Dun-fermling in Scotland He was the third son of Iames the sixth King of the Scots and of Anne his wife daughter of Frederick the second and sister of Christian the fourth Kings of Denmarke He was comely of person very active temperate chaste mercifull He was thought to be the best mark-man and the most comely manager of a great Horse of any one in all the three Kingdomes Of his lawfull descent to his Crown and Kingdomes from all the Kings of this Nation See Flemings Royall Progeny He was crowned on the second of February at Westminster in the year 1626 by Dr. Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury He was rather slow than fluent in his words as well by grace as a naturall imperfection yet he was pithy pathetick and sententiou in his expressions What the Brittains lost to the Saxons they to the Danes and the Norman got from both was his birth-right besides the Kingdomes of Scotland and Ireland and Principality of Wales additions to the Normans Conquest Shortly after his Coronation he was married to the Lady Henrietta Maria younger Daughter to Henry the fourth King of France by whom he had seven Children four Sons and three Daughters He improved himself much by his travels and was generally liked in Spain When he was there Archee the fool came boldly to King Iames as he found him once in a good humour and told him that he was come to change Caps with him Why said the King Marry sayes Archee because thou hast sent the Prince into Spain from whence he is never like to return But said the King What wilt thou say when thou seest him come back again Marry sayes Archee I will then take off the fools Cap which I put upon thy head for sending him thither and put it on the King of Spains for letting him return At which words it is reported that the King became exceeding pensive never before so much apprehending the danger of that adventure as then and afterward he did For his being a Papist though it be charged by some of his enemies yet I suppose there is little ground for it as his manifesto at the beginning of the English and Scotch Presbytery shews Therefore Mr. Baxter in his Key for Catholicks c. 45. hath vindicated him from this aspersion His own Letters to the Queen taken at Naseby and his counsell to the Duke of Glocester to obey the Queen his mother in all but what related to Religion sufficiently confute this calumny In the year 1618 King Iames published a Declaration tolerating sports on the Lords day It was so much disliked as it was soon after called in It was after revived and ratified by King Charles L'estrange saith there was not any one Royall Edict during all King Charles his Raign resented with equall regret It was his custome in his youth for refreshing his mind and the confirming of his health almost every week to hunt the Harts and Does In the three summer moneths he hunted the males being fat and pleasant to eat in the like space of time he hunted the females There was one Robert Par of Shropshire aged 152 who lived in the Raign of ten Kings and being brought up to London by the procurement of the Earl of Arundell died here and lyes buried in Westminster Abbey Constat quot generationes Carolingorum Johannes de Temporibus trisecli-senex superavit ille nuper Anglus sub Edoardo 4. natus sub Carolo denatus qui novem vel decem Regibus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fuit Hornii Dissertatio de aetate mundi c. 6. Never was there in this Isle a Scene of Justice more magnificent reared for any Subject than that for the Earl of Strafford Scaffolds were erected on either side of Westminster Hall there the Commons sate uncovered and in the midst of the lower ascent the Peers behind but raised above them there was placed a Chair and Cloth of State for the
