being disputed with by any fight of importance I remember Drake in the vaunting stile of a Souldier would call this Enterprize The Cingeing of the King of Spains Beard The Enterprize of Eighty Eight deserveth to be stood upon a little more fully being a Miracle of Time There armed from Spain in the year 1588. the greatest Navy that ever swam upon the Sea For though there have been far greater Fleets for number yet for the Bulk and Building of the Ships with the Furniture of great Ordnance and Provisions never the like The Design was to make not an Invasion onely but an utter Conquest of this Kingdom The number of Vessels were one hundred and thirty whereof Galliasses and Gallions seventy two goodly Ships like floating Towers or Castles manned with Thirty thousand Souldiers and Mariners This Navy was the Preparation of five whole years at the least It bare it self also upon Divine Assistance For it received special Blessing from Pope Zistus and was assigned as an Apostolical Mission for the Reducement of this Kingdom to the obedience of the See of Rome And in further token of this holy Warfare there were amongst the rest of these Ships Twelve called by the name of the Twelve Apostles But it was truely conceived that this Kingdom of England could never be over-whelmed except the Land-Waters came in to the Sea-Tides Therefore was there also in readiness in Flanders a mighty strong Army of Land-Forces to the number of Fifty thousand veterane Souldiers under the Conduct of the Duke of Parma the best Commander next the French King Henry the Fourth of his time These were designed to joyn with the Forces at Sea There being prepared a number of Flat-bottom'd Boats to transport the Land Forces under the Wing and Protection of the Great Navy For they made no account but that the Navy should be absolute Master of the Seas Against these Forces there were prepared on our part to the number of near one hundred Ships Not so great of Bulk indeed but of a more nimble Motion and more serviceable Besides a less Fleet of 30 Ships for the Custody of the Narrow Seas There were also in readiness at Land two Armies besides other Forces to the number of Ten thousand dispersed amongst the Coast Towns in the Southern Parts The two Armies were appointed One of them consisting of Twenty five thousand Horse and Foot for the Repulsing of the Enemy at their landing And the other of Twenty five thousand for safeguard and attendance about the Court and the Queens Person There were also other Dormant Musters of Souldiers throughout all Parts of the Realm that were put in readiness but not drawn together The two Armies were assigned to the Leading of two Generals Noble Persons but both of them rather Courtiers and Assured to the State than Martial Men yet lined and assisted with Subordinate Commanders of great Experience Valor The Fortune of the War made this Enterprize at first a Play at Base The Spanish Navy set forth out of the Groyne in May was disperst and driven back by Weather Our Navy set forth somewhat later out of Plimouth and bare up towards the Coast of Spain to have fought with the Spanish Navy And partly by reason of contrary Winds partly upon advertisement that the Spaniards were gone back and upon some doubt also that they might pass towards the Coast of England whilest we were seeking them afar off returned likewise into Plimouth about the middle of July At that time came more confident Advertisement though false not onely to the Lord Admiral but to the Court that the Spaniards could not possibly come forward that year Whereupon our Navy was upon the point of Disbanding and many of our Men gone ashore At which very time the Invincible Armada for so it was called in a Spanish Ostentation throughout Europe was discovered upon the Western Coast. It was a kinde of Surprize For that as was said many of our men were gone to Land and our Ships ready to depart Nevertheless the Admiral with such Ships only as could suddenly be put in readiness made forth towards them In so much as of one hundred Ships there came scarce thirty to work Howbeit with them and such as came dayly in we set upon them and gave them the chase But the Spaniards for want of Courage which they called Commission declined the Fight casting themselves continually into Roundels their strongest Ships walling in the rest and in that manner they made a flying march towards Callis Our Men by the space of five or six days followed them close fought with them continually made great slaughter of their Men took two of their great Ships and gave divers others of their Ships their Deaths wounds whereof soon after they sank and perished And in a word distressed them almost in the nature of a Defeat We our selves in the mean time receiving little or no hurt Near Callis the Spaniards anchored expecting their Land-Forces which came not It was afterwards alledged that the Duke of