contrary to the Articles of Peace and 2 The contumelious Language used by King Phillip concerning his Person WILLIAM II. SUrnamed Rufus or the Red during his 12 Years and about 8 Months Reign had no Wars with France neither do we read of any just cause given to engage him thereto but he unjustly invaded Normandy then subject to his Brother Robert and disposest him of the County of Owe many Castles and some Monasteries but was in the mean time by divine Justice assaulted by his younger Brother Henry in his own Dominions and it had like to have cost him his Life for he was bore down in fight from his Horse by a valiant Knight who taking his Sword for to kill him was stop'd by the Kings crying out Hold thy hand Knave I am the King of England which words so struck the Knight with Reverence that he mounted him on another Horse and the King to recompence his Valour and Submission swore by St. Luke's Face he should be his Knight and be written in his White Book He was accidentally killed by Sir Walter Tyrell as he was Hunting in the New Forrest Anno 1100. buried at Winchester and died unlamented HENRY I. WHo for his learning was called Beauclerke was youngest Son to William the Conqueror he passing over into Normandy made War against the Earl of Anjou who kept Main against his will and this engaged Lewis the French King to take part with the latter whereupon ensued many sore Battles both in France and Normandy between them with various success at length taking Anjou's Daughter for Wife to his Son William Peace was concluded But it will not be amiss to give the Reader a tast of the high Spirit and Resolution of this King in a personal quarrel he had in France In his fathers life time he accompanying his eldest Brother Robert into that Kingdom while the latter associated himself with the then French King Henry according to the suitableness of their years took up with the company and divertisements of the Dauphine and being one Evening at Chess together the Dauphine happened to lose a considerable summ of Money to the Prince at that Game whereat the former grew so enraged that after some reproachful Language he struck the Prince who not brooking the high affront with the Chess-board knocks the Dauphine fairly down to the ground and being intent to pursue his Revenge his Brother Robert fortunately came in and minding him of the danger away they both fled and with great hast and difficulty recovered the next part of Normandy before their pursuers could reach them This King made his Exit as his Father before him in Normandy in the Year 1135. after he had reigned 35 Years and 4 Months The cause of this War we have before assigned to wit the King of France's taking part with Anjou against Henry STEVEN KIng of England was Son to Adella a Daughter of William the Conqueror and Nephew to the two last Kings he laid claim to the Kingdom of England in the year 1135 notwithstanding his Oath to Mawd the Empress and Daughter to Henry the First to the contrary wherefore without looking abroad into France for any Wars his whole Reign which was Eighteen Years and about ten Months was in a manner taken up in intestine Broils and Contests about his right to the English Crown wherein he was stiffly opposed by several Nobles and by the said Empress Mawd and her Son Henry afterwards Henry the 2d whom she bare to Geoffrey Plantagenet Earl of Anjou and Duke of Normandy from whence sprang the Noble Family of the Plantagenets that so long governed England he was once made Prisoner at Bristol and at last notwithstanding he had Children of his own was forced to adopt Henry for his Son and Heir and the Nobles sware fealty to him accordingly HENRY II. SOn of Mawd and Geoffrey Plantagenet as aforesaid at the Age of Three and Twenty Years and even in the life time of his Mother under whom he claimed began his Reign over England in the Year 1154. This Prince notwithstanding his Domestick Troubles and famous Atchievements against the Welch and his conquest of a great part of the Kingdom of Ireland so as he was the first of our English Kings that was stiled the Lord of that Country yet found opportunity to make War in France upon several occasions the Allyance he had made with the French Court by the Marriage of his Son Henry to King Lewis his Daughter Margaret proving rather an incitative to Contention and Discord then a bond of Peace and Amity The famous city of Tholouse was chiefly the seat of this War which was once and again bravely Assaulted by King Henry and as vigorously defended by Lewis In his first Expedition against this Place he was accompanied with Malcolm King of Scots a Welch King and with others of highest Rank and Dignity in England Normandy Aquitain Anjou and Gascoigny during his second expedition in France the Earls of Bulloign and Flanders with 600 sail of Ships attempted to make a Descent into England but their undertaking proved frustrate and abortive through the vigilance Courage and Prudence of Richard Lacy who then Governed England This King is