affirm that our present King Charles the second in whose posterity we trust it will remain as long as the Sun and Moon endures deduces his pedegree in an indisputable line from all that ever did or could pretend a title or interest to the Crown which we think can hardly be verified of any Prince besides this day in the Christian world For proof whereof we appeal to such of our Chronicles only as are undoubted and beyond exception Passing by therefore the Catalogue of British Kings from Brute to Cassibeline not as altogether untrue but as very uncertain passing by those likewise we find mentioned during the Romans abode here whose custom it was to permit native Kings indeed in their Conquer'd Provinces but only as instruments of Tyranny and wholly depending on the authority of the Empire and its Prefects We shall take our rise from the Saxons rule and especially at that time when from a multiplyed Estate it grew towards an Union And yet we cannot omit one passage we find Recorded of Cadwallader last King of the Britains on this side Severn who at his death prophesied that his Race should recover the Dominion of this Isle again which was fulfilled in the dayes of King Henry the seventh and more compleatly of King James as will appear when the series and progresse of the Story doth bring us thereunto The Saxons as hath been already hinted made a sevenfold partition of the Land they had wrested from the Britains but the Kingdom of the West Saxons whose first stone was laid by Cerdic did so increase in superstructure that in the end it overtopped all the rest Ina the fifth descendent of Cerdic was the first advancer of it to this prehemenency but he dyed without issue and the due order of the succession was somewhat disturbed by the intrusion of four or five one after another of the Blood-Royal indeed but not in such a propinquity as was Egbert Nephew but once removed from Ina of whose right and promising forwardnesse Britric the last of the Usurpers had so quick a sense that he contrived the destruction of young Egbert Which to avoid he was enforced to retire unto the Court of Offa King of Mercia or Middle England but finding small security there in regard his Enemy had married Offas daughter he escapes thence into France whence after the Tyrants death he returns to the enjoyment of that Kingdome which had been so long and so unjustly detained from him This Prince which we the rather note because of the affinity he hath with the Condition of our Sovereign that now is had by an exiles experience attained such a measure of prudence and all other perfections that he much improved the West-Saxon Empire which was now well near arrived to its Meridian and heighth when it suffered a most terrible Ecclipse by the interposition of the Danes who made their first irruption in his predecessors dayes and though they were valiantly resisted and frequently repulsed by him and his Successors yet did they never after cease from afflicting one part or other till they had reduced the whole to their subjection in which posture they held it but a little while as hath before been intimated and shall be more amply shewed in its due and proper place Egbert being dead Aethewolph his Son of a Bishop became a Prince and though his Education and Profession had rendred him a greater Votary than Warriour yet did he give the Danes a most memorable overthrow He had four Sons who were all Kings in their turns but the glory of the rest was Alfred the youngest no lesse famous for Arts than Armes in the first his Son Edward surnamed the Elder is reported to have been inferiour but in the last did equal if not exceed his renowned Father This Edward often worsted but could not totally extirpate the Danes who rcruited with fresh supplies from their own Comntry made daily more and more encroachments upon the already-tired English Nation whose case at that time especialy required some strong prop or stay to sustain and keep up its declining and tottering estate And upon this account it was that Athelstane Edwards bastard Son being at full maturity and ripenesse was preferred before his legitimate one Edmond then in minority the reason also that some succeeding Princes were for some time laid aside but Edmond being now come to Age after his Brother Athelstanes death the noblenesse of whose life recompenced the blemish of his birth was admitted to his Fathers Throne which he did wisely and couragiously manage but was too soon deprived of it and his life together by a villanous Affassinate in his own house at a festival whilst he went about to rescue his Sewer from the violence of that barbarous hand The more than ordinary hopes conceived of this brave Prince being thus untimely nipped in the bud his no-lesse-deserving Brother Eldred was elected King notwithstanding Edmond had left two Sons behind whose tender years in those troublesome times were thought uncapable of so weighty an imployment But upon the death of Eldred the Scepter which is a thing to be taken notice of in precedent and subseqent ruptures of this nature reverted to the right Heirs viz. the Sons of Edmond And first to Edwin the eldest whose dissolute and degenerate courses made sudden