had fortified themselves as well as the shortness of time would permit them and the Peasants thereabouts bring all their goods into the City as to a place of safeguard The City was of no great circuit yet at the beginning of the Siege it contained fourscore thousand People by reason whereof Victuals began quickly to fail them and they could no way hope for relief The French King was far off they had no Garrison the Citizens bad Soldiers two great Princes had begirt the Town with fifty thousand men but they had an Enemy within called Famine more cruel and insupportable than both So having for some few days held out the Siege the nine and Twentieth of September their lives being granted them they yield and to save themselves from spoil pay a hundred thousand Crowns The King makes them swear Fealty to him and appoints Sir Edward Poynings a Knight of the Garter their Governour Next he gives order for store of Warlike provision puts in a small Garrison and builds a Cittadel for the confirmation of his Conquest Neither amongst these Politick affairs did he neglect those of the Church For the Bishop being proscribed he conferrs the See with all the revenues upon Thomas Wolsey of whose first rising and immoderate Power we shall have much occasion to speak hereafter All things being thus ordered because Winter came on apace he began to bethink himself of returning with his Army into England This thought so far pleased him that having been absent scarce four Months he took Ship and about the end of October came home triumphing in the Glory of a double Conquest By the way he was entertained with the news of another Victory the Lord Howard Earl of Surrey having under his Fortune slain the King of Scots The King of France being encumbred with many Wars had conjured James the Fourth King of Scots By the ancient Laws of Amity and the late League made between them that He would not forsake him entangled in so many difficulties If He regarded not his Friend's case yet he should at least look to Himself sor whom it would not be safe to suffer a bordering Nation always at enmity with Him by such additions to arise to that height of power The King of England busied with a forein War was now absent and with Him the flower of the English Chivalry He should therefore forthwith take Arms and try to recover Berwick an especial Town of the Scottish Dominions but for many years with-held by the English He would easily be victorious if He would but make use of this occasion so happily offered It could not be but this War would be for His Honour and profitable to His Friend if not to Himself He should thereby also make known to His Enemies that the Scottish Arms were not to be contemned whose former Victories a long and to them hurtful Peace had obscured and buried in oblivion among the English As for the charges of it He need not be troubled for that he would afford Him fifty thousand Crowns towards the providing of Munition and Ordnance These Reasons so prevailed with the young King covetous of glory that notwithstanding he had lately made a League with our King whose Sister he had married and her vehement dissuasions he proclaimed War against Henry which proved fatal to him bloody to his and the cause of many ensuing calamities So having raised a great Army he breaks into our Marches and besiegeth Norham-Castle belonging to the Bishop of Durham the which having held out six days was at last yielded unto him Thence he removes his Camp to Berwick wasting all the Countrey as he marcht with Fire and Sword The news whereof are brought unto them to whom the government of the Kingdom was committed in the absence of the King and a levy being made through all the North parts of the Kingdom Alnewike is appointed the rendezvous where all the Troops should meet at a set day that thence they might set forward against the Enemy under the conduct of the Lord Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Among the first to his Father's great joy comes the Earl's Son Thomas Lord Admiral leading a veteran Troop of five thousand men of tryed valour and haughty in regard of their former Naval Victories obtained under the command of this young Lord. After him came the Lords Dacres Clifford Scrope Latimer Canyers Lumley and Ogle besides Sir Nicholas Appleyard Master of the Ordnance Sir W. Percie Sir William Sidney Sir William Bulmer Sir John Stanley Sir William Molineux Sir Thomas Strangwayes Sir Richard Tempest and many other Knights These sitting in Council thought it best to send an Herald to the King to expostulate with him concerning the outrages committed to complain that He had without all right or reason spoiled the Countrey of a Prince not only Ailied unto him but also his Confederate and therefore to certifie him that they were ready by Battel to revenge the breach of League if so be he durst await their coming but a few days in a ground that might be fitting for the meeting of both Armies The King makes answer by writing wherein He retorts the violation of the League calling God to witness that King Henry had first by his many injuries shown evident signs of an alienated mind For the English he pretended robbed all along the Marches of Scotland without restitution or punishment Andrew Barton a stout and bonest man had been unjusty slain by the King's command and one Heron who had murthered Robert Car a Scottish Noble-man vaunted himself openly in England the King taking no notice of so heinous a fact Of these things he had often complained by his Ambassadors but without effect There was therefore no other way for him but to betake himself to Arms for the common defence of himself and his Kingdom against the King's injustice As for the meeting he signified that he accepted of it and appointed both time and place for the Battel Neither party failed the prefixed day The Scot seeks to animate his men by taking away all hope of safeguard by flight commanding them I know not how wisely but the event shewed how unhappily for them to forsake their Horses forasmuch as they were to trust to their Hands not to their Horses heels and by his own example shewing what he would have done he alights and prepares himself to fight on foot The rest doing the like the whole Army encountred us on foot to whom after a long and bloody fight the fortune of the Victory inclined The Scots had two and twenty pieces of great Ordnance which stood them in no stead For our men climbing up a Hill where the Enemy sate hovering over us the shot passed over our heads Our chief strength were our Archers who so incessantly played upon four Wings of Scots for the King divided his Army into five Battalions that were but lightly armed that they forced them to flie and leave their fellows who
at length he must brag of the Jugler's promises as he did to a Gentleman named Charles Knevet to whom he boldly unmasked himself and gave a reason of his actions Upon Knevet's accusation he was arraigned and condemned the thirteenth of May and on the seventeenth publickly beheaded His death was lamented by many and the rather for that he was no way faulty but in his vanity and pride which overthrew him Being a child I have heard antient men say that by his bravery of Apparel and sumptuous Feasts he exasperated the King with whom in these things he seemed to contend But he could by no means bear with the intolerable pride of the Cardinal whose hatred not improbably proved fatal unto him rather than did the King's displeasure for many times Princes are with less danger offended than their Mignons There goes a tale That the Duke once holding the basin to the King the Cardinal when the King had done presently dipped his hands in the same water the Duke disdaining to debase himself to the service of a Priest shed the water in his shooes The Cardinal therewith incensed threatned him that He would sit upon his skirts The Duke to shew that he slighted his threats and withal that the King might take notice of the Cardinal's malice came the next day to Court richly as he usually was apparelled but without skirts to his Doublet The King and many others demanding what he meant by that strange fashion he answered readily That it was done by way of prevention for the Cardinal should not now sit upon his skirts He thought he had put a jest upon the Cardinal to whose informations as proceeding from envy and spleen he hoped the King would hereafter give the less credit But he missed his mark for most men were of opinion that the Cardinal's malice crushed him rather than did the weight of his own offences It was the saying of Charles the Emperour upon the report of his death That the Butcher's Dog had killed the fairest Hart of England Howsoever it came to pass the King who had hitherto ruled without bloodshed induced by the former reasons so the Records run permitted his hands to be stained with the blood of this poor Prince many lamenting that the indiscreet credulity of one man having not attempted ought against the Estate should be the overthrow of so noble a Family If I might lawfully pry so far into God's judgments which are indeed inscrutable I would be bold to impute the punishment of the Son to the Father's treachery who conspired with the Usurper against his lawful Prince Edward the Fifth who by his assistance was deprived of his Life and Kingdom But forasmuch as that being touched in conscience he manifestly repented this fact for seeking to oppress the Tyrant whom he himself had raised he perished miserably the Divine Justice I think so far regarded his repentance that his posterity are nevertheless Peers of the Realm by the title of Lord Stafford The first point of Wisdom is not to run into Errour the next quickly to amend it The King having written a Book against Martin Luther sent it as a Present to Pope Leo the Tenth This Leo not yet thirty eight years old was by the combination of the Junior Cardinals elected Pope In which dignity he behaved himself according to his years profusely spending the Treasures of the Church in hawking and hunting and other pleasures not deemed over-honest Need began at length to pinch him and money must be had Whereupon he resolves to make use of his Keys against the most subtil locks and strongest bars ever yet held prevalent Indulgences of all sorts without distinction of time or place must now publickly be set to sale St. Peter's Church this was the pretence was out of repair towards which a certain summ of money given would purchase Pardon of Sins not only for the Living but for the Dead also whose Souls should thereby be redeemed from the pains of Purgatory But whatsoever was pretended every one palpably saw that these Pardons were granted to get money for his own relief And forasmuch as the Commissioners demanded it after an impudent and shameless manner they in most places incurred the dislike and indignation of the people especially in Germany where they saw this faculty of redeeming Sould from Purgatory was either sold for little or nothing or played away in their Taverns But what speak I of the Commissioners That which made the Germans most impatient was that the heedless Pope had given to his Sister Magdalen the profit of the exactions of Indulgences in many parts of Germany and that so openly that every one must needs know it For all Germany spake it 〈◊〉 this money was not gathered for the Pope or the Treasury of the Church whereby peradventure some part of it might be employed to good uses but was exacted to satisfie the greediness of a Woman At that time lived Martin Luther a Doctor of Divinity and an Augustine Monk one who under a religious Habit did not consecrate himself to idleness but to God It is reported how truly I know not that recreating himself in the fields his companion with whom he then discoursed was suddenly stricken dead with Thunder He thereupon falling into due consideration of the uncertainty of death and of judgement left the study of the Civil Law to which he then applied himself and renouncing the world betook himself to a Cloister where for his deportment he was beyond exception for Learning especially divine he was scarce matchable Upon this horrible abuse of the authority of the Keys being inflamed with a pious zeal he could not contain himself but boldly and bitterly inveighed against this gross impiety Neither stayd he there but storm the Pope never so much proceeds to other enormities in the Church of Rome some whereof that Church hath since reformed the rest religious Princes by Luther awakened out of their dead sleep of Superstition notwithstanding the practices of Rome have God be thanked exploded New opinions especially in matters of Religion are of themselves always odious Henry being offended with Luther's new as the world then deemed them Tenets thought it would prove to his honour by writing against Luther to manifest his Learning and Piety to the world Hereupon under his name a Book was set forth better beseeming some antient and deep Divine than a youthful Prince whom although he earnestly endeavoured it yet his affairs would not permit to bury himself among his Books which many thought to have been compiled by Sir Thomas Moor some by the Bishop of Rochester and others not without cause suspected to be the work of some other great Scholar Whosoever wrote it Luther replied in such sort that although his holy zeal were approved by many yet those many could have wished him more temperate and respective of the Majesty of Kings This Book was so acceptable to the Pope that according to the example of Alexander