Lanibardum de priscis â—nglorum legibus Dum gesta ejus commemoro militaria miror unquam cum cogitasse civilia Dum civilium ejus intueor molestiarum cumulos miror utique quod in aciem prodiit Dum verò religioâ—em pietatem ardorem rerum câ—lestium contemplatus sum vixisse Monachus visus est regularis hoc solo infaelix quòd inter gentes barbares sub faedissimo literarum deliquio fâ—loruit interiit circiter an Dom. 900 Spelmanni Glossarium Vidâ— ejus Epist. Dedicat. ad Lib. de Consil. His Epitaph Anno dominicae incarnationis 872 Elfredus filius Ethelâ— wulphi junior regnum accepit 28. semis annos laboriosissime fortissime â—enuit Malmesb. l. 2. c. 4 Some say above 29. years So Rog. de Hoveden annal part 1. Dictus senior eo quod post illum plures ejusdem nominis regnaverunt quorum omnium ipse primus erat Literarum scientia multum inferior patre sed regni potestate incomparabiliter gloriosior Malmesb. de gestis Reg. Ang. l. 2 c. 5. Idem ferè habet Ingulphus Edwardus Cognomento senior literarum cultu patre inferior sed dignitate potentia pariter gloria superior Nam multo latius quam pater fines regni sui dilataviâ— Rog. de Hoveden Annal. part 1. p. 421-â— 23. saith Malmesb. 24. Polyd Virg. 34. saith Roger de Hoveden Malmesb. de gestis Regum Ang. l. 1. c. 6. A young English Gentleman in a sally forth at Ostend had one of his arms shot off with a Canon which taking up he brought back with him into the Town unto the Chyrurgion and coming into his lodging shewed it saying Behold the arm which but at dinner did help its fellow This he did and endured without the least fainting or so much as reposing upon 〈◊〉 bed Dr. Dillingham Veres Commentaries in the continâ—ation of the siege of Ostend 16. years saith Malmesbury Tenuit regnum anuis 6. semis Malmesb. l. 2. c 6. See Milles his Catalogue of honour and Mr. Prynne his seasonable legall and hystoricall vindication of the fundamentall Liberties Rights and Laws of England p. 106. Anno Dominicae incarâ—ationis 946. Edredus tertius ex filiis Edwardi regnum suscipiens rexit annis 9 dimidio Malmesb. l. 2. c. 7. Anno Dominicâ—e incarâ—ationis 955. Edâ—inus regno potitus tenuit annis quatuor petulans adolesâ—ens qui speciositate corporis iâ— libidinibus abuteretur Malmesb. de gestis Reg. Ang. l 2. c. 7. Ea tempestate facies Monachorum saeda miserabiâ—is â—rat Caeterum longè horret nostra memoria quam immanis fuâ—rit in reliqua caenobia propter aetatis lubricum propter pellicis consilium quaâ— tenerum jugiter obsideâ—at animum Malmesb. de gestis Reg. Ang. l. 2. Vide plura ibid. Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. He was sirnamed Etheling after the signification of the Saxon speech Outlaw because he was a banished man in the former time of his life through the cruelty of the Danes Laciâ—s Nobility Although in his younger dayes he was subject to many vices and committed some in urious tyrannicall acts recorded by Malmesbury Fox Speed and others yet repenting of these his youthfull lustfull vices he proved such a just and prudent King that our Historians of elder and later ages give large encomiums of his justice prudence vertues and politick Government worthy perpetuall memory and imitation Mr. â—ryn's seasonable legall and historicall vindication of the fundamentall Liberties Rights Laws of England p. 126 127 Vir animi virtute corporis roâ—ore longè princeps Polyd. Virg. Ang hist. l. 6. Malmesb. l. 2. c. 8. Id. ibid. Polyd Virg. Ang hist. l. â— Dr. Barwick's life of B. Morton Licet ut fertur staturae fuerit corpulentiae perexilis tantas vires in illo corpusculo dignatio naturae incluserat ut ultro ad congrediendum lacesceret quemcunque audacem nosset hoc maxime timeus ne 〈◊〉 tali colludio timeretur Malmesb de gest is Regum Anglorum l. 2. c. 8. Vide plura ibid. Malcome â— King of Scoâ—s hearing of a conspiracy plotted to murther him whereof one was author he dissembled the knowing of it till being abroad one day a hunting he took the fellow apart from the company and being alone said unto him Here is now a fit time and place to do that manfully which you have intended to do treacherously Draw your weapon and if you kill me none being present you can incur no danger With which speech of the King the fellow was so daunted that presently he 〈◊〉 down at his feet confessed his fault humbly asked forgiveness and being granted him was ever after serviceable and faithfull to him Sir Baker's Chronicle of the Kings of England in William the 2d Sir Elyoâ—'s Governâ—ur out of Malmesb. In hâ—norem Christi ejusque divini nominis cultum quadraginâ—a caenâ—bia ve á fundamenâ—is â—xâ—ruxit vel paâ—um sarta tâ—cta 〈…〉 de reb Brit. 〈…〉 pacificus â—aâ—ria Monosticae disciâ—liâ—â— propugnator ardâ—n â—ssimâ—s qui semâ—t â—â—â—achorum caetâ—â— Regâ—nem 〈◊〉 â—â—alium prasâ—â—â—t guberâ—â—â—res Sâ—elm dâ— Concil p 489. 