Parma did artificially delay his Coming But this was but an Invention and Pretension given out by the Spaniards Partly upon a Spanish Envy against that Duke being an Italian and his Son a Competitor to Portugal But chiefly to save the Monstrous Scorn and Disreputation which they and their Nation received by the Success of that Enterprize Therefore their Colours and Excuses forsooth were that their General by Sea had a limitted Commission not to fight until the Land-Forces were come in to them And that the Duke of Parma had particular Reaches and Ends of his own underhand to cross the Design But it was both a strange Commission and a strange Obedience to a Commission for Men in the midst of their own blood and being so furiously assailed to hold their hands contrary to the Laws of Nature and Necessity And as for the Duke of Parma he was reasonably well tempted to be true to that Enterprize by no less Promise than to be made a Feudatary or Beneficiary King of England under the Seignorie in chief of the Pope and the Protection of the King of Spain Besides it appeared that the Duke of Parma held his place long after in the Favour and Trust of the King of Spain by the great Employments and Services that he performed in France And again it is manifest that the Duke did his best to come down and to put to Sea The Truth was that the Spanish Navy upon those proofs of Fight which they had with the English finding how much hurt they received and how little hurt they did by reason of the Activity and low building of our Ships and skill of our Sea-men And being also commanded by a General of small Courage and Experience And having lost at the first two of their bravest Commanders at Sea Petro de Valdez and Michael de Oquenda durst not put it to a Battel at Sea but set up their rest wholly upon the Land-Enterprize
Forces thorowout all Ireland from the Plaees and Nests where they had setled themselves in greater strength as in regard of the natural Situation of the Places than that was of Kinsale Which were Castle haven Baltimore and Beere-haven Indeed they went away with sound of Trumpet For they did nothing but publish and trumpet all the Reproaches they could devise against the Irish Land and Nation Insomuch as D'Aquila said in open Treaty That when the Devil upon the Mount did shew Christ all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them he did not doubt 〈◊〉 the devil left out Ireland and kept it for himself I cease here omitting not a few other proofs of the English Valor and Fortune in their later times As at the Suburbs of Paris at the Raveline at Druse in Normandy some Encounters in Britanny and at Ostend and divers others Partly because some of them have not been proper Encounters between the Spaniards and the English and partly because others of them have not been of that greatness as to have sorted in company with the Particulars formerly recited It is true that amongst all the late Adventures the Voyage of Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins into the West-Indies was unfortunate Yet in such sort as it doth not break or interrupt our Prescription To have had the better of the Spaniards upon all Fights of late For the Disaster of that Journey was caused chiefly by sickness As might well appear by the Deaths of both the Generals Sir Francis Drake and Sir John Hawkins of the same sickness amongst the rest The Land-Enterprise of Panama was an ill measured and immature Counsel for it was grounded upon a false account that the Passages towards Panama were no better fortified than Drake had left them But yet it sorted not to any Fight of importance but to a Retreat after the English had proved the strength of their first Fort and had notice of the two other Forts beyond by which they were to have marched It is true that in the Return of the English Fleet they were set upon by Avellaneda Admiral of 20 great great ships Spanish our Fleet being but 14 full of sick men deprived of their two Generals at Sea and having no pretence but to journey homewards And yet the Spaniards did but salute them about the Cape de los Corientes with some small offer of Fight and came off with loss Although it was such a new thing for the Spaniards to receive so little hurt up on dealing with the English as Avellaneda made great brags of it for no greater matter than the waiting upon the English a far off from Cape de los Corientes to Cape Antonio Which nevertheless in the Language of a Souldier and of a Spaniard he called a Chace But before I proceed further it is good to meet with an Objection which if it be not removed the Conclusion of Experience from the time past to the time present will not be sound and perfect For it will be said that in the former times whereof we have spoken Spain was not so mighty as now it is And England on the other side was more afore-hand in all matters of Power Therefore let us