room for Edgar the youngest who matched any of his Predecessors in worth and excelled them all in power for he quieted and kept under Danes Welsh Scots insomuch as he is accounted at least from the Saxons entrance the first absolute Monarch of this entire Island In a word he was happy in his life and Reign but most unhappy in his Issue for having two Sons Edward and Ethelred by several venters the Step-mother Elfred made Edward a Saint to make her own Son Etheldred a King and though now by this removal of his Brother whereunto possibly he might not be privy none had any nearer title to the Crown than himself yet did that innocent blood lye heavy upon him and his seed nor could it according to St. Dunstans predictions be expiated but by a long avengement In promoting of which divine justice the Danes were the principal instruments who had layn still under Edgar but taking advantage of Ethelreds unsettled condition who by reason of this fore-stalling the Crown was termed the unready forced him first to purchase an ill-kept peace and then to relinquish his ill-gotten Kingdom of which death only prevented Swayn his expeiler to take actual possession and accumulate this to the Danish Crown But Cnute the Son of Swayn perfected his Fathers design and afforded Ethelred now returned out of Normandy whither to avoid the storm he had betook himself so sharp an entertainment that oppressed with grief for his bad successe he quitted this and made another world his second place of refuge leaving his Son Edmond Inheritor of little else but the miseries of an unfortunate house Yet did Edmond for his valour and hardinesse
Instrument to revenge his Fathers death even upon his own Mother the Queen and her Minion Mortymer who was the Author and Procurer of the same But the chiefest passage of this Princes Reign and that of nearest Alliance to our Subject in hand which is to declare the Titles our Kings have to the Kingdoms they possesse or challenge was his claiming and almost obteining the Crown of France The occasion and State of the difference was briefly thus Phillip de Valois the then King of France had with somewhat too much rigour demanded and with too much Imperiousnesse received the Homage of our Edward for some pieces which he held in that Kingdom But Edwards high Stomach could not digest the indignity as he conceived of this humiliation considering but somewhat of the latest that he had a better right not to fragments only but to the whole than the person to whom he had so lowly abased himself For Edward was the Son of Isabell Daughter of Philiple bell or the fair formerly King of France whereas Philip the present injoyer was Son to Charls of Valois but younger Brother to the foresaid le bell only there is one frivolous impediment in Edwards way to wit the French Law Salique which debars Females their Descendents from the Crown but this entail Edward is resolved to cut off with a good Sword And to this purpose he enters France with a strong Army and gave the French two such famous overthrows at Cressy and Poictiers that they put that State into a dangerous Consumption which without all doubt would have turned to an Hectick Feavour had the War been prosecuted with the same heat wherewithall it was begun A great allay to these prosperous proceedings was the untimely death of Edwards eldest Son Edward Prince of Wales but better known by the name of the Black Prince to whose prowesse the former Atchievments in France were chiefly owing who having made an inroad into Spain to rein throne their K. Peter brought thence Victory and a mortal Disease which quickly made an end of him leaving behind him a young Son Richard of Bourdeux to whom Edward the Grand-Father yet living confirmed the succession by Parliament lest his aspiring Son Iohn Duke of Lancaster Richards Uncle should as one observs have supplanted him as King Iohn did his Nephew Arthur in the like case But what Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster failed in his Son Henry of Bullingbrook Duke of Hereford effected By deposing his Cosen German Richard the second who is rather noted to be an unfortunate than vitious a seduced than of himself Tyrannical Prince It will be no deviation from the matter but rather requisite in regard of the light it yields to the clearer and more distinct knowledge of the following confusions to speak somewhat more particularly of the manner of this Henryes compassing the Crown the claim he laid to it and the course he took to settle the succession in his own house this being the Fountain from which flowed the most bloody and most tedious Civil Wars that ever England endured this being the great ball of contention between the White Rose and the Red between the Yorkish and Lancastrian Family Henry the fourth of that name among the English Kings was as hath been noted before the Son of Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster fourth Son of King Edward the third His Father was suspected but he is detected of higher thoughts than it became a Subject he being then but Duke of Hereford to entertain For justification of himself Hereford appeals to his Sword and offers combat to Thomas Mowbray Duke of Norfolk his