by that time our publick Thieves had cast Lots for the Kings Churches Nobilities and Gentrys Revenues what Boars of other Countrys could have compared with the Riches of our Peasants and their Captain Tyler When there should have been so Straw goes on none left more great more strong or more wise than our selves then we had set up a Law of our own forging at our Pleasure by which our Subjects should have been regulated Necessary it was the old Law should be voted down it condemned them in every Line Then had we created us Kings Tyler for Kent a part too small for the Arch-tyrant and others for other Shires Here was to be Monarchy still not Evil in it self but where it ought to be of Right only the Family was to be changed the ancient Saxon Norman Stemm for an upstart Dunghil Brood of Vipers Tyler to be advanced upon the Ruins of Richard the Cedar to be torn up to make the Bramble Room enough while any of the Royal Off-spring had been in being to claim the Right to have involved the Miserable Perjured Foolish People in an Everlasting Civil War never to have ceased while there had been a Vein of Blood to run The Maintenance of Tylers Wrong his Usurpation not to look farther then the present World would have been more fatal than ten Plagues Iohn adds no Man thwarted these Ends of ours more than the Arch-bishop therefore we hated him to Death and made all the Haste possible to bring him to it In the Evening of that Saturday in which Wat perished because the poorer sort of the Londoners favoured us we intended to have fired the City in four Places and to have divided the Spoils So the faithful Citizens as forward as they were had at last paid for their Love he calls God to witness these Truths The Confessions of many others of the Ingagement agreed with this of Straw The Lawyers and those as one who sled from the Tyranny of the Time durst now shew their Faces Here is Tyranny of the Rout Tyranny of a Savage Clown their Boutefeu whose few Days of cruel Usurpation were more bloody more destroying than the Years of any Caligula any Nero any Domitian whatsoever A Civil War says a Noble Frenchman makes more Breaches as to a Country as to Manners Laws and Men in six Months then can be repaired in six Years What then can be thought or said of those Monsters who against all ties of Nature and Piety shall raise a desperate Civil War meerly with the Intent to overthrow Religion the Church the Government Laws and Humanity out of a cursed divelish Ambition to advance themselves Tylers and Sons of the Earth before to an Height which God as some love to speak never called them to For though Power is of God it is only so when the coming to it is by lawful Means He that ordains the Power allows not the Usurpation of it Tyler had the Power to do Mischief the Power of Rebellion the Power which must have ruined the Church and Common-wealth but whether this be the Power which Christians are to submit to let the next Casuists judge The Septuagint Translation of the Bible says of Abimelech who slew his Seventy Brethren Murder ushers Usurpation in He made himself King by Tyranny The Monk who writes the Lives of the Offa's speaking of Beormred the Mercian Usurper has these Words In the same Region of the Mercians a certain Tyranny rather destroying and dissipating the Nobility of the Realm then ruling c. persecuting banishing c. Lest any one especially of the Royal Blood should be advanced in his Place he vehemently 〈◊〉 The thirty Usurpers in the time of Gallieâ—… are every where called Tyrants Paulus Diacâ—…nus writing of Valentine in the time of Valentinian says He was crushed in Brittany before he could invade the Tyranny and of Maximus that he was Stoâ—… and Valiaâ—… and worthy of the Empire â—…ad he not against the Faith of his Oath raised himself per tyrannidem by Tyranny In other places Engeâ—… Gratian Constance Sebastian created Tyrannis The Words Tyranny and Tyranne and Tyraâ—…ous Party being used often by him are ever opposed to just and Regal Power never used in any other Sense Widdrington to the Example of Athalia urged by Bellarmine against Kings says she was no lawful Queen she had seized the Kingdom as an Usurpress by Tyranny the Kingdom belonged to Ioash in whose Right and by whose Power she was justly â—…lain Our most learned Prelate Bishop Abbot of Sâ—…lisbury tells the Cubs of Loyolaâ—… Athalia had snatched had grasped and held the Kingdom with no Right no Title but by Butchery Robbery Rapine and forcible Entry and that she was thrown down and killed by the common bounden Duty and Faith of Subjects to their Prince Baronius a Cardinal that the Maccabees of Levi or House of the Assamoneans may not be made Usurpers matches them with the Royal Line of David else says he absque labe Tyrannidis without the Stain of Tyranny they could not meddle with the Kingdom Rodolph Duke of Suevia or Suabenland set up for a false Emperor by that devilish Pope Hildebrand against the Emperor Henry the IV. is called by the Germans a Tyranne upon this Score A full Tyranny says one of our Chief Justices speaking of the Papal Power in Church-causes here has two Parts without Right to usurp and inordinately to rule and the Statute 28 of King Henry the 8th against the Papal Authority calls it an usurped Tyranny and the Exercise of it a Robbery and spoyling of the King and his People The Statute 31 Henry the 6th adjudging Iohn Cade another Imp of Hell and Successor of Wat to be a Traitor which are the Words of the Title and all his Indictments and Acts to be void speaks thus The most abominable Tyranny horrible odious and arrant false Traitor Iohn Cade naming himself sometime Mortimer he and Tyler had two Names taking upon him Royal Power c. by false subtile and imagined Language c. Robbing stealing and spoiling c. And that all his Tyranny Acts Feats and false Opinions shall be voided and that all things depending thereof c. under the Power of Tyranny shall be likewise void c. And that all Indictments in times coming in like Case under Power of Tyranny Rebellion c. shall be void in Law and that all Petitions delivered to the King in his last Parliament c. against his Mind by him not agreed shall be put in Oblivion c. as against God and Conscience c. To proceed The King because all these Risings were by the Ringleaders protested to be made for him and his Rights and that the Forces then raised were raised by his Authority and all their Actions owned by him issues out a Proclamation from London to this Effect RIchard c. To all and singular Sheriffs Mayors Bayliffs c. of our County of N.
grow and prevail than one single good one There is a Proneness in unruly Man to run into Debauchments and no wonder that the arrogant misled silly Multitude capable of any ill Impressions should deprave and disorder things where all Ties of Restraint are loofened nay where Disorders are not only defended by the corrupt Wits of Hirelings but bidden strengthened by a Law and Villanies made legal Acts. Had the Idol King Tyler with his Council not gone on too far in the Way of Extermination but endeavoured to repair the Breaches of his Entrance it would have been no small Labour to have restored things to any mean and tolerable Condition if Presbyter Wickliff and his Classes by their pernicious Doctrines as they are charged to this Day did first pervert and corrupt the People and broach that Vessel with which Father Baal and Straw poysoned them they must have ruined themselves by the Change sure enough they had been no more comprehended in any of Tylers Toleration than the Prelatical or Papistical Party In the Turmoils and Outrages of this Tyranny had it taken Innocence Virtue Ingenuity Honesty Faith Learning and Goodness had been odious and dangerous The Profit and Advantage of the new Usurpers had been the Measure of Justice and Right The Noble and Ignoble had died Streets and Scaffolds with their Blood not by Laws and Judgment but out of Malice to their Height and Worth out of Fury and Covetousness to enrich publich Thieves and Murtherers The Jealousies too and Fears of Tyler had made all Men unsafe Yet the Repute the Renown of the Founders could not have been much The Glory of Success cannot be greater than the Honesty of the Enterprise there must be Justice in the Quarrel else there can be no true Honour in the Prosperity Cato will love the conquered Common-wealth Iugurtha's Fame who is said to be Illustrious for his Parricides and Rapines will not make all Men fall down and worship On Munday the Fifteenth of Iuly not of October as Walsingham is mis-printed the Chief Justice Tresilian calls before him the Jury for Inquiry who faulter and shamelesly protest they cannot make any such Discovery as is desired The Chief Justice puts them in Mind of the Kings Words to them upon the Way promising Pardon if they will find out the Offenders else threatning them with the Punishment they should have suffered who through such Silence cannot be apprehended Out they go again and the Chief Justice follows them He shews them a Roll of the principal Offenders Names tells them they must not think to delude and blind the Court with this Impudence and advises them out of a Care to preserve wicked Mens Lives not to hazard their own Hereupon they indict many of the Town and Country which Indictments are allowed by a second Inquest appointed to bring in the Verdict and again affirmed by a third Jury of Twelve charged only for the Fairness of the Tryal So no Man was pronounced guilty but upon the finding of thirty six Jurors Then were the Lieutenants Greyndcob Cadindon and Barber and twelve more condemned Drawn and Hanged Wallingford Iohn Garleck William Berewill Thomas Putor and many more with Eighty of the Country were Indicted by their Neighbours and Imprisoned but forgiven by the King's Mercy and discharged They were forgiven most by the Kings Mercy for he had forbidden by Proclamation all Men to sue or beg for them a Command which the good Abbot sometimes disobeyed and he shall be well thanked for it No Benefits can oblige some Men A true rugged Churl can never be made fast never be tyed by any Merit whatsoever Nothing can soften him See an unheard of Shamelesness till then These lazie tender-hearted Clowns who could hardly be got to discover the Guilty now run with full Speed to betray the Innocent They indict the Abbot as the principal Raiser and Contriver of these Tumults which struck at his own Life and the Being and Safety of his Monastery The Abbot as it is said sent to Tyler upon his Ordinances some of the Town and Monastery but to temporize and secure himself This is now supposed by the very Traitors indeed Treason by Common Law and Statute against the King his Natural Liege Lord. This having not the Fear of God in his Heart c. but being seduced by the Instigation of the Devil is compassing the Death