compare with indifferency these Disparities of times and we shall plainly perceive that they make for the advantage of England at this present time And because we will less wander in Generalities we will fix the Comparison to precise Times Comparing the State of Spain and England in the year 88. with this present year that now runneth In handling of this Point I will not meddle with any Personal Comparisons of the Princes Councellors and Commanders by Sea or Land that were then and that are now in both Kingdoms Spain and England but onely rest upon Real Points for the true Ballancing of the State of the Forces and Affairs of both Times And yet these Personal Comparisons I omit not but that I could evidently shew that even in these Personal Respects the Ballance sways on our part But because I would say nothing that may favour of a spirit of Flattery or Censure of the present Government First therefore it is certain that Spain hath not now a foot of Ground in quiet possession more than it had in 88. As for the Valtoline and the Palatinate it is a Maxim in State that all Countreys of new Acquest till they be setled are rather matters of Burthen than Strength On the other side England hath Scotland united Ireland reduc'd to obedience and planted which are mighty augmentations Secondly in 88. the Kingdom of France able alone to counterpoize Spain it self much more in conjunction was torn with the Party of the League which gave Law to their King and depended wholly upon Spain Now France is united under a valiant young King generally obeyed if he will himself King of Navarre as well as of France And that is no ways taken Prisoner though he be tyed in a double chain of Alliance with Spain Thirdly in 88. there sate in the See of Rome a fierce thundering Fryer that would set all at six and seven Or at six and five if you allude to his Name And though he would after have turned his teeth upon Spain yet he was taken order with before it came to that Now there is ascended to the Papacy a Personage that came in by a chaste Election no ways obliged to the Party of the Spaniards A man bred in Embassages and Affairs of State That hath much of the Prince and nothing of the Fryer And one that though he love the Chair of the Papacy well yet he loveth the Carpet above the Chair That is Italy and the Liberties thereof well likewise Fourthly in 88. the King of Denmark was a stranger to England and rather inclined to Spain Now the King is incorporated to the Blood of England Engaged in the Quarrel of the Palatinate Then also Venice Savoy and the Princes and Cities of Germany had but a dull Fear of the Greatness of Spain upon a general Apprehension onely of the spreading and ambitious Designs of that Nation Now that fear is sharpned and pointed by the Spaniards late Enterprises upon the Valtoline and the Palatinate which come nearer them Fiftly and lastly the Dutch which is the Spaniards perpetual Duellist hath now at this present five Ships to one and the like Proportion in Treasure and Wealth to that they had in 88. Neither is it possible whatsoever is given out that the Coffers of Spain should now be fuller than they were in 88. For at that time Spain had no other Wars save those of the Low Countreys which were grown into an Ordinary Now they have had coupled therewith the Extraordinary of the Valtoline and the Palatinate And so I conclude my Answer to the Objection raised touching the Difference of times Not entring into more secret passages of State But keeping that Character of Stile whereof Seneca speaketh Plus significat
quam loquitur Here I would pass over from Matter of Experience were it not that I held it necessary to discover a wonderful Erroneous observation that walketh about and is commonly received contrary to all the Account of Time and Experience It is that the Spaniard where he once getteth in will seldom or never be got out again But nothing is less true than this Not long since they got footing at Brest and some other parts in French Britain and after quitted them They had Calais Ardes and Amiens and rendred them or were beaten out They had since Verseilles fairly left it They had the other day the Valtoline and now have put it in deposite What they will do with Ormus which the Persian hath taken from them we shall see So that to speak truly of later Times they have rather poched and offered at a Number of Enterprizes than maintained any constantly quite contrary to that idle Tradition In more antient times leaving their Purchases in Africk which they after abandoned when their great Emperor Charles had clasped Germany almost in his fist he was forced in the end to go from Isburg and as if it had been in a Masque by Torch-light and to quit every foot in Germany round that he had gotten which I doubt not will be the Hereditary Issue of this late Purchase of the Palatinate And so I conclude the Ground that