Accuser who couragiously accepts thereof But as they were about to joyn issue King Richard interposes and banished them both out of the Realm Norfolk for ever Hereford for ten years four of which the King struck off as of special favour when he came to take his solemne leave of him But Hereford himself doth much more abbreviate the time and doth long anticipates even the last indulged date of his return For he re-lands the very same day twelve-month he departed and found many Abettors of his quarrel which at first he only pretends to be the recovery of his Dukedom especially the Earl of Northumberland whom King Richard at his late going into Ireland where now he is because the Earl demurred to accompany him in the Voyage had caused to be proclaimed Traytor and so made him that which otherwise perhaps he would not have been But Henries Power more and more increasing and Richards dayly decreasing till at length it languished into nothing Henry discovers that it was somwhat more than a bare Dukedom that he aimed at A Parliament is called in which King Richard as is pretended not only voluntarily surrenders but is also violently degraded and Henry both by his and the peoples appointment installed in his Room who upon the day of his Coronation caused it to be proclaimed that he claimed the Crown of England First by right of Conquest Secondly because King Richard had resigned his Estate and designed him his Successor Lastly because he was of the Blood Royal and next Heir Male to King Richard Heir Male rather Haeres Malus sayes Edmond Mortimer Earl of March to some of his Familiars as knowing the lawful right to be inherent in himself though for the present it must give place to a stronger possessor For this Edmond was the Son of Roger the Son of Edmond Earl of March by Philip Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence who was elder Brother to Iohn Duke of Lancaster King Henryes Father Hereof Henry is very apprehensive and having dispatched Richard to Heaven before his time wished Mortimer there also and in order to his hastening thither refused to procure his liberty and enlargement but suffered him to continue in a loathsome Dungeon though he had been taken Prisoner in defence of his Country against Owen ap Glendower the famous Revolter of Wales who therefore the more hardly used him that thereby his Kinsman King Henry might be moved to redeem him but therefore King Henry would not redeem him because he well hoped by this hard usage to be rid of him who was like to prove the greatest prejudice to his crazy and counterfeit Title For it was obvious to all however for fear dissembled by most that the issue of Lionel Elder Son of King Edward the third ought to have preceded Iohn of Gaunts the younger Son of the foresaid Edward And hence it was that Henry doth not solely rely upon his Fathers right which he knew to be infirm as long as any of Lionels off-spring remained but joyns to it that of his Mother Blanch Daughter and Heir to Henry Duke of Lancaster Son of Edmond nick-named Crook-back eldest Son as was alleged of King Henry the third but by reason of his deformity put by the succession which was for that cause conferred upon King Edward the first though but the younger Brother But the truth is
in War surnamed Ironside hew himself out with his Sword the moiety of a Kingdom For after the effusion of much blood on both sides and to stop the shedding of more it was agreed between the two Competitors Cnute and Edmond to try their right by single combate in proper person and the over-commer to take all But there proving equality in the sight there was likewise made equality in the command between them yet did not Edmond long enjoy his share being circumvented by the practice of Edric Earl of Stratton the Arch-Traytor of those times whose falshood had ruined the Father and now his ambition destroys the Son for which Cnute invents a suitable reward causing his head to be set upon the highest place of the Tower of London therein performing his promise of advancing him above any Lord of the Land which was the mark that this faithlesse wretch aimed at and now attained but in a far different sence from that which he had vainly proposed to himself Cnute being thus rid of a Rival denied copartnership to the Sons of Edmond as pretending the whole to appertain to the Survivor and for fear they might prove thorns in his side he sent them far enough out of the way into Swedeland say some there to be murthered but they were mercifully preserved and conveyed to the Court of Hungary where Edmond dyed without issue but Edward had by Agatha Daughter to Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany a Son named Edgar and a Daughter called Margaret who was the cause as hereafter shall be shewed that the Saxon stem which now seemed withered doth once more reflourish though inocculated we confesse upon another stock Notwithstanding this transportation of Edmonds Sons yet did not Cnute hold himself sufficiently assured of his new accquired Kingdom till he had married Emma widdow of Ethelred whereby he gained the love of the English but the promise he made in marriage that the Children begotten on her should succeed