c. the Deprivation and deposing of his Soveraign Lord from his Royal State c. as such Indictments use to run This must goe for levying War against the Lord the King adhering to comforting and aiding his Enemies by open Fact Which are the Words of the Statute of Treason declarative of the Common Law The Chief Justice abominating and cursing the treacherous Malice and Perfidiousness of these Brutes makes them tear the Indictment which themselves though urged are not wicked enough to swear to nay which publickly they confess to be false in the Face of the Court. Villeinage was not now abolished though some think otherwise but by Degrees extinguished since this Reign Besides the Letters of Revocation before restoring all things to their old Course a Commission which the Abbot procured from the King out of the Chancery then kept in the Chapter-house of this Monastery makes this manifest which speaks to this Effect RIchard by the Grace of God King of England and of France and Lord of Ireland c. To his Beloved John Lodowick John Westwycomb c. We command you and every of you upon Sight of these Presents c. That on our Part forthwith ye cause to be proclaimed That all and singular the Tenants of our Beloved in Christ the Abbot of S. Albans as well free as bond the Works Customs and Services which they to the foresaid Abbot ought to do and of ancient Time have been accustomed to perform without any Contradiction murmur c. Do as before they have been accustomed The Disobedient are commanded to be taken and Imprisoned as Rebels In the Time of King Henry the Seventh there were Villains This I observe to make it appear how little it is which the miserable Common People without whom no famous Mischief can be attained are Gainers by any of their Riots or Seditions whatsoever the Changes are their Condition is still the same or worse If some few of them advance themselves by the Spoils of the publick Shipwrack the rest are no happier for it the insolent Sight offends their Eyes they see the Dirt of their own Ditches lord it over them and the Body of them perhaps more despised than ever Tyler who could not but have known that nothing can be so Destructive to Government as the Licentiousness of the base Commons would doubtless when his own Work had been done quickly have chained up the Monster he would have perched in the Kings sacred Oak all the Forrest should have been his Bishopricks Earldoms nay the Kingdoms had been swallowed by him Instead of a
Cheeks I mine eyes Blasted Thence fear of vomiting made me retire Unto her Blewer Lips which when I tasted My Spirits were duller than Dun in the Mire But when her Breath took place Which went an Usher's pace And made way for her Face You may guess what I mean Never did c. Like Snakes engendring were platted her Tresses Or like to slimy streaks of roapy Ale Uglier than Envy wears when she confesses Her Head is periwig'd with Adder's Tail But as soon as she spake I heard a harsh Mandrake Laugh not at my Mistake Her Head is Epicene Never did c. Mystical Magick of Conjuring Wrinkles Feeling of Pulses the Palm'stry of Hags Scolding out Belches for Rhetorick Twinkles With three Teeth in her Head like to three Gags Rainbows about her eyes And her Nose Weather-wise From them the Almanack lies Prost Pond and Rivers clean Never did Incubus Touch such a filthy Sus As this foul Gypsie Quean How the Commencement grow's new T Is no Curranto-News I undertake New Teacher of the Town I mean not to make No New-England Voyage my Muse does intend No new Fleet no bald Fleet nor bonny Fleet send But if you 'l be pleas'd to hear out this Ditty I 'll tell you some News as True and as Witty And how the Commencement grows new See how the Simony-Doctors abound All crowding to throw away Forty pound They 'l now in their Wives Stammel-Petticoats vaper Without any need of an Argument-Draper Beholding to none he neither beseeches This Friend for Ven'son nor t'other for Speeches And so the Commencement grows new Every twice a day the Teaching Gaffer Brings up his Easter-book to chaffer Nay some take Degrees who never had Steeple Whose Means like Degrees come from Placers of people They come to the Fair and at the first pluck The Toll-man Bernaby strikes 'um good luck And so c. The Country Parsons they do not come up On Tuesday Night in their own Colledge to sup Their Bellies and Table-Books equally Sull The next Lecture-Dinner their Notes forth to pull How bravely the Marg'ret Professor Disputed The Homilies urg'd and the School men Confuted And so c. The Inceptor brings not his Father the Clown To look with his Mouth at his Grogoram Gown With like Admiration to eat Roasted Beef Which Invention pos'd his Beyond Trent-Belief Who should he but hear our Organs once sound â—…ould scarce keep his Hoof from Sellenger's Round And so c. The Gentleman comes not to shew us his Satin To look with some Judgment at him that speaks Latin To be angry with him that makes not his Cloaths To answer O Lord Sir and talk Play-book-oaths â—…nd at the next Bear-baiting full of his Sack To tell his Comrades our Discipline's slack And so c. We have no Prevaricator's Wit â—…y marry Sir when have you had any yet Besides no serious Oxford man comes To cry down the use of Jesting and Hums Our Ballad believe 't is no stranger than true Mum Salter is sober and Iack Martin too And so the Commencement grows new Square-cap COme hither Apollo's Bouncing Girl And in a whole Hipprocrene of Sherry Let 's drink a round till our Brains do whirl Tuning our Pipes to make our selves merry A Cambridge-Lass Venus-like born of the Froth Of an old half-fill'd Jug of Barly-Broth She she is my Mistress her Suitors are many But she 'll have a Square-Cap if e'er she have any And first for the Plush-sake the Monmouth-Caâ—… comes Shaking his Head like an empty Bottle With his new â—…angled Oath by Iupiter's Thumbs That to her Health he 'll begin a pottle He tells her that after the Death of her Grannum She shall have God knows what per Annum But still she replied Good Sir La-bee If ever I have a Man Square-Cap for me Then 〈◊〉 Leather-Cap strongly pleads And fain would derive his Pedigree of fashion The Antipodes wear their Shoes on their Heads And why may not we in their Imitation Oh! how the Foot-ball noddle would please If it were but well toss'd on Sir Thomas his Lees But still she replyed Good Sir La-bee If ever I have a Man Square-Cap for me Next comes the Puritan in a wrought-Cap With a long-wasted Conscience towards a Sister And making a Chappel of Ease of her Lap First he said Grace and then he kiss'd her Beloved quoth he thou art my Text Then falls he to Use and Application next But then she replied your Text Sir I 'll be For then I 'm sure you 'll ne'er handle me But see where Sattin-Cap scouts about And fain would this Wench in his Fellowship marry He told her how such a Man was not put out Because his Wedding he closely did carry He 'll purchase Induction by Simony And offers her Money her Incumbent to be But still she replied Good Sir La-bee If ever I have a Man Square-Cap for me The Lawyer 's a Sophister by his Round-Cap Nor in their Fallacies are they divided The one Milks the Pocket the other the Tap And yet this Wench he fain would have Brided Come leave these thred-bare Scholars quoth he And give me Livery and Seisin of thee But peace Iohn-a-Nokes and leave your Oration For I never will be your Impropriation I pray you therefore Good Sir La-bee For if ever I have a Man Square-Cap for me The Character of a Country-Committee-man with the Ear-mark of a Sequestrator A Committee man by his Name should be one that is possessed there is number enough in it to make an Epithet for Legion He is Persona in concreto to borrow the Solecism of a Modern Statesman You may translate it by the Red-Bull Phrase and speak as properly Enter seven Devils solus It is a well-truss'd Title that contains both the Number and the Beast for a Committee-man is a Noun of Multitude he must be spell'd with Figures like Antichrist wrapp'd in a Pair-Royal of Sixes Thus the Name is as monstrous as the Man a complex Notion of the same Lineage with Accumulative Treason For his Office it is the Heptarchy or England's Fritters it is the broken meat of a crumbling Prince only the Royalty is greater for it is here as in the Miracle of Loaves the Voyder exceeds the Bill of Fare The Pope and he rings the Changes here is the Plurality of Crowns to one Head joyn them together and there is a Harmony in Discord The Triple-headed Turn-key of Heaven with the Triple-headed Porter of Hell A Committee-man is the Reliques of Regal Government but like Holy Reliques he out-bulks the Substance whereof he is a Remnant There is a score of Kings in a Committee as in the Reliques of the Cross there is the number of Twenty This is the Gyant with the hundred hands that wields the Scepter the Tyrannical Bead-Roll by which the Kingdom prays backward and at every Curse drops a Committee-man Let Charles be wav'd whose condescending Clemency aggravates the Defection and make Nero the Question
to the Crown And alter the Kings Rents for his two Sons Must go for twenty ThousaÅ„d Millions And so make Charles the jealous World ally Thus grown too potent for an Enemy All those must study Leagues now that had rather Seem rich in any Title than of Father But may he â—…ill be dreadful so and be To these abroad fear'd as a Deity At home lov'd as a Father whilst he thus To them is Terror a Shield to us On Parsons the great Porter SIr or Great Grandsire whose vast Bulk may 〈◊〉 A Burying-place for all your Pedigree Thou moving Colosse for whose goodly Face The Rhyâ—…e can hardly make a Looking-glass What piles of Victuals hadst thou need to chew Ten Woods or Morrets Throats were not enow Dwarf was he whose Wife's Bracelets fit his Thumâ—… It would not on thy little Finger come If Iove in getting Hercules spent three Nights he might be Fifteen in getting thee What Name or Title suits thy Greatness thou Aldiboronifuscorphornio When Gyants war'd with Iove hadst thou bin one Where other Oaks thou wouldst have Mountains thrown Wert thou but sick what help could e'er be wrought Unless Physicians posted down thy Throat Wert thou to dye and Xerxes living he Would not pare Athos for to cover thee Wert thou t'enbalm the Surgeons needs must scale Thy Body as when Labourers dig a Whale Great Sir a People kneaded up in one Wee 'll weigh thee by Ship-Burdens not by th' Stone What Tempests might thou raise what Whirlwinds when Thou breath'st thou great Leviathan of Men Bend but thy Eye a Country-man would swear A Regiment of Spaniards quarter'd there Smooth but thy Brow they 'l say there were a Plain T' act York and Lancaster once o'er again That Pocket-pistol of the Queens might be Thy Pocket-pistol sans Hyperbole Abstain from Garrisons since thou may'st eat The