famous or rather infamous in History for the many base Children he had being no less then 19 in Number for his fair Concubine Rosamond for whom he built that celebrated Labyrinth at Woodstock the recesses whereof could not be penetrated into but by insuperable jealousie the Queen as it was said by the help of a clew of Thread finding of her out at last and so used her that she lived not long after and no less to be mentioned for the troubles he met with from that proud Prelate Thomas a Becket to whose shire after his Murder much blind Devotion has been paid even by the greatest Potentates Tho his Son Henry who was crowned King in his life time and dyed before him gave him much disturbance yet when he found after his death that others and particularly his Son John conspired against him he was so strucken with grief that cursing his Son and the day of his own Birth he died July 6. 1189. Aged 61 having reigned 34 Years and almost seven Months The causes of the War were That King Lewis did incite the Prince his Son against the laws of Nature to oppose Henry his Father in the war time Lewis had promis'd upon the word of a King to meet him in order to a Treaty but he failed for his own Advantage whereupon Henry being sensible of the Fraud sought him out with his Army and made him give ground thereupon another interview being appointed betwixt Terwyn and Arras Histories relate that as the two Kings were busie in Conference there fell a clap of Thunder between them and meeting the next day the like accident happen'd which struck a Consternation in both Armies and inclined the Kings the more to an accommodation RICHARD I. WHo for his Valour was
surnamed Ceur de Lion was the third Son of Henry the II. but the Eldest when his Father died aged 35 years when he began his Reign the former part whereof was spent by him in the Wars in the Holy-Land William Longshamp Bishop of Ely and Chancellor of England governing the Kingdom during his absence in this War he signalized his Valour to a wonder having first taken Cyprus in his way thither and at Acon in Syria so behaved himself that he became an object of Envy to other Christian Princes especially to King Phillip of France as you shall see hereafter where ever he went Terror was his forerunner insomuch that it grew common amongst those Eastern People to terrifie their Children with the apprehension of King Richard's coming in his return being driven upon the Coast of Dalmatia and thinking to pass home by Land incognito he was made Prisoner by the Duke of Austria who brought him to the Emperor Henry and was detained by him in Custody for a Year and five Months till he paid a great Ransom his unparallell'd Valour and Bravery was the occasion of this misfortune these and other Princes bearing him Envy especially the French King who invades Normandy during his absence which obliged Richard to make a Peace with Saladine for Three Years much to the disadvantage of the cause they fought for Phillip attacked Gisors and had it surrendred to him and many other Places and then hasted to lay Siege to Roan but found such a vigorous defence made by the Valiant and Noble Earl of Leicester that he was forced to quit his Enterprize and so returned into France On the 12th of March 1194. King Richard landed at Sandwich was recrowned again reduced the Kingdom entirely to his Obedience which was much divided because of his Brother John's pretentions in his absence and hearing the King of France had besieged Vernail he passed over into Normandy and arrived at Harfleur with 100 Ships full of Horsemen Armour c. the noise whereof so frighted the Monsieur that he left the Siege and went his ways whereupon Richard enters the French Dominions takes in several strong Places but the Noble Leicester had the misfortune to be taken Prisoner who afterward paid a great summ of Money for his Ransom and soon after ensued a Truce for a short time which was no sooner ended but Richard takes the Field possesses himself of the Castle of Brisen Novencourt c. the French King in the mean time besieging Albermarl whither Richard hastening to succour the Place a sharp Battle was fought between both Armies wherein the French prevailed chiefly upon the account of the English being wearied with their hard March But Richard had no sooner recruited and refreshed his Soldiers but he laid Siege to Miligio took it and burnt it down to the Ground whereupon ensued some overtures of Peace Albemarl in the mean time falling into the French hands and ran the same fate with Miligio Some three Years after Richard turned his Arms against the Barons of Poictiers that rebelled against him with prosperous success till at last besieging the Castle of Chaluz and having brought it to that extremity that he would grant no other Conditions but a surrender at Discretion he was shot in the left Arm out of a Cross-bow with an invenomed Dart by one Bartram de Gordon of which wound he died the 6th of April 1199. after he had reigned Nine Years and Nine Months and was