Attendance of the Earl of Northumberland who with a great Troop of Lords and Ladies of Honour brought her into Scotland to the King her Husband This Marriage had been in Treaty by the space of almost three years from the time that the King of Scotland did first open his mind to Bishop Fox The Summ given in Marriage by the King was ten thousand Pounds And the Joynture and Advancement assured by the King of Scotland was two thousand Pounds a year after King James his Death and one thousand Pounds a year in present for the Ladys Allowance or Maintenance This to be set forth in Lands of the best and most certain Revenue During the Treaty it is reported that the King remitted the matter to his Council And that some of the Table in the Freedom of Counsellors the King being present did put the Case that if God should take the King 's two Sons without Issue that then the Kingdom of England would fall to the King of Scotland which might prejudice the Monarchy of England Whereunto the King himself replied That if that should be Scotland would be but an Accession to England and not England to Scotland for that the greater would draw the less And that it was a safer Union for England than that of France This passed as an Oracle and silenced those that moved the Question The same year was fatal as well for Deaths as Marriages and that with equal temper For the Joys and Feasts of the two Marriages were compensed with the Mournings and Funerals of Prince Arthur of whom we have spoken and of Queen Elizabeth who dyed in Child-bed in the Tower and the Child lived not long after There dyed also that year Sir Reginold Bray who was noted to have had with the King the greatest Freedom of any Counsellor but it was but a Freedom the better to set off Flattery Yet he bare more than his just part of Envy for the Exactions At this time the King's Estate was very prosperous secured by the Amity of Scotland strengthned by that of Spain cherished by that of Burgundy all Domestick Troubles quenched and all Noise of War like a Thunder a-far-off going upon Italy Wherefore Nuture which many times is happily contained and refrained by some Bands of Fortune began to take place in the King carrying as with a strong Tide his Affections and Thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of Treasure And as Kings do more easily find Instruments for their Will and Humour than for their Service and Honour He had gotten for his purpose or beyond his purpose two Instruments Empson and Dudley whom the people esteemed as his Horse-Leeches and Shearers bold men and careless of Fame and that took Toll of their Master 's Grist Dudley was of a good Family Eloquent and one that could put Hateful Business into good Language But Empson that was the Son of a Sieve-maker triumphed always upon the Deed done putting off all other respects whatsoever These two Persons being Lawyers in Science and Privy Counsellors in Authority as the corruption of the best things is the worst turned Law and Justice into Wormwood and Rapine For first their manner was to cause divers Subjects to be indicted of sundry Crimes and so far forth to proceed in form of Law But when the Bills were found then presently to commit them And nevertheless not to produce them to any reasonable time to their Answer but to suffer them to languish long in Prison and by sundry artificial Devices and Terrours to extort from them great Fines and Ransoms which they termed Compositions and Mitigations Neither did they towards the end observe so much as the Half-face of Justice in proceeding by Indictment but sent forth their Precepts to attach men and convent them before themselves and some others at their private Houses in a Court of Commission and there used to shuffle up a Summary Proceeding by Examination without tryal of Jury assuming to themselves there to deal both in Pleas of the Crown and Controversies Civil Then did they also use to enthral and charge the Subjects Lands with Tenures in Capite by finding False Offices and thereby to work upon them for Wardships Liveries Primier Seisins and Alienations being the fruits of those Tenures refusing upon divers Pretexts and Delays to admit men to traverse those False Offices according to the Law Nay the King's Wards after they had accomplished their full Age could not be suffered to have Livery of their Lands without paying excessive Fines far exceeding all reasonable Rates They did also vex men with Informations of Intrusion upon scarce colourable Titles When men were Out-lawed in Personal Actions they would not permit them to purchase their Charters of Pardon except they paid great and intolerable summs standing upon the strict Point of Law which upon Out-lawries giveth Forfeiture of Goods Nay contrary to all Law and Colour they maintained the King ought to have the half of mens Lands and Rents during the space of full two years for a Pain in Case of Out-lawry They would also ruffle with Jurors and enforce them to find as they would direct and if they did not Convent them Imprison them and Fine them These and many other Courses fitter to be buried than repeated they had of Preying upon the People both like Tame Hawks for their Master and like Wild Hawks for themselves in so much as they grew to great Riches and Substance But their principal working was upon Penal Laws wherein they spared none great nor small nor considered whether the Law were possible or impossible in Use or Obsolete But raked over all old and new Statutes though many of them were made with intention rather of Terrour than of Rigour having ever a Rabble of Promoters Questmongers and leading Jurors at their Command so as they could have any thing found either for Fact or Valuation There remaineth to this day a Report that the King was on a time entertained by the Earl of Oxford that was his principal Servant both for War and Peace nobly and sumptuously at his Castle at Henningham And at the King 's going away the Earl's Servants stood in a seemly manner in their Livery-Coats with Cognisances ranged on both sides and made the King a 〈◊〉 The King called the Earl to him and said My Lord I have heard much of your Hospitality but I see it is greater than the speech These handsom Gentlemen and Yeomen which I see on both sides of me are sure your Menial Servants The Earl smiled and said It may please your Grace that were not for mine ease They are most of them my Retainers they are come to do me service at such a time as this and chiefly to see your Grace The King started a little and said By my faith my Lord I thank you for my good Cheer but I may not endure to have my Laws broken in my sight My Attorney must speak with you And it is part of the Report
Bosworth-field There succeeded in the Kingdom the Earl of Richmond thence-forth stiled Henry the Seventh The King immediately after the Victory as one that had been bred under a devout Mother and was in his nature a great observer of Religious Forms caused Te Deum Laudamus to be solemnly sung in the presence of the whole Army upon the place and was himself with general Applause and great Cries of Joy in a kind of Militar Election or Recognition saluted King Mean-while the Body of Richard after many Indignities and Reproaches the Dirigies and Obsequies of the common People towards Tyrants was obscurely Buried For though the King of his Nobleness gave charge unto the Fryers of Leicester to see an Honourable Interrment to be given to it yet the Religious people themselves being not free from the Humours of the Vulgar neglected it wherein nevertheless they did not then incurr any mans blame or Censure No man thinking any Ignominy or Contumely unworthy of him that had been the Executioner of King Henry the Sixth that innocent Prince with his own hands the Contriver of the death of the Duke of Clarence his Brother the Murderer of his two Nephews one of them his Lawfull King in the Present and the other in the Future failing of him and vehemently suspected to have been the Impoisoner of his Wife thereby to make vacant his Bed for a Marriage within the Degrees forbidden And although he were a Prince in Militar Virtue approved jealous of the Honour of the English Nation and likewise a good Law-maker for the ease and solace of the common People yet his Cruelties and Parricides in the Opinion of all men weighed down his Virtues and Merits and in the opinion of Wise men even those Virtues themselves were conceived to be rather feigned and affected things to serve his Ambition than 〈◊〉 Qualities ingenrate in his Judgement or Nature And therefore it was noted by men of great Understanding who seeing his after Acts looked back upon his former Proceedings that even in the time of King Edward his Brother he was not without secret Trains and Mines to turn Envy and Hatred upon his Brother's Government as having an Expectation and a kind of Divination that the King by reason of his many Disorders could not be of long Life but was like to leave his Sonnes of tender years and then he knew well how easie a step it was from the place of a Protector and first Prince of the Blood to the Crown And that out of this deep root of Ambition it sprang that as well at the Treaty of Peace that passed between Edward the Fourth and Lewis the Eleventh of France concluded by Enterview of both Kings at Piqueny as upon all other Occasions Richard then Duke of Glocester stood ever upon the side of Honour raising his own Reputation to the disadvantage of the King his Brother and drawing the eyes of all specially of the Nobles and Soldiers upon himself as if the King by his voluptuous Life and mean Marriage were become Effeminate and less sensible of Honour and Reason of State than was fit for a King And as for the Politique and wholesom Laws which were Enacted in his Time they were interpreted to be but the Brocage of an Usurper thereby to wooe and winne the Hearts of the People as being conscious to himself that the true Obligations of Soveraignty in him failed and were wanting But King Henry in the very entrance of his Reign and the instant of time when the Kingdom was cast into his Arms met with a Point of great difficulty and knotty to solve able to trouble and confound the Wisest King in the newness of his Estate and so much the more because it could not endure a Deliberation but must be at once deliberated and determined There were fallen to his Lot and concurrent to his Person three several Titles to the Imperial Crown The first the Title of the Lady Elizabeth with whom by precedent Pact with the Party that brought him in he was to Marry The second the Antient and long disputed Title both by Plea and Arms of the House of Lancaster to which he was Inheritour in his own Person The third the Title of the Sword or Conquest for that he came in by Victory of Battel and that the King in possession was slain in the field The first of these was fairest and most like to give contentment to the People who by Two and twenty Years Reign of King Edward the Fourth had been fully made capable of the clearness of the Title of the White-Rose or House of York and by the milde and plausible Reign of the same King toward his latter time were become affectionate to that Line But then it lay plain before his Eyes that if he relyed upon that Title he could be but a King at Curtesie and have rather a Matrimonial than a Regal Power the Right remaining in his Queen upon whose decease either with Issue or without Issue he was to give place and be removed And though he should obtain by Parliament to be continued yet he knew there was a very great difference between a King that holdeth his Crown by a civil Act of Estates and one that holdeth it Originally by the Law of Nature and Descent of Blood Neither wanted there even at that time secret Rumors and whisperings which afterwards gathered strength and turned to great Troubles that the two young Sons of King Edward the Fourth or one of them which were said to be destroyed in the Tower were not indeed Murthered but conveyed secretly away and were yet living which if it had been true had prevented the Title of the Lady Elizabeth On the other side if he stood upon his own Title of the House of Lancaster inherent in his Person he knew it was a Title condemned by Parliament and generally prejudged in the common Opinion of the Realm and that it tended directly to the Dis-inherison of the Line of York held then the indubiate Heirs of the Crown So that if he should have no Issue by the Lady Elibabeth which should be Descendents of the Double-Line then the Ancient flames of Discord and Intestine Wars upon the Competition of both Houses would again return and revive As for Conquest notwithstanding Sir William Stanly after some Acclamations of the Soldiers in the Field had put a Crown of Ornament which Richard wore in the Battel and was found amongst the Spoils upon King Henry's Head as if there were his chief Title yet he remembred well upon what Conditions and Agreements he was brought in and that to claim as Conqueror was to put as well his own Party as the rest into Terrour and Fear as that which gave him Power of Disannulling of Laws and disposing of Mens Fortunes and Estates and the like points of Absolute Power being in themselves so harsh and odious as that William himself commonly called the Conqueror however he used and exercised the Power of a
to the number of eight thousand choise men and well armed who having a fair wind in few hours landed in Britain and joyned themselves forthwith to those Briton Forces that remained after the Defeat and marched straight on to find the Enemy and encamped fast by them The French wisely husbanding the possession of a Victory and well acquainted with the Courage of the English especially when they are fresh kept themselves within their Trenches being strongly lodged and resolved not to give Battel But mean-while to harrass and weary the English they did upon all advantages set upon them with their Light-horse wherein nevertheless they received commonly loss especially by means of the English Archers But upon these Atchievements Francis Duke of Britain deceased an accident that the King might easily have foreseen and ought to have reckoned upon and provided for but that the Point of Reputation when news first came of the Battel lost that somewhat must be done did over-bear the Reason of War After the Duke's decease the principal persons of Britain partly bought partly through faction put all things into confusion so as the English not finding Head or Body with whom to joyn their Forces and being in jealousie of Friends as well as in danger of Enemies and the Winter begun returned home five Months after their landing So the Battel of Saint Alban the death of the Duke and the retire of the English Succours were after some time the causes of the loss of that Duchy which action some accounted as a blemish of the King's Judgement but most but as the misfortune of his times But howsoever the temporary Fruit of the Parliament in their Ayd and Advice given for Britain took not nor prospered not yet the lasting Fruit of Parliament which is good and wholesom Laws did prosper and doth yet continue to this day For according to the Lord Chancellor's admonition there were that Parliament divers excellent Laws ordained concerning the Points which the King recommended First the Authority of the Star-Chamber which before subsisted by the ancient Common-Laws of the Realm was confirmed in certain Cases by Act of Parliament This Court is one of the sagest and noblest Institutions of this Kingdom For in the distribution of Courts of Ordinary Justice besides the High Court of Parliament in which distribution the King's-Bench holdeth the Pleas of the Crown the Common-Place Pleas-Civil the Exchequer-Pleas concerning the King's Revenue and the Chancery the Pretorian power for mitigating the rigour of Law in case of extremity by the conscience of a good man there was nevertheless always reserved a high and preheminent power to the King's Council in Causes that might in example or consequence concern the state of the Common-wealth which if they were Criminal the Council used to sit in the Chamber called the Star-Chamber if Civil in the White-Chamber or White-Hall And as the Chancery had the Pretorian power for Equity so the Star-Chamber had the Censorian power for Offences under the degree of Capital This Court of Star-Chamber is compounded of good Elements for it consisteth of four kinds of Persons Counsellors Peers Prelates and chief Judges It discerneth also principally of four kinds of Causes Forces Frauds Crimes various of Stellionate and the Inchoations or middle acts towards Crimes capital or heinous not actually committed or perpetrated But that which was principally aimed at by this act was Force and the two chief Supports of Force Combination of Multitudes and Maintenance or Headship of Great persons From the general peace of the Countrey the King's care went on to the peace of the King's House and the security of his great Officers and Counsellors But this Law was somewhat of a strange composition and temper That if any of the King's Servants under the degree of a Lord do conspire the death of any of the King's Council or Lord of the Realm it is made Capital This Law was thought to be procured by the Lord Chancellor who being a stern and haughty man and finding he had some mortal Enemies in Court provided for his own safety drowning the envy of it in a general Law by communicating the priviledge with all other Counsellors and Peers and yet not daring to extend it further than to the King's Servants in Check-roll lest it should have been too harsh to the Gentlemen and other Commons of the Kingdom who might have thought their ancient Liberty and the clemency of the Laws of England invaded If the will in any case of Felony should be made the deed And yet the reason which the Act yieldeth that is to say That he that conspireth the death of Counsellors may be thought indirectly and by a mean 〈◊〉 conspire the death of the King himself is indifferent to all Subjects as well as to Servants in Court But it seemeth this sufficed to serve the Lord Chancellor's turn at this time But yet he lived to need a General Law for that he grew afterwards as odious to the Countrey as he was then to the Court. From the peace of the King's House the King's care extended to the peace of Private Houses and Families For there was an excellent Moral Law molded thus The taking and carrying away of Women forcibly and against their will except Female-Wards and Bond-Women was made Capital The Parliament wisely and justly conceiving that the obtaining of Women by force into Possession howsoever afterwards Assent might follow by Allurements was but a Rape drawn forth in length because the first Force drew on all the rest There was made also another Law for Peace in general and repressing of Murthers and Man-slaughters and was in amendment of the Common Laws of the Realm being this That whereas by the Common Law the King's Suit in case of Homicide did expect the Year and the Day allowed to the Parties Suit by way of Appeal and that it was found by experience that the Party was many times compounded with and many times wearied with the Suit so that in the end such Suit was let fall and by that time the matter was in a manner forgotten and thereby Prosecution at the King's Suit by Indictment which is ever best Flagrante crimine neglected it was Ordained That the Suit by Indictment might be taken as well at any time within the Year and the Day as after not prejudicing nevertheless the Parties Suit The King began also then as well in Wisdom as in Justice to pare a little the Priviledge of Clergy ordaining That Clerks convict should be burned in the hand both because they might taste of some corporal Punishment and that they might carry a Brand of Infamy But for this good Acts sake the King himself was after branded by Perkin's Proclamation for an execrable breaker of the Rites of Holy Church Another Law was made for the better Peace of the Countrey by which Law the King's Officers and Farmors were to forfeit their Places and Holds in case of unlawful Retainer or partaking in Routs and
was broken up which lasted not long the King went on with his Preparations for the War of France yet neglected not in the mean time the affairs of Maximilian for the quieting of Flanders and restoring him to his Authority amongst his Subjects For at that time the Lord of Ravenstein being not only a Subject rebelled but a Servant revolted and so much the more malicious and violent by the ayd of Bruges and Ghent had taken the Town and both the Castles of Sluyce as we said before And having by the commodity of the Haven gotten together certain Ships and Barques fell to a kind of Pyratical trade robbing and spoyling and taking Prisoners the Ships and Vessels of all Nations that passed alongst that Coast towards the Mart of Antwerp or into any part of Brabant Zealand or Friesland being ever will victualled from Picardy besides the commodity of Victuals from Sluyce and the Countrey adjacent and the avails of his own Prizes The French assisted him still under-hand and he likewise as all men do that have been of both sides thought himself not safe except he depended upon a third Person There was a small Town some two miles from Bruges towards the Sea called Dam which was a Fort and Approch to Bruges and had a relation also to Sluyce This Town the King of the Romans had attempted often not for any worth of the Town in it self but because it might choak Bruges and cut it off from the Sea and ever failed But therewith the Duke of Saxony came down into Flanders taking upon him the person of an Umpire to compose things between Maximilian and his Subjects but being indeed fast and assured to Maximilian Upon this Pretext of Neutrality and Treaty he repaired to Bruges desiring the States of Bruges to enter peaceably into their Town with a Retinue of some number of men of Arms fit for his Estate being somewhat the more as he said the better to guard him in a Countrey that was up in Arms and bearing them in hand that he was to communicate with them of divers matters of great importance for their good Which having obtained of them he sent his Carriages and Harbingers before him to provide his Lodging So that his Men of War entred the City in good Array but in peaceable manner and he followed They that went before enquired still for Inns and Lodgings as if they would have rested there all night and so went on till they came to the Gate that leadeth directly towards Dam and they of Bruges only gazed upon them and gave them passage The Captains and inhabitants of Dam also suspected no harm from any that passed through Bruges and discovering Forces a-far-off supposed they had been some Succours that were come from their Friends knowing some Dangers towards them And so perceiving nothing but well till it was too late suffered them to enter their Town By which kind of Sleight rather than Stratagem the Town of Dam was taken and the Town of Bruges shrewdly blockt up whereby they took great discouragement The Duke of Saxony having won the Town of Dam sent immediately to the King to let him know that it was Sluyce chiefly and the Lord Ravenstein that kept the Rebellion of Flanders in life And that if it pleased the King to besiege it by Sea he also would besiege it by Land and so cut out the Core of those Wars The King willing to uphold the Authority of Maximilian the better to hold France in awe and being likewise sued unto by his Merchants for that the Seas were much infested by the Barques of the Lord Ravenstein sent straightways Sir Edward Poynings a valiant man and of good service with twelve Ships well furnished with Soldiers and Artillery to clear the Seas and to besiege Sluyce on that part The Englishmen did not only coop up the Lord Ravenstein that he stirred not and likewise hold in strait Siege the Maritim part of the Town but also assailed one of the Castles and renewed the assault so for twenty days space issuing still out of their Ships at the Ebb as they made great slaughter of them of the Castle who continually fought with them to repulse them though of the English part also were slain a Brother of the Earl of Oxford's and some fifty more But the Siege still continuing more and more strait and both the Castles which were the principal strength of the Town being distressed the one by the Duke of Saxony and the other by the English and a Bridge of boats which the Lord Ravenstein had made between both Castles whereby Succours and Relief might pass from the one to the other being on a night set on fire by the English he despairing to hold the Town yielded at the last the Castle to the English and the Town to the Duke of Saxony by composition Which done the Duke of Saxony and Sir Edward Poynings treated with them of Bruges to submit themselves to Maximilian their Lord which after some time they did paying in some good part the Charge of the War whereby the Almains and foreln Succours were dismissed The example of Bruges other of the Revolted Towns followed so that Maximilian grew to be out of danger but as his manner was to handle matters never out of necessity And Sir Edward Poynings after he had continued at Sluyce some good while till all things were setled returned unto the King being then before Bulloign Somewhat about this time came Letters from Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain signifying the final Conquest of Granada from the Moors which action in it self so worthy King Ferdinando whose manner was never to lose any virtue for the shewing had expressed and displayed in his Letters at large with all the particularities and Religious Puncto's and Ceremonies that were observed in the reception of that City and Kingdom Shewing amongst other things That the King would not by any means in person enter the City until he had first aloof seen the Cross set up upon the greater Tower of Granada whereby it became Christian ground That likewise before he would enter he did Homage to God above pronouncing by an Herald from the height of that Tower that he did acknowledge to have recovered that Kingdom by the help of God Almighty and the glorious Virgin and the virtuous Apostle St. James and the holy Father Innocent the Eighth together with the ayds and services of his Prelates Nobles and Commons That yet he stirred not from his Camp till he had seen a little Army of Martyrs to the number of seven hundred and more Christians that had lived in bonds and servitude as Slaves to the Moors pass before his Eyes singing a Psalm for their redemption and that he had given Tribute unto God by alms and relief extended to them all for his admission into the City These things were in the Letters with many more Ceremonies of a kind of Holy Ostentation The King ever willing to
my self to expect the Tyrant's death and then to put my self into my Sisters hands who was next Heir to the Crown But in this season it happened one Henry Tidder Son to Edmond Tidder Earl of Richmond to come from France and enter into the Realm and by subtil and foul means to obtain the Crown of the same which to me rightfully appertained So that it was but a change from Tyrant to Tyrant This Henry my extreme and mortal Enemy so soon as he had knowledge of my being alive imagined and wrought all the subtil ways and means he could to procure my final Destruction For my mortal Enemy hath not only falsly surmised me to be a feigned Person giving me Nick-names so abusing the World but also to deferr and put me from entry into England hath offered large summs of Money to corrupt the Princes and their Ministers with whom I have been retained and made importune Labours to certain Servants about my Person to murther or Poyson me and others to forsake and leave my righteous Quarrel and to depart from my Service as Sir Robert Clifford and others So that every man of Reason may well perceive that Henry calling himself King of England needed not to have bestowed such great summs of Treasure nor so to have busied himself with importune and incessant Labour and Industry to compass my Death and Ruine if I had been such a feigned Person But the truth of my Cause being so manifest moved the most Christian King Charles and the Lady Duchess Dowager of Burgundy my most dear Aunt not only to acknowledge the truth thereof but lovingly to assist me But it seemeth that God above for the good of this whole Island and the knitting of these two Kingdoms of England and Scotland in a strait Concord and Amity by so great an Obligation had reserved the placing of me in the Imperial Throne of England for the Arms and Succours of your Grace Neither is it the first time that a King of Scotland hath supported them that were bereft and spoiled of the Kingdom of England as of late in fresh memory it was done in the Person of Henry the Sixth Wherefore for that your Grace hath given clear signs that you are in no Noble quality inferiour to your Royal Ancestors I so distressed a Prince was hereby moved to come and put my self into your Royal Hands desiring your Assistance to recover my Kingdom of England promising faithfully to bear my self towards your Grace no otherwise than if I were your own Natural Brother and will upon the Recovery of mine Inheritance gratefully do you all the Pleasure that is in my utmost Power AFter Perkin had told his Tale King James answered bravely and wisely That whatsoever he were he should not repent him of putting himself into his hand And from that time forth though there wanted not some about him that would have perswaded him that all was but an Illusion yet notwithstanding either taken by Perkin's amiable and alluring behaviour or inclining to the recommendation of the great Princes abroad or willing to take an occasion of a War against King Henry he entertained him in all things as became the person of Richard Duke of York embraced his Quarrel and the more to put it out of doubt that he took him to be a great Prince and not a Representation only he gave consent that this Duke should take to Wife the Lady Catherine Gordon Daughter to Earl Huntley being a near Kinswoman to the King himself and a young Virgin of excellent beauty and virtue Not long after the King of Scots in person with Perkin in his company entred with a great Army though it consisted chiefly of Borderers being raised somewhat suddenly into Northumberland And Perkin for a Perfume before him as he went caused to be published a Proclamation of this tenour following in the name of Richard Duke of York true Inheritor of the Crown of England IT hath pleased God who putteth down the Mighty from their Seat and exalteth the Humble and suffereth not the hopes of the Just to perish in the end to give Us means at the length to shew Our Selves armed unto Our Lieges and People of England But far be it from Us to intend their hurt and damage or to make War upon them otherwise than to deliver Our Self and them from Tyranny and Oppression For Our mortal Enemy Henry Tidder a false 〈◊〉 of the Crown of England which tolls by Natural and Lineal Right appertaineth knowing in his own Heart Our undoubted Right We being the very Richard Duke of York younger Son and now surviving Heir-male of the Noble and Victorious Edward the Fourth late King of England hath not only deprived Us of Our Kingdom but likewise by all foul and wicked means sought to betray Us and bereave Us of Our Life Yet if his Tyranny only extended it self to Our Person although Our Royal Blood teacheth Us to be sensible of Injuries it should be less to Our Grief But this Tidder who boasteth himself to have overthrown a Tyrant hath ever since his first entrance into his Usurped Reign put little in practice but Tyranny and the feats thereof For King Richard Our unnatural Uncle although desire of Rule did blind him yet in his other actions like a true Plantagenet was Noble and loved the Honour of the Realm and the Contentment and Comfort of his Nobles and People But this Our Mortal Enemy agreeable to the meanness of his Birth hath trod under foot the Honour of this Nation selling Our hest Confederates for Money and making Merchandize of the Blood Estates and Fortunes of Our Peers and Subjects by feigned wars and dishonourable Peace only to enrich his Coffers Nor unlike hath been his hateful Mis-government and evil Deportments at home First he hath to fortifie his false Quarrel caused divers Nobles of this Our Realm whom he held Suspect and stood in dread of to be cruelly murthred as Our Cousin Sir William Stanley Lord Chamberlain Sir Simon Mountfort Sir Robert Ratcliff William Dawbeney Humphrey Stafford and many others besides such as have dearly bought their Lives with intolerable Ransoms Some of which Nobles are now in the Sanctuary Also he hath long kept and yet keepeth in Prison Our right entirely beloved Cousin Edward Son and Heir to Our Uncle Duke of Clarence and others with-bolding from them their rightful Inheritance to the intent they should never be of might and power to aid and assist Us at Our need after the duty of their Liegeances He also married by compulsion certain of Our Sisters and also the Sister of Our said Cousin the Earl of Warwick and divers other Ladies of the Royal Blood unto certain of his Kinsmen and Friends of simple and low Degree and putting apart all well-disposed Nobles he hath none in favour and trust about his Person but Bishop Fox Smith Bray Lovel Oliver King David Owen Risley Turbervile Tiler Cholmley Empson James Hobart John Cut Garth
of Days for payment of Moneys and some other Particulars of the Frontiers And it was indeed but a wooing Ambassage with good respects to entertain the King in good affection but nothing was done or handled to the derogation of the King 's late Treaty with the Italians But during the time that the Cornish-men were in their march towards London the King of Scotland well advertised of all that passed and knowing himself sure of War from England whensoever those Stirs were appeased neglected not his opportunity But thinking the King had his hands full entred the Frontiers of England again with an Army and besieged the Castle of Norham in Person with part of his Forces sending the rest to forrage the Countrey But Fox Bishop of Duresm a wise man and one that could see through the Present to the Future doubting as much before had caused his Castle of Norham to be strongly fortified and furnished with all kind of Munition And had manned it likewise with a very great number of tall Soldiers more than for the proportion of the Castle reckoning rather upon a sharp Assault than a long Siege And for the Countrey likewise he had caused the people withdraw their Cattel and Goods into Fact Places that were not of easie approach and sent in post to the Earl of Surrey who was not far off in Yorkshire to come in diligence to the Succour So as the Scottish King both failed of doing good upon the Castle and his men had but a catching Harvest of their Spoils And when he understood that the Earl of Surrey was coming on with great Forces he returned back into Scotland The Earl finding the Castle freed and the Enemy retired pursued with all 〈◊〉 into Scotland hoping to have overtaken the Scottish King and to have given him Battel But not attaining him in time sate down before the Castle of Aton one of the strongest places then esteemed between Berwick and Edenburgh which in a small time he took And soon after the Scottish King retiring further into his Countrey and the weather being extraordinary foul and stormy the Earl returned into England So that the Expeditions on both parts were in effect but a Castle taken and a Castle distressed not answerable to the puissance of the Forces nor to the heat of the Quarrel nor to the greatness of the Expectation Amongst these Troubles both Civil and External came into England from Spain Peter Hialas some call him Elias surely he was the fore runner of the good Hap that we enjoy at this day For his Ambassage set the Truce between England and Scotland the Truce drew on the Peace the Peace the Marriage and the Marriage the Union of the Kingdoms a man of great Wisdom and as those times were not unlearned sent from Ferdinando and Isabella Kings of Spain unto the King to treat a Marriage between Catherine their second Daughter and Prince Arthur This Treaty was by him set in a very good way and almost brought to perfection But it so fell out by the way that upon some Conference which he had with the King touching this business the King who had a great dexterity in getting suddenly into the bosom of Ambassadors of forein Princes if he liked the men Insomuch as he would many times communicate with them of his own affairs yea and employ them in his service fell into speech and discourse incidently concerning the ending the Debates and differences with Scotland For the King naturally did not love the barren Wars with Scotland though he made his profit of the Noise of them And he wanted not in the Council of Scotland those that would advise their King to meet him at the half-way and to give over the War with England pretending to be good Patriots but indeed favouring the affairs of the King Only his heart was too great to begin with Scotland for the motion of Peace On the other side he had met with an Allie of Ferdinando of Arragon as fit for his turn as could be For after that King Ferdinando had upon assured confidence of the Marriage to succeed taken upon him the person of a Fraternal Allie to the King he would not let in a Spanish gravity to counsel the King in his own affairs And the King on his part not being wanting to himself but making use of every man's humours made his advantage of this in such things as he thought either not decent or not pleasant to proceed from himself putting them off as done by the Counsel of Ferdinando Wherefore he was content that Hialas as in a matter moved and advised from Hialas himself should go into Scotland to treat of a Concord between the two Kings Hialas took it upon him and coming to the Scottish King after he had with much Art brought King James to hearken to the more safe and quiet Counsels wrote unto the King that he hoped that Peace would with no great difficulty cement and close if he would send some wise and temperate Counsellor of his own that might treat of the Conditions Whereupon the King directed Bishop Fox who at that time was at his Castle of Norham to confer with Hialas and they both to treat with some Commissioners deputed from the Scottish King The Commissioners on both sides met But after much dispute upon the Articles and Conditions of Peace propounded upon either part they could not conclude a Peace The chief Impediments thereof was the demand of the King to have Perkin delivered into his hands as a reproach to all Kings and a person not protected by the Law of Nations The King of Scotland on the other side peremptorily denied so to do saying That he for his part was no competent Judge of Perkin's Title But that he had received him as a Suppliant protected him as a person fled for Refuge espoused him with his Kinswoman and aided him with his Arms upon the belief that he was a Prince And therefore that he could not now with his Honour so unrip and in a sort put a Lye upon all that he had said and done before as to deliver him up to his Enemies The Bishop likewise who had certain proud instructions from the King at the least in the Front though there were a pliant clause at the Foot that remitted all to the Bishop's discretion and required him by no means to break off in ill terms after that he had failed to obtain the delivery of Perkin did move a second point of his Instructions which was that the Scottish King would give the King an Enterview in Person at Newcastle But this being reported to the Scottish King his answer was That he meant to treat a Peace and not to go a begging for it The Bishop also according to another Article of his Instructions demanded Restitution of the Spoils taken by the Scottish or Damages for the same But the Scottish Commissioners answered That that was but as Water spilt upon the ground which could not be
for the King but with promise De Futuro only It may be the King was the rather induced unto it for that he heard more and more of the Marriage to go on between his great Friend and Allie Ferdinando of Arragon and Madam De Fois whereby that King began to piece with the French King from whom he had been always before severed So fatal a thing it is for the greatest and straitest Amities of Kings at one time or other to have a little of the Wheel Nay there is a further Tradition in Spain though not with us That the King of Arragon after he knew that the Marriage between Charles the young Prince of Castile and Mary the King 's second Daughter went roundly on which though it was first moved by the King of Arragon yet it was afterwards wholly advanced and brought to perfection by Maximilian and the Friends on that side entred into jealousie that the King did aspire to the Government of Castilia as Administrator during the Minority of his Son-in-Law as if there should have been a Competition of Three for that Government Ferdinando Grand-father on the Mothers side Maximilian Grand-father on the Father's side and King Henry Father-in-Law to the young Prince Certainly it is not unlike but the King's Government carrying the young Prince with him would have been perhaps more welcom to the Spaniards than that of the other Two For the Nobility of Castilia that so lately put out the King of Arragon in favour of King Philip and had discovered themselves so far could not but be in a secret Distrust and Distast of that King And as for Maximilian upon Twenty respects he could not have been the Man But this purpose of the King 's seemeth to me considering the King 's safe Courses never found to be enterprizing or adventurous not greatly probable except he should have had a Desire to breathe warmer because he had ill Lungs This Marriage with Margaret was protracted from time to time in respect of the Infirmity of the King who now in the Two and Twentieth year of his Reign began to be troubled with the Gout But the Defluxion taking also into his Breast wasted his Lungs so that thrice in a Year in a kind of Return and especially in the Spring he had great Fitts and Labours of the Tissick Nevertheless he continued to intend Business with as great diligence as before in his Heath Yet so as upon this warning he did likewise now more seriously think of the World to come and of making himself a Saint as well as King Henry the Sixth by Treasure better employed than to be given to Pope Julius For this Year he gave greater Alms than accustomed and discharged all Prisoners about the City that lay for Fees or Debts under forty Shillings He did also make haste with Religious Foundations and in the Year following which was the Three and Twentieth finished that of the Savoy And hearing also of the bitter Cries of his People against the Oppressions of Dudley and Empson and their Complices partly by Devout Persons about him and partly by publick Sermons the Preachers doing their Duty therein he was touched with great Remorse for the same Nevertheless Empson and Dudley though they could not but hear of these Scruples in the King's Conscience yet as if the King's Soul and his Money were in several Offices that the One was not to intermeddle with the Other went on with as great rage as ever For the same Three and Twentieth Year was there a sharp Prosecution against Sir William Capel now the second time and this was for matters of Misgovernment in his Maioralty The great Matter being that in some Payments he had taken knowledge of False Moneys and did not his diligence to examine and beat it out who were the Offendors For this and some other things laid to his Charge he was condemned to pay two thousand Pounds and being a Man of stomach and hardened by his former Troubles refused to pay a Mite and be-like used some untoward Speeches of the Proceedings for which he was sent to the Tower and there remained till the King's Death Knesworth likewise that had been lately Mayor of London and both his Sheriffs were for Abuses in their Offices questioned and imprisoned and delivered upon one thousand four hundred Pounds paid Hawis an Alderman of London was put in Trouble and dyed with Thought and Anguish before his Business came to an end Sir Lawrence Ailmer who had likewise been Mayor of London and his two Sheriffs were put to the Fine of one thousand Pounds And Sir Lawrence for refusing to make payment was committed to Prison where he stay'd till Empson himself was committed in his place It is no marvel if the Faults were so light and the Rates so heavy that the King's Treasure of Store that he left at his death most of it in secret places under his own key and keeping at Richmond amounted as by Tradition it is reported to have done unto the Summ of near eighteen hundred thousand Pounds Sterling a huge Mass of Money even for these times The last Act of State that concluded this King 's Temporal Felicity was the Conclusion of a Glorious Match between his Daughter Mary and Charles Prince of Castile afterwards the great Emperor both being of tender years which Treaty was perfected by Bishop Fox and other his Commissioners at Calice the year before the King's Death In which Alliance it seemeth he himself took so high Contentment as in a Letter which he wrote thereupon to the City of London Commanding all possible Demonstrations of Joy to be made for the same he expresseth himself as if he thought he had built a Wall of Brass about his Kingdom When he had for his Sons-in-Law a King of Scotland and a Prince of Castile and Burgundy So as now there was nothing to be added to this great King's Felicity being at the top of all worldly Bliss in regard of the high Marriages of his Children his great Renown throughout Europe and his scarce credible Riches and the perpetual Constancy of his prosperous Successes but an opportune Death to withdraw him from any future blow of Fortune Which certainly in regard of the great Hatred of his People and the Title of his Son being then come to Eighteen years of Age and being a bold Prince and liberal and that gained upon the People by his very Aspect and Presence had not been impossible to have come upon him To crown also the last year of his Reign as well as his first he did an Act of Piety rare and worthy to be taken into Imitation For he granted forth a General Pardon as expecting a second Coronation in a better Kingdom He did also declare in his Will that his mind was that Restitution should be made of those Summs which had been unjustly taken by his Officers And thus this Solomon of England for Solomon also was too heavy upon his People in