Turks or Moguls Titles at a Bit. Plant some new Land which ne'er will empty be If she enjoy her Savages in thee Get from amongst us since we only can Appear like Sculls marcht o'er by Tamberlain On his going by Water by the Parliament-house OH the sad Fate of unsuccessful Sin You see those Heads without there 's worsâ—… within Upon coming into a Chamber called Parnassus where the Gentry Arms were depicted of Norfolk and Suffolk in Norwich HEre Gallants find their Arms and so it 's meet But where they find their Arms they lose their Feet Against ALE. THou Juice of Lethe O thou dull Inhospitable Drink of Hull Not to be drunk but in the Devils Scull Depriver of those solid Joys Which Sack creates Author of Noise Among the roaring Punks and Dammy-Boys On thy Account the Watch do sleep When they our Nightly Peace should keep Then Rogues and Cut-purses in at Windows creep 2. The Jug-broke Pate doth owe to thee Its bloody Line and Pedigree Now Murther and anon the Gallow-tree A Poet once did lick thy Juice But oh How his benummed Juyce Was mir'd in Non-sense and in State abuse A Souldier once that would have pickt Strife with the Devil thy dull Broth had lickt That Night this Renown'd Turdibank was kickt 3. The other Night the Meal-man Will Did lap so largely of thy Swill Next Morn he let a Fart blew down his Mill That Lover was in pretty Case That trimm'd thee with a Ginger-race And after belched in his Mistress Face More of thy Vertues I could tell But that to speak of thee 's half Hell Then take my Curse by Candle Book and Bell. 4. May Bards that drink thee write a small Insubstanc'd Line pedantical â—…nsinewy aenigmatical Saltless and galless be thy Curse Numberless rugged empty worse Than the poor Poets empty Belly Purse May he that brews thee wear a Nose Richer than the Lord Mayor's Cloths The Sattin Clerry or the Velvet Rose 5. May he that draws thee likewise wear Carbuncle from Ear to Ear That Thatch and Linnen may stand off and fear â—…ay some old Hag-witch get astride â—…hy Bung as if she meant to ride â—…n purpose for to lance thy yeasty Side â—…ay others be as sick as I â—…hat tope thee next then down and dye â—…or Ale a Funeral-trap for Wasp or Fly The Old Gill. IF you will be still Then tell you I will Of a lovely old Gill Dwelt under a Hill Her Locks are like Sage That 's well worn with Age And her Visage would swage A stout Mans Courage 2. Teeth yellow as Box Clean out with the Pox Her Breath smells like Lox Or unwiped Nocks She hath a devilish Grin Long Hairs on her Chin To the foul-footed Fin She 's nearly a kin 3. She hath a beetle Brow Deep Furrows enow She 's ey'd like a Sow Flat nos'd like a Cow Lips swarthy and dun A Mouth like a Gun And her tattle doth run As swift as the Sun 4. On her Back stands a Hill You may place a Windmill And the Farts of her Gill Will make the Sails trill Her Neck is much like The foul Swines in the dike Against Crab-lice and Tyke A blew Pin is her Pike 5. Within this Ano There dwells an Hurricano And the Rift of her Plano Vomits Smoke like Vulcano But a Pox of her Twist It is always bepist And the Devil 's in his List That to her Mill brings Grist 6 ' Ware the dint of her Dirt She will give you a Flirt She has always the Squirt She is loose and ungirt Want of Wine makes her pant Till she fizzle and rant And the hole in her Grant Is as deep as c. 7. Yea as deep as a Well A Furnace or Kell A bottomless Cell Some think it is Hell But I have spoken my Fill Of my lovely old Gill And 't is taken so ill I 'll lay down my Quill To the Queen upon the Birth of one of her Children THat Children are like Olive-branches we Took for a Figure now 't was Prophesie Your Births great Queen have made a new Account Who bring not forth some Olives but the Mount And we who wisht your Table half Way round Beset with them do now behold it crown'd Were there no other Court or Nobles yet The King we see can his own Court beget Nay in the first Worlds Age he that could do Like him was Father of his Country too When in that Dearth of Subjects Kings were fain First to beget their Kingdoms and then reign When their own Off-spring were their People and One Family both fill'd and made the Land But I speak Treason to say Princes Blood Can e'er run into People 't is a Flood Ev'n in the Fountain Small Streams lose their Name Such Births like th' Ocean are still the same No Number makes them private we may call Not all one Nation but Nations all For as l 've seen the Ark drawn like the Womb Of the four Empires and the World to come Out of whose Midst hath sprung a mystick Tree With every Branch a Genealogy Not of some House but of the World
with the Mischiefs of the Day drunk and asleep without Guards or Watch the Earl of Salisbury and the Nobility against whose Lives Honours and Fortunes these Beasts had conspired desire the King to try all fair and gentle Ways of appeasing them which Counsel he approves They were not so kind to themselves many lost their Lives by the Hands and Swords of their Companions every petty discontent or grudging being enough to provoke them Thirty two of them being drunk in a Cellar of the Savoy were immured there finding in the same place Death and the Grave together Some of them threw Barrels of Gunpowder which was little known then into the Fire and are blown up with part of the Palace Proclamations were formerly made in Tylers Name not in Straws as Polydore would have it Straw was this while busied elsewhere The Country about was by these Proclamations summoned to repair to London with all speed to spoil this Babylon the close Menaces lest they provoke Gods Iudgments pluck them down upon their Heads which themselves explain if ye fail if ye and your Officers give not Obedience freely to the Protector we will send out 20000 Men 20000 of our Locusts who shall burn the Towns of the Children of Disobedience Those of S. Albans and Barnet whose Famous Deeds challenge a place in this Story by themselves struck with the Thunder of this Edict haste to London in their Journey thither at Heibury a retiring House of the Lord Prior of S. Iohn near Istington they find 20000. or thereabouts casting down the firmer parts of the House which the Fire could not consume Iack Straw Captain of this Herd calls these new Comers to him and forces them to swear to adhere to King Richard and the Commons How long this Oath will be sworn to we shall see and how much the safer the King will be for it We shall see too what is lost by this new Union of King and Commons by the new Fellowship to observe the horrible Irreligious Hypocrisie of these Clowns who only would be thought the Protectors of his Crown and Person They alone had decreed his Ruin who swear thus often to prevent it to guard him from it A Treason not to be believed by some then till it had taken The Commons were then divided into three Bodies this with Iack Straw the second at Mile-end under the Essexian Princes Kirkby Treder Scot and Rugge the third on Tower-hill where the Idol and Priest Baal were in Chief This last Crue grew horribly rude and haughty the Commons there were not contented to be the Kings Tasters and no more they snatch the Kings Provision violently from the Purveyors he is to be starved for his own Good and after Harpies or Vultures chuse you whether strike high like brave Birds of Prey they will kill no more Flies this was the Way to secure their smaller Mischiefs Polydores conceit that the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior of S. Iohn were sent out by the King to allay their Heat is not probable Walsingham relates it thus that they demanded these two with full Crys no doubt of Iustice Iustice with some others Traitors by their Law a Fundamental never to be found or heard of before to be given up to them by the King with all the Earnestness and Violence imaginable They give him his Choice bid him consider of it they will either have the Blood of these their Traitors or his they making all those Delinquents who attended on him or executed his lawful Commands whom say they the King with a high and forcible Hand protects will not be appeased unless they be delivered up conjuring him to be wise in time and dismiss his extraordinary Guards his Cavaliers and others of that Quality who seem to have little Interest or Affection to the publick Good Whether the Tower Doors flew open at this Fright or the Man-wolfs crowded in at the Kings going out to appease the Party at Mile-end as Sir Iohn Froissart tells it Wat the Idol with Priest Baal are now Masters of the Tower into which on Fryday the 16th of Iune they entred not many more than 400 of their Company guarding them where then were commanded six hundred of the Kings Men of Arms and six hundred Archers a Guard not so extraordinary as was necessary then all so faint-hearted so unmanned at the Apparition at the sight of these Goblins they stood like the Stones of Medusa remembred not themselves their Honour nor what they had been The Clowns the most Abject of them singly with their Clubs or Cudgels in their Hands venture into all the Rooms into the Kings Bedchamber which perhaps had been his Scaffold had he been there sit lie and tumble upon his Bed they press into his Mothers Chamber where some of the merry wanton Devils offer to kiss her others give her Blows break her Head She swoons and is carried privately to the Wardrobe by her Servants Some revile and threaten the Noblest Knights of the Houshold some stroke their Beards with their unclean Hands which beyond the Roman Patience in the same Rudeness from the Gauls is endured and this to claw and sweeten they meant it so they gloss with smooth Words and bespeak a lasting Friendship for the time to come they must maintain the Injuries done to themselves must not disturb the Usurpers of their Estates and Rights must not shew any Sense of Generosity of Faith of Honour it concerned Tyler that they should be the veriest Fools and Cowards breathing if they stir make any Claims they shall be reputed Seditious Turbulent and Breakers of the Publick otherwise and plainly Tylers Peace It was never heard says the Emperor Charles in Sleydan that it should be lawful to despoil any Man of his Estates and Rights and unlawful to restore him Our Tyler and his Anabaptists thought otherwise As Walsingham they went in and out like Lords who were Varlets of the lowest Rank and those who were not Cowherds to Knights but to Bores value themselves beyond Knights Here was a Hotchpotch of the Rabble a mechanick sordid State composed as those under Kettes Oak of Reformation after Of Country gnooffes Hob Dick and Hick with Clubs and clouted woon A medley or huddle of Botchers Coblers Tinkers Draymen of Apron-men and Plough-joggers domineering in the Kings Palace and rooting up the Plants and wholesome Flowers of his Kingdom in it This place was now a vile and nasty Stye no more a Kings Palace who will value a stately Pile of Building of Honourable Title or Antique Memory since Constantine when it is infected with the Plague haunted by Goblins or possessed by Thieves The Knights of the Court were but Knights of the Carpet or Hangings No Man seemed discontented all was husht and still White-hall was then a Bishops Palace The Tower was to be prepared for Tylers Highness and his Officers but the Cement of the Stratocracy of the Government by Sword and Club Law