buried at Fonteverard at his Fathers Feet The Causes were that while Richard went on so prosperously in the Holy Land the French King out of Envy and contrary to his Sacramental Oath invaded Normandy which forc'd King Richard to make peace with Saladine so much disadvantagious to all Christendom JOHN THe Brother of Richard who died without issue and youngest Son of Henry the II. succeeded his Brother to the prejudice of Arthur Geoffrey his Elder Brothers Son who was the real heir of Course This Arthur in right of his Mother was Earl of Bretagne in France so that by this exclusion England lost one of the best Provinces in that Kingdom and by advancing John to the Throne we not only lost almost all our Possessions in France but England it self became vassal to the Pope the Clergy of those times growing strangely bigotted to Rome and perverse to the King King John was in Normandy when his Brother dyed and though he wasted over into England with all possible speed to take Possession of the Crown and that his presence was so necessary here for to keep his new Subjects in their Obedience to him yet he could make no long stay for before a Year came about he was forced to return into Normandy again upon information that Phillip King of France had with a powerful Army made an irruption into Normandy who took the Country of Main and several other places from the English the Britons at the same time possessing themselves of the City of Angiers the Towns of Gorney Butenant and Gensoline Arthur doing also Homage to King Phillip for Anjou Poictiers Turain Main Bretaign and Normandy but soon after a Peace was concluded between the Kings and thereby many places confirmed to the French King that he had taken and others yielded up by John upon the account of his neece Blanch's Marriage with Lewis heir of France besides 30000 Marks in Silver paid to Phillip and all this to the great dishonour as well as detriment of the English Nation About two Years after this to wit the third of the Kings Reign one Hugo Brune a Noble Man of Aquitain raised a Rebellion against King John in that Province but he and his Adherents being unable to withstand John's Forces made complaint of him to Phillip of France whereupon he was summoned by the Nobles of France as Duke or Earl of Aquitain and Anjou to appear before the French King and to stand to the Judgment of his Peers which he refused upon which the Court adjudged him to be deprived of all his Lands which he or his Predecessors held of the King of France King Phillip forthwith raises a great Army invades Normandy takes in many Castles and a great part of the Country without resistance but Arthur Duke of Bretaign besieging the Castle of Mirable with Queen Eleanor then in it King John fell upon him there with such Force and Fury that he routed his Army and took Arthur and many others of Note Prisoners Arthur sometime after was sent Prisoner to the Tower of Roan and was there barbarously Murdered some said by King John's own hands but in all this time Phillip prospered in so much that in a very short space King John was in a manner despoiled of all the Lands he held in Fee of the Crown of France King John once and again made great preparations to recover his lost Dominions and had the good success to destroy the French Fleet and recover the Province of Poictou but his Domestick troubles both
was otherwise in all his attempts successful and is renown'd upon all accounts but in nothing so much as in his Piety to God to whom he gave all the Glory of his Victories The ground of this War was the former claim to the Crown and Kingdom of 〈◊〉 HENRY VI. COmmonly called Henry of Windsor proved a Religious Prince but weak and unfortunate he began his Reign when he was but 8 years old and was crowned King of France at Paris Anno 1431. to whom the Nobles Provost and chief Burgesses sware fealty but lost it five Years after to Charles VII and the loss of that drew on the loss of the whole but it was not without much strugling The beginning of his Reign which all Persons feared would have been the worst proved quite contrary and was the most prosperous which is to be attributed to the Wisdom Care and Resolution of those brave Men that his Father appointed to guard Him and his Dominions Things prospered in France whilst the Heroick Bedford lived who won many Towns and Forts and proved Victor in several Encounters and Battles especially that great Battle of Vernole where as a French Author confesseth Bedford Salisbury and Suffolk did mighty exploits and defeated the whole French Power about which time Bedford as Regent was obeyed in all places through Vimen Poictiers and Picardy and from Paris to Rheims Chalons and Troyes up to the River of Loyre but when this brave Prince died which was about the 14th Year of Henry's Reign and that the Duke of York was made Regent things went very much to wrack in France Guienne was the last Province of France that held out for the English where we lost that brave Captain John Lord Talbot the