yet stood stoutly to it But the main Battel where the King was consisting of choice men and better armed against our shot was not so easily defeated For the Scots although they being inclosed as it were in a toyl were forced to fight in a ring made most desperate resistance and that without doubt so much the rather because they not only heard their King encouraging them but saw him also manfully fighting in the foremost Ranks until having received wound upon wound he fell down dead They say there fell with him the Archbishop of St. Andrews his natural Son two other Bishops two Abbots twelve Earls seventeen Barons and of common Souldiers eight thousand The number of the Captives is thought to have been as many They lost all their Ordnance and almost all their Ensigns insomuch that the Victory was to be esteemed a very great one but that it was somewhat bloody to us in the loss of fifteen hundred This Field was fought the ninth of September near Flodon-Hill upon a rising Bank called Piperdi not far from Bramston I am not ignorant that the Scottish Writers constantly affirm the King was not slain in the field but having saved himself by flight was afterwards killed by his own people and that the Body which was brought into England was not the King 's but of one Alexander Elfinston a young Gentleman resembling the King both in visage and stature whom the King that he might delude those that pursued him and might as with his own presence animate them that fought elsewhere had caused with all tokens of Royalty to be armed and apparrelled like himself But to let pass the great number of Nobility whose carcases found about him sufficiently testifie that they guarded their true King and consequently that the counterfeit fought else-where It is manifest that his Body was known by many of the Captives who certainly affirmed that it could be no other than the King 's although by the multitude of wounds it were much defaced For his Neck was opened to the midst with a wide wound his left Hand almost cut off in two places did scarce hang to his Arm and the Archers had shot him in many parts of his body Thus was James the Fourth King of Scots taken away in the flower of his youth who truly in regard of his Princely Virtues deserved a longer life For he had a quick wit and a majestical countenance he was of a great spirit courteous mild liberal and so merciful that it was observed he was often forced against his will to punish offendors These virtues endeared him to his People in his life time and made them so much lament the loss of him being dead that as all Historians report they seemed to have lost only him in the whole succession of their Kings which sufficiently argues the improbability of the Subjects pretended Parricide But he had not fallen into this misery if he would have hearkned to the advice of those who perswaded him to have returned home before the Fight contented with what he had already performed in the Expedition that he should not upon so weak forces hazard the estate of his Kingdom he had won glory-enough and abundantly fulfilled his Friends request But the French Agent and some of the King's Mignons corrupted by the French urging to the contrary this haughty Prince even otherwise very desirous to give proof of his valour was easily perswaded to await our great Forces already marching His Body if at least that were his and not Elfinston's being enclosed in Lead and brought into England was by our King's I will not say cruel but certainly inhumane command cast in some by-corner or other without due Funeral Rites saying that It was a due punishment for one who had perjurously broken his League whereas if we examine the premisses we shall find he wanted not probale pretexts for what he undertook ANNO DOM. 1514. REG. 6. THE next year having begun his course Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey he who had been victorious over the Scots was created Duke of Norfolk the title and dignity of his Ancestors John his Father deriving his pedigree from Thomas de Brotherton Son to King Edward the First the Segraves and the Mowbrays who had been all Dukes of Norfolk enjoyed this Honour by right of Inheritance But because in Bosworth-Field where here he was flain he took part with the Usurper both he and his Posterity were deprived of that Honour This Thomas dying in the year 1524 his Son of the same name succeeded him who deceased in the year 1554. His Son Henry a young Lord of great hopes his Father then living was beheaded towards the end of this King's Reign He left Issue Thomas the last Duke of Norfolk who also lost his Head the year 1572 and Henry at nurse when his Father dyed a very learned and wise man whom King James no good man repining thereat created Earl of Northampton Thomas Duke of Norfolk had three Sons that survived him Philip Thomas and William Philip Earl of Surrey and by his Mother of Arundel condemned the year 1589 and after dying in prison left Issue Thomas then a little one who by King James his favour succeeded his Father in his Honours His Uncle Thomas out of the same fountain of Royal Goodness was created Earl of Suffolk with addition of the dignity of Lord Chamberlain Beside these this Family hath Charles Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral of England Nephew by the Lord William his Father to Thomas Duke of Norfolk that famous Triumpher over the Scots This is he who in emulation of his Grandfather's glory in the year 1588 under the fortune of Queen Elizabeth most happily overthrew that vainly called Invincible Armada of Spain Thomas also Viscount Bindon is derived from Thomas Duke of Norfolk by his Son the Lord Thomas So this noble House lately afflicted now gloriously flourishing hath four Earls and a Viscount all brave and famous men and of whom there will be occasion of much to be spoken hereafter I therefore thought it good in brief to set down their Genealogy lest I should trouble the Reader with too often repetition of their Race upon each mention of the Name At the time of this Duke's creation others were also honored with new Titles Charles Brandon made Duke of Suffolk and Charles Somerset Earl of Worcester and Edward Stanley Lord Mountegle Sir William Brandon Standard-bearer to Henry the Seventh in Bosworth-Field and there slain by the hand of Richard the Third was Father to this new Duke of Suffolk of whose Education he then a little one King Henry having obtained the Crown was very careful and made him rather a Companion than a Servant to the young Prince of whose houshold he was The Prince so greatly favoured him partly for his Father's deserts chiefly for his own that he being afterward King created him Viscount Lisle and intending at least many were so persuaded to give him to Wife the
of mind to accept of and retain this Benefit which God by his Vicar's Legate did proffer them For now nothing else remained but that he being present with those Keys which should open the Gates of the Church they should also abrogate those Laws which lately Enacted to the prejudice of the Church had rended them from the rest of its Body Having spoken a great deal to this purpose and ransacked Antiquity for examples of our Forefathers devotion to the See of Rome his grave delivery excellent language and methodical contexture of his speech wrought so effectually in the minds of those who were addicted to Popery that they thought not themselves until this day capable of Salvation But many of the lower House who deemed it a rare felicity to have shaken off the yoak of Rome eagerly withstood the readmittance of it But by the endeavours of the King and Queen all things were at last composed to the Cardinal 's liking The Authority which the Popes heretofore usurped in this Realm is restored the Title of Supreme Head of the Church is abrogated and a Petition drawn by the whole Court of Parliament for the Absolution of the People and Clergy of England from Schism and Heresie is by the Bishop of Winchester presented to the Legate who they all kneeling by the Authority committed unto him absolved them This being done they went to the Chappel in Procession singing Te Deum and the next Sunday the Bishop of Winchester in his Sermon at Pauls Cross made a large relation of what had passed These things being thus setled the Queen intends an honorable Embassy to Rome whereof she had at her first coming to the Crown made promise For having resolved to replant the Religion of Rome she had privily written to Pool requiring his advice therein The Pope was therefore pleased to send into England Giovanni Francisco Commendono his Chamberlain afterward Cardinal for the more perfect notice of the estate of the Realm To him the Queen after much private conference did under her Hand promise Obedience to the See of Rome desiring withal that the Kingdom might be absolved from the Interdict for the obtaining whereof she would by a solemn Embassy petition his Holiness as soon as the Estate was setled So now about the end of this year the Bishop of Ely Sir Anthony Brown and Edward Carne Doctor of Law are by the Kings sent to proffer their Obedience to the See of Rome But these costs and pains were fruitless For before they came to Rome the Pope was dead In the mean time the Queen considering all her actions hitherto to have passed with full applause began to treat with the Nobility to condescend that if not the Royal at least the Matrimonial Crown of our Queens might be imposed on Philip. But it being a matter without precedent and that might perchance to an ambitious Prince give some colour for claim to the Kingdom they proved averse and she content to surcease The next care was of restitution of Church-Lands But Henry had so divided them and that among the Nobility that nothing could be done therein Only it was decreed that the First-Fruits and Tenths granted to the King by the Clergy Anno 1534 should be remitted which Decree upon consideration of the Treasuries poverty and of the many Pensions granted by Henry to the ejected Religious Persons was quickly revoked About the same time an absurd I might say ridiculous accident happened by the Queens own credulity and the flattery of fawning Courtiers By reason of a Disease which Physicians term a Mole her Belly began to swell and some other reasons giving her cause to conjecture that she was with Child she not entertaining the advice of any Physicians but of Midwives and old Women believing what she desired should be affirmed that she felt the stirring of the Embryo in her womb To those that are affected with this malady that fleshy and inform substance which is termed Mola doth seem sometimes to move but that slowly and with the general motion of the whole Belly By this and other symptoms Physicians would quickly have discovered her Disease which unless very maturely prevented is commonly incurable So that in process of time her Liver being over-cooled she fell into a Dropsie which as Fuchsius and other Physicians write doth usually happen But these flattering hopes betrayed her to the laughter of the World and to her Grave For on the seven and twentieth of November the Lords of the Council sent some Mandates to the Bishop of London to disperse certain forms of Prayers wherein after Thanks given to God for his Mercies to this Kingdom by giving hopes of an Heir to the Crown and infusing life into the Embryo they should pray for the preservation of the Queen and the Infant and her happy delivery and cause Te Deum to be sung every where Then by Parliament many things were Enacted concerning the Education of the Babe and much clutter was otherwise kept about preparations for the Child's Swadling-clouts Cradle and other things requisite at the Delivery until in June in the ensuing year it was manifested that all was little better than a Dream This year were many Barons created On the eleventh of March William Howard was created Lord Howard of Effingham he was Father to Charles Lord Admiral and late Earl of Nottingham on the fifth of April John Williams Lord Williams of Tame on the seventh of April Edward North Baron of Chartlege on the eighth of April John Bruges Lord Chandois on the fourteenth of May Gerard Fitz-Gerard of whom before Earl of Kildare and on the second of September Anthony Brown Viscount Mountague And in September deceased Thomas Duke of Norfolk ANNO DOM. 1555. REG. MARIAE 2 3 PHILIPPI 1 2. ON the eighteenth of January the Lord Chancellour coming to the Tower with six other Lords of the Council set many brave Prisoners at liberty viz. the Archbishop of York Sir John Rogers Sir James Croft Sir Nicholas Throckmorton Sir Nicholas Arnold Sir George Harper Sir William Sentlow Sir Gawin Carew Sir Andrew Dudley the Duke of Northumberland's Brother William Gibs Cutbert Vaughan Harington Tremaine and others The Archbishop having married a Wife was deprived and Nicholas Heath sometimes Bishop of Worcester but deprived by King Edward and Hooper being ejected and condemned to the Fire lately restored by Queen Mary was substituted in his place Rogers and Croft were afterward Privy Counsellors to Queen Elizabeth under whom they many years flourished in great Authority Throckmorton a subtil man was thought to have been the plotter of Wyat's Rebellion his Head was therefore especially aimed at But being indicted and ten whole hours spent in sifting him he by such witty answers voided the accusation of his Adversary that the Jurors found him Not guilty for which they were afterward soundly fined About the beginning of April the Marquess of Exceter and a little after the Lady Elizabeth were
the seventh day of September almost two hours after Sun-set the Moon having risen an hour before a Rainbow was seen in the West That I may relate the like accident though of differing time the like apparition was seen by me on the four and twentieth of November 1604 when the Sun having two hours before declined to its lowest travelling towards Colebrook the form of a white Cloud shaped into a fragment of a Circle and just opposite to the Moon then newly risen appeared which did every way resemble a true Rainbow but that it was not diversified with colours and instead of the Sun had the Moon its opposite ANNO DOM. 1558. REG. ultimo H Enry some way to repair his losses at St. Quintin resolves an Enterprize upon Calais which Senarpont Governour of Boutoigne perswaded him was not so fortified according to report but that it might easily be taken The Marshal Strossy having under the favour of a disguise viewed the place confirmed Senarpont's assurance of taking it Philip whether having intelligence of Henry's designs or else presaging so much had often admonished the Queen to have an especial regard to that Town voluntarily offering his assistance for the security of it But we over-wisely jealous lest Philip had a practice on it it lying commodiously for his adjoyning Netherlands neglected both his advice and proffer But the reality of his advice was manifested by the event The Duke of Guise having by the King been declared Lieutenant General in all his Dominions levying a great Army flies suddenly to the Siege of Calais before which he sate down on New-years-day and intrenched at Sandgate Then dividing his Army into two parts he at the same time assaults Newnambridge and the Risbank two Forts wherein the chief strength of that Town consisted the taking whereof would have cut off all possibility of relieving the besieged either by Land or Sea The Garrisons of each place terrified with so unexpected a danger he at his first arrival gaines Newnambridge and the next day the Risbank The French then batter the Wall between the Water-gate and the Prison not so much out of hope to gain entrance that way as to divert us from guarding that part of the Town where they really intended to give an Assault Having for a while battered that part and we little suspecting an enterprize upon the Castle they suddenly with fifteen Peeces make a battery upon the Castle and continue it with such fury that the thunder of the Cannon was all that day heard at Antwerp which is distant from thence more than one hundred English miles Having by that time night drew on made a sufficient breach and yet in regard of the deep Dikes filled with Water wherein consisted the main hopes of the Defendants not able to come to an Assault the Enemy with great toil and labour by a cut from thence to the Sea draw the Dikes so low that by that time the Tide was gone out they march not above Navil-high through the Dikes to the Wall which we little feared could be done without resistance Finding the place void of Defendants they easily make themselves masters of the Castle and had as easily taken the Town if Sir Anthony Ager Marshal of the Town had not with some few others made head against them and forced them to retreat to the Castle in which conflict that valiant Knight was slain The Lord Wentworth Governour of the Town seeing little hopes of keeping the Town craved parley which was granted and at length yielded the Town upon these Conditions That the common Souldiers and Inhabitants should depart without transporting or carrying away any thing with them and that Lord Wentworth with fifty others such as the Duke of Guise should appoint should remain Captives to be put to ransom So was Calais lost which had continued English above two hundred years neither was the Siege long the Enemy sitting down before it on New-years-day and having it yielded up on Twelf-day Seven days after the Duke marcheth toward Guisnes which Town he took without any difficulty but the Castle which the Lord Gray commanded not so easily But that and Hames Castle were at length taken also and dismantled so that of all the Kingdom of France the greatest part whereof was for a long time held by our Kings and whereof Henry the Sixth had been Crowned King at Paris Anno 1431 nor in the Duchies of Normandy and Aquitain the ancient Inheritance of the Kings of England our Kings possess nothing but the Isles of Jersey and Guernsey which have proved Loyal to us ever since the Conquest While the French proceeded thus in Picardy the Queen certified thereof with great diligence prepares her Fleet to transport Succours for Calais but contrary winds kept them back so long until Calais was irrecoverably lost You shall not easily read of any Action wherein God hath by more manifest signs declared how displeasing those Wars are to him which undertaken for Ambition or Profit do dissolve the publick Peace Philip to begin with him against whom Henry and the Pope did most unjustly conspire enlarged himself with a double Victory each whereof were great and memorable The Cardinal Caraffa and the Duke of Paliane who for their own ends had perswaded the doating Pope to throw the Ball of Discord between these Princes were after for this very thing Beheaded by Pius the Fourth who immediately succeeded Paul Paul himself in the mean time the French being overthrown at St. Quintin was exposed to the mercy of the Spaniard whom he had irritated the French being forced to withdraw his Army out of Italy The rash violation of the League by Mary was punished with the loss of Calais and through grief thereof according to common belief of Life also What happened to the French who by the Pope's instigation first brake the five years Truce we have already declared And lest it might be conceived that his losses at and of St. Quintin were repaired by the taking of Calais another Overthrow given him within few months after will take away much from the content of that Victory In June the Marshal De Termes who succeeded Strossy lately slain Governour of Calais breaketh into Arthois and Flanders with an Army consisting of near about eleven thousand men leaving Graveling and Burburg at his back attempts Berghes takes it sacks it and so opens a way to Dunkirk which he also takes and spoils and the Countrey all about for they feared not the French there and the Towns which the Spaniard held throughout that Tract were ill furnished lying open to their mercy they ransack it most miserably and march as far as Newport Philip was affrighted with this Tempest fearing especially lest the Duke of Guise then in Arms should joyn with Termes But having intelligence that the Duke spent his time about Arlon and Vireton he resolves to intercept the French in their return In this Enterprize he employs Count Egmond his
THE HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF HENRY the SEVENTH HENRY the EIGHTH EDWARD the SIXTH AND QUEEN MARY The First Written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Viscount St. ALBAN The other Three by the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS GODWYN Lord Bishop of HEREFORD LONDON Printed by W. G. for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell and J. Edwyn M. D C. LXXVI To the most Illustrious and most Excellent PRINCE CHARLES Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester c. It may Please Your Highness IN part of my acknowledgment to Your Highness I have endeavoured to do Honour to the Memory of the last King of England that was Ancestour to the King your Father and Your self and was that King to whom both Unions may in a sort refer That of the Roses being in him Consummate and that of the Kingdoms by him begun Besides his times deserve it For he was a Wise Man and an Excellent King and yet the times were rough and full of Mutations and rare Accidents And it is with Times as it is with Ways Some are more Vp-hill and Down-hill and some are more Flat and Plain and the One is better for the Liver and the Other for the Writer I have not flattered him but took him to life as well as I could sitting so far off and having no better light It is true Your Highness hath a Living Pattern Incomparable of the King Your Father But it is not amiss for You also to see one of these Ancient Pieces GOD preserve Your Highness Your Highness most humble and devoted Servant FRANCIS St. Alban AN INDEX ALPHABETICAL Directing to the most Observable Passages in the ensuing HISTORY A. AN Accident in it self trivial great in effect Pag. 108 Advice desired from the Parliament 33 35 56 Aemulation of the English to the French with the reasons of it 36 Affability of the King to the City of London 113 Affection of King Henry to the King of Spain 61 Affection of the King to his Children 136 Aid desired by the Duke of Britain 33 Aid sent to Britain 37 Aiders of Rebels punished 23 Alms-deeds of the King 131 Ambassadors to the Pope 24 into Scotland 25 Ambassadors from the French King 26 Ambassadors in danger in France 31 Ambassadors into France 54 Ambition exorbitant in Sir William Stanley 78 Answer of the Archduke to the King's Ambassadors 74 Appeach of Sir William Stanley 76 Arms of King Henry still victorious 133 Arrows of the 〈◊〉 the length of them 96 Articles between the King and the Archduke 91 Arthur Prince married to the Lady Katherine 116 Arthur Prince dies at Ludlow 117 Aton Castle in Scotland taken by the Earl of Surrey 98 Attainted persons in Parliament excepted against 8 Attaindor and corruption of Blood reacheth not to the Crown ibid. 15 Avarice of King Henry 134 Audley General of the Corhish Rebels 93 B. BAnishment of 〈◊〉 our of the Kingdom 74 Battel at Bosworth-field 1 at Stokefield 〈◊〉 at St. Albans in Britain 87 at Bannocksbourn in Scotland 〈◊〉 at Black-heath 〈◊〉 Behaviour of King Henry towards 〈◊〉 Children 117 Benevolence to the King for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence who the first Author ibid Benevolence 〈◊〉 by Act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence revived by Act of 〈◊〉 ibid A Benevolence 〈◊〉 to the King 23 Birth of Henry the 〈◊〉 35 Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the King 〈◊〉 Blood not unrevenged 112 122 Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 Three causes of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ibid. Britain united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Marriage 〈◊〉 Brakenbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murder King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broughton Sir 〈◊〉 joyned with the Rebels 11 A Bull procured from the Pope by the King for what causes 24 Bulloign besieged by King Henry 63 C. CArdinal Morton dieth 113 Capell Sir William fined 80 131 Cap of Maintenace from the Pope 101 Ceremony of Marriage new in these parts 48 Chancery power and description of that Court 38 Clifford Sir Robert flies to Perkin 70 revolts to the King 72 Clergy priviledges abridged 39 Christendom enlarged 61 Columbus Christopher and Bartholomeus invite the King to a discovery of the West Indies 107 Confiscation aimed at by the King 76 Conference between King Henry and the King of Castile by casualty landing at Weymouth 128 Conquest the Title unpleasing to the People declined by William the Conqu 3 and by the King 5 〈◊〉 for Perkin 70 Contraction of Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine 118 Conditional speech doth not qualifie words of Treason 77 Commissioners into Ireland 79 Commissioners about Trading 91 Coronation of King Henry 7 Coronation of the Queen 24 Counsel the benefit of good 25 Counsel of what sort the French King used 32 Counsel of mean men what and how different from that of Nobles ibid. Lord Cordes envy to England 48 Cottagers but housed Beggars 44 Counterfeits Lambert proclaimed in Ireland 15 Crowned at Dublin 19 taken at Battell 22 put into the King's Kitchin ibid. made the King's Faulconer ibid. Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin Wilford another counterfeit Earl of Warwick 111 Courage of the English when 37 Court what Pleas belong to every Court 38 Court of Star-chamber confirmed ibid. Creations 6 Crown confirmed to King Henry by Parliament 7 Cursing of the King's Enemies at Paul's Cross a custom of those times 72 122 D. DAm a Town in Flanders taken by a slight 59 Lord Daubeny 96 Devices at Prince Arthur's Marriage 117 Device of the King to divert Envy 64 Decay of Trade doth punish Merchants 90 Decay of People how it comes to pass 44 Declaration by Perkin to the Scottish King 85 Desires intemperate of Sir William Stanley 78 Dighton a murderer of King Edward's two Children 71 Dilemma a pleasant one of Bishop Morton 58 Diligence of the King to heap Treasures 120 Displacing of no Counsellors nor Servants in all King Henry's Reign save of one 138 Dissimulation of the French King 29 30 49 Dissimulation of King Henry in pretending War 56 A Doubt long kept open and diversly determined according to the diversity of the times 117 Dowry of Lady Katherine how much 116 Dowry of Lady Margaret into Scotland how much 119 Drapery maintained how 45 Dudley one of the King's Herse-leeches 119 Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin E. EArl of Suffolk flies into Flanders 121 returns 129 Earl of Northumberland slain by the People in collecting the Subsidy somewhat harshly 40 Earl of Warwick executed 111 Earl of Warwick counterfeit 13 110 Earl of Surrey enters Scotland 98 Edmund a third Son born to King Henry but died 109 Edward the Fifth murdered 85 Envy towards the King unquenchable the cause of it 111 Envy of the Lord Cordes to England 48 Enterview between the King and the King of Castile 128 Emblem 94 Empson one of the King's Horse-leeches 119 Errours of the French King in his business for the Kingdom of Naples 82 Errours of King Henry occasioning his many troubles 128 〈◊〉 service 92 Espials in
the Rebels camp 21 Espousals of James King of Scotland and Lady Margaret 118 Exchanges unlawful prohibited 40 Exceter besieged by Perkin 102 the Loyalty of the Town 103 the Town rewarded with the King 's own Sword 105 Execution of Humphrey Stafford 12 John a Chamber and his fellow-Rebels at York 41 Sir James Tyrril murderer of King Edward's two Sons 71 of divers others 75 Sir William Stanley 77 Rebels 79 Perkin's company 81 Audley and Cornish Rebels 96 another counterfeit Earl of Warw. 110 Perkin Warbeck 111 the Mayor of Cork and his Son ibid. Earl of Warwick ibid. F. FAme ill affected 97 Fame entertained by divers the reasons of it 70 Fame neglected by Empson and Dudley 119 Fear not safe to the King 79 Fines 43 Without Fines Statute to sell Land 58 Flammock a Lawyer a Rebel 92 Flemings banished 75 Flight of King Henry out of Britain into France wherefore 34 Forfeitures and Confiscations furnish the King's wants 9 17 Forfeitures aimed at 45 76 Forfeitures upon Penal Laws taken by the King which was the blot of his times 80 Fortune various 16 22 Forwardness inconsiderate 96 Fox made Privy Counsellor 10 made Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal ib. his providence 98 Free-fishing of the Dutch 129 Title to France renewed by the King in Parliament 56 Frion joyns with Perkin 68 First-fruits 10 In forma Pauperis a Law enacted for it 84 G. GAbato Sebastian makes a Voyage for Discovery 107 Gordon Lady Katherine wife to Perkin 87 Granado vindicated from the Moors 60 Guard Yoomen first instituted 7 Gifts of the French King to King Henry's Counsellors and Souldiers 64 Gratitude of the Pope's Lègate to King Henry 42 H. HAllowed Sword from the Pope 101 Hatred of the People to the King with the main reason of it 12 Hearty Acclamations of the People to the King 〈◊〉 King Henry his Description 133 c. his Piety 1 60 he hath three Titles to the Kingdom 2 Hereticks provided against a rare thing in those times 115 Hern a Counsellor to Perkin 101 Hialas otherwise Elias to England how 98 Holy War 114 Hopes of gain by War 64 Hostages redeemed by the King 10 Houses of Husbandry to be maintained to prevent the decay of People 45 Histories defects in them what 46 I. IAmes the Third King of Scotland his distress and death 42 Idols vex God and King Henry 105 John Egremond Leader of the Rebels 41 Inclosures their manifest inconveniencies and how remedied 44 Ingratitude of Women punished 85 Innovation desired 12 Incense of the People what 118 Instructions of Lady Margaret to 〈◊〉 66 Intercursus Magnus 91 Intercursus Malus ibid. 129 Invectives of Maximilian against the French King 〈◊〉 Invectives against the King and Council 79 Improvidence of King Henry to prevent his troubles 12 14 Improvidence of the French 82 Jointure of Lady Katherine how much 117 Jointure of Lady Margaret in Scotland how much 119 Joseph a Rebel 92 Ireland favoureth York Title 15 Ireland receiveth Simon the Priest of Oxford with his counterfeit ibid. Irish adhere to Perkin 68 Jubile at Rome 114 Juno i. e. the Lady Margaret so called by the King's friends 65 K. KAtherine Gordon Perkin's Wife royally entertained by K. Hen. 104 Kent loyal to the King 81 94 The King the publick Steward 36 Kings their miseries 50 King of Rakehels Perkin so called by King Henry 103 The King's Skreen who 92 King of France Protector of King Henry in his trouble 133 Kingdom of France restored to its integrity 25 King of France buys his Peace of King Henry 64 King of Scots enters England 87 again 98 Knights of the Bath 95 Knights of Rhodes 〈◊〉 King Henry Protector of the Order 115 L. LAncaster Title condemned by Parliament 3 Lancaster House in possession of the Crown for three Descents together 〈◊〉 Lambert Simnel See Counterfeit 13 Laws enacted in Parliament 38 Divers Laws enacted 123 Law charitable enacted 84 A good Law enacted ibid. A Law of a strange 〈◊〉 83 A Law against carrying away of Women by violence the reasons of it 39 Law of Poynings 79 Laws Penal put in execution 80 A Legate from the Pope 42 preferred to be Bishop in England by King Henry ibid. his gratitude to King Henry ibid. Lenity of the King abused 101 Letters from the King out of France to the Mayor of London 64 A Libel 55 Libels the causes of them 79 Libels the females of Sedition ibid. Libels the Authors executed ibid. A Loan from the City to the King repaid 46 London entred by King Henry in a close Chariot wherefore 5 London in a tumult because of the Rebels 95 London purchase Confirmation of their Liberties 124 M. MAlecontents their effects 40 Margaret of Burgundy the fountain of all the mischief to K. Henry 18 she entertains the Rebels 41 69 she a Juno to the King 65 she instructs Perkin 66 Lady Margaret desired in Marriage by the Scottish King 108 Manufacture forein how to be kept out 36 123 Marriage of King Henry with Lady Elizabeth 10 of the French King with the Duchess of Britain 55 of Prince Arthur 116 Mart translated to Calice the reasons of it 74 Maintenance prohibited by Law 38 Merchants of England received at Antwerp with procession and great joy 91 A memorable Memorandum of the King 121 Military power of the Kingdom advanced how 44 Mills of Empson and Dudley what and the gains they brought in 124 Mitigations 120 Money bastard employments thereof repressed 36 Money left at the King's death how much 132 Morton made Privy Counsellor 10 made Archbishop of Canterbury ib. his Speech to the Parliament 32 Morton's Fork 58 Morton author of the Union of the two Roses 114 Moors expelled Granado 61 Murmuring 14 Murmurs of the People against the King 70 Murther and Manslaughter a Law concerning it in amendment of the common Law 39 Murther of King Edward the Fifth 85 Murther of a Commissioner for the Subsidy 93 N. NAvigation of the Kingdom how advanced 45 Neighbour over-potent dangerous 34 Bad News the effect thereof in Souldiers 63 Nobility neglected in Council the ill effects of it 32 Nobility few of them put to death in King Henry's time 134 North the King's journey thither for what reasons 11 O. OAth of Allegiance taken 9 Oath enforced upon Maximilian by his Subjects 46 Oath kept ibid. Obedience neglected what follows 42 First Occasion of a happy Union 109 Obsequies for the French King performed in England ibid. Obsequies to Tyrants what 1 An Ominous answer of the King 119 An Ominous Prognostick 129 Opinions divers what was to be done with Perkin 105 Orator from the Pope met at London-Bridge by the Mayor 101 Order of the Garter sent to Alphonso 64 Ostentation of Religion by the King of Spain 60 Over-merit prejudicial to Sir William Stanley 73 Outlawries how punished 120 Oxford Earl fined for breach of the Law 121 P. PAcificator King Henry between the French King and Duke of Britain 32 Pardon
proclaimed by the King 9 11 16 A Parliament called speedily 7 A Parliament called for two reasons 33 another 122 Parliaments advice desired by the King 33 35 56 Passions contrary in King Henry joy and sorrow with the reasons of both 36 Peace pretended by the French King 29 Peace to be desired but with two conditions 33 Peace concluded between England and France 64 People how brought to decay the redress of it by the King 44 Pensions given by the King of France 64 A Personation somewhat strange 65 A great Plague 12 Edward Plantagenet Son and Heir of George Duke of Clarence 4 Edward Plantagenet shewed to the People 17 Plantagenet's Race ended 195 Perkin Warbeck History of him 65 his Parentage 68 God son to K. Edward the Fourth ibid. his crafty behaviour 65 69 favoured by the French King 68 by him discarded 69 favoured by the Scottish King 85 he yieldeth and is brought to the Court 106 set in the Stocks 109 executed at Tyburn 111 A Pleasant passage of Prince Arthur 118 Policy to prevent War 26 A point of Policy to defend the Duchy of Britain against the French 29 34 Policy of State 26 Pope sows seeds of War 54 Pope Ambassador to him 24 Poynings Law in Ireland 79 Priest of Oxford Simon 13 Pretence of the French King 28 29 Prerogative how made use of 133 Price of Cloth limited 45 Prisoners Edward Plantagenet 4 Prince of Orange and Duke of Orleance 37 Maximilian by his Subjects 46 Priviledges of Clergy abridged 39 Priviledges of Sanctuary qualified in three points 24 Proclamation of Perkin what effect 90 Protection for being in the King's service limited 58 Proverb 104 Providence for the future 43 Q. QUeen Dowager 13 enclosed in the Monastery of Bermondsey 16 her variety of Fortune ibid. Queens Colledge founded in Cambridge 17 Q. Elizabeth Crowned after two years 24 Queen Elizabeth's death 119 R. REbellion of Lord Lovel and Staffords 11 Rebellion in Yorkshire 41 Rebellion how to be prevented 35 Rebellion how frequent in King Henry's time 42 Rebellion of the Cornishmen 92 Rebels but half-couraged men 96 Religion abused to serve Policy 122 Remorse of the King for oppression of his People 131 Restitution to be made by the King 's Will 132 Return of the King from France 64 Retribution of King Henry for Treasure received of his Subjects 43 Revenge divine 1 Revenge of Blood 122 Reward proposed by Perkin 111 Richard the Third a Tyrant 1 Richard slain at Bosworth-field ibid. this 〈◊〉 Burial ibid. murder of his two Nephews 2 jealous to maintain his Honour and Reputation ibid. hopes to win the People by making Laws ibid. this Virtues overswayed by his Vices 2 yet favoured in Yorkshire 40 Riches of King Henry at his death 132 Riches of Sir William Stanley 76 Richmond built upon what occasion 106 Riot and Retainers suppressed by Act of Parliament 123 Rome ever respected by King Henry 42 A Rumour false procuring much hatred to the King 12 Rumour false enquired after to be punished 23 Rumour that the Duke of York was alive first of the King 's own nourishing 37 S. SAnctuary at Colneham could not protect Traytors 12 Sanctuary-priviledges qualified by a Bull from the Pope in three points 24 Saturday observed and fancied by King Henry 5 96 Saying of the King when he heard of Rebels 41 Scottish men voyded out of England 58 Service of 〈◊〉 92 Simon the Priest 13 Skreens to the King who 92 A Sleight ingenious and taking good effect in War 〈◊〉 Sluce besieged and taken ibid. Soothsayers Prediction mistaken 〈◊〉 Speeches 32 49 53 Speech of the King to Parliament 55 Speech of Perkin 85 Speech conditional doth not qualifie 〈◊〉 of Treason 77 Speeches bitter against the King 64 Sparks of Rebellion neglected dangerous 〈◊〉 Spies from the King 72 Sprites of what kind vexed K. Henry 65 Stanley Sir William crowns King Henry in the field 〈◊〉 motives of his falling from the King 77 is appeached of Treason 70 is confined examined and consesseth 〈◊〉 is beheaded 77 Reasons which aliènated the King's affections 78 Star-Chamber Court confirmed in certain cases 38 Star-Camber Court described what Causes belong to it ibid. Statute of Non-claim 43 Steward publick the King 36 Strength of the Cornishmen 96 Spoils of Bosworth-field 78 Spoils as water spilt on the ground 97 Subsidy denied by the inhabitants of Yorkshire and Durham the reason wherefore 40 Subsidies denied by the Cornishmen 92 Subsidy Commissioner killed 93 Subsidy how much 91 Swart Martin 19 Sweating Sickness 6 the manner of the cure of it ibid. Sweating Sickness the interpretation the People made of it 23 T. ATale pleasant concerning the King 137 Terrour among the King's Servants and Subjects 67 Tyrrell Sir James a murderer of King Edward's two Sons 71 Tyrell executed 122 Thanks of the King to the Parliament 32 Thanksgiving to God for the Victory 1 23 24 61 Three Titles to the Kingdom meet in King Henry 2 Title to France stirred 54 by the King himself 55 Treasure to be kept in the Kingdom 45 Treasure raised by the King how 23 31 120 Treasure inordinately affected by the King 121 Treasure how increased 124 Treasure left at the King's death how much 132 Trade the increase thereof considered 36 Trade in decay pincheth 90 Traytors taken out of Sanctuary 12 Tower the King's lodging wherefore 75 A Triplicity dangerous 94 Triumph at the Marriage of the Lady Elizabeth to King Henry 10 Truce with Scotland 25 Tyrants the Obsequies of the People to them 1 V. VIctory wisely husbanded by the French 37 Victory at Black-heath 96 Union of England and Scotland its first original 98 Voyage of King Henry into France 63 Voyage for Discovery 107 Urswick Ambassador 65 Usury 40 W. VVAlsingham Lady vowed to by King Henry 20 Wards wronged 120 War between the French King and the Duke of Britain 30 War the fame thereof advantagious to King Henry 31 War gainful to the King 91 War pretended to get money 57 War of France ended by a Peace where at the Souldiers murmur 64 White Rose of England 69 104 Wilford counterfeit Earl of Warwick 110 A Wives affection 129 Woodvile voluntarily goes to aid the Duke of Britain 31 Woodvile slain at St. Albans in Britain 62 Wolsey employed by the King 130 Women carried away by violence a Law enacted against it the reasons 39 Womens ingratitude punished by Law 84 Y. YEomen of the Guard first instituted 7 Yeomanry how maintained 44 York House and Title favoured by the People 3 12 York Title and Line depressed by King Henry 4 10 York Title favoured in Ireland 15 Yorkshire and Durham deny to pay the Subsidy 49 THE HISTORY Of the Reign of KING HENRY The SEVENTH AFter that Richard the Third of that Name King in Fact only but Tyrant both in Title and Regiment and so commonly termed and reputed in all times since was by the Divine Revenge favouring the Design of an Exil'd man overthrown and slain at
and safe Opinion and Advice mixed with Law and Convenience which was That the Knights and Burgesses attainted by the course of Law should forbear to come into the House 'till a Law were passed for the Reversal of their Attaindors It was at that time incidently moved amongst the Judges in their Consultation what should be done for the King himself who likewise was attainted But it was with unanimous consent Resolved That the Crown takes away all defects and stops in Blood and that from the time the King did assume the Crown the Fountain was cleared and all Attaindors and Corruption of Blood discharged But nevertheless for Honours sake it was Ordained by Parliament that all Records wherein there was any memory or mention of the King's Attaindor should be defaced cancelled and taken off the File But on the part of the King's Enemies there were by Parliament attainted the late Duke of Glocester calling himself Richard the Third the Duke of Norfolk the Earl of Surrey Viscount Lovel the Lord Ferrers the Lord Zouch Richard Ratcliff William Catesby and many others of degree and quality In which Bills of Attaindors nevertheless there were contained many just and temperate Clauses Savings and Proviso's well shewing and foretokening the Wisdom Stay and Moderation of the King's Spirit of Government And for the Pardon of the rest that had stood against the King the King upon a second advice thought it not fit it should pass by Parliament the better being matter of Grace to impropriate the Thanks to himself using only the Opportunity of a Parliament time the better to disperse it into the Veins of the Kingdom Therefore during the Parliament he Published his Royal Proclamation offering Pardon and Grace of Restitution to all such as had taken Arms or been participant of any Attempts against him so as they submitted themselves to his Mercy by a Day and took the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to him Whereupon many came out of Sanctuary and many more came out of Fear no less guilty than those that had taken Sanctuary As for Money or Treasure the King thought it not seasonable or fit to demand any of his Subjects at this Parliament both because he had received satisfaction from them in matters of so great Importance and because he could not remunerate them with any General Pardon being prevented therein by the Coronation-Pardon passed immediately before but chiefly for that it was in every mans Eye what great Forfeitures and Confiscations he had at that present to help himself Whereby those Casualties of the Crown might in reason spare the Purses of his Subjects especially in a time when he was in Peace with all his Neighbours Some few Laws passed at that Parliament almost for form sake amongst which there was One to reduce Aliens being made Denizens to pay Strangers Customs and another to draw to himself the Seisures and Compositions of Italian Goods for not employment being Points of Profit to his Coffers whereof from the very Beginning he was not forgetful and had been more happy at the Latter End if his early Providence which kept him from all necessity of Exacting upon his People could likewise have attemp'red his nature therein He added during Parliament to his former Creations the Innoblement or Advancement in Nobility of a few others The Lord Chandos of Britain was made Earl of Bath and Sir Giles Dawbeny was made Lord Dawbeny and Sir Robert Willoughby Lord Brook The King did also with great Nobleness and Bounty which Virtues at that time had their turns in his Nature restore Edward Stafford eldest Son to Henry Duke of Buckingham attainted in the time of King Richard not only to his Dignities but to his Fortunes and Possessions which were great to which he was moved also by a kind of Gratitude for that the Duke was the man that moved the first Stone against the Tyranny of King Richard and indeed made the King a Bridge to the Crown upon his own Ruins Thus the Parliament brake up The Parliament being dissolved the King sent forthwith Money to redeem the Marquess Dorset and Sir John Bourchier whom he had left as his Pledges at Paris for Money which he had borrowed when he made his Expedition for England And thereupon he took a fit occasion to send the Lord Treasurer and Master Bray whom he used as Counsellor to the Lord Mayor of London requiring of the City a Prest of six thousand Marks But after many Parlees he could obtain but two thousand Pounds Which nevertheless the King took in good part as men use to do that practise to borrow Money when they have no need About this time the King called unto his Privy-Council John Morton and Richard Fox the one Bishop of Ely the other Bishop of Exceter vigilant men and secret and such as kept watch with him almost upon all men else They had been both versed in his Affairs before he came to the Crown and were partakers of his adverse Fortune This Morton soon after upon the death of Bourchier ' he made Archbishop of Canterbury And for Fox he made him Lord Keeper of his Privy-Seal and afterwards advanced him by Degrees from Exceter to Bath and Wells thence to Durham and last to Winchester For although the King loved to employ and advance Bishops because having rich Bishopricks they carried their Reward upon themselves yet he did use to raise them by steps that he might not lose the profit of the First-fruits which by that course of Gradation was multiplied At last upon the Eighteenth of January was Solemnized the so long expected and so much desired Marriage between the King and the Lady Elizabeth which Day of Marriage was celebrated with greater Triumph and Demonstrations especially on the Peoples part of Joy and Gladness than the days either of his Entry or Coronation which the King rather noted than liked And it is true that all his life time while the Lady Elizabeth lived with him for she dyed before him he shewed himself no very indulgent Husband towards her though she was beautiful gentle and fruitful But his aversion towards the House of York was so predominant in him as it found place not only in his Wars and Councils but in his Chamber and Bed Towards the middle of the Spring the King full of confidence and assurance as a Prince that had been Victorious in Battel and had prevailed with his Parliament in all that he desired and had the Ring of Acclamations fresh in his Ears thought the rest of his Reign should be but Play and the enjoying of a Kingdom Yet as a wise and watchful King he would not neglect any thing for his Safety thinking nevertheless to perform all things now rather as an Exercise than as a Labour So he being truly informed that the Northern parts were not only Affectionate to the House of York but particularly had been Devoted to King Richard the Third thought it would be a Summer well spent to visit
Lancashire whither there repaired to them Sir Thomas Broughton with some small company of English The King by that time knowing now the Storm would not divide but fall in one place had levied Forces in good number and in person taking with him his two designed Generals the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Oxford was come on his way towards them as far as Coventry whence he sent forth a Troop of Light-horsmen for discovery and to intercept some straglers of the Enemies by whom he might the better understand the particulars of their Progress and purposes which was accordingly done though the King otherwise was not without Intelligence from Espials in the Camp The Rebels took their way towards York without spoiling the Countrey or any act of Hostility the better to put themselves into favour of the People and to personate their King who no doubt out of a Princely feeling was sparing and compassionate towards his Subjects But their Snow-ball did not gather as it went For the People came not in to them Neither did any rise or declare themselves in other parts of the Kingdom for them which was caused partly by the good tast that the King had given his People of his Government joyned with the reputation of his Felicity and partly for that it was an odious thing to the People of England to have a King brought in to them upon the shoulders of Irish and Dutch of which their Army was in substance compounded Neither was it a thing done with any great Judgement on the Party of the Rebels for them to take their way towards York Considering that howsoever those parts had formerly been a Nursery of their Friends yet it was there where the Lord Lovel had so lately disbanded and where the King's presence had a little before qualified discontents The Earl of Lincoln deceived of his hopes of the Countries concourse unto him in which case he would have temporized and seeing the business past Retract resolved to make on where the King was and to give him Battel and thereupon marched towards Newark thinking to have surprised the Town But the King was somewhat before this time come to Nottingham where he called a Council of War at which was consulted whether it were best to protract time or speedily to set upon the Rebels In which Council the King himself whose continual vigilancy did suck in sometimes causeless Suspitions which few else knew inclined to the accelerating a Battel But this was presently put out of doubt by the great Aids that came in to him in the instant of this Consultation partly upon Missives and partly Voluntaries from many parts of the Kingdom The principal persons that came then to the King's aid were the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Strange of the Nobility and of Knights and Gentlemen to the number of at least Threescore and ten persons with their Companies making in the whole at the least Six Thousand fighting men besides the Forces that were with the King before Whereupon the King finding his Army so bravely re-enforced and a great alacrity in all his men to fight was confirmed in his former Resolution and marched speedily so as he put himself between the Enemies Camp and Newark being loth their Army should get the commodity of that Town The Earl nothing dismayed came forwards that day unto a little Village called Stoke and there camped that night upon the brow or hanging of a Hill The King the next day presented him Battel upon the Plain the fields there being open and champion The Earl couragiously came down and joyned Battel with him Concerning which Battel the Relations that are left unto us are so naked and negligent though it be an Action of so recent memory as they rather declared the Success of the day than the Manner of the Fight They say that the King divided his Army into three Battels whereof the Vaunt-guard only well strengthned with Wings came to fight That the Fight was fierce and obstinate and lasted three hours before the Victory inclined either way save that Judgement might be made by that the King's Vaunt-guard of it self maintained fight against the whole Power of the Enemies the other two Battels remaining out of action what the success was like to be in the end That Martin Swart with his Germans performed bravely and so did those few English that were on that side neither did the Irish fail in courage or fierceness but being almost naked men only armed with Darts and Skeins it was rather an Execution than a Fight upon them insomuch as the furious slaughter of them was a great discouragement and appalement to the rest That there dyed upon the place all the Chieftains that is the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare Francis Lord Lovel Martin Swart and Sir Thomas Broughton all making good the fight without any ground given Only of the Lord Lovel there went a report that he fled and swam over Trent on horseback but could not recover the further side by reason of the steepness of the Bank and so was drowned in the River But another report leaves him not there but that he lived long after in a Cave or Vault The number that was slain in the field was of the Enemies part Four thousand at the least and of the King's part one half of his Vaunt-guard besides many hurt but none of name There were taken Prisoners amongst others the Counterfeit Plantagenet now Lambert Simnel again and the crafty Priest his Tutor For Lambert the King would not take his Life both out of Magnanimity taking him but as an Image of Wax that others had tempered and molded and likewise out of Wisdom thinking that if he suffered death he would be forgotten too soon but being kept alive he would be a continual Spectacle and a kind of remedy against the like Inchantments of People in time to come For which cause he was taken into service in his Court to a base office in his Kitchin so that in a kind of Mattacina of humane fortune he turned a Broach that had worn a Crown Whereas Fortune commonly doth not bring in a Comedy or Farce after a Tragedy And afterwards he was preferred to be one of the King's Falconers As to the Priest he was committed Close-prisoner and heard of no more the King loving to seal up his own dangers After the Battel the King went to Lincoln where he caused Supplications and Thanksgivings to be made for his Deliverance and Victory And that his Devotions might go round in Circle he sent his Banner to be Offered to our Lady of Walsingham where before he made his Vows And thus delivered of this so strange an Engin and new Invention of Fortune he returned to his former confidence of mind thinking now that all his misfortunes had come at once But it fell out unto him according to the Speech of the common People in the beginning of his Reign that said It was a token he