〈…〉 aunorum 16. Regnim adipis â—â—ns câ—dem numâ—ro 〈…〉 de gestis Reg. Aug. l. 2. c. 8. The three conquests of England by the Saxons Danes and Normans proceeded from the sins of the Princes or of the people or both Mexia's Treasury of time vol. 2. l 7. c. 1â— Dani populationibus â—caelibus incenâ—iis miseram Anglianm multos per annos adeo afflâ—xâ—runt ut Clades 〈◊〉 Romanis Scotis â—ictis Saxâ—nibus jam anâ—ca posteaâ— deinde à Normannis huic Insulae illatae si aerumnis calamita ibus quibus isti pâ—triam hanc nostram affecerunt conferantur quasi ludus quidam tragadia scenica possâ—â—t aestimari Nam bellum nobiscum gesserunt temporis long inquitate diuturnum omni crudelitatis genere immanissimum belli geâ—endi ratione difficilimum Godw. de Praesul Ang. Comment p. 67. vide plura ibid. p â—9 Vide Reg de Hoved. part 1. pâ—â—t 2. See Verstâ—gâ—â— of our names of contempt p. 33â— The Danes used when the English drank to stab them or cut their throats to avoid which villany the party then drinking requested some of the next fitters to be his surety or pledge whilest he paid nature her due and hence have we our sâ—all custome of pledging one another Infestabant illius maxime imperium Clericos inter Monachos de sacerdo â—um celibatu schismata Seldeni Analect Anglobrit l. 2. c. 6. Died in the 16â—â— year of his age Tribus annis dimidio potestaâ—e â—otitus est Malmesb de gestâ—s Reg Ang l 2. c. â— Cùm infans primum sâ—cro admotus esset fonti alimonâ—ae excremento Baptisterium unde Constantinum etiam pessimum Imperatorem â—opronymum dictum fuisse scribunt faedeâ— inquinavit exclamavit exinde subito Danstans Per sanctam Mariam puâ—râ—iste ignavuâ— homo â—rit
former marriage unlawfull He never spared mâ—n in his anger nor woman in his lust Sir Naunton's Frag. Regal in Q. E. Accuratè vacábat literis vacabat animi gratia musicae legebat studiosè libros divi Thomae Aquinatis hoc agebat hortatu Volsaei qui totus erat Thomisticus Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 27. Mr. Seldens Titles of honour part 1. c. 4. Titulus iste Cothurnus est cuilibet pedi cuilibet fidei aptari potest non minus Papae qui â—edit quà m vestrae Didoclav praefat ad Altare Damascenum * Lib. 1. de schismate Anglicano My Lord Herberts life of Henry the 8th Neque Romanam Ecclesiam ab Anglia expulisset Henricum nisi prior clemens Henricus à Romana ejecisset Ecclesia Barclasi vind pâ—o Regibus advers R. Bellarm. Sanderus de schism ate Anglicano l. 1. Dii boâ—i quomodo hic vivunt gentes Lever saith he did more then any Prince in Christendome before him ever did the Pope being then so great Lever in his history of the Defender of the Catholick faith speaks much of the suppressing of Abbeys And Iura Cleric 3. More See the Preface to Sir H. Spelmans Book De non temerandâ—â— Ecclesiâ— * An old Priest â—lwayes read Mumpsimus Demine for Sumpsimus whereof when he was admonished he said That he had now used Mumpsimus thirty years and would not leave his old Mumpsimus for their new Sumpsimus Pacaeus de fructu qui ex doctrina percipitur Cum ab Iuae tempore ad hanc inquit Sleidanus Comment l. 9. atatem usque Britannia Romanis Episcopis eam pecuniam dependisset Henricus scilicet 8. omnium primus inhibuit eam amplius persolvi Selden Analect Anglo brit l. 2. c. 4. Vide Spelman de Consil. p. 312 374. Stowes Chron. in the life and Raign of Q. Eliz. He prepared the way to Reformation as his own power and profit was concerned in it He excluded the Popes Authority and caused himself to be declared supreme head of the Church of Ireland Lever in his history of the defenders of the Catholick Faith compares him with Frederick Barbarossa the Emperour of Germany Sir Walter Rauleighs Preface to his hist. of the world He spake French perfectly could declaim in Latin ex tempore and that without any sticking or stammering he understood Greek Spanish and Italian a flowing kind of eloquence he had yet grave and polite such as became a Prince alwayes measuring his words by the thing he spake of Dr. Hackwels Apology of Gods providence in the government of the world l. 1. c. 11. Sect. 12. See more there A piis atque eruditis praeceptoribus D. Coxo Johanne Checo Graecis Latinisque literis institutus tum saâ—a Religione ad praescriptam divini verbi normam imbutus aetatem longe suam doctrinae