conquering Arms and striking his Sword which shewed the present Power on London-stone The Cyclops or Centaur of Kent spoke these Words From this Day or within four Days all Law or all the Laws of England as others shall fall from Wat Tylers Mouth The Kings indeed had bound themselves and were bound by the Laws They were named in them Tyler was more than a King he was an Emperor he was above the Laws nor was it fit the old over-worn Magna Charta should hold him The Supreme Authority and Legislative Power no one knows how derived were to be and reside in him according to the new Establishment Tyler like Homers Mars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Whirl windâ—… he was Egnatius in Paterculus rather a Fencer a Swash-Buckler that a Senator his right Arm his brutish Force not Justice not Reason must sway all things Tyler will not rule in Fetters his Will his Violence shall be called Law and grievous Slavery under that Will falsly Peace Had those whom no Government never so sweet and gracious will please unless the Supreme Power be given the People seen the Confusion and Dangers the Cruelty and Tyranny of these few days they would quickly have changed this Opinion The Knight performs his Embassy he urges the Idol with great Earnestness to see the King and speedily He answers if thou must be so much for Haste get thee back to the King thy Master I will come when I list yet he follows the Knight on Horse-back but slowly In the Way he is met by a Citizen who had brought sixty Doublets for the Commons upon the publick Faith This Citizen asks him for his Money he promises Payment before Night and presses on so near the King that his Horse touched the Croup of the Kings Horse Froissart reports his Discourse to the King Sir King says the Idol seest thou yonder People The King answers Yes and asks him what he means by the Question He replys they are all at my Command have sworn to me Faith and Truth to do what I will have them He and they had broke their Faith and Truth to their Prince and he thinks these Men will be true to him Here though it be a Digression too much I cannot omit a passage of the late Civil Wars of France begun and continued by the Iesuiced Party to extirpate the Royal Family there Villers Governour of Roüen for the Holy League tells the Duke of Mayen Captain General of the Rebellion That he would not obey him they were both Companions and Spoilers of the State together The King being levelled all Men else ought to be equal The Idol as he that demanded so the Knight nothing but Riot continues his Discourse thus Believest thou King that these People will depart without thy Letters The King tells him He means fairly that he will make good his Word his Letters are near finished and they shall have them But the Glory of the Idol which was meerly the Benefit of Fortune began to fade his Principality was too cruel too violent to be lasting Vengeance here hovered over his Head and he who had been the Destruction of Multitudes hastens nay precipitates his own Fate and ruins himself by his own Fury he puts himself into the Kings Power who should in his first towring had he been wisely wicked like a Vulture of the Game have flown at his Throat The judicious Politick will not begin to give over However will never venture himself in the Princes Hands whom he has justly offended by Treasons against his Government Charles of Burgundy confesses this to be a great Folly his Grandfather Philip lost his Life at Montereau upon the Yonne by it and our Idol shall not escape better Sir Iohn Newton the Knight imployed to fetch him delivered his Message on Horseback which is now remembred and taken for an high Neglect besides it seemeth the Carriage and Words of the Knight were not very pleasing Every Trifle in Omission was Treason to the Idols Person and new State He rails foully draws his Dagger and bellowing out Traitor menaces to strike the Knight who returns him in Exchange the Lye and not to be behind in Blows draws his This the Idol takes for an intolerable Affront but the King fearful of his Servant cools and asswages the Heat he commands the Knight to dismount and offer up his Dagger to the Idol which though unwillingly was done This would not take off his Edge The Prince who yields once to a Rebel shall find Heaps of Requests and must deny nothing The King had given away his Knights Dagger Now nothing will content Tyler but the Kings Sword with which the Militia or Power of Arms impliedly was sought This he asks then again rushes upon the Knight vowing never to eat till he have his Head When the Nobility and Gentry of the Kingdom whom neither Necessity nor Misery could animate lye down trampled on by these Villaines without Soul or Motion in comes the Mayor of London Sir William Walworth the everlasting Honour of the Nation a Man who over did Ages of the Roman Scaevolae or Curtii in an Hours Action and snatches the King and Kingdom out of these Flames He tells the King it would be a Shame to all Posterity to suffer more Insolences from this Hangman this Lump of Blood This the rest of the Courtiers now wakened by their own Danger for he who destroys one Man contrary to Law or Justice gives all Men else Reason to fear themselves and take heed are Ecchoes to This puts Daring into the young King he resolves to hazard all upon this Chance This Way he could not but dye Kingly at least like a Gentleman with the Sword which God of whose great Majesty he was a Beam gave him in his Hand The only Way left to avoid a shameful Death was to run the Danger of a brave One and a wise Coward I will not say an Honourable One considering the Incertainty of things under that Iron Socage Tenure would think so The King commands the Mayor to arrest the Butcher This was Charge enough and rightly understood indeed there was then no time for Form nor Tryal the Suspension of the Courts was Tylers Act his Crime and he ought not to look for any Advantage from it An Historian says the Duke of Guyse's Power was so much that the Ordinary Forms of Justice could not be observed fair Law is handsome but it is not to be given to Wolves and Tygers Tyler was a Traitor a common Enemy and against such says a Father long agone every Man is a Souldier whosoever struck too struck as much in his own Defence in his own Preservation as the King 's And the Safety of the King and People made this Course â—…ecessary besides Tylers Crimes were publick and notorious The generous Lord Mayor obeys the Sentence which was given by the same Power by which the Judges of Courts sat and acted
whereof these our Letters we have caused to be made Patents Witness our self at London the 15th day of June the 4th Year of our Reign This Charter was granted about the time the Clowns of Essex disbanded and received theirs it was brought into Harfordshire to Saint Albans by Wallingford one of the Town Friday says Walsingham the day of Tribulation c. which was the 16th of Iune the Townsmen of Saint Albans being at the time of Mattins acquainted by those of Barnet with the Command of the Ordinance or Act for repairing to London presently with the Esquires of the Abbot set forth So that I conceive the Day of this Charter is mistaken in it by the Monk The Clowns throw down their Arms at the Kings Feet sue for Mercy and deliver up their Chiefs the Principal of which Priest Straw was after drawn from his hiding Holes and laid hold of by the Kings Officers What became of them we shall see below in the Visitation made by the King and his Ministers through the Provinces in Uproar The Commons of Kent now scatter and dissolve the Heads of the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and the rest are taken down from the Bridge and the Idols advanced there That Baal should now be taken in an old House is an Error of the Knights Baal must take his Turn but he shall have a longer Run for it That the Dagger should now be given in Honour of Sir William Walworth as an Addition to the City Arms is Fabulous this Dagger is the Sword of St. Paul and was born by the City when Tyler was living The King now rides to Westminster where he gives God Thanks for his Deliverance and presents his Offering to the Virgin Mary in her Chappel of the Piew next he visits the Princess Mother in the Tower Royal called the Queens Wardrobe and bids her rejoyce for says he this Day I have recovered mine Heritage the Realm of England near lost the Lords return to their own Houses The other Countries now in Combustion and upon their March to London make halt they were Thunder-strucken at the Disaster of the Idol they hated the Fortune not the Wickedness of that Monster and tarry to pour out those Plagues at Home if they be not checked which before they intended to carry farther off The Example and Success of the Idol had moved with many but his Invitation and Sollicitation by the Emissaries of this Confederacy and Spirit more The Sectaries or Ring-leaders of the hurden rustick Raggamuffins in the several Provinces of the Association while Tyler was thus busied in the chief Seat of his new Dominions promote the Cause and pursue the Instructions of the Prince of Devils they were all to trèad his Steps as we shall find in what follows I have before spoken of the Summons of the Idol to fetch the bordering Rogues into the Line of Communication who were to serve as Auxiliaries only to strengthen Tyler rather than to enrich themselves and likely to be cashiered and cast off when he had perfected his Works amongst these Rake-hells were the Townsmen of Saint Albans with the Abbots Servants shuffled in the Throng of purpose to oversee and awe the Clowns from the new Fangles of our Phanaticks These as is related were sworn to the Ingagement at Heibury whence they come to London whither they are no sooner got but the Townsmen separate from the Servants of the Monastery and in St. Mary-bow-Church does their profane Conventicle consult how to make Advantage of the Tumult And what Pretences of Revolt from their Lord Abbot would seem most fair and taking Here they make not the Causes of their Disobedience they were hatched secretly amongst themselves they deliberate how to perfect things how to come to Effects The enlarging the Bounds of their Common free Fishing Hunting in certain places when they pleased and Hand-mills that the Bayliff