should reign in Labour because his Reign began with a sickness of Sweat But howsoever the King thought himself now in a Haven yet such was his Wisdom as his Confidence did seldom darken his Fore-sight especially in things near hand And therefore awakened by so fresh and unexpected dangers he entred into due consideration as well how to weed out the Partakers of the former Rebellion as to kill the Seeds of the like in time to come and withal to take away all shelters and harbours for discontented Persons where they might hatch and foster Rebellions which afterwards might gather strength and motion And first he did yet again make a Progress from Lincoln to the Northern parts though it were indeed rather an Itinerary Circuit of Justice than a Progress For all along as he went with much severity and strict inquisition partly by Martial Law and partly by Commission were punished the Adherents and Ayders of the late Rebels not all by Death for the Field had drawn much blood but by Fines and Ransoms which spared Life and raised Treasure Amongst other Crimes of this nature there was diligent inquiry made of such as had raised and dispersed a bruit and rumour a little before the Field fought That the Rebels had the day and that the King's Army was overthrown and the King fled Whereby it was supposed that many Succours which otherwise would have come unto the King were cunningly put off and kept back Which Charge and Accusation though it had some ground yet it was industriously embraced and put on by divers who having been in themselves not the best affected to the King's part nor forward to come to his ayd were glad to apprehend this colour to cover their neglect and coldness under the pretence of such discouragements Which cunning nevertheless the King would not understand though he lodged it and noted it in some particulars as his manner was But for the extirpating of the roots and causes of the like Commotions in time to come the King began to find where his shooe did wring him and that it was his depressing of the House of York that did rancle and fester the Affections of his People And therefore being now too wise to disdain perils any longer and willing to give some contentment in that kind at least in Ceremony he resolved at last to proceed to the Coronation of his Queen And therefore at his coming to London where he entred in State and in a kind of Triumph and celebrated his Victory with two days of Devotion for the first day he repaired to St. Pauls and had the Hymn of Te Deum sung and the morrow after he went in Procession and heard the Sermon at the Cross the Queen was with great solemnity Crowned at Westminster the five and twentyeth of November in the third year of his Reign which was about two years after the Marriage Like an old Christning that had staid long for Godfathers Which strange and unusual distance of time made it subject to every man's note that it was an Act against his stomach and put upon him by necessity and reason of State Soon after to shew that it was now fair weather again and that the Imprisonment of Thomas Marquess Dorset was rather upon suspition of the Time than of the Man he the said Marquess was set at liberty without Examination or other circumstance At that time also the King sent an Ambassador unto Pope Innocent signifying unto him this his Marriage and that now like another Aeneas he had passed through the floods of his former Troubles and Travels and was arrived unto a safe Haven and thanking His Holiness that he had honoured the Celebration of his Marriage with the presence of his Ambassador and offering both his Person and the Forces of his Kingdom upon all occasions to do him service The Ambassador making his Oration to the Pope in the presence of the Cardinals did so magnifie the King and Queen as was enough to glut the Hearers But then he did again so extol and deifie the Pope as made all that he had said in praise of his Master and Mistress seem temperate and passable But he was very honorably entertained and extremely much made on by the Pope who knowing himself to be lazy and unprofitable to the Christian World was wonderfully glad to hear that there were such Eccho's of him sounding in remote parts He obtained also of the Pope a very just and honorable Bull qualifying the Priviledges of Sanctuary wherewith the King had been extremely galled in three Points The first that if any Sanctuary-man did by night or otherwise get out of Sanctuary privily and commit mischief and trespass and then come in again he should lose the benefit of Sanctuary for ever after The second that howsoever the Person of the Sanctuary-man was protected from his Creditors yet his Goods out of Sanctuary should not The third that if any took Sanctuary for case of Treason the King might appoint him Keepers to look to him in Sanctuary The King also for the better securing of his Estate against mutinous and male-contented Subjects whereof he saw the Realm was full who might have their refuge into Scotland which was not under Key as the Ports were For that cause rather than for any doubt of Hostility from those parts before his coming to London when he was at Newcastle had sent a solemn Ambassage unto James the Third King of Scotland to treat and conclude a Peace with him The Ambassadors were Richard Fox Bishop of Exceter and Sir Richard Edgcomb Comptroller of the King's House who were honourably received and entertained there But the King of Scotland labouring of the same disease that King Henry did though more mortal as afterwards appeared that is Discontented Subjects apt to rise and raise Tumult although in his own affection he did much desire to make a Peace with the King Yet finding his Nobles averse and not daring to displease them concluded only a Truce for seven years giving nevertheless promise in private that it should be renewed from time to time during the two Kings lives HItherto the King had been exercised in setling his Affairs at home But about this time brake forth an occasion that drew him to look abroad and to hearken to forein business Charles the Eighth the French King by the virtue and good fortune of his two immediate Predecessors Charles the Seventh his Grand-father and Lewis the Eleventh his Father received the Kingdom of France in more flourishing and spread Estate than it had been of many years before being redintegrate in those principal Members which antiently had been portions of the Crown of France and were after dissevered so as they remained only in Homage and not in Sovereignty being governed by absolute Princes of their own Anjou Normandy 〈◊〉 and Burgundy there remained only Britain to be re-united and so the Monarchy of France to be reduced to the antient Terms and Bounds King Charles was
not a little inflamed with an ambition to re-purchase and re-annex that Dutchy Which his ambition was a wise and well-weighed Ambition not like unto the ambitions of his succeeding Enterprizes of Italy For at that time being newly come to the Crown he was somewhat guided by his Father's Counsels Counsels not Counsellors for his Father was his own Counsel and had few able men about him And that King he knew well had ever distasted the Designs of Italy and in particular had an Eye upon Britain There were many circumstances that did feed the Ambition of Charles with pregnant and apparent hopes of Success The Duke of Britain old and entred into a Lethargy and served with Mercenary Counsellors Father of two only Daughters the one sick and not likely to continue King Charles himself in the flower of his age and the Subjects of France at that time well trained for War both for Leaders and Soldiers men of service being not yet worn out since the Wars of Lewis against Burgundy He found himself also in Peace with all his Neighbour-Princes As for those that might oppose to his Enterprize Maximilian King of the Romans his Rival in the same desires as well for the Dutchy as the Daughter feeble in means and King Henry of England as well somewhat obnoxious to him for his favours and benefits as busied in his particular troubles at home There was also a fair and specious occasion offered him to hide his Ambition and to justifie his Warring upon Britain for that the Duke had received and succoured Lewis Duke of Orleance and other of the French Nobility which had taken Arms against their King Wherefore King Charles being resolved upon that War knew well he could not receive any opposition so potent as if King Henry should either upon Policy of State in preventing the growing Greatness of France or upon gratitude unto the Duke of Britain for his former favours in the time of his distress espouse that Quarrel and declare himself in ayd of the Duke Therefore he no sooner heard that King Henry was setled by his Victory but forth with he sent Ambassadors unto him to pray his assistance or at the least that he would stand neutral Which Ambassadors found the King at Leicester and delivered their Embassy to this effect They first imparted unto the King the success that their Master had had a little before against Maximilian in recovery of certain Towns from him which was done in a kind of privacy and inwardness towards the King and if the French King did not esteem him for an outward or formal Confederate but as one that had part in his Affections and Fortunes and with whom he took pleasure to communicate his Business After this Compliment and some gratulation for the King's Victory they fell to their Errand declaring to the King that their Master was enforced to enter into a just and necessary War with the Duke of Britain for that he had received and succoured those that were Traytors and declared Enemies unto his Person and State That they were no mean distressed and calamitous persons that fled to him for refuge but of so great quality as it was apparent that they came not thither to protect their own fortune but to infest and invade his the Head of them being the Duke of Orleance the first Prince of the Blood and the second Person of France That therefore rightly to understand it it was rather on their Master's part a Defensive War than an Offensive as that that could not be omitted or forborn if he tendred the conservation of his own Estate and that it was not the first Blow that made the War Invasive for that no wise Prince would stay for but the first Provocation or at least the first Preparation Nay that this War was rather a suppression of Rebels than a War with a just Enemy where the Case is That his Subjects Traytors are received by the Duke of Britain his Homager That King Henry knew well what went upon it in example if Neighbour Princes should patronize and comfort Rebels against the Law of Nations and of Leagues Nevertheless that their Master was not ignorant that the King had been beholding to the Duke of Britain in his adversity as on the other side they knew he would not forget also the readiness of their King in ayding him when the Duke of Britain or his mercenary Counsellors failed him and would have betrayed him And that there was a great difference between the courtesies received from their Master and the Duke of Britain for that the Dukes might have ends of Utility and Bargain whereas their Masters could not have proceeded but out of entire Affection For that if it had been measured by a politick line it had been better for his affairs that a Tyrant should have reigned in England troubled and hated than such a Prince whose virtues could not fail to make him great and potent whensoever he was come to be Master of his affairs But howsoever it stood for the point of Obligation which the King might owe to the Duke of Britain yet their Master was well assured it would not divert King Henry of England from doing that that was just nor ever embarque him in so ill-grounded a Quarrel Therefore since this War which their Master was now to make was but to deliver himself from imminent dangers their King hoped the King would shew the like affection to the conservation of their Master's Estate as their Master had when time was shewed to the King's acquisition of his Kingdom At the least that according to the inclination which the King had ever professed of Peace he would look on and stand Neutral for that their Master could not with reason press him to undertake part in the War being so newly setled and recovered from intestine Seditions But touching the Mystery of re-annexing of the Dutchy of Britain to the Crown of France either by War or by Marriage with the Daughter of Britain the Ambassadors bare aloof from it as from a Rock knowing that it made most against them And therefore by all means declined any mention thereof but contrariwise interlaced in their conference with the King the assured purpose of their Master to match with the Daughter of Maximilian And entertained the King also with some wandring Discourses of their King's purpose to recover by Arms his right to the Kingdom of Naples by an expedition in Person All to remove the King from all-jealousie of any Design in these hither Parts upon Britain otherwise than for quenching of the Fire which he feared might be kindled in his own Estate The King after advice taken with his Council made answer to the Ambassadors And first returned their Compliment shewing he was right glad of the French King's reception of those Towns from Maximilian Then he familiarly related some particular passages of his own Adventures and Victory passed As to the business of Britain the King answered in
few words That the French King and the Duke of Britain were the two persons to whom he was most obliged of all men and that he should think himself very happy if things should go so between them as he should not be able to acquit himself in gratitude towards them both and that there was no means for him as a Christian King and a common Friend to them to satisfie all Obligations both to God and man but to offer himself for a Mediator of an Accord and Peace between them by which course he doubted not but their King's Estate and Honour both would be preserved with more Safety and less Envy than by a War and that he would spare no cost or pains no if it were To go on Pilgrimage for so good an effect And concluded that in this great Affair which he took so much to heart he would express himself more fully by an Ambassage which he would speedily dispatch unto the French King for that purpose And in this sort the French Ambassadors were dismissed the King avoiding to understand any thing touching the re-annexing of Britain as the Ambassadors had avoided to mention it save that he gave a little touch of it in the word Envy And so it was that the King was neither so shallow nor so ill advertised as not to perceive the intention of the French for the investing himself of Britain But first he was utterly unwilling howsoever he gave out to enter into War with France A Fame of a War he liked well but not an Atchievement for the one he thought would make him Richer and the other Poorer and he was possessed with many secret fears touching his own People which he was therefore loth to arm and put Weapons into their hands Yet notwithstanding as a prudent and couragious Prince he was not so averse from a War but that he was resolved to choose it rather than to have Britain carried by France being so great and opulent a Dutchy and situate 〈◊〉 opportunely to annoy England either for Coast or Trade But the King's hopes were that partly by negligence commonly imputed to the French especially in the Court of a young King and partly by the native power of Britain it self which was not small but chiefly in respect of the great Party that the Duke of Orleance had in the Kingdom of France and thereby means to stir up Civil troubles to divert the French King from the Enterprize of Britain And lastly in regard of the Power of Maximilian who was Cotrival to the French King in that pursuit the Enterprize would either bow to a Peace or break in it self In all which the King measured and valued things amiss as afterwards appeared He sent therefore forth with to the French King Christopher Urswick his Chaplain a person by him much trusted and employed choosing him the rather because he was a Church-man as best sorting with an Embassy of Pacification and giving him also a Commission That if the French King consented to Treat he should thence repair to the Duke of Britain and ripen the Treaty on both parts Urswick made declaration to the French King much to the purpose of the King's answer to the French Ambassadors here instilling also tenderly some overture of receiving to grace the Duke of Orleance and some tasted of Conditions of Accord But the French King on the other side proceeded not sincerely but with a great deal of art and dissimulation in this Treaty having for his end to gain time and so put off the English Succours under hope of Peace till he had got good footing in Britain by force of Arms. Wherefore he answered the Ambassador That he would put himself into the King's hands and make him Arbiter of the Peace and willingly consent that the Ambassador should straightways pass into Britain to signifie this his 〈◊〉 and to know the Duke's mind likewise well fore-seeing that the Duke of 〈◊〉 by whom the Duke of Britain was wholly led taking himself to be upon terms irreconcilable with him would admit of no Treaty of Peace Whereby he should in one both generally abroad veil over his Ambition and win the reputation of just and moderate proceedings and should withal endear himself in the 〈◊〉 of the King of England as one that had committed all to his Will Nay and which was yet more fine make faith in him That although he went on with the War yet it should be but with his Sword in his hand to bend the stiffness of the other party to accept of Peace and so the King should take no umbrage of his arming and prosecution but the Treaty to be kept on foot to the very last instant till he were Master of the Field Which grounds being by the French King wisely laid all things fell out as he expected For when the English Ambassador came to the Court of Britain the Duke was then scarcely perfect 〈◊〉 his memory and all things were directed by the Duke of Orleance who gave audience to the Chaplain Urswick and upon his Ambassage delivered made answer in somewhat high terms That the Duke of Britain having been an Host and a kind of Parent or Foster-father to the King in his tenderness of age and weakness of fortune did look for at this time from King Henry the renowned King of England rather brave Troops for for his Succours than a vain Treaty of Peace And if the King could forget the good Offices of the Duke done unto him 〈◊〉 yet he knew well he would in his Wisdom consider of the future how much it imported his own Safety and Reputation both in Foreign parts and with his own People not to suffer Britain the old Confederates of England to be swallowed up by France and so many good Ports and strong Towns upon the Coast be in the command of so potent a Neighbour-King and so ancient an Enemy And therefore humbly desired the King to think of this business as his own and therewith brake off and denyed any further Conference for Treaty Urswick returned first to the French King and related to him what had passed Who finding things to sort to his desire took hold of them and said That the Ambassador might perceive now that which he for his part partly imagined before That considering in what hands the Duke of Britain was there would be no Peace but by a mixt Treaty of force and perswasion And therefore he would go on with the one and desired the King not to desist from the other But for his own part he did faithfully promise to be still in the King's power to rule him in the matter of Peace This was accordingly represented unto the King-by Urswick at his return and in such a fashion as if the Treaty were in no sort desperate but rather stayd for a better hour till the Hammer had wrought and beat the Party of Britain more pliant Whereupon there passed continually Pacquets and Dispatches between the two Kings
of his Partakers and confiscation of his Traytors and Rebels more than which could not come from Subjects to their Sovereign in one action This he taketh so well at your hands as he hath made it a Resolution to himself to communicate with so loving and well-approved Subjects in all Affairs that are of publick nature at home or abroad Two therefore are the causes of your present Assembling the one a Forein business the other matter of Government at home The French King as no doubt ye have heard maketh at this present hot War upon the Duke of Britain His Army is now before Nantes and holdeth it straitly Besieged being the principal City if not in Creremony and Preheminence yet in Strength and Wealth of that Duchy Ye may guess at his Hopes by his attempting of the hardest part of the War first The cause of this War he knoweth best He alledgeth the entertaining and succouring of the Duke of Orleance and some other French Lords whom the King taketh for his Enemies Others divine of other Matters Both parts have by their Ambassadors divers times prayed the King's Ayds The French King Ayds or Neutrality the Britons Ayds simply for so their case requireth The King as a Christian Prince and blessed Son of the Holy Church hath offered himself as a Mediator to treat a Peace between them The French King yieldeth to Treat but will not stay the prosecution of the War The Britons that desire Peace most hearken to it least not upon considence or stiffness but upon distrust of true meaning seeing the War goes on So as the King after as much pains and care to effect a Peace as ever he took in any business not being able to remove the Prosecution on the one side nor the Distrust on the other caused by that Prosecution hath let fall the Treaty not repenting of it but despairing of it now as not likely to succeed Therefore by this Narrative you now understand the state of the Question whereupon the King prayeth your Advice which is no other but whether he shall enter into an auxiliary and defensive War for the Britons against France And the better to open your understandings in this Affair the King bath commanded me to say somewhat to you from him of the Persons that do intervene in this Business and somewhat of the Consequence thereof as it hath relation to this Kingdom and somewhat of the Example of it in general making nevertherless no Conclusion or Judgement of any Point until his Grace hath received your faithful and politique Advices First for the King our Sovereign himself who is the principal Person you are to eye in this business his Grace doth profess that he truly and constantly desireth to reign in Peace But his Grace saith he will neither buy Peace with Dishonour nor take it up at interest of Danger to ensue but shall think it a good Change if it pleased God to change the inward Troubles and Seditions wherewith he hath been hitherto exercised into an honourable Forein War And for the other two Persons in this Action the French King and the Duke of Britain his Grace doth declare unto you that they be the men unto whom he is of all other Friends and Allies most bounden the one having held over him his hand of Protection from the Tyrant the other having reacht forth unto him his hand of help for the Recovery of his Kingdom So that his affection toward them in his natural Person is upon equal terms And whereas you may have heard that his Grace was enforced to fly out of Britain into France for doubts of being betrayed his Grace would not in any sort have that reflect upon the Duke of Britain in defacement of his former benefits for that he is throughly informed that it was but the practice of some corrupt persons about him during the time of his Sickness altogether without his consent or privity But howsoever these things do interess his Grace in his particular yet he knoweth well that the higher Bond that tyeth him to procure by all means the safety and welfare of his loving Subjects doth dis-interess him of these Obligations of Gratitude otherwise than thus that if his Grace be forced to make a War he do it without Passion or Ambition For the consequence of this Action towards this Kingdom it is much as the French King's intention is For if it be no more but to range his Subjects to reason who bear themselves stout upon the strength of the Duke of Britain it is nothing to us But if it be in the French King's purpose or if it should not be in his purpose yet if it shall follow all one as if it were sought that the French King shall make a Province of Britain and joyn it to the Crown of France then it is worthy the consideration how this may import England as well in the increasement of the greatness of France by the addition of such a Countrey that stretcheth his Boughs unto our Seas as in depriving this Nation and leaving it so naked of so firm and assured Confederates as the Britons have always been For then it will come to pass that whereas not long since this Realm was mighty upon the Continent first in Territory and after in Alliance in respect of Burgundy and Britain which were Confederates indeed but dependant Confederates now the one being already cast partly into the greatness of France and partly into that of Austria the other is like wholly to be cast into the greatness of France and this Island shall remain confined in effect within the Salt-Waters and girt about with the Coast-Countries of two mighty Monarchs For the Example it resteth likewise upon the same Question upon the French King's intent For if Britain be carried and swallowed up by France as the World abroad apt to impute and construe the Actions of Princes to Ambition conceive it will then it is an Example very dangerous and universal that the lesser Neighbour-Estate should be devoured of the greater For this may be the case of Scotland towards England of Portugal towards Spain of the smaller Estates of Italy towards the greater and so of Germany or as if some of you of the Commons might not live and dwell safely besides some of these great Lords And the bringing in of this Example will be chiefly laid to the King's charge as to him that was most interessed and most able to forbid it But then on the other side there is so fair a Pretext on the French King's part and yet pretext is never wanting to power in regard the danger imminent to his own Estate is such as may make this Enterprize seem rather a work of Necessity than of Ambition as doth in reason correct the Danger of the Example For that the Example of that which is done in a man 's own defence cannot be dangerous because it is in another's power to avoid it But in all this business
the King remits himself to your grave and mature Advice whereupon he purposeth to rely This was the effect of the Lord Chancellor's Speech touching the Cause of Britain For the King had commanded him to carry it so as to affect the Parliament towards the Business but without engaging the King in any express Declaration The Chancellor went on FOR that which may concern the Government at home the King hath commanded me to say unto you That he thinketh there was never any King for the small time that he hath reigned had greater and juster cause of the two contrary Passions of Joy and Sorrow than his Grace hath Joy in respect of the rare and visible Favours of Almighty GOD in girting the Imperial Sword upon his side and assisting the same his Sword against all his Enemies and likewise in blessing him with so many good and loving Servants and Subjects which have never failed to give him faithful Counsel ready Obedience and couragious Defence Sorrow for that it both not pleased God to suffer him to sheath his Sword as he greatly desired otherwise than for Administration of Justice but that he hath been forced to draw it so oft to cut off Trayterous and disloyal Subjects whom it seems God hath left a few amongst many good as the Canaanites among the People of Israel to be thorns in their sides to tempt and try them though the end hath been always God's Name be blessed therefore that the Destruction hath faln upon their own Heads Wherefore his Grace saith That he seeth that it is not the Blood spelt in the Field that will save the Blood in the City not the Marshal's Sword that will set this Kingdom in perfect Peace But that the true way is to stop the Seeds of Sedition and Rebellion in their beginnings and for that purpose to devise confirm and quicken good and wholsom Laws against Riots and unlawful Assemblies of People and all Combinations and Confederacies of them by Liveries Tokens and other Badges of Factious dependance that the Peace of the Land may by these Ordinances as by Bars of Iron be soundly bound in and strengthned and all Force both in Court Countrey and private Houses be supprest The care hereof which so much concern eth your selves and which the nature of the Times doth instantly calls for his Grace commends to your Wisdoms And because it is the King's desire that this Peace wherein he hopeth to govern and maintain you do not bear only'unto you Leaves for you to sit under the shade of them in Safety but also should bear you fruit of Riches Wealth and Plenty Therefore his Grace prays you to take into consideration matter of Trade as also the Manufactures of the Kingdom and to repress the bastard and barren Employment of Moneys to Usury and unlawful Exchanges that they may be as their natural use is turned upon Commerce and lawful and Royal Trading And likewise that Our People be set on work in Arts and Handy-crafts that the Realm may subsist more of it self that Idleness be avoided and the draining out of our Treasure for Foreign Manufactures stopped But you are not to rest here only but to provide further that whatsoever Merchandize shall be brought in from beyond the Seas may be employed upon the Commodities of this Land whereby the Kingdoms stock of Treasure may be sure to be kept from being diminished by any over-trading of the Foreiner And lastly because the King is well assured that you would not have him poor that wishes you rich he doubteth not but that you will have care as well to maintain his Revenues of Customs and all other Natures as also to supply him with your loving Ayds if the case shall so require The rather for that you know the King is a good Husband and but a Steward in effect for the Publick and that what comes from you is but as Moisture drawn from the Earth which gathers into a Cloud and falls back upon the Earth again And you know well how the Kingdoms about you grow more and more in Greatness and the Times are stirring and therefore not fit to find the King with an empty Purse More I have not to say to you and wish that what hath been said had been better exprest But that your Wisdoms and good Affections will supply GOD bless your Doings IT was no hard matter to dispose and affect the Parliament in this Business as well in respect of the Emulation between the Nations and the Envy at the late growth of the French Monarchy as in regard of the Danger to suffer the French to make their approaches upon England by obtaining so goodly a Maritim Province full of Sea-Towns and Havens that might do mischief to the English either by Invasion or by interruption of Traffick The Parliament was also moved with the point of Oppression for although the French seemed to speak Reason yet Arguments are ever with multitudes too weak for Suspitions Wherefore they did advise the King roundly to embrace the Britons Quarrel and to send them speedy Ayds and with much alacrity and forwardness granted to the King a great rate of Subsidy in contemplation of these Ayds But the King both to keep a decency towards the French King to whom he 〈◊〉 himself to be obliged and indeed desirous rather to shew War than to make it sent new solemn Ambassadors to intimate unto him the Decree of his Estates and to iterate his motion that the French would desist from Hostilitiy or if War must follow to desire him to take it in good part if at the motion of his People who were sensible of the cause of the Britons as the ancient Friends and Confederates he did send them Succours with protestation nevertheless that to save all Treaties and Laws of Friendship he had limited his Force to proceed in ayd of the Britons but in no wise to war upon the French otherwise than as they maintained the possession of Britain But before this formal Ambassage arrived the Party of the Duke had received a great blow and grew to manifest declination For near the Town of Saint Alban in Britain a Battel had been given where the Britons were overthrown and the Duke of Orleance and the Prince of Orange taken Prisoners there being slain on the Britons part six thousand men and amongst them the Lord Woodvile and almost all his Souldiers valiantly fighting And of the French part one thousand two hundred with their Leader James Galeot a great Commander When the news of this Battel came over into England it was time for the King who now had no subterfuge to continue further Treaty and saw before his Eyes that Britain went so speedily for lost contrary to his hopes knowing also that with his People and Foreiners both he sustained no small Envy and disreputation for his former delays to dispatch with all possible speed his Succour into Britain which he did under the Conduct of Robert Lord Brook
unlawful Assemblies These were the Laws that were made for repressing of Force which those times did chiefly require and were so prudently framed as they are found fit for all succeeding times and so continue to this day There were also made good and politick Laws that Parliament against Usury which is the Bastard-use of Money And against unlawful Chievances and Exchanges which is Bastard-Usury And also for the Security of the King's Customs And for the Employment of the Procedures of Forein Commodities brought in by Merchant-strangers upon the Native-Commodities of the Realm together with some other Laws of less importance But howsoever the Laws made in that Parliament did bear good and wholesom Fruit yet the Subsidy granted at the same time bare a Fruit that proved harsh and bitter All was inned at last into the King's Barn but it was after a Storm For when the Commissioners entred into the Taxation of the Subsidy in Yorkshire and the Bishoprick of Duresm the People upon a sudden grew into great mutiny and said openly that they had endured of late years a thousand miseries and neither could nor would pay the Subsidy This no doubt proceeded not simply of any present necessity but much by reason of the old humour of those Countries where the memory of King Richard was so strong that it lyes like Lees in the bottom of mens hearts and if the Vessel was but stirred it would come up And no doubt it was partly also by the instigation of some factious Malecontents that bare principal stroke amongst them Hereupon the Commissioners being somewhat astonished deferred the matter unto the Earl of Northumberland who was the principal man of Authority in those Parts The Earl forthwith wrote unto the Court signifying to the King plainly enough in what flame he found the people of those Countries and praying the King's direction The King wrote back peremptorily That he would not have one penny abated of that which had been granted to him by Parliament both because it might encourage other Countries to pray the like Release or Mitigation and chiefly because he would never endure that the base Multitude should frustrate the Authority of the Parliament wherein their Votes and Consents were concluded Upon this dispatch from Court the Earl assembled the principal Justices and Free-holders of the Countrey and speaking to them in that imperious Language wherein the King had written to him which needed not save that an harsh business was unfortunately fallen into the hands of a harsh man did not only irritate the People but make them conceive by the stoutness and haughtiness of delivery of the King's Errand that himself was the Author or principal Perswader of that Counsel Whereupon the meaner sort routed together and suddenly assailing the Earl in his house slew him and divers of his servants And rested not there but creating for their Leader Sir John Egremond a factious person and one that had of a long time born an ill Talent towards the King and being animated also by a base Fellow called John A Chamber a very Boutefeu who bare much sway amongst the vulgar and popular entred into open Rebellion and gave out in flat terms that they would go against King Henry and fight with him for the maintenance of their Liberties When the King was advertised of this new Insurrection being almost a Fever that took him every year after his manner little troubled therewith he sent Thomas Earl of Surrey whom he had a little before not only released out of the Tower and pardoned but also received to special favour with a competent Power against the Rebels who fought with the principal Band of them and defeated them and took alive John A Chamber their firebrand As for Sir John Egremond he fled into Flanders to the Lady Margaret of Burgundy whose Palace was the Sanctuary and Receptacle of all Traytors against the King John A Chamber was Executed at York in great state for he was hanged upon a Gibbet raised a Stage higher in the midst of a square Gallows as a Traytor paramount and a number of his men that were his chief Complices were hanged upon the lower Story round about him and the rest were generally pardoned Neither did the King himself omit his custom to be first or second in all his Warlike Exploits making good his Word which was usual with him when he heard of Rebels that He desired but to see them For immediately after he had sent down the Earl of Surrey he marched towards them himself in person And although in his journey he heard news of the Victory yet he went on as far as York to pacifie and settle those Countries And that done returned to London leaving the Earl of Surrey for his Lieutenant in the Northern parts and Sir Richard Tunstal for his principal Commissioner to levy the Subsidy whereof he did not remit a Denier About the same time that the King lost so good a Servant as the Earl of Northumberland he lost likewise a faithful Friend and Allie of James the Third King of Scotland by a miserable disaster For this unfortunate Prince after a long smother of discontent and hatred of many of his Nobility and People breaking forth at times into seditions and alterations of Court was at last distressed by them having taken Arms and surprised the person of Prince James his Son partly by force partly by threats that they would otherwise deliver up the Kingdom to the King of England to shadow their Rebellion and to be the titular and painted Head of those Arms. Whereupon the King finding himself too weak sought unto King Henry as also unto the Pope and the King of France to compose those troubles between him and his Subjects The King accordingly interposed their Mediation in a round and Princely manner Not only by way of request and perswasion but also by way of protestation of menace declaring that they thought it to be the common Cause of all Kings If Subjects should be suffered to give Laws unto their Sovereign and that they would accordingly resent it and revenge it But the Rebels that had shaken off the greater Yoak of Obedience had likewise cast away the lesser Tye of Respect And Fury prevailing above Fear made answer That there was no talking of Peace except the King would resign his Crown Whereupon Treaty of Accord taking no place it came to a Battel at Bannocks-bourn by Strivelin In which Battel the King transported with wrath and just indignation inconsiderately fighting and precipitating the charge before his whole numbers came up to him was notwithstanding the contrary express and straight commandment of the Prince his Son slain in the Pursuit being fled to a Mill situate in the field where the Battel was fought As for the Pope's Embassy which was sent by Adrian de Castello an Italian Legate and perhaps as those times were might have prevailed more it came too late for the Embassy but not for the Ambassador
or Foot And to make good Infantry it requireth men bred not in a servile or indigent fashion but in some free and plentiful manner Therefore if a State run most to Noble-men and Gentlemen and that the Husband-men and Plough-men be but as their Work-folks and Labourers or else meer Cottagers which are but Housed-Beggars you may have a good Cavalry but never good stable Bands of Foot like to Coppice-Woods that if you leave in them Staddles too thick they will run to Bushes and Bryars and have little clean Underwood And this is to be seen in France and Italy and some other parts abroad where in effect all is Nobless or Pesantry I speak of people out of Towns and no middle people and therefore no good Forces of Foot In so much as they are enforced to employ Mercenary Bands of Switzers and the like for their Battuilions of Foot Whereby also it comes to pass that those Nations have much People and few Soldiers Whereas the King saw that contrariwise it would follow that England though much less in Territory yet should have infinitely more Soldiers of their native Forces than those other Nations have Thus did the King secretly sow Hidra's teeth whereupon according to the Poets fiction should rise up Armed men for the service of the Kingdom The King also having care to make his Realm potent as well by Sea as by Land for the better maintenance of the Navy Ordained That Wines and Woads from the parts of Gascoign and Languedock should not be brought but in English Bottoms Bowing the ancient Policy of this Estate from consideration of Plenty to consideration of Power For that almost all the ancient Statutes incite by all means Merchant-strangers to bring in all sorts of Commodities having for end cheapness and not looking to the point of State concerning the Naval-power The King also made a Statute in that Parliament Monitory and Minatory towards Justices of Peace that they should duly execute their Office inviting complaints against them first to their Fellow Justices then to the Justices of Assize then to the King or Chancellor and that a Proclamation which he had published of that Tenor should be read in open Sessions four times a year to keep them awake Meaning also to have his Laws executed and thereby to reap either Obedience or Forfeitures wherein towards his latter times he did decline too much to the left hand he did ordain remedy against the practice that was grown in use to stop and damp Informations upon Penal Laws by procuring Informations by collusion to be put in by the Confederates of the Delinquents to be faintly prosecuted and let fall at pleasure and pleading them in Bar of the Informations which were prosecuted with effect He made also Laws for the correction of the Mint and counterfeiting of Forein Coyn currant And that no payment in Gold should be made to any Merchant-stranger the better to keep Treasure within the Realm for that Gold was the metal that lay in least room He made also Statutes for the maintenance of Drapery and the keeping of Wools within the Realm and not only so but for stinting and limiting the prices of Cloth one for the finer and another for the courser sort Which I note both because it was a rare thing to set prices by Statute especially upon our Home-Commodities and because of the wise Model of the Act not prescribing Prices but stinting them not to exceed a rate that the Clothier might drape accordingly as he might afford Divers other good Statutes were made that Parliament but these were the principal And here I do desire those into whose hands this Work shall fall that they do take in good part my long insisting upon the Laws that were made in this King's Reign whereof I have these reasons Both because it was the preheminent virtue and merit of this King to whose memory I do honour and because it hath some correspondence to my Person but chiefly because in my judgement it is some defect even in the best Writers of History 〈◊〉 that they do not often enough summarily deliver and set down the most memorable Laws that passed in the times whereof they write being indeed the principal Acts of Peace For although they may be had in Original Books of Law themselves yet that informeth not the judgement of Kings and Counsellors and Persons of Estate so well as to see them described and entred in the Table and Pourtrait of the Times About the same time the King had a Loan from the City of Four thousand pounds which was double to that they lent before and was duely and orderly payd back at the day as the former likewise had been the King ever choosing rather to borrow too soon than to pay too late and so keeping up his Credit Neither had the King yet cast off his cares and hopes touching Britain but thought to master the occasion by Policy though his Arms had been unfortunate and to bereave the French King of the fruit of his Victory The summ of his design was to encourage Maximilian to go on with his suit for the Marriage of Ann the Heir of Britain and to ayd him to the consummation thereof But the affairs of Maximilian were at that time in great trouble and combustion by a Rebellion of his Subjects in Flanders especially those of Bruges and Gaunt whereof the Town of Bruges at such time as Maximilian was there in person had suddenly armed in tumult and slain some of his principal Officers and taken himself prisoner and held him in durance till they had enforced him and some of his Counsellors to take a solemn Oath to pardon all their offences and never to question and revenge the same in time to come Nevertheless Frederick the Emperor would not suffer this reproach and indignity offered to his Son to pass but made sharp Wars upon Flanders to reclaim and chastise the Rebels But the Lord Ravenstein a principal person about Maximilian and one that had taken the Oath of Abolition with his Master pretending the Religion thereof but indeed upon private ambition and as it was thought instigated and corrupted from France forsook the Emperor and Maximilian his Lord and made himself an Head of the popular Party and seized upon the Towns of Ipre and Sluce with both the Castles and forthwith sent to the Lord Cordes Governour of Picardy under the French King to desire ayd and to move him that he on the behalf of the French King would be Protector of the united Towns and by force of Arms reduce the rest The Lord Cordes was ready to embrace the occasion which was partly of his own setting and sent forthwith greater Forces than it had been possible for him to raise on the sudden if he had not looked for such a summons before in ayd of the Lord Ravenstein and the Flemmings with instructions to invest the Towns between France and Bruges The French Forces besieged a little Town