virtuteque superavit Anglicanam Ecclesiam rudem adhuc informem tam accuratè sincera Religious perpolivit omnesque faces pontificias expurgavit ut à piis omnibâ—â— alter Josias merito dictus fit Josc Antiq. Brit. Magno miraculo humanarum rerum tanti ingenii tantae expectationis pâ—â—r educabatur c. Hier Card. de Edv. 6. Rege Dr. Cox was â— utor also to Q Eliz. who recalled him from beyond seas restored him to many Church-dignities and appointed him to preach that day she went to her first Parliament Engl. Eliz. * Had he lived he would no doubt have made a full Reformation of those foul corruptions that remained and yet remain to this day and would have reduced all the Churches in his Dominioâ—s unto the Primitive and Apostolicall Order and Discipline as Bucer in his Book De Regno Christi written to him earnestly desired Whetenhall of the abuse now in question in the Church of Christ. Haywards life and Raign of Edward the sixth Of all the Papists in his Raign there was not one man lost his life To the godly there was no danger unless it were by wealth and prosperity Fox his Act. and Mon. A. D. 11â—0 Speed Vide Humfredum de Nobilitate l. 2. p. 232 233. Fox Martyr vol. 3. p. 431. Ipse Rex â—â—orum or efid o nuditus aut Sitiosorum immannati ex positus immaâ—â—rè morbo an veneno incertum praeripitur incredibili ob eximias supra aetatem virtutes desiderio apud populum relicto Apparatus ad Cambdâ—â—i Annales Queen Mary caused â—et to be beheaded She was married to Philip the second King of Spain who was long but well proportioned Some of her Coin was called Philip and Mary Speed Non natura sed pontificiorum arte ferox Id. ib. Lever compares her to the Queen mother of France Katherine de Medicis The suffering in her dayes did more settle and enlarge the bounds of the Gospel then all the preaching did in King Edward the sixth his Raign Dr. Ames Mr. Bacoâ—â— Uniform Government of England part 2 c. 34. Whose Raign was polluted with the bloud of so many Martyrs unfortunate by the frequent insurrections and made inglorious by the loss of Calais Nullus toto terrarum orbe angulus est quo non percrebuit admirabilis tua praeter invictam animositatem pictatem cruditio tam Latinè disertae ut exterorum Regum legati docti inprimis homines velut attoniti obstupescant quasi haerente in faucibus voce obinutesâ—â—nt re auditâ Had. Jun. Epist. Mariae Angliae Reginae Two hundred and eleven years It was lost in less then eight dayes It was 〈◊〉 won by Edward the third being the eleventh King from William the Conqueâ—our and lost by her the eleventh from Edward Capto summa celeritate Calâ—to quem portum Galliae portam aâ—pâ—llare consueverant Angliae Reges quo quamdiu potirentur tamdiu gâ—stare se â— cingulo claves Galliae dictitahant quicquid Gallis creptum ducentos per annos Angli fâ—liâ—iter obtinuer ant incontinenti paucorum dierum spatio Galliae regno restituere atque ad veteres terminos intra occanum se recipere coacti sunt Stradae de bello Belgic Dec. 1. l. 1. Though many persecutions have lasted longer yet none since Diâ—â—â—esians time â—ageâ— so terribly Dr. Heylius Eccles restaur See more there Dr Hackwelâ— Apol. of Gods providence in the Government of the world l. 4. c 11. Sect. 12. Seâ— more there Vide Cambde ni etiam Aâ—arat ad Annales The Orâ—tion is in Hâ—kâ—nsh Chron. â—â—de Saviii Orat. corom Regâ—na Elâ—z Oxon. â—habiâ—a Stradae de bello Belgic Decas 2. l. 1. p. 11. Vide Parkerum de Politcia Ecclesiast Christi l. 2. c. 38. There was between these two Princes â— concurrence and sympathy in their natures and affections together with the celestiall bond conformity in Religion which made them one and friends for the King ever called her his sweetest and dearest sister Sir Robert Nauntons Fragmenta Reg. Cambdens Britannia in Surrey Câ—mb Brit. in Wilâ—shire Gainsfords Glory of England l. â— c. 2. 〈◊〉 Biâ—dulphs Travels p.