THE HISTORY OF THE REIGNS OF HENRY the SEVENTH HENRY the EIGHTH EDWARD the SIXTH AND QUEEN MARY The First Written by the Right Honourable FRANCIS Lord VERULAM Viscount St. ALBAN The other Three by the Right Honourable AND Right Reverend Father in God FRANCIS GODWYN Lord Bishop of HEREFORD LONDON Printed by W. G. for R. Scot T. Basset J. Wright R. Chiswell and J. Edwyn M. D C. LXXVI To the most Illustrious and most Excellent PRINCE CHARLES Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall Earl of Chester c. It may Please Your Highness IN part of my acknowledgment to Your Highness I have endeavoured to do Honour to the Memory of the last King of England that was Ancestour to the King your Father and Your self and was that King to whom both Unions may in a sort refer That of the Roses being in him Consummate and that of the Kingdoms by him begun Besides his times deserve it For he was a Wise Man and an Excellent King and yet the times were rough and full of Mutations and rare Accidents And it is with Times as it is with Ways Some are more Vp-hill and Down-hill and some are more Flat and Plain and the One is better for the Liver and the Other for the Writer I have not flattered him but took him to life as well as I could sitting so far off and having no better light It is true Your Highness hath a Living Pattern Incomparable of the King Your Father But it is not amiss for You also to see one of these Ancient Pieces GOD preserve Your Highness Your Highness most humble and devoted Servant FRANCIS St. Alban AN INDEX ALPHABETICAL Directing to the most Observable Passages in the ensuing HISTORY A. AN Accident in it self trivial great in effect Pag. 108 Advice desired from the Parliament 33 35 56 Aemulation of the English to the French with the reasons of it 36 Affability of the King to the City of London 113 Affection of King Henry to the King of Spain 61 Affection of the King to his Children 136 Aid desired by the Duke of Britain 33 Aid sent to Britain 37 Aiders of Rebels punished 23 Alms-deeds of the King 131 Ambassadors to the Pope 24 into Scotland 25 Ambassadors from the French King 26 Ambassadors in danger in France 31 Ambassadors into France 54 Ambition exorbitant in Sir William Stanley 78 Answer of the Archduke to the King's Ambassadors 74 Appeach of Sir William Stanley 76 Arms of King Henry still victorious 133 Arrows of the 〈◊〉 the length of them 96 Articles between the King and the Archduke 91 Arthur Prince married to the Lady Katherine 116 Arthur Prince dies at Ludlow 117 Aton Castle in Scotland taken by the Earl of Surrey 98 Attainted persons in Parliament excepted against 8 Attaindor and corruption of Blood reacheth not to the Crown ibid. 15 Avarice of King Henry 134 Audley General of the Corhish Rebels 93 B. BAnishment of 〈◊〉 our of the Kingdom 74 Battel at Bosworth-field 1 at Stokefield 〈◊〉 at St. Albans in Britain 87 at Bannocksbourn in Scotland 〈◊〉 at Black-heath 〈◊〉 Behaviour of King Henry towards 〈◊〉 Children 117 Benevolence to the King for his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence who the first Author ibid Benevolence 〈◊〉 by Act of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Benevolence revived by Act of 〈◊〉 ibid A Benevolence 〈◊〉 to the King 23 Birth of Henry the 〈◊〉 35 Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the King 〈◊〉 Blood not unrevenged 112 122 Britain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 37 Three causes of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 ibid. Britain united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Marriage 〈◊〉 Brakenbury 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 murder King 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Broughton Sir 〈◊〉 joyned with the Rebels 11 A Bull procured from the Pope by the King for what causes 24 Bulloign besieged by King Henry 63 C. CArdinal Morton dieth 113 Capell Sir William fined 80 131 Cap of Maintenace from the Pope 101 Ceremony of Marriage new in these parts 48 Chancery power and description of that Court 38 Clifford Sir Robert flies to Perkin 70 revolts to the King 72 Clergy priviledges abridged 39 Christendom enlarged 61 Columbus Christopher and Bartholomeus invite the King to a discovery of the West Indies 107 Confiscation aimed at by the King 76 Conference between King Henry and the King of Castile by casualty landing at Weymouth 128 Conquest the Title unpleasing to the People declined by William the Conqu 3 and by the King 5 〈◊〉 for Perkin 70 Contraction of Prince Henry and the Lady Katherine 118 Conditional speech doth not qualifie words of Treason 77 Commissioners into Ireland 79 Commissioners about Trading 91 Coronation of King Henry 7 Coronation of the Queen 24 Counsel the benefit of good 25 Counsel of what sort the French King used 32 Counsel of mean men what and how different from that of Nobles ibid. Lord Cordes envy to England 48 Cottagers but housed Beggars 44 Counterfeits Lambert proclaimed in Ireland 15 Crowned at Dublin 19 taken at Battell 22 put into the King's Kitchin ibid. made the King's Faulconer ibid. Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin Wilford another counterfeit Earl of Warwick 111 Courage of the English when 37 Court what Pleas belong to every Court 38 Court of Star-chamber confirmed ibid. Creations 6 Crown confirmed to King Henry by Parliament 7 Cursing of the King's Enemies at Paul's Cross a custom of those times 72 122 D. DAm a Town in Flanders taken by a slight 59 Lord Daubeny 96 Devices at Prince Arthur's Marriage 117 Device of the King to divert Envy 64 Decay of Trade doth punish Merchants 90 Decay of People how it comes to pass 44 Declaration by Perkin to the Scottish King 85 Desires intemperate of Sir William Stanley 78 Dighton a murderer of King Edward's two Children 71 Dilemma a pleasant one of Bishop Morton 58 Diligence of the King to heap Treasures 120 Displacing of no Counsellors nor Servants in all King Henry's Reign save of one 138 Dissimulation of the French King 29 30 49 Dissimulation of King Henry in pretending War 56 A Doubt long kept open and diversly determined according to the diversity of the times 117 Dowry of Lady Katherine how much 116 Dowry of Lady Margaret into Scotland how much 119 Drapery maintained how 45 Dudley one of the King's Herse-leeches 119 Duke of York counterfeit See Perkin E. EArl of Suffolk flies into Flanders 121 returns 129 Earl of Northumberland slain by the People in collecting the Subsidy somewhat harshly 40 Earl of Warwick executed 111 Earl of Warwick counterfeit 13 110 Earl of Surrey enters Scotland 98 Edmund a third Son born to King Henry but died 109 Edward the Fifth murdered 85 Envy towards the King unquenchable the cause of it 111 Envy of the Lord Cordes to England 48 Enterview between the King and the King of Castile 128 Emblem 94 Empson one of the King's Horse-leeches 119 Errours of the French King in his business for the Kingdom of Naples 82 Errours of King Henry occasioning his many troubles 128 〈◊〉 service 92 Espials in
of Ten years had been brought up in a Court where infinite Eyes had been upon him For King Edward touched with remorse of his Brother the Duke of Clarence's Death would not indeed restore his Son of whom we speak to be Duke of Clarence but yet created him Earl of Warwick reviving his Honour on the Mothers side and used him honorably during his time though Richard the Third afterwards confined him So that it cannot be but that some great Person that knew particularly and familiarly Edward Plantagenet had a hand in the business from whom the Priest might take his aim That which is most probable out of the precedent and subsequent Acts is that it was the Queen Dowager from whom this Action had the principal source and motion For certain it is she was a busie negotiating Woman and in her withdrawing-Chamber had the fortunate Conspiracy for the King against King Richard the Third been hatched which the King knew and remembred perhaps but too well and was at this time extremely discontent with the King thinking her Daughter as the King handled the matter not advanced but depressed and none could hold the Book so well to prompt and instruct this Stage-play as she could Nevertheless it was not her meaning nor no more was it the meaning of any of the better and sager sort that favoured the Enterprize and knew the Secret that this disguised Idol should possess the Crown but at his peril to make way to the Overthrow of the King and that done they had their several Hopes and Ways That which doth chiefly fortifie this Conjecture is that as soon as the matter brake forth in any strength it was one of the King 's first Acts to cloister the Queen Dowager in the Nunnery of Bermonsey and to take away all her Lands and Estate and this by close Council without any Legal proceeding upon far-fetcht Pretences That she had delivered her two Daughters out of Sanctuary to King Richard contrary to promise Which Proceeding being even at that time taxed for rigorous and undue both in-matter and manner makes it very probable there was some greater matter against her which the King upon reason of Policy and to avoid Envy would not publish It is likewise no small Argument that there was some Secret in it and some suppressing of Examinations for that the Priest Simon himself after he was taken was never brought to Execution no not so much as to publick Tryal as many Clergy-men were upon less Treasons but was only shut up close in a Dungeon Add to this that after the Earl of Lincoln a principal Person of the House of York was slain in Stoke-field the King opened himself to some of his Council that he was sorry for the Earl's Death because by him he said he might have known the bottom of his Danger But to return to the Narration it self Simon did first instruct his Scholar for the part of Richard Duke of York second Son to King Edward the Fourth and this was at such time as it was voyced that the King purposed to put to Death Edward Plantagenet Prisoner in the Tower whereat there was great murmur But hearing soon after a general bruit that Plantagenet had escaped out of the Tower and thereby finding him so much beloved amongst the People and such rejoycing at his Escape the cunning Priest changed his Copy and chose now Plantagenet to be the Subject his Pupil should personate because he was more in the present speech and Votes of the People and it pieced better and followed more close and handsomly upon the bruit of Plantagenet's Escape But yet doubting that there would be too near looking and too much Perspective into his Disguise if he should shew it here in England he thought good after the manner of Scenes in Stage-Plays and Masques to shew it a-far-off and therefore sailed with his Scholar into Ireland where the Affection to the House of York was most in height The King had been a little Improvident in matters of Ireland and had not removed Officers and Chancellors and put in their places or at least intermingled persons of whom he stood assured as he should have done since he knew the strong Bent of that Countrey towards the House of York and that it was a ticklish and unsetled State more easie to receive distempers and mutations than England was But trusting to the reputation of his Victories and Successes in England he thought he should have time enough to extend his Cares afterwards to that second Kingdom Wherefore through this neglect upon the coming of Simon with his pretended Plantagenet into Ireland all things were prepared for Revolt and Sedition almost as if they had been set and plotted before-hand Simon' s first Address was to the Lord Thomas Fitz-Gerard Earl of Kildare and Deputy of Ireland before whose Eyes he did cast such a Mist by his own insinuation and by the carriage of his Youth that expressed a natural Princely Behaviour as joyned perhaps with some inward Vapours of Ambition and Affection in the Earl's own mind left him fully possessed that it was the true Plantagenet The Earl presently communicated the matter with some of the Nobles and others there at the first secretly But finding them of like Affection to himself he suffered it of purpose to vent and pass abroad because they thought it not safe to resolve till they had a tast of the Peoples Inclination But if the Great ones were in forwardness the People were in fury entertaining this Airy Body or Phantasm with incredible affection partly out of their great devotion to the House of York partly out of a proud humour in the Nation to give a King to the Realm of England Neither did the Party in this heat of affection much trouble themselves with the Attaindor of George Duke of Clarence having newly learned by the King's example that Attaindors do not interrupt the conveying of Title to the Crown And as for the Daughters of King Edward the Fourth they thought King Richard had said enough for them and took them to be but as of the King's Party because they were in his power and at his disposing So that with marvellous consent and applause this Counterfeit Plantagenet was brought with great Solemnity to the Castle of Dublin and there saluted served and honoured as King the Boy becoming it well and doing nothing that did bewray the baseness of his condition And within few days after he was proclaimed King in Dublin by the Name of King Edward the Sixth there being not a Sword drawn in King Henry his Quarrel The King was much moved with this unexpected Accident when it came to his Ears both because it strook upon that String which ever he most 〈◊〉 as also because it was stirred in such a Place where he could not with safety transfer his own Person to suppress it For partly through natural Valour and partly through an universal Suspition not knowing whom to trust