but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this
But now my Lords Ambassadors I am to propound unto you somewhat on the King's part The King your Master hath taught our King what to say and demand You say my Lord Prior that your King is resolved to recover his right to Naples wrongfully detained from him And that if he should not thus do he could not acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People Think my Lords that the King our Master saith the same thing over again to you touching Normandy Guien Anjou yea and the Kingdom of France it self I cannot express it better than in your own words If therefore the French King shall consent that the King our Master's Title to France at least Tribute for the same be handled in the Treaty the King is content to go on with the rest otherwise he refuseth to Treat THE Ambassadors being somewhat abashed with this demand answered in some heat That they doubted not but the King their Sovereign's Sword would be able to maintain his Scepter And they assured themselves he neither could nor would yield to any diminution of the Crown of France either in Territory or Regality But howsoever they were too great matters for them to speak of having no Commission It was replied that the King looked for no other answer from them but would forthwith send his own Ambassadors to the French King There was a question also asked at the table Whether the French King would agree to have the disposing of the Marriage of Britain with an exception and exclusion that he should not marry her himself To which the Ambassadors answered That it was so far out of their King's thoughts as they had received no Instruction touching the same Thus were the Ambassadors dismissed all save the Prior and were followed immediately by Thomas Earl of Ormond and Thomas Goldenston Prior of Christ-Church in Canterbury who were presently sent over into France In the mean space Lionel Bishop of Concordia was sent as Nuntio from Pope Alexander the sixth to both Kings to move a Peace between them For Pope Alexander finding himself pent and lockt up by a League and Association of the principal States of Italy that he could not make his way for the advancement of his own House which he immoderately thirsted after was desirous to trouble the waters in Italy that he might fish the better casting the Net not out of St. Peter's but out of Borgia's Bark And doubting lest the fear from England might stay the French King's voyage into Italy dispatched this Bishop to compose all matters between the two Kings if he could Who first repaired to the French King and finding him well inclined as he conceived took on his Journey towards England and found the English Ambassadors at Calice on their way towards the French King After some conference with them he was in honourable manner transported over into England where he had audience of the King But notwithstanding he had a good ominous name to have made a Peace nothing followed For in the mean time the purpose of the French King to marry the Duchess could be no longer dissembled Wherefore the English Ambassadors finding how things went took their leave and returned And the Prior also was warned from hence to depart out of England Who when he turned his back more like a Pedant than an Ambassador dispersed a bitter Libel in Latin Verse against the King unto which the King though he had nothing of a Pedant yet was content to cause an answer to be made in like Verse and that as speaking in his own person but in a stile of scorn and sport About this time also was born the King's second Son Henry who afterward relgned And soon after followed the solemnization of the Marriage between Charles and Ann Duchess of Britain with whom he received the Duchy of Britain as her Dowry the Daughter of Maximilian being a little before sent home Which when it came to the ears of Maximilian who would never believe it till it was done being ever the Principal in deceiving himself though in this the French King did very handsomly second it and tumbling it over and over in his thoughts that he should at one blow with such a double scorn be defeated both of the Marriage of his Daughter and his own upon both which he had fixed high imaginations he lost all patience and casting off the Respects fit to be continued between great Kings even when their blood is hottest and most risen fell to bitter Invectives against the person and actions of the French King And by how much he was the less able to do talking so much the more spake all the Injuries he could devise of Charles saying That he was the most Perfidious man upon the earth and that he had made a Marriage compounded between an Advoutry and a Rape which was done he said by the just judgment of God to the end that the Nullity thereof being so apparent to all the World the Race of so unworthy a person might not reign in France And forthwith he sent Ambassadors as well to the King of England as to the King of Spain to incite them to War and to treat a League offensive against France promising to concur with great Forces of his own Hereupon the King of England going nevertheless his own way called a Parliament it being the seventh year of his Reign and the first day of opening thereof sitting under his Cloth of Estate spake himself unto his Lords and Commons in this manner MY Lords and you the Commons When I purposed to make a War in Britain by my Lieutenant I made declaration thereof to you by my Chancellor But now that I mean to make a War upon France in Person I will declare it to you my Self That War was to defend another man's right but this is to recever our own and that ended by Accident but we hope this shall end in Victory The French King troubles the Christian World That which he hath is not his own and yet he seeketh more He hath invested himself of Britain he maintaineth the Rebels in Flanders and he threatneth Italy For Our Selves he hath proceeded from Dissimulation to Neglect and from Neglect to Contumely He hath assailed our Confederates he denieth our Tribute in a word he seeks War So did not his Father but sought Peace at our hands and so perhaps will be when good Counsel or Time shall make him see as much as his Father did Mean-while let us make his Ambition our Advantage and let us not stand upon a few Crowns of Tribute or Acknowledgement but by the favour of Almighty GOD try Our Right for the Crown of France it self remembring that there hath been a French King Prisoner in England and a King of England Crowned in France Our Confederates are not diminished Burgundy is in a mightier Hand than ever and never more provoked Britain cannot help us but it may hurt them New Acquests are more Burthen than Strength
The Male-contents of his own Kingdom have not been Base Popular nor Titulary Impostors but of an higher nature The King of Spain doubt ye not will 〈◊〉 with us not knowing where the French King's Ambition will stay Our Holy Father the Pope likes no Tramontanes in Italy But howsoever it be this matter of Confederates is rather to be thought on than reckoned on For God forbid but England should be able to get Reason of France without a Second At the Battels of Cressy Poictiers Agent-Court we were of Our selves France hath much People and few Soldiers They have no stable Bands of Foot some good Horse they have but these are Forces which are least fit for a Defensive War where the Actions are in the Assailant's choice It was our Discords only that lost France and by the Power of GOD it is the good Peace which we now enjoy that will recover it GOD hath hitherto blessed my Sword I have in this time that I have Reigned weeded out my bad Subjects and tryed my good My People and I know one another which breeds Confidence And if there should be any bad Blood left in the Kingdom an Honourable Forein War will vent it or purifie it In this great Business let me have your Advice and Ayd If any of you were to make his Son Knight you might have ayd of your Tenants by Law This concerns the Knighthood and Spurs of the Kingdom whereof I am Father and bound not only to seek to maintain it but to advance it But for matter of Treasure let it not be taken from the Poorest sort but from those to whom the Benefit of the War may redound France is no Wilderness and I that profess good husbandry hope to make the War after the Beginnings to pay it self Go together in GOD's Name and lose no time for I have called this Parliament wholly for this Cause THus spake the King But for all this though he shewed great forwardness for a War not only to his Parliament and Court but to his Privy Council likewise except the two Bishops and a few more yet nevertheless in his secret intentions he had no purpose to go through with any War upon France But the truth was that he did but traffick with that War to make his Return in money He knew well that France was now entire and at unity with it self and never so mighty many years before He saw by the tast that he had of his Forces sent into Britain that the French knew well enough how to make War with the English by not putting things to the hazard of a Battel but wearing them by long Sieges of Towns and strong fortified Encampings James the Third of Scotland his true Friend and Confederate gone and James the Fourth that had succeeded wholly at the devotion of France and ill affected towards him As for the Conjunctions of Ferdinando of Spain and Maximilian he could make no foundation upon them for the one had Power and not Will and the other had Will and not Power Besides that Ferdinando had but newly taken breath from the War with the Moors and merchanded at this time with France for the restoring of the Counties of Russignon and Perpignian oppignorated to the French Neither was he out of fear of the Discontents and ill blood within the Realm which having used always to repress and appease in person he was loth they should find him at a distance beyond Sea and engaged in War Finding therefore the Inconveniences and Difficulties in the prosecution of a War he cast with himself how to compass two things The one how by the declaration and inchoation of a War to make his Profit the other how to come off from the War with saving of his Honour For Profit it was to be made two ways upon his Subjects for the War and upon his Enemies for the Peace like a good Merchant that maketh his gain both upon the Commodities Exported and Imported back again For the point of Honour wherein he might suffer for giving over the War he considered well that as he could not trust upon the ayds of Ferdinando and Maximilian for supports of War so the impuissance of the one and the double proceeding of the other lay fair for him for occasions to accept of Peace These things he did wisely fore-see and did as artificially conduct whereby all things fell into his lap as he desired For as for the Parliament it presently took fire being affectionate of old to the War of France and desirous afresh to repair the dishonour they thought the King sustained by the loss of Britain Therefore they advised the King with great alacrity to undertake the War of France And although the Parliament consisted of the first and second Nobility together with principal Citizens and Townsmen yet worthily and justly respecting more the People whose Deputies they were than their own private Persons and finding by the Lord Chancellor's Speech the King's inclination that way they consented that Commissioners should go forth for the gathering and levying of a Benevolence from the more able sort This Tax called Benevolence was devised by Edward the Fourth for which he sustained much Envy It was abolished by Richard the Third by Act of Parliament to ingratiate himself with the people and it was now revived by the King but with consent of Parliament for so it was not in the time of King Edward the Fourth But by this way he raised exceeding great summs Insomuch as the City of London in those days contributed nine thousand pounds and better and that chiefly levied upon the wealthier sort There is a Tradition of a Dilemma that Bishop Morton the Chancellor used to raise up the Benevolence to higher Rates and some called it his Fork and some his Crotch. For he had couched an Article in the Instructions to the Commissioners who were to levy the Benevolence That if they met with any that were sparing they should tell them That they must needs have because they laid up and if they were spenders they must needs have because it was seen in their port and manner of living So neither kind came amiss This Parliament was meerly a Parliament of War for it was in substance but a Declaration of War against France and Scotland with some Statutes conducing thereunto As the severe punishing of Mortpayes and keeping back of Soldiers Wages in Captains The like severity for the departure of Soldiers without licence Strengthning of the Common Law in favour of Protections for those that were in the King's service And the setting the gate open and wide for men to Sell or Mortgage their Lands without Fines for Alienation to furnish themselves with Money for the War And lastly the avoiding of all Scottish-men out of England There was also a Statute for the dispersing of the Standard of the Exchequer throughout England thereby to size Weights and Measures and two or three more of less importance After the Parliament
fresh Example of Lambert Simnel would draw at one time or other some Birds to strike upon it She used likewise a further diligence not committing all to Chance For she had some secret Espials like to the Turks Commissioners for Children of Tribute to look abroad for handsom and graceful Youths to make Plantagenets and Dukes of York At the last she did light on one in whom all things met as one would wish to serve her turn for a Counterfeit of Richard Duke of York This was Perkin Warbeck whose Adventures we shall now describe For first the years agreed well Secondly he was a Youth of fine favour and shape But more than that he had such a crafty and bewitching fashion both to move Pity and to induce Belief as was like a kind of Fascination and Inchantment to those that saw him or heard him Thirdly he had been from his Childhood such a Wanderer or as the King called him such a Land-loper as it was extreme hard to hunt out his Nest and Parents Neither again could any man by company or conversing with him be able to say or detect well what he was he did so flit from place to place Lastly there was a Circumstance which is mentioned by one that wrote in the same time that is very likely to have made somewhat to the matter which is That King Edward the Fourth was his God-father Which as it is somewhat suspicious for a wanton Prince to become Gossip in so mean a House and might make a man think that he might indeed have in him some base Blood of the House of York so at the least though that were not it might give the occasion to the Boy in being called King Edward's God-son or perhaps in sport King Edward's Son to entertain such Thoughts into his Head For Tutor he had none for ought that appears as Lambert Simnel had until he came unto the Lady Margaret who instructed him Thus therefore it came to pass There was a Towns-man of Tourney that had born Office in that Town whose name was John Osbeck a Convert Jew married to Catherine de Faro whose business drew him to live for a time with his Wife at London in King Edward the Fourth's days During which time he had a Son by her and being known in Court the King either out of a religious Nobleness because he was a Convert or upon some private acquaintance did him the Honor as to be God-father to his Child and named him Peter But afterwards proving a dainty and effeminate Youth he was commonly called by the diminutive of his name Peterkin or Perkin For as for the name of Warbeck it was given him when they did but guess at it before examinations had been taken But yet he had been so much talked on by that name as it stuck by him after his true name of Osbeck was known While he was a young Child his Parents returned with him to Tourney Then was he placed in a house of a kinsman of his called John Stenbeck at Antwerp and so roved up and down between Antwerp and Tourney and other Towns of Flanders for a good time living much in English Company and having the English Tongue perfect In which time being grown a comely Youth he was brought by some of the Espials of the Lady Margaret unto her Presence Who viewing him well and seeing that he had a Face and Personage that would bear a Noble fortune and finding him otherwise of a fine Spirit and winning Behaviour thought she had now found a curious Piece of Marble to carve out an Image of a Duke of York She kept him by her a great while but with extreme secrecy The while she instructed him by many Cabinet-Conferences First in Princely behaviour and gesture teaching him how he should keep State and yet with a modest sense of his misfortunes Then she informed him of all the circumstances and particulars that concerned the Person of Richard Duke of York which he was to act Describing unto him the Personages Lineaments and Features of the King and Queen his pretended Parents and of his Brother and Sisters and divers others that were nearest him in his Childhood together with all passages some secret some common that were fit for a Child's memory until the death of King Edward Then she added the particulars of the time from the King's death until he and his Brother were committed to the Tower as well during the time he was abroad as while he was in Sanctuary As for the times while he was in the Tower and the manner of his Brother's death and his own escape she knew they were things that a very few could controle And therefore she taught him only to tell a smooth and likely Tale of those matters warning him not to vary from it It was agreed likewise between them what account he should give of his Peregrination abroad intermixing many things which were true and such as they knew others could testifie for the credit of the rest but still making them to hang together with the Part he was to play She taught him likewise how to avoid sundry captious and tempting questions which were like to be asked of him But in this she found him of himself so nimble and shifting as she trusted much to his own wit and readiness and therefore laboured the less in it Lastly she raised his thoughts with some present rewards and further promises setting before him chiefly the glory and fortune of a Crown if things went well and a sure refuge to her Court if the worst should fall After such time as she thought he was perfect in his Lesson she began to cast with her self from what coast this Blazing star should first appear and at what time it must be upon the Horizon of Ireland for there had the like Meteor strong influence before the time of the Apparition to be when the King should be engaged into a War with France But well she knew that whatsoever should come from her would be held suspected And therefore if he should go out of Flanders immediately into Ireland she might be thought to have some hand in it And besides the time was not yet ripe for that the two Kings were 〈◊〉 upon terms of Peace Therefore she wheel'd about and to put all suspition a far off and loth to keep him any longer by her for that she knew Secrets are not long-lived she sent him unknown into Portugal with the Lady 〈◊〉 an English Lady 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Portugal at that time with some Privado of her own to have an eye upon him and there he was to remain and to expect her further directions In the mean time she omitted not to prepare things for his better welcome and accepting not only in the Kingdom of Ireland but in the Court of France He continued in Portugal about a year and by that time the King of England called his Parliament as hath been said and declared open War against France
promise of Pardon and good Conditions of Reward And above the rest to assail sap and work into the constancy of Sir Robert Clifford and to win him if they could being the man that knew most of their secrets and who being won away would most appall and discourage the rest and in a manner break the Knot There is a strange Tradition That the King being lost in a Wood of Suspitions and not knowing whom to trust had both intelligence with the Confessors and Chaplains of divers great men and for the better Credit of his Espials abroad with the contrary side did use to have them cursed at St. Pauls by Name amongst the Bead-Roll of the King's Enemies according to the Custom of those Times These Espials plyed their Charge so roundly as the King had an Anatomy of Perkin alive and was likewise well informed of the particular correspondent Conspirators in England and and many other Mysteries were revealed and Sir Robert Clifford in especial won to be assured to the King and industrious and officious for his service The King therefore receiving a rich Return of his diligence and great satisfaction touching a number of Particulars first divulged and spred abroad the Imposture and jugling of Perkin's Person and Travels with the Circumstances thereof throughout the Realm Not by Proclamation because things were yet in Examination and so might receive the more or the less but by Court-fames which commonly print better than printed Proclamations Then thought he it also time to send an Ambassage unto Archduke Philip into Flanders for the abandoning and dismissing of Perkin Herein he employed Sir Edward Poynings and Sir William Warham Doctor of the Canon Law The Archduke was then young and governed by his Council before whom the Embassadors had audience and Doctor Warham spake in this manner MY Lords the King our Master is very sorry that England and your Countrey here of Flanders having been counted as Man and Wife for so long time now this Countrey of all others should be the Stage where a base Counterfeit should play the part of a King of England not only to his Graces disquiet and dishonour but to the scorn and reproach of all Sovereign Princes To counterfeit the dead Image of a King in his Coyn is an high Offence by all Laws But to counterfeit the living Image of a King in his Person exceedeth all Falsifications except it should be that of a Mahomet or an Antichrist that counterfeit Divine Honour The King hath too great an Opinion of this sage Council to think that any of you is caught with this Fable though way may be given by you to the passion of some the thing in it self is so improbable To set Testimonies aside of the Death of Duke Richard which the King hath upon Record plain and infallible 〈◊〉 because they may be thought to be in the King 's own Power let the thing testifie for it self Sense and Reason no Power can command Is it possible trow you that King Richard should damn his Soul and foul his Name with so 〈◊〉 a Murther and yet not mend his Case Or do you think that Men of Blood that were his Instruments did turn to Pity in the middest of their Execution Whereas in cruel and savage Beasts and Men also the first Draught of Blood doth yet make them more fierce and enraged Do you not know that the Bloody Executioners of Tyrants do go to such Errants with an Halter about their neck So that if they perform not they are sure to die for it And do you think that these men would hazard their own lives for sparing anothers Admit they should have saved him What should they have done with him Turn him into London-Streets that the Watch-men or any Passenger that should light upon him might carry him before a Justice and so all come to light Or should they have kept him by them secretly That surely would have required a great deal of Care Charge and continual Fears But my Lords I labour too much in a clear Business The King is so wise and hath so good Friends abroad as now he knoweth Duke Perkin from his Cradle And because he is a great Prince if you have any good Poet here he can help him with Notes to write his Life and to parallel him with Lambert Simnel now the King's Falconer And therefore to speak plainly to your Lordships it is the strangest thing in the World that the Lady Margaret excuse us if we name her whose Malice to the King is both causlless and endless should now when she is old at the time when other Women give over Child-bearing bring forth two such Monsters being not the Births of nine or ten Months but of many Years And whereas other natural Mothers bring forth Children weak and not able to help themselves she bringeth forth tall Striplings able soon after their coming into the World to bid Battel to mighty Kings My Lords we stay unwillingly upon this Part. We would to God that Lady would once tast the Joys which God Almighty doth serve up unto her in beholding her Niece to Reign in such Honour and with so much Royal Issue which she might be pleased to accompt as her own The Kings Request unto the Archduke and your Lordships might be That according to the example of King Charles who hath already discarded him you would banish this unworthy Fellow out of your Dominions But because the King may justly expect more from an ancient Confederate than from a new reconciled Enemy he maketh his Request unto you to deliver him up into his hands Pirates and Impostures of this sort being fit to be accounted the Common Enemies of Mankind and no ways to be protected by the Law of Nations After some time of deliberation the Ambassadors received this short Answer THat the Archduke for the love of King Henry would in no sort ayd or assist the pretended Duke but in all things conserve the Amity he had with the King But for the Duchess Dowager she was absolute in the Lands of her Dowry and that he could not let her to dispose of her own THE King upon the return of the Ambassadors was nothing satisfied with this Answer For well he knew that a Patrimonial Dowry carried no part of Sovereignty or Command of Forces Besides the Ambassadors told him plainly that they saw the Duchess had a great Party in the Archduke's Council and that howsoever it was carried in a course of connivence yet the Archduke under-hand gave ayd and furtherance to Perkin Wherefore partly out of Courage and partly out of Policy the King forthwith banished all Flemings as well their Persons as their Wares out of his Kingdom commanding his Subjects likewise and by name his Merchants-Adventurers which had a Resiance in Antwerp to return translating the Mart which commonly followed the English Cloth unto Calice and embarred also all further Trade for the future This the King did being sensible in point of
that knew themselves guilty in the Pale fled to them So that Sir Edward Poynings was enforced to make a Wild-Chase upon the Wild-Irish Where in respect of the Mountains and Fastnesses he did little good Which either out of a suspicious Melancholy upon his bad Success or the better to save his service from Disgrace he would needs impute unto the Comfort that the Rebels should receive under-hand from the Earl of Kildare every light suspition growing upon the Earl in respect of the Kildare that was in the Action of Lambert Simnel and slain at Stoke-field Wherefore he caused the Earl to be apprehended and sent into England where upon Examination he cleared himself so well as he was re-placed in his Government But Poynings the better to make compensation of the Meagerness of his Service in the Wars by acts of Peace called a Parliament where was made that memorable Act which 〈◊〉 this day is called Poynings Law whereby all the Statutes of England were made to be of force in Ireland For before they were not neither are any now in force in Ireland which were made in England since that time which was the tenth year of the King About this time began to be discovered in the King that disposition which afterward nourished and whet-on by bad Counsellors and Ministers proved the Blot of his times which was the course he took to crush Treasure out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures upon Penal Laws At this men did startle the more at this time because it appeared plainly to be in the King's Nature and not out of his Necessity he being now in Float for Treasure For that he had newly received the Peace-money from France the Benevolence-money from his Subjects and great Casualties upon the Confiscations of the Lord Chamberlain and divers others The first noted Case of this kind was that of Sir William Capel Alderman of London Who upon sundry Penal Laws was condemned in the summ of seven and twenty hundred Pounds and compounded with the King for sixteen hundred And yet after Empson would have cut another Chop out of him if the King had not died in the instant The Summer following the King to comfort his Mother whom he did always tenderly love and revere and to make Demonstration to the World that the proceedings against Sir William Stanley which was imposed upon him by necessity of State had not in any degree diminished the affection he bare to Thomas his Brother went in Progress to Latham to make merry with his Mother and the Earl and lay there divers days During this Progress Perkin Warbeck finding that time and temporizing which whilest his practices were covert and wrought well in England made for him did now when they were discovered and defeated rather make against him for that when matters once go down the Hill they stay not without a new force resolved to try his adventure in some exploit upon England hoping still upon the affections of the Common People towards the House of York Which body of Common People he thought was not to be practised upon as persons of Quality are But that they only practice upon their affections was to set up a Standard in the field The Place where he should make his Attempt he chose to be the Coast of Kent The King by this time was grown to such an height of Reputation for cunning and Policy that every Accident and Event that went well was laid and imputed to his foresight as if he had set it before As in this particular of Perkin's Design upon Kent For the world would not believe afterwards but the King having secret Intelligence of Perkin's intention for Kent the better to draw it on went of purpose into the North a-far-off laying an open side unto Perkin to make him come to the close and so to trip up his heels having made sure in Kent before-hand But so it was that Perkin had gathered together a Power of all Nations neither in number not in the hardiness and courage of the Persons contemptible but in their nature and fortunes to be feared as well of Friends as Enemies being Bankrupts and many of them Felons and such as lived by Rapine These he put to Sea and arrived upon the Coast of Sandwich and Deal in Kent about July There he cast Anchor and to prove the affections of the People sent some of his men to land making great boast of the Power that was to follow The Kentish-men perceiving that Perkin was not followed by any English of name or account and that his forces consisted but of strangers born and most of them base People and Free-booters fitter to spoil a Coast than to recover a Kingdom resorting unto the principal Gentlemen of the Countrey professed their loyalty to the King and desired to be directed and commanded for the best of the King's service The Gentlemen entring into Consultation directed some forces in good number to shew themselves upon the Coast and some of them to make signs to entice Perkin's Soldiers to land as if they would joyn with them and some others to appear from some other places and to make semblance as if they fled from them the better to encourage them to land But Perkin who by playing the Prince or else taught by Secretary Frion had learned thus much That People under Command do use to consult and after to march in order and Rebels contrariwise run upon an Head together in confusion considering the delay of time and observing their orderly and not tumultuary Arming doubted the worst And therefore the wily Youth would not set one foot out of his Ship till he might see things were sure Wherefore the King's Forces perceiving that they could draw on no more than those that were formerly landed set upon them and cut them in pieces ere they could flie back to their Ships In which Skirmish besides those that fled and were slain there were taken about an hundred and fifty persons Which for that the King thought that to punish a few for example was Gentleman's play but for Rascal-People they were to be cut off every man especially in the beginning of an Enterprize and likewise for that he saw that Perkin's Forces would now consist chiefly of such Rabble and scum of desperate people he therefore hanged them all for the greater terrour They were brought to London all rail'd in Ropes like a Team of Horses in a Cart and were executed some of them at London and Wapping and the rest at divers places upon the Sea-Coast of Kent Sussex and Norfolk for Sea-marks or Light-houses to teach Perkin's People to avoid the Coast. The King being advertised of the landing of the Rebels thought to leave his Progress But being certified the next day that they were partly defeated and partly fled he continued his Progress and sent Sir Richard Guilford into Kent in message Who calling the Countrey together did much commend from the King their fidelity manhood and well
handling of that service and gave them all thanks and in private promised Reward to some particulars Upon the sixteenth of November this being the Eleventh year of the King was holden the Serjeants-Feast at Ely-Place there being nine Serjeants of that Call The King to honour the Feast was present with his Queen at the Dinner being a Prince that was ever ready to grace and countenance the Professors of the Law having a little of that That as he governed his Subjects by his Laws so he governed his Laws by his Lawyers This year also the King entred into League with the Italian Potentates for the defence of Italy against France For King Charles had conquered the Realm of Naples and lost it again in a kind of Felicity of a Dream He passed the whole length of Italy without resistance so that it was true which Pope Alexander was wont to say That the French-men came into Italy with 〈◊〉 in their hands to mark up their lodgings rather than with Swords to fight He likewise entred and won in effect the whole Kingdom of Naples it self without striking stroke But presently thereupon he did commit and multiply so many Errours as was too great a task for the best fortune to overcome He gave no contentment to the Barons of Naples of the Faction of the Angeovines but scattered his rewards according to the mercenary appetites of some about him He put all Italy upon their Guard by the seizing and holding of Ostia and the protecting of the Liberty of Pisa which made all men suspect that his purposes looked further than his Title of Naples He fell too soon at difference with Ludovico Sfortia who was the man that carried the Keys which brought him in and shut him out He neglected to extinguish some reliques of the War And lastly in regard of his easie passage through Italy without resistance he entred into an over-much despising of the Arms of the Italians whereby he left the Realm of Naples at his departure so much the less provided So that not long after his return the whole Kingdom revolted to Ferdinando the younger and the French were quite driven out Nevertheless Charles did make both great threats and great preparations to re-enter Italy once again Wherefore at the instance of divers of the States of Italy and especially of Pope Alexander there was a League concluded between the said Pope Maximilian King of Romans Henry King of England Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain for so they are constantly placed in the Original Treaty throughout Augustissimo Barbadico Duke of Venice and Ludovico Sfortia Duke of Millan for the common defence of their Estates Wherein though Ferdinando of Naples was not named as principal yet no doubt the Kingdom of Naples was tacitly included as a Fee of the Church There dyed also this year Cecile Duchess of York Mother to King Edward the Fourth at her Castle of Barkbamstead being of extreme years and who had lived to see three Princes of her body crowned and four murthered She was buried at Foderingham by her Husband This year also the King called his Parliament where many Laws were made of a more private and vulgar nature than ought to detain the Reader of an History And it may be justly suspected by the proceedings following that as the King did excell in good Common-wealth Laws so nevertheless he had in secret a design to make use of them as well for collecting of Treasure as for correcting of Manners and so meaning thereby to harrow his People did accumulate them the rather The principal Law that was made this Parliament was a Law of a strange nature rather just than legal and more magnanimous than provident This Law did ordain That no person that did assist in Arms or otherwise the King for the time being should after be impeached therefore or attainted either by the course of the Law or by Act of Parliament But if any such Act of Attainder did happen to be made it should be void and of none effect For that it was agreeable to reason of Estate that the Subject should not enquire of the justness of the King's Title or Quarrel and it was agreeable to good Conscience that whatsoever the fortune of the War were the Subject should not suffer for his Obedience The spirit of this Law was wonderful Pious and Noble being like in matter of War unto the spirit of David in matter of Plague who said If I have sinned strike me but what have these sheep done Neither wanted this Law parts of prudent and deep fore-sight For it did the better take away occasion for the People to busie themselves to pry into the King's Title for that howsoever it fell their safety was already provided for Besides it could not but greatly draw unto him the love and hearts of the People because he seemed more careful for them than for himself But yet nevertheless it did take off from his Party that great Tye and Spur of necessity to fight and go Victors out of the field considering their lives and fortunes were put in safety and protected whether they stood to it or ran away But the force and obligation of this Law was in it self Illusory as to the latter part of it by a precedent Act of Parliament to bind or frustrate a future For a supreme and absolute Power cannot conclude it self neither can that which is in nature revocable be made fixed no more than if a man should appoint or declare by his Will that if he made any Latter Will it should be void And for the Case of the Act of Parliament there is a notable President of it in King Henry the Eighth's time Who doubting he might dye in the minority of his Son procured an Act to pass That no Statute made during the minority of the King should bind him or his Successors except it were confirmed by the King under his great Seal at his full age But the first Act that passed in King Edward the Sixth his time was an Act of Repeal of that former Act at which time nevertheless the King was Minor But things that do not bind may satisfie for the time There was also made a shoaring or under-propping Act for the Benevolence to make the summs which any person had agreed to pay and nevertheless were not brought in to be leviable by course of Law Which Act did not only bring in the Arears but did indeed countenance the whole business and was pretended to be made at the desire of those that had been forward to pay This Parliament also was made that good Law which gave the Attaint upon a false Verdict between Party and Party which before was a kind of Evangile irremediable It extends not to causes Capital as well because they are for the most part at the King's Suit as because in them if they be followed in Course of Indictment there passeth a double Jury the Indictors and the Tryers and so
not Twelve Men but Four and twenty But it seemeth that was not the only reason for this reason holdeth not in the Appeal But the great reason was lest it should tend to the discouragement of Jurors in Cases of Life and Death if they should be subject to Suit and Penalty where the favour of Life maketh against them It extendeth not also to any Suit where the Demand is under the value of forty Pounds for that in such Cases of petty value it would not quit the Charge to go about again There was another Law made against a branch of Ingratitude in Women who having been advanced by their Husbands or their Husbands Ancestors should alien and thereby seek to defeat the Heirs or those in Remainder of the Lands whereunto they had been so advanced The remedy was by giving power to the next to enter for a forfeiture There was also enacted that Charitable Law for the admission of poor Suitors In Forma Pauperis without Fee to Counsellor Attorney or Clerk whereby poor men became rather able to vex than unable to sue There were divers other good Laws made that Parliament as we said before but we still observe our manner in selecting out those that are not of a Vulgar nature The King this while though he sate in Parliament as in full Place and seemed to account of the designs of Perkin who was now returned into Flanders but as a May-game yet having the composition of a wise-King Stout without and Apprehensive within had given order for the watching of Beacons upon the Coasts and erecting more where they stood too thin and had a careful eye where this wandering Cloud would break But Perkin advised to keep his fire which hitherto burned as it were upon green wood alive with continual blowing Sailed again into Ireland whence he had formerly departed rather upon the hopes France than upon any unreadiness or discouragement he found in that People But in the space of time between the King's Diligence and Poynings Commission had so setled things there as there was nothing left for Perkin but the blustring affection of wild and naked people Wherefore he was advised by his Council to seek ayd of the King of Scotland a Prince young and valorous and in good terms with his Nobles and People and ill affected to King Henry At this time also both Maximilian and Charles of France began to bear no good will to the King The one being displeased with the King's Prohibition of Commerce with Flanders the other holding the King for suspect in regard of his late entry into League with the Italians Wherefore besides the open Ayds of the Duchess of Burgandy which did with Sails and Oars put on and advance Perkin's designs there wanted not some secret Tides from Maximilian and Charles which did further his fortunes In so much as they both by their secret Letters and Messages recommended him to the King of Scotland Perkin therefore coming into Scotland upon those hopes with a well appointed company was by the King of Scots being formerly well prepared honourably welcomed and soon after his arrival admitted to his Presence in a solemn manner For the King received him in State in his Chamber of Presence accompanied with divers of his Nobles And Perkin well attended as well with those that the King had sent before him as with his own Train entred the room where the King was and coming near to the King and bowing a little to embrace him he retired some paces back and with a loud voice that all that were present might hear him made his Declaration in this manner HIgh and Mighty King your Grace and these your Nobles here present may be pleased benignly to bow your Ears to hear the Tragedy of a young Man that by right ought to hold in his hand the Ball of a Kingdom but by Fortune is made Himself a Ball tossed from Misery to Misery and from Place to Place You see here before you the Spectacle of a Plantagenet who hath been carried from the Nursery to the Sanctuary from the Sanctuary to the direful Prison from the Prison to the hand of the cruel Tormentor and from that hand to the wide-Wilderness as I may truly call it for so the World hath been to me So that he that is born to a great Kingdom hath not ground to set his foot upon more than this where he now standeth by your Princely Favour Edward the Fourth late King of England as your Grace cannot but have heard left two Sons Edward and Richard Duke of York both very young Edward the eldest succeeded their Father in the Crown by the name of King Edward the Fifth But Richard Duke of Gloceffer their unnatural Uncle first thirsting after the Kingdom through Ambition and afterwards thirsting for their Blood out of desire to secure himself employed an Instrument of his confident to him as he thought to murther them both But this Man that was employed to execate that execrable Tragedy having cruelly slain King Edward the eldest of the two was moved partly by Remorse and partly by some other mean to save Richard his Brother making a Report nevertheless to the Tyrant that he had performed his Commandment for both Brethren This Report was accordingly believed and published generally So that the World hath been possessed of an Opinion that they both were barbarously made away though ever Truth hath some sparks that flie abroad until it appear in due time as this hath had But Almighty God that stopped the mouth of the Lion and saved little Joas from the Tyranny of Athaliah when she massacred the King's Children and did save Isaac when the hand was stretched forth to sacrifice him preserved the second Brother For I my self that stand here in your presence am that very Richard Duke of York Brother of that infortunate Prince King Edward the Fifth now the most rightful surviving Heir-male to that Victorious and most Noble Edward of that name the Fourth late King of England For the manner of my Escape it is fit it should pass in silence or at least in a more secret Relation for that it may concern some alive and the memory of some that are dead Let it suffice to think that I had then a Mother living a Queen and one that expected daily such a Commandment from the Tyrant for the murthering of her Children Thus in my tender age escaping by God's mercy out of London I was secretly conveyed over Sea Where after a time the Party that had me in Charge upon what new Fears change of Mind or Practice God knoweth suddenly forsook me Whereby I was forced to wander abroad to seek mean Conditions for the sustaining of my Life Wherefore distracted between several Passions the one of fear to be known lest the Tyrant should have a new Attempt upon me the other of Grief and Disdain to be unknown and to live in that base and servile manner that I did I resolved with
