337 338 339 The King wisely discouers their intentions 339 340 The Mart is remoued to Calice 340 Sir William Stanley is beheaded and Warbeck is discomforted in Kent 342 The Scots vnder pretence to aid him vexe England 343 The Cornish Rebells are ouerthrowne 343 344 And many of them are executed 345 The Scots invade and are wasted 346 The Mart is restored to the Flemings 346 Exeter is besieged and defended valiantly 342 King Henrie commeth to that Citie and giues vnto it his sword 348 The Rebells flie 349 Perkin Warbeck and the yong Earle of Warwick son to George Duke of Clarence the brother of King Edward the Fourth seeking to escape are preuented and beheaded 350 Two mariages with France and Scotland 350 Empson and Dudley doe execute penall lawes 351 The King in his death bed doth repent it and lends mony freely to his Marchants and dieth 359 King HENRY the Eighth HE executeth Empson and Dudley 355 And marieth his brothers wife 355 He sideth with the Pope against France 356 His Father-in-law Ferdinando vseth him ill 357 And trecherously surpriseth the kingdome of Nauarre 357 Edward Howard Lord Admirall is drowned 359 King Henrie hath three armies in France 360 Maximilian the Emperour serueth him in those warres 361 Tyrwin and Tourney are wonne 361 Iames the Fourth King of Scots is slaine in Flodden field 361 362 Peace is concluded with France 364 Cardinall Wolseys deedes and actions from pag. 364. vnto pag. 388. The Clergie feare the Premunire and therefore are liberall 388 The king is acknowledged supreme head of the Church 388 403 He marieth Anne of Bullein 389 And beheadeth her 403 Euill May-day 390 Tournay is deliuered vpon condicions 390 Which by the French were broken 393 The Duke of Buckingham is attainted and executed 392 The King writes a booke against Martin Luther 393 He maketh warres in France 394 395 396 397 Priuie seales being granted are released by Parliament 395 English souldiers doe returne vnlicenced out of France 397 The Emperor the Scots and the French doe craue peace 398 399 The King is in danger to bee drowned 400 He hath warres with the Emperour 401 He curbeth the Popes authority 401 Fisher and Moore doe loose their heads 402 Petit Religious houses are suppressed 403 All the rest are likewise suppressed 407 The holy maid of Kent 402 The Lancashire-men doe rebell 404 The King is passing stout 404 Rebellion by the holy Pilgrimes miraculously appeased 405 An other Rebellion is suppressed 406 Cromwell is aduanced highly 406 But is ouerthrowne by concluding a mariage for the King with Anne of Cleue which the King disliked 408 409 That mariage is pronounced to be void 409 The King marrieth the Lady Katherine Howard 409 And beheaded her 410 He is made King of Ireland 410 The Scots invade and are miserably ouerthrowne 413 A mariage being motioned by the Scots 413 Is concluded but they breake their oathes the match too 415 Scotland is wasted 415 The King sendeth two Armies into France 415 Bullein is wonne 417 The King hath a Beneuolence 417 The Frenchmen are ouerthrown 418 The Scots invade and are vanquished 419 The famous and renowned Earle of Surry is beheaded And the King dyeth THE HISTORIE OF KING WILLIAM THE CONQVEROR AFTER the death of King Edward who was the sonne of Egeldredus and of Goditha his wife Harold her brother and second sonne to the Earle Godwin vsurped this kingdom and caused himselfe to be crowned King the Crowne being formerly giuen by King Edward vnto William the seuenth Duke of the Normans and base sonne to Robert their sixt Duke To whose vse and behoofe Harold had formerly sworne to keepe the same Whereof when Duke William was certainely enformed Hee charged him by his Letters and by Messengers with his promise confirmed by his Oath and required him in friendly sort and without blowes to possesse him of his Crowne But proud Ambition arming him with a Resolution to remaine a King in despight of threats or Fortune made him rather to quoine dishonorable excuses then to giue satisfaction as hee had sworne And for answere to returne That promises and vowes rashly made and by compulsion as his was especially for a Kingdome wherevnto the State had giuen no free consent were not at all to bee regarded And therefore seeing the Dukes Rule and Dominions were as ample and as large elsewhere as Nature and Art had enabled him to manage and to command he wished him to bee contented with his owne and not aduenture to claspe more within his hand then he was well able to hold fast Nor to couet that which hee should not enioy As this answere bred Discontent So rage began to resolue on Armes For the Duke assisted by his Martiall friends leuied a strong Armie and furnished it with all abiliments and necessaries for the Warre with which through the assistance of some natiue Nobles who adhered to his part hee safely landed in Sussex where hauing prouidently sheltred himselfe against all suddaine stormes hee challenged Harold to a single Combat thereby to decide the strife without much bloud But Harold entertained not the Challenge but sent him word That to gaine or keepe a Kingdome it required more blowes then two could giue 14. October 1066. So that within fewe dayes after a fierce and cruell Battaile of the continuance of one whole day without intermission or breathing was fought betwixt them But in the Euening HAROLD being deadly wounded with an Arrow left both his Kingdome and his life And Duke William almost with equall losse of his men became Victor in the field The Saxons Raigne ended And thus ended the Saxons Raigne which from the first yeare of Hengistus in the yeare of our Lord God foure hundred seuentie and fiue vntill the time of this Conquest in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand sixtie and sixe had continued Sauing that now and then it was interrupted by the Danes the space of fiue hundred fourescore and eleuen yeares The Duke hauing thus slaine Harold and gained his Kingdome began to raigne as King And on Christmas day then next following hee was crowned by Aldredus Archbishop of Yorke by the enforced consents of the English Nobles Who with an outward applause but with an inward griefe and sorrow submitted themselues to be his subiects the Kentish men excepted By whom is hee trauailed to possesse himselfe of the strong Castle of Douer he was preuented in his iourney and compassed round about by valiant men of War who carying greene boughs in their hands and resembling a moouing Wood enuironed the King and all his followers ere they were aware therof And protested manfully to die rather then they would by seruile basenesse be depriued of those ancient Lawes and Customes whereby their Countrie was then ruled The King perceiuing his owne danger and their resolution hearkned to their demaunds and not onely granted their requests but for their bold and valorous attempt hee honoured them with
Armie landeth at Callice and marcheth to Burdeaux He beates the French King ANNO. 44 An other Armie sent into France The English doe preuaile with an armie into Callice who to the terror and spoyle of the Frenchmen marched from thence vntill he came to Burdeaux to the Prince his Brother without opposition or resistance wasting and hauoking in all places as he passed by sauing that he was once met with and encountred by king Charles who being soundly beaten was enforced to retire and to giue free passage to the Duke King Edward as much as in him lay though hee beganne to grow old yet he was very carefull of those affaires For as soone as his sonne Iohn of Gaunt was gone out of England hee sent another Armie vnto Saint Omers which was conducted by Sir Robert Knowles who marching through those adiacent Countries with fire and sword depopulated it yea almost vntill he came to the Citie of Paris And then hee marched into the Earledome of Angeou where hee wonne the strong Townes of Vaas and Ruylly and sundrie others thereabout But the French king being informed that there was great dissention in the English armie betwixt Sir Robert Knowles and the Lords Fitz-water and of Grauntson rushed vpon them sodainly with an armie and finding their mindes diuided and their forces by great disorder broken Dissention caused the Englishmens ouerthrow preuailed against them and slew about one thousand Englishmen Whereupon the said Townes which they had taken were againe yeelded into the French kings hands He also following the good hap of his fawning Fortune sent another armie into the Prouince of Guyan ANNO. 45 where the Prince was weakly assisted and his Townes and Castles daily reuolted from him King Edward being much perplexed with the common reports of his declining Fortune ANNO. 46 and being resolued to doe his best to preuent the worst assembled his high Court of Parliament at Westminster A ParliameÌ„t wherein to supply his wants and to giue better strength and furtherance to his French Warres the Temporaltie with much cheerefulnesse granted him a Subsidie of fifteene thousand pounds A Subsidie granted and the like summe hee requested of the Cleargie who were contented to giue him faire words but no monie Whereat he was so much displeased The Clergie will grant none The Clergie disgraced ANNO. 46 The Earle of Pembroke defeated and taken at Sea that wheras at that time the Bishops and the Cleargie men were chiefly honoured with all Places and Offices of Honour and of Profit and of Commaund disgracefully hee depriued them and dismissed them all and placed more thankfull Subjects of the Laitie in their roomes King Charles had now besieged the Towne of Rochell almost one whole yeare For whose reliefe and to remoue the siege king Edward sent the Earle of Pembroke with an armie to the Sea but hee was encountred fought with and put vnto the worst by Henrie the vsurper of Castile who in fauour of the French king and thankfully to requite his former loue when hee assisted him against king Peter kept the narrow Seas with a strong Fleet. In this fight the Earle himselfe and one hundred and threescore others were taken Prisoners manie men were slaine The French King winnes Rochell c. and the rest who escaped returned altogether discomforted into England And vpon the certaine report of this disaster The Towne of Rochell Angolesme Xants and Saint Iohns of Angley and diuers other Prouinces were giuen vp vnto the French king Sir Iohn de Mountford Duke of Brittaine perceiuing that good successe accompanied the French king in all his actions beganne to feare ANNO. 47 Iohn of Gant and the Duke of Britaine oppose themselues against the French King They waste the Countrey ANNO. 48 left in the height of his prosperitie he would attempt some quarrell against him Wherefore Hee fortified his Countries and then came into England and offred his assistance to K. Edward who forthwith leuied a strong armie and commited it to the gouernment of his sonne the Duke of Lancaster Who being accompanied with the Duke of Brittaine landed at Callice and with sword and fire wasted the whole Countrie vntill hee came to Burdeaux where the Duke of Lancaster found his brother the Prince of Wales exceeding sicke who made him Gouernour of all King Edwards Prouinces And hauing scene all such Noble men as hee could command Iohn of Gant is made Gouernour The sicke Prince commeth into England ANNO. 49 ANNO. 50 to take their solemne oathes for the performance of their duties and obedience to his brother the Duke he sailed into England After whose arriuall three parles for peace betwixt England and France were entertained vpon the motion and by the mediation of Pope Gregorie the eleuenth But not one of them was made fruitfull with any fortunate successe In the last yeare of King Edwards Raigne in a Parliament holden at Westminster the King required a Subsidie from the Cleargie and from the Temporaltie of his Kingdome towards the supporting of his warres The Lower house of the Parliâ—ment complaine vpon the K ngâ— euill Officers But the Lower house of that assembly complained grieuously against the Lord Latimer chiefe Chamberlaine to the King and of manie other of his Officers for that they not only misled the King in his old age but also vnthriftily spent and consumed the Treasure of his Kingdome Wherefore they refused to yeild vnto the kings demand except those euill Officers might bee displaced and better men setled in their roomes Which being by the king through the important perswasions of the Prince consented vnto he cheerefully obtained his demand And now approched the ends of these two famous .1376 and most worthie Princes the Father and the Sonne For the Prince of Wales died the eight day of Iune The Blacke Prince dieth in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand three hundred threescore and sixteene when hee had liued fortie yeares and lieth buried at Canterburie The King restoreth his euill Officers And no sooner was hee dead but king Edward verie vnaduisedly to his great dishonour and to the great discontentment of his people remoued from him such new Officers as in the late High Court of Parliament were established and placed neere about him and restored the Lord Latimer Richard is Created Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester King Edward dieth and all the rest to their former Offices and places And finding himselfe exceeding weake by reason of his sharp and grieuous sicknesse he created his Nephew Richard Sonne to the Prince deceased Prince of Wales Earle of Chester and Duke of Cornwall and committed the Regencie of his kingdome to his son Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster died when he had raigned fiftie yeares and somewhat more THE HISTORIE OF KING RICHARD THE SECOND RICHARD the second being the Son and heire of the Blacke Prince ANNO. 1. 1377.
slew the Watch wonne the Towne killed the greater part of all the men found there and tooke manie prisoners which yeelded them good ransomes in a short time This bold Attempt so passionately vexed the French King The French King besiegeth Ponthois that in his owne Person he came before the Towne with a great Armie with which and with manie Trenches Bastyles Forts and Rampiers hee compassed it round about and gaue vnto it manie fierce assaults In all which he lost much and was scorned by the besieged And whilest he thus lay before the Towne Richard Beauchampe Earle of Warwike and Regent of France died and Richard A new Regent Duke of Yorke was the second time made Regent of that Kingdome Who being accompanied with the Earle of Oxford the Lord Bourchier Earle of Ewe the Lord Talbot and manie others raysed a great Armie repayred to the Siege and dared the French King into the field Which he refused and leauing his Ordnance in the strongest Bastyle of Saint Martyn which he had erected He runneth away in the night he raysed his Siege in the middest of the night and went vnto Poysy But in the morning when the English Armie perceiued that their enemies had fearefully abandoned the place and had left their Tents behinde them they possessed them with much joy and found much riches and store of all prouisions with which they comforted themselues and the Towne And leauing there Sir Geruase Clifton with a thousand valiant men to defend it and neglecting the Bastyle which neither could without much losse be suddenly gotten nor was able to doe any harme The Regent with all his Companies directed his iourney towards Poysie and being come thither he set his Armie in a warlike maner nothing doubting He is dared yet playes the Coward but that the French King whose strength was much increased by the repaire of the chiefest Lords and gallantrie of France would haue answered him in the open field but hee kept himselfe close within the Towne In so much that when the Regent perceiued that no bold bragging nor scornefull tauntings could moue his patience nor make him valiant Hee left him there and by easie Marches he came to Roan Ponthoys besieged the second time The French King as soone as hee heard that the English Armie was so farre off entred into a serious consideration of his estate And being mindfull that the Parisians by often scandals had reproued his faint heart and that the Towne of Ponthoys was an euill enemie to that Citie To regaine his reputation and Honor by winning of that Towne he vsed extraordinarie expedition It is valiantly defended and with a puisant Armie hee besieged it round about And because hee feared least small delayes might depriue him of his hopes he assaulted it almost euery houre and lost before it aboue three thousand men It is taken But in the end he wonne the Towne and slaughtered foure hundred Englishmen the rest of them were taken Prisoners and ordered according to the French Kings will And when he had thus preuailed diuers other Cities and townes greedily embracing all reportes of their Kings valour treacherously reuolted and became French Naturalists haue taught vs that when two Lions haue by Combate tired themselues they doe depart proudly each from the other neither of them seeming to yeeld and both of them expressing many signes of much triumph A Parley And our Histories doe report that both King Henrie and King Charles being wearied with the infinite vexation of their Warres and with their daily trauailes seemed both of them to be Conquerours yet were they both easily perswaded to harken to such indifferent motions for a Truce as were proposed by their friends For this conference Callice was appointed the place to meete in which Towne was chosen before any other because Charles the noble Duke of Orleance who euer since the Battaile of Agencourt had continued a Prisoner in England was to bee conueied ouer that for his Ransome of three hundred thousand Crownes if it could be gotten he might be enlarged and set free The Ambassadours which met there about this businesse consulted often times but at length they adiourned those negotiations vntill some other time King Henries demands because the demands of King Henrie were thought to bee vnreasonable in three points FJrst in regard of the ouer-great summe of Money which was demanded for the Dukes Ransome Secondly for that the peaceable and the quiet possession of the whole and entire Dutchies of Aquitaine and of Normandie was required and to bee inioyed freely without any acknowledgement of Homage or of Soueraigntie of the Crowne of France And thirdly because the surrendring and yeelding vp into King Henries hands was vrged of all such Cities townes Castles Forts and Territories in France The Parley is dissolued as the English Nation had enioyed at any time within the space of thirtie yeares then last past Yet not long after this meeting was dissolued Philip Duke of Burgoine pitying the enthrals estate of the Duke of Orleance The Duke of Orleance is Ransomed and remembring Iohn his father had cruelly murdered Lewys the father of the said Duke paide his Ransome and at his own charge transported him with honourable attendance into France And now the Regent purposing to preuent the Frenchmans Warres 1440. with which they intended to disturbe the Peace of the Duchie of Normandie diuided all his Companies into foure Troopes which were seuerally commanded by himselfe Cruell Warres by the Duke of Sommerset by Robert Lord Willoughby and by Iohn Lord Talbot All these in seuerall places inuaded the Territories of France and of Britaine and preuailed euery where sauing at the Towne of Deepe which though they long besieged yet was it cleared in the end And in the meane time the French King with his Sonne the Dolphin of Vyen with the Bastard of Orleance A huge Armie surnamed the Lord Dumoys entred into Aquitaine and Guyan with an Armie of threescore thousand men and receiued many Castles Townes and Cities into their bands which voluntarily and without blowes were yeelded vnto them but they were not long inioyed For the French Armie being very great Much is gotten and lâ—st againe and pinched with extreame Famine and diuers wants was broken vp And immediatly after their departure into France the Englishmen recouered whatsoeuer was formerly gotten by the French King About the same time the good Duke of Glocester Protector of the Kings person and of this kingdome Disliked much the vndue proceedings of his Vncle Dissention betweene the Protector and the Cardinal No redresse the rich Cardinal of Winchester and of the Archbishop of Yorke Who without his consent or the Kings Warrant attempted and did many publike things for their owne profit and priuate gaine For the reformation whereof hee preferred vnto the King certaine Articles against them The consideration of which was referred to the Priuie
the Duke of Yorke what the Duke of Somerset had done whereat he was so highly displeased The Duke of Yorke maliceth the Duke of Somerset that he neuer ceased priuatly and openly to practise vntill the said Duke of Somerset deseruedly had lost his head For this insupportable and vnfortunate losse of the Dutchie of Normandie the Queene and the Duke of Suffolke were first secretly blamed by the whispering common people of this kingdome who afterwards by open slanders and with publike reprochfull speeches exclaimed and accused the said Duke of many notable trecheries and grosse treasons 1450. which chiefly consisted of these particulars Treasons obiected against the Duke of SVFFOLKE FIrst That by his wicked and vngodly meanes the Duke of Glocester was depriued both of his Protectorship and of his life 2 Item that by his appointment such Counsellors of State were placed about the King and Queene as aduised all things for their gaine and not for the profit of the Common-weale 3 Item that the Queene and the said Duke ruled the whole kingdome as they listed so that by reason thereof all things succeeded ill and hurtfull to this kingdome 4 Item that the said Duke was the meanes and occasion that the Kings right to Aquitanie and Guyan were yeelded vp which weakned and at length lost all the Duchies of Aquitanie and of Normandie 5 Item that he had maried his sonne Iohn to the Lady Margaret sole daughter and generall heire to Iohn Duke of Somerset and had reported that she was the next heire to the Crowne of England if King Henry hapned to die without issue 6 Jtem that he had perswaded the Earle of Dumoys and other great Lords and Officers of France to transport an Armie into this Realme to destroy the King and consequently to make his said sonne Iohn successor to this Crown and kingdome 7 Item that he procured the Duke of Orleance to be set at libertie for a ransome contrary to the commandement and the last Will and Testament of King Henry the fifth by whose means after wards the affaires of France were made more powerfull and fortunate then formerly they had been and King Henries forces were daily enfeebled and made more weake thereby in those Countries 8 Item that he had counselled the said Duke before his departure out of England to perswade the French King to augment and to increase his armie and to make sharper warres both in Normandie and in France against King Henry who so did by which meanes the King lost all his possessions in those Countries 9 Item that assoone as he came Ambassador into France he secretly informed King Charles of the chiefe points of his Commission and instructions by meanes whereof he grew obstinate and refused to conclude any peace 10 Item that the said Duke at his last being in France reuealed to the French king the weaknesse of King Henries prouisions to withstand him by meanes wherof the Frenchmen became more bold and hardie in those warres 11 Item that boastingly and foolishly he had reported in the presence of many noble and honourable personages that he had as high a place in the Counsell house of France as bee had in England and that by reason of his especiall interest in the French Kings loue hee could dispossesse the neerest and the greatest of the French Kings Counsellours if hee were disposed so to doe 12 Item that when men money and munitions were in a readinesse to be transported into France to aide and to assist King Henries forces there the said Duke being wickedly corrupted and being a secret friend to the kings enemies caused them to be kept at home by meanes whereof the kings armies in those Countries wanting due and necessary supplies were vanquished both in Normandie and in France 13 And lastly that by meanes of his great fauour with the Queene he had deceitfully and fraudulently enriched himselfe with the kings lands and treasures and had procured to himselfe a monopolie of all the greatest offices for his owne gaine These and many more foule and treasonable Articles were in full Parliament publikely obiected against him and laid vnto his charge all which hee faintly denied but could scarce cleare himselfe of one of them The Queens pollicie to helpe the Duke of Suffolke The Queene to preuent the Duke of Suffolkes further perill and danger because she entirely loued him caused him to be committed to the Tower where hee had libertie at his owne will and then concluding the Parliament vpon a sudden shee not onely enlarged him but restored him into high fauour with the King so that he proudly ietted and swaggered as formerly he had done The Commons are displeased A rebellion but appeased The common people repined much thereat and spake scandalously and reprochfully of the Queene and of her gouernment and some of them wickedly rebelled making a turbulent mate nick-named Blew-beard their chiefest Captaine But this insurrection was quickly nipped in the budde their ring-leaders were put to death and the rest of them receiued friendly admonition and the Kings gratious pardon The King and Queene intending to reconcile all discords and to giue some better contentment to the Commons held a Parliament at Leicester The Parliaments request But their purpose failed them for the lower house instantly importuned the King that iustice might be done vpon the Duke of Suffolke and also vpon his associating Conspirators Iames Fynes Lord Say and Lord Treasurer of England Iohn Bishop of Salisburie and vpon some others The King to pacifie this broile and to weaken their importunitie by doing of something wherewith hee thought hee should please them exiled the said Duke for fiue yeares The Duke is exiled He is taken at Sea and beheaded But as he sailed towards France he was taken by an English man of warre who landed him vpon Douer Sands and chopt off his head on a boats side And thus was the guiltlesse bloud of Humfrey the good Duke of Glocester in some measure reuenged and the rest of those delinquents were sequestred from their Offices and imprisoned by the King The Duke of Yorke intendeth to claime the Crowne His practises to further it Whilest these things were thus in handling the Duke of Yorke albeit resiant in Ireland sollicited and procured his allies friends in England by some secret plottings pretending some other ends to set on foot his claime and title to the Crowne hee being lineally descended from Philip the daughter and heire of George Duke of Clarence who was the elder brother of Iohn of Gaunt great grandfather to King Henry the sixth And first of all it was whispered priuately reported that the Kings wits were weake the Queens heart ambitious the Kings Counsellors of State not wise enough to rule and that all France Normandie and Aquitaine were lost because God blessed not the vsurped succession of King Henry Vpon these speeches too too commonly diuulged A Rebellion in Kent Iacke Cade
inheritable to the Crowne This lesson with the daily repetitions of his heroicall Pedegree hee so inculcated into his young Scholar that hee was as able and as ready to discourse thereof as if by inspiration that knowledge had beene infused to him from aboue The Irish were too credulous Thus when this subtill Priest had prepared his Pupill for his purpose he transported him into Ireland where hee first vented and spred abroad this false and vntrue noueltie among the wilder and more barbarous sort of that fickle and busie Nation who being too too credulous and flexible to any change gaue to the youth all honour and reuerence as vnto their soueraigne and liege Lord. And within few daies after diuers of the Nobilitie of that Countrey were taken in the same net of follie and beleeued as the Commons did among whom the Lord Chancellor Sir Thomas Gerandine was the chiefe who hauing had much familiar conference with the young counterfet and finding his amiable aspect the trimme composure of his bodie his princely presence his pregnancie of wit his sufficient learning his ingenious capacitie his quicke spirit his discreet speech and seemely complements to be answerable and fitting to a Prince not onely censured him to bee the true and the vndoubted sonne and heire of the Duke of Clarence and pitied his estate but endeuouring to doe him good disbursed vnto him for the enlargement of his expenses traine and honour diuers and sundrie great summes of money and perswaded many other great Lords of Ireland to doe the like He also with great speed and secrecie informed the Ladie Margaret The malice of Margaret Duchesse Dâ—wager of Burgoine to K. Henry sister to King Edward the Fourth and Duchesse Dowager vnto Charles the deceased Duke of Burgoine and the supposed Aunt of this counterfet of his being there And albeit that shee was well assured that this newes was false yet because being of the house of Yorke shee mortally hated and enuied King Henry who was the head and the chiefe of the Familie of Lancaster she not only gladded her heart to heare thereof but also pleased her conceits with infinite delectation that now an opportunitie was presented to her to execute her furie vpon King Henry and that shee might by this plot if it succeeded well enlarge her true Nephew the young Earle of Warwicke and make him King First of all therefore shee caused the false report of this young counterfet to bee noised thorowout England that thereby shee might vnsettle the mindes of such as were credulous and might be inclined to take his part She also published that the Irish Nobilitie and Nation had not onely receiued him for their Lord and Soueraigne and would take his part but also that shee her selfe would strengthen his attempts with money men and armes to the vttermost of her power These vaine and fabulous reports carried vnto her into Flanders Francis Lord Louel and her nephew the Earle of Lincolne sonne and heire to Iohn de la Pole Duke of Suffolke and of Elizabeth one other of the sisters of King Edward the Fourth The Traitors land in England Sir Thomas Broughton and some others and after many speeches and much conference touching those affaires and businesses the Duchesse caused to be leuied in her Country about two thousand men which were conducted by Martin Sward an approued Captaine of great resolution and much skill All these with quicke expedition sailed into Ireland and ioined with Sir Thomas Gerardine the Chancellor who was in a readinesse with more then two thousand men of his owne Nation and they all determined to transport themselues into England with all speed Wee may not imagine that King Henry who was valiant prouident and wise was secure carelesse or negligent in these affaires and weightie businesses A politicke act For to the end that certainly it might bee knowen that Lambert was but a counterfet hee caused Edward the young Earle of Warwicke to be publikely brought thorow the streets of London from the Tower vnto Pauls Church where infinite numbers of the Nobilitie Gentrie and Commons of this Kingdome had the sight and view of him and many of them spent some time in conferring with him The King prepareth against Lambert Lambert landeth in England He also made great preparations to repell and to subdue all such as in Lamberts aide should either attempt any ciuill warre or inuade his land And thus when he had ordered all things well these forraine powers arriued neere vnto Lincolne where they expected more succour then they found or were in any possibilitie to haue But when the King was informed that they were come he marched towards them with a constant resolution to trie the vtmost of his fortune in the field insomuch that it was now too late for those Inuaders to step backe for vrgent necessitie did require The battaile of Stoke that either they must flie fight or yeeld But the truth is though they were not strong yet they were no cowards The Irish people were strangely actiue and passing valiant but they wanted Armes and their braue resolution so animated their courage that with haughtie stomackes and Lions hearts they ioined in battaile with the King But within lesse space then one houre Lambert is ouerthrowen the vnprouided and vnfurnished Irish with their Captaines the Earle of Lincolne Francis Lord Louel Sir Thomas Gerardine Martin Sward Lambert is made a Skullian and then the Kings Faulconeâ— and Sir Thomas Broughton were all slaine and the rest submitted themselues to the King who pardoned their offence and committed the Priest Sir Richard Symond vnto perpetuall imprisonment and his counterfeited Pupill being first abased in the Skullerie was within few yeares after chiefe Faulconer to the King Then was the Kings wife with all honour and princely solemnities crowned Queene The Queene is crowned D. Morton made Archbishop of Canterburie and Lord Chancellor and a Cardinall and Thomas Bourchier Archbishop of Canterburie died and was succeeded by Iohn Morton Bishop of Elie who was also made Lord Chancellor of this Kingdome and not long after hee was dignified with the Hat and habit of a Cardinall by Pope Alexander the Sixth Now though King Henry through the benefit of a generall peace at home was made fortunate and happie yet forraine iarres among his neighbours prouoked him to new imploiments vpon this occasion The French King quarrelleth with the Duke of Britaine Charles the French King hauing warred successefully against Maximilian King of the Romans complained that he was much wronged by Lewys Duke of Orleance who had married the Ladie Iane his sister and was his next heire apparant to the French Crowne for that hee with some others tooke part against him with his enemie But in the end when King Charles had affied himselfe to the Ladie Margaret daughter to Maximilian and had concluded a peace betweene themselues the said Duke of Orleance and his complices