Lancashire whither there repaired to them Sir Thomas Broughton with some small company of English The King by that time knowing now the Storm would not divide but fall in one place had levied Forces in good number and in person taking with him his two designed Generals the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Oxford was come on his way towards them as far as Coventry whence he sent forth a Troop of Light-horsmen for discovery and to intercept some straglers of the Enemies by whom he might the better understand the particulars of their Progress and purposes which was accordingly done though the King otherwise was not without Intelligence from Espials in the Camp The Rebels took their way towards York without spoiling the Countrey or any act of Hostility the better to put themselves into favour of the People and to personate their King who no doubt out of a Princely feeling was sparing and compassionate towards his Subjects But their Snow-ball did not gather as it went For the People came not in to them Neither did any rise or declare themselves in other parts of the Kingdom for them which was caused partly by the good tast that the King had given his People of his Government joyned with the reputation of his Felicity and partly for that it was an odious thing to the People of England to have a King brought in to them upon the shoulders of Irish and Dutch of which their Army was in substance compounded Neither was it a thing done with any great Judgement on the Party of the Rebels for them to take their way towards York Considering that howsoever those parts had formerly been a Nursery of their Friends yet it was there where the Lord Lovel had so lately disbanded and where the King's presence had a little before qualified discontents The Earl of Lincoln deceived of his hopes of the Countries concourse unto him in which case he would have temporized and seeing the business past Retract resolved to make on where the King was and to give him Battel and thereupon marched towards Newark thinking to have surprised the Town But the King was somewhat before this time come to Nottingham where he called a Council of War at which was consulted whether it were best to protract time or speedily to set upon the Rebels In which Council the King himself whose continual vigilancy did suck in sometimes causeless Suspitions which few else knew inclined to the accelerating a Battel But this was presently put out of doubt by the great Aids that came in to him in the instant of this Consultation partly upon Missives and partly Voluntaries from many parts of the Kingdom The principal persons that came then to the King's aid were the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Strange of the Nobility and of Knights and Gentlemen to the number of at least Threescore and ten persons with their Companies making in the whole at the least Six Thousand fighting men besides the Forces that were with the King before Whereupon the King finding his Army so bravely re-enforced and a great alacrity in all his men to fight was confirmed in his former Resolution and marched speedily so as he put himself between the Enemies Camp and Newark being loth their Army should get the commodity of that Town The Earl nothing dismayed came forwards that day unto a little Village called Stoke and there camped that night upon the brow or hanging of a Hill The King the next day presented him Battel upon the Plain the fields there being open and champion The Earl couragiously came down and joyned Battel with him Concerning which Battel the Relations that are left unto us are so naked and negligent though it be an Action of so recent memory as they rather declared the Success of the day than the Manner of the Fight They say that the King divided his Army into three Battels whereof the Vaunt-guard only well strengthned with Wings came to fight That the Fight was fierce and obstinate and lasted three hours before the Victory inclined either way save that Judgement might be made by that the King's Vaunt-guard of it self maintained fight against the whole Power of the Enemies the other two Battels remaining out of action what the success was like to be in the end That Martin Swart with his Germans performed bravely and so did those few English that were on that side neither did the Irish fail in courage or fierceness but being almost naked men only armed with Darts and Skeins it was rather an Execution than a Fight upon them insomuch as the furious slaughter of them was a great discouragement and appalement to the rest That there dyed upon the place all the Chieftains that is the Earl of Lincoln the Earl of Kildare Francis Lord Lovel Martin Swart and Sir Thomas Broughton all making good the fight without any ground given Only of the Lord Lovel there went a report that he fled and swam over Trent on horseback but could not recover the further side by reason of the steepness of the Bank and so was drowned in the River But another report leaves him not there but that he lived long after in a Cave or Vault The number that was slain in the field was of the Enemies part Four thousand at the least and of the King's part one half of his Vaunt-guard besides many hurt but none of name There were taken Prisoners amongst others the Counterfeit Plantagenet now Lambert Simnel again and the crafty Priest his Tutor For Lambert the King would not take his Life both out of Magnanimity taking him but as an Image of Wax that others had tempered and molded and likewise out of Wisdom thinking that if he suffered death he would be forgotten too soon but being kept alive he would be a continual Spectacle and a kind of remedy against the like Inchantments of People in time to come For which cause he was taken into service in his Court to a base office in his Kitchin so that in a kind of Mattacina of humane fortune he turned a Broach that had worn a Crown Whereas Fortune commonly doth not bring in a Comedy or Farce after a Tragedy And afterwards he was preferred to be one of the King's Falconers As to the Priest he was committed Close-prisoner and heard of no more the King loving to seal up his own dangers After the Battel the King went to Lincoln where he caused Supplications and Thanksgivings to be made for his Deliverance and Victory And that his Devotions might go round in Circle he sent his Banner to be Offered to our Lady of Walsingham where before he made his Vows And thus delivered of this so strange an Engin and new Invention of Fortune he returned to his former confidence of mind thinking now that all his misfortunes had come at once But it fell out unto him according to the Speech of the common People in the beginning of his Reign that said It was a token he
should reign in Labour because his Reign began with a sickness of Sweat But howsoever the King thought himself now in a Haven yet such was his Wisdom as his Confidence did seldom darken his Fore-sight especially in things near hand And therefore awakened by so fresh and unexpected dangers he entred into due consideration as well how to weed out the Partakers of the former Rebellion as to kill the Seeds of the like in time to come and withal to take away all shelters and harbours for discontented Persons where they might hatch and foster Rebellions which afterwards might gather strength and motion And first he did yet again make a Progress from Lincoln to the Northern parts though it were indeed rather an Itinerary Circuit of Justice than a Progress For all along as he went with much severity and strict inquisition partly by Martial Law and partly by Commission were punished the Adherents and Ayders of the late Rebels not all by Death for the Field had drawn much blood but by Fines and Ransoms which spared Life and raised Treasure Amongst other Crimes of this nature there was diligent inquiry made of such as had raised and dispersed a bruit and rumour a little before the Field fought That the Rebels had the day and that the King's Army was overthrown and the King fled Whereby it was supposed that many Succours which otherwise would have come unto the King were cunningly put off and kept back Which Charge and Accusation though it had some ground yet it was industriously embraced and put on by divers who having been in themselves not the best affected to the King's part nor forward to come to his ayd were glad to apprehend this colour to cover their neglect and coldness under the pretence of such discouragements Which cunning nevertheless the King would not understand though he lodged it and noted it in some particulars as his manner was But for the extirpating of the roots and causes of the like Commotions in time to come the King began to find where his shooe did wring him and that it was his depressing of the House of York that did rancle and fester the Affections of his People And therefore being now too wise to disdain perils any longer and willing to give some contentment in that kind at least in Ceremony he resolved at last to proceed to the Coronation of his Queen And therefore at his coming to London where he entred in State and in a kind of Triumph and celebrated his Victory with two days of Devotion for the first day he repaired to St. Pauls and had the Hymn of Te Deum sung and the morrow after he went in Procession and heard the Sermon at the Cross the Queen was with great solemnity Crowned at Westminster the five and twentyeth of November in the third year of his Reign which was about two years after the Marriage Like an old Christning that had staid long for Godfathers Which strange and unusual distance of time made it subject to every man's note that it was an Act against his stomach and put upon him by necessity and reason of State Soon after to shew that it was now fair weather again and that the Imprisonment of Thomas Marquess Dorset was rather upon suspition of the Time than of the Man he the said Marquess was set at liberty without Examination or other circumstance At that time also the King sent an Ambassador unto Pope Innocent signifying unto him this his Marriage and that now like another Aeneas he had passed through the floods of his former Troubles and Travels and was arrived unto a safe Haven and thanking His Holiness that he had honoured the Celebration of his Marriage with the presence of his Ambassador and offering both his Person and the Forces of his Kingdom upon all occasions to do him service The Ambassador making his Oration to the Pope in the presence of the Cardinals did so magnifie the King and Queen as was enough to glut the Hearers But then he did again so extol and deifie the Pope as made all that he had said in praise of his Master and Mistress seem temperate and passable But he was very honorably entertained and extremely much made on by the Pope who knowing himself to be lazy and unprofitable to the Christian World was wonderfully glad to hear that there were such Eccho's of him sounding in remote parts He obtained also of the Pope a very just and honorable Bull qualifying the Priviledges of Sanctuary wherewith the King had been extremely galled in three Points The first that if any Sanctuary-man did by night or otherwise get out of Sanctuary privily and commit mischief and trespass and then come in again he should lose the benefit of Sanctuary for ever after The second that howsoever the Person of the Sanctuary-man was protected from his Creditors yet his Goods out of Sanctuary should not The third that if any took Sanctuary for case of Treason the King might appoint him Keepers to look to him in Sanctuary The King also for the better securing of his Estate against mutinous and male-contented Subjects whereof he saw the Realm was full who might have their refuge into Scotland which was not under Key as the Ports were For that cause rather than for any doubt of Hostility from those parts before his coming to London when he was at Newcastle had sent a solemn Ambassage unto James the Third King of Scotland to treat and conclude a Peace with him The Ambassadors were Richard Fox Bishop of Exceter and Sir Richard Edgcomb Comptroller of the King's House who were honourably received and entertained there But the King of Scotland labouring of the same disease that King Henry did though more mortal as afterwards appeared that is Discontented Subjects apt to rise and raise Tumult although in his own affection he did much desire to make a Peace with the King Yet finding his Nobles averse and not daring to displease them concluded only a Truce for seven years giving nevertheless promise in private that it should be renewed from time to time during the two Kings lives HItherto the King had been exercised in setling his Affairs at home But about this time brake forth an occasion that drew him to look abroad and to hearken to forein business Charles the Eighth the French King by the virtue and good fortune of his two immediate Predecessors Charles the Seventh his Grand-father and Lewis the Eleventh his Father received the Kingdom of France in more flourishing and spread Estate than it had been of many years before being redintegrate in those principal Members which antiently had been portions of the Crown of France and were after dissevered so as they remained only in Homage and not in Sovereignty being governed by absolute Princes of their own Anjou Normandy 〈◊〉 and Burgundy there remained only Britain to be re-united and so the Monarchy of France to be reduced to the antient Terms and Bounds King Charles was
but contrariwise professing and giving out strongly that he meant to proceed with that Match And that for the Duchess of Britain he desired only to preserve his right of Seigniory and to give her in Marriage to some such Allie as might depend upon him When the three Commissioners came to the Court of England they delivered their Ambassage unto the King who remitted them to his Council where some days after they had Audience and made their Proposition by the Prior of the Trinity who though he were third in place yet was held the best Speaker of them to this effect MY Lords the King our Master the greatest and mightiest King that reigned in France since Charles the Great whose Name he beareth hath nevertheless thought it no disparagement to his Greatness at this time to propound a Peace yea and to pray a Peace with the King of England For which purpose he hath sent us his Commissioners instructed and enabled with full and ample power to treat and conclude giving us further in charge to open in some other business the secrets of his own intentions These be indeed the pretious Love-tokens between great Kings to communicate one with another the true state of their Affairs and to pass by nice Points of Honour which ought not to give Law unto Affection This I do assure your Lordships It is not possible for you to imagine the true and cordial Love that the King our Master beareth to your Sovereign except you were near him as we are He useth his Name with so great respect he remembreth their first acquaintance at Paris with so great contentment nay he never speaks of him but that presently he falls into discourse of the miseries of great Kings in that they cannot converse with their Equals but with Servants This affection to your King's Person and Virtues GOD hath put into the Heart of our Master no doubt for the good of Christendom and for purposes yet unknown to us all For other Root it cannot have since it was the same to the earl of Richmond that it is now to the King of England This is therefore the first motive that makes our King to desire Peace and League with your Sovereign Good affection and somewhat that he finds in his own Heart This affection is also armed with reason of Estate For our King doth in all candour and frankness of dealing open himself unto you that having an honourable yea and a Holy purpose to make a Voyage and War in remote parts he considereth that it will be of no small effect in point of