it is reported that a Virgin * might travell alone in his dayes through all his Dominions without any violence offered and that Bracelets of gold were hanged in the high wayes and no man so hardy as to take them away William the first so well provided for execution of Justice upon offenders that a young maiden well charged with gold might travell in any part of the Realm without any offer of injury unto her Hayw. He permitted none in office in Court or elsewhere unless he were learned which incited his Nobles to the earnest pursuit of learned Arts and to train up their children in good letters He caused all former Lawes to be surveyed and made choice of the best which he translated into the English tongue He begins his Lawes with a religious Majesty Loquutus est Dominus ad Mosem hos sermones c. and cites all the Decalogue Abbot Ethelred gives this encomium of his Lawes Leges Christianissimas scripsit promulgavit in quibus fides ejus devotio in Deum sollicitudo in subditos misericordia in pauperes justitia circa omnes cunctis legentiâ—us patet He had so great a love to learning that he made a Law that all Freemen of the Kingdome possessing two Hides of Land should bring up their sons in learning till they were fifteen years of age at least that so they might be trained to know God to be men of understanding and to live happily He bestowed the sixth part of his riches and Rents upon the poor strangers of the Countrey and sent every year little less to forraign Churches without the Realm Dalechamps Christian hospitality c. 3. He was very learned a quality rare in his time and as Solomon Alexander the Great Iulius Caesar Augustus and our Charlemagne saith Andre Du Chesne he joyned learning and valour and was clement liberall pious and devout and adorned with all royall vertues and endowments I may in some respects compare him with Almansor the learned and victorious King that conquered Spain He was at fifteen years so skilfull in the seven liberall Sciences that they who were the most learned in them spake of them in his presence with much fear and bashfulness for at every other word he corrected the imperfections which proceeded out of their ignorance At the five and twentieth year of his age he spake eleven languages reading and writing them as perfectly as the very Naturals themselves He divided the dayes of the week after this manner The Friday for matters of his Religion in which he was very devout The Saturday for matters of Justice The Sunday for matters of Warre The Munday for the government of his Kingdomes The Tuesday and Wednesday for his recreations and private affairs And the Thursday for matters of learning He chastised theeves so severely that none durst take any thing from other neither in City nor in Countrey as well in deserts as in peopled placeâ— And in so great awe they were of him that if any one had lost ought in the street or Market-place none durst meddle therewith otherwise than to leave it at the next Shop and cause it to be cryed till the owner were found to whom it was to be restored None ever â—ought for alms or succour at his hands whether he were Moor Christian or Jew that went away unrelieved He was worthily called the Conquerour being never overcome He won eighty six Battels by Sea and by Land and took five Kings subdued three parts of the world Asia Africke and Europe His life and death by Ashley Alfred's Arms are to be seen in the publike Hall of University-Colledge in Oxford The Archdeacon of Huntington speaking of the continuall travail he had during his Raign relates these Verses of him Nobilitas innata tibi probitatis honorem Armipotens Aelfrede dedit probitasque laborem Perpetuumque labor nomen cui mixta dolori Gaudia semper erant spes semper mixta timori Si modo victor eras ad crastina bella pavebas Si modo victus eras ad crastinâ— bella parabas Cui veâ—tes sudore jugi cui â—â—eca cruore Tincla jugi quâ—â—ntum sâ—t onus regnare probarunt Non fuit immensi quisquam per climata mundi Cui tot in adversis vel respirare liceret Nec tamen aut ferro contritus poncre ferrum Aut gladio potuit vitae finisse labores Iam post transactos vitae regnique dolores Christus ei sit vera quies sceptrumque perenne He raigned twenty seven years say some twenty eight saith Powell the writer of his life Ingulphus saith he died in the twenty ninth year of his Raign CHAP. VI. EDWARD the elder THe twenty fourth King of the West-Saxons and twenty fifth Monarch of the English men Fuit Edwardus forma eximia ac per omnes aetatis gradus decentissima Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. Before the conquest of the Normans there were in England three Edwards 1. This Edward the elder 2. Edward the Martyr 3. Edward the Confessor We have had more Kings of England of this name than of any other nine in all three before the conquest and six after it Verstegans Etymology of our Saxon proper names Henry the name of seven Emperours of Germany eight Kings of England four Kings of France four Kings of Castile Phillips his new world of English words He was heir apparent to his Father Alfreds valour and vertues as well as to his Crown Some say he was the great Iustinian of our Nation Our Laws being suppressed by the Danish Kings were revived and reinforced in the time of Edward the Confessor whence they had the name of Edward the Confessors Laws He raigned in great Warres and honour the space of twenty four years So Henricus Huntingdoniensis saith Paternum regnum tenuit 24. annis Ethelstan or Adelstan The twenty fifth King of the West Saxons and the twenty sixth Monarch of the English men He was crowned at that Kingly Town Kingston In Regia villa in Regem levatur Rog. de Hoveden He began his Kingdome with War and ended in peace and tranquillity He was the worthiest Prince saith Lhoyd of Saxon bloud that ever raigned Being seduced by the bad Counsell and false suggestions of one of his favourites he banished his Brother Edwin unjustly commanding him to be sent to Sea with only one servant and in a Boat without Oar or Sail wherein he perished His Cup-bearer after in his service upon festivall stumbled with the one foot and recovering himself with the other pleasantly said You see how one Brother helpeth another upon which speech the King with grief and touch of heart called to mind the death of his innocent Brother occasioned by his wicked Counsell and forthwith commanded execution to be done on him the procurer and himself was ever after more tender and carefull toward his other Brethren Leyland in his new years gift to King Henry