of the Liberty shall no more meddle within the Precincts of the Town the Revocation of Charters prejudicial to the Free-born Burgesses cancelling the Bonds of their Fore-fathers made to Abbot Richard are the Propositions first voted One who would be wiser than the rest perswades them not to attempt things rashly and giddily without Authority He tells them that Wat Tyler Protector and Captain General of the Clowns was near that the Protector was a Righter of Wrongs raised and inspired by Providence to redeem the faithful Commons from the Thraldom of the Wicked At the Suit of the Godly Party says he Tyler has accepted the Government he is to govern the two Nations The Supreme executive Power resides in him from him says he and from the Keepers of the Liberties let us seek for Remedy Let us make our Addresses to him let us seek to his Highness for Power and Commission This he said as Walsingham writes supposing a greater than Tyler should not be seen in the Kingdom that Tylers Greatness for the time to come would only be eminent That the Laws of the Land the most ancient English Saxon Laws would be of no Force of no Validity because the most of the Lawyers were already murthered and the rest in their Account not long-lived the Axes Edge was turned towards them He concludes let us return Home and in the Puissance of Wat and our selves force the Abbot to Reason if he deny our Requests we will awe him with Burning and demolishing the Monastery with killing the Monks we will threaten not to leave one Stone upon another Others conceive it more safe to petition the King who might be spoken with by every Man and durst refuse nothing for his Letters under the Privy Seal commanding the Abbot to restore to the Townsmen the Rights and Liberties which their Ancestors enjoyed in the time of King Henry the First as if the English Church had been lately endowed the Monasteries founded their Royalties Liberties Priviledges granted by the Norman Princes than which nothing could be more false The most Christian Saxon Kings of Blessed Memory twelve of which dyed Martyrs of the Faith ten shine Glorious Stars in the Calender of Saints were all nursing Fathers of the Church scarcely was there one in the Illustrious Roll who gave not Lands and Possessions with Exemptions and Immunities to the Church who erected not Bishop-ricks or Monasterys into which Thirty of our Crowned Heads Kings or Queens entred the Superstition of the Ages then ought not to blemish their Piety The Mercian King Offa his Son Ecgfryd King Ethelred King Edward are the Founders and Donors of S. Albans What King Henry the First did for the Town I cannot say nor how ample its Liberties were then This is true he confirms the Grants of the Saxon Princes to the Monastery and adds the Norman Seal to strengthen the Saxon Crosses this is all but Truth is not necessary in such Uproars the Credulity of a Light-headed Multitude is quickly abused their Duty and Obedience easily corrupted without it To keep
Intrusion and of the Violence upon which he began To fill up their tattered Regiments their Fellow Leaguers or Covenanters of Barnet Luton Watford and the Towns round enter St. Albans of the same Sacrilegious Affection to the Abby In all these Conspiracies the Church was the main Mark aimed at about the Carcases of the Cathedrals and Abbys they were now nothing else did these Vultures gather In the same Conjuncture of times enters Richard Wallingford Head-borough or Constable of the place who tarried at London for the Kings Letter of Manumission and Pardon which Greyndcob had been so earnest for bearing the Kings Banner or Pennon of the Arms of St. George being the red Cross before him according to the Fashion of the Clowns of London The Commons hearing of his coming pour themselves out in Heaps to meet him He alights strikes the Penon into the Earth and bids them keep close and encircle it like a Standard He intreats them to continue about it and expect his Return and the Lieutenants who were resolved with all Speed to treat with the Abbot and would suddenly bring them an Answer to their Propositions Which said he and they enter the Church and send for the Abbot to appear before them and answer the Commons only Sacred then and to whom all Knees were to bow The Abbot was at first resolute to dye for the Liberty of his Church a pious Gallantry which will be admirable but overcome with the Prayers of his Monks who told him as things stood his Death could advantage nothing that these stinking Knaves these Hell-hounds were determined to murder the Monks and burn the Monastery if they had the Repulse and that there was no Way of Safety but to fall down before these Baals he yields After he was come to the Church and a short Salutation past Wallingford reaches out to him the Kings Letter or Writ as Walsiâ—…gham calls it in these Words as I have rendred them out of the barbarous French of that Age. BEloved in God At the Petition of our loved Lieges of the Town of St. Albans we will and command you That certain Charters being in your Custody made by our Progenitor King Henry to the Burgesses and good People of the said Town of Commune of Pasture and Fishing and of certain other Commodities expressed in the said Charters in what they say you doe as Law and Reason requires So that they may not have have any Matter to complain to us for that Cause Given under our Signet at London the 15th Day of June the fourth year of our Reign Here certainly again is a Mistake of the Day for till Friday the 16th of Iune the Clowns of Saint Albans as is observed stirred not Thus is the King forced to be the Author of other Mens Injustice to consent to those Insolences and Wrongs which must undoe all those who are Faithful to him to please a base Rabble engaged to turn in the end their destroying Hands upon himself and his Royal Family the Abbot receives the Letter with due Reverence and reads it Then thinking to work upon the Consciences of these Hell-hounds he begins a Discourse of Law Reason Equity and Justice Law and Reason were the Princely Bounds betwixt which the Kings Commands ran He tells them whatsoever was demanded by them had been long agoe determined in the Courts of Justice by the publick Judges Persons knowing and honourable sworn to do equal Right That the Records were kept amongst the Kings Rolls at Westminster whence he inferred That according to the Laws anciently in Use they had neither Right nor Claim left He adds the Usurpation upon anothers Propriety is Tyranny in the Abstract it is the greatest Injustice The very Heathens will have it unnatural to enrich our selves to make our Advantage from Spoil and Robbery but Force is odious to God and Man that aggravates the Sin Violence is a more heinous Crime than Theft This was ridiculous Wisdom considering who they were the good Abbot spake to he had forgot perhaps how Antigonus armed to invade and seize the Cities and Countries of other Princes laughed at the serious grave Folly of one who presented him with a Tractate of Justice Wallingford with his Hand upon his Sword takes him off pertinently as reflecting upon the Manners of Men whose Treasons prosper and Practise of the times in which now Men did not advance themselves by Vertue by Learning by Justice or Valour but by Murder and Robbery My Lord says he every Story is not true because it is eloquently told you endeavour here to inveigle and deceive us in a long Discourse of Equity of Law and Justice we come not hither for Words but Things we pretend not to refute your Reasons which are but unjust Defences of your Oppression but cunning Subtilties but Colours to paint o'er the Wrongs you do us nor can we the Rudeness of our Education must disable us for this part we have been born and bred under your Dominion Slaves and Villains to you under a Dominion so unmanly cruel you have always kept us deprived not only of all Means of Learning or Knowledge but would willingly have taken away our very Reason and common Understanding that we might groan under our Miseries with the feeling of Beasts but be Masters neither of Sense nor Language for a Complaint It is time now that we of the Commonalty as you call and range us should take our Turn of Command however of Liberty Nor is this to be wondered at if you consider our Strength and the Happiness of the new Model the Eminency of the Commons is visible to every Eye theirs is the present theirs is the Supreme Power We are armed and we will not think of the Laws nor regard them they only submit to Laws who want Power to help themselves Besides these Laws you tell us of are but the Will of our Enemies in Form and Rule they were made by them they favour them and our Captain General Tyler who has conquered a sad unhappy Word where it is used of one part of a Nation against another and of Benjamin against Israel by the worst and least against the better and greater the Makers of them the Law-givers was so become above the Laws themselves your Reasons when these Laws were backed with Force when your King could protect you before our Success might have served well enough now we expect them not nor will we accept them He concludes in Perswasion not to exasperate the Godly Party the Righteous Commons who says he will not be appeased will not give over nor lay down Arms till they be Masters of their Desires The Abbot entring into a new Speech is again stopped and told the Thousand before the Doors of his Monastery sent for him not to parly but consent which they look he should be sudden in if not we says Wallingford the Lieutenants chosen by the Captain Representatives of the People will deliver up and