Reputation to his Enterprize if it be known abroad that he ulin in good peace with all his Neighbour Princes and specially with the King of England whom for good causes he esteemeth most But now my Lords give me leave to use a few words to remove all scruples and miss-understandings between your Sovereign and ours concerning some late Actions which if they be not cleared may perhaps hinder this Peace To the end that for matters past neither King may conceive unkindness of other nor think the other conceiveth unkindness of him The late Actions are two that of Britain and that of Flanders In both which it is true that the Subjects swords of both Kings have encountred and stricken and the ways and inclinations also of the two Kings in respect of their Confederates and Allies have severed For that of Britain The King your Sovereign knoweth best what hath passed It was a War of necessity on our Masters part And though the Motives of it were sharp and piquant as could be yet did be make that War rather with an Olive-branch than a Laurel-branch in his hand more desiring Peace than Victory Besides from time to time he sent as it were Blank-papers to your King to write the conditions of Peace For though both his Honour and Safety went upon it yet he thought neither of them too precious to put into the King of England's hands Neither doth our King on the other side make any unfriendly interpretation of your King 's sending of Succours to the Duke of Britain for the King knoweth well that many things must be done of Kings for satisfaction of their People and it is not hard to discern what is a King 's own But this matter of Britain is now by the Act of GOD ended and passed and as the King hopesh like the way of a Ship in the Sea without leaving any impression in either of the Kings minds as he is sure for his part it hath not done in his For the Action of Flanders As the former of Britain was a War of Necessity so this was a War of Justice which with a good King is of equal necessity with danger of Estate for else he should leave to be a King The Subjects of Burgundy are Subjects in Chief to the Crown of France and their Duke the Homager and Vassal of France They had wont to be good Subjects howsoever Maximilian hath of late distempered them They fled to the King for Justice and deliverance from Oppression Justice he could not deny Purchase he did not seek This was good for Maximilian if he could have seen it in people mutined to arrest Fury and prevent Despair My Lords it may be this I have said is needless save that the King our Master is tender in any thing that may but glance upon the Friendship of England The amity between the two Kings no doubt stands entire and inviolate And that their Subjects swords have clashed it is nothing unto the publick Peace of the Crowns it being a thing very usual in Auxiliary Forces of the best and straitest Confederates to meet and draw blood in the Field Nay many times there be Ayds of the same Nation on both sides and yet it is not for all that A Kingdom divided in it self It resteth my Lords that I impart unto you a matter that I know your Lordships all will much rejoyce to hear as that which importeth the Christian Common-weal more than any Action that hath hapned of long time The King our Master hath a purpose and determination to make War upon the Kingdom of Naples being now in the possession of a Bastardship of Arragon but appertaining unto his Majesty by clear and undoubted right which if he should not by just Arms seek to recover he could neither acquit his Honour nor answer it to his People But his Noble and Christian thoughts rest not here For his Resolution and Hope is to make the Re-conquest of Naples but as a Bridge to transport his Forces into Grecia and not to spare Blood or Treasure if it were to the impawning of his Crown and dis-peopling of France till either he hath overthrown the Empire of the Ottomans or taken it in his way to Paradise The King knoweth well that this is a design that could not arise in the mind of any King that did not stedfastly look up unto GOD whose quarrel this
not Twelve Men but Four and twenty But it seemeth that was not the only reason for this reason holdeth not in the Appeal But the great reason was lest it should tend to the discouragement of Jurors in Cases of Life and Death if they should be subject to Suit and Penalty where the favour of Life maketh against them It extendeth not also to any Suit where the Demand is under the value of forty Pounds for that in such Cases of petty value it would not quit the Charge to go about again There was another Law made against a branch of Ingratitude in Women who having been advanced by their Husbands or their Husbands Ancestors should alien and thereby seek to defeat the Heirs or those in Remainder of the Lands whereunto they had been so advanced The remedy was by giving power to the next to enter for a forfeiture There was also enacted that Charitable Law for the admission of poor Suitors In Forma Pauperis without Fee to Counsellor Attorney or Clerk whereby poor men became rather able to vex than unable to sue There were divers other good Laws made that Parliament as we said before but we still observe our manner in selecting out those that are not of a Vulgar nature The King this while though he sate in Parliament as in full Place and seemed to account of the designs of Perkin who was now returned into Flanders but as a May-game yet having the composition of a wise-King Stout without and Apprehensive within had given order for the watching of Beacons upon the Coasts and erecting more where they stood too thin and had a careful eye where this wandering Cloud would break But Perkin advised to keep his fire which hitherto burned as it were upon green wood alive with continual blowing Sailed again into Ireland whence he had formerly departed rather upon the hopes France than upon any unreadiness or discouragement he found in that People But in the space of time between the King's Diligence and Poynings Commission had so setled things there as there was nothing left for Perkin but the blustring affection of wild and naked people Wherefore he was advised by his Council to seek ayd of the King of Scotland a Prince young and valorous and in good terms with his Nobles and People and ill affected to King Henry At this time also both Maximilian and Charles of France began to bear no good will to the King The one being displeased with the King's Prohibition of Commerce with Flanders the other holding the King for suspect in regard of his late entry into League with the Italians Wherefore besides the open Ayds of the Duchess of Burgandy which did with Sails and Oars put on and advance Perkin's designs there wanted not some secret Tides from Maximilian and Charles which did further his fortunes In so much as they both by their secret Letters and Messages recommended him to the King of Scotland Perkin therefore coming into Scotland upon those hopes with a well appointed company was by the King of Scots being formerly well prepared honourably welcomed and soon after his arrival admitted to his Presence in a solemn manner For the King received him in State in his Chamber of Presence accompanied with divers of his Nobles And Perkin well attended as well with those that the King had sent before him as with his own Train entred the room where the King was and coming near to the King and bowing a little to embrace him he retired some paces back and with a loud voice that all that were present might hear him made his Declaration in this manner HIgh and Mighty King your Grace and these your Nobles here present may be pleased benignly to bow your Ears to hear the Tragedy of a young Man that by right ought to hold in his hand the Ball of a Kingdom but by Fortune is made Himself a Ball tossed from Misery to Misery and from Place to Place You see here before you the Spectacle of a Plantagenet who hath been carried from the Nursery to the Sanctuary from the Sanctuary to the direful Prison from the Prison to the hand of the cruel Tormentor and from that hand to the wide-Wilderness as I may truly call it for so the World hath been to me So that he that is born to a great Kingdom hath not ground to set his foot upon more than this where he now standeth by your Princely Favour Edward the Fourth late King of England as your Grace cannot but have heard left two Sons Edward and Richard Duke of York both very young Edward the eldest succeeded their Father in the Crown by the name of King Edward the Fifth But Richard Duke of Gloceffer their unnatural Uncle first thirsting after the Kingdom through Ambition and afterwards thirsting for their Blood out of desire to secure himself employed an Instrument of his confident to him as he thought to murther them both But this Man that was employed to execate that execrable Tragedy having cruelly slain King Edward the eldest of the two was moved partly by Remorse and partly by some other mean to save Richard his Brother making a Report nevertheless to the Tyrant that he had performed his Commandment for both Brethren This Report was accordingly believed and published generally So that the World hath been possessed of an Opinion that they both were barbarously made away though ever Truth hath some sparks that flie abroad until it appear in due time as this hath had But Almighty God that stopped the mouth of the Lion and saved little Joas from the Tyranny of Athaliah when she massacred the King's Children and did save Isaac when the hand was stretched forth to sacrifice him preserved the second Brother For I my self that stand here in your presence am that very Richard Duke of York Brother of that infortunate Prince King Edward the Fifth now the most rightful surviving Heir-male to that Victorious and most Noble Edward of that name the Fourth late King of England For the manner of my Escape it is fit it should pass in silence or at least in a more secret Relation for that it may concern some alive and the memory of some that are dead Let it suffice to think that I had then a Mother living a Queen and one that expected daily such a Commandment from the Tyrant for the murthering of her Children Thus in my tender age escaping by God's mercy out of London I was secretly conveyed over Sea Where after a time the Party that had me in Charge upon what new Fears change of Mind or Practice God knoweth suddenly forsook me Whereby I was forced to wander abroad to seek mean Conditions for the sustaining of my Life Wherefore distracted between several Passions the one of fear to be known lest the Tyrant should have a new Attempt upon me the other of Grief and Disdain to be unknown and to live in that base and servile manner that I did I resolved with
thus To many who perhaps will not at first consider that this work is but a Translation or seek advantages to expend their Censures his may seem impertinent But let them know that these Annals were first written In gratiam Exterorum Res nostras noscendi cupidorum So much witnesseth the first Latin Edition Peruse it and find it I am but an Interpreter of whom I hope thou wilt not expect a dictionaryTranslation Neither quarrel the omission of some things the knowledge whereof is to our Natives so innate that now to insert them were as bad as to farce with tautologies and make this little Volume nauseous Yet hath it lost nothing of its bulk whatsoever it hath of its splendour those defalcations being here and there in the course of the History supplied with not unnecessary additions whereto the Author's approbation and consent was not wanting As for errours of the Press blame the Printer not me If thou by this reap either profit or pleasure thank the Author whose benefit it is that thou hast it and that not tongue-tied but more than single-languaged Good is of it self diffusive and be participates so much of it that be cannot endeavour an envious confinement of it Farewel The Author's Epistle Dedicatory To my most Gracious Sovereign CHARLES King of Great Britain France and Ireland The most invict Defender of the Faith Most Royal Sir THese Commentaries containing the Acts of three Princes began about some ten years since under the Protection of Your most August Father to breathe the common air and but for so Gracious an Aspect had suffered even at the instant of their Birth For the errours of the Press had made them such as might have deterred even extreme Impudence from so presumptive a Dedication Yet such as they were they found Acceptance and Favour at His Royal Hands Hence am I encouraged to consecrate this second but corrected Edition to Your Majesty Who inherit as well Your Father's Virtues as his Kingdoms Neither indeed can it befit any other after KING JAMES of ever Sacred Memory Most humbly therefore beseecheth Your Majesty to daign it the like Gracious Acceptance who with the same Loyalty and Observance dedicateth and consecrateth to Your Majesty himself and his Your Majesties most humble Chaplain FR. HEREFD. The AUTHOR'S Preface to the READER AMong the many who have in Latin compiled the History of our Nation Polydor Virgil in the opinion of most excelleth not that he hath written either more truly or copiously than many others but more politely and latest of any that have taken pains in this kind For indeed it could not be that a Foreiner an Italian well gone in years even at his first arrival in England where being made Archdeacon of Wells he long survived not should not often erre in the delivery of our Affairs and in regard of his mere ignorance in the English tongue in silence bury many worthy passages recorded by our English Writers only It being therefore to be wished and is much desired that some one versed in our Antiquities would as Learned Master Camden hath already done for the description of the Island consecrate part of his learned labours to the Eternity of Britain not in reforming than obsolete Virgilian History but in composing a new one Our Antiquaries may justly be taxed of Sloth I had almost said slothfulness who had rather suffer the famous Acts of their Ancestors to dye eternally in silence and so as much as in them lieth defraud their Countrey of its true and deserved Glory than bestow any the least pains in commenting that so the examples of most eminent Virtues whereof the harvest here hath ever been most plentiful might not want the Record of their due