all the benefits he could yea and given his own sister iâ— marriage he raised a most dangerous War and spoiled shamefully a great part of England under pretence of restoring the Commonwealth and maintaining liberty neither left he any thing undone to bring the King under to change the State of a Mâ—â—â—rchy to bring in an Oligarchy But in the 〈◊〉 after that fortune had for a good while favourably smiled upon him he was slain at Eveshâ—m in Worcestershire with many other of the Barons his Complices by the prowess of Prince Edward 〈…〉 〈…〉 Although the Kingdome endured great Crosses in the affairs of State under this King yet some have thought that it found as great a blessing in matters of Religion which in those dayes took so deep root in this our Land by the preaching of Iohn Wickliffe that the branches thereof did spread themselves even over the Seas Speeds Chronicle He was the onely Son of that famous Cheiftain the black Prince of Wales a renowned son of a renowned father but as a plant transplanted into a savage soyl in degree and disposition wholly degenerate retained a tincture of the light inconstancy of his Mother and the luxuriousness of his great Grandfather Edward the second and running his course came to his end He had in his Court a thousand persons in ordinary allowance of diet three hundred servitors in his Kitchin above three hundred Ladies Chamberers and Landerers His Apparel was sumptuous and so was it generally in his time he had one Coat of gold and stone valued at thirty thousand Marks One interview with the French King at Ards when his Wife Isabel was delivered unto him cost three hundred thousand Markâ— Queen Anne his Wife Daughter to the Emperour Charles the fourth first taught English women the manner of sitting on horseback which now is used whereas before-time they rode very unseemly astride like as men do The Civil Wars in England had their beginning from his bad Government Henry the fourth did first commence them and Henry the fifth suspended them but they again brake forth under Henry the sixth Wat Tyler the Master of the Kentish Rebels was slain with a Dagger by William Walworth Mayor of London close by the Kings side in the Kings defence who was therefore Knighted and the City since giveth for Arms the Dagger He was first deposed then slain Men are easily emboldened saith Guicciardine c. 3. of his History of Italy against a Prince that is fallen into contempt The most current report at that time went that he was Princely served every day at the Table with abundance of costly meats according to the order prescribed by Parliament but was not suffered to taste or touch any one of them and so perished of famine Mr. Fox saith he was at Pamfret Castle famished to death Sir Pierce of Extone at last killed him though he with an Axe wrested out of one of their hands first killed four of those which came with him to murther him At the point of his death he groaned forth these words My great Grandfather King Edward the second was in this manner deposed imprisoned and murthered by which means my Grandfather King Edward the third obtained possession of the Crown and now is the punishment of that injury powred upon his next successor Well this is right for me to suffer but not for you to do your King for a time may joy at my death and enjoy his desire but let him qualifie his pleasures with the expectation of the like justice for God who measureth all our actions by the malice of our minds will not suffer this violence unrevenged He lived three and thirty years raigned two and twenty and three moneths Thus far the Plantagenets have continued in an unquestionable right line now follows the division of the houses of Lancaster York three of each succeeding in their order Of Lancaster Henry the fourth sirnamed Bulling brook Henry the fifth of Monmouth Henry the sixth of Windsor Of Yorke three others succeeded upon a better title 1. Edward the fourth 2. Edward the fifth 3. Richard the third HENRY the fourth He was son to Iohn of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster from the loynâ— of whom the greatest number of the Kings of England Spain Portugall since his time as also several other persons of eminent dignity are descended Mr. Dugdalâ—s History of St. Pauls Cathedrall He was annointed with an oyl which a certain religious man gave unto Henry the first Duke of Lancaster Grandfather to the King by the mothers side when he served in the Wars of King Edward the third beyond the seas together with this Prophesie that the Kings which should be annointed therewith should be the Champions of the Church There was a great contest then between the white and red Rose the houses of Yorke and Lancaster The red Rose prevailed now he being the first renowned King of the house of Lancaster He first studied a popular party as needing all to support his titles There was in his Raign a Parliament held at Coventry called Parliamentum indoctorum the lack-learning Parliament either for the unlearnedness of the persons or for their malice to learned men During the time of this Kings Raign execution by fire was first put in practice within this Realm for controversies in points of Religion He shed the bloud of Gods Saints and raigned neither long nor hâ—pâ—ily Mr. Foxâ—aith â—aith his time was full of trouble bloud and misery He was the first of the Kings of England saith he that put out his hand to the shedding of the bloud of the Saints since the conquest Humphrey his son was by his brother King Henry the fifth created Duke of Glocester he was Protector of the Kingdome of England for twenty five years in the time of King Henry the sixth He was a man who nobly deserved of the Commonwealth and of learning as being himself very learned and a magnificent Patron and benefactor of the University of Oxford where he had been educated and was generally called the good Duke Speed This Duke Humphrey purchased a wonderfull number of Books in all Sciences whereof he freely gave to a Library in Oxford a hundred and twenty nine fair Volumes Bales Conclusion to Leylands New years gift to King Henry the eight One saith all the Henries of the house of Lancaster even to Henry the seventh were most eminent for great vertues Henry the fourth for his behaviour and courtesie Henry the fifth for his valour and magnanimity Henry the sixth for his justice and piety The renowned Prince King Henry the fifth during the life of his father was noted to be fierce and of wanton courage One of his servants whom he favoured was for felony by him committed arraigned at the Kings Bench whereof the Prince being advertised and incensed by light persons about him in furious rage came hastily to the Barre
report of the death of Britic he with great speed returned out of France where during the time of his abode he had served with good commendation in the Warres under Charles the Great by meanes whereof his reputation encreasing among his own Country-men he was thought worthy of the Government before he obtained it He first gave this Kingdom the name of England He ordained by publick Edict that the Heptarchy possessed by the Saxons should be called thence forward the Land of the English whence the Latines took also their name Anglia and the French that d' Angleterre There were three hundred years from King Egbert unto William the Conquerour He raigned over the West-Saxons thirty six years and seven moneths and Monarch of the whole Island seventeen Ethelwulfe The nineteenth King of the West-Saxons and the twentieth Monarch of the English men He being once himself nuzled in that order was alwayes good and devout to religious orders He was so well learned and so devout that the Clerks of the Church of Winchester did choose him in his youth to be their Bishop which function he took upon him and was Bishop of Winchester for seven years before he was King The History of Cambria by Lhoyd augmented by Doctor Powell p. 32. A Monk a Deacon and a Bishop yet elected King because they could not finde a fitter person for the Crown Necessitate cogente factus est Rex Roger Hoveden He ordained that Tythes and church-Church-Lands should be free from all taxes and Regall services Ethelwolphus Rex omnium historicorum consensu fide praestantissimus nec pietatis magis quà m rerumoptimé gestarum laude