I have to think that Spain will be no Over-match to Great Britain if his Majesty shal enter into a War out of Experience Records of time For Grounds of Reason they are many I will extract the principal and open them briefly and as it were in the Bud. For Situation I pass it over though it be no small point England Scotland Ireland and our good Confederates the United Provinces lie all in a plump together not accessible but by Sea or at least by passing of great Rivers which are Natural Fortifications As for the Dominions of Spain they are so scattered as it yieldeth great choice of the Scenes of the War and promiseth slow Succours unto such Part as shall be attempted There be three main parts of Military Puissance Men Money and Confederates For Men there are to be considered Valour and Number Of Valour I speak not Take it from the Witnesses that have been produced before Yet the old observation is not untrue That the Spaniards Valour lieth in the Eye of the Looker on But the English Valor lieth about the Souldiers Heart A Valor of Glory and a Valor of Natural Courage are two things But let that pass and let us speak of Number Spain is a Nation thin sown of People Partly by reason of the Sterility of the Soil And partly because their Natives are exhausted by so many Employments in such vast Territories as they possess So that it hath bin accounted a kind of Miracle to see ten or twelve thousand Native Spaniards in an Army And it is certain as we have touched it a little before in passage that the Secret of the Power of Spain consisteth in a Veterane Army compounded of Miscellany Forces of all Nations which for many years they have had on foot upon one occasion or other And if there should happen the Misfortune of a Battel it would be a long work to draw on Supplies They tell a Tale of a Spanish Ambassador that was brought to see the Treasury of St. Mark at Venice and still he lookt down to the ground And being asked why he so lookt down said He was looking to see whether their Treasure had any Root so that if it were spent it would grow again as his Masters had But howsoever it be of their Treasure certainly the Forces have scarce any Root Or at least such a Root as buddeth forth poorly slowly It is true they have the Wallons who are tall Souldiers but that is but a Spot of Ground But on the other side there is not in the world again such a Spring and Seminary of brave Militar People as in England Scotland Ireland and the United Provinces So as if Wars should mowe them down never so fast yet they may be suddenly supplyed and come up again For Money no doubt it is the principal Part of the Greatness of Spain For by that they maintain a Veterane Army And Spain is the onely State of Europe that is a Money grower But in this Part of all others is most to be considered the tick lish and brittle State of the Greatness of Spain Their Greatness consisteth in their Treasure their Treasure in their Indies And their Indies if it be well weighed are indeed but an Accession to such as are Masters by Sea So as this Axeltree whereupon their Greatness turneth is soon cut in two by any that shall be stronger than they by Sea Herein therefore I refer me to the Opinions of all Men Enemies or whomsoever whether that the Maritime Forces of Great Britain and the United Provinces be not able to beat the Spainard at Sea For if that be so the Links of that Chain whereby they hold their Greatness are dissolved Now if it be said that admit the Case of Spain be such as we have made it yet we ought to descend into our own Case which we shall finde perhaps not to be in State for Treasure to enter into a War with Spain To which I answer I know no such thing The Mint beateth well And the Pulses of the Peoples Hearts beat well But there is another Point that taketh away quite this Objection For whereas Wars are generally Causes of Poverty or Consumption on the contrary part the special Nature of this War with Spain if it be made by Sea is like to be a Lucrative and Restorative War So that if we go roundly on at the first the War in continuance will find it self And therefore you must make a great difference between Hercules Labors by Land and Jasons Voyage by Sea for the Golden Fleece For Confederates I will not take upon me the knowledge how the Princes States and Councels of Europe at this day stand affected towards Spain For that trencheth into the secret Occurents of the present Time wherewith in all this Treatise I have forborn to meddle But to speak of that which lieth open and in view I see much Matter of Quarrel and Jealousie but little of Amity and Trust towards Spain almost in all other Estates I see France is in competition with them for three noble Portions of their Monarchy Navarre Naples and Millain And now freshly in difference with them about the Valtoline I see once in 30 or 40 years cometh a Pope that casteth his eye upon the Kingdom of Naples to recover it to the Church As it was in the minds of Julius 2. Paulus 4. and Zistus 5. As for that great Body of Germany I see they have greater reason to confederate themselves with the Kings of France and Great Britain or Denmark for the