Monuments This I hope some or other will in good time perform In the mean time others drawing back although I was never endued with such eloquence as that I should dare adventure the writing of an History but now especially vires ultra sortemque senectae when having passed the age of fifty long desuetude may have dulled my faculty of penning yet have I thought it might prove pains-worthy to undertake briefly in three small Commentaries to set forth the deeds of three Princes immediate Successors to Henry the Seventh so far forth as I have had notice of them And that partly that by touching at the fountain as they say I might stir up the wits of others partly that the desires of Foreiners might in some sort be satisfied who not without cause complain that these times than which for a thousand years we have had none more memorable in regard of their divers and remarkable changes are not described by any otherwise than slightly and as if they had not intended any such thing As for Polydor Virgil he hath written either nothing or very little concerning them and that little so false and misbeseeming the ingenuity of an Historian that he seemeth to have aimed at no other end than by bitter invectives against Henry the Eighth and Cardinal Wolsey to demerit the favour of Queen Mary already more than befitted incensed against both for the Divorce of her Mother I have therefore written friendly Reader and so written that although many things I will not deny conducing to an Historian may be wanting in me yet am I confident that this my endeavour will find acceptance with many Other Writers may here have as it were a store-house from whence they may if I be not deceived furnish themselves with some matter which may help to raise an everlasting Monument Foreiners also ignorant of the English tougue may have a tast of these times until some one arise who can and will compile a History of our Nation worthy the majesty of the British name I have in this work been so observant of Impartiality Simplicity and Truth that I fear nothing so much as a Domestick anger for not being pious enough because I would not be over-pious Many contend that a good Prince should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I think no man will affirm of an Historian though some seem to opine it So that he shall come short of his duty either to God or his Countrey who in the delivery of an History will not be at the least 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and who by affirming incertainties and known truths shall not yield much to his affections so they be joyned with the love of Religion and Countrey But how much do they injure Truth who from lies and falshood beg helps to underprop her Avant We have no need of them And had we yet would it not much profit us to rely on such weak advantages one pious lye detected proving more hurtful than a thousand others although so artificially contrived that they avoid discovery can prove profitable For example whereof seek no farther than the Papists whose feigned Miracles Impostures and Legends patched up of lyes have brought to pass that even in those things which are true they
scarce gain belief Wherefore I am well content that Truth which maugre her enemies will at length be every where victorions shall prevail with me I have done to my power Politely eloquently politickly I could not write Truly and fide Atticâ as they say I could If I have done amiss in ought it is not out of malice but errour which the gentle Reader will I hope pardon This I earnestly intreat withal beseeching the All-good and All-mighty God that this my labour directed to no other end than to his glory and the good of his Church may attain its due and by me desired success Farewel ANNALS OF ENGLAND From the Year 1508 to the Year 1558. BOOK I. King HENRY the Eighth ANNO DOM. 1509. REG. 1. AFter the death of Henry the Seventh his only Son Henry Prince of Wales undertook the Government of this Kingdom He had then attained to the Age of Eighteen years and was richly adorned with Endowments both of Body and Mind For of Stature he was tall of a beautiful Aspect and of Form through all his age truly beseeming a King He was witty docil and naturally propense to Letters until Pleasures to which the Liberty of Sovereignty easily prompteth did somewhat unseasonably withdraw him from his Studies to these you may add a Great Spirit aspiring to the glory both of Fortitude and Munificence This towardliness was so seconded by the happy care of his Tutors that if the end of his Reign had been answerable to the beginning Henry the Eighth might deservedly have been ranked amongst the greatest of our Kings For if you consider his first Twenty years you shall not easily find any one that either more happily managed Affairs abroad or Governed more wisely at home of that bare greater sway among his Neighbour Princes This I think ought chiefly to be ascribed to the providence of his wise Father and his Grand-mother then still alive For they took care that he should have wise and virtuous Over-seers in his youth by whose assistance having once passed the hazards thereof he happily avoided those Rocks whereon so many daily suffer wrack But these either dying or being so broken with age that they could be no longer employed in affairs of State and he himself being now come to those years that commonly cast aside Modesty Modeslty I say the Guardian of that great Virtue then making use of no Counsellor but his Will he fell into those Vices which notwithstanding the glory of his former Reign branded him deeply with the foul stains of Luxury and Cruelty But remitting those things to their proper places those Worthies appointed his Counsellors were William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellour of England Richard Fox Bishop of Winchester Thomas Ruthal Bishop of Durham Thomas Howard Earl of Surrey Lord Treasurer of England George Talbot Earl of Shrewsbury Lord Steward of the King's Houshold Charles Somerset Lord Chamberlain Knights Sir Thomas Lovel Sir Henry Wyat Sir Edward Poynings These men the Solemnity of the dead King's Funeral being duly and magnificently performed erected him a Tomb all of Brass accounted one of the stateliest Monuments of Europe which one would hardly conceive by the Bill of Accompts For it is reported that it cost but a Thousand Pounds The Monument is to be seen at Westminster the usual place of our Kings Interrments in that admirable Chappel dedicated to St. Stephen by this King heretofore built from the ground a testimony of his religious Piety I have read that this Chappel was raised to that height for the summ of Fourteen thousand Pounds and no more and that he at the same time built a Ship of an unusual burthen called from him The great Henry which by that time it was rigged cost little less than that stately Chappel But now O Henry what is become of that Ship of thine that other Work besides the reward of Heaven will perpetually proclaim thy pious Munificence Hence learn O Kings that the true Trophies of Glory are not to be placed in Armories and Arsenals but and those more durable in Pious Works Seek first seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof and without doubt all other things shall be added unto you But to go on in my proposed course although Henry the Eighth began his Reign the two and twentieth of April 1509 his Coronation was deferred to the four and twentieth of June In the mean time his Council thought it would prove a profitable policy for the King to marry Katherine the Widow of Prince Arthur his deceased Brother and Daughter to Ferdinando King of Castile for otherwise that huge mass of Money assigned for her Jointure must yearly be transported out of the Kingdom Neither was there at first any other doubt made of this Match than whether it were approved by the Ecclesiastical Constitutions for as much as the Scripture said some forbad any man to marry his Brother's Wife But this rub was easily removed by the omnipotence of the Pope's Bull in so much that presently upon the Dispensation of Pope Julius on the third of June under a malignant Constellation the Nuptials of these Princes were solemnized and they both Crowned the four and twentieth of June next following being St. John Baptist's day At these Solemnities there wanted neither pomp nor acclamations of the Estates of the Realm But to shew that of Solomon to be true The end of Mirth is Heaviness five days had not yet run their course since the Coronation when Margaret Countess of Richmond the King's Grand-mother made an exchange of this life with death She was a very godly and virtuous Lady and one who for her benefits to the Estate deserved with all honour to be commended to the perpetual memory of Posterity But her ever-living Works will so far set forth her praise that the pains of any Writer will prove altogether needless Yet notwithstanding omitting other things it will savour somewhat of Ingratitude if I should not recount what she hath conferred upon our Universities She founded two Colledges at Cambridge one dedicated to our Saviour CHRIST and the other to St. John the Evangelist and endowed them both with such large Revenues that at this time besides Officers and Servants there are about two hundred Students maintained in them She also left Lands to both Universities out of the Rents whereof two Doctors publick Professors of Divinity to this day do receive their Annual Stipends She lies interred near her Son in a fair Tomb of Touch-stone whereon lies her Image of gilded Brass ANNO DOM. 1510. REG. 2. H Enry the Seventh Father to this our Eighth some few years before his death had caused an inquisition to be made throughout the Kingdom of the breach of the Penal Statutes saying That Laws were to no purpose unless the fear of Punishment did force men to observe them But the Inquisition proceeding so rigorously that even the least faults were punished
the wisdom of Our Parents by whose endeavours and consent this Match was ratified I cannot but hope very well of my cause Your Father was for his admirable wisdom accounted a second Solomon neither can Spain throughout the whole Successions of the Kings of so many Kingdoms produce any one who may parallel my Father Ferdinand And what kind of Counsellors must we think these Princes had that all should as it were conspire to hurl Us into the miseries of an incestuous Marriage No question was then made concerning the lawfulness of this Match and yet those times afforded learned men yea and whereof to my harm I have had experimental knowledge in holiness of life and love of the Truth far surpassing the Flatterers of these times Which last words she therefore spake because she had heard that all the Bishops of the Realm had by a common Decree pronounced against the Marriage And indeed such a Decree subscribed and sealed by each of them was afterward in the presence of the King read publickly in the Court Fisher Bishop of Rochester excepting against it who denied that he had assented to it and objected forgery to the Archbishop of Canterbury for putting to it instead of Bishop Fisher's a false Seal and a counterfeit hand The Queen having spoken thus much arising after her due obeisance to the King when every one expected she would have returned to her seat made hast out of the Court Every one amazedly wonders what the Queen intends But before she had gone far the King commanded the Apparitor to call her back again The Apparitor obeying the Gentleman who supported her told her she was called to whom she replied I hear it very well but go you on I cannot hope for justice in this Court let them proceed against me in what manner they will I am resolved not to stay So away she went and would never after be perswaded to make her appearance either personally or by a Proctor After she was gone the King commended her in those terms that might befit a great affection and her excellent virtues Withal protesting how desirous he was to continue in that estate so that neither his Soul nor the Common-wealth might be endangered by it Here Wolsey interrupted him beseeching his Majesty that forasmuch as it was bruited that he had perswaded Him to this Divorce His Majesty would vouchsafe to signifie to the present Assembly how far this report was true The King although that he knew that in this fame lied not yet to secure his Favouritefrom the general hate of the people affirmed the Bishop of Bayeux having first made scruple of it to have first advised him to this course and that the Bishop of Lincoln his Confessor and other Bishops with whom he had conferred did the like These were the Acts of the first day This case was for a month or two held in controversie the King's Advocates alledging that It was not in the Pope's power to ratifie this Marriage which as prohibited by the Law of Nature the Scripture had pronounced unlawful That Catharine had been lawfully married to Prince Arthur the King 's elder Brother and that the Nuptials were publickly solemnized no man could deny and many circumstances did manifest the consummation of the Marriage by a carnal conjunction On the other side the Queens Advocates maintained The Law which forbad the Jews to marry their Brother's Wife to be Judicial and not Moral and therefore abrogated by Christ but so far forth as the Church had retained it it was by the authority of the same Church dispensable especially being they were confident that the forealledged consummation could no way be proved Thus each side pleaded and time passed on The King observes Cardinal Campegius to go more coldly to work than he was wont from whom he before this expected the promised decision But Fortune had since that turned her Wheel The Emperour's affairs prospered in Italy and Clement knew it was not the way to wipe out the remembrance of an old offence by committing a new He found some other pretence to send one Francis Campana into England but his chief errand was to will Campegius to burn the Bull whereby the King's Marriage had before been pronounced void and to return to Rome with speed But the news of the Pope's sickness at the same time made him defer the execution of his Mandate For if Clement should die the Cardinal might with safety gratifie the King who had conferred on him the Bishoprick of Sarisbury and to whom the Cardinal had promised success answerable to his desires And if he should