celebriâ— illustris Anti Sanderus Dialogo secundo Polyd. Virgil in the fifth Book of his English History saith of King Alfred Atqui Neotum inprimis monasâ—icae professionis virum sanctissimum ob eximiam eruditionem miro amore complexus est quo hortante Oxonij gymnasium instituit proposita mercede omnibus His second son by his Queen Iudith daughter of Charles the bald Emperour King of France Neote was much addicted to learning and was one of the first Divinity readers in the University of Oxford He was interred in the County of Huntington at a place then called Arnulphsbury and afterwards in regard of his interment St. Neots and now St. Needes This King was famous for having four sons who all of them were Kings of this Land successively He raigned twenty years one moneth and nine dayes Ethelbald The twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the twenty first Monarch of the English men He took Iudith his stepmother to be his wife this prodigious incest was soone punished by his untimely death He raigned five years Ethelbert The one and twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the two and twentieth Monarch of the English men The first Christned Prince of all the Saxon Nation Omnium Anglo-Saxonum regum Christi nominis primus hospes Twini Comment de rebus Brittanicis His name signifieth nobly-conceited or advised or of noble conceit or advisement Verstegan He raigned over the Kentish-South and East-Saxons ten years and was Monarch of the whole only five Ethelred The two and twentieth King of the West-Saxons and the twenty third Monarch of the English men Great was the valour of this King for in his short time of Raign as Malmesbury and other Writers record he fought no less than nine set Battels against the Danes in one year in most of them victorious At Wintburne in Darset-shire there is this Epitaph written on his Tomb. In hoc loro quiescit corpus S. Ethelredi Regis West-Saxonum Martyris qui anno Domini DCCCLXXII XXIII Aprilis per manus Danorum Pagâ—norum occuâ—â—uit He raigned in great trouble five years saith Malmesbury CHAP. V. Alfred Aelfred or Alvred THe twenty third King of the West-Saxons and twenty fourth Monarch of the English men He was the first annointed King of England as glorious for his most excellent Laws transcendent Justice and Civil Government as for his martiall exploits victories and for his incomparable piety and extraordinary bounty to the Clergy and learned men Of his great memory when he was young vide Asserium de Aelfredi rebus gestis He was accounted a good Grammarian Rhetorician Philosopher Musician and Poet. His Raign began with troubles and Warres in defence of the Land which the Pagan Danes intended to destroy and though his powers were small yet was he forced into the field within one moneth after his Coronation He fought no less than forty six bloudy Battels saith Spelman with the Danes by Land and Sea for his Countries liberties Vir in bellâ— per omnia strenuissimus Asserius He was once brought to that extremity that he was forced to leave his Companies and lurk in Somerset-shire Marshes The solitary place of his most residency was an Island inclosed with two Rivers Thane and Parret at their meetings in the County of Somerset commonly called Edeling seâ— where he in very poor attire disguised was entertained into a Cow-heards service where on a time as he sate by the fire in trimming of his Bow and shaâ—ts a Cake of dough baking on the hearth before him chanced to burn the Cowheardess coming in and seeing him minde his Bow more than his bread in a great â—ury cast away both his Bow and arrowes and checking him said Thou fellow dost thou see the bread burn before thy face and wilt not turn it and yet art thou glad to eat it before it be half baked Of the naturall dayes twenty four hours eight he allotted for devotion and contemplation eight for refection and recreation and the eight remaining for matters of the Commonwealth Iulius Caesar having spent the whole day in the field about his military affairs divided the night also for three severall uses one part for his sleep a second for the Commonwealth and publike business the third for his studies Peacham He translated Gregories Pastorals Bâ—les History and Boethius de Consolatione Philosophiae into the Saxon tongue and began to do the like with Davids Psalmes In divinis libris sacra lectione tam assiduus erat quod Davidicum Psalterium vel aliquem alium librum aedisicâ—â—torium in sinu suo semper ferret viros literatissimâ—s de terris exteris ad se accersens aliquandiu in Palatio suo secum pro sacris literis addiscendis retentos demum diversis praelatiis dignitatibus premoveret Ingulphi Historia p. 870. vide plura ibid. p. 871. He restored the decayed University of Oxford by fixing therein a Colledge now bearing the name of Vniversity-Colledge and annexed ample maintenance unto it He divided his Kingdome into Shires Hundreds and Tithings for the better ordering and administring of justice and for the abandoning of theeves which had formerly encreased by the meanes of long Warres whereby notwithstanding the multitude of Souldiers continually imployed
the eighth reckons him amongst other learned men of the Kings Progenitors The chiefest of his works for the service of God and good of his Subjects was the translation of the Bible into the Saxon tongue which was then the mother-tongue of the Land out of the Hebrew Of this work Leyland also speaks in the work before-mentioned His Laws are mentioned by Lambard in his Saxon Laws He raigned in great honour the space of fifteen years and odd moneths Edmund The twenty sixth King of the West Saxons and twenty seventh Monarch of the English men The good Laws he made are extant in Saxon and Latine by the industry of Mr William Lambard He had by his Queen Elgina two sons Edwin and Edgarus sirnamed Pacificus which both raigned after him By him were expelled the Danes Scots Normans and all forraign enemies out of the Land He raigned six years and a half At his Mannor of Puclekerkes in the County of Glocester whilest he interposed himself between his Sewer and one Leof to part a fray he was with a thrust through the body wounded to death when he had prosperously raigned the space of five years and seven moneths Rogerus de Hoveden annal part 1. Malmesbury l. 2. c. 7. and others say this Leof was a thief which the King espying at a festivall he pulled him by the hair and cast him to the ground but he drawing out his weapon stabbed the King Vide Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 6. Edred The twenty seventh King of the West Saxons and twenty eighth Monarch of the English men He suffered his body to be chastised at the will and direction of Dunstan Abbot of Glassenbury unto whose custody he also committed the greatest part of his treasure and richest Jewels to be lockt in his chests and under the keys of this Monastery where it remained till the King fell sick of his last sickness at which time it was demanded but never restored for Dunstan being on his journey with the same to the King a voice from heaven spake unto him and said Behold King Edred is now departed in peace at the hearing of which words his horse immediately fell down and died Whereupon he returned again to his Monastery and though he lost his horse yet was he recompenced thereby with the gain of the Kings treasure and Jewels He raigned in great honour nine years and odd moneths Edwin or