was for some time frustrated by the preoccupation of Harold surnamed Harefoot the eldest son of Cnute by a Concubine but his reign was brief as likewise was that of his Brother Hardi Canute the lawfull Son of Cnute and Emma with whom expired the Danish Dominion here which had been but of a short duration though their incursions and molestations had continued for a longer space Edward styled the Confessor to distinguish him from Edward the Elder and Edward the Saint was next King being the Son of Emma also but by her first Husband Ethelred the Unready and did in some sort restore the Saxon blood For in truth there was a nearer relation to the Crown extant though not so near at hand for the present to wit Edward surnamed by reason of his Forein education the Outlaw the Son of Edmond Ironside the eldest Son by his first Wife of the above mentioned Ethelred the Unready who ought by the Law of Nature and Nations to have preceded Yet did the Confessor wanting Issue himself do his Nephew the Outlaw so much right as to recall him with his Children out of their Banishment in Hungary and designed him his Successor but the Outlaws death before the Confessors prevented that determination Neverthelesse the Confessor without delay pronounced Edgar the Outlaws Son and his own Grand Nephew Heir apparent and gave him the surname of Etheling which in those dayes were only peculiar to such as were in hopes and possibility of a Kingdome And more than so this poor Etheling never was For first he was debarred by his own Guardian Harold the Son of Goodwin Earl of Kent who disdaining the title of Regent which he was only constituted assumed that of King Afterwards by William Duke of Normandy who though he pulled down Harold yet did he not set up Edgar laying claim himself to the Crown by virtue of a pretended Donation from his Cosen Edward the Confessor which had been too weak a plea had it not been justified by a long sword which hath ever since given him the appellation of William the Conquerour Robert the eldest Son of the Conquerour should by right of primogeniture have succeeded his Father in all his Dominions but having proved a Rebel at the French Kings instigation he had only the Dukedom of Normandy assigned to him and the Crown of England was bequeathed to his Brother William surnamed Rufus who dying without any legitimate off-spring and Robert being absent in the Holy-land Henry the youngest Son of the Conquerour as Duke of Normandy but eldest as King of England seized upon it and to ingratiate himself with the Natives and to corroborate his Title he Married Maud Daughter of Margaret by Malcolme King of Scots Sister to Edgar Etheling Son of Edward the Outlaw Son of Edmond Ironside Son of Ethelred the Unready Son of Edgar the peaceable Son of Edmond Son of Edward Senior Son of Alfred and by which means the Royal seed of the Saxons became to be replanted in the English Soil For this Henry the first had not to mention his Son William who perished by water whilst he was young by the foresaid Maud a Daughter of the same name whom he first espoused to Henry the fifth Emperour of Germany afterwards to Jeffrey Plantagenet Earl of Aniou by whom she had a Son called Henry in whom did fully concur the Norman and Saxon Race But the true hereditary succession was somewhat intercepted by Stephen Earl of Bologne Son of Adela the Conquerours Daughter from whom he could derive but a slender title For had the Conquerours line Masculine failed then ought Theobald Earl of Bloys Stephens Eldest Brother by the same Adela to have been prelated And therefore his surest Tenure proceeded from his Election by the Nobility who notwithstanding their natural Allegiance and twice repeated Oath and among them Stephen himself is reckoned to be one that had sworn Fealty to Maud and her Heirs in the Reign of her Father Henry admitted this stranger and that for no other reason though other were alleged as that Maud was a woman and consequently uncapable of anointing that she was married out of the Realm without the consent thereof which if of any moment should before their solemn engagement have been taken into consideration than that he being a Creature of their own erecting was more obliged to them and would upon all occasions be more ready to gratifie their aspiring humour Yet wanted not the Empresse and her Son adherents both within and without the Kingdom to assert their right who raised such a cloud of trouble to Stlphen that he could not dispel it during his whole reign so that at length he came to a composition and his own Son Eustace whom he had designed his Successour being already dead he adopts Henry fitz-Empresse and proclaims him heir apparent with this Proviso That he himself should enjoy the Crown as long as he lived which was not a full year after this peaceable agreement Henry the second of that name is