a child without issue Edward Fines Lord Clinton was by Queene Elizabeth Q. Eliz. created Earle of Lincolne Henrie Fines Lord Clinton the sonne of the said Edward was Earle of Lincolne after his Father and yet liueth March EDwin a Saxon at the time of the Conquest was Earle of March hee with Marcarus and Swardus kept the Isle of Waight against the Conqueror and was banished Roger Mortimer Lord Mortimer of Wigmore E. 3. was by king Edward the Third created Earle of March and was executed for Treason Roger Mortimer the sonne of Edmund Mortimer who was the sonne of the said Earle Roger E. 3. was by the same king restored to the Baronie of Wigmore and to the Earledome of March. Edmund Mortimer his sonne married Philip the daughter and heire of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third sonne of king Edward the Third and was Earle of March and from them two did descend the heires of the Familie of Yorke Roger Mortimer their sonne was Earle of March and of Vlster in Ireland and by king Richard the Second was proclaimed heire apparant to the Crowne of England and was slaine long after in Ireland Edmund Mortimer his sonne was Earle of March and after one and twentie yeares imprisonment in Wales and elsewhere he died without issue Richard Plantagenet Earle of Cambridge was the sonne of Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke the fift sonne of King Edward the third hee maried Anne the sister and heire of the said Edmund daughter to the said last Earle Roger and in her right he was Earle of March and they two had issue Richard Duke of Yorke who was father to King Edward the fourth Richard Plantagenet sonne to Richard Earle of Cambridge was Earle of March and Duke of Yorke and had issue Edward the fourth Edward his sonne was first Earle of March then by his Fathers death he was Duke of Yorke and by his victorie at Barnet field hee attained the Kingdome of England and was King Edward the fourth Mountgomery K. Ia. SIr Philip Herbert Knight the second sonne of Henry late Earle of Pembroke and younger brother to William Lord Herbert now Earle of Pembroke was by K. Iames created Earle of Mountgomery Northfolke RAlph Waer at the time of the Conquest was Earle of Norfolke and Suffolke and fled for treason Conq. Ralph Bygot President of the East Angles was by the Conqueror created Earle of Northfolke but hee was disherited for conspiring against him H. 1. Hugh Bygot was by King Henry the first created Earle of Northfolke Roger Bygot his sonne was Earle after him Hugh Bygot his sonne was Earle of Northfolke Roger Bygot his sonne succeeded in that Earledome Roger Bygot his Nephew vizt the sonne of his brother Robert was Earle of Northfolke and dyed without issue E. 2. Thomas Plantagenet surnamed Brotherton who was a yonger son to King Edward the first and brother to King Edward the second was by his brother created Earle of Northfolk he had one daughter and heire who was named Margaret Iohn Lord Segraue maried the said Margaret they two had issue Margaret R. 2. which Margaret was by King Richard the second created Duchesse of Northfolke after her husbands death and then she maried Iohn Lord Mowbray Thomas Lord Mowbray their sonne R. 2. was by King Richard the second created Earle of Nottingham Marshall of England and Duke of Norfolke hee dyed without issue Hee complained of Henry of Bullinbrooke to King Richard the second and should haue fought a combate with him but died at Venice in his banishment Thomas Lord Mowbray his sonne was neuer Duke of Northfolk but was in his fathers life time only Earle of Nottingham and was executed for treason with Richard Scroop Archbishop of Yorke by King Henry the fourth and his brother Iohn succeeded their father and was Marshall of England Earle of Nottingham and Duke of Northfolke Iohn Lord Mowbray his sonne was Earle of Nottingham Warren and Surrey High Marshall of England and Duke of Northfolke Iohn Lord Mowbray his sonne succeeded his father in all those honourable Dignities he died and had issue Anne Richard Plantagenet Duke of Yorke and second sonne to King Edward the fourth was maried in his childhood to the said Anne and was in her right possessor of all those honors But he was murdred by his Vncle King Richard the third and died without issue The said Anne also died without issue whereby all the Lordshippes of the Mowbrays by course of inheritance was devolued to Iohn Lord Howard and to William Lord Barkley Iohn Lord Howard who by his mothers side R. 3. was discended from the before named Mowbrayes was by King Richard the third created Duke of Northfolke and lost his life in the said Kings quarell at Bosworth field H. 8. Thomas Howard his sonne who by King Richard the third was made Earle of Surrey was created Duke of Northfolke by King Henry the eighth Thomas Howard his son succeeded and was Duke of Northfolk Thomas Howard the sonne of Henry who was the sonne of the last Thomas Duke of Northfolke was Duke of Northfolke and Earle Marshall of England He was also in the right of his wife Marie the eldest daughter of Henry Fitz-Allen Earle of Arundell Northumberland MArcarus at the time of the Conquest was Earle of Northumberland and Lincolne he with others kept the I le of Wighte against the Conqueror and was taken dyed in prison and had no issue Conq. Robert de Cumine was by the Conqueror created Earle of Northumberland but was slaine by the Northumbers Conq. Gospatrick was created Earle of Northumberland by the Conqueror but he tooke it from him againe Conq. Waldrofe was by the Conqueror created Earle of Northumberland but lost his head for treason Conq. Walcher Bishop of Durham bought the Earledome of Northumberland of the Conqueror and died without issue Conq. Robert de Mowbray was by the Conqueror created Earle of Northumberland but he rebelled and lost it Steph. Dauid Prince of Scotland sonne to King Malcolme the third was Earle of Northumberland Cumberland and Huntington Henrie his sonne assoone as his father was King enioyed all those Earledomes Malcolme his son was Earle of Northumberland and of Cumberland and Huntington William his brother succeeded him in his Kingdome and was Earle of Northumberland Cumberland and Huntington he warred against King Henry the second was taken Prisoner ransomed and lost those honors R. 1 Hugh de Puddsey Bishop of Durham was by King Richard the first created Earle of Northumberland and died without issue R. 2. Henry Percy was by King Richard the second created Earle of Northumberland hee was father to Henry surnamed Hotspurre who was slaine in their rebellion against King Henry the fourth H. 5. Henry the sonne of Henry Hotspur was by King Henry the fifth restored to the Earledome of Northumberland Henry Percy his sonne was Earle of Northumberland Hee and his
subdued 6. He plucks downe Churches Religious houses and Townes for his pleasure in hunting to make the New Forest and enacteth tyrannicall Lawes for the preseruing of his Game 5. His eldest sonne Robert Curthois rebelleth and puts him to the worst in Normandie but is reconciled 7. He warreth in France successefully 7. He falleth sick and repenteth of his crueltie to the English Nation and dyeth but his body can hardly obtayne a place to bee buried in pag. 8. King WILLIAM RVFVS HIs crueltie to the English Nation 10. Hee flattereth them in his distresse but requiteth them vnthankfully when his turne is serued 10 11. The Welshmen doe rebel 11 12. His valour 13. Hee pilleth and pooleth the Church 14 15. He yeeldeth when the Pope peremptorily commandeth 15. He is fortunate in his warres in Normandie 15. In the New-Forest which his Father had made by the ruine of many Churches Religious houses and Townes 5. Hee was slaine being mistaken for a Deere as he hunted 16. King HENRY the First HIs policies and Lawes 18. He yeeldeth to the Pope and restoreth Church liuings dignities and liberties not for conscience sake but because Robert his eldest brother troubled him for his Crowne 18. He invadeth Normandie and preuaileth and plucketh out his brothers eyes 20 21. Hee curbeth and ransacketh the Church Church-men and makes them pay for enioying of wiues whether they haue wiues or no. 20. Anselme and Thurstone appeale against him to the Pope and he yeeldeth 20 23. He is patient and very thankefull 24. He is lasciuious he surfetteth and then dyeth 24. King STEPHEN HEe vsurpeth the Right of Mawld the Empresse and breaketh his oath 27. He is very liberall 28. He refuseth and releaseth the paiment of Dane-gilt and of all other taxes he honoreth the Clergie and giues vnto them large restitution and exempteth all Clergie men from the authoritie of the Temporall Magistrate 28. Mawld the Empresse invadeth and taketh him prisoner he is enlarged for the Duke of Glocester The Empresse is besieged in Oxford and escapeth by a policie in the snow 29. He is againe inuaded by Henrie Short-Mantell the Sonne of Mawld the Empresse Prince Eustace his sonne is drowned They two compound and King Stephen dyeth 30 31. King HENRY the Second HIs great courage 34. He refineth the Lawes and deuiseth the Circuits in which Nisi prius and other law causes are decided 34. He destroyeth Castles to preuent Rebellions 35. He reseiseth things giuen by his Predecessors 35. He exerciseth his people in martiall Discipline in times of Peace 35. Hee Conquereth Ireland 36. His children are rebellious and punished by God 36. His Riches 37. His amorous affections to Rosamond 37. He is vexed by Thomas Becket who is slaine 37. He is accursed 40. He doth Penance He is whipt And dyeth 42. King RICHARD the First FOr his valour hee is termed Cuer de Lyon 44. His piety and compassion to his Mother and to distressed prisoners 44. His bountie 45. Hee warreth gloriously in the holy Land 45. He winneth Cyprus twice pag. 46 47. Iarres arise betwixt him and the French King and Leopold Archduke of Austria wherupon they depart and doe leaue him 46 47. He is stiled King of Ierusalem 47. By swimming he saueth his life but is taken Prisoner Ransometh himselfe and returneth into Normandie from the holy Land Hee warreth successefully against the French King in his owne Country and returneth into England 48. To pay his Ransome and to relieue his wants he ransacketh Religious houses and reseiseth such things as formerly he sold to get mony 49. He besiegeth the Castle of Chalons and is reuengefully wounded to death He taketh the Castle Pardons the offendor slaies all the rest and then he dyeth 49. King IOHN PHILIP the French King raiseth against him Arthur Plantagenet who demāds the crown 51 The King goeth twice into Normandie and puts the Frenchmen to flight 52 53. He looseth Normandie 53. 1202. His quarrell and vnspeakeable troubles with the Pope 53. Hee forbiddeth all appeales to Rome 54. Foure of his owne Bishops doe interdict him and he seiseth vpon their lands and goods Hee is accursed and his kingdome is by the Pope giuen to Philip the French King He taketh an Oath of Allegeance of his Subiects He inuadeth the Scots and they doe submit themselues 55 56. Philip of France prouideth to inuade him but looseth three hundred ships 56. King Iohn without the knowledge of his Nobilitie or Counsell submitteth himselfe on his knees to Pandulphus the Popes Legate and resigneth to him to the Popes vse his Kingdom and his Crown and after a few daies receiues it as a gift 56. His people doe despise and forsake him 57. Lewys the Dolphin in his Fathers Right by reason of the Popes donation inuadeth England The Pope accurseth him and his father and protecteth King Iohn and his kingdome Hee also accurseth such of the Nobilitie of England as sided with the French by reason whereof the Commons robbe rifle and forage both their goods and lands Miserie makes them to submit themselues 57. The Dolphin is expelled 58. The King hath peace and is poisoned by a Monke 59. King HENRY the third LEWYS the Dolphin disturbs him in England The French attempt to inuade but are ouerthrowne at Sea 63. They are accursed absolued and doe leaue this kingdome The king restoreth the ancient Lawes 63. He warreth in Angeou and elsewhere 63. And concludeth a Truce 64. His Barons and he doe iarre but are reconciled 64. The league with France is broken 64. King Henrie hath the worse in the new warres 65 66. Hee warreth with his Barons 66. Insanum Parliamentum 66. The commission of the twelue Peeres 66. They exercise their Authoritie 67. It is confirmed wherefore the King sayleth into France 67. * 1258. He releaseth his Title and his Right in Normandie and is confirmed Duke of Guyan 68. He procureth two Bulls from the Pope The Lord chiefe Iustice is displaced 68. He publisheth the Popes Bulls against the twelue Peeres and the Londoners take an Oath to assist him 69. The Barons raise an Armie and doe write vnto the King and he answereth them 69. The Barons Armie is ioyfully receaued into London 70. The controuersie is referred to the French King who is accused to be partiall 70 71. The Barons fight with the Prince and doe ouerthrow him 71. Richard King of the Romans being wronged is angrie 71. * 1262. The bataile of Lewis in which the Barons tooke the two Kings and Prince Edward prisoners and more then twentie thousand men were slaine 73. An agreement is made and the Prince is one of the Hostages The commission giuen to the 12. Peeres is confirmed and the Hostages are enlarged 73. A discord betwixt the Earles of Leicester and Glocester 73. Occasioned the ouerthrow of the Barons in the battaile of Euersham 74. ** 1263. The Barons are executed 74. The Commission of the twelue Peeres is by Parliament dissolued
transporteth his Armie into Flanders and ioining with his consorts he marcheth into France with 27000. men The French King takes the field 108 Iane Countesse of Henault mother to the Queene of England and sister to the French King parts the fray without blowes 109 * 1339. King Edward quartereth the Armes of France and coines his money with the like stampe 109 Hee taxeth his people and borroweth much money 109 As hee passed towards Sluce with his Armie hee met with and ouerthrew the French Nauie 110 Hee with his associates doe besiege Tournay But the saide Countesse procures a Truce 111 The Scots doe rebell The King marcheth against them A truce is made but they doe breake it They doe inuade and burne Durham 111 The valiant exploit of Sir William Montague The Castle of Ronsborough is besieged The King marcheth against the Scots and they flie 112 He concludes a truce with them Hee returnes proclaimes a Feast and martiall exercises and sports 113 Subsidies are granted but Commissioners are made to receiue and to imploy it 114 * 1344. Hee deuiseth the noble Order of the Garter 114 Iaques Dartuell is murdered because hee would haue disherited the Earle of Flanders to preferre the Blacke Prince 114 By his death King Edward lost the Flemish aide But hee is the more resolued in his attempts 116 The French King besiegeth Aguilon with 100000. men The King takes Harflew Louiers Cane and many other things and harroweth and burneth in Normandie at his pleasure 117 He passeth with his Armie ouer the Riuer of Some 118 The battaile of Cressey 119 * 1345. The numbers of slaine men and prisoners 121 King Edward besiegeth Calice and the French K. with 200000. men could not releeue it The King winnes it and peopleth it with his owne Nation 123 The Scots inuade England in the Kings absence and King Dauid is taken prisoner 123 The King himselfe surpriseth the Frenchmen who came to receiue Calice 124 The Calicians take Guyens 125 The Blacke Prince winneth the battaile of Poyters and brings King Iohn and his younger sonne prisoners into England 126 The whole English Armie is made rich 128 The Dolphin allowes not his fathers agreements with King Edward 128 Hee is enforced to craue peace which is granted vpon conditions 129 The King relinquisheth the French title and right 129 A taxe leuied by the Blacke Prince and the not paying of his Souldiers occasioned his great losses in Guyan Aquitaine c. 130. 131 Whereto ciuill dissention must be added 132 The Earle of Pembroke is taken at Sea 132 The Kings euill Officers 133 The Blacke Prince dieth 134 The King dieth 134 King RICHARD the second THe summarie of his euill gouernment 135 Wat Tilars Rebellion 137 Their insolencie and madnesse 137 Their entertainment in London 138 They doe burne rifle and commit Sacriledge 138 Their behauiour at the Tower and at Mile-end-greene 139 Their Captaine is slaine They prepare for reuenge but doe flie 140. 141 Fifteene hundred of them are executed 141 The Kings euill Counsellors 142 Fifteenes in a Parliament are denied 142 The Lower House will depart except the King in person will come to them 142 Michael de la Pole is displaced from his Chancellorship 144 Commissioners are appointed to order the Kings Officers and the King sweareth to obserue it 144 The Commissioners are reputed to be Traitors 145 The Scots and French doe make a bad voyage into Wales and in the meane time the King with 68000. men spoileth Scotland 145 The Frenchmen well rewarded by the Scots 145 The French King prepares an Armie of 1200. Ships to inuade and to conquer England and King Richard makes incredible preparations to confront him 146 The French Armie vanisheth and comes to nought 147 The petition of the Nobilitie is denied by the King Wherefore they doe raise an Armie 147 The King cannot get an Armie out of London 148 On the Kings faire promises the Armie is dismissed Hee performes nothing so that a new Armie is leuied and receiued into London 149 The Duke of Ireland flieth is slaine by a Bore and is buried like a King 149 The Kings fiue euill Counsellors and some Iudges are condemned as Traitors 149 Iohn of Gaunts iourney valour and fortunate successe in Spaine 150 The King marieth the French Kings sister and deliuers vp Brest for which his Vncle the Duke of Glocester reproueth him but his death is plotted and hee is murdered 151 The flattering Speaker of the Parliament grosly deifieth the King 151 A strange Commission 152 The King in his vanitie will be stiled Prince of Cheshire 152 The Duke of Norfolke vntruly informeth the King against his cosen Henrie Bollingbroke Duke of Hartford for which hee is challenged to a single combat 153. 154 They are both banished 154 Iohn of Gaunt dieth and his son Henrie Bollingbroke now Duke of Lancaster in the Kings absence in Ireland landeth in England and raiseth an Armie The King returneth and leuieth his forces 155 But his people daily shrinke and steale away from him by meanes whereof he submitteth himselfe to the Duke 155 Articles are proposed against him for his euill gouernment which are by him confessed vnder his hand in the Parliament Hee resigneth his Kingdome and is deposed Henrie of Bollingbroke is crowned King And King Richard valiantly resisting is wickedly murdered 160 King HENRY the Fourth IOHN Bishop of Carlile stoutly reproueth King Henries doing openly in the Parliament house 163 The Crowne is entailed 164 Treason at Oxford 164 The Traitors flie and are executed 165 Owen Glendor rebelleth 166 And taketh Roger Mortimer the rightfull heire apparant to the Crowne prisoner and the King refuseth to ransome him 166 The Scots rebelling are ouerthrowen by Henrie Hotspurre who will not deliuer his prisoners to the King 167. 168 The Frenchmen doe aide the Welsh Rebels in shew but doe flie to their ships when the King commeth 167. 168 The Percies doe ransome Roger Mortimer and ioining with Owen Glendor they intend to make him King 169 They leuie an Armie and doe publish Articles against K. Henry The Scots doe aide them but are all ouerthrowen And in that battaile the King himselfe slew six and thirtie men 1401. 171 Dowglas is enlarged without ransome 171 Glendor is forsaken of his companions and is famished in the woods 172 The Duke of Orleance his challenge is stoutly refused by King Henrie 172 And disgraced 173 The Duke of Britaine is commanded by the French King to abandon the siege of Calice 173 Diuers Lords doe practise a Treason which is discouered and most of them are put to death 173 The King warreth againe prosperously in Scotland 173 Hee was in danger to bee taken on the Thames by French Pirates 174 Sir Ralphe Roksbie Sheriffe of Northumberland valiantly ouerthrew the Northerne Rebels and chopt off their heads before the Kings comming thither 174 He createth his younger sonnes Dukes and prepareth to warre in the Holy Land but falleth dangerously
league or other compact betwixt King Richard and the Turkes some danger might assaile him and his followers Hee tooke an vnkind leaue and carying away with him all such troupes as belonged to the Emperour to Leopold and to himselfe hee left the King of England and returned home This his departure discomforted not King Richard But with his owne Souldiours King Richard preuaileth and with the forces of some other Christian Princes who submitted themselues to his direction and Gouernement hee persisted in those Warres and prosecuted his attempts with such constancie and heroicall magnanimitie that he preuailed and became Victorious when the greatest dangers assaulted him most to make him feare And among many other things which boldly he attempted hee returned vnto the I le of Cyprus He winneth Cyprus again and by force hee valiantly wonne it from the Knights Templers vnto whom he had formerly sold it and then exchanged it for the Citie of Ierusalem with Guy of Lesingham the last Christian King who held and did possesse it By meanes whereof He is stiled King of Iaerusalem King Richard was stiled King of Ierusalem and so were many of his successours long after Thus while he became victorious England is badly Gouerned and daily triumphed ouer the Turkes miseries his Kingdome of England was badly Gouerned at home by the Bishop of Ely to whom hee had committed the charge thereof For hee being the Grand-child of a Ploughman and the sonne of a Cow-heard in the North Asperius nihil est humili quam surgere in altū and being aduanced to that Bishoppricke and made Lord Chancellour of England Legate to the Pope and Protector of all this Realme tyrannized as himselfe listed ouer all sortes of people Exercised on them strange and vnusuall oppressions both in the Church A begger on horse-backe will ride and also in the Common-weale and was so infinitely ambitious and so proud that he would neuer ride abroad for his pastime and for his recreation except hee were attended and waited on by a thousand horse and more and was serued by the sonnes of the greatest Nobles in this Land vnto whom he gaue in marriage with some portions diuers of his base and rusticke kinne The ambitious Bishops fall But at length he grew to bee so contemptible lothsome and vile in all the peoples eyes that fearing what would be the sequell of his vnlimited insolencie and pride He resolued to forsake this Kingdome And comming for that purpose into Douer He disguiseth himselfe and is dragged on the Sands disguised in the habit of a woman and hauing vnder his arme a piece of Country-cloth which hee offered to the sale hee was descried and discouered and by the common people was furiously and shamefully dragged and drawne vpon the Sands and was afterward sent vnto London where the Lords and greatest Nobles committed him to the Tower in which he remained vntill the kings returne He is restored and then he was restored both to his libertie and Offices But shortly after as he trauelled towards Rome he died He dieth whereat much joy was conceiued generally by the Englishmen Of these Affaires and of his euill Gouernment king Richard was informed in the Holie Land as also of the great discontentment of his brother Iohn The causes which hastened king Richards returne for that the Bishop of Ely and not himselfe was in the kings absence made Gouernor of this kingdome and how that he had seized manie of the kings Townes Forts and Castles into his hands and onely wanted the peoples fauour to make himselfe a king He likewise was informed what Sallyes Inrodes and Inuasions the French king after his returne home had made in Normandie thereby to reuenge himselfe of those pretended iniuries and wrongs which he supposed he had receiued from king Richard in the Holie Land These Tidings thus concurring and the good desire which king Richard had to preuent the ruine of his owne Estate enforced him when he possessed the greatest hopes of Conquest to conclude a peace with the Turks for three yeares King Richard saueth his life by swimming He is taken prisoner and sold to the Emperour Henry the sixt He is ransomed He reuengeth his iniuries vpon the French king But in his returne he was by the violence of a raging storme compelled after a dangerous shipwrack to saue his life by Swimming neere vnto Histria which lyeth betweene Aquileia and Venice and comming to the Territories of Leopold in Austria he was taken prisoner and by him sold to the Emperour Henrie the sixt the sonne of Frederick for threescore thousand Marks who taking of him good securitie for his Ransome assessed vnto one hundred thousand pounds did set him at libertie So that with speedie journeyes he poasted vntill be came into Normandie where he raysed a strong Armie and marched furiously into France and reuenged himselfe soundly of all such iniuries and wrongs as in his absence were done vnto him by the French king And then he reduced to his subiection all such Peeres in Normandie as by the Frenchmen in his absence had beene taken from him Thus whilest the King was busied abroad his brother Iohn Duke Iohn submitteth himselfe to the King his brother and is pardoned Earle of Lancaster repaired to him and not onely submitted himselfe to his grace and mercie but voluntarily surrendred to him all such Forts and Castles as he had seized into his hands excusing himselfe as being prouoked and enforced to disloyaltie by the extraordinarie pride and insolent behauiour of William Longchampe Bishop of Ely who vnworthily had disordered the gouernment of the whole Realme Vpon which submission and his contrition for his offence he obtained not onely the kings pardon but also his especiall grace and fauour Then did they both come into England He vseth vniust means to pay his Debts and Ransome where the king to make payment of his Ransome ransacked the Treasures of diuers Religious Houses and grieuously taxed the People and summoned his High Court of Parliament in which he caused himselfe to be againe crowned King He is crowned anew And to augment his owne Estate hee resumed into his hands all such Honors Lordships Manors Castles Offices and Priuiledges He resumeth the Lands which he sold and payes nothing for them as he had formerly sold to his owne subjects for his supplyes and enforced the Buyers to content themselues with such profits thereof as they had taken Then fourescore thousand pounds of his Ransome were payd Leopold is accused and releaseth part of the Kings Ransome but the residue was discharged by Leopold who was accursed by Pope Innocent the third for that hee had iniuriously made king Richard a prisoner in his returne from his Warres in the Holie Land Then the king raysed a new Armie and transported it into France and from that time forward he ceased not with variable successe to warre with the
his necke Alexander the King of Scots not hauing anie issue of his bodie fell with his horse and vnfortunately brake his necke He had three sisters the eldest of which was married vnto Iohn Baylyol Lord of Galloway the second vnto Robert le Bruze Lord of Valley-Androw and the third was married into England to Iohn Hastings Lord of Abergauenny Contention about the Crowne of Scotland Betwixt these three each of them being backed with the best support of their most able friends sharpe bickerings and ciuill warres occasioned the deaths of manie worthie and valiant men together with the ruine and destruction of some of their Houses and best Fortunes The title is referred to the censure of King Edward as to the soueraign Lord thereof and the Commonweale of that kingdome receiued manie desperate wounds and strange misaduentures because each of them in the right of his wife attempted and hoped to be a king Whereupon king Edward with great expedition went into Scotland as their Soueraigne Lord and endeuoured to compose this strife But such was their mutuall desire to raigne that no persuasions preuailed to make anie one of them to yeeld But in the end more sounder aduice tooke place so that they all by a publike writing vnder their hands and seales consented to referre themselues and their Titles to the censure and judgement of King Edward Scotland is surrendred to king Edward And by the same Instrument they freely surrendered all Scotland and that Crowne into the Kings hands to the end that thereby they might enable him absolutely to possesse such a one of them in that Kingdome as in his judgement ought to haue the same Hee also receiued from them in writing their seuerall demands and each mans proofes A wise and a discreet King reasons and arguments to maintaine his Clayme And thereupon King Edward elected and made choice of twentie of the most discreet wise and worthie men of his kingdome of England and of twentie more of the kingdome of Scotland and by their aduice and counsell he informed himselfe truly of that businesse and at length pronounced his Sentence for Iohn Baylyol Iohn Bailiol is made King of the Scots He doth homage for it to the King who had married the eldest of those three sisters who receiued from him that Crowne and Countrey and for it performed and did his homage to King Edward The King although he were earnestly employed in these and in other affaires at home yet was he more troubled with greater businesses abroad The French King wrongeth King Edward by reason that the French King daily wronged him in Gascoyne Guyan and elsewhere And to maintaine those warres the King by the aduice and counsell of William Marchyan his chiefest Treasurer seized into his hands the Plate Iewels and Treasure of the Churches and of the religious Houses within this kingdome Euâ—ll counsell and compelled the Clergie to giue vnto him the one halfe of one yeares value of all their Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Promotions The King stâ—â—ppeth the Church He is hated by Church-men This vnaccustomed Sacriledge made the King hatefull in Church-mens eyes But yet he seemed in some sort to content them with faire promises of Restitution when his Treasures should by other meanes be encreased But they little relying vpon that promise and by common experience in other things being resolued that the Kings Coffers would not be emptied to fill theirs and yet feeding themselues with a vaine hope that some other recompence might be made them became humble sutors to the King The Clergies â—ute denyed That he would be pleased to reuoke and to annihilate the Statute which in the fourth yeare of his Raigne was made against Mortmayne Mortmayne which prohibited the giuing and the conueying of anie Lands and Tenements to anie Corporation whatsoeuer without the Kings leaue But as he neuer meant to gratifie them in anie sort whatsoeuer so he made them answer That it lay not in him without the consent of a Parliament to reuoke and to frustrate anie Law The Clergie to their great griefe and sorrow perceiued that their Treasure was swept away together with all hope of restitution or amends and though it vexed them inwardly yet durst they not to expresse anie outward tokens of dislike Thus when the King had augmented his store by the Clergies plentie he by the directions of his said Treasurer imposed a Taxe or Subsidie vpon euerie Sacke of Woolls A new Tax and vpon all Fells and Hydes which were to be transported out of this kingdome and also required the tenth part of euerie mans moueable goods and substance to maintaine his Warres which being granted hee caused it to be leuied by manie payments within the spâ—â—e of three yeares He also compelled the Clergie to bring into his Coffers all such summes of mony as they had promised to pay vnto the Pope towards the maintenance of the Christians Warre with the Turks in the Holie Land He also tooke vp one hundred thousand Quarters of the best Wheat and sent it to his Armies in Gascoyne and in Guyan where they fought with much courage and valour but with doubtfull successe sometimes gaining what was lost and sometimes loosing what they had wonne In the fiue and twentieth yeare of King Edwards Raigne 25. 1296. Iohn Baylyol inuadeth England Iohn Baylyol the King of Scots partly by the secret procurement of the French King and partly by the lewd aduice and counsell of factious and wicked persons sent a Defiance with a proud renunciation of his Fealtie and Homage to the King and with an Armie of braine-sicke Rebels entred into the Northerne parts of this kingdome where with fire and sword they oppressed such as could make no resistance and without pitie and compassion slew such as were armed in the defence of their Countrey and to saue themselues The King with an army marcheth against the Scots Whereupon King Edward recounting his manifold fauors and great loue to the said reuolted King and the high Honour wherewith not manie yeares before he had graced him and being resolued to correct his vnthankfulnesse with sharpe reuenge leuied a puissant Armie and marched in full strength towards the Northerne parts and found his fortune to be so fauourable Barwike wonne The Scots are ouerthrowne 25000 Scots are slaine that with much ease hee wonne the strong Castle of Barwike with the slaughter of fiue and twentie thousand Scots He also wonne the well-defended Castle of Donn-Barre and piercing into the sides of Scotland hee tooke Edenburrough and all other places of the best defence And the King of Scots perceiuing the dangerous estate wherein hee stood and reposing his last hopes in the Kings Grace by the aduice of all his Nobles repaired in person to the Kings presence The King of Scots yeeldeth himself and surrendreth his Kingdome He is sent to the Tower of London humbly submitted himselfe craued pardon