Edwy The twenty eighth King of the West Saxons and twenty ninth Monarch of the English men He was but thirteen years old when he began to raign He was Nephew to Edred He favoured not the Monkes which made them write so scandalously of him He thrust them out of Malmesbury and Glassenbury placing married Priests in their room and banished Dunstan their great Champion into Flanders The true causes of his banishing him ejecting the Monkes and seizing their lands and treasures was that Dunstan had so bewitched Edmund Edward Aethelstan and Aedred his predecessours with the love of Monkery as they not only took violently from married Priests their livings to erect Monasteries but also lavishly wasted much of their own royall treasures lands and revenues upon them which they should rather have imployed in resisting the common enemies of God and their Countrey the Danes Ioscelin the Author of Antiq. Brit. Bishop Godwin Speed and others conceive that the true cause why the Mercians and Northumbrians and those only not the rest of his Subjects and Kingdome rejected him and set up his Brother Edgar whose vices were more exorbitant in some degrees than Edwins was the malice of Dunstan and Odo the pillars and Oracles of the Monkish Clergy who stirred up the Mercians and seditious rebellious Northumbrians against him to set up Edgar in his stead who was totally devoted to them and Dunstan by whose counsels he was afterwards wholly guided and built no less than forty seven new Monasteries for the Monks besides all those he repaired intending to build three more had he lived to make them fifty compleat He raigned but four years CHAP. VII EDGAR THe thirtieth Monarch of the English men The Raign of this King is said to have been altogether in a calm tranquillity and therefore he was sirnamed Pacificus the Peaceable His vertues were many and vices not a few the one gloriously augmented and the other fairly excused by those Monkish writers unto whose professions he was most favourable Tunc ordo Monasticus jamjudum lapsus pâ—acipuè caput erexit Malmesb. l. 2. c. 8. He unravelling the web his Brother had weaved recalled Dunstan out of banishment and made him Archbishop of Canterbury His Summer progresses and yearly chief pastimes were the sayling round abouâ— this whole Isle of Albion guarded with his grand Navy of four thousand sail at the least parted into four equall parts of petty Navies each being of a thousand Ships Dee's Brittish Monarchy p. 56 57. he calls him there that Saxonicall Alexander See more there and p. 55 58 59 60. He appointed the Prince of North Wales to bring him yearly three hundred skins of Wolves for a tribute which continued for three years space but in the fourth was not a Wolf to be found and so the tribute ceased Upon the River Dee he had seven petty Kings to row his Barge to shew his greatness He was very lascivious Leges apprimè utiles tulit quas vetustas in oblivionem fermè adduxit Of his Laws vide Lambardum de prisâ—is Anglorum legibus It is sure enough there have not been more famous men than some of no great stature as the instance of King Pipin in the French History and this King in our own will make manifest In the time that the Saxons had this Realm in subjection he had subdued all the other Kings Saxons and made them his Tributaries On a time he had tâ—all all with him at dinner and after it was shewed him that Rynaud King of Scots had said that he wondered how it should happen that he and other Kings that were tall and great personages would suffer themselves to be subdued by so little a body as Edgar was Edgar dissembled and answered nothing but faining to go on hunting took with him the Scottish King in his company and purposely withdrew him from them that were with him causing by a secret servant two swords to be conveyed into a place in the forrest by him appointed As soon as he came thither he took the one sword and delivered the other to Rynaud bidding him to prove his strength and to essay whether his deeds would ratifie his words Turpe est enim Regi in convivio esse dicaculum nec esse in praelio promptulum Whereat the Scottish King being abashed beholding the noble conrage of Edgâ—r with an horrible fear confessed his errour desiring pardon which he with most humble submission at the last obtained For his excellent vertues and prosperouâ— Raign he was called
at a certain interview between the King and Pope Innocent the second the sons of Robert Earl of Mellent maintained open disputations against divers Cardinals and Chaplains of the Pope Sir Iohn Hayward To purchase the favour of the Clergy he called Anselme out of exile and restored him both to the dignity and revenues of the See of Canterbury He committed Radulph alias Ranulph Bishop of Durham to prison who had been both author and agent to King William in most of his distrustfull actions against the Clergy To make the Clergy the more assured the King renounced the right which his Ancestours used in giving Investitures and acknowledged the same to appertain to the Pope The Clergy did much favour him by reason of his liberall leave either to erect or to enlarge or else to enrich religious buildings For to these works the King was so ready to give not only way but encouragement and help that in no Princes time they did more within this Realm either flourish or encrease Sir Iohn Hayward numbers twenty five religious buildings either done or helped forward or permitted and allowed by the King This King being born in England and the Queen of English bloud-royall raised the depressed English Nation again unto honour and credit He restored them to the use of fire and candle after eight of the Clock at night which his Father had most straitly forbidden He being a wise Prince and well knowing that an Empire gotten by force could no longer remain then that force continued sent into Scotland and took to Wife Maud the daughter of Queen Margaret sister to Edgar Etheling who was now dead and left no issue whereby this Maud was the heir of the Saxon line and in her brought back again to us the ancient English blood-royall before it had descended beyond one generation from the Conquerour in whose line it continueth unto this day She was adorned with all royall vertues principally with piety and humility These Verses were made in her commendation Prospera non laetam fecere nec aspera tristem Aspera risus ei prospera terror erant Non decor effecit fragilem non sceptra superbam Sola potens humilis sola pudica decens She being married against her will seeing she must violate the vow of her virginity she cursed her of-spring if any came of her which was not altogether vain saith Polyd. Virgil in regard they were all afterward drowned He reduced Normandy to England He built therein many Castles and planted Garrisons and with no less wisdome assured that State then with valour he had won it He brought with him his Brother Robert into England and committed him to safe custody in the Castle of Cardiffe He striving to escape was taken again committed to close prison his eyes put out and a sure guard set upon him Thus he remained in desolate darkness neither reverenced by any for his former greatness nor pitied for his present distress Thus he continued about twenty seven years in a life far more grievous then death even untill the year before the death of King Henry So long was he a suitor in wooing of death So long did the one Brother overlive his