Natural Reason Which if it be totally or mostly defaced the Right of Government doth cease And if you mark all the Interpreters well still they doubt of the Case and not of the Law But this is properly to be spoken to in handling the second Point when we shall define of the Defacements To go on The Prophet Hosea in the Person of God saith of the Jews They have reigned but not by me They have set a Signory over themselves but I knew nothing of it Which place proveth plainly that there are Governments which God doth not avow For though they be ordained by his secret Providence yet they are not knowledged by his revealed Will Neither can this be meant of evil Governours or Tyrants For they are often avowed and stablished as lawful Potentates But of some perversness and defection in the very Nation it self Which appeareth most manifestly in that the Prophet speaketh of the Signory in Abstracto and not of the Person of the Lord. And although some Hereticks of those we speak of have abused this Text yet the Sun is not soiled in Passage And again if any Man infer upon the words of the Prophets following which declare this Rejection and to use the words of the Text Rescision of their Estate to have been for their Idolatry that by this Reason the Governments of all Idolatrous Nations should be also dissolved which is manifestly untrue in my judgment it followeth not For the Idolatry of the Jews then and the Idolatry of the Heathen then and now are Sins of a far differing Nature in regard of the special Covenant and the clear manifestations wherein God did contract and exhibit himself to that Nation This Nullity of Policy and Right of Estate in some Nations is yet more significantly expressed by Moses in his Canticle In the Person of God to the Jews Ye have incensed me with Gods that are no Gods and I will incense you with a People that are no People Such as were no doubt the People of Canaan after Seisin was given of the Land of Promise to the Israelites For from that time their Right to the Land was dissolved though they remained in many Places unconquered By this we may see that there are Nations in Name that are no Nations in Right but multitudes only and swarms of People For like as there are Particular Persons utlawed and proscribed by civil Laws of several Countries So are there Nations that are utlawed and proscribed by the Law of Nature and Nations Or by the immediate Commandment of God And as there are Kings de Facto and not de Jure in respect of the Nullity of their Title So are there Nations that are Occupants de Facto and not de Jure of their Territories in respect of the Nullity of their Policy or Government But let us take in some Examples into the midst of our Proofs For they will prove as much as put after And illustrate more It was never doubted but a War upon Pyrates may be lawfully made by any Nation though not infested or violated by them Is it because they have not Certas Sedes or Lares In the Pyratical War which was atchieved by Pompey the Great and was his truest and greatest glory the Pyrates had some Cities sundry Ports and a great part of the Province of Cilicia And the Pyrates now being have a Receptacle and Mansion in Algiers Beasts are not the less Savage because they have Dens Is it because the danger hovers as a Cloud that a Man cannot tell where it will fall And so it is every Mans Case The Reason is good But it is not all nor that which is most alledged For the true received Reason is that Pyrates are Communes Humani Generis Hostes Whom all Nations are to prosecute not so much in the Right of their own Fears as upon the Band of Humane Society For as there are formal and written Leagues Respective to certain Enemies So is there a Natural and Tacite Confederation amongst all Men against the common Enemy of Humane Society So as there needs no Intimation or Denunciation of the War There needs no Request from the Nation grieved But all these Formalities the Law of Nature supplies in the Case of Pyrates The same is the Case of Rovers by Land Such as yet are some Cantons in Arabia And some petty Kings of the Mountains adjacent to Streights and Ways Neither is it lawful only for the Neighbour Princes to destroy such Pyrates or Rovers But if there were any Nation never so far off that would make it an Enterprise of Merit and true Glory as the Romans that made a War for the Liberty of Grecia from a distant and remote part no doubt they might do it I make the same Judgment of that Kingdom of the Assasins now destroyed which was situate upon the Borders of Saraca And was for a time a great Terrour to all the Princes of the Levant There