Spencers who were more deer to him then his Queen and children How the king loued the two Spencers The two Spencers are banished for euer and all his friends beside and in the end among many other things it was by the whole Parliament enacted That they should bee exiled during their liues and neuer bee licensed by the king to returne againe into England This being thus concluded the Barons who longed to see the two Spencers vnder saile caused certaine Ships to bee prepared in which they were embarked and sent away So that now all men were well pleased except the King whome their absence vexed at the heart The King hateth his Barons and in all things he endeuoured plainely to expresse his hatred and his anger towards the Barons who had enforced him to consent vnto their banishment And to expresse the same more fully he was informed that the younger Spencer had strengthened himselfe with a few good Shippes The younger Spencer becomes a Pyrate and that he lay as a Grand Pyrate coasting vpon the Narrow Seas robbing ransacking and spoyling the Marchants and all Nations who passed by them but especially and chiefely such as were of this Kingdome And although great sute was made vnto the King that a conuenient Fleet might be prepared for his surprizall and that hee might be produced vnto judgement The grieued Lords complain but the King laughs and receiue such punishment as the Lawes of this Kingdome appointed for the cutting off of such a notorious Theefe yet the King smyled and was inwardly glad to heare this newes and turned a deafe eare to their request and was so farre off from prouiding to fetch him in that pardoning all his offences The Spencers are recalled and honored and to despight his Barons hee recalled them both from their Banishment and honoured them with more Dignities Offices and Authoritie than euer he had done before ANNO 13. This thing being thus strangely performed by the King and the daily vnsufferable injuries and insolencie of the two Spencers who skorned and derided the Nobles as being vnable to controll them The Spencers doe skorne and deride the Nobles or to doe them anie harme were sufficient warnings to the Barons to looke vnto themselues and to prouide for their owne safetie before it were too late Wherefore seeing that neither entreatie nor Law could right their wrongs they raysed a strong Armie The Barons doe rayse a strong armie and boldly marched into the field And the King with the two Spencers and some others of the Nobles did the like And after manie sharpe Bickerings and Encounters both their Armies met The King doth the like and fought on either part with such obstinate desire to reuenge that he was supposed to be the most valiant man among them who could and did drench his sword deepest in the most bloud A cruell Battaile The Noblemen now forgat that vndutifully they fought against their Soueraigne Lord and the King would not by anie meanes know that his Tyrannie had compelled them to take Armes Kindred Alliance Countrey Religion Neighbourhood nor anie other respect now preuailed to winne fauour but furie made them trust to their weapons and death stickled the controuersie betwixt them The Barons are ouerthrowne In the end when manie of the Barons and thousands of their adherents were slaine they fled and were pursued by the King who obtaining the victorie neuer ceased the pursuit vntill he had taken the Earles of Lancaster Hereford and manie other Lords of which hee caused two and twentie to loose their heads in sundrie places of this Realme Twentie and two Lords beheaded to the great astonishment of the rest and to the terror of the vulgar sort Thus when this hauock was made of the Nobilitie and when this victorie had puffed vp the two Spencers with intollerable insolencie and pride they made no good vse of their good fortune The two Spencers wax more insolent and proude for the amendment of their liues or better counsailing of the King but as tyrants they now did all in all as they themselues listed and their will was the best law And then presuming that all things should be ordered as they listed they procured the King to holde his high Court of Parliament at Yorke The Prince of Wales created Sir Hugh Spencer the elder made an Earle A great tax in which hee created Edward his eldest sonne Prince of Wales and Duke of Aquitaine He also created Sir Hugh Spencer the Father Earle of Winchester and Sir Andrew Harkley whose extraordinary seruice was a principall meanes of the Barons late ouerthrow Earle of Care-Liele He also exacted the sixt pennie of all Temporall mens goods and moueaables inhabiting in England Wales and in Ireland to defray and to support his intended warres against the Scots The people doe murmur but the leuying therof enforced the common people to grudge and to murmure affirming That they were altogether impouerished by dearth and famine and almost vndone by reason of the disordred gouernment of the King The Scots being secretly informed that King Edward was resolued to inuade their Countrey ANNO 15. The Scots do inuade Ireland The Scots are ouerthrown and to reuenge those indignities and those wrongs which by the incursions and inuasions of Robert le Bruse their vsurping King he had receiued endeuoured to diuert his purpose another way so that they entred into Ireland with a copious Armie But the king who was not ignorant of their determination made such prouision against their landing there that the greater number of those assailants were slaine and the rest being vtterly ouerthrowne were compelled to flie vnto their Ships and shamefully to returne into their owne Countrey The King entereth into Scotland with an Armie The king was now perswaded that scarcely any strength could withstand so great a power as hee had leuied and that the Scots should now be called to a strict account for all their inroades incursions inuasions murthers robberies and spoyles And for the effecting thereof he conducted his Armie into Scotland where the Nobles and the other inhabitants of that land being armed well and being in number many thousands for many daies by continuall preparations made a shew to giue battaile to king Edward when as indeede they meant nothing lesse The Scots do retyre into the Woods Mountaines For when King Edward approached neere vnto them they craftily yet stoutly and strongly retyred manie myles and at length withdrew themselues into the Woods Forests and Mountaines where they soone cloyed wearied and wasted the English forces The English Armie is tyred out partly with the vneasinesse of those passages and partly with such Stormes Tempests Raine Hayle Snow Frosts and other distempered weather as vsually in those places were too bitter and too sharpe The Kings Armie is afflicted And besides all this the want of victuals and other necessaries so
and boarded her and found in her the King and Sir Hugh Spencer the sonne whome they so much desired and brought them to the Queene who presented them before the Castles view and vpon the sight of them the besieged yeelded the possession of their Fort into the Queenes hands Then were the heads of Sir Hugh Spencer the father Earle of Winchester and of Iohn Earle of Arundell whose daughter was married to the younger Spencer smitten off And the King being committed vnto honorable and safe keeping the Queene with the young Prince her sonne beeing accompanied with the Barons and a strong Armie marched towards London carrying with them Sir Hugh Spencer the sonne as a slaue before whom certaine vnworthie and base Fidlers vpon Pypes which they had made of Reedes skornfully played skipped and sung in euerie Towne which they passed through And being come to the Citie of London hee was fast bound vpon the top of an high Ladder and his priuie members and his heart being seuered from his bodie and burned his head was forthwith cut off and set vpon London Bridge A iust reward for their wickednesse Thus GODS judgements pursued those two vngodly and ambitious caitiues by whose lewd aduice and euill counsell the King forsooke the bed and companie of the Queene his wife liued wickedly made hauocke of his Nobilitie neglected his common People permitted his Enemies to his disgrace to triumph and to insult ouer him and gouerned more like a Tyrant than a King And thus those times of Trouble being now againe blessed with a happie Peace Sir Iohn of Henault and his companie are feasted and rewarded the Queene bountifully feasted and rewarded Sir Iohn of Henault Lord Beaumont and all his associates who taking leaue departed and were receiued into their Countrey with much joy and great honour And then the Queene and the young Prince to reforme such things as were amisse A Parliament and to settle a better course of Gouernment within this Land assembled an High Court of Parliament at Westminster In which the King by a generall consent was deposed The King is deposed Prince Edward crowned King and being verie honourably respected and attended he was committed to the Castle of Killingworth and Prince Edward was crowned King And not long after the King being remoued to the Castle of Corff was wickedly assayled by his Keepers who through a Horne which they did put into his fundament pierced his guts with a burning Spit and murdered him The old King is murdered when hee had raigned almost nineteene yeres THE HISTORIE OF KING EDVVARD THE THIRD EDVVARD the third being of the age of fifteene yeares and crowned King whilest his deposed father liued was chiefely directed in his younger yeares by the aduice and counsell of Queene Isabell his mother and of his vncle Edmund of Woodstock Earle of Kent and of Sir Roger Mortymer Sir Roger Mortymer wickedly procured the murder of the old King which knight to interesse himselfe more especially in the Queenes loue traiterously conspired and procured the murder of the last king by the monstrous villanie and barbarous crueltie before mentioned In the second yeare of this kings Raigne Robert le Bruse the busie vsurping king of the Scots denounced Warres against him and his kingdome which occasioned the leuying of a strong Armie King Edward inuadeth Scotland which consisted of foure and fiftie thousand men with which the king himselfe being accompanied with Sir Iohn of Henault Lord Beaumont and fiue hundred Lords Knights and Gentlemen strangers his associates marched into Scotland The Scots flye into the Woods and Mountaines Where he hunted and chased his enemies from Marish to Marish from Wood to Wood from Hill to Hill and from Mountaine to Mountaine for the space of one moneth and more yet by reason of the Scots cowardise which made them to skulke and runne from place to place tyring out the English Armie The King returneth The King marrieth Philip daughter to the Earle of Henault A Parliament Persons attainted A dishonorable peace with Scotland Their tenure is released The Charter called Ragman deliuered vp A marriage with Scotland Sir Roger Mortimer created Earl of March He is too familiar with Queen Isabel He procureth the Kings vncle to be beheaded Articles against Sir Roger Mortimer The King with his whole companie not hauing performed any memorable seruice returned home and shortly after took to wife the Ladie Philip yongest daughter to William Earle of Henault his cousen german in the third degree and assembled his high Court of Parliament at Northampton in which among other passages the two deceased Spencers and Walter Stapleton the late Bishop of Exeter were attainted of high treason And then the King by the directions of his mother and of Sir Roger Mortimer concluded a dishonorable peace with the Scots and released to them their homage fealtie and seruices to him due for that Kingdome and deliuered vp to them the Grand Instrument or Charter called Ragman which vnder the hands and seales of their late King and of the Nobilitie of Scotland testified their tenure and subiection to the Kings of this Realme and then hee married his sister Iane vnto Dauid the sonne and heire apparant of Robert le Bruse the vsurping Scottish King and created Sir Roger Mortimer Earle of March whereat his Nobles were exceedingly discontent And such was this new Earles inward malice and hatred vnto the Kings vncle the Earle of Kent and so powerfull was he with the King by reason of his too much familiarity with his mother Queen Isabel that he neuer desisted from his wicked and vngodly plottings vntill he had bereaued him of his head But God permitted not this wretched man to sway long in his vngodly courses For within few moneths after he was accused by the State for these horrible and hainous crimes 1. Imprimis For that hee had wickedly plotted and procured the murther of the Kings father 2. Item For that by his false accusations and sinister counsaile he had caused the King to cut off the head of his said vncle who was truly Noble Religious valiant honest and a strong pillar to the Common-weale 3. Item For that too too familiarly he conuersed with Queene Isabel the Kings mother to her iust reproach and the dishonor of the King 4. Item for that hee receiued of the Scots a bribe of twentie thousand pounds for which he procured the Kings retreat out of Scotland and the releasement of his Signiorie and homage due for that Kingdom 5. And lastly because hee had deceitfully cousened and beguiled the King of his Wards and Treasure conuerting all to his owne vse For these his wicked Treasons and horrible transgressions Sir Roger Mortymer attainted and Executed Queene Isabel sequestred The Kings Homage for Guyan required The King would not doe Homage in such sort as it was required The French King is angrie The Kings Homage againe required It is sent
Seigniories of Callice Marguise Sandgate and Coloigne 4. And lastly That in regard thereof King EDWARD The Title to the Crowne of France is relinquished As well in the behalfe of himselfe as of his Successours Kings of England should vtterly renounce and leaue both the name and title to the Kingdome of France And for the performance of these Articles ANNO. 34 How the obseruation of this Peace was ratified The King and Prince returne into England Charles the Regent of France and the Prince of Wales in the presence of six Knights of either Nation receiued the holy Sacrament at the high Altar and then King Edward and his sonne returned into England and were with all complements of loue and kindnesse entertained and feasted at the Tower of London by the French King who was conueyed from thence to Callis The French King feasteth them The two princes sweare Hostages where according to agreement he remained foure moneths and then King Edward repaired to him and both of them at a high Masse solemnly swore to obserue performe and keepe the said Articles and the peace And King Iohn for the hostages of his Ransome deliuered to King Edward foure Dukes seauen Earles ten Barons many Knights and two of the worthiest Burgesses of euery great Citie in France and tooke a most friendly leaue of the King and of the Prince of Wales and departed towards Boleine King Iohn was a prisoner foure yeares he hauing remained a prisoner more then foure yeares And King Edward with his sonne returned into England bringing with them their honorable Hostages who were with all humanitie and kindnesse feasted and entertained by the King and by his Nobilitie and were permitted freely to vse all sports pastimes and exercises for pleasure and contentation as they pleased ANNO. 37 Three Kings doe visite King Edward King Iohn dieth in England The Blacke Prince liueth in Burdeaux ANNO. 40 The causes of King Edwards future losses in those Countries Peter King of Castile is deposed by Henry the Bastard King Charles the fifth taketh part with Henrie the Bastard The Blacke Prince being victorious resetleth Peter in his Kingdome About two yeares after king Edward was at one time visited for loue and kindnesse onely and for no businesse at all by three Kings that is to say by king Iohn of France Dauid the king of Scots and by the king of Cyprus and were with all munificent bountie and liberalitie feasted and honored by the King but king Iohn fell sick and dyed in the Sauoy and his body was conuayd vnto S. Dennis in France where with great pomp and princely ceremonies it was buried The next yeare following the noble Prince of â—ales and his wife being very gallantly attended and prouided went vnto Burdeaux where he liued and gouerned the kings Prouinces thereabout and elsewhere in France to the great contentment and good liking of the Nobles and commons of those Countries In the fortith yeare of king Edwards raigne an vnfortunate businesse was taken in hand by the valiant Prince of Wales which albeit it were performed with great resolution and was rewarded with deserued honor yet within few yeares by reason of a future accident it was the occasion that king Edward lost a great part of his territories in France and it was thus Peter the true and lawfull king of Castile was in the field ouerthrowne put to flight and dispossessed of his Crowne by Henry his Bastard Brother who was assisted by Charles the fifth the sonne of Iohn the deceased king of France This poore distressed king in his wants and miserie repaired to the Prince of Wales for ayd who for his restoring and vpon large and faithfull promises of liberall pay and great rewards conducted an armie into Castile And albeit that the Spanish and the French forces were in number four times more then the Princes were yet in a bloudie battaile the most of them were slaine and the rest were put to flight And king Peter was againe restored to his Crowne and setled in his kingdome by the Prince who returned againe to Burdeaux with great honor But not long after Henry the Bastard Henrie the Bastard taketh and slaieth Peter Peters two heires married to Iohn of Gant and Thomas of Woodstocke The want of pay was the Prince his ouerthrow This Taxe mard all being newly supplied with fresh forces warred with such great furie and violence vpon king Peter that he subdued him and to preuent all future claymes and troubles which he might make he caused him to be put to death But his two daughters and heires were after marryed vnto Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster and to Thomas of Woodstock two of king Edwards sonnes By reason of king Peters death the Prince his souldiours being hopelesse to receiue their promised pay and large rewards and being oppressed with many wants daily petitioned the Prince to supply their need But he finding none other meanes to support their necessities nor being stored with money to relieue their pouertie imposed contrary to the customes of those Countries diuers Taxes vpon the inhabitants of Aquitaine which so highly did displease them that the Lords thereof complained of this sharp noueltie to the French king who flatly contrary to the Articles not long before concluded on for peace betwixt England and France arrogated to himselfe the Soueraignty ouer the Prince The French King breakes the League and his Dominions in France and sommoned him to appeare before him at Paris So that the peace and those agreed Articles were broken by the French king The Prince sommoned to appeare at Paris Warres proclaimed Almost all do reuolt from the Prince The mutabilitie of fortun An vnfortunate yeare and warres were againe proclaymed betweene England and France But before the Prince of Wales could enable his forces for a strong defence the inhabitants of those Countries for the most part reuolted from him and dayly yeelded their Townes Cities Forts and Castles into the hands of the French king So that king Edward who for the space of forty yeares together was most honorable and more fortunate then any other Christian Prince by gayning of incredible victories vpon the Scots and French Nation within the compasse of one yeare without blowes lost almost all his Commaund in those Prouinces which by the said agreement and articles of peace were allotted and by solemne oath assured vnto him King Charles of France forgetting what he had sworne ANNO. 43 The French Name and pleasing himselfe thus quietlie to be made the Lord of all those Countries which were assigned to king Edward conceiued strong hope not only to defeat him vtterly of all these Countries but also to vex him at home in his owne kingdome And for that purpose he furnished a strong Nauie with which he kept the Narrow Seas But king Edward to driue those forces back againe sent his sonne Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster Iohn of Gant with an
Parliament so by an ancient law all the members of that great Counsell might without leaue breake vp the same assembly and depart to their owne houses If the King absented himselfe from their companie for the space of fortie dayes together and that they would not proceed in any businesse but depart except the King would bee pleased personally to come among them and to grace them with his presence and would also remoue Michael de la Pole from his Chancelorship and commit him to strait Prison because he lewdly counselled the King to attempt manie thinges which were dishonourable to himselfe and hurtfull to the Common-weale The King as a Lion being sterne and scorning to yeeld vnto anie motion although it tended to his owne safetie The King denies their suit and to the well-fare of his people required that fiftie selected men of that Assembly might be sent vnto him with whom he would conferre and agree vpon such affaires as they required to bee treated on They will not yeeld to his command But the two houses denying to make anie conclusions priuatly of such affaires and businesses as by a Parliament were to be disputed publickly and publickly to be established did send vnto him his said Vncle Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arundell then Arch-bishop of Canterburie and none others And they two by expresse commandement told the King Two and no more are sent vnto the king that by his absence hee obscured the light of iustice and hindred the negotiations of the Common-weale which without his approbation and consent could not receiue anie strength or life and that if he pleaseâ— not vpon their humble intreatie to come among them for the furthering The King is told of his faults and for the finishing of such waightie affaires as thâ—n they had in hand they would depart to their owne houses because he had absented himselfe from them to their dislike and discouragement more than fortie dayes They also craued with great submission and humilitie as they were commaunded to bee informed by whom his Maiesties treasure A reckoning is demaunded of the King belonging to the common-weale was prodigally wasted and consumed and how it came to passe that his large reuenewes could not suffice to maintaine and to support his Estate and charge seeing he had no wars except his people must be taxed This message and these demands The King threatens the two Houses of his Parlament so wonderfully incensed the King against both the houses of his Parlament that in great chollar and indignation hee deeply swore that if he had foreknowne the saâ—cie boldnesse of his owne Subiects who as he supposed intended to rise in Armes against him hee would more willingly haue submitted himselfe to the King of France and haue relied vpon his protection and defence then thus be baffled and be made seruile and an vnderling to those whom his Soueraigntie ought to command The two Lords with such wonderfull grauitie and temperate mildnesse so effectually related to the King A caueat to beware of France the inueterated malice which the Kings of France had borne towards this Kingdome and the kings which ruled it and the loyall dutie and obedience which both the Lords and also all other inferiour subiects of this Realme did beare vnto him as vnto their most gracious and good Lord that thereby the greatest flame of his fire was much quenched Wise Counsell appeaseth the Kings rage The King commeth to the ParlameÌ„t Michael de la Poole accused condemned fined imprisoned depriued c and the kings passions beganne to bee more moderate and calme So that he promised within three dayes to come among them and did performe it accordingly to the great ioy and contentment of all such as meant and wished well When they were all thus met together Michael de la Pole was by the Lords accused and found guiltie of manie notable and notorious cousonages and deceats by him practised in the execution of his office and for that he had purchased with the kings monie in yearely reuenew so much land as was worth one thousand pounds and more and had purloined in bribes from the kings Subiects for expeditions and by such craftie and dishonest trickes the summe of twentie thousand markes at the least for which offences all his lands were giuen to the king together with a fine of twentie thousand Markes Thomas Arundel Archbishop of Canterburie is made Lord Chancellour and himselfe being depriued of his Office of Chancellorship and of his libertie was committed vnto straight Prison and Thomas Arondell then Archbishop of Canterburie who was a wise and great States-man and did employ his best endeuours for the wellfare and prosperitie of the Common-weale without anie respect to his friends or profit to himselfe was made Chancellor in his steed In the same Parliament also thirteene persons were elected Commissioners chosen in the Parliament to examine the Kings Officers The King sweareth to allow it sworne and authorised aswell by the consents of the Lords spiritual and temporal and by the Commons as also by the kings agreement thereunto published in writing vnder his great Seale to examine all or anie of his Maiesties officers touching their behauiours and their demeanors in their seuerall roomes and places and by whom and how both at home and abroad the kings treasure had beene purloined or mispent and to correct and punish all such as for iust transgressions they should censure and condemne And the king himselfe tooke a publike oath not to reuoke nor to suppresse the said Commission or their power except a Parliament should ioyne with him therein And furthermore it was then enacted for a Law that if anie man should or did attempt Disswaders to be punished directly or indirectly to perswade or to encourage the king to infringe his promise and to make breach of his said oath touching all or anie of those matters hee should for his first offence loose all his Lands and Goods and for his second offence should receiue triall iudgment execution as a Traytor to the king Halfe a fifteene conditionally granted and to his Crowne And then a Subsidie of one halfe Fifteene was granted If by the said Commissioners and vpon their view of the kings Estate it should be thought needful for him to haue the same No sooner was this Parliament ended but the king by the perswasions of his euill Counsellors and contrarie to his owne assent ANNO. 11 The King breaketh his promise and his oath Michael de la Pole is enlarged The Commissioners are pronounced Traytors Some Iudges doe ratifie the confirmation promise and oath enlarged Michael de la Pole and went with him Robert De Vere his Duke of Ireland and with Tresilian his Chiefe Iustice manie of his Iudges vnto Nottingham wher they pronounced the kings Vncle Thomas of Woodstocke Duke of Glocester and Thomas Arondel Archbishop of Canterbury
discontented King The historie of the Kings euill gouernment at home is pursued The petition of the Nobilitie The Kings fiue euill Counsellors whome his Lords with all humilitie and submissiue modestie petitioned and desired Newly to ratifie and to confirme his former promise and his Oath and to thrust from him Michael de la Pole Robert de Vere Alexander the lewd Archbishop of Yorke Robert Treselian his chiefe Iustice and Sir Nicholas Brembre of London who were generally tearmed to be the Kings wicked counsellors and to banish out of the Land all those soothing and flattering Iudges who to please the King had subscribed to the Nullitie of the said Commission and had censured all such as procured it to be traitors to the King and to his Crowne But the Kings affections were so strongly riueted and annexed vnto those fiue and so confident was he that both himselfe The King denyeth their petition and they and his said Iudges had done well in their proceedings at Nottingham and at Couentrie that in plaine tearmes hee denyed them their request And thereupon the Lords for their owne safetie and to support the peace and to preuent the ruine and the destruction of the Commonweale raysed a strong Armie of their friends and of such as vtterly disliked those disorders in the King The Nobilitie rayse an Armie and came to the Citie of London being fully resolued that they themselues would put in execution those things which the King vpon their reasonable and just request and petition had refused to yeeld vnto Wicked aduice giuen by the fiue wicked Counsellors But whe◠〈◊〉 fiue wicked Counsellors perceiued throughly what was p◠〈…〉 and meant they then endeuoured to persuade the King to â—â—â—â—ender Callice and all his other Lordships and Territories in Bâ—â—â—â—ce to the French King and confidently to relye vpon his aide â—â—assuring him That in so doing hee should obtaine two glorious and pleasing victories the one ouer all his Warres by setling of his Estate in a perfect peace and the other ouer his Noblemen who striued as lewdly they pretended to make him subject and seruile to their wils The King would not hearken to that counsell And though in all things besides their counsels were his Oracles yet the King would not at anie hand hearken to this motion and yet he was determined by one meanes or other to curbe and to abridge the strength of his Nobilitie who striued to reforme such things as were amisse And that his purpose might therein be effected especially he enquired of the Maior of London The King requireth an Armie from the Londonners How manie able armed men that Citie could conueniently set forth who certified him That fiftie thousand such might easily and in a short time be prepared and spared there Whereupon the King commaunded him with all expedition to send him such an Armie which forthwith he endeuoured to performe The graue 〈◊〉 Citizens o◠〈◊〉 London 〈◊〉 resist the 〈◊〉 vnwise Mâ—â—or But when the grauest and the wisest Citizens had maturely considered of this businesse they interrupted his proceedings and told the King That they might not be employed in warlike manner against his Lords who for his Majestie and Honor and to preserue his Kingdome from ruine and from destruction had vsed all faithfull and good meanes to remoue from his Person those his wicked Counsellors who onely for their owne commoditie and aduancement had hazarded the whole estate of his Kingdome by aduising and by counselling of him to rule and to gouerne vnaduisedly according to their pleasures and after their lewd and lawlesse wills The Kings gentle message to the Lords The King perceiuing by this Message that his inferiour subjects would in those Troubles adhere vnto the Lords seemed a little to restraine his violent affections and did informe the Lords That he would assemble his High Court of Parliament in which those fiue fauorites of his should be answerable to all Objections whatsoeuer and should if they were conuicted receiue such punishment as should by the publike censure of the House be inflicted on them This vnexpected and good Message so throughly contented the Barons The Lords doe cassâ—er their armie The King performes not his promise He licenceth the Duke of Ireland to raise 5000 men to defend himselfe The Lords do renew their armie The Duke swimmes on horsebacke ouer the Thames He is slaine by a wilde Beare How the King honored his dead corps that presently they disfurnished themselues of all their warlike Forces and were most thankfull for it to the King But as the Winde so was he suddainely changed For in stead of performing what hee had promised hee freely licenced Robert de Vere Duke of Ireland to leuie fiue thousand men for his owne particular guard and defence And the Barons perceiuing thereby that it was high time for them to looke vnto their owne safetie with incredible celeritie and expedition renewed their strength and vpon the suddaine so strongly enuironed the said Duke betwixt their armie and the Riuer of Thames that they compelled him for the preseruation of his life by swimming on horsebacke to passe ouer vnto the other side from whence he presently fled into France in which Kingdome about fiue yeares after as he hunted hee was slaine by a wilde Boare But such was the Kings affection towards him whilest he liued that he caused his dead carkasse to be embalmed and to be brought into England and to be apparrelled in princely Ornaments and Robes His necke to be compassed with a massie chayne of Gold his fingers to be couered with Rings and his Funerals to be solemnized with all magnificence and pompe Now when the said Duke of Ireland was compelled by swimming on horsebacke as you haue heard to saue himselfe and was fled into France the Barons executed some of his chiefest consorts for an example vnto others Some of the said Dukes consorts executed The Barons armie is with ioy receiued into London but suffered the multitude to disperse themselues and required them with all speed to repaire to their owne houses But the said Barons conducted their owne armie to London where they were receiued with much joy And such was the bountifull entertainment which they found there that they might thereby assure themselues of their heartie welcome The King who kept his Court in the Tower of London was well pleased to admit of a conference with the Lords In which it was concluded That a Parliament should be summoned A Parliament Which being orderly assembled the Kings wicked Counsellors and some of the aforesaid Iudges were required personally to appeare But they came not thither The fiue wicked Counsellors and the Iudges condemned as Traitors yet were they after great debating and disputing of that businesse condemned of high Treason to the King and to the Commonweale And not long after Sir Iohn Earle of Salisburie and Sir Nicholas Brembre lost their heads