Henry Wyat and such other Cattiffs and Villains of Birth which by subtil Inventions and Pilling of the People have been the principal Finders Occasioners and Counsellors of the Mis-rule and Mischief now reigning in England We remembring these Premisses with the great and execrable Offences daily committed and done by Our foresaid great Enemy and his Adherents in breaking the Liberties and Franchises of Our Mother the Holy Church upon pretences of Wicked and Heathenish Policy to the high displeasure of Almighty God besides the manifold Treasons abominable Murthers Man-slaughters Robberies Extortions the daily Pilling of the People by Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences and other unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions with many other heinous Effects to the likely destruction and desolation of the whole Realm shall by God's grace and the help and assistante of the great Lords of Our Blood with the counsel of other sad Persons see that the Commodities of Our Realm be employed to the most advantage of the same the intercourse of Merchandise betwixt Realm and Realm to be ministred and handled as shall more be to the Common-weal and prosperity of Our Subjects and all such Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions as be above rehearsed to be fore-done and laid apart and never from henceforth to be called upon but in such cases as Our Noble Progenitors Kings of England have of old time been accustomed to have the ayd succour and help of their Subjects and true Liege-men And further We do out of Our Grace and Clemency hereby as well publish and promise to all our Subjects Remission and free Pardon of all By-past Offences whatsoever against Our Person or Estate in adhering to Our said Enemy by whom We know well they have been mis-led if they shall within time convenient submit themselves unto Us. And for such as shall come with the foremost to assist Our Righteous Quarrel We shall make them so far partakers of Our Princely Favour and Bounty as shall be highly for the Comfort of them and theirs both during their life and after their death As also We shall by all means which God shall put into Our hands demean Our selves to give Royal contentment to all Degrees and Estates of Our People maintaining the Liberties of Holy Church in their Entire preserving the Honours Priviledges and Prebeminences of Our Nobles from contempt or disparagement according to the dignity of their Blood We shall also unyoak Our People from all heavy Burthens and Endurances and confirm Our Cities Boroughs and Towns in their Charters and Freedoms with enlargement where it shall be deserved and in all points give Our Subjects cause to think that the blessed and debonair Government of Our Noble Father King Edward in his last times is in Us revived And for as much as the putting to death or taking alive of Our said Mortal Enemy may be a mean to stay much effusion of Blood which otherwise may ensue if by Compulsion or fair Promises he shall draw after him any number of Our Subjects to resist Us whith We desire to avoid though We be certainly informed that Our said Enemy is purposed and prepared to flie the Land having already made over great masses of the Treasure of Our Crown the better to support him in Forein Parts We do hereby declare That whosoever shall take or distress Our said Enemy though the Party be of never so mean a Condition he shall be by Us rewarded with a Thousand Pound in Money forthwith to be laid down to him and an Hundred Marks by the year of Inheritance besides that he may otherwise merit both toward God and all good People for the destruction of such a Tyrant Lastly We do all men to wit and herein We take also God to witness That whereas God hath moved the Heart of Our dearest Cousin the King of Scotland to aid Us in Person in this Our righteous Quarrel it is altogether without any Pact or Promise or so much as demand of any thing that may prejudice Our Crown or Subjects But contrariwise with promise on Our said Cousin's part that whensoever he shall find Us in sufficient strength to get the upper hand of Our Enemy which we hope will be very suddenly he will forthwith peaceably return into his own Kingdom contenting himself only with the glory of so Honourable an Enterprize and Our true and faithful Love and Amity Which We shall ever by the Grace of Almighty God so order as shall be to the great comfort of both Kingdoms BUT Perkin's Proclamation did little edifie with the people of England neither was he the better welcom for the company he came in Wherefore the King of Scotland seeing none came in to Perkin nor none stirred any where in his favour turned his Enterprize into a Rode and wasted and destroyed the Countrey of Northumberland with fire and sword But hearing that there were Forces coming against him and not willing that they should find his men heavy and laden with booty he returned into Scotland with great Spoils deferring further prosecution till another time It is said that Perkin acting the part of a Prince handsomly when he saw the Scottish fell to waste the Countrey came to the the King in a passionate manner making great lamentation and desired That that might not be the manner of making the War for that no Crown was so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruine of his Countrey Whereunto the King answered half in sport that he doubted much he was careful for that that was none of his and that he should be too good a Steward for his Enemy to save the Countrey to his use By this time being the Eleventh year of the King the Interruption of Trade between the English and the Plemmish began to pinch the Merchants of both Nations very sore Which moved them by all means they could devise to affect and dispose their Savereigns respectively to open the Intercourse again Wherein time favoured them For the Arch-Duke and his Council began to see that Perkin would prove but a Runnagate and Citizen of the World and that it was the part of Children to fall out about Babies And the King on his part after the Attempts upon Kent and Northumberland began to have the business of Perkin in less estimation so as he did not put it to accompt in any Consultation of State But that that moved him most was that being a King that loved Wealth and Treasure he could not endure to have Trade sick nor any Obstruction to continue in the Gate-vein which disperseth that blood And yet he kept State so far as first to be sought unto Wherein the Merchant-Adventurers likewise being a strong Company at that time and well under-set with rich men and good order did hold out bravely taking off the Commodities of the Kingdom though they lay dead upon their hands for want of Vent At the last Commissioners met
the Continent of America towards the North-west And it may be that some Relation of this nature coming afterwards to the knowledge of Columbus and by him suppressed desirous rather to make his Enterprize the Child of his Science and Fortune than the Follower of a former Discovery did give him better assurance that all was not Sea from the West of Europe and Africk unto Asia than either Seneca's Prophesie or Plato's Antiquities or the Nature of the Tides and Land-winds and the like which were the Conjectures that were given out whereupon he should have relyed Though I am not ignorant that it was likewise laid unto the casual and wind-beaten Discovery a little before of a Spanish Pilot who dyed in the house of Columbus But this Gabato bearing the King in hand that he would find out an Island endued with rich Commodities procured him to man and victual a Ship at Bristow for the discovery of that Island With whom ventured also three small Ships of London-Merchants fraught with some gross and sleight Wares fit for Commerce with barbarous people He sayled as he affirmed at his return and made a Card thereof very far Westwards with a Quarter of the North on the North-side of Tierra de Labrador until he came to the Latitude of sixty seven Degrees and an half finding the Seas still open It is certain also that the King's Fortune had a tender of that great Empire of the West-Indies Neither was it a Refusal on the King's part but a Delay by accident that put by so great an Acquest For Christopherus Columbus refused by the King of Portugal who would not embrace at once both East and West employed his Brother Bartholomaus Columbus unto King Henry to negotiate for his Discovery And it so fortuned that he was taken by Pirates at Sea by which accidental impediment he was long ere he came to the King So long that before he had obtained a Capitulation with the King for his Brother the Enterprize by him was atchieved and so the West-Indies by Providence were then reserved for the Crown of Castilia Yet this sharpened the King so that not only in this Voyage but again in the Sixteenth year of his Reign and likewise in the Eighteenth thereof he granted forth new Commissions for the Discovery and investing of unknown Lands In this Fourteenth year also by God's wonderful providence that boweth things unto his will and hangeth great Weights upon small Wires there fell out a trifling and untoward Accident that drew on great and happy effects During the Truce with Scotland there were certain Scottish young Gentleman that came into Norham Town and there made merry with some of the English of the Town And having little to do went sometimes forth and would stand looking upon the Castle Some of the Garrison of the Castle observing this their doing twice or thrice and having not their minds purged of the late ill blood of Hostility either suspected them or quarrelled them for Spies Whereupon they fell at ill Words and from Words to Blows so that many were wounded of either side and the Scottish-men being strangers in the Town had the worst In so much as some of them were slain and the rest made haste home The matter being complained on and often debated before the Wardens of the Marches of both sides and no good order taken the King of Scotland took it to himself and being much kindled sent a Herald to the King to make Protestation That if Reparation were not done according to the Conditions of the Truce his King did denounce War The King who had often tryed Fortune and was inclined to Peace made answer That what had been done was utterly against his will and without his Privity But if the Garrison-Souldiers had been in fault he would see them punished and the Truce in all points to be preserved But this answer seemed to the Scottish King but a delay to make the complaint breathe out with time and therefore it did rather exaspetare him than satisfie him Bishop Fox understanding from the King that the Scottish King was still discontent and impatient being troubled that the occasion of breaking of the Truce should grow from his men sent many humble and deprecatory Letters to the Scottish King to appease him Whereupon King James mollified by the Bishop's submiss and eloquent Letters wrote back unto him That though he were in part moved by his Letters yet he should not be fully satisfied except he spake with him as well about the compounding of the present differences as about other matters that might concern the good of both Kingdoms The Bishop advising first with the King took his Journey for Scotland The meeting was at Metross an Abbey of the Cestercians where the King then abode The King first roundly uttered unto the Bishop his offence conceived for the insolent Breach of Truce by his men of Norham Castle Whereunto Bishop Fox made such an humble and smooth answer as it was like Oyl into the wound whereby it began to heal And this was done in the presence of the King and his Council After the King spake with the Bishop apart and opened himself unto him saying That these temporary Truces and Peaces were soon made and soon broken But that he desired a straiter Amity with the King of England discovering his mind that if the King would give him in Marriage the Lady Margaret his eldest Daughter That indeed might be a Knot indissoluble That he knew well what Place and Authority the Bishop deservedly had with his Master Therefore if he would take the business to heart and deal in it effectually he doubted not but it would succeed well The Bishop answered soberly that he thought himself rather happy than worthy to be an instrument in such a matter but would do his best endeavour Wherefore the Bishop returning to the King and giving account what had passed and finding the King more than well disposed in it gave the King advice first to proceed to a Conclusion of Peace and then to go on with the Treaty of Marriage by degrees Hereupon a Peace was concluded which was published a little before Christmas in the Fourteenth year of the King's Reign to continue for both the Kings lives and the overliver of them and a year after In this Peace there was an Article contained that no English-man should enter into Scotland and no Scottish-man into England without Letters Commendatory from the Kings of either Nation This at the first sight might seem a means to continue a strangeness between the Nations but it was done to lock in the Borderers This year there was also born to the King a third Son who was christned by the name of Edmund and shortly after dyed And much about the same time came news of the death of Charles the French King For whom there were celebrated Solemn and Princely Obsequies It was not long but Perkin who was made of Quick-silver which is hard
to hold or imprison began to stir For deceiving his Keepers he took him to his heels and made speed to the Sea-coasts But presently all Corners were laid for him and such diligent pursuit and search made as he was fain to turn back and get him to the house of Bethleem called the Priory of Shyne which had the priviledge of a Sanctuary and put himself into the hands of the Prior of that Monastery The Prior was thought an Holy Man and much reverenced in those days He came to the King and besought the King for Perkin's life only leaving him otherwise to the Kings discretion Many about the King were again more hot than ever to have the King take him forth and hang him But the King that had an high stomach and could not hate any that he despised bid Take him forth and set the Knave in the stocks And so promising the Prior his life he caused him to be brought forth And within two or three days after upon a 〈◊〉 fold set up in the Palace-Court at Westminster he was 〈◊〉 and set in the Stocks for the whole day And the next 〈◊〉 after the like was done by him at the Cross in Cheapside 〈◊〉 in both places he read his Confession of which we made 〈◊〉 before and was from Cheapside conveyed and laid up 〈◊〉 the Tower Notwithstanding all this the King was as 〈◊〉 partly touched before grown to be such a Partner with 〈◊〉 as no body could tell what Actions the one and what 〈◊〉 other owned For it was believed generally that Perkin was betrayed and that this Escape was not without the King's privity who had him all the time of his Flight in a Line and that the King did this to pick a Quarrel to him to put him to death and to be rid of him at once But this is not probable For that the same Instruments who observed him in his Flight might have kept him from getting into Sanctuary But it was ordained that this Winding-Ivy of a Plantagenet should kill the true Tree it self For Perkin after he had been a while in the Tower began to insinuate himself into the favour and kindness of his Keepers Servants to the Lieutenant of the Tower Sir John Digby being four in number Strangways Blewet Astwood and Long-Roger These Varlets with mountains of promises he sought to corrupt to obtain his Escape But knowing well that his own Fortunes were made so contemptible as he could feed no man's Hopes and by Hopes he must work for Rewards he had none he had contrived with himself a vast and tragical Plot which was to draw into his Company Edward Plantagenet Earl of Warwick then Prisoner in the Tower whom the weary life of a long Imprisonment and the often and renewing Fears of being put to Death had softned to take any impression of counsel for his Liberty This young Prince he thought these Servants would look upon though not upon himself And therefore after that by some Message by one or two of them he had tasted of the Earl's consent it was agreed that these four should murder their Master the Lieutenant secretly in the night and make their best of such Money and portable Goods of his as they should find ready at hand and get the Keys of the Tower and presently let forth Perkin and the Earl But this Conspiracy was revealed in time before it could be executed And in this again the Opinion of the King 's great Wisdom did surcharge him with a sinister Fame that Perkin was but his Bait to entrap the Earl of Warwick And in the very instant while this Conspiracy was in working as if that also had been the King's industry it was fatal that there should break forth a counterfeit Earl of Warwick a Cordwainer's Son whose name was Ralph Wilford a young man taught and set on by an Augustin Frier called Patrick They both from the parts of Suffolk came forwards into Kent where they did not only privily and underhand give out that this Wilford was the true Earl of Warwick but also the Frier finding some light Credence in the People took the boldness in the Pulpit to declare as much and to incite the People to come in to his ayd Whereupon they were both presently 〈◊〉 and the young fellow executed and the Frier condemned 〈◊〉 perpetual Imprisonment This also hapning so opportunely to 〈◊〉 the danger to the King's Estate from the Earl of Warwick and thereby to colour the King's severity that followed together 〈◊〉 the madness of the Frier so vainly and desperately to divulge a Treason before it had gotten any manner of strength and the saving of the Frier's life which nevertheless was indeed but the priviledge of his Order and the Pity in the common People which if it run in a strong Stream doth ever cast up Scandal and Envy made it generally rather talked than believed that all was but the King's device But howsoever it were hereupon Perkin that had offended against Grace now the third time was at the last proceeded with and by Commissioners of Oyer and Determiner arraigned at Westminster upon divers Treasons committed and perpetrated after his coming on land within this Kingdom for so the Judges advised for that he was a Poreiner and condemned and a few days after executed at Tyburn Where he did again openly read his Confession and take it upon his Death to be true This was the end of this little Cockatrice of a King that was able to destroy those that did not espy him first It was one of the longest Plays of that kind that hath been in memory and might perhaps have had another end if he had not met with a King both wise stout and fortunate As for Perkin's three Counsellors they had registred themselves Sanctuary-men when their Master did And whether upon Pardon obtained or continuance within the Priviledge they came not to be proceeded with There was executed with Perkin the Mayor of Cork and his Son who had been principal Abettors of his Treasons And soon after were likewise condemned eight other Persons about the TowerConspiracy whereof four were the Lieutenant's men But of those eight but two were executed And immediately after was arraigned before the Earl of Oxford then for the time High-Steward of England the poor Prince the Earl of Warwick not for the Attempt to escape simply for that was not acted And besides the Imprisonment not being for Treason the Escape by Law could not be Treason but for conspiring with Perkin to raise sedition and to destroy the King And the Earl confessing the Indictment had Judgment and was shortly after beheaded on Tower-hill This was also the end not only of this Noble and Commiserable person Edward the Earl of Warwick eldest Son to the Duke of Clarence but likewise of the Line-Male of the Plantagenets which had flourished in great Royalty and Renown from the time of the famous King of England King Henry the Second Howbeit
it was a Race often dipped in their own Blood It hath remained since only transplanted into other Names as well of the Imperial-Line as of other Noble Houses But it was neither guilt of Crime nor reason of Estate that could quench the Envy that was upon the King for this Execution So that he thought good to export it out of the Land and to lay it upon his new 〈◊〉 Ferdinando King of Spain For these two Kings understanding one another at half a word so it was that there were Letters shewed out of Spain whereby in the passages concerning the Treaty of the Marriage Ferdinando had written to the King in plain terms that he saw no assurance of his Succession as long as the Earl of Warwick lived and that he was loth to send his Daughter to Troubles and Dangers But hereby as the King did in some part remove the Envy from himself so he did not observe that he did withal bring a kind of Malediction and Infausting upon the Marriage as an ill Prognostick Which in event so far proved true as both Prince Arthur enjoyed a very small time after the Marriage and the Lady Katherine her self a sad and a religious woman long after when King Henry the Eighth his resolution of a Divorce from her was first made known to her used some words That she had not offended but it was a Judgment of God for that her former Marriage was made in blood meaning that of the Earl of Warwick This Fifteenth year of the King there was a great Plague both in London and in divers parts of the Kingdom Wherefore the King after often change of Places whether to avoid the danger of the Sickness or to give occasion of an Enterview with the Arch-Duke or both sayled over with his Queen to Calice Upon his coming thither the Arch-Duke sent an honourable Ambassage unto him as well to welcom him into those parts as to let him know that if it pleased him he would come and do him reverence But it was said withal That the King might be pleased to appoint some place that were out of any Walled Town or Fortress for that he had denied the same upon like occasion to the French King And though he said he made a great difference between the two Kings yet he would be loth to give a President that might make it after to be expected at his hands by another whom he trusted less The King accepted of the Courtesie and admitted of his Excuse and appointed the place to be at St. Peter's Church without Calice But withal he did visit the Arch-Duke with Ambassadors sent from himself which were the Lord Saint-John and the Secretary unto whom the Arch-Duke did the honour as going to Mass at St. Omers to set the Lord Saint-John on his right hand and the Secretary on his left and so to ride between them to Church The day appointed for the Enterview the King went on Horse-back some distance from St. Peter's Church to receive the Arch-Duke And upon their approaching the Arch-Duke made hast to light and offered to hold the King's Stirrop at his alighting which the King would not permit but descending from Horse-back they embraced with great affection and withdrawing into the Church to a place prepared they had long Conference not only upon the Confirmation of former Treaties and the 〈◊〉 of Commerce but upon Cross Marriages to be had between the Duke of York the King 's second Son and the Arch-Duke's Daughter And again between Charles the Arch-Dukes Son and Heir and Mary the King 's second Daughter But these Blossoms of unripe Marriages were but friendly wishes and the Airs of loving Entertainment though one of them came afterwards to Conclusion in Treaty though not in Effect But during the time that the two Princes conversed and commoned together in the Suburbs of Calice the Demonstrations on both sides were passing hearty and affectionate especially on the part of the Arch-Duke Who besides that he was a Prince of an excellent good nature being conscious to himself how drily the King had been used by his Council in the matter of Perkin did strive by all means to recover it in the King's affection And having also his ears continually beaten with the Counsels of his Father and Father-in-law who in respect of their jealous hatred against the French King did always advise the Arch-Duke to anchor himself upon the Amity of King Henry of England was glad upon this occasion to put in ure and practice their precepts calling the King Patron and Father and Protector these very words the King repeats when he certified of the loving behaviour of the Arch-Duke to the City and what else he could devise to express his love and observance to the King There came also to the King the Governour of Picardy and the Bailiff of Amiens sent from Lewis the French King to do him honour and to give him knowledge of his victory and winning of the Duchy of Millan It seemeth the King was well pleased with the honours he received from those parts while he was at Calice For he did himself certifie all the News and Occurrents of them in every particular from Calice to the Mayor and Aldermen of London which no doubt made no small talk in the City For the King though he could not entertain the good will of the Citizens as Edward the Fourth did yet by affability and other Princely Graces did ever make very much of them and apply himself to them This year also dyed John Morton Archbishop of Canterbury Chancellor of England and Cardinal He was a wise man and an eloquent but in his nature harsh and haughty much accepted by the King but envied by the Nobility and hated of the People Neither was his name left out of Perkin's Proclamation for any good will but they would not bring him in amongst the King's Casting-Counters because he had the Image and Superscription upon him of the Pope in his Honour of Cardinal He wan the King with Secrecy and Diligence but chiefly because he was his old Servant in his less Fortunes And also for that in his affections he was not without an inveterate malice against the House of York under whom he had been in trouble He was willing also to take Envy from the King more than the King was willing to put upon him For the King cared not for Subterfuges but would stand Envy and appear in any thing that was to his mind which made Envy still grow upon him more universal but less daring But in the matter of Exactions time did after shew that the Bishop in feeding the King's humour did rather temper it He had been by Richard the Third committed as in custody to the Duke of Buckingham whom he did secretly incite to revolt from King Richard But after the Duke was engaged and thought the Bishop should have been his chief Pilot in the Tempest the Bishop was gotten into the Cock-boat and fled over
that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand Marks And to shew further the Kings extreme Diligence I do remember to have seen long since a Book of Accompt of Empson's that had the King's hand almost to every Leaf by way of Signing and was in some places Postilled in the Margin with the King's hand likewise where was this Remembrance Item Received of such a one five Marks for the Pardon to be procured and if the Pardon do not pass the Money to be re-paid except the party be some other-ways satisfied And over against this Memorandum of the King 's own hand Otherwise satisfied Which I do the rather mention because it shews in the King a Nearness but yet with a kind of Justness So these little Sands and Grains of Gold and Silver as it seemeth helped not a little to make up the great Heap and Bank But mean while to keep the King awake the Earl of Suffolk having been too gay at Prince Arthur's Marriage and sunk himself deep in Debt had yet once more a mind to be a Knight-Errant and to seek Adventures in Forein parts And taking his Brother with him fled again into Flanders That no doubt which gave him Confidence was the great Murmur of the People against the King's Government And being a Man of a light and rash Spirit he thought every Vapour would be a Tempest Neither wanted he some Party within the Kingdom For the Murmur of People awakes the Discontents of Nobles and again that calleth up commonly some Head of Sedition The King resorting to his wonted and tryed Arts caused Sir Robert Curson Captain of the Castle at Hammes being at that time beyond Sea and therefore less likely to be wrought upon by the King to flie from his Charge and to feign himself a servant of the Earl's This Knight having insinuated himself into the Secrets of the Earl and finding by him upon whom chiefly he had either Hope or Hold advertised the King thereof in great secrecy But nevertheless maintained his own Credit and inward trust with the Earl Upon whose Advertisements the King attached William Courtney Earl of Devonshire his Brother-in-Law married to the Lady Katherine Daughter to King Edward the Fourth William de la Pole Brother to the Earl of Suffolk Sir James Tirrel and Sir John Windham and some other meaner Persons and committed them to Custody George Lord Abergaveny and Sir Thomas Green were at the same time apprehended but as upon less Suspition so in a freer Restraint and were soon after delivered The Earl of Devonshire being interessed in the blood of York that was rather Feared than Nocent yet as One that might be the Object of others Plots and Designs remained Prisoner in the Tower during the King's life William de la Pole was also long restrained though not so straitly But for Sir James Tirrel against whom the Blood of the Innocent Princes Edward the Fifth and his Brother did still cry from under the Altar and Sir John Windham and the other meaner ones they were attainted and executed the two Knights beheaded Nevertheless to confirm the Credit of Curson who belike had not yet done all his Feats of Activity there was published at Paul's Cross about the time of the said Executions the Pope's Bull of Excommunication and Curse against the Earl of Suffolk and Sir Robert Curson and some others by name and likewise in general against all the Abettors of the said Earl Wherein it must be confessed that Heaven was made too much to bow to Earth and Religion to Policy But soon after Curson when he saw time returned into England and withal into wonted Favour with the King but worse Fame with the People Upon whose return the Earl was much dismayed and seeing himself destitute of hopes the Lady Margaret also by tract of Time and bad Success being now becom cool in those attempts after some wandering in France and Germany and certain little Projects no better than Squibs of an Exiled man being tired out retired again into the Protection of the Arch-Duke Philip in Flanders who by the death of Isabella was at that time King of Castile in the right of Joan his Wife This year being the Nineteenth of his Reign the King called his Parliament Wherein a man may easily guess how absolute the King took himself to be with his Parliament when Dudley that was so hateful was made Speaker of the House of Commons In this Parliament there were not made any Statutes memorable touching publick Government But those that were had still the Stamp of the King's Wisdom and Policy There was a Statute made for the disannulling of all Patents of Lease or Grant to such as came not upon lawful Summons to serve the King in his Wars against the Enemies or Rebels or that should depart without the King's licence With an exception of certain Persons of the Long-robe Providing nevertheless That they should have the King's Wages from their House till their return home again There had been the like made before for Offices and by this Statute it was extended to Lands But a man may easily see by many Statutes made in this King's time that the King thought it safest to assist Martial Law by Law of Parliament Another Statute was made prohibiting the bringing in of Manufactures of Silk wrought by it self or mixt with any other Thred But it was not of Stuffs of whole piece for that the Realm had of them no Manufacture in use at that time but of Knit-Silk or Texture of Silk as Ribands Laces Cawls Points and Girdles c. which the people of England could then well skill to make This Law pointed at a true Principle That where forein materials are but Superfluities forein Manufactures should be prohibited For that will either banish the Superfluity or gain the Manufacture There was a Law also of Resumption of Patents of Gaols and the Reannexing of them to the Sherifwicks Priviledged Officers being no less an Interruption of Justice than Priviledged Places There was likewise a Law to restrain the By-laws or Ordinances of Corporations which many times were against the Prerogative of the King the Common-law of the Realm and the Liberty of the Subject being Fraternities in Evil. It was therefore Provided that they should not be put in Execution without the Allowance of the Chancellor Treasurer and the two Chief-Justices or three of them or of the two Justices of Circuit where the Corporation was Another Law was in effect to bring in the Silver of the Realm to the Mint in making all clipped minished or impaired Coins of Silver not to be currant in payments without giving any Remedy of weight but with an exception only of a reasonable wearing which was as nothing in respect of the incertainty and so upon the matter to set the Mint on work and give way to New Coins of Silver which should be then minted There likewise was a long Statute against Vagabonds wherein two things
may be noted The one the Dislike the Parliament had of Gaoling of them as that which was chargeable pesterous and of no open Example The other that in the Statutes of this King's time for this of the Nineteenth year is not the only Statute of that kind there are ever coupled the punishment of Vagabonds and the forbidding of Dice and Cards and unlawful Games unto Servants and mean people and the putting down and suppressing of Ale-houses as Strings of one Root together and as if the One were unprofitable without the Other As for Riot and Retainers there passed scarce any Parliament in this time without a Law against them the King ever having an Eye to Might and Multitude There was granted also that Parliament a Subsidy both for the Temporalty and the Clergy And yet nevertheless ere the year expired there went out Commissions for a general Benevolence though there were no Wars no Fears The same year the City gave five thousand Marks for Confirmation of their Liberties A thing fitter for the Beginnings of King's Reigns than the latter Ends. Neither was it a small matter that the Mint gained upon the late Statute by the Recoinage of Groats and Half-Groats now Twelve-pences and Sixpences As for Empson and Dudley's Mills they did grind more than ever So that it was a strange thing to see what Golden Showrs poured down upon the King's Treasury at once The last payments of the Marriage-Money from Spain The Subsidy The Benevolence The Recoinage The Redemption of the Cities Liberties The Casualties And this is the more to be marvelled at because the King had then no Occasions at all of Wars or Troubles He had now but one Son and one Daughter unbestowed He was Wise He was of an High Mind He needed not to make Riches his Glory He did excel in so many things else save that certainly Avarice doth ever find in it self matter of Ambition Belike he thought to leave his Son such a Kingdom and such a Mass of Treasure as he might choose his Greatness where he would This year was also kept the Serjeants 〈◊〉 which was the second Call in this Kings Days About this time Isabella Queen of Castile deceased a right Noble Lady and an Honour to her Sex and Times and the Corner-stone of the Greatness of Spain that hath followed This Accident the King took not for News at large but thought it had a great Relation to his own Affairs especially in two points The one for Example the other for Consequence First he conceived that the Case of Ferdinando of Arragon after the death of Queen Isabella was his own Case after the death of his own Queen and the Case of Joan the Heir unto Castile was the Case of his own Son Prince Henry For if both of the Kings had their Kingdoms in the right of their Wives they descended to the Heirs and did not accrew to the Husbands And although his own Case had both Steel and Parchment more than the other that is to say a Conquest in the Field and an Act of Parliament yet notwithstanding that Natural Title of Descent in Blood did in the imagination even of a wise man breed a Doubt that the other two were not safe nor sufficient Wherefore he was wonderful diligent to enquire and observe what became of the King of Arragon in holding and continuing the Kingdom of Castile And whether he did hold it in his own Right or as Administrator to his Daughter and whether he were like to hold it in Fast or to be put out by his Son-in-Law Secondly he did revolve in his mind that the State of Christendom might by this late Accident have a turn For whereas before-time himself with the Conjunction of Arragon and Castile which then was one and the Amity of Maximilian and Philip his Son the Arch-Duke was far too strong a Party for France he began to fear that now the French King who had great Interest in the Affections of Philip the young King of Castile and Philip himself now King of Castile who was in ill terms with his Father-in-Law about the present Government of Castile And thirdly Maximilian Philip's Father who was ever variable and upon whom the surest Aim that could be taken was that he would not be long as he had been last before would all three being potent Princes enter into some strait League and Confederation amongst themselves Whereby though he should not be endangered yet he should be left to the poor Amity of Arragon And whereas he had been heretofore a kind of Arbiter of Europe he should now go less and be over-topped by so great a Conjunction He had also as it seems an inclination to marry and bethought himself of some fit Conditions abroad And amongst others he had heard of the Beauty and virtuous Behaviour of the young Queen of Naples the Widow of Ferdinando the younger being then of Matronal years of seven and twenty By whose Marriage he thought that the Kingdom of Naples having been a Goal for a time between the King of Arragon and the French King and being but newly setled might in some part be deposited in his hands who was so able to keep the Stakes Therefore he sent in Ambassage or Message three confident Persons Francis Marsin James Braybrook and John Stile upon two several Inquisitions rather than Negotiations The One touching the Person and Condition of the young Queen of Naples the Other touching all particulars of Estate that concerned the Fortunes and Intentions of Ferdinando And because they may observe best who themselves are observed least he sent them under Colourable Pretexts giving them Letters of Kindness and Compliment from Katharine the Princess to her Aunt and Niece the Old and Young Queen of Naples and delivering to them also a Book of new Articles of Peace which notwithstanding it had been delivered unto Doctor De Putbla the Leigier Ambassador of Spain here in England to be sent yet for that the King had been long without hearing from Spain he thought good those Messengers when they had been with the two Queens should likewise pass on to the Court of Ferdinando and take a Copy of the Book with them The Instructions touching the Queen of Naples were so curious and exquisite being as Articles whereby to direct a Survey or 〈◊〉 a Particular of her Person for Complexion Favour Feature Stature Health Age Customs Behaviour Conditions and Estate as if the King had been young a man would have judged him to be Amorous but being ancient it ought to be interpreted that sure he was very Chast for that he meant to find all things in one Woman and so to settle his Affections without ranging But in this March he was soon cooled when he heard from his Ambassadors that this young Queen had had a goodly Joynture in the Realm of Naples well answered during the time of her Uncle Frederick yea and during the time of Lewis the French King in
whose Division her Revenue fell but since the time that the Kingdom was in Ferdinando's hands all was assigned to the Army and Garrisons there and she received only a Pension or Exhibition out of his Coffers The other part of the Inquiry had a grave and diligent Return informing the King at full of the present State of King Ferdinando By this Report it appeared to the King that Ferdinando did continue the Government of Castile as Administrator unto his Daughter Joan by the Title of Queen Isabella's Will and partly by the Custom of the Kingdom as he pretended And that all Mandates and Grants were expedited in the name of Joan his Daughter and himself as Administrator without mention of Philip her Husband And that King Ferdinando howsoever he did dismiss himself of the name of King of Castile yet meant to hold the Kingdom without Accompt and in absolute Command It appeareth also that he flattered himself with hopes that King Philip would permit unto him the Goverment of Castile during his life which he had laid his Plot to work him unto both by some Counsellors of his about him which Ferdinando had at his devotion and chiefly by promise that in case Philip gave not way unto it he would marry some young Lady whereby to put him by the Succession of Arragon and Granada in case he should have a Son And lastly by representing unto him that the Government of the Burgundians till Philip were by continuance in Spain made as Natural of Spain would not be endured by the Spaniards But in all those things though wisely laid down and considered Ferdinando failed But that Pluto was better to him than Pallas In the same Report also the Ambassadors being mean men and therefore the more free did strike upon a string which was somewhat dangerous For they declared plainly that the People of Spain both Nobles and Commons were better affected unto the part of Philip so he brought his Wife with him than to Ferdinando and expressed the reason to be because he had imposed upon them many Taxes and Tallages which was the King's own Case between him and his Son There was also in this Report a Declaration of an Overture of of Marriage which Amason the Secretary of Ferdinando had made unto the Ambassadors in great secret between Charles Prince of Castile and Mary the King's second Daughter assuring the King that the Treaty of Marriage then on foot for the said Prince and the Daughter of France would break and that she the said Daughter of France should be married to Angolesme that was the Heir Apparant of France There was a touch also of a speech of Marriage between Ferdinando and Madam De Fois a Lady of the Blood of France which afterwards indeed succeeded But this was reported as learned in France and silenced in Spain The King by the return of this Ambassage which gave great light unto his Affairs was well instructed and prepared how to carry himself between Ferdinando King of Arragon and Philip his Son-in-law King of Castile resolving with himself to do all that in him lay to keep them at one within themselves But howsoever that succeeded by a moderate Carriage and bearing the Person of a Common-friend to lose neither of their Friendships but yet to run a Course more entire with the King of Arragon but more laboured and officious with the King of Castile But he was much taken with the Overture of Marriage with his Daughter Mary Both because it was the greatest Marriage of Christendom and for that it took hold of both Allies But to corroborate his Alliance with Philip the Winds gave him an Enterview For Philip choosing the Winter-season the better to surprise the King of Arragon set forth with a great Navy out of Planders for Spain in the Month of January the One and Twentieth year of the King's Reign But himself was surprised with a cruel Tempest that scattered his Ships upon the several Coasts of England And the Ship wherein King and Queen were with two other small Barques only torn and in great peril to escape the fury of the weather thrust into Weymouth King Philip himself having not been used as it seems to Sea all wearied and extreme sick would needs land to refresh his Spirits though it was against the Opinion of his Council doubting it might breed Delay his Occasions requiring Celerity The Rumour of the Arrival of a puissant Navy upon the Coast made the Countrey Arm. And Sir Thomas Trenchard with Forces suddenly raised not knowing what the matter might be came to Weymouth Where understanding the Accident he did in all Humbleness and Humanity invite the King and Queen to his House and forthwith dispatched Posts to the Court. Soon after came Sir John Caroe likewise with a great troop of Men well armed using the like Humbleness and Respect towards the King when he knew the Case King Philip doubting that they being but Subjects durst not let him pass away again without the King's Notice and Leave yielded to their Entreaties to stay till they heard from the Court The King as soon as he heard the News commanded presently the Earl of Arundel to go to visit the King of Castile and let him understand That as he was very sorry for his Mishap so he was glad that he had escaped the Danger of the Seas and likewise of the Occasion himself had to do him Honour and desiring him to think himself as in his own Land and that the King made all haste possible to come and embrace him The Earl came to him in great Magnificence with a brave Troop of three hundred Horse and for more State came by Torch-light After he had done the King's Message King Philip seeing how the world went the sooner to get away went upon speed to the King at Windsor and his Queen followed by easie journeys The two Kings at their meeting used all the Caresses and loving Demonstrations that were possible And the King of Castile said presently to the King That he was now punished for that he would not come within his walled Town of Calice when they met last But the King answered That Walls and Seas were nothing where Hearts were open and that he was here no otherwise but to be served After a day or two's refreshing the Kings entred into speech of renewing the Treaty the King saying That though King Philip's Person were the same yet his Fortunes and State were raised In which Case a Renovation of Treaty was used amongst Princes But while these things were in handling the King choosing a fit time and drawing the King of Castile into a Room where they two only were private and laying his hand civilly upon his arm and changing his Countenance a little from a Countenance of Entertainment said to him Sir you have been saved upon my Coast I hope you will not suffer me to wrack upon yours The King of Castile asked him What he meant by that
speech I mean it saith the King by that same Hare-brain wild Fellow my Subject the Earl of Suffolk who is protected in your Countrey and begins to play the Fool when all others are weary of it The King of Castile answered I had thought Sir your Felicity had been above those thoughts But if it trouble you I will banish him The King replied Those Hornets were best in their Nests and worst when they did flie abroad that his desire was to have him delivered to him The King of Castile herewith a little confused and in a study said That can I not do with my honour and less with yours for you will be thought to have used me as a Prisoner The King presently said Then the matter is at an end For I will take that dishonour upon me and so your honour is saved The King of Castile who had the King in great Estimation and besides remembred where he was and knew not what use he might have of the King's Amity for that himself was new in his Estate of Spain and unsetled both with his Father-in-Law and with his People composing his Countenance said Sir you give Law to me but so will I to you You shall have him but upon your honour you shall not take his life The King embracing him said Agreed Saith the King of Castile Neither shall it dislike you if I send to him in such a fashion as he may partly come with his own good will The King said It was well thought of and if it pleased him he would joyn with him in sending to the Earl a Message to that purpose They both sent severally and mean while they continued Feasting and Pastimes The King being on his part willing to have the Earl sure before the King of Castile went and the King of Castile being as willing to seem to be enforced The King also with many wise and excellent Perswasions did advise the King of Castile to be ruled by the counsel of his Father-in-Law Ferdinando a Prince so prudent so experienced so fortunate The King of Castile who was in no very good terms with his said Father-in-Law answered That if his Father-in-Law would suffer him to govern his Kingdoms he should govern him There were immediately Messengers sent from both Kings to recall the Earl of Suffolk Who upon gentle words used to him was soon charmed and willing enough to return assured of his Life and hoping of his Liberty He was brought through Flanders to Calice and thence landed at Dover and with sufficient Guard delivered and received at the Tower of London Mean while King Henry to draw out the time continued his Feastings and Entertainments and after he had received the King of Castile into the Fraternity of the Garter and for a Reciprocal had his Son the Prince admitted to the Order of the Golden-fleece he accompanied King Philip and his Queen to the City of London where they were entertained with the greatest Magnificence and Triumph that could be upon no greater warning And as soon as the Earl of Suffolk had been conveyed to the Tower which was the serious part the Jollities had an end and the Kings took leave Nevertheless during their being here they in substance concluded that Treaty which the Flemings term Intercursus malus and bears Date at Windsor for that there be some things in it more to the Advantage of the English than of them especially for that the Free-fishing of the Dutch upon the Coasts and Seas of England granted in the Treaty of Undecimo was not by this Treaty confirmed All Articles that confirm former Treaties being precisely and warily limited and confirmed to matter of Commerce only and not otherwise It was observed that the great Tempest which drave Philip into England blew down the Golden Eagle from the Spire of Pauls and in the fall it fell upon a Sign of the Black Eagle which was in Pauls Church-yard in the place where the School-House now standeth and battered it and brake it down Which was a strange stooping of a Hawk upon a Fowl This the People interpreted to be an Ominous Prognostick upon the Imperial House which was by Interpretation also fulfilled upon Philip the Emperor's Son not only in the Present Disaster of the Tempest but in that that followed For Philip arriving into Spain and attaining the Possession of the Kingdom of Castile without resistance insomuch as Ferdinando who had spoke so great before was with difficulty admitted to the speech of his Son-in-Law sickned soon after and deceased Yet after such time as there was an Observation by the wisest of that Court That if he had lived his Father would have gained upon him in that sort as he would have governed his Counsels and Designs if not his Affections By this all Spain returned into the power of Ferdinando in state as it was before the rather in regard of the infirmity of Joan his Daughter who loving her Husband by whom she had many Children dearly well and no less beloved of him howsoever her Father to make Philip ill beloved of the People of Spain gave out that Philip used her not well was unable in strength of mind to bear the Grief of his Decease and fell distracted of her Wits Of which Malady her Father was thought no ways to endeavour the Cure the better to hold his Regal Power in Castile So that as the Felicity of Charles the Eighth was said to be a Dream so the Adversity of Ferdinando was said likewise to be a Dream it passed over so soon About this time the King was desirous to bring into the House of Lancaster Celestial Honour and became Suitor to Pope Julius to Canonize King Henry the Sixt for a Saint the rather in respect of that his famous Prediction of the King 's own Assumption to the Crown Julius referred the matter as the manner is to certain Cardinals to take the verification of his Holy Acts and Miracles But it dyed under the Reference The general Opinion was that Pope Julius was too dear and that the King would not come to his Rates But it is more probable That that Pope who was extremely jealous of the Dignity of the See of Rome and of the Acts thereof knowing that King Henry the Sixt was reputed in the World abroad but for a Simple Man was afraid it would but diminish the Estimation of that kind of Honour if there were not a distance kept between Innocents and Saints The same year likewise there proceeded a Treaty of Marriage between the King and the Lady Margaret Duchess Dowager of Savoy only Daughter to Maximilian and Sister to the King of Castile a Lady wise and of great good Fame This Matter had been in speech between the two Kings at their meeting but was soon after resumed and therein was employed for his first piece the King 's then Chaplain and after the great Prelate Thomas Wolsey It was in the end concluded with great and ample Conditions