Edwards Laws These Laws are partly Ecclesiasticall partly Civill Lambard de priseis Anglorum legibus mentions Leges boni Regis Edwardi quas Gulielmus Bastardus postea confirmavit In these Laws it is observable 1. That all capitall corporall pecuniaty punishments fines for criminall offence◠〈◊〉 all reliefs services and duties to the King are reduced to a certainty not leâ—t arbitrary to the King his Justices or other Officers for the Subjects greater liberty ease and security 2. That they protect preserve the possessions priviledges persons of the Church and Clergy from all invasion injury violence and disturbance The Raign of this King was very peaceable He first used the broad Seal His Wife was named Editha the vertuous Daughter of an infamous Father Earl Godwin Sicut spina Rosam genuit Godwinus Editham His unnaturall dealing with his good Mother Emma and vertuous Wife Editha in whose breast there was a School of all liberall Sciences saith William Malmesbury cannot be excused For upon a poor surmise of Incontinency with Alwin Bishop of Winchester his Mother in his presence was put to the Ordalium to pass blindfolded between nine glowing Coulters which she did without hurt His refusing carnall copulation with his Queen either out of a vowed virginity as most Historians conclude or out of a detestation of Earl Godwins trayterous race quod Rex religiosus de genere proditoris haeredes qui sibi succederent corrupto semine regio noluerit pâ—â—râ—ari as Ingulphus Matthew Westminster and others record whereby he exposed the Kingdome for a prey to the ambitious pretenders aspiring after it The King after this craved mercy and pardon from his Mother for the infamy and injury done unto her for which he was disciplined and whipped by his Mother and all the Bishops there present The first curing the Kings Evil is referred to him and thence to have continued to his successors Solebat Rex Edwardus divinitus solo tactu sanare strumosos hoc est strumam patientes Est enim srruma morbus quem Itali scrophulaâ— vulgo vocant à scrophis quae ea mala scabie afflictantur Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 8. Struma gutturis vitium quod nonnulli scrophulam dicunt solo tactu in quam plurimis sanasse dicitur Lil. Ang. Reg. Chronicon He raigned twenty three years and six moneths and died in the Painted Chamber at Westminster He built St Peters Church in Westminster and was there buried In hoc Rege linea Regum Angliae defecit quae à Cerdicio primo Westsaxonum Rege ex Anglis quingentis septuaginta uno annis non legitur interrupta praeter paucos Danos qui peccatis exigentibus gentis Anglorum aliquandiu regnaverunt Harold The second of that name the thirty eighth Monarch of the English men Son of Earl Goodwin a man of excellent parts and approved valour He driven by tempest into Normandy was affianced to Adelizi the Dukes fifth Daughter He covenanted with the Duke to make him successor to Edward in the Kingdome of England Mr. Fox's Acts and Monuments vol. 1. Mr. Cambden in his Brittannia Holinshed Sir Iohn Hayward Sir Richard Baker incline to this opinion that Harold by his might power craft policy usurped and invaded the Crown without any right against his Oath After Edwards death the Duke sent to him to put him in mind of his Covenant and Oath but Harold replied that this Oath being constrained did no way binde The Duke William landing in Sussex to cut off all occasion of return he fired his own Fleet and upon the shore erected a fortress to be if need were a retiring place for his Souldiers Harold and he fighting seven miles from Hastings in Sussex Harold was slain and his Army vanquished His overthrow was a just punishment of God upon him for his perjury He raigned but nine moneths and nine dayes In him was compleated the period of the Saxons Empire in Brittain after they had continued from their first erected Kingdome by Hengisâ— in Kent the space of six hundred and ten years without any interruption saving the small inter-Raigns of three Danish Kings The Normans were a miâ—â— people of Norvegians Suevians and Danes That Province in France was then called Neustria and now Normandy of the name Norman given unto them because they came out of the North parts The Normans laboured by all means to supplant the English and to plant their own language amongst us and for that purpose they both gave us the Lawes and all manner of pastimes in the French tongue as he that will peruse the Laws of the Conquerour and consider the terms of Hawking Hunting Tenice Dice-play and other disports shall easily perceive Lamb's Perambulation of Kent CHAP. XI WILLIAM the first sirnamed the Conqueror RObert Duke of Normandy the sixth in descent from Rollo riding through