made him Duke of Norfolk he being altogether vnworthie of so great honor 8. Item that the King to further his last Expedition for Ireland without law without iustice tooke from the Clergie and many Religious houses great store of monie plate iewels and rich ornaments not hauing the owners consent so to doe 9 Item that in the same iournie without the approbation of his Counsell of Estate hee carried with him into Ireland the plate and rich iewels belonging to the Crowne which might haue tended to the great inpouerishment of this Realme 10 Item that in euerie Shire he had secret Intelligencers vpon whose bare information that ane man had repined at the Kings bad gouernement the partie so accused without examination or triall was enforced to procure his pardon by the payment of a grieuous fine 11 Item that by the lewd aduise of his wicked Counsellours hee had deuised manie subtle and craftie Oathes by meanes whereof manie of his honest Subiects had beene vndone 12 Item that by the like aduise and counsell he procured Ruffians and desperate companions to accuse rich but weake men of sundrie falsly-supposed crimes and imagined offences and by meanes thereof enforced them to redeeme the combate with much monie 13 Item that he gaue large gifts vnto wicked and lewd companions who malitiously to aduance their owne Estates animated him against diuers of his Barons who only desired a good reformation of his euill gouernment and imposed diuers Taxes vpon his people to enrich them 14 Item that hee had procured such Records to bee cancelled and imbeselled as testified his extortions and his oppressions vniustly imposed vpon his people 15 Item that he had oftentimes said that the Lawes of his Kingdome were in his owne breast and that vpon this opinion hee had put to death manie of his noble men and some of his inferiour subiects without iust cause 16 Item that most of his writings and letters vnto foraigne Princes and Estates were so craftie ambiguous doubtfull and vncertaine that they could not relie confidently vpon anie thing which he had written 17 Item that in his Parliament holden in the one and twentieth yeare of his Raigne his Cheshire Guard who onely were permitted and suffered to weare weapons committed many Robberies and Murders and yet not one of them was punished or reproued for the same 18 Item that to insinuate fauour with those loose and lewd companions the King had basely and fondly dishonoured his High Estate and Soueraigntie by entitling himselfe The Prince of Cheshire 19 Item that whereas in the same Parliament sundrie great Lords intended liberally and dutifully to haue spoken of such things as were not well ordered to the end that they might haue beene reformed the King in such sort threatned them that for feare of ensuing dangers they held themselues silent and spake not at all 20 Item that hee exacted great fines from the wealthiest of his Subiects for adhearing to the Barons notwithstanding that in full Parliament he had before granted them his free pardon 21 Item that by himselfe and his owne authoritie he had displaced diuers Burgesses of the Parliament and had placed such other in their roomes as would better fit and serue his owne turne 22 Item that contrarie to his solemne Oath and instrument in writing vnder the great Seale of his Kingdome Hee had not only disallowed the Commission granted in the same Parliament to the thirteene Lords to enquire of and to reforme the great abuses and the apparant misgouernment of the Common-Weale But also had exiled beheaded and otherwise executed diuers Noble Men and others who for the Kings honour and for the safetie and welfare of the Common-Weale had procured the said Commission or had executed the said Authoritie according to the trust and confidence in them reposed 23 Item that whereas hee had caused certaine Lawes in the same Parliament to bee made for his owne gaine and to serue his owne turne hee procured the Popes Bulles to curse such as should withstand or disobey them which thing greatly tended to the derogation of his Crowne and was done expressely against his owne law made against the Authoritie of the Pope within this Realme but seuen yeares before 24 Item that hee had displaced lawfull and good Shiriffes and had elected others whom he suffered to continue and to hold the said Office two yeares together and more because their vniust oppressions augmented and encreased his gaine King Richard confesseth all the Articles The transcript of all these Articles and Obiections were by both the Houses of Parliament authentically sent vnto the king who not only confessed them to bee true and acknowledged his owne insufficiencie to rule and to gouerne better but also by a plaine He resignes his Crowne King Richard is deposed Henrie Duke of Lancaster is made King Thomas Arundell restored to the Archbishopprick of Canterburie and exact instrument in writing vnder his hand and Seale hee resigned his Crowne and kingdome to his Cousin Henrie of Bullinbrooke Duke of Lancaster which being read publikely and beeing generally ratified approoued and confirmed by the Lords Spirituall and Temporall and by the Commons in the same Parliament assembled they deposed king Richard and made the said Duke king And his true and faithfull friend and his companion in Banishment Thomas Arundell Archbishoppe of Canterburie being then and there restored to his place and dignitie installed the said Henrie in the kingly Throne And the late King Richard was sent to Pomfret Castle there to bee safely kept and with Princely honour to bee maintained but verie shortly after by the new kings direction and commaundement who feared least his Estate might bee shaken so long as Richard liued hee was wickedly and villanously assaulted in his Lodging King Richard is cruelly murdered by Sir Pierce Exton and eight other armed men from one of which with a Princely courage hee wrested a browne-Bill and therewith slewe foure of his Mischieuous and Vngodly Assailants He was very valiant and with admirable resolution fought with all the rest vntill comming by his owne Chaire in which the base Cowardly Knight himselfe stood for his owne safetie hee was by him striken with a Polle-axe in the hinder part of his head Though hee were an euill King yet no religion warranted those vniust proceedings so that presently he fell downe and died And thus was hee wicredly and treacherously murdered and his bodie buried at Langley but was afterwardes remoued vnto Westminster where it now lieth THE HISTORIE OF KING HENRIE THE FOVRTH ALTHOVGH the Crowne of England ANNO. 1. 1399. in right if Richard the deposed king should die without issue was by succession to descend vnto Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the Son and heire of Edmund Mortimer by Philip his wife who was the daughter and heire of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third sonne of Edward the third Yet his Cousin Henrie of Bullinbrooke Duke of Hartford and
sonne and heire vnto Iohn of Gaunt the yonger brother of the said Lionel was elected and crowned king And forthwith hee created his eldest sonne Henrie Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall and Earle of Chester and summoned his High Court of Parliament in which an order was prescribed and set downe for the safe keeping and for the honourable attendance and maintaining of Richard the late king But his deposing imprisonment and all the former proceedings which were had against him Iohn Bishop of Carleyl condemneth the former proceedings against King Richard were in the same Assembly publikely condemned and reprooued by Iohn Bishop of Carlile as hatefull vnto God trayterous towardes the wronged king and infamous among good men For he auerred boldly That if he were not a good king yet more iniurie was done vnto him then ordinarily is done to Murderers and to Theeues because they are not as he was condemned before they had made their answere to the obiected crime before Iudges which were indifferent The Bishop of Carleyl is attached and pronounced their iudgement vpon good proofe But assoone as hee had ended his speech he was attached by the Earle Marshal and committed to strait Prison in the Abbey of Saint Albons And then among manie other things in the same Parlament done the Crowne of England was entailed to King Henrie The Crowne is Entayled and to his heires for euer Treason plotted to be acted at Oxford Assoone as this Parliament was ended such of the greatest Lords as made the fairest shew of publike applause and ioy for the High dignitie which King Henrie did possesse conspired by Treason to take away his life at a solemne Iusts to be holden in the Citie of Oxford whereunto the King was inuited and promised to bee present because hee conceiued that the same Triumph was so appointed for his honour and for his delight This Treacherie was cunningly plotted and contriued by the Conspirators who by Indentures vnder their handes and seales had bound themselues each vnto other both for secrecie and also for the resolute effecting and performing thereof all which they solemnly confirmed by their Oathes The confederates The Confederates in this Treason were the Kings Cousin German Edward Plantagenet Duke of Aumarle sonne and heire apparant to Edmund of Langley Duke of Yorke Thomas Holland Duke of Surrie and Iohn Holland his brother Duke of Exeter both which were halfe brothers to King Richard Iohn Montague Earle of Salisburie Hugh Spencer Earle of Glocester Sir Thomas Blunt and one Magdalen who was sometimes a Chamber-wayter to the deposed King and both in stature and in countenance and in his behauiour was not much vnlike him All these Conspirators the Duke of Aumarle onely excepted met at Oxford at the appointed time being strongly guarded and honourably attended The Treason was strangely discouered by lustie Archers and other valiant men But the absence of the said Duke was by his Associates wondred at for which their was good cause For as hee sate at Table with the Duke his Father one Labell of a part of the said Indentures appeared at his bosome by which the olde Duke drew forth the whole writing And hauing read the same hee caused his Horse to bee made readie because hee intended with all poasting speed to make this newes knowne vnto the King But his guiltie The Duke of Aumarle confesseth all to the King and perplexed Sonne perceiuing that his Father would reueale this secret and knowing that now the least delay might extraordinarily hasten his danger being brauely mounted with all celeritie he out-rode his Father and came to Windsor Castle to the King who was preparing for his said iournie and without anie tedious discourse or lingring ceremonies He is pardoned hee reuealed to his Maiestie the whole conspired Treason and freely obtained his owne pardon It now behoued the King to change his course and so hee did For presently he rode to the Tower of London The King raiseth an armie where he tooke a present and a perfit view of all such thinges as were behoofefull and necessarie to an Armie And then he leuied a strong power purposing to defend himselfe and to surprise those grand Traytours if he might But when the Conspirators were informed that all their Plot and Treason was reuealed Magdalen was King Richards counterfeit They caused the said Magdalen to bee attired in Royall Robes and to faine and affirme himselfe to bee King Richard And with him and all their Troupes which were verie warlike and strong they marched towardes London resoluing to oppose themselues in the field against the king But king Henrie knowing that those Lords both in bloud and for their power The King marcheth towards the Traytors were more then ordinarily great was not ignorant that his best meanes to represse and vanquish them consisted in the quickest expedition and dispatch which hee could make Wherefore with a bold and with a kingly courage hee marched speedily towardes them with twentie thousand wel-armed men The newes of the kings approach being voiced among the companies which were conducted by the conspiratours so perplexed The Traiterous Lords are left by their companions and so amazed them that verie cowardly they ranne away and left those Lords comfortlesse and destitute of all aide So that the most of them were apprehended and not long after were put to death in sundrie places of this kingdome The Lords flâ—e and are taken and executed and the rest being surcharged and ouer-burdned with feare and sorrow not long after dyed Thus was king Henrie happily deliuered from this danger And lest the like Treason for king Richards sake might at an other time bee attempted against his person he caused him to bee murdered in the Castle of Pomfret Charles the sixt resolueth to releue his Sonne in-law King Richard as in the end of the discourse describing his Raigne and Historie more particularly it doth appeare When the French King Charles the sixt Father-in-law to king Richard was truely informed what had beene done in England hee was much grieued at the vnsufferable wrongs which were done vnto him and did intend as a faithful friend in his extremities to relieue his lamentable Estate and to be pittied miseries And for that purpose hee sent his letters of defiance to king Henrie and brought an Armie Royal into Piccardie with which he resolued to make sharp Warre within this Realme He desisteth when he heareth of King Richards death A French Armie An English Armie But when hee certainly knew that the poore distressed and afflicted King was dead and that it was too late to doe him anie good hee dissolued his Armie and proceeded no further in that businesse Yet to reuenge those wrongs hee was verie hopefull to surprise manie Townes Cities and Castles in Aquitaine and in Guyan And to effect the same not long after hee leuied other Forces encreasing them to a great
tyre out his Armie to pursue him Wherefore hee returned ouer the Riuer of Loyre and tooke eyther by force or by voluntarie yeelding manie Townes and Castles vnto his owne vse Pâ— Henry is borne About the same time Queene Katherine was deliuered of a Sonne at Windsour who was named Henrie Of whose birth as soone as the King had notice he said vnto the Lord Fitz-Hugh his Chamberlaine The Kings words I HENRIE borne at Monmouth shall remaine but a short time and gaine much but HENRIE borne at Windsour shall raigne long and lose all The King who for manie weekes together had besieged the well-defended Towne of Meux in Bry enforced it to bee yeelded into his hands and thereupon all the Townes and Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lanuoys in Bry and in Champaigne did the like The Dolphin entreth into the Duke of Burgoines countrey When the Dolphin vnderstood that the King with his Armie was departed farre away from him hee raysed another Armie and entred into the Duke of Burgoines Countries wasting and consuming it with Sword and with Fire and straitly besieged the Citie of Cosney Cosney is besieged which by composition was to be yeelded to him if it were not rescued within tenne daies Of this Agreement notice was sent by the Duke of Burgoine to the King with a request That he would send a power conuenient for the remoue of the said Siege The King goeth to relieue Cosney Whereupon the King in his owne person being accompanied with a gallant companie marched towards that Citie to set it free But as he trauelled on the way he fell so sicke that he was vnable to trauaile anie further The King falleth sick So the charge of that expedition was committed to his brother Iohn Duke of Bedford whose passage forth was noysed to the Dolphin to be with such an high courage and souldior-like resolution that the Dolphin fearing to grapple with him raysed his siege The Dolphin sayeth and most dishonourably retyred himselfe and his Armie into Berry And thus was that Citie rescued and deliuered by the English The King by reason of his encreasing sicknesse waxing more weake and feeble was carried vnto Boys in Vyncennes where within few dayes he was summoned by Death to depart into another world But before he died The Kings Speech before he died he called vnto him his two brothers Iohn Duke of Bedford and Humfrey Duke of Glocester the former hee made Lieutenant Generall of Normandie and Regent of the kingdome of France and the other he made Protector of England and of his sonnes owne person Hee embraced his approaching end comfortably in regard that though his time had been but short yet it was beautified with matchlesse fame and honour which longer continuance being the professed enemie of stabilitie might haue changed He exhorted them and his Nobles who then were present to maintaine true and heartie loue and friendship with his noble and faithfull friend Philip Duke of Burgoine and neuer to be at variance with him Hee persuaded them to nourish and to cherish an vnseparable vnitie and faithfull friendship among themselues to be faithfull and louing to his young infant sonne and their succeeding king Henrie and by all meanes to bee helpefull ayding and assisting to his most sad dolorous and mournefull Queene to preserue and to maintaine by Wisdome Policie and Armes those things which he by valour and GODS furtherance had honourably wonne and gotten Neuer to conclude any peace or amitie with the late Dolphin and Duke of Alanson vntill they were enforced to submit themselues to his sonnes grace and mercie Finally he thanked Almightie GOD who had made him Religious Vertuous Honest and Victorious The King died and died the last day of August in the yeare of our LORD GOD 1422. in the eight and thirtieth yeare of his Age when hee had raigned but nine yeares fiue moneths and foure and twentie dayes And his bodie being conueyed into England was buried among his noble Progenitors at Westminster with extraordinarie solemnitie and great pompe THE HISTORIE OF KING HENRIE THE SIXT KIng Henrie the fifth died when his sonne Henrie was but nine months old 1422. 1 A yong king but well gouerned Yet was hee so fortunate in his beginning that his Youth and Gouernment were worthily supported by his three vncles Humfrey Duke of Glocester who when the King was crowned was made Protector both of his Person and also of his Realme Iohn Duke of Bedford who was established Regent of France and Thomas Duke of Exeter who graced all his actions with much wisdome and great valour Needfull it was that the new Protector and the Regent should make the vtmost tryall of their sufficiencies to the World For whereas in the end of the Kings fathers dayes France is vnwilling to remain English the Nobilitie of France incorporated themselues to the English Nation and heartily enuied the Dolphin King Charles about this time died and the vnconstant Frenchmen began to play an Irish game For on a suddaine manie of those dissembling and fained friends renounced their duties and obedience to King Henrie and vtterly neglecting the performance of Oathes of Allegeance made vnto him they reuolted and not onely adhered to Charles their new King but by all sinister practises and meanes they endeuoured to extirpe the English Nation among them if they might The Regents Policies The Protector at home by the aduise and counsell of the Statists plotted manie Proiects for the retayning of the Kings inheritance in Normandie and in France and for that purpose he furnished the Regent with store of Souldiours Siluer and of Gold The Regent also leuied a strong Armie in Normandie among his choysest and chiefest friends whome by substantiall arguments and sound reasons hee persuaded to perseuere and to continue loyall to his Master and not to be wearied with anie labour or daunted with anie danger because a peacefull and a blessed conclusion should make them rich and fortunate and winne to them the loue and fauour of their young King as hee encreased in wisedome and in yeares And on the other side Charles the new King spared not anie paines but did the like insomuch that nothing but tyrannizing Warre and the vnchristian effusion of much bloud was thought vpon And to begin those Troubles the French King sent the Lord Grandeuyle Pont-Melance taken with a selected companie to Pont-Melance which standeth on the Riuer of Seyne which hee surprized and slew the most part of them whom he found there before anie notice of his approach gaue anie warning to the English garrison to defend it The Earle of Salisburie a famous man Thomas Montacute the Earle of Salisburie for his admired courage and expert managing of martiall actions was at that time more fitly to be compared to a choise Roman than to anie other who liued in his dayes To this Earle the Regent commended the regayning
things at her pleasure could not be contented vntill the said three great Lords either by strength or policie were cut off yet outwardly she seemed in some measure to affect them and with her cheerefull countenance and smoothing words shee made them a little to be credulous of her loue A subtill policie but discouered But to effect what earnestly she intended she caused the King for recreation and for his healths sake to make his progresse towards the North hunting hauking vsing many other pastimes and delightfull sports in the middest of all which pretending businesses of great import shee caused letters to be written to those three Lords requiring them to come to a speedie conference with the King whereupon those Lords not suspecting any guilefull treacherie to be conspired against them did as they were commanded and were with all cheerefull familiaritie receiued by the King and Queene But being secretly informed by their friends that their destruction was neere at hand the Duke of Yorke fled from thence into Wales the Earle of Salisburie to his owne Countrey and his sonne the Earle of Warwicke vnto Callice and yet by their daily messengers and letters sent mutually the one to the other New proiects were deuised and put in practise shortly after The King being aduised by his Counsellors that these mortall iarres at home would incite his enemies abroad to attempt much mischiefe against him and his kingdome The King laboureth for vnitie and peace How both the Factions met at London endeuoured by gentle perswasions to reconcile his discontented Nobles and to vnite their hearts in true friendship and in loue For this purpose hee appointed a generall meeting of all his Lords at London whither they resorted but were attended on by multitudes of their meniall seruants and by such as for that time were desirous and willing to strengthen them with their best seruice The Lancastrian Faction lodged themselues in the Suburbes and consulted daily what course was best for them to take The Yorkish Confederates soiourned within the walles of the Citie and met daily and aduised themselues how all things should be ordered in this businesse But neither of the aduerse parties came neere vnto the other And the Citizens of London being Neuters and fearing the euent of blowes furnished euery street with armed men both by day and night to maintaine and to preserue the Kings peace Thus whilest euery houre bred much suspicion and when iealousie among the Noble-men made the hearts of the Commons to be vnstable the Arch-bishop of Canterburie and sundrie other Clergie-men by fitting perswasions and arguments of great force and consequence so preuailed that the King the Queene and all the Lords were pleased A dissembled friendship in friendly and in kinde sort to meet and to entertaine each other and all iarres and discontented humours were outwardly in words but not inwardly in heart reconciled and instruments in writing for future amitie and loue were mutually subscribed sealed and deliuered And for the greater solemnitie of this new friendship a religious procession was made thorow the Citie of London in which the Kings head was adorned with the Imperiall Crowne and whereon the Duke of Yorke often times looked with a scornefull eie And one Lord of either Faction marched together hand in hand The Duke of Yorke lead the Queene and with great familiaritie and gracefull honour seemed to be highly respected and esteemed by her The King likewise reioiced much at this Vnion the Lords made shewes of much applauding and the multitude being ignorant that secret rancour was dawbed ouer with counterfeited dissimulation skipped leaped and gaue great shouts for ioy But within few daies after it hapned that vpon a sudden debate and falling out betwixt one of the Kings seruants and a gentleman belonging to the Earle of Warwicke A dangerous affray an affray was made neere vnto the Kings Court in which the Kings seruant was grieuously wounded and the other fled Hereupon the Yeomen of the Kings Gard with Holberds and Swords and the skullerie with Spits and Forkes The Eâ—rle of Wâ—rwiâ—â—e 〈◊〉 assaulted assaulted the Earle and his followers as he came from the Counsell Boord to take his Barge Betwixt them many a rude blow was giuen much bloud was shed but no man slaine The Queene who was forward to picke a quarrell to the Earle vpon any small occasion and knowing that in a whirrie he was passed into London gaue strait command for his apprehension and commitment to the Tower But by reason that his secret friends had forewarned him to looke vnto himselfe hee poasted with all expedition into Yorkeshire He posteth into Yorkeshire where hee discouered to his father and to the Duke of Yorke the great iniurie and wrong which was done vnto him by the Kings seruants and the intention of the Queene notwithstanding the late reconcilement and friendship which was concluded with great protestations and much solemnitie betwixt them And lest some Carpet fauourite might expulse him for his place of trust and Captainship of Calice He saileth vnto Calice hee forthwith sailed thither and assoone as he was gone his father the Earle of Salisburie marched towards the Kings Court with an Armie of fiue thousand men An Armie raised to complaine vnto his Highnesse not onely of the violence and wrong which his meniall seruants had done vnto his sonne but also of the sugered and secret dissimulation of the Queene But when the Queene had certaine notice of his resolued purpose she commanded the Lord Awdley to encounter him on his way with ten thousand men which she had leuied and peremptorily she required him to bring vnto her the said Earle quick or dead Bloar-heath field Her selfe also with another Armie came after him and in Shropshire in Bloar-heath the said Earle and the Lord Awdley met each other where the one fought for honour but the Earle for his life neither of them intending to yeeld or to steppe backe But at length the Earle his followers being in despaire of good successe or pardon if they maintained not the encounter with bold hearts and strong armes fought with such resolution and vnconquerable stomackes The Lord Awdley is ouerthrowen by the Earle of Salisburie that the Lord Awdley with foure and twentie hundred of his souldiers and associates were slaine the rest fled and the Earle of Salisburie was Lord and master of the field By these practises the Duke of Yorke perceiued plainly that the liues of him and of his Complices were secretly hunted for The Duke of Yorke raiseth an Armie and claimes the Crowne and therefore he now determined no longer to hide and couer his purpose as formerly he had done but by armes in the open field to maintaine his claime and title to the Crowne And therefore himselfe with the Earle of Salisburie marched into Wales and thither the Earle of Warwicke repaired to them and brought with him for their
in law Charles Duke of Burgoine to prohibit his subiects and his friends from giuing to the said Earle any aide Warwicke is enuied by the Duke of Burgoine helpe or succour and with a Nauie to surprise him The Duke willingly consented to the Kings request First because the said Earle opposed himselfe against his mariage with the Ladie Margaret the Kings sister Secondly because the said Earle loued Lewys the French King whom the Duke mortally hated And lastly because the Earle was so generally beloued of the English Nation that when he was at home he clipped the wings of the Kings authoritie in his owne Kingdome When the Duke of Clarence and the Earle of Warwicke came before Calice Clarence and Warwicke â—eateaâ—â—â—â— at Calice The Duchesse deliuered 〈◊〉 a 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 Mâ—nsieur de Vawcler made Câ—ptaine of Calice A peâ—â—iâ—n is giuen him hauing their wiues and many other Ladies and Gentlewomen with them in stead of friendly entertainment the Earles vnkinde Deputie Monsieur de Vawcler kept their ships off with the great Ordinance of the Castle And though the Duchesse was in ship boord deliuered of a sonne yet would hee not permit that it should be landed or Christned there neither would hee affoord any thing needfull and necessarie in that extremitie to the said distressed Ladie The King tooke so much ioy to heare of this good newes that forthwith by his Letters Patents hee granted the chiefe Captainship of that place to the said Deputie And the Duke of Burgoine so thanked him that he gaue him an yearely pension of one thousand Crownes Yet for all this Monsieur de Vawcler was so vncertaine in all his dealings towards the King that hee aduised the said Earle to direct his course to the King of France and promised to yeeeld vnto him a good account for Calice when time and opportunitie should it require This counsell gaue some hope and contentment to the Earle who intending to do as he directed lanched his ships into the sea The Earle of Warwicke taketh the Duke of Burgoines subiects at Sea The French King is gratious to the Lords where hee met with diuers of the Duke of Burgoines subiects fully loaden with great varietie of rich merchandises of all sorts all which he rifled and tooke away and landed at the Towne of Deepe and from thence by the French Kings inuitation they came to the Castle of Amboys which standeth vpon the riuer of Loyer where hee met them receiued them cheerefully feasted them with great bountie supplied their present wants and faithfully promised to aid and to assist them when time should serue with his best meanes all which hee did not in regard of any grounded loue towards them but because he knew that they were enemies to his enemies King Edward the Duke of Burgoine Queene Margaret and Prince Edward her son together with Iaspar sometimes Earle of Pembroke some others who with him had broken prison in England were fled into France vnderstanding that the Duke of Clarence the Earle of Warwick and others of their friends were friendly entertained in the French Court repaired to them New plotting against K. Edward where they entred into new conferences and communications for the restoring of K. Henry to his Crowne Kingdome and solemnly tooke their oathes neuer voluntarily to leaue each other vntill they had done their best to effect the same And the Earle of Warwicke to make his own part the stronger gaue his second daughter in mariage to Prince Edward Prince Edward maried to Warwickâ—s second daughter This mâ—riage mâ—keth Clarence a secret enemie to Warwicke whereof when the Duke of Clarence had deliberately considered and thought what might be the sequell of this businesse hee euidently foresaw that this mariage and their newly intended warres would be the vtter confusion of him and of the whole familie and house of Yorke For Kings doe alwaies looke with a iealous eie vpon all such as by any possibilitie may lay any leuell towards their Crowne This consideration not without good cause made him very distrustfull of his own fortunes And to preuent a great mischiefe which as hee thought began to threaten him and his estate his loue his heart began secretly to forsake the Earle of Warwicke and that Faction insomuch that hee gaue priuate intelligence to his brother King Edward Clarence his mâ—ssage to the King that at their landing within the Kingdome of England he would be but a faint and a weake enemie in those affaires Thus when those Lords had concluded to returne The Lâ—rds prâ—â—â—â— fâ—rth for England they were with all expedition well furnished with men munition money ships and all things fitting by the French King But being in a readinesse to passe out of the Riuer of Seyne the Burgundians met them with a strong Fleet at the mouth of that Riuer and purposed to defeat them if they might But an euening storme approching with vnwonted rage and furie The Burgundians drowned compelled the Burgundians to runne into the Sea where many of them were drowned some were driuen into Scotland and the rest being all dispersed laboured and toiled hardly to saue themselues The Earle of Warwicke who by letters some few daies before receiued from his friends was certified that his landing was hourely expected and sufficient strength prouided to backe him and his although they came destitute of all other helpes and succours determined to loose no time but making a present benefit to himselfe and his of the Burgundians mishap and hard fortune and leauing the Queene and the Prince her sonne behinde him the next morning entred into the Sea and with much speed and safetie he landed with all his companies and friends at Dartmouth in Deuonshire The Lords doe land at Dartmouth The King was too secure from whence hee gaue speedie notice of his arriuall to his dearest and nearest friends The King so much relied vpon the bold seruice intended by the Burgundians Fleet and not knowing what shipwracke and dammage it had receiued made no preparation at all either to withstand their arriuall or to encounter them after they were landed but hauked hunted and solaced himselfe according to his humour and wonted fashion in the societie and companie of young Ladies and faire maidens to whom his affections were more obliged then to the warres Warwickes Proclamation But the Earle of Warwicke marshalled his small companie in good order and by publike Proclamations which he made in King Henries name he required all men to repaire vnto his aide with money victuall armour and all things needfull for that purpose and valiantly to fight against the Duke of Yorke who as hee affirmed by meere vsurpation and bloudie tyrannie vntruly and falsly called himselfe King He hath a â—uge Armie This politicke practise within few daies increased his small companies to a huge Armie with which they marched towards London And such were the quicke