Ends and Lives too they could not hope better things about the Charter which was no where extant but in the Noddles of these Cluster-fists But Day and Comfort broke out together upon them suddenly this Overflow of Pride and Arrogancy abated their Loftiness fell and their Bristles were somewhat laid very unpleasing Rumours concerning the Army were spread and the Death of the Idol Tyrant Wat of stinking Memory was certainly known and divulged and what was as stabbing that the Citizens of London grown wise and resolute either out of Loyalty or which is the rather to be supposed Experience of their new Master began now to own their Prince their natural Lord unanimously and to side with him against all Seditious Opposers of his Majesty and the just Rights and Liberties of his People which they saw like to perish together Farther a Knight of the Court seconds the Report and by Proclamation in the Kings Name now legal again commands this Herd to keep the Kings Peace under forfeiture of Life and Members from that Hour The King now grown a Protector again of his Subjects sends his Letters Protectory to the Abbot in these Words RIchard c. To all our Lieges and Commons of Hartford c. We pray charge command straightly as we may c. by the Faith and Liegances which to us ye owe that to our Beloved in God the Abbot of St. Albans nor to our House and Monastery of the said Place of our Patronage nor to none of the People Monks nor others nor to none of the Goods of the said Monastery c. Ye suffer to be done as much as in you lies any Grievance Dammage c. Given under our Great Seal at our City of London c. Though now these Carles were well cooled yet e'er the Zeal was quite slackened and the Clouds dispelled which hovered weakly and were likely to scatter with the next Breath of Wind they conclude to perfect their Building which to the great Nuisance of this Monastery they had raised Besides the Lieutenants or Major Generals of Tyler thought it a much unworthiness to droop too soon before those whom they had summoned in to piece up their deformed Insurrection with so much Bravery and Insolence They continue and pursue their Requests to the Abbot but with less Noise than formerly the Abbot was advised by Letters from Sir Hugh Segrave Lord Steward of the Houshold and Sir Thomas Percy created after Earl of Worcester to grant all things assuring him these Grants being thus forced from him would be void in Law and could not hurt his Monastery The Abbots Chamber the Chappel all Places are full of them they give Directions to the Abbot's Clerk for their Charter of Liberties which now they were contented to accept but will have a Bond of One thousand pounds Sterling for the delivering up the Charter unknown before the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin next if it can be found if not that the Abbot with his twelfth Hand an ancient Saxon manner of purging or clearing the Offender where the Offence was secret with twelve of his chief Monks should swear that he neither has nor detains any such Charter with his Knowledge The Abbot agrees he and the Covent Seal but oh the Miracle not to be believed nor understood without another upon our Faith and Understanding the seal in which the Glorious Protomartyr was figured three times together could not be pulled from the Wax no sleight no Strength could doe it to pass by the pious Frauds and Dreams of Monks From thence the Black-bands depart to the Market-place there at the Cross they publish their new Acquisitions the Charters of the King and Abbot with the Kings Protection of the Monastery which was but a Counterfeit of their Love On Munday and Tuesday following the Villains of the Patrimony of our Protomartyr as the others did in all places else imbroiled exact of the Abbot Deeds of Manumission and Liberty according to the Effect of the Royal Charter before which Charter the Abbot recites and confirms From Villains these now conceive themselves Gentlemen of Welsh Pedegree descended of Princes nay as our Monk noble beyond the Line and Race of Kings they are meer Free-holders hold only of God and the Son rather of the Sun and Club and will neither perform their Customs and Services nor pay Rent The common People who are neither swayed by Religion or Honesty stop and check themselves not that they were contented but because they could not nay they durst not go on to more The Plague of this Distemper was not only epidemical but kept its Days on the fatal Saturday fifty thousand Clowns out of Suffolk Essex Cambridgeshire the Isle of Ely places miserably harrassed according to the former Presidents were incorporated by the jugling Tricks of the Essexian Impostors sent out by the Fathers of Disobedience in the first Conception of the Ruffle to inveigle Proselites to the Holy League This was but an indigested Mass without Shape or Form Wraw not Straw as sometimes he is called aâ—…most lewd Presbyter as Walsingham or Priest who came from London the Day before with Orders from Tyler who according to his own Establishment had the executive Power was imployed into those parts to lick and fashion the Monster He with Robert Westbrome King of this Congregation lead the tatter'd Reformers from Mildenhall to St. Edmunds-bury where then stood a most Glorious Monastery and where their Fellow Scoundrels expected them Wraw finds these Choperloches good Disciples willing to learn and quick of Apprehension so capable they understood his least Signs The same Frenzies are again acted by other Lunaticks the Lawyers or Apprentices of the Law as the Monk and their Houses are the first Objects of their spight they do not only cut off them but fire their Nests Sir Iohn Cavendish Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who had been one of the most able Serjeants of this Kings Grand-fathers Reign and was made Chief Justice by him they intercept and behead Orpheus Tracie Nero the Roman Belgabred the Brittain excellent in the Sweetness of a Voice and Skill of Song with Iohn of Cambridge Prior of Saint Edmunds lose their Lives in the same manner as they unluckily fell into their Hands The Cause of the Priors Death is made this He was discreet and managed the Affairs of his Monastery faithfully and diligently he was taken near Mildenhall a Town then belonging to Saint Edmund of the Demain of the Abby the Vassals Hinds Villains and Bond-men of the House sentenced him murthered him by Vote His Body lay five Days Naked in the Field unburied In Saint Edmunds-bury these Cut-throats compass the Priors Head round as in a Procession after they carry it upon a Lance to the Pillory where that and the Chief Justices Head are advanced The next Work was the levelling a new House of the Priors After they enter the Monastery which they threaten
popular who says he forgetful of their Profession and Vows greedy and covetous of Mony foster the People in their Errors call good Evil and Evil good seducing the Great Men with Fawning and the Rabble with Lyes So that in those Days thus he proceeds the Argument held in every Mans Mouth This is a Fryer therefore a Lyer as strong as this This is white therefore coloured Here again is Walsingham at a Stand he complains that it is impossible to relate the Villanies of the Rustick Devils done in all parts We will now return to see what the King does next who was not asleep this while After he had cleared the City lately Tylers good Town of the Kentish Fry he commands the Nobility and Gentry who durst now peep abroad all the Kingdom over to repair to him at London well armed and well horsed as they loved him and his Royal Honour Their own Danger and late Fears add Wings to their Haste Within a few Days forty thousand Horse meet at a Rendevouz upon Blackheath whither the young King who had taken his Sequestration off and restored himself to his Blood and Majesty rides daily upon a Royal Courser to view their Order with his Imperial Banner born before him He delighted to be seen and acknowledged for what he was amongst his own Homagers Here he is informed that the Kentishmen a stirring People but with what generous Resolution will soon be found are again in Mutiny a Mutiny however else contemptible not to be sleighted at that time The King commands his Cavalry on Fire as much as himself to march and root out this perfidious Race of Miscreants Here the Nobility and Gentry of the County interpose and become Pledges for the Commons which appeases the King who now disbands his Army and resolves to take no other Course of Justice but such as was ordinary and usual by Judgments upon the known Laws of the Land and by Juries of twelve Men the Ancient Birth-right of the Englishmen Laws which could not have fitted Tylers Courts nor Tryals but which have been ever the Rule in all just and legal Tryals in all calm and pious Ages The Law Martial being proper to an Army marching to be exercised in it If otherwise all Sentences by Colour of it are against the Magna Charta c. and to the manifest Subversion of the Priviledges of Subjects Upon this fair and Kingly Conclusion of Richard Commissions were given and Justices of Oyer and Terminer to hear and determine the Treasons and Fellonies committed in the late Insurrections and principally to enquire who were the chief Authors Fomenters and Incendiaries of the Broils are sent into Kent Essex and the rest of the Provinces in Rebellion The most Honourable Mayor of London with others in Commission with him sate upon those of Kent Essex Norfolk and Suffolk c. who were apprehended in London Straw taken in an old rotten House about London Kirkby Treder Sterling are condemned and beheaded Straws Head being set upon London-bridge with Tylers but Iack Straw who was privy to all the Contrivances and Plots of the Confederacy could give Light into the Mid-night Darkness of Tylers Steps through all the close Windings of his Labyrinths of Treasons is urged the Mayor promising with some honest Citizens to be at the Charge of Masses for his Soul the Good of which they desire him to consider to declare his full Knowledge of the Counsels and Votes passed and to what end they had conjured up the wicked Spirits of those Garboyles Iohn was obstinate at the first and would confess nothing but gained by these Promises and a little penitent which was much to be believed of one possessed with Legions he tells them Because I have hopes of Help from your Suffrages after my Death and because this Discovery may be advantageous to the Common wealth I will confess truly to you what we intended When we met at Black-heath and sent for the King by our Captain-Generals Order we purposed to have massacred all the Nobility and Gentry with him then to have lead the King with us respected and treated Kingly from place to place to bait the vulgar by the Authority of his Presence into our League whom they might so have taken for the Head of our Commotion he being by these Means likely to have been supposed by his own Party too to have trusted us when by the Confluence of all the Counties our Companies had been full and the Supreme Executive Power wholly ours we meant to have purged the Nation to have destroyed the Gentry and first the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem with all the Rags of Royalty which by this time had been but a Rag it self Afterwards to have killed the King whose Name could then have been of no Use to us Their Oath to preserve him could not last longer than their Conveniency and Opinions which had then changed We meant so once but we mean otherwise now had been a satisfactory Excuse They had often sworn and covenanted that they neither meant nor had Power to hurt the Kings Prerogative that they intended to maintain the Kings Authority in his Royal Dignity the free Course of Iustice and the Laws of the Land with infinite Expressions and Protestations of this kind They might answer the Time was when all this was real when they would not have subverted the Government nor have destroyed the ancient Family to which says a Statute which we hope it can be no Treason to Tylers Ghost to recite the Dominions and Rights of the Realm of England c. Ought by inherent Birth-right and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come This we being bounden thus speak the Members heretofore thereunto by the Laws of God and Man do recognise c. The Answer we say might have been easie they would not have done it some time agone they swore and covenanted and covenanted again they would not now they will Tyler is still Tyler but his Liberty false cheating Liberty is every where free both to Will and Dislike as the Safety of the Common-wealth shall require and carry him on This was the Faith and Honesty of that Age by which we may guess at the Cause and Men who acted for it Who were the Undertakers what Trust is to be given to such perfidious Knaves whose Protestations and Covenants of one Day are wiped out by an Inspiration of the next We may say by an Inspiration it was wondrous fit for these Changes Our Proteus should bring Inspiration in All those of Estates and Possessions Bishops Canons Persons of Churches Monks we would have rooted out of the Earth Only the begging Fryars should have been preserved who would have served such Sheep such Shepherds well enough for Church-duties which we may wonder after all these Pranks that they should think of here would have been a very plain Church Questionless after all these Actions the Devotion of these Reformers could not have been much