permit the King to be thus illuded he feared he might be accounted not only ingrateful but also treacherous But he shortly understood the Pope was well whose Mandate he must obey and the Bull as if for Heresie must be condemned to the fire In the mean time the King who was deeply in love with Ann Bolen according to the nature of Lovers counting each minute by the hour quickly resented this change and never rested until he knew the whole carriage of the matter Then first fell his wrath like thunder on Wolsey whose Wit had hitherto made all his projects feasible And he could not believe but that it was in his power to effect this also Here I cannot chuse but cry out with the Comedian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jove and ye gods how hard a thing It is to serve a raging King Full twenty years had Wolsey served the King behaving himself so that he grew powerful and wealthy beyond a private fortune and to the rest of the King's Titles had procured the addition of that rich one of a good Prince For as often as I consider how laudably Henry had hitherto ruled and behold the calamities of ensuing times I cannot but accord with them who ascribe the sway which he did bear over all the Princes of Christendom to the excellency of Wolsey his Counsels But Wolsey being taken away to whom shall we impute those effects of Lust Tyranny and Avarice two Wives killed two put away so many and among them many of the greater sort put to death for their Religion only extremity only differing in the manner used by Hanging against Papists by Fire against Hereticks these were the terms of those days and the Church or rather the Common-wealth horribly spoiled and robbed of her Patrimony Certainly had Wolsey sate at the Stern the King had never like a Ship destitute of a Pilot been carried to and fro with such contrary and uncertain motions But inordinate greatness is always a burthen to it self the weight whereof is augmented by the usual attendance of publick envy and hatred the misbegotten Elves of long and powerful happiness Wolsey the King once offended began presently to totter and at his first frown as at the roaring of a Lion before any harder course was taken with him was so dejected that
our advantages We charge them furiously the Scots amazedly fly many are slain many taken more plunged in the neighbouring Fens and taken by Scottish Freebooters sold to us Among the Captives were the Earls of Glencarn and Cassels the Lords Saintclare Maxwell Admiral of Scotland Fleming Somerwell Oliphant and 〈◊〉 besides two hundred of the better sort and eight hundred common Souldiers The consideration of this overthrow occasioned as he 〈◊〉 by the froward rashness of his own Subjects and the death of an English Herald slain in Scotland so surcharged him with rage and grief that he fell sick of a Fever and died in the three and thirtieth year of his age and two and thirtieth of his reign leaving his Kingdom to the usually unhappy government of a Woman a Child scarce eight daysold The chief of the Captives being conveyed to the Tower were two days after brought before the King's Council where the Lord Chancellour reprehended their treachery who without due denuntiation of War invaded and spoiled the Territories of their Allies and committed many outrages which might excuse any severe courses which might in justice be taken with them Yet his Majesty out of his natural Clemenoy was pleased to deal with them beyond their deserts by freeing them from the irksomness of a strict imprisonment and disposing of them among the Nobles to be by them entertained until he should otherwise determine of them By this time King James his death had possessed Henry with new hopes of uniting Britain under one Head England had a Prince and Scotland a Queen but both so young that many accidents might dissolve a contract before they came to sufficiency Yet this seeming a course intended by the Divine Providence to extirpate all causes of enmity and discord between these neighbouring Nations a Marriage between these young Princes is proposed With what alacrity and applause the proposition was on both sides entertained we may conceive who have had the happiness to see that effected which they but intended Which being a matter of so sweet a consequence it is to be wondered at that the conspiracy of a few factious spirits should so easily hinder it The hope of it prevailed with the King for the liberty of the Captives conditionally that they should leave Hostages for their return if Peace were not shortly concluded which as also the furtherance of this so wished conjunction they faithfully promised ANNO DOM. 1543. REG. 35. AFter their short Captivity the Scottish Lords having been detained only twelve days at London on New-years-day began their journey towards Scotland and with them Archibald Douglas Earl of Angus whom his Son-in-Law King James had a little before his death intended to recall Fifteen years had he and his Brother George lived Exiles in England Henry out of his Royal Bounty allowing to the Earl a Pension of a thousand Marks and to his Brother of five hundred The sudden return of these captive Lords caused in most as sudden a joy Only the Cardinal of St. Andrews who had by forgery made himself Regent and his Faction could willingly have brooked their absence They came not as freed from a Captivity but as Ambassadors for Peace by them earnestly perswaded which by the happy conjunction of these Princes might be concluded to perpetuity But the Cardinal with his factious Clergy the Queen Dowager and as many as were affected to the Flower 〈◊〉 interposed themselves for the good of France Yet notwithstanding the Cardinal's fraud being detected he is not only deposed from his Regency and James Hamilton Earl of Arren substituted but also committed to custody whence afterwards making an escape he was the author of more garboils In the mean time the Marriage of the young Queen and other conditions proposed to the Estate of Scotland by Sir Ralph Sadler the King's Ambassador are fully assented unto and Hostages promised for the performance of them But the adverse Faction became so prevalent that the Hostages were not delivered at the day neither did the Captive Nobility render themselves in England Only Gilbert Kenneda Earl of Cassels like another Regulus had rather commit himself to the mercy of his enemies than prostitute his Honour to the foul taint of base infidelity His Brethren had become Pledges for his return the importunity nay violence of his friends could not deter him from redeeming them So to London he came where the bountiful King duly honouring him for his constancy instead of receiving a Ransom gave him one dismissing him and his Brothers fraught with honour and rewards The Scots falling off from their late Agreement the King commandeth stay to be made of all their Ships and confiscateth their goods sends Letters full of threats and just complaints to the Estates at Edenborough Blaming them for arrogantly rejecting his Alliance the want whereof must needs be prejudicial to them neither had they only rejected it but unmindful of former benefits had sown seeds of new War and forced him to Arms. But Letters proving ineffectual Scotland is by the frontier Garrisons invaded in three several places forty Scots making resistance are slain five and fifty Villages burned five hundred and sixty prisoners taken and a booty brought into England of three thousand five hundred head of cattel eight hundred Horses and seven thousand Sheep beside great provision of housholdstuff But this obstinacy of the Scots proceeded not only from themselves France and Scotland were ever combined against England so that to invade one was to draw on a War with both We had been often victorious in France whereof many portions aneiently belonged to Us if we should make any claim to all or part of our Inheritance Scotland would serve either to distract our Forces or to transfer the seat of War nearer home The uniting of England and Scotland would by securing us at home facilitate our Enterprizes upon France These were motives sufficient for Francis notwithstanding the long inviolate amity between him and Henry secretly to cross our designs in Scotland Whereof Henry could not long be sensible and not revenge Wherefore he proclaims open hostility with France as he had already with Scotland and reconciles himself with the Emperour before thought irreconciliable in regard of his Aunts disgrace who professed that all causes of difference between them were buried with her yet is it certain that unto the Pope he accused Henry to have dispatched her by poison But now they are become Confederates and an aid of ten thousand English sent to joyn with the Imperials Landrecy a Town lately taken from the Emperour by the French is the first exercise of our Arms. The Emperour also coming in Person it is invested with forty thousand men is furiously battered and the Souldiers brought to the distress of half a provant loaf of Bread a day and to drink Water Francis being certified of their wants assembles his Forces draws near the Emperour feeding him with hope
Bromley Sir Anthony Denny Sir Edward North. Sir Edward Wotton Doctor Wotton Dean of Canterbury and York To whom he added as Assistants especially in matters of great consequence Henry Earl of Arundel William Earl of Essex Sir Thomas Cheny Steward of the King's Houshold Sir John Gage Comptroller Sir Anthony Wingfield Vice-Chamberlain Sir William Peter Secretary Sir Richard Rich. Sir John Baker Sir Ralph Sadler Sir Thomas Seymour Sir Richard Southwell Sir Edmond Pecham He ordained his Body should be interred at Windsor in a Monument yet imperfect erected by Cardinal Wolsey not for himself as many falsly 〈◊〉 but for the King as by the Inscription is manifest which cannot be of later date For therein Henry is 〈◊〉 Lord of Ireland without any mention of Supreme Head of the Church which two particles it is manifest were changed in the Title after Wolsey his death In the same his last Will he commanded that the Monuments of Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fourth both interred in Windsor should be made more magnificent and stately and other things of less moment most of which were neglected This last Will and Testament he confirmed subscribed and sealed the last of December and survived a month after dying at Westminster the eight and twentieth of January and that in this manner The King having long languished the Physicians finding apparent symptoms of approaching death wished some of his friends to admonish him of his estate which at last Sir Anthony Denny undertook who going directly to the fainting King told in few but those plain words That the hope of humane help was vain wherefore he beseeched his Majesty to erect his thoughts to Heaven and bethinking him of his ' fore-passed life through Christ to implore God's Mercy An advice not very acceptable to him But finding it grounded upon the judgment of the Physicians he submitted himself to the hard law of necessity and reflecting upon the course of his Life which he much condemned he professed himself confident that through Christ his infinite Goodness all his sins although they had been more in number and weight might be pardoned Being then demanded whether he desired to confer with any Divines With no other saith he but the Archbishop Cranmer and not with him as yet I will first repose my self a little and as I then find my self will determin accordingly After the sleep of an hour or two finding himself fainting he commanded the Archbishop then at Croydon should be sent for in all hast Who using all possible speed came not until the King was speechless As soon as he came the King took him by the hand the Archbishop exhorting him to place all his hope in God's Mercies through Christ and beseeching him that if he could not in words he would by some sign or other testifie this his Hope Who then wringed the Archbishop's hand as hard as he could and shortly after expired having lived fifty five years and seven months and thereof reigned thirty seven years nine months and six days Thus ended Henry the Eighth his Life and Reign which for the first years of his Government was like Nero's Five years Admirable for often Victories and happy Success in War Glorious for the many Changes under it Memorable for the Foundation of the Churches Reformation Laudable to Queens most unhappy for the Death of so many for the most great Personages Bloody and for the frequent Exactions and Subsidies and Sacrilegious Spoil of the Church much Prejudicial to the Estate Grievous and Burthensom to the Subject FINIS ANNALS OF ENGLAND EDVVARD THE SIXTH The Second Book LONDON Printed for Thomas Basset John Wright and Richard Chiswel M. DC LXXV ANNALS OF ENGLAND BOOK II. EDWARD the Sixth ANNO DOM. 1547. REG. 1. ROyalty like a Pythagorean Soul transmigrates Although Henry were dead the King was still alive and survived in the person of young Edward who began his Reign the eight and twentieth of January then in the tenth year of his age and having been on the last of the same Month proclaimed King came the same day from Enfield where the Court had then been to the Tower there according to the ancient custom of our Kings to abide until his Inauguration at Westminster The next day the Council assembled for the managing of the Estate conferred on the King's Uncle Edward Seymour Earl of Hertford the honour and power of Protector of the King's Person and Kingdom Who to season his new Dignity with some memorable act on the sixth of February dubbed the King Knight the King presently imparting the same Honour to Richard Hoblethorn Lord Mayor of London On the fifteenth of February King Henry his Funerals were solemnized and his Body Royally interred in the middle of the Quire in the Church at Windsor Two days after were some of the Nobility dignified with greater Honours some new created The Lord Protector Earl of Hertford was made Duke of Somerset William Parr Earl of Essex Marquis of Northampton John Dudley Viscount Lisle Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chancellour Wriothsley Earl of Southampton Sir Thomas Seymour Brother to the Protector and Lord Admiral Sir Thomas Rich Sir William Willoughby and Sir Edmond Sheffeild were inrolled among the Barons Other two days being fled after their predecessors the King passed triumphantly from the Tower through London to Westminster where he was solemnly crowned anointed and inaugurated by Cranmcr Archbishop of Canterbury At what time also with incredible indulgence pardon of all crimes whatsoever was publickly proclaimed and granted to all persons throughout the Realm six only being exempted from the benefit thereof namely the Duke of Norfolk Cardinal Pool the lately beheaded Marquis of Exceter his eldest Son one Throcmorton Fortescue and Richard Pate late Bishop of Worcester who lest he should be constrained to acknowledge the King Head of the Church had some years passed fled to Rome On the nineteenth of June in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul in London were celebrated the Exequies of Francis King of France He deceased the two and twentieth of the precedent March having been after the death of our Henry much disposed to melancholy whether for that he failed in the hope of strengthening their late contracted amity with some stricter tie or that being some few years the younger he was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times This bred a mutual affection in them and as it were forcibly nourished the secret fire thereof between them unless peradventure when emulation or the respect of publick utility swayed them the contrary way so that the death of the one could not but much grieve the surviver He therefore in the Cathedral at Paris celebrated the Funerals of Henry though Excommunicated by the Pope He also left one only Son named Henry inheritor of his