Barwicke is deliuered to the Duke of Glocester who making the Lord Stanley the chiefest Captaine and Commander thereof returned ioifully with his whole Armie and was much praised and thanked by the King This good newes from Scotland was quickly checked with a bad out of France The French King breaketh all the Articles of Peace For the French King not only refused to pay vnto King Edward the foresaid tribute of fiftie thousand Crownes by the yeare which was granted to him during his life but also maried his sonne the Dolphin to the Ladie Margaret daughter to Maximilian the sonne of Fredericke the Emperour thereby breaking his oath and infringing those Articles which vpon the last conclusion of peace he had sworne solemnly to obserue and keepe Whereat King Edward iustly conceiued such an high displeasure and hatred against King Lewys that after long and serious consultation with his Counsell K. Edward resolueth to goe with an Armie into France Nobilitie Clergie and Commons he did resolue to passe againe with a royall Armie into France and to reuenge himselfe of all those iniuries and wrongs But whilest those preparations made manifest to the world the Kings intention to make warre hee being either surcharged with deepe melancholie or with some surfet for excesse of diet and of pleasure did oftentimes disquiet him waxed exceeding sicke He sickneth He dieth and shortly after died when he had raigned more then two and twentie yeares Profitable Notes extracted out of the troublesome raignes of King HENRIE the Sixth and of King EDVVARD the Fourth THe whole Kingdome of France was lost in the seuen and twentieth yeare of King Henry the Sixth 27. H. 6. And the next yeare after all Normandie was lost 28. H. 6. 31. H. 6. And in the one and thirtieth yeare of his raigne the Duchie of Aquitaine was quite taken from him It is likewise to be obserued that whilest hee gouerned and enioied Normandie and France these heroicall Nobles lost their liues there that is to say Thomas Montacute Earle of Salisburie 6. H. 6. 12. H. 6. 14. H. 6. 18. H. 6. 31. H. 6. who was slaine at the siege of Orleance Iohn Earle of Arundel who was slaine at the siege of Rue the noble and renowned Lord Iohn Duke of Bedford and Regent of France and Richard Beauchampe Earle of Warwicke both which died of a greeuous sicknesse and Iohn Lord Talbot Earle of Shrewesburie who was slaine at the battaile of Chastilion Besides many braue skirmishes and strong encounters there were fought during his raigne betwixt the two factions and Confederates of the houses of Lancaster and of Yorke fiue cruell and fierce battailes 1. The first was called the battaile of S. Albons 34. H. 6. wherein the Yorkish did preuaile and among others Edmund Duke of Somerset Henry the second Earle of Northumberland Humfrey Earle of Stafford and Iohn Lord Clifford were then slaine 2. The second was termed the battaile of Bloarheath 37. H. 6. in which the confederated Lords wonne the victorie in which the Queenes Generall the Lord Awdley was slaine 3. The third was the battaile of Northampton 38. H. 6. in which King Henry was ouerthrowen In this battaile there died aboue tenne thousand men among which were these Nobles Humfrey Duke of Buckingham Iohn Earle of Shrewesburie Thomas Lord Egremont Iohn Viscount Beamount and the Lord Scales was beheaded 39. H. 6. 4. The fourth was the battaile of Wakefield in which the King was victorious In this battaile there were slaine almost three thousand men among which was the renowned and most valiant Richard Duke of Yorke and many others And certaine prisoners were then taken and lost their heads among which Richard Neuil Earle of Salisburie and father to Richard Earle of Warwicke was the chiefe And at the end of that battaile the young Earle of Rutland named Edmund being of the age of twelue yeares and second sonne to the slaine Duke of Yorke was cruelly murdered by the Lord Clifford 39. H. 6. 5. The fifth battaile was called the battaile of Towton in which the new Duke of Yorke preuailed and in the same there were slaine almost 37000. Englishmen among which were the Earle of Westmerland Henry Earle of Northumberland the Lords Dacres and Welles and many worthie Gentlemen and Knights And the Earle of Deuonshire with some of his Complices being taken prisoners lost their heads 29. H. 6. Whilest this King liued there were also executed for diuers Treasons touching the said two Factions William de la Pole Duke of Suffolke and Iames Fynes Lord Say High Treasurer of England And Humfrey 25. H. 6. surnamed The good Duke of Glocester being Vncle and Protector to the King and being vniustly committed to the Tower for surmised but not for approued Treasons was cruelly murdered in his chamber King EDVVARD the Fourth IN the raigne of King Edward the Fourth there were principally fought fiue battailes betwixt the houses of Lancaster and Yorke 2. E. 4. 1. The first was the battaile of Exham in the North in which King Edward obtained the victorie and tooke these prisoners among many others Henry Duke of Somerset William Taylboys who named himselfe Earle of Kent the Lords Roos Molynes and Hungerford all which were within few daies after put to death 8. E. 4. 2. The second was called Banburie Field in which were slaine aboue 8000. men 8. E. 4. 3. The third was called the battaile of Loose-coats because the souldiers threw off their coats to run away the faster And in it aboue ten thousand men lost their liues 4. The fourth was Barnet field 10. E. 4. in which more then ten thousand died among which were the most renowned Richard Neuil Earle of Warwicke Iohn Marquesse Montacute his brother whom King Edward entirely loued And on King Edwards part there was slaine a noble and a valiant Gentleman named Sir Humfrey Bourchier sonne to the Lord Barnes 5. And the fifth was called Tewkesburie Field in which 3000. 10. E. 4. Englishmen were slaine among which were the Duke of Somerset and the Lord Iohn his brother and the Earle of Deuonshire In this Kings raigne there were beheaded the Lord Stafford 8. E. 4. who left the Earle of Pembroke vpon a priuate falling out in the Field and caried from him part of the Kings Armie The Lord Welles and Sir Thomas Dymocke 8. E. 4. without any offence at all by them done Richard Wooduile Earle Ryuers and father to Queene Elizabeth 8. E. 4. King Edward wife was taken by the Rebels and lost his head And the Lord Wenloke was murdered by the Duke of Somerset 10. E. 4. because he came not to his rescue with his Companies in the field The young Prince Edward eldest sonne to King Henry the sixth 10. E. 4. to please King Edward was cruelly murdered by the two Dukes of Clarence and of Glocester and by some others King Henry the sixth
was himselfe stabbed with a dagger 10. E. 4. and slain in the Tower of London by the said Richard Duke of Glocester And not long after 10. E. 4. the Duke of Clarence was found dead in his bed he hauing beene drowned in a Butte of Malmesie not without the Kings consent as it was supposed And thus open and ciuill warres by the sword and the common Executioner with his axe and inueterated enuie and malice with bloudie hands bereaued and tooke away the liues of the greater number of the most renowned and valiant Noblemen Captaines and Gentlemen of this Realme THE HISTORIE OF KING EDVVARD THE FIFTH IF our memories be pleased to take a reuiew of the life and actions of the late deceased King Edward the Fourth Edward the Fourth described wee may thereon make this pretie abbreuiate and short collection That hee was of a goodly personage and of a kingly presence That he was very strong and passing valiant not proud in prosperitie nor deiected with aduerse fortune That hee was moderately pleasant and merie That he was pleasing to his Nobles familiar with his souldiers and amiable to his inferiour subiects That he was mercifull to offenders and fauoured all such as did well That he was very wise discreet prouident and soundly aduised in all his actions Yet was he somewhat too credulous and too wanton and in his latter daies more couetous then formerly he had beene By many worthy endeuours he expressed how much hee longed for his peoples loue His affabilitie and by one action hee more particularly declared it then by all the rest For in the next Summer before he died hee required the Lord Maior of London and his brethren to repaire to his Castle of Windsour where hee then lay And when they expected some extraordinarie imploiment in State affaires because so many of them were called thither not troubling them with any businesse either great or small priuate or publike nor requiring of them any supplies from their plentie hee royally feasted banqueted and entertained them not only with the choisest best and most costly delicates that could bee gotten but also hee gladded them vnspeakably with his owne presence and companion-like behauiour Hee afterwards carried them into his Parke where the thicke fall of fat Deere besides many other things gaue them warrant of their kinde welcome And at their departing from him he sent such great store of venison into the Citie for the friendly feasting of their neighbours there that nothing euer won him more heartie loue among his subiects of that place He left behinde him two sonnes Edward who being of the age of thirteene yeares vnfortunately succeeded him in this Kingdome and Richard Duke of Yorke who was two yeares younger and fiue daughters namely Elizabeth who afterwards maried King Henry the seuenth and was mother to King Henry the eighth and Cicilie Bridget and Katherine whose fortunes seldome laughed and Anne who maried Thomas Lord Haward who after was created Earle of Surrey Richard Duke of Glocester described The said noble King when he died left behinde him but one brother namely Richard Duke of Glocester who was by common report a monster in nature For he had many teeth when he was borne He was exceedingly deformed in the composure of his bodie for of stature he was but low crooke-backed his left shoulder was much higher then the other his visage was vncomely his complexion swart and browne he was exceeding strong yet much withered in his left arme he was violent fierce and bloudily cruell a good souldier discreet to order well and politicke to rule Hee was very hastie and forward in great expeditions and weightie actions yet wise and well aduised before hee would attempt to fight He was ambitious beyond measure and his desires for soueraigntie had no bounds What he contriued were it good or bad hee would by one meanes or by another assuredly effect it Hee made his conscience in all things to serue his will though his will could not bee obtained without the effusion of guiltlesse bloud He would oftentimes make himselfe poore by his lauish bountie to such as wickedly serued his turne and would againe quickly enrich himselfe by pilling and by polling of ciuill and of honest men Hee was so cunning a dissembler that hee would accompanie most familiarly and iest pleasantly with such as hee inwardly hated in his heart Hee spared no mans death whose life resisted his vngodly purposes nor punished any man for any offence if his wickednesse might be applied to his seruice This ambitious this fierce and this cruell man in his brother King Edwards daies as wise men did coniecture directed his aime to make himselfe a King 10. E. 4. For he with others murdered Prince Edward the eldest sonne of King Henry the Sixth 10. E. 4. and with his owne hand hee slew the same King when he was a prisoner in the Tower and was consenting as the world blabbed to the death and destruction of his elder brother George Duke of Clarence in the same place 10. E. 4. King Edwards death and the minoritie of his two sonnes Richard aimeth to the Crowne gaue him fit opportunitie to worke mischiefe which first of all he resolued to prosecute by the reuiuing of olde grudges betwixt the Queenes kindred and the Kings although the last King in his death-bed had reconciled them and made them all friends For he knew that where malice and hatred are of counsell there no good action or sound conclusion can be expected And by this practise he endeuoured first to make him selfe equall with the best and then to be the best of all Wee must also now obserue that at the time of King Edwards death the young Prince in his owne person kept his residence and Court at Ludlow in the dominion of Wales that by his presence he might restraine the Welshmen from such outragious enterprises as oftentimes their licentious and bad manners incited them to commit And the protection of his person was by the last King appointed to Anthonie Earle Ryuers the Queenes brother and by the mothers side Vncle to the said Prince And her allies and her kinsfolkes did now possesse all roomes and offices of honour and of profit about him hee being King which the Duke of Glocester much maligned and so scorned it that in his conceits he contriued how he might thrust them all out of those places For which purpose hee oftentimes secretly and seriously conferred with Edward Duke of Buckingham and Richard Lord Hastings who was Chamberlaine to the last King To them hee discouered the meane descent of the Queene and of her kinsfolkes in respect of theirs and told them plainly that if those Vpstarts remained so neere vnto the King in his youth they would through his fauour be so powerfull when he came to his full age that all their honours their possessions and their liues would be in danger to be made
But the two Dukes recomforted him with the expression of their humble duties and seruice and with a thousand protestations of their fidelitie and troth towards his Highnesse during their liues The King is brought to London and then they brought him with great honour neere to the Citie of London where he was met by the Lord Maior and fiue hundred graue Citizens more in whose presence the Duke of Glocester vsed such humble dutie and reuerence to the King and so discreetly demeaned himselfe towards him that none of them suspected that any thing was done but for the Kings preseruation and for his good yea the Nobilitie and Counsellors of Estate were so inwardly perswaded to rest in the same beleefe that by their generall consent they forthwith made him the Protector both of the Kings royall person The Duke of Glocester is made Protector and of his Kingdome When the Duke of Glocester had procured and obtained this high place which his heart infinitely desired the same being an office of greatest honour He possesseth himselfe of the Kings brother the Duke of Yorke of confidence and of trust hee made no doubt but that his purpose would quickly though wickedly bee brought to passe as himselfe wished if he could also get the young Duke of Yorke into his hands And to the end that his desires might not remaine fruitlesse hee greeuously complained to the Kings Counsell of the froward obstinacie of the Queene who detained the said young Duke dishonourably in the Sanctuarie as an offender and in prison causing thereby the gouernment of the whole Kingdome and the Nobles and officers thereof to be exceedingly blamed and taxed not only at home but also in all other Christian Prouinces and Kingdomes He vrged also that his Grand-master the young King was infinitely wronged and disheartened for that he was not permitted to enioy the societie and the companie of his owne and only brother whom aboue all other creatures in the world he respected and longed for The Lords hauing considered of the Dukes motion resolued that he had spoken well and that it was fitting it should be hearkned vnto And thereupon they made especiall choice of the Cardinall Archbishop of Yorke vpon whose fidelitie and loue the Queene did not a little relie to goe to her and to pray her without further trouble to send the yong Duke her Sonne to the king his brother That he might be comforted with his sight and bee made merrie and iocund with his companie And withall they required him to tell her that for many reasons the young Duke might not be detained there 1. First Reasons why the young Duke ought not to be in the Sanctuarie because the whole estate of this Kingdome would be slandered at home and among forraine Nations if it should permit so young a childe by birth so noble so neere vnto the King and so innocent to liue in prison for euery Sanctuarie is a prison 2. Secondly because none could claime the benefit of such a place but he whose conscience did accuse him of some offence for which he feared to be punished by the law But the conscience of this young Duke cannot be so burdened because his infancie and his innocencie doe excuse him of any such fault and therefore hee needed no protection there 3. Thirdly that none might enioy the priuilege of a Sanctuarie but such a one as is enabled by true discretion to demand it But the young Duke by reason of his infancie hath not sufficient discretion to require it and therefore hee is not capable of it nor may enioy it 4. And last of all hee was required to assure her that any person might be taken out of a Sanctuarie if it bee for his good and welfare and not to his hurt or to punish him and that therefore if the Queene did obstinately refuse to deliuer him it was resolued and determined that hee should be taken from thence and from her without her leaue and the rather for that great suspition and feare was iustly conceiued that her frowardnesse or her iealousie would perswade her to send him beyond the Sea as if hee should bee more safe there then in his brother the Kings Court. When this round message was done vnto the Queene though it so nipped her at the heart that willingly she would not let him goe alleadging that none but his owne mother was more fit to tutor him or to attend him hee being so young sickly and very weake and that each of those two brethren was the others safetie so long as they were kept asunder and that the life of the one was maintained in the bodie of the other and that if one of them did well the other was in no perill or danger and that nothing was more hazardous then to keepe them both in one place together yet when shee perceiued which way the game went and that it was resolued by the Protector and by his friends that arguments should not preuaile shee embraced the louely young Duke in her armes she kissed him many times she wept bitterly and praying Almightie God to preserue and to defend him from all iniurie and dangers she deliuered him to the Arch-bishop telling him that shee would require that poore and innocent childe at his hands And thus vnwillingly and sorrowfully she did let him goe A monstrous dissembler When the harmelesse infant was by the Arch bishop deliuered into the Protectors hands who with many other Lords attended the Queenes answere in the Starre-chamber he tooke him before the whole assemblie in his armes he hugged and embraced him and kissed him once and twice and againe and againe protesting vpon his soule that no worldly thing his Maiestie only excepted was so deare vnto him as that young childe when as indeede hee meant nothing more then the destruction and ruine of them both And hauing brought him to the King who was infinitely ioied with his presence and companie hee conueied them within few daies after with princely pompe and attendance thorow the Citie of London to the Tower The King and his brother sent to the Tower vnder the pretence of an especiall care and prouidence that they should in safetie remaine there vntill the Common-weales troubles were thorowly quieted and appeased whereas in truth and in deede nothing was out of frame nothing was ill ordered but by himselfe and by some other great Lords who wholly applied themselues to his will A bloudie conspiracie When the Protector had thus couped vp those two young Princes he then beganne more seriously to determine how hee might speedily make himselfe a King And though for a while he staggered whether or no hee might make the Duke of Buckingham acquainted with his purpose yet in regard that hee stood assured of his loue and knew that his proiect could not be effected without his priuitie and assistance because he was so mightie and so powerfull therefore hee found a fit time
fled into Britaine to Duke Francis who gaue them courteous entertainment and kindly supplied all their wants The French King apprehending this as a fit occasion offred to him to quarrell with the Duke of Britaine because hee longed to possesse his Countrey without any parley or conference touching that matter proclaimed warres against him And before it was notified that he had raised an Armie he entred into Britaine and planted a strong siege before the strong and faire Citie of Nantz And by his Ambassadors hee importuned King Henry either to take his part or as a Neuter to giue aime vnto them both But King Henry being at the first doubtfull what course to take King Henry mediateth a peace because hee had receiued much comfort and many courtesies from them both resolued at the last to requite some part of both their loues by mediating of a friendly peace which with his vtmost endeuours he laboured to effect The French King who was both wittie and craftie made an outward shew as if he seemed heartily to desire it and was thankfull for it although in truth and in deede hee intended nothing lesse But the Duke of Britaine following the directions of his French guests refused plainly to consent vnto that motion And within few daies after Some English doe aide the Duke Edward Lord Wooduile Captaine of the I le of Wight and vncle to the Queene without the Kings knowledge or licence being accompanied with foure hundred of his most expert and skilfull souldiers sailed into Britaine for the Dukes aide And soone after his arriuall and neere vnto Fongiers a battaile was appointed to bee fought betweene King Charles and the Britons And the more to haue terrified the French seuenteene hundred Britons being clad in coats with red crosses as if they had beene Englishmen were ioined to the Lord Wooduiles companies and were subiected to his command But the contrarie was to the Frenchmen too well knowen Then at the appointed time and place the two Armies met together The Britons are ouerthrowen The Lord Wooduile is slaine and fought fiercely for a season But in the end the poore Britons being found counterfets as they were and their whole Armie being vnable to resist so great a puissance as encountred them were slaine together with the Lord Wooduile and the greater number of his associates and the victorie fell to the French part Within few daies after K. Henry aideth the Britons against the French King in England it was concluded by Parliament that albeit King Henry had louingly beene aided by the French King for the recouerie of his Crowne yet in regard that the Duke of Britaine for many yeares together had in all friendly gentle and liberall sort entertained protected and maintained him when he was vnable to releeue himselfe and likewise because it was considered that if King Charles should winne and annex that Duchie to the Crowne of France himselfe and his posteritie might and were likely to proue bad neighbours to this Kingdome King Henry should take part with the Dude of Britaine This businesse being so determined An armie is sent into Britaine the King sent into that Prouince an Armie which consisted of eight thousand men vnder the conduct of the Lord Brooke And for the maintenance of those warres A Taxe which occasioneth a Rebellion a taxe by the same Parliament of the tenth pennie of the value of all the moueable goods and chattels of the Subiects was granted to the King No sooner was the English Armie arriued in Britaine but the Duke who had beene long sickly died A sudden peace is concluded and therefore vpon a composition made betwixt his Nobles and King Charles hee was affied to the Ladie Anne the sole daughter and heire to the deceased Duke who was formerly betrothed to Maximilian King of the Romans and so was the said French King likewise assured to the Ladie Margaret daughter to Maximilian And thus the British warres were at an end and the Englishmen hauing only seene thar Countrey and done nothing returned safely into England Now must we vnderstand that the Rustickes and rurall Swads of the Countie of Yorke and of the Bishopricke of Durham A Rebellion not onely refused peremptorily to pay any part of the Taxe which was granted to King Henry for the maintenance of the British wars but also that in a most rebellious fashion they boldly rushed vpon and cruelly murdered Henry the fourth Earle of Northumberland The Earle of Northumberland is murdered who by the King was appointed to cause the extracts of that Subsidie to be leuied by distresse vpon the goods of all such as he found slacke or obstinate in those paiments which when they had done trusting to their owne strength and numbers they beganne a ciuill warre so that as they passed thorow those Countries they forcibly compelled Gentlemen and others to take their parts The King to represse and punish the Ring-leaders of this tumultuous insurrection sent against them a strong and a well prouided Armie vnder the especiall command of Thomas Earle of Surrey who hauing beene taken prisoner as hee fought for King Richard at Bosworth field was now enlarged and deliuered out of prison and receiued into the Kings fauour and the King himselfe in his owne person followed after him But the foolish Rebels as men amazed The Rebels flie witlesse and wanting counsell to direct their actions and cowardly distrusting their owne power and abilitie to resist threw off their armour shifted hardly to saue themselues and fled euery man to his owne home But the King who resolued by seuere executions to terrifie such others as otherwise were likely to contemne him They are punished and to despise his gouernment by exquisite and sharpe enquiries found out and apprehended the chiefest authors of this mischiefe who in sundrie places of this Realme were punished by death But the multitude and the baser sort obtained the Kings gratious fauour 1490. The British Nobles calling to minde that their young Duchesse was espoused first vnto Maximilian King of the Romans and secondly to Charles the French King and perceiuing vpon more sound consideration that the French King would alwaies beare a heauie hand ouer them if indeed he were once maried to her began to reuolt from their promise and to resist his intention and desire by strength of armes But the Frenchmen according to their custome being more victorious by their prodigall gifts then by their true valour corrupted the British Nobilitie and such Matrons as daily attended vpon their young Duchesse in such sort that King Charles got her into his possession And then he published that his owne former contract with the Ladie Margaret daughter to Maximilian King of the Romans and also that the other contract made by the said Maximilian with the said Duchesse of Britaine were nullities void and frustrate in the Law for that the said two Ladies at the times of those