in this pedigree there is an Error in the very Foundation for though our Henry were so descended as is specified from Edmond yet the said Edmond was neither oldest Son to Henry the third nor yet a deformed person but a proper Gentleman and a great Commander therefore entitled Crook-back or rather Crouch-back because he had took upon him the Crosse and according to the Custom of those days warred in the Holyland Thus appears the invalidity of Henryes claim whether from the Father as unsound or the Mother as suspitious and deceitful or from King Richard receding as extorted by force in restraint and so of no force or of consent of the many there being no Custom in the English Nation for popular elections or by Conquest which in a Subject against his Soveraign is Insurrection and Victory high Treason as was well observed by the Bishop of Carlile in his speech in that very Parliament where this business was agitated and transacted Nay further there is a tradition that Iohn of Gaunt Father of this Henry was not at all the Son of King Edward but that the Queen being deliver'd of a female child knowing how unacceptable it would be to her Husband exchanged it for a boy with a Dutch woman who had been brought to bed about the same hour This the Queen at her death confessed to William of Wickman Bishop of Winchester who acquainted none with it but John of Gaunt himself and that when he perceived Iohn to affect the Crown in which case the Mother had left the Bishop free But this being but a report and grounded on uncertainties would have been no bar to Henry's title had it been clear in all other respects Henry as he had injuriously obtained a Kingdom so doth he laboriously preserve the same for the manifold conspiracies against him testifie that quiet is not a Concomitant of usurped greatnesse and was in a manner bereaved of his Crown before he was of his life For he being seized upon by a deep fit of the Apoplexy his Son Henry seized upon the Crown whereof when the Father reviving demanded the reason his answer was That in his and all mens judgement there present he was dead and then says he I being next Heir apparent to the same took it as my indubitat right Well said the King and sighed Son what right I had to it God knoweth but saith the Prince If you dye King I doubt not to hold it as you have done against all opposers Which expression this incomparable King Henry the fifth did make good even to supererogation for abandoning his youthfull extravagancies whereof he is severely taxed he embraces more solid courses and to vent any discontented humours at home which by standing still might corrupt and gather putrefaction he meditates a war with France and awakens the English title to it which had lyen dormant ever since his great Grand-Fathers days But whilst he is in preparation for this great affair he either makes or discovers a plot against his life by Richard Earl of Cambridge who had married Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Mortimer Earl of March before remembred who was the true their of the Crown and was the true cause of Earl Richards execution for it cannot be imagined that money alone would induce so noble a person to so foul an undertaking And the event shews that there was somwhat more than Bribery in this attempt when we shall find the Son of this late executed Earl dispossessing his Son who was the Author of his Fathers Tragedy Henry having thus eased himself of a great Pretender proceeds to his intended design on France where he so prosperously speeds that he is constituted Regent declared Heir apparent of the doting French King whose Daughter Katherine he marries by her hath a Son named Henry of whom the King is said to have thus prophesyed I Henry born at Monmouth shall small time reign and much get and Henry born at Windsor shall long reign and lose all And so indeed it came to passe through the secret operation of all-disposing Providence which is seldome propitious to the owners how good in themselves soever they be of ill-gained inheritances beyond the third succession And hereof our present Henry the sixth is a great example who was the meekest and most religious of all our Kings that had been before and yet for no other transgression that we know of than the original Sin of his Grand-Father Henry the fourth medling with the forbidden fruit of a Crown his ere it was ripe for him is he chased out of the terrestial Paradise of all his Kingdoms and sent to be a partaker of a Celestial one somwhat more early than the due course of nature had designed him for it For that covert fire which had a long time burned in the breasts of many to see the Lancastrian race enioy anothers right doth now break forth into open combustion of which Richard Duke of York is the prime incendiary the Son of Richard Earl of Cambridge who was beheaded in King Henry the fifths reign for supposed Treason the Son of Edmond Duke of York the fifth Son of King Edward the third But Duke Richard waves all pretensions by the Fathers side as not being ignorant that John of Gaunt from whom our present Henry is directly descended was elder brother to his Grandfire Edmond and therefore in Parliament only produceth his title by the Mother as being the Son and Heir of Anne Sister and Heir of Edmond Son and Heir of Roger Mortymer Earl of March Son and Heir of Philippa the sole Daughter and Heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third Son of Edward the third and elder Brother of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaester Father of the Usurper Henry the fourth Grand-Father of Henry the fifth who was Father to him who now says Richard untruly stileth himself King Henry the sixth Besides his holding forth his claim to the Crown in this demonstrative and undeniable manner which yet the judicious could only penetrate the Duke addeth many Rhetorical aggravations which were more suitable and intelligible to vulgar ears As that the King was simple and of weak capacity that he was Governed by the Queen a stranger and Woman of an unsufferable ambition that the Privy Counsellors were naught and corrupt through whose faithlessenesse and inabilities France was lost and England disquieted and that greater judgements were to be expected if the true Heir were any longer debarred from his lawful right The Duke by these plausible arguments had so engaged the multitude unto him that he is able to dispute his Title in the Field with the King whom he takes Prisoner and calling in his name a Parliament it is there concluded that King Henry during his life should retain the name and Honour of a King that the Duke of York should be Proclaimed Heir apparent to the Crown and Protector of the Kings Person and Dominions that if at any time King
of the aforesaid Robert the second c. but that it is demurred by some First Whether Nest Walter 's Mother were an Heir or no 2. Admitting that she were whether her Ancestor Cadelh were the eldest Son of Rodri Mawr who being King of all Wales was the first that did make a partition thereof George Owen Harry in a Book entituled The Genealogy of the high and mighty Monarch James by the Grace of God King of Great Brittaine c. Printed 1604. favours Cadelh with the first Colume among Rodri's Sons but D. Powel in his Chronicle written before and taken out of most Authentick Records is peremptory in vindicating the Birth-right to Anarawd Prince of Northwales and maintaining that though his two Brothers Cadelh Prince of Southwales and Mervyn Prince of Powis were sharers in the Inheritance yet did they hold from him and his Children or ought so to have done as from Lords Paramount and therefore we must only adhere to Anarawd's line and wave his Majesties descent from all other Princes of Wales which were either but Usurpers or at the best but of the youngest House and Vassals and Homagers to the Princes of Northwales In doing this we shall begin before the Fraction even with Cadwallader himself and so by Anarawd come down to his Majesty not meddling with Intruders upon any other score than as we have hitherto done to wit to shew that sometimes such there were by God's permission but never intended for perpetuity the succession always in the end these Imposters notwithstanding revolving to the genuine and legittimate Heir Cadwallader then surnamed Bendigaid or the Blessed having lost the greatest part of his Kingdome to the Saxons did by the perswasion of his Cousin Alan King of Little Brittain betake himself to Rome and there lived and died in God's Service bequeathing to his Posterity the fore-recited Prophecy That they should one day be Masters of his whole Isle again But Ivor the Son of Alan governed next after him his own Son Edwall Ywrch that is the Roe being unable or unwilling to divert the Helm in such turbulent and tempestuous weather Yet did his Son Rodri-Moel-Wynog undertake it and left it to his Son Conan Tyndaithwy whose Daughter Esylht was his Heir but she knowing how unfit feminine shoulders were to sustain so great a burthen in those Martial times took to Husband a Noble Prince Mervyn Vrych by whom she had Rodri Mawr or Roderick the Great who more consulting private affection than Reason of State made that unpollitick Division of Wales which being united was scarceable to defend it self against the Invasions of the Saxons their implacable and continually encroaching Neighbors Now though much of the Demean were defalcated from Anarawd by his Father Rodri yet did the Fee and Chiefeship remain to him and his which his Brother Cadelh did sparingly enough acknowledge and his Son Howel less for he not onely withdraws his Allegiance for Southwales but after the death of Edwal Voel the son of Anarawd seizes upon Northwales it self yet is he commonly stiled Dha or the Good not certainly for such undue acquisitions and unjust detentions but for the excellent Laws he made a thing not unusually practised by those who have less of equity on their side to warrant their ill-gotten and unlawfull Possessions Howel Dha being dead the Principality returned to Jevaf and Jago the Sons indeed but yet but the yongest Sons of Edwal Voel no respect being had by them of their elder Brother Meyric whose Son Edwall nevertheless obtained it having waited the leisure not only of Howel and Cadwalhan the sons of Jago but also of Meredith ap Owen ap Howel Dha who followed his Grandfathers steps and committed a second Rape upon Northwales herein the more excusable that he took it from one who had himself no other plea than that of force and extortion thereunto But Edwall ap Meyric having after the exercise of some patience gained what his Father was injuriously deprived of left both his bad and good Fortune to his son Jago or James viz. to