thus To many who perhaps will not at first consider that this work is but a Translation or seek advantages to expend their Censures his may seem impertinent But let them know that these Annals were first written In gratiam Exterorum Res nostras noscendi cupidorum So much witnesseth the first Latin Edition Peruse it and find it I am but an Interpreter of whom I hope thou wilt not expect a dictionaryTranslation Neither quarrel the omission of some things the knowledge whereof is to our Natives so innate that now to insert them were as bad as to farce with tautologies and make this little Volume nauseous Yet hath it lost nothing of its bulk whatsoever it hath of its splendour those defalcations being here and there in the course of the History supplied with not unnecessary additions whereto the Author's approbation and consent was not wanting As for errours of the Press blame the Printer not me If thou by this reap either profit or pleasure thank the Author whose benefit it is that thou hast it and that not tongue-tied but more than single-languaged Good is of it self diffusive and be participates so much of it that be cannot endeavour an envious confinement of it Farewel The Author's Epistle Dedicatory To my most Gracious Sovereign CHARLES King of Great Britain France and Ireland The most invict Defender of the Faith Most Royal Sir THese Commentaries containing the Acts of three Princes began about some ten years since under the Protection of Your most August Father to breathe the common air and but for so Gracious an Aspect had suffered even at the instant of their Birth For the errours of the Press had made them such as might have deterred even extreme Impudence from so presumptive a Dedication Yet such as they were they found Acceptance and Favour at His Royal Hands Hence am I encouraged to consecrate this second but corrected Edition to Your Majesty Who inherit as well Your Father's Virtues as his Kingdoms Neither indeed can it befit any other after KING JAMES of ever Sacred Memory Most humbly therefore beseecheth Your Majesty to daign it the like Gracious Acceptance who with the same Loyalty and Observance dedicateth and consecrateth to Your Majesty himself and his Your Majesties most humble Chaplain FR. HEREFD. The AUTHOR'S Preface to the READER AMong the many who have in Latin compiled the History of our Nation Polydor Virgil in the opinion of most excelleth not that he hath written either more truly or copiously than many others but more politely and latest of any that have taken pains in this kind For indeed it could not be that a Foreiner an Italian well gone in years even at his first arrival in England where being made Archdeacon of Wells he long survived not should not often erre in the delivery of our Affairs and in regard of his mere ignorance in the English tongue in silence bury many worthy passages recorded by our English Writers only It being therefore to be wished and is much desired that some one versed in our Antiquities would as Learned Master Camden hath already done for the description of the Island consecrate part of his learned labours to the Eternity of Britain not in reforming than obsolete Virgilian History but in composing a new one Our Antiquaries may justly be taxed of Sloth I had almost said slothfulness who had rather suffer the famous Acts of their Ancestors to dye eternally in silence and so as much as in them lieth defraud their Countrey of its true and deserved Glory than bestow any the least pains in commenting that so the examples of most eminent Virtues whereof the harvest here hath ever been most plentiful might not want the Record of their due Monuments This I hope some or other will in good time perform In the mean time others drawing back although I was never endued with such eloquence as that I should dare adventure the writing of an History but now especially vires ultra sortemque senectae when having passed the age of fifty long desuetude may have dulled my faculty of penning yet have I thought it might prove pains-worthy to undertake briefly in three small Commentaries to set forth the deeds of three Princes immediate Successors to Henry the Seventh so far forth as I have had notice of them And that partly that by touching at the fountain as they say I might stir up the wits of others partly that the desires of Foreiners might in some sort be satisfied who not without cause complain that these times than which for a thousand years we have had none more memorable in regard of their divers and remarkable changes are not described by any otherwise than slightly and as if they had not intended any such thing As for Polydor Virgil he hath written either nothing or very little concerning them and that little so false and misbeseeming the ingenuity of an Historian that he seemeth to have aimed at no other end than by bitter invectives against Henry the Eighth and Cardinal Wolsey to demerit the favour of Queen Mary already more than befitted incensed against both for the Divorce of her Mother I have therefore written friendly Reader and so written that although many things I will not deny conducing to an Historian may be wanting in me yet am I confident that this my endeavour will find acceptance with many Other Writers may here have as it were a store-house from whence they may if I be not deceived furnish themselves with some matter which may help to raise an everlasting Monument Foreiners also ignorant of the English tougue may have a tast of these times until some one arise who can and will compile a History of our Nation worthy the majesty of the British name I have in this work been so observant of Impartiality Simplicity and Truth that I fear nothing so much as a Domestick anger for not being pious enough because I would not be over-pious Many contend that a good Prince should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I think no man will affirm of an Historian though some seem to opine it So that he shall come short of his duty either to God or his Countrey who in the delivery of an History will not be at the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who by affirming incertainties and known truths shall not yield much to his affections so they be joyned with the love of Religion and Countrey But how much do they injure Truth who from lies and falshood beg helps to underprop her Avant We have no need of them And had we yet would it not much profit us to rely on such weak advantages one pious lye detected proving more hurtful than a thousand others although so artificially contrived that they avoid discovery can prove profitable For example whereof seek no farther than the Papists whose feigned Miracles Impostures and Legends patched up of lyes have brought to pass that even in those things which are true they
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
according to the Law which inflicted a pecuniary Mulct they that were touch'd saith Polydor Virgil cryed out that this proceeded out of Covetousness rather than Severity But the wiser sort conceived the King's intent to be partly to curb the fierce mind of the People bred up in faction partly that by these Fines he might not only weaken the rich but also increase his own strength and fortifie himself against civil Attempts whereof he had lately seen some sparkles flie abroad if so be any smothered coal should happen to break out into a flame What-ever the matter was many there were who by accusing others sought the King's favour and enlarged their own Estates amongst whom two were chief the one was called Richard Empson the other Edmund Dudley both Lawyers and both for having served the King's turn lately made Barons of the Exchequer It is said that Empson was born at Torcester in Northampton-shire his Father was a Sievier Dudley though he were well descended yet being not befriended by Fortune long strugled with Adversity But after they had some Months taken pains in these matters both of them arise to that greatness that there were few of the Nobility that would not crouch to them and be ambitious of their favour Therefore it is not so much to be wondred at if they grew exceeding wealthy But this Wealth drew with it an Envy greater than it self which nevertheless did them little hurt during the life of Henry the Seventh but afterwards cast them both down as low as Envy could have wisht The King upon his death-bed commanded in his Will and Testament that restitution should be made to all who had been wronged by the Exchequer Whereupon infinite numbers flocking to the Court and demanding restitution there could not a fitter means be thought of to stop their mouthes than by committing of Empson and Dudley the occasioners thereof to the People as Sacrifices to appease their fury They were therefore arraigned and condemned of high Treason And these things were done presently upon Henry the Eighth his coming to the Crown So their goods being seized upon they for a whole year endured the miseries that usually accompany a Prison and yet were the Commons as eager against them as ever Whence it should first arise I know not but such a report there was that the Queen had begged the poor mens Pardons The Nobility disdaining that such mean fellows had been heretofore so prevalent with their Prince and the Commons being easily incited against them by some as eager enemies to them as themselves cried out that they were cheated of their just revenge and wearying the King with continual petitions for their death he was in a manner forced to satisfie them Whereupon on the seventeenth day of August they were both publickly beheaded Such was the end of Empson and Dudley who abounding with Wealth and flourishing under their Prince's favour while they set light by all things else became a Sacrifice to the giddy multitude And it may serve to teach us to use our power moderately and to take heed how we give offence to that Beast with many heads I mean the People which being angred and having once got the reins rageth like a tumultuous Sea Dudley left behind him a Son named John who as if he had been heir to his Father's fortune being created Duke of Northumberland concluded his powerful life with the like unhappy end leaving much Issue behind him even to our time but yet whereof the heirs male have long since failed ANNO DOM. 1511. REG. 3. THis year on New-years-day the Queen was delivered of a Son Heir-apparant to this Crown but he out-lived not the three and twentieth of the ensuing February to the great grief of the King and Kingdom About the same time there came Ambassadors from Ferdinand King of Arragon who craved of the King his Son-in-Law fifteen hundred auxiliary Archers He was then in hostility with the Moors inhabiting Africk The King very willingly granted their request and having levied the full number embarqued them for Spain in four Ships of the Navy Royal under the command of Thomas Lord Darcy They were scarce arrived there when news was brought that a Peace being made Ferdinando stood in no farther need of their aid Yet every one was liberally paid the General and those of greatest note that accompanied him were richly rewarded and all being dismissed with many thanks safely returned home In their absence Margaret Duchess of Savoy who was Daughter to the Emperor Maximilian and Governess of the Netherlands under Charles the Infant of Spain prevailed with our King for the like number of Archers she having then Wars with the Duke of Gueldres against whom she meant to employ them These men in the space of five Months did many brave exploits at Brimnost Aske and Venloo under the command of Sir Edward Poynings a brave Souldier and in great favour with his Prince Of them fourteen hundred returned home much commended and well rewarded the fortune of War had cut off one hundred Four Captains in regard of their valour were Knighted by the Infant Charles afterwards Emperor viz. John Norton John Fog John Scot and Thomas Lynd. The King of Scots had then War with the Portugal under pretext whereof one Andrew Barton a famous Pirat took all Ships that coasted either England or Scotland affirming them always to be Portugals of what Nation soever they were or at least fraught with Portugal Merchandise The King sent Edward Howard Lord Admiral of England and his Brother the Lord Thomas Howard eldest Son to the Earl of Surrey with one John Hopton to take this Rover. When they had once found him out after a long and bloody fight they took him alive but mortally wounded with his two Ships and all his companions that survived the fight and brought them to London ANNO DOM. 1512. REG. 4. AS yet Henry had no War with any forein Prince neither did the wiser sort wish that he should have any But he a young King in the heat of one and twenty years was transported with a vehement desire of War which saith the Proverb is sweet to them that never tasted of it Although he had about a year or two before made a League with Lewis the Twelfth of France yet he was easily intreated by Pope Julius to renounce this Confederacy This Pope more like to that Caesar whose Name he bare than Peter from whom he would fain derive his Succession that like another Nero sitting still he might from on high be a Spectator while the whole World was on fire had written Letters to our King wherein he intreated his assistance towards the suppression of the French Who without fear of God or man these were the pretended Causes had not only sacrilegiously laid hold on the Revenues of the Church had caused Cardinal William to usurp the Papacy had upheld Alphonso of Ferara and the Bentivogli in Rebellion against him
but had also farther decreed to make Italy the Theatre of his Tyranny Wherefore he conjured him by the Love of our Saviour by the Piety of his Ancestors whose aids were never wanting when the Church stood in need and by the fast tye of Filial Obedience that he would enter into the Holy League of the Estates of Italy who had made choice of him for their General Jealousie and Reverence to the See of Rome so prevailed with him that he easily condescended to the Pope's request Yet that he might some way colour his action he would needs interpose himself as Umpire between the Pope and the French whom by his Ambassadors he intreats to lay aside Arms withal not obscurely threatning that if he did not so he intended to undertake the defence of the Pope against him the common disturber of the peace of Christendom The French set light by this Wherefore War is proclaimed by a Herald the French King commanded to part with the Kingdom of France and the Duchies of Normandy and Aquitain which he without right unjustly usurped Then entring into League with Maximilian the Emperor the Arragonois and the Pope they consult of assaulting the French with joynt forces The Arragonois invites us into Spain that thence we might invade France promising besides certain Troops of Horse store of Artillery Wagons for carriage Munition and many other things necessary for such an Expedition Our King relying on his Father-in-Law his promises levies a great Army whereof he ships one part for Spain and employs the other by Sea Edward Howard Lord Admiral had charge of the Sea forces who fought with the French Fleet in the Bay of Bretaigne In which Fight there was no memorable thing done besides the combat of the two great Ships the one having seven hundred English in it under the command of Sir Thomas Knevet the other nine hundred French under Primauget a Briton These Ships being both fast grapled after a long fight fell both on fire and were utterly consumed not a man being saved of whom it might be learned whether this fire happened by chance or were purposely kindled by a forced despair Our other Army under the command of the Lord Thomas Gray Marquis of Dorset amongst ten thousand tall English Souldiers had five hundred Germans under one Guint a Fleming This Army landed in Biscay where they spent some Months in expectation of due performances from the Arragonois who feeding them with promises only tempered the heat of our Men who were very eager upon the march for France It happened that Gaston of Foix Competitor for the Kingdom with John King of Navarr dyed about the same time The Navarrois had promised Ferdinand some aids toward this War But now fearing no Competitor he whether out of inconstancy or that he thought his affairs so required secretly by his Agents makes a League with the French Upon this Ferdinand turns his Arms upon the Navarrois and strains all his strings to draw our men to the same attempt but the Marquis of Dorset pleaded his Commission beyond which he could not with safety proceed The Navarrois was utterly unprovided and the Nobility so divided into the factions of the Egremonts and the Beaumonts that he could do nothing It was bruited that two mighty Kings came against him with no less forces what should he do To hope from France were vain the French were too far off and deeply engaged in other Wars At the approach of the Spaniard he quits his Kingdom and with his Wife and Children flying over the Pyrenaean Mountains makes Bern his receptacle Ferdinand having thus gotten a new Kingdom casts off all farther thought of France only intending the confirmation of his Conquest to which end he intreats of Henry the help of our Forces raised for France and prevails but to no purpose For the English having their Bodies inflamed with the intolerable heat of a strange Climate and the drinking of strong Wines dropt down every where insomuch that we lost about a thousand some say eighteen hundred men in an instant Wherefore impatient of farther delay they force their Commanders to set sail homeward The King was mightily enraged at their return insomuch that he once thought to have punished them for their obstinacy But the multitude of Delinquents proyed a pardon to all They did forth in May and returned a little before Christmass ANNO DOM. 1513. REG. 5. ABout the beginning of this year the King assembled the high Court of Parliament wherein War against France was determined and a mighty mass of Money granted by the Commons Whereupon in the very beginning of the Spring a Fleet is set forth consisting of two and forty Men of War besides Victuallers and lesser Vessels The Lord Admiral who had the charge of this Fleet too too eagerly hunting after Honour by his rashness frustrated the designs of so goodly preparations He attempts to land in the Haven near adjoyning to Brest where striving in person to set foot first in the Enemies Countrey he with a Spear born over-board and drowned was the only man of all that Fleet that came short home He therein performed rather the part of a private Souldier than of a Commander For his death brought back this headless Fleet into England Where the King makes the Lord Thomas Howard Admiral in the place of his deceased younger Brother exhorting him by employing his service for his Countries honour to revenge his Brother's inglorious death This new Admiral with great speed brings his Navy out of Harbour and scouring up and down the Seas strook such a terrour into the French that not so much as a Fisher-boat durst peep abroad At last he lands in Whitsand-Bay ransacks all the Countrey thereabout and without resistance returns safe to his Ships In the mean time the King having raised a mighty Army arrives at Calais the last of June with a Fleet of four hundred Sail. The one and twentieth of July he marcheth with all his forces into the French Territory and having sent some Ensigns before to besiege Terovenne a City in Picardy he takes his way thither intending in person to sit down before it with all the strength of his Army By the way he meets the French near Dernom They at first seem resolved to fight but whether they distrusted their own strength and so purposely declined an unequal combat or as by our side it is reported that our Ordnance being conveniently placed disordered them and that so they betook themselves to flight as if it had been all one for us to see them and conquer them away they went and could not any where afterward be discried by us So without any let our Army came before Terovenne This City had according to the relation of our Writers four thousand Defendants whereof six hundred were Horse The place being so well fortified it had been no hard matter to have defended it against a mighty Army if so be they had
been accordingly provided of other necessaries but they were wanting Wherefore they certified their King to what an exigent they were brought But he had his hands full elsewhere For the Spaniard had made an inroad into Aquitain and Navarre and the Suisses having lately overthrown Tremoville at Novarr had now coopt him up in Dijon in Burgoigne insomuch that his Forces being by these occasions distracted he himself had not under his Colours above twenty thousand Foot the moiety whereof were Lansquenets under the command of the Duke of Gueldres and two thousand five hundred Launces With these he comes to Amiens that the hope of Succours he being so near might encourage the Defendants For it much concerned him that the Siege should be drawn out at length In our Army were forty thousand Foot and five thousand Horse so that there was no likelihood of doing any good against us Neither indeed did the French intend especially at that time to hazard the fortune of a Battel the loss whereof in the judgment of the more expert would have been accompanied with no less than the loss of the Kingdom which would easily have followed our Victory The French King therefore sitting still at Amiens left he might seem to neglect such a City the danger whereof did throughly grieve him sends some Troops toward Therovenne with instructions to put into the City eighty Horse-men compleatly armed but without Horses the besieged desiring no other aid if possibly it could be effected as it easily was by reason of the negligence of our Centinels For indeed the desuetude of a long Peace had made our men altogether unapt for War But the indiscretion of the French far surpassed our negligence For whereas with the same hazard they might have victualled the besieged and furnished them with other necessaries which they wanted desiring but too late to amend this errour they would needs effect it the same way as before But our men had by this time raised a new Fortification to hinder their entrance and had withal placed in ambush store of Horse with fifteen thousand Foot to cut them off in their retreat The French came near the Walls but finding all entrance debarred returned without suspition of any intended mischief They had not gone far when some as if they had been out of their Enemies reach impatient of the heat cast off their Helmets some fell a drinking most leave their Horses of service and for their ease mount on little Nags Our men charge them unawares and without any resistance made put them to rout The French in this encounter lost three hundred Horse There were taken Prisoners Lewis de Longueville Marquis of Rotelin Badi Clermont d'Anjou 〈◊〉 d'Amboise Bayard La Fayet and Palisse who escapt out of Prison with many others It was then the opinion of most men that this Victory if we had but made due use of it laid an easie way for us to the Conquest of France For the French were so affrighted with the news of this overthrow that they thought of nothing but flying and the King himself with tears in his eyes bewailing his hard fortune cast about for some place of refuge and determined to post into base Bretaigne But we looking no farther than Therovenne brought our Prisoners into the Camp and without farther proscution left the Enemies to their fears The French call this The Battel of Spurs because they trusted more to their Heels than their Swords The Therovennois after this overthrow despairing of Succour came to a Parley and by the advice of their King yield up the City the three and twentieth of August upon condition That the Souldiers might depart with Bag and Baggage Colours flying and Drums beating and the Citizens permitted to carry away their goods A few days before the City was yielded Maximilian the Emperour came to our Camp and which deserves to be recorded to the eternal honour of our Nation taking for pay a hundred Crowns a day besides what was disbursed among his Souldiers disdained not to serve under our Colours wearing the Cross of England and a party-coloured Rose the usual Cognizance of our English Warfare But he rather came to be a Spectator than a Partaker in the danger Wherefore when he saw into what straights our King was likely to drive the French being weak if he would press hard upon him and pierce farther into the Kingdom although he were a profest Enemy to the French yet was he jealous of our prosperous proceeding and therefore by all means perswaded Henry To dismantle Therovenne and thence to proceed to the Siege of Tournay He blamed him not without just cause for his late setting forth Summer being first well-near spent Winter was now at hand when it would not quit cost to maintain such an Army good designs being not then to be put in execution He told him That Therovenne was so far from him that it could not be kept without great difficulty therefore he should do well to dismantle it that it might not hereafter serve for a Bulwark to the the Enemy That Tournay was a French City but like an Island with the Sea surrounded with Flanders and Hainault and far divided from the rest of France True it was that it was well stored with inhabitants and not meanly fortified but that there was no other Garrison than of Citizens and those he should find effeminate and for Provision that they had none He should therefore make speed and come on them unawares and with a few days siege force them to yield That the French King if he intended to succour them must first march through all Hainault and pass over two or three great Rivers amongst which were the Escaut and the Scarp That the Souldiers should find good booties there and the King himself the triumph of a most assured Conquest That the addition of such a City would be no mean increase of his Dominions and so much the less care to be taken of it for as much as it would be as easie for him to keep it in obedience as it was for the French for the space of so many years to defend it being placed amidst so many Enemies that still had a greedy eye over it King Henry by this time had so much of War that he began to be weary of the toil thereof and to cast his mind on the pleasures of the Court Wherefore although he wanted not Counsellors for the best he followed the Emperour's advice as being the more easie The Flemings who begged it of the King had leave to rase the Walls of Therovenne to fill the Ditches and to burn all the Buildings except the Church and the Chanons houses which they in regard of the dissentions usual to bordering Nations very gladly performed Therovenne being thus taken and destroyed away they march with all speed to Tournay endeavouring by their celerity to prevent the fame of their coming But the Citizens suspecting some such enterprize
had fortified themselves as well as the shortness of time would permit them and the Peasants thereabouts bring all their goods into the City as to a place of safeguard The City was of no great circuit yet at the beginning of the Siege it contained fourscore thousand People by reason whereof Victuals began quickly to fail them and they could no way hope for relief The French King was far off they had no Garrison the Citizens bad Soldiers two great Princes had begirt the Town with fifty thousand men but they had an Enemy within called Famine more cruel and insupportable than both So having for some few days held out the Siege the nine and Twentieth of September their lives being granted them they yield and to save themselves from spoil pay a hundred thousand Crowns The King makes them swear Fealty to him and appoints Sir Edward Poynings a Knight of the Garter their Governour Next he gives order for store of Warlike provision puts in a small Garrison and builds a Cittadel for the confirmation of his Conquest Neither amongst these Politick affairs did he neglect those of the Church For the Bishop being proscribed he conferrs the See with all the revenues upon Thomas Wolsey of whose first rising and immoderate Power we shall have much occasion to speak hereafter All things being thus ordered because Winter came on apace he began to bethink himself of returning with his Army into England This thought so far pleased him that having been absent scarce four Months he took Ship and about the end of October came home triumphing in the Glory of a double Conquest By the way he was entertained with the news of another Victory the Lord Howard Earl of Surrey having under his Fortune slain the King of Scots The King of France being encumbred with many Wars had conjured James the Fourth King of Scots By the ancient Laws of Amity and the late League made between them that He would not forsake him entangled in so many difficulties If He regarded not his Friend's case yet he should at least look to Himself sor whom it would not be safe to suffer a bordering Nation always at enmity with Him by such additions to arise to that height of power The King of England busied with a forein War was now absent and with Him the flower of the English Chivalry He should therefore forthwith take Arms and try to recover Berwick an especial Town of the Scottish Dominions but for many years with-held by the English He would easily be victorious if He would but make use of this occasion so happily offered It could not be but this War would be for His Honour and profitable to His Friend if not to Himself He should thereby also make known to His Enemies that the Scottish Arms were not to be contemned whose former Victories a long and to them hurtful Peace had obscured and buried in oblivion among the English As for the charges of it He need not be troubled for that he would afford Him fifty thousand Crowns towards the providing of Munition and Ordnance These Reasons so prevailed with the young King covetous of glory that notwithstanding he had lately made a League with our King whose Sister he had married and her vehement dissuasions he proclaimed War against Henry which proved fatal to him bloody to his and the cause of many ensuing calamities So having raised a great Army he breaks into our Marches and besiegeth Norham-Castle belonging to the Bishop of Durham the which having held out six days was at last yielded unto him Thence he removes his Camp to Berwick wasting all the Countrey as he marcht with Fire and Sword The news whereof are brought unto them to whom the government of the Kingdom was committed in the absence of the King and a levy being made through all the North parts of the Kingdom Alnewike is appointed the rendezvous where all the Troops should meet at a set day that thence they might set forward against the Enemy under the conduct of the Lord Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Among the first to his Father's great joy comes the Earl's Son Thomas Lord Admiral leading a veteran Troop of five thousand men of tryed valour and haughty in regard of their former Naval Victories obtained under the command of this young Lord. After him came the Lords Dacres Clifford Scrope Latimer Canyers Lumley and Ogle besides Sir Nicholas Appleyard Master of the Ordnance Sir W. Percie Sir William Sidney Sir William Bulmer Sir John Stanley Sir William Molineux Sir Thomas Strangwayes Sir Richard Tempest and many other Knights These sitting in Council thought it best to send an Herald to the King to expostulate with him concerning the outrages committed to complain that He had without all right or reason spoiled the Countrey of a Prince not only Ailied unto him but also his Confederate and therefore to certifie him that they were ready by Battel to revenge the breach of League if so be he durst await their coming but a few days in a ground that might be fitting for the meeting of both Armies The King makes answer by writing wherein He retorts the violation of the League calling God to witness that King Henry had first by his many injuries shown evident signs of an alienated mind For the English he pretended robbed all along the Marches of Scotland without restitution or punishment Andrew Barton a stout and bonest man had been unjusty slain by the King's command and one Heron who had murthered Robert Car a Scottish Noble-man vaunted himself openly in England the King taking no notice of so heinous a fact Of these things he had often complained by his Ambassadors but without effect There was therefore no other way for him but to betake himself to Arms for the common defence of himself and his Kingdom against the King's injustice As for the meeting he signified that he accepted of it and appointed both time and place for the Battel Neither party failed the prefixed day The Scot seeks to animate his men by taking away all hope of safeguard by flight commanding them I know not how wisely but the event shewed how unhappily for them to forsake their Horses forasmuch as they were to trust to their Hands not to their Horses heels and by his own example shewing what he would have done he alights and prepares himself to fight on foot The rest doing the like the whole Army encountred us on foot to whom after a long and bloody fight the fortune of the Victory inclined The Scots had two and twenty pieces of great Ordnance which stood them in no stead For our men climbing up a Hill where the Enemy sate hovering over us the shot passed over our heads Our chief strength were our Archers who so incessantly played upon four Wings of Scots for the King divided his Army into five Battalions that were but lightly armed that they forced them to flie and leave their fellows who
Lady Mary his Sister who afterward was married to the King of France thought it first good to honour him with the Duchy of Suffolk which this year at the feast of Candlemas was performed But how he was frustrated of his hopes and afterward beyond all hope enjoyed her shall be declared hereafter Somerset the natural Son of Henry of the House of Lancaster the last Duke of Somerset took his surname of his Father's Honour whereas he should have been called Beaufort or rather Plantagenet according to the ancient name of our English Kings He being Cousin-german to Henry the Seventh whose Mother was Margaret Sister to the Duke of Somerset and famous for his many Virtues of which that King was a quick and exact Judge and was by him made Lord High Chamberlain of England But having behaved himself very valiantly in this last Expedition against the French wherein Guicciardin untruly reporteth him to have been slain Henry the Eighth added this new Title which his Posterity still enjoyes to his ancient Honours He was great Grandfather by his Son Henry and Nephew William to Edward the now Earl who being one of His Majesties most Honorable Privy Council and Lord Privy Seal doth by his virtues much more ennoble his so noble Ancestors The French King hearing of the overthrow of the Scots perceiving himself deprived of such a Friend and Confederate seeing his Kingdom on fire about his ears and none to rely upon but himself determined if so he might fairly and with credit to renew his League with us Pope Julius the Second the Incendiary of Christendom was lately dead and the French King himself was now a Widower He therefore intends to try whether by marrying the Lady Mary the King's Sister he might secure himself from War on our side and by so near alliance gain the assured Friendship of so potent a Prince Leo the Tenth succeeding Julius the Second did openly side with the French against the Spaniard He therefore earnestly soliciting a reconciliation a Peace was concluded profitable to the French acceptable to us and on the ninth of October the Nuptials were with great pomp solemnized The French King was well stricken in years his Wife a tender Virgin of some sixteen or eighteen years of age but wonderful beautiful Besides the forementioned reasons the desire of Children for he had no Male Issue on his part on her part the good of the publick weal the authority of her Brother so willing and which bears chiefest sway in a Womans heart the supremacy of Honour in the title of a Queen were motives to match so uneven a Pair But many not without cause were persuaded that she had rather have made choice of Brandon for her Husband so her power had been answerable to her will than the greatest Monarch in the World neither was it long before she enjoyed her desire For the King as it often happens to elderly Men that apply themselves to young Women dyed the last of February having scarce three Months survived his Wedding The Queen might then lawfully according to the Articles of agreement return into England which she earnestly desiring the Duke of Suffolk was sent to conduct her who becoming a fresh Suitor unto her so far easily prevailed that before their departure from Paris they were there privately married The Marriage was afterward by the King's consent celebrated at Greenwich the thirteenth day of May of the ensuing year And now we must speak something of Wolsey's sudden and for these our times incredible rising who having as we have related before been invested in the Bishoprick of Tournay was within the year preferred to two other Bishopricks That venerable Bishop of Lincoln William Smith was lately deceased who beside many other Monuments of his Piety having begun in Oxford a College for Students called Brazen-nose-College was immaturely taken away before he could finish so good a work So the See being vacant it is conferred on Wolsey now high in the King's favour He was of very mean parentage a Butcher's Son and Ipswich a Town in Suffolk but of Norwich Diocess where he afterward laid the foundation of a stately College was the place of his Birth He was brought up at Oxford in Magdalen-College and afterward became Master of the Free-School thereto belonging Among other Scholars the Sons of the Marquess of Dorset were committed to his trust and for his care over them the Parsonage of Limington in Somersetshire no very mean one was bestowed on him As soon as he had set footing there he was very disgracefully entertained by Sir Amias Powlet who clapt him in the Stocks a punishment not usually inflicted upon any but Beggars and base people What the matter was that so exasperated him against Wolsey a man not of least account I know not This I know that Wolsey being afterward made Cardinal and Lord Chancellor of England so grievously punished this injury that Sir Amias Powlet was fain to dance attendance at London some years and by all manner of obsequiousness to curry favour with him There remains to this day a sufficient testimony hereof in a Building over the Gate of the Middle Temple in London built by the Knight at the time of his attendance there and decked round about very sumptuously with the Cardinal's Arms hoping thereby somewhat to allay the wrath of the incensed Prelate But these things were long after this year Wolsey whether that he could not brook this disgrace or beating a mind that lookt beyond this poor Benefice left it and became domestick Chaplain to Sir John Nafant Treasurer of Calais by whose means he was taken notice of by Fox Bishop of Winchester a man that knew rightly how to judge of good wits He finding this young man to be very sprightful of Learning sufficient and very active in dispatch of Affairs so highly commended him to King Henry the Seventh who relied much upon Fox's faith and wisdom that he thought it good forthwith to employ him in Affairs of great moment What need many words he so far pleased the King that in short time he became a great man and was first preferr'd to the Deanry of Lincoln and then made the King's Almoner But Henry the Eighth a young Prince coming to the Crown was wholly taken with his smooth tongue and pliable behaviour For when all the rest of his friends advised him to sit every day in person at the Council-Table that so by experience and daily practice he might reap Wisdom and to accustom himself to the managing of Affairs of Estate Wolsey advised him to follow his Pleasures saying That his Youth would not be able to brook their tedious Consultations every Age of man had its Seasons and Delights agreeable They did not do well that would force the King to act an Old man before his time Youth being utterly averse from wrinckled Severity It would come to pass hereafter if God were so pleased that what was now troublesom
the never satisfied ambition and malice of one man but so that it made way for that great alteration which afterward happened in the estate of the Church Blessed be that almighty Power that converts the wicked designs of men to the good of his Church and his own glory The Parliament being dissolved the Duke of Suffolk is sent into France with thirteen thousand men viz. six hundred Launces two hundred Archers on horse-back three thousand Archers on foot five thousand Halberdiers seventeen hundred drawn out of the Garrison of Calais and two thousand six hundred Pioners The English and Imperials joining invaded the French Dominions took Roye Mondidier Bohain Bray Chasteaubeau and marching within twenty two leagues of Paris put the City in a terrible affright until the Lord of Brion sent by the King with the comfortable news of the coming of the Duke of Vendosme with four hundred Launces makes them take heart again After these exploits our Forces toward the end of December were recalled In the mean time on the fourteenth of September died Pope Adrian the Sixth in whose place Julius Medices was after two months elected Here Wolsey again failed in his hopes who expected by the help of the Emperour and the King to have succeeded Adrian But the Emperour never intended this dignity for him for he did his best for Julius Neither indeed had he been willing could he have advanced him to the Chair For the Cardinals were in so short a time weary of Adrian who was a stranger and little acquainted with the Court of Rome And the College repined to see any other sit in St. Peter's Chair than an Italian or at least one bred up in Italy Nevertheless Wolsey was so incensed against the Emperour by whose default he was verily persuaded it happened that he missed of the Papacy that now bidding hope farewel he was possessed with a desire to be revenged on the Emperour for his conceived injury He therefore on a sudden turns French and to hinder the Emperour's proceedings procured our Forces to be called home pretending the ill season of the year with promise that the next Spring they should be returned again ANNO DOM. 1524. REG. 16. BUt Charles having not given any just cause of breach Wolsey dared not publickly to profess his affection toward the French with whom notwithstanding by the intercourse of one John Joachim a Geniuese he maintains intelligence and without the privity of Henry lays the platform of a new League The War was very hot between the Emperour and the French Francis had already taken Milan and with a mighty Army sate down before Pavia vowing not to rise from thence until he had taken it The Duke of Bourbon and the Imperials were in number little inferiour and stood in want of nothing but money indeed all in all wherewith the Pope the Venetians and our Henry were to furnish him Clement although he had obtained the Papacy chiefly by Charles his means detained the money which his predecessor Adrian had promised saying it beseemed not his Holiness to intermeddle with the Wars of Princes The Venetians at first answered coldly at length plainly denied for they stood in awe of the French and were jealous of the Emperour's ambition And the malicious Cardinal had so played his part with Henry that the Imperials disappointed of the monthly summs due from him were exceedingly distressed Now Wolsey to make a separation between these two Princes told the King that he certainly found that the Emperour did but delude him that he had indeed promised to marry the King's Daughter but a rumour was raised by the Spaniards That this match would be little either for his profit or his honour forasmuch as upon the point the Lady Mary was but a Bastard begotten it is true in wedlock yet incestuously the match being by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions made unlawful for he could not lawfully marry Queen Catharine who had been before married to his Brother Prince Arthur That both the Old and New Testaments were express against such conjunctions and that therefore it lay not in the Pope to dispense with them It is certain that the Emperour's Ambassadors had thus discoursed with Wolsey upon this very point and Wolsey made his use of it accordingly He knew the King doated not on his Queen and buzzed these things in his ears in hope he would bethink himself of a new Wife This taking as he desired and the King lamenting that for lack of Issue he should leave the Kingdom to a Child to a Woman to One whom in regard the lawfulness of her birth was questionable he could not with safety make his Heir the Cardinal proposed unto him for Wife Margaret Duchess of 〈◊〉 a beautiful Lady and Sister to the King of France He knew that upon his Divorce from Catharine and Marriage with the other Henry must of necessity fall foul with the Emperour and without hope of reconciliation strongly adhere to the French That this Divorce was for these reasons set on foot by Wolsey the Imperial Historians do all accord neither for ought I ever read do Ours deny But howsoever it came to pass this is certain That Henry instead of furnishing the Emperour with the money he had promised demanded all that he had already lent ANNO DOM. 1525. REG. 17. R Ichard Pacey Dean of St. Pauls had been not long before sent to Venice as an Agent concerning our affairs in Italy He was a very Learned man and worthy had God been so pleased of a better Destiny He knew not the change of the King's mind But perceiving the monthly pay due from the King according to promise came not of whose Honour which now lay at stake he was very tender he was much discontented To salve all he assaied to take up so much money of certain Merchants with whom it seems he in part prevailed But the summ was so small that it stood the Imperials in as small stead and yet so great that it exceeded the ability of his private estate to make satisfaction Upon notice of the King's alienation from the Emperour he fell irrecoverably distracted In the mean time the Duke of Bourbon and the Imperials were in so great distress and want of all things that unless they could by some stratagem or other draw the French to commit all to the fortune of a Battel the Army must needs disband They disquiet and try the French especially in the night preceding St. Matthias-day which was the day of the Emperour Charles his nativity with many false Alarms They make two Squadrons of Horse and four of Foot The first consisting of six thousand Lansquenets Spaniards and Italians under the command of the Marquess of Guasto the second of Spanish Foot under the Marquess of Pescara the third and fourth of Lansquenets under the Viceroy Launoy and the Duke of Bourbon They came to a Wall called the Park-wall and under the covert of the night cast down above