good respects hee cheerefully consented to his request First because by all likelihood and probable coniecture this mariage would establish a perpetuall peace betwixt those two Kingdomes And secondly because if issues males and females failed of the bodies of his two sonnes then the Kingdome and the Crowne of this Realme descending to the said Ladie Margaret and to her issue would draw the Scottish King into England as vnto an estate of greater power magnificence honour and riches whereas if she were ioined to a Prince equall or exceeding her father in those respects this Kingdome would then wait vpon the greater and more worthie and so might be guided gouerned directed and commanded by a Deputie or a Substitute which would bee derogatorie from the maiestie of such a Monarchie and Common-weale These Halcyon daies Prince Arthur dieth which made King Henry fortunate and happie were suddenly exchanged into daies of heauinesse and of sorrow for Prince Arthur within fiue moneths after he was maried departed out of this troublesome and transitorie vale of miserie and was buried with great pompe and incredible lamentation both of the Nobles Gentlemen and common people in the Cathedrall Church within the Citie of Winchester by whose decease without issue his brother Henry Duke of Yorke without Creation was Prince of Wales 1502. as vnto him of right that dignitie did belong and appertaine and the next yeare after he was created Earle of Chester by his Father The King not long after by an honorable attendance of Lords Knights Ladies and men and women of especiall note and qualitie sent his eldest daughter the Ladie Margaret into Scotland to her espoused husband Iames the Fourth who receiued her vpon the limits of his owne Kingdome from the Earles of Surrey and Northumberland and was the next day maried to her in his Citie of Edenburgh 1503. to the great reioicing of the people of both those Nations Now when King Henry had thus ouercome his enemies and the Rebels and had settled himselfe in peace 1504. hee determined to plucke downe the high stomackes and stout courage of his people The King taketh aduantage of forfeitures vpon Penall Lawes supposing that their wealth and riches occasioned their rebellions and was the cause that many enormous insolencies were done and committed in the Common-weale And by that meane hee also intended to enrich himselfe And the plot whereby he intended to effect it was by taking of the aduantage of the breach of Penall Lawes Empson and Dudley And the principall charge of that polling businesse hee committed to Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley men learned in the Law but ready enough to execute the Kings commands in a worser matter if occasion did so require These two being attended by troupes of base Informers Promoters Catch-poles Cheaters Knaues and cousening Rascals Many are vndone prosecuted and persecuted many of the Kings good Subiects to their vtter ruine and ouerthrow insomuch that many people in euery Shire of this Kingdome by their oppressions waxed poore and were vtterly decaied in their estates But the Kings Coffers were filled his Bagges were stuffed and those two gracelesse and cruell Cormorants got to themselues the Deuill and all But no remedie there was to cure this maladie for the King authorized them and they so rigorously and so vnconscionably executed their tyrannie that no man could assure himselfe that hee was free and without the danger of their lash 1605. In the 21. yeare of K. Henries raigne Elizabeth Q. of Castile wife to Ferdinando K. of Aragon and Spain died without issue male of her bodie so that her Kingdom not being deuidable among sisters according to the custome of that Countrie discended to her eldest daughter the Ladie Iane The King and Queene of Castile doe come into England by a storme wife to Philip Arch-Duke of Austria and Duke of Burgoine so that hee being King of Castile in her right prepared a Nauie of strong and well appointed ships and entred into the Sea purposing to take the possession of his new Kingdome But by the violence of an outragious storme himselfe with his Queene was driuen into Waymouth in Dorset shire where at his landing hee was receiued by Sir Thomas Trenchard a worthie Sir Thomas Trenchard entertaineth them at his house and a compleate Knight who instantly importuned the King to accept of the entertainment of his house vntill King Henrie were certified of his being there which courteously he did Whereof when he had louingly accepted hee was conducted thither and feasted like as hee was a King The Knight forthwith sent diuers Posters to King Henrie who being much gladded by this newes because the said King and he were vnfained and faithfull friends They are entertained by the King forthwith sent for his better direction and attendance the Earle of Arundell and some others who inuited him and his Queene and their Companie to the Kings Court which was then at his Castle of Windsor of which great courtesie he accepted with a kind hart and as he came within fiue miles of the Castle he was met by the Noble Henrie Prince of Wales who was accompanied by diuers Earles Lords Knights and Gentlemen of choice reckoning aad account and within halfe a mile of his iournies end the King himselfe with the greatest part of his Nobilitie Ladies and Personages of great worth and honour being richly apparrelled and brauely mounted met him likewise where kind salutations and friendly greetings proceeded from the heart and were performed with most exquisite complements of loue that by any could be imagined From the Kings Castle of Windsor the King conducted him and his Queene to the Citie of London where nothing was omitted that anie deuise or cost could make sumptuous thereby to expresse the heartie welcome of such beloued guests And thus when with great contentment mirth and pastime the King and he had spent some dayes they renewed the League which was betwixt them and taking kind farewels each of other the said King and Queene imbarked themselues againe lanched into the Sea and safety arriued according to their owne wils But not long after King Philip and his wife died and that Kingdome discended to Charles his eldest sonne From this time forwards King Henrie waxed sickly weake 1506. and infirme and by meanes thereof the two scourgers of the Common-weale Empson and Dudley tooke larger libertie to extend their villanies then was giuen to them and did oppresse torment and vex the People of this land But when the King perceiued that his time was short 1507. hee depriued them of their authoritie remitted and pardoned all offences committed against his penall Lawes and enlarged all prisoners The King waxeth sickly His deeds of charitie which were in durance for any offence treason and murder excepted only he also paid the debts of all such as for trifling and smal summes were prisoners in any Ward and gaue certaine
death The King not minding any longer to trifle or to dallie with the French King leuied two Armies Two Armies sent into France In the one of them were eight thousand men and in the other six thousand The former of them was commanded by George Lord Talbot Earle of Shrewesburie and the other by Sir Charles Somerset Lord Harbert Chamberlaine to the King These two Generals with their companies departing from Portsmouth arriued safely at Calice from whence they marched to the strong Citie of Tyrwyn Tyrwyn is besieged and besieged it on euery side And within few weekes after the King himselfe hauing first committed the gouernment of this Kingdome to the generall charge of the Queene his wife and the particular protection of the Northerne parts vnto the noble and worthie Lord Thomas Howard Earle of Surrey The King with a third Armie commeth before Tyrwyn if peraduenture the Scots according to their custome should in his absence beyond the Seas enter into those Countries being accompanied with many of his Nobles and Gentrie and hauing an Armie of eleuen thousand lustie and gallant men departed out of England came to his Towne of Calice and marched forth in warlike order vntill hee had ioined himselfe with all his other force which lay strongly encamped before Tyrwyn Now whilest King Henry thus lay in this siege the inhabitants oftentimes sallied out of their gates and with great resolution skirmished with their enemies but were alwaies loosers in their Retreats The French Armie attempteth to raise the siege By the Englishmen likewise daily batteries and hourely assaults were made and manfully resisted by the Citizens vntill the French King to raise the siege caused a huge Armie to be leuied which appeared and approched neere to the English Campe and made many a boasting and a proud bragge as if they were determined to doe much but still and still they trifled not doing any thing which might merit praise But in the end they being prouoked more by the taunting reproches of their owne Nation and by the daily scornes which for their want of courage they receiued from the sharpe tongues of their daring enemies then by their owne valour they attempted to raise the siege by strong blowes In so much that the two Armies met together fought stoutly and on either part performed many braue deedes of Chiualrie with great courage But the presence of King Henrie and his example of good Knighthood so animated his men of Warre that with vndaunted spirits they redoubled their strength in times and in places of greatest neede and extremities so that at the last The French Armie is ouerthrowne Tyrwyn is yeelâ—ed and burnt the Frenchmen being dissolued into many heaps of breathlesse carkasses and many of their Nobles and Gentrie being taken prisoners the rest fled and within few dayes after the Citie of Tyrwin by composition was yeelded to King Henrie who only preseruing the Bishops Palace in which hee lodged and the Cathedrall Church razed the Walls Towers Bulwarks and Fortresses thereof to the ground and consumed the rest of that Citie with fire In this siege Maximilian the Emperour The Emperor â—rueâ—l vnder King Henrie with thirtie approued men at Armes repaired to the Kings camp and after his great welcome amply expressed by his Princely entertainement hee with them were al enrolled into the Kings pay This victorie and the said Citie being thus wonne Torray is besâ—â—ged and yeelâ—ed King Henry with all conuenient expedition besieged the strong and the warlike Citie of Tournay which for a while was by the Inhabitants manfully defended and preserued But after many bitter and sharpe assaults and bloudie skirmishes when they perceiued that their hopes for succour and helpe were frustrated and in vaine they then by composition yeelded themselues to the Kings mercie who for the summe of ten thousand pounds gratiously receiued them as his owne subiects and by his Almoner Thomas Wolsey tooke the oathes of their fidelitie and alleageance as to their soueraigne Lord and King And then King Henrie leauing there a strong Garrison hee committed the gouernement and safetie of that Citie to Sir Edward Poynings who was valiant King Henrie reâ—â—â—neâ— into England The Lord Admirall vexetâ— the Freâ—h nation Iames the 4. Kâ—ng of Sâ—â—ts in the abâ—â—â— oâ— his brother kâ—ng Henrie rivâ—â—ieth England and a worthie Knight And dissoluing his Armie because the cold winter was vnfit for the continuance of warlike imployments he safely returned to England where he was receiued by his subiects with louely acclamation and great ioy Now must we vnderstand that whilst the king was thus busied in France the Lord Thomas Howard his chiefest Admirall intollerably tormented vexed and daily grieued the French Nation both by Sea and Land And likewise at the same time Iames the Fourth king of the Scots although he had maried with the Ladie Margaret the eldest sister of king Henrie made open warre and wilfull breach of his Promise and of the Peace which had been confirmed by his solemne Oath and beganne vniustly to pick quarrels against the King In so much that vpon notice giuen to the Earle of Surrey that in Scotland daily preparations and prouisions were made for warre He commanded Sir William Bulmer Sir William Bulmer a valiant Knight a valiant Knight with two hundred lustie and tall Archers to harbour in some Towne or Village neare to the Scottish Pale to the intent that hee might not only giue speedie notice and intelligence how things passed but also might doe his best to withstand and to resist their power Within few dayes after the Lord Humes Chamberlaine to the King of Scots entred with an Armie of eight thousand men into the Kingdome of England slew the Inhabitants burned their houses ransacked their goods and foraged their fields And hauing enriched himselfe and his souldiers with money and great spoyles he returned securely not thinking that any reckoning was to bee made for his good speeding But on a sodaine and vnexpectedly hee was encountred by Sir William Bulmer who with one thousand Archers and no more so thickly showred arrowes vpon the Scots and with their swords in such a desperate and strange manner assailed and assaulted them that quickly they were ouerthrowen and fiue hundred of them being slaine and foure hundred at the least taken prisoners the rest fled leauing their spoiles and their booties behinde them and so returned beggerly into Scotland The King of Scots who not only meant to reuenge this disgrace but also to worke wonders if hee might in the absence of King Henrie entred into this Realme with an Armie in which were more then one hundred thousand fighting men 100000. fighting men and besieged the strong Castle of Norham which through the Captaines prodigall expence of all his powder and shot to little or no purpose hee tooke and kept it as his owne The Earle of Surrey marcheth against the King of Scots The valiant and renowmed
Peche Sir William Sandes Sir Thomas Bulleyn Sir Iohn Carre and by many other Knights Gentlemen and Ladies of great worth Shee landed at Bollen where with great magnificence and honor shee was receiued by the Dolphin and by many Lords of France who brought her to Abuyle where shee met with and was married to the King And within few dayes after at Paris The French King dyeth Francis the First The French Queen returneth into England The peace with France renewed shee was crowned Queene The French Nation thinking their King and Countrie to bee happie who to their Queene had the fairest Ladie in the world And at her Coronation the Dolphin vpon a generall challenge formerly made by himselfe Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke Thomas Gray Marques Dorset his foure brethren and two others against all commers erected many honorable and martiall games as the lusts Turnay Barriers and such like All which were performed with great valour and to the great pleasure of the King and Queen But within twelue weeks after the said mariage King Lewys dyed and Francis the first succeeded him in that kingdome And by the Duke of Suffolke the said Queene Mary was brought againe into England where he won her loue All the deeds and actions of Cardinall Wolsey touching this storie are here set together because the discourse of the rest would otherwise by them be too much interrupted and maried her with the Kings consent In the seuenth yeare of King Henries raigne the former peace betwixt him and King Lewys the twelfth was renewed and confirmed with King Francis the first and great amitie and loue was exchanged betweene those two kings It now so chanced that Thomas Wolsey who was borne of base Parentage in the Towne of Ipswich and was first made the Kings Almoner then Bishop of Lincolne and then of the Priuie Counsell succeeded the Archbishop and Cardinall of Yorke who was named Doctor Benbrike in the said Archbishoprick And not long after hee was made Cardinall of Yorke by the mediation and procurement of those two Kings And now because the Kings affections towards him were extraordinarie His authoritie aboue all others eminent his couetousnesse insatiable and his excessiue Pride and Ambition boundlesse and vnlimitted which made him bold and peremptorie to doe all in all From henceforth for many years all things were cōmanded and gouerned according to his directions will vntill his monstrous oppressions and sawcie practizes brought him to ruine and to destruction And least his deedes and his actions by often interviewing should interrupt the other discourse of other occurrences and negotiations hapning in this Kings Raigne We haue therefore thought it conuenient yea necessarie to prosecute the Historie of his proceedings to a conclusion before wee intermedle much with the Narration of other passages and things He intermedles in other mens offices This prowd Cardinall so egerly hunted after authoritie and power to rule and to command all others that not contenting himselfe with his owne offices though they were great Hee intruded malepertly into the Enquirie and determining of such things as properly belonged vnto others but especially into the Chancelorship of this Realme He is made Lord Chancelor The Archbishop of Canterbury vnto whom it appertayned was much troubled with those his intermedlings But being old and perceiuing that the Kings affections were fast bound to his humours and that to crosse with him it was the readie way to crosse himselfe he therefore deliuered vp the Great Seale into the Kings hands who no sooner accepted of it but hee bestowed it vpon Wolsey which fauour and dignitie might well haue satisfied his prowd humour but nothing could For now he being an Archbishop a counsailor of Estate a Cardinall Chancelor of England and the Kings especial Fauourite directed all commanded all and did all He being thus imperiously great Required an accompt of the Captaines Treasurors and other Officers of the kings warres so that some of them who by the Kings conniuence had gotten much by excessiue Bribes excusing themselues He demands accompts and enriched him selfe thereby Hee erecteth new Courts Inriched him and left themselues poore Others whose Estates were more powerfull to please him shared that which vniustly they had gotten And some others who had deceiued the King and had prodigally spent all had nothing left and therefore were punished publikely and exposed to open shame He also erected sundrie Courts of equitie which might more truly be termed Courts of Iniquitie vnder a colour and pretence to heare and to determine the cases of distressed and poore people By meanes whereof the seates of Iustice belonging to the cōmon Lawes were little frequented for a while and by them he gained a masse of treasure to himselfe vntill the people perceiuing that by them hee waxed rich and they poore and that the Sentences and Iudgements of those Courts were not finall but controlable They of their owne accord forsooke them and commended their Controuersies to the censure of the common Lawes In the ninth yeare of King Henries raigne 1517. 9 Pope Leo sent vnto him Cardinall Campeius as his Legate to solicite him as likewise he had done to the Kings of France Spain By subtiltie he is made a Legate and the Princes of Germanie to make warre vpon the Turks But so outragious was the ocean of Wolseys pride that because he knew that Campeius in regard of his power Legantine was to haue the Precedency of place when they two met hee cunningly informed him by certaine Bishops who went vnto him to Calice vnder a fained colour to visite him that his iourney would not be successefull but come to none effect except Wolsey were ioyned in equall authoritie with him in that businesse wherevpon Campeius with all expedition dispatched Messengers vnto Rome by whom within fortie dayes hee receiued a new Commission by which Wolsey was also made the Popes Legate and Commissioner as well as he Cardinall Campeius Then was Campeius admitted to come into this Realme and both those two Legates within few dayes after repayred to the Kings Court at Greenwich hauing two siluer Crosses and two Pillars of the same mettel two Axes gilted with fine gold two imbrodered Cushions borne before them But the Cardinall of Yorke preferred his elder brother to the inferiour place And by an eloquent Oration which by an Italian was made vnto the King he was informed of the substance of their message But to make answere therevnto The King desired respit for a few dayes in which he might be advised and counselled in that matter The Court Legantine Then did Wolsey by his authoritie Legantine erect an honorable Court without the Kings notice or licence and called it the Legantine Court By the authoritie whereof he visited all Bishops and their Diocesses and other Clergie men punishing such as were poore and vnable to giue bribes but enriching himselfe by the enforced bountie of such as had
rather haue his tongue plucked out of his mouth with pinsers His tyrannie then hee would moue any such matter and that the said summes demanded should bee paid or leuied whether they would or no. And in Hampshire the common people so much repyned and grudged at these demands That the Lord Viscount Lysle and Sir Richard Weston and the other Commissioners for that businesse greatly doubted what would ensue thereof Wherefore to pacifie the people Hee by his letters most humbly entreated the Cardinall that the twelfth peny proportioned with the summes before demanded might suffice that thereby future dangers and troubles might bee auoided But when the Cardinall with malignant eyes had pervsed the Viscounts letters he deeply swore that they should cost him his head because in them his presumption did manifestly appeare taking to himselfe leaue and libertie to differ from those instructions which were giuen him Thus was hee requited and recompenced for his good seruice to the King And for his dutious desire to preserue the peace and quietnesse of his Countrie and of this commonweale The Cardinall perceiuing New commissions that the People would not support this heauy burden recalled those Commissions and sent forth others whereby a sixt part of their substance was demanded according to the aforesaid rates The Cardinallis cursed wherto hee doubted not but willingly they would yeeld but they refused not only to submit themselues therein but in euery Shire they cursed the Cardinall to the pit of Hell and were so incensed that much trouble among them was likely to ensue The King who was informed in what strange sort and fashion his people were vsed The commissions are recalled and vnderstanding that euery place was filled with clamors with discontentment and with danger grieued thereat exceedingly And being resolued to reforme what was amisse with all expedition he by his letters which were directed into euery Countie within his kingdom commanded a present cessation of all executions of the said Commissions and protested that they were granted forth without his knowledge or consent and that he would not but by the course of Law require any thing from his people though his wants were great to maintaine his warres A Beneuolence But if by way of a Beneuolence they would of their owne accord enlarge themselues towards him he then would accept thereof and take it as an infallible proofe of their loue and dutie towards their King The Cardinals base flatterie The ambitious Cardinall priuately grudging that the King in his Letters had includedly laid the fault on him and intending to robbe his Maiestie of his peoples good affections towards him and practising to winne it vnto himselfe required the Lord Maior and Aldermen of London to come before him to whom by a subtill and a cunning speech he protested that because hee saw and perceiued that those Taxes were too heauie for them to beare and because in his heart he loued them hee therefore had kneeled to the King and had perswaded him to reuoke the said Commissions and wholly to relie vpon their free beneuolence and good will Wherefore hee courteously aduised them to be voluntarily bountifull and liberall of their owne accord Then with great expedition he dispatched his Letters to that effect into euery Shire and Countie of this Kingdome But in regard that the King in his Letters had protested his ignorance touching the said former taxes therefore the proud Cardinall was still condemned and mortally hated by the people Commissions for the Beneuolence Then forthwith by the incitation of the Cardinall new Commissions for the said beneuolence were made And in the execution of them some of the Commissioners endeuoured fairely to perswade but others of them by rough and vnkinde speeches procured men to giue largely whether they would or no. Yet they preuailed little for the greatest part of the people refused to giue any thing some of them alledging the Statute which was made against the demanding of Beneuolences in the first yeare of the raigne of King Richard the Third and some others alledging for their excuse their pouertie and their want The Cardinall suppresseth some Religious Houses It is now seriously to be obserued that the Cardinall hauing newly erected two Colledges the one in Ipswich where hee was borne and the other in Oxford and intending to make their possessions faire and great as their foundations were wide and large procured a licence from the Pope by vertue whereof as hee was authorized he plucked downe certaine small Abbies Note this Frieries and Religious Houses to appropriate their Lands and Reuenues to those Colledges which example and president first moued the King for other respects within few yeares after to plucke downe all such Religious Houses For if it were religious in the Pope and Cardinall so to doe the King little doubted seeing the grosse enormities and euill life of most of those men but it was likewise lawfull for him to plucke them downe And because the busie head of the Cardinall could not be idle He reformeth the Kings houshold therefore he made the King to beleeue that the estate and condition of his owne house was vnprofitably disordered and out of tune Whereupon for the reformation thereof hee remoued diuers of the Kings menial seruants and houshold officers from their places and bestowed them vpon others whom hee more fancied although they deserued worse Hee also bestowed his Manour of Hampton Court Hampton Court with all such costly buildings as hee had erected there vpon the King in regard whereof the King gaue him leaue to keepe his Court in his Palace of Richmond wherein King Henry the Seuenth did extraordinarily delight These his two actions made him hatefull to the Commons who mutteringly repined saying that the King and they were much abused so to be vsed by a Butchers Dogge At this time the French King became an earnest suter to King Henry to haue in mariage for the Dolphin the Ladie Mary the Kings only daughter and heire apparant to the Crowne The Kings mariage called into question But the said motion was crossed by a double encounter The first was the dislike which the States-men and the Commons of this Realme had conceiued touching that match which publikely they declared by their solemne protestations and frequent speeches that if King Henry should die without issue male of his bodie lawfully begotten as he then had none they would not receiue a Frenchman to be their King because he possessing a greater estate and Kingdome would make this but a seruant and an attendant vpon that The second was a scruple cast in the way as most men thought vpon the secret intimation of the Cardinall in displeasure to the Emperour because by strength hee had not made him Pope by the President of Paris who made it questionable whether or no the Ladie Mary were legitimate and borne in lawfull matrimonie because the King had begotten
with fire razed it to the ground This seruice was by diuers Gentlemen so gallantly performed that in honour thereof the Admirall dignified with the honour of Knighthood these worthy Gentlemen Francis Brian Iohn Russel Anthonie Browne Iohn Rainsford George Cobham Giles Hussey Richard Cornwal Iohn Cornwallis Thomas Moore and some others And daily other braue and warlike exploits were still made and performed in Brittaine neare vnto the Sea coasts Of which it will be too tedious to make particular relation neither will wee much busie our selues with the discourse of such things as hapned betwixt the Emperour and the French king in their warres because they doe not properly belong to the Historie of this kingdome The King who was informed that the Duke of Albanie intended to invade the Northren marches of his Realme commanded the Lord Roos The Scots are troublesome and the Lord Dacres of the South by an anticipating warre to enter into the Borders of Scotland with a slight Armie which they did and burnt fourescore Hamblets Villages and Townes razed and destroyed diuers Castles Bulwarkes and Towers forraged their fields and without any encounter returned into England The King likewise made the Earle of Shrewsbury Lieftenant generall of the North whose charge was to make strong prouision to withstand all sodaine invasions which the Scots should attempt to make And likewise hee leuied an Armie of twelue thousand men Another Armie sent into France which hee commended to the Gouernement of the Admirall for the supply and maintenance of his warres in France Thus the King being daily imployed and wanting money to defray his charge by way of loan vpon priuie Seales Priuie seales hee borrowed of the Citie of London twentie thousand pounds And of many others great summes of money In all Shires and Prouinces within his kingdome whereat his Subiects much grieued But afterwards they were much more displeased thereat because the said loanes by an Act of Parliament They are released were clearely released to the King And yet for all this Wolsey by strange commissions and by other vnlawfull meanes without the Kings consent or notice endeuoured to raise and to leauie more money as formerly wee haue heard The Admirall who maugre his Enemies Braue seruice in France hauing landed his Armie at Callice Marched from thence and passed in good order of Battaile ouer Newnam Bridge wasting spoiling burning and ransacking sundrie Townes Villages Castles and Forts as namely Selloys Brunbridge Senkerke Frynge Blanioy Dorlans and other places as they passed by so terrified the people that they would not abide his sight And in those seruices these Gentlemen as chiefe Captaines Chiefe Gentlemen of seruice and worthie of the best praise are principally to be noted Sir William Sands Sir William Fitz-William Sir Maurice Barkley Sir Iohn Wallop Sir Richard Ierningham Captaine Coo and Captaine Thwayts The three former of them among other imploiments were by the Admirall sent with three thousand men to the strong Towne of Marquison which was newly builded fortified and well defended for a while But at length they tooke it ransacked it and vtterly consumed it with fire The like they did at the Townes of S. Iohns Rhode and Temple A great bootie and with great spoiles returned to their Generall Then all the Armie being collected the Admirall marched vnto Calice and brought thither with him 14000. Sheepe 1400. Oxen and Kine 1300. Hogges and 700. Horses Geldings and Mares And then hee commended and rewarded his souldiers dissolued his Armie and with great honour and in the especiall fauour of his Soueraigne he returned into England The Scots inuade Whilest these things were thus ordered in France the Kings professed enemie Iohn Duke of Albanie Protector to the young King and of his Realme by the procurement of the French King leuied a great Armie purposing with fire and sword to haue entred into the West Marches of England But the Lord Dacres and the Lord Roos and many other Knights and Gentlemen hauing carefully prouided and wel furnished an Armie of eight and twentie thousand men They will not fight to make head against him and likewise the Earle of Shrewesburie hauing leuied another Armie of great strength and appearing boldly into the Scots sight the Scots began wisely to doubt of their successe and the rather because the most of them knew not the cause or ground of that quarrell and therefore would not fight but leauing to assist their Captaine they returned home and were not pursued by the English who by their Commission were not authorized to inuade but to defend themselues The Duke of Suffolke warreth in France Bell Castle The next yeare Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolke was sent to Calice with an Armie of thirteene thousand men with which he marched forth burning spoiling foraging without compassion vntill he came to the strong Castle of Bell which after many gallant and braue assaults was yeelded and razed to the ground Thither repaired to the Dukes Armie Aide from the Emperor as seruants to the Emperour three thousand footmen and fiue hundred horsemen being Burgundians Flemings and of their neighbouring Nations all which besieged the strong Towne of Bray Bray which was well fortified and furnished with goodly Ordinance and with two thousand men This Towne they tooke not by composition but by assault But because the Frenchmen themselues had first fired it and were runne away the Englishmen and their friends besides the winning of it receiued small commoditie thereby Then with vndaunted courage they passed ouer the Riuer of Some into France Roy. and to them vpon seuerall summons were yeelded vp the Townes of Roy and Lyhome Lyhome Mount dedyer But they were compelled to besiege the warlike Towne of Mount dedyer in which were two thousand men and fiue hundred horse This Towne they daily battered with the continuall shot of their great Ordinance so that it was made assaultable and then the Frenchmen vpon composition to depart with bagge baggage and with their Armes yeelded the Towne to the Dukes forces in which there was exceeding plentie of costly linnen arras tapestrie bedding and of choice houshold stuffe Afterwards they tooke the Castle of Boghan Boghan which had not the Marishes beene excessiuely hardned by a continuall frost was not accessable nor pregnable by any strength This Castle they razed to the ground because it was not commodious to their seruice These atchieuements being thus manfully and honourably performed the English souldiers by reason of the extremitie of the weather and the sharpnesse of the Winter English souldiers returne without leaue of the Generall long nights and short daies were altogether vnwilling to proceed any further at that time and the rather for these two other causes First for that the Duke of Burbon who was reuolted from the French King to the Emperour came not according to his promise to the Dukes Armie with ten thousand men