good fortune the other his good nature and disposition esteeming it a fair favour that the uttermost extremity was not inflicted He gave his daughter Maud the Empress in second marriage to the Earl of Anjou and his Sister Elix as some Chronicles call her to Steven Earl of Bloys Thence sprang the loss of this Kingdome to Maud during her life by being so far out of the land in another Countrey when she should have accepted it here Therof sprang the perjuries of Steven King of England enticed to a Kingdome through the commodity of his near place And thence came the Civill miseries to the people who through the incertainty of a Governour were in field and Arms one against another His daughter Maud as well as that Lacedemonian Lady Lampedo whom Pliny maketh mention of was a Kings daughter a Kings wife and a Kings mother Daughter of this Henry the first King of England wife of Henry the fourth Emperour of Germany and mother to Henry the second King of England Concerning which matter there is this Distick engraven on her Tomb. Magna ortu majórque viro sed maxima partu Hîc jacet Henrici filia sponsa parens The daughter wife the mother eke of Henry lieth here Much blest by birth by marriage more but most by issue dear He was a great administrer of justice and the first that ordained that theeves should be hanged He ordained that counterfeiters of money should lose both their eyes and be deprived of their privy parts He took away the deceit which had been occasioned by variety of measures and made measure by the length of his own arm which hath been commonly used ever since by the name of a yard He is yet alive in his Laws See his Laws in Lambard de priscis Anglorum legibus His expences were chiefly in his Warres and his many and great fortifications in Normandy His buildings were the Abbey of Reading the Castle of Warwicke of Bristoll the Mannour of Woodstocke and the great inclosure of that Park with a stone Wall seven miles about There was a singular and most remarkable example of Gods justice upon his children For when the King both by force crast and cruelty had dispossest over-reacht and lastly made blind and destroyed his elder Brother Duke of Normandy to make his own sons Lords of his Land God cast them all male and female Nephews and Neeces Maud excepted into the bottome of the Sea with above a hundred and fifty others that attended them whereof a great many were noble and of the King dearly beloved Evasit unus ille agrestis qui tota nocte malo supernatans mane totius tragediae actum expressit Malmesb. de Henrico primo l. 5. Vide Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 11. p. 191. Nulla unquam navis fuit Anglâ—ae tantae miseriae nulla toto orbi tam patulae famae His usuall Oath was By our Lords death and so was Queen Elizabeths He first instituted the form of the High-Court of Parliament as now it is in use The first Parliament was held at Salisbury upon the nineteenth day of April in the sixteenth year of his Raign See Lamberts Archeion p. 240 241 242 243. When Matilde his daughter was given in marriage to Henry the fifth Emperour he took three shillings of every Hide of land throughout the Realm which being followed by succeeding Kings did grow to a custome of receiving aid whensoever they gave their daughters in marriage About this time the marriage of Priests was forbidden in England but the King for money permitted them to retain their wives and in the end set an imposition in that respect upon every Church throughout the Realm It availed not any man
Rosa munda Non redolet sedolet quae redolere solet Being much incensed against Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury he once cried out Me miserum non possum in meo regno pacem cum uno sacerdote habere nec quisquam meorum omnium est qui me hac molestia liberare velit Which words were so interpreted by some that it occasioned his death Stapleton a Jesuit put forth a Book entituled Tres Thomae St. Thomas the Apostle Thomas of Becket and Sir Thomas More He canonizeth the two last and writes far more of them then of the first For the death of Thomas Becket Archbishop of Canterbury he was scourged with rods by the Monks of Canterbury and had eighty lashes Geffery Archbishop of Yorke and base son to King Henry the second used proudly to protest by his faith and the Royalty of the King his father To whom one said You may sometimes Sir as well remember what was the honesty of your mother Petrus Blesensis was Archdeacon of Bath under him There was a very strange presage of his death by a Meer or Pool in Normandy for all the Fishes therein leapt forth on land in the night time and fought together with such a dreadfull noise that men came in great numbers to behold the wonder and not one Fish could be found alive in the Pool Other strange accidents are also reported When he died there were found in his Coffers nine hundred thousand pounds besides Plate and Jewels His youngest son was called Iohn Lackland because he had no land assigned him in his fathers time Titles he lacked none for his father had made him Earl of Cornwall Dorset Sommerset Nottingham Derby and Lancaster He raigned thirty four yeares seven moneths and five dayes CHAP. XV. RICHARD the first HE was for his valour sirnamed Coeur de Lion or the Lions heart Hugh Nevill a Gentleman of noble linage one of King Richards speciall familiars is recorded to have slain a Lion in the holy land driving first an Arrow into his brest and then running him through with his Sword Whereupon this Hexameter was made Viribus Hugonis vires periere Leonis The strength of Hugh a Lion slew Which atchievment belike was transferred from the man to the Master and the Story applied to the King by name of King Richard Coeur de Lion But this is only Weevers opinion He was crowned at Westminster by Baldwin Archbishop of Canterbury He being at dinner in his Hall of Westminster hearing the French King besieged Vernoyâ—e he swore that he would never turn his face till he had fought with him if he did abide and caused the wall to be broken before him and so passed to Normandy and receiving his brother Iohn to mercy raised the siege for the French King fled as soon as he heard of Kings Richards coming A Prince of a most haughty mind and full of resolution born for the Weal of Christendome the honour of England and the terrour of Infidels With the beams of his victories atchieved in Cypres and Syria he made our Countrey of England most famous and renowned through the world He had trained up in his Court a Rymer or Minstrell called Blondell de Neste who being so long without the sight of his Lord his life seemed wearisome to him It was known that he came back from the holy land but none could tell in what Countrey he arrived Whereupon this Blondell resolving to make search for him in many Countries but he would hear some news of him after expence of divers dayes in travell he came to a Town by good hap near to the Castle where his Master King Richard was kept Of his Host he demanded to whom the Castle appertained and the Host told him it belonged to the Duke of Austria Then he enquired whether any prisoner was there detained or no for alwayes he made such secret questionings wheresoever he came and the Host answered that there was one only prisoner but he knew not what he was and yet he had been detained there more then the space of a year When Blondell heard this he used such meanes that he became