first Earl of Shrewsbury of that Family and ancestor to the now illustrious Duke of Shrewsbury and called by the French Historians the Glory of the English Nation as we had done some years before at the Siege of Orleans the valiant Earl of Salisbury a Siege which first raised the fame of the French Amazon Joan the sheaperdess commonly called the Maid of Orleans whose wonderful Courage and Success prov'd very fatal to the English though she was afterward burnt at Roan for a Witch and which did not a little contribute to hasten our Expulsion out of that Kingdom all places at length being reduced except Calais and the Norman Isles of Guernsey Jersey c. and thus was the old Prophecy made good that Henry of Monmouth should win all and Henry of Windsor should lose all which was verified to some Purpose in this King for to the former losses was added that of the Crown of England he being deposed after he had Reigned 39 Years but lived eleven Years after and was Murdered by Crook-back Richard in the Tower of London He was a King pious in an intense degree which made Henry VII send to the Pope to have Henry VI. canoniz'd for a Saint but answer was given that he would canonize him for an Innocent but not for a Saint The Causes of this War in this Kings time was the revolt of the French from their obedience to their true King EDWARD IV. ELdest Son of Richard Duke of York and first of this line came to the Crown by right of descent from King Edward III. for Anne his Grandmother was Daughter of Roger Mortimer Son of Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and of Phillip his Wife sole Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence third Son of Edward III. and Elder Brother of John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster so that 't is plain in course of succession he had a precedent Right to the House of Lancaster he was fain to maintain his Right as he had got it by the Sword for to get it no less than six battles had been fought by his Father and himself and six more to secure it were sought in this Reign but when his affairs began to receive any settlement he revolves upon his old Right to the Kingdom of France wherefore upon the request of the Duke of Burgundy his Brother in Law who was already actually in War with the French King he enters into an alliance with him for to carry it on with united Forces and was the more easily induced hereunto because of the assistance France had lately given the Earl of Warwick Queen Margaret her Son Prince Edward and their accomplicâ—s against him King Edward makes very great preparations for this Expedition and having got all things in a readiness rendevouzes at Dover and so from thence sails in a Fleet consisting of 500 sail of all burdens whereof the Duke of Burgundy furnished many and lands at Calais with a greater force then ever at any one time came into France for he had with him 1500 Gen d' Arms being all Nobles and Gentlemen 15000 Archers on Horseback 8000 common Soldiers with 3000 Pioneers 3000 English being at the same time appointed to land in Bretaign for to make a diversion on that side But before King Edward imbarked he sent an Herald from Dover to the King of France with a letter of Defiance written in such Language that mine Author is perswaded could never be of an English Man's Penning So little esteem had the English Nation at that time for their learning in the World the contents of the Letter were That the King should yield unto him the Kingdom of France that so he might restore the Clergy and Nobility to their ancient Liberty and ease them of those great oppressions they laboured under c. which if he refused to do he concluded full of Menaces according to the usual form in that kind The French King read the Letter softly to himself and then withdrawing to another Room sent for the Herald to come before him and told him he was not ignorant of the confederacy between the King his Master and the Duke of Burgundy and how that the â—onstable of France held intelligence also with 〈◊〉 King of England the King having married 〈◊〉 Niece but adds he he will deceive the King â—ur Master as he has done me and as for Burâ—â—ndy 't is manifest he foully prevaricates for he already retired fâ—om before Nunz and at last includes with a present of 300 Crowns to the â—erald and a promise of a Thousand more if Peace were concluded and got him to engage 〈◊〉 further it with all his might King Edward 〈◊〉 no sooner landed at Calais but the Duke of Bâ—â—gundy retires from before Nunz and with a â—all retinue rides to the King at Calais leaving 〈◊〉 Army in the mean time to plunder the Counâ—â—y of Lorrâ—in and Barr from Calais they both â—arted and passing through Bolloign marched Perronne where the English were but coldly â—â—tertained by the Duke for he would suffer but very few of them to come within the Gates 〈◊〉 that they were obliged to take up their quarâ—â—â—s in the Fields there it was the Duke received Message from the Constable of France whereby 〈◊〉 excused