establish his Monarchy over England he endeavoured by all means to reconcile the English to him 1. By advancing some of the English Nobility to places of honour and trust 2. By granting to the English equall rights and priviledges with his Danes in consessu in consilio in praelio and advancing them both alike 3. By favouring and inriching the English Clergy and Church-men and manifesting extraordinary piety devotion bounty in repairing building endowing Monasteries and Churches throughout the Realm 4. By easing them of his Danish Forces 5. By ratifying all their former good old fundamentall Laws rights liberties priviledges which they used enjoyed under their Saxon Kings by enacting other good wholsome Laws repealing all unjust Laws and redressing all exactions and grievances A company of flatterers which extolled his greatness and power to be unmatchable he caused to place him in a chair where the Sea ebbs and flowes at South-hampton that by the disobedience of the Tide that would not stop at his command but presumed to dash his royall garments they might learn how low man is at the highest and not to applaud his fortune but fear his fall He acknowledged God alone to be King of this great Element because the Sea is his and he made it The flatterers of Alexander the great made him believe that he was the son of Iupiter but being one day sore hurt and seeing the blood gush out of his wounds What think you of this said he unto them Is not this blood of a lively red hew and meerly humane He was the greatest Prince of power that ever before him raigned over the English people England Denmarke Norway some adde also part of Sweden together with Scotland were wholly subject unto him Filiam suam Imperatori Romano cum ineffabilibus divitiis maritavit Hunting hist. l. 6. In a Parliament at Oxford he made good Laws whereof these were some that concern Religion First For the celebration of divine service it was ordained that all Ceremonies tending to the increase of reverence and devotion should be used as need required Secondly That upon the Sabbath day all publick Fairs Markets Synods Huntings and all secular actions should be forborn unless some urgent necessity should require it Thirdly That every Christian should thrice in the year receive the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper Fourthly That a married woman convict of adultery should have her nose and ears cut off Krantzius much extols him as the most famous of the Kings of Denmarke He was a just Prince in all saving his tyranny against the two young Princes the sons of Edmond The lustre of this new erected Monarchy had no sooner displayed its beams in Canutus but like an unthrifty Taper it began to glimmer in Harold and absolutely expired in Hard knute who dying issueless the current of royalty ran back again into the channell of the Saxon bloud which flowed in the veinsâ— of Edward sirnamed the Conâ—essor Philpot's Preface to his Villare Cantianum After he had in great glory reigned about nineteen years he deceased at Shafiesbury in the County of Dorset and was buried in the Church of the old Monastery at Winchester where Queen Emma made her abode ever after Harold The second Danish King raigning in England and the thirty fifth Monarch of the Land He was called Hare-foot by reason of his swiftness Canutus had him by a Concubine a Shoomakers daughter This base son of Cnute dispossessed his legitimate son Harde-Cnute of the Crown of England contrary to Cnutes will and contract banished and spoiled Queen Emma of her treasure and Jewels oppressed the people with taxes and was soon cut off by death without any issue He was an oppresser of his people and vitious He raigned four years and four moneths He was neither in Warres so hardy nor in Government so prosperous as his Father Canutus before him had been Harde-Canute The third Danish King that raigned in England and the thirty sixth Monarch of the English men For his noble courage he was called Harde-Canutus The first great Prince of the house of Burgundy was Philip sirnamed the Hardy His recalling his Mother Emma and half Brother Edward and entertaining them respectively deserves commendation His Epicurism left an ill custome to all posterity Four times a day his Table must be covered to invite men to intemperancy through which at a marriage he is thought to have choaked himself at Lambeth most rejoycing to be rid of him in memory whereof Hock-tide a Feast of scorning or triumphing was a long time continued after The English men learned of him their excessive gormandizing and unmeasurable filling of themselves with meates and drinkes At the death of this King died all rule of the Danes in this Land after they had miserably afflicted the Kingdome for the space of two hundred and forty yeares though in Regall government but only six and twenty under these three last Kings He raigned two yeares lacking ten dayes The Danes ruled in this Land almost thirty yeares and raged without all rule about three hundred and fifty Lamberts Perambulation