the Custom was that upon the Commandment of their King and a blind Obedience to be given thereunto any of them was to undertake in the nature of a Votary the insidious Murther of any Prince or Person upon whom the Commandment went This Custom without all question made their whole Government void as an Engine built against Humane Society worthy by all Men to be fired and pulled down I say the like of the Anabaptists of Munster And this although they had not been Rebels to the Empire And put Case likewise that they had done no Mischief at all actually yet if there shall be a Congregation and consent of People that shall hold all things to be lawful Not according to any certain Laws or Rules but according to the secret and variable Motions and Instincts of the Spirit This is indeed no Nation no People no Signory that God doth know Any Nation that is Civil and Polliced may if they will not be reduced cut them off from the Face of the Earth Now let me put a feigned Case And yet Antiquity makes it doubtful whether it were Fiction or History of a Land of Amazons where the whole Government publick and private yea the Militia it Self was in the hands of Women I demand is not such a Preposterous Government against the first Order of Nature for Women to rule over Men in it self void and to be suppressed I speak not of the Reign of Women For that is supplied by Counsel and subordinate Magistrates Masculine But where the Regiment of State Justice Families is all managed by Women And yet this last Case differeth from the other before Because in the rest there is Terrour of Danger but in this there is only Errour of Nature Neither should I make any great difficulty to affirm the same of the Sultanry of the Mamaluches where Slaves and none but Slaves bought for Money and of unknown Descent reigned over Families of Free-men And much like were the Case if you suppose a Nation where the Custom were that
he said himself from Page So he had brought his People from Lacquay Not to run up and down for their Laws to the Civil Law and the Ordinances and the Customs and the Discretions of Courts and discourses of Philosophers as they use to do King Henry the Eighth in the twenty seventh year of his Reign was authorized by Parliament to nominate 32 Commissioners part Ecclesiastical and part Temporal To purge the Canon Law and to make it agreeable to the Law of God and the Law of the Land But it took not effect For the Acts of that King were commonly rather Proffers and Fames than either well grounded or well pursued But I doubt I erre in producing so many examples For as Cicero said to Caesar so may I say to your Majesty Nil vulgare te dignum videri possit Though indeed this well understood is far from Vulgar For that the Laws of the most Kingdoms and States have been like Buildings of many pieces and patched up from time to time according to occasions without Frame or Model Now for the Laws of England if I shall speak my Opinion of them without partiality either to my Profession or Country for the Matter and Nature of them I hold them Wise Just and Moderate Laws They give to God they give to Caesar they give to the Subject what appertaineth It is true they are as mixt as our Language compounded of British Roman Saxon Danish Norman Customs And surely as our Language is thereby so much the richer So our Laws are likewise by that Mixture the more compleat Neither doth this attribute less to them than those that would have them to have stood out the same in all Mutations For no Tree is so good first set as by transplanting and Grafting I remember what happened to Callisthenes that followed Alexanders Court and was grown into some displeasure with him because he could not well brook the Persian Adoration At a Supper which with the Grecians was a great part Talk he was desired the King being present because he was an Eloquent Man to speak of some Theme Which he did And chose for his Theme the praise of the Macedonian Nation Which though it were but a filling Thing to praise Men to their Faces yet he performed it with such advantage of Truth and avoidance of Flattery and with such Life as was much applauded by the Hearers The King was the less pleased with it not loving the Man and by way of discountenance said It was easie to be a good Oratour in a pleasing Theme But saith he to him Turn your stile And tell us now of our faults that we may have the profit and not you the praise only Which he presently did with such Quickness that Alexander said That Malice made him Eloquent then as the Theme had done before I shall not fall into either of these extreams in this subject of the Laws of England I have commended them before for the Matter but surely they ask much amendment for the Form Which to reduce and perfect I hold to be one of the greatest Dowries that can be confer'd upon this Kingdom Which Work for the Excellency as it is worthy