of Richmond And at the same time the Lord Henrie Courtney Cosen german to the King was made Marques of Exeter the Lord Henrie Brandon the eldest sonne of the Duke of Suffolke and of the French Queene Marie his wife being but two yeares old was created Earle of Lincolne Sir Thomas Manners Lord Roos was made Earle of Rutland and Sir Henrie Clifford was created Earle of Cumberland and Sir Robert Ratclife Lord Fitz Water was made Earle of Sussex and Sir Thomas Bullein the Treasurer of the Kings houshold was made Lord Rochford And thus in regard of great seruices honorably performed the king requited them with such honours as were answerable to their deserts and callings The French were humble to serue their owne turnes The Queene Regent of France foreseeing what present misery was likely to ruinate that Estate and Kingdome if in time by carefull prouidence it were not preuented sent Monsieur de Bryond chiefe President of Paris and some other Lords Ambassadors into England who not only according to their commission in a most submissiue and an humble sort confessed the iniuries and the wrongs done by the French Nation to King Henry and to his subiects both by sea and land in the absence of King Francis but for a requitall and satisfaction thereof and for the arrerage of his tribute they made offer to pay vnto the King the summe of twenty hundred thousand crownes whereof fiftie thousand pounds sterling should be paid in hand and fitting securitie should bee giuen for the rest they also promised the continuance of the said tribute and assumed to pay Queene Marie her dowrie and all the arrerages thereof if the King would grant them peace and receiue them into his loue and fauour The King and his Counsel hauing seriously considered of these motions and large offers for many important causes assented to their requests Peace concluded and caused those his conclusions and agreements to be proclaimed solemnely both in England and in France and receiued both money and good securitie accordingly But betwixt King Henrie and his nephew the Emperour by the subtill practises and craftie jugglings of Thomas Wolsey Cardinall of Yorke warres were denounced with euill termes Warres betweene the Emperor and King Henry but little or nothing was done thereon sauing that in England Spaine and in the Low-Countries the Merchants of either Nation and their goods and substance were attached to the infinite losse and damage of them all but vpon seuerall truces oftentimes concluded and againe broken they were released and againe arrested Merchants vexed wherby the ancient saying of the Poet was truly verified Quicquid Delirant Reges Plectuntur Achiui When Princes iarre and for reuenge doe seeke The meaner sort must pay for their dislike But in this place we must now obserue That in regard of those often concluded truces and in regard of the peace which vnited the kingdomes of England France and Scotland in one minde little or nothing worthie of our discourse more then hath formerly beene written hapned in sixe of the next ensuing yeares for the greater part of that time was spent and consumed in debatings enquirings ordering handling and disposing of the businesse of the Kings marriage with the Ladie Katherine of Spaine sometime his brothers wife And now the King who in a manner was wholly guided and directed by the priuate aduice and counsell of his chiefe fauorite Thomas Cromwel somtimes seruant to Cardinall Wolsey whom he had made a Baron and a Counseller of State The Popes authoritie curbed proceeded daily more and more to diminish nay by succeeding degrees clearely and absolutely to abrogate and to make voide the claimed power and authoritie of the Pope within this Realme In so much that in his Parliament he procured it to be enacted for a law That the penaltie of the Premunire should bee inflicted vpon the bodies lands and goods of euery such person as for any matter thing or cause whatsoeuer appealed to the See of Rome or did procure from thence any Processe Citation Inhibition Suspension Sentence or Iudgement whatsoeuer And in the next Session of the same Parliament to please and to content him the whole Clergie of this kingdom freely submitted themselues to the King touching their Spirituall and Ecclesiasticall affaires and busines and the Pope was vtterly depriued of all Annates and first fruits which formerly for Bishoprickes and other spirituall promotions and dignities had vsually been payed vnto him and likewise to establish and to confirme the lawfulnes of his marriage with Queene Anne and to settle the inheritance of his Crowne vpon her issue he procured it by Parliament to bee enacted That his former mariage with his brothers wife was absolutely void The Kings marriage made voide The Crowne entailed and of none effect in Law because it was contrarie to the Law of God and that the Popes dispensation had none effect or power to make it good and by the same Act the Crowne of this kingdome was entailed to the King and to his heires of his bodie out of which the Ladie Marie was inclusiuely excluded and to this Act all the Lords Burgesses there present were particularly sworne B. Fisher sauing Doctor Fisher Bishop of Rochester and Sir Thomas Moore Knight sometimes Chancellor of England who some few yeares before disliking the Kings proceeding against Queene Katherine Sir Thomas Moore and against the authoritie and iurisdiction of the Pope had deliuered vp the great Seale of England into the kings hands These two not only refused to sweare as the rest did but publikely contested and protested against the said Act of Parliament which nullified the kings said first mariage by reason of the Popes dispensation giuen to inable the same and to make it lawfull For which causes the said Bishop and Knight were sent vnto the Tower where they remayned vntill as Traitors they lost their heads They are beheaded for denying of the kings Supremacie in Ecclesiasticall things and causes and attributing it to the Pope of Rome of which the kings supremacie a Statute was made in Parliament the next yeare after About this time diuers treasonable practizes by malicious and lewd Conspirators were surmised and intimated to haue beene intended and contriued against the kings person by the Lord Dacres of the North. The Lord Dacres And thereupon he was Indicted and arraigned but the guiltlesse and well affected Lord with such a temperate boldnesse and with such a modest courage so discreetly and so wisely defended his innocencie against those false suggesters that he was freely acquited and discharged from all suspition and from all blame But by the whole Parliament Elizabeth Burton nick-named the holy maid of Kent and her Companions in mischiefe who vnder an hipocriticall shew and shadow of Religious deuotion The holy maid of Kent and of holinesse had conspired the Kings death being attainted and condemned were executed as Traitors according to
for other lands Policie with his Nobles and Gentrie of his Kingdome many of whose Estates at this day doe wholly consist of possessions of that nature or else are greatly aduanced by those lands This hauocke thus made on Churchmen and of their possessions proceeded not as most men thought from the loue which the King bare vnto the reformation of Religion out of extraordinarie deuotion nor from the puritie of his minde desiring the extirpation of that wickednesse and sinne which indeede abundantly raigned and ruled among those irreligious religious men but from the couetous humour of his Nobles and from the secret grudge and vnreconcileable hatred which he bare vnto the Pope But thus the world then fared and thus was the Church pared and pruned and made a prey euery bird being desirous to beautifie her selfe with her faire feathers Cromwels match for the King with Anne of Cleue When the Lord Cromwel had thus effected that great businesse then he vndertooke another which in the end brake his owne necke For vpon his perswasiue motions strengthened by the view of flattering pictures and of vnmerited immoderate commendations the King tooke to wife the Ladie Anne of Cleue who was exceeding religious and replenished with many vertues but in her person and countenance she was neither well composed faire nor louely The King likes not his match Her religion and her vertues were not much respected by the King For when he first saw her he liked her not insomuch that albeit he were maried vnto her foure moneths and somwhat more yet his amorous appetite towards her was so amated and so insensible was he of wanton passions when he was priuate in her companie that he neuer did nor could know her as his wife Whereupon the Bishops and Clergie of this Land who for feare of after-claps were well pleased to daunce after the Kings pipe in their solemne Conuocation His mariage is dissolued published an authenticall Instrument in writing vnder the Scales of the two Arch-bishops by which they made it knowen to the Christian world that the Kings mariage with the said Ladie Anne of Clene was a nullitie void frustrate and of none effect because the said Ladie vnder her owne hand had vpon due examination confessed that the king neuer had nor could performe to her that beneuolence which by a husband was due vnto his wife The like sentence was enacted pronounced and published by the Parliament with these additions that it was lawfull for his Maiestie whensoeuer and with whomsoeuer to marie and to take another wife according to the Ecclesiasticall Lawe of this Realme and likewise that it was lawfull for the said Ladie Anne of Cleue to marie and take another husband when shee should please according to the Lawes of the holy Church Treason And further it was then enacted that all such as by writing printing speaking or by any other ouert act did expresse or maintaine the contrary should be guiltie of Treason and receiue punishment accordingly The King who was thus enlarged and freed from his bonds of discontented matrimonie tooke to wife within twentie daies after Katherine Howard the daughter of the Lord Edmund Howard The King marieth againe The King frowneth on Cromwel brother to the Duke of Norfolke and from thenceforth he began to alter the copie of his countenance and looked discontentedly vpon his great fauourite and inward Counsellor the Lord Cromwel who had fettered him in those his former troubles And because this alteration in the King was quickly perceiued by many who longed for his ruine and his downefall a long and a tedious Bill by some of them was vnexpectedly preferred against him into the Parliament Cromwels downefall in which rather in a generalitie then by many particulars hee was accused of sundrie Treasons Misprisions and of Heresie And among other obiections laid vnto his charge it was suggested that ioining with the last Queene Anne hee fauoured the Lutherans aboue measure and so strongly supported them against the Catholike Priests and Prelates of this Kingdome that when by some of the Clergie hee was told that they doubted not but that the King would shortly curbe their boldnesse and presumption the said Lord Cromwell did replie that the King should allow of their Religion whether he would or no. But how true or how false soeuer these surmises were the said bill was found Yet was hee not called to make his answere or defence thereto so that being by the said Parliament attainted of Heresie and of Treason He with the Lord Hungerford was beheaded on a scaffold on the Tower hill whereat his enemies did reioyce some of them attributing the cause to his haughtinesse and pride and some of them affirming that it was Gods reuenge and punishment for his hatefull defacing and wasting of the Church The Lord Leonard Gray executed And neare about the same time the Lord Leonard Gray who not long before had beene the kings deputie in Ireland was condemned for many treasons by him committed in that Countrie during the time of his Gouernement especially for that secretly he had once procured the Irish Rebels to enter into and to make havock within the English Pale all which hee of his owne accord confessed to bee true wherefore hee receaued his iudgement and lost his head The King who was but newly married to Queene Katherine was now informed by some who presumed that they knew it wel that before her mariage with the King Queene Katherine beheaded shee had liued a licentious and an euill life with a Gentleman named Francis Dyrham And furthermore it was much presumed and suspected that since shee was the Kings wife Francis Dyrham Thomas Culpeper The Lady Rochford shee had vnchastly conversed with another Gentleman whose name was Thomas Culpeper for it was fully proued that in her last Progresse the said Thomas was secretly brought by the Ladie Rochford into the Queenes chamber at eleuen of the clock in the night and that hee remayned there almost fiue hours And that at his departure he was gifted with a chaine of gold and a rich wrought cap. For these offences the said two Gentlemen at Tyborne suffered death And not long after the Queene by Parliament was attainted and so was the Lady Rochford and some others and lost their heads for the said offence And in the same Parliament King of Ireland The King marieth againe the King was proclaimed King of Ireland which Title his Predecessors neuer had The King likewise tooke to wife the Lady Katherine Parre sister to the Marques of Northampton and sometimes the wife of the Lord Lattimer who in the latter end of the Kings raigne was in a faire possibilitie to haue lost her head if her owne vertue modestie and the Kings sodaine sicknesse and death had not reserued her for a better fortune At this time Eustace the Great Oneyl and Matthias his sonne repaired to the Kings Court and with
Treasure of his vncle The Kings liberalitie the last deceased King Which hee closed not vp in Chests or in Bagges as idle Archers doe their Arrowes in their Quiuers when for their honest recreation they should shoote but with a large and an open hand hee bountifully disposed of them among such as eyther by Armes or by Counsell were best likely to stand him in the greatest stead He also created sundrie Noblemen and dignified manie others with the honourable Title of Knighthood whose loue by those meanes he procured And because benefits receiued doe more please the vulgar and common sort of People than Right or Reason can doe he therefore released vnto them the Dane-gelt and all other extraordinarie Burthens and Exactions whatsoeuer causing a large Charter thereof and of the mitigation of the Seueritie and Penalties of sundrie Lawes to be made and bound himselfe by a solemne Oath to keepe and to obserue the same He also renounced the future Seisures of all Ecclesiasticall Dignities and Promotions Priuiledges graunted to the Clergie when they should become vacant Hee gaue to the Church and Church-men such gracefull and profitable Priuiledges and Immunities as they would demaund And among other things he freely exempted them from the authoritie of the Temporall Magistrate for all offences whatsoeuer except the Ordinarie should bee pleased that hee should deale therewith Finally he endeuoured to doe all things justly and pleasing vnto all Castles and Fortresses erected To preuent suddaine Eruptions Rebellions and Incursions tending to the generall disturbance of the common Peace by hauing manie strong and fortified places for good defence himselfe erected manie Forts Fortresses Bulwarkes and Castles and licenced his Nobles and his Gentrie and Clergie to doe the like He gaue vnto Dauid the King of Scots and vncle to Mauld the Empresse because hee should not second her in her demaunds The Scots flattered by the King or warlike attempts the whole Prouince of Cumberland and created his eldest sonne Henrie Earle of Huntingdon Yet notwithstanding not long after in her quarrell hee entred into the Northren parts of this Kingdome The King of Scots ouerthrowne by the Archbishop of Yorke which hee tormented with fire and sword But in the end he was encountred by Thurston then Archbishop of Yorke who compelled him being pursued with vnspeakable dangers to flye into Scotland and to leaue behinde him dead vpon the ground more than tenne thousand men of his Armie In the sixt yeare of his Raigne Mauld the Empresse Mauld the Empresse landeth in England being accompanied with her base brother Robert Earle of Glocester landed with an armie in England and was quickly strengthened and emboldened in her Enterprise by the plentifull accesse of manie of the English and of Raynulph Earle of Chester with a lustie crew of bold and forward Welchmen Hereupon the King imposing no confidence in delay but Experience instructing him that aduised Expedition is the chiefest enabler of good successe leuied a strong armie and marched with good resolution against the Empresse and her Forces who greeted him with such Musicke as her warlike Troupes did gallantly present So that a cruell and a bloudie Battaile with equall hopes for manie houres was fought betweene them But at length King Stephen ouerthrowne the Kings common Souldiors striuing faintly and as cowards rather endeuouring to saue themselues by flight than manfully to defend their King did basely leaue the King who with his Nobles and Gentrie scorning to turne their backes maintained their part with as much courage as manhood could affoord King Stephen taken prisoner till in the end the King was taken and committed to the Castle of Bristoll where hee remayned a prisoner about the space of three moneths and was at the last deliuered King Stephen is set at libertie to free the Earle of Glocester who had beene taken and was imprisoned by the Queene After this victorie thus obtained the Empresse with manie honourable Triumphs and Solemnities was receiued into the Cities of Circester Oxford Winchester and London The Londoners attempt to surprize the Empresse But the Londoners desiring the Restitution of King Edwards Lawes and not obtaining their request consulted to surprize the Empresse and to deliuer her vnto the King By meanes whereof good counsell aduised her to flye which suddainely she did and came vnto Oxford Where within few dayes and vnexpectedly shee was enuironed with a strong Siege So that despaire of good successe dis-heartening her The Empresse besieged in Oxford and teaching her a readie meanes for her escape taking the benefit of the Snow which at that time lay thicke vpon the ground she with her chiefest complices apparrelling themselues in white linnen secretly issued forth A politike flight and posting with all speede towards the Sea they embarked themselues and sayled into Normandie Manie yeares together after these turmoyles this Realme enjoyed a blessed Peace And in the seuenteenth yeare of this Kings Raigne died the most valorous and hardie knight Raynulph Earle of Chester Henry Short-Mantel heire apparant to the Empresse and so did Geoffrey Plantagenet husband to the Empresse And Henrie surnamed Short-Mantle her eldest sonne tooke to wife Elianor the daughter and heire of the Earle of Poytou which Elianor not long before for neerenesse in bloud and after she had borne him two daughters was diuorced from Lewis the seuenth then King of France So that Prince Henrie was now Duke of Normandie in the right of his Mother Earle of Angeou by descent from his Father and Earle of Poytou in the right of his wife by whome not long after he also had the Earledome of Tholouse This worthie Prince by manie of his friends and valiant men of Warre who longed to haue employment in so faire a journey was incited to leuie a strong armie and to transport them into England and by their helpe and the assistance of other wel-willers to attempt the recouerie of his Right and the rather for that king Stephen and Eustace his onely sonne did now begin to warre vpon manie of those who held their Castles for the Prince his vse His strong Expectation and hope to be enthroned in this Kingdome through the fauour of diuers Lords and Commons of this Realme easily persuaded him to lend a listening eare to their whisperings So that to giue vnto them good content and to forward the attayning of his owne desires Henry Short-Mantel inuadeth England hee raysed a strong power of willing and able men of Warre Which beeing brauely conducted by noble Captaines well skilled in those Affaires arriued safely in England where King Stephen and his sonne disdained to be idle for they had prouided with an equall strength to encounter him Both armies had daily newes the one from the other they threatned much did somewhat but it was but little Yet in those Expeditions Eustace the kings sonne by misaduenture was vnfortunately drowned Prince Eustace drowned
and aged eleuen yeares and somewhat more was crowned king of England in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand three hundred and seuentie seuen In the whole course of his euill Gouernment King Richards euill manners and bad Gouernment he neglected his Nobilitie and taxed his Subjects to enable himselfe to giue prodigally vnto his ill deseruing Fauorites Hee was too too resolute in his follies and refused to bee reproued or reformed He also despised the sage aduice and good directions of his wisest and best Counsellors and wholly plotted all his courses by the wicked and gracelesse projects of his base companions whom hee raised to more honourable Estates then befitted the meanes of their condition So that they fell by their own weight and he himselfe in the end was enforced to endure the extremitie of his hard fortune For being first disgraced by his Cousin Henrie of Bullingbrooke Duke of Lancaster and sonne and heire to his Vncle Iohn of Gaunt hee was at length by him with the general consent of a whole Parliament deposed from his Crowne commited to Prison and afterwardes wickedly murdered as in this discourse of his disordered Gouernment more amply it shall appeare The Frenchmen burne diuers townes in England In the first yeare of king Richards Raigne Charles the French king presuming much on his Minoritie and being aided by the Spaniards landed in the Southwest and in the South-east parts of this kingdome and ransacked and burnt the Townes of Plymouth Dartmouth Portsmouth Rye and some other Townes and Villages coasting vpon the Sea and would haue done more mischiefe if by the kings Vncle Edmund of Langly Earle of Cambridge and by the Earles of Buckingham and of Salisburie they had not beene fought with and beaten to their ships Alexander Ramseyes desperate attempt and successe At the same time also by the instigation of the French king one Alexander Ramsey an approued Scottishman at armes with fortie of his Company in the depth of the night suddenly and desperately scalled the wals of the Castle of Barwicke and finding the Captaine and all his souldiers securely sleeping he tooke it without blowes and intended also to haue surprised the Towne But the inhabitants hearing an extraordinarie noyse and tumult in the Castle and indeuouring to preuent a feared mischiefe hewed away the stayes of the Draw-bridge on the Townes side so that when the Scots did let fall the Draw-bridge the chaines brake and the Bridge fell into the Castle Ditch By meanes whereof the Scots could not issue out but were imprisoned by their owne Victorie This necessitie enforced them as well as they were able to fortifie the Castle which on the kings behalfe was soone besieged and assaulted by tenne thousand men who after many feates of Armes performed brauely by the assailants and after much valor with high courage shewed by that small number of valiant Scots wonne the Castle and receiued not one of them to mercie but onely their Captaine Alexander Ramsey The Frenchmen land in England And not long after the Frenchmen landed againe in England and did much harme at Douer Wynchelsay Hastings and at Grauesend and returned with their booties into France But to preuent like future mischiefes and to reuenge those injuries done to the King and his Realme by the French King ANNO. 3. A Parliamēt This Taxe caused much trouble An Armie sent into France A Parliament was assembled at Westminster In which a Subsidie of foure pence for euery man and for euery woman within this Kingdome being aboue foureteene yeares of age was granted to the King The leuying whereof procured much heart-burning which not long after brake forth and endangered the whole State of the Common-weale Yet with that monie great prouision was made and an armie of eight thousand men was sent into France vnder the command of Thomas of Woodstock the Kings Vncle who passing ouer the faire and great Riuers of Soame Oyse and Marne spoiled and burnt all the Countries and ransomed the inhabitants vntill he came into Brittaine where he was receiued by the Duke Iohn Mountford with all friendly entertainment and much joy And now began a Rebellion in England which was exceeding hazardous to the whole kingdome For Iohn Wall a factious Priest ANNO. 4. perceiuing that the inferior sort of the people much murmured and grudged at the payment of the aforesaid Subsidie A great Rebellion in England Iohn Wal was the beginner of this Rebellion His wicked course in perswading by secret conferences in all places where he came informed the Bondmen Villaines Slaues and such others as were pinched with penury and with want that by descent and parentage from Adam all men were of one condition and of equall worth and that the Lawes of this kingdome were iniurious and vniust which did set so great a difference betwixt men as to make some of them great Peeres Potentates and Lords and in geuing to some others large authority and commaund and in enlarging of great possessions and store of riches vnto some and in commanding others to be base seruile beggars and to enioy litle or nothing at all And therefore with traytrous reasons he perswaded them either by faire meanes or by open insurrection and ciuill warre to prouide for their owne liberties and to releeue their owne wants This lewd and damnable doctrine so infatuated and infected the Rusticks from Shire to Shire that at length it was spread in the Citie of London where the meanest and the basest sort being a multitude who egerly enuyed the prosperitie of the more worthie inhabitants and greedily coueted to be enriched with their substance were in great hope by Rebellious mutening to make vtter hauoke and spoyle of all things at their pleasure And to effect that which they intended such as were most desperatlie inclined among them informed the headlesse multitude in th◠Countries round about them that if they would come thither and ioyne with them the whole Citie of London should be at their command So that incredible numbers of brainsick turbulent and traytrous people prepared to flock thither from Kent Essex Sussex Bedfordshire and from many other places Of this rude and raskall rout Watt Tyler Iohn Wall Iack Straw and Iack Shepheard Captaines in this Rebellion Wat Tylar who by his profession was a Taylor was made Captaine to command the rest and the said Iohn Wall Iack Straw Iack Shepard and some others were made chiefe directors and their leaders And Stiling themselues The Kings men and the seruants of the Common-weale of England they marched towards London beating downe the houses and rifling all the moueables of all such as were professors of the Law How they passed towards London and compelling all Knights and Gentlemen either to flye before their comming or to be partakers in this vprore They also sent vnto the King who then lay in the Tower requiring him to come and to speake with them The King went
assistance Andrew Trollop and Iohn Blunt two of the most approued English Captaines which then liued and had beene best exercised in the warres of France And when they had plentifully increased their Armie partly in Wales and in the Marches thereof and partly by such companies as resorted daily out of the North vnto them The Kings armie they set onwards and came vnto a little Towne called Lud low where the King and diuers of his Nobilitie presented a strong Armie to the view of the Yorkish Faction so that they lay not farre asunder that night But in the euening the two braue Captaines Trollop and Blunt surueying the Kings forces Andrew Trolop and Iohn Blunt flie into the Kings armie and discouer all espied a certaine way and meanes to endanger the King and all his so that it was resolued by the Duke and Earles that their aduice counsell should fiercely be executed the next morning before the King should be able to set his Armie in a readinesse to fight But in the first watch those two Captaines making it a matter burdensome to their consciences not onely to fight against their Soueraigne Lord and King but also to betray him into the hands of his owne subiects secretly fled and came vnto the King to whom they plainly discouered the proiect and the intention of his enemies and aduised him of the best and chiefest meanes how not onely they might be resisted but driuen to the worst And for this seruice they were gently receiued and pardoned and rewarded by the King The Duke and Earles being certified of their Reuolts beganne to be diffident of their good successe and not daring to set vp their rest on the next daies fight they determined to expect another time which might affoord them more suretie and better hopes And taking aduantage by the darknesse of the night The Lords flie in the night they departed from their Armie into seuerall places for the Duke with his younger sonne Edmund Earle of Rutland retired into Wales and from thence they sailed into Ireland The other two with Edward Earle of March eldest sonne to the Duke of Yorke came into Deuonshire and being safely shipped in Ex-mouth Hauen by the fauour and procurement of a worthy Gentleman named Iohn Dynham they sailed to Calice where notwithstanding their misfortunes they were receiued with much ioy The King who reioiced much at their departure coasted the Countries with multitudes of Horsemen to ouertake them but all their labours were in vaine For the present feare which alwaies remained with them gaue them wings to flie He also pardoned the ordinarie souldiers of the Yorkish Faction which were forsaken by their chiefest guides and as sheepe were exposed to a slaughter But their Captaines who were deliuered vp into the Kings hands were executed in sundry places within this Realme Hee also proclaimed the said Lords to be Arch-traitors to him and to his Kingdome confiscated their goods offices The Lords are proclaimed Traitors and their lands committed the gouernment of the Northerne parts to the Earle of Northumberland to the Lord Clifford his trusty friends and made Henry the young Duke of Somerset Captaine and chiefe Commander of his Towne and Castle of Calice Henry Duke of Somerset is made Captaine of Calice Hee was coursly entertained and of the Marches thereof who sailing thither with a purpose to take possession of his new charge and not suspecting that his enemies were there was on his first arriuall well beaten and battered with the great shot and ordinance which from the Castle plaied on him and by those meanes he was compelled to retire and to keepe off The Queene hauing intelligence of this rude and vnkinde entertainment of her new Captaine and great fauourite resolued to send vnto him fresh and new supplies for which purpose some ships of the Nauie Royall were made ready within the Hauen of Sandwich Iohn Dynham taketh some of the Kings ships But the before-named Iohn Dynham disposing himselfe to all seruices which might support the Yorkish Faction and being furthered by the Mariners who highly fauoured and inwardly loued the young and lustie Prince Edward Earle of March and being accompanied with many gallant spirits and braue men boorded the said ships as they lay there at anchor took the Lord Ryuers who was appointed Admirall to conduct them and carried him and those ships to Calice from whence the Earle of Warwicke sailed in them into Ireland The Earle of Warwicke saileth into Ireland and conferred largely with the Duke of Yorke concerning those affaires But in his returne the Duke of Exeter being Admirall of the Seas and hauing vnder his charge a warlike and a strong Fleet making no doubt to haue taken him was much deceiued for his owne Mariners more adhered to the Yorkish faction then to the Kings and shewed themselues to bee exceeding cold and sparing in the performance of their duties He returneth to Calice when neede required their seruice so that the Earle of Warwicke returned back againe safely vnto Calice And now the King vpon good aduice assembled his high Court of Parliament A Parliment Attainders for Treason Preparations against the laâ—â—ing of the Lords in which hee caused all the Lords of the Yorkish Conspiracie to bee attainted of High Treason And lest this Realme might be disturbed by their inuasion or secret entrance diuers Captaines with their companies were lodged in all Townes and Ports which neare adioined to the Sea and were the best likely places for their landing Sir Simon Mountfort likewise who was a right worthie and a valiant Knight hauing vnder his charge diuers of the Kings ships was appointed to keepe and to defend the Cinque-ports But nothing was done in the Kings Chamber or in any other place of greatest secrecie or counsell whereof the said Earles had not certaine and quicke intelligence at Calice wherefore they prouided furnished and strongly manned such of the Kings ships as formerly by the said Iohn Dynham had beene brought thither The Kings Fleet taken in Sandwich in which they sailed and safely arriued within the Hauen of Sandwich and suddenly they tooke Sir Simon Mountfort prisoner vanquished the towne and caried away with them such of the Kings ships as they found there And hauing receiued good intelligence from their friends that nothing was more expected then their returne into England The Lords doe land at Sandwich they prepared for their iourney and arriued the second time at Sandwich and were within few daies assisted by the Lord Cobham and by many Gentlemen and braue souldiers insomuch that their Armie consisted of more then fiue and twenty thousand men with which they marched towards London Their Army But the Lord Scales was sent against them with a small companie to that Citie to defend it and to secure the King of the fidelitie of the Inhabitants thereof when time should serue But the Lord Maior refused to receiue