In Autumn the Earl of Rutland with three thousand Lansquenets and some Bands drawn out of the frontier Garrisons arrives at Hadington Who duly considering that this Town could not be kept any longer without the excessive charges of a just Army forasmuch as the Countrey about being miserably forraged it could not be victualled without great difficulty and danger rased the Walls fired the Houses brought away the Artillery and finding no resistance returned in safety to Berwick Buchanan refers it to the ensuing year but I follow the record of our own Historians And having thus far spent the year abroad I at length return home where I find Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester in the Tower He was a man very learned and no less subtil adhering to the Popish Faction yet so as that he would be content to accommodate himself to the current of the times King Henry had employed him in many Embassages and that with ample authority under whom he durst not oppose the proceedings confirmed by enacted Laws And under Edward he repressed himself for a time seemingly consenting to the commenced Reformation But his dissimulation was at length manifestly discovered to the Privy Council who had commanded him in a Sermon at Pauls Cross to signifie his approbation of the present estate of the Church which he accordingly did on the nine and twentieth of June but so ambiguously and obscurely that he satisfied them not And being expresly forbidden to speak any thing concerning the Eucharist he knowing that by the Laws nothing was definitively determined in that point did so eargerly assert that Papistical I will not say Capernaitical Corporal and Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament that he wonderfully offended the minds of many but especially of the Lords of the Council Wherefore he was on the thirtieth of June committed and obstinately refusing to acknowledge his errour was two years after deprived of his Bishoprick and as he was of a turbulent spirit lest he should practise any thing against the Estate detained nevertheless in prison until the death of Edward In the mean time Archbishop Cranmer by writing oppugned that gross and carnal assertion of the Church of Rome concerning Christ's Presence in the Sacrament whom Gardiner secretly answered under the fictitious name of M. Constantius Neither did that Blood-sucker Boner Bishop of London who in Queen Maries Reign so heated the Kingdom with the Funeral Piles of so many Saints speed any better than Winchester For being likewise enjoyned to Preach at the Cross he did it so coldly omitting many of those points whereof he was commanded to speak that he was likewise committed deprived of his Bishoprick and so lived until Queen Mary set them both at liberty What the Objections were against Cutbert Tonstall Bishop of Duresm and George Day Bishop of Chichester I do not find but that they ran the same fortune is manifest They were both very Learned Prelates but especially Tonstall a mild man and of most sweet conditions in regard whereof I do not a little wonder that he was so hardly dealt with But the drift of the punishments of such men who in Henry's time were accounted the chief Lights of our Church I conceive to have been that the rest of that Order might by their example be admonished without dissimulation either to resign their Bishopricks to others that were thought more worthy or be induced to conform themselves to the present Reformation of the Church according to the prescript of the Laws in that behalf lately Enacted And yet I would there were not sufficient cause to suspect that this was but a made opportunity the removal of these obstacles making way for the Invasion of these widow Seas For as soon as Tonstall was exautorated that rich Bishoprick of Duresm by Act of Parliament was wrecked the chief revenues and customs of it being incorporated to the Crown and the rest in despight of the Tenants so gelded that at this day it scarce possesseth the third part of its antient Revenues Yet did Queen Mary seriously endeavour the restitution of those religious portions Queen Elizabeth would hardly consent that it should lose any of its plumes yet some it did and King James hath lately enacted against the Alienation of Church-lands yea even to the Crown otherwise than upon reservation of a reasonable Rent and the return of them to the Church after the expiration of three lives or one and twenty years The hungry Courtier finding how good a thing the Church was had now for some years become acquainted with it out of a zealous intent to Prey Neither could the horridness of her sacred Skeleton as yet so work on him as to divert his resolutions and compassionately to leave the Church to her religious poverty Beside the infancy of the King in this incertain ebb and flow of Religion made her opportune to all kind of Sacriledge So that we are deservedly to thank the Almighty Guardian of the Church that these Locusts have not quite devoured the Maintenance of the Labourers in this English Vineyard For we yet retain that antient form of government in the Primitive Church by Bishops who have for the most part wherewith to support their honourable Function as likewise have other those subordinate Prelates Deans Archdeacons and Canons of Cathedral Churches And as for our Preachers of the more polite and learned sort we think him little befriended by Fortune who long liveth in expectation of a competent preferment I would the residue of the Reformed Churches of Christendom had not been pared so near the quick by precise hands that but some few of them might in this kind be paralleled with ours And now behold two Brothers acting their several Tragedies Jealousie Envy and Ambition infernal Furies had armed them against each other and the Pride of the Feminine Sex prepared them for the Lists A lamentable exigent wherein the loss of his Adversary must be the destruction of each wherein the Kingdom must groan at the loss of one both being in the Estate incompatible wherein the King himself must as most suspect he did suffer that he might not suffer Thomas Seymour Lord Admiral had married Catharine Parr the Widow of the deceased King What correspondence there might be between Her who had been the Wife of the late Sovereign and the Duchess of Somerset whose Husband being Protector of the Realm in point of command little differed from a Sovereign and had over his Brother the Admiral the Advantages of Age Dignity and general Esteem if any man cannot without difficulty conjecture I refer him to the first Book of Herodian where let him observe the contentions arising between Crispina the Wife of Commodus and Lucilla who had been formerly married to L. Verus the Emperour But in this the divers dispositions of the Brothers set on edge on the emulous humours of their Wives The Duke was mild affable free open and no way malicious the Admiral was naturally turbulent
on him for the Divorce of her Mother Manet alta mente repostum Judicium latum spretaeque injuria Matris It is reported that King Henry having determined to punish his Daughter the Lady Mary with Imprisonment for her Contumacy was by the sole intercession of Cranmer diverted from his Resolutions And when she was by her Brother King Edward to be disinherited the Archbishop made a long suasory Oration to the contrary neither could he be induced to subscribe to the Decree until the Judges of the Realm generally affirming that it might lawfully be done the dying King with much importunity prevailed with him In ingrateful persons the conceit I will not say the feeling of one Injury makes deeper impression than can the remembrance of a thousand real Benefits It was now bruited that with his Fortune Cranmer had also changed his Religion insomuch that to gratifie the Queen he had promised to Celebrate the Exequies of the deceased King after the Romish manner To clear himself of this imputation he by writing declares himself ready to maintain the Articles of Religion set forth by his means under King Edward his Reign to be consonant to the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Apostles in which Resolution he being confirmed by Peter Martyr required him for his Second in this Religious Duel But Words are not regarded where Violence is intended His Death was absolutely determined but how it might be fairly contrived was not yet resolved First therefore they deal with him as a Traytor And having for some while continued prisoner in the Tower to alienate the minds of the People who held him in high esteem he is on the thirteenth of November together with the Lords Ambrose and Guilford Dudley and Lady Jane condemned for Treason But the machinators of this mischief against Cranmer were so ashamed of their shadowless endeavour that they themselves became Intercessors for his Pardon and yet afterwards most irreligiously procured him to be Burned for pretended Heresie Before he was committed to Custody his Friends perswaded him after the example of some other of his religious Brethren who had long since escaped into Germany by flight to withdraw himself from assured destruction To whom he answered Were I accused of Theft Parricide or some other crime although I were innocent I might peradventure be induced to shift for my self But being questioned for my Allegiance not to men but to God the truth of whose holy Word is to be asserted against the errours of Popery I have at this time with a constancy befitting a Christian Prelate resolved rather to leave my life than the Kingdom But we will now leave Cranmer in Prison whose farther Troubles and Martyrdom we will in their due places relate Concerning Peter Martyr it was long controverted at the Council Table whether having so much prejudiced the Catholick Religion it were fit he should be proceeded against as an Heretick But it was at length determined that because he came into England upon Publick Assurance he should have liberty to depart with his Family So having Letters of Pass signed by the Queen he was transported with his Friend Bernardine Ochinus and came to Antwerp from thence to Colen at last to Strasburg from whence he first set forth for England In the mean time on the first of October the Queen was with great pomp Crowned at Westminster by Stephen Gardiner Bishop of Winchester and that after the manner of her Ancestors On the fifth of the same month a Parliament is called at Westminster wherein all the Laws Enacted against the Pope and his adherents by Henry and Edward were repealed And in the Convocation-House at the same time was a long and eager Disputation concerning the Sacrament of the Lords Supper the Prolocutor Dr. Weston with many others maintaining Christ's Corporal real presence in the Sacrament Among those few who sided with the Truth were John Ailmer and Richard Cheyney both by Queen Elizabeth made Bishops the one of London the other of Glocester John Philpot Archdeacon of Winchester who confirmed this Doctrine with the Testimony of his Blood James Haddon Dean of Exceter and Walter Philips Dean of Rochester At length the Truth was oppressed by Multitude not Reason Whereupon the Restitution of Romish Rites is again concluded and on the one and twentieth of December Mass began to be celebrated throughout England The same day also the Marquis of Northampton and Sir Henry Gates not long since Condemned were set at liberty and Pardoned And the Lords Ambrose and Guilford Dudley with Lady Jane had their Imprisonment more at large with hope of Pardon also ANNO DOM. 1554. REG. 1 2. THe Queen who was now Thirty seven years old and hitherto thought averse from Marriage either in regard of her own Natural inclination or conscious to her self of the want of such Beauty as might endear a Husband to her her Affairs so requiring began at length to bethink her of an Husband She feared lest the consideration of her Sexes imbecility might bring her into contempt with her People she being yet scarce setled in her Throne and the Kingdom still distracted in their Affections to several Competitors Fame had destined three for her Bed Philip Infant of Spain the Emperour's Son Cardinal Pool and the Marquis of Exceter The two last were proposed for their Royal Descent and the opinion of the Love of their Countrey there being hope that under them the Freedom and the Priviledges of the Kingdom might be preserved inviolate But besides proximity of Blood in each of the three Cardinal Pool was much affected by the Queen for his gravity sanctimony meekness and wisdom Courtney for his flourishing youth his courteous and pleasant disposition But he I know not how was somewhat suspected not to think sincerely of the late established Religion but to have favoured the Reformed And the Cardinal being now in his fiftieth and third year was deemed a little too old to be a Father of Children But their opinion prevailed as more necessary who thought this unsetled Kingdom would require a puissant King who should be able to curb the factious Subject and by Sea and Land oppose the French by the accrue of Scotland become too near Neighbours and Enemies to us Upon these motives the ambitious Lady was easily induced to consent to a match with Philip. For the Treaty whereof the Emperour had about the end of the last year sent on a grand Embassage Lamoralle Count Egmond with whom Charles Count Lalaine and John Montmorency were joyned in Commission In January the Ambassadors arrived at London and in a few days conclude the Marriage the Conditions whereof were these That Matrimony being contracted between Philip and Mary it should be lawful for Philip to usurp the Titles of all the Kingdoms and Provinces belonging to his Wife and should be joynt-Governour with her over those Kingdoms the Priviledges and Customs thereof always preserved inviolate and