sixty paces enter within it the first Squadron taking the way to Mirabell the rest marching toward the King's Army The King thought the Imperials went to Mirabell as making choice of the plain open fields to fight in He was unwilling to leave the besieged at liberty and yet the Plains were advantageous for his Horse He therefore commands his Artillery to be discharged which somewhat endamaged them and though unwilling draws his Forces out of their trenches than which the Imperials desired nothing more and opposed the whole strength of his Army against them But passing before the Cannon hinders their execution They that took the way to Mirabell now turn head and both Armies engage themselves in a cruel fight wherein the King more following Shadows than Substances and the idle rumours of the vulgar than the means of a most certain and glorious Victory is overthrown and taken prisoner losing beside the flower of the French Nobility almost all either taken or slain at one blow the Duchy of Milan the possession whereof had made him Lord of the greatest part of Lombardy Pope Clement who had left the Emperour for the French which he afterward repented often advertised the King that the Imperials were in great distress and want that they continually mutinied for lack of pay that he had taken so sufficient order with the King of England and the rest of the Confederates that they should continue bare enough of money If therefore he would but hold his hand and forbear to fight necessity enforcing the Imperials to disband he should be victorious without bloodshed But he was not capable of so good advice His Forces were great yet short of his account his Captains treacherously abusing him in not furnishing those numbers of Foot for which they received pay and it were equally a dishonour to him either to seem to avoid the Enemy or to lie still so long at a Siege to no purpose The Divine Power having decreed to chastise him permitted him through impatience to run headlong into these errours which so deeply plunged him in those calamities that without God's especial favour had proved fatal to him and his France When I consider this and many other the like chances happening as well in the course of a private man's life as in publick affairs I cannot but wonder at the sottish valour of this Age wherein rather than endure the touch of the least though false aspersion we will run the hazard both of life and fortunes How many brave men do we daily see wonderful ingenious in this kind of folly 〈◊〉 who standing upon I know not what Points of Honour upon the least offence challenge the field and wilfully seek out their own destruction What in God's name is become of the patience of that lingering Fabius who quietly bearing the bitter taunts and mocks of his Souldiers of the People and the Senate yet brought home an easie though late Victory We are certainly too blame with the Dog we catch at the shadow and lose the substance Of our Saviour we shall learn that it is the highest point of Fortitude In patience to possess our Souls And according to Aristotle true Valour is regardless of ill language Mordear approbriis falsis mutemque colores Falsus honor juvat mendax infamia terret Quem nisi mendosum mendacem It is Horace Back-bitten must I needs turn pale for it False honours please and lying slanders fright Whom but the unworthy and vain-glorious wight In the Tent of the captive King the Letters of the Pope and our King concerning their late League with the French being found the Duke of Bourbon now knew the cause why supplies of Money came in so slowly And Prat Leiger here for the Emperour upon notice of it without leave withdrew himself from Court and on the ninth of April secretly departed the land In the mean time Henry little suspecting that these secret compacts were known to the Emperour about the end of March sent Ambassadors to him Cutbert Tonstal Bishop of London and Sir Richard Wingfield Knight of the Garter by whom He did congratulate his late victorious success admonishing him to a close pursuit of his fortunes That if his Imperial Majesty intended with greater forces to oppress the already vanquished in regard of the strict tie of Friendship between them his necessary endeavours should in no sort be wanting What answer the Emperour gave I know not It is very likely he paid the King in his own coin and dissembled with the Dissembler but having courteously entertained our Ambassadors as courteously dismissed them But the King wants money and must now dissemble with his Subjects He pretended War with France and with this key hopes to open his Subjects coffers The expectation of supplies by a Parliament would prove tedious some shorter course must be taken Money is therefore demanded by Proclamation and that no less than according to the sixth part of every man's Moveables Divers great personages appointed Commissioners use all fair means to draw the people to contribute But although they sate in Commission in divers parts of the Kingdom at one and the same time they were so far from prevailing that as if the people had universally conspired it was every where denied and the Commissioners very ill entreated not without further danger of sedition and tumult Hereupon the King calls a Parliament to be held at London wherein he professeth himself to be utterly ignorant of these intolerable courses by such burthenous taxations The King disclaiming it every one seeks to free himself The Cardinal was at last fain to take all upon himself protesting That as a faithful Servant he had no further end in it than the profit of his Lord the King and that he had advised not only with his Majesties Council which they all acknowledged but also with the Learned in the Laws both Divine and Humane whose opinion it was That the King might lawfully take the same course that Pharaoh did who by the ministery of Joseph sequestred a certain portion of every mans private estate for the publick good But the dislike of the people occasioned by this though fruitless project was greater than could be removed by this excuse And yet this project was not altogether fruitless the King 's apparent want affording a sufficient pretext of deferring the War with France until another year Neither was it the King's intent to make use of his advantages over the French who now lay open to all his blows Henry having put away his Wife the Emperour must needs be netled and then the amity of France would stand him in some stead Indeed Catharine was a noble and a virtuous Lady but she had lived so long as to make her Husband weary of her He affected the Daughter of Sir Thomas Bolen Treasurer of his Houshold Her he intends to marry and to be divorced from the other For he did in his soul abhor this incestuous Match
Himself and the whole Realm had found the profitable and wholesom effects of the Cardinal's endeavours who should reap this fruit of Luther's railing that whereas he loved him very well before he would now favour him more than ever That among other of the Cardinal 's good deeds this was one that he took especial care that none of Luther's leprosie contagion and heresie should cleave to or take root in this Kingdom Then he upbraided him with his 〈◊〉 marriage with a Nun a crime as heinous and abominable as any At this Answer which the King caused to be printed Luther grieved much blaming his friends that had occasioned it saying That he wrote in that humble manner only to please his Friends and that he now plainly saw how much he was mistaken That he committed the like errour in writing friendly at the request of others to Cardinal Cajetan George Duke of Saxony and Erasmus the fruits whereof were that he made them the more violent That he shewed himself a fool in hoping to find Piety and Zeal in Princes Courts in seeking CHRIST in the Kingdom of Satan in searching for John Baptist among the Cloathed in Purple But being he could not prevail by fair means he would take another course The late mention of Erasmus puts me in mind of a Book written by him either this or the year passed at the entreaty of the King and the Cardinal as he himself in an Epistle confesseth entituled De Libero Arbitrio whereto Luther made a quick Reply writing a Book De Servo Arbitrio ANNO DOM. 1526. REG. 18. MAny reasons might move the Emperour to seek the continuation of a Peace with England The French although they concealed 〈◊〉 their King being not yet at liberty intend to revenge their late overthrow The Turk prepares for Hungary the King whereof Lewis had married Ann the Emperour's Sister Almost all Italy by the Pope's means combined against Charles whose power is now become formidable And Germany it self the Boors having lately been up in arms being scarce pacified doth yet every where threaten new tumults In this case the enmity of Henry must necessarily much impeach his proceedings But many things again urge him on the other side his Aunts disgrace for of this he long since had an inkling the late League concluded under-hand with the French but that which swaied above all was the dislike of his promised match with the King's Daughter That the Queen his Aunt might be reconciled to her Husband there might yet be some hope The League with France especially the French King's case being now so desperate might be as easily broken as it was made But this Match did no way sort to his mind which he had either for love or for some other private respects setled elsewhere Isabella Sister to John King of Portugal was a brave beautiful Lady and had a Dowry of nine hundred thousand Ducats Mary was neither marriagable nor beautiful yet her by agreement must he marry without any other Dowry than those four hundred thousand Crowns which he had borrowed of Henry The Wars had drawn his Treasury dry and his Subjects in Spain being required to relieve their Prince do plainly perhaps not without subornation of some principal persons deny it unless he marry Isabella one in a manner of the same Lineage of the same Language and Nation and of years sufficient to make a Mother By way of service Custom growing to a Law they are to give their King at his Marriage four hundred thousand Ducats if he will in this be pleased to satisfie their request they promise to double the usual summ For these reasons when Henry sent Ambassadors to treat again whether sincerely or no I cannot say concerning the renewing of the League the Marriage of the Lady Mary and of War in France to be maintained at the common charge of both Charles answered but coldly and at last even in the very Nuptial solemnities sends to excuse his Marriage to the King whereunto the undeniable desires of his Subjects had in a manner forced him Some do farther add that concerning that part of the Embassage of War against France our demands were such as if they had been purposely coined by Wolsey to force the Emperour to the priority of an apparent breach For the King demanded no smaller share in the Conquest than Picardy Normandy Guien Gascoign with the title of King of France and that the Emperour partaking both of Peril and Charge should himself serve in Person But Charles wanting money and tired with continual peril if he regard either his safety and ease or his profit must not give his assent especially considering that the captive-King made larger offers and those with Peace than these yea although he became victorious with War the event whereof being always doubtful no man can assure himself of wished success Neither indeed did Henry expect any other issue of his Embassy than a flat refusal For at the same time he deals with the Regent the captive-King's Mother to send over some trusty person with whom he might consult of the main chance which she gladly did dispatching away the Lord of Brion President of Rouen and John Joachim with a large Commission and Instructions by all submissive and fair language to perswade the King to persist in the prosecution of this new League For indeed she much feared lest the consideration of his advantages over the tottering Estate of France might make him flie off again France was already distressed what would it be if the Emperour pressing hard on the one side and Duke of Bourbon a home-bred enemy revolting besides many other occasions the English should infest it on the other side In England these Agents found their entertainments such that they could not but hope well especially making means to the Cardinal who yet swayed the King Wolsey long since disaffected the Emperour but now made his hate apparent Charles before the Battel of Pavy sent no Letters to the Cardinal but entirely written by himself and subscribed Your Son and Cousin CHARLES After this Victory he sent one or two subscribed barely with his Name without the usual solemn form or any signification of favour or respect These were evident tokens of an alienated mind and Wolsey durst view hates with him Neither did he deal otherwise with Henry than as one beneath him being now puffed up with the conceit of that great Victory for the obtaining whereof Henry did bear a part in the charge though indeed not so great as he promised The King's affairs now stood upon those terms that renouncing the strict alliance with the Emperour hitherto by so many ties kept inviolable he must make a party with the French Brion therefore at the Council-Table having audience Deplores his Prince's calamity and the miseries inflicted upon his Countrey by their late overthrow He calleth to mind what Trophies the English erected in France when the Estate of it was most flourishing
withal acknowledging that France being now as it were in the Sun-set of its Fortune occasion was offered of advancing the English Colours farther than ever But it would neither beseem so magnanimous a King nor would it be for the good of England at this time to invade it A generous mind scorneth to insult over one already dejected Neither would the Victory beside the fortune of War want its dangers 〈◊〉 to be communicated with one already become so potent that no 〈◊〉 than the united Forces of all Europe would serve to stop the current of his fortune which must necessarily be done unless we could be content willingly to undergo the miseries of a Spanish servitude He therefore craved of his Majesty that leaving the Emperour who puffed up with his late success contemned his best Friends he would vouchsafe to make a League with the King his Master whom in this so great a time of need if he would be pleased to raise as it were from the ground he should by so great a benefit oblige him to a faithful Friendship which he should upon all occasions be ready to manifest unless for foul Ingratitude he had rather undergo the censure of the Christian World Having delivered thus much in Latin Sir Thomas More afterward Lord Chancellor returned this answer in Latin likewise That the King was well pleased that the French acknowledged he wanted not power to revenge old injuries that having felt his Force they should also tast of his Bounty that he would do the utmost of his endeavour to set their Captive King at liberty Which if he effected he hoped when he had occasion to make use of their King he would not be unmindful of so good a turn freely done in so urgent a season In the mean time he was content to make a perpetual Peace with them As for the Emperour he would consider what to determine of him So a most firm League is concluded with the French the Regent undertaking for her Son and a separation from the Emperour so openly made that the first thing concluded between them was That it should not be lawful for the French King in lieu of his ransom to consign any part of his Kingdom to the Emperour The French were glad of this League who now began to conceive some hope of good being secure of England Indeed it made so great an impression in the heart of Francis that in his care of our affairs for many years together he shewed himself mindful of so great a benefit These things were done in the Winter season A little after Francis having been a year Prisoner in Spain was upon these Conditions at length set at liberty That as soon as be came into France he should consign the Duchy of Burgoigne to the Emperour That he should quit the Sovereignty of Flanders and Arthois That he should renounce all his right pretended to the Duchy of Milan and Kingdom of Naples That he should restore to his honours the Duke of Bourbon and the rest that had revolted with him That he should marry Eleonor the Emperour's Sister Queen of Portugal That he should pay the whole summs of money heretofore due to the King of England his Sister the Queen of France and Cardinal Wolsey The payment whereof the Emperour had undertaken that we might not be endamaged by partaking with him For the performance of these and other things of less moment Francis not only bound himself by Oath but also delivered his two Sons Francis the Daulphin and Henry Duke of Orleans who should remain Hostages in Spain until all things were duly performed Francis as soon as he entred into his Realm ratified all the Articles of the Treaty but that concerning the Duchy of Burgoigne which he pretended he could not alienate without the consent of his Subjects Having therefore assembled the Estates of the Countrey for the debating of this matter upon a sudden in the presence of the Emperour's Ambassadors is publickly proclaimed the League made between the Kings of England and of France the Pope the Venetians Florentines and Suisses called the Holy League for the common liberty of Italy The Ambassadors much amazed and seeing small hopes of the Duchy of Burgoigne for which they came return into Spain and advertise the Emperour that if he will be content with a pecuniary ransom and free the two Princes the King was willing to pay it other Conditions he was like to have none In the mean time Solyman not forgetting to make his profit of these horrible confusions invaded Hungary with a great Army overthrew the Hungarians slew King Lewis the Emperour's Brother-in-Law and conquered the greatest part of the Kingdom For the obtaining of this Victory our Rashness was more available to him than his own Forces The Hungarians in comparison of their Enemies were but a handful but having formerly been many times victorious over the Turks they perswaded the young King that he should not obscure the ancient glory of so warlike a Nation that not expecting the aids of Transylvania he should encounter the Enemy even in the open fields where the Turks in regard of their multitudes of Horse might be thought invincible The event shewed the goodness of this counsel The Army consisting of the chief strength and Nobility of the Countrey was overthrown a great slaughter made and the King himself slain with much of the Nobility and chief Prelates of the Realm and among them Tomoraeus Archbishop of Colocza the chief author of this ill advised attempt I cannot omit an odd jest at the same time occasioned by Wolsey his ambition It was but falsly rumoured that Pope Clement was dead The Cardinal had long been sick of the Pope and the King lately of his Wife Wolsey perswades the King there was no speedier way to compass his desires than if he could procure him to be chosen Pope Clement being now dead Stephen Gardiner a stirring man one very learned and that had a working spirit did then at Rome solicit the King's Divorce from Queen Catharine Wherein although using all possible means and that Clement was no friend to the Emperour yet could he not procure the Pope's favour in the King's behalf Nay whether he would not cut off all means of reconciliation with the Emperour if need were or whether being naturally slow he did not usually dispatch any matter of great moment speedily or peradventure whereto the event was agreeable that he perceived it would be for his profit to spin it out at length or which some alledge that he was of opinion that this Marriage was lawfully contracted so that he could not give sentence on either side without either offence to his Conscience or his Friend the Pope could not be drawn to determine either way in this business These delays much vexed the King If matters proceed so slowly under Clement on whom he much presumed what could he expect from another Pope one perhaps wholly at the Emperour's
Deputies who should in the King's behalf follow the Suit An insolent proceeding and injury without example which did concern the French and all other Princes of Christendom For in like cases hapning among Sovereign Princes especially touching the conscience so near it was the usual custom of other Popes to send Judges to the place it being reasonable that the Persons should speak personally and not by their Attorneys and very unreasonable that a Sovereign Prince leaving the rule and government of his Estates should go and plead his cause at Rome Moreover he did complain of the intolerable exactions of the Church of Rome over the Clergy and people of England whereby the yoak before too heavy was now become insupportable neither did he doubt but the same courses were taken in France Germany had begun the way of freedom to the rest of Christendom why should not other Princes follow their example To conclude he did instantly require that they two should send their Ambassadors jointly together to the Pope to summon him to appear at the next general Council there to answer his extortions and by the authority and judgement of the Council to force him to a reformation affirming that there was no Nation in Christendom which did not desire that the insolencies of the Romanists should be repressed To this the French answered that he acknowledged these things to be true but it was not in his power to yield to the King's request yet for the brotherly love which he did bear unto him and the charitable regard of his own Countrey he professed himself ready to undergo all difficulties He wanted not sufficient injuries whereof to complain considering that he having so well deserved of the Apostolick See but more especially of this Pope yet he certainly found that Clement all this notwithstanding was not well affected towards him Clement had very lately suffered his reputation to be violated in his presence and by the Bishop of Verulo had secretly endeavoured to alienate the Suisses his Allies from him France groaned under the burthen of the new and undutiful exactions of the Pope's Officers by means whereof all the treasure was carried out of the Kingdom to the prejudice of his Subjects the Clergy especially who grew poor the Churches were unrepaired and the poor neither cloathed nor fed and if he himself levied any great summ of money the Tributes are longer coming in than usually they were wont But he thought it best before they proceeded to that harsh course to use some milder means whereto there was a fair occasion offered the Pope having by the Cardinal of Grandmont made him a promise of an interview at Nice or Avignon where if he could not obtain reason of him in the behalf of both he would endeavour to prevail by force where he could not by just intreaties In the mean time he desired him to attend the issue of their parley But Francis concealed the true cause of this intended interview for fear lest our Henry not approving it should seek to disswade him from it The French was implacable towards the Emperour against whom to strengthen himself he means to win the Pope by the marriage of his younger Son Henry Duke of Orleans who after reigned with Catharine de Medices Duchess of Urbin the Pope's Niece The Pope could not at first believe this potent Prince intended him so much honour but perceiving the French to be real he most eagerly farthered it appointing time and place for the consummation of it which was after done at Marseilles by Clement himself in the presence of the French King ANNO DOM. 1533. REG. 25. THe King's love brooked no delays Wherefore on the five and twentieth of January privately and in the presence of very few he marrieth the Lady Ann Bolen Shortly after by Act of Parliament the Marriage of the King and the Lady Catharine was declared void and incestuous and a Law enacted wherein all Appeals to Rome were forbidden and that none should stile Catharine other than Princess of Wales and Widow or Dowager of Prince Arthur By virtue and authority of the same Law the Archbishop of Canterbury accompanied with some other Bishops coming to Dunstable six miles from Ampthill where Catharine then resided caused her to be cited before him next under the King chief Judge in all Ecclesiastical causes within the Province of Canterbury to shew what reasons could be alledged why the Marriage not lawfully contracted between the King and her should not be disannulled and pronounced impious incestuous and consequently void To these things by one of her Servants she answered that it beseemed not the Archbishop to thrust his sickle into another's harvest this Cause did yet depend undecided before the Pope Christ's Vicar on earth whose Decree she would obey and other Judge would she acknowledge none Being called fifteen days together and not appearing she is pronounced Contumax and for her contumacy separated from the King's bed and company Whereupon the Lady Ann proclaimed Queen throughout the Kingdom on Easter-eve shewed her self publickly as Queen and was at Whitsontide crowned with as great pomp and solemnity as ever was Queen The particulars I will let pass excepting that prophetical Distich upon one of the Triumphant Arches purposely erected in London where she was to pass Regìna Anna paris Regis de sanguine Natam Et paries populis aurea secla tuis In English Ann thou a Daughter bearest to our King And to thy people golden days shalt bring Wafers also with the same impression were thrown about saith Stow. But I rather believe that this Distich was made after the Queens delivery Whensoever it were he that truly considers the felicity of the four and forty years Reign of this Queens Daughter will think this Oracle could not proceed from any but a Delphian Apollo For the Queen at the time of her Coronation was great with child whereof the seventh of September she was delivered at Greenwich which was that ever famous Queen Elizabeth who after the death of her Brother and Sister so gloriously ruled this Kingdom The Pope was certified of all these passages that his authority in England was abrogated that the late Queen Catharine was put away that Ann Bolen as Queen was taken to the King's bed that the King stiled himself Supreme Head of the Church of England that the Archbishop of Canterbury executed all those Offices which formerly the Pope only did and that not as the Pope's Legate but as Primate of England who under the King claimed chief authority in Ecclesiastical affairs throughout his whole Province Wherewith being netled he seemed to breath nothing but threats and revenge But knowing himself to have been the motive of it and doubtful of the event he was easily perswaded by the French King as yet not to proceed by Excommunication against Henry until he had made trial of some milder course Whereupon Francis by Bellay Bishop of Paris intreats Henry not to withdraw
himself wholly from the obedience of Rome for as much as it was a matter of great danger He would therefore advise him once more by Ambassadors to Rome to signifie that he was not utterly averse from a reconciliation which if he did he made no doubt but all things would succeed to his mind Henry was certain of enjoying his Love and let the Pope decree what he list was resolved to keep her He had been formerly abused by the Court of Rome and was loath to make farther trial of their dilatory proceedings Yet had Bellay prevailed so far with him that he would be content once more to submit himself to the Church of Rome if he could be assured of the Pope's intention to do him equity The Bishop conceiving some hopes of a peace although it were in the Winter time goes himself to Rome gives the Pope an account of his actions and certifies him that the matter was not yet desperate Whereupon a day is appointed by which a Post returning from the King was to give notice of an intended Embassy But the Consistory gave so short a time to have an answer that the Post came short two days at his return The term expired they proceed hastily to the confirmation of their Censures notwithstanding the Bishop's instance to obtain six days more for as much as contrary winds or some other chance might hinder the Messenger and six days would be no great matter considering the King had wavered six whole years before he fell The more moderate thought the Bishop demanded but reason but the preposterous haste of the greater sort prevailed Two days were scarce past after the prefixed time but the Post arriving with ample authority and instructions from England did greatly amaze those hasty Cardinals who afterwards would fain but could not find any means to mend what they had so rashly marred For the matter to please the Emperour was so hudled up as that which could not ritely be finished in three Consistories was done in one So the King and the whole Realm was interdicted the Bull whereof the Messengers not daring to come nearer was brought to Dunkirk The report hereof coming to the King he lays all the blame on the Lady Catharine Whereupon the Duke of Suffolk was sent to lessen her Houshold They who might be any way suspected to have been employed by her in this business are turned away the rest are commanded to take their Oaths to serve her as Princess of Wales not as Queen of England They that refuse are cashiered and they that are content to swear are by her cast off so that for a time she had few or no Attendants In the mean time on the three and twentieth of June died Mary Queen of France the King's Sister and was buried in the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury ANNO DOM. 1534. REG. 26. ABout this time was discovered the grand Imposture of Elizabeth Barton which brought her to a deserved end She had formerly been sick of a strange disease which not only afflicted her inwardly but as often as her fitt took her so wonderfully distorted her mouth and other parts of her body that most were of opinion it could not proceed from any natural cause But Custom growing to a second Nature the continuance of the disease had taught her to distort her body after her recovery in the same manner as when she was sick Hoping to make a profit of this her counterfeit Convulsion she imparted the secret to the Curate of the Parish by whose device after long deliberation between them it was agreed that she should often feign her self to be in an Ecstasie and whereas she was wont when the fitt seised her to lie still without motion as if she had been dead she should now sometimes utter some godly sentences inveigh against the wickedness of the times but especially against Hereticks and broachers of new Opinions and should relate strange Visions revealed by God to her in the time of her Ecstasie By these jugling tricks not only among the Vulgar who termed her the Holy Maid of Kent but among the wiser sort such as were Archbishop Warham Bishop Fisher and others her sanctity was held in admiration The Imposture taking so generally her boldness increased She prefixeth a day whereon she shall be restored to perfect health and the means of her recovery must be procured forsooth by a Pilgrimage to some certain Image of our Lady The day came and she being brought to the place by the like cozenage deceived a great number of people whom the expectation of the Miracle had drawn thither and at last as if she had just then shaken off her disease she appears whole and straight unto them all saying That by especial command from God she must become a Nun and that one Dr. Bocking a Monk of Canterbury there present was ordained to be her Confessor which office he willingly undertook under pretext whereof this Nun living at Canterbury Bocking often resorted to her not without suspition of dishonesty The intended Divorce from Catharine and Marriage with Ann Bolen had much appalled most part of the Clergy for then a necessity was imposed on the King of a divorce from the Papal See in which the Church and all Ecclesiastical persons were likely to suffer The apprehension whereof wrought so with Bocking that making others conscious of the intent he perswaded Elizabeth Barton by denuntiation of God's revealed judgments to deterr the King from his purposed change She according as she was instructed proclaims it abroad That the King adventuring to marry another Catharine surviving should if in the mean time he died not some infamous death within one month after be deprived of his Kingdom The King hears of it and causeth the Impostrix to be apprehended who upon examination discovered the rest of the Conspirators who were all committed to prison until the next Parliament should determine of them Elizabeth Barton Bocking Masters the afore mentioned Curate of the Parish Deering and Risby Monks with Gold a Priest are by the Parliament adjudged to die The Bishop of Rochester and Adeson his Chaplain one Abel a Priest Laurence the Archdeacon of Canterbury his Register and Thomas Gold Gentleman for having heard many things whereby they might guess at the intents of the Conspirators and not acquainting the Magistrate with them are as accessory condemned in a Praemunire confiseation of their goods and perpetual imprisonment Elizabeth Barton and her Companions having each of them after a Sermon at Pauls Cross publickly confessed the Imposture are on the twentieth of April hanged and their Heads set over the Gates of the City By the same Parliament the authority of the Convocation to make Canonical Constitutions unless the King give his Royal assent is abrogated It is also enacted That the Collocation of all Bishopricks the Sees being vacant should henceforth be at the King's dispose and that no man should be chosen by the Chapter or
consecrated by the Archbishop but he on whom the King by his Congé D'eslire or other his Letters had conferred that Dignity And whereas many complained that now all commerce with Rome was forbidden all means were taken away of mitigating the rigour of the Ecclesiastical Laws of Dispensation Papal authority is granted to the Archbishop of Canterbury the King reserving to himself the power of dispensing in causes of greater moment And that all Appeals formerly wont to be made from the Archbishop to the Pope should now be from the Archbishop to the King who by Delegates should determine all such Suits and Controversies Furthermore the King's Marriage with the Lady Catharine is again pronounced incestuous the Succession to the Crown established on the King's Issue begotten on Queen Ann. And all above the age of sixteen years throughout the Kingdom are to be bound by Oath to the observance of this Law Whosoever refused to take this Oath should suffer loss of all their goods and perpetual imprisonment Throughout all the Realm there were found but two who durst refractorily oppose this Law viz. Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas More the late Lord Chancellor men who were indeed very learned but most obstinate sticklers in the behalf of the Church of Rome who being not to be drawn by any perswasions to be conformable to the Law were committed to prison from whence after a years durance they were not freed but by the loss of their lives But the King fearing that it might be thought That he took these courses rather out of a contempt of Religion than in regard of the tyranny of the Court of Rome to free himself from all suspition either of favouring Luther or any authors of new Opinions began to persecute that sort of men whom the Vulgar called Hereticks and condemned to the cruelty of that merciless Element Fire not only certain Dutch Anabaptists but many Professors of the Truth and amongst others that learned and godly young man John Frith who with one Hewet and others on the two and twentieth of July constantly endured the torments of their martyrdom The five and twentieth of September died Clement the Seventh Pope in whose place succeeded Alexander Farnese by the name of Paulus the Third who to begin his time with some memorable Act having called a Consistory pronounced Henry to be fallen from the Title and Dignity of a King and to be deposed reiterating withal the thunder of Excommunication with which bugbear his predecessor Clement had sought to affright him But this peradventure happened in the ensuing year after the death of Fisher and More A Parliament is again called in November wherein according to the Decree of the late Synod the King was declared Supreme Head of the Church of England and the punishment of all crimes which formerly pertained to the Ecclesiastical Courts is made proper to him So the Kingdom is vindicated from the usurpation of the Pope who before shared in it and the King now first began to reign entirely Also all Annats or First-fruits formerly paid to the Pope are granted to the King And Wales the seat of the remainder of the true antient Britans hitherto differing from us compounded of Normans and Saxons as well in the form of their Government as in Language is by the authority of this Parliament to the great good of both but especially that Nation united and incorporated to England Edward the First was the first who subdued this Countrey yet could he not prevail over their minds whom the desire of recovering their lost liberty animated to many Rebellions By reason whereof and our suspitions being for two hundred years oppressed either with the miseries of Servitude or War they never tasted the sweet fruits of a true and solid Peace But Henry the Seventh by blood in regard of his Father and birth a Welchman coming to the Crown as if they had recovered their liberty whereto they so long aspired they obeyed him as their lawful Prince So the English being freed of their former jealousies permitted them to partake of their Priviledges since common to both Nations the good whereof equally redounded to both I could wish the like Union with Scotland That as we all live in one Island professing one Faith and speaking for the most part one Language under the government of one and the same Prince so we may become one Nation all equally acknowledging our selves Britans and so recover our true Countrey Britain lost as it were so many hundreds of years by our divisions of it into England Scotland and Wales ANNO DOM. 1535. REG. 27. THe Coronation of the new Queen and other passages of entertainment had exhausted the Treasury The Pope and the Emperour were both enemies to Henry watchfully attending all opportunities to do him mischief Neither in regard that so many sided with the Pope were all things safe at home The King was therefore forced to a course seemingly rash and full of dangerous consequences but very necessary for the time He resolves to demolish all the Monasteries throughout England He is content the Nobility should share with him in the spoil so enriching and strengthening himself by their necessary revolt from the Popish faction To this end they that were thought more especially in maintaining the Pope's authority to withstand the King's proceedings were condemned of high Treason and they that refused to acknowledge the King under Christ Supreme Head of the Church of England are hanged For this cause on the third of May were executed John Houghton Prior of the Charterhouse in London Augustine Webster Prior of Bevaley and Thomas Lawrence Prior of Exham and with them Richard Reignalds a Monk and Doctor of Divinity and John Hales Vicar of Thistlehurst On the eighteenth of June Exmew Middlemore and Nudigate all Charterhouse-Monks suffered for the same cause And four days after John Fisher Bishop of Rochester a man much reverenced by the People for his holy life and great learning was publickly beheaded and his Head set over London Bridge Our Histories hardly afford a president of the execution of such a man But the Pope was the occasion of his death who to ease the burthen of his now a years imprisonment by the addition of a new Title had on the one and twentieth of May created him Cardinal The news whereof hastened him to a Scaffold The sixth of July Sir Thomas More for the same stiffness in opinion with Bishop Fisher suffered the like death This was that More so famous for his Eutopia and many other Works both in English and Latin As for his conversation the most censorious fault him in nothing but his too too jesting I will not say scoffing wit to which he gave more liberty than did beseem the gravity of his person not tempering himself in the midst of his calamity no not at the very instant of death After his condemnation he denied to give
regard of his youth and Noble Disposition much lamented his loss and the King 's inexorable rigour ANNO DOM. 1542. REG. 34. BY this time Henry began to find the conveniency of his change having married one as fruitful in evil as his former Wives were in good who could not contain her self within the sacred limits of a Royal marriage bed but must be supplied with more vigorous and active bodies than was that of the now growing aged and unwieldy King Alas what is this momentary pleasure that for it we dare hazard a treble life of Fame of Body of Soul Heaven may be merciful but Fame will censure and the enraged Lion is implacable such did this Queen find him who procured not only her to be condemned by Act of Parliament begun the sixteenth of January and with her the Lady Jane Wife to the Viscount Rochfort behold the thrift of the Divine Justice which made her an Instrument of the punishment of her own and others wickedness who by her calumnies had betrayed her own Husband and his Sister the late beheaded Queen Ann but two others also long since executed Francis Derham and Thomas Calpepper in their double condemnation scarce sufficiently punished Derham had been too familiar with her in her virgin time and having after attained to some publick Offices in Ireland was by her now Queen sent for and entertained as a houshold Servant in which time whether he revived his former familiarity is not manifest But Culpepper was so plainly convict of many secret meetings with the Queen by the means of the Lady Rochfort that the Adultery was questionless For which the Queen and the Viscountess Rochfort were both beheaded within the Tower on the twelfth of February Derham had been hanged and Culpepper beheaded at Tyburn the tenth of the preceding December Hitherto our Kings had stiled themselves Lords of Ireland a Title with that rebellious Nation not deemed so sacred and dreadful as to force obedience The Estates therefore of Ireland assembled in Parliament Enacted him King of Ireland according to which Decree he was on the three and twentieth of January publickly Proclaimed About the same time Arthur Viscount Lisle natural Son of Edward the Fourth out of a surfeit of sudden Joy deceased Two of his Servants had been executed the preceding year for having conspired to betray Calais to the French and the Viscount as being conscious committed to the Tower But upon manifestation of his innocence the King sent unto him Sir Thomas Wriothsley Principal Secretary of Estate by whom he signified the great content he received in the Viscount's approved fidelity the effects whereof he should find in his present liberty and that degree of favour that a faithful and beloved Uncle deserved The Viscount receiving such unexpected news imbellished with rich promises and Royal tokens the King having sent him a Diamond of great value of assured favour being not sufficiently capable of so great joy free from all symptoms of any other disease the ensuing night expired After whose decease Sir John Dudley was created Viscount Lisle claiming that Honour as hereditary in the right of his Mother the Lady Elizabeth Sister and Heir to the Lord Edward Grey Viscount Lisle Wife to the late deceased Lord Arthur but formerly married to Edmund Dudley one of the Barons of the Exchequer beheaded the first year of this King's reign Which I the rather remember for that this man afterwards memorable for his power and dignities might have proved more happy in his Issue than his greatness had not his own ambition betrayed some of these fair sprouts to the blast of unseasonable hopes and nature denying any at least lawful Issue to the rest the name and almost remembrance of this great Family hath ceased Of which hereafter Scotland had been long peaceable yet had it often administred motives of discontent and jealousie James the Fifth King of Scots Nephew to Henry by his Sister having long lived a Bachelor Henry treated with him concerning a Marriage with his then only Child the Lady Mary a Match which probably would have united these neighbour Kingdoms But God had reserved this Union for a more happy time The antient League between France and Scotland had always made the Scots affected to the French and James prefer the alliance with France before that of England where the Dowry was no less than the hopes of a Kingdom So he marrieth with Magdalen a Daughter of France who not long surviving he again matcheth there with Mary of Guise Widow to the Duke of Longueville Henry had yet a desire to see his Nephew to which end he desired an interview at York or some other oportune place James would not condescend to this who could not withstanding undertake a long and dangerous voyage into France without invitation These were the first seeds of discord which after bladed to the Scots destruction There having been for two years neither certain Peace nor a just War yet incursions from each side Forces are assigned to the Duke of Norfolk to repress the insolency of the Scots and secure the Marches The Scot upon news of our being in Arms sends to expostulate with the Duke of Norfolk concerning the motives of this War and withal dispatcheth the Lord Gordon with some small Forces to defend the Frontiers The Herald is detained until our Army came to Berwick that he might not give intelligence of our strength And in October the Duke entring Scotland continued there ransacking the Countrey without any opposition of the Enemy until the middle of November By which time King James having levied a great Army resolved on a Battel the Nobility perswading the contrary especially unwilling that he should any way hazard his Person the loss of his Father in the like manner being yet fresh in memory and Scotland too sensible of the calamities that ensued it The King proving obstinate they detain him by force desirous rather to hazard his displeasure than his life This tenderness of him in the language of rage and indignation he terms cowardise and treachery threatning to set on the Enemy assisted with his Family only The Lord Maxwell seeking to allay him promised with ten thousand only to invade England and with far less than the English Forces to divert the War The King seems to consent But offended with the rest of the Nobility he gives the Lord Oliver Saintclare a private Commission not to be opened until they were ready to give the onset wherein he makes him General of the Army Having in England discovered five hundred English Horse led by Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir William Musgrave the Lord Saintclare commanded his Commission publickly to be read the recital whereof so distasted the Lord Maxwell and the whole Army that all things were in a confusion and they ready to disband The opportunity of an adjoyning Hill gave us a full prospect into their Army and invited us to make use of