Lord Hastings who litle dreamed that he should in the like maner haue died at the same time This Execution being thus dispatched the Protector caused those Armed to seise vpon the Cardinall Archbishop of Yorke and vpon the Bishop of Elie and vpon the Lord Stanley and some others all which were seuerally committed to seuerall Prisons in that place And presently the Protector and the Duke of Buckingham A had shift thrusting themselues into vile and vncomely harnesse as if necessitie had compelled them to shift themselues into the first and worst that came vnto their hands They sent for diuers worthie Citizens of London and required them with all posting speed to repaire thither which they did And vnto them the Protector passionately related that his death was conspired and that his life should haue beene taken from him as he sate that morning in Counsell with the Lords by the Lord Hastings and by his wicked complices if by sudden force and violence he had not preuented that mischiefe and so much they were required to tell their friends that they might haue true notice of the cause of this sudden broile and execution in the Tower And within two houres after that the Lord Hastings was depriued of his head a solemne and a long Proclamation written with a faire hand in parchment and being vnder the Great Seale of England was brought into the Citie and with great solemnitie proclaimed there by an Herald of Armes But by all circumstances it was coniectured by all wise men that the same was indited written and sealed some daies before Doctor Shaas Sermon Thus when the wicked Protector had impiously cut off the heads of those Lords who would still haue kept him backe from doing of too much mischiefe if they had liued hee caused Doctor Shaa a man more learned then vertuous and as wicked in practises as the Protector was who did instruct him in a Sermon the Sunday following at Pauls Crosse to blazon the honourable birth and parentage of the Protector to relate his vertues to commend his valour to weaken the fame and honour of the deceased King Edward by reason of his lasciuious wantonnesse with Shores wife and with many others to bastardize all his children as being borne in adulterie and out of lawfull mariage for that King Edward was solemnly contracted as he affirmed vnto the Ladie Elizabeth Lucie whom he begat with childe before such time as hee maried with the Ladie Elizabeth Grey and also because hee was in the person of Richard the great Earle of Warwicke before his said mariage affied vnto the Ladie Bona sister to Carlot the wife of the French King He also accused the Protectors owne mother of great incontinencie when King Edward and George Duke of Clarence his two elder brothers were begotten And thus he striued to make euery one crooked besides himselfe who was most crooked of all And in conclusion the Doctor applying his speech to the worthinesse and goodnesse of the Protector he supposed that the people could not chuse but receiue him for their vndoubted soueraigne Lord and King and therefore hee striued to prepare the multitude to haue shouted out when the King came in and to haue cried King Richard King Richard but he failed of his purpose for euery man was silent and more surprised with wonder then with applause to see and to perceiue how cowardly how vnnaturally and how wickedly these affaires and businesses were carried not to continue the Protector to be a subiect any longer but to be a King And the next day in the Guildhall of London the Duke of Buckingham by like arguments endeuoured to make the Protector the rightfull and vndoubted heire and inheritor of the Crowne The Duke is now King Richard And albeit that the Townesmen tooke no contentment in this message nor did by their voices assent to that which to them was deliuered yet against their willes the Duke of Buckingham procured them the next day to goe with him and with many other Lords to Baynards Castle to the Protector where they offred to receiue him for their lawfull King and praied him to vndergoe that burden But oftentimes he refused to grant them their request But at last he granted it And thus he gained and wonne by their perswasions his hearts desire THE HISTORIE OF KING RICHARD THE THIRD WHen King Richard had taken vpon him the gouernement of this Kingdome and was crowned instead of noble and prince like courtesie Cowardly dissimulation be applied himselfe to all basenesse striuing thereby but all in vaine to winne the loue and fauour of his people And not seeming to take any notice that the Lord Strange son and heire apparant to the Lord Stanley intended to raise an Armie in the North because his father had beene wronged and was then imprisoned by the King but pretending that he loued him when he might punish him hee did not only set him at libertie but also made him the Steward of his owne house He also enlarged the Archbishop of Yorke D. Morton committed but committed Doctor Morton Bishop of Elie as a prisoner to the Duke of Buckingham who was afterwards a principall meanes of his confusion and of King Richards destruction as in the sequell of this Historie more particularly it shall appeare Nobles created The King to make himselfe strong by conferring of great honours vpon others created his onely childe Edward who was of the age of ten yeares Prince of Wales and Iohn Howard who was both valiant in the field and wise in counsell was by him created Duke of Norfolke And Sir Thomas Howard his eldest sonne was made Earle of Surrey The Lord William Barkley was aduanced to the Earledome of Nottingham And Francis Lord Louel whom he entirely loued was made Viscount Louel The French King despiseth King Richard And when hee had as hee imagined so surely settled his estate that froward fortune could not change it by his Ambassadors he made offer to Lewys the French King to conclude a peace But Lewys so much detested his bloudie cruelties and his murders that hee would not vouchsafe to see the Ambassadors which hee sent nor to heare the message which they brought This frumpe and some others so pinched him at the heart and the Deuill tooke such an aduantage of him by reason of his ambitious and wicked minde that he supposed he could neuer be reputed and truly honoured as a King so long as his two harmelesse and poore nephewes drew any breath as though so horrible and so execrable and bloudie a murder could winne him loue and reputation among his discontented people The two yong Princes are murdered Thus whilest his head forged this vile and villanous conceit he made his progresse towards the Citie of Glocester as if hee only intended by his presence to honour that place from whence his former title of dignitie was deriued strongly perswading himselfe that if this vngodly and
they knew that Perkin was a counterfet The Scots inuade England vnder a colour to aide Perkin Warbecke yet they reioiced that opportunitie had offred them that occasion to inuade England not to make a conquest thereof nor to helpe Warbecke but only by valuable booties and large spoiles to enrich themselues Whereupon the young King being accompanied with his foolish guest and many thousands of lustie and tall men marched forth and entred into Northumberland where they exercised all kinde of rigour violence and wrong burning robbing Their crueltie rifling stealing and spoiling in all places and destroying with the sword both young and old strong and feeble healthie and infirme rich and poore with such barbarous inhumanitie and strange crueltie as neuer was committed before by that Nation And as soone as they had almost desolated all that Prouince finding no helpe nor succour from the English to assist their new King they returned into Scotland and neglected to giue vnto him any more aide King Henry vnderstanding what rapine spoile and violence was done by the Scots vnto his people and being sicke vntill hee had requited those wrongs with seuere and sharpe reuenge A puissant Armie is leuied to goe into Scotland summoned his High Court of Parliament in which it was concluded that forthwith an Armie should be sent against those enemies lest perhaps long forbearance might encourage them at another time to doe the like mischiefe And for the maintenance of those warres a small taxe or subsidie was granted to the King A Taxe which occasioned a rebellion which occasioned him much trouble The King who vsed great expedition in this businesse raised a puissant Armie which hee committed to the charge and gouernment of his Chamberlaine Giles Lord Dawbeney who was a wise and a valiant man But no sooner was this Armie on foot marching towards the North but suddenly it was recalled to withstand as great a mischiefe which otherwise might giue a deadly blow to the state of this Kingdome and Common-weale For the Cornishmen who were strong stout and couragious The Cornishmen rebell yet poore and oppressed with many wants not onely refused to pay the said Subsidie and taxe but in a braine-sicke and sullen humour they accused Iohn Morton Archbishop of Canterburie and Sir Reinold Bray who were two of the grauest wisest and most honest Counsellors aboue others to the King that they as enemies to their Countrey oppressed the inferiour sort and were prollers pillers and pollers for their priuate commoditie and gaine And that they seduced the King by leaud aduice and bad directions and were the Authors of much euill And that therefore they would take it on themselues not onely to remoue them from the King but also to correct and punish them as euill doers and as foes and enemies to their Natiue Countrey and Common-weale And pleasing their vnaduised passions with this fantasticall and vntruly grounded resolution they by the prouokement and incitation of Michael Ioseph a sturdie Blacke-smith and of Thomas Flamocke a man learned in the Law yet factious and of a tumultuous disposition put themselues in Armes and determined to effect their purpose though with violence yea in the presence of the King Wherefore hauing augmented their numbers and hoping that as they marched a long iourney so their forces would daily bee increased and nothing doubting but that according to the common voice and fame the Kentishmen would bee partakers with them in their Rebellion They march towards London The Lord Audley is their chiefe Captaine they pressed and passed forth towards London and in their iourney were much comforted by Iames Twichet Lord Audley who with many others being his adherents ioined with those Rebels and gained from them the chiefest authoritie to command In this meane while the King perceiuing their intentions and hauing recalled his Armie which was trauelling towards the North handled this businesse with such policie that hee would not suffer one man to moue one foot towards the West for these especiall reasons First because that on better termes hee should encounter with them when they had wasted their best strength and tired out themselues with a wearisome and with a tedious iourney And secondly because those Rebels being so farre off from home should bee altogether destitute of kinsfolkes and of friends to releeue them and of conuenient places of Retrait if necessitie should compell them thereunto The Kentishmen are against them The Cornishmen after much labour and paine comming into Kent not onely failed of their expected aide but also found the Kentishmen armed resolued to withstand their force and by their best endeuours to subdue them Yet were not the audacious and bold Cornishmen affrighted with this checke but retired strongly to Blacke-heath Black-heath field not many miles from London intending there to abide the vtmost of their fortune and either like men to be victorious or at a deare price to sell their liues The King with his Armie drawing neere towards them diuided it into three parts Two of them hee placed vpon the sides of the Rebels and those were commanded and directed by Iohn Earle of Oxford Henry Bourchier Earle of Essex Edmund de la Pole Earle of Suffolke Sir Rice ap Thomas Sir Humfrey Stanley and diuers others The King himselfe led the third and brauely charged the Rebels in the face and the residue did the like on eyther side The Rebels are ouerthrowne and though the poore sturdie and stout Cornishmen were oppressed with multitudes on euerie part yet they fainted not but fought like men for a long time stil pressing forth and making no staie but as they were compelled by the sword The Lord Dawbenie was at length taken prisoner by them but they enlarged him incontinently of their owne accord thinking by his meanes to find some mercie This fight and battaile was couragiously maintained for some houres during which space there were slaine on the Kings part about three hundred and of the Rebels more then two thousand Their chiefest Captaines and manie hundreds besides were taken Prisoners the rest fledde and King Henrie wonne the field And within few dayes after Traitors heads and quarters set vp in Cities in townes the Ring-leaders of that rebellious insurrection were in sundrie places of this Realme executed as Traitors and their heads and quarters were sent and disposed in sundrie Townes Cities and Castles of this Realme for a terrour to all such as should attempt the like enormious offence against their Soueraigne Now must we be informed that though the King had recalled the Lord Dawbenie and his Armie to withstand these Rebels yet hee knew that the young King of Scots in the meane time expecting punishment except he could by force of Armes auoid it made great prouision and daily preparations to defend himselfe Which forces would againe inuade the Northerne parts of this Kingdome assoone as they were informed of King Henries imploiment
all submissiue and humble contrition they confessed their late rebellion Earle of Tyron and treasons and so gratious was the King vnto them both that hee not only gaue them his free pardon but in hope of future seruice according to their promise he created him Earle of Tyron and made his sonne Lord of Duncan The Scots who for a long time had beene quiet did now beginne to swagger and by sodaine invasions to hurt Contention with the Scotish King and damnifie the Subiects of this Land which occasioned the King 1 To require of their king Iames the Fifth and Nephew to the king these things First That the said king Iames should doe his homage and his fealtie to king Henrie for his kingdom of Scotland as his Auncestors in former times had often done But the Scottish king with great obstinacie and with froward messages refused to yeeld thereunto 2 King Henrie likewise required the deliuerie of some small and triffling Territories bordering close vpon the inheritance of the said Scottish king And for the proofe of his rightfull Title therevnto Hee caused certaine auncient and old euidences to bee shewed forth But the Scottish Commissioners with taunts and skornes reiected them Saying that they were written and sealed by Englishmen who for their owne profit and gaine might write and seale what they listed 3 Vpon these and some other grieuances king Henrie who rather desired a friendly reconciliation betwixt himselfe and his Nephew then by the dint of sword to shed Christian bloud concluded to meet and to conferre with king Iames in kinde manner vpon the borders of either kingdome For which purpose king Henrie made his Progresse vnto Yorke and was there certified that the Scottish king intended not according to his promise to meet with him But would by Commission authorize some of his Counsellors of estate to conferre and to conclude with his Maiesties Commissioners of England touching the matters then in difference betwixt them two 4 The king though he were thus deluded yet did he not expresse any touch of impacience for that wrong but authorizing certaine Commissioners in that behalfe hee ended his Progresse and returned home All these Commissioners met but whilest they were in Parlee two notorious and great despights were offered to king Henrie 5 For though the Commissioners daily communed of vnitie and of peace yet at the same time the Scots invaded the Westerne marches of this Realme burnt slue spoiled and riffled beyond charitie and reason and yet no warre was then denounced betwixt the said two kings For this iniurie and for this wrong sufficient and liberall amends and recompence was promised by the said Commissioners but no manner of restitution or satisfaction was made in that behalfe 6 And lastly although the King of Scots commission was very large and ample and authorized those his Agents to doe almost whatsoeuer they themselues pleased yet did the said Commissioners so strictly stand vpon sundrie points which were too too much vnreasonable and dishonorable for king Henrie to yeeld vnto that by the English Commissioners who had throughly viewed and pervsed their authoritie and power they were condemned as enemies to the peace and to their owne Countrie For that by the meanes of their frowardnesse there would be warres Whereupon the Scottish Commissioners to cleare themselues of this blame imputed to their obstinacie and follie shewed forth their priuate instructions from their King which for feare of death they dared not to exceede By which instructions it appeared plainly that their authority expressed in their said Commission was in all things curbed and made of little or of no force except the said English Commissioners would yeeld to such demands as were vnprofitable and dishonourable to their king Warres in Scotland These notorious iniuries and wrongs and this daliance and craftie dissimulation enforced King Henrie to send an Armie of twentie thousand men into Scotland vnder the command of the Duke of Northfolk who was accompanied by the Earles of Shrewsburie Darby Cumberland Surrey Hertford Angus and Rutland and with the greatest part of the Lords Knights and Gentlemen of the North All these marched on their iourney and for eight daies space being vnresisted and vnfought with they killed riffled burned forraged and spoiled the Scottish Townes Castles Fortresses Houses and Fields with as much crueltie violence and furie The English Armie returneth as the extremitie of warres could execute in so short a time Which when they had done the Armie retyred was dissolued and euery man repaired loaden with spoiles to his owne home The Scots inuade England With this deserued and seuere reuenge the King of Scots was infinitely grieued and perplexed at the heart In so much that he caused with all expedition to be raised an Armie of fifteene thousand men which was sent into the West marches of this kingdome where they began to spoile and did much mischiefe But Thomas the Bastard Dacres William Musgraue and the Lord Thomas Wharton hauing at a short warning collected a small number of approued A notable ouerthrow and valiant men at armes taking with them some part thereof and leauing the rest for a secret stale or ambush to annoy their enemies when time should serue encountred vnexpectedly with the Scots vpon whom in the Rereward the said ambush valiantly issued which did so terrifie and affright them that they supposed verily the Duke of Norfolke with a great Armie did fall on them wherefore to saue themselues they fled and in the pursuite there were taken prisoners the Earles of Cassels Prisoners and Glancarne the Lords Maxwel Fleming Sommerwel Oliphant Gray and Oragy and the Lord Carre of Gredon two hundred Gentlemen and about eight hundred common Souldiers so that euery English man had two or three prisoners to recompence their adventerous paines and trauaile The Englishmen also tooke brought away foure and twentie peeces of Ordinance and foure Carts loaden with Speares this ouerthrow many men then imputed and peraduenture truly to the Scottish Kings vnaduised and indiscreet direction Disdaine who made so meane a Springall the Generall in that armie in which so many Lords Earles and worthy Captaines were who scorned to be commanded by such an Vnderling and therefore hazarded their owne liues by a willing flight rather then by obtayning the Victorie to lay on him such honour as they knew he was not able to deserue Of these prisoners foure and twentie of the chiefest were sent to the Tower of London from whence after two dayes they were remoued and committed to the care and custodie of diuers Noblemen Knights and Gentlemen of worth at whose hands they receiued such kinde welcome and bountifull entertainment that with multiplyed wordes of extraordinary praise and commendation they ceased not to extoll their friendly and good vsage to the skies This vnexpected strange The King of Scots dieth and vnfortunate ouerthrow of so faire an Armie with so small a
by meanes whereof when the ship turned the Ordinance ran backe to the one side and bare the port holes vnder water so that the sea violently and abundantly flowed in and in a moment swallowed vp both ship Captaine Men Ordinance and all other things there to the great griefe and sorrow of the King himselfe and of all such as were present and beheld it The Lord Dambalt high Admirall of France being by certaine poore Fishermen whom he had taken informed that the King in his owne person being accompanied with an infinite number of valiant men of warre expected and longed to be made victorious and rich by their landing feared to hazard all his fortunes in so desperate and hot a seruice Wherefore be hoised Ancors and without Fame or Honor returned basely into France Now must wee know The Scots invade England that no sooner was King Henrie departed out of England to the siege of Bullein as wee haue heard but the Scottish Nation obseruing their old custome entred riffled spoiled and burnt many Houses Villages and small Townes in the marches of England without pitty Wherefore King Henrie after his returne resolued to correct their madnesse and their folly and to take reuenge for those iniuries and wrongs And for that purpose he sent the Noble Earle of Hartford into that Kingdome An Armie sent into Scotland with an Armie of twelue thousand men where hee hauoked Men Townes Castles and the Countrie in such a furious and fierce manner that the Scots were extremely damnified thereby and thousands of them were vtterly vndone About the same time the valiant Lord Lisle Lord high Admirall of England Treport entred into and landed within the Hauen of Treport and burnt the suburbs of that towne and many other houses Villages and Townes which bordered vpon the Sea coasts And at his returne from thence as a rich prey he caried with him many Ships Barges Boats and Vessels which he found there Now like as after many ruffe and boisterous stormes a sweet and a delectable calme doth follow so after these busie conflicts and martiall contentions The Duke of Northfolke and the Earle of Surrey committed whereof wee haue already taken a perfect view A peace was louingly concluded and ioyfully proclaymed betweene the two kingdomes of England and of France But this joy as in humane affaires it often hapneth was quickly checked with an other sorrow for the most victorious faithfull and euer to be honored Captaine the Duke of Northfolke and his sonne the most illustrious Earle of Surrey both which in this Kings raigne performed many memorable and braue seruices in Scotland England and in France were sodainely apprehended and sent vnto the Tower For none other thing but because they quartered and bare in their Escoucheon certaine Armes which were pretended properly and only to belong vnto the King and Prince which Armes notwithstanding they and their Auncesters timeout of minde had so borne without controlment reproofe or check For this offence the said Earle was indicted of high Treason arraigned thereon and tryed by a Iurie of Knights and Gentlemen The Earle of Surrey beheaded and not by his peeres because he was no Lord of the Parliament by whom he was found guiltie and then receiued his iudgement and lost his head to the great griefe and sorrow of many thousands who lamented the causelesse death of such a worthy man as had so well deserued of the King and of the common weale The King dieth But the Duke his father by reason of the Kings sicknesse and death which followed shortly after was preserued by God from that danger for better fortunes He is described The Presence of this King was amiable and Princely for hee was somewhat more then ordinarie tall strongly limmed proportionably composed faire in his complexion nimble and full of agilitie in his yonger yeares and alwaies as resolutely valiant as a man might bee Hee had a pregnant and a sharpe wit and was generally held to bee well learned because hee could and vsed to speake well He was exceeding humble and passing stout applying the former to gentle spirits and opposing the latter against prowd insolent and rough Mates He was bountifull and magnificently liberall if occasion so required Yet in regard that hee was a man He was not free from all faults For he was too too much familiar and conversant with wanton and light women And delighted too much in varietie and in change as most men did coniecture because he had sixe wiues From two of them he was seuered because his mariages were held to be void frustrate and of no force other two of them for the obiected crime of incontinencie lost their heads A fifth died in her child-bed and the sixt escaped fairely by his death Finally hee oftentimes much pleased himselfe to be ouer-familiar in the swaggering companie of loose Fellowes yet in most respects he was a famous a worthie and a most noble King Thus ended he his life and thus doe I conclude this Historie of these twentie Kings hoping that some other who shall be better able will with more sufficiencie write the rest FINIS THE SVCCESSIONS OF THE DVKES AND EARLES OF THIS KINGDOME OF ENGLAND FROM THE CONQVEST vntill the twelfth yeare of the famous Raigne of the mightie Monarch King IAMES THE FIRST THOV SHALT LABOR FOR PEACE PLENTIE LONDON Printed by W. Stansby for Henrie Fetherstone 1615. Princes of VVales since the Conquest Iohn Speede 97 1 EDward Caer-Nervon sonne to King Edward the First afterwards king Edward the Second 2 Edward of Windsour sonne to king Edward the Second afterwards king Edward the Third 3 Edward the Black Prince sonne to king Edward the Third 4 Richard of Bordeaux sonne to the Black Prince afterwards king Richard the Second 5 Henrie of Monmoth sonne to king Henrie the Fourth afterwards king Henrie the Fifth 6 Henrie of Windsour sonne to king Henrie the Fifth afterwards king Henrie the Sixth 7 Edward of Westminster sonne to king Henrie the Sixth 8 Edward of Westminster sonne to king Edward the Fourth afterwards king Edward the Fifth 9 Edward Plantagenet sonne to king Richard the Third 10 Arthur Tuther sonne to king Henrie the Seuenth 11 Henrie Tuther sonne to king Henrie the Seuenth afterwards king Henrie the Eighth 12 Edward the sonne of king Henrie the Eighth afterwards king Edward the Sixth 13 Henrie the sonne of king Iames. 14 Charles the sonne of king Iames. THE SVCCESSIONS OF THE DVKES AND EARLES OF THIS KINGDOME OF ENGLAND From the Conquest vntill the twelfth yeare of the famous Raigne of the mightie Monarch King IAMES the First Albemarle and Holdernes EVDO Sonne to the Earle of Champagne married one of the Conquerours sisters Conq. and was by him created Earle of Albemarle and of Holdernes Stephen their sonne succeeded and was Earle of Albemarle and of Holdernes William surnamed Le Grose being his sonne succeeded K. Steph. and was Earle of Albemarle
against his owne Subiects Prouision against the Scots wherefore to preuent that emminent and like danger he by his letters required Thomas Lord Howard Earle of Surrey and Richard Fox sometimes Bishoppe of Exeter and then promoted to the See of Durham to raise a strong Armie and to withstand the Scots if they endeauoured to attempt any such thing vntill he sent another power to aid and to assist them which thing should with all celeritie and diligence be performed assoone as hee had vanquished the Cornishmen who so desperately opposed themselues against him Now as the King imagined so fell it out true indeede The Scots inuade England For the Scots proudly insulting at his troubles and expecting the worst that hee could doe when hee should bee in peace at home resolued by anticipating warre to enrich themselues with new Rapines and Spoiles and to make hauocke vpon the Borderers that by meanes thereof they might the more weaken him and the better enable themselues to make resistance when time and opportunitie should serue With the same resolution the King of Scots and his Armie againe entred vpon the English Pale But ere they could proceede farre or doe much harme the aforesaid Earle and Bishoppe and manie other Nobles Knights and Gentlemen of the North assembled themselues and their friends to the number of twentie thousand fighting men and marched boldly towardes the Scottish Armie vnto which when they drew neare their King vpon good occasion being timerous and feareful retired hastily The Scots flie and fled into his owne Countrie But the English forces with braue courage and manly resolution entred into his Kingdome The English Armie hauaketh in Scotland and battered assaulted wonne and razed to the ground many of his strongest Townes Castles and Holds and were not resisted albeit the Scottish King with all his Armie was not distant from them aboue one mile Only hee challenged the field the next daie which was accepted but in the night before hee raised his Armie and dispersed them who ranne into the Woods and high Mountaines and were to no purpose pursued and hunted by the Englishmen six or seuen daies But so barren was that Countrie and so poore and destitute of all good things and so vnseasonable was the weather there which abounded with continuall Raine Wind Snow Haile Thunder and Hideous stormes and tempests that the Earle and the Bishop returning brake vp their Armies and themselues went to Barwick where they attended directions from the King Whilest these thinges were thus in action Peter Hyalus who was sent Embassador from Ferdinando King of Castile to mediate a peace betwixt the kings of England and of Scotland A truce with Scotland Perkin Warbeck is sent out of Scotland The peace with France newly ratified could not effect that businesse according to his mind Yet a Truce was concluded betwixt them to endure for certaine yeares conditionally that Perkin Warbecke were forthwith banished and exiled out of that Countrie The French King also at the same time sent his Embassadors into England to ratifie the former peace established betwixt the King and him which was performed with much honour and solemnitie to the great contentment and ioy of all the People of both those Kingdomes The English trade is restored to the flemings and their ioy thereas Likewise Philip the Arch-Duke of Austria and Duke of Burgoine sonne to Maximilian King of the Romans by his Embassadors importuned the restitution of the English trade and the returne of the Marchants into his Countrie of Flanders because his subiects were exceedingly impouerished by them did obtain his sute whereat such comfort was conceiued that when the Englishmen were for trade returned againe vnto Antwerpe they were receiued into the Citie with solemne Processions Princely Triumphs Sumptuous Feastings Rare Banquettings and with the expression of great loue and of much ioy And thus was King Henrie at this time made fortunate and happie for he enioyed peace and friendship both at home and abroade sauing only with Perkin Warbeck Perkin Warbeck saileth into Cornwal who ceased not to vexe and trouble him for a while to his owne ouerthrow and destruction For being compelled to forsake Scotland and vnderstanding that though the Cornishmen had lately been ouerthrowne yet were they not pacified or appeased he with foure ships only and with sixe score ragged landing Souldiers and no more sailed into Cornwall where hee was receiued by the rusticke The Cornish men rebell and doe take Perkin Warbecks part Exeter is befieged and meanest sort of the Inhabitants of that Prouince with ioyfull acclamations and with good welcome And within few dayes after they aided him with three thousand men With these and with some others he marched Eastwards and came as farre as the Citie of Exeter where hee vsed manie persuasiue and rethoricall arguments and speeches to incite the Inhabitants voluntarily to become his subiects and to surrender the Citie into his hands But finding that the fidelitie of the Cittizens was constant and vnremoueable from their King And that their resolutions to indure extremities if otherwise they could not be auoided was strongly setled and vnchangeable they besieged the Citie round about And because they wanted artillerie and great Ordinance to make batteries vpon their walles therefore with Ladders Crookes Ropes and other Engines they desperately attempted to scale them in manie places at one instant But still and euery where with manlike Courage and with approoued Valour they were repulsed ouerborne and tumbled into the Ditches and deepe Trenches with which that Citie is enuironed on all parts So that in those assaults many of those Rebels with great obstinacie lost their liues Now when they perceiued Fire encountred by fire that those their attempts daily failed and succeded not they desperately approached vnto the Citie gates which they endeuored by manie slights to open or to ouerthrow But when none of their practises could preuaile then they caused great fires to be kindled against thē so that by consuming of them they might make an easie passage entrance into the Citie This stratagem of warre because it was vnusuall did at the first somewhat abash the Cittizens But they considering with themselues that base cowardlinesse was the betraier of true manhood and that perfect valour despaired not in any danger assumed the hearts of vndaunted men and by their endeuourous attempts and imploiments they ceased not to prouide for their owne present safetie insomuch that with fire they encountred fire and made greater fires within their Gates then the Rebels did without which they maintained by adding store of matter and of fewell for a long time vntill that with rampiers bankes bulwarks and other defensiue fortifications they had secured those places from the entrie of their enemies When this their practise auailed not then they againe busied the Citizens with daily scalings and climings against their walles But the inhabitants so confidently persisted to