Henry Wyat and such other Cattiffs and Villains of Birth which by subtil Inventions and Pilling of the People have been the principal Finders Occasioners and Counsellors of the Mis-rule and Mischief now reigning in England We remembring these Premisses with the great and execrable Offences daily committed and done by Our foresaid great Enemy and his Adherents in breaking the Liberties and Franchises of Our Mother the Holy Church upon pretences of Wicked and Heathenish Policy to the high displeasure of Almighty God besides the manifold Treasons abominable Murthers Man-slaughters Robberies Extortions the daily Pilling of the People by Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences and other unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions with many other heinous Effects to the likely destruction and desolation of the whole Realm shall by God's grace and the help and assistante of the great Lords of Our Blood with the counsel of other sad Persons see that the Commodities of Our Realm be employed to the most advantage of the same the intercourse of Merchandise betwixt Realm and Realm to be ministred and handled as shall more be to the Common-weal and prosperity of Our Subjects and all such Disms Taxes Tallages Benevolences unlawful Impositions and grievous Exactions as be above rehearsed to be fore-done and laid apart and never from henceforth to be called upon but in such cases as Our Noble Progenitors Kings of England have of old time been accustomed to have the ayd succour and help of their Subjects and true Liege-men And further We do out of Our Grace and Clemency hereby as well publish and promise to all our Subjects Remission and free Pardon of all By-past Offences whatsoever against Our Person or Estate in adhering to Our said Enemy by whom We know well they have been mis-led if they shall within time convenient submit themselves unto Us. And for such as shall come with the foremost to assist Our Righteous Quarrel We shall make them so far partakers of Our Princely Favour and Bounty as shall be highly for the Comfort of them and theirs both during their life and after their death As also We shall by all means which God shall put into Our hands demean Our selves to give Royal contentment to all Degrees and Estates of Our People maintaining the Liberties of Holy Church in their Entire preserving the Honours Priviledges and Prebeminences of Our Nobles from contempt or disparagement according to the dignity of their Blood We shall also unyoak Our People from all heavy Burthens and Endurances and confirm Our Cities Boroughs and Towns in their Charters and Freedoms with enlargement where it shall be deserved and in all points give Our Subjects cause to think that the blessed and debonair Government of Our Noble Father King Edward in his last times is in Us revived And for as much as the putting to death or taking alive of Our said Mortal Enemy may be a mean to stay much effusion of Blood which otherwise may ensue if by Compulsion or fair Promises he shall draw after him any number of Our Subjects to resist Us whith We desire to avoid though We be certainly informed that Our said Enemy is purposed and prepared to flie the Land having already made over great masses of the Treasure of Our Crown the better to support him in Forein Parts We do hereby declare That whosoever shall take or distress Our said Enemy though the Party be of never so mean a Condition he shall be by Us rewarded with a Thousand Pound in Money forthwith to be laid down to him and an Hundred Marks by the year of Inheritance besides that he may otherwise merit both toward God and all good People for the destruction of such a Tyrant Lastly We do all men to wit and herein We take also God to witness That whereas God hath moved the Heart of Our dearest Cousin the King of Scotland to aid Us in Person in this Our righteous Quarrel it is altogether without any Pact or Promise or so much as demand of any thing that may prejudice Our Crown or Subjects But contrariwise with promise on Our said Cousin's part that whensoever he shall find Us in sufficient strength to get the upper hand of Our Enemy which we hope will be very suddenly he will forthwith peaceably return into his own Kingdom contenting himself only with the glory of so Honourable an Enterprize and Our true and faithful Love and Amity Which We shall ever by the Grace of Almighty God so order as shall be to the great comfort of both Kingdoms BUT Perkin's Proclamation did little edifie with the people of England neither was he the better welcom for the company he came in Wherefore the King of Scotland seeing none came in to Perkin nor none stirred any where in his favour turned his Enterprize into a Rode and wasted and destroyed the Countrey of Northumberland with fire and sword But hearing that there were Forces coming against him and not willing that they should find his men heavy and laden with booty he returned into Scotland with great Spoils deferring further prosecution till another time It is said that Perkin acting the part of a Prince handsomly when he saw the Scottish fell to waste the Countrey came to the the King in a passionate manner making great lamentation and desired That that might not be the manner of making the War for that no Crown was so dear to his mind as that he desired to purchase it with the blood and ruine of his Countrey Whereunto the King answered half in sport that he doubted much he was careful for that that was none of his and that he should be too good a Steward for his Enemy to save the Countrey to his use By this time being the Eleventh year of the King the Interruption of Trade between the English and the Plemmish began to pinch the Merchants of both Nations very sore Which moved them by all means they could devise to affect and dispose their Savereigns respectively to open the Intercourse again Wherein time favoured them For the Arch-Duke and his Council began to see that Perkin would prove but a Runnagate and Citizen of the World and that it was the part of Children to fall out about Babies And the King on his part after the Attempts upon Kent and Northumberland began to have the business of Perkin in less estimation so as he did not put it to accompt in any Consultation of State But that that moved him most was that being a King that loved Wealth and Treasure he could not endure to have Trade sick nor any Obstruction to continue in the Gate-vein which disperseth that blood And yet he kept State so far as first to be sought unto Wherein the Merchant-Adventurers likewise being a strong Company at that time and well under-set with rich men and good order did hold out bravely taking off the Commodities of the Kingdom though they lay dead upon their hands for want of Vent At the last Commissioners met
at London to Treat On the King's part Bishop Fox Lord Privy Seal Viscount Wells Kendal Prior of St. John's Warham Master of the Polls who began to gain much upon the King's opinion Urswick who was almost ever one and Risley On the Arch-Duke's part the Lord Bevers his Admiral the Lord Verunsel President of Flanders and others These concluded a perfect Treaty both of Amity and Intercourse between the King and the Arch-Duke containing Articles both of State Commerce and Free-Fishing This is that Treaty which the Flemings call at this day Intercursus Magnus both because it is more compleat than the precedent Treaties of the Third and Fourth years of the King and chiefly to give it a difference from the Treaty that followed in the One and twentieth year of the King which they call Intercursus Malus In this Treaty there was an express Article against the Reception of the Rebels of either Prince by other purporting that if any such Rebel should be required by the Prince whose Rebel he was of the Prince Confederate that forthwith the Prince Confederate should by Proclamation command him to avoid the Countrey Which if he did not within fifteen days the Rebel was to stand proscribed and put out of Protection But nevertheless in this Article Perkin was not named neither perhaps contained because he was no Rebel But by this means his wings were clipt off his Followers that were English And it was expresly comprised in the Treaty that it should extend to the Territories of the Duchess Dowager After the Intercourse thus restored the English Merchants came again to their Mansion at Antwerp where they were received with Procession and great Joy The Winter sollowing being the Twelfth year of his reign the King called again his Parliament Where he did much exaggerate both the Malice and the cruel Predatory War lately made by the King of Scotland That that King being in Amity with him and no ways provoked should so burn in hatred towards him as to drink of the Lees and Dregs of Perkin's Intoxication who was every where else detected and discarded And that when he perceived it was out of his reach to do the King any hurt he had turned his Arms upon unarmed and unprovided people to spoil only and depopulate contrary to the Laws both of War and Peace Concluding that he could neither with Honour nor with the safety of his People to whom he did owe Protection let pass these wrongs unrevenged The Parliament understood him well and gave him a Subsidy limited to the summ of one hundred and twenty thousand Pounds besides two Fifteens For his Wars were always to him as a Mine of Treasure of a strange kind of Ore Iron at the top and Gold and Silver at the bottom At this Parliament for that there had been so much time spent in making Laws the year before and for that it was called purposely in respect of the Scottish War there were no Laws made to be remembred Only there passed a Law at the Suit of the Merchant-Adventurers of England against the Merchant-Adventurers of London for Monopolizing and exacting upon the Trade which it seemeth they did a little to save themselves after the hard time they had sustained by want of Trade But those Innovations were taken away by Parliament But it was fatal to the King to fight for his Money And though he avoided to fight with Enemies abroad yet he was still enforced to fight for it with Rebels at home For no sooner began the Subsidie to be levied in Cornwal but the people there began to grudge and murmur The Cornish being a race of men stout of stomach mighty of body and limb and that lived hardly in a barren Countrey and many of them could for a need live under ground that were Tinners they muttered extremely that it was a thing not to be suffered that for a little stir of the Scots soon blown over they should be thus grinded to Powder with Payments And said it was for them to pay that had too much and lived idly But they would eat the bread they got with the sweat of their brows and no man should take it from them And as in the Tides of People once up there want not commonly stirting Winds to make them more rough So this People did light upon two Ring-leaders or Captains of the Rout. The one was one Michael Joseph a Black-smith or Farrier of Bodmin a notable talking Fellow and no less desirous to be talked of The other was Thomas Flammocke a Lawyer who by telling his neighbours commonly upon any occasion that the Law was on their side had gotten great sway amongst them This man talked learnedly and as if he could tell how to make a Rebellion and never break the Peace He told the people that Subsidies were not to be granted nor levied in this case that is for Wars of Scotland for that the Law had provided another course by service of Escuage for those Journies much less when all was quiet and War was made but a Pretence to poll and pill the People And therefore that it was good they should not stand now like sheep before the Shearers but put on Harness and take Weapons in their hands Yet to do no creature hurt but go and deliver the King a Strong Petition for the laying down of those grievous Payments and for the punishment of those that had given him that Counsel to make others beware how they did the like in time to come And said for his part he did not see how they could do the duty of true English-men and good Liege-men except they did deliver the King from such wicked Ones that would destroy both Him and the Countrey Their aim was at Archbishop Morton and Sir Reginald Bray who were the King 's Skreens in this Envy After that these two Flammocke and the Black-smith had by joynt and several Pratings found tokens of consent in the Multitude they offered themselves to lead them until they should hear of better men to be their Leaders which they said would be ere long Telling them further that they would be but their servants and first in every danger but doubted not but to make both the West-end and East-end of England to meet in so good a Quarrel and that all rightly understood was but for the King's service The People upon these seditious Instigations did arm most of them with Bows and Arrows and Bills and such other Weapons of rude and Countrey People and forthwith under the Command of their Leaders which in such cases is ever at pleasure marched out of Cornwal through Devonshire unto Taunton in Somersetshire without any slaughter violence or spoil of the Countrey At Taunton they killed in fury an officious and eager Commissioner for the Subsidie whom they called the Provoct of Perin Thence they marched to Wells where the Lord Audley with whom their Leaders had before some secret Intelligence a Noble-man of an ancient Family