our advantages We charge them furiously the Scots amazedly fly many are slain many taken more plunged in the neighbouring Fens and taken by Scottish Freebooters sold to us Among the Captives were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassels the Lords Saintclare Maxwell Admiral of Scotland Fleming Somerwell Oliphant and 〈◊〉 besides two hundred of the better sort and eight hundred common Souldiers The consideration of this overthrow occasioned as he 〈◊〉 by the froward rashness of his own Subjects and the death of an English Herald slain in Scotland so surcharged him with rage and grief that he fell sick of a Fever and died in the three and thirtieth year of his age and two and thirtieth of his reign leaving his Kingdom to the usually unhappy government of a Woman a Child scarce eight daysold The chief of the Captives being conveyed to the Tower were two days after brought before the King's Council where the Lord Chancellour reprehended their treachery who without due denuntiation of War invaded and spoiled the Territories of their Allies and committed many outrages which might excuse any severe courses which might in justice be taken with them Yet his Majesty out of his natural Clemenoy was pleased to deal with them beyond their deserts by freeing them from the irksomness of a strict imprisonment and disposing of them among the Nobles to be by them entertained until he should otherwise determine of them By this time King James his death had possessed Henry with new hopes of uniting Britain under one Head England had a Prince and Scotland a Queen but both so young that many accidents might dissolve a contract before they came to sufficiency Yet this seeming a course intended by the Divine Providence to extirpate all causes of enmity and discord between these neighbouring Nations a Marriage between these young Princes is proposed With what alacrity and applause the proposition was on both sides entertained we may conceive who have had the happiness to see that effected which they but intended Which being a matter of so sweet a consequence it is to be wondered at that the conspiracy of a few factious spirits should so easily hinder it The hope of it prevailed with the King for the liberty of the Captives conditionally that they should leave Hostages for their return if Peace were not shortly concluded which as also the furtherance of this so wished conjunction they faithfully promised ANNO DOM. 1543. REG. 35. AFter their short Captivity the Scottish Lords having been detained only twelve days at London on New-years-day began their journey towards Scotland and with them Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus whom his Son-in-Law King James had a little before his death intended to recall Fifteen years had he and his Brother George lived Exiles in England Henry out of his Royal Bounty allowing to the Earl a Pension of a thousand Marks and to his Brother of five hundred The sudden return of these captive Lords caused in most as sudden a joy Only the Cardinal of St. Andrews who had by forgery made himself Regent and his Faction could willingly have brooked their absence They came not as freed from a Captivity but as Ambassadors for Peace by them earnestly perswaded which by the happy conjunction of these Princes might be concluded to perpetuity But the Cardinal with his factious Clergy the Queen Dowager and as many as were affected to the Flower 〈◊〉 interposed themselves for the good of France Yet notwithstanding the Cardinal's fraud being detected he is not only deposed from his Regency and James Hamilton Earl of Arren substituted but also committed to custody whence afterwards making an escape he was the author of more garboils In the mean time the Marriage of the young Queen and other conditions proposed to the Estate of Scotland by Sir Ralph Sadler the King's Ambassador are fully assented unto and Hostages promised for the performance of them But the adverse Faction became so prevalent that the Hostages were not delivered at the day neither did the Captive Nobility render themselves in England Only Gilbert Kenneda Earl of Cassels like another Regulus had rather commit himself to the mercy of his enemies than prostitute his Honour to the foul taint of base infidelity His Brethren had become Pledges for his return the importunity nay violence of his friends could not deter him from redeeming them So to London he came where the bountiful King duly honouring him for his constancy instead of receiving a Ransom gave him one dismissing him and his Brothers fraught with honour and rewards The Scots falling off from their late Agreement the King commandeth stay to be made of all their Ships and confiscateth their goods sends Letters full of threats and just complaints to the Estates at Edenborough Blaming them for arrogantly rejecting his Alliance the want whereof must needs be prejudicial to them neither had they only rejected it but unmindful of former benefits had sown seeds of new War and forced him to Arms. But Letters proving ineffectual Scotland is by the frontier Garrisons invaded in three several places forty Scots making resistance are slain five and fifty Villages burned five hundred and sixty prisoners taken and a booty brought into England of three thousand five hundred head of cattel eight hundred Horses and seven thousand Sheep beside great provision of housholdstuff But this obstinacy of the Scots proceeded not only from themselves France and Scotland were ever combined against England so that to invade one was to draw on a War with both We had been often victorious in France whereof many portions aneiently belonged to Us if we should make any claim to all or part of our Inheritance Scotland would serve either to distract our Forces or to transfer the seat of War nearer home The uniting of England and Scotland would by securing us at home facilitate our Enterprizes upon France These were motives sufficient for Francis notwithstanding the long inviolate amity between him and Henry secretly to cross our designs in Scotland Whereof Henry could not long be sensible and not revenge Wherefore he proclaims open hostility with France as he had already with Scotland and reconciles himself with the Emperour before thought irreconciliable in regard of his Aunts disgrace who professed that all causes of difference between them were buried with her yet is it certain that unto the Pope he accused Henry to have dispatched her by poison But now they are become Confederates and an aid of ten thousand English sent to joyn with the Imperials Landrecy a Town lately taken from the Emperour by the French is the first exercise of our Arms. The Emperour also coming in Person it is invested with forty thousand men is furiously battered and the Souldiers brought to the distress of half a provant loaf of Bread a day and to drink Water Francis being certified of their wants assembles his Forces draws near the Emperour feeding him with hope
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
In Autumn the Earl of Rutland with three thousand Lansquenets and some Bands drawn out of the frontier Garrisons arrives at Hadington Who duly considering that this Town could not be kept any longer without the excessive charges of a just Army forasmuch as the Countrey about being miserably forraged it could not be victualled without great difficulty and danger rased the Walls fired the Houses brought away the Artillery and finding no resistance returned in safety to Berwick Buchanan refers it to the ensuing year but I follow the record of our own Historians And having thus far spent the year abroad I at length return home where I find Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in the Tower He was a man very learned and no less subtil adhering to the Popish Faction yet so as that he would be content to accommodate himself to the current of the times King Henry had employed him in many Embassages and that with ample authority under whom he durst not oppose the proceedings confirmed by enacted Laws And under Edward he repressed himself for a time seemingly consenting to the commenced Reformation But his dissimulation was at length manifestly discovered to the Privy Council who had commanded him in a Sermon at Pauls Cross to signifie his approbation of the present estate of the Church which he accordingly did on the nine and twentieth of June but so ambiguously and obscurely that he satisfied them not And being expresly forbidden to speak any thing concerning the Eucharist he knowing that by the Laws nothing was definitively determined in that point did so eargerly assert that Papistical I will not say Capernaitical Corporal and Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament that he wonderfully offended the minds of many but especially of the Lords of the Council Wherefore he was on the thirtieth of June committed and obstinately refusing to acknowledge his errour was two years after deprived of his Bishoprick and as he was of a turbulent spirit lest he should practise any thing against the Estate detained nevertheless in prison until the death of Edward In the mean time Archbishop Cranmer by writing oppugned that gross and carnal assertion of the Church of Rome concerning Christ's Presence in the Sacrament whom Gardiner secretly answered under the fictitious name of M. Constantius Neither did that Blood-sucker Boner Bishop of London who in Queen Maries Reign so heated the Kingdom with the Funeral Piles of so many Saints speed any better than Winchester For being likewise enjoyned to Preach at the Cross he did it so coldly omitting many of those points whereof he was commanded to speak that he was likewise committed deprived of his Bishoprick and so lived until Queen Mary set them both at liberty What the Objections were against Cutbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm and George Day Bishop of Chichester I do not find but that they ran the same fortune is manifest They were both very Learned Prelates but especially Tonstall a mild man and of most sweet conditions in regard whereof I do not a little wonder that he was so hardly dealt with But the drift of the punishments of such men who in Henry's time were accounted the chief Lights of our Church I conceive to have been that the rest of that Order might by their example be admonished without dissimulation either to resign their Bishopricks to others that were thought more worthy or be induced to conform themselves to the present Reformation of the Church according to the prescript of the Laws in that behalf lately Enacted And yet I would there were not sufficient cause to suspect that this was but a made opportunity the removal of these obstacles making way for the Invasion of these widow Seas For as soon as Tonstall was exautorated that rich Bishoprick of Duresm by Act of Parliament was wrecked the chief revenues and customs of it being incorporated to the Crown and the rest in despight of the Tenants so gelded that at this day it scarce possesseth the third part of its antient Revenues Yet did Queen Mary seriously endeavour the restitution of those religious portions Queen Elizabeth would hardly consent that it should lose any of its plumes yet some it did and King James hath lately enacted against the Alienation of Church-lands yea even to the Crown otherwise than upon reservation of a reasonable Rent and the return of them to the Church after the expiration of three lives or one and twenty years The hungry Courtier finding how good a thing the Church was had now for some years become acquainted with it out of a zealous intent to Prey Neither could the horridness of her sacred Skeleton as yet so work on him as to divert his resolutions and compassionately to leave the Church to her religious poverty Beside the infancy of the King in this incertain ebb and flow of Religion made her opportune to all kind of Sacriledge So that we are deservedly to thank the Almighty Guardian of the Church that these Locusts have not quite devoured the Maintenance of the Labourers in this English Vineyard For we yet retain that antient form of government in the Primitive Church by Bishops who have for the most part wherewith to support their honourable Function as likewise have other those subordinate Prelates Deans Archdeacons and Canons of Cathedral Churches And as for our Preachers of the more polite and learned sort we think him little befriended by Fortune who long liveth in expectation of a competent preferment I would the residue of the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been pared so near the quick by precise hands that but some few of them might in this kind be paralleled with ours And now behold two Brothers acting their several Tragedies Jealousie Envy and Ambition infernal Furies had armed them against each other and the Pride of the Feminine Sex prepared them for the Lists A lamentable exigent wherein the loss of his Adversary must be the destruction of each wherein the Kingdom must groan at the loss of one both being in the Estate incompatible wherein the King himself must as most suspect he did suffer that he might not suffer Thomas Seymour Lord Admiral had married Catharine Parr the Widow of the deceased King What correspondence there might be between Her who had been the Wife of the late Sovereign and the Duchess of Somerset whose Husband being Protector of the Realm in point of command little differed from a Sovereign and had over his Brother the Admiral the Advantages of Age Dignity and general Esteem if any man cannot without difficulty conjecture I refer him to the first Book of Herodian where let him observe the contentions arising between Crispina the Wife of Commodus and Lucilla who had been formerly married to L. Verus the Emperour But in this the divers dispositions of the Brothers set on edge on the emulous humours of their Wives The Duke was mild affable free open and no way malicious the Admiral was naturally turbulent
on him for the Divorce of her Mother Manet alta mente repostum Judicium latum spretaeque injuria Matris It is reported that King Henry having determined to punish his Daughter the Lady Mary with Imprisonment for her Contumacy was by the sole intercession of Cranmer diverted from his Resolutions And when she was by her Brother King Edward to be disinherited the Archbishop made a long suasory Oration to the contrary neither could he be induced to subscribe to the Decree until the Judges of the Realm generally affirming that it might lawfully be done the dying King with much importunity prevailed with him In ingrateful persons the conceit I will not say the feeling of one Injury makes deeper impression than can the remembrance of a thousand real Benefits It was now bruited that with his Fortune Cranmer had also changed his Religion insomuch that to gratifie the Queen he had promised to Celebrate the Exequies of the deceased King after the Romish manner To clear himself of this imputation he by writing declares himself ready to maintain the Articles of Religion set forth by his means under King Edward his Reign to be consonant to the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Apostles in which Resolution he being confirmed by Peter Martyr required him for his Second in this Religious Duel But Words are not regarded where Violence is intended His Death was absolutely determined but how it might be fairly contrived was not yet resolved First therefore they deal with him as a Traytor And having for some while continued prisoner in the Tower to alienate the minds of the People who held him in high esteem he is on the thirteenth of November together with the Lords Ambrose and Guilford Dudley and Lady Jane condemned for Treason But the machinators of this mischief against Cranmer were so ashamed of their shadowless endeavour that they themselves became Intercessors for his Pardon and yet afterwards most irreligiously procured him to be Burned for pretended Heresie Before he was committed to Custody his Friends perswaded him after the example of some other of his religious Brethren who had long since escaped into Germany by flight to withdraw himself from assured destruction To whom he answered Were I accused of Theft Parricide or some other crime although I were innocent I might peradventure be induced to shift for my self But being questioned for my Allegiance not to men but to God the truth of whose holy Word is to be asserted against the errours of Popery I have at this time with a constancy befitting a Christian Prelate resolved rather to leave my life than the Kingdom But we will now leave Cranmer in Prison whose farther Troubles and Martyrdom we will in their due places relate Concerning Peter Martyr it was long controverted at the Council Table whether having so much prejudiced the Catholick Religion it were fit he should be proceeded against as an Heretick But it was at length determined that because he came into England upon Publick Assurance he should have liberty to depart with his Family So having Letters of Pass signed by the Queen he was transported with his Friend Bernardine Ochinus and came to Antwerp from thence to Colen at last to Strasburg from whence he first set forth for England In the mean time on the first of October the Queen was with great pomp Crowned at Westminster by Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and that after the manner of her Ancestors On the fifth of the same month a Parliament is called at Westminster wherein all the Laws Enacted against the Pope and his adherents by Henry and Edward were repealed And in the Convocation-House at the same time was a long and eager Disputation concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Prolocutor Dr. Weston with many others maintaining Christ's Corporal real presence in the Sacrament Among those few who sided with the Truth were John Ailmer and Richard Cheyney both by Queen Elizabeth made Bishops the one of London the other of Glocester John Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who confirmed this Doctrine with the Testimony of his Blood James Haddon Dean of Exceter and Walter Philips Dean of Rochester At length the Truth was oppressed by Multitude not Reason Whereupon the Restitution of Romish Rites is again concluded and on the one and twentieth of December Mass began to be celebrated throughout England The same day also the Marquis of Northampton and Sir Henry Gates not long since Condemned were set at liberty and Pardoned And the Lords Ambrose and Guilford Dudley with Lady Jane had their Imprisonment more at large with hope of Pardon also ANNO DOM. 1554. REG. 1 2. THe Queen who was now Thirty seven years old and hitherto thought averse from Marriage either in regard of her own Natural inclination or conscious to her self of the want of such Beauty as might endear a Husband to her her Affairs so requiring began at length to bethink her of an Husband She feared lest the consideration of her Sexes imbecility might bring her into contempt with her People she being yet scarce setled in her Throne and the Kingdom still distracted in their Affections to several Competitors Fame had destined three for her Bed Philip Infant of Spain the Emperour's Son Cardinal Pool and the Marquis of Exceter The two last were proposed for their Royal Descent and the opinion of the Love of their Countrey there being hope that under them the Freedom and the Priviledges of the Kingdom might be preserved inviolate But besides proximity of Blood in each of the three Cardinal Pool was much affected by the Queen for his gravity sanctimony meekness and wisdom Courtney for his flourishing youth his courteous and pleasant disposition But he I know not how was somewhat suspected not to think sincerely of the late established Religion but to have favoured the Reformed And the Cardinal being now in his fiftieth and third year was deemed a little too old to be a Father of Children But their opinion prevailed as more necessary who thought this unsetled Kingdom would require a puissant King who should be able to curb the factious Subject and by Sea and Land oppose the French by the accrue of Scotland become too near Neighbours and Enemies to us Upon these motives the ambitious Lady was easily induced to consent to a match with Philip. For the Treaty whereof the Emperour had about the end of the last year sent on a grand Embassage Lamoralle Count Egmond with whom Charles Count Lalaine and John Montmorency were joyned in Commission In January the Ambassadors arrived at London and in a few days conclude the Marriage the Conditions whereof were these That Matrimony being contracted between Philip and Mary it should be lawful for Philip to usurp the Titles of all the Kingdoms and Provinces belonging to his Wife and should be joynt-Governour with her over those Kingdoms the Priviledges and Customs thereof always preserved inviolate and
ascended the fatal Scaffold seeing the Instruments of Death before his Eyes and having composed himself for another World did with sincere protestations and religious asseverations acquit the Lady Elizabeth and the Lord Courtney from being any the least way conscious to his practices On the seven and twentieth of April Lord Thomas Gray was Beheaded for having by perswasions as it were thrust on his irresolute Brother the Duke of Suffolk to partake with Wyat in his Seditious attempts On the sixteenth of May the Lady Elizabeth was removed from the Tower to Woodstock and the Marquess of Exceter to Foderingay the place only being altered and nothing remitted of the strictness of their Imprisonment About the same time that Reverend Cranmer yet Archbishop of Canterbury Nicholas Ridley lately deprived of the Bishoprick of London and Hugh Latimer who so long ago resigned his Bishoprick of Worcester were removed from the Tower to Windsor and thence to Oxford there solemnly to Dispute with the Divines of both Universities concerning the Eucharist Their usage was extreme almost beyond belief Two days only were allotted them for their preparation and those two days were they in straight custody in several either Dungeons or places little differing debarred both the conference of any but their Gaoler and the use of their own Papers and Books In the Schools the behaviour toward them was as barbarous as their usage had been tyrannical Shouts and outcries were the chiefest Arguments many opposing one without Order without Manners without Modesty On the fourteenth of April from the Prison they were brought to St. Maries and commanded to Abjure upon their refusal a day is prefixed for publick Dispute Cranmer's day was the sixteenth Ridley's the seventeenth Latimer's the eighteenth of April each in their course to answer all Opponents which each of them performed and that so that notwithstanding they were amazed with rude clamours and distracted with variety of Opponents all urging and craving answer at the same time although they were scoffed at reviled and over-born with multitude yet did they force their Adversaries to admire them Cranmer did learnedly and according to the dignity wherein he so many years flourished gravely Ridley acutely and readily Latimer with a pleasant tartness and more solidly than could be expected of a man so near the age of fourscore The Disputation ended they are again on the twentieth of April brought to St. Maries and demanded whether they would persist in their Opinions upon their reply that they would they were declared Hereticks and condemned to the Fire Their Constancy was the more manifest by their contempt of Death Latimer was scarce capable of the joy he conceived that God was pleased he should end his long life whereto Nature would shortly set a period with so happy a clause As for their Martyrdom it falls in with the next Year and thither we remit it Presently after those forepassed Tumults the Queen sends forth Summons for a Parliament to begin the second of April In this Parliament she proposeth two things her Marriage and Subjection to Rome in matters Ecclesiastical this last she could not for a while obtain the other was assented unto upon conditions That Philip should not advance any to any publick Office or Dignity in England but such as were Natives of England and the Queens Subjects He should admit of a set number of English in his Houshold whom he should use respectively and not suffer them to be injured by Foreiners He should not transport the Queen out of England but at her intreaty nor any of the Issue begotten by her who should have their Education in the Realm and should not be suffered but upon necessity or some good reasons to go out of the Realm nor then neither but with the consent of the English The Queen deceasing without Children Philip should not make any claim to the Kingdom but should leave it freely to him to whom of right it should belong He should not change any thing in the Laws either publick or private the Immunities and Customs of the Realm but should be bound to confirm and keep them He should not transport any Jewels or any part of the Wardrobe nor alienate any of the Revenues of the Crown He should preserve our Shipping Ordnance and Munition and keep the Castles Forts and Block-houses in good repair and well manned Lastly that this Match should not any way derogate from the League lately concluded between the Queen and the King of France but that the Peace between the English and the French should remain firm and inviolate Only it should be lawful for Philip out of other Kingdoms and Dominions belonging to his Father the Emperour to send Aids unto him either for propelling Injuries or taking revenge for any already received All things being thus transacted and no further impediment interposing between these Princes Philip setting sail from the Groin on the sixteenth of July with a good Southern gale within three days arrived at Southampton with a Fleet of one hundred and sixty Sail whereof twenty were English and other twenty Flemings Having rested himself there the space of three days attended by a great company of the English and Spanish Nobility on the four and twentieth of July being a very wet day he came to the Queen at Winchester The Feast-day of St. James the Tutelary Saint of Spain was destined for the Nuptials which were Celebrated at Winchester with great pomp There Don Juan Figueroa for the Emperour resigned the Kingdoms of Naples and and Sicily and conferred all his right thereto on Philip and the Heralds proclaimed their Titles in Latin French and English About the beginning of August these two Princes came to Basing and thence to Windsor where the King was installed Knight of the Garter On the eleventh of August they came to London where the Citizens received them with most magnificent Solemnity On the eleventh of November another Parliament began at Westminster about the beginning whereof Cardinal Pool who by King Henry had been proclaimed Enemy to the Estate was created Cardinal by Paul the Third had himself been Pope if he had but consented in time and in the opinion of many was thought a fit Husband for the Queen arrived in England Having been put beside the Papacy by others default more than his own craving leave of the new Pope Julius he withdrew himself to a Monastery in the Territory of Verona called Maguzano the Religious whereof were Benedictine Monks of which Order he himself while he continued at Rome had been Patron Having decreed there to hide himself and spend the remainder of his days the fame of King Edward's Death and Queen Maries advancement to the Crown drew him again out of the Cloister to Rome He was not ignorant how Mary stood affected to the See of Rome and therefore hoped not without good cause that Julius who much favoured him having by his delays attained the Papacy
might not be invested in the Archbishoprick which he himself for the former reasons hoped to attain But while Gardiner was wholly intent to this project Death had a project on him and cut him off by the extremity of a Dropsie which swelling from his Feet and Legs up to his Belly dispatched him on the twelfth of November who was with great Solemnity interred in his Cathedral at Winchester The Emperour Charles the Fifth having determined to resign the Empire and his Kingdom on the five and twentieth of October at Brussels where all the Estates of his Realms were assembled transferred all his Kingdoms and Dominions on his Son Philip whom he had formerly made King of Naples and Sicily and betook himself to the rest of a private life ANNO DOM. 1556. REG. MARIAE 3 4 PHILIPPI 2 3. TO begin the year with its first day on the first of January Nicholas Heath Archbishop of York was made Lord Chancellour In March a Comet in the twentieth degree of Libra was seen from the fifth to the seventeenth of the same month On the thirteenth of March a counterfeit Edward whose true name was William Fetherstone was Executed for a Traytor He being a Miller's Son in stature and lineaments of Body not much unlike the deceased King Edward and his Age also agreeable had been the last year publickly whipped through London for affirming himself to be the King But not sufficiently terrified by the smart of this punishment he again betakes him to the same Imposture privately affirms himself to be King Edward and causes Letters to be cast abroad that King Edward was alive for which he was at length deservedly Hanged And now we are at length come to the narration of the memorable Martyrdom of the Archbishop Cranmer Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester being dead Cardinal Pool as yet the Pope's Legate appointed James Brooke Bishop of Glocester for Cranmer's Tryal forasmuch as they judged it unlawful to punish an Archbishop but by leave from his Holiness John Story and Thomas Martin Doctors of Law Commissioners for the Queen accompanied the Bishop to Oxford that the Authority Royal might countenance the Delegates proceeding In St. Maries Church they had high Seats purposely erected for them Brooke sitting under the place where the consecrated Host did usually hang in a Pix beside him sate Martin and Story but a little lower and Cranmer habited like a Doctor of Divinity not like a Bishop was brought before them Being told that there were those who represented not only her Majesties person but also of the most holy Father the Pope he with due reverence saluted Story and Martin but would not so much as vouchsafe to cast his Eyes toward Brooke and that not as he afterward confessed out of contempt of the man whom he formerly loved but that he might not seem to acknowledge the Pope's Authority he having by Oath to King Henry obliged himself to the contrary especially in England where he could make no pretence of right Then each of them exhorted him to change his Opinion and return to the Union of the Church But he not regarding their admonition they cite him to appear within fourscore days before his Holiness which with her Majesties consent he promised he would But the Pope not expecting his coming within twenty days after by Letters to the King and Queen commanded him to be Condemned and committed to the Secular power After the intercourse of a few days new Authority is by the Pope granted to Boner Bishop of London and Thirlby Bishop of Ely for Cranmer's degradation from Orders both Presbyterial and Archiepiscopal and he then to be delivered over to the secular Magistrate to suffer for Heresie which was accordingly performed on the fourteenth of February Those Saint-like men Cranmer Ridley and Latimer as long as they lived did by Letters exhort each other to a generous Constancy for the maintenance of the truth of the Christian Faith But the other two Champions having made their way to Heaven and left him alone not plied with such firm Exhortations out of desire of longer Life his Constancy began at length to be shaken and that by the subtilty and daily perswasions of a Spanish Frier So being seduced with hope of pardon he retracts what-ever he had before written in defence of his Religion which Retractation was after printed and published But that little availed him For whether that Pool would not be longer excluded from the possession of the Archbishoprick or that which seems more probable the Queens inveterate hate and desire of revenge for her Mothers Divorce which could not be otherwise satiated than with the Blood of this grave man were the cause He being now confident of Life is presently rapt to the place of Execution and there cruelly Burned where Ridley and Latimer had five months before been crowned with Martyrdom On the day appointed for his Execution a Sermon by the appointment of the Cardinal was Preached by Dr. Cole Thither was Cranmer brought and placed conveniently near the Pulpit where Cole exhorted him to a constancy in that Faith which he was now content to acknowledge and that even unto Death which was now by the appointment of the Magistrate to be inflicted on him this very day God's wrath for the Death of Fisher and More could not otherwise be appeased but by his Blood But before his Death would he by a publick Confession testifie his sincere Conversion to the Union of the Church he should do an act most acceptable to God and men If with this unexpected news Cranmer were amazed I do not at all wonder But he recollecting himself stood up and without any sign of fear made a quick Oration to the Assembly wherein having premised many things concerning morality and amendment of life he repeats the principal points of his Doctrine briefly explains his Faith affirmeth That under the authority Papal the Kingdom of Antichrist was contained and established and lastly demonstrates how much he had offended God by the abnegation of the Truth He professeth therefore that he had resolved that his right Hand wherewith he had so horribly sinned by Subscribing to the Doctrine proposed by the enemies of Truth should first feel the smart of punishment when he would have proceeded to speak more the multitude of Romanists whose expectation he had so finely deluded with clamours and scoffs interrupted him and hurried him away presently to the place of Execution There was then to be seen a sad Spectacle and such as would I will not say have extorted pity from his very Enemies but have expressed tears from a Flint The chief Prelate of the Realm lately flourishing by reason of his power and favour of Princes a man of most holy conversation for his age aspect feature learning gravity and rare gifts of mind deservedly most Reverend clad out of intent to expose him to mockery in an obsolete garment for so had the Papists
Conditions of thè League concluded with the Emperour Rhodes taken by the Turk Christiern King of Denmark The Duke of Bourbon revolts The death of Adrian the Sixth Clement the Seventh succeedeth and Wolsey suffereth the repulse Wolsey persuades the King to a Divorce Richard Pacey Dean of Pauls falleth mad The Battel of Pavy Money demanded and commanded by Proclamation The King falls in love with Ann Bolen A creation of Lords Wolsey 10 build two Colleges demolisheth forty Monasteries Sacriledge punished Luther writes to the King The King's Answer A breach with the Emperour The King endeavours to relieve the French King A League concluded with the French King The French King set at liberty The King of Hungary slain by the Turks Wolsey seeks to be Pope Sede nondum vacante Rome sacked Montmorency Ambassador from France War proclaimed against the Emperour The inconstancy of the Pope Cardinal Campegius 〈◊〉 sens into England The King's Speech concerning his Divorce The Suit of the King's Divorce The Queens speech to the King before the Legates The Queen diparteth Reasons for the Divorce Reasons against the Divorce The Pope's inconstancy Wolsey falls The Iegates repair to the Queen Their conference with her Her answer Cardinal Campegius his Oraition Wolsey discharged of the Great Seal Sir Thomas More Lord Chancellour The Cardinal accused of 〈◊〉 Wolsey's Speech to the Judges Christ-Church in Oxford Wolfey-falls sick Wolsey is confined to York The Cardinal is apprehended His last words He dicth And is buried His greatness His buildings The Peace of Cambray The first occasion of Cranmer's rising Creation of Earls The Bible translated into English An Embassy to the Pope All comnierce with the See of Rome forbidden The Clergy fined The King declared supreme Head of the Church The death of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury Cranmer though much against his will succeedeth him Sir Thomas More resigns the place of Lord Chancellour An interview between the Kings of England and France Catharina de Medices married to the Duke of Orleans The King marrieth Ann Bolen The birth of Queen Elizabeth Mary Queen of France dieth The Imposture of Elizabeth Barton discovired No Canons to be constituted without the King's assent The King to collate Bishopricks The Archbishop of Canterbury bath Papal authority under the King Fisher and More imprisoned Persecution Pope Clement dieth First-fruits granted to the King Wales united to England The King begins to subvert Religious Houses Certain Priors and Monks executed The Bishop of Rochester beheaded Made Cardinal unseasonably Sir Thomas More beheaded Religious Houses visited The death of Queen Catharine Queen Ann the Visconnt Rochford and others committed The Queen condemned with her Brother and Norris Her Execution Lady Elizabeth difintarited The King marrieth Jane Seymour Death of the Duke of Somerset the King 's natural Son Bourchier Earl of Bath Cromwell's Honour and Dignity The beginning of Reformation The subversion of Religious Houses of less note Commotion in Lincolnshire Insurrection in Yorkshire Scarborough-Castle befieged Rebellion in Ireland Cardinal Pool Rebels executed Cardinal Pool writes against the King The birth of Prince Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford Fitz-William Earl of Southampton Powlet and Russel rise The abuse of Images restrained Becket's Shrine demolished * Uniones The Image of our Lady of Walsingham Frier Forest makes good a 〈◊〉 Saint Augustine's at Canterbury Battel-Abbey and others suppressed The Bible translated The Marquess of Exceter and others beheaded Lambert convented and burned Margaret 〈◊〉 of Salisbury condemned The subversion of Religious Houses Some Abbots executed Glastonbury A catalogue of the Abbots who bad voices among the Peers New Bishopricks erected The Law of the Six Articles Latimer and Schaxton resign their Bishopricks The arrival of certain Princes of Germany in England for the treatise of a Match between the King and Lady Ann of Cleve The King marrieth the Lady Ann of Cleve Cromwell created Earl of Essex and within three months after beheaded Lady Ann of Cleve 〈◊〉 The King marrieth Catharine Howard Protestants and Papists alike persecuted The Prior of Dancaster and six others hanged The Lord Hungerford executed Beginnings of a commotion in Yorkshire Lord Leonard Grey beheaded The Lord Dacres hanged Queen Catharine beheaded Ireland made a Kingdom The Viscount Lisle deceased of a surfert of Joy Sir John Dudley made Viscount Lisle War with Scotland The Scots overthrowes The death of James the Fifth King of Scotland Hopes of a Match between Prince Edword and the Queen of Scots The Scottish Captives set liberty The Earl of Angus return-eth into Scotland The League and Match concluded The Scottish shipping detained War with Scotland War with France A League with Emperour Landrecy besieged but in vain The people licensed to eat White Meats in Lent The King 's sixth Marriage William Parr Earl of Essex Another of the same name made Lord Parr The Lord Chancellour dieth An Expedition into Scotland * Alias Bonlamberg The Earl of Hertford Protector Hing Henry's Funerals The Coronation The death of Francis King of France MusselburghField Reformation in the Church The Scots and French besiege Hadinton The Queen of Scots transported into France Humes Castle and Fastcastle gained by the Enemy Gardiner Bishop of Winchester committed to the Tower Gardiner deprived of his Bishoprick Boner Bishop of London committed also Discord 〈◊〉 the Duke of Somerset and his Brother the Lord Admiral The Lord Admiral beheaded An Insurrection in Norfolk and in Devonshire Some Forts lost in Boloignois * Corruptly Bonlamberg Enmity between the Protector and the Earl of Warwick The Protector committed The death of Paul the Third Pope Cordinal Pool elected Pope The Duke of Somerset set at liberty Peace with the Scots and French The Sweating Sickness The death of the Duke of Suffolk A creation of Dukes and Earls The descent of the Earls of Pembroke 〈◊〉 between the 〈◊〉 Dukes of Somerset and Northumberland revived Certain Bishops deprived Some of the Servants of the Lady Mary committed An Arrian burned An Earthquake The Queen of Scots in England The Earl of Arundel and the Lord Paget committed The Bishop of Ely Lord Chancellor The Duke of Somerset beheaded A Monster The King Sicknoth His Will wherein he disinheriteth his Sisters He dieth His Prayer Cardanus Lib. de Genituris Sir Hugh Willoughby frozen 10 death Commerce with the Muscovite Lady Mary flies into Suffolk Lady Jane proclaimed Queen Northumberland forced to be General * L. qui in provinciâ sect Divus ff de Ris Nupt. L. 4. C. de Incest Nupt. Gloss. ibid. C. cum inter c. ex tenore Extr. qui fil sins legit Northumberland forsaken by his Souldiers The Lords resolve for Queen Mary And to suppress Lady Jane Northumberland proclaims Mary Queen at Cambridge Northumberland and some other Lords taken Queen Mary comes to London Gardiner made Lord Chancellour Diprived Bishops restored King Edward's Funeral The Duke of Northumberland the Earl of Warwick and the Marquis of Northampton condemned The Duke of Northumberland Bheaded Bishops imprisoned Peter Martyr The Archbishop Cranmer Lady Jane Lord Guilford and Lord Ambrose Dudley condemned The Coronation A Disputation in the Convocation-House Popery restored The Queen inclines to marry The Articles of the Queens Marriage with Philip of Spain * Which as I conceive would have 〈◊〉 in the year 1588. Sir Thomas Wyat's Rebellion Sir John Cheeke is taken and dieth Bret with five hundred Londoners revolts to Wiat. The Duke of Suffolk perswades the People to Arms in vain The Queens Oration to the Londoners Wyat is taken The Lady Jane Beheaded The Duke of Suffolk Beheaded Wyat Executed And Lord Thomas Gray A Disputation at Oxford Cranmer Ridley and Latimer Condemned Additions to the former Nuptial Compacts Philip arrivith in England And is married to the Queen Cardinal Pool comes into England Cardinal Pool's Oration to the Parliament The Realm freed from 〈◊〉 The Queen thought to be with Child Lords created Lady Elizabeth and the Marquess of Exceter set at liberty John Rogers Burned and Bishop Hooper Bishop Ferrar many others and Bishop Ridley and Latimer The death of Pope Julius the Third Paul the Fourth succeedeth Gardiner sueth to be Cardinal Gardiner 〈◊〉 Charles the Emperour resigns his Crowns The Archbishop of York Lord Chancellour A Comet A 〈◊〉 Edward Archbishop Cranmer Burned This year eighty four Burned The exhumation of Bucer and Phagius Cardinal Pool consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury An Embassage to Muscovia The Lord Stourton hanged Thomas Stafford endeavouring an Insurrection is taken and Beheaded War against France proclaimed Pool's authority 〈◊〉 abrogated and restored The French overthrown at St. Quintin St. Quintin taken A nocturual Rainbow Calais besieged by the French Calais yielded The Battel of Graveling The French overthrown Conquet taken and burned by the English The Daulphin married to the Queen of Scot. The death of Cardinal Pool The Queen diesh
at London to Treat On the King's part Bishop Fox Lord Privy Seal Viscount Wells Kendal Prior of St. John's Warham Master of the Polls who began to gain much upon the King's opinion Urswick who was almost ever one and Risley On the Arch-Duke's part the Lord Bevers his Admiral the Lord Verunsel President of Flanders and others These concluded a perfect Treaty both of Amity and Intercourse between the King and the Arch-Duke containing Articles both of State Commerce and Free-Fishing This is that Treaty which the Flemings call at this day Intercursus Magnus both because it is more compleat than the precedent Treaties of the Third and Fourth years of the King and chiefly to give it a difference from the Treaty that followed in the One and twentieth year of the King which they call Intercursus Malus In this Treaty there was an express Article against the Reception of the Rebels of either Prince by other purporting that if any such Rebel should be required by the Prince whose Rebel he was of the Prince Confederate that forthwith the Prince Confederate should by Proclamation command him to avoid the Countrey Which if he did not within fifteen days the Rebel was to stand proscribed and put out of Protection But nevertheless in this Article Perkin was not named neither perhaps contained because he was no Rebel But by this means his wings were clipt off his Followers that were English And it was expresly comprised in the Treaty that it should extend to the Territories of the Duchess Dowager After the Intercourse thus restored the English Merchants came again to their Mansion at Antwerp where they were received with Procession and great Joy The Winter sollowing being the Twelfth year of his reign the King called again his Parliament Where he did much exaggerate both the Malice and the cruel Predatory War lately made by the King of Scotland That that King being in Amity with him and no ways provoked should so burn in hatred towards him as to drink of the Lees and Dregs of Perkin's Intoxication who was every where else detected and discarded And that when he perceived it was out of his reach to do the King any hurt he had turned his Arms upon unarmed and unprovided people to spoil only and depopulate contrary to the Laws both of War and Peace Concluding that he could neither with Honour nor with the safety of his People to whom he did owe Protection let pass these wrongs unrevenged The Parliament understood him well and gave him a Subsidy limited to the summ of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds besides two Fifteens For his Wars were always to him as a Mine of Treasure of a strange kind of Ore Iron at the top and Gold and Silver at the bottom At this Parliament for that there had been so much time spent in making Laws the year before and for that it was called purposely in respect of the Scottish War there were no Laws made to be remembred Only there passed a Law at the Suit of the Merchant-Adventurers of England against the Merchant-Adventurers of London for Monopolizing and exacting upon the Trade which it seemeth they did a little to save themselves after the hard time they had sustained by want of Trade But those Innovations were taken away by Parliament But it was fatal to the King to fight for his Money And though he avoided to fight with Enemies abroad yet he was still enforced to fight for it with Rebels at home For no sooner began the Subsidie to be levied in Cornwal but the people there began to grudge and murmur The Cornish being a race of men stout of stomach mighty of body and limb and that lived hardly in a barren Countrey and many of them could for a need live under ground that were Tinners they muttered extremely that it was a thing not to be suffered that for a little stir of the Scots soon blown over they should be thus grinded to Powder with Payments And said it was for them to pay that had too much and lived idly But they would eat the bread they got with the sweat of their brows and no man should take it from them And as in the Tides of People once up there want not commonly stirting Winds to make them more rough So this People did light upon two Ring-leaders or Captains of the Rout. The one was one Michael Joseph a Black-smith or Farrier of Bodmin a notable talking Fellow and no less desirous to be talked of The other was Thomas Flammocke a Lawyer who by telling his neighbours commonly upon any occasion that the Law was on their side had gotten great sway amongst them This man talked learnedly and as if he could tell how to make a Rebellion and never break the Peace He told the people that Subsidies were not to be granted nor levied in this case that is for Wars of Scotland for that the Law had provided another course by service of Escuage for those Journies much less when all was quiet and War was made but a Pretence to poll and pill the People And therefore that it was good they should not stand now like sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands Yet to do no creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the laying down of those grievous Payments and for the punishment of those that had given him that Counsel to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And said for his part he did not see how they could do the duty of true English-men and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such wicked Ones that would destroy both Him and the Countrey Their aim was at Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray who were the King 's Skreens in this Envy After that these two Flammocke and the Black-smith had by joynt and several Pratings found tokens of consent in the Multitude they offered themselves to lead them until they should hear of better men to be their Leaders which they said would be ere long Telling them further that they would be but their servants and first in every danger but doubted not but to make both the West-end and East-end of England to meet in so good a Quarrel and that all rightly understood was but for the King's service The People upon these seditious Instigations did arm most of them with Bows and Arrows and Bills and such other Weapons of rude and Countrey People and forthwith under the Command of their Leaders which in such cases is ever at pleasure marched out of Cornwal through Devonshire unto Taunton in Somersetshire without any slaughter violence or spoil of the Countrey At Taunton they killed in fury an officious and eager Commissioner for the Subsidie whom they called the Provoct of Perin Thence they marched to Wells where the Lord Audley with whom their Leaders had before some secret Intelligence a Noble-man of an ancient Family