Falais a Town in Normandy espied certain young persons dancing near the way And as he stayed to view a while the manner of their disport he fixed his eye especially upon a certain Damsell named Arlotte of mean birth a Skinners Daughter who there danced among the rest The frame and comely carriage of her body the naturall beauty and graces of her countenance the simplicity of her rurall both behaviour and attire pleased him so well that the same night he procured her to be brought to his lodging where he begat of her a Son who afterward was named William The English afterwards adding an aspiration to her name according to the naturall manner of their pronouncing termed every unchast Woman Harlot He seized the Crown of England not as conquered but by pretence of gift or adoption aided and confirmed by nearness of bloud and so the Saxon Laws formerly in force could not but continue and such of them as are now abrogated were not at all abrogated by his conquest but either by the Parliaments or Ordinances of his time and of his successours or else by non-usage or contrary custome Mr. Seldens review of his History of Tythes c. 8. see more there He never made the least pretence claim or title to the Crown and Realm of England only as an absolute Conquerour of the Nation but meerly by title as their true and lawfull King by designation adoption and cognation seconded with the Nobles Prelates Clergy and peoples unanimous election And although it be true that this Duke ejected Harold and got actuall possession of the Throne and Kingdome from him by the sword as did Auâ—elius Ambrosius and others before and King Henry the fourth Edward the fourth and Henry the seventh yet that neither did nor could make him a King by conquest only no more than these other Princes seeing the end of this Warre was not against the whole English Nation the greatest part whereof abetted his interest but only against the unjust usurper and intruder King Harold and his adherents Although the Laws of this Kingdome
ready to give accompt to God for the abunâ—ance of bloud already spilt and knew he was no longer able to live he imprisoned the Duke of Norfolk the father signed a Warrant for the execution of the Earl of Surrey his son within nine dayes after he himself expired Unto a stately great outlandish Dame A messenger from our King Henry came Henry of famous memory the eight To treat with her in matter of great weight As namely how the King did seek her marriage Because of her great vertue and goâ—d carriage She that had heard the King lov'd change of pasture Repli'd I humbly thank the King your master And would such love his same in me hath bred My body venter so but not my head Sir Iohn Harringtons Epigrams Maximilian the Emperour was retained by him as his souldier He not only wore the Cross of St. George but received his pay duely viz. a hundred Crowns per diem L. Herbert in Hen. the 8 ths life Sub Rege Anglorum magnus meret Induperator Germanique truces duro gens strenua bello Oclandi Anglorum praelia The Raign of this King continued with great nobleness and fame the space of thirty eight years During whose time and Raign was great alteration of things as well to the Civil State of the Realm as especially to the State Ecclesiasticall and matters to the Church appertaining For by him was exiled and abolished out of the Realm the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome idolatry and superstition somewhat repressed images defaced Abbeys and Monasteries pulled down sects of Religion rooted out Scriptures reduced to the knowledge of the vulgar tongues and the state of the Church and Religion redressed Fox his Acts and Monuments vol. 2. p. 63. See B. Bedells Examinat of Wadsworths motives c. 10. He was much addicted to the reading of Thomas Aquinas and was therefore as some think called by Luther Thomisticus acerrimus ingeniorum aestimator Had. Jun. Epist. D. Dilso He wrote a volume against Luther in defence of Pardons the Papacy and the supposed seven Sacraments Of this Work the original is yet remaining in the Vatican at Rome and with his own hand thus inscrib'd Anglorum Rex Henricus Leoni 10. mittit hoc opus fidei testem amicitiae Whereupon saith Sleidan Pontifex honorisicum Regi cognomen tribuit Defensorem appellans Ecclesiae which is