acquainted with them of the Castle as Minstrels do easily win acquaintance any where but see the King he could not neither understand that it was he One day he sate directly before a window of the Castle where King Richard was kept prisoner and began to sing a song in French which King Richard and Blondell had sometime composed together When King Richard heard the song he knew it was Blondell that sung it and when Blondell paused at half of the song the King entreated him to sing the rest Thus Blondell won knowledge of the King his Master and returning home into England made the Barons of the Countrey acquainted where the King was Whereas before his time the City of London was governed by Portgraves he granted them to be governed by two Sheriffs and a Maior as now it is Iohn the Kings brother making an incursion up to Beauvois where the Bishop being also an Earl of the royall bloud and the eleventh Peer of France valiantly fighting was taken in the skirmish armed at all points and bravely mounted on whose behalf the Pope upon the Bishops humble suit pleading the Clergies immunity wrote somewhat earnestly to King Richard to set his very dear son for so he called the Bishop at liberty The King in a kind of pleasant earnestness caused the Habergeon and Curaces of the Bishop to be presented to the Pope with this question Vide an tunica filii tui sit an non Whereupon the Pope replied That he was neither his son nor the son of the Church and therefore should be ransomed at the Kings will because he was rather judged to be a servitor of Mars then a souldier of Christ. In his time were those famous Out-laws called Robin-hood and Little Iohn He was wounded in the arm by an Arrow shot at him out of a Cross-bow by Peter Bisile of which wound he died within four dayes after CHAP. XVI King Iohn WHose Raign had it not fallen in the time of so turbulent a Pope so ambitious neighbour-Princes so disloyall Subjects nor his Story into the hands of exasperated Writers he had appeared a King of as great renown as misfortunes His overhasty undertakings brought in those broyls of the Barons Wars Before this Kings time we seek in vain for any great Councel He first as may be gathered though darkly by the Record used their Councels and Assents in the sixth year of his Raign He had by his Wife Isabel a son Henry who succeeded him in the Kingdome In his voyage towards Ireland as he was in his journey in the borders of Wales there was one taken and brought before him who had killed a Priest The Officer desired to understand the Kings pleasure what he would have done to him Let him
CHOICE OBSERVATIONS OF ALL THE KINGS OF ENGLAND FROM THE SAXONS To the Death of KING CHARLES the First COLLECTED Out of the best Latine and English VVriters who have Treated of that Argument By EDVVARD LEIGH Esquire and Master of Arts of Magdalen Hall in Oxford LONDON Printed for Ioseph Cranford at the Sign of the Gun in St. Pauls Church-yard 1661. TO HIS SACRED MAJESTY CHARLES the Second King of Great-Bâ—ittain France and Ireland Most Gracious Soveraigne I Hope this Dedication of these my Collections concerning all the Kings of England to your Sacred Majesty from the first of them of whom there is any thing credible in story to the decease of your Royall Father will not be interpreted either a fruit of ambition or over-bold presumption I have had the honour formerly to dedicate Books to very eminent Societies and Persons but never to any so signally eminent and publike a Person as your Majesty And should not have taken the confidence to have begun now but that in regard of the Argument I treat of I thought there was an obligation upon me and that of right such a Work was to be presented onely to Him who is the just and unquestionable Successour to all those Kings I here mention I finde it usuall with those who either wrote Chronicles in generall or the reigns of some particular Princes to inscribe the Name of the King or Prince then living to their Works I wish my Observations were as choice as the subject is sutable Since Cadwallader the last King of the Britains there was none born Prince of Great-Britain but your Majesty Hactenus Anglorum nulli was therefore the Motto on the Medals made in memory of your Birth-day the 29th of May 1630 with three Laurels upon them betokening three Kingdoms May your raign be as prosperous and happy as your birth was glorious and illustrious your deliverance by Sea at your entrance into Scotland and your escape by Land at Worcester-fight and after in England and your happy restitution to your Kingdom was wonderfull and conspicuous Kings have their regal Titles and Ornaments To the Kings of Spain from the time of Alphonsus King of Castile about 800 years agoe for expelling the Arians was given the Title of Catholike as Michael Ritius a Neapolitan writeth To the French King the Title of most Christian from the time of Philip the Emperour about 400 years since as recordeth Nicol Gillius To our King Henry the 8th of England for his Book of the Sacraments against Luther Pope Leo the 10th gave the Title Defender of the Faith which his Successors have since enjoyed though in another sense than it was first intended Henry the 5th reigning amongst us his Subjects gave him the Title of Grace Under Henry the Saint the 6th Excellent was added to Grace Under Henry the 8th the acclamation of Majesty began a little after excellent Majesty most excellent and at last Sacred Majesty which now is generally used Kings are crowned enthronized and anointed the Crown was a sign of a Military dominion the Throne of sedentary or judiciall the Oyl of Religious and sacred power A King by vertue of his Kingly Office hath two things to perform 1. To govern 2. To defend His Governing also divideth it self into two branches First To direct Secondly To recompence He directeth by appointing what shall be done and forborn of all his subjects in his Jurisdiction He recompenceth or requiteth by punishing those which disobey the Laws with such punishments as himself thinketh good to appoint and to signifie to them in his penalties by which he ratifieth his Laws and by rewarding those which keep the Laws with such rewards as he seeth fit to specifie in his Statutes and in generall by making them partakers of the wealth peace quietness and happiness of his government He defendeth his subjects against the hostility of open enemies and the injuries of their fellow-subjects It was an excellent speech of Henry the Great King of France your Grand-father by the Mothers side When I was born there were a thousand other souls more born what have I done for God more than they Learned King Iames your Grand-father by the Father in his Book dedicated to Prince Henry would have him to remember that he differed not in stuff but in use from the rest of the people and that by Gods Ordinance Kings as well as others are bound to read the Scriptures Deut. 17. 