against those Jesuits who would have cut off the King the Royal Family the Bishops of the English Catholick Church the Nobility and Gentry as their Letter speaks with one Blow says of this Resignation or Donation if we may so he call it so that it was not freely given The Jesuits Challenge the perpetual Dictature or Regency of the University of Pontamousson by Bull of Sixtus the Fifth contrary to the Statutes of the Foundation by Gregory the Thirteenth Were the Bull true says Berclay yet it ought not to be of Force because it was obtain'd presently after his Creation when things are presumed to be rather extorted than obtained Bodin denys that a King deceived or forced can be bound by his Grants The Justice of Contracts is that alone which binds The Distinction of Royal and private Acts is of more Sound than Strength and answers not the Injustice of the impulsive Violence which must be naturally vicious every where and corrupt and weaken the Effects and cannot be good and bad by Changes or as to this or that Grotius who loves this Distinction in another place is positive There must be Equality in all Contracts He condemns all Fear or Awe upon the Person purposely moved for the Contracts Sake and tells us out of Xenophon of those of Lacedaemon who annulled a Sale of Lands which the Elians had forced the Owners to pass out of Fear A Charter of King Henry the Third imprisoned and forced is said by Aldenham to be void upon this Reason and I judge the Justice of this Revocation by the Law of England by which as our old Parliaments such Force is Treason The Fruits of which were here more justly plucked up than they were planted He who gives up his Money to Thieves according to his Oath may lawfully take it away from them However they are bound to make Restitution Nor can any Prescription of time establish a Right of Possession in him who makes his Seizure upon no other Title but Plunder and Robbery The 5th of this King the Parliament declares these Grants to be forced and void Enough to clear the Honour of King Richard as to this part At Chelmsford the King is informed of the whole History of Mischiefs done at St. Albanes and resolved in Person with all his Guards and Cavalry to ride thither and sentence the Malefactors with his own Mouth but Sir Walter Ley of Hartfordshire fearing the much impoverishing the Country if the King should make any long Stay there with such Numbers as then attended him beseeches him to make a Tryal whether things might not be composed without him and offers to reconcile the Abbot and Townsmen if the King would which was consented to The King grants him a Commission and joyns with him Edward Benstude Geofry Stukely and others of the Gentry of that County The coming of these Commissioners was noised at St. Albans The fiercest of the Clowns knowing what they had done was condemned by the Law and not to be defended but by Force which now they had not began to shake and take Fright are plotting to get out of the Way Greyndcob Lieutenant of the late Idol comforts them he perswades to go to Horse let us meet the Knight says he and see whether his Looks promise Peace or not if not the Towns about us have engaged they have associated and are of our League we are rich and cannot want good Fellows who will assist us while our Monys last On St. Peters Day this ill-advised Crue meets the Knight upon the Road who was ignorant of their Resolutions and conduct him Honourably according to their Fashion to the Town Sir Walter had with him fifty Lances and some Companies of Archers listed at random many of them being of the Churls and Confederates with them The Knight cites the Townsmen and their Neighbours to appear before him in Derfold to hear the Pleasure and Commands of the King they fail not There he tells them what Forces the King had assembled how rigorously those of Essex were sentenced That the King was highly incensed at the Troubles and Seditions of this place of which he was the Patron and Defender That with Great Difficulty he had procured of the King a Commission by which himself and others not Strangers or Enemies but their Friends and Neighbours were authorized to do Iustice in the KingsStead he concludes if they will appease the King they must find out and deliver up the Beginners of these Broils and make Satisfaction to the Lord Abbot an holy and a just Man for the Wrong they had done him This many of the Hearers approve and promise to obey The Knight charges a Jury to be made ready the next Morning and make what Discovery they can and gives the People Leave to depart Towards Night he sends for the Jury to his Chamber intending to have apprehended the Lieutenants by the Assistance of the Jury without any Noise These good Men and true know nothing it was the Case of their Fellows in Mischief and might be their own They answer in a plain Ignoramus they can indict no Man accuse no Man Amongst all the sounder of these Swine there was not one who had been Faithless and Disloyal to his Natural Liege Lord not one Breaker of his Peace not one who could appear so to them The Knight seems not to understand the Falsness and Cunning of these Hob-nail perjured Juglers He takes another Way and next requires them within a peremptory time to bring him the Charters which they had forced from the Monastery they return after a short Consultation and in the Abbots Chamber where the Knight then was tell him They dare not obey out of Fear of the Commons what was more they knew not in whose Custody the Charters were The Knight grows angry and swears they shall not go out of the Chamber till he have them which they call imprisoning their Persons Here the Abbot intercedes and though he knew them as very Knaves and Lyers as any Tyler had set on work yet he will not he says distruct their Honesty he will leave things to their Consciences upon which they are freed Another Assembly is appointed at Barnet Wood whither the Villagers about throng in Multitudes Three hundred Bow-men of Barnet and Berkhamsted make here so terrible a Show nothing is done The Commissioners privately charge the Gentry Constables and Bayliffs to seize in the Night Greyndcob Cadindon Iohn the Barber with some others and to bring them to Hartford whither themselves went in all Haste which was performed The Esquires and Servants of the Abby were sent with them to strengthen the Company This enrages the Townsmen afresh they gather into Conventicles in the Woods and Fields so much frightful to the Monastery that the Abbot recalls his Esquires le ts the Prosecution fall and fearfully summons in his Friends to guard him Greyndcobs Friends take Advantage of this Change and bail him for three Days
within which time they were either tyed to agree with the Abby or render up Greyndcob to the Justices again The Townsmen fierce enough still yet earnest to preserve their Worthy are content to part with the Charters but this Greyndcob more Fool-hardy than wise would not consent to Nor does he as knowing the Stifness of his Clowns whine in a Religious Tone never used by him He prays them to consider how Beautiful Liberty is how sweet how Honourable Dangerous Liberty says he is more valuable than safe and quiet Slavery let us live or dye with Liberty in so generous so honest a Contention it will be Glorious to be overcome whatsoever our Fears are worse we cannot be then now we are about to make our Selves Success too doth not so often fail Men as their own Industry and Boldness Fear not for me nor trouble your selves at my Dangers I shall think my self more happy than our Lords if they prosper or their King to dye a Martyr of the Cause with the Reputation of such a Gallantry Let such Courage as would have hurryed you forward to all brave and signal Mischiefs had I lost my Head at Hartford inflame your heavy Sprights Methinks I see the Hero Tylers Ghost chiding our sluggish Cowardice and by the Blazes of his Fire-brands kindled in Hell and waved by Fiends about his Head lead on to noble Villanies Let dreaming Monks and Priests tremble at the airy Sounds of God and Saints he who fears Thunder-bolts is a Religious heartless Coxcomb and shall never climb a Molehill Thus our buskin'd Martyr swaggers after the Raptures put upon him by Walsingham Greyndcob's Stubbornness hardens on the Clowns they now accuse themselves of Baseness that they did not cut off the Knights Head and nail it on the Pillory to the Terror say they of all Judges and false Justices Greyndcob had raised Spirits which he could not lay when he would Three days being expired he is again sent to Hartford Goal where he hears News from his Brother who mediated for him in the Court not very pleasing which he communicates to his Townsmen His Intelligence was to this Effect That Richard of Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and Sir Thomas Piercie with a thousand armed Men were appointed to visit S. Albans At this Report the Rebels startle they fall to new Treaties offer the Charters and Book in which the old Pleas betwixt the Abby and the Town were recorded with 200 l. for amends The Book is received the rest put off till the next Day The Earl of Warwick sends only Excuses he heard his own House was on Fire that the Clowns of his own Lordships were up and he leaves all things else to quell them This raises the fallen Courages of those of Saint Albans they now laugh at their late