the same with Defender of the faith This title was given him about the twelfth year of his Raign Vide Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 27. p. 664. His fool coming unto the Court and finding the King transported with an unusuall joy boldly asked him the cause thereof To whom the King answered It was because the Pope honoured him with a stile more eminent then any of his Ancestors Good Harry quoth he let thou and I defend one another and let the faith alone to defend it self Fisher was not the Author of King Henry his Book against Luther as Sanders and Bellarmine will have it nor Sir Thomas More as others say though I doubt not but they might both revise it by the Kings favour and where it was needfull also interpose their judgement Many thought that was compiled by Sir Thomas More some by the Bishop of Rochester and others not without cause suspected it to be the work of some other great Scholar Godwins Annals of England The Pope excommunicating him he fell off from the Pope Luther in an Epistle to the King saith thus Verum etiam quód fide dignis testibue didici libellum sub majestatis tuae nomine in me editum non esse Regis Angliae ut videri volebant subdoli sophistae qui majestatis tuae titulo abusi non senserunt quantum sibi ipsis periculum in Regia ignominia pararent praesertim illud monstrum publicum odium Dei hominum Cardinalis Eboracensis pestis illa regni tui The King in his Answer to this Epistle affirms it to be his Iam quantumviâ— te fingas credere editum à me libellum non esse meum sed meo nomine subornatum à sophistis subdolis tamen meum esse multi majori fide digni quà m sunt tuâ illi fide digni testes cognoscunt ego quanto tibi minus placet tanto magis libenter agnosco He caused to be put into the Liturgy Ab Episcopi Romani tyrannide detestandis enormitatibius libera nos Domine heroica animi magnitudine imbelles pontificum bullas instatas execrationibus buccas despicatui habuit Renigerus de Pii quinti Gregorii decimi tertii Romanorum pontificum furoribus He thrust out the Popes Supremacy that he might be revenged of the Pope who would not allow of his divorce from his first wife but he continued much of the Popish Religion and made six Articles called a whip with six strings which were the death of many godly men being perswaded thereto by Bishop Gardiner There is a story of one who seeing then both Papists hanged for traytors because they opposed the Kings Supremacy and Protestants burned for hereticks in regard they denied the six Articles cried out What Religion is there here in England whereupon one asked him What Religion he was of he answered He was of the Kings Religion Nor was that boysterous King so much to blame in dissolving materiall Temples or houses rather abused then consecrated to superstition as he was after this Reformation if so it may be called in destroying so many living Temples of God which sought not the dissolution of his Kingdome nor any other Reformation of him and his people save only the clearing and purifying of their hearts and brests which had been consecrated unto Gods service from the infection of Romish superstition and idolatry Dr. Iacksons Commentary on the Creed l. 11. c. 38. He was counted the common Umpire of Christendome He exceeded all his Progenitors in setting up sumptuous houses He confirmed Christ-Church in Oxford and erected Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge The professors of the Hebrew and Greek tongues were first instituted by him in both the Universities Sit Rich. Bakers Chron. In running at Tilt and such exercises he overcame the rest Cum lectissimi equites Cataphracti in ludâ—cro spectaculo infestis hastis concurrerent tanta arte id bellici vigoris munus implebat ut ei proposita victoribus prâ—mia integra populi judicio saepissimé deferrentur Paul Jov. Brit. descript He could not only sing his part but of himself compose a Service of four five and six parts Eras. in farrag in Epist. Finding fault with the disagreement of Preachers he would often say Some are too stiffe in their old Mumpsimus and others too busie and curious in their new Sumpsimus King Ine out of his devotion to the See of Rome enjoyned every one of his Subjects that possessed in his house of any one kind of goods to the value of nineteen penes to