your Majesties Act and Times So it hath some circumstance of Propriety agreeable to your Person God hath blessed your Majesty with Posterity And I am not of opinion that Kings that are barren are fittest to supply Perpetuity of Generations by perpetuity of Noble Acts But contrariwise that they that leave Posterity are the more interessed in the Care of Future Times That as well their Progeny as their People may participate of their Merit Your Majesty is a great Master in Justice and Judicature And it were pity the fruit of that your Vertue should not be transmitted to the Ages to come Your Majesty also reigneth in learned times the more no doubt in regard of your own perfection in Learning and your Patronage thereof And it hath been the Mishap of Works of this Nature that the less Learned Time hath sometimes wrought upon the more Learned Which now will not be so As for my self the Law was my Profession to which I am a Debter Some little helps I have of other Arts which may give Form to Matter And I have now by Gods merciful Chastisement and by his special Providence time and leisure to put my Talent or half-Talent or what it is to such Exchanges as may perhaps exceed the Interest of an Active Life Therefore as in the beginning of my Troubles I made offer to your Majesty to take pains in the Story of England and in compiling a Method and Digest of your Laws So have I performed the first which rested but upon my self in some part And I do in all humbleness renew the offer of this latter which will require Help and Assistance to your Majesty if it shall stand with your good pleasure to imploy my Service therein THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth LONDON Printed by J. M. for Humphrey Robinson and Sold by William Lee 1670. THE HISTORY OF THE REIGN OF KING Henry the Eighth AFter the Decease of that Wise and Fortunate King Henry the VII who died in the Height of his Prosperity there followed as useth to do when the Sun setteth so exceeding clear one of the fairest Mornings of a Kingdom that hath been known in this Land or any where else A young King about 18 years of Age for Stature Strength Making and Beauty one of the goodliest Persons of his time And though he were given to Pleasure yet he was likewise desirous of Glory So that there was a passage open in his Mind by Glory for Vertue Neither was he un-adorned with Learning though therein he came short of his Brother Arthur He had never any the least Pique Difference or Jealousie with the King his Father which might give any occasion of altering Court or Counsel upon the change but all things passed in a Still He was the first Heir of the White and the Red Rose So that there was no discontented Party now left in the Kingdom but all Mens Hearts turned towards him And not only their Hearts but their Eyes also For he was the only Son of the Kingdom He had no Brother which though it be a comfortable thing for Kings to have yet it draweth the Subjects Eyes a little aside And yet being a married Man in those young years it promised hope of speedy Issue to succeed in the Crown Neither was there any Queen Mother who might share any way in the Government or clash with his Counsellours for Authority while the King intended his pleasure No such thing as any Great and Mighty Subject who might any way eclipse or overshade the Imperial Power And for the people and State in general they were in such lowness of obedience as Subjects were like to yield who had lived almost four and twenty years under so politique a King as his Father Being also one who came partly in by the Sword And had so high a Courage in all points of Regalitie And was ever victorious in Rebellions and Seditions of the People The Crown extreamly rich and full of Treasure and the Kingdom like to be so in short time For there was no War no Dearth no Stop of Trade or Commerce it was only the Crown which had sucked too hard and now being full and upon the head of a young King was like to draw less Lastly he was Inheriter of his Fathers Reputation which was great throughout the World He had streight Alliance with the two Neighbour States an ancient Enemy in former times and an ancient Friend Scotland and Burgundy He had Peace and Amity with France under the Assurance not only of Treaty and League but of Necessity and Inhability in the French to do him hurt in respect that the French Kings Designs were wholly bent upon Italy So that it may be truly said there had scarcely been seen or known in many Ages such a rare Concurrence of Signs and Promises of a happy and flourishing Reign to ensue as were now met in this young King called after his Fathers name HENRY the Eighth c. FINIS Characters of the Persons Eusebius beareth the Character of a Moderate Divine Gamaliel of a Protestant Zelant Zebedaeus of a Romish Catholick Zelant Martius of a Militar Man Eupolis of a Politick Pollio of a Courtier