18 19 20. and some think that Book of the Kings and Chronicles especially worthy their diligent perusall others would have them study well the 101 Psalm Next the Scriptures Ecclesiasticall History is to be preferred some highly commend Polybius as usefull for Kings to read and Causabon dedicating it to Henry the 4th King of France much magnifieth that Book and likewise the reading of History in generall The Chronicles and Annals of their own Predecessors surely must needs be both delightfull and profitable for them Your Majesty may observe many things in them well worthy imitation in Learned and valiant Alfred how thriftily he spent his time how he encouraged Learning and Learned men in little Edgar great Canutus William the Conquerour the many worthy Henries and Edwards your own wise Grand-father and Father of happy memory Yet in the whole series of the Kings and Queens of England as others have made severall parallels of some of our English Kings I have not found a fitter parallel in every respect for your Majesty than Queen Elizabeth I will not speak of her skill in the modern Languages and how she often answered Embassadors her self nor how gracious and gentle a Princess she was to her very enemies wherein your Majesty is not unlike to Her What troubles and hazards did she undergo before she came to the Crown with what joyfull and generall acclamations was she received into this Metropolis I need not apply this to your Majesty it s sufficiently obvious to every vulgar capacity how you agree herein After her Coronation being presented with a Bible as she passed by the little Conduit in Cheapside she received the same with both her hands and kissing it said That it had ever been her chief delight and should be the rule by which she meant to frame her Government Your Majesty in your entring into the City at the presentment of the Bible to you by the Reverend London Ministers used this speech worthy to be written in Gold I thank you for this Book above all other gifts and assure you I shall make it my first care to set up Gods Worship and service this is the Book must guide us all and I will make it the rule of my Life and reign Queen Elizabeth was a couragious and stout spirited Princess In 88 when the Spaniard was coming she went to the Army at Tilbury-Camp riding with a Truncheon or baston in her hand to the severall Companies and by her presence
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
Bastards as begotten in the highest heat and strength of affection have many times been men of excellent proof both in courage and in understanding â—his was verified in Hercules Alexander the great Romulus 〈◊〉 King Arthur in Homer Demosthenes Bartholus Gratian 〈…〉 Peter Comestor See Peacham compleat Gentleman c. 1. p 9. 〈…〉 alâ—cubi leâ—â—sse prisâ—os septentrionales populos etiam spurios 〈◊〉 in successionâ—m nec illâ—us igitur tituli gloriosum Angliae subactorem 〈◊〉 Normannâ—m puâ—â—â—â—sse videtur qui Epistolam ut alias plurâ—s ad Alanum Brittaniae minâ—ris comitem sic orditur Ego Wilielmus Cogâ—nâ—mâ—nto Bastardus Henrici Spelmanni Glossarium Vide Polyd. Virg. Aug. hist. l. 8. Sir Iohn Hayward in the life of William the first reports this jest somewhat otherwise though he agree in the substance The arrow was first brought into this Land by the Normans Hollinshed and Sir Iohn Hayward in William the first As long Bows were the weapons with which this King conquered England so they were the weapons with which England under after-Kings conquered France as if it were not enough for us to beat them unless we did beat them with their own weapons Sir Richard Baker Subjectis humilis apparebat facilis inexorabilis erat rebellibus Matth. Paris hist. Ang. Daniels History Vide Henrici Spelmanni Glossarium p 287. Curfu aliter Corerfu à Gal. Couvrir tege re feu ignis Latine Ignitagium Spelmanni Glossartum Vt ferociam populi ad otiumper-ducereâ— omnibus 〈◊〉 ademit statuit que ut quisque pater familias vesperi circiter horam octavam post meridiem tecto ciueribus igne dormitum tret ad ad signum vicatâ—m dari voluit per campanas it quot etiam nunc servatur Normannice vulgo dicitur Coverfu Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist l. 9. Lamberts Archeion p. 24. Monumentum totius Britranniae non dico antiquissimum sed absque controversia augustissimum duobus magnis voluminibus Angliae descriptionem continens Alià s Liber judiciarius alià s censualiâ— Angliae alià s Angliae noticia lustratio interdum Rotulus Regis à similitudine antiquioris Rotulus Wintoniae Liber Wintoniae nuncupatum Spelmanni Glossarium Vide plura ibid. 〈◊〉 praefat ad Eadmeri historiam Sir Iohn Hayward in his life p. 23. â—14 Sir Iohn Hayward Cardinal Perron the learned French man was a fat corpulent man and had a great belly A French Lady to quip him said thus to him Mouasieur quaâ—d vous vous accoucherez To whom he replyed Quand vouâ— sâ—ras sage femme Speed Silent lâ—gos inter arma Lambards Arâ—â—tion Verstegans Antiq. c. 6. p. 182. Pueritiam aâ—â— spem regui literis municbat subinde patre quoque audiento jactare Proverbium solitus Rex illiteratus Asinus coronatus Malmesb de Henrico primo l 5. One and twenty years and one moneth saith Fox Seventy four saith Polyd Virgil. Qua enim conditio sortis humanae non moneat ad pictatem cùm auditum suâ—rit Regem istum qui tantae potentiae in vitâ suâ extitit ut in tota Anglia in tota Normannia in tota Cinomanensi patria neâ—o contra imperium ejus manum movere auderet Mox ut in terram spiritum exhalaturus positus est ab omni homine sicut accepimus uno solo duntaxat serviente excepto derelictum cadaver ejus sine omni pompa per Sequanam naâ—cella delatum cum scpeliri deberet ipsam terram sepulturae illius à quodam rustico calumniatam qui eam hereditario jure reclamans conquestus est illam sibi jam olim ab codem injuria fuisse ablatam Eâ—dmeri historia novorum Viâ—â— Maâ—mesb Polyd. Virg. de Wilielmo primo * Or Courthosâ— of his short Hose or Brâ—eches Or Courtois of his courteous behaviour Sir Iobn Haywards Lives of the three Norman Kings of England p. 125. 222. See Renasus Morean in his Prolâ—gomena to his learned Animadversions by which he hath illustrated that work Vossius de Philosophia c. 12. Joannes de Meâ—iolano medicus nomine â—ollâ—gii Scholae Salernitanae conscripâ—i librum cui titulus Schola Salernitana Id ibid. By a fall from his Horse Deâ—raudaverat Gulielmus pater Robertum regno Angliae partim non oblitus ejus in se impietatis contumaciae partim veritus si ille id obtineret ne ejus facilitas qua praeditus erat ad defectionem paratiores non redderet Anglos quos ipse laeserat quapropter rem tutiore loco fore putà vit si Rufo cujus jampridem morum pariter acerbitatem atque immanitatem naturae cognitam habucrat committeretur Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 10. Sir Iohn Hayward * Brittarnia in Glocester-shire See more there of him He seems to have followed the example of Iacob who gave to his younger son Ioseph the land which he had taken with his Sword and his Bow Besides in the rebellion of his son Robert this son stood firmly for him and in his quarrell hazarded his life Sir Richard Baker Robert was then absent in Germany Incomparabilis proculdubio nostro tempore princeps si non â—um magnitudo patris obruâ—reâ— nec ejus juventutem fata praecipitassent ne per 〈◊〉 maturiorem aboleret â—rrores â—centia potestatis impetus juvenili contractos Malmesb de Wilielmo secundo l. 4. He is therefore ill spoken of by Clergy men He claimed the investitute of Prelates to be his right He forbad appeals to Rome Malmesb. Vnum adificium ipsum per maximum domum in Londoniâ iâ—câ—pit perfecit non parcens expensis dummodo liberalitatis suae magnificentiam exhiberet Malmesb. Daniels History Malmesb. Veterum plerique traditur transsossum fuisse Regem sagitta quam in ferarum vivario quod novam Forestam dicimus jactu infoelici collimaraâ— Gualterus Tyrellus Gallus idque est receptissimum Scd accuratius multo quam caeteri singularia omnia quae miseram Regis caedem Tyrelli jactum fatalem attinent narrat Ordericus Vitalis in hist. Eccles l. 10. p. 783. Seldeni notae ad Eadmerum Vide Malmesb de Wilielmo secundo l 4. Henricus ob singularem quae pro regio fuit nomine eruditionem Belloclericus dictus Seldeni Ianuâ—â— Anglorum Vide ejus dissert ad c. â— Henricus Rex urbanitate comitate affabilitate lenitate justitia fortitudine omnes sui temporis Principes anteire putabatur Huc etiam acces sit quod oâ— ni literarum genere Cantabridgiae Lutetiaeque instructus à pueritia ita profecit â—ut Wilielmus ejus pater eum Episcopali muâ—â—ri aptum censuerit Qui doctâ—nae praesidio saluberrimâ—s multas leges ipse condidit Papales technas saepe offecit caâ—â—è vitavit ut siâ—cam opportunitatem quam Henricus octavus nactus fuisset Papalem jurisdictionem exterminasset praefractum ac à Papa concitatum in se clerum in officio tenuisset Joscâ—lini Antiq. Brit. p. 124. Infans cum omnium votis conspirantibus