Fears If the Commons say they must quit their Right of Conquest and surrender their Charters yet will not we the Renowned Mechanicks of St. Albans be their President And as in all Tumults which can never be observed too often Lying is necessary and must not be useless whatsoever else is they lay the Blame of their Obstinacy upon the Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford who threaten so they would have it believed to burn their Town if they deliver up their Liberties Which Inhabitants of Barnet and Watford had humbly surrendred theirs before and submitted to the Kings Mercy Thus we find these Rebels of St. Albans again swaggering in their old Rhodomontadoes An Esquire of the Abbots acquaints the King with these Turnings who vows to sit personally in Judgment upon these Everlasting Malecontents The Abbot full of Pity and Charity who had saved some of these Enemies of his House from the Axe by Intercession at London continues his Goodness still He sollicites Sir Hugh Segrave Steward of the Houshold and others of his Friends to mitigate the King's Displeasure and hinder his Journey thither which was not in their Power Now again are the Townsmen dejected and seek by all means to keep off the Tempest which threatned them They fee Sir William Croyser a Lawyer to make their Defence and mediate with the Abbot wherethere was no Danger An Agreement is concluded the Day of the Kings Entry by which they would bind the Abbot not to disclose them or inform against them He promises if they fail not in Performance on their Part not to make any Complaints to the King of them that he would be a Suiter for their Peace if his Prayers may be heard but that here he cannot assure them Pardons were Acts flowing meerly from the Kings Grace No Man had any Power or Authority to pardon or remit Treasons c. but the King and whether he could prevail for them he knew not This Doubtfulness troubles them it seems to call their Innocency too much into Question They tell him his good Will was sufficient and that as to what belonged to the Royal Dignity they should satisfie the King After Vespers the King made his Entry into the Town being met by the Abbot and Covent the Bells rang aloud and the Monks sang merrily his Welcome He was followed by some thousands of Bowmen and Cavaliers In this Train was Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of the Kings Bench who the next Day being Saturday the 13. of Iuly and first of the Dog-days sat in Judgment at the Moot-hall says Walsingham at the Town-house Greyndcob Cadindon and Iohn the Barber are fetched from Hartford and laid fast till Munday against which time new Jury-men are chosen and charged to be ready with their Verdicts Prophet Baal the Sergius of the new Alcoran the Priest of the Idol and his Calves the Martin of the Yoak of pure Discipline of the Eldership was taken by the Townsmen of Coventry brought to St. Albans the Day before and this Saturday condemned by the Chief Justice to be Drawn Hanged Beheaded Imbowelled and Quartered which was done on the Munday following He confessed to the Bishop of London to whose Christian Piety he ought the two last Days of his Life which were begged for his Repentance that certain hot and powerful Pastors of the Separation Brethren of simple Hearts called by the Spirit he named six or seven had covenanted and engaged to compass England and Wales round as Itinerant Apostles to propagate the Gospel beat down all Abomination of the outward Man Antichristian Hierarchy and Tyranny of the Nimrods of the Earth to cry up the great and Holy Cause and to spread the Law Principles and Heresies of Baal which Disciples says this Rabbi unless they be prevented and taken off will destroy the Realm in two Years He might have said two Months and been believed as to the Civility Humanity Order and Honour never intermitted but in the Confusion of a barbarous impious Age which made England Glorious they had been destroyed and torn up in a less time A few licentious ill Acts easily beget a Custom and an hundred ill Customs quicklier
just legal Power by which the Kings acted an Arbitrary boundless unlimited Power must have been set up instead of a Fatherly Royal Monarchy a Tyranny after the Turkish Mode a Monarchy Seignioral and had he brought in upon the Fall of the Christian Faith and Worship which must have followed his Establishment Circumcision and the Creed of Mahomet as the Spirits of Men were than debased he must have been obeyed All the Kings Right and more must have been his Sultan Tyler's Prerogative would have been found more grievous more heavy more killing than all the Yokes and Scorpions of our Kings no Man when he went to Sleep could assure himself that one Law would be left next Morning the Ordinances of Tyler and his Council flew about in Swarms killing and rooting up the Laws One Proclamation of this Tyrant's was of Force to blow up the ancient Foundation enough to have made Men mad if ever they could wake and understand When the French had conquered Naples the People looked for a golden World they thought their new Master would as the King of Mexico's Oath used to say do Justice to all Men make the Sun to shine the Clouds to rain the Earth to be fruitful They promise themselves Liberty and that the accustomed Imposts of their former Kings of the House of Arragon should not only be taken off but the very Word Gabelle driven out of the Kingdom there should be no such thing in Nature left but foolish Dolts as they were they found an Alteration quickly instead of a Court Cavalry before the new Masters ill established and assured not daring to trust any thing standing Armies were continually to be kept on Foot instead of one Tax intolerable of late they are oppressed with ten their Backs and Shoulders crack under the Load Upon this Fancy of these abused Italians says the Historian This is the Custom for the most part of all People weary ever of the present Condition and inconsiderately gaping after a Change but they receive such Wages of their fond and disorderly Lightness The War undertaken against Lewis the 11th of France by the House of Burgundy Dukes of Berry Brittain and Bourbon called the Weal Publick was not made against the King says the Allies but against evil Order Injustice in the Government and for the Publick Good of the Realm In the Treaty for Peace these fine things are forgotten the wretched Peasants torn and ground with Taxes left to shift for themselves The Prince of the Burgundies demands the Towns upon the Some for himself Normandy for the Duke of Berry and other places Offices and Pensions for the rest some Overtures were made for the Weal Publick says the History that is all the Weal Publick was the least of the Question the Weal Publick was turned to Weal Particular Self-seeking was the Sum of the Business This has been the Fashion of all Rebels hitherto and will be to the Worlds End After these Proceedings the Hartfordshire Men betwixt the Ages of 15 and 60 present themselves according to Command and take the Oath of Allegiance they are sworn too to unkennel and apprehend the late Incendiaries The King having now quieted the Commotions removes to Berkhamsted eight Miles from St. Albans a Royal Castle then and at Easthamsted where he hunts is informed that the Bodies of the Traytors executed were taken down from the Gallows hereupon he directs his Writ or Letter to the Bayliffs of St. Albans commanding them under Penalty of forfeiting all things forfeitable to hang up again the said Bodies now rotten and stinking in Iron Chains which the Townsmen are forced to do with their own Hands A Parliament sitting in May the Fifth Year of this Kings Reign Iohn Wraw Priest of the Reformation at Mildenhall and St. Edmunds-bury was taken and upon the Petition of the House of Commons to the King judged to be drawn and hanged In the same Parliament too it was enacted That wheresoever any Clowns by six or seven in a Company kept suspicious Conventicles the Kings good and faithful Subjects should lay hold of them and commit them to the next Gaol without staying for the Kings Writ In the same Parliament of the King it was made Treason to begin a Riot Rout or Rumour by this Parliament and that of the 6. Provisions are made for those whose Deeds were burnt or destroyed in the late Insurrection and in the 6. of Richard the King pardons the Multitudes for their Misdemeanours in the Tumults The Clowns now every where return'd to their old Obedience and the Winds were laid in all their Quarter Richard a Prince born for Troubles shall be turmoyled with the Rebellions of his Peers and Parliaments deposed and murthered by them yet his Memory shall be Sacred his Peers and Clowns shall dig for him in his Grave Posterity too shall owe all things to his Person After the Death of Maximinius a wicked bloody Thief a cruel Tyrant who invaded the Roman Empire Capitolinus recites a gratulatory Letter written by Claudius Iulianus a Consul to the Emperors Maximus and Balbinus whom he calls Preservers and Redeemers of the Common-Wealth there the Council tells them they had restored to the Senate the House of Lords their ancient Dignity to the Romans their Laws Equity and Clemency established their Lives their Manners their Liberty the Hopes of Succession to their Heirs He adds they had freed the Provinces from the insatiable Covetousness of Tyrannies no Voice Language nor Wit can express says he the publick Happiness King Richard restored to the Church and Universities their Rights and Possessions to the Nobility their Honour to the Gentry their Respect to the Cities their free Trade the Plenty of his Harvest to the industrious Countryman Security Peace and Liberty to all Orders what Prince could bestow greater Benefits upon a People He was the Stator the Saviour of the Nation a Nation not worthy of him whose Ingratefulness to his Sacred Head whose Perfidiousness and Impiety in advancing an Usurper upon his Ruins were punished with a fatal Civil War which lasted Ages with an Issue of Blood which could not be stopped till the true and lawful Heir of this Prince was seated in the Imperial Throne according to the Faith and Oaths of this People which whatsoever may be pretended no Power on Earth can dispence with and according to the fundamental Laws of England FINIS A TABLE TO Mr. Iohn Cleveland's WORKS A. THe Antiplatonick Page 11 The mixt Assembly p. 32 Answer to a Pamphlet written against the Lord Dygby's Speech concerning the Death of the Earl of Strafford p. 100 Against Ale p. 304 Answer to the Storm p. 383 B. On Britannicus his Leap three Story high and his Escape from London p. 247 Elegy upon Ben. Johnson p. 310 A second Elegy p. 303 An Epitaph upon Ben. Johnson p. 353 To a Lady that wrought a Story of the Bible in Needle-work p. 359 On a Burning-Glass p. 375 C. AN Elegy