the defrauded for a while by an Abator or two Aedan ap Blegared and Llewelyn ap Sitsylht but afterwards to recover his Paternal Right which yet he doth not long enjoy but loses it with his life to Gryffith ap Lewelyn ap Sitsylht and his Son Conan to preserve his life is forced to flee into Ireland where marrying with Ranulht Daughter of Alfred King of Dublyn he had by her a Son called Gryffith who will be found another Medium besides that of Fergus whereby more of the Irish Bloud-Royal is transmitted into His Majesty's most Princely veins And if as doubtless it will be it be objected that neither of these foundations are of sufficient strength to build a claim to a Kingdome upon it not appearing that Fergus or Alfred were Kings of Ireland entirely but supposed to be of parcels only or that Ranulht Alfred's Daughter was also his Heir Our Answer is that we do not lay the whole stress of our King's Interest to that Kingdom upon such weak and infirm undersetters but affirm that the most considerable part of the Inhabitants as English Scotch Welsh are undoubtedly His Majesty's natural Leiges and as for the original Natives whom Conquest hath made Subjects this however seemingly imperfect Title joyned with that obliges them to continue so especially seeing it is such a Conquest as hath been confirmed by more Centuries of years than those within the compass of which Jephtha demanded of the Ammonitish King why he had not all that while recovered his now too late challenged Land And as concerning the Title it self as bad as it is a better it is presumed cannot be produced by any pretender whatsoever But to return from our digression Ireland lying somewhat out of our Road which is principally confined to Great Brittain Prince Gryffith ap Conan ap Jago with the assistance of the Irish reprieves that Countrey which properly belonged to him out of the Talons of Trahern ap Caradoc the last of the Usurpers there having been since Jago's death no fewer than four to wit Gryffith ap Llewelyn ap Sitsylht he that ejected and killed Jago Blethyn ap Convyn his Brother Rywalhan and this Trahern whom Gryffith the lawfull Heir slew at the battel of Carnarvan and after a long and prosperous Reign had this felicity superadded to his former that his eldest Son Owen was his Successor which happened not to Owen himself but his first-born Jorwerth Drwyndwn upon a pitiful Cavil that he had a deformity in his nose which his surname doth import was laid aside and his younger Brother David preferred before him Yet did that most noble and valiant Prince Llewelyn the Son of Jorwerth Drwyndwn dispossess his usurping Uncle David and not content to have repaired late losses proceeds to resume former alienations by reannexing to his Territories those several fragments of Wales which the weakness or improvidence of his Predecessors had suffered to be pared away from their already too slender and scanty Dominions And here two waies offering themselves to bring us to our journeys end we are at a stand which to elect that of Mortimer's or of Owen Tudyr's Race We have indeed engaged in the beginning of the progress to prosecute that of Sir Owen Tudyr's but an unexpected rub hath fallen out in our passage which we did not fore-see when we made that promise viz. that Gryffith ap Llewelyn the Father of Elewelyn ap Gryffith the last Prince of Wales the Father of Catherine the Mother of Eleanor the Mother of Margaret the Mother of Meredith the Father of Sir Owen was but the base Son of Llewelyn ap Jorwerth ap Drwyndwn and therefore his attempt to drive out his lawfully begotten Brother David was altogether lawless as likewise was his son Llewelyn's keeping out Gulladys Dhy or the Black the Sister and Heir of David because she was married to an English man namely Sir Ralph Mortimer Lord of Wigmor by whom he had Roger Mortimer the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of Edmond the Father of Roger the Father of that Edmond who married Philippa the Daughter and sole Heir of Lionell Duke of Clarence third Son of King Edward the third and by her had that Roger from whom to make another deduction to His Majesty would be but an idle repetition of what hath been already declared and is obvious to every one that hath but heard of the great Controversie between the Yorkish and Lancastrian House But be it how it will whether Mortimer or Tudyr's Right be the firmest certain it is that both these different lines do centre in the same point wherein the Roses met and from thence like Rivolets that have formerly been divided do unitedly flow unto His Majesty so that he need not as the French do sodder up a broken Title with a devised Law salique repugnant to the Law of Nature or use so poor an evasion as the King of Spain is said to do when the Duke of Medina Sidonia once in a generation tenders a Customary Petition to have the Kingdom delivered up unto him as his due the Answer is that the place is already full but may dare the whole World to shew a more unexceptionable claim than his unto the Imperial Crown he now wears And long may it flowrish upon his head and the head of his Posterity even unto the end of the World And let all the People say Amen FINIS