educatus egregie qui solus omnium filiorum Wilielmi natus esset regiâ— â—i regnum videretur competere Itaque tyrocinium rudimentorum in scholis egiâ— liberalibus literarum mella adeo avidus medullis indidit ut nihil postea bellorum tumultus nulli curarum motâ—s eas excutere illustri animo possent Malmesb de Henrico primo l. 5. Nocturnas faces quas primus Gulielmus vetuerat restituit quippe cui jam firmato regno minus formidaâ—das Seldeni Ianus Anglorum l 2. None of our Kings married with Scotland but he Flemings Stemma sacrum Habitus est crudelis praesâ—râ—im propter Robeâ—tum germanum fratrem quem in carcero sinem vitae facere coegit Polyd. Virg. Ang. hist. l. 11. Stubbâ— his discovery of a gaping gulf whereinto England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage He shews there also in Henry the second Richard the first King Iohn Henry the third Edward the second Richard the second the inconveniences to this Nation by their marriages with the French Hinc cognoscere licet priâ—s Aethiopem posse mutare pellem uti dicitur quà m qui terram incolunt Galliam valde multum diligere Anglos Polyd. Virg. Ang hist. l. 23. p. 483. It was said of Charles Earl of Valois that he was the son of a King brother to a King uncle to a King father to a King and yet no King * Cambdens Brittannia in Barkshire Miâ—ses Henrico adscribunt nonnulli legem quam curtoise d' Angleterre dicunt I. C. ti Hac vir suscepta prole coâ—jugis demortuae baeredâ—s sruitur in humanis dum â—gâ—rit Seldeni Ianus Anglorum l. 2. Hayward The antiquity of a yard â—anicls Histâ—ry and Hayward Sir Walter Rawleigh his Preface to his History of the world See Sir Iohn Hayward in the life of King Henry the first p. 267 2â—8 269 270. Prudentum congressus in Anglia vocatur magna comitia Mutuato denium à Gallis Parliamentorum nomine quae ante Henricum perraro scribit Polydorus l. 11. habita Seldeni Ianus Anglorum l. 2. A Hide of land contains 20. Acres saith Hayward in the life of William the first p. 99. A 100. Acres saith Lambert Daniels History The famous Family of Plantagenets which stored the Crown of England well nigh the space of four hundred years from whence have issued one Emperour fifteen Kings and ten Queens twelve Princes twenty four Dukes and sixty Earls took its name of a â—lant Fern. Glor. Generos Galfredus Plantaginettâ— cujus absque dubio à Plantagine herba quemadmodum elim apâ—d Romanos multarum nobilssimorum 〈◊〉 ab herbis frugibus deductum â—omen est Matildam Henrici primi Anglorum regis filiam viduam duxit in uxorem Henricus secundus in regiam familiam nobilissimum illud Plantaginettarum cognomen insinuavit Hoc mirum in modum postea prolis numerositate incrcvit a leo ut exea gente quatuordecim reges quanquam desultoria quadam successionis lege aliquando conâ—inuata tamen seric regnum administrarunt T wini Comment de rebus Britanuicis Prince douè de plusicurs vertus vrayement digne d' un Royâ—mais aussi suict à quelques vices encores plus indignes d' un Princeâ— hrestein Histoire d' Angleterre par Andre Du Chesne l. 12. Fox p 228. Col. 2. Hollinsh in K. Stephen Cambd. Britannia in Northumberland At pater Henricus haec audiens ingenti affectus dolore antistiti submissa voce ait Paenitets inquam paenitet extulisse hominem Polyd. Virg. Montaigne in his second Book of Essayes c 8. commends the Emperour Charles the fifth for resigning his means his greatness and Kingdome to his son at what time he found his former undaunted resolution to decay and force to conduct his affairs to droop in himself together with the glory he had thereby acquired Robert son to Hugh Capet was crowned King in his fathers life time of whom it is sajd He was a son without frowardness a companion without jealousie a King without ambition Du Serres History of France Verstegans Etymology of our Saxon proper names Poysoned her as was thought Verstegan ubisupra Gualterus Mappaeus de nugis Curialium Polyd. Virg. Ang hist. Hollinsh Polyd. Virg. Dan hist. Statura corporis fuit justa lata bonesta facie in qua multum gratiae gravitatuque incrat sed quò pulchrior corpore hoc animi altitudine praestantior undo non immeritò cognomen invenit qui cor Leonis vocatus est Polyd. Virg. Ang hist l. 14. Illud innuere videtur Richardum inter Angliae Reges primum usum fuisse Leonino gestamine quod ei prae caeteris cognomen inderetur Cor Leonis à picturaâ— clypei ni vana conjectura derivatum Nam é clypeis armaturis nomina saepe acceperunt tum antiqui tum recentiores Spelmanâ—i Aspilogia p 46 47. Weevers ancient Funerall-Monuments Cambdens Brittannia in Oxfordshire Id. ib. in Barkshire Histoire d' Angleterre Par Andre Du Chesne l. 1â— Theater of honour Book 5. c. 1â— Sheriffs and Maiors of London first ordained Alluding to that Gen. 37. 33. Hollinsh and Speeds Chron. Speed Câ—ttoni Posthuma Powell on Lhoyds History of Wales p. 261. out of Matthew Paris Hist. d'Angleterre Par Andre Du Chesne l. 12. * Acts and Mo. vol. 1. Fox Foxes Acts and Mon vol. 1. There are various reports of his death See Hollinsh Chron. * Eighteen years five moneths and four dayes saith Matthew Paris One writes that he was poysoned at Swinsted with a dish of Pears Others there in a cup of Wine Some that he died at Newarke of the Flux A fourth by the distemperature of Peaches eaten in his fit of an Ague Browns Britannias Pastorals Contigit aliquando S. Ludovicum Francorum Regem cum eo super hoc conferentem dicere quod non semper missis sed frequentius sermonibus audiendis esse vacandum Cui faceta urbanitate respondens ait se malle amicum suum saepius videre quam deâ—â— oquentem licet bona dicentem audâ—re Matth. Paris Walsingh Gration Hollinsh Magna Charta Lambards Archeion Id. ib. Matth. Paris hist. Ang. Hen. 3. p. 945. p. 783. There will be little reason to be over-confident in matters of Pedigree and Arms much beyond 400 years â—d ibid. Matth. Paris Cooke 2d part of Instit. c. 11. The names of the first Richard the first Edward were as terrible to Infidels as William to the Saxons and as much renowned among all Christian Princes Sir Francis Wâ—rtly his Characters Rodericus Toletanus l. 1. breaks forth into this exclamation Quid igitur hujus mulieris fide rarius audiri quid mirabilius esse potest ut uxoris lingua fide dilectione maritali peruncta vencua à dilecto marito expulerit quae electo medico trahi non valuerunt quod plurima exquistiáque non effecerunt medicamenta una uxoris pietas explevit Iactura filiorum facilis est cùm