of Kent CHAP. X. Edward the Confessor THe son of King Ethelred the thirty seventh Monarch of the English men He was born at Islip near unto Oxford and tenderly educated by Queen Emma his Mother and after his Fathers death for safety sent into France He was the last King of the Saxon race Such was the opinion conceived of his holiness of life as that shortly after his decease he was canonized amongst the Saints and named Edward the Confessour To gain the more love of his Subjects at his first entrance he remitted the taxe of forty thousand pounds yearly gathered by the name of Dane-gilt so grevous to the Commons Fertur Edwardus Confessor teste Ingulpho cùm se daemonem vidisse super dcervo Daingeldi exultantem protestatus esset aspectunique exhorruisset collecium illico restitui jussâ—sse retento ne iota uno feram exactionem perpetuum relaxasse Spelmanni Glossarium Danegaldi redditio propter pyratas primitus statuta est Hoved. dnnal pars posrerior p. 603. vide plura ibid. He collected the Laws of his predecessors into a body for the administration of justice which some say are the ground of our Common-Law though the pleading be altered since the Norman conquest He found the Realm governed by three different Laws the West-Saxon Law the Mereian Law and the Dane Law Out of these three Lawes partly moderated and partly supplied he composed one body of Law commonly called St Edwards Laws which were of so great equity that when they were abrogated by the Conquerour and the Crown fell into controversie between Maud the Empress and King Stephen the people alwayes inclined to favour that part who put them in fairest hope of restitution of those Laws And afterwards in many Civil dissensions the greatest demand of the people appeareth to have been the restitution of King
should dispossess his children of the Crown was consenting to his death interpreting G. to be George Duke of Clarence which fell out to be Glocester to whose tyranny he left them by this ungodly means He vanquished in nine Battels himself being present The Scene of his fortune had more changes then any King of England yet except his Competitor Lust was reputed his bosome-sin God severely punisht him in his sons who were both dispossest of their Kingdome and their lives by their unnaturall Uncle there being so much appearance of right by their fathers incontinency that even an Act of Parliament was made to bastardize them He was the first of our Kings since the Conquest that married his Subject His usuall Oath was By Gods blessed Lady He sate on the Kings Bench in open Court three dayes together in Michaelmas Term anno 〈◊〉 of his Raign to understand how his Laws were executed Have we not seen the late King of England Edward the fourth of that name heir of the house of Yorke utterly destroy the house of Lancaster under the which both his father and he had lived many yeares Farther the said King Edward having done homage to King Henry the sixth being of the house of Lancaster did he not afterward hold him prisoner many years in the Tower of London the chief City of the Realm where in the end he was put to death Phil. de Commines hist. l. 5. c. 18. He saith that their King Lewis the eleventh of France in wisdome and sense far surmounted King Edward Lib. 6. c. 2. and l. 5. c. 13. he saith of Lewis undoubtedly he was one of the wisest and subtilest Princes that lived in his time That very day wherein an honourable peace was concluded between Edward the fourth and King Lewis the eleventh upon subscribed Articles it chanced a white Dove as Commines writes to repose her self upon King Edwards pavilion whereupon though many gathered an argument yet since she sate not equally between both the Kings I like much better of a Gascoines observation who having been present at the sight reported unto Philipde Commines as himself records that the Dove repaired to King Edwards Tent only to this intent to refresh and prune her self after a great rain because the Sun was warmest there Howards Defensative c. 24. Richard Nevill Earl of Warwicke was a man of an undaunted courage but wavering and untrusty the very Tennice-Ball in some sort of fortune who although he were no King was above Kings as who deposed King Henry the sixth a most bountifull Price to him from his royall dignity placed Edward the fourth in the royall Throne and afterwards put him down too restored Henry the sixth again to the Kingdome enwrapped England within the most wofull and lamentable flames of Civill War which himself at the length hardly quenched with his own bloud In his spirit birth marriage and revenue he was mighty which raised his thoughts above proportion The greatest and busiest Subject our later age hath brought forth That make-make-King Warwick having the English Crown Pinn'd on his sleeve to place where he thought best Who set up Princes and did pull them down How did he toyl the Land with his unrest How did his Sword rip up his mothers brests Whose greatness and his popularity Wrought both his own and others tragedy Sir Francis Huberts History of Edward the second Cecil Dutchess of Yorke his mother lived in Henry the sevenths Raign and died at her Castle of Barkhamsted being of extream years who had lived to see three Princes of her body crowned and four murthered He being near his death told his friends that if he could as well have foreseen things as now to his pain he proved them he would never have worn the courtesie of mens knees with the loss of so many heads He raigned two and twenty yeares one moneth and five dayes EDWARD the fifth He was scarce eleven years old when his father died and succeeded him in the Kingdome but not in the Crown for he was proclaimed King but never crowned and indeed it may not so properly be called the Raign of Edward the fifth as the tyranny of Richard the third He hearing that his Uncle had left the name of Protector and taken upon him the title of King and was with full consenting of the Lords to be crowned within a few dayes following with the same Crown and in the like Estate as had been provided for his solemnity the dejected Innocent sighed and said Alass I would my Vncle would let me enjoy my life yet though I lose both my Kingdome and Crown He and his brother Richard were murthered in the Tower Tâ—win brethren in their deaths what had they done O Richard sees a fault that they were in It is not actuall but a mortall one They Princes were 't was their original sin Why should so sweet a pair of Princes lack Their Innocents-day in th' English Almanack Aleyns History of Henry the seventh RICHARD the third He was king in fact only but Tyrant both in title and regiment He was ill featured of limmes crook-backed hard favoured of visage malicious wrathfull envious It is for truth reported that the Dutchess his mother had so much ado in her travail that she could not be delivered of him uncut and that he came into the world with the feet forward and as the same runneth also not untoothed whether men of hatred report above the truth or else that nature changed her course in his beginning which in the course of his life committed many things unnaturally Buck that writes his Raign writes favourably of him but the Chroniclers generally condemn him He was brother to King Edward the fourth and having most wickedly murthered his Nephews usurped the Kingdome by the name of King Richard the third and after two years lost both it and his life in a pitched field He slew with his own hands King Henry the sixth being prisoner in the Tower as men constantly said and that without commandement or knowledge of King Edward the fourth who undoubtedly if he had intended his death would have appointed that Butcherly office to some other then his own brother He slew also that Kings son in the presence of Edward the fourth Was the contriver of the death of the Duke of Clarence his brother He bare a white Bore for his Cognisance The Lord Lovell Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Sir William Catesby were chief rulers under him of the which persons was made a seditious Rime and fastened upon the Cross in Cheapside and other places of the City It was this The Cat the Rat and Lovell the Dog Rule all England under a Hog For which one Colingborne was executed A Prince who deserved to be ranked among the worst men and the best Kings Yet Sir Francis Bacon in his History of Henry the seventh saith that his good Laws were but the brocage of an usurper
Honor deliciae Anglorum Malmesbury Or as Ingulphus ter meth him Honor Rosa Regum In his time all Ecclesiasticall Orders flourished learned and vertuous men were highly esteemed all Civil and forrign Warres ceased and he was called the King of Albion being no less powerfull by Sea than by Land Mexia's Treasury of time vol. 2. l. 7. c. 1. He was Angliciorbis flos decus nâ—â—n minus memâ—rabilis â—â—nglis quam Cyrus Persis Romulus Romanis Alexander Macedonibus Arsaces Parthis Carolus Magnus Francis as Malmesbury Abbot Ethelred Florentius Wigorniensis Simeon Dunelmensis Henry Huntingdon Matthew Westminster Râ—ger de Hoveden and others record of him Immediately after his death Res spes Anglorum retro sublapsae sunt totius Regni status est perâ—urbatus post tempus laetitiae quod illius tempore vigebat pacified caepit tribulatio undique advenire as Malmesbury Wigorniensis Hoveden Simeon Dunelmensis and Bromton observe Such an incomparable loss was the death of so just pious and prudent a King to the whole Nation Qui 〈◊〉 vitiâ— posâ—e◠〈◊〉 virtutibus deleviâ— when most others do quite contrary He raigned sixteen yeares and two moneths in great tranquillity and honour and died in the 37th year of his age After Edgar's death the Danes so plagued this Realm that there was nothing setled in it either in Church or State till finally they obtained the Kingdome The Danes raigned in England 25. years But Speed saith they molested England for two hundred eighteen years See Ayscu his Declaration of the first Inhabitants of this Island The Danes by strength caused Husbandmen to ear and sow the land and to do all other vile labour that belonged unto Husbandry and the Dane held his wise at pleasure with daughter and servant When the Husbandman came home he should scantly have of his own as his servants had so that the Dane had all at his commandement and did eat and drink his fill of the best when the owner had scant his fill of the worst Besides this the common people were so oppressed by them that for fear and dread they called them in every such house as they had rule of Lâ—rd Dane But in process of time after the Danes were voided the Land this word Lord Dane was in derision and despight of the Danes turned by English men into a name of reproach called Lurdane which yet is not forgotten for if one English man will rebuke another he will say Thou art but a Lurdane Grafton Edward sirnamed the Martyr The thirty first Monarch of the English men He began his Raign at twelve years of age Adolescens summae sanctitatis frugi ea modestia regnare caepit ut omnibus charissimus esseâ— quippe qui paternas virtutes gnaviter imitabatur Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. The end of this young King was lamentable being stabbed by his Stepmothers treachery when he was drinking a cup of wine on Horseback when he in kindness came to visit her through which wound fainting and falling from his Horse he was dragged to death by his foot intangled in the stirrop He raigned three years and six some say eight moneths CHAP. VIII ETHELRED FOx calls him Egelred or Elred The two and thirtieth Monarch of the English men He was a man neither for ward in action nor fortunate in proceedings and therefore commonly called the unready He defiled the Font at his Baptism with his ordure whereupon Dunstan being troubled in his mind by the Lord said he and his blessed mother this childe shall prove a sloathfull person He was half Brother to King Edward who was treacherously murdered and so much lamented his Brothers murder saith Malmesbury l. 2. c. 10. being then but a childe of ten years old and so detested it that his Mother Elfrida falling therewith in a rage took wax Candles having nothing else at hand wherewith she scourged him so sore well near till he swouned that after the same he could never abide any wax Candles to butâ— befor him Of his Laws vide Lambardum de priscis Anglorum legibus The Danes grew upon him so fiercely that he was forced to purchase his peace from them with great summes of money to the undoing of his poor Kingdome To put a period to this insufferable vassâ—lage a bloudy massacre was executed upon them by the Kings secret Commission on St Brices day but such bruitish courses never find a wished close He most unfortunately raigned thirty seven years and nine dayes Edmund sirnamed Ironside The thirty third Monarch of the English men and the third son to Ethelred He was of personage tall for courage hardy strong of limmes and well could endure the travels of Warre whence some conceive that sirname was given him not for that he used to go alwayes in armour as some would have it He fought with Cnute a royall single duâ—ll first on horseback then on â—oot in the Isle of Olerenge or Olney near Glocester in the midst of Severn in the view of both their Armies with extraordinary courage and equall success till they were both quite tired but neither of them vanquished At last upon Cnuâ—es motion they began to parly in a friendly manner and divided the Realm between them Edmund enjoying that part which lay coasted upon France and Canutus entred upon the rest But Ironside enjoyed not long his part for Duke Edrick a very compound of treasons contrived the end of renowned Edmund who being retired to a place for natures necessity he thrust from under the draught a sharp spear into his body and having thus murthered him he cut off his head presenting it to Canutus with this â—awning salutation All hail thou now sole Monarch of England for herâ— behold the head of thy Co-partner which for thy sake I have adventured to cut off Canutus though ambitious enough of Soveraignty yet abhorring in his heart so detestable a murther and knowing that he who was faithless to his naturall Soveraign would never be faithfull to him a stranger commanded his head to be divided from his shoulders and placed upon the highest gate in London Mors hujus Principis sanè miserabilis fuit tum quod florem ejus aetatis rapuerit tum quod totum regnum in praeceps dederit His Raign continued only seven moneths in which time he fought seven or eight Battels in defence of his Countrey People and their Liberties By his untimely death the Saxonâ—Monarchy â—Monarchy was devolved to the Danes CHAP. IX The Danes Monarchs CANUTUS THe first Danish King raigning in England and the thirty fourth Monarch of the English men He is more truly called Cnute Cui ex magnitudine rerum gestarum magni nomen accessit Krantzii hist. Daniae l. 4. A valiant and prudent Prince This Invader of Ironside's Kingdome the better to secure his Empire against Prince